We offer free evening and weekend workshops designed to foster creativity, strengthen writing skills, and provide students with a forum for executing projects they might not otherwise have the support to undertake. Workshops range from the playful to the practical, and all are taught by volunteer writers, artists, educators, and publishing professionals.
PLEASE NOTE: Due to increased demand, enrollment for workshops are now determined by lottery. Once you have signed up for a workshop, please look for an email from workshops@826nyc.org, verifying that we have received your request. If you have not heard from us after 48 hours, feel free to call.
Our workshops are limited enrollment and often generate wait lists. With this in mind, please only sign up if you can make every session of a workshop. Thank you!
Harriet the Spy Read Aloud
1 Sunday session: December 21 (2008)
12-2pm
Taught by 826NYC
For ages 6 and up
In celebration of the holidays, 826 volunteers and students (and parents, siblings, and friends!) will be reading Louie Fitzhugh's Harriet the Spy and starting their own spy journals. Please join us!
The ULTIMATE Survival Guide
3 Tuesday sessions: December 2, 9, 16 (2008)
6-7:30pm
Taught by Sarah Pollock
For ages 9-11
Picture it: You're walking the hall, late for class, worried you're going to get yelled at by a teacher when a rogue bear comes bounding out of Room 122 and straight for you! What do you do? Do you lay down and play dead? Make an angry bear face? Who can remember? Arg!
You know what would have been helpful? A survival guide! A survival guide for ALL situations! Then you would have known what to do in a bear attack or how to make up an excuse for being late. And what if there were more Survival Scenarios? Like how to remember people's birthdays or what to pack when you expect to be stranded on a deserted island. Come in for three weeks and we'll compile all our vast knowledge to complete one Ultimate Survival Guide. Next time you see that bear, you'll be ready.
Pop-Up Poems!
1 Sunday session: November 16 (2008)
12-2pm
Taught by Shannon Kerner
For ages 6-9
Learn to make simple pop-up magic to delight your whole family. Write a poem to celebrate the season, then make your favorite turkey drawing jump off the page, or watch a leaf dance on the page!
Stealing from the City: Poetry for Urban Outlaws
2 Wednesday sessions: November 5, 12 (2008)
6-7:30pm
Taught by Laura Sims
For ages 10-14
Have you ever heard a conversation that sounded like music to your ears? Or read a line in a book that you wanted to steal for your own, original poem? If so, this workshop is for you! Students will learn & practice the art of "found poetry," pulling words and lines from: books, magazines, newspaper headlines, songs, overheard conversations on the subway, advertisement posters, political speeches and more to create their own verse masterworks about living in New York City. Students will be asked to bring their own found material to the second class – magazines, books, letters, postcards, journal pages, newspapers, etc. for cutting up the old to create the new! All other materials will be provided.
Writing Your Way In: The College Essay (A How-to of Sorts)
2 Tuesday sessions: October 21, 28 (2008)
6-7:30pm
Taught by Scott Blozie
For ages 16-18
With the end of your high school career approaching faster than you might expect, it's time to think about the big C: College! But first you have to get in, and that requires some writing. During this two-session course you will begin drafting your own essay to submit with your college applications while also learning the purpose of the college essay, what colleges are looking for, and common flaws to avoid.
Note: students will be expected to attend both sessions and complete a typed draft of their essay for the second session for revision and conferencing.
826NYC Needs: Mad Scientists!
2 Sunday sessions: October 19, 26 (2008)
12-1:30pm
Taught by Ballard C. Boyd, Joe Miles & Elaine Palucki
For ages 6-9
Do you have a master plan for how to create robots that do your homework & chores for you? Or how to mobilize an army of zombies to explore Mars? Maybe you just want to make that pet cheetippo (an awesome hybrid of hippopotamus and cheetah, did we mention it flies with bat wings?) to keep around the house. Or give your toaster the ability to feel love.
If this sound like things you've been dreaming of, join fellow mad scientists! In just 2 weeks you will create a Master Plan that will help you control (or destroy) the world. ALL IN THE NAME OF SCIENCE.
Note: All of the master plans will be published in a book, and every Scientist will have the opportunity to film a segment in which they broadcast their plans to the world.
