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SummerWrite 2013

The following is a blog post from Director of Youth Education, Sally Bittner Bonn: 

SummerWrite is fast approaching! Just 41 days until the first week of workshops begins (not that we’re counting or anything)!

So, what is SummerWrite, exactly, you may ask? 10 weeks of half- and full-day innovative workshops for creative readers & writers ages 5-18! We offer workshops based on popular book series like Magic Tree House, American Girls, Anne of Green Gables, Percy Jackson, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and Hunger Games. We have workshops for the serious writer in poetry and fiction (including fantasy, fabulism, and magic). We offer filmmaking and theatre-based workshops for those interested in performance and production. And we offer a whole host of workshops which combine creative writing with another artform or discipline, such as the visual arts, cooking, yoga! This barely even begins to scratch the surface of the 70 workshops we offer! Do take a look at our offerings!

Registrations are pouring in! A few of our classes are already full. If you missed out on registering for one of our Harry Potter Fan Fare classes for 8-11 year-olds, fear not! We’ve added another section: Week 9, August 19-23, from 1 p.m.-4p.m. But hurry! This too is likely to fill!

In today’s academic environment of the Common Core Curriculum, creativity is being squeezed out of traditional education. The narrative is how we make sense of our lives, how we find our place in the world. Whether that’s through reading or writing, fiction or personal stories. The arts are not a luxury. Stories and poetry, theater and the power of the written and spoken word help us to define who we are.

Writers & Books is a magnet for bookworms, storytellers, and otherwise literary-minded young people. I love that students come here and find a sense of home, and a sense of belonging, they can’t always find at school. These kids would rather spend lunchtime discussing the choices of the characters from the book they’re reading, or spend their spare time penning a new poem or filling a notebook with a novel.

We also really pride ourselves on making our programming available to all people. We have a fabulous scholarship program. If you or someone you know might be interested in a scholarship, fill out an application here or contact me with questions.

I look forward to the upcoming creativity spilling out of classrooms into the halls, and right out to the playground and the street of the Neighborhood of the Arts!