Saturdays in December are just crazy! In a good way. This last Saturday was the Echo Park Holiday Parade, and 826LA East's first presence in this exciting community event proved to be pretty darn snappy. The day before, volunteers Alissa, Stefan, Nikki and Eve helped decorate the writing lab, and made the most far out parade hats (consisting of various combinations of newspaper, wrapping paper, gift bows, curled ribbon, stickers, and shiny ornament balls) EVER. On the day of the parade, 8 students (Paulina, Ambar, Bryan, Jackson, Vince, Alanis, Alex and Bianca)—donning those very hats and green Future Adult t-shirts from the Time Travel Mart—marched with a bunch of staff, interns and volunteers wearing hats and festive sweaters down Sunset Blvd. We had hats! We had signs showcasing our Time Travel posters and student writing! We had holiday spirit! Jackson led us in some enthusiastic cheers. "When I say, '826,' you say, 'LA!'" "When I say, 'Reading,' you say, 'Writing!'"

After, we all retired to the writing lab for some holiday movies, sparkling cider, pasta, ham sandwiches, chicken nuggets, and chocolate cake, joined by more volunteers and families. 826! LA! Reading! Writing! 826LA! Rocks!

Good times. . . .

Students at 826LA West are producing books faster than they've ever written before! The most recent is Grandma Rosie! Spanish Pirates! It contains the best of this year's Halloween writing from Venice and the surrounding communities. Here's a selection from one of our favorites, written by David Lopez of Westminster Elementary:

The most venomous snake is a King Cobra because of his bite. With just one bite, you could die. If you get close to him, he will attack you and bite you to death. But actually, his name is Sunflower.

The October 30 release party, during which GR!SP! debuted, featured straight-from-the-text orations by Darth Vader, Dracula, a Catholic schoolgirl, and a witch.

On Thursday, November 13, the drop-in students at 826LA East celebrated the release of their latest Echo Press book. Under dimmed lights, we listened to the creepiest of scary stories, along with observational pieces about mummies, monsters, killer clowns, and girls with no eyes. Come check out a copy of The Quarrel of the Ghost and the Vampire the next time you're at the Time Travel Mart, and stay tuned for more about the next Echo Press chapbook (already in progress), which will focus on the themes of traditions, change, and transformation.

These beautiful letterpress cards were designed by Amy Martin (the designer of our popular Time Travel Posters, which also make great gifts!) and hand-printed locally at Flora and Fauna Press. They are 4 1/2" x 6 1/4" and blank inside, with red envelopes.

These can also be purchased as Holiday Donation Cards. If you are planning to make donations to 826LA in honor of loved ones this year, we can include a beautiful personalized card with your gift for just $5.00 (plus your donation). This card personalization service includes a customized insert, letting the recipient know about the donation, and free shipping directly to the recipient (or to you, if you like).

• Box of 5, $15.99
• Card personalization service, $5.00 plus donation

Click here to buy! Please contact Christina directly (213.413.3388) for custom donation amounts or donations in excess of $5,000.

The students of 826LA have decided to podcast their stories, interviews, and essays for your downloading enjoyment. Recorded in our radio studio located in the Echo Park Time Travel Mart Pastport Office, the never shy and energetic Jackson acted as DJ as well as telling his own story. We also heard original stories from Stephanie, Lauren, and Vince. In addition to the kids listening to and critiquing their own performances, they also discovered the most important aspect of any radio broadcast: the right hat. Stay tuned for more podcast action!

Episode 1

Press play above to listen to the podcast
Or click here to download the mp3

That's the 826LA Good Times—a new web publication (soon to move into print!) from students at our 826LA East evening journalism workshops.

Check us out at http://826la.org/blogs/echoparknews/! We update weekly, and we're the only news outlet (that we know of) that caters to hobos and Barack Obama.

It gives us great pleasure to formally announce our 2008-2009 book project. We will be working with Arlette Crosland at Garfield High School in East LA, her students, and Father Greg Boyle (founder of Homeboy Industries) to produce a book about the Hero's Journey (the archetypal myth described by Joseph Campbell in The Hero with a Thousand Faces).

Many of the students have already taken their first steps. Here's the beginning of a piece that one student, Alex, wrote for her visit to 826LA West in August:

One slate gray Liverpool morning, Ringo Starr found in his mailbox a typed letter, wrapped around a drumstick, that stated: "Paul is Dead."

The drumstick transformed, grew mechanical legs, and chased poor Ringo back into his house.

Then, from the bathroom window, Sgt. Pepper came, rescued Ringo from the aggressive drumstick, and said, "Tomorrow may rain, so follow the sun and find Paul."

Still, these young writers' journeys have yet to really begin. Their roads will be long, challenging, yet ultimately very rewarding when we release the book next year. They will start writing once they return to school in late October, and will write, rewrite, and edit all the way until February. If you'd like to help out on this journey, as a tutor/editor/photographer/illustrator/designer, please write Julius.

Towards the end of each month, 826LA drop-in tutoring students know there's a party coming up of prehistoric (or perhaps posthistoric) proportions. It's their release party, and it's an achievement they'll anticipate after ferocious weeks checking math, identifying nouns, and constantly laboring over original writing. Their pieces evolve from dog-eared drafts into a peer-reviewed, bound, and published-in-house chapbook, which passes through the writing lab curtains to great fanfare as we dine on cake. The student anthology for September is the opening edition of Dogtown Books, Partner-Ships, written entirely by the young minds at 826LA West in Venice, California.

Here at 826LA, we know writing can be long and frustrating. That's why every week, our tutors and students keep their sights set on the final draft box, that which hangs above the work-in-progress boxes on our writing lab wall. Ultimately, we think all the painstaking revision is worth the chance to see our masterpiece waiting on a warm, fresh-pressed page: our verses sound great when the whole writing lab is applauding them. Mikale, 14, may have put it best.

My poetry glows like moonlight off an owl's eyes, like water droplets ringing the leaves of roses at dawn; it enchants like the chartreuse green of fragrant maple blossoms falling on the February lawn. That's how poetry smells and looks and sounds, and today you can almost taste poetry.

The 826 family is very saddened because of the loss of our friend Paul Newman. Not only did he visit several 826 locations to see the tutors and students in action, but he also delighted in the retail stores. We are enormously blessed to have been the recipients of Mr. Newman’s financial generosity as well as his vote of confidence. We send our love and strength to his family and mourn his passing.

You can check us out at our YouTube user page. We don't have very many videos up at the moment, but we'll be digging through our archive and adding everything that we can over the coming weeks.

For now, though, take a look at this gem: a skate video put together by our workshop students, Spike Jonze, and the crew from Girl Skateboards.

We at 826LA are deeply saddened by the passing of David Foster Wallace. David was a member of our advisory board, a teacher, and a friend. Our thoughts and prayers are with him and his family.

We invite you to join us on Thursday, September 18, at 8pm as we remember him through his work. Please come and read your favorite passage, or simply listen to his words. You can join us at either 826LA East or 826LA West, and beverages are welcome.