Special journalism workshops in Echo Park and Venice!

Both 826LA East and 826LA West publish student newspapers on six-week cycles. 826LA East is responsible for 826LA Good Times, while 826LA West produces The Venice Wave.

The Echo Park workshop runs on Mondays, and the Venice workshop takes place on Wednesdays; both are 7:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.

For future workshop dates and to sign up, please click through for more information for 826LA Good Times and The Venice Wave.

At both workshops, students ages 6 – 18 are invited to work with professional journalists to write and publish their own web/print periodical. For more information, you can contact Julius; you can also write Danny or Bonnie for info on The Venice Wave (826LA West) and 826LA Good Times (826LA East), respectively. You can also give us a call: 213.413.3388 at 826LA East; or 310.305.8418 at 826LA West.

High School Students—Talk Back!

You, this generation's high school students, know so much about education—and yet you're rarely asked.

826LA is working with other 826 chapters nationwide to produce a sequel to 826 Valencia's Talking Back: What Students Know About Teaching. Come to the 826LA writing labs and work with 826LA tutors to write essays for this book, for possible publication by Edutopia and The New Press!

We will be working on this on Fridays in February, at both of our sites, from 3:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. Head on over to the workshop calendar to sign up!

Tabletop Moviemaking
Taught by Brick Maier
Ages 10 – 14
Saturday, February 20, 2010
10:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
This workshop takes place at 826LA East

Roll up your sleeves and go from a blank page to a film screening of your own original short movie in two hours! From writing, to building, to shooting, to editing and exporting, participants will go through the entire movie production process. Students will draft a collaborative story in small groups, then create scenery and props to add to a standard set of characters and settings. Finally, we'll use film vocabulary and hands-on camera work to capture the movie. Volunteers with editing skills will cut it together in no time, and then it's lights out and popcorn for little movies on the big screen!

Brick Maier is a former middle school teacher in Los Angeles and the creator of the Tabletop Moviemaking method. He developed the process while on a Fulbright research grant in Ireland and refined the method further in Turin, Italy at the Laboratorio di Animazione. He has brought this method home to Los Angeles and delivers Tabletop workshops in school and community based contexts across the US and in Europe. Directors from Los Angeles and Italy have commented that it is one of the best introductions to the movie-making process they have come across. His partnership with 826LA has created Tabletop workshops at the Hammer Museum, LA Opera's Ring Festival LA, and English Language Learner camps. 826LA students have made nearly 75 movies in the past 12 months!

Your Voice Is Yours Alone! (Part I)
Taught by Beau Sia
Ages 12* – 18
Saturday, February 20, 2010
1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
This workshop takes place at 826LA East

In a two-part intensive, writers will go through a series of simple exercises to better define themselves through their writing, find themselves in connection with more of the world they participate in, and improve their own relationship and view of who they are.

Participants are asked to bring a willingness to delve deeply into what makes them who they are, an openness towards the beauty their all represents, and a desire to share with others the voice they are responsible for: their own.

Please note: this is the first of a two-part series on spoken word poetry. You can sign up for the second session here.

*This workshop is targeted toward high school-age students (14–18), but 12- and 13-year-olds may be allowed to attend. We will make this determination case-by-case, based on a writing sample.

Beau Sia is an original cast member of the Tony Award-winning Def Poetry Jam on Broadway, who has also appeared on all seasons of the HBO version of the show. He is a poet who has shared his work all over the English-speaking world, and has also managed to make brief appearances in films such as Slam, Hitch, The Manchurian Candidate, and most recently Rachel Getting Married. He loves love, is passionate about growth, and will be using his ability as a writer to help him develop his relationship with himself and the universe from here on out.

Valentine's Day Do-Over
Taught by Elizabeth Oakes
Ages 8 – 13
Sunday, February 21, 2010
12:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.
This workshop takes place at the UCLA Armand Hammer Museum

Students will re-invent Valentine's Day as they'd like to see it: imagining dream dates (or nightmares), writing persuasive love letters or hate mail, and even planning an ideal wedding.

Elizabeth Oakes writes about weddings and culture for Examiner.com and is the braintrust behind two ventures specializing in innovative weddings and events: MarriageToGo.com and BikeWeddings.com. She is a veteran of Seattle Theatresports, a voiceover artist, and former cowgirl who abides happily ever after with her husband in Mar Vista.

Your Voice Is Yours Alone! (Part II)
Taught by Beau Sia
Ages 12* – 18
Sunday, February 21, 2010
(please note that this workshop was originally scheduled for 2/27)
1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
This workshop takes place at 826LA East

In a two-part intensive, writers will go through a series of simple exercises to better define themselves through their writing, find themselves in connection with more of the world they participate in, and improve their own relationship and view of who they are.

Participants are asked to bring a willingness to delve deeply into what makes them who they are, an openness towards the beauty their all represents, and a desire to share with others the voice they are responsible for: their own.

Please note: this is the second of a two-part series on spoken word poetry. You can sign up for the first session here.

*This workshop is targeted toward high school-age students (14–18), but 12- and 13-year-olds may be allowed to attend. We will make this determination case-by-case, based on a writing sample.

Beau Sia is an original cast member of the Tony Award-winning Def Poetry Jam on Broadway, who has also appeared on all seasons of the HBO version of the show. He is a poet who has shared his work all over the English-speaking world, and has also managed to make brief appearances in films such as Slam, Hitch, The Manchurian Candidate, and most recently Rachel Getting Married. He loves love, is passionate about growth, and will be using his ability as a writer to help him develop his relationship with himself and the universe from here on out.

Making a Scene
Taught by Wynne Renz
Ages 8 – 12
Saturday, February 27, 2010
10:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
This workshop takes place at 826LA East

Man talks to woman. Dog talks to cat. Lion talks to zebra—or doesn't—cause she's lunch! Happy lion, but one very sad zebra. When you put two people, animals, and even objects (ever seen a pencil talk to an eraser? hilarious!) together they usually have a lot to say to one another. In Making a Scene, students create characters and write them into screenplay scenes. Students are given a starting point to direct their scene (i.e. the surfboard has to tell a lie to the wave) and are then given free reign for their characters to talk, play, and create the essential scene element…conflict! With an emphasis on imagination, experimentation, and fun, students learn how to write the scenes they see in the movies, only better! At the end of each exercise, scenes will be read and performed by the students to illustrate how the direction was integrated into an original piece of dramatic writing. And, scene!

Wynne Renz is a writer and namer. Her first feature film, BEDROOMS, produced by Cima Productions and Castle 2000 Films, is currently playing the festival circuit. Her chapbook of poetry, Nobody Loves Nobody, published by the fussfactory press, can be kindly perused at Skylight Books and Stories Books and Cafe (next to 826LA in Echo Park!). As a namer, Wynne contributed names for television shows on the Discovery Channel, Discovery's Planet Green, TLC, and Animal Planet, and worked as a creative consultant on naming a new drink for Starbucks. In her other fun time, she performs theater and makes music with the roughly assembled, roughly titled I'd Like Twenty, But I'll Take Fifteen. Find her: http://wynnebenjaminrenz.tumblr.com

Learning to Love the Process
Taught by Zoë Ruiz and Ryan Pittington
Ages 14 – 18
Saturday, February 27, 2010
1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
This workshop takes place at 826LA East

The ultimate goal of this class is for each student to learn to love the process of creative writing, which can be powerful, instructive, and fun. Oftentimes we become so focused on the end result that we forget how fun and important the actual process of writing is. In this class, we will use several Learning To Love You More creative exercises, created by Miranda July and Harrell Fletcher, as well as exercises from Lynda Barry's What It Is. Each creative exercise will allow students to explore their own individual writing process and will focus on memory and imagination.

Zoë Ruiz is our Volunteer Coordinator and Programs Assistant. She was a volunteer and intern and 826 Valencia, where she assisted with the weekly newspaper workshop. She also taught two other workshops, focusing on nature poems and picaresque stories. She's excited to teach her first workshop in Los Angeles with her long-time friend.

After studying literature and fiction writing at UC Santa Cruz, Ryan Pittington moved to the Bay Area, where he became a volunteer for 826 Valencia and an intern at Small Press Distribution. These days, he fills his time outside of work with reading, writing, and the creative process, focusing on personal growth and self-healing through art.

Dream House
Taught by Ellen Seiden
Ages 8 – 12
Sunday, February 28, 2010
12:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.
This workshop takes place at 826LA West

Dream up, design, and describe the spectacular home in which you’d love to live. You’ll be inspired by photos, pictures, and stories about spectacular custom houses, castles, and fantasy creations. Your imagination is the key to creating your own amazing residence. For this workshop, we ask one thing only: that you leave all things plain and ordinary at the door.

Native Angeleno and UCLA graduate Ellen Seiden writes magazine articles for children, teens, and adults on a variety of subjects. She won a children’s humor-writing contest, wrote a teen fantasy novel, and taught middle school history, English, and creative writing. Her favorite pastime is reading, and she loves all things historical, fantastical, feline (her cat Cleo would be delighted), and family-oriented. Ellen and her husband have raised a son and a daughter, so she knows (or believes she does) how you guys think.

Program Your Robot
Taught by Erin Ballew
Ages 8 – 12
Saturday, March 13, 2010
1:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
This workshop takes place at 826LA East

What good is a robot if you can't get it to do what you want? First, piece together the brains of your robot—it needs to be taught a language beyond ones and zeros. Then write a program for your robot to act out. Will your program be a story that your robot will understand? You'll just have to come and test it out!

Erin Ballew’s parents wanted her to become an actor, seriously! She rebelled to become a computer scientist specializing in artificial intelligence. Now the Native Angeleno just likes to get others jazzed about technology as the director of a high-tech firm and 826LA devotee.

The Science of Saving Daylight
Taught by Kevin Hainline
Ages 8 – 13
Sunday, March 14, 2010
12:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.
This workshop takes place at the UCLA Armand Hammer Museum

In this exciting and informational workshop, participants will act as scientific time experts, writing and delivering imaginative lectures on where the missing hour goes when we "spring forward" for daylight saving time.

Kevin Hainline is an astronomer at UCLA, researching the black holes at the centers of distant galaxies. He also acts as the coordinator of the University Planetarium, and curates a small museum out of his office.