Join us for the next panel in our Writing Series for Adults: memoir writing. Our panelists will discuss how they got started, what their writing habits are, and what inspires them. We will also discuss the business side of writing: how to find an agent and get published.
Panelists:
Brooke Berman is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter. Originally trained as an actor and solo performer in the experimental theater, Brooke began performing her own work on the Lower East Side of Manhattan before receiving formal training in playwriting from the Juilliard School. Her play Hunting and Gathering, which premiered at Primary Stages and was directed by Leigh Silverman, was named one of the Ten Best of 2008 by New York Magazine. Her memoir, No Place Like Home, published by Random House, was released in June, 2010.
Brooke has taught as a guest artist in the New York City public school system and at colleges including Eugene Lang, Fordham, and Barnard, as well as privately through the “24 With 5 Teaching Collective” which she co-created at New Dramatists. She spent five years as the Director of the Playwrights Unit for MCC Theater’s Youth Company, a free after-school program for NYC youth. She has mentored with the Young Storytellers Foundation in Los Angeles and Young Playwrights in New York. Brooke attended Barnard College and is a graduate of The Juilliard School. She is a member of the Dramatists Guild, PEN, and the MCC Playwrights Coalition.
She currently lives in Los Angeles with her fiancé, writer Gordon Haber.
Meghan Daum is the author, most recently, of Life Would Be Perfect If I Lived in That House, a memoir about real estate addiction, published in May 2010 by Knopf. Since 2005, she has been a weekly opinion columnist at the Los Angeles Times. Meghan is also the author of the essay collection My Misspent Youth and the novel The Quality of Life Report. She has contributed to public radio programs such as This American Life and Marketplace, and her articles and essays have appeared in The New Yorker, Harper's, GQ, Vogue, and The New York Times, among other publications. She lives in Los Angeles.
Mark Salzman is widely known for his award-winning 1986 memoir Iron and Silk and for his starring role in the film of the same name. He is the author of two other memoirs—Lost in Place: Growing Up Absurd in Suburbia and True Notebooks—and three novels—The Laughing Sutra, The Soloist, and Lying Awake. A formerly devoted cellist, Salzman played on the soundtrack to several films and performed with Yo-Yo Ma and pianist Emanuel Ax at the Lincoln Center. Then he had kids; sayonara cello. He also starred, along with three others, in his wife Jessica Yu's 2007 film about human obsession and extremism, The Protagonist. Salzman is currently working on a book about writer's block. It isn't going well.
D. J. Waldie is the author of Holy Land: A Suburban Memoir and other books about Southern California. He is a contributing writer at Los Angeles magazine and a contributing editor for the Los Angeles Times and the Los Angeles Review of Books. His book reviews and commentary have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times. Waldie has been a city official of Lakewood since 1977. He lives a not-quite-middle-class life there, in the house his parents bought in 1946. Here is what the memoirist Patricia Hampl said about Holy Land: “This book captivated me when it first came out. It still astonishes. It’s no easier to describe now than it was before it became a classic of American autobiography. Waldie’s range is staggering—from intimate, touchingly respectful revelations of family life and spiritual reality to a precise history of land development and public policy regarding water use (and don’t imagine this is the boring part). Waldie has written nothing less than the spiritual autobiography of the mid-century American suburban dream. It proves to be a subject worthy of tragedy and of his remarkable elegy.”
Our moderator:
Joshuah Bearman is a former editor and writer at the LA Weekly. He has written for Harpers, McSweeney's, Wired, Rolling Stone, and contributes to This American Life.
826LA East / The Echo Park Time Travel Mart & Stories
1714 & 1716 W Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles, California 90026
Monday, July 26, 2010 (please note the date change)
8:00 p.m.
Pick up your pre-purchased copy of McSweeney's Quarterly #35, and enjoy food and drink.
Stay for a discussion and signing with McSweeney's contributor Ellie Kemper (The Office) and others (TBA).
Plus a musical guest!
With tremendous new stories from Steven Millhauser and Roddy Doyle; an epic, genre-shattering novella from Hilton Als; and a really excellent special section on Norway's finest writers (featuring not just Per Petterson but also Kid Icarus and a woman named Blind Margjit)—along with, probably, correspondence from a man we can't yet name and an unbelievable disappearing-ink cover done by Jordan Crane—Issue 35 is a full-to-bursting edition in the tradition of the best ones we've ever done. For several hundred pages of unrivaled summer reading, this is your book.
CHICKENS IN LOVE is a full-length album of original songs with lyrics written by 826LA students and recorded by Los Angeles recording artists. This album features recordings by She & Him, Fiona Apple, Cold War Kids, Tim and Eric, The Submarines, Summer Darling, The Happy Hollows, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, Dum Dum Girls, The Growlers, Crystal Antlers, and The Pity Party!
Come celebrate the release with ice cream sundaes!
Thanks to the miracle of science, very famous, extremely dead authors time travel to the present and are brought together to discuss their lives and works! And the audience gets to ask questions! That's you! YOU are the audience! YOU get to ask questions! INTERACTIVE!!!
Moderated monthly by H.G. Wells (Paul F. Tompkins).
July lineup TBA.
Paul F. Tompkins has been performing stand-up comedy for what feels like forever. He can be seen in reruns on HBO as a sketch player on Mr. Show with Bob and David and in his own one-man show Driven To Drink. He does not get paid for these reruns. He only got paid the one time. He has done two Comedy Central stand-up comedy specials. That oughta do it! You can also see him providing pop culture commentary on such shows as VH-1's Best Week Ever and MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann. Well, just those two, really. No other shows such as them. He's also been in some movies, and you didn't see him in them, but that doesn't mean he wasn't in them.
Scott Turow's new novel, Innocent, is a sequel to his first novel, Presumed Innocent. He is the author of eight bestselling works of
fiction, and two nonfiction books that include One L, which describes
his experience as a first-year law student. Turow's books have been
translated into more than twenty-five languages, have sold more than
twenty-five million copies worldwide, and have been adopted for film
and television. He also frequently contributes essays and op-ed pieces
to such publications as the New York Times, Washington Post, Vanity
Fair, The New Yorker, Playboy, and The Atlantic.
You can find more information about the event at the Live Talks Los Angeles website.
Net
proceeds from this event will support the work of 826LA,
a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting students ages 6 to 18
with their creative and expository writing skills, and to helping
teachers inspire their students to write.
Frida Kahlo Theatre
2332 W. Fourth St.
Los Angeles, CA 90057
Saturday, June 26, 2010
12:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.
Divine Feline is a yearly charity event held in Los Angeles, organized by women for the community since 2006. The Divine Feline events support local artists—singers, musicians, fashion designers, filmmakers, photographers, activists, craftswomen, graffiti artists, and live artists—by showcasing all aspects of their creativity. This event offers great opportunities for expression, exposure, networking, and growth that in other places would not be possible.
826LA East / The Echo Park Time Travel Mart
Thursday, June 24, 2010
7:30 p.m.
826LA & the Young Storytellers Foundation invite you to a student performance inspired by Brooke Berman's new book No Place Like Home with a reading by Brooke Berman and after-party.
FREE to attend, pre-purchase books $26, proceeds benefit 826LA.
Seating for performance is limited and first come, first served.
Party open to all. RSVP here.
Skylight Books
1818 N. Vermont Avenue
Los Angeles, California 90027
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
7:30 p.m.
Among the many projects 826LA embarks on, the Young Authors' Book Project is perhaps our greatest and (objectively, of course) most exciting endeavor. This project always results in students becoming published authors while still in high school, a fact we find hard not to be proud of. With that said, we at 826LA are more than eagerly anticipating the upcoming release of the newest YABP book, You Never Forget How to Ride a Bike: Lessons Learned by the Students of John Marshall High School. The young authors lead us through the moments that have shaped their lives—among them encounters with Def Leppard albums, wormy peaches, campus police, and Salvadoran gangs—and share with us the things they've learned about the kindness of strangers, resolve in the presence of naysayers, and the value of a dollar. A celebratory release party is in the works for Wednesday, June 23, at Skylight Books. You won't want to miss these young (and newly published!) authors reading their works aloud and the first opportunity to buy this highly anticipated book.
Thanks to the miracle of science, very famous, extremely dead authors time travel to the present and are brought together to discuss their lives and works! And the audience gets to ask questions! That's you! YOU are the audience! YOU get to ask questions! INTERACTIVE!!!
Moderated monthly by H.G. Wells (Paul F. Tompkins).
June lineup TBA.
Paul F. Tompkins has been performing stand-up comedy for what feels like forever. He can be seen in reruns on HBO as a sketch player on Mr. Show with Bob And David and in his own one-man show Driven To Drink. He does not get paid for these reruns. He only got paid the one time. He has done two Comedy Central stand-up comedy specials. That oughta do it! You can also see him providing pop culture commentary on such shows as VH-1's Best Week Ever and MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann. Well, just those two, really. No other shows such as them. He's also been in some movies, and you didn't see him in them, but that doesn't mean he wasn't in them.
Thanks to the miracle of science, very famous, extremely dead authors time travel to the present and are brought together to discuss their lives and works! And the audience gets to ask questions! That's you! YOU are the audience! YOU get to ask questions! INTERACTIVE!!!
Moderated monthly by H.G. Wells (Paul F. Tompkins).
This month features F. Scott Fitzgerald (Andrew Daly) and James Joyce (Sean Conroy).
Sean Conroy has studied improvisation with every member of the Upright Citizens Brigade as well as Armando Diaz and Kevin Mullaney. He has performed stand-up comedy on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Comedy Central's Premium Blend, and Late Friday on NBC. His one-man show, Taught, was selected for the 2001 HBO U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colorado. He has written for the Comedy Central show Shorties Watching Shorties as well as Comedy Central's Crossballs. He has appeared in the feature films Happy Hour, Martin and Orloff, The Untitled Onion Sketch Movie, and Blackballed: The Bobby Dukes Story. He improvised with Chicago City Limits in national tours and as a mainstage player in their off-Broadway show. Sean is also a founding member of the long form improv group The Swarm.
Andrew Daly recently released his first comedy album Nine Sweaters on the aspecialthing Records label. In 2010, he'll be seen in the films She's Out of My League, Life As We Know It, and Yogi Bear. He's best known for his performance as Terrence Cutler in the HBO series Eastbound and Down and his role as Dick Pepperfield in Semi-Pro. He was also a cast member on MADtv, Lewis Black's Root of All Evil, The Showbiz Show with David Spade, and Crossballs. He has made numerous appearances on Reno 911! and played Ben Franklin on The Office.
Paul F. Tompkins has been performing stand-up comedy for what feels like forever. He can be seen in reruns on HBO as a sketch player on Mr. Show with Bob And David and in his own one-man show Driven To Drink. He does not get paid for these reruns. He only got paid the one time. He has done two Comedy Central stand-up comedy specials. That oughta do it! You can also see him providing pop culture commentary on such shows as VH-1's Best Week Ever and MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann. Well, just those two, really. No other shows such as them. He's also been in some movies, and you didn't see him in them, but that doesn't mean he wasn't in them.
826LA, the J. Paul Getty Museum, renowned photographer Soo Kim, and (most important of all) Jennifer Lisowski's freshmen at Westchester High School have collaborated to produce this year's Community Photoworks. These students learned formal art analysis and photography techniques, which they used to construct photographs about the unexpected turns along our journeys through life. With the help of 826LA volunteers, these students documented their journeys and their photography via written artist statements.
The result is Way Leads on to Way, a photo exhibition at University Hall at Loyola Marymount University, is open from May 13 to May 20. You can meet the young photographers at an opening event on Thursday, May 13 from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.
Our panelists will discuss comedy writing: how they got started; what inspires them; and the dark, dark place comedy comes from. We will also screen shorts written by our panelists.
Panelists:
Ben Acker & Ben Blacker have been writing together for ten years. Since 2005, they've written and produced a stage show in the style of old-time radio called The Thrilling Adventure and Supernatural Suspense Hour which can be seen monthly at Largo at the Coronet in Hollywood. It was through this show that they were given an opportunity to write a script for a low-budget feature film. So they did. That film is Drones. Many of the cast members in the movie also appear in The Thrilling Adventure and Supernatural Suspense Hour.
Acker and Blacker, most recently, have done punch-up for shows on Cartoon Network and Comedy Central, helped relaunch Looney Tunes for WB Animation, and developed an animated comedy for 20th Century Fox and a kids' space-western for Nickelodeon. Presently, they are developing an hour-long pilot for the USA network.
Those are their real names.
Jen Kirkman is a stand-up comedian, actor, and writer. She was recently a cast member of VH1's Acceptable TV and has been seen as a stand-up on Comedy Central's Premium Blend, the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, NBC's Late Friday, the UK's The World Stands Up, and many other late-night comedy shows. She played many recurring characters on Cartoon Network's Home Movies and currently impersonates lots of celebrities and politicians on Current TV's political cartoon Supernews.
Jen released her first comedy album Self Help (taped at LA's Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre!) in 2007, and she's currently a writer for the late-night show Chelsea Lately on The E! Network.
Bob Odenkirk is best known as the co-creator and co-star of the HBO sketch comedy series Mr. Show. He has made appearances on Seinfeld; Space Ghost Coast to Coast; Arrested Development; Curb Your Enthusiasm; Joey; How I Met your Mother; Weeds; The Larry Sanders Show; and Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!. He has joined the cast of AMC's Breaking Bad for five episodes as a "slippery ambulance-chasing lawyer." He also directed the Super Deluxe series Derek & Simon starring Simon Helberg and Derek Waters.
Jill Soloway was most recently show runner/executive producer of the Emmy Award-winning series United States of Tara. Before that, Jill was a writer/co-executive producer of HBO's Six Feet Under and authored Tiny Ladies in Shiny Pants, a hilarious/dirty/sad memoir hailed as a post-feminist manifesto for the next generation. She is currently writing and directing short films for Funny or Die and adapting the Pamela des Barres book, I'm With the Band, into a 1/2 hour comedy for HBO with Zooey Deschanel. Jill started out doing theater with her sister Faith in Chicago, where they created the stage phenomenon The Real Live Brady Bunch. Jill also created Sit n' Spin, a night of comedic monologues that has run for ten years in LA. Jill has two sons and lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Bruce.
Our moderator:
Hailing from Amherst, New York, Marc Evan Jackson is an enormously interesting person. After graduating with a degree in Philosophy from Calvin College and a couple years sailing aboard schooners in Maine, Marc worked as an on-air host for National Public Radio affiliate stations in Michigan before joining the Second City's resident company in Detroit.
Marc can currently be seen in the feature films Drones, Broken Lizard's The Slammin' Salmon, and Transformers II: Revenge of the Fallen.
An actor, improviser, musician, writer, and voice-over talent, Marc lives with his (current) wife Beth, a cat veterinarian in Los Angeles, where he performs live with The 313 at iO West, Sky & Nancy Collins from Orange County at The Improv, and as Sparks Nevada, Marshal on Mars in The Thrilling Adventure Hour and Supernatural Suspense.
Earlier this school year, 826LA, Tabletop Media, and other arts organizations worked with the Los Angeles Educational Partnership's Humanitas Initiative to produce interdisciplinary, arts-integrated lessons on Wagner's Ring Cycle. In direct collaboration with artists, the students explore and express contemporary responses to Wagner's music in mediums ranging from filmmaking to fashion to art. This student arts festival is the result.
Chickens In Love is a mini music festival, scheduled for 1:00 p.m. on March 6 at the Echoplex, featuring The Submarines, Summer Darling, The Happy Hollows, The Growlers, and more.
This talk will focus on the generation of memoir, using the author's recent book, The Adderall Diaries, as a jumping-off point for discussing the process of figuring out your story and editing it into something someone would want to read.
Admission is the price of the book and includes a copy.
This is Stephen Elliott's first memoir but his seventh book, all of them written from personal experience. We'll use this book as a jumping off point for more general ideas on writing memoir and some of the problems the memoir writer may encounter. In the talk we'll discuss dealing with family members and friends who may not want to be written about and we'll also go through some writing tips for accessing memories and experiences.
an evening of comedy featuring Sarah Taylor (The Improv, The Comedy Store) Tracy Swartz (The UnCab Lab Show, The Jumping-Off Point) Brent Forrester (The Office, The Simpsons) Jen Kirkman (E!'s Chelsea Lately, Comedy Central) Taylor Negron (The Aristocrats, Wizards of Waverly Place)
Friday, October 16
8:00 p.m. Show/Dinner
$15
A portion of the evening's proceeds will benefit 826LA
M Bar Supper Club
1253 N. Vine Street
Table reservations are required
323.856.0036
$10 food minimum per person
Join us for a panel discussion with writers from some of the best programs currently on TV. Our professional and hilarious panelists will discuss such topics as creating one’s own work vs. staff writing, business vs. art (and whether it’s always a "vs" situation), long days, stale jokes, breaking new ground, and the looming threat of new media. Panelists will also answer your questions and give tips for breaking into the business.
Each seminar will feature 3–4 writers and, in some instances, an industry executive.
10/11
Martin Gero
Adam Beechen
Mat Harawitz
David Goodman
Sarah Goldfinger
10/18
Carter Bays
Samantha McIntyre
Warren Bell
Sam Register
David Schulner
10/25
Chrissy Pietrosh & Jessica Goldstein
David Slack
Jerry Stahl
…to be continued
Carter Bays (Co-Creator & Executive Producer, How I Met Your Mother), along with How I Met Your Mother Executive Producer Craig Thomas, is best known for his Emmy-nominated writing for The Late Show With David Letterman. Bays, a graduate of Wesleyan University, recently served as Supervising Producer/Writer on American Dad!. His other writing credits include Oliver Beene. He resides in Los Angeles.
Most recently Story Editor on the highly-anticipated animated series Pink Panther and Pals for Cartoon Network, Adam Beechen began his professional career as a staff-writer for the Aaron Spelling-produced prime-time drama Savannah and has written for some of the most popular and acclaimed animated and live-action children’s series of the past decade, including cartoons such as Ben 10, Teen Titans, Batman: The Brave and the Bold, The Batman (for which he received an Emmy nomination), and Rugrats, among others. Adam is the author of Hench, a graphic novel which was optioned by Warner Brothers as a live-action feature in which Danny McBride will star and Neal Moritz (I Am Legend) will produce. Adam has written Teen Titans, Robin, and Batgirl, among other comic books for DC Comics. Adam’s second graphic novel, Dugout, hit bookshelves in summer 2008, and his young adult novels are currently available.
Warren Bell is a 20-year veteran of the sitcom business. His lengthy list of credits as a writer, producer, and showrunner includes Coach, Ellen, The PJs, and According to Jim. He also has written or co-written 13 network pilots, and desperately needs to make it 14 very soon.
Emmy-winning writer and producer Donick Cary got his start writing for Late Night with David Letterman. He continued working with the show through its move to CBS, serving as both head writer and the “guy in the bear suit.” After five years in late night, Cary moved to The Simpsons, where he served as a co-executive producer for four seasons. He later spent a season in the same capacity on Just Shoot Me. Cary has produced pilots for and developed with Brillstein Grey, Sony Television, Happy Madison, ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, FX, HBO, the WB, and Nickelodeon. In 2004, Donick created the animated series Lil’ Bush for Ampd mobile cell phones. The show was then picked up by Comedy Central and became the first mobi/series ever to move from cell phones to television. Cary has just wrapped production on a new HBO series, Bored to Death. Cary grew up on Nantucket Island, played defensive tackle for the Whalers, and attended Boston University.
Martin Gero is a Writer/Producer on the HBO series Bored to Death and a Writer/Consulting Producer on Stargate: Universe (MGM/FOX). Previously, he served as an Writer/Director/Executive Producer on Stargate: Atlantis (MGM/FOX) for which he won a People's Choice Award and was nominated for 2 Gemini Awards, a Hugo Award, and a Canadian Screenwriter’s Award. Young People F***ing, his feature film directorial debut, is now available on DVD.
Sarah Goldfinger graduated from Hampshire College where she wrote her first (and so far only) play. She liked hearing her words out loud so she moved to LA to try to write for TV. She started as a Writers' Assistant on a then-brand-new show called CSI. She became a writer on CSI in Season 3 and stayed until Season 9 (probably longer than anyone should write about murder). She now writes for Brothers and Sisters. Her parents are very proud. Her brothers could care less.
Jessica Goldstein and Chrissy Pietrosh met at Northwestern University and have been writing together ever since. Some of their past television credits include Big Day (ABC), My Name is Earl (NBC)m and now Cougar Town (ABC), where they are Supervising Producers. Chrissy is tall, Jessica is short…and other than that they are mostly the same person. They met their husbands months apart on the same dating website, both recently got married in Philadelphia, and bought homes mere blocks from each other. There is nothing unhealthy about their relationship.
David A. Goodman began his career in 1988 as a staff writer on the sitcom The Golden Girls. Since then, has written on staff or freelance for fifteen television series, including: Wings, Dream On, and Flying Blind. He later served as Co-Executive Producer on Futurama and Consulting Producer on Star Trek: Enterprise. He was hired on Family Guy in its third season as Co-Executive Producer, and when the show was revived in 2004 he returned as Executive Producer for the current run of the series. He also serves on the Writers Guild Board of Directors, and was a member of the WGA Negotiating Committee during the 2007–2008 strike.
According to his mother, Mat Harawitz (MTV's Hard Times) is "a very talented writer and comedian." She'll go on to tell you that he's written on "some show I don't know the name of 'cause it isn't even on yet, that one program with the Mexican, that other one that I record 'cause it's on too late, those filthy Roasts, and a bunch of fakakta shows I've never heard of." According to his father, Mathew is "not a doctor."
Samantha McIntyre is an actor and writer from Dallas, TX, where she grew up watching a lot of TV and did not grow up riding horses. She is a Story Editor on HBO’s Bored to Death, and previously wrote on the short-lived shows Twenty Good Years and Roommates. Samantha also has an MFA in Acting from SMU, which means she is overly willing to read all the small parts at the table read.
Sam Register (Warner Bros animation) was named Executive Vice President, Creative Affairs, at Warner Bros. Animation, in June 2008. In this position, he spearheads creative efforts for the development and production of new programming and content for all distribution outlets, including traditional animated product for television, as well as for KidsWB.com. He also works closely with Warner Premiere on the Studio’s animated direct-to-DVD releases. Previously, he was an animation executive and, later, producer at Cartoon Network for 10 years, where he developed hit animated series such as Ben 10 and Teen Titans, and created Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi. During his tenure at Cartoon Network, he oversaw numerous successful program launches, reinvigorated the DC Comics animated universe, established powerful relationships with such companies as Lucasfilm, and helped grow www.cartoonnetwork.com from a small marketing portal to an exciting kids’ entertainment destination.
David Schulner began his career as a playwright. His plays have been produced off-Broadway at the Atlantic Theater and regionally at The Old Globe, The Long Wharf, and Black Dahlia Theater among others. Television includes Once and Again, Everwood, Desperate Housewives, Tell Me You Love Me, Kings, and the current Trauma on NBC. David's first pilot, The Oaks, was made by 20th Century Fox for FOX and his second pilot, Crush, was developed for ABC/Touchstone.
David Slack began his career in animation, writing for cartoon favorites such as Teen Titans, Jackie Chan Adventures, and Totally Spies. From Saturday morning cartoons, he somehow made the leap to Law & Order. He's still trying to figure out exactly how he pulled that off. Working in primetime since 2005, David currently writes for the ABC series The Forgotten, starring Christian Slater.
Jerry Stahl is author of the narcotic memoir classic Permanent Midnight; I, Fatty (film rights optioned by Johnny Depp); Perv—A Love Story; and . He has written extensively for film and television, and his much-anthologized fiction and journalism have appeared in Esquire, Details, Playboy, Black Book, LA Weekly, and Tin House. He lives in Los Angeles. http://www.jerrystahl.com
Moderator Ben Blacker, with his writing and producing partner Ben Acker, is the creator of The Thrilling Adventure and Supernatural Suspense Hour, a monthly staged production in the style of old-time radio, starring lots of actors you know from your television. Most recently, Acker & Blacker developed pilots for 20th Century Fox Studios and for Nickelodeon. They wrote the feature film Drones, a sci-fi rom-com, which will see release this year. Probably. For more information and pretty pictures, go to ThrillingAdventureHour.com.
826LA presents a special preview screening of Where The Wild Things Are
Thursday, October 1, 2009
7:00 p.m.
the Arclight Theater
6360 W Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90028
Director Spike Jonze, screenwriter Dave Eggers, and actors Catherine Keener and Max Records will also attend and participate in a question-and-answer session after the screening.
VIP after-party hosted by
826LA, Urban Outfitters,
Filter Magazine, and Snackbar
10:00 p.m.
Space 15 Twenty
1520 N Cahuenga Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90028
General admission tickets are $75, and VIP tickets (including the after-party) are $200.
For more information and to purchase tickets, please head to our Eventbrite page.
Join us for a panel discussion featuring some of the most groundbreaking and innovative cartoonists working today. Our guests will discuss ink and pixels, pigments and politics, and how the love of comics mixes with the sticky waters of the business. Panelists will also answer your thought and question bubbles.
Our panelists:
Lalo Alcaraz is a Los Angeles-based cartoonist and creator of the first nationally syndicated Latino-themed political daily comic strip, La Cucaracha. Lalo drew editorial cartoons for the LA Weekly from 1992 to 2009. Lalo illustrated Latino USA: A Cartoon History (text by Ilan Stavans), and produced the books La Cucaracha, La Cucaracha (the first collection from his daily comic strip) and Migra Mouse, a collection of his editorial cartoons on immigration. He is also a screenwriter and a popular speaker on the college circuit. His award-winning artwork has appeared across the US and the planet. Lalo also hosts the popular radio program The Pocho Hour of Power Fridays at 4:00 p.m. on KPFK 90.7 FM.
Jaime Hernandez is the co-creator of the beloved Love and Rockets series, one of the pioneering alternative comics of the 1980s. Love and Rockets, initially a self-published single comic, was picked up by Fantagraphics Books and produced 50 issues before the series went dormant in 1996. In 2001, the run was revived as Love and Rockets Volume 2. In the interim, Jaime’s solo projects included Whoa, Nellie!, Penny Century, and Maggie and Hopey Color Fun. Jaime has also worked for The New Yorker, Spin, and Hustler, and has done album covers for Michelle Shocked, 7 Year Bitch, The Indigo Girls, and Los Lobos. In 2006, he produced a 20-part strip in The New York Times Magazine titled La Maggie La Loca. Jaime was born in Oxnard, California, and now lives in Pasadena with his wife and daughter.
Darrin Bell was the first African American cartoonist to have two comics in syndication at the same time. He creates the controversial comic strip "Candorville" (syndicated by the Washington Post Writers Group) and co-creates the comic strip "Rudy Park" (syndicated by United Media). His editorials have appeared regularly in such papers as the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, and Oakland Tribune, and sparked numerous organized protests across the country. His most controversial cartoons have been featured as news items on 60 Minutes, MTV and the network newscasts. Darrin was born and raised in Los Angeles.
Marv Wolfman is a forty-year veteran in the field of comic book writing. After lengthy runs working for Marvel Comics in the 1970s on such titles as Amazing Spiderman and Dr. Strange (and creating the character of Nova), Wolfman moved to competitor DC Comics where he has mostly remained since. There, with penciller George Perez, Wolfman co-created The New Teen Titans, which has seen life beyond the comics page as a Cartoon Network series and whose characters have appeared in the television program Smallville. Also with Perez, Wolfman is responsible for the groundbreaking mini-series Crisis on Infinite Earths. He has won numerous awards for his writing and helped pioneer the receiving of writing credits for for-hire work.
Moderator Salvador Plascencia was born in Guadalajara, Mexico, and raised in El Monte, California. His debut novel, The People of Paper, was named a best book of the year by the San Francisco Chronicle and the Los Angeles Times, and has been translated into ten languages. He is the recipient of the Bard Fiction Prize and the Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans. Salvador is a Visiting Professor at UC Davis.
826LA and Stories host a Back-to-School Open House!
Make some new neighborhood friends!
Saturday, September 12
7:30–10:30 p.m.
1714 & 1716 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026
FREE! ALL AGES!
Drinks and snacks!
including beer floats by Alex Macy (LA CABAL) with Lagunitas Cappuccino Stout and ice cream! (21+ for alcoholic beverages)
and the Coolhaus ice cream truck
get on-site silk-screened totes from the Hit & Run crew!
***
Kids hour! Storytimefunland with Daniel and Mindy 7:30–8:30
***
Check out 826LA's newest time travel poster series and meet the artist:
Amy Martin will be signing posters 8:00–8:30
***
live music and other surprises!
826LA will join the Los Angeles literary community at the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program’s annual Writers Faire on Sunday, August 30, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Get your creativity flowing in your choice of 24 mini-workshops and panels in creative writing and screenwriting hosted by more than 70 Writers’ Program instructors. Visit with representatives from local graduate programs and writing-related organizations and businesses!
The Writers Faire will be held at the Young Hall Court of Sciences on the UCLA campus (parking is $10). For more information about this FREE event, email writers@uclaextension.edu or visit www.uclaextension.edu/writers.
Our panelists will discuss writing: how they got started, what inspires them, and how to turn a story into a completed screenplay. We will also be discussing the business side of screenwriting: how to get representation and how to guide a screenplay in order to sell or produce feature film.
Our panelists:
Dan Futterman lives in LA with his wife, Anya Epstein, and their two daughters. He wrote the screenplay for the 2005 film Capote, for which he recieved an Independent Spirit Award, Boston Society of Film Critics award, and Los Angeles Film Critics Association award, as well as an Academy Award nomination. He is currently co-writing a pilot for HBO with his wife, based on a radio piece from This American Life. He started tutoring at 826LA just a few months ago, and looks forward to continuing in the fall.
Melissa Mathison's screenwriting credits include the films Kundun, The Black Stallion, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, for which she earned an Academy Award nomination.
Glasgow Phillips is a writer, producer, and director who works in film, television, print, and new media. In animated television, he has written for South Park (Comedy Central), Father of the Pride (DreamWorks/NBC), The Adventures of Chico and Guapo (MTV Networks), Code Monkeys (G4), and Kung Fu Panda (Nickelodeon, upcoming). He wrote and directed the important zombie Western feature film Undead or Alive, starring Chris Kattan and James Denton. Recently he finished production on on Magic Reader Classics, an educational DVD series for children that is free to schools and other organizations focused on kids and learning; for more information, go to magicreaderclassics.com. He recently joined Acme-Smith, a boutique production company specializing in branded entertainment, and you can read about his adventures in underground Hollywood in his memoir The Royal Nonesuch.
James Ponsoldt, after graduating from Columbia University’s MFA Filmmaking Program, wrote and directed the 2006 feature film Off the Black (starring Nick Nolte, Trevor Morgan, and Timothy Hutton), which premiered at Sundance ’06. His second feature was workshopped at the Sundance Screenwriters Lab and will film in 2010. James currently is adapting novels for Vox3 Films (Secretary), Sharp Independent (Boys Don’t Cry,You Can Count On Me), and writes for FILMMAKER magazine. He co-authored the graphic novel Refresh, Refresh, which Macmillan will publish in September. James is proud to have volunteered and run workshops with 826LA for over three years.
Howard A. Rodman wrote Savage Grace, one of five works nominated for Best Screenplay at the 2009 Spirit Awards. Rodman wrote the original screenplay for August, starring Josh Hartnett, Rip Torn, and David Bowie, and the screenplay for Joe Gould's Secret, which was the opening night film of the 2000 Sundance Film Festival. His original screenplay F. was selected by Premiere as one of Hollywood's Ten Best Unproduced Screenplays. He is a professor (and former chair) of screenwriting at USC's School of Cinematic Arts; serves on the Board of Directors of the Writers Guild of America, West; and has been Artistic Director of the Sundance Screenwriting Labs in Utah and in Wadi Feynan, Jordan. This year he was one of four screenwriters invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Moderated by James Urbaniak.
James Urbaniak's acting credits include the role of Robert Crumb in
American Splendor, the voice of Dr. Venture on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim series The Venture Brothers and the acclaimed original production of Will Eno's one-man play Thom Pain (based on nothing). His awards include Best Actor at the Edinburgh Fringe, an Obie Award, and a Drama Desk nomination. He plays the journalist Jack Lessenberry in HBO's upcoming movie about Jack Kevorkian, You Don't Know Jack (starring Al Pacino). James co-founded the critically lauded New York theatre company Arden Party and has performed extensively in New York City at Lincoln Center, Soho Rep, Playwrights Horizons, and the legendary experimental theatre Onotological-Hysteric.
As a cultural commentator, James writes regularly about show business, politics, advertising, and the internet on his blog Voucher Ankles; his posts have been linked by Gothamist, the Hollywood Reporter, and Vanity Fair, among others. An active Twitterer, he is included in the upcoming HarperCollins compendium Twitter Wit.
Garfield High School students will read from Sheep Can't Fly, 826LA's most recent high school anthology.
Based thematically and formally on Joseph Campbell's monomyth (as detailed in his The Hero With a Thousand Faces), Sheep Can't Fly is 826LA's largest and most ambitious publication yet; it is comprised of essays exploring the nature of the hero, poems on the stages of the hero's quest, and short stories covering the entirety of the hero's journey. The book features writing on determination, triumph, and redemption; short stories about lovable ne'er-do-wells and a diminutive yet ambitious alien scientist; and a talking ferret and squirrel.
To read one of the stories in the book, click here.
East Los Angeles Library
4837 E. Third Street
Los Angeles, CA 90022
Wednesday, August 5
6:30 p.m.
On Sunday, July 26, 90 paddle-boaters (45 teams) will meet for the second annual 826LA Echo Park Lake Paddle Boat Regatta. These fearless navigators will brave the elements, the geese, and each other as they race through (the possibly monster-infested) Echo Park Lake to earn the title of World's Best Paddle Boat Racers and to raise funds for 826LA.
Teams pre-register online, then solicit donations from friends, family, significant others, passers-by on the street, and large corporations—all to secure a better starting position.
Regardless of any advantages secured through fundraising, regatta participants will still need to rely on nautical know-how, quads of steel, and a heart that yearns for the open water. Sound like you? Click here for more info, and register to boat.
826LA Echo Park Lake Paddle Boat Regatta After-Party
Don't let the fun end at the lake! Come to the after-party, and mix and mingle with your favorite teams!
You saw them parade; now watch them win prizes!
The Golden State caused a sensation when co-owners Jason Bernstein and James Starr combined Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout with Scoops ice cream, introducing beer floats to Los Angeles in the process. BottleRock LA recently entered the float fray when resident beer expert Alex Macy decided to mix-and-match Milk ice cream with beers from their 18 taps. (One of his signature floats is Ommegang Rouge with cherry sorbet.)
On July 26 at 3:30 p.m., come to Blue Palms Brewhouse and help to choose a champion in the first LA Beer Float Showdown. Everybody who attends is allowed to vote on two beer floats from each competitor (four total). A score sheet will allow every attendee to judge the beer floats according to flavor and originality. The competitors are currently working on their flavor combinations and won’t reveal them until the showdown.
Tickets cost $23 if you RSVP to joshua@foodgps.com prior to the event. Pay in cash at the door. Day-of admission is $28, but there’s no guarantee we’ll have space left, so be sure to RSVP now. 21+ only.
Proceeds cover the cost of the beer and ice cream, but the bulk of the money goes to charity. The LA Beer Float Showdown benefits 826LA, the non-profit writing and tutoring program for kids 6-18, founded by author Dave Eggers and educator Nínive Calegari.
Garfield High School students will read from Sheep Can't Fly, 826LA's most recent high school anthology.
Based thematically and formally on Joseph Campbell's monomyth (as detailed in his The Hero With a Thousand Faces), Sheep Can't Fly is 826LA's largest and most ambitious publication yet; it is comprised of essays exploring the nature of the hero, poems on the stages of the hero's quest, and short stories covering the entirety of the hero's journey. The book features writing on determination, triumph, and redemption; short stories about lovable ne'er-do-wells and a diminutive yet ambitious alien scientist; and a talking ferret and squirrel.
To read one of the stories in the book, click here.
Book Soup
8818 Sunset Boulevard
West Hollywood, CA 90069
Sunday, July 26
4:00 p.m.
The Lotus Festival is on hiatus this year. In its place the 2009 Echo Park Community Festival will embrace all of the tenets of the Lotus Festival while expanding on its rich cultural themes, in order to present a harmonious world community fair. Featuring live entertainment, a great selection of international foods, carnival attractions, and the Lotus Children's Area, the 2009 Echo Park Community Festival offers lots of fun for the entire family.
Our panelists will discuss writing: how they got started, what inspires them, and how female voice impacts the writing process. We will also be discussing the business side of writing: how to find an agent and how to go about getting published.
Our panelists: Aimee Bender is the author of 3 books: The Girl in the Flammable Skirt, An Invisible Sign of My Own, and Willful Creatures. Her short fiction has been published in McSweeney's, Granta, GQ, Harper's, The Paris Review, Tin House, and more, as well as heard on PRI's This American Life and Selected Shorts. She teaches creative writing at USC.
Amber Benson co-wrote and directed the animated web-series Ghosts of Albion (with Christopher Golden) for the BBC. The duo then novelized the series in two books for Random House. Her first solo novel, Death's Daughter, will be published by Penguin in 2009, and will be followed later in the year by a children's book for Simon and Schuster called The New Newbridge Academy. As an actress, Benson spent three seasons as Tara Maclay on the cult show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She has also written, produced, and directed three feature films, including her latest, Drones, which she co-directed with Adam Busch and will be released later this year.
Sascha Rothchild's memoir How to Get Divorced by 30 will be published by Penguin in January 2010. Sascha has been featured on NPR's This American Life, is on their best-of CD Hope and Fear, and has appeared in their series for Showtime. She is one of the original performers in the stage show Mortified and is published in Simon and Schuster's Mortified book. Sascha is a television producer and writer, and also periodically writes for LA Weekly, LA Times, Women's Health Magazine, Playboy Magazine, MSN, and the political pop culture website Dipdive.com. Sascha is currently in bed with Universal Studios to pen her latest feature.
Mona Simpson is the author of Anywhere But Here, The Lost Father, A Regular Guy, and Off Keck Road. Knopf will publish her fifth novel, My Hollywood, in 2010. She has received the Whiting Prize, Lila Wallace Prize, Guggenheim, and Fiction Prize from the Academy of Arts and Letters, and was a Pen Faulkner Finalist. Mona currently teaches at UCLA.
Moderator: Danny Hom is a programs manager who tackles students' educational challenges as Venice Coordinator for 826LA. He graduated from UCLA in 2007, where he wrote on the intersection between feminism and intertextuality. He's a native Southern Californian and has lived in Los Angeles for the past six years.
826LA's hilarious Tiny Vaudeville returns with comedy, magic, music, and more!
Enjoy house band Dan Bern & Common Rotation and the always hilarious Gut-Busting Side-Splittery of Acker and Blacker and Ginsburg and McIntyre. And don't miss an audience favorite—readings of 826LA student material by real actors!
Tuesday, June 30
8:00 p.m.–10:00 p.m.
The Echoplex
1154 Glendale Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90026
June line up to be announced.
Past shows have included
Appearances by Dave Foley, Buck Henry, Laraine Newman, Bob Odenkirk, Charlyne Yi, Kirsten Vangsness, Mark Gagliardi, Samm Levine, Marc Evan Jackson, Joel Spence, Romi Dames, Martin Starr, John Ennis, and Eric Edelstein
Musical Guests Pop Levi, Maria Taylor, Claybo and Downs, Bhama Roget, Garfunkel and Oates, and 826LA Battle of the Bands winner The Pity Party
Performances by The Royal Shakespeare Company: This Week in Hagar and This Week in Beetle Bailey
Magic by Derek Hughes, and Jeremy Konner and Eban Schletter in Saw vs. Theremin
Tiny Vaudeville #4 is sure to tickle your fancy! The first 200* to RSVP online with a donation of your choosing** will receive a receipt for their tax-deductible donation.
*One person per transaction.
**$10 minimum suggested, plus eventbrite fees. Receipts are issued only for pre-sale online donations - confirmation and receipt are sent automatically. All other tickets are $15 CASH ONLY at the door.
Philanthro Productions will host a blow-out event to kick off the summer season, with proceeds going to 826LA. A benefit party entitled RW/FF: Rewind. Fast Forward. will be held on Friday, June 5, at DJ AM’s LAX Nightclub in Hollywood, Calif.
To date, Philanthro Productions has engaged thousands of young adults and donated over $100,000 to its partner charities, achieving an impressive donation rate of 93% of event proceeds last year. Philanthro has set the bar even higher for this next event, which will bring in hundreds of fresh patrons from Generation Y to party with friends, give back, and learn about 826LA.
In keeping with the spirit of 826LA and the children it serves, Philanthro’s RW/FF: Rewind. Fast Forward. event will incorporate the whimsical theme of time travel and bring out the inner child in LA’s young adults at one of Hollywood’s most renowned nightclubs. Special touches will transport patrons to the future and back again, including special guests, high-energy DJs and performances, raffles, and surprise giveaways. 826LA will stay top of mind throughout the night with tie-ins throughout the venue.
21+ Pre-sale tickets are $15 (+fees), $20 at the door after 11PM.
Felicia Perez's 11th-graders at Los Angeles High School have partnered with 826LA, the J. Paul Getty Museum, and acclaimed photographer Jo Ann Callis to learn formal art analysis, to shoot their own photographs, and to develop artist statements. The result is Attention to Tension, a photography exhibition open May 31–June 23 at The Golden State Cafe. The gallery captures implied tension in skylines and off-kilter domestic spaces, as well as overt tension in an operating room, a flexed forearm, a cat's eye, and a staged showdown.
You'll have the chance to celebrate with the young photographers at the gallery opening—2:00 p.m.–5:00 p.m. on Sunday, May 31. Please follow this link to RSVP: http://attentiontotension.eventbrite.com/.
Join us for the next panel in our Writing Series for Adults: Food Writing! Our panelists will discuss writing about food in various media: blogs, newspapers, and books. We will also talk about the business side of the genre: how to go about composing a recipe, review a restaurant, and how to get published.
The seminar will be held Thursday, May 14, from 7:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. at 826LA East. Tickets are $25 (you can pre-order online or pay at the door, cash or check only) and non-refundable.
Featuring:
Colleen Dunn Bates
Colleen Dunn Bates is the owner of Prospect Park Books, a small publishing company based in Pasadena. Since her days at the journalism school at USC, she has worked as a radio newswriter, editor of a weekly community newspaper, editor of the food-focused Gault Millau guidebooks, freelance writer, food editor of the Los Angeles Times Syndicate, and book author. In the 1980s and early '90s, she was the restaurant critic and food writer for L.A. Style magazine; currently she writes about restaurants for Westways, as well as for her own book, EAT: Los Angeles, and for the website eat-la.com.
Jessica Gelt
Jessica Gelt writes about restaurants and nightlife for the Los Angeles Times. She also co-edits the Times' food blog, The Daily Dish. Her favorite foods are crème brulee, hot-and-sour soup, and clam chowder.
Jonathan Gold
Jonathan Gold is a former restaurant critic for Los Angeles magazine, California magazine, and the Los Angeles Times. He presently writes for Gourmet magazine and LA Weekly. He is also the author of Counter Intelligence: Where to Eat in the Real Los Angeles, published in 2000. He regularly appears on radio programs such as KCRW's Good Food and This American Life. In 2007 he became the first food critic to win a Pulitzer Prize.
Jeanne Kelley
Jeanne Kelley is the author of Blue Eggs and Yellow Tomatoes: Recipes from a Modern Kitchen Garden. She also wrote Holiday Baking, a Williams-Sonoma Cookbook. In 1986 Kelley started at Bon Appetit as a recipe tester before becoming an on-staff editor. She has been a contributing editor at Bon Appetit for ten years. Jeanne is a frequent contributor to Cooking Light magazine. She has also written for Fine Cooking, Prevention, Natural Health, Islands, and Spa magazines. She maintains a website, Jeanne Kelley Kitchen, along with the Eat Fresh blog.
Pat Saperstein
Pat Saperstein has written the local food blog EatingLA for five years. One of the first local food blogs, it won the L.A. Press Club's best individual blog award in 2006. She has also covered the entertainment business for many years, first for Le Film Francais and currently for Variety. She contributed to the guidebook EAT: Los Angeles and freelances for publications including the Los Angeles Times.
Moderator: Christine Moore
Christine Moore has worked as a pastry chef at places such as Campanile, Les Deux, and Gerard Mulot in France. After leaving the world of baking to raise a family, she started making candy at home, which grew into Little Flower Candy Company. Her artisan caramels and marshmallows are now shipped all over the country from Little Flower Cafe in Pasadena, which also serves thoughtfully prepared pastry and lunch fare.
Please note that this event has been CANCELLED.
In its place, we will have a Dead Author Reading at Machine Project featuring Henry David Thoreau, on Friday, April 10, at 8:00 p.m.
You can find more details here.
The Echo Park Time Travel Mart presents DEAD AUTHOR READINGS
Tuesday, April 14
8:00 p.m.
826LA East
Mary Elizabeth Ellis is Carson McCullers
reading, discussing, and signing
$5–$10 Donation Appreciated
826LA’s Tiny Vaudeville is an extravaganza of talent created and curated by the folks of 826LA. It's the smallest vaudeville show in Los Angeles! Each lively show will run approximately ninety minutes and feature any number of the following: live music, short films, stand-up and sketch comedy, novelty acts, lectures, slide shows, and more. Between acts, a name actor will present original writing by 826LA students. With such endless possibilities, Tiny Vaudeville is a unique theatrical experience.
Monday, March 30
The Echoplex
Doors open at 8:00 p.m.
Tickets $12
18+
with Comedy! Magic! Music!
and a reading from the latest 826LA student publications
by a famous celebrity!
And more!
All money goes to support 826LA’s free writing and tutoring programs for Los Angeles students, ages 6–18.
826LA is proud to present the first in our Adult Writing Seminar Series: Writing About Music. Panelists will discuss the music business and writing about music in all forms of media. We will cover the creative as well as the business side of music journalism. This seminar is a must for those who want to get free CDs, get cozy with scruffy rockstars, and most of all write about what they are passionate about: music.
The seminar will be held Thursday, March 5, from 7:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. at 826LA East. Tickets are $25 and non-refundable.
Featuring:
Kevin Bronson
From 2002 until mid-2008, Kevin Bronson wrote the weekly Buzz Bands column and blog for the Los Angeles Times. He also live-blogged from the Coachella and Detour festivals, and the Warped Tour.
Justin Gage
Justin Gage is the founder/editor of the Los Angeles based music website AquariumDrunkard.com. His first book, Memphis And The Delta Blues Trail, will be published in May via Countrymen Press.
Jessica Hundley
Jessica Hundley is an extensively published music writer, for publications such as Spin, Mojo, BlackBook, Salon.com and many others. Hundley released her second book in 2006, a biography of country rock icon Gram Parsons entitled Grievous Angel.
Josh Kun
Josh Kun has written about music for The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Rolling Stone, SPIN, and many other publications. He is the author of two books: Audiotopia: Music, Race, and America and And You Shall Know Us By The Trail Of Our Vinyl, a history of Jews in America told through 500 album covers.
Pat McGuire
Pat McGuire is the Editor-in-Chief of Filter. A Kentucky native and six-year resident of Los Angeles, he is also a "member" of the "poorly-categorized" LA "art gang" Bagavagabonds.
Randall Roberts
Randall Roberts is the music editor at the LA Weekly. His writings have been honored by the National Association of Black Journalists, the James Beard Foundation, the National Association of Food Journalists, and the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies.
Jeff Weiss
Jeff Weiss has written about music and pop culture for a variety of publications including the Los Angeles Times, LA Weekly, Idolator, Village Voice, New York Magazine's Vulture Blog, Stylus, The Arizona Republic, The State, & Rap-Up. He also maintains a blog, The Passion of the Weiss.
Moderator: Joshuah Bearman
Joshuah Bearman is a former editor and writer at the LA Weekly. He has written for Harpers, McSweeney's, Wired, Rolling Stone, and contributes to This American Life.
826LA’s Tiny Vaudeville is an extravaganza of talent created and curated by the folks of 826LA.
Tiny Vaudeville #2 features:
Hosts Joel Spence and Marc Evan Jackson
***
The Dan Bern Orchestra with Common Rotation
***
The Musical Stylings of Maria Taylor
*** Jeremy Konner and his Melodious Cutlery
*** Laraine Newman
*** Samm Levine, Eddie Pepitone, Bhama Roget, Lauren Rogers
*** And more!
Shows are 18+ and will be held on the last Monday of every month at the Echoplex in Echo Park: 1154 Glendale Blvd, Los Angeles, California 90026. All money goes to support 826LA’s free writing and tutoring programs for Los Angeles students, ages 6–18.
Dead Author Readings are back at the Echo Park Time Travel Mart! On Friday, February 6, at 8:00 p.m., we welcome celebrated French Enlightenment personality Voltaire. He will be reading from his novel Candide and answering questions.
Also appearing are special musical guests Cassorla. Suggested donation $5–$10.
The Dead Author Readings series began with Patton Oswalt’s portrayal of William F. Harvey and has continued with appearances from Jen Kirkman as Mary Shelley, Danny Strong as Washington Irving, Craig Cackowski as Edgar Allan Poe, and Marc Evan Jackson as O. Henry.
Please contact Jon Korn for more information about the Dead Author Readings series.
Join us at 826LA East with author and 826 National cofounder Dave Eggers on Thursday, January 29, at 7:30 p.m., as we join the other 826 chapters nationwide for one epic book release.
The authors will be reading, discussing and signing.
We'll have limited copies of the book for sale at the Echo Park Time Travel Mart, but you can pre-order your copy* and secure a seat at the event: http://826la.org/store-books/
Written by students from every 826 center, Thanks and Have Fun Running the Country: Kids' Letters to President Obama contains over a hundred pages of students' wishes, insights, and advice for our new commander in chief. It's just in time for the inauguration, too—we hope our president gets a chance to read through it, and we hope you do too. Letters from students have already been featured in a New York Times op-ed, the McSweeney's website front page (not once, but twice!), and This American Life.
*pre-sale orders are for pick up the night of the event only
826LA’s Tiny Vaudeville is an extravaganza of talent created and curated by the folks of 826LA.
Tiny Vaudeville #1, on January 26th, will be hosted by Joel Spence and Romi Dames, and include the Dan Bern Orchestra, feats of prestidigitation by Derek Hughes, Cat Found, Al Madrigal, "Who's on First?", supreme siren singers Garfunkel and Oates, HAGAR live on stage, the Charismatic Chameleon James Adomian, a Celebrity Guest reading 826LA student work from Thanks and Have Fun Running the Country on talkshow247.com, the musical stylings of Pop Levi, and more!
Shows are 18+ and will be held on the last Monday of every month at the Echoplex in Echo Park: 1154 Glendale Blvd, Los Angeles, California 90026. All money goes to support 826LA’s free writing and tutoring programs for Los Angeles students, ages 6–18.
For weeks and weeks (and weeks and weeks), fourth-grade students at Cienega Elementary worked with their teacher, Annie Lefkowitz; Natural History Museum curator Sojin Kim; artist Jacquie Dreager; and, of course, 826LA tutors, all to the answer the question How do we claim space? The students studied maps and monologues, and they expressed their findings in maps and monologues of their own.
The result is Claiming Our Space, a multimedia exhibition in the In/ter/act space at the Natural History Museum. Claiming Our Space opens Saturday, January 24, and will run through March 29.
How to Make Mistakes on Purpose
Ages 14 – adult
Friday, January 16, 2009
2:30 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. (there will be a half hour break)
This workshop takes place at 826LA East
Laurie Rosenwald is an award winning illustrator whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, and many other publications. She is in LA promoting her new book, All the Wrong People Have Self Esteem, out now through Bloomsbury. She has taught How to Make Mistakes on Purpose at numerous schools, conferences, and corporate groups including Starbucks and Google. The actual workshop contents are a secret to the participants but you can check out http://www.rosenworld.com/?page_id=26 for accolades. She assures that it will bring Chaos to your order.
Join us on January 10, 3 – 5 p.m., at The Echo Park Time Travel Mart for the official launch of our Pastport® Issuing Service!
Marc Horowitz of talkshow247.com will be interviewing applicants live on his 24/7 internet talk show. We'll be taking pictures (like our friend Wayne's here) and preparing the important documents you need to tour time.
In celebration of this momentous occasion, Pastports® are free to all interviewees on January 10! Please email Lauren at the EPTTM to schedule your interview time. Hurry! space is limited.
After the launch, Pastports®will be available for $2 for kids, or $8 for adults 18 and over.
Watch 826LA staff, interns, volunteers, and students march in the Echo Park Community Parade along Sunset Boulevard (between Park and Elysian Park) from 1:00 – 3:00 p.m.
UPDATE: A brief write-up of the event, with pictures, can be found here.
Join us this Friday, December 12, at 7:15 p.m. for the first of The Forgotten Classics Movie Series hosted by Toph Eggers. We will be screening Hal Ashby's 1970 film The Landlord. Cost: a suggested donation of $5–10. All proceeds will support 826LA's free student programming.
McSweeney's Voice of Witness is proud to announce the December release of Out of Exile, an incredible collection of oral histories from the abducted and displaced people of Sudan. With an introduction and additional interviews by Valentino Achak Deng and Dave Eggers, these narratives were compiled by editor Craig Walzer during his extensive travels through Kenya, Sudan, and Egypt.
In support of this new release, Peter Orner and Craig Walzer will be hosting Voice of Witness and McSweeney's Present: An Evening of Narratives. The two writers/editors will discuss the process of creating their books (Orner's Underground America and Walzer's Out of Exile) and the issues at stake. Orner and Walzer will facilitate discussions with narrators from both books, who will be present via satellite.
Tickets to the event are free; join us at 826LA East on December 10 at 7:00 PM.
On the evening of Saturday, December 6th, 826LA East will host a film screening and potluck party celebrating our collaboration with Echo Park Film Center. Four of the screenplays from 826LA summer screenwriting workshop have been made into short films during the EPFC's fall youth filmmaking workshop. Please join us, starting at 6 PM, for a potluck dinner, screening, and Q&A with the young writers and filmmakers! Please RSVP to Bonnie.
Make Art Matter
Friday, November 7
6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.
A debut exhibit showcasing new works by a diverse quartet of established and innovative Los Angeles-based international artists. Celebrating the kinship of visual arts with the written word, a portion of the evening proceeds will be donated to 826LA. Artists Adrian Wong Shue, Karl Kirsch, Sergei Tivetsky, and Keith Biele will be in attendance. The event will take place in a private home atop the Hollywood Hills. One night only!
The Echo Park Time Travel Mart Presents: A Very Special Halloween Dead Author Reading with special guestsEdgar Allan PoeandWashington Irving and musical guestsCommon Rotation
Friday, October 31, 8:00PM
A Night of Monsters with Stefan G. Bucher
Thursday, October 30
6:30 - 8:30 p.m.
826LA East / The Echo Park Time Travel Mart
Spill ink and make monsters!
The event is open to adults and kids.
Space is limited; please RSVP to Christina.
Stefan is the creator of the popular online animation blog Daily Monster, which features films of himself drawing over 200 monsters, each using a random ink blot as the starting point. The first 100 monsters have been collected in a book, 100 Days of Monsters, along with stories submitted as comments to Daily Monster. The series has been included in the prestigious Communication Arts Illustration and American Illustration annuals, and was the subject of the annual Fresh Dialogue event held by the New York chapter of the American Institute of Graphic Arts in May 2007.
The Echo Park Time Travel Mart presents A Time Line of Fragrances
Tuesday, October 14
6:30 - 8:30 p.m.
Come celebrate with the launch of our unique line of fragrances,
and meet the perfumer, Yosh Han.
This event is free.
Yosh is a Bay Area perfumer working with fragrances and essences that correspond with chakras and numerology. Her clients include: Barneys New York, Takashimaya, Colette, SF Opera and SFJAZZ. Artistic collaborations include projects with art historian, Jeannene Przyblyski and the Bureau of Urban Secrets, artist-engineer Natalie Jeremijenko for Pond, art critic Alison Bing and artist Tucker Nichols. Yosh’s work has been featured in Vanity Fair, Town & Country, Allure, Vogue, the SF Chronicle, the LA Times, BlackBook, Antenna, Forbes, NPR and others.
The Echo Park Time Travel Mart presents
Dead Author Readings
on September 26th at 8pm
Jen Kirkman
is
MARY SHELLEY
reading, discussing, and signing Frankenstein
The Echo Park Time Travel Mart / 826LA
1714 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026
213.413.3388
Jen Kirkman is a stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and voice-over artist. She is currently writing on the late-night show Chelsea Lately on E!, and you can hear Jen’s voice on Current TV’s Supernews. Jen performs regularly at the UCB Theatre, Largo, and The Hollywood Improv. She will be appearing on the UK’s The World Stands Up and CBS’s Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson in the fall of 2008. Jen released a comedy album in February of 2007 titled Self Help.
826LA's Fall-Time Yuk-Fest
Insightful Comedy and Dogs on Tightropes
Featuring:
Patton Oswalt, Janeane Garofalo, Tim & Eric, Jimmy Pardo, Bill Burr, Al Madrigal, and Bob Moore's Amazing Mongrels
The Avalon Hollywood
Wednesday, September 10, 2008, 9:00 PM (Doors open at 8:00 PM)
1735 Vine Street (between Hollywood and Yucca Streets), Los Angeles, CA
Adults only (18 and over)
All proceeds go toward 826LA's free student programming.
About the Performers:
Patton Oswalt has had notable roles in films and television shows including Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia, Pixar's Ratatouille, and as Spence Olchin on The King of Queens. Other television appearances include Home Movies, Seinfeld, Human Giant, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, I Love the '80s, and Reno 911!. Patton has also released comedy albums Feelin' Kinda Patton and Werewolves and Lollipops.
Janeane Garofalo has been at the forefront of the comedy scene since her start in 1992. Since then, her accomplishments include an extensive list of film, television and published credits. In addition to her appearances on Jimmy Kimmel Live, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and The Daily Show, Garofalo has joined the cast of Saturday Night Live, The Ben Stiller Show and The West Wing. Her film credits include Reality Bites, The Truth About Cats and Dogs, Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion, Wonderland, and Ratatouille.
Tim and Eric are the comedic duo behind timanderic.com and Adult Swim's Tom Goes to the Mayor. They have since created another Adult Swim program, Tim and Eric Awesome Show: Great Job! and have released a CD with music from Awesome Show.
Jimmy Pardo has appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno as well as several appearances on The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson. Currently, Pardo hosts the podcast Never Not Funny with the producer Matt Belknap. He is also the host of Match Game Live, a live version of the Match Game television game show, at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in Los Angeles.
Bill Burr performs over three hundred shows annually. In 2004, he began working on Comedy Central's Chappelle's Show. In September 2005, Burr's HBO One Night Stand special aired. Along with many other projects, he has also been a guest comedian on The Bob and Tom Show as well as The Opie and Anthony Show on XM Satellite Radio.
Al Madrigal has appeared on The Late Late Show, Jimmy Kimmel Live, and Premium Blend, and was the Jury Award winner for Best Stand-Up Comedian at the 2004 HBO Aspen Comedy Festival. His ability to mix improv into his stand-up sets landed him the lead role on the series The Ortegas and Welcome to the Captain. He is the founder of 826 Valencia's Comedy Night.
Bob Moore and his Amazing Mongrels have been performing for over 30 years. He's been on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour and America's Got Talent. He's even opened up for the Beastie Boys. All of Bob's dogs are rescues from a shelter and trained to jump through hoops, jump rope, act, and even do math.
MAX&Co. and C Magazine
Invite you to a Back To School Party
to benefit 826LA
September 10, 2008
6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Bar Marmont
8171 W. Sunset Boulevard
Hollywood, CA
Open Bar and Passed Hors D'oeurves
DJ Johnny Knight
Valet Parking available.
RSVP 866-676-2962 on or before September 9th.
Bring this hall pass to MAX&Co. Melrose Place between September 10 and 17, and they will donate 10% of your purchase to 826LA for back-to-school supplies.
After a year of work, 826LA, re:Active magazine, and students from L.A. High are ready to release Dead End Door re:Vealed, a 'zine of secrets. Full of student writing and art, including transcendent and transfigured photography, tales of elementary-school terror and young adult soul-searching, and the opening chapter of a Japanese-style manga, re:Vealed is sure to electrify and enlighten.
Please join us at the release event to enjoy refreshments, meet the authors/artists, and, of course, pick up a copy of the 'zine. Click here or on either image to download a handbill for the event.
Anthropologie presents an eco-friendly alternative to the taxidermy of wildlife. The proceeds from a silent auction of papier mâché reproductions of animal heads will be donated to 826LA. Refreshments will be served.
Thursday, May 1
7:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.
Anthropologie at the Grove
6301 W. 3rd Street
Los Angeles, CA 90036
For the first time ever, the beer bottle and the punctuation mark have been cleaved together in glorious matrimony.
It's the first EVER Beer 'N Grammar Night at 826LA in Venice!
What is Beer 'N Grammar Night? It's a (writing) class revolution. You, the lucky friend of 826LA, arrive at the SPARC Center on Venice Boulevard, home of the famous Venice drop-in tutoring program ... and the revolution commences. From 7:00 to 8:30, learn to use grammar with the smashing power of so many bourgeoisie tractors being driven off a cliff in Kamchatka into the Bering Sea. And you do it with the help of our special guest instructor, BG.
Brad Gilbert has been teaching since the last century: 1990, to be exact. Having an ear for language and a love of writing he gravitated to the best platform for teaching the essence of language: grammar. Working with students primarily in elementary school, Brad has developed a comprehensive program for building language skills of all genres through grammar. From pre-writing to editing, from vocabulary building to public speaking, Brad has nurtured his love and found a way to share it with others.
Don't miss the beer. Don't miss the grammar. Doors open to everyone at 6:30, and drinkers are strongly encouraged to reserve a spot here at rsvp@826la.org.
Where and when:
826LA West
685 Venice Boulevard
Venice, CA 90291
April 30, 2008, 7:00 p.m.
Indoor Voices, our monthly volunteer reading series, continues! We're now at brand-clean sparkling-new version 3.3. This edition will take place on April 17 at 826LA East. Meet and greet 826LA volunteers starting at 7:00 pm, and listen, rapt, to our volunteers starting at 8:00.
Since December, young 10th-graders at Locke High School in South LA have been working with 826LA and the J. Paul Getty Museum to learn about art and writing. They've gone through lessons on the formal principles and elements of art, toured the Getty with Mexican photographer Graciela Iturbide, taken photographs of their neighborhoods, and written artist statements explaining their work.
Everything comes together on April 12 at the Watts Coffee House, where the student photographs and artist statements will be presented to the public for the first time. For more information, send us an email.
Come see Professor Eric Hoffman (Mr. Show) and Dr. Gary Rudoren (So I Killed a Few People) explain, in exacting detail, how funny works. They'll present selections from their new McSweeney's book, Comedy by the Numbers, along with guest readers including Bob Odenkirk, Jay Johnston, Matt Besser, Matt Walsh, Brian Posehn, Paul F. Tompkins, and Andy Kindler. Selections from their how-to humor bible will include #46—Fart Noises, #92—One-Downmanship, and #101—Pie in the Face.
Indoor Voices, our monthly volunteer reading series, continues! We're now at brand-clean sparkling-new version 3.3. This edition will take place on February 21 at 826LA West. Meet and greet 826LA volunteers starting at 7:00 pm, and listen, rapt, to our volunteers starting at 8:00.
Featuring:
Loretta McCormick
Alex Riguero
Benjamin Simpson
Jen Sincero
Jason Wilson
Indoor Voices, our monthly volunteer reading series, continues! We're now at brand-clean sparkling-new version 3.3. New Year's edition will take place at our new space—826LA East—on January 17. Meet your fellow volunteers starting at 7:00pm; readings start at 8:00.
We know the deepest yearnings of your soul—and are granting them.
Tutor Board Game Night is back.
And it's back with a tag-teaming, cornbread-eating, making-its-own-drinks kinda vengeance. You need to pop, lock, and roll down to the Writing Lab in Venice—whatever it takes to get here. We can't promise anything (legally) but nobody's ruling out the possibility of heated games. Games *so* heated that they leave folks leaning on their media cabinets for breathers the next morning, and then years later those folks whisper to their neighbors about how the boxes still rattle a little when the SPARC building's empty and dark.
826LA's October Board Game Night is Friday, 10/12 at 7:30 PM. RSVP to volunteer@826la.com. Bringing of beverages, snacks, and board games is suggested.
Because so many of our volunteers are writers, we hold a monthly evening of readings called Indoor Voices. On Thursday, October 4, Indoor Voices will take place in our new Echo Park site at 1714 Sunset Blvd. Join us for food and drink (at 7:30 pm), volunteer readings (at 8:00), and falling debris (all night—you may want to bring a hard hat). Send us a message to let us know you're coming.
(In case you're wondering, the debris has ceased falling, and hard hats won't be necessary.)
If you're a student or parent and would like more information, feel free to give us a call or email. Or you can stop by, check things out, and start tutoring right away.
If this sounds interesting to you and you'd like to volunteer, you can stop by at one of our New Volunteer Meetings. Check the calendar for dates and times. Please give us a call or shoot us an email to RSVP or ask any questions.
Super smart ladies take over Book*Smart V
August 29, 2007
On August 29th, three talented women will take the stage at Largo for the fifth installment of the Book*Smart Nightclub series. Julie Orringer will read, John Krasinski will do a surprise bit, and Aimee Mann will play us some tunes. Call Largo for reservations — 323-852-1073. And remember, all proceeds go to benefit student programming at 826LA!
Indoor Voices, our (off-again, now on-again) monthly tutor reading series, returns to the 826LA writing lab! Please come down and clap for these fine authors and their work:
Alice Ollstein
Michele Matheson
Mike Jamoom
Liz Milller
JC Jaress
George Ducker
The festivities begin at 7:00 p.m. with social fun. Readings start at 7:30.
To RSVP, or to learn more, give us a call: 310.305.8418.
3rd Annual ARTIVIST Film Festival & Awards Thursday, November 9 through Sunday, November 12, 2006
Interested in human rights, environmental preservation, children’s
advocacy and animal rights? Curious about what artists and activists
have to say about these global issues? Come see the 3rd Annual
ARTIVIST Film Festival & Awards, November 9-12 at Hollywood’s Egyptian
Theatre.
“ARTIVIST” prides itself in being the first international film
festival dedicated to issues of art and activism. Honorees at this
year’s festival include celebrity activists Joaquin Phoenix, Daryl
Hannah, and Matthew McConaughey. Throughout the four-day festival,
more than 60 films will be presented. All of the films will then
compete against each other for awards on the festival’s final night.
Come watch 826LA’s own Mac and Julius as they serve on a panel for a
forum entitled “Why Art?” which will discuss the importance of art
education.
The Revenge of the Bookeaters Saturday, August 26th, 2006, 8pm
Los Angeles, CA July 18, 2006 — 826LA and Spaceland Presents present Revenge of the Book Eaters, a star-studded night featuring some of today's most recognized names in indie-rock, literature, and comedy, including Jenny Lewis (Rilo Kiley frontwoman), Jake Gyllenhaal (actor), Aimee Mann (singer-songwriter), The Mountain Goats (prolific songwriter and musician John Darnielle), Dave Eggers (best-selling author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius), Sarah Vowell (best-selling author and This American Life contributor), and John Roderick (The Long Winters), Andy Richter (comedian and your host for the evening) in an event that promises once and for all to settle the debate: words or music—which is better?
This event, which is named after a story by an 826 student, is part of a series of six concerts in six cities to raise money for children's literacy programs in the 826 writing centers across the country.
Found Magazine Cavalcade of Thrills, featuring Mortified
Thursday, June 15, 2006, 8pm
King King, 6555 Hollywood Blvd., $15
Join FOUND Magazine’s Davy & Peter Rothbart for a night of FOUND magic and merriment on the LA stop of their Cavalcade of Thrills Tour. Davy reads the most startling brand-new finds to land at FOUND HQ, while Peter’s brand-new songs based on FOUND stuff will blow your mind and nip at your soul. You will be dazzled! You will be stunned! You will shift uneasily in your seats as you see your teenage self in special guests Mortified. Mortified stars everyday adults reading aloud their most embarrassing and REAL teenage diary entries, poems, letters, lyrics and locker notes… in front of total strangers. So come on out and join us, and bring your finds to share—it’s a smash-’em-up good time for all!
McSweeney’s Presents: The World, Explained.
Readings, Comedy, Music, and Extreme PowerPoint Presentations.
A Benefit for 826LA
Saturday, June 10, 2006, 8pm
The Barnsdall Theater, 4800 Hollywood Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90027
You may be curious about the intricacies of light-weight sumo wrestling. You probably want to know more about the deeper meaning of our nation’s discarded trash. Perhaps you are in need of a PowerPoint-based instruction manual for therapy. And why not learn more about astrological advice for presidential campaigns? We are well aware of your interests, and thus have compiled another installation of The World, Explained — an evening of readings, comedy, music, and slide-show presentations.
Hosted by
Andy Richter
Featuring:
Davy Rothbart, creator of Found Magazine
Starlee Kine of This American Life fame
Joshua Davis, author of The Underdog: How I Survived the World’s Most Outlandish Competitions
Evany Thomas, author of The Secret Language of Sleep: A Couple’s Guide to the Thirty-Nine Positions
Bill Hader of Saturday Night Live
Music by
Grant-Lee Phillips
General Admission: $20
Special Bonus Opportunity (includes priority seating and entry to the official World Explained post-show reception, where there will be drinking, fine food, and more edifying encounters): $50.
Stand-Up Comedy by Kids!
Saturday, May 6, 2006, 4:00pm
826LA and Drama Tweens cordially invite you to Stand-Up Comedy by Kids*, original stand-up sets created by participants in 826LA’s Stand-Up Comedy for Kids workshop.
Besides the Music: Conversation, Debate, and yes, Music
Saturday, April 29, 2006, at 8:00PM
Royce Hall, UCLA
VIP Reception with the band and special guests
6:30PM
Royce Hall West Lobby, UCLA
At the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, the Rock Bottom Remainders will present a special concert to benefit 826LA. Besides the Music: Conversation, Debate, and yes, Music will feature not only some of the world’s great authors playing some of the world’s loudest music (the Remainders are noted for having “one of the world’s highest ratios of noise to talent”) but also stimulating conversation and a debate (using international scoring rules).
The Rock Bottom Remainders are a literary supergroup featuring such notables as Dave Barry, Ridley Pearson, Scott Turow, Amy Tan, Mitch Albom, Matt Groening, Kathi Kamen Goldmark, and Greg Iles. The group’s members have collectively published over 150 titles, sold over 150 million books, and have been translated into over 25 languages. For this event, they will be joined by special guests Frank McCourt, Craig Ferguson, and Roger McGuinn.
For concert tickets ($25 general seating, $50 orchestra), call 310.825.2101 or click here. (Online orders are subject to a $2 Ticketmaster service charge.)
For VIP reception tickets ($200, includes concert tickets) click here.
As Smart As They Are Screening
Thursday, April 27, 2006, at 7:30pm
On Thursday, April 27 at 7:30pm join us in our writing lab for a special screening of As Smart As They Are, a documentary about the collaboration between McSweeney’s Brooklyn house-band One Ring Zero and an ensemble of award-winning authors. The film features live performances, studio sessions, and interviews with the writers and musicians, as well as exploring the relationships between music and literature while painting a portrait of the literary community that fostered the band. Featured Players: Dave Eggers, Paul Auster, Jonathan Lethem, Rick Moody, Jonathan Ames, Myla Goldberg, Darin Strauss, Amy Fusselman, Clay McLeod Chapman, Lawrence Krauser. and Viggo Mortensen.
Premiere and After Party for Friends with Money
Wednesday, April 5, 2006, at 7:30PM
At Sony Studios in Culver City
Join 826LA and Sony Pictures Classics for a special screening of Friends with Money, the Opening Night Selection at the 2006 Sundance Festival. Friends with Money is written and directed by Nicole Holofcener and stars Jennifer Aniston, Joan Cusack, Catherine Keener, and Frances McDormand.
After the screening, writer Sarah Vowell will lead a discussion with Nicole Holofcener and Catherine Keener.
The screening will take place at Sony Studios—10202 West Washington Blvd., Culver City, CA, 90232.
Roosevelt High School & Mayor Villaraigosa Book Release Event
Thursday, March 23, 2006, at 7pm
On Thursday, March 23 at 7pm students from Roosevelt High School will by joined by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to read from their newly published book Entering New Territory at the downtown Los Angeles Public Library. Please join us for an evening of reflections on growing up Latino in L.A., the challenges of fighting stereotypes, stories of redemption from drugs and gangs, as well as dreams for a new L.A.
Community Photoworks Exhibit
Wednesday, March 8, 2006, 6-8pm
On Wednesday, March 8 from 6-8pm please join us for the opening of the Community Photoworks Exhibit in the SPARC Gallery where students from Mark Twain Middle School will display the final results of a photography project collaborated on by The Getty Museum & 826LA tutors.
March Madness
Thursday, March 2, 2006, 6:30pm-7:30pm
Because we love our volunteers so much we’d like to invite you to join us for March Madness in the Writing Lab from 6:30pm to 7:30pm. Meet fellow volunteers, drink some wine, eat some cheese, and stay afterwards for Indoor Voices!
Jonathan Ames reading & signing I Love You More Than You Know
Tuesday, February 21, 2006, at 7:30pm
On Tuesday February 21, we are thrilled to present Jonathan Ames reading from his new book I Love You More Than You Know. The reading, with a discussion and signing to follow, will also include some comedic monologues. Jonathan Ames is the author of the novels I Pass Like Night, The Extra Man, and Wake Up, Sir!, and the essay collections What’s Not to Love? and My Less Than Secret Life. He is the editor of Sexual Metamorphosis: An Anthology of Transsexual Memoirs. A new book of essays, I Love You More Than You Know, was published in January 2006.
Workshop Orientation
Thursday, February 16, 2006, 6:30 pm
We have plenty of kids willing to come in on evenings and weekends to
learn, and they need dedicated volunteers to come in and teach them.
If you have a talent or passion that you’d like to share, join us for
an overview of teaching a workshop at 826LA.
826LA Tutor Holiday Party & Indoor Voices
Thursday, December 8, 2005 at 6pm
The staff of 826LA is celebrating the holiday season with the dedicated tutors who make our programs so fabulous. We can’t wait to share a warm drink and some winter cheer with all of them! And then stick around for Indoor Voices: The 826LA Reading Series at 7:30. On the first Thursday of each month, we will be holding evening readings of tutors’ work. Come to meet other writers or to hear original, exciting, and new pieces. Readers include Dylan Landis, Michael Calderone, George Ducker, Emily Benz, Josh Kun, and more to come!
Acoustic Vaudeville at Largo: An Evening of Music and Comedy
with Aimee Mann, Michael Penn, and Patton Oswalt
Tuesday, December 6, 2005, 8PM
826LA and Largo are honored to present Aimee Mann, Michael Penn, and Patton Oswalt at Largo on Tuesday, December 6 at 8PM. Big supporters of 826LA, Mann and Largo have generously allowed all ticket sales to benefit free programming at 826LA.
Aimee Mann’s fifth solo release, The Forgotten Arm, is the musical equivalent of a novella, comprised of a dozen songs that follow, rather loosely, a couple through the life of their relationship. Aimee’s songs have a literary quality to them—sharp, spare short stories set to music. Mann’s song Save Me was nominated for an Academy Award in 1999.
Michael Penn has recorded four acclaimed albums, worked with the brilliant surrealist animation artists the Brothers Quay, scored Paul Thomas Anderson’s "Hard Eight" and "Boogie Nights", as well as the Leigh/Cummings film "The Anniversary Party" and produced the Wallflowers’ latest album, Breach as well as Liz Phair’s upcoming release.
Patton Oswalt is familiar from his role on CBS’s The King of Queens, a regular panelist on Late Night With Conan O’Brian, co-host on Jimmy Kimmel Live, and appearances on Seinfeld, Newsradio, The Man Show and Crank Yankers. He’s contributed multiple voices to Aqua Teen Hunger Force. He also opened for Aimee Mann and Michael Penn on their 2000 Acoustic Vaudeville Tour.
826LA Presents
The Noisy Outlaw Extravaganza
Part of a Six-City Celebration of
McSweeney’s New Book for Young Adults, Generously Titled Noisy Outlaws, Unfriendly Blobs, and Some Other Things That Aren’t as Scary, Maybe, Depending on How You Feel About Lost Lands, Stray Cellphones, Creatures from the Sky, Parents Who Disappear in Peru, a Man Named Lars Farf, and One Other Story We Couldn’t Quite Finish, So Maybe You Could Help Us Out
Saturday, November 12, 2005 at 4PM, FREE
On Saturday, November 12, from 4-6pm, 826LA, along with its counterparts in San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Ann Arbor, and Seattle, will throw a Six-City Extravaganza to celebrate the publication of Noisy Outlaws..., a collection of writing for young adults. The event, which is for young adults and all other adults, will include readings, performances, and an opportunity to finish Lemony Snicket’s contribution to the book—a not-quite-done story printed on a dust jacket that can be mailed to McSweeney’s (who will handsomely reward the author of their favorite ending).
Comedy trio Three Blonde Moms (Mayellen Hooper, Helen Keaney, and Joanie Fagan) will read from the book, and they will also perform. Lemony Snicket will preside by satellite, giving advice to his ghostwriters over video monitor. Writers will be on hand in on writing lab to help attendees finish these endings, too.
Two dozen authors and artists—including Lemony Snicket, George Saunders, Neil Gaimain, Kelly Link, Nick Hornby, Jonathan Safran Foer, Marcel Dzama, and Barry Blitt—have donated their work to Noisy Outlaws... Proceeds from the sale of the book benefit 826NYC, a nonprofit writing center in Brooklyn.
Writers Talking to Writers
Mike Davis talking to Joshuah Bearman
Friday, November 11 at 7PM. Free
To celebrate the publication of The Believer Book of Writers Talking to Writers,The Believer and 826LA present Mike Davis (City of Quartz and The Monster At Our Door: The Global Threat of Avian Flu) talking to Joshua Bearman (McSweeney’s, L.A. Weekly, The Believer) about Hurricane Katrina and the rebuilding of New Orleans, avian flu, the war in Iraq, Yetis, and writing non-fiction. With special guest Monique Verdin (activist and photographer from southern Louisiana).
Fiona Apple & Friends at Largo
Tuesday, November 8, 2005, 8pm
826LA and Largo are honored to present Fiona Apple and Friends at Largo on Tuesday, November 8 at 8PM. Comedian Zach Galifianakis will be opening. Big supporters of 826LA, Apple and Largo have generously allowed all ticket sales to benefit free programming at 826LA.
Acclaimed artist Fiona Apple has just released her highly anticipated third album Extraordinary Machine. Fiona Apple established herself as a visionary singer/songwriter at the age of nineteen with her debut album Tidal in 1996. This stunning album went on to earn her a Grammy Award in 1998 for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance establishing her as an uncompromising and original artist gaining intensely loyal fans all over the world. Fiona’s second album was released in 1999 showcasing Fiona’s edgy and elegant musical genius. Fiona Apple’s highly touted albums and captivating videos have earned her numerous accolades from music fans and the music industry alike including two MTV Music Video Awards and two Grammy nominations and sales of over 5 million albums around the world.
SPARCALACAS
Friday, November 4, 2005, from 6:30 to 9:30PM
Exhibition, readings, music, pan de muerto, and chocolate
The talented artists from SPARC joined 826LA volunteers to create satirical verses for Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) in Mr. B’s 4th grade class at Broadway Elementary. The students dove into these four line poems to poke fun at irritating people or tasks in their lives. Each of these poems has been illustrated by an artist at SPARC. All of this grand effort will be displayed on a large poster for the class and community to enjoy at an exhibition that opens at SPARC on November 4! More info here (PDF).
Evenings at 826LA and Beyond Baroque present readings from Women on the Edge
Friday, October 14, 2005, 7:30pm. $10 at the door.
On Friday, October 14, 826LA will present an evening of readings from Women on the Edge, an anthology of writing from Los Angeles women. Readers will include Rachel Resnick, Dylan Landis, Julianne Ortale, Samantha Dunn, and Janet Fitch. The reading will be held at Beyond Baroque.
A Saturday Night with Rick Moody, John Doe, and Josh Kun
Conversation and Performance
Saturday, October 8, 2005, at 8PM, $10
826LA is pleased to announce that on Saturday, October 8, author Rick Moody will appear in conversation with musician John Doe, and author and music critic Josh Kun for a discussion of literature and music. And some point in the night, both Moody and Doe will sing. Admission is $10, with all proceeds benefiting free student programming at 826LA. Books will be available for purchase.
Rick Moody is the author of The Diviners, Demonology, Purple America, The Ring of Brightest Angels Around Heaven, The Ice Storm and Garden State, which won the Pushcart Press Editors’ Book Award. He is a past recipient of the Addison Metcalf Award and a Guggenheim fellowship. Moody has contributed fiction and essays to most major publications and has been widely anthologized. He also writes songs and plays music.
Jon Doe co-founded the seminal punk band X. His blues-, punk-, folk-, and country-infused solo albums, including Meet John Doe, Dim Stars, Bright Sky, and Forever Hasn’t Happened Yet, have garnered critical acclaim. He has also appeared in the films Great Balls of Fire, Road House, Georgia, and Roadside Prophets.
Josh Kun is an LA writer, critic, curator, and an Assistant Professor of English at UC Riverside. He writes a column about music that runs in weekly papers in San Francisco, Boston, and LA and he has written for the Los Angeles Times, LA Magazine, SPIN, Rolling Stone, Details, & others. His first book, Audiotopia: Music, Race, and America, will be released in November from UC Press.
An Evening with Zadie Smith
Sunday, October 2, 2005, 6pm
826LA is pleased to announce that on Sunday, October 2, at 6PM, Zadie Smith will read from her new book On Beauty and answer questions from the audience. Admission is $25. All proceeds benefit free student programming at 826LA.
Zadie Smith is the acclaimed author of White Teeth and The Autograph Man.On Beauty has been shortlisted for this year’s Booker Prize. Her acclaimed first novel, White Teeth (2000), is a vibrant portrait of contemporary multicultural London, told through the story of three ethnically diverse families. The book won a number of awards and prizes, including the Guardian First Book Award, the Whitbread First Novel Award. Zadie Smith’s second novel, The Autograph Man (2002), a story of loss, obsession and the nature of celebrity, won the 2003 Jewish Quarterly Literary Prize for Fiction.
826LA Open House
Sunday September 25, 2005, 10am to 6pm.
To celebrate the Abbot-Kinney Festival, 826LA—with our neighbors SPARC and Beyond Baroque—will be holding an open house on September 25. Be sure to stop by our writing lab, where you can learn more about 826LA and the services we provide. And refresh yourself with a glass of cold lemonade sold at a booth by some of our regular students. We recommend parking in the lot beside our building, where you will have easy access to all the goings-on at our facilities, and where you can easily catch one of the free shuttles that regularly depart for Abbot-Kinney.
As we move into our second season of drop-in tutoring, we need more tutors than ever. If you have not yet attended a tutor orientation or if you just want to find out what we’re all about, please join Amber Early, Educational Programs Director, and Claire Smith, Volunteers and Communications Director, for an overview of the role of an 826 tutor and also a brief synopsis for teaching a workshop.
Drop-in Tutoring Begins
Tuesday, September 13, 2005, 2:30 to 5:30 pm
Starting September 13, 826LA will once again provide free, drop-in, after-school tutoring. Drop-in hours are from 2:30-5:30 PM, Monday through Thursday. We will be here to provide help on creative writing, expository writing, homework, and English-language learning (and some chess moves).
UCLA Extension Writers Faire Sunday, September 10, 2005, 11 am - 3 pm
Join 826LA on September 10 from 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. on the UCLA campus
for the Writers Faire, a festive and enlightening day of free programs
on the art and craft of writing, sponsored by the UCLA Extension
Writers’ Program. More than 70 published and produced Writers’
Program instructors conduct 24 free panel discussions and
mini-lectures in creative writing and screenwriting. Enroll in most
Writers’ Program courses at a 10% discount, and talk to
representatives from more than 20 community and professional
organizations, graduate writing programs, and writing-allied
businesses. We’ll be there — you should too! For more information,
call 310/825-9415 or visit www.uclaextension.edu/writers.
Indoor Voices: The 826LA Reading Series
Thursday, September 1, 2005 at 7:30pm
Because so many of our tutors, instructors, and volunteers are writers, we’ve formed Indoor Voices: The 826LA Reading Series. On the first Thursday of each month, we will be holding evening readings of tutors’ work. Come to meet other writers or to hear original, exciting, and new pieces. Our inaugural program will take place on September 1, with readings by J. Ryan Stradal, Mac Barnett, Tami Mnoian, George Ducker, Glasgow Phillips, and Shelby Benson.
Tutor Meeting for Roosevelt High School Student Publication with Mayor Villaraigosa
Wednesday, August 24, 2005, 7pm
This fall, a group of students from Roosevelt High, Mayor Villaraigosa’s alma mater, will assemble to write, edit, and publish a volume of their own original writing. Mayor Villaraigosa will visit the students throughout the process to offer his guidance and support, and will write an introduction. We are seeking a dedicated and enthusiastic team of volunteers to meet frequently with the students and help them edit and polish their original drafts. The project begins on September 6 and will run through the end of October. Meeting days will be Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from 3:15 to 4:30PM at Roosevelt High in East LA. We will be hosting an informational meeting about this project on Wednesday, August 24 at 7PM and encourage all those interested to attend (and bring a friend!). We promise that this opportunity will be an unforgettable experience for both you and the students of Roosevelt High.
TJ to LA: A Night of McSweeney’s Readings
with Salvador Plascencia, Joshuah Bearman, Josh Kun, and Yvonne Venegas
Friday, July 22 at 7:30pm, 826LA in Venice
On Friday July 22 at 7:30 826LA will present TJ to LA: A Night of McSweeney’s Readings with Salvador Plascencia, Joshuah Bearman, Josh Kun, and Yvonne Venegas. There will be readings, book signings, and music. There may or may not be lettuce.
LA author and graduate student in the USC Writing Program, Salvador Plascencia will read from his first book The People of Paper (McSweeney’s, 2005), a wildly inventive and mythical father-daughter immigration story that has just debuted to stunning reviews. Joshuah Bearman is an LA Weekly editor whose frequent contributions to McSweeney’s include the forthcoming Yeti Researcher. Josh Kun, an associate professor of English at UC Riverside, is the author of Audiotopia: Music, Race, and America (UC Press), and is currently writing a book on Tijuana and editing one about Jewish mambo. He will be joined by award-winning Mexican photographer Yvonne Venegas. Raised in Tijuana, Venegas now lives and works in Mexico City and will be featured this fall in the “Strange New World/Extrano Nuevo Mundo” show at the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego and the Museum of Contemporary Art, La Jolla. Books will be available for purchase.
Rhythm of the Chain: Young Writers Explore Teamwork
Book Release Party at Equator Books
1103 Abbot Kinney Blvd., Venice 90291
Saturday, July 16, 2005 at 7pm
On Saturday July 16, 826LA is thrilled to present the teenage authors of Rhythm of the Chain: Young Writers Explore Teamwork. The reading and signing will take place at 7pm at Equator Books in Venice.
Rhythm of the Chain is a collection of prose and poetry written by the students of Animo Inglewood Charter High School with an introduction by legendary basketball coach Phil Jackson. All proceeds from the sale of the book benefit free programming at 826LA. We promise an exciting evening of teenage authors, garage bands, school buses, and refreshing refreshments as the Venice community comes together to celebrate a worthy cause.
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.
Many folks have come to us here at 826LA and asked "When will you be doing one of your amazing workshops...for adults?" (I am paraphrasing, here.)
So in order to appease all of you "big" kids and quell your ever growing thirst for knowledge, we at 826LA are proud to present our Writer's Series for Adults. Every month we will be having a panel discussion focused on a different genre of writing. Our focus in these panels is to build a community of local writers while raising awareness and funds for our free programming we offer to kids age 6-18.
Our first workshop, held earlier this month, was on music journalism. Our panelists were: Kevin Bronson, Justin Gage, Jessica Hundley, Josh Kun, Pat Mcguire, Randall Roberts, Jeff Weiss, and was moderated by Joshuah Bearman. The room was packed with an audience of eager music writers, and Joshuah asked pertinent questions to our speakers, including how to get involved in music writing as a habit or as a career, and the discussion of print vs. blog.
Our adult writers series is sure to have panel for every aspiring writer. Stay tuned for upcoming workshops.
Despite having eaten dinner prior to 826LA’s panel on Food Writing, I left the session ravenous. Right of the bat, Jonathan Gold, the only Pulitzer Prize winner in Food Writing, said, “I remember being freaked out the first time I had a meal that cost $1,200, but it’s part of the job,” thus appealing to an entire room’s editorial and gastrointestinal fantasies. Who wouldn’t love that?
At the beginning of the session, this dream of pre-paid succulent meals and exotic travel sounded highly accessible. These were all normal creative people, who loved to eat, just like me, right? But then they began telling their stories about how they landed jobs at Bon Appetite, LA Times, LA Weekly, about how new media was threatening traditional journalism and about how everybody had a food blog these days, and I began to see that this panel was exceptional.
826LA is an awesome non-profit organization that not only helps kids 6-18 with their creative writing skills but it hosts cool events like writing seminars and dead author readings. When I heard that 826LA East was going to host a food writing panel where noted food writers talk about writing in various mediums, how to review a restaurant and the business side of the genre, I just had to go. OK, it helped that Jonathan Gold of LA Weekly and Pat Saperstein of Eating LA were on the prestigious panel.
So while all my blogger friends were enjoying a night of cocktails, chair massages and homemade popsicles poolside at the new boutique hotel, Chamberlain in West Hollywood, I was here, hoping that these writers would be able to teach me to come up with words other than “yummy” in describing restaurant food.
Come out and celebrate intensity, individuality, and creativity at The Intense Individual Party #6 on January 16, 2010 in San Diego, CA. Proceeds from this event will be donated to 826LA!
About the party: You must dress like an "Intense Individual" and stay in character all night. There will be DJs, crazy performances, dancing, drink specials, olympic feats, surprises, prizes, food, a 50/50 raffle and More!
The location: This year's party will be held at Brick By Brick, an awesome venue in San Diego with a large stage for guests to perform acts.
Join us for a panel discussion featuring some of the best hired hands in the business. Four freelance writers will share stories and advice about writing for different publications, including newspapers and magazines. They will discuss their inspirations, how to turn an idea into a story, and how to get hired.
Joshuah Bearman is a former editor and writer at the LA Weekly. He has written for Harper's, McSweeney's, Wired, Rolling Stone, and contributes to This American Life.
Claire Hoffman works as a freelance writer for a number of national magazines, including Rolling Stone, GQ, and The New Yorker. Claire is also an Assistant Professor of Journalism at the University of California, Riverside. Before going freelance, Claire worked for Condé Nast Portfolio and the Los Angeles Times, where she covered everything from Hollywood and polygamist Mormons to the adult entertainment industry. Claire has two masters degrees—one in religious studies from the University of Chicago Divinity School and another from the Columbia School of Journalism. Before coming to California, Claire worked as an intern and a freelance reporter for The New York Times.
Neal Pollack is the author of several acclaimed books of fiction and nonfiction, including the bestselling memoir Alternadad and the satirical cult classic The Neal Pollack Anthology Of American Literature, originally published by McSweeney's. His freelance writing has appeared in Vanity Fair, GQ, Men's Journal, Maxim, Details, Slate.com, and Salon.com, among other publications. His next book, STRETCH: The Unlikely Making Of A Yoga Dude, will be published in August by Harper Perennial. He lives about ten miles away from here with his wife and son.
Joel Stein grew up in Edison, NJ, went to Stanford, and then worked for Martha Stewart for a year. After a year of fact-checking at various important publications (okay, Reader's Digest Books and TV Guide), he got hired as a sports editor at Time Out New York, where they paid him to write sentences. He felt like the luckiest boy in the world. Two years later he lucked into a job as a staff writer for Time magazine, where over seven and a half years he wrote a dozen cover stories on subjects such as Michael Jordan, Las Vegas, the Internet bubble and—it being Time and he being a warm body in the office—low-carb diets. After teaching a class in humor writing at Princeton, he moved to LA at the beginning of 2005 to write a column for the Los Angeles Times and work as a sitcom writer. In addition to working for the failed show Crumbs, he has already had two failed pilots at ABC and hopes to expand into failed pilots at other networks. He still contributes to Time and whatever magazines allow him to. He just sold a book proposal to Grand Central about learning how to be a man.
Moderator Zach Frechette is the editor-in-chief of GOOD.
22 local students from Logan Street Elementary School come in to the 826LA East writing lab for the Storytelling & Bookmaking field trip. In about two hours, each student will finish his or her own book, appeasing (and even pleasing) the crankiest of publishers to become a bona fide published author.
