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SummerWrite Youth WorkshopsClick here to download a PDF of the full SummerWrite Catalogue View Classes by Week Week 1: June 27-July 1 Ages: 8-11 They say, “A picture is worth a thousand words,” and Rochester hosts the home of a picture giant: George Eastman. If you love to write poetry or short stories and photograph, then join us! We’ll spend a week exploring the George Eastman House, gardens, photo galleries, and permanent museum collection as inspiration for our creative writing (as well as trying picture-making methods from pinhole cameras to Photoshop). Participants will create photographic narratives with their cameras. Our pens will capture the words that help to tell the photographic story. A final presentation featuring the participants’ photographic and written expressions will be displayed at a last day “art opening” exhibition. If you have your own digital camera, you may wish to bring it. Ages: 8-11 How is your own life journey like that of Harry Potter’s? Or Percy Jackson’s? Or of Luka from Luka and the Fire of Life? This class explores the openness of wonder, mystery and love by carrying students on a journey to discover an inner richness, a treasure trove of words, thoughts, feelings and action all designed to bring you home to your own inner selves. Students will engage in a shared learning experience using teamwork, creative problem solving, and critical thinking while developing curiosity and a sense of wonder. Class activities will include: writing, reflection and theater games to enhance knowledge, relate to favorite fictional characters and become actively involved in brainstorming and problem solving; exploring gesture and voice to write mini-stories; expanding vocabulary; reading with expression; progression and character development; experimenting with percussion instruments to bring out the mood and meaning of stories; creating a tableau (living sculpture) of mini-stories that come together to form a larger story. On Friday there will be a final presentation. Ages: 12-14 Every picture tells a story...and every story paints a picture. In this class we will use techniques of professional writers and photographers to capture moments in time, movement through time, feelings from the colors, atmosphere and textures of a place, and personality in the portrait of a character. You’ll learn some advanced photo manipulation techniques and some unusual writing experiments. Perfect for graduates of Picture This, and other visually inspired writers...or is that verbally inspired photographers? Week 2: July 5-8 (four day week) Ages: 7-9 Poetry lurks everywhere: in the cracks of the sidewalk, in the sound of a whirring engine, in the reaching branches of every tree. We’ll spend the week diving into the reading and writing of poetry of all kinds. From Dr. Seuss to haiku, we’ll explore the silly and serious while we learn some tools of the trade including rhythm, rhyme, simile, personification, and alliteration. We’ll exercise our imaginations to put together juicy word combinations, creating poems of our own, and discovering that poetry is accessible to anyone. This workshop to is perfect for both the avid reader and the budding writer. Ages 7-9 Take part in wonderful magical adventures from the Magic Tree House Series. Join Annie and Jack as they solve problems, help people, and travel around the world and through time. Visit New Orleans and swing with the music of Louis Armstrong in A Good Night for Ghosts, a Merlin Mission book. Like Annie and Jack, we will learn about the animals and people in each environment we visit. We will read some of the latest Merlin stories (Moonlight on the Magic Flute and Leprechauns in Late Winter) and act out some of the scenes. We will visit the Eastman House Gardens for inspiration. You will illustrate stories through art activities, and with a team, create your scenes and act them out for your friends and family on the last day. Ages: 9-12 Percy Jackson is mighty with his sword, and his creator, Rick Riordan, is mighty with his pen. Uncover and try the methods used to weave a siren spell on you as a reader! You must prepare by reading the first two books of the series.We will mine them for models: of how to develop vivid characters, of how to hold readers across chapter breaks, and of the benefits of borrowing story elements from past literature. We’ll craft beautiful sentences and humorous wisecracks like those in Percy’s narration. Meanwhile, we’ll enjoy examining ancient Greek culture: we’ll attempt some Greek literary forms, explore the Berkeley Gallery of Ancient Art, try on tunics and helmets, design our own hoplite shields, and concoct ambrosia! We will also look at how we borrow from ancient Greece in our language, government, culture, architecture, and art—to see that ancient Greece still lives, in us. Ages: teen A “do-it-yourself” approach to creating your own blank book for writing or drawing. In this class we will learn a variety of techniques for binding books, make our own paper, and study the history of the hand-sewn book. Students will create 2-3 different books utilizing these different methods and emphasis will be placed on utilizing unconventional and recyclable materials. Ages: teen Slam poetry is poetry spoken and performed in a variety of crowd-pleasing formats. Participants will study the art of the spoken word and “slam” through a series of pieces shared by the instructor and video excerpts from professional slam poets from the famous Nuyorican Café and Def Poetry Slam. During the course of the workshop, each poet will develop his or her own original piece or personal adaptation of an existing text using the group’s feedback and encouragement, and perform together as a “team.” Our slam team will then take it on the road in the fall and perform at other venues! Whether you were born to slam or just want to put more life into your presentation skills, we will be on your team! Week 3: July 11-15 Ages: 6-7 Do you love to play pretend? Do you have fun imagining new characters? Maybe you even put on puppet shows at home. Here’s your chance to learn from a professional. You will have a great time exploring puppetry from around the world, building your own cloth hand puppets, and learning some basic puppetry techniques. On Friday you’ll have a performance to show off your new “handy” work! Ages: 6-7 Inspired by the Cressida Cowell series How To Train Your Dragon, this course introduces the young reader to the magical realm of these mythological beasts. Students will be reading folk tales, fairy tales, poetry and mythology relating to dragons. They will be studying different cultures around the world including England, Wales, Ireland and China and the dragons’ presence in each culture. They will be creating their own dragons using a variety of mixed material and doing some games and movement activities, all helping them to become better dragon trainers and handlers. They will also be studying the anatomy and physiology of the dragons’ modern day relatives including the gila monster and the komodo dragon. The research will culminate with a trip to the Seneca Park zoo, allowing them the chance to view these “wee beasties” up close and personal. Academy graduates will find themselves ready, willing and able to train any dragon that happens to come their way! Ages: 8-12 Summertime, sunshine, green rolling hills, wildlife, and you! Spend a week communing with the writer within you at our retreat in the Bristol Hills. Hike with professional writers and naturalists along the Finger Lakes Trail, and observe the natural environment around you. We will participate in nature art activities, both ancient and modern. Then we will create field journals, write stories, dramatic monologues, and poems probing the past, present, and future of the landscape, plants, and animals before us. We will publish our own small anthology. Please dress to hike, and pack a bag lunch each day. If you have your own camera, please bring that as well! An optional evening campfire circle and sleepover will be held on Thursday. Offered in collaboration with the South Bristol Cultural Center. Ages: 8-11 In a picture book the images are just as important as the words. Do you want to both write a story and illustrate it? Take this class and learn how picture books for children are made. After studying a few picture books, we will review the basics and write a story of our own. We will then identify the illustrations we want to accompany our story Ages: 8-11 What do Jabba the Hutt, Oscar the Grouch, and the Lonely Goatherd have in common? They’re all puppets! Come explore the world of puppetry and learn about the magic behind some of your favorite puppet performances. We’ll be creating our own puppets and finishing the week with a performance starring YOU! Ages: 12-14 Sometimes the last thing we consider in our writing is where it should take place. But it plays a vital role in all published writing. Here, learn how to create settings that move stories and essays along without turning into “flowery” words. We’ll place your characters in unique and interesting spaces like caves, waterfalls, airports, and any other spots your imagination can create. And some days we’ll invent new worlds to consider. Certain days, we will walk around Rochester looking for even more ideas amongst the shops, parks, and sidewalks. Feel free to bring a camera or sketch pad to add visual art to the writing. Ages: 12-14 Have you ever seen the television show “Whose Line is it Anyway?” and thought, “I’d like to do that”? Here’s your chance! Comedy improvisation is the art of plugging audience suggestions into specific theater-game formats with the result being at best hilarious and at the least entertaining. In this experiential workshop students will learn the craft of comedy improvisation through playing warm-up and group-building games, skill-building theater games and finally the improv sketches themselves. Students will learn in a supportive atmosphere designed for experienced and inexperienced improvisers trusting and supporting their fellow players and learning to ask the audience for suggestions of how to create scenes, along with brief characterization, projection, and timing. The later part of the class each day will be a Story Slam, the art of telling true, often humorous stories from our own lives. There will be different themes to work with throughout the week. Ages: teen Summertime, sunshine, green rolling hills, wildlife, and you! Spend a week communing with the writer within you at our retreat in the Bristol Hills. Hike with professional writers and naturalists along the Finger Lakes Trail, and observe the natural environment around you. We will participate in nature art activities, both ancient and modern. Then we will create field journals, write stories, dramatic monologues, and poems probing the past, present, and future of the landscape, plants, and animals before us. We will publish our own small anthology. Please dress to hike, and pack a bag lunch each day. If you have your own camera, please bring that as well! An optional evening campfire circle and sleepover will be held on Thursday. Offered in collaboration with the South Bristol Cultural Center. Ages: 14 & up Do you ever watch commercials and wonder why that actor is dancing and grinning because her sheets are now whiter and brighter? Have you ever been convinced to buy something because of a commercial and then regretted that purchase? Do music videos draw you in with their fast editing or engage you with their social messages? Do you love movies and want to know more about how they are written and why? Are you interested in knowing more about how social media forms are changing communication styles for your generation? In this workshop, we will watch media examples (with students suggesting/contributing their own) and learn how to spot persuasive techniques such as “celebrity” and “straw man.” We will look at the social constructions of the media that teens consume every day and (re)write our own media messages. We will improve our media literacy skills and have fun in the process, becoming more engaged and savvy media consumers with a greater appreciation for the craft of—and ideas behind—mediamaking. Ages: 14 & up No time to create long stories? Do you want to write a story in ten minutes? In this class, we will study and write flash fiction, looking at what makes this 1-3 page form so different from the novel and the “normal” short story. Let’s discover how rich these different story textures can become and how you can write fiction in a quick flash. The last few classes you will workshop stories begun in class. You’ll come away with an entire draft collection of pieces. And if there is time, we will create a class anthology. Week 4: July 18-22 Ages: 5-7 If you want to explore the Spanish language in a fun and creative way, this is the course for you! We will learn the language through songs, games, African-Caribbean drumming, and multi-media. A walking field-trip to the public market will help us learn our food words with stops at many vendor booths in the market including Maria and Juan’s Empanada Stop. This weeklong experience for children who want to learn Spanish in a fun and relaxed atmosphere promises great excitement. We will design and make a piñata for a final fiesta! Ages: 5-7 Take part in wonderful magical adventures from the Magic Tree House Series. Join Annie and Jack as they solve problems, help people, and travel around the world and Ages: 7-9 In this exciting new collaboration between Writers & Books and the Creative Workshop at the Memorial Art Gallery, you’ll create your own characters and explore your own story ideas while learning at the hand of a master writer and a master artist. They’ll teach the tools of the trade: how to illustrate an idea, how to choose a fitting style, and how to draw things you don’t know how to draw, as you develop plot, character and setting (all using juicy language). In addition, you’ll gain an understanding of composition as both writers and artists approach it and learn to build humor and suspense into both drawings and writing. You’ll leave with your own comic or storybook. Students will spend mornings at Writers & Books and afternoons at the Creative Workshop and will be walked by teachers between the two sites during the lunch hour. Please pack a lunch each day. Registration will be handled by the Creative Workshop:276-8959 Ages: 8-11 Re-visit the world of Hogwarts with old friends, and make new ones in this week long program designed for the 8-11 year old Harry Potter Fan. During the week, we’ll be sorted, enjoy a round of Quidditch, play some Harry Potter inspired Muggle games, create House t-shirts, visit the grounds of Eastman gardens for a herbology lesson, and have a great time getting together with other fans in real life, and in stories inspired by the original series. Spin a tale with Beetle the Bard, learn a bit about Quidditch through the ages, and take an online look at some fan fiction, including the G. Norman Lippert James Potter novels. Ages: 8-11 Anything can be a song! A book you love, or a day you hate. Strong feelings are the number one ingredient you need to turn everyday life into your own song. In this Ages: 12-14 Do you like creating weird stories? Are you interested in odd plots and characters and places that you don’t see in other books? Do you like placing absurd things in real life situations? Then you like fabulist writing where the weird enters our human world. Come to this class to learn more about this now popular form. We will write strange stories where you could have a person living with chickens or where trees talk to each other. We will try different settings and creatures to help you build unique and absurd stories—each it’s own new form of art. And we’ll read fabulist writers to see what other new ideas have slipped through to the realm of writing. Ages: 12-14 Do you ever want to express yourself and can’t find the words? Do you ever get emotional about something and want to scream? Do you ever want to say what you really mean instead of beating around the bush? Creative journaling is for you! This explores a variety of writing exercises that lead to self-discovery. It is fun and creative, and may include drawings, music and photographs to get your inner self exploring! An open mind and adventure for learning will make this a wonderful experience. Ages: 14 & up Do you ever wish people would listen to what you have to say? Come learn how to create believable characters based on yourself, teens you know, or your ability to em- Ages: teen *please inquire about possible transportation fee waiver Week 5: July 25-29 Ages: 6-7 Youngsters who love storybooks will love them even more after they enter the world of their favorite creators! Each day, instructor Jason Yungbluth will treat students to a new story from a popular children’s book author, then lead them through creative artistic projects based on the art and story from the day’s author. There will be lots of different crafts, with plenty of room for the children to explore their writing and artistic talents. Ages: 6-7 Do you have a flare for the dramatic? Do you like playing pretend? Do you wish you could be on stage? Then this is the workshop for you! We’ll engage in theatre games that will get our creative motors going! We’ll try out silly tongue twisters, dramatic play, and investigate creative secrets to stage props and character building. In just one week you’ll learn the basics of acting and learn to work well as a team. Thought you were too young for the theater? Think again! Young actors will leave the course feeling ready to take on their first roles on the stage, wherever they may be waiting for them. Ages: 8-11 Write, write, write! We will spend the first part of the course producing poems, stories, journal entries, and creative essays through imaginative writing prompts. Participants will be encouraged to try all genres, but will focus on the one(s) they feel most passionately about. Toward the end of the week we will work as a team to create our very own anthology. Participants will learn to make the most of their writing by sharpening their editing and revising skills. Then we will make all the decisions necessary to create a book of our own. What will it look like? How will it be organized? In the end, each participant will receive a copy of the book they helped create. Ages: 8-11 Spiderwick is not the only recorder of Fantastical Notes and Observations. Through guided imagery and visits to extraordinary local gardens, we will create our own note-books of magical beings. Our books can include character sketches, interesting happenings in magical realms, and meanings associated with fantastic “appearances.” Learn and write all you can about goblins, familiars, fairies, phookas, and other magic folk and animals. Ages: 8-11 Horseback riding and creative writing combined! We’ll spend the full day Tuesday and Thursday at a local stable, working with real horses. We’ll learn horse care and riding skills. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday will be spent at Writers & Books making our own horse-inspired journals, recording our equine experiences, learning horse terminology, and creating horse-centered pieces of writing. On Friday we’ll have a reading of our new works. Ages: 12-14 Through Hogwarts style classes, research, games, and fieldtrips, we will put together our own Fantastical Notebooks of Natural Magic and Other Things to enhance our stories, poetry, and journal keeping. Explore how different authors use recognized folklore, myth and magic in their creative writing and how we can utilize it in our own. We will further our knowledge of the magical by taking classes on Viking Rune Stones, magical herbs, tree lore, fairy tales, animal totems and more to help us connect to the enchantment that surrounds us all! Bring a 3-ring binder to fill and adorn as well as your magical minds. Friday will include a graduation party with Natural Magic 101 certificates and readings which parents will be invited to. Ages: 12-14 Cartooning and storytelling is a popular pursuit for young adults. Professional cartoonist Jason Yungbluth will introduce his students to the fundamentals of graphic storytelling using the works of many popular and cutting edge creators in the comics field. Students will learn the basics of good cartooning as well as how to put their thoughts into words. Ages: 14 & up Ages: 14 & up Whether you write poetry or prose, here is your chance to share new ideas and experiment to deepen your understanding of how your writing works and what makes it powerful. Share your work for appreciation and helpful comments. Open yourself up to what your peers around the country and in the room are writing, and try new forms and techniques. No previous experience is required and all types of writing are respected. Week 6: August 1-5 Ages: 6-7 Summertime means sidewalk rhymes! We will learn traditional rhymes, poetry, music, and creative movement as an introduction to performance art and the magic of the spoken word. We’ll also experiment! Activities will include playing rhyming games with movement, writing poetry to music, and acting out poems and children’s rhymes. Each participant will then create rhymes, make up movements to go with them, and teach them to the group. We’ll take home audiotapes of our rhymes at the end of the week. Ages: 6-7 We all have favorite picture books. Each day we will explore the works of one or two beloved picture book authors and use them to inspire our own artworks, poems, and stories. Author-illustrators will include Arnold Lobel, Chris Van Allsburg, Ellen Stoll Walsh, Eric Carle, Faith Ringgold, Patricia Polacco, and Shel Silverstein. On the last day we will share our favorite books and our own creations with our families. Ages: 8-11 The heart of good fiction can be found in its characters. This week will focus on the art of making believable, lovable characters that our readers will be excited to journey with through our stories. We will explore who our characters are, what they want, and how they will change throughout the course of our stories. We will flesh them out, giving them personalities, families, and secrets, as well as physical characteristics. We will look at them in different ways, exploring dialogue and point-of-view. By the end of the week, we will have characters that are as real as you or me! Ages: 8-11 Ready to try publishing your writing or artwork? Each participant will complete and submit one or more pieces of writing and/or art to The Magic Dragon or Stone Soup, children’s art and literary magazines, by the end of the week. Actual publication can’t be guaranteed, but special attention will be given to reviewing guidelines and procedures for submission. Already have ideas? You should come to this course with strong interest and good skills in writing and/or illustration, and are welcome to bring in projects you’ve already started. Ready to work in a more advanced setting? Most class work will be done independently with one-on-one guidance. You’ll also be introduced to a variety of two-dimensional art techniques (e.g. tissue paper mosaics, printmaking, pastels, poster paint, scratchboard, etc.) to help you select a project to complete and prepare for submission. At the end, we’ll gather samples of everyone’s work to put into a limited edition souvenir chapbook anthology of class projects. Ages: 9-13 Cook up a storm and put together your own cookbook in this busy, creative, and tasty workshop for budding young cooks and writers. Taught by a chef who is also an English teacher, this workshop will take place in a teaching kitchen. Participants will work from a full day’s menu--breakfast through evening snack--cooking, eating, and discussing dishes for one meal for each day. They will annotate and illustrate the recipes (including their own creative variations), and do a bit of taste-bud-tickling creative writing. Note: New Recipes! Ages: 9-13 Travel the world and write your own cookbook in this busy, creative, and tasty workshop for budding young cooks and writers. Taught by a chef who is also an English teacher, this workshop will take place in a teaching kitchen. Participants will journey through five cuisines--cooking, eating, and discussing. They will annotate and illustrate the recipes (including their own creative variations), and do some taste-bud-tickling creative writing. Note: New Recipes! Ages: 12-14 Why is so much fantasy set in some magical version of the Middle Ages, with castles and cottages, princes and peasants, knights and quests? Because the Middle Ages are fascinating! We will study strong kingdoms of the actual 13th and 14th centuries in three cultures: England under Edward III, Mali (Central West Africa) under Mansa Musa, and China under the first Ming Emperor, Hong. Then we will develop our own fantastical kingdoms based on medieval elements and our imaginations. We’ll draw maps, architecture, fashions, beasts, and plants. We’ll know what classes of men and women exist and how each contributes to the common welfare. We’ll decide what the climate is like, what our relations are like with neighbors, and what rules, laws, and beliefs govern society. Finally, we’ll write stories from our own well-imagined “Far Away and Long Ago.” Ages: 12-14 Careful observation, note taking, and research on wildlife help us not only better understand animals, but add richness to both animal fantasy stories and realistic writing on a species. After having our initial class at Writers & Books on Monday, we will meet Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday at the Seneca Park Zoo to practice field journaling with live animals and learn about the animal’s habitat, niche and behaviors. We will also share readings by professional environmental and biology writers on this topic and look at how fantasy writers incorporate the true nature of an animal to create unforgettable characters. Our notes, sketches and observations will then be used to form creative short stories (fantasy or realism) and naturalist writings on species of interest that you choose. On Friday we’ll reconvene at Writers & Books to wrap up the week. If you have a camera bring it! Participants will use both sketchbooks and writing tablets to record, write, and get creative! Dress for being outdoors. Ages: 14 & up Most poems and all personal essays start with the “I” of the beholder. Most writers start in their teens when they are both keenly observant and deeply aware of their own reactions to life. We will investigate how you, the human observer, feeler, and thinker at the heart of life, can report from the knife-edge of experience in ways that will inform and move your fellows. We will look to examples from young poets, writers, and lyricists who have opened eyes and minds over the ages. We will learn how to use sense imagery, precise words, and sound effects to make our writing more vivid. Ages: 14 & Up Always wanted to be a movie director? Here’s your chance! This intensive three-week course will take you through the process of creating a short film. You’ll begin by examining the script and analyzing and rewriting it with a director’s eye. You’ll learn to make shot-lists and scene breakdowns. Then, in come the actors to begin the blocking process. Students will alternate turns as the “main director” with everyone else acting as support and offering opinions. Finally you’ll get behind the camera to shoot your film. The last step will be a critique to examine footage to determine what works and what doesn’t and why. You’ll come away from this course with strong knowledge of what goes into directing a film. Week 7: August 8-12 Ages: 6-7 Do you love fairytales, other worlds, and talking animals? Come hear classic fairytales with a modern twist and be inspired to write your own. Participants will learn the art of storytelling through the retelling of a classic fairytale revised with modern twists. Have fun creating new worlds, becoming animals with personality, and working with others to make a tale come to life. Ages: 6-7 Get fancy this summer with Fancy Nancy! Jumpstart your vocabulary while getting to know the glamorous world of the Fancy Nancy series. Six and seven year old ladies and gentlemen will learn some of the finer points of the English language, and how to use them correctly (unlike our heroine)! You will also be introduced to the French language, vocabulary, and culture à la Nancy. We’ll have read-alouds and fancy activities every day. One class will be spent visiting Rochester’s own La-Tea-Da Tea Room and Parlour for afternoon tea, a lesson on manners given by Miss Rose, and a costume parade and contest (and a chance to win a birthday party at La-Tea-Da)! Ages: 8-11 In this collaboration between Writers & Books and the Genesee Center for the Arts and Education, you’ll have a unique opportunity to merge visual arts with creative writing. You will use a press mold to create a ceramic book, write pottery-inspired poems, interview real artists, make paper, and use a letterpress. This workshop will be a real hands-on experience taught by professional artists and writers with time spent at both the Genesee Center for the Arts (on Monroe Ave in the old fire station) and at Writers & Books (on University Ave in the old police station)! Ages: 8-11 “In my journal I do not just express myself; I create myself.” —Susan Sontag Ages: 8-11 When New York middle school student Percy Jackson out he is a demi-god, the Greek myths come alive in a way he would never have imagined! He learns that his true father is Poseidon, the Greek god of the sea (which explains why his mother has a mysterious attraction to the color blue)! He adventures on a dangerous quest across the United States to retrieve a stolen lightning bolt and stop a war between the gods. Act out brief role-plays based on the adventures of Greek heroes. With your team, practice a Readers’ Theater skit based on a chapter of the Lightning Thief. Act out an adapted version for family and friends on the last day. Ages: 12-14 Image. Metaphor. Alliteration. Onomatopoeia. Simile. Rhythm. Line. These are tools of the poet. We will read well-crafted poems that employ some of these devices and then we’ll try many inventive writing exercises to get our own creative juices flowing. In addition, we will workshop our poems, the same way experienced poets do, offering each other constructive feedback and a chance for revision. Each poet will leave the workshop with several new pieces. Ages: 12-14 Let the seeds of your creativity come to flower in your garden of inspiration. Participants will explore local gardens in the Artwalk area and be inspired to write. We will spend one day at Ellison Park writing poetry like haiku and observing nature and giving voice to her beauty. Come sit on the grass and let the trees speak to you. Ages: teen girls Join other young women to exercise your body and your brain. Stretch your muscles and your mind as we practice yoga, take walks through the Neighborhood of the Arts, and write about our experiences. We will experiment with poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction, and share our work in a supportive environment. Relax and let the ideas flow. Your mind and body are not as separate as you think! No previous yoga experience necessary. Ages: 14 & Up Week 8: August 15-19 Ages: 8-11 In this collaboration between Writers & Books and Rochester Community Television (RCTV), you’ll learn how to use the visual and auditory tools of filmmaking to put across your poem, song, public service announcement, comedy bit, or story scene. You’ll learn how to use the technical resources of RCTV: studio, backdrops, studio cameras, handheld cameras and Apple G-5s with editing software. You’ll examine written scripts and treatments and analyze finished films. As a small team, you’ll produce short films for broadcast on RCTV Channel 15. Come with a poem, PSA or other short film idea. You’ll leave with a DVD of the group’s work. The work will belong to you, so if you wish to upload it to the web, you can! Ages: 8-11 We all know the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Or maybe we just think we do. Come make up your own bumps and twists to turn traditional fairytales on their heads. We’ll use songs, writing, storytelling, and acting to help us explore and reinvent old favorite stories. Family and friends are invited to our final session where we’ll share what we’ve created. Ages: 8-11 In Ancient times, Egyptian magicians from the house of life were trained to battle monsters, duel enemy sorcerers and do combat with the gods. In The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan (author of the Percy Jackson series), Carter and Sadie Kane are descended from the most powerful Egyptian magicians. When ancient gods are released into the modern world, Carter and Sadie have the power to set things right. Join them as they battle the forces of chaos. Find out how to be a magician in the house of life. Learn about the power in Hieroglyphs. Experience suspense, myth and history, humor, courage, and drama, all while learning about ancient Egypt. As an Egyptian magician once said, “Gods have great power, but only humans have creativity.” Create your own magical characters. Act out parts of The Red Pyramid, and The Throne of Fire, (due out in May, 2011), and present an adapted version for family and friends on the last day. Ages: 12-14 Are you not satisfied with short stories, poetry, and non- fiction? If you would like to take a longer journey with characters of your own creation, this workshop is for you. Since getting started is sometimes the hardest part, we will brainstorm together. Once we get started, there will be no stopping us! You will investigate what elements make for compelling characters and situations in a first chapter, and incorporate what you learn. We will work through the tangles that your characters and plot create for you, learning how to keep the novel going, and even how to tie it together at the end! Whether you write fantasy, sci-fi, or realistic fiction, this is a chance to grow as a writer while creating a whole world of your own! You will also get to help shape a work-in-progress currently being written by your teacher and you will begin to create your own book for your peers. Whether you have a novel-in-progress, a short story to expand, or a fresh idea, this class is for you. Ages: 12-14 We’ll learn to write about what we know best: our own lives! We all have stories to tell. No matter how old you are, where you come from, or where you hope to go, your take on the world is unique and worthwhile. Readers are hungry to read about real-life characters and experiences. In this interactive workshop, we’ll breathe extra life into our personal stories by borrowing from the rich language of poetry and the snap and pizzazz of good fiction. Participants will respond to writing exercises and share their work in a supportive environment. We’ll also have a guest writer and plenty of opportunity to explore and find inspiration in te Neighborhood of the Arts. Bring some pocket money on Tuesday to go to Starry Nites Café and write outside while drinking something fancy! Ages: 14 & up Ever wonder why your favorite film was so good, or why that movie you saw recently was so bad? We’ll break down scenes to investigate what works and what doesn’t in classic drama as well as genre films. You will learn to write the screenplays you see in motion on the big screen! This workshop will incorporate plenty of actual, hands-on writing and critique in addition to insights from classic examples. From format to exposition to character development to story, find out what happens before a movie becomes a movie. Students should come with a few simple ideas for a plot or a character in a situation. Over the course of five intensive sessions we’ll begin to develop your ideas toward the treatment and screenplay form and put you on your path to a successful script. Ages: 14 & Up Ages: 14 & up This workshop will inspire poetry readers and writers alike! Come delight in the play of words. Experience how rhythms actually change your breathing and pulse. Listen for the music of the line. We’ll look at many examples of published works, then we’ll take our pens to the page and create our own new poems. We’ll even take a look at poetry in translation, marveling at the sounds and mechanics of various languages: how Greek provides us not just with new words, but ideas embodied in them; how German constructs noun-buildings; how spare understatement makes Haiku a logical cultural product of Japanese, and more. We’ll spin similes and materialize metaphors as we turn words on their heads and crack open our imaginations. Week 9: August 23-27 Ages: 6-7 Have a story stuck in your head that you can’t get out on the page? Do exciting adventures occur in your daydreams? Do you like to tell your friends all the fun things that have happened to you? Learn to organize your story using a helpful tool called a storyboard. Storyboards help you tell the story in pictures first, then worry about the words later. We will explore our stories, create a storyboard, and then move our stories to a finished book. You will walk away from this class with a book of your own that has been through the whole writing process! Turn your creative brains on and tell us a story! Ages: 6-7 All work and no play makes for a dull writer. Come stretch your language brain in the Wordplay Workshop. We will uncover magic in words (the word “four” counts its own letters: 4), learn to write anagrams and palindromes, and find many words within one word. In small groups, we’ll play games such as Boggle, Scrabble, and Hangman. We might pencil our way through a word search, a crossword puzzle, or an acrostic. We will learn some new words and adopt one or two “endangered” words. We will stretch our vocabulary, improve our spelling, and play with words by writing special kinds of poems, sketches, riddles, tongue twisters, or short-short stories. We will walk away with puzzles and facts we can use to amaze our friends and families. Most of all, we will learn that words are the key building blocks in all good writing, and have some “word-while” fun along the way. Ages: 8-13 You know you love to write. It’s the end of the summer and school is starting. Here’s a class that will reinvigorate your writing brain and help you keep writing throughout the year! Learn to finish the stories and poems you startand to keep a journal of observations and ideas. Look at famous people’s creative journals and learn new uses for your own journal. End the summer with a writing extravaganza! Take home the inspiration and techniques to keep you going! Ages: 8-11 Meet the new demi-gods at Camp Half-blood! Jason, Piper, and Leo arrive at the camp with three different challenges. Jason has very little memory of where he came from, or even who he is. Piper’s dreams have shown that her father is in great danger. And her boyfriend doesn’t even recognize her. Leo has a way with tools and has special powers, but these powers have caused many problems. In this first book of the Heroes of Olympus series, new characters meet with characters from the original Percy Jackson series. The heroes face a new prophecy. The story makes Greek myth come alive. Take part in activities that will help you learn more about Greek culture. Inspired by the book, you will be able to create your own characters and imagine their adventures. We will create an adaptation of part of the story as a readers’ theater script. On the final day, we will act out the story for family and friends. Ages: 12-14 In this collaboration between Writers & Books and Rochester Community Television (RCTV), you’ll learn how to use the visual and auditory tools of filmmaking to put across your poem, song, public service announcement, comedy bit, or story scene. You’ll learn how to use the technical resources of RCTV: studio, backdrops, studio cameras, handheld cameras, Apple G-5s with editing software. You’ll examine written scripts and treatments and analyze finished films. As a small team, you’ll produce short films for broadcast on RCTV Channel 15. Come with a poem, PSA or other short film idea. You’ll leave with a DVD of the group’s work. The work will belong to you, so if you wish to upload it to the web, you can! Ages: 14 & up Have you ever felt that you could just scream from all the angst of adolescence? Well, here is your chance. We will survey great works of YA Fiction, such as The Catcher in Ages: high school Learn to write impressive essays for admission applications, the kind that wow admissions officers by what you say and how you say it and that advertise you: creative, Ages: Teen Songs are everywhere. Love some? Good. Hate some? Interesting… Feel the urge to change some words, or some notes? Great! There’s a place for you in Writers & Books’ Song Project. Whether you write words, music, or both, Song Project is a place to find support, co-writers, and people ready to sing or play your song. Students can work on their own or team up with others. The only requirement is a willingness to share your work with others and a desire to take it to the next level. Come to the first session with CDs and lyric sheets for your favorite songs. If you play an instrument, bring it (keyboard on site). . |
Monthly Story SlamTues., May 15, 7-8:30 p.m. Lunch Break Book TalksHosted by Steve Huff Book Discussions at Valley ManorMay 16, 1:30 – 3:00 p.m. The Culinary Reading and Discussion GroupHosted by Sandy Bosworth & Kathy Pottetti
Click here for more May Events...
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| Writers & Books, Rochester's community literary center, inspires and instructs over 25,000 people each year through a wide array of offerings in nearly every literary genre. Believing that the written and spoken word are central to our lives and culture, Writers & Books celebrates, promotes and works to make them available to all. Writers & Books is located at 740 University Avenue, near Atlantic Avenue in the Neighborhood of the Arts. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
