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Q U E S T I O N S A N D A N S W E R S
A B O U T T H E N E W
8 2 6 T U T O R I N G C E N T E R
A N D W R I T I N G L A B
I N B R O O K L Y N ,
A N D T H E M A R C H 2
F U N D R A I S E R B E I N G
H E L D T O S U P P O R T I T
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Please join us on March 2 for a fundraiser for a new youth writing lab and tutoring center in
Brooklyn. 826 Valencia, McSweeney's nonprofit sister in San Francisco, is opening a branch in
Brooklyn, and boy do we need funding help. As in San Francisco, the writing lab will provide
free after-school tutoring to all comers, will sponsor student publications, and will build a
corps of tutors who will assist teachers in their classrooms. On March 2 at Symphony Space, Roddy
Doyle, Nick Hornby, Jonathan Safran Foer, and Dave Eggers will read and entertain you, as will host John Hodgman and other
guests yet to be announced.
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Tuesday, March 2
NYC
The Peter Jay Sharp Theatre at Symphony Space
2537 Broadway (at 95th Street)
8:00 P.M.
We encourage you to purchase tickets in advance. Tickets are available at the Symphony Space box office, by calling (212) 864-5400, or from www.symphonyspace.org.
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826NYC is now accepting donations and, of course, all donations are tax deductible. If you are interested in making a donation to 826NYC please make your check (we currently can only accept checks) out to 826NYC and mail to:
826NYC
372 5th Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11215
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If you're interested in volunteering for our new Brooklyn tutoring
center, please fill out the volunteer form.
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Q: When is the fundraiser?
A: March 2, at 8 pm, at Symphony Space, on Manhattan's Upper West Side.
Q: Are tickets still available?
A: They are. They cost $25, with just about every available cent
going directly to the construction of the new center. Symphony Space
has about 700 seats, and we need to fill all those seats. We're very
much hoping that you'll come out, have a good time, and support the
new center.
Q: Where is the new center?
A: 5th Avenue and Fifth Street, in Park Slope, Brooklyn.
Q: What will the new place do?
A: The mandate will be similar to that of 826 Valencia, in San
Francisco. 826 Valencia began as a simple afterschool tutoring center
serving the needs of the students, ages 8-18, in the neighborhood,
but quickly grew. We now hold evening classes every weekday, weekend
workshops for kids and adults, and, with our volunteer corps
numbering over 500, we're able to send tutors into schools all over
the city, always at the request of teachers and serving as their
support. We specialize in writing-based projects, including college
essays, student publications, creative writing assignments, and
expository papers.
Q: Anything else?
A: We also award three college scholarships each year (one of our
past winners, Chinaka Hodge, will be reading from her work at the
March 2 benefit), and we just opened a new in-school location at
Everett Middle School. The school allowed us to take over a large
room adjoining the library, which we've decorated in our standard
pirate theme, and which we staff all day with tutors. This way,
students don't need to come to us-we've come to them. From this
location, we also publish the Straight-Up News, a newspaper written
and edited entirely by middle-school students.
Q: Can you give me an example of another recent project?
A: Isabel Allende recently donated funds to 826 to enable us to help
fifty students at Thurgood Marshall High School create a paperback
book comprising their essays on the subject of peace. We began by
sending about thirty tutors into Thurgood Marshall to work with their
teacher, the amazing Jesse Madway, and to work one-on-one with the
students, helping them to develop their approach to the subject. For
five weeks since, we've been meeting with the students once a week
after school. The students bring new drafts of their essays, and our
tutors work with them to improve the essays. We're currently
polishing the essays, getting them all typed into digital form for
final editing. After that, we'll give any interested students the
chance to learn desktop publishing programs with the help of the
826/McSweeney's staff, and the students will design and lay out the
book. The finished paperback will be published in May and will be
available at dozens of Bay Area bookstores, and will be available
online to all readers.
Q: But you still do after-school tutoring?
A: Yes, our center is still full every day with students who walk in
after school, and get direct, one-on-one attention from tutors. And
it's all free.
Q: Will the Brooklyn tutoring center sell pirate supplies, too?
A: In Brooklyn, the storefront will sell superhero supplies.
Q: Please explain.
A: In San Francisco, our landlord required us to maintain a retail
space. We hadn't thought of maintaining a retail space, and scrambled
to come up with an appropriate theme. We knew there were no other
independent pirate supply stores in San Francisco, and thus we had no
choice. What started out as a not-so-serious element of our location
quickly became a gateway to the community at large, and a major
source of funding for the nonprofit. All the proceeds from the store
go directly to 826 Valencia, and it gives passersby a reason to walk
in and see what the students have been up to. All of the student
publications—including our flagship, the 826 Quarterly—are
available for perusal or purchase. One book, a collection of short
stories by 12-year-old Phoebe Morgan, has sold 300 copies. When we
were thinking of a similar center in Brooklyn, where McSweeney's
began, we knew that we'd devote part of the space to a retail space
that would be engaging for students and would provide a reason for
people to come in and learn more about the nonprofit.
Q: What will the building be called?
A: The Brooklyn Superhero Supply Co. The nonprofit arm is called 826NYC.
Q: Do you need volunteers?
A: Absolutely. The more tutors we have, the more we can send them
into classrooms where they're needed. The best way to learn more
would be to come to our event on March 2.
Q: Do you have a website for 826NYC yet?
A: Not yet, but for now, if you'd like to learn more, please visit
826Valencia.org. This site will give you a pretty good picture of the
range of events and services we'll offer at 826NYC.
Q: Will volunteering at a place like 826NYC be fun? What kind of
volunteers will you be looking for?
A: All interested parties will be put to work in some way. In terms
of working with students, most of our tutors in San Francisco are
college-educated, with some experience in professional writing,
editing, newspaper or magazine work, or teaching. But we also have
many talented tutors whose day jobs are in the fields of public
relations, advertising, accounting, webmastering—you name it. What
they have in common are solid English and writing skills, knowledge
of grammar and spelling, and a love of working with students.
If you're interested in volunteering for our new Brooklyn tutoring
center, please fill out the volunteer form.
Q: How much time must a tutor donate?
A: It varies, but we can accommodate virtually any schedule. Because
we work one-on-one with students on specific projects, including
one-day homework assignments, very often a tutor will work with a
student one afternoon and won't see that student again. But those
hours spent with the student have had a big impact. Thus, if you work
at a full-time job and can only donate two hours a month, chances are
those two hours will be spent with one student, who will be very
happy you've found those hours.
Q: What happened at 826 Valencia today?
A: Today, we had a field trip. We hosted 31 students from the
Treasure Island Job Corps Program. These students were ages 18-24,
the oldest group we've yet worked with. Most of the Treasure Island
program's participants are very recent immigrants from China and
Mexico, Central and South America. All of them are hoping to improve
their English skills. We had twelve tutors on hand, a few of them on
their first assignment at 826 Valencia. We worked in small groups
with the students, who had been assigned (by their regular teacher)
to write a one-page story. The students' familiarity with English
varied greatly, from students who were almost fluent to those who
knew only a handful of phrases. Some students wrote poetry, some
wrote essays, some wrote stories. But the tutors dug in
enthusiastically. One young man wrote a story about Michael Jordan's
family throwing him a surprise party. Another wrote about the new
girl in the class, and how everyone is hot for her. By the time the
class left, every one of the students had completed their papers, and
many of them had read them aloud, to great applause.
Q: Is this kind of work rewarding?
A: We have to come out and say what we say to many people we meet who
are considering volunteering at 826 Valencia in San Francisco: It's
almost unbearably rewarding, and almost always heartwarming. It just
knocks you out, to come through our building any afternoon, after
school lets out and our writing lab opens up. From 2:30 to 6 p.m.,
the center is full of students dropping in for one-on-one help with
their homework, and while there's fun being had, it's also a pretty
serious environment. Everywhere you look, at every available desk,
table or couch, there are two people, one student and one adult
tutor, hunched over one piece of paper, getting the words just right.
It's just plain beautiful.
Q: Should I come to the event on March 2?
A: Oh man, we really hope you'll come to the event on March 2. There
will be doorprizes and a nice raffle, and we need to fill 700 seats,
so we hope to see you there.
OTHER McSWEENEY'S FEATURES:
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Not-Yet-Aired Anti-teen Smoking Ads Sponsored by Phillip Morris By Cam DeYoung
Guestbook: Vermont Applebrook Inn, Lancaster Suite, January 1, 1999-May 1, 2001 (Excerpts) By Jay Wexler
Phun List Phriday!
Confessions of a New Coffee Drinker By Jon Friedman
The August Van Zorn Prize for the Weird Short Story
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