Tell Me Where to Begin, and I'll Start There

March 20, 2007 | 826 Blog Post

First, I guess, we should recap our incredible, phenomenal, and, there is no other way to say it, breathtaking weekend with Dave Eggers and Valentino Achak Deng. Friday night, four hundred people came to the Ann Arbor District Library to hear them speak about Valentino’s life and the situation in Sudan! Upward of 100% of those in attendance left inspired!

Saturday, Dave’s “Writing and Publishing the Memoir” seminar went on to inspire a packed room at the Kerrytown Concert House. We laughed, we cried, we agreed to write down everything. Which carried us straight through to Saturday night, when about thirty-five lucky people got to hang out with Dave and Valentino at a swanky downtown location. Many thanks to Newcombe Clark for the use of his amazing home! Thanks also to Julie Orringer and Ryan Harty for hosting the event, and to Sarah Manguso and Adam Chapman for providing entertainment and food for thought. Katherine’s Catering donated a portion of the food, and Trader Joe’s gave us a bunch of flowers: so thanks!


After Dave and Valentino regaled the crowd with astonishing tales, they signed books. The line wove its way out of the room and down the hall.


Executive Director Amanda Uhle, Board President Keith Hood, Program Director Amy Sumerton, Educational Director Erin Bennett, Valentino Achak Deng, and Dave Eggers. (Seriously…what’s with Keith’s grin?)

Now that we’re all up to speed on the weekend, let’s talk about some stuff we were too busy to talk about last week. Some of you may know that we just completed a six-week afterschool writing workshop at King Elementary. Last Thursday, we celebrated with a student reading and a festival of general excitement at Crazy Wisdom. We are pleased to announce that This Pencil is My Most Important Possession, the book that came out of this workshop, is for sale exclusively at the Monster Union!


The students shared their work
with a full house at Crazy Wisdom.

Hooray for books!

Many thanks to the King School PTO for helping us pay for the publication! Thanks to Crazy Wisdom for hosting the event!

Finally: MUSTACHE-A-THON starts Monday at Arbor Brewing Company! Email amy@826michigan.org if you’d like to become involved. We’ll have more details up later this week!

Finally 2: The spring workshop schedule will be up within the next three weeks!


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