Cover of "By Heart: Poetry, Prison, and Two Lives," by Spoon Jackson and Judith Tannenbaum

As part of Litquake 2011’s opening, this event is facilitated by WritersCorps training coordinator Judith Tannenbaum (and co-author of the recent memoir “By Heart: Poetry, Prison, and Two Lives”). This panel features books by four men serving long sentences in California prisons:

Kenneth E. Hartman’s “Mother California” (read by Alia Hartman)

Spoon Jackson’s “By Heart: Poetry, Prison, and Two Lives” (on DVD)

Jarvis Master’s “That Bird Has My Wings” (read by Susan Moon)

Boston Woodard’s “Inside the Broken California Prison System” (read by Jon Sievert)

The panel will include readings from each of the four books, plus time for audience sharing.

When: October 8, 2011, 12 noon

Where: Variety Preview Room
582 Market St., First Floor

Cost: Free

Join WritersCorps at San Francisco’s annual literary extravaganza, Litquake. Now in its 12th year, the festival runs October 7 to 15 this year with more than 550 authors at events. WritersCorps will be participating in the legendary Lit Crawl through the Mission district on Saturday, October 15. Our teaching artists and students will be reading about city and place.

WHAT: WritersCorps: Writers and Their Students Explore San Francisco

WHO: WritersCorps teaching artists Anhvu Buchanan, Rick D’Elia, Minna Dubin, Roseli Ilano, Carrie Leilam Love, and harold terezón, along with WritersCorps students.

WHEN & WHERE: Phase 2 of Lit Crawl: Saturday, October 15, 2011, 7:15 to 8:00 p.m.
Serendipity, 803 Valencia St, (near 19th St)

Cost: Free!

Share this event on Facebook.

Do you like to eat delicious pizza? Would you like to support creative writing opportunities for youth? Here’s your chance to do both!

WritersCorps has been chosen by local pizza purveyors Patxi’s for its 52 Weeks of Giving campaign, in which money is donated to nonprofits that work in education and children’s health and welfare.

On August 17, 10% of all purchases (pizza, food, wine, beer, etc.) from Patxi’s will be donated to WritersCorps. This applies to dining in, take out, gift card purchases, and delivery. So, make a date with your friends, order pizza at the office, and eat up for a great cause!

If you’re not immediately in the mood for pizza on August  17, you can still contribute. Check out Patzi’s special half-baked pizzas, which you can pick up on your way home from work and bake on your own at night — it’s also good for three days in the fridge! And if you decide to dine in, fundraising nights at Patxi’s are a great way to meet new friends.

You can go to any one of three Patxi’s locations in San Francisco between 11 a.m. and 10 p.m. to support WritersCorps! For more information on 52 Weeks of Giving, go here.

Whew! Last week was quite a busy week for WritersCorps. Not only did we go to the White House and host a literary carnival and reading at the Main Library during our annual WordStorm, but we also held another event the following day at Galería de la Raza called The Hope Chest Project.

The Hope Chest Project featured art work and writing by our students at Hilltop School, where we have worked for three years now. The school is for parenting and pregnant students. For our year-end project this year, we asked the young women to explore themes of hope.

Two hundred years ago, teenage girls were given hope chests to store necessary items for their future as a married women — table cloths, dishes, curtains.

This school year, we gave modern teenage girls a box, art supplies, pen, and paper and asked: “What goes in your hope chest?”

The students at the Hilltop School answered.

WritersCorps teaching artist Minna Dubin (and Hope Chest mastermind) hosted an afternoon reading, packed with students, babies, and teachers and staff from the Hilltop community. It was a wonderful reading with so much love, interest and support.

Check out more photos of the event, and of the hope chests, taken by Roxanne Chartouni.

Thanks to everyone who made it out last week to the WritersCorps WordStorm, our annual year-end celebration. After working all school year with our teaching artists, students got to share their writing, newly published in fresh-off-the-press books, posters and publications.

This year we changed it up and had a literary carnival preceding the reading. Students could take a zine workshop, compose a haiku on a typewriter, make a button, or just enjoy some of the new books while eating a slice of pizza.

Check out more photos (taken by Monica Roy, thanks Monica!) from the event below: