Roddy Doyle’s much anticipated creative writing centre. Fighting Words, has gone online prior to its opening in Dublin in January. Taking its inspiration from David Eggers’ 826 Valencia, the centre pairs volunteer professional writers with local children. It doesn’t mention the fact explicitly, but the subtext here is that one-on-one mentoring can help revive a deprived quarter of a city.
Doyle’s centre is the first European member of the Once Upon a School movement that has swept across the deprived cities of America. It is beautifully inspiring stuff. For more on this see Eggers’ (very funny) speech at Ted Conference earlier this year.
Roddy Doyle will be in San Francisco on Sept 17th, 2010 , to talk about ‘Fighting Words’, it is open to the public, all proceeds to go Ireland’s Fighting Words, If anyone is interested please join us!! details available at http://www.ILHSsf.org (Irish Literary & Historical Society of SF Bay Area). Cheers, K
Orlaith Griffin
9:07 pm on November 16, 2011 Permalink
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Hello Fighting Words,
I am Orlaith Griffin.I came to your place in Dublin with my class from Balrothery National School.It was one the best days of my life!!!Thank you so much for the experience.The book we wrote was amazing!!!My entire family loved it!!!
Back in 2000, Eggers helped form a non-profit organisation helping local kids develop literacy skills. 826 Valencia in San Francisco is no ordinary after-school drop-in centre, mind. It was actually a space in the front of McSweeny’s, the literary magazine started by Eggers. What he helped coordinate was a network of volunteers, mostly writers, who could offer local kids one-on-one tutoring. It has had a massive impact in the neighbourhood and has served as an exemplar for a network of similar projects.
This being David Eggers, there is a very colourful side story to the project. To get through local planning laws, the centre had to behave as is it was a retail space. The writers decided to nominally create a pirate-supply stores (planks-by-the-yard, peg legs, hooks and bottles fit for messages etc…), this was meant to be a joke. But it has subsequently helped 826 Valencia to turn a profit. A similar project in Brooklyn masquerades as the Superhero Supply Company, one in LA “sells” gear for time travellers. This month the movement (see more here) crosses the Atlantic with the opening of Fighting Words, with the help of Booker winning author Roddy Doyle.
Why does this matter? Well apart from improving child literacy, Eggers sounds this note of optimism in the middle of the speech: “A bunch of happy families in a neighborhood is a happy community. A bunch of happy communities tied together is a happy city and a happy world, right?”
max the plumber 10:42 pm on December 3, 2008 Permalink |
eggers is a true don, ahwosg is a must read for every parent