In Search of YA Authors for Reading Series Event in May!

Attention authors, fans, and Behind the Book supporters!

As you know, BtB has a reading series at KGB Bar on the second Thursday of every month, where incredible authors read from their newest works.

We are currently looking for Young Adult authors to be featured at our May reading series event on May 9^th, 2013.  Here’s what we’re looking for:

* authors that have a book coming out around May (really any time in the Spring or early Summer)

* and live in the New York City area

* and ideally, write books that are relevant to the students that we work with (take place in NYC or similar urban setting, characters and plot reflect student experiences)

If you fit this description, or you know anyone who does, please email us at Info@BehindtheBook.org or tweet us @Behind_the_Book. Thanks for your help! Don’t forget to mark your calendars for the reading on May 9^th, and happy reading!

Photo of the Week with Youme

After the craziness that was Hurricane Sandy, we’re finally able to post Youme’s photo of the week, which comes to you from… the jungle?

Florida certainly looks verdant and beautiful, and Youme gives not only book recommendations, but also an inspiring faith in your own power to create.

This is a picture of me holding up a mirror. The stories I love best are your stories, the ones you write, the ones you tell and the stories that you live. I can recommend life shaping picture books for me, such as, A Flower Pot Is Not a Hat ( but if I put it on my head it is) by Martha Moffet, illustrated by Susan Perl and Hubert the Caterpillar Who Thought He Was A Mustache by Wendy Stang and Susan Richards, pictures by Robert L. Anderson. I can recommend the worldview of the Moomin family by Tove Jannson, the heart of Walter Dean Myers and his son Christopher Myers, the power of Lac Su in his book, I Love Yous Are for White People, the cartoons of Walt Kelly, all of Virginia Hamilton, Alice Walker, Toni Morrison, and beloved Thich Nhat Hanh.  I believe that one of the great things about stories is finding more than one.

But Behind the Book has asked for one recommendation and so I wholeheartedly endorse Your Story! Share it!

Be sure to check out the last Photo of the Week with Victor LaValle.  Happy Reading!

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater Visit

students share the types of dance they like to do with the Alvin Ailey dance instructor.

On Monday, October 15^th, we took two classes from P.S. 76 in Harlem to the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s Joan Weill Center for Dance on 55^th Street at 9^th Avenue. The students have been reading Alvin Ailey (1995), a children’s biography of the visionary dancer and choreographer written by Andrea Pinkney and illustrated by her husband, Brian Pinkney.

Admiring the art at the Center and appreciating the company’s past productions

Needless to say, the students were hugely impressed by the quality of the facilities. “Ailey,” as the center is known for short, is a recently built eight story dance school with twelve enormous studios, a library, administrative offices, student lounges, and  a fully-functioning theater. There are full-time college-aged students, part time High School students, and a professional dance company who use the studios, which are also available for classes offered to local adults.

Slide to right!

Each of our classes received a tour from our dynamic and thorough tour guide, “Super Sam.” The kids got to look in on numerous classes of all different dance styles and skill levels. The students in Ms. Burgess’ class even got to sit in on the first part of a class, watching the thirty or so dancers from the front of the room. When one of the teachers whose class we looked in on yelled to her dancers in an almost stereotypically authoritative dance-teacher voice, “Look like you like it!,” our students had no need to follow this command: they were already rapt, crowding around the doorway with smiles from ear to ear.

Students from Ms. Burgess’ class are in awe of the glass-windowed, street-level studios

The highlight of the day was undoubtedly the students’ dance class, which gave them the opportunity to get on their feet and try some of the moves that they had been watching the older dancers perform in the studios. Ms. Gaskins, a former Ailey company member herself, led the students in 45 minutes of warmups and basic choreography, culminating in about a minute of intensely choreographed dancing. The students, who had been rambunctious and talkative on the way to the Center, were silent, focused, and attentive when they got their chance to dance. They were thrilled when they were told that the “Dougie,” a dance move popularized by the 2010 song “Teach Me How To Dougie” would be incorporated into their final piece. Their comfort level with this dance brought them out of their shells, leading to an outrageous eight-count of freestyle dancing, which Ms. Gaskins emphasized was meant to showcase the dancers’ unique personalities. Trust me when I say that there was no shortage of personality with these students.

All in all we had a fun and full day, in which the students learned that dancers, despite their delicate reputations, are truly athletes. The students were encouraged by the day’s activities to let their creativity shine through, and even the tough guys in the class left the Center with an appreciation for the finer elements of dance. Their excitement about the center has caused their interest in the book about Ailey to skyrocket, and this visit will no doubt propel their reading engagement moving forward. Not to mention that they picked up some pretty cool moves along the way.

Students from Ms. Ratliff’s class pose with dance teacher, Ms. Gaskins

Students from Ms. Burgess’ class pose with dance teacher, Ms. Gaskins

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Journals, Journals, Journals!!

As you well know, all of Behind the Book’s in school programs generate a final writing project.. We’ve always been blown away by the depth and creativity of the students’ work, and this year, we want to give the students even more space to explore their identities as authors.  Therefore, in this school year, we have been focusing especially on writing journals and have made a record number of writing journal visits with a record number of writing journals.

Look at all those journals!

Keep in mind that in each of those 12 boxes, there are 24 journals.

12 x 24 = 288

You’re seeing 288, writing journals, made from recycled paper, and ready to fill with brand new ideas!

Our ever amazing teaching artist, Barbara Korein is the Goddess of the Writing Journal (yes, this is indeed her official title) at Behind the Book, since she leads most of the writing journal workshops.  Her program works with the kids to explore identity, using words, colors, textures and design as they represent their identities on the cover of their new journals.

Let’s hear what Barbara Korein, out teaching artist has to say about the creative processes of the kids in the writing journal workshops:

Barb talks about value, color, line and a whole bunch of important things

We give them a choice of colors and then a variety of collage materials from which to find images, words and cut shapes. And while each student starts with basically the same materials, their choices make their covers very different.

By the end of the class, the students have created their unique personality covers for their writing journals. These outside covers represent the students in the same way their writing inside does.

And these students got so creative it was ridiculous!  The volunteers who were helping at the journal workshops reported that the kids were using the materials we had brought in innovative and fascinating ways.

One student made a cool superhero mask out of a cut-out of the letter H (if you look above, you’ll see the kind of H he used.  Hint: it’s blue)

When another student had cut the letter N out of a sheet of paper, her friend across the table used the rest of the paper with an N-shaped hole in the middle to decorate her journal.

Everyone loved the sheets of words that they could cut out and paste to their journals.

But, it was even cooler when some of the students found the word sheets insufficient and took to writing their own words on their journals!

Nina Ibanez, one of the volunteers at a writing journal making workshop offers these final remarks:

Seeing them all work and create was so much fun.  I liked that they weren’t confined by any requirements so that they could think all about defining themselves and the art they made was exactly what they wanted to do.  They put a lot of thought into what they designed on the covers and they were very personalized.   If you put all this work into making your journal look cool, you’re going to want to use it, and I really think they do.  A lot of them asked when we were coming back. 

Nina works with a student

If you think this looks like fun, know that we have many many more great volunteer opportunites for the coming school year, and we would appreciate your help.

For more information about volunteering, email volunteer.behindthebook.gmail.com

For more information about our organization in general, email info@behindthebook.org

Journals are great for our High Schoolers too. These CHAH students are hard at work collaging

Photo of the Week with Victor LaValle

During September’s KBG Bar reading, Victor LaValle took some time after he had read from his book, The Devil in Silver, to get his picture taken with his son’s favorite picture book, Charlie Parker Played Beboop by Chris Raschka.

A friend gave me Charlie Parker Played Bebop by Chris Raschka as gift for my fifteen-month old son. At first I wasn’t sure how this book would go down. I thought that since jazz can sometimes be atonal and ambitious even a book about a jazz musician would require a more sophisticated palette than the one my kid had formed so far. Nevertheless, the friend was quite smart and had a daughter of her own and swore Charlie Parker… was one of her child’s favorites. My wife and I gave it a shot.

            If you know this book, then you already know that I’m an idiot. My fears were baseless. Chris Raschka is a crazily gifted artist, one who charmed my son, my wife, and me right from the jump. The book manages to sound like bebop even as it tells you some essential facts about Charlie Parker. For instance, that he played be bop. Every day now our son picks this book up, walks toward me or my wife, shouting,“Be ba! Be ba!” The smile on his face is as beautiful to me as Charlie Parker’s music.

Be sure to check out the last Photo of the Week with Kam Mak.  Happy Reading!