Dave Eggers’ 826 writing labs
Elizabeth August 6th, 2007
My friend Craig Bolland is the author of I Knit Water and a lecturer in creative writing at QUT. Yesterday he wrote a blog on his myspace that I wanted to share here, because it’s so cool that it makes me want to go back and re-do my childhood.
For those of you who don’t know, Dave Eggers has created a chain of non-profit writing labs called 826 to teach writing to kids. Sounds dry, right? Anything but: Each of these labs is hidden behind a whimsical and utterly cool storefront that doubles as a magic box. The NY branch is called the Brooklyn Superhero Supply Store And I found of photostream of it at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshclark/383000936/in/photostream/
The elaborate storefront perfectly mimics a Brooklyn hardware store, except that the advertised items are telepathy blockers, invisible jet planes and “unstable mutation catalysts.” A sign asks visitors, “Please do not use your X-ray vision inside the store.” Browsing the store’s shelves turns up cans of “Chaos” alongside capes, masks, a villain detention cell and gallons of invisibility and omnipotence.
A secret passage in the back leads to the writing lab.
Keep clicking through that photostream to see what he means - the concept is beautifully delivered through realistic packaging and clever signage. There are other stores in Chicago, San Francisco and Seattle too, all with different themes:
The Chicago Boring Store
The San Fran Pirate store
The Seattle ” Greenwood Space Travel supply Co” (also shown in the video below)
A few photos and a youtube video later, even I’m getting inspired. Such a great idea for budding young writers.
If you could set one of these storefronts up in your city, what would your theme be?
