Parkdale Street Writers

Are you 16-25 years old? Do you keep a blog or journal? Constantly update your Facebook page? Write super-long e-mails? Make up stories, films, rants, video game ideas, lyrics and/or poems in your head? Love to read and talk about books?

Why not join the…

Parkdale Street Writers!

Work directly with: Clifton Joseph (dub poet and CBC personality), Mariko Tamaki (graphic novelist, Skim and Emiko Superstar), Mindbender (hip hop M.C. and journalist), Dale Jarvis (storyteller and ghost story writer), Kristyn Dunnion, (author of Moshpit and Big Big Sky), Stro1 (street artist and videographer), Willow Dawson (graphic novelist, 100 Mile House and No Girls Allowed), Jean Yoon (actor, poet and playwright), Emily Pohl-Weary (author of A Girl Like Sugar and Strange Times at Western High)

What will we do?
• Write about real life
• Produce song lyrics and poems
• Create our own comics
• Interview people
• Read/write film scripts
• Find and make art
• Publish your work
• Get advice from professionals
• Choose other kinds of writing

DATES/TIMES
Parkdale Branch, Toronto Public Library (basement auditorium)
1303 Queen Street West, Toronto
Tuesdays from 5 to 7 p.m.
Starts November 3rd, 2009 – but join anytime!

FINE PRINT
Participants must be 16-25 years old. Workshops are free, but please register! All supplies and snacks are provided for participants. TTC tickets available for people coming from outside the neighborhood.

Email us to register and get more information or 416-779-1448

Coordinator:

Award-winning Toronto author Emily Pohl-Weary’s most recent novel is Strange Times at Western High, featuring teen sleuth Natalie Fuentes, who teams up with a computer hacker and a graffiti artist to solve a mystery at her west-end Toronto high school. Her previous books include a collection of poetry, Iron-on Constellations, and a novel, A Girl Like Sugar (optioned for film and television by Spruce Street Films). She edited the acclaimed anthology Girls Who Bite Back: Witches Mutants, Slayers and Freaks, and completed her sci-fi writing grandmother’s biography, Better to Have Loved: The Life of Judith Merril. BtHL won a Hugo Award and was the finalist for the Toronto Book Award. Pohl-Weary published Kiss Machine magazine for more than nine years and writes a girl pirate comic (illustrated by Willow Dawson). She has mentored young people, been a writer-in-residence at a high school, run writing workshops for people of all ages, and done readings across North America.

Youth Coordinators:

jamilah malika abu-jakare: jamilah malika is an emerging indo-nigerian-caribbean storyteller who writes and performs poetry, prose and plays to plant seeds of individual and collective change. from communications consultant to photoshoot stylist, jamilah malika is a visionary arts enthusiast currently resident artist and wombanager at anitafrika! dub theatre in toronto, supporting this radical arts initiative as community liaison, event curator, workshop facilitator, programming developper and always eager participant. jamilah malika publishes, performs and engages with diverse communities,and through as many avenues as possible. check out her performance work at http://www.myspace.com/abstractrandom3

Jeffrey Vallejo: TO COME