This week in Chicago, there’s a fantastic and free event hosted by a great non-profit, at which a famous author will make an appearance! (Hint: it’s this guy)
This Friday, 826CHI will be hosting an open house to celebrate its 10th anniversary and the opening of its new headquarters in Wicker Park. The nonprofit, as well as its retail front The Wicker Park Secret Agent Supply Co. (formerly known as The Boring Store, one of the quirkiest, yet entertaining, shops I’ve ever stepped into in this city) will be offering tours of their new space as well as light refreshments. In addition, there will be “collaborative writing exercises for the whole family.”
The non-profit is part of a larger national network originally founded by author Dave Eggers and former teacher Ninive Calegari in the Bay Area in 2002. Since then, regional locations have opened in LA, Washington D.C., Boston, New York, and Detroit. 826 National is “a nonprofit organization that provides strategic leadership, administration, and other resources to ensure the success of its network of seven writing and tutoring centers. [Their] mission is based on the understanding that great leaps in learning can happen with one-on-one attention, and that strong writing skills are fundamental to future success.” 826CHI offers free creative writing and homework help services to students ages 6-18. Volunteers called “spies” do one-on-one work with kids. The hope with the new space is to open up more room to better serve time with students – wait lists have grown rather lengthy for their various programs.
The open house runs from 5-7 pm CST, and will be at 1276 N. Milwaukee Avenue, just a hop, skip, and a jump from the Division Blue Line stop, as well as both the Division (70) and Ashland (9) buses. In addition to the aforementioned glories, Swang, a gypsy jazz band, will be providing entertainment. Which is pretty cool.
Seriously, you need more? Dave Eggers is gonna be there.
This is the second time in as many days we’ve written about Dave Eggers. This might become a thing.
No, really, you know everything you need to know. So just show up! It’s free and open to the public. Check out their Facebook event page for more information1
Images courtesy of 826CHI Facebook page and huckmagazine.com
Travis J. Cook
Travis J. Cook is the Editor-in-Chief and one of the original founders of the Addison Recorder. He writes about baseball, movies, and music, among other topics. He resides in a hole in the ground near Wrigley Field.
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