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We’ve been taking several deep, luxurious breaths since the end of our Indiegogo and year-end campaign, which ended on January 1. With offline donations, we reached over $66,000. And we have no fewer than 800 amazing funding supporters to thank for this good news. Thank you, a million times over! Some of you have received your perks, and hopefully all of you have received acknowledgment letters (if we had your address). If you have not received a letter but think you should have, please email us at volunteer@wordupbooks.com.
Registration now open for VOICES: OUR YOUNG PEOPLE SPEAK
People's Theatre Project and Word Up Community Bookshop/Librería Comunitaria are now recruiting local teens for a FREE theatre and writing program, Voices: Our Young People Speak. In this 16-session after-school program, Northern Manhattan teens will work together with professional artists to develop their voices through writing and performance. The participants will create a theatrical protest piece inspired by changemakers in history and their own lives in NYC, and their writing will be published in an anthology.
Wednesdays & Fridays | 4-6pm | February 27 - April 26
Performances on April 26, 27, 28
@ United Palace of Cultural Arts, 4140 Broadway (at 176th Street)
WHO C
AN PARTICIPATE?
There are 15 slots for young people ages 13-16 on a first-come first-served basis. Preference will be given to residents of Washington Heights and Inwood and past participants. A parent or guardian is required to attend a program orientation.
HOW DO I REGISTER?
You can fill out the registration form online, or download the PDF and mail it in (ENGLISH | ESPAÑOL).Registration ends on February 15.
ALSO . . .
We at Word Up—and sponsoring nonprofit Seven Stories Institute—are happy to report that we have received our first-ever grant for our community bookshop and arts space! Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance has graciously given us a grant for general operating support, which will help our youth programming particularly. Voices is supported, in part, by the Union Square Awards, a project of the Tides Center; public funds from the New York Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; Council Member Ydanis Rodriguez; NoMAA Regrant Program, made possible by the JPMorgan Chase Foundation and the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone Development Corporation; and the generosity of individual donors.
Click on the image below to watch a short video about the program!
WHERE IS WORD UP THESE DAYS?
Yes, the #1 question on our minds too is where we will end up permanently. We will answer that for you very soon. In the meantime, please visit us at the events below:
Now till March 30
Brother, Can You Spare a Stack?
@ Center for Book Arts, 28 West 27th St.
The Word Up book wagon is a part of the exhibition Brother, Can You Spare a Stack?, which presents 13 socially engaged and performative art projects that adopt, as a model for their interventions, the symbolic and practical role of the Library and the Librarian. Deeply committed to serving and inspiring local communities, they pursue a shared vision of the Library as a force for social change. Read more about the exhibit here. See our wagon sitting among its brother and sister libraries here. Did you know that we transported the wagon to the Center for Book Arts by foot? Intrepid volunteer Diane Keeney and book wagon-maker Emcee C.M. walked the wagon all the way to 27th Street. You can watch the video that Dj Boy recorded of their journey here.
Monday, February 11, 2013 | 8pm
In the Heights In Concert
Word Up is once again popping up at the United Palace for this incredible night, when In the Heights, by Uptown's own Lin-Manuel Miranda, takes the stage at Washington Heights' most majestic venue. The award-winning musical opened on Broadway 5 years ago, in February 2008, and was set just blocks away from where the United Palace has stood for over 80 years. Come watch the show at a venue that was built for vaudeville theater, and swing by the Word Up stand in the lobby, where you can pick up books and other items from the authors and artists living in Washington Heights today. Tickets for the show are still available here.
Sunday, March 17, 2013 | 2pm
An Afternoon with Jerome Rothenberg
@ NoMAA Gallery, 178 Bennett Ave., 3rd floor
The author of over 100 books of poetry, translations, and anthologies, Jerome Rothenberg is known for his ground-breaking contributions to the field of contemporary avant-garde, and also in the rediscovery of ancient, mostly non-Western poetics. On a rare visit from the West Coast, Rothenberg will be giving a reading, followed by a discussion. Curated by Jake Marmer, this event is cosponsored by the Dorot Foundation, Fort Tryon Jewish Center, Word Up Community Bookshop/Librería Comunitaria, and Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance.
Saturday, March 30, 2013 | 10am-6pm
1st Latina Women Encounter: Deepening our Womanhood
@ Gregorio Luperon High School, 501 West 165th St.
Word Up is proud to pop up and cosponsor this event organized by Da Urban Butterflies Youth Leadership Development Project (D.U.B) and Casa Verde Camila, a day dedicated to creating, exchanging experiences and knowledge, and activist learning. In association with Dominican Women’s Development Center, Acción Comunitaria La Aurora, AF3IRM- NY, Women Organized to Resist & Defend (WORD), Trabajadoras por La Paz, Gregorio Luperón High School, Emblem Health, Rebel Diaz Arts Collective (RDAC-BX), Word Up Community Bookshop/Librería Comunitaria, and more.
Saturday, March 30, 2013 | 2pm
Public Talk at Center for Book Arts
28 West 27th St.
Word Up will be participating in a family-friendly public talk in conjunction with the current Center for Book Arts exhibition Brother, Can You Spare a Stack?
THANK YOU, WILL ALICEA
Many uptowners, including those of us at Word Up, were heartbroken to hear the news that Will Alicea, a.k.a.WiLL TeeZ, passed away on January 16 after living with leukemia. Besides being a friend to many in the neighborhood, Will was also one of our earliest consignees—and not just for his distinctive neighborhood apparel. Did you know that he had a book too? Sign of the Times (which we added as an extra-special perk during our Indiegogo campaign) is Will's postcard photo book documenting mass public protest—particularly the signs and placards, which speak for an individual within a crowd. If you would like a copy of this book, please come visit us, wherever we are with books, and we will give you one. We will be able to provide many, thanks to Will's family. In exchange, please take a cue from Will and kick it up with that individual voice of yours. Don't be afraid to protest, and when you do, tell us about it. It's not just about saying no; often there is the implication that something else instead is possible. Explore the yesses, the nos, the buts, the insteads, push us to learn your side of things. Take a cue from Will, and take a cue from the teens who've joined our Voices program over the past two years and mined their own lives for material to reflect upon, to protest, to embrace. During Word Up's opening week in June 2011, the young writers and actors from the pilot Voices program performed at their new community bookshop. WiLL TeeZ was in the audience and recorded the performance. When he was transferring the file to us a few days later, he said that his arm hurt because he'd only meant to hold it up for a moment and record a short bit, but was so into the show that he couldn't bear to drop his arm and cut off the recording. He dug these voices, and he urged us to use the recording whenever we needed to. The video will be up on ourwebsite later this afternoon, this document another one of Will's many gifts to our community.
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