Pen World Voices Festival 2019 Next Generation Now Events for Families

PEN WORLD VOICES FESTIVAL 2019 FEATURES
NEXT GENERATION NOW, 
A DAY OF EVENTS FOR FAMILIES,
Saturday, May 11, 2019
at Town Stages, 221 West Broadway, NYC

Curated by Med Lemke, NEXT GENERATION NOW Engages Children and Parents in Literature as a Means for Social Engagement

PEN AMERICA will present NEXT GENERATION NOW, a daylong series of stories and activities for children and families to experience literature as a means to become socially engaged, on Saturday, May 11, 2019 at Town Stages (221 West Broadway, NYC) as part of the 2019 PEN WORLD VOICES FESTIVAL.

Curated by Meg Lemke of Mutha Magazine, this year’s edition of NEXT GENERATION NOW includes the fun and fabulous Drag Queen Story Hour (ages 3-8) featuring Miz Jade; the creative workshop Spellbound Theatre: Today I Will Be Fierce! (for children up to age 8), with Nidhi Chanani (co-creator of I Will Be Fierce!); Finding Your Voice: Comics Carousel, with graphic novel pioneers Molly Ostertag (The Witch Boy), Nidhi Chanani, and Jerry Craft (New Kid), and emcee Robert Sikoryak (The Unquotable Trump) giving dramatic readings and visual presentations of their works (for ages 8-14); Hello, Planet (for kids up to 8) with illustrator Liniers, who will read from his picture book Good Night, Planet and paint a mural based on audience participation; You Kid: A Comics and Graphic Novel Workshop with Jerry Craft (for ages7-14)and Make a Book with 826NYC! (for ages 8-14), both engaging and honing young people’s own storytelling potentials; and more. In Truth or Tales?, acclaimed YA writers Fatima Shaik, Martha Brockenbrough, Susan Kuklin, Torrey Maldonado, and Rita Williams-Garcia will discuss discerning fact from fiction in the digital age. Please see below for details about the events.

PEN America presents the 2019 PEN World Voices Festival: Resist and Reimagine, the 15th anniversary edition of the renowned international literary festival, May 6-12, focusing on the dissolving boundary between the public and the private in the literary, cultural, social, and political realms. In the 70+ events comprising the Festival, New York and its most vital cultural institutions-from the Apollo Theater, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, and Nuyorican Poets Café in Manhattan, to Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, to the Brooklyn Academy of Music, to BAAD! The Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance-will teem with stirring ideas and provocative debates. Fiction and nonfiction writers, poets, translators, journalists, thinkers, artists, and activists will gather to unpack the issues around what we withhold and what we reveal, and the opportunities and dangers inherent in the rapid reconfiguring of the public and the private. 

Sokoloff Arts (501c3) joins the NYC Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, WNYC, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, City Council, the New York State Council on the Arts, and the New York State Legislature, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, Amazon Crossing, Amazon Literary Partnership, New York Community Trust, and the Embrey Family Foundation in support of the PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature at Town Stages. 

NEXT GENERATION NOW AT TOWN STAGES – SCHEDULE OF EVENTS 
You Kid: A Comics and Graphic Novel Workshop with Jerry Craft
Ages: Seven to fourteen
12:30-1:30pm
The Gallery
Town Stages 
$10

Don’t miss this exciting opportunity for aspiring comic book creators and graphic novelists-in-training to expand their visual and literary storytelling skills. How do creators of comics and graphic novels make their heroes unique, and how do they bring to life those characters’ public personas and private thoughts? Kids ages seven and up will explore the critically acclaimed graphic novel New Kid with the book’s creator, renowned artist and Mama’s Boyz cartoonist Jerry Craft. Then, Craft will guide young workshop participants through the process of plotting narratives, writing dialog for word balloon format, and creating book covers. All participants will leave with a finished graphic novel cover in hand-and inspiration for continued creation.

Drag Queen Story Hour
With Miz Jade and Brontez Purcell
Ages: Three to eight
12:30-1:30pm
Town Stages
$5

During Drag Queen Story Hour (DQSH), drag queens read stories to children! This glamorous and educational phenomenon was born in San Francisco and has spread to libraries and schools throughout the United States and around the world, including popular manifestations in Sweden and Japan. This fun and fabulous literary experience celebrates gender diversity, builds empathy, and teaches tolerance with every story told. Miz Jade and Brontez Purcell, author of The Nightlife of Jacuzzi Gaskett, will read from books, sing songs, and lead their young audience in arts and crafts explorations. Drag Queen Story Hour is designed for children aged three to eight, but all are welcome to join for a joyful celebration of diversity and creativity. 

Make a Book with 826NYC!
Ages: Eight to fourteen
Saturday, May 11
2:00-3:00pm
Main Hall
Town Stages
Free with RSVP

Join PEN and literacy education non-profit 826NYC for an exciting workshop that transforms inspired kids into published authors. Young participants will collaborate with a talented team of writers and artists to brainstorm concepts, craft new characters, write stories, and illustrate adventures. At the end of the day, all newly-minted authors will walk away with their very own original books. Kids and young teenagers won’t want to miss this unique opportunity to transform their ideas into published texts. 

Nidhi Chanani and Spellbound Theatre: Today I Will Be Fierce!
Ages: Up to eight
2:00-3:00pm
Town Stages
$5
 
Spellbound Theatre, New York City’s award-winning “tiny theatre for tiny people,” offers a hands-on creative workshop that celebrates the fierce adventurer in each of us. Families will be treated to an interactive storytime featuring Nidhi Chanani, co-creator (with Bea Birdsong) of I Will Be Fierce, an imaginative picture book about courage, confidence, and kindness. Following the storytime reading, young explorers will learn to design puppets and take the adventure into their own hands. Don’t miss this captivating journey of imagination and multi-disciplinary artistic expression. A World Voices Festival Next Generation Now event.

Finding Your Voice: Comics Carousel
With Molly Ostertag, Nidhi Chanani, Jerry Craft, and Robert Sikoryak
Ages: Eight to fourteen
3:30-4:30pm
Main Hall
Town Stages
$15

Watch graphic novels come to life! The creators of award-winning books will perform the voices of their characters as artwork appears onscreen and pages turn. Audiences will be captivated by real and magical coming-of-age tales, in which characters explore mysterious family secrets and demonstrate how to speak up and claim your place when you don’t feel like you fit in. Join graphic novel pioneers Molly Ostertag (The Witch Boy), Nidhi Chanani (Pashmina), and Jerry Craft (New Kid), with emcee Robert Sikoryak (The Unquotable Trump), as they combine visual storytelling and live performance during this innovative afternoon of entertainment.

Lexington Candy: We Wrote the Book
5:00pm
The Gallery
Town Stages
Free with RSVP

Students at NYC’s Townsend Harris High School aren’t just learning about cultural history-they’re writing a book on it. Through an initiative supported by PEN America, Brian Sweeney’s sophomore English class decided to focus their studies on how immigrants shape New York’s legacy of legendary, delicious, and innovative food. Join us as Townsend Harris students read from their century-deep history of Lexington Candy, an immigrant family-run UES mainstay, and discuss the experience of researching the city’s immigrant culinary entrepreneurs. Don’t miss this fascinating discussion, which will explore how writing can help preserve NYC’s globally-sourced gastronomic treasures.

Hello, Planet
With Liniers
Ages: Birth to age eight
5:00-6:00pm
The Gallery
Town Stages 
Free

Beloved Argentinian cartoonist Ricardo Siri, widely known by the name Liniers, will enchant listeners with a reading from his picturebook Good Night, Planet. He will then lead a discussion with young audience members and paint a mural on the spot, inspired by the dreams and aspirations of his audience. Young readers, parents, and art fans of all ages will enjoy this unique celebration of interactive creativity.

Truth or Tales?
With Fatima Shaik, Martha Brockenbrough, Susan Kuklin, Torrey Maldonado, and Rita Williams-Garcia
5:00-6:00pm
Main Hall
Town Stages
Free with RSVP

Young readers face big challenges during their middle-grade years. Amid a deluge of content, especially online, kids must learn what’s real and what’s not. But how? In this special panel discussion, esteemed writers of young adult fiction discuss techniques to help kids know the difference between solid truths and tall tales-both in virtual and real life. PEN America’s Fatima Shaik moderates as Martha Brockenbrough (Unpresidented), Susan Kuklin (We Are Here To Stay), Torrey Maldonado (Tight), and Rita Williams-Garcia (Clayton Byrd Goes Underground) offer insight and guidance. Where can young people go for reliable advice, and which books can help them learn to discern? Teachers, writers, and caregivers-including older siblings of curious kids-will benefit from this youth-oriented symposium on fact and fiction in the digital age.

Funding Credits
Lead sponsorship support is provided by the NYC Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment.

Media sponsorship is also provided by WNYC.

This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.

PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. Additional funding is provided by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, Amazon Crossing, Amazon Literary Partnership, New York Community Trust, and the Embrey Family Foundation.

About PEN America
PEN America stands at the intersection of literature and human rights to protect open expression in the United States and worldwide. We champion the freedom to write, recognizing the power of the word to transform the world. Our mission is to unite writers and their allies to celebrate creative expression and defend the liberties that make it possible. pen.org 

About Sokoloff Arts (501c3) at Town Stages
Sokoloff Arts (501c3) is a women-led cultural institution creating inspired space and cutting edge experiences at Town Stages. Helmed by a team of women from different backgrounds and multi-hyphenate artistic disciplines, Sokoloff Arts builds viable and safe places to congregate, strives to promote cross-cultural community activations, and blends the arts and business sectors to design sustainable solutions to social and financial inequalities in New York City and abroad. The organization assists young creators with mentorship, sponsorship, and fellowship by supporting ticketed performances and curated community programming in the performing arts, fine arts, and the advancement of social justice.
 
For more information, visit https://townstages.com/non-profit.
 
About Town Stages
Town Stages (Robin Sokoloff, Executive Director) is a state-of-the-art cultural arts space, event venue, and cocktail bar in the heart of downtown Tribeca. With a stunning 10,000 square foot storefront property, Town Stages blends convention-level facilities with captivating decor for 299 guests. Serving as New York’s premier venue to celebrate, collaborate, and put on a show, Town Stages offers much needed meeting space and production resources for businesses, arts organizations, and families celebrating their very important day. Centrally located off all major NYC trains, Town Stages is available for corporate gatherings, fashion shows, film shoots, weddings, & beyond.  Follow under @townstages and #itsyourtown.
 
For more information, visit https://townstages.com.