Reading, writing, and "Ahoy, matey!"
This city is full of creative characters and always has been, and writer Dave Eggers is among the most honorable examples. Eggers is a genuine renaissance fellow, a Bono of words, whose 2000 blockbuster memoir, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, became a way to parlay his literary wits and profits into various collaborations, some of which involve methods for teaching kids how to read and write and teachers how to inspire their students.
In 2002 Eggers teamed up with educator and advocate Nínive Calegari to organize a one-on-one tutoring program for kids. He found a location at 826 Valencia Street, which in those days was in a “shopping-hood” with retro furniture stores and a Santeria shop. The idea was to run his quarterly literary magazine and publishing company, McSweeneys, out of the same building, and have his staff and community of writers and editors work with the neighborhood kids after school. From the start, the charter was to draw students into a space where imagination was king, and where writing was respected and explored.
Info
Address 826 Valencia Street, San Francisco, CA, 94110, www.826valencia.org, +1 415.642.905 | Public Transport Bus: 33 (18th St & Valencia St stop) | Hours Daily 12–6pm| Tip Stop at Dandelion Chocolate at 740 Valencia Street. You can sit in the front cafe and watch the chocolate-making process in the factory in the back.
To make it a going concern, Eggers and Calegari opened up a pirate-supply store in the front of the building, where you can pick up practically anything an aspiring or practicing swashbuckler might need—from peg legs and mermaid bait (or repellant), to eye patches and planks sold by the foot. Although the shop was created as a means to an end, it is an enchantment in its own right, not to mention a terrific magnet for potential pupils. After all, who wouldn’t rather do their homework surrounded by pirate paraphernalia instead of at their kitchen table?
Incidentally, 826 Valencia has nonprofit extensions in seven other cities across the country. Programs for kids ages 6 to 18 include tutoring, publishing, and college and career training, along with parallel opportunities for teachers.
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