NYWC Ten Under Ten

I'm really delighted to be sharing these poems with you all today as part of Write On's partnership with NYWC and their Ten Under Ten Series. I know you will enjoy these amazing poems written by kids under ten years old:

Ears Everywhere
by Amaraa F. Harris, Age 8

My dad’s ears are like eggs
that’s alive. My mommy’s ears are
as beautiful as a tree blowing in
the winter. My grandma’s ears are
as silky as grass.
But my ears are
weird. They feel like
elf ears. They hurt when the
wind blows. But when I move
my mouth
my ears move too.

When the wind blows
it’s like they try to tell me
something.

But ears
are
Special.

My sister’s ears
Are an oval that will never stop.

That’s special.

This poem was contributed in 2005 by Amaraa F. Harris when she was eight years old and appears in Making the Trees Shiver: An Anthology of the First Six Years of the Fort Greene Summer Literary Festival. You’ll find this and other poems from the Fort Greene Summer Literary Festival in the NYWC Bookstore.

* * *

A Stringy Coconut
by Maya Kushnick, Age 7

This coconut looks like a hairball from a cat. (Even though I never saw one before.) It is an asteroid with rings on it. Is it heavy? Is it light? Don’t know! Bumpy, lumpy it hurts a lot. Mmmmm. Yummy, milky. Why did it fall on my head, off a tree? This someone has a big Mustache! What a nice hairdo. What a stringy coconut.

Maya Kushnick is a member of the NY Writers Coalition youth workshop Ridge Kids, which meets every Thursday at Brooklyn Public Library, Bay Ridge Branch. Click here for more information on NYWC youth programming.

* * *


Dead Rat Hamburgers 
by Tiffany Wong, Age 8

Materials
1. 18 dead rats
2. 2 hairy tomatoes
3. Bleu cheese
4. Moldy bread
5. Blood (optional: shoot a person with a bazooka gun to get the blood.)
6. Grater
 7. Bowl
8. Spoon
9. Hair

Steps
1. Grate bleu cheese and drop 3 gallons of blood into the bowl
2. Dice tomato
3. Wash dead mice or rat in blood*
4. Cook rats
5. Put everything together
Stink up and enjoy!
*Do not dry

“Dead Rat Hamburgers” was contributed in 2006 by Tiffany Wong when she was eight years old and appears in If These Streets Could Talk: Fiction & Poetry from the NY Writers Coalition. You’ll find this and other writing from our youth program in the NYWC Bookstore. 

* * *

Pretty
by Cindy Lei, Age 7

I am from New York City
I am from brushes with daisies
I am from big white dumplings with things inside
I am from long pink dresses that I wear for dances.
I feel excited when I am wearing the pink dress.
I am from fudge
I am from congratulations and happy birthday.
I am from presents, medium-sized in a blue box with a pink
ribbon.
I am from fresh air.

I am from quickly-spoken Chinese.
I am from the stories I write, stories with problems.
I am from little and big sisters.
I am from Chinatown where there are interesting signs
and English-speaking people can’t understand.

“Pretty” was contributed in 2006 by Cindy Lei when she was seven years old and appears in If These Streets Could Talk: Fiction & Poetry from the NY Writers Coalition. You’ll find this and other writing from our youth program in the NYWC Bookstore.

Will you join our Indiegogo Campaign to help produce my play in NYC?

Hi everyone! A couple months back I shared the exciting news that my play "A Frog in Boiling Water" is going to be produced in New York City as part of the Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival! (Read my interview on the Samuel French website here: http://oob.samuelfrench.com/index.php/a-frog-boiling-in-water-by-dallas-woodburn/)

I could not be more thrilled to be part of this prestigious festival and to be working with the amazing director Brian Gillespie and Pull Together Productions.

We're looking for a little bit of help to cover the costs of producing and rehearsing the show for its Off Off Broadway, New York premiere on October 27th. We've created an Indiegogo page with various "perks" for donors, including a thank-you shout-out on our Facebook page, the Pull Together Productions website, and right here on this blog!

• Donation Amount: $10 or more
• Name of Perk: "Simmering"
  Description: You are heating things up. With a donation of $10 or more you will receive a shout-out on our Facebook page!

• Donation Amount: $25 or more
• Name of Perk:"Percolating"
  Description: You're getting warmer. With a donation of $25 or more, you will be listed on Pull Together Productions website and Dallas Woodburn's Writing Life website as a sponsor, and receive a shout-out on our Facebook page!

• Donation Amount: $50 or more
• Name of Perk: "Bubbling Up"
  Descripton: You're cooking with gas. With a donation of $50 or more, you will receive a poster signed by the cast and crew, as well as a listing on our websites as a sponsor and a shout-out on our Facebook page!

• Donation Amount: $100 or more
• Name of Perk: "Boiling"
  Description: You're fired up. With a donation of $100.00 or more, you will receive a photo from the production signed by the cast, a poster signed by the cast and crew, as well as a listing as a sponsor on our websites and a shout-out on our Facebook page!

About the Play:

On the surface, an ordinary family lives a sheltered existence — but on a dry, still Friday night, something is sparked to life that reveals the tension and secrets behind their perfect facade and ultimately changes their lives forever.

About the Festival:

Now in its 37th year, The Samuel French Off Off Broadway Short Play Festival is Manhattan’s oldest, continuous short play festival. In the first 36 years of the Festival, over 500 theatre companies and schools from across the U.S. and around the world have participated. The Festival has served as a doorway to future success for many aspiring playwrights, and has helped launched the work of notables such as Theresa Rebeck. In many cases, Festival participation has sparked agent contracts for Festival finalists and all of the final forty plays selected to be perform in New York are guaranteed to be seen by an Artistic Director of a major theater, a professional playwright, and a theatrical agent. Many past Festival playwrights have gone on to win major Playwriting awards and honors, as well as to have major theatrical productions of their works staged.

Check out the festival's website for more info: http://oob.samuelfrench.com

What your donation will go towards:

• Rehearsal Space - Your donations will go directly towards paying for rehearsal space in New York City (average rate for rehearsal studios is about 25-30 dollars an hour)
• Costumes, Props and Music - Even on a shoestring budget, it's important to have the props you need and to find costumes that help reveal the characters. Finding just the right music also helps to enhance the telling of the story. Your donations will help us make the show look and sound its best.
• Promotional Materials – postcards and posters to help spread the word and get a great audience.
• Actor Stipends - Our wonderful actors are basically donating their time for free to be part of this neat play in such a prestigious festival. But we will be reimbursing them for their travel expenses and you're donations will help pay for those.

We don't need much; about $1000 should come pretty close to covering our expenses. But that's just a little bit more than a struggling New York director and a grad. student playwright can pay for out of pocket. We're hoping friends and supporters like you can pitch-in and help us along. Every donation, no matter what amount, will help us make this play a success.

Thank you! 

Here's the link one more time: http://www.indiegogo.com/afroginboilingwater?a=21564