Grownups Read Things They Wrote as Kids went really well

Last Monday, upstairs at the Victory Cafe, I hosted the very first Grownups Read Things They Wrote as Kids — an evening of childhood poems, schoolwork, and diary readings. I was really worried that nobody would show up, and that I’d have to read from my Grade 1 journal all alone, for an hour.

But that didn’t happen. The night was amazingly well-attended (standing room only on a Monday night), and everyone who read did a great job. readings were funny, and sad, and embarrassing, and wonderful.

And, the night caught the attention of some media-types. On Monday morning, Tori Allen talked about it on her What’s Goin’ On column. Then Gadzooks featured GRTTWAK in its latest episode. And today, Leah McLaren wrote about it in her Globe column.

Grownups Read Things They Wrote as Kids was so much fun the first time, I’ve decided to do it again. I’ve booked the sequel for Monday, April 30, 2007 at 8:00 PM, upstairs at The Victory Cafe.

That means if you couldn’t make it to the first one, you have some time to track down that old diary or get your mom to send you that shoebox full of schoolwork.

I’ll post everything related to the reading series at http://www.danmisener.com/read/

Straight back to ’88

Just in time for my poorly named evening of reading (Adults Read Things They Wrote as Kids), a package from my Mom arrived in the mail:

Inside, I found five scribblers.* They were all journals from elementary school at Sackville Centennial. There’s some great stuff inside, and I’m looking forward to reading from these on Monday. Too bad I don’t have an overhead projector, because there are some great illustrations inside.

Thanks, Mom!

_{* If you don’t know what a scribbler is, you may not be from the East Coast. A scribbler is another word for the type of notebook, or workbook, you’d use in elementary school. The OED defines scribbler as: “A scribbling-book or pad.”}

I need stuff you wrote as a kid

Update: Looking for information about Grownups Read Things They Wrote as Kids? Visit danmisener.com/read

Do you still have anything you wrote as a kid? A poem? A book report? A diary?

I want you to read it out loud. In front of people.

I think most of us have a collection of stuff from our younger days sitting in a box somewhere. We cart it around from apartment to apartment, strangely attached. We have no practical use for this stuff, but at the same time, we don’t have the heart to throw it away.

So let’s put an end to that, shall we?

On Monday, February 19, 2007 at 8:00 PM, upstairs at The Victory Cafe, I’m hosting an evening of drinks, laughs, and adults reading funny, sad, and/or embarrassing things they wrote as children.

Here are the rules:

1. You have to be the one who wrote it, as a kid
2. You have to be the one who reads it, as an adult
3. It has to be short (<5 minutes-ish)

It will be free. And it should be fun. But it will only be fun if people actually attend, and bring things they wrote as kids.

So clean out your closet. Dust off that shoebox of grade school love letters. Call up your mom in Newfoundland and get her to send you that old book report. Then show up, with cash for a drink from the bar downstairs.

Backstory: Over the holidays, Jenna and I were visiting her parents in Kingsville. She came across an old diary, and we spent a good chunk of the afternoon reading it aloud to each other. On their own, the entries were really sweet and funny, but they were even sweeter and funnier out loud. So I made it a New Year’s Resolution to start a reading series. This evening of reading is the first step towards that.

P.S. I also need a clever name for this evening. Got one for me?