April 5 - May 31

The Opportunity of Fiction: A Writing Workshop with Claire Light

Mondays, 7 - 9PM
SomArts Cultural Center, 934 Brannan Street (between 8th and 9th streets), San Francisco

Class size: minimum of 8, maximum of 12.
Cost: $140 non-members, $120 for KSW members.
To register, please send a check for the full amount to: Kearny Street Workshop, 934 Brannan Street, San Francisco, CA 94103. Please include your name, contact information (phone number and email address if possible), and which class you are registering for. For questions, please contact program manager Samantha Chanse at 415.503.0520 or info@kearnystreet.org.

Class Description:
Much of contemporary literary fiction seems to concern itself with the author¹s selfhood and personal context, and indeed, the journey of fiction begins and ends with an examination of self and of one¹s own world. Yet the virtue and power of fiction reside very firmly in its ability to take both writer and reader away from what is known, familiar, and experienced. In fiction we begin to layer and facet the truth, making it more complex, and making ourselves more able to understand complexity.

In this class we will avail ourselves of the opportunity of fiction: to let us live alternate lives and moments impossible to us. We will study the basic craft elements of short prose fiction through readings and analyses of diverse writers. Then we will practice the craft through a multitude of in-class and take-home exercises. We will also investigate a variety of subjects, focusing on making the strange and other into the familiar and real. By the end of the class, each student will have completed a rough draft of a short story, and we will read each other¹s stories and discuss them, workshop style.

About the instructor:
Claire Light stepped down as Kearny Street Workshop's program manager to pursue her Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing (fiction) at San Francisco State University. She received her Bachelor's degree in creative writing from the University of Arizona in 1992 and subsequently studied contemporary history and cultural studies at Humboldt University of Berlin. She is also a graduate of the Clarion West Writer's Workshop, an intensive workshop/retreat for writers of speculative fiction. She is a co-founder and the literary editor of HYPHEN Magazine and has had her stories and articles published in various online and print zines and magazines, as well as in the chapbooks TOO MIXED UP and WRITINGS FROM THE LONG TABLE II.

April 8

A Night Out with Greg Pak: Meet the Dude Behind ROBOT STORIES

You've heard the buzz. Or maybe you haven't heard the buzz. Either way, filmmaker Greg Pak will be hanging out with KSW and discussing his wildly popular independent film ROBOT STORIES on Thursday, April 8. Just a week before the film's Opening Night Celebration & Bay Area premiere on April 16, Pak will be sharing the story behind ROBOT STORIES, tricks of the indie filmmaking trade, and showing select clips from the film. There will be ample time for Q & A.

Thursday, April 8, 2004
7 - 9PM
530 Hampshire (between 18th and Mariposa; Hampshire runs parallel between Potrero and Bryant)
Suite 406 (4th Floor)
San Francisco

$5 suggested donation to cover refreshments & cost of rental much appreciated.

Contact KSW program manager Samantha Chanse at 415.503.0520 or info@kearnystreet.org for more information.

About ROBOT STORIES
Winner of over 30 awards, "Robot Stories" is science fiction from the heart, four stories starring Tamlyn Tomita ("Joy Luck Club," "Babylon 5") and Sab Shimono ("The Big Hit," "Suture") in which utterly human characters struggle to connect in a world of robot babies and android office workers. The stories include: "My Robot Baby," in which a couple must care for a robot baby before adopting a human child; "The Robot Fixer," in which a mother tries to connect with her dying son by completing his toy robot collection; "Machine Love," in which an office worker android learns that he, too, needs love; and "Clay," in which an old sculptor must choose between natural death and digital immortality. John Petrakis of the Chicago Tribune calls the film "one of the most moving pieces I've seen all year" while Entertainment Insiders calls it "the kind of science fiction sophisticated audiences crave and deserve." http://www.robotstories.net/

About GREG PAK
Greg Pak is an award-winning writer and director whose first feature film, "Robot Stories," starring Tamlyn Tomita and Sab Shimono, has won eight awards, including Best Feature Film at the Rhode Island International Film Festival and Best Screenplay at the Hamptons International Film Festival. Greg's feature screenplay "Rio Chino" won the Pipedream Screenwriting Award at the 2002 IFP Market and a 2003 Rockefeller Media Arts Fellowship.

Greg's short film "Fighting Grandpa" has won twenty prizes, including a Student Academy Award, and has played in over fifty film festivals. Greg's comic shorts "Asian Pride Porn" and "All Amateur Ecstasy" are among the most viewed films at AtomFilms.com. His shorts "Mouse," "Po Mo Knock Knock," "Cat Fight Tonight" and "The Penny Marshall Project" have won awards and screened in dozens of film festivals around the world.

Greg edits FilmHelp.com and AsianAmericanFilm.com. He was the cinematographer of "The Personals," an Academy Award winning short documentary, and was recently named one of 25 Filmmakers to Watch by Filmmaker Magazine. Greg studied political science at Yale University, history at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, and film production at the NYU graduate film program. He is represented by Kara Baker-Young of the Gersh Agency, New York. www.gregpak.com

April 9 - May 1

Intergenerational Writers' Lab

A Poetry and Playwrighting Journey with Jaime Jacinto and Patty Cachapero

Presented by Kearny Street Workshop and Bindlestiff Studio

Join Kearny Street Workshop and Bindlestiff Studio for a poetry and playwrighting-suffused three weeks. The highly-acclaimed poet Jaime Jacinto and the emerging and promising playwright Patty Cachapero will guide audience members and participants through the readings, writing workshops, and artist salons that make up the Intergenerational Writers' Lab: A Poetry and Playwrighting Journey. All events are free! and open to the public. Advance registration required for writing workshops. For more information please contact info@kearnystreet.org or 415.503.0520. Or visit KSW at http://www.kearnystreet.org, Bindlestiff Studio at http://www.bindlestiffstudio.org

IWL Program Schedule of Events
**All events are free and open to the public. Donations much appreciated.

Friday, April 9, 2004
IWL 1: Kick-Off Event and Opening Reception
7 - 9 PM

Featuring Readings by Jaime Jacinto and Patty Cachapero
Bindlestiff Studio, 505 Natoma (@ 6th Street, between Howard and Mission Streets)

Wednesday and Thursday, April 14 & 15
IWL 2: Put It Down n' Get It Up There Sooner Or Later, Yup: A workshop for the craft of playwriting taught by Patty Cachapero.
6.30 - 9.30PM
**Advance registration required! Please contact Sam at info@kearnystreet.org or 415.503.0520.
YouthSpeaks
2169 Folsom, (between 17th and 18th sts)., SF

Workshop Description:
Participants will practice the craft of playwriting in a supportive workshop environment. Writing exercises will encourage each participant to translate his/her poetic imagination from the page to the stage and an emphasis will be placed on taking a detailed look at plot and character development. Participants will primarily focus on a play brainstorm (a beginning, middle and an ending) that may be further developed beyond the last day of the workshop. Brief excerpts from selected plays and literary essays will be read and discussed. Each participant will be challenged to consider and reconsider how he/she might inject new blood into the life of American theatre. As part of the workshop's development process each participant will have the opportunity to make a presentation of his/her writing/writing process in an informal public setting.

Friday, April 16
IWL 3: A Conversation with Patty Cachapero and Jaime Jacinto
7 - 9PM
Bindlestiff Studio, 505 Natoma
(@ 6th Street, between Howard and Mission Streets)

Wednesday and Thursday, April 21 & 22
IWL 4: Poetry Writing Workshop with Jaime Jacinto
6.30 - 9.30PM
**Advance registration required! Please contact Sam at info@kearnystreet.org or 415.503.0520.
YouthSpeaks
2169 Folsom, (between 17th and 18th sts)., SF

Friday and Saturday, April 30 & May 1
IWL 5: Workshop Readings and Closing Weekend
7 - 9PM
Bindlestiff Studio, 505 Natoma (@ 6th Street, between Howard and Mission Streets)

About the Artists:
Patty Cachapero recently earned a M.F.A. in Playwriting from the Writing for Performance Program at the California Institute of the Arts, where she was mentored by Suzan-Lori Parks. At CalArts Patty's play ANAK TI DIABLO was presented as a stage reading and her play MACARTHUR'S QUERIDA was presented as a full production. Patty earned a B.F.A. in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University. Patty was a principal writer/director/actor with Tongue in a Mood, Bindlestiff Studio's former resident theatre company, whose interdisciplinary productions took a satirical look at Pilipino culture and were presented in numerous venues including the Forum in San Francisco's Center for the Arts, Theatre of Yugen, and Bindlestiff Studio. Patty's solo performances, CINDERELLA and FOUNTAIN, were presented by several organizations such as Brava! For Women in the Arts, Kearny Street Workshop, and the San Francisco Book Fair's Allen Ginsberg Poets Café. Patty trained as an actor with Anne Bogart and the members of the Saratoga International Theatre Institute in San Francisco and in Saratoga Springs, New York, at the American Conservatory Theatre and at the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts.

Born in Manila and raised in San Francisco's Richmond District, Jaime Jacinto is a poet, teacher, and cultural worker, whose contributions to the Bay Area arts scene and Asian Pacific American Arts community include a variety of publications, artistic performances and educational forums. His poetry, translations, and literary reviews have appeared in a number of anthologies and magazines. His first collection of poems, Heaven Is Just Another Country, published by Keary Street Workshop, was nominated for the 1997 Bay Area Book Reviewers Association Awards. In addition to writing poetry, he has been an editor and translator. In 1985, he was a founding member of the Bay Area Pilipino American Writer's Workshop. Currently, he teaches reading and composition to bilingual / ESL students at San Francisco State University. He lives in Fairfax, CA with Victoria Sales-Gomez and their two daughters, Camille and Alexis.