Acclaimed Author/Illustrator Vera B. Williams Returns To PS 29 This Friday!

PS 29 has the privilege this Friday, May 9th of hosting a return visit from acclaimed author/illustrator/activist Vera B. Williams, best known for A Chair for My Mother. Ms. Williams will will share her work with our second graders. Here's a bit about her sources of inspiration, in her own words:

I love woods, the moon, rivers. . . But my writing was mostly flavored in the soup pot of family and New York City's multi-ethnic neighborhoods. Mine was a fiercely scrapping, loud-talking, loving but unsettled family struggling to make a living, as were so many around us. We were also radicals, world meddlers, people lovers, and lovers of literature, art, and music. My books seem to be telling something of all that and, at the same time, celebrating it.

Parents, just click the slideshow to purchase Williams' books via the PS 29 Amazon School Rewards Program.

In addition to Williams, the PS 29 2007-2008 In-School Literary Series, featuring a guest author per grade, has so far included Richard Lewis (First Grade), Kam Mak, (Third Grade) and Jacqueline Woodson (Fifth Grade). Rounding out the series will be illustrator Meredith Hamilton (Kindergarten) next Wednesday, May 14th and author/illustrator Nina Crews (Fourth Grade) next Thursday, May 15th. Details about next week's visits to follow!

Author Richard Lewis Visits PS 29's First Grade!

The first grade, in conjunction with their April poetry unit, had a very special workshop today with Richard Lewis, a teacher, author, and founding director of The Touchstone Center for Children.

In addition to his teaching, Richard Lewis has edited and written many books about the poetic and imaginative life of childhood, including Miracles: Poems by Children of the English–speaking World; There Are Two Lives: Poems by Children from Japan; and, most recently, When Thought is Young: Reflections on Teaching and The Poetry of the Child and Living By Wonder: The Imaginative Life of Childhood. 

Mr. Lewis has collaborated with many well-known illustrators, including Ezra Jack Keats (In A Spring Garden), Ashley Bryan (Moon, For What Do You Wait?), Ed Young (All of You Was Singing and In The Night Still Dark) and Debra Frasier (In the Space of the Sky, which he read with the children today, and pages from which are included above).

Touchstone Center Publications recently published a number of original poems that Mr. Lewis created for his work with children, including Each Sky Has Its Words (illustrated by Gigi Alvare); The Bird of Imagining (illustrated by children from New York public schools); Cave: An Evocation of the Beginnings of Art (illustrated by Elizabeth Crawford), and A Tree Lives (illustrated by Noah Baen).  

Parents, if your child came home today with a tiny envelope full of light and air and a head brimming with playful thoughts, Mr. Lewis and the Touchstone Theatre Ensemble will present Wondrous Light, Wondrous Air, a poetry and art-making workshop, on Saturday, May 10th at 2:00 PM at Poets House @ the Mulberry Street Branch of the New York Public Library, 10 Jersey Street (between Lafayette Ave. and Mulberry St.). Free Admission. For information: 212-431-7920, Ext.2219.

PS 29 Visiting Author Jacqueline Woodson

Principal Melanie Raneri Woods has invited author Jacqueline Woodson to read and discuss her books with our Fifth Graders, next Monday, March 10th! In addition, the new school-wide read-aloud is Visiting Day, a Woodson classic. If you are interested in purchasing Jacqueline Woodson books for home, your purchases through our Amazon School Rewards links support PS 29! Click on the slideshow!

March is Arts Month at PS 29!

Monday, March 3rd, 9:00 AM, BAM African Dance & Music Beat Residencies Meeting

Planning Meeting, BAM African Dance Beat and Music Beat Visiting Artists Residencies. 3rd grade teachers, visiting artists, Assistant Principal Dawn Pender. Faculty planning meeting for the new 9-week BAM residencies, which culminate in the 3rd grade's attendance of the 2008 DanceAfrica performance at BAM on May 21st, 10:30 AM. More details about the residencies to follow.

Friday, March 7th, 7-9 PM, THE PS 29 TALENT SHOW!!

The Talent Show takes place in the PS 29 Auditorium! Don't miss it!

Monday, March 10th, 9:30 AM-11:15 PM, Jacqueline Woodson Visits PS 29!

Author Jacqueline Woodson Visits Fifth Grade. Ms. Woodson, a recipient of both Caldecott and Newberry Medals, has been invited to come speak with our 5th graders!  She is the second visiting author in this year's in-school Authors Series! Stay tuned for information about authors visiting other grades. 

Wednesday March 12th, 8:45 AM 2nd Grade Show #1!

2nd Grade Music, Art and Drama Performance: Classes 2-307, 2-311 and 2-318. In the Auditorium.

Friday, March 14th, 8:30 AM PTA Arts Commitee Meeting

PTA Arts Committee Meeting, Room 323. All interested parents are welcome to attend!

Tuesday, March 18th Band Performance!

2nd- and 3rd-Year Band Performance. (Details/time to be announced.)

Wednesday March 19th, 8:45 AM 2nd Grade Show #2!

2nd Grade Music, Art and Drama Performance Classes 2-309, 2-306 and 2-308. In the Auditorium.

Monday March 24th-Friday, March 29th, Nigerian Textile Artist Foly Kolade, PS 29 Artist-in-Residence!

Foly Kolade will hold a one-week residency, working full days throughout the week in the Art Studio with Visual Art Teacher Kristen Adamczyk.  This residency is the 2nd this year in the three-part PS 29 Artists-in-Residence program via City Lore, an organization founded in 1986 to produce programs and publications that convey the richness of New York City's cultural heritage.

Tuesday March 25th, 6:00-7:30 PM, FAMILY ART WORKSHOP  WITH FOLY KOLADE 

Center for Arts Education/PS 29 Parents As Arts Partners Family Arts Workshop with Visiting Artist Foly Kolade, Room 323.

Wednesday March 26th, 7:00 PM, Marc Ribot in Concert!! 

Toxic Muffin leads off this concert! In the PS 29 auditorium. Watch for flyers! Buy tickets!!

Friday, March 28th, 6:30 PM, Vital Theatre's The Bully at PS 29!

Vital Theatre presents The Bully in the PS 29 auditorium. Buy tickets!!!

PS 29 2008 Authors Series Launches Tomorrow with A Special Visit from Author/Ilustrator Kam Mak!

Acclaimed Hong Kong-born author/illustrator Kam Mak will lead off the PS 29 2008 In-School Authors Series tomorrow morning, Wednesday, January 23rd with presentations to the third grade.

Mr. Mak is the author/illustrator of My Chinatown: One Year in Poems.
Other authors in the series will be announced soon, with one author's visit per grade planned.

Mr.Mak moved with his family to the United States in 1971 and settled in New York City. His interest in painting was awakened through involvement with City Art Workshop, an organization that enabled inner-city youths to explore the arts. Mr. Mak continued to pursue his interest in painting while attending the School of Visual Arts, earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1984 through a four-year full scholarship.

Mr. Mak‘s artwork has been exhibited at the Society of Illustrators Annual Exhibition and The Original Show (dedicated to the Best of Children’s Picture books). His paintings have appeared in books and covers produced by numerous publishers. Mr. Mak’s current book title, My Chinatown: One Year in Poems, is an autobiographical tale about a little boy growing up in Chinatown. Earning a starred review from Kirkus, My Chinatown was a Parent’s Choice Recommended Award Winner (Parents’ Choice Foundation). The Dragon Prince, published by HarperCollins, won Mr. Mak the Oppenheim Platinum Medal and National Parenting Publication Gold Metal for Best Children’s Picture Book. Mr. Mak was recently awarded the Gold Medal for the cover art to The Kite Rider and Silver Medals for the cover art to My Chinatown from the Society of Illustrators 45th Annual Exhibition. Mr. Mak is the recipient of the prestigious Steven Dohanos Award for Artistic Excellence from the Society of Illustrators.

In January 2008, the United States Postal Service introduced Mr. Mak’s new 12-year series of stamps celebrating the Lunar New Year. A new cycle begins with the Year of the Rat.

Mr. Mak is Vice Chair of the Illustration Department at the Fashion Institute of Technology and is presently working on series of paintings inspired by imagery of animals as food in Chinatown. He lives in Brooklyn with his family.

Click the flyer for information on Mr. Mak's special visit to PS 29.

Buy Tickets Online for PTA Events!

The PTA is pleased to announce that you can now buy tickets online for the Leap Into Spring Party on February 29th and for the PS 29 Literary Salon event with critic Lee Siegel on January 25th!

PS 29 Salon 2008 Literary Series Presents Acclaimed Critic Lee Siegel

The PS 29 Salon 2008 Literary Series gets underway on Friday, January 25th at 7:00 PM with critic Lee Siegel, who will read from his new book, Against The Machine: Being Human in the Age of the Electronic Mob. The evening will be moderated by Edwin Frank, editor, New York Review of Books. There will be a discussion, as well as books for sale. Babysitting and refreshments provided! Admission: $5.

Lee Siegel is a senior editor at The New Republic, author of the essay collection Falling Upwards, and winner of the 2002 National Magazine Award for Reviews and Criticism.

About Against the Machine:
From the author hailed by the New York Times Book Review for his “drive-by brilliance” and dubbed by the New York Times Magazine as “one of the country’s most eloquent and acid-tongued critics” comes a ruthless challenge to the conventional wisdom about the most consequential cultural development of our time: the Internet.

Want to read the book before the event? Buy it via Amazon and 6-7 percent goes to the PS 29 PTA!

Brooklyn Author/Illustrator Kam Mak @ MoCA this Saturday, 11/10!

Local Carroll Gardens resident and acclaimed author/illustrator Kam Mak takes part in the Museum of Chinese in America's Living Arts series with a reading this Saturday, November 10th at 2:30 PM from his luminous book, My Chinatown: One Year in Poems. The artist shares stories from his Chinatown childhood and shows kids his original art along with objects that inspired his book. FREE with museum admission ($2 adults; free for kids under 12). Advance registration is appreciated. Phone: (212) 619-4785. Ages: 5-12. MoCA is a skip over the bridge. (Pictured: Kam Mak's painting, Lion Dance, from My Chinatown.)