Brooklyn Superhero Supply Co.06:26 Apr 20 2011
Times Read: 1,251
372 5th Ave
(at 6th St)
Brooklyn, NY 11215
Neighborhood: Park Slope
(718) 499-9884
www.superherosupplies.com
the website is temporarily down not sure for how long.
This is more of a review for 826NYC (the youth writing
center supported by the superhero store), for which I've
volunteered a few times, but I'll have a few notes on the
superhero aspect at the end.
Let's make this simple: volunteering for 826NYC is the most
fun you can have while feeling good about yourself and
humanity. I'm grateful not to be unemployed in the current
economy, but if I did lose my job, I would be here every day
- most of their volunteer opportunities are during the school
day, with school groups that come on field trips, or with
after-school homework help. Occasionally there are
superhero store shifts or workshops that you can volunteer
for on the weekends, and all I can say is: DO IT! So, so much
fun.
Here's how it works: you have to go to one volunteer
orientation session, which lasts a couple of hours and is just
an explanation of how the center works and what kinds of
programs they have. After that, you can sign up on an ad-hoc
basis for the workshops (they run over a period of 2-3
weeks, once a week, for 2-3 hours, and have different
themes, usually writing a movie script or comic book or RPG
or short story or photography or something). You can also
sign up for a regular weekly shift as a homework-helper,
superhero supply-seller, or something else - you're most
likely to get a shift if you have weekday availability. Or you
can think up your own workshop!
The workshop I helped with most recently was a short-story
deal. I was partnered one-on-one with an adorable
neighborhood girl. She and I were given step-by-step
instructions on coming up with an original idea, fleshing out
a plot, creating illustrations, etc. At the end of the second
week, she had an actual bound book in her hands to take
home, featuring her story and illustrations. Amazing. (The
story was about a race of sluglike aliens that attack
Brooklyn, but then are stopped in their tracks by a young
chemistry enthusiast who sprinkles salt on them. Copyright
cute-girl-from-Brooklyn.)
It's so fun because the kids want to be there, they're clearly
loving the secret back-room study space, there are no
grades or evaluations, and everybody just has a great time.
There are some Park Slope kids with helicopter moms (one
mom videotaped the final family show&tell of our workshop
"for my blog"), but the parents aren't allowed to stay for the
workshop so you can just deal with the kids, who are great.
And there are also non-privileged kids who travel long
distances to come here because they love writing and it's
free, so how can you not love that.
Now for the superhero store: they take ordinary, cheap
objects (buckets full of sand, empty spraypaint cans) and
re-label them creatively so that they are anti-gravity spray
or 25 oz COURAGE. I mean, that is genius. And all the money
goes to support the writing center. It's a great antidote for
the crusty cynicism the city can sometimes foster in me - I
recommend a once-a-week dose to melt your icy Grinch
heart into a puddle of love .
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