While I have yet to become familiar with the works of Dave Eggers, the most notable of which include A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and McSweeney's publications and humor site, I have had the pleasure of exploring the fascinating creativity behind his non-profit writing and tutoring centers. 826 Chicago (there are also centers in Boston, Seattle, Valencia, NYC, Michigan and LA) provides after-school workshops, drop-in tutoring, in-school tutoring and a variety of programs to encourage and enhance expository and creative writing skills for students ages 6 to 18.To this end, 826CHI is not your average tutoring center. In order to get to your tutoring session, you would have to enter The Boring Store, a "cleverly disguised" spy shop that warns you on entrance: "Not a secret agent supply store." The boring rows of boxes and drawers belie an abundance of crazy spy gear, such as "Watergate Fingers", "Heated Stakeout Gloves", mustache disguise kits, wigs and Groucho glasses. On each boring box is written a non-description of its contents, such as, "The product within this box is not comprised of a thirty-three foot nylon rope and collapsible hook for grappling." Because, after all, this is NOT a secret agent supply store.
All the proceeds from the store help fund the tutoring programs, while the store itself sparks imagination and creativity among its students. The store is also quite handy when it comes to attracting potential volunteers who help facilitate the writing programs. Who wouldn't want to be part of this endeavor when faced with a banana posing as a cell-phone concealment device?
The Boring Store is located in Wicker Park at 1331 North Milwaukee Avenue--a stop in this series that, while not out of the way for those of us in Chicago, may inspire all of us toward something truly alternate. Indeed, there are ways in which we can, and must, think outside of that boring box.
[The pictures and content of this post are credited to an article by Brad Flora in the Windy Citizen.]
4 comments:
Ha! That is so cute...and fun! I love how it's called the boring store.
i miss you guys! are you coming out to the east coast at all this winter?
Wow! The Boring Store, who would have thought that with "boring" in the title, that it would be so much more!
Dave Eggers book is amazing. You should read it if you get the chance! It is hard to put down.
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