The literacy Unexpected: Linda Watanabe Mc Ferrin and Mahru Elahi

March 28
IWL Opening Night

The Intergenerational Writers lab: Traversing the literary unexpected

A collaboration of Kearny Street Workshop, Intersection for the Arts, and Galería de la Raza

Join Kearny Street Workshop, Galería de la Raza, and Intersection for the Arts for the opening night of the 4th annual 2007 Intergenerational Writers Lab, a literary program to explore multiple forms of creative expression and generate new work. The program features three months of workshops led by seven lead artists, and four public readings and performances.

The first public IWL 2007 event is on Wednesday, March 28th, 2007, at Kearny Street Workshop, and features readings and performances from travel writer and essayist Linda Watanabe McFerrin, poet Mahru Elahi, and four of the twelve IWL workshop participants.

Date: Wednesday, March 28th

Time: 7pm

Location: KSW's space180, 180 capp street, @ 17th street, san francisco

Cost: $7 - 15 sliding scale.

The 2007 Intergenerational Writers Lab is supported by a grant from the Irvine Foundation.
About the artists

Mahru Elahi returned to California in 2003, after years of teaching in New York City public schools. She currently works as an artist-in-residence for WritersCorps, a project of the San Francisco Arts Commission. Since relocating to the Bay Area, she has performed at Intersection for the Arts, La Pena Cultural Center, California College of the Arts, University of San Francisco, and Jon Sims Center for the Arts. Mahru was awarded a 2006 residency from the Hedgebrook Writers-In-Residence Program and participated in the Voices of Our Nations Writing Workshop, where she studied poetry with Ruth Forman. Her writing has appeared in many publications, and she is author of a graphic novel, The Thorn Garden. Mahru’s poetry is featured in the 2006 anthology, Let Me Tell You Where I’ve Been: New Writing by Women of the Iranian Diaspora. She is a graduate of UC Santa Cruz, and earnersity in Ned her Masters of Science in Teaching from New School Univew York City.

Poet, travel writer, novelist and workshop leader Linda Watanabe McFerrin is a contributor to numerous journals, newspapers, magazines, anthologies and online publications including the Washington Post, the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle Magazine, Modern Bride, Travelers' Tales, and Salon.com. She is the author of two poetry collections and the editor of the 4th edition of Best Places Northern California. A winner of the Katherine Anne Porter Prize for Fiction, her work has also appeared in Wild Places and American Fiction. Her novel, Namako: Sea Cucumber was published by Coffee House Press and named a Best Book for the Teen-Age by the New York Public Library. Her collection of award-winning short stories, The Hand of Buddha, was published in 2000. She is also a contributor and publishing partner in Wild Writing Women: Stories of World Travel and editor, with Laurie McAndish King, of Hot Flashes: sexy little stories and poems. Linda has served as a judge for the San Francisco Literary Awards, the Kiriyama Prize the Josphine Miles Awards for Literary Excellence and as a Loft Mentor. She is currently at work on novel set all over the globe. For additional information, go to: http://www.lwmcferrin.com


The 4th Intergenerational Writers Lab (IWL) 2007 is a unique program with three of SF’s oldest arts organizations that challenges writers to thoroughly explore and develop writing. The IWL 2007 program takes place March 10 – July 11, 2007, and features workshops, public readings, and a chapbook publication. IWL workshops are led by playwrights Octavio Solis and Prince Gomolvilas, essayist and critic Thy Tran, poets Genny Lim and Mahru Elahi, novelist and travel writer Linda Watanabe McFerrin, and poet & performer Uchechi Kalu.

The goals of the IWL program include the following:

1) to provide twelve local emerging writers with the opportunity to challenge, develop, and expand their writing by working with emerging and established writers in a variety of genres;
2) to contribute to the development of new literary forms and language that incorporate multiple forms of creative expression;
3) to provide emerging writers with the opportunity to connect and work with each other and with established writers in the literary world;
4) to provide the community with an opportunity to engage with new work and new explorations of form and language;
5) to contribute to the wealth of independent literary publications by publishing a new chapbook from KSW Press, Galería de la Raza, & Intersection for the Arts that highlights work by exciting new writers committed to exploring new forms and voices..
About the Collaborating Organizations

Kearny Street Workshop is a multidisciplinary arts organization based in San Francisco's Mission District at KSW's exhibition and arts events space, space180. The mission of Kearny Street Workshop is to produce and present art that enriches and empowers Asian Pacific American communities. Our vision is to achieve a more just society by connecting Asian Pacific American(APA) artists with community members to give voice to our cultural, historical, and contemporary issues. For more information please visit http://www.kearnystreet.org.

Galería De La Raza is an interdisciplinary space for art, thought and activism – Galería organizes cutting-edge art exhibitions, as well as multimedia presentations, performances and spoken-word events, screenings, computer-generated murals and educational activities. The Mission of the Galeria de la Raza is to foster public awareness and appreciation of Chicano/Latino art and culture. For more information please visit http://www.galeriadelaraza.org

Intersection for the Arts is San Francisco's oldest alternative art space (est. 1965) and has a long history of presenting new and experimental work in the fields of literature, theater, music, dance and the visual arts, and also in nurturing and supporting the Bay Area's cultural community through service, technical support, and mentorship programs. Intersection provides a place where provocative ideas, diverse art forms, artists, and audiences can intersect one another. For more information please visit http://www.theintersection.org

Linda wantnabe Mc Ferrin and Mahru Elahi