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Literary Activism

Action Item: PageSlayers Summer Camp

Help raise money for a writing summer camp for kids!

Leila Roy

Staff Writer

After a lengthy stint as a children's bookseller, Leila Roy took a step sideways into the library world. There, she does the same thing she did as a bookseller—matching people with stories in any and all formats, whether print, audio, film, comic, or some newfangled hybrid—but doesn't have to deal with changing the tape on the cash register. She lives in Maine with her husband, where she runs her small-town library and occasionally tries to rescue wildlife from her cat, who is a murderer. In addition to talking books at her long-running blog, Bookshelves of Doom, she's a weekly columnist at Kirkus Reviews. Blog: Bookshelves of Doom Twitter: @bkshelvesofdoom

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Late last year, librarian Angie Manfredi took to Twitter with a challenge: How many classrooms in need could the book community fund over the course of one day? Other librarians and bloggers and authors and industry folk joined in, and it quickly became apparent that there were a whole lot of people out there just itching to do some good, whether by spreading the word or opening their wallets or both.

On Inauguration Day, we (we being Kelly Jensen and Leila Roy) put together a list of classrooms in need, with a focus on classrooms that served immigrant, refugee, and ESL communities. With the help of Book Twitter, every single one of those classrooms was fully funded by the end of the day. Since then, every Friday, we’ve continued to highlight and advocate for similar classrooms, and again and again Book Twitter has come through.

Now, we’re bringing our Fund ‘Em Fridays to you, the Book Riot Community. Please boost, donate if you can, or even pick out a classroom to personally champion!

This week, in celebration of summer, we’ve got something a little different for you: A GoFundMe drive supporting the PageSlayers Summer Camp!

From their project page: 

PageSlayers Summer Camp is a 2016 Knight Arts Challenge Winner, bringing FREE creative writing summer camp sessions for rising 4th and 5th graders to Opa-locka, Florida. Starting June 19, 2017, each session will take place at Thrive (780 Fisherman Street, 2nd Floor, Opa-locka, FL 33054).

Three, two-week sessions will occur from June 19-July 28. Each session will have 15 campers, for a total of 45 over the six-weeks. Campers will study the art of poetry, fiction, creative non fiction, graphic novels, printmaking, and more. All sessions, materials, shirts, breakfast and lunch are provided to campers for FREE.

Now more than ever we need your support to make our six-week summer camp dream come true! With your help, PageSlayers will be able to hire professional, published writers of color to teach our young campers in Opa-locka. We’ll also use donations to procure materials for collaborative zines, and hold our end of the summer event on the evening of July 28: a free reading and exhibition held at The ARC in Opa-locka for the campers to perform an original piece of writing for an audience of friends, family, and the community!

They’re looking to raise $10,000, which is a lot of money—but I bet that between all of us, we can put a good dent in that.