Last Fall, we celebrated our first Grackle Student reading. This Spring, we’re following it up with a night to highlight the work of the writers who teach the classes at Grackle and Grackle.
This reading will featuring short, 8 minute readings by (most of) our writers:
We can’t speak 100 languages. We can do the next best thing: align our brains in the thought patterns, progressions, and images those languages produce. We can read books in translation. And that’s why wetarted the Grackle and Grackle Book Club. Join us in the discussion of (mostly) contemporary books-in-translation.
The Book of Everything.
The Book of Everything
by Guus Kuijer.
Translated from the Dutch by John Nieuwenhuizen.
At no risk of hyperbole, this lives among the most perfect, most sparkling books I’ve ever read. While it is a YA book, it deals with issues of abuse. But it is also a happy book, a sort of impossible book I love. It is timely.
.
Yoko Towada wrote Memoirs of a Polar Bear in Japanese, then translated it to German. Susan Bernofsky
translated it into English. Towada blurs the lines between animals and humans, freedom and imprisonment, mothers and children in her quest to discover what it is to live. It is slim, but it took me a long time to read. Precocious teens may like. Here is the link to the New York Times Book Review of it.
This book club selection is the harks-back-to-the-golden-age-of-sci-fi epic novel from Cixin Liu. President Obama called it “wildly imaginitive” in his interview with the New York Times Book Editor. It is a page-turner full of empathetic characters and big questions, winner of the Hugo Award, and just what you want to kick off the summer with. A good beginning for the summer reads.The Three-Body Problem was written in Chinese by Cixin Liu, and translated to English by Ken Liu. Read more about it here.
Head of the Saint was written by Brazilian writer Soccoro Accioli, and translated from the Portuguese by 
Daniel Hahn. It tells the story of a young boy on a quest to find his family in a small village after the deat of his mother. I’ll post a full review in a couple weeks, until then this is a nice start. This is a YA novel adults will also love.
A General Theory of Oblivion was written by Angolan author Jose Eduardo Aguilusa, and is also translated by Daniel Hahn. It recently won the Mann Booker Prize. Read more about it here.
Antígona González is a novel in poems, written in Spanish by Sara Uribe and translated by Houstonian John Pluecker. It tells the story of a woman looking for the body of her disappeared brother, and it was longlisted for the Best Translated Books Award in 2017. Read more about it here. Hopefully, he’ll join the book club and talk translation with us.
Payment Information: We’ll have a donation jar in the room where you can pay a suggested price of $10 a class; if you can’t pay, or want to donate less, that’s okay. We want you here! In either event, if you intend to join follow this link to a page that looks like this, but at the bottom there is a registration button! Registration is free — but do let us know if you’re coming!
Please add options I don’t have here in the comments, and I’ll add them to the list.
artmix labor day camp: september 5-8th:
for artists ages 3-15 years
students will enjoy creative, skill building fun, as they draw, paint and sculpt, and make masterpieces inspired by artists and artisans of the great state of texas!
Congregation Emanuel on Sunset at Mandell
is offering free childcare for parents trying to clean up. Children must be toilet trained. (FILLED)
City Art Works Parents whose children are not in school the week of September 6-9th may bring them to City ArtWorks studios in Spring Branch for art classes from 10am to noon Tuesday through Friday. Children who show proof of free-lunch certificates or whose homes have flooded are welcomed at no charge. All others will be registered at a reduced rate for $120 for the four days of two hour-classes.
Conmigo With HISD and other schools out again next week, Conmigo Spanish is hosting a “Harvey Day Camp” next Friday, Sept 8th from 9 – 2 p.m. $50 per child. Ages 4-8. Register by emailing conmigospanish@gmail.com. Spots are limited to first 20.
Discover Gymnastics Due to HISD’s postponed school start date with affects from Hurricane Harvey, we will be offering Camp on Tuesday, Sept.5th through Friday, Sept.8th. Full Days and Half Days are available. Early Drop Off and Late Pick Up will NOT be available. Limited spaces open for Camp next week. Please call us at 713-680-0045 if you need to enroll in Camp.
Figlia Foods Cooking Camp 3 hour camps, 3 days, $180.
Gymboree I received an email from Sarah on the list you guys are compiling and wanted to share that all 4 of the Gymboree centers are open and hosting community open gym from 9:00-2:00. We are going to be open Sat, Sun and even on labor day to invite families in. This is the least we can do to give back to the community.
Mad Science Price varies according to location. Between 100 and 250 dollars.
Main Street Theater $30 a day.
Monart Camps half priced.
Museum of Natural Science Camp from 8 to 3, a pop-up camp, $30 a day.
Language Kids We have reopened a Spanish immersion summer camp at the Bellaire location for next week. We know many parents are struggling with the devastating effects of Hurricane Harvey. Some parents are dealing with flooded homes and other parents need to get back to work, and most school districts have postponed the start of classes until September 11. Children need to get back into a routine, but also to have fun, play and learn. We hope this can help. If your home was flooded, we can provide your child with a scholarship. (FILLED)
Nature Discovery Center — I heard they are offering classes, but cannot find a link. (FILLED)
Rice University is working on a program for its staff. I imagine other companies are, too.
Texas Rock Gym $65 a day, $290 a week Please plan to pack a lunch and snacks. If circumstances make it difficult for you to do so, just let us know ahead of time and we will make arrangements to have food for your child. Due to staffing limits we will have to cap participation to 50 kids per day.
The Tailored Teacher Drop off care for demo work or just a parent break after the week. We will be available Saturday 9/2, and Monday, 9/4- Friday 9/8. Follow this link to sign up. Select Parents Night Out (yes, we know it’s actually for Day!) and the day and time you will be dropping your children off. https://
Urban Movement $20 from 9 to 1 per day.
YMCA Camps Day long YMCA camps. $80 a week or free if you have YMCA childcare already. Several locations participate, camp is from 7 am to 6 pm.
Kompany Kids on 2030 Post Oak in the Galleria area is open beginning Tuesday. I can’t find details but they can be contacted at 713-621- 4006.
ars or Tuts has a special extension of their summer camps broken down into three different age groups. It costs $150 and is 9 am to 3 pm
Friday Nite Live has free childcare from September 5th to 7th to aide in Harvey recovery.
Please download this print-friendly version, if you like:
Valentine i carry
Here is a friendlier .pdf version: Valentine Red Red Rose
Deciding to throw our hats into a city rich in writing institutions and ideas was a big decision for Grackle and Grackle, founded by Raj Mankad and Miah Arnold in 2015. We wanted to contribute to the city we love, and to extend the presence of literature and story into spaces less traditional and less represented. We have been working as creative consultants as writers and literary experts to businesses and nonprofits; we are setting the groundwork for creating a small literary publishing house for poetry and novels; and we join the talented cohort of other organizations in teaching writing workshops.
With the dedication of this website comes our dedication to work for Houston to make its stories known, its storytellers celebrated, and its literary institutions well known.
We would like to thank our frineds at Core Design Studio for gorgeously crafting the website.
