"What to Read if You're Poor" benefits writing collective

The Wooster Group will host "What to Read if You're Poor"--a panel discussion on literacy and poverty to benefit the Brooklyn-based writing collective Still Waters in a Storm.

Saturday, September 11, 7pm

The Performance Garage

33 Wooster Street (between Grand and Broome Streets), Manhattan

Panelists include world-renowned authors Peter Carey (Parrot and Olivier in America), Peter Hedges (The Heights), Richard Price (Lush Life), Adrian Nicole LeBlanc (Random Family) and Russell Banks (The Reserve), and a young writer from the Brooklyn collective.

Moderator: Kate Valk of The Wooster Group

The panel will be followed by drinks and conversation.

Suggested donation: $20, but any amount will be gratefully accepted. All proceeds will benefit Still Waters in a Storm.

For more information, or to make reservations, call 646-579-5025, or email stephenhaff@gmail.com. Donations by cash or check will be accepted at the door.

Still Waters in a Storm is a grassroots, storefront reading and writing collective in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Still Waters brings together Bushwick neighborhood residents of all ages (presently ages 5 to 56) to read, write, and listen to each other in what Richard Price calls an atmosphere of "agendaless empathy².

The celebrated writers in "What to Read if You're Poor" have each traveled to Bushwick and participated in the main activities of Still Waters: taking turns composing, reading aloud, and responding to what they hear in specific but non-judgmental ways. Through this process, they have been able to guide and inspire the Bushwick writers, person by person. In advance of each visit, the group read at least one of the guest author's books, which are expert models for their own writing and opportunities to imagine other people's inner lives, an important exercise in the practice of compassion.

Still Waters also offers individual, remedial literacy instruction for all levels and ages. All activities and services are free. Still Waters now includes upwards of 50 people and has been growing weekly since moving into a new, permanent home in May, a sanctuary for thought and peaceful self-expression, right there on the street in Bushwick.