Beneath a trapdoor inside a small shopfront on Nicholson Street Mall Footscray, there are 100 Storys/storeys of mysterious lands, creepy creatures and untold tales….
Well, not quite. 100 Story Building is a social enterprise centre for young writers inspired by David Egger’s building and project 826 Valencia in San Francisco.
Their mission is to provide children and young people from culturally and linguistically diverse and marginalised backgrounds the opportunity to foster their creative voice and to have their ideas shared and respected.
Their ambassadors are Melbourne authors Alice Pung, Sally Rippin and Maxine Beneba Clarke (look out for Maxine’s achievement award!).
They regularly hold school excursions in their magical, imaginative space, full of creative props and prompts….
….a time machine and secret room sshhhhh….
as well as incursions within schools and communities centres, publishing programs and activations for galleries and festivals.
Every school holidays kids can be part of 100 Story Holidays at 100 Story Building. 100 Story Holidays are story-making workshops for readerly/writerly/comically-minded children aged 7-12 years.
This winter school holidays you can visit some of the levels below the trapdoor!
Best of all – all of 100 Story Holidays support their free writing programs for children and young people in marginalised communities.
To support their work you can also buy a copy of Early Harvest, their annual children’s fiction publication for children by children. A team of young editors (ages 10-12) decide the theme, commission stories and artworks, build a structure, select and edit the stories and produce the magazine. The editors are mentored by publishing professionals.
