{"id":724,"date":"2025-06-12T14:13:06","date_gmt":"2025-06-12T18:13:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/?p=724"},"modified":"2026-02-10T13:25:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T18:25:14","slug":"dc-end-of-year-reading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/dc-end-of-year-reading\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating a Year of Writing with our DC Community"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>Written by Rita Feinstein, DC Regional Manager<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Date: Tuesday, June 3rd, 2025<br>Location: Tenley-Friendship Library<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We were blown away by the turnout for our End-of-Year Reading! We invited all our young writers to share an excerpt of their work with a supportive audience of friends, family, and fellow writers. Tara Prakash, a longtime Writopian and now a graduating senior, co-emceed the event and showered each reader with praise. We heard a wide range of poetry, sci-fi, horror, fantasy, mystery, and more. At the end of the night, after a thought-provoking audience Q&amp;A, all our readers shared a favorite workshop memory from the school year, and much laughter ensued! It\u2019s been so wonderful watching our young writers build their craft and their community this past year, and these readings are a reminder of how essential it is for writers to have a supportive space where they can connect with each other over their love of the written word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Readers:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Cora Getz, age 10<\/li><li>Sophia Okere, age 10<\/li><li>Sagan Dockery, age 11<\/li><li>Alessa Eckmann, age 11<\/li><li>Ella Gardner, age 11<\/li><li>Magdalena Glenn, age 12<\/li><li>Naeemah Robinson, age 12<\/li><li>Sully Sullivan, age 13<\/li><li>Rohan Tatlow, age 14<\/li><li>Gabe Horowitz, age 15<\/li><li>Brookelyn Lee, age 16<\/li><li>Tara Prakash, age 18<\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Written by Rita Feinstein, DC Regional Manager Date: Tuesday, June 3rd, 2025Location: Tenley-Friendship Library We were blown away by the turnout for our End-of-Year Reading! We invited all our young writers to share an excerpt of their work with a supportive audience of friends, family, and fellow writers. Tara Prakash, a longtime Writopian and now &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-events","entry entry-center"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9aRpX-bG","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":726,"url":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/brooklyn-spring-2025-reading\/","url_meta":{"origin":724,"position":0},"title":"Sharing And Celebrating at the Brooklyn Library","author":"Elsa Berm\u00fadez","date":"June 13, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Written by Elsa Bermudez, Associate Director of Specialty Programs We had a beautiful end-of-trimester reading at the Brooklyn Public Library in Park Slope for our Brooklyn Lab writers on May 27th. For some of our readers, it was their first time sharing their work out loud for an audience. For\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Events&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Events","link":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/category\/events\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":665,"url":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/dc-scholastic-ceremony-2025\/","url_meta":{"origin":724,"position":1},"title":"DC Scholastic Ceremony 2025","author":"Rita Feinstein","date":"March 18, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"By Peter Quinn-Jacobs, Operations and Scholastic Awards Affiliate Manager, Writopia Lab and Rita Feinstein, Regional Manager, Writopia DC On Sunday, March 9th, we celebrated the regional winners of the Scholastic Writing Awards in the DC Metro Area. The ceremony, held at the UDC Theater of the Arts, opened with a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Events&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Events","link":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/category\/events\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":903,"url":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/dc-fall-reading-2025\/","url_meta":{"origin":724,"position":2},"title":"DC Writers Share the Accomplishments They Are Most Proud Of","author":"Rita Feinstein","date":"December 22, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Written by Rita Feinstein, D.C. Regional Manager On the evening of December 11th, 2025, DC families braved the cold to come support their young writers at our Fall Reading at the Tenley-Friendship Library. Co-hosts Gabe and Mason\u2014members of our advanced teen Creative Portfolio program\u2014brought flair, humor, and natural charisma to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Events&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Events","link":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/category\/events\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":955,"url":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/winter-brooklyn-reading-celebration\/","url_meta":{"origin":724,"position":3},"title":"Freedom and Possibilities: A Celebration in Brooklyn","author":"Bianca Turetsky","date":"April 10, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Written by Bianca Turetsky, Director Of Programs and the Brooklyn Region\u00a0\u00a0 On Tuesday evening, a small but mighty group of young writers and their loved ones battled subway delays, spring break plans, and joined together in the basement community room of the Park Slope Library to celebrate the end of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Events&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Events","link":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/category\/events\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Young writer speaking into microphone on stage","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG_7977.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG_7977.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG_7977.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG_7977.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG_7977.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":899,"url":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/uplifting-voices-through-adjudication\/","url_meta":{"origin":724,"position":4},"title":"Uplifting Voices through Adjudication","author":"Peter Quinn-Jacobs","date":"December 19, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Written by Peter Quinn-Jacobs, Associate Director of Operations On Saturday and Sunday, jurors gathered at our labs in New York and DC to read student writing that was submitted to the Scholastic Writing Awards this fall. As part of our commitment to uplifting teen voices, Writopia has been a steadfast\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Events&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Events","link":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/category\/events\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":981,"url":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/my-many-firsts-at-the-first-ever-dc-winter-retreat\/","url_meta":{"origin":724,"position":5},"title":"My Many Firsts at the First Ever DC Winter Retreat","author":"Madeline Arcaro","date":"April 29, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Written by Madeline Arcaro, Administrative Associate and Assistant Instructor In the spirit of winter relaxation and renewal, on the weekend of February 13th we held our first-ever DC-area winter retreat at Camp Hanover in Mechanicsville, Virginia! We split into two tracks \u2013 creative writing and RPGs \u2013 for a full\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Events&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Events","link":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/category\/events\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Young Writers standing on a bridge","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG_7131.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG_7131.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG_7131.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG_7131.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG_7131.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=724"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":941,"href":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724\/revisions\/941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}