{"id":888,"date":"2025-12-15T14:33:41","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T19:33:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/?p=888"},"modified":"2026-02-10T13:57:25","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T18:57:25","slug":"hartsdale-reading-celebration-saturday-december-13th-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/hartsdale-reading-celebration-saturday-december-13th-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Writers Share Across Age Groups in Westchester"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>Written by L\u00e9na Roy, Director of Teen Programs<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"889\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/hartsdale-reading-celebration-saturday-december-13th-2025\/00ce8eda-47ae-460c-80a7-57cab4070747\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/00CE8EDA-47AE-460C-80A7-57CAB4070747-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1920&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"2560,1920\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"00CE8EDA-47AE-460C-80A7-57CAB4070747\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/00CE8EDA-47AE-460C-80A7-57CAB4070747-scaled.jpg?fit=1024%2C768&amp;ssl=1\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/00CE8EDA-47AE-460C-80A7-57CAB4070747-1024x768.jpg?resize=595%2C446&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-889\" width=\"595\" height=\"446\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/00CE8EDA-47AE-460C-80A7-57CAB4070747-scaled.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/00CE8EDA-47AE-460C-80A7-57CAB4070747-scaled.jpg?resize=300%2C225&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/00CE8EDA-47AE-460C-80A7-57CAB4070747-scaled.jpg?resize=768%2C576&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/00CE8EDA-47AE-460C-80A7-57CAB4070747-scaled.jpg?resize=1536%2C1152&amp;ssl=1 1536w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/00CE8EDA-47AE-460C-80A7-57CAB4070747-scaled.jpg?resize=2048%2C1536&amp;ssl=1 2048w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/00CE8EDA-47AE-460C-80A7-57CAB4070747-scaled.jpg?resize=1600%2C1200&amp;ssl=1 1600w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/00CE8EDA-47AE-460C-80A7-57CAB4070747-scaled.jpg?resize=780%2C585&amp;ssl=1 780w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/00CE8EDA-47AE-460C-80A7-57CAB4070747-scaled.jpg?w=2160 2160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 595px) 100vw, 595px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>In partnership with the beautiful Greenburgh Library in Southern Westchester, we had our final Reading Celebration of 2025 upstairs in the Teen Room. Emi Shapiro, long-time Writopian and current freshman at Dartmouth, was able to step in at the last minute when one of our co-emcees was sick! Sonali Browning was also on hand to co-emcee. Joy and Nirali from our Middle School Advanced Writing Exploration (AWE) program wowed us with their spoken word and novel excerpt, and Zoya Bhandari, new to our Creative Portfolio (CP) program this year, performed a poem for the very first time. We had a few kid and teen library patrons join us at the reading as well, and other Writopia teens in attendance to support all of our writers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Written by L\u00e9na Roy, Director of Teen Programs In partnership with the beautiful Greenburgh Library in Southern Westchester, we had our final Reading Celebration of 2025 upstairs in the Teen Room. Emi Shapiro, long-time Writopian and current freshman at Dartmouth, was able to step in at the last minute when one of our co-emcees was &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"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-888","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-ek","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":929,"url":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/more-people-write-than-you-think\/","url_meta":{"origin":888,"position":0},"title":"More People Write Than You Think","author":"L\u00e9na Roy","date":"February 10, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Written by L\u00e9na Roy, Chief of Education and Program Innovation Yes, we braved frigid temperatures yet again and hosted another Teen Open Mic: the first one in Westchester since the pandemic. We were invited to collaborate with Mt. Kisco Arts Council and were hosted by a boutique bookstore called Curio\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Events&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Events","link":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/category\/events\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/openmic-mtkisco-scaled.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/openmic-mtkisco-scaled.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/openmic-mtkisco-scaled.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/openmic-mtkisco-scaled.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/openmic-mtkisco-scaled.jpeg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/openmic-mtkisco-scaled.jpeg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":240,"url":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/writing-dance-leap-faith-lena-roy-westchester-regional-manager\/","url_meta":{"origin":888,"position":1},"title":"Writing &#038; Dance: A Leap of Faith by L\u00e9na Roy, Westchester Regional Manager","author":"L\u00e9na Roy","date":"December 29, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"A student of mine spontaneously leapt up and started moving to a peer\u2019s piece of poetry during a summer camp workshop this past summer. This inspired a whole session of interpretive dance to poetry. Right away I thought of my daughter\u2019s dance company, the Isadora Duncan Youth Ensemble, directed by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Staff Voices&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Staff Voices","link":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/category\/staff-voices\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Screen-Shot-2017-12-29-at-4.05.37-PM.png?fit=800%2C532&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Screen-Shot-2017-12-29-at-4.05.37-PM.png?fit=800%2C532&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Screen-Shot-2017-12-29-at-4.05.37-PM.png?fit=800%2C532&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Screen-Shot-2017-12-29-at-4.05.37-PM.png?fit=800%2C532&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":706,"url":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/teen-open-mic-april-2025\/","url_meta":{"origin":888,"position":2},"title":"Teen Open Mic &#8211; April 2025","author":"L\u00e9na Roy","date":"May 1, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"By L\u00e9na Roy, Director of Teen Programs, Writopia Lab On Saturday, April 26th, Writopia hosted another Teen Open Mic event in partnership with the esteemed Nuyorican Poets Cafe. Writopia has long partnered with the Nuyorican, but it wasn\u2019t until a year and a half ago that we were approached with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Events&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Events","link":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/category\/events\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Screen-Shot-2025-05-01-at-1.31.51-PM.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Screen-Shot-2025-05-01-at-1.31.51-PM.png?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Screen-Shot-2025-05-01-at-1.31.51-PM.png?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Screen-Shot-2025-05-01-at-1.31.51-PM.png?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":408,"url":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/national-newsletter-2021\/","url_meta":{"origin":888,"position":3},"title":"National Newsletter 2021","author":"Rebecca Wallace-Segall","date":"July 1, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Pictured are three of our many long-term Writopians who graduate from high school this year! Student Publication Highlights 2020-2021 Abey Weitzman won a Scholastic Silver Medal for his senior portfolio, \u201cDisability.\u201d Watch his powerful graduation speech below in which he mentions Writopia Lab.Analia Rivera had a piece accepted to Alphabet\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Newsletter&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Newsletter","link":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/category\/newsletter\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Screen-Shot-2021-07-01-at-10.42.39-AM-edited.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Screen-Shot-2021-07-01-at-10.42.39-AM-edited.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Screen-Shot-2021-07-01-at-10.42.39-AM-edited.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Screen-Shot-2021-07-01-at-10.42.39-AM-edited.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Screen-Shot-2021-07-01-at-10.42.39-AM-edited.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":672,"url":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/scholastic-open-mic-at-the-met\/","url_meta":{"origin":888,"position":4},"title":"Scholastic Open Mic at the Met","author":"Elsa Berm\u00fadez","date":"April 8, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"By Elsa Bermudez, Associate Director of Specialty Programs On Friday, March 28th, 2025, Malcolm and I led the Open Mic for Scholastic Award winners at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC! The event was beautiful: 40 teen writers shared innovative, heartwarming, powerful, and often funny excerpts from their 2025\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Events&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Events","link":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/category\/events\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Screen-Shot-2025-04-08-at-9.18.45-AM.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Screen-Shot-2025-04-08-at-9.18.45-AM.png?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Screen-Shot-2025-04-08-at-9.18.45-AM.png?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":599,"url":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/celebrating-scholastic-award-winning-writopians\/","url_meta":{"origin":888,"position":5},"title":"Celebrating Scholastic Award-Winning Writopians","author":"L\u00e9na Roy","date":"February 19, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Written by Lena Roy, Director of Teen Programs, and Peter Quinn-Jacobs, Associate Director of Operations LENA: Scholastic season may be over, and sure we\u2019ve all rolled up our sleeves and gotten back to work, but as writers, we also need to celebrate when we can. We celebrate the fact that\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":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888","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\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=888"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":944,"href":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888\/revisions\/944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.writopialab.org\/writopiaspeaks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}