Home Contact Sitemap Checkout

Print This Page

YouthWrite Elbow River II Experience 2022
not available for sale

$635.00 CAD

July 10 - July 15, 2022

Day or Overnight Camp For Ages 15-19
An unforgettable experience for creative youth, spending time with quality instructors and other talented peers discussing ideas and sharing their work.

Elbow River II Experience!

Registration is now closed! CAMP IS FULL!

Day and Overnight Options

  • Ages 15-19
  • July 10th - July 15th, 2022
  • Day campers from 8:30 am - 9:00 pm. Overnighters arrive Sunday evening and stay until Friday afternoon.
  • FCJ centre: 219 19 Ave SW, Calgary, AB T2S 0C8
  • Tuition - two options
  1. $735 - Overnight at FCJ
  2. $635 - Day camp only

YouthWrite Fees Include

12 hours of daily instruction/activities led by highly qualified instructional and supervisory staff, supervised meals, break times, evening programs. All supplies are provided as are daily breakfasts (overnighters only) lunches, suppers, and snacks. Each participant is required to dress for the weather, bring PPE, indoor/outdoor shoes, and will receive a complimentary copy of YouthWrite: The Magazine.

For those of you new to YouthWrite:

Registration steps continue after registration on this site. After you complete the registration on this site, we ask that you proceed to Campfax, a secure camp database, and:

  • fill in important details
  • provide a letter of reference from a teacher/mentor
  • provide the answers to the four YouthWrite questions
  • provide a short sample of writing

You are not fully registered until all steps are completed.



Please note

All fees include $100 non-refundable fee.  No refunds will be made if registration is cancelled after June 22, 2022.

A full refund will be possible in the event an applicant is not accepted into the program or if COVID restrictions require that we cancel or reconfigure camp. YouthWrite Society Canada reserves the right to cancel courses and restrict enrollment. Courses, instructors and supervisors may be subject to change.




When

July 10th - July 15th, 2022

Full Week

Where

FCJ centre:

219 19 Ave SW, Calgary, AB T2S 0C8

Who

Guest instructors thus far:

Wally Diefenthaler

Laurel Deedrick-Mayne

Trudy Hipwell

Annette Loiselle

Michelle Casten Magbanua

Miranda Martini

Conni Massing

Omar Mouallem

Pam Rocker

Émilie Tremblay a.k.a. MLE

Sue-Shane Tsomondo

Spyder Yardley-Jones



Blue-Pencil Café:

Cheryl Foggo

Clem Martini


Our Special Guest Presenter:

JC Rees


Our Super Supers:

Aftikhar Mominzada

Becky Collins

Mason Repka

Moe Ahmed

Yemariam Abebayehu

Lead Super Anna Cooley

Lead Super Joey Lucius


YouthWrite Director-Coordinator:
Gail Sidonie Sobat



Guest Instructors



YOUTHWRITE INSTRUCTORS: THE CREAM OF THE CROP!


Throughout YouthWrite's history, we have prided ourselves on the calibre of our fine instructors.


YouthWrite invites superbly talented and reputable instructors who represent the many facets of the performing, visual, musical, dance, film, and written arts. 



 Laurel Deedrick-Mayne


Bio

Laurel Deedrick-Mayne has been an arts administrator, dance publicist, concert promoter, ad copywriter and playbill editor. She has served on multiple arts boards while maintaining her ‘day job’ as a massage therapist. A late bloomer to publishing but third generation letter, journal and story writer, Laurel celebrates literacy and history in her award-winning novel, A Wake For The Dreamland. She loves YouthWrite and strives to inspire the storytellers of the future.


Course

One for the History Books - Did you know you’re a history maker? Over 100 years ago, young people lived through a global pandemic. Then BOOM – Covid 19 –March 13, 2020. Your turn. You’ve navigated previously unimaginable challenges all the while building resilience. We’ll use a variety of writing techniques to document different facets of your Covid experience.


Future artists, historians, and scholars will thank their lucky stars for the stories you write now.





Wally Diefenthaler


Bio

Wally Diefenthaler is a longtime social studies teacher and university instructor who believes each of us must find our own path so we may “walk in beauty.” A human rights advocate committed to global education and the environment, he seeks to share a better understanding of the world we inhabit and our relationship to it, and to each other. 


Course

Believe it or Not - “What should I believe?” “Who should I trust?” “What is the ‘truth’?” During this week together, let’s explore these questions: not necessarily to find answers, but to examine our individual and collective identities in order to address the question: “Is the truth stranger than fiction?” While engaging in respectful dialogue, take up points of view and perspectives on issues that matter in our lives today. Through analysis and critical thinking, reflect and write about your relationships to yourselves, each other, and that great big world: both out there, and in here. Let’s walk the path together. 




Trudy Hipwell


Bio

Trudy Hipwell, is a specialist in West African drumming music from Guinea, primarily on Djembe and Dununs.  She has been fortunate to study extensively with prominent West African artists, in particular Mamady Keita. With 20+ years’ experience in the genre, Trudy leads dance accompaniment ensembles in Calgary’s lively West African dance community and performs with many of her talented colleagues.  She teaches people of all ages, and loves to share her joy in this music.


Course

Drum & Story - Play traditional rhythms from Guinea and other countries in West Africa, on Djembes (hand drums) and Dununs (played with sticks). Learn call/response passages and African songs in your arrangements. Discover each rhythm’s story, where it’s from and when it’s played. Explore story-telling through the lens of lineage and oral history, in both West African culture and in your own.






Annette Loiselle


Bio

Annette Loiselle has worked in theatre as an actor, director, producer, writer and instructor for over 30 years. Her teaching has taken her from Theatre Alberta workshops to AHS drama therapy to post-secondary at the UofA and Kings University. She’s written two plays, a monologue, and has facilitated/produced the development of several premiere productions. She is a founder and was a twenty-five-year Artistic Associate of the Freewill Shakespeare Festival, also director of their Youth Programming. She is currently the Artistic Director of SkirtsAfire and teaches at The Citadel and The Edmonton School of Ballet. 


Course

Writing through Body, Character and Performance - Use drama and acting exercises as a window into writing! Explore physical storytelling, improvisation, character development, action and objectives as tools for entries into narrative. Your short writing assignments will come out of class discoveries to be shared and played with as part of the development process. While indulging in fun exploration, our focus will always be on finding truth in the work and moment-to-moment realities.



 Michelle Casten Magbanua


Bio

Michelle Casten Magbanua (she/her/siya), is a Filipina-Canadian educator, performer, volunteer, and activist living in Mokhinstsis. With a degree in Drama and Education and a minor in French, Michelle currently works as a French teacher at Prairie Waters Elementary in Chestermere. Her teaching practice focuses on instilling a growth mindset and encouraging a love of learning. Michelle uses her passion for the arts to inspire youth and have them realize their potential to effect change in the world. When she’s not working or volunteering, you can find Michelle singing and dancing under the sun.


Course

Eye Say (Immersive Role-Playing) Use storytelling and character development as a basis for collective creation with a focus on building community and learning how others help us find meaning in this world. Through community we find a sense of belonging and purpose and learn more about ourselves in relation to others. As the Beatles once sang, “I get by with a little help from my friends.”





 Miranda Martini


Bio

Miranda Martini is a musician and writer. Her writing can routinely be found in publications like Alberta Views and The Sprawl, and she co-wrote music for the award-winning play, John Ware Reimagined, a musical about the life and impact of legendary Alberta cowboy John Ware. Her music can also be heard in the documentary John Ware Reclaimed. As a former camper and Super, Miranda can’t wait to be back at YouthWrite this year as an instructor!


Course

Playing (With) Songs: Thinking Inside, Outside and Around the Box - At some point, someone has probably told you to "think outside the box." But what's so terrible about this box, anyway? Have you had a peek inside? Maybe there's treasure in there! Or maybe you could climb on top of it and get a better view. Together we’ll practice thinking inside, outside and around the box in our songwriting, learning how to recognize song structure while giving ourselves permission to grow and play beyond it.





 Conni Massing


Bio

Conni Massing is an award-winning writer working in theatre, film and television. Stage credits include Matara and The Invention of Romance, both premiered by Workshop West Playwrights Theatre, Oh! Christmas Tree (Roxy Performance Series), and her widely-produced stage adaptations of W.O Mitchell’s Jake and the Kid and Bruce Allen Powe’s The Aberhart Summer. Conni’s published work includes six of her plays and a comic memoir, Roadtripping: On the Move with the Buffalo Gals (Brindle and Glass Publishing).


Course

Play-Writing: Talking the Walk - Whether you’re an experienced thespian or a total neophyte, you’ll enjoy this exploration of theatrical storytelling. Learn techniques for creating great dramatic characters–angry, angsty, lovelorn, needy, nerdy, obsessed or delusional–the movers and shakers that will power the action of your story. Make them talk, discovering the heart and soul of your unique creations in dramatic monologues. Great ideas for plays will surely follow!



 

Omar Mouallem


Bio

Omar Mouallem is a creative nonfiction writer whose stories have been published around the world in outlets like Rolling Stone and The Walrus. His new book, Praying to the West, was named one of the Globe and Mail’s 100 best books of 2021. He also wrote, directed and starred in a comedic documentary, The Last Baron, about the unlikely link between Alberta’s fast-food chain Burger Baron and the Lebanese civil war. When he’s not writing or filmmaking, he’s acting as the “fake dean” of Pandemic University Pop-up School of Writing, a virtual school launched in COVID lockdown, which has since been attended by over 3,000 writers in 60 countries.


Course

It Really Happened!- There are infinite ways to tell a true story, some more compelling than others. Learn to have fun with research and then delve into character building, scene-setting, and dialogue in your nonfiction work and to create memorable true stories. Over the course of the week, you'll finish a short nonfiction story that’s as colourful and exciting to read as any piece of fiction.




 

Pam Rocker


Bio

Pam Rocker, is a ukulele-playing American/Canadian, atypical activist, consultant, speaker, and musician. From Pride to politics, she has worked for over a decade for the full inclusion of LGBTQ2S+ people in faith communities and beyond. She is the playwright of heterophobia (made into a music video by the Canadian band Shred Kelly), was chosen as one of the Top 40 Under 40 in Calgary, and as one of the top 30 activists in Canada. This is her seventh year with YouthWrite (yay!) and she LOVES talking all things social media and social change. She recently won The Stonewall Award for her advocacy for the LGBTQ2S+ community, and is the host of the popular WordFest show, The Way We. She is lucky to be able to work and play both in Southern California and Southern Alberta, and lives with her amazingly talented wife, two sons, and scraggly dog. 


Course

Movers, Shakers, Fakers, and Money Makers: forging meaning and creativity in our social media landscape - From social media springs everything from dangerous conspiracy theories to dangerously hilarious dance challenges. The fount of information flows freely to anyone with even the weakest wifi connection, and yet, the information doesn’t always free us. How do we stay inspired and intact while exploring the sometimes troubled waters of shares and likes? How can we jump in and brandish our own unique flashlight in these murky waves? What should we do with cancel/call out/call in/curl up and eat popcorn culture?




Émilie Tremblay a.k.a. MLE 


Bio

Émilie Tremblay a.k.a. MLE, is a Francophone-Calgarian animator and graphic novelist. With training at Sheridan College's Honours Bachelor of Applied Animation, MLE. is using animation skills to bring life to page and screen with efficiency, clarity, and believability. For four years, they have been instructing many topics for folks of all ages: storyboarding, movement, character design, layout design, anatomy, and figure study. It is a practice they are delighted and humbled to share with others. MLE. believes that art is a powerful tool with which we may understand ourselves and the world.


Course

Quick Draw Animation - Do you like films like Coraline and Wallace and Gromit? Do you ever wonder how these films are made? Learn the basics of animation through the magical technique of cut-paper stop-motion animation! Use our down-shooter cameras and a professional stop-motion program to make short narrative animated films from storyboarding, asset-making to animation! You'll receive a digital copy of your film at the end of the week!




 Sue-Shane Tsomondo


Bio

Sue-Shane Tsomondo is a poet, educator, book curator and the creator of Sue’s Stokvel, a Calgary-based literary arts platform. Sue’s Stokvel highlights the work of Black, Indigenous and People of Colour (BIPOC) writers. In 2020, Sue-Shane appeared on the cover of The Calgary Journal. Her work has been featured in 1919 Mag. Sue-Shane is a WriteON 2019 alum and 2021 Esker Writer-in-Residence. She currently works as the co-director of M:ST, a performance art based organization operating out of Mohkinstsis, while volunteering as a member of The Bows’ board and The Fold editorial committee. 


Course

Breaking Silences: A course on poetry-writing and spoken-word - Toni Morrison said that, “We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives.” Poetry is one of the many ways we do language. We untangle life’s complexities and we put words to moments that may have been filled with silence to link people and places through and beyond time. Experience poetry-writing through a combination of elements from southern African oral history narrative and visual storytelling practices. 





Spyder Yardley-Jones


Bio

Spyder Yardley-Jones is an internationally recognized cartoonist, painter and sculptor. He has been teaching at YouthWrite since its inception. Spyder's artwork has been on exhibition in the US and Canada including The Art Gallery of Alberta. He has illustrated an award-winning graphic novel and created the artwork for Theatre Network's production of HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH. Spyder illustrated the forthcoming graphic comic, THE LOFTS, written by Rylan Kafara, which will be published in both digital and hardcopy!


Course

Doubleplusgood - Create a six-page tabloid using characters from nursery rhymes, novels, and pop culture to mimic the non-truths and sensationalism of today's media, celebrity gossip, current events and politics. Play with truth and fiction using the wonderful art form of cartooning.




 

Blue Pencil Café with Cheryl Foggo and Clem Martini

Blue Pencil Café -

Share a piece of writing with our resident editing experts and get constructive feedback on your wordsmithery! Poetry, fiction, dialogue, plots, operas, plays - our Blue Pencil experts can help you with your craft. Sign up is daily at camp.



Cheryl Foggo -  

Cheryl Foggo is a filmmaker, playwright and author, whose work over the last 30 years has focused on the lives of Western Canadians of African descent. Her feature documentary John Ware Reclaimed premiered in 2020 and can be found at nfb.ca. Other recent projects include writing and directing the short film Kicking Up a Fuss: The Charles Daniels Story and writing The Sender for Obsidian Theatre Company’s 21 Black Futures. She is working on 2 new books and a new film.








Clem Martini - 

Clem Martini is an award-winning playwright, novelist, and screenwriter with over thirty plays, and thirteen books of fiction and nonfiction to his credit, including the W.O. Mitchell Award-winning Bitter Medicine: A Graphic Memoir of Mental Illness, The Unravelling, and The Comedian. His recently premiered play, Cantata (Rumours of My Crazy, Useless Life) was the 2021 winner of Theatre BC’s National Playwriting Competition. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and teaches in the School of Creative and Performing Arts at the University of Calgary.




Our special guest presenter:

JC Rees


JC Rees was a camper at Youthwrite from 2001-2006 (age 12-17). In 2014, she graduated from the inaugural Faculty of Law at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops. From 2014-2019, she resided in Grande Prairie, where a large part of her legal practice was representing children and youth in divorce custody battles, as well as social service apprehensions. She also founded the Grande Prairie Pride Society, and ran it for four years as President. In 2019 she returned to her hometown of Calgary. She continues to practice law, and currently works for the Alberta government. In her spare time, you can find her spending time with her wife, dog, and two cats, exploring the wilderness at her cabin near Waiparous, or at various drag and cabaret shows across Alberta...but not necessarily in the audience. We've already said too much.



The Amazing Supers

Handpicked and multi-talented, YouthWrite Supers are the centre of our camps. As artists, teachers and mentors, they bring the X-Factor to YouthWrite.


Tania

Yemariam Abebayehu   


Yemariam Abebayehu is a YouthWrite alum and member of SWYC (Edmonton's Spoken Word Youth Choir). Her first year at YouthWrite was in 2020, but she feels like she's been a part of YouthWrite for much longer! Yemariam is also a student at the University of Alberta pursuing a BA in Psychology. Yemariam is *Super* stoked for summer with YouthWrite and for being Gail’s favourite.





Moe Ahmed


Mohamed Ahmed is a former YouthWriter, and this camp changed his life for the better! He is a recent graduate of the National Theatre School of Canada and also a musician under the name "Just Moe," offering music on every platform. Moe is over the MOON to be back at YouthWrite this summer to help inspire and mentor this next generation of incredible writers and to be Gail's ultimate favourite!





Becky Collins   


Becky Collins loves poetry, wordplay, and big ideas. A drama and humanities educator with Edmonton Public Schools, she uses historical and current media to explore complex narratives of our past and current global affairs with the young minds of tomorrow. Becky is a current graduate student at the University of Alberta in the Master of Arts and Communications and Technology program. After many years at River Valley YouthWrite, Becky is excited to be joining the Elbow River team. She is especially looking forward to singing Hallelujah by the fire with Gail and as her favourite. 





Anna Cooley - Lead Super

Anna Cooley is an award-winning director, writer, cinematographer, and producer who has been telling stories with compelling characters and strong messages for over 20 years. Her projects push the boundaries of conventional storytelling by identifying unique narratives, collaborating with artists from a diverse range of disciplines, and experimenting with cutting-edge technologies such as virtual reality. Anna has been connected to YouthWrite for 22 years as both a camper and supervisor. She just can't get enough of Gail.




Joey Lucius

Joey Lucius - Lead Super


Joey Lucius is a performer and writer who's been a Rapid Fire Theatre staple for 15 years, contributes to the Beaverton, and is a Canadian Comedy Award winner for his work on YTV’s Canadian Screen Award nominated series That’s So Weird. He’s a proud cat daddy to a 16-year-old toothless angel named Gato. And he is so delighted to be Gail’s favourite.




Aftikhar

Aftikhar Mominzada   


Aftikhar Mominzada, originally from Kabul, Afghanistan, is pursuing an information technology management major at the University of Alberta. Interested in entrepreneurship, economics, and technology, he aspires to enter the world of business after graduation. Aftikhar occasionally plays guitar and enjoys swimming, soccer, and squash. He experienced teaching kids during high school back in India and has been involved in various entrepreneurship and event-organizing activities both inside and outside school. This summer Aftikhar decided to experience something different by being a Super at the YouthWrite, and he looks forward to making the camp even more fun and meeting new people, plus being Gail’s favourite.





Mason Repka

Mason wears many hats. Sometimes he is a writer, a creator, a world builder, a musician, and an artist. Other times he is a game master, facilitating worlds of play, whether it be LARP, D&D, or some other form of roleplay based shenanigans. Sometimes, he is a YouthWrite worker bee, doing communications and administrative work in the YouthWrite office. Still other times he is a homemaker and a cat-dad, and deeply enjoys spending time working around the house with his partner Cara and their cat, Phoebe. This summer, Mason is very excited to wear his super hat, and can’t wait for camp. Whatever hat he wears, he is always Gail’s favorite.





YouthWrite Director- Coordinator

Gail Sidonie Sobat


is a multi-award-winning teacher and author, with twelve books for children, teens and adults, and a number of educational and academic articles. A Global News Woman of Vision and an Arts and Culture Citation Award recipient, she is the YouthWrite creator/ coordinator, an international presenter, an instructor in the professional writing program at MacEwan University and in the Faculty of Education at U of A. Gail was The Writers’ Union of Canada Regional Representative for Alberta, NWT and Nunavut, and writer in residence with the Metro Edmonton Federation of Libraries. 


She has moved forty times in her life from Badlands to Siksika Nation Reserve to hideous suburbs to Istanbul to the Sunshine Coast to her writer’s garret in a century-old temperamental house. She adores all of her Supers & Coordinators equally, and loves YouthWrite like a madwoman!




Join the Fun

Come one, come all YouthWriters!

Have fun, make new friends, and create great experiences.


Find a Camp



Why Youthwrite?
Great People - Great Camps
Scholarships

Use your passion for writing and apply for a scholarship from our list of available scholarships & grants.

A Day at YouthWrite