Mighty Writers Announces "Mightyfest" Writing Carnival Lineup

The second annual student writing celebration MightyFest will once again bring a free writing carnival to Aviator Park (located in front of the Franklin Institute). Last year over 2,000 Philadelphia students participated, and this year's carnival, held from 10am-4pm Saturday, September 28, promises to be bigger and better.

Among the many authors scheduled to share their writing wisdom are Mary Beth Keane, a former Mighty Writers volunteer whose new novel Ask Again, Yes debuted this summer on the New York Times bestseller list and was just selected by Jimmy Fallon as The Tonight Show's "Summer Reads Pick." She will be joined by a dozen other national and local authors, including Allan Fajardo, Diana Rodriguez Wallach, Jonathan McGoran, Sonia Belasco, Liz Moore, Marianne Malone, Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow, Kyle Terrell-Stokes, and more. Philly radio icon Mina SayWhat will host the afternoon portion of the event.

A variety of local booksellers and children's literacy organizations will also be on hand. Improv group StoryUp will be acting out stories written by the children that day and African-American children's book company Urbantoons will be running an illustration booth. Three book partners will also be on hand selling and raffling off their books: Headhouse Books, Amalgam Comics, and the African American Children's Book Project.

In addition to the on-stage activities, over 40 tents and booths will fill the park, letting kids have fun with writing-related activities like exploring one's heritage, cursive scrapbooking, blogging, science storytelling, and dozens of other activities. A Teen Zone, new this year, will help teenagers confront issues of the day with booths on creating protest signs, writing political petitions, combating climate change, and more.

MightyFest 2019 will run from Thursday through Sunday, September 26-29. Other highlights include: 

• A keynote speech from Michael Barbaro, host of the top New York Times podcast The Daily, on the state of writing and journalism. 
• A gospel breakfast on Sunday morning at Girard College hosted by activist, author and WURD Morning Host Solomon Jones. 
• "Mighty Writers Day" at over a dozen branch libraries on Thursday exploring comic books and empowerment.

See photos from last year's MightyFest here: 

http://shorefire.com/client/mighty-writers

About Mighty Writers:

Mighty Writers was founded in 2009 with the mission to teach kids to think clearly and write with clarity. The organization offers free programs for students from elementary through high school at centers in four diverse Philadelphia neighborhoods, including one bilingual location for Spanish-speaking students. Mighty Writers offers daily afterschool academies, long- and short-term writing classes nights and weekends, teen scholar programs, mentorships, College Prep courses and college essay writing classes. Over 400 of the city’s best creative minds (writers, teachers, journalists, etc.) teach 150 writing classes a year to 3,500 kids at Mighty Writers annually. In the past year, they've been recognized by Mayor Jim Kenney for their work in literary arts and received a City Council Citation.

Founder and executive director Tim Whitaker began his career teaching fifth and sixth grade in Philadelphia before becoming a writer and editor. He is the author of “Crash: The Life and Times of Dick Allen.” He was the editor of Philadelphia Weekly (1994-2008), and previously the editor of PhillySport and Pittsburgh magazines. Whitaker was a head writer at NBC Radio and has written for The New York Times, Washington Post and Philadelphia Inquirer.