Cultivating Kids’ Creativity: A Conversation with Newbery Medal-Winning Author Dave Eggers
April 28th, 2026 | 7 - 8:30pm | Doors at 6:30pm
Chinese American International School | 3250 19th Ave., SF
"Some of these kids just don't plain know how good they are: how smart and how much they have to say. You can tell them. You can shine that light on them, one human interaction at a time."
- Dave Eggers, 2008 Ted Prize acceptance speech
Dave Eggers won the 2024 Newbery Medal for The Eyes and the Impossible and is the author of numerous acclaimed books, including The Circle, What Is the What, and A Hologram for the King. He has won the American Book Award, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, the National Magazine Award and the O. Henry Prize. He is the founder of McSweeney's and co-founder of 826 Valencia, a youth writing and tutoring center in San Francisco's Mission District that has inspired over 70 similar organizations worldwide, pioneering a model of one-on-one creative education that emphasizes personal attention, thoughtfully designed spaces, and analog creativity over screen time. In 2025 he opened The International Library of Young Authors in San Francisco, the first library in the world exclusively dedicated to the works of young people. He has received the TED Prize and the Muhammad Ali Humanitarian Award for Education, and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His latest project, Art + Water, will bring a large-scale artist studio and exhibition space to Pier 29 this year, anchored by an apprenticeship program pairing established and emerging artists.
Registration opens on April 1st at 10am.
Live Happier: Understanding and Cultivating the Power of Self-Compassion
On March 22, 2022, from 7:00pm-8:15pm, SPEAK will host acclaimed psychologist, author, and speaker Dr. Kristin Neff as she explains how and why acts of self-compassion correlate with strength, resilience and motivation. Dr. Neff has authored the books: Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself and Fierce Self-Compassion: How Women Can Harness Kindness to Speak Up, Claim Their Power and Thrive. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Atlantic, and Harvard Business Review, among others, and her TEDx talk has been viewed over 1.7 million times. To pre-order any of her books, specially signed for SPEAK audience members, please click here. Signed copies are limited to the first 100 books reserved on a first-come, first-served basis.
We hope you can join us - Register Here.
