Just a couple of staggering geniuses

Author: Aylie Baker, Features Editor

"I've been hearing about Midd forever," said Dave Eggers upon ascending the podium to read an excerpt from his new novel, "What is the What," this past Monday night. "Good Lord," he said.

It's no wonder. Eggers met his wife Vendela Vida '93 through a mutual friend who also attended the College. Vida, an English major graduating Phi Beta Kappa, dabbled in several disciplines, including theatre and Italian. She received scholarships to attend the Breadloaf Writer's Conference for two summers and had the opportunity to work closely with Rob Pack, Dave Price, David Bane and Julia Alvarez.

On Monday April 9, Eggers and Vida read excerpts from their new novels, "What is the What" and "Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name," to an animated audience in Mead Chapel. While their recent works were the main focus of the event, they also framed a subsidiary moral initiative - their unconventional non-profit tutoring centers which are popping up across the nation.

In her reading, Vida openly decided to "skip an embarrassing sex scene," while in the presence of her former professors. Setting the context for her novel, "Let the Northern Lights Erase Your Name," Vida described how she had been "inspired [both] by her heritage" in Lapland of Northern Sweden and "her love for fairytales." The excerpt, brimming with colorful images and an honest sincerity, captured the main character, Clarissa, at the beginning of her quest to Lapland to unearth her true identity.

Eggers' "What is the What" broached a very different topic. The book highlights the life story of Valentino Achak Deng, who was dispossessed from his village during the 1980s as a refugee of the Sudanese civil war. One of some 20,000 "lost boys," Deng eventually made his way to the United States, where Mary Williams met him and first wrote to Eggers regarding his story. Since he first met him in 2001, Eggers unraveled Deng's history through a series of interviews.

Shifting to a lighter subject, Eggers and Vida led the audience through a slideshow that charted the evolution of their non-profit tutoring centers. Eggers began by recounting the startup of his independent press, McSweeney's, in Park Slope, Brooklyn. McSweeney's began in the backdrop of a store devoted to both amateur taxidermy and show-animal grooming supplies. Despite its shortcomings financially, Eggers described how the store became a conduit for middle school students.

This breakthrough became instrumental in the founding of 826 Valencia Street, the couple's first tutoring center in San Francisco. The building the couple purchased to house the center, while inexpensive, was zoned for retail. They decided to open a "Pirate supply store - for the traveling buccaneer." The store supplies an array of accessories including peg legs, hook protectors ("for nighttime"), and replaceable eyes. It even includes its own fish theatre that according to Vida, "was voted the most popular place in San Francisco for breastfeeding."

Moving beyond the multicolored eye patches, one stumbles upon a very different venue - 826's tutoring center. Eggers and Vida attribute much of the tutoring center's success to its offbeat faÁade. Kids are "more likely to stop at it," explained Eggers. "It's not a sterile atmosphere."

Originally starting with 20 volunteers the program now has 1400 tutors on its roster and has expanded to include "in school" tutoring in addition to its after school sessions and evening workshops.

826 Valencia Street's successes have led to the opening of more tutoring centers across the nation such as The Boring Store in Chicago, The Space Travel Supply Company in Greenwood and The Superhero Supply Company in Brooklyn, which all provide community services in addition to their wacky commodities.

It's not everyday that one gets the chance to hear two of the nation's most celebrated contemporary writers read from their novels in such an intimate setting as Mead Chapel. Yet, as evidenced by Vida and Eggers' closing slideshow, it's equally rare that one gets to venture into a "Capery" equipped with industrial fans en route to a tutoring session.