Read your city
Course authors and lecturers
Helga Pataki
Local historian, children's book writer, tour guide, director of mass events and theatrical performances, musician. Author of the "City Inside Out" local history project with walks around the backstreets of Russian cities. A unique specialist in city quests and directing urban environment (there are over 100 successful projects for different companies in her portfolio). Events Organizer for promoting reading on major international festivals: NonFiction, Moscow International Open Book Festival, International Book Exhibition-Fair in Moscow, Saint-Petersburg Book Salon, Krasnoyarsk Book Culture Fair and many others. The author of "Bridges of Saint-Petersburg", "Arbat", "New Years Tale", "City of Beauty", a series of "City Rally" family game walks: "Moscow Rally #1", "Urban Rally. Saint Petersburg #1", "Moscow Rally #2. the Boulevard Ring". Creator and art director of the "Musical Fairy-Tale Theater". Judge of "Little Premiere", international drama competition. Participant of Seminars for Young Writers writing for children, forums of young writers of Russia, the CIS and other countries. Collector of urban myths and legends. Works as an art director at the Bakovskiy Cultural and Business Center. Awards: Weekly edition of "Big City" ("Большой город") - "So It Goes" ("Такие дела") (2011) award for a project that made life in Moscow significantly better, "Editorial project of the 21st century", "Auditor" ("Ревизор") award from the "Book Industry" (2012), diploma of the IBBY International council on children's book, Grand Prix of "Oskolskaya Lira" (2009) festival for poetry and music. Member of the Union of Writers of Russia.
About the course
Read Your City is a unique local history course, that will not let you sit behind your computer screen for long! In order to be able to read cities, you will have to walk streets and blocks, stay at the library and pester everyone around you with questions. Any city and any village is a unique body, the history of which is in the lives of its residents. With our course, you will find out whether the city has a heart, how houses and streets grow, why urban myths and legends are necessary and what we need to turn a regular walk in the city into a real adventure. Your own recipe for a quest route that will enable others to read the city will form the basis of a graduation paper. Houses and monuments are only the foundation; let's take some more trams and street signs, mix it all up with bakeries and train stations, add some backstreets and bridges... You will learn the main secret at our lectures!
Course structure
- What are we reading? - learning to see the city (7 lectures).
- How are we reading? - designing the route.
- Hypertext - the depth of immersion.
- Sharing the read - a tour for friends.
- Reader's journal: reinforcing the results.
- City "Branding".
Purpose of the course
Read the cities, explore their hypertext environment, find something unique on your own street and be able to talk about it. Spend time in libraries and pester everyone with questions. Any city and any village is a unique body, the history of which is in the lives of its residents.
Required qualifications
Middle and high school students.
Course results
The ability to perceive the city as a text, find unique features in what is familiar and ordinary, come up with your own quests and routes for friends.