*Teen* Gardening Thyme

A lot of organizations talk about “going green” these days, but the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh is taking the concept to a whole new level.  Did you know that the Main Library (and many more library locations throughout the city) planted vegetable and herb gardens this spring?

And did you know that you can check out SEEDS to take home and plant from the Seed and Story Library currently located at both CLP Main and Lawrenceville?

This week at CLP Main- Teen, we’ll be kicking off our own *Teen* Gardening Thyme program series!  Throughout the summer, we’ll be hosting cool garden and gardening related programs.  Each program will begin with a tour of the fabulous garden at CLP Main!  Program participation is limited to teens and registration is required.

Seed Bombs: Wednesday June 19 @ 1 pm

Seed bombs are little balls made of compost, clay, and seeds.  You can plant them in your garden or use them to green-up vacant lots.

Make Your Own Salad Dressing: Wednesday, July 17 @ 1 pm

We’ll be picking some herbs from the CLP Main vegetable garden and use them to create their own salad dressing!

Make Your Own Pickles and Salsa: Wednesday, August 21 @ 1 pm

We’ll use some vegetables and herbs from the CLP Main vegetable garden to make pickles and salsa!

For more information or to register, contact CLP Main- Teen at teensmain@carnegielibrary.org or 412.622.5526.

   

   

Summer Reading Extravaganza!!

Don’t forget that this Sunday (June 9th) is the annual Summer Reading Extravaganza at the Main Library in Oakland.  There will be a ton of stuff to do for kids and families, but just for teens we have:

Book Giveaways!!!!!

Homemade Books!!!!!

Button making!!!!!

Glitter tattoos!!!!!

And of course plenty of gaming!!  And best of all you might even see a library staff member dressed up like this:

 

 

 

 

 

And there is free food!!  Including Eat n Park Smile cookies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Don’t miss it!

Jim-CLP Sheraden

What the heck is going on?

Boredom happens.  Luckily, there’s a relatively painless (and FREE!) antidote located right in your neighborhood… the Library! Whenever you feel the symptoms of boredom setting in – e.g. an uncontrollable urge to don purple pants, paint yourself green and have a massive freak-out to smash up the endless nothingness and monotony that’s hijacked life – walk, run, or jet pack to the Library ‘cos there’s probably something cool going on.

Here’s a small taste of the awesomeness going down throughout the city this week (I recommend throwing on some shades now ‘cos this stuff is red hot):

Tuesday, May 28th

CLP Brookline

Teen Lounge: Marshmallow Zombie Attack

3:30 PM – 5:00 PM

 
CLP Carrick

Teen Thing:  DIY Puff Paint with Shaving Cream + Chairpocalypse story development

4:30 PM – 5:30 PM

 
CLP East Liberty

Movie Nite!

4:00 PM – 7:00 PM

 
CLP Main (Oakland)

CLP Teen Gay Straight Alliance: Bi-monthly Meeting

5:00 PM – 6:00 PM

 
Wednesday, May 29th

CLP West End

Teen Lounge: String, Hammer & Nail Art! : Loud and awesome

4:30 PM – 7:00 PM

 
Thursday, May 30th

CLP Beechview

Teen Advisory Council Meeting

6:00 PM – 7:00 PM

 
Friday, May 31st

CLP Allegheny

After School Gaming (Xbox 360-Kinect, PS3 and Wii)

2:30 PM – 4:30 PM

 
CLP Main (Oakland)

Bad Movie Fridays!

3:00 PM – 5:00 PM

 
The nifty EVENTS slider on the Teen page has got you covered with all the action going on all the time.  You can always stop in and check with your local Teen Librarian to see what’s going down too.  And remember to do your part in the fight against boredom – bring all your friends!

 
Boredom Slayers:

                

Jon : Carrick

Fresh Perspectives: A Teen Documentary Series

Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh – Main, Teen is screening four documentaries that focus on aspects of the teen experience, including independence, over-coming adversity, self confidence and establishing your personal identity.  All teens are welcome to come watch the films and connect with others on Wednesdays from 6-8pm in the Teen Department (Oakland).

May 22:  Film Series Kickoff & Screening
A glimpse into five Indiana teenagers’ senior year of high school.

May 29:  Now We Can Dance: The Story of the Hayward Gay Prom
The story of the Hayward Gay Prom which has been attracting hundreds of Bay Area youth since it began in 1995.  The creation of this film was a two-year project that trained teenagers to be filmmakers with the help of Hayward Public Library staff members and professional advisers.

June 5:  Girls Rock!
Four girls transform their lives at the Rock ‘n’ Roll Camp for Girls.

June 12:  This is What Love in Action Looks Like*
The story of a 16-year-old blogger whose parents sent him to an ex-gay rehabilitation program and the folks in the community who stood up for their friend.  His blog leads to one of the first examples of social media inspiring change and hope.

*We’ll wrap up this film series on June 12 with a popcorn bar featuring Pittsburgh Popcorn Company popcorn!  Stick around after the film to eat, mingle and talk about the films!

This awesome event was curated by Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh – Main’s Teen Gay Straight Alliance, which meets twice a month.

Don’t forget to check out The Labs @ CLP.  They have everything you need to get your thoughts on film, create and record your music and more!  In the meantime, here are some books & films to inspire you:

   

          

Fantasy Faceoff: Who Will Win?

Some characters are obviously the best. Or are they?

Here, at CLP – Main, Teen this Saturday, May 11th, we’re pitting your favorite fantasy, science fiction, comics and pop culture characters against each other in a game inspired by March Madness!

Confused?  No Problem!  Here’s a quick rundown of how things will go:

ROUND I: Vote! Narrow your list of favorite characters down to the top competitors.

ROUND II: Debate! We’ll pull two characters’ names from a hat, you’ll advocate for their merits and they’ll be entered into the bracket. You have just a few minutes to convince the crowd why your character would advance to the next round, conquering their unlikely opponent.

ROUND III: Last Warriors Standing! Design a play-by-play of this final, epic battle with your teammates.
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There will also be snack s and prizes for participating!

Register for the event here, or tell us you’re coming on facebook.  In the meantime, check out these tangentially related books!

We’ll see you there!

Morgan, CLP – Main, Teen

“Oblique Strategies” for Reviving Creativity

Lately, in the midst of promoting our Ralph Munn Creative Writing Contest, I’ve been thinking about all of the aspects in a teen’s life that can impede creativity. Is the impulse just not there? Perhaps its there but is just being diverted? I wonder if any of these seem familiar:

• Being overscheduled.
• Not enough sleep.
• Depression.
• Wasting time on the phone or social media.

Enter Brian Eno…

(b Woodbridge, 15 May 1948). English composer and producer. While attending art school in Ipswich and then Winchester he developed an interest in ‘systems’ music, and much of his work can be seen as continuing the work of composers such as John Cage. He first worked professionally from 1970 to 1973 with the seminal art-rock band Roxy Music, lending their first two albums, Roxy Music (Island, 1972) and For Your Pleasure (Island, 1973), a quirky surrealist edge. By treating the group’s live sound electronically with a tape recorder and VC5 3 synthesizer, he defined a role for himself as an ‘aural collagist’. After leaving Roxy Music in 1973, Eno developed this interest in the timbral quality of music further with the albums No Pussy Footing (Island, 1973; with King Crimson’s Robert Fripp) and the seminal Another Green World (Island, 1975), the latter a brilliant combination of quirky songs and pastoral instrumentals. In 1975 his interest in aleatory music led him to produce with Peter Schmidt ‘Oblique Strategies’ cards, a collection of ‘over one hundred worthwhile dilemmas’, which formed a sort of musical tarot, each card containing a directive on how to proceed to the next creative stage. He then collaborated on three of David Bowie’s most innovatory albums (Low, ‘Heroes’ and Lodger), produced new-wave bands such as Talking Heads and Devo, and released two important ambient instrumental albums, Music for Films (EG, 1978) and Music for Airports (EG, 1979).

Info from our Grove Music Online database of music.

Basically, Brian Eno is a creative genius who is one of the most important musical artists of the seventies. And he’s a critically important part of making the following scene happen (you might remember it).


What I want to focus on today are the “Oblique Strategies” cards, which are a great legacy to leave to people of any creative persuasion.

Brian Eno and his artist friend Peter Schmidt had discovered that they both developed a set of working principles for whenever they were getting creatively stuck under pressure. They mixed, matched, meditated, and ultimately developed a deck of cards with ideas designed to move the creative process forward.

Whenever you’re stuck within a creative activity, draw a card, read it, and trust it.

While the original cards are long out of print, and while recent reincarnations are fairly expensive, some Eno historians have made electronic copies available to any creative adventurers. Check out this colorful web recreation. And, of course, there’s an app for that (and for Android, too).

Happy creating!

~Joseph
Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, Main

Spring Break!

It’s time for Spring Break!  Time to put the text books away for a few days and have some fun!

•  Take a Hike

There are numerous hiking trails in the Pittsburgh area.  Take a look at the trail map before you start out.  If you take the same trail over a long period of time, you will be able to take note of the seasonal changes.  To enchance your hiking experience, you may want to keep a nature journal.  Don’t forget to take a camera with you.

Emerald View Park

Here are some hiking trails to consider:

Emerald View Park–Mt. Washington

Frick Park–East End

Riverview Park–North Side

Three Rivers Heritage Trail System–The River Front trails include the North Shore Trail  the South Side Trail the Eliza Furnace Trail and the Pittsburgh Riverwalk.

• Create Something

Art Club, Teens–Main.  Wednesday, March 27, 2013 @ 3:00 PM, Get creative with Peeps Brand marshmallow chicks.

Teen Lounge–CLP Brookline.  Make a Monster Bookmarks on Tuesday, March 26, 2013 @ 3:30 PM.  We’ll be making monster bookmarks that both eat the page and keep your place at the same time.

Teen Thing–CLP Carrick.  Tuesday, March 26, 2013 @4:30 PM.  Carrick Library’s the place to be every Tuesday afternoon,  if you’re into cool art projects, epic games, music, candy and just chilling out.

Teen Art Studio–CLP Beechview.  Saturday April 6, 2013 @ 1:00 PM.  If you’re an aspiring artist, this is a pleace to work on your projects, enjoy access to art materials, meet other young artists and showcase your creations.

• Watch a Movie

The Croods looks to be a fun movie choice for spring break.  If you are looking for free movies, the library has lots of choices for you.  You can borrow up to 5 DVDs with your library card.  You may need to reserve new releases.  The library also offers a lot of free movie programs especially for teens.  Some upcoming movie programs include:

Time Time:  Movie Time–CLP East Liberty.  Tuesday, March 26, 2013 @ 4:00 PM.  Joins us for a movie and fresh popcorn.

Teen Movie Night–CLP Beechview.  Thursday, March 28, 2013 @ 4:30 PM.  Watch new movies on our big screen.  Snacks are available.

Bad Movie Fridays.  Teens-Main. Friday, March 29, 2013 @ 3:00 PM.  Some movies are so bad, they’re good.  Join us for the best of the worst.  We’ll be celebrating Teen Tech Week all month by viewing films featuring once cutting edge, but now old school technology.

~Marian

CLP–Mt. Washington

Enjoy your spring break and perhaps the last snowy days of the season.  It’s the perfect weather for visiting your library!

Empathy Through Books: Reading Fiction in the Wake of Steubenville

It’s hard to read the continuing coverage of the Steubenville sexual assaults without seeing a gross empathy problem plaguing our culture. How else could these sorts of things happen? How could two teens feel that what they did was okay? How could their peers sit idly by as it happened or casually retweet the videos in its wake? Why would adults choose to enable such behavior through attempts to cover-up the attack?

It’s left me thinking hard about my role as a librarian–what I can do ensure that the young people who I am committed to serve can live in a world that allows them to build friendships and relationships with each other and their community at large based on love, trust, and mutual respect.

In turn, I’ve become even more concerned about the many dehumanizing words and messages that powerful people send through the media. These people hope to take away your ability to form the person you want to be, and the beliefs you choose to grow up with. They wish to take away your empathy–your ability to imagine the thoughts, feelings, and struggles of people in the world–and to work toward the sort of world you may wish along with it. And in doing so, they give you an easy out to dismiss these things, to do nothing as people benefit from the suffering of others–or perhaps give you enough of a benefit that you can rationalize such struggles away.

Exploring my role within our culture, I found a number of studies that combine my love of recommending literature with my hope for your future and that of Pittsburgh’s teenagers. These studies give credence to the idea that reading novels and other fictional stories can help us make ourselves more empathetic to the world around us.

This one showed that reading a fiction book increased a reader’s empathetic skills over two weeks. This one showed that readers who showed more engagement in their reading were more likely to help someone pick up some dropped pens. Finally, this one noticed decreased readers’ egos after having them read passages from Twilight and Harry Potter.

Perhaps you’re struggling to understand what happened. Perhaps you suffer no such crisis. No matter who you are, I recommend the following books. Perhaps soon we can share a world full of literature, love, and respect!

~Joseph
Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, Main

Teen Bestsellers and a Nerdfighter Documentary

The two things I am ridiculously, nerdily excited about these days:

• The new Teen Bestsellers Collection and
• Being selected as a screening location for A Film to Decrease Worldsuck: The Nerdfighters Documentary!

If you’re like me, you know the release dates for all the new books you want to read.  I obsessively search the Library’s online catalog to see if the books, like Requiem by Lauren Oliver, are listed so I can place a hold on them.  Sometimes a book is so popular that it seems like it will never become available.  It feels like you’ll be waiting forever to get your hands on it.  I’m looking at you The Perks of Being a Wallflower! 

We want you to be able to find some of the newest, most popular books every time you walk into the Library.  Because of this, we have created a Teen Bestsellers collection at the Main Library in Oakland.    There are mutliple copies of each of these titles (and they’re non-requestable), so you’ll always find something new, unexpected, intriguing, or coveted when you browse the Teen Bestseller shelves!  Here is a small sample of what’s available in this new collection:

   
   

Do you prefer to read ebooks?  Check here to see what’s available.

If you’re still waiting to read The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, now is your chance to snag it!   Get ready for the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh’s August screening of A Film to Decrease Worldsuck: The Nerdfighters Documentary!  The date and time will be revealed very soon.

Zines @ The CLP Teen GSA

I first posted almost a whole year ago about the new CLP Teen Gay Straight Alliance here at Main, and I’m proud to say now that the GSA is a larger, more vital, and more active group than we were last year, which is saying something!

As we enter our second year, the CLP Teen GSA has many new projects and opportunities on the horizon, including a zine-making project with The Warhol Museum.

Some of you may be asking, What’s a zine?

Here is a handy zine definition, straight from CLP’s First Floor website:

From Papercut Zine Library in Boston:
A zine can be loosely defined as an underground publication that is independently produced and self-published, typically photocopied. People make zines out if a desire to share stories, knowledge, thoughts, opinions, and experiences. Zines are made for love, not for profit.

From the Sally Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture:
Zines are not easily defined. They can be a messy hodgepodge of personal thoughts or an expertly designed political treatise. They can fit easily into a pocket or take up an entire 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper. They can be heavily collaged or minimalist; colored or black-and-white; handwritten or typed; stapled, sewn, or loose. The unifying thread is their outside-of-the-mainstream existence as independently written, produced, and distributed media that value freedom of expression and freedom from rules above all else.

Recently, the Warhol has been working with other local GSAs to create an entirely teen-produced zine, called Swishy.  Every member of participating GSAs write or draw their own, personally designed page of the zine and then the group comes together to copy and bind the pages, and silk-screen a beautiful cover.

The CLP Teen GSA will be gathering to produce a new issue of Swishy, themed on celebrity, on Tuesday, March 26 at 5:00 pm in the CLP- Main Teen Meeting Room.

If you are interested in helping the GSA to produce this issue of Swishy, stop on by!

If you are very interested or even mildly curious about the GSA, stop by our next meeting, TODAY, from 5:00 – 6:00 pm also, in the CLP- Main Teen Meeting Room.  We meet on the second and fourth Tuesday of every month!

If you are interested in learning more about zines, check out the CLP First Floor Zine Collection.

Also, be sure to check out these handy links on zines and the following books in our collection:

 

 

See you there!