The following article was written by Kristen Keck, a Teen Associate at the Manitowoc Public Library.
I have to admit that spring isn’t my favorite season. There’s all kinds of mud from melting snow and rain, the days are too cold for short sleeves and too warm for coats, and nothing’s really growing yet. Spring seems directionless, yet I have the feeling that I should be doing something. I’m not a fan of the traditional cleaning, particularly when mud is just going to get tracked-in again and again and again.
I do appreciate spring as a time of new beginnings, though. Maybe the restlessness I feel is the urge to start something. In the coming months, I going to launch two new types of Teen Hang-Out programs.
Art events always get a big crowd, so I thought a series dedicated to that would be a good idea. Teen Hang-Out: ArtLab will be a free-for-all pillaging of the art supplies that we have in the back. Sometimes there will be a specific technique or medium that we’ll focus on and sometimes it really will be just free form exploration—a “Do What You Want As Long As You’re Making Art” situation.
The first program under this banner will be Teen Hang-Out: ArtLab – Origami on Thursday, March 13 at 6 PM. We’ll be down in the Franklin Street Room (that’s downstairs near the elevators on the Franklin Street side of the Library).
Kristen Keck
Full disclosure: I know more about the history of origami than actually making it. The first known technical book on origami, Hiden senbazuru orikata (How to Fold a Thousand Cranes), was published in Japan in 1797. That included instructions to cut the paper to make whole chains of linked cranes. Origami was influenced by Germany in the 1860s, when Japan imported the Kindergarten system of education that included paper folding where cutting the paper wasn’t allowed.
Anyway, come learn with me and take some paper (and maybe a book) home to further your skills! I’ll have snacks as well. Thanks to a generous donation from the Tuttle Publishing Company, we really have quite a lot of origami paper and books, so there’s no registration for this program.
I wanted to call the other idea Teen Hangout: Let’s Play <game>, but that was vetoed, so I’m still looking for a good title. The basic concept is playing games—both board and card games. Our first foray into competition will be Thursday, April 10, at 6 PM, again in the Franklin Street Room downstairs. Join me for Teen Hang-out: Liverpool Rummy – Shuffle, Deal, Conquer! Learn to play this variation of rummy, but be warned—it can get cutthroat! It’s my favorite card game—another full disclosure moment: the only card game I really like. The game moves fast and rewards quick thinking and quick hands. Keep your eyes on the cards and your friendships on the back burner! There’s no crying in Liverpool Rummy! There’s no registration for this either and, of course, there will be snacks.
So, if you need something to do while the mud dries up and the flowers actually start growing, come to the Library! Fold some paper, play some cards, and the next thing you know—it’ll be summer! But, that’s another article.
