Recap of Recaps: February 2–February 6

Submitted by Joanie Goforth

Take a look at some of the recaps from the amazing programs that took place systemwide between February 2–February 6:

Lunar New Year Family Storytime dragon crafters

Discussion of the slave narrative during The Life of Frederick Douglass:
Race and American Culture–Celebrating Black Heritage

A St. Douglas bookmobile visitor tries out the new bench
while displaying her groundhog craft

Lunar New Year Family Storytime at Cumming Library 

33 children, 38 adults

"The families at today's Lunar New Year's program were precious. We began the event with our Chinese Lion puppet, Leo, who had changed for this special program into a marionette. After singing our ASL Hello Song, we jumped right into our first book, The Great Race: a Story of the Chinese Zodiac by Christopher Corr. After we read, we held a Zodiac race, where twelve parents representing the animals of the Zodiac

raced each other around the room as the kids cheered. We then read Lunar New Year: a Day of Celebration and Fun, which taught us how New Year is celebrated in modern times and how to say “Happy New Year” in multiple languages. We tried saying them together for fun, and some of the audience members helped with the pronunciation in their native tongue. We learned a lion dance with scarves and performed it together with the help of a young audience member who volunteered to wear a lion mask and help me perform the dance along with the audience. He did an awesome job! Then we read a true crowd pleaser, There's a Dragon in Your Book by Tom Fletcher. The caretakers and children really got into this book, laughing and giggling, especially when I sprayed the audience with water when we put the fire out in the book. Afterward, families made our super awesome dragon craft together. One mom told me she had never been to any library program and asked if we did more things like this. I gave her information, guided her to our website, and she said she will definitely be back. We had a large Asian American population come today, which is not a demographic we see at Cumming. It was lovely to have input and personal experiences on what we were doing and how they celebrated. I heard so many great family stories and got lots of hugs from parents and kiddos. Definitely a day that makes me love my job!" –hosted by Sariah Homan

Teen Career Exploration - Find Your Future at Hampton Park Library

11 children, 6 adults

"We had a good turnout for our first program in the Teen Career Exploration series! Tonight our panelists were: Tom Cisco, Director of Forsyth County EMA/911, Randy Boles, Field Resource Manager at Dixie Electric Company, Tara Obermeyer, owner of Ice Cream Social, and Rachel Whitten, Transportation Engineer II at CHA Consulting. I began by introducing our panelists and allowing each of them to talk with the audience regarding their careers. For many, their pathway took a lot of different twists before landing on the jobs they have today. For instance, Tom Cisco was a mayor in Ohio and lived in many other states before moving to Georgia! Each panelist had something unique to say regarding their careers. Many teens came up to ask questions from the panelists afterward.” –hosted by Kayla Bolton

Preschoolers at Post at Post Road Library

28 children, 16 adults

"Today's stations were: color matching, letter tracing, dragon craft, zodiac animal movement rhymes, picture puzzles + world map floor puzzle, blocks (to build the great wall), cutting practice, and counting. I also set out books about the lunar new year by the carpet. The craft and block stations stayed extremely busy throughout the program. Cutting practice was also popular but I think that is because what 3-5 year old can resist using scissors! As one family was leaving the grandma said, "Thank you for exposing us to this! We learned so much". With that positive feedback, I plan to try to incorporate more multicultural things in the future.” –hosted by Erin Palmer

The Life of Frederick Douglass: Race and American Culture - Celebrating Black Heritage at Sharon Forks Library

21 adults

"We had record attendance for our 15th Race and American Culture program, and it was our 4th anniversary! For this discussion, we read excerpts from Frederick Douglass's autobiography, "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave," and talked about the importance of the slave narrative in the fight for abolition as well as a historical record. Slave narratives played a strong role between 1830–1860. Standard scenes include an enslaved person's childhood, daily life, the abuse they suffered, a comparison of the overseer vs. the master, escape attempts, exaggerated praise of the North, and an emphasis on abolition. This genre makes the reader confront the truth and cruelty of slavery and, as a result, challenges white apathy and the narrative of "the happy slave." The narrative deals with the isolation, "social death," and dehumanization endured by slaves as well as the fear and psychological abuse, even after escape. Although at the time it was written, society did not have the terms we have today to talk about these concepts (e.g. "triggers," "secondary paranoia," and PTSD), Douglass still addresses them in his writing. As he always does, Dr. Afflerbach also talked about the contemporary criticism of this historical text. For example, feminists critics often condemn Douglass for downplaying his wife's role in his escape from slavery, and some critics claim he had no right to describe the physical and sexual abuse of his aunt because "it is not his story to tell." Dr. Afflerbach always skillfully moves the conversation between the critical and the sympathetic points-of-view and challenges the attendees to think about the impact the classic works we discuss had at the time they were published and the impact they have today.” –hosted by Brooke Rose

Outreach Bookmobile Stops – Orchards, Ridgeview, and St. Douglas

21 visitors

“Every first Tuesday of the month the bookmobile visits Orchard apartments, Ridgeview apartments and we recently added St. Douglas apartments to this route. We used to visit this neighborhood once a month on a Saturday afternoon but due to lack of interest we decided to replace this stop to reach more families. I remember the day when we told Layla and her sister Akari that we weren’t coming back. I could see tears in their eyes, and it was hard to say goodbye. These children had been on our minds and hearts these past few months, so we decided to return but now on a weekday afternoon. We were all excited! Akari enjoyed spending time with her dad on the bus. Mr. Islas (Akari’s dad) is planning to take his family to the Atlanta Zoo and he asked me for help with the parks and museums passes. I showed him how to navigate FCPL’s website, but I also gave him our contact number in case he needs to talk to someone in Spanish. At the end of the day we had 3 bookmobile stops, 21 visitors and 2 librarians with hearts full of joy.” –contributed by Kandy de Martin