DPL Teens

Teen Tech Lab is tomorrow night at the Fairmount St. Library from 5:30-7:30.  This time around we’ll be discussing social networking.  Teens will help create and contribute to DPL’s teen MySpace and Facebook pages.  We’ll also set up interested newcomers with blog posting capabilities, so that they can create their own entries for the DPL Teen Blog.  At the end, we always like to share the funniest YouTube videos we can find…library appropriate videos, of course!  Join us.  Computers provided, bring your own frog.

-Christie

This week we’re featuring Marcus because he’s ‘Da Man.  Seriously.  Marcus is our most dedicated teen patron.  He is an active participant at nearly every teen program.  Whether it’s Anime Club, Get Your Game On, Teen Tech Lab, or any of the summer programs…Marcus is there.  He was the only one who showed up for the Teen Read-In this year and had no problem immersing himself in a graphic novel while chillin’ in the YA section of the library.  We can always always count on him to give us good programming advice and great suggestions for our circulating collection.  Marcus is a curious guy who’s not afraid to try new things.  When last year’s Film Fest came around he gave it a go, even though it was a completely new endeavor for him.  He ended up with a cool little film and even won best director.  That’s pretty impressive considering the group of 5 teens that started the project with him bailed out early on.  But he stuck to it and pulled it off.  We’ll definitely want to check in on Marcus in 20 years and see where all his drive and dedication has taken him.

His dream job:  “A mixture of a professional viola player and a chef.  Maybe a graphic novelist.”   

Favorite videogames:  “Hmmmmm, I got two, Dragon Ball Z Budokai Tenkaichi 3 and Naruto Ultimate Ninja 3.”

Favorite read:  “Right now, it’s Rosario + Vampire.”

Words of wisdom for the week:  “If you like anime, like really really much, check out manga.com  You can watch episodes or catch up on series you missed.  And check out the newest graphic novels that’ll be coming out and where you can find them.  It’s cool.”

Favorite thing about the library:  “The teens and graphic novels and the librarians.”

What he would change about the library:  “The teen space…make it like bigger…and more like where only teens can come in…more graphic novels and maybe add a computer for teen use, only where you don’t even need a library card to use it.”

A huge thanks to Marcus for coming to the library so much and contributing to all the good times.  Everyone always says Marcus is really quiet and shy, yet, at the library we don’t see that side of him.  Does this look like a quiet shy guy to you???

It’s time to feature the cosplay portion of last Saturday’s Teen Anime Fest which was hosted by the Quad City Public Libraries and the Figge Art Museum.  First up we have cosplay designer and workshop instructor, Jenna.  She was kind enough to offer up her experience and fascinating expertise when it comes to all things cosplay.  Jenna provided her audience with great instructions on mask making, sewing skills, costume design, and practical tips for cosplaying in general.  A huge thank you goes out to Jenna for her enthusiastic presentation, as well as bringing in some of her spectacular creations to pass around.  Jenna attends high school in Bettendorf and got started making masks thanks to a knowledgeable and inspiring art teacher. 

After the cosplay workshop, supplies such as furry material, foam sheets, felt, socks, gloves, buttons and glue guns were provided for teens to go wild with.  A few made furry gloves with claws and this next picture shows a teen participant who was able to finish his creation in time to parade it through the cosplay fashion show.  Nice work.

After the cosplay fashion show it was time to choose the winners.  Yet, it wasn’t as easy as you might think.  With over 30 teens participating in the cosplay event we ended up seeing more than a few stellar ensembles.  In order to determine the winner of the Teens’ Choice Award we decided that it would be best to let the audience clap for their favorites and whoever received the loudest applause would win.  Well, we narrowed it down to two finalists and had to have a clap-off to try and determine the real winner.  Turns out that even the tie breaker was too close to call.  So, instead of giving out a Teens’ Choice Award and a Librarians’ Choice Award, we spontaneously went with two Teens’ Choice Awards.  Too fun!  Enjoy these pics of the winners who each received $25 gift cards to Hobby Lobby.  Thanks to everyone for participating.

In the top picture, one award winner is the teen on the left with the freshly dyed green hair.  Mello Peterson did a spot on cosplay of Saria from Legend of Zelda.  In the bottom picture, the other award winner is the girl crouching in front.  She left before we could get her name  Congratulations to the winners!!

The Teen Anime Fest at the Figge was such a great time!  Thanks to those of you who were able to make it to the event on Saturday.  Over 100 people showed up and nearly all of them were teens.  The partnership between the Quad City Public Libraries and the Figge Art Museum was a perfect match for the many teen anime and manga lovers in the area.  They sure seemed to enjoy themselves.  We had 67 art submissions on display for the Manga Art Show.  Way to go teens!!  You all did a really fantastic job! 

We decided to break the art contest up into two age brackets, 12-14 yr. olds & 15-18 yr. olds.  Local professional artist, Heidi Hernandez, judged the contest and selected one grand prize winner in each age group.  They were then awarded $25 gift cards to Hobby Lobby.  Five honorable mentions were also chosen in each age group and recipients of those received a tasty Pocky prize.  Also, all of the artists were awarded an official certificate of artistic excellence for participating in the contest.  Following are pictures of the winning artwork:

Age Division: 12-14

Best In Show:  Portrait of A Boy – Clayton Summers

Honorable Mention:  Goddess – Emily Stogdill

Honorable Mention:  Yin & Yang – Casey Albee

Honorable Mention:  Flawed Design – Deme Echelbarger

Honorable Mention:  Kawii Kitty Twins – Bailey Hager

Honorable Mention:  Dream Wielder – Jacob Joslyn

Age Division 15-18

Best In Show:  Guardian – Christopher Mbakwe

Honorable Mention:  Yuki – Mimzy Storm

Honorable Mention:  The Gang’s All Here – Ruth Sanders

Honorable Mention:  Mamimi – Jacob Burns

Honorable Mention:  Dangerous Beauty – Sari Moore

Honorable Mention:  Believe – Basilia Koster

Stay tuned to tomorrow’s post when we revisit the cosplay portions of the Anime Fest.  Again, great job everyone!  Don’t forget to pick up your artwork at the library that you submitted it to.  Special thanks to local artist, Heidi Hernandez, and, of course, the Figge Art Museum for hosting the event…thank you!

So, to all the Twilight fans out there it’s time to jump up and down for a minute, let out a tiny joyous scream, and call your friends to let them know that you’re all invited to a Twilight party at the Fairmount St. Library on Wednesday, November 19th, from 5:30-7:30.  Uh-huh.  That’s just two days before Twilight the movie is set to make its debut in theaters nationwide.  Join us for an evening of all things Twilight!  Participants will even have the chance to score free movie tickets just in time for the opening of one of the most highly anticipated films.

Plus, we also have lots of fun activities planned for the celebration.  There will be Twilight trivia, pin the tail on the werewolf, a Jacob vs. Edward debate, a howling contest, we’ll make red duct tape roses, and have a who loves Edward the most contest.  There will even be werewolf and vampire cupcakes on hand for you to sink your fangs into.  Don’t miss out!

And to help hold you over here’s the newest preview that was just released about a week ago.  Enjoy.

Twilight Trailer

The 2008 Teen Anime Fest is today from 12-4:30 at the Figge Art Museum.  The event consists of a wide variety of activities and is pretty much going to be a guaranteed good time.  Pretty much.  As in…pretty much for sure!  Hope you can make it!  The Figge is located at 225 W. 2nd St. in downtown Davenport.  For more info call the library at 563-326-7832. 

One feature of the Anime Fest will be the Manga Art Show & Reception.  Area teens were invited to submit up to 2 pieces of manga/comic book style artwork.  Here at DPL we had over 25 entries and all of the teen artists should be really really really proud of themselves!  Plus, various public libraries on both sides of the river had lots of teens turn in submissions, as well!  Hopefully the artists can make it to the Fest today to see their artwork on display. The following is a list of the DPL artists:

Rebekka Burks, Jacob Burns, Kristina Carter, Marcus Dammann, Chris DeNeve, Erik DeNeve, Bailey Hager, Tamara Koob, Matt Lathrop, Morgan Mahon, Christopher Mbakwe, Sari Moore, Mello Peterson, Taylor Richlen, Brogen Schieving, Devin Skaff, and Mimzy Storm.

Fantastic work everyone!

Yikes.  I’m a day late on the featured player post.  Don’t fire me, teens!!!  Those of you that attended yesterday’s Get Your Game On know that DPL was experiencing some technical difficulties with its wireless internet connection during the program…so our normal featured player agenda was interrupted.  Bummer.  But enough of the blahblahblah.  This week’s featured player is…drum roll please…Justin!

At 18 he’s the oldest player in our crew, but only by a few months.  And he’s the only one in college.  An undecided major at this point but maybe wants to be a programmer??  Justin’s fav game is DDR and he prefers the arcade version, although that didn’t stop him from picking up his own copy of SuperNova the other day.  He also loves to read-which library staff ALWAYS loves to hear.  His favorite authors are Rachel Caine and Christopher Paolini.  Hmm, maybe we can get Justin to do a few book reviews for the blog!?

So, something people don’t know about you?  “Around here?…seems like my name.”

Your name is Justin, right?  “Yeah.”  “And my closest friends call me BK.”

Which stands for?  “Nothing.  It’s a crazy story and it doesn’t make sense, but it stuck so whatever.”

If you were an animal what would you be?  “If I was an animal.  That’s a tough one.  I’d be an emu because emus are sweet animals.”

And if you were an emu and emus could drive which car would you drive?  “I would drive a brand new Lotus Elise or a Le Mans Quattro.”

Justin also recently turned the group on to finger-style DDR which you can play here.  Check it out!  It’s cool.  And everyone thinks Justin is cool and quiet and chill and always wearing his black hat and everyone calls him Fedora Dude and maybe we should call him Cool Fedora Dude. 

“Sounds good,” he says.