Capturing Moments Through the Lens

by Tarnem and Yasmin– Parliament Library YAG members

The library is a place that does not feed your fantasy by only supplying you books, but it also provides an atmosphere where you can 'beautify' your talents. Do you know what it's called when you capture and highlight the vivid and colourful details hidden within the moments of life? If you guessed PHOTOGRAPHY, you are right! Photography is the art that connects our soul and mind, takes us beneath the surface of ordinary, and helps us document and savour our lives in more depth. 

On Wednesday, March 18 from 2 to 4pm, the Parliament Library will hold its very own photography workshop "The Art of Photography".

Photographer Roberto Riveros, will take us on a journey into the photographic world. He will begin with an introduction about the various types of photographs, techniques and equipment used in photography. This "studio-type" photo session is where he will teach participants how to take masterful pictures. Later, he will subjectively demonstrate photography and sketch its artistic aspects. Lastly, he will close with a question-answer session, as well as giving feedback and comments on the works of participants.  

Roberto Riveros is a professional photographer with five years of experience. He believes that even with the new digital photography revolution, a photographer needs to have the desire and seek out for deeper knowledge and skills. "I hope to impart some of the excitement that I have towards photography, and it is always my pleasure to teach this skill to others,” says Riveros.

Participants are encouraged to bring their portfolio/sample if they are interested in some private comment/criticism about their work.

Photographs can be submitted into the popular Young Voices Teen Magazine, the deadline is Tuesday, April 7, 2015.

If you are interested in knowing more details about this workshop you can call the Parliament Library at 416-393-7663 or visit the Toronto Public Library website.

What's On Wednesday: Writers' Groups for Teens

Have you heard that Young Voices turns 50 this year?

Ever thought about submitting your writing?

Worried it might not be good enough?

Then why not join one of our writers’ groups, just for teens? You can get together to share your work with your peers, get feedback, and support fellow teen writers! No previous writing experience is necessary, and the groups often have tips and tricks for writing, as well as exercises to help generate ideas, get started, and defeat writer’s block!

• Brentwood branch’s Teen Writers Group
• North York Central Library’s Teen Writers’ Group (more meeting information for after March)
• Fairview branch’s Fanfiction Fridays Club
• Parkdale branch’s Toronto WordSmiths (actually allows Youth up to age 29)

And if you’re looking for a writers’ group closer to home, here’s the list of writing groups for both teens and adults!

We also have a Writer's Room in the Toronto Reference Library, where serious writers who are using the
library's resources in their writing can sign up for an individual working space. There are certain requirements that must be met, as well as an application process, so if you're interested, find out all the details about the Writer's Room here! 

Of course, we also have some excellent books (alright, a lot of books!) to help with your writing. Here's a few to get you started:

Fanfic Fridays at Fairview

Fanfic Fridays are back at the Toronto Public Library! Ever been disappointed by the ending of a book or movie and wish it could have played out differently? (Allegiant or Mockingjay, anyone?) Or do you love the world of a TV show or a video game so much that you don’t want it to end? It doesn’t have to! That's where fanfiction comes in — to fill in the blanks, to change the story, to imagine the future, to expand universes.

Last summer's Word Out fanfiction contest brought out writers from a variety of fandoms, including Evangelion, Harry Potter and Once Upon A Time. We want to meet more of you! Bring your pen and creativity to try your hand at fun writing prompts, share previously written stories, geek out over your favourite characters with other fans, and talk about the Avengers, or John Green, or zombies (or a crossover story involving all three).

When?

The club meets on the first Friday of the month, and our inaugural meeting is on Friday March 6 from 5:00 – 6:00 p.m.

Where?

Room 4, on the 4th floor of Fairview Branch, located at 35 Fairview Mall Drive
http://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?Entt=RDMLIB010&R=LIB010

This program is for teens ages 13 and up. To register, please call 416-395-5750. Come out to represent your fandom!

 

Free music, movies, magazines and more -- find out what you're missing!

Ever wonder how other teens in Toronto feel about the library and its services?

Hi we are Alex and Theresa, the Teen Advisors to the Toronto Public Library Board, and we want to tell you about the results of a survey we conducted last May asking teens across the city what they knew about library resources, and what new resources and services they wanted to see. Some of the results were pretty surprising: for instance, many of the teens surveyed did not know that they can access databases with all the information they need for school project or download free music and movies from Hoopla.

The survey highlights were presented to the Toronto Public Library Board at their September 2014 meeting.

So we started thinking –- Hey, if teens don’t know what the library has to offer, they don’t know what they are missing! Great stuff like: more database resources than you can get at school, downloadable movies and music, ebooks, and a diversity of reading temptations.  

If you’re reading this blog post, you’re in the 36% of teens surveyed who know about the TPL Teens blog.

Think you know everything about the Toronto Public Library?

Take a look around the entire website. Tell us if you find something new, something useful or just something fun. Take advantage of all the services the Toronto Public Library has to offer for you!

Like what you see here?

Help us spread the word about this great site, tell your friends! Connect with TPL teens:

 

Music Video Mondays - Kathleen Hanna

Kathleen Hanna is awesome, pure and simple. She has been on the feminist punk rock movement called the "Riot Grrrl" scene for years and has been a part of some pretty political and sophisticated punk bands such as Bikini Kill and Riot Girls. She also created a new musical genre by mixing punk rock with electronica. Such as with the band Le Tigre.

 

She also is part of another band called The Julie Ruin where it is a bit more rock and roll, but still quite political and feminist.

 

And our final Kathleen Hanna video is also from Le Tigre and the song Hot Topic where they discuss all their influences.

 

Five Frames From . . . February 28th edition

What movie are these images from?

Young Voices is old!

Young Voices magazine turns 50 this year!!

The first issue came out in December of 1965 and was introduced by a note "From the Editor to the Contributors" that began:

"Young Voices" is a young people's magazine published by North York Public Library. All contributions are by students of high school or junior high school age... Over 60 contributions were received, some of outstanding quality, but all of great interest or originality.

Young Voices has grown over the years -- for the 2014 issue of the magazine we received over 650 submissions -- but the goal of the magazine remains the same: to publish great writing and visual art created by teens living in Toronto.

Jack Burman, who was 16 years old in 1965 and attended Downsview Secondary School, had his story "The Funeral" published in the first issue of Young Voices.

Jack went on to become a professional photographer, who, according to the CBC in their review of Jack's book The Dead, "brings to his photographs a strong literary sensibility."

Jack was kind enough to provide TPL teens with one of his photos, which he describes as "a kind of shaman's mask from a 19th century Kongo-region tribe. The idea of the mask -- in particular the mirrored/coated eyes -- was to enable vision into the next world, the world of the Ancestors and Spirits/Gods." Adds Jack, in reference to his Young Voices story, "I haven't managed to get too far in 50 years from the crossing represented by a funeral!"

A shaman's death mask, photo by Jack Burman

Here's Jack's story from Young Voices 1965:

The Funeral

A mid-April morning; out of a house stepped a young boy, who was greeted by a raw, gusting wind that made his clothes, apparently warm and heavy, feel thin and  insufficient. On this day he was quite generous with his attention, and now gave it freely to the sky, which seemed decidedly unnatural. Rows of clouds spread neatly to the horizon, a horizon pricked by the odd thread-thin column of smoke, and the not-so-odd office or apartment building. The clouds were uniformly shadowed by the brush of an unimaginative painter, so that their grey darkened very gradually down towards their bottoms. Their positioning was particularly singular; a stiff regimentation, like pupils of some austere master. But, inevitably, the sky's oddity was soon forgotten, and the boy's mind returned to the event at hand: a funeral.

A fantastic book -- BETTER THAN PERFECT reviewed

Review by Teen Bunny (with a little help from Maria of the Editorial Youth Advisory Group)

The book is called Better than Perfect, written by Melissa Kantor. The story is about a seventeen-year-old girl whose name is Juliet Newman, and she has the most perfect life... The perfect family, perfect grades, perfect boyfriend and a perfect plan for her future. However, when her father moves out and her mom is sent to the hospital, she starts to question if the life that she is living in is actually “perfect”. Things that were at one time important to her suddenly change, as she figures out that going to Harvard and getting good grades on her SAT are not what she wants. On the worst night of her life, she meets Declan -- a guy from her AP English class. This my second Melissa Kantor book. The first one was Maybe One Day. which I thought was a great book. That’s why I asked to review Better Than Perfect.

I'm glad I asked, because I absolutely love Better Than Perfect. The personalities of the characters are amazing. What I want to say is, the main character, Juliet, is extremely exquisitely developed. I do understand her problems... the effort she puts into her study, her desire to be the one that everyone expects her to be... never having time to enjoy her life or the things that she is really interested in.

I understand Juliet because I am also an overachiever in my high school... I want make everyone happy for me and be the favourite of my teacher... get the highest grade, and do well so I can go to university. Just like Juliet, I never have time to do the things that I like. That’s why I feel the connection between me and Juliet. One thing I don’t like about her is she cheats on her boyfriend with a guy that she just met! Even she feels upset, she can still find another way to express her feelings. Overall, it’s still a fantastic book, I highly recommend this one.

Volunteer fair features Luminato, Jane's Walk and more

Interested in new and exciting volunteer opportunities in Toronto? Learn how to volunteer for organizations in the culture sector including:

 

        Hot Docs
        Toronto Fringe Festival
        Luminato
        Jane’s Walk Toronto
        Inside Out!
        Cinéfranco

Event includes presentations and a volunteer marketplace, plus attendees can stay for a FREE screening!

Date: Saturday, March 14
Location: Bloor Hot Docs Cinema (506 Bloor Street West)
Doors Open: 10:30 AM
Event: 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM

Please let the folks at Hot Docs know if you are planning to attend!

What People Don't Want You To Read

You may or may not have heard - it's Freedom To Read Week!

That may not seem important on the surface - I mean, there are lots of books, right? So what if you can't read that one? What's the big deal?

The big deal? Think about this quotation from Martin Niemoller, who survived World War II:

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

The same thing applies to books. Requests to have books removed from library collections (we call these "challenges") chip away at everyone's right to have access to information and to have their points of view represented. 

So you want a look at some of the things that people have complained about?

This list of thirty titles challenged over the last while is downloadable, and full of good, classic stuff.

This post talks about movies that people have objected to, including a head-scratching objection to the tornado in the Muppets version of The Wizard of Oz. 

Does it make you a little upset, that people want to tell you what you can and can't read? It should. And to illustrate why, I give you this quite excellent video made by teens in Calgary:

 

 

Happy Freedom To Read Week - celebrate by reading whatever you like because you have that right!