We’re excited to announce Reclaiming Your Story events – through the fall.
“The power of storytelling is exactly this: to bridge the gaps where everything else has crumbled.” – Paulo Coelho
Reading Public Library, Reading, MA— Reclaiming Your Story is a year-long grant to produce events for children through adults that supports community dialogue, embraces lived experiences and local voices, and encourages civic engagement and exploration for those seeking or desiring change. This series aims to amplify local voices and changemakers through the art of storytelling.
Check our website: https://www.readingpl.org/reclaimingyourstory/ to read about upcoming programs and events, and to register. We look forward to seeing you and hearing your stories.
Reclaiming Your Story is generously sponsored through a Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) grant that was awarded from the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC) and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).
Reclaiming Your Story Events
October 1-31: Raising Awareness for Survivors: A Clothesline Project Exhibit. In this public exhibit during Domestic Violence Awareness Month, a clothesline will be hung in the 1st Floor Main Lobby with shirts designed by survivors to represent their stories, their emotions, and their experience. Each shirt on display is made by someone in Massachusetts.
November 2: Roots, Shoots, and Branches: Storytelling Workshop for Children. Children in grades 3-5 come join our special guest, Andrea Lovett, and learn to tell and enjoy family stories.
November 8, 15, & 29: Reclaiming Your Story Collage Workshop. Tell your story through the art of collage in this three-week series for artists of all experience levels. You’ll receive a brief overview of some art basics during the first session. After the collages are finished, they will be displayed in The Studio.
November 16: Coming of Age With Climate Change: An Honest Conversation with Author Daniel Sherrell. This debut is a hauntingly personal account about fighting for a world that may not exist for future generations. Warmth: Coming of Age at the End of Our World is part memoir, part critical analysis, part love letter that lays bare the realities of climate change pleading with readers to act courageously to alter the narrative in front of them.
November 17: Literary Magazine Meeting for Grades 3-8. Join RPL Children’s Librarians for a meeting about a new literary magazine we are starting here at the library! Kids in grades 3-5 stop in for a snacking & writing workshop and to learn all about the makings of a literary magazine. Kids in grades 6-8 stop in to help our young writers work on their masterpieces!
November 18: Decolonizing: Placing Indigenous Peoples in the Conversation | Virtual. Join Claudia Fox Tree and Debby Irving for an online conversation as they explore how U.S. narratives have shaped their understanding of themselves, one another, and the complex world we live in. Current events inspire the organic conversation they engage in. This program is hosted by Memorial Hall Library in collaboration with Courageous Conversations and libraries in Chelmsford, Groton, Haverhill, Lawrence, Methuen, Newton, North Andover, Reading, Tewksbury, Westford, and Wilmington, Libraries Working Towards Social Justice.
Masks are required for all individuals aged two years and above while indoors at the Reading Public Library.
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The Reading Public Library is committed to evolving together to strengthen communication, equity, collaboration, and learning in our community. Our mission is to be a center and resource for learning and civic engagement. We provide a place and platform of, by, and for the people who can benefit as individuals as well as contribute to the well-being of the community. We work to achieve these goals and commitments by focusing on education, equity, accountability, and access.
