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Meet the 2023 Writers Conference Presenter: Natasha Ria El-Scari

We are thrilled to announce that Natasha Ria El-Scari will join us at this year’s Writers Conference! Natasha will facilitate a discussion between Traci Brimhall and Kelly Yarbrough as they dive into the details of their writer-artist collaboration while working on the Library’s November poetry walk in Strang Park. Make sure you don’t miss out on this great discussion and be sure to check out the poetry walk behind the library during the conference!

Natasha Ria El-Scari is a poet, performer, writer, Cave Canem alum, Ragdale Residency recipient and facilitator/educator for nearly two decades. Her poetry, academic papers, and personal essays have been published in anthologies, literary and online journals.  She has opened for and introduced many great writers, singers and activists, and has been featured at a host of universities and venues nationwide. Born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, Natasha has a BA from Jackson State University and an MA from the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Natasha’s Black Feminist approach is reflected in her writing, poetry and performance pieces. Once asked in an interview what makes her unique she replied, “…most people lie to themselves, but I like to reveal myself.” 

In 2015 Natasha released her first book, Screaming Times (Spartan Press, 2015). Of her work, critic and poet Denise Low writes, “Poems lift off the page, almost reading themselves. Unlike some performance poetry, her words translate well to the printed page.” Her second book, The Only Other (Main Street Rag, 2016) dives into the taboo voice of the other woman. In 2019 Natasha released her first self-published and non-fiction book in collaboration with her son entitled, Mama Sutra: Love and Lovemaking Advice to My Son.  In 2020, Natasha self-released, I Say, T(He)y Say a chapbook about a special decade in her maternal grandmother’s life. In the same month she released Growing Up Sina, her first novel created after challenging herself creatively to grow outside of her first love, poetry. Her forthcoming work, Steelife, explores her feminist upbringing and the evolution of her womanhood.

Natasha’s CDs, DragonButterFirefly (2006), This is Love… (2010), CuddleComplex (2016), We Found Us (2023) and DVD Live at the Blue Room (2015) display how Natasha connects with any crowd with maternal warmth and unrelenting honesty. This mother of two adult children and a bonus son is also the founder and curator of Black Space Black Art, an organization created to promote the exhibition of African American visual arts and businesses. She is also the founder and curator of the Natasha Ria Art Gallery, a small powerhouse that focuses on exhibiting marginalized artists and cross genre cultural events. In 2021, Natasha was featured in the Emmy nominated PBS documentary 6 Streets and received the 2021 KC People’s Choice Award Winner for Best Author. In 2022 BSBA was awarded the Downtown KC Urban Hero Award. Natasha and her husband Kevin have plans to open her day and overnight urban retreat space for creatives in the future. For details and booking: www.natasharia.com

You can register for the conference here. Registration isn’t required but is appreciated, and your RSVP includes both days of the conference, Nov. 3 and 4. Sessions are available on a first-come first-serve basis. We will also be hosting a Writers Conference Kickoff on Thursday, Nov. 2.

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Meet the 2023 Writers Conference Presenter: Joseph Keehn

Joseph Keehn has been with Johnson County Library for 10 years, and currently serves as the Library’s Event Coordinator. Joseph is a founding member of the Writers Conference and helped bring the first conference to life in 2014 with the LDS Storymakers before the library made the event their own in 2015. Since then, he has played a critical role in planning and executing the Writers Conference each year.

We’re excited to announce that this year Joseph will be joining us at the Conference in a front-of-house role, facilitating one of our passive program activities outside of the Carmack Room (the large meeting room where we host many of our lectures during the conference.)

Joseph will guide a collage-making exercise that is not only fun but also thoughtful. This creative exercise gets folks reflecting on their creative practice in an intentional way. We’ll provide all the materials you need to make a work of art that reflects you and your inner wisdom.

I’ve attended several of Joseph’s collage-making classes in the past, and it’s always been a blast. I learn something new about myself or one of my colleagues every time and always walk away with a cool piece of collage art.

You can register for the conference here. Registration isn’t required but is appreciated, and your RSVP includes both days of the conference, Nov. 3 and 4. Sessions are available on a first-come first-serve basis. We will also be hosting a Writers Conference Kickoff on Thursday, Nov. 2.

Scheduled:

Meet the 2023 Writers Conference Presenter: Joseph Keehn

Joseph Keehn has been with Johnson County Library for 10 years, and currently serves as the Library’s Event Coordinator. Joseph is a founding member of the Writers Conference and helped bring the first conference to life in 2014 with the LDS Storymakers before the library made the event their own in 2015. Since then, he has played a critical role in planning and executing the Writers Conference each year.

We’re excited to announce that this year Joseph will be joining us at the Conference in a front-of-house role, facilitating one of our passive program activities outside of the Carmack Room (the large meeting room where we host many of our lectures during the conference.)

Joseph will guide a collage-making exercise that is not only fun but also thoughtful. This creative exercise gets folks reflecting on their creative practice in an intentional way. We’ll provide all the materials you need to make a work of art that reflects you and your inner wisdom.

I’ve attended several of Joseph’s collage-making classes in the past, and it’s always been a blast. I learn something new about myself or one of my colleagues every time and always walk away with a cool piece of collage art.

You can register for the conference here. Registration isn’t required but is appreciated, and your RSVP includes both days of the conference, Nov. 3 and 4. Sessions are available on a first-come first-serve basis. We will also be hosting a Writers Conference Kickoff on Thursday, Nov. 2.

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This Week at the Library

This week at the Library, you can join us at: 

Poetry Walk at Strang Park – Daily, Nov. 1 – Nov. 30, All Day

Meander through Strang Park while you enjoy poetry by Traci Brimhall, Poet Laureate of Kansas, on the theme of Memory Palace. Poetry boards with accompanying artwork by Kelly Yarbrough will be placed throughout the park. The poetry walk is a perfect way to get a sneak peek into Brimhall's and Yarbrough's work before the 2023 Writers Conference, where they will be in conversation about their collaboration. 

Writers Conference Kickoff – Thursday, Nov. 2, 6:30 – 8 p.m.

You’re invited to join us at Central Resource Library. With equal parts poems, storytelling, and Q&A, Dallas’ inaugural poet laureate will share how he found poetry as a child. In our kickoff event, Joaquín Zihuatanejo will take us on a poetic journey from barrio boy to teacher to poet to World Champion and eventually poet laureate.

For more information and updates about the conference, check our Writers Conference website

2023 Writers Conference – Friday, Nov. 3 – Saturday, Nov. 4, 9:30 a.m. – 4 p.m.

2023 is the year of the workshop at our annual Writers Conference at Central Resource Library! Bring your pen. Bring your laptop. Bring your creativity and your drive. Be ready to write, revise, and critique. We’ll still have lectures on editing, grand openings, playwriting, classroom takeovers and many more. We’re also taking over all the free space with drop-in activities!

Teen Book Club – Monthly, times and location vary

Antioch Library – First Saturdays, 2-3 p.m., Nov. 4 book is “Ravensong” by Cayla Fay, Dec. 2 book is “Always the Almost” by Edward Underhill.       

Blue Valley – First Thursdays, 6-7 p.m., Nov. 2 book is “Nothing More to Tell” by Karen McManus, Dec. 7 book is “The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea” by Axie Oh. 

Lenexa – Second Thursdays, 5-6 p.m., Nov. 9, 6-7 p.m., Nov. 9 book is “Instructions for Dancing” by Nicola Yoon, Dec. 14 book is “Clap When You Land” by Elizabeth Acedevo.  

We are proud to present the Library’s first ever Teen Book Club at three locations! Let’s get together to share our love of reading and chat about each month’s books. No registration necessary. Come join us at Antioch, Blue Valley, and Lenexa — or mix and match! Bring your own book or check out the month’s book ahead of time from the Library — each title is offered in the catalog as a physical copy and eBook.

And there’s much more happening this week … 

Already have a busy week? Remember, you can watch recordings of many of our programs at your convenience with Library OnDemand

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Join us for a Night of Fright

Dark nights. Abandoned cabins. Eerie noises. What restless spirits will be brought to life in these spooky stories?

Winners of our kids and teen Night of Fright spooky story contests will have the opportunity to read their stories aloud at this event. This is also your chance to collect winning stickers from the Night of Fright teen sticker contest. Feel free to wear a costume to this celebration! 

Night of Fright is Monday, Oct. 30, 6-7:30 p.m. Register now for a treat - or trick!

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Meet the 2023 Writers Conference Presenter: Bryan Voell

Marketing yourself is just as important as marketing your work. What’s your artist statement? Maybe you feel like you can better represent yourself and your creative work to the world. Bryan Voell, librarian and artist, can help you craft an artist statement that authentically reflects you and your writing. Bring your current artist statement or author bio for some one-on-one feedback at this year’s Writers Conference!

Bryan Voell is an Adult Services Librarian with Johnson County Library. He has also been the Local Arts Librarian, working with many artists and arts organizations to bring local artwork to the library's physical and digital spaces. While he is currently a librarian and a visual artist, he has a background in writing and experience as a teacher. He has read many artist statements and bios and is here to help make yours the best it can be.

You can find Bryan’s table in the open space with other drop-in activities to enjoy in-between sessions. You can register for the 2023 Writers Conference here. Registration isn’t required but is appreciated, and your RSVP includes both days of the conference, Nov. 3 and 4. Sessions are available on a first-come first-serve basis. We will also be hosting a Writers Conference Kickoff on Thursday, Nov. 2.

Inspired by this year’s conference book, By the Book: Writers on Literature and the Literary Life from The New York Times Book Review, we asked Bryan what he’s been reading lately:

What are you reading right now? 

The In-Between: Unfortgettable Encounters During Life's Final Moments by Hadley Vlahos

Your Brain on Art: How Art Transforms Us by Susan Magsamen

Esther's Notebooks by Riad Sattouf

 

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Local History Librarian Amanda Wahlmeier displays the title page to the Literature section in the 1923 yearbook for Shawnee Mission Rural High School.

Local History Librarian Amanda Wahlmeier displays the title page to the Literature section in the 1923 yearbook for Shawnee Mission Rural High School.

Donated Yearbooks Serve as Unsung Reference Materials

Perhaps it was the big hair. Or the wide-collared shirt. Or the sideburns. If it’s finally time to discard that old high school yearbook — the one with the picture you have despised all these years — the Johnson County Library has a message for you: Don’t pitch it!

“We are happy to take them,” said Local History Librarian Amanda Wahlmeier.

The Library is always looking to add to its collection of nearly 520 high school yearbooks from districts within Johnson County.

The oldest one in the collection is the 1923 yearbook from Shawnee Mission Rural High, the precursor to what is now Shawnee Mission North. And yes, you can also find the high school photos of local kids who made it big, such as Shawnee Mission West graduates Paul Rudd and Jason Sudeikis.

The yearbooks are available in print on about 10 shelves in the northwest corner of the Central Resource Library. Included in the regional reference section, the yearbooks sit among a lot of technical documents on topics like sanitary sewer regulations and city code regulations.

Even the most arcane publications help researchers, and Wahlmeier said yearbooks might be an overlooked historical reference.

For instance, Wahlmeier said, yearbooks can help genealogists track down birth years for relatives by working backward from their class years. The Library also sometimes fields calls from school staff themselves wanting to track down some school history.

More generally, she said, the yearbooks are “a reflection of the community to see what the school activities were and what the kids were up to any given year.”

The yearbooks serve as year-by-year time capsules to chronicle broader trends, such as the popularity of different names to the changing nature of school activities.

That old Shawnee Mission North yearbook, for instance, featured a literature section where students submitted poems and other writings.

Sports have always garnered significant coverage, but more recent yearbooks also capture the emergence of more diverse clubs and activities. The homecoming parade has stood the test of time.

“It’s interesting to see what stays around and what doesn’t,” Wahlmeier said.

Notes inside donated yearbooks can also add a lighthearted view of student life, as in one missive written by a student in a yearbook apparently donated by a teacher.

“Even though I didn’t make a very good grade,” the student wrote, “I feel like I have learned something this year. I enjoyed your jokes. Have a spectacular summer.”

One caveat, however: If you don’t want that love note from an old flame or that reference to idiotic high school behavior out there for the world to see, you will probably want to review written messages from classmates before donating the yearbooks.

Residents interested in donating to the Library collection can email Wahlmeier at wahlmeiera@jocolibrary.org or call her at 913.826.4402. You can also browse digitized yearbooks from the Shawnee Mission School district through JoCoHistory.

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Meet the 2023 Writers Conference Presenter: Gregg Winsor

Need some practice honing your pitch? Librarian Gregg Winsor is here to help at this year’s Writers Conference! Sometimes you only have a few moments in front of an editor, publisher, or a reader to grab their attention and to make your work memorable and understandable. Gregg will be available at the conference to discuss one-on-one how to whittle down your pitches for maximum effectiveness.

Gregg is a Reference Librarian who works at the Johnson County Library with a specialty in Readers' Advisory, working with book groups and raising awareness of new and mid-list titles. You can find Gregg at one of the drop-in tables during the conference. Also, if you’re looking for your next favorite read, check out one of his lists

You can register for the conference here. Registration isn’t required but is appreciated, and your RSVP includes both days of the conference, Nov. 3 and 4. Sessions are available on a first-come first-serve basis. We will also be hosting a Writers Conference Kickoff on Thursday, Nov. 2.

Inspired by this year’s conference book, By the Book: Writers on Literature and the Literary Life from The New York Times Book Review, we asked Gregg a few questions to get to know him better:

1. What’s in your TBR pile?

As a Readers’ Advisory librarian, I *always* have too many books on by TBR pile. (It’s a good problem to have, though!) Currently I have on my list Everyone On This Train Is A Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson, a witty locked-room mystery set on a train headed to a crime writers’ convention, as well as The Final Curtain by Keigo Higashino, the latest in the Detective Kaga series, a celebrated police procedural novel translated from Japanese. (I must be on a mystery/thriller mood.)

2. What are you reading right now?

My Darling Girl by Jennifer McMahon, a haunting slow-burn psychological thriller about a woman who suspects her cancer-stricken mother might be the victim of demonic possession after he moves in. Delightfully creepy and atmospheric – perfect for the fall season. 

3. Do you have a favorite book you love to recommend?

I love recommending Seanan McGuire’s “Wayward Children” series, starting with Every Heart A Doorway, a charming (and short!) dark fantasy series about the doors that seem to appear to children in novels that whisk them to faraway magical lands – but what happens to them when they come back is not always happily ever after. Also, Martha Wells’ wry and thoughtful sci-fi “Murderbot” series (start with All Systems Red) about a rogue AI android who just wants to be left alone to watch soap operas but gets dragged into the concerns of the humans around it. I could rattle off more!

4. Do you have a favorite bookstore?

As someone who worked at bookstores throughout my 20s, I always love browsing through bookstores and libraries wherever I go – just being around books makes me feel comforted and safe, knowing that I’m surrounded by thousands and thousands of stories. (But to answer your question, I found one of my favorite books of all time, The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler, at a Rainy Day Books store, so I’ll always have a soft spot for them. 

5. Answer the question you wish we had asked.

No one ever asks me what books I hate! Which, honestly, isn’t a very good question – there are no books that I hate, just books that weren’t for me.