Posts Tagged ‘Adult programs’
Genealogy Workshop – February 21
The Library is hosting a free genealogy workshop on Wednesday, February 21 at 2 p.m. This hour-long program will cover topics such as genealogy books and resources in the Library, free online databases that are available from the Library, other free online resources, and ideas for organizing family history information.
Some of the books in the Library’s genealogy section include Chickasha city directories, yearbooks from Grady County schools, several books about the history of Chickasha and other Grady County communities, histories of local organizations, and individual family histories. Additionally, there is a section about the history and cultures of Oklahoma that has individual county histories, information about the Dawes Roll, and pre-statehood census records.
The Library’s online databases include access to Ancestry Library Edition on Library computers, and Heritage Quest, which is accessible on any internet-capable device with your library card number. The Chickasha Newspaper Collection on the Gateway to Oklahoma History contains freely accessible digitized copies of Chickasha newspapers on the Gateway to Oklahoma History. If you have ever wondered how to search for relevant information online, there will be a discussion of search tips and what kind of information and documents can be found on each of these databases, as well as some other free websites that could be helpful in finding information about a specific person.
Finally, there will be some ideas about how to organize an ever-growing collection of family history research in order to keep track of everything while also making sure none of the information is lost.
“Whether you are just beginning your genealogy research, or are already a dedicated researcher with a pile of documents and sources, this workshop can provide information that can help you to take advantage of free resources that can help you search more efficiently and to find some unexpected treasures,” says Michelle Skinner, Reference Librarian.
There will also be time for questions and answers during the program, and people are welcome to browse the Library’s collection of physical and online genealogy resources afterwards. In case of inclement weather, this workshop will be held on Wednesday, February 28. For more information, call the Library at 405-222-6075, or email michelle.skinner@chickasha.org.
Financial Literacy Mini-Clinic
There will be a Financial Literacy Mini-Clinic held on Tuesday, January 9, 16, 23, and February 6 at 6 p.m. in the Library’s meeting room. This program is led by Leslie A. Sledge, NACCC-certified financial counselor and credit restoration specialist. It is free to attend, and no registration is required.
The Financial Literacy Mini-Clinic will cover the following topics:
- January 9: A Strong Financial House Built on Credit Worthiness
- January 23: Debt Elimination
- February 1: Saving
- February 6: Saving for Retirement / Investments for the Future
There will be a special guest during the final program. For more information, call the Library at 405-222-6075.
Books Come Alive and Local Author Festival will be held Saturday, March 25!
Submitted by the Friends of the Chickasha Public Library
The Friends of the Library and Chickasha Public Library invite the community to stop by the Library on Sat., March 25, 2023 between 2pm and 4pm for two very special attractions! The Library is located at 527 Iowa Ave., Chickasha, OK.
Visitors will enjoy being entertained by Books Come Alive presenters as they each create their own setting, costume as a character, and present a 3-5 minute scene from a book they have selected to share. Participating as presenters are Mischelle Blunt who has chosen “The Help” by Kathryn Stockett; Dr. Christy Clift will portray a scene from “Harry Potter” by JK Rowling; and the Library’s children’s director Drew Cooper has selected “Beauty and the Beast” as her book. Also presenting are Rebecca Cravens portraying a scene from “Jane Austen”; Sydny Dockery has chosen the book “Percy Jackson” by Rick Riordan; Dr. Jeanne Mather selected Mike Artell’s “Petite Rouge”; and Rick Phillips will be having fun with “Star Wars”. Well-known radio host George Plummer will be presenting a special book, as well!
While at the Library, stop by the meeting room and visit with the authors who are participating in the “Local Author Festival”. All the authors will set up at tables and have books for sale. This year the authors include Karen Knauss Bailey Alicia Dean, Tamrie Foxtail, Dr. Todd Fuller, Kenny “Sad Pawpaw” Harmon (NOTE: enter a drawing at his table to win a copy of his book!), Dr. Crag Hill, Callie Hutton, Anna Kittrell, Brian McNatt, Gloria Koehn Morse, Kathy Shaull and Liz Tyner.
NOTE: The Library will close at noon on Sat., March 25, to set up for these two exciting events! For additional information about these activities and others at the Library, call 405.222.6075.
Financial Literacy Mini-Clinic
Are you looking for ways to save money? Do you have questions about credit, savings, or retirement? The Chickasha Public Library will host a FREE Financial Literacy Mini-Clinic every Thursday in January from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
The Financial Literacy Mini-Clinic is a four-part series led by Leslie A. Sledge, a certified credit counselor and financial coach. This program will explore the principles of building a strong financial house, with an emphasis on mindful credit worthiness, debt elimination, saving, and saving for retirement.
There will also be an opportunity for individual questions and answers. Space is limited, so registration is encouraged. If you have any questions or would like to register for the Financial Literacy Mini-Clinic, you can call the Library at 405-222-6075, email library@chickasha.org, or speak to staff in person.
New Tai Chi: Moving for Better Balance beginning session begins January 9th.
Have you fallen? Are you worried about falling? Try Tai Chi.
“With regular practice, tai chi improves balance by strengthening muscles and co-ordination; at the same time, it strengthens the mind, thereby improving calmness and confidence in not falling. Thus, both physically and mentally, tai chi is an extremely effective exercise for fall prevention.” (taichiforhealthinstitute.org)
“Slow, deliberate movements improve your stability and protect against falls. The slow, flowing motions of tai chi train you to shift your weight while maintaining your balance. Tai chi is an ancient Chinese exercise that can help older adults improve their balance and lower their fall risk.” (health.harvard.edu)
Learn Tai Chi: Moving for Better Balance in our beginner’s class which starts January 9th, and meets on Mondays & Thursdays 3:30-4:30, call the library to register due to limited space. The class meets for 8 weeks.
Meet our new Youth Services Librarian December 8 from 4-7!
Meet our new Youth Services Librarian, Ms. Drew Cooper! There will be a come-and-go meet and greet on Thursday, December 8, from 4-7 p.m. Come and welcome her to the community, share your thoughts and ideas about youth services here at the library, and hear her ideas and plans. Drew is eager to meet all the kids, and she has programs for all ages planned for December.
Drew Cooper is a mom to amazing identical twin sons and two awesome daughters in law, and Mimi to the most adorable grandson. She loves reading, DIY home repairs, hiking, climbing, and overlanding. Her favorite books are historical nonfiction, mysteries, and thrillers.
Drew has a master’s in marine biology and oceanography and she loves sharks. She moved to Oklahoma less than a year ago and is a former exceptional education teacher. She was also previously a Youth Services Librarian for a library system in South Carolina.
Drew loves everything about being a Youth Services Librarian, especially developing relationships with children and their families.
December Events for Children and Teens
Check out all of the free events for all ages this month at the Library!
Let’s Talk About It – Behind the Beautiful Forevers (December 1, 2022)
The final Let’s Talk About It program will be held on Thursday, December 1, 2022, from 6:30-8:30 p.m. in the Library’s meeting room. Several copies of the book are available for checkout. Below is some information about the book and the speaker for September.
About the Book
In this breathtaking book by Pulitzer Prize winner Katherine Boo, a bewildering age of global change and inequality is made human through the dramatic story of families striving toward a better life in Annawadi, a makeshift settlement in the shadow of luxury hotels near the Mumbai airport.
As India starts to prosper, the residents of Annawadi are electric with hope. Abdul, an enterprising teenager, sees “a fortune beyond counting” in the recyclable garbage that richer people throw away. Meanwhile Asha, a woman of formidable ambition, has identified a shadier route to the middle class. With a little luck, her beautiful daughter, Annawadi’s “most-everything girl,” might become its first female college graduate. And even the poorest children, like the young thief Kalu, feel themselves inching closer to their dreams. But then Abdul is falsely accused in a shocking tragedy; terror and global recession rock the city; and suppressed tensions over religion, caste, sex, power, and economic envy turn brutal.
With intelligence, humor, and deep insight into what connects people to one another in an era of tumultuous change, Behind the Beautiful Forevers, based on years of uncompromising reporting, carries the reader headlong into one of the twenty-first century’s hidden worlds—and into the hearts of families impossible to forget.
WINNER OF: The PEN Nonfiction Award • The Los Angeles Times Book Prize • The American Academy of Arts and Letters Award • The New York Public Library’s Helen Bernstein Book Award
(Summary from amazon.com).
About the Speaker
Ken Hada is a poet and professor at East Central University in Ada, Oklahoma where he directs the annual Scissortail Creative Writing Festival. Ken finds the natural order a powerful presence for writing. His work has received the 2022 Oklahoma Book Award, the 2017 SCMLA Poetry Prize, has been featured on The Writer’s Almanac, received the Western Heritage Award, named finalist for the Spur Award and six-time finalist for the Oklahoma Book Awards. In 2017 Ken gratefully accepted the Glenda Carlile Distinguished Service Award from the Oklahoma Center for the Book. His published poetry collections include: Feral Skies: Selected Poems 2008-2020, Contour Feathers, Sunlight & Cedar, Not Quite Pilgrims, Bring an Extry Mule, Persimmon Sunday, Spare Parts, Margaritas & Redfish, The Way of the Wind and The River White: A Confluence of Brush & Quill. Ken enjoys reading his work at venues around the country. (Summary from kenhada.org)
Let’s Talk About It Book Club to Meet November 14
The final two programs in the Let’s Talk About It book club series are coming up on November 14 and December 1, and both will be held at 6:30 p.m. in the Library’s meeting room. Let’s Talk About is a book club designed for adults who are interested in reading, learning about history and current events, and who enjoy discussing their thoughts and ideas with others.
The overarching theme of this program is civil rights, and each of the five books were chosen to reflect this theme in different ways. On Monday, November 14, Dr. Nyla Khan will present The Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich, a fictional story based on real events that occurred in the 1890s. This novel explores racial injustice and its effects on the relationship between Native and white communities in North Dakota in both the past and the present.
Dr. Nyla Ali Khan is a professor at Rose State College, Midwest City, OK and taught as a Visiting Professor at the University of Oklahoma. She received her Ph.D. in English Literature and her Masters in Postcolonial Literature and Theory at the University of Oklahoma. She is the author four books, as well as several articles, book reviews, and editorials. She was named one of the 100 Trailblazers for 2018 by the Oklahoma League of Women Voters, received the President’s Volunteer Service Award & Silver Medal for her national public speaking and her bridge building work at the community and grassroots level in the state of Oklahoma, and was also recently selected as one of The Journal Record’s “50 Making a Difference” for 2019 and “The Journal Record Woman of the Year.”
On Thursday, December 1, Dr. Ken Hada will present Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo, a non-fiction book about the residents of Annawadi, a settlement in Mumbai, India, whose residents face extreme poverty. The book follows the interwoven lives of several people who live in Annawadi as they struggle to survive in various ways amidst religious and economic tensions in a city with massive inequality.
Dr. Ken Hada is a professor in the Department of English and Languages at East Central University in Ada, Oklahoma and the director of the Scissortail Creative Writing Festival. He has published several collections of poetry and received the 2022 Oklahoma Book Award, the 2017 SCMLA Poetry Prize, the Western Heritage Award, a finalist for the Spur Award, a six-time finalist for the Oklahoma Book Awards, and the Glenda Carlile Distinguished Service Award from the Oklahoma Center for the Book.
Both of these programs will include a presentation, refreshments, and small group discussions. Pre-registration is encouraged as space is limited. To register, visit the Chickasha Public Library in person, call 405-222-6075, or email library@chickasha.org with your name, phone number, and which dates you would like to attend. Several copies of each of these books are also on display and available to check out from the library.
The Chickasha Public Library received a matching grant from Oklahoma Humanities for this program. Additional funding and refreshments are being provided by the Friends of the Library. Books, services, and other materials for this series are provided by Let’s Talk About It, a project of Oklahoma Humanities. Generous funding and support for this series was provided by the Kirkpatrick Family Fund and Oklahoma City University. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in these programs do not necessarily represent those of Oklahoma Humanities or the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Let’s Talk About It – The Plague of Doves (November 14, 2022)
The fourth Let’s Talk About It program will be held on Monday, November 14, 2022, from 6:30-8:30 p.m. in the Library’s meeting room. Several copies of the book are available for checkout. Below is some information about the book and the speaker for November.
About the Book
A finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, The Plague of Doves—the first part of a loose trilogy that includes the National Book Award-winning The Round House and LaRose—is a gripping novel about a long-unsolved crime in a small North Dakota town and how, years later, the consequences are still being felt by the community and a nearby Native American reservation.
Though generations have passed, the town of Pluto continues to be haunted by the murder of a farm family. Evelina Harp—part Ojibwe, part white—is an ambitious young girl whose grandfather, a repository of family and tribal history, harbors knowledge of the violent past. And Judge Antone Bazil Coutts, who bears witness, understands the weight of historical injustice better than anyone. Through the distinct and winning voices of three unforgettable narrators, the collective stories of two interwoven communities ultimately come together to reveal a final wrenching truth.
Bestselling author Louise Erdrich delves into the fraught waters of historical injustice and the impact of secrets kept too long. (Summary from amazon.com).
About the Speaker
Dr. Nyla Ali Khan is a professor at Rose State College, Midwest City, OK and taught as a Visiting Professor at the University of Oklahoma. Formerly, she was a professor at the University of Nebraska-Kearney. She received her Ph.D. in English Literature and her Masters in Postcolonial Literature and Theory at the University of Oklahoma. Author of several published articles, book reviews and editorials, she has edited Parchment of Kashmir, a collection of essays on Jammu and Kashmir, written four books, including The Fiction of Nationality in an Era of Transnationalism and Islam, Women, and Violence in Kashmir: Between Indian and Pakistan. Several of her articles have appeared in academic journals, newspapers and magazines in the United States and South Asia. They focus heavily on the political issues and strife of her homeland, Jammu and Kashmir, India, where she visits frequently. She has reading competence in Arabic and Hindi and is fluent in Urdu and Kashmiri.
Dr. Khan was recognized at the OK State Capitol for her human rights work in 2018 and honored by the Oklahoma League of Women Voters as one of the 100 Trailblazers for 2018. She was recently awarded the President’s Volunteer Service Award & Silver Medal for her national public speaking and her bridge building work at the community and grassroots level in the state of Oklahoma. She was also recently selected as one of The Journal Record’s “50 Making a Difference” for 2019 and “The Journal Record Woman of the Year which recognizes women in Oklahoma who epitomize leadership in both their professional endeavors and in the communities where they live.” Dr. Khan currently resides in Edmond, Oklahoma. (Summary from Oklahoma Governor’s International Team).