More Camp Carnegie Photos

As promised, here are the final products made from the Graphic Design stencils. Everyone did a fantastic job!

Modeling his trash bag smock! No spray paint on clothing!

Laser cutter---cutting the stencils.

Wonder Woman!

The Group and their work

Completed canvases

Most importantly, it looks like it was fun!

More on this week's camps soon!

~warmly~
Katherine

Camp Carnegie Update

As the staff finishes their last first day of Camp Carnegie 2008, we want to share pictures from last week's camps.

Trying to stay cool with some Popsicles!

Hanging out and making new friends.
Spray painting canvas for backdrop.

One student's plexiglass stencil. Ready to paint!

Spraypainting with stencil.

More pictures of final projects soon!

~warmly~
Katherine

Back to School Bash Donations Needed

The Carnegie Center's annual Back to School Bash will be held Tuesday, August 5th. We are in need of backpacks and school supplies for the students that will be attending. The items in each backpacks are valued at $35, so we can accept monetary or supply donations.


The following supplies are needed for each student:

backpack (appropriate for girls and boys in elementary school) 4 glue sticks
1 box of 24 count crayons
1 box of thick, washable, CRAYOLA™ markers
1 package of 24 colored pencils (CRAYOLA brand only)
1 package of sharpened No. 2 pencils (Not Eagle brand)
watercolor paints
1 package pencil top erasers
1 pair of Fiscars™ scissors
1 composition book (black and white speckled)
2 pocket folders, 1 red and 1 blue
1 roll of paper towels
1 box of Kleenex™
1 container of Clorox™ wipes
1 bottle of hand sanitizer
1 box quart-size plastic bags (zippered)
1 box gallon-size plastic bags (zippered)

Please contact Charlene Mingus for further information at cmingus@carnegieliteracy.org.

Thanks!

~warmly~
Katherine

Our Busy Building

The Carnegie Center is pleased to welcome teacher's today for the Second Annual Kentucky Literature Academy. Participants are getting to experience workshops led by established Kentucky authors, so that they can familiarize themselves with the rich body of work that Kentucky has produced. These workshops are designed so that teacher's can incorporate Kentucky writing into their own classroom. More details over the next two days of the academy!


Just a reminder that Early Learner Book Club is this week. We'll see you on Saturday. Pictures next week!

And, of course, Camp Carnegie continues. More pictures and updates soon!

~warmly~
Katherine

Camp Carnegie Update

This week's campers have already worked on a variety of exciting activities in Speak Up and Graphic Design.
Campers in the Speak Up camp have had a guest speaker (professional motivational speaker), traveled to Triangle Park to "people watch," done extemporaneous speaking from a variety of props, and so much more!


Students in Graphic Design camp have worked on creating stencil designs, learned to use the computer program, Adobe Illustrator, painted example billboards, designed movie posters, product packaging and CD covers, and the fun continues!



More pictures to come soon.

~warmly~
Katherine

Kid's Community Garden

This summer, the Carnegie Center's Kid's Community Garden class meets at the London Ferrell Community Garden. Every Tuesday night, instructors work with families on a variety of gardening and journaling activities.









If you are interested in taking part in a Carnegie Center summer program, please contact us for further details.

~warmly~
Katherine

More Camp Carnegie Photos

More photos to share from last week's Camp Carnegie!

What's your Story? instructor, Sarah Combs, talks to the students about storytelling.

Campers get some inspiration at Third Street Coffee, where they enjoyed ice cream sandwiches.

Students check out Constantine Rafinesque's tomb at Transylvania University, where they talk about legends.

Some of the completed African masks from Jazz to Hip Hop.

Video of a students practicing a partner dance learned during Jazz to Hip-Hop camp.


Instructor, Aminata Cairo leads the group in a dance.

Students practicing.
Collage making!

We're having so much fun at Camp Carnegie this year! More to come!

~warmly~
Katherine

A Camp Carnegie Poem to Share

Last week's "What's your Story?" camp produced such amazing work. Here's a poem by one of the students, Wenya, a 7th grader:

I'm from China. A place full of bustling people. From constantly walking, and resting.

I'm fron the Great Wall, and many aunts and uncles. From a place of great food. From the airplane to Ameica, that was so heartbreaking.

I am from that classroom. From trying to learn another language. From the timeout chair, to the playgrounds, to the nap mats. I'm from a world so big and yet, so small.

I'm from the library. From shelves of wondrous worlds. From A-Z, from 1, 2, 3. I'm from books.

I'm from dumplings and noodles. I'm from computer technicians and professors. From my room, to the Great Outdoors.

I am from begging my parents for a pet and being refused. From my cozy apartment home, to my childhood memories that I hold so dear.

I'm from the country to the city, and back again. From books, to toys from so long ago. I'm from handing things down to my little sister.

In my heart, there's a space reserved for my memories, feelings, and thoughts.

This is where I'm from.


More Camp Carnegie updates to come!

~warmly~
Katherine

Camp Carnegie Update

Here's some of the exciting events from this week's Camp Carnegie camps:


From Jazz to Hip-Hop: Exploring Dance, Rhythm and Song

Did you know that the popular music and dances we enjoy today have their roots in African drum rhythms and dances? This camp explores different African-based dances from Stepping to the Charleston and more. Kick up your heels and get down!

Dancing!

Making African Masks. Can you believe that is a milk jug?

What's your Story: A Workshop for Writers
This camp explores creative writing in all its forms and draw on the world around us to turn ideas, dreams, images, memories, and secrets into stories, poems, memoirs, and more. These students are encouraged to use their wildest imagination.

Sharing Work with the Group---
There are so many talented students!

Writing mentoring with the Morehead State creative writing Governor's Scholars,
high school seniors from throughout the state

Stay tuned for more pictures!

~warmly~
Katherine

Back from Holiday Break

The Carnegie Center is back to regular hours this week! We're thrilled to welcome Camp Carnegie students, Brainbusters students and the Kiddo Spanish camp. Check out our brochure for all of our new July programming!

~warmly~
Katherine

Next Great Writer Shares Her Work

This year's Next Great Writer winner, Hannah Legris, shares an excerpt of her winning piece, "Long Enough." The text will be available in full on the website soon!

She writes...

"The first time she noticed how bad it was, she was ten. It was after school, and she was wearing her blue shirt with the bunnies all over it. She had painted the shirt in school and then it had folded over and stuck to itself before it got a chance to dry; the bunnies were all crooked and raggedy with little tufts of puff-paint fur growing wild at the edges of their bodies. They were running across the middle of the shirt, and she could see how ugly they looked in the mirror that day, even though they had never looked so disfigured before. But the bunny shirt wasn't the first thing that she noticed in the wavy bathroom mirror. She had stared at only one part of her face; she had only been able to examine the way her teeth hung out of her mouth like oversized pieces of Trident gum, the way they straggled across her lip like foreign objects, out of place and misshapen.

She hated her teeth, she realized, standing in front of the bathroom mirror. She hated the way they overpowered the rest of her narrow face, how they placed themselves so prominently in the middle of everything else. The teeth became her defining characteristic, though just as clearly her hair looked like it was glowing in the reflection, standing out unnatural orange against the rose pink of the tiles behind her. She noticed her hair for a moment, and then she tried to close her mouth over her teeth again, and couldn't. Suddenly, distinctly, she felt like an alien, an alien unable to blend into human society, grossly out of place and lonely.

Every day, she hated her teeth more and more. They became the center of everything that she despised, looming in the middle of her of her face, a constant reminder of imperfection. In front of the mirror, she would touch her teeth to see if they would move, would shift suddenly and miraculously back into place. Occasionally, she thought of the realignment of her mouth as a decision that her teeth could make autonomously and with a little gentle coaxing from her index finger against the enamel, but thinking like that only made her even more disgusted with her teeth—why couldn't they just fix themselves?"

Stay tuned for details on our next writing contest, Short Stories ONLY!

~warmly~
Katherine

The Carnegie Center is the destination for your "Stay-cation"!

Got plans for the summer? Planning a trip? You should check out the Carnegie Center for your next "stay-cation," according to today's Herald Leader article.

We couldn't agree more! A "stay-cation," the new trend for summer allows you to vacation in your own town without wasting money on gas or a high cost trip. Come kick back and enjoy all that the Carnegie Center has to offer.


The Carnegie Center was listed as the number three place to visit in Lexington. Stop by for a workshop or to read in the Harriet Arnow reading room. Use our wireless Internet throughout the building. Use a quiet study carrol to work on a project. Take home a FREE book with each visit. Work on crafts, visit our art gallery or just stop by to say hello!


We hope you'll stop by soon!

~warmly~
Katherine

Five Books to Take on Vacation

by guest blogger Jan Isenhour

As my freshman year of college loomed closer, I received a summer reading list: four titles, including Joseph Heller's Catch 22 and John Henry Cardinal Newman's The Idea of a University.

My reaction still surprises me. Always a diligent student, eager to please, I let the summer slip away without a cracking a single one of the four spines, even the spine of Catch 22, which was, I realized too late, a perfect representation of the zeitgeist of the late 1960s. These books, I felt sure, were not what summer reading was meant to be.

What do we read during summer? Are our summer reading habits somehow different? Do we seek books for different reasons during the long, hot days?

With these questions in mind, the Carnegie Center offered a program, "Five Books to Take on Vacation." Two voracious readers who are members of the Carnegie Center's Brown Bag Book Discussion Group, Jill Heink and Sandra Tiegreen, facilitated. Here are their lists.

Jill Heink's Picks:
What could be more fun while you're on vacation than to read about other people's vacations?
#1 Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
#2 A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
If you need to save space, choose a book with a twist! After you've read it, you may want to read it again because you're not really sure what happened at the end.
#3 The History of Love by Nicole Krauss
If you like a good summer mystery, try
#4 Glitz by Elmore Leonard
Vacation is a time for optimism, so consider closing out your summer reading with some solid advice on how to get happy.
#5 Authentic Happiness by Martin Seligman

And from Sandra Tiegreen:
#1 Old Filth by Jane Gardam
#2 Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky
#3 The Spiral Staircase by Karen Armstrong
#4 Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand
#5 The Shifting Tide by Anne Perry

We also recommend that you check out NPR's many suggestions for summer reading by going to www.npr.org and clicking on summer books.

Building Holiday Hours

Please note:

The Carnegie Center will be closed Friday, July 4th and Saturday July 5th in observance of the 4th of July. We will reopen on Monday, July 7th for the beginning of Camp Carnegie.


If you have any questions regarding building hours, please let us know!

~warmly~
Katherine

Our Beautiful Building

The Carnegie Center staff love our beautiful building. We are surrounded by the beauty of Gratz Park. What a treat to work in a place like this!

I'd thought I'd share the most recent beautiful photo, taken by our Development Director, Jennifer Mattox, of our blooming magnolia.

Enjoy!

~warmly~
Katherine

Next Great Writer Shares Her Work

A poem from our Next Great Writers contest 2nd place winner, Trish Lindsey Jaggers:

We Are Listening

We are listening

to poetry, the recorded voice

of Mary Oliver, the silver

of mercury falling in a thin glass tube.

You lie near sleep

in my arms, our eyes

locked, your tiny fingers

around my index finger

as her voice rocks us.

She still seeks the soul,

the right to have one,

slips her pen

beneath every stone, gazes

into the birthing rooms

of flowers, listens

at the whispering

edges of doors

that open and close

the oceans, strokes

the trembling throats

of hummingbirds,

loses her breath

to some herons rising

white and sparkling

from a splitting water,

knows

without a question

that the answer waits

like a seed waits

for the blossom to leave the apple.

As I gaze into the sun-crackled pool

of your eyes,

I agree.

The iron bars

of your lashes

close, locking me in.

Here in this time,

in the static dust

of this afternoon—you

in my arms, sleep

folding its wings

about you, taking you

and leaving me—

you still hear her. We hear

her. One of us knows

heaven. The poet

hushes the answers,

for true living is in the search;

she slows to look and touch

only to just-miss.

On purpose.

Someday soon, I will hear

the answers she’s already asked

of the soul. For now, I hold

the feather of this time

and smooth its barbs.

I feel them coming apart,

separating like the strands

of your baby hair.

The rocker slips

through the chink

cut by the evening sun,

carrying us, this large moth,

and we are small upon

its dusty white back—

you, my daughter’s

daughter, me, my hand

and fingers stretched toward

this swift passing shadow

that hungers for light

it can never eat.

I hope I go like this,

sliding into the cool silver

river of a poet’s voice,

and the end,

when it comes,

when it breathes

the last line

of the last stanza,

closes with a gasp.

Trish Lindsey Jaggers

More work to come!

~warmly~
Katherine

Thank you to all of the readers!

The Carnegie Center was thrilled to welcome so many people into our building for Friday's Gallery Hop. 382 people visited the exhibit on display in our gallery! Friday night was also the evening of two readings: the Young People's Poetry contest finalists and the Next Great Writer's Contest finalists. All of the readers did a fantastic job, but we would like to extend a special congratulations to our winners.

Young People's Poetry contest winners:

Elementary Age: Casey Womack
Middle/High School Age: Tessa Cavagnero

Next Great Writer's Contest winners:

1st: Hannah Legris
2nd: Trish Lindsey Jaggers

Look for future blog posts of the winning entries and poems.
Keep writing!

~warmly~
Katherine

Donated Supplies needed for Camp Carnegie

We are in need of some items for our July Camp Carnegie camps. Camp Carnegie is a series of half-day, one-week summer camps for rising middle school students. The camps are designed to be both hands-on and educational. All camps are taught by instructors with field experience in the camp topic. This year's camps include: From Jazz to Hip Hop: Exploring Dance, Rhythm and Song, What's your Story?: A Workshop for Writers, Speak Up (public speaking and broadcasting exploration), Graphic Design, Poetry camp and Your Media, Your Message (film making and activism).

The following supplies are needed:

--Gallon plastic milk jugs

--Bottlecaps

--Buttons

--Magazines

--Fabric scraps, yarn, string, raffia, etc.

Thanks for all that you do!

~warmly~
Katherine

You're Invited!

We'd like to invite you to attend two great readings this Friday, June 2oth here at the Carnegie Center. Finalists from two of our writing contests will be reading their work.

Join us at 5:00 pm for the Young People's Poetry contest finalists. These K-12 students will share their work at the beginning of Gallery Hop in the Jesse Stuart room.

We also invite you to our 7:30 pm reading of the finalists for the Next Great Writer's competition. This reading will also take place in the Jesse Stuart room. The reading will last about one and a half hours.

In between the readings, we invite you to visit our gallery exhibit up for Gallery Hop by the Kentucky Women Photographers Network.

We hope to see you there!

~warmly~
Katherine