the mural has been hung in the teen room here at Central.
stop in and take a peek. I will try to remember
to snap a photo and post it.

The intellectual freedom mural was completed several weeks ago.
It was an interesting process--the teens involved were very creative
and the end result is truly amazing.

Ryan Tenney, who helped with the freedom mural last summer came in at our last session and helped finalize some details.

An article was published featuring our teen group in the johnson county sun.
We will hang the mural within the next couple weeks here at central.

If you have any questions about this mural or how to create a mural at your library please don't hesitate to contact me. it's easy, no okay, it's not. but it is fantastic to watch a group of teens create something from scratch. ;-) really.
my email: dewa@jocolibrary.org

I will load pictures later this evening.

The Mural (what else?) :)

Hey, all. This is Katie from youth services. I was telling Angel this morning how much I love what you're doing with the mural... the sky and leaves are looking gorgeous, and I love the books around. I think the wrist with 1984 written on it is such a powerful image. It's definitely reminiscent of the numbered tattoos on the forearms of Jews from the Holocaust. It gave me goosebumps when I saw that sketch.

I mentioned to Angel that with the trees in the mural, the image of a bitten apple would be cool to include somewhere... symbolic of people taking knowledge for themselves (from the Adam and Eve story in Genesis, also used by Mac for their computers... but it's still a cool mythic image). Anyway, Angel wanted me to post that idea on the blog, so I throw it out there for your consideration. Take it or leave it. :) I love hidden, meaningful images... it's something I like to do when I write poetry, and it's something I already see a lot in this mural. I can't wait to see the finished whole!

idea for mural

angel and i talked yesterday about my idea for the leftover space for the mural ... i am not so good at sketching so we decided that posting my idea would maybe make it so someone else could sketch it for me (danny?)
my idea was that we could do a big book with the pages leafing out and then on the pieces of each page you can see to have different people in different environments reading books... and then if a really detailed thing creates itself having their books have the same kind of thing going on.
i realize that only 2 full pages are going to be able to be seen but if done the right way i think we can have it so that pieces of other pages can be show to make a beginnings of images appear with the same general idea
angel mentioned that another book would be appearing on the other end of the mural with pages floating out so i thought maybe some of those pages could make it to the other side and flow into the book in my idea somehow

~imaria

Good Luck Alicia

what breathes is what matters.
breath is inspiration. literally.
thanks for being such a breath of
fresh air. may college treat you well...
learn much & speak up.

~angel

put a bit of paint to canvas today. I of course forgot to take pics. Danny sketched a bit more...
Matt mixed paint--blues and orange. it was a nice quiet sunday.

next meeting: tuesday around 630ish.

to kill a mockbird

angel wanted me to talk about the how to kill a mocking bird affected my sister. her class was reading the book in class the teacher told the class not to say the "n" word, but when the teacher was sick one day so the class the whole class said it when ever they could get the chance. My question is who is to blame???

next meeting: this tuesday August 7th 630ish Central.

This afternoon, we painted each canvas with Gesso & we came up with some great ideas/images--here's a couple:

people marching
---do people still march for cause? we wear bracelets, we create blogs, we picket, we even jog/walk, but do we really march?
de-evolution of man/woman & the connection to information
---alicia came up with a great image of counter evolution--man standing up straight but bending back down towards a computer screen.

miss u farah

click on "comments" below this post...

&

tell me again what EMO means &

why it's important to challenge stereotypes placed upon your generation.

next meeting

below are your sketches.

keep thinking about intellectual freedom and all that it represents...it is an intricate, vast notion...so be comfortable with the idea that it will most likely take time to really reel in exactly what we want to convey with this mural. time is beauty, though, in the creative process.

let's meet again next sunday. August 5th. I will send out an email to confirm. once we get everyone set up with blogger, it will be our main communication tool, and as Kelly said below, we will post a "paint" schedule.

7/24 sketches

Hey All!

Just wanted to drop by and say that I'm signed up to post here. You met tonight. I see my job as keeping a timeline and posting news about the mural. You all can do the rest!

UPDATE:
Angel tells me that you'll be meeting on Tuesdays and Sundays to work. I'll post the exact dates and times once I know more.

In the meantime, if you'd like to see how the blog thing works with the mural, visit the Freedom Mural blog.

Is intellectual freedom worth firghting for?

Freedom is something that all people deserve as a birthright. Freedom is something that should come freely. Fighting for freedom seems slightly ironic to me because no one should have to fight for something every living thing deserves. Freedom is worth fighting for because it is your right to have freedom and I would rather have nothing left but freedom than be controlled on any level with everything (freedom aside).
Free will is something that comes along with having freedom. Being deprived of any freedom is wrong. Being deprived of the freedom of intellectuality is not an exception. Choosing what to read and when to read it should be up to each individual. Books and any other form of written informant should not be censored out by other people with their own personal biases. Just because someone disagrees with something written doesn't give them the right to prevent others from reading that material and forming their own opinions. The right of free will is being able to choose what you put into your mind (written or otherwise). Freedom should enable those decisions, made with free will, to be made by the individual they affect.

~Imaria

young adult mural journey begins again...

July 24th 6pm Central Teen Room

what does it mean to be intellectually free?

how much does it rely on circumstance, age, technology, culture?

where or what are the injustices associated with intellectual freedom?

is it a freedom worth fighting for?