TCCL News & Events

Teen Read Month is an annual event aimed at encouraging teens to read for the fun of it – a chance to break away from textbooks and enjoy programs designed for them. Programs are designed to offer entertainment as well as a dose of education.

Calling all young adult anime artists. Time is running out for a chance to earn recognition and take the next step in achieving your dream of becoming a “professional artist.”

Ages 10-18 have until Thursday to sharpen their colored pencils and submit their best entry at any Tulsa City-County Library location. Categories include: ages 10-12, 13-15 and 16-18. First place in each age category receives a drawing pen set, sketchbook and $25 gift card to Michaels. Second place in each age category receives a sketchbook and $25 gift card to Michaels. Third place in each age category receives a $25 gift card to Michaels. The prizes are sponsored by Tulsa Library Trust and Project Teen, the Peggy V. Helmerich Special Project Fund.

Winners will be announced at TCCL’s Anime Mini-Con at Hardesty Regional Library, 8316 E. 93rd St., Oct. 24, 1-4 p.m. The Anime Mini-Con features martial arts demonstrations, a visit from award-winning artist Mark Crilley and a Cosplay contest.

The featured artist at the Anime Mini-Con is Mark Crilley, who has sold millions of copies of his books around the world and is a household name within the manga community.

Crilley’s popular graphic novel series “Miki Falls” and “Akiko” are two manga series created by Crilley during his 15-year career as a visual storyteller. The Akiko series, which includes 10 issues, began in 1995 when “Akiko on the Planet Smoo” was published. It was Detroit native Crilley’s first book and was deeply inspired by the time he spent teaching English in Taiwan and Japan. The Miki Falls series was recently optioned for a possible movie adaptation by Brad Pitt’s Plan B Studio. Another popular series by Crilley is Billy Clikk, featuring a young boy who fights monsters and aliens hiding out here on earth.

For a complete list of Teen Read Month activities, call the AskUs Hotline, 596-7977 or visit the library’s Web site, www.tulsalibrary.org.

“Do unto others what you would like to be done to you.” That is the Golden Rule. It is found in some form in all the major religions.

Celebrate the launching of noted author Karen Armstrong’s Charter for Compassion, based on the fundamental principle of the Golden Rule, at a special interfaith event on Sunday, Nov. 15 at 3 p.m. at Boston Avenue United Methodist Church, Thirteenth and Boston. The free event is sponsored by the Faith Club Committee in cooperation with the Oklahoma Center for Community and Justice, and the Tulsa City-County Library. The Faith Club Committee brought the authors of “The Faith Club” to Tulsa earlier this year.

The celebration will feature a reading of the Charter for Compassion; children from several faiths reciting the Golden Rule in their native language, religion and ethnic dress; interfaith musical selections; and a video of Karen Armstrong talking about the Charter for Compassion.

In 2008, Armstrong won the TED Prize. The TED prize is awarded annually to three exceptional individuals who each receive $100,000 and the granting of “One Wish to Change the World.” Armstrong wished for help in creating, launching and propagating the Charter for Compassion.

Her wish comes to fruition with the worldwide launching of the Charter for Compassion on Nov. 12 and subsequent celebratory events all over the world the week of Nov. 13-19. The charter brings together voices from all cultures and religions, and seeks to remind the world we already share the core principles of compassion.

Armstrong is one of the world’s most noted authors of interfaith books. Her works include: “A History of God,” “Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet,” “Jerusalem: One City, Three Faiths,” “The Battle for God: Fundamentalism in Judaism, Christianity and Islam,” “The Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions,” “The Bible: A Biography” and “The Case for God.”

For more information about Tulsa’s “Celebration of Karen Armstrong’s Charter for Compassion” event, contact Vicky Langston, Faith Club Committee chair, at 307-1997. For more information about the Charter for Compassion, visit http://charterforcompassion.org.