Teens

TEENS Meet up online or try something new.

Inklings Thursdays, November 5 and December 3 4–6 p.m. / Zoom

Meet like-minded teen writers online and explore your writing talents. At our November meeting, we’ll set up reading challenges and a collaborative support group for National Novel Writing Month. In December, we’ll be workshopping our writing, sharing and receiving feedback and ideas for improvement. Grades 7-12.

Dice Guild: Free Play Friday, November 13, 6:30–9:30 p.m. Zoom

Play roleplaying games online with other teens. You can be a wizard exploring goblin-filled dungeons, a bewildered teen investigating a spooky small town, an intrepid robot in outer space, a raccoon in the middle of an underground drag race and more. Teens Tinker: Soothing Slime Wednesday, November 18, 4–5:30 p.m. Zoom

Take some time to relax and learn about mindfulness. We’ll make it even more chill by creating a simple DIY stress ball and some soothing slime. Pick up supplies at the Hub Desk starting on November 1 or use your own to complete this project. Grades 7–12.

Teen Advisory Board (TAB) Sunday, November 15, 1–2:30 p.m. / Zoom Grades 7-12.

Attend a special virtual meeting of the Teen Advisory Board (TAB) to learn about our upcoming service projects. This high school volunteer group involves community projects, making your voice heard and earning services hours. Fill out an application to join TAB at ahml.info/teens/volunteer and receive the link to attend. Email Alice Son at ason@ahml.info with questions. For high school students only.

teen game night teen game night

Thursday, November 19, 5–6:30 p.m. / Zoom Join fellow gamers to see if we can read each others’ minds. Wavelength is a social guessing game where we’ll take turns giving clues to help others guess a specific spot on a dial between hot and cold, happy song and sad song, good pizza topping and bad pizza topping, and other important extremes. Grades 7–12.

Bestselling author

Ibram X. Kendi to headline multi-library event

“The opposite of racist isn’t ‘not racist.’ It is ‘anti-racist.’

What’s the difference? One endorses either the idea of a racial hierarchy as a racist, or racial equality as an anti-racist. One either believes problems are rooted in groups of people, as a racist, or locates the roots of problems in power and policies, as an anti-racist. One either allows racial inequities to persevere, as a racist, or confronts racial inequities, as an anti-racist. There is no in-between safe space of ‘not racist.”

- Ibram X. Kendi, How To Be An Antiracist

Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, one of the country’s leading anti-racist voices, and the #1 New York Times bestselling author, National Book Award winner and historian, will discuss his book, How To Be An Antiracist, at a live, moderated Zoom event on November 9. Registration is required.

How To Be An Antiracist asks us to think about what an anti-racist society might look like, and how we can play an active role in building it. It has been described as an essential book for anyone interested in moving beyond an awareness of racism to the next step of contributing to the formation of a just and equitable society.

Kendi is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities and the Founding Director of the Boston University Center for Antiracist Research. Kendi is a contributor writer at The Atlantic and a CBS News correspondent. He is also the 2020-2021 Frances B. Cashin Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for the Advanced Study at Harvard University. In 2020, Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world. This evening conversation with Kendi will be moderated by Natalie Moore, who covers segregation and inequality for Chicago’s WBEZ. Her enterprise reporting has tackled race, housing, economic development, food injustice and violence. Moore’s work has been broadcast on the BBC, Marketplace and NPR’s Morning Edition, All Things Considered and Weekend Edition. She is the author of The South Side: A Portrait of Chicago and American Segregation, and also co-author of The Almighty Black P Stone Nation: The Rise, Fall and Resurgence of an American Gang and Deconstructing Tyrone: A New Look at Black Masculinity in the Hip-Hop Generation.

An Evening with Dr. Ibram X. Kendi Monday, November 9, 6 p.m. / Zoom

Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, one of the country’s leading anti-racist voices, and the #1 New York Times bestselling author, National Book Award winner and historian, will discuss his book, How To Be An Antiracist, at a live moderated Zoom event on November 9.

This evening conversation with Kendi will be moderated by Natalie Moore, who covers segregation and inequality for Chicago’s WBEZ.

Register at ahml.info to join us for this virtual conversation on Zoom.

Books by Ibram X. Kendi: For Adults How To Be An Antiracist Ibram X. Kendi’s concept of anti-racism reenergizes and reshapes the conversation about racial justice in America, but even more fundamentally, points us toward liberating new ways of thinking about ourselves and each other. Instead of working with the policies and system we have in place, Kendi asks us to think about what an anti-racist society might look like, and how we can play an active role in building it.

Stamped from the Beginning In this deeply researched and fast-moving narrative, Kendi chronicles the entire story of anti-Black racist ideas and their staggering power over the course of American history. The winner of the 2016 National Book Award for Nonfiction, Stamped from the Beginning uses the life stories of five major American intellectuals to offer a window into the contentious debates between assimilationists and segregationists and between racists and anti-racists. For Teens Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You This reimagining of Kendi’s National Book Award-winning Stamped from the Beginning reveals the history of racist ideas in America, shows you why we feel how we feel and why the poison of racism lingers.

For Our Youngest Readers and Their Parents Antiracist Baby With bold art and thoughtful yet playful text, Antiracist Baby introduces the youngest readers and the grownups in their lives to the concept and power of anti-racism and provides the language necessary to begin critical conversations at the earliest age.

Co-sponsors Arlington Heights Memorial Library • Aurora Public Library • Deerfield Public Library Glencoe Public Library • Highland Park Public Library • Lake Villa District Library • Northbrook Public Library • Schaumburg Township District Library • Skokie Public Library • Vernon Area Public Library • Wilmette Public Library.