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The Library will be closed on Thursday, June 19, 2025, in observance of Juneteenth.

TLC in Action: Encouraging Cultural Conversations in Our Community

Guest Blogger,
group of 18 teens gathered for a meeting

Hi! I'm Shravanthi Raja, a sophomore at Taft Charter High School, and I've been volunteering with the Platt Library for the past 3 TLC cycles. I love to read and visit the library. I enjoyed this project because too often we do not appreciate the diverse community in Los Angeles, and through this project, our local community learned something new.

For our 2024-2025 TLC Cycle 9 project, the teen volunteers at Platt Library chose to use our platform to encourage cultural conversations and foster appreciation for different cultures in our community. We held a series of events to help expose our attendees to new cultures. The teen volunteers wanted to expose library members to different aspects of each culture in our community, so we had events with music, food, and dance from different cultures.

Our first event featured arts and crafts worldwide. Children had the opportunity to make Mardi Gras masks, color in mandalas, and even make their passports. The cultural fun continued with a kimono fashion show and a Bollywood Dance class to expose people to different forms of dance and how clothing plays a part in a person's culture. Another noteworthy event was where musicians from different cultures presented their songs. Attendees were exposed to music from all over the world, and they could see the beauty in these cultures.

Our final event featured guest speaker Rabbi Arthur Rosenberg, who spoke about Jewish culture. Participants from the Adult Literacy Center also gave short presentations about cultural diversity in our community. We learned a lot that day, with presenters discussing India, Iran, Colombia, and China. Also, attendees from all over the world enjoyed different snacks at this event. People often hesitate to try new things, so we hoped that our events encouraged them to explore different cultures.

I spoke at one of our events about important aspects of my culture, and it went great. I could answer the questions of curious attendees who wanted to know more about my culture. Overall, I had a lot of fun doing this project, and the annual showcase was a very enlightening experience. The teens at Platt were able to interact with teenagers from other branches, and we learned about how other libraries were impacting their community.

—Shravanthi Raja

Shravanthi Raja

Shravanthi Raja is a volunteer at the Platt Branch and a 10th-grade student at Taft Charter High School.

—Jennifer Ann Watson, Young Adult Librarian, Platt Branch.

The Teens Leading Change initiative has funded and launched 52 projects across 60 branches with over 600 participants, including 9 projects across 10 branches that are happening now! Go to lapl.org/teens/tlc for more information.


 

 

 

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