Library Celebrates Native American Culture with Pow Wow

Pounding drums will fill the normally quiet air of the Post Road Library this weekend as it hosts a Native American Pow Wow starting at 1:45 p.m. on Sunday, September 25. Children and families of all ages are welcome to attend this free event.

Touch the Earth, a Native American performance group from North Carolina, will open the event with a traditional Native American dance demonstration. A pair of Touch the Earth dancers in traditional regalia, accompanied by a drummer, will perform ceremonial dances and explain the cultural significance of the movements.

A pair of dancers in full regalia, accompanied by a drummer,
 from Touch the Earth will perform several
 Native American dances.

Children and families in the audience will be invited to try the dance movements for themselves following the demonstration. Then, participants can engage in traditional Native American games and make a few crafts to commemorate their experience at the Pow Wow.

The Native American Pow Wow is part of the Library’s One World Forsyth series sponsored by the FCPL Friends & Advocates, an independent organization that supports the Library’s efforts to deliver expanded materials and programs for children, teens, and adults. The group raises funds from sales of used books at the Friends Bookstores inside the Cumming, Post Road, and Sharon Forks Libraries.

“One World Forsyth is a series of programs designed to help children and families learn more about the people, cultures, and customs of our world,” says Lisa Echols, Youth Services Supervisor at the Post Road Library and the event’s organizer.

“Native American Heritage Month is coming up in November, so this program will give students an opportunity to interact with a little bit of living history before studying it in school. Events and experiences like these help our patrons of all ages appreciate the things different cultures may have in common and helps us all consider the world from someone else’s perspective.”

FCPL Friends & Advocates are also sponsoring two One World Forsyth events next month.

On Sunday, October 23, several dancers and musical performers will gather for a Diwali Celebration. This annual event is usually held at the Sharon Forks Library, but construction is scheduled to begin on the branch’s expansion and renovation project. Instead, the Post Road Library will host the Diwali Celebration from 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. with food, crafts, henna tattoos, and performances from Darshini Natyalaya School of Indian Classical Dance, Maya Dance Class, Atrayee Rao and her music students, and the Atlanta Nritya Academy.

On Thursday, October 27, the Cumming Library will host storyteller Barry Stewart Mann for a special Dia de los Muertos Storytime at 6:30 p.m. El Dia de los Muertos, or the Day of the Dead, is a holiday celebrated in Mexico and across Latin America that honors the lives of deceased loved ones. This storytime will include poetry and stories in English and Spanish for children of all ages.

For more information on these One World Forsyth events, please visit www.forsythpl.org. For more information on the FCPL Friends & Advocates, please visit a Friends Bookstore inside the Cumming, Post Road, or Sharon Forks Libraries.