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2015 Talk Story Grant Winners

The American Indian Library Association and the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association Announce Winners of the 2015 Talk Story Grant
The American Indian Library Association (AILA) and the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA), supported by Toyota Financial Services, are pleased to award a $600 grant to each of the following ten libraries and community organizations to host Talk Story: Sharing stories, sharing culture programming. The winning libraries and community organizations are:
Clarksville-Montgomery County Public Library, Tennessee – The Hui Hawai`i O Tenesi Hawaiian Civic Club is partnering with the Clarksville-Montgomery County Public Library to hold a Talk Story program in May during Asian-Pacific Heritage Month. Club volunteers will present a story time, introduce lei making and lauhala weaving, share Hawaiian treats, demonstrate and teach hula and the Hawaiian version of “Simon Says,” “Kumu Hula Says.” The grant will also add a substantial amount of Hawaiian books to the library’s collection.
Kenton County Public Library, Kentucky – KCPL has held a Filipino Independence Day celebration for the last six years. Funding from Talk Story will allow them to continue this tradition of sharing Filipino culture through bilingual stories, folk dance performances, folk songs, games and crafts. KCPL is partnering with the Filipino-American Association of Northern Kentucky, the Filipino American Association of Southern Ohio (FASO) and United Filipino-Americans Mabuhay Society. Each family in attendance will be given a bilingual book in English and Tagalog.
Native Village of Eyak, Alaska – This unique program will facilitate the inclusion of elders in the community to share parenting and breastfeeding experiences with the local breastfeeding support group that meets at the library. The elders will also demonstrate traditional food preparation and artwork. Three visits are planned for the group and the elders to interact. Grant money will also be used to purchase books for the tribal library.
Oceanside Public Library, California – OPL will hold four programs over the course of seven months, with the first story time program in May for Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month. Families will attend a Japanese-English storytime and exchange letters and photos with children in Fuji-city, Japan — Oceanside’s sister city. Over the summer OPL will provide two performances with local Okinawan dancers and an elder who will share stories of his youth in Okinawa. Attendees will have the opportunity to try Okinawan foods. An additional story time will be held in November. OPL is partnering with the Okinawa Association of America (OAA) to select materials for circulation and story time.
Pacific Islands University, Guam – PIU will hold a Talk Story event in September 2015 with two local elementary schools, both with substantial APA student populations. The program will consist of readings of books about Micronesians, an art project and refreshments. Two additional Talk Story reading events are scheduled to be held at the elementary schools with each school library receiving donations of one-to-two culturally relevant children’s books.  The University will also increase its collections of books on APA populations, specifically Micronesians, for PIU education students and library employees.
Palms-Rancho Park Library, California – Palms-Rancho Park Library, a branch of the Los Angeles Public Library, will be holding a Children’s Chinese Day program in June 2015, hosted by a WorldSpeak teacher. Children will make moon cakes, a Chinese dragon mask and have a parade. Funds will be primarily used to support growth of the Mandarin collection, to purchase bilingual books and audio-visual materials to support native Chinese speakers and Chinese language learners.
Red Lake Nation College, Minnesota – To coincide with the opening of a new academic/community library building, Red Lake Nation College will host two storytelling sessions that will revolve around elders sharing stories with the children based on the oral tradition. The children will then have the opportunity to read stories to the elders using books purchased with Talk Story funds. Recordings will be made to create and preserve the oral history of traditional Ojibwe stories. A group activity will also take place that will engage the children in creating a permanent display for the library in order to establish the library as a community gathering place.
San Juan College, New Mexico – San Juan College operates a childcare facility that provides hands-on learning for both children and SJC students. During the month of November, San Juan College will host a series of workshops beginning with a storytime of Eric Carle’s Brown Bear Brown Bear What do you See? which will be translated into Navajo. In the second workshop, students will work on creating their own story in Navajo and English using regional animals and characters which they will self publish. Finally, the students will perform the story live for the college.
Sonoma County Library, California – Sonoma County Library plans to further develop its partnership with the Graton Rancheria by celebrating and expanding its offerings for the tribal community. There will be a half-day cultural event including storytelling, dancing, crafts and food. Sonoma County Library also plans to expand the circulating materials of the library with the purchase of materials focused on local tribes. There will be a month-long display in support of the event.
USD 497 Native American Student Services for Lawrence Public Schools, Kansas – Three programs are planned for October 2015 where middle and high school students will read stories to the elementary and preschool children. The books used for the program, and purchased with Talk Story funds, will be left with the elementary school to keep in their classrooms and libraries. The middle and high school students will be active participants in the marketing of the Talk Story programs by helping create bookmarks, posters and displays.
Talk Story: Sharing stories, sharing culture is a literacy program that reaches out to Asian Pacific American (APA) and American Indian/Alaska Native (AIAN) children and their families. The program celebrates and explores their stories through books, oral traditions and art to provide an interactive, enriching experience. Grants provide financial support to libraries and community organizations who want to introduce a Talk Story program into their library.
Talk Story: Sharing stories, sharing culture is a joint project between the American Indian Library Association (www.ailanet.org) and the Asian Pacific American Librarians Association (www.apalaweb.org). It started as part of ALA 2009-2010 President Camila Alire’s Family Literacy Focus Initiative. 2015 is the sixth year that AILA and APALA have partnered on the Talk Story project and allocated grant funding to libraries to implement programs geared towards the APA/AIAN communities. This is the fourth year that Toyota Financial Services has helped to sponsor grants.
Committee Chairs are Liana Juliano (AILA), Lessa Pelayo-Lozada (APALA), and Ariana Hussain (APALA). For more information, please visit the Talk Story web site: www.talkstorytogether.org