Friday, March 29, 2024

Celebrate Southlake 2021 Starts Sunday

Celebrate Southlake kicks off another year of celebrating culture, history and community through food, music, performances and entertainment.

This year, the event will be held virtually March 21 – 27.

Tune in with your neighbors and enjoy games, recipes, virtual performances and much more! The best part is that all are events are free to join.

Check out a full event schedule.

2021 Celebrate Southlake Calendar

 

For more information, please visit www.CelebrateSouthlake.com.

 

Silver Award Project Turns Into Gold for Southlake Library

Thanks to some Southlake Girl Scouts, the Southlake Library now has 14 new multicultural books in their collection.

Inspired by a Ted Talk, The Danger of A Single Story by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Emma Henke, Elisabeth O’Callaghan, and Lauren Sims of Girl Scout Troop 4043 partnered with the Library on their Silver Award Project — Everyone is Equal. The books they selected, which are now part of the youth collection, are titles that focus on diversity and culture.

“They have done such a great job curating titles thoughtfully,” said Youth Librarian Stacey Wells. “I’m so happy that I’ve been able to work with them.”

The donated books are the locally-focused part of their Everyone is Equal project. Emma, Elisabeth, and Lauren also have a global focus. They created an online survey and invited Girl Scouts and Girl Guides from around the world to participate. They then shared the answers they received on their Everyone is Equal website.

“In high school, the girls will pursue their Gold Awards, which is the highest individual award earned in Girl Scouts,” Troop Leader Andrea Sims said. “I hope their experience from their Silver Award, ‘Everyone is Equal’ project, will be used to develop their Gold Award projects.”

Elisabeth said several book lists were reviewed for their selections. “We selected recently published books from several lists, including: the 2020 ALA Youth Media Awards, #1000BlackGirlBooks, #ownvoices and Better with Books, by Melissa Hart,” she said.

Several aspects were under consideration when selecting the books. “When selecting books for the Library, we considered the main character, the author and content,” Lauren said. “Specifically, the books had to have main characters that represent a minority view point written by an author of diversity or color, and share ideas about cultures, race, religion, language and traditions.”

The girls hope that thier project leads to more donations. “We hope to inspire other troops to donate books to our library,” Emma said.

The donated book titles include I Will Always Write Back, Midnight Without A Moon, and The Stars Beneath Our Feet. Visit their Everyone is Equal website for a complete list of the books they donated.

Wells said this project is impactful for the Southlake community in many ways. “This project goes beyond benefitting our Library, it benefits the entire Southlake community. Kids seeing themselves authentically represented in books is empowering because they feel seen and heard,” Wells said. “Just as these books are important for all children because they create empathy and to understanding into cultures, religions, gender identity and more.”

The donated books will be spotlighted in the Library’s e-newsletter and on social media.

To learn more about these specific books, check one out or place one on hold, visit this website.

Help us Celebrate What Makes Southlake Special

UPDATE MARCH 12, 2020: Celebrate Southlake has been postponed. Read more here.

 

Join Mayor Laura Hill and her Alliance for Unity & Culture as they Celebrate Southlake, March 20 -22 in Bicentennial Park.

Celebrate Southlake is a community event designed to bring the people of Southlake together in celebration of our cultural diversity and inclusion that makes our beautiful city so special.

As Mayor Hill has said before, “I believe in Southlake, and I believe in anyone who is willing to stand up with me to make Southlake the best it can be.”

Celebrate Southlake events provide an opportunity and location to gather and have conversations that contribute to creating meaningful change and inclusion in our community all while enjoying food, music, performances and entertainment.

New this year will be three days of different events to help celebrate our great community. If you can’t make it to one event, there will be two other opportunities to celebrate with us!

On Friday, March 20, take some time to talk with Mayor Hill and members of her Alliance for Unity & Culture while enjoying a meal in Bicentennial Park, appropriately right on Unity Way.  The Community Dinner kicks off at 5 p.m. Sit side-by-side with your neighbors, taste a variety of world cuisines and feast on engaging conversation.  It’s a special opportunity to really break bread with your Southlake neighbors and get to know them. Sharing a meal is always a great opportunity to sit back, relax and take time for conversation. The Community Dinner gives you the opportunity to do just that while enjoying a variety of local cultural cuisines available for purchase.

Saturday, March 21, the fun moves to Aria Amphitheater and The Marq promenade to bring back the cultural festival that started Celebrate Southlake three years ago.  We invite you to “Travel the World” with us and visit cultural booths. While you’re learning more be sure to get your Celebrate Southlake passport stamped.  The passport will make the perfect keepsake to commemorate all the different cultures that make up Southlake.  When you’re not learning more at the booths, take in some of the cultural performances and entertainment. Some of the entertainment will include Indian music and dance, the music of China and much more.  Kids and adults will enjoy lawn games and various interactive cultural activities.

Celebrate Southlake wraps up on Sunday, March 22 at Champions Club with a family-friendly trivia competition. Teams of six will compete to answer questions and prove their knowledge of local and world history and culture all while enjoying small snacks and refreshments. Prizes will be awarded each round, with the last team standing taking home the grand prize.

We hope you will save the date and join us. This promises to be a special weekend so tell your friends and neighbors and we hope to see you there. For more information, please visit our website or give us a call at (817) 748-8019.