Papers rustle and a throat is cleared to speak, the group room at the Johnson County Central resource library falls quiet, quite a feat, considering its rowdy occupants. Creative Commons is about to start.
The teen writing group has been going strong for six years. Starting as middle school writers workshop, it matured with its students into a monthly editing and critique for people 13 to 19, with most of its members falling in the later end. The club has grown from the original three to four students to “ a dozen times six” according to Angel Dewl, who has been coordinating it since its inception. Dewl has been working in the public library system for eight years, and has run Creative Commons for six. She does not, however, run the meetings themselves, that job is left to Michelle Chan.
Michelle is the acting leader of creative commons, which is a lot less of a deal than it sounds. Her job is to print stuff out, and more importantly bang on the table and yell, scold, and otherwise discipline the group in the common event that everyone dives in to their own conversations, which is inevitable in the case of teens. Even after all the fun and games the group does eventually get moving, and submissions are read and critiqued, that is if they are printed right.
“[It’s funny] whenever I print submissions wrong,” Chan said. “[there’s also] those awkward inside jokes.”
The group has had enough awkward jokes that a constant laughter is heard all throughout the quiet library.
In the past month the Creative Commons group teamed up with the library to publish Elementia literary magazine, a teen written publication of stories and poetry. A coffee house event debuted the article. With readings and food, the night turned into quite a party.
“The Elementia reception was a really cool way to see students display writing talents in an out of school setting,” BVSW teacher and event attendant, Courtney Webber said.
The club will meet again at 1:30pm o the second sunday of next month, at the Blue Valley Central Resource Library.
