Bilingual Storytime: A Celebration of Tamil

About this Event

Come celebrate and learn about the Tamil culture and Pongal holiday through a bilingual story time event including dancing, art, crafts, and fun!

This is a bilingual story time that is also a celebration of the Tamil culture and the Pongal holiday and will be led by Persis Naumann. It is an all-ages welcome event at the Oakmont Carnegie Library on Thursday, May 8th, from 6pm – 7:30pm. We will learn about the Pongal holiday, have a bilingual story time in both Tamil and English, learn a Tamil dance, make Kolam art outside, and make some cool Pongal crafts. While the bilingual story time is the heart of this event, there will be many other fun activities.

The story time will be led by Persis Naumann who is a Fullbright Scholar. She is also the founder of Kelir Books LLC, which is a company that produces bilingual Tamil language and cultural resources that represent all types of Tamil families. She will be reading the book Dum Dum Dum by Peniel Prabakaran, which is about the Tamil holiday Pongal. The book will be read in English and then will be read again in Tamil.

After the story time, Persis and a group of dancers will teach attendees how to do a traditional dance.

After dancing, the program will become a free-form event, in which patrons can partake in the different crafts we will make available in their own time. These crafts will be related to the Tamil holiday, Pongal. One craft will be making sugar canes using 3D doodle-pens, which is recommended for ages 6 – 12. Another craft will be making a Pongal pot out of airdry clay, which is recommended for children ages 3 – 12. While younger children can enjoy these crafts, older children will be invited outside to create a Kolam/rangoli. This will be the final activity before the completion of the program.