DIY Bag Charms for Teens

DIY Bag Charms for Teens is happening at the Dwight Evans Library of West Oak Lane on Friday, October 23, from 3:30 to 4:30 PM. It's a workshop for teens to make their own bag charms using beads, rope, and letters, and it wraps up with a charm swap party where you can trade what you've made with other people in the room.

The session is part of a series of after-school workshops for teens held on most Fridays throughout October, and it falls under LEAP, the Free Library of Philadelphia's after-school program that covers arts and crafts, STEM, literacy, music, and more. If you're a teen in the city, it's one of several things the library has running this month.

The venue itself has a bit of a story. The Dwight Evans Library of West Oak Lane first opened on August 26, 1957, and welcomed 2,000 visitors in its first hour. It was almost entirely destroyed by fire in 1980 and reopened in 1985, and it was renovated in 2000 as part of the 'Changing Lives' campaign that brought internet access to every branch. The picture-book area houses abstract mask sculptures by artist Charles Searles, who drew on his American, African, and Native American heritage. The surrounding neighborhood, named West Oak Lane in 1925, was once farmland made up of the settlements of Pleasantville, Cedar Park, and Pittville.

It's a one-hour session on Friday afternoon, so you can drop in after school and be out by 4:30. The library is at 2000 East Washington Lane, Philadelphia, PA 19138-1344.