May…

POSITIVE TEENS 2003 LIBRARY CONTEST WINNERS

Best Young Adult Public Librarian honors went to Ms. Carin O'Connor of the Young Adult division of The Dudley Branch of the Boston Public Library also located in Boston, Massachusetts.

This year's selected public school winners are from the Jeremiah E. Burke High School in Boston, Massachusetts. The award for Best Young Adult School Librarian went to Ms. Ellen Vogel, and the school's library received the award for Best Young Adult High School Library. (Both titles have been won for the second time by these winners.)

Positive Teens thanks our teen judges Rebecca, Erin and Bilena for their conscientious work in reviewing this year's nominations for the titles of Best Young Adult Librarian and Best Young Adult Library. Unfortunately we did not have any public library nominations this year.

April…

POSITIVE TEENS' 3RD ANNUAL POETRY SLAM

Fifteen talented young poets from the New England area gave it their all on Saturday, April 19th when they took to the stage at Boston Copley Library's Rabb Lecture Hall. They were there to compete at Positive Teens (PT) magazine's third annual poetry slam.

This year, before the official contest began, PT offered a slam workshop for those novice poets wanting to learn more about the art form. Valerie Lawson, well-known New England adult performance poet, conducted the workshop. Ms. Lawson also served as MC of the slam.

PT publisher and editor-in-chief Susan Manning said: "The slam could not run as smoothly if we didn't have the expertise and enthusiasm of Ms. Lawson. This is the third year she has offered her services, and it is because of her work with teen poetry slammers that Positive Teens has become more involved with this art form. Ms. Lawson does a great job of selecting judges and getting the participants organized - she really knows how to rev up an audience!"

The competition began around noon and ran until 4 P.M. Individual slammers, who ranged in age from 13 to 18, competed for two rounds. And during the second half of the slam, the teens paired off into three teams of five poets and competed against each other for two more rounds.

By the end of the afternoon the cumulative winning scores went to:

Award certificates and journals were given to all winners, and in addition, everyone took home goodie bags.

April…

PT SPREADING THE WORD AT PEACE PROJECT 2003

In spite of the rainy weather, hundreds of teens and adults turned out on Friday, April 11th for the Peace Project 2003 conference. The conference organized by Teen Web On-line's creator Billy Hallowell and other youth advocates of peace, was held on the campus of College of Mount Saint Vincent in New York. PT was there to host a table, promote this great magazine, and support the efforts of the organizers.

Where ever we go we always meet interesting teens and this trip was no exception. Some of the young people we met were Evan Todd and Richard Hoover, two survivors of the tragedy that took place at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado four years ago. They spoke of how that day of violence has affected their lives. Also on hand was Miss Teen USA, Vanessa Semrow. She was co-host of the event with Billy. (See Positive Teens, May/June 2003 for our articles on Evan and Todd - Columbine Changed Their Lives, and Vanessa - Miss Teen USA Taking a Stance and Making a Difference.)

March…

PT'S PUBLISHER INTERVIEWED ON IT'S ALL ABOUT ART

Susan Manning, the publisher and editor-in-chief of Positive Teens (PT) magazine, appeared as a guest on It's All About Art. This weekly live talk show is broadcast on Boston Access Cable television network BBN TV. Its co-hosts (photo above) are husband and wife team Glenn Williams (a musician), and Janice Williams (a freelance writer and an artist). It's All About Art has been on the air since 1997, it is taped every Monday evening (except on holidays) and is re-broadcast throughout the week. The hosts explained, "It's All About Art is dedicated to promoting and educating the public to the world of art."

The show was a great venue for Ms. Manning to talk about Positive Teens. After giving a brief history of Positive Teens, and bantering back and forth with Mr. Williams about how the words "positive teens" can be interpreted, Ms. Manning got down to the business at hand — talking about the growing success of Positive Teens.

Now into its fifth year of publication, Positive Teens, says Ms. Manning, "is all about diversity." She emphasized that the subheading "accentuating the positive in today's teens" emphasized that message of diversity. Recognition is the key. And based on the increase of submissions, subscriptions, and requests for information, PT is fast becoming recognized as a major player in the teen magazine market.

February…

POSITIVE TEENS ATTENDS SHINE BENEFIT

Positive Teens is always happy to hear about positive role modeling, so we sent a correspondent to SHiNE's peace benefit in New York City. (SHiNE is a national non-profit that seeks to empower young people to promote respect for diversity in their communities.) The annual event was planned to serve two purposes: 1) to raise funds for SHiNE's many programs, and 2) to honor some of the many people who have demonstrated their commitment to fostering youth community involvement and who promote cross-cultural tolerance. Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation founder and Def Jam CEO Russell Simmons, and MTV's Brian Sullivan were two of the honored guest. Others in attendance included teens from some of SHiNE's programs and celebrities Vanessa Semrow, Miss Teen USA, Nick Cannon (photo above with PT correspondent) star of the "The Nick Cannon Show" on the Nickelodeon channel, and recording artist Kelly Rowland. (Check out Positive Teens March/April 2003 for our story and interviews.)