Underground Manifesto

The mainstream comes to you, but you have to go to the underground.  ~ Frank Zappa.

CCPL’s Teen Underground started in 1998 with a group of teens who met once a month at the new Main Library to talk books, eat popcorn, and make a difference. Originally called TeenLAB, the group functioned as a Library Advisory Board, and helped the new YA Services Department at CCPL plan programs and events.

After time, the group renamed itself the Teen Underground, with the slogan: making a difference from beneath the surface. They saw themselves as an underground movement, a disenfranchised group banding together to affect changes in the way the library served teenagers.

The original members have grown into adulthood, but the spirit of the Underground lives on.  No longer a formal group, the Teen Underground represents a network of teens, in Charleston and beyond, who love books and libraries and want to make their voices heard.

Reading Underground stands for that spirit of subculture and resistance: rejecting the mainstream and changing the world.  Yes, teens who read WILL change the world. It also calls up images of subterranean reading caves, secret spots for hiding out with a book.  And let’s face it, being a teenager has its moments: sometimes you wish the ground would just open up and swallow you. Get swallowed up by a book instead.  Go Underground.