The Carrollton Public Library at Josey Ranch will hold its second Carrollton-Convention, also known as C-Con, on March 17 from 4-8 p.m. C-Con, the city’s version of Comic-Con, was first held in 2019 and is being reintroduced as the library’s first signature event of the year. 

“Our team is all new staff [since then], so just anticipating the scale of [the event has been hard] with the [way the] library [has] changed since the pandemic,” youth services librarian Melissa Neybert said. “[We have been] building it back up over the past few years, [and] we’re finally at a point where we’re [ready] to put on a big event again.”

C-Con is meant to serve as a space for people of the community to gather and share their interests in pop culture. The event will stream the show “Spy Family” and “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” as well as have escape rooms and pop culture related crafts and trivia. 

“We have so many fandoms represented in our collections, books and DVDs,” Neybert said. “[This] is really just a way for our community to come in, have fun and celebrate those characters they love. I’m really excited about the anime streaming because we [have seen] how much teens love manga, based on how much [is checked] out. It’s great to be able to offer them a free space to stream anime and enjoy it together.”

C-Con will also collaborate with Korean American Youth Artists of Texas (KAYAT), which will perform a variety of K-Pop dances, featuring songs by artists such as Nayeon, Twice and Blackpink.

“We’re really excited to showcase our K-Pop medley,” former KAYAT vice president Jocelyn Youn said. “While KAYAT does focus on a lot of ancestral forms, we’re also modern. Although K-Pop is more of a new form of Korean art, it is still [fundamental] to our community and it’s still a form of tradition.”

In efforts to promote C-Con, Neybert talked with Diana Slavinsky, supervisor of community engagement, about painting a mural on the windows of the library’s kids space. The mural features BB-8 from “Star Wars,” Spider-Man, characters from “Spy Family” and the C-Con logo. 

 “I studied art [and] painted windows at a previous job before I became a librarian,” Slavinsky said. “It was fun to be able to fulfill [this] request for a staff member and [create] something of [such a] large scale.” 

Through providing a space for the community to gather and engage in its interests, Slavinsky said she hopes people realize the different things the library has to offer and feel inclined to further explore its resources. 

“Our tagline [throughout the planning process has] been ‘find your fandom,’” Slavinsky said. “We hope people get to share what they enjoy with [others] in the community, [and] having a big social event [like this] is a really nice way to get to know everyone.”