Local organizations join to create activities based on Ernest J. Gaines’ A Lesson Before Dying.
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How do you get hundreds of people from the same region to read and discuss the same book? The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and in cooperation with Arts Midwest started the Big Read in 2006 to get whole communities to read the same work of literature together. The NEA designed the program to put reading back at the center of American culture through partnerships which encourage reading for pleasure and enlightenment. The Big Read launched with just 10 participating communities, but quickly spread across the nation.
The College of Southern Maryland (CSM) is one of 127 groups and organizations around the nation this year, who received a grant to host a Big Read celebration. The $13,398 grant will be used in 2008 for programs throughout the Calvert, St. Mary’s and Charles tri-county area. Southern Maryland’s Big Read will focus on CSM’s literary selection, A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines.
Thomas Repenning, CSM’s Library Director and the person who acquired the grant, explained the literary selection to The Bay Net.
“We thought that the themes in the book would be interesting to different people in our community. The book is also on the approved reading list for schools in all three counties,” said Repenning.
CSM will collaborate with the public libraries, the public schools and the literacy councils of each county, as well as St. Mary’s Office of Aging, the Charles County Arts Alliance, Naval Surface Warfare Center-Indian Head, Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Southern Maryland, and southern Maryland news media. Together, these organizations will host book discussions, writing and art contests, and performances of the book. Such extensive collaboration ensures that residents have access to available programs.
“It is an overall community project. Anybody in the three-county area is welcome to participate. We are offering different kinds of activities to cater to different people’s taste,” Repenning stated.
Charles County Arts Alliance (CCAA), one of the organizations involved with Big Read, will produce the stage version of the book.
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