The Big Read

All Virginians Invited to Read Zora Neale Hurston's Classic Novel Their Eyes Were Watching God

 

Go to Schedule of Local Events

 

Check out our Big Read playlist on YouTube.

 

The Virginia Center for the Book, a program of the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, is one of 127 organizations around the nation to receive a Big Read grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

 

The Pamunkey Regional Library is one of the libraries supported by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities to do Big Read programming with Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God in 2009.

 

The Big Read is a national program by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) and Arts Midwest. The Big Read encourages literary reading by asking communities to come together to read and discuss one book.

 

Thanks to the Virginia Foundation for Humanities, beginning in January 2009, all Virginians are invited to read - or re-read - Zora Neale Hurston’s classic novel Their Eyes Were Watching God.  The Center will be distributing across the state Reader’s Guides, Teacher’s Guides, CDs with audio commentary, and other resources at no cost to the recipients.   More information is available at www.virginiafoundation.org/bookcenter.

This is the third Big Read the Virginia Center for the Book has received.  Last year, Virginians read together To Kill a Mockingbird.

 

In addition to direct grants, the NEA also will provide participating communities with a library of free materials, including reader’s and teacher’s guides for each of the Big Read novels, an audio guide for each novel featuring distinguished actors and writers, an online organizer's guide for hosting a Big Read program, a customized television public service announcement, Big Read display materials, and a comprehensive program Web site.  If you are interested in receiving these materials, please e-mail ask@pamunkeylibrary.org.

 

Modeled on successful "city reads" programs, the Big Read is meant to address the national decline in literary reading as documented in the NEA’s 2004 landmark survey Reading at Risk A Survey of Literary Reading in America. The survey showed that less than half the American adult population now reads literature.

For a complete list of communities participating in the Big Read or for more information on the program, please visit www.neabigread.org.

 

For more information about The National Endowment for the Arts, please visit www.arts.gov.

 

To learn more about the Institute of Museum and Library Services, please visit: www.imls.gov.

 

For more information about Arts Midwest, please visit www.artsmidwest.org

 

For more information about the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, please visit www.virginiafoundation.org.

 Schedule of Local Events

No events scheduled.  Check back in January 2009.

 

Recommended Web Sites

The official Zora Neale Hurston web site

 

Hurston's WPA sound recordings
(from the State Library and Archives of Florida)

 

Zora Neale Hurston on the Turpentine Camps
(from the State Library and Archives of Florida)

 

"Uncle Bud" sung by Zora Neale Hurston
(note: lyrics contain language some may find offensive)
 

Zora Neale Hurston booklist
(from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction)