Staten Island OutLOUD hosts To Kill a Mockingbird from September 2014 through March 2015, for the National Endowment for the Arts/The Big Read! For the fourth year in a row, the National Endowment for the Arts has chosen Staten Island OutLOUD to host The Big Read, an NEA program designed to revitalize reading in American popular culture. For our 2014-2015 Big Read, OutLOUD is presenting over 35 free events celebrating Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, in community settings across the Island’s North Shore, mid-Island and South Shore.
Staten Island OutLOUD;s Mockingbird events take place in libraries, museums, parks, historic houses, schools & other community venues. Branch libraries are coordinating a series of book discussions and film screenings, and OutLOUD is eager to highlight the work of local schools as their students study the novel. OutLOUD is hosting readings, film screenings, concerts, and performances to explore the story of the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama – and its parallels on Staten Island. We’re also featuring some of Harper Lee’s essays – fascinating, but little known literary gems. Two events are devoted to the life & work of Truman Capote, Harper Lee’s childhood friend, who himself had ties to Tottenville.
Links to Staten Island civil rights history One of the conflicts in To Kill a Mockingbird concerns the false accusation & threatened lynching of an African-American man. OutLOUD explores the Jim Crow era, with oral histories of the civil rights movement by Islanders such as New Brighton resident Rev. George McClain, who coordinated civil rights actions in Selma and Montgomery in the 1960s, and Prof. David Seeley, who worked in the US Dept of Justice as a young attorney, to implement the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Here are just a few of the 35+ events that Staten Island OutLOUD is planning for its To Kill a Mockingbird Big Read:
- Spoken word performance, with music & dance, inspired by To Kill a Mockingbird
- Lively exchanges with Island lawyers, on Atticus Finch as a defense attorney
- Conversation comparing Harper Lee’s novel & the screenplay by Horton Foote
- Contemporary Islanders’ oral histories of their civil rights work in Alabama in the 1960s
- Music of the Deep South, the setting of To Kill a Mockingbird
- Exhibit of student art, inspired by To Kill a Mockingbird
The NEA presents The Big Read in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and in cooperation with Arts Midwest. The National Endowment for the Arts was established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. To date, the NEA has awarded more than $4 billion to support artistic excellence, creativity, and innovation for the benefit of individuals and communities. The NEA extends its work through partnerships with state arts agencies, local leaders, other federal agencies, and the philanthropic sector. For excellent guides on To Kill a Mockingbird for general readers and for teachers, please visit http://www.neabigread.org/books/mockingbird/readers-guide/. Staten Island OutLOUD’s series for The Big Read on To Kill a Mockingbird will run from September 2014 through March 2015.
Big news! Harper Lee’s “lost” novel, Go Set a Watchman, will be published on July 14, 2015. Staten Island OutLOUD is planning special events to coincide with its publication, and everyone is invited! Details TBA.