Tuesday, Sept 30, 6pm at the Stapleton Branch Library, 132 Canal St, SINY 10304
The awesome librarians at the Stapleton branch welcome you and your friends to talk about To Kill a Mockingbird and share ideas with your neighbors. Free & open to the public. Get a free book!
Sunday, Sept 28, 2:00pm, in the Courthouse at Historic Richmond Town, 441 Clarke Ave, SINY 10306.
Staten Island OutLOUD is proud to collaborate with the Staten Island Women’s Bar Association to present this special event that has appeal to lawyers and laypersons alike – Dissection of a Scene: Atticus Finch for the Defense.
This event is free & open to the public.
Two outstanding actors, Joseph Daly & Megan Jardine, will recreate the novel’s cross-examination scene, as Atticus Finch defends a young African-American man accused of rape.
Hon. Catherine DiDomenico (NY Supreme Court Justice), Hon. Daniel Master (Chief Assistant District Attorney of Richmond County). and defense attorney Duane Felton, Esq. will dissect the scene and comment on Atticus Finch’s courtroom technique. Everyone in our audience is invited to comment and share ideas.
Wednesday, Sept 24, 11am, at the South Beach Branch Library, 21-25 Robin Road (at Ocean Ave & Capodanno Blvd), SINY 10305
Join the friendly librarians at the South Beach branch to read & talk about 
. Free & open to the public. Get a free book!
Tuesday, Sept 23, 4:00pm at Todt Hill-Westerleigh Branch Library, 2550 Victory Blvd (near Willowbrook Road), SINY 10314
Join the welcoming librarians at the Todt Hill-Westerleigh Branch to read & share ideas on 
. Free & open to the public. Get a free book.
Monday, Sept 22, 6:30pm at Mariners Harbor Branch Library, 206 South Ave, SINY 10303
Join the vivacious librarians at the Mariners Harbor branch to read & share ideas about Harper Lee’s 
. Free & open to the public. Get a free book!
Friday, Sept 12, 2014 at 2:30pm,
At the New Dorp Branch Library, 309 New Dorp Lane, SINY 10306.
Join popular librarian Jan Klucevsek and your neighbors at the New Dorp Branch to read & share ideas on Harper Lee’s beloved novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. Free & open to the public. Get a free book!
For directions via public transportation, visit www.hopstop.com
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:
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.
Thanks to the Staten Island Advance’s AWE Magazine, Arts Editor Michael Fressola and AWE Editor Rob Bailey-Millado for this article & video feature on Staten Island OutLOUD’s annual celebration of James Joyce – Bloomsday OutLOUD 2014. Thanks to Staten Island Creative Community, who welcomed us to their gallery at 139 Bay Street: Joyce & Ira Goldstein and Linda Rossi.
Kudos to our host Jim Hill, our troubadour Gary Moore, our Homerian Jonathan Bricklin, our performance art scholar Melissa West, and to everyone who participated & made it such a lovely evening.
This short video presents an overview of Staten Island OutLOUD’s work with people of all ages & backgrounds. It describes our variety of programs featuring poetry, prose, historic texts and other compelling works. Click on this link: http://youtu.be/fwJUddyiSyk (To view this video clip, you may have to sign in via your own YouTube account)
And here’s a quick DIY video of two Staten Island OutLOUD guests’ impromptu bilingual reading from The Mountain Poems of Meng Hao-jan, on a sunny afternoon. Click on this link: http://youtu.be/35co9RN36Fg (To view this video clip, you may have to sign in via your own YouTube account)
Staten Island OutLOUD is proud to host readings of poetry & prose by Native American writers, in honor of Native American Heritage Month. We’re always pleased to welcome diverse families & individuals to these events. During one such reading, a young Dad was so touched that he spontaneously sang to his kids and to all our guests. To hear his brief but exuberant song, click on this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcPIByijMDU (In order to view this video clip, you may have to sign in via your own YouTube account)
Staten Island OutLOUD was proud to receive the 2009 Achievement In Arts & Humanities Award from the Council on the Arts & Humanities for Staten Island (now known as Staten Island Arts). Here’s a link to a short video that COAHSI and our friends at Time-Warner created for the awards gala: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lURryAcPoI
Saturday, Aug 9, 2pm. Killmeyers Old Bavaria Inn, 4356 Arthur Kill Rd (@Sharrotts Rd), SINY 10309. A macabre new translation, as dark as those Brothers intended. The Tales of the Brothers Grimm, in a new translation published by our friends at Archipelago Books. The book is illustrated with 24 paintings by contemporary Haitian artists – beautiful!
We’ll meet in Killmeyers sunny beer garden. Enjoy a delicious lunch of traditional German fare as we explore the world of Grimm, as macabre as the Grimm brothers intended.
This version of Grimm’s tales is not for the little ones! Sinister, scary, and very grim. You’ll recognize some stories immediately (beheadings, kidnappings, royal weddings). But there are many tales in this new translation that you’ve never heard before. They’re mysterious, a trip into a mystical German twilight zone. Plus that fabulous Haitian art – Voodou meets the Black Forest (or something like that).
“Even people who have never known hunger, let alone a murderous stepmother, still have a sense – from dreams, books and news broadcasts of utter blackness…. The tales still evoke nature as life’s driving force, and nature is not kind.” – The New Yorker
This event is free – but OutLOUD participants who order lunch at Killmeyers get a free book (while supplies last), courtesy of Archipelago Books. Killmeyers’ menu of traditional German fare is delicious and reasonably priced.
For directions via public transportation, visit www.hopstop.com. For driving directions, visit www.killmeyers.com