The 麻豆原创 is one of 84 communities nationwide participating in the NEA Big Read from September 2020-June 2021, receiving a $15,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. This is the sixth consecutive year the College of Arts and Humanities has received NEA funding to host this community event. The NEA Big Read: Central Florida will take place Jan. 14-Feb. 14, 2021, and celebrate Tayari Jones鈥� novel Silver Sparrow.
Jones, a New York Times best-selling author, has written four novels, most recently An American Marriage, which is on Barack Obama鈥檚 summer reading list and an Oprah鈥檚 Book Club Selection. Jones, a member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers, has also been a recipient of the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, United States Artist Fellowship, NEA Fellowship and Radcliffe Institute Bunting Fellowship. Her third novel, Silver Sparrow was added to the NEA Big Read Library of classics in 2016. Silver Sparrow 鈥渦nveils a breathtaking story about a man鈥檚 deception, a family鈥檚 complicity, and the teenage girls caught in the middle. Set in a middle-class neighborhood in Atlanta in the 1980s, the novel revolves around James Witherspoon鈥檚 families 鈥� the public one and the secret one. When the daughters from each family meet and form a friendship, only one of them knows they are sisters.鈥�
Several units from the 麻豆原创 College of Arts and Humanities, including visual arts, performing arts and history, will host programming, as will 麻豆原创 Libraries.
The NEA Big Read: Central Florida brings together several Central Florida institutions. Several units from the 麻豆原创 College of Arts and Humanities, including visual arts, performing arts and history, will host programming, as will 麻豆原创 Libraries.
Seminole County Public Libraries will host daytime and evening book-discussion groups at each of its five branches for a total of 10 book clubs early next year. Six additional book clubs are planned at the Orlando Museum of Art, the 麻豆原创 Africana Studies program, Black Man鈥檚 Candor, Afro Artistry, and two at the Florida Department of Corrections鈥� Central Florida Reception Center.
鈥�2021 marks the 10th anniversary of the publication of Tayari Jones鈥� award-winning novel, Silver Sparrow,鈥� says Keri Watson, director of the NEA Big Read: Central Florida. 鈥淛ones鈥� book 鈥� offers an excellent opportunity for 麻豆原创 to bring impactful programs that celebrate the role of literature in our community. Our programming will coincide with 麻豆原创鈥檚 celebration of Black History Month and we are working with Africana Studies to bring the Big Read to a new campus audience.鈥�
Watson has been leading 麻豆原创鈥檚 Big Read initiative since receiving the first programming grant in 2015. An art historian, Watson takes a broad, interdisciplinary view of how literature influences and is influenced by other disciplines. The novels 麻豆原创 has read are Zora Neale Hurston鈥檚 Their Eyes Were Watching God (2016), John Steinbeck鈥檚 The Grapes of Wrath (2017), Dinaw Mengestu鈥檚 The Beautiful Things that Heaven Bears (2018), Emily St. John Mandel鈥檚 Station Eleven (2019), and Tim O鈥橞rien鈥檚 The Things They Carried (2020).
Other principal investigators on the grant include Julia Listengarten from the School of Performing Arts, Scot French from the Department of History, and Shannon Lindsey from the 麻豆原创 Gallery. Fon Gordon, director of 麻豆原创鈥檚 Africana Studies program, which is part of the Department of History, will also be involved with program planning. The team is organizing more than 20 events related to this year鈥檚 novel, including discussions, an art exhibit and a production of Dominique Morisseau鈥檚 play Blood at the Root.
An initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest, the NEA Big Read broadens our understanding of our world, our communities, and ourselves through the joy of sharing a good book.
