We received an e-mail the other day from Jeff's first cousin, Sara, who lives with her family in DeKalb, Illinois (about two hours south of Madison, Wisconsin). Turns out that DeKalb is one of 208 communities in the U.S. to receive grant money from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) as part of The Big Read, an initiative that was piloted in 2006. According to an NEA press release, The Big Read "gives communities the opportunity to come together to read, discuss, and celebrate one of 23 selections from American and world literature". One of the 23 selections happens to be To Kill a Mockingbird!
Beginning in September, the DeKalb (Illinois) Public Library will be giving away 5,000 copies of To Kill a Mockingbird and will be hosting a variety of different events the month of October -- including a mock trial kick-off event on September 29th. In addition to DeKalb, 32 other U.S. communities will be hosting events between September 2008 and June 2009 related to the novel To Kill A Mockingbird. One such event in Wisconsin will be a theatrical production in April at UW-Whitewater's Irvin L. Young Auditorium.
In addition to DeKalb, IL and Whitewater, WI, communities in 18 other states will be sponsoring projects related to the novel; they are: California (Corona, Norwalk, Pomona, and Rohnert Park); Connecticut (Hartford); Florida (Pensacola); Georgia (Brunswick and Douglasville); Kansas (Iola and Topeka); Kentucky (Bowling Green and Olive Hill); Louisiana (New Orleans); Massachusetts (Pittsfield); Michigan (Hartland); Missouri (St. Louis and Springfield); New York (Bronx, Brooklyn, and Canton); North Carolina (Charlotte, Clayton, and Statesville); Ohio (Cleveland, Portsmouth, and Sandusky); Tennessee (Athens); Texas (Houston); Utah (Orem); Virginia (Martinsville); and Washington (Yakima). For more information about participating communities, please see: http://neabigread.org/communities.php.
