What is the Big Read?

Funding to assist in presenting The Big Read Newburyport has been provided through a grant awarded to the University of Massachusetts Boston and WUMB-FM.  Events in Newburyport are part of the Big Read: Eastern Massachusetts which continues through May 10, 2008.  The Big Read is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts designed to restore reading to the center of American culture. It is the largest federal reading program in U.S. history.

The Big Read answers a big need. Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America, a 2004 report by the National Endowment for the Arts, found that not only is literary reading in America declining rapidly among all groups, but that the rate of decline has accelerated, especially among the young. The concerned citizen in search of good news about American literary culture would study the pages of this report in vain.

What is Newburyport reading? The grant provides funding for Newburyport, in partnership with several other organizations, to host a Big Read celebration of one of 16 classic novels from January-June 2008. Newburyport has chosen To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. The book tells two paired stories set in a small Southern town: one focused on a lawyer's defense of an unjustly accused man, the other on his bright but bratty daughter's gradual discovery of her own goodness. It has two broad themes: tolerance and justice. The book was adapted into a movie with Gregory Peck in 1962.

How can you participate Plan to read the book! Copies of the book along with Reader's Guides & Audio Guides produced by the NEA will be available at Newburyport Public Library and other locations in town. Join in some or the activities planned to bring Newburyport together with this classic novel.

The Big Read is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts, designed to restore reading to the center of American culture. The NEA presents The Big Read in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and in cooperation with Arts Midwest. The Big Read brings together partners across the country to encourage reading for pleasure and enlightenment.

The Big Read aims to address this crisis squarely and effectively. It provides citizens with the opportunity to read and discuss a single book within their communities. The initiative includes innovative reading programs in selected cities and towns, comprehensive resources for discussing classic literature, an ambitious national publicity campaign, and an extensive Web site providing comprehensive information on authors and their works.

Each community event lasts approximately one month and includes a kick-off event to launch the program locally, ideally attended by the mayor and other local luminaries; major events devoted specifically to the book (panel discussions, author reading, and the like); events using the book as a point of departure (film screenings, theatrical readings, and so forth); and book discussions in diverse locations and aimed at a wide range of audiences.

The NEA inaugurated The Big Read as a pilot project in 2006 with ten communities featuring four books. The Big Read continues to expand to include more communities and additional books. By 2009, approximately 400 communities in the U.S. will have hosted a Big Read since the program's 2007 national launch.

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