Published by The Roanoke Star-Sentinel
January 8-14, 2010 Edition
“The Big Read” Offers A Lesson Before Dying
The Big Read Roanoke Valley is an effort to encourage people in this area to make reading a part of their daily lives and to foster a stronger sense of community. As part of The Big Read in Virginia, Roanoke Valley residents will read Ernest Gaines’ A Lesson Before Dying.
The Big Read is actually a nationwide program created by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and in cooperation with Arts Midwest. The program is designed to revitalize literary reading in America. The Big Read invites communities to read a single book of American literature and to then meet for book discussion groups, panels, lectures, film screenings and other activities in relation to the book.
In 2009, the NEA awarded 269 grants across the country, one that went to the Virginia Foundation Center for the Book to conduct The Big Read in Virginia. The Center located in Charlottesville, furnishes NEA-produced educational and promotional materials to participating localities in Virginia. The Big Read Roanoke Valley is part of The Big Read in Virginia.
Lucy Lee and Ann McCallum, co-chairs of the The Big Read Roanoke Valley are hoping that everyone in the Roanoke Valley [ninth grade and older] will have read the book by March. The board of the Friends of the Roanoke County Library are in charge of The Big Read. Many of the area’s school systems, colleges and area businesses are also participating.
The setting of “A Lesson Before Dying” is on a plantation in Louisiana during the late 1940s and is about a young African American man who is sentenced to death for a crime he did not commit. The novel follows the relationship of him and the plantation’s college-educated teacher and the development of their relationship against a backdrop of racial segregation. It examines how a man should live confronted with what it takes to be a man in the certainty of death and uncertainties of life and examines racism, death, families, injustice and strength.
Upcoming events to complement the book community study.
March 4: Virtuoso banjoist Bela Fleck and an ensemble of all-star African musicians transcend barriers of language and culture with African music at The Jefferson Center 7:30p.m.–9:00p.m.
March 5: an international champion of hip-hop culture will perform with her original songs and spoken-word poetry at The Jefferson Center beginning at 8:00p.m.
March 12: “A Lesson Before Dying” film version will be screened at 7:30p.m. Directed by Joseph Sargent, the film won two Emmy awards when it was released in 1999. In 2000, the film won a Humanitas Prize.
By Susan Ayers
