If youβve set a New Yearβs resolution to read more books in 2021, you can start making good on your promise with βSilver Sparrow,β part of the NEA Big Read: Central Florida program. ΒιΆΉΣ³»΄«Γ½ faculty, staff and students can pick up a complimentary copy at the John C. Hitt Library of Tayari Jonesβ fiction novel on Jan. 11 during the Big Readβs kick-off event from 1Ββ3 p.m.
The NEA Big Read: Central Florida is a program designed to revitalize the role of literature in American culture and to encourage citizens to read for pleasure and enlightenment. This year, it runs from Jan. 11 through Feb. 23 and will feature a series of exciting events related to the novel.
Silver Sparrow was added to the NEA Big Read Library of classics in 2016. Jones’ website describes the book as “a breathtaking story about a manβs deception, a familyβs complicity, and the teenage girls caught in the middle. Set in a middle-class neighborhood in the 1980s, the novel revolves around James Witherspoonβs families β 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.β
βJonesβ bookβ¦offers an excellent opportunity for ΒιΆΉΣ³»΄«Γ½ to bring impactful programs that celebrate the role of literature in our community,β says Keri Watson, director of the NEA Big Read: Central Florida. βOur programming will coincide with ΒιΆΉΣ³»΄«Γ½βs celebration of Black History Month, and we are working with Africana Studies to bring the Big Read to a new campus audience.β
ΒιΆΉΣ³»΄«Γ½ is one of 84 communities nationwide participating in the NEA Big Read this year, 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 the program.
NEA Big Read Events
Additionally, from Jan. 11 through Feb. 5, the ΒιΆΉΣ³»΄«Γ½ Art Gallery will host But Before Bone is Skin, an exhibition curated by Jonell Logan, creative director for the McColl Center for Art + Innovation in Charlotte, N.C.
On Jan. 22, a keynote address by Logan will take place via Zoom. She will discuss the relationship between the visual and literary arts, Silver Sparrow and the ways in which the novelβs themes informed the artwork featured in But Before Bone is Skin. On Jan. 28, contributing artists to the exhibition will discuss their artwork and how the themes of the book inspired their work in an artist panel via Zoom.
In addition, 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 this year. All clubs and discussions will take place via Zoom and are free and open to the public.
Visit ΒιΆΉΣ³»΄«Γ½βs Big Read website to learn more about the NEA Big Read: Central Florida and register for the programβs upcoming events.
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.
