THE BIG READ ATTLEBORO
Attleboro???s 1 ABC (1 Adventure, 1 Book, 1 Community), a committee of local agencies organized by the Attleboro Free Public Library, has been awarded a National Endowment for the Arts/The Big Read grant in the amount of $11,200 for a community- wide reading project this fall.
The announcement of receipt of the grant and the title of this year???s Big Read comes before the Attleboro Municipal Council on July 19th.
The Attleboro community will share in the reading of ???Station Eleven???
by Emily St. John Mandel, a novel that depicts a time of world collapse, while focusing most of its story on the characters??? lives before and after the crisis.
The struggle to re-create their world through the arts, literacy, moral codes, love and human interaction is a major theme in the book.
The ???Station Eleven??? journey takes readers from a frighteningly realistic epidemic outbreak, through to a hopeful survivalist period 20 years later.????
???Survival is Insufficient,??? writes St. John Mandel. She adds: ???One way to write about something is to consider its absence, which is why I set much of the book in a post-apocalyptic landscape.
I thought of the book as a love letter to the modern world, written in the form of a requiem.??? Along the way the author melds Shakespeare, classical music, a graphic novel, nomadic travel, love, prophecy, friendship and survival into a spell-binding story that forces readers to question their own lives, what we can and cannot live without, and what is most important for one???s own personal survival.???
Attleboro???s 1 ABC has worked diligently to bring you an experience of a lifetime. Our hope is that you will join us as we reflect on how precious life is and what is truly important to us not only as individuals, but also as a community,??? says committee co-
chair Joan Pilkington-Smyth, Library Director.
Co-chair Rusty D???Arconte reported that members ???are ecstatic over receiving another grant and look forward to their eleventh year working with this national program.??????
Attleboro???s 1ABC partners have planned a variety of ways for experiencing ???Station Eleven.
The highlights include:
The celebration of International Literacy Day with books and activities on Sept. 9.
The Bristol Norfolk Medical Reserve Corps will present ???Disaster Preparedness??? on Sept. 14 at the library with a second session by the local Community Emergency Response Team on Sept. 25 at the South Attleboro Fire Station.
An exhibit at the Attleboro Arts Museum, ???The Calm before the Storm,??? will kick off on Sept. 16.
The author, Emily St. John Mandel, will be in Attleboro on Sept. 19 for a public speaking engagement.
Oak Knoll Wildlife Center will offer ???Survival in the Woods??? on Sept. 23, and the Attleboro Land Trust will host geo-caching on Sept. 30.
The Community Visiting Nurses Association is doing a ???Mindfulness Workshop??? on Oct. 3.
???Saving Seeds??? will be presented at the Library on Oct 4, and the Manhattan Short Film Festival will be shown at Bristol Community College on Oct. 6 and 7.
The Attleboro Area Industrial Museum will be showing films of local disasters and recovery on Oct. 14, and there will be a panel discussion on the arts at BCC on Oct. 19.
Local authors will talk about their craft on Indie Author Day, Oct. 21 at the library.
A tour of The Sun Chronicle newspaper operation is scheduled for Oct. 24.
The Big Read finale will again be hosted by the Attleboro High School Culinary Arts program on Oct. 26.
Book discussions, writers groups, school participation, and art and craft programs will round out the two-month program.
The calendar of events will appear in The Sun Chronicle in early September.
You can view the calendar of events on the library website to see how to register, find age-appropriate activities and review more details.
The National Endowment for the Arts has awarded seventy-five nonprofit organizations with grants totaling more than $1 million to host an NEA Big Read project between September 2017 and June 2018.
An initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest, the NEA Big Read broadens understanding of our world, our communities and ourselves through the joy of sharing a good book.???
???Through the NEA Big Read we are bringing contemporary works to communities across the country, helping us better understand the diverse voices and perspectives that come with it,??? said NEA Chairman Jane Chu.????
???These 75 organizations have developed unique plans to celebrate these works, including numerous opportunities for exploration and conversation.???