The Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest.
By Andrew Silagi When I first saw the Barbie movie this summer, I was expecting the film to have a lot of commentary on women in the United States. After watching the film, I remember wrestling with the film and what it says about the role of fiction. Fiction is not like editorials: it is …
Continue reading “Bursting Our Own Bubbles: The Importance of Reading Fiction Together”
We have officially hit the second half of the book with this section! This week we are going to focus on events and culture around the section of Abena, daughter of James Richard Collins and Akosua Mensah as well as the section on H, the son of Kojo Freeman and Anna Foster. Two of the …
As we look deeper into the third generation in the book Homegoing, we are taking a deeper look into Asante funeral traditions, the Anglo-Ashanti wars, and the Fugitive Slave Acts.
Looking into the lives of Quey and Ness of the second generation, let’s dive deeper into food, family ties, and slavery in Homegoing.
Our Big Read 2023 season has officially started! If you haven’t seen this year’s selection yet, visit our Big Read website and check them out! We have loved hearing feedback from the community on everyone’s thoughts so far, and we are excited to hear more from you all. Hopefully, you have gotten your hands on …
Continue reading “A Look Behind the Book: The Akan People and Culture in Homegoing”
As we launch our newest books, Professor Deb Van Duinen reflects on the journey of starting the Big Read in our community.
Whether you are new to the Big Read Lakeshore program or need more reasons to help convince a friend to check us out, we invite you to consider some good reasons to join us this year! So, what is the Big Read, and why should you get involved? The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) …
Continue reading “Why You Should Participate in the Big Read”
As we get closer to the announcement for our 10th-anniversary book, we want to finish looking back at the books that we have read together as a community over the last couple of years. In 2019, our 6th year of Big Read Lakeshore, we visited the Mirabal sisters during the Trujillo dictatorship in the Dominican …
