Community participates in `Big Read’
POMONA – Across the city, people are gearing up for an effort that attempts to bring everyone together through the written word.
It’s all part of the Big Read, a program put on by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Institute of Museum and Library Services along with Arts Midwest.
The goal of the Big Read is to have the community come together around a particular book. For Pomona, that will be Rudolfo Anaya’s “Bless Me, Ultima” – the story of a boy coming of age in New Mexico.
“Beyond getting people reading, it’s (about) getting people talking,” said Jonnie Owens, community outreach coordinator for Cal Poly’s College of Letters, Arts and Social Sciences and one of those leading the campaign. “This is a great opportunity to build community.”
The Cal Poly Pomona Foundation received a $15,000 grant to coordinate this year’s endeavor, Owens said.
The Rancho Cucamonga Public Library also received a grant to participate in this fall’s Big Read, according to the NEA. That city plans to use “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee as the focus of its activities.
Owens said they selected Anaya’s book for Pomona from a list of 12 literary works because of its themes. The issues of faith, identity and death – to which people of all backgrounds can relate – are woven through the story.”This will be a great book for us to read together,” Owens said.
Through these topics and others – such as family and heritage – people will be able to make connections, said Pat Lambert, senior librarian in the Pomona Public Library’s adult reference services and the library’s coordinator for the Big Read.
“We hope we can bring people together through a common thread,” she said.
As a pilot project, a handful of organizations around the country took part in the Big Read in 2005, Lambert said. In 2006 more than 70 organizations participated and this year, during the fall Big Read, 117 will take part.
Pomona’s Big Read activities will kick off Oct. 13 and continue until Dec. 1, and organizations have already begun planning activities tied to the effort.
Among those participating will be the Pomona Public Library, which has plans to offer reading groups for adults, young adults and Spanish speakers in addition to other activities, Lambert said.
Article by By Monica Rodriguez Staff Writer – m_rodriguez@dailybulletin.com
Originally San Gabriel Valley Tribune
