Rutgers-Camden is the Garden State's Only Big Read Community
From 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Black Box Theater, Camden readers of all ages will be inspired by a live performance by Camden’s Unity Community Royal Brass Jazz Band and meeting new friends to discuss the book in various formats over the coming weeks.
As part of the National Endowment for the Arts’ Big Read Program, now in its fifth year, Rutgers–Camden’s Center for the Arts (RCCA) will offer a range of free programs through March, including a gallery exhibit, film screening, lectures, artist-in-residents, professional development offerings, and live performances, thanks to a $17,050 grant. The Camden Campus of Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey represents the only Big Read community in New Jersey and one of 75 not-for-profit organizations selected from across the country.
“Last year’s Big Read at Rutgers–Camden was so successful that now we’re being asked, ‘what are you reading?’” says Noreen Scott Garrity, associate director and curator of education for the Rutgers–Camden Center for the Arts. “When we say we’re reading Their Eyes, it immediately strikes a chord. We’re so pleased about that.” Last year hundreds of Camden readers devoured Jack London’s Call of the Wild; based on positive responses from the community to initiate even more reading groups this year, Garrity is ready to distribute 1300 copies of Hurston’s novel.
Selected from 31 works from U.S. and world literature, Their Eyes Were Watching God was first published in 1937, and is set in Florida in the early century. The novel relays, through dialect specific to the region, Janie Crawford’s trials with marriage, community, and identity.
While Hurston’s classic was on the reading lists for Camden students in 11th grade, not all classes were taking part. Thanks to Rutgers–Camden’s Big Read, all 600 Camden 11th graders will now meet the heroine as English and history teachers received professional development training on the work earlier this month at Rutgers–Camden.
Younger audiences won’t miss out on the literary fun: two companion books, a biography on Hurston and Roy Makes a Car both by Mary E. Lyons, will also be championed. According to Garrity, Hurston was an anthropologist who collected folk stories and Roy Makes a Car is based on one of her cultural finds.
“The story is about a man who makes wild claims of his mechanic talents, and actually delivers on those talents in fun and magical ways,” says Garrity, who points out that the book can be read by first through fifth graders and listened to by even younger audiences. “It’s kind of an inspiring story, just as Hurston herself was an inspiring person that readers of all ages should really get to know.”
The Black Box Theater is located in the Fine Arts Complex on Third Street, between Cooper Street and the Ben Franklin Bridge on the Rutgers–Camden Campus.
More information about Rutgers–Camden’s Big Read is available at rcca.camden.rutgers.edu/bigread. For directions to Rutgers–Camden, visit camden.rutgers.edu.
Media Contact: Cathy K. Donovan
(856) 225-6627
E-mail: catkarm@camden.rutgers.edu