About Taos Big Read

Over the past several years, in communities across the country, the National Endowment for the Arts has been promoting a program called THE BIG READ.  Each participating community chooses a single book from a list of about twenty supported titles, buys a lot of copies, and distributes them, free, to all those who want to be a part of the program. Over the course of a month, the sponsoring organizations host a variety of fun events to encourage everybody to read and discuss the book.

The idea is to draw in lapsed or “reluctant” readers, and to spur conversation across differences – differences in age, in race or ethnicity, in economic background; differences in lifestyle and opinion and experience – all in the service of celebrating literature and understanding each other a little better.

For 2011-2012, the NEA has offered matching funds to help 75 communities across the country participate.  Here in Taos County, the Taos Public Library and S.O.M.O.S. teamed up and were awarded a grant to bring THE BIG READ to our area for a second time.

This year, we decided to adopt Louise Erdrich's Love Medicine. Erdrich is a world-renowned novelist, poet, and short story writer of Native American ancestry, and we’re very excited to have our Big Read coincide with the activities of national Native American Heritage Month. We also have events related to themes of healing, and events that address the particular challenges faced by women in the arts.

We’re trying something different this year, too. We encourage adults to read Love Medicine, but we’re supporting a second book, as well – The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian, by Sherman Alexie – for readers in 6th through 12th grade. Thanks to a grant from the Quail Roost Foundation and additional support from Centinel Bank, we’ll be able to distribute 250 copies to students at local schools.

We're excited to highlight Sherman Alexie's novel (which won the 2009 National Book Award for the Young Adult category) because the issues its protagonist faces are issues pertinent to many of our own young people: issues of family loyalty, cultural and class identity, personal ambition, peer expectations, and more. The protagonist is a young Spokane Indian man who chooses to go off reservation to gain a better education than the one he is offered at the local high school. It is a beautifully written, gritty, wise, honest, and funny novel that we believe will encourage our young people to consider the ways in which such issues play out in their own lives, as well as introduce them to (or re-ignite) a passion for the pleasures of reading. 

But the program is not exclusively for students, and is definitely not confined to the academic setting.  We’re hoping to get EVERYBODY reading this book, and interacting with literature in creative ways.  Art, video, performance, formal and informal discussions groups, panel discussions – there’s no limit to the ways Taoseños  can be part of THE BIG READ.
  
The Taos Public Library is the physical base for the project, and the Red Willow Education Center is a satellite site where people will be able to request a copy of the book, get information, and enjoy the event-specific display – while being, in many cases, newly introduced to the separate offerings of that place.  We’ll launch the month-long program with a kickoff Saturday November 5th at the Library.

To learn more about the national program, please visit www.neabigread.org.  You can also learn more about SOMOS, the primary sponsor of THE BIG READ in Taos, at www.somostaos.org.

WE WELCOME YOUR INPUT AND SUGGESTIONS!!!
 
Please help us make this program a success for our students and for all of Taos County.
 
For more information, or to offer help or ideas, please contact SOMOS at 575-758-0081.