Actor Will Stutts performs Mark Twain-themed show at The Hoover Library Theatre

HOOVER, Ala. – The community is invited to a free performance by nationally renowned actor Will Stutts in his one-man show, “Mark Twain’s America.” The show will be at the Hoover Public Library on Friday, March 19, at 7 p.m. Seating is limited and available on a first come, first served basis.

“Master of the one man show”
--Philadelphia Inquirer

Stutts has performed one-man plays more than almost any other actor in the world over three decades. He has also appeared in Off-Broadway shows and acted in major American regional theaters. A native of Alabama, Stutt’s second cousin was the legendary actress, Tallulah Bankhead. He attended Yale University’s School of Drama.

The performance is in collaboration with the statewide campaign, The Big Read: Alabama Reads, which is designed to encourage library usage and literacy in the state by encouraging citizens to read the Mark Twain classic. Alabama Reads is an initiative inspired by the national reading campaign, The Big Read. Funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, The Big Read supports libraries across the country in reading a book of the NEA’s choice.

Contact: Amanda Bonner, 444-7830, amanda@bham.lib.al.us
Or Gloria Repoleski, 444-7830, gloriar@bham.lib.al.us

Contact your local public library for more information, and visit www.alabamareads.org.

Musician Bobby Horton performs at Alys Stephens Center to support statewide reading campaign

The Big Read: Alabama Reads The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain comes to the Alys Stephens Center this month. A Musical Afternoon with Bobby Horton and Mark Twain will be featured on Sunday, March 14, from 2 to 3:30 p.m.

Popular musician Bobby Horton will entertain audiences with music and stories of Twain’s years growing up along the Mississippi River. A collaborator with musical-comedy trio, Three On A String, Horton has also produced and performed music scores for ten Ken Burns films, including a documentary on Mark Twain.

The performance is designed to promote the statewide literacy campaign, The Big Read: Alabama Reads, which encourages citizens to read Mark Twain’s classic, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. The book was chosen to correspond with the Alabama Department of Tourism’s Year of Small Towns and Twain’s 175th birthday. The statewide literacy campaign launched in February and will conclude in April.

Tickets are available now at the Alys Stephens Center by visit or phone at 205-975-2787, as well as online. Tickets for adults are $10, and tickets for children under 13 are $5.

The Big Read is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and Arts Midwest.

www.alabamareads.org

Birmingham Museum of Art showcases artwork from local high school students, inspired by The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

• Art exhibition: every Tuesday-Saturday from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. and Sundays from 12-5 p.m. until May 23.

• Lecture by Dr. Graham C. Boettcher: “Bullies, Scamps and Whippersnappers: Childhood Mischief in American Art,” Sunday, March 7 from 2-3 p.m.

The Birmingham Museum of Art will display art created by area high school students inspired by Mark Twain’s classic, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. The Big Read: Tom Sawyer Exhibition began Sunday, Feb. 28, and will be on display every Tuesday-Saturday from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. and Sundays from 12-5 p.m. until May 23. 

The artwork is based upon the idea that The Adventures of Tom Sawyer established America’s vision of childhood and reminded adults that children were not angels, but fellow human beings. The exhibit is in coordination with The Big Read: Alabama Reads The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, a statewide campaign designed to encourage library usage and increase literacy rates. 

In addition to the exhibition, the museum will be presenting “Bullies, Scamps and Whippersnappers: Childhood Mischief in American Art,” on Sunday, March 7, from 2-3 p.m. It will bring Mark Twain’s characters to life through images of mischievous children in 19th century American visual culture. 

Dr. Graham C. Boettcher, curator of American art at the Birmingham Museum of Art, will explore the subject of the “bad child” in American art and examine how such images played a role in cultivating and promoting new attitudes in child rearing. After the lecture, the museum invites the audience to join in a reception honoring students who participated in The Big Read: Tom Sawyer Exhibition. 

Alabama Reads is an initiative inspired by the national reading campaign, The Big Read. Funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, The Big Read supports communities across the country in reading one book.  

Visit www.alabamareads.org

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer in a Read it Forward event!

Inspired by the book Pay it Forward by Catherine Ryan Hyde about an 8th grader who decides to change the world by passing on good deeds for others, the 40 public libraries of Jefferson County invite you to participate in the Read it Forward event on Tuesday, March 9. Participants are asked to read a copy of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain, pass it forward to a friend and log on to the JCLC website to comment on the book. Tracking registration can be found by clicking on Read it Forward at www.jclc.org. 

The kick-off will be held at the Regions Harbert Plaza, Tuesday, 12:00 p.m. A limited number of free books will be given out. Books will also be dropped in coffee shops, laundry mats, malls, gyms, prisons, offices and the public libraries, so go to a location nearest you. Read it Forward is in collaboration with The Big Read: Alabama Reads The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain, a campaign to encourage library usage and literacy throughout the state of Alabama.

Contact: Pat Ryan, Jefferson County Library Cooperative, 205.226.3615, pryan@bham.lib.al.us for more information.
 

Dolores Hydock presents "Dead Cats & Spunkwater: Superstitions & Strange Logic in the Writings of Mark Twain"

You don't want to miss this:

Dead Cats & Spunkwater
Wednesday, March 17th at 12:15 pm 
in the Large Auditorium at Homewood Public Library

Join local storyteller Dolores Hydock for her presentation of Dead Cats & Spunkwater: Superstitions & Strange Logic in the Writings of Mark Twain. 

Bring your lunch--we'll supply the drinks and dessert!

There is no charge for this program. 

The Big Read: Alabama Reads program (NEA)

The statewide kickoff of The Big Read: Alabama Reads

Montgomery Advertiser's video of The Big Read: Alabama Reads Statewide Kickoff Tues. Feb. 2, 2010. Lt. Gov. Jim Folsom reads the prologue to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain.

The Big Read: Alabama Reads Starts Tue. Feb. 2 at Homewood Public Library

The Big Read is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) www.neabigread.org in partnership with the Institute of Museum & Library Services (IMLS) & Arts Midwest. The initiative is designed to promote reading for pleasure, to reintroduce the “classics” of literature, & to promote book discussion & exploration. This year Alabama libraries are participating in a statewide Big Read using the title The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain.

Here are some of the great programs going on in Homewood: (all programs are at the Homewood Public Library unless otherwise noted)

The Big Read: Alabama Reads Kickoff
Tuesday, February 2nd, from 11am - 4pm
Drop by the Homewood Public Library to help us kickoff a celebration of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain! We'll have snacks, information on the Big Read: Alabama Reads & a chance to win your own copy of the book.

Tasty Reads Book Group
Tuesday, February 9th, at 6:30pm
Join the Tasty Reads book group for light refreshments & a lively discussion of The Big Read: Alabama Reads title: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain.

Homewood High School Book Club
Tuesday, February 23rd, at 3:15pm
Grades 9-12. Join us at HHS after school to talk about this month’s title! My Jim, by Nancy Rawles, is the story of Sadie Watson, the woman Jim left behind when he rafted down the Mississippi with young Huck Finn. 

Teen Sawyers
Wednesday, February 24th, at 3:30pm.
Grades 6-12. Put on your overalls & join us to decorate your own straw hat, participate in a frog jumping contest & have some snacks. 

Jim Aycock presents Mark Twain
Thursday, March 11th, at 1pm.
Local actor & musician Jim Aycock will be Mark Twain, presenting his stories & wit to the 7th graders at Homewood Middle School.

“Plenty to Eat But Nothing to Do”
Monday, March 15th, at 3:30pm
Ages 0-10. Mark Twain wrote 'Plenty to eat but nothing to do' in an unfinished sequel to the Tom & Huck book. Join us for this kind of afternoon; good snacks & nothing to do but enjoy a great movie. 

Dead Cats & Spunkwater
Wednesday, March 17th, at 12:15pm.
Join local storyteller Dolores Hydock for her presentation of Dead Cats & Spunkwater: Superstitions & Strange Logic in the Writings of Mark Twain. Bring your lunch - we'll supply drinks & dessert. 

The 'Calaveras County Frog Jumping Contest'
Thursday, March 18th, at 10:30am.
Ages 0-10. Come see which frog will be Homewood Library's 'Calaveras County Frog Jumping' Champion. We provide the 'frogs' & snacks! The winner will be honored with a copy of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. This program will be held outdoors & may be canceled in the event of rain. 

An Evening With Mark Twain
Thursday, April 22nd, at 6:30pm.
Local actor & musician Jim Aycock will be Mark Twain, presenting Twain's stories & wit for all ages. Light refreshments will be provided. 

Download our program schedule here!

NewSouth Books to publish the Alabama Big Read edition of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Montgomery, Alabama—It doesn't happen often, according to Molly Thomas-Hicks at the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), that a regionally based publishing house is selected to publish a work for its Big Read program. So NewSouth Books was especially honored to learn that it had been named to publish an Alabama edition of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain for the NEA’s 2010 Big Read. Thanks go to the NEA and to many folks in Alabama for identifying NewSouth as the publisher of choice, including Patty A. Pilkerton at UAB’s Mervyn H. Sterne Library; Jay Lamar, director of the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts and Humanities at Pebble Hill; and to all nine Alabama Big Read regional coordinators.

NewSouth's edition of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is unabridged and annotated. It features a letter from Alabama Governor Bob Riley, foreword by local Twain scholar Dr. Alan Gribben, and includes the NEA Reader's Guide. The book will be available for purchase in trade cloth and paperback on September 1, 2009.

The Big Read is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services designed to revitalize the role of literature in American culture and bring the transformative power of literature into the lives of its citizens.

According to Pat Ryan, Executive Director of the Jefferson County Library Cooperative and member of the Statewide Big Read Committee, this is Alabama’s first statewide Big Read.

Adds Jay Lamar, director of the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts and Humanities at Auburn University: “The Big Read in Alabama is a unique and wonderful opportunity for the state to be a model for the nation. The production of an Alabama edition of Tom Sawyer, complete with AUM professor and Twain expert Alan Gribben's contextualizing essay and the reader's guide materials, commemorates the project. NewSouth Books, an Alabama-based company that has long contributed significantly to our state's arts and letters, has done a great service to all the participants in Alabama's Big Read by producing this unique and beautiful volume and by making it available to all Big Read participants.”

NewSouth Books is a leading independent publisher based in Alabama. It publishes regional books of national merit. Recent award-winning titles include The Wrong Side of Murder Creek: A White Southerner in the Freedom Movement by Bob Zellner, winner of the 2009 Lillian Smith Book Award, and A Yellow Watermelon by Ted Dunagan, winner of the Georgia Author of the Year Award for young adult fiction. Other recent noteworthy titles include Nobody But the People, an authorized biography of former Governor John Patterson by Warren Trest, and Spit, Scarey Ann and Sweat Bees: One Thing Leads to Another by celebrated storyteller Kathryn Tucker Windham. Forthcoming shortly: a memoir called Teddy’s Child: Growing Up In the Anxious Southern Gentry Between the Great Wars, by Virginia Van Der Veer Hamilton.

For more information about the Alabama Big Read edition of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer or NewSouth Books, call 334-834-3556 or go to the NewSouth website at www.newsouthbooks.com. Tom Sawyer will be available to libraries, schools, and by retail to the general public.

Big Read – Alabama Participates as State Recipient

National Endowment for the Arts Announces More Than $3.7 Million in Grants

Washington, DC - The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) just may have to change the name of its literature program The Big Read to The Biggest Read. June 23rd the NEA announced that 269 nonprofits, including arts, culture, and science organizations; libraries; and municipalities will receive grants totaling $3,742,765 to host Big Read celebrations between September 2009 and June 2010. The Big Read brings communities together to read, discuss, and celebrate one of 30 selections from U.S. and world literature. The 2009-2010 Big Read grantees represent 44 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Since the 2006 pilot program with ten participating organizations, the NEA has given more than 800 grants to support local Big Read projects.

Nine regions in Alabama received grants to implement the state’s first Big Read project. The title selected for The Big Read: Alabama Reads is The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain. Local communities should contact their local library for programs planned February – April 2010. This project coincides with the Alabama Year of the Small Town activities through the Alabama Bureau of Tourism. Other partners include the Alabama Public Library Service and the Alabama Center for the Book.

The selected organizations will receive Big Read grants ranging from $2,500 to $20,000 to promote and carry out community-based programs. Participating communities also receive high-quality, free-of-charge educational materials to supplement each title. Reader’s Guides include features such as author biographies, historical context for the book, and discussion questions. Teacher’s Guides are developed with National Council of Teachers of English and State Language Arts standards in mind and include lesson plans, essay topics, and classroom handouts. The Big Read Audio Guides feature readings from the novel along with commentary from renowned artists, educators, and public figures such as Sam Waterston and Aimee Mann, and Big Read authors such as Cynthia Ozick and Tobias Wolff.

To learn more about The Big Read, please visit the www.neabigread.org.

~Pat Ryan, Jefferson County Library Cooperative

Stay tuned for Homewood Public Library's plans to celebrate The Big Read with The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain. We will have activities for all ages!