This blog is moving to www.wdchumanities.org/bigread2010 in March. Enjoy the memories of the past 3 Big Reads on this blog (2007 - 2009). Be sure to join us in April and May for the 2010 Big Read and the city read of A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines.

Listen to The Heart...radio program on-line

Listen to the radio broadcast of the Big Read - D.C. book THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER (available as an audio guide on CD). The nationl Big Read website also includes a link to a transcript of the radio program, and a link to an iTunes download. Total time is 28:58.

Carson McCullers 's The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter radio show is narrated by former NEA chair Dana Gioia and features Blake Hazard, D.C.'s own E. Ethelbert Miller, P.J. O'Rourke, Mary-Louise Parker, Gore Vidal, and Jim White.

It's a Wrap! 2009 Big Read - D.C.

The month of May ended with a grand finish for the 2009 Big Read - D.C. as the newly published poets from Coolidge High School and Model Secondary School for the Deaf shared their poems and experiences from the writing/publishing workshop leading up to the publication of "BRIDGES". Students signed copies of their book in the Langston Room at Busboys and Poets, named for Harlem Renaissance poet Langston Hughes who was discovered while working as a busboy in a Cleveland Park hotel.

Teachers, parents, school administrators, and friends celebrated the young writers' achievements during this book launch. The poems published in the volume reflect themes of this year's city book THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER by Carson McCullers. "BRIDGES: Hearing and Deaf Students Connect Through Poetry" is a Book-in-a-Day project, a hands-on writing and publishing program created by poet and publisher Kwame Alexander. It was the perfect "Final Chapter" for the 2009 Big Read - D.C.


Copies of BRIDGES are available from the Humanities Council of Washington, DC. The price is $10/per book plus $5 for postage. Checks and money orders are preferred.

Write to: Humanities Council of Washington, DC (attn: Bridges), 925 U Street, NW, Washington, DC 20001; or call 202-387-8391.

For on-line orders, visit www.wdchumanities.org.

And stay tuned. An announcement will be made about the 2010 Big Read later this month.

2009 Big Read - D.C. Final Chapter - "BRIDGES"

Students from Calvin Coolidge High School and the Model Secondary School for the Deaf will release their book, BRIDGES: Hearing and Deaf Students Connect Through Poetry, Friday, May 29 at 6 PM at Busboys and Poets, 14th & V Streets, NW.

This year, the Big Read – D.C. introduced a landmark literacy program to these two very distinguished schools. Washington, DC’s Calvin Coolidge High School and the Model Secondary School for the Deaf (MSSD) participated in a project called Book-in-a-Day. Over the course of two six-hour workshops, the students worked together diligently to write and publish a book of their poetry. The workshop is the creation of poet and publisher Kwame Alexander.




This will be the final program for the 2009 Big Read - D.C. The event will also include the teachers and principals from Coolidge and MSSD; Joy Ford Austin, Executive Director of the Humanities Council of Washington, DC; Gloria Nauden, Executive Director of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities; Michon Boston, Project Director for the 2009 Big Read - D.C.; and Kwame Alexander of Book-in-a-Day.

Students will read and sign copies of the book for the final program. There is no admission fee for the event. The price of the book is $10.

For information, call 202-387-8391 or email dcbigread@wdchu
manities.org