The NEA Big Read: Central Florida is a program designed to revitalize the role of literature in American culture and to encourage citizens to read for pleasure and enlightenment. This year, it runs from Jan. 11 through Feb. 23 and will feature a series of exciting events related to the novel.

Silver Sparrow was added to the NEA Big Read Library of classics in 2016. Jones’ website describes the book as “a breathtaking story about a man’s deception, a family’s complicity, and the teenage girls caught in the middle. Set in a middle-class neighborhood in the 1980s, the novel revolves around James Witherspoon’s families — the public one and the secret one. When the daughters from each family meet and form a friendship, only one of them knows they are sisters.”

“Jones’ book…offers an excellent opportunity for UCF to bring impactful programs that celebrate the role of literature in our community,” says Keri Watson, director of the NEA Big Read: Central Florida. “Our programming will coincide with UCF’s celebration of Black History Month, and we are working with Africana Studies to bring the Big Read to a new campus audience.”

UCF is one of 84 communities nationwide participating in the NEA Big Read this year, receiving a $15,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. This is the sixth consecutive year the College of Arts and Humanities has received NEA funding to host the program.

NEA Big Read Events

Additionally, from Jan. 11 through Feb. 5, the UCF Art Gallery will host But Before Bone is Skin, an exhibition curated by Jonell Logan, creative director for the McColl Center for Art + Innovation in Charlotte, N.C.

On Jan. 22, a keynote address by Logan will take place via Zoom. She will discuss the relationship between the visual and literary arts, Silver Sparrow and the ways in which the novel’s themes informed the artwork featured in But Before Bone is Skin. On Jan. 28, contributing artists to the exhibition will discuss their artwork and how the themes of the book inspired their work in an artist panel via Zoom.

In addition, Seminole County Public Libraries will host daytime and evening book-discussion groups at each of its five branches, for a total of 10 book clubs this year. All clubs and discussions will take place via Zoom and are free and open to the public.

Visit UCF’s Big Read website to learn more about the NEA Big Read: Central Florida and register for the program’s upcoming events.

An initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest, the NEA Big Read broadens our understanding of our world, our communities, and ourselves through the joy of sharing a good book.

UCF, in collaboration with the Seminole Public Library, received a grant to host the NEA Big Read in Central Florida from Jan. 8 to Feb. 4. An initiative of the NEA in partnership with Arts Midwest, the NEA Big Read was established to broaden our understanding of the world and ourselves through the joy of sharing a good book. UCF is one of 75 nonprofit organizations to receive an NEA Big Read grant to host a community reading.

“With this grant we join a select few ‘repeat readers’ who have received the grant more than once,” said project director Keri Watson, assistant professor of art history at UCF. In 2017, UCF celebrated John Steinbeck and The Grapes of Wrath, and in 2016 honored Zora Neale Hurston and Their Eyes Were Watching God.

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The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears follows the story of Sepha Stephanos, an immigrant living in Washington, D.C., who finds himself stuck between his identity as an Ethiopian and his identity as an American immigrant. Through his struggles with his failing grocery store and introspective dialogues, Sepha must find a way to move forward in life without forgetting his roots.

The novel has been recognized with several awards including The Guardian First Book Prize, listed as one of The New York Times’ Notable Books of 2007 and the National Book Foundation’s “5 Under 35,” and was a Seattle Reads Selection of 2008.

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Mengestu is an Ethiopian immigrant who escaped a communist revolution and moved to Illinois in the 1970s. He went on to graduate from Georgetown ����ֱ�� and Columbia ����ֱ�� before traveling throughout sub-Saharan Africa as a journalist. His writing focuses on the lives of those in war-torn areas such as Sudan, Uganda and Congo. As immigration continues to be passionately debated throughout the world, UCF’s Big Read programming highlights individuals’ stories and the effects of displacement.

Mengestu will hold a reading and book signing in the gallery Jan. 18.

Upcoming Events

Activities for the Big Read at UCF kick off Monday, Jan. 8. As long as supplies last, there will be a free book distribution for the community at the John C. Hitt Library and an exhibit at the UCF Art Gallery entitled Finding Home: The Global Refugee Crisis. On Jan. 16, poet, journalist, biographer and literary critic Obi Nwakanma will read in the gallery from his latest collection of poetry. Seminole County Public Library will have book clubs and a “Welcome to the Neighborhood”-themed program for its K-5th grade Library Explorers Clubs.

UCF’s participation in the Big Read, a program sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts, will kick off 3-5 p.m. Monday, Feb. 27, at the John C. Hitt Library foyer, where complimentary copies of the book will be available. At 5 p.m. there will be a reception and opening of an art exhibit at the UCF Art Gallery that will focus on conservation, migration, agriculture, poverty, homelessness, and local food security. UCF and the Seminole County Public Library received an NEA grant of $16,000 to host the Big Read in Orange and Seminole counties.

After Monday’s opening events, for several weeks a variety of art exhibitions, books clubs, film screenings, panel discussions, game showcase and other programs will be presented, including the reading from the  Tony Award-winning adaptation of the book April 8 at UCF Celebrates the Arts at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts.

With a cast of more than 30 UCF guest artists, faculty, staff, alumni and students, the School of Performing Arts will tell the story of the Joad family’s desperate flight from the dust bowl after the loss of their farm. The festival also will include some tableau vivant – living art – student creations inspired by the book.

The April 7-14 UCF Celebrates the Arts festival will present more than 1,000 university students, 100 faculty members and some collaborative programs with outside partners to showcase theatre, dance, orchestra, choirs, big band, chamber music, cabaret, concert bands, opera, visual arts, studio art, gaming, animation, photography and film at the festival.

“This is a great opportunity for UCF to engage the community in a discussion of art and literature,” said Keri Watson, an assistant professor of art history, who secured the grant to support the Big Read. UCF is one of 77 nonprofit organizations around the nation to receive a grant to host events related to The Grapes of Wrath, this year’s book chosen for the project.

“With this grant, we join a select few ‘repeat readers’ who have received the grant more than once,” Watson said. Last year UCF celebrated Zora Neale Hurston and her book Their Eyes Were Watching God.

The art exhibit, In the Eyes of the Hungry: Florida’s Changing Landscape, focuses on demographic, geographic and ecological shifts, with an emphasis on human relationships and the environment. The art to be shown explores ideas ranging from agriculture and industrialization to migration and tourism to ecology and conservation.

The exhibit will be on view at the UCF Art Gallery Feb. 27-March 3, and then at Terrace Gallery in Orlando City Hall March 13-April 23.

Watson, who curated the exhibition, will present a talk about the show 1-2 p.m. Feb. 28 at the art gallery.

Ticketing and full schedule details for UCF Celebrates the Arts are posted at . All events are free, but tickets are required for performances and entrance into the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, 445 S. Magnolia Ave., Orlando. A limited number of reserved seats at $20 will be available March 1-8.