Keokuk Receives Grants for "Big Read"

The African American Museum of Iowa has been awarded a National Endowment for the Arts grant to administer The Big Read program in Iowa communities in 2009.

The Keokuk Public Library will be one of seven libraries where people will read "Their Eyes Were Watching God," by Zora Neale Hurston. The Big Read will include speakers, book discussions, movie screenings and a one-woman play relating to the book in January and February. Plenty of copies of the book (including large print and audio) and reading guides are available for checkout at the KPL, 210 N. 5th Street.

This Saturday, January 10th at 2:00 PM is the kick-off for the KPL’s first Big Read of 2009. “Queen Zora”, a one-woman play written and performed by Ruth Anne Gaines, depicting the life of Zora Neale Hurston from her childhood of poverty in the rural south to her rise in the Harlem Renaissance. The program will be 30 – 45 minutes in length.

Find information on other Big Read events at http://www.keokuklibrary.org/ (http://www.keokuk.lib.ia.us/use-our-library/programs/bigread2009/bigread-hurston/) or http://www.blackiowa.org/.

In March, the KPL will celebrate another Big Read with The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain.