The Big Read @ Scotch Plains Public Library

Big Read Gallery: May 11, 2013

Our Festival of Hispanic Cultures was a great success. Patrons of all ages enjoyed a day of music, crafts, food, and of course- butterflies!  Many thanks our community for making it a day to remember.

The Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in a partnership with Arts Midwest.

Festival of Hispanic Cultures

Join us for an outdoor celebration of the Big Read and Latin American cultures! From 11:00am to 12:00pm we welcome back Rick Mikula who will discuss butterflies with us and then demonstrate a 50-butterfly release. From 1:00pm to 2:00pm we will enjoy music by Adelante!, an eight-piece band, featuring vocals by David Oquendo, that combines Latin rhythms from around the Caribbean with Jazz influences. We’ll have plenty of room for dancing. From 3:00pm to 4:00pm we will announce and celebrate the winners of the poster and essay contests from Scotch Plains-Fanwood Schools.

During the festival, we invite everyone to come indoors to view our community bean mosaic displays, as well as a traveling exhibit from CUNY Dominican Studies Institute: El Musico y el Pintor, which highlights the careers of two influential Dominican-American artists, musician Rafael Petiton Guzman and painter Tito Enrique Canepa.

In addition to all of this, there will be food, crafts and butterfly tattoos.

Facebook event here: http://www.facebook.com/events/563382397016534/

The Women in Julia Alvarez’s Fiction

April 11, 2013 7:00pm

Scotch Plains Public Library, 1927 Bartle Ave, Scotch Plains, NJ 07076

Professor Grisel López-Díaz of New Jersey City University will explore the strong female characters in Julia Alvarez’ novels. Her focus will be on the four Mirabal sisters from the novel In the Time of the Butterflies, but references will also be made to other characters in this author’s novels. The characters will be discussed in the context of the Dominican Republic during the Trujillo regime and the Dominican community in exile in New York. The cultural and social expectations of women, both in the Dominican Republic and the United States, will be examined using excerpts from Julia Alvarez’ work. The participants will be encouraged to interact with the presenter through question and answer and discussion formats.

Dr. Grisel López-Díaz holds a B.A. in Modern Languages from Fordham University, an M.A in Comparative Literature from New York University, and a Ph.D. from Fordham University in Curriculum and Instruction with a specialization in second language acquisition. Dr. López-Díaz has over thirty-five years of experience in education that includes teaching at the elementary, secondary, and higher education levels. She is presently working as Associate Professor of Modern Languages at New Jersey City University where she is the Coordinator and Graduate Advisor of the Masters Program in World Language Education.

Fun was had by all ages this week at our Bean Mosaic Workshops.  We have a few more coming up before we finish up our community display. No pre-registration is necessary.  Join us at one of these workshops to contribute your own mosaic:

Wednesday April 3rd @ 3:30pm Teen Beans for grades 6-12

Saturday April 6th from 10:30AM-1:00pm Community Beans for everyone

Stop in early on Saturday for a bean-themed storytime in the Childrens’ Room and drop by soon to see all of the beautiful mosaics.

Join us this week for the start of Bean Mosaics!

“While our Big Read book,  In the Time of the Butterflies, is  set in the Dominican Republic, one of our goals is the exploration of common themes and shared experiences among cultures. Beans are about as close to a universal food as you can find. Most cultures include them in their cuisine—for example—dal, cholent, pasta fagioli, Yankee baked beans, moros y cristianos, etc. We are not going to cook beans at the library, but we are going to use them to create a library exhibit for all to enjoy!”

Read our full article on The Alternative Press: http://thealternativepress.com/columns/scotch-plains-library/articles/dont-know-beans-about-the-big-read

The Latin American Novel as History

March 21, 2013 7:00pm

Scotch Plains Public Library, 1927 Bartle Ave, Scotch Plains, NJ 07076

Professor David Blackmore of New Jersey City University approaches Julia Alvarez’s texts and those of other authors including Edwige Danticat, as windows to understanding the history and culture of Latin America, specifically the Dominican Republic and the island of Hispaniola.

The Dominican Republic in the 20th Century

February 28th, 2013 7:00pm

Scotch Plains Public Library, 1927 Bartle Ave, Scotch Plains, NJ 07076

Jahaira Arias of Rutgers University begins our series of Big Read lectures. She will focus on the period of Dominican history in which the real-life events which Alvarez fictionalized took place, including the prelude to, and aftermath of General Trujillo’s 30-year dictatorship which ended in 1961. She will also entertain questions from attendees.

Her talk will lay the groundwork for reading, future book discussions and more lectures by historians, educators and writers. Jahaira Arias is a seventh year doctoral student in the department of History at Rutgers University. She specializes in the history of Latin America and is interested in the politics of race, nation, region and gender in the Caribbean.

Come to the Big Read-A-Thon at the library on Monday, January 21st from 1-3 PM. Take part in Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service by reading or listening to a book to benefit Literacy Volunteers of Union County and Mariposa Foundation DR. Group Reading of In The Time of the Butterflies begins at 1 PM. Teens will read to younger children and there is ample space for individual and family reading as well. Pledge forms can be downloaded at www.scotlib.org.

There will be volunteer sign up for upcoming Big Read projects and groups, too and chances to help the library! Come and participate!  Children under 11 must be accompanied by a responsible adult.

Picturing The Big Read

A huge thank you to Joshua Feist of Arts Midwest for capturing these beautiful photos of our kickoff concert.

(photo: Jessica Lawson with Joshua Feist of Arts Midwest, credit Barbara Brown)

Thank you to all who made our Big Read Kickoff programs such a great success! On Wednesday, January 9, we welcomed Jessica Lawson from the Mariposa DR Foundation to speak to us about the Girl Effect and the important work the Foundation is doing to educate and empower girls in the Dominican Republic. If you were unable to attend this inspiring presentation, you can find out more at the Mariposa DR Foundation’s website. Our upcoming Read-a-thon will benefit both the Mariposa DR Foundation and the Literacy Volunteers of Union County, Inc.

On Thursday, January 10, we celebrated our official kickoff with a concert at SPFHS. The Moonglowers opened the concert in their usual amazing fashion. Then Tropyband Orquesta took the stage for an evening of salsa, merengue and other Latin American music. In no time, people of all ages had left their seats to take to the dance floor. It was a true celebration of the spirit of our Big Read program, and our partnerships with the Scotch Plains-Fanwood Schools, New Jersey City University, Literacy Volunteers of Union County, Inc., and Friends of the Scotch Plains Public Library.

We look forward to seeing you at our upcoming events. Please see our Big Read brochure so you don’t miss a thing!