The Big Read Oakland

Well to be honest, the Big Read is a lot of things!  It is a wonderful opportunity to build community, a chance to transform office cooler talk, to bring together family, to explore history through literature, to learn about controversial topics from community experts, to see independent films, to visit your local library, to (re)discover American literature, to create community partnerships, and so much more.

At the heart of it all, California State University, East Bay and the Oakland Public Library system have joined forces to inspire Oakland and reignite a passion for learning and reading with the Ernest Gaines’ novel, A Lesson Before Dying. 

With generous funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, and the support of Arts Midwest and the Oakland Museum of California, The Big Read Oakland cries out to its community to join hands and forces to bring about positive change. 

Literacy rates in California have shown a dramatic decline in our teen and adult populations in the past ten years and this must change.(It may take a minute to load, but it’s worth the wait! If you are in a hurry, make sure to read the numbers in the right hand column, starting on page 4.  Visit: http://www.nea.gov/pub/RaRExec.pdf). 

This decline can be seen everywhere and we all must admit to being guilty of just being too tired to read sometimes.  I admit it! I know that people that even work right here in the library would admit to being too exausted to read after a long day of work.  So not to fret! You are not alone. 

The Big Read is a fun, easy, free and exciting solution that will help you to ease into reading literature for the first time in years or maybe even the first time ever.  There is something for everyone, so make sure to visit this site for updates and event dates for Big Read programming.  Get in touch and get started =)