To encourage literacy in the Valley, UTRGV Professor Steven Schneider applied for and received a Big Read Grant from the National Education Association, a federal agency that promotes arts programming across the United States.
“I’m a big proponent of the value of reading and we know in our culture, in our campus and universities across the country, reading rates are declining,” Schneider said. “I don’t want to see reading be lost as a cognitive activity. I think reading is important.”
The Big Read program encourages reading and participation by diverse audiences, according to the NEA website.
UTRGV—and its partner, the Dustin Michael Sekula Memorial Library in Edinburg—is among 77 organizations across the country that were awarded the grant for 2016-17 through a competitive process.
Schneider received the $16,000 grant in Spring 2016. However, he and his partner decided to announce the Big Read to coincide with the university’s Festiba, which takes place Feb. 27 to March 4. The university hosts the annual event to promote literacy and an appreciation of the arts and humanities, according to UTRGV’s website.
“We feel very privileged to be selected as a community partner with the university for this grant,” said Letty Leija, director of the Dustin Michael Sekula Memorial Library. “It’s a great opportunity for us to bring these amazing books to the whole community. We like to thank, regionally, from Rio Grande City to Brownsville. And it’s a great opportunity to continue to encourage the love of reading and great literature. It’s always a very interesting experience and we feel very privileged to be part of that.”
The grant is being used to conduct programming on and off campus related to the Big Read Program. It is also used to buy books that are given out and to sponsor guest speakers who are brought to present to the community, such as Juan Felipe Herrera, the U.S. poet laureate. Herrera is a California native and son of migrant farmworkers who has written more than a dozen poetry collections, according to the Library of Congress website, www.loc.gov.
Each grant applicant must select a book from 20 to 25 list choices on the NEA website. Schneider and his community partners chose the book, “In the Time of the Butterflies,” by Julia Alvarez.
“One of the criteria that I use in selecting the book is how it is going to connect or relate to our students and to our community,” Schneider said. “One of my philosophies about reading and teaching is to use what I call a culturally relevant approach and so we choose books that our students and our community will be able to relate to culturally.”
Schneider and the Edinburg Memorial Library invited other public libraries and school districts from Rio Grande City to Brownsville to participate. There are about 25 book discussions happening in the Rio Grande Valley and the leaders just received the books last week to be distributed to their own groups.
The book discussion groups will be held in time for UTRGV’s Festiba. The National Endowment for the Arts Big Read plays an important role in UTRGV’s festival of books. There will be several activities during Festiba related to the book. A movie based on the book, a play based loosely on the book and art contest will be hosted at the Edinburg Library.
To join the book discussions or for more information about Festiba or NEA’s Big Read, email letty@edinburglibrary.us.
