UCF\u2019s College of Arts & Humanities has been awarded one of 75 grants from the National Endowment for the Arts to participate in \u201cThe Big Read,\u201d a nationwide program created to revitalize the role of literature in American culture and encourage reading for pleasure and enlightenment.<\/p>\n
Grant recipients around the country pick their own books to feature. To celebrate the 125th anniversary of author Zora Neale Hurston\u2019s birth, beginning in January the college will partner with the Seminole County Public Library to host six weeks of events focusing on her book \u201cTheir Eyes Were Watching God.\u201d Events will include an art exhibit, lectures, film screenings, theatrical performances and other programs.<\/p>\n
Keri Watson, an assistant professor in the School of Visual Arts & Design, wrote the NEA matching grant for a total of $30,000 to support the project.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause of our location and the anniversary, it\u2019s a good tie-in for the community,\u201d said Watson.<\/p>\n
Hurston was born in 1891 in Notasulga, Ala., but her family moved to Eatonville when she was a child. She later lived a brief time in Sanford, where she wrote her first book, “Jonah\u2019s Gourd Vine,” published in 1934.<\/p>\n
Of her four novels and more than 50 short stories, plays and essays, her best known work was the 1937 “Their Eyes Were Watching God.” The author, folklorist and anthropologist died in 1960.<\/p>\n
Watson said the UCF project will be complementary to the annual Zora! Festival in Eatonville on Jan. 23-31, which also is also celebrating the author\u2019s 125th birthday in January.<\/p>\n
Only three other grants were given in Florida for different books to be featured in The Big Read \u2013 Broward Public Library Foundation in Fort Lauderdale, Miami Dade College, and Volusia County Public Library. Participants pick one of 35 featured novels for their programs.<\/p>\n
Kicking off the Hurston series will be a reception and art exhibit in the UCF Art Gallery featuring the work of Boston conceptual artist Eric Gottesman and the students and faculty of the UCF School of Visual Arts and Design and their colleagues at Rollins College. The exhibit, \u201cThe Encounter: Baalu Girma and Zora Neale Hurston,\u201d will be Jan. 11-Feb. 18 and present a fictional encounter between the two writers. Girma was an Ethiopian novelist and journalist who died in 1984.<\/p>\n
\u201cThough the two writers overlapped in time, but not in place, Gottesman was inspired to create a work of art that would imagine a meeting between these two important African diaspora public intellectuals,\u201d said gallery director Yulia Tikhonova.<\/p>\n
A reception at the gallery to kickoff the series will be 6-8 p.m. Jan. 14.<\/p>\n
The other events in the free series are:<\/p>\n
Events are still being added to The Big Read. For the up-do-date schedule, check back at http:\/\/bigread.cah.ucf.edu\/.<\/p>\n
Watson said she plans to apply for another grant next year for The Big Read with a different book.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UCF\u2019s College of Arts & Humanities has been awarded one of 75 grants from the National Endowment for the Arts to participate in \u201cThe Big Read,\u201d a nationwide program created to revitalize the role of literature in American culture and encourage reading for pleasure and enlightenment. Grant recipients around the country pick their own books to feature. To celebrate the…","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":69937,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"template-twocol.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"lazy_load_responsive_images_disabled":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17023,13978,4168,5666,13980,5262],"tu_author":[],"class_list":["post-69932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","tag-college-of-arts-and-humanities","tag-keri-watson","tag-school-of-visual-arts-and-design","tag-ucf-art-gallery","tag-yulia-tikhonova","tag-zora-neale-hurston"],"yoast_head":"\n