Ahira Memorial Library- Big Read Events

This year’s NEA Big Read program is focusing on the novel My Antonia by Willa Cather. The novel focuses on a boy and a girl coming of age in the simplistic prairie life of Nebraska. The NEA Big Read program’s main goal is to get local communities involved in reading and interacting with their local libraries. This year, Big Read coordinators, Ashley Zengerski and Elizabeth Christopher, are working together with the Ahira Memorial Library in Brocton, New York to bring the local community in to the library to learn more about prairie life and discuss Cather’s wonderful novel. In order to incorporate younger ages and promote family friendly events at the library, Ashley and Elizabeth are also working with the book Sarah, Plain and Tall.
There will be six events held at the Ahira Memorial Library on Tuesdays and Saturdays throughout February and March. All of the events will have some sort of food and drink that were likely to be found on the prairie at the time and are simple enough to make at home. This aspect will allow the participants of the events to experience prairie life in a delicious way. The events on Tuesday evenings will focus on reading sections of the novel followed by an in depth discussion of the readings. The events on Saturday are more family oriented and will allow participants to engage with crafts and other activities that were common in prairie life.

Events:
Feb 23: Big Read Kick-off Event with Judy Gilbert as Guest Reader. Refreshments provided. 6:15-7:45pm

Feb 27: Family Craft Day: Quilts Come make a community quilt and learn about the quilt-making process. Suitable for all ages. Bring fabric scraps to make your own square. 11am-12:30pm

March 2: My Ántonia Reading and Discussion with Jean Haynes as Guest Reader. Refreshments Provided. 6:15-7:45pm

March 6: Family Activity Day Learn firsthand about life in the Mid-west during the 1800s. Refreshments provided. 11am-12:30pm

March 9: Final Reading and Discussion Featuring Steve Keefe as Guest Reader. Refreshments provided. 6:15-7:45pm

March 23: Wrap up discussion. Explore and discuss different ways of approaching the novel. Refreshments provided. 6:15-7:45pm

All of the events are going to be held at the Ahira Memorial Library in Brocton. All of the events are open to the public and free of charge. If interested in participating, please call the library at (716) 792-9418 or stop by the library to sign up.

Dunkirk Free Library

Local College Students Launch Big Read at Dunkirk Free Library

March 27, 2010

Kick-off event for Dunkirk Free Library Big Read program: Saturday March 27th, hosted by SUNY Fredonia students Susan Kornacki and Kyle Georger. The kick-off event will feature a fun and interactive play on the front lawn of the library. SUNY Fredonia students will perform in the skit, performing scenes from the Big Read novel, My Antonia, by Willa Cather.

Following the performance, audience members will have an opportunity to interact with the performers over drinks and appetizers, which will be donated by surrounding businesses. The event will also feature locally made quilts on display in the library’s main vestibule, with a first-hand glimpse into the quilting process from members of the Westfield Quilting Guild.

The events of the day will conclude with a presentation by Kornacki and Georger, who will offer some critical insights about the novel as well as their work on the Big Read programming.

The Big Read is sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts, and local programming is sponsored by the Carnahan-Jackson Fund for the Humanities. The Dunkirk Free Library Big Read programming is a result of a project that brings together SUNY Fredonia English majors and local libraries around the county, all with the overall goal of reaching out to local communities to promote literary dialogue about the Big Read novel by running fun, engaging programs in the public sphere.

Big Read-ing in Brocton

The kick-off event in Brocton's Ahira Hall Public Library on Tuesday, Feb 23 was a terrific success, thanks to the organizing efforts of Senior Seminar students Ashley and Elizabeth. The public reading, which featured Judy Gilbert, board president and former town mayor, brought together elders and teenagers from the local community on a drizzly, cold February evening for an hour or so of reading together passages from My Antonia. I'm delighted to have had the chance to witness the gathering -- a true sign of the transformative and community-building power of literature. The vision of some of the town's most youthful and most senior citizens coming together to take in Cather's novel was especially meaningful in light of the novel's emphasis on the dynamics and connections between the generations.
Thanks, Ashley and Elizabeth, for making this special event happen!

Lakewood Library - Discussion: On A Certain Type of Character...

Robert H. Footman writes in “The Genius of Willa Cather” that Willa Cather admires individuality, a headstrong spirit, dedication to a singular purpose and openness, and that these characteristics are found in the characters that she creates. He writes:

Since Miss Cather admires only a certain kind of character, it follows that many of her protagonists will be similar. This is especially true of her heroines. The following quotation is a composite one drawn from five of her books:

Compared with her, other women were heavy and dull; even the pretty ones seemed lifeless—they had not that something in their glance that made one's blood tingle. Any stupidity made her laugh—and it was always mirth, not hysteria; there was a spark of zest and wild humor in it. She simply did not know how to give a half-hearted response. When she was delighted, she was as likely as not to stand on her tip-toes and clap her hands. There was something in her nature that was like her movements, something direct and unhesitating and joyous. Life seemed to lie very near the surface in her. Her eyes, when they laughed for a moment into one's own, seemed to promise a wild delight. She had that something which fires the imagination, could stop one's break for a moment by a look or gesture that somehow revealed meaning in common things (131).

Now, as a reader, see if you can remember which of those sentences was pulled from My Ántonia. Each sentence (with the exception of a few, which were pulled together) was taken from one of Cather's works. The final sentence, “She had something...” is taken from My Ántonia.

Do you think that this whole paragraph describes Ántonia Shimerda? If you've read any other books by Cather, did you find a common “Ántonia-like” character within them? Do you think that this character type and its prevalence in Cather's work diminishes her literary talent? Does it increase it? Do you find the character of Ántonia Shimerda as memorable and admirable as Cather did?

Resource: Footman, Robert H. "The Genius of Willa Cather." American Literature: A Journal of Literary History, Criticism, and Bibliography 10.2 (1938): 123-141. MLA International Bibliography. EBSCO. Web. 10 Feb. 2010. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=mzh&AN=0000100513&site=ehost-live

Lakewood Library - Discussion: On Individuality...

In an effort to expand the boundaries of critical dialogue during Chautauqua County's Big Read event, the Lakewood Library will be posting a series of blog entries integrating literary criticism of Willa Cather and My Ántonia with relevant literary analysis to spur on more discussion of the text and the author. Feel free to post your own responses to the questions as comments, or print out any number of entries to take to your local book discussion or to enjoy while reading or re-reading. If any entry deals with a spoiler for the novel, the reader will be advised of it (and can return to the discussion after they've finished reading the book). Your feedback is always appreciated. Let's discuss!

In his critical piece entitled “The Genius of Willa Cather,” Robert H. Footman begins to elaborate on some of the strengths and weaknesses of Cather as a writer. One of her chief characteristics as an author is, for better or worse, her esteem of the individual as opposed to the larger community and communal values. Cather is an individualist, Footman argues; she creates characters “whose symbols of authority are sanctioned more by [themselves] than by man in the mass or society” (124). Instead of consulting social norms and dicta, the individualist relies on his or her own internal reasoning and set of values to make decisions and even to do things for the larger community.

How is Ántonia an individualist? Are there any other characters in the novel that display these tendencies? Do you think that Jim Burden is an individualist, or does he cater more to the community?

Resource: Footman, Robert H. "The Genius of Willa Cather." American Literature: A Journal of Literary History, Criticism, and Bibliography 10.2 (1938): 123-141. MLA International Bibliography. EBSCO. Web. 10 Feb. 2010. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=mzh&AN=0000100513&site=ehost-live

Reed Library- Willa Cather Photo Exhibit

In 2006, Betty Kort was commissioned to photograph artifacts in the Willa Cather Pioneer Memorial Collection owned by the Nebraska State Historical Society and artifacts owned by the Cather Foundation. Her Cather Foundation Artifacts (Photography) Collection is on tour at this time. The Daniel A. Reed Library is proud to sponsor the photography collection in our exhibit area in conjunction with our Big Read choice of My Antonia by Willa Cather. Western New York antique farm equipment, courtesy of the Chautauqua County Farm Museum, are also on display in the Exhibit area.

View more photos of the exhibit on our Flickr site.

Event Location: 280 Central Avenue-Reed Library Exhibit area, Fredonia, New York 14063
Date: Mon, Feb 1, 2010 – Tue, Mar 30, 2010
Time: 7:30am – 1:00am

Posted by: Dawn Eckenrode, Reed Library

Reed Library- Northern Chautauqua Kickoff Event

Reed Library hosted the Northern Chautauqua Kickoff Event for the Big Read 2010 last night. Kevin Muldowny, a representative New York State Senator Cathy Young, opened the event with a proclamation for the Big Read, stating that the Big Read is “designed to revitalize the role of literature in American culture and bring the transformative power of literature into the lives of its citizens.” His remarks were followed by an engaging and informative lecture by Susan McGee, a Willa Cather expert and Ph.D. candidate at Binghamton University.

Ms. McGee’s lecture focused on Cather’s life, as represented through her novels, in particular My Antonia and the works written during her “Nebraska period.” Ms. McGee characterized Cather as a series of contradictions in both her personal and professional life: a blend of both rural and cosmopolitan influence, intensely private yet seeking the public eye through her writing, feminist and misogynist, progressive and conservative, realist and romantic. A well-rounded and lively portrait of Willa Cather was presented by Ms. McGee, who peppered her talk with interesting details from Cather’s life. For instance, referencing the memory book kept by a classmate of the then 14-year-old Cather, Ms. McGee shared interesting insight into the mind and quirks of a young Cather, who signed her name “Wm. Cather M.D.” and wrote that her “idea of perfect happiness” is “amputating limbs.” To view the memory book in full, visit the Willa Cather Foundation website at: http://www.willacather.org/rediscovering-serenas-album. Cather’s entry is on pages 32-33 of the memory book.

Posted by: Dawn Eckenrode, Reed Library