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By Rose Hooper
It began in Seattle, it's going on in Chicago and now it's happening
in Western North Carolina – a whole community coming together
to read and share one book.
The Western North Carolina project is called "Together We
Read," and the book selected is Fred Chappell's "Brighten
the Corner Where You Are."
Jackson County kicks off its involvement this Sunday, Aug. 17,
at 2 p.m. at City Lights Bookstore.
"Brighten the Corner Where You Are" depicts one day
in the life of Joe Robert Kirkman, a mountain school teacher,
sly prankster, family man and storyteller.
Since family storytelling is an important part of the book, a
key compent of Together We Read will be to encourage people to
tell their own family stories.
"We will start our Sunday program with examples of family
stories and an introduction to the process of gathering them,"
said Joyce Moore, owner of City Lights and a member of the TWR
steering committee.
A refreshment break will be held at 3 p.m. with celtic and traditional
music provided by Bean Sidhe. The book discussion will follow
at 3:30 p.m.
Both sessions are open to anyone interested in the program but
will also serve as a training session for people who would like
to bring similar programs to schools, book clubs or other organizations.
Moore called a regional project like this that connects literature
and heritage "truly exciting."
And it raises some interesting questions, she said, like, "What
makes a story worth listening to?" "How do different
individual takes on common experiences relate?" "How
do we all relate?" "What are the critical issues in
our community?" and "What have been the ways of behaving
that have achieved the ends that people say they want?"
"All make great topics for discussion and open it up for
other discussions," said Moore. "We'll look at how a
single family's story become part of a community epic and how
you take a family or community tale and make it both memorable
and retellable.
"It's also exciting when you have adults and children experiencing
the joy of reading and the importance of storytelling together,"
Moore said.
Chappell, a Haywood County native and North Carolina's poet laureate,
will attend a TWR gala at Western Carolina Unversity on Oct. 22.
The project has received support and funding from several sources,
including Western Carolina University and the N.C. Humanities
Council.
For more information on this event and other TWR activities, call
586-9499.
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