5th African-American Read-In at Neal Marshall Center: [unit], Indiana University at Bloomington

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Last Updated: Thu, Feb 1, 2007

5th African-American Read-In at Neal Marshall Center

Students from IU and area high schools get the chance to hear great works from African-American authors and their peers on Monday, February 5.

IUB School of Education to Host 5th Annual African-American Read-In

It happens every year, and it consistently opens eyes and ears on the IU Bloomington campus. The annual African-American Read-In exposes students to great works by African-American literary authors.

“What I found was a lot of our IU students went to the event and they’d say, ‘I had never heard of that author, or I’ve never heard of that work,” says Stephanie Carter, assistant professor of Language Education and the event’s organizer. “I thought that was really good, to be able to introduce them to these great African-American writers.”

At 10 a.m. on Monday, February 5, at the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center, 275 N. Jordan Ave., IU students and others will again get the chance to hear the works of Ralph Ellison, Langston Hughes, Kipchoge N. Kirkland and many others greats of African-American literature they might not know very well. The national African-American Read-In started in 1990 as a project of the Black caucus of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). In seventeen years, the NCTE estimates over a million have participated in the event in 49 states, the West Indies and some African countries. NCTE promotes the event nationally as a part of February’s Black History Month celebrations.

But hearing great recognized authors is only part of the African-American Read-In. Local high school students also get to share their own work during the event, something Carter says students particularly enjoy. “So I think that one of the highlights that high school students look forward to is hearing their peers do an original piece and share it in a wider audience, she says. “So they tend to talk about issues that they might not traditionally get to talk about in school. And they have people who want to listen.”

Area high school students are also invited, including participants in the Community Literature Intervention Program (CLIP) whom Carter is guiding in writing their own children’s books and a literary magazine. After lunch, Ghangis D. Carter, director of recruitment and retention for IUB School of Education, will facilitate a student panel. The panel is made of students from the School as well as other student leaders, and will discuss the college experience.

More information on the national African-American Read-In is available at http://www.ncte.org/prog/readin/107901.htm

For More Information, Contact:
Chuck Carney
Director of Communications and Media Relations
Office: (812) 856-8027
ccarney@indiana.edu