NEA Big Read
Promote literacy and common experience and bond your community when you bring the NEA Big Read to your hometown.
“The National Endowment for the Arts Big Read, a partnership with Arts Midwest, broadens our understanding of our world, our communities, and ourselves through the joy of sharing a good book. Showcasing a diverse range of titles that reflect many different voices and perspectives, the NEA Big Read aims to inspire conversation and discovery.
Studies show that reading for pleasure reduces stress, heightens empathy, improves students' test scores, slows the onset of dementia, and makes us more active and aware citizens. Book clubs and community reading programs extend these benefits by creating opportunities to explore together the issues that are relevant to our lives. The titles in the NEA Big Read library vary in genre, theme, settings and points of view: from poems about legendary prizefighter Jack Johnson to a memoir about growing up in a refugee camp to a post-apocalyptic novel about hanging on to our humanity after a flu pandemic. Writes one NEA Big Read participant, echoing the sentiments of many other participants around the country, "the book taught us how to talk to and trust one another so that we could ultimately approach issues that were difficult and immediate."
The NEA Big Read annually supports approximately 75 dynamic community reading programs, each designed around a single NEA Big Read selection. Arts Midwest manages the NEA Big Read grants program. Each community program that receives an NEA Big Read grant—which ranges between $5,000 and $15,000—is also provided with resources, outreach materials, and training on various aspects such as working with local partners, developing public relations strategies, and leading book discussions and Q&As. The programs last one month or longer and include a kick-off event, often attended by the mayor and other local luminaries; major events devoted specifically to the book (e.g., panel discussions and author reading); events using the book as a point of departure (e.g., film screenings and theatrical readings); and book discussions in diverse locations involving a wide range of audiences.
Since 2006, the National Endowment for the Arts has funded more than 1,600 NEA Big Read programs, providing more than $22 million to organizations nationwide. In addition, NEA Big Read activities have reached every Congressional district in the country. Over the past 14 years, grantees have leveraged more than $50 million in local funding to support their NEA Big Read programs. More than 5.7 million Americans have attended an NEA Big Read event, approximately 91,000 volunteers have participated at the local level, and over 39,000 community organizations have partnered to make NEA Big Read activities possible.”
How do I get started? Click here.
How do I expand this narrative arc? Looking for more ways to elevate your community?
Start a Diversity Book Club at your school.
Launch a local chapter of the national anti-gun violence organization March for Our Lives.
Promote discussions between youth and community leaders in a Youth Town Hall
Are you a reader AND a writer? Submit your work to an online publication like The Maze, Elan Literary Magazine, Hanging Loose Press, and more.
HOT TIP: You’ll get as much out of these efforts as you put into them. Any teen can start a club; be the one who brings real change to your community.