Decatur to read and celebrate TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

The Princess Theatre Center for the Performing Arts hosts a Big Read project in Decatur that will focus on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD by Alabamian Harper Lee. The Big Read is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts designed to restore reading to the center of American culture. The NEA presents The Big Read in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and in cooperation with Arts Midwest. Decatur is among 268 cities participating this year in the largest literature project in the United States. The Princess Theatre will partner with the Decatur Public Library and other organizations and volunteers to bring the entire community together to read and discuss Alabama’s most famous novel “To Kill a Mockingbird.” The Big Read highlights not only literature, but also what can be accomplished in partnership.
More than 40 activities will take place in Big Read Decatur from October 1-31, 2009. Mayor Don Stanford and Senator Arthur Orr will declare October Mockingbird Month at the free Kick Off event on Thursday, October 1 at noon at the Princess Theatre for a Celebration and 50th birthday party for Harper Lee's classic novel. The public is invited to bring a brown bag lunch, with the Theatre providing drinks and the Friends of the Decatur Public Library serving desserts featured in the book, including pound cakes, a Lane cake, ambrosia, cookies, biscuits-syrup-butter, lemon drops, tootsie rolls, and brownies.
A free Keynote Lecture: "How a Lady from Monroeville, Alabama Taught the World About Tolerance" is scheduled on October 1 at 7 p.m. with Alabama's premier historian Dr. Wayne Flynt. The themes of tolerance, justice and humanity raised in the novel remain relevant.
Other community-based reading programs feature activities such as book discussions at a variety of venues, an exhibit and discussion at the Morgan County Archives about Decatur’s most famous civil rights case, the Scottsboro Boys Trial, a historic walk through 1930s Decatur during the Trial, movie screenings, music at the Old State Bank, crafts and discussions at the Carnegie Visual Arts Center and a National Touring dramatic performance of “To Kill a Mockingbird.” The Decatur City Schools have scheduled arts education activities that include a teacher workshop with Dr. Flynt, a student workshop with actors, an Essay Contest for high school students, and a multi-disciplined arts event by Austin High School entitled “A Night in Maycomb.”
A full calendar of events for BIG READ DECATUR is available at www.princesstheatre.org and http://neabigread.com/communities/?community_id=2082. For information, call the Princess Theatre Box Office at 340.1778.