Sunday, January 18, 2009

Public Readathon

Multnomah County Library hosted Parallel University for a readathon of "Stubborn Twig" the Everybody Reads book for 2009. This book written by Lauren Kessler follows the story of three (I actually would say four) generations of the Yasui family who came to Oregon from Japan and settled in Hood River. It shares the story of assimilation, racism and the impact of WWII on Japanese americans, including the internment and prosecution of members of the Yasui family. This reading was facilitated by Kim Willson-St. Clair from our very own Miller library. The Library hosted this event on in the 3rd floor Collins gallery which is in the open lobby at the top of the stair case, and provided copies of the book for participants to read from and take away, apples from a Japanese owned orchard in Hood River, and a lot of material about the everybody reads project were also on offer. They were most gracious hosts!
It took a little over 15 hours for us to read the entire book.
Watch this short video showing snippets of some of the participants to get a feel for the intimate nature of the event. (about 3 minutes)







Type rest of the post here

Read More...