During the month of March, the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library is once again sponsoring its Community Read program. The purpose of this month-long program is to encourage the members of the larger Charlotte community to read and discuss common texts that all deal with a central theme. For this year, the theme deals with our responses to art. The organizers are asking participants to complete the following statement: Art is …
For more information about the Community Read program, please click on the following link: https://www.cmlibrary.org/community-read
This year’s signature title is Portrait of a Thief by Grace D. Li. This novel focuses on a group of Chinese American college students who set out steal five priceless Chinese sculptures from Western art museums. These sculptures were all looted from Beijing centuries ago. On one level, the novel is an exciting heist story, but on a deeper level, it is a thought-provoking introduction to the role that colonization has played in the history of art.
In organizing this year’s Community Read program, the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library has reached out to many community partners, including Charlotte Lit. The folks at Charlotte Lit are providing participants with opportunities to write about this year’s theme. Intrigued, I contacted Paul Reali, the co-founder and Executive Director of Charlotte Lit, and I asked him for more information about their role in this year’s Community Read program. Here is what he sent to me:
Charlotte Lit has been a Community Read partner for several years. Beginning last year, we decided it would be fun to integrate the year’s theme into our most popular program, Pen to Paper.
P2P, as it’s commonly known, is Charlotte Lit’s free weekly writing session, 9:30-10:30 a.m. Tuesdays, via Zoom. Each P2P includes a mini-lesson, a writing prompt, quiet writing time, and optional sharing—led by Kathie Collins, Paula Martinac, Meg Rich, or me. For March, each P2P session (4, 11, 18, and 25) will include a prompt that’s based on the Community Read’s “Art is…” theme or is inspired by the adult title.
We see about 20 people for P2P each week, mostly from this area but also from across the country. They’re fun, and not quite like any other prompt-based writing sessions we’ve encountered. It’s easy to sign up for our March sessions, or any P2P, here: https://charlottelit.configio.com/p2p. We’ll look forward to seeing some new faces!
I commend Charlotte Lit and all of the other community partners who are contributing to this year’s Community Read program. I always describe my Storied Charlotte blog as a celebration of Charlotte’s community of readers and writers, and the Community Read program is a perfect example of what I mean when I use this phrase.