Big Read-Dearborn Launches Thursday

The Big Read–Dearborn, a communitywide initiative that will focus on 19th Century poet and mystery and macabre writer Edgar Allan Poe, gets under way Thursday at the to Henry Ford Centennial Library.

The launch of The Big Read-Dearborn will be 6 to 8:30 p.m. and will set the tone for a variety of fun and intriguing events centered on Poe that are being planned for February and March 2016.

The launch will include free activities for children and adults, primarily inspired by the poem “The Raven,” perhaps Poe’s most famous work.

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Craft-making for children and a screening of the 1963 film “The Raven,” starring Vincent Price, will be featured that night.

The Oct. 8 activities are designed to help people answer the question “Do You Know Poe?” That’s one of the tag lines for the promotion of The Big Read.

The Big Read-Dearborn encourages people of all ages to read for pleasure and enlightenment and engage in fun and interesting activities related to a selected book. The Big Read-Dearborn will use The Great Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe as the centerpiece of the 2015-16 program.

Many might recognize Poe for “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Pit and the Pendulum,” “The Black Cat,” and the poem, “Annabel Lee.”

He also is considered the inventor of detective fiction and wrote early versions of science fiction stories. His writing has inspired many films.

This is the second time for The Big Read in Dearborn, following the successful series of events in 2014 that focused on author Jack London and The Call of the Wild.

During the Oct. 8 launch event, light refreshments will be in the Rotunda area of the library, and the evening will include brief remarks from Mayor John B. O’Reilly, Jr., Library Director Maryanne Bartles, and a representative from DFCU Financial, which is a major sponsor (Raven Level) of The Big Read-Dearborn.

The Dearborn Public Schools and many Dearborn institutions, businesses and organizations support The Big Read, and more details of partners and sponsors, plus the events planned in early 2016, will be available soon. Visit dearbornlibrary.org for updates.

The Big Read is managed by Arts Midwest, and is a One Book One Community program of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA).

» Photo via Wikimedia/Creative Commons