Read ends, but not book focus 3/19/2008 By Joy Campbell Messenger-Inquirer The Big Read is officially over, but the emphasis on books -- especially "The Joy Luck Club" -- is continuing, organizers said this week. A few activities that were delayed because of bad weather also will be rescheduled. "In my view, it was incredibly successful," said Tracy Marksberry, executive director of The Learning Community, another participating group. "I've had people ask me already when we're going to do it again." Owensboro and Daviess County's participation in the national initiative called The Big Read was the result of a collaboration among key groups with Owensboro Community & Technical College taking the lead. The project, which encourages communities to select a classic book from a list for common reading and discussion, is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts. Nearly 2,000 people attended the Feb. 9 kickoff at RiverPark Center, officials there said. Numerous local residents have read the book, held discussions and film screenings, read to disadvantaged children, organized new book clubs, and visited local museums that hosted The Big Read activities. Other groups collaborating on the project were the Owensboro Museum of Science and History, Daviess County Public Library, RiverPark Center and the Community Foundation of Owensboro and Daviess County. The idea is to have a kickoff event with activities throughout the month that use the book as a point of departure. Owensboro's planning group picked Amy Tan's, "The Joy Luck Club", with themes related to families and friendships. The book also provided opportunities to learn about Chinese culture. The Big Read inspired a lot of interest in books, Marksberry said. "It spread the word that there is a lot of value in literature which is what the National Endowment was trying to promote," she said. At the kick-off, several parents mainly came to see their children perform in various shows, but they picked up a copy of "The Joy Luck Club" and became interested in the project, Marksberry said. Marksberry knew of at least three new book clubs that have been started as a result of the project, and many clubs already formed read the common book and discussed it. "The copies of the book stayed checked out at the library, and may still be," she said. A few more activities that were delayed because of bad weather will be held in the coming weeks including a book discussion at 6 p.m. March 27 in the Cox Conference Room of the Winchester Center at Kentucky Wesleyan College. OCTC will reschedule a writing workshop for teens and young adults with the time and date announced later. A book discussion, open to the public, will be held at 3:30 p.m. April 1 in the OCTC Learning Resource Center, and the film "The Joy Luck Club," will be shown at 3:15 and 5:30 p.m. April 7 in Blandford Hall, Humanities Building. The "Chinasaurs II" exhibit also remains at the Owensboro Area ''Museum of Science and History. "We've been very pleased with the response from the public," said Kaye Brown, one of the event planners who teaches English at OCTC. "People have been very interested in reading the book and in the Chinese culture." Brown also leads the campus's common reading program. "I've had a number of people asking when we were going to do this again," she said. "We won't be doing another Big Read right away, but we would love to involve the public more in our common reading program, and we've been trying to do that." Brown said she has received good reaction from her students who read The Joy Luck Club. "It really surpassed my expectations for a variety of reasons," said Sara Hemingway, executive director of the Community Foundation of Owensboro-Daviess County, who initially shared the NEA grant opportunity for The Big Read with a core group and helped in planning. The committee rallied and has been very enthusiastic, she said. "To have seen that original e-mail about The Big Read grant roll on my computer screen, and then having been on the end of this and see its success has been so gratifying," Hemingway said. The visit from David Kipen, NEA literature director, and having Owensboro receive national exposure through his blog also was rewarding, she said. The collaboration received a $7,500 matching grant from the national arts endowment. The match came from more than $2,000 in in-kind contributions and more than $5,000 in local funds. The Big Read calendar of events remains online at http://www.octc.kctcs.edu/reading/.