NEA Big Read Lakeshore

Big/Little Read Community Art Project
2023-10-19 16:30 - 17:30 (America/Detroit) | 8778 Ferry St #2 Montague, MI 49437, 8778 Ferry St #2, Montague, MI, 49437, United States
Kids, teens, and adults — add your creativity to a community art piece that will be displayed around Muskegon this fall! Come to your local library branch and create a canvas. The canvas tiles will be put together as one piece of community art, inspired by the Little Read Lakeshore book “Change Sings.” Registration Required @ this link.

West Africa Drum and Dance
2023-10-19 18:00 - 19:00 | 705 Seminole Rd. Norton Shores, MI 49441, 705 Seminole Rd., Norton Shores, MI, 49442, United States
Come and experience traditional West African drum and dance with Nathaniel Waller, Leah Ivory, and Heather Mitchell in this immersive and interactive event! This high energy music and dance speaks to people of all ages. Nate, Leah, and Heather will play, sing and dance and share some stories about West African culture and life. A demonstration and teaching time will be included so that everyone will be able to take part in this drum and dance party!

Talk, Read, and Sing in Everyday Places
2023-10-20 15:00 - 16:30 | Roosevelt Park Goodwill Retail Store, 950 W Norton Ave, Muskegon, MI, 49441, United States
Little Read/Mini Read book give away, Family Fun and Talking is Teaching Scavenger Hunts, visit www.muskegonisd.org/earlychildhood/rero/calender-events for details, or text or call 231-299-0182

Middle School “New Kid” Book Club Discussion
2023-10-23 16:00 - 17:00 | The Coffee Factory, 1402 Hudson St, Muskegon, MI, 49441, United States
Come join other middle school readers from Muskegon County as we come together to discuss the book “New Kid” by Jerry Craft at the Coffee Factory in Muskegon.

Big/Little Read Community Art Project
2023-10-23 16:30 - 17:30 | Egleston Branch
Kids, teens, and adults add your creativity to a community art piece that will be displayed around Muskegon this fall! Come to your local library branch and create a canvas. The canvas tiles will be put together as one piece of community art, inspired by the Little Read Lakeshore book “Change Sings.” Registration Required.https://madl.evanced.info/signup/EventDetails?EventId=8010&backTo=Calendar&startDate=2023/10/01

Book Discussion: Homegoing
2023-10-24 12:30 - 13:30 | Georgetown Township Public Library, 1525 Baldwin St., Jenison, MI, 49428, United States
Come discuss Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing with Georgetown Township Library!

Middle School “New Kid” Book Club Discussion
2023-10-24 16:00 - 17:00 | The Book Nook and Java Shop, 8744 Ferry St., Montague, MI, 49437, United States
Come join other middle school readers from Muskegon County as we come together to discuss the book “New Kid” by Jerry Craft at the Book Nook & Java Shop in Montague.

Book Club: Homegoing
2023-10-24 17:00 - 18:00 | Holton Branch, 8776 Holton-Duck Lake Rd, Holton, MI, 49423, United States
Every month we will pick a book for our community of readers to read together and talk about. Our goal is to pick a plethora of books from a wide variety of genres and authors. This month, our book is in partnership with NEA Big Read Lakeshore as we read Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi. Feel free to stop in and check it out or look at some similar reads.

North Branch Art Project (series #4)
2023-10-24 17:00 - 18:30 | Herrick District Library – North Branch
Over the course of four Tuesdays in October, the North Branch Art Project will use the 2023 Little and Middle Read selections, Change Sings and New Kid, to see how art can be used to explore themes like empathy, growth, change, and community. Our young artists will work with local art educators and library staff to develop both individual and group projects. A final, collaborative art piece will be unveiled on November 7 at a special celebration and will be displayed at the North Branch Library. Registration required at herrickdl.org/events starting Sept. 19. Artists are required to attend the majority of sessions and complete project assignments. Space is limited. Funding for the series is made possible in part by a grant from the Michigan Humanities, an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Arts.

Big/Little Read Community Art Project
2023-10-25 15:00 - 16:00 | Holton Branch, 8776 Holton-Duck Lake Rd, Holton, MI, 49423, United States
Kids, teens, and adults add your creativity to a community art piece that will be displayed around Muskegon this fall! Come to your local library branch and create a canvas. The canvas tiles will be put together as one piece of community art, inspired by the Little Read Lakeshore book “Change Sings.” Registration Required. https://madl.evanced.info/signup/EventDetails?EventId=8011&backTo=Calendar&startDate=2023/10/01

Let's Do It Again! Learn, Play & Grow at Orchard View
2023-10-25 15:30 - 17:00 | Orchard View Community Education Building, 1765 Ada St., Muskegon, MI, 49442, United States
Family dinner, drafts, activities & storytime featuring BOTH Change Sings and The More We Get Together. For kids birth to 5. FREE books to take home.

Migration, Identity, and Return: the African Diaspora & the African American Experience
2023-10-25 17:00 - 18:00 | Norton Shores Branch
Join Dr. Ernest Cole of Hope College for a presentation that explores the experiences of African Americans in the context of legacies of slavery, racial exclusion, and marginalization, liberation, and the struggle for integration. Dr. Cole will cover the intersections of history, literature, and culture to argue for an understanding of cultural identity, human rights violations, and possibilities of return to the African continent. Registration required on the www.madl.org/calendar.

Book Club: Homegoing
2023-10-25 17:00 - 18:00 | Dalton Branch

Wash & Learn - Little Read Laundry & Literacy Time
2023-10-27 10:00 - 12:00 | Suds of West MI, 2719 Sanford St, Muskegon, MI, 49444, United States
Free family fun while you do your laundry. Lunch, crafts, music, storytime, FREE DRY TIME and free Little Read and Mini Read books to take home.

Talk, Read, and Sing in Everyday Places
2023-10-27 15:00 - 16:30 | North Muskegon Goodwill Retail Store, 1169 Whitehall Rd, Muskegon, MI, 49445, United States

StoryWalk® - "The More We Get Together" by Celeste Cortright
2023-10-29 - 2023-11-26 | 8115 West Olive Road West Olive, MI 49460, 8115 West Olive Road, West Olive, MI, 49640, United States
Ottawa County Parks comes together with the Herrick District Library to continue providing StoryWalks this fall for us at Big Read! Walk through the pages of a book as you make your way along the path. The StoryWalks is available to all every day through the scheduled days and is located by the Nature Center at Hemlock Crossing Path.

StoryWalk® - "Change Sings" by Amanda Gorman
2023-10-29 - 2023-11-26 | Paw Paw Park East, 1230 Paw Paw Dr., Holland, MI, 49423, United States
Ottawa County Parks comes together with the Herrick District Library to continue providing StoryWalks this fall for us at Big Read! Walk through the pages of a book as you make your way along a park path. The Walks is available to all every day through the scheduled days.

Holland Story Project - Oral History Project
2023-10-29 - 2023-11-30 | Herrick District Library 300 S River Ave, Holland, MI 49423
The Holland Story Project, an oral history project by Herrick District Library, will be collecting stories about what makes home a home. This storytelling celebrates the Lakeshore area and the Big Read by sharing and preserving their unique stories, experiences, and histories. Come join be part of this project with us by sharing your stories.

MADL Crafters: Big Community Art Project
2023-10-30 17:00 - 18:00 | North Muskegon Branch
Create two pieces of art: a cut paper illustration of this year’s Big Read, Homecoming by Yaa Gaysi to take home, and a mini canvas that will be part of the community art project. Registration required. https://madl.evanced.info/signup/EventDetails?EventId=8105&backTo=Calendar&startDate=2023/10/01

Kick-Off Event: Why Do Stories Matter?: Engaging History, Black Identity, & Return Migration in Yaa Gyasi's Homegoing.
2023-10-30 19:00 | Hope College Maas Auditorium 264 Columbia Ave Holland, MI 49423
Join us as we kick-off our Big Read month! This lecture by Hope College’s Ernest Cole (English department) and Dr. Fred Johnson (History department) will focus on the legacies of slavery in the context of history, culture, and identity. It explores the role of neo-slave narratives in engaging official historical narratives of the past and their representations of the human experience. It examines the attempts of African Americans to negotiate the struggle for integration and gestures to the possibilities of returning to their ancestral homeland, as both a recognition of a hybridized identity with Africans and the projection of an alternate and futuristic form of existence.
Dr. Ernest Cole is the John Dirk Werkman Endowed Professor and Chair of English at Hope College, Holland, Michigan, where he teaches Postcolonial literatures of Sub-Saharan Anglophone Africa, India, and the Caribbean. Previously he taught African literature at Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone; The Gambia College; and the University of The Gambia. He has published two monographs — Theorizing the Disfigured Body (2014) and Space and Trauma in the Writing of Aminatta Forna (2017), and two collected volumes — Emerging Perspectives on Syl Cheney Coker (2014), with Eustace Palmer, and Ousmane Sembene, Writer, Filmmaker, & Revolutionary Artist (2016), with Oumar Cherif Diop. His essay “Decentering Anthropocentrism: Human-Animal Relations in Aminatta Forna’s Happiness” won the Abioseh Porter Prize for the best article on African literary studies published in a major peer-reviewed journal in 2019. His current research is on return migration of the African diaspora and his monograph (under review) is titled Black Bodies in White Spaces: The Challenges to Migration and Possibilities of Return. He is married to Everetta Cole, and they have two daughters, Ernesta, and Tunde.
Dr. Fred Johnson III is the Guy Vander Jagt ’53 Endowed Professor of History at Hope College, and has taught there since 2000. Dr. Johnson’s primary field of study is 19th century U.S. history, specifically, the Civil War. His other areas of expertise are 20th century U.S. history, U.S. military history and African history. Dr. Johnson is also an award-winning public speaker. A member of the Michigan chapter of the National Speakers’ Association and a member of Toastmasters since 2004, he advanced to the semifinal round of the Toastmasters World Series of Public Speaking in 2007, 2008, 2010, 2016, 2017 and 2018, taking second place in 2017 and 2018. Prior to his career in higher education, Dr. Johnson served in the United States Marine Corps as a Communications-Electronics Officer and as an Infantry Officer in the Marine Reserves. He subsequently worked as a production scheduler for Packard – Electric Division of General Motors, an operations specialist for Con-Tel Page Telecommunications, and as a corporate trainer for Aircraft Braking Systems (formerly Goodyear Aerospace) in Akron, Ohio.

Little and Mini Read: Take and Make Activities
2023-10-31 - 2023-11-30 | Allendale Library, 6175 Library Lane, Allendale, MI, 49401, United States
Our friends at Allendale library are offering free take & make activities for your friends and family to take home and create! The library is offering one per a child while supplies last.

"Let's Talk About What Makes You Unique" Play-and-Learn groups
2023-10-31 - 2023-11-30 | Allegan County
Calling all families with children birth to age 5 (older siblings welcome) to Learn+Play! Join us for an exciting morning featuring storytime, crafts, snacks, and fun activities with our Little Read Book, Change Sings. You will also enjoy FREE books and family packets to take home with you! For more information, go here.

Play n Learn groups- Little Read Lakeshore theme!
2023-10-31 - 2023-11-30 | Ottawa County
Calling all families with children birth to age 5 (older siblings welcome) to Learn+Play! Join us for an exciting morning featuring storytime, crafts, snacks, and fun activities with our Little Read Book, Change Sings. You will also enjoy FREE books and family packets to take home with you!

Big Read Book Raffle at Van Wylen Library!
2023-10-31 - 2023-11-30 | 53 Graves Pl, Holland, MI 49423, 53 Graves Pl, Holland, MI, 49423, United States
Hope College Van Wylen Library is celebrating the Big Read with a display at the main entrance and the opportunity to sign up for a book raffle for a free copy of Homegoing. Winners will be announced throughout the month of November.

Muskegon in the 1960's: Oral Histories of Our Community
2023-10-31 - 2023-11-30 | MI
During Big Read month, visit Lakeshore Museum’s, YouTube channel to listen to oral history videos from community members on their experiences in the 1960s. Discussion sheets are available to accompany the video for conversations with friends, family, or classmates! Once on the YouTube channel select, “Muskegon in the 1960’s; Oral Histories of Our Community.”

North Branch Book Club: Homegoing
2023-10-31 - 2023-11-30 | 155 Riley St. Holland, MI 49424, 155 Riley St, Holland, MI, 49423, United States
The North Branch of Herrick District Library joins us at the Big Read by choosing Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi for their community of readers. This Book Club welcomes all during the month of November for some reading and conversations in the community.

Homegoing Book Discussion at the Book Nook and Java Shop
2023-11-01 17:00 - 18:00 | The Book Nook and Java Shop, 8744 Ferry St., Montague, MI, 49437, United States
Join us to discuss Homegoing with other Lakeshore readers at the Book Nook & Java Shop in Montague! Enjoy delicious food, a cozy atmosphere, and good conversation at this book discussion event!

Dr. Ernest Cole: Why Do Stories Matter?: Engaging History, Black Identity, and Return Migration in Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing
2023-11-01 18:00 - 19:00 | loutit district library, 407 Columbus Avenue, Grand Haven, MI, 49417, United States
The lecture focuses on the legacies of slavery in the context of history, culture, and identity. It explores the role of neo-slave narratives in engaging official historical narratives of the past and their representations of the human experience. It examines the attempts of African Americans to negotiate the struggle for integration and gestures to the possibilities of returning to their ancestral homeland, as both a recognition of a hybridized identity with Africans and the projection of an alternate and futuristic form of existence.
Ernest Cole, PhD is the John Dirk Werkman Endowed Professor and Chair of English at Hope College, Holland, Michigan, where he teaches Postcolonial literatures of Sub-Saharan Anglophone Africa, India, and the Caribbean. Previously he taught African literature at Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone; The Gambia College; and the University of The Gambia. He has published two monographs — Theorizing the Disfigured Body (2014) and Space and Trauma in the Writing of Aminatta Forna (2017), and two collected volumes — Emerging Perspectives on Syl Cheney Coker (2014), with Eustace Palmer, and Ousmane Sembene, Writer, Filmmaker, & Revolutionary Artist (2016), with Oumar Cherif Diop. His essay “Decentering Anthropocentrism: Human-Animal Relations in Aminatta Forna’s Happiness” won the Abioseh Porter Prize for the best article on African literary studies published in a major peer-reviewed journal in 2019. His current research is on return migration of the African diaspora and his monograph (under review) is titled Black Bodies in White Spaces: The Challenges to Migration and Possibilities of Return. He is married to Everetta Cole, and they have two daughters, Ernesta, and Tunde.

Story time: Mini Read “The More We Get Together”
2023-11-02 09:00 - 10:00 | Howard Miller Public Library 14 S Church St, Zeeland, MI 49464
Join us for a special Preschool Storytime to celebrate this year’s Big Read Lakeshore Mini Read title, “The More We Get Together,” by Celeste Cortright. This program is geared towards children ages 3-6 with their caregivers. Stories, songs, fingerplays and a simple craft will be enjoyed by all. Drop-in program, no registration required.

Ghanaian Food Event at Phelps Dining Hall
2023-11-02 16:00 - 18:30 | Phelps Dining Hall 264 Columbia Ave Holland, MI 49423
Come to Phelps Dining Hall for a Globe station takeover of Ghanaian food to celebrate Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing! Dinner is $16 for the public, and $9 for Hope faculty/staff.

Menu:
Groundnut Soup
The internationally popular soup made from Peanut Butter!Garden Egg Stew
A stew featuring eggplant (garden egg), tomatoes, scotch bonnet chilies, and aromatic spices
Red Red
Black Eyed Peas, Tomatoes and Tilapia cooked together with a zesty blend of spices
Waakye
Slow simmered rice and beans with savory herbs
Kelewe
Bite sized pieces of deep fried Plantain tossed with a sweet sour glaze of sugar and vinegar
