Schedule, books, speakers set for Trumbull County Reads 2023 event
Trumbull County libraries are joining together for a shared reading and learning experience under “Trumbull County Reads 2023,” with the 1970 fatal shooting of four Kent State students being the main topic.
The events were formerly known as One Book/One Community and are an annual initiative that encourages all residents to celebrate reading through conversations and events related to a central book or topic.
Four books this fall were selected for children and adults to focus on the featured theme “Stand Up”:
- “Change Sings: A Children’s Anthem” by Amanda Gorman; pictures by Loren Long – a children’s selection;
- The tween’s selection titled “Anthem” by Deborah Wiles;
- Young adult selection titled “Kent State” by Deborah Wiles;
- Adult selection titled “Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio” by Derf Backderf
Public discussions about the featured books will be held at many libraries in Trumbull County, and a unique series of films, guest speakers, and events related to the books are planned throughout October.
All the featured books are available to borrow from the Warren-Trumbull County Public Library in paper format, and many are also known as digital eBooks or eAudiobooks.
The following are related events to the Trumbull County Reads 2023 project:
A meet-the-author event featuring Deborah Wiles will be held at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 12 at the main Warren-Trumbull County library on Mahoning Avenue, Northwest. During the free presentation, Wiles will share her insights into writing the featured books “Anthem” and “Kent State.”
Wiles is the author of several highly acclaimed books, including the beloved Love, Ruby Lavender and two National Book Award finalists–Each Little Bird That Sings and Revolution. Her first picture book, Freedom Summer, received the Ezra Jack Keats New Writer Award.
She pioneered the documentary novel, in a trilogy about the 1960s that includes Countdown, Revolution, and Anthem.
Her young adult novel Kent State explores the May 4, 1970 National Guard shooting of college students protesting the Vietnam War.
Wiles holds an MFA in Writing from Vermont College. For the past 20 years, she has spoken at national, state, and regional conferences and literary festivals. She has taught writing workshops at writing conferences, retreats, and in schools worldwide.
She lives in Atlanta, Georgia, and readers can access her website at deborahwiles.com.
A culture/counterculture look at the 1960s and early 1970s fashions will be held from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Oct. 10 at the main Warren-Trumbull County library. The Trumbull County Reads 2023 event will focus on the generation gap during that period. The presentation relates to the recent exhibition at the Kent State University Museum, which was scheduled to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Kent State’s shootings on May 4, 1970.
The shootings of Kent State University students by the Ohio National Guard brought to a head the cultural divides that had split the nation. There was a sharp contrast between supporters of the establishment and those opposed – the culture and the counterculture. These social and political cleavages in society saw their clear expression in the fashions of the time.
The presentation will showcase images of pieces drawn from the rich holdings of the university’s historic costume collection.
On Oct. 26 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the main Warren-Trumbull County library, Kent State University professors Laura Davis and Mark Seeman – each experts about the Kent State shootings – will delve into essential questions that continue to be asked 53 years after May 4, 1970.
The discussion should answer the question: “Why did the guardsmen shoot?”
“What do we know, and how do we know it?” and “Why didn’t students leave the Commons when they were ordered to do so?”