NEW ROCHELLE, NY — On Mexican Independence Day, Sunday, September 16th, the New Rochelle Public Library (NRPL) will celebrate the rich cultural traditions, culture and flavors of Mexico with a large family-friendly fiesta that will also launch the library’s 2012 “Big Read”– a community-wide reading of Sun, Stone and Shadows: 20 Great Mexican Short Stories. The free event, which is organized in conjunction with Calaveras y Diablitos, a local group of Mexican artists, will be held on Library Green, at Lawton and Huguenot Streets, from 12:00 noon to 5:00 pm.
For the event, Library Green will be transformed into a bustling market place of art, music and dance, as artisans demonstrate traditional Mexican crafts, vendors sell wares and foods of Mexico, and craft-making booths will provide opportunities for all ages to create take-home projects. Live performances will include those presented by costumed members of the acclaimed Ballet Folklórico Mexicano de Nueva York, accompanied by a 5-6 piece ensemble of Mariachi Tapatio de Alvaro Paulino. Artists and craftspeople include La Sirena Mexican Folk Art, La Negra Apanchaneh, Paola Nuñez, and Claudia Bernice Garza. The Little Mexican Café, Sin Dulce Bakery, and El Sabor de Michoacan Ice Cream Shop are among the food vendors. The BID Family Day staff of teachers and teen assistants will provide a wide array of craft activities for children, including piñatas, painted pots, paper flowers and other projects.
The NRPL Big Read Readers Theater Troupe of New Rochelle High School students and graduates will engage the audience with dramatic presentations of some of the stories in Sun, Stone and Shadows.
Copies of the book will be available in English and in Spanish. Participants will also be able to pick-up calendars listing all the Big Read activities – including discussions, films, lectures, children’s programs, and the culminating “Day of the Dead” exhibit and program created by New Rochelle High School students, at the Museum of Arts and Culture.
“This is a wonderful way to bring our community together, while also promoting the love of reading,” said Greg Varian, president of the NRPL Board of Trustees. “We look forward to a fun-filled event that celebrates Mexican literature, history and culture, and its place in everyday life in New Rochelle.”
The event is being presented in association with the ArtsWestchester Folk Arts Program, with support from the New York State Council on the Arts. Funding is also made possible by The Big Read, a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest, with additional support from the NRPL Foundation, the Friends of NRPL, the New Rochelle Downtown Business Improvement District (BID), and ArtsWestchester.
The Big Read is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) designed to restore reading to the center of American culture. Managed by Arts Midwest, it provides communities nationwide with the opportunity to read, discuss, and celebrate one of 31 selections from U.S. and world literature. The New Rochelle Public Library, one of 78 selected organizations to receive a 2012-2013 Big Read grant to carry out community-based reading programs, elected to focus activities on the book, Sun, Stone, and Shadows: 20 Great Mexican Short Stories.
This is the library’s fifth “One City, One Book” project, and its second grant from The Big Read.
For more information about The Big Read please visit neabigread.org. For more information about NRPL’s Big Read, please visit the library’s website at http://www.nrpl.org, or call the library’s community relations office at (914) 632-8254