In this seventh year of participation in the Big Read, the library and a host of community partners will offer a range of events, including film screenings: Paper Clips, with middle school Paper Clips Project coordinator Sandra Roberts hosting a question-and-answer session following the movie; The Last Days; the 2012 PBS documentary Orchestra of Exiles; the 1972 film Cabaret, starring Liza Minelli and Joel Grey; the 1959 version of The Diary of Anne Frank; Defiance; The Counterfeiters; The Comedian Harmonists; Sophie’s Choice, starring Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline (with a pre-show organ concert on the mighty Wurlitzer Organ by the New York Theatre Organ Society); Life Is Beautiful; The Portrait of Wally; A Small Act; Into the Arms of Strangers; Anne Frank: The Whole Story; The Big Red One; and The Stranger.
Talks include: “The Righteous among the Nations,” with Olga Dalsheim, who will speak with Charles Ambrus and Marcia Fishman about non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews from the Nazis; poetry and slides from “Painting Czeslawa Kwoka,” by artist Lori Schreiner and local poet Theresa Senato; a discussion of “The Auschwitz Volunteer: Beyond Bravery,” by Polish officer Witold Pilecki; “Gray Zones: Holocaust Victims and the Collapse of Their Moral World” by Dr. Werner Steger, endowed chair of Holocaust Studies at Dutchess Community College; and “From Maus to X-Men: The Holocaust in Comics” by Dr. Peter Antelyes, Vassar College associate professor of English, who examines the treatment of the Holocaust in graphic novels.
There will also be a “read-aloud” of The Shawl while teens create fleece shawls; a “History of Games” program, in which kids in grades 1 to 5 learn to play World War II-era games; “Jewish Tales from around the World” by storyteller Muriel Horowitz, for families with children pre-K and older; a card-making workshop for ages 12 and older; “Breaking the Code,” for children in grades 3 to 7 to learn about codebreaking during World War II; a discussion of The Devil’s Arithmetic by Jane Yolen, for students in fifth grade and older (parents are also welcome, and pizza will be served); “Journey through Time,” a program based on the time-travel device in Yolen’s book for children in grades 3 to 7; “Make a Dreidel, Spin a Dreidel” for kids in grades pre-K to 5 to create and play a dreidel game and learn about the history of the dreidel; and “Signing for Peace” with an American Sign Language instructor, who will teach signs for “peace,” “harmony” and “togetherness” for children ages 5 and older.
Throughout the month there will be knitting projects; multiple open book club discussions at various locations (at least two scholar-led); staged readings of the play Who Will Carry the Word? based on the true story of Charlotte Delbo and other women of the French Resistance imprisoned at Auschwitz; plus two chartered bus trips to the New York Jewish Heritage Museum, located in lower Manhattan; special programming at Barnes & Noble’s Friends of Poughkeepsie Public Library Day at the bookstore, with Wappingers District high school drama students on hand to perform Holocaust-themed material throughout the afternoon; and a guided tour of the World War II Exhibit in the FDR Presidential Library and Museum in Hyde Park. And check out the “Big Read Night on the Town” with nine local restaurants within walking distance of the Bardavon Opera House, offering early bird specials to diners.
The Marist College Chamber Choir will present Holocaust-themed music and readings in two concerts, “Stories of the Holocaust.” And on Monday, November 11, the 75th anniversary of the horrific Kristallnacht, the community will gather to reflect and commemorate with a short concert by Ars Choralis, followed by a brief historic context from Dr. Werner Steger of Dutchess Community College. The Big Read ends on Sunday, November 17 with a closing concert, “Voices of Terezin,” performed by Dr. Megan McCauley, Opera and Voice professor at Gardner-Webb University, North Carolina, accompanied by slides of children’s art created there.
The Big Read in Poughkeepsie based on Cynthia Ozick’s The Shawl; Oct. 20 – Nov. 17; venues throughout Poughkeepsie area; https://bit.ly/d5bjpe for a complete schedule.
