Kate, many in our audience are familiar with the center, but for those who may not be, can you give us an overview please? And then we’ll get into some details. When did the center open and what was the mission?
Meg Hamlin Black, former Rhode Island state librarian put it concisely: “RI Center for the Book creates joy, I’m pretty sure that’s the mission.”
We create joy by taking the solitary activity of reading and building community on that foundation. Rather than distributing as many different books as possible, our main programs select one exceptional book which serves as the foundation of this community of readers for one year.
We collaborate with Rhode Island schools, libraries, nonprofits, book festivals, bookstores, businesses and more to promote empathy, experience and understanding through literacy, discussion, education and reading. At Rhode Island Center for the Book, we’re passionate about spreading the joy of reading, but we go beyond simply handing out books. We collaborate with an amazing network of dedicated teachers and librarians who use these books to create engaging programs and forge deep connections with their students. Our strength comes from the hundreds of passionate volunteers throughout the state, who drive programming, events and connections and we have an amazing board, all of whom are tireless champions for reading and believe in the magic of books. We know we’re doing something right because the appetite and demand for our programs continues to grow.
In 2003 the Providence Public Library formed The RI Center for the Book and became an affiliate of the Library of Congress. Every state currently has an affiliated Center for the Book. In 2018, the RI Center for the Book became an independent 501(C)(3) non-profit organization. The Center currently resides at the Pell Center at Salve Regina University.
During the economic challenges of the pandemic, our board of directors made the decision to support our local economies by purchasing all of the several thousand books for our programs from local independent bookstores, providing a spike in sales and increased cash flow, helping to ensure our Rhode Island bookstores continued operations without curtailing staff hours or reducing inventory. We partner with these bookstores in a shared mission of engaging readers, even though purchasing directly from publishers did provide a helpful bulk purchasing discount.
You were a school librarian and second-grade teacher when you became head, in 2012. Tell us about those experiences and how they helped inform your center leadership?
I believe the right book in the right hands at the right time can absolutely change a life. My mom was an English teacher and a voracious reader, but as a child, I didn’t really like to read. My mom kept handing me different books and I just let them pile up on my night table. When I was in fourth grade, she gave me a paperback biography on Helen Keller featuring the raised braille alphabet on the back cover. I read the book in one night and ran my fingers over the book nonstop, trying to teach myself braille. I was obsessed with her life and amazed at her ability to thrive. I read every book my mom handed me. In ninth grade, we went to the beach to celebrate the beginning of summer and she handed me The Thorn Birds and it was just the most scandalous and delicious way to start summer. My mom would always say “there’s no such thing as someone who doesn’t like to read, they just haven’t found the right book” (I thought she was the first person to say that. You know when you’re young and your mom says something and you just assume they made it up). I followed in her education footsteps and loved being able to find the right book for the right student, it was magic…. pure joy…and I think that’s what we’re doing at the Center for the Book, on a larger scale. My role as the Director of RI Center for the Book loops me back in a way that draws on all the phases of my life.
OK, now some of the programs. Please tell us about Reading Across Rhode Island.
Rhode Island’s only One Book, One State program, Reading Across Rhode Island (RARI), began in response to the attacks of September 11, 2001, when fear and misunderstanding were palpable in our communities. Librarians, readers and educators committed to selecting a single inspiring book as a basis to engage in a statewide dialogue. They designed the program with the intention of sparking discussion, creating spaces for sharing multiple perspectives and promoting new understandings of ourselves, our neighbors and the critical challenges that we face as a community. This positive step forward in the aftermath of such a tragedy continues to be a powerful model to promote the common good.
RARI is committed to getting books into classrooms and libraries, with already stretched-too-thin budgets have been slashed, but also workplaces, civic organizations, senior centers, churches and prisons, as a way to build morale and community. RARI has a proven track record of engaging large intergenerational audiences across the state and forging collaborations to increase impact and reach of programs.
The RARI program focuses on a single book selected to stimulate meaningful discussions across our state and provides thousands of books at no cost to schools and readers to fuel discourse that flows from connecting over a shared story, and then bolsters the program with an in-depth resource guide compiled by experienced teachers. RARI integrates dramatic and visual arts to enrich the reading experience and partners with local organizations like Rhode Island PBS, the National Education Association of Rhode Island, RI Black Storytellers and Tomaquag Museum, providing local connections for readers. RARI penetrates every city and town in Rhode Island across all generations and classes of citizens. RARI books liked Just Mercy, Stamped, The Hate U Give, Firekeeper’s Daughter and True Biz provide bridges to having the tough conversations, seeking understanding and promoting tolerance. RARI has a strong ethical commitment to Book to Action model, championing literature as a vehicle for social change and RARI books don’t just inspire conversation but real work within our communities. RARI books have meaningful and measurable impact: the 2017 RARI program featuring Just Mercy helped move the needle on the Justice Reinvestment Initiative in Rhode Island. In 2019 the RARI book What the Eyes Don’t See inspired The Rhode Island Department of Health and the Department of Environmental Management to start agency book groups and the Childhood Lead Action Project in Providence further connected with our local communities, helping to educate audiences about childhood lead poisoning and environmental injustice here in Rhode Island. RARI is committed to supporting teachers and librarians who face RARI book challenges or are victims of soft censorship.
We saw the powerful impact of our Reading Across Rhode Island title Solito last year. Teachers shared that, for some students, this was their first experience reading a book from cover to cover. Students and their families connected deeply with the experiences depicted in Solito, with some families even seeing their own stories reflected in its pages for the first time. The Spanish edition of the book was especially meaningful, bringing some to tears with its accessibility.
This year’s kickoff will be February 1 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the State House. Details, please!
It’s almost sold out, so don’t sit on registering! The RARI Kick Off event is where we get to introduce the book to the state and this year’s book is There’s Always This Year by Hanif Abdurraqib. Our RARI Education and Program Committees have been busy developing curriculum, programs and resources and are so excited to share them! Len Cabral, award winning storyteller and RI legend will be the keynote presenter and he said, “There’s Always This Year, spoke to me because of his deep connection to a sport that I grew up playing with friends and those that became life-long friends. It’s also about a place where roots run deep, and in that soil, beneath the concrete, wings are found, and in his case, wings of a homing pigeon. Hanif Abdurraqib has hit a half court three pointer at the buzzer.” The book takes the reader through so many rooms, one of music, prose, social justice, gentrification, heartbreak, basketball, and Abdurraqib is a stunning writer. I’ve highlighted hundreds of absolutely beautiful sentences.
This year’s author event with Hanif Abdurraqib will be April 22. How can one register?
We’re so excited to welcome Hanif Abdurraqib to Rhode Island on April 22nd and we’ll open registration up on our website ribook.org in March
Another center program is Kids Reading Across Rhode Island. What is that?
The Kids Reading Across Rhode Island (KRARI) program, a partnership with Rhode Island Office of Library and Information Services, is our summer reading initiative for students in grades 3 to 6, encouraging students across the state to read one special book and engage in community discussions and programs that connect school and summer reading. After a volunteer KRARI committee (comprised of Rhode Island librarians and schoolteachers) announces the selection of the book in March, KRARI programming begins in classrooms and school libraries including opportunities to connect through online discussion groups. Students, teachers, parents, and librarians then rally at the May Kick-Off Event at the State House where they hear from the author in person, receive a free, signed copy of the book, participate in workshops related to the themes of the book, and learn more about summer reading programs with local libraries and community partners. Programming continues in public libraries throughout the summer, expanding into summer reading programs that introduce new books and encourage continued reading beyond the assigned school curriculum. Last year, over 90 public libraries and schools across the state received free books and hosted book discussions and programming connected with the KRARI selection, engaging students in a quality reading experience.
Same question for Living Literature.
Living Literature is a collective of Rhode Island based artists and educators who teach literature through a unique and imaginative process. Participants experience the literature on their feet while observers see the story unfold before them. Living Literature creates a 45-minute readers’ theatre style presentation of our Reading Across Rhode Island titles. Last year they collaborated with students of Manton Avenue Project, as they create and produce mini plays in response to the Solito text and Living Literature’s performance.
And the Youth Poetry Ambassador.
In 2018 we launched this program with then Rhode Island Poet Laureate Tina Cane, who wanted to bring more poetry directly to our state’s youth and inspire young people through example. Just as the State Poet Laureate position symbolically affirms Rhode Island’s support of poetry, the Youth Poetry Ambassador is meant to validate and support the creative potential of our young people. In November our 2024 Youth Poetry Ambassador Seoyon Kim performed an “Forty five paces” an original poem commissioned by Rhode Island Humanities for the National Humanities Conference, in response to the conference theme: Making Waves, Navigating Currents of Change and received a standing ovation. You can read the full poem here.
We’ll announce the 2025 Youth Poetry Ambassador at a State House ceremony in February.
The center has taken a stand against book banning. Can you give us a summary of your efforts?
In 2021 we saw book challenges with our Reading Across Rhode Island program and we were able to support librarians in their communities. We continued to witness soft censorship and our board felt like we needed to offer proactive support for schools and libraries so we formed the fREADom in Rhode Island committee in 2023, bringing together several different groups with the thought that if we are all communicating and working together, we can avoid duplication of effort and reach a variety of audiences for maximum impact. The committee believes that every Rhode Islander should have access to a diverse array of reading selections and that the voices of the few should not limit the choices of the many. Public schools and libraries in our state have existing systems in place to handle concerns about an individual student’s reading choices. When pro-censorship individuals and organizations seek to overwhelm these systems and pressure educators and administrators to pull long lists of books from their shelves, the result is soft censorship and an erosion of freedom for Rhode Islanders.
Finally, talk a bit about the support the center receives from Salve Regina University’s Pell Center. As it happens, we share office space!
We are so grateful to reside at the Pell Center at Salve Regina University. I first got to know Executive Director Jim Ludes and Pell Center colleagues when we worked together on our 2015 Reading Across Rhode Island program and I was immediately impressed with the Pell Center and the work they do. In 2018 we were looking for a place to call home and Jim offered the Pell Center and it immediately felt like home. The missions of the Pell Center at the Rhode Island Center for the Book align so well and complement each other so completely, this was really a natural fit. Our Pell Center colleagues are inspiring, supportive, fun, and incredibly kind and I feel lucky to be among them.
