One Night With Gatsby - Literacy Volunteers Bookstore of Dunkirk

"It was a party like no other. I stood in the midst of the crowd, blinded by the bright lights piercing through the windows. The fancy cakes, the punch, the music; I  know Gatsby had to be in plain sight, but I could not find him."

Literacy Volunteers Bookstore

On Saturday, April 18th at 3:00pm, we (Antonio Regulier and Michael Limoncelli) held our event One Night With Gatsby at the Literacy Volunteers Bookstore in Dunkirk, a neighboring town of Fredonia. Working with the ever youthful Marty Wiser and our very own Katie Bogold, an intern from the English Department at Fredonia State University (FSU), we hosted an extravagant event that far exceeded our expectations. Raising over $150.00 in book sales and more than $50.00 in donations, our event was a complete success in promoting the National Endowment for the Art’s mission of academic reading in the public sphere and our own goal to fundraise for our charitable community partner.

Food Table

To entertain our guests, we had fruit punch, assorted cheese platter, a pyramid of fancy cakes, and two large sheets of pepperoni and cheese pizza generously donated to us by Blasdell Pizza. The Great Gatsby’s (2013) soundtrack played ever so softly in the background to keep up with the crowd as they perused the bookshelves for an all day book sale. Nathanael Terwilliger, an FSU Molecular Genetics major, was Jay Gatsby! He interacted with our audience members, taking pictures and using Gatsby’s infamous catchphrase from the novel such as “ol’ sport.” For photo opts, we had a box full of accessories (masks, boas, bow ties, and fans) that

President Horvath and Gatsby

reflected the time period in which the novel was written. We had a special appearance from the University’s president, Dr. Virginia Horvath who formerly served as a faculty member

Fully dressed up guest with Gatsby

in the English Department.

Our guests had a field day with Gatsby and his presence was much appreciated. After so much festivity and food, our audience was ready to proceed with our book discussion.

Our guest reader, Dr. Kaplin

To begin our talk about the novel, we gathered everyone into a larger circle to make sure our audience members felt included. Dr. David Kaplin, an Associate Professor of English at Fredonia State University, read aloud 3 selected chapters of the book. The first reading selection was from chapter 1 which highlighted the difference in the home of Tom Buchanan and Jay Gatsby. The second reading selection from chapter 6 centered around  the  transformation of James Gatz to Jay Gatsby.  The third reading selection from chapter 3 depicted Nick’s first time attending Gatsby’s lavish party. This selection was perfect because the entire first half of our program was designed to embodied the festive air described in the novel and to place our audience in the shoes of Nick who was bedazzled.

Antonio and Michael leading discussion of the book

Our presentation of the novel was a close reading that contextualized the historical and social movements emerging during the early and mid 1920’s while providing a character analysis of the protagonist, Jay Gatsby. First, we discussed the setting of the novel.  In our handout, there were two maps of Long Island: an old map that geographically represented the imaginary line dividing East and West Egg. We referred our audience to Chapter 2 where they could see the difference in how people perceived each Egg. The new money vs. old money conflict in the novel was brought to light when we described the setting as well as how Gatsby came into wealth; whereas Gatsby had to hustle, Tom inherited wealth. During the 1920’s, America’s attitude was very much so “if you want it, go get it.” After being cheated out of his twenty five thousand dollar inheritance from Dan Cody, Gatsby’s was the ideal American dreamer who would stop to at nothing until he escape generational poverty and got what he wanted: Daisy!

To further our discussion, we analyzed some racial tensions in the novel. Specifically, how Fitzgerald utilized the character Tom Buchanan to reflect the fears of white supremacist who saw the Harlem Renaissance as a threat to American culture. We also discussed how Nick and Gatsby both served in the battalion during the Great War (WWI) which yield extreme patriotism, but also a led to the questioned American identity. Although our discussion was not tailored for a talk on feminism, it managed to get there. Students were critical of Daisy’s position in the novel because although she seemed very unimportant, her character represented the new wave of women who stepped outside of their traditional roles in the house, but became objectified by men.

Gift Basket

Our discussion was well received and prompted much guest participation. Some of our audience members did not read the novel and asked us not to spoil the book. It varied greatly and we absolutely loved it. To end our evening with Gatsby, we raffled off three prizes: A Fredonia gift basket graciously donated by the Office of Alumni Affairs (Marty, the director won),

Community Partners, Seniors, Dr. Kaplin, Gatsby

the 2013 film adaptation of the novel, and the gift card from the Bookstore. Lastly, we made a toast to the life of Jay Gatsby whose life was cut short. Marty said “this was by far the most successful student event we’ve ever had.” We were so pleased to hear that, especially from our partner who was essential in bringing this project to fruition.

Alexander Findley Community Library - The Big Read

On Thursday, April 23rd, at 5:00 PM Alexander Findley Lake Community Library hosted it's first ever Big Read event.

So, what is the Big Read? 

The Big Read is a program sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). This program is aimed at inspiring a love for reading in people around the country. The Big Read as a whole was in response to studies and statistics that our nation's youth is reading at historically low rates, and this leads to negative social, economic and civil consequences. To find out more about these studies, you can check out the 2004 NEA report Reading At Risk for the most comprehensive report on how much people are reading in our nation ever compiled. For a report focused more on what this means for the future of our country, check out To Read or Not to Read.  The future of our nation depends on our youth, and this program targets them in hopes of reversing this startling trend. The most shocking aspect of this entire experience was how little known this issue is among the average person. All it takes is a read over of the executive summary from each report, and you can immediately grasp the scope and seriousness of this issue. If we don't do something about this issue now, our country's future is in jeopardy. This is already showing up in comparisons of reading proficiency of countries around the world, as the United States has fallen behind many countries and cities across the globe. These two issues are connected because we know reading less erodes reading proficiency. See the graphic below.

The NEA comes up with a list of books that communities around the country can pick from, and here in Western New York we chose The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald. In coordination with the Library Director Melissa Froah, I ran the first ever Big Read event at the library. My goal was to inspire the audience to express their love of reading, as well as make them aware of the whole purpose of The Big Read. My event drew an audience of five people, and in comparison to the other events you can learn about on this blog, this doesn't seem to have been very successful. However, I think it is important to acknowledge that this was the first time this library has hosted an event, while many of the other libraries have had a Big Read event several times.

 Being the first event at the library, Melissa Froah gave me full power over choosing the entire structure of the program. I planned to use the concept of food from the time period to get people thinking and talking about different definitions of what is 'American'. There is an interesting debate among scholars of what actually consists of 'American' cooking, and I wanted to use this as starting point to discuss whether or not where we come from influences our definition of American. This would also function as a bridge to talking about the definition of 'American-ness' in the novel, as the text is very much a production of the time period it was written in. The American Dream was in full swing, and this concept is a hotly debated topic among the average person because of the growing opinion that the American Dream is either dead or only a fraction of its former self. The picture you see to the left is a mock pantry of food items with original advertisements and labels from the time period.

 While I had much planned for discussion, this was altered at the last minute based on the attendance and what I thought the audience would be most interested in. With a local scheduling conflict keeping most students and parents tied up, I decided to focus my presentation and discussion about what exactly the Big Read is, and why exactly I was there. I went over how the Big Read has grown since its inception in 2007. See the maps below for a snap shot of how the program numbers have grown in 8 years.

In 2007, The Big Read began with 10 communities and 4 books. Since then, it has grown to over 70 communities in 31 states, including a list of over 20 books.








In the end, the purpose I saw in this project was to create awareness of the issue. This project was part of the English Senior Seminar course, which is required for every English major in order to graduate. I thoroughly enjoyed this project, and I want to thank Melissa Froah for being so cooperative and open to different ideas. This was a learning experience for both of us. Being an English major, this project just felt like an extension of issues I already care deeply about. However, it is impossible to care if you are not aware of the issue. This is something I have learned in my second major, Public Relations, about empowering a public to act. In order to achieve some type of result, the first obstacle is making your audience aware of the issue so they can become an active participant if they choose. I saw this project as an opportunity to lay the foundation for this library to continue Big Read events in the future. I also wanted to empower the library director, someone who has a very big influence on reading in the local community, so that she could choose to act on this issue in any way she saw fit. I know that Mrs. Froah wasn't fully aware of this issue, and I think my presentation gave her the knowledge and tools to try and make others aware of this issue as well.

Big Read Exhibit