Dueling Identities at the Darwin R. Barker Library

On April 18th we held our event "Dueling Identities in the Great Gatsby" at the beautiful Darwin R. Barker library. The event participated in Chautauqua-Cattaraugus

Great Gatsby library display made with our library partners

County's Big Read of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. Our goal was to gather community members to participate in an open, casual, literary discussion of one of the most talked-about novels ever written. With the help of our Library partners and some very thoughtful and well-read community members, we were able to lead a very productive discussion that explored the national identities present in Fitzgerald's novel.

2:30 P.M. marked the beginning of our exploration of the great American novel. With coffee and donuts ready and waiting for our guests, we began discussing the cultural climate of the 1920's. We had planned on using a small online presentation to stimulate conversation but due to technical issues we had not anticipated, this aspect of our event ended up not working out. We were delighted, however, to discover that this was not going to be a discussion that needed any poking or prodding to be kept alive.

Our audience (which included a few members of the local book club who had read the book recently and attended a screening of the latest film adaptation the previous week) was enthusiastic and more than willing to discuss the novel, and related concepts and ideas, in depth and at length. We tackled a range of topics including character and symbol analysis, the novel’s attitude toward women and minorities, and the cultural relevance of Gatsby's themes in  today's society. The discussion needed minimal guidance and some of our guests even had refreshing and thought provoking questions for us.

Some of the wonderful guests who attended our event

After some cultural exposition we navigated through the pages of The Great Gatsby to isolate specific sections we wanted to question. After revealing the the Nordic national identity of Tom Buchanan, and the liberal and diverse identity of Jay Gatsby, we began exploring the several ways in which this conflict effects the plot of the novel. After we established this framework, community members eagerly explored issues concerning gender, race, class, and religion.

The discussion was still going strong after 4:00, and as we brought the event to a close it felt as if hardly any time had passed. The community members in attendance were excited by the conversation, and a couple even expressed the need to re-read the novel. It was an invigorating moment to see the NEA's goals for the Big Read being realized in a tiny back room of a small town library. Being able to help the NEA realize the Big Read's mission was an exciting and challenging experience. It is an honor to have been apart of such a noble and necessary initiative, and we cannot wait to participate in the next Big Read!

Anderson Lee Big Read Event

 
 
 
 
On Monday, April 20, 2015 Allisa Butlak and Heather Cooper hosted a Big Read Events at the Anderson Lee Library. After collaborating with Paula Klocek, the library director, the event was to be focused around women and class. One of the ways we decided to promote our event was through a tri fold exhibit which gave brief descriptions of the female characters within the novel, a timeline of women's accomplishments through out history and some of the key women during the 1920's, including Zelda Fitzgerald (Fitzgerald's wife).

Part of the Big Read our experience was creating an event that was out of the box. Rather than sitting down and having a straight forward book talk about "The Great Gatsby", we wanted to do engage the audience through an interactive activity related to both women and class. We came up with "Create the 1920's Woman" as the main activity for the even followed by a discussion in relation to the female characters within the book.

Our event started at 3:30 with the audience brainstorming what they believed the 1920's woman would be like on individual sheets. After a few minutes of doing so, strips of laminated papers and expo markers were given out. On these strips of paper we asked the audience to write down one or two of their descriptions for them to be placed on the larger display. As each word was placed up, we asked that they explain why they put down what they did as a way to start engaging conversation.

Following the larger creation, our focus shifted towards the female characters within "The Great Gatsby", Daisy Buchanan, Jordan Baker and Myrtle Wilson. Even though some members of the audience had not read the book before, brief descriptions were given for each character as a way to familiarize the audience. One of the main focuses with the female characters was whether or not they fit in with the model we created as a group and why they did or did not. This sparked some good conversation in terms of gender roles during this time period.

From here our focus began to include class and the way it plays a role in how these characters acted but also how class plays an influence today. Finally, we wrapped up the discussion with asking whether or not the audience felt that Fitzgerald's representation within the novel hurt or helped women during the time period.

Overall we had around 15 community members attend our event. They each participated in our discussion regardless of whether or not they had read the novel. It was a rewarding experience for us both to see all the hard work come to life and have the audience members engage in a positive way. They seemed to really enjoy the "party" type theme and the focus of the event.

We even had one middle school student attend and even dress up in 1920's attire, which was awesome .We really enjoyed being able to hear the different perspectives especially when it came to vary age groups. It is our hope that we gave our audience a new way to look at not only the novel as a whole but the female characters within it and that they enjoyed the event as much as we did.

The Big Read Event at Lakewood Memorial Library- The Great Gatsby: An Exploration of the American Dream

At 5:00 p.m. on April 23rd, we (Scott Gertner and Zach Coffey) hosted a discussion about F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel The Great Gatsby at the Lakewood Memorial library in Lakewood, New York. Working with library director Mary Miller and board of trustees member Benjamin Blood, we were able to facilitate an active discussion centered around the idea of the American Dream and how it is represented within The Great Gatsby.

We kicked off the event by handing out a short creative writing assignment that asked the author to describe their ideal American Dream and share it with the rest of the group. The general consensus was having enough money to live comfortably and support one’s family without having to worry too much about the future. We used this as a jumping-off point to discuss the American Dream of the 1920’s and how it was much loftier in nature.

Scott discussing Fitzgerald's other works of fiction

Scott and Zach kicking off the discussion with Fitzgerald's biographical information

Our plan was to lead a discussion on the the way that Fitzgerald portrayed the 1920’s-era vision of the American Dream and, thankfully, everyone who joined us was very much interested in participating. We began by priming everyone with a quick bio on Fitzgerald and summaries of his other works to give everyone some perspective on what messages he may have been trying to relay. This turned into a detailed discussion on the similarities between the life of Gatsby and the life of Fitzgerald, as we had hoped. We spoke about rejection, love, the past, and the utter shallowness of Gatsby’s American Dream. This conversation segued perfectly into our next planned topic, which was a detailed character breakdown under the context of Fitzgerald’s American Dream. Almost every person in attendance had a unique take on each character which was fantastic for both sides of the discussion and even presented us with new ways to look at each character that we had not thought of prior. This topic carried us throughout the rest of our time as it took many twists and turns into sub-topics like racial issues and feminism, but left us around ten minutes to talk about our final planned topic: a movie and novel comparison. It was interesting to hear the general consensus of disliking the movie, but those who had enjoyed it made several good points as to why. Overall, with some much appreciated help from our peers, there was never a lull in conversation and it was as intellectual as it was fun for all involved.

To help us facilitate this conversation, we made three different poster boards to use as visual aids. Each poster focused upon one specific aspect of our discussion, including a character breakdown, biographical information on F. Scott Fitzgerald, and some 1920’s advertisements that exemplify a culture preoccupied with consumerism. Below are two examples of these posters:

Our poster of primary sources (advertisements from the 1920's)

Our poster detailing Fitzgerald's life and work

The poster not pictured was simply a visual representation of the main characters from The Great Gatsby, including Daisy, Tom, Jordan, Nick, and Jay Gatsby himself.

           We very much enjoyed our event and how low-key and informal it was. Organizing this Big Read event has been an enriching experience in so many ways and we are honored to have been a part of the National Endowment of the Art's mission to engage with timeless literary works outside of the academic world. Hopefully, this is the first step in a lifetime of sharing our love for classic literature with the communities we find ourselves in.

The Great Gatsby and The Jazz Age

Event Flyer

On Thursday, April 16th, Dunkirk Free Library and The Big Read hosted my event, "The Great Gatsby and The Jazz Age".





 The Big Read event  at Dunkirk Free Library was a wonderful success. I was lucky to work with the libraries Director Janice Dekoff as well as some very talented and dedicated Jazz musicians, The Fredonia Jazz Workshop's own Matthew Kingsley and Matthew Downey to bring a wonderful look into the period culture surrounding both F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby"and the Jazz Age, with a brief look into the Harlem Renaissance and it's counterculture.

 The event began at 5pm and started with a short slideshow presentation. The presentation included period photographs of establishments like "The Cotton Club" and period Jazz musicians. We discussed a literary and historical timeline paralleled by major events of The Jazz Age and The Harlem Renaissance, From there, we segued into Harlem Renaissance culture with some selected poems.


We had roughly twenty participants in our event and encourage everyone to promote the spread of literacy and interest in historic culture. Audience members engaged in discussion and made their way downstairs, where Fredonia's "Jazz Workshop" played quite a few lively pieces. Fitzgerald's "Tales of The Jazz Age" was then raffled off as the audience mingled, listened to more Jazz and enjoyed refreshments.


  

Matt Downey of The Fredonia Jazz Ensemble gives a light talk
on the origins and composition of Jazz.

 The Fredonia Jazz Workshop had plenty of period pieces to perform for us such as "My Funny Valentine", "All of Me" and "It Don't Mean a Thing (If it ain't got that Swing)". Big Read Participants had plenty to enjoy with the presence of some very talented musicians, refreshments and light conversation surrounding the period.

Matt Kingsley of The Fredonia Jazz
Ensemble plays period 1920's Jazz Music

Everyone involved had a great time and I believe the presentation went well, but everyone could agree that The Jazz music was simply phenomenal. I would like to thank everyone involved for their support in coming to my event. A special thank you to both The Dunkirk Free Library as well as "The Fredonia Jazz Workshop". Without your efforts, this event would not have been the great success that it was!

Big Read Participants enjoyed music and refreshments.

The Big Read at Reed

The Women of The Great Gatsby

Big Read at Daniel A. Reed Library

Presenters: María Núñez and Connor Burton

On April 15th, 2015, we led a discussion at Fredonia State University's Daniel A. Reed Library, or Reed Library for short. Our Discussion focused on the female characters in the classic novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

       The goal of the Big Read is to spread the appreciation of great works of literature throughout towns in the United States. Our Big Read community was able to enjoy discussions, presentations, and workshops on The Great Gatsby. Reed library is located on the Fredonia campus which gave us the opportunity to engage in an academic discussion. We decided to focus our discussion on Daisy Buchanan, Jordan Baker, and Myrtle Wilson. Our personal goal was to discuss their impact as characters, their place as women, and their motivations in the novel. We also wanted to discuss any parallels that we could see between these characters and women in our own modern culture.

Our discussion had ten people in attendance. Every person who attended was engaged in the discussion. The majority of the attendees were already Gatsby fans and had discussion points of their own. A few attendees came up to us afterwards and told us that they had not yet read the novel, but wanted to after seeing how lively a discussion about the novel could be. We discussed gender roles in 1920’s society and in society today. The audience seemed to especially enjoy comparing the fetishization of flapper women and women in the entertainment business today, like Lupita Nyong’o and Beyonce.

Our discussion then was directed towards analysis of the female characters of the novel. We provided poster boards on each female, with artwork painted by María Núñez, that the audience could look at before the presentation. We discussed whether Daisy was truly a love interest or a prized object for both Jay Gatsby and Tom Buchanan. We looked at Daisy as a maternal figure, the only one in the novel. We looked at Jordan Baker as the novel’s independent woman, and how socioeconomic class can affect a woman’s ability to be independent. We also looked at Myrtle Wilson’s promiscuity and how she intended to used it to elevate herself from the Valley of Ashes to Upper class apartments when she sleeps with Tom Buchanan.

Our audience was lovely. We ran over the time that we had projected and would have stayed longer if we could have. We enjoyed looking at the female characters because we could discuss them as women and also as stand alone characters. Fitzgerald gave each one their own personality, goals. We gave our audience a taste of each character. We hope that we gave our audience a different entrance point into the novel, whether they are first time readers or going through the novel for the tenth time.  

Dancing with Gatsby

Our event was titled "Dancing with Gatsby" and took place on Saturday, April 18th at Ripley Free Library. "Dancing with Gatsby" focused on the dancing aspect of the 1920s in order to spark community discussion of The Great Gatsby by engaging the audience in a fun and interactive activity. We started our event with an informal discussion of our research, which included the historical and cultural context related to the novel. Next, we watched instructional videos that taught us how to Charleston, which was followed with an opportunity for open dancing and time to enjoy refreshments while listening to jazz.

We also created a Twitter account for our event: @dancing_gatsby, which we encouraged high school students attending our event to tweet pictures and comments to. This was a good idea that should be expanded upon for future Big Read events. 

The big success we saw in this endeavor was when the official Big Read Twitter account favorited one of our retweets from a high school participant.

Dancing in the 1920s was considered a powerful tool for expression during a time period where it was very clear as to what was expected from members in society. The jerky, fast-paced movement of the Charleston was symbolic of dancers breaking free from the restrictive limits placed upon them by dominant society. In this way, dancing of the 1920s was in direct response to societal expectations for Americans. The dancing, characteristic of the infamous flappers of the Roaring Twenties, was an act of rebellion and expressed a refusal to conform. 

We discussed anti-dance literature published around the 1920s that we found during the research process on the American Memory database. It is easy when thinking of the Roaring Twenties to glamorize the era and assume that everyone acted as the flappers did, but that is not the case. The dancing existed as its own counter-culture and there were many who vocalized concerns against dancing. We brought up the specific anti-dance publications, The Lure of the Dance by Thomas A. Faulkner and The Social Dance by R.A. Adams, which focused on the effects dancing had on women. Both publications seemed to present women as needing protection from dancing while simultaneously presenting them as a complementary threat to dancing.

Our discussion examined why dances such as the Charleston became popular within the time period. As a result of World War I, America's younger generation became disillusioned with society and what they had been taught by their elders. This led the younger generation to question morality and values that society placed particular emphasis on. Dancing was the medium by which individuals experimented with individual expression and challenged accepted societal norms and moral values. The conversation soon expanded to connect how what we saw in the 20s was seen in other decades as well such as the 60s with rock-n-roll and Elvis. We then used the discussion of dancing as a bridge to initiate conversation concerning how the rebellious attitude of dancing is seen within The Great Gatsby characters and how this informs the characters’ actions in the novel.

Our event had a very successful and lively discussion. Those in attendance felt free to participate and offered their own insights into the novel's characters. It was enlightening to hear what each person had to say. One of the best moments of our Big Read event was when one woman who attended our event -- despite never having read Gatsby -- said our discussion made the novel sound so interesting she "just had to read it." She left our event after checking out the library's copy of the novel.

Knowing that our event sparked at least one person's interest in the novel and potentially renewed interest in reading for others was the most rewarding part of our Big Read experience. It was this part of our program that reminded us what the Big Read is all about. As English majors, we thoroughly enjoyed being able to share our love of literature with the community. We were also very grateful for the support of our library director and the library's entire staff in ensuring our event was a success.

 We quickly realized that the Charleston is not as easy as the flappers made it look. 

It is A LOT of footwork!

We had a lot of fun dancing and the onlookers found our attempts at dancing very entertaining.

The high school students who attended our event informed us of their recent involvement in a high school musical that was set in the 1920s. For one of the musical's dance numbers, parts of the Charleston were worked into the choreography. The students expressed surprise at how complicated the Charleston is in its full form.

"Dancing with Gatsby" was the premier Big Read event held at Ripley Free Library and we know it won't be the last. Based off of the event's success considering its first year, we are confident that Ripley's involvement in the Big Read will continue to grow.

            

The Big Read-Falconer, New York

        The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Big Read events are happening this spring all over our Chautauqua County New York area. For those of you that may not know yet, the Big Read is a grant program,  which according to the Big Read’s mission described on their website, is aiming to “restore reading to the center of American culture,” and by 2014-2015 has “funded more than 1,100 Big Read programs, providing more than $16 million in grants”(NEA Big Read Website). They are promoting the importance of literacy one canonical novel at a time. We, being Thomas Warmbrodt and Ashley Harof, were introduced to the program just this year in our “Senior Seminar” capstone class as graduating English students at the State University of New York at Fredonia.

Falconer Public Library

        We were paired to collaborate with the small but beautiful Falconer Public Library in Falconer, New York, and were put in contact with the lovely and professional Sue Seamens, Library Director at Falconer. After sitting down with Sue, we felt the buzz of excitement at the prospect of being a part of this wonderful community and literacy building program.

Planning Our Big Read Event

       Sue was able to guide us during construction of our Big Read event to Jean Voltman, who heads a small book club consisting of members from a local retirement community. These ladies meet on the second Monday of every month for a one hour discussion of that month’s literary choice. The group meetings usually consist of twelve-fourteen members.

         Thomas and I had the pleasure of joining the ladies for their March 9^th and April 13^th meetings recently and enjoyed their insights on this year’s Big Read novel, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. As college students in our early twenties, this was not only a great professional experience to put on our job resumes, but also very enlightening to hear from several women who remember life in the 1920’s when the novel is set. We heard numerous personal anecdotes, including one about a booze-bootlegging uncle who was arrested while smuggling alcoholic beverages on his boat!

       After Our first sit down with the ladies, Thomas and I had gained insight on their overall understanding of the novel’s plot, characters, themes, and historical contexts. We also were excited to find lively discussion amongst the group, which built off each other’s ideas and comments. We were able to pull away from that discussion a plan to describe and discuss a few overarching themes in the book including race, nativism, and the American Dream. We set our Big read discussion date for Monday April 13^th during their usual morning meeting.

Falconer, New York Big Read Event
Our event began with coffee, doughnuts, and a photo opportunity.

         It was our hope to create a relaxed atmosphere, very similar to their regular meetings to be sure everyone was still as comfortable speaking up and adding to our conversation. Thomas started us off speculating on the presence, and lack of presence of race in the novel, which is odd for a book set in the 1920’s jazz age, where much of upper class white culture and entertainment was very much influenced by black culture. Thomas’ segment lasted roughly half an hour. We were very pleased with the input we received in this part of the discussion since race was not touched upon during our first meeting.

        My segment was also roughly half an hour spent discussing themes and examples of the iconic idea of the "American Dream" and what it is supposed to represent in American culture. We discussed how Fitzgerald represents it differently throughout the book through different characters, and whether or not his portrayal of the idea stacks up to our personal definitions. We closed with a discussion on whether or not the American Dream is actually attainable in our society, then and now.

          Thomas and I left the event that day with a sense of pride and accomplishment. Not only had we finished our senior capstone project, but we had taken a step into the professional world outside of academia in hopes of fostering a love of literacy within our local community, and we did so with success. Sue Seamans was kind enough to notify us of the praise she received after the event. We could not have been more proud of ourselves, Sue, the ladies from the book club who made our event possible, the Falconer Public Library, and the Big Read program itself!

         As a fitting end to our experience with the NEA’s Big Read event series, Thomas and I were interviewed for an article in the local newspaper The Jamestown Gazette, linked here. We were asked questions about our experience with the Big Read, our programming plans, our roles as students, and our personal thoughts on the novel. We think the article was not only a lovely way to showcase the NEA Big Read, but also the time, energy, and love of literacy shown by Sue at The Falconer Library, and Jean Voltman and her book club.

Jamestown Prendergast Library 2015 Big Read Event

Our (Ashley Weinheimer and Leslea Moss) Big Read events for Jamestown Prendergast Library in Jamestown NY included a teen and adult event. Our library partners were excited to have us focus on two of their main groups in the library. We incorporated interactive components into each event that created an environment where the participants could freely speak about the novel through a different viewpoint.

The Teen Snack & Chat: 

Our goal was to make The Great Gatsby as accessible as possible for a teen audience. We know that the novel is commonly read in high school, so incorporating facts into a game where prizes (candy) were offered created a fast-paced and engaging environment. It was different than a typical book discussion, because we created a Jeopardy game with topics relating to the book while making sure traditional discussion was still a large part of the event.

We started the event with a broad discussion about what books they enjoyed, and why they liked to read. They were animated and excited, and the books they enjoyed ranged from horror-thrillers to graphic novels and game-based novels. They were open and forthcoming about their interest in books of all kinds, and we used this to dive into the discussion of The Great Gatsby.

We had three participants of different ages (6th to 11th grade). They had not read the novel; however, after a brief plot summary and help with the questions within the game, we were able to stimulate enough interest in The Great Gatsby that they expressed high interest in reading the novel in the future.

The Jeopardy game had questions like "What type of narrator is Nick?" and "What does Gatsby do?" Our participants were enthusiastic and engaged, and excited to be discussing a book outside of a classroom. It was wonderful to see students getting excited about literature, and watching them put the novel into a greater context than just plot, or narration. They had the opportunity to apply the ideas in the novel to their own lives and to get involved in the Big Read event.

As we were leaving, they asked "When is your next event?" This event was incredibly rewarding, not just for the participants but also for ourselves.

The Adult Snack & Chat:

Our goal for this event was to take a theme from the novel and focus the event around it. We chose advertising and ideas surrounding consumerism to highlight the behaviors of Gatsby, Nick, and Daisy throughout the novel. Our displays emphasized the importance of advertising along with related passages from The Great Gatsby. We also brought a game into the event that was not as plot based as the teen event, but rather left our audience with something relatable to think about in their own lives.

We started the discussion by asking the participants (6 total, from ages 25 to 72) what brought them to this Big Read event. The answer, while not concrete, had to do with a love of literature and the novel itself. While we had intended for the discussion to focus on advertising, it morphed into a discussion of the effects of the novel, as well as the American dream. We had a participant bring an article with him from the AARP magazine that fit into our event seamlessly. It concerned an authors reaction to The Great Gatsby, and the gentleman who brought the article read it for us. It was exciting to see community members being so interested in the novel.

The discussion lasted for a solid 45 minutes, and could have gone on longer if the time permitted. It was rewarding to hear the book and the author discussed in such depth.

Our game, Guess My Cost!, took advertisements and pricing from the 1920s and compared them to the present-day equivalents. Our participants had to guess the 1920s prices of eggs, Coca-Cola, Jell-o, raisins, sugar, and Campbell's Vegetable Soup. We gave them the present-day prices for the same products, and the winner (she got 4 of 6 correct) received a $10 Barnes&Noble gift card.

Jamestown & Its History:

From the beginning, we knew that Jamestown is a city deeply ingrained in the history of Chautauqua County. While our teen event did not focus on the historical aspect of The Great Gatsby, we knew that the adult audience would appreciate the connection between 1920s New York City and their local area.

 We found a map of 1882 Jamestown, and while the time period was a bit earlier, the community and library partners were very excited about a historical source the related closely to the Big Read.

The Big Read was the perfect opportunity for both of us to give back to the community that we live in. It was amazing to be able to share our love of literature with the the individuals who came to our events.

BR "Gender and the Great Gatsby: Women of the Roaring 20s" at Westfield

We had an excellent Big Read event at the beautiful Patterson Library in Westfield New York. Prior to the event we had created a poster for the library to display and our library partner, Erin, even set up her own Gatsby display to help promote the event.

In addition to displaying primary sources we found through the American Memory Foundation archive online, we also displayed part of the library's impressive collection of World War I poster advertisements to get our attendees in the mindset of the time period to elicit discussion.

We had an excellent event. While few people from the college showed up, we had several community members who came out and really enjoyed our event. Overall we had about 12 people who attended, and most of them participated in discussion. Even before beginning some of the ladies from the community along with the library staff investigated some of the roots found from the words in our brochures.

Our topic about gender and focus on the portrayal of women in the '20s media in relation of the book brought new depth of understanding to our audience about the struggles faced by both the characters in the book and by women in general. We spent a great amount of time then comparing what was similar or different since then to our modern society and if we saw similar characters from the book in our daily lives. The investigation led into talks about Fitzgerald's purposes for writing, current politics, gender presentation in and out of the book, and proactive discussion about what thinking can be changed for the future. We had a great time working with our library partner and the community members at our event, and our discussion about the book met the NEA Big Read goals of bringing "literature back into the center of American culture". In the end our event filled the entire time and went over by half an hour.