2009 Big Read - D.C. Kick-off with George Pelecanos April 25, 2009

The official kick-off event for the 2009 Big Read – D.C. and the city read of Carson McCullers’s The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter. Guests include honorary chair George Pelecanos, crime novelist and writer/producer for the acclaimed HBO series "The Wire," peformances by the D.C. Labor Chorus, and Quest: Arts for Everyone. The Big Read - D.C. 2009 kickoff is co-sponsored with the Gallaudet University Community Relations Council. The event is free and open to the public. Interpretation will be available.

THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER was written in 1940 and is set in a small Georgia mill town in the late 1930s. At the center is John Singer, who rents a room in the Kelly house after his fellow deaf companion, Spiros Antonapoulos, is sent away to an asylum. The amiable Singer is a confidant for four of the town’s misfits—Mick Kelly, a teenage girl who dreams of becoming a trained musician; Benedict Mady Copeland, the town’s black doctor; Jake Blount, an alcoholic socialist; and Biff Brannon, the owner of the local café.

RESERVATIONS REQUESTED. Contact (202) 387-8391 or [email protected]

THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER is on the DCPS high school reading list for 2009 as part of its partnership with the Big Read - D.C.

The Big Read - D.C. is presented by the Humanities Council of Washington, DC (www.wdchumanities.org) and the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities (www.dcarts.dc.gov).

The Big Read is an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts and Humanities in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and Arts Midwest (www.neabigread.org)

For more information, call (202) 387-8391 (v) or email [email protected]: http://www.wdchumanities.org/index.php?option=com_events&task=list

Official Website: https://spongecell.com/event_page/view/826865