The International Festival of Arts & Ideas invites you to join us as we celebrate US Poet Laureate Joy Harjo's An American Sunrise, the Festival’s choice for the 2021 NEA Big Read. Harjo’s poems sing of beauty and survival, illuminating a spirituality that connects her to her ancestors and thrums with the quiet anger of living amid the ruins of injustice.
The Festival is partnering with the New Haven community to offer free events highlighting the book’s themes. This year’s programming will include Native Writers in Conversation, a panel discussion on New England’s rich Indigenous literary traditions, an Indigenous food workshop, and programming in partnership with the New Haven Museum New Haven Free Public Library, and New Haven Pride Center. The culminating event will be a puppetry show, created by Isaac Bloodworth and informed by advisors and elders Ruth Torres, James Rawlings, and Wunnea Cason and through engagement with the Pequot Museum. Festival staff and advisors are working to extend these relationships with the Native communities and individuals in our region beyond the Big Read programming so that the impact is enduring.
An initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) in partnership with Arts Midwest, the NEA Big Read broadens our understanding of our world, our communities, and ourselves through the joy of sharing a good book.
All programming is presented free of charge. Live-streamed content will be available on Facebook, You Tube and on our homepage. All Facebook Live events are live captioned.
For more information on our Big Read programming, check out our website.
BOOK DISTRIBUTION
Free of cost:
The New Haven Free Public Library has many copies of An American Sunrise at all branches and is a partner of the Festival with the NEA Big Read. Hours: M-F 10am-5:30pm.
New Haven Museum (114 Whitney Avenue in New Haven), another NEA Big Read partner, will be distributing books free of charge May 6 and 7 from 10am-12pm and 3-:430pm.
Should you want to purchase a copy of An American Sunrise, the following local bookstores also have it stocked:
People Get Ready (119 Whalley Ave, order online only)- People Get Ready is offering a virtual bookshelf filled with books written by Festival participants in the Ideas program as well as Joy Harjo’s An American Sunrise
Atticus Bookstore & Café (1082 Chapel) Open daily 8am-6pm
RJ Julia Booksellers (768 Boston Post Road, Madison, CT) Sun-Wed 10am-6pm; Thurs-Sat 10am-8pm
The Yale Bookstore (77 Broadway) Open M-Sat 10am-7pm; Sun 11am-6pm