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For Immediate Release: August
8,
2002
Media Contact: Suellen Bilow (415) 557-4252
Elizabeth Whipple (510) 232-2412
SF Main Library to Host 'Grapes of Wrath' Read-Aloud
Saturday, October 5th Event
Celebrates Steinbeck's 1939 Novel
San Francisco - A public reading of John Steinbeck's landmark novel, Grapes of Wrath, will
take place on Saturday, October 5 at 1:00 pm in the San Francisco Main Library's
Koret Auditorium, 100 Larkin Street in the Civic Center. The event, which
is free and open to all, will highlight key passages and excerpts from the
600-page classic novel, winner of the 1940 Pulitzer Prize and the chosen
title for this year's California Council for the Humanities unprecedented
statewide reading project, "California Stories: Reading the Grapes of Wrath."
Radio impresario Sedge Thomson of National Public Radio's (NPR) "West
Coast Live"
will emcee the Library's read-aloud event, which features Grapes of Wrath
readings and commentary by award-winning writers including Gerry Haslam, Roxanne
Dunbar-Ortiz, Ruthanne Lum McCunn and Victor Martinez; company members of Word
for Word; and Susan Shillinglaw, director of the Center for Steinbeck Studies
at San Jose State University. The program will be followed by an informal reception.
Grapes of Wrath tells of the forced migration of poor sharecroppers in the 1930s
from the Dust Bowl-ravaged states to California, in search of a better life
for their families. The novel depicts the lives of the Joad family whom,
when evicted from their Oklahoma tenant farm, journey westward on Highway
66 to seek their Promised Land in California. The reality of the shantytowns
bears little resemblance to their dreams of lush California growing fields.
Steinbeck had seen firsthand the injustices and indignities suffered by migrant
families, and his novel conveys his outrage at the corporate growers' greed
and their determination to stop labor unions and prevent decent conditions
for workers.
All Californians are encouraged to read the book in celebration of the 100th
anniversary of Steinbeck's birth and in anticipation of "Reading the Grapes of Wrath" events taking place in October at over 140 libraries throughout California.
Other "Reading the Grapes of Wrath" events scheduled at the San Francisco Public Library include Book Club & Discussion Groups at:
- Chinatown Branch (in Mandarin) on Saturday, October 5, Saturday,
October 19 and Saturday, October 26. Call (415) 274-0275 for more information.
- Sunset Branch (in English) on Monday, October 7, Monday October 21, and Monday,
October 28. Call (415) 753-7130 for more information.
- Main Library International Center (in Spanish) on Thursday, October 17 and Wednesday,
October 30. Call (415) 557-4277 for information.
- Additionally, a Film & Discussion Group will be held on three consecutive Wednesdays, October 9, 16
and 23 in the Main Library's Koret Auditorium. Call (415) 557-4277.
All programs at the Library are free and open to the public. The "Reading
Grapes of Wrath" Read-Aloud event is made possible through contributions to the Center for the
Book in the Library of Congress from AT&T and the Carnegie Corporation of American and the Friends & Foundation of the San Francisco Public Library. The Book Club & Discussion Groups and the Film & Discussion Group are supported by the California Council for the Humanities
and the Friends & Foundation of the San Francisco Public Library.
For more information about the October 5th Read-Aloud and other Grapes of Wrath
events at the San Francisco Public Library, please call (415) 557-4277 or visit the Library's web site at www.sfpl.org.
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