“History Alive!” Literacy Corps to Produce New Season
RSVP Literacy Corps is the proud producer of two recent “readers theater” tours for elementary school children. Last year, volunteer Tig Richardson toured area schools reading Henry’s Freedom Box by Ellen Levine presenting both the story and a replica of the box in which Mr. Brown escaped from slavery.
The success of that program spawned a new piece for Mr. Richardson and two additional readers, Mildred Graham and Stan Kaplan. These readers have brought to life the characters from the book Pink and Say, by Patricia Polacco, presenting the program twenty-three times over the course of the school year, engaging groups of forty or fifty children at a time and ultimately treating some 1300 Worcester Public School students to this heartwarming, yet also disturbing story of the Civil War. What’s next? Next year’s book has not yet been selected but it will most likely be a true story, probably from a chapter in United States history. |
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For this reason, the program has a new moniker: “History Alive!” The fact that the two previous stories dealt with issues surrounding slavery in America created a demand during February, “Black History Month”. However, teachers throughout the school system booked these programs in other months and found ways to keep them relevant regardless of the timing. At Literacy Corps, we appreciate that perspective and understand that our readers are presenting aspects of the history of all of us, something not confined to “Black History Month”.