Atlanta to read and celebrate Deaf Republic From September 2023 to June 2024
7 Stages is one of 62 organizations nationwide selected to receive a 2023-2024 NEA Big Read grant. A grant of $20,000 will support a community reading program focusing on Deaf Republic by Ilya Kaminsky in 2023 and 2024. An initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest, the NEA Big Read broadens our understanding of our world, our communities, and ourselves through the power of a shared reading experience.
What an honor to be awarded the NEA Big Read grant! It has truly shaped our yearly programming and given us new aspirations as we focus on the various themes within the literature. Hundreds of students, community members and artists have found a space to think creatively as they connect their own lives to the text. To say the least, it has provided 7 Stages with a wonderful tool for collaboration while forming valuable new relationships. – Destiny Renee, 7 Stages Education Director
In collaboration with DeKalb Co. Public Library, GA Center for the Book, and a diverse network of community partners, 7 Stages will organize and promote a series of literary and artistic outreach events in response to Deaf Republic by Ilya Kaminsky. An estimated 2,000 diverse community members in the metro Atlanta area will participate in the shared reading experience.
Want to get involved with 7 Stages and The Big Read?
Email 7 Stages Education Director Destiny Renee for a free book and to learn more about the program!
Deaf Republic opens in an occupied country in a time of political unrest. When soldiers breaking up a protest kill a deaf boy, Petya, the gunshot becomes the last thing the citizens hear—all have gone deaf, and their dissent becomes coordinated by sign language. The story follows the private lives of townspeople encircled by public violence: a newly married couple, Alfonso and Sonya, expecting a child; the brash Momma Galya, instigating the insurgency from her puppet theater; and Galya’s girls, heroically teaching signs by day and by night luring soldiers one by one to their deaths behind the curtain. At once a love story, an elegy, and an urgent plea—Ilya Kaminsky’s long-awaited Deaf Republic confronts our time’s vicious atrocities and our collective silence in the face of them. (Description from the publisher – Gray Wolf Press)
Since 2006, the National Endowment for the Arts has funded more than 1,800 NEA Big Read programs, providing more than $25 million to organizations nationwide. In addition, NEA Big Read activities have reached every Congressional district in the country. Over the past 15+ years, grantees have leveraged more than $57 million in local funding to support their NEA Big Read programs. More than 6 million Americans have attended an NEA Big Read event, over 100,000 volunteers have participated at the local level, and over 40,000 community organizations have partnered to make NEA Big Read activities possible. For more information about the NEA Big Read, including book and author information, podcasts, and videos, visit arts.gov/neabigread.
Established by Congress in 1965, the National Endowment for the Arts is an independent federal agency that is the largest funder of the arts and arts education in communities nationwide and a catalyst of public and private support for the arts. By advancing equitable opportunities for arts participation and practice, the NEA fosters and sustains an environment in which the arts benefit everyone in the United States. Visit arts.gov to learn more.
Arts Midwest supports, informs, and celebrates Midwestern creativity. We build community and opportunity across Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Wisconsin, the Native Nations that share this geography, and beyond. As one of six nonprofit United States Regional Arts Organizations, Arts Midwest works to strengthen local arts and culture efforts in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts, state agencies, private funders, and many others. Learn more at artsmidwest.org.
