State: VA

The Bristol Public Library, Washington County Public Library, and Birthplace of Country Music Museum have come together to host community events focused on Ron Rash's Burning Bright. Through these programs, we will foster community connections, expand minds, and provide space for transformative dialogue on the theme of “Where We Live.”

Massanutten Regional Library (MRL) will bring our community of 160,000 in the City of Harrisonburg, Rockingham County, and Page County together to celebrate the themes of cultural identity, family and place, belonging, and more through a 2025 Big Read focused on Yaa Gyasi's Homegoing. Previous Big Read successes in 2007, 2008, 2009, & 2010 have our community asking us to reignite this program.

Amherst Glebe Arts Response, Inc. (AGAR) will conduct an NEA Big Read, "Exploring 'Homegoing' in Amherst County, Virginia." Community embers will read historical novel "Homegoing" by Yaa Gyazi, who has been invited to speak virtually Mary Helen Cochran Library. the Big Read theme is "Where We Live." Using literature, dance and history, we will explore the lives of Amherst African- Americans.

The Office of Institutional Equity & Diversity provides programming, services, and educational opportunities fostering inclusion and equal access. Campus and community partners will use Sitting Pretty: The View from My Ordinary Resilient Disabled Body, to facilitate inclusive programs and educational opportunities to the Hampton Roads/Eastern Shore areas to address accessible healthcare.

Barter Theatre's 2025 production of Hamlet will be performed at its 167-seat Smith Theatre for 9th-12th grade students in Central Appalachia. This production will highlight the similarities between the lives of the students of this region and Hamlet’s, and it will feature talkbacks and workshops designed to help Appalachian students claim Shakespeare as their own.

Barter Theatre's production of Macbeth will engage students in rural Appalachia in a conversation about authenticity and the ramifications of sacrificing oneself in the pursuit of power. Barter will offer...

Barter Theatre's production of Romeo and Juliet will engage students in rural Appalachia in conversation about division in community, and how human love & rage hold power to exacerbate or...