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00000179-cdc6-d978-adfd-cfc6d7a40000The National Endowment for the Arts' "Big Read" looks to encourage literacy by holding community events around the country celebrating a single book each year. This year's book selection is Into the Beautiful North" by Luis Alberto Urrea, which follows a nineteen-year-old woman who travels to the United States to bring back seven men--including her father--to help defend her Mexican village from danger.Of course, the stories of people who come to this country are wide and varied, and many of those stories live right here in Wichita. Over the next few weeks, we'll hear some of those stories. Follow them below.-The Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts designed to revitalize the role of literature in American culture and bring the transformative power of literature into the lives of citizens. The Big Read brings together partners across the country to encourage citizens to read for pleasure and enlightenment.

Don't Burn 'Fahrenheit 451'--You'll Need It For This Year's Big Read

Wikipedia.org

Wichita's Big Read program will take on a classic science fiction novel this year.

For its 9th year, Big Read Wichita has chosen Ray Bradbury’s “Fahrenheit 451." The 1953 novel explores themes of censorship and freedom of information in a world where books are outlawed.

Stephanie Huff with the Wichita Public Library says that the book will tie in to different events around the community. There will be a screening of the film adaptation, a talk led by Ray Bradbury’s biographer, and a performance by the Wichita Sympony of two works that were composed under authoritarian governments: Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 24 and Shostakovich's Symphony No. 10.

“We had a great opportunity to work with the Wichita Sympony Orchestra on a special performance that has themes that tie directly into Ray Bradbury’s book," Huff says. "It was a perfect mix of having these great event opportunities that we could provide to the community with this title."

Huff says the Big Read is a "true city-wide event." The program runs from Oct. 1 through Nov. 15.

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To contact KMUW News or to send in a news tip, reach us at news@kmuw.org.

Nadya Faulx is KMUW's Digital News Editor and Reporter, which means she splits her time between working on-air and working online, managing news on KMUW.org, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. She joined KMUW in 2015 after working for a newspaper in western North Dakota. Before that she was a diversity intern at NPR in Washington, D.C.