This Sunday, February 21, Angela Davis-Gardner, Michael Malone, Richard Krawiec, and Celia Rivenbark will headline a fundraiser for Motheread, Inc., a local non-profit that has expanded into a multi-state organization. Founded in Raleigh in 1987, Motheread “combines the teaching of literacy skills with child development and family empowerment issues” — relying on the art of storytelling to increase a sense of self-worth among both adults and children and to enhance not just reading but also other skills. The event — “an afternoon of stories, desserts, and coffee” — takes place Sunday from 3-5 p.m. at Marbles Kids Museum in Raleigh, and while advance reservations are required, tickets may still be available. Information can be found here.
In the meantime, there’s plenty more on the literary calendar to enjoy, including:
- Journalist and historian Jim Wise tonight (Wednesday, February 17) at Durham’s Regulator Bookshop, discussing Murder in the Courthouse: Reconstruction and Redemption in the North Carolina Piedmont, about the murder of a Republican politician by four Klansmen in 1870s North Carolina — an event with both immediate and long-lasting repercussions throughout the state
- Linda F. Nathan, founding headmaster of the Boston Arts Academy, discussing The Hardest Questions Aren’t on the Test: Lessons from an Innovative Urban School at two locations: tonight at Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh and again on Thursday, February 18, at the Regulator.
- Duke professor Joe Ashby Porter discussing his new story collection, All Aboard, on Thursday, February 18, at Quail Ridge Books. (Check out Bookslut‘s review here, which calls the collection “challenging but rewarding.”)
- And Jenifer Bubenik sharing Thoughts from the Chicken Bus — an account of her get-away-from-it-all adventure through Central America — on Thursday at Pomegranate Books in Wilmington.
For a complete calendar of events in the Triangle and throughout Eastern North Carolina, check out the MetroBooks calendar here.