New Haven Independent

Scout, the narrator, and Jem, her brother, were the only white people in the church; they were surprised to hear Calpurnia speaking differently from the way she did when she worked as a servant in their 1930s Alabama home. “Cal” told them that she speaks a different language around her black family; Scout was shocked to realize that Calpurnia leads a “double life.”

Then I received a second shock: seeing my literature professor of last year outside of the classroom.

I was in the middle of my turn reading aloud for ten in the downtown New Haven library’s eight-hour continuous read-aloud; the “Big Read” marathon took place at library branches all over town Wednesday as part of a season-long series of programs centered on a citywide reading of To Kill a Mockingbird.

There was my former professor, Candace Walton (pictured), with her little daughter (pictured at the top of the story) sitting in a chair. I continued where I’d left off, shocked to see that Professor Walton not only grades papers (instead of leaving that to teaching assistants), but has a family and enjoys Harper Lee’s classic novel about race and loyalty in the Depression-era South. Talk about a double life.

Wednesday’s read-aloud was an effort to unite the community in literary appreciation and to focus our attention on issues that still affect us today. Jean Handley (pictured), who participated mid-afternoon, hadn’t read To Kill a Mockingbird until all of New Haven was instructed to pick up a copy as part of The Big Read.

“I think [Harper Lee] is a wonderful writer with a lot still to tell us,” Handley said. “I just think it’s a wonderful idea to bring the community together around a wonderful book.”

The Big Read is an eight-week reading festival sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts. In New Haven, it is coordinated by the International Festival of Arts and Ideas and the New Haven Free Public Library, with the help of other community organizations. Before the final celebration on the New Haven Green over the weekend of June 9-10, there will be a series of readings, discussions, and other events centered on To Kill a Mockingbird. Students at New Haven’s public schools are studying the book, and community members are pitching in to donate used copies for people who cannot afford to buy the novel.

By the time I left the read-aloud at five p.m. Wednesday, over 30 readers had pitched in along the five-hour stretch, filling dual roles as citizens and public readers. Similar events were taking place at other library branches across New Haven; I’m guessing most of the attendees were more than happy to meet Calpurnia once again.