About the Series
Illinois Humanities is proud to announce that we received a third NEA Big Read grant.
We will be offering public programming and book groups centered around Sarah Smarsh‘s Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth and Patricia Engel‘s Infinite Country.
Equal parts personal narrative and cultural analysis, Heartland examines Smarsh’s childhood on a farm 30 miles west of Wichita, Kansas, mapping family histories against the rapidly changing landscape of class and labor in the United States during the latter part of the 20th century.
Set in Colombia and the United States, Infinite Country tells the powerful tale of a family divided as seen through the shifting perspectives of each family member. Award-winning author Patricia Engel examines the beauty and cruelty of life in the diaspora, crafting “a breathtaking story of the unimaginable prices paid for a better life” (Esquire).
Programming will start late fall 2023 and continue through spring 2024. Stay current on our NEA Big Read programming by joining our NEA Big Read email list.
For more information about the NEA Big Read initiative and to view a list of the sixty-two 2023-2024 grant recipients, click here.
The NEA Big Read is a program of Illinois Humanities made possible by the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest.
2022-3 NEA Big Read Programming
About Indigenous Stories
The NEA Big Read: Indigenous Stories celebrates the diverse Indigenous heritages of North America through free community book groups, public discussions, and hands-on workshops.
Become a part of the Big Read by joining a local book group in Illinois or download our Big Read Toolkit to host your own – then join other Indigenous Stories readers for free events and workshops around Chicago.
Together, we’ll discuss these texts and explore different experiences of Native survivance that challenge our notions of freedom, belonging, and displacement. Book groups begin in November 2022!
The NEA Big Read: Indigenous Stories is a program of Illinois Humanities made possible by the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest.
Events
The NEA Big Read: Indigenous Stories will host a series of public events and workshops throughout Chicago to connect your reading experience to tangible histories and local Native communities. You don’t have to be a book group member to attend – View the calendar below to find an event near you.
Beginnings: Indigenous Stories at the Field Museum
Join us for the launch of The NEA Big Read: Indigenous Stories and a complimentary visit to the Field Museum’s Native Truths: Our Voices, Our Stories exhibition.
Saturday, November 19, 2022, 2:00 – 4:00 p.m. | Field Museum | Founders’ Room 1400 S Lake Shore Dr, Chicago, IL
The Urban Indian Relocation Program 60 Years Later
Starting in 1952, after the Urban Indian Relocation Act of 1948, the United States government initiated the Urban Indian Relocation Program, designed to move Native Americans off reservations to seven major urban cities, including Chicago. The Mitchell Museum of the American Indian will host a hybrid in-person and virtual event with members of Chicago’s Native communities, featuring a panel and community discussion about the program and its impact on generations of families who still feel the effects of that displacement.
November 30, 2022 | Mitchell Museum of the American Indian | 3001 Central St, Evanston, IL
Investigating the Archive: American Indian and Indigenous Studies at The Newberry
Join the Newberry Library’s Dr. Kara Johnson, Director of Teacher Programs, and Analú María López, Ayer Indigenous Studies Librarian as they host a workshop that includes a firsthand experience of the Newberry Library’s Edward E. Ayer Collection. This collection is is one of the strongest collections on American Indian and Indigenous Studies in the world.
Saturday, January 21, 2023 10:00 a.m. – Noon | Newberry Library | Rettinger Hall 60 W Walton St, Chicago, IL
Authentic Voice: A Writing Workshop
Join us for a writing workshop with writer, photographer, scholar, and former Wisconsin Poet Laureate Kimberly M. Blaeser.
This workshop, in collaboration with the Center for Native Futures, will engage emerging writers in the process of developing their own authentic, creative voices.
Saturday, March 25, 2023 2:00 p.m. | Haymarket House | 800 W Buena Ave, Chicago, IL
[CANCELED] The Coiled Serpent Mound: Indigenous Traditional Ecological and Cultural Knowledge in Horner Park
Set to be completed in the summer of 2023, indigenous futurist artist X met with Native youth to collaboratively imagine the creation of a new earthwork, a mound installation in the form of a snake that would stretch from the west, at Schiller Park in Chicago’s suburbs, to the east, at Horner Park. Join our hosts, the Chicago Public Art Group, as they engage attendees in learning about indigenous earthwork practices in our region.
Book Groups
Book groups will be hosted by libraries, bookstores, and Illinois Humanities partners. Check out available groups below and contact the host to sign up and receive a free copy of our Indigenous Stories titles.
Rogers Park Long Overdue Book Group | Chicago, IL (Virtual)
The Rogers Park Long Overdue Book Group meets via Zoom every third Sunday of the month from 2:00 – 4:00 p.m. The group is facilitated by Jo McEntee and Haro Fuentes.
The Rogers Park reading group will meet to discuss The NEA Big Read titles on the following schedule:
There There by Tommy Orange: December 18, 2022 and January 15, 2023
Postcolonial Love Poem by Natalie Diaz: February 19 and March 19, 2023
How to sign up: Please complete this form.
Bronzeville Long Overdue Book Group | Chicago, IL (Virtual)
The Bronzeville Long Overdue Book Group meets via Zoom every second Friday of the month from 6:00 – 7:30 p.m. until they can resume in-person gatherings at Bronzeville’s historic Hall Branch of the Chicago Public Library system. This group is facilitated by Sylvia Taylor and Wanda Obazee.
The Bronzeville reading group will meet to discuss The NEA Big Read titles on the following schedule:
There There by Tommy Orange: December 9, 2022 and January 13, 2023
Postcolonial Love Poem by Natalie Diaz: February 10 and March 10, 2023
How to sign up: Please complete this form.
Little Village (Spanish-language reading group) | Chicago, IL
The Little Village Long Overdue Book Group is a Spanish-language group that meets in-person at Little Village Public Library, 2311 S Kedzie Ave, 60623 on select dates from 2:00 – 3:30 p.m., but may be able to accommodate those who prefer to join remotely. This group is facilitated by Mateo Gonzalez and Itzel Muñoz.
The Little Village reading group will meet to discuss The NEA Big Read titles on the following schedule:
New Moon/Luna Nueva by Enriqueta Lunes: November 6 and December 4, 2022
There There by Tommy Orange: January 8 and February 5, 2023
How to sign up: Please complete this form.
Granite City bilingual book club/club de lectura bilingüe | Granite City, IL
The Granite City bilingual book club/club de lectura bilingüe will read There There by Tommy Orange and meet in-person for discussion in both Spanish and English.
When: Thursday, January 26, 2023, 5:00 – 6:00 p.m.
Where: Six Mile Regional Library District, 2001 Delmar Avenue, Granite City, IL 62040
How to sign up: Please complete this form. For more information, please contact Tiffany Dvorak, Research and Instruction Librarian, at tiffanydvorak@smrld.org.
Illinois State Museum | Springfield, IL (Virtual)
The Illinois State Museum’s Director of Tribal Relations will lead this virtual book group for a discussion of There There by Tommy Orange hosted online. Advanced registration is required. Space is limited, and free books will be reserved for the first eight participants.
When: January 25, 2023, 6:30-8:00 p.m.
Where: Illinois State Museum, 502 South Spring Street, Springfield, Illinois 62706
How to sign up: Join this book group by signing up at this link or contact events@illinoisstatemuseum.org.
Dickson Mounds Museum | Lewistown, IL
The Illinois State Museum’s Director of Tribal Relations will lead this book group for a discussion of There There by Tommy Orange hosted in person. Advanced registration is required. Space is limited, and free books will be reserved for the first eight participants.
When: March 25, 2023, 2:00-4:00 p.m.
Where: Dickson Mounds Museum, a branch of the Illinois State Museum | 10596 North Dickson Mounds Road, Lewistown, Illinois 61542
How to sign up: Join this book group by signing up at this link or contact events@illinoisstatemuseum.org.
History Center Lake Forest-Lake Bluff | Lake Forest, IL
The History Center Lake Forest-Lake Bluff will lead this in-person book group focusing on There There by Tommy Orange and Postcolonial Love Poem by Natalie Diaz. Book group members will read the assigned section ahead of the book group sessions. Each session will begin at 1:00pm on Saturday and last ~90 minutes. Copies of There There and Postcolonial Love Poem will be provided to book group members. Advanced registration is required. A $10.00 donation is suggested.
When:
- Saturday, June 17, 2023 | 1:00 p.m. CST | RSVP Here
- Saturday, July 1, 2023 | 1:00 p.m. CST | RSVP Here
- Saturday, July 15, 2023 | 1:00 p.m. CST | RSVP Here
Where: History Center Lake Forest-Lake Bluff | 509 East Deerpath, Lake Forest, Illinois 60045
How to sign up: Join this book group by registering for each session listed above or contacting George at programs@lflbhistory.org.
Thanks to our partners
Illinois Humanities is thrilled to partner with 17 bookstores throughout the Chicago area to put Indigenous Stories titles into the hands of readers. Bookstores are vital places of the public humanities—cornerstones of community and spaces to gather, reflect, and discover. We’re grateful to our partners for joining us to celebrate Indigenous voices. These bookstores are stocked with Indigenous Stories titles and are also giving away National Endowment for the Arts bookmarks!
Visit these sellers to pick up your copy of an Indigenous Stories book.
- The Book Bin: 1151 Church St, Northbrook, IL 60062
- The Book Table: 1045 Lake St, Oak Park, IL 60301
- Bucket O’Blood Books and Records: 3182 N Elston Ave, Chicago IL 60618
- City Lit Books: 2523 N Kedzie Blvd, Chicago, IL 60647
- Exile in Bookville: 410 S Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL 60605
- Heirloom Books: 6239 N Clark St, Chicago, IL 60660
- Kibbitznest Books, Blues, & Blarney: 2212 N Clybourn Ave, Chicago, IL 60614
- The Looking Glass: 823 S Oak Park Ave, Oak Park, IL 60304
- Madison Street Books: 1127 W Madison St, Chicago, IL 60607
- Open Books: 651 W Lake St, Chicago, IL 60661
- Quiet Souls: 18 W Stevenson St Ste 202, Freeport, IL 61032
- Sandmeyer’s Bookstore: 714 S Dearborn St, Chicago, IL 60605
- Seminary Co-op: 5751 S Woodlawn Ave, Chicago, IL 60637
- 57th Street Books: 1301 E 57th St, Chicago, IL 60637
- The Underground Bookstore: 1727 E 87th St, Chicago, IL 60617
- Volumes Bookcafe: 1373 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL 60622
- Wicker Park Secret Agent Supply Co.: 1276 N Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL 60622
- Women & Children First: 5233 N Clark St, Chicago, IL 60640
Resources and Additional Readings
Below please find additional resources and readings. If you have something you would like added to this list, please contact Rebecca Amato, Director of Teaching and Learning, at rebecca.amato@ilhumanities.org.
Why Indigenous Stories?
The upper Midwest region was home to the Bodéwadmik (Potawatomi), Hoocąk (Winnebago/Ho’Chunk), Jiwere (Otoe), Nutachi (Missouria), and Baxoje (Iowas); Kiash Matchitiwuk (Menominee); Meshkwahkîha (Meskwaki); Asâkîwaki (Sauk); Myaamiaki (Miami), Waayaahtanwaki (Wea), and Peeyankihšiaki (Piankashaw); Kiikaapoi (Kickapoo); Inoka (Illini Confederacy); Anishinaabeg (Ojibwe), and Odawak (Odawa). As current residents of this land, we must acknowledge that the ground under our feet and the waters that line our shores constitute unceded Native territories. We also must ask: What is our responsibility to this history, not just to acknowledging it, but to admitting the truth of it, passing it on, and attempting to heal from it? Indigenous Stories is one way to begin our dialogue with history and we take our cue from Opal Viola Victoria Bear Shield, one of the narrators of Tommy Orange’s There There: Recalling a conversation she had with her mother, Opal explains, “…What we could do had everything to do with being able to understand where we came from, what happened to our people, and how to honor them by living right, by telling our stories. She told me the world was made of stories, nothing else, just stories, and stories about stories.” We invite you to dive into Indigenous Stories with us — and share your own — as we believe honoring history and “living right” starts with listening to one another.
What is “Native survivance?”
The texts and events in this series center the concept of Native survivance, which Native scholar Gerald Vizenor describes as “an active sense of presence over historical absence, deracination, and oblivion.” Another way to think about the word is to understand it as a resistance to one of its root words “survival.” “Survival” places Native life only in relationship to colonial efforts to destroy it, where “survivance” describes uninterrupted and enduring abundance even in the midst of struggle. Read more about this framework
Where else can I learn about Native heritage in my area
Native Land Digital is currently one of the best humanities tools available to begin to learn about the nations that lived in the Americas prior to European colonization. The project is Native-led, but works with non-Indigenous researchers to produce its data and maps as well. Another digital humanities project, Whose Land Are You On?, from Chatham University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, relies on crowd-sourced information to better understand Native heritage through a geographic lens. The National Museum of the American Indian, a Smithsonian institution, offers Native Knowledge 360, a comprehensive learning resource for students and educators that can be a good resource for beginning your exploration. In general, we encourage you to seek information about Native life from Native people in your own towns. If you are not Native and would like to learn more about being an ally, we recommend this guide from the Seventh Generation Fund for Indigenous Peoples Inc.
How can I learn about other Native writers?
Because our offices are located in Chicago, we cannot help but mention the Chicago Review of Books, which shared this list of must-read books by Indigenous writers back in 2019: “22 Books By Indigenous Writers to Read Right Now.”
However, we strongly recommend learning more about Native and Indigenous writers through their own communities. The James Welch Native Lit Festival, which takes place in Missoula, Montana, convenes long-established and emerging Native writers biannually and is perhaps the largest conference of its kind in North America: jameswelchfestival.org.
The Indigenous Aboriginal American Writers Caucus of the Association of Writers & Writing Programs (AWP) also shares book lists, information about publishers, and grant/fellowship programs to support Native writers: nativewriterscaucus.wordpress.com.
Happy reading!
2021-2 NEA Big Read Programming
About Rememory: haunting, trauma, and historical fiction
Between November 2021 and April 2022, Long Overdue Book Groups are participating in a series of programs focusing on three groundbreaking novels: Toni Morrison’s Beloved, Octavia Butler’s Kindred, and Alejo Carpentier’s The Kingdom of This World. This series, titled Rememory: haunting, trauma, and historical fiction, is part of and funded by the NEA Big Read initiative.
Rememory: haunting, trauma, and historical fiction is inspired by the multiple reckonings we continue to encounter and absorb as we imagine more flourishing, inclusive futures together. No vision for such a future can be sustained without a deep regard for how the past, with its traumas and victories, has produced our present. The texts we will explore in this series use the supernatural, magical realism, and science fiction to give life, agency, and dimension to histories that are at once unbearable and necessary for us to confront.
The series will include monthly community book group meetings (both in-person and virtually, and in both English and Spanish); access to free copies of the books (in both English and Spanish); and a series of five virtual events that coincide with the themes of these novels. Events include writing workshops (in both English and Spanish), a virtual tour of the collections at the Art Institute of Chicago, a discussion on Afrofuturism, and a workshop on oral histories. Participants in Rememory: haunting, trauma, and historical fiction are encouraged but not required to commit to reading all of the books and attending these wonderful, free public programs. You will be prompted to register for each event and each book below.
Events
Thursday, December 9, 2021 from 7:00 – 8:30 p.m.
“Some Said You Were The Spitting Image of Evil”: Virtual Writing Workshop
Featuring: Nicole Bond – writer, educator at Smart Museum of Art and Court Theatre, University of Chicago
This virtual interactive workshop will explore Toni Morrison’s acclaimed novel Beloved using works of fine art to help unpack one of the most complicated ghost stories of the twentieth century. Participation by candlelight preferred.
This workshop will be held live on Zoom. Register now.
Wednesday, January 19, 2022 from 5:30 – 6:30 p.m.
Futures, World-Building, and Art: Virtual Workshop
Featuring: Ian Damont Martin – Executive Director of Inclusion and Belonging and Sam Ramos – Associate Director of Innovation and Creativity, Learning and Public Engagement, The Art Institute of Chicago
This virtual engagement with the collections of The Art Institute of Chicago and workshop will focus on how we can use art to build community and imagine the future world we want to see.
This workshop will be held live on Zoom. Register now.
Wednesday, February 23, 2022 from 7:00 – 8:30 p.m.
Afrofuturism: Virtual Lecture/Discussion
Featuring: Ytasha Womack – author of Afrofuturism: The World of Black Sci-Fi and Fantasy Culture, and John Jennings – co-author/illustrator of Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation
This discussion will focus on Afrofuturism and its relationship to Chicago.
This workshop will be held live on Zoom. Register now.
Wednesday, March 16, 2022 6:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.
The Power of Oral Histories – Remembering and Recording Everyday Voices: Virtual Workshop
Featuring: Dr. Courtney Joseph – K. & H. Montgomery Assistant Professor of History and African American Studies & Chair of African American Studies, Lake Forest College
Creator of the Haitian American Museum of Chicago’s Oral History Collection Dr. Courtney Joseph will discuss her experience with conducting the interviews that are at the core of her first book. Join us to learn about her methodology and the importance of oral histories.
This workshop will be held live on Zoom. Register now.
Saturday, April 2, 2022 (en español) 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
El reino de este mundo: la poesía como narración
Featuring: Ruben Quesada – Poeta, autor de Revelations y Next Extinct Mammal
Dedicaremos tiempo a leer y escribir poesía para contar las historias de nuestras vidas.
Este taller se llevará a cabo en vivo en Zoom. Regístrate ahora.
*All public events will include closed captioning in English. If you require other accommodations, please contact Jenn Yoo at jennifer.yoo@ilhumanities.org at least 48 hours prior to the scheduled event.
Book Groups
Books groups will be discussing Toni Morrison’s Beloved in November and December 2021, Octavia Butler’s Kindred in January and February 2022, and Alejo Carpentier’s The Kingdom of This World in March and April 2022. Currently, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, some book groups are meeting virtually. All book group participants will receive free copies of the books. Space is limited. Choose a group from below, then sign up to participate.
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- Rogers Park/Virtual: Second or Third Sunday of each month, 2:00-4:00 p.m. Register to participate in this group
- Bronzeville/Virtual: Second Thursday of each of month, 6:00-8:00 p.m. Register to participate in this group
- Greater Grand Crossing/Virtual: Third Friday of each month, 6:00-7:30 p.m. Register to participate in this group
- Blue Island/Virtual/en español: Wednesday, December 15, 2021 at 10:00 a.m., Tuesday, February 15, 2022 at 10:00 a.m., and Tuesday, March 29, 2022 at 10:00 a.m. (one meeting per book) Register to participate in this group
- Brighton Park/Hybrid (in-person and virtual)/en español: First Sunday of each month, 2:00-4:00 p.m. Register to participate in this group