The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) continued its drive toward making the Big Read the largest federal reading program in U.S. history. The NEA announced that THE FRIENDS OF THE MARFA PUBLIC LIBRARY are one of 127 libraries, municipalities, and arts, culture, higher education, and science organizations to receive a grant to host a Big Read celebration of one of 16 classic novels from January-June 2008. Marfa’s Big Read took place in February 2008. It featured reading was Bless Me, Ultima, by Rudolfo Anaya, a coming of age story about Antonio Márez, a Hispanic boy growing up in 1940s New Mexico. “It’s a lot about faith, religion, family and the choices one makes,” says Alice Jennings, the Friends president. “Anaya wrote the book in the early ‘70s, during Vietnam, so it’s also timely in terms of a nation involved in a war and its effect on a small town.”

The NEA launched the Big Read nationally in 2007 in partnership with the Institute of Museum and Library Services and in cooperation with Arts Midwest. With additional grant support from the Lannan Foundation, the Friends of the Marfa Public Library have organized more than 30 community-wide book group discussions and special events throughout the month.

The MARFA BIG READ involves the entire community, including the Marfa Sectors of the Texas Army National Guard and the US Border Patrol, and beginning with a kickoff event, on January 10, at Ballroom Marfa, during which free copies of Anaya’s Bless Me, Ultima, in both English and Spanish, were distributed. (Tim and Lynn Crowley have donated hundreds of copies to the high school in memory of Patricia Ann Goode.) The evening also featured performances by Leah McWilliams and San Antonio folksinger, Azul.

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