An African American Read-In, a community talk by a noted Black author and a student-led community service project were all ways that New College celebrated Black History Month in February 2012.

Honoring the works of African American authors has been an annual event at New College for at least a decade. The Jane Bancroft Cook Library, along with co-sponsor NCF Gender Studies Program, hosted the African American Read-In. The objective was to read for two hours straight by passing it along from reader to reader — a reading marathon for literature lovers. The library’s Read-In is part of a national event in conjunction with Black History Month, endorsed by the National Council of Teachers of English and the International Reading Association.

Students, faculty and staff from both New College of Florida and the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee read poems and excerpts from novels and short stories written by their favorite African American writers. The public was also invited to join the college communities. Twenty-three students, faculty and friends read selections by Langston Hughes, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Mother Teresa, Nikki Giovanni and Zora Neale Hurston, among others.

“The event exposes people to literature that they may never have read before and to authors that they don't necessarily gravitate to or pick up off the shelf,” says Caroline Reed, interim director of public services for the library. “The 2012 event was very successful. We had roughly 60 people in attendance throughout the two-hour Read-In. The highlight was the 13 children and child care workers who attended for about a half-hour to listen to selections from children's authors."

On February 23, celebrated writer and theorist bell hooks, who is a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at New College, spoke on “Martin Luther King: On Spiritual Conversion.” For March 2012, hooks is in residence at New College for Women's History Month, visiting classes, holding informal meetings and spending time with students at the Four Winds Cafe and elsewhere. Hooks’ writing has focused on the interconnectivity of race, class, and gender and what she describes as their ability to produce and perpetuate systems of oppression and domination. Bell hooks has held positions as Professor of African and African-American Studies and English at Yale University, Associate Professor of Women’s Studies and American Literature at Oberlin in Oberlin, Ohio, and as Distinguished Lecturer of English Literature at the City College of New York.

During the African-American Heritage month and beyond, the New College Office of Community Engagement has developed an initiative in collaboration with the newly built Robert Taylor Community Center to increase ties between the New College community and our Newtown neighbors. New College students have engaged in over 400 hours of service-learning and volunteerism at the community center, facilitating a tutoring program through Big Brothers and Big Sisters Doing the Right Thing, as well as programming an arts and crafts room. Students were required to read extensively on issues of minority education in the United States in order to supplement their understanding of the volunteer experience. New College of Florida President Michalson has sponsored both an Independent Study Project, and now a semester-long tutorial (at the request of the New College student volunteers) to continue the partnership with Robert Taylor Community Complex and to develop more programming and fundraising avenues for the center. By the end of the semester, students will have volunteered over 850 total hours of service to Newtown, a historic African-American community located near downtown Sarasota.

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