33rd African American Read In held to promote literacy

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Amaya Baker
Staff Writer

“The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey” by Walter Mosley was the focus of the 33rd African-American Read In (AARI) held on Feb. 6 in the H.T. Sampson Library. 

Hundreds of Jackson State University students, staff and faculty participated in the annual event which is sponsored by the College of Liberal Arts Department of English, Foreign Languages and Speech Communication. 

The goal of the day, according to the National Council of Teachers of English website, is to make the celebration of African-American literacy a traditional part of Black History Month activities.

Monica Granderson-Little chairs the annual event and also expounded on the objective of the event.

“The purpose of the AARI is two-fold. We hope to encourage young African-Americans to read and we also want to promote literature that is by us and about us,” said Granderson-Little. “We picked these stories because many black children don’t read detective novels or really any novels at all. We hope that by encouraging them to read novels like this, their deductive reasoning skills are utilized.”

Students and panelists discussed the novel as it related to: Conflict/Resolutions, Social Justice, Personal Responsibility and Intergenerational Relationships & Lessons. How the movie was adapted from novel to film was also discussed.

An important topic for many students and staff alike was the discussion on generational gaps. 

The panelists included Hillard Lackey, Ph.D., author C. Leigh McInnis and Professor Janelle Jefferson, Ph.D. 

McInnis, had this to say about how generational divides can be fixed. 

“Elders must develop relationships with young people to stop generational divide,” McInnis said. 

In the featured novel, 91-year-old Ptolemy is suffering from dementia. He doesn’t have any children and is taken care of, or really not taken care of, by his great-nephew Reggie who doesn’t have time for him. 

Reggie is killed in a drive-by shooting and Ptolemy gets a new caretaker, a young girl named Robyn. Robyn helps him to stay focused on the present because his memory loss goes back and forth between his time as youth in Mississippi and present day Los Angeles.

Ptolemy learns of an experimental drug that helps to restore his memory but it eventually kills him.

During the discussion, the Tyre Nichols case and social justice was discussed. Ptolemy was believed to have committed a crime when he was younger and his nephew ends up getting murdered so he is trying to get justice for him. 

“This (Tyre Nichols) ties directly into what is happening in the black communities now. We (Read In participants) all agreed that something needs to be done all the officers. It’s just really hurtful when things like this are done to and by our own,” said Granderson-Little.

According to the NCTE website, the National African American Read-In (AARI) was established in 1990 by the Black Caucus of the National Council of Teachers of English to make literacy a significant part of Black History Month. This initiative has reached more than 6 million participants around the world.

In 2002, Dr. Doris Ginn, linguist and associate professor of English at JSU, had a prominent role in establishing the African-American Read-In on the campus of Jackson State.