"Wheeling Reads: One Book, One Community" Kickoff Event

Oglebay Institute’s Towngate Theatre and the Wheeling Arts and Cultural Commission will host a kickoff event for Wheeling Reads: One Book, One Community at 7pm Thursday, February 6 at Towngate.

The city has voted to read Tara Westover’s “Educated” over the next year. At the kickoff event, West Liberty University English professor Scott Hanna will give a lecture on the impact of place in literature, followed by a short series of place-based readings by local writers, including Christina Fisanick and Laura Jackson Roberts.

Sean Duffy, chair of the History and Literature Committee of the Arts & Cultural Commission and program coordinator at the Ohio County Public Library, hopes the ten months will involve more than just reading the book.

He said the collaboration between Arts & Cultural Commission and the library will “feature programs at local restaurants, coffee shops and other venues, events featuring discussions of parts of the book and many more surprises over the next year.”

Similar initiatives have been carried out in cities around the country to encourage a sense of community and a love of literature.

In a citywide vote, “Educated” was chosen from a group of ten books nominated by the History and Literature Committee. To participate in Wheeling Reads, simply purchase or borrow — the Ohio County Public Library has available several copies in multiple formats including digital and audio (visit ohiocountylibrary.org) — the book and complete it before the finale event on November 7, 2020, a part of the annual Upper Ohio Valley Festival of Books.

The kickoff event at Towngate Theatre is free and open to the public. Snacks will be available for purchase. For more information, contact Sean Duffy at 304-232-0244 or lunchwithbooks@yahoo.com.

Towngate Theatre is more than theater…

Towngate’s Second Season enhances Wheeling’s arts landscape with literary programming, spoken word performances, improvisation and more.  Programs often feature works by emerging and/or local authors, playwrights and poets.