Video Introduction

Together We Read

Over the next several months the City of Paterson will be engaging in an extremely exciting experience. Imagine...everyone in the city reading and discussing the same book!! That’s what ONE BOOK ONE PATERSON is all about! The National Endowment for the Arts Big Read program has afforded Paterson the opportunity to read Ernest J. Gaines’ A Lesson Before Dying as a collective body. The book is the late author’s eighth novel, published in 1993. It is a fictional work based in part on the life of Willie Francis, a black teenager sentenced to death twice in Louisiana. There are a number of significant themes running throughout the novel including: constructive lying, religion, cynicism and hope, women and femininity, education and “The Inescapable Path.” All these themes set the tone for awesome topics of discussion. Spearheaded by a group of community stakeholders the citizens of Paterson will partake in a variety of special events planned around this wonderful novel. Some o...

What Say You?

"A Lesson Before Dying is set in a small Cajun community in the late 1940s. Jefferson, a young black man, is an unwitting party to a liquor store shootout in which three men are killed; the only survivor, he is convicted of murder and sentenced to DEATH!!" I believe (My opinion) that unfortunately there are parts of this back story/story that parallels PAINFULLY to many of our Black youth (Social Injustice and etc.) of today, 2020. WAIT I'M ALMOST FINISHED WRITING THIS POST!! Therefore, those are my feelings/interpretation of the story mentioned above. We would like to have you and your friends come on out and join our group discussion (Get a FREE copy of the book) at the Main (See information posted) Library!! By doing so, we could then hear your take on this bone chilling story. What Say YOU?!!! Lewis Cole

What Are You Waiting For?

Have you read A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines yet? All of Paterson is reading this book for the One Book One Paterson campaign. Before the campaign launched in February, I searched online for an audio version but with no luck. So, I downloaded and listened to the play instead. The play, based on the book, was easy to listen to in the car. Although it is very emotional and a tearjerker in some places, it was good distraction for my trips to Trenton, up and down the Parkway and Turnpike. In fact, I listened to nothing else on the car radio while I was driving alone. Some evenings I would pull into my driveway and sit there listening for a while until I got to the end of the chapter. My husband would call from inside the house to see if I’m OK. (After so many years you’d think he expected this by now!) Once the campaign launched, I knew I would have to make the time to read the actual book. I’m about halfway through and WOW! This an awesome piece of literature! While i...

One Book One Paterson: Turning the page

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