The Herald Online

Issue date: 10/8/09 Section: Entertainment

Media Credit: Tami Sowe Dr. Cherisse Jones-Branch spoke about the struggles that writers experienced throughout the Great Depression and discussed the establishment of the WPA.

The Dean B. Ellis Library, in conjunction with the Jonesboro Public Library, will be hosting a series of 1930s-inspired "Soul of a People: Voices From the Writer's Project" events and lectures through Nov. 1.

The program is sponsored by the American Library Association's Public Programs Office.

"Soul of a People" is a major documentary television program about the Federal Writer's Project produced by Spark Media, a Washington, D.C.-based production and outreach company. It broadcasts on the Smithsonian Channel HD. Additionally, the program is based on the book of the same title, written by David A. Taylor, who is also co-producer of the film, alongside Andrea Kalin, the film's director and president of Spark Media.

Beginning in the 1930s, as a division of Franklin Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration, the Federal Writer's Project was instituted to hire white-collar workers to document American life through WPA travel guides. The purpose of the project was to create jobs and provide disaster relief in an attempt to revive the disastrous economic landscape left by the Great Depression.

However, the industry's director, Henry Alsberg, envisioned a greater purpose for his writers.

"These writers will get an education in the American scene," he said. "A great deal of real American writing comes out of seeing what is really happening to the American people."

The National Endowment for the Humanities awards grants of $2,500 that will be presented to 30 selected libraries that will showcase a total of five programs focused on the FWP.

According to the ALA's Web site, libraries will present programs that have been developed to represent the broad scope of Federal Writer's Project works, encourage scholar-led discussion about the project's major humanities themes, acquaint a new audience with the remarkable output of the Writer's Project and complement the broadcast of the documentary, "Soul of a People."

On the subject of scheduling the five programs, as well as the collaboration with the Jonesboro Public Library, April Sheppard, who wrote the grant application for ASU, had a lot to say.

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