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Jacob Riis Neighborhood
Settlement House
Long Island City, Queens, NY
March 22nd, 1996
 Michael
Harper met with seniors, elementary school children,
teens, and staff at the Jacob Riis Neighborhood Settlement
House in Long Island City, Queens. Before Mr. Harper's
visit, participants at the settlement house were reading
his newest collection of poems, Honorable Amendments,
as well as his anthology of poetry by African-Americans,
Every Shut Eye Ain't Asleep. Mr. Harper, a professor
of English at Brown University, is the Poet Laureate
of Rhode Island, the author of 10 volumes of poetry,
an editor of several anthologies, and the recipient
of numerous awards.
"In these programs, audiences of all ages and backgrounds
are able to experience first-hand the
writer as role model," said Meg Kearney, Program
Officer of the National Book Foundation. "These
authors are not giving readings, but using examples
from their own works and the works of other authors
to illuminate the value of reading and writing, and
engage participants in writing explorations of their
own. What's also exciting is that many of these readers
have never met an author. We're making that experience
possible -- and all the creative reverberations that
can happen as a result."
The National Book Foundation's
Settlement House program is made possible through funding
by the Theodore H. Barth Foundation, the McGraw-Hill
Foundation, the New York State Council on the Arts,
and the National Endowment for the Arts. Little, Brown
& Company made a generous donation of books to the
program. The University of Illinois Press and HarperCollins
Publishers offered books at a discount, which were purchased
and donated to each participant and the Settlement House
libraries by the National Book Foundation.
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