Soul of the People
Federal Writers project featured in ASU series

By Melanie Davis Marshall

Belk Library and Information Commons will be hosting a series “Soul of a People: Writing America’s Story” beginning on April 5 on the campus of Appalachian State University.

The series will feature book discussion, films and regional cultural studies centered around the Works Progress Administration’s Federal Writer’s Project. The FWP was a program established during Franklin Roosevelt’s administration under the New Deal.

The program was created to employ writers and editors during the Great Depression, similar to the mural projects in U.S. Post Offices to employ artists.

The FWP was most well-known for the creation of the 48 books compiled in the American Guide Series. It is estimated that a total of 6,600 people were employed and produced books of all types, from history to fiction.

The first event in the series will be a book discussion on FWP author Zora Neale Hurston’s work “Their Eyes Were Watching God.”

The novel tells the story of Janie Crawford, a woman living the black town of Eaton, Fla.

The townspeople of Eaton pass judgment on Crawford because she has been married three times and tried for the murder of one her husbands.

The book discussion will be held on April 5 at 2 p.m. in room 421 of the Belk Library and Information Commons. Light refreshments will be served.

To get a copy of the book, contact Megan Johnson, public relations and research librarian, at (828) 262-2823 or via email at johnsonm@appstate.edu.

The series will continue on April 19 with a tour of the Parkway Project. This charter bus tour will leave the Broyhill Inn and Conference Center parking lot at 1:45 p.m. The tour will focus on Works Progress Administration architecture, the Blue Ridge Parkway and the downtown Boone post office for its historic New Deal mural. To reserve a seat contact Johnson at the above telephone number.

An excerpt of the documentary film “Soul of a People: Writing America’s Story” will be shown on April 29 at 7 p.m. in room 114 of the library. A discussion, moderated by Dr. Neva Specht of ASU department of history, will follow.

A “Soul of the People” celebration will be held May 2 at the Watauga County Library in Boone. The event begins at noon and will feature a 1930’s atmosphere with music, displays on FWP writers, antiques and photographs. Story teller Elizabeth Baird Hardy will present selections from “Bundles of Troubles, and other Tarheel Tales” by North Carolina FWP writers. Children will the opportunities to make crafts. Music will have provided by Dave Haney and Lisa Baldwin from 3 to 4 p.m. Oral history interviews will be collected throughout the day until 4:30 p.m.

A second book discussion will be held on June 14 on WFP author Saul Bellow’s “Seize the Day.” The discussion will take place at 2 p.m. in room 421 of the campus library.

The final event in the series will be presented on June 21 by Spect. A lecture, “Oral Histories: Then and Now” will begin at 2 p.m. followed by a workshop lead by Spect on ways people can collect and preserve their own oral histories.

This series is a collaboration of the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Library Association, and Spark Media. The programs within the series are funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to the American Library Associations. All events are open to the public.