This fall, the Rutgers–Camden Center for the Arts is participating for the ninth time in The Big Read, with the novel In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez.  A faculty lecture series will be part of the celebration, and the first one will take place on Wednesday, October 10, at 5:30 p.m., with guest lecturer Dr. Holly Blackford, Professor of English.  Dr. Blackford will discuss the novel’s imagery.  Dr. Blackford has written “‘The Spirit of a People:’ The Politicization of Spirituality in Julia Alvarez’s In the Time of the Butterflies, Ntozake Shange’s Sassafrass, Cypress, and Indigo, and Ana Castillo’s So Far from God,” as well as “Things of the Spirit: Women Writers and Spirituality;” and “Out of the World: Why Literature Matters to Girls.”

This free event will take place at the Alumni House.    

The Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest.  RCCA arts education programs are made possible in part with generous support from the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a partner Agency of the National Endowment for the Arts, Subaru of America Foundation, and other generous supporters.