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book group will go national |
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Whether it's for a love of Spanish language or literature, the program People and Stories/Gente y Cuentos has brought people together to discuss short stories for over a decade in Princeton. Now
the nonprofit organization, founded by a Princeton Township
resident and based in Trenton, will expand to 24 libraries in 14
states, including Nevada and Kentucky, over the next two years
thanks to a $288,000 grant from National Endowment for the
Humanities. The program, which brings people together to read and discuss short stories in both Spanish and English, has been held in New Jersey at the Princeton Public Library, an alternative high school program in Trenton, a juvenile detention center, public housing developments in Newark, at Princeton University, and also in Pennsylvania, New York and California. Stories included in the program range from such authors as Isabel Allende, Jorge Luis Borges and Gabriel Garcia Marquez to Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce and Elmore Leonard. People and Stories/Gente y Cuentos was founded by Princeton Township resident Sarah Hirschman 30 years ago while she was living in Cambridge, Mass. She learned to speak Spanish while living in Bogota, Colombia. The program's aims are simple to foster a sense of community among disparate groups and also to encourage a new population to use libraries, said Pat Andres, director of People and Stories/Gente y Cuentos. While the People and Stories/Gente y Cuentos program may be tailored to fit individual participants, the format is consistent stories are read aloud and followed by a discussion that not only covers the literature but draws on the life experience of the group. Program employees, volunteers and participants gathered at Ms. Hirschman's home Friday to talk about how the program has evolved to meet needs of different people over the years. Some versions of the program mixed Latino senior citizens and teenagers and others involved Latinos and blacks, Ms. Hirschman said. The sessions at the Princeton Public Library, which will resume in May, brought together Latino immigrants from the John-Witherspoon neighborhood, students and faculty from Princeton University, and residents from Princeton Borough and Princeton Township, said Angelica Mariani, who leads the group and selects the stories for discussion. Ms. Hirschman recalled how early in the program the group of Latino senior citizens and teenagers struggled to coalesce the elderly residents seemed to always criticize the teenagers on their attire or poor church attendance and the teens withdrew into their shells. But by the third session a story by the Mexican author Juan Rulfo prompted a breakthrough. The story contained a word that had different meanings in different Spanish dialects prostitute, bread and snob, Ms. Hirschman said. "All of a sudden they were laughing and the teenagers started to open up and talk about how difficult it is to be an American high school student," Ms. Hirschman said. Cesar Segura, a Hightstown resident who emigrated from Guatemala and a program participant along with his wife, recalled how he invited his 16-year-old daughter to the sessions. "It was so exciting to watch her express herself not just in English but in Spanish," Mr. Segura said. "She was still talking about it on the way home." Another benefit is opening up libraries to a group of people who may not have used them before, said Lenora Kandiner, assistant program director for People and Stories/Gente y Cuentos. Participants do not have to be literate in order to attend, just curious, said Alma Concepcion, a trainer for the program leaders. "What I like about it is it builds on the oral story traditions found in many countries," Ms. Concepcion said. Leslie Burger, director of the Princeton Public Library, said hosting the program is a "terrific opportunity" for the library. "I think it's a fabulous program," she said. "It brings people in to read short stories together people whose native language is Spanish or people who have learned Spanish as a second language and appreciate each other's culture." Ms. Hirschman and Ms. Andres thanked the Princeton Public Library for its continuing support of the program. More information on People and Stories/Gente y Cuentos is available at www.peopleandstories.org.
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