In our first year participating in The Big Read, CSU East Bay and the Oakland Public Library dive right in and strive to reignite Oakland's love of reading through events inspired by Ernest Gaines' novel A Lesson Before Dying. Join us for writing workshops, film screenings, and so much more!

The Big Read provides an incredible opportunity to build community, a chance to transform office cooler talk, to bring together family, to explore history through literature, to learn about controversial topics from community experts, to see independent films, to visit your local library, to (re)discover American literature, to create community partnerships, and so much more.

We do hope that everyone will get involved!