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Delta State’s Delta Center promotes literacy

By June 2, 2010General

From left, Lee Aylward, Brown and Heather Kovarcik with the Delta Center for Culture and Learning, with a few of the boxes of books that have been donated to the Delta by the Harry Potter Alliance.

 

 

 

The Delta Center for Culture and Learning at Delta State University has entered into a partnership with the Harry Potter Alliance (HPA) in an effort to distribute books throughout the Delta. The HPA is a world-wide organization that has done many things, most recently asking its members to send books to the Delta, where they will be given away to promote reading. 

 
The Delta Center has received literally tons of books, and will be distributing them throughout the summer. One shipment alone weighed over 900 pounds, but most shipments are composed of a dozen or fewer books. Many of the books are new, and others have been read by previous owners but all are in excellent condition. They are being sorted according to their reader’s age group, and will be distributed through entities already engaged in literacy, including the Saint Gabriel Mercy Center and the Mound Bayou Public Schools Alumni Association in Mound Bayou, the Greenville Renaissance Scholars in Greenville, the Family Reading Program of the Mississippi Humanities Council, the Sunflower Freedom Project in Sunflower, and other organizations. 
 
The Harry Potter Alliance describes its activities as harnessing “… the power of new media and cutting-edge social networking platforms to communicate with more than 100,000 people, including 60 HPA chapters across the U.S. and the world. The average HPA member is between 17 and 24, passionate, enthusiastic, and idealistic, but often has few activist outlets that speak to them. The HPA makes activism accessible for young people by using the Harry Potter books–something they already love–as an access point to discuss pressing issues of social justice.For example, Dumbledore’s Army, the fictional student activist group within the Harry Potter books, pressures the Wizarding World into taking action against injustice. We empower our members to become a Dumbledore’s Army for the real world.”  The Alliance opened its book drive with a webcast that included a live interview with the Delta Center’s director, Dr. Luther Brown. 
 
The Alliance is the creation of Andrew Slack, who serves as its executive director and who approached the Delta Center with this project. He credits the 40 Alliance volunteer staff members and the 60 local chapters with making the book drive possible. 
 
J. K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter books has said “I am honored and humbled that Harry’s name has been given to such an extraordinary campaign, which really does exemplify the values for which Dumbledore’s Army fought in the books. To Andrew and all the others who work on this inspirational website: the world needs more people like you.” 
 
Slack first became aware of the Mississippi Delta through a teacher who brought his class to the Delta from Brandeis University. He subsequently brought his theatrical group to the Delta and worked with the Delta Center in its Lighthouse Heritage program at the D. M. Smith Middle School. Last year’s project involved the Alliance sending 4,000 books to Rwanda, and this year they have sent four planes to Haiti and raised over $123,000 for Haitian relief. Dr. Brown reports “We almost certainly have received more than 20,000 books so far.”