A Warm Welcome to Words, Community and Connection

Written by Paige Feikert

A community-wide book club is underway through the public library, and it’s not too late to get involved. The Big Read Wichita kicked off on March 29 — a program designed to encourage community connection and foster a love of reading through the community-wide reading of a selected book. This year’s selection: “Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude” a collection of poems by Ross Gay. 

“The Big Read Wichita is an annual community-wide reading program — the goal is to build more empathy with one another, bring community conversation to the forefront and hone into a specific topic,” said David Garcia, senior communications specialist with the Wichita Public Library. 

The book includes 24 lyric poems exploring life and its many seasons, including death, sorrow and loss through the wisdom of nature — the garden, the orchard and the trees, according to the University of Pittsburgh Press.

‘It’s fun to dive in and see yourself through a poem and find connection with one another.’ — David Garcia, Wichita Public Library

“The author is from the Midwest, and a community gardener himself, so all of the meditations of these human experiences are through the lens of an orchard, or an animal, so it’s fun to dive in and see yourself through a poem and find connection with one another,” Garcia said. “There’s this narrative that we have to be gracious for what we have, but not experiencing the pain that we do, and I think this book has great discourse about that.”

The Wichita Public Library has participated in the Big Read program since 2008, and “Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude” is the first book of poetry featured in several years. Garcia says even if poetry is not something you typically reach for, this book is a warm welcome for readers who are new to the poetry genre. 

“It’s not pretentious for being poetry,” Garcia said. I think some people may have a perception or a fear of not being able to understand poetry or feel immersed by it, but I think this book is a really nice read for poetry and lends itself to a lot of introspection and reflection. 

One major consideration in selecting a title for the Big Read Wichita is the programming and activities that the Wichita Public Library can plan around the book to encourage community discourse and exploration of literary themes. This year, the library is hosting poetry-centered writing workshops, mindfulness activities such as gratitude journals and Zen garden workshops, and a live poetry reading featuring local writers.

Garden Themes and Fresh Produce

The kick-off for the Big Read Wichita was held at the Maya Angelou branch in north Wichita, where the library also held a grand opening for its new community garden at the location. Not only does the garden fit with the themes of the selected book, it also fills a gap in the neighborhood — one that is designated a food desert. The garden will provide free fresh produce to neighbors and provide opportunities for giving back. Volunteers can help tend the garden and learn how to grow and nurture a garden themselves.

“I think it just comes from addressing what is needed in the community and how the library can step up in that gap. We find ourselves as community helpers and gap fillers,” Garcia said. “It fits with the purpose of the library: you give and you take, but you return, you nurture as well. It’s that constant cycle on one hand of checking out materials like a book or DVD, but also taking some fresh produce and making sure someone after you can get some as well.”

The community garden was developed after the same Maya Angelou branch saw success with its seed library — a place where library patrons could check out seed packets and plant their own gardens at home. It’s one of many unsuspected items that library card holders have access to through the library.

Library of Things

While traditionally the library has been a resource for books and access to computers and other technology, the Wichita Public Library has now developed a “Library of Things,” a non-traditional collection of items. The Library of Things includes experience passes — free passes to various museums and attractions in Wichita — educational components such as blood pressure kits or anatomical models, telescopes, microscopes, radon detectors, bird watching kits, binoculars and more. For most of the items in the Library of Things, library card holders can check them out for 14 days and renew them twice. 

The power of your library card doesn’t stop there — the library also provides free access to the Wichita Eagle and New York Times, free movies through the Canopy app, free audio and e-books on the Libby app and free access to the language-learning app, Mango. The Wichita Public Library provides free access to equipment for digitizing old tapes, cassettes, photographs and audio, and offers free resources for caring for loved ones experiencing memory loss. 

More Than Just Books: The New Library Experience

“A lot of people have that perception that it’s just books, but we’ve expanded into a different model that’s really inclusive of what’s helpful for people in the community,” Garcia said. “Everyone can learn, be curious — but also feel supported that their library, their community can help them take a little ease on their mind.”

Everything at the Wichita Public Library is completely free to card holders with the exception of printing costs, and the library does not even charge late fees or fines unless a book is lost or destroyed. The library is a place for everyone. 

“I think we serve a really unique role here in Wichita — one idea that we’ve been wrestling with is how we can become the great civic equalizer,” Garcia said. “We have great opportunities to meet new people, try new things, hone in on a hobby. At a time where we want to do something, get out of the house, the library is a great place to be.”

Even the experience of the library looks a lot different today — you can find a quiet corner to read, host a discussion in a meeting room, or even bring your children to play at one of the family play spaces. 

“You probably won’t get shushed by a librarian these days,” Garcia said. “Every person is different, every library experience is different and we really want to hold space for whatever that looks like for you.”

You can find all Wichita Public Library events — including those for the Big Read Wichita — at wichitalibrary.org/events. You can apply for a library card at any of the Wichita Public Library’s locations, and you can check out all of the non-traditional items the Wichita Public Library offers under the “Books and More” section of their website, wichitalibrary.org.