Join the club
THIS YEAR’S SANTA FE READS GETS BOOK LOVERS ON THE SAME PAGE
Santa Fe Reads is a four-week citywide partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts Big Read that is designed to get book lovers on the same page.
IFThe goal of Santa Fe Reads is both to foster a love for reading and to inspire creativity throughout the community. raises such themes as the hero’s journey, finding one’s power, and female strength — all fodder for the discussions, performances, and creative contests throughout the four-week period.
you’ve never joined a book club because the commitment seems too big, consider this option: A once-a-year opportunity to read a book simultaneously with others who then gather to discuss and celebrate it. No hosting duties required, and the book has already been chosen.
That opportunity is called Santa Fe Reads, and it’s a four-week “book club” for the entire city that starts April 20 and ends May 16 (although there’s no reason you can’t start reading now).
This year’s book for adults and teens is Madeline Miller’s Circe, an imaginative retelling of Greek mythology from the viewpoint of a minor goddess who’s been sent into exile.
New to Greek mythology? No worries. Miller provides enough context to help you differentiate between mortals like Daedalus and Odysseus, gods like Helios and Hermes, and monsters like the Minotaur and Scylla. And if you get confused, a helpful “cast of characters” is provided at the back.
“I would say this is the least intimidating way to dip your toe into” ancient myths, says Jessica Gulliford, programs manager for the Santa Fe Public Library, sponsor of 2024 Santa Fe Reads in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts, Arts Midwest, and local sponsors and community partners.
Friends of Santa Fe Public Library bought 1,500 paperback copies of Circe at a 40% discount through Collected Works Bookstore & Coffeehouse (202 Galisteo Street), and dozens of teens at the Southside Teen Center and inmates at the Santa Fe County Correctional Facility and the Penitentiary of New Mexico have already received free copies and begun reading. Additional free copies will be distributed at events, and the library has stockpiled copies of the book for checking out.
The goal of Santa Fe Reads is both to foster a love for reading and to inspire creativity throughout the community, Gulliford says. Circe raises such themes as the hero’s journey, finding one’s power, and female strength — all fodder for the discussions, performances, and creative contests throughout the four-week period.
The NEA started the Big Read program in 2006 and since then has allocated in excess of $25 million to more than 1,800 local programs nationwide. More than 6 million Americans have attended an NEA Big Read event, and more than 40,000 community organizations have partnered to make Big Read activities possible.
This year, the NEA awarded 62 Big Read grants nationally. Santa Fe’s $20,000 award is the only one in New Mexico. Participating communities choose one book — based on local interests and tastes — from a list curated by the NEA. (This year’s list had 15 “active” titles; dozens more have been archived.) Circe, which has been on the list since 2019, was selected this year by nine communities, including Santa Fe.
This is Santa Fe’s third grant. The first was in 2021 amid the pandemic when the library was seeking ways to connect with patrons beyond curbside services. The book chosen was Into the Beautiful North by Luis Alberto Urea, the tale of a teenage girl’s quest to save her Mexican town that’s
Circe been taken over by drug lords. All the events were virtual (“We learned all about Zoom,” Gulliford remembers), including classroom visits by Urea. For a closing dinner event, participants picked up their meal ahead of time then ate together during an online presentation.
For its second grant last year, the library chose There, There by Tommy Orange, the story of urban Native Americans struggling with various challenges who come together at a community powwow. The goal that time, Gulliford says, was to bridge the gap with tribal libraries and Indigenous community members. The library partnered extensively with the Santa Fe Indian School, which hosted the final event with Orange as the speaker.
The choice of Circe this year allows the library to strengthen ties with yet another local partner: St. John’s College. The liberal arts college on the hill leans heavily into the classical tradition, starting freshman year when new Johnnies read Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey and begin learning ancient Greek.
Is it audacious for a contemporary author to re-envision those great classics? St. John’s professor Marsaura Shukla dismisses that thought quickly.
“These books aren’t hallowed. They continue to be vital to us today because they engage in deep human questions,” Shukla said. “So for me, I’m very excited a contemporary author would turn to great literature of the past to work out their own thinking and their own creativity. The whole premise of St. John’s College is that these are some of our best resources to think with.”
TAPPING INTO TEENS
This year, the library’s team was leaning toward a poetry book, expecting robust interest from Santa Fe’s community of poets. “But when we started surveying organizations and teachers, everyone started leaning toward Circe,” Gulliford says. In a survey of high school teachers, 100% selected Circe as their first choice.
“Selecting a title that would engage our teen readers was important to us,” she says, because so much library programming is already available for other age groups.
In mythology, Circe is a minor player, but Miller raises her story to the forefront, following her as she discovers her power and her way in a man’s world.
“A lot of teen literature is about growing into yourself and finding yourself, and the way Madeline Miller creates Circe, she’s a very relatable sort of goddess,” says Gulliford.
BEGIN THE JOURNEY: APRIL 20
While many participants have already started reading Circe, the official kickoff, Begin the Journey, will be noon to 4 p.m. April 20 at two almost-next-door venues.
First stop is the Southside Branch Library (6599 Jaguar Drive), where Santa Fe artist Carrie Mae Rose will unveil and talk about her new art installation commissioned for the occasion. Rose’s work is often inspired by feminine mythological figures, including a series of breastplates that could have been worn by the Greek goddess Athena. For Santa Fe Reads, she’s creating a huge winged figure — about 8 feet tall and 16 feet wide — made of agave, yucca, and other desert plants.
Just as Circe tweaks magic from the plants on her island, Rose says she performs her own sort of alchemy when she transforms a sword-like yucca leaf collected from Northern New Mexico into an individual feather and many yucca feathers and agave into wings.
“My agave leaf wing sculptures draw from archetypal angelic realms, not one specific deity,” Rose says. “They represent rising above and … the opening and expanding of one’s heart.”
At 1 p.m., the party moves next door to the Southside Teen Center, 6600 Valentine Way, for a concert featuring pagan recording artist Wendy Rule, a native of Australia who moved to Las Vegas after performing in New Mexico several times for AMP Concerts. Her last studio album, Persephone, is a retelling of another ancient Greek goddess (and is sung partly in Greek).
When AMP asked Rule about performing for the Santa Fe Reads kickoff, she loved the idea. “She’s already read the book, so she’s sure to put together a playlist that is really well aligned with it,” says Neal Copperman, AMP’S executive director.
As the concert winds down around 2:15 p.m., the Teen Center will launch a Goddesses, Gods, and Monsters costume contest and dance party.
THE JOURNEY’S END: MAY 16
Santa Fe Reads closes May 16 with Our Journey’s End, an evening of theater and conversation with author Miller at the Santa Fe Convention Center (201 W. Marcy Street). The free event is a partnership with the Santa Fe International Literary Festival, which begins the following weekend.
Doors open at 5 p.m., with a short, yet-to-benamed performance at 6:15 by the bilingual group Teatro Paraguas. Around 7 p.m., Miller will take the stage for a conversation led by Shukla, the St. John’s professor. That event will bring an end to Santa Fe Reads 2024, but Shukla hopes the community reading and discussion of Circe will spark a continuing interest in Greek mythology.
“I would love for that to happen,” she says. “Any way people can find their way back to these texts is great.”
Circe (Little, Brown and Company, 2018) is an adult book that’s also appropriate for teens (although it does have mature themes, including a rape scene). To include younger readers, Santa Fe Reads chose these books:
Middle school readers: Check out a series of 12 graphic novels by George O’connor called the Olympians.
New readers: Choose between two picture books: Goddesses and Gardens by Valerie Tripp and Teresa Martinez and Little Bear, You’re a Star: A Greek Myth About the Constellations by Jean Marzollo.
Check the Santa Fe Public Library website for details on these Santa Fe Reads events:
April 27, 1-2 p.m., Southside Branch Library Community Room. St. John’s College professor Krishnan Venkatesh discusses the ancient Greek setting of Circe to provide context for the themes in the story. Registration required by 1 p.m. April 27. Register at sfnm.co/santafereadsevent1.
April 30, 6-7:30 p.m., La Farge Branch Library Community Room. Join a librarianfacilitated discussion of Circe.
May 1, 5:30-7:30 p.m., Southside Branch Library Community Room. Join a community seminar for a deep dive into the world of Circe and her growth journey. Led by Creative Santa Fe Executive Director Sorakamol Prapasiri. Registration required and is limited to 15 people. fponca@creativesantafe.org
May 3, 2-4 p.m., La Farge Branch Library Community Room. Adult craft. In honor of the divine feminine represented across all cultures, create a shrine for your favorite goddess or goddesses using techniques such as assemblage, collage, and painting. May 3, 3-4:30, Southside Branch Library Café Room. Create papier-mâché mythological animals with the folks from the Museum of International Folk Art (all ages). May 4, 11 a.m.-noon, Main Library Media Room. Join a librarian-facilitated discussion of Circe.
May 8, 5-7 p.m., The Boxcar, 133 W. Water Street. Circe trivia game (ages 21 and older). Teams of six must register by 5 p.m. May 8 at sfnm.co/3vetoxa.
May 10, 2-4 p.m., La Farge Branch Library Community Room. Use natural materials, written words/poems/quotes and personal objects to create “manifestation jars.” For adults; supplies provided. Registration required at sfnm.co/3u5ilhf.
May 11, 14, and 15, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Community Gallery at the Santa Fe Community Convention Center, 201 W. Marcy Street. Winged art installation created by local artist Carrie Mae Rose for Santa Fe Reads will be on display after leaving the Southside Branch Library as part of a show titled Relentless Divinity.
May 14, 6 p.m., Southside Branch Library Café Room. Something Queer at the Library book club hosts students from St. John’s College who will be speaking about queer themes in ancient Greek literature.
May 15, 6-7:30 p.m., Southside Branch Library Community Room. Join a librarianfacilitated discussion of Circe.