African American Readathon “A Day To Honor African American Voices”

By Estefanie Arriaga

The African American Read-a-thon is an event that takes place in the Library Media Center at East High during the month of February. Students are able to participate by reading excerpts throughout the school day from 8:00am to 3:00pm. This read-a-thon serves as a way to help students come together and learn about African American literature. As a diverse school, East High looks at this event as a way for students to come together by highlighting readings made by African American authors. 

“I wanted it to be something that wasn’t just for book club students and staff members. I wanted it to, I just wanted it to be bigger and so, that’s how I came up with the idea of the marathon of words, the read-a-thon”, Mrs. Ollmann, the East High librarian, came up with the amazing idea of the readathon, which is now a glorified event at East. 

“What can students learn from this activity?” might be one of the most important questions I have ever asked. Due to how diverse East High is, it is important that all voices are heard equally and are all appreciated. 

“There is an opportunity to learn about so many important people at the Readathon. In the classroom, you learn about some important historical African American leaders. During the Readathon, where there is a library full of reading options, Readathon attendees will learn about so many people, ranging from W.E.B. Du Bois, Alice Walker, Arthur Ashe, Audre Lorde, Ta-Nehisi Coates, and Jason Reynolds. I hope people hear some new voices and are curious to learn more.” – Julie Ollmann (East High Librarian)

Julie Ollmann, the East librarian, said “Well, there is a book called “Each Kindness” by Jacqueline Woodson, and I’m staring over there to make sure that I said that right, yeah “Each Kindness”, and I met her in Chicago at an American Library Association Meeting. They are held in Chicago every other year. And, she signed my copy of the book so that one is very special to me. There are some other excerpts I’m reading. I also met NIkki Giovanni, a poet, who was at UWGB years ago and I also used to teach some of her poetry so I’m looking forward to reading some of her work too.” 

Karol Medina-Avila, a freshman at East High School says, “I decided to read in the readathon because I’m involved in Forensics and now that I’m going to District I thought it would be a fantastic opportunity to further develop my skills and gain more experience.”

Denyah Tinnon, a freshman at East High School says, “I decided to read in the readathon because I wanted to share my favorite pages of the book. I read The Hate You Give because I like the story of Starr Carter and what she went through. The readathon was what I expected because people read books by Black authors.”