SUNDERLAND — Sunderland Public Library is putting on “story hour for grown-ups,” as described by a press release.
For the second time, the local library will present a short story series read by local actors today at 3 p.m. The previous event was put on last November.
The program, titled “Tales of Buying and Selling,” will feature Pioneer Valley actor Court Dorsey reading “Assembly Line,” a short story by local author B. Traven, and Hampshire College dance student Alice Grendon reading “Pricing Green Beans,” by another local author and activist, the late Juanita Nelson.
“Both stories deal with economics in some fashion,” said Aaron Falbel, head of adult services at the library who helped put on the first the short story series. “December tends to be a month of intense economic activity in our culture, and these stories step back and take a somewhat critical, and at times witty, look at all this buying and selling.”
“Assembly Line” is a book that follows an industrial entrepreneur from New York City and an indigenous artist from Oaxaca. Falbel calls it “a subtle, artful, and brilliant critique of mass-production economics couched within a simple tale.”
The news statement advertises Nelson’s book as one that tackles “the moral complexities and ambiguities of our economic system.”
Falbel said there’ll also be a third story read, “a well-known, very short story, a beautiful chestnut of a tale that I’ll keep as a surprise until Jan. 28.”
The short story series is funded through a grant from the Sunderland Cultural Council, supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency.
The event is free and open to the public.
You can reach Andy Castillo
at: acastillo@recorder.com
or 413-772-0261, ext. 263
On Twitter: @AndyCCastillo