Amy Ash, Assistant Professor of English and Director of Indiana State University's Creative Writing Program will guide a poetry workshop based on The Big Smoke. After discussing Adrian Matejka's poems, and persona poems specifically, attendees will select a figure from history or pop-culture and write a poem from their perspective, going beyond the old adage "write what you know," and instead considering  what we can discover, and who we can become.

Bradley Sage, Program Director of the Professional Athletic Training Program at IU will discuss ways to reconcile the increasingly negative effects with the positive aspects in regard to sport. Sylvester "Coach" Edwards, Terre Haute's own NAACP President, athlete, coach, teacher, and community volunteer will discuss the ways our community has not always done right by young people who play sports, as well as changes we can make to create a positive outcome for our athletes, schools and spectators. Refreshments will be served.

Celebrate the women that are making history right here in the Wabash Valley. Rebecca Moore, the Community Prevention Specialist for Council on Domestic Abuse, Inc. (CODA), a victim advocate and preventative specialist will be honored at this special event. Breakfast will be served.

Denzel Washington is Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, a young black boxer who is set to become the world's greatest boxing champion until he is wrongly imprisoned for a triple murder. Carter is set to serve a lifetime in prison until help comes from an unlikely source. Rated R. Refreshments will be served.

Adrian Matejka, our keynote speaker and author of The Big Smoke, will kick-off our 2019 Big Read program. Refreshments will be served.