|
|
|
|
|
News
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Detail:
|
Hip hop star Akala today showed his support for a campaign that aims to inspire teenagers to read more.
The rapper joined manga artist Faye Yong and author Alexander Gordon Smith, at a creative event for teenagers, organised to mark the launch of the Reading Agency's new campaign.
The campaign, which involves workshops, projects and the creation of a website, aims to encourage more teenagers to read and make library services more attractive to the age group.
Today's event, in Farringdon, London, also marked the launch of www.groupthing.org, an online community that celebrates creativity and aimed to encourage teenagers to read.
The youngsters took part in a variety of creative workshops that aimed to generate content for the website including writing, music and art.
Akala, who founded The Hip Hop Shakespeare Company, a musical theatre production company, ran a workshop to challenge teenagers' ideas about Shakespeare.
He said: "Perhaps more than any other activity, reading fundamentally shapes our attitudes, ideas and beliefs; which is why we aim to fire up as many young people as possible about reading and words through our Hip Hop Shakespeare workshops.
"A book, which can condense years of personal research and thousands of years of human progress into 300-odd pages is one of the most valuable things we have ever created.
"This is still the best technology we have to transmute and translate wisdom, knowledge and creativity, therefore the importance of reading, especially for young people, can never be understated.
"What books we read today will literally determine what kind of society we become tomorrow."
Miranda McKearney, director of the Reading Agency, said: "To get on in life, young people need to be enjoying reading and becoming skilled readers.
"There are lots of barriers, but we know from our work with thousands of young people that their passion for reading can be ignited by meeting them on their terms.
"We need to broaden the definition of reading - bringing in everything from lyrics and film scripts to manga and website design.
"With so much competition for young people's time and the rise of social media, the onus is on all of us - schools, libraries, youth workers, charities and parents - to find innovative ways to inspire a love of reading.
"With the Government's library review is just around the corner, we believe it's vital that future teenage library services are shaped with young people."
The Reading Agency is an independent charity whose mission is to inspire more people to read more. The charity believes that reading changes lives, and runs a number of high profile, national initiatives that reach out to and inspire readers of all kinds. For more information visit www.readingagency.org.uk.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|