ADRIAN — The River Raisin Ragtime Revue, a professional ragtime orchestra with programming based in Adrian, was selected by the National Endowment for the Arts to present a community Big Read in Adrian. The NEA awarded the orchestra a $20,000 matching grant, the largest amount presented to any community in the nation.
The NEA Big Read is a nationwide program started in 2006 and designed to bring communities together through a shared reading experience. It provides matching grants to local organizations to fund book clubs, author talks, writing workshops, and other creative events.
The 2026-27 Big Read honors 250 years of the American story by celebrating the country’s culture, history, and resilience through the eyes of its citizens. The Ragtime Revue selected Catherine Clinton’s “Harriet Tubman: The Road To Freedom” for the program. R4 executive director William Pemberton said the book “will allow the local community to explore the significant abolitionist activities in Lenawee County prior to the Emancipation Proclamation.”
Clinton’s book will be supplemented by other selections that support the project. These include the Laura Smith Haviland’s “A Woman’s Life-Work: Labors and Experiences,” and two works by National Book Award-winning author and historian Tiya Miles, “All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake” and “Night Flyer: Harriet Tubman and the Faith Dreams of a Free People.”
R4 is partnering with the Adrian District Library and at least 12 other community organizations to bring numerous events to Adrian audiences. Events will take place from January through May 2027 at various Adrian venues, including the Adrian District Library, the Lenawee Historical Museum, and the Adrian Dominican Sisters’ Weber Center.
In addition to the featured authors, presenters will include Harriet Tubman historian and interpreter Kathryn Harris, former Adrian College chaplain Christopher Momany, Lenawee County historian Bruce Neal, and the R4 orchestra.
The Lenawee NAACP will offer guided bus tours to Underground Railroad and abolitionist historic sites. In addition, R4 is working with the Hispanics of Lenawee Alliance to present an event exploring the concept of freedom from a local Hispanic and Latino perspective.
R4 is partnering with Adrian Morning Rotary and the Boys and Girls Club to develop youth activities that will include book giveaways, youth book clubs, and writing contests.
Numerous adult book clubs and discussion groups will be organized for the several month event by the Adrian District Library and partnering groups.
The project will also highlight R4’s Haviland Hall renovation project on the PlaneWave Instruments campus in Adrian. R4 is converting the historic 1882 church, originally built with the help of Laura Smith Haviland, into a community arts and educational venue that will house the orchestra and its archives.
Sponsorship opportunities are available for the Big Read project.
For more information, email info@r4ragtime.org. Information is also available at ragtimeband.org/big-read.