The Digital Age

Each year, East Baton Rouge Parish Library chooses one dynamic book for patrons to read cover to cover, and organizes a trove of programming around the literary work. This spring’s One Book One Community selection is Americanah, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s highly lauded tale about love, race, and home.

As the novel’s protagonist, Ifemelu, encounters race for the first time when she leaves her native Nigeria to study in America, she writes about her experiences on her blog, “Raceteenth or Various Observations About American Blacks (Those Formerly Known as Negroes) by a Non-American Black.”On March 13, Dr. Tina M. Harris, a professor at LSU’s Manship School of Mass Communication, will give a presentation at the Main Library. Dr. Harris’ area of study focuses on the intersection of media, race, and cultural literacy, making her the perfect candidate to analyze how Ifemelu’s online commentary about race also informs our world.

On March 15, you can learn how to create your own content for a digital audience during Blogging in the Boot, a panel discussion with longtime local bloggers Leslie Presnall, Janique Bardell, and Chere Dastague Coen. Rodneyna Hart, executive director of Baton Rouge arts nonprofit CultureCandy and division director for the Louisiana State Museum, will moderate the discussion.

Presnall runs the “Southern Flair” fashion and lifestyle blog, and founded the Baton Rouge Fashion Council. Janique Bardell creates content for her YouTube vlog “Janiqueness” about her life as a mother and her natural hair journey, while Chere Dastugue Coen has written about the fascinating idiosyncrasies of our region on her blog, “Weird, Wacky and Wild South,” for nearly ten years.

In the midst of this contemporary podcast boom, new shows seem to pop up every day. As a form of audio blogging, podcasts, like literature, can fit into any genre of storytelling. On March 24 and April 21, the library will show you how to start your own podcast, from concept to equipment how-to (materials provided) at the Main Library.  In addition to teaching you all the tips and tricks to recording on your own, the library will also provide patrons with the opportunity to record their own oral histories. To participate and have your story in the library’s oral history archives for generations to come, be sure to come to the Bluebonnet Regional Branch on March 28 and April 5.

Visit readonebook.org to learn more about the fun, culturally enriching events taking place during this year’s OBOC program.