This year marks the 250th anniversary of the United States of America and with that, history follows. Malden Reads has been a tradition in Malden for 16 years and to celebrate, the committee organized an event in the Malden Public Library on February 9th from 6:30 to 8:30 pm. At the front door, attendants were given a brochure with all the information of the event’s night and then redirected to the left wing of the library.
To commemorate these two milestones, Malden Reads decided to choose the book Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng as this year’s reading. According to Goodreads, this book is a dystopian novel about “twelve-year-old Bird Gardner [who] lives a quiet existence with his loving but broken father,” and that “for a decade, their lives have been governed by laws written to preserve ‘American culture’ in the wake of years of economic instability and violence.”
Given all that’s currently happening in the country, Our Missing Hearts was specifically picked to parallel what people see today. “Even though it’s an interesting fiction read and it’s set kind of in a slightly dystopian future, some of the themes resonate now with what’s happening, in terms of what we see with ICE, and the idea of who gets to define patriotism,” Heather Barry, steering committee member for Malden Reads, explained. Beginning the event, the band Tale Spin, consisting of David and Sue Stein along with Bill Alldredge, performed acoustic protest music of the last century. Following their performance was historian Mark Linehan’s presentation on Malden’s background and revolution. Linehan is the creator of “Malden’s Revolution,” a show on YouTube where Linehan speaks about the long-winded history Malden holds while visiting multiple places in the area.
“I loved hearing from Mark Linehan and all of the local history that he’s doing, that’s really special. That’s really about this place and the people who lived here, and it was really good to hear about all the work that he’s done,” commented Councilor-at-Large, Carey McDonald.
After Linehan’s rich presentation, Malden High senior students Sophia Chan and Eldana Abrhame, dressed in revolutionary war costumes, recited excerpts from Our Missing Hearts to give attendants a feel of what the book would be like.
Malden Reads first began with Jodie Zalk, member of Malden Reads steering committee, and her mother, reflecting on another city creating a similar project. “We looked at it and said that it would be wonderful to bring here to Malden, to have a program where we focus on a book and have conversations with different people,” added Zalk. With this initial help from her mother, the Oak Grove Improvement Association (OGIA), and others, they began this project. Although they no longer collaborate with OGIA, the program continues to run smoothly.
Throughout the night, attendants had the chance to interact with Malden High School’s Love 4 Kids club to partake in different arts & crafts activities as well as decorate heart shaped cookies. Attendants also had access to an art gallery in the library’s original building from 1885.
“I don’t know if you’ve had a chance to see the art gallery before. It is really one of the great little secret things about Malden that people may not realize that we have,” shared Malden High School’s librarian, Stephen Nedell.
In the book, the main character, Bird Gardner, is enrolled in High School. Zalk shared, the room was set up in such a manner as to resemble life as a student. Details like the long line of food in the cafeteria, as well as the community bulletin board, designed by Ron Cox, former director of Urban Media Arts, gave the feeling of what it’s like to be a student in high school.
Overall, the night was a success with people from all over Malden attending and engaging in the multiple activities provided. “Hopefully it inspires people to kind of pick up a book, sit down, think about it, whether it’s this book or another book and keep reading because it helps us think more,” Barry noted.
“Reading helps connect us all and have conversations together and learn about our community, and being able to read one book together as the whole city is a really special way for us to have a conversation and ground ourselves together in a common understanding,” commented Zalk.
This program has “done a tremendous job in bringing the community together and making sure that there is representation for our very diverse community,” concluded Nedell.
About the Author
