Center for Chicano-Boricua Studies (CBS) Assistant Director for Recruitment and Retention, Ethriam Brammer, was recently selected to serve as the Humanities Scholar for a new family literacy program to be hosted by the Campbell Branch of the Detroit Public Library.

A three-member team led by Campbell Branch Librarian, Laurie Townsend Stuart, participated in a training workshop from January 18-20 in New Orleans to facilitate the establishment of the first Detroit version of the PRIME TIME FAMILY READING TIME® family literacy project sponsored by the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities and the American Library Association Public Programs Office. The project is funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). PRIME TIME is made possible in Michigan by the Michigan Humanities Council.

The Campbell Branch is one of 18 libraries selected nationwide to participate in PRIME TIME. Each series will take place once a week for six weeks. Reading and discussion leaders will conduct 90-minute meetings at public libraries for parents or guardians and their children. At each session, a storyteller, Flor Walker, will present stories and will model reading aloud. Brammer, the humanities scholar, will serve as the discussion leader. The library representative, Laurie Townsend, will introduce families to library resources and services. Younger siblings, ages 3-5, will participate in separate pre-reading activities.

PRIME TIME is designed to encourage parents and children to read and discuss humanities topics and aids them in selecting books and becoming active public library users. It is based on a successful series of the same name that began in 1991 at the East Baton Rouge (LA) Parish Library and has since been conducted in 36 states with NEH funding. Over 15,000 individuals have participated in more than 500 PRIME TIME sessions throughout the U.S.

“Following the tremendous success of our first El Día del Niño / El Día del Libro event, a program like PRIME TIME seems like the natural next step in attempting to address childhood literacy in Detroit,” says Brammer.

Wayne State University is a premier institution of higher education offering more than 350 academic programs through 11 schools and colleges to more than 33,000 students.