The City of East Lansing and Michigan State University proudly present the One Book, One Community 2009 book selection!
We will be reading "The Soloist," by Steve Lopez.
OBOC activities will be taking place August 30 - September 25.
Click Here to listen to MSU's podcast with Steve Lopez!
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Missing Steve Lopez on Sunday? Watch or Rent his speech!
The kickoff will be recorded and rerun on East Lansing’s government channel, Channel 22 (WELG). Air times will be Sundays and Mondays at noon and 8 p.m. from Sept. 6-28.
The recording will also be made available to borrow at the East Lansing Public Library beginning Friday, Sept. 4.
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MSU Students Participate in Service EventsRelated to 'The Soloist'!
MSU students participated in Fill the Bus! during Fall Welcome. Fill the Bus! is a service program that encourages students to donate items to a variety of Mid-Michigan agencies including Lansing City Rescue Mission which provides support and services for people in similar situations as Mr. Nathaniel Ayers. For more information please click here.
MSU's First-Year Experience students served with Lansing's "Project Homeless Connection" at the Lansing City Armory. Click here for more information on this important project.
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‘The Soloist’ sparks instrument donation drive for MSU’s Community Music School in Detroit
August 14, 2009
EAST LANSING, Mich. — This year’s book selection for Michigan State University’s and the city of East Lansing’s One Book, One Community program has sparked the idea for a musical instrument donation drive to benefit MSU’s new Community Music School in Detroit.
In the book, “The Soloist,” Los Angeles Times journalist Steve Lopez meets Nathaniel Anthony Ayers, a Juilliard-trained musician who is homeless and playing Beethoven on a two-stringed violin in a noisy traffic tunnel.
When Lopez writes a column for the Times about the struggling street musician, instruments of all sorts are donated to Ayers to support his talent and playing.
MSU’s College of Music is opening a new Community Music School in Detroit, modeled after the highly successful Community Music School in East Lansing. The open house will be 4 to 6 p.m. Aug. 27 at the school, 3408 Woodward Ave. in Detroit.
The college is seeking donations of musical instruments of all kinds—strings, winds, brass and percussion—to be used by students at the Community Music School in Detroit. Donated instruments are tax-deductible and should be in good condition.
The MSU Community Music School, the College of Music’s outreach division, brings music education and music therapy to those of all ages and abilities in Greater Lansing and Metro Detroit.
“A donated instrument can be meaningful to a student who doesn’t have access to one,” said Rhonda Buckley, Community Music School executive director and associate dean for outreach and engagement. “There are many students in Metro Detroit whose lives will be better because they have access to an instrument.”
All donated instruments will be put in the hands of young musicians who do not have the resources to purchase or rent their own instruments.
Instruments can be dropped off at the CMS-East Lansing office, 841 Timberlane St. in East Lansing. For more information, contact Buckley at (517) 432-7371 or visit http://www.music.msu.edu/outreach.
The annual OBOC program, sponsored by the city of East Lansing and MSU, encourages the city-university community to read the same book and come together to discuss it in a variety of settings. The book is an assigned reading for all incoming MSU freshmen. For more information and to view a calendar of upcoming OBOC events,visit www.onebook.msu.edu.
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One Book, One Community Kicks Off Month-Long Program with Author Steve Lopez
August 4, 2009
EAST LANSING, Mich. — Meet award-winning journalist and Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez, author of the New York Times and Los Angeles Times best seller “The Soloist,” as he kicks off the month-long One Book, One Community (OBOC) program.
Lopez will speak to the community at 7 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 30 in the East Lansing High School auditorium, 509 Burcham Drive. He will also welcome freshmen at the MSU Academic Welcome at the Breslin Student Events Center the following day.
Admission to the Event
Admission to the kickoff is FREE and attendees will be seated on a first-come, first-served basis. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m.
Prelude Concert
Violinist Jordan Broder and pianist Jim Gabriel will perform music inspired by the “The Soloist” from 6:30-7 p.m. prior to the talk with Lopez.
Broder is a recent graduate from MSU College of Music with a degree in violin performance. Upon graduation, he was selected by The Detroit News as Michigan’s Outstanding Graduate in the Performing Arts. He has performed at the Burgos Music Festival in Spain, the Big Sky Chamber Music Festival for Young People in Bozeman, Montana, the Fontana Music Festival in Kalamazoo and at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
About the Book
“The Soloist” is the true story of Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez’s fascination with Nathaniel Anthony Ayers, a Juilliard trained musician who is homeless and playing Beethoven on a two-stringed violin in a noisy traffic tunnel.
In fluid prose and with a reporter’s persistence, Lopez tells of his determination to understand Ayers’ illness, to convince him to come in off the street to safety and to reconnect him to his music. It’s not an easy journey for either man, with bitter disappointments punctuated by hard-fought triumphs. It is a test of wills and friendship as Lopez refuses to lose Ayers to the street and Ayers struggles to overcome his fears and demons.
About the Program
The OBOC program, co-sponsored by the City of East Lansing and Michigan State
University, encourages the city-university community to read the same book and come together to discuss it in a variety of settings. In addition to encouraging the community to read the book, OBOC also makes the selection an assigned reading for all incoming MSU freshmen. A series of events centered on the book will take place Aug. 30-Sept. 25. To learn more about the 2009 program visit www.onebook.msu.edu.
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One Book, One Community Announces 2009 Book Selection
March 16, 2009
EAST LANSING, Mich. - The City of East Lansing and Michigan State
University announce the 2009 One Book, One Community (OBOC) selection,
“The Soloist,” by author Steve Lopez.
The New York Times and Los Angeles Times best seller and soon-to-be-released major motion picture, starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jamie Foxx, tells the true story of the friendship between two gifted men, one a homeless mentally ill musician, and the other, an award-winning journalist and columnist for the Los Angeles Times.
Meet the author as he kicks off the month-long OBOC program on Sunday, Aug. 30 at the East Lansing High School auditorium. He will also welcome freshmen at the MSU Academic Welcome at the Breslin Student Events
Center on Monday, Aug. 31. A series of community and campus events are planned around the themes in “The Soloist,” including what happens to a book when it is translated into film.
The annual OBOC program, sponsored by the City of East Lansing and Michigan State University, encourages the city-university community to read the same book and come together to discuss it in a variety of settings. The book is an assigned reading for all incoming MSU freshmen.
About the Book
Lopez is fascinated when he first sees a homeless man,
dressed in rags, intently playing a violin on a busy downtown Los
Angeles street corner. Oblivious to the noise and confusion around him,
the man plays with the concentration and elegance of a trained musician.
From their first encounter, Lopez is fascinated by Nathaniel Anthony
Ayers, a Juilliard trained musician who lives on Skid Row and plays
Beethoven on a two-stringed violin in a noisy traffic tunnel.
In fluid prose and with a reporter’s persistence, Lopez tells of his
determination to understand Ayers’ illness, to convince him to come in
off the street to safety and to reconnect him to his music. It’s not
an easy journey for either man, with bitter disappointments punctuated
by hard-fought triumphs. It is a test of wills and friendship as Lopez
refuses to lose Ayers to the street and Ayers struggles to overcome his
fears and demons.
Support the Program
Support the OBOC program by shopping at Barnes & Noble, 333 E. Grand
River Ave., in East Lansing. This week, March 16-22, Barnes & Noble will
donate up to 20 percent of each sale (with the exception of gift and
member cards) to the OBOC program. Please mention that you would like
your purchase to benefit the program.
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Watch Steve Lopez and Nathaniel Ayers celebrate Beethoven's Birthday on Youtube!
Click here for Time Magazine's review of 'The Soloist'
Click here for the New York Times Review of 'The Soloist'
Add OBOC on Facebook! One Book, One Community - East Lansing and MSU