UNC-Chapel Hill's Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History will kick off a month-long drive to increase literacy as part of a nationwide program called The Big Read.

Kim Arrington, a Durham poet, singer and activist, will open the project Monday night at the Stone Center by performing a piece paying homage Hurston, followed by a reception.

Throughout April, the center will hold events including book discussions, performances, readings, art exhibits, film screenings and a session on storytelling techniques.

The Stone Center was one of 127 national recipients of The Big Read grant, which was begun by the National Endowment for the Arts to increase readership and higher levels of literacy throughout the country. It also aims to encourage people to read for leisure.

The NEA released a report in 2004 called "Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America," which found a "critical decline" in literary reading among American adults. The organization launched the Big Read initiative in response to the findings.

A 2007 follow-up report, "To Read or Not To Read: A Question of National Consequence," found that not only are Americans reading less, but they're reading at lower levels than they were 10 or 20 years ago. The declines, the report said, were steepest among young adults.

The report listed several statistics reflecting decreasing levels of literacy and time devoted to reading.

"Less than one-third of 13-year-olds are daily readers, a 14 percent decline from 20 years earlier," according to a summary of the 2007 report. "Among 17-year-olds, the percentage of non-readers doubled over a 20-year period, from 9 percent in 1984 to 19 percent in 2004."

"On average, Americans ages 15 to 24 spend almost two hours a day watching TV, and only seven minutes of their daily leisure time on reading," the summary said.

For The Big Read, the Stone Center is partnering with the Ackland Art Museum, the Carolina Women's Center, the Chapel Hill Public Library, the English and Math Communications Department at N.C. Central University, and a few others, said center spokeswoman Olympia Friday.

"The Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History selected Zora Neale Hurston's 'Their Eyes Were Watching God' due to its examination of African Americans, in particular African American women, during the early 20th century," said the news release from the Stone Center. "This examination correlates with the Stone Center's mission to 'encourage and support the critical examination of African and African American diaspora cultures through sustained and open discussion, dialogue, and debate.'"