TODAY THROUGH THURSDAY: Attention all literature and history fans: the Lectores Public Reading Series returns to the University of Tampa. Lectores comes from Lectores de Tabaqueres, which translates to “readers of the tobacco workers”. These men would sit and read aloud to the factory workers as they rolled cigars in early Ybor City. They would sit where every worker could see and hear them and read material such as the newspaper or stories like Les Misérables as a form of education for the workers.
The University of Tampa MFA program named the series Lectores to connect literature with Tampa's history. The program hosts visiting writers, singers and other artists on the UT campus to perform, read and exhibit their work. The series features Terrance Hayes, Pulitzer Prize finalist Kelley Benham French and Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Thomas French.
This article appears in Jun 16-23, 2016.
