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Get haunted - Poe style







Big Read takes on Halloween flavor this week
ATTLEBORO - For those of you who have been gripped by Poemania from the various activities offered through the city's 1ABC project, you probably know there are less than two weeks left of the project.

But, for all you diehard Poe fans - and even those yet to become Poe fans, there are still some interesting activities to be offered.

With Halloween just around the corner, in fact, this week's big event should add the perfect atmosphere to Poe's more macabre and mysterious works, as follows:

Haunted MansionFor the fourth year, The Literacy Center of Attleboro, based at 80 North Main St., in the 1907 home of the city's first mayor, will offer area residents a few Halloween treats, from scary sights and scenes to a tour of one of the city's historical treasures during its Haunted Mansion.

In honor of the city's 1ABC project, this year's Haunted Mansion also will include special Edgar Allan Poe themed rooms, which pleases folks at The Literacy Center as well.
"The Literacy Center is very happy to have a literary theme to work with this year for the Haunted Mansion, and to participate in 1ABC," said Executive Director Joan Ricci. "We will be having rooms on the second and third floors for older children and adults, based on Poe themes."

Based on Poe's various works, Ricci says some of the themed rooms, to be created by volunteers from various community groups, will include "The Cask of Amontillado," "Murders on the Rue Morgue" "The Tell-Tale Heart" and "The Haunted Palace."

Visitors also might find a Poe book to take home from the event's annual free book giveaway of horror and mystery books, as well as children's books.

There also will be a variety of activities on the first floor to keep the younger visitors occupied while their older siblings and parents wander into the realm of horror.

Poe scholar to visit AHS , Bishop FeehanAttleboro's 1ABC has added another program to this week's events as well - one in which Victor Bonneville, who coordinates the 1ABC project with Joan Pilkington-Smyth, says is an important one.

The event features a visit from Rob Velella, an independent scholar and the author of the "Edgar Allan Poe 200 Bicentennial Calendar," to both Attleboro High School and Bishop Feehan High School on Wednesday.

"It's a really important part of what we're trying to do - involve the entire community and reach reluctant readers," Bonneville said.

"The students at the schools have been reading Poe, and using The Big Read materials such as guide books for both students and teachers. This is like the icing on the Poe Cake for them," Bonneville said.

Velella is also a member of the Poe Studies Association, a coordinator of the Edgar Allan Poe 200 Project, and maintains the Poe Calendar Blog and has lectured throughout the Northeast and recently served as a Poe expert on 95b FM, a radio station in New Zealand.

His work has been published by the Baltimore Sun and the Concord Magazine, and he is currently working as a research assistant for a Poe exhibit at the Boston Public Library, which opens in December.
Janette Boulay can be reached by phone or fax at 508-222-0993 or by e-mail at janette.boulay@gmail.com.

 


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