5.8.07: Last night at Literacy Partners

Last night at Literacy Partners

Lunch hour in Bryant Park. 1:30 PM. Photo: JH.

Warm and sunny day in May in New York. In the luncheon crowd, at the round table in the bay were a group of women, including Evelyn Lauder and Myra Biblowitz of the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, and ... a very familiar face that I hadn’t seen in so long ... like seeing an old friend from your past: Billie Jean King. Now I don’t know why seeing her struck me that way. Because I don’t know her, never met her, am not really even what you’d call a tennis fan, but there was something about that face that was a pleasure to see. Authority, reassurance; as if everything’s gonna be all right. Billie Jean King. Throughout the lunch hour it was interesting to watch the reaction of others in the room. Michael’s is often a den of celebrity, from rock to movies to theater to business to sports, so the clientele is used to it. But yesterday it seemed like everybody lingered just a little passing her table to stop and stare a bit, to catch a glimpse, always with a subtle smile on their faces; and those who could, stopped to say hello, or hoped to be introduced. Nice.

Last night at sundown at Lincoln Center there were crowds congregating along the plaza for events at Avery Fisher Hall, at the Metropolitan Opera House and at the New York State Theatre where Literacy Partners was holding its 25th anniversary black tie gala honoring its three founding forces: Parker Ladd, Arnold Scaasi and Liz Smith.

The Literacy evening featured guest readers: Vanessa Redgrave, Alexander McCall Smith, Frank Langella and Bob and Lee Woodruff.

Click to play a short clip from last night's Literacy Partner's 25th anniversary gala

Miz Liz, the queen and dean of New York’s Broadway (and Hollywood) columnists did her annual star-turn as Mistress of Ceremonies. Orchestra leader Bob Hardwick accompanied the program on the piano, Hearst president Cathy Black paid tribute to the honorees and introduced a “mystery gift” which turned out to be a person in the form of one Bette Midler who serenaded the founding trio with a rendition of “I Wish You Love” (see the video for her version of the verse).

This is always a wonderful evening, full of fun and inspiration, cozy yet formal, and bringing out a glamorous cross-section of literate New York. “25” seemed to be the magic number this year. In that many years, the troika of Smith, Ladd & Scaasi and their cadre of dedicated associates (as well as the scores of authors who’ve appeared at the benefits) have raised $25 million and assisted 25,000 in learning to read.

Literacy is an enormous and mainly overlooked problem in America today. It’s dogs our future whether you want to believe it or not. Aside from its implications about our national learning aptitudes, it reflects the chronic disappointment of the disadvantaged.

Liz Smith said last night in her opening remarks that there are ONE MILLION New Yorkers who cannot read above the 5th grade level. There are many many more who can’t even get that far. The lack of this ability affects the quality of people’s lives adversely in a multitude of ways. Hundreds of thousands of children go to bed every night without ever hearing a story or a fable read to them by parents who simply cannot read, promising a lifetime of another kind of malnutrition.

I sat there listening to Liz, recalling how as a child before lights out, my mother would lie on the bed next to me and read me stories from books she found in the library. In retrospect, I’m amazed that she had the energy to do this after a long day of working (at a job and as a housewife/mother/cook and gardener). My mother had a high school education and always had a book on her night table (usually something to do with self-improvement or diet) where she obviously found solace or wisdom or healthy ideas to lift her from her own burdens. But for me, her nightly reading fostered a lifelong interest and thrill in books. Books are everything. Without them a life is full of large pockets of emptiness. Books rescue, revive, inspire, nurture and cultivate. There is no way to really move ahead in life without them.

Harry Evans and Liz Smith

Jamie and Lee Niven

Pat Patterson

The program was, as always, stimulating both intellectually and emotionally. Vanessa Redgrave read first – from a story by Susan Minot. Redgrave, tall and elegant in a long, wide and sweeping skirt of sky blue taffeta drew us in, spellbinding with Minot’s word.

Then Alexander McCall Smith, droll and witty in his description of his writing, read from his latest book. Next came Frank Langella, currently starring in Broadway as Richard Nixon in Frost/Nixon, reading from Betty Smith’s classic “A Tree Grows In Brooklyn.” The excerpt he chose was about a mother and daughter’s conversation after the birth of the daughter’s first child. She wanted her child to have more of a life than she might have, and reading. The mother (now grandmother) counseled that reading would be the thing that would raise that child up. Read him a page a day. A page from the Bible, a page from Shakespeare.

Simple yet powerful stuff. You could feel the sway of wisdom as it brushed over the audience in this vast theater. Langella, that great Dracula, now a towering and distinguished figure of the American theatre, convinced us all with Betty Smith’s wisdom.

Then Bob and Lee Woodruff appeared on stage to read from their co-written memoir “In An Instant: A Family’s Journey of Love and Healing” prompted by Mr. Woodruff’s almost catastrophic experience in Iraq, and his recovery at the hands of his resolute and intrepid wife Lee.

Jonie Evans

Holland Taylor and Boatie Boatwright

Judith Miller

And then, as is the tradition at these evenings, Liz introduced two recent Literacy graduates who had completed the Literacy course, and had written their speeches and read them to us. Although the personal stories of these graduating individuals are always different, the feelings and the history of their experience as non-readers is always similar: lifetimes of disappointment, of hiding, of personal sense of disappointment, embarrassment, even shame, transformed and transmogrified into self-confidence, aspiration, ambition and empowerment and discovery from having learned to read.

For those of us in the audience listening to their speeches about personal growth and self-reliance, there came a certainty of our ability to make better lives for ourselves and for others.

That is what the honored three – Smith, Ladd and Scaasi also demonstrated in their presence last night. After the readings Cathy Black, the President of Hearst presented them with special gifts, and then the incomparable Ms. Midler who appeared to sing “I Wish You Love.” And so did the rest of us.

After Midler’s performance we adjourned to the Promenade on the floor above where the sixty or seventy tables of ten were set out for our dinner and dancing with Bob Hardwick’s orchestra. A lot of prominent New Yorkers filled the monumental space, festooning with flowers and soft golden light. Very glamorous, as I said, and yet very cozy; lots of writers and publishing people, business executives and social New Yorkers, participating in a noble and life-enhancing cause, celebrating the written word and a dream for us all. They raised more then $1.2 million. Pretty good for three kids who made so many of their own dreams come true.