HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. – Gallerie Zaum will host the region’s first-ever marathon reading of "Moby-Dick" this Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. each day.
The book will be read from beginning to end in 20-minute segments over the course of the two days at 811 Monmouth St., in Newport. Many of the readers are students, faculty and alumni of Northern Kentucky University.
The event will also feature an art exhibition titled "Chasing the Whale in Northern Kentucky Local Artists Respond to Moby-Dick."
This marks the first time a "Moby-Dick" marathon reading has ever been conducted in the presence of a "Moby-Dick" art exhibition. Works in the exhibition were created by students and alumni of Professor Robert Wallace’s course in Melville and the Arts at NKU.
The works include prints and paintings, quilts and body casts, drawings and sculptures, a Moby-Dick tea set, and a documentary film.
In addition to the reading and the art exhibition, the marathon weekend will feature Mrs. Hussey’s clam chowder, Aunt Charity’s ginger cider and a closing toast from the Moby-Dick tea-set.
The marathon weekend will also celebrate the Nov. 14 1851 publication date of the American edition of "Moby-Dick." The English edition had been published a month earlier, but it omitted the epilogue in which Ishmael survives the voyage.
The event (reading and exhibition) is free and open to the public and visitors are free to come and go at any time during the marathon.
A few 20-minute reading spots are still open for those interested. Those interested can sign up at http://www.doodle.com/gu8rdzyv5bhe6cpp.
