A well known actor and education advocate appeared at the Wilmington Public Library Thursday.
LeVar Burton read to Wilmington kids at the library on 10th street.
The actor known for his roles in Star Trek: The Next Generation and the TV miniseries Roots, as well as the educational kids’ show Reading Rainbow, says he visits local libraries, well, because there are kids there.
“And reading aloud is one of my favorite things to do. Is that a serious question?” he laughed.
Burton’s latest projects include an online, subscription-based digital library for children and a short story podcast for adults.
“We are going to need to be OK with consuming more of our reading material in a digital space rather than on the printed page," he said. "We will still print books, but we will be more judicious about the books that we do print. We will always print childrens’ books, I believe, because that very important lap experience is essential to the development of the next generation.”
Burton calls libraries underutilized resources.
“I think that we have a tendency in this country and in this culture to sleep on the value of public libraries and the role that they could potentially play in our lives,” he said.
Wilmington Public Library director Jamar Rahming considers Burton’s visit the highlight of this year’s speaker series, which will include J.R. Martinez’s appearance in April.
“This kind of helps us further our work of stimulating an interest in reading in the digital age, and to help correlate literacy with strengthening our democracy,” said Rahming.
Students from Kuumba Academy and First State Montessori attended Burton’s reading event.
Burton is also scheduled to speak about his life and career at a program for adults Thursday evening.
