READING RAINBOW's LeVar Burton Will Be Reading Stories Live For Kids, Teens, and Adults
Star Trek: The Next Generation and Reading Rainbow star LeVar Burton has announced that he will be reading stories live on Twitter three times a week to help people cope with being stuck at home. This live-stream project will start this Friday and will continue on a Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedule thereafter.
Each day will focus on a different age range. Mondays will be for the kids, Wednesdays for the teenage young adults, and Friday is for the adults. Anyone who grew up with Reading Rainbow in their lives is sure to enjoy this, and will enjoy sharing it with their kids.
As Burton has been trying to figure out what kind of stories to read without infringing on anyone’s copyright, he explained:
“I figured that during this difficult time I could contribute by reading aloud to folks who could use some diversion for themselves and their families. In order to avoid legal complications, I’ve gone down the rabbit hole searching through volumes of short stories in the public domain for appropriate content for families and have come up empty.”
In response to his tweets, author Neil Gaiman gave him permission to read anything he's written on the show, saying, "You have my blanket permission for any of my stories Levar.” HarperStacks also responded to Burton's tweets, saying "We are granting permission for online readings of HarperCollins Children’s Books titles through May 31, 2020."
So it looks like copyright issues won’t be a problem for him anymore. Also, in case you didn’t know, Burton hosts a podcast series titled LeVar Burton Reads, and this is his mission statement for it:
“If I had a mission statement for LeVar Burton Reads, it would be to remind the Reading Rainbow generation how important reading is in their lives, and their imaginations. I guess more than anything else that's the message that I want. I want people to engage with their imaginations, with these stories. Because, especially as adults now, you guys are adulting. I don't want you to stop using your imaginations because you're going to need them going forward. Because there's a whole lot of shit we're leaving for you to clean up. I'm sorry about that. I apologize, but I am trying to encourage some of the skills and talents you're going to need going forward.”
You can check out Burton’s official announcement of the live-stream reading below. Will you be tuning in?