This Wednesday, students and faculty at The University of Alabama will have the opportunity to commemorate African-American Heritage Month with books. The Women’s Resource Center and the gender and race studies department will honor the works of African-American female authors and promote literacy through the National African-American Read-In event at the Ferguson Center.

Participants will read excerpts from their favorite African-American female authors.

“We encourage anyone and everyone to present, no matter their gender or their race,” Jessica Hitchins, assistant director of the Women’s Resource Center, said.

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The read-in will also promote literacy in a big way. Part of being literate is being able to read and critically engage different information, she said.

“Black women writers have made significant contributions to literature, but often go unnoticed by the dominant culture,” Hitchins said. “We cannot make informed decisions and be articulate in an area without reviewing everything that is offered.”

Eric Patterson, education and awareness coordinator at the Women’s Resource Center, said that the program also helps shed light on the fact that African Americans have invested in the literary culture of the United States.

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“This event honors African-American Heritage Month by honoring pioneers within the population,” Patterson said. “The event will have [participants] who will read passages, and they will serve as examples of how literacy can touch people [and be] a transformative experience.”

Hitchins said African-American female writers are often under appreciated in literary genres, but the read-in provokes participants to actively question why they have not been incorporated into the general education curriculum.

“Black women’s voices are continually marginalized [in] literature, scholarship and artistic arenas,” Hitchins said. “This demands that we take notice of these brilliant works and hopefully spark people to add these authors into our daily practices.”

The read-in is hosted in conjunction with African-American Heritage Month, which celebrates African-American history and recognizes the contributions of African-American culture to society. The event is open to faculty, staff and students and will be held at 5 p.m. in Room 312 of the Ferguson Center.

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