Posted on 04/18/2015 1:11:19 PM PDT by real saxophonist
The first efforts of TV star LeVar Burton’s attempt to re-envision “Reading Rainbow” for the digital age go live at the end of this month.
The cellphone. The tablet computer. E-Readers.
Decades ago, technologies that today feel second-nature were nothing but nebulous concepts in the imaginations of science fiction authors and screenplay writers. When those ideas were broadcast into the homes of America’s children via television, however, generations worked to bring them into reality.
“That which we focus our imaginations on is what we tend to manifest in this realm,” said television star LeVar Burton at a Friday evening speech at the Riverside Library & Cultural Center, 3700 Golden St., in Evans. “If we can think it, we can do it.”
That was the central message from Burton, the longtime host of the children’s television show “Reading Rainbow,” which for more than 30 years aired on PBS with the goal of sparking kids’ interest in reading.
The show went off the air in 2009, and on Friday, Burton spoke primarily of his recent work to resurrect the program for the digital age so it can spark the imaginations of a new generation of children. Burton has been speaking around the country after raising more than $5 million in a web-based crowdfunding effort to do just that.
“Our mission has always been to let kids know that they can pick up a book and go anywhere in the world in their imagination,” Burton said. “You only have to be exposed to enough before you discover that with which you resonate.”
Burton told a crowd of about 300 people how his own love of reading began with science fiction novels when he was a child, and how his mother set a good example for him by constantly reading herself. Adults therefore have a fundamental role to play in encouraging children to read and inspiring their imaginations, Burton said.
“The power of storytelling is irrefutable,” he said. “I genuinely believe we have spent way too much money on war and machines of war, and we have left our children behind, and that is not OK.”
In “Reading Rainbow’s” current iteration, children can watch videos and read books on the Internet with smartphones, tablets or computers. Those devices were chosen over television, Burton said, because that’s where children are spending their time today.
Entertainment media have always played a role in indulging imaginations, Burton said, as he was inspired by Gene Roddenberry, the creator of the “Star Trek” television series. Burton himself had a starring role in “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” a spinoff of the original series.
“It was certainly uncommon for me when I was reading those science fiction books when I was a kid to encounter heroes who looked like me,” Burton said. “Gene Roddenberry’s vision of the future was one that embraced me. That vision where people have resolved all of our issues of race and class and sex and economy.
“It was the kind of world I wanted to live in when I was a child, and it’s still the kind of world I want to live in now. And I believe it all begins with a relationship with the written word.”
If he removes that silly looking earring he would be taken more seriously.
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