Note to Correspondents

PREMIERE SCREENING OF ‘READING RAINBOW’ EPISODE TO BE HELD AT HEADQUARTERS

IN OBSERVANCE OF INTERNATIONAL LITERACY DAY

Actor LeVar Burton to Participate, plus Musical Performance and Book Signing

In observance of International Literacy Day 2002 (8 September), a premiere screening of “Our Big Home:  An Earth Poem”, an episode of the multi-Emmy winning Public Broadcasting System (PBS) children’s television programme Reading Rainbow, hosted by actor LeVar Burton, will take place on Thursday, 5 September, at 5 p.m. in Conference Room 4.  The screening is intended for children (aged 5-10) of delegates and staff.  The episode deals with the theme of global unity and cooperation; it was filmed in part at United Nations Headquarters and is based on the book, Our Big Home:  An Earth Poem, written by Linda Glaser and illustrated by Elisa Kleven.

Jones Kyazze, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization(UNESCO) Representative to the United Nations in New York, will open the programme, which is being organized by the Department of Public Information (DPI) and co-sponsored by UNESCO and PBS.

LeVar Burton, host and co-executive producer of Reading Rainbow, will speak to the children in the audience prior to the screening.  Mr. Burton is the recipient of a NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Performance in a Youth or Children’s Series/Special as well as an Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer in a Children’s Series.  

The event will also include a performance by "Pure and Simple", a musical trio who write and perform songs about literacy and other topics; they won a Children's Music Web Award for “Best Song for Older Children” for “Homework Blues” in 1998.  Following the screening (6–7:30 p.m.), author Linda Glaser and illustrator Elisa Kleven will sign copies of Our Big Home:  An Earth Poem, in the United Nations Bookshop, where the book is available for purchase.

For more information, please call Joanna Piucci at (212) 963-7346 or

Lisa Wickmann at (212) 963-0089; for media accreditation, (212) 963-6934.

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