The Big Read program has a long month ahead of itself.

The Big Read, which is part of USI’s Service Learning Program and community partners, is organizing a month-long discussion surrounding the book “The Grapes of Wrath” by John Steinbeck. The events kick off at 2 p.m.  Saturday with an open panel in the Browning Room at Central Library.

“We’re trying to get people to read the book,” said Anne Statham, Service Learning director.

Author John Steinbach won a Pulitzer Prize for the novel.

“The Grapes of Wrath” is a novel that exposes the reader to hardships during the Great Depression. Statham said the readers can compare the Great Depression to the Great Recession.

“We want to get the generations talking about these issues. The young people and old people are seen as competing for resources,” Statham said. “We want people to think and talk about issues collaboratively rather than feel in competition for resources.”

The program is funded by a $12,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

At least five USI classes will be involved with the program as well as a few classes from the Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation. The public is welcome to join as well.

“The whole point of the program is to think about literature and how to think through issues,” Statham said.

USI’s provost emeritus Robert Reid will give the keynote address at 7 p.m. Feb. 5 in Mitchell Auditorium.

Reid said he read “The Grapes of Wrath” in high school.

“It was recognized as a really important piece of literature,” he said. “I don’t believe I read it as a requirement. I read it because it was by a major, major American writer.”

Reid will discuss images that most Americans have seen in the 1930s during an economic hardship.

“That’s a subject that’s interesting to me,” he said.