Currents
Read. Discuss. Engage.
Currents is a turnkey book club program developed and funded by the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities (LEH). The program offers libraries and other community-based nonprofits the tools they need to host themed reading and discussion programs centered on timely humanities topics.
Currents host sites receive:
- An LEH programming grant to cover site coordination, facilitator honoraria, book purchases, and program publicity
- Reading and discussion guides developed by the LEH and humanities scholars
- Scholar-facilitator training that encourages thoughtful dialogue
- Customizable publicity kits for print and digital program promotion
- Audience evaluation tools
Applications to host a Currents program will open this fall. Check back for updates.
Currents Series

Who Gets to Vote? Conversations on Voting Rights in America fosters conversations about the history of voting—and efforts to suppress the vote—in the United States. The series is part of the special NEH initiative, “A More Perfect Union,” which is designed to demonstrate and enhance the critical role the humanities play in our nation and support projects that help Americans commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 2026.
Themes include:
- the expansion of voting rights since the country’s founding
- the electoral process
- the women’s suffrage movement
- historic and contemporary voter suppression practices
- the Voting Rights Act of 1965
- the 2013 Supreme Court decision that invalidated key portions of the Voting Rights Act
- the disenfranchisement of incarcerated and formerly incarcerated Americans
The Woman’s Hour: The Great Fight to Win the Vote, by Elaine Weiss (Viking, 2018)
The Embattled Vote in America: From the Founding to the Present, by Allan J. Lichtman (Harvard University Press, 2018)
Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All, by Martha S. Jones (Basic Books, 2020)
Bending Toward Justice: The Voting Rights Act and the Transformation of American Democracy by Gary May (Basic Books, 2013)
One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy, by Carol Anderson (Bloomsbury, 2018)
Let My People Vote: My Battle to Restore the Civil Rights of Returning Citizens, by Desmond Meade (Beacon Press, 2020)
St Charles Parish Library, East Regional Branch
June 23–September 22, 2022
160 West Campus Drive
Destrehan, LA 70047
Register at http://myscpl.evanced.info/signup/ or email Maria Bilello at maria.bilello@myscpl.org.
Terrebonne Parish Library, Main Library
August 15–September 26, 2022
4130 West Park Avenue
Gray, LA 70359
Email or call Jessica Mouton at jmouton@mytpl.org or 985-876-5861 to register.
University of Louisiana at Monroe Library
July 12–October 11, 2022
700 University Avenue
Monroe, LA 71209
Email Meredith McKinnie at mckinnie@ulm.edu to register.
Southern University Museum of Art Shreveport
June 27–September 26, 2022
610 Texas Street, Ste. 110
Shreveport, LA 71101
Email Angelique Feaster at afeaster@susla.edu to register.
Neighborhood Empowerment Network Association and Lower Ninth Ward Voter’s Coalition
June 14–September 13, 2022
1123 Lamanche Street
New Orleans, LA 70117
Email l9voters@gmail.com or call Lou Anne White at 504-605-4055 to register.

Witness to Change: Conversations on Coastal Impacts incorporates history, memoir, and fiction and engages members of the general public in conversations on the beauty of and challenges faced by coastal communities.
Themes include:
- what makes a place a home
- experiences of flooding
- hurricanes
- family roots and connection to place
- land loss and dislocation
- scarcity and adaptation
- risk and relocation
Bayou Farewell: The Rich Life and Tragic Death of Louisiana’s Cajun Coast, by Mike Tidwell (Vintage Books, 2010)
Salvage the Bones, by Jesmyn Ward (Bloomsbury, 2011)
The Water Knife, Paolo Bacigalupi (Penguin Random House, 2015)
Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore, by Elizabeth Rush (Milkweed Editions, 2018)
Check back at a later date for the next Witness to Change program schedule.