For the first time ever, six Kansas City area libraries are joining together for a Metro-Wide Big Read of the book, The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien, a modern classic that depicts the conflict in Vietnam through the experiences of an Army infantryman.

The Olathe Public Library kicks off the Big Read with a number of activities, including an evening of ‘60s protest and movement songs sung by award-winning Kansas City musicians who lived through that tumultuous era. Danny Cox and husband-and-wife duo Bob & Diana Suckiel will recreate the acoustic music of the '60s, a decade marked by rallies and marches against the Vietnam War, the draft, the "Bomb," poverty and wage inequality; a decade of struggle for civil rights and for women’s rights. Cox and the Suckiels received the Folk Alliance International Spirit of Folk Award in 2014, and all were selected to play the Heritage Musician Concert series at the Pilgrim Chapel in Kansas City.

The Big Read, supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, coincides with the premiere of the latest documentary series by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, The Vietnam War, broadcast locally by KCPT Channel 19. For more information about the Big Read and a link to events throughout the Greater Kansas City area, visit http://olathelibrary.org/events/big-read-kc