The Westport Library Presents

Endangered Alphabets, Cultural Erosion, and the Future of the Written Word
A lecture with Author, Tim Brookes

Tuesday, August 6, 2024, 6:00 PM

What does the age of digital convergence, ChatGPT, and globalization mean for the future of the written word? Writer/carver/painter Tim Brookes offers a remarkable and thought-provoking perspective on this question by looking at a range of forms of writing from all over the world that are in danger of extinction.

Tim displays a carving of a piece of text in each script, leading a discussion on how the story of a culture can be seen in its writing, even if that writing is (as in these examples) beautiful, utterly unfamiliar, and disappearing.

For information on the Endangered Alphabet Project visit www.endangeredalphabets.com.

FREE, $20 suggested donation to benefit the library

Made possible, in part, by the Essex County Arts Council’s Cultural Assistance Program Grant with funding provided by Essex County.

About Tim Brookes, Author

Tim Brookes was born in England and educated at Oxford before moving to the United States in 1980.

An editor, guitarist, teacher, soccer coach and author of 17 books and numerous articles and essays, he founded the Endangered Alphabets Project in 2010 with his first exhibition of carvings in indigenous and minority scripts.

Since then he has exhibited and spoken about the Endangered Alphabets at more than 150 colleges, universities, libraries, museums, and galleries including Oxford, Cambridge, Yale, Harvard, the Smithsonian Institution and the Library of Congress, while working with a wide range of cultures to create games and educational materials for learning minority scripts.

His latest book is Writing Beyond Writing: Lessons from Endangered Alphabets.

He lives in a 19th-century farmhouse overlooking Lake Champlain.

ABOUT THE WESTPORT LIBRARY ASSOCIATION

The Westport Library Association was founded in 1884 and has been serving the Town of Westport and surrounding communities continuously since then. The library provides traditional library services as well as access to e-Books, Audio-Books, Free Wi-Fi (indoors and outdoors), copying, scanning and printing. The Westport Library is governed by an all-volunteer board of trustees and is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Tax revenue covers less than 20% of the library’s operating budget. The Westport Library is a member of the Clinton-Essex-Franklin Library System.