BATON ROUGE (AP) — What do books, haircuts and art museums have to do with each other? In most cases, nothing at all.
But once a month at O'Neil's Barber and Beauty Salon, they come together in a program called Line for Line.
The idea came from Dubuque, Iowa, from a barber who wanted to encourage children to read. He offered free haircuts to children who would read a book to him from the barber's chair. Lucy Perera, art coordinator of school and community programs for the LSU Museum of Art, heard of it last summer.
"I thought, 'What a simple idea,'" she said. "Obviously, there are lots of barbershops here in Baton Rouge, and I thought it would be nice to bring this idea here."
Perera is right about the number of barbershops. She also was fortunate to find one like O'Neil's.
From his shop a few blocks north of the Baton Rouge General Medical Center's Mid-City location, Curtis sometimes gives haircuts to those in need, including impoverished children and the homeless. Those haircuts can include decorative shaved lines that are popular in urban communities, which helps explain the program's name.
"I've got a little girl that's 9. I always sent her to reading programs," he said. "It's important. I just wanted to do it and give back to the children."
So on Dec. 7, Curtis opened his shop to children who would sit in the chair and read a grade-appropriate book they chose from an assortment that Perera brought. Her assistants provided coloring pens and paper to amuse those waiting their turn. Perera had distributed flyers at Park Elementary School and posted information about the event on Facebook.
If the kids weren't excited about the haircuts, the parents were. "That's a big help for me right now, seeing that I'm ready to have a baby, so money is stretched," said Acolla Ricard as her son, Brian Patterson, 10, took his turn in the chair.
Perera said the event will be repeated in future months for other nearby elementary schools.
But children won't have to wait to whet their interest in reading.
Outside O'Neil's shop is a small, vividly painted cabinet that serves as a free library. Perera said it will be continually stocked with books to encourage children to read.
It was designed by an LSU architecture student, put together by Episcopal High School students and painted by children.
"Kids are learning to read, and a lot of them don't have them in their houses," she said. "And I know; I'm a mom, and sometimes it's difficult to get them to the library and have to return a book. I just thought if we could make sure every kid in Baton Rouge had a book or a couple of books ."
Few would disagree with encouraging literacy. If an art museum seems an unnatural launching pad for this effort, Perera disagrees.
"Children's books all have beautiful illustrations that are all done by artists," she said. "When you're thinking about how you introduce children to the visual arts, the first way that you do so is through the illustrations in a book. Not everybody goes to a museum, but your first experience with art as a child will be through the pictures in a book.
"I think it is the job of all of us to incorporate reading to make it a natural thing for everybody."
– by AP/ Reporter George Morris with The Advocate
