The Revival of the Bradbury Library

Ray Bradbury Our School’s Greatest Influence

By:Arlin Alas

2015-2016

 

 

     The school’s library is open to students who are willing to check out books and use the computers for resources, but one thing that has been missing throughout the years was life. One would walk through the Ray Bradbury library observe walls, books and computers but there was no sense of life. Ms.Tikisha Harris, our school’s librarian, emphasized that, “My vision for the library is to make it come alive. Kids love the library; they come during nutrition and lunch. I was looking for something in the front to make it more attractive.”

 

     In the front lobby of the library there was a plaque that said Ray Bradbury 1938. Yet students don’t know who Bradbury is,  or why our school’s library is named after him. To begin with, Bradbury graduated from L.A. High in 1938, and was well known for his dystopian novel, Fahrenheit 451. The dystopian novel is set in the future, and society devalues books by burning them.

 

     In honor of Bradbury, our fellow students  under the guidance of professional muralist, Richard Wyatt, revived our library by painting a mural. According to Richard Wyatt, “the story behind the mural is an interpretation for Ray Bradbury's book, Fahrenheit 451, it's a combination of scenes where books are burning and another scene where a book escapes along the river.” Our library is now combined with literature and art. Wyatt continues, “when you think about influences, Bradbury was influenced by Shakespeare, but he influenced rock icon Jimi Hendrix. Jimi Hendrix had a library full of his books, he called his music science fictional rock and roll.” Junior Ronald Mendez who consistently worked on the mural during nutrition, lunch and after school said, “when I’m painting all I think about is mixing the colors in order to make the mural alive. I’m not thinking of other stuff, I just paint. I believe everyone will come and visit the library more often.”

 

     Now our library is open to students, staff and administrators to enjoy the Bradbury mural.  It’s also a great place to spend time working on homework or observing inspirational quotes from well-known authors. “You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.” -Ray Bradbury. Luckily, with our new library, that won’t happen any time soon.

 

      Junior Ronald Mendez who consistently worked on the mural during nutrition, lunch and after school said, “when I’m painting all I think about is mixing the colors in order to make the

mural alive. I’m not thinking of other stuff, I just paint. I believe everyone will come and visit the library more often.”