Literacy is an industry wrought with statistics. I strongly dislike statistics. Where's the face of one of those 44 million adults who can't read? Who asks those 3 out of 10 kids who quit high school where they think times got tough for them?

Statistics don't stir a nation into change. Stories do.

In 2000, I set out to tell the behind-the-scenes story of the literacy community. The Songs Inspired by Literature Project CDs were calling cards to encourage the media to take a closer look. They did. So with the help of over 700 musicians , we raised the issue of literacy above the radar.

But then the teachers had a few things to teach us.

While arts programs were being cut in schools, teachers snuck art in through the English classroom, using our songs as bridges to engage students with reading. Within three months of the first CD's release, we realized that advocacy was only one part of our work. Arts-based learning was calling our name.

This web site tells the story of our work now and how we'd like to connect with you.

What's next? Where's Artists for Literacy 2 years down the road? It's steeped in peer-to-peer learning. Imagine this web site as a portal connecting classroom work from all over the country. Every time a piece of art is created that is inspired by a book - it's sent to us and we make it electronically available to all the teachers who subscribe to our site. We provide not only the art, but lesson plans to support the use of that art in set curriculum.

Imagine one student creating a new book cover for Catcher in the Rye and another student gaining a better sense of the book from that one powerful interpretation.

Imagine a class in the Bronx uploading a song they wrote about The Invisible Man and students in California creating digital stories set to that song. Watch out MTV...

Imagine an unmotivated student suddenly deeply engaged because Artists for Literacy has given his teacher a tool box filled with lesson plans that ask him to freestyle in the voice of Romeo from "Romeo & Juliet". He's able to first hear other students from another school do the same exercise.

We have the technology now to set up a site thick with resources to keep the teaching of literature on the cutting edge of today's world. We're on our way.

It's all in the name. Artists for Literacy. There's so much power in art to transform, to inspire, to wake up a soul. Whether it's from exposure to art or from the creating of art, there's no better way to make meaning of the world.

The teaching of literature should be as timely and dynamic as the stories themselves. This is our glorious task.

With heart and song - Deborah Pardes