The Gotham Group has partnered with a number of children-centered non-profits to launch a YouTube reading room series, Gotham Reads. The new channel will feature close to 75 top children’s authors, content creators, screenwriters and performers, including Kevin Bacon, Stargirl author Jerry Spinelli and AnnaSophia Robb reading their favorite books and giving a peek into their creative process.
1stAveMachine, the production company with whom Gotham Group has a strategic partnership, is providing creative and production support and will be running the channel.
The series launched last month (and will be refreshed every few days) with the first five videos that feature Caldecott Honor recipient and New York Times bestselling author/illustrator Tony DiTerlizzi, authors and filmmaker Gris Grimley, The Fairly OddParents Butch Hartman, and Senator Cory Booker.
Other participants include Skylar Astin, Steve Buscemi, Lin Oliver, Casey Cott, Max Greenfield, Jewel, Sonequa Martin-Green, Natascha McElhone, DJ MacHale, Ethan Nicolle, Sara Rue, Lorraine Toussaint, Patrick Warburton, among others. Watch Bacon and others below:
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“We’re happy to share much needed family entertainment during this unprecedented time. The Gotham Group has a wide range of talented artists and, thanks to our team’s experience in running YouTube channels, we can give the necessary creative and technical support to bring this vision to life,” says 1stAveMachine Head of Content and Executive Producer Andrew Geller,
To extend outreach to as many quarantined preschool through middle school kids as possible, Gotham Reads content will be shared with a network of affiliated organizations including 826LA, Common Sense Media, Girls Inc., Imagine LA, P.S. Arts, Save the Children, Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing, Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) and Young Storytellers.
“Authors, illustrators, screenwriters and content creators are eager to help bring some solace and normalcy to children around the world during these challenging times. Storytelling is an essential part of our lives,” adds Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Gotham’s founder and CEO. ”No one knows that better than these artists, whose unique voices have entertained and comforted millions of children for decades.”
SOURCE: Trust Collective
