It is a sad percentage that “Reading for all” strives to highlight, but above all to reduce. In France, 7% of the adult population aged 18 to 65 who have been educated in France are illiterate, ie 2.5 million people. An acquired and not innate handicap against which Françoise Smadja fights through her association which sets up several strong actions throughout the year.
In addition to the “Des Livres, des Artistes” festival, which has taken place every year since 2015, “Reading for All” is therefore used to meeting company employees and job seekers affected respectively to the tune of 6 % and 10% by this handicap. The goal ? Raise awareness of reading for those who suffer from illiteracy.
A fight that “Reading for all” is also leading in schools by organizing an interview between a famous author and students from a college or high school… And it is precisely in this context that actor JoeyStarr went to the meeting of more than 300 4th and 3rd year students from the Jean-Zay college in Verneuil-sur-Seine last May.
Asked by college students about his autobiographical work “Le Petit Didier”, published in 2021, the actor and former rapper answered several questions from students at the establishment located in the Yvelines department.
Personal questions to which JoeyStarr, true to himself, replied transparently, such as when a college student asked him how his father had received his book insofar as Didier Morville, of his real name, evokes his conflicting relationships with him in this book.
“I have no contact with him although he is still alive and lives in the Paris region. He is overtaken by who I am today,” answered Joey Starr in front of an assembly captivated by his speech… And if the theme of the questions quickly passed from the private life of the artist to his former career in rap alongside Kool Shen, it is with the same sincerity that JoeyStarr delivered to the teenagers in front of him: “You have to know how to leave room for others”he said in particular.
An avalanche of questions that JoeyStarr ended up cutting short in a humorous tone: “I did not expect to be picked off”, joked the actor before being delighted to have been able to captivate the students of this colleague thanks to his autobiography.
“You have to read, stop thinking it’s tedious. A book, it can make you travel on the spot and that is priceless”, he concluded. This ending sums up the importance of the actions carried out by “Reading for All” to give everyone a taste for reading and thus fight against illiteracy.
Lisa Ziane