A Call For Citizen Decatur Book Festival Reviews
Decatur Metro | September 4, 2010There’s been a ton of Decatur news in the past week, so I haven’t really had a chance to mention this, but if you’re spending the day at the Decatur Book Festival today or tomorrow and you’re inspired to write a report about a specific author event or the even just an overview of the festival, type ‘er up and send ‘er in to nick@www.decaturmetro.com! I’m happy to post them.
We did this last year and had some very interesting and thought-provoking discussions on both the festival and author topics. I know it’s sort of last minute this time, but I just wanted to let you know that the option is still available to everyone.
Happy book-festing!
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On Friday, the Clairemont kids were amazed to see that David Steinberg (author of the Daniel Boom books) had made a special video just for them. It was played at morning assembly before their visit to the festival.
They had a great time and came home with new folk tales to tell.
- Flamenco version of Ferdinand the Bull was great
– Likewise author of book about Toni Stone, only woman to play professionally in the Negro Baseball League. Sounds worth buying,
– Stalls to visit:
– Guy who wrote books about NY Subway and growing up in Amsterdam Projects in Harlem
– Mary America for President
– Delta the Polar Bear (I don’t have that name right) and the adult book about leaving the beaten track at age 50-something and travelling around U.S. wildernes
– Wren’s Nest storytellers capture the attention of kids up to middle school in ways I don’t understand. I never “got” the Brer Rabbit stories when I read them as a kid. I think they are best told and acted, not read.
Weather was just a tad cooler than usual plus with breeze so our family got less wiped out than usual. Crowds seemed more manageable this year but maybe we are just more skilled at planning for the festival or the lower temperature and humidity made us less irritable. Or maybe the festival has perfected scheduling to deal with crowds.
Sad we missed the flamenco show. Not much of interest otherwise for toddlers. We ordered take out from the Brick Store to avoid waiting in food lines which were crazy long. Glad to see Opus music with live performances. Stopped to look at at a few booths, will go back with cash to buy some books tomorrow. We’ll be front and center for the ladybug parade tomorrow.
I’m bummed there’s no used book sales in the Holiday Inn this year which was always my favorite part of the fest. There’s a rumor that something like it will show up there in October but just not the same. Beautiful weather, though!
I was wondering what happened with that too. Books Again has a great sale going on though.
My favorite thing yesterday was the scene excerpts from the “Confederacy of Dunces” play. The event was in the high school auditorium so I got my first look at that. Nice facility.
My favorite was the talk by Catherine Manegold about “Ten Hills Farm: The Forgotten History of Slavery in the North” Very interesting how this one place links to so many fortunes, families and institutions. Here’s a quote from her web page:
http://tenhillsfarm.com/2/Artist.asp?ArtistID=11315&Akey=3CTF7J7Z
“New England proudly names its heroes. But when Barack Obama studied law at Harvard did he know his apartment lay on ground that was home to African slavery for 150 years? Did he know that an early owner of that land gave money from the slave trade to help found the famous law school he attended? Who, in this century, knows that slavery persisted in Massachusetts longer than it did in Georgia?”
The first new world slaves were Native Americans that lost a war to the colonizers. Very much worth buying I think.
Don’t know how many people stayed for the music Sunday night but it ended rather abruptly about an hour early. Turns out the sound guys pulled the plug on the band when they took a break. Didn’t even give them time to announce that things were ending so lots of people seemed to be sitting around waiting for the concert to restart while the band packed their instruments. The sound guys say they were hired only for the festival and not for the concert. I bet if they had stayed long enough for the band to ask for donations they would have made more than their fee would have been for that last hour.
Loved the Book Festival. Congratulations to all involved with the event – a job well done.
Thanks to DM for reminding readers about Chimamanda Adichie. I enjoyed her session most of all those I attended.
Also enjoyed 2 events at Eddies Attic.
Center for Puppetry Arts – Poe – perfect setting for this presentation. Great crowd of all ages .
Melissa Morgan Oakes – a knitting instructor. Wonderful sense of humor – loved her. Knitters treat their authors like rock stars. The Blue Elephant tent sold every copy they had of Melissa’s 2 books. This surprised both the author and the book seller. More knitting next year !
I really appreciate that the Book Fest had some not so literary events like knitting, bee keeping, urban farming, cooking, etc. I hope they continue this type of programming. I love to hear novelists, poets and historians but some variety is nice, too. I guess I am not alone – most of the above mentioned sessions were packed.
My one disappointment was being shut out of Natasha Tretheway on Sunday . ( I arrived 15-20 minutes early but the room was already at capacity ) After Jonathan Frazen , this was probably the most publicized event on the schedule. Not sure how many seats are in the First Baptist Fellowship Hall but I wonder if it is the largest of the DBF venues. If not, this author should have been in the largest possible space. Many people were disappointed to be turned away from this event. My personal disappointment aside, a full venue is a good problem to have !
Again, congrats to all at DBF !
I believe it is the largest venue, and I wondered why it wasn’t used for the Franzen event, considering how uncomfortably crowded the Agnes Scott venue was. BTW, though I too missed Natasha Tretheway’s reading, I was two rows behind the Pulitzer winner at the keynote, up in the cheap seats (Yeah, I know all seats were free).
My favorite speaker was probably Rheta Grimsley Johnson but Marc Wortman was a close second. Great weekend!
I found out my toddler loves any kind of performance- he sat rapt through Ridley Pearson and other big kid stuff.