Ladies And Gentlemen, This Is The 2012 Edition Of Your 215 Festival!
Today, we are proud to offer you the official lineup for The 215 Festival, Philadelphia’s literary arts festival, an endeavor we’ve already told you some things about. And, well, we’re more than proud: We are STOKED. Highlights include:
· 215 Festival Kickoff Reading with Buzz Bissinger and the unveiling of The Mural Arts Mobile Campfire, a light installation/glowing orb designed to mimic a campire’s glow. Throughout the Festival and at various locations in the Eraserhood, the 215 Fest will stage author readings around this magical creation.
· Ladies Night Balkan Party w/ West Philadelphia Orchestra, featuring: This American Life’s Starlee Kine, Anna Goldfarb, Juliet Hope Wayne, and more.
· John Wesley Harding’s Cabinet of Wonders featuring Alec Ounsworth of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Dean & Britta, The Spinto Band, Doogie Horner, and more. At Underground Arts, tickets on sale now.
And so much more: Yoga with Neal Pollack. Lovingly Bound Book & Record Fair and YA Saturday!, featuring all-day readings by Young Adult readers and the Mighty Writers kids, curated by Elisa Ludwig and Maddie Richardson Graham. Bibliodiscotheque Dance Party. And on and on, all of it winding up, drum roll please, John Hodgman at Underground Arts, which we will be presenting FREE OF CHARGE, thanks to the generosity of our sponsors.
About those sponsors: Holy mother of God, thanks to them. This year’s sponsor is delanceyplace.com, which is a delightful email service which delivers to you daily hand-selected excerpts from great works of non-fiction. Take today’s email, for instance, which offered bits from James Donovan’s The Blood of Heroes: The 13 Day Struggle for the Alamo—and the Sacrifice that Forged a Nation:
Because there was a scarcity of mules, hundreds of oxen would be used. They were slow and could only be driven for eight hours a day. The army’s train comprised more than two thousand carts. [...] Eventually the soldiers’ daily [food] ration would be cut in half. [...] Hostile Indians posed an even more significant problem.
The kind folks at delanceyplace have shown us no such hostility, nor has our other sponsor, PhillyHomegrown, which highlights the city’s robust and vibrant neighborhoods. And our other partners — Mural Arts, WXPN, Free Library of Philadelphia, Next American City, Mighty Writers, Shindig, Underground Arts, The Trestle Inn, Vox Populi and PhilaMOCA — well, let’s just say that they are to us what hundreds of oxen were to the gang at the Alamo.
The full schedule is posted after the jump, as well as on the 215 Festival site. Please be a dear and follow the 215 on Facebook and Twitter.
CLICK HERE FOR OTHER 215 NEWS!
Note: Events, authors, performers and especially pop-up reading locations will be announced right up to the Festival’s start. Please contact us for further information or follow the 215 Festival on Twitter or Facebook. And please pay a visit to our Sponsors & Partners: Without them, your first weekend in November would be so, so drab!
Thursday Nov. 1:
7pm: 215 Festival Kickoff Reading, unveiling of The Mural Arts Mobile Campfire and Opening Remarks by Buzz Bissinger, author of Father’s Day, Friday Night Lights and A Prayer For The City, more TBA. Location TBA.
9pm: Ladies Night Balkan Party w/ West Philadelphia Orchestra, featuring: This American Life’s Starlee Kine, Anna Goldfarb, author of Clearly, I Didn’t Think This Through, comedienne Juliet Hope Wayne, and more. Plus: The World Debut of Literary Speed Dating! At Underground Arts.
Friday Nov. 2:
7pm: The Mural Arts Mobile Campfire reading with Jon Ronson, author of The Men Who Stare At Goats and Lost At Sea, and more TBA. Location TBA.
10pm: John Wesley Harding’s Cabinet of Wonders featuring Alec Ounsworth of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Dean & Britta, The Spinto Band, Doogie Horner, and more. At Underground Arts. [BUY TICKETS NOW]
Saturday Nov. 3:
12pm: Brunch event with Brendan Newnam of American Public Media’s Dinner Party Download at The Trestle Inn.
12pm-6pm: Lovingly Bound Book & Record Fair. At Underground Arts.
12pm-6pm: YA Saturday! Featuring all-day readings by Young Adult readers and the Mighty Writers kids, curated by Elisa Ludwig and Maddie Richardson Graham. At Underground Arts’ Side Theater Space.
4pm: Screening/Music/Reading, featuring excerpts and projections from Pines, a film in progress by filmmaker David Kessler, accompanied by a reading by poet/author/illustrator Allen Crawford, with live musical performances by the Ruins of Friendship Orchestra. At PhilaMOCA.
7pm: The Mural Arts Mobile Campfire reading with J. Robert Lennon, author of Familiar, Erik Bader, author of Cherry Hill, and more TBA. Location TBA.
9pm-2am: Bibliodiscotheque Dance Party & 215 Festival Music Showcase, to benefit Mighty Writers. Featuring: Lushlife (Western Vinyl), Light Heat, Lily & The Parlor Tricks, and Dave Quicks Trio in the side theater space, plus DJs and dancing in the main space all night. At Underground Arts.
Sunday Nov. 4:
12pm: Brunch event at The Trestle Inn TBA.
2pm: Damien Echols, author of Life After Death, in conversation with Tara Murtha. At Underground Arts. [FREE TICKETED EVENT, RESERVE HERE]
4pm: Next American City presents “Literature And Cities” panel/reading/discussion. At PhilaMOCA.
6pm: Vox Populi presents “N Apparati,” a poetry and sound collage event. Participants: Cecilia Corrigan, J. Gordon Faylor, Eddie Hopely, Lanny Jordan Jackson, Eric Laska, Astrid Lorange, Trisha Low, Andy Martrich, Steve McLaughlin, John Paetsch, Manya Scheps, Andy Sterling, Claire Wilcox. At Vox Populi.
7pm: The Mural Arts Mobile Campfire reading with TBA. Location TBA.
8pm: 215 Festival closing event with John Hodgman plus special guests TBA. At Underground Arts.
