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Each day, The 215 Festival draws closer, and each day, we’re getting a little more excited around here. Today, though, we’re especially excited to announce the appearance of Damien Echols, author of Life After Death, in conversation with multi-year Philebrity Award-winner Tara Murtha, on Sunday, November 4th at Underground Arts. Echols’ name should ring a bell: Along with childhood friends Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley, Jr., Echols was part of what came to be known as the West Memphis Three, who were falsely tried and convicted as teenagers in 1994 of the 1993 murders of three boys. After DNA evidence was allowed in an appeal, all three were released last year, and Echols’ book is a reflection on life before and after his incarceration. His conversation with Murtha is sure to be a festival highlight.

This year’s 215 Festival presenting 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 excerpted Pete Townshend’s Who I Am: A Memoir:

“I wasn’t trying to play beautiful music, I was confronting my audience with the awful, visceral sound of what we all knew was the single abso­lute of our frail existence — one day an aeroplane would carry the bomb that would destroy us all in a flash. It could happen at any time. The Cuban Crisis less than two years before had proved that. On stage I stood on the tips of my toes, arms outstretched, swooping like a plane. As I raised the stuttering guitar above my head, I felt I was holding up the bloodied standard of endless centuries of mindless war. Explosions. Trenches. Bodies. The eerie screaming of the wind.”

Previously: Ladies And Gentlemen, This Is The 2012 Edition Of Your 215 Festival!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 16th, 2012 at 3:54 pm.