Odd Words

This week in literary New Orleans:

This weekend Maple Street Book Shop celebrates its 50th anniversary with a weekend chock full of festivities, September 12th & 13th. The 50th Anniversary is a celebration of the shop and our customers, and a fundraiser for local non-profit Big Class. 10% of the weekend’s proceeds wl go to Big Class to support their mission to encourage New Orleans’ young writers! Friday will feature a reception with the authors and local editor of Unfathomable City, compiled by Rebecca Solnit and Rebecca Snedeker. Saturday is Children’s Day, with local children’s authors reading and signing, plus party crafts, games, and treats. Check the dates below for more details.

& Thursday at 6 pm check out the weekly Spoken Word event #WordConnections at the Juju Bag Cafe.

& Also at 6 pm Thursday Garden District Book Shop features Sherry Lee Alexander, with co-authors: Alfred Lawrence Lorenz and Vicki Mayer and The Times-Picayune in a Changing Media World. This book is a study of the 2012-2013 transition of The Times-Picayune of New Orleans from a daily newspaper to a three-day-a-week publication with emphasis on its online presence (Digital First). It is instructive for all concerned with what the transformation might signify for the news profession and the role of the press in the digital age. More than two hundred employees, including half the newsroom, were laid off in one of the poorest U.S. cities with among the lowest literacy rates and percentages of households with Internet access. The decision raised a furor in New Orleans. Beginning with an historical overview of The Times-Picayune, from its 1837 founding through the present, The Times-Picayune in a Changing Media World: The Transformation of an American Newspaper describes the crucial role the dailies played in the 1960 school desegregation crisis, as well as the impact of the switch on print coverage of hard news in the context of media developments, and provides a detailed analysis of specific print editions of The Times-Picayune and its digital formats conducted before and after the switch. This study of the evolution of The Times-Picayune is instructive for all concerned with what the transformation might portend for the news profession and for the traditional role of the press in the digital age.

& Every Thursday evening the New Orleans Poetry Brothel hosts a Poetry Hotline. Call 504-264-1336) from 8-12 pm CST and we’ll to hear an original poem.

& As part of Maple Street Book Shop’s 50th Anniversary Weekend, Friday at 7 pm the Shop will host a party with the authors and local editor of the 2014 One Book One New Orleans selection, Unfathomable City: A New Orleans Atlas. Like the bestselling Infinite City: A San Francisco Atlas, this book is a brilliant reinvention of the traditional atlas, one that provides a vivid, complex look at the multi-faceted nature of New Orleans, a city replete with contradictions. More than twenty essays assemble a chorus of vibrant voices, including geographers, scholars of sugar and bananas, the city’s remarkable musicians, prison activists, environmentalists, Arab and Native voices, and local experts, as well as the coauthors’ compelling contributions. Featuring 22 full-color two-page-spread maps, Unfathomable City plumbs the depths of this major tourist destination, pivotal scene of American history and culture and, most recently, site of monumental disasters such as Hurricane Katrina and the BP oil spill. Snedeker is the local editor of the book. Snedeker is an Emmy Award winning documentary filmmaker and writer whose work supports human rights, creative expression and her native city, New Orleans. Her New Day Films By Invitation Only and Land of Opportunity rupture cliches about life in the South.

& Friday night novelist and playwright Micheal Zell’s second stage production Thin Walls opens for a run through September 28. Tango-playing Charlotte and her Hollywood-bound daughter Julie run an isolated pet cemetery with one simple rule – speaking aloud is forbidden – a rule immediately shaken up by the arrival of new handyman Bram. Two slippery characters, sideshow performers M. Queneau and Miss Elastic, soon arrive, putting a formerly static place in motion. Thin Walls is a comedy influenced by silent film and looks back to step forward. ‘Thin Walls’ is a work heavily inspired by the golden age of silent film, and promises to be unlike anything else on stage this season. Dialogue is primarily conveyed through intertitles projected above the action, with both ambient sound effects and piano music underscoring the play throughout. Occasionally however, the silence and intertitles are disrupted by lines spoken aloud, largely by the series of newcomers that arrive at Charlotte and Julie’s pet cemetery.

& Saturday Maple Street’s celebration continues with in honor of our 50th anniversary, Saturday, September 13th, as we celebrate our youngest customers and friends with a day of children’s events! We’ll have readings, signings, crafts, prizes, and delicious things to eat!

• 11:30am: Ryan Murphy and Grace Millsaps, the authors of What the Sleepy Animals Do At the Audubon Zoo will read and sign their book and lead an animal mask-making craft.
• 12:30: We’ll lunch with Big Class, a local non-profit dedicated to cultivating and supporting the voices of New Orleans’ young writers.
• 1PM: Storyteller Dianne de Las Casas will read her latest picture book Cinderellaphant, which is a new twist on a classic tale, and everyone will get to decorate their very own crown!
• 2PM: Kid Chef Eliana will talk about her cookbooks, Cool Kids Cook: Louisiana and Cool Kids Cook: Fresh and Fit, and do a cooking demo for us!

& Saturday The Dickens Fellowship of New Orleans meets at Metairie Park Country Day School’s Bright Library from 2-4 pm to discuss BLEAK HOUSE, chapters 1 – 8. It’s the start of a new book and a perfect time for Dicken’s fans to check this group out. New Orleans Branch of the Dickens Fellowship holds meetings September through May, reading one of the works of Charles Dickens each year. The meetings include book discussions, movie versions of the novel, and lectures by Dickens scholars. This year’s book is BLEAK HOUSE. Dues are $25/person (couples $40) payable in September

& Every Friday The Rhyme Syndicate presents a spoken word open mic at Dish on Haynes Boulevard hosted by Hollywood. Doors at 8. Admission $7, $5 will college ID. Music by DJ XXL.

& Every Sunday at 3 p.m. The Maple Leaf Reading Series, the oldest continuous reading series in the south, founded by Everette Maddox, features guest poets and an open mic. This Sunday features an open mic.

& Susan Larson, the former book editor of the former Times-Picayune newspaper and member of the National Book Critics Circle hosts The Reading Life on WWNO (89.9 FM) on Tuesdays at 1:30 p.m. She features interviews with authors of local and national interest. Watch Odd Words on Facebook and Google+ on Tuesdays for a complete list of her guests and features.

& Tuesday evening Gregory Alexander will be signing and discussing his novel The Holy Mark at the St. John Author Fest from 5-8 pm. The event will take place at the St. John Library main branch, 2920 Hwy. 51 in LaPlace. Alexander will discuss how he turned his short story into a novel and will read from his work.

& Every Tuesday night get on the list to spit at the longest running spoken word venue in New Orleans at Sweet Lorraine’s Jazz Club hosted by African-American Shakespear. Doors open at 7pm and the Mic pops at 8pm. It is $5 to get in.

& Wednesday at the Latter Memorial Library A Book Club Named Desire meets. Adults meet to discuss a local classic every fourth Wednesday of the month at 6 pm. For more information, contact Toni at tlmccourt@hotmail.com.

& Wednesday at 8 pm the provocateurs of Esoterotica present “Eso in Love” at the Allways. “Eso in Love” is kind of exactly what it sounds like, pieces that are about love. The Esoteroticans write a lot about sex and relationships but most often we do not share things that have the deep theme of being ‘in love’ or exploring sex as love. So that is what this show is about: sex as it relates to love, falling in love, exploring and deepening our love of another.

& At 8 pm Wednesday Portland Poet Jen Coleman and New York (formerly Lafayette) Poet Marthe Reedwill be reading at the Poetry & Music at BJs’ Blood Jet Series at BJ’s at 8 pm.

& Every Wednesday at 8 pm at the Neutral Ground Coffeehouse there is an hour-long open mic poetry night (or fiction night; whatever you want to read really!).