Susan Patron: 13th Annual Charlotte Zolotow Lecture
Wisconsin Historical Society, Wednesday, Sept. 29, 7:30 p.m.
A couple of years ago, Patron, the children's author and retired development manager of L.A. Public Library's juvenile collection, found herself at the center of a censorship firestorm for using the word "scrotum" on the first page of The Higher Power of Lucky, her Newbery Medal-winning novel for ages 9-12. She rode out the controversy, and the book has been translated into almost a dozen other languages and optioned for a movie version -- heartening evidence that censorship may be subject to the equal-and-opposite laws of Newtonian physics.
F.J. Bergmann and Thomas Ferrella: A Cold Read
Avol's Bookstore, Thursday, Sept. 30, 6:30 p.m.
After capturing a subject in a Polaroid image, photographer Ferrella passed it to poet Bergmann for some typewriter expression. Assembled into small books, the results were on recent display at Sheboygan's John Michael Kohler Art Center and are on view throughout this festival weekend at Avol's. Here, the duo explain and demonstrate their collaboration.
Shattering Americana, Stitching Ourselves
Wisconsin Historical Society, Thursday, Sept. 30, 7 p.m.
The festival's annual collaboration with UW-Madison's Office of Multicultural Arts Initiatives this year promises galvanizing outbursts of live verbal publishing by spoken-word icon Mark Gonzalez, Emmy nominee Liza Garza, the inestimable Susanna Chavez-Silverman and the Midwest Spoken Word All-Stars.
Books as Art: The artsTRIBE Collective
Madison Public Library Main Branch, Friday, Oct. 1, 5 p.m.
Collective members discuss their creative impulse to employ books in their art. After the talk, walk across the street and celebrate the exhibition's opening at Overture Center, with music by the Laurie Lang Trio.
Mickey's Tavern, Friday, Oct. 1, 5 p.m.
The American Civil Liberties Union and Wisconsin Library Association toast their belief that books are best bound by any method but censorship.
Helen C. White College Library, Saturday, Oct. 2, noon-6 p.m.
Let's hear it for zines. Unbound by traditional publishing methods, infoshops and D.I.Y. enthusiasts are thinking way outside the book, conceiving new means to create and distribute intellectual property.
