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The Reading Life With Bill Lavender, Megan Burns And Jeroen DeWulf

By Susan Larson
Published April 9, 2018 at 10:44 AM CDT

This week on The Reading Life: Bill Lavender and Megan Burns talk about the upcoming New Orleans Poetry Festival, April 20-22 at the New Orleans Healing Center. The Fest is three years old this year and features approximately 200 poets! And scholar Jeroen DeWulf talks about "From the Kingdom of Kongo to Congo Square: Kongo Dances and the Origins of the Mardi Gras Indians."

Here’s what’s on tap in the literary life this week:

  • Sunday, April 8, is the last day of The Big Book Sale, sponsored by the friends of the Jefferson Public Library, from noon-5 p.m.at the Pontchartrain Center, Williams Blvd. at the Lake, in Kenner. Free parking. The sale includes more than 65,000 items.
  • Sheba Turk signs “Off Air: My Journey to the Anchor Desk,” Sunday, April 8 from 2-5 at the Terrance Osborne Gallery, 2900 Magazine St., and again Saturday, April 14, from 1-3 at Barnes & Noble/Westbank.
  • Chris Offutt discusses and signs his new novel “Country Dark,” Monday, April 9, at 6 p.m. at Octavia Books.
  • Poet Laura Mullen, is the 2017-2018 Arons Poet at Newcomb College Institute. She will be read her work Monday, April 9, at 7 p.m. at Freeman Auditorium, Woldenberg Art Center, Tulane University.
  • Liz Thorpe discusses her book “The Book of Cheese: The Essential Guide to Discovering Cheeses You’ll Love” and hosts a cheese tasting, Tuesday, April 10, from 6:30-8 p.m. at author night at Hubbell Library on the West Bank.
  • Poets Dennis Formento, author of “Spirit Vessels,” and Valentine Pierce, whose new book is “Up Decatur,” read and sign their work, Wednesday, April 11, at 6 p.m.at Octavia Books.
  • Notarial Archivist Sally Reeves discusses the public markets of New Orleans, Wednesday, April 11, at 6 p.m. at Latter Library in New Orleans.
  • Historian Winston Ho discusses “Chinese American History in New Orleans: French Quarter” Wednesday, April 11, at 7 p.m. at the East Bank Regional Library, 4747 W. Napoleon, Metairie.
  • David Capello discusses "The People's Grocer, John Schwegmann, New Orleans and the Making of the Modern Retail World" as part of the Learning Before lunch series,
  • Thursday, April 12th, in the Earl K Long Library on the UNO campus, room 407. Coffee with the speaker begins at 9:30, and the talks run from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m.
  • David Correia and Tyler Wall, authors of “Police: A Field Guide,” and Anna Feigenbaum, author of, “Tear Gas: From the Battlefields of War War I to the Streets of Today,” discuss policing tactics and history, Thursday, April 12, at 6 p.m. at Octavia Books.
  • John Magill discusses and signs “The Incomparable Magazine Street,” Thursday, April 12 from 6:30pm - 7:30pm at the Rosa Keller Library.
  • Arleen Cerbone Faustina discusses and signs her book, “A Little Gumbo in Her Face,” Thursday, April 12, at 6 p.m. at Garden District Book Shop.
  • Ted Underwood of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign presents the 29th annual Josephine Gessner Ferguson Lecture, “Digital Perspectives on the Long Arc of Literary History,” Thursday, April 12, at 6 p.m. at the Freeman Auditorium, Woldenberg Art Center, Tulane University.
  • Jeroen De Wulf discusses and signs “From the Kingdom of Kongo to Congo Square,” Sunday, April 15, at 3 p.m. at Octavia Books.
  • Southern Letterpress presents an Altered Book Workshop Sunday, April 15, from 1-3 at Latter Library. Free but register by emailing Emilie Staat at estaat@nolalibrary.org.
  • Start thinking about what you’d like to bake for Edible Book Day – a cake inspired by your favorite book, perhaps? It all takes place Saturday, April 21, from 10-3 at the New Orleans Museum of Art. Check out the events calendar at noma.org for details. New Orleans Public Library director Charles Brown and Susan Larson will be on hand to judge all the deliciousness.
  • Get set for the New Orleans Poetry Festival coming up April 20-22 at the New Orleans Healing Center and other locations. Special guests include the Baton Rouge slam team, Louisiana poet laureate Jack Bedell, Douglas Kearney, Dylan Krieger, Tonya Foster, Carolyn Hembree, and many others. Check out nolapoetry.com for the complete schedule.
  • And here at The Reading Life we’re celebrating New Orleans Tricentennial by putting together a list of 300 great books about New Orleans. Send us your favorites to Labooks@wwno.org and see if they make the list!
Susan Larson
The Reading Life in 2010, Susan Larson was the book editor for The New Orleans Times-Picayune from 1988-2009. She has served on the boards of the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival and the New Orleans Public Library. She is the founder of the New Orleans chapter of the Women's National Book Association, which presents the annual Diana Pinckley Prizes for Crime Fiction.. In 2007, she received the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities lifetime achievement award for her contributions to the literary community. She is also the author of The Booklover's Guide to New Orleans. If you run into her in a local bookstore or library, she'll be happy to suggest something you should read. She thinks New Orleans is the best literary town in the world, and she reads about a book a day.
See stories by Susan Larson