Wednesday, August 15, 2012
You can give back by helping at the book festival, the Decatur Family Resource Fair and other community events.
- VOLUNTEERS IN THE NEWS
- Ralph Ellis
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Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Lee Ann Harvey, the volunteer coordinator for the City of Decatur, recently sent out this email with volunteer opportunities. If you are 21 or over and would like to volunteer in the fall at the Decatur Craft Beer Festival or the Decatur Wine Tasting Festival, please remember that you will receive priority placement at those festivals if you have volunteered at a qualifying event during the year. The Decatur Book Festival is the last qualifying event before those festivals. There is usually a waiting list to volunteer at the Craft Beer and Wine Tasting Festivals, so take advantage of this opportunity. Please note – I am not signing up volunteers for the Craft Beer or Wine Tasting Festivals at this time. You will receive an email when the …
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
Tickets are free but you'll need them to hear U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey.
Free tickets − limited to two per person— are available for U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey's keynote address at the 2012 AJC Decatur Book Festival. She will speak at 8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 31, at Emory University’s Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts. This is her first public reading since being named the 19th U.S. Poet Laureate in June. The address will launch her newest collection of poems, “Thrall.” A Decatur resident, Trethewey is the first Southerner since Robert Penn Warren to be named Poet Laureate and the first local author to deliver the book festival's keynote remarks. She received the Pulitzer Prize in 2007 for her collection, "Native Guard." Trethewey is the Charles Candler Professor of English and Creative Writing at …
Sunday, August 5, 2012
The festival will also announce the selection for the citywide reading program at this August 31event at Agnes Scott College.
The Decatur Book Festival has really increased activities for kids this year. In fact, kids will have their own special kickoff at Agnes Scott College on Friday, Aug. 31, a few hours before new U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey of Decatur gives the festival keynote address at Emory. At the Agnes Scott event, the book chosen for the citywide reading program, On The Same Page, will be announced. The book festival folks sent this full preview of kids' activities For the first time in the history of the AJC Decatur Book Festival Presented by DeKalb Medical (AJC DBF), kids will get their own version of a keynote address—a Kidnote. Nationally renowned performer and children’s author Jose-Luis Orozco will take attendees on a journey through …
Saturday, July 14, 2012
The area around the community bandstand is fenced off while crews repair the soil.
If you haven't noticed, a big section of the Decatur Court Square is now off limits to pedestrians. Work crews have fenced off the area around the community bandstand so they can dig up soil trampled and hardened over the years by the feet of festival goers. The work should take about two months, meaning the area will be inaccessible during the Decatur Book Festival over Labor Day weekend. The work, according to Deputy City Manager Hugh Saxon, will include "removal of compacted soil around the bandstand, installation of a waterproof liner, drainage system, structural soil mix, irrigation system and laying a new Bermuda turf lawn. Several declining trees will be removed and replaced with trees, shrubs and other landscape improvements." Here…
Sunday, July 1, 2012
The local NBC affiliate spent a few hours on the Decatur Square.
- LOCAL CONNECTIONS
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Sunday, July 1, 2012
The morning show for 11Alive, the Atlanta NBC affiliate, dropped into Decatur on Friday to broadcast live from the Court Square. The show aired early -- 4:30 to 7 a.m. -- so you maybe you didn't have a chance to watch. Viewers learned about the city's burgeoning love affair with donuts, local author Mary Kay Andrews, the many authors who live in the 30030 zip code, presidential candidate Bookzilla, the city school system and former Mayor Elizabeth Wilson. Thanks, 11Alive. Come back to visit.
Thursday, June 28, 2012
The Decatur Book Festival arranged the "Great Day in Decatur" photo session at the old DeKalb Courthouse.
Decatur's literary community gathered for a family photo Thursday afternoon. The Decatur Book Festival invited all published authors in the 30030 zip code to the old DeKalb Courthouse for a photo to be called "Great Day in Decatur." The photo was inspired by the "Great Day in Harlem" photo that showed New York City jazz musicians gathered for a picture in the 1950s. The book festival will be held over Labor Day Weekend, with events on and around the Decatur Square. Natasha Trethewey of Decatur, a professor at Emory University and the recently appointed U.S. poet laureate, will be the keynote speaker.
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
There's already one on Wilton Drive in Decatur.
You'll probably be seeing more Little Free Libraries in Decatur. The Decatur Book Festival plans to auction about a dozen of these miniature houses with peaked roofs. They'll be designed and decorated by Decatur area artists. Four were displayed last week when the festival announced the lineup of authors. It's a natural that the book festival would support Little Free Libraries. The Little Free Libraries are placed in neighborhoods and filled with books donated by residents. The neighbors give and take books as they please. The first Little Free Library in the Decatur city limits opened in April on Wilton Drive. Two men in Madison, Wisc., came up with the Little Free Library idea about three years ago as a way to encourage reading and …
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
It will be a "Great Day in Decatur" when the town's many writers assemble for a photo at the old courthouse.
It's difficult enough to gather everybody for a photograph during a family reunion. The Decatur Book Festival is trying to do something even tougher on Thursday: Pull together the town's many writers for a group picture at the old DeKalb County Courthouse. As the festival explained, With so many well-known authors living and working in Decatur, including the current Poet Laureate of the U.S., Natasha Trethewey, [festival executive director Daren] Wang believes the time is right to highlight the town’s talent. Reminiscent of the iconic 1958 photo of jazz legends called, “A Great Day in Harlem,” the photo will include published authors with a Decatur zip code. With the seventh annual AJC DBF set for Aug. 31-Sept. 2, Wang says, “A mission …
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Plenty of local names will appear, plus nationally known writers such as Michael Connelly, Meg Cabot, Kathy Reichs, Tess Gerritsen and Isabel Wilkerson.
The Decatur Book Festival announced Tuesday that Natasha Trethewey, the new poet laureate of the United States, will deliver the festival keynote address. Trethewey, a resident of Decatur, will will speak Friday, Aug. 31, at the Schwartz Center for Performing Arts at Emory University. Book festival leaders announced the lineup of authors during a party at Eddie's Attic. Many of the same people gathered at the Decatur Community Bandstand June 7 to celebrate Trethewey's appointment as poet laureate. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that celebration is where Trethewey agreed to be the keynote speaker. Late last month, festival program director Terra Elan McVoy was trying to nail down a major kickoff speaker. McVoy found it in …
You can hear free music at the Decatur Library and Decatur First Baptist.
Good morning, Decatur and Avondale Estates. It's Tuesday, June 19, and here are five things to know today: 1. It's Family Night at the Decatur Library. Musician Charlie Hope will perform, starting at 7 p.m. It's free, of course. 2. Another bakery has opened. Sugar Moon Bake Shop just opened its doors at 707C East Lake Drive in Decatur. Find out more at www.sugarmoonbakeshop.com or by calling 404-377-3354. 3. The Dekalb Symphony Orchestra performs at 8 p.m. today at Decatur First Baptist Church at 308 Clairemont Ave. It's free. 4. The Decatur Historic Preservation Commission meets at 6:30 p.m. today at city hall. On the agenda: Votes on certificates of appropriatness for two houses in the MAK Historic District. 5. The suspense is almost …
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10:33 am on Saturday, July 14, 2012
It would be too bad if workers accidentally bulldozed that precious Ga-zee-bo. A concert stage could then be intelligently located at the end of the green space. more ›