This year, the nation will celebrate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, so organizers of the annual Festival of the Book in Charlottesville settled on revolution as their theme. Director Kalela Williams says they’ve defined the term broadly.
"Any kind of turn of thinking, any kind of spin, any kind of cycle. We’re going to see books that also talk about revolutionary eras and revolutionary people – people who’ve changed the world, sometimes in small ways and sometimes in ways that we instantly recognize."
Like the subject of a new book called The Aviator and the Showman by Laurie Gwen Shapiro.
"She has written a biography of not just Amelia Earhart, the famous aviatrix, but also of her husband who was a publishing magnate and who pushed her into doing more reckless things."
Another book profiles Claire McCardell who, in the 1940’s and 50’s, pioneered sportswear for women.
“We think about things like corsets and other things that really confined women’s bodies. She eschewed that and brought in fashions that worked women’s bodies – things like leggings that we take for granted, things like wrap dresses that are flattering to a lot of different forms.”
That program will include a fashion show, and the presentation by photographer Sally Mann will – of course – feature her ground-breaking pictures of Appalachian landscapes and people.
Williams says African-American history will also be on the agenda.
"One book that I’m really excited about is called A Miserable Revenge, and it was written in the late 1800’s by a formerly enslaved man who was living in Winchester, Virginia at the time, and it was discovered by a descendant, and that descendant passed it on to another descendant who’s still with us today / and so we will actually be featuring this book as part of a staged reading with UVA students and faculty."
To see more, visit the festival’s website: VABook.org for a list of nearly a hundred events, most of them free of charge.
