2011 marks the 50^th anniversary of the publication of The Death and Life of Great American Cities, the most influential work by Scranton-born urban theorist Jane Jacobs, who changed the way we think about, plan, and experience city life.  While Pages & Places turns a comparatively pale three years old this fall, Jacobs’ work has served as such an inspiration, and the anniversary of this publication such a significant moment for us, that we’ve organized our event around the theme of Milestones, setting Death and Life in the center of this year’s celebration of books and the city.

Festival day kicks off at 9:00am with a panel dedicated to three Coal Region Writers— Schuylkill County’s Thomas Malafarina and Joseph Tarone, authors of 99 Souls and Raven Run respectively, and Mike Breslin, author of Robbing the Pillars—all published by Pennsylvania’s Sunbury Press, allowing us to start the day with a reminder of the rich history of the region Pages & Places is dedicated to celebrating, engaging, and challenging and the literature that is still coming out of it.

At 11:00am, the Civil War, Slavery, and Justice considers our nation’s pivotal moment from the distance of 150 years.  Panelist Eric Foner, long considered the country’s leading historian of the Civil War and Reconstruction eras, won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in history for this year’s The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery, a consideration of Lincoln’s evolving attitudes toward slavery in the years leading up to the Civil War.  At almost the same time, Lawrence Goldstone produced another of the year’s most compelling books, Inherently Unequal: The Betrayal of Civil Rights by the Supreme Court, 1865-1903, an examination of the deliberate unraveling of Lincoln’s emancipation legacy.  Foner and Goldstone’s discussion takes places across the war years, with a view of its causes and intentions on one side and a consideration of a society not yet ready for its most powerful implications on the other.

Our Freedom as in Free panel takes a stark view of the rise of corporate culture and corporate ownership, especially with regards to the internet, computer software, and the stuff of culture and the implicit and manifold threat to democracy.  Software developer and free software activist Richard Stallman is a MacArthur “Genius grant” winner, the creator of the free Linux Operating System creator, and founder of GNU, with which he launched the free software movement.  At 2:00pm he engages in discussion with Nina Paley, director of the animated musical feature Sita Sings the Blues, which sets the ancient Sanskrit epic Ramayana to the American Jazz-age vocal stylings of Annette Hanshaw. Sita has screened in over 200 film festivals and won over 30 international awards.  But after completing Sita, Paley found herself combating our broken copyright system, which led her to Copyleft the film, ensuring that it remains free, and join QuestionCopyright.org as Artist-in-Residence.

At 4:00pm we consider Jane Jacobs’ legacy directly, especially as it applies to Scranton and cities like it, in Jane Jacobs and the Death and Life of American Rust Belt Cities.  Three men deeply involved in the revitalization of post-industrial cities discuss Jacobs’ work, her legacy, and their own efforts to employ it in the name of reenergizing their cities.  In Baltimore, Bill Streuver has been the driving force behind community revitalization efforts that bolster entire neighborhoods and a key contributor in the city’s revitalization through his Jacobs-inspired passion, creativity and commitment to rebuilding.  Chris Doherty has been mayor of Scranton, Pennsylvania, since 2001 and presided over the most dramatic transformation in the city’s history, seeing new construction, the rehabilitation of architectural landmarks, and the revitalization of parks and neighborhoods.  Named by the Atlantic Monthly as one of America’s “Brave Thinkers,” Braddock, Pennsylvania mayor John Fetterman earned a master’s degree in Public Policy from Harvard University before moving to Braddock in 2001 to work for AmeriCorps.  He won Braddock’s mayoral election in 2005, was re-elected in 2009, and has drawn international attention for trying to revitalize his city’s economy.

Our capstone panel, The City as Literary Influence, at 6:30pm, brings together two of American literature’s most extraordinary and vivid novelists, Aleksander Hemon and Teju Cole, both of whom consider the American experience from an outsider’s point of view—Hemon comes to the U.S. from Bosnia, Cole from Nigeria—and elevate their observations to the condition of art.  Hemon is author of The Lazarus Project, which was a finalist for the 2008 National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award, and three collections of short stories: The Question of Bruno; Nowhere Man, which was also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award; and Love and Obstacles.   He won a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship in 2004.  A photographer and art historian, Cole has been lauded on both sides of the Atlantic for Open City, a novel structured mostly as a series of walking tours through Manhattan, winning praise in The New Yorker, where James Wood called it “Beautiful, subtle, and finally, original,” and the New York Times, which called Open City “An indelible novel [that] does precisely what literature should do: it brings together thoughts and beliefs, and blurs borders…A compassionate and masterly work.”

As most of you no doubt know, Liz’s campaign for County Commission began with nearly zero name recognition, zero money, zero infrastructure, an outsider status (having grown up in Cleveland), and no Y chromosome, and yet she came within 400 votes of knocking off a well-funded incumbent.

This is an extraordinary accomplishment, even if it comes as no surprise.

When I asked Liz why in God’s name she wanted to submit herself to half a year of campaigning, never mind, should she win, the thanklessness of the job, she told me what we already know about her—that had fallen in love with this city and its people and its future, and given her wealth of experience in the commissioners’ office and the state treasury, if she wasn’t willing to dedicate her competencies to this position, well, what was she doing here?

Anyone who has benefited from The Women’s Narrative Project or the Women’s Resource Center or her statewide Women and Money program or Pages & Places and its offshoots or any of the myriad things Liz has founded or directed or merely contributed her vast personal resources to knows that this is what she always thinks. It is her alpha and omega. It’s who she is.

As I listened to her address her volunteers and supporters last night, two thoughts crystalized, if not for the first time:

(1) A real political rock star has been born—one who has not only the charisma and strategic intelligence and stamina to be a breathtakingly strong candidate and office holder, but also one whose convictions point our city, our community in precisely the direction we need to go.

(2) How impoverished we would be without her, and how unbelievably lucky we are that this woman who can do whatever she wants, wherever she wants, has chosen to dedicate ourselves to us.

If you see Liz, thank her for that, and then let’s pledge to follow her lead and Create Scranton. Let’s make this a place that lives up to our hopes and our expectations of ourselves.

Bill Black
Co-Director (along with Liz)
Pages & Places Book Festival

Three times a month — on the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Thursdays — you can join us at our upstairs bar for drinks and presentations by Scranton’s most interesting people, true experts in architecture, neuroscience, literature, music, history, politics, art, physics — nearly anything you can think of.

These “presentations” will short and lively — 30 minutes max — and then we can sip wine or coffee or beer and delve into the evening’s subject together.

Join us this Thursday, May 12, as Greg Hunt, founding Dean of Marywood’s School of Architecture, tours us through Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater.

Happy Hour is from 6pm to 7pm, when Mr. Hunt’s presentation begins.  We’ll break from 7:30 to about 7:45, and then Mr. Hunt will lead us in conversation until whenever it is we’re finished.

See you there!

It's all about community.

Here is what we know:

• Communities are built on the strength of shared passions
• Communities become dynamic as their shared passions are approached from a variety of perspectives
• Learning—whether we’re confronting new phenomena or deepening our knowledge of familiar subjects—catalyzes passion and diversity
• Learning and socializing are the only two things that are guaranteed to stimulate the production of new brain cells
• Pages & Places is an all-volunteer, non-profit organization dedicated to leveraging literature, literacy, learning and socializing toward an ever richer, ever more diverse, ever more passionate community of Scrantonians

It in this spirit that we launch our newest endeavor, Pages & Places @ Anthology, this Friday evening, First Friday May 6^th—and we invite you to drop by and see what we’re up to.

P&P@A provides us with an opportunity foster learning, discussion, and collaborative programming that features a great range of fascinating subjects all year long, as well as a (freshly painted) venue for these programs.

We’ll keep you updated often (too often for some tastes, we’re sure) on all the goings on.  But the details aside, we hope you’ll be excited about at two things:

First, to come by, indulge in a beer or a coffee of a glass of wine, get to know the vibrant cultural institutions that will present each month, and engage Scranton’s growing community of diverse and passionate learners;

And that you’ll make a habit of buying your books and DVDs and anything else you typically rely on Amazon to provide through our website.  A portion of every purchase goes to underwrite the Pages & Places Book Festival and/or other vital nonprofit contributors to our community.

Here’s one other thing we know:

• We can make Scranton whatever we want it to be.

So what do you say?   Are you passionate enough?  Shall we get to work?

Sincerely,

Bill Black

Liz Randol

Co-Directors

The Pulitizer committee described Foner’s The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery (W.W. Norton & Company) as an extraordinary “examination of [Abraham] Lincoln’s changing views of slavery, bringing unforeseeable twists and a fresh sense of improbability to a familiar story.”

Misericordia University’s Brian Carso will moderate Dr. Foner’s panel, and he’ll introduce and give a preview to the panel’s discussion at Pages & Places’ newest venture, Pages & Places @ Anthology, in September.

Stay tuned for updates on Pages & Places panelists and the goings-on at P&P@A, which will celebrate its Grand (Re)Opening on First Friday May 6th — that’s just two weeks from today!

Pages & Places and Anthology Books: We've Got Big Things Planned. Stay Tuned!

Christopher Hitchens and Jay Parini with moderator Morey Myers at Pages & Places

‘Pages’ made Scranton place to be

By Rich Howells rhowells@golackawanna.com

Reporter/Photographer

SCRANTON – The second annual Pages & Places Book Festival on October 2 filled the streets of downtown Scranton with book lovers from across the country who attended discussion panels, book singings, and other literary activities throughout the day, many to see one of the festival’s biggest draws – controversial author Christopher Hitchens.

Following a “Prologue Party” on Friday evening at The Colonnade, where most of the festival’s sponsors, organizers, and panelists gathered for drinks and hors d’oeuvres, Pages & Places began at 9 a.m. with a panel on international literature at ArtWorks and activities, such as live author readings and a Kids’ Fest, on Courthouse Square that continued throughout the day.

A total of five panels, with topics ranging from feminism to neuroscience, informed and entertained until after 6 p.m.

At noon, authors large and small met with fans and signed their work, including the festival’s major draws, Scranton native Jay Parini, whose novel “The Last Station” was adapted into a major motion picture last year, and British-American author and journalist Hitchens, who just published his memoir, “Hitch-22,” in June.

The two literary heavy hitters met again a few hours later for a panel entitled “Authors of Argument: The People, Books, and Debates that Shape American Civic Life” in the Scranton Cultural Center’s Shopland Hall, moderated by local attorney Morey Myers.

In the beginning of the program, Parini acknowledged Hitchen’s metastatic esophageal cancer, a condition that has spread to his lymph nodes and lungs, and wished him better health, which was met with a room full of applause and cheers.

Despite his condition, Hitchens was his notoriously outspoken and controversial self, targeting, among other topics, organized religion, terrorism, Prince Charles, and Mother Teresa. Parini and Hitchens briefly discussed the literature they felt shaped American life, but spent much of the hour debating the invasion of Iraq and the War on Terror.

Both quick-witted authors debated fiercely and passionately, but remained friendly and cracked jokes throughout.

The panel was followed by a brief Q&A session, with most of the questions focusing on religion and the United States’ involvement in the Middle East.

One of the final questions of the day was from Justin Vacula, co-organizer of the NEPA Freethought Society, directed at Hitchens, himself an atheist.

“What is the best advice that you would have for anti-theists today fighting back against religion?” Vacula asked.

“Don’t keep the faith,” Hitchens wryly replied.

Pages & Places founder and co-organizer Elizabeth Randol said that more than 2,000 people attended the festival, with about 1,100 at the panel discussions alone. The Kids’ Fest, a new addition to the festival this year, drew over 250 on its own.

Some attendees came as far away as California and Ontario, Canada.

“Pages & Places grew tremendously in its second year and has hopefully established itself as a significant contributor to the literary arts scene in Scranton and the Northeast,” Randol said.

“We are already looking forward to our third year and anticipate an equally, if not more, successful event next October.”

Original story by Rich Howells at: http://www.timesleader.com/golackawanna/aande/_lsquo_Pages_rsquo__made_Scranton_place_to_be_10-10-2010.html

Are you addicted to CSI? Seen every episode of Law & Order? Then join us this Thursday, December 2nd for the real thing!

“The Murder Room” author Michael Capuzzo discusses his book on the true crime-solving cabal of the Vidocq Society, an elite group of international forensic experts with criminal profiler and Vidocq Society co-founder Richard Walter. The event is free of charge at The Hilton in downtown Scranton.

Cocktails begin at 5:00pm and the conversation begins at 6:00pm.

Pages & Places is excited to announce the outcome of its first annual Poetry Contest!

Students in grades 3-11 from throughout Northeastern Pennsylvania participated, with hundreds of submissions coming in, making the contest highly competitive.

To view the names of the winners and those students recognized in the Honorable Mention category, and to read their poems, please click here. They will be honored in a ceremony on Courthouse Square in downtown Scranton on Oct. 2 at 1pm as part of the Pages & Places KIDS FEST.

The contest was organized by the Pages & Places Book Festival in collaboration with the Lackawanna County Library System, the Mulberry Poets & Writers Association and the Northeastern Educational Intermediate Unit.