Arts

Local literary lights shine at South End authors book festival

by Michele D.  Maniscalco
Friday Nov 20, 2015

The most hidden of treasures in the hip and culture-rich South End is the wealth of literary talent in our midst. On Monday, November 16, neighbors got to meet and greet over 20 South End-based authors at the first-ever South End Authors Book Festival, held at United South End Settlements (USES) at 566 Columbus Avenue. Novelists, poets, illustrators and theologians gathered to promote their works at the gathering and in turn, they were asked to donate 20 per cent of their proceeds from the festival to benefit USES's literacy programs.

Some scribes including West Canton Street's Jean English Gibran, author of "Love Made Visible: Scenes from a Mostly Happy Marriage" and French sociologist Sylvie Tissot, author of "Good Neighbors: Gentrifying Diversity in Boston's South End" went well beyond that. Tissot's book quite literally has been the talk of the town, drawing both praise and consternation from local residents at and since her September 1 book talk at Harvard Book Store and the November 5 panel discussion "Do We Like What We've Become?" also held at USES. Participating authors included local historian, South End News founding editor and festival organizer Alison Barnet; William Kuhn, whose novel "Mrs. Queen Takes the Train" has been optioned by Hollywood's Weinstein Company; Thom Donovan, an artist and longtime Piano Factory resident who authored "Lennon at Sea", a graphic history of John Lennon's final months; and Bonnie McIlvaine, whose coming of age memoir, "5 Squares" is set against the backdrop of the South End's jazz heyday, in which her father, Johnny McIlvaine, owned the Trinidad Lounge and other nightclubs, and whose friends were a varied lot including policemen and gamblers, musicians and baseball players.

A pleasant surprise was the presence of former South End Historical Society executive director Hope Shannon, who traveled from Chicago to sell and sign her book, "Legendary Locals of the South End". Libraries were represented as well, with South End Branch Library head librarian Anne Smart offering information on free films and other events at the library and the Lydia Walshin of the Little Free Library answering questions about the free book exchange located at 36 Milford Street.

The book festival sprang from the fertile mind of longtime community organizer and visionary Mel King, who mentioned it to Barnet. Barnet recruited a committee including Smart, King, authors Charlie Caizzi and Russ Lopez, and USES marketing and events manager Evan Gray. Both Barnet and Gray were pleased with the turnout, noting that attendees started arriving right at the 3:30 starting time, and the flow of guests was constant through most of the timeframe, only starting to dwindle shortly after 7:00 PM. Barnet was also pleasantly surprised at the reception of her book. "I haven't calculated it but I did do very well. I think everybody did. I seriously did not think [the festival] was going to be much of anything. I was astounded when people started walking in at 3:30 and it was non-stop," she observed. Gray concurred, stating on the morning after the event, "It was a big success, and I think we are going to do it again next year."

Ralph Kee, who has been involved in the founding of several local churches including the León de Juda on Northampton Street, came to talk about his religious writings. "I think everyone is pleasantly surprised at how many people are here," he remarked. "My point in coming was not to sell books but to talk to people, to learn from you and maybe you learn from me." McIlvaine said, "The event is fabulous. It's so nice to see so many people coming to a brand-new event like this." Russ Lopez, author of "Boston's South End: The Clash of Ideas in a Historic Neighborhood" said, "A lot of people have bought the book and a lot of people have shared stories that they knew about the South End." Lopez will also showcase his book at the South End Historical Society at 532 Massachusetts Avenue on Thursday, November 19. Tony Piccolo, who promoted Tissot's "Good Neighbors", was also happy with the outcome. "It went well; I sold five or six copies of the book."

Barnet was also happy to be able to showcase under-the-radar writers. "One thing I set out to do from the beginning was to bring in different people who wouldn't have been included anywhere else, like Blackfoot Warrior who writes poetry. He had several pamphlets. Also, Matt Regan who lived on Sharon Street in the '40s. Sharon Street was taken by the hospital. Matt wrote "The Yard" about the Bates School and the families that lived around there."

While the authors are South End-based, the novels on exhibit at the festival spanned the world. Mari Passananti's "K Street Affair" is a tale of intrigue on one of Washington, DC's power corridors, while Gabriel Valjan's four-book Roma series, with the next edition coming next year, takes place in various cities around Italy. In Kuhn's "Mrs. Queen Takes the Train", an ennui-ridden Queen Elizabeth slips away from Buckingham Palace and goes on a railroad journey, and Philip Gambone's "Beijing" deals with an American widower who accepts a position in the Chinese capital and falls in love there.

In an interview shortly after the festival, Barnet sounded tired but satisfied as she remarked, "I am thankful it was a success."