Special Events

W&B Fall Open House & Book Sale

Saturday, September 25, 9 a.m to 5 p.m.
at Writers & Books
Free and open to the public

We will be opening our doors wide to the community to find out more about all our programs and sample some of our course offerings. A number of our teachers will be on hand to answer questions and conduct “mini workshops.” All free. This will also be a great time to stock up on some of those books you never had the opportunity to read previously as we conduct our largest used book sale of the year.

Big Pencil Awards Night

Saturday, September 25, 6 – 9 p.m
at Writers & Books
Tickets: $20 W&B Members/ $25 General Public

Join us as we honor those individuals and organizations who have made significant contributions to the Rochester literary community. The evening will begin with hors d'oeuvres and cocktails, proceed with the presentation of awards, and conclude with fine teas, coffees and desserts. The winning ticket in the iPad raffle will also be drawn during this special event.

With Local Honorees: Angela Cannon-Crothers, Michael Czarnecki, Beverly Gold, Sonja Livingston, Martin Naperstack, Teen Book Festival

Purchase your tickets online. $20 W&B Members/ $25 general public

Alice in Wonderland Masquerade Ball

Friday, October 29th, 8 p.m. – midnight
Cathedral Hall at the Auditorium Center 875 E. Main St.
$20 W&B members & students with ID/ $25 general public
Tickets available Oct. 1st www.wab.org
473-2590 x107

Come as your favorite character from Alice in Wonderland! Appetizers & desserts, cash bar, costume contests, live music, dancing, croquet and more!

What's YOUR Rochester Story?

Do you recall the Christmas Corridor at Sibley's? Did you ride the roller coaster at Sea Breeze? Did you ever wear white gloves when you took the bus downtown? Where did you live when you first married? Why did your family come to Rochester? What is your Rochester story?

The ARTWalk Extension Project is looking for stories (written: 100-400 words or a YouTube video under 3 minutes), to be part of Story Walk, an interactive artistic sidewalk on North Goodman Street. The project is looking for Rochester stories: memoirs, family histories, character studies and other true stories from residents of all ages and backgrounds.

Your Rochester story can be unusual or offbeat, shared by many or totally unique. This can be a story of a public event, or a private experience, from long ago or from the recent past. Yours can be a story about innovative ancestors, or of everyday life.

Send your story in to www.artdrop.org. A selection panel and public input will determine which stories will be recorded and made accessible on the internet and via cell phone from Story Walk, but all stories will be kept and archived. For more information about Story Walk go to www.artdrop.org.

You can also take part in a class to help you hone your story, or you can try it out at Story Slams -- see artdrop.org for a calendar of events.

Poetry Reading of Black Mountain North Symposium Participants

Thursday, September 30, 7 p.m.
at Writers & Books
$3 W&B members / $6 general public

Featuring:
Sam Abrams, Professor Emeritus of Language & Literature, RIT. Formerly a Fulbright Professor of American Literature at the University of Athens and a poetry teacher (along with Joel Oppenheimer) at the St. Mark’s Poetry Project. Author of The Neglected Whitman and The Old Pothead Poems.

Jim Cohn is a poet, disabilities advocate, and creator of the Museum of American Poetics . The author of Sign Mind: Studies in American Sign Language Poetics, he introduced Allen Ginsberg to Deaf poets at NTID in 1984 and in 1987, he coordinated the first National Deaf Poetry Conference, in Rochester, NY. The importance of his role in the history of American Sign Language (ASL) poetics was documented in a 2009 film by Miriam Nathan Lerner entitled The Heart of the Hydrogen Jukebox. Jim Cohn earned an M.S. Ed. in English and Deaf Education from the University of Rochester and the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID).

Albert Glover, Professor Emeritus, St. Lawrence University; editor of the Curriculum of the Soul series, fascicles featuring essays on poetics and mythology by some of the leading figures in the Black Mountain/Projectivist tradition (e.g., Robert Duncan, Ed Sanders, Alice Notley, Robin Blaser, Anselm Hollo, Duncan McNoughton, etc.).

Don't miss this pre-symposium reading!