The first annual (hopefully) North Park Book Fair was held today!
Book lovers, authors, poets, artists, and everyone and anyone who loves reading, writing and creativity showed up for the two block long festival!
As you can see from the upcoming photos, North Park Way between 29th Street and Ray Street was absolutely alive!
At first I just wandered past the booths, trying to absorb it all, amazed by everything that I saw. Then I figured I’d blog about the event and began to record smiles!
Read the photo captions to learn more about what I discovered…
Not only was there live painting, local authors and small presses, but one could enjoy poetry readings, storytelling for kids, and perusing thousands of books for sale! And food, too!When I reported the street was packed, I wasn’t kidding!A friendly North Park Main Street volunteer smiles for a pic. Thanks for the great event!The San Diego Public Library had tables full of used books for sale.Friends of the San Diego Public Library smile! I’ve purchased oodles of used books at the Central Library over the years.I almost bought this book about San Diego. I have too much to read, already.Kids could draw fun comic panels at the Little Fish Comic Book Studio booth.Keithan Jones of KID Comics smiles. Look at all the cool independent comic book art he created!He did this great Wonder Woman sketch!I listened for a while as poets presented their words to the gathered crowd.Live poetry at the North Park Book Fair! This animated poet received big applause!A smile from an Accidental Aliens writer!Smiles from two Accidental Aliens artists!Beatrice Zamora wrote award-winning children’s book The Spirit of Chicano Park. She’ll be dancing at the big Danza event at Chicano Park tomorrow!Book, books, books everywhere!Armando Elizarraras created some very cool artwork based on portraits of famous authors. Check out his tattooed Edgar Allan Poe with The Tell-Tale Heart!MORE. LESS. etc. Three sequential books by artist, author and poet Ted Washington! Can poems include mathematical formulas?The folks of Write Out Loud were at the North Park Book Fair, presenting this fun, fishy Kamishibai street theatre story!Book fair goers could indicate with chalk the place where they most like to read…In bed, on the toilet, by the pool, at the beach, with a cat . . . or anyplace!The smile of superhero creator @boypoetic!Tamra L. Dempsey took photographs for the beautiful book A Journey Through Literary America! It includes literary passages by famous authors.One smile and one semi-smile. It’s all good. Keep on creating!Cynthia Diamond wrote all these Wyrd Love books. I remembered seeing her years ago at a big Liberty Station book event!Douglas W. Mengers wrote a book about San Diego Trolleys. I learned some interesting history when we chatted.This book contains lots of old images of rail transportation in San Diego.Lots to see and do at the North Park Book Fair!
High school students attending The Waldorf School of San Diego were painting a large, colorful mural in City Heights today!
I swung by the corner of University Avenue and Wilson Avenue this afternoon to see how their public art project is progressing.
The Waldorf School has teamed up with the organization Love City Heights to spread culture and beauty and positive messages in this east San Diego community! I’m told more murals might be forthcoming!
This particular mural was designed by members of the school’s Social Justice Club.
The inspiration is American author Audre Lorde. According to Wikipedia: “As a poet she is best known for technical mastery and emotional expression, as well as her poems that express anger and outrage at civil and social injustices she observed throughout her life. Her poems and prose largely deal with issues related to civil rights, feminism, lesbianism, illness and disability, and the exploration of black female identity…”
I observed that lots of students have participated in creating the mural.
Each hand, holding a paintbrush, has spread human kindness.
UPDATE!
I checked out the completed mural a couple days later!
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of photos for you to enjoy!
I spent a couple hours today with my friend Mitchell. He plays didgeridoo in Balboa Park.
We went on a walk and got lunch at the Japanese Tea Pavilion. Then I listened for a while to his extraordinary pulsating music.
During the concert a traveling poet came by, watched and listened.
After I said goodbye to Mitchell and began down El Prado, I came upon the poet sitting at a small table before his manual typewriter.
His name is Ben Bernthal. He will write an original poem based on words passersby give him. I gave him the word “didgeridoo.”
What I received was an exceptional piece of poetry and a friendly chat.
After I headed off on my way, it occurred to me that Balboa Park is one enormous, colorful poem. In the way every life is a sort of poem.
Visit Ben Bernthal’s website and learn more about a really great writer by clicking here. You can request a poem online. He will type the poem on high quality paper and mail it to you!
Better yet, if you’re in San Diego, look for him sitting at his typewriter in Balboa Park . . . before life’s grand adventure turns him elsewhere.
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
It has been months since I promoted my blog Short Stories by Richard, but I just now published a new short story titled Father’s Paintbrush, and I think some readers might enjoy it.
Like several other stories I’ve written, it has a surprising O. Henry-like ending!
If you’re interested, you can read this small work of fiction about life, learning and magic by clicking here.
I have more photographs taken yesterday at Presidio Park coming up, so stay tuned!
Public art that inspires reading can be found all across San Diego!
In the past I’ve photographed murals, sculptures, and even some beautiful glass panels that encourage reading. Often great books and authors are celebrated. Wisdom, knowledge, compassion and other timeless human values are shown to arise from reading. And, of course, there’s the simple enjoyment. Almost everyone loves to learn something interesting, or a good story!
After seeing artwork that promotes reading outside the Vista Library on Sunday, and posting photographs here, it occurred to me that I should link to more of this inspiring art!
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of photos for you to enjoy!
Do you love reading literature from the 19th century?
I do!
I love Mark Twain, Lewis Carroll, Emily Dickinson, Jules Verne, Charles Dickens, Mary Shelley, Edgar Allan Poe, Henry David Thoreau, Herman Melville . . . there are too many great Victorian authors from this period to mention!
If you love to read these authors, too, there’s an online event in progress that you’ll probably like!
During this special event you can listen to selections from 19th century literature read aloud by San Diego actors!
It’s part of Write Out Loud’s virtual TwainFest, and you can subscribe by clicking here to get daily links to new YouTube readings in your email!
What was the event like before the coronavirus pandemic? To see photos from TwainFest last year in Old Town San Diego State Historic Park, click here!
Mark Twain uses his cane to point out his classic novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
Creating a work of art presents the artist with a dilemma. How does one know the artwork is finished?
Suppose you’re a painter. You add brushstroke after brushstroke to your canvas, continually changing it. You alter a line here, blend a color there, add touches of light or dark, then stand back every so often for another critical examination. Which brushstroke makes your painting exactly right?
There is almost infinite potential in a canvas, brush and paint. But a painter must decide when to stop.
Does the artist finally stop because their creation “feels” right?
Feelings change.
Does the artist finally surrender? Does creativity meet a wall? Can the artist proceed no farther?
Human imagination is limitless.
Yes, your painting at this stage is beautiful. But why do you decide to now place it in a frame and say it’s done?
I just finished writing a short story about this artistic dilemma. And about other mysterious things. It’s titled The Wheel.
The main character in this small story is a potter.
Will I ever make changes to this work of fiction? Who knows?
What words would you expect to read on the side of a sewage pumping station?
Caution? Beware of spill? In case of vile stink, call an emergency phone number immediately?
Pump Station #4 in Point Loma is different. You can find it at the corner of Carleton Street and Shafter Street, near the entrance to Shelter Island. Large words on the small pump station might cause those walking by to stop and wonder. Nature is a mutable cloud which is always and never the same.
It’s a quote by transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson.
If you think about it, sewage is simply another part of nature. And it’s a sort of mutable cloud, always and never the same. It’s a liquidy cloud that’s kept safely unseen and unsmelled.
This very unusual public art was created by Marcos Ramirez and Teddy Cruz. The otherwise ugly cinder block pump station was painted blue and made interesting with an adjacent sculpture of beams, and the steel lattice on two sides containing Emerson’s strangely appropriate philosophical quote.
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I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of photos for you to enjoy!
I finished writing another short story. This once has the simple title Twinkle.
Once upon a time I studied physics in college. Back then I learned that the elements composing you and I and the entire world were forged in the furnaces of stars. (Mostly, that is.)
A month or so ago I was out on one of my walks, moving through a poorer neighborhood, when I saw flowering weeds in the bare dirt of a front yard. And the seed for a philosophical story entered my mind.
The short story that finally grew and matured you can read here.
