Baltimore Book Festival 2009

Ran up to Balti- more for the 14th annual Book Festival held on and around Mount Vernon Place. It's a bookish nerd's Mecca! And I'd forgotten just how much of the space at such events is given over to prosthelitysing. So many booths devoted to ideology from Islam to Wicca, from Afro-centric studies Feminisim. A few were more mainstream, like Sci Fi and Cooking. And there was the book booth dedicated to the writings of Edgar Allen Poe (a Balmer staple--shit, the NFL football team's called the Ravens! after all). There was also a large section dedicated to children's lit which was very interactive and inspiring.

On the square at Mount Vernon is this amazing United Method- ist church. For well over a decade now, I've visited the park and the adjacent Walter's Art Gallery, shops and restaurants, and have never before entered this church. Once, I visited the square with a doctoral student who had done actual work on and in the church only to find it locked! It's a magnificent ediface.

Today, I toured it's interior for the first time and just kept thinking, "Why isn't it larger on the inside?" Additionally, the stained glass is pedestrian at best; however, the baptismal font sculpted like a lily was its best feature .... what a waste in a denomination that only christens.....but back to the books!

Or beyond the books. There was also lots of food, mostly ethnic, mostly grilled, aromas to entice anyone. And at the top of the park was this stage where during my visit the group, "Mambo Combo" dished the best of Cubano Salsa! I only wish I could dance that way! My soul craves to, but my flesh is sadly without either the nature or nurture to do anything more than look like someone in the midst of a gran mal seizer! So I never respond in real time or in public to such urges!

In the end, I walked away with two books, and lots of ideas.