WORD OF SOUTH
The original idea for the Word of South Festival of Literature and Music came out of my participation in various literary festivals (the Southern Festival of the Book, the Los Angeles Times Book Festival) when The Gendarme came out in 2010. I’d never been to a literary festival before, and was impressed with the ones I attended. Groups of intelligent people wanting to talk about books--what could be better! I was on the Tallahassee City Commission at the time and decided there was too much potential for conflict in trying to start a festival in Tallahassee while also a commissioner, so when I decided not to run again in 2012, I began kicking the idea around with a group of friends.
During the time I was a city commissioner, the other commissioners (I voted against it) awarded each commissioner additional compensation in the form of “deferred comp.” This later became a political issue and was halted, but during the interim funds accrued in my name. I decided to donate the bulk of this money as seed money for the festival, and Word of South, (not without difficulty, and opposition from those claiming the money was “tainted”), was born. We decided, rather than trying to be the Tallahassee version of the South Carolina literary festival, to do something different, and we discussed pairing books with other things (art, politics, the environment) but eventually decided on what seemed the simplest: music.
The first festival was held in April 2015 in Tallahassee’s newly renovated Cascades Park. It rained all weekend. A series of catastrophes ensued: the actor Tony Hale had to be pulled off the stage when lightning threatened, some events were canceled, Ann Patchett appeared in a sweaty inside space meant to house maybe twenty people. But the concept seemed to work, and we managed to keep it going. Through the generosity of sponsors public and private, we’ve featured artists ranging from Sheila E to George Clinton to Rick Bragg to the Flaming Lips, and it’s all been quite special. One of the aspects I’m proudest of are the unique things we’ve done that can’t be seen or heard anywhere else: our “mu-aushup” pairings of Jeff VanderMeer and Vernon Reid, David Kirby and Ben Sollee and the late Julia Reed and Eden Brent, as well as our tribute to Cannonball and Nat Adderley, our tribute to the women in jazz, our Muscle Shoals tribute to the music of Arthur Alexander, and more.
We’re in the process of planning for the day when I’m no longer involved in this, but I’d like to keep going with it for a while. We’ve got some great things in store, and it’s a lot of fun every April. There is truly nothing else like it in the country. Come check things out!