Now in its 21st year, Highland Park Literary Festival is a seasoned community event, but brand new to working with Books In Common. We reached out to the event organizers to speak a bit about how working with BIC has helped them reach their goals:
BIC: You’re new to working with Books In Common. What made you want to work together and how would you like to see your relationship with Books In Common grow?
HPLF: This is the Highland Park Literary Festival’s first year to engage with Books In Common. Your website and newsletter have already been a valuable resource for us. Reading entries from other event organizers is especially helpful, allowing us to learn about different events and what works for their audience.
The HP Lit Fest, a community non-profit, has a 20-year history of attracting great writers. We rely on grants and individual donations for funding, so we don’t have a large budget. We rely on a team that will believe in our mission as they represent us when finding our keynote speaker.
The team at Books In Common really listened, we knew they were our partner during the search. In July, Books In Common secured an author we really hoped would come to HP Lit Fest. We were so excited to have had Dave Eggers as our keynote speaker in 2016. The dedication and support from Books In Common made this happen. This year’s HP Lit Fest was a unique experience for both him and our community. We are so lucky to have connected with Books in Common. They made our dream come true.
Students choose a workshop to attend during their English class period […] this type of access to writers would not be easy for them to do on their own.
BIC: The Highland Park Literary Festival celebrates all things written, spoken, and sung. How have you seen this focus on literature inspire your community?
HPLF: Lit Fest’s primary audience is the students of Highland Park High School (grades 9th-12th). HP Lit Fest provides access to professional writers who offer guidance and inspiration to write. In addition to our keynote speaker events, we offer over 60 workshops for the students. The Highland Park High School students choose a workshop to attend during their English class period that interests them. This type of access to writers would not be easy for them to do on their own. Our annual program has inspired former students to achieve successful careers as journalist, fiction and nonfiction authors, screenplay, and songwriters. Many of these students return to lead workshops.
BIC: Can you describe a literary program that you’ve done to bridge diversity in your community?
HPLF: We bridge diversity through our workshops. John Owanda, a native of Nigeria, has been a Highland Park Lit Fest favorite year after year. He captivates Highland Park High School students with his unique ability to tell a story in a style handed down through centuries of oral tradition. He brings with him his calimba, an African finger piano, and with a combination of music and the spoken word he has shared not only a lesson in storytelling but a history lesson from Nigeria.
When we are able to discover a culture different from our own in an author’s story, we feel like we’ve been given an extra gift to share with our audience.
The year HP Lit Fest hosted Mark Salzman as our keynote speaker, he shared with us his experiences of living in China. This got us thinking about ways to create an event which could possibly broaden our audience. As a result, we showed his film to the community and middle school students at a local theater. His film about living in China and becoming a Kung Fu master was the catalyst to create an evening of entertainment which included Chinese-American students singing songs in Mandarin and a Tai Chi master offering a lesson to the audience!
With every storyteller and writer, there is often a personal history behind the story. When we are able to discover a culture different from our own in an author’s story, we feel like we’ve been given an extra gift to share with our audience.
