Historical Tours, Readings Highlight UA’s ‘Slash Stitch Burn’

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Slash Pine Projects at The University of Alabama presents “Slash Stitch Burn: A Patchwork History of the Druid City” Saturday, Nov. 12, in venues across Tuscaloosa. The events in “Slash Stitch Burn” focus on history, poetry and prose inspired by each venue and feature collaborations among words, music and visual and performance art. The events are free and open to the public. The three-part event will begin at 11 a.m. Nov. 12 with a reading in Drish Mansion, a former plantation house south of downtown Tuscaloosa. At 2 p.m., the event continues with two simultaneous alternative-history tours, one of downtown Tuscaloosa and one of the UA campus. Both feature works that stitch together real and alternative histories of downtown and campus sites. Both walks will begin promptly at 2 p.m. and end at approximately 3:30 pm. Tour 1 starts at the Kilgore House, headquarters for the Alabama Heritage building, on the UA campus and concludes at the new courthouse between campus and downtown. Tour 2 starts in the courtyard of the old tavern on the edge of Capital Park and also concludes at the new courthouse. Both tours occur at the same time and will be independent of each other. Each will involve about a mile of walking. The campus walk will include Kilgore House, the basement of Gorgas Library, the mound on the Quad and the Walk of Champions. Prominent landmarks on the downtown tour include the old tavern, the old jail, the Bama Theatre and the new courthouse. At 7 p.m., “Slash Stitch Burn” concludes with a bonfire reading in the wilderness and shadows of Sokol Park. All events feature poetry and prose readings as well as collaborations between words, music, visual and performance art. Readers include UA faculty members Robin Behn, professor of English, and Dr. Wendy Rawlings, associate professor of English, as well as Dr. Catherine Pierce, assistant professor of English at Mississippi State University, and Chad Simpson, assistant professor at Knox College in Illinois. Other notable readers, musicians and artists include Chris Mink, Daniela Olszewska, Laurence Ross, Matt Myrick, the Slash Pine interns and students from Knox College. For details go to www.slashpinepress.com. Support for Slash Pine Projects comes from UA’s English department and Creative Writing Program and UA’s College of Arts and Sciences. We hope to see you there at this awesome event!