18 January

Sharing the storm. Libraries and my epitaph

by Jon Katz
Epitaph: The Library Tour

Maria and the donkeys. Sharing news of the storm

I’m not much for mulling my death or my legacy, and I don’t expect to have a tombstone – I’m looking to have my ashes trod upon by donkeys and dogs. But I like the notion of a legacy. I hope I am remembered as a good husband and father, as a good friend, and as a story-teller,  a person who confronted fear and chose life. And also as someone who spoke up a bit for libraries, and made the point that they are precious and fragile, and we dare not lose them to the mad and epidemic idea that nothing valuable is worth paying for.

I have  a personal stake in libraries. When I was a hunted and haunted child, I took refuge in the Rochambeau Branch of the Providence Public Library, and a stern but perceptive woman – she had a handkerchief tucked into her blouse and whipped it out like a baton when she needed it – took notice of me and pity on me and connected me to books and writers, quietly  encouraged me to write and read my stories and promised that my books would one day be on her shelves. She kept her word.

I will see them there for the first time next Thursday when I go to Providence to talk about libraries, writing and people and animals. I never got to thank her in person, but perhaps I can acknowledge her next week.

I’m excited about the library tour. It will be cold and a lot of driving. And great fun. How lucky I am to be doing this. What a good cause. And I am getting focused, as I tend to do when time is short. This is the first book tour I have ever planned myself, and boy, does it show. But it’s coming together. Today is the first day in weeks that no librarian has written me to correct a name, time or spelling. Whew. I forgot what they are like.

Libraries are the best of us, and shining symbols of the American experience. Everyone is welcome in libraries, everyone can get help for free there. Libraries are the original idea centers,  and librarians have offered havens and refuge for the bright and creative outcasts of their communities for generations.  They offer computing, videos, books, help finding jobs, and of course, stories. They are jam-packed, used and vital to our civic souls. When libraries are closed and crippled, where will we go? Twitter?

Librarians, notoriously abused, underpaid, mistreated and unappreciated, are the happiest and most dedicated people I know. They repay often thankless communities with generousity, hard work and commitment. Libraries need us now, more than ever. Somehow, in our curiously twisted time, we seem to accept the notion that they can be whittled down to almost nothing, while banks, carmakers and insurances companies get bailed out and we come up with $800 billion to spend on defense and that isn’t really even controversial. To be sane in a mad time.

I have this fantasy. I hope I see a politician someday who doesn’t just ask what things cost, but asks what kind of people we want to be.

And we would tell him or her that we are the kind of people who love libraries and will not let them die.

___

Loving Libraries, Round One: Sunday, January 23, Pember Library, Granville, N.Y.; Monday, January 24, Cobleskill Community Library, Cobleskill, N.Y; Tuesday, January 25, Scoville Library, Salisbury, Conn.; Wednesday, January 26, Free Library of Northampton (Bucks County, Pa.), Richboro, Pa.; Thursday, January 27, the Rochambeau Branch (Hope Street), Providence Public Library; Friday, January 28, Osterville Library, Osterville, Mass., 2 p.m.; Scituate, Mass. Library, 7 p.m. Saturday, January 29, 2 p.m., Edgartown Library, Martha’s Vineyard.

18 January

For the creative life. Gallery 99. Library tour.

by Jon Katz
Gallery 99. February 10-13

Height of the storm

All over the country, the idea of the subsidized life for art and culture seems to be fading. For libraries, artists, writers, journalists, filmmakers, academics, small farmers, museums and foundations, resources are shrinking, and creative people do not have a lobby in Washington, alas.

Generally, the story is one of great lament – how can we survive? Nobody wants to buy our work. No one is buying it. No one seems to care what we do, or feel our work is important to a world driven nearly mad by insecurity, greed and fear. What will become of us?

The elaborate system of publishing, galleries, teaching positions, grants and government subsidies are out of fashion, not only disappearing but  the idea of subsidizing culture is now almost violently opposed by politicians in power. During the Depression, the idea that art  and writing and artists and writers needed to be supported and given outlets for their work  was enormously popular, and some great works of public and private art still grace our lives and post offices and public squares. Even poor people struggling through the Depression elevated the idea of art and writing and sarificed to support it. In the Great Recession, there is a different idea. There is no public will to fund art. So art is on its own and has to find its own way back. Writers are not nursed for years, and artists are not protected by galleries.

I think creative people need a new story – not one of lament and struggle. Gallery 99 – Art In The Public Eye – is, to me, a great leap in that direction. Creative people are getting creative all over the country – changing fixed notions about galleries, marketing and technology.

I’ll be giving a talk there on February 11, in the Empire State Theatre on South Street in Glens Falls – 6 p.m. on “Creativity and Change” and I hope to talk about the need for creative people to conjure up a new vision, a new story for themselves. The show will feature gifted artists from Washington and Warren Counties upstate and will run for several days in the beautifully restored Empire State Theatre building. Artists will be offering good words inexpensively – for less than $99. I will be selling photographs and notecards and Maria is bringing quilts and sketch-based potholders and other stuff.

I’m excited to be a part of it. I think it’s part of a revolution in the way creativity is marketed to people. And a step towards reconnecting people with art and reminding them why art is important. I’ll be hanging around all weekend.

I’m finally firming up all the details on the Library Tour, underway next Sunday. I’ve now got all the spellings, times, dates and places right. Librarians are touchy about correct spellings.

The Loving Libraries Tour stars off at the end of this week –  January 23, Sunday, 2 p.m., at the Pember Library, Granville, N.Y. Tuesday. Talk. I don’t believe the library is selling books, but if you bring yours, I’ll happily sign them. Anything else you wish signed, as well.We will also be selling notecards to benefit libraries and family farms. Maria will be helping me, and doing sketches of the tour, which she will turn into potholders.

No dogs are coming with me on the library tour.

Then:

Monday, January 24, 6:30, Community Library, Cobleskill, N.Y.

Tuesday, January 25, 6 p.m. Scoville Free Library (one of the nation’s oldest), Salisbury, Conn. Talk and signing.

Wednesday, January 26: 7 p.m., Free Library of Northampton, Pa., Richboro, Pa. Talk and signing.

Thursday, January 27, 7 p.m. Providence Public Library, Rochambeau Branch (Hope Street). Where I became a writer.

Friday, January 28,  2 p.m. Osterville Public Library, Osterville, Mass. Talk and signing.

Friday, January 28, 7 p.m. Scituate Town Library. Talk and signing.

Saturday, January 29, 2 p.m. Edgartown Library, Martha’s Vineyard, Mass.

Monday, January 31, Jury Duty, Washington County, N.Y.

18 January

Storm. Former girlfriend. I married for love…

by Jon Katz
Artist at work

I married for love of course, but still, there are fringe benefits of all kinds to this relationship. My back does not support heavy snow shoveling, and besides, someone has to take photos. Maria is a dervish with the shovel, snow flying all over the place, so I feel it’s only right to support her love of this by staying out of it. She is already holed up in her Studio Barn making quilts and potholders and God knows what (maybe sketches, which I am urging her to sell) but I think it’s important for her to get out once in awhile and soak up some nature.

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