Kickstarting "The Ludlow Project"

The International Printing Museum in Carson, California is currently seeking backers for The Ludlow Project via Kickstarter. With significant holdings of historical presses and materials important for the study of printing and graphic design, such as the Earnest A. Lindner Collection of Antique Printing Machinery, the Museum proposes to:

. . . .to rescue a collection of approximately 100 full fonts of antique Ludlow Typecasting matrices, catalog & organize the fonts into our working collection & digitize Ludlow Type Specimen books with notes on available fonts for letterpress projects. Along with the Museum's other metal, wood type fonts, these matrices will be available for casting type to be used by museum patrons, graphic designers & letterpress printers nationally for all kinds of projects including letterpress poster and business card printing, invitation and greeting card printing projects and creative jewelry making and art projects. We will also develop and offer training and classes on Ludlow operation and maintenance to ensure Ludlow's legacy. The success of the project would make this the largest active collection of hot metal type in the world available to the public.

Consider supporting this worthy initiative; to learn more, visit the Kickstarter website.

From Wall Street to Franklin Street

The Occupy Wall Street movement has arrived in Chapel Hill, and will be holding its inaugural event at the Peace and Justice Plaza in front of the Chapel Hill Post Office at 10:30am, October 15, 2011. Further information can be found at the Occupy Chapel Hill web site.

A Documentary for All Seasons

Growing It Here, Growing It Now, the new Common Curator documentary on community gardening, continues to be aired on local public access television. In addition to Channels 4 (Carrboro) and 8 (Chapel Hill), the film is also now being shown on Channel 18 (Durham); the schedules for the coming week are listed below:

Channels 4 (Carrboro) and 8 (Chapel Hill)

Mon., Oct. 10 – 5:30 pm
Tues., Oct. 11 – 8:30 am
Fri., Oct. 14 – 6:30 pm

Channel 18 (Durham)

Tues., Oct. 11 – 3 pm
Fri., Oct. 14 – 6 pm
Sat., Oct. 15 – 3:30 pm
Sun, Oct. 16 – 10:30 am + 3 pm

Daily and weekly schedules for all programming are accessible at The Peoples Channel.

The documentary was directed and produced by Daniel Smith; for a description, check out the announcement in a previous Common Curator post. The film is available on DVD for $10 postpaid, and can be ordered by emailing the Common Curator.

Community Garden Documentary to Play at Ava Gardner Independent Film Festival

Growing It Here, Growing It Now, the new Common Curator documentary on community gardening, has been selected to be shown at the Ava Gardner Independent Film Festival (AGIFF). Now in its fifth year, the festival takes place in Smithfield, North Carolina, October 6-9, 2011. The documentary will be screened on Saturday, October 8, in the 7pm slot. For a full schedule of films, as well as ticket information, visit the festival website.

The namesake of the film festival, Ava Gardner, was born in 1922 in Grabtown, a very small community a few miles east of Smithfield, and after her death in 1990 she was buried in the area. While visiting her sister Beatrice in New York City as a teenager, her sister's husband, a photographer, placed her portrait in his studio window, which led to her "discovery" and first contract with MGM. Eventually starring in numerous Hollywood movies over a lengthy career, Gardner was also married in her younger years to Mickey Rooney, Artie Shaw, and Frank Sinatra.

The film festival is also holding a special event, Ava's Midnight Stroll, which will feature an impromptu tour of some of Ava's old stomping grounds, and include a stop at her final resting place.

Also of note in Smithfield is the Ava Gardner Museum, which boasts an extensive collection of Gardner memorabilia. It hosts the annual Ava Gardner Festival, which this year will run concurrently with the Ava Gardner Independent Film Festival. A schedule events is available online.

The Occupy Wall Street Library

Established by Betsy Fagin (according to a recent account in The New Yorker blog, The Book Bench), The Occupy Wall Street Library is still going strong, and now has a blog of its own. As might be expected, the library has flexible lending rules, leaving it up to borrowers' discretion whether to keep a given book, return it, or trade for it. Street librarians are currently creating a catalog of books in the library, and are soliciting donations of books and supplies as well as additional volunteer support.

More information about the Occupy Wall Street movement itself can be found at the NYC General Assembly web site, which also provides the text of the movement's manifesto, or Declaration of the Occupation of New York City. In addition, the progressive news aggregator, Common Dreams, has created a news portal for the Occupy movement around the U.S.

Note: The photo above was obtained from the Occupy Wall Street Library blog. Of related interest, the Common Curator in August profiled Street Books, a mobile library for the homeless.

The Future of Martin Luther King, Jr. Park

The Carrboro Community Garden and the Growing Healthy Kids Garden, subjects of the new Common Curator documentary, Growing It Here, Growing It Now, are both located at the site of the future Martin Luther King, Jr. Park in Carrboro, North Carolina. The Carrboro Board of Aldermen will be discussing the development of the park during its upcoming meeting, which is scheduled for 7:30pm, October 4, 2011. The agenda is available online (see item D(3)), including the park's agenda item abstract and the 2004 Master Plan. The meeting is public and supporters of the community gardens are invited to attend.

Meanwhile, Growing It Here, Growing It Now, continues to be aired on local public access television. In addition to Channels 4 (Carrboro) and 8 (Chapel Hill), the film is also now being shown on Channel 18 (Durham); the schedules for the coming week are listed below:

Channels 4 (Carrboro) and 8 (Chapel Hill)

Mon., Oct. 3 – 5 pm
Tues., Oct. 4 – 8:30 am
Wed., Oct. 5 – 2 pm
Thurs., Oct. 6 – 2 pm + 9 pm
Fri., Oct. 7 – 6:30 pm
Sat., Oct 8 – 2 pm
Sun., Oct. 9 – 12 noon + 10:30 pm

Channel 18 (Durham)

Mon., Oct. 3 – 11 am
Wed., Oct. 5 – 8 am
Fri., Oct. 7 – 6 pm
Sat., Oct. 8 – 3:30 pm

Daily and weekly schedules for all programming are accessible at The Peoples Channel.

The documentary was directed and produced by Daniel Smith; for a description, check out the announcement in a previous Common Curator post. The film is available on DVD for $10 postpaid, and can be ordered by emailing the Common Curator.

Read Any Banned Books Lately?

Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read (September 24 to October 1, 2011) is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment. Held during the last week of September, Banned Books Week highlights the benefits of free and open access to information while drawing attention to the harms of censorship by spotlighting actual or attempted bannings of books across the United States. [read more at the American Library Association site].

Banned Books Week is sponsored by the American Booksellers Association; American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression; American Library Association; American Society of Journalists and Authors; Association of American Publishers; and National Association of College Stores; and in 2011, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund; National Coalition Against Censorship; National Council of Teachers of English; and PEN American Center also joined as sponsors. In addition, it is endorsed by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress.

Note: The World War II poster shown here features a quotation by Franklin Roosevelt and was illustrated by S. Broder. Published in 1942 by the U.S. Government Printing Office, it was distributed by the Division of Public Inquiry within the Office of War Information.

As Seen on TV . . .

"Growing It Here, Growing It Now," the new Common Curator documentary on community gardens, continues to be aired on local television. In addition to Channels 4 (Carrboro) and 8 (Chapel Hill), the film is also now being shown on Channel 18 (Durham); the schedules for the coming week are listed below:

Channels 4 (Carrboro) and 8 (Chapel Hill)

Mon., Sept. 26 – 11:30 am

Tues., Sept. 27 – 1:00 am (late Mon. night) + 8:30 am + 6:30 pm
Wed., Sept. 28 – 2 pm + 6:30 pm
Thurs., Sept. 29 – 7:30 am
Fri., Sept. 30 – 6:30 pm
Sun., Oct. 2 – 10:30 pm

Channel 18 (Durham)

Mon., Sept. 26 – 12:30 pm
Wed., Sept. 28 – 1:30 pm
Sat., Oct. 1 – 12 noon
Sun., Oct. 2 – 12 noon

Daily and weekly schedules for all programming are accessible at The Peoples Channel.

The documentary was directed and produced by Daniel Smith; for a description, check out the announcement in a previous Common Curator post. The film is available on DVD, and can be ordered by emailing the Common Curator.

National Book Festival 2011

The 11th annual National Book Festival, organized and sponsored by the Library of Congress, has been expanded to two days, and will be held on Saturday & Sunday, September 24-25, 2011, on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The festival is free and open to the public, with last year's festival drawing over 150,000 visitors.

President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama are honorary chairs for the event. More than 100 authors, illustrators, and poets will be making presentations throughout the day in the theme-based pavilions for Children, Teens & Children, Fiction & Mystery, History & Biography, Contemporary Life and Poetry & Prose. A full program with schedules is available as PDF download.

The Festival website features numerous video webcasts and audio podcasts. The 2011 poster, shown here, was designed by Jon J. Muth.

Kickstarting "To Catch a Dollar"

The Common Curator only just heard about this Kickstarter project, but consider supporting filmmaker Gayle Ferraro as she works to complete the documentary, "To Catch a Dollar: Muhammad Yunus Banks on America." Professor Yunus is a pioneer of microcredit, and in 2006 was jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize with Grameen Bank, which he founded in Bangladesh.

Ferraro describes her project as follows:

The film follows Nobel Peace Prize winner Professor Yunus as he brings his unique and revolutionary microfinance program to the US. We witness the birth of Grameen America and the compelling stories of the first women borrowers; from the challenges they face to the successes they achieve, as they learn to sustainably lift themselves and their families out of poverty by starting and growing their own businesses with the education, support, and non-collateral microloans they receive.

As of early afternoon September 19, 2011--the last day for funding--the project has garnered over 100 backers but is still short of its $20,000 goal. To learn more, visit Kickstarter.

Update: With a final burst of support, "To Catch a Dollar" surpassed its goal, netting $20,909 from 118 backers.

Growing It Here, Growing It Now: A Documentary

"Growing It Here, Growing It Now" is about real food and the people who make it happen in community gardens. It explores the knowledge, passion, and collaboration of gardeners, both young and old, who nurture and raise their own crops in an urban environment. Of interest to anyone who needs to eat well.

The documentary features interviews and footage of gardeners at the Carrboro Community Garden and the neighboring Growing Healthy Kids Garden sponsored by the Orange County Partnership for Young Children. It was produced with equipment and facilities at The Peoples Channel in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and will be airing locally on Channel 4 (Carrboro) and Channel 8 (Chapel Hill) beginning September 19, 2011:

– Mon., Sept. 19 – 3 pm + 9 pm
– Tues., Sept. 20 – 8:30 am
– Wed., Sept. 21 – 1:30 am (i.e., late Tue. night) + 6:30 pm
– Thurs., Sept. 22 – 7:30 am + 5 pm
– Fri., Sept. 23 – 7 am + 6:30 pm
– Sat., Sept. 24 – 8 am
– Sun., Sept. 25 – 1:30 pm + 10:30 pm

To determine air times after September 25, 2011, consult The Peoples Channel daily schedule.

"Growing It Here, Growing It Now" is a Common Curator production directed and produced by Daniel Smith. The 28-1/2 minute documentary is currently available on DVD for $10 postpaid. Email the Common Curator for ordering details.

If You Can't Find It Anywhere Else . . .

Go to Balster's! For 137 years, Balster's has been a multi-generational family concern with a massive inventory of equipment, tools, hardware, etc. Located in Scotch Grove, Iowa, its holdings, including buildings and real estate, will soon be auctioned off by Grafe Auction.

The preview is Wednesday, September 14, 2011, with the auction taking place over three days, September 15-17. Online bidding will also be available. The Grafe web site provides full details, as well as photo galleries, for prospective bidders. The history of Balster's is also featured in an article by the Des Moines Register.

There Is Power in a Union

To commemorate Labor Day 2011, here is musician Billy Bragg's version of "There Is Power in a Union," a song written in 1913 by Joe Hill [1879-1915], a Swedish-American labor activist and member of the Wobblies, or Industrial Workers of the World.

Midwest & Great Northern Printers' Fair 2011

The 18th Annual Midwest and Great Northern Printers' Fair will be held on the Midwest Old Threshers grounds in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, September 15-17, 2011. Following on the heels of the Old Threshers Reunion, September 1-5, the Printers' Fair event is for all those interested in letterpress printing, from novices to professionals.

The use of a wide variety of presses and equipment will be demonstrated, and fair-goers will have the opportunity to gain practical training and hands-on experience. A swap meet will take place on Saturday, September 17, where type, equipment, and other materials will be offered for sale. For further information, visit the Midwest Old Threshers website.

From the Cradle to the Cave: Poster Exhibit

An upcoming exhibition at the University of North Carolina's Davis Library will feature five local artists whose posters have captured the vibe of the Chapel Hill music scene over the last two decades. From the Cradle to the Cave: 18 Years of North Carolina Poster Art will open August 25, 2011, with a reception at 5pm, followed by a panel with the artists (Casey Burns, Matt Hart, Ron Liberti, Jason Lonon, and Chris Williams), and a concert by The Kingsbury Manx. All events are free and open to the public. Further information is available online.