Library
** Updated 5/6/10 - The video of Diane's Conversation with Wendell Berry is now online - Windows Media Player required - and will air on Comcast 25 & Verizon 40 - Sunday, May 9 at 4:00 p.m., 7:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. **
The Real Deal arrived last night in Arlington.
It wasn?t the Beatles at Shea or Hendrix at Woodstock. Or even the Jonas Brothers at Times Square on New Year's Eve. But it might have been. For when farmer-writer Wendell Berry slipped through the side door of the Central Library Auditorium, he caused an unprecedented eruption of goodwill and generosity, the likes of which he had never before witnessed. And neither had we.
So the evening began, our fifth annual Arlington Reads main event, presided over by a courtly storytelling philosopher who kept his audience both spellbound and hopeful. His messages were simple: keep faith with yourself, your community, your land?messages that have been lost in the haze of hubris and hucksterism.
He spoke of his influences ? Wallace Stegner and other writers of place ? and his progress as a writer. And he read from "The Memory of Old Jack" in a voice rich and sonorous, languid and unperturbed, sharing the excerpt about the ambiguity of leaving, the passing of the torch from the seasoned old to the barely formed young, like they did in the communities of bygone eras.
He told us to know and be proud of our space; to ignore what the educators tell us and to be from some place. To know the world through truly knowing what is familiar. To go back to biology, to touch, to feel and to value what is tangible. To stop using too much. To buy local. To exercise leadership from the bottom up. To understand that life is both lucky and luckless, something as a farmer he would know all too well. To know that to feel joy one must also feel pain. To value hard work, to be useful. To have hope, to look within ourselves for the strength and courage to beat back the false idol of bigger/better.
A class act - the real deal.
It has taken us five tries to get here, but with last night?s event we have finally created the Arlington Reads community that we have sought. It just took the right topic, the right persons, the right audiences, and the right time. Last night was absolutely Mr. Berry?s, but both he and Novella Carpenter have helped launch us on this path to transformative civic engagement.
It?s now up to us to look within ourselves and find the means to take the conversations we have been having during this season of Arlington Reads and pursue sustainable actions for the betterment of the whole community of Arlington.
We urge you to join us.
And we now know that one can not go wrong with any brand of Kentucky bourbon.
(View video of the Berry program here. Photos can be viewed on the Library's Flickr collection.)
- Arlington Reads Wins Outstanding Achievement In Local Government Innovation Award
The Arlington Public Library's 2010 Arlington Reads program has been selected to receive an Outstanding Achievement in Local Government Innovation Award for 2011, from the Alliance for Innovation! Innovation Awards are bestowed annually to programs...
- Download "a Conversation With Wendell Barry "
** Updated 6/11/2010 - now with download instructions ** The kind folks at AVN have uploaded "A Conversation with Wendell Berry" to vimeo, allowing you to download the entire 82 minute video to your own computer. Watch the video above, or...
- Columbia Pike Celebrates Arlington Reads
Check out the Columbia Pike Branch Library's collection of materials on locally produced food and sustainable living that compliment this year's Arlington Reads theme "Know What You Eat." For the 2010 Arlington Reads, we will be reading The ...
- Cherrydale To Discuss "the Memory Of Old Jack"
The Cherrydale Branch Library's book group invites you to join them in reading this year's Arlington Reads 2010 featured title, Wendell Berry's The Memory of Old Jack. This group usually meets on the second Monday of the month, but for April...
- 'the Art Of Food' Submission Deadline Friday
Arlington Public Library's Art Committee is seeking artists from the Metro DC region who create art related to Food and Food Sustainability, for a juried exhibition April 2 - April 30, 2010. This exhibition will be held in conjunction with the...
Library
Wendell Berry at Arlington Reads - Now with Video
** Updated 5/6/10 - The video of Diane's Conversation with Wendell Berry is now online - Windows Media Player required - and will air on Comcast 25 & Verizon 40 - Sunday, May 9 at 4:00 p.m., 7:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. **
The Real Deal arrived last night in Arlington.
It wasn?t the Beatles at Shea or Hendrix at Woodstock. Or even the Jonas Brothers at Times Square on New Year's Eve. But it might have been. For when farmer-writer Wendell Berry slipped through the side door of the Central Library Auditorium, he caused an unprecedented eruption of goodwill and generosity, the likes of which he had never before witnessed. And neither had we.
So the evening began, our fifth annual Arlington Reads main event, presided over by a courtly storytelling philosopher who kept his audience both spellbound and hopeful. His messages were simple: keep faith with yourself, your community, your land?messages that have been lost in the haze of hubris and hucksterism.
He spoke of his influences ? Wallace Stegner and other writers of place ? and his progress as a writer. And he read from "The Memory of Old Jack" in a voice rich and sonorous, languid and unperturbed, sharing the excerpt about the ambiguity of leaving, the passing of the torch from the seasoned old to the barely formed young, like they did in the communities of bygone eras.
He told us to know and be proud of our space; to ignore what the educators tell us and to be from some place. To know the world through truly knowing what is familiar. To go back to biology, to touch, to feel and to value what is tangible. To stop using too much. To buy local. To exercise leadership from the bottom up. To understand that life is both lucky and luckless, something as a farmer he would know all too well. To know that to feel joy one must also feel pain. To value hard work, to be useful. To have hope, to look within ourselves for the strength and courage to beat back the false idol of bigger/better.
A class act - the real deal.
It has taken us five tries to get here, but with last night?s event we have finally created the Arlington Reads community that we have sought. It just took the right topic, the right persons, the right audiences, and the right time. Last night was absolutely Mr. Berry?s, but both he and Novella Carpenter have helped launch us on this path to transformative civic engagement.
It?s now up to us to look within ourselves and find the means to take the conversations we have been having during this season of Arlington Reads and pursue sustainable actions for the betterment of the whole community of Arlington.
We urge you to join us.
And we now know that one can not go wrong with any brand of Kentucky bourbon.
(View video of the Berry program here. Photos can be viewed on the Library's Flickr collection.)
- Arlington Reads Wins Outstanding Achievement In Local Government Innovation Award
The Arlington Public Library's 2010 Arlington Reads program has been selected to receive an Outstanding Achievement in Local Government Innovation Award for 2011, from the Alliance for Innovation! Innovation Awards are bestowed annually to programs...
- Download "a Conversation With Wendell Barry "
** Updated 6/11/2010 - now with download instructions ** The kind folks at AVN have uploaded "A Conversation with Wendell Berry" to vimeo, allowing you to download the entire 82 minute video to your own computer. Watch the video above, or...
- Columbia Pike Celebrates Arlington Reads
Check out the Columbia Pike Branch Library's collection of materials on locally produced food and sustainable living that compliment this year's Arlington Reads theme "Know What You Eat." For the 2010 Arlington Reads, we will be reading The ...
- Cherrydale To Discuss "the Memory Of Old Jack"
The Cherrydale Branch Library's book group invites you to join them in reading this year's Arlington Reads 2010 featured title, Wendell Berry's The Memory of Old Jack. This group usually meets on the second Monday of the month, but for April...
- 'the Art Of Food' Submission Deadline Friday
Arlington Public Library's Art Committee is seeking artists from the Metro DC region who create art related to Food and Food Sustainability, for a juried exhibition April 2 - April 30, 2010. This exhibition will be held in conjunction with the...