Ybor City, literary hot spot
For one day, at least, a festival celebrating words takes over the place know for its parties.
By Colette Bancroft, Times Book Editor
Published September 6, 2007
Deep Carnivale: A Celebration of Words
The event takes place from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday in the area around 14th Street (Avenida Republica de Cuba) and Palm Avenue in Ybor City. The event is free and family-friendly. For a list of participating writers and artists and a schedule of performances, go to deepcarnivale.com.
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This Saturday in Ybor City, the word rules.All around 14th Street and Palm Avenue, more than 60 poets, novelists, playwrights, songwriters, actors, artists and musicians will be reading, performing and exhibiting as part of Deep Carnivale: A Celebration of Words.
The free, family-friendly literary festival spotlights the creativity of people from around the Tampa Bay area. It's sponsored by the Artists and Writers Group Inc., in partnership with Hillsborough Community College at Ybor, the Hillsborough County Public Library Cooperative and the Cuban Club.
Spearheading the event is David Audet, director of the Artists and Writers Group and special projects manager for HCC at Ybor.
Deep Carnivale's name comes from a short story by Canadian writer Bill Gaston. The phrase refers to "the strange and mysterious dance of the human mind," Audet says, "which is what writers do."
Participants in the festival include novelist and poet Enid Shomer, playwright and actor Bob Devin Jones, spoken word poet Venus Jones and many more.
"The response has been great," Audet says - so much so that it's a challenge to schedule time for all the readings and performances.
In addition to writers, actors and musicians on four stages, Deep Carnivale will feature a children's area with readers and arts and crafts, a bookmaking workshop for teens and adults, an exhibit of handcrafted books by artists, and vendors.
The event will also include an Exquisite Corpse project. "I thought that was a nice curveball to throw in there," Audet says. "People hear the name and go, What?"
The Exquisite Corpse concept was created by the Surrealists, a group of artists in the 1920s, as a way to make works by multiple artists; it can also be used by writers.
The Deep Carnivale version will use words and images created by 20 artists. The first one wrote a four-line poem; the second one got the last line of that poem and wrote another four lines, and so on. Then each artist creates a visual interpretation of his or her poem. Those works, and the poem, will be displayed in the 20 arches of El Pasaje, a historic building on 14th Avenue.
"That took a lot of trust from the artists," Audet says. "None of them knows who the other 19 are."
This will be the first Deep Carnivale, but not, Audet says, the last. "It will be fun, but serious, but fun."
Colette Bancroft can be reached at (727) 893-8435 or cbancroft@sptimes.com.