Library Adds Food Fest to Calendar

The Birmingham Public Library (BPL) is planning to feed the mind, body, and soul during its upcoming Eat Drink Read Write Festival planned for September 13-17, 2011. BPL and event partners Desert Island Supply Company (DISCO), Foodies Book Club, and Slow Food Birmingham will present a series of FREE programs bringing food, culinary arts, and literature to the table in a stimulating format. The goal of the Eat Drink Read Write Festival is to raise awareness of food-related issues in our community by exploring these concerns from a variety of perspectives.

The festival opens on Tuesday, September 13 at BPL’s Central Library with a discussion led by Barry Estabrook, an award-winning journalist and author of Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit. James Beard Award winner and Alabama native, Chef Frank Stitt, will discuss tomato varieties and offer samples of tomato-based dishes. This 6:00 p.m. event promises to launch the festival with thought-provoking conversation and appetizing fare.

Other programs for the series include:

PieLab
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
12:00 p.m., BPL Central
Brown Bag Lunch Series will showcase PieLab of Greensboro, Alabama. PieLab is combination café, community meeting place and design studio that brings people together over food to strike up a conversation. “Pie + Conversation = Ideas / Ideas + Design = Positive Change." Pies will be available for sampling.

Food Stories
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
7:00 p.m., Woodrow Hall, 5504 1st Ave North, Woodlawn
Food Stories, hosted by DISCO (Desert Island Supply Company) will be a live storytelling event modeled after NPR’s popular program, “The Moth.” Local storytellers will have five minutes to tell a true story in the first person—the story subject must involve food. Cash bar and light snacks.

Food Films
Thursday, September 15, 2011
6:30 p.m., Birmingham Public Library, Central
Screening of a montage of short food-related films by Joe York, filmmaker for the University of Mississippi Center for Documentary Projects. York works with the Southern Foodways Alliance (SFA) and has created SFA films on topics ranging from artisanal cheese producers in the South to the journey of Vietnamese fishermen to the Gulf Coast of Mississippi and Louisiana. Refreshments provided by local area restaurants. The event is FREE; reservations are required via Eventbrite http://www.eventbrite.com.

Bards & Brews
Friday, September 16, 2011
6:30 p.m. Birmingham Public Library, Central
Bards & Brews, the popular monthly poetry slam/beer tasting will spotlight winners of previous Bards & Brews events. Free the Hops (FTH) will provide information about craft beers. Regional breweries will serve craft beers for sampling.

Food Writing Workshop at Pepper Place Market
Saturday, September 17, 2011
9:00 a.m., Pepper Place Saturday Market
DISCO (Desert Island Supply Company) will lead informal food writing workshops for children and adults at Pepper Place Saturday Market. Library staff will offer food-related craft activities for kids.

At the Table with Robyn O’Brien and Michael Nolan
Saturday, September 17, 2011
3:30 p.m., Birmingham Public Library, Central
The Central Library will host “At the Table With Robyn O’Brien and Michael Nolan.” O’Brien is author of Unhealthy Truth: How Our Food Is Making Us Sick and What We Can Do About It and founder of the AllergyKids Foundation. Michael Nolan, aka "The Garden Rockstar" is co-author of I Garden - Urban Style. He will share his no-bull approach to gardening. The event is FREE; reservations are required via Eventbrite website: http://www.eventbrite.com.