Mayor Brandon Scott introduced Monday that the Baltimore Book Festival is returning in September after a four-year hiatus, an indication that the Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts (BOPA) seemingly will work with the town previous June 30.
Scott mentioned at City Hall on Monday that the pageant will happen Sept. 27 to 29 in Waverly. It will embody e-book sellers, literary salons, panel discussions, writing workshops, poetry readings, creator talks, e-book signings, kids’s actions, dwell podcast recordings and extra. The location was introduced as “in and round Waverly Main Street.”
“We are coming again higher than ever,” the mayor mentioned. “This is a particular occasion for everybody in Baltimore…. There goes to be one thing for everybody.”
He famous that the Orioles and Ravens each as soon as performed at Memorial Stadium in Waverly/Ednor Gardens, so “we all know the neighborhood is accustomed to holding huge occasions.”
The Baltimore Book Festival was final held in 2019, earlier than the COVID-19 pandemic, and it was produced by BOPA and situated on the Inner Harbor. Last yr, pissed off that former BOPA CEO Donna Drew Sawyer hadn’t introduced it again, retailers and different stakeholders in Waverly placed on a Waverly Book Festival in April.
The 2024 e-book pageant marks a return to the autumn, when it was historically held. It’s additionally the 25th anniversary for the occasion. Council member Odette Ramos, who represents Waverly, mentioned the pageant is being shifted to the autumn as a result of that’s what booksellers from throughout the town most popular.
Ramos mentioned she expects the pageant will embody not solely booksellers from Waverly however companies corresponding to Greedy Reads in Remington and Atomic Books in Hampden.
“I’m so enthusiastic about having the ability to host the Baltimore Book Festival in the 14th District, and significantly Waverly,” she mentioned. “I’m so honored to symbolize over 11 e-book shops in my district, and so many booksellers dwell in my district which are promoting elsewhere. This is smart to have the ability to carry the Baltimore Book Festival to a neighborhood that’s devoted to books. We even have the Waverly library…. This goes to be a real partnership…. This is the town’s e-book pageant, and we’re tremendous pleased to host it in Waverly.”
BOPA is an unbiased group that has a contract to function the town’s occasions producer, movie workplace and humanities council. Its contract with the town is because of expire on June 30, earlier than the e-book pageant takes place however presumably after preliminary planning for the pageant is effectively underway.
Sawyer resigned in January 2023 after Scott mentioned he misplaced confidence in her capability to steer the company. Besides not producing a e-book pageant after 2019, Sawyer failed to supply Artscape festivals in 2020, 2021 and 2022 despite the fact that the town allotted funds for these occasions. She additionally didn’t placed on the Martin Luther King Jr. Day Parade in 2023 – an occasion the Mayor’s Office stepped in on the final minute to supply.
Sawyer was changed in June 2023 by interim CEO Todd Yuhanick, who introduced again Artscape in 2023 and advised the BOPA board final yr that he wished to carry again the e-book pageant as a citywide occasion in 2024. In January, the BOPA board voted to exchange him with Rachel Graham, who begins as BOPA’s new CEO on March 15. Yuhanick is serving as interim CEO till then.
In tandem with the press convention, BOPA issued a information launch saying it will current the e-book pageant “in partnership with the City of Baltimore, Waverly Main Street, Red Emma’s and Peabody Heights Brewery.” The press launch spelled the mayor’s title Brandom and spelled Waverly Main Street ‘Wavery” – the kind of carelessness that brought about Scott to lose confidence in Sawyer.
Scott, who’s up for reelection, has made it clear that he needs to see Baltimore throughout his tenure placed on festivals and different large-scale gatherings, as a means of bringing again to the town a way of “normalcy” after the shutdowns through the pandemic.
Asked on Monday about BOPA’s standing after June 30, Scott stopped wanting saying whether or not his e-book pageant announcement implies that BOPA’s contract with the town will be prolonged, and an extension has not been accredited by Baltimore’s spending panel, the Board of Estimates.
Scott did say that his workplace continues to work with the group and that “BOPA will lead the cost in organizing this” pageant. With regard to the contract extension, “we’ll be speaking about that in the long run,” he mentioned.
Ramos, who was instrumental in the creation of the Waverly Book Festival final yr, talked about BOPA as one of many companions which are wanted to make the occasion a hit. “We can not do it and not using a full vary of companions,” she mentioned.
