The annual Words and Music festival hits a lot of notes, from discussions on incarceration and exoneration to the adventures of Scrim. There\u2019s a virtual event on Sunday, Nov. 16, and in-person discussions and readings are at the Andre Cailloux Center on Nov. 19-22.<\/p>\n
Among the writers at the festival is poet Gina Ferrara, who in August became the state\u2019s poet laureate. A professor at Delgado Community College, Ferrara has published five collections of poetry, most recently \u201cAmiss\u201d in 2023, and she was nominated for a Pushcart prize last year. She also hosts the monthly Poetry Buffet reading series.<\/p>\n
Ferrara joins four other poets and former Louisiana Poet Laureate Mona Lisa Saloy in a commemoration of the damages of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Saloy and John Warner Smith edited \u201cHurricanes Katrina and Rita at 20: An Anthology of Louisiana Poetry and Art,\u201d with work by 44 contributors. The reading will draw on those works. It\u2019s at 5 p.m. Saturday.<\/p>\n
A couple of sessions are about issues related to incarceration. The festival\u2019s opening session on Wednesday is titled \u201cReading for Justice: From Incarceration to Exoneration.\u201d Calvin Duncan made access to court records one of the issues in his recent campaign for New Orleans Clerk of Court. He\u2019s also the co-author of \u201cThe Jailhouse Lawyer.\u201d His conviction for a 1981 murder was vacated with the help of the Innocence Project New Orleans, but he became a self-taught \u201ccounsel substitute\u201d while serving time at Angola penitentiary. The session also is based in part on the recent Historic New Orleans Collection exhibit about mass incarceration in Louisiana, and some of its contributors will be on the panel. It begins at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The festival closes with \u201cReading for Justice: Poetry Inside Prisons.\u201d The reading features poets Adam Clay, Michael Kleber-Diggs and Alison Pelegrin, another former Louisiana Poet Laureate, reading their work and reflecting on engaging imprisoned people about reading and writing poetry. The reading is at 6:30 p.m. Saturday.<\/p>\n
On the music front, ethnomusicologist and Tulane archivist Melissa Weber, aka DJ Soul Sister, leads a discussion with authors of recent books about George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic. Daniel Bedrosian was the longtime keyboardist for Parliament-Funkadelic, which he chronicles in the book \u201cMake My Funk the P-Funk: Parliament-Funkadelic’s Meteoric Rise in 1975 from ‘Chocolate City’ to ‘Mothership Connection.\u2019\u201d Also on the panel is Seth Neblett, author of \u201cMothership Connected: The Women of Parliament-Funkadelic.\u201d The session begins at 3:30 p.m. Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Places We Play\u201d is a discussion about local music venues. The panel includes Donna Poniatowski Sims, who ran the brass band hub Donna\u2019s, and musicians Craig Klein and Gladney. Preservation Hall program manager Pamela Blackmon moderates the discussion. It\u2019s at 4:30 p.m. Friday.<\/p>\n
A discussion of literature about the Vietnamese community and influence on New Orleans features novelist E.M. Tran, author of \u201cDaughters of the New Year,\u201d and writer and illustrator Thi Bui. It\u2019s at 2 p.m. Saturday.<\/p>\n
Author Maurice Carlos Ruffin leads a discussion about how New Orleans has shaped the writing of participants Larry Bagneris, Ambata Kazi, Karisma Price and Blake Sanz. It\u2019s at 4:30 p.m. Thursday.<\/p>\n
Former WDSU-TV weathercaster Margaret Orr and artist Matt Rinard collaborated on the children\u2019s book \u201cScrim My Tail: As Told to Margaret Orr.\u201d They talk about the project at a luncheon event at 12:15 p.m. Thursday.<\/p>\n
Other panels address subjects including art, climate change, speculative fiction, literature for young readers and more. There\u2019s also a screening of Dawn Logsdon and Tim Watson\u2019s documentary \u201cFree For All: The Public Library\u201d at 5:45 p.m. Friday.<\/p>\n