Part of the reason?  It’s festival season, which means we do things like go to the National Black Arts Festival for three days.  Go ahead, see for yourself (and enjoy some storytelling while you’re at it) –

That’s Curtis, storyteller extraordinaire, in our tent on the second day of the NBAF.  He was filmed by the wonderful Spenser Simrill, Jr., who also recorded Akbar here a few months ago.  Remember?

While being awesome all over town takes time, you can still get your fix if you follow us on Twitter, where the Wren’s Nest is consistently amusing.  In the meantime, don’t worry — more excuses posts coming soon!

It’s ticking!

Applications to be an Editor in our life-changing, summer-making, generally enjoyable, highly competitive high school publishing program are due Sunday, May 9th.

I am super pleased to report that we already have a solid number of applicants, but we’re not nearly where we want to be by next week.  So far we’ve heard back from 1/12 of the high schools we contacted.  We can kick that up to 1/6, I just know it!

So!  Please help us get the word out where we couldn’t ourselves.  This really is a great opportunity for high school students — I wouldn’t lie.  Not about anything that isn’t funny, anyways.

All information about the program, including application forms, can be found here!

Its been a wonderful thing to see how many folks want to have the Brer Rabbit stories for their very own.  However, we literally cannot keep them on the shelves.  No matter how frequently we place orders, they’re simply not printed often enough for us to keep a full selection in stock.  What a problem to have, eh?

On Friday evening of last week we finally received a box of this beauty, which we had been waiting on for a few weeks.  We put them out, and by 3pm on Saturday, all were gone.  Like, 18 books.  Bonkers!

To solve this problem, we’re considering printing our own with Lain serving as author and illustrator and me serving as “person who tells Lain what to do.”  He does have a publishing history, after all.

This is all to say: if you want a book, tell us now!

(Photo courtesy of neuftoes)

The theater, located in Athens, is now accepting donations through the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation to help offset construction costs.  If the commenters are to be believed (and given the history of commenters at the AJC, this is at best hazardous), this partnership has gotten some major panties in a bunch.

Recently, there have been a few for-profit businesses (Paste, Wordsmiths (RIP)) that have asked for donations to keep themselves alive.  The mixing of profit with non-profit tactics really ticked some people off.

Yet we, as a non-profit, ask for donations to stay alive all the time.  Really, it’s pretty much all we do.  And to date, not one person has yelped, “Well, I NEVER!” in response.

Now, I know there are inherent differences (like tax-exemption).  But how severe are those differences from the viewpoint of the Average Joe who’s happy to see both the Wren’s Nest and the Georgia Theatre in his neighborhood?  Should he not financially support the theater because it’s for-profit, even though the end result is essentially the same for him?

I know the simple logic is “Well derr, Amelia — you support the theater by giving them money to see shows they put on.  Idiot.”  But that’s hard to do when the theater is all “non-functional” and “charred.”

In the interest of full disclosure, I have donated my hard-earned pennies to for-profits, but not all that asked.  And with a lot more deliberation than when I’ve donated to non-profits.

What do y’all think?  Would you donate to the Georgia Theatre?

Please help us welcome our newest friend to the party.

Arborguard, a tree specialist company “For people who love trees” (me!  I love trees!), has generously offered to do greatly discounted work on our yard, which is pretty darn nice.  It’s also important because oh man, with two and quarter acres, we have a lot of trees, and many of them are terrifying.  It’s a race against the clock — one in particular is just aching to fall on some sweet old blue hair.

This is similar to what Rentokil does for us and our pest control, and we all know how much we need that service.

So thanks, Arborguard.  This is the beginning of a beautiful working business relationship.

The IRS doesn’t just take our word for it though, so we completed a 990 like usual.  The accountant threw in a Statement of Review for good measure and a few grand.

Our ever-popular About page has the goods, financially speaking.

One teeny tiny asterisk: almost all of our applications came from women.  See: all but one.  And that one?  He’s got some major scheduling conflicts that, if we’re being totally fair, should prevent his acceptance.

Thing is, we really, really, really do not want this to be a single-gender program.  A coed dynamic is key, and I fear that an all-girls program will beget an all-girls program and so on.  Yuck.

So.  What do we do?  I figure the options are:

• (a) Extend the deadline, with heavy emphasis on men
• (b) Admit the sole fella, scheduling conflicts and all
• (c) Ignore it — smart students are smart students, period

Got a better idea?  Leave your brilliance in the comments!  I’ll be lightly fretting in the meantime.

The mural is part of a visual timeline that commemorates the history of agriculture in Georgia.  Many have questioned the appropriateness of this particular image, completed in 1956.

The article is well-worth your time, but I’ll go ahead and give you the central question — if the history is painful, should it be treated differently than the history that’s not as painful?

My answer is: of course, dummies!*  This argument is all about context.  If you’re going to, say, the new Illinois Holocaust Museum or the pending Center for Civil and Human Rights Museum, you know what you’re getting into.

If you’re looking to talk to someone about peanuts (or whatever a visitor might do at the Department of Agriculture), an image of slavery might (understandably) be jarring.

This problem would be easily solved with a respectful, permanent, and visible explanation on display nearby instead of a photocopied handout.

In a parallel vein, if our museum didn’t explain anything about the phrase “tar baby,” folks might also infer that the term “reinforces an image of blacks’ subservience to white people.”  But when our storytellers explain that the tar baby stories descend from the African “sticky hair” stories via enslaved Africans, it presents a totally different perspective.

Thanks for the link, jamieg.  And photograph courtesy of Kimberly Smith for the AJC.

* I am, of course, referring to the royal “dummies.”

These numbers include our Saturday storytelling sessions (1pm!), when a group books a storyteller for their visit, and when a Rambler tells elsewhere.

Ready?  Great.

• January 2006 to June* 2006: 3 performances

• January 2007 to December 2007: 149 performances

• January 2008 to December 2008: 235 performances

Pretty cool, eh?  I mean, I’m no mathematician, but that seems like at least an 11% increase.

If you’re interested in joining these ranks, drop us a line or check out more information here.  Hooray storytelling!

*Second half of the year numbers lost due to “being frazzled.”

Now, Jeri has no shortage of sass and opinions, but to earn a label like that from her–well, that takes some doing.  Naturally, Lain and I asked why.  Jeri said,

“When that man came in, the first thing he said was, ‘Oh… I thought a white person was going to give us a tour.  I didn’t realize black people stayed here.’  He was not happy about it, either.”

Jeri pointed out that no one lives in the museum (which comes as a surprise to many people, actually) and asked if he and his wife had a problem with her giving them the tour.  They said no, but kept an odd distance throughout.

The rest of the tour was conducted under tense, truce-like conditions, though this did not stop the man from asking things like, “Why do black people hate white people?”

Jeri handles herself in situations like these with a frankness and calm I really admire.  Though, to tell you the truth, I don’t think I would be able to do the same.

On the other hand, these people clearly would have been fine with lil’ ol’ (lily white) Amelia giving the tour.  You have to wonder what kind of comments they would have made to Lain or me.

Anyhow, I suppose this is today’s reminder that outwardly prejudiced people exist.  Do you think we can put a sign on our door that reads “No Racists Allowed”?

P.S.  Ta da!  This marks the first instance of cursing within our blog!  Exciting times.