Homewood Nation

Creative Local, a collaboration between Homewood Nation and Designate Collective, is preparing to produce the Homewood Arts and Culture Series, which they describe as "a quarterly series of events celebrating Homewood's artistic and cultural legacy." The first event, "Hidden Gems: The Architecture of Homewood," is slated for September 15, at the Homewood Carnegie Library.

I interviewed myself about it, and it went like this:

How did you come up with the idea for the Homewood Arts and Culture Series?

I'm not sure, exactly. I think it mostly arose from conversations with different people. Don Patterson, Dawn Webb Turner and I have talked several times about Homewood's history in the arts. And I had a conversation once with Chip Berger, a commercial real estate investor with significant holdings in Homewood, where I said something like, "When Homewood learns to celebrate its legacy, the whole world will want to come to the party." I think hearing myself say that convinced me that I needed to work at throwing that party. The idea of a quarterly series of events came from my friend Andrew W. Thornhill, who is zealous about the power of the calendar.

How did Designate Collective become involved?

I showed Kilolo Luckett, principal of Designate Collective, the outline for the series and she basically said, "I want to help."

I try not to turn down help. So now we're collaborating, under the joint name of Creative Local. We've already done our first event, which was just kind of an informal test - a toast to supermodel Naomi Sims, on what would have been Ms. Sims' 64th birthday. About 50 people showed up for that.

So, tell us about this first - I mean second - event, coming in September.

The title is "Hidden Gems: The Architecture of Homewood," and it will have two parts - a tour of some architecturally and/or historically significant sites in Homewood, and a panel discussion about Homewood architecture.

The main idea is simply to help people both inside and outside of Homewood to realize that there is some really interesting architecture here. And that it matters.

Can I be honest? It sounds like an event for white people.

Can I be honest? That's an incredibly racist thing to say, because it assumes that black people can't be interested in architecture.

Sorry.

You should be.

So, what can you tell us about future events in the Homewood Arts and Culture Series?

The plan at this point is to offer events focusing on film in December, fashion in March 2013 and literature in June 2013. The fashion event will celebrate Naomi Sims' 65th birthday, and the June event will celebrate John Edgar Wideman. Beyond that, we are still working out the details.

How can people keep informed of these events?

We will publicize them on Homewood Nation, of course, as well by other media. But all information will go first to our email list. To sign up, drop us a line at info@creativelocal.org.

Thank you.

Thank you!