First, on Thursday at 5:30pm, join Burke’s Bookstore for a reading and book signing with Tom Piazza, author of The Auburn Conference: A Novel. In this work of historical fiction, Piazza conjures an epic writer’s conference that never happened. The year is 1883. At a small college in New York, Great American authors including Mark Twain, Frederick Douglass, Walt Whitman, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and others meet to discuss the nation’s leading issues, including race, gender, and democracy. Piazza makes us wonder: how would history have changed had these great minds been brought together?
On Friday at 6pm, the Stax Museum celebrates the release of the Funkiest Man Alive: Rufus Thomas and Memphis Soul. This new biography details Thomas’ journey from dancer to disc jockey to award-winning R&B singer. Author Matthew Ruddick also uses Thomas’ story to investigate the social aspect of Memphis music in the 1950s and the history of Stax Records itself. Enjoy a brief reading from the book, a DJ playing Thomas’ greatest hits and deepest cuts, and a “Green Onions” themed drink from Soul & Spirits.
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