Word of South Festival (Tallahassee, FL)

Irene Latham, Jan Annino, Laura Freeman

Last month it was my honor to be invited as a featured artist at Tallahassee's Word of South literary and music festival held at Cascades Park.

What a beautiful venue! And what a well-run event! I wouldn't have been there if not for dear poet-friend Jan Annino's recommendation to the committee... thank you, Jan! It was so lovely to see you. :)

Cascades Park (Tallahassee, FL)

The weather was perfect, and I wish I could have spent more time enjoying the city -- both my parents graduated from FSU -- in fact, it's where they met. (In a home economics class where the instructor asked a show of hands for people wanting big families... by the time the instructor got to "8 or more kids" my parents-to-be were the only students still holding their hands up. They went on to have five of us!)

The only hiccup of my trip was some car trouble, which turned out to be low oil. While I was trying to find a car shop, I noticed the I Museum of Florida History near by. I'd really like to check out at some point... next time!

me and my littlest sis!

The trip was especially lovely because it gave me an excuse to visit with my mother and her family. Because my adopted siblings are all school age, I made sure include in my plans a visit to their classrooms at Aucilla Christian Academy. I shared poems by me and others in celebration of National Poetry Month. Fun!

Mama's hair was wild!
(Laura gave out all kinds
of fun hair clips to readers.)

At the festival I was paired with Laura Freeman, author-illustrator of NATALIE'S HAIR WAS WILD. It's an adorable picture book, and Laura was simply lovely to work with! After our presentation we signed a bunch of books that were purchased by the Early Learning Coalition and gifted to attendees. That's right: kids got free books! Pretty awesome, right? I signed copies of FRESH DELICIOUS and CAN I TOUCH YOUR HAIR? The day was made even better because my mom and her family were in the audience. That doesn't happen all that often, so it was lovely to share the day with them.