Monthly Archives: October 2021

Remembering the Main Library: Charlotte Mecklenburg Library’s “One for the Books” Celebration

October 25, 2021 by Mark West
Categories: Storied Charlotte

For Charlotte’s lovers of books and stories, the land on the corner of 300 North Tryon Street and Sixth Street is hallowed grounds.  Since 1903, a public library has stood on this site. The first, known as the Carnegie Library, opened on July 2, 1903.  This stately building was replaced in 1956 with a larger library that reflected the sleek, modernist style associated with the 1950s.  The 1956 building underwent a complete renovation and major expansion in the mid-1980s, resulting in the current Main Library, which opened the public in 1989.  For more information about the first two libraries located on this site, I recommend David W. Erdman’s 100 Lost Architectural Treasures of Old Charlotte.

Soon the Main Library will be demolished to make room for a new $100 million, five-storied library, but first, the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library is holding a nine-day celebration called One for the Books to remember and honor the history of the Main Library.  Scheduled for November 6 – 14, 2021, One for the Books is billed as “a one-time, free opportunity for our community to honor the history of an uptown anchor, say goodbye to the current building, and welcome the future together.” For more information about the One for the Books celebration, please click on the following link: https://foundation.cmlibrary.org/one-for-the-books/

I have many fond memories of the Main Library, so of course, I will be participating in One for the Books.  When I first moved to Charlotte in 1984, the 1956 building was still in use, and I quickly became a regular patron.  I remember feeling frustrated when it closed for renovation in 1987, but I enjoyed participating in the events associated with the Main Library’s grand opening in 1989. 

Two years later, the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library started its Novello Festival of Reading, the predecessor to the current Verse and Vino event.  Many of the presentations and activities associated with Novello took place in the Main Library, and I often attended.  Before long I became a community volunteer, and for many years I helped organize the children’s side of Novello.  When the recession of 2009 forced the library to discontinue the Novello Festival of Reading, I co-organized a community version of this event that we called A Tribute to Novello.  I remember spending many hours in the Main Library coordinating this event, and I loved every minute of it.  All of the authors and community members who helped did so on a volunteer basis.  We were all motivated by our love of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library.

Before ImaginOn opened in 2005, the Main Library included a large children’s area, and I often took our son there.  When he was about six, he developed a strong interest in castles.  I took him to the Main Library where a helpful librarian helped him find an arm-load of books about castles. We brought the books home, and he consulted them while drawing his own versions of castles. Perhaps it’s just a coincidence, but he is now a professional architect here in Charlotte although he generally designs apartment complexes rather than castles.

My most recent memories of the Main Library relate to the films that Sam Shapiro showed in the Main Library.  Prior to his recent retirement, Sam ran the film side of the library for years, and he often organized film festivals around various themes.  He always gave a little talk about the film that he was about to show, and I learned a lot about film history from his talks and from seeing the films.  He usually showed the films in the Francis Auditorium at the Main Library, and I usually sat in the audience.  It was a wonderful way to spend a Saturday afternoon, and I miss it.

As part of the One for the Books celebration, members of the public are invited to upload short videos of themselves reading from favorite books.  I selected a passage from Christopher Paul Curtis’s Bud, Not Buddy for my contribution.  In this passage, Bud goes to his public library to find help with a problem that he is having.  I think it is a fitting passage to read since so many of us have gone to the Main Library to find help locating a desired book or to find help with a research question or find help formulating our weekend plans. 

I served as one of the members of the community who provided input to the architects of the new library, so I have seen the plans and renderings for this new library.  From what I have seen, I am sure it will be a true community treasure when it opens in a few years, and I can’t wait to visit it.  Still, I know that many of us miss the Main Library, for it has long played a starring role in the history of Storied Charlotte. 

 

Lisa Zerkle and the Charlotte Lit 4X4CLT Poetry/Art Poster Series

October 18, 2021 by Mark West
Categories: Storied Charlotte

Charlotte poet Lisa Zerkle published a poetry chapbook a few years ago titled Heart of the Light.  It seems fitting to me that the word “light” is in the title, for Lisa has a knack for shining a spotlight on poets. In 2005 she co-founded KAKALAK: An Anthology of Carolina Poets, an annual collection that she went on to co-edit for a number of years. As the co-editor of KAKALAK, she enjoyed pairing the featured poems with artwork, and this experience caused her to come up with another way to spotlight the works of poets. In 2016, she brought the idea to Charlotte’s newly-created literary arts organization. With Lisa as curator, Charlotte Lit launched 4X4CLT, a poetry/art poster series involving the production and display of posters featuring poems and original artwork. She called it 4X4CLT because she pairs four poems with four works by local artists.

I’ve seen these cool 4X4CLT posters around town over the past few years, but I only recently realized that Lisa is the person behind this project. My curiosity got the best of me, so I contacted Lisa and asked her for more information about the 4X4CLT project.  Here is what she sent to me:

When I fell for poetry, I fell hard. But I was acutely aware that this love of mine was not shared by the public at large. When they thought of poetry (if they thought of it at all) it was something rhymed, something written by a dead person, or something they had to learn for a test. That didn’t square with the fresh, timely, heartbreaking, compelling work I came across every time I read a book of contemporary poetry or literary journal. If they could read what I was reading, I figured, they’d love it, too.

4X4CLT sprang out of this desire to share poetry in the community, to get it out of books and into the public arena. It’s a quarterly event that revolves around the release of a poetry + art poster series. Each set of four posters pairs the work of nationally known poets with art by local artists. The weekend of the poster release includes a poetry reading and master class by the featured poet. After the release, the posters are displayed in 100+ places around Charlotte—coffee shops, book stores, libraries, breweries, and the like.

This structure allows for a casual encounter with poetry, perhaps while waiting in line for coffee; or a deeper involvement of attending a reading or class. My idea was to create the kind of programming I myself wanted to experience. But over the past five years, I’ve been grateful for the extent 4X4CLT has been embraced by the public. Charlotte Lit generously gave the idea a home. The Knight Foundation and the ASC provided major funding. Many local businesses agreed to display the posters, and many volunteers have pitched in to help deliver them.

The release events are celebrations of poetry and art, hosted in venues as diverse as Resident Culture Brewing, C3 Lab, CPCC, and Queens University. Often, the local artists attend the release events and talk about their process. We’ve heard about weaving, sculpting, painting, and photography. Over the years we’ve been honored to feature poets Linda Pastan, Sandra Beasley, Lola Haskins, Sarah Lindsay, Jessica Jacobs, Nickole Brown, Tyree Daye, A. Van Jordan, Gabrielle Calvocoressi, Matthew Olzmann, Maurice Manning, Beth Ann Fennelly, Jennifer Chang, Cecily Parks, Richard Garcia, Morrie Creech, Terrance Hayes; and two poets laureate, Tracy K. Smith and Joy Harjo. Just last month, the host of the poetry podcast The Slowdown, Ada Limón, was our guest.

4X4CLT has been a labor of love, but the results have exceeded my expectations. As my own appreciation of poetry deepened, it’s led me to embark upon an MFA at Warren Wilson College. There’s one final edition of 4X4CLT this December. Our guest poet will be the newly minted MacArthur “Genius,” Reginald Dwayne Betts. He’ll give a reading at the Midwood International and Cultural Center in Plaza Midwood on Friday, December 3, and teach a master class on Saturday, December 4. Full details are here: https://www.charlottelit.org/4×4/

I wish Lisa all the best as she starts her MFA program at Warren Wilson College, and I am sure that she will go on to write new and inspiring works of poetry. However, as she turns a new page in her career, she should take pride in the success of her 4X4CLT project and her many other contributions to Storied Charlotte.

Tags: local artistspoetrypoetry and art

Verse & Vino: A Literary Feast for Readers and Supporters of Our Public Library

October 11, 2021 by Mark West
Categories: Storied Charlotte

For many Americans, the month of November concludes with a Thanksgiving feast.  However, for book lovers in the Charlotte area, the month also begins with a literary feast known as Verse & Vino. Sponsored by the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library Foundation, the year’s Verse & Vino celebration will kick off on November 4, 2021, at 7:00 p.m.  As was the case last year, this year’s celebration will be a virtual event, but it will include opportunities for attendees to gather in person.

Teleia White, the library Foundation’s Director of Individual Giving, leads the planning for this year’s Verse & Vino. In commenting on this year’s event, she said, “We’re building on the success of last year’s virtual event and adding more opportunities for live interaction and group celebrations. Verse & Vino is a critical fundraiser and this year is special because it kicks off two weeks of opportunities to celebrate and support Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, as we close Main Library and welcome the future together.”

All of the authors featured at this year’s Verse & Vino event are best-selling authors, and all have new books that they will discuss during their presentations.  Janet Evanovich, a writer who is best known for her contemporary mystery novels featuring a determined sleuth named Stephanie Plum, will talk about Game On, the latest volume in her Stephanie Plum Series.  Alka Joshi, a writer with deep connections to India, will talk about The Secret Keeper of Jaipur, which is set in India in 1969.  Alex Michaelides, a native of Cyprus who studied at Cambridge University, will discuss his novel The Maidens, a psychological thriller involving a classics professor at Cambridge University. Heather Morris, the author of the bestseller The Tattooist of Auschwitz, will focus her presentation on Three Sisters, a new novel that is inspired by a true story of three sisters who escape Auschwitz and eventually make it to Israel where they struggle to build a future for themselves.  Bryant Terry, a James Beard Award-winning chef and chef-in-residence at the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco, will talk about Black Food, which is both a cookbook and a celebration of Black culinary traditions. Finally, Wanda M. Morris, a prominent attorney who currently lives in Atlanta, will discuss her debut novel, All Her Little Secrets, a murder mystery set in Atlanta.   

Verse & Vino is both an important fundraiser for the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library and a celebration of libraries, literacy, books.  For more information about participating in this year’s Verse & Vino event, please click on the following link:  https://foundation.cmlibrary.org/verse-vino/ 

As a long-time supporter of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, I believe that participating in Verse & Vino is a wonderful way to engage in our Storied Charlotte community and support our storied public library.

Dr. Kimmery Martin—Charlotte’s Bestselling Writer of Medical Novels

October 04, 2021 by Mark West
Categories: Storied Charlotte

Aspiring writers are often advised to “write what you know.” I am not sure if anyone gave this advice to Dr. Kimmery Martin when she decided to try her hand at writing fiction, but she certainly wrote about what she knew in her debut novel, The Queen of Hearts, which came out in 2018. 

As a former emergency room physician in Charlotte, Kimmery is very familiar with Charlotte’s medical community, and this background is reflected in The Queen of Hearts.  At its core, this novel is about the evolving friendship between Zadie Anson (a pediatric cardiologist) and Emma Colley (a trauma surgeon).  These women first became friends in medical school, and both go on to pursue successful medical careers in Charlotte.  Their friendship, however, is threatened when secrets from their medical school days start to surface. 

Kimmery’s medical background is also reflected in her second novel, The Antidote for Everything, which was published in 2020.   In this novel, physician Georgia Brown works as a urologist in a hospital in Charleston.  Her best friend and fellow physician Jonah Tsukada is also employed at the same hospital.  Their medical careers are tested when Jonah is ordered by the hospital administrators to stop caring for transgender patients.  Within the context of this novel, Martin shows how members of the LGBTQ community sometimes face discrimination when seeking medical treatment.

Kimmery’s third medical novel, Doctors and Friends, will be released by Berkley on November 9, 2021.  Like her first two novels, Doctors and Friends deals with the friendships among physicians. In this case, the story focuses on three women physicians who have been friends since medical school.  They have established their careers in different cities, but they gather together for a reunion each year. When this story opens, their annual get-together is disrupted by the outbreak of a global pandemic.  Even though Kimmery wrote the initial draft of this novel before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, her novel uncannily anticipates the impact of the current pandemic on the lives of physicians and others in the medical community.

I recently contacted Kimmery and asked her for more information about how she came to write Doctors and Friends.  Here is what she sent to me:

For most of my adult life, my day job has involved battling disease. In an average shift at work, I’d fight carcinogens, genetic mutations, blood flow obstructions, and, not least of all, microbial invaders. It’s a bit of a misnomer to call my career a day job, actually; like every ER doctor, I worked days, but also nights, weekends, and holidays, all of it blurring together into a ceaseless stream of injured, sick, and suffering human beings.

Being an emergency medicine physician in Charlotte may sound like the job from hell but in many ways it’s the best job in the world. The ability to ease suffering, even a little, balances the years of grueling training and the hardships of practicing this particular specialty. What could be more gratifying than snatching life from the jaws of death? Every ER doctor knows the fierce joy—and sheer relief—that grips you when you revive a pulseless child or restore consciousness to someone blue and lifeless. 

We fight pathogens all the time in my job. I thought I understood them.

In 2018, I had the idea to write a book centered around an infectious disease doctor and an ER doctor. My first novel, The Queen of Hearts—which is set in Charlotte—had just been published and I’d just finished writing my second novel, The Antidote for Everything, both of which are medical fiction. By 2019, I was well into the process of creating my own personal fictional pandemic. I spent the majority of the year researching, outlining, and writing the first draft. I interviewed more than forty experts in various fields of science and medicine, a process which extended into 2020.

Obviously, the world has changed mightily since I first began the process of writing Doctors and Friends. As one of my protagonists says, we’ve all morphed into armchair virologists after our collective experience during a real-life pandemic. Maybe we’ve been sick, or we’ve developed long-term symptoms, or we know someone who’s been hospitalized. We know about spike proteins and mRNA, variants, and origin theories. Millions of us have endured the indescribable grief of losing a loved one to a disease that literally steals their breath.

I’m still a bit stunned by the politicization of our real-life disease. Our understanding of SARS-CoV-2 —and response to it—was evolving on a daily basis just as I was honing the final portrayal of my nasty little fictional virus. It’s hard enough during normal times to whittle an infinite universe of words into a coherent and interesting story. It’s nearly impossible while getting hammered with hundreds of news stories, scientific articles, and social media outrage on the subject. The novel is not always representative of reality. Some of the unrealities in the book stem from what we writers like to call creative license (it’s fiction, y’all!) but some, I must admit, are related to the incompetence of the author. Even so, I might have to get NOT ABOUT COVID tattooed on my forehead in an attempt to ward off the inevitable fallout from people who have strong opinions about what is or is not real when it comes to the nonfictional coronavirus pandemic we’ve endured. Which, of course, is everyone. 

I loved writing this book, even after getting slapped by the irony of it all. So far, all my novels have featured friendship as a fundamental theme and I revel in this concept: your friends are the people you choose to love. There’s no familial obligation or romantic entanglement. It’s a purer form of attraction: you care for these people not because you have to but because of who they are. Friendships, especially those that endure over time, are a blessing beyond measure. 

In my own case, the friendships forged during medical school and my ER career are among the most intense and cherished of my life—and I hope some of that is reflected in the novel. 

For Kimmery, the medical world plays an integral role in all of her novels.  Her central characters are shaped by their experiences as physicians, and her plots are structured around medical crises or concerns.  Kimmery’s deep knowledge of the dynamics of medical school and the inner workings of hospitals is reflected in the lives of her characters and in the unfolding of her plots.  For more information about Kimmery and her medical novels, please click on the following link:  https://www.kimmerymartin.com/

Anyone who has lived in Charlotte for very long knows that our city serves as a medical hub for our region.  Charlotte is home to famous hospitals and medical clinics, and soon it will have its own medical school.  In addition to its excellent medical facilities, Charlotte is also home to many remarkable medical professionals, including one of the country’s top writers of medical fiction—Dr. Kimmery Martin.  Storied Charlotte is all the richer because this doctor/author is in our collective house.

Tags: fictionmedical novelspandemic