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This weekend, Michelle and Lauren took on New York Comic Con & Anime Festival and bring you superheros, speed dating, light sabers, and more.

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Special thanks to…

Ryan Glitch, host of Sci-fi Speed-Dating

Dr. Travis Langley, Professor of Psychology at Henderson State University, director of The ERIICA Project

Dr. Robin S. Rosenberg, co-editor of What is a Superhero, author of Superhero Origins: What Makes Superheroes Tick & Why We Care (forthcoming 2011). Take the SUPERHERO SURVEY!

Matthew Silva, Creative Director at Penny Dreadful Productions

John Strangeway, Production Assistant at Penny Dreadful Productions

Ashley Eckstein, the voice of Ahsoka Tano in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, founder of Her Universe

Laura Domholt of the Tonner Doll Company

The Ben Daniels Band

and everyone else we met!

It is all part of the 2 week Marple Festival, so the lucky folks in Marple will be having a great time. Contact the festival for more details.

see my work at www.lynnechapman.co.uk

What kind of food did they serve at the last food festival you went to?

A couple of weeks ago I brought you a post on the Hay Festival by OUP UK’s Head of Publicity Kate Farquhar-Thomson. Today, for those of you who couldn’t make it to the Festival (like me), here are some of Kate’s photos from the few days she spent there.

The festival site from on high

Priya Gopal, author of The Indian English Novel, speaks to a festival-goer

Scientists Steve Jones and Jerry Coyne. Coyne’s book Why Evolution is True was published by OUP in the UK.

Festival-goers on site. Doesn’t it look glorious?

Simon Baron-Cohen, author of Autism and Asperger Syndrome: The Facts, signs books.

The Hay Festival of Arts and Literature is one of the highlights of the UK literary calendar. Every year it takes place in Hay on Wye, a small village on the English-Welsh border, famed for its numerous bookshops. This year sees events from lots of big names including  AC Grayling, Niall Ferguson, Ian McEwan, and Karen Armstrong. Several OUP authors are also doing events during the festival, including Anthony Julius, Ian Glynn, Robin Hanbury-Tenison, and Jerry Coyne.

OUP UK’s Head of Publicity, Kate Farquhar-Thomson, is also there, and this week will be sending her dispatches from the festival front line. Today, though, she writes about the other side of Hay.

It would be easy to make a list of the stars that I have spotted here at the Hay Festival since I arrived, or indeed the past colleagues I have worked with, but actually what strikes me more, on this visit, is what is going on outside the boundaries of the festival.

The fact is that whilst tens of thousands of people descend on this small Welsh border town for a week (or so) to mingle with politicians, models (oh yes, Jerry Hall was here!), historians, novelists and more, life around the UK’s premier ‘Book Town’ still goes on.  I see tractors going about their farm business, sheep lambing and hay being made.  However it is not only hay that is being made in Hay by the indigenous population.  There are numerous little stalls of bric-a-brac, tea shops, cake stalls and plant sellers that have sprung up in gardens, on pavements, under tents and in driveways.  The whole town embraces the festival and is keen to capitalise on it!  Good for them I say.  It happens but once a year and it is truly special.  It is like the circus is in town… all encompassing but transient.

Some of Hay on Wye’s native residents.

Talking of circuses there is actually one in town in the grounds of Hay Castle this year.  Giffords Circus, normally to be found every other year in a field just over the Hay Bridge has bedded down in the town centre this year.  Within the castle, which was built in 1200, is a flat owned by Richard Booth, the self-proclaimed “King of Hay” whose eponymous bookshop stands at the centre of Hay and was the first second-hand bookshop to open here well over 40 years ago.  And for the first time since I have been coming to Hay I actually met the man himself last Saturday night!

After I sketched this out, it occurred to me that Dr. Seuss had already drawn a cat wearing a hat. I decided to finish the picture anyway.

These cats are obviously on their way to an outdoor festival. Why else would they be wearing hats? Please visit sruble.com to learn more about my art and projects, or my blog to see more recent art.

On May 10th, 1876, President Ulysses S. Grant stood near the front steps of Memorial Hall to formally open the Centennial Exhibition and invite the world to see how much America had grown since 1776. The Centennial Exhibition served not only as America’s 100th birthday party, but more importantly was the third World’s Fair to be held in the United States! Did you know that bananas, kindergarten and the telephone were first introduced to many Americans at the fair?













Opening day of the Centennial Exhibition, May 10, 1876
View from the steps of Memorial Hall, looking toward the Main Exhibition Building. The bleacher seating was for the VIPs—Centennial Commission members, U.S. and foreign political figures and special guests.

Image Courtesy, Robby Cohen Collection



In addition to introducing America as an industrialized nation, the Centennial Exhibition also introduced the world to numerous new and exciting discoveries and inventions. The Centennial closed on November 10, 1876, and in those short six months over 10 million people had come to Philadelphia to see and experience the excitement and grandeur of the Centennial Exhibition!

On Monday, we will be celebrating the 134th anniversary of opening day with special Centennial themed programming throughout the museum. The day’s programming is intended to highlight major themes of the Centennial Exhibition, while introducing our young audience to the concept of history through age appropriate, familiar, and fun activities.

Kids will be able to paint, explore transportation of the period, and play with reproduction Froebel blocks throughout the day in the Program Room. The Story Castle will feature carnival themed stories at 10:30 and 3:30. Visitors will get the opportunity to interact with collections objects during a stereograph themed KidGlove Program at 1:00 in the Centennial Train Station. In addition, there will be parades in the Centennial Train Station at 12:00 and 2:00.

And grown-ups, don’t worry we didn’t forget about you, we will be offering special $10 guided Centennial Tours at 2:00 Saturday, May 8th to Monday, May 10th.

How to Write a Picture Book. Ebook, immediate download. $10.

Festival Celebrates Literacy

The Arkansas Literary Festival will take place next weekend, April 8-11, 2010 in Little Rock, AR. If you’re anywhere close, please come!

Books, theater, music, comics, books, games, chess, puppets, origami, Shakespeare, books, authors in the schools, authors in the library, authors just strolling around, books, authors everywhere, panels and workships, art and illustration — and did I mention, books? And authors?

This year, I’ve served as the Co-Chair of the Children’s Programs for the Literary Festival and it’s been great fun planning the event. We tried to find a mix of activities relating to literacy and tried to schedule it so that families can take advantage of the range of activities.

Read the full program and schedule at www.arkansasliteraryfestival.org.

It was a fun-filled family-friendly President's Day Weekend here at Please Touch Museum!

Please Touch Museum is a first museum experience for many of our visitors. The children may have seen their first theater show, watched their first live music performance, celebrated an author’s birthday for the first time or experienced a diverse set of art materials for the first time during this past weekend.

On Saturday and Sunday, Louie Miranda and Friends jazzed it up in the Please Touch Playhouse Theater with the help of 8 year old percussionist, Antoine. Kids not only had a chance to listen and dance to music, but could also join Louie’s Band, fueling future creativity. Louie always encourages parent participation in his shows making the shows family oriented, and memorable.

In addition, many visitors could be seen dancing along to the Northeastern University Concert Band with over 40 college musicians in Hamilton Hall. College students took the time before their performance to connect with visitors and show them how each instrument worked.

On President's Day, we celebrated author Norman Bridwell's Birthday, creator of the Clifford books. The Clifford series features a young girl named Emily Elizabeth and Clifford the Big Red Dog. Kids were ecstatic to meet their favorite big red dog in person at the museum. Character appearances gave children the chance to see the Clifford books come to life.

Young visitors also had the chance to connect literacy with art in the Program Room with Kid’s Best Friend: Drawing with Silky Sticks activity. We encouraged kids to tell us about their best friends, and illustrate them with our fun silky sticks. A silky stick is a versatile material that can be turned up like a glue stick; it is great because it can be used as a crayon when drawing on paper, an oil pastel when rubbed with your fingers, or a watercolor when painted on with some water. It all depends on how our visitors chose to mix the colors. By describi

At my first event, with Y3 at Bakewell Methodist School, I was delighted to say hello to some children who had been to my storytellings before. We had a lively session: I read Class 2 at the Zoo and Stinky! and the children drew some extremely smelly animals!

The rest of my storytellings were housed in Lady Manners' fabulously massive library, with groups made up of children from all the neighbouring village schools. I did 6 sessions over 2 days, so to keep myself from going mad, I read different books for each and got the children to draw different things. We had some knock-out pirate pictures based on Class Three all at Sea.

The children were all fantastic. Thank you so much to Mrs Hetherington for letting us take over her library and for looking after me so well. It was great to have so much space to spread out, and to allow the children to draw nice, big pictures.
Yummy school dinners by the way!

Thanks too, to Simona for giving me a lift, and to Louisa for her mercy-dash to Longstone, when there was a mix-up about who needed to be where.

see my work at www.lynnechapman.co.uk

As you know, the 18th Annual Junior Jazz Festival is in full swing here at Please Touch Museum!

Now through February 26, kids will also learn a bit of jazz history by taking in a Please Touch Playhouse performance of "Scat Cat's Junior Jazz Jamboree." Performances are Mondays- Fridays at 11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. in the Playhouse and are FREE with museum admission. I sat down with Alice Gonglewski, Creative Dramatics Manager at Please Touch, who told me all about this hip interactive show.

Pinky: What's this show about, Alice?
Alice: Scat Cat's Junior Jazz Jamboree is about an ordinary alley cat who meets a new friend, a roach named Max. Max Roach is a drummer and he teaches the cat all about a special kind of music: Jazz!

Pinky: How does this show tie into our Junior Jazz Festival and programming?
Alice: The Junior Jazz Festival strives to celebrate this expressive musical form by making it accessible to young children. Jazz nurtures experimentation and creativity, which is what learning through play is all about! The Scat Cat show explains in simple terms what Jazz is and where it came from. It also introduces children to many famous Jazz personalities in a kid-friendly way. For example, the Jazz club scene features Bunny Goodman and Piggy Lee among others. Several programs throughout the museum from Storyyimes to Art Activities to Music Playtimes will explore Jazz from a variety of angles and allow for a rich and multifaceted experience for children.

Pinky: What themes or 'lessons' can children (and adults, too!) take away from this performance?
Alice: We hope our visitors will experience delight in and pride for the unique American invention that is Jazz music. The show plants the seeds for recognition of some historical figures that helped make Jazz great, and it lets kids and families know that this music belongs to them-- everyone is welcome to play along!

Pinky: After kids see the show, how can they create a music-related “show” at home with/for their family?
Alice: The interactive segments in the show encourage kids to sing and play through call and response segments, scat singing, and instrument pantomime.

Hey all you hip cats!

Now through February 28, the 18th Annual Junior Jazz Festival will turn Memorial Hall into the biggest and hippest jazz club around! I sat down with Francis Coates, Music Coordinator at Please Touch Museum, who told me all about what goes into the planning of the festival and the educational value of musical expression.

Pinky: What's the Junior Jazz Festival all about, Francis?
Francis: The Junior Jazz Festival celebrates one of the most unique genres of music performed today-- JAZZ! Everyone at Please Touch Museum believes in celebrating all genres of music and since jazz incorporates other genres like 19th and 20th century classical, Latin, and even Country, it's a great starting point for children.

Pinky: Why does the museum celebrate music and jazz every year? Why is music important to children and their development?
Francis: At Please Touch Museum, we believe in celebrating music because it transcends language and age. No matter where you come from or how old you are, everyone can enjoy a great piano or guitar solo! Jazz is very special to the city of Philadelphia, too. A lot of jazz greats come from this city, including Ethel Waters, Dizzy Gillespie and John Coltrane. Jazz incorporates improvisation, which allows the performer to explore his/her instrument and create whatever sound they like. We're are all about improvisation and independent exploration of the creative arts here at Please Touch, so why not celebrate it every year?!

Pinky: What kind of special daily programming and performances are scheduled in celebration of Junior Jazz?
Francis: We will have live jazz piano and xylophone performances weekdays. We will also have our "PTM Jazz Club" program which allows children to play different instruments like the trumpet, piano, and drum set. It is very important for our young visitors to not only hear people perform on these instruments, but for them to explore the instruments themselves. On weekends, a wide variety of great jazz artists will take the Playhouse stage for interactive jazz performances that kids and grown-ups will surely be swingin' to!

Pinky: After they visit, how can parents incorpora

Wishing all of you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!