I have decided to be honest from the start. I am not a native Cincinnatian. (Please keep reading). I am from upstate New York, and if I told you what high school I attended you wouldn’t know it. I’ve floated about for several years- living on the East Coast, Europe and now here. Thankfully, when I moved here about three and a half years ago, I met several friends who took me under their wing. They taught me Cincinnati. And, with their guidance, I have learned about the city and still am excited to explore and find those new places all for myself.
And I really like it. Yes, it’s over selling it a bit, but I really like this city; more importantly I love the people. (Although, perhaps the topic of the next blog would be the whole East Side/ West Side thing, and the lack of snow plows- or traffic debacles in general). But, I digress. I was talking about the people.
A major influence of my love affair with the city and its inhabitants began when I started working on a project called
Books by the Banks - a book festival held in downtown Cincinnati. Coming from the world of politics, a once optimistic young citizen excited about doing and changing, I had become callused to the idea that people can work together to achieve a common goal. Yet gradually, working on this project, I found myself starting to change back to the bright-eyed young political science student that I once was, filled with dreams of civic activism. I was able to collaborate with my peers from the Public Library of Cincinnati and we joined together to work with employees from Borders, CET, Cincinnati Magazine, The Mercantile Library and University of Cincinnati to develop a book festival.
Apparently, it all started a few years ago. Several of the “big wigs” from each organization were sitting near each other at a Reds game and realized that their missions were similar- to serve their communities and support reading and learning. And thus began the Books by the Banks book festival.
Last year saw the first Books by the Banks hosted by the Cincinnati Library. It was amazing. We’re doing it again this year, implementing those improvements we needed to make from last year. The same people are involved with the same mission and same excitement.
Why did it work? It’s the people. Everyone from the authors to the attendees as well as our sponsors and staff, all pulled together to create a great public festival for our community.
The free festival affords the opportunity for people to meet their favorite author and of course, read and buy books. There's even a special kids area.
I'm inspired by projects like this. I'm inspired by the people who attend festivals like this as well as the contributors and my late mentor, Keith Kuhn whose memory and vision inspires me daily. These are the projects and the people who have brought back my optimism and made me fall in love with Cincinnnati which I now call my home.