Tomorrow night at the Providence Athenaeum, I’ll be hosting the prize reading for the Not About The Buildings Second Annual Writing Prize. In a crazy turn of events that seriously had nothing whatsoever to do with me, the prize was awarded (by an outside judge who blind-read the entries and lives halfway across the country) to the Daily Dose’s own Annie Messier.

The event starts at 7 and also features Allen Kurzweil, novelist and children’s book author. He’ll be reading from a forthcoming memoir. It’s free to attend.

(Although I can’t believe we’re competing with an anti-Carcieri vigil! Uggh.)

Tonight, join Rebel L and twenty-five of his closest friends at the third annual Not About The Buildings Spelling Bee.  I’ll be hosting, and the first thirty-six spellers to sign up will be competing for fame and fabulous prizes donated by Tiny Showcase, if’n books, and What Cheer Antiques.  The lucky bee winner will also receive a membership to the Providence Athenaeum, which (if you didn’t know) is an awesomely fantastic prize.

Spellers are encouraged to show up early, since last year we had to turn some tardy spellers away.

Spelling Bee
AS220
115 Empire St.
9pm
$5 to spell, free to watch

I’m wicked frazzled right now, but before I head out for a (hopefully) computer-free weekend, I just wanted to let you all know about two free happenings this evening:

1. At the Athenaeum (251 Benefit St):

Readings from the newly published anthology, Wild Dreams: the Best of Italian American, with editor-in-chief Carol Bonomo (Ahearn) Albright and contributors Ann Hood, Mary Caponegro, Peter Covino, Christine Palamidessi Moore, and Christina Bevilacqua. For over 30 years the journal Italian Americana has showcased writers who have chronicled Italian-American literary culture and helped to define an Italian-American imagination. Wild Dreams offers the best of those pages.

That runs from 5-7 and it’s free and open to the public; there’s also free sherry, if you’re into that sort of thing.

2. At Machines With Magnets (400 Main St, Pawtucket):

The Sight of Sound

OPENING PARTY: FRIDAY 3/6 7pm | free
+ DJ Heidi Phelps

FEATURING ::
Awesome Brothers, Michael Bizon, James Weinberg, Delia Kovac, Dave Kiersh, Jyll Ethier-Mullen, Lauren Minco, Andrea Kang, Jonathan Beller, Todd Sanchioni, Robert Adams Jr., James Re, Michelle Marchese, Shay Platz, Briana Horrigan, Christy Georg, John Jacobson & Shawn Wallace, Keith Souza, Lauren Holt, Allison Cole

No word on the sherry situation at this one.

[The photo, btw, is what comes up when you Google Image Search "Italian-Americans."  I kind of wish Google still had the "I'm feeling lucky!" button for situations like this.]

This is a heads-up for an event one week away. The Providence Athenaeum will be holding a fundraiser to commemorate the bicentennial of the birth of Edgar Allen Poe. (Actual birth date was January 19, same as hers.) The evening will include

… dramatic readings from Poe and his amours; an exhibit of rare Poe printed matter on loan from collector Susan Jaffe Tane; haunting music by Alec K. Redfearn; food for the soul; and the means by which you can drink to forget. Dress code: Raven-hued. Tickets are $75. To purchase click here or call 421-6970.

Poe is thought to have courted Sarah Helen Whitman in the stacks of the Athenaeum, an engagement that failed for reasons not too hard to imagine, although it is much debated.  Let’s face it, the guy had problems.  But she may have been kind of a loon as well.  And there seems to have been a lot of input from friends and family. In modern parlance. . . it’s complicated.  At any rate, her Wiki entry has it that she died at the home of a friend at 97 Bowen Street (is that house still there?) and is buried at the North Burial Ground. (To Helen, Poe 1848)