Arts Activities Support

6000 attended, with 287 authors participating. Readings attracted over 1500 audience members. The Book Fair featured 142 exhibitors. 85% attendees rated the event a 4 or 5 (scale of 1 to 5), and 99% said they plan to attend future Festivals. 47% experienced the Festival for the first time. 49% stayed for 1-2 hours, while 36% stayed 3+ hours. Most exhibitors made $100-$1500 and liked the community. Rain Taxi successfully staged the 2016 Twin Cities Book Festival on October 15 at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds, drawing over 6000 booklovers to the day-long celebration that includes a book fair, readings and signings, and activities for all ages. The Festival kicked off Friday with an opening night party and talk by Kathryn Aalto, on The Natural World of Winnie-the-Pooh. Saturday started off with a bang with a Morning Mingle—over 30 local poets, novelists, and more met with Festival attendees and signed books. Minglers included John Coy, Allen Eskens, Chris Monroe, Faith Sullivan, and Marlon James. Throughout the day, thousands thronged the exhibit hall to peruse nearly 150 publishers, literary orgs, magazines, authors, and more who presented books, author signings, giveaways, deals, and fun all day long. Folks of all ages helped create a giant collage in celebration of 100 years of Dada and tried their hand at a bicycle-driven letter press, creating postcard-sized broadsides. The Children’s Pavilion featured STEM-based activities, along with readings by local authors/rockers Stephen and Trisha Speed Shaskan, and Kare11’s meteorologist Belinda Jensen. Visiting illustrators Philip C and Erin E Stead joined author Michelle Cuevas in presenting their picture books. Youth programming featured Minnesota authors Abby Cooper, Brian Farrey, Kelly Barnhill, Shannon Gibney, and Lara Avery; visiting authors included Stuart Gibbs, Sarah Mlynowski, MA Larson, AS King, and Kathleen Glasgow. Adult presentations in the Fine Arts building included Minnesota authors Stephanie Wilbur Ash, Jason Good, Geoff Herbach, John Jodzio, Mary Mack, Ray Gonzalez, and Charles Baxter. Visiting authors included poets Michael Waters and Janice N. Harrington, comics artist Eddie Campbell, novelists Francine Prose, Lidija Dimkovska, Derek Palacio, and Karan Mahajan, and comedian Phoebe Robinson. One challenge we faced was budgetary. While Rain Taxi won a general operating grant from the State Arts Board, this disqualified us from receiving a Minnesota State Arts Board grant that directly fueled our Festival. Our Board applied to many local businesses for co-sponsorships, but were rejected. We also lost our Metropolitan Library Service Agency partner and co-sponsorship, as they had a retraction in legacy funds. We ended up revamping our exhibitor table fees, offering some premier exhibitor spaces and sponsoring exhibitor options that carried a larger price tag. Even with these increased prices, the Festival is a bargain compared to many across the country—our tables sold out swiftly. We also scaled back on publicity expenses, spending more on digital and targeted advertising. We continue to struggle with the Fairgrounds over having enough food vendors, and received many complaints from attendees. The Fairgrounds didn’t notify us until a week before that we had no inside food vendor and only one outside vendor. We will explore other venues, but so far, the Fairgrounds are affordable and offer enough space and parking. The Twin Cities Book Festival brought together a diverse array of audience, participants, and artists—all book enthusiasts who enjoy celebrating the written word in an energetic and fun setting. The Festival featured a diverse array of presenting authors from many different genres and interests, including African American comedian and podcaster Phoebe Robinson who spoke to a standing-room only audience about her feminist-inflected book You Can’t Touch My Hair. She attracted a wildly diverse audience as to race and age and gender, and her talk was ASL interpreted. The Canadian showcase was also quite diverse, with African Canadian novelist André Alexis and poet Fred Wah, who is part Chinese. Our international authors showcase, The Personal and the Political, featured Indian author Karan Mahajan, Yugoslavian writer Lidija Dimkovska, and Cuban Derek Palacio. Eight of the nine events were ASL interpreted. Exhibitors included publishers, magazines, arts organizations, and more, including Mizna, Button Poetry, Twin Cities Sisters in Crime, Green Card Voices, Minnesota Literacy Council, and more with appeal to book-lovers of all kinds and ages. The venue at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds is ADA accessible, and the spacious Progress Center allowed for plenty of room for navigating wheelchairs and strollers. The Festival engaged people of all ages and backgrounds. Our attendee survey revealed that for 47% of respondents, it was their first one. The rest had returned 2 to 4 times. Most were attracted either by a featured author or the book fair. And 90% spent at least $16 or more at the Festival. When asked what they enjoyed about the festival, one said “Literary geek out with like-minded folks.” Another remarked, “The variety of vendors was the best I’ve seen.” And one enjoyed “the sense of community.” Creating connections and conversation in a lively atmosphere made a difference to the community.