From now until the end of June we will post at least once a day with details on what you can experience at home during this pandemic year for Charleston’s annual festival of all arts. For 2020, FestivALL is when The Internet Becomes A Work Of Art. Every day we will bring you up to date on this year’s VirtuALL FestivALL, plus we will flash back to some of our video coverage from previous years, and I will dig into the archives for one post in the Monday Morning Art Exhibit, collecting some of my favorite pieces from the nearly fifteen years that I’ve been posting my original work here in PopCult.

Today’s big event is an Authors’ Roundtable at 3 PM on FestivALL’s YouTube Channel.This event aims to showcase regional authors and provide an opportunity for community members to learn more about the authors, their works, their processes and inspiration. This roundtable discussion is curated and led by WV Poet Laureate Marc Harshman (seen right).

The audience will also have the opportunity to ask questions with the panel. This roundtable features four poets: James Harms; Mary Moore; Elizabeth Savage; and Cameron Barnett.

The roundtable will be live on YouTube Sunday June 21 with audience Q&A at the end of the program. A recording of the event will be made available and be housed on FestivALL’s YouTube channel for the duration of the 15 days of FestivALL.

Other FestivALL events for today include being able to vote on The Artbus, check out the Art-for-ALL Kids’ Juried Art Exhibition look into the “Faces of First Responders” Tribute Mural and teens can participate in Life: Unedited. FestivALL is off to a strong VirtuALL start.  You can also participate in the CAMC “Run For Your Life” virtual run/walk. The Virtual Art Fair will open on June 14th on the FestivALL website – check it regularly for the gallery and links to shop your favorite WV artisans this summer.

The FestivALL Flashback

2011 was the year where I had the insane idea of cover the holy hell out of FestivALL, and trying to present it in an almost daily form as episodes of Radio Free Charleston.  Today  we’ll wrap up 2011 with three episodes of the show that feature music by Douglas Imbrogno, Sasha Collette, Holy Cow, The Boatmen, Miss Behavin’, Joseph Hale, T.J. King and The Kingfish Five, Kathleen Coffee, The Velvet Nomads, WATT 4, Christopher Nelson and Albert Perrone.

We also have theatrical performances, dance, art, film. You’ll see everything from St. Stephen’s Dream: A Space Opera to wrestling to Jenna Swanson sword-dancing to the first Art Piers being painted to the Art Parade and loads more. I look back at these shows and marvel at how I was able to shoot, edit and post more than three hours of FestivALL videos in less than twelve days. I have no idea how I had that much energy while working full-time as a caregiver for my uncle.

The Monday Morning Art Exhibit

For this entry in our artistic look back, we go to August, 2010 for a piece inspired by FestivALL. This digital painting that revisits FestivAll, from June, 2010.  Specifically, this is a shot of the crowd dancing to The VooDoo Katz at the Live On The Levee show where we recorded the band for Radio Free Charleston. I decided to go a little Fauvist on the image. I really like this piece, but had mixed feelings about including it here because it is a bittersweet reminder of things we can’t have this year.

However, I chose it as a reminder that, if we aren’t idiots about rushing to reopen, we will be able to have nice things again.

Click the image to see it bigger.

Tomorrow we’ll have a new Monday Morning Art, plus our continuing guide to VirtuALL FestivALL.