Room 220: Big Class book launch Thursday

Big Class, Press Street’s after-school writing and publishing project for the children, will celebrate the launch of its newest publication, And Nothing Else Bad Happened: New Fairy Tales, at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 13, at the Press Street HQ (3718 St. Claude Ave.).

And Nothing Else Bad Happened is a collaborative anthology of imaginative new fairy tales by second-grade writers from ARISE academy, accompanied by illustrations by adults. Fairy tales have seen a resurgence in the literary realm as of late, and one can witness this in New Orleans. A recently published anthology of fairly tales by adults, xo Orpheus, edited by Kate Bernheimer (who Room 220 interviewed in 2011), features a fine piece by New Orleans writer and Room 220 friendMichael Jeffrey Lee. A new anthology of speculative fiction (which, we’ll argue, encompasses fairy tales) by people of color edited by Daniel José Older, Long Hidden, features another fine piece by another New Orleans writer and Room 220 friend, Jamey Hatley (stay tuned for a brief interview with her). This is all to say that the folks at Big Class seem to have tapped into the zeitgeist a bit with this one—or, at least, the zeitgeist as defined by adults who like to write fairy tales (a.k.a. Room 220 friends).

But the event on Thursday will be about much more than just fairy tales—it will also be about adorable children! How adorable are these children, you might wonder? Very. They’re also bright, creative, energetic, the future of our city, and all sorts of other things us grumpy old smelly adults wish we still were (if we ever were). They’ll be reading stories from ANEBH, as well as other recent Big Class projects, and screening a new book trailer for Big Class publications Animals Stuck in Parisand Walking on the Stars: Stories from Animals Lost in Space (animals will always be the zeitgeist).

Food and refreshments will be on hand from Garage Pizza and Marketplace/Mike’s Food Store.

From ANEBH:

Walking on the Stars and Animals Stuck in Paris- Big Class Book Trailer from Press Street on Vimeo.

This article was originally published at Press Street: Room 220, a content partner of NolaVie.