Just Buffalo Literary Center welcomes cartoonist and graphic novelist Alison Bechdel to Buffalo on Wednesday, March 16 for what promises to be a lively lecture and conversation at Kleinhans Music Hall. The event begins at 8:00 p.m., with doors open at 7:00 p.m. Tickets, both in-person and virtual, are available for purchase at justbuffalo.org.
A typical in-person BABEL event at Kleinhans Music Hall will have a full-service bar (what’s a book club without a glass of wine?) and a large table of the author’s books for sale by Talking Leaves Books. On the last event of each series (this year that will be on Thursday, April 21 with author Colson Whitehead talking about his novel “The Underground Railroad”) Talking Leaves always has copies of the featured books by the authors appearing next season. Seating is not assigned in the comfortable main stage area of Kleinhans so after you settle in, Barbara Cole, Just Buffalo’s Artistic Director & Associate Executive Director, will provide a well-crafted introduction and then the author will take the stage. The talks go for about 45 minutes, then Ms. Cole comes back on stage to sit with the author and ask questions as provided by you, the audience. Traditionally questions were written on 3×5 cards, but since COVID they are handled virtually. In the past, some of the best questions have come from high school students with whom the authors meet at the Just Buffalo Literary Center. Following the conclusion of the Q&A, the author appears in the lobby to sign books.
The idea of BABEL was to invite non-American writers from around the world whose works had been translated, in order to help build a stronger world community.
Starting in 2007 with a major grant from the Oishei Foundation, the idea of BABEL was to invite non-American writers from around the world whose works had been translated, in order to help build a stronger world community. Over the years, the series has included American born authors or those living in the U.S. Some of the “household” names who have come to BABEL include Toni Morrison, Salman Rushdie, Patti Smith, and Amy Tan, to pick just four of the 50+ authors to date. You can see the entire list with rich content at justbuffalo.org.
With my wife (the real power-reader in the family) I have been attending the BABEL series of readings and lectures (if that sounds rather academic and dull, they are anything but) since November 2007. The first BABEL event brought the Nobel Prize-winning Orhan Pamuk to a sold-out audience in Babeville discussing his novel “Snow.” Over the past 14 years, there have been four authors per year in what could be the area’s largest book club. But let me assure you of one thing. You do NOT have to have read the featured book to thoroughly enjoy yourself at a BABEL event. I can admit to this through personal experience. I read some of the books but by no means all. But I have enjoyed all of the events. Why?
If you just want to be in the room with a great mind, if you love hearing “how I did it/wrote it/discovered it” stories, or if you’d like a little inspiration or faith in a world that at times seems too stupid and cruel that there are bright and beautiful souls out there, then come to a BABEL event.
Some of the authors have read from their books, some have read a little and talked a little, and some were simply great raconteurs with marvelous stories. I imagine that the speaking tours by Charles Dickens or Mark Twain were not that different from the BABEL events. And you never know what will hit home with you. My favorite BABEL event of all happened in just the second year. The author of “Things Fall Apart” (and I DID read that one) Nobel Prize-winning Nigerian author Chinua Achebe came in September 2008 to speak when BABEL was still in Babeville. I don’t remember much from the year 2008, but I’ve never forgotten that night. I heard the most wonderful voice. Mr. Achebe could have been reading an instruction manual on how to program your thermostat and I would have been transfixed.
Equally memorable was the Obama-inaugural poet, Cuban-born Richard Blanco. I don’t remember what he read, but I loved his stories of growing up with his mother’s cooking. There had to be pork at every meal. Even when mom seemed to be on board with a full-on American-style Thanksgiving dinner, he discovered that she had a pork roast in the oven, “just in case.” Sometimes it’s the personal insights that are the most memorable.
By the way, Alison Bechdel is not the first graphic novelist on the series. In April, 2009 Marjane Satrapi talked about her book “Persepolis,” also about a girl growing up, only this was during and after the Iranian Revolution. BABEL events always give you new perspectives.
Bechdel is the author of three graphic novels. “Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic,” was a New York Times 2006 bestseller about Bechdel’s childhood growing up in her family’s fun(eral) home, coming-out, and relationship with her father. If that sounds familiar, it may be because it was later adapted into the 2013 Tony Award-winning Best Musical which was on-stage here in Buffalo in 2019 (read my review here.)
Her 2012 graphic novel “Are You My Mother? A Comic Drama,” was about Bechdel’s relationship with her mother with themes of psychoanalysis. Her most recent graphic novel, “The Secret to Superhuman Strength,” published in 2021, explores the author’s life through fitness fads. This funny, philosophical, and self-deprecating novel is the featured work at this Wednesday’s presentation at Kleinhans and online.
Bechdel is also known for her comic strip “Dykes to Watch Out For,” which ran from 1983 to 2008. Fortunately, in 2020 she published “The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For,” a “best of” collection of many strips. It was that strip that first gave us the “Bechdel test” for representation of women in film and media. To pass the test, a movie just has to pass three simple criteria: First, are there two or more women in it who have names; Second, do they talk to each other; Third, do they talk to each other about something other than a man. For more on this, including Bechdel Test spinoffs, a clever 2-minute video, and a long list of movies that fail the test (from “Toy Story” to “Pulp Fiction”, from “Slumdog Millionaire” to “The Princess Bride”) click here.
Tickets to the BABEL event, which also include a link to watch virtually, are available to the general public for $40; $35 with a library card; $10 with student ID. Patron VIP tickets, which include an author reception before the event, are $100. Just Buffalo Literary Center participates in ASI’s Arts Access program, offering free admission to pass holders. Proof of vaccination is required for entry to the event, and masks are strongly encouraged. For tickets or more information, visit justbuffalo.org or call 716-832-5400.
At a glance: BABEL: Alison Bechdel
Wednesday, March 16
8 p.m. (doors open at 7 p.m.)
Kleinhans Music Hall, 3 Symphony Circle, and online
$40 general public, $35 with library card, $10 student
Tickets available at justbuffalo.org