StoryFest kicks off Red Brick Roads festival weekend
By Sherry Lucas
StoryFest on Thursday, March 26, kicks off the weekend of Red Brick Roads Music and Arts Festival in Clinton, the town’s biggest street celebration of the year.
The free event joined the Red Brick Roads fold last year, wrapping in The Institute for Southern Storytelling at Mississippi College and adding a focus on books, film and culture to the mix.
The Red Brick Roads Music and Arts Festival is a joint production of Main Street Clinton, Clinton Chamber of Commerce and the City of Clinton.
“As the festival aims to include various forms of art and music, this partnership with the Institute for Southern Storytelling is a perfect bridge into film and literature,” Main Street Clinton Assistant Director Ashley Hammack said. “It’s a great way to set the tone for a full weekend of music, food and fun.”
StoryFest, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. March 26 March in the Entergy Theater at the Gore Arts Complex, 400 E. College St., presents an easy evening of conversation, stories and music. Special guests include: Frank Ordaz, former matte artist with Industrial Light and Magic on films such as E.T., Return of the Jedi, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and more; Out on Yukon author Joseph Lee Smith; and Christian indie rock student band Broken Halos.
Broken Halos will perform as attendees arrive, and members Nate Brock and Micah Lindley will offer a sneak peek at music videos featuring original animation during the evening.
Institute co-founder Anthony Thaxton will lead conversations with Ordaz and Smith. Thaxton has been working on a documentary about Ordaz, and will focus on the artist’s Hollywood stories and his life as a painter, as well as share a couple of clips from movies featuring his work.
“I’m a big Indiana Jones nut,” Thaxton said, “so I’ll ask him about the paintings he did for Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and where he also had a cameo as a background character.” He’ll also explore Ordaz’s work on other films made by “my heroes” Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, Thaxton said.
The StoryFest conversational format won good feedback from the audience last year, he said.
“I set guests up for being able to tell short stories about things in their lives people find interesting and inspiring,” Thaxton explained. “I just tee them up to hit the ball out of the park with some good stories.”
Thaxton and Smith, college roommates at MC, will talk about Smith’s Southern crime novel Out on Yukon and the gritty pen and ink illustrations Thaxton created for it, matching the story’s style.
“We always wanted to collaborate on a project,” Thaxton said. “This is the culmination of a thirty-year-old dream to do something together.”
Giveaways throughout the event and a small meet-and-greet session after the program give attendees a chance to visit and get books and posters signed by StoryFest guests.
