Two years ago our guest Deedee Cummings decided she wanted to introduce a book festival to the city of Louisville, an event found in many other large cities but missing here. She and her team spent those two years planning and scheduling an event all about books and reading only to have 2020 happen, a terrible, no good, very bad year that has served as a wet blanket for most kinds of fun. Deedee was, of course, disappointed, but she was not deterred.

The first annual Louisville Book Festival will take place October 23 and 24 virtually including a session with headliner Tomi Adeyemi, the New York Times bestselling writer of the Young Adult fantasy novel, Children of Blood and Bone.

Cumming’s book festival has a unique mission statement: Literacy is a basic human right. She has worked to build an event that will bring both a reading culture and connection to the city as well as inspire children to dream.

When you talk to Cummings, you realize that most of her adult life has been spent building up to something big. She has been a social worker and lawyer, and is currently a therapist, an author of children’s books, and the CEO of Make a Way Media, a company that promotes reading in all kinds of unique ways.

Deedee tells us why a lack of books that feature brown faces or stories was the inspiration for the Louisville Book Festival, how a book festival can be a life-changing event, and what themes unite all the children’s books she has written.

Books Mentioned in this Episode: