One Book One New Orleans

Do you want to meet Dan Baum, author of the 2011 One Book One New Orleans selection, “Nine Lives”? How about over a FREE dinner at Dooky Chase on Thursday, October 13? One Book One New Orleans will host “Dinner with Dan at Dooky Chase. The event features a full buffet and a discussion with Dan Baum along with JoAnn Guidos and Ronald Lewis, both featured in the book, and moderated by Susan Larson. This event is FREE. Because of limited seating, we will hold a lotto for attendees. Sign up here for your chance to attend!

Chugging right along during our reading period, we are happy to present our third event:

A Night of Networking: Young Professional Happy Hour at Hermes Bar (in Antoine’s Restaurant)!

Monday, September 26
5:30pm – 8:00pm
featuring
* Cocktail special inspired by Nine Lives: $4 Lemon Drops and $4 French 75s
* Great happy hour drink specials: $4 house brands, $3 imported beer, and $2 domestic beer
* FREE passed hors d’ oeuvres from Antoine’s!
* Ork New Orleans Posters on sale for $22**

* More surprises and updates to come!

It doesn’t get more New Orleans than drinking with friends. It doesn’t get more New Orleans than Antoine’s.  Y’all come out and see us!

*$5.00 from every purchase of a New Orleans Ork poster from is donated to three New Orleans non-profits: the St. Bernard Project, YAYA – Young Aspirations | Young Artists, and The Idea Village.

Join One Book One New Orleans for
A Sneak Peak at “Nine Lives: A Musical Adaptation”
a musical performance at
Kajun’s Pub

Monday, September 20, 2011
7:00pm

FREE and open to the public

Join us as singer-songwriter Paul Sanchez performs selected songs from Nine Lives: A Musical Adaption, based on 2011 One Book One New Orleans selection Nine Lives by Dan Baum, featuring favorite passages from the book, played in JoAnn Guidos’ Kajun Pub.

* Nine Lives books and CD’s will be sold on site
* First drink is 2 for 1 when you check in on Facebook!

“As we read, we discovered that the book was singing to us. We heard traditional New Orleans jazz, rock, funk, chamber music, Mardi Gras Indian chants, 70’s soul, hip-hop, brass band music, rap and blues rising off the pages and realized that MAYBE we could re-imagine Nine Lives as a Broadway musical. So we sat down and wrote. And found that we couldn’t stop. Almost every one of the book’s chapters struck us as a great song premise. One year and 39 songs (maybe 40 or 41, depending who’s counting) later, we finally crossed the finish line and closed the book.” – Paul Sanchez

We have just heard from Dan Baum’s publisher, Random House, that due to demand from New Orleans readers participating in One Book One New Orleans, they have had to go back to the presses for another paperback printing of 3,000 copies!  Congratulations to Mr. Baum on your fifth paperback Nine Lives printing, and to all you New Orleans readers, who made this possible!

Press Release:
YLC’s One Book One New Orleans Announces Dan Baum’s Nine Lives As Its Seventh Year Reading Selection

New Orleans, Louisiana – One Book One New Orleans, a project of the Young Leadership Council in partnership with the Literacy Alliance of Greater New Orleans, is delighted to announce its selection of Dan Baum’s Nine Lives: Mystery, Magic, Life, and Death for its seventh year of One Book programming,

Modeled after community reading initiatives in Seattle, Chicago, and Tampa, One Book One New Orleans creates community and promotes literacy in the Greater New Orleans region by encouraging all New Orleanians ages 16 and above to read the same book at the same time each fall.

Part reportage, part creative non-fiction, and wholly dramatic as only New Orleans can be, Nine Lives traces the lives of nine real New Orleanians from every walk of life, interweaving voices and lives of individuals to form a multi-voiced biography of a city and a drama-filled declaration of dedication to its survival.

“Nine Lives embodies the essence of what One Book, and the Young Leadership Council itself, are all about: creation of community, celebration of individuality, and passion for our city – that passion which imbues everyone of us who live, love, and learn in New Orleans,” said Young Leadership Council President Joseph I. Giarrusso III.

With the generous support of Shell Oil, One Book will donate copies of Nine Lives to partnering organizations across New Orleans to foster community around literacy. Partners include the New Orleans Public Library, Louisiana Books 2 Prisoners, and the Literacy Alliance of Greater New Orleans. Each branch of NOPL will receive multiple copies of Nine Lives, and One Book will also donate free copies of the book to the entering freshman class at Dillard University.

Over the course of six weeks, One Book will offer nine unique events and programs to celebrate this year’s selection, which will span New Orleans neighborhoods and reach out to community members of all ages and backgrounds. The season will kick off with festivities at the New Orleans African American Museum on September 7 from 6-8pm. Free and open to the public, the kickoff event will feature live music, free food and drinks from local restaurants, the sale of New Orleans Ork posters to benefit local non-profits, a raffle, and a donation and information table for Louisiana Books 2 Prisoners and their work encouraging literacy within the Orleans Parish prison system.

Additional events include:

• Nine Lives Children’s Art Project at the International School of Louisiana, co-sponsored by Community Works of Louisiana
• “Faces of New Orleans” Film Night with the New Orleans Film Society at the New Orleans Museum of Art
• “Tenth Life” Writing Contest with middle school, high school, and adult prizes of e-readers and book gift certificates
• “Nine Lives Changed by Literacy” panel with the Literacy Alliance of Greater New Orleans
• Author panel with Dan Baum at Dooky Chase
• Finale event featuring work from the Children’s Art Projects, the 10^th Life Writing Contest, free food, honored guests from Nine Lives, and musical entertainment.

Grab hold of your socks and keep that defibrillator handy, because we’ve got our knock-your-socks-off, heart-stopping lineup of One Book events ready, and the season is up and running!  More details on each event forthcoming, but mark your calendars now for:

One Book One New Orleans Kickoff Event – Sept 7, New Orleans African American Museum, 1418 Governor Nicholls St., NOLA 70116

A Sneak Peek at Nine Lives: The Musical – Sept 20, 7pm-8:30pm, Kajun’s Pub, 2256 St. Claude Ave., NOLA 70117

A Night of Networking: Young Professional Happy Hour – Sept 26, Hermes Bar, Antoine’s Restaurant, 713 St. Louis St., NOLA 70130

Giving the Gift of Literacy: Get involved with Books 2 Prisoners – Oct 2, YLC Headquarters, 1840 Euterpe St., NOLA 70113

“From The Mouthpiece On Back”: Outdoor Film Screening in the Sculpture Garden – Oct 5, Sculpture Garden, New Orleans Museum of Art, One Collins C. Diboll Circle, City Park, NOLA 70124

Dinner With Dan Baum - Oct 13,  Dooky Chase Restaurant, 2301 Orleans Ave., NOLA 70119

Tenth Life Essay Contest – Sept 7 – Oct 7

Children’s Art Project: In Conjunction With Community Works of Louisiana and The International School – Sept 2011

One Book One New Orleans Finale Event – Oct. 19, New Orleans Healing Center, 2372 St. Claude Ave., NOLA 70117