PHOTOPHILE- Words and music: Local legends jam for literacy

Writers Barbara Kingsolver, Rita Dove, and David Baldacci on stage together for a music concert? And John McCutcheon too, playing and singing? Yep, that was the line up for Words and Music, a benefit for the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities.

The sold-out culminating event for the Virginia Festival of the Book took place on Sunday March 26 at the Paramount Theater.

United by a commitment to social justice and support for literacy, the artists spoke of past injustices and their hope for the future. Baldacci introduced Kingsolver and McCutcheon, who alternated between readings and songs, and Kingsolver and Dove chimed in with McCutcheon on some tunes.

The five-time Grammy nominee's latest CD, Mightier than the Sword, features lyrics inspired by writers such as Pablo Naruda and Wendell Berry as well as Dove and Kingsolver. Copies were on sale for patrons to remember the evening by.

Overview

David Baldacci

John McCutcheon, Scott Kessel, John Jennings, and JT Brown in the Mighter Than the Sword Band

Barbara Kingsolver

John McCutcheon and Rita Dove

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