Photo by Nic Lehoux, courtesy of Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners (RSHP)
In a city with so many amazing, free museums (starting with more than a dozen within the Smithsonian Institution), it can feel difficult to justify spending more than $30 per ticket at the Spy Museum.
That’s why I was excited to get free tickets to their annual Spy Fest last year. It occurs on the fifth Friday night of the year. Tickets become available around Jan. 5 and run out within a week or two. If you want to go, you could join the waitlist, or do what I did and set a reminder for the following year to snag tickets as soon as they become available.
One kind of item that stood out to my husband and me was the spycraft suppositories, including a rectal tool kit that was used by CIA operatives during the Cold War. The YouTube video on the webpage linked above by Atlas Obscura shows a curator saying that he watches people do a double-take when they view that item. A museum representative says in another video about a scrotum concealment prototype that this isn’t glamorous work; it’s not like being James Bond.
A vehicle from the Bond in Motion exhibit
Finding the permanent exhibits
When we first arrived at Spy Fest, they sent us up an elevator to the top floor, where there was an expo for kids about working for intelligence services. At first, I feared that’s all Spy Fest actually was. We were able to skip that and got back on the elevator to the fifth floor for the exhibits.
The permanent exhibit space is vast and spread out across the fourth and fifth floors. You start on the fifth floor in the briefing center to watch a short video and get a badge that you will use for your undercover mission, which consists of a series of kiosks through the exhibits. It tests your memory about your assigned identity, gives you secret agent puzzles to figure out, and allows you to choose a disguise. It creates an AI-generated photo of your chosen disguise that you can download.
An AI-generated disguise image from Spy Fest
Finding the museum
The Spy Fest event is from 6–9 p.m., which isn’t enough time to peruse everything there is to learn about; it’s best to plan to arrive early in order to start on time.
Our first mission was to access the entrance after finding free street parking on Independence Ave. Since it’s after hours for all the museums and government buildings in the area, free street parking is plentiful. From there, finding the entrance was a miserable adventure, complicated by one of us riding a motorized scooter due to health issues.
If you’re able to walk up steps, you can access the L’Enfant Plaza Food Court, which has an elevator and escalator to the plaza level of the Spy Museum. After wandering around for a while, unsuccessfully using Google Maps, we ended up going into the underground parking garage for the building, getting lost again, and taking an elevator in the neighboring Hilton hotel up to the ground/plaza level.
Since then, the museum has added more details about finding the entrance to their directions page. I recommend carefully planning your route and watching the new video walkthrough for your chosen route. We did not have the benefit of signs pointing us in the right direction, and the parking lot attendants and security guards were mostly unable to help. That area is also under a bridge and didn’t feel particularly safe at night.
We were so happy to finally explore the exhibits after the saga of getting there and the initial impression that it was just a career expo. It was crowded, of course, but we were able to move freely.
Special exhibit: Bond in Motion
Before leaving, we did a quick run-through of the special exhibit at the time called Bond in Motion with 17 vehicles from the James Bond movies, including Aston Martins, a submarine, a snowmobile, and a hang glider. It normally requires a separate ticket for the third-floor exhibit. I’m not sure if it was supposed to be open for Spy Fest, but we walked in and were the only visitors right before closing time at 9 p.m.
A submarine from the Bond in Motion exhibit
Conclusion: get tickets to Spy Fest
My overall assessment is that I wouldn’t splurge on regular tickets to the Spy Museum, but if you live nearby or will be in the area, you can get free tickets to Spy Fest, and if this kind of museum sounds appealing, definitely take advantage of this event. I’m setting a reminder now for next year and will go on my own if I can’t find any other takers.
Among the seemingly dozens of options to immerse yourself in Christmas light displays around the holidays in the D.C., Maryland, and Virginia (known as the DMV) metropolitan area, few are free. The Neabsco Regional Park Holiday Walk of Lights in Woodbridge, Va., is a great free option to go for a walk in the frigid cold with thousands of twinkly lights (and hundreds of other people).
I ventured out to do this 0.8-mile walk over the past couple of years. Here are some general tips if you decide to check it out.
To spend less time waiting, go early
In 2023, my group scheduled to go on the last day it was open, and we didn’t leave the house until 6:30 p.m. It’s only a 25-minute drive for us, but it took much longer to get to the entrance. The small parking lot was full, and we drove to all three overflow parking lots. All of them were full. We managed to find a spot in the neighborhood across the street from the third lot and walked over to get in line for the free shuttle. We waited 40 minutes to get a ride on a school bus shuttle. Featherstone Elementary School is only 1.4 miles away from the park, but there’s only a windy road with no sidewalk, so it’s not at all safe to walk from there. It was very cold standing still in the elements for that long.
Last year, I went on Friday evening during the last weekend and drove straight to the closest parking lot, Porter Traditional School, only a few minutes after the 5:30 p.m. event start time (this year it starts at 5 p.m.). Luckily a shuttle pulled up just as I was leaving my car, and there was room for everyone in line. Arriving extra early saved so much time. The last shuttle bus leaves at 8:30 p.m., so plan accordingly.
Parking and shuttles
This year, the website says to park at the Rippon Station VRE lot and take a shuttle to the park. You can only park on-site at Neabsco Regional Park if you have a valid disabled placard or HC license plate (police officers will be there directing traffic). The entrance to Rippon Lodge across the street will be blocked. There is also no way to park on the shoulder of Blackburn Road and you will waste time in traffic; your best bet is to drive straight to an approved parking lot.
Porter Traditional School has the closest parking lot, which is half a mile from the park, with sidewalks the whole way. The event website calls it additional parking for “ADA-accessible shuttle and DPR Cool Bus shuttle,” which sounds like the lot is intended for people with disabilities this year.
For the return shuttle last year, they put up signs labeling the destination lot for each line. I expected a wait, but it pulled up around 6:45 pm, right as I was about to walk to my car. I also double-checked the destination with the driver.
Be ready to hike almost a mile
From the Neabsco Regional Park parking lot, where the shuttle drops you off, to the boardwalk is a 0.2-mile path. The boardwalk loop is 0.4 miles long, and then you return on the same 0.2-mile path, making the total walk 0.8 miles.
Sounds
Expect to hear children playing, plenty of generators powering the lights, and at the boardwalk, a loop of Feliz Navidad and Linus and Lucy from A Charlie Brown Christmas.
Refreshments
Last year, there was a hot chocolate ($4), drip coffee ($3), and bottled water ($1.50) stand, and a Roadside Rotisserie food truck. The sign said: chicken, ribs, pork loin, potatoes, sprouts, wraps, salads, & more, www.roadsidefoodva.com. There was a pizza food truck, but it was closed.
Bathrooms
Portable toilets are available next to the parking lot by the trail entrance.
Special events
On select nights, you can expect special appearances by holiday characters, vendors, and carolers.
Sensory Night
Sensory Night has already passed for 2025. On Dec. 9, the special event meant fewer crowds, noise, and flashing lights.
Holiday characters
You can take a photo with the Grinch and Frosty the Snowman on December 4, 9, 12, 19, and 28.
Holiday market
The holiday market is available on Saturdays in December: Dec. 6, 13, 20, and 27.
Holiday carolers
Holiday caroling is planned for December 4, 12, 19, and 21.
Dates
The remaining dates are Dec. 11–14, 18–23, and 27–28 from 5–9 p.m.
As someone who loved the thrill of haunted houses as a kid, the two-month-long, Halloween-themed Howl-O-Scream event at Busch Gardens Williamsburg was not scary at all to me…except for the roller coasters, as usual. If you generally enjoy haunted houses and theme park shows, you can expect a good time, if not necessarily a scary one. To help you gauge whether the event may be worth a visit, I’ll go over my experience with the lines, food, haunted houses and “terror-tories,” and shows (although of all the shows, I only went to the wolf pup trainer talk).
Lines and Bags
Going on a Friday in September, the lines were short to nonexistent. That in itself made it worth the trip. The park calendar showed it was opening at 3 p.m., but when my husband and I arrived at the front gate at 2:40, they were already letting people in. Consider arriving before 4 p.m. if possible due to the bag policy: no bags are allowed after 4 p.m., except for wristlets and fanny packs less than 8″x5″, or diaper or medical bags up to 12” x 6” x 12”. Since we arrived before that, we were allowed to keep our backpack with us, and no one objected to us bringing it into the haunted houses (one employee asked my husband to wear it on his front).
Ghostly decorations in the trees
We only had to wait a few minutes to ride in the front row of the Pantheon in the Italy area. There were only two other people in the roller coaster car. We came straight back and again waited just a few minutes to ride in the back row. The ride is rougher in the back. The other main difference is that for the part of the ride that goes straight up backwards and then falls forward, when riding in the back, you will go up the highest. Getting to experience both vantage points back-to-back with almost no waiting makes it worth coming outside of summer on a weekday.
The Tempesto roller coaster was closed. At Apollo’s Chariot, we again only had to wait a few minutes to ride in the front. This time it didn’t feel scary. I’ve ridden many roller coasters, and the level of fear I feel can be variable and inconsistent.
Finnegan’s Flyer in the Scotland area had no line.
I skipped Finnegan’s Flyer on a May trip and took photos instead.
On the way to Griffon in the France area, we stopped to admire the eagles. One of them was close to the fence and in the light, a first for us.
Griffon was initially closed, but had reopened when we came back around 6:15 p.m. We again got in line for the front row and waited no more than 10 minutes. Griffon is hands-down the best and scariest roller coaster in the park. The line for the front row can get excessive because the ride pauses for a few seconds after it dips over the first and tallest peak, an effect most felt by the front row. Other than that moment of dangling over the edge of a 205-foot, 90-degree drop before a 75 mph freefall, the other rows are just as fun as the front.
When we initially couldn’t ride Griffon, we walked back toward Ireland to check out the Wolf Pup Trainer Talk at Wolf Stadium (between Ireland and France) that was starting at 5:15 p.m. It helps to download the Busch Gardens app so that you can see which shows may be of interest, what time they are starting, and where to find them. I also downloaded the map to my phone in case the app wouldn’t load, which often happens when the park is crowded.
We were first in line at 4:55 p.m., so when they let us in at 5:15, we were the first to pick our spot in the front middle. There are no seats but there’s a second row a step up to possibly see over the heads of the first row. It was worth getting there early to have an unobstructed view. See the shows section below for details about the talk.
Wolf Pup Trainer Talk at Wolf Stadium
We left the wolf show when it opened to Q&A at 5:30. The haunted houses were opening at 6 p.m. and we didn’t see a line for the Killarney Diner in Ireland, so we walked across the way to the Fiends show, which was starting at 5:45. We left right before it started because my husband wanted to get in line for the Killarney Diner and didn’t want to bother the people watching the show by leaving a few minutes after it started. When he talked to an usher, they let him know that there was another exit down a hallway that you can take to avoid having the light from the doorway disrupt the performance.
The entrance to the Killarney Diner haunted house leads you to an area where a long line can form. When we got to the actual entrance around 5:45 p.m., there were a dozen or so people in line. Once they opened it at 6 p.m., there was no wait other than walking slowly in the line into the building.
At the Clown Town haunted house, there was no one in line and no one else there, other than the actors. It wasn’t clearly marked that after exiting Clown Town and before reaching the dining hall, you need to loop back around to take a long path to the Werewolves haunted house. An employee was standing at that point, which is the exit to Clown Town on the right side and the entrance to Werewolves on the left. It’s to the right of the Germany dining hall.
There was no line for Werewolves. We skipped the Verbolten roller coaster because there was the longest line we’d seen that day, although it was relatively short. We had gotten spoiled by all the short and nonexistent lines. I suggested that my husband use his quick queue voucher that comes with his annual membership, but he decided not to.
Walking through Howl-O-Scream at night
We waited in line for a few minutes for the Death Water Bayou Morte haunted house by the Pantheon, and then there was no line for the Bloodshot haunted house held inside the Escape from Pompeii ride. The Bloodshot entrance was a little confusing because it’s just “Bloodshot” on the map, but the entrance was labeled “Bloodshot Restaurant and Grill.” I initially thought it was for a pop-up food stand.
Food
We stopped at a Tropical Smoothie Cafe near the park entrance before arriving. Eating before entering the park worked well for us because the food on sale inside the park is a bit expensive for what you get, and there are only a couple of plant-based meal options. Using the $10 Busch Bucks bonus from a season pass helps offset the cost of a meal.
If you have food allergies or other dietary restrictions that the park doesn’t accommodate, you can send an email to [email protected] and print out their response to make sure the employees at the gate let you bring in your food. The park can’t guarantee that there will be no cross-contamination because everything is made on the same grills. So nothing is technically vegan or allergen-free.
I sent an email to the address above asking for permission to bring in food. This was the response: “Thank you for contacting us about your concerns. We allow guest with special dietary or allergen needs to bring their own food into the park. We do not allow hard sided coolers inside the parks, but a small soft sided cooler is allowed. You may print out this email if you wish to have documentation of prior approval. I hope this information is helpful and that you have a wonderful time in our parks.”
I bring a printout of that email every time, but no one has ever objected to the snacks in my backpack, and I haven’t had to show anyone the email. I have brought apples, bananas, clementines, granola bars, and bags of nuts. The bag checkers at the entrance only seem to be looking for prohibited items.
This time I only brought granola bars and water, which we had around 6:30 p.m. It helped having a big lunch of Ethiopian food leftovers before we drove down from northern Virginia, and then the smoothies around 2 p.m. Granola bars aren’t enough for dinner, so we stopped at the Marco Polo dining hall around 7:30 p.m., relabeled as Spirit Spellabration for Howl-O-Scream. The best plant-based option in the park is the veggie lo mein. It has a good amount and variety of vegetables, including broccoli, carrots, bok choy, snap peas, red bell peppers, and water chestnuts.
Veggie lo mein, veggie spring rolls, and a slushie meal from a March trip
This time, they were out of veggies. Instead, we got side orders: two lo mein noodles, fried rice, and veggies (mostly zucchini, squash, and a couple of mushrooms) to split. It was pretty pitiful, but with the $10 Busch Bucks coupon from my husband’s member rewards, it was $3.50. And it held us over until we left the park.
Lo mein and veggie side orders at Spirit Spellabration
After leaving, we found a CAVA in Williamsburg on Google Maps that was open until 10:30 p.m. Instead of getting on Route 64 as the quickest way to I-95, we had to take the 199 loop to get to CAVA. It was worth the slightly longer drive home to get a full, hearty meal at a good price.
CAVA bowls for dinner
The other plant-based option we’ve had at Busch Gardens is the veggie burger in England. Squire’s Grill has a Beyond Burger that you can get with lettuce, tomato, and grilled mushrooms. Ask for extra mushrooms if that’s your jam (they doubled my enjoyment of the burger). The meal comes with a side or dessert, plus a non-alcoholic drink. We’ve gotten the fries, fruit cup, and (non-vegan) chocolate chip cookies.
Beyond Burger meal from a March trip
Haunted Houses
There’s a special Howl-O-Scream map on the Event Info tab of the website that marks the locations of the haunted houses and “terror-tories,” which are areas where actors walk around and try to scare you. We started at Killarney Diner. I walked in front of my husband, hoping to encounter jump scares, but they got him a few times instead. There were loud pops and creepy scenes, including a diner filled with fake bugs, and a dark hallway with strings hanging down from the ceiling. It didn’t help that there were people both in front of and behind us; the park doesn’t stagger entrances at any of the haunted houses.
Spooky lighting in a walkway
At the Wicked Wonderland terror-tory, some actors pretended like they weren’t paying attention to me, but then jump-scared me, which was fun.
At Clown Town we were the only ones there besides the actors. It was open to the sky and was still light outside. It would probably have been scarier to go after dark. It’s a long course without many actors or jump scares, mostly gory clown pieces and clown-themed items like hanging rubber chickens. There are arrows marking the way. At one point an actor yelled “Wrong way!” when I didn’t notice the arrow, but she was using a creepy voice, so at first I thought it was part of the act. Luckily my husband understood and steered me back on course.
When entering Werewolves, there’s an office setting with actors upset that creatures on the loose had been killing their colleagues. Further into the course, you encounter animatronic werewolves rather than actors doing jump-scares, which to me is a missed opportunity. It was our least favorite of the haunted houses. I saw a dad carrying his elementary-school-aged daughter as she covered her eyes. After exiting, he put her down and she seemed fine.
An eerie cemetery
We walked through the Fest-Evil terror-tory in the Italy area, where my husband walked through a spot of thick fog. A couple of actors seized the opportunity to startle him when he couldn’t see anything. Adjacent to that, Death Water Bayou Morte was our second-favorite haunted house because we appreciated the aesthetics of the voodoo and bayou décor.
Bloodshot was our final haunted house and our favorite of the five. It starts with a small bridge over dense fog and an eerie red glow, followed by an area with fog so dense we couldn’t see anything else. Once again I went first and my husband got the jump-scares. It seems that the first person walking through alerts the actors that people are coming through. There was a bloody restaurant, a hallway full of blood bags, and then a cage with actors inside screaming for us to save them from the vampires, which was a little unpleasant.
Shows
I was initially concerned about the wolves’ welfare at the Wolf Pup Trainer Talk at Wolf Stadium when they were let into the greenery area and anxiously paced to and from the door for a few minutes until the trainer came out. Once the trainer emerged (in a separate area, not with the wolves), they relaxed and started exploring their mini-park serving as a stage for the audience to admire them.
A trainer talks about wolves Enoki and Denali during the Wolf Pup Trainer Talk.
The trainer talked about how Enoki (the white one) and Denali (the gray one) are 5-year-old boys who are accustomed to humans, so they don’t fear us like wolves in the wild, although they are still wild animals. They understand humans as caretakers, not dominators or prey to dominate. She said they are enthusiastic, albeit rough, playmates with each other. Their bites can exert 1,500 pounds of pressure. If you allowed them to come into your home, they would urinate all over to mark it as their territory. Red wolves are native to Virginia and are critically endangered. There are no white or gray wolves in the wild in the state. There was also a Q&A session that we skipped.
As for Howl-O-Scream shows, I was most interested in Monster Stomp on Ripper Row, but it wasn’t starting until the following weekend. It’s described as a “modern rock and rhythm spectacular featuring Jack the Ripper like you’ve never seen him before,” with “electrifying percussion, dynamic dance and sensational singing.”
There’s also Fiends about “Dr. Freakenstein” and his intergalactic teleportation tube; Skeletones In Your Closet that just want to dance in your room all night; and Spirit Spellabration looks like a silly séance with the help of three audience members. The latter was starting when we were finishing dinner. There was loud music and an emcee encouraging people to dance; several little girls got up from their seats to oblige. We don’t enjoy loud music and left as soon as we finished dinner.
A large ogre was one of many monsters around the park.
Monster Stomp and Fiends are held in theaters where you will need to arrive early and stay in your seat, whereas Skeletones and Spirit Spellabration are held in dining halls where you can stop by for a bit. My husband was ready to go at 8:30 p.m., so we didn’t stay longer to watch any shows. The park was closing at 11 p.m. He was willing to nap in the car while I watched one, but I arrived at the Abbeystone Theater for Fiends after it had already started. There are no handles on the doors and no way in after the show starts, which is good because having people go in and out would be distracting to the audience.
Conclusion
Because my husband bought an annual membership this year that came with guest passes, we had to see what Howl-O-Scream was like. We had fun and some laughs after effective jump-scares, particularly against my husband. But I don’t think haunted houses are for me anymore; I prefer to get good and scared by roller coasters, thriller movies, and ropes courses. We will be coming back in December to check out Christmas Town and get in the holiday spirit.
Even though I haven’t been a big book reader lately, I thoroughly enjoyed last year’s National Book Festival, and I’m planning to go back for another full day this year. The Library of Congress holds the free, annual event at the Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. For 2025, it will be on Saturday, September 6, from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Caveats
A word of warning: expect big crowds. In order to get a seat at smaller presentations, plan to get there around 10 minutes or more before the start time, or you might be standing at the back struggling to hear amidst the general buzz of everything else going on in a huge convention center. For example, I went to several talks at the Library of Congress Pavilion in Hall D, which to my eyes was about the size of a football field, with more than a hundred tables of exhibits, books and reading-related items for sale, as well as other presentation areas like the STEM and Story Districts.
Hall D, including the Library of Congress Pavilion
Another warning: I did not bring a book to get signed by the author, but I’ve heard that you might stand in line for hours and not necessarily get your book signed. There are about 80 book signings on the schedule this year. Eventually, a volunteer may cut off the line where they expect to run out of time for a given signing.
Author talks
As for author talks, it was only appealing to attend when I had read a book by that author. Reading someone’s book is like a peek into their soul, and when you love a book, it becomes a part of you, too. It’s an odd kind of relationship with a stranger, and being in the same room with them is a little thrilling.
James McBride
The first one I attended was with James McBride, who wrote a memoir called “The Color of Water,” among several other novels. He was also there to receive the Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction. It was moving to be able to listen in person to a great author who impressed me with his writing when I was starting college and assigned to read “The Color of Water” as summer reading. I took copious notes on his remarks, so I’ll include a summary toward the end of this post.
Max Greenfield
I haven’t read any of Max Greenfield’s children’s books, but I caught the end of his storybook reading and discussion session. Even at the back of a massive ballroom, it was fun to hear from someone I’ve watched on TV (New Girl). His book, “Good Night Thoughts,” is about saying goodnight to your thoughts and quelling anxiety. He explained how books can be your own voice as a parent to open up to your children. I don’t have children, but it was lovely to hear about his effort to give parents a resource to help their children manage their anxiety.
Sandra Cisneros
Most exciting for me was sitting in the seventh row for the interview with Sandra Cisneros. (I was positioned to hurry to the front once Max Greenfield’s session ended.) I read “The House on Mango Street” as required school reading when I was around the age of the protagonist. Although I had a very different life, when reading her tale, I could relate to her struggles and felt encouraged by the wisdom of her perspectives. I also took a lot of notes during this interview and will include them at the end.
Sandra Cisneros interview with NPR’s Rachel Martin
History and science sessions
In addition to dozens of author presentations, the festival has lectures about scientific and historical subjects related to books.
Making and Writing with Historic Inks presentation
At the STEM District stage, there was a presentation about historical inks. I arrived before 9 a.m. and it started at 9:30, so I found a bathroom and looked around at other presentations before heading back. By then it was standing room only, with a line of people sitting on the floor in the front. Here are some tidbits that I learned:
Changing the acidity changes the color. Adding an acid like lemon to red cabbage makes a blue color.
Iron gall ink was the most common type. It disappears under infrared light.
Carbon black is the opposite, as it will stay visible.
The presentation was only eight minutes, at which point the presenters invited everyone to try out pens with historically made ink. I was standing at the front to the side, so I was one of the first to walk up to the table. I wrote with carbon black, iron gall (both black), and matter root (reddish-orange). The pens had small brushes and the ink came out as a light liquid. It also ended up all over my hands.
Historical inks
At the second table, the other presenter was answering questions without a microphone, so he was inaudible to me when I approached behind a group of people.
The Library of Congress’s Geography and Map Collection
A session about the geography and map collection at the Library of Congress was called “There’s a Map for That!” and I had to stand at the back. It was hard to see the maps projected on the screen. It was also hard to hear, despite the microphone, due to the noise from the rest of the room and people walking by. I stayed long enough to learn about some literary maps based on “Language of the Land: The Library of Congress Book of Literary Maps” by Martha Hopkins and Michael Buscher.
Some maps presented:
An 1878 world map of literature, with an outline of continents, religions, languages, authors, and their works by region
A Moby Dick map showing representations of the main character and voyages in the book (made to promote lithography)
An Anciente Mappe of Fairyland by Bernard Sleigh, ca. 1920 (I got a free bookmark of this beauty at the Library of Congress’ table.)
Spectacular Science Demonstrations!
This demo by the U.S. National Science Foundation was directed toward children, but I enjoyed it as an adult. Two scientists put on safety goggles and then opened a book that erupted in flames. They blew smoke rings from a “trash can of science.” They made test tubes of clear liquids turn pink, yellow, black, and back to clear as they poured them into other vessels. A balloon placed into a small bag of liquid nitrogen came out crumpled due to Charles’ Law of Gases.
In one demonstration, they filled a small, clear soda bottle with liquid nitrogen and put the cap on, which they said you should never do because the air is expanding. To prevent an explosion, the scientist didn’t tighten the cap. He held it out and the contents shot out as steam from the small pinhole in the lid.
Fun with liquid nitrogen
In another, he dipped a Graham cracker in liquid nitrogen (-200°C) and ate it, blowing what looked like smoke out of his mouth and nose. Finally, there was a coffee cup filled with liquid nitrogen. When they poured water into it, it spilled all over the table into a big cloud for a few seconds.
Chronicling America: Your Guide to Discovering Digitized Historic Newspapers
You can view historic newspapers online on the Chronicling America website by the Library of Congress. It was still in beta testing at the time of the talk. They had 50 states and three territories contributing historic newspapers, ranging from 1756–1963, representing 34 ethnicities and 30 languages. Newspapers from the last 60 years are copyrighted, but they have paper versions in the library.
Other attractions
The festival also has writing and drawing workshops, poetry readings, and more. I listened to short poems by a dozen state poet laureates, caught the end of a Copyright Office talk (and learned that you can be any age and don’t have to be an American citizen to file for a copyright), and heard from former Library of Congress high school interns (to tell my bibliophile niece about the internship).
Poetry reading on the L Street Bridge with a sign language interpreter
Logistics
Getting off the Metro at Mount Vernon Square (green and yellow lines) takes you straight into the convention center at the top of the stairs. Volunteers guided festivalgoers through hallways to a ballroom where they looked inside bags. In the hallway, I saw a sign for prohibited items that included metal water bottles, which surprised me because that wasn’t listed as prohibited when I read about the festival online. My plastic Yeti one wasn’t a problem.
Prohibited items sign
I followed the signs upstairs to Hall D, which is a huge area with booths and stages. (Download a map of the festival here.) There was free Wi-Fi by making a free account with the convention center.
Next to Hall D, there’s a small food court. The restaurants were closed early in the morning, but there was a snack area open with coffee carafes, sandwiches, yogurt, fruit (including unripe bananas for $3), and muffins. There were creamer packets for the coffee. Serve yourself and pay at the register. At lunchtime, Ben’s Chili Bowl was very popular. People were sitting along the walls because there weren’t enough tables. I found a small lounge on the first floor at the bottom of the escalators under the giant bullseye hanging art installation. There was only one other person there. I brought my own snacks for lunch. There was a $15 veggie bowl for sale in the dining hall, which I wish I had tried, because it’s a long day to subsist just on your own snacks.
In Hall D, there’s a sales area for books and gifts. There were booths representing every state around the perimeter and a book signing area in the back. I stopped by Virginia’s booth and heard about the Festival of the Book, based in Charlottesville, that also has events in northern Virginia. There were story areas, people lined up for photos with a children’s book character, and many other booths, such as for Folger Theater (Shakespeare), Planet Word museum, the National Science Foundation, Scholastic, Geography and Map Division of the Library of Congress, as well as their Prints & Photographs Division, the U.S. Copyright Office, etc.
Finding the main stage ballroom was easy because there were many volunteers in pink shirts holding “Ask Me” signs to provide directions and answer questions. The North and South buildings are connected over the street with a large hallway area called the L Street Bridge on the second floor.
Main stage ballroom
There was a good number of bathrooms, but the ones in the busiest areas sometimes had lines. It can help to go downstairs to a quieter area to find a bathroom without a line. Each place to wash your hands at the sink had individual water, soap, and air dryers lined up. I’ve never seen such an efficient communal sink before. Before the James McBride interview at the main stage, they announced that if you leave to use the restroom that you’ll need a green sticker to get back in, so plan accordingly.
James McBride’s talk summary
As promised, here is a summary of my notes from James McBride.
James McBride entered the ballroom to a standing ovation.
He wrote his memoir “The Color of Water” when he was working as a saxophone player and made enough money that he decided to stop doing music gigs. The success made him realize he had a writing talent and that he should keep going.
As a student at Oberlin, he needed a writing course to get up to speed. After writing a story about a man having flashbacks as he sat on the toilet and had a heart attack, his instructor told him he had a talent for writing.
McBride always enjoyed creative writing but never believed he was talented. He worked at the Washington Post in the Style section, but journalism wasn’t creative enough for him.
When he started getting attention for his writing, it didn’t sit well with him. “If these people think I’m smart, something’s wrong,” he said. In response to how he crafts such different voices for his characters, he said, “I just happen to be the person in the room who holds the handkerchief when God coughs.”
The interviewer, NPR’s Michel Martin, asked how he could make abolitionist John Brown’s hanging into a hilarious story. He replied that learning to laugh is a way of survival. He grew up in a family and community where laughter was the best medicine.
He can’t stop being creative and feels limited by books and music. The industries don’t understand what to do with someone like him. He’s always looking for something new.
Regarding his 2020 novel “Deacon King Kong,” set in 1969 Brooklyn, Martin said the book is about every crazy person that she grew up with. McBride said that disabled people spend their lives watching, so they’re often much more intelligent. It’s like being Black—Black people had to watch their own lynchings. When your job is to find the humanity in people, look to the differently abled. These are the heroes who power his world.
Asked if anything keeps him up at night, he said that one person can’t change anything; it takes a community. If anything keeps him up, it’s the idea that the harbingers of truth and the last line of defense are assaulted. The wisdom of women is starting to make its way into American life. When women let their wisdom out, it moves the world. He’s convinced that women are going to be the force that moves us into the future.
The interview lasted about 30 minutes, followed by Q&A.
McBride’s mom is Jewish, and his dad is Black. Judaism is based on giving. Ironically, they are portrayed as stingy. The stereotypes we lay on communities are destructive and go on for generations. That’s why we read books, because we want to go on to the deeper story.
Love is the greatest novel ever written, he said. And with that, the session ended.
Sandra Cisneros’ talk summary
As referenced above, these are my notes from listening to Sandra Cisneros.
The interviewer, Rachel Martin of NPR, structured the interview on her new radio show called “Wild Card.” She had Cisneros pick a series of cards to determine the questions. The cards allowed her to skip questions or to have Martin answer first.
Cisneros has been working since 2017 on the opera for The House on Mango Street. She’s 69 but still 11 years old inside.
Asked about a moment when she felt proud of herself as a kid, Cisneros said she couldn’t think of proud moments. She just remembers having felt lots of moments of shame due to her family’s economic level. She was not treated as an equal at school. The proudest she always felt was when she made something. Making something was the antidote to the toxin of shame.
She started writing around middle school, hiding poems in high school, and they knew she was a writer later in high school. She didn’t have a lot of close friends who knew about her inner life, which made her feel alone. It wasn’t until her junior year of college that she found other writers to be her friends.
Martin asked her to name an adult who had influenced her.
Some made Cisneros lose shame and feel more courageous about speaking out. In sixth grade, she changed schools and had cat-eyed glasses. A teacher pulled up her drawing and showed the class that the new student had made some beautiful art. Her previous school had only criticized her. She thought she had fooled the teacher with her glasses. But it gave her the courage to raise her hand in class. It made her grades increase from Cs and Ds to As and Bs. Students can tell when teachers love them, and that teacher loved her students.
How do you get in your own way, Martin asked.
Every writer is blocked by fear. Being asked to write for articles and events can bring up your old trauma. Speak in the voice that you speak when you’re in your pajamas. Some things can’t be published in your own lifetime, so you can be Emily Dickinson and let it be published later.
Cisneros invited people who want to ban books to invite the author. She wants to know why her book was banned in South Texas. That book is already written in such a way as not to offend anyone. She wants to know what is in the book that frightens them.
What has Cisneros reluctantly realized is true?
She’s an intuitive and thinks death is exciting. Her next graduation is death. It can’t be as hard as living. She wants to be prepared to leave this world feeling like she’s earned her death, having lived a courageous and interesting life.
She said “de estas alturas,” which translates to “from these heights.” We learn more from our failures. Without them, you wouldn’t be who you are now. You transform yourself from your failures. From these heights, she can think, “Look what I did there,” and launch herself forward.
Writing poetry is praying. If we all wrote one every day, or something else that struck our hearts, it would help us understand ourselves. Good or bad, writing creates little pearls. Writing poetry usually helps her depression enough that she doesn’t need therapy. She used to think therapy was just for wealthy, white, or crazy people, or all of the above. She had a 9-month depression before trying therapy. She encouraged people to go if they need to and look for sliding scale payment plans if the cost is too high. Poetry is laparoscopic surgery for your heart. It’s also a kite that you have to give string and let it run.
What was one moment in her past she would not like to change?
Cisneros had a major mystical experience when she was young in Mexico near Cancun. Her parents left her alone, and she lay down in a shallow inlet with the softest sand, which rippled like the roof of your mouth, warm, cushioned, the wind just right, the ocean lapping at her earlobes. Everything shifted, and she was in a state there’s no word for. As with Buddhism, she felt connected to everything, like a textile woven together. She thought she wouldn’t mind dying now because she can’t die. She was in that state for a while until her dad yelled for her. It happened again once while in a state of great beauty. We’re all connected, like the Buddhists say.
Martin asked about the Chicana experience then and now.
Cisneros’ niece is ashamed of being Mexican, and that breaks her heart. Travel is the antidote to bigotry (a Mark Twain quote that she loves). Even if she gives her nieces and nephews a free ticket, some of them won’t visit her. She wants them not to be afraid of who they are. Misinformation from schools can do that.
Her website has a place to ask questions, and she answers all her mail.
Cisneros doesn’t don’t know why her book is still selling, but she’s so glad it is. It’s her oldest child. She hopes her next book is even better.
