N.C. State faculty, students and members of the general public filled the seats of the Washington Sankofa Room in Witherspoon Wednesday night to hear 10 authors showcase their works in 27 Views of Raleigh, a book published in September.
27 Views of Raleigh is a compilation of poetry, essays, short stories and book excerpts of 27 diverse Raleigh writers. It is the most recent edition to an Eno Publishers series that began with 27 Views of Hillsborough and continued with compilations in Chapel Hill, Durham and Asheville.
The audience of about 70 laughed and cried throughout the stomping, snapping, singing, and whispering of the different authors.
“The different views create a varied and layered picture of Raleigh, capturing the community in a book and creating a literary mosaic of the town,” said Elizabeth Woodman, editor of Eno Publishers.
According to Woodman, the differing viewpoints of the authors depict both the “glory and despair” of Raleigh, showing the city both as a vibrant place to live, but also a town of struggle.
Though some were Raleigh natives, the authors originated everywhere from Washington, D.C. to Cameroon, Africa, and brought a different perspectives to their book.
Ebony Leon, a sophomore in psychology, said that as someone who did not grow up in Raleigh, she enjoyed learning about the different perceptions of the City of Oaks.
“I liked the diversity. It wasn’t just the point of view of one group of people but a variety of different backgrounds,” Leon said. “Not only were the authors diverse, but their work was too, including poems with rhythm and beats, stories about foxes and different perspectives on family.”
Some of the authors, including Wilton Barnhardt, director of creative writing at N.C. State, wrote historical pieces. Barnhardt said that he aimed to show the shameful and admirable sides of Raleigh through his depiction of post-Civil War cemeteries.
Author Eleanora Tate also read a historical book and told the story of a 13-year-old girl named Celeste who lived with her father in post WWI Raleigh.
Sheila Smith-McKoy, the director of the African American Cultural Center and associate professor of English and Africana studies at N.C. State, said that her short story, Of Innocence and Wild Irish Rose, which opens the fiction section of the book, was inspired by historical Raleigh.
“It was an idea that had been percolating in my mind for some time,” Smith-McKoy said. “It speaks to what life was like in the segregated Raleigh of the 1940s, when music, airways and even graveyards were segregated.”
Through his or her different writing styles, each author encompassed some aspect of Raleigh.
Lenard Moore snapped and stomped in his poem, Raleigh Jazz Festival 1986, and Elaine Orr recited her story about a fox in her Raleigh neighborhood.
John Kessel read from his apocalyptic book about the second coming of Christ and a UFO of aliens in futuristic downtown Raleigh.
Other authors wrote personal stories, including Tracie Fellers, an N.C. State alumnus who told about the handmade dress and legacy of her deceased aunt. Dorianne Laux related the story of a boy in reverent Muslim prayer on N.C. State’s campus and Juliana Nfah-Abbenyi recited finding her “sense of place and home” in Raleigh after moving from Africa in 2006.
Author Bridgette Lacy related her story of finding a haven in the community of writers when she first moved to Raleigh.
“[In Raleigh] I found a community not related by blood, but by the love of writing stories,” Lacy said. “I discovered the supportive give and take of a community of writers, where we entrusted each other with our tender moments spun into verse.”
