Who's on the Star stage at book festival

Leonard Pitts Jr.

By Sarah Garrecht Gassen

Arizona Daily Star

Whom would you walk a thousand miles through hell to find?

This essential question animates Leonard Pitts Jr.’s historical novel “Freeman.” Told through the experiences of three central characters, the novel explores the harrowing and heartbreaking time in the days and months after the Civil War, a time when the defeated South and its people try to make sense of what has happened, and what happens next.

The what happens next is woven through three central stories that converge: Sam Freeman, who escaped slavery to live and work in Philadelphia; Prudence, a white woman who travels from Boston to start a school for former slaves; and Tilda, the wife Sam left behind and whose master refuses to accept that the war and slavery are finished.

“Freeman,” published in 2012 by Bolden, is Pitts’ second novel. He’s best known as a syndicated newspaper columnist, and he has also published two nonfiction books. He sees himself as a writer, first and foremost. Readers of Pitts’ column will recognize the quickness and clarity of his words in “Freeman,” and his ability to set the scene and get out of the way so you follow the story thread to a conclusion you didn’t see coming. 

The story confronts some of America’s ugliest history but Pitts never lets the reader lose the sense of immediacy, that what is history today was real life happening to real people in the moment.

“When you’re writing as a columnist you’re constrained by whatever the facts of the situation are but in fiction it’s based in fact, and you create this world and go play in it,” Pitts said. “It’s just using different muscles, it’s all writing.”

Sam answers Pitts’ central question about love with one word: Tilda. He walks across the country, entering the hostile and dangerous South, in search of his beloved wife. He hasn’t seen her in 15 years, since he escaped, and has no idea where she is or if she’s still alive.

The story is Pitts’ creation but it’s rooted in history. After the Civil War ended many people who had been slaves set out across the country to try to find their loved ones. They posted notices in newspapers, searching for family members.

The endeavor was dangerous and often futile — the men, women and children who were bought and sold were often called a different name by every master or mistress, records weren’t kept and people were moved from one plantation to another. Husbands and wives were forcibly separated for years and, eventually, assumed lost forever. Lives went on, new families were created.

“There’s no knowledge of or appreciation for what people went through,” he said. “I was fascinated by the question of how much love did it take to walk a 1000 miles on the hope – just the hope – of seeing someone you love, someone you hadn’t seen in 15 years?

“It was all a shot in the dark – no computers, no fingerprints, no anything,” Pitts said. “It’s the definition of impossible.”

Contact Star editorial writer and columnist Sarah Garrett Gassen at sgassen@tucson.com or 573-4117.

Michael J. Gelb

Michael J. Gelb wants to change the way people think.

Gelb, 62, who written 14 books on creativity and innovative thinking, will try to burst participants thought-limiting processes during “Creativity on Demand: How to Ignite and Sustain the Fire of Genius.” 

Gelb's interest in creativity and thought began in school, but not from school. He says he didn’t fit in at school. He just sat there. Bored.

Geld discovered that his school mismatch "wasn’t me” when he read books like Viktor Frankl’s powerful 1946 book “Man's Search for Meaning,” a chronicle if the author’s experiences in as an Auschwitz inmate and the through processes that carried him through the horrific experience.

Gelb also read works by Carl Jung and Abraham Maslow, which helped him realize that there “so much more potential than school is leading me to believe.”

Interested in politics, he started studying politics and he soon realized that people were rarely thinking about issues, which further piqued his interest in the way people think.

With a bachelor’s in psychology and a master's degree in mind and body education— and a fourth degree black belt in Aikido, a Japanese martial art, and the skills to be a professional juggler — Gelb studied the often-used-in-theater Alexander technique. It's a method that helps people ditch the use of unnecessary levels of muscular and mental exertion. He wrote his master’s thesis on the technique, which became his first book, “Body Learning,” published in 1981.

In his career, Gelb researched inventors and geniuses, which led him write one of his most popular books, “How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci: Seven Steps to Genius Every Day.”

“Part of why I write these different books is that someone can relate to Leonardo da Vinci, another to Thomas Edison, another to Thomas Jefferson,” he said. Gelb says he uses different metaphors as a way to connect with the creative power important of different readers. He wants he work to be fun and entertaining for the reader.

His most recent book is “Creativity on Demand: How to Ignite & Sustain the Fire of Genius,” builds and expands on his previous works and on the relationship between creativity, thinking and physicality. “Creativity on Demand" offers insights on tapping and using the energy that the Chinese call qi. (Pronounced “key.")

“Culture at large tends to have a disassociation of body and spirit,” says Gelb. He explains that there would be much stress and unhappiness if the two were aligned.

Gelb answered a few questions on creativity last month from his home-office in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

How does amping up creativity enhance one’s personal life?

“If you think of your work as separate from your life, it’s a disassociation,” says Gelb.

Thinking creatively and defining creative energy will add a sense of purpose and you help define your values. You’ll be better able to handle stress if you are creative in what are we doing, why are you are doing it, he says.

Advice for a young person — say in there 20s or so — starting out in a career and live on their own:

“Define their purpose in life, their values. Learn how to set goals and objectives, cultivate a creative mindset.”

Advice for folks in their 60s or so:

“Get a copy of “Brain Power: Improve Your Mind As You Age,” he says. The brain is meant to improve as we age, and this book ways to keep the mind nimble and agile.

Advice or people who feel they have writer’s block or artist’s block or whatever block?

“I’ve written 14 books and never get writers block or creative block,” Gelb said.

“I understand the creative process,” he says. But if you’ve never been taught the process, you don’t understand the phases, tools and rhythms of the process. Gelb says there is free content on his website, michaelgelb.com, to help foster an understanding of creative thinking.

What do you hope your audience will walk away with at the book festival?

“Immediately applicable insights” that they can use to have a more creative mindset, he says. Gelb will share a process in the session that will teach a simple but potentially life-changing process for accessing creative energy.

“Creativity thinking is a skill you can learn” says Gelb, “and probably the most important skill you can learn.

Literacy: The bottom line

Beneath all of the hoopla and fanfare of big-time, best-selling authors, presentations, workshops, demonstrations, hands-on activities at the Tucson Festival of Books, supporting and promoting literacy is the bottom line.

The book festival has contributed more than $1.05 million dollars to support Southern Arizona literacy efforts since its inception in 2009, says Marcy Euler, the festival’s executive director.

The latest check from the festival for $150,000 was presented in November and divided among three recipients — Literacy Connects, Reading Seed and the UA Literacy Outreach Programs.

The community-wide, family-inclusive event promotes reading and literacy.

“It's like a block party for the whole town” Sara Hayden, a festival committee member and a librarian at the Joel D. Valdez Main Library, told the Star in 2012.

It's a block party with a purpose.

“The festival has done a amazing job for everyone — not just for adults, not just for those who love books,” said Ally Baehr, director of community engagement for Make Way for Books, an early literacy nonprofit whose mission is that all children have a chance to learn and succeed. Make Way for Books sponsors the Tent for Tots in the children’s area at the festival.

Baehr emphasized that early reading experiences are essential to a child’s brain development and to establishing the cognitive skills that help prepare for success in school. Make Way for Books website, makewayforbooks.org, notes the importance of early literacy:

• 90 percent of brain growth happens by age five.

• If children are reached with high-quality education by age 5, they are 40 percent less likely to be held back a grade and 70 percent more likely to graduate high school.

The book festival encourages reading and future success and in bringing families that have little access to books and other reading-oriented activities — and it’s free. Cost to attend the book festival and participating in the literacy-related activities is nothing, zip, zilch, nada. Parking is free, too.

Sponsors, foundation grants and exhibitor booth sales cover much of the festival's out-of-pocket expenses. Friend of the Festival tax-deductible donations help defray festival expenses and ensure the festival's literacy-focused charitable recipients are supported.

Find information for becoming a Friend of the Festival or make a contribution online at tucsonfestivalofbooks.org under "Friend of the Festival."

For more information, email friends@tucsonfestivalofbooks.org