The National Park Service and the German Society of Pennsylvania are working together to produce the first annual Poe Arts Festival to be held the evening of Friday, October 28.
Located in Philadelphia close to North 7th and Spring Garden Streets, the National Park Service's Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site and the German Society's historic 1889 headquarters building will provide participants with a variety of arts, performances, talks, tours, and activities that celebrate Poe and his artistic legacy.
Edgar Allen Poe, one of the most important authors this country has ever produced, continues to be influential both here and in Europe. He is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of the macabre. He was the inventor of detective fiction and one of the nation's first short story writers.
The Poe House, located at 532 North 7th Street, is where he lived with his family in 1843. Its three floors and basement rooms allow visitors to come in contact with the spaces where he lived and wrote some of his most important works and struggled with poverty, his wife Virginia’s grave illness and his own personal demons.
Special tours of the house after dark will feature actors reciting some of the artist’s greatest works.
The German Society offers a remarkable historic facility for this event with its grand Horner Memorial Library, the Barthelmes Auditorium, and the basement Ratskeller.
The Library will serve as the setting for talks about Poe, his times, and the people he influenced.
Artist David Plunkert will present his recently published illustrated edition of Poe’s works.
Theatrical presentations will be staged in the Auditorium, along with a special exhibition of artist Justin Duerr’s eighty foot long “Panoptic Story Scroll”.
Recitations of new work will be presented in the Society’s Ratskeller. Beer and food will also be served on the available.