I am a city girl. Sort of. I am a city girl in the same way that the squirrels living my 100+ year-old Bradford Pear are city squirrels. I am a physical denizen of concrete and metal and brick and glass and asphalt. The whole shebang of sirens, disembodied human chatter and oddly-orange nights are my comfort zone, a lullaby of urban Sapien music. There is something very “alive” about living in the thick of a city, and I’ve grown both accustomed and sentimental to the downtown area – it’s a character in my play. But this proximity affection, this endearing metropolitan pulse enjoying symbiosis with my heart, is really only one side of the story. The pendulum of my love is very black and white, and Louisville has much to offer in the way of a more primordial, base attachment: green space.
This is a city that continuously pledges value to the beauty of a good park, both with the incredible Olmsted systems already in place and more modern stretches of grass and green still coming to fruition. Celebrating this legacy, 21st Century Parks launches a new book in partnership with local author Dianne Aprile. Telling the story of Louisville’s largest parks project, this new release, A Landscape and Its Legacy: The Parklands of Floyds Fork, will be presented at Carmichael’s Bookstore with a host of contributors tomorrow, Saturday, September 1st at 4pm.
A space of nearly 4,000 acres, the Parklands of Floyds Fork not only paint an impressive picture into the region’s physical landscape, but the historic as well. Illustrated now in this new large-format collection, the Parklands’ story is retold through essays, stories and photos as Dianne Aprile’s A Landscape and Its Legacy renders the space through the decades. Using her own written narrative and paired with photography from locals Ted Wathen, John Nation and Bob Hower, Aprile uncovers the history, memory and beauty of this incredible vista, paying homage to the natural wonder and colorful characters that transformed the space into a world-class landscape.
Aprile, a teacher of creative nonfiction at Spalding University, will be on hand tomorrow at the Carmichael’s Frankfort Avenue store along with fellow contributors Bob Hill and Julius Friedman. Starting at 4pm, the trio will present the vivid volume, talk about the space, pen signatures and share the landscape as true nature lovers should. Copies of A Landscape and Its Legacy: The Parklands of Floyds Fork at on sale at both Carmichael’s locations in hardcover for $75.00. Clear a space on your coffee table, grab your hiking boots and follow your natural heart out to Carmichael’s for a rich read on some truly rich land.
Carmichael’s Bookstore has two area locations: 1295 Bardstown Road and 2720 Frankfort Avenue. For more information, visit the event page or call the Frankfort Avenue store at (502) 896-6950.
Image: Courtesy of Carmichael’s Bookstore website www.carmichaelsbookstore.com
