Mississippi Book Festival Analysis

On August 22, I volunteered at the first ever Mississippi Book Festival. While I was a room monitor I interacted with many different people as I lead them to their seats, and later after the festival was over I joined the rest of the volunteer team to help clean up. The festival was a one-day event held at the state capitol featuring many different artist and authors speaking on book panels, live music performances, and outdoor food and book vendors. The Festival was meant to “celebrate the joys of reading and the authors who bring our culture to the page” and to bring awareness to Mississippi’s strong literary history.
Before joining honors, I had never volunteered before and so had no idea what to expect and no idea how I would like it. When I signed up on the online schedule I didn’t quite know what being a “room monitor” would entail, my only idea was that maybe it would be something along the lines of monitoring a panel. However when I arrived I learned that this was not the case and that monitoring would be filling up seats, and cleaning the room between panels. …show more content…
I really enjoyed listening to all the panels, but one of my favorites was the southern cookbook panel. Hearing the authors’ stories of how cooking was such a deep aspect of their lives and history was both sweet and endearing. Hearing about their passion and aptitude for this skill and how they incorporated into their everyday lives and relationships, as well as their career, was inspiring and