Baltimore has long been a little Edgar Allan Poe-obsessed — his poem, “The Raven,” for instance, has provided the name for both our football team and one of our favorite beers.

This weekend, that obsession will be on display for the world to see, as the city plays host to the first International Edgar Allan Poe Festival. This tribute to the 19th-century literary giant who popularized horror fiction and some say invented the detective story hopes to attract Poe fans from all over. Among those helping stage the festival are representatives from Poe museums in Richmond and New York City — a welcome co-operative effort from cities that vie for primacy in their connection to the famed author, who met his future wife and died in Baltimore, grew up in Richmond and spent much of his later years in New York.

Set for Oct. 6-7 across from the Poe House and Museum on Amity Street, the festival will feature a range of Poe-related events, including readings and performances of some of his most famous works, a bus tour of Poe’s Baltimore (including a visit to his grave, where he rests forevermore), even a re-creation of his 1849 funeral.

To help set the mood for this weekend’s festivities, we asked a handful of prominent local Poe fans (plus a welcome visitor from Richmond) to share some of their thoughts on the poet/author/literary critic and inspiration for brooding artists everywhere.

Enrica Jang

executive director, Poe

Baltimore/The Edgar Allan Poe House & Museum

What do you remember as your first encounter with E.A. Poe? I had to read Poe in school. Obviously I went to a GREAT school!

Why do you think he has endured as such a popular literary and cultural figure over the years? Poe writes about primal subjects (love, fear, death), and those subjects are enduring. But he also approaches them in unexpected ways — speaking through the point-of-view of a mad man, a murderer, a lost lover — rather than just an observer. I think the work leaves an indelible impression, which inspires new artists.

What one event would you really like to see at the International Edgar Allan Poe Festival? I’d like to see festival-goers use the event as an opportunity to make it their own. Costumes, maybe even impromptu readings or performances. This is an opportunity to learn about Poe’s life and works, and also to share in a live space with fellow Poe fanatics.

Jeff Jerome

curator emeritus, the Edgar Allan Poe House & Museum

What do you remember as your first encounter with E.A. Poe?My first introduction to Poe was seeing the old Roger Corman/Vincent Price movies from the early ’60s! Here I was, this little child, watching on the big screen Vincent Price scare everyone in the audience including me. I was hooked after seeing these films. In 1977 I met Vincent Price and gave him a tour of the Poe House and the Poe Grave and catacombs.

Why do you think he has endured as such a popular literary and cultural figure over the years?There is no one answer to this question. But I think it has to do with his mythical persona as a “weird dude” and his horror stories.

What one event would you really like to see at the International Edgar Allan Poe Festival? I had a meeting back in March with the director of the Poe House and she was picking my brain about the event and the idea of a funeral or viewing was brought up. I thought it was an excellent idea and it was discussed if Poe Baltimore could use my Poe corpse but as it turned out they created a new one. You can't have a big commemoration of his death without a body and a viewing!

Jerome was curator of the Poe House from 1979-2013.

Tony Tsendeas

actor

What do you remember as your first encounter with E.A. Poe?In the fourth or perhaps the fifth grade, we were given a scholastic books order form. Because of its lurid cover, “8 Tales of Terror by Edgar Allan Poe” caught my eye. I ordered it and was soon reading the stories with a dictionary at my side. As a 10-year-old boy and avid horror movie fan, I loved the true spine tingles the stories delivered.

Why do you think he has endured as such a popular literary and cultural figure over the years?I think Poe had a particular insight into what we now call the “subconscious.” He understood both the fragility and the tenacity of the human being, he understood obsession, loss and fear. He created work that is both art and entertainment, literature and pulp fiction, and he created it out of our very real fear of our own mortality.

What one event would you really like to see at the International Edgar Allan Poe Festival? Poe’s works are so theatrical, so dramatic and so musical that they lend themselves quite nicely to being performed and being heard out loud. But anytime scholars, artists and people who love Poe get together to celebrate a very rare and wonderful legacy, it is a good time.

Tsendeas has been performing Poe’s works for local audiences since the mid-’90s.

Chris Semtner

curator of Richmond’s Edgar Allan Poe Museum

What do you remember as your first encounter with E.A. Poe? I first heard of Poe when I was in fifth grade and our school librarian read us some of Poe’s comedies, “Never Bet the Devil Your Head” and “Hop-Frog.” They were genuinely funny stories but also very dark, gruesome and violent — exactly the kind of things 10-year-olds love because we thought our parents wouldn’t want us reading about it.

Why do you think he has endured as such a popular literary and cultural figure over the years? Poe is the James Dean of American Literature. He is that rebel, that perpetual outsider who simply can’t fit in anywhere. To anybody who feels like they are an outsider or that they are misunderstood or unappreciated, Poe seems like someone who’s been there. This might be why he is more relate-able and a lot less remote than some of those dusty old poets who were his contemporaries.

What one event would you really like to see at the International Edgar Allan Poe Festival?I think the most fun event will be the Poe’s funeral tour.

John Astin,

actor, theater program director and Homewood professor of the arts at the Johns Hopkins University

What do you remember as your first encounter with E.A. Poe? When I was 10 or 11 years old, my mother gave me The Purloined Letter to read. "What’s ‘purloined’ mean?" I asked. My mother, who had the largest active vocabulary of any person I have known, explained, and I read the story. When I finished, I was stunned. My eyes scanned the space around me, an upstairs bedroom in a tiny row house, looking for a location where a purloined letter might be hidden in plain sight. I remember that moment, and the look of the room so clearly that I am certain of my age at that time, for on my 12th birthday we moved away to the sleepy village of Bethesda.

Why do you think he has endured as such a popular literary and cultural figure over the years?Poe is unique — nobody at all like him. Poet, storyteller, critic: both sides of his brain fully functioning as he wrote. Read Bernard Shaw’s essay on him — “that finest of fine artists.”

What one event would you really like to see at the International Edgar Allan Poe Festival?I would love to see a panel of local Poe scholars.

Among Astin’s numerous theater, movie and television credits is the one-man play, “Edgar Allan Poe: Once Upon a Midnight."

Stephen Demczuk,

co-founder and proprietor, RavenBeer

What do you remember as your first encounter with E.A. Poe? Definitely as a child watching the Vincent Price movies. Although I saw them all, I think “Premature Burial,” the one without Vincent Price, with Ray Milland and directed by Roger Corman, was the one that was likely my first true encounter with Mr. Poe. I just remember that the presumed corpse lying in a coffin suddenly awakens just to see shovels of dirt thrown into his grave on top of him. That so freaked me out as a kid that I always was aware of Poe’s work.

Why do you think he has endured as such a popular literary and cultural figure over the years? I don’t really know, but Poe being psychologically and physically a frail individual who is perceived to be afflicted (whether correct or not) with the demons of alcohol and drugs — but at the same time wrote some of the most amazing, bizarre and intellectual stories ever written — places him at two ends of the spectrum. And being the person that he was, from his works, stories and rumors … myths eventually become reality. And both the myth and reality of Poe can then be portrayed through cartoon characters, popular music, TV and film, sports team and mascot, themed taverns or even the beer that one drinks.

What one event would you really like to see at the International Edgar Allan Poe Festival? I would like to see perhaps a local radio station get involved, where it coordinates with the festival programs and broadcasts the plays and recitals from the stage, interviews the actors, the people in the audience, etc.

Demczuk is a member of the Poe Baltimore board of directors.

Gabrielle Dean,

William Kurrelmeyer Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts for the Sheridan Libraries at the Johns Hopkins University

What do you remember as your first encounter with E.A. Poe?I do not remember which story it was, maybe “The Cask of Amontillado” or “The Masque of the Red Death?” But I do remember feeling very amazed that I had gotten away with reading something so grown-up and scary.

Why do you think he has endured as such a popular literary and cultural figure over the years?Poe stays popular in part because the genres he helped create, horror and detective fiction, offer wonderful ingredients for continuous reinvention. Each new generation of readers and writers who love those genres gets to rediscover Poe.

What one event would you really like to see at the International Edgar Allan Poe Festival?I’m excited about all the theatrical and musical performances: the National Edgar Allan Poe Theater radio play and the Phenomenal Animals and the Concert Truck!

Dean curated the 2016 exhibit, “The Enigmatic Edgar A. Poe in Baltimore & Beyond,” at Mount Vernon’s Peabody Library.

Susan Stroupe,

freelance director/artistic associate, Submersive Productions

What do you remember as your first encounter with E.A. Poe? My first conscious encounter with Poe was through “The Simpsons,” when they used The Raven in a “Treehouse of Horror” episode. I still love that piece, and love thinking about it whenever I read “The Raven.”

Why do you think he has endured as such a popular literary and cultural figure over the years?Poe was one of the sculptors of the American literary voice, and that I think has cemented him in the American pysche. But in a larger literary way, Poe was also one of the first writers to tap into the human curiosity about death and the unseen world in a secular way. ... Poe was a pretty outrageous character of a person, and certainly helped to create that brooding artist image that resonates with many young artists.

What one event would you really like to see at the International Edgar Allan Poe Festival?In the future, I would love to see some events that explored the lives and personalities of those in Poe’s orbit — his family, his wife, his fiancee(s), his rivals, his literary contemporaries, so that not only do we get to celebrate Poe, but the community that influenced him.

Stroupe was co-director of 2015’s “Mesmeric Revelations! of Edgar Allan Poe,” an immersive theatrical experience.

ckaltenbach@baltsun.com

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