Storyville Gardens
Well here’s a novel idea. (Yes I did.) It’s Storyville Gardens, a “story-driven theme park” — and the developers behind it are hoping to break ground in Middle Tennessee in mid-2022.
“According to DeLisa Guerrier [one half of Guerrier Development], the idea for the park was born out of poor literacy and a need for family entertainment in the region… ‘Currently in Tennessee, only 34.9 percent of students read at grade level,’ she said. ‘As a state, we can do so much better. While Storyville Gardens represents a significant economic opportunity for investors and the community where it will eventually be located, its mission is also to help jump start a movement where children in our state embrace and enjoy reading beyond what is required in the classroom.’”
Will it “work”? Hard to say, of course…and cynics will be cynics. But Tennesse’s already got Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, Sewanee: The University of the South (and its renowned English department), The Sewanee Review (America’s oldest continuously published literary quarterly), and now Storyville Gardens. So let’s hear it for both literacy and “the literary.”
originally published on instagram