Coming fall 2024, Charlotte will celebrate the world created by L. Frank Baum’s “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.”
Planning is underway for the community-oriented festival, CharlOz, slated for Sept. 27-29, 2024. Two UNC Charlotte experts, Mark West and nationally noted Oz expert Dina Massachi ’15 M.A., are spearheading the festival with seed money from North Carolina Humanities.
“There is something about this story that captures the imagination and that has kept it relevant through the generations,” said West, a professor of English and a children’s literature expert who was appointed Bonnie E. Cone Professor in Civic Engagement in 2019. West and Massachi, a lecturer in the Department of English and the American Studies Program, are planning the three-day festival.
The $20,000 award from North Carolina Humanities, one of its large grants, is enabling Massachi and West to host a variety of Oz speakers to delve into aspects of the Oz world. Plans are underway for talks at the Charlotte main campus, The Dubois Center at UNC Charlotte Center City and ImaginOn: The Joe and Joan Martin Center, a one-of-a-kind destination described by Livability.com as the number one children’s library in the United States. There will be other events and activities, which are being planned.
Additionally, the initial external funding is helping Massachi and West partner with The Land of Oz theme park in Beech Mountain, North Carolina, and the UNC Charlotte Projective Eye Gallery to explore U.S. South connections to Oz.
“It’s amazing how many roads lead back to Oz,” Massachi said. “Oz represents a haven for misfits. This world ends up representing anyone who has been marginalized within America. Oz has roots in first-wave feminism, connections to the beginnings of Hollywood and all the marginalized people who built that industry. Various adaptations have connected to movements throughout history and to efforts to ensure people’s voices and views are heard and represented. Oz has tons to teach us about acceptance, self-reliance and about enjoying the journey, and finding your power. There’s something for everybody.”
Baum wrote “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” in 1900, and the work has been interpreted and adapted in ways that continue to reflect America, its values and its diversity. In addition to the 14 Oz books, Baum authored 41 other novels, 83 short stories, more than 200 poems and at least 42 scripts.
Cutline: Students in a College of Liberal Arts & Sciences LEADS class, taught by Dina Massachi, find Oz-related art in one of the galleries in the Rowe Arts Building. The LEADS initiative provides real-world and entrepreneurial opportunities for students to develop transferable competencies.