Hey nearby folks: as part of the Boston Book festival, this talk is happening at the Boston Public Library on Saturday. I think I'm going to go. It doesn't look like it requires tickets. 

Craft: The Joy of Handmade Art and Industry

The books look interesting to check out of your local library too, even if the talk isn't possible for you.

Edit to add: I realized I should add the books here because the event page might go away.

Whether you collect crafts, engage in making things yourself, or aspire to turn a long-standing hobby into a business, you’ll find inspiration and insight in this session. In The Shape of Craft, Ezra Shales exhorts us to value craft as a human instinct rather than reducing it to an exemplary object on display. In fact, Shales considers craft to encompass not only the products of the individual potter, glassblower, weaver, or woodworker, but also the products of collaborative authorship, whether they are a building or a brick. In Return of the Artisan: How America Went from Industrial to Handmade, Grant McCracken describes how, owing to Covid-19, millions of consumers of artisanal goods became producers — from growing vegetables and baking bread to raising chickens, brewing beer, and sewing clothes — and how hobbyists turned into businesspeople. They will be joined in conversation by Edgar B. Herwick III of GBH’s Curiosity Desk.