**“Weird Science 2.1” will be one of the musical performers Saturday at the Newport Public Library.**

By Oregon Coast TODAY

NEWPORT — A truly event-full day is happening at the Newport Public Library on Saturday, July 29, where you can enjoy music at Literacy Park, participate in a community art project, explore Oregon’s Dino-Story exhibit, enjoy food from a local food truck, visit vendors, listen to local authors and even can check out a human library book.

“A Human Library is made up of people that serve as open books so that people can have conversations that they would not normally have access to,” said library director Laura Kimberly. “Every human book represents a group in our society that is often subjected to prejudice, stigmatization or discrimination because of their lifestyle, diagnosis, belief, disability, social status or ethnic origin. A Human Library creates a safe space for people to engage, whether this is one-on-one or in small groups, to encourage people to “unjudge” a book by its cover.”

There will be up to nine “books” at the event.

“The stories will include harm reduction, cosplay, nursing as a career or intro to hospice, breast cancer survival, military service, overcoming a brain injury, and possibly Japanese culture or art curation,” Kimberly said.

Live music begins at 11 a.m. with Weird Science 2.1, a diverse dance/party band playing music from the 80s through the millennium. The four-piece group features keyboards, guitar, bass and drums with powerful vocals to create a special musical experience for all.

At 1:30 p.m., the jazz ensemble Pacific Standard Time, made up of Bob Taylor, Bill Hartsell and Richard Dutton will hit the stage.

The event runs from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Newport Public Library, located at 35 N.W. Nye St.

Authors tell their stories

Have you ever wondered how a really good story ends up being a really bad book? How to get a song published? What the difference is between self-publishing, traditional and small press?

Here is your chance to “Ask an Author,” one part of the Voices and Stories event at the Newport Public Library on Saturday.

Authors Lori Tobias, Sue Fagalde Lick, Valerie Davisson, Rand Bishop and Bonnie Dodge will answer questions during a panel, happening from 1-2:30 p.m. in the McEntee room.

Tobias is the author of the memoir “Storm Beat – A Journalist Reports from the Oregon Coast,” published in 2020, and the novel “Wander,” 2017 winner of the Nancy Pearl Literary Award. She’s also a career journalist and continues to freelance for The Oregonian, Oregon Arts Watch and numerous others. She’s also a book reviewer of more than 20 years.

Lick spent many years as a journalist in California before moving to the Oregon coast. In addition to publishing essays and poems in various literary magazines, she regularly posts to her blog. Her books include “Stories Grandma Never Told,” “Childless by Marriage,” “Up Beaver Creek,” and “The Widow at the Piano: Poems by a Distracted Catholic.” In 2024, her memoir, “No Way Out of This: Loving a Partner with Alzheimer’s,” will be published by a hybrid publisher and her poetry collection, “Dining Al Fresco with My Dog” will be published by a traditional publisher.

A self-admitted book addict, Davisson was the kid with the flashlight under her pillow, reading long after “lights out.” A life of travel led to degrees in anthropology and a pervasive interest in people. She lives on the Oregon coast with her husband, John.

An Oregon native, Bishop enjoyed a 45-year career as a major-label recording artist, touring musician, hit songwriter, platinum record producer, talent development executive and music publisher. He garnered a Grammy nomination, several BMI awards and more than 300 songwriting credits with artists as diverse as the Beach Boys, Tim McGraw, Indigo Girls, Heart and Sheryl Lee Ralph. Bishop’s “Makin’ Stuff Up” column was featured in American Songwriter Magazine for seven years.

In 2017, he walked from Southern California to the central Oregon coast, a 90-day, 900-mile adventure recounted in the memoir, “TREK: My Peace Pilgrimage in Search of a Kinder America.”

Dodge’s award-winning fiction, poetry and non-fiction have appeared in several newspapers, magazines and anthologies in the Pacific Northwest. She is author of the novel “Waiting,” which won one of the Top 10 Fiction Idaho Author Awards for 2014, and “Goldie’s Daughter,” a coming-of-age novel set in the 1882 Idaho gold mining camps. She is currently working on a book about serial killer Lyda Southard, who killed her husbands with arsenic in order to collect on their life insurance policies.