Starting in October and continuing throughout 2014, the National Steinbeck Center in John Steinbeck’s hometown of Salinas, California—where visitors enjoy daily activities including an interactive exhibit of Steinbeck’s Travels with Charley—sponsors a spectacular celebration of the 1939 publication of The Grapes of Wrath. The National Steinbeck Center is located at One Main Street in Salinas, California.
The Joad Journey West in The Grapes of Wrath
October 4-14, 2013
The National Steinbeck Center retraces the epic journey taken by the Joad family along Route 66 through Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, the odyssey of Dust Bowl desperation that comprises the pre-California chapters of The Grapes of Wrath. The trip re-enactment by artists, writers, musicians, and others explores the human experience of struggle and resilience in new creative work inspired by the journey portrayed in The Grapes of Wrath. Participants will interview people along the route, create expressions of episodes and themes in various media, broadcast results via social media, and invite creative responses from the public.
The 34th Annual Steinbeck Festival in Salinas, California
May 2-4, 2014
The National Steinbeck Center hosts three days of intensive festival activities in Salinas, California, and throughout Monterey County, featuring talks, tours, films, food, and visual and performing arts inspired by Travels with Charley, The Grapes of Wrath, and other works by the most famous son of 20th century Salinas, California. This year’s Steinbeck Festival will showcase the struggles of the Joads from Oklahoma to Weedpatch in The Grapes of Wrath using the work of artists and writers and oral histories collected along the October re-enactment of the family’s journey west.
The 2014 Steinbeck International Fringe Fest
Throughout 2014
Through partnerships with organizations in Cities of Letters around the world, past Steinbeck Festival events have been held in cities such as Paris, Hanoi, Krakow, Berlin, Amsterdam, Jerusalem, Buenos Aires, Cairo, Fes, Port-au-Prince, Guanajuato, and other locales. Continuing this global initiative, the 2014 Fringe Fest will bring the celebration of The Grapes of Wrath to Steinbeck’s international audience.
