Last year, in an effort to bring business downtown and promote local artists, the Co-presidents of the Auburn Arts Association, Alicia Hames and Shelley Shields, sat down with Stamp owner Eric Stamp and the event SummerNight was born.

The founders merged with local downtown merchants to get the event off the ground, but ran into a roadblock. Their efforts to have parts of College Street closed off for the event were denied. The merchants worked around the obstacle and SummerNight 2007 was a hit. And this year, they expect it to be bigger and better.

“We tried to work with the City last year and close the streets off, but there were way more hurdles than we thought,” Stamp said. “After the first was a success they decided to close the streets this year. We’re really thankful to the City for allowing us to close the streets.”

Stamp and Shields agreed that the streets being closed this year will bring more people out and will give the event more of a fair-like atmosphere.
Sponsored by the City of Auburn, Jan Dempsey Community Arts Center, Auburn Arts Association, Lynch Auto, the Opelika-Auburn News and Stamp, SummerNight 2008 will take place this Friday, June 20, from 6 to 9 p.m.

The closed streets are not the only thing different about this year’s SummerNight. The event will have more music, spoken word, art and activities than last year too.

Music will be provided on Toomer’s Corner by country/folk band October Road, acoustic classics will be performed by MUSE, and The Alabama Gravy Soppers will showcase their blues sound.

The Alabama Gravy Soppers were formed in 2003 and specializes in early 20th century string band music, which includes vaudeville and medicine show tunes.
“We started five years ago as a Thursday night jam in a trailer park on Montgomery’s Southside,” said Band member Ford Boswell, who plays mandolin, banjo-mandolin, guitar and harmonica. “Within a few months we started playing live at a local bar for free food and beer, and eventually recorded an album at Whitney Houston’s personal studio where a buddy worked wrapping microphone cables and making coffee.”

Boswell said the band has been involved with several events with the Auburn Arts Association, which is how they got involved with SummerNight.
The Gravy Soppers play a mix of covers and originals.

“We write music all the time, but we play a lot of tunes from obscure blues and jazz musicians from the 1920s and ‘30s,” Boswell said. “It’s a style that predates World War II, and is sometimes called pre-war blues. Our set list contains tunes from some of the great African-American string bands and songsters of that era, like the Memphis Jug Band, Mississippi John Hurt and Mance Lipscomb. But we’re also influenced by the Appalachian string bands of that era.”
Boswell said you can expect the Gravy Soppers’ show, which will begin around 8 p.m., to be rowdy.

“We like playing music with each other, and we’re at our best when we play live,” he added.

SummerNight will also feature best-selling author and poet Kolayah-KeeVan, around 30 artists, potters, jewelers and photographers that will have their work for sell to the public.

The event will also be catered more towards kids than last year, especially the first hour and a half. A children’s area, directed by Auburn University Education students, will be set up in front of St. Dunstan’s Episcopal College Center on 136 E. Magnolia. The kids will have the opportunity to produce wearable art that they can display in a parade that starts at 6:45 p.m.

A couple of unique children will also be a part of the event by hosting a book signing this year.
Eight-year-olds Brittany Burkett and Sara Langston, of Greenville, Ala., have written a book titled “Scary Tales.” The book is 20 pages long and tells scary stories that the girls wrote themselves.

“They started writing them at the first of the year,” said Dawn Heartsill, Langston’s mother. “They had to write a short essay for a school project and they just kept writing them.”

Heartsill said that her sister, Danan Whiddon, owner of Auburn shoe store Stamp Your Feet, read the stories and thought they were good enough to put a collection together. The books were printed and were just released this month.

“I love it,” Heartsill said. “I think it’s wonderful. I can’t believe two 8-year-olds had the mindset to do it.”

Burkett and Langston both agree that the stories are scary, but that fact doesn’t bother their parents.
“Some of them are a little bit scarier than what a normal 8-year-old would say maybe, but they’re very well-rounded children and have a level head,” Heartsill said. “It doesn’t bother me at all.”

The girls said they plan to keep writing stories and will be signing copies of “Scary Tales,” which will be on sell for $10, in front of Stamp starting around 6 p.m. Friday.

Local restaurants, which include Brand X, Taylor’s Bakery and Chick-fil-A, will also be offering specials during SummerNight. Also, for every sandwich Chick-fil-A sells, a dollar will be donated to the Auburn Arts Association.

Stamp will offer SummerNight memorabilia and will be screen-printing posters and T-shirts out on the sidewalk.
College Street, from Thach Avenue to Tichenor Avenue and Magnolia Avenue from Wright Street to Gay Street, will be closed to vehicular traffic Friday from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. Downtown merchants and restaurants will remain open after regular business hours.

SummerNight is free to the public. For more information, visit auburnsummernight.com.