Savannah’s Flannery O’Connor fans celebrate author’s birthday with online parade in spite of coronavirus

Throughout her life, Savannah-born author Flannery O’Connor persevered amid hard times and sickness to create evocative works of gritty Southern intrigue.

Carrying on this indomitable spirit into the era of COVID-19, on Saturday, March 28, numerous O’Connor fans from Savannah and far beyond participated in an online version of the annual unofficial festivities that mark the groundbreaking writer’s March 25 birthday.

Dating back to 2013, this occasion is ordinarily an outré weekend gathering and procession, filling Lafayette Square — the site of O’Connor’s childhood home, now a museum dedicated to the author — with locals dressed up as church ladies, peacocks, gorillas, and other iconic characters of the writer’s short stories and novels.

Alas, when Savannah Mayor Van Johnson was compelled to declare a state of emergency over COVID-19 on March 19 that resulted in the cancellation of all public events citywide through at least early April, the fate of 2020’s Flannery O’Connor Birthday Parade seemed sealed. The occasion typically attracts hundreds of participants — chickens included — to revel in social proximity.

However, some die-hard O’Connor fans refused to let the coronavirus pandemic put a stop to the feathery festivities. On Monday, March 23, the “Flannery O’Connor Birthday Parade Online” public Facebook group was launched to provide a virtual platform for anyone to join O’Connor’s 95th birthday party, attracting over 160 members by Saturday afternoon.

According to event organizer and Facebook-page administrator Kathleen Fritz, this shared online celebration embodied the spirit of O’Connor’s determination to express herself despite daunting circumstances.

“I think it’s really fitting for our time. She wrote about times that were difficult,” said Fritz, a longtime Savannah resident who was a regular participant in past O’Connor parades.

Since Fritz now lives in Austin, Texas, the online version of this celebration provided her with a welcome way to reconnect with friends in Savannah to collectively think up imaginative ways to remotely honor O’Connor.

“People want to connect with people” during this shared period of widespread isolation, Fritz said. “We’re all dealing with this stressful situation.”

While celebrants posted cherished pictures from past parades and other artistic contributions during the days leading up to the social-media celebration, on Saturday afternoon a lineup of speakers and performers appeared on the Facebook page either live or in recorded videos, beginning with opening remarks by Beverly Willett, president of the Flannery O’Connor Childhood Home Foundation.

“Flannery, of course, was no stranger to hardship,” said Willett in a livestream broadcast from Lafayette Square, while noting that plans are underway to hold another in-person O’Connor celebration there in September. “Despite her crippling illness and short life, Flannery’s heart and pen flourished in the midst of it all. Now more than ever, her bravery and good humor serve as inspiration to us all.”

A livestreamed invocation by Rev. Michael Chaney followed Willett’s speech, before local author Zach Powers delivered a live reading from O’Connor’s “Wise Blood”.

Jared Hall of Velvet Caravan joined his wife Emily in a recorded family singalong, Savannah writer Jessica Leigh Lebos read excerpts from “A Prayer Journal”, and artist Christine Sajecki played harmonica during an apparently impromptu solo parade through her kitchen.

To view all of the eclectic contributions to the online Flannery O’Connor parade, visit facebook.com/groups/841473596337013.