Join Kcymaerxthaere and Atlas Obscura on the Road to a Parallel Universe in the Midwest

From August to September, Eames Demetrios, Geographer-at-Large for Kcymaerxthaere, is serving as the Geographer-in-Residence at Atlas Obscura. Read his previous posts & discover places in a world parallel to our own here.

It is dawn in west Michigan and tomorrow, at 8:30 AM (getting coffee at 8), some intrepid folks will begin their journey of story from Michigan to Indiana, and thence to the 9th Annual All-Kymaericas Kcymaerxthaere Spelling Bee in Paris, Illinois.

Never been to a parallel universe spelling bee before? Here is what one looks like. DON’T miss it.

ArtPrize in Grand Rapids has been going on for four or five years now, and is the largest crowd-sourced arts festival anywhere in the world. Even as I prepare for the caravan, I’ve been lucky enough to take a look around at a couple of things.

One of the most striking so far? Anila Quayyum Agha at the Grand Rapids Art Museum. It is just one of 1,500 works spread around the city for three weeks, creating a real celebration of public space.

I have a soft spot for ArtPrize — it was where I installed the five markers we’ll be touring here, one of the densest concentrations of Kcy sites anywhere in the world. And because of ArtPrize, we were able to install right by the river, so important to the story — and so very close.

Tomorrow morning, we’ll start on the tour at 8:30, but with an added bonus that we will expand to sites all over the world. As another interactive feature of the residency, we have created simple pdfs of Kcymaerxthaere Tourist Cards for field agents and others to put in brochure racks in their community to promote their local Kcymaerxthaere sites.

The files will start going online next week, but members of the Altas Obscura team will be modeling good behavior on this caravan. More details on the caravan are here. 

This is a shorter than usual post, because we have to get ready — including organizing our surprise gifts.

Until then, greetings from Grand Rapids — and follow us at @kcym and @atlasobscura on Twitter, plus Instagram and all weekend. 

Shøaf!!! And see you on the road.

 Join the Kcymaerxthaere from September 27 to 28 with Atlas Obscura >