What’s Inside the Wren’s Nest

If you’re like me, you don’t venture over to the West End very often. And chances are that if you’re not native to that part of town or a huge history buff, you haven’t heard of the Wren’s Nest. The Nest is the historical home of famous Georgia writer Joel Chandler Harris, former journalist and assistant editor of the Atlanta Journal Constitution and author of the Uncle Remus stories you might remember from childhood. Harris retold and adapted these stories from African American folklore, a point that simultaneously attracted praise and criticism from both the black and white communities. Ignoring offensive Disney adaptations of the twentieth century and controversies over whether or not Harris could actually claim authorship of the tales, by his pen Uncle Remus bridged the gap between oral folk culture and the mainstream literary collection.

The Wren’s Nest has officially been a house museum since 1913, and today it is run by program director Amelia Trace Lerner and executive director Lain Shakespeare (the great-great-great grandson of Joel Chandler Harris). I asked Amelia and Lain to answer a few questions about their jobs and the museum.

Purge: Can you describe a little of what goes on at the Wren’s Nest on a daily basis? (I know that the day I was there, a large group of elderly people were taking a tour of the house.

Lain: On a very busy day, we might give a tour and a storytelling performance to a camp group from Clayton County and to a group of professors visiting Georgia State.  Our tour guides will also show ten to twenty walk-in visitors around the house.  Amelia, our program director, will head over to KIPP STRIVE, our neighborhood charter school, to lead 16 professional writers in mentoring 16 5th graders.  I’ll hand-write thank you notes, answer the phone, and help our intern out with some research regarding a historic landscape plan.  Usually one or two crazy people drop by to talk, and maybe we’ll run out of books and order more.  It’s pretty glamorous.

Purge: How did you first become involved with the Wren’s Nest?

Lain: In 2006 when the museum was all but ready to close its doors, the board of directors happened to be looking for someone who was cheap and gullible.  The extent of my family’s involvement at the time was my aunt on the board of directors.  She knew me to be approaching unemployment just as rapidly as the Wren’s Nest was approaching cessation. Since then, it’s been absolutely necessary to get more family involved as donors and volunteers, but we’re still a regular ole 501c3.

Amelia: Lain and I had met in college; not long after I moved to Atlanta someone he had lined up to work at the Wren’s Nest fell through, I began helping out part-time while I job-searched.  Clearly, it was a good fit, and now here we are.

Purge: Amelia, you head up a summer publishing program for high school kids, right? Can you tell us a little about your work there?

Amelia: I sure do!  I work with 8-10 students each summer to create a literary journal comprised of the work of their Atlanta-area peers.  I meet with the students twice a week; they’re responsible for every element of the journal’s production, from selecting pieces to layout to promotion, so I guide them through that minefield with the help of many talented Atlanta professionals.

We debut the journal at the Decatur Book Festival, who are our partners in the program.  In the end the students are proud of what they’ve created and I’m mostly just proud of them.  Feel good all around.

Purge: So what kind of crowd does the Wren’s Nest bring in– mostly kids or and older sort of crowd?

Lain: We try to market our museum to families, but we end up getting a wide variety of visitors.  This week we had visitors from China, Germany, Australia, and Abu Dhabi.  We also told stories to a camp group from Buckhead, a camp comprised of refugee children, and a family reunion meeting here in Atlanta.

Storytelling appeals to just about everyone over the age of 3, so there’s really no telling who will show up.  We get plenty of old codgers who come on retirement home buses, but we also get students touring significant African-American heritage sites.  We’re big in the Mennonite community.  The Wren’s Nest is a slice of old Atlanta or “real” Atlanta depending on who you are, so we see locals bringing their out-of-town guests every day.

Purge: What do you think is most important about your job at the Wren’s Nest?

Amelia: It’s wonderful to be able to keep these stories — and all the history they represent — alive and to introduce them to new generations. They mean so much to so many people and are such a prominent part of Atlanta history.  It’s not a bad feeling to have someone come into your office and tell you that this is the trip they’ve been trying to make for the last 20 years.

Not to get too basic, but all of the tours and storytelling are scheduled through me. We’re working (hard!) to simply increase awareness of the Wren’s Nest and what we have to offer. Without people coming in, that becomes awfully difficult.

Purge: Is there anything else about the Wren’s Nest that we haven’t covered?

Amelia: We may be the only house museum staff that will invite you on a tour and then insist you stay for beers in the backyard.  More folks should abuse our generosity, tell you what.

The Wren’s Nest is open Tuesday through Saturday 10 a.m. until 2:30 p.m. with storytellings at 1 p.m. on Saturdays. Admission is $8. You can read more about the history of the Wren’s Nest and learn about upcoming events at their website.

Photo Credit: Jason Travis