DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN — “ROUTE 441: Signs from Flannery O’Connor’s Milledgeville,� an exhibition of photographs by New York City College of Technology English Professor Carole K. Harris, will be on view at Park Slope Starbucks, 164 7th Avenue, from April 1 through May 31.

“This photographic exhibit on display at my local Starbucks in Brooklyn tells the story of a recent journey I took by foot along a 4-mile stretch of Route 441, the highway linking Flannery O’Connor’s Andalusia on the outskirts of Milledgeville, GA, to the center of town,� relates Harris, who lives in Park Slope.

From Harris’ window of her starting point, room 231 in the Comfort Suites, she could look out across the highway and see the pond at Andalusia, the family farm to which O’Connor returned in 1951 after learning she had lupus. The end point of Harris’ journey was Memory Hill, the cemetery at the center of town where O’Connor, who died in 1964, is buried.

“With no real sidewalk to guide me, I picked up a dewy path of grass skirting the highway to avoid the spray from trucks whizzing by. If I paid attention, what would I see along the edges of this highway? I discovered a disarming juxtaposition of signs, depicting consumerist America encroaching on an older, ordered world,� Harris explains. “In the parking lot of the Milledgeville Mall, for instance, I spotted ‘Blue Star Memorial Highway,’ a sign erected in the 1950s by the Georgia Department of Transportation and the Milledgeville Council of Garden Clubs to honor the memories of men from Georgia who had died defending their country.

“Just behind the sign, off to the left, the digital display on the mall’s marquee flashed a continually changing advertisement,� she continues. “In the split second it took to snap my photo, it exclaimed ‘BINGO! Every Wednesday 9 a.m. to 10 a.m.’

“I felt the eyes of Flannery O’Connor peering over my shoulder. With her cartoonist’s eye for the absurd, O’Connor would have loved the clash of cultures I witnessed along Route 441 — between mall and memorial, car wash and chapel, tattoo parlor and family farm. I like to think, too, that were she still living and I could invite her to my local Starbucks for a latte, she would chuckle over seeing the signs of Milledgeville on display there,� Harris concludes.

© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2009 All materials posted on BrooklynEagle.com are protected by United States copyright law. Just a reminder, though -- It’s not considered polite to paste the entire story on your blog. Most blogs post a summary or the first paragraph,( 40 words) then post a link to the rest of the story. That helps increase click-throughs for everyone, and minimizes copyright issues. So please keep posting, but not the entire article. arturc at att.net