(Editor’s Note: Pop to the Culture is Ron Baxley, Jr.’s Augusta Good News column related to pop culture in general, including films, sites, and happenings. Columns may contain opinions)
My Glinda or Galinda bubble has burst.
It just makes me want to crescendo like Elphaba, “Nessa. Dr. Dillemond. Fiyero. FIYEROOOOOOOOOO!”, or like the melting M.G.M. Wicked Witch of the West, “What a world. What a world.”
One of the 15 years I happen to be formally invited to the annual Oz-Stravaganza Festival in Chittenango, New York happens to be the year that a “Wicked” film star will be attending. And I cannot attend the event scheduled for June 5-7.
Given the scenes with Nessa Rose in “Wicked” and, in particular, the sequence with Boq and her in “Dancing through Life”, “Wicked” has always had some poignancy to me. In fact, one of my late best friends of many years and poet colleagues, Julie McMaster, was disabled and in a wheelchair.
We attended the same poetry meetings and events in Columbia, grew to know each other, and hung out for approximately 20 years or more. We even shared a two-bedroom apartment in the city for a while. She passed away during what I deem the COVID years from complications due to her Friedrech’s Ataxia condition under the muscular dystrophy category, and I will always miss her. For many years during her life and thereafter, I have donated proceeds from the sales of my Oz and fantasy books to the MDA because of her.
I hated having to miss this year’s Oz-Stravaganza for many other reasons. But I had to decline attending early this year because of ongoing family health concerns. While working full-time, I continue as a caregiver for my mother and have been for 11 years. It has become unsafe to travel and leave her behind, and with some ongoing health issues, it was unsafe even to bring her and, of course, my beloved Corgi Moochie along.
I do not resent this and do think my priorities are in the right place. But I am a little disappointed that I cannot go. In fact, a wicked good celebrity who played the Wicked Witch of the East in the “Wicked” film installments will only be attending this Saturday, June 6,
Marissa Bode starred as Nessarose in the film version of “Wicked” and reprised the role in “Wicked: For Good”. She played opposite Cynthia Erivo (Elphaba, her character’s sister – eventually named as the Wicked Witch of the West) and Ariana Grande (Galinda, the Good Witch). I will not spoil what becomes of Nessarose, but you probably already know or have guessed.
“Wicked” was Bode’s first on-screen role, and she happens to be a disabled actress who uses a wheelchair. And from what I understand of the history of the stage production “Wicked” until recent years, disabled actresses were not often chosen for the role. In fact, as many know, the role of Nessarose is that of a disabled person.
The disability advocacy my late friend Julie did and the MDA telethons and meetings I attended with her, though not necessarily related to Bode’s disability directly, have come to mind as I have thought of this year’s festival. In fact, for an All Things Oz Museum member only event, I was able to tele-participate by sending in a question or two via email. I asked Bode about accessibility with stage productions, on set, and in life in general. The members only event occurs the Thursday evening just before the festival if I am not mistaken, and I look forward to the possibility of somebody sending me the answers to my questions (the special event will not be televised / recorded because of contractual reasons).
All of the above weighs heavily on my mind when I think of Julie. In fact, when I taught developmental English and transitional English at a technical college for a little under a decade, one of the model argument essays I used was a pro and con about disability access. I wrote it from a position of being for access and then wrote the opposing side from the business perspective and then wrote counterpoints from the pro perspective. Having lived trying to circumnavigate big box stores and restaurants alongside Julie for about 20 years really brought this all into perspective. Julie loved that particular essay, by the way.
Unlike Nessa Rose with Boq, Julie always gave me the freedom to choose if I wanted to be with her as a friend. And the close friendship was not one sided. I have had some mental health struggles off and on through many years, and Julie, as a few others, was there for me through all of them.
By the way, according to the Oz-Stravaganza website, Bode continues to accomplish much. She is currently shooting the indie feature SNARE and was named to 2026 Forbes 30 Under 30 – Hollywood and Entertainment List. Previous honors include the OUT100 List in 2024 and Variety’s Young Hollywood Impact List in 2025.
Also attending the festival will be decades-long Oz-Stravaganza Masters of Ceremonies and Oz celebrity, performer, and author, John Fricke, whose Ozian and Judy Garland-focused curriculum vitae and show and video commentary tracks extend nearly as long as the Yellow Brick Road. In fact, he has written liner notes for special VHS and other releases of M.G.M.’s 1939 “The Wizard of Oz” and has contributed to TCM and has been a special guest at major Oz events throughout the country. As he is a mentor and has grown to be a great friend, I treasure most everything he says and everything he has done for me.
For example, he wrote an extended note to me on my 50th anniversary VHS copy of “The Wizard of Oz”. Within it, he strongly encouraged me to keep writing about Oz and continuing to do what I have most enjoyed in life. He has also taken the time to give me great advice. Fricke not only flies to flights of fancy as a more genuine version of the Wizard, but he takes the time to be grounded in Kansas with the rest of us. He knows the ups and downs of life and is highly relatable.
Next, long-time Oz-Stravaganza Authors and Artists Alley attendee and author Tom Hutchison has a rich history with Oz and his Western fantasy spin on Oz, “Legend of Oz: The Wicked West.” Tom started attending just one year after I did and has been a wonderful window into the world of comics as well as a true Oz colleague who knows what it is to take such a magical land and transform it into something new – something I have done with my own retellings. He and I have often discussed the 14 Baum Oz books, other Oz projects, comics, and pop culture. At this year’s festival, he will have his aforementioned titles and others from Big Dog Ink. He has been a fixture in the comics world from store ownership to publishing and has toured the comic con circuit throughout the country with Big Dog Ink. In fact, in years past, he has inspired me as a graphic novel creator to continue to tour and discuss everything I love about not only Oz but the graphic novel medium itself.
I have met so many Board members of the International L. Frank Baum and All Things Oz Foundation through the years (the ones responsible for Oz-Stravaganza and the All Things Oz Museum). And, after my initial years there, so many of us have become friends. I hesitate to list them all because I do not want to leave anybody out. Of course, I don’t want this to sound like one of those gushy, awful retrospective intros Lawrence Welk D-list celebrities used to do before rebroadcasts – the type my boomer parents adored. And I do not want to wax too much with the “They like me… they actually like me” schtick like Sally Field, who I do love but caught a lot of flack for that in her Oscar speech. Just five years after getting to know them and showing them my Oz work while advocating for the All Things Oz Museum, I was bestowed the honor of a Lifelong Membership to the All Things Oz Museum in 2016 for my literary contributions to Oz.
The first Board member to discover my work and me was Marc Baum (he jokes that he is a distant cousin of L. Frank Baum but is not a direct relation from what I understand). In 1999, I published my first Oz book, “The Talking City of Oz” in small fan circulation through Oz author March Laumer’s The Vanitas Press. Eventually, around 2009 or 2010 (about a decade later) a free PDF of the interior of the book was put online. At the time, I was working on a second, larger edition of “The Talking City of Oz”. I was also collaborating with James C. Wallace II on an Oz/Wonderland book. Talented illustrator and artist Gwendolyn Tennille, who became an Oz-Stravaganza invitee herself and attended the event later with her own works, illustrated the second edition of my first Oz book and several Oz/Wonderland books for Wallace II and me.
In 2010, Marc Baum formally invited me to my first Oz-Stravaganza in Chittenango, New York. Marc was very encouraging when he invited me, a South Carolina thirty-something who had lived in Massachusetts for a couple of years. I will always remember Marc giving me that chance, those early Board members, and how the museum grew from a one-room dream to a multi-room extravaganza (much like the festival that is a pun of it – multi-faceted). Everything from Baum’s life to a symphony of pop culture and literary aspects of Oz are contained within its walls. I will miss seeing the museum this year as well as all connected to it, including Allison Lehr, the director who started coming to Oz not long after Tom Hutchison did and eventually was hired on at the museum. She is a joy, a loving spirit who shares her knowledge about Oz in a non-haughty way.
And as an Oz and fantasy author who has been formally invited to Authors and Alley there for 15 years, I can safely say you do not want to miss it. And I (though initially invited this year and having to decline because of family health issues) will be morose that I cannot attend. Years of meeting the late Munchkin actors and other Oz celebrities as well as growing to love the people who run the festival and All Things Oz museum, new friends, and fans there brought me some of the better memories of my life. Next year, I will not be able to attend because I will be making another great memory, attending the wedding of my only niece, Ella Cryer, in Texas.
The festival is the longest running Oz festival in the country. The festival began through the efforts of late librarian Clare Houck in the village.
Attending can be an amazing experience for Oz fans and others who remain children at heart.
And, by the way, many other Oz celebrities and Ozian Authors and Alley participants will be at this year’s festival. The ones I mentioned were ones I only had a compelling connection with. For more information, see http://www.oz-stravaganza.com .
Ron Baxley, Jr. is a veteran journalist who has been a published author for 34 years and is working on writing a Southern-set television series. His latest satirical Southern fantasy Oz book, “O.Z. Diggs the Fifth Estate” is the third in the O.Z. Diggs VII series. For additional columns and fiction, go to https://substack.com/@ronbaxleyjr . Contact him via ronbaxleyjr.com .
