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   Notes From an Open Book

 

Greetings, and welcome to the August 2013 Notes from an Open Book.

On July 31, the full Appropriations Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives debated a bill that would cut the National Endowment for the Humanities by 49%. After much discussion, the vote was delayed until after the August recess; more discussion about it will be possible. We hope constituents will reach out to their representatives to advocate for the importance of the National Endowment for the Humanities, as this kind of critical cut would harm not simply the amazing grants provided by the NEH for important cultural programs and projects nationwide, but also-quite simply-hack into the programming and projects of the nation's humanities councils, which reach a broad on-the-ground population. The Maine Humanities Council's programs alone reach low-literacy adults and prison inmates, educators of all grades, libraries rural and urban, medical professionals, and the general public. We serve over 200 towns and nearly 2,000 people each year. Not all of our constituents initially feel comfortable marching into a library for a lecture or joining a book group, but we ensure that they feel welcomed and valued at ours, and their thoughts and opinions make our programs stronger.

Councils like ours rely on the support of our donors to augment our NEH funding. Both are key funding sources. In the coming months before a final budget vote, please contact your Congressional representative to encourage a wide recognition of the importance of the humanities. Many thanks to those who already have and to the many who support the Council's work under the same belief.

 
In This Issue
Borders and Borderlands
Upcoming Events
Recent Grants
Recommended Reading
MHC Podcasts
From Our Programs
Quick Links
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Our mission:
The Maine Humanities Council-a statewide nonprofit organization-enriches the lives of people in Maine through literature, history, philosophy, and culture. Our programs, events, grants, and online resources encourage critical thinking and conversation across social, economic, and cultural boundaries.

Borders and Borderlands
One of the best-known Acadians nationwide is Evangeline, a character made famous by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's epic poem about the Acadian Expulsion. Here she sits in statue form, in St. Martinville, Louisiana.

  

The National Endowment for the Humanities does important work through their grants, and here's one example: the Maine Humanities Council's Borders and Borderlands project, a highly competitive NEH grant award of $159,097 through the Division of Education Programs.

 

Borders and Borderlands: The Acadian Experience in Maine is a summer institute for teachers on the history and culture of the French Acadian peoples of the St. John Valley in northern Maine. The Institute will take place next July and August at the University of Maine in Orono and the University of Maine at Fort Kent. Key project partners include the Canadian-American Center, the Maine Folklife Center, and the Franco-American Centre at University of Maine, and the Acadian Archives at University of Maine in Fort Kent.

 

Drawing on history, literature, and language studies, participants will examine borderland theory as applied in the American Northeast; the history of the Acadian people; cultural phenomena such as Acadian folk music, local foodways, architecture and crafts; and ways in which the Acadian dialect of French has enriched literature and influenced cultural identity on both sides of the border.

 

We're thrilled to have the last few days of the Institute coincide with the Congr�s Mondial Acadien 2014 (World Acadian Congress). If you haven't heard, this gathering of Acadian families from many countries takes place every five years. In 2014, it will be co-hosted by the St. John Valley and neighboring Qu�bec and New Brunswick.

 

The story of Maine's Acadian communities has never received much attention outside of the state. Borders and Borderlands is an effort to correct that neglect by offering to a national audience of teachers an opportunity to learn the fascinating story of how Acadian culture, having survived against all odds, plays a revealing role in the larger context of borders and boundaries, frontiers, and contested terrains, perhaps a more urgent subject today than at any other time since the Civil War. In December 2012, the U. S. Census Bureau predicted that by the end of this decade, no single racial or ethnic group would constitute a majority of children under the age of 18; by midcentury, no single group would constitute a majority of the country as a whole. Does the borderlands experience of the Acadians have something to teach the country as we come to terms with the fact that multiculturalism will soon be the norm? We'd love to hear what you think. 


 Upcoming Events

"Set along a washing-line running the depth of the Denmark Arts Center main hall-which in turn finds use as various projection screens and surfaces-The Line will use oral testimony, recollections, and other histories of Denmark as the raw materials from which to construct a historical fiction in the great tradition of Maine's tall tales and hum-dingers." An original production in Denmark, Maine.

 

The Maine Humanities Council and its partners and grantees have a number of great events coming up this month.

They include a lecture series about Islamic culture, including a dance performance, in Norway; an original play about community and so much more in Denmark; a talk on historic gardening in Portland, and more

 

 

 

 Recent Grant List

The MHC awarded the following grants in July:

 

$1,000 for "Stories From the Past; Sounds From the Future," Denmark Arts Center, Denmark (Outreach) 

In collaboration with Northeast Historic Film in Bucksport, new scores will be created for several archival films about Maine. The film premiere will include a panel discussion to expand upon the images while considering issues of Maine's cultural history and future, role as a cultural ecosystem, and future as an icon of Americana.

 


$1,000 for "200th Anniversary of the Battle of the HMS Boxer & USS Enterprise," Maine Historical Society, Portland (Outreach) 

The Maine Historical Society and community partners will commemorate the War of 1812 and the 200th anniversary of the naval battle between the HMS Boxer and USS Enterprise off the coast of Maine with a week-long series of events from September 3 through 6, 2013. Engaging programming and a related eight-week exhibit (August 31 through October 25, 2013) will explore the impact of the war on Maine's citizens.

 

 

$1,000 for "Victorian Fair," Victoria Mansion, Portland (Outreach)

On September 8, 2013, a diverse range of scholars, tradespeople, and performers from across New England will assemble on the Mansion lawn to offer historically accurate demonstrations of arts, technologies, and literature of the Victorian period. This learning event for all ages will provide context for the Mansion's original 19th century interiors and decorative arts.

 

 

$300 for "Burnt into Memory: Stories of the Brownfield Fire," North Bridgton Public Library (Discretionary)

As part of a series of Maine History programs in the fall of 2013, the library will sponsor a presentation by storyteller and oral historian Jo Radner. Her subject will be the memories of residents during the terrible Maine wildfires of 1947 and the related issues of community responsibility in times of disaster. The audience will also be invited to their own memories of the fire.   

 

 

 Recommended Reading

The recommended reading list for August has been provided by members of the MHC's Board of Directors:

 

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides (Erica Quin-Easter)   

Jeffrey Eugenides's bestseller is a literary family epic, picturing a slice of American history through three generations of a Greek-American family and a most unusual person born once as a girl, then later, as a boy. 

 

The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson (Ken Templeton)  

Taking place in North Korea, this fast-past literary novel shows the work of a government-sanctioned kidnapper and, amidst the grim horror of his daily life, the humanness within him.

 

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson (Liam Riordan)

This quick-moving romance with its many laugh-out-loud moments is a favorite light book for Anglophiles. The Major is devoted to all that is proper and thoroughly English, but things change when he finds friendship with a local Pakistani shopkeeper, to the consternation of their community.  

  

Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg (David Richards)
David Richards writes of Sandberg's book on women and leadership: "It then informed my remarks to the NEW Leadership group from University of Maine and  I recommend it because it also became one of the textual bases for the inaugural Let's Talk Local discussion held to great success with the female inmates at Somerset County Jail."  

 

I Hate to Leave this Beautiful Place by Howard Norman (Rick Speer) 

Howard Norman's memoir is a revealing, introspective look back at some of the influential people and periods in the life of this wonderful, but low-key novelist. Recommended fiction from Howard Norman would include The Bird Artist, The Northern Lights, and What is Left the Daughter, all very quiet, but engaging tales set in Canada (Norman is a U.S. writer who has spent a good deal of time living in and traveling through Canada).    

 

The Balkans by Misha Glenny (Tom Lizotte) 

The Balkans area of southeast Europe is synonymous with political dysfunction, and has contributed balkanization and balkanized to our vocabulary, for good reason. The book covers the period from 1804-2011 and the influence of the great powers on the many wars and nationalist movements in the region during that time. The chaos in the Balkans happens when you mix in competing empires - Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian, Russian - stir in three major religions - Roman Catholicism, Orthodox Christianity and Islam - and add a plethora of ethnicities, all contained within uncertain national borders.

 

 

 
MHC Podcast:

 

 On the Brink of the Grave: Early Stories of Blood Transfusion 

Ann Kibbie, MHC board member and Associate Professor of English at Bowdoin College, shares research from her latest project. Professor Kibbie focuses on the the medical and cultural history of transfusion before the twentieth century, from the ill-fated experiments of the late seventeenth century to the re-introduction of the practice in nineteenth-century England. The early stories of transfusion include first-person accounts of medical/surgical experiments, medical case histories, and lectures delivered to medical students; as well as works of popular literature, such as satires and tales of sensation and horror.

 


From our programs:

"I am very pleased that the Rangeley Library was chosen to participate in "The World in Your Library" speaker series. We are a small town which is far removed from just about everything. We have people here who are very interested in foreign affairs, and they normally would have to travel...close to an hour away for this type of programming. Although they may have good intentions, most just don't get around to doing that. So, this series has brought some thought-provoking lectures to a segment of the population which normally does not participate in this type of programming."

 

-from the librarian at the Rangeley Library, which had participated in the MHC's "World in Your Library" international lecture series (a partnership with the Midcoast Forum).

 

 

 

 

I hope you've enjoyed the August issue of Notes from an Open Book. As always, let me know what you thought of it.

And thanks once again to everyone who has made a gift to support MHC programs. Have a wonderful month! 

Warmly,


Diane Magras 
Director of Development 
Maine Humanities Council
Would you like to make a donation? Please contact Diane Magras  or call
(207)773-5051 ext. 208 (toll-free 1-866-637-3233, ext. 208) to discuss.