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   Notes From an Open Book

 

When I heard last August that poet Seamus Heaney had died, I couldn't quite believe it. Yes, I knew he was elderly, but he was a poet who had been so inspiring for much of my life. I remember reading "Digging" as a teen and connecting at once to the pen in the hand as a writer's own tool to dig deep. I've dipped into his work over the years for an intellectual breather and a connection to a powerful world and a perspective that expanded my own. The grace, precision, and vividness of his work always made me feel more alive.

 

And so when scholar John Ward suggested Seamus Heaney as his topic for the Maine Humanities Council's first brown bag lunch in our new "Taste of the Humanities" series, I was delighted. John wanted to not just talk about Heaney but to show, in the best humanities fashion, why we should still be reading his poems.

 

On January 22, "Teach Me How to Listen: A Retrospective on Seamus Heaney" drew a crowd through a bitterly cold wind into the relative warmth of Portland's One Longfellow Square where John Ward, wearing an Aran Island sweater knit originally for his father, brought us instantly into Heaney's world.

 

With a handful of anecdotes-John had been responsible for a Kenyon College student's infatuation with Heaney, whereupon she dogged the great poet's kind footsteps when he visited the campus, and later wrote her PhD dissertation on him (it was published by Routledge in a series)-John brought Heaney among us. He read poems, framed them, invited participants' thoughts, and shared his own thoughts. It was a classic combination of a MHC lecture and discussion, one in which everyone's opinion mattered.

 

It was yet another example of an inspiring, invigorating MHC program. And if you missed it, John will be speaking again on the same topic this April in Tenants Harbor for our second brown bag lunch. Stay tuned!

In This Issue
Coming Soon
Maine at Work
Spring Break in Italy
Maine National History Day
Crime and Punishment on Facebook
Grants with Legs
Civil War Project Application
MHC Podcasts
Upcoming Events
Recent Grants
Recommending Reading
From Our Programs
Quick Links
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The Maine Humanities Council,
a statewide non-profit organization, uses the humanities-literature, history, philosophy, and culture-as a tool for positive change in Maine communities. Our programs and grants encourage critical thinking and conversations across social, economic, and cultural boundaries
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Coming Soon...Very Soon     
 

Just this week, the MHC is offering two public events, a discussion program on intimacy in a networked world and a civil rights film screening:


  

Think & Drink

We've all had deep discussions with our friends while we're out at night-why not add a couple of experts to the mix and really take it up a notch? That's the idea behind Think & Drink, a happy-hour series in partnership with SPACE Gallery in Portland that sparks provocative conversations about big ideas. The series invites you to participate in a facilitated public conversation with two panelists who have expertise in the subject at hand. The idea isn't to create consensus but, rather, to foster an open interplay of viewpoints and perspectives.

  

The theme for this year's series is "In a Networked World." How does our highly networked, plugged-in culture affect the way we relate to each other and to the world around us? Join bloggers, cultural scholars, and other thought leaders to explore each month's topic.

  

And this Wednesday, February 5, join the conversation with "Intimacy in a Networked World," with Pete Coviello (Bowdoin College; @pcoviell) and Eden Osucha (Bates College) on "Intimacy in a Networked World." Contact the MHC for more information.  

  

Created Equal 

 
Freedom Riders, an American Experience production

The Maine Humanities Council and the University of Southern Maine Office of Multicultural Student Affairs are partnering to show two films in celebration of Black History Month. Freedom Riders will screen at the Glickman Library on Wednesday, February 4, at 5:00 pm; Slavery By Another Name will be shown at the Lee Auditorium, Wishcamper Center, on Friday, February 7, at 4 pm. A facilitated discussion will follow both screenings. This project is part of the MHC's "Created Equal: America's Civil Rights Struggle," funded by the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

 



And Coming Soon! 

On Thursday, February 27, the MHC presents the premiere of Maine at Work, our newest Theater of Ideas touring presentation. This free performance and discussion event in Freeport will open a statewide series.

 

The "theater of ideas" concept came from former Theater at Monmouth director David Greenham, who designed and performed two other Theater of Ideas series for the MHC (Taxing Maine and As Maine Grows). Within a meticulously researched performance, Maine at Work takes historical documents and characters, humor, little known facts, thought-provoking tales (tall and otherwise), and perspectives from real Mainers to show the pattern of work in Maine. Just like the shows before it, we suspect Maine at Work will get Mainers thinking about the issues.

 

Join us at a reception and the premiere performance of Maine at Work on Thursday, February 27, 6:00 pm, at Freeport Community Services, to learn, laugh, and discuss jobs and employment with your neighbors.
Spring Break in Italy
 

 

Whether you've survived the icy winds of St. Petersburg, or simply endured the long nights of another Maine winter, you deserve a trip to the sunnier climes of Sicily, the Po Valley, and Naples. Led by famed MHC scholar Peter Aicher (University of Southern Maine), this is our 2014 Community Seminar series: three discussion sessions of literature with a common theme.

 

Peter will take us first through Giuseppe di Lampedusa's The Leopard, a story of an old aristocratic and new Italy, on April 10. Then on May 8, we'll delve into a love-story, a horticultural hymn to Italian villas, a depiction of the complex reactions to the "racial laws" in Italy, and a meditation on memory and loss with Giorgio Bassani's The Garden of the Finzi-Continis. Last, on June 5, we'll explore the childhood and adolescence of two girls growing up in working-class Naples with Elena Ferrante's My Brilliant Friend.

 

For more information or to register, contact Karen.

Seeking Judges for Maine National History Day 

Do you love history? Do you support dynamic hands-on projects for students? Maine National History Day makes history come alive through the historical, social, and cultural experiences of the past. It's an annual event for teachers and students in grades 6-12 which promotes critical thinking skills through project-based learning. Similar events are held throughout the country as National History Day.   

 

And it's an experience for judges, too. The MHC, the Maine Historical Society, and University of Maine are looking for Maine National History Day judges this year, and we hope you can help us. This inspiring experience gives adults who are interested in history the chance to connect with the projects that students create. Whether you've been a judge for several years running or have never experienced the excitement and reward of History Day, we encourage you to join the 2014 team.

 

Details

The 2014 Maine National History Day competition, with the theme of Rights and Responsibilities, will be held at University of Maine in Orono on Saturday, April 12, 2014. The competition runs from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm; judges must be on-site by 8:30 am. Morning refreshments and lunch will be provided. At registration, provide your name, contact info, and rate your preferences for judging category. We strongly encourage you to sign up by February 28, and, as an extra

incentive, we will put your name in a drawing for a great prize

(compliments of the Maine Humanities Council and Maine Historical Society).

 

You'll get an initial confirmation email and, in mid-March, your judging assignment and detailed information and resources about the judging role and responsibilities, as well as the logistics of the day.

 

Questions? Contact MHC Program Officer Nicole Rancourt, Program Officer. 

Idealism, Violence, and the Public Eye: A Crime and Punishment Discussion

 

 

As part of Winter Weekend 2014, the MHC is offering an online discussion forum open to everyone, regardless of whether or not you've registered for the March event. Visit the discussion (click "Forum" here) to chat about Crime and Punishment in a discussion moderated by Winter Weekend's long-time emcee Charles Calhoun.

 

Charles's first discussion prompt begins like this: A confused, good-looking, in his own mind idealistic young man - a student - sits in prison, charged with a heinous, almost inexplicable crime - an act of seemingly random, even nihilistic violence that led to the deaths of innocent people. Rodion Raskolnikov? No, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the accused Boston Marathon bomber. Does this comparison make any sense? Does life imitate art?

 

If you have a Facebook account, please join our discussion!

Grants with Legs

 

In a previous issue of  Notes from an Open Book, we mentioned a major grant to the Jewish Museum for "Pilgrimages of the Heart," a combination of theater, dialogue, and text and visual art to tell the story of Etty Hillesum, a Dutch woman who wrote about her experiences during the Holocaust before her death in Auschwitz. In this Portland Press Herald clip, Martin Steingesser, Maine's former Poet Laureate and the creative genius behind this project, describes his motivation and plan to take the performance back to where Hillesum was killed. 

Community Applications for Civil War project

 

A call to historical societies, libraries, and other cultural organizations in a community near you: the MHC, in partnership with the Maine Historical Society, is in the midst of a two-year program to engage five Maine communities in their Civil War history in 2014/2015. Local & Legendary: Maine in the Civil War funds a $2,000 grant for an organization or community partnership to hold programming and events on Maine's role in the Civil War: on the battleground, but also at home. Applications are due Monday, March 3, 2014.

Podcasts


Katie Rutherford of the Frannie Peabody Center discusses the creation of "The Lonely Fight: a History of AIDS in Maine" from the first stages of research to the final reception of the exhibit. She shares the difficulties of tackling a tough subject and the responses that made it worthwhile. "The Lonely Fight" ran from December 1-6, 2013 at the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies. It was sponsored in part by a grant from the Maine Humanities Council.


Upcoming Events 

 

The MHC and its partners are offering a wide variety of events this month. Our Local & Legendary: Maine in the Civil War teams are finishing their projects with a youth performance of "Lemonade with Mamda" in Belfast on February 3, a Civil War housewife sewing kit demonstration in Windham February 3, and book discussions in Presque Isle on February 12 and Gorham on February 27. As mentioned earlier, the MHC is partnering with USM for film screenings of Freedom Riders on February 4 and Slavery By Another Name on February 7. And on February 7 and 8, "The Living Room Project" will hold a staged performance of a chapter from The Grapes of Wrath at the Stonington Opera House. For more information about these events and more, visit our calendar. 

 
Recent Grant List 

In January, the MHC awarded one grant:

 

$1,000 for "Little Free Libraries for Presque Isle," Northern Maine Community College Library, Presque Isle (Community Outreach)

Two "Little Free Libraries" (special library-shaped boxes made for sharing books with a community to be installed in public places) will be purchased and installed throughout Presque Isle to offer free books to community members. The program is intended to promote reading, literacy, and discussion within the community. It will pair with the Local & Legendary: Maine in the Civil War program to distribute free books on the Civil War as part of a community reading program.

 

Recommended Reading

Here are a few recent favorites from MHC staff:
 

 

The Luminaries by Elizabeth Catton

If you're looking for something complex and engaging enough to distract you from a dreary winter, Luminaries is a good bet. Winner of the 2013 Man Booker prize, this lengthy but quick-reading novel is set in the New Zealand goldfields in 1866. An almost intimidating (though wonderful) array of characters are fleshed out through the efforts towards solving a series of possibly unrelated crimes.We meet a prostitute, a minister, a Maori man, a hermit, an opium addict, a journalist-all given enough care and attention to give them depth, humor, and humanity. They run towards their fortunes and away from disappointed pasts. Part mystery, love story, quest for revenge, and astrological chart, Luminaries catches you quickly and doesn't let go. (Recommended by Kate Webber, Development and Communications Assistant)

 

 

You Know When the Men Are Gone by Siobhan Fallon

Fallon, a military wife herself, gives readers a peek into military life in this series of short stories about families stationed at Fort Hood in Texas before, during, and after a unit deployment to Iraq. Fallon uncovers the habits, obsessions, coping mechanisms, and unique cultural dynamics of the military, on the front lines and on the home front. (Recommended by Anne Schlitt, Assistant Director)   

 

 

Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels 

Jakob Beer, a Jewish child, is seven years old when Germany invades his native Poland. From his hiding place behind a cabinet's wallpaper, Jakob escapes the fate of his parents, who are murdered before his eyes, and his 15-year-old sister Bella, who is been taken away. Hiding provides Jakob with his only means of survival. He digs holes for his small body in the forest, fields, and muddy street of Biskupin, his "drowned city," until he is discovered and rescued by Athos, a Greek geologist. Athos smuggles Jakob out of Poland and into Greece, where he conceals the boy until the Nazi occupation there is over. With Jakob's musing, pained adult voice, Anne Michaels follows the boy's path from Greece to Toronto with Athos for a new life, and through his teenage and adult struggles. Key among those is the ability to go on while haunted by memories of Bella and the knowledge of what happened to the Jewish people in Poland, Greece, and beyond. With a poetic style and details that always look deep, Fugitive Pieces tells an ultimately beautiful story pitted with the terrible grief of loss. (Recommended by Diane Magras, Director of Development)


From our programs:

 

"[The speaker is a] passionate and studied advocate of Heaney's writing. He captured our attention, intellect, and emotions."

 

-an attendance evaluation from "Teach Me Now to Listen"

Thank you, as always, for reading. I hope you enjoyed this issue. And I hope you can join us at one of our upcoming events and experience the humanities in person.

 
As always, if you are keen to support the humanities in Maine, please make a gift; you will ensure our programs' wide reach to many communities statewide. 

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.