Mid-September 2015 eNews


SEPTEMBER EVENTS 

For more details on all our events, please visit our website. 



The MOuTH with Chion Wolf: "Caught in the Act -- Stories About Not Getting Away With It"
Friday, September 18, 7:30 p.m.
The Mark Twain House & Museum continues "The MOuTH," a storytelling series with WNPR personality Chion Wolf. Come hear & tell stories on the theme "Caught in the Act -- Stories About Not Getting Away With It." The event is in no way a competition, just storytelling in front of friends in a museum dedicated to Mark Twain, one of our country's best storytellers. 

There will be a special guest storyteller -- John Farrell (a.k.a. Fast Jack).  He's the author of Fast Jack: The Last Hustler, and a resident of Manchester, CT. The last of the old-time dice and card "mechanics" recounts his colorful adventures in and outside the mob running crooked dice and card games all over the country and world. He'll be selling and signing books at the program. 

Chion Wolf, a noted photographer and voice performer, is part of The Colin McEnroe Show on WNPR as the show's announcer and sometimes-sidekick. She can be heard during station breaks many days of the week.

$5.00 (Storytellers chosen for the lineup get in free.) Call (860) 247-0998 or click here.
The Mark Twain House & Museum presents TAPPING INTO TWAIN Oktoberfest!
Friday, September 25, 5:30-9:30 p.m.

The party of the year featuring over twenty regional breweries, micro-breweries and home brewers plus over a dozen local restaurants. 
Guests will enjoy all of this to the live sounds of The Rude Mechanicals and The Alternates Duo, with sets by DJ Whitney Bobby.
 
Prices include all food, beverage and a collectible pint glass!
  
Advance Price (prior to 12:30pm on Friday the 25th): $45; Door Price: $50; MTH&M Member Price: $40; Designated Driver: $20. Tickets: call (860) 247-0998 or click here.
BOOK/MARK: Providential with author Colin Channer
Wednesday, September 30, 7:00 p.m.

Colin Channer's debut poetry collection achieves an intimate and lyric meditation on family, policing, loss, and violence, but the work is enlivened by humor, tenderness, and the rich possibilities that come from honest reflection. Combined with a capacity to offer physical landscapes with painterly sensitivity and a graceful mining of the nuances of Jamaican Patois and American English, Providential is a work of "heartical" insight and vulnerability. Channer draws on his own knowledge of Jamaican culture, on his complex relationship with his father (a Jamaican policeman), and frames these poems within the constantly humane principles of Rasta and reggae. The poems within Providential manage to turn the intricate relationships between a man and his father, a man and his mother, and man and his country, and a man and his children into something akin to grace. The program moderator will be Kristina Newman-Scott, the Director of Culture for the State of Connecticut.

This event is generously supported by the George A. & Grace L. Long Foundation, Bank of America, N.A., Co-Trustee.

This is a free Book/Mark event and is followed by a book sale and signing. Reservations are highly recommended. Please call (860) 247-0998 or click here.


PLUS, PLAN AHEAD FOR A SPOOKY OCTOBER AND BE SURE TO INCLUDE:

Graveyard Shift Ghost Tours
October 
2, 3, 9, 16, 17, 23, 24, 29 and 30; tours step off at 
6:00 p.m., 7:00 p.m., 8:00 p.m. & 9:00 p.m.

We reprise our popular Graveyard Shift Ghost Tours for spooky Halloween month chills. The Mark Twain House has been featured on Syfy Channel's Ghost Hunters and the Biography Channel's My Ghost Story. On these tours, participants will hear about these investigations -- and learn about Mark Twain's own interest in the supernatural. Filled with haunted history, dark tales and Victorian traditions surrounding seances and spiritualism, these nighttime tours are as educational as they are goosebump-inducing. October Ghost tours sell out, so be sure to call soon to make your reservations!

The tours are tsponsored by Tsunami Tsolutions.

$22 with discounts available for members and children. Please call (860) 247-0998 or click here.


PLUS: there are many more events coming up this fall. Check our website for details! 
  
 
The Mark Twain House & Museum's Writing Classes and Workshops 

Be the writer you've always wanted to be by studying at the home of America's greatest writer!

Writing Workshops
(One-Day Workshop) $40
-- A View Askew: Point of View in Young Adult Writing (with Dayna Lorentz) (on September 26)
 
Writing Classes
(Six-Week Classes) $265
This Class starts on September 16
-- Writing the Land (with Christine Palm)
This Class starts on September 24
-- Fiction (with Susan Schoenberger)
This Class starts on October 12
-- Writing Children's Books (with Pegi Shea)
These Classes start on October 14
-- Writing Your Family History (with Hunter Liguore)
-- Fiction (with Nancy Antle)
-- Guided Autobiography (with Sheri Caplan)
-- Poetry Writing (with Kate Russin)

Don't miss out -- for the complete schedule of ALL classes and workshops, or to register, please visit www.marktwainhouse.org or call (860) 247-0998.
 
 
MARK MY WORDS: IN A GALAXY FAR, FAR AWAY!
Friday, November 6, 7:00 p.m.
 


The Mark Twain House & Museum goes into hyper drive with MARK MY WORDS V...IN A GALAXY FAR, FAR AWAY!  In anticipation of the release of STAR WARS VII: THE FORCE AWAKENS, we have assembled a lineup of authors that write in the Star Wars Expanded Universe: novels, comics, reference books, children's books, and graphic novels. 
 
With over 100 Star Wars titles between them, JASON FRY, JOHN OSTRANDER, MARK STACKPOLE, RYDER WINDHAM and TIMOTHY ZAHN have staked out the farthest reaches of the Outer Rim with adventures and characters from the films and of their own.  

Join us for the MARK MY WORDS author panel and "Jabba-size" your experience with our VIP DEATH STAR DISCO & DESSERTS AFTER-PARTY at The Mark Twain House's Webster Museum Center.  It's going to be more fun than an Ewok celebration!
 
With the Immanuel Congregational Church's beautiful Naboo-like architecture serving as the backdrop for this unforgettable night, audiences will laugh, learn, and be inspired by these five men that have helped shape the face one of the greatest sci-fi franchises of all time.

For all the details on this exciting event, please visit our dedicated website TwainInSpace.com!

Generously sponsored by The Hartford, Hoffman Auto Group, The Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection & Insurance Company, and Reid & Riege, P.C.
 
Advance tickets are $35 through November 1st. On November 2nd and later, tickets will be $45. There will be a VIP ticket available for $85 that includes premium seating at the event, a poster signed by authors, and the DEATH STAR DISCO & DESSERTS after-party in the Webster Bank Museum Center at The Mark Twain House & Museum. Please call (860) 247-0998 or click here.

VOLUNTEER OF THE MONTH



















David Sherman, a retired engineer and consultant for 42 years, has been a dedicated curatorial and events volunteer at The Mark Twain House & Museum for nearly two years. He started by helping out with events with his wife, Diana Creamer, who works as one of our guides, and became interested in collections work. Dave is fond of organizing and has been keeping our records in shape by creating files and locating objects. He sees a need and tackles it head-on. Recently, Dave built a collection of stantions for our summer gallery exhibition Epics Engraved in Stone. 

Dave likes volunteering because he loves the Twain house, the people he works with, and the opportunity to learn and exercise his mind. He and his wife are both members of the Samuel Clemens Society.

Interested in volunteering at The Mark Twain House & Museum?  Please click here.
 
MANY THANKS TO OUR SUMMER INTERNS

Andrew Shaw, Sten Spinella, and Rachel Adams


The Mark Twain House & Museum has been fortunate to have many outstanding interns over the years, and the summer of 2015 was no exception.  We give a heartfelt "thank you" to the interns who labored tirelessly this summer:

Rachel Adams, Massachusetts College of Art and Design (Curatorial & Visitor Services intern)

Brianna Dunlap, Central Connecticut State University (Development intern)

Anne Ferketic, University of St. Joseph's (Writing intern)

Jessa Gosslin, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth (Marketing intern)

Carly Hernandez, Rollins College (Visitor Services intern)

Grant Henry, Clark University (Marketing intern)

Micah Mingo, Yale University (Development intern)

Sarah Salce, University of Rhode Island (Marketing intern)

Andrew Shaw, Connecticut College (Education intern)

Sten Spinella, University of Connecticut (Writing intern)

Emma Waldie, University of Minnesota (Education intern)
 
Sarah Salce and Grant Henry


Interested in being an intern this fall at The Mark Twain House & Museum?  Please click here.
 

Membership has its rewards!

New for 2015!

Each month, all new and renewing members for the previous month will be entered into a drawing to win a $25 gift certificate to The Mark Twain House Store.

Congratulations to July's winner: Patrick T. Nolan

And congratulations to August's winners: Daniel Haim & James Palmieri

Be sure to support The Mark Twain House & Museum and purchase or renew your membership to be entered into this monthly drawing!

From our Nook Farm neighbors at HartBeat Ensemble



For tickets, please click here.

JOIN The Mark Twain House & Museum!

 

Enjoy the special insider benefits of membership in The Mark Twain House & Museum. And there's the sheer joy of being part of the legacy of Mark Twain, whose wit and insight remain alive today in 2014 -- over 150 years after Sam Clemens took on his famous pen name and entered history.

 

Submit our easy-to-use, secure online membership form or simply call 860-280-3112.

 

Make a DONATION Today!

 

Your donation to The Mark Twain House & Museum has a major impact on our ability to preserve this beautiful home, provide crucial educational programs for thousands of schoolchildren, offer mind-stimulating and spine-tingling events for adults, and welcome thousands of visitors each year. 

 

 ...and make your donation count double: Find out if your employer has a Matching Gift program.

 

Donate online, call 860-280-3112, or send your donation to: The Mark Twain House & Museum, Development Department, 351 Farmington Avenue, Hartford, Connecticut 06105.

 

Join the FRIENDS!

 

The Friends of The Mark Twain House & Museum offer wonderful speaking events, social gatherings, and fun volunteer opportunities. Pony up $30 and you'll get it all, too!

 

It's the volunteer organization that has supported the museum for more than 50 years. To join, call Membership Co-Chairs Chuck Paydos, 860-242-4825, or Dee Peters, 860-233-4066.

 

 

The Mark Twain House & Museum has restored the author's Hartford, Connecticut, home, where the author and his family lived from 1874 to 1891. Twain wrote his most important works there, including The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. In addition to providing tours of Twain's restored home, a National Historic Landmark, the institution offers activities and educational programs that illuminate Twain's literary legacy and provide information about his life and times. The house and museum at 351 Farmington Ave. are open Monday through Saturday, 9:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m., and Sunday, 11:00 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. For more information, call 860-247-0998 or visit us online. Programs at The Mark Twain House & Museum are supported by the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development, and the Greater Hartford Arts Council's United Arts Campaign.

 

David Cash, Publicist and Publications Editor

The Mark Twain House & Museum