THE NEWSLETTER OF THE MAINE HUMANITIES COUNCIL | F A L L O 9

1 As Maine Grows… This hair-raising theatrical thriller is heading your way

3 Looking for Zora: The Many Lives of October 17

4 Cuban Exceptionalism: Reflections on Latin American History December 4

 6 Power & Architecture in Rome A photo essay

 8 “Is it a Rose day?” A Born to Read volunteer at work

10 Humanities in the VA A new Literature & Medicine initiative

12 Selected Grants

Zora Neale Hurston at Book Fair, Nov. 1937. photo courtesy The Maine Humanities Council engages the people of Maine in the power and pleasure of ideas, encouraging a deeper understanding of ourselves and others, fostering wisdom in an age of information, and providing context in a time of change. The Council uses the humanities to provide cultural enrichment for all Mainers and as a tool for social change, bringing people together in conversation that crosses social, economic and cultural barriers.

Uninterrupted Adventure; Often Desperate and Wild; Always Voluntary Writing in 1862, in Wandering Recollections of a Somewhat Busy Life, Portland native John Neal (who clearly had a way with words) used this lively phrase to describe his experiences in Maine’s largest city. And while some might quibble with the merits of desperation and wildness, the notion of uninterrupted, voluntary adventure is quite appealing. I like to think that the Council is itself in the adventure business. We serve as “intellectual outfitters,” whether the trips we organize are on the trails and A LETTER byways of books, in person on the streets of places like Rome, or simply in the sense of community that seems to spring up each time people gather to “do the FROM THE humanities” in public spaces around our state. We provide access to adventure for people of all backgrounds. EXECUTIVE “ In this issue of The Power and Pleasure of Ideas, we’re sharing both” recollections of adventures past, and news of excitement yet to come, here at the Council. This DIRECTOR fall, we will host public symposia on topics as diverse as the history and culture of Latin America, and the work of Zora Neale Hurston. We’re also offering As Maine Grows…, our new traveling Theater of Ideas piece. That’s just a glimpse, but there is truly something for everyone. These adventures are rarely desperate, but they are sometimes wild. We hope you will join one of them soon!

Erik C. Jorgensen Executive Director

674 Brighton Avenue Portland, Maine 04102-1012 T 207-773-5051 F 207-773-2416 [email protected] www.mainehumanities.org

BOARD OF DIRECTORS STAFF PROGRAMS CONSULTANTS Chair Peter J. Aicher Alexandra A. Lawrence Victoria Bonebakker Annie Medeiros Charles C. Calhoun Douglas E. Woodbury Falmouth Rockport Associate Director, Director of the Program Assistant Teacher Programs Cumberland Harriet P. Henry Center for the Book [email protected] [email protected] Charles B. Alexander Robert L. McArthur [email protected] Vice-chair Ellsworth Auburn Denise Pendleton Mary McVey Thomas K. Lizotte Martina Duncan Born to Read Accounting Allen H. Berger John R. Opperman Dover-Foxcroft Assistant Director [email protected] [email protected] New Sharon Portland [email protected] Treasurer Elizabeth Sinclair Patricia Bellis Bixel Stephen J. Podgajny Peter B. Webster Trudy Hickey Let’s Talk About It Bangor Brunswick South Portland Office and Grants Manager Literature & Medicine: Humanities Judith Daniels Patricia D. Ramsay [email protected] at the Heart of Health Care® Secretary Union Yarmouth [email protected] Kathryn Hunt Erik C. Jorgensen The Maine Humanities Council Bangor Jill M. Goldthwait Joel H. Rosenthal Executive Director Carolyn Sloan is an affiliate of the National Bar Harbor Fairfield, CT [email protected] Program Assistant Endowment for the Humanities. Diane Magras [email protected] Sheila J. Jans Rachel Talbot Ross Editor: Brita Zitin Madawaska Portland Director of Development Julia Walkling [email protected] New Books, New Readers Design: Lori Harley Lincoln F. Ladd Kenneth Templeton Stories for Life Wayne Brunswick Karen Myrick Administrative Assistant/Receptionist [email protected] [email protected] The Maine Humanities Council engages the people of Maine in the power and pleasure of ideas, encouraging a deeper understanding of ourselves and others, fostering wisdom in an age of information, and providing context in a time of change. The Council uses the humanities to provide cultural enrichment for all Mainers and as a tool for social change, bringing people together in conversation that crosses social, economic and cultural barriers.

AS MAINE GROWS…

BY DAVID GREENHAM

Maine is at an exciting moment in history, don’t you think? Our state is changing so rapidly and in so many ways, it’s nearly impossible to keep up with all the progress. There is popula- tion growth in southern Maine and on the coast. Clusters of businesses are David Greenham and Dennis Price bring history to life during their As Maine Grows… springing up in our downtowns and performance in front of a Westbrook audience in April. photo: diane hudson our rural communities. We’re making an effort to change the make-up of our school systems, hoping to find a way to provide all the services we want but spend less money doing it. Heck, for Join us—all performances a while we even toyed with reducing the are free and open to the public. number of members of the House of Representatives. Our Governor wants us to become a leader in wind technology, we’re constantly searching for new ways For the most current schedule, to keep young people from leaving and call the Council at 207-773-5051, older folks from being too bored with or visit www.mainehumanities.org. our limitations. We seek ways to be innovative and, at the same time,

preserve the charm and friendly spirit September 8 Tue. 7:00 pm Ellsworth Ellsworth Public Library of the past. It’s exciting. September 12 Sat. 11:00 am Bangor Bangor Public Library Do you ever you wonder how we got here? How we arrived at this point September 12 Sat. 4:00 pm Dover-Foxcroft Center Theatre where we seem to be going in every September 14 Mon. 6:30 pm Scarborough Scarborough Public Library

direction all at once? I wonder what September 18 Fri. 7:00 pm Gorham White Rock Grange, 33 Wilson Road they would have thought of our society September 19 Sat. 7:00 pm Freeport Freeport Community Library back in the “old days”—nearly 500 years ago, say, when Giovanni da September 29 Tue. 7:00 pm Brunswick Morrell Room, Curtis Memorial Library Verrazano first sailed into Casco Bay; September 30 Wed. 7:00 pm Gardiner Johnson Hall Performing Arts Center

or when George Popham and Raleigh October 6 Tue. 4:00 pm Augusta University of Maine at Augusta Gilbert tried to create “North Virginia” October 7 Wed. 7:00 pm Waterville Thomas College Library at the mouth of the Kennebec. What would William King and the other October 8 Thu. 7:00 pm Portland Maine Historical Society heroes of statehood have thought just October 9 Fri. 7:00 pm York York Public Library

over 190 years ago if they knew what October 10 Sat. 7:00 pm Vinalhaven Smith Hokanson Memorial Hall we know? It’s interesting to wonder. October 16 Fri 7:00 pm Springvale Nasson College Alumni Association Just like it’s interesting to wonder what the future might hold 20, 50, 100, 500 October 24 Sat. 7:00 pm Belfast Belfast Maskers Theater

FALL O9 1

Greenham and Price insert a good dose of schtick as they recall the state’s past. photos: diane hudson

years from now. What will our ancestors think about what choices we made? This year, Dennis Price and I are touring Maine with As Maine Grows…, the fun, informative, “hair raising,” “At this moment in history, we need and thought-provoking story of Maine’s growth and development. It’s a 40-minute to embrace the past, marvel at the present, play, and it’s followed by a 30-minute discussion with the audience. We start and, above all, consider the future.” with a history of our state, including some great stories of how we got here, production of Taxing Maine—which see the listing on page 1 or check the and depictions of some of the important you can still listen to right on the Council’s website, mainehumanities.org figures who helped determine our path. Maine Humanities Council website— for performance dates, times and We talk about some of our modern you’re probably thinking that creating locations. If it’s not coming near you, efforts at controlling and planning an entertaining and interesting play get in touch and we’ll see what we can for growth, and then, with your input about growth and development is do to get it to you and your community. and ideas, make an effort to look impossible. Well, I’m here to tell you At this moment in history, we need to the future. that it’s only a little bit impossible. to embrace the past, marvel at the Fun, informative? You bet. Thought- We sure don’t touch on every issue present, and, above all, consider the provoking? Sure. Hair raising? Well, of development that we could. But the future. I promise that after spending wait until you hear some of the stories goal isn’t to show you how much we an hour with us, you’ll have had fun, of our past efforts at planning and know. We don’t know that much. The learned at least one thing you didn’t growth. Silly? Outrageous? Depressing? goal is to get us all talking about these know before, and perhaps even started Insane? There’s a story in Maine history important issues we’re facing and how a conversation with your neighbors that fits every description. we might want to address them. that will help your community. If you didn’t get a chance to see As Maine Grows… is almost certainly our popular (and award-winning!) coming to a community near you—

2 MHC PROGRAM

ORA NEAL HURSTON’s novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, published in 1937, has been required reading in high school English classes for at least 25 years, thanks in part to the efforts of to revive interest in Hurston’s work. But Hurston—a protean, shape-shifting figure; by turns , ONE-DAY LOOKING FOR ZORA: novelist, dramatist, folklorist, and cultural critic—remains enigmatic. As the only black THE MANY LIVES OF student at in 1925, Hurston studied with the path-breaking anthropologist ZORA NEALE HURSTON . She was associated with, but deeply skeptical of, the . She SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2009 opposed the , yet participated in the Florida Writers Project of the Works Progress Administration. Her fiction BATES COLLEGE, LEWISTON Z is imbued with , while her anthropological fieldwork retains a literary sensibility. To help make sense of these contradictions, “Looking for Zora” will explore the life and work of this preeminent writer and inter- preter of Southern “…Their Eyes Were African-American culture, without Watching God breathes whom, some say, there would be and bleeds a whole no or Toni Morrison. life’s worth of The program, supported by a urgent experience.” We the People grant $50 FEE INCLUDES A COPY from the National –from Dana Gioia’s OF THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD, Endowment for Preface to the NEA Reader’s Guide the Humanities, LUNCH, AND COFFEE BREAKS. will take place just three months before the 60th anniversary of Hurston’s death in poverty and obscurity. Through a combination of lectures and small-group discussion sessions, CEUS WILL BE AVAILABLE scholars will present the historical and biographical back- FOR PARTICIPANTS WHO ARE TEACHERS. ground, literary analysis, and cultural context necessary to begin to understand this fascinating writer. (The two scholars of the program are profiled on the next page.) GO TO WWW.MAINEHUMANITIES.ORG Every attendee will receive a copy of Their Eyes Were Watching God, which has recently been embraced as a selection OR CALL 207-773-5051 FOR MORE DETAILS AND TO REGISTER. of the National Endowment for the Arts’ “Big Read” project. At least twenty American communities, from Boston to ▲ Zora Neale Hurston, beating the hountar, or mama drum, 1937. Bakersfield, CA, have come together to read this story about photo courtesy library of congress

FALL O9 3 Janie Mae Crawford in the past two years. In his preface to the Reader’s Guide at www.neabigread.org, former NEA Chairman Dana Gioia explains why the novel is worthy of attention: “Although Hurston wrote the novel in only seven weeks, Their Eyes Were Watching God breathes and bleeds a whole life’s worth of urgent experience.”

Don’t miss this program on October 17, 2009.

Cedric Gael Bryant is the Lee Family Professor CUBAN EXCEPTIONALISM: of English at Colby College, where he also teaches REFLECTIONS ON in the African American Studies department. His specializations include LATIN AMERICAN HISTORY African American and Southern literature, and SATURDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2009 race, gender, and sexuality. His scholarship has been UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN MAINE, published in The Southern Review, Modern Fiction Studies, PORTLAND The African American Review, and The Oxford Companion to African American Literature.

Tess Chakkalakal is an Assistant Professor of Africana Studies and English at Bowdoin College. She received her Ph.D. from York University, Toronto in 2003. She has researched and published on a number of African American writers, including Charles Chesnutt, James Weldon Johnson, Harriet Beacher Stowe, Olaudah Equiano, and Sutton E. Griggs.

$50 FEE INCLUDES A COPY

OF DREAMING IN CUBAN,

LUNCH, AND COFFEE BREAKS.

CEUS WILL BE AVAILABLE

FOR PARTICIPANTS WHO ARE TEACHERS.

GO TO WWW.MAINEHUMANITIES.ORG

OR CALL 207-773-5051 FOR MORE DETAILS AND TO REGISTER.

▲ ▲ Portrait of Zora Neale Hurston, April 3, 1938 [, ▲ The Shoe Vendor, Cuba, ca. 1895–1920. 1880–1964]. ▲ Hurston and three boys in Eatonville, FL, June 1935. photo courtesy frank and frances carpenter collection, library of congress photos courtesy library of congress

4 MHC ONE-DAY PROGRAM

N THE HALF-CENTURY America is an enormously complex Allen Wells is the Roger Howell, Jr. Professor since Fidel Castro’s Revolu- region that is impossible to understand of History at Bowdoin College. Originally from New York, he received his M.A. and Ph.D. in tion, the U.S. has staunchly through a single country; Cuba, history at the State University of New York upheld trade and immigration however, will serve as a case study, as at Stony Brook and his B.A. in History and Latin restrictions against Cuba, but scholars discuss the ways in which it is American Studies from the State University of signs of change are surfacing and is not typical of the larger region. New York at Binghamton. Wells’ scholarship has focused on modern Mexican history, especially as the aging leader withdraws Cristina García’s Dreaming in Cuban, Yucatán. His most recent book is Tropical Zion: CUBAN EXCEPTIONALISM: ever further from the public which offers a literary perspective on General Trujillo, FDR and the Jews of Sosúa (Duke eye. In April of this year, the complexities and contradictions University Press, 2009). He offers a range of REFLECTIONS ON President Barack Obama of Cuba in the 1970s, will serve as the courses in colonial and modern Latin American opened lines of communica- text. Lectures and small-group sessions history, including a seminar on the Cuban Revolution, and has done research on the Cuban tion by allowing Cuban- will address the novel, as well as the LATIN AMERICAN HISTORY sugar economy during the late nineteenth and Americans to visit and send colonial history of Cuba, the Revolution, early twentieth centuries. In 2000, he traveled SATURDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2009 money to the island as often as they and the post-revolution era. Two Maine to the island with a group of Maine educators wish. If relations between the two scholars (profiled at right) are helping during the midst of the Elian González crisis. UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN MAINE, I They were there when Attorney General Janet countries are further normalized, how the Council plan and present the Reno ordered U.S. marshals to storm the home PORTLAND will the Cuban-American community program. of Elian’s relatives in Miami. react? How will the changes affect the island’s economy and people? Join us for this experience, David Carey, Jr. is an associate professor of To provide context for these timely to both deepen and broaden your History and Women’s Studies at the University of Southern Maine. He was the recipient of the questions, the Maine Humanities Council understanding of Latin America. 2003 University of Southern Maine Faculty will host “Cuban Exceptionalism: Award for Excellence in Scholarship and is the Reflections on Latin American History,” 2009–2010 USM Trustee Professor. He holds a day-long program for teachers and a Ph.D. in Latin American Studies from Tulane the general public. As its title suggests, University. His publications include Ojer taq tzijob’äl kichin ri Kaqchikela’ Winaqi’ (A History the content of this program will by of the Kaqchikel People) (Q’anilsa Ediciones, no means be limited to Cuba. Latin 2004) and Engendering Mayan History: Mayan Women as Agents and Conduits of the Past, 1875–1970 (Routledge, 2006). Though his research interests center around ethnicity, gender, and oral histories in Guatemala, he $50 FEE INCLUDES A COPY also has been exploring the connections

OF DREAMING IN CUBAN, (both historical and current) between Latin America and Maine. He recently coedited, LUNCH, AND COFFEE BREAKS. with Robert Atkinson, Latino Voices in New “ Cuba is a peculiar exile, I think, England (State University of New York Press, 2009), and he has researched and written an island-colony. We can reach it about the nineteenth-century connections CEUS WILL BE AVAILABLE between Portland and Cuba.

FOR PARTICIPANTS WHO ARE TEACHERS. by a thirty-minute charter flight from Miami, yet never reach it at all.” GO TO WWW.MAINEHUMANITIES.ORG –from Cristina García’s Dreaming in Cuban OR CALL 207-773-5051 FOR MORE DETAILS AND TO REGISTER.

Fulgencio Batista, the Cuban Army Sergeant who rose to the heights of a Caribbean dictator, arrived in Washington, D.C., seeing the Capitol for the first time, Nov. 10, 1938. This was the first time the Cuban dictator set foot outside his native land in thirty-seven years; Gen. Malin Craig, the Chief of Staff is shown with him as they pass the Capitol. photo courtesy library of congress

FALL O9 5 POWER & ARCHITECTURE IN ROME

PHOTOS BY ERIK C. JORGENSEN AND PETER AICHER

In March 2009, the Maine Humanities Council organized a ten-day study tour, Power and Architecture in Rome: Augustus to Mussolini. Led by classicist Peter Aicher of the University of Southern Maine, the program explored, mostly through walking tours, the ways in which rulers have used public architecture to project state power, from the imperial period to the 20th-century Fascist era. 1 2 1 Interior of the Pantheon Dome 2 Scholar and group leader, Professor Peter Aicher 3 Altar of Augustan Peace, in a new museum designed by Richard Maier 4 Capitoline Museum 5 Hadrian’s Villa, Tivoli 6 Pro-Mussolini Mosaic, Foro Italico 7 Ardeatine Caves, site of massacre by the Germans, 24 March 1944 8 Temples of the Largo Argentina 9 Umbrella Pines, Palatine Hill 0 1 The Appian Way 1 1 Outside the Cave of St. Benedict, Santo Speco

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“Every day was varied and fantastic, presenting another building block to add to one’s understanding of the layered history of the city…. Peter’s enthusiasm and

knowledge of the city were infectious.” – Alison Hildreth

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FALL O9 7 “IS IT In 1996, the Retired Senior Volunteer the book from left to right and turns Program placed an ad in the Kennebec the pages so everyone can see. This A ROSE Journal calling for people age 55 and technique, which literacy experts call over to read aloud in child care centers. a “picture walk,” helps engage children DAY? ” The ad caught Rose Golden’s eye. Rose in making predictions about a story had retired from the newspaper business before it’s read aloud. Whatever it’s BY BRITA ZITIN and moved from New Jersey to Maine called in the field, Rose knows that it the year before. She had no background works to settle her group. in education; with the exception of her Another technique that Rose has grandchildren, she had little contact developed from a combination of Born with young people. But Rose went to Read training, experience, and good through training to become a Born to instinct, is the use of “book vocabulary” Read volunteer, and she’s been visiting such as “illustrations,” “author,” and the MaineGeneral Early Learning “characters.” The children take these Center in Augusta once a week ever words in stride, so today she gives them since, making her the longest-serving a new one. “I think these illustrations

Rose Golden, a Born to Read volunteer, volunteer on the current roster. really enhance the book,” she says. enthusiastically engages with her Rose always starts her visits in the “Don’t they help you to imagine the inquisitive audience. photos: brita zitin preschool room. She stacks two child- story?” The children have something sized chairs and perches on top, rifling new to teach Rose today, too. They through her Born to Read tote bag. reveal that they’re planting a garden The first book she pulls out is Aliki’s at their child care for the first time Quiet in the Garden, but the 4- and this year, and when asked what they’re 5-year-olds are anything but quiet as growing, one girl calls out “soybeans!” they pull out their carpet squares and Rose admits that while she has fond form a sloppy circle. Rose is not daunted memories of devouring fresh garden by their chatter: she learned long ago peas with her brother, she has never not to expect to start at the front cover tried planting soybeans. of a picture book and read straight The emphasis of Born to Read, through to the end. Instead, she moves consistent with early literacy research,

WE LOVE OUR VOLUNTEERS… If you are 55 or over (retirement is not a Born to Read Volunteers, 2008-2009 | In the past 18 months, Born to Read volunteers have served pre-requisite!), we invite you to join RSVP as for the first time in Washington County, Mount Desert Island, and northern Aroostook County. A special a Born to Read volunteer. Visit mainehumanities. initiative on North Haven took six volunteers to that island’s sole early childhood program, Laugh & Learn. org/programs/btr-volunteer.html to learn Participation remains strong in Southern and Central Maine. Around 80 volunteers are currently reading how to get in touch with your local RSVP office. in Head Start classrooms, public pre-Ks, YMCAs, and private programs, both home-based and center-based. RSVP does not cover Androscoggin or Oxford Thank you to all our dedicated volunteers: Waite Albro | Judy Ambrose | Gail Bach | Terr y Baird counties, Bath/Brunswick, or Lewiston/Auburn. Linda Ballard | Elaine Barrett | Virginia Beagle | Millie Bean | Loretta Beaney | Cheryl Beverage | Deborah Blake If you live in one of those areas, or if you’re Denise Blanchard | Virginia Borgatti | Margaret Broucek | Cora Brown | Naomi Burns | Susan Cassidy not yet 55, please consider referring a friend Stephen Cilley | Jeanette Conley | Sally Connolly | Noralie Cox | Sherry Crossno | Catherine Cummings to Born to Read. For other opportunities Pat Curtis | Deadra D’Addeo | Anne-Marie DaCosta | Susan Davis | Sylvia Davis | Nancy Dell | Amy Dentico to share books with young children, you can Kelsea Dixon | Eva Downs | Robert Ehmann | Susan Elliott | Shelagh Fitzgerald | Linda E. Gamble | Jean Ann Gaudet also consult volunteermaine.org. Nancy Goddard | Rose Golden | Evelyn Goodridge | James M. Gower | Martha Grubb | Mary Guy | Lorraine Haag THANK YOU! 8 MHC is not reading instruction, but the to connect the prop to the real thing. By the time Rose reaches the conversation that takes place before, Without putting too fine a point on it, infant room, all but one of the babies during, and after reading aloud. she suggests that the pencil is the most is napping. She shares two board Conversation presents new words powerful tool of all. books with Owen before packing her and concepts to children in context. Does it matter to these toddlers that bags to leave. “I don’t know who has It helps them connect the stories they Rose demonstrates writing instead of more fun,” she says as she leaves, “me hear to their own lives, so that they just reading aloud? They’re too young or the kids.” Rose’s skill as a reader— can see Quiet in the Garden, for instance, to pronounce most words, let alone write developed not from a career as a teacher, as a reflection of their own green patch them. Yet research consistently shows but from years of practice—shows beyond the classroom walls. By the that exposure to language prepares that anyone can turn a love of reading time Rose closes the book, they know children for school more reliably than into a gift for the young children that a “radish” is something you grow, any flash card or computer program. in their community. just like a soybean. They also know Exposure in the context of interactions that their friend Rose cares about their with caring adults is even more reliable. garden project, and the stories they “Rose has provided our have to tell about it. children with something In the toddler room, the routine is so special to look forward relaxed. The children tumble together to each and every week,” on one rug, jumping up by turn to help says Julie Battersby, director turn pages, sing songs, and point to of the Early Learning Center. colors. They delight in the cardboard “The children ask, on a daily props that go along with Rose’s special basis, ‘Is this a Rose day?’” toolbox book. One girl tells everyone The equation is simple and about the hammer her mother has at powerful: because the home. A boy chimes in to explain what children love and trust Rose, a saw is for. Rose spends more time they are invested in what she with the pencil than any other tool. shows them; they associate She demonstrates how to hold it, mimes pencils with pleasure,

using it to write, and gestures to the reading with relationships, Rose animates a board book for one of her young charges, Owen. basket of crayons on the art table words with wonder.

WE LOVE OUR VOLUNTEERS… Jean Hanington | Margot Harrison | Nancy Hayward | Phyllis Hayward | Rosemary Hede | Evelyn Hedges | Lorraine Hepler | Verna Hewitt | Mary Kelley | Arlene Hutnik Liga Jahnke | Anne Marie Kenney | Linda Kingdon | Barbara Knowles | Susan Koch | Barbara Korn | Virginia Kurtz | Lorraine LaChapelle | Rita Leblond | Susan Leeds Annie Libby | Katharine W. Lynn | Sheila MacDonald | Judith Manion | Donald Marley | Paula Marquis | Joyce Martin | Claire Meuse | Marti Meyers | Hilda Michaud Janet Michaud | Pam Michaud | K. Anne Monsivais | Mary Moriarty | Florence Morrison | Janine Myers | Sandi Myers | Lucille O’Donnell | Diana Oliver | Louise Patterson Patricia Payson | Marilyn Peller | Ron Pesha | Ronna Marie Pesha | Linda Pieper | Beverly Pillsbury | Walter Plaut, Jr. | Helen Popp | Maggie Poulin | Norman Rasulis Kenneth Read | Arline Recht | Cecile Reilly | Edward Riggs | Kathy Rioux | Sandra Rocco | Joyce N. Rogers | Linda Rouse | Marilyn Rundlett | Mary Ryder | Dawn P. Safford Sue Sagek | Estelle Sanders | Valerie Scanlon | Virginia Schultz | Marie Schnetzka | Beth Schwenk | Celeste Sherman | Jane Snyder | Sarah Spector | Melissa St. Germain Susan Swain | Jo Taft | Bonnie Rae Tallagnon | Evelyn Tarantino | Janet Tarbuck | Deborah Taylor | Fran Trefts | Christina Tut | Guinevere Twitchell | Marilyn Underwood Margaret Vodnick | Carol Wall | Brenda Wallace | Mary Anne Wallace | Claudia Walton | Ann Warner | Anna Warren | Louise Way | Elizabeth Weber | Nancy Weiner Joan Wing | Susan Wishkoski | Janet Witherspoon | Margaret White | Sheila White | Nancy Worthington | Tricia Wurpel | Mary Ann Yannet THANK YOU! FALL O9 9 HUMANITIES ETERANS ADMINISTRATION hospitals and health care facilities (VA IN hospitals) present the dedicated profes- sionals who work in them with one of from the White River Junction, Vermont, THE VA the most challenging settings in health VA, a national trauma center, writes: care. Not only are the resources of VA “The Literature & Medicine group BY LIZZ SINCLAIR facilities under great strain, the needs attracts a range of people at the hospital and number of patients they care for are who might not have much opportunity increasing every day. The veterans being to talk and reflect with one another. served often struggle with post-traumatic This is very important, especially as the stress disorder (PTSD), severe physical VA is undergoing a lot of changes. We disabilities, substance abuse, chronic are all being tested and stressed in new illness, homelessness, poverty and a ways as we move from treating a primarily system that at times is not able to meet geriatric population who faced combat V their needs. Unfortunately, the veterans’ years ago to veterans in their twenties, anger and frustration can often be many with young families, who may directed at those who care for them. only have been out of the war for a few The humanities—specifically, the weeks. This shift raises many ethical facilitated reading and discussion model issues and demands a change in our of the Maine Humanities Council’s approach. The Literature & Medicine Literature & Medicine program—can group provides an outlet for us all make a difference in this setting. Pilot to talk about these issues, which is programs in Maine and Vermont VA very helpful.” hospitals have demonstrated that the With support from a recent major impact of Literature & Medicine is very grant from the National Endowment for significant for participants from VA the Humanities, the Maine Humanities facilities, where work and stress loads Council will be able to offer Literature & have been both changed and increased Medicine to the staff at 15 VA hospitals by the influx of severely wounded soldiers through partnerships with other state from Afghanistan and Iraq, and where humanities councils across the country. patients often face particularly severe The Maine council will provide training physical and psychic wounds. A physician and technical assistance (the first of which was a training in June 2009 in Chicago), but each council will organize the VA program in its own state. There is a desire among these councils to do what they can, consistent with their respective missions, to address the needs of veterans who have served, and may still suffer for, their country.

Tammy Duckworth, Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary for Public and Intergovernmental Affairs speaks to participants at Literature & Medicine’s first Training Institute in June 2009. photos: steve davis

10 MHC INTERVIEW Lizz Sinclair interviewed Dan and Deb Hamilton for the Spring 2009 issue of Synapse, the eZine of the Literature & Medicine program. Following is a brief background of the interview, which can be read in full online at mainehumanities.org/ programs/litandmed/synapse/hospital_s09.html:

Literature & Medicine at Togus Veterans Administration Medical Center Founded at the end of the Civil War, the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Togus, Maine, was the first VA hospital in the country. Togus was also the first to host Literature & Medicine. In fact, it was the strong response to the program from participants at Togus—and later at the VAMC in White River Junction, Vermont— that prompted us to offer the program to other VA hospitals across the country. Dan and Deb Hamilton share their separate and Dan Hamilton, a Physician Assistant at Togus for twenty years, shared experiences participating in Literature & Medicine has been the driving force behind Literature & Medicine there. over the last nine years. photo: steve davis Both he and his wife Deb Hamilton, a Home Health and Hospice nurse, have participated in Literature & Medicine for nine years. With a number of VA hospitals slated to host the program for the first time in 2010, Lizz wanted to talk to them about their experiences with Literature & Medicine. ANTHOLOGIES

Literature & Medicine Anthologies for Health Care Professionals and General Readers Literature & Medicine groups are always searching for meaningful readings and often have tight budgets. A good anthology is a tremendous resource, and can help facilitators and group members explore readings they might not otherwise find. Although there are many literature and medicine anthologies available, the Maine Humanities Council’s two offerings are different because they deliberately reflect the wide range of readings that Literature & Medicine groups discuss, with representation of—and from—a variety of health care professionals and people of diverse backgrounds, situations, and conditions.

Echoes of War, edited by Suzanne Hunter Brown Imagine What It’s Like, edited by Ruth Nadelhaft Upon receiving the National Endowment for the Humanities grant for The University of Hawai‘i Press published the Council’s first anthology expansion to VA facilities, the Maine Humanities Council asked Suzanne in June 2008, with support from the National Endowment for the Brown, long-time facilitator at White River Junction VAMC and many Humanities, Anthem Blue Cross/Blue Shield, the Morton Family Foundation, other Literature & Medicine sites, to compile a collection of short readings and the Hawai‘i Humanities Council. It includes work by Dannie Abse, that address issues particularly relevant to those caring for veterans. In her Felicia Nimue Ackerman, Henri Barbusse, Joy Harjo, Leslie Nyman, introduction, Brown writes, “The selections in this anthology focus on issues Jonathan Shay, and many others. unique to, or more acute in, hospitals for soldiers. Nevertheless, any group of health care professionals can benefit from the readings, both because all health care facilities will increasingly see veterans and because “veterans’ Both publications feature the full scope of literary genres, from poetry issues” often illuminate general medical concerns. I hope, too, that the and fiction to plays and memoirs; the editor’s useful commentary, general public will appreciate these readings as a way to better understand which provides context for the individual selections; and suggestions the experience of the men and women who fight for us.” for longer readings. For information on ordering either anthology, The readings in Echoes of War address a variety of medical and social concerns, please visit mainehumanities.org/resources, and click on “Publications.” including homecoming, trauma, aging, ethics, memory, and cultural conflict. Contributors include Anne Brashler, Raymond Carver, André Dubus, Louise Erdrich, George Garrett, Atul Gawande, Arthur Kleinman, Nancy Mairs, Marilyn Nelson, Veneta Masson, Platon, John Stone, and Brian Turner.

FALL O9 11 augusta newfield

$1,000 Maine National History Day Increasing Visitor Access | $5,000 The Maine State Archives hosts this annual competition in which Maine students in grades 6-12 prepare | to Cultural Opportunities papers, exhibits, documentaries, websites, or performances that explore a broad historical theme. The In 2008, the 19th Century Willowbrook Village theme for 2009, “The Individual in History,” asked students to explore the role of one person, famous in Newfield, Maine, deployed a number of or not, in history. Winning entries included the website “Steve Jobs: Apple’s iGod,” the documentary strategies to increase visitor access to cultural “Judith Magyar Isaacson: Holocaust Survivor Turned Human Rights Activist,” and the paper “Changing opportunities. They developed a 13-minute the Face of Medicine: Dr. .” First- and second-place winners qualified to attend the orientation video, revised the museum’s visitor National History Day contest at the University of in June. guide and website, and recovered historic film footage of rural trades. The museum now features 48 hands-on stations (including four with historic freeport film footage of ice harvesting, sleighing, horse $3,950 | Lessons from the Tam O’Shanter shoeing, and logging) as part of its Passport Through Time booklet program for families. The The Freeport new materials help modern visitors understand Historical Society The oil painting how industrialization impacted 19th-century rural recently acquired life. Willowbrook is open from Memorial Day an oil painting of the merchant ship through the end of October. Explore their new of the merchant Tam O’Shanter, website, www.willowbrookmuseum.org. ship Tam O’Shanter, which sailed which sailed out out of Freeport of Freeport in the in the 19th century, orono 19th century. is now exhibited The painting will $3,000 | Fiber Maine-ia Conference at the Freeport be exhibited The United Nations has designated 2009 the alongside artifacts Historical Society. “International Year of Natural Fiber,” and Maine and documents courtesy freeport is celebrating with Fiber Maine-ia, a year’s worth tied to the historical society of events culminating in a statewide conference experiences in Orono on October 10 and 11. The conference of Maine mariners celebrates our state’s textile heritage and the and their families, and especially to Tam O’Shanter. In addition, the Freeport Historical Society place of fiber in the cultural economy. A variety planned a series of public events, “Lessons from the Tam O’Shanter,” to engage a broad audience of formats, including lectures, demonstrations, in maritime history. The series began in January with a concert of sea shanties linked to Maine, and and hands-on experiences, will expose participants continued in February with a program of dramatic readings by descendents of Maine sea captains to fiber arts and economy both current and of letters written during the age of commercial sail. In March, Robert Lloyd Webb presented an historic. There will be displays of vintage hand- illustrated lecture tracing the history of ship portraits created by pier-side artists, of which the knit lace, presentations on agricultural practices, Tam O’Shanter is just one example. In April, Freeport welcomed Dr. Glen Gordinier of Mystic Seaport, instruction on caring for heirloom textiles, who portrayed Yankee mariner Josiah Gardener recounting his adventures at sea. The series picks up readings from letters sent home to Maine by girls again on September 25 with a talk entitled “Yankee Shipmasters: Swashbuckling Middle Class Guys… working in Massachusetts textile mills, and much Or Were They?” (suggesting that in fact, most captains were responsible businessmen). Two more more. An exhibit of fiber-related photographs lectures, on October 16 and November 20, will address the China trade, both old and new, and the from the “Acadian Hard Times” collection is specific voyages that are on record for theTam O’Shanter. For more program details, please visit planned to coincide with the conference, and www.freeporthistoricalsociety.org or call (207) 865-3170. the Story Bank recording booth will be on site to collect oral histories for the Maine Folklife Center. Teachers will be able to select from parsonsfield a strand that provides them with resources $600 | Bringing History to Life for incorporating fiber study into standards- based social studies, mathematics, science, art, As part of the group’s fifth annual Victorian Tea and in honor of the 200th and literature curricula. The conference is birthday of Abraham Lincoln, the Friends of the Parsonsfield Seminary presented coordinated by the Friends of Dr. Edith Marion reenactors Phillip Chetwynd and Sally Mummey. Since 1991, Chetwynd and Patch and the Page Farm and Home Museum Mummey have been known for their portrayals of President and Mary Todd in Orono; to learn more or to sign up, please Lincoln, during which they speak on personal experiences with slavery and the visit www.umext.maine.edu/fibermaine-ia/ Underground Railroad. Many attendees dressed in period attire for the tea, and conference.htm. a local harpist accompanied the light repast following the Lincoln presentation. Parsonsfield Seminary, formerly known as the Free Will Baptist Seminary in the United States, was a stop on the Underground Railroad in the first half of the 19th century, and it is decorated to recall that era on the occasion of the Victorian Tea. To learn more, visit www.parsonsfieldseminary.org.

SELECTED GRANTS: Kim Bernard (North Berwick, ME), Hippodrome, 2007, plywood, encaustic, and lead, 35 x 43 x 19 FALL 2OO8 – SPRING 2OO9 Diane Bowie Zaitlin (Saco, ME), Arroyo, 2007, encaustic/collage, 9 x 9 Gregory Wright (Lowell, MA), Congregation IV, 2007, encaustic, 14 x 14 courtesy new england wax

12 MHC portl and thomaston

$910 Documenting Old Maine Jewry Revolution and Evolution: | $950 This statewide effort to collect, present, and | Federal Period Clothing preserve historical information has already placed This exhibition of historic costumes at the General over 20,000 records of Jewish Mainers on its Henry Knox Museum was curated by Mary website. In 2009, volunteers who have been Doering, a professor in the Corcoran College trained in oral history are interviewing residents of Art and Design’s Masters of Decorative Arts in their eighties and nineties about the character program and a private collector of 18th-century and quality of family and community life for Jewish clothing. Its five-week run included a specialized immigrants and first generation Americans. The tour led by costume historian Julie Stackpole and oral history project will enhance the photographs, a lecture by the guest curator. Participants in the documents, and information on the website, Knox Museum’s 2009 summer teacher institute www.davidkrut.com/pj. exploring everyday life in early American history attended Doering’s lecture and presque isle used the exhibition as $500 | Foreign Language Day a hands-on resource. On April 16, 2009, for the third consecutive year, high school teachers and students from Presque This red dress was Isle, Ashland, and Mars Hill attended Foreign among those on Language Day at the University of Maine in Presque exhibit in Revolution Isle. The students took mini-lessons in language & Evolution: Federal and culture from faculty, staff and students, both Period Clothing native speakers and those who have traveled at the General abroad. Folk or ethnic dance and international food Henry Knox were also components of the day. The cultures represented included France, Italy, Puerto Rico, Museum in 2009. Portugal, China, Nepal, Poland, and Germany. The dress was Project director Claire Davidshofer, Professor worn in America, of French, comments, “gone are the days when ca. 1780. The being monolingual was sufficient. Our lives are cotton was now intertwined with the lives of citizens of other produced countries in the world. Foreign Language Day in India and at the University of Maine at Presque Isle is attempting to plant the seeds of understanding probably and respecting world diversity.” printed in England.

saco from collection Heat Stroke: New England Wax, $1,000 of mary | Artists Working in Encaustic doering A special exhibition at the Saco Museum featured work from New England Wax, an association of artists who work in encaustic (a beeswax-based painting medium). Juried by Katherine French, Director of the Danforth Museum in Framingham, Massachusetts, the exhibition offered the opportu- nity for local and regional artists to exhibit their work together and exchange ideas. This grant helped fund a lecture by Kim Bernard about the history of this ancient medium, as well as art-making activities and school tours. This award was made jointly with the Maine Arts Commission.

york

$500 | Southern Maine in the Seventeenth Century In the spring of 2009, the Museums of Old York presented a series of events exploring the experiences and perspectives of Native, English, and French people in 17th-century Maine. In the one event, two re-enactors (one depicting a French Jesuit priest; the other a habitant, or settler) provided insight into the origins of conflict between Anglo and French populations in Maine. In another, a panel discussion of Kim Bernard (North Berwick, ME), Hippodrome, 2007, French-Canadian residents recounted their experiences in light of the history of Anglo/French tensions. plywood, encaustic, and lead, 35 x 43 x 19 Diane Bowie Zaitlin (Saco, ME), Arroyo, 2007, encaustic/collage, 9 x 9 Gregory Wright (Lowell, MA), Congregation IV, 2007, encaustic, 14 x 14 courtesy new england wax

FALL O9 13 MAINE HUMANITIES COUNCIL Home of the Harriet P. Henry Center for the Book

674 Brighton Avenue Portland, Maine 04102-1012 www.mainehumanities.org

Please help us keep costs down by notifying us of duplicates and/or errors. You can update your info or request to be added/removed from our mailing list by calling 207-773-5051 or emailing [email protected].

SEMINARS

LITERARY GHOSTS LITERARY ROAD TRIPS LITERARY MYSTERIES

For more than 25 years, the MHC has offered Community Seminars. WINTER These inspiring and stimulating reading WEEKEND and discussion programs use conversation 2010: facilitated by scholars around literary themes MIDDLEMARCH to help participants exchange ideas and discover new ones. Community Seminars Join us in Middlemarch, a provincial town where

COMMUNITY are now being offered at four sites statewide— ambitions run high and intellects are strong. Falmouth, Augusta, Camden, and Bangor. On March 12 and 13, 2010, the MHC will hold its 2010 Themes: annual Winter Weekend at Bowdoin College Literary Ghosts in Augusta in Brunswick, with George Eliot’s Middlemarch, Literary Mysteries in Bangor * and Camden one of the finest English masterpieces, as the text. Literary Road Trips in Falmouth Each year, participants explore a pivotal work The $300 [ *$200] fee includes: with talks by scholars on different aspects of the book. • six full dinners [ *brown-bag] This opportunity for devoted book-lovers • six books from the theme to congregate and luxuriate in the company • scholar-provided materials and of great literature sells out early, background information so call now—not many seats remain.

For booklists and schedules, For more information or to register, call 207-773-5051 visit www.mainehumanities.org/community-seminars. or visit www.mainehumanities.org/programs/2010.html (a printable registration form is available online). WINTER WEEKEND