CONTACT Phone (214) 871-2440 House 2719 Routh St., Dallas, TX 75201 FALL 2020 link dallasinstitute.org email [email protected] SOCIAL facebook instagramflickr /thedihc youtube /DallasInstitute AUGUST 11 The Death of an Artist | pg. 13 20, 27 Faulkner’s Go Down, Moses | pg. 24 SEPTEMBER OCTOBER 3, 10, 17, 24 Faulkner’s Go Down, Moses | pg. 24 5 Faiths in Conversation | pg. 15 8 Breakfast Book Group | pg. 30 7, 14, 21 Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye | pg. 25 8 The Historians | pg. 29 8 Richard Powers’ The Overstory: 9 Why do the Heathen Rage? | pg. 14 A Discussion Continued | pg. 18 14 Faiths in Conversation | pg. 15 13 Breakfast Book Group | pg. 30 16 Lunch Book Group | pg. 30 13 The Historians | pg. 29 21 Speaking of Movies… | pg. 31 19 Speaking of Movies… | pg. 31 22 Toni Morrison: A Tribute and Celebration | pg. 16 20 Albert Camus’ The Plague | pg. 19 30 Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye | pg. 25 21 Lunch Book Group | pg. 30 26 A Knock at Midnight | pg. 20 29 Beethoven at 250 | pg. 26 NOVEMBER DECEMBER 2 Faiths in Conversation | pg. 15 2, 9, 16 Grimm’s Fairy Tales | pg. 27 5, 12, 16 Beethoven at 250 | pg. 26 7 Faiths in Conversation | pg. 15 9 Speaking of Movies… | pg. 31 8 Breakfast Book Group | pg. 30 10 Breakfast Book Group | pg. 30 8 The Historians | pg. 29 10 The Historians | pg. 29 14 Speaking of Movies… | pg. 31 11 The Hiett Prize in the Humanities | pg. 21 16 Lunch Book Group | pg. 30 18 Lunch Book Group | pg. 30 18 Grimm’s Fairy Tales | pg. 27 19 The Lost Early History of the Origin of American Feminism | pg. 22 EVENT CLASS GROUP FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR 2020 THE SUBJUNCTIVE— AND HOPEFUL—YEAR In the catalog for the Spring just past, I wrote that 2020 promised to be a “milestone year” for the Institute—the 40th anniversary of its founding in 1980. The Dallas Institute is a The milestone has turned out to be of a different sort: a year of pandemic distress nonprofit organization whose and racial turmoil. fundamental aim is to bring There was a time when grammar was studied in every school, when students the wisdom and imagination learned such things as the fact that languages have different moods. English of the humanities—literature, has three: indicative (statements and opinions), imperative (commands), and history, psychology, subjunctive (wishes). Living in a pandemic is like existing in a continually philosophy, political science, subjunctive mood, which expresses uncertainties and doubts as desires, and other human-focused possibilities, or imaginings—as in, “Tomorrow, perhaps, the library will reopen” disciplines—to bear on or “let’s act as though we were in each other’s presence.” It is an especially the currents of culture. difficult time to plan public programs, as my colleagues in Dallas arts and cultural It is devoted to creating organizations will attest. communities within which learning can occur through Nevertheless the planning continues, since our strongest conviction is that whereas the pandemic and demands for racial justice understandably and rightly civil discourse. dominate our attention, the arts and humanities function as before: to give our lives depth and meaning. In 1963 Dr. King spoke about “the fierce urgency of now” to describe the racial temper of those times in the American South. We feel it again today world-wide—the immediacy of the moment that we cannot afford to let pass. And yet we also strongly believe that it is in such times, when seizing the day seems most imperative, that we need to revisit our deepest wells of wisdom in all their different voices so as to ensure that our most pressing actions are informed by those timeless sources. I’m hoping our programs this Fall will address the tension between the demands of the moment and the need for wisdom in tumultuous times. We will spend considerable time with Toni Morrison and also William Faulkner and Flannery O’Connor, two white American authors whose work explicitly addresses racial injustice. We will hear from Dallas’ Brittany Barnett, whose work in criminal justice reform has led to her just-published A Knock at Midnight. And as part of this year’s Centennial Celebration of the 19th amendment, we will explore Dr. Helen LaKelly Hunt’s remarkable discovery of the common origin of the struggle to abolish slavery and the 80-year fight for women’s right to vote. So during this year of dangers and desires, we will strive to find the right balance between “the fierce urgency of now” and the need for communal reflection and conversation about the things that matter most to us. J. LARRY ALLUMS, Ph.D. is Executive Director of the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture. He earned his M.A. in Literature and his Ph.D. in Literature and Political Philosophy from the University of Dallas’ Institute of Philosophic Studies. He came INSTITUTE to the Dallas Institute in 1998 from the University of Mobile, where he was Professor of English and Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. He has edited a volume of LEADERSHIP essays on epic poetry, The Epic Cosmos, and published articles on ancient Greek and Roman literature, Dante, and writers of the American Southern renascence, including William Faulkner, Allen Tate, Robert Penn Warren, and Caroline Gordon. Under his leadership, the Dallas Institute continues to emphasize its commitment to urban issues and its longstanding work with pre-K through 12th grade elementary and secondary school teachers, principals, and superintendents. J. Larry Allums, Ph.D Executive Director 5 FROM THE DIRECTOR OF THE DALLAS INSTITUTE’S COWAN CENTER Recently, I had the privilege to write about the work of the Cowan Academy in the Humanities work in the Fort Worth Independent School District. It was a difficult task, as you might imagine, but it made me feel grounded in this moment in which we all feel, at times, as if we are trying to stand up on ocean waves. One of the things that this task reaffirmed is the ageless timeliness of great works of imagination in every discipline. And it reminded me that in periods of great change, the deep wisdom of unchanging things can provide the only stable foundation. If you are a teacher or administrator serving primary At the end of that article, I attempted to gather up the most salient features of the or secondary students, see Cowans’ deep wisdom. Theirs is the most authentic human truth that I have ever the Cowan Center™ page encountered, and I repeat my comments here with the hopes that they may provide you, too, with a moment of calm and remind you that the things that are best about on the Dallas Institute’s us are never gone if we keep them close in our hearts. website to register or for more information about the I said: “I could go on in great detail about the Cowans’ philosophy of liberal learning. programs in the 2020-2021 They were profound intellectuals and thinkers, and their vision is what I am privileged school year. to consider and apply every day. But in closing, I would simply like to point out what I believe to be most essential to their vision—what they contributed to the tradition of liberal learning. Their most concrete contributions are Donald Cowan’s—a physicist— emphasis on the purpose of a liberal education as being the cultivation of a “poetic imagination,” first through the proper study of literature. The other indispensable feature of their mark on the tradition is the loose yet sturdy frame of Louise Cowan’s literary genre theory in which she teaches how to read for understanding, for broadening one’s views and ideas about life. But just as important as their rigorous academic theories are their insights into the impact of what Donald Cowan calls the “spirit of liberal learning.” They believed that the effect of liberal learning is to help enable a person to achieve the true form of his or her life. They taught the unpopular reality that the deepest understanding almost always comes from the greatest struggle. They taught that true learning always begins with submission. They believed in the power of the well-educated imagination, in society and in one’s individual life. And they believed that wisdom is as connected to mystery and beauty as it is with the search for meaning and truth. Most importantly, to me, what distinguishes the Cowans’ vision of education from the cynical educational and social theories of our day is that they believed that an education better fits a person to be in the world, particularly to be in a democracy where a liberally educated citizenry is critical. And even though they were constantly elevating their sights to transcendent ideals—such as myth and meaning—in order to couch their understanding, I have never known people so deeply in love with people, in love with the frail and glorious human condition. It was this that motivated them, this love that guided their educational dreams and ambitions, and because of this great gift, love and hope motivate and fuel every aspect of the Cowan Center™ work. Because although the Cowans believed that there was something beyond this world, beyond this life, they also believed that until we “shuffle off this mortal coil,” to quote Hamlet, “earth’s the right place for love,” as Frost’s narrator claims. An education, DR. CLAUDIA MACMILLAN, Ph.D. is a Fellow of the Dallas Institute and Founding they taught us, should not only prepare us to make our way through the world in Director of the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture’s Louise and Donald work and society.