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• Of Change

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• Upcoming Events

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• News from the MHC

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• Recent Grants

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• What We’re Reading

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• Quote of the Month

“In reality, every reader is, while he is reading, the reader of his own self. The writer’s work is merely a kind of optical instrument which he offers to the reader to enable him to discern what, without this book, he would perhaps never have experienced in himself. And the recognition by the reader in his own self of what the book says is the proof of its veracity.”

— Time Regained
Marcel Proust

In mythology, a significant change in leadership is preceded by a seemingly cataclysmic event—a giant rock splitting open, flames devouring a mountaintop, the sea rising to cover all the land, a historic castle crumbling. Our situation at the MHC was slightly different. For anyone who walked by the office of our former executive director Deedee Schwartz last week, it almost seemed as if the earth has been torn asunder. Not once had the walls been so bare and never had the desk, coffee table, and floor itself been so empty and devoid of personality.

Within this week, though, we expect to see the walls spring with character, new photos appear on the desk, and a new set of books, files, papers, and mail bring life again to the coffee table. Our new executive director, Erik Jorgensen, took over as of January 1, and while we expect the new changes to take effect a bit more slowly than they would if the story of the MHC were a myth, we know that the change that will occur will be splendid.

Best of luck to a wonderful colleague in his very exciting new role.

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Events are listed in two places on the MHC website: as part of the map of MHC activities and a Calendar of Events, which you may sort by county and date. We’re very pleased to have this new feature on our site and encourage you to use it.

We are still working out some of the details of these pages, so, for now, grant-funded events are available only through this link.

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On May 5, 2007, the MHC’s Born to Read program will present a conference for child care providers, volunteer readers, preschool teachers, and other early childhood educators. This conference, entitled "Early Literacy in a Changing World," will feature a keynote address by storyteller John Porcino. It will also recognize the tenth anniversary of Born to Read and introduce Peaceable Stories, a literature-based initiative dealing with issues of peace and conflict. Speakers with expertise in a wide array of early childhood topics will lead workshops on effective ways of using books and language with young children.

While the MHC successfully held two previous conferences in Portland, Born to Read is bringing its conference to Orono this year in an express effort to increase outreach to greater Bangor and northern Maine participants. Support from the Jessie B. Cox Charitable Trust and Bangor Savings Bank makes this extra outreach possible.

Participants in previous Born to Read conferences have said that the experience was invaluable in helping them learn such practices and understandings as the following:

• How to turn any thoughts into a story of my own.
• Using theater to bring meaning to print and to tell stories.
• Reaffirmation of the importance of story/music in early literacy.
• The importance of recognizing diversity of all kinds and exposing children to it at an early age.
• Interpreting culture in a meaningful way.

Born to Read is a leader in the state in offering humanities-based professional development to early childhood educators, in particular, the staff of child care facilities on whom so many Maine parents depend. Conference updates are available online, and will be included in future issues of this newsletter.

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The January booklist from Born to Read is about separation within families, with particular attention to the plight of military families. The program has chosen some incredible children’s books with these themes, so I hope you will glance at this list.

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It’s been a quiet month, and thus there are no recent grants to report.

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Shen Teh, a prostitute struggling to make a living, is the only person in Szechuan who seems willing to treat the three strangers with kindness and respect. She gives them lodging and only later discovers that they are gods in search of a truly good person. Shen Teh’s financial reward from the gods helps her buy a business, but she is unable to make anyone take her seriously, all in her attempts to be good to the people around her (who take heartless advantage of her) without the help of Shui Ta, a tough and sometimes merciless mysterious gentleman who says he is her cousin. Shen Teh struggles to be good, to love, and to live in peace with her neighbors, but goodness becomes increasingly difficult to practice, and she finds she cannot succeed without following Shui Ta’s path of cruelty.

Bertolt Brecht’s parable The Good Person of Szechwan was first published in 1948 and was one in a group of provocative books in the MHC’s Community Seminar series in 2002 in Portland and Augusta. The Seminars are one of the MHC’s few fee-based programs, offering books, dinner and scholar-led discussions in Augusta, Bangor, Camden, Falmouth, and Portland. They are one of the oldest civic discussion programs in the country and use some of the most powerful and challenging texts in all MHC programs. For more information about this year’s seminar offerings (the series begin in January), contact us.

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“I loved the 6 books I read over the past 24 hours. I am grateful for the offer of this material, its subject matter, and the hope these stories have for a change in my adult life.”

—A participant in Penobscot County Jail’s New Books, New Readers program

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