Maine Humanities Council

Home of the Harriet P. Henry Center for the Book
“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

1. Bringing Martin Luther King, Jr. to the Classroom

While the MHC’s upcoming Martin Luther King, Jr. conference on January 19 is open to the public, it provides a special opportunity for Maine’s teachers and, in particular, teachers participating in the MHC’s American Lives; Teaching American History Through Biography programs. These teachers, who number about 65 and come from school districts including Gorham, Topsham, Portland (and as far away as Limington, Old Orchard Beach, Hampden, and Bangor), are using Teaching American History as an opportunity for their own growth as teachers and scholars, and conferences like this provide them with important background materials that can help prompt strong discussions later on in the classroom.

Teaching American History participants have already begun studying Martin Luther King, Jr. In two colloquia last month, they discussed David J. Garrow’s Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Bearing the Cross describes the political infighting between various Civil Rights groups, the crystallization in King’s mind of methods for non-violent protest, and the increasing weight of being the leader of the movement and thus vulnerable to attack from white liberals and conservatives, the FBI, and various competitors for leadership roles. It traces the increasing skill of planning protests that would elicit outrage and negotiations that would result in actual progress.

One question that opened the discussion was, “What memories of the Civil Rights movement did you bring to the reading of this biography?” A few remembered the assassination of King and had marched or demonstrated locally. Some remembered their first trip south seeing “Whites Only” and “Colored” signs. Others remembered incidents of discrimination or racism in towns in which they were raised. Younger teachers often had not had any coursework on the Civil Rights movement itself because it was so recent when they were attending college, but no longer in the news. Several teachers remarked that when King’s name was brought up in class, the students recognized him as “the guy who wrote the speech.” “I Have a Dream” had surpassed the Gettysburg Address in their historical canon.

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2. News from the MHC

photo: Diane Hudson

In 2006, the MHC presented Taxing Maine, a theater-of-ideas statewide performance exploring the history of Maine’s attitude toward taxes, featuring the Theatre at Monmouth’s David Greenham and Dennis Price. This concept won the MHC national awards (the Award of Merit and its WOW award for truly spectacular projects from the American Association for State and Local History, and the Schwartz Price from the Federation of State Humanities Councils for using an innovative approach to provide cultural programming to large audiences). Now a special audio-only version of Taxing Maine is available in podcast form. Even if you saw Taxing Maine live, Messrs. Greenham and Price do things a little differently for the listening audience.

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The January book list from Born to Read features the theme of “Ringing in the New Year.” These books explore new year traditions from cultures around the word. These include the Chinese new year, Jewish High Holy Days, and a polar bear’s party for black and white animal friends.

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Podcast Update—The MHC’s Humanities on Demand has another new series of podcasts: lectures from A Good Book on a Fall Day. The MHC recorded parts of this half-day symposium on Robert Penn Warren’s All the King’s Men and Huey Long, the real-life inspiration behind Willie Stark, with podcasts of talks by Huey Long himself, Ray Arsenault on the Huey Long—Willie Stark connection, Tricia Welsch on Hollywood’s treatment of politics and novel adaptations, and Joseph Wensink on Jack Burden and political idealism. Click on the above link for more information about these scholars, too.

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3. Money Matters: Focus on Funding

In 2001, the MHC was holding a reading and discussion program in Hallowell, Maine, with probationers recently released from prison. The men had first been uncomfortable with the humanities model of reading and discussion, which insists upon equal exchange for all members of the group and thoughtful exploration of ideas, but gradually learned to disagree respectfully with one another and speak openly. Following the final session, one participant told a MHC staff member that the discussion series had changed his life. He told her that he had been contemplating killing someone to solve a conflict in his life, but as a result of the readings and discussions, he realized that violence was not the best or only way of dealing with even the most challenging problems.

This is one unusually dramatic example of how in-depth discussion groups can open minds and broaden participants’ ways of thinking. Using conversation to learn to think about decisions, of consequences and also possibilities, can give people in difficult situations the tools to make more informed choices in all aspects of life.

The capacity of reading and discussion programs to make significant differences created a new initiative at the MHC called Peaceable Stories: Conflict Resolution Through the Humanities. This project, funded by a $225,000 three-year grant from Jane’s Trust, will bring discussions with a conflict resolution theme to child care workers for use in under-five classrooms, domestic abuse victims and their children, people living in poverty or rural isolation, and people in Maine’s prisons and jails. Reaching out to these audiences with this kind of programming helps the MHC take a huge step forward in using reading and discussion to effect social change.

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4. Spotlight On: Grants

MHC grants make a real difference for cultural opportunities in Maine. In 2003, the MHC (in partnership with the Maine Arts Council), gave a $1,500 Arts & Humanities Grant to the Maine Acadian Heritage Council in Madawaska for the research and pre-production of a cultural heritage recording. In 2005, a MHC grant of $5,000 supported the creation of a website and how it could promote the concept of a Cultureway. In 2007, this recording appeared as Voici the Valley Cultureway, an audio story and guide leading listeners through one of Maine’s most beautiful and culturally rich regions, and it is available, with more information, on the website.

The St. John Valley is an international region, deeply influenced by Acadian culture. The 80-minute audio part tells the Valley’s tale from the American side of the river, with stories, interviews with historians and artisans, and traditionally music. The guide includes maps and photographs that bring this region alive. For those inclined to travel, it will tempt listeners on to explore the Valley. Most of all, it is a celebration of what is a different way of life for many Mainers.

The MHC is proud to help such projects make a difference in Maine.

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5. Grants and Events

Etty Hillesum, whose writings serve the basis of an original performance in Bangor

Events funded by MHC grants include a series of community dialogues providing context for Wallace Shawn’s play The Fever, in which an anonymous character comes to terms with her/his personal role in global economies; a lecture series introducing the historical significance of Portland’s Eastern Cemetery; and a music and narrative performance in Bangor about Etty Hillesum, a Jewish woman from Amsterdam who was killed at Auschwitz.

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The recently funded grants list includes:

$1,000 to the Bangor Public Library, Bangor, for The Thinking Heart
A performance piece in two voices, with cello, based on the journal and letters of Etty Hillesum, a Dutch woman who lived in Amsterdam during the Nazi occupation and died in Auschwitz in 1943. The performance is an original arrangement of her journal and letters in the form of poems written by Martin Steingesser.

$955 to Spirits Alive, Portland, for Spring Lecture Series
Spirits Alive is hosting an early spring lecture series focused on the place of historic cemetaries in our collective past, moving from the general (New England cemetaries) to the specific (Eastern Cemetary in Portland).

$425 to Open Waters Theatre Arts, South Portland, for FeverFest 2008
The event is built around a performance of Wallace Shawn’s “The Fever” in which an anonymous character violently comes to terms with her/his role in global economics. To provide context for the play, there will also be an accompanying community dialogue, a panel discussion, and a free workshop.

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6. What We’re Reading

At readers’ recommendations, Notes from an Open Book is now offering a list of books rather than just one or two. They include personal favorites of staff members, as well as books used by MHC programs. This month, featured titles are Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, Boris’s Glasses, The Carpet Boy’s Gift, Unbowed, Speaking of Chinese, The Snoring Bird: My Family’s Journey through a Century of Biology, The Sword of Honour Trilogy, Cordelia Underwood: Or, The Marvelous Beginnings of the Moosepath League, and The Cairo Trilogy.

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7. Quote of the Month

“As a physician trained in the 70’s, it was refreshing to learn about [speaker Rita Charon’s] humane approach to patients and know that she (and others) are exposing students to this approach. I was another “victim” of the medical education system telling me that I cared too much about patients and warning that that would “get in the way”.

—a physician who attended the MHC’s Literature & Medicine
conference, November 2007

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