Visitors to Barn Again! meet Mariah

It was with some apprehension that Mariah the cow viewed onlookers at the grand opening of Barn Again! Celebrating an American Icon on April 7. It was a beautiful spring day and she was outside for the first time in ages. After an initial enthusiastic romp across the Saco Museum's lawn along Main Street (earning her the nickname "the Bucking Cow") Mariah settled down and adopted the manner of the placid cows described on the "Agriculture" display of the exhibit.

Barn Again! has been big news at the MHC of late. We are pleased to host and coordinate this Smithsonian Institute and Museum on Main Street touring exhibit in Maine with the hope that participating museums will benefit from increased attention. The Barn Again! grand opening in Saco showed how well the project has met our hope. On April 7, close to 200 people showed up to read about the cultural significance of barns, farming and agricultural trends, what place barns now play in a changing Maine, and, of course, to meet Mariah.

We offer our congratulations to the staff of the Saco Museum for a wonderful event and a fascinating exhibit. Brava also to MHC project director Trudy Hickey, who has been managing Barn Again! in its entirety since the beginning.

Inside the Saco Museum at the Barn Again! exhibit

Barn Again! will remain at the Saco Museum through June 8, 2005, before traveling to Lille and then Bethel. On Saturday, May 21, the Saco Museum will present Downtown on the Farm, a family event celebrating barns and farming with timber hewing and joining demonstrations, live animals, and children's activities. For more information, call the Saco Museum at (207)283-3861.

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Let's Talk About It, the MHC program for library-based reading and discussion series, has finalized a new series, tentatively titled "Changing the Terms: Cross Cultural Literature From South Asia." Deepika Marya, Ph.D. Department of English, University of Southern Maine, created this series for Let's Talk About It to explore the phenomenon of writing across culture and continents with India as its focus.

Dr. Marya writes:

"One of the outcomes of India's colonial legacy has been fiction about the colonial experience. From the mid-nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century, the relationship between India and Britain-as colony and European ruling power-was marked by mistrust and conflict that inhibited positive understanding between the two sides. Colonialism's exploitative attitude toward its colonies was based on the assumption of profound difference between European colonial and native lives."

Readings will include E.M. Forster's A Passage to India, Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie, and Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri. This series will be available for libraries in the fall of 2005. For more information, please contact Let's Talk About It Program Director Lizz Sinclair at lizz@mainehumanities.org.

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Reading volunteers are the lifeblood of Born to Read, the MHC's early literacy program. They are welcome visitors to child care and preschool facilities across the state and bring tremendous joy to preschoolers, who look forward to their weekly visits. These reading volunteers help awaken in Maine's children a deep love of books and reading. They truly make a difference in these young lives.

Born to Read is seeking reading volunteers in all regions of the state as part of its partnership with the Retired Senior and Volunteer Program (RSVP). RSVP welcomes help from adults of all ages who are willing to read aloud and conduct other positive early literacy activities for children. Activities include not just reading but singing, playing games, and helping children tell their own stories. These activities go far in increasing a child's readiness and willingness to learn both in school and in the outside world.

For more information about volunteering with Born to Read, click on this link: Born to Read Volunteer Opportunities

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Spring Harbor Hospital's participation in Literature & Medicine: Humanities at the Heart of Health Care® has been news not just at the MHC but throughout southern Maine thanks in part to the efforts of Gail Wilkerson, the program liaison at that hospital. We are all deeply heartened by Gail's belief in the program and her eagerness to share stories of Spring Harbor Hospital's participation. Spring Harbor Hospital is a psychiatric hospital and was the first of its kind to host Literature & Medicine.

A few days ago, I heard a Spring Harbor Hospital story from one of the program officers of Literature & Medicine. She had made a site visit and came back telling of a discussion she had witnessed. After reading The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression by Andrew Solomon (a book in which he painfully and articulately shares his experience with acute depression), a participant at the hospital said that this was the hardest book they had read because it was so much like work. But then she added that what really made it hard was that the book had challenged her understanding of depression. Though she had never suffered from depression herself, she had felt that she knew what her patients suffering from depression were experiencing. Solomon's account was painful because it made her realize that she really had no idea what people suffering from depression experience or the extent of the pain that many have to endure. It was "a good kick in the pants", she said, making her realize that she cannot assume that she understands what it is like for patients.

We are proud at the MHC to know that our programs can help participants reach such insights. Thank you, Gail, for your efforts in helping Literature & Medicine reach success at Spring Harbor Hospital, and thank you, also, Lizz Sinclair, for your work in managing and coordinating this program behind the scenes. For more information about Literature & Medicine, please visit its online newsletter Synapse or contact Lizz Sinclair at lizz@mainehumanities.org.

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Ashley Bryan will weave tales in Portland on May 6

If any readers of this newsletter are in town on the weekend of May 6, please consider stopping by Portland High School to hear renowned children's literature authors and illustrators Ashley Bryan and Rosemary Wells. Ashley Bryan will present "A Tender Bridge: African American Poetry, Spirituals, and African Tales" from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. on Friday, May 6. On Saturday, May 7, Rosemary Wells will present "Lightning in a Bottle" from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. Both sessions are free, open to the public, and very appropriate for children. Please contact Brita Zitin at brita@mainehumanities.org for more information.

For a list of events funded by MHC grants, please click here: Grant Funded Events.

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Waiting, Lizz Sinclair Watercolor and pencil on paper

Lizz Sinclair, program officer of both Let's Talk About It and Literature & Medicine, leads a double life. Most people around the MHC office already know, but now for the greater outside world, Lizz's not-so-secret talents are revealed in a grand way. Lizz is an artist who teaches classes to children and adults and whose own work combines great creativity with a lovely, colorful exuberance. One of her paintings, "Waiting," has been featured in Words & Images Magazine this spring. It is part of Lizz's Circus series and was one of only five visual works selected from hundreds of submissions for inclusion in the annual journal. Look for Words & Images at bookstores across New England. Congratulations, Lizz!

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Robert Whiting, author of The Meaning of Ichiro, spoke for the World Affairs Council of Maine on the cultural exchange between Japan and the U.S. through the medium of Major League Baseball.

The next major grant deadlines are October 10 (draft) and November 10 (final). Deadlines for regular and discretionary grants are rolling.

$1,000 to the Washburn-Norlands Living History Center, Livermore, for the Washburn Humanities Seminar
The 13th annual Washburn Humanities Seminar focuses on whether or not there is a distinct New England identity, and what if anything that identity might be.

$1,000 to the Portland High School Civil Rights Team, Portland, for the Second Annual Diversity, Understanding, Conversation, and Community Conference
The conference will host student groups from greater Portland for a day of presentations on diversity, human rights, civil rights, and cultural competence.

$1,000 to the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance, Bath, for A Public Reading and Discussion with Joyce Maynard
Joyce Maynard will read/perform her controversial memoir, "At Home in the World," and then host an audience discussion.

$988 to the Central Maine Heritage Council - L.C. Bates Museum, Hinckley, for Maine's Historic Landscape Legacy
This project will present public educational opportunities about historic community landscapes.

$930 to the Association to Promote and Protect the Lubec Environment, Lubec, for Historical Tours of Lubec and Campobello
The Association to Promote and Protect the Lubec Environment will develop historical tours of Lubec and Campobello Island.

$500 to the World Affairs Council of Maine, Portland, for Japanese Influence on Major League Baseball in America
Robert Whiting, resident of Japan and author of The Meaning of Ichiro, addressed the impact of Japan on American Major League Baseball at two public events in Portland.

$500 to Northeast Historic Film, Bucksport, for "Invisible: What is it to be an Indian in the 21st Century?" Screening and Discussion - Portland Museum of Art
"Invisible," a 60-minute video documentary on Maine's Native American historical and contemporary experience, will be presented at the Portland Museum of Art by James Eric Francis, the Penobscot Nation Historian.

$500 to Schoodic Arts for All, Prospect Harbor, for International Sculpture Symposium
Schoodic Arts for All will present an International Sculpture Symposium in Downeast Maine during the summer of 2007.

$500 to Hardy Girls Healthy Women, Waterville, for HGHW Production of "The Pomegranate Seed" and "Turning Beauty Inside Out" with Reception and Photographic Exhibit
Hardy Girls Healthy Women presents a performance of award-winning singer/songwriter Cosy Sheridan's performance of her one-woman musical concert, The Pomegranate Seed — An Exploration of Appetite, Body-Image and Myth in Modern Culture. In addition, ten photographic collages of local girls' collation groups will be displayed in Turning Beauty Inside Out: A Girls' Eye View.

$486 to Oxford County 2005, Harrison, for Oxford County Bicentennial Lectures
As part of the celebration of the bicentennial of Oxford County, Maine, three noted scholars will present talks on the history of the county. Particular subjects will include public and private architecture as well as notable local citizens of national international importance.

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"I need a lot more education before I feel educated enough to do justice to Native American Studies. I did learn a lot and left with many questions that I will seek answers to."

From a participant in the MHC's March 31, 2005, Teachers for a New Century program, led by Neil Rolde, author of Unsettled Past, Unsettled Future: The Story of Maine Indians.

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Notes from an Open Book welcomes feedback from its readers. Please contact Diane Magras by email at diane@mainehumanities.org or by phone at (207)773-5051 ext. 208 (toll-free 1-866-637-3233, ext. 208) to respond.