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• Finding Profundity in Unexpected Places

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• Upcoming Events

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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

Children of staff members here at the Maine Humanities Council delight in visiting their parents at work. The walls are filled with books, many of them written and illustrated for children, and thus to their eyes, the office is a place of imagination and wonder.

It can be that for staff members, too. Last week, I spent half an hour deep in the new collection from Born to Read’s Peaceable Stories initiative. This program for early childhood educators—child care providers, preschool teachers, and children’s librarians—and Born to Read’s own volunteer readers, debuts in Bangor this spring with a goal of fostering conversation among children about peace, conflict—resolution, and the subtle and bleak ways that violence can affect young lives.

These are only the first books in the Peaceable Stories curriculum, but they show a great deal of the breadth of this new project. One that I particularly liked is Playing War (by Kathy Beckwith, illustrated by Lea Lyon), a book about a group of children on a hot summer day engaging in typical childhood games. One is a war game in which a boy attired with dog tags partners with a new boy, recently moved to the community from a war-torn country, on the side of the “Enemy.” The new boy’s discomfort prompts questions among the children and eventually a story-within-the-story. The text is managed in a simple, natural, open manner. It is a wonderful example of how effectively a children’s book can be profound.

We often encourage you, our close friends, to pick up a good book and spend an hour reading. I’d like to encourage you to pick up a book you wouldn’t ordinarily read on your own, a children’s book, and look for the profundity within.

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What It Means to Be an American

One of the lovely things about working for the Maine Humanities Council is working with a wonderful, thoughtful, and fascinating Board. Each member of this Board has an expertise that brings depth and new perspectives to the table.

Joel Rosenthal has, perhaps, the most global perspective of all our Board members, at least as evidenced in his day-to-day work. He is President of the Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs in New York City and oversees his organization’s far-reaching projects. These include efforts on ethics and armed conflict with conflict prevention, comparative human rights, justice and the world economy, environmental policy, and the politics of reconciliation.

On Monday, May 22, 2006, at the Carnegie Council on 170 East 64th Street in New York, Joel will speak on the topic of what it means to be an American as it relates to his work and to his position on our Board. If any reader of this list happens to be in New York at the time, please let me know if you would like to attend. The format of this event will be a short talk and reception.

If you wish to attend, please respond to events@mainehumanities.org or phone 1-866-MEREADER. We hope you can join us.

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30th Anniversary Activities Update

The Maine Humanities Council’s “Taxing Maine” theater-of-ideas tour is gaining venues every week. A performance list will be updated frequently.

Keep that Humanities Festival on your calendar-October 20 and 21 in Lewiston. Add to the speakers listed last month Mahmud Faksh, the scholar of the Middle East who is a treasure of our teacher programs, and Raffael Scheck, a German history scholar who has starred with great acclaim in two Winter Weekends.

I will continue sharing updates here, but if you’d like to be on the paper mailing list for more information, please contact me at diane@mainehumanities.org or by calling 1-866-MEREADER (my extension is 208).

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Grant-Funded Events

We have, as always, our ongoing series of grant-funded events across the state listed here.

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$1,000 to the South Berwick Public Library, South Berwick, for “To Our Gentle Readers”: Sarah Orne Jewett and Laura Ingalls Wilder (A Chatauqua Series)
Two beloved authors will soon come alive for audiences in Maine communities through Chautauqua presentations by Betty Jean Steinhouer. Steinhouer, a favorite scholar of the Florida Humanities Council, first visited Maine in 1990 to portray Willa Cather. She has since presented to Maine audiences as Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Gertrude Stein, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and various homeless characters drawn from literature. Steinhouer returns this June to reprise two of her most popular renditions, Sarah Orne Jewett and Laura Ingalls Wilder.

$1,000 to the Inner Walk Institute, Edinburg, for The Warrior Project
As a beginning to a comprehensive community-building program, the project will conduct community forums and individual interviews highlighting local warriors of Maine’s five Native communities.

$1,000 to the Chebeague Island Historical Society, Chebeague Island, for Creating Community: The Hamilton Connection
This project is an exhibit and lecture series that follows the evolution of a community through entrepreneurial endeavors of Chebeague Island’s largest extended family.

$600 to the Freeport Historical Society, Freeport, for 250th Anniversary of the Thomas Means “Massacre”
This project will create a symposium and exhibit on the subject of the murder of Thomas Means and his son and the kidnapping of his wife in 1756 by local Native Americans.

$500 to York Adult & Community Education, York, for York Reads!
The community reading program “York Reads!” will read Ernie’s Ark by Monica Wood.

$480 to the Jefferson Davis Grant Foundation, Bar Harbor, for History MERMAID
Part of a planning grant to put broadcast-quality history content in schools and libraries into the hands of teachers and into the homes of general library patrons.

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A shy boy shows up to a neighborhood puppet show, deep in a world of perpetual silence. He speaks to no one, and the other children can’t quite understand. They don’t dislike him for it, though. When a character in the puppet show wins his heart and evokes communication for the first time, the other children’s generosity and kindness overshadows young Louie’s discouragement when he must, at the end of the show, leave his new friend. This beautiful children’s literature classic by Ezra Jack Keats reaches the heart of loneliness and community with its gentle story and beautiful colorful pictures. It is a book in the new Born to Read series on peace and understanding, Peaceable Stories, to be piloted this spring in Bangor. Back to the Top

“I’m glad I finally committed to do this and am tremendously grateful to the folks at the MHC who helped set it up and do a great deal to make it as easy as possible program.”

— from Let’s Talk About It Site Coordinator in Lubec

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