Maine Humanities Council

“Weaving History and Literature: the African American Oral and Written Tradition” brought five writers together to read from their work and discuss how African American history is revealed through storytelling and literature. The speakers were JerriAnne Boggis, founder and director of the Harriet Wilson Project; Kate Clifford Larson, biographer of Harriet Tubman; novelists Michael C. White and David Anthony Durham; and poet Patricia Smith. Biographies of the speakers are available here; download the walking tour map of the Portland Freedom Trail in PDF format here.

This event was held at the Portland Museum of Art on July 11, 2008. We welcome your feedback.

Portland Freedom Trail [ 1:29:23 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (6208)

One of the highlights of each 10-day residency in the Stonecoast MFA program is the “flash reading” by faculty members. Each writer gets three minutes in which to share his or her work before introducing the next writer in the queue.

During the winter residency in January 2008, Joan Connor read her short short called “High Flyer” and Alan Davis read his short short “The Vanishing.” (To hear Joan read two other stories, visit Wired for Books. For more of Alan’s work, see his Minnesota State University faculty page.) Jim Kelly shared a selection of the six-word stories published in the November 2006 issue of Wired magazine. Kelly Link read an excerpt from her short story “Light,” which appeared in the “Fantastic Women” issue of Tin House. Michael White shared an excerpt from his forthcoming novel, Beautiful Assassin. Michael already has six published books, which are described at his website.

Joan Connor [ 5:40 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1602)

Alan Davis [ 5:42 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (189)

Jim Kelly [ 3:57 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (188)

Kelly Link [ 4:13 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (227)

Michael White [ 5:04 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (199)