Blogs
Having Sisters to Dream With
The idea to create a new folk opera about the life of Sojourner Truth came in a dream. It was short, just an image really, of composer and dear friend, Paula Kimper and me sitting in the Academy of Music in Northampton and we overwhelmed with joy. We were listening to...Rome is Dead: A Historic Struggle of Imperial Identity and the 150th Anniversary of the Modern Italian State
“The word ‘Italy’ is a geographical expression, a description which is useful shorthand, but has none of the political significance the efforts of the revolutionary ideologues try to put on it, and which is full of dangers for the very existence of...How One Woman Made a Difference–And So Can You
I remember sitting in high school history class, learning about our founding fathers and being in awe of what they were able to accomplish. I also remember thinking, “What did women do?” There were so few profiles and I was curious to know more. Thus began...The Creative Conversation
The state agency I work for, the Massachusetts Cultural Council (MCC) supports the arts, humanities, and interpretive sciences across the Commonwealth. The most obvious form of that support is funding to organizations and individuals, including an annual allocation of...What We Talk About When We Talk About Dialogue
In his recent commentary, Dan Blask argues that the Massachusetts Cultural Council’s role in supporting the arts, humanities, and the interpretative sciences should go beyond funding organizations and individuals. He rightfully insists that the MCC is also about...Connecting Teachers to the World
“When I was a little girl, I repeatedly heard the story of my aunt who went to the United States. She earned a Master’s Degree, got married to a PhD who had the green card, and thus realized the so-called American dream and lived happily ever after. And I...Nonviolent Movements in the Modern World
The Center for Nonviolent Solutions in Worcester, MA, in collaboration with Clark University’s Hiatt Center for Urban Education, will offer a nine-session professional development institute for teachers in grades 5-12, on nonviolent movements in the modern...Jack Speaks of Lowell
“In my opinion Lowell, Massachusetts is now the most interesting city in the United States of America,” Jack Kerouac enthusiastically proclaimed on a local Lowell radio show in 1962. He told the interviewers that he was back in his boyhood city for a...Stories from the Norfolk Prison Debate Team
In 1933, a few of the inmates at the new prison in Norfolk, MA decided to form a debate club. Their first coach was a woman named Cerise Jack, a regular visitor to the prison. For the first few years the men held practice matches amongst themselves, arguing the...The African Academy Awards
On March 7th I woke up to this unexpected email from Nigeria: “I am pleased to inform you that your DOCUMENTARY, COEXIST, is nominated in the BEST DOCUMENTARY category of the Africa movie Academy Awards 2011 edition holding in Bayelsa State on the 27TH MARCH...The Ancient Art of Un-forgetting
These few words were written to introduce Jon Peede and Andrew Carroll, the creators and guiding spirits of Operation Homecoming, at a recent public meeting of the Pioneer Valley Veterans Writers Project, sponsored by the Veterans Education Project. Operation...1001 Stories in High School: Scheherazade Revisited
There is a bell or a buzzer and then–an explosion of noise! It’s the change of classes. Whether in Everett or Newburyport, we were carried on waves of energy and words from the quiet end of one class to the subdued beginning of the next. Yes! Here was the...Bin Laden is Dead, and I'm not feeling so good myself
I get that Usama Bin Laden’s death is a big deal, and mostly a good thing. I was around for the 9/11/01 attacks, had friends at the World Trade Center and Pentagon that day (thankfully none hurt), and watched with reasonably mature eyes the sense of tragedy here...What Do Arabs Want?
My students sum up what Arabs want in one word: dignity. I’m writing from the American University of Sharjah where I’m teaching for the semester. My students and colleagues are a fair cross section of the region and of the population of the United Arab...Docs after Dark: An Insomniac's Homage to the Documentary Channel
Over the past few years I have developed the bad habit of falling asleep on the couch in front of the TV. And like many bad habits, I suppose, the longer I do it, the harder it is to break. Indeed, by this point it is so ingrained into my nightly regimen that I now...Burial at Sea
When the First World War broke out, Henry James wrote a letter that lamented the sad truth that the event revealed to him about European civilization: The plunge of civilization into the abyss of blood and darkness by the wanton fiat of those 2 infamous autocrats is a...Adapting the Odyssey with Double Edge Theater
It’s one of the first nice days in April, and I find myself in a familiar place: walking with Stacy Klein through the grounds of a former dairy farm in Ashfield, lingering by a stream or pointing out features of the landscape – picturing to ourselves herds...Reader's Companion
re-reading with electronic bi-focals Unlike most years, II made resolution this January: I’m re-reading some of the many books that have meant something to me over my not quite four decades of reading. As I do this I learn something about the person I used to be...Normal 0
It’s one of the first nice days in April, and I find myself in a familiar place: walking with Stacy Klein through the grounds of a former dairy farm in Ashfield, lingering by a stream or pointing out features of the landscape – picturing to ourselves herds...Preserving and Enjoying Boston's Franklin Park
Franklin Park—the jewel of Boston’s Emerald Necklace—has a storied past. Spanning over 120 years and 500 acres, this historic landmark was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted in the late 1880s. It is the place where the Duke Ellington orchestra’s...A Thrill in the Park
I was excited when I got off the train at the Park Street T stop in Boston. I was meeting Margaret for the first time. She had promised me a thrill in the park and I was more than a little curious. I had told her to look for a little bald man. She told me to look for...Having the Life of Our Times: A Community Response to Children, War & the Possibilities for Peace
A child has a view the moment she or he enters the world, and, as the British art and cultural critic Jon Berger points out: Seeing comes before words. The child looks and recognizes before it can speak. But there is also another sense in which seeing comes before...Whose Ideas Do We See in Children’s Art?
The Mural Project’s “How Will They Know Us?” project raises more questions than provides us with answers about American and Iraqi children living during quite tumultuous times. The children were given the explanation that people on the “other...Understanding “Community” for Economic Development
Ipswich, MA is a beautiful riverfront and seaside town on Boston’s North Shore known far and wide for its significant number of first period structures, pristine beaches and quaint shopping. The town’s residents have been actors and witnesses to much...Joe the Worm Guy
Joe and his parakeet Susie,photographed with natural light in an upstairs bedroom of Joe’s house in Ipswich. The North Shore of Boston is a biological sanctuary. Salt marshes, tidal creeks and estuaries comprise thousands of acres of this pristine coastal...My Architectural Problem, and America's
I’m sitting in one of the better known architectural spaces in the world: the Frank Lloyd Wright drafting studio at his Taliesin estate. At many of the tables sit the students of the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture, which offers both B.A. and M. Arch....Give US Your Poor: The Story of Homelessness in the United States
Photo by Lynn Blodgett, from his book, Amazing Grace: The Face of America’s Homeless (Earth Aware Editions, 2007) In 1999, Give US Your Poor received a pre-production grant from Mass Humanities towards a feature length documentary on homelessness. That grant...Mass Humanities Summer Reading List
Need a good book for summer? Whether you want something to relax with in the hammock, pass time with on the beach, or make a vacation — or dinner party — count with some serious intellectual vigor, we’ve got you covered. These 11 books —...Seven Things You Might Not Know about the World
This summer, educators from across Massachusetts and the U. S. are putting on their “student caps” as they attend in-depth, content-rich institutes designed by Primary Source, the nonprofit organization where I have the great pleasure of working. These...What Teaching American History Can Teach Us
A version of this essay was published in the Worcester Telegram and Gazette, Thursday, July 7, 2011 We’ve gotten sadly used to reports about Americans’ woeful lack of knowledge about their own history. Still, the recent announcement from federal education...History Takes a Holiday
Where oh where has “History” gone? History is more and more being crowded off the stage of the public mind by its more flamboyant cousin “Heritage”–and not just by purveyors of entertainment like Disneyland and Hollywood, but by...Two Star-Crossed Lovers Capture A Community's Heart
There are few things as lovely as a garden picnic on a temperate August day. Plymouth’s One Play, One Community: Romeo & Juliet first sprouted in an Olmsted bower reminiscent of Shakespeare’s Forest of Arden, a green world filled with faeries, rude...Worcester's Blackstone Canal Horse and Wagon Tours
It’s unbelievable that this summer marks the fourth year of Worcester’s Blackstone Canal Horse and Wagon Tours. A project that started as community service and a little fun has matured into a summer staple. This project has been a work-in-progress and that...Is China's Political Economy Fascist?
With a series of reforms that began in 1978, China discarded its staunchly Communist economy. These reforms allowed for the privatization of certain areas of the Chinese economy, and for China to enter into the Western world. China’s move away from Communism...Media Marauders, at Home and Abroad
Makers of culture have always been fascinated by their own perilous dance with poverty. From the starving artist and the actor-as-waiter to the washed-up writer and the dive bar crooner, the hapless tale of the creative-gone-broke has been a reliable storyline for...In the Beginning . . .
When I was in the first grade, the nuns at school told me that God had no beginning; He just always existed. That made no sense to me. Everything has at least a beginning. I was fairly certain, in my self-assured 7-year old mind, that the nuns had just not looked hard...The Future of Civilization: Better Desire Management?
The title of In Search of Civilization: Remaking a Tarnished Idea (Graywolf Press) is a bit of a flirty tease. In this thought-provoking though frustrating polemic by John Armstrong, Philosopher in residence (at the Melbourne Business School) and Senior Advisor to the...“Swallowed by an Idea”
Can three great writers from the nineteenth century help us understand the eruption of terrorism in our own time? In my view, they can and we shouldn’t ignore what they have to tell us. As a case in point, the title of this essay is based on a profound insight...Music in Middlemarch
As I mentioned in this forum a few months ago, I have been re-reading books this year (https://valleyadvocate.com/blogs/home.cfm?aid=13576). In particular, I have been revisiting and enjoying some favorites from the eighteenth and nineteenth century.George...Love, Loss and Poker: Autobiography Writing at an Assisted Living Residence
My father is bored, and my brother can’t understand why. After all, there is an activity for every part of the day, every day of the year. “I wish I had time to do those things,” my overworked lawyer-brother sighs. But the bingo, films, backgammon,...On TRUTH and Risks
Isn’t it risky? How do you dare? Where will you get the money? Aren’t you afraid of criticism? Don’t you know you are white? Who do you think you are? These are some of the questions that arise when people hear about our new project, TRUTH, a new...Rediscovering the British Communist Party in The Golden Notebook
In part due to inspiration provided by Caleb Rounds in his previous Public Humanist essay on rereading literature in the internet age and the new access to scholarship and current literary conversations that the Web brings to the experience of reading, I recently...Introducing Serbian Literature: An Interview with Serbian Writer, Poet, Journalist and Publisher Vladislav Bajac
My wife and I recently spent six months traveling in the Balkans. We made stops in Spain, Croatia, Bosnia, Greece, Turkey, and had two stays in Belgrade, Serbia. As we were leaving Serbia for the first time, our landlady handed me a novel with instructions to read it...Holding My Breath
As I write this morning, wheels are turning in Brockton on a project that began for me almost five years ago. Ten-by-twelve-foot vinyl banners are being printed and rigged for hanging on the faces of downtown buildings; the buildings’ landlords are getting ready...After Patriotism: Britain's Ushering of a Post-Nationalistic Era
In both Western and Eastern civilisation, Britain has paved the way for many cultural advances that are now commonplace. The island nation has influenced the world with its free-market economics, industrial technology, language, social customs, and so on. Despite...Why the Civil War?
Several members of Five College Learning in Retirement have been spending the last several months organizing 5CLIR Sesquicentennial Symposium: Civil War Causes and Consequences, a Mass Humanities’ funded project that respond’s to the foundation’s...What's in a Photograph?
I visited Mary Beth Meehan’s City of Champions, a display of large-scale images of Brockton residents on the walls of buildings in downtown Brockton. Meehan photographs people she gets to know and comes across in Brockton, a town that is struggling with economic...Paris Wasn't the Only Destination
I recently watched an interview with David McCullough on Book-TV, a marvelous weekend program on C-Span2 that I heartily recommend. The principal subject of the interview was McCullough’s admirable new book, The Greater Journey: Americans in Paris, which, as its...Mentoring
Those Dummies books can be really useful when you just need to know enough to keepa conversation going, have questions you’re embarrassed to ask, or when arudimentary level of knowledge is adequate. Building a Website for Dummies, HomeMaintenance for Dummies,...CREDO: Du Bois (and others) online at UMass Amherst
“I believe in God who made of one blood all races that dwell on earth. I believe that all men, black and brown, and white, are brothers, varying, through Time and Opportunity, in form and gift and feature, but differing in no essential particular, and alike in...Tolstoy's Bedside Table
This summer on my way to work, I found something just for me in a box of cast-off books on a sidewalk in downtown Northampton: a biography of Tolstoy by Henri Troyat published in 1967 and translated from the original French by Nancy Amphoux. A clipping with a photo of...The Information Sage: An Interview with Virginia Heffernan
This year, Internet guru Virginia Heffernan headlines the Mass Humanities benefit dinner at Boston College on November 19. Find out more about attending the dinner. Earlier this fall, Mass Humanities Executive Director David Tebaldi talked to our annual symposium...How the 99% Will Live?
In light of our upcoming symposium about the internet and democracy, I proposed to write about the riches of the internet for humanities scholars. But I do not wake in the night with visions of the Library of Congress’ American Memory website, the ability to...An Excerpt from The Net Delusion by Evgeny Morozov
Evgeny Morozov is the author of The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom. He will be a panelist at the Mass Humanities Annual Symposium, which will explore the impact of the internet on our democracy. The symposium is at Boston College this Saturday, Nov....Occupy Boston: A Blast from the Past and a Look to the Future
On the last Saturday in October with brilliant blue skies overhead my son, husband and I went down to the Occupy Boston site at Dewey Square to meet a friend of a friend who is serving there with a group of Occupy chaplains. We wanted to get a better sense of the...Israel and the Arab Spring
According to Israel’s prime minister, the Arab spring is moving Arab countries “not forward, but backward.” It is an “Islamic, anti-western, anti-liberal, anti-Israeli, undemocratic wave.”...Pilgrim Father/Illegal Son: Story of Two Immigrants
Li Tieshan lived in a half-finished basement space in a two-story Cape house in a quiet neighborhood, in a suburban city south of Boston. He is a 65-year old undocumented worker from Tianjin, a large industrial city in northern China, who came to the U.S. nine years...A Winter's Tale
Mass Humanities staff and board came up with a list of classics to savor over the long winter. Enjoy! 1) War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy “It seems semi-obnoxious to recommend a book of this length and commitment, but it’s been the most important reading...The Chinese Historical Society of New England Turns 20
In June 2011, Mass Humanities awarded a grant to the Chinese Historical Society of New England, located in Boston’s Chinatown, for public history events connected to the Society’s 20th anniversary. Project organizers Nancy Eng (Executive Director of...E-Edition
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