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Speakers Bureau Schedule |
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Wednesday, April 9 ~ Sprightly Steps: Vermont's Contra and Square Dancing Tradition. Early settlers may have frowned upon the merriment of dancing as the work of the Devil, but the tradition found its way to the Green Mountains nevertheless. From fancy balls or cotillions to kitchen junkets or tunks, people of all ages and backgrounds fell under the spell of the fiddle. Changes of musical styles and culture have made old-time dancing nearly extinct, but some practitioners keep the old styles alive. Presented by Adam Boyce. Jeffersonville, Second Congregational Church, 7:00 p.m. Call Georgeana Little, (802) 644-5675. Thursday, April 10 ~ Of Burqas and Bikinis: Afghani Women and the War on Terror. This slide presentation by Sanjukta Ghosh focuses on how media constructions of Afghani women were used to mobilize war against an already beleaguered nation. Using images from mainstream as well as alternative media such as the feminist press, it shows that the rhetoric of the media and their neat cultural icons was reminiscent of that used by Victorian feminists. In making this analogy, the presentation brings into focus how Muslim women's images have been used throughout history to further social and political ends. Brattleboro, Brooks Memorial Library, Meeting Room, 7:00 p.m. Call Alice Carrier, (802) 254-4378.
Friday, April 11 ~ Vermont and the Civil War. Vermont author and Civil War historian Howard Coffin will speak on any of the following topics: Vermont and Human Freedom; Lincoln as Commander in Chief; the Morgan horse and the Vermont Cavalry; the Battle of Cedar Creek; or on any of his three books related to the Civil War. Pittsfield, Pittsfield Town Hall 'On the Green', 7:00 p.m. Call Jane Roberts, (802) 746-8157.
Saturday, April 12 ~ Sprightly Steps: Vermont's Contra and Square Dancing Tradition. Early settlers may have frowned upon the merriment of dancing as the work of the Devil, but the tradition found its way to the Green Mountains nevertheless. From fancy balls or cotillions to kitchen junkets or tunks, people of all ages and backgrounds fell under the spell of the fiddle. Changes of musical styles and culture have made old-time dancing nearly extinct, but some practitioners keep the old styles alive. Presented by Adam Boyce. Worcester, Doty Memorial School, School gym, Calais Road, 6:00 p.m. Call Elizabeth Schwartz, (802) 229-9468. Sunday, April 13 ~ The Roaring 20s in Fox Trot Tempo. Perhaps more than any other decade, the history of the 1920s is captured in the popular music of the day. From Lindbergh to Ford's Model A, from the Scopes Trial to the Florida land boom and the crossword puzzle craze, the music of the 1920s tells the story. This lecture by Martin Bryan traces historical events, from the sublime to the ridiculous, and illustrates them with archival recordings. Brattleboro, Brooks Memorial Library, 2:00 p.m. Call Frances Gibson, (802) 254-4265. Monday, April 14 ~ A Vermont Music Sampler. Vermont has a significant and fascinating musical folklore. John Philip Sousa wrote Stars and Stripes Forever in Isle La Motte; Justin Morgan was first a composer and secondly a horse breeder; many Vermont folk songs and ballads were gathered by Helen Flanders; electronic music was discovered at Bennington College; and there's more! This slide presentation includes listening to music on tape and commentary from musician and scholar William Tortolano. Randolph, Our Lady of the Angels Catholic Church, At the corner of Route 66, 7:00 p.m. Call John Milanese, (802) 728-5251.
Wednesday, April 16 ~ The Town Photographer in Vermont. Photographer and local historian Forrest Holzapfel discusses the role of the village photographer in nineteenth-century Vermont and demonstrates how his work continues that tradition to create a body of contemporary photographs depicting the people and landscapes of his hometown, Marlboro, Vermont. He offers suggestions to those who would like to undertake similar documentation of their own towns. Milton, Arrowhead Senior Citizens Center, 1:00 p.m. Call Fran Ferro, (802) 893-4644.
Thursday, April 17 ~ Mark Twain Talks. Long before he had white hair and wore his famous white suit, Mark Twain toured the country—and the world—entertaining packed houses with his wit, wisdom, and musery. Bern Budd's award-winning show, which has entertained aged 10 to 100, is based on those live performances. Twain's humorous, wise, and slightly irreverent counsel is as needed today as it was then. Williston, Dorothy Alling Memorial Library, 6:30 p.m. Call Martine Fiske, (802) 878-4918. Friday, April 18 ~ 'I Have Doctored Myself as Well as I Could': Laywoman as Medical Practitioner on the Western Frontier. Whether using wet sheets to break a threatening fever, enticing a very long tape worm from a toddler's bowels, midwifing the birth of a neighbor's child, nursing a baby through dysentery, or using herbs to combat their own bouts of depression, frontierswomen practiced a folk medicine—and a folk wisdom—that served themselves, their families, and their communities well. Linda Peavy and Ursula Smith place these women within the context of nineteenth-century medical practice and invite discussion of parallels between folk remedies of yesteryear and alternative medicine practices of today. Rutland, Grace Congregational United Church of Christ, 2:00 p.m. Call Sara Fenn, (802) 775-4484.
Friday, April 18 ~ Kitchen Tunks and Parlor Songs. In the 1980s, Mark Greenberg interviewed and recorded old-time, grassroots Vermont musicians and produced both a video documentary, The Unbroken Circle (1985), and a CD anthology, Kitchen Tunks and Parlor Songs (2003). In this presentation, he discusses collecting oral histories in Vermont and examines how earlier music survived in the twentieth century and how it was affected by social and technological developments. Starksboro Public Library, 7:00 p.m. Call Ruth Beecher, (802) 453-2949.
Thursday, April 24 ~ Vermont Folk Art. Much of Vermont's folk art is narrative in impulse: a stair rug capturing the history of a family, a weathervane symbolizing the artist's career in the railroad, or a quilt representing the memories of farm life. This slide presentation and lecture by Jane Beck touches on the informal process of learning a traditional art, life crises that spur the creation of folk art, and the emotional bond that exists between the maker and the receiver of a folk art object. Pawlet Community Church, 7:30 p.m. Call Stephen Williams, (802) 645-9529. |
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Office in Montpelier
11 Loomis Street, Montpelier, Vermont 05602 802.262.2626 Fax: 802.262.2620 E-mail: info@vermonthumanities.org |
