Image from Wikimedia Commons, originally printed by Tichnor Brothers.
Much of current American culture seems divorced from the realities of ordinary (and especially, rural) life. The images of “country life” for so many Americans alternates between Oh, isn’tthis charming and rustic! and Oh, how rural and backward! Sometimes it is patronizing and infuriating. Other times it just seems disappointing and sad.
Join Scudder Parker for this event to help us continue claiming and exercising our connections and hope as rural Vermonters. We will share poetry and life experience here in Vermont. We will explore sadness and loss, pride and delight. We are building communities that are deeply tied to this land and its history and to our neighbors as we struggle to survive, live well, and make things better.
What Scudder looks forward to most is reading, discussing, and sharing poems, stories and conversations with Vermonters whose struggles and joys are both intensely local and at the same time universal. When we do this we help shape a more generous and inclusive future for ourselves and our nation…as our rural communities always have.
Scudder Parker’s family moved to a small dairy farm in North Danville, Vermont when he was nine years old. They all worked hard on their hilly land, and were gradually welcomed by the surrounding community— first as outsiders, then dairy farmers, then Christmas tree growers. When their farmhouse burned, (and neighbors surrounded them with support and companionship) his father was already transitioning to Protestant ministry. The family moved to Hardwick, Vermont, where his father became pastor of the United Church, and Scudder suddenly became a “preacher’s kid”.
Much of current American culture seems divorced from the realities of ordinary (and especially, rural) life. The images of “country life” for so many Americans alternates between Oh, isn’t this charming and rustic! and Oh, how rural and backward! Sometimes it is patronizing and infuriating. Other times it just seems disappointing and sad. Join Scudder Parker for an exploration of these topics.
Our seasonal “Words in the Woods” program allows Vermonters and visitors to enjoy our state’s natural beauty while listening to and reading literature in the outdoors.
Humanities Camps are filled with reading and writing projects, field trips, and outdoor activities.
We won a 2020 Schwartz Prize for best public humanities programming in the U.S. for Vermont Reads 2019: “March: Book One.”
We supported the Chandler Center for the Arts’ Global Connections Youth Outreach program, which highlights artists from around the world.
Our free public events help bring the power of the humanities to communities across Vermont.
