Denise Jensen, Librarian at the Berlin Public Library, and Katie Doherty, Librarian at the White Mountains Community College, are pleased to announce that they will be sponsoring a fall lecture series with partial funding provided by the New Hampshire Humanities Council. This marks a return to the past when the two libraries hosted lectures in the fall and book discussions in the spring of each year. The sessions will be on Wednesday evenings at 7 p.m. at the White Mountains Community College Fortier Library.
The first talk will be held at the Fortier Library on Wednesday, September 16th at 7.p.m. with Edie Clark discussing "Baked Beans and Fried Clams." Baked beans, Indian pudding, fried clams, and lobster rolls ... so many foods are distinctive to New England. Does food have anything to say about who we are as a region, about who we are as New Englanders? Bean-hole beans, johnnycakes, chocolate chip cookies, and pork pies -- you can find them all over the country now, but they all originally came from New England like so many of the customs and mores familiar to all. The presentation is informative, humorous, and chock-full of fascinating nuggets about the history of our regional foods. It includes reference to some of New England's more famous foodies -- Fannie Farmer, Hayden Pearson, and Julia Child -- and includes an analysis of how the changing times of New England have affected the way we eat.
The second lecture, on Wednesday, October 7th at 7 p.m. will feature Cheryl Savageau speaking on "American Quilt Traditions." Do you love looking at quilts? With her slides and quilts, Savageau will discuss quilts from Anglo (mainstream), Amish, African American, and several Native American traditions, and will read them for their cultural context, historical meaning and significance, political, religious, and geographical influences and the differing aesthetics they embody.
Rebecca Rule, well known to the North Country, will give the third and final talk, entitled, "That Reminds Me of a Story"on Wednesday, October 28th at 7 p.m. Good stories never die, they evolve from teller to teller. New England has a rich and ongoing storytelling tradition from folklore to Bert and I to stories about your family, your life, or the town you live in. Humorist Rebecca Rule will prime the pump with stories she's collected at small-town gatherings, often at historical societies and libraries, over the last ten years, plus a classic or two. Our discussion will be the stories that listeners offer up, and as one story leads to another -- humorous, serious, thought-provoking, or just plain entertaining -- we practice and preserve our stories and tradition. And laugh, a lot.
All three sessions of the series will be held at the Fortier Library at White Mountains Community College. Refreshments will be served. For more information, contact the Berlin Public Library at 752-5210 or the Fortier Library at 752-1113.
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