CONVERSATIONS - North Carolina Humanities Council

Transcription

2013
Winter/ Spring
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C O N V E R S AT I O N S
A PUBLICATION OF THE NORTH CAROLINA HUMANITIES COUNCIL
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Shelley Crisp, Executive Director
Carl Sandburg spent the final twenty-two years
of his life working and living at Connemara,
the farm outside Flat Rock, North Carolina, that
Sandburg and his family purchased from the
family of Edward Adger Smythe in 1945. During
his years at Connemara, Sandburg composed a
third of his literary works (including the address
to Congress reprinted as “The Last Word” on page
46), received his second Pulitzer Prize, and was
granted lifetime membership into the NAACP.
Upon his death in 1967, his wife Lillian sold their
home to the National Park Service. In 1974, the
home of the “People’s Poet” opened to his beloved
people as the Carl Sandburg Home National
Historic Site (www.nps.gov/carl/index.htm). Find
out more about Carl Sandburg and his connections
to North Carolina in “From the Field” on page 6.
Carl Sandburg at his typewriter at Connemara.
Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site. Photo
by W.C. Mutt Burton.
N orth Caro lina Conve r s ation s
Volu m e 7, Issue 1
W inter / Spring 2013
North Carolina Conversations (ISSN 1941-3165)
is published biannually by the North Carolina
Humanities Council, a statewide nonprofit
and affiliate of the National Endowment for
the Humanities.
122 N. Elm Street, Suite 601
Greensboro, NC 27401
(336) 334-5325 (p) | (336) 334-5052 (f)
[email protected] | www.nchumanities.org
N orth Caro lina Human ities
Counc il Staff
Shelley Crisp, Executive Director
Lynn Wright-Kernodle, Associate Executive Director
and Director of Teachers Institute
Anne Tubaugh, Associate Executive Director and
Director of Development
Darrell Stover, Program Director
Debbie Gainey, Finance and Grants Officer
Donovan McKnight, Program Officer
Carolyn Allen, Program Officer
Kristen Jeffers, Public Affairs Officer
Chrissy Kaykho, Database Assistant
Harlan J. Gradin, Scholar Emeritus
De sign
Kilpatrick Design, Inc. | www.kilpatrickdesign.com
ISS N 1941-3165
©2013
Table of Contents
Last winter I had the privilege of attending two Council-supported programs just
around the corner from each other in Raleigh. Both programs addressed memoir and
autobiography. They couldn’t have been more different, yet each was uniquely invaluable. The Friends of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences began a series of
events examining Science from a Personal Perspective: How Life Stories Help Us Learn.
Offered as a “Global Town Hall” at the recently opened Nature Research Center in
Raleigh, world-renowned entomologist Dr. E.O. Wilson anchored a three-story stage
with multimedia simulcast around the world via the Internet. The event, however,
was remarkably personal as Wilson discussed his life’s work, answered questions
from audience both ten feet away and thousands of miles distant, and established a
dynamic relationship through memory and example of the interconnections between
science and the humanities. The second program, a week later, at Saint Paul AME
Church, offered Road Scholar Ella Joyce (E.J.) Stewart discussing “Writing in the
Familiar,” using texts from the Harlem Renaissance to exemplify the value of personal
observation set in writing. Stewart’s audience, much smaller and more local than
Wilson’s, was equally rapt and inspired by the power of autobiography to focus a life’s
work and worth. I was reminded in both instances of the power and value of public
humanities programs.
And I was reminded again in December by staff from the Cape Fear Theatre in
Fayetteville. It turns out a discussion series that took root two decades ago through
support from Humanities Council funding still invites audiences to respond to their
theatre experience through discussion and feedback sessions held concurrent with
productions. And then again in January, the Jonkonnu performers kicked off the
12th annual African American Cultural Celebration at the N.C. Museum of History
which took as its theme “Defining Freedom” in honor of the 150th anniversary of
the Emancipation Proclamation written by Abraham Lincoln in September 1862 and
signed in 1863. Until 2000, the African American tradition of Jonkonnu — found only
in North Carolina in the United States — was performed only once between the 1890s
and 1988 until Tryon Palace Historic Site, with support from a Humanities Council
grant, revived the celebration. Later this spring, the North Carolina Freedom Project,
Inc., of Durham, in association with the history museum and the National Archives,
will offer The Emancipation Proclamation: Freedom for All, a two-day symposium,
curriculum development, and traveling exhibition based on the Proclamation. The
Emancipation Proclamation symposium too will use Council grant funds.
It is humbling to consider how far reaching the Council’s funding has stretched and
how long lasting the harvest of public humanities can be. From seeds planted one or
even two decades ago come continually challenging conversations, the preservation of
culture from our state’s deepest roots, the celebration of historic texts whose promise
has unfolded in front of the very eyes of our audiences and their great-grandchildren.
And whether North Carolinians are privileged to experience the humanities courtesy
of the most cutting edge technology or through the oral histories whose wisdom and
experience offer the most timely advice and lessons, the Council is privileged in its
work to bring all participants to the table — the many peoples and myriad voices of
our one and wonderful state.
2
John Tyler Caldwell Award
for the Humanities
Betty Ray McCain Honored with 2012 John Tyler
Caldwell Award for the Humanities
Wherever Betty McCain Has Been, She Has Done
Good Work by Robert G. Anthony, Jr.
6
From the Field
The Day Carl Sandburg Died: Re-Examining the
Man, the Poet, the Activist by Donovan McKnight
In the Words of the Filmmaker by Paul Bonesteel
Revisiting Sam Greenlee’s The Spook Who Sat by
the Door by Sheila Smith McKoy
12
14
16
22
36
Road Scholars
A Message of Relevance by Randell Jones
Let’s Talk About It
Statue of Daniel Boone at Appalachian State University. Courtesy
Appalachian State University.
40
Have Books, Will Travel by Lucinda MacKethan
The 2012 Annual Report to the People
An Invitation to Host Hometown Teams
44
Seminars Inspire, Encourage Educators by Jonathan
Permar
Educator Develops New Appalachian Literature
Unit by Tammy Young
Alumni News
Teachers Institute Summer Seminar: Muslim
Journeys: Islam and Its Many Roads
North Carolina Humanities Council
Call for Trustee Nominations
Executive Director Shelley Crisp to Retire
in 2013
Teachers Institute
Teachers Institute Seminars Enrich Teaching and
Learning by Lynn Wright-Kernodle
The Harmony between MoMS and Destination
Cleveland County by Emily Epley
Journey Stories: A Dream Comes to Fruition
by Kim Proctor
Linda Flowers Literary Award
Semper Fi of Appalachia by Angela Kelly
Museum on Main Street
46
49
The Last Word
Address of Carl Sandburg before the Joint
Session of Congress, February 2, 1959
Events and Deadlines
Ode to Betty Ray
C AL DWE L L
AW AR D
Betty Ray McCain
Honored with the 2012 John Tyler
Caldwell Award for the Humanities
In February 2012, Governor Jim
Hunt told The Wilson Times, “the basis
of Betty Ray McCain is her deep caring
about people and working to help them
be successful and all that they want to
be….She’s willing to work her head off
to help people.” This statement echoed
an earlier description by H. G. Jones
who referred to McCain as a “North
Carolinian who loves her state and its
people and who has dedicated a distinguished career to their interests.”
The John Tyler Caldwell Award for
the Humanities, the North Carolina
Humanities Council’s highest honor,
pays tribute to North Carolinians
who have strengthened the educational, cultural, and civic life of North
Carolinians through the humanities.
With this award, Mrs. Betty Ray McCain
is recognized as the 2012 Caldwell
Laureate and is honored for her deep
caring and dedicated service to the citizens of North Carolina.
Born in Faison, NC, McCain graduated as valedictorian from Faison High
School, attended St. Mary’s School,
and graduated from the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a
BA in music and Columbia University’s
Teachers College with an MA in music.
The mother of two children and five
grandchildren, McCain moved with her
husband, physician Dr. John McCain, to
Wilson, NC, in 1956. Although working
as an ambassador for numerous causes
throughout the state, she continues to
Winter/Spring 2013
make her home in Wilson where she
serves on the Board of Advisors for
Barton College, raises money for the
Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park, and
compiles oral histories of World War
II veterans in Wilson County. She is a
member of Wilson’s First Presbyterian
Church, where she sings in the choir,
and is a former deacon and elder.
Leadership and Service
With intelligence, wit, grace, and good
humor, Betty Ray McCain tirelessly
celebrates North Carolina’s cultural
heritage in its many forms. Perhaps
best known as the Secretary of Cultural
Resources, she was appointed to this
position in 1993 by Governor Jim Hunt
and served in this capacity until 2001.
During her tenure as Secretary, McCain
was instrumental in the building of
the current North Carolina Museum
of History; in securing additional land
for the North Carolina Art Museum; in
securing major funding for the building
of Meymandi Hall, home of the North
Carolina Symphony; and in securing
major funding for the excavation of
the Queen Anne’s Revenge, the ship of
the pirate Blackbeard. In addition, she
helped to create and coordinate the
cultural component of the Israel/North
Carolina Exchange, the most comprehensive exploration at that time of
Israeli culture outside of Israel.
Active in political work, she became the
first woman to chair the North Carolina
Democratic Party. As such, she became
a primary advocate for the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment
in North Carolina and a proponent of
recruiting women to run for political
office. She also served several terms on
the Democratic National Committee.
McCain has served North Carolina
in many roles, including as a fourterm member of the UNC Board of
Governors and as an advocate for
numerous cultural groups such as the
North Carolina Symphony and the
North Carolina Museum of Art. She
has chaired the Board of Trustees of
UNC-TV and the Board of Visitors of the
UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer
Center and is a member of the board of
WilMed Hospital Foundation. Currently,
she sits on the Board of Directors of the
First Colony Foundation, most recently
celebrated for its work with the British
Museum in uncovering a map of the
possible destination of North Carolina’s
famed Lost Colony.
Honors
McCain is the recipient of numerous
awards and honors, among them the
UNC General Alumni Association
Distinguished Service Medal, the Design
Guild Award from the NCSU College
of Design, and the Distinguished
Citizen of the Year Award from the
Wilson Chamber of Commerce. In
2006, McCain was awarded the North
Caroliniana Award from the North
Caroliniana Society and is the 2009
recipient of the North Carolina Award,
the highest civilian award bestowed by
the state for public service. In addition, she is a 2010 inductee into the
North Carolina Women’s Hall of Fame.
McCain is also a member of the Faison
and Duplin County Halls of Fame. She
holds honorary degrees from UNC at
Wilmington, UNC at Chapel Hill, UNC
at Greensboro, Wake Forest University,
and Barton College.
Betty Ray (just a girl
From the swamps,
She’s said of herself,
With something of an interest
in politics)
Invites her entire state
To the Mt. Olive
New Year’s Eve Pickle-drop,
Saying, “Come early — we do it at
7 p.m., ‘cause we just can’t
Stay up till midnight!”
Speaking with endless pride
Of homes, shops, fields and mills,
Where dreamers and doers
Once lived and worked,
With somber respect of spots
Where soldiers once stood, engaged,
Betty Ray is just as serious
As history is — yet she makes us
smile, laugh,
Fall out of our seats when
She tells of people and places she loves:
From Duplin County to Deep Gap,
From Brunswick Town to the Balsams,
Sly merriment this great teacher’s tool.
Betty Ray McCain with her granddaughters Emily and Elizabeth McCain at the 2012 John T.
Caldwell Award for the Humanities ceremony in Wilson. Photo by Keith Tew Photography.
Caldwell Laureates
The John Tyler Caldwell Award for the Humanities, the Humanities
Council’s highest honor, has been presented annually since its inauguration in 1990. Named for its first recipient, the late Dr. John Tyler Caldwell,
former chancellor of North Carolina State University from 1959–1975 and
a founding member of the Humanities Council, the award pays tribute to
individuals whose lives and work illuminate one or more of the multiple
dimensions of human life where the humanities come into play: civic,
personal, intellectual, and moral.
~ Bland Simpson
1990
John Tyler Caldwell†
2002
Reynolds Price†
1991
John Hope Franklin†
1992 Doris Waugh Betts†
2003
Wilma Dykeman†
& Hugh Morton†
1993
Samuel Talmadge Ragan†
2004
Mary Duke Biddle Trent Semans†
1994
Anne Firor Scott
2005
Louis D. Rubin, Jr.
1995
John Marsden Ehle
2006
Benjamin Eagles Fountain, Jr.
1996
William W Finlator†
2007
Emily Herring Wilson
1997
Charles Bishop Kuralt†
2008
Walt Wolfram
1998
Dorothy Spruill Redford
2009
Marsha White Warren
1999
William C. Friday†
2010
Fred Chappell
2000
Thomas J. Lassiter, Jr.†
2011
David Price
2001
Houston Gwynne (H.G.) Jones
2012
Betty Ray McCain
†
deceased
Photo courtesy of Brendan Greaves
for the Vollis Simpson Whirligig
Park Project.
Commissioned for the celebration, “Ode to Betty
Ray” was created as a bookmark to commemorate
the event.
NORTH CAROLINA HUMANITIES COUNCIL
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3
UNC-TV Board of Trustees, the
North Carolina Mental Health
Association, the Tryon Palace
Commission, and General Alumni
Association of UNC-Chapel Hill.
Betty Ray McCain and fellow student leaders at St. Mary’s College in 1949. Courtesy St. Mary’s
School.
Wherever Betty McCain
Has Been, She Has Done
Good Work
Robert G. Anthony, Jr.
On the evening of the 2012 celebration
for the John Tyler Caldwell Award for the
Humanities, Bob Anthony introduced the
Caldwell Laureate.
•
Four terms on the University
of North Carolina Board of
Governors
•
State Chair of a political party
(in her case the North Carolina
Democratic Party) and the first
woman to have that position
•
Co-chair of two gubernatorial
campaigns and one U.S. Senate
campaign
It is my pleasure and honor to
introduce the John Tyler Caldwell Award
recipient for 2012 — Betty Ray McCain.
It’s also a problem and a challenge as she
is one of the most energetic and enthusiastic civic and cultural leaders ever in
North Carolina. Betty’s achievements and
accomplishments include
•
Service as the first female
member of the North Carolina
Budget Advisory Committee
Winter/Spring 2013
•
Secretary of the North Carolina
Department of Cultural Resources
for eight years
•
A leader in numerous organizations such as the North
Carolina Medical Society, the
Bland Simpson has described Betty as
“one of the most energetic, generous,
and creative public figures of our time or
any time — and one so effective because
she has almost intuitively married her
astonishing theatricality, tending toward
humor, with her deep, serious, and
abiding concerns about every area of our
state’s public life and policies.” And, as
Betsy Buford observes, Betty McCain is
“one of the funniest human beings on this
earth.” But you know all that, about her
accomplishments and her wit and good
humor. I’m sure you’ve all heard Betty
tell stories of her growing up in Faison
— her childhood was one of close family
and friends, of fun and frivolity.
She excelled as a student, was valedictorian of her high school class. From
Faison, Betty headed to St. Mary’s Junior
College in Raleigh, an institution that had
been attended by several generations of
women in her family. She’s always been
a shy person — so it took her about two
hours to get comfortable at St. Mary’s.
Her ever-present smile and warm personality quickly won her many new friends.
She soon emerged as a campus leader.
Then it was off to Carolina — for two
years of studies and student leadership
in Chapel Hill, and as at St. Mary’s, she
exhibited her leadership skills, especially
in the YWCA. With her degree in hand,
Betty headed for New York, to Columbia
University, where she obtained a Master’s
degree in music education in 1953.
She returned to Chapel Hill for a job as
assistant director of the Campus Y. While
working in Chapel Hill, she met John
McCain, a resident in internal medicine.
Soon the wooing began, followed by a
grand wedding in Faison, after which the
young couple settled in Wilson, where
Dr. McCain began a clinical and solo
medical practice that would continue for
more than 49 years. The McCains quickly
joined their new friends and neighbors in
church, civic, and cultural activities. They
began their family, with two children,
Paul and Eloise, bringing new joys to the
household. With John McCain dedicating
himself to his growing medical responsibilities, Betty focused on family and civic
and cultural work. She took literally the
City of Wilson’s slogan — “Wide Awake
Wilson.” If some good cause needed
attention, she was willing to step forward
and help. She accepted leadership roles
in church and cultural organizations. And
she moved into the largely male-dominated world of local and state politics.
Through the 1960s and early 1970s, she
established herself as a leader in her
party, a woman of grace and wit — and
also of strength and backbone in fighting
for the causes she believed in.
Betty was and still is a skilled political
leader and activist, but I would argue that
her most significant and longest-lasting
contributions have been as a cultural
arts leader. She is a “small d” democrat
when it comes to the humanities. She has
worked and continues to work enthusiastically and tirelessly in support of
good causes anywhere and everywhere.
Through hard work and dedication,
she has enriched the lives of all North
Carolinians, regardless of their political
leanings. During her eight years of
service as Secretary of the North Carolina
Department of Cultural Resources, Betty
worked tirelessly to build and strengthen
the state’s archives and history and
historic preservation programs, state
library services, the North Carolina state
Symphony, and the many and varied
organizations and institutions that offer
study and appreciation of the humanities
in every corner of the state. There are two
public spaces named for her: the Betty
Ray McCain Art Gallery at the Progress
Energy Center in Raleigh and the Betty
Ray McCain Amphitheater in the John L.
Roper Heritage Park in Roper, Washington
County.
My late great-aunt Margaret — who at
one time lived in Wilson — had a saying:
“Your front yard is your reputation, but
your backyard is your character.” Betty
has always known that. She doesn’t
devote herself only to major projects with
starring roles. She accepts the often hard,
behind-the-scenes work — the fundraising, the recruitment of volunteers.
And no project is too local or narrowly
focused for her if she believes it a good
one. This example will be familiar to
the Wilsonians in the audience tonight.
Several years ago the Wilson County
Historical Society wanted to preserve the
record of Wilsonians who had served
their nation during World War II. Who
stepped forward to lead this project
which required collecting documents,
clippings, photographs, and reminiscences from men and women, many of
whom no longer lived in Wilson County?
Betty McCain and her good friend John
Hackney stepped forward. They led an
effort that has resulted in a remarkable
resource for anyone interested in the
history of Wilson County and of North
Carolina during World War II. When Betty
came to the North Carolina Collection
to talk about her project and ask how
this information could be preserved and
distributed widely, we were delighted
to collaborate with her and John and
the Wilson County Public Library on a
digitization project that provides access to
these materials to anyone anywhere with
Internet access.
Center-stage. Back-stage. Front yard.
Backyard. Wherever Betty McCain has
been, she has done good work. And we
thank her for it.
Robert G. Anthony, Jr., is the curator
of the North Carolina Collection and
director of the North Carolina Digital
Heritage Center, located in Wilson
Library at the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Gov. James B. Hunt, Jr., delivered the 2012 Caldwell Lecture in the Humanities. He
has been a member of the law firm of Womble Carlyle, Sandridge and Rice, PLLC
since 2001, after completing the last of his four historic terms as Governor of
North Carolina (1977–1985, 1993–2001). Among his successes, Hunt’s early childhood program, Smart Start, has been a model for the nation. Governor Hunt and
the Carnegie Corporation of New York created the National Board for Professional
Standards which he chaired for ten years. Hunt established the North Carolina
Biotechnology Center, the Microelectronics Center of North Carolina, and the
North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics. He founded the Hunt Institute
for Educational Leadership and Policy at UNC at Chapel Hill and the Institute for
Emerging Issues at NCSU. Governor Hunt earned his BS and MS from North Carolina
State University and his JD from the University of North Carolina School of Law.
Photo by Keith Tew Photography
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5
F RO M
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F IE L D
The Day Carl Sandburg Died:
Re-Examining the Man, the Poet,
the Activist
Donovan McKnight
Today, if you bring up Carl Sandburg’s poetry in academic circles, some
accuse it of being “period poetry,” “too simple,” or even “propaganda.”
His poems are not being taught in schools as they once were; many have
been removed from anthologies. There is a fairly consistent record of him
being criticized both before and after his death in 1967 for any number of
reasons. But if you do a “blog” search, you’ll see thousands of references to
Sandburg and his poetry in people’s thoughts and postings. People who read
him remember the imagery and ideas. His work does still resonate today.
~Paul Bonesteel
Born in Galesburg , Illinois, in 1878,
Carl Sandburg lived much of his life in
the American midwest, but moved to
North Carolina, to the farm known as
Connemara, with his wife, daughters, and
grandchildren in 1945. Connemara is a
246-acre antebellum estate in Flat Rock,
North Carolina, where Sandburg would
write over a third of his published work
until dying of natural causes in 1967.
But more than 40 years after his death,
Sandburg is still very much in evidence in
American culture. In 2005, filmmaker and
Asheville native Paul Bonesteel ruminated on the legacy of Carl Sandburg, the
twentieth century Pulitzer Prize-winning
poet and Lincoln biographer who is said to
have embodied the modern American spirit
more authentically than any other writer.
The quote above is taken from
Bonesteel’s blog, a series of informal
musings, anxieties, and questions that
Winter/Spring 2013
chronicles the seven-year process of
making The Day Carl Sandburg Died. The
film aired in September 2012, as a PBS
nationally-syndicated documentary film
and part of the American Masters series,
what the industry considers the pinnacle
of biographical storytelling through film.
As Bonesteel and his team worked
through the film’s creation, they applied
for and received grants from three state
humanities councils: Illinois, Nebraska,
and North Carolina. These grants gave
Bonesteel access to a star-studded
national slate of Sandburg’s contemporaries, protégés, friends, family, and
scholars whose perspectives populate
the film with intimacy and analysis. The
work grounds Sandburg in flesh and
blood while asking big questions that cast
his spirit and legacy into the atmosphere
where they hang suspended, calling on
the viewer to determine its direction.
In June of 2007, Bonesteel and The
Friends of Carl Sandburg at Connemara,
based in Flat Rock, applied for and
received funding from the North Carolina
Humanities Council to produce the
public humanities project Carl Sandburg:
Contemporary Perspectives and Criticism.
The project consisted of a one-day lecture
series and panel discussion, including
three prominent Sandburg scholars
from across the United States, who
would, each from a corner of Sandburg’s
world, “address the fascinating arc of
Sandburg’s career.” Bonesteel would use
this opportunity to gather these experts
in Sandburg’s late home, involve the
Flat Rock community in a critical public
discourse, and capture interviews and
footage of the scholars for The Day Carl
Sandburg Died.
The scholars included Dr. Sean Wilentz
of Princeton University, who specializes
in U.S. social and political history as well
as contemporary historical perspectives
of Sandburg and his Abraham Lincoln
biographies. Wilentz provided a unique
look at Sandburg’s scholarship on Lincoln
and its resounding effects on the art of
the biography. Also on the panel was
Dr. Evert Villarreal of the University
of Texas-Pan American, who wrote
Recovering Carl Sandburg, “an attempt
to articulate and understand the factors
that have contributed to Carl Sandburg’s
declining trajectory, which has led to a
reputation that has diminished significantly in the twentieth century… [and]
clarifies how Carl Sandburg, in various
ways, was attempting to re-invent or
re-construct American literature.” Joining
Wilentz and Villarreal was Dr. Philip
Yannella of Temple University who
authored The Other Carl Sandburg which
delves into Sandburg’s most politically
active years, from his days working
with the Social Democratic party to his
experiences covering World War I and
the Bolshevik Revolution. The book
includes detailed information about the
resulting investigations into his personal
and professional activities by the Military
enduring legacy of Sandburg and his vast
and prolific work as a quintessentially
American humanist in the adolescence
of Modernism.
Carl Sandburg at his typewriter at Connemara. Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site. Photo
by W.C. Mutt Burton.
Intelligence Division and the impact that
had on Sandburg’s writing career. These
scholars were joined by Sarah Perschall,
chief of visitor services at Carl Sandburg
Home National Historic Site.
Comments about the program indicate
“the presentations were lively with one
prominent point of debate being the
exact nature of Sandburg’s poetry: was
it ‘modernism’ or not? If it was, why did
it change? Was his poetry less successful
for its propagandistic qualities? And if
so, is that problematic? How this perception affected Sandburg’s literary legacy is
undeniable and central to the evolution
of Sandburg’s ‘recovery,’ if that is indeed
happening.”
Following the program, the scholars
toured Sandburg’s home and archives,
and Bonesteel conducted extensive interviews with each scholar. These interviews
contributed greatly to the development
of the film. It was one of the many ways
Bonesteel worked towards the completion
of the film while also bringing interactive
poetry events to the public.
The Day Carl Sandburg Died reveals the
complexity of Sandburg’s life as much
more than the poet most know. Using the
esteemed American Masters framework,
the film shows Sandburg’s beginnings
as a child of Swedish immigrants who
struck out on his own as a young man,
eventually finding work at a Milwaukee
newspaper. Using modern interviews
with Lillian, Sandburg’s wife, the film
chronicles Sandburg’s early struggles
as an aspiring poet in Chicago and then
the breakthrough publication of Chicago
Poems, which articulates with stark
imagery the plight of the working class
in the early twentieth century. Detailing
his family life and work on the popular
children’s work The Rootabaga Stories;
his role as musician and songwriter
of American folk tunes; and his multivolume, Pulitzer Prize-winning biography
of Abraham Lincoln, the film details
the great breadth of Sandburg’s writing
as well as his controversial methods —
which some say contributed to his decline
in the literary and historical realms of
academia. Also portrayed is Sandburg’s
staunch support of socialism and the
I am with all rebels
everywhere. Against all
people who are satisfied.
~Carl Sandburg
Bolshevik Revolution, which earned him
an FBI file. Rare and intimate historical
footage coupled with contemporary
interviews with scholars, protégés,
contemporaries as well as family, The
Day Carl Sandburg Died explores the
On completion of the film, Bonesteel
began initial distribution to dozens of film
festivals and media outlets, but also to
those closest to Sandburg and his family.
Responses came back with a resounding
affirmation and celebration of the film,
its honest treatment of Sandburg, and
a resurgent trumpeting of the man, the
poet, the activist. From the film’s premier
in April 2011 at RiverRun International
Film Festival in Winston-Salem, local
screenings at Asheville Wordfest, and the
Black Earth Film Festival in Sandburg’s
hometown of Galesburg, Illinois,
Bonesteel presented the film with discussion at sold-out auditoriums for months
leading up to the PBS airing on September
24, 2012. The culmination of the film’s
tour de force was in Chicago at the Poetry
Foundation’s centennial celebration, the
institution and publication that first thrust
Sandburg into the public eye in 1914.
From local media publications The
Mountain Xpress and the Galesburg
Register Mail to the New York Daily News,
all have hailed the film as a “masterfully constructed and inspirational visual
essay on the legendary poet, writer and
folk singer.” John Steichen, Sandburg’s
grandson, wrote to Bonesteel on first
seeing the film, “Outstanding! Beautiful!
You were able to pull the man committed
to total anarchy into the man who was a
poet, musician, and family man. I am so
happy that you showed him to be a revolutionary.” Steichen went on to describe
his mother, Helga, as being “delighted
and totally captivated” by the film.
Pulitzer Prize winner Studs Terkel
conjures the gestalt of the film with a
quote from Sandburg’s swansong, The
People, Yes. “Where to? What Next?”
Terkel suggests that Sandburg’s work
— so too the film — reminds us, “What
other questions can we ask today?”
|
7
Bonesteel Films
Bonesteel Films is a team of video craftspeople. The president, Paul Bonesteel,
has been a director and camera operator
for over 25 years. His passion for film
and video production is deeply rooted in
the craft of documentary films, and he
has produced eight nationally-distributed
feature documentaries. This documentary skill set has translated into uniquely
authentic and refined commercial and
corporate projects.
Documentary filmmaking has been
woven into the company’s work for
many years. The search for stories and
authenticity informs the many ways they
continue to produce media today. Since
1990 Paul Bonesteel has created provocative documentary films. His subjects
reflect a diversity of interests and experiences, from the story of an American
icon in The Day Carl Sandburg Died to
a mysterious Japanese photographer in
The Mystery of George Masa. Earlier films
delved into the fall of communism in If
the People Will Lead and the complex
family dynamics of fathers and sons
in Caribou Bones. Consistent in all the
films is a story where art and expression
weave in and out of the human experience. For more on Bonesteel Films, visit
www.bonesteelfilms.com.
Paul Bonesteel. Photo by Rimas Zailskas.
In the
Words of the
Filmmaker
Paul Bonesteel
Paul Bonesteel was introduced to Carl
Sandburg by way of his mother, the
famous quilter Georgia Bonesteel, who
volunteered as a cataloguer at Connemara
where Bonesteel grew up roaming the hills
and halls of Sandburg’s late home. During
his conversation with Donovan McKnight
for the article on the previous page,
Bonesteel expressed the following thoughts:
Sandburg then was a distant grandfatherly figure in photos, unfathomable to
some extent. But the goats were real, the
cats were real, the hippie poetry teacher
was real, and the place seemed to have a
magic about it. Sandburg seemed to me
then as some sort of magician, capable of
both the simplest poems and enormous
books that I wouldn’t read for many
years. There were cigar butts and papers
still where he left them. Guitar strings
that he had casually strummed. All of it
rich with history and importance, but yet
humble and tangible.
The Day Carl Sandburg Died premiered as
part of PBS’s American Masters series on
September 24, 2012, and was viewed by 1.3
million people. The full film can be viewed
online at any time by visiting http://video.pbs.
org/program/american-masters/.
Throughout my adult life, I started
reading Sandburg more deeply. He’s a
fascinating man. And I couldn’t believe
that someone hadn’t done a modern
film about him. He’s too interesting and
too amazing an artist. He’s such a great
voice to celebrate. His ideas, for me, tied
into a lot of contemporary discussions,
especially his interest in fighting for the
working class and poor people. What
is the middle class? What rights should
workers have? Are unions good or bad?
These are all topics that Sandburg was
dealing with, as was America, in the early
part of the 20th century, in a volatile
artistic and political environment. It was
really exciting to me that Sandburg could
reflect some interesting thoughts on our
current situation. So, I never really feel
like I’m truly lost or back in time when
I’m doing a historical piece, because all
of it relates to me in the present tense.
Democracy. Creativity. Study. Music.
Reality. Optimism. Fantasy. Expression.
Struggle. Truth. I think about these
ideas and what we can learn through
Sandburg’s experience. I think about my
early childhood visits to the big white
house with goats and books and guitars...
and I think about expressing those things
forward to the next generation.
When people of any generation read
Sandburg, they are inspired in some way.
His rags-to-riches story is a testament to
the possibility life holds. In the making of
this film, I found references everywhere
to Sandburg, mostly little quotes, little
excerpts which convey so much of him
and his ideas: “I don’t know where I’m
going, but I’m on my way.” They have
been dispersed like from a crop duster.
And they keep coming back. You can see
references to The American Songbag in
contemporary music. I wanted this film to
raise the waterline of popular awareness
of Sandburg. As Pete Seeger says, everybody that’s working for good in the world,
it’s like a teaspoon of sand in a bucket. A
thousand years go by, and at one point,
the whole thing shifts, and the great
calamity comes, and people ask, “How did
it happen so suddenly?” We all have to do
our part for the pursuit of truth, democracy, and justice. And that’s what this film
is: A way to bring Sandburg a little bit
higher in our awareness. I really believe
he’s on his way back to our greater appreciation. He belongs there.
The [Humanities Council] grant allowed
me to spend real time with these scholars,
so my comfort level with the material
increased, because I was really able to
understand their study of Sandburg. This
shored up my filmmaking desire with
substance and gave me confidence that
this subject matter was as important as
I initially thought. All this led to a larger
portrait of Sandburg as more than just a
poet, but many-faceted. Good filmmaking
is about expressing these ideas, not just
having a book about it. All these scholars
brought passion, personality, and a
commitment to telling the story. The most
motivating thing for me as a filmmaker is
finding people that care about the story.
From Pete Seeger to Studs Terkel to these
scholars, they were all very enthusiastic,
“Yes, let’s do this!” These voices were
essential to film.
I went to NC State and got a BA in
communication. It was so valuable. I
appreciate it now more than I did then:
the value of having a broad humanities
experience in school. People ask me
where I went to film school. And that
would have been nice. But I wouldn’t
trade that for the English classes I had at
State, or the sociology classes. I’m not a
fan of the one-track, learn-to-be-an-editor,
art school model. Looking at the world
more broadly was more important to me.
I draw on those things with my work now.
Sandburg too would have appreciated the
Humanities Council model of the expression of academic work in a public venue,
especially literature and the humanities.
He was literally on a train or a stage doing
his thing, performing, his whole life. He
loved the interaction with the public. As
his poetry indicates, he wrote to be heard,
not just to write. He wanted to be heard.
He wanted to share it with the people.
For a project director and filmmaker, the
involvement with the humanities councils
is a pat on the back, it’s a kick in the butt;
it’s a motivation to have this expectation placed on you to achieve and to get
the scholars involved. You can make a
lot of films without that involvement,
but they don’t hold as much water, they
don’t have as much weight. The work of
Democracy. Creativity. Study. Music.
Reality. Optimism. Fantasy. Expression.
Struggle. Truth. I think about these
ideas and what we can learn through
Sandburg’s experience.
the humanities councils is facilitating.
Filmmaking is collaborative, and I
needed to have these scholars reaffirming
the work.
I want to encourage the public to keep
digging and exploring. It’s easy to
discount the humanities. But if we are a
democracy, you have to fund the humanities. There must continue to be vehicles
for encouraging the pursuit of knowledge
and truth. History, literature, storytelling,
and cultural preservation shouldn’t be
minimized. It’s too important. Looking
ahead, I’ll continue to look for subjects
that make good, entertaining films, but
also I’ll search out the subject matter that
is culturally significant. There have to be
people out there making nutritional film.
It’s not easily done.
The Friends of Carl Sandburg at Connemara
The Friends of Carl Sandburg
at Connemara, Inc., is an independent,
volunteer, nonprofit support group to the
Carl Sandburg Home National Historic
Site in Flat Rock, NC, managed by the
National Park Service. Founded in 1988,
it is the mission of The Friends to educate
the public on the enduring legacy of
Carl Sandburg through free educational
programs for school children, promotion and support of Sandburg-related
events, and the preservation of artifacts. Past Friends-supported activities
include events such as performances by
Sandburg’s Vagabond Players, in residence at the Flat Rock Playhouse. The
Friends also support a poetry celebration,
a folk music festival, and a Lincoln series
throughout the year. Each of the activities is offered to the public free of charge
thanks, in part, to The Friends’ support.
The Friends generate primary financial
support through fundraising and membership dues. Additionally, members of The
Friends volunteer their time supporting
the National Park rangers, providing
guide service and information to visitors,
and helping to catalogue and preserve
documents and Sandburg memorabilia.
To find out more about The Friends of
Carl Sandburg at Connemara, visit www.
friendsofcarlsandburg.org.
The Sandburg home at Connemara in summertime. Courtesy Carl Sandburg Home National
Historic Site.
|
9
Revisiting Sam Greenlee’s
Novel and Film The Spook
Who Sat by the Door
Sheila Smith McKoy
On September 30, 2012, at the
Carl Sandburg playing his guitar. Photo by
William A. Smith. Courtesy Carl Sandburg
Home National Historic Site.
A Select Carl Sandburg
Bibliography
Sandburg, Carl. Abraham Lincoln: The
War Years. New York: Harcourt Brace
and Company, 1939.
---. Chicago Poems. New York: Henry
Holt and Company, 1916.
---. Rootabaga Stories. San Diego:
Harcourt Brace and Company, 1922.
---. The American Songbag. New York:
Harcourt Brace and Company, 1927.
---. The Chicago Race Riots of 1919. New
York: Harcourt Brace and Howe, 1969.
---. The People, Yes. New York: Harcourt
Brace and Company, 1936.
In addition, American Masters posted
a tribute to Sandburg’s The American
Songbag on its website. It is complemented with a Spotify playlist of
Sandburg singing everything “America,”
from the mountains to the boll weevil.
It can be found at http://www.pbs.
org/wnet/americanmasters/episodes/
carl-sandburg-sings-america/2181/.
Winter/Spring 2013
Hayti Heritage Center in Durham,
the Southern Black Film and Media
Consortium, with the support of a large
grant from the North Carolina Humanities
Council, presented a film and a panel
discussion focused on the independent
documentary film Infiltrating Hollywood:
The Rise and Fall of the Spook Who Sat
by the Door (2011), directed by Christine
Acham. The documentary chronicles the
story of the controversial 1973 film The
Spook Who Sat by the Door, which was
based on the ground-breaking novel by
the same name that was published by
Sam Greenlee in 1969. The novel tells the
story of the first African American in the
FBI who counters plots against the black
community by his employer through
his direct organizing of gangs in urban
centers. The film presents a very different
view of black life from that presented in
the Blaxploitation films that defined the
era, is considered one of the most important black productions of the era, and
now has a major cult following.
Infiltrating Hollywood reveals how
Greenlee and North Carolina native Ivan
Dixon used the film industry’s biases
about black-themed films in the 1970s to
attract industry support. Although United
Artists signed The Spook Who Sat by the
Door, the studio was surprised to find that
the film did not conform to the stereotypical stories and portraits that defined
the Blaxploitation era. Instead, the film
portrayed black activists who were willing
to fight for freedom. For these reasons,
United Artists elected not to produce
the film. But it was this combination
of protest and challenge to racism that
drew actor, director, and producer Ivan
Dixon to the project. Greenlee wrote a
screenplay based on his novel and worked
with Dixon to produce the film. Dixon,
who graduated from Lincoln Academy
in Gaston County, NC, and from North
Carolina Central University in 1954,
directed the film. Both Dixon and Greenlee
used personal funds to finance the film.
The filmmakers also depended upon a
group of private investors, black and
white, whose belief in the project made it
possible, including the full support of the
city of Gary, Indiana, in cooperation with
the city’s first black mayor, Richard G.
Hatcher. These grassroots efforts made it
possible for Greenlee and Dixon to make
The Spook Who Sat by the Door.
In a panel discussion after a showing
of Infiltrating Hollywood, humanities
scholars contextualized The Rise and
Fall of the Spook Who Sat by the Door in
the early 70s and addressed the challenges of the film adaptation of the
highly acclaimed and controversial novel.
The panel included Dr. Joseph Jordan,
Director of the Sonja Haynes Stone
Center for Black History and Culture
at the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill; Dr. Charlene Register,
Associate Professor of African and African
American Studies at UNC at Chapel Hill;
Mr. Dante James, a three-time Emmy
Award winning filmmaker; and myself,
Humanities Council grant project director,
director of the African American Cultural
Center and the Africana Studies Program
at North Carolina State University. The
program drew a capacity audience of
scholars, students, and members of the
community, all of whom engaged in
discussion about the impact of Greenlee’s
novel and the film he co-produced
with Dixon.
The panelists’ comments focused on the
history and production of the film, the
wide-reaching impact of Greenlee’s
work, and Sam Greenlee himself, who
— like Dan Freeman, the novel’s main
character — trained as an intelligence
officer in the 1960s. As Joseph Jordan
noted, Greenlee and Dixon capitalized
on the blindness of American racism
in the process. Even Greenlee’s use of
the term “spook” asked his audiences
to consider looking at the project from
multiple perspectives. In the slang of
the era, “spook” referred to both black
Americans and to spies. As importantly,
the term asks audiences to consider
the fact that race has been haunting
American culture since its inception.
In using the word “spook,” Greenlee
connects the spy novel with a wide body
of African American literature focused
on how racism makes individuals invisible. This invisibility allows Greenlee’s
protagonist to mount a guerilla campaign
against American racism, while never
being seen as having the intelligence,
cunning, or capacity to do so.
The Spook Who Sat by the Door has had
wide-reaching impact for those conversant with the era and for contemporary students, scholars, and the public
interested in how race impacts American
culture. Universal Pictures had agreed
to distribute the film; however, the
company — similar to United Artists —
thought it was buying the rights to yet
another Blaxploitation film, many of
which became blockbusters by the then
industry standards. The studio, with
the added influence of the FBI, quickly
pulled the film out of theatres. It was
re-released on DVD in 2004. Many of the
audience members remembered seeing
the film advertised in 1973, only to find
it was no longer screening when they
went to see it.
Daniel Choi, a student from North
Carolina State University, noted that the
documentary and discussion opened his
eyes to a view of American history that
otherwise would have been lost to him.
Thus Infiltrating Hollywood tells the story
about the life and legacy of Greenlee, his
novel, and the film for both the audience
denied the original opportunity to see the
film and contemporary audiences who
can discover through the history of The
Spook Who Sat by the Door an alternative
reading of race in 1970s America. Too
ill to attend the panel discussion of the
documentary, Sam Greenlee, even at age
82, is still contributing to the conversation about how race operates in American
culture for a new generation.
The panel discussion and screening
of the documentary was the inaugural
program sponsored by a unique collaborative called the Southern Black Film
and Media Consortium. The SBFMC is
a partnership linking the NCSU African
American Cultural Center and the
Original film poster for The Spook Who
Sat By the Door. Courtesy Monarch Home
Entertainment.
Africana Studies Program; the UNC Sonja
Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture
and History; the Mary Lou Williams
Black Cultural Center at Duke University;
film/media/Africana Studies programs
at Bennett College, University of North
Carolina at Greensboro, Shaw University,
St. Augustine’s University, and North
Carolina Central University; and the Hayti
Heritage Center. In future, the SBFMC
will continue to engage in conversations
about the importance and impact of
black film and filmmakers. The consortium welcomes anyone interested in or
engaged with films focused on African,
African American, and African Diaspora
cultures and experience. For more
information, visit http://sites.duke.edu/
trianglefilmconsortium/.
Dr. Sheila Smith McKoy, a native of Raleigh, NC, is the director of
the African American Cultural Center and of the Africana Studies
Program at North Carolina State University. An associate professor
of English and Africana Studies, Smith McKoy is also the editor of
Obsidian: Literature in the African Diaspora.
| 11
ROAD
SC H O L AR S
A Message of Relevance
Randell Jones
“I never knew that.”
“Why don’t they teach that in school?”
“That’s the most amazing story.”
I hear those responses quite often
after speaking to audiences gathered to
take in one of my programs as a scholar
for the North Carolina Humanities
Council’s Road Scholars program. It has
been my good fortune and honor to serve
the Humanities Council as a speaker since
2007. I offer four different programs to
audiences across the state, all of them
having to do with North Carolina’s
fascinating history. I have found North
Carolinians to have a real love for their
heritage, and they always seem to enjoy
hearing something more about stories
they already know as much as they do
stories they never suspected to be true.
And, I have found that newcomers to the
state have become enthralled with our
heritage as well.
My presentation on “Famous and
Infamous Women of North Carolina” is a
real crowd-pleaser, especially with audiences who have a lot of experience with
marriage. The laughter and elbowing of
spouses tells me the audience is resonating with the true tales that sound too
much like fiction. The stories for that talk
come from the book Scoundrels, Rogues,
and Heroes of the Old North State, a work
I edited in collaboration with the stories’
author, Dr. H.G. Jones, former director of
the North Carolina Office of Archives and
History.
Many of my audiences have been captivated by the story of the Overmountain
Men of 1780 as recounted in the awardwinning book Before They Were Heroes
at King’s Mountain. Too few people even
know that the American Revolution was
fought in the South, much less won
here; and this heroic tale is a great North
Carolina story, too. In fact, most of the
330-mile Overmountain Victory National
Historic Trail, a unit of the National Park
Service, lies in North Carolina. After my
talks, some in the audience immerse
themselves in the larger story of the
American Revolution, and others start
looking for their own Revolutionary War
ancestors. Another book, A Guide to the
Overmountain Victory National Historic
Trail, gets people outdoors and onto
the trail, exploring some parts of North
Carolina and a story they may not have
known well before.
Daniel Boone has been my perennial
opportunity for speaking, both in North
Carolina and in several other states.
People know his name, but too few, even
North Carolinians, know that America’s
pioneer hero spent 21 years in our state.
I share his life story by putting his life
on the landscape, taking readers to 85
Boone-related sites spread across 11
states. People delight in Boone’s North
Carolina heritage, and they especially
value being able to touch the land he
trod as a way of connecting with him
and his era.
I eagerly mention Daniel Boone because
the anniversaries of two other Daniel
Boone stories of keen interest to North
Carolinians are about to unfold in 2013.
Randell Jones is an author and a storyteller. A Road Scholar since 2007, Jones speaks
throughout the southeast on the history and heritage of the Colonial and Revolutionary periods.
He has published seven books and one DVD. In the Footsteps of Daniel Boone received the 2006
Willie Parker Peace History Book Award, and the companion DVD, On the Trail of Daniel Boone,
received a 2006 Paul Green Multimedia Award from the North Carolina Society of Historians. With
his daughter in 2004, he co-edited Scoundrels, Rogues and Heroes of the Old North State by Dr.
H.G. Jones (no relation). A second edition was released in 2007. He has most recently released
Trailing Daniel Boone, the story of the Daughters of the American Revolution marking Daniel
Boone’s Trail from 1912–1915. The Daniel Boone Wagon Train–a journey through ‘the Sixties’
was released in March 2013. Complete information about all his work can be found at www.
DanielBooneFootsteps.com. Jones holds two engineering degrees from Georgia Tech and an
MBA from UNC at Chapel Hill. And, as do his audiences, he always enjoys hearing a good story.
Winter/Spring 2013
Sometimes, I have people tell me at one
talk that they heard me speak somewhere
else on another topic.
I like to think that I am carrying a
message of relevance to people, one audience at a time. I hope they glean from the
talk that history matters and consequently
that our actions now will have an impact
on the lives of those to follow. That is
certainly one key lesson to be learned
from looking back in time. Most of the
Q&A sessions are about dispelling historical myths and legends, or they involve
audience members sharing a story about
their North Carolina ancestors. Often
several people will express in different
ways how profoundly surprised they are
to learn the whole story I just shared.
Statue of Daniel Boone at Appalachian State University. Courtesy Appalachian State University.
One hundred years ago, from 1913 to
1915, the Daughters of the American
Revolution marked Daniel Boone’s
Trail from North Carolina to Kentucky.
They placed 45 cast iron markers across
400 miles of rugged terrain. The illustrious Mrs. Lindsay “Lucy” Patterson
of Winston-Salem and Mrs. William
Neal (Kate Bitting) Reynolds were the
leaders of this national effort, and the
North Carolina DAR are taking the lead
in celebrating this historic accomplishment nationally during the next three
years. Trailing Daniel Boone, recipient
of a 2012 Kentucky History Award from
the Kentucky Historical Society, tells the
DAR’s story.
The new year is also the 50th anniversary of the first Daniel Boone Wagon
Train, part of the state’s 300th birthday
celebration in 1963, known as the
Carolina Charter Tercentenary. The stories
of the annual commemorative wagon
train expeditions into the Blue Ridge
Mountains are captured in the book The
Daniel Boone Wagon Train–a journey
through ‘the Sixties’, 1963–1973. These
stories, unfolding across 11 years against
a backdrop of the social and political
turmoil and the technological advances
that occurred during the 1960s and early
’70s, will grab the interest of anyone who
can remember the times.
Historically, my Road Scholar audiences have been people coming to hear
a program just because they are interested in the topic; they have not necessarily read any books on the subject
beforehand. Many enjoy the storytelling
presentation and want to know more.
They are entertained for an evening, but
their interest is also piqued. That’s the
way it should work, I suppose. One talk
sometimes leads to another invitation to
speak elsewhere or to come back to the
same group later with another program.
Seldom do we have enough time to cover
everything the audience wants to talk
about; but each presentation, I think, is
helping people appreciate the value of
what a Road Scholar program might offer.
None of us is going to live long enough
to learn from our own mistakes everything we need to know about how to get
along in this world. That’s why we study
history and biographies, to learn from the
successes and failures of others. Putting
those stories in front of North Carolinians
is the work of the Humanities Council.
Sharing those stories in person and interacting with interested audiences is the
brilliance of the Road Scholars Program.
I am proud to be a part of that process.
H o w t o S po nso r a R o ad
S cho l ar s P r o g r am
An application to apply for a Road
Scholars program may be found at
www.nchumanities.org.
Questions about applying for a
program or becoming a Road Scholar
should be directed to Carolyn Allen
at [email protected] or (336)
256-0140.
| 13
L E T’S
TAL K
AB OU T
I T
Above Left: Madison County Library in Marshall, NC. Photo by Rob Amberg. Above Right:
Detail of mountain man carving/sculpture, a community-driven and led effort, on side of the
Madison County Library in Marshall, NC. Photo by Rob Amberg.
Have Books, Will Travel
Lucinda MacKethan
Joining up to be a discussion leader
for the North Carolina Humanities
Council’s Let’s Talk About It (LTAI) book
series program was an easy decision
for me. I knew I would enjoy doing just
what the series called for — talking about
books — but I did not realize that I was
also about to fulfill what had seemed an
impossible dream. For many years I had
been secretly envious of author friends
who got to go on book tours. They would
casually mention all the great places they
had visited, the book stores and library
Winter/Spring 2013
staffs who took such good care of them,
and the fun they had meeting the people
who went to hear them read — all those
lovers and buyers of books. My problem
was that I never wanted to work hard
enough to write a book-tour-worthy book.
Way too much blood, sweat, and tears
involved.
But now, as an LTAI scholar, I too can
finally say things like, “If this is Tuesday,
it must be Madison County,” as I head
off to yet another exciting new gathering
place for readers. All it takes is for
Carolyn Allen, Council program officer
for LTAI, to send out the word, and we
scholars pack our bags and crank up
the Subarus. Have book will travel: to
Henderson, Marion, Tarboro, Gastonia,
Edenton, Roxboro, Beaufort, and yes, the
charming mountain town of Marshall,
way up in Madison County, with its
beautiful library and its small group of
delightful readers, ready to wonder with
me why Mrs. Bronson could never learn
to like the small southern town where
her husband, Aaron, so heroically ran the
“Jew Store” in Stella Suberman’s memoir
of that title.
Reading over the lists of LTAI series to
choose the books a scholar would like to
talk about is like being told by a doctor to
go to a bakery and sample EVERYTHING.
Choosing the regions to which one is
willing to journey is just as hard. Every
North Carolina town — western, eastern,
or piedmont — has a library that is
uniquely worth visiting. All are buzzing
with ideas and information, lively centers
offering every kind of learning for every
citizen. The librarians and their series
participants also have hard choices to
make: will they pick the Mysteries: Clues
to Who We Are or The Journey Inward:
Women’s Autobiography series; Imagining
the Future: Scientific Revelations in Fiction
or Explorations of Faith in Literature; Tar
Heel Fiction: Stories of Home or Divergent
Cultures: The Middle East in Literature;
America’s Greatest Conflict: Novels of the
Civil War or Destruction or Redemption:
Images of Romantic Love; Mad Women
in the Attic or Beyond the Battlefield:
Alternative Views of War? There are
libraries such as the Leslie Perry in
Henderson that will probably make their
way through every single series eventually; there are libraries such as the
Richard H. Thornton in Oxford that have
just begun with their first series ever.
A lot of planning goes into creating and
maintaining the Council’s twenty-five
different series, each containing five
books scheduled to be discussed over
nine weeks with a different scholar
visiting each time. Carolyn Allen and
Kelly Brannock of The North Carolina
Center for the Book work with librarians and scholars to select, renew, and
expand the offerings, trying to attract
diversified audiences while keeping
fingers on the pulse of what is changing
in the way books are written and
published. One recently added series
that has particular meaning for me
honors a North Carolina State University
political science professor who wrote
the first, and still most highly-regarded,
study of abortion and the US Supreme
Court. Dedicated to Dr. Eva Rubin, the
series, titled Law and Literature, includes
five novels that dramatically engage the
reader in questions of justice, legality,
fact, and truth, from Herman Melville’s
Billy Budd to David Guterson’s Snow
Falling on Cedars. Every one of these
books seems particularly relevant to questions of law bedeviling us today.
In all the series, individual books connect
in intriguing ways with all the others:
reading them in sequence gives each one
a wider dimension than it would have
in isolation. In The African American
Experience, each novel dramatizes a
different historical challenge, from slavery
in J. California Cooper’s Family to the
Civil Rights era in Bebe Moore Campbell’s
Your Blues Ain’t Like Mine. In spite of
the differences across time, place, and
circumstance, all of the novels come back
to critical affirmations or disjunctions of
intergenerational families.
At any LTAI gathering, no one can predict
what will happen when everyone settles
Dr. Lucinda MacKethan is Alumni Distinguished Professor
of English Emerita at North Carolina State University,
where she taught courses primarily in Southern and
African American literature. She is the author or editor
of six books, including the co-edited Companion to
Southern Literature, which was named a “Best Reference
Work” by the American Library Association. A former
chair of the North Carolina Humanities Council, she is
a Road Scholar as well as a Let’s Talk About It discussion leader for the Council. She also writes curricula
and leads seminars for the National Humanities Center’s
online teacher enrichment programs.
down and the talking begins. New Bern,
for instance, has chosen the Affirming
Aging series, and I arrive to talk about
Water for Elephants, where the circus
world of 1930 and the nursing home
world of 2010 get tossed back and forth
like balls in a juggling act. Surprise:
the conversation turns away from both
old people and young love, towards the
bloody violence and cruelty that pervade
the big top. One reader brings up horrific
events in Afghanistan; several men talk
of their experiences in the armed forces
in Korea and Vietnam. Bes Spangler,
another scholar who seems ready to go
anytime, anywhere, reports having the
same kind of serendipitous exchanges
when she leads discussions of a book
about Pullman porters, Rising from the
Rails, included in another great series,
Picturing America: Making Tracks. Often,
she recalls, the discussion triggers memories of grandparents or parents who built
round houses or tended engines, or who
had to figure out how to ship cantaloupes
before refrigerated cars came along,
or who took the annual pilgrimage
to New York for Christmas shopping.
In Williamston, a reader drew a parallel
between the labor practices employed
by the early 20th century railway
managers and those employed on
cruise ships today.
Nowadays, I am happily getting better
“gigs” than my author friends. I don’t
have to produce a novel or worry about
sales and reviews, but I get to meander
all the highways and byways, to have my
say, and to relish discussing some of the
most interesting books ever written, many
of them right here in North Carolina. Best
of all, I get to learn with and from folks
who share some amazing opinions, none
of them as “off the wall” as my own.
As Aaron Bronson said in The Jew Store,
“While you’re making a living, why not
make a life.” From Marshall to Morehead
City, we book talkers are doing just that.
How to Sponsor A LET' S TALK AB OUT IT PROGRA M
An application to apply for a Let's Talk About It book, poetry, or film library discussion series may be found at
www.nchumanities.org. Questions about applying for or planning a program should be directed to Carolyn Allen
at (336) 256-0140 or [email protected]. Since 1999 the North Carolina Center for the Book and the North Carolina
Humanities Council have partnered to manage the Let's Talk About It project in North Carolina.
| 15
L INDA
F L O W ERS
L I T ERAR Y
A W ARD
2012
Semper Fi of Appalachia
Angela Kelly
Clogging
Sister Ada Tap, stomp, kick heel and sashay, little girl.
Reel, shuffle, clatter, little man.
Whirl together, hands a tremble, heart of ash.
Blood stomps down hard so
Look away from that pretty child cousin.
The Lord says Look away. Wheel off.
There’s that picture of Jesus
hung in the kitchen hall.
Glass pane hard broken,
dry wall busted alongside.
The monthly bills are there,
held inside the metal scallop frame:
Carolina Power & Light,
county water bill,
Reeves Hardware, Shanks Feed,
doctor bill from that female operation.
And she’s still laying in the back room
under her granny’s quilts,
not saying a damn word.
Buck Dance
In the Buck Dance, the Male dances alone,
Though given Women’s Lib, some women are now
High falutin’ enough to seize attention, dance solo.
Kick skirt high up the thigh. Milk skin.
Always certain men will step right up to trouble,
Bound to lay down later with a pallet of grief.
Flat Footing
Brother Amos
It’s a-pretty, each turn high, tight.
Sliding close in, no stepping away or out,
This is home, rhythm riding true.
See it, how there is jig beauty here,
like how a lone jack-in-the pulpit stands
pale, thrived by the rot of the stump.
Seemed he’d always lived alone.
In his last years he had that one-legged chicken, Carlos,
claimed he was some kind of Spanish rooster.
Amos kept trying to tie on a wooden leg,
made them himself, out of oak, chestnut, dogwood, cedar.
But that rooster would peck everything out from under,
then he would fly at Amos like a demon.
That old leathered man would say,
there now, Carlos, there now,
then give the fowl his daily feed and
his coo hood every night. How his shit littered the shack.
Then one morning, Carlos was dead, cold arc
of feathered gold, black, crimson cockscomb.
And Amos walked into the river in December.
Hoe-Down
Center stage show-outs, even the preacher man.
He’s called out many a daughter,
reared up sons, both Cain and Abel.
Pentecostal dark as that crate of rattlers,
yet stomping up straw and rooster name
in a full moon Saturday barn dance.
Semper Fi; also
Winter/Spring 2013
Semper Fidelis: Semper (Latin) sempiternus
Semper meaning always, + aeternus meaning eternal
Fidelis (Middle English: fidelite, Old French: fidelitas)
meaning faithful, of allegiance, devotion, fealty, loyality
Etta Dean
When she was sixteen, Elvis Presley came to town,
posters in the drug store, ecstasy in the girls’ bathroom.
She stole out the back door with Mary Ruth and those Cole brothers,
the auditorium smelled of sawdust, Pinesol and rancid popcorn oil.
But she and Mary Ruth had screamed and danced,
drinking Coca-Colas laced with the Cole boys’ bourbon
and after midnight, it was the Cole boys who kissed and
fondled them going home, no matter if they dreamed of Elvis or not.
And when her daddy whipped her, on the back porch,
only five belt lashes, and he was silent as usual,
she stared up at the spattered stars cresting the orchard,
she breathed in apples, hornet glazed, ground rot, October.
And she dreamed of her first heartbreak,
the beautiful curled lip of a bad man’s mouth.
Coraline
Rat’s nests, what’re you doin’ with yourself?
Her mama tries to drag a comb through her waist length red hair.
Coraline bends her long neck, keeps her eyes closed
because truth can leak right of your eyes.
These is sweet gum leaves right here in your hair
How far are you goin’ ?
Her mama tugs even harder with the comb.
I doan no sweet gum nearby here.
Coraline doesn’t say I go as far as the old graveyard
up beyond the ridge. She doesn’t say, I lay down
beside that angel grave. The angel headstone has
a broke off wing and the name of the dead, time has erased.
It might be some of her kin, it might not. The dead are just dead.
Don’t go too far, Coraline. There’s dangers in the woods.
Coraline knows full well that danger, a tall boy
named Cort Duluth, he’s tracked her sometimes all the way
up the ridge, he won’t come past the graveyard markers.
But he stays with her there the whole time,
even in rain, he watches her from the stand of sweet gum,
fierce, but silent, shy as a deer.
Roscoe Deakins
A-course I made moonshine, my daddy did, my uncles.
Once I drove Daddy’s 49 Plymouth all the way to Madison County,
I was maybe fourteen, it was about Christmas, snowin’ like blazes,
I was cold as a witch’s teat ‘cause the heater never worked right.
I’s scared them bottles in the trunk was jitterin’ loud enough to wake
the dead.
Another time when I was taking a load to Cullowhee,
that new sheriff, Wainsley, put the blue lights right on me,
I had to pop the trunk and he stood there thinking a while,
then he give fifty cent for a dollar bottle and I had to nip with
him, finally he said he ain’t never seen me. Better not again.
That night, I was about drunk going back up Pritchard Creek.
I reckon I was about nine that summer when Mama
started getting’ me up even before the rooster crowed,
I’d walk up the holler to the still in the grove
to keep the fire goin’ so Daddy, Uncle Rev and Walt
could go on home and sleep before the second shift at the mill.
Lunch time my cousin Denny would come up,
bring mama’s biscuits with sausage or ham,
sometimes just sorghum molasses. I liked it just fine.
I never did take to schoolin’ like Mae Ann or Buddy,
but Mama taught me to read the Bible, she taught me
her roots and herbs and medicines which we sold.
On Saturdays I drove my sister Pearl into town
and she always wore her good blue dress,
it was light as sky, the skirt floated around her
little bitty self just like some kind of cloud.
And she could sell anything to anyone walked by,
be it a scour wife, a tobacco man, or even a snake oil salesman.
When she died of the TB, she was but twenty year old.
I’ve took on seventy-eight years of age now, and
I still see Pearl putting Mama’s wares in the basket and
I swear to Jesus, the blue sky still don’t look right to me.
| 17
Angelita Burrows
Preacher Dwayne Whiteside
Right after Wink Burrows got killed in Korea,
his brother Ramey went about crazy. There’s
too many accounts of what all he got into to even be true,
but it was known that Sheriff Milkey told him to leave the County.
Maybe even the state.
went into the Magnolia Nursing Home right after the Easter service,
in the Year of Our Lord 1979. He’d been in need of retirement
for some time, but that Easter, he misspoke considerably.
Eating donuts on Good Friday would not send anyone to Hell.
The Lord Jesus did not have a jet airplane and the Four Horsemen
of the Apocalypse had not been sighted charging the Mayor’s house.
So he went down to South Carolina, he was down there
maybe about four, five years, said to be working the peach orchards.
That probably oughtna been true, Ramey was the smart one
of the Burrows, he coulda been a banker or a store keep,
though his Aunt Wynona, who had prophetized before,
dreamed on his birth night, he was gonna be a lawyer,
she testified she’d seen thick books and the justice scale.
Years passed and when Ramey came back home, he had him a wife,
her name was Angelita, she was Mexican or some such
and some didn’t like it, they’d didn’t cotton to the Cherokee
women either, that Hoss Goodlow and Mac Earl had married,
you was supposed to marry your own kind.
But if you saw that woman on the street,
Angelita Burrows, say outside Sup’s Diner,
or the Merchantile, you’d fallen down in some kind of stupor.
Nothing this side of the Garden of Eden should look
that fine. Though some said her eyes and her heart was black.
Eva Grace
She liked to tell people she’d been raised in a brothel in New Orleans.
It sounded better than that dirt shack up in coal mine country.
She had a ruby on a silver ring in her navel, said that was proof,
an homage to the red light district and her sweet mama, Evangeline,
looking at such a jewel, any man would pull out his money then. Sometimes
they weren’t lucky, she’d just play zydeco music on her record player,
swaying across the room in a yellow dress, singing in her whiskey voice.
Some was fine, paying for just that, their hearts was lonesomer than the body.
what Thomas Earl kept talking about in the
throes of his dementia
That mutt collie dog I brought home that spring
kept killing the chickens. That was food on the table
on Sundays, Mama wringing their necks on Saturday,
us kids plucking the feathers on the porch, the pieces
floured, fried in lard in a cast iron skillet after church.
I’d named her Lady, her head was high as a queen,
coat cascading fine as silk, I brushed ever evening after chores.
In real bad weather, we could let her in, she’d lay up in the
bed between me and little George and he would get so tickled
by her, it was really fine for us, that furry heartbeat.
But one weekend, the coop was about torn down,
feathers everywhere, floating like snow, though August.
Mama said, “Earl, go get the shotgun, you gonna hafta
lead her on up the holler. Once a dog starts killing chickens
they ain’t no use.
We can’t have this.”
So I called Lady and Mama shadowed me up the lane.
She said, “Call her out in front and put that muzzle
to the back of her head.”
I said, “Mama, I can’t do that.”
She said, “Yes, you will. Ain’t no choice here.”
My daddy was gone, on the chain-gang, we was alone.
I did it, three, four times, put my gun up against that
good blonde skull. I was cryin’ so hard, I was only eleven.
I said it again, “Mama, I can’t. Don’t make me do this.”
She put her hand against my back. “Thomas Earl,
we ain’t gonna go hungry this winter. That’s a chicken
Killing dog. What’s got to be done, has to be done now.”
Finally I closed my eyes, pulled the trigger. I still feel it.
When I looked up, Mama was long gone, she was high-tailing
it down the lane, that red gingham skirt flying like a kite.
She’d left me a handkerchief and a shovel on the ground.
Winter/Spring 2013
Sister Bessie, who claimed to be a third cousin, recorded his removal thusly,
“Unforgivable, the Church has voted for the dismissal of the Lord’s very arrow.”
Sister Bessie had never married and she tended to the melodramatic.
She’d written down most of the family history, though after she died,
in the Year of Our Lord 1994, her journals were found to be an odd fiction,
she was not well in her recollection, nor thought process, though everyone
remembered her mama, Eula, the church organist, with great affection.
But there was one entry in Sister Bessie’s journal about the last days of
Preacher Whiteside in the Nursing Home that gave us all pause:
“The nurses have complained about Preacher Whitesides’ horned toes.
One called them “terrible little devils under the sheets” and
they said, that even the strongest of nail clippers were useless
against them. How, even seemingly unconscious, the Preacher
Arthur Ray at his Mama’s Funeral
would aim a foot at any person who approached and slice them
open easy as a razor to an apple. Eventually, they had to call
He hung up the phone, said to us, “Funeral’s Thursday.” Left the room.
in a gardener with a pair of hedge shears, how everyone
She was old, sick and his visits had trailed away somehow.
on the hall heard the man curse the Lord as he clipped.
And the Reverend, who had not spoken in nigh eighteen months,
In other words, she’d been gone from him a long time.
gave answer in a strange tongue, almost like the grunt of a hog.
During the last year, he’d even spoken of her in the past tense.
Always a broad stout woman, she’d shrunk down like a puppet
He mumbled to himself, that ain’t even her in that box.
He wore his only suit, which had grown tight across his belly,
The room seemed full of strangers and whispers.
Early on, he planted his back against the chipped wall of the hall
Allowing no cousins, old neighbors or church folk to approach him blind.
They were so gray, so old, full of the Jesus Pentecostal shit he hated.
And when the preacher (certainly a stranger) called them to the parlor,
Like an altar call, saying, “Brothers and sisters, let’s join hands to pray.”
He laughed aloud, “Preacher, you ain’t never gonna jerk a tear outta me.”
As most filed to the coffin, he walked to the filling station on the corner.
The old man at the counter, had a familiar name and a Parkinson’s tremor.
They had a cup of bad coffee, talked of the weather, the closed textile mill.
When the dark hearse passed by, they fell silent, listening as a
Mechanic in the garage cursed a Chevy transmission like the devil himself.
| 19
P re v iou s R e c ipie n t s
Tara Lynn Mayes, 1975
You went away to a fancy Northern college so nobody could call you hillbilly.
You lied to explain your corn-pone accent, said you were an army brat,
had lived everywhere, all over the world. You’d studied your countries.
Freshman, sophomore year, it worked out for you, perfect deception,
but then that boy from Sevierville showed up with hound dog eyes,
said he could smell mountain on you, said you was so lonesome.
He was a drink of water, but you hid him, from everyone, even yourself,
then he went back home to the farm, no degree to show, or even wanted.
You graduated a year later, alone, a month after your mama died.
You ain’t been home since, and twenty years later, you still
remember that lanky Tennessee boy, Miller Coates, how he kissed you
fierce, sharper than a toothache, and how you’re sitting in your big house
now thinking about a dead time, a gone boy, remembering the Valentine
card he shoved under your dorm room door, it was the best thing ever,
that pink heart slip of paper: I love you better than the devil loves fire.
Angela Kelly, of Spartanburg, SC, is the
author of four poetry chapbooks, most
recently Post Script from the House
of Dreams (winner of the 2006 South
Carolina Poetry Initiative Prize, published
by Stepping Stone Press). Her full length
poetry collection Voodoo for the Other
Woman is forthcoming from Hub City
Press in March 2013. Additional individual poems have been published in numerous journals including North
American Review, The Bloomsbury Review, Nimrod, Kalliope, Rhino,
Yemassee, Inkwell, Rosebud, The Ledge, and Rattle. In addition to the
Linda Flowers Literary Award, Kelly was awarded the South Carolina
Fellowship of the Arts from The South Carolina Commission of the Arts
in 1999, received the 2011 Carrie McCray Nickens Fellowship presented
by the South Carolina Academy of Authors, received the 2012 William
Matthews Poetry Award from the Asheville Poetry Review, and has been
awarded fellowships from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and
the Vermont Studio Center.
Karen Gilchrist (2001)
Joseph Bathanti (2002)
Heather Ross Miller (2003)
Barbara Presnell (2004)
Kermit Turner (2005)
Kathy Watts (2006)
Susan Weinberg Vogel
(2007)
Kristin Hemmy (2008)
Katey Schultz (2009)
LINDA FLOW ERS LITERAR Y AW ARD
Jebbediah, Coming Home
He’s an old man now, in suspenders. He won’t even say the years.
There’s a shopping center now where Gran Pappy’s farm stood.
But Aunt Lilith’s old home place is still backwoods, snake bait,
house long burned down, but a righteous chimney still standing,
Something of a hearth drowned in weed, rhubarb out back,
blackberry bramble, crows cawing in the storm broke crabapples.
The North Carolina Humanities Council invites original, unpublished
entries of fiction, nonfiction, or poetry for the 2013 Linda Flowers Literary
Award. Submissions should celebrate excellence in the humanities and
reflect the experiences of people who, like Linda Flowers, not only identify
with North Carolina, its people and cultures, but also explore its problems
and promises.
For complete submission guidelines and prize details, see the North
Carolina Humanities Council website at www.nchumanities.org. Questions
may be directed to Donovan McKnight, program officer at 336-334-4770
or [email protected].
DEADLINE: postmark date August 15, 2013
He remembers drinking whiskey behind the church at age thirteen,
killing hogs before November frost, the charred smell of the smoke house.
A Christmas dance in the Vance’s barn, the sharp clean of his new shirt,
how Adeline pulled the collar off his neck and kissed the life out of him.
The North Carolina Humanities Council was privileged to have Linda
Flowers as one of its members from 1992 to 1998.
That my book about Eastern North Carolina might touch a chord with some
people... I had not anticipated. What [they] are responding to in Throwed
Away, I think, is its human dimensions: the focus on real men and women
having to make their way in the face of a changing, onrushing and typically
uncaring world... This humanistic apprehension, I tell my students, is
as necessary for living fully as anything else they may ever hope to have.
~Linda Flowers, in a letter to the North Carolina Humanities Council Membership
Committee, July 1992
Winter/Spring 2013
Traci Lazenby Elliot (2010)
Nancy Dew Taylor (2011)
Read more previous winning submissions
at www.nchumanitites.org/linda-flowers.
2 0 1 2 SE L ECTION COMMI TTEE
Magdalena Maiz-Peña
Council trustee and professor of Spanish
at Davidson College
Rebecca Black
poet and assistant professor of creative
writing at the University of North Carolina
at Greensboro
Lenard Moore
poet and assistant professor of language
and literature at Mount Olive College
Katey Schultz
2009 Linda Flowers Award recipient
21
2 0 1 2 :
Th e
y e ar
in
Discretionary
Grant
re v i e w
WAKE
$500 to the NC Dept. of
Cultural Resources, Raleigh
Connecting to Collections
after Hurricane Irene
$500
The 2012 Annual Report to the People
Planning Grants
Buncombe
$700 to Flood Gallery Fine Arts
Center, Asheville
Architecting the Iranian
Revolution — Paradox,
Propaganda, and Persuasion
$2,610
Grants
The North Carolina Humanities
Council awarded one discretionary
grant, four planning grants, twelve
mini-grants, and sixteen large
grants to cultural and educational
organizations to conduct humanities
programs in 2012. Funded groups
matched the Humanities Council
grants with in-kind and cash
contributions. (In-kind amounts
as reported or estimated are listed
below each project title throughout
“2012: The Year in Review.”) The
projects supported during this grant
period are integral to the Humanities
Council’s commitment to advocate
lifelong learning and facilitate the
exploration and celebration of the
Main
many voices and stories of North
Carolina’s cultures and heritage.
These programs, as sites where open
discourse resides, contributed to
the cross-fertilization of ideas and
understanding vital to encouraging
our citizens’ sense of self-worth
and practice of public engagement.
A wide range of formats included
conferences and panel discussions
that placed the public in contact
with the most current historical and
literary scholarship; exhibitions,
documentation, and visual and
archival testament to the state’s
diverse cultural heritage; and
performances and film presentations.
In retrospect, the projects provided
opportunities for deep personal
and collective reflection on the
human experience.
Main
Wake
$693 to State Capitol
Foundation, Inc., Raleigh
State Capitol and Mansion
Oral History Project$7,800
Watauga
$750 to Blowing Rock Art and
History Museum, Blowing Rock
“Photography as Art and
History” Exhibition$858
St
Buncombe
$1,200 to Buncombe County
Library, Asheville
Race, Truth, and Fiction in
Thomas Wolfe’s “The Child
by Tiger”$2,285
Carteret
$1,200 to North Carolina
Maritime History Council,
Beaufort
America’s Second War for
Independence: The Naval
War 0f 1812$2,851
Davie
$800 to Davie County Public
Library, Mocksville
Elliot Engel — The History
and Mystery of Wine$2,539
Forsyth
$1,200 to Reynolda House
Museum, Winston-Salem
Romare Bearden: A Black
Odyssey$3,320
Guilford
$1,200 to Elsewhere
Collaborative, Greensboro
Xsegregated$3,400
$1,200 to Summit Rotary
Foundation, Greensboro
Feed Festival$9,131
Halifax
$1,200 to Roanoke River
Regional Collaborative,
Roanoke Rapids
Cultural Arts Festival$1,700
Nash
$1,200 to Nash Arts Center,
Nashville
Support for Theatrical
Presentation and Panel
Discussion of You Wouldn’t
Expect$1,740
Orange
$1,200 to The Paul Green
Foundation, Chapel Hill
Paul Green Festival
$21,108
Transylvania
$1,127 to Transylvania
Heritage Coalition, Inc, Brevard
Perseverence, Strength and
Faith: The African American
Experience in Transylvania
County$4,737
Wake
$500 to Department of Cultural
Resources, Raleigh
Connecting to Collections
$500
Large Grants
BUNCOMBE
$5,152 to James Agee Film
Project, Charlottesville (VA),
Asheville
Common Ground: People,
Place and Food in the
American South, the production of a documentary film
which examines food origins
and culture of the South. $7,135
$7,000 to Mountain Area
Information Network, Asheville
Asheville Wordfest, a
multicultural poetry festival
featuring poets and citizenjournalists from varied cultural
backgrounds gathered to
explore the theme of home. $19,800
Folklife Institute, Durham
Blazing the African American
Music Trail, a project that
provided digital training for
members of eight eastern
North Carolina counties
in support of the African
American Music Trail, a
heritage tourism initiative. $47,000
Grant
Multiple Grants
Literature and Medicine
Road Scholars
Teachers Institute
Multiple Road Scholars
Winter/Spring 2013
Mini-Grants
Durham
Rastafari Union, Durham
Parallel Trajectories of
the Civil (Human) Rights
Movement and The Rastafari
Movement$1,807
Durham
$9,916 to Durham Library
Foundation, Durham
Bull City Soul Revival, a
collaboration of musicians and
scholars showcased the history
of soul music in Durham. $12,590
St
Multiple Let’s Talk About It
Yadkin
$738 to Friends of East Bend
Public Library, East Bend
Earl Norman Collection
Returns Home$738
Main
St
$3,500 to The Apprend
Foundation, Durham
Making the Union Tavern
Mobile and More Meaningful,
the development of a mobile
tour of the Thomas Day furniture exhibition at the historic
Union Tavern, home and shop
of the acclaimed free African
American cabinetmaker. $5,000
Gaston
$5,402 to Gaston College,
Dallas
Celebrando America Latina,
a speaker and film discussion
series covering the Latin
American experience in North
Carolina and beyond with a
special emphasis on culture
and labor. $14,560
Guilford
$9,540 to Touring Theatre of
North Carolina, Greensboro
Look Back the Maytime
Days: From the Pages of
Fred Chappell, a stage
production of author Fred
Chappell’s family stories in
Western North Carolina. $23,735
$5,000 to University of North
Carolina at Greensboro,
Greensboro
Past the Pipes: Stories of
the Terra Cotta Community,
a permanent exhibition that
examines the African-American
history and people of the
Pomona Terra Cotta Company
community five miles from
downtown Greensboro.
$6,986
Mecklenburg
$3,800 to Central Piedmont
Community College, Charlotte
Fight for Education Equality:
A First-Hand Account, an
interactive panel discussion
that transported participants to
the events of the mid-twentieth-century school integration
movement. $10,691
$2,299 to University of North
Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte
Without Sanctuary: A
Conference on Lynching and
the American South, with the
Without Sanctuary exhibit at
the Levine Museum of the New
South, scholars and the public
explored questions about
American and southern culture,
racial and ethnic violence.
$2,299
North Carolina Stories
M
ain St
| 23
Grants continued
Orange
$6,560 to WUNC FM 91.5,
Chapel Hill
WUNC Pop-Up Music Club,
pilot radio productions using a
new format that captures live
music and musicians in their
cultural and historical context.
$7,167
Person
$10,000 to Hidden Voices,
Cedar Grove
None of the Above: Power,
Priviledge and the School to
Prison Pipeline, a collaboration
examining the intersection of
race, poverty, education, and
incarceration. $195,225
Surry
$5,000 to Mount Airy Museum of
Regional History, Mount Airy
Geocaching for History, a
project that utilized GPS technology to provide a new way to
experience regional history.
$5,163
The Teachers
Institute
The Teachers Institute sponsored three seminars in 2012 with 74
participants from 25 counties. The
first of these seminars was conducted
in March, led by Dr. Benjamin Filene
(UNC Greensboro, Public History), and
was held at Barton College in Wilson,
NC. Designed in collaboration with
three sites chosen to host Journey
Stories, a traveling exhibition from
the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum
on Main Street, this seminar engaged
teachers from Pender, Robeson, and
Wilson counties who learned how to help
their students become digital curators
of stories and artifacts from their own
families and communities. As a result of
this workshop, teachers were able to work
with their students to conduct oral histories, to collect and photograph illustrative
artifacts for these stories, and to edit and
upload this material on a Smithsonian
Institute dedicated website. Caroline
Courter, a first-grade teacher in Pender
County, engaged not only her students,
but their parents in conducting family
oral histories. Her young students learned
how to compose and ask questions as
well as how to use a flip camera and other
equipment.
Winter/Spring 2013
Wake
$4,900 to African American
Cultural Center, Raleigh
Infiltrating Hollywood: A
Program Presented by the
Southern Black Film and
Media Consortium, a screening
of the documentary film
Infiltrating Hollywood: The Rise
and Fall of the Spook Who Sat by
the Door and a panel discussion
by humanities scholars and filmmakers who contextualized and
critically situated the film.
$5,200
Museum of History, Raleigh
Al Norte al Norte: Latino Life
in North Carolina, a year-long
photography exhibition with
bilingual descriptions that
accompanied photographs by
the Pulitzer Prize-winning José
Galvez. $62,182
The second seminar, the annual weeklong Summer Seminar, was held in
Chapel Hill. Led by scholars Dr. Anne
Baxter (NC State University, English), Dr.
Rachel Willis (UNC Chapel Hill, American
Studies), and Dr. David Zonderman (NC
State University, History), participants
engaged in an in-depth study of railroads, Laying Down Tracks: A Study of
Railroads as Myth, Reality, and Symbol.
Participating educators reported in a sixmonth follow-up assessment the various
ways they have used materials from this
seminar to enhance their curriculum and
meet required objectives. For example,
Guilford County high school history
teacher Sharon Sullivan reported that her
students have “assessed the competing
forces of expansionism, nationalism, and
sectionalism” using many of her summer
seminar materials. She added that the
content knowledge she gained from the
scholars also helped her revise and focus
her lesson planning. Penny Freeland,
a middle school art and drama teacher
from Yadkin County, reported that she
has designed an enrichment social studies
class using materials and information
from the seminar. And Cole Osborne,
an English and humanities instructor at
Guilford Technical Community College,
reported that he used much of the seminar
material to illustrate the theme of equality
in America in his English classes and is
using many of the digital resources from
the UNC libraries presented at the seminar
to bring his Southern Culture class new
YANCEY
$4,681 to Traditional Voices
Group, Burnsville
Singing the Blues: Considering
the History and Practitioners
of the Piedmont Blues, the fifth
annual RiddleFest celebrating
the life and art of Yancey County
resident Lesley Riddle, African
American musician of significant
relevance to mountain music
culture. $5,195
materials as well as additional primary
sources. These examples are symbolic
of the responses of many of the seminar
participants who are working with new
ideas and new materials in their teaching
that they would not have had without the
seminar experience.
The third seminar, Journey Stories in
Western North Carolina, was held in
October at Cullowhee in collaboration with Western Carolina University’s
Mountain Heritage Center which was
hosting the Journey Stories exhibition at
the time. Participants worked with Dr.
Scott Philyaw, director of the MHC, to
explore Western North Carolina journey
stories. Paisley Cloyd, a high school art
teacher from the Nash-Rocky Mount
Schools, has begun a Cherokee Journey
Story unit for her students, and is looking
forward to the opportunity to expand
and refine this work. Also attending
this seminar was Dr. Ernest Johnson
from the North Carolina Center for the
Advancement of Teaching. He will lead
these participants in a follow-up seminar
at NCCAT in April 2013. This spring
seminar is designed to assist teachers in
additional research and curriculum design
that they began at the October seminar.
As these educators return to their schools
and classrooms, they bring a refreshed
perspective and level of engagement that
will prove invaluable to their students and
colleagues alike.
Participants of the Journey Stories in Western North Carolina Teachers Institute Seminar at the Jackson County Library in Sylva in October 2012.
Photo by Lou Nachman.
2 0 1 2 T e ac h e r s I n st itut e S e m in ar s
74 participants, 25 counties: Alamance, Brunswick, Buncombe, Cabarrus, Carteret, Cleveland, Davie, Durham,
Forsyth, Gaston, Guilford, Johnston, Mecklenburg, Nash, Onslow, Orange, Pender, Robeson, Rowan, Rutherford,
Stokes, Union, Wayne, Wilson, Yadkin
Teaching Levels: 15 elementary, 26 middle, 26 high, 7 community college
Courses Represented: English/language arts, reading, exceptional children, history/social studies, psychology,
family consumer science, mathematics/algebra, sociology, computer skills, science/biology, journalism, technology,
humanities, theatre/drama, creative writing, music, rhetoric/composition, art, French, woodworking, Spanish, physical
education. Also participating were a librarian/media specialist, a school counselor, a technical facilitator, and an
assistant principal.
Special Scholarships: Three endowed scholarships awarded during 2012 sponsored the following teachers for the
week-long Summer Seminar: 1) Evon Barnes, English, Chapel Hill Carrboro Schools, Alice Smith Barkley Scholarship;
2) Casey Campbell, Exceptional Children, Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools, Culbertson-Dagenhart-Hauptfuhrer
Scholarship; 3) Jonathan Permar, History, Guilford County Schools, Moore-Robinson Scholarship.
| 25
Angela Kelly of Spartanburg, SC, has been awarded the 2012 Linda Flowers
Literary Award for her collection of poems “Semper Fi of Appalachia.” Kelly
is the author of four poetry chapbooks, most recently Post Script from the
House of Dreams (winner of the 2006 South Carolina Poetry Initiative Prize),
published by Stepping Stone Press. Her full-length poetry collection Voodoo
for the Other Woman is forthcoming from Hub City Press in March 2013.
Additional individual poems have been published in numerous journals
including North American Review, The Bloomsbury Review, Nimrod, Kalliope,
Rhino, Yemassee, Inkwell, Rosebud, The Ledge, and Rattle. In addition to
the Linda Flowers Literary Award, Kelly was awarded the South Carolina
Fellowship of the Arts from The South Carolina Commission of the Arts in
1999, received the 2011 Carrie McCray Nickens Fellowship presented by the
South Carolina Academy of Authors, and received the 2012 William Matthews
Poetry Award from the Asheville Poetry Review. Kelly has been awarded fellowships from the Virginia Center for the
Creative Arts and the Vermont Studio Center.
The 2012 John Tyler Caldwell Award
For The Humanities
Born in Faison, North Carolina, Betty McCain graduated as valedictorian from
Faison High School, attended St. Mary’s School, and graduated from the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a BA in music and Columbia
University’s Teachers College with an MA in music. The mother of two children and five grandchildren, McCain moved with her husband, physician Dr.
John McCain, to Wilson, NC, in 1956. Although working as an ambassador for
numerous causes throughout the state, she continues to make her home in
Wilson where she serves on the Board of Advisors for Barton College, raises
money for the Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park, and compiles oral histories of
World War II veterans in Wilson County. She is a member of Wilson’s First
Presbyterian Church, where she sings in the choir, and is a former deacon
and elder. Perhaps best known as the Secretary of Cultural Resources, she
Betty Ray McCain holds her Caldwell Medal.
was
appointed to this position in 1993 by Governor Jim Hunt and served in this
Photo by Keith Tew Photography.
capacity until 2001. During her tenure as Secretary, McCain was instrumental
in the building of the current North Carolina Museum of History; in securing
additional land for the North Carolina Art Museum; in securing major funding for the building of Meymandi Hall, home
of the North Carolina Symphony; and in securing major funding for the excavation of the Queen Anne’s Revenge, the
ship of the pirate Blackbeard. McCain is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, among them the UNC General
Alumni Association Distinguished Service Medal, the Design Guild Award from the NCSU College of Design, and the
Distinguished Citizen of the Year Award from the Wilson Chamber of Commerce. In 2006, McCain was awarded the
North Caroliniana Award from the North Caroliniana Society and is the 2009 recipient of the North Carolina Award,
the highest civilian award bestowed by the state for public service.
Winter/Spring 2013
The popularity of the Let’s Talk About It library discussion series continues to grow. The interchange of ideas among participants, scholars, and sponsoring librarians makes the Let’s Talk About It experience rich and rewarding for all. Let’s Talk About It
brings people together around thematic approaches to universal ideas and provides a safe environment for broadening horizons.
Through a civil discourse on issues as broad as Picturing America: Land of Opportunity to Writers from North Carolina’s Literary
Hall of Fame, audiences and scholars draw on each other’s knowledge to share a common experience through the framework
of literature.
Twenty one libraries sponsored series in fiscal year 2012, offering twenty seven series to over 3,000 participants. Let’s Talk About
It is a joint project of the North Carolina Humanities Council and the North Carolina Center for the Book, a program of the North
Carolina State Library/Department of Cultural Resources and an affiliate of the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress.
ALAMANCE
$1,000 to Alamance County Public
Library, Burlington
Not For Children Only$2375
$1,000 to Chatham Community
Library, Pittsboro
Journeys Across Time and Place
$1,700
Brunswick
$800 to Friends of the Southport
Library, Southport
Journey Inward: Women’s
Autobiograpy$2,360
Craven
$1,000 to Craven Community
College — Havelock Public Library,
Havelock
Tar Heel Fiction: Stories of Home
$1,826
Cabarrus
$1,000 to Cabarrus County Public
Library, Concord
Picturing America: Places in
the Heart$1,892
Carteret
$1,000 to Carteret County Public
Library, Beaufort
Making Sense of America’s
Civil War$1,900
$1,000 to Carteret County Public
Library, Beaufort
Picturing America: Land
of Opportunity$4,376
Chatham
$1,000 to Friends of the Chatham
Community Library, Pittsboro
Mysteries: Clues to Who We Are
$2,432
$1,000 to New Bern Craven County
Public Library, New Bern
Affirming Aging$2,849
Cumberland
$1,000 to Cumberland County
Public Library & Information Center,
Fayetteville
Mad Women in the Attic
$4,193
$1,000 to Cumberland County
Public Library & Information Center,
Fayetteville
$3,382
Davidson
$1,000 to Friends of the Lexington
Library, Lexington
$1,700
Davie
$1,000 to Davie County Public
Library, Mocksville
Making Sense of America’s Civil
War$1,500
Martin
$1,000 to Martin Memorial Library,
Williamston
Picturing America: Making Tracks
$3,800
Pasquotank
$1,000 to Pasquotank-Camden
Library, Elizabeth City
Civil War$1,225
Edgecombe
$1,000 to Edgecombe County
Memorial Library, Tarboro
Altered Landscapes$1,122
McDowell
$1,000 to Friends of McDowell
County Public Library, Marion
Tar Heel Fiction: Stories of Home
$1,039
Person
$1,000 to Person County Public
Library, Roxboro
Granville
$1,000 to Richard H. Thornton
Library, Oxford
America’s Greatest Conflict
$1,267
Haywood
$600 to Friends of Haywood County
Public Library, Waynesville
Novels of Jane Austen$939
$1,000 to Friends of Haywood
County Public Library, Waynesville
$1,549
Iredell
$1,000 to Iredell County Library,
Statesville
$1,000 to Friends of McDowell
County Public Library, Marion
Civil War$1,135
Vance
$1,000 to Friends of H. Leslie Perry
Memorial Library, Henderson
$2,468
Mecklenburg
$1,000 to Beatties Ford Road
Library, Charlotte
The African American Experience:
Looking Forward, Looking Back
$1,400
Warren
$800 to Warren County Memorial
Library, Warrenton
Picturing America: Making Tracks
$1,475
Nash
$1,000 to Braswell Memorial
Library, Rocky Mount
$1,499
North Carolina Stories
In 2012, the Humanities Council launched a new grant opportunity, North Carolina Stories, a grant of up to $2,000 to
produce a digital public humanities project around the theme of “movement.” The Council supported two North Carolina
Stories projects from The Friends of the Jackson County Public Library and Wake Forest University. The first examined
local journey stories of western NC; the second hosted online videos of NC immigrants telling their stories of migration.
The Council is proud to be a part of this new digital method of public humanities engagement, broadening audiences on
an international scale, and expanding the life of these projects.
Forsyth
$2,000 to Wake Forest University, Ethnic Studies Program, Winston-Salem
Where Are You From? Stories of Migration to North Carolina in Our Own Words
$2,000
Jackson
$2,000 to Friends of the Jackson County Library, Sylva
In, Out, Through and Back Again: Smoky Mountain Journeys
$29,504
| 27
Road Scholars
$271 to Piedmont Crossing
Retirement Community, Thomasville
North Carolina in a Bottle$440
Road Scholar programs were held in 54 counties in fiscal year 2012, with a total attendance of 7,098 people. Sponsoring
organizations included historical societies, civic groups, community colleges, churches, libraries, retirement centers, museums,
and universities, from the mountains to the coast. Discussions on history, music, literature, and religion led to exchanges of information and ideas, connections with neighbors, and an expanding sense of community. Civil discourse broadens horizons
as program participants from widely diverse cultural backgrounds, academic levels, and beliefs come together to gain knowledge
and new perspectives from scholars and from each other.
ALAMANCE
$350 to Alamance Community
College Foundation, Graham
Nazi POWs in the Tar Heel State
$750
$347 to Alamance County Historical
Museum, Burlington
Hard Times in the Mill$473
$282 to Haw River Historical
Society, Haw River
God in Southern Story and Song
$313
$309 to Haw River Historical
Society, Haw River
Race to the Dan$455
$350 to Mebane Historical Society
and Museum, Mebane
Nazi POWs in the Tar Heel State
$455
$304 to Bladen Community College,
Dublin
Slave Voices in North Carolina
$620
Brunswick
$315 to Winding River History
Group, Bolivia
Outside the Frame: the
Astonishing Life of Whistler’s
Mother$1,295
Buncombe
$304 to Handmade in America,
Asheville
Southern Craft: a Revival in the
Mountains
$2,385
Cabarrus
$350 to Cabarrus County Public
Library, Concord
Long Legacies$878
$305 to Twin Lakes Retirement
Center, Burlington
North Carolina’s Long Civil Rights
Movement$289
$350 to Eastern Cabarrus Historical
Museum, Mount Pleasant
The Culture of Bluegrass Music in
North Carolina$651
Ashe
$350 to Ashe County Public Library,
West Jefferson
Southern Cooking, High and Low
$745
Carteret
$350 to Bogue Banks Public
Library, Pine Knoll Shores
The Lost Light$3,185
$350 to Ashe County Public Library,
West Jefferson
Lost in Translation$878
Avery
$326 to Havurah of the High
Country, Boone
Two Christian Responses to Hitler
and the Holocaust$455
$350 to Havurah of the High
Country, Boone
The Biblical Windows of St.
Stephan Church, Mainz, Germany
$715
Bladen
Dublin
License to Snoop: the Making of
Biography$755
Dublin
$550
Winter/Spring 2013
Caswell
$268 to Thomas Day House, Milton
John Day in Liberia$390
Catawba
$350 to Catawba County Library,
Newton
$930
$328 to Catawba County Library,
Newton
An Introduction to the Ancient
Maya$863
Chatham
$0 to Friends of the Chatham
Community Library, Pittsboro
Literary Trails of the North
Carolina Piedmont$520
Cleveland
$350 to Jacob S. Mauney Memorial
Library, Kings Mountain
The Jack Tales, North Carolina
Heritage Tales$688
Craven
$350 to New Bern Craven County
Public Library, New Bern
$1,050
$261 to Lewisville Historical
Society, Lewisville
Trailing Daniel Boone$579
Granville
$281 to Granville County Historical
Society Museum, Oxford
Solving the Mystery of the
Missing Cape Hatteras Fresnel
Lens$890
$250 to New Philadelphia Moravian
Church, Winston-Salem
Life as a Moravian in Old Salem
$95
War Zone: World War II Off North
Carolina’s Outer Banks$890
$350 to New Bern Historical
Society, New Bern
Outside the Frame: the
Astonishing Life of Whistler’s
Mother
$1,000
$324 to Southside Branch Library,
Winston-Salem
Septima Clark, Citizenship
Education, and Women in the
Civil Rights Movement$1,606
History of North Carolina in 45
Minutes$1,020
Society, New Bern
George Moses Horton$971
$250 to Walkertown Area Historical
Society, Winston-Salem
Do Not Toss Out Your
Grandmother’s Letters$130
Guilford
$278 to Alexander Martin Chapter
NSDAR, High Point
Before They Were Heroes at
Kings Mountain$470
$332 to Winston-Salem Writers Inc.,
Winston-Salem
Mosaic Writing: Using Fiction,
Poetry and Memoir in Creative
Nonfiction$665
$255 to American Association
of University Women, Greensboro,
Greensboro
Heritage Tales$195
Gaston
$350 to Gaston County Museum
of Art and History, Dallas
Bryan Grimes: Soldier and Citizen
$1,530
$325 to First Evangelical Lutheran
Church, Greensboro
Society, New Bern
War Zone: World War II off North
Carolina’s Outer Banks
$1,065
$350 to Twin Rivers Reading
Council, Havelock
Heritage Tales$741
Cumberland
$338 to Fayetteville Downtown
Alliance, Fayetteville
North Carolina$835
Dare
$313 to Graveyard of the Atlantic
Museum, Hatteras
North Carolina’s U-Boats: U-85,
U-701, U-352$770
Davie
$350 to Davie County Public
Library, Mocksville
The Divided Mind of Civil War
North Carolina$358
Durham
$316 to Durham Civil War
Roundtable, Durham
Heroes of a Divided Culture
$370
$319 to Pvt. Lorenzo L. Bennitt-Pvt
Robert F. Duke Camp # 773 SCV,
Durham
General Robert E. Lee: the
Autumn of His Life$539
Forsyth
$305 to Forsyth County Public
Library, Winston-Salem
Picturing America: Migration in
North Carolina$288
$350 to Friedberg Moravian Church,
Winston-Salem
Fannin’ the Heat Away$615
$350 to Gaston County Museum of
Art and History, Dallas
William Henry Singleton’s
Recollections of My Slavery Days
$1,270
$320 to Gaston County Museum of
Art and History, Dallas
The Divided Mind of Civil War
North Carolina$1,010
$350 to Gaston County Public
Library, Gastonia
Trumpet and Cornet: Influences
of Jazz$1,515
Library, Gastonia
$1,385
Library, Gastonia
Lead Belly, the Lomaxes, and
the Construction of America’s
Musical Heritage$1,158
$350 to First Presbyterian Church,
Greensboro
$1,808
The Tar Heel Traveler$590
$264 to Senior Citizens Resource of
Guilford, Greensboro
The History of North Carolina in
45 Minutes$228
Harnett
$350 to Campbell University, Buies
Creek
What Happened to the Lost
Colony?$790
$293 to Harnett County Public
Library, Lillington
Haywood
$350 to Sons of Confederate
Veterans, Sanford, Maggie Valley
Henderson
$350 to Agudas Israel
Congregation, Hendersonville
Discovering Elvis$682
Johnston
$278 to Johnston County
Community College, Smithfield
Sit a Spell$310
Lee
Veterans, Sanford
Veterans, Sanford
The American Tobacco Culture:
Our Heritage$636
Greensboro
Fannin’ the Heat Away$1,436
Lenoir
$331 to Black Heritage Society, Inc.
DBA Cultural Heritage Museum,
Kinston
Forgotten Rural Black Women
$340
Greensboro, Greensboro
Exploring Faith Traditions
Through Parables and Teaching
Stories$839
$346 to Kinston-Lenoir County
Library, Kinston
Septima Clark, Citizenship
Education, and Women in the
Civil Rights Movement$475
$250 to High Point Public Library
Literacy Program, High Point
Stories From the Underground
Railroad$343
Mecklenburg
$311 to Bethlehem Center Head
Start, Charlotte
Sit a Spell$910
$269 to High Point Quilt Guild,
High Point
45 Minutes$797
$255 to Harvey B. Gantt Center for
African American Arts and Culture,
Charlotte
Poetry Pickin’s$510
The Changing South: Who’s
Benefitting, Who’s Losing$655
$350 to Harvey B. Gantt Center for
African American Arts and Culture,
Charlotte
$970
$264 to West Mecklenburg High
School, Charlotte
Breaking the Silence and Healing
the Soul$310
Moore
$350 to Moore County Historical
Association, Southern Pines
Women’s Attitudes Towards
Secession and the Civil War
$585
$336 to Sandhills Community
College, Pinehurst
North Carolina in a Bottle
$510
College, Pinehurst
Southern Cooking High and Low
$657
College, Pinehurst
Carolina Jazz Connection
$403
$255 to Sandhills Jewish
Congregation, Foxfire Village
The Biblical Windows of St
Stephan Church, Mainz, Germany
$330
$350 to The College Club, Pinehurst
A Confluence of Remarkable
Women$570
$322 to Winnie Davis Chapter
#259 United Daughters of the
Confederacy, Carthage
Women’s Attitudes Toward
$800
Nash
$350 to Nash-Rocky Mount Council
of International Reading Association,
Rocky Mount
Heritage Tales$754
New Hanover
$350 to Bellamy Mansion Museum
of History and Design, Wilmington
Thomas Day, Cabinetmaker: Man
in the Middle$820
$350 to Federal Point Historic
Preservation Society, Carolina Beach
$925
$251 to Lower Cape Fear Historical
Society, Wilmington
America Without Indians$323
$250 to Stamp Defiance Chapter
NSDAR, Wilmington
North Carolina Indians Before the
English$171
$301 to Winter Park Baptist Church,
Wilmington
Onslow
$350 to Friends of the Swansboro
Library, Swansboro
Still Cookin’$1,834
$325 to Tryon Fine Arts Center,
$305 to Surry Community College,
Tryon
Dobson
It’s Not Just a Game: Sports and
Society in North CarolinaRailroad$195
$820
$350 to Surry Community College,
Orange
Dobson
Robeson
$268 to Orange County Public
Samson and Delilah: From Pulpits
$338 to Friends of the Library
Library, Hillsborough
to Pop Stars$310
UNC-Pembroke,
Pembroke
Sincere Forms of Flattery
What Happened to the Lost
$365
Union
Colony?
$676
$350 to Lois M. Edwards Memorial
$258 to Orange County Public
$300 to UNC Pembroke Mary
Library, Marshville
Library, Hillsborough
Livermore Library, Pembroke
The Language of Film$1,186
The African American Church in
North Carolina$651
$273 to Union County Public
Works by Ernest J. Gaines
Library, Monroe
Pamlico
$805
$350 to Pamlico County Public
Rockingham
Library, Bayboro
Wake
$279 to Rockingham Community
$318 to Col. Henry K. Burgwyn
College, Wentworth
Railroad$585
Chaper Sons of Confederate
Understanding Black History as
Veterans, Wendell
Pasquotank
American History$390
$350 to Elizabeth City State
Rowan
University, Elizabeth City
$288 to American Association of
$250 to Eva Perry Regional Library,
University Women, Salisbury Branch,
Railroad$1,500
Apex
Salisbury
$350 to Museum of the Albemarle,
The Fabric of Hope and
$464
Elizabeth City
Resistance$430
$321 to Eva Perry Regional Library,
$350 to Historic Gold Hill and Mines
Railroad$1,662
Apex
Foundation, Gold Hill
Pender
Railroad$510
$286 to Historical Society of Topsail
North Carolina
$1,734
$341 to Kirk of Kildaire Presbyterian
Island, Topsail Beach
$293 to NC Transportation Museum,
Church, Cary
North Carolina Indians Before the
Spencer
English$805
Our Heritage$640
$350 to Historical Society of Topsail
Railroad$520
$250 to Lake Lynn Seniors, Raleigh
Island, Topsail Beach
$290 to Rowan Museum, Salisbury
Our Heritage$1,377
Kings Mountain$260
$254 to Library for the Blind and
Perquimans
$350 to Rowan Public Library,
Physically Handicapped, Raleigh
$350 to Sons of the American
Salisbury
The Tar Heel Traveler$1,805
Revolution, Hertford
The Language of Film$983
$250 to Meredith College Master
Moving Into the Carolina
of Science in Nutrition Program,
Rutherford
Backcountry$715
Raleigh
$350 to Town of Rutherfordton,
Person
Rutherfordton
$350 to Mount Zion United
$141
Methodist Church, Roxboro
Kings Mountain$1,070
Fannin’ the Heat Away$1,180
Scotland
$264 to Walnut Grove United
Raleigh
$350 to Scotia Village Retirement
Methodist Church, Hurdle Mills
North Carolina in a Bottle$375
Community, Laurinburg
Women’s Attitudes Toward
North Carolina$1,015
$1,310
Raleigh
Pitt
Green Design and the Quest for
$332 to Tar River Sail and Power
Stanly
Sustainability$50
Squadron, Washington
$349 to Stanly Community College,
$250 to Mordecai Historic Park,
Albemarle
Carolina’s Outer Banks$1,251
Raleigh
Gone With the Wind? Never:
Sit a Spell$65
Polk
Scarlett O’Hara and Southern
Womanhood$225
Tryon
Surry
Women in Traditional Song $287 to Mount Airy Museum of
$625
Regional History, Mount Airy
Tryon
Native Americans and Their Use
of the Environment$950
Race to the Dan: The Retreat That
Won the Revolution$678
$350 to NC Museum of History
Associates, Raleigh
Tango! The Song! The Dance! The
Obsession!$1,029
$346 to North Regional Library,
Raleigh
Do Not Toss Out Your
Grandmother’s Letters$955
| 29
Road Scholars continued
Raleigh
$255 to St. Matthew AME Church,
Raleigh
Sit a Spell$155
Raleigh
Still Cookin’$845
$350 to St. Philip Lutheran Church,
Raleigh
Scoundrels, Rogues and Heroes
of the Old North State$310
$350 to Olivia Raney Library,
Raleigh
Writing Family and Local History
From Genealogical Data, Oral
History and Family Lore$540
$350 to Parkview Manor Senior
Housing Center, Raleigh
$298 to Raleigh Sail and Power
Squadron, Cary
A North Carolina Icon Brought to
Life$423
Squadron, Cary
45 Minutes$423
Squadron, Cary
How Shipwrecks Shaped the
Destiny of the Outer Banks
$325
Veterans, Wake Forest, Wake Forest
$255 to St Paul AME Church,
Raleigh
Sit a Spell$130
The 2012 Harlan Joel Gradin
Award for Excellence in the
Public Humanities
$350 to State Library of North
Carolina, Raleigh
Writing Family and Local History
From Genealogical Data, Oral
History and Family Lore
$3,275
$250 to West Regional Library, Cary
$1,155
Sunday School Picnic, Penderlea Homestead, 1937. Photo by Ben Shahn. Courtesy
Library of Congress.
$273 to Whitaker Glen Retirement
Community, Raleigh
Women’s Attitudes Towards
Watauga
Secession in the Civil War$329 to Watauga County Library,
$730
Boone
$273 to Whitaker Glen Retirement
Community, Raleigh
John Charles McNeill: Poet
Laureate’s Home Songs$390
Warren
Library, Warrenton
$897
Library, Warrenton
Thomas Day, Cabinet Maker: Man
in the Middle$995
In the Footsteps of Daniel Boone
$645
Wayne
$318 to Old Dobbs County
Genealogical Society, Goldsboro
$333 to Wayne County Historical
Association and Museum, Goldsboro
North Carolina Indians Before
the English$615
in the Middle$395
A North Carolina Icon Brought
to Life$705
$288 to Wayne County Public
Library, Goldsboro
What If? Counterfactual
Scenarios in the American
Civil War$1,115
$350 to Wayne County Public
Library, Goldsboro
Railroad$831
Wilson
$315 to Freeman Round House
Museum, Wilson
in the Middle$490
$284 to The Book Club, Wilson
John Charles McNeill: Poet
Laureate’s Home Songs$720
$345 to Wilson County Public
Library, Wilson
On North Carolina Waters
$520
Wilkes
$350 to Wilkes County Library,
North Wilkesboro
Carolina Jazz Connection$585
Museum on Main Street’s Journey Stories
Museum on Main Street (MoMS) is a partnership between the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service and the
North Carolina Humanities Council that places exhibitions in rural and small community museums and libraries. By hosting a
Smithsonian Institution exhibition augmented by humanities programs, participating host museums and libraries embrace new
opportunities for professional training in volunteerism, philanthropy, marketing, and collections care and handling. Working
with in-state scholars, the North Carolina Humanities Council also provides resources in the form of programming grants
to help host sites prepare exhibition-related events for and about their communities. Three such grants were issued to the
sponsoring organizations that hosted Journey Stories in 2012. This funding has resulted in Pender County communities pulling
together to investigate and celebrate their immigration and transportation history at the library and throughout Burgaw. The
citizens, public officials, and Rockingham County Historical Society leadership retrofitted a former courthouse, transforming
it into a museum in Wentworth. The communities of Cullowhee and Sylva found ways through the partnership between the
Mountain Heritage Center and the Jackson County Public Library (another former courthouse) to bring a multiplicity of people
and their journey stories to the public ear and eye, mind and heart.
Jackson
$2,000 to Mountain Heritage Center, Cullowhee
Journey Stories Exhibition in Cullowhee
Winter/Spring 2013
$46,779
Pender
$2,000 to Pender County Public Library, Burgaw
Journey Stories Exhibition in Pender County
$7,200
Rockingham
$2,000 to Rockingham County Historical Society, Wentworth
Journey Stories Exhibition in Rockingham County $2,577
The Harlan Joel Gradin Award for Excellence in the Public
Humanities honors outstanding work that reflects, affirms,
and promotes the mission of the North Carolina Humanities
Council. Humanities Council staff and trustees presented
the 2012 Harlan Joel Gradin Award to the Core Sound
Waterfowl Museum & Heritage Center for Workboats of Core
Sound (2007) and Raising the Story of Menhaden Fishing
(2009). Workboats of Core Sound, directed by independent
scholar and photographer Lawrence S. Earley, offered the
fishing communities of Carteret County opportunities to
explore their history and cultures through personal experiences. In 2008, the Humanities Council cosponsored with
the North Caroliniana Society the “Workboats of Core Sound
Symposium and Photography Exhibit” at the Museum. In
Lawrence Earley and Karen Willis Amspacher. Photo by Keith
addition to the extensive photography exhibit, Earley contribTew Photography.
uted material from thirty interviews with local residents and
fishermen. Earley and Karen Willis Amspacher, executive
director of the Core Sound Waterfowl Museum & Heritage Center, contributed to the publication of Salt in Their Blood:
The Spirit of Community Down East, a Humanities Council Crossroads (2008). An expanded photography exhibit has
been offered at the North Carolina Museum of History, the Burke Arts Council, and Tryon Palace. Earley’s work will be
published in 2013 by the University of North Carolina Press.
A 2009 Humanities Council grant supported planning for “A Collaborative Perspective of the Menhaden Fishing Industry
of Carteret County, North Carolina,” which resulted in the project Raising the Story of Menhaden Fishing, a day-long
symposium also supported by Council funding. A highlight was a presentation and performance by the Menhaden
Chanteymen. This project explored history and culture through community documentation of personal experiences and
discussion of major changes in coastal North Carolina. Both projects provided the foundations for a unique Humanities
Council Teachers Institute Summer Seminar in 2011. Core Sound: A People and a Place of Change and Courage offered
educators a learning laboratory as they met in the museum, studied the community’s collected histories, and talked
with boat builders and fishermen.
The Humanities Council is pleased to announce that the program has expanded to three concurrent medical
facilities: Charles George VA Medical Facility in Asheville, Randolph Hospital in Asheboro, and New Hanover Regional
Medical Center in Wilmington. In 2012, the Humanities Council conducted a training in Guilford County of facilitators
and hospital liaisons participating in the 2013 program. In 2013, the Literature and Medicine program will reach approximately 75 caregivers, from chaplains to nurses and doctors, expanding the program’s reach throughout these facilities,
helping to restore the heart and soul of healthcare, revealing the humanness of the industry at a time when it is
needed most.
| 31
Ways to Give
UNRESTRICTED GIVING
–
Unrestricted
gifts support the Humanities Council
wherever the need is greatest. Operational
support is necessary for the day-to-day
activities of the Council.
Financial Overview
Des ign a ted Gifts
RESTRICTED GIVING – Gifts may be
given to any of the Humanities Council’s
programs or special initiatives, such as
Museum on Main Street or Teachers Institute.
These gifts allow donors to support those
programs most closely aligned with their
personal interests.
Public Support
Program Services
A pledge of support over multiple years allows
donors the ability to support the Council at a
higher level of commitment while enjoying a
more flexible payment method.
MATCHING GIFTS – Many businesses and
corporations offering matching gift programs
that often match dollar-for-dollar charitable
contributions given by their employees and, in
some cases, former employees. Please consult
your employer to see if your gift is eligible.
GIFTS OF STOCK – Transferring shares of
stock to the Humanities Council is a convenient
way for donors to support the Council and often
offers tax benefits to the stockholder. Typically,
transferring stock helps the donor avoid capital
gains tax on appreciated shares of stock and
often allows for a larger gift to the Council.
National Endowment for
the Humanities (NEH)
$862,650
State50,000
Other gifts and grants
205,379
Loss on sale of fixed asset
Interest income
2,605
Investment income, net
36,100
$1,156,734
Net Assets
Change in net assets
Program activities
$221,702
Road Scholars
59,346
Teachers Institute
136,203
North Carolina Conversations42,687
Other Revenue
Total Revenue
HUMANITIES North
Carolina Fund
$57,475
Net assets: beginning of year 943,350
Net Assets: End of Year $1,000,825
16,725
-
50,351
For more information, contact the
North Carolina Humanities Council
at (336) 334-5325.
Winter/Spring 2013
1,492
Regrants — NEH funds
60,340
Regrants — NC funds
83,027
Supporting Services
Management and general $265, 216
Public Relations
26,338
Fundraising135,832
Total Expenses
$1,099,259
Richard & Cindy
Brodhead
Robert S. Brunk
Luis H. Peña Cabello &
Shelley Crisp & Myles
Standish
Ben & Norma Fountain
Barnes & Cammie
Hauptfuhrer
Reginald Hildebrand
Jonathan & Mary Howes
Donovan McKnight
Timothy Minor
Margaret “Tog” Newman
James Y. Preston
Jane Preyer
Jack & Cissie Stevens
Pam Turner
Reginald Watson
Willis P. Whichard
Lynn Wright-Kernodle
Teachers Institute
Endowment
The Alice S. Barkley
Endowed Scholarship
John & Polly Medlin
Bob & Sally McCoy
Culbertson-DagenhartHauptfuhrer Endowed
Scholarship
Bob & Peggy Culbertson
Larry & Sarah Dagenhart
Barnes & Cammie
Hauptfuhrer
Hanes-Rubin Endowed
Scholarship
BEQUESTS AND PLANNED GIVING –
One of the simplest ways to give to the
Humanities Council is to name the Council
in your will. For information on how to make
a bequest, or to find out about planned or
deferred giving, please contact the Humanities
Council to help find the best plan for you.
during the 2012 calendar year. This support is critical in funding the Humanities Council’s programs across the state and helps ensure
that every program remains free and open to the public. The programs and initiatives represented here in North Carolina Conversations
and in the 2012 Annual Report to the People would not be possible without our generous donors. Thank you.
year ended October 31, 2012. The audited statement for fiscal year 2012 is
available upon request.
Expenses
gift of cash to the Humanities Council is the
most common gift.
With deep appreciation and gratitude, we acknowledge those who contributed to the North Carolina Humanities Council
Listed below are the balance sheet, revenues, and expenses for the fiscal
Revenues
GIFTS AND PLEDGES OF CASH – A
2012 North Carolina Humanities Council Donors
Frank & Jane Hanes
Michael & Debbie Rubin
Please donate ONLINE
www.nchumanities.org
Moore-Robinson
Endowed Scholarship
Bill & Sandra Moore
Russell & Sally Robinson
The Lynn WrightKernodle Endowed
Scholarship
Annette Ayers
Michael Corbitt
Porter Durham
Standish
Mary Jo Edwards
Larry Moore
Lou Nachman
Jeanne Tannenbaum
Connie Whaley
Tammy Young
New Hanover Regional
Medical Center
Porter Durham
Road Scholars
Carolyn Allen
Robert S. Brunk
First Presbyterian Church,
Greensboro
Ralph & Vivian Jacobson
Susan Ketchin
William F. McNeill
Mary Wayne Watson
Spring 2013 Thomas
Wolfe Society Program
Anonymous
Teachers Institute
Scholarship Fund
Howard L. Davis, Jr.
Michelle R. Hunt
Sherry Jolly
Thrus & Patty Morton
Deborah Russell
Rebecca Summer
Wendy Walker
BENEF AC T ORS
Standish
Porter Durham
Frank & Jane Hanes
Barnes & Cammie
Hauptfuhrer
James Y. Preston
PAT RONS
Richard & Cindy
Brodhead
Robert S. Brunk
Luis H Peña Cabello &
Mark Costley
Bob & Peggy Culbertson
Larry W. Ennis
John & Nancy Garman
Jonathan & Mary Howes
Thomas S. Kenan
Tom & Donna Lambeth
Michael McCue
John & Grace McKinnon
John & Leigh McNairy
Thrus & Patty Morton
New Hanover Regional
Medical Center
Jane Preyer
Russell & Sally Robinson
Michael & Debbie Rubin
Lanty & Margaret Smith
Jeanne Tannenbaum
Pam Turner
David & Libby Ward
PART NERS
Herb & Frannie Browne
Roddey & Pepper Dowd
Friends of the Person
County Library
Reginald Hildebrand
Timothy Minor
Jack & Cissie Stevens
Willis P. Whichard
ADVOCAT ES
Becky Anderson
Larry & Sarah Dagenhart
Dick & Marlene
Daughtery
Emory & Martha Maiden
Betty Ray McCain
Nan D. Miller
Keith A. Pearson
Gregory A. Richardson
Hephzibah Roskelly
Richard & Sharon
Schramm
Robert E. Seymour
Neva Specht
George & Melinda Stuart
Smedes & Rosemary York
ASSOCIAT ES
Carolyn Allen
Jim & Jan Applewhite
June P. Bair
Joseph & Joan Bathanti
John Beck
Michael A. Berkelhammer
Bob & Elanor Brawley
H. David Bruton
James W. Clark, Jr.
W. Robert Connor
Anne C. Dahle
Kelly Dail
Frederic G. Dalldorf
Howard L. Davis, Jr.
Jerome Davis
Wayne P. Diggs
John & Lexi Eagles
Lawrence S. & Renee
Gledhill Earley
Janet Edwards
John & Rosemary Ehle
Mary Ann B. Evans
Joseph M. Flora
John W. Fox
Friends of the Gaston
County Public Library
S. Hewitt Fulton
Frank & Carole Gailor
Kent Gardner
Abbe Godwin
Karl Gottschalk
Paul & Anne Gulley
John H. Haley
Tom Hanchett & Carol
Sawyer
Robert C. Hansen
Dr. & Mrs. John B. Hardy, Jr.
Bett Hargrave
Jim & Joan Hemby, Jr.
Elizabeth M. Holsten
Frances Huffman
Robert E. Hykes
Glen Anthony Harris
Patricia Inlow-Hatcher
H.G. Jones
Betty P. Kenan
Susan Ketchin
David LaVere
Sarah E. Leak
James R. Leutze
Timothy H. Lindeman
Mary Louise Little
Elizabeth H. Locke
John & Lucinda
MacKethan
Nancy P. Mangum
Vernon & Becky Marlin
Darlyne Menscer
Miranda Monroe
Margaret “Tog” Newman
Ron & Kathy Oakley
Linda E. Oxendine
Cecil & Vivian Patterson
David & Lisa Price
Richard & Sue Richardson
Lorraine H. Robinson
Michael Sartisky
Todd Savitt
Loren & Patricia
Schweninger
Beth Sheffield
Wade & Ann Smith
Ronald & Mittie Smith
Howard & Juanita
Spanogle
Benjamin Speller
Christopher A. & Marian
B. Story
James M. Tanner
William H. Terry
Eunice Toussaint
Doug & Anne Tubaugh
Harry Tuchmayer &
Kathleen Berkeley
Susan B. Wall
Thomas & Mary Kennedy
Ward
David & Marsha Warren
Bill & Ruth Williamson
James E. Young
Nancy Young
John Young & Winn
Legerton
FRIENDS
Allen Adams
Meghan Agresto
Elliott & Ina Alterman
Annette Ayers
Hoyt Bangs
Montine Barnette
Rosann Bazirjian
Clara Bond Bell
Ellis & Ellen Berlin
Jeri Fitzgerald Board
Scott Boatwright
Mike Bohen
Mary A. Bonnett
Raymond & Margaret Bost
Jacqueline Boykin
Sally Buckner
Dorothea D. Burkhart
Jan M. Carmichael
Caswell Friends of the
Library
Pauline Binkley Cheek
Samuel & Genevieve Cole
Michael Corbitt
A.L. Corum
Bettie Richardson Dixon
Diane Donovan
The Honorable Katie G.
Dorsett
Karen J. Dotson
Phyllis Dunning
| 33
Ralph H. Eanes, Jr.
Mary Jo Edwards
Linda Evans
First Evangelical Lutheran
Church of Greensboro
Greensboro
Stephen & Sally Fortlouis
Friends of the N.C.
Maritime Museum
Friends of the Union
County Public Libraries
William T. Fuller
Debbie Gainey
Gean Gentry
William & Rochelle
Gibney
Rebecca G. Gibson
Delilah Gomes
John L. Griffin
Margaret E. Griffin
Calvin Hall
Jacquelyn Hall
Deborah Hallam
Jonathan & Nahomi
Harkavy
Christopher Harris
The Honorable & Mrs. A.
Robinson Hassell
Anna Hayes
Charlotte W. Hoffman
Terry Holt
Michelle R. Hunt
Haywood & Cathryn
Ingram
Deane & Sandy Irving
Ralph & Vivian Jacobson
Kristen E. Jeffers
Sherry Jolly
Leah R. Karpen
Frank Kessler
Julia W. Keville
Richard H. Kohn
Elizabeth Kohnen
Dana Borden Lacy
Jan H. Lawrence
Edwin B. Lee
Sally Logan
Peter Lydens
Melissa Malouf
Jane Marsh
Brent Martin
James Martin
Ann Phillips McCracken
Donovan McKnight
William F. McNeill
Elizabeth McPherson
Larry Moore
Richard D. Moore
Lou Nachman
Robert W. Oast
Old Dobbs County
Genealogical Society
Outer Banks History
Center
Sharon Owens
Leland M. Park
Pasquotank - Camden
Library
Alan R. Perry
Gina A. Phillips
Piedmont Crossing
Bill & Susan Redding
Art & Jan Ross
Deborah Russell
Dr. & Mrs. William Sasser
Steve Schewel & Lao
Rubert
Linda Seale
Eve Shy
Stephen R. & Elizabeth P.
Simmons
Bland & Ann Simpson
Sandy Sisson
Barry L. Solomon
Lois M. Sowers
Celisa Steele
Darrell Stover
John & Janice Sullivan
Rebecca Summer
Arthur W. Swarthout
L.J. Sweeney
Tarkil Branch Farm’s
Homestead Museum
The Research Club
Joe & Amy Thompson
Nancy Tilly
Donald & Sherry Toler
Benjamin Torbert
William H. Towe
Tuesday Study Club
Twin Lakes Enrichment
Committee
Wendy Walker
Peter F. Walker
James M. Wallace
Reginald Watson
Mary Wayne Watson
Susan Weinberg
Connie Whaley
Judith White
Alethea Williams-King
Tammy Young
Paul & Jean Yount
Walter Ziffer & Gail
Rosenthal
IN HONOR O F…
Tom & Cherry Boswell
Luis H Peña Cabello &
Fred & Susan Chappell
Becky Anderson
Alice & Jerry Cotton
Shelley Crisp and
the North Carolina
Humanities Council
Edward Standish
Standish
Benjamin Eagles
Fountain, Jr.
John & Lexi Eagles
H.G. Jones
Linda & Shelby
Stephenson
Anne C. Dahle
Harlan Gradin
Lawrence S. & Renee
Gledhill Earley
A.L. Corum
Louise Taylor
Nan D. Miller
The Staff of the Person
County Library
Calvin Hall
Howard & Juanita
Spanogle
Friends of the Person
County Library
Jonathan & Mary
Howes
Standish
Ben E. Fountain
The Talented Artists in
NC — Past, Present
and Future
Beth Sheffield
Michele Y. Thomas
Paul & Jean Yount
H.G. Jones
Humanities Council Staff
Samuel & Genevieve Cole
H.G. Jones
Dana Borden Lacy
Tom & Donna Lambeth
Standish
Scholars & Librarians
Carolyn Allen
Pam Thornton
Dr. & Mrs. John B. Hardy,
Jr.
Holden & Patti Thorp
Tom & Donna Lambeth
Dr. Charles C. Todd
G. Vance Tucker
Benjamin Torbert
Dot Walker
Margaret E. Griffin
Towny & Jane Ludington
Standish
Betty Ray McCain
The Honorable & Mrs. A.
Robinson Hassell
Jim & Joan Hemby, Jr.
H.G. Jones
William McNeill
Greensboro
Road Scholars Speakers
Carolyn Allen
Anne Whisnant
Twin Lakes Enrichment
Committee
Emily Herring Wilson
Nancy Young
A.L. Corum
Sherry Jolly
Joe & Amy Thompson
Tuesday Study Club
Jeri Fitzgerald Board
Jim & Jan Applewhite
Louise Averette
Barnette
Sue Fields Ross
Art & Jan Ross
Montine Barnette
Dr. Todd Savitt
Bill & Susan Redding
Ali Standish
Standish
Pauline Binkley Cheek
Virginia Yeager Bullock
Mary Ann B. Evans
Stephen Consor
Lynn Jones Ennis
Hoyt Bangs
Larry W. Ennis
John & Lucinda
MacKethan
Willis P. Whichard
William W. Finlator
Haywood & Cathryn
Ingram
Linda Flowers
Dr. & Mrs. William Sasser
William C. Friday
June P. Bair
Julia W. Keville
Elizabeth E. Griffin
John L. Griffin
Mary Frances Johnson
Mary Wayne Watson
Dr. Bobby Jones
Mary Wayne Watson
Z.Z. Lydens
Peter Lydens
Haynes McFadden
Nancy Tilly
John Medlin
Standish
David & Libby Ward
Jerry Leath Mills
Bland & Ann Simpson
Dr. Thomas Parramore
Deborah Russell
IN MEMOR Y OF…
Henry Applewhite
Hepsie Roskelly
Olin and Pauline
Binkley
Phyllis Barrett
Elizabeth M. Holsten
Joseph D. & Roselyn
Bathanti
The Late Chief Jessie
W. Richardson of the
Haliwa-Saponi Indian
Tribe
Gregory A. Richardson
Pearl F. Seymour
Robert E. Seymour
The father of Joe
Nehman
Joseph & Joan Bathanti
Betty Ray McCain
T. Edwin Davenport
DONATE ONLINE AT www.nchumanities.org
Winter/Spring 2013
North Carolina Humanities
Council Alumni
Many gifted individuals from across North Carolina have served on the governing board of the Humanities Council
since its inception. If you have the opportunity to do so, please thank these volunteers for their vision and leadership.
Constituting
Comm itt ee, 1971–1972
Dr.
Dr.
Dr.
Dr.
Dr.
George Bair†
John T. Caldwell†
Ben E. Fountain, Jr.
H.G. Jones
Dwight Rhyne
Council Tr ustee
Alumni
Dr. E. Maynard Adams°†
Dr. Robert L. Albright
Dr. Annette Allen
Mr. Harry Amana
Dr. Douglas Antonelli
Ms. Katherine Armitage
Ms. Darnell Arnoult
Dr. George E. Bair°†
Mr. Donald Baker
Dr. Barbara J. Ballard
Dr. Richard Bardolph†
Dr. Sydney Barnwell
Dr. Gretchen Bataille
Dr. John J. Beck
Ms. Winnie Bennett
Dr. Kathleen Berkeley
Mrs. Sylvia Berkelhammer*
Ms. Doris Betts†
Dr. Barbara Birge
Dr. H. Tyler Blethen
Dr. Jeri Fitzgerald Board*
Dr. Carol Boggess*
Mrs. Jacqueline R. Boykin
Mrs. Barbara Braveboy-Locklear
Mr. Thomas Brewer
Mr. James D. Brewington†
Ms. Sue Ellen Bridgers
Dr. Joseph R. Brooks
Mr. Robert Brunk
Ms. Elizabeth F. Buford
Ms. Margaret Bushnell†
Dr. Lindley S. Butler
Dr. Barry M. Buxton
Dr. John Tyler Caldwell†
Ms. E. Thelma Caldwell
Mr. James C. Cannon, Jr.
Dr. Peter J. Caulfield
Mr. Jack E. Claiborne°
Mr. Edward H. Clement
Dr. Alvis Corum
Mr. Bob Culbertson
Mrs. Peggy Culbertson
Ms. Julie E. Curd
Dr. Blanche Radford Curry
Dr. Marvin V. Curtis
Ms. Maggie B. DeVries
Dr. Barbara R. Duncan
Dr. John R. Dykers, Jr.
Dr. Jean Eason°
Dr. Eugene A. Eaves
Mrs. Linda Edmisten
Dr. David Eliades†
Dr. Lynn Jones Ennis*°†
Dr. Don Ensley
Mrs. Helen Wolfe Evans†
Ms. Georgann Eubanks°
Ms. Janice Faulkner°
Ms. Joyce Fitzpatrick
Dr. Linda Flowers†
Dr. Ben E. Fountain, Jr.
Dr. Bernard W. Franklin*
Mr. L. B. Frasier
Mrs. Shirley Frye*
Mr. Laney Funderburk
Ms. Ellen W. Gerber
Mrs. Edna D. Gore*
Dr. Daniel Gottovi
Dr. Sandy Govan
Ms. Jaki Shelton Green
Dr. John V. Griffith*
Ms. Elisabeth G. Hair
Dr. John H. Haley
Dr. Calvin Hall
Ms. Linda Harris*
Ms. Hazel Harvey
Ms. Dana Hay
Dr. James B. Hemby, Jr.
Dr. Karla Holloway
Hon. Richlyn Holt°
Ms. Ann M. Hooper-Hudson
Dr. Suellen M. Hoy
Dr. Austin T. Hyde, Jr.†
Dr. Blyden Jackson†
Mr. James W. Jackson
Dr. Jimmy Jenkins
Dr. Harley Jolley
Dr. H. G. Jones
Mr. Walter B. Jones, Jr.
Dr. Joseph Jordan
Dr. Bennett M. Judkins
Dr. Ruth Kennedy
Mr. Michael Lee King*
Dr. John W. Kuykendall*
Mr. Tom Lassiter†
Mr. Tom Lambeth
Ms. Carol Lawrence
Dr. Sarah E. Leak
Dr. James S. Lee
Dr. Sarah Lemmon†
Dr. Susan Levine
Dr. Henry S. Levinson°†
Mr. Richard D. Levy*
Mrs. Lydia Lockman*
Dr. Charles Long
Rev. Jane Ann Love
Dr. Clifford Lovin
Dr. Lucinda MacKethan°
Dr. William J. MacLean*
Mr. Isaiah Madison
Rev. W. Joseph Mann°
Mr. Bill Mansfield
Mr. James Marsh
Ms. Joanna Ruth Marsland*
Mr. Joel K. Martin
Mr. Joe C. Matthews
Dr. Lena Mayberry-Engstrom
Ms. Easter Maynard*
Mr. Arche L. McAdoo
Mr. Robert McCoy
Dr. James McGowan
Mrs. Pat McGuire†
Dr. Melton A. McLaurin°
Dr. Neill McLeod
Dr. David Middleton
Dr. Heather Ross Miller
Dr. Charles Milner
Dr. Elizabeth K. Minnich°
Mrs. Memory F. Mitchell†
Mr. James R. Moody†
Ms. MariJo Moore
Mr. William M. Moore, Jr.
Ms. Betina Morris-Anderson*
Dr. Sydney Nathans
Dr. John Oates°†
Dr. Jean Fox O’Barr
Dr. Linda Oxendine
Mr. Roy Parker
Dr. Cecil Patterson
Ms. Nancy J. Pekarek*
Dr. Patsy Perry
Dr. Barbara A. Phillips†
Dr. Della Pollock
Dr. William S. Price, Jr.
Dr. Judith Pulley
Dr. Jeff Rackham*
Mr. Sam T. Ragan†
Ms. Glenis Redmond
Mr. Addison Reed
Ms. Mattye M. Reed*†
Rev. Rebecca Reyes
Mr. Dwight Rhyne
Mr. J. Peyton Richardson
Ms. Nancy Doggett Rigby
Mr. Donald R. Roberts
Mrs. Sally Dalton Robinson
Dr. Ruby V. Rodney
Dr. William R. Rogers*
Dr. Sue Fields Ross
Mr. Robert C. Roule*
Dr. Thelma Roundtree
Mr. David Routh
Dr. Lynn Veach Sadler
Mr. Robert L. Savage, Jr.
Mr. Todd Savitt
Dr. James A. Schobel*
Ms. Beverly E. Smalls
Dr. Ronald O. Smith
Mr. William D. Snider†
Dr. Richard A. Soloway
Mrs. Marge Sosnik
Mr. Alex Spears†
Dr. Samuel R. Spencer, Jr.*
Mr. Carl Stewart, Jr.
Dr. Joan Hinde Stewart°
Mr. Maurice Stirewalt
Dr. George Edwin Stuart
Mr. Douglas H. Swaim
Ms. Jeanne Tannenbaum
Father Wilbur N. Thomas
Mr. Clark A. Thompson†
Mr. Bill Thomson†
Mr. William L. Thorpe
Mr. William J. Trent, Jr.
Mr. Ruel W. Tyson, Jr.
Dr. Lucila Vargas
Dr. Valerie F. Villines*
Mr. William H. Wagoner
Dr. Alfred A. Wang
Hon. Willis P. Whichard*°
Dr. Judith White
Dr. Cratis Williams†
Dr. Dorothy Williams
Dr. Edwin G. Wilson
Dr. John Wolfe
Mrs. Winnie J. Wood
Dr. Robert F. Yeager°
Dr. John Young
*Gubernatorial Appointee
°Chairperson
†
Deceased
| 35
TE ACH E R S
IN STITU T E
Teachers Institute Seminars
Enrich Teaching and Learning
I believe that professional development is about encouraging teachers’
creativity, deepening their knowledge and understanding, and building
working relationships with colleagues — and this seminar did all of
these things.
~Participant, 2012 Summer Seminar Evaluation
As a professional development
program for public school educators in
North Carolina, the Teachers Institute has
for 30 years provided access to continued
intellectual growth for the state’s teaching
community. With its goal of creating
the rigorous, stimulating environment
found in the best graduate education,
the Teachers Institute offers content-rich,
academically stimulating, and interdisciplinary seminars where participants find
their eagerness to inquire, to imagine, and
to learn rekindled and sustained.
As testament to the program reaching
its goal, Quinn McLaughlin, humanities instructor at Guilford Technical
Community College, reported in her
follow-up assessment six months after
her participation in the 2012 Summer
Seminar:
I am only five years into teaching, but
at the beginning of the summer, I felt
absolutely drained. I really needed
something that would ignite my own
passion to learn and teach. The seminar
provided that passion for me. I did some
major restructuring, and…had one of
my most successful semesters this past
fall. I do attribute this to the community
of dedicated teachers and learners at the
Teachers Institute.
Warren Morrison, now a retired middleschool history teacher, once described
his experience at a Teachers Institute
seminar as one of “respect, renewal, and
Teachers Institute scholars engaging in a roundtable discussion.
Winter/Spring 2013
reward — the 3-Rs for teachers.” This
past summer, a participant added a fourth
R — “rigor” — for the amount of effort
that is required for teachers to be life-long
learners and stay as knowledgeable as
possible. Another teacher noted that the
major rewards from the summer seminar
will be reaped “by our future students all
across the state of North Carolina who
will now benefit from the knowledge
and resources that we gained this week.”
Dorothy Spruill Redford, a scholar in the
2008 Teachers Institute Summer Seminar,
recognized this in her own evaluation:
“The combination of direct and indirect
beneficiaries from just one of the extraordinary Teachers Institute seminars could
— over time — benefit as many as 30,000
North Carolina students!”
What impact does this program have?
Responses from a ten-year comprehensive program assessment of the Teachers
Institute indicated the following: The
Teachers Institute
•
addresses teacher retention issues — 60% credit the
Teachers Institute experience as
a major reason for remaining in
education;
•
creates better teaching, learning,
and classroom planning — 81%
report student success with
higher-order thinking skills;
•
prepares teachers to become
faculty resources — 90% specify
ways they share Institute materials and knowledge;
•
moves teachers forward in their
professional growth — 40%
report work toward additional
certifications and/or higher
academic degrees.
Every Teachers Institute seminar is
designed to provide substantive humanities-based learning opportunities for
educators. The design does not include
“how-to-teach” sessions or lesson
planning requirements. However, good
teachers always find creative ways to
incorporate into their teaching what they
learn in the seminars. Time and again,
teachers demonstrate their creativity, and
their work has impact on their students.
For example, second grade teacher Jessica
Harrell, Gates County who participated in
the 2010 Summer Seminar Appalachian
Voices, created a unit of study based on
the “Jack Tales” presented at the seminar.
Inspired by the session on “barn quilts”
in western North Carolina, art teacher
Sylvia Wingler from Yancey County
created a unit of study based on geometrical quilt design.
As the Teachers Institute moves into its
fourth decade of offering high-quality
professional development opportunities
to the state’s public school teachers, both
staff and teachers are exploring what
the professional development needs of
educators may be in the next ten years
and how the Teachers Institute can help
meet those needs.
Seminars Inspire, Encourage Educators
Jonathan Permar
At my magnet school, which targets
at-risk students who have disengaged
from the traditional high school experience, I teach social studies. Although
relatively new in the profession, I take my
work seriously and thoroughly enjoy who
and what I teach. Yet, there are times
when this work of education is draining
— times when I lose sight of my commitment and goals.
Teachers often feel over-worked and
undervalued. An emphasis on accountability measures and testing encourages
mere “coverage” of content and diminishes the time we can spend helping
our students develop a depth of understanding. Most educators recognize that
teaching requires us to make our content
personally engaging and academically
interesting for our students; and with
enthusiasm we dive into the material
together. Unfortunately, many required
professional development workshops for
teachers seem to ignore this basic tenet
of teaching. Such “busy work” affords
nothing but wasted time and becomes yet
another drain on teachers’ commitment.
The impact of such an experience is
severe. If I am feeling defeated, how can
I find the energy to engage my students,
to educate them, to uplift them, to help
them learn and succeed?
There is an answer: the North Carolina
Humanities Council’s Teachers Institute.
In moments when teachers’ efforts may
seem futile and we struggle with feelings of doubt or defeat, the Teachers
Institute is a wonderful remedy. This
year I have had the privilege of attending
two Teachers Institute seminars, the
week-long Summer Seminar and the fall
weekend seminar. Both experiences have
served to revitalize my spirit and my
career. I left the seminars empowered by
having engaged in an in-depth study of
humanities content. I experienced respect
from colleagues and university scholars
who actively showed appreciation for and
interest in my work. I was afforded the
opportunity to do what I try to do with
my own students — delve deeply into a
subject, play with it, discuss it, work with
colleagues to understand it, and figure out
how it is relevant to my particular needs
and interests. At these Teachers Institute
Jonathan Permar. Photo
by Lou Nachman.
seminars, I made contact with educators
from across the state. We bonded through
our mutual love of learning and teaching;
and we know we can rely on each other
for help in generating new goals and new
applications.
What is the impact? I leave the Teachers
Institute seminars inspired and excited
about learning. This professional development program is based on the premise
that when you inspire a teacher, you
inspire a student. Learning is enhanced
and change is encouraged. For me, the
North Carolina Humanities Council’s
Teachers Institute is a remarkable catalyst
for change. It can renew a drained teacher
and provide strength to a new one —
thus helping to change the very world in
which we live and learn.
In his fifth year of teaching, Jonathan Permar holds a
BA in history and additional certifications in Advanced
Placement European history and English for Speakers
of Other Languages. He currently teaches US history,
African American studies, sociology, and journalism at
Greensboro College Middle College with the Guilford
County Schools. In this article Permar expresses the
personal and professional impact he has experienced as
a new-comer to the Teachers Institute program having
attended the 2012 Summer Seminar, Laying Down Tracks:
A Study of Railroads as Myth, Reality and Symbol, and
the October 2012 weekend seminar, Journey Stories in
Western North Carolina.
| 37
Educator Develops New Appalachian
Literature Unit
2013 Teachers Institute Summer Seminar
Tammy Young
June 16–22, 2013, at the Friday Center for Continuing Education in Chapel Hill
My participation in the 2010 Teachers
Institute Summer Seminar, Appalachian
Voices, spurred a year of exciting work
for me. The seminar itself was enhanced
by the setting — beautiful Ashe County;
by the opportunity to develop collegial
ties with other North Carolina educators;
and by an intense week-long interaction
with three lead scholars in the field of
Appalachian studies. I returned to school
with a desire to put to use the techniques
and resources from the seminar.
Especially because we live and work in
western North Carolina, I had previously
talked with an English III teacher about
implementing Appalachian literature
within her curriculum. We had not
moved beyond talking, but when I began
discussing the seminar readings and
experiences with her, she “caught” my
enthusiasm. I created an Appalachian
Literature Moodle, and we began gathering resources for the development of
a unit of study for Advanced Placement
(AP) English III students.
Working with the AP teacher, I created an
introductory lesson for students incorporating part of the Appalachia: A History
of Mountains and People PBS video series
used at the Summer Seminar as well as
an exercise in visual literacy using photos
from a collection by Tim Barnwell, The
Face of Appalachia. The students read the
Ron Rash novel Serena in segments while
posting questions and reacting to a class
blog. Students spent time in class reading
additional fiction, poetry, and non-fiction
works exploring themes from the novel.
As a team, my colleague and I applied
for and were accepted to the North
Carolina Center for the Advancement of
Teaching Scholars-in-Residence seminar.
There, during several work-filled days
in February 2011, we expanded this unit
beyond the AP class and adapted it for
use with all levels of English III students
using Appalachian studies in American
Literature classes to achieve the following
objectives:
•
To expose students to the
rich literary traditions of the
Appalachian culture;
•
To promote awareness of
Appalachian culture and its relationship to American identity;
•
To promote an awareness of the
cultural stereotypes and environmental issues that have historically confronted Appalachian
people;
•
•
To have students develop
an inquiry-based project on
Appalachian culture or literature using a variety of textual
mediums that promote twentyfirst century learning.
Without the Teachers Institute, the
Appalachian Literature unit would
likely have remained a dream. Instead,
students have benefited academically
and personally from this exposure to a
neglected part of American literature.
Because of the North Carolina Humanities
Council’s Teachers Institute, I now have
a new connection with my students, and
together we have deepened our understanding of the interests and opinions of
the Appalachian people. Given a curriculum colleagues and I will continue to
use and refine, my own learning through
the Teachers Institute seminar opportunity has had, and will continue to have,
significant impact on the students in my
high school.
A 26-year veteran educator, Tammy Young, MEd, N.B.C, is a media specialist at
Charles D. Owen High School in Buncombe County where she teaches media and
information skills. A Teachers Institute alumna, she has participated in three week-long
summer seminars: Listening for a Change: Learning about North Carolina through Oral
Histories (2001); From Wilderness to Eden? The Place of Nature and Culture in History
(2004); and Appalachian Voices (2010). In this article, Young outlines the ongoing
impact of her participation in the Teachers Institute, especially as it relates to the
students at Owen High.
Tammy Young, right, with other Teachers Institute participants.
Winter/Spring 2013
To enhance critical thinking skills
through the study of a variety
of Appalachian texts — nonfiction, fiction, poetry, images and
film; and
Muslim Journeys: Islam and Its Many Roads
Islam, as religion and culture,
is expressed in a great range of ways
— from long-bearded men and veiled
women to cell-phone carrying hip-hop
artists, software executives, and Miss
America. The 2013 Teachers Institute
Summer Seminar will explore the multiple
histories, cultures, and arts of Muslims
from the religion’s seventh-century origins
in the Middle East to its growth and
development across the Indian Ocean and
Atlantic worlds today. Scholars of Islam
from a variety of disciplines will engage
with teachers through primary source
documents, paintings, literature, poetry,
and music. Encompassing Muslims in
Arabia, Persia, South Asia, North Africa,
Europe, West Africa, South America, and
the United States, scholars and participants will address such questions as:
What does Islam have in common with
“The West”? Who are Muslim Americans?
What is the role of women in Islam? Why
is Islam treated in monolithic fashion?
And what are some of its current developments? The Summer Seminar will help
shed light on Islam and the many roads
taken by its adherents across time and the
world through personal narratives, documentary film, and seminar presentations
and readings.
Turkey, Iznik, Tile, circa 1580-90.
Courtesy Los Angeles County Museum
of Art, www.lacma.org.
If you are a lover of learning…
AlumNews
Jessica LeCrone (Wilson County) has
been selected as the 2012–2013 Big
Picture Teaching Fellow for the North
Carolina Museum of Art. As such, she
will conduct arts integration workshops at state and national professional
educator conferences, work at three
Educator Expos across the state to share
ideas for using the museum’s resources
in the classroom, and continue to refine
her own practice of integrating the arts
with the core subject areas.
Up to 40 educators, K–12 teachers
and community college instructors,
will be selected to attend this seminar.
Application requirements and the application form can be found on the Humanities
Council’s website at www.nchumanities.
org. Questions can be directed to Lynn
Wright-Kernodle at 336-334-4769 or
[email protected] .
Ashley Smith (Cleveland County) has
received her National Board Certification
Renewal. She is certified in choral music
through 2023.
TI Alums:
Share your professional news.
Send information to the Director of
the Teachers Institute at lynnwk@
nchumanities.org. And look for this
information in a new feature on the
Humanities Council’s website.
If you see a personal challenge in
thinking of things in new ways…
If you enjoy intelligent interaction
among adults from various
backgrounds and experiences…
Then you will find renewal at the
North Carolina Humanities Council’s
Teachers Institute.
Karen Cobb Carroll, Ph.D., N.B.C.
Guilford County Schools
Teachers Institute Alumna
| 39
M U SE U M
ON
M AIN
S T REE T
The Museum on Main Street (MoMS) initiative, through its emphasis on the
examination of regional history and capacity-building for local nonprofit cultural
organizations, helped two communities in the completion of adaptive reuse
projects. In both Shelby and Wentworth, historic county courthouses have been
repurposed into cultural centers, and serving as host sites for MoMS exhibitions
— New Harmonies: Celebrating American Roots Music and Journey Stories —
each has proven to be an inspiration to these communities that will benefit from
sustained capacity-building long after the MoMS exhibition trunks have been
packed up and moved on to the next host site. Project directors Emily Epley
(Shelby) and Kim Proctor (Wentworth) relate how serving as MoMS exhibition host
sites contributed to the future of their communities through the development of
the Earl Scruggs Center in Cleveland County and the opening of the Museum and
Archives of Rockingham County.
The Harmony between
MoMS and Destination
Cleveland County
Emily Epley, Executive Director, Earl Scruggs Center
Destination Cleveland County
(DCC), an award-winning, volunteerdriven, unique public-private partnership
and 501(c)3 organization, is breathing
new life into the historic 1907 Cleveland
County courthouse. The courthouse was
in operation from 1907 until the 1970s
when operations relocated to a new
facility. From 1976 through early 2004,
the historic courthouse served as the
Cleveland County Historical Museum,
showcasing local history. In 2004, the
doors were unexpectedly locked, the
contents left abandoned and the building
dark with no indication of plans to
reopen. The neoclassical structure on the
lush green court square at the heart of
Uptown Shelby sat empty until concerned
citizens took action.
A task force came together to determine
how to save the building and 10,000
Winter/Spring 2013
abandoned objects from the negative
impacts of an unstable environment and
pests. The task force soon realized these
problems were symbolic of a larger issue:
severe economic downturns due to loss
of numerous industries and jobs in the
surrounding community.
After spending 2007 researching feasibility and potential economic outcomes,
master planning, and meeting with the
families of area natives Don Gibson
and Earl Scruggs, the DCC established
a goal to bring heritage tourists to the
county and identified two supporting
economic projects: a music performance
venue, the Don Gibson Theatre with an
opening planned for 2009, and the Earl
Scruggs Center: Music & Stories from
the American South, with an opening
planned for 2013.
continue to result in articles and interest
about both of DCC’s projects. Information
sharing across the six MoMS host sites
added to the success of the exhibition
as ideas and resources were identified
and shared by everyone involved in the
exhibition tour. The planning necessary
for the exhibit enjoyed broader volunteer
development, richer programming, and
additional exposure to resources as well
as new and strengthened partnerships.
In September 2008, when DCC was
notified the community would host the
Smithsonian traveling exhibition New
Harmonies: Celebrating American Roots
Music, the good news was announced
at the groundbreaking for what would
become the reception hall of the Don
Gibson Theatre where the exhibit would
be displayed. In other words, although
the venue for the exhibition had not
yet been built, DCC was committed to
making sure that it was ready when the
exhibition arrived. In fact, the theatre was
ready and New Harmonies had an excellent and a significantly successful run
because it also proved to be a wonderful
training ground in preparation for the Earl
Scruggs Center.
For DCC, partnerships grew across
both the community and the state with
organizations such as the state’s travel
and tourism departments, the local arts
council, and Gardner Webb University.
One of these played a prominent role
later as part of the Scruggs Center’s
mission to strengthen DCC’s partnership
with Cleveland County Schools. DCC
made education a priority during the
New Harmonies exhibition by providing
programming for and hosting over 2,100
Cleveland County students. That success
provided exposure, confidence, and
new ideas for further development of
the educational plans for collaboration
between the community and the
school system.
As planning progressed for New
Harmonies, DCC built relationships
across the state with other MoMS sites,
and statewide exposure was provided for
DCC by the North Carolina Humanities
Council in publications such as the
“North Carolina Visitor’s Guide” and Our
State magazine. This early exposure and
publicity were priceless and even now
Dr. Martha Hill, Cleveland County
School’s Assistant Superintendent
for Curriculum and Instruction,
recently wrote:
Emily Epley has spent most of her career in the business and education sectors as a corporate and industry
trainer presenting on and providing training in the areas
of leadership, customer service, and employee development. She has served as the part-time executive director
of Destination Cleveland County since June 2008. Emily
recently accepted the position of full-time executive
director of the Earl Scruggs Center in Shelby. A Cleveland
County resident since 1997, Epley lives in Boiling Springs,
NC, with her husband Mike and sons Andrew and Reed.
In fall of 2010 over two thousand
students visited the New Harmonies
Exhibit. In March 2011, a representative group of educators from
Cleveland County Schools created
a “crosswalk” between the script of
the Earl Scruggs Center exhibits and
the North Carolina curriculum. The
partnership between Cleveland County
Schools and DCC has yielded high
quality educational opportunities for
students. We are proud to be partners,
and are eager to see the efforts of DCC
come to full fruition in the completion
of the educational programs of the
As a capacity-building
venture, New Harmonies
was opened with a Rhythm
& Roots 5 K/10 K Run that
is now in its third year
as a fundraising event
for Destination Cleveland
County. Poster courtesy
www.earlscruggscenter.org.
Earl Scruggs Center. The future plans
for partnership around the educational components of the Earl Scruggs
Center will provide students, families,
and other visitors with a rich cultural
experience based in the arts and
history of the region.
As the historic Cleveland County
Courthouse completes a successful
transformation, the Earl Scruggs Center
will tell the life story of legendary fivestring banjo master and Cleveland County
native Earl Scruggs with the unique
and engaging story of the history and
cultural traditions of the region in which
Mr. Scruggs was born and raised. It was
in the nearby Flint Hill community that
Mr. Scuggs learned to play the banjo and
began the three finger playing style that
has come to be known around the world
as “Scruggs Style.” The Center explores
Mr. Scruggs’s innovative career and the
community that gave it shape while celebrating how he crossed musical boundaries and defined the voice of the banjo to
the world. Mr. Scruggs embraced tradition while also adapting to the changing
times and looking to the future — themes
which resonate throughout the Center.
Engaging exhibits, a special events space,
and rich programming provide a unique
experience for visitors.
As DCC moves towards the 2013 opening
of the Earl Scruggs Center, the strong
foundations and building blocks set in
place during the New Harmonies experience, the exposure to a statewide audience, and the confidence created across
the community and state continue to
support DCC’s ability to breathe new life
into the historic courthouse as the Earl
Scruggs Center.
| 41
Journey Stories: A Dream Comes to Fruition
Kim Proctor, Executive Director, Museum and Archives of Rockingham County
On August 11, 2012, the Rockingham scholarship, and personal stories to the
County Historical Society opened to the
public with fanfare and rave reviews for
the Museum & Archives of Rockingham
County (MARC), featuring the
Smithsonian Institution travelling exhibition Journey Stories, part of the Museum
on Main Street (MoMS) program.
Hosting the Smithsonian Institution’s
traveling exhibition Journey Stories was
instrumental in moving the Historical
Society and the community’s vision of
opening a county-wide history museum
from dream to reality. The work to implement Journey Stories furthered decades
of work by scholarly and lay historians
to bring to fruition the dream to present
authentic, inclusive, relevant history to
the public; to educate; to prompt memories; and to promote understanding
between and among diverse people. The
following story relates one example of the
multitude of ways Journey Stories benefitted the Rockingham County museum
project and moved a community.
Society. The Society proved good stewards of the past, but the members were
limited in their ability to share these
treasures with the public. There was no
suitable venue available until 2008 when
the county decided to build a new courthouse to accommodate a pressing need
for space.
The historic Rockingham County courthouse was scheduled to close. Located
precisely in the middle of Rockingham
County on the same ground where its
predecessors had stood since 1978,
there was considerable concern by the
Historical Society and the community that
the history of the building, the land, and
the once vibrant village around it would
be diminished or lost as a result.
Meanwhile, the county commissioners
were looking for cultural projects with
broad impact to embrace. And they were
looking for a solution to preserve and use
the historic building. In 2010, the Museum
& Archives of Rockingham County (the
action arm of the Rockingham County
The opportunity to be part of the MoMS
Historical Society) secured a letter of
program was timely. Since 1954, when
intent from the commissioners to lease
the local Historical Society was formed,
there was a plan to build a museum. Over the historic courthouse for the purpose
of building a museum and were eager
the course of almost sixty years, people
from throughout the community entrusted for final approval. Feasibility studies
artifacts, photographs, documents,
and cost analysis were in progress, but
other pressing issues often commandeered the county’s attention and
delayed the process.
Journey Stories “primed the pump.” When
the commissioners learned that the opportunity to host a Smithsonian Institution
traveling exhibition was available, they
moved the process forward quickly with
unanimous support. All the details were
addressed, and the lease was executed.
The promise of a first-class exhibition in a
county-wide museum closed the deal and
energized the community.
There was a venue. Excitement prevailed.
Rockingham County people remembered
their passion for history, and the spark
became a flame. Funders and volunteers stepped forward; the media took
an interest; and excited community
leaders garnered support and spread the
word enthusiastically. In nine months
time, office space was converted to
gallery space, rooms were renovated and
restored, eleven exhibits were created,
programs were developed, and the
opening celebration was planned.
Journey Stories prompted movement.
Approval of the MARC’s application and
the support of the Smithsonian Institution
and the North Carolina Humanities
Council lent legitimacy
Kim Proctor, a UNCG graduate with an MA in history/museum studies, is the
executive director of the Museum and Archives of Rockingham County (MARC) in
Wentworth, NC, where she has worked with the Rockingham Historical Society to
open a county-wide museum. Journey Stories was one of the first exhibits as MARC
opened for business in August 2012.
to the museum project, imposed a deadline for opening the MARC, and helped
make a dream come true. Clearly, the
Smithsonian Institution and the North
Carolina Humanities Council’s decision to
bring the exhibition to Wentworth, North
Carolina, made a significant difference
in the lives of people in our county. This
partnership will forever hold an important
place in the MARC’s history.
An irony and an aside: we requested
a 2013 host date when we made application because in preparation we had to
open a museum. However, it was the
August 11–September 22, 2012, period
that was available. Ironically, the date
assigned to us was
the anniversary of the
incorporation of the
Historical Society fortyfive years ago. It was
one of those ironies that
let you know you’re on
the right path.
Marguerite Holt watches
as students engage with
the Accelerated Mobility
interactive display. Courtesy
Museum and Archives
of Rockingham County.
An Invitation to Host Hometown Teams
A Smithsonian Institution Museum on Main Street Traveling Exhibition Coming to North Carolina in 2015
Few aspects of American culture so colorfully
and passionately celebrate the American experience as sports.
~Bob Santelli, curator, Hometown Teams
The North Carolina Humanities Council is bringing Museum
on Main Street’s Hometown Teams to North Carolina in February
2015. Rural museums, libraries, historic sites, and historical societies are invited to apply as host sites by July 10, 2013. Sites will
be determined by September 2013.
Sports are an indelible part of our culture and community. For
well over one hundred years, sports have reflected the trials
and triumphs of the American experience and helped shape
our national character. Our love of sports begins in our hometowns — on the sandlot, at the local ball field, in the street, even.
Americans play sports everywhere. And if we’re not playing, we’re
watching: in the stands, on the fields with our sons and daughters, or in our living rooms with friends in front of a television.
Hometown Teams combines the prestige of the Smithsonian
Institution, the program expertise of the North Carolina Humanities
Council, and the remarkable volunteerism and unique histories of
small rural towns to invigorate communities with the opportunity
to host popular public events and cultural projects.
For full information and application, contact program director
Darrell Stover at 336-334-5723 or [email protected] .
Pinehurst High School Football, 1947. Photo courtesy Tuffs Archives.
Winter/Spring 2013
| 43
NORTH
C AR OL IN A
H U M A N I T I E S
Trustees
C O U N C I L
North Carolina
Humanities Council
Visit us on Facebook
and Twitter
Call for Trustee Nominations
If you — or someone you know — can help advance the work
of the Humanities Council, please consider making a nomination for membership on the Council. Visit www.nchumanities.
org for details on the roles and responsibilities for Council
trustees as well as information about where to send
a nomination letter and résumé.
Mission Statement
The North Carolina Humanities Council
serves as an advocate for lifelong learning
and thoughtful dialogue about all facets
of human life. It facilitates the exploration and celebration of the many voices
and stories of North Carolina’s cultures
and heritage.
Executive Director Shelley
Crisp to Retire in 2013
announced that executive director Shelley
Crisp will be retiring, effective June
1, 2013. Crisp has served as executive
director since 2007. During her tenure
with the Humanities Council, Crisp
brought the Smithsonian Institution’s
Museum on Main Street traveling
exhibition series into North Carolina,
launched the Council’s biannual magazine North Carolina Conversations, and
inaugurated the North Carolina Stories
digital grant program. Towny Ludington,
past chair of the Council who worked
closely with Crisp for the last three years,
commented: “Shelley’s service has been
truly excellent. I’d even call it superb.
Working closely with the Council’s
Winter/Spring 2013
Crisp holds a BA in English Education
from UNC at Chapel Hill; an MA in
English from North Carolina State
University; an MFA in Creative Writing
Linda E. Oxendine
Pembroke
Richard R. Schramm,
Vice-Chair
Carrboro
Jonathan Howes*
Chapel Hill
Jim Preston
Charlotte
Townsend Ludington
Chapel Hill
Gregory Richardson
Raleigh
Davidson
Hephzibah Roskelly*
Greensboro
Michael McCue
Asheville
Neva J. Specht
Boone
Timothy A. Minor
Greensboro
Reginald Watson
Greenville
Miranda Monroe
Fayetteville
L. McKay Whatley, Jr.
Franklinville
Joseph Bathanti
Vilas
Mark O. Costley
Durham
John T. Garman
Durham
Trustees Towny Ludington, Tog Newman, Jonathan Howes, Vice-Chair
Richard Schramm, and Chair Cindy Brodhead at the Vollis Simpson
Whirligig Park in Wilson.
capable staff, she has greatly expanded
the many programs the Council offers
to all the people of North Carolina. She
has directed the Council’s budget wisely
during difficult economic times, has
overseen the beginning of a vital capital
campaign, and has been a major public
voice in the state for the humanities. I
know I speak for all the Council trustees
when I express profound thanks for her
work and best wishes for whatever she
next chooses to undertake. Fortunate
indeed will be the recipients of her
talents. The Humanities Council will
miss her sorely.”
Reginald F. Hildebrand*
Durham
Joseph Porter Durham, Jr.
Charlotte
Nominations are due annually by April 15.
North Carolina Humanities
Council chair Cynthia Brodhead has
Cynthia Brodhead, Chair
Durham
The North Carolina Humanities Council
is committed to
from the University of North Carolina
at Greensboro; and a PhD in English
Literature from the University of
Massachusetts at Amherst. Prior to
joining the Humanities Council, she
served as Associate Director of the
College Foundation of North Carolina
(CFNC) Resource Center. Before CFNC,
she directed the First Year Program at
Guilford in Greensboro. As a career
college teacher, she has taught writing,
literature, poetry, and interdisciplinary
studies courses at Guilford; UNCG; UNC
at Charlotte, where she headed the
Women’s Studies Program; and NCSU.
She has served as visiting faculty for the
Master of Liberal Arts program at UNC at
Greensboro and is currently a volunteer
docent at the North Carolina Museum of
Art in Raleigh.
•
an interdisciplinary approach
to the humanities
•
dialogue
•
discovery and understanding of
the humanities — culture, identity,
and history
•
respect for individual community
members and community values
•
humanities scholarship and scholars
to develop humanities perspectives
•
cultural diversity and inclusiveness
•
informed and active citizenship
as an outgrowth of new awareness
of self and community.
Support the Council’s
work by donating online
Glen Anthony Harris*
Wilmington
Cammie R. Hauptfuhrer
Charlotte
Margaret (Tog) Newman*
Winston-Salem
* Gubernatorial Appointee
Advisory Board
Tom Lambeth, Chair,
and Donna Lambeth
Winston-Salem
Bill and Marcie Ferris
Chapel Hill
Donald and Deborah Reaves
Winston-Salem
Henry and Shirley Frye
Greensboro
Tom and Susan Ross
Chapel Hill
Harvey and Cindy Gantt
Charlotte
David and Jenny Routh
Chapel Hill
Frank and Jane Hanes
Winston-Salem
Mike and Debbie Rubin
Winston-Salem
Jim and Mary Joseph
Durham
Lanty and Margaret Smith
Raleigh
John and Grace McKinnon
Winston-Salem
Sherwood and Eve Smith
Raleigh
John and Leigh McNairy
Kinston
Wade and Ann Smith
Raleigh
Polly Medlin
Winston-Salem
Jack and Cissie Stevens
Asheville
Patsy Davis
Washington, D.C.
Bill and Sandra Moore
Chapel Hill
Jeanne Tannenbaum
Greensboro
Roddey and Pepper Dowd
Charlotte
Thrus and Patty Morton
Charlotte
David and Libby Ward
New Bern
Beverly Eaves Perdue
Bob Eaves
Chapel-Hill
Paul Rizzo
Chapel Hill
Jordy and Ann Whichard
Greenville
Wyndham Robertson
Chapel Hill
Ed and Marylyn Williams
Charlotte
Russ and Sally Dalton
Robinson
Charlotte
Robert and Joan
Zimmerman
Charlotte
Ed and Mary Martin Borden
Goldsboro
Herb and Frannie Browne
Charlotte
Paul and Jean Carr
Raleigh
Hodding Carter
and Patt Derian
Chapel Hill
Bob and Peggy Culbertson
Charlotte
Larry and Sarah Dagenhart
Charlotte
Robert and Mary Ann
Eubanks
Chapel Hill
Jim and Judy Exum
Greensboro
| 45
The
Last
W o r d
The first poet to do so, on February 12, 1959, Carl Sandburg
addressed a joint session of Congress in honor of the 150th birthday
of Abraham Lincoln. As the Humanities Council has recently
supported projects on the sesquicentennial of the Civil War and
the upcoming celebration of the anniversary of the Emancipation
Proclamation, Sandburg’s address remains a strong statement of
the conflicts in Lincoln’s era and the response to them of one of the
nation’s greatest leaders. A film version is available on YouTube.
Address of Carl Sandburg
before the Joint Session
of Congress, February 2, 1959
Not often in the story of mankind
does a man arrive on earth who is both
steel and velvet, who is as hard as rock
and soft as drifting fog, who holds in his
heart and mind the paradox of terrible
storm and peace unspeakable and perfect.
Here and there across centuries come
reports of men alleged to have these
contrasts. And the incomparable Abraham
Lincoln born 150 years ago this day, is
an approach if not a perfect realization
of this character. In the time of the April
lilacs in the year 1865, on his death, the
casket with his body was carried north
and west a thousand miles; and the
American people wept as never before;
bells sobbed, cities wore crepe; people
stood in tears and with hats off as the
railroad burial car paused in the leading
cities of seven states ending its journey
at Springfield, Illinois, the hometown.
During the four years he was President
he at times, especially in the first three
months, took to himself the powers of
a dictator; he commanded the most
powerful army still then assembled in
Winter/Spring 2013
modern warfare; he enforced conscription
of soldiers for the first time in American
History; under imperative necessity he
abolished the right of habeus corpus; he
directed politically and spiritually the
wild, massive, turbulent forces let loose
in Civil War. He argued and pleaded for
compensated emancipation of the slaves.
The slaves were property, they were on
the tax books along with horses and
cattle, the valuation of each slave next
to his name on the tax assessor‘s books.
Failing to get action on compensated
emancipation, as a Chief Executive
having war powers he issued the paper
by which he declared the slaves to be
free under “military necessity.” In the
end, nearly $4,000,000 worth of property
was taken away from those who were
legal owners of it, property confiscated,
wiped out as by fire and turned to ashes,
at his instigation and executive direction.
Chattel property recognized and lawful
for 300 years was expropriated, seized
without payment.
In the month the war began, he told his
secretary, John Hay, “My policy is to have
no policy.” Three years later in a letter
to a Kentucky friend made public, he
confessed plainly, “I have been controlled
by events.” His words at Gettysburg were
sacred, yet strange with a color of the
familiar: “We cannot consecrate — we
cannot hallow — this ground. The brave
men, living and dead, who struggled here,
have consecrated it, far beyond our poor
power to add or detract.” He could have
said “The brave union men.” Did he have
a purpose in omitting the word “union”?
Was he keeping himself and his utterance
clear of the passion that would not be
good to look back on when the time came
for peace and reconciliation? Did he mean
to leave an implication that there were
brave Union men and brave Confederate
men, living and dead, who had struggled
there? We do not know, of a certainty.
Was he thinking of the Kentucky father
whose two sons died in battle, one in
Union blue, the other in Confederate
gray, the father inscribing on the stone
over their double grave, “God knows
which was right”? We do not know. His
changing policies from time to time aimed
at saving the Union. In the end his armies
won and his nation became a world
power. In August of 1864, he wrote a
memorandum that he expected to lose the
next November election; sudden military
victory brought the tide his way; the vote
was 2,200,000 for him and 1,800,000
against him. Among his bitter opponents
were such figures as Samuel F. B. Morse,
inventor of the telegraph, and Cyrus
H. McCormick, inventor of the farm
reaper. In all its essential propositions
the Southern Confederacy had the moral
support of powerful, respectable elements
throughout the north, probably more than
a million voters believing in the justice of
the Southern cause. While the war winds
Carl Sandburg as he addresses a Joint Session of Congress in 1959. Courtesy
Paul Bonesteel.
howled he insisted that the Mississippi
were found who made war as victorious
was one river meant to belong to one
war has always been made, with terror,
country, that railroad connection from
frightfulness, destruction, and on both
coast to coast must be pushed through
sides, north and south, valor and sacrifice
and the Union Pacific Railroad a reality.
past words of man to tell. In the mixed
In the mixed shame and blame of the immense wrongs
of two crashing civilizations, often with nothing to say, he
said nothing, slept not at all, and on occasions he was
seen to weep in a way that made weeping appropriate,
decent, majestic.
While the luck of war wavered and broke
and came again, as generals failed and
campaigns were lost, he held enough
forces of the Union together to raise new
armies and supply them, until generals
shame and blame of the immense wrongs
of two crashing civilizations, often with
nothing to say, he said nothing, slept
not at all, and on occasions he was seen
to weep in a way that made weeping
appropriate, decent, majestic. As he rode
alone on horseback near soldiers home on
the edge of Washington one night his hat
was shot off; a son he loved died as he
watched at the bed; his wife was accused
of betraying information to the enemy,
until denials from him were necessary. An
Indiana man at the White House heard
him say, “Voorhees, don‘t it seem strange
to you that I, who could never so much
as cut off the head of a chicken, should
be elected, or selected, into the midst of
all this blood?” He tried to guide general
Nathaniel Prentiss Banks, a Democrat,
three times Governor of Massachusetts,
in the governing of some 17 of the 48
parishes of Louisiana controlled by the
Union armies, an area holding a fourth of
the slaves of Louisiana. He would like to
see the state recognize the Emancipation
Proclamation, “And while she is at it, I
think it would not be objectionable for
her to adopt some practical system by
which the two races could gradually
live themselves out of their old relation
to each other, and both come out better
prepared for the new. Education for the
young blacks should be included in the
plan.” To Governor Michel Hahn elected
in 1864 by a majority of the 11,000 white
male voters who had taken the oath of
allegiance to the Union, Lincoln wrote,
“Now that you are about to have a
convention which, among other things,
will probably define the elective franchise, I barely suggest for your private
consideration, whether some of the
colored people may not be let in — as for
instance, the very intelligent and especially those who have fought gallantly in
our ranks.”
Among the million words in the Lincoln
utterance record, he interprets himself
with a more keen precision than someone
else offering to explain him. His simple
opening of the house divided speech in
1858 serves for today: “If we could first
know where we are, and whither we are
tending we could better judge what to do,
and how to do it.” To his Kentucky friend,
Joshua F. Speed, he wrote in 1855, “Our
| 47
they want? He had the idea. It‘s there in
the lights and shadows of his personality,
a mystery that can be lived but never fully
spoken in words.
Fellow citizens, we cannot
escape history. We will be
remembered in spite of
ourselves.
progress in degeneracy appears to me to
be pretty rapid. As a nation we began
by declaring that ‘All men are created
equal, except Negroes.’ When the knownothings get control, it will read ‘All
men are created equal except Negroes
and foreigners and Catholics.’ When it
comes to this, I shall prefer emigrating
to some country where they make no
pretense of loving liberty.” Infinitely
tender was his word from a White House
balcony to a crowd on the White House
lawn, “I have not willingly planted a
thorn in any man‘s bosom,” or a military
governor, “I shall do nothing through
malice; what I deal with is too vast for
malice.” He wrote for Congress to read
on December 1, 1863, “In times like
the present men should utter nothing
for which they would not willingly be
responsible through time and eternity.”
Like an ancient psalmist he warned
Congress, “Fellow citizens, we cannot
escape history. We will be remembered
in spite of ourselves. No personal significance or insignificance can spare one
or another of us. The fiery trial through
which we pass will light us down in
honor or dishonor to the latest generation.” Wanting Congress to break and
forget past traditions his words came
keen and flashing. “The dogmas of the
quiet past are inadequate for the stormy
present. We must think anew, we must
act anew, we must disenthrall ourselves.
They are the sort of words that actuated the mind and will of the men who
created and navigated that marvel of the
sea, the nautilus, and her voyage from
Pearl Harbor and under the North Pole
Icecap.”
Winter/Spring 2013
Abraham Lincoln, three-quarter length portrait, seated and holding his spectacles
and pencil. Photo by Alexander Gardner, 1865. Photo Courtesy Library of Congress Prints
and Photographs Division.
The people of many other countries take
Lincoln now for their own. He belongs
to them. He stands for decency, honest
dealing, plain talk, and funny stories.
“Look where he came from — don‘t he
know all us strugglers and wasn‘t he a
kind of tough struggler all his life right
up to the finish?” Something like that you
can hear in any nearby neighborhood and
across the seas. Millions there are who
take him as a personal treasure. He had
something they would like to see spread
EVEN T S
&
DEAD L INES
Our good friend the poet and playwright
Mark Van Doren, tells us, “To me, Lincoln
seems, in some ways, the most interesting
man who ever lived....He was gentle but
this gentleness was combined with a
terrific toughness, an iron strength.”
Lar ge Gr ants
How did he say he would like to be
remembered? His beloved friend,
Representative Owen Lovejoy of Illinois,
had died in May of 1864, and friends
wrote to Lincoln and he replied that the
pressure of duties kept him from joining
them in efforts for a marble monument
to Lovejoy. The last sentence of his
letter saying, “Let him have the marble
monument along with the well assured
and more enduring one in the hearts of
those who love liberty, unselfishly, for all
men.” So perhaps we may say that the
well assured and most enduring memorial to Lincoln is invisibly there, today,
tomorrow and for a long time yet to come
in the hearts of lovers of liberty, men and
women who understand that wherever
there is freedom there have been those
who fought and sacrificed for it.
Mini-grant applications must arrive at the Humanities Council office by the
first day of the month and must be made at least eight weeks in advance
of the program.
Text from “The Report from the Joint
Committee on the Arrangements
on the Commemoration Ceremony in
Observance of The 150th Anniversary
of the Birth of Abraham Lincoln.”
Washington, DC, United States
Government Printing Office, 1959.
Reprint permission courtesy of the
Carl Sandburg Family Trust.
Tr ustee Meetin g s
For projects beginning after July 15 and December 15
• Draft proposals are due March 15 and August 15
• Final proposals are due April 15 and September 15
M ini Gr ants
Pl anning Gr ant s
There is no deadline for a planning grant.
Road Scholar s
Road Scholars applications must be made at least eight weeks in advance
of the requested program.
Let’ s Talk Ab out It
Let’s Talk About It applications must be made at least eight weeks
in advance of the requested program.
Linda Flower s L i t er ar y Aw ar d
Entries must be postmarked by August 15.
•
•
•
•
June 14, 2013
September 20, 2013
November 15, 2013
February 15, 2014
Nominations for N ew T r u st ees
New trustees nominations must arrive at the Humanities Council
by April 15.
everywhere over the world. Democracy?
We can‘t say exactly what it is, but he had
it. In his blood and bones he carried it. In
the breath of his speeches and writings it
is there. Popular government? Republican
TEACHERS INSTITUT E S UM M ER SE M INAR
Muslim Journeys: Islam and Its Many Roads
William and Ida Friday Center for Continuing Education, Chapel Hill.
June 16–22, 2013
institutions? Government where the
people have the say-so, one way or
another telling their elected rulers what
| 49
NONPROFIT
ORGANIZATION
US POSTAGE PAID
GREENSBORO, NC
PERMIT NO. 705
N
The North Carolina Humanities Council serves as an advocate
for lifelong learning and thoughtful dialogue about all facets
of human life. It facilitates the exploration and celebration of
g Carolina’s cultures and
the many voices and stories of North
heritage. The North Carolina Humanities Council is a statewide nonprofit and affiliate of the National Endowment for the
Humanities.
2013
Winter/Spring
MANY
STORIES,
ONE PEOPLE
North
Carolina
Humanities
Council
122 North Elm Street, Suite 601
Greensboro, NC 27401
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CONVERSATIONS - North Carolina Humanities Council

Transcription

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