Announcing New Civil War Programs, No Registration Required

As part of the Library's commemoration of the Civil War Sesquicentennial, a variety of special events and lectures will be scheduled throughout the upcoming months. Events have been made possible by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Library Association, and include the following programs:

Tuesday, February 28th, 7 pm
Susan Strane: A Whole-Souled Woman: Prudence Crandall and the Education of Black Women
Susan will discuss her book on Prudence Crandall, who opened the first boarding school in America for African-American girls in Canterbury, Ct. in 1833. She advertised her school as a seminary for "young ladies and little misses of color." The town, however, was not pleased and their presence led to boycotts, intimidation, and the poisoning of their well. The school had become a cause celebre among abolitionists. Its defense was one of the first campaigns of the great William Lloyd Garrison.

Wednesday, March 14th, 7 pm
Martha’s Vineyard Poetry Society : Civil War Era Poetry
During the Civil War, thousands of poems about the conflict were written by everyday citizens from the North and the South. These poems appeared in a variety of print formats, including newspapers, periodicals, broadsheets, and song sheets. These poems enable us to better understand the role of poetry during the war years and how poetry helped unify citizens, inspire troops, memorialize the dead, and bind the nation's wounds in the aftermath of the war. Drawing from the well-known poets of the period, including Walt Whitman, John Greenleaf Whittier, Herman Melville, Francis Orray Tickner, and George Henry Boker, the Martha's Vineyard Poetry Society will present an evening of poetry readings. Library of Congress Poetry Resources: http://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/lcpoetry/cwvc.html

Sunday, April 22nd, 4 pm
Sparky and Rhonda Rucker: The Blue and Gray in Black and White
Sparky & Rhonda Rucker's presentation will include stories from the American Civil War portrayed through music and in narrative and will focus on the war's impact on the different regions of our country. The stories, some sad and some humorous, reflect personal insights from the various personalities who participated in the war. Since more songs came out of the Civil War than any other war in history, they will have a large repertoire of music to draw upon. They will sing slave songs, and songs from the Underground Railroad, while accompanying themselves with finger style picking and bottleneck blues guitar, harmonica, old-time banjo, slide guitar, piano, spoons, and bones.

As much a folklorist and community historian as a performer, Sparky Rucker has combined his love for blues and songs from the Black ballad tradition with a desire to both educate and entertain. Rhonda, a versatile performer, joins Sparky playing blues harmonica, piano, banjo, and adding vocal harmonies. They have been featured tellers at the International Storytelling Center and Festival, Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and on NPR's On Point. Join us for an afternoon of fun, history and songs for the whole family. This program is free of charge with a reception to follow.

Wednesday, April 25th, 7 pm
John Hough Jr. Seen the Glory: a Novel of the Battle of Gettysburg
John Hough tells the story of Luke and Thomas Chandler, who grew up on Martha's Vineyard, raised by their abolitionist father and Rose, their headstrong and beautiful Cape Verdean housekeeper. When a recruiter comes to the island, the boys, who have already witnessed their father and Rose helping a runaway slave to freedom and who are determined to join the fight against slavery, eagerly enlist in the storied Twentieth Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry.

Tuesday, May 1st, 7 pm
John Sundman: Lincoln at Gettysburg: the Words That Remade America
John Sundman will present a discussion of Gary Wills’, Pulitzer Prize winning book, Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America. Wills’ thesis is that the Gettysburg Address came to define not only the meaning of the war, but the meaning of America. Subjects under discussion will include the rhetorical devices Lincoln used and his implicit arguments about the nature of the Union and its relationship to freedom.

Tuesday May 15th, 7 pm
Patricia Sullivan: “One Hundred Years of Freedom?”
When John F. Kennedy was inaugurated in January 1961, the hundredth anniversary of the Civil War loomed larger in the national consciousness than the emerging Civil Rights Movement. Historian Patricia Sullivan will discuss how rising black protests in the South converged with the Civil War centennial, challenging public memory and historical accounts of the war, its meaning, and its legacies.

Also in May (dates to be announced), Jim Thomas, founder of the U.S. Slave Song Project, will talk and the interpretation of codes used in the slave songs for the underground railroad, and Robert Hayden, President of The Martha’s Vineyard Chapter of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, will trace the history of his family, the battles they were involved in, and their journey to Martha’s Vineyard as freed slaves.

Let’s Talk About It: Making Sense of the American Civil War", has been made possible through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Library Association.

Tony Horwitz and Sheldon Hackney: John Brown's Raid and the Origin of the Civil War

On Wednesday, December 14th at 7pm, please join us as we host a discussion of the significance of the 1859 bloody raid on the arsenal at Harper’s Ferry by anti-slavery activist John Brown and a small group of his followers. Leading the discussion will be Pulitzer Prize winning author and Island resident Tony Horwitz and noted historian Sheldon Hackney, David Boies Professor of History, Emeritus and retired president of the University of Pennsylvania.

Mr. Horwitz’s book Midnight Rising: John Brown and the Raid that Sparked the Civil War was published in October and currently sits on many bestseller lists. The evening’s program will not a be a lecture but a moderated discussion with the audience, so to get the most of out of the event, participants should have at least some familiarity with the history of the raid and its aftermath. (Reading Horwitz’s book would be a great way to prepare for the discussion. Several copies of Midnight Rising are at the library, and it’s available for sale at Bunch of Grapes bookstore.) Refreshments and a book signing will follow the discussion. Please join us for what is certain to be an evening of stimulating conversation.

This program kicks off six months of programs at the library related to the 150th anniversary of the Civil War and Emancipation. At the heart of the programming is a seminar series sponsored by the American Library Association and the National Endowment for the Humanities, Let’s Talk About it Series, entitled “Let’s Talk About It: Making Sense of the American Civil War”. The “Let’s Talk About It” format was developed by the ALA and NEH to promote the use of public libraries as centers of education, communication among citizens, and exploration of the ideas of what America is all about. The “Let’s Talk About It” program will also feature Dr. Hackney as Program Scholar and discussion leader.

"Let’s Talk About It: Making Sense of the American Civil War", has been made possible through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Library Association. http://www.vhlibrary.org/civilwar.shtml#series

"Let's Talk About It: Making Sense of the American Civil War"

THIS COURSE IS NOW FULL.

"Let's Talk About It: Making Sense of the American Civil War" is designed as a series of five conversations exploring different facets of the Civil War experience, informed by reading the words written or uttered by powerful voices from the past and present, and complemented by related programming before and during the series. These conversations include both short introductory lectures and small discussion groups led by facilitators.

The group will meet the following Tuesday evenings at 7pm:

Session One (January 10th)"Imagining War"

Session Two (February 7th)"Choosing Sides"

Session Three (March 6th) "Making Sense of Shiloh"

Session Four (April 17th) "The Shape of War"

Session Five (May 8th) " War and Freedom"

The program is designed to probe meanings of the Civil War that are “hidden in plain sight” behind the key questions and main characters so familiar to us. Program participants may be surprised to encounter in the readings such a large cast of characters, so broad a range of perspectives, and so dense a web of circumstances. After considering the vast sweep and profound breadth of Civil War experience, participants will understand that the American Civil War was not a single thing, or a simple thing. And yet they will also see emancipation—the end of the most powerful system of slavery in the modern world—takes its place as the central story of the war.

The discussions will be led by Dr. Sheldon Hackney, PhD., David Boies Professor of History, Emeritus and retired president of the University of Pennsylvania. As part of the program, group discussions will be held once per month from January through May on the following works:

• March, the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Island resident Geraldine Brooks
• Crossroads of Freedom: Antietam, by James McPherson
• America’s War: Talking about the Civil War and Emancipation on their 150th Anniversaries, an anthology of historical fiction, speeches, diaries, memoirs, biographies and short stories edited by national project scholar Edward L. Ayers.
• Let’s Talk About It: Making Sense of the American Civil War, Essay by Edward L. Ayers, President, University of Richmond.

Each session will include an introductory talk by Dr. Hackney, sometimes followed by a guest speaker, after which smaller groups will be formed to discuss suggested open ended questions. Each discussion group will have a facilitator. At the end of each session, the entire group will reconvene to share insights.

Program participants will be given packets of information, including the three books. The library hopes this series will be on the order of a college symposium. This means that homework is important and expected. Everybody is welcome, of course, as long as they’re willing to do the homework and read the assignments before the discussion sessions.

For additional information, including a list of reading assignments, online resources, and suggestions for further reading, visit the library's "Let's Talk About It" webpage at www.vhlibrary.org/civilwar.shtml

Packets for "Let's Talk About It" may be picked up at the library on December 15th.

"Let’s Talk About It: Making Sense of the American Civil War", has been made possible through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Library Association.