– May 2008:
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LEH-sponsored Smithsonian exhibit travels state 

The Smithsonian Institution and LEH-sponsored exhibition "New Harmonies: Celebrating American Roots Music" is on display at the Trailhead Museum in Abita Springs through May 24. Public programs showcasing local contributions to traditional American music are planned throughout the month. For a full listing of events, visit www.townofabitasprings.com/current-events or contact 985-892-0711.

Craftsman and musician Paul Hebert will present a guitar-building demonstration and lecture at the Jeanerette Bicentennial Park and Museum, Jeanerette, La., which will host "New Harmonies" in July and August.

"New Harmonies" tour schedule is as follows: April 14-May 24, Trailhead Museum, Abita Springs; June 2-July 12, Lincoln Parish Library, Ruston; July 21-Aug. 30, Jeanerette Bicentennial Park and Museum, Jeanerette; Sept. 4-Oct. 15, Le Musee de la Ville de Kaplan, Kaplan; Oct. 23-Dec. 5, Delta Music Museum, Ferriday; Dec. 11-Jan. 15, 2009, Louisiana State Oil and Gas Museum, Oil City.

LEH organizes U.S. history teacher workshops in Calcasieu & Caddo Parishes 

The LEH-funded by two $1 million grants from the U.S. Department of Education's Teaching American History program - has organized institutes in American history this June for public school teachers in Caddo and Calcasieu parishes. Three summer institutes will be held in Caddo Parish in partnership with LSUS and four institutes in Calcasieu Parish in partnership with McNeese State University. About 160 elementary, middle and high school teachers in the two parishes will attend the graduate-level institutes. The LEH also is serving as the fiscal agent for the Algiers Charter School Association's Teaching American History summer institutes for New Orleans public school teachers.

LEH sponsors 2008 Teacher Institute at Loyola 

The LEH is sponsoring a Teacher Institute for Advanced Study at Loyola University titled "Looking at History: Photography and the American Past." It will be taught July 7-31 by Loyola professor Leslie Parr (504-865-3649) or parr@loyno.edu. This Institute will look at American history from the mid-nineteenth century to the present through the eyes of its photographers. Institute participants will learn to read photographs based on an understanding rooted in history and explore the role photographers have played in informing, defining, and changing society. Teachers to receive $750 stipends plus 3 hours of graduate credit.

PRIME TIME sponsors summer Teacher Institute at University of New Orleans 

From July 7 to July 31, New Orleans kindergarten through 8th grade teachers will participate in the "Prime Time for PRIME TIME in New Orleans Schools" Institute for Advanced Study (TIAS) at the Louisiana Humanities Center. Twenty-three applications were received to date, leaving two openings at this time. Teachers who participate in the institute will receive a $750 stipend and are eligible to receive 3 hours of graduate credit from the University of New Orleans (UNO), as well as 45 CLUs. Additionally, UNO is waiving tuition.

A partnership between the LEH and the UNO, the institute will be co-directed by Dr. Nancy Dixon, who teaches at the UNO and has been a PRIME TIME scholar for several years, and Dr. Olivia Pass, the associate director of PRIME TIME, who has served as a PRIME TIME scholar for 7 years as well as a program coordinator for PRIME TIME. In this institute, teachers will employ PRIME TIME methodologies and books to enhance their ability to teach reading and critical thinking skills in grades K-8. "Teachers will learn to incorporate humanities issues in a student-centered classroom by presenting award-winning children's and young adults' books into their lesson plans, said PRIME TIME director Faye Flanagan. "Also, teachers will learn how to employ open-ended discussions to fulfill grade expectations and benchmarks."

Interested teachers in New Orleans should contact PRIME TIME Assistant Director Miranda Restovic at 504-620-2486.

PRIME TIME holds workshop for scholars, storytellers from 6 states 

PRIME TIME FAMILY READING TIME® will host a training workshop on July 26-27 for approximately 60 scholars, storytellers and librarians from California, Kansas, Nebraska, New York, Florida and Louisiana. They will take part in two days of intense practice and instruction on PRIME TIME methodology and program implementation as they go about forming PRIME TIME teams. The workshop will take place at the LEH's Louisiana Humanities Center at Turners Hall in New Orleans. For more information about the July 2008 PRIME TIME Training Workshop, contact Faye Flanagan at 504-620-2485 or flanagan@leh.org.

Teacher Training Workshop at Shreveport's 6th Grade Academy

With a focus on discovery through open-ended discussions Dr. Helen Taylor, a LSU in Shreveport professor and a PRIME TIME FAMILY READING TIME scholar, encouraged teachers to move toward a student-centered classroom during professional development activities held at the Sixth Grade Academy in Shreveport, La. on April 18.The entire faculty participated in the training that included an introduction to PRIME TIME components, goals, and methodology presented by Faye Flanagan, PRIME TIME Director.

During the four-hour workshop, Dr. Taylor introduced the faculty to the many ways that the PRIME TIME model can help them fulfill the Language Arts Grade Level Expectations and Benchmarks of the Louisiana Department of Education's Comprehensive Curriculum. Using a chapter from the novel The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis, Dr. Taylor presented sample questions for classroom discussion and techniques for assessing student-learning outcomes.

The workshop also included a sample PRIME TIME reading and discussion session modeled by Dr. Taylor and Thelma Harrison, a PRIME TIME storyteller since 1997. Faculty members divided into pairs and prepared sample questions based on a PRIME TIME book. Three teams of teachers then volunteered to demonstrate their "talents" by sharing their PRIME TIME book and demonstrating discussion techniques that would encourage students to explore themes and values, rather than giving a required "correct" answer. Finally, all participants completed a lesson plan utilizing techniques demonstrated.

The workshop was supported by a grant from the Community Foundation of Shreveport-Bossier. Additionally, the grant will fund a PRIME TIME program at this campus in the fall 2008. Twenty-five families will be given the opportunity to participate in this family literacy program for six weeks during September and October.

Creole Wild West at LEH 

On April 19th, the Louisiana Humanities Center hosted a performance and panel discussion with the Creole Wild West, the oldest of New Orleans' Mardi Gras Indian tribes. With over 120 people in attendance, the sold-out event was recorded for an oral history project, and will be a part of the KnowLA online encyclopedia of Louisiana. Moderated by Dr. Bruce Raeburn of the Hogan Jazz Archive at Tulane University, the panel discussion covered the origins and traditions of the tribe, including the role of individual members and the genealogy of songs and costumes. The LEH and the New Orleans Mardi Gras Indian Council are planning future collaborations of this kind to better preserve the city's culture and connections between citizens.

Readings in Literature and Culture (RELIC) 

As RELIC activities for the winter and spring begin to wind down, readers and patrons of public libraries will be glad to hear that new ideas for programming are on the drawing board. This spring, as pilot sites for Elizabeth I of England and Her Times (in Haynesville, Houma and Shreveport) have generated enthusiastic audiences and record attendance, a new program concept focusing on north Louisiana is being evaluated. We invite your comments and thoughts about the following reading programs related to north Louisiana. Texts under consideration are:

Louisiana Power and Light - A novel by John Dufresne set in the northeastern part of the state. Characterized as a contemporary Southern Gothic novel with a catalog of characters, it is one of the few critically acclaimed fiction pieces recently to come out of and be set in north Louisiana. Dufresne uses settings that show the north as not all hill country or river land, Anglo or Latin, Protestant or Catholic.

Swaggart: The Unauthorized Biography of an American Evangelist - Ann Rowe Seaman's study is a look into Swaggart's family origins in the 1930s, his relationship with his other performing cousins Jerry Lee Lewis and Mickey Gilley, and the social origins of the Pentecostal movement. She uses a psychological approach to understanding his ambitions and faults, and the biography has been viewed as even handed - considering Swaggart's sensational downfall.

The Gift of the Wild Things: The Life of Caroline Dormon - As much an argument for preservation as a biography, Fran Holman's story of Dormon is also a story of the creation of Louisiana's only extensive wilderness known as the Kisatchie National Forest. What would north Louisiana be like without this asset?

White Masculinity in the Recent South - Part of the Making the Modern South series from LSU Press, the essays and articles edited by Trent Watts focus on changing conceptions of white masculinity in the South across that region's entire history. It looks at classic stereotypes and how they change or evolve under the broader transformation of Southern/Louisiana society.

Louisiana Hayride: Radio and Roots Music along the Red River - Tracey Laird's history of the radio show is as much regional history as musical, and that becomes an important point in understanding the emergence of contemporary musical genres and the social history of regions such as north Louisiana.

Email your comments about these possible reading programs to LEH RELIC director Jim Segreto at segreto@leh.org.

LEH Sponsored Events in May

Jefferson Parish - State Poet Laureate Darrell Bourque conducts a reading of his works followed by a question and answer session. 7 p.m. May 27 at East Bank Jefferson Parish Regional Library. For more information, contact Burke McFerrin at 504-733-3619.

New Orleans - The Saints and Sinners Literary Festival is back for its sixth season of literary panel discussions, readings, workshops, theater, and special events focusing on GLBT literature. May 8-11 in various French Quarter venues. For a full schedule of events, visit www.sasfest.org.

New Orleans - A series of humanities lectures exploring the contributions of legendary African American choreographer and dancer Ulysses Dove will include his brother, Alfred Dove, a choreographer and dancer in his own right. All activities are sponsored by the New Orleans Ballet Association and take place May 7-10 at Tulane University's Dixon Hall. For more information, contact 504-430-0990.

New Orleans - "Living Color: Photographs by Judy Cooper"
The New Orleans Museum of Art
Cooper's relationship with her fellow New Orleanians has translated into an especially poignant documentation of a culture whose future is at best imperiled and in some cases, torn apart by the devastation of Katrina. Until May 11.

Shreveport - "The Journey of Jean Despujols Continues"
The Meadows Museum of Art at Centenary College
The Meadows Museum of Art is implementing and publicizing a series of educational programs developed with the 2007-2008 exhibition series. Goals include providing the regional community with access to visual artists and curatorial experts. As well, the series provides artists with the opportunity to meet and talk with contemporary working artists from other regions of the nation. Until June 29.

Feature Flicks at LEH

Louisiana Humanities Center Documentary Film Series presented "Piano Players Rarely Play Together," on Thursday, May 1 at 7p.m. A documentary by Stevenson J. Palfi, "Piano Players" featured Tuts Washington, Professor Longhair, and Allen Toussaint. In the lead-up to a rare joint performance, we learn the history of the piano player tradition from three masters.