The LEH, authorized by the Governor and State of Louisiana, is seeking nominations for Louisiana's next Poet Laureate.

Past Poet Laureates selected under this legislation include Brenda Marie Osbey and Darrell Bourque, whose term ends in May 2011. The LEH has appointed a selection committee as required by state legislation.

Committee members include Michael Sartisky, president of the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, or LEH; Brian Boyles, LEH Louisiana Humanities Center Director; David Middleton, professor, Nichols State University, Thibodaux; Reggie Young, professor, University of Louisiana at Lafayette; Jack Heflin, poet at the University of Louisiana at Monroe; John Biguenet, poet and playwright, Loyola, New Orleans; and Mary Ann Callaway, LSU Press editor, Baton Rouge.

The selection committee is now soliciting nominations of poets either born or domiciled in Louisiana at the time of nomination.  The selection committee will submit three finalists to the governor from whom he shall choose a nominee subject to Senate confirmation. Nominees shall have published works in books, anthologies, literary journals or magazines. The selection committee will seek input from the general public and the literary community and shall select nominees who reflect the diverse cultures and heritage of Louisiana. Committee members may not be nominated. The selection committee will deliberate in December and make its recommendations to the governor.

The poet laureate shall serve a two-year term and deliver an annual public reading in the state as designated by the LEH.  Poet laureates may not serve two consecutive terms.

Letters of nomination should be specific as to the above criteria. The deadline for nominations is Oct. 15, 2010. Send nominations to:  

Dr. Michael Sartisky, Chair, Poet Laureate Panel

Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities

938 Lafayette St. Suite 300

New Orleans, LA  70113

sartisky@leh.org

The first week in October, the LEH launched a limited beta, or trial, version of KnowLA, the online encyclopedia of Louisiana history and culture. The limited beta launch included about one hundred entries, most accompanied by images and some by audio and video. Writers, section editors, archivists, educators, and representatives from our media partners will help KnowLA staff revise and develop the encyclopedia for its public release in December.  If you want to be notified when KnowLA goes online in December, register on line at www.knowla.org.

On Oct. 13, the LEH, in partnership with the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American history, will hold a one-day workshop in Shreveport for Caddo Parish public school American history teachers. The title of workshop will be "The Origins of the American Revolution." This in-service educational program will be funded by a $1.6 million, five-year U.S. Department of Education Teaching American History grant recently awarded to Caddo Parish Public Schools. The LEH wrote and administers this grant for the school district. This new grant replaces a similar Teaching American History grant secured by the LEH for the school district in 2006. That grant ended in the summer 2009.

On Sept. 14, the LEH, again in partnership with the Gilder Lehrman Institute, held a workshop in West Monroe on "The History of American Presidential Campaigns" for 31 public school American history teachers from Ouachita, Morehouse, East Carroll and Richland parishes as well as from Monroe City Schools. The workshop was underwritten by a five-year $1.6 million Teaching American History grant written and directed by the LEH for the five northeast Louisiana school districts.

In addition, the LEH recently closed a three-year Teaching American History grant for Calcasieu Parish public school teachers.

Baton Rouge: The LSU Museum of Art, located at the Shaw Center for the Arts, 100 Lafayette St., presents Caroline Durieux: A Radioactive Wit, through Nov. 2. On Oct. 31, the museum will feature Durieux Dramatized, a collaborative interpretation of the artist's work. From the smoky bistros of Mexico to the regal debutant balls of New Orleans, no one escaped the satirical eye of Caroline Durieux. This retrospective will celebrate Durieux's prolific career. Included in this exhibition is a wide range of topics, from her astute observations of South American society to her satirical representation of upper crust New Orleans. Perhaps her most interesting contribution to the field was the development of the electron print that employed nuclear energy.  For more information, call 225-389-7200, or visit www.lsumoa.com.

Baton Rouge: The Louisiana Art and Science Museum, located at 100 River Road South, presents Keith Sonnier: Fort Crévecoeur, from Oct. to Jan. 2. Keith Sonnier, a globally recognized artist best known for large-scale installations and sculptures that include neon, has never forgotten the allure of his Acadian birthplace. After completing his studies at the University of Southwestern Louisiana (now University of Louisiana at Lafayette) and, later, Rutgers University, he moved to New York City, where his career quickly took off. This exhibition, his first major one-person museum show in Louisiana, features a dozen large sculptural works created in direct response to his origins. Sympathetic to Louisiana's crisis as a result of the recent oil spill in the gulf, Sonnier has named this exhibition Fort Crévecoeur, or "fort broken heart." The name references the Illinois fort where the French explorer LaSalle took refuge before his famous expedition down the Mississippi River in 1682. For more information, call 225-344-5272, or visit www.lasm.org.

Lafayette, Lake Charles & New Iberia: Over the course of more than 160 live events and dozens of live radio and Internet broadcasts, the Louisiana Crossroads series has provided a top-notch showcase for regional and visiting artists in an intimate and accessible format. This year, the season begins with the first-ever reunion of the original, 1980s lineup of ground-breaking roots-rockers, "The Bluerunners." Enjoy this influential band's early mix of rockabilly and zydeco, and their subsequent forays into rock, Cajun music and acoustic folk. For these special shows, the original quartet and other 'runners alums' will celebrate the enduring legacy of the group's five albums and many creative offshoots.The Bluerunners Reunion schedule:

• Live Broadcast! 7 p.m. Oct. 14, Sliman Theater, 129 E Main St, New Iberia.
• 8 p.m. Oct. 15, Central School Theater, 326 Pujo St., Lake Charles.
• 8 p.m. Oct. 16, Acadiana Center for the Arts Theater, 101 W. Vermilion St., Lafayette.
• For more information call 337-233-7060, or visit http://acadianacenterforthearts.org/louisiana-crossroads.

Shreveport: The Meadows Museum of Art, located on the campus of Centenary College, 2911 Centenary Boulevard, presents an exhibition entitled Past and Presents: Works by Hunt Slonem from Albania Plantation, through Oct. 24. Hunt Slonem is a well known New York artist whose connection to Louisiana includes a deep passion for plantation life and historic restoration. The artist has recently purchased and restored Albania Plantation where the works featured in this exhibition are located. Included are paintings of parrots, monkeys, butterflies and rabbits as well as free-standing sculptures of exotic flowering plants. For more information, call 318-869-5040, or visit www.centenary.edu/meadows/calendar.

The LEH is seeking nominations for its Board of Directors.  As the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, the LEH is the major source of grants for public humanities programs in Louisiana. The LEH has supported such projects as the nationally acclaimed PRIME TIME FAMILY READING TIME literacy project, Teacher Institutes for Advanced Study, the RELICadult library reading programs, documentary films, conferences, lecture series and interpretive exhibits. In 2009-2010 the LEH provided in excess of $3 million for humanities projects.

The LEH consists of 27 citizens, six of them appointed by the governor.  The Board consists of individuals from the academic community and from the general public. Board members are selected on the basis of their knowledge of or involvement with the humanities and represent a broad cross-section of the community including colleges, universities, museums, libraries, politics, business, journalism, labor, minorities, professions, and civic organizations.

Board members usually serve three-year terms. Membership is voluntary, but all LEH related travel expenses are reimbursed. Members attend four or five meetings a year to review applications or to formulate policy and conduct on-site evaluation of LEH funded projects.  Board members are responsible for fund-raising, political contacts, and the development of the LEH program.

According to the act that established the Endowment, the term "humanities" includes, but is not limited to, the study of history, philosophy, languages; linguistics; literature; archeology; juris-prudence; the history, theory, and criticism of the arts; ethics; comparative religion; and those aspects of the social sciences that employ historical or philosophical approaches. Other areas include cultural anthropology; folklife; and political or social theory.

Letters of nomination and resumes should be sent to the LEH by Oct. 15. Included should be a letter from the nominee confirming his or her interest in and potential contribution to the LEH board.  Individuals may not nominate themselves. New Board members' terms will commence November 1, 2010. Nominations should be sent to:

Chair, Nominations Committee

Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities

938 Lafayette Street, Suite 300

New Orleans, LA 70113

The LEH is now accepting nominations for the 2011 annual awards for outstanding achievement in and contributions to the humanities. Winners will be honored in a special ceremony next spring.

Individuals, institutions or organizations may submit nominations. Individuals, however, may not nominate themselves. Letters of nomination should not exceed two pages and should detail specific accomplishments that qualify the nominee for the award. A vita and other letters of support should accompany the letter of nomination. Nominations, which must be received in the LEH office no later than 5 p.m. Nov. 9, 2010, should be addressed to:

Award categories include:

• Louisiana Humanist of the Year
• Award for Lifetime Contribution to the Humanities
• Chair's Award for Institutional Support
• Humanities Documentary Film of the Year Award
• Individual Achievement in the Humanities Award
• Michael P. Smith Award for Documentary Photography
• Humanities Book of the Year Award
• Humanities Teacher of the Year Awards

The "humanities," as defined by Congress, include the study of literature, history, philosophy, modern and classical languages, linguistics, archaeology, jurisprudence, art history and criticism, ethics, comparative religion, and those disciplines of the social sciences employing historical or philosophical approaches such as cultural anthropology or social theory.

The LEH Board of Directors will select nominees who best exemplify one or more of the above categories. No single humanities area will receive primary consideration, but the nominees' activities must reflect one or more disciplines in the humanities.

Awards criteria include:

• Louisiana Humanist of the Year: The Louisiana Humanist of the Year award honors individuals who have encouraged public consideration of issues central to the humanities; participated in public programs in libraries, museums, or other cultural institutions; or published important works in the humanities. Last year's winner was Dr. Michael White, the internationally acclaimed jazz musician, composer and Xavier University in New Orleans music director. 
• Award for Lifetime Contributions: Honors citizens who have supported and been involved in public appreciation of issues central to the humanities. The 2010 winner of this award was University of Louisiana history professor Gloria Fiero. The first recipient of this award was the Lindy Boggs in 1992.
• Chair's Award for Institutional Support: Honors those corporations or institutions that have made major sustained contributions to support public humanities. Last year's recipient was Phyllis Taylor of New Orleans, chair and president of the Patrick F. Taylor Foundation.
• Michael P. Smith Award for Documentary Photography: Nominations may be for a complete body of work or for a single project. The 2010 winner was documentary photographer Syndey Byrd of New Orleans.
• Humanities Documentary Film of the Year Award: Awarded to the documentary film that best exemplifies scholarship on Louisiana topics or by Louisiana documentary filmmakers. Last year this award went to Jennifer John Block of New Orleans for her film All Over but to Cry, a documentary about the 1957 Hurricane Audrey and its destruction in Cameron Parish.
• Individual Achievement in the Humanities Award: Acknowledges the extraordinary qualities of people in their participation in public humanities events. The 2010 recipients were Ann Dobie, of Lafayette, a distinguished Professor of English Emerita at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, and David Kunian of New Orleans, an award-winning radio documentarian and writer who has gained a considerable following for his work documenting and exploring New Orleans' rich musical culture.
• Public Humanities Programming Award: Acknowledges extraordinary institutional achievement in public humanities events. The 2010 awards went to Todd Mouton, Louisiana Crossroads, of Lafayette, a founder and long-time executive director of The Acadiana Arts Council's Louisiana Crossroads Series, and Virginia Carter and Kathleen Poole of the Kentucky Humanities Council, who wereresponsible for the largest number of affiliate PRIME TIME sites in any state.
• Humanities Book of the Year Award: Awarded to the book that best exemplifies scholarship on Louisiana topics or by Louisiana writers. Receiving the 2010 award was Bienville's Dilemma, by Richard Campanella, of New Orleans, the associate director of Tulane University's Center for Bioenvironmental Research and a research professor with Tulane's Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences.
• Humanities Teacher of the Year Award: An annual awardwill be made to an outstanding elementary, middle or high school teacher who exemplifies excellence in the teaching of the humanities: English, foreign language, history, social studies, folk life, and art or music history, or who have participated in public humanities programs.

For additional information about the annual humanities awards, contact LEH President Michael Sartisky at sartisky@leh.org or visit the LEH website at www.leh.org.

PRIME TIME spring 2010 applications

The PRIME TIMEstaff is now accepting applications for future programs in Louisiana. The application deadline for spring 2011 is Oct. 31. Libraries, schools, community centers and other public institutions are encouraged to apply. 
 
PRIME TIME grants are awarded twice annually to fill spring/summer and fall sessions. Due to a reduction in state funding for PRIME TIME, the number of awards available for spring 2011 programming has been reduced. Eligible applicants not approved for spring 2011 will be asked to re-apply for future terms or when additional funding becomes available. All applicants will be kept up-to-date on the status of their request for a PRIME TIME grant.  

Please note that paper applications are no longer accepted. To access an online grant application, click here. For more information about PRIME TIME, download our program brochure, or contact Miranda Restovic or Shantrell Adams.

PRIME TIME's participation in the 11^th annual Louisiana Library & Media Professionals (LALAMP) tour proved successful once again. During the week of Sept. 13-17, PRIME TIME staff members joined the tour and its exhibitors in five Louisiana cities to interact with library and school media professionals and share information about PRIME TIME. 

The LALAMP group was created ten years ago to provide Louisiana librarians with opportunities to continue their professional development, and to offer additional resources through exhibits and workshops. Visit www.lalamp.org for additional information on the conference and LALAMP.

During the conference, the PRIME TIME staff surveyed conference-goers to gauge the level of interest in the PRIME TIME grant as well as capacity to implement the program across the state. Those who completed the brief survey were entered to win ten 10 PRIME TIME books. The PRIME TIME staff thanks the 180 participants who completed the PRIME TIME survey!  The winner of the prize was Catherine Lorenzi of Fairview Elementary School in Lake Charles. 

The next PRIME TIME Training Workshop has been tentatively scheduled for Jan. 15 - 16, 2011. Updates and additional information will be provided as necessary.  The workshop will be hosted at the LEH's Louisiana Humanities Center at Turners' Hall in New Orleans.  For additional information about the training workshop, contact Shantrell Adams.

September and October are two the busiest months for RELIC programs in Louisiana's public libraries. Ten programs are underway and public response has been exceptionally strong.  "We have 40 people signed up for the RELIC program, reported Ellen Highsmith, director of the Morehouse Parish Library. "We have couples and book buddies to share the reading material. It is wonderful to see so many people enrolled." 

"Where Is North Louisiana?" is a popular program, taking place at five locations in north Louisiana. "We are fully registered with 25 participants," said Kelly Kingrey-Edwards at the Alexandria program. Up the Red River, Ann Middleton of the Bossier Parish Library was exuberant about the program's focus on the music and culture of the region. These responses illustrate the effects of RELIC programs on the activity calendars of public libraries. All thirteen participating libraries say they could not discontinue them even in the face of cuts to the LEH's state appropriations.

If many libraries are funding RELIC programs from their own budgets or those of friends groups, what are they not funding locally? Again, Ellen Highsmith offers a compelling answer: "We are a very small parish with a programs budget for 2010 of only $7,500.  With the entire cost of RELIC (cost for the program, refreshments, and incidentals) consuming one-fourth of our entire budget, you can see that our library has been forced to eliminate or decrease programming throughout the system."  She is not sure about the future: "When submitting the 2011 budget in October, I will have to contemplate whether we will be able again to bear the entire financial responsibility of RELIC." 

Natchitoches Parish Librarian Amy Walmsley describes a similar situation. "We have had to shift money out of our professional services/programming budget to pay for this program.  Essentially we have had to cut back on other yearly programs and may have to cut one to pay for the RELIC program. That would be unfortunate but I consider the RELIC program well worth the effort." Thankfully, some libraries have active friends groups. "Our RELIC program this fall was sponsored by our Calcasieu Parish Public Library Friends," said Calcasieu Parish Public Library's Danielle McGavock. "If the RELIC program would have maintained grant funding for the fall, the Friends money could have been used on other types of programming and supplies." 

The successful achievements of current RELIC programs conceal a questionable future for humanities programming in Louisiana if libraries have to resort to a rob-Peter-to-pay-Paul method to satisfy the demands of parish residents for high quality reading programs such as RELIC. There have been faint glimmers of hope in the form of an private couple funding one program in Abbeville, but without parish wide grass-roots advocacy for restoration of state funding to the LEH, as well as parish wide efforts to fund RELIC in ways that relieve our libraries, RELIC's future is increasingly uncertain. Click here for the current RELIC program schedule.

With just over a month to go before the LEH closes its 2009-10 fiscal year, we ask all newsletter readers to stand with us to defend culture and education - which have been devalued or overlooked in this era of financial belt tightening.  Please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any size to the LEH before we close out the current annual fund campaign. A gift of $50 or more entitles you to an annual subscription to the award-winning, quarterly Louisiana Cultural Vistas magazine; larger donations bring many additional benefits. For details, visit our website (www.leh.org) and click on "Support the LEH" or contact Dr. Jeff A. Hale, Director of Institutional Advancement at 504-606-4628 or hale@leh.org. If you are already an LEH supporter this fiscal year, please accept our sincere thanks.

Beginning Wednesday, Oct. 6, the Louisiana Humanities Center will host The New Orleans Media Series: Journalism and Democracy in the City and Beyond, featuring six panel discussions focused on the role of the Fourth Estate in the city. The series will run on a bi-weekly schedule, with each panel beginning at 7 p.m. All events are free and open to the public.

While employing examples from New Orleans' past and present, the series will examine the effects of changing technological and economic models; media response to political and demographic shifts in audience; and the role of corporate and independently owned news outlets in shaping public dialogue and information. The panels will convene scholars, journalists and public officials to discuss landmarks in the evolution of the local media, with emphasis on the legacy of these changes and the larger context of national trends. The overarching goal of the series is to provide new historical context that informs public understanding of the media's roles and responsibilities in a democratic society.

The first panel will feature Kevin Allman of Gambit Weekly, Jason Berry of The American Zombie blog, and Campbell Robertson of The New York Times, with Dr. Robert Mann of LSU's Manship School as moderator. The second panel will feature Peter Athas of the Adrastos blog, Stephanie Grace of the Times-Picayune and John Slade of WBOK, with Dr. Michael Sartisky of the LEH as moderator.

Schedule of Panels:

Oct. 6 - Media and Democracy, moderated by Dr. Robert Mann, LSU

Oct. 20 - Politics and Polarization in the Press, moderated by Dr. Michael Sartisky, LEH

Nov. 3 - The Economics of Newspapers Today, moderated by Jed Horne

Nov. 17 - Figaro, the French Quarter Courier, and the Lens, moderated by Jack Davis

Dec. 1 - African American Voices in the Media, moderated by Warren Bell

Dec. 15 - Live at 6: Local Network News, moderator to be determined.

Doors open at 6:45 p.m. For media inquiries, contact LHC Program Director Brian Boyles at 504-620-2632, or boyles@leh.org. For more information about the Humanities Center, visit www.leh.org.

Writers and documentary photographers, exploring Louisiana-related cultural topics, may be eligible to receive special grants up to $4,000 through the LEH's annual Louisiana Publishing Initiative grants program.

Grants are available for authors writing about non-fiction topics such as literature, history, languages, music, cultural anthropology, folk life or other humanities disciplines. Grants of $4,000 also are available for documentary photographers to document various aspects of Louisiana's diverse culture. All awards must culminate in a completed non-fiction, book-length manuscript. Novels, poetry and other forms of fiction are not eligible. The application deadline is Feb. 15.

Past recipients include Dictionary of Louisiana French: As Spoken in Cajun, Creole and American Indian Communities; Bliss Broyard's One Drop; Philip Gould's Louisiana's Capitol; Gwendolyn Midlo Hall's Africans in Colonial Louisiana; Elizabeth Mullener's Eyewitness: Tales of New Orleanians in World War II; and Plantations by the River by Jay Edwards.

For additional information, contact John R. Kemp at the LEH, 504-620-2481, kemp@leh.org, or visit Louisiana Publishing Initiative listed under Grants at www.leh.org.