The LEH's 2011 awards ceremony will be held at 12:30 p.m. April 2 at Houmas House Plantation and Gardens on River Road in Darrow, La., just south of Baton Rouge. For ticket information about the awards ceremony, contact Brian Boyles at the LEH, 504-620-2632 or boyles@leh.org.

Each year, the LEH honors Louisianians who have made outstanding contributions to the study and understanding of the humanities. This year's recipients are:

• Humanist of the Year: Dana Kress, Ph.D., of Centenary College in Shreveport.
• Lifetime Contribution to the Humanities: Patricia Gay of New Orleans and Director of the Preservation Resource Center in New Orleans.
• Chair's Award for Institutional Support: The Helis Foundation of New Orleans.
• Public Humanities Programming: Jane Hood, Erika Hamilton and the Nebraska Humanities Council.
• Individual Achievement in the Humanities: Georgiann Potts of Monroe.
• Humanities Documentary Film of the Year: Walker Percy: A Documentary Film by Winston Riley of New Orleans.
• Michael P. Smith Documentary Photography: Debbie Fleming Caffery of Breaux Bridge.
• 2011 Humanities Book of the Year: Albert Valdman, Ph.D., and Kevin J. Rottet, Ph.D., editors of the Dictionary of Louisiana French: As Spoken in Cajun, Creole, and American Indian Communities, published by the University Press of Mississippi.

The Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities' nationally acclaimed PRIME TIME FAMILY READING TIME program for at-risk children celebrates its 20th anniversary with the completion of over 1,000 programs throughout the nation.

Since PRIME TIME's inception in 1991, it has conducted 536 programs in Louisiana, reaching over 20,000 participants, and 547 programs nationally, also reaching nearly 20,000 participants, for a total of 1,083 programs and approximately 40,000 students. In addition, the LEH, through private, state and federal grants, has invested more than $7 million, or approximately $175 per participant, in the development, implementation and evaluation of this unique program.

"The program's results are astounding," said PRIME TIME Director Miranda Restovic. "Originally, PRIME TIME was created to reach low-literacy families, an underserved, or in many cases a never served audience by humanities organizations. It has accomplished something even greater, however. It has changed the lives and life trajectories of at-risk children."

In 2010, the LEH released Stemming the Tide of Intergenerational Illiteracy: A Ten-Year Impact Study of PRIME TIME FAMILY READING TIME, a longitudinal analysis of the program's impact on student achievement. This 10-year study offers statistical evidence that this preemptive approach to addressing the problem of intergenerational illiteracy can significantly improve student learning. Not only did PRIME TIME students outperform in the expected areas of language arts skills and reading, but across the board including mathematics, physical science, life science, algebra, number and number relations, geometry, etc.  "In other words," said Restovic, "PRIME TIME not only impacts reading, it affects all dimensions of learning, or as we have maintained: It creates the precondition for all future learning."

PRIME TIME purpose is to promote the humanities among vulnerable families with 6- to 10-year-old children while helping them learn to enjoy reading and learning together. Using humanities rich children's literature in conjunction with recognizable humanities themes, PRIME TIME makes the connection between literature and the real-world relevant for participating families. The family literacy model also includes pre-literacy programming for 3 to 5 year-olds, transportation and meals. PRIME TIME's primary goals are to promote the humanities among at-risk populations; enable parents/guardians and children to bond around the act of reading and learning together; convert children and parents/guardians into active readers, library users and life-long learners; create the preconditions for future learning, thus ending the cycle of intergenerational illiteracy.

"Louisiana and the nation continue to struggle with illiteracy, poverty, crime and numerous other social ills that limit its growth and prosperity," said Restovic. "PRIME TIME will continue to be part of the solution." 

The PRIME TIME staff is now accepting applications for fall 2011 programsin Louisiana. Public libraries, schools, community centers, and other public institutions throughout the State of Louisiana are encouraged to apply. 

PRIME TIME Family Reading Time is a unique humanities-focused and outcomes-based family literacy program. Created by the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities (LEH) in 1991, the mission of PRIME TIME is to create the precondition for future learning among economically and educationally vulnerable families.  PRIME TIME's methodology is proven to generate long-term improvements in student achievement by transforming families into individual and collective communities that continue to read and learn together long after the program ends. 

Read more about PRIME TIME's impact on student achievement here.

Using state and private funds, PRIME TIME grants are awarded twice annually to fill fall and spring and summer sessions.  The deadline to apply for fall 2011 is April 15. Due to an extreme reduction in state funding for PRIME TIME, the number of awards available for fall 2011 programming has been reduced.  Eligible applications that are not approved for fall 2011 will be asked to reapply for future terms when additional funding becomes available. Eligible organizations will be kept up-to-date on the status of their PRIME TIME grant applications.  

Click here to access a PRIME TIME grant application. Or, for more information about PRIME TIME please download our program brochure, or contact Miranda Restovic at 504.620.2486.

The PRIME TIME Training Workshop is set to take place the weekend of July 16-17. Consultants and trainees from several states are expected to join the PRIME TIME staff for two days of intense instruction and practice based on the PRIME TIME methodology.  The workshop will be hosted at the Louisiana Humanities Center at Turners' Hall in New Orleans. Please contact Shantrell Adams with questions regarding upcoming grant and training opportunities.

The Winter/Spring RELIC program is in full swing with eight programs either commencing or concluding in March. The LEH recently added a new program site to the schedule. The library in LaPlace in St. John the Baptist Parish will fund and host, "The Louisiana Purchase: Impact and Legacy" at the end of the month. 

For a RELIC program scheduled in your area, see below:

• Baton Rouge - Goodwood Branch, East Baton Rouge Parish Library, "Folktales and Stories of the South and Louisiana," 7-9 p.m. Mondays, March 14-April 18, 225-231-3746. 
• Colfax - Grant Parish Library, "Elizabeth I of England and Her Times," 6-8 p.m. Tuesdays, Feb. 8-March 15, 318-627-9920. 
• Lafayette - South Regional Branch, Lafayette Parish Public Library, "Louisiana History: Perspectives on the Pelican State," 6-8 p.m. Tuesdays, April. 5-May 17, 337-981-1028. 
• Lake Charles - Calcasieu Parish Public Library, "Folktales and Stories of the South and Louisiana," 6-8 p.m. Thursdays, March 10-April 14, 337-721-7170. 
• LaPlace - St. John the Baptist Parish Library, "The Louisiana Purchase: Impact and Legacy," 1-3 p.m. Mondays, March 28-May 2, 985-652-6857. 
• Homer - Claiborne Parish Library, "Where Is North Louisiana?" 6:30-8:30 p.m. Tuesdays, March 15-April 26, 318-927-3845. 
• Napoleonville - Assumption Parish Library, "Battleground Louisiana: Civil War Events and Experiences," 2-4 p.m. Thursdays, March 3-April 7, 985-369-7070. 
• Shreveport - Broadmoor Branch, Shreve Memorial Library, "The Creole Identity and Experience in Louisiana Literature and History," 6-8 p.m. Tuesdays, March 8-April 12, 318-219-1701.
• Slidell - St. Tammany Parish Library, "Elizabeth I of England and Her Times," 5:30-7:30 p.m.  Wednesdays, March 16-April 20, 318-627-9920.   
• Winnsboro - Franklin Parish Library, "The American West in Fact and Fiction," 5:30-7:30 p.m. Tuesdays, 318-435-4336. 

The spring 2011 issue of Louisiana Cultural Vistas will debut in mid-March. Now in its 21st year of publication, the quarterly magazine of Louisiana's arts, culture, history and literature continues to share the best of the state's talent with its readers. Topics in the next edition will include:

• Photo essay spanning the career of Debbie Fleming Caffery, the 2011 Humanities Photographer of the Year.
• Photo essay by Kevin Levine, a Mississippi River boat pilot who has photographed the decaying lighthouses along the Gulf coast.
• Profile of Louisiana's poet laureate, Darrell Bourque of Church Point, La.
• History of Abraham Lincoln's voyage by flatboat, down the Mississippi to New Orleans in 1828 when he was age 19.
•  A chronicle of the West Florida Rebellion, a land dispute in 1810 at which time the Florida parishes became an independent republic for a mere 90 days.
• Paintings of the south Louisiana landscape by Cleland Powell, a New Orleans banker and LEH board member.

Shreveport - Meadows Museum of Art, Centenary College, March 20, lecture,Miranda Lash, Curator for Modern and Contemporary Art at the New Orleans Museum of Art, The Changing American Landscape: The "Great Outdoors" to Pop Culture, 2-3 p.m. in the museum galleries; March 27, lecture, Dr. Jeff Hendricks, Professor of English at Centenary College of LA, From BEAT to POP: Commercialism and the Avant Garde in American Culture of the 50s and 60s, 2-3 p.m. in the museum galleries. For more information, visit www.centenary.edu/meadows.  

Louisiana Crossroads present Buckwheat Zydeco & the Ils Sont Partis Band. Stanley "Buckwheat" Dural, Jr.'s legacy as a soulful bandleader, arranger, showman, vocalist and organist par excellence was already secure before he became a cornerstone of Clifton Chenier's classic Red Hot Louisiana Band lineup in 1976. In 1986, Dural's new namesake band, Buckwheat Zydeco, made history as the first zydeco ensemble to release an album on a major label, and subsequent sessions with Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Dwight Yoakam, Willie Nelson, David Hidalgo and many other artists have been icing on the musical cake topped with a 2010 Grammy Award. These intimate shows will showcase the career that has propelled our state's indigenous Creole folk music into the 21st century. For tickets and more information, visit www.louisianacrossroads.org. Show dates and schedules include:

• New Iberia - 7 p.m. March 23 at Sliman Theater
• Baton Rouge - 7 p.m. March 24 at Manship Theatre
• Lake Charles - 7:30 p.m. March 25 at F.G. Bulber Auditorium
• Lafayette - 8 p.m. March 26 at the Acadiana Center for the Arts Theater

New Orleans - March 23-March 27 French Quarter 25^th Annual Tennessee Williams New Orleans Literary Festival presents theatrical literary and musical programs, as well as master classes and a scholar's conference, showcasing nationally known authors, playwrights and performers. For additional information and tickets, visit www.tennesseewilliams.net/.

• March 1 Outreach grant deadline is CANCELLED due to state budget cuts.  Contact your local legislators and let them know how this affects you.
• April 25 Documentary Film and Radio grant deadline with drafts due by March 25.
• May 2 Public Humanities grant deadline with drafts due by April 4.

On March 22, the Louisiana Humanities Center will host the second installment of "The People Say Project," a partnership with Loyola University to gather artists from different backgrounds and generations to discuss the ways in which they make art and make a living in the city today. The March 22 conversation features artists Ayo Scott and Bunny Matthews in conversation with LHC Program Director Brian Boyles. Doors open at 5 p.m. for a happy hour reception, with food from Charlie's Seafood and Leidenheimer's Bakery and beverages from Abita Brewery.  The interview will begin at 6 p.m. The LHC is located at 938 Lafayette Street in New Orleans.  For more information, contact boyles@leh.org.