• 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.