Events for: 2011-2012

Armed with nothing more than a trunkful of props, Jim performs amazing feats of skill. The Jim Show is guaranteed to amaze and amuse the entire family. When attempting the impossible, things can go wrong, and in the Jim Show, they often do, yet Jim displays an intriguing self confidence that keeps audiences glued to every performance.

Shakespeare's sublimely dark comedy! A classic morality tale on the themes of human frailty, sin, and hypocrisy, the play blends comic contradictions and ambiguities with biting social commentary. Join us for this humorous exploration of blind justice, mercy, and the tension between good and evil that resides within every human soul.

Chaim M. Rosenberg is the author of “The Life and Times of Francis Cabot Lowell: 1775 – 1817.” He has combed the archives to tell the story of this great man who helped bring about the American Industrial Revolution. The city of Lowell Massachusetts is named in his honor.

Mark Pendergrast takes readers on a riveting journey through the history of this remarkable organization, following EIS officers on their globetrotting quest to eliminate the most lethal and widespread threats to the world’s health. Over the years they have successfully battled polio, cholera, and smallpox, and in recent years have turned to the epidemics killing us now — smoking, obesity, and violence among them.

Karl “Chip” Case, Professor Emeritus of Economics, Wellesley College, and co-author of the Case-Shiller Index, the leading measure of home prices in the US. He is the author of five books, including “Principles of Economics” and “Property Tax: The Need for Reform.” He serves on the boards of directors of the Mortgage Guarantee Insurance Corp. and Depositors Insurance Fund of Mass. and on the Advisory Board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. He is a Senior Fellow at the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University. This program is the first of three “Lunchtime Lectures at the Inn & Conference Center.”  This series is co-sponsored and presented by The Parker Lectures Committee, UMass Lowell Center for Arts and Ideas, Middlesex Community College, and UMass Lowell Prof. Bill Mass. A complimentary buffet lunch is included, but reservations are required and seating is limited. The program begins promptly at 12 noon. To reserve a seat, contact artsandideas@uml.edu or call 978-934-3107.

Dr. Tietchen is a member of the UMass Lowell English Department. He holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of Washington. He was formerly an Assistant Professor of English at Union County College in Cranford, New Jersey. He is also the author of "The Cubalogues: The Beat Writers in Revolutionary Cuba."

Who had more effect on the English language than William Shakespeare? He created over 1700 common words that before him were either used in a new manner or didn't exist at all.  Stephen Collins makes Shakespeare's words come alive. Shakespeare's tragedies, comedies, histories, and Sonnets are all represented in this exciting show.

The author of “Banned in Boston: The Watch and Ward Society’s Crusade Against Books, Burlesque, and the Social Evil” will talk about the group that banned books, closed down theaters and burlesque houses, and extended Massachusetts’s puritan heritage into the 1940’s and 50’s.

America's longest-running multicultural song and dance company, the Duquesne University Tamburitzans, is a unique ensemble of talented young folk artists dedicated to the performance and preservation of the music, songs, and dances of Eastern Europe and neighboring folk cultures.

“Whatever happened to that child worker?” Motivated by this question, Joe Manning has identified some of the more than 5,000 child laborers photographed in the early 1900s by Lewis Hine, and has tracked down and interviewed their descendants. Manning will show some of Hine’s historic photographs, tell the stories of the children in them, and talk about the exciting process of searching for descendants, most of whom were not aware of the pictures of their parents and grandparents A 20th Anniversary Series offering of the Tsongas Industrial History Center, a partnership of Lowell National Historical Park and the UMass Lowell Graduate School of Education.

UMass Lowell Chancellor Marty Meehan will moderate a panel discussion with notable experts from the worlds of media and politics as they look at the field of presidential candidates, the upcoming primaries and caucuses, and national context for the 2012 election. Chancellor Meehan represented the Fifth Congressional District of Massachusetts in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1993 to 2007. He served on the House Armed Services and Judiciary committees. Widely respected as a reformer, he established a national reputation for his legislative leadership in reforming campaign finance laws and protecting people against the health risks in tobacco use. This program is the second of three “Lunchtime Lectures at the Inn & Conference Center.” This series is co-sponsored and presented by The Parker Lecture Committee, UMass Lowell Center for Arts and Ideas, Middlesex Community College, and UMass Lowell Prof. Bill Mass. A complimentary buffet lunch is included, but reservations are required and seating is limited. The program begins promptly at 12 noon. To reserve a seat, contact artsandideas@uml.edu or call 978-934-3107.

Explore the history of the Apocalypse, mankind’s second oldest story, along with what the Mayan calendars are and how they work. R.P. Hale is of Aztec heritage, an astronomer, musician, calligrapher, and chemist. In 1999, the Smithsonian Institution recognized R.P. Hale as one of the top musical instrument makers in the United States.

Charles Dickens unsuccessfully advocated for the establishment of international copyright law during his two trips to America (1842 & 1868). Kicking off the first full weekend of events in Lowell for the Charles Dickens and Massachusetts Exhibit at the National Park, this event will feature a reading by author Andre Dubus III, a slide show by photographer Arno Minkkinen, and a short performance by musician Alan Williams. The trio of UMass Lowell professors will discuss the ethical dilemmas they face as producers of creative work and their perspectives on such issues as international copyright, artistic influence, and art as "property.”  This presentation is supported by the UMass Lowell Center for Arts and Ideas.

Catherine Hogarth married Charles Dickens in 1836, the same year he began serializing his first novel. Together they traveled widely, entertained frequently, and raised ten children. In 1858, the celebrated writer pressured Catherine to leave their home, unjustly alleging that she was mentally disordered, unfit and unloved as wife and mother. Dickens created the image of his wife as a depressed and uninteresting figure, using two of her three sisters against her, by measuring her presumed weaknesses against their strengths. This self-serving fiction is still widely accepted. In the first comprehensive biography of Catherine Dickens, Lillian Nayder, Professor of English, Bates College, and President of the International Dickens Society, debunks this tale in retelling it, wresting away from the famous novelist the power to shape his wife's story.

Award-winning author Jane Brox, a native of the Merrimack Valley, will discuss the way literature is both affected by a writer’s sense of place and the how the writing infuses meaning into particular landscapes and communities, from small towns to entire regions. Her recent book, “Brilliant: The Evolution of Artificial Light,” was named by TIME magazine as one of the top ten nonfiction books of the year and was praised by reviewers in the New York Times Book Review and other publications. She is the author of three books informed by her experiences on her family’s long-time farm in Dracut, Mass. About “Clearing Land: Legacies of the American Farm,” Booklist wrote: “In her third observant and meticulously researched rumination, she continues to chart the fortune of family and farm, albeit from within a fresh and incisive history of cultivation in America.” This program is the last of three “Lunchtime Lectures at the Inn & Conference Center.”  This series is co-sponsored and presented by The Parker Lecture Committee, UMass Lowell Center for Arts and Ideas, Middlesex Community College, and UMass Lowell Prof. Bill Mass. A complimentary buffet lunch is included, but reservations are required and seating is limited. The program begins promptly at 12 noon. To reserve a seat, contact artsandideas@uml.edu or call 978-934-3107.

Each year, thousands of students on field trips to Lowell bring with them a knowledge of Lowell’s industrial history that they acquired by reading about fictional “mill girl” Lyddie Worthen, the main character of Katherine Paterson’s beloved novel Lyddie.  Paterson, the Library of Congress's 2010-2012 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, will talk about how historical research, a compelling plot, and a feisty female character combine to create a novel that breathes life into the story of Lowell’s nineteenth-century textile mills and the labor activism of “mill girls.” A 20^th Anniversary Series offering of the Tsongas Industrial History Center, a partnership of Lowell National Historical Park and the UMass Lowell Graduate School of Education.  This presentation is supported in part by the UMass Lowell Center for Arts and Ideas.