Events for: 2012-2013

After winning over $750,000 on a slot machine, Deborah Greenslit thought she had it made. Today she will tell you differently.” When casinos come to Massachusetts, Greenslit sees her story as a warning to others. Greenslit is a therapist and wellness expert who has helped other people deal with healing our addictions thru living with a loving heart towards ourselves. Today she is working on her memoir with the working title “Pennies from Heaven, Lessons from Hell”.

Mythology about the Founding Fathers and their work at the Convention has obscured both fact and legitimate analysis of the events leading to the agreement called the Constitution. This program explores the cast of characters called “founders,” the problems they faced and the solutions they fashioned.

The late 1700s to to the mid-1800s were the golden age of whaling, with New England being the hub for the whaling fleet. These sailing ships needed crews and who better to serve than the Native people of New England. In this talk we will discuss what it took to be a crew member on one of these ships and look at why Native American men took these jobs, jobs that many people wouldn't even think about taking.

“To do all the things that women never do”. In this presentation you will hear about her adventures climbing on skyscrapers, leaning out of airplanes, going into war zones. She photographed Stalin, Churchill, Patton and Gandhi. She had an indomitable spirit and a craving for attention and the lead story and cover for the inaugural issue of Life magazine in November, 1936. Her thousands of photographs continue to hold our attention as they reveal her courage and compassion. Sally Matson will bring to life Margaret Bourke-White through the use of letters, diaries photographs and other primary resources.

The year 2012 is the Woody Guthrie Centennial. He was born in Okemah, Oklahoma in 1912. While primarily known for his involvement in the American labor movement in the pre-World War II years, and as the author/composer of This Land is Your Land, Guthrie also had a very eclectic and Universalist oriented religious and spiritual side to his life. He wrote a number of songs in this genre which he never set to music, but which have been given a musical score and sung by other artists. Rev. Steve Edington's book Bring Your Own God: The Spirituality of Woody Guthrie explores this aspect of Woody's life and work, and contains much of his writing from the Woody Guthrie Archives that has never heretofore been published. Rev. Steve Edington is a Unitarian Universalist minister residing in Nashua, New Hampshire, where he served the UU Church of Nashua for 24 years before retiring. He is currently serving as the Interim Minister of the UU Church of Manchester, NH. He is a long-time member, and a former President, of the Lowell Celebrates Kerouac Committee.

In 1941 Woody Guthrie packed up his wife and kids to take a job with the U.S. department of the Interior. They needed a folksinger to promote the benefits of building dams in order to produce cheap electricity on the Columbia River. Out of the project came 26 songs, including Guthrie’s popular folk classics “Roll on Columbia” & “Grand Coulee Dam.”Learn the full, compelling story in the documentary Roll on Columbia, followed by a live performance by guitarist Larry Tremblay & other local artists! Refreshments provided!  Co-sponsored by Jeanne D’Arc Credit Union& the Lowell Film Collaborative.

Michael T. Klare teaches at Hampshire College, and is a Five Colleges professor of Peace and World Security Studies. Klare is a defense correspondent of The Nation magazine, and author of Resource Wars and Blood and Oil: The Dangers and Consequences of America's Growing Petroleum Dependency (Metropolitan). Klare also teaches at Amherst, Smith, Mount Holyoke, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. This program is the last of three “Lunchtime Lectures at the Inn & Conference Center.” The Lunchtime Lectures are co-sponsored by the Parker Lecture Committee and UMass Lowell Center for Arts and Ideas, with support from Prof. Bill Mass of the UMass Lowell Center for Industrial Competitiveness, Middlesex Community College and the Cultural Organization of Lowell. Free and open to the public, the program begins at 11:45 a.m. with a light buffet lunch. Reservations are required (limited to 100 people). To reserve a seat, contact artsandideas@uml.edu. Or call978-934-3107

An evening remembering Lowell educator and community leader Peter Stamas. Throughout his life, Peter S. Stamas was known as a man with many hats. Through his many varied roles as an educator and community leader, the former LHS headmaster and co-founder of both the Human Services Corporation and the Greater Lowell Community Foundation, lived a life dedicated to helping others, especially in his hometown. This November, ten years after his passing, Peter’s family, friends, colleagues and other interested Lowellians will join together to remember a man who truly set an example that celebrated both community and service in Lowell. The evening’s program will consist of several segments including speakers, panels, and a brief film, related to Peter’s work in the Lowell Public Schools, the Model Cities program, the Human Services Corporation, the Greater Lowell Community Foundation and other community initiatives.. Co-sponsored by the Hellenic Heritage and Culture Society and the Lowell Heritage Partnership.

Ernest Hebert’s most recent novel, NEVER BACK DOWN, tells the story of the life and loves of Jack Landry, a New England Franco-American working man. Hebert wrote his book as an answer to The GREAT GATSBY and DELIVERANCE, novels that he claims gain their exalted place in American literature at the expense of the unsung heroes—working men and women. Welcome to literary class warfare.

Let’s take a tour into forgotten corners of American company towns, with special attention to Lowell, emphasizing their many similarities and unique aspects. Hardy Green outlines the the central question of American capitalism: Does the company exist for the workers or do the workers exist for the company   Other towns include Oak Ridge, Tennessee ; Kannapolis, North Carolina; Port Gamble, Washington; and Morenci, Arizona.

This presentation melds historical fact together with legend and myth to produce an interesting and fascinating new look at events that really happened and the stories of haunting that followed them. The topics addressed in the lecture will be Mercy Brown "The Vampire" of Exeter Rhode Island, The Cursed Freetown State Forest, The Haunted Hoosac Tunnel in Western Massachusetts, The Ghosts of the Lizzie Borden House in Fall River Massachusetts, The Ghosts of King Philip's War: Nine Men's Misery, the Mount Washington Hotel in New Hampshire, Giles Corey and the Curse of Salem, Burial Hill in Plymouth Massachusetts and at the John Alden House in Duxbury Massachusetts.

Coordinated by the UMass Lowell Center for Public Opinion, a panel of experts headed by Paul Jorgensen, Fellow, Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, Harvard University and Assistant Professor, will discuss and debate issues from the upcoming presidential election. This program is the second of three “Lunchtime Lectures at the Inn & Conference Center.” The Lunchtime Lectures are co-sponsored by the Parker Lecture Committee and UMass Lowell Center for Arts and Ideas, with support from Prof. Bill Mass of the UMass Lowell Center for Industrial Competitiveness, Middlesex Community College and the Cultural Organization of Lowell. Free and open to the public, the program begins at 11:45 a.m. with a light buffet lunch. Reservations are required (limited to 100 people). To reserve a seat, contact artsandideas@uml.edu. Or call978-934-3107

America is seeking its lost identity as radical revolutionaries, high unemployment, and labor unrest challenge the nation’s democratic institutions. Former Massachusetts State Trooper and author James Redfearn, will discuss his compelling story about conflict and change, during a critical period in the 20^th Century, following World War I and centering on the Irish Rebellion, America’s Red Scare, and the Boston Police Strike. According to Redfearn the novel’s themes of compassionate immigration, justice in the workplace and cultural freedom resonate today.

The Parker Lecture speaker for the 2012 Jack Kerouac Literary Festival is George Wallace of Huntington, New york where he is the Writer in Residence at the Walt Whitman Birthplace and Center. Mr. Wallace teaches literature at New York's Pace University and has published twenty chapbooks of poetry. As a local historian he has researched and written on Jack Kerouac's stays in Northport, NY.

Michael Charney a local publisher and author located in Bedford, New Hampshire has recently published a book of narrative non-fiction that chronicles an attempt to uncover why political conversation suffers such polarization and, in particular, why the loudest voices--regardless of content--so easily see their messages amplified endlessly through Twitter and other social media.   Chasing Glenn Beck is a fascinating discussion on today's political climate. With discussions about politics, schools, national security, bullying, the Pledge of Allegiance, the Flag Code--and the Senate's Candy Desk--Charney cuts a wide swath through the issues facing our country, a country he claims has a serious case of "Electile Dysfunction."

Author Catherine Tumber of “Small, Gritty, and Green: The Promise of America's Smaller Industrial Cities in a Low-Carbon World (Urban and Industrial Environments). America's once-vibrant small-to-midsize cities--Syracuse, Worcester, Akron, Flint, Rockford, and others--increasingly resemble urban wastelands. These cities would seem to be part of America's past, not its future. And yet, journalist and historian Catherine Tumber argues in this provocative book, America's gritty Rust Belt cities could play a central role in a greener, low-carbon, relocalized future. Tumber, who has spent much of her life in Rust Belt cities, traveled to twenty-five cities in the Northeast and Midwest--from Buffalo to Peoria to Detroit to Rochester--interviewing planners, city officials, and activists, and weaving their stories into this exploration of small-scale urbanism. Smaller cities can be a critical part of a sustainable future and a productive green economy. This program is the first of three “Lunchtime Lectures at the Inn & Conference Center.” The Lunchtime Lectures are co-sponsored by the Parker Lecture Committee and UMass Lowell Center for Arts and Ideas, with support from Prof. Bill Mass of the UMass Lowell Center for Industrial Competitiveness, Middlesex Community College and the Cultural Organization of Lowell. Free and open to the public, the program begins at 11:45 a.m. with a light buffet lunch. Reservations are required (limited to 100 people). To reserve a seat, contact artsandideas@uml.edu. Or call978-934-3107

Come along for an animated explanation of the classic six steps to find your ancestral Irish home.   Tom Toohey’s parents were great storytellers. When they passed away he published their stories in a two-volume book entitled Images of Other Lives. In the 1990’s Tom began to study genealogy in a more serious way. He became interested in learning about the lives of his grandfathers who came from Ireland. Let Tom get you started down this fascinating road of discovery.

All of roots music is a stage for Daisy Mayhem, and this four-piece string band loves nothing more than choreographing a jubilant mix of traditional, original, and contemporary sounds. "This quartet has a rare gift for fashioning hip, sleek sounds from the solid cloth of vintage American music." -- The Boston Globe