Living Language Series
The Living Language Series
http://umf.maine.libguides.com/LivingLanguage/
Please note that many dates are still being finalized!
Presents:
A public reading by Cheryl Savageau, Abenaki Poet – Visiting Writer and Storyteller
Tuesday, February 7, 2012 at 6:00pm in The Landing, UMF Student Center
Wabanaki Culture and History: Maine’s Commitment to Native American Studies
A conversation about LD291 with Maria Girouard, Penobscot Nation Cultural and Historic Preservation, Dr. Donald Soctomah, Tribal Historic Preservation Officer of the Passamaquoddy Tribe, and Dr. Lisa Brooks, Libra Scholar.
Proposed date: Tuesday, February 28, 2012 Time and Date TBD
Supporting Language Acquisition Through MacBook & NetBook Applications
A workshop from the Maine Learning and Technology Initiative
Wednesday, February 29, 2012 – 11:45am to 1:00pm in Education Center Room 113
A Common Time talk about Environmental Justice and the Penobscot River presented by
Barry Dana, Penobscot leader and educator
Wednesday, March 14, 2012 – 11:45am to 1:15pm in the Emery Arts Center
Homeland: Four Portraits of Native Action- Film Screening and Q & A about the Impact of
Environmental Policy on the Native American Way of Life and discussion with Barry Dana, Penobscot Leader and Educator
Wednesday, March 14, 2012 at 7:00pm in Lincoln Auditorium
Language, Culture, and the Changing Face of Maine
Margie MacDonald and Shelly Chasse-Johndro of Project Opportunity, UMO
Monday, March 19, 2012 – 11:45am to 1:15pm in Lincoln Auditorium
Living Languages: Language Keepers – an evening of Native stories and Language
Jesse Bruchac, Abenaki Language Keeper, Author, Muscian, and Storyteller; Roger Paul, Passamaquoddy/Maliseet Language Keeper and Educator and Carol Dana, Penobscot Language Keeper and Poet
April 10, 2012 at 7:00pm in the Emery Arts Center
Joseph Bruchac, Abenaki Storyteller and Writer
April 11, 2012 at 7:00pm in the Emery Arts Center
Telling Room Students: A Window into the Young Writers and Leaders (YWL) program
Screening of works by students who are members of the YWL program, an afterschool program for recent immigrant and refugee students.
Tuesday, April 17, 2012 in The Landing at 4:00pm
Language Keepers: Julia Schulz and Ben Levine
Language Loss and Revival and the work of Language Keepers
Wednesday, April 18, 2012 – 11:45 to 1:15 in the Emery Arts Center
Language Keepers: Julia Schulz and Ben Levine
Language of America, a film by Ben Levine, Language Keepers
Wednesday, April 18, 2012 at 7:00pm in Lincoln Auditorium
Anthropoeta, An Evening of Poetry and Improvised Music
Renato Rosaldo and Cristian Amigo with Gustavo Aguilar
Friday, April 20, 2012 location TBA
Acholi Dancers of Portland Maine: The Language of Dance.
Saturday, April 21, 2012 in Emery Arts Center
Sponsored by the UMS Diversity Committee, the UMF Diversity Committee, the Libra Scholar Program, the University Culture Committee, Mantor Library, University of Maine Project Opportunity, the State of Maine Learning Technology Initiative, and the UMF Multicultural Club
Program Descriptions:
Cheryl Savageau is an Abenaki poet, writer, storyteller and textile artist. Her third book of poetry, Mother/Land, was published by Salt Publishing in their Earthworks Series in 2006. She has won Fellowships in Poetry from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Massachusetts Artists Foundation and has been awarded three residencies at the MacDowell Colony. Her second book of poetry, Dirt Road Home, was a finalist for the Paterson Prize, and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. Her children’s book, Muskrat Will Be Swimming, was named a Notable Children’s Book by Smithsonian Magazine, and won the Skipping Stones Award for Exceptional Multicultural and Ecological Children’s Books. Savageau has also received a Writer of the Year in Children’s Literature from Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers, as well as their Mentor of the Year Award. Savageau was a founding member of Oak and Stone Storytellers. She has also taught at Holy Cross College, Clark University, the University of New Mexico, the University of Massachusetts, the University of New Hampshire, and in the Goddard College MFA program. In addition to her public reading, Cheryl Savageau will be working with UMF students in classes on campus
A presentation by Maria Girouard, Penobscot Nation Cultural and Historic Preservation, Dr. Donald Soctomah, Tribal Historic Preservation Officer of the Passamaquoddy Tribe, and Dr. Lisa Brooks, Libra Scholar. Recent Maine Legislation requires that a component of Maine studies is Maine Native American studies. This presentation will address Maine’s commitment to Native American studies and our national obligation to better understand Native culture and history.
Teachers use a variety of web applications to support student learning across the curriculum. The goal of this workshop is to introduce a variety of Macbook & Netbook applications that support language acquisition and provide opportunities for differentiation. The Maine Learning Technology Initiative (MLTI) provides professional development and 21st Century tools to middle and high schools to support the attainment of the Maine state standards, the Maine Learning Results.
Barry Dana will present a discussion regarding Environmental Justice and the Penobscot River. Dana has battled powerful paper companies and their allies in state government in an effort to stop toxic dumping in the Penobscot River, on which his people have depended for food and medicinal plants for 10,000 years. This discussion will be of interest to students, faculty, staff and the community who are invested in sustainability.
A screening of Homeland: Four Portraits of Native Action and a Q & A with Barry Dana. Barry Dana is former Chief of the Penobscot Nation in Maine. He has spent the last two decades promoting the traditions of Maine’s indigenous nations and helping his people regain control of their culture and ancestral lands. In recent years, Dana has battled powerful paper companies and their allies in state government in an effort to stop toxic dumping in the Penobscot River, on which his people have depended for food and medicinal plants for 10,000 years. Dana is a graduate of the University of Maine at Orono with a bachelor’s degree in education and an associate’s degree in forest management and has taught at the Indian Island schools.
The Acholi Dancers perform traditional drumming and dances of Southern Sudan and Northern Uganda. They are known throughout East Africa for their remarkable drumming and the exquisite “Myel Awal”, a dance performed by both the men and women. The meaning of the word “Myel”—dance—is at the core of the Acholi tradition. The Acholi Dancers of Portland, Maine have performed in many venues and are recognized both within the Sudanese community and beyond. The evening performance is open to students, faculty, staff and the community.
This interactive session by educators from Project Opportunity will cover the demographic changes in our schools, who are the English Language Learners in Maine schools, and the challenges of teaching ELLs in the regular classroom. As our classrooms change, educators need to be prepared to teach all learners including those whose first language is not English. Marguerite MacDonald is the Outreach Coordinator for Project Opportunity and Shelly Chasse-Johndro is the Associate Director for Project Opportunity. Project Opportunity is funded from the United States Department of Education and is operated through the University of Maine College of Education and Human Development.
Renato Rosaldo and Cristian Amigo will join Gustavo Aguilar in an evening performance of poetry and improvised music. The trio has a current collaboration, which has them transforming an anthropological text (Clifford Geertz’s Notes on a Balinese Cockfight, into the performative medium of an opera.
Renato Rosaldo, is one of the world’s leading anthropologists. He has done field research among the Ilongots of northern Luzon, Philippines, and is the author of Ilongot Headhunting: 1883-1974: A Study in Society and History (1980). He is also the author of Culture and Truth: The Remaking of Social Analysis (1989). He is also the editor of Creativity/Anthropology (with Smadar Lavie and Kirin Narayan) (1993), Anthropology of Globlization (with Jon Inda) (2001), and Cultural Citizenship in Island Southeast Asia: National and Belonging in the Hinterlands (2003), among other books. He has been conducting research on cultural citizenship in San Jose, California since 1989, and contributed the introduction and an article to Latino Cultural Citizens: Claiming Identity, Space, and Rights (1997). Professor Rosaldo started writing poetry in English and Spanish while recovering from a stroke in 1996. His first book of poetry, Prayer to Spider Woman/ Rezo a la mujer araña, received an American Book Award (2004). Individual poems have won the El Andar poetry contest (2000) and the Many Mountains Moving poetry contest (2005). Professor Rosaldo discovered many “bridges” between writing anthropology and poetry, and he coined a term – “anthropoeta” – to describe the way he can move back and forth between the two modes of writing.
An award-winning composer, guitarist, and improviser, Cristian Amigo is committed to new American music and to exploring the connections between Western art music (classical and jazz), roots music(s), and emergent music culture and technology. Known as an acoustic and electric guitarist, Amigo writes, performs, and produces electro-acoustic chamber music, soundscapes, art and popular song, opera, theatre, performance works, and fierce riffs.
Twice a week at The Telling Room, a group of 15 students from Africa, the Middle East, the Caribbean, and beyond, gather for our Young Writers and Leaders (YWL) afterschool program. This year our YWL students are working on a project called Myths of Maine, exploring through film and writing the surprising, unexpected, and profound truths of what it means to be a young immigrant living in Maine. We will have the opportunity to meet these young adults and hear about their work in progress. If the work is ready, we’ll screen a preview of the final product! An opportunity to hear stories and learn about Maine through new eyes.
Ben Levine serves as Program Coordinator for Language Documentation at Northeast Historic Film Archives and Julia Schulz is Co-Founder and former Director of the internationally-known nonprofit Penobscot School of language learning and cultural exchange in Rockland, Maine. This Common Time event will focus on the work of their organization, Language Keepers, to document language and support language learning, dictionary development, research, cultural transmission, and revival.
In the evening there will be a screening of the film Language of America, a film that “explores Indian language, philosophy, and community as never before. It shows how Indian words reveal an inherent connectedness between people, nature and spirit. The film bears witness to America’s history of Indian human rights abuse, yet it inspires hope by promoting an understanding of diversity that accepts Native peoples’ inextricably shared history and destiny with their neighbors.” http://www.languageofamerica.com/home.php Followed by a Q & A with Julia Schulz and Ben Levine.
A Language Keeper experience which will provide insight into language endangerment and revitalization through storytelling and conversation.
Jesse Bruchac is a traditional storyteller and musician whose instrument is the native flute. He has worked in projects that focus on the preservation of the Abenaki language, storytelling, music and culture. Bruchac is the creter and webmster of the Abenaki Languge site www.westernabenaki.com and is also a published author.
Roger Paul was born on the Motahkomikuk reservation in Maine, where he grew up speaking the local Wabanaki dialects. A certified Wabanaki Language Teacher, he currently teaches Wabanaki Language and Culture for the Penobscot Tribe. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in sociology at the University of Maine at Presque Isle and has since been deeply involved in education about the Wabanaki People and their vital role in the communities in which they are ever-present. He served as a Project Advisor and Facilitator for the Language Keepers documentary film project. http://www.languagekeepers.org/index.php
Carol Dana is a published author and recognized for her work in Penobscot language revitalization and education. Dana participated in the creation of the Penobscot Primer, a documentary Native American liguistic program in the Penobscto Algonquian dialect. As a poet, Dana’s traditional language is an important element of her work and as a teacher she works to ensure that this language continues to be kept alive.
An evening of language and tales of the traditional people of the Northeastern region. “For over thirty years Joseph Bruchac has been creating poetry, short stories, novels, anthologies and music that reflect his Abenaki Indian heritage and Native American traditions. He is the author of more than 120 books for children and adults. The best selling Keepers of the Earth: Native American Stories and Environmental Activities for Children and others of his “Keepers” series, with its remarkable integration of science and folklore, continue to receive critical acclaim and to be used in classrooms throughout the country.” http://josephbruchac.com/index.html