INSIDE THIS EDITION:
- 2023 IS A BIG YEAR FOR LLC
- Mark your calendar: LLC'S FALL CONVOCATION – THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 7
- MOURNING IN AMERICA: POEMS ON GRIEF, LOSS, AND HEALING by Paul Marshall Wortman
- Announcing the 10TH ANNUAL FringePVD: THE PROVIDENCE FRINGE FESTIVAL®: July 16 - 29, 2023
- TWO POEMS BY LLC MEMBER BOB KEMP
2023 is a Big Year for LLC
It's the 40th anniversary of our founding as a lifelong learning program, associated with Brown University . . .
the 15th anniversary of our incorporation as an independent organization . . .
and the 10th anniversary of the adoption of our current name: Lifelong Learning Collaborative.
In the coming months, The Lark will be marking these milestones with articles about LLC's evolution as an organization. To start, Membership Committee member Elizabeth Bakst, whose history of LLC is an important part of every New Member Orientation, takes us back to the beginning.
In 1983, a Brown University Dean of Summer and Continuing Studies launched a new program with an ad in the Providence Journal. The ad invited retired adults to sign up for a new series of classes which were to grow out of informal meetings among some retired Brown professors.
50 people signed up for the first classes, and over the years, that Brown University Dean’s office planned for and administered courses with more of a traditional “student and teacher” dynamic than the collaborative “learner and coordinator” one we use today.
Brown University named those classes “Brown Community Learning in Retirement” – rendered in print as B C L I R and pronounced “be clear” in conversation, and I still have a BCLIR badge to prove its existence!
Do you have LLC photos or memorabilia?
If you have any you'd like to loan so that we can copy – or if you're cleaning out and want to find a new home for your LLC memorabilia – please let us know by emailing [email protected].
Time to Celebrate 40 Years!
Mark your calendar for LLC's Fall Convocation on Thursday, September 7 at Temple Beth-El, a chance to celebrate the growth, vitality and collaborative spirit of LLC and its members.
Mourning in America: Poems on Grief, Loss, and Healing
by Paul Marshall Wortman
A chapbook of 20 poems dealing with grief, loss, and spirituality along with some additional descriptive, expository writing.
The schedule of events has been announced for the 10th Annual FringePVD: The Providence Fringe Festival® presented by The Wilbury Theatre Group July 16 - 29, 2023 in venues throughout the Valley neighborhood of Providence, including: WaterFire Arts Center, the Steel Yard, ALCO, Farm Fresh RI, Lost Valley Pizza + Revival Brewing, Binch Press / queer.archive.work, and new venues at the new homes of LitArts RI and Teatro ECAS.
Founded in 2014 by Wilbury Theatre Group, FringePVD brings together more than three hundred individual theatre, music, dance, multimedia and performing artists for two weeks of performances in and around the Valley neighborhood of Providence, while keeping the online performance series established during the COVID-19 pandemic. And new this year, FRINGEPVD expands to South County for the first ever for FRINGEPVD Encore Series performances at the United Theatre in Westerly: August 10-12.
Passes are available now with single tickets available soon. For updates and more information, visit: FRINGEPVD.org
“This year is a major milestone for FRINGEPVD,” said Wilbury Theatre Group’s Artistic Director, Josh Short. “As we celebrate the 10th anniversary of the festival, we’re looking for ways to widen our reach and ensure the festival’s continued growth. Which is why, for the first time ever, we are expanding our programming for a third week in Westerly at the United Theatre. This gives us the opportunity to bring groundbreaking work of the artists of the festival to more of Rhode Island and celebrate our state’s amazing artistic community with an even wider audience.”
The 2023 Providence Fringe Festival kicks-off this year on Sunday, July 16 with an Opening Night Party from 5:00-7:00 pm and a Special “Fringe Edition '' of the Empire Revue at 7pm at the Wilbury Theatre Group. Throughout the two-week festival FRINGEPVD continues its commitment to community-centric performances with free events throughout the festival including the Family Fringe Day (Saturday, July 22), featuring a performance by Ricky Rainbow Beard, a showcase at Binch Press / Queer.Archive.Work in conjunction with an Open Write at LitArtsRI, humanities discussions (to-be-announced), and an outdoor market hosted by Haus of Codec.
With this swirl of activities, we are currently looking for volunteers to assist as house managers, info desk helpers, and way finders to help make the festival fun and safe for everyone. Click here to sign up.
FRINGEPVD: The Providence Fringe Festival® has been presented by Wilbury Theatre Group since the theatre company founded the festival in 2014. In the years since, the year-round staff and creative teams of the Wilbury Group have served in official capacities for the Festival alongside part time Fringe-only staff, volunteers, and collaborators. Founded in 2010, The Wilbury Theatre Group's goal has been to offer audiences from throughout New England affordable access to cutting-edge theatre. Through the development of our Main Series season, outreach and education programs, new work development programs, and the Providence Fringe Festival®, we are proud to bring these professional theatre productions to a diverse and ever-evolving community.
Josh Short
Artistic Director
pronouns: he / him / his
Wilbury Theatre Group
475 Valley Street | Providence, RI 02908
O: 401.400.7100 C: 401.855.2460.
Two Poems, June 5, 2023
by Bob Kemp
“It’s funny how the mind behaves…”
It’s funny how the mind behaves,
how inspiration comes in waves,
how marvelous ideas are hidden
until, voila! they come unbidden.
Though some can summon words at will
That flow with grace from clever quill,
I have to wait for them to come
to show themselves when they are done.
But I have found it’s far more heady
to wait to greet them when they’re ready.
“What kind of world do we live in…”
What kind of world do we live in
where men wage war to save their skin
and, though life is the briefest hour,
they will destroy to save their power?
How many innocents have died
when men have fought to save their pride
and newborn babes have come to grief
for some unhappy man’s belief?