Skip to content

The Lark: Vol 4, Issue 6, September 2024

larkwebsitebannersmall

INSIDE THIS EDITION:

Click on the links to jump to the article.

FALL CONVOCATION
SEPTEMBER 5, 2024

“Democracy is about a lot of little things.” – Torey Malatia

sbrushconvocation

Sheila Brush, LLC President, opened the annual Fall Convocation with welcoming remarks for the 117 in-person attendees and members who had joined by Zoom. She then introduced the keynote Speaker, Torey Malatia, an innovative leader in public radio and former CEO and General Manager of The Public’s Radio who spoke on “Journalism and Public Decision-Making.”

“What is the prime purpose of journalism in our democracy?” he asked and emphasized that a journalist is one trained in collecting, writing, and publishing verifiable facts. That is “the road” journalists are on. The threat now is having an informed citizenship.

His talk emphasized many key points on how we can maintain our democracy.

  • We are all trying to fulfill an idealistic dream.
  • For democracy to succeed we have to be free.
  • Thomas Jefferson on the first amendment and the freedom of the press
  • We are the government!
  • Looking at voting in presidential elections, the percentage of voters in 20th and 21st century is down.

After reading from the words of Walter Lippman in The Phantom Public published in 1925, …”most people aren’t engaged in politics.” Torey asked, "How do we make engagement happen?”

We must begin to concentrate on starting at the community level. Everybody should play a part in order to create a vibrant community. We must find solutions that benefit the most people.

We need to be sure of where we are going and how to get there.

After enthusiastic applause, Torey addressed some questions from the audience: He said LLC can enable involvement: “Go to them! Take the meetings to groups – in schools, libraries, and neighborhood talks.”  How do we help to open people’s minds? “Have others share the stories of what has helped them form their opinions.”

458607180_956544989611157_3488398349813029444_n

*********

Following the Keynote Speaker, Sheila Brush talked about the Don Harper Technology Fund. The fund was created through gifts in honor of Don Harper, a long-time, enthusiastically supportive LLC member who passed away in 2017.  Sheila explained that the fund has been used over the past year to purchase the OWL technology and the large screen necessary to launch hybrid courses, in which some members attend classes in person at the Temple and some members attend virtually. She reported that three hybrid courses have already run successfully, and two more hybrid courses will be offered this fall. Cathy Hurst then spoke eloquently about Don, sharing warm memories and relating how much he had contributed to LLC.

larkbirdalonexs

Remembering Don Harper

by Cathy Hurst

I was a friend of Don Harper’s for about five years before his death in 2017. I hiked with him in the Wednesday walking group, played Scrabble with him on Tuesday afternoons, and had the pleasure of his enrollment in two of the courses I coordinated.

Today, I’ve been asked to tell you a little bit about Don and especially his involvement in LLC (and, before that, in BCLIR, or the Brown Community for Learning in Retirement.)

I’ll start by telling you about the day I met Don. I joined LLC in the summer of 2012, and I signed up for an LLC-affiliated walking group that Don organized. I had been in Rhode Island only a year and didn’t have a great sense of the state’s geography. When I called Don to add my name to the walking group list, I mentioned that I didn’t really know how to get to the walking location. Then he said to me—a complete stranger—just come over to my house and I’ll drive you!

That’s how I got to know about Don’s kindness and generosity of spirit.

When I was preparing for these remarks, I received excellent input from a number of LLC members, so my thanks to Shirley DiMatteo, Ellen Fingeret, Carol Gjelsvik, Bob Goodwin, Marilyn Kaplan, Sam Ventres, and Sheila Zompa for sharing some of their thoughts about Don with me. Also thanks to the incredible Merrie Lavigne for toiling through the archives to unearth information on Don’s history with LLC.

One of the qualities that almost everyone mentioned about Don was his kindness. Later, after the LLC walking group had merged with Bob Goodwin’s weekly walking group, the walkers once got lost at Pulaski State Park, and some difficult recovery walking was required. One member recalls Don watching out for her to make sure she did not fall and catching her when she eventually tripped. Another member described how Don provided technical help at LLC and would often stay through an entire class (which he was not taking!) to help someone out. When he had been in a class, and someone needed help to get out to their car, he was the first to volunteer.

Another quality of Don’s, that gets a lot of mention, is his willingness to take a controversial stand on an issue. In fact, some might say he really enjoyed taking a contrarian stance and would sometimes do so just to get a discussion going. Only Don would participate in a course on Einstein and argue that Einstein’s mathematics were not well founded and were not original to him. “That’s ridiculous!” was a favorite exclamation of his, and sometimes we needed to say the same thing back to him! But that contrarian stance was often softened by the twinkle in Don’s eye—he had a great sense of humor.

Even when he wasn’t being contrarian, Don was a great conversationalist. One member reports that her discussions with Don were memorable and he was always interested in her views. She recalled after-Scrabble dinner conversations where she would always try to sit next to Don because he was never boring! A friend remembers that he loved learning and shared many new insights with his fellow Scrabble, hiking, and kayaking members during their after-event meals—whether they wanted to hear them or not! Someone who participated in a Providence Athenaeum reading group with him described him as an intelligent reader with a deep moral sense and concluded by saying that “the world needs more gentle contrarians like Don.”

Don was really a model lifelong learner. He was always up for new ideas and experiences. From the LLC semesters Fall 2010 through Spring 2017, Don took SEVENTY ONE LLC courses. And that doesn’t include all the courses he took from the time he joined BCLIR at Brown in 1997 up through the spring of 2009. LLC’s administrator, Merrie Lavigne, estimates that he took well over 100 courses during his tenure in the two programs—a record that is unlikely ever to be broken. Depending on your math skills, you may or may not have calculated that Don’s annual enrollment comes to about 10 courses a year, and he would often be taking four or five courses simultaneously. And he was always well-prepared for class and especially for discussions! He was an eclectic learner, taking courses in theatre, history, literature, art, psychology, philosophy, interdisciplinary studies, and science.

Don also coordinated classes—not as many as he took! but about one a year. The last two he coordinated in 2015 were a course on the “Human Journey,” and a course entitled “Brain Development from Childhood to Old Age (and Back Again?)”

In addition to his course work, he provided an enormous quantity of technical support for LLC. This gets at the heart of why we’re honoring him today. When Don died in 2017, his LLC friends created the Don Harper Technology Fund to honor Don’s history of support for LLC technology.

Back in the BCLIR days, Don took care of the technical equipment for classes—this was before most people did PowerPoint presentations, but there were often slides or movies to project. He carried the equipment around, stored it, and took it out as needed. One member reports that near the end of the organization’s stay at Brown University, the space for classes and storing equipment became very small. As a result, it was quite a struggle for him to do his volunteer job easily, but he never complained.

One member recalls that when she was new to LLC, she always would give an upcoming class presentation to Don on a thumb drive so he could make sure it was correct. Another member reports that when things went wrong technologically in the classroom, it was always good to have him around. “He seemed to know how to fix things and make everything OK,” she said. Another member told me that if you were giving a presentation, and needed help with the equipment, you would hunt for Don in one of the other classes (because he was there more often than he was not!) and he would immediately come to help you out.

And, as if 100 plus courses as a participant, 6 or more courses as a coordinator, and offering LOTS of technical support were not enough, Don and his beloved wife Lynn were among the most ardent supporters of the BCLIR organization. Don served as president of the organization among other volunteer responsibilities. And Lynn chaired the Curriculum Committee in 2008, the year before she died.

In his professional life, Don had worked as an accountant for General Electric and Corning Glass, and later as a teacher at the Alternate Learning Project high school in Providence. He was very proud of that teaching and learning commitment. He continued that commitment into his 20 years in BCLIR and LLC.

I think Don would be really moved to hear that his friends contributed to an LLC technology fund in his name. And happy to hear that those funds have been used to support our organization’s offering of hybrid classes, through the purchase of an Owl camera and a much larger TV screen.

We who knew Don are grateful for the gift of his friendship. And we miss him. Often in the walking or Scrabble groups, someone will say: “Wouldn’t Don love that!” or “That’s so Don!”

When people die, they leave traces of their lives behind in the memories of those who knew them. I like this quote from CS Lewis: “We possess each friend not less, but more, as the number of those with whom we share him increases." I hope that by sharing some of Don with you today you possess a little of his friendship, even if you didn’t know him personally. And for those of you who did know and love Don, I hope you feel your own possession of his friendship has increased.

Though he may no longer be in our classes, his spirit will live forever in our hearts.

Cathy Hurst, Susan Harper Goodwin (daughter of Don and Lynne Harper), and Shirley DiMatteo

larkbirdalonexs

In Person: Three Massachusetts Authors
Alan William Powers, Stephen Puleo, and Jane Yolen

The Claire T. Carney Library Associates UMass Dartmouth
proudly announces the 2024 Annual Authors' Brunch
Honoring the memory of Claire T. Carney
Sunday, October 20, 2024 at 12 noon
UMass Dartmouth Marketplace

The Claire T. Carney Library Associates proudly announces its annual authors' brunch fundraiser for the benefit of the UMass Dartmouth Claire T. Carney Library which will be held on Sunday, October 20th at 12 noon in the UMass Dartmouth Marketplace with parking in lot 5. Our featured authors will be Alan William Powers, Stephen Puleo and Jane Yolen. The cost for the brunch is $50 for the general public, $45 for CTC Lib. Assoc. members and $35 for UMass Dartmouth students. This annual fundraiser helps fund programs or projects for the library not covered by the University budget. In the past, the Library Associates has raised money to establish a Veterans' Reading Room as well as sponsoring scholarships.

convbirds

Our illustrious authors include Alan William Powers. Powers is the former English Department chair at Bristol Community College who has authored eight books as well as numerous articles on Shakespeare and translations. He received his PHD at the University of Minnesota and has 10 post-doctoral grants at Harvard, Cornell, Princeton, Brown and Breadloaf. Multi-talented, he has appeared in two poetry films, Keats and His Nightingale and A Loaded Gun. As a jazz trombonist, he has written jazz tunes based on British and American birdsong. He has written verse monologues based on scandalous overheard conversations and has written a biography of Giordano Bruno, who was sent to the Inquisition because of one bad student evaluation. A skeptic of education reform, he stated, "Good teachers get fired; great teachers, killed – Socrates, Christ, Bruno Giordano.”

puleo

Stephen Puleo is an author, historian, teacher, public speaker and communications professional.  He holds a master's degree in history from UMass-Boston and was the Graduate Convocation keynote speaker. His master's thesis, From Italy to Boston's North End:  Italian Immigration and Settlement, 1890-1910, has been downloaded more than 25,000 times by scholars and readers around the world.  He was a former award-winning newspaper reporter and contributor of articles and book reviews to publication organizations including American History Magazine, Politico, the Boston Globe and the Bill of Rights Institute. His books include:  Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919; Due to Enemy Action: The True World War II Story of the USS Eagle 56; The Boston Italians: A Story of Pride, Perseverance and Paesani, from the Years of the Great Immigration to the Present Day; A City So Grand: The Rise of an American Metropolis, Boston; The Caning: The Assault That Drove America to Civil War; American Treasures: The Secret Efforts to Save the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Gettysburg Address; Voyage of Mercy:  The USS Jamestown, the Irish Famine and the Remarkable Story of America's First Humanitarian Mission and, his latest publication, The Great Abolitionist: Charles Sumner and the Fight for a More Perfect Union.

owlmoon

Jane Yolen is a novelist, poet, fantasist, journalist, songwriter, storyteller, folklorist, and children's book author who has written 400+ books, translated into almost two dozen languages. A graduate of Smith College with a master's degree in education from UMass Amherst, she has received six honorary doctorate degrees from colleges and universities in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Her accolades include: the Daedelus Award; the Catholic Library Association's Regina Medal; two Caldecott Medals, two Nebula Awards from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, the World Fantasy Award, three Mythopoeic Awards, the Kerian Award, and two Christopher Awards. She is the former president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and has served on the board of directors for the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators for more than 25 years. Born in New York City, she grew up in Hollywood, New York City, and Newport News, Virginia. She is the mother of three and grandmother of six who divides her time between homes in Hatfield, Massachusetts and Scotland. Her works include a poetry collection, Radiation Sonnets: Love in Sickness and in Health; picture books, Owl Moon and How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight; the novella, The Devil's Arithmetic and numerous nonfiction books.

larkbirdalonexs

Whether you are looking to revise your work or show off some previously-published gems, you’ll want to attend the Words on Fire Open Mic for ninety minutes of creative energy, happening monthly in the William Hall Library Auditorium. This is an 18+ event. 

Test-drive your in-progress work in front of a live audience or just come for the show as writers share their poems, stories (true and fictional), essays, or excerpts from their great American novels.

No experience necessary! All you need is a little courage and the ability to offer support to fellow creatives.

Words on Fire Open Mic meets on the first Wednesday of each month unless otherwise noted. Separate registration for each month’s meeting is required.

Free and open to the public. Registration required by using the button below or contact the library for assistance.

Please read the Rules of Engagement before signing up:

  • Registration is required
  • Audience members who don’t intend to read are welcome
  • Readers must be 18 or older
  • Readers should arrive 10-15 minutes prior to event start time to check in
  • Each reader will have 5 minutes maximum to read (adjustments may be made for overflow crowds)
  • Readings will be strictly timed
  • Readers can ask for optional audience feedback after their reading (2 minutes maximum)
  • Writing must be audience-friendly, suitable for reading in a public space, and must not include excessive profanity or any slurs or hate speech directed at any particular group or individual
  • Bring extra writing with you—additional rounds will be allowed once everyone has had a chance to read

Questions? Contact Zach Berger at [email protected] or call 401-781-2450.

Co-Host Zach Berger is the William Hall Branch Librarian and has had a lifelong interest in writing poetry and pursuing other creative adventures. He curates and records the weekly On the Line with CPL "dial-a-poem" program and has had a couple of poems published here and there.

Co-Host Ira Schaeffer is long-time poet and resident of Rhode Island, who has been widely published in a variety of print and e-publications. A former CCRI English Professor, Ira continues to share his love of the written word by leading workshops in local libraries and centers for lifelong learning.

larkbirdalonexs