Copyright Zachary Pullen

If you happen to be in Casper this Friday and Saturday, check out the Equality State Book Festival at Casper College (and around town)! The Wyoming Humanities Council is proud to be a supporter of this year’s book festival, which features a number of interesting authors from around the state and nation (I, for one, am delighted to see creative nonfiction heavyweight Lee Gutkind and poet Ravi Shankar on the agenda!). Here is a description of this weekend’s events from the festival website:

This year we are featuring 16 authors and illustrators, including but not limited to, Jack Gantos, Larry Watson, Jaimee Wriston Colbert, Zak Pullen, Gene Gagliano, Ravi Shankar and John Vernon.  To celebrate this year’s three Wyoming Arts Council fellowship winners, the Equality State Book Festival will also feature a reading by WAC fellowship judge Lee Gutkind and this year’s three WAC fellowship winners: Joel Burdess of Casper, Jayme Feary of Jackson, and Pam Galbreath of Laramie. They will be joined by Casper’s own Nina McConigley, winner of a 2010 Blanchan/Doubleday writing award from the Arts Council. She will read her fiction and serve as emcee at this event.  The ever-popular George Vlastos will emcee our Friday night poetry slam at Metro Coffee–this is an event you don’t want to miss!

While many of the sessions are taking place at The Goodstein Foundation Library at Casper College, you won’t find everything by staying in the library. Reading is everywhere, and we’re teaming up with the Tate Geological Museum at Casper College to bring you several panels and discussions. Join Zak Pullen, Ray Troll, and Russell Hawley for a fun-filled illustrator’s panel that gets at the big challenges of drawing prehistoric critters. Wyoming’s fossil fortunes get further exploration with Tom Rea, Ilja Nieuwland, and the Tate Museum staff as they talk about Andrew Carnegie’s dinosaur and the appearance of dinosaurs in popular culture. And, of course, don’t miss out on seeing Dee the Mammoth and interactive tours of the Tate Museum, too. You dig?

On Saturday, head to the Natrona County Public Library to support Wyoming’s budding young authors along with Gene Gagliano, the Wyoming State Reading Council, and the Center for the Book, for the “Young Authors” and “Letters About Literature” awards. About 36 students will be on hand to be recognized for their accomplishments. Cookies, snacks, and punch will be served.

Visit the Equality State Book Festival website for author bios and detailed descriptions of the presentations and panels. See you there!

Join us on September 14, for “An Evening With Valentino Achak Deng: A Story of Civil War and the Lost Boys of Sudan.” Deng is a Sudanese refugee and member of the Lost Boys of Sudan program. In this lecture, he presents his personal story as one of the “Lost Boys” of Sudan and his story of migration from Sudan to Ethiopia, Kenya, and finally the United States. In Sudan, he is separated from his family during the Second Sudanese Civil War when the Arab militia wipe out his Dinka village, Marial Bai. He flees on foot with a group of other young boys, (the “Lost Boys”), on the way to a refugee camp in Ethiopia. Eventually they are forced to flee to another refugee camp in Kakuma, after the Ethiopian dictator is overthrown and soldiers open fire on them. They make it to Kenya, and finally, years later, Deng moves to the United States. The story is told in parallel to subsequent hardships that new migrants face in the United States. Valentino Deng’s story is recounted in What Is the What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng, a 2006 novel written by Dave Eggers.

“An Evening With Valentino Achak Deng: A Story of Civil War and the Lost Boys of Sudan” is presented by the International Studies Program at the University of Wyoming, with support from the Wyoming Humanities Council. For more information, visit the International Studies site.

Join us for light supper or refreshments and a four-part film discussion series in Cheyenne, Gillette, and Lusk. The films Enron (unrated, 2005), Blow (R, 2001), Maxed Out (unrated, 2006), and My Name is Bill W. (unrated. 1989) examine various types of addictions, including power, risk, greed, drugs, consumerism and alcohol, from different perspectives. My Name is Bill W. explores recovery from addiction. Following each film, humanities scholars and health professionals familiar with addiction issues will facilitate a discussion on how the media and society portray addiction and influence our responses to it. Through the personal life stories depicted in these films, the audience will witness the experience of addiction when someone’s life is taken over by something more powerful than he or she is.

Visit the events calendar on the council website for dates and times, or contact Program Coordinator Sheila Bricher-Wade, (307) 721-9246, with any questions.

Leach introduced his fifty-state tour in November 2009 to call attention to the need for civility in public discourse. “Civilization requires civility,” says Leach. “Words matter. Polarizing attitudes can jeopardize social cohesion.”

Leach began his four-year term as NEH chairman in August 2009 after serving 30 years in the U.S. House of Representatives. As a congressman representing southeastern Iowa, he chaired the Banking and Financial Services Committee, the Subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Affairs and the Congressional-Executive Commission on China. He founded and co-chaired the Congressional Humanities Caucus. Cosponsors for the events are the Buffalo Bill Historical Center; the Heart Mountain, Wyoming Foundation; and the Wyoming Humanities Council.

Leach’s visit will also launch the Wyoming Humanities Council’s year-long civility initiative, which will include an innovative lecture and discussion series, a visiting scholar, and grants for civility-themed projects.

Women and Wealth in Republican Rome
Monday, June 14, 7:00 p.m.
UW College of Law, room 186, Laramie
Marilyn Skinner from the University of Arizona.

Celebrating a Trojan Ancestry
Tuesday, June 15, 7:00 p.m.
UW College of Law, room 186, Laramie
Laura DeLozier from the University of Wyoming.

Hannibal’s Dreams: Cicero and Other Writers Remember the Wars
Wednesday, June 16, 7:00 p.m.
UW College of Law, room 186
Eleanor Leach from Indiana University.

Film Discussion: A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum
Start: Thursday, June 17, 7:00 p.m.
Location: UW College of Law, room 186
Our final evening program of the summer classics institute will be a screening of this 1966 movie, adapted from the comedies of Plautus.  Melvin Frank, director.  Songs by Stephen Sondheim.  Cast includes Zero Mostel, Michael Crawford, Phil Silvers, and (in his last screen appearance) Buster Keaton.  Discussion will follow the film.

There are also WHC grant programs taking place elsewhere in the state:

Impressions on Wyoming Lecture Series: Casper
Wednesday, June 16, 7:00 p.m., Fort Caspar Museum
Alfred Jacob Miller and the 1827 Rendezvous, with Chavawn Kelly.

Crazy Horse: An American Warrior: Buffalo
Friday, June 18, 7:00 p.m., Historic Bozeman Crossing Conference Center
The 2010 Bozeman Trail Days Symposium, co-sponsored by Fort Phil Kearny/Bozeman Trail Association.

The series kicks off a week from today, on Thursday, June 24, at 5:30 p.m., with an opening barbeque at the University of Wyoming-National Park Service (UW-NPS) Research Center, at the historic AMK Ranch. Park admission fees apply. At 6:30, Mary Humstone will discuss student-driven preservation projects in her presentation, “Partners in Preservation: American Studies in the Field.” On Monday, July 12, 6:30 p.m., at the Grand Teton Climbers Ranch, Sherry Smith will discuss the life of woman homesteader Geraldine Lucas in “Geraldine Lucas: Mountaineering, Homesteading, and Fighting the Federal Government in early twentieth Century Jackson Hole.” Park admission fees apply. On Monday, August 2, 6:30 p.m., at The Murie Center, Robert Righter will explore the relationship between technology and park values in “The Airport: Paradox for a Park.” And on Saturday, August 28, 2:00 p.m., at the Teton Science School Kelly Campus, Pete Simpson and Ken Thomasma will hold a “Cattle and Conservation Conversation.”

Details, including descriptions of each lecture and each presenter, are available online. Contact Program Coordinator Sheila Bricher-Wade, (307) 721-9246, with any questions.

Rod Garnett

Each Saturday U term features lectures from three outstanding University of Wyoming professors. The spring ‘term’ will begin with Jean Garrison, associate professor of political science and director of the International Studies Program, who will discuss how President Obama has faced multiple challenges in “Obama Review: Pondering the President.” Rod Garnett, professor of music, will then present “Playing the Nai: A Window into Moldova,” which will include a live nai performance. In the afternoon, Peter Parolin, associate professor and chair of the English Department, will explore the links between effective leadership and theatrical skills in “The Role of a King: Leadership and Theatrics in Shakespeare’s Henry IV.”

Following the lectures, all three professors will participate in a final roundtable discussion moderated by Wyoming Humanities Council board member Paul Flesher, director of the university’s Religious Studies Program.

Participants may attend one, two, three, or all four session. No registration is required, and the program is free to the public. Descriptions of the lectures are available online. For more details on Saturday U, please contact the Wyoming Humanities Council, wych@uwyo.edu, (307) 721-9243.

Rita Donham © 2003

Sara Domek at the Wyoming Wilderness Association asked me to pass this along to y’all!

The Wyoming Wilderness Association (WWA) is hosting Gretel Ehrlich for a Wilderness Writer’s Retreat in the Rock Creek recommended wilderness area in the Bighorn National Forest for adventure, reflection and writing August 6-9, 2010. This is the first year that WWA is sponsoring this event, and the Retreat will provide opportunities for a group of enthusiastic writers to explore and expand their creative writing skills by introducing participants to the Rock Creek recommended wilderness area in the Bighorn National Forest. Gretel Ehrlich will lead workshops and give readings, and participants will also drink in the ecology, history and future of the Rock Creek recommended wilderness with the help of the Wyoming Wilderness Association.  Wyoming-based Gretel Ehrlich is an accomplished writer whose work includes This Cold Heaven, The Solace of Open Spaces, and The Future of Ice, among other works of nonfiction, fiction and poetry. Gretel Ehrlich’s essays, short stories and poems have been included in many anthologies and publications. She has received many prestigious awards and her most recent work, In the Empire of Ice: Encounters in a Changing Landscape, will be published this spring.

You can download the program brochure at www.wildwyo.org. For further information, please contact Sara Domek, Program Director, Wyoming Wilderness Association, PO Box 6588, Sheridan, WY 82801, (307) 672-2751, sara@wildwyo.org.

TOUR COSTS
A registration fee of $15 per person includes the bus ride, snacks and water on the bus and park entrance fees. The registration fee is payable by credit card or check.

Cancellations after August 17, 2010 will not be refunded.

Participants will be asked to sign a waiver and provide emergency contact information before boarding the bus.

The registration fee DOES NOT INCLUDE MEALS or HOTEL ROOMS.

TRANSPORTATION
The Wyoming Humanities Council will provide transportation for the September 18 and 19 Yellowstone National Park tour by Americoach of Cheyenne.  The tour will be conducted on a 56-passenger Americoach bus.  You may see a photograph of the bus at their web site.

The Wyoming Humanities Council will not provide transportation to or from Cody, prior to or following the tour.  For an additional, separate cost, Americoach of Cheyenne may be available for pre- and post-transportation, to and from Cody.  Interested tour participants may contact Judy Jaterka at Americoach: 1-307-635-6990, 1-866-635-6990 or wjjaterka@aim.com.

MEALS
Participants are responsible for paying for their own meals. A variety of price options will be available at each stop.

HOUSING
Participants in the Wyoming Humanities Council Yellowstone Tour must make their own hotel reservation by June 20, 2010.

To reserve one of the group rooms (shared bathrooms in the hall) in the Old Faithful Inn for the rate of $108.04 for 1 or 2 beds for 1 or 2 people, please call 307.344.5437 before June 20, 2010 and give the following code: GPWYHUM.  The deposit for the room is the full overnight room rate of $108.04.  There is an additional charge of $12 per person for each additional person (more than 2) who are 12 or older and are staying in the room.  Children under 12 are free.

The deposit must be received at the time of booking the reservation and is payable by credit card.

Rooms reserved for the WHC Yellowstone Tour are “N” rooms (room without bath) in the “Old House” at Old Faithful Inn.

ABOUT THE OLD FAITHFUL INN
A National Historic Landmark, Old Faithful Inn is probably the most requested lodging facility in the park.  It is built in a rustic style, with log and wood-shingle exterior, and three to four floors. The original part of the Inn, known as the “Old House,” was built in 1904 and includes an immense lobby with a stone fireplace. The East and West wings were added in the teens and twenties, with many rooms being remodeled during the winters of 1992-93 and 1993-94.  Guest accommodations include over 300 rooms with and without private bathrooms. The front desk is staffed 24 hours a day and there is bell service available.

DISCLAIMER
Funded by the We the People initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily reflect those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Inside the Ethnographers Studio: A Dialogue with Shirley Brice Heath
Monday, March 29
5:00 p.m.
Art Museum
University of Wyoming Centennial Complex
2111 Willett Drive Laramie, WY

Signifying on Bravo’s popular craft seminar, Inside the Actors Studio, the literacy education faculty of the College of Education has organized an Inside the Ethnographers Studio event with Shirley Brice Heath as its first guest. Dr. Heath’s work is diverse and far-reaching.  She has studied language and literacy practices in a wide variety of American communities and enclaves; teaching and learning business, literacy, and the arts in community based organizations for youth; and, most recently, aboriginal youth making art. Dr. Heath will be interviewed by Wendy Bredehoft (Education Curator, UW Art Museum), Allen Trent (Professor of Educational Studies), and Allen Linde (Laramie High School Art Teacher) on various aspects of her work.  A question-and-answer session with the audience will follow.

Inside the Ethnographers Studio will be followed by a reception, the opening of the Harold Garde exhibit, and Art Talk:  Harold Garde and Pam Coffman.

SPONSORED BY THE GRADUATE PROGRAM IN LITERACY EDUCATION, COLLEGE OF EDUCATION, UNIVERSITY OF WYOMING

Moving the Human Eye and Mind: The grounding of cognition in visual, musical, and literary arts
Shirley Brice Heath, Stanford University, Brown University

Date:  Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Time:  4:15-5:30 p.m.
Place:  Classroom Building Room 129

The inextricable links between the development of science and advances in aesthetic creativity go unnoticed in current arguments for denying opportunities to develop creativity, to work across multiple media and modes, to develop expertise in visual perception and the production of imaginative visual renderings of thought and knowledge. Technological advances make imperative the reading, embodying, and creating of images to such an extent that neuroscientists now see these ways of learning as grounding cognition in fundamental ways. This lecture considers these research findings in terms of implications for human learning across the life span.

MacArthur Prize winner and author of the classic educational ethnography, Ways with Words: Language, Life, and work in Communities and Classrooms,  Shirley Brice Heath is a world renowned linguistic anthropologist who has studied topics as diverse as language and literacy socialization in families and communities, the development of creativity in the visual, musical, and performing arts, strategic problem-solving in real-life settings, the nature and effects of learning within community based organizations for youth, and how responsible roles accelerate desires for organizational, scientific, and mathematical knowledge. Professor Heath has taught at universities throughout the world—most notably at Stanford University, Brown University, Georgetown University, the University of Stockholm, Kings College, and the University of London. Her resource guide and prize-winning documentary ArtShow (2000) features young leaders in four interracial and cross-class community arts organizations in the United States. She also directed and produced other short documentaries on youth organizations dedicated to the sustainable agriculture and environmental architecture.

For more information on Professor Heath’s life and work, visit http://www.shirleybriceheath.net.

Sponsored by the Graduate Program in Literacy Education, College of Education, University of Wyoming