Volume 2, No. 2: February 4, 2005    Annual "Love" Issue

Monthly E-News from Michael Bouman, Executive Director
Missouri Humanities Council

Contents:

Food and Culture

Our fruitful association with the Smithsonian Institution continues into its ninth year with of tour of the exhibit, "Key Ingredients" to six Missouri towns.  The subtitle of the exhibit is "America By Food."  The six towns sponsoring the exhibit will create all sorts of activities to involve everyone in connecting foods, manners, memories, and ideas.  What fun this year is going to be!  "Key Ingredients" premiers on June 25 in Ste. Genevieve.

Take a look at the way the Smithsonian is encouraging national participation in this subject.  They have developed program ideas and on-line interaction with the American public:

http://www.keyingredients.org/

Maya Angelou's New Food Memoir

Here is a wonderful Valentine's Day gift for anyone with good associations of foods with the family.  Maya Angelou has written a series of short pieces in which food is central to an important memory. 

And what memories they are!  These are memories so clear, so full of feeling for the characters in them, that you skip the recipes and jump right into the next memory.  The other night I got about half-way through the memories in under an hour.  The web sites of the national book sellers show that reader response to the book is at the max.  Several people reported that this was their first exposure to Maya Angelou, and the stories have made them buy some of her other work.

Here's a taste of the writing:

My grandmother, who my brother, Bailey, and I called Momma, baked lemon meringue pie that was unimaginably good.  My brother and I waited for the pie.  We yearned for it, longed for it.  Bailey even hinted and dropped slightly veiled suggestions about it, but none of his intimations hastened its arrival.  Nor could anything he said stave off the story that came part and parcel with the pie.

Bailey would complain, "Momma, you told us that story a hundred times" or "We know what happened to the old woman" and "Momma, can we just have the pie?"  (Momma always ignored his attempts to prevent her from telling the tale.)  But if we wanted Momma's lemon meringue pie, we had to listen to the story:

There was an old woman who had made it very clear that she loved young men.  Everyone in town knew where her interests lay so she couldn't get any local young men to come to her house....

With writing like that, who needs the food?

Molly Reads from the Start

When Molly lost her mother at the end of 2003, she came to St. Louis and a family that loves books.  Dawn Schwab has written an essay on Molly and a thank-you to the Wal-Mart and Target stores that have supported our family reading program.

http://www.mohumanities.org/E-News/Feb05/molly.htm

Books About Love for Children

Looking for the perfect Valentine’s Day read? We asked two of our READ from the START program discussion leaders, Deb Haynes, Director of Youth Services at The Carthage Public Library, and Sarah Howard, librarian with the Daniel Boone Regional Library in Columbia, MO, for the best children’s books about love.

http://www.mohumanities.org/E-News/Feb05/readlist.htm

A Retirement Party for Barbara Gill

Anyone who knows our Senior Program Officer, Barbara Gill, will know I am not kidding when I say that I consider her a role model for living life fully engaged, no exceptions, no excuses.  She welcomed me to the Missouri Humanities Council ten years ago, helped us all get our bearings during the memorable shutdowns of the Federal Government in 1995 and 1996, and encouraged everyone to seize the opportunities available to us, wherever they might arise.  

Now, after 25 years with the Council, Barbara is fully retiring from salaried work.  I dare not say "fully retiring," because inactivity is unthinkable where Barbara is concerned.  She is studying Tai Chi these days when not remodeling something at home or upgrading something at the Brentwood Historical Society.  Barbara has never been one to sit back and watch.  Barbara is a verb.

We're throwing a small party for Barbara, an Open House on Saturday, March 5, 2005 from 2 to 4 p.m. at the St. Louis Artists' Guild, 2 Oak Knoll Park, St. Louis, MO 63l05. If you'd like to stop in and congratulate Barbara, please call Clarice Britton at (314) 781-9660 or (800) 357-0909 or clarice@mohumanities.org by March 3rd so we'll know how much refreshment to have on hand.

We are also hosting a "Card Shower" for Barbara for those who cannot attend but wish to acknowledge Barbara's place in your heart. Please send your card or letter to Clarice Britton's attention at MHC, 543 Hanley Industrial Court, Ste. 201, St. Louis, MO 63144 by March 3rd. I'll present a basket filled with your cards or letters to Barbara at her celebration.

Love in Shakespeare

Our Chairman, Nick Knight, is a scholar of Will Shakespeare.  I asked him to write something about love for this Valentine's Day edition, and he has obliged with a lovely piece, full of grace and poetry:

http://www.mohumanities.org/E-News/Feb05/loveandwill.htm

Valentine for Mom

I love books because of the memory of being read to.  For the close of this e-news, I've written a story about advertising, reading, and my Mom.  xoxo

http://www.mohumanities.org/E-News/Feb05/mom.htm

 

 

To Unsubscribe: Click "Reply" and write "Unsubscribe" in the subject field.

Published monthly by the Missouri Humanities Council, a tax-exempt, non-profit organization affiliated with the National Endowment for the Humanities, a Federal agency.
http://www.mohumanities.org
Phone: (800) 357-0909
Fax: (314) 781-9681
543 Hanley Industrial Court
Suite 201
St. Louis, MO 63144