Greetings from the Newberry County Literacy Council where excitement is in the air. Walk into our office on Main Street and look and listen: people reading books, discussing current events, computing taxes, learning about healthy cooking, or sometimes just hanging out. The cooking is part of a program called Cooking Matters and has been a great success. Talk to Barbara Chapman about signing up for future classes. The tax computing is through a program called VITA, sponsored by the IRS, that helps people prepare their income tax returns, at no charge. Call 276-8086 for information or an appointment.
Our Weekly Reader Book Club is reading a book by Newberry’s own Dr. William Dufford, entitled “My Tour through the Asylum: A Southern Integrationist’s Memoir.” He has agreed to meet with us as we complete the book. The People’s College, our college-like series of seminars, is in the middle of its Winter Term class called “Conversations About Justice.” We are exploring the concept and meaning of justice through readings and discussions. The main book for the class is about Dorothy Day, the Catholic activist and founder of the Catholic Worker Movement in the 1930s. It is a fascinating look at Dorothy, the Catholic Worker Movement, and Dorothy’s daughter, Tamar, written by Kate Hennessy, Dorothy’s granddaughter. I will report more about this book in a future column. We all can benefit from an understanding of Dorothy’s life journey and her compassion.
We are also excited about two events we will sponsor or co-sponsor in April. One is “Newberry Made – an Exhibition of Local Artists and Makers.” This exhibition will showcase and celebrate the creative works of artists living or working in Newberry County. In doing so, it will show the scope and diversity of the artist community in Newberry and hopefully encourage the creative impulse in all of us. Robert Matheson, Mary McDonald, and others are coordinating this event, which will take place in the Old Newberry Hotel, April 17-19.
We are excited that the Literacy Council will host the literary component of the event. Ms. Barbara Chapman, our executive director, is reaching out to writers of all types, published or unpublished, who would like to display some of their work: novels, non-fiction, poetry, essays, and more. She is also planning presentations by some of the writers. So, if you are a writer, contact her. In a separate, but related point, I was struck by a description in the Dorothy Day book, of an artist named Ade Bethune, who worked on various projects with Dorothy and then started her own art school in Rhode Island. She is described this way: “She was warm, funny, loving, well educated, and an accomplished and successful artist. She was full of enthusiasm for everything she did – her art, her animals, her garden, her students. She believed in doing work for others out of love and with skill and creativity, and she believed that everyone was an artist.”
I imagine a lot of us would like to be worthy of that kind of characterization. If only all children could be exposed to this kind of teacher who believed we are all artists. She helped people discover that internal creative spark, to unlock it and nurture it. As part of the Literacy Council’s mission to promote the ‘literary arts,’ we are planning a writing program at the council, to help people discover their inner writing abilities and produce literary works. Look for more about this.
The second event planned for April is what we are calling a Chautauqua program that will present two “reading plays” during the month of April. These plays will be in the form of interviews, under the title “Women Speak: South Carolina and Beyond.” On April 2, we will present interviews with Modjeska Simkins, a civil rights and human rights activist who lived in Columbia, and Jane Addams, founder of the Hull House in Chicago. On April 21, the interviews will be with Rachel Carson, who spurred the rise of environmentalism in the 1960s with publication of her book “Silent Spring” about the threat of DDT and other chemicals, and Septima Clark, born in South Carolina and creator of ‘freedom schools’ that taught African-Americans literacy skills in the 1950s and 1960s so they could pass the onerous reading test needed to register to vote.
The concept of Chautauqua dates back to the 1870s, deriving its name from an Iroquois word for a lake in up-state New York. It was a rural event, blossoming into an adult education program, that introduced people to great ideas, important historical figures, current affairs, coupled with entertainment – music, dance, plays. In a time before cars and radio, it was a way to bring substantive cultural and intellectual stimulation to people in rural areas. The Chautauqua remained popular, expanding all through the country, through the 1920s when radio, motion pictures, cars, and then television challenged its influence. The concept has been revived over the last twenty years. There is now a Chautauqua Society in Greenville. These modern Chautauqua programs entertain, educate, and promote engagement in the community. That is the idea for our Chautauqua series. Look for more about it. It will be staged in the upstairs atrium at the Old Newberry Hotel.
Enough for now. Until next time, “Happy Reading.”