Delaware Humanities Forum Celebrates 35th Anniversary with theme Picturing Delaware: Inside and Outside the Frame
The Delaware Humanities Forum’s 35th Anniversary Celebration is set to a theme of Picturing Delaware: Inside and Outside the Frame. Throughout 2008-2009, DHF has offered glimpses of Delaware through the humanities. DHF has used archival photographs, paintings, cultural material—and now fiction novels—as the framework for reflecting on Delaware’s people, places, and unique character.
This summer, DHF presents a books and authors series with novels that interpret the diverse history of Delaware’s people. The stories span two centuries and describe the lives of runaway slaves before the Civil War, the immigrants who fashioned Wilmington’s Little Italy after World War II and today’s newcomers redefining themselves as Americans. Titled, “Interpreting Dreams,” the reading and discussion program brings to light the dreams of people struggling to survive slavery, fit in with post-war America, or find their bearings despite cultural disorientation. Each book is beautifully written, heartfelt, insightful and has some basis in Delaware culture: Song Yet Sung by James McBride, The Saint of Lost Things by Christopher Castellani, and The Language of Good-bye by Maribeth Fischer.
The program is free. Participants read the selected books and take part in three evenings of book talk at Ameritage Restaurant & Lounge, 900 N. Orange St., Wilmington—June 19, July 15 and August 14 at 7:00 p.m. DHF has joined with community partners on dramatic readings, music, demonstrations of multicultural traditions and chats with the books’ authors. This program has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities through a We the People grant.
For more information, visit www.dhf.org/news/InterpretingDreams2009.cfm or call (800) 752-2060.