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January 2008 LEH Newsletter
LEH names "2008 Humanist of the Year" and other award winners
 
The LEH Board of Directors has named famed New Orleans musician and teacher Ellis Marsalis as the 2008 Humanist of the Year. "Mr. Marsalis's contributions to music education have shaped generations of Louisianians and helped to nurture and maintain the state's role as the birthplace of jazz," said LEH President Michael Sartisky in nominating Marsalis for the honor. "As an advocate of the music and a teacher of many of today's most vital performers, Mr. Marsalis has served our state in fundamentally important ways."

In addition, the LEH will present the Award for Lifetime Contributions to the Humanities to Dr. Norman Francis, long-time president of Xavier University in New Orleans. The Chair's Award for Institutional Support will go to the Community Foundation of Shreveport-Bossier for its contributions and partnership in LEH's Prime Time programs in the Shreveport-Bossier area. Jennifer John Block's film "Reconstructing Creole" will receive the LEH's Humanities Documentary Film of the Year Award.

Individual Achievement in the Humanities awards will go to Delma McLeod-Porter, a professor and coordinator of developmental writing at McNeese State University in Lake Charles; J. Paul Leslie, a history professor at Nicholls State University in Thibodaux; and, Jack Heflin, professor of English at the University of Louisiana at Monroe. John R. May, an English professor at LSU in Baton Rouge, will receive the Public Humanities Programming Award and the Humanities Book of the Year Award goes to Bliss Broyard's One Drop: My Father's Hidden Life-A Story of Race and Family Secrets (Little, Brown and Company: September 27, 2007), a remarkable account of a young woman's journey to discover her racial identity in the wake of discovering her father's, Anatole Broyard, African ancestry. This project was underwritten by a LEH Louisiana Publishing Initiative grant. Humanities Teacher of the Year awards will be presented to Catherine Green, a social studies (history) teacher at Caddo Middle Magnet School in Shreveport, and to Emmitt Glynn III, who teaches political theory, government and history of religion in America at The Episcopal School in Baton Rouge.

The awards will be presented during a special ceremony at 12:30 p.m. March 29, 2008, at Houmas House Plantation and Gardens in Darrow, La., just south of Baton Rouge. For ticket information, contact Brian Boyles at the LEH boyles@leh.org or 504-620-2622.

Winter LCV features major Katrina art show at NOMA
 
The Winter 2007-08 edition of Louisiana Cultural Vistas magazine premiered in mid-December with a cover story on a major exhibition of paintings, depicting the emotional toll of Hurricane Katrina by the nationally-acclaimed artist Rolland Golden, on view at the New Orleans Museum of Art through Feb. 17, 2008. Other features include:

  • An interview by Michael Sartisky of non-fiction writer Michael Lewis, a son of New Orleans who has taken on Wall Street, professional sports and the presidential electoral process in his acclaimed books;
  • A chronicle of the Great Flood of 1932 that inundated Monroe and Northeast Louisiana when the Ouachita River overflowed its banks;
  • A critical analysis of New Orleans' economic woes and societal structure by conservative commentator Benjamin C. Toledano;
  • An overview of landscape paintings from the exhibit "Louisiana: Where Land Meets Water," at the New Orleans Museum of Art, in collaboration with The Historic New Orleans Collection;
  • A history of the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, the controversial shipping channel that many blame for much of the destruction from Hurricane Katrina's tidal surge;
  • The connections between New Orleans' cuisine and the Caribbean; the lives of jazz legends Johnny and Warren "Baby" Dodds; and the architecture of Plaquemines Parish round out other offerings in an issue of the magazine that offers something for everyone.
To subscribe, or to view past issues in their entirety, log on to www.leh.org.

LEH receives $100,000 gift from Gustaf Westfeldt McIlhenny Family Found.
 
The Gustaf Westfeldt McIlhenny Family Foundation has made a $100,000 gift contribution to the LEH's Louisiana Humanities Education Center Capital Campaign. According to Dr. Michael Sartisky, President and Executive Director of the LEH, this contribution comes at a key time: "We have two major challenge grants outstanding for which we need to raise significant amounts of matching funds." The Kresge Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities have both made major capital commitments to the LEH. When both grants are counted, LEH capital donors are having their donations matched nearly dollar for dollar.

"The clock is running on both grants but the deadline is much nearer for the Kresge grant," said Sartisky. "We have until April 1, 2008, to complete fundraising for the Kresge challenge grant. When the McIlhenny Family Foundation contribution is figured into the equation, we still must raise about $100,000 by the deadline. I want all potential donors to understand the leverage factor and that they are getting more bang for their buck by making a capital campaign contribution now."

The Capital Campaign for the LEH's Louisiana Humanities Education Center will create a state-of-the-art auditorium that comfortably seats 120 along with 4 seminar/breakout rooms with varied technological capabilities.

Sartisky added: "This a facility that the LEH needs for its future growth, that New Orleans area non-profits need programming, and that our partners throughout Louisiana need for greater efficiency and cost savings. This is the time for the New Orleans business and philanthropic communities to step forward and help us complete this project on time and on budget."

LEH selects new board members
 
Brad A. Adams (New Orleans), Vice President of Allis-Chalmers Energy Inc. and its subsidiaries; James Carter (New Orleans), New Orleans City Councilman; V. Thomas Clark, Jr., (Baton Rouge), a partner in the Baton Rouge office of Adams and Reese LLP; Kenneth Gladish, PhD (Evanston, Ill.), the Distinguished Professor of Non-profit Studies, Director of the Grantmaking School and the first Russell Mawby Faculty Fellow at the Johnson Center for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Studies at Michigan's Grand Valley State University; Henry Lacey, PhD (New Orleans), retired Dillard University Presidential Professor of English and Vice-President for Academic Affairs; and, Edwin R. Rodriguez, Jr., (New Orleans), First Vice President - Investments, Merrill Lynch, New Orleans.

Go to Board of Directors webpage

PRIME TIME across the nation and Louisiana
 
Project Directors, scholars, storytellers, and library coordinators from across the country will attend a PRIME TIME FAMILY READING, Inc. training workshop in New Orleans at the Louisiana Humanities Center at Turners' Hall Jan. 17-20, 2008. Five states were selected to participate in the next phase of the bilingual national expansion, funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Team members from Michigan, Florida, New Jersey, Oklahoma, and New York will attend this training along with affiliate participants from Georgia, Kansas, Oregon and New Mexico. Experienced team members from Nebraska will serve as trainers along with Louisiana presenters and the LEH staff. Giving the keynote address will be Dr. Robert Becker, Professor of History, Weber State University, and author of Agamemnon Among the Bunnies, Finding the Humanities in Children's Literature. Concurrent sessions will address the logistics of implementing a bilingual program as well as the "best practice" strategies for discussion leaders.

A training workshop for Louisiana PRIME TIME team members was held in the Humanities Center Dec. 1-2. Thirty-one participants from across the state attended the sessions along with experienced trainers and five PRIME TIME staff members. The next workshop for Louisiana teams is scheduled for August 2008. Applications for fall 2008 sites are currently being accepted. Please call Faye Flanagan, Project Director, at 504-620-2485 or flanagan@leh.org for information. Application forms are available on the LEH website.

A $50,000 grant from the Community Foundation of Shreveport-Bossier will fund the continuation and expansion of a pilot project begun in 2007 at a Shreveport low-performing middle school. Grant funds will support three PRIME TIME FAMILY READING TIME programs in 2008 at Bethune Middle Academy in Shreveport, La., as well as three teacher workshops. The teacher workshops will be led by Dr. Helen Taylor, Director, Master of Arts in Liberal Arts Program, LSU-Shreveport and experienced PRIME TIME scholar. The workshops are designed to promote the PRIME TIME model of developing critical thinking skills and high-level comprehension strategies. The Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities funded the pilot site at Bethune in fall 2007 and trained 16 faculty members in the PRIME TIME methodology in October.

The Almar Foundation of New Orleans will fund a PRIME TIME program at John Dibert Elementary School in the spring 2008, and Zemurray Foundation will sponsor four bilingual sites scheduled in Caddo, Orleans, Thibodaux, and Ouachita parishes. A total of 17 sites are scheduled for implementation during the spring semester.

RELIC's "Queen Elizabeth I" to "Louisiana Characters"
 
The LEH has added a new program location to its RELIC Winter/Spring programs. The New Roads branch of the Pointe Coupee Parish Library will host "The Creole Identity in Louisiana Literature and History," starting on April 1 (no fooling), and it is wildly rumored that Ernest Gaines will participate in some of the program's reading and discussion activities. The program will prove to be interesting because one the books included is Catherine Carmier, Mr. Gaines' first novel. This and other programs available this winter and spring are located below.

Click here to view RELIC Library Reading Program Schedule, Winter/Spring 2008.

Give the gift of Louisiana to friends and family
 
Here is your chance to send loved ones, your friends from college, a neighbor or maybe a few business associates one full year of the best Louisiana has to offer!

Four times over the next year they will be able to paddle the bayou, walk the French Quarter, and explore the Cane River. They will learn Louisiana's history from Hot Sauce to Hot Jazz and travel our towns from Abbeville to Zwolle. And finally, they will enjoy the work of our finest writers, photo-essayists, and artists all bringing forth the magic that comes from Louisiana's people and places, history and culture.

Winner of 75 awards from the New Orleans Press Club, Louisiana Cultural Vistas has won the New Orleans Press Club's "Best Publication" six of the last ten years including 2006. In 2006, the magazine received 10 awards, including the following first-place awards for photography, design, editorial writing and best publication.

With this special offer, your first gift subscription is the regular price of $16, after that they are only $12 each-a full 25% discount! To purchase your gift subscriptions online, please click on www.leh.org for the order form or call Barbara Lopez at (504) 523-4352.

LEH Sponsored Programs and Events
 
New Louisiana Poet Laureate to read at LEH
On Jan. 16, the LEH will host a reading by Louisiana's newly-appointed Poet Laureate Darrell Bourque. The reading will take place in the Louisiana Humanities Center at Turners Hall, 938 Lafayette Street, New Orleans. It is free to the public. Doors open at 7pm, reception to follow. For additional information, contact Brian Boyles at 504-620-2632 or boyles@leh.org.

LEH to screen award-winning New Orleans carnival film
The LEH Documentary Film series at the Louisiana Humanities Center continues at 7 p.m. Jan. 24 with By Invitation Only, an LEH-funded film by Rebecca Snedeker. A journey through the world of carnival societies and debutante balls, By Invitation Only won "Best Documentary" at the New Orleans International Human Rights Film Festival, and has been broadcast at festivals, conferences and campuses nationwide. Tickets are $5, free for LEH members. For additional information, contact Brian Boyles at 504-620-2632 or boyles@leh.org

Ogden Museum of Southern Art - "Southern Master Series: Jean Seidenberg"
January 3 to April 13 The Ogden Museum of Southern Art will present an exhibition and catalogue on the art and life of New Orleans artist Jean Seidenberg. The exhibition will chronicle Seidenberg's diverse works of art from throughout his career - paintings, portraits, cast bronze sculpture and photography.

New Orleans Museum of Art - "Look at Me: Judy Cooper Photographs 1988-2007"
January 19 to May 11 NOMA will present an exhibition, catalogue and discussion panels on the works of Judy Cooper. Cooper's photographic subjects represent a cross-section of New Orleans from Uptown society women to local artists, second-liners, church women and her Bywater neighbors.

Upcoming Grant Deadlines
 
Documentary Film and Radio Grants - April 25.
Contact Walker Lasiter at 504-620-2630 or lasiter@leh.org

Louisiana Publishing Initiative Grants - Feb. 15.
Contact John R. Kemp at 504-620-2481 or kemp@leh.org

Outreach Grants - March 15.
Contact Rachel Norman at 1-800-523-4352. Ext. 131 or norman@leh.org
 

Contact Information

phone: 504-620-2480
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