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July
11, 2008
Darlene Brooks-Hedstrom
An Archaelogical Search
for Monastic Life
in Egypt
Egypt
did not go directly
from pyramids to mosques. Dr.
Brooks Hedstrom will
examine the history
of Christian monasticism
in Egypt from its
roots in the third
century until its
apex in the medieval
period under the Islamic
caliphate. The
archaeological evidence
from Egypt suggests
that under Islam,
Christian monasteries
flourished and were
considered luxurious
places for refreshment
and relaxation. Dr.
Brooks Hedstrom will
present the results
of her most recent
seasons of work at
the monasteries in
Wadi Natrun and Sohag,
where she is Chief
Archaeologist. These
sites are rarely visited
by tourists and are
little
known outside of Egypt.
Darlene
Brooks Hedstrom is a
Jaffrey native and associate
professor at Wittenberg
University. Her
scholarly interests
range from depictions
of the Middle East
in film, to Herodotus,
but she is primarily
an archaeologist who
has worked in England,
Jordan and Egypt. She
is founder and director
of the Wittenberg
Archaeological Field
School. Her
research, which has
broken new ground
in assessing the relationship
between monastic practices
and the architectural
design of monks’ cells
in early medieval
Egypt, earned her
a Fulbright fellowship
for 2007—08.
Darlene
says: “I
first became interested
in Egypt while a second
grader at Jaffrey
Grade School. After
this, I started reading
all the books at the
Jaffrey Public Library
on archaeology. I
always appreciated
that the Library was
the place that introduced
me to the world of
ancient peoples and
their wonderful monuments.
My first excavation
was as a freshman
in High School, when
I joined an excavation
of a late 19th century
logging site at Pisgah
State Park. Now
I take my three year
old son, Silas, and
my husband, Mark,
along on my excavations.”
Dr. Brooks Hedstrom’s
digging has also taken
her to the City of
London, to two sites
with material from
the Roman to the medieval
periods; and to Abila,
an ancient city in
Jordan, with remains
from the Bronze Age
to the mid-Abbasid
period. Dr.
Brooks Hedstrom describes
herself as a “seasoned
but still excited
teacher and scientist” and
will be pausing to
appear at the Forum
as she travels back
home to Springfield,
Ohio, after a year’s
exploration in Egypt.
Moderator:
Diana Wolfe Larkin
July
18, 2008
Keith
Stevens & Gus
Kaikkonen
A Life in Theatre — The
Peterborough Players
Observe Their 75th
Anniversary
How
does one prepare for
a life in the theatre? In
fact, how does one
live a life in the
theatre? In
any given year, half
of the professional
stage actors in America
do not work at all
in their chosen field. What
compels talented actors,
directors, writers,
designers and technicians
to overcome the hardships
and bring different
worlds to life on
stages across the
country? Despite
the difficulties,
for most professional
theatre artists, life
onstage is both incredibly
rewarding and the
only career imaginable.
Peterborough
Players Artistic Director
Gus Kaikkonen and
Managing Director
Keith Stevens will lead
a discussion about what
goes on behind the scenes,
and will talk about
how a season at the
Players is put together. They
will also describe
their careers and
will be joined by
members of the 2008
summer company, who
will also share their
experiences.
The Peterborough
Players celebrate
their 75th Anniversary
Season in 2008. Founded
in 1933 by Edith Bond
Stearns in her small
barn off Middle Hancock
Road in Peterborough,
the Players continue
to thrive as one of
the leading professional
summer theaters in
the United States. From
June 5th through September
28th, the company
will produce a total
of ten plays. Seven
of those shows will
be performed by the
professional company,
as the Players’ subscription
series. An
intern company will
stage two plays for
children and families,
and one production
with local high school
students, under the
auspices of the Ascending
Stars program, will
be staged.
Gus Kaikkonen
and Keith Stevens
are both marking their
13th season with the
Peterborough Players.
Artistic
Director Kaikkonen divides
his time between Peterborough
and his New York City
base. His is a long,
multi-faceted, and
award-winning career
of directing, playwrighting,
and creating musicals. He
is also a stage and
television actor.
Managing
Director Keith Stevens
is a year-round resident,
and lives in Peterborough
with his wife Joanne,
daughter Anastasia,
and son Maclane. He
has wide experience
in managing regional
theatres, and acts,
directs, and teaches.
Moderator:
Dick Ames
July
25, 2008
Carl
Colby
Abbott Thayer
and the Sanctity of
Nature
Abbott
Thayer (1849—1921),
painter, teacher, inventor
and naturalist, was
one of Dublin, N.H.’s
most original, prolific
and fascinating residents. His
passion for conservation,
his work as an artist,
and his extensive studies
of protective coloration,
were influential in
New Hampshire, in America,
and in Europe.
Award-winning
film director Carl
Colby and producer
Pamela Peabody have
just completed an hour-long
documentary titled Invisible:
Abbott Thayer and the
Art of Camouflage, which
will be shown for the
first time at Keene’s
Colonial Theatre, on
July 26th. In
advance of this occasion,
Carl Colby will appear
at the July 25th Amos
Fortune Forum. In
his presentation to
the Forum, Colby will
speak about Abbott
Thayer’s complexities.
Colby will describe
Thayer’s deep
understanding of nature
and its secrets; his
theories of camouflage;
his Transcendentalist
beliefs; his abiding
love of Mount Monadnock;
his paintings, and
his influence upon
his fellow artists.
Pamela
Peabody and Carl Colby
have worked together
on several films over
the years. Both
are advocates of the
arts, and seek in their
work to explore the
inspirations which
lead to great creative
achievement.
Carl Colby’s
filmmaking assignments
have taken him around
the world, to more
than thirty countries. The
subject matter of his
documentaries is vast,
from celebrations of
painters and musicians,
to space exploration,
to anti-child trafficking,
to politics. He
also organizes international
art shows and conferences,
and is currently developing
a feature about the
personal and professional
life of his father,
the late William E.
Colby, former CIA Director.
Pamela
Peabody is the head
of PRP Productions,
of Washington, DC.
Her previous project
with Carl Colby, A
Dialogue of Generosity, was
a film about the Shakespeare
Theatre company at
the new Harman Center
for the Arts, in Washington,
DC. Peabody
made her first film
in 1980. In The
Female Line: Three
Generations of Peabody
Women, she profiled
Mrs. Malcolm Peabody,
a Civil Rights activist;
Marietta Tree, a U.N.
ambassador; and Frances
Fitzgerald, a Pulitzer
Prize winning author. Peabody
has deep family ties
to Dublin, and brings
Carl Colby to the Forum
in cooperation with
the Dublin Historical
Society.
Moderator:
Russell Bastedo
August 1, 2008
Lincoln
Chen
Rockefeller,
Ford & Gates — When
American Philanthropies
go Abroad
Beginning
with the Rockefeller
Foundation in the
early 20th century,
and continuing with
the Ford Foundation,
CARE, Bill Gates and
George Soros, Americans
have spearheaded massive
endeavors to alleviate
worldwide poverty. Dr.
Lincoln Chen, who
has spent a lifetime
working both as a
medical practitioner
and as an official
of some of the largest
and most effective
American philanthropic
foundations, will
reflect upon the
successes and challenges
inherent in the art
of giving, and will
discuss the roles
which philanthropies
can, and cannot play,
on the global stage.
The
Western World’s
wealth, expertise
and sense of mission
have been deployed
abroad for generations. Poverty,
disease, pandemics
and failed governance
do not respect political
boundaries, and non-governmental
organizations have
designed and funded
international aid
programs of great
breadth and scope. How
effective can these
enormous outflows
of funds be? Are
American foundations
meeting their promise? In
this complex
age, when American
aid from private sources
collides with our
government’s
foreign policy interests
in places such as
Iraq, Darfur and Afghanistan,
can American largesse
still be seen as philanthropic.
Dr.
Chen is President
of the China Medical
Board. Started in
1914, the Board was
endowed by John D.
Rockefeller as an
independent foundation,
and entrusted with
the mission of advancing
health in China and
throughout Asia. The
Board strengthens
medical education,
deepens research,
and works with local
agencies to develop
policies.
Prior
to leading the China
Medical Board, Dr.
Chen served as Executive
Vice President of
the Rockefeller Foundation. He
has been on the faculty
of the Harvard Medical
School, and is currently
a Fellow of Harvard’s
Asia Center. He has
also spent many years
in Asia, where he
represented the Ford
Foundation in India
and Bangladesh, Nepal
and Sri Lanka.
Dr.
Chen received his
BA in 1964 from Princeton
University, his MD
fromHarvard University,
and his MPH from the
Johns Hopkins School
of Hygiene and Public
Health.
Moderator:
Roderick Mac Farquhar
August
8, 2008
Charles
Daloz
An Experiment
in Ecological
Technology
The
Daloz Mill and Farm
BioCultural Center
is a small, New Hampshire
non-profit foundation,
located in Hancock. Its
mission is to do research
and to educate and
demonstrate to the
community the ecological
technologies which
are appropriate for
our upper Contoocook
River Valley bioregion.
Charles
Daloz, who taught
Horticulture and Ecology
at Jaffrey’s
Conant High School
from 1986 to 2002,
will explain that,
in ecosystems, materials
cycle and energy flows;
change is constant
and interactive; and
diversity enhances
overall stability. The
Daloz Mill and Farm’s
BioCultural Center
uses the nutrient
cycles of organic
agriculture, the energy
flow of their hydro-power
steam and mill, and
the changes that time
has wrought over its
200-year-old history
to put these ecological
principles into daily
practice.
Daloz
operates an 80 member
Community Supported
Agriculture (CSA)
project as part of
a resurgent agriculture
within the region,
and is working to
build a sustainable
agriculture system
which has enhanced
biodiversity, low
fossil fuel import, and
high carbon sequestration
in the soils, both
living and humic.
A “Friends
of the Mill” group
is working to repair,
maintain and operate
Hancock’s historic,
water-powered box
and barrel mill, to
develop markets for
its wood products,
and to demonstrate
Yankee ingenuity by
using local
resources to enliven
the community.
Charles
Daloz graduated in
1969 from Amherst
College, with a BA
in biology and anthropology. He
served as Coconut
Rehabilitation Extension
Officer with the U.S.
Peace Corps in the
Marshall Islands of
Micronesia from
1969 to 1972, and
afterward traveled
extensively throughout
South Asia. During
the 1980’s,
Daloz received an
MS and PhD in Vegetable
Crops and International
Agriculture from Cornell
University. He then
served as
Agricultural Development
Officer in a USAID
Provincial Development
Project in Aceh, Indonesia,
where he worked to
improve the agricultural
extension service,
legume crop and home
garden systems, along
with the seed production
capacity for the Province. Upon
his return to America,
he raised his family
in Hancock, N.H. Upon
his retirement from
teaching at Conant
High School, Daloz
established the BioCultral
Center at his home
in Hancock. He is
also Market Master
of the Hancock Farmers’ Market,
founding member of the
Peterborough Farmers’ Market,
and a member of many
local agricultural and
preservation groups
Moderator:
Helen Coll
August
15, 2008
Robert Barry
Averting
Nuclear Anarchy
Since
the end of the Cold
War, many have become
complacent about the
risks posed by nuclear
weapons. But
the dangers are growing. The
world’s major
nuclear-weapon states
have continued to
rely upon nuclear
terror in their own
security policies
and have failed to
work together to strengthen
the nuclear Nonproliferation
Treaty (NPT), and
to address the regional
rivalries which fuel
nuclear competition.
Robert
Barry returns as a Speaker
to the Amos Fortune
Forum, and will explain
why it is urgently
important for U.S.
leaders to be pursuing
a bolder, more comprehensive
approach toward reducing
the risk of nuclear
anarchy. The current
U.S. policy of isolating “unfriendly” states
to try to prevent
proliferation while
permitting “friendly” states
to possess and improve
their nuclear arsenals
is not working.
In 2009,
Washington and Moscow
will observe the 200th
anniversary of the
arrival of the first
U.S. envoy to Russia,
John Quincy Adams. By
renewing
U.S. and Russian
cooperation on nuclear
issues, the incoming
presidents of the
United States and
Russia can avoid a
second Cold War, and
strengthen global
efforts to avoid a
new wave of nuclear
weapons proliferation.
Barry
is former U.S. Ambassador
to Indonesia, and
to Bulgaria. In
1998, he was appointed
Head of the OSCE Mission
to Boznia and Herzegovina.
During his time there,
he was responsible
for the administration
and implementation
of three sets of elections,
as well as the implementation
of election results. The
OSCE Mission also
carried out major
programmes in the
field of governance,
rule of law, human
rights, media and
military stabilization.
Ambassador
Barry was the Deputy
Director of the Voice
of America, the global
U.S. broadcasting
service. He
was also Ambassador
to the Stockholm Conference
on Disarmament in
Europe from 1985 to
1987. During his career,
Foreign Service work
took him to the Soviet
Union, Yugoslavia
and Germany. Mr.
Barry also served at
the U.S. Mission to
the United Nations.
He received the Distinguished
Honor Awards of both
the Department of State
and the U.S. Information
Agency. He received
the Presidential Meritorious
Service Award four times,
and was awarded the
Grand Cross of the Order
of Merit by the Federal
Republic of Germany
for his leadership at
the Stockholm Disarmament
Conference. Ambassador
Barry is a director
of the British American
Security Information
Council. He graduated
from Dartmouth College,
and received his MA
from Columbia University.
He and his wife Peggy
have spent their summers
in Rindge, N.H., for
many years.
Moderator:
Nan Quick
August
22, 2008
Craig
Brandon
Monadnock: More
Than a Mountain
Craig
Brandon, author of
the local bestselling
book Monadnock:
More Than A
Mountain, will
share the results
of his ten years
of research on the
most-hiked mountain
in North America. He
will talk about the
unique aspects of
the mountain, the
poets who wrote about
it, the painters who
painted it, and the
musicians and dancers
who celebrated it. He’ll
also spend some time
talking about the
successful efforts
to save the mountain
from developers, which
have been ongoing
since the 1880s. Without
these efforts, Monadnock
would be covered with
summer homes, paved
with a summit road,
and defaced with a
radio antenna. We
look at Mount Monadnock
every day. Craig
Brandon will tell
us what it’s
really all about.
Brandon
is the author of five
books of popular history,
including The
Electric Chair: An
Unnatural American
History, and Murder
in the Adirondacks: An
American Tragedy
Revisited. He
spent twenty years
as a reporter, columnist
and editor in upstate
New York before
accepting a position
as Director of Communications
for the Rockefeller
Institute in Albany,
N.Y., during the
administration of
Gov. Mario Cuomo. He
then relocated to
New Hampshire, and
from 1995 to 2007,
he advised the student
newspaper, and taught
classes in reporting,
news writing and editing
at Keene State College. He
is the editor and
publisher of Surry
Cottage Books, a niche
publishing company
that produces books
about the Monadnock
region. In 2008
he is republishing
Elizabeth Weston Timlow’s The
Heart of Monadnock, the
story of a woman’s
spiritual transformation
on the mountain, and
will also be releasing Monadnock
Odysseys, by
Richard Jenkins.
Brandon’s
writing has won national,
state and local awards,
which include First
Prize from the National
Education Writers competition
of 1980, and the Golden
Apple award from the
New York State United
Teachers. His work has
also been recognized
by the Charles Stewart
Mott Foundation, the
Associated Press, the
National School Boards
Association, the Gannett
Foundation and Hearst
newspapers.
Brandon and
his wife, Jean Winter,
live in Surry, N.H.
Moderator:
Charles Royce
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