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A MacArthur-Prize-winning sociologist, Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot is the Emily Hargroves Fisher Professor of Education at Harvard University, where she has been on the faculty since 1972. Upon her retirement, the Chair will be named after Lawrence-Lightfoot, making her the first African American woman in Harvard’s history to have an endowed professorship named in her honor. She has written nine books; her most recent is The Third Chapter: Passion Risk and Adventure in the 25 Years After 50 (2009). She is the recipient of many prestigious awards and honors. Lawrence-Lightfoot spends as much time as she can at her home on Gilmore Pond in Jaffrey, where swimming across the pond is one of the big thrills of her Third Chapter..
In 1906 Thayer hired young Richard Meryman (our speaker’s father) to copy those “God given passages” before they were spoiled by compulsive repainting. Meryman later became the director of the Corcoran Gallery art school in Washington, DC and a go-to portrait painter of dignitaries. In 1935, his realism made obsolete by modern art, he moved permanently to Dublin. Other artists in the group that arrived in Dublin within a few years of the turn of the century included: Joseph Lindon Smith, painter of Egyptian carvings; George de Forest Brush, known for his Indian paintings and modern Madonnas; and Alexander James, son of the philosopher William James and painter of commissioned portraits and colorful New Hampshire characters. A second generation of Dublin artists included Thomas Blagden, Gouri Ivanov-Rinov, and Beatrix Sagendorf. Richard Meryman, Jr. basically grew up in Dublin. In 1949 he joined the staff of Life Magazine. He was a reporter, editor and writer who specialized in written portraiture, including interviews with such iconic celebrities as Marilyn Monroe, Charlie Chaplin, Mae West and Louis Armstrong. He later became a freelance writer. His books include a 1996 biography of Andrew Wyeth and a 1978 biography of Herman Mankiewicz, who co-wrote the film Citizen Kane..
July
23, 2010
Ted is the Beatrice and Julio Mario Santo Domingo Director and Librarian of the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University. From 1997 to 2001 he worked in the Clinton White House as a foreign policy speechwriter. He is the author of Ark of the Liberties: America and the World, and the editor of the Library of America’s two-volume set, American Speeches, and is a frequent contributor to the New York Times, the Washington Post, and other publications. He received his A.B. and Ph.D. from Harvard University. Ted brings to the Forum his fond memories of spending summers in Jaffrey Center in the 1970s with his grandparents, Ed and Caroline Read.
July 30, 2010
Emily will talk about the current landscape in educational thought and then focus on ways in which Dewey’s vision of an education for a democratic society is being seen today. Emily Jones is the Director of the Putney School in Vermont, which was founded by a student of Dewey. She started her career in an anti-apartheid model school in Botswana, and subsequently worked in schools in Connecticut, Thailand, and Oregon. She is particularly interested in how new understandings about the brain influence our teaching, and how the division of academic knowledge into discrete disciplines influences our interpretation of the world. She is on the board of the Independent Curriculum Group, an organization of schools working on non-test driven curriculum, and has published recently in Education Week and Independent School Magazine. Emily’s parents are long time residents of Dublin.
August
6, 2010
Ben is the author of five books, including Taylor’s Guide to Heirloom Vegetables and Cider, Hard and Sweet. For more than 25 years he has worked as an editor -- for Yankee Publishing, Storey Communications, and (for the past 17 years) as Senior Editor for Chelsea Green Publishing, specializing in food and sustainable agriculture. In 2000 he joined the Slow Food movement, and a year later co-founded the Slow Food Monadnock Region chapter. Currently he serves as Chairman of Slow Food USA’s Biodiversity Committee and as a Director of the Slow Food Foundation for Biodiversity, based in Italy. He is also a consultant for the RAFT (Renewing America’s Food Traditions) Alliance, promoting American apple diversity and culture. In 2007 he established Monadnock Heritage Nursery, a nonprofit project dedicated to preserving regional and heirloom varieties of apples and other tree fruits. Ben lives in Francestown, NH.
August
13, 2010
Barry is a veteran of the communications industry. He started with the British Post Office in 1961, and in the early '70s he pioneered the use of micro computers to program the replacement of long distance trunk networks. He managed British Telecommunications Microwave Radio Division and built 1st and 2nd generation mobile phone networks in the United Kingdom in the late '80s and early '90s. Following a move to America in 1996 he became Chief Technical Officer for Nextel Communications Inc and was the principal architect of the company’s Push to Talk network. As CTO and President of Sprint Nextel’s 4G Business Unit he oversaw the development of the ecosystem for the Wimax 4th Generation Mobile Broadband system. Today Barry is a consultant providing strategic advice to mobile broadband operators and is often referred to as Mr. Wimax. Barry and Julie have a farm in Temple.
August
20, 2010 
Birds are the wild animals we see every day, yet too often we take them for granted. In this talk – including illustrations of striking images – you will meet some of the birds that rekindle our awe. Author Sy Montgomery tells of her encounter with the most dangerous bird on Earth: the 150-pound, 5 foot- tall Southern Cassowary, who occasionally eviscerates people with its dagger-like killing claw – proof that birds are living dinosaurs. She shares the story of her work with a bird rehabilitator, rescuing jewel-like orphaned baby hummingbirds, to show us that birds are made of air. Birds’ bones are hollow, their bodies full of air sacs, and their feathers – which outweigh their skeleton – are little more than air wrapped in light. Yet, birds’ very fragility gives them the power to conquer the skies. To research her books, films and articles, Sy has gone swimming with electric eels and pink dolphins in the Amazon, hiked the Altai Mountains of Mongolia’s Great Gobi in search of snow leopards, been hunted by a swimming tiger in India, worked in a pit crawling with 18,000 snakes in Manitoba and handled a wild tarantula in French Guiana. Birdology, the title of the latest of Sy Montgomery’s 15 books for adults and children, was hailed by the American Library Association’s Booklist as “radiant, evocative, enlightening and uplifting”. The evocative subtitle of her current book is: “Adventures with a Pack of Hens, a Peck of Pigeons, Cantankerous Crows, Fierce Falcons, Hip Hop Parrots, Baby Hummingbirds, and One Murderously Big Living Dinosaur”. Sy lives in Hancock with her husband, writer Howard Mansfield, a border collie named Sally and, as of press time – although she notes you cannot predict the future with foxes around – with six |
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Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot believes that we must develop a compelling vision of later life, one that does not assume a trajectory of decline after fifty but recognizes this as a time of potential change, growth, and new learning; a time when our courage gives us hope. Examining
this dynamic new cultural shift, Lawrence-Lightfoot spent two years traveling the United States, interviewing, observing, and witnessing men and women in their fifties, sixties, and seventies who have changed their lives, and in doing so, are redefining our views (and their own) on aging. In her lecture, she will tell the poignant and powerful tales of their transformation;
tales of risk and vulnerability, failure and resilience, challenge and mastery, wisdom and altruism; stories of “looking back and giving forward”; proving that the years between fifty and seventy-five (and beyond) may in fact be the most transformative
and generative time of our lives.
The creation of the distinguished art colony beside Mount Monadnock early in the Gilded Age began an intriguing chapter in American art that continues to this day. Richard Meryman will share fascinating anecdotes surrounding the Dublin
Art Colony and its central artists and include accompanying lore and pictures. Many know that the Colony’s nucleus was Abbott Thayer, a major American painter who settled near Dublin late in 1888. He was an inspirational magnet and a thicket of peculiarities. He was also a bipolar hypochondriac and an Emersonian Transcendentalist
who believed his painting was dictation from a God who also pervaded nature. This led to a theory of concealing coloration of animals and birds, which was eventually implemented
in military camouflage.
The Middle East continues to be a source of vexation for American presidents, but this is hardly a modern phenomenon. Historian Ted Widmer will take us back to the 18th century – the Amos Fortune era – and will explore the myriad ways in which the early United States was connected to Islam, Judaism and the Holy Land itself. To a surprising degree, the new nation that sprang into existence in 1776 had global ambitions from the start. And predictably, American ideals often failed to take root in the inhospitable terrain of the Middle East. Many of the words we hear bandied about today – terrorism, freedom, human rights – can be found in the literature of these early debates about who Americans were, and how far their influence extended.
The American educational system is bursting with new research and ideas - from charter schools, to Teach for America, to curriculum imported from overseas. The field is as wide open as it has been since John Dewey’s time. Dewey’s work changed the landscape of American education in the 1920’s and 30’s, and influenced that of China and Europe as well. Primarily a political philosopher, he argued that the most vital purpose of education is to create educated citizens for a democratic society. Dozens of progressive schools and colleges were founded based on his work, and many of his then radical ideas are considered mainstream now. However, since the 1950’s the nation’s worry about falling behind in math and science, a data-driven approach to assessment, and a succession of new fads and paradigms in educational theory have both muddled and challenged Dewey’s vision. Now technology, mind/brain research, globalization and environmental challenges all require new thinking about what and how students should learn.
The increasing demand for food that is grown locally and sustainably offers significant opportunities and challenges for farmers and consumers alike. But how do we define “local” food, and how far do we really want to take this idea? Is it possible, or even desirable, for more of us to start growing a part of our own food? In a society that has encouraged us to expect all foods to be available all the time, how can we go “back to the future” and find greater meaning and satisfaction – beyond simply calories – in the food we eat? In short, how do we put the “culture” back in agriculture? Addressing such questions is essential if we are to reframe our perceptions of food and farming and achieve a greater balance – on both a personal and national level – in an era of both economic and climatic uncertainty.
Barry West’s talk will cover developments in communications and their impact on society. The main theme is based on the recording and presentation of information from early writing to today’s social media such as Youtube and Facebook. The talk will include his predictions for the future of communications and the potential for social disruption.