March 2010 Programs

SALON - Series: So, What's the Story?

Friday, 3/5, 5-7pm

Part Ten: Ronald Florence on his new book Emissary of the Doomed: Bargaining for Lives in the Holocaust.

When Nazi troops invaded Hungary in March 1944, tales of Auschwitz and other “resettlement camps” could no longer be dismissed as rumor. Hungary contained the largest intact Jewish population in Europe, 850,000 members, and they now faced annihilation.  When Nazi leaders offered to bargain those lives for money and materiel, Joel Brand and the Jewish rescue committee in Budapest set out to persuade the reluctant Allies to come to their aid. Emissary of the Doomed details this tragic story, against the backdrop of the Normandy invasion, the Soviet advance across Eastern Europe, and the American advances up the Italian peninsula. Join Florence to learn more about his research into this history. Books available for sale and signing thanks to Borders!

For Athenaeum members and their guests.

(Sponsor: Antiques & Interiors, antiquesandinteriors.biz)

The Legendary Pub Quiz!

Friday, 3/12, 7:30pm

Call 421-6970 to reserve a spot. $5 for Athenaeum members; $10 for non-members.

SALON - Series: So, What's the Story?

Friday, 13/12, 5-7pm

Part Eleven: Manton Avenue Project (MAP) Founder and Artistic Director Jenny Peek and The Hive Archive Executive Director Alyssa Holland Short on collaborating for MAP’s “YOU’RE NOT THE BOSS OF ME! the empowerment plays,” on stage 3/26-28.

MAP teams up children living in Olneyville with adult theater artists, and together they create original theater; the vast majority of MAP’s plays are written by kids and acted and directed by adults. The Hive is women-run feminist arts organization with a mission to promote gender equality and a focus on empowerment through art, creative expression, and civic involvement. A bit of collaborative brainstorming last year  led to this month’s homage to Women’s History Month, “YOU’RE NOT THE BOSS OF ME! the empowerment plays.“ Reps from The Hive will visit MAP’s playmaking classroom of young playwrights (all of them first-time playwrights, all in third grade, half of them boys) to talk about women’s issues and the feminist movement;  the kids will then each write a short play all about Girl Power. Join Peek and Short for a conversation about collaboration, art, and empowerment.

For info on MAP and the 3/26-28 performances: mantonavenueproject.org; for info on The Hive Archive: hivearchive.org

Free and open to the public!

(Sponsor: The Curatorium, thecuratorium.com)

SALON - Series: So, What's the Story?

Friday, 3/19, 5-7pm

Part Twelve: WRNI’s political team, Scott MacKay and Ian Donnis, on the switch from print to radio journalism, and the changing media landscape.

MacKay reported on politics for the Providence Journal for many years; Donnis was the news editor of the Providence Phoenix for a decade. They now make up the political reporting and analysis team at WRNI Public Radio. Join them for a conversation about how the medium affects the way a story is reported, today’s ever-changing media landscape, and to hear some of the best yarns ever about RI politics. Strictly off the record, of course!

For Athenaeum members and their guests.

(Sponsor: Antiques & Interiors, antiquesandinteriors.biz)

Write Your Micro-Memoir, Part I

Thursday, 3/25, 5:30-7:30pm

Co-presented with Not About The Buildings

Join us for the first of two fast, fun, participatory “Write Your Micro-Memoir” sessions this spring, during which attendees will write and read aloud extremely short (200-word) personal memoirs based on a question to be posed by our workshop facilitator, the noted short-short prose pioneer Karen Donovan, as each session begins. Participants will experience both the rigors and elation of writing short-short prose, and the reading aloud segment will be buoyed by the energy of surprise and speed. The more diverse the writing is, the more exciting the readings will be, so bring your parents, your children, and your friends, old and young. The intergenerational diversity and interaction will give participants new perspectives on the different way humans view the world around them at different points in their lives. Second workshop will be held on Fri, 5/7. Participants can attend one or both workshops. Both are made possible in part by a grant from the RI State Council on the Arts, through an appropriation by the RI General Assembly and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Free and open to the public!

(Sponsor: Antiques & Interiors, antiquesandinteriors.biz)

Poet Penelope Scambly Schott on Anne Huchinson and the Imagined Autobiography of a Modern Mystic

Friday, 3/26, 5-7pm

Anne Marbury Hutchinson is one of the most important people who ever lived in RI. Born in England when Shakespeare was writing his plays and Good Queen Bess was on the throne of England, Anne was an intensely modern woman. She had a good mind and she insisted on using it--which eventually led the (male) civil and religious authorities to throw her out of Boston.  And where Anne Hutchinson take refuge? Here in our state. Tonight you have a chance to meet her. Prize-winning poet Penelope Scambly Schott presents a brief historical introduction and a reading in Anne’s imagined voice. Another Athenaeum homage to Women’s History Month!

For Athenaeum members and their guests.

(Sponsor:  Dr. Jodi L. Glass,  Hearing Health, glassaudiology.com)

Free Speech or For Sale? The Supreme Court Decision on Campaign Finance Law

Wednesday, 3/31, 5:30pm reception, 6pm program

Co-presented with Common Cause RI.

In January of 2010 the US Supreme Court overturned decades of judicial precedent and over a century of campaign finance law in the case Citizens United v. FEC.  Join us for a lively discussion of the decision and its implications for campaign finance in both the USA and RI.  Speakers include John Marion, Executive Director, Common Cause RI; Angel Taveres, leading RI election law expert; Diana Hassel, Associate Professor and constitutional law expert at Roger Williams University School of Law; and Robert Flanders, former justice, RI Supreme Court.

Free and open to the public!