Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Three Programs First Week in March


March comes in as a lion at Brooks Memorial Library with three programs in the first week:

Wednesday, March 5, 7 PM

Remembering angelica: The Life and Times of an 18th-Century Artist



Dartmouth College Professor and author Angela Rosenthal will consider the life of 18th-century artist angelica Kauffman in a talk at Brooks Memorial Library in Brattleboro on March 5. The talk, “Remembering angelica: The Life and Times of an 18th-Century Artist,” is part of the Vermont Humanities Council’s First Wednesdays lecture series and takes place at 7:00 p.m.

Distinguished painter angelica Kauffman (1741-1807) was praised for her sensitive portraits of Enlightenment luminaries. Kauffman was exceptional for her time, yet largely forgotten today. This richly illustrated talk will explore the 18th-century art world through her extraordinary career.

Associate Professor of Art History at Dartmouth College, Angela Rosenthal has published widely on 18th- and 19th-century European art and theory. She studied art history, psychology and social anthropology at Trier University, Germany and in the UK (The Courtauld Institute of Art, University College London, and Westfield College). Her most recent book is angelica Kauffman: Art and Sensibility.

Friday, March 7, 7 PM

Confessions of an Accidental Blogger:

Social Networking in the Vermont Blogosphere


Brooks Memorial Library presents Vermont blogger, Philip Baruth, on Friday, March 7, at 7 PM.

Baruth is a novelist, and a regular commentator for Vermont Public Radio. His commentary series, "Notes from the New Vermont," has focused since 1998 on both the national and the local, the deeply political and the undeniably absurd.

In addition to Vermont Associated Press awards for commentary on Howard Dean and the aftermath of 9/11, Philip won a national Public Radio News Directors Award for "Lonesome Jim Does Totally Gnarly," a spoof of Jeffords's split with the GOP.

Philip's most recent novel, The X President, took this penchant for satire to new lengths: the book follows the desperate attempts of a 109-year-old Bill Clinton to re-write his historical legacy. (Click here for more information.) The New York Times selected The X President as a Notable Book of 2003; the Washington Post described Philip and a small handful of others as "the newer new generation" of up-and-coming writers.

Philip lives in Burlington, Vermont, and has taught at the University of Vermont since 1993. Before that time, he earned a B.A. at Brown University, and his Ph.D at the University of California, Irvine. In addition to fiction, he publishes non-fiction essays, and scholarship on eighteenth-century British literature. At the moment, he is at work on a novel about James Boswell, John Boswell, Samuel Johnson, madness and chastity. The book is tentatively titled The Brothers Boswell.

The Vermont Daily Briefing has been in operation since September, 2005. It was voted "Best Vermont Blog" in 2006 by the readers of Seven Days,the state's largest alternative weekly, and "Best Vermont Blog (Political)" again in 2007.



Sunday, March 9, 2PM

Dartmouth Professor Relates Struggles and Triumphs of African American Couple

in Pre-Civil War New England at Brooks Memorial Library


Author Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina in her rescheduled talk, will tell the story of Lucy Terry and Abijah Prince, an accomplished African American couple in pre-Civil War New England, in a talk at Brooks Memorial Library in Brattleboro on Sunday, March 9, at 2:00 PM. “Mr and Mrs. Prince” was originally scheduled for February 6 as part of the Vermont Humanities Council’s First Wednesdays lecture series but was postponed due to poor weather.

Pursuing what would become the cornerstone of the American Dream, Lucy Terry and Abijah Prince stood their ground in the face of bigoted neighbors. Dr. Gerzina will tell their story and explain how their lives contained the paradoxes of slavery in our region.

Dr. Gerzina is Chair of the English Department at Dartmouth College. She hosts a nationally syndicated radio program, The Book Show, and is the author of Mr. and Mrs. Prince: How an Extraordinary 18th-Century Family Moved out of Slavery and into Legend. She has appeared frequently as a radio guest in both England and America, as well as in several British television documentaries.


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