Humanities Montana launchers Gather Round program at Chico

From Humanities Montana

Internationally renowned authors Debra Magpie Earling, Chigozie Obioma and Carl Safina will headline an evening at Chico Hot Springs Saturday, April 20, with a discussion about community and place.

The evening serves as a launch event for Humanities Montana’s new program, Gather Round. Anyone who wishes to host a do-it-yourself humanities conversation can order the Gather Round toolkit full of materials that help start conversations centered on the themes raised in “Hearth: A Global Conversation on Community, Identity and Place,” an anthology edited by Missoula authors Annick Smith and Susan O’Connor.

“A hearth is many things: a place for solitude; a source of identity; something we make and share with others; a history of ourselves and our homes. It is the fixed center we return to. It is just as intrinsically portable. It is, in short, the perfect metaphor for what we seek in these complex and contradictory times — set in flux by climate change, mass immigration, the refugee crisis, and the dislocating effects of technology.”

  Earling is the director of the University of Montana’s creative writing program and a Bitterroot-Salish tribal member. Her novel, “Perma Red,” won Spur, American Book and WILLA awards, among other honors, and is being made into a television series. “Perma Red” recently was voted the state’s favorite book by participants in the Great Montana Read.

  Nigerian writer Obioma’s novel, “The Fisherman,” was a finalist for the Man Booker Prize. The New York Times called him “the heir to Chinua Achebe,” and he was named one of 100 Global Thinkers by Foreign Policy magazine in 2015. He is a professor of English and creative writing at the University of Nebraska.

Conservationist Carl Safina holds the endowed chair for nature and humanity at Stony Brook University. His work has been honored with many awards and fellowships, including from the MacArthur, Pew, Lannan and Guggenheim foundations. He was the host of the 10-part PBS series, “Saving the Ocean with Carl Safina.”

The event will begin with a social gathering at Chico’s convention center at 5 p.m. Following the featured authors’ presentation, participants will break into smaller groups for dinner, and to discuss the themes raised using the Gather Round toolkit designed by Humanities Montana.

  The evening’s program also will include a short reading by two Livingston public school students. These will be chosen from among participants in a poetry workshop, in which local poets — over the course of several days — will be paired with students to work on their ideas about the role of community and place in their lives.

  Tickets are $50 and include dinner with a cash bar. Tickets may be purchased at Elk River Books, 120 N. Main St. in Livingston, or at http://www.elkriverbooks.com/hearth/.

  The event is co-hosted by Humanities Montana and Elk River Arts & Lectures, with support from Milkweed Editions and the Park County Environmental Council.

  Learn more about Gather Round and order a toolkit at http://www.humanitiesmontana.org/gatherround. Toolkits will be available starting April 20.

Humanities Montana is the state’s independent, non-profit state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Since 1972, Humanities Montana has provided services and grants to hundreds of Montana organizations in support of public programs in history, literature, civil conversations and public issues. Among its many programs are its grants, Montana Conversations, Speakers in the Schools, Hometown Humanities, Community Conversations, Letters About Literature and the Governor’s Humanities Awards.