Literature & Public Life: Creating the Great Community

FAIN: GW-254113-17

Maine Humanities Council (Portland, ME 04102-1012)
Elizabeth Sinclair (Project Director: August 2016 to October 2025)

Implementation of a three-year reading and discussion series with professionals in the workplace and then with the general public on issues related to end of life, domestic violence, and education.

Literature & Public Life: Creating the Great Community will provide Mainers opportunities to engage in text-based discussion on topics that profoundly shape Maine communities. This three-year initiative begins by engaging professionals from three crucial areas impacting the public sphere: healthcare/hospice, domestic violence, and education. Programming will support a complex variety of outcomes, including appreciation of different perspectives, deepened empathy, and renewed commitment to calling, as well as clearer understanding and appreciation of the effectiveness of the humanities-based approach. This programming will serve as the foundation for planning and implementing Stage Two: community-wide humanities programs focused on subjects and themes of wide public concern. Stage One scholars, partners, and participants will work with MHC staff to identify topics and themes, as well as to select appropriate program formats to include as many Mainers as possible in the discussions.