Implementation of a series of public discussions and an accompanying podcast and website that engage professional storytellers with humanities scholars to explore the history of African Americans in Appalachia.

Building on a successful record of providing innovative public programs and serving as a clearinghouse for storytelling and educational resources, the International Storytelling Center’s project will achieve a deeper public appreciation of the history and cultural heritage of African American communities in Appalachia. The project will bring together professional storytellers, humanities scholars, community experts, and audiences for a series of bridge-building, forward-looking planning sessions, public discussions and resource development initiatives. Products to be developed include a podcast series and multi-media toolkit prepared by humanities scholars, which will support the development of similar project featuring collaboration and dialogue between storytellers and scholars across the U.S. The Center will complete the project in partnership with the National Association of Black Storytellers, Heritage Alliance of Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia, and other organizations.

Implementation of a national discussion program centered around the film Free For All: Inside the Public Library.

The Free For All: Public Library Discussions Initiative, led by Video Veracity and Serendipity Films in partnership with the American Library Association, other library groups, and the Kitchen Sisters podcasters, will spark face-to-face public engagement around the humanities themes in the NEH-funded documentary Free For All, which explores the history, culture, and significance of the American public library and the free library movement that created it. Set to launch July 4th weekend, the program celebrates the upcoming 250th anniversary of our democracy and encourages civic education through scholar-led discussions and “Story Hours” in regional libraries across the nation, inviting the public to reflect on our national values of democracy, community, literacy, and plurality. Working closely with our partners, we will extend learning through in-person and digital experiences for discussion participants and through the creation of a robust multimedia Toolkit.

Implementation of an online archive, educational materials, and oral history exhibition that collects, interprets, and chronicles the contribution of Native American veterans to the United States.

The goal of the Warrior Spirit Project is broadly educate the American people about the dedication, contributions, and sacrifices made by Native Americans in military service to our country.

Public programs led by veterans and scholars based on classical Greek and American historical texts to address the meaning of democracy.

The Warrior Chorus: American Democracy – is a major national humanities program about the meaning of democracy by the men and women we asked to fight for it. It will present a public engagement series led by veterans and scholars based around classical Greek and American historical texts to address the meaning of democracy. American Democracy will train veterans and scholars in three regional centers to lead, staged readings, audience discussion, participatory workshops and public talks in 23 locations throughout America, connected with Aquila Theatre’s staging of Paul Woodruff’s translation of Sophocles’ Antigone. This will be coupled with a dynamic use of social media and a specially developed app. American Democracy uses classic texts to inspire people from all backgrounds to reflect on the connections between the works of the ancient Greeks and the issues they reflect in their own lives.

Implementation of ten public discussion events addressing the history and value of free speech in the United States.

Flashpoints: Free Speech in American History, Culture & Society will present the fascinating and complex history of free speech in American democracy to public audiences in cities across the country. The series will examine how free speech has evolved, illuminate past debates over who has the right to speak, and shed light on present debates about free speech in the context of protest, dissent, and the quest for social change. The historical flashpoints in this series highlight pivotal moments in which artists, activists, writers, filmmakers, and intellectuals tested the limits of free speech, challenging the public to redefine “freedom” and realize it anew for populations and causes that were at risk of having their liberties denied. Timed to mark both PEN America’s 100th anniversary in 2022 and the lead up to the U.S. semiquincentennial, the event series will run for two years from 2021-2023, and the digital resources will be available to educators and the public for years to come.

Implementation of a twenty-four-month initiative that would introduce Afrofuturism to residents of Maine through reading and discussion programs, speakers’ bureau events, and statewide community engagement events.

This 24-month initiative will provide text-based humanities experiences and other unique opportunities for Mainers to read, reflect, and connect with one another and envision a future that is more just, inclusive, and sustainable. The initiative focuses on Afrofuturism and will use a variety of Afrofuturist texts to ground and propel conversation. Program activities are designed to create connections, foster a deepened sense of individual and community agency, and inspire increased civic engagement. Themes within the initiative will include: (1) Racial justice, (2) Climate justice, (3) Food justice, (4) Religion and Spirituality, and (5) Democracy and its possibilities. Our collective pursuit of the enduring shared goals of life, liberty, happiness requires ongoing imaginative community work to build a more perfect union rooted in the ideal of human equality. Community discussion of Afrofuturist texts will provide the framework and a set of conceptual and narrative tools for this work.

Humanities discussions exploring the history of New York City’s Inwood neighborhood from the colonial era through the nineteenth century.

The proposed project, Dyckman Discussions: A More Perfect Union in Inwood, is a two year in-person discussion series that will begin by exploring topics in New York history, such as forced removal of indigenous people, Dutch colonization, enslaved labor, and immigration. These panel discussions will lay a foundation for a three-part series of community dialogues in the second year. The community dialogues will build on the humanities-focused discussions from the previous year, and tackle the histories that lay the groundwork for and are relevant to today’s social and political climate. By centering our discussions around New York City and Inwood, staff at the museum aim to inspire our neighborhood to see commonalities - a ‘more perfect union’ - between themselves and their neighbors, creating a more unified community.