FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PRESS CONTACT: Beckie Hunter            
tel: 617 669 4387
email: info@theatreatfirst.org
www.theatreatfirst.org

 View the Trailer Here!

THEATRE@FIRST REVIVES THE MARGARET GHOST
Witty, romantic play celebrates Margaret Fuller Bicentennial

Theatre@First presents a one-weekend revival of the successful 2006 production of local playwright Carole Braverman’s The Margaret Ghost, in honor of the 200th anniversary of main character Margaret Fuller’s birth.  Performances June 17-20, 2010 in the beautiful new theatre at The First Church in Belmont, 404 Concord Ave., Belmont, MA.  Tickets are available through www.theatreafirst.org.

On June 19th at 6:30pm the public is invited to a special Gala Performance.  A wine reception will be followed by a conversation with playwright Carole Braverman and director Elizabeth Hunter in the tradition of Margaret Fuller’s Conversations for the Women of Boston.  The performance starts at 8pm and both of these talented women will be available during intermissions to answer questions.  After the show, the audience will have the opportunity to meet the actors portraying Fuller and her contemporaries, including Ralph Waldo Emerson and Nathaniel Hawthorne.

The Margaret Ghost is a witty, engaging look at the struggles of a woman too intelligent to fit into the narrow role of a nineteenth-century woman, and too passionate to settle for less than the full human experience.  From the parlors of Cambridge to the streets of Rome, The Margaret Ghost follows Fuller as she searches for truth, beauty and love amid the tides of history.

Carole Braverman’s plays have been produced in New York, London, Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and various other venues. The Yiddish Trojan Woman won London Weekend Television’s “Plays on Stage” award and has been published by Dramatists Play Service, and in anthology. The Margaret Ghost was originally produced by the Berkeley Repertory Theater, where Braverman was Playwright in Residence from 1983–85. In addition to writing plays, Braverman taught English at Phillips Academy in Andover for 27 years.

Theatre@First is Somerville’s largest community theatre and has filled a vital role in the vibrant Davis Square arts community since its founding in 2003.  For more information about Theatre@First visit www.theatreatfirst.org. 

The Margaret Ghost is just one of a year-long series of events celebrating the Margaret Fuller Bicentennial.  For a full listing of events visit www.margaretfuller.org.

The Boston Public Library proudly presented Margaret Fuller: In Her Own Words, an exhibition celebrating Fuller’s extraordinary life, work, and legacy on the bicentennial of her birth.

This free exhibit was on display through June 30, 2010. Boston Public Library, 700 Boylston St., Copley Square, Boston. Rare Books Lobby/Koussevitzky Room, McKim Building, 3rd Floor.  617-536-5400. 

Margaret Fuller (1810-1850) was a woman of many “firsts”: she was a groundbreaking educator, critic, author, journalist, social reformer, and champion of women’s rights. Margaret Fuller: In Her Own Words spans the dates 1834-1846 and highlights her literary career, with an emphasis on her contribution to the development of a national identity in American literature. Beginning with her early book reviews, the exhibit follows Fuller’s career as first woman editor of the Transcendentalist magazine the Dial, then as the first female editor at the New-York Tribune where she wrote many important critical literary reviews. In addition, the exhibition provides an insider’s glimpse into her relationships with Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and other leading 19th-century authors.

Presented in conjunction with materials from the Margaret Fuller Bicentennial Committee, the Boston Women’s Commission, and the Boston Women’s Heritage Trail, this exhibition features extraordinary manuscript letters, rare books, photographs, and illustrations from the BPL’s Rare Books, Prints, and Government Documents departments.

Gallery talk with curator Kim Reynolds and Bicentennial Committee Members
Wednesday, April 21, 2010, 11:00 am, Rare Books Lobby. 

Learn more: http://www.margaretfuller.org/  and http://www.bpl.org/

12 ARROW STREET, CAMBRIDGE, MA 02138

www.pieremenardgallery.com

pierre@pierremenardgallery.com

617.868.2033

 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: APRIL 6, 2010  

Woman in the 21st Century: Margaret Fuller and the Sacred Marriage

 The Pierre Menard Gallery 

May 23^rd –June 20^th, 2010 

Opening Reception: Sunday, May 23^rd, 2010, 6:00pm    

Pierre Menard Gallery is pleased to announce Woman in the 21^st Century: Margaret Fuller and the Sacred Marriage, a groundbreaking multimedia group exhibition held in conjunction with the Margaret Fuller Bicentennial. 

The exhibition runs from May 23^rd – June 20^th with a reception and celebration of Fuller’s 200^th birthday on Sunday, May 23, at 6:00 pm, including a Mask Tale Performance by Suzanne Benton.  

What does the female prototype of the 21^st century look like?  What are her characteristics?  How will we recognize her presence in our lives?  

Woman in the 21^st Century: Margaret Fuller and the Sacred Marriage seeks to answer these questions as it explores the coding and iconography surrounding the re-emergence of the “sacred marriage” (hieros gamos) archetype foreseen by Margaret Fuller in Woman in the Nineteenth Century.  “This exhibition is a culmination of a decade spent chronicling a new movement,” says curator Lisa Paul Streitfeld, a former newspaper critic.  “I want to share with the public my surprise and delight of Margaret Fuller’s genius in placing the “sacred marriage” archetype into the American canon.  She broke through the barriers of time in order to make an empowering mythology real for women.” 

Fuller’s trademarked "Conversations" will be revived in the gallery as a method of chronicling the historicity and living presence of this 21^st century icon: 

                June 05, 4pm; Kate Millett The Sacred Marriage in the American Canon 

                June 11, 7pm; Jessica Lipnack: The Sacred Marriage in the 1960s

                June 12, 4pm; Elinor W. Gadon The Sacred Marriage in Antiquity

                June 19, 4pm; Aldo Tambellini: The Sacred Marriage in the 21^st Century 

There will be a Collaborative Performance Painting at the closing reception on June 20, from 2 – 5 pm. 

The exhibition will include 32 artists covering a full range of media: Carl Apfelschnitt, Josef Astor, Vincent Baldassano, Suzanne Benton, Dianne Bowen, Dove Bradshaw, Laurel Jay Carpenter, Walter M. Crump, Linda DiGusta, Rikki Ducornet, Harlan E. Gruber, Heide Hatry, Selma Karaca, Renee Kahn, Marni Kotak, Yuliya Lanina, Michael Manning, Kate Millett, Richard Move, Francine McGivern, Aaron Olshan, Tanya Ragir, Grace Roselli, Daniel Rothbart, Carolee Schneemann, Nancy Spero, Tatyana Stepanova, Aldo Tambellini, Marina Tsesarskaya, May Wilson, Martha Wilson and Mark Wiener. 

Pierre Menard Gallery                                                                                                                       10 Arrow Street, Cambridge, MA 02138                                                                                             617-868-2033                                                                                                                                          pierre@pierremenardgallery                                                                                                                www.pierremenardgallery.com

Gallery Director: Andrea Kalinowski          

In 2010-2011, the Margaret Fuller Bicentennial offered the Conversations Series, modeled after the "Conversations" that Margaret Fuller offered for women (and later men) in Boston in the late 1830s and early 1840s. Each focused on a different aspect of Fuller’s thinking and took place in a venue connected with her.

Time for conversation followed the presentations. The goal of the series was to engage people in thinking about how the issues that concerned this trailblazing woman relate to our lives today. The traveling display, “Why Margaret Fuller Matters,” was available for viewing at most of the Conversations.

These programs were supported in part by grants from Mass Humanities and the Fund for Unitarian Universalism.

Saturday, May 15, 2010, 2 PM. “Why Margaret Fuller Matters to Young Women Today” at Margaret Fuller Neighborhood House, where Fuller was born, with Laurie Crumpacker, Professor of History and Department Chair, Simmons College. Co-sponsored by Margaret Fuller Neighborhood House and the Cambridge Women’s Heritage Project.

Sunday, May 16, 2010, 2 PM. "Margaret Fuller in Groton: Shaping a Life, Framing a Mind" at First Parish Church, Unitarian Universalist, Groton, which is co-sponsoring the event. Panel discussion with Marcia Synnott, Professor of History, University of South Carolina; the Rev. Dr. Dorothy Emerson, co-chair, Margaret Fuller Bicentennial; and Fritz Fleischmann, Professor of English, Babson College.

Saturday, June 19, 2010, 6:30 PM. “Portraying Fuller and Friends on Stage” at The First Church in Belmont, Unitarian Universalist. Gala Reception and Conversation, preceding a performance of the play “The Margaret Ghost.” Conversation with playwright Carole Braverman, director Elizabeth Hunter, and Andrea Humez, who portrays Fuller in the play. $25 ticket includes the Gala, Conversation, and the play. Co-sponsored by Theatre@First.

Sunday, July 18, 2010, 1 PM. “A Celebration of the Life of Sarah Margaret Fuller Ossoli” at Mount Auburn Cemetery Bigelow Chapel. Reception, Memorial Service, and Wreath-Laying, with appearances by Jessa Piaia as Margaret Fuller, Wendell Refior as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Rob Velella as James Freeman Clarke, Dorothy Emerson as Elizabeth Peabody, Richard Smith as Henry David Thoreau, and Deborah Goss as Julia Ward Howe. Co-sponsored by Friends of Mount Auburn. July 19 is the anniversary of Fuller’s death.

Thursday, August 19, 7 PM.  “Margaret Fuller and Edgar Allan Poe: A Conversation” at the Old Manse, in Concord, with Jessa Piaia as Fuller and Rob Velella as Poe. Co-sponsored by the Old Manse. $5 admission.

Thursday, October 21, 2010, 7:30 PM. “Margaret Fuller in Italy” at First Parish Unitarian Universalist in Concord. Lecture and slideshow presented by the Rev. Jenny Rankin, based on her travels to Rome to research Margaret Fuller’s experiences in Italy and retrace her steps. Co-sponsored by First Parish and the Transcendentalist Council of First Parish.

Sunday, November 7, 2010, 3 PM. “The Radicalization of Margaret Fuller” at Arlington Street Church, Boston. “'Clouded by Secret Sin': Margaret Fuller and the Darker Side of Woman in the Nineteenth Century;” with John Matteson, Professor of English at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY, and Pulitzer Prize winning author of Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father; “Margaret Fuller and 1848: Forging a United Radical Tradition” with Daniel McKanan, Ralph Waldo Emerson Unitarian Universalist Association Senior Lecturer in Divinity at Harvard Divinity School and author of a forthcoming 200 year history of religion and radical politics in the United States, which includes Margaret Fuller’s friendship with Italian revolutionary Giuseppe Mazzini; Rev. Kim Crawford Harvie, Moderator. Co-sponsored by Arlington Street Church.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010, 12 Noon. “‘My own path leads a different course’: Margaret Fuller and her Boston Conversations” at the Boston Athenaeum, with Megan Marshall, Assistant Professor at Emerson College, and author of The Peabody Sisters: Three Women Who Ignited American Romanticism.
Co-sponsored by the Boston Athenaeum.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011, 6 PM. “What Margaret Fuller Did for Feminism” at Max & Dylan’s Restaurant, 13 West Street, Boston, former site of the Peabody Book Room where Fuller held her Conversations. Keynote speaker is Phyllis Cole, Professor at Penn State, Brandywine, and author of Mary Moody Emerson and the Origins of Transcendentalism. Opening remarks by Megan Marshall, Assistant Professor at Emerson College, with an appearance by Jessa Piaia portraying Margaret Fuller, a slide show by Lynn Hyde “Preservation of the Peabody Book Room,” and a review of the 18-month Bicentennial by Dorothy Emerson. Dinner tickets, $50.

www.margaretfuller.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press Contact: Carla A. Gomez
(978) 502-3113        
margaretfullerpr@gmail.com 

LOCAL HISTORIANS LEAD WALKING TOUR HIGHLIGHTING MARGARET FULLER’S LIFE IN BOSTON

“MARGARET FULLER’S FOOTSTEPS IN BOSTON”

Saturday May 1st from 10:00 – 11:30 A.M. rain or shine

Boston, MA, April 14, 2010 – On Saturday May 1st, join historian/authors, Bonnie Hurd Smith, and Mary Howland Smoyer, for a walking tour of the sites in downtown Boston where Margaret Fuller lived, worked and visited. The tour, “Margaret Fuller’s Footsteps in Boston,” will take place on Saturday May 1st from 10:00-11:30 A.M., rain or shine.  Participants should meet at the Boston Common Marker (at the Park Street station).  Tickets are $10/person payable the day of the tour.

As a girl, Margaret Fuller attended Dr. Park’s Lyceum for Young Ladies in Boston.  As a young woman, she taught classes at Bronson Alcott’s Temple School on Tremont Street, attended Rev. William Ellery Channing’s Federal Street Church, heard lectures and attended art exhibitions.  Fuller became the first editor of the Transcendentalist journal the Dial, at Ralph Waldo Emerson’s request.“

Boston is where Fuller really propelled herself onto the national stage,” says Bonnie Hurd Smith.  “When Emerson published her essay ‘The Great Lawsuit: Man vs. Men, and Woman vs. Women’ in the Dial after Fuller stepped down as editor, her bold insights into the status of women led to her landmark book Woman in the Nineteenth Century, a far-reaching audience, and a position of international influence as a correspondent for the New –York Tribune.”

Fuller published her own work in the Dial and Present, another Boston periodical, gaining a national reputation as a critic and commanding intellect.  She interacted with some of Boston’s brightest stars, including Julia Ward Howe and James Freeman Clarke. The philosophical, historical, and political “Conversations” Fuller held at Elizabeth Peabody’s bookstore on West Street attracted Lydia Maria Child, Ednah Dow Cheney, and Caroline Healey Dall, among many others.

The walking tour is part of a year-long series of events celebrating Fuller’s life and work.  For a complete list of the other programs in the series, please visit: www.margaretfuller.org.###