CONVERSATION VIDEOS

Over the course of the Bicentennial celebration the Committee, in partnership with Mass Humanities, has hosted five Conversations thus far.  Hopefully many of you were able to attend a few of these interesting and entertaining events.  If you were not able to enjoy them in person, we hope you have enjoyed the descriptions and updates available on our web site, the Mass Humanities web site, or via newsletters, Facebook, and press releases.

Thanks to a recent grant from the Fund For Unitarian Universalism for documentation of the Bicentennial, we are very pleased to announce that we now have 19 video clips available for viewing on www.youtube.com.  The clips were shot at four of the Converstions including: seven clips of  "Why Margaret Fuller Matters," which took place at the Margaret Fuller Neighborhood House (her birthplace) on May 15, two clips from  "Margaret Fuller in Groton: Shaping a Life, Framing a Mind," which took place on Sunday May 16 at First Parish in Groton, five clips from the memorial service at Mt. Auburn cemetery on July 18, and finally, five clips from the Conversation between Margaret Fuller and Edgar Allen Poe at the Old Manse in Concord on August 19.   Relive your favorite parts of the program, or enjoy ones you missed, by visiting the official Bicentennial Committee channel on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/FullerBicentenniel. 

The Committee would like to thank cameraman William Reilly for his work filming the event at MFNH, camerawoman Donna Clifford for her work at First Parish in Groton, and camerawoman, and videographer, Josephine Sedgwick for her work filming at Mt. Auburn and the Old Manse, as well as for editing and posting the footage to the Committee's YouTube channel.  Footage taken of our upcoming events will be available on this channel in the future, so consider subscribing.

Good news; there is still more to come!

Save the dates for these upcoming Conversations:

Thursday, October 21, 2010, 7:30 PM, at First Parish In Concord, Unitarian Universalist.  “Margaret Fuller in Italy,” lecture and slides by the Rev. Jenny Rankin, who traveled 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, at Arlington Street Church, Boston. “Margaret Fuller’s Network: How Politics, Literature, and Art Crossed in the World Around Her,” with John Matteson, Pulitzer Prize winning author of Eden's Outcasts: The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father and Associate Professor of English at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY; Daniel McKanan, Ralph Waldo Emerson Unitarian Universalist Association Senior Lecturer in Divinity at Harvard Divinity School, and author of forthcoming book featuring Margaret Fuller’s friendship with Italian revolutionary Giuseppe Mazzini; with an introduction by the Rev. Dr. Dorothy Emerson, coordinator of the Margaret Fuller Bicentennial, and author/editor of Standing Before Us: Unitarian Universalist Women and Social Reform 1776-1936; and moderated by the Rev. Kim Crawford Harvie. Co-sponsored by Arlington Street Church.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010, 12 noon at the Boston Athenaeum. Program has changed. Check back for details. 

 We plan to film highlights of these events as well, so be sure to visit our YouTube channel if you are unable to attend. 

Edgar A. Poe and Margaret Fuller: A Conversation

August 19, 7 pm
 
The year is 1845 and Margaret Fuller (1810-1850), portrayed by Jessa Piaia, and Edgar A. Poe (1809-1849), portrayed by Rob Velella, are at the height of their literary careers. The pair exchange gossip, talk about Transcendentalism, and discuss their recently published works, "Woman in the 19th Century" and “The Raven,” at Concord’s Old Manse. Presented as a dramatic reading, the program is part of the Margaret Fuller Bicentennial Celebration "Conversations Series,” and is appropriate for audiences age 10-adult. Poe and Fuller will converse for about 35 minutes, with an informal Q&A and refreshments to follow. Admission is $5 per person.
 
The premier performance of this new dramatic piece will take place under the Manse tent overlooking the Concord River. Bring your own blanket or lawn chairs, or arrive early with your own picnic to enjoy on the lawn.  Light dessert will be served following the conversation, or visitors may choose to browse our air-conditioned bookstore and save 10 - 50% off during our storewide sale in honor of this event. 
 
Special Margaret Fuller Tours of the Manse will be offered on August 19 at 4, 5, 6 and 8 pm. Tour this 1770’s home while learning about Fuller’s visits with Nathaniel and Sophia Hawthorne while they lived at The Manse in the 1840’s.  Admission is $8.  Trustees of Reservations Members $4.  Reservations suggested. Call 978.369.3909.

Historic Background and Biography - Writer, intellect, and teacher, Margaret Fuller was the first editor of The Dial, the quarterly Newsletter of the Transcendentalists. After publishing Woman in the 19th Century and Summer on the Lakes in 1844, Horace Greeley hired her as editor and literary critic of his New York Daily Tribune. In 1846, Fuller embarked to Europe as the first female foreign correspondent of a daily newspaper. En route home four years later, she perished at sea in a shipwreck off Fire Island along with her husband Giovanni Ossoli and their son Angelo.  A cenotaph commemorating her accomplishments stands at Mount Auburn Cemetery. 

Jessa Piaia studied performance at London’s Oval House Theatre. Her Women in History Programs depict the accomplishments, struggles, and contributions of American women (http://www.womeninhistoryprograms.com). Since 1985 she performs at educational institutions, museums, libraries, and cultural organizations throughout New England.  Recipient of Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities grants, and from local arts lotteries, her many successes include "Meet Isabella Stewart Gardner: America’s First Patroness of the Arts," and "From Suffragist to Citizen: A Conversation with Susan B. Anthony & Eleanor Roosevelt."

 
Though known today mostly for his tales of the macabre and mystery, Edgar A. Poe was one of the most influential literary critics of his day. His editorial duties for The Southern Literary Messenger, Graham's Magazine, and the Broadway Journal brought him into contact with most of the literary figures of the period. Despite Poe’s popularity, he was never financially successful and died destitute and mysteriously in Baltimore at the age of 40.

Literary historian Rob Velella has lectured at historical sites, libraries, and colleges across the East Coast. Most recently he presented papers at the Poe Studies Association (2009) and the Hawthorne Society (2010), and served as guest curator for "Margaret Fuller: Woman of the Nineteenth Century" at Harvard's Houghton Library and as research associate for "The Raven in the Frog Pond: Edgar Allan Poe and Boston" for the Boston Public Library. As well as performing as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Nathaniel Hawthorne, Velella, also maintains the American Literary Blog www.americanliteraryblog.blogspot.com.

For more information, contact The Old Manse at 978.369.3909. Located at 269 Monument Street, Concord, MA. Visit our website www.oldmanse.org. Email oldmanse@ttor.org The Old Manse is a property of the Trustees of Reservations www.thetrustees.org.

This event is part of the Bicentennial’s Conversations Series, supported by a grant from Mass Humanities and modeled after the “Conversations” Margaret Fuller offered for women (and later men) in Boston in the late 1830s and early 1840s. The event is co-sponsored by the Margaret Fuller Bicentennial Committee and is part of a year-long series of events celebrating Margaret Fuller’s life and work.  For a complete list of the other programs, please visit: www.margaretfuller.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.