Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Spring 2008 - (Page 5) Ellis Marsalis named 2008 Humanist of the Year The Board of Directors of the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities has named famed New Orleans musician and teacher Ellis Marsalis as the 2008 Humanist of the Year. Marsalis, along with other Louisianians who have made outstanding contributions to the study and understanding of the humanities, will be honored at an awards ceremony Saturday, March 29, at Houmas House in Darrow, Louisiana. A lifelong performing artist, in 1974 Marsalis began a 12-year stint at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts high school as an instrumental music teacher with a Jazz Studies emphasis. In 1989, he joined the faculty of the University of New Orleans to become the first to serve as the Coca-Cola Endowed Chair of Jazz Studies, a position from which he retired in 2001. The Award for Lifetime Achievement will be given to Norman Francis, Ph.D., president of Xavier University in New Orleans since 1968 and recipient of the President’s Medal of Freedom in 2006. Under Francis’s leadership, Xavier continues to rank first nationally in the number of African-American students earning undergraduate degrees in the biology and life sciences, chemistry, physics and pharmacy. In pre-med education, the university is first in the nation in placing black students into medical schools. In the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Dr. Francis’s compassion, leadership, commitment and impeccable reputation led to his being named Chairman of the Louisiana Recovery Authority. Darrell Bourque will be recognized as the new Poet Laureate of Louisiana. He has directed the Deep South Writer's Conference and served as project director for Significant Voices, a reading series featuring poetry by young Louisianan African-American writers. Bourque is professor emeritus at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and conducts workshops and retreats for the Acadiana chapter of the National Writing Project. Awards for Individual Achievements in the Humanities will be given to Delma McLeod-Porter, Ph.D., professor and coordinator of developmental writing at McNeese State University in Lake Charles; J. Paul Leslie, Jr., Ph.D., history professor at Nicholls State University in Thibodaux; and Jack Heflin, professor of English at the University of Louisiana at Monroe. The Chair’s Award for Institutional Support will be given to the Community Foundation of Shreveport-Bossier. The Foundation recently awarded the LEH $150,000 in grants for programming in the Shreveport-Bossier area. One of those grants is a $100,000 Endowment Challenge that the LEH will match with $150,000 of its own money to ensure quality humanities programming for the region. The remaining $50,000 is a grant to underwrite the LEH’s Prime Time family reading program in the region. An award for Public Humanities Programming will be presented to John R. May, Ph.D., English professor at LSU in Baton Rouge, for his stewardship of summer film festivals at the Ascension Parish Public Library in Gonzales, a model copied by other Louisiana libraries. The Humanities Documentary Film of the Year Award will be presented to Jennifer John Block for Reconstructing Creole. The Humanities Book of the Year Award will be presented to Bliss Broyard for One Drop: My Father's Hidden Life—A Story of Race and Family Secrets. The Humanities Teacher of the Year Awards will be presented to Catherine Green (Caddo Middle Magnet School, Shreveport) and Emmitt Glynn III (Episcopal High School, Baton Rouge). Six Teacher Institutes for Advanced Study scheduled for Summer 2008 Each summer since 1985, the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities has provided thousands of Louisiana’s elementary, middle and high school teachers an opportunity to participate in free seminars that challenge teachers to discuss and think critically and intensively about history, literature and other traditional and developing disciplines in the humanities. Six Teacher Institutes for Advanced Study will be offered in the Summer of 2008. Interested teachers should contact the LEH for enrollment information. Log on to: www.leh.org/html/tifas.html Looking at History: Photography and the American Past • Loyola University New Orleans • July 7–31, 2008 • Dr. Leslie Parr Since photography’s beginnings in 1839, photographers have served as chroniclers and cultural interpreters of the American experience. This Institute will look at American History from the mid-19th century to the present through the eyes of its photographers. This institute surveys the Civil War through the Iraq War, contemporary terrorism, slums, child labor, the Great Depression, spectacular American landscapes and urban scenes. African-American Louisiana Writers: A Critical Introduction • Tulane University • June 2–July 2, 2008 • Dr. Nghana Lewis Taken as a group, African-American Louisiana writers present an imposing array of talent. However, their accomplishments remain largely unrecognized, and their resourcefulness in understanding key aspects of American history remains largely untapped. One of the goals of this institute is, thus, to open the work of AfricanAmerican Louisiana writers to critical investigation, to assess the insight these writers offer into the complex history, economy, and ecology of Louisiana as well as the awareness each brings to the vast cultural milieus that give Louisiana and America their distinctive flavors. Prime Time for PRIME TIME in New Orleans • Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities and University of New Orleans • July 7–31, 2008 • Dr. Olivia Pass and Dr. Nancy Dixon Participants in the Prime Time institute will enhance their ability to teach reading and critical thinking skills in grades K-8. They will explore humanities issues via (continued on page 7) Spring 2008/LOUISIANA ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES 5 http://www.leh.org/html/tifas.html
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