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Concord Reads 2008: Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle The Humanities Council has awarded a major grant to the Concord Public Library Foundation for Concord Reads 2008. The project will feature Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and its themes of growing and purchasing locally- and sustainably-grown foods in order to mitigate the environmental impacts of chemical-based agriculture, factory livestock farms, and the huge carbon footprint of foods shipped long distances out of season. Kingsolver’s non-fiction book follows her family’s experiement with eating only locally- or home-grown foods for one year and explores the environmental, economic, social and moral issues that led them to make that choice. This engaging, thought-provoking book includes recipes and contributions from Kingsolver’s husband, Steven Hopp, and her teenaged daughter, Camille Hopp. The book is available to borrow at the Concord Public Library or to purchase in paperback at local bookstores, including Gibson’s Bookstore, a community partner for Concord Reads. Concord Reads events will include book discussions, panel talks, a film showing, and children’s activities. A wide array of community partners including the Concord Cooperative Market, the Concord Farmers’ Market, Red River Theaters, Gibson’s and area schools and restaurants will participate in a variety of ways. Planned events include a book discussion on Monday, September 8 at 7 p.m. led by Suznne Brown, Dartmouth College, and a brown bag lunch book discussion on Thursday, September 11 at 12:15 led by Gibson’s owner Michael Herrman. A panel discussion on Sustaining Our World, Sustaining Our Traditions will be held on Monday, September 22 at 7 p.m. at the Concord Public Library. Panelists will discuss the issues raised in Kingsolver’s book as they relate to New Hampshire agriculture, what the state’s local food and green business future may hold, and ways to balance making a living with sustainable living. Panelists will includ former New Hampshire Commissioner of Agriculture Steve Taylor who is also a farmer and long-time advocate for Granite State farmers; Deborah DeMoulpied, a representative of the Green Concord alliance of businesses; Barb Stewart, a columnist for the Concord Monitor and her husband Dave Stewart, who recently sold his business to become a full time farmer; and Tod Murphy, proprietor of the Farmer’s Diner in Quechee, Vermont, a restaurant committed to serving locally produced foods that was featured in Kingsolver’s book. Red River Theatres will host a film showing on Friday, September 26 at 7 p.m. Watch a film in a cafe setting while eating delicious local foods from the Concord Cooperative Market. Details on this event will be available on Red River’s website on September 1. Learn more about this project and find further details on planned events on the Concord Public Library’s website or call 225-8590. Join New Hampshire Public Radio for Socrates Cafe Series The Humanities Council has awarded a major grant to New Hampshire Public Radio for Socrates Café, a series of monthly discussions that will take place in the coming year on NHPR’s The Exchange hosted by Laura Knoy. Information on upcoming Socrates Café discussions will be posted on The Exchange page of NHPR’s website and printed in our Calendar. You also can access archived programs of Socrates Café and many other public radio programs on NHPR’s website. Download a Socrates Café discussion to your MP3 player and share a lively discussion with family and friends on your next long drive. Then share your thoughts on a message board on the Socrates Café page of the NHPR website. NHPR has worked with the creator of the Socrates Café model to develop the series. Many of us search for answers; Christopher Phillips searches for questions. As the co-founder of the non-profit Society for Philosophical Inquiry, he travels the world holding hundreds of dialogues and discussions, taking philosophy out of academia and bringing it to “ordinary people in ordinary places.” He sees the Socrates Café series on The Exchange as an exciting way to carry out this mission. Phillips’ discussions employ the Socratic method, in which participants try to define key moral concepts and then scrutinize those answers for flaws, contradictions and, hopefully, insights. The journey is as important as the destination. Through the process of dialogue participants can better understand themselves and each other and, in the process, build a more inclusive and deliberative democracy. To date, more than 500 of these groups have been established around the globe. NHPR plans to work with high schools to involve students in the on-air and on-line discussions and encourage teachers to utilize the Socrates Café model in their lesson plans. Phillips is author of several books including Socrates Café: A Fresh Taste of Philosophy and Six Questions of Socrates: A Modern-Day Journey of Discovery through World Philosophy. Future topics for NHPR’s Socrates Café will be featured in the Humanities Council’s Calendar, in our on-line calendar and on NHPR’s website.
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