[DAC] FW: DAC and DHS at Commonwealth Museum - FREE talk

[Joyce Linehan]

Sorry in advance for any duplicate postings.  I want to make sure everyone
knows about this great free event next Friday night.  The Commonwealth
Museum is the building between UMass and the JFK Library.
 
 
CORITA KENT ARTS & CULTURE TALKS LECTURE SERIES
PRESENTS AUTHOR MICHAEL PATRICK MACDONALD DISCUSSING "EASTER RISING" 
WITH BOSTON MAGAZINE'S JOE KEOHANE
 
FREE EVENT MARCH 14 AT COMMONWEALTH MUSEUM IN DORCHESTER 
 
The Dorchester Arts Collaborative (DAC), Dorchester Historical Society (DHS)
and Commonwealth Museum present the second installment of the Corita Kent
Arts & Culture Talks, with a conversation between author and South Boston
native Michael Patrick MacDonald and Boston Magazine columnist Joe Keohane.
The lecture series is named for artist Corita Kent, best known for her
Rainbow Gas Tank near the Southeast Expressway in Dorchester.  This
Irish-American themed program for St. Patrick's Day is FREE and takes place
at the Commonwealth Museum, 220 Morrissey Blvd., Dorchester (in between
UMass Boston and the JFK Library) on Friday, March 14, 2008 at 7:30 pm.
Doors open at 7.  There is ample free parking at the Commonwealth Museum,
and shuttle buses are available from the JFK/UMass T-stop.  For more
information call (617) 727-9268.
 
The conversation, planned for St. Patrick's Day weekend, will focus on
MacDonald's most recent book, Easter Rising: A Memoir of Roots and Rebellion
(out in March 2008 in paperback). Easter Rising focuses on Michael's teenage
years, largely spent trying to escape South Boston's Old Colony Housing
Project. Using storytelling narrative to reveal teen struggles with
post-traumatic stress from violence and death, the book addresses ideas
around teen depression, alienation, and resiliency.  It effectively uses
music, specifically the punk-rock of the late 70's, as a liberating force,
opening the door to the world beyond South Boston, and culminates in trips
to Ireland, where the author discovers the surprising roots of the fierce
Irish-American pride that informs, nurtures and destroys so much in his home
neighborhood.
 
There will be time for Q & A and book signing after the talk, and books will
be available for purchase.
 
MICHAEL PATRICK MACDONALD
Michael Patrick MacDonald (b. 1966, Boston) is the author of two acclaimed
works of narrative nonfiction, All Souls: A Family Story From Southie
(Ballantine, October 2000), and Easter Rising: A Memoir of Roots and
Rebellion (Houghton Mifflin, 2006, out in paperback this month).  
 
All Souls, which recounts his family's struggles in South Boston's Old
Colony Housing Project, is a layered and poignant account of a tragic family
story, examining the complex issues of race, class, addiction, crime and
insularity.  It has received numerous awards, including the American Book
Award, New England Literary Lights Award, and The Myers Outstanding Book
Award (administered by the Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human
Rights in North America).  
 
Michael is a long time activist and writer who, in the 90's, focused his
efforts on cross-cultural coalition-building to reduce violence in Boston.
He co-founded Boston's successful Gun Buyback program, which took 2,900
working firearms off the streets, and founded the South Boston Vigil Group,
which gave a voice to that neighborhood's survivors of violence and the drug
trade. He currently lives in Brooklyn, and devotes much of his time to
writing and public speaking on topics ranging from race and class in America
to trauma, healing, and social change. He just completed the screenplay
adaptation of All Souls for director Ron Shelton (Bull Durham, White Men
Can't Jump).
 
Michael has recently started work on his third book, a narrative nonfiction
work about young people achieving personal and community change in Chelsea,
one of the poorest cities in Massachusetts.  Using the stories of former
gang members who have become community leaders and peacemakers, the book is
intended to be about hope, a departure from the bleak journalistic
depictions of "at risk youth," "impoverished" populations, and "dangerous"
neighborhoods.
 
JOE KEOHANE
A former hotel employee, bookseller, gas-pumper, musician, and office drone,
Joe Keohane joined the staff of Boston Magazine in 2007 after serving as
editor in chief of the Weekly Dig, an award-winning alt-weekly, for four
years.  The native Bostonian’s writing has also appeared in The Boston
Globe, The Boston Herald, The Boston Phoenix, The New York Times Book
Review, Conde Nast Portfolio, Slate.com and other publications.
 
Corita Kent
Corita Kent also known as Sister Corita, gained international fame for her
vibrant serigraphs during the 1960s and 1970s. A Sister of the Immaculate
Heart of Mary, she ran the Art Department at Immaculate Heart College until
1968 when she left the Order and moved to Boston. Corita’s art reflects her
spirituality, her commitment to social justice, her hope for peace and her
delight in the world that takes place all around us.  Corita's Rainbow Gas
Tank, located in Dorchester, is the larges piece of copyrighted public art
in the world.
 
Dorchester Arts Collaborative and Dorchester Historical Society
The Corita Kent Arts & Culture Talks is a program of the Dorchester Arts
Collaborative, a private, volunteer-run non-profit organization that seeks
to develop and facilitate arts programming in Dorchester for the social,
cultural, and economic enrichment of Boston's largest and most diverse
neighborhood.  The purpose of the Dorchester Historical Society, founded in
1843 and incorporated in 1891, is to collect, preserve, and disseminate
knowledge of the history of that section of the City of Boston which was
formerly the Town of Dorchester; to hold, and aid in the preservation of,
historic buildings and sites in the area; to care for, and from time to
time, exhibit such articles of historic or antiquarian interest as may come
into its possession.
 
The Commonwealth Museum
First established in 1962, the Commonwealth Museum serves as the exhibit arm
of the Massachusetts Archives, the repository for the permanent records of
the Commonwealth.  Together with the Archives, the Museum also offers a
range of on-site educational programs that over the past five years have
brought over 36,000 students to the facility.  The Commonwealth Museum is
now developing a new, permanent exhibit that will highlight documents of
national significance, entitled Our Commonwealth: The Massachusetts
Experiment in Democracy.  It is expected to open in late 2008.
 
This program is made possible with the generous support of Mt. Washington
Bank, Massachusetts Convention Center Authority and Commonwealth Museum.
 
 
 
 
*****************************
Joyce Linehan, Ashmont Media/Ashmont Records
10A Burt Street, Dorchester, MA 02124
617-282-2510
Public Relations, Management and Consulting
 
Current press releases:  HYPERLINK
"http://www.ashmontmedia.com/media_releases.html"http://www.ashmontmedia.com
/media_releases.html
HYPERLINK "http://www.ashmontmedia.com/" 
 

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