Spike Lee's 2018 film provocatively explores the true story of an African-American detective who tries to infiltrate a local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan. Following the screening, Dr. Delphine Letort (author of The Spike Lee Brand: A Study of Documentary Filmmaking and Associate Professor… Continue Reading "The New Commons Film Series: BLACKkKLANSMAN"

Join Dr. Delphine Letort (author of The Spike Lee Brand: A Study of Documentary Filmmaking  and Associate Professor in English at the University of Le Mans), Dr. Eliane Elmaleh (Professor of American Culture at the University of Le Mans), Dr. Charles Nero (Professor of Rhetoric,… Continue Reading "Symposium on BLACKkKLANSMAN"

The New Commons Film Series presents LOST BOYS OF SUDAN, a 2003 documentary directed by Megan Mylan and Jon Shenk that explores the lives of young Sudanese boys who immigrate to the United States in the wake of civil war in their native country.

Dr. Clarissa Thompson, Associate Professor of Secondary Education and English Education at UMF, explores the ways in which young adult literature encourages lifelong reading and engagement with important social issues.

Doug Rawlings, author of Orion Rising and co-founder of Veterans For Peace, shares his poetry. This event is part of the New Commons Project's consideration of Thanhha Lai's INSIDE OUT & BACK AGAIN, a young adult verse novel that tells the story of a… Continue Reading "Douglas Rawlings, Poetry Reading"

Join Tara Weikum (Vice President and Editorial Director at HarperCollins Publishers) as she shares her experiences of working as editor of Thanhha Lai's INSIDE OUT & BACK AGAIN.

The New Commons Film Series presents SEED: THE UNTOLD STORY, a 2016 award-winning documentary that explores the pressing seed issues of the day, from the loss of global seed diversity to biotech patents and the corporate take-over of seed. Will Bonsall, locally grown, nationally… Continue Reading "The New Commons Film Series: SEED: THE UNTOLD STORY (with Will Bonsall)"

The FEDCO SEED CATALOG, which began as a price list in 1978 and morphed into a work of political, social and agricultural commentary with a dash of humor and graphics, will be on view March 15-June 12 at UMF's Mantor Library as part of… Continue Reading "Exhibit of the FEDCO SEED CATALOG (Farmington)"

The FEDCO SEED CATALOG, which began as a price list in 1978 and morphed into a work of political, social and agricultural commentary with a dash of humor and graphics, will be on view March 15-June 12 at the Phillips Public Library. An opening… Continue Reading "Exhibit of the FEDCO SEED CATALOG (Phillips)"

Many chart the year by the annual dreaming we do while thumbing through (or scrolling through) a seed catalog. Thoughts and inklings of herbs, vegetables, fruits become places that are walked off, plotted out, tilled, worked over, and seeded with what we wish to… Continue Reading "Workshop with Laressa Dickey, “Diligence, Devotion, Common(s)ense: Shopping for Poems in the Fedco Seed Catalog”"

How do we make a life in a place? How do we become of that place? How, when we leave that place, can it be that it never lets us leave? What is the mark it makes? How do we come to terms with… Continue Reading "Laressa Dickey, “From the Association of Stubborn Folks: All them pretty houses won’t feed them people”"

C.R. Lawn, the founder of Fedco Seeds, will tell how its graphic-laden, horticulturally-rich, liberated literacy offered tools to combat the corporate takeover of the seed industry, restore the seed commons and teach others how to rein in out-of-control privatization and uber-marketed corporate capitalism run… Continue Reading "Keynote Event: C.R. Lawn, “The FEDCO SEED CATALOG: More Than a Marketing Tool”"