Events & Programs
2012: Way Out West
It was 140 years ago this year that the Clemenses were renting a house on Forest Street in the Nook Farm area of Hartford, casting their eyes westward toward a plot of land on a hillside that looked just right for a home for their growing family. Already the author of a bestselling travel book, The Innocents Abroad, Samuel L. Clemens -- Mark Twain -- was publishing a new one, based on travels he'd made a decade before. It was called Roughing It, and it still stands as a monument among the literature of humor, descriptive power and the American West. We've entered a creative spurt too, with courses in writing, a Writers' Weekend, and many other events all year for the young, the old, the middle-aged, the mature, the infantile and everyone else.
Jan
January
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February
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Mar
March
Get a Clue! Tour
Thursday, March 22, and Friday, March 23. 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Hour-long tours depart every twenty minutes.
Someone has killed Pap Finn! Was it Tom Sawyer in the Library with the wrench? Could it be the Connecticut Yankee in the Billiard Room with the knife? Some think it could be The Pauper in the Kitchen with the rope. A parody inspired on the classic Parker Brothers/Hasbro game CLUE, a full-fledged murder mystery is yours to solve on The Mark Twain House & Museum’s new “Get a Clue” Tour!
Ever noticed that many of the rooms in The Mark Twain House are the same as the ones on the iconic 1949 British board game (originally known as CLUEDO)? The Hall, the Dining Room and other opulent rooms become possible murder scenes in this classic challenge of deductive reasoning and detective skill. The hilarious Sea Tea Improv comedy troupe becomes the suspects, all based on famous characters from the Mark Twain novels created in this very house. In one hour, participants will be able to make accusations and figure out who sent the wretched Pap Finn to his doom, where he was dispatched, and what was used to off the scoundrel. Solve the mystery, laugh a lot, and save the day!
$22 / $20 for MTH&M members. Reservations required. Call (860) 280-3130
Teaching History With Museums: A panel featuring Drs. Alan Marcus and Walter Woodward
Tuesday, March 27, 6:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Two of the co-authors of a new book on teaching history through visits to museums present their work for teachers, students and parents in a free session that includes refreshments, a sneak preview tour of the exhibit "Race, Rage and Redemption," and free Mark Twain House & Museum tour vouchers.
University of Connecticut professors Alan Marcus and Walter Woodward, along with College of William & Mary Professor Jeremy D. Stoddard, have just published Teaching History with Museums: Strategies for K-12 Social Studies (Routledge). Woodward is also the Connecticut State Historian.
The event will be chaired by Mark Twain House & Museum Education Manager Craig Hotchkiss.
Free.
OPENING: "Race, Rage and Redemption"
Thursday, March 29, 5:30-7:00 p.m
Our new exhibit comprises "A Sound Heart & a Deformed Conscience," an in-depth view of Mark Twain's views on race; and "Hateful Things," a survey of racist imagery from the Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia at Ferris State University, and augmented by items from private collections and our own.
The combined exhibit, along with a series of films, lectures and programs, explores one of the darker chapters of American history and the effect of slavery on our national consciousness.
The exhibits will be be accompanied by an exhibit, "Hopeful Things," including student reaction to the first two.
Produced in cooperation with the Greater New England Alliance of Black School Educators.
Please note: these exhibitions contain inflammatory and upsetting imagery. Parental discretion is advised.
Through Sept. 3.
The opening reception and accompanying play, Harriet Tubman's Dream, on March 29 are free, but RSVPs are requested by calling Nancy Honore at 860-280-3112. The exhibitions may be viewed through September 3 during regular visiting hours for a $5.00 museum-only admission, or free with a Mark Twain House tour.
Harriet Tubman's Dream: A performance by the Emerson Theater Collaborative
Thursday, March 29, 7:00 p.m.
Emerson Theatre Collaborative presents "Harriet Tubman's Dream," a new one-woman show by CT playwright Lisa Giordano starring Camilla Ross.
By 1858, Harriet Tubman was a fugitive slave working with the Underground Railroad helping to free the enslaved in the South. To help support herself, the fugitive slave community and to finance her rescue missions, she worked as a cook, domestic servant and went on speaking tours in New England putting on dramatic storytelling performances of her life. At parlor socials in private homes or at church meetings, she performed to great acclaim for many prominent abolitionists, transcendentalists, suffragists and the literary elite. HARRIET TUBMAN’S DREAM opens with Harriet Tubman standing in a parlor during the year 1863 as she gives one of her performances.
Camilla Ross is the current president and founder of the Emerson Theater Collaborative, and a graduate of Emerson College.
FREE EVENT! Come for the 5:30 p.m. opening of "Race, Rage & Redemption" Hateful Things
Free.
Graveyard Shift Ghost Tours - Winter Chills Edition!
Friday, March 30, 6 p.m., 7 p.m., 8 p.m., 9 p.m.
Our Graveyard Shift Ghost Tours return, Winter Chills Edition. Reserve early to get a spot on these limited and popular tours -- they're routinely sold out in advance.
Reports of ghostly apparitions, mysterious bangs, cigar smoke and other unexplained phenomena, featured on Syfy's Ghost Hunters, have led us to reprise these popular tours. Hear these creepy tales -- and learn about Mark Twain's own interest in the supernatural. Spiritualism and ghostly tales were a big part of the Gilded Age, an age of uncertainty, rampant materialism and credulity much like ours.
Tour times are 6:00 p.m., 7:00 p.m., 8:00 p.m.; and 9:00 p.m. Graveyard Shift Ghost Tours are by reservation only, and sell out quickly. Call early: 860-280-3130.
Graveyard Shift Ghost Tours will also be held April 27 and 28.
The tours are sponsored by Tsunami Tsolutions.
$20 for adults 17 and over; $16 for MTH&M members; unlucky $13 for children 16 and under. Not recommended for children under 10.
The Connecticut Film Festival: "Confidence Game"
Friday, March 30, 7:30 pm
Though the collapse of Bear Stearns took place during one tumultuous week in March of 2008, the reality is that the seeds for the firm's collapse, and America's 21st century financial crisis had been many years in the making.
Via interviews with whistleblowers who had a street-level knowledge of the madness taking place in Bear's subprime mortgage operation, as well as eminent investigative financial journalists like Bryan Burrough & William D. Cohan of Vanity Fair and Louise Story & Andrew Ross Sorkin of the New York Times, "Confidence Game" offers an inside look at the first of Wall Street's dominoes to fall...
View the trailer: www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7h1SLHkEpY
$9 adults; $7 students and seniors
Apr
April
Race, Rage & Redemption Film Series: "The Birth of a Nation"
Wednesday, April 4, 7 p.m. (note: film is a little over 3 hours and will be shown with brief intermission)
Our "Race, Rage & Redemption" Film Series screens D.W. Griffith's controversial 1915 silent film. Hailed for its ambitious spectacle and reviled for its racist content, "The Birth of a Nation" was an instant sensation upon its release. The NAACP protested, riots broke out at various screenings, and violence was perpetrated on African Americans as a result. Telling the tale of two families, one pro-abolition Northerners and the other pro-Confederacy Southerners, Griffith set out to examine the Civil War, Lincoln's assassination and Reconstruction. Employing groundbreaking film technique, blackface and glorifying the birth of the Ku Klux Klan, the director/auteur created one of the most shocking landmarks in American Cinema.
Why screen "The Birth of a Nation"? The Library of Congress has cited the cultural relevance of the film, as well as added the movie to the National Film Registry. The American Film Institute cited it as one of the Top 100 films of all time. Esteemed critic Roger Ebert writes, "'The Birth of a Nation' is not a bad film because it argues for evil. Like Riefenstahl’s 'Triumph of the Will,' it is a great film that argues for evil. To understand how it does so is to learn a great deal about film, and even something about evil." Most importantly, we are showing the "The Birth of a Nation" as a part of our examination of the Jim Crow Era, one of the most unpleasant chapters of our shared heritage.
$5. Free for Mark Twain House & Museum members.
Nook Farm Book Talks: I Am An Emotional Creature by Eve Ensler.
Thursday, April 5, at the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center
5:00 p.m. reception, 5:30-6:30 p.m. book discussion.
Nook Farm Book Talks, a collaboration between The Mark Twain House & Museum and the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, continues with a discussion of Eve Ensler's I Am An Emotional Creature.
In this daring book, internationally acclaimed author and playwright Eve Ensler offers fictional monologues and stories inspired by girls around the globe. Fierce, tender, and smart, I Am an Emotional Creature is a celebration of the authentic voice inside every girl and an inspiring call to action for girls everywhere to speak up, follow their dreams, and become the women they were always meant to be.
Made possible by the Connecticut Humanities Council, the Greater Hartford Arts Council and the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism.
Free.
A Sunday Jazz Brunch: Karen Frisk
Sunday, April 15, Two seatings: 11:30 a.m. and 1:15 p.m.
Just because Easter is over doesn’t mean you have to put away your bonnet! Karen Frisk swings and sings in a special “bonnet brunch” for hat lovers! Prizes for the best and jazziest hats!
Cafe Eiko at Japanalia presents a Jazz Brunch in our own Murasaki Cafe, replete with a four-star Japanese cuisine and American breakfast favorites. Hot sounds and heartwarming foods in the coolest place in town.
$35. Reservations: 860-280-3130.
Race, Rage & Redemption Film Series: "Ethnic Notions" & "Beyond Tara: The Extraordinary Life of Hattie McDaniel."
Wednesday, April 18, 7 p.m.
Two excellent documentaries mark the highs and lows of representations of African Americans in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. "Ethnic Notions" is a 50-minute look at the stereotyped figures of the coon, picanniny, mammy, and more as represented in popular culture. The film explores the psychological and sociological impact of such imagery.
"Beyond Tara: The Extraordinary Life of Hattie McDaniel" examines the complicated legacy of the first African American actress to win an Academy Award. Her career made her the most prominent black actor but Hollywood mainly relegated her to mammy and maid roles.
$5. Free for MTH&M Members.
The Writing at the Mark Twain House Writers' Weekend
Friday, April 20, 7:00 p.m. registration and reception, 8:00 p.m. keynote; and Saturday, April 21, 9:00 a.m.-5:30 p.m., including lunch; closing reception 5:30 p.m.-7:00 p.m.
A Writers' Weekend at the Mark Twain House will offer talks, workshops and other events devoted to the craft of writing and its practitioners.
Novelists, authors of non-fiction, poets, memoirists and playwrights will be supplying a rich array of events. Participants include Lewis Lapham, Jon Clinch, Alfred Uhry, Bessy Reyna, Lary Bloom and A.R. Gurney.
The Friday-Saturday event begins with an April 20 early-evening reception followed by a keynote speech by legendary editor Lewis Lapham of Harper's and Lapham's Quarterly.
On Saturday, there's a kickoff talk by novelist Jon Clinch (Finn, Kings of the Earth), a panel including playwrights Gurney (The Dining Room) and Uhry (Driving Miss Daisy), and nearly a score of workshops, talks and other sessions.
The event will run from 9:00 am to about 6:00 p.m.on Saturday. A box lunch will be provided, and the event winds up Saturday evening with a closing reception.
The cost of the Writers' Weekend for participants is $100. This includes the Friday night reception and lecture, all Saturday sessions, a box lunch and the Saturday night closing reception. Participants will also receive a voucher good for a tour of the Mark Twain House at any time. Space is limited, and advance registration and payment is a must: Call 860-280-3130 to register.
Eighteen panels, talks and workshop sessions will take place Saturday. No fewer than two winners of the Connecticut Book Award Lifetime Achievement Award holders will be participating in sessions at the Weekend: Lary Bloom, longtime editor of Northeast magazine, columnist, author of many books, and sage teacher of writing at the Mark Twain House and many other places; and Bessy Reyna (Memoirs of the Unfaithful Lover), the beloved Cuban-born poet who has been called "a clear-eyed guide to the world we see but don’t see" by Martin Espada.
Among the authors slated to lead 50-minute sessions on Saturday are Susan Campbell (Dating Jesus), Susan Schoenberger (A Watershed Year) Suzanne Levine (The Haberdasher's Daughter), Denis Horgan (Ninety-Eight Point Six) Cindy Brown Austin (By the Waters of Babylon) and Wendy Clinch (The Ski Diva).
There will be sessions on blogging, the business of getting published, and new forms of storytelling unleashed by the existence of the Internet.
The Writers’ Weekend builds on the success of Writing at the Mark Twain House, the writing program that bears out The Mark Twain House & Museum's explicitly stated mission, promulgated in 1955, to develop a literary center. The program has offered fall and spring evening courses in memoir, non-fiction, and fiction over the past few years.
During the Writers' Weekend, a panel of faculty and students in the Writing at the Mark Twain House program will be discussing the ins and outs of teaching and learning writing.
$100 for workshops and panels, Friday and Saturday receptions, Saturday lunch, and a tour voucher for the Mark Twain House. Call 860-280-3130.
Graveyard Shift Ghost Tours
Friday, April 27, 6 p.m., 7 p.m., 8 p.m., 9 p.m.
Our Graveyard Shift Ghost Tours return! Reserve early to get a spot on these limited and popular tours -- they're routinely sold out in advance.
Reports of ghostly apparitions, mysterious bangs, cigar smoke and other unexplained phenomena, featured on Syfy's Ghost Hunters, have led us to reprise these popular tours. Hear these creepy tales -- and learn about Mark Twain's own interest in the supernatural. Spiritualism and ghostly tales were a big part of the Gilded Age, an age of uncertainty, rampant materialism and credulity much like ours.
Tour times are 6:00 p.m., 7:00 p.m., 8:00 p.m.; and 9:00 p.m. Graveyard Shift Ghost Tours are by reservation only, and sell out quickly. Call early: 860-280-3130.
The tours are tsponsored by Tsunami Tsolutions.
$20 for adults 17 and up; MTH&M members $16; Children 16 and under unlucky $13. Not recommended for children under 10.
Connecticut Film Festival - "Monsters from the Id"
Friday, April 27, 7:30pm
1950s Sci-Fi monsters from outer space inspired a new generation of scientists! "Monsters from the Id," a documentary film, examines this space race Era phenomenon. Friday, April 27th at 7:30 p.m. - The CT Film Festival returns for their monthly screening. The 1950’s was an idealistic time in American History, filled with hope, opportunity, and wonder. It was also, “The Atomic Age” where new technology promised to both save humanity as well as put it in jeopardy. All of these factors gave birth to one of the most prolific genres in film history, 1950’s Science Fiction Cinema. More then just bug eyed monsters and little green men, 1950’s Sci-fi Cinema provided science inspiration for millions of eager youths across the country. Then after 1957 and the launch of Sputnik, science fiction became science fact as an inspired population worked toward one of the greatest achievements of mankind, spaceflight. "Monsters From The Id" weaves the intersecting themes of over thirty classic films in order to tell the untold story of the Modern Scientist and his role in inspiring a nation. The film continues to explore the psychological and cultural impact of 1950’s Sci-Fi cinema in America and asks, “where is science inspiration found today?”
$9 adults $7 for seniors and students Tickets available at the door or at www.ctfilmfest.com
A Forum on The Response to Negative Racial Propaganda
Saturday, April 28, 12:00 - 2:00 PM
A PANEL DISCUSSION PRESENTED BY GREATER NEW ENGLAND ALLIANCE OF BLACK SCHOOL EDUCATORS (GNEABSE) IN COLLABORATION WITH THE MARK TWAIN HOUSE & MUSEUM
Moderator: Olivia White, Executive Director of The Amistad Center for Art and Culture of The Wadsworth Athenaeum in Hartford, CT
Jeffrey Ogbar, Ph.D., Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and Professor of History, UCONN
Darlene Powell Garlington, Ph.D., Licensed Clinical Psychologist and author
Shayla Nunnally, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Political Science, UCONN
Wilmer Leon,Ph.D., Political Scientist and Host of Sirius XM Radio Program, "Inside the Issues"
For More Information Contact: Craig Hotchkiss, Educational Program Manager of the Mark Twain House, at (860) 280-3146 or craig.hotchkiss@marktwainhouse.org
Free
May
May
The Trouble Begins at 5:30: Dr. Kerry Driscoll on Mark Twain & Native Americans
Wednesday, May 2, 5:00 p.m. reception, 5:30 p.m. lecture
Dr. Driscoll, a nationally known Mark Twain scholar and English professor at St. Joseph College, specializes in Twain and his difficult, sometimes troubling writings about Native Americans.
This spring's "Trouble Begins" series is an exploration of the issues of Mark Twain's attitudes toward race and the issues explored in the "Race, Rage and Redemption" exhibits.
Free. Supported in part by the Connecticut Humanities Council, Connecticut Explored magazine and The Friends of the Mark Twain House & Museum.
"Race on a Musical String" - Free Lecture and Brazilian Music Demonstration
Thursday, May 3, 7:00 p.m.
FREE MUSICAL LECTURE EVENT! In conjunction with Trinity College's Samba Fest & The Mark Twain House & Museum's "Race, Rage & Redemption" exhibition. The Brazilian berimbau is a musical bow that is most commonly associated with the martial art/dance/game of capoeira. Both of these have descended from African cultures, and as a result, are strong icons of Afrocentric identity in Brazil. Consequently, representation of the berimbau and capoeira tend to remain connected to the past (e.g. something that "developed during times of slavery”). Within the music of Dinho Nascimento and the group Berimbrown, the berimbau serves as a focal point of their musical identity. Since both Berimbrown and Dinho Nascimento are pushing against boundaries of "tradition," they are developing musical and cultural fusions that help to articulate a contemporary identity of Brazilianness that directly confronts issues of race and marginalization of Afro-Brazilians in urban communities. Moreover, these musicians work in community social projects that directly engage youth from the city streets and connect with their Afro-Brazilian heritage, as well as to create spaces to promote positive experiences for these young people. Trinity Professor Eric Galm will bring these two distinct voices together by presenting an overview of the berimbau in Brazilian music and culture. He will demonstrate how this instrument was perceived during times of slavery, how it continues to be a racially charged icon today, and how it has become a global symbol of Brazilian identity. Live music, audio and visual examples will be interspersed throughout this presentation. This event is made possible in part by the 6th Annual Samba Fest (www.sambafest.com), and is supported by the City of Hartford Arts & Heritage Jobs Grant Program, Pedro E. Segarra, Mayor; Greater Hartford Arts Council; Trinity College’s Austin Arts Center Guest Artist Series, Department of Music, Center for Urban and Global Studies Arts Initiative, offices of Community Relations, Multicultural Affairs, and Campus Life, Trinfo.Café, and WRTC 89.3 FM. Additional support is provided by the UConn Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, the Governo de Minas/Programa Música Minas, and the Consulate General of Brazil in Hartford.
FREE.
Nook Farm Book Talk - Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain
Thursday, May 3, At the Mark Twain House Museum Center.
5:00 PM Reception; 5:30-6:30 PM Book Discussion
Nook Farm Book Talks, a collaboration between The Mark Twain House & Museum and the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, continues with a discussion of Mark Twain's classic Pudd'nhead Wilson.
This intriguing work tackles the seminal American issue of slavery in an antebellum tragicomedy of switched identities, as a freeborn child and a slave child change places. The result is a biting social commentary-plus a good old-fashioned murder mystery...
Made possible by the Connecticut Humanities Council, the Greater Hartford Arts Council and the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism.
FREE event!
To register, call (860) 522-9258 ext. 317
A Discussion with Eve Ensler
Sunday, May 6, at Cheney Hall in Manchester, Conn.
Special ticketed reception, 6:00-7:00 p.m.; 7:30 program; 9:00 booksigning
Eve Ensler is best known for her landmark theater piece The Vagina Monologues, but has become an international activist working to stop violence against women in locations as far-flung as Afghanistan, Bosnia, the Congo, the Middle East and Asia.
Her work on stage and in the trenches has affected the lives of hundreds of thousands of women. The Hartford Public Library has selected her latest book, “I Am An Emotional Creature, which chronicles the inner lives of teenage girls, as their One Book which will be kicked off in March with events and discussions.
A collaborative presentation of The Mark Twain House & Museum, the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, and the World Affairs Council.
$45/$40 (Twain/Stowe/WAC member discount) ; $75 ticket includes reception with Eve Ensler in Silk Room.
For tickets call 860-647-9824 or visit cheneyhall.org
The Trouble Begins at 5:30: Education Manager Craig Hotchkiss on Race and Baseball in Twain's era
Wednesday, May 9, 5:00 p.m. reception, 5:30 p.m. talk
Hotchkiss -- whose thoughtful, powerful talks on race, sports, and Mark Twain are always popular -- uses a particularly vicious racial image on a mechanical bank to explicate his theme.
This spring's "Trouble Begins" series is an exploration of the issues of Mark Twain's attitudes toward race and the issues explored in the "Race, Rage and Redemption" exhibits.
Free. Supported in part by the Connecticut Humanities Council, Connecticut Explored magazine, and The Friends of The Mark Twain House & Museum.
A Mother's Day Jazz Brunch: Napua Davoy
Sunday, May 13, Two seatings: 11:30 a.m. and 1:15 p.m.
New York-based theater and jazz artist Napua Davoy returns to delight mom with her smoky vocals!
Cafe Eiko at Japanalia presents a Jazz Brunch in our own Murasaki Cafe, replete with a four-star Japanese cuisine and American breakfast favorites. Hot sounds and heartwarming foods in the coolest place in town.
$35. Reservations: 860-280-3130.
The Trouble Begins at 5:30: Dr. Jeffrey Ogbar on "Why Display Hateful Things?"
Wednesday, May 16, 5:00 p.m. recepti0n, 5:30 p.m. talk
"The Trouble Begins at 5:30," The Mark Twain House & Museum's popular series of free, after-work lectures on Twainian subjects, continues on Wednesday, May 16, with a talk by Dr. Jeffrey Ogbar, Associate Dean for the Humanities in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Connecticut, on "Beyond Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben: American National Identity and Race." This spring's series of "Troubles" explores themes of our provocative exhibition, "Race, Rage and Redemption," which includes a tough and disturbing display of racist artifacts and imagery called "Hateful Things." These artifacts provide a stepping-off point for Dr. Ogbar's lecture. Dr. Ogbar's research interests include the 20th century United States with a focus in African American history --more specifically, black nationalism and radical social protest. He has produced courses, lectures, articles and books on subjects as varied as Pan-Africanism, African American Catholics, civil rights struggles, black nationalism and hip-hop. He has held fellowships at Harvard University's W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for Afro-American Research, where he completed work on his book, Black Power: Radical Politics and African American Identity. He also held fellowships at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York City, and the Africana studies program at the University of Miami where he conducted research for his book Hip-Hop Revolution: The Culture and Politics of Rap. His latest book is an edited volume, The Harlem Renaissance Revisited: Politics, Arts and Letters. Along with research and teaching, Dr. Ogbar has enjoyed his role as the advisor to numerous UConn student organizations, ranging from the Black Student Association to the Breakdancing Club and United Men of African Descent. He has worked in various community service projects.
Free. Supported in part by the Connecticut Humanities Council, Connecticut Explored magazine and The Friends of the Mark Twain House & Museum.
DJ Spooky Lecture & "Rebirth of a Nation"
Thursday, May 17, 7:00 - 10:00 pm
The Mark Twain House & Museum "Race, Rage & Redemption"/Harriet Beecher Stowe Center "Stereotypes: Designed to Degrade" Special Event!
Hip Hop artist DJ Spooky (a.k.a. that subliminal kid) has reinvented and remixed D.W. Griffith's racist landmark film "The Birth of a Nation." In appropriating a work that depicts blackface, glorifies the Ku Klux Klan, and projects negative stereotypes on African Americans, DJ Spooky recontextualizes the film in an urgent new way.
Edited from the film's original 3-hour length, "Rebirth of a Nation" is a 100-minute distillation of the epic with a new moody, electronica/hip-hop score and visual effects. In effect, it is a whole new work of art and has been screened in New York, London and Greece. The evening will feature a special lecture with DJ Spooky, a showing of the film and be followed by a Q&A with the artist.
Presented in conjunction with the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center.
Tickets $20 / $15 for MTH&M and Stowe Members. Reservations strongly recommended. Call (860) 280-3130
The Trouble Begins at 5:30: W.T. Lhamon on the minstrel show
Wednesday, May 23, 5:00 p.m. reception; 5:30 p.m. talk
Lhamon, the author of Raising Cain: Blackface Performance from Jim Crow to Hip Hop, explores how the outcasts of official culture have made their own place in the world.
This spring's "Trouble Begins" series is an exploration of the issues of Mark Twain's attitudes toward race and the issues explored in the "Race, Rage and Redemption" exhibits.
Free. Supported in part by the Connecticut Humanities Council, Connecticut Explored magazine, and The Friends of the Mark Twain House & Museum.
A Pen Warmed Up in Hell: Joel Stein
Thursday, May 24, 7:30 p.m.
Humorist, reporter and rabble-rouser for Time magazine, Joel Stein is fearlessly funny. Aside from his cover stories and his weekly humor column for Time, Joel writes for the Los Angeles Times, has appeared on VH1’s I Love the 80s, and was fired by Martha Stewart. He is on tour promoting his hilarious new book Man Made – A Stupid Quest for Masculinity. “Joel Stein is one of the funniest authors I have ever read,” says Neil Strauss of Rolling Stone.
$30; $25 for members. Call 860-280-3130 for tickets.
June
June
CitySingers of Hartford - Songs of Spring and Such: Travels with Twain
Saturday, June 2, 3:00 pm
CitySingers of Hartford will perform Songs of Spring and Such: Travels with Twain in the Visitor’s Center Auditorium at the historic Mark Twain House in Hartford. Featured selections will tip a hat to some of the countries Mark Twain visited in his travels abroad, and will also include songs popular from Mark Twain’s America.
Selections from Purcell’s Come Ye Sons of Art, works by Elgar and English folksongs will honor Twain’s amicable ties with the British. Madrigals by Monteverdi will pay tribute to his excursions to Italy and Jannequin’s Chant des Oiseaux (Song of the Birds), will recall his travels in France. Finally, Twain’s deep roots in America, reflected in his prolific writings, will take musical form as River Songs, Spirituals and a Joplin Rag – all performed by voices, strings, woodwinds, percussion and keyboard.
Come and enjoy special exhibits or a house tour before the concert.
Voluntary offering.
Race, Rage & Redemption Play Reading - "Mary T. & Lizzy K."
Friday, June 8, 7:30 - 10:30 pm
Get a sneak peek of a brand new play! Commissioned by Washington, D.C.'s Arena Stage, "Mary T. and Lizzy K." is a fascinating new work by TheaterWorks' resident director Tazewell Thompson. June 8th, professional actors will read the script followed by a Q&A with the playwright.
First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln was a fashionista and a profligate spender. Fortunately for her, she has an extremely talented personal seamstress in emancipated slave Elizabeth Keckley. Beyond the professional relationship, the women have come to rely on one another. When Mary T. finds herself up to her ears in debt, she takes advantage of Lizzy K. who, no longer bound to serve at no cost, pushes back at the First Lady.
This exciting new drama will receive its world premiere production at Arena Stage. Come enjoy a reading of this work-in-progress as part of our Race, Rage & Redemption series.$10 / $5 for MTM&M Members / Call (860) 280-3130
Tom Sawyer Day: "Take Me Out to the Ball Game"
Saturday, June 9,
A full day of family fun with a baseball theme. Mark Twain loved the game. "Mark Twain contributes liberally to the support of the Hartford base ball club," the Sporting News said in 1886.
Race, Rage & Redemption Film Series: "Do the Right Thing"
Wednesday, June 13, 7 p.m.
Our "Race, Rage and Redemption" film series boils over with this Spike Lee Joint! Set on the hottest day of the summer, "Do the Right Thing" focuses on simmering racial tensions in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. Sal's Famous Pizzeria becomes a locus of agitation and resentment when it is discovered that there are no black men on the Italian restaurant's "Wall of Fame." Spike Lee won the Academy Award for Best Screenplay for this controversial modern masterpiece.
Rated R. Includes nudity and strong language.
$5. Free for MTH&M members.
CLIVE CUSSLER - The Clemens Lecture
Thursday, June 14, 7:30 p.m.
Adventure, ahoy! The Grand Master of Adventure comes to the home of Mark Twain! New York Times bestselling author Clive Cussler surfaces in Hartford on June 14th! Famed for his pulse-raising action novels, Cussler is the author or coauthor of more than forty previous books, including twenty-one Dirk Pitt tales, eight NUMA Files adventures, eight Oregon Files books, the Isaac Bell historical thrillers, and the Fargo adventures. He is also the founder of the real NUMA, which, led by Cussler, searches for shipwrecks of historic significance.
Tickets - $40 members / $45 non-members VIP ticket including reception with Clive Cussler at 6 p.m. in café - $85 Tickets on sale now! (860) 280-3130
Nook Farm Book Talk -- Emancipation Narratives: A selection of works by Frederick Douglass, Josiah Henson, Harriet Jacobs
Thursday, June 14, At the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, 77 Forest Street, Hartford
5:00 p.m. reception, 5:30 p.m. talk
The Emancipation Narratives of the 19th century were one of the ways that the majority of the American public learned about the trials and tribulations of those enslaved in what would become the Confederacy during the Civil War. For the June meeting of the Nook Farm Book Club we will be reading selections from three of the more popular narratives written during Stowe and Twain's lifetime. Frederick Douglass was and still is the most widely known writer of an emancipation story, so well-known that Stowe even writes to him asking for descriptions of plantation life to add realism to her abolitionist tome, "Uncle Tom's Cabin." The next selection comes from the man who came to be called the real life Uncle Tom, the Rev. Josiah Henson. Henson becomes known as the real "Uncle Tom," after Stowe points to him as proof against her nay-sayers that good Christian slaves do exist, and Tom is not a pure fabrication. While all of our writers successfully made it to the North, Henson is the only one to go directly for freedom in Canada. Our final selection from Harriet Jacobs gives the perspective of an enslaved woman and her attempts to escape the bonds of slavery. Jacobs endured years of abuse, the loss of children, and seven of those years hiding on slave-owners plantation before escaping across the Mason-Dixon.
Made possible by the Connecticut Humanities Council, the Greater Hartford Arts Council and the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism.
FREE event!
To register, call (860) 522-9258 ext. 317
A Father's Day Jazz Brunch: XY Eli Band
Sunday, June 17, Two seatings: 11:30 a.m. and 1:15 a.m.
Bring Dad for a blues-filled brunch with the hot sounds of Hartford’s own XY Eli Band.
Cafe Eiko at Japanalia presents a Jazz Brunch in our own Murasaki Cafe, replete with a four-star Japanese cuisine and American breakfast favorites. Hot sounds and heartwarming foods in the coolest place in town.
$35. Reservations: 860-280-3130.
The Clemens Lecture: Judy Blume At the Lincoln Theater, Univerisyt of Hartford
Thursday, June 21, 7:30 p.m.
One of the best-loved writers for children, young adults and grown-ups, Judy Blume holds a special place in many a reader’s heart.
With over 80 million books in print, her classic novels include Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, Superfudge, Blubber, Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great, and Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.
Finding herself at the center of an organized book banning campaign in the 1980s, she began to reach out to other writers, as well as teachers and librarians, who were under fire. Since then, she has worked tirelessly with the National Coalition Against Censorship to protect the freedom to read.
Support provided by Hartford Steam Boiler, the Cigna Foundation, the Greater Hartford Arts Council, and the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development.
At the Lincoln Theater on the campus of The University of Hartford.
Tickets: $25, $40 $85 ticket includes VIP seating and pre-event reception with Judy Blume Tickets: 860-768-4228 or www.hartford.edu/hart
Race, Rage & Redemption Film Series: "Bamboozled"
Wednesday, June 27, 7 p.m.
Mark Twain felt the minstrel show was one of the best forms of entertainment during his day. In the late 19th century and early 20th century, minstrel troupes performing in blackface were all the rage. Up into the 1930s, it could still be found in films.
Our "Race, Rage & Redemption" series tackles the modern day minstrel show as found in one of Spike Lee's most recent joints, "Bamboozled." A scathing comic "What if?" envisions black actors performing in blackface in a controversial new television show. What does it say about our society when the minstrel show becomes a hit?
Rated R.
$5. MTH&M members free!
The Friends of The Mark Twain House & Museum present An Evening with Joan Didion at Hartford Stage
Thursday, June 28, 7:00 p.m.
Journalist, novelist, screenwriter, essayist and memoirist Joan Didion has had an enduring impact on the American literary scene for over five decades.
She won the National Book Award for her stark The Year of Magical Thinking, a look at her grief in the year after the death of her husband, Hartford’s own John Gregory Dunne. She followed up this masterpiece in 2011 with her new frank confessional Blue Nights, about her complicated relationship with her daughter Quintana Roo.
Followed by a dessert reception and book signing.
$40, $30 for MTH&M Members and Hartford Stage subscribers. Call 860-527-5151, or go to www.hartfordstage.org
Connecticut Film Festival
Friday, June 29, 7:30 pm
Further information to come.
July
July
The Greatest Show: Author Michael Downs reads from his new book of stories based on the 1944 Hartford Circus Fire
Friday, July 6, 5:00 p.m. reception; 5:30 p.m. talk/reading, followed by a booksigning
On the 68th anniversary of the grisly fire during a Ringling Brothers, Barnum & Bailey matinee on June 6, 1944, which killed 168 people, author Michael Downs reads from The Greatest Show,his collection of short stories based on incidents surrounding the blaze.
Downs, a Hartford native now teaching at Towson University in Baltimore, is the winner of the River Teeth Literary Nonfiction Prize for his work House of Good Hope.
Free.
Nook Farm Book Talk - Harold: The Boy Who Became Mark Twain by Hal Holbrook
Thursday, July 12, At the Mark Twain House Museum Center.
5:00 PM Reception; 5:30-6:30 PM Book Discussion
Nook Farm Book Talks, a collaboration between The Mark Twain House & Museum and the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, continues with a discussion of actor Hal Holbrook's autobiography.
Harold is Holbrook’s affecting memoir of growing up behind disguises, and his lifelong search for himself. Abandoned by his mother and father when he was two, Holbrook and his two sisters each commenced their separate journeys of survival. Raised by his powerful grandfather until his death when Holbrook was twelve, Holbrook spent his childhood at boarding schools, visiting his father in an insane asylum, and hoping his mother would suddenly surface in Hollywood. As the Second World War engulfed Europe, Holbrook began acting almost by accident.
Thereafter, through war, marriage, and the work of honing his craft, his fear of insanity and his fearlessness in the face of risk were channeled into his discovery that the riskiest path of all—success as an actor—would be his birthright. The climb up that tough, tough mountain was going to be a lonely one. And how he achieved it—the cost to his wife and children and to his own conscience—is the dark side of his eventual fame from performing the man his career would forever be most closely associated with, the iconic Mark Twain.
Made possible by the Connecticut Humanities Council, the Greater Hartford Arts Council and the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism.
FREE event!
To register, call (860) 522-9258 ext. 317
Get a Clue! Tour
Friday, July 13, and Saturday, July 14. 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Hour-long tours depart every twenty minutes.
Someone has killed Pap Finn! Was it Tom Sawyer in the Library with the wrench? The Connecticut Yankee in the Billiard Room with the knife? The Pauper in the Kitchen with the rope? A parody inspired on the classic Parker Brothers/Hasbro game CLUE, a full-fledged murder mystery is yours to solve on The Mark Twain House & Museum’s new “Get a Clue” Tour!
Ever noticed that many of the rooms in The Mark Twain House are the same as the ones on the iconic 1949 board game? The Hall, the Dining Room and other opulent rooms become possible murder scenes in this classic challenge of deductive reasoning and detective skill.
The hilarious Sea Tea Improv comedy troupe becomes the suspects, all based on famous characters from the Mark Twain novels created in this very house. In one hour, participants will be able to make accusations and figure out who sent the wretched Pap Finn to his doom, where he was dispatched, and what was used to off the scoundrel. Solve the mystery, laugh a lot, and save the day!
$22 / $20 for MTH&M members. Reservations required. Call (860) 280-3130
Cedar Hill Cemetery’s Nook Farm Neighbors: A Walking Tour
A Joint Program of The Mark Twain House & Museum and the Cedar Hill Cemetery Foundation
Held at Cedar Hill Cemetery, 453 Fairfield Ave., Hartford
Saturday, July 14, 10:00 a.m. (walk should last about an hour and a half)
Join historians Steve Courtney and Allison Norrie as they discuss Nook Farm residents who chose Cedar Hill Cemetery, a Victorian marvel of outdoor monuments and statuary in Hartford's South End, as their final resting place.
One of Hartford’s most prestigious residential neighborhoods, Nook Farm was home to Mark Twain and Harriet Beecher Stowe -- and lesser known character's you'll learn about on this walk. Although Twain and Stowe are laid to rest elsewhere, history and “gossip” will bring the lives of their neighbors to life.
Steve will also sign copies of his new book The Loveliest Home That Ever Was”: The Story of the Mark Twain House in Hartford. (Dover).
$5.00, payable at the starting point, the flagpole at the entrance to the main cemetery area.
Free for Mark Twain House & Museum members, Cedar Hill Cemetery Foundation members and Let’s Go! Arts members.
A Sunday Jazz Brunch: Carlos Hernandez Chavez
Sunday, July 22, Two seatings: 11:30 a.m. and 1:15 p.m.
Hartford's Carlos Hernandez Chavez is so well known for his evocative paintings and murals that sometimes overlooked is his parallel career as a guitart, bass-playing musician, and the leader of a first-rate, traditionally-rooted, Mexican/Latin band.
Cafe Eiko at Japanalia presents a Jazz Brunch in our own Murasaki Cafe, replete with a four-star Japanese cuisine and American breakfast favorites. Hot sounds and heartwarming foods in the coolest place in town.
$35. Reservations: 860-280-3130.
Race, Rage & Redemption Film Series: "Matewan"
Wednesday, July 25, 7 p.m.
Independent filmmaker John Sayles creates one of his more artistic works with this period feature about a volatile 1920s labor dispute in the town of Matewan, West Virginia. Matewan is a coal town where the local miners' lives are controlled by the powerful Stone Mountain Coal Company. The company practically owns the town, reducing workers' wages while raising prices at the company-owned supply and grocery. The citizens' land and homes are not their own, and the future seems dim. When the coal company brings immigrants and blacks to Matewan as "scabs," union organizers scour the town to unite all miners in a strike. As the crisis grows, strikers and their families are removed from their homes by two coal company mercenaries, and the situation heads toward a final shootout on Matewan's main street . Sayles' simple but telling screenplay brings to light the treatment of immigrants and minorities in the early 20th century South, and it draws sharp parallels between the Matewan labor battle and the Civil War some 50 years earlier. Interestingly, corporate control over communities and immigrant labor are just as timely today.
$5. MTH&M members free.
Connecticut Film Festival
Friday, July 27, 7:30 p.m.
Information to come.
Aug
August
Race, Rage & Redemption Film Screening: "Mandingo"
Wednesday, August 8, 7 p.m.
One of the most ridiculous entries in the race film genre and blaxploitation has to be "Mandingo." Reviled by Roger Ebert, called "stinko" by Leonard Maltin, and hailed (ironically, of course) by Quentin Tarantino, "Mandingo" is a Southern slavery epic gone grievously wrong. On Falconhurst, a run-down plantation owned by the widowed Warren Maxwell and his son Hammond, a 'Mandingo' slave Ganymede is trained to fight other slaves. Hammond neglects his wife Blanche, whom he rejects on their wedding night after discovering she was not a virgin. Hammond instead ravishes his slave Ellen, while Blanche seduces Ganymede. A bodice-ripping, big budget bomb!
$5. MTH&M members free!
Race, Rage & Redemption Film Series: "Cleopatra Jones"
Wednesday, August 22, 7 p.m.
In the 1970s, blaxploitation films like "Superfly," "Shaft" and "Blacula" showed a pimped-out, violent, soul side of Hollywood. Generally low budget and trafficking in stereotypes, these films managed to also be oddly empowering and enduring in their influence. One sub-genre was the feminist-buttkicking heroines of such films as "Cleopatra Jones." A 1973 film starring Pamela Dobson, this classic finds a female black James Bond taking on the notorious drug merchants in her neighborhood with karate kicks, guns blazing and a funky soundtrack.
$5. MTH&M members free.
Connecticut Film Festival
Friday, August 24, 7:30 pm
Further information to come.
A Sunday Jazz Brunch: Jose Gonzalez and Criollo Clasico
Sunday, August 26, Two seatings: 11:30 a.m. and 1:15 a.m.
Enjoy Sunday brunch with Jose Gonzalez and Criollo Clasico, "one of the most prestigious contemporary music ensembles of Puerto Rico" (Marisa Rosado, President, Casa Aboy Cultural Center, San Juan Puerto Rico).
Cafe Eiko at Japanalia presents a Jazz Brunch in our own Murasaki Cafe, replete with a four-star Japanese cuisine and American breakfast favorites. Hot sounds and heartwarming foods in the coolest place in town.
$35. Reservations: 860-280-3130.
Sept
September
Nook Farm Book Talk - The Help by Kathryn Stockett
Thursday, September 13, At the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, 77 Forest Street, Hartford, Connecticut
5:00 PM Reception; 5:30-6:30 PM Book Discussion
Nook Farm Book Talks, a collaboration between The Mark Twain House & Museum and the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, continues with Kathryn Stockett's array of sharply defined black and white characters in the nascent years of the civil rights movement.
In writing about such a troubled time in American history, Southern-born Stockett takes a big risk, one that paid off enormously. Critics praised Stockett's skillful depiction of the ironies and hypocrisies that defined an era, without resorting to depressing or controversial cliches. Rather, Stockett focuses on the fascinating and complex relationships between vastly different members of a household.
The Help has been a cultural touchstone for the millions of readers who have cheered on Skeeter, laughed with Minny, and hissed at Hilly. The noble and strong Aibileen has become a heroine for countless fans whose letters have poured in from all over the world. Now the bestselling and beloved book is available in a deluxe gift edition.
An immensely popular book, The Help has been on bestseller lists longer than any other hardcover fiction title since The Da Vinci Code in 2003.
Made possible by the Connecticut Humanities Council, the Greater Hartford Arts Council and the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism.
FREE event!
To register, call (860) 522-9258 ext. 317
Viva Cinema Latino Film Festival
Thursday, September 20, through September 23
The Connecticut Film Festival's tribute to the cinema of Latin America and Latin Americans.
A Sunday Jazz Brunch: Intercession
Sunday, September 23, Two seatings: 11:30 a.m. and 1:15 p.m.
Enjoy a gospel Sunday Brunch with Intercession, a singing quintet who writes spirit-inspired songs in the Gospel Soul genre with tight harmonic contemporary and traditional grooves.
Cafe Eiko at Japanalia presents a Jazz Brunch in our own Murasaki Cafe, replete with a four-star Japanese cuisine and American breakfast favorites. Hot sounds and heartwarming foods in the coolest place in town.
$35. Reservations: 860-280-3130.
Oct
October
Nook Farm Book Talk - Election by Tom Perrotta
Thursday, October 4, at the Mark Twain House Museum Center.
5:00 PM Reception; 5:30-6:30 PM Book Discussion
Nook Farm Book Talks, a collaboration between The Mark Twain House & Museum and the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, continues with a discussion of Tom Perrotta's novel Election which again demonstrates how remarkably astute an observer and writer of the adolescent experience he is.
The book is set in a New Jersey high school amidst a hotbed of political activity: students are voting for their school president. Perrotta's cast of characters are exaggerated but convincing. They convey adolescence as it often is--sometimes painful and frequently awkward. Tracy is the popular girl, smart and pretty, but she isn't quite as perfect as her classmates assume. A sordid affair with a teacher lurks in the shadows. Paul is the jovial football jock, but his parent's divorce has left him hurt and vulnerable. Then there is Paul's younger and geekier sister Tammy, the tormented underdog struggling with her sexuality.
Plot develops through a series of mini-chapters, narrated by the main protagonists. There are also frequent interjections from Mr. M, the all-around good teacher every kid loves--the kind of teacher Hollywood loves to enshrine in sentimental flicks. A genuine crescendo of excitement and anticipation consumes the reader, as we eagerly await who has won the election. This is a novel of teenagers on the brink of adulthood, and is probably best appreciated by grownups with enough perspective on their own adolescent experiences to be able to take the bitter with the sweet.
Made possible by the Connecticut Humanities Council, the Greater Hartford Arts Council and the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism.
FREE event!
To register, call (860) 522-9258 ext. 317
Connecticut Film Festival
Friday, October 26, 7:30 pm
Further information to come.
Nov
November
Nook Farm Book Talk - Poganuc People by Harriet Beecher Stowe
Thursday, November 1, At the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, 77 Forest Street, Hartford, Connecticut
5:00 PM Reception; 5:30-6:30 PM Book Discussion
Nook Farm Book Talks, a collaboration between The Mark Twain House & Museum and the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, continues with Harriet Beecher Stowe's loosely based autobiographical work.
In this book, Stowe depicts the life and times of a small Puritan town Poganuc, based on her childhood in Litchfield, Connecticut. It features colorful characters like Miss Dolly and Colonel Davenport, local politics, small town religiosity, and anecdotal recipes for life.
Made possible by the Connecticut Humanities Council, the Greater Hartford Arts Council and the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism.
FREE event!
To register, call (860) 522-9258 ext. 317
Connecticut Film Festival
Friday, November 30, 7:30 pm
Further information to come.
Dec
December
Nook Farm Book Talk - No.44, The Mysterious Stranger by Mark Twain
Thursday, December 6, at the Mark Twain House Museum Center.
5:00 PM Reception; 5:30-6:30 PM Book Discussion
Nook Farm Book Talks, a collaboration between The Mark Twain House & Museum and the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, concludes its 2012 series with a discussion of Mark Twain final novel, No. 44, the Mysterious Stranger. In this book, Twain returns to Medieval Austria and tells of No. 44's (ie. Satan's) mysterious appearance at the door of a print shop and his use of heavenly powers to expose the futility of mankind's existence.
This version also introduces an idea Twain was toying with at the end of his life involving a duality of the "self", one being the "Waking Self" and the other being the "Dream Self". Twain explores these ideas through the use of "Duplicates", copies of the print shop workers made by No. 44.
Made possible by the Connecticut Humanities Council, the Greater Hartford Arts Council and the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism.
FREE event!
To register, call (860) 522-9258 ext. 317
Connecticut Film Festival
Friday, December 28, 7:30 pm
Further information to come.
