Join OLLI for a Special Event
Sorry, the tours are full. Call the OLLI Office to be added to the wait list.
Date: Tuesday, June 16
Tour 1 Time: 10 – 11:30 a.m.
Tour 2 Time: 12 – 1:30 p.m.
Location:
Eastern Cemetery (meeting location to be shared upon registration)
$5 for OLLI members. Cash-only at the event. Registration required; call the OLLI office at (207) 780-4406.
To complement Ron Romano’s SAGE program last fall, Ron is offering one of his famous tours of the Eastern Cemetery.
Tour Portland’s oldest public space — Eastern Cemetery — which was established in 1668. The hour-long walk through the site will include the oldest stone, a review of the types of materials used to decorate graves, and monument styles. We’ll see many gravestones produced in the shop of the region’s first stonecutter, Bartlett Adams, visit the 1875 Dead House, pause at gravestones undergoing conservation, and see how segregation of minorities and the effects of the Great Fire of 1866 changed the landscape over its 350 years. This promises to be a most interesting hour.
The registration fee will go directly to the cemetery’s conservation. Directions and instructions of where to meet will be provided with confirmation of registration. Please wear comfortable shoes as our walk is on uneven ground and involves inclines. No dogs allowed. For those wanting to learn more, books about the cemetery will be available for autographing and sale. A cemetery touring map is available.
A special summer session OLLI offering!
Dates: Thursdays, July 2, 9, 23, 30 & August 6
Time: 9:30 a.m. – 10:45 a.m.
Location: Wishcamper Center, room 133
$30; five sessions. Registration opens June 3. OLLI members only.
Explore how the Transcendentalists created an intellectual and cultural revolution. USM Provost and VP for Academic Affairs Dr. Adam delves into this extraordinary intellectual revolution in early- to mid-19th century Concord, Massachusetts. Dr. Tuchinsky will provide an introductory mini-lecture followed by class discussion in a comfortable setting of readings and videos, including segments of original writing and portions of recent histories. This course is specially crafted for OLLI and follows on the successful trip to Walden Pond and the Old Manse this spring (attendance on that trip is not required to participate in this class).
Transcendentalism was the New England branch of the Romantic movement. The Transcendentalists were radical individualists, a stance that would not have been possible without the political revolution of their parents’ and grandparents’ generations.
This group of reformers connect directly to issues we face today, including: the importance of nature in our material and spiritual well-being; civil disobedience and its role in motivating cultural and political change; radical egalitarianism regardless of sex or caste; and the cultural tenor of American education as it relates to living in a contemporary society. By looking back, we will get a new perspective on life today.
Dr. Tuchinsky will select excerpts from the following books:
- Robert Gross, The Minute Men and Their World
- Selections from Ralph Waldo Emerson
- Henry David Thoreau, Walden and “Civil Disobedience”
- Megan Marshall, The Peabody Sisters: The Women Who Ignited American Romanticism
Illustration by Annie Spratt on Unsplash