North Carolina Conversations Summer-Fall 2008.pdf

The 2007AnnualReport tothe PeopleMany Stories, One PeopleShelley Crisp, Executive DirectorIn late spring 2007, theNorth Carolina Humanities Counciladopted a new tagline: Many Stories,One People. The words reflect theHumanities Council’s mission tosupport vital conversations thatnurture the cultures and heritage ofNorth Carolina. But with a populationof more than nine million NorthCarolinians, how is it possible to layclaim to the ideal that one nonprofitorganization can afford every voicea time and place and that together,all those voices can comprise aunited citizenry? Such goals are forgrasp not reach. The HumanitiesCouncil musters as many resourcesas possible to serve a set of corevalues that prize the interdisciplinaryapproach to the humanitiesand inclusiveness for every citizento be in dialogue with each other,with knowledge, and with the publicdestiny that they themselves create.The Council is privileged to partnerwith many individuals and organizationsacross the state. The set of factsand figures that follows in this 2007Annual Report to the People givessome indication of the partnershipsthe Council forges and the variedprograms it extends throughoutthe state. From small-town publiclibraries to state university campuses,from communities sharing beaches,sounds, rivers, mountains, andall that lies between, the Councilmeets with oral historians, localarchivists, archeologists, teachers,government officials, farm workers,photographers, filmmakers, folkliferesearchers, and a myriad of otheradvocates for humanities in everyguise in order to offer programs todelight and enlighten.I invite you to take note of thosewho have made the Council’s workas much about fact as it is aboutpossibility, as much about realizationas it is about aspiration. Council staffand board members, project directorsand scholars, legislative supportersand donors all help to make theNorth Carolina Humanities Councila day-to-day presence across 550miles of vastly, beautifully variouslandscapes, among people whoselives are comparably as differentand valuable. It is a shared laborthat is documented here and one tocelebrate, especially if, in RoxanneNewton’s words, the Council andits friends do indeed empower thehearts and minds of North Carolina’smany voices.Because of the generous support of the North Carolina HumanitiesCouncil, we were able to…stitch together a living communityof hearts and minds empowered to understand our diverse andoften-fragmented past and to strive for a promising united future.~Roxanne Newton, Mitchell Community CollegeLillium michauxii (Carolina Lily): North Carolina’s official state wildflower, oftenoverlooked, thrives from the pocosins to the Blue Ridge Parkway.Photo © 2008 Breath O’Spring, Inc.