Police violence and lynching have been topics of recent news around the country, and may be found throughout U.S. history. On Thursday, February 5, five Orono High School students will join writer and historian Stephanie Harp for “The 1927 Project,” a presentation about an early 20th-century lynching in Little Rock, Arkansas. In 2013, Harp traveled to Arkansas to join descendants and relatives of those connected to the lynching to present historical and personal perspectives on what happened. “The 1927 Project” will recreate that community discussion at the Orono High School-Middle School library, 6-7:30 p.m. The evening is free and open to the public.

“The public discussion in Little Rock was the first to include family members of so many major figures in the 1927 events,” Harp said. “The wounds from this lynching are still very raw in Little Rock. We all gain a better understanding of today’s news by looking at its roots in the past.” Harp holds a master’s degree in U.S. history from the University of Maine, where the lynching was her research topic, and a bachelor’s degree in English from Randolph-Macon College, Ashland, Virginia. She has published journalism, creative nonfiction and book reviews, and has presented her research and writing in Maine, North Carolina and Arkansas.

Harp will be joined by five Orono High School honors, drama, speech, debate and community theater students to present the conversation.]

The Maine Arts Commission awarded Harp a Good Idea Grant for professional transcription of the discussion and of more than 13 hours of oral history interviews she conducted in Little Rock, for her book-in-progress. The Maine Arts Commission is an independent state agency supported by the National Endowment for the Arts. The Little Rock presentation was supported by a grant from the Arkansas Humanities Council.

For more information, contact [email protected] or 207.852.6746. (from )

stephanieharp.com/inheritance

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  February 5, 2015 from 6:00 to 7:30 pm

  February 5, 2015 06:00 to February 5, 2015 07:30
• Orono High School-Middle School Library
  14 Goodridge Road, Orono, ME

  Directions to event · Directions from event
• Contact Stephanie Harp for more information
  207.852.6746 or [email protected]
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