Hometown Heritage at the Carnegie Library Museum will introduce a new program series later this month, thanks to grant funding from the State Historical Society Inc.
The program, “Re-Awakening History Through Our Own Stories,” will take place as five monthly programs, exploring how living in a small Midwestern town influences family, education, work, faith and loss. The program series will be free to the public and will take place at different locations to showcase the various community assets created by Hometown Heritage.
The first program will explore the theme of Family and will take place Tuesday, March 29th from 6-8 p.m. at the Carnegie Library Museum. The program will be presented by Hometown Heritage Board Member the Rev. Andrea Brownlee of the First Christian Church.
“We hope this program will help you rethink what it means to be part of a family,” says Brownlee. “Families aren’t just the ones we are born into but can also be the ones we create! We hope you’ll come spend the evening with us as we share stories and create family trees that remind us we all belong to wild, difficult but always beautiful families!”
Through the ongoing analysis of the interviews in Hometown Heritage archives, five major themes emerged that captured the lives of Perry’s residents. These themes include stories of faith, family, work, education and loss, and each will serve as a theme of continued exploration with this new program series.
Each of the monthly programs will be facilitated by a board member of Hometown Heritage, incorporating guest speakers’ expertise of each of the five themes as it relates to area history, themselves and their families.
“I hope the program series will ignite excitement in reawakening interest for telling our own life stories,” adds Perry Public Library Director and Hometown Heritage Board Member Mary Murphy. “Our community is made up of so many individual stories, and each one is important. Each one needs to be told and recorded so that it may be shared with future generations.”
In addition to the monthly program series, interviews of community members will be conducted to capture new stories in order to enhance the existing collection of 700 audio and video interviews of Perry residents, along with nearly 15,000 photographs archived in the Hometown Heritage collection.
Re-Awakening History Through Our Own Stories Program Schedule
- Tuesday, March 29, 6-8 p.m.: FAMILY at Carnegie Library Museum, 1123 Willis Ave., Perry, Presented by Rev. Andrea Brownlee, First Christian Church
- Tuesday, April 26, 6-8 p.m.: EDUCATION featuring history of education at Perry High School Presented by Lynsi Pasutti, Perry Chamber of Commerce
- Tuesday, May 24, 6-8 p.m.: WORK featuring Paley Arches at Town/Craft Building presented by Mary Murphy, Perry Public Library
- Thursday, June 16, 6-8 p.m.: LOSS and HOME at Carnegie Library Museum presented by Pam Jenkins, Professor Emerita, University of New Orleans
- Tuesday, July 26, 6-8 p.m.: FAITH at Hotel Pattee presented by Bill Clark, president of Hometown Heritage
A sixth program will take place as a capstone of the series to reveal videos created from the community interviews. More details on the final program will be available at a later date.
For more information about this program or Hometown Heritage at the Carnegie Library, contact Mary Murphy at the Perry Public Library at 515-465-3569 or mmurphy@perry.lib.ia.us.
Lynsi Pasutti is the executive director of the Perry Chamber of Commerce.
