Release Date: 07-01-2009
Author: Joshua E. Brown
Email: Joshua.E.Brown@uvm.edu
Phone: 802/656-3039 Fax: (802) 656-3203
Four hundred years ago this summer, Samuel de Champlain paddled into the lake that now bears his name. This anniversary has sparked a flurry of celebrations and reflection on the history of the Lake Champlain region.
It has also sparked a group of thinkers, including several UVM faculty and staff members, to look the other direction: toward 2109.
The Champlain Quadricentennial "Forums on the Future," will gather each day from Monday, July 6, to Saturday, July 11, at Contois Auditorium, Burlington City Hall.
These panel discussions, part of the Burlington International Waterfront Festival will begin at noon, end at 1:30. They are free and open to the public.
"As we pause to consider the meaning of Samuel de Champlain's 1609 voyage and look at where we are four centuries afterward, it's an occasion to also imagine what our world will be a hundred years from now," Fran Stoddard explained in a release.
Stoddard, a host with Vermont Public Television, will moderate the six sessions. "These fast-paced interchanges with dynamic panelists are going to be stimulating events that will become a chronicle of our time," she said.
Following a brief overview of how Burlington marked the Champlain anniversary in 1909 and 1959, Karen Meyer, UVM vice president of State and Federal Relations, will join former Governor Madeleine Kunin and three other panelists to discuss the State of Vermont's work at "visioning" over the last century, and track how forward-looking studies became governmental policy.
Authors, young and old, will present journal entries from a day in the year 2050. Some readers include Burlington novelist Mark Estrin, post-peak oil prophet James Howard Kunstler, nonfiction writer Jim Tabor, poet-playwright David Budbill, and playwright Kathryn Blume.
Amy Trubek, UVM professor of nutrition and author of The Taste of Place, will join a discussion on the possibilities for the future of Vermont's food industry. Other panelists include Vermont Secretary of Agriculture Roger Allbee, Vermont Fresh Network Executive Director Meghan Sheradin, Tom Stearns of High Mowing Seeds, General Manager Clem Nilan of City Market, and Natural Resources Manager for Ben and Jerry's, Andrea Asch.
What does it mean to be a Vermonter, and how does our collective cultural output reflect our sense of place and community? Artists Val Hird, Annemie Curlin and John Miller with Lyman Orton's "Art of Action" initiative, architect John Anderson, and The Vermont Movie filmmaker Nora Jacobsen discuss their creative processes.
UVM political science professor Frank Bryan is well known for his insights and outspoken opinions on the nature of life in Vermont. In this panel, he'll join others in asking: what is "the real Vermont"? Are we who we think we were? Other panelists include the president of Earth Turbines, David Blittersdorf, Montpelier lawyer and historian Paul Gillies, spiritual teacher Sue Mehrtens, communication technology consultant Steve Shepard, Vermont Preservation Trust leader, Paul Bruhn, and Green Mountain Power CEO, Mary Powell.
Explore the future of Native Americans in Vermont as well as new, culturally unique communities who have settled or are now settling in the region. How do members of these populations imagine their future in the state, both in the short term and generations hence? Panelists include Wanda Heading-Grant, associate provost for Multicultural Affairs and Academic Initiatives at UVM; Brent Bjorkman of the Vermont Folklife Center; Bosnian community leader Mehida Jusufagic; Jacob Bogre of the Association of Africans Living in Vermont; Abenaki historian and storyteller Marge Bruchac; and Tracey Tsugawa of the Vermont Human Rights Commission.
All six sessions will be recorded by educational cable-access TV channel RETN for future broadcast.
