Humanities Council to celebrate 20th anniversary with fundraiser

The Northern Mariana Islands Council for the Humanities, a non-profit, grants-making corporation in the CNMI, will celebrate its 20th anniversary with a fundraising dinner to benefit its various programs for the community.

Executive director Scott Russell said the fundraising dinner is slated for Aug. 12 at 6pm at the Pacific Islands Club in San Antonio. Tickets cost $50 per person.

Russell said the dinner will feature raffle drawing of donated prizes, a special auction of donated artwork, and remarks from Fr. Eric Forbes, who will serve as the keynote speaker during the event.

Born and raised in Guam, Forbes is the Capuchin superior for both Guam and Hawaii. He earned his bachelor’s degree in History at San Francisco State University in 1984 and his masters of divinity at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley.

Forbes is a columnist for the Pacific Daily News and authored several books, including Historia dela Mision de Guam de los Capuchinos Espanoles, The German Capuchins in the Marianas 1907-1919, and Pale’ Roman.

“He’s a humanities scholar in his own right. …He’s going to be looking at how the humanities fit into life here in the Marianas and how they’re relevant to the indigenous communities,” Russell said in an interview after Spanish historian Dr. Carlos Madrid’s presentation at the American Memorial Park Tuesday.

Russell said they hope to give next Friday’s guests “a nice, enjoyable evening and give them some quality for their money” with live music, great food, and drinks.

“We have printed 500 [tickets] and we’re hoping to sell as many of those as possible,” he added.

Tickets are available at the Humanities Council’s office at Spring Plaza in Gualo Rai or from any Council staff and board member.

Humanities through the years

Russell, who has been with the Humanities Council for the last 10 years, said the organization has grown with time, becoming “stronger” and improving their programs over the years.

“I could say that we are probably one of the lead agencies in studying the history, cultures, and languages of the indigenous population. In more recent years, we have expanded our reach because we still feel that that’s a very important thing to do,” he said.

Their programs, Russell said, involve getting the younger generation “hooked in the humanities early.” These include working with junior high school students, a Motheread family literacy program for children and low income families, and several projects that look at contributions that have been made by segments of the society other than the indigenous community.

“We’re also going to be looking at other innovative ways of making the humanities more relevant to the general public and involving more segments of the public, especially in Rota and Tinian,” added Russell.

According to Russell, the Humanities Council has had challenges in getting programs to the two islands and one of the ways they’ve addressed this is through the weekly radio program it sponsors.

“Your Humanities Half-Hour,” which airs every Sunday from 2pm to 2:30pm on Power 99, is hosted by Catherine Perry.

“We’ve run it for a year. We’re going to do another three months and we’re going to look for corporate sponsors,” said Russell.

He said the National Endowment for the Humanities deems the radio show a “very important program” as it reaches out to more people in the community.

A lecture from another visiting scholar, Dirk Spennemann, is scheduled next week in line with the council’s anniversary.