Forgetting...but not Forgotten

For the past year, Megan Morrison, from MUN's Department of Women's Studies, has woven in and out of conversation with and about women living with late-stage dementia. As a researcher, she had to step out of her comfort zone in order ot hear and see what was being communicated. Over time, she learned to express herself through art, music and writing. Over time, these women learned to express themselves in whatever ways they can. Without relying on words, these five elderly women have taught Megan about who they are. Through story and song, she will share this experience with us.

Perhaps you will find yourself within the stories...or wanting to share your own.

Forgetting...but not Forgotten
Tuesday, March 9 at 8 pm
The Ship (265 Duckworth Street)


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Coming up in April:

To Marguerite....
A collaborative fundraising concert presented in conjunction with the St. John's Status of Women Council in support of Marguerite's Place

Why listen to Johann, Georg, Frideric or Sebastian...when you can join us instead for an evening with Anna, Elisabeth, the Duchess and a few widows? Sonja Boon (baroque flute) and Mary O'Keeffe (harpsichord) whisk you away to the eighteenth century for a program of music written, engraved, published and supported by women.

All proceeds from this concert will go to Marguerite's Place.

To Marguerite...
Friday, April 23 at 8 pm
St. Mary the Virgin Church (entrance on Cornwall Crescent)
Tickets: $20 (general), $10 (student), $50 (with $30 tax receipt)
Available at: St. John's Women's Centre (150 Lemarchant), The Travel Bug (155 Water Street) or at the door.

For more information about the concert call: 737-2551.

Working for a Living: Gender and Class in the Literature of Newfoundland and Labrador

The Blue Castle invites you to join local authors Helen Porter, Bernice Morgan, Trudy Morgan Cole, and Carmelita McGrath, together with facilitator Phyllis Artiss for a roundtable discussion about working class women in the literature of Newfoundland and Labrador. The authors will provide insights into their depictions of women in fiction and expand on the themes of work, and gender, as they appear in novels, short stories, and poems set in this province. The roundtable will be followed by a general conversation with our audience, as the authors take questions and engage in debate about the topic.

Please join us for a roundtable conversation about Working for a Living: Class and Gender in the Literature of Newfoundland and Labrador, taking place on Monday, January 25th from 8-10pm at The Ship (265 Duckworth Street). Admission is free.

The Blue Castle on CBC's Weekend Arts Magazine!

Catch us here:

http://podcast.cbc.ca/mp3/nlwamgaloot_20091206_24089.mp3

To all of you who took part in our Smallwood event - thanks! it was a fabulous evening!

keep your eyes peeled for our winter series, starting in January 2010 with a roundtable featuring some of Newfoundland and Labrador's best loved women authors, among them Helen Porter, Bernice Morgan and Carmelita McGrath!

Stories in My Mother's Recipes

Diane Tye, from MUN's Department of Folklore, invites us into her mother’s kitchen! From oatcakes, tea biscuits and chocolate chip cookies to strawberry Jell-O squares, her mother's recipes for simple everyday foods contain surprisingly complex subtexts that speak of her life as a wife, mother and church woman in Nova Scotia from the 1950s to the 1980s. These instructions tell stories of region, class and religion and, at the same time that they reflect her mother's gendered social responsibilities, they hint at ways in which she and other women of her generation resisted those expectations.

In celebration of the relationships between cooking and storytelling, The Blue Castle invites guests to bring along a copy of their favourite recipe and the stories that go along with it.

Stories in My Mother’s Recipes
Tuesday, November 24, 2009 at 8 pm at The Ship Pub (265 Duckworth St., St. John’s). Admission is free.

For more information, contact Sonja Boon (sboon@mun.ca; 737-2551) or check out our blog at www.bluestockingsalon.blogspot.com.

Catherine Isabella McLean Fraser: "Mother in Israel"

On 26 October, we’ll be joined by Suzanne Sexty, MUN Honorary Research Librarian and regular Blue Castle-goer, who will talk about her research into the life of Catherine Isabella McLean Fraser: "Mother in Israel". From Crossapol on the isle of Coll, in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland, to the wilderness of Pictou, Nova Scotia, to Lunenburg, and finally to St. John's, the journey of Catherine Fraser took her far from her birth place. Wife of the first Presbyterian minister in Newfoundland, Catherine was a helpmate, mother and, always, "fiery Kate." The talk will look at Catherine's life as it brings her to Newfoundland.

Catherine Isabella McLean Fraser: "Mother in Israel"
Monday, October 26 at 8 pm at The Ship (265 Duckworth, St. John's)
Admission is free

Cooking up a (Life) Story: Women and Everyday Cultural Production

The Blue Castle: Conversations on Women, Culture and the Spaces of the Imagination presents its Fall 2009 series: Cooking up a (Life) Story: Women and Everyday Cultural Production. Please join us for four conversations dedicated to everyday cultural production! From the stories that emerge from women’s recipe collections, to the lives that are revealed in letters and on tombstones, and the taken-for-granted material artifacts that grace our homes, we’re taking a closer look at women’s myriad acts of everyday creativity, activities that have enriched – and continue to enrich – all of our lives.

On 21 September 2009, join us for The Blue Castle Show and Tell. Show and Tell is all about storytelling: it’s a space for you to share the stories of everyday creativity that have shaped your life.

Third wave feminism is embracing the traditional crafts, using knitting, stitching, cooking, and more as ways to bring out messages of social justice while simultaneously revaluing these activities as worthy of critical attention. What happens when we begin to examine this very broad arena of women’s creativity? Here’s your chance to look at the handcrafted items in your home in a new light! Bring along an item that was created by a woman in your life or an everyday item that makes you think of a creative woman in your life, and a story or two to go along with them. If the kitchen stove is too big to bring along, bring us a picture and the great stories that go along with it.

On 26 October, we’ll be joined by Suzanne Sexty, a regular Blue Castle-goer, who will talk about her research into the life of Catherine Isabella McLean Fraser: "Mother in Israel". From Crossapol on the isle of Coll, in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland, to the wilderness of Pictou, Nova Scotia, to Lunenburg, and finally to St. John's, the journey of Catherine Fraser took her far from her birth place. Wife of the first Presbyterian minister in Newfoundland, Catherine was a helpmate, mother and, always, "fiery Kate." The talk will look at Catherine's life as it brings her to Newfoundland.

Diane Tye, from MUN’s Department of Folklore, joins us on 24 November to talk about women’s recipe collections and the stories they can tell us. We invite you to bring along your favourite recipe, and a few stories that go along with it as well. I’m bringing along my friend Helene’s Aunt Dorothy’s ginger snaps…what will you bring? Perhaps there will be enough for a Blue Castle recipe collection...

Finally, on 8 December, we look at women as letter writers – more specifically, we’ll be travelling back to mid-twentieth-century Newfoundland to read the letters women wrote to Joey Smallwood in the early years of Confederation. An interactive venture that might rival our spring suffrage debates, this gathering requires the active participation of a series of readers interested in knowing more about women’s activities in mid-century Newfoundland and Labrador.

Just like last season, all events are free and will take place in the warm surroundings of The Ship Pub, on Duckworth Street. We hope you'll join us.

Should Women Get the Vote? or; What will men wear when women wear pants?

On April 21, 2009, The Blue Castle presents "Should Women Have the Vote? or; What will men wear when women wear pants?" an evening celebrating the 84th anniversary ofwomen's suffrage in Newfoundland. Showcasing the talents of several regular Blue Castle-goers, the evening will feature an interactive re-enactment of the great suffrage debates of the early twentieth century and will include excerpts from the speeches, songs, verses and memoirs of some of the leading voices of the suffrage movement, including Emmeline Pankhurst, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and Newfoundland's own Armine Gosling.

Please join us in a celebration of women's suffrage.

Should Women Have the Vote? or;
What will men wear when women wear pants?
Tuesday, April 21, 2009 at 8 pm at The Ship Pub (265 Duckworth Street)



Coming up in May....
And on May 19, 2009, we'll welcome Nancy Earle and Joan Sullivan in joint presentations on Cassie Brown. Nancy's 'The Making of Death on the Ice and the Newfoundland Imaginary' and Joan's 'My Life in Non-Fiction' will explore the conditions of (female) authorship in Newfoundland during the period. Nancy and Joan will look at the career of Cassie Brown and how she made a space forherself as author of Newfoundland. Nancy will also speak on the co-authoring/editorial process of Brown and Horwood.