NextThreeDays: Event Display

Community Voices: Dr. Tal Stanley - Director of Appalachian Center for Community Service
Venue: Lyric Theatre, Blacksburg
Directions: Google Map Link
Date: Thursday, September 27, 2012
Time: 7:00 - 8:00 PM
Event Types: Speaking Engagements
Cost: Free
Description:
On Thursday, September 27th, Community Voices will present Dr. Tal Stanley, author, historian, and community activist, with his talk entitled "Of Photographs, Limestone, and Place: Learning and Teaching a New American Citizenship" at 7 pm program at the Lyric Theatre in Blacksburg.

Dr. Stanley will speak on a new citizenship of place that is defined in its creativity, its willingness to share risks, in its effort to listen deeply, and in its commitment to honesty in the face of the most significant and difficult questions of our time and place.

Dr. Stanley is a writer of fiction, essays, history, and creative nonfiction. He is also a tenth-generation Southwest Virginian who grew up in Dublin, in Pulaski County. He currently lives and works at Emory & Henry College where he is the Director of the Appalachian Center for Community Service, Chair of the College's Department of Public Policy and Community Service, and Director of the Bonner Scholars Program. He also directs the Master of Arts program in Community and Organizational Leadership.

Tal Stanley's talk focuses on the connection of the places in which he is working in Southwest Virginia and southern West Virginia with the larger American story--challenging the ideas of exceptionalism or that Appalachia is somehow aberrant from America. From this foundation, he will make the point that we are learning and teaching important lessons in citizenship in these places that many see and understand as outside mainstream America--this citizenship is defined in its creativity, its willingness to share risks, its listening, and in its honesty about the unanswerable questions that we confront in our places.

Tal Stanley will be making these points by use of stories from these places. He will show photographs of community that he has gathered in his wide-ranging work as a scholar and community organizer.

Community Voices engages leaders from the public, private, and non-profit sectors in sharing stories and insights about their creative leadership initiatives and innovative approaches to problem-solving, the hard lessons learned and the rich experiences gained. lyric theater Speakers give concise (no more than 18 minutes) engaging talks, followed by conversation and dialogue with audience members. The presentations are video recorded and made widely available through a public access web-site.

For more information, visit: http://www.ipg.vt.edu/CommunityVoices/index.html