By Rebecca Spence, Staff Contributor
Twenty-four books. Twenty-four teams. Twenty-four hours. Odyssey Live was definitely a mythical marathon for the mind.
Halifax Humanities 101 set sail on this literary voyage last Friday at 7 p.m. at the King’s College Alumni Hall, and finally came to a standstill at 7 p.m. the next evening. The organization’s creative fundraiser featured local media personalities, politicians, university professors, students and other community members all taking turns to read aloud the 24 books that make up
Homer’s Odyssey. The event also featured an “Odyssey-inspired” silent auction of Grecian-style pottery, jewelry, and other donated goodies.
“It’s taken me about two months to organize,” says Mary Lu Redden, the director of Halifax Humanities 101. “It has absorbed my life completely.”
Redden spearheaded the operation by recruiting teams from all around the HRM as well as obtaining a wide-range of sponsors and donations.
Admission to this innovative event was a donation at the door. All proceeds will be going to Halifax Humanities 101, a non-profit outreach initiative that gives low-income adults the opportunity to experience a university-level liberal arts education. The program was established in October 2005 as an eight-month pilot project inspired by Earl Shorris, a writer and educator who began teaching a Humanities course 15 years ago to disadvantaged students on the lower east side of Manhattan. Shorris believed that a liberal arts education was the best way to encourage underprivileged people to become active in community and political life.
Former Halifax Humanities student Jennifer Conroy, 35, says that the program gave her a sense of passion, emotion and desire, which she never thought was possible. She asserts that Halifax Humanities 101 brought her out of her former passive outlook on life and helped to balance her priorities out.
“People walk through that door and they’re transformed,” says Conroy, who is now enrolled in the Arts & Social Sciences program at St. Mary’s University. “They come close to finding out who they are, where they’ve come from, why the world is the way it is.”
Angus Johnston is a former director for the King’s Foundation Year Programme and also serves as Vice-Chair for Halifax Humanities 101. He argues how important it is to stimulate a joy for learning among these low-income groups.
“When we think of education for the poor, we generally think about literacy, computer skills and other ways of educating that can perhaps lead to employment,” says Johnston. “But there is also a hunger for knowledge for knowledge’s sake.”
Conroy fully supports this philosophy.
“It’s not about training your mind,” she says. “It’s about broadening your mind.”
Halifax Humanities 101 provides all of its course texts for free, bus tickets to attend classes and events, childcare for those who require it to attend class, and cultural outings to musical performances and art galleries. The classes are all taught by highly qualified university professors, and extra classes are offered to help develop students’ writing skills.
Redden says that anybody of low-income can apply, provided they have a good reading ability, are willing to attend classes regularly and do the assigned readings. Other than that, there are no other preconditions. Applicants don’t even require a high school diploma to enroll.
Since 2005, 40 students have successfully completed the program. According to the organization’s website, there have been three graduation ceremonies, at which students and their friends and families, teachers, volunteers, and board members have “celebrated a year of study, intellectual engagement, friendships and tremendous growth in confidence and self-esteem.”
The program is a spiritual journey in the fullest sense of the term. It was only appropriate then that the fundraiser showcased the reading of The Odyssey – an epic adventure story featuring a hero who achieves success by way of his cunning and his wits.
Halifax Humanities 101 raised about $19,000 for the program. Redden acknowledges that she could not have done it without the community’s full commitment and participation. From the Dalhousie law students who read overnight during the graveyard shift, to the volunteers who are working on three hours of sleep, Odyssey Live was the sum of a team effort.
“By donating your time and money to this you’re helping people who are willing and wanting to learn,” says Conroy. “Every single person who I have met who has taken this course has a very strong will to learn something new.”
To donate or to learn more about Halifax Humanities 101, visit www.halifaxhumanities101.com, or e-mail learn@halifaxhumanities101.ca.
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