Word Hunger, sponsored by Brick Street Poetry Inc., will engage community discussion on food production in several Indiana counties including: Boone (Aug 24, 2010), Hamilton (September 23,2010), Marion (Aug 11, 2010), Putnam (Aug 5, 2010. These community discussions will be an integral part of a literary art project.
Monday, August 9, 2010
Upcoming Word Hunger Community Discussions
Word Hunger, sponsored by Brick Street Poetry Inc., will engage community discussion on food production. Upcoming schedule:
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Monday, August 2, 2010
Photos from the Boone County Community Discussion on July 21st at the Boone County REMC in Lebanon, Indiana
Donna Monday interviews Fran Herr at the Boone County Word Hunger community discussion.
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Size Matters by Donna Monday
I am a poet. And as a poet, I know a lot about word hunger. Almost daily we poets hunger for just the right word, just the right phrase, just the right image.... Poets hunger for words like puppies hunger for Mom.
So it's not surprising that a program about food presented by poets would be called "Word Hunger." The program is sponsored by BrickStreet Poetry Inc. It is made possible through a grant from the Indiana Humanities Council with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Word Hunger will be part of the 2010 Spirit and Place Festival on November 14. Any view, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this blog do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities or the Indiana Humanities Council.
Word Hunger promotes public discussions with county residents about food, food production, and how it affects us all, both individually and as a community. Meetings are planned in various counties.
A Boone County meeting took place July 21 in Lebanon at the REMC Building. Widowed farm wife Fran Herr recounted the joys and challenges of farming. It became apparent from her story that size matters.
Just as the size of one's bank account determines to a great extent one's standard of living, so the size of the farm determines how well a farm family lives. Let's face it, farming is about growing something. And growing anything takes land. The more land, the more growing. The average farm in Boone County today is 383 acres, more than half again the state average of 241 acres.
Fran recalled that her childhood was tough. Her folks were married in 1929, during the Depression, which "took forever to come out of," she says. The family had only a small farm. A small farm won't allow for luxuries. Often it won't allow for necessities.
They lived just west of Lebanon and raised sheep and chickens. They had corn as feed for the animals. It wasn't enough. Dad had to subsidize the farm with other jobs.
Probably like a lot of young women of the era, she claims that one of her life's goals was simply to get off that gravel road.
The good news is she did it. And just thinking about it makes her smile She achieved her goal. "I did escape," she says of the gravel road.
Her means of escape was traditional in 1958. She got married. And what she got, in addition to a fine husband in Sam Herr, was a bigger farm (500 acres then, approximately 700 today).
It mattered. She hasn't known hard times since her marriage. Good-bye hard times, hello marriage, hello being help-mate, cook, driver, wife, mother and a member of what is now a sixth-generation Boone County farm family.
To learn more about what that meant, see the blog "The Woman Behind the Man Who Farms--She Who Feeds the Feeder" at http://spiritandplace.wordpress.com.
To find a Word Hunger meeting and participate in a discussion in your county go to http://brickstreetpoetry.org.
So it's not surprising that a program about food presented by poets would be called "Word Hunger." The program is sponsored by BrickStreet Poetry Inc. It is made possible through a grant from the Indiana Humanities Council with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Word Hunger will be part of the 2010 Spirit and Place Festival on November 14. Any view, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this blog do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities or the Indiana Humanities Council.
Word Hunger promotes public discussions with county residents about food, food production, and how it affects us all, both individually and as a community. Meetings are planned in various counties.
A Boone County meeting took place July 21 in Lebanon at the REMC Building. Widowed farm wife Fran Herr recounted the joys and challenges of farming. It became apparent from her story that size matters.
Just as the size of one's bank account determines to a great extent one's standard of living, so the size of the farm determines how well a farm family lives. Let's face it, farming is about growing something. And growing anything takes land. The more land, the more growing. The average farm in Boone County today is 383 acres, more than half again the state average of 241 acres.
Fran recalled that her childhood was tough. Her folks were married in 1929, during the Depression, which "took forever to come out of," she says. The family had only a small farm. A small farm won't allow for luxuries. Often it won't allow for necessities.
They lived just west of Lebanon and raised sheep and chickens. They had corn as feed for the animals. It wasn't enough. Dad had to subsidize the farm with other jobs.
Probably like a lot of young women of the era, she claims that one of her life's goals was simply to get off that gravel road.
The good news is she did it. And just thinking about it makes her smile She achieved her goal. "I did escape," she says of the gravel road.
Her means of escape was traditional in 1958. She got married. And what she got, in addition to a fine husband in Sam Herr, was a bigger farm (500 acres then, approximately 700 today).
It mattered. She hasn't known hard times since her marriage. Good-bye hard times, hello marriage, hello being help-mate, cook, driver, wife, mother and a member of what is now a sixth-generation Boone County farm family.
To learn more about what that meant, see the blog "The Woman Behind the Man Who Farms--She Who Feeds the Feeder" at http://spiritandplace.wordpress.com.
To find a Word Hunger meeting and participate in a discussion in your county go to http://brickstreetpoetry.org.
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