Local Events of Interest

Hey, gang, I wanted to share a couple of really exciting upcoming events with you. If you would like to attend either or both, I would certainly grant some extra credit to sweeten the deal (as with Of Thee I Sing, I'd just ask for a one page reflection on the experience, and maybe to say a few very informal words to the class).

The Museum of Fine Arts is sponsoring an Armenian film festival. Click here to see the line up. The documentaries seem most relevant to our studies, dealing with relations between Turkey and Armenia, but as we have been generally studying Armenian culture, you could attend any of these. Tickets are $10 for students.

The second is a speaking engagement with a man named Leopold Engleitner, who is 103 years old*:

... born 1905, who experienced World Wars I and II and found the extraordinary courage to refuse to serve in Hitler’s army. He suffered unspeakable cruelty in three concentration camps, and on release weighed less than 62 pounds. Astoundingly, he could easily have had his freedom: all he had to do was sign a paper renouncing his religious convictions as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses. He refused to do it.

This event is free and open to the public, May 4, 2009, 5:30 PM, at Harvard University in Science Center C at 1 Oxford Street. Click here for the website for Unbroken Will, the name of the book and documentary about Mr. Engleitner's experiences.

*Yes, really.