Grant to college will fund three-day literary event

BLOOMFIELD, NJ — Bloomfield College has received a $10,000 grant from the NJ Council for the Humanities for a series of campus literary events to take place April 14 to 16.

The series is called “Writing from the Margins” and the grant application was co-written by Jon Terri Gadsden, an assistant professor of creative writing; and Ada McKenzie, an assistant professor of world literature. The keynote speaker will be Natasha Trethewey, the US poet laureate, 2012-2014.

In a recent telephone interview, McKenzie said the series will bring a variety of writers to Bloomfield.
“Specifically, we’re focusing on under-represented or marginalized writers,” she said. “Those are ones not sufficiently represented in the American mainstream.”

What places these writers apart from a wider audience, she said, is their perspective.
Trethewey will speak on Thursday, April 14.

“I’m very grateful to the council on the humanities,” McKenzie said. “They want to see the humanities flourish in New Jersey.”

In order to provide NJ residents with a greater variety of cultural experiences, such as “Writing from the Margins,” the NJ State Council for the Humanities recently sent two representatives to Washington, D.C. Their purpose was to meet with elected officials and ask for increased federal funding for state humanity councils. One of those representatives was a council member and Bloomfield resident, Shane Berger. Berger is also a member of the Bloomfield Board of Education. He was on the council and voted to approve the Bloomfield College grant. The other representative was Brianne Greenfield, the executive director of the council.

In a telephone interview, Berger said there are a total of 57 humanity councils from the states and protected American territories.

“All the organizations get together and meet with congressmen and senators to lobby,” Berger said.

At the beginning of March, Berger and Greenfield went to the nation’s capital for several days hoping to increase New Jersey’s share of funding which comes from a federal budget line called Federal/State Partnership. This partnership is provided federal support through the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Berger had hoped to see 10 congressman while Greenfield went to the offices of New Jersey senators. Berger was able to meet and speak with Donald Payne Jr., D-10th District; Leonard Lance, R-7th District; and Scott Garrett, R-6th District.

“The most important thing is that they remember who we are for next year,” he said.
The state council, Berger said, would like to see the budget for the NEH increased from $148 million to $155 million and the budget for the partnership increased from $43 million to $46 million. If it is, the NJ council would receive another $50,000 in funding.

“We now get about $900,000 from the federal government,” he said. “It depends on the size of the state. The council gets no money from the state.”

Berger said he likes what he is doing for the council, that he is passionate about it, but it is not easy work.
“This is more difficult than I originally contemplated,” he said. “Not only do you have to learn how to be a humanities board member, but you also have to learn how to execute our mission. And that is humanities in every shape and form with underserved communities in the state. Whether it’s a language barrier, a socio-economic challenge, whatever the opinion, we have to find the venue.”

Berger said when he tells people he is from Bloomfield, he often will get a smile because the person often knows someone from Bloomfield.

“Humanities is essentially the purveyor of all human discourse,” he said. “I’m not going to let the town down.”
More about “Writing from the Margins” can be found at Bloomfield.edu/margins.