Category: Events

It’s time to kick-off another week of fabulous story-telling in Voice, brought to Second Life by the staff of the Seanchai Library SL.

As always, all times SLT, and unless otherwise stated, events will be held on the Seanchai Library’s home on Imagination Island.

Sunday 30th June, 18:00: Charlotte’s Web (Part 1)

Caledonia Skytower commences a reading of E. B. White’s (of Stuart Little fame) children’s classic, originally illustrated by Garth Williams.

First published in 1952, Charlotte’s Web weaves a story of friendship, hardships, joy and tears. When her farmer father is about to slaughter the runt of a litter of pigs, Fern Arable intercedes and saves the tiny pig, calling it Wilbur. A bond forms between child a pig, but when Wilbur becomes too big to remain with his mother and is shipped off to the farm owned by Fern’s uncle, he is left shunned by the other animals and  – with Christmas approaching – once again facing slaughter.

Then he is befriended by Charlotte A. Cavatica, a spider living in the rafters of the barn where Wilbur is kept.Charlotte hatches a plan in order to save him from death, and Wilbur finds himself the centre of new and strange attention…

Join Caledonia at Magicland Park. as she starts this tale of friendship, hardship and the miracles which can be found in the simplest of things

Monday 1st July, 19:00 – An Island Miracle

With Caledonia Skytower.

Tuesday 2nd July, 19:00: The Letters of John and Abigail Adams

With Independence Day approaching, Shandon Loring and Caledonia Skytower read from one of the definitive works of American history which spans the period before, during and after the revolution.

John Adams is perhaps best known as playing a leading role in persuading Congress to declare independence. He assisted Thomas Jefferson in drafting the Declaration of Independence in 1776, and was its primary advocate in the Congress.

After Independence, he served as the first Vice President of the newly formed Republic, and the second President of the United States, eventually defeated by Thomas Jefferson. Adams then went on to become the United States Minister to the Court of St. James’s (Great Britain), playing a part in the peace negotiations between the two countries, and also the United States Minister to the Netherlands in what was a long and fruitful political career which also served his home state of Massachusetts.

Throughout this time, he enjoyed and intellectually and emotionally fulfilling relationship with his wife, Abigail that lasted fifty-four years and withstood all the upheavals of the time, long periods of separation and personal tragedies.

This volume brings together the correspondence Abigail Adams, herself a strong and forthright individual and advocate of women’s rights, shared with her husband through these times. That correspondence in turn reveals the strength of the bond between her and her husband which gave rise to something of an American political dynasty, and provides unique insights into the emergence of a new democracy, the role of women in the period and much more.

Wednesday 3rd July, 19:00: “My Dear President”: Letters Between Presidents and Their Wives

Gerard Gawalt, a curator of presidential papers at the Library of Congress for thirty years brings together an inspiring collection of correspondence between U.S. presidents and their wives culled from the Library of Congress, private collections and assorted presidential libraries.

Many of the letters in this book had never been previously published, and all of them provide a wealth of insight into the lives, times, hopes, fears, triumphs and setbacks of America’s most public political figures: the President and the First Lady of the United States.

Regarded as the most comprehensive compilation of its kind ever put together, Gawalt presents the letters thematically throughout the book, rather than in any set chronology, although each letter is set in its historical context. Covering topics such as love, travel, sorrow, politics and war, every letter appears as originally written, with grammar and spelling intact. Many exchanges between husband and wife are included to help build even more of a picture of the couples behind the titles.

Kayden Oconnell and Caledonia Skytower read from this fascinating volume.

Thursday 4th July: Library Closed

The Library will be closed on July 4th to mark Independence Day.

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Please check with the Seanchai Library SL’s blog for updates and additions to the week’s schedule.

Related Links

• Seanchai Library (SL) blog
• Seanchai Library (SL) SLurl
• Seanchai Library in this blog

It’s time to kick-off another week of fabulous story-telling in Voice, brought to Second Life by the staff of the Seanchai Library SL.

As always, all times SLT, and unless otherwise stated, events will be held on the Seanchai Library’s home on Imagination Island.

Sunday 23rd June, 13:30: Tea Time in Sherwood Forest

We’re approaching the end of June, and with it, we reach the end of our forays into Sherwood forest courtesy of Caledonia Skytower and Corwyn Allen as they bring us  the final installment of tales from Howard Pyle’s The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood.

An American illustrator and writer, Pyle published The Merry Adeventures of Robin Hood of Great Renown in Nottinghamshire (to give the book its original full title) in 1883. With it, he helped solidify the heroic / romantic image of Robin Hood witnessed in works such as Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe (1819).

The stories Pyle built for the book were drawn from various ballads, which he drew together to form a cohesive tale, rewriting the songs to suit a younger audience and further establishing the role of Robin Hood as a heroic outlaw who robs the rich to feed the poor – a role in sharp contrast to the way in which the ballads actually portrayed him (which was principally as a through-and-through villain).

So popular was Pyle’s work that it led to several more children’s books about Robin Hood over the next three decades, firmly establishing the legend as a respectable subject for children’s literature.

This week, sees the conclusion of Allan a Dale’s story,  and we meet The Curtal Friar of Fountains Abbey.

Monday 24th June, 19:00 – More from A Trio of my Father’s Tales

“A Trio of My Father’s Tales is my tribute to Fathers,” Cale states on her website, “containing three stories based on several family tales we used to begged my Dad to repeat over and over again around the kitchen table: The Little Lord Fauntleroy Suit, “Flying Down to Cour D’Alene”, and “The Skunk War.”

– Judith Cullen (Caledonia Skytower)

Except from The Little Lord Fauntleroy Suit:

Kevin hated it. He really hated it. It was bad enough being seven years old. It was bad enough that his family were struggling, working class Irish immigrants. It was bad enough that he had the male trademark family ears, which where on the large side and stood out from his head. These things he might have handled with all the random deftness of his seven years. What young Kevin Cooney really could not manage was the damned suit. If his mother had not sewn it for him with her own hands, he would not have worn it at all. But in 1898 all Kevin knew was that the suit was important to his mother, and it was absolute torture to wear it. – Excerpt from The Little Lord Fauntleroy Suit.

Tuesday 25th June, 19:00: More from The City and the Stars

In 1948 Arthur C. Clarke saw his first novel, Against the Fall of Night published in the magazine Startling Stories. Later, in 1953, it appeared as a novella in its own right, prior to becoming the basis of a much expanded work, The City and the Stars, published in 1956. Both focus on the same setting and principal character: the City of Diaspar and a young man called Alvin, but they tell individually unique tales – so much so that both remain in circulation,enjoying equal popularity.

One billion years in the future, Diaspar stands amidst the desert of Earth as the last, self-perpetuating city of humankind. Here, the Central Computer watches over people who live multiple lives over thousands of years before they return to storage, only to be “reborn” at a time selected by the Central Computer. Diaspar is utopian: poverty and need have long been eradicated and there is little strife. Life within the city is focused on creativity and art and in the deeper exploration of already well-understood fields. Enclosed, cyclical and ultimately static, Diaspar is both the culmination and twilight of human endeavour.

Join Gyro Muggins as he once again delves into the story which has been hailed as one of Sir Arthur C. Clarke’s best works.

Wednesday 26th June, 19:00: The Tao of Pooh (Part 3)

Winnie the Pooh may have been a Bear Of Very Little Brain often bothered by long words, but in him, his friends in the 100 Acre Wood and their adventures, Benjamin Hoff found the perfect means of introducing a western audience to the principles and ideals of Taoism.

Starting with a description of the Vinegar Tasters, a traditional subject in Chinese religious painting depicting three founders of China’s major religious and philosophical traditions: Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism., Hoff uses Pooh and other characters from A.A. Milne’s stories to reveal Taoism to his readers, going so far as to cite how the characters exemplify Taoist principles and concepts. For example, he explains how Pooh personifies the principles of wei wu wei, the Taoist concept of “effortless doing,” and pu, the concept of being open to but unburdened by experience.

Complete with excerpts from various prominent Taoist texts, from authors such as Laozi and Zhuangzi, the book is an engaging read which topped the New York Times best seller list for some 49 weeks. So why not join Kayden Oconnell and Caledonia Skytower as they continue a reading of this fascinating work?

Thursday 27th June, 19:00: Myths of the Cherokee

Originally published in at the end of the 18th 19th century, James Mooney’s  Myths of the Cherokees has been one of the definitive work on the customs and beliefs of the Cherokee people for decades.

Covering every aspect of Cherokee mythology and mythological tales, from the creation of the world through the origins of such things as game, corn, fish and frogs, to myths about quadrupeds, snakes, fish, insects and more, this is a comprehensive guide to the history and culture Eastern Cherokee.

Nor is this purely an academic study.  Mooney spent time living with the Cherokee and learning their language and culture. So much so that his work was relied upon by students of Native American culture, general readers, and many of the Cherokee people themselves.

Join Shandon Loring as he reads from the first Mooney’s definitive works on the Cherokee nation.

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Please check with the Seanchai Library SL’s blog for updates and additions to the week’s schedule. In May and June, library guests are invited to support Seanchai Library’s featured real world charity Heifer International. Have questions? IM or notecard Caledonia Skytower.

Related Links

• Seanchai Library (SL) blog
• Seanchai Library (SL) SLurl
• Seanchai Library in this blog