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From the late 18th to the mid-19th century, European artists, composers, authors, poets, and philosophers responded strongly to the rational thought of the Enlightenment by exploring and celebrating the sublime and dramatic in nature, metaphysics, and human emotion. The Spoken Word Society presents a four-week series of programs exploring this movement through performances, lectures and discussions.
All events are free and start at 5:00 PM Eastern Time. The in-person portion will be in the large meeting room of the Lewes Public Library (111 Adams Avenue, Lewes).
Registration is required and each individual attending must register.
Join our exploration of the influence of nature on the arts during the romantic period with Kristen Matulewicz, Curator of Rockwood Park and Museum in Wilmington. Focusing on William Louis Sontag Jr.’s The Misty Rocky Mountains, among others, she will trace the evolution and influence of the Romantic Movement in art as it mutates into the uniquely American style of Hudson River School Painting. And Matulewicz will finish by case-studying Rockwood as a rare example of how the concept and aesthetics of Romanticism was cultivated in daily life.
Kristen Matulewicz, familiar to Spoken Word Society audiences for her work with the library the past several years, has a fun and entertaining style of presenting research with significant depth. She holds a BFA in fine arts specializing in practicing Performance and Installation Arts, a BA in Art History with a focus on Pre-Raphaelitism, and an MA in Art History and Visual Studies, with a specialty in Victorian escapism and immersive environments. Before joining Rockwood as a Curator, she had a 12-year career in Museum Education working across a range of museum sizes and types including history, science, historic houses, and art museums. Kristen’s strong background working with local communities, under-served populations, and practicing artists to create opportunities for accessible learning saw her awarded the Delaware Art Educators Association’s Educator of the Year in the field of Museums.
Join us as we explore the beginnings of Romantic Music from Handel in the 18th century to Elgar in the 20th. When we think of Romantic music we usually think of the 19th century greats, such as Beethoven, Schumann, Wagner, or Tchaikovsky. As with all the arts, one period grows out of, and blends with, contemporaneous forms. The beginning cannot be pinned down nor the end detected. In fact it is still very much with us. We’ll explore how Beethoven exploded out of the Classical period and how Elgar summed up the Romantic era in the aftermath of The Great War.
Lani Spahr, professional oboist and world renowned audio restoration engineer and producer, is well known to Lewes audiences from his popular program Performance Insights presented through Coastal Concerts. Formerly a leading performer on period oboes in the US, he was a member of Boston Baroque and the Handel & Haydn Society Orchestra of Boston and appeared with many of North America’s leading period instrument orchestras, including Tafelmusik, Philharmonia Baroque, Tempesta di Mare, and many others. As a modern oboist, he was the principal oboist of the Colorado Springs Symphony Orchestra, the Colorado Opera Festival, the American Chamber Winds, the Maine Chamber Ensemble and made his European solo debut in 1999 playing John McCabe’s Oboe Concerto with the Hitchin Symphony Orchestra in England. Spahr served on the faculties of Colorado College, Phillips Exeter Academy, and the University of New Hampshire Chamber Music Institute. He toured throughout North America, Europe, and the Far East on period and modern oboes and recorded for Telarc, Linn, Koch, Naxos, Vox, Music Masters, L’Oiseau Lyre and Musica Omnia. Accomplished on the bagpipes as well, Lani is the Official Piper of Fort Miles.
Join local scholar Dr. Michael Redmond for “Storm, Stress, and the Soul: The Romantic Rebellion,” an exploration of how the Romantics figures like Hamann, Wordsworth, and Coleridge rose up against the cool confidence of the Enlightenment’s faith in reason, science, and mastery of nature. Together we’ll trace how nature shifted from whirlwind and mystery, to clockwork machine, to something alive, numinous, and a source of wisdom and wonder—and how this transformation still shapes our views of authenticity, spirituality, and the environment today. Along the way, we’ll meet some fascinating characters, hear vivid literary and philosophical passages, and end by asking a personal question: in your own life, are you more a child of the Enlightenment or of Romanticism—and what might it mean to live well between the two?
Dr. Michael D. Redmond is a distinguished higher education leader and former president of Bergen Community College, bringing four decades of experience in academic leadership, governance, and institutional innovation. He holds a Ph.D. in Theological and Religious Studies from Drew University, and an M.A. in Philosophy from Rutgers, complemented by graduate work in computer science and mathematics. A dedicated teacher and scholar, Dr. Redmond served as Professor of Philosophy and Religion for nearly 40 years and helped build one of the largest and most successful philosophy and religion programs in the nation at a community college. He has published and presented widely, from academic journals to national conferences, on topics both in the philosophy of Religion and political philosophy as well as on technology, and his excellence in teaching and leadership has been honored with the NISOD Excellence Award and two National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminar appointments.
Join us for an evening of the Sublime and the Dramatic as the Spoken Word Society’s Reader’s Theatre Troupe performs poetry and prose from authors and poets working in the Romantic movement. Featuring works by Keats, Lord Byron, Percy Shelley, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Charlotte Smith, Felicia Hemans, Emily Bronte, and Poe, we will journey through emotional peaks and valleys in a compelling evening of spoken word artistry.
The Spoken Word Society’s Reader’s Theatre Troupe features Jane Okma, Roxanne Farrar, Sally Boswell, Peter Stoehr, Christopher Marks, Michael Redmond, and Rich Harris. This performance is directed by Jane Okma and features musical underscoring and effects by David White.
The Lewes Spoken Word Society (LSWS) celebrates the tradition and artistry of oral storytelling through lectures, performances, discussions, demonstrations, and other publicly-shared experiences.