AAM Summer Series Presents: The World Doesn’t Require You: Author Rion Amilcar Scott in Conversation with Historian Dale Green. Friday, June 3, 6 pm. Free and open to the public
The Academy Art Museum is pleased to host The World Doesn’t Require You: Author Rion Amilcar Scott in Conversation with Historian Dale Green. This event is the first of the AAM Summer Series and is free and open to the public.
Rion Amilcar Scott’s award-winning short story collections imagine the fictional town of Cross River, Maryland, a free Black settlement founded after the only successful slave revolt in the United States. Historian Dale Glenwood Green’s research documents Easton’s Hill Community, one of the oldest free Black neighborhoods in the United States still in existence today. Join them for a reading and conversation about the history, legacy, and future of Maryland’s African American communities, followed by a walking tour led by Professor Green. This conversation is moderated by Shore Lit Founder and George Mason University professor Kerry Folan. Washington College’s Chesapeake Heartland African American Humanities Truck will also be on site to share a grassroots-curated exhibition celebrating African American history and culture on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.
Special thanks to our partners, sponsors, and friends in the community: The Chesapeake Heartland Project at Washington College’s Starr Center for the Study of American Experience, The Hill Community Project, and Shore Lit.
L-R: Rion Amilcar Scott and Dale Glenwood Green
Rion Amilcar Scott is the author of the story collection, The World Doesn’t Require You (Norton/Liveright, August 2019), a finalist for the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award and winner of the 2020 Towson Prize for Literature. His work has been published in places such as The New Yorker, The Kenyon Review, Crab Orchard Review, Best Small Fictions 2020 and The Rumpus, among others. He was raised in Silver Spring, Maryland and earned an MFA from George Mason University where he won the Mary Roberts Rinehart award, a Completion Fellowship and an Alumni Exemplar Award. He has received fellowships from Bread Loaf Writing Conference, Kimbilio and the Colgate Writing Conference as well as a 2019 Maryland Individual Artist Award. Presently he teaches Creative Writing at the University of Maryland.
Dale Glenwood Green is a Morgan State University Professor of Architecture and Historic Preservation and a Vice President and Partner of Sulton Campbell Britt & Associates, PC. He bridges both the academy and practice where he built his reputation as a respected leader in the building industry. Green earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Architecture and Environmental Design from Morgan State University, a Masters of Architecture and Historic Preservation from the University of Illinois at Urban-Champaign, and a Ph.D. ABD in Architectural Studies in Historic Preservation from the University of Missouri at Columbia. Green works to develop new sites and also preserve historical sites as well. He is not only a respected leader in the building industry, but also a sought after lecturer and scholar of African American heritage.
About AAM Summer Series
The Academy Art Museum enlisted five local creatives to design and execute summer programs at the museum from June through September. AAM’s Community Programmers include Kerry Folan, Marco Garcia, Tori Paxon, Francisco Salazar and Brea Soul.
Programs and Dates:
June 3: The World Doesn’t Require You Conversation
July 29: 24-Hour Video Race
August 6: Pop-Up Market
August 26: Hip-Hop Cypher
September: Variety Show
About the Academy Art Museum
As the premier art museum on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, the Academy Art Museum presents high-quality exhibitions and a full range of art classes for visitors of all ages. Past exhibitions have featured artists such as James Turrell, Robert Rauschenberg, Mark Rothko, Pat Steir and Richard Diebenkorn. The permanent collection focuses on works on paper by American and European artists from four centuries including recent acquisitions by Graciela Iturbide and Zanele Muholi. Arts educational programs range from life drawing lessons to digital art instruction, and include lunchtime and cocktail hour concerts, lectures and special art events, as well as a Fall Craft Show. AAM also provides arts education to public and private school children from the region and is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums.
Kerry Folan
Location: 106 South Street, Easton, Maryland
Summer Hours: Tuesday-Thursday 10:00 am to 4:00 pm, Friday 10:00 am to 7:30 pm (free admission), Saturday 10:00 am to 6:00 pm, and Sunday, 10 am to 4 pm. Closed Mondays and Federal holidays.
Admission: $3, children under 12 free, AAM members free.
About Shore Lit Founder Kerry Folan
Kerry Folan is a writer with a focus on visual culture. She was formerly the editor of Women in the Arts magazine and the fashion news website Racked.com. Her essays and journalism on fashion and art have appeared in ARTNews, BOMB, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Literary Hub, The Cut, The Washington Post, and The Baltimore Review, among other outlets. She is currently an assistant professor at George Mason University and a docent at the Academy Art Museum.
About the Chesapeake Heartland African American Humanities Truck
The Chesapeake Heartland African American Humanities Truck serves Kent County and the Eastern Shore as a mobile digitization station, oral history studio, exhibit space, and pop-up-festival-maker. It is designed to meet community members on their own grounds — their own turf and their own terms — inviting partners and participants to gather inside and around the truck to conduct interviews, digitize materials, and create exhibits and events.
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