Speakers in the Schools
Montana State Poet Laureate with students at Sunburst Elementary School
Humanities Montana has funding available for Speakers in the Schools programs for the beginning of the school year! In these programs, trained facilitators and experts lead students in workshops and conversations on topics including current affairs, untold histories, native cultures, and literature. Teachers can work with speakers to tailor programs to varying degrees to suit classroom needs. If you are a teacher or school administrator, check out our roster of free Speakers in the Schools programs!
New Speaker: Harry Rock Above
Harry Rock Above
Humanities Montana welcomes Harry Rock Above (Apsáalooke) and his presentation, “Crow Stories in Both Crow and English Languages,” to the Montana Conversations and Speakers in the Schools programs! In this program, Rock Above will present Crow stories, such as the Big Metal story, the Little People story, and the story of Chief Plenty Coups. Rock Above will appear in traditional Crow regalia as he tells Crow stories in both Crow and English for audiences of all ages.
Rock Above is a member of the Big Lodge Clan and the Child of the Whistling Water Clan. English is his second language. Rock Above is a graduate of Plenty Coups High School in Pryor, and he earned a degree in business of science from Montana State University in Billings. He is a United States Army veteran, having joined when he was 19, and he volunteered to serve in the Gulf War in 1990. Rock Above retired from the United States government after 25 years of public service. Since 2019, he has been a member of the Chief Plenty Coups Honor Guard, which was established in 1995 to honor Chief Plenty Coups and Crow military veterans.
Montana Center for the Book heads to Washington DC
(Left) Debra Magpie Earling, Bitterroot Salish and a member and citizen of the Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Nation, author of Great Reads adult selection: The Lost Journals of Sacajawea (Right) Linda Marshall, author of Great Reads youth selection: Bob Marshall: Defender of the Wilderness
Humanities Montana program staff are preparing to travel to the National Book Festival in Washington, D.C., this month to represent Montana as part of the Roadmap to Reading event attended by more than 200,000 people. Great Reads from Great Places authors Debra Magpie Earling and Linda Marshall will also be in attendance to meet readers and sign books. The National Book Festival gathers representatives from all Library of Congress affiliate Centers for the Book to celebrate literature and literacy from their home states. The Montana Center for the Book is a program of Humanities Montana.
