OLLI at UMass Boston 2021 Winter Programs

The OLLI office is creating opportunities for all members (and future members!) to stay engaged during the winter. The programs will be held via Zoom and are free (some course material costs may apply).

Members are encouraged to use the OLLI online registration system to sign up for these events. Winter events and programs are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Please click here and use your OLLI username and password to sign into the system. Once you are logged in, all winter events are listed under SPECIAL EVENTS. Your username and password are still active even if your membership has expired. Not an OLLI member? Please email the OLLI office (ollireg@gmail.com) if you would like to sign up for one of our programs and experience OLLI this winter.

Monday Morning Coffee Chats Every Monday in January and February (except Jan. 18 and Feb. 15) Monday Morning Coffee Chats: 9:00–10:00 a.m. Here is your opportunity to connect with other OLLI members and OLLI staff over your morning cup of coffee!

Interviews of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Bomb Survivors with Thoughts on Japan’s Peace Education Curriculum Tuesday, January 5 12:00–1:00 p.m. Keiko Hiromi, who grew up in Japan in the second half of the 20th century, shares

her interviews with bomb survivors. Conducted within the last five years, Hiromi’s interviews capture the experiences of these survivors in their own words. Hiromi will also share her own experiences and thoughts on Japan’s peace education curriculum, which developed in the years following WWII. This presentation will include Hiromi’s professional photographs of Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and the survivors interviewed. Presenter: Keiko Hiromi is a Japanese photographer based in Boston, MA and Tokyo, Japan. Her photographs have appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Vanity Fair, Der Spiegel, and many publications around the globe. She has had solo exhibitions at the Massachusetts State House, Boston City Hall, Tokyo, and many more.

Park Street: Mirror of Boston Wednesday, January 6 12:00–1:00 p.m. Park Street has overlooked Boston Common, the country’s oldest public park, for almost four centuries. This illustrated talk will show how Park Street changed to echo the Boston people and architecture of each era. The Granary, Almshouse, Workhouse, and Bridewell (jail) of the colonial period gave way to homes and Park Street Church in the 19th century. Residents of Park Street included leaders of Boston society and politics. A hotel, TV news studio, women’s club, union club, small businesses, Catholic Information Center, and offices for Houghton Mifflin show the growth and diversity of Boston through the years. Presenter: Rose Doherty, President Emerita of the Partnership of Historic Bostons (Massachusetts and Lincolnshire,

England), has spoken about many facets of 17th century Boston history at UMass Boston and other venues. Her interest in the fascinating long history of Park Street comes from research done with historical groups.

The Very Basics of Zoom: Zoom 101 Training Wednesday, January 6 2:00–3:30 p.m. Learn a new skill that will help you stay connected. Have you not used Zoom before (or used it very seldom)? Then you may want to sign up for this Zoom basic training workshop! This session will cover the very basics of what Zoom is and what the user should know on the most basic level in order to use the application and participate in conversations in an OLLI course/event or chatting live with family and friends. Please note that there is a limit of 15 people per session, as a smaller group is best for this type of training. Prior to the training, session participants will receive instructions by email and Zoom information on how to access the live training. Please try to sign up 24 hours before the training so these materials can get to you in a timely manner. Facilitators: Drew Glazier, OLLI Office Manager and Jim Hermelbracht, OLLI Director.

Book Reviews and Recommendations Thursday, January 7 10:00–11:30 a.m. Winter (or any time of year) is perhaps a great time to catch up on some reading! Plus, taking a break from the computer screen is always a healthy and welcomed option. This event allows participants to share book titles and quick, personal reviews of them to help others build their winter reading list. Don’t have a book to share? No problem! Join and listen to recommendations that might inspire you to check them out. Facilitator: Jim Hermelbracht, OLLI Director.

Zoom Refresher Session Friday, January 8 3:00–4:00 p.m. Gain confidence on how to find/use certain Zoom controls and features! The OLLI office is sponsoring a drop-in Zoom refresher session for those who are registered for any OLLI winter program. This mini workshop will NOT include a full training but offer participants a chance to ask questions or perhaps practice some of the Zoom

functions. Note: An email with the Zoom link and meeting ID for this practice session will be sent early in the week to members who are enrolled in any OLLI winter program. There is no need to register for this workshop. Facilitators: Drew Glazier, OLLI Office Manager and Jim Hermelbracht, OLLI Director.

Tiffany in Bloom Monday, January 11 1:30–2:30 p.m. Explore the Cleveland Museum of Art exhibition, Tiffany in Bloom: Stained Glass Lamps of Louis Comfort Tiffany. Learn about American designer & stained-glass innovator Louis Comfort Tiffany, his inspirations from nature, and the crucial role that women artists like Ohio-native Clara Driscoll played in his Studio. Facilitator: Arielle Levine of the Cleveland Art Museum teaches students all around the world during video conferences in the museum’s Distance Learning Program. She has a degree in art history from Case Western Reserve University and has been with the museum's education department for over 15 years.

OLLI Winter Film Series: Ball of Fire (1941) Tuesday, January 12 10:30 a.m. – Film showing via Zoom 12:30 p.m. – Film discussion via Zoom Hoping to update his chapter on modern slang, encyclopedia writer Professor Bertram Potts (Gary Cooper) ventures into a chic nightclub. Inside, he meets the snarky burlesque performer "Sugarpuss" O'Shea (Barbara Stanwyck). Fascinated by her command of popular jargon, Potts invites her to stay with him. But, unknown to Potts, she is the fiancée of a mobster (Dana Andrews) and wanted by the police. In the ensuing mayhem, Potts must stay on his toes or be swallowed up by bigger fish.

Intergenerational Happy Hour w/Show and Tell Wednesday, January 13 4:30–6:00 p.m. Remember the days of show and tell in elementary school? Now is your chance to relive those moments but with an OLLI twist. Lifelong learning is about sharing and gaining new knowledge and perspectives. Personal histories and objects have long been a means by which we learn about the past, the present, and the intersection of the two.

What makes this show and tell unique is the intergenerational component as UMass Boston students and OLLI scholars will also be invited to participate in the event. So, if you have a personal object that has valuable meaning to you, consider sharing it and the story behind it with others at this event. Come enjoy the end of the day with the beverage of your choice and perhaps some snacks! This is a time to socialize, get to know new people, and connect with friends.

Using Prompts to Spark Creativity Through Artmaking Friday, January 15 10:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m. What sparks an artist’s creativity? Through the use of two different prompts (one visual and one linguistic), students will be invited to use their imagination to create art. The prompts will be used to ignite thought and self-expression through the artmaking process. Students have the flexibility to bring to the workshop any artmaking materials that they would like to explore. All levels are welcome. This workshop is taught entirely online through the Zoom platform. Facilitator: Kate Nordstrom is an artist and teacher based in Barrington, Rhode Island. Her true love of art started when she was a young child. Kate considers herself a lifelong learner who seeks out opportunities to be a student whenever and wherever she can. Subjects of interest in her own work continue to be the California landscape and architecture, the ruggedness of the New England coastline, and the concepts of light and space. She is thrilled to be teaching at OLLI.

OLLI Winter Film Series: Bernie (2011) Tuesday, January 19 10:30 a.m. – Film showing via Zoom 12:30 p.m. – Film discussion via Zoom Assistant funeral director Bernie Tiede (Jack Black) is one of the most-beloved residents in the small Texas town of Carthage. Sunday-school teacher, choir member, and creator of spectacular funerals, Bernie is a friend to everyone, including Marjorie Nugent (Shirley MacLaine), a rich but nasty widow no one else likes. This unlikely friendship leads to some surprising twists and turns.

Discrimination, Eugenics, and Antisemitism: Boston 1913–1914 Thursday, January 21 1:30–2:30 p.m. Ellen Levy shares about Boston from 1910 to 1920, focusing on timeless issues of discrimination and antisemitism. She brings history alive through the characters in her books of historical fiction. In a religious Jewish family, the issue of being a young lesbian couple are paramount. Raising a child with special needs, they are confronted by believers of the eugenics movement, who want to keep the race pure. Though the characters in her books are fictional, Levy creatively weaves in settings and events true to the times. She enriches the audience’s experience with numerous photographs of 1910 Boston. Presenter: Ellen Levy is obsessed; writing has taken over her life. She spends part of everyday living in 1910s with her characters, Deborah and Miriam, young Jewish women in love. She summers in Boston and winters in Florida with 500 older women who celebrate the hard-earned freedom to be themselves.

OLLI Winter Film Series: Cloudburst (2011) Tuesday, January 26 10:30 a.m. – Film showing via Zoom 12:30 p.m. – Film discussion via Zoom Stella (Olympia Dukakis) and Dotty (Brenda Fricker) are a lesbian couple from Maine who embark on a Thelma and Louise-style road trip to Nova Scotia to get married after Dotty is moved into a nursing home by her granddaughter. Along the way they pick up Prentice (Ryan Doucette), a hitchhiker travelling home to Nova Scotia to visit his dying mother, and the three bond deeply as they travel.

Self-Care and Joy Workshop

Wednesday, January 27 2:00–4:00 p.m. This presentation will focus on encouraging self-care with limited time, resources, and access to the outside world. Participants will discuss how emotions and our ways of thinking may prevent us from practicing self-care. Participants will gain realistic and actionable ways to practice self-care. Presenter: A. Rahema is an educator, social worker, community organizer and the director of Radical Joy Inc. This organization seeks to encourage mental health so that people can achieve their positive potential in life. They also believe that staying healthy and balanced is a form of fighting against oppression.

Gesture Drawing: Capturing the Movement of People

Friday, January 29

10:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m. This workshop is for anyone interested in learning how to draw the human figure in motion. Through quick “gestural” drawings, students will focus on capturing the essence of the figure in motion while paying attention to accurate proportions. This is a fast-paced workshop where students are challenged to draw quick studies ranging from 1 minute to 15 minutes in order to capture general gestures and movement. There will not be a live model. Instead, students will draw from reference photos: animation, and the human form projected on the computer screen. All levels are welcome. This workshop is taught entirely online through the Zoom platform. Facilitator: Kate Nordstrom, (see bio above).

Medicare 101 Monday, February 1

12:00–1:00 p.m. The SHINE program will be offering a presentation on Medicare 101, where you will learn about the different parts of Medicare, eligibility, and enrollment. SHINE stands for Serving the Health Insurance Needs of Everyone (on Medicare). The SHINE program is composed of over 600 counselors across the state of Massachusetts who offer Medicare counseling.

OLLI Winter Film Series: King of Hearts (1966) Tuesday, February 2

10:30 a.m. – Film showing via Zoom 12:30 p.m. – Film discussion via Zoom This quirky comedic war film focuses on Scottish soldier Charles Plumpick (Alan Bates), who is sent to a French town on a mission to disarm a bomb left behind by the retreating German army. Plumpick discovers that the area is deserted except for the inmates of the local asylum. The mental patients playfully take over the town and pronounce the soldier their king. While Plumpick is intrigued by the antics of the former inmates, he must stay on task and find the bomb before it detonates.

Transatlantic Voyages: from Cabo Verde to New Bedford and Beyond Wednesday, February 3 12:00–1:00 p.m. This presentation focuses on the conditions that led to Cape Verdean migration across the Atlantic, the eagerness to make the voyage and the conditions of the transatlantic voyage. First, crossing the Atlantic on a whaleship (and also beyond the Atlantic and into the Pacific), then making the voyage on packet ships, Cape Verdeans made their way around the world. Presenter: Akeia de Barros Gomes, PhD, is the Curator of Social History at the New Bedford Whaling Museum where she is responsible for curation of exhibitions, exhibit installation, historical research related to exhibitions, publications, lectures, symposia, collections guides, interpretive public programs, and public outreach.

Live MOSAIC 2020 Readings Thursday, February 4 10:30 a.m.–12:00 p.m. Enjoy this live reading of selections from OLLI’s publication, MOSAIC 2020. As part of OLLI's 20th Anniversary celebration, the Writing Special Interest Group produced a wonderful literary publication featuring poetry, essays, and stories written and submitted by OLLI members. Over 100 pages in length, MOSAIC 2020 represents a collection of the excellent writing talent found within our membership. This event will feature some of the authors reading and discussing their published writings.

Traces of the Trade: A Voyage of Realization and Reconciliation Monday, February 8 1:00–4:00 p.m. A documentary film that unearths a hidden legacy of slavery in America, Traces of the Trade: A Story From The Deep North was one of the few documentaries chosen from 953 submissions to be shown at the Sundance Film Festival in January, 2008. It traces a journey by Katrina Browne, the filmmaker, and nine of her cousins into the dark past of the slave trade which enriched their white New England family. Join Dain Perry, one of the nine cousins, and his wife, Constance, for an online viewing of the film followed by a conversation on race, reconciliation and healing. Traces of the Trade is both a geographical and psychological retracing of the industry of the largest slave traders in American history, the DeWolf family of Bristol, Rhode Island, and an exploration into racism in America, a legacy of slavery that continues to negatively impact the country even today. Presenters: Dain and Constance Perry are experienced facilitators who will help audience members discuss the lessons of the film. They have conducted over 500 screenings, facilitated conversations in over 200 cities and towns across the country, and overseas in Ghana and Australia. One family member said the most surprising question was whether Constance Perry, who is a descendant of enslaved people, knew about Dain’s family history before she married him. The answer: yes. Now she and her husband travel across the country as a team to screen the film and encourage group discussion of the legacy of slavery.

OLLI Winter Film Series: Robot & Frank (2012) Tuesday, February 9 10:30 a.m. – Film showing via Zoom 12:30 p.m. – Film discussion via Zoom The story of a relationship between a retired burglar and a household appliance more relentless than an alarm clock. Set in the near future, it focuses on Frank Weld, an aging jewel thief, played by Frank Langella, whose son buys him a domestic robot. Resistant at first, Frank warms up to the robot when he realizes he can use it to restart his career as a cat burglar.

Time for Reflection Wednesday, February 10 12:00–1:00 p.m. It’s been a “hard day’s night” for the past 11 months. Inundated with chaos and noise around us both locally, nationally, and globally and with fear, anxiety and sadness within, it often can feel impossible to gain clarity and know what we’re truly thinking and feeling. This presentation will give you the opportunity to sink into yourself to discover/uncover/connect with what is going on inside you in the moment, what challenges you mentally, emotionally, physically and/or spiritually and for what and how you are grateful. In between each of these reflective opportunities, you will meet with another to share your experience. Presenter: Myrna Finn is a professor emerita at Salem State University where she taught courses in all aspects of oral communication. With her motto “the truth will set you free,” she has been a life-long seeker of truth in all planes of reality - personal, relational and universal.

The Battle of the Bulge: the Ardennes Counterattack Thursday, February 11 12:00–1:15 p.m. After the D-Day Offensive on June 6, 1944, the Allies swept across Normandy, France. Adolph Hitler eventually decided, against the vigorous opposition of his top generals, to launch a massive and surprise attack across the heavily wooded Ardennes Forest in an effort to capture the port of Antwerp whilst dividing the British and American forces. The heroic and unexpected counterattack led by Field Marshall Montgomery, Generals Dwight Eisenhower, Omar Bradley, and George Patton, stopped the German advance in the Ardennes. Presenter: Dan Leclerc taught high school history for 20 years and was a district-wide administrator for 12 years. He holds a Master’s Degree in History from Northeastern University and has traveled throughout the British Isles, Western Europe, Russia, and Israel. He presents programs throughout the state and teaches in the OLLI program at the University of Massachusetts. Recently he served on the Governor's Commission for the100th Anniversary of World War I during which he presented the History of the Yankee Division to about fifteen communities in the Commonwealth.

The Art of Color Theory Friday, February 12 10:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m. Using watercolor, students will learn basic color theory in order to make and mix different vibrant and robust colors. This workshop will present a methodical way of organizing color mixes so that students can use what they create to guide future painting. The benefits of using this transparent medium to layer paint directly on the paper instead of mixing on the palette will be explained and explored. Color theory terms and vocabulary will be presented and used to guide questions and discussion. All levels of painting experience are welcome. This workshop will be taught entirely using the Zoom platform. A supply list will be provided in advance of the workshop. Facilitator: Kate Nordstrom, (see bio above).

OLLI Winter Film Series: Tortilla Soup (2001) Tuesday, February 16 10:30 a.m. – Film showing via Zoom 12:30 p.m. – Film discussion via Zoom Three grown sisters, Maribel (Tamara Mello), Leticia (Elizabeth Peña) and Carmen (Jacqueline Obradors) try to cope and live with their father Martin (Héctor Elizondo); a veteran chef who is slowly losing his sense of taste. Martin has one simple rule: be at home for Sunday dinner and attendance is both mandatory and non-negotiable. A rift in the family develops when the sisters develop relationships and an obnoxious woman (Raquel Welch) sets her sights on Martin's affections.

Onward to Mars Thursday, February 18 12:00 - 1:00 p.m. We have been fascinated with Mars since author Edgar Rice Burroughs started writing his science fiction series about the Red Planet more than 100 years ago. If all goes as planned, NASA will have launched its next Mars Rover, Perseverance, during the summer of 2020 to land on Mars in February 2021. This program will provide an update about NASA’s newest Mars mission, including the complex process of landing a spacecraft with a rover on Mars, the challenge of searching for signs of ancient life, and some of the issues involved with human Mars Mission planning. Presenter: Since retiring from UMass Boston

several years ago, Pat Monteith rekindled her interest in the space program and was selected as a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador in 2016, a role in which she has conducted several dozen programs for children and adults about NASA and various space science topics.

A Graphic Revolution: Prints and Drawings in Latin America Tuesday, February 23 1:30–2:30 p.m. This exhibition is the first to highlight the Cleveland Museum of Art’s collection of works on paper produced in Latin America over the past century. Representing a wide range of countries, including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, and Mexico, the works survey how artists have explored national and cultural identity during periods of political upheaval and dramatic social change. Facilitator: Arielle Levine (see bio above).

Paint the Sky with Watercolor Friday, February 26

10:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m. Using watercolor, students will learn how to paint the sky as it appears during various times of day. We will look at historical references to analyze and then try to replicate how artists create rich, imaginative, dimensional sky. Students will be encouraged to bring their own style and expression to their individual works. A supply list will be distributed in advance of the workshop. All levels are welcome. This workshop is taught entirely online through the Zoom platform. Facilitator: Kate Nordstrom, (see bio above).

Learning For The Love Of It! – About OLLI at UMass Boston The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at UMass Boston is an inclusive, member-powered organization that offers educational and cultural programs to inspire adult learned ages 50+. Our non-credit courses are taught by volunteers with no homework, tests, or grades. The organization is funded by The Bernard Osher Foundation and is part of a nationwide network of 124 OLLI programs. At UMass Boston, OLLI is housed in the Gerontology Institute, a part of the McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies. For more information, please visit our website or contact our office via email (ollireg@gmail.com).