2022 Salons at Stowe #2

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Podcasts

Salon #2

DETAILS

Part of 2022 Salons at Stowe

Our 2022 Salon series, Teaching Race History and Reading Banned Books: Conversations on Intellectual Freedom, are evocative discussions from a range of viewpoints about the right of intellectual freedom, the question of whose words and voices are included in public education, and how, when, and by whom such determinations are made. Each Salon features guest speakers with diverse expertise in education, censorship, access, and civil liberties.

Salons at Stowe are 21^st-century parlor conversations about contemporary social justice issues. Since 2008, Salons have provided a forum for lively discussion on topics rooted in the 19^th century that remain pressing today.

Related Library Items

2022 Salons at Stowe #1, 2022 Salons at Stowe #3, 2022 Salons at Stowe #4

Description

Featured speakers:

Dawn LaValle is the Director of the Division of Library Development for the Connecticut State Library. DLD provides leadership, funding, education, and statewide services that enhance a local library’s ability to deliver high-quality library diverse and inclusive services to their community. She is a recognized Aspen Re-Envisioning Public Libraries Expert; a Certified Strategic Foresight Practitioner, and a Disruption Navigator for Libraries, she is focused on fostering a more collaborative innovative culture, library services and solutions and to instill 21st century skill sets in the next generation of library leaders. Leading her Division Consultants in embedding Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in statewide programming, services, and resources like the Digital Navigator Pilot; Growing Equitable Library Services and nationally recognized Diversity Audit of Library Collections program. She most recently served as a consultant to the Dubai Public Library System, in the framing of a strategy to re-envision the future state of libraries as 21st Century anchors of the community and innovation destinations.

Dawn holds a Master of Library and Information Services from the Palmer School, Long Island University as well as a Master’s in Secondary Education and a Master’s in Political Science from C.W. Post, Long Island University, Brookville, New York.

Diane X Brown is a native of New Haven, CT. She was a 2003 recipient of the Bill and Melinda Gates Fellowship Award that set her on the course to becoming a librarian. After two intense semesters at Southern Connecticut State University she received a Master’s Degree in Library Science and Information Technology in 2004. In 2004, the New Haven Free Public Library hired her as a Junior Librarian. The following year she accepted a position as an Adjunct Professor at SCSU in the Department of Information Technology and Library Sciences where she taught a mix of undergraduate and graduate courses online as well as on campus for 5 years. Later in 2005, she was promoted to a Young Adult Librarian II and in 2006 she was hired as the Manager of Stetson Branch, her current position.

In 2015, she received the prestigious national, “I Love My Librarian” award from The American Librarian Association and Carnegie Corporation for her outstanding work in building lasting partnerships to provide services and programming to the African American community. In 2017, she received a “Special Achievement Award” from the Connecticut Library Association for her vision and networking in developing and sustaining innovative library programming. Additionally, she has received numerous recognitions from organizations and various local and state officials for her commitment and servitude to the community beyond her role as a librarian.

For the past 6 years, she has played the lead role in the construction of a new state of the art Stetson Branch Library that opened in March, 2022. Additionally, she led a team of librarians in weeding the former collection of 23,000 items and the ordering of over 14,000 books and digital items for the opening day collection. She single-handedly created an African Diaspora Book Collection to replace the former branches African American Collection, one of the largest of its’ kind in Connecticut and beyond.

School Group Interest Form

School Group Interest Form 2024

Thank you so much for your interest in a group tour at the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center! Please help us schedule your visit by answering the questions below.

School name:

Please suggest three dates and times when your group would like to visit. (Note: the Stowe Center is closed on Sunday and Tuesday.)

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The Stowe Center requires one adult per every 10 students.

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Are you interested in scheduling a joint visit with our neighbor, The Mark Twain House and Museum?

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If yes, have you already contacted The Mark Twain House?

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Isabella Beecher Hooker

Isabella Holmes Beecher Hooker (1822-1907)
An ardent member of the woman’s suffrage movement, Isabella Holmes Beecher Hooker joined in the cause along with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony.

Isabella was the first child of Lyman Beecher and his second wife, Harriet Porter Beecher.

Isabella began her education at Catharine Beecher’s Hartford Female Seminary and lived with her sister Mary Perkins. In 1841 she married John Hooker, a descendant of Thomas Hooker, the founder of Hartford. John Hooker was a lawyer and an abolitionist.

In the early 1860s Isabella got involved in the woman’s suffrage movement. Isabella joined Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony as a member of the National Woman’s Suffrage Association in 1869. She was a founding member of the Connecticut Woman’s Suffrage Association. Isabella’s ideas of equality were influenced by John Stuart Mills’ On Liberty and the Subjection of Women.

In 1871, Isabella organized the annual convention of the National Woman’s Suffrage Association in Washington D.C. and presented her argument before the Committee on the Judiciary of the United States Senate. Her husband, John Hooker, believed in his wife and supported her activities. He helped Isabella draft a bill to the Connecticut Legislature giving married women the same property rights as their husbands. The bill passed in 1877. Isabella annually submitted a bill granting women the right to vote, but it did not pass in her lifetime.