CULTURE WATCH Humanities council scrutinizes 'freedom' BY BRIAN C. JONES

It’s a cliché, of course, but freedom isn’t actually free. And this is the case with a series of three programs sponsored by the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities (RICH) on the theme: "What Is Freedom?"

Caught like many nonprofit cultural agencies with a drastic falloff in corporate and foundation support, RICH is billing this series — which begins Monday, September 29, with a talk by author Scott Russell Sanders — as a fund-raising event, with a minimum series price of $90. It’s a big departure for the humanities council, which has traditionally sponsored free, publicly accessible events, something it continues to do with a combination of federal and private dollars.

But executive director M. Drake Patten says the council expects to have an annual budget of only about $600,000 this year — down from more than $900,000 — and that’s if it gets its normal federal allocation of $465,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). As a result, RICH has put two programs on "hiatus" for a year — the Legacy program, in which actors describe historic state events in classrooms, and Rhode Island Dialogues, forums in which residents of different communities discuss local issues. Meanwhile, the council is searching for new ways to get money, and the "What Is Freedom?" series is its first fund-raiser.

Patten says RICH is looking at the special series as a positive opportunity, billing it as a celebration of the council’s 30th anniversary and promoting discussion of a topic that has become even more important since the 9-11 terror attacks. "Here we are at a time when there is a significant threat to freedom," Patten says. "We are being attacked from the outside and responding on the inside."

How to grapple with issues related to September 11 has vexed humanities advocates. Last year, RICH was among the few national critics of a new initiative by NEH, its major funding source (See "History lesson," News, October 11, 2002). The local officials were concerned that a "We the People" initiative by the federal agency — designed to focus the attention of scholars, school children, and others on American history as a way of bolstering homeland security — might concentrate too narrowly on traditional views of patriotism.

Three businesses, the Providence Journal, Verizon, and Whole Foods Market, are sponsoring RICH’s "What Is Freedom?" series. Events start at 6 p.m., with private receptions with the participants, and the speaking programs begin at 7 p.m. Series tickets are available at five different donations levels, from $90 to $1000. (For more info, call (401) 273-2250 or visit www.uri.edu/rich.) Here’s the schedule:

• Monday, Sept. 29, Scott Russell Sanders, at the Providence Journal Auditorium, 75 Fountain St., Providence. Sanders, the author of 18 books, including Staying Put and Hunting for Hope, is a distinguished professor of English at Indiana University.

• Monday, October 6, "A Night of Independent Film, Living in America, Stories of Culture, Conflict and Immigration," at the Columbus Theatre, 270 Broadway, Providence. As part of a continuing series, this will feature four films, including In My Own Skin: The Complexity of Living As an Arab in America and I Call Myself Persian: Iranians in America. A post-screening discussion is planned with Nasser Zawia, president, Masjid Alhoda (Muslim Community Center of Kingston) and filmmaker Shawn Hainsworth. General admission $5.

• Monday, October 20, John R. MacArthur, publisher of Harper’s magazine, will talk, at the Providence Journal Auditorium, on "Disreputable Defenders of the First Amendment: From Colonel McCormick to Larry Flynt."