We're celebrating New Voices in New Hampshire
New Hampshire Humanities' book discussion program Connections brings the best of children’s, young adult, and adult literature, as well as New Hampshire Humanities-trained discussion facilitators to more than 500 adult learners each year.
Photo: Connections "New Voices" reading in
Lebanon, NH. See photos & video on our New Voices page!
Quality books and stimulating discussions promote English language skills, cultivate conversations about ideas, reinforce family literacy, support a culture of reading, and encourage civic engagement. Connections works in partnership with adult basic education and ESOL classes, refugee resettlement organizations, services for adults with developmental disabilities and state and county prisons. Participants are both native speakers and new Americans.
Connections participants keep the books they read; incarcerated parents send them home to their children along with a recording of their personal reading. Each four-week series is organized around a theme such as “Planting the Earth,” “Home in New England,” “Picturing America’s Stories,” “Journeys,” “Give Me Liberty,” “A Day’s Work,” and “A Sense of Place.” In addition to book discussions, Connections offers an annual celebration of family literacy including poetry readings, folktale festivals and author talks from luminaries such as Tomie dePaola in 2015, and Juan Felipe Herrera in 2018.
"Connections is an example of New Hampshire Humanities
identifying a real need, rallying partners around it,
and coming up with a real solution."
Ken Sheldon, Bank of America
