July 6, 2006

By Virgil Hervey

Although he started as the dean of liberal studies at Antioch University McGregor just this past November, Jerry Holt is no stranger to Yellow Springs. In 2001 he taught a course on playwriting at the Antioch Writer’s Workshop, and from that session evolved at least one successful local playwright, Kay Reimers. And, as part of the workshop’s program that year, his one-woman play, Julia, turned out to be an electric moment in the history of Center Stage that folks around town are still talking about. In that one week in summer, five years ago, Holt made an impact on the village. And now he’s back, with a new summer seminar series at McGregor.

The MIIND (McGregor Institute for Intellectual Development) series is Jerry Holt’s baby. Based on the Chautauqua Institution’s summer program in upstate New York, it is designed to bring the people of Yellow Springs and Antioch University McGregor closer during a time when mutual understanding is of great concern, Holt said in a recent interview. The Chautauqua program was designed for older people on the theory that the life of the mind contributes to longevity, and Holt is especially hoping to engage with seniors from the village, along with other community members and McGregor students, who will enroll for credit.

The program is comprised of three week-long seminars that take place Mondays through Fridays, 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. The first seminar, “Ohio’s Secret History,” took place June 26 through June 30. The second seminar, “The Holocaust,” will be offered July 24 through July 28, and the third, “Produced and Abandoned: The Greatest Movies You Never Saw,” will take place August 21 through August 26. Openings are still available for the upcoming two seminars.

According to Holt, the Holocaust seminar is an intense and in-depth historical study which will be presented with the assistance of Herbert Hochauser, director of the Ohio Council on Holocaust Education, himself a Holocaust survivor. The seminar will begin with a look at the political turmoil before World War II and will also cover what Holt calls the “American angle,” the U.S. response to what was happening in Europe. The program will also examine other kinds of “holocausts,” such as the plight of the Native Americans, the Palestinian crisis, and the events in Rwanda.

The final session,“Produced and Abandoned: The Greatest Movies You Never Saw,” will look at how good movies came to be lost or deliberately suppressed, and will feature a “special surprise guest and free popcorn at every screening,” Holt said. Movies will be shown and discussed daily from Aug. 21 through Aug. 26.

Salt of the Earth, a low-budget movie made in the 1950s about a mine strike in New Mexico, will be one of the movies featured. Because it was made by blacklisted filmmakers, using amateur and blacklisted actors, the producers were never able to get a distribution deal, according to Holt. In a pioneering effort for its time, the movie deals with equal rights for women, among other subjects, he said.

The August seminar will also include discussion on well-known films, including the lengths to which the Hollywood establishment went to suppress Citizen Kane, because movie moguls so feared the wrath of William Randolph Hearst, Holt said. A special guest at this program will be Jon Saari, former owner of the Little Art Theater.

One of the popular offerings at Chautauqua is evening entertainment, and Holt’s program will follow suit, and will also offer “an optional, but highly recommended Thursday night mystery soiree,” Holt said.

Registration for the two remaining seminars is open right up until the last minute. Each session is limited to forty students, but there is currently room for more, according to Holt. Students taking a seminar for four credits will pay full tuition, but community members are being offered a non-credit audit option of $250 per seminar.

This year’s series is just a launching pad for what Holt envisions as a regularly occurring Yellow Springs Chautauqua. He hopes to get off to a good start with many members of the Yellow Springs community joining the McGregor community in this year’s program.

More information is available online at www.mcgregor.edu/miind/or by calling 769-1818.