Humanities Council to get $346,690 NEH grant

Delegate Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan (Ind-MP) announced yesterday that the Northern Marianas Humanities Council is receiving a $346,690 grant through the National Endowment for the Humanities. The funding will support the council’s wide range of public humanities programs in the Marianas.

Sablan made the announcement together with Frankie Eliptico, chairman of the Northern Marianas Humanities Council Board of Directors.

“The Northern Marianas Humanities Council is celebrating its 25th anniversary of making the humanities come alive for our community,” Sablan said. “And the grant we are announcing today will allow the Council to continue this good work.

“The grant was highly competitive and involved a rigorous peer review and selection process,” Sablan added. “I congratulate everyone at the Humanities Council who worked on the application.”

According to Eliptico,“The funding from the NEH allows the Northern Marianas Humanities Council to offer new programs and expand existing ones that engage residents of all ages through a variety of humanities activities and events.”

In fact, Sablan and the Humanities Council is already cooperating on new initiatives that will support Marianas veterans and their families and raise public understanding about military service, the experience of war, and the challenges of returning home.

In October the council will screen the award-winning film Almost Sunrise, a documentary that follows the journey of two combat veterans struggling with post-traumatic stress and moral injury, and their search for healing and redemption as they trek across America. The screening will be followed by a series of resiliency building workshops led by Project Welcome Home Troops, for Marianas veterans, active duty personnel, reservists, and family members.

There are also plans underway for a Veteran Resource Fair, and seminars to train community members to record the personal experiences of Marianas veterans for the ongoing Veterans History Project of the Library of Congress.

“We take a broad view of the humanities,” Sablan said. “The humanities help us appreciate the many aspects of our history and culture, understand where we are today as a community and as individuals, and look ahead to where we are going.”

Sablan is a former Humanities Council board member.

Council-run projects over the years include the Motheread family literacy program, the Marianas History Conference, the Micronesian Authors Initiative, the Sengebau Poetry Competition, the Humanities Half-Hour radio show, film festivals, community lectures, and various student projects.

In addition, the council provides matching grants to other community organizations to conduct their own humanities-related programs.

The Northern Marianas Humanities Council is affiliated with the National Endowment for the Humanities, an independent federal agency that is also celebrating an important milestone this year—its 50th anniversary. The NEH supports research and learning in history, literature, philosophy, and other areas of the humanities.

“NEH grants enable Americans across the country to have compelling humanities experiences that communicate the lessons of history and culture through books, films, websites, classrooms, museums, and libraries,” said NEH Chairman William D. Adams.

For more information about the Northern Marianas Humanities Council, visit www.northernmarianashumanities.org. For more information about the National Endowment for the Humanities, visit www.neh.gov. For more information about the Veterans History Project and other veterans programs, contact the congressional office at Kilili@mail.house.gov or (670) 323-2647.