Bridging Cultures: Understanding the Middle East & What it Means Today is a multi-part grant funded program designed to provide participants opportunities to explore the history, cultures, and connections between Muslims and Christians through a variety of programs guided by experts in the field.  Bridging Cultures: Understanding Islam & What it Means Today will feature book talks; film showings and discussions; guest speakers; and a professional development component for local educators. The program series will run from October 2013 to May 2014.

This timely program series has been made possible by three generous grants, two from the American Library Association (ALA)  and National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and one from the New Hampshire Humanities Council.

We received our first grant, Bridging Cultures: Muslim Journeys Bookshelf consisting of a variety of 28 books and films on Muslim history and culture thanks to a project of NEH, conducted in cooperation with the ALA Public Programs Office, with support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York.  For the second grant Bridging Cultures: Muslim Journeys “Let’s Talk About It!” book discussions, also funded by NEH and the ALA,  the Kingston Community Library was one of 125 libraries and state humanities councils across the country selected for funding.  The third grant was funded by the New Hampshire Humanities Council to provide additional programing to supplement the book talks with film discussions and public presentations by prominent scholars from the University of New Hampshire, Georgetown and Harvard. In addition, the Library is collaborating with the Sanborn Regional School District for a professional development day for Sanborn faculty and teachers from throughout the seacoast region that will be hosted by Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.