A new series of talks is coming to Georgeville at the Murray Community Centre. Starting April 19, the Memphré Lecture Series will see guest speakers cover a variety of topics and it invites all Townshippers to discover something new.
The lecture series originally took place in Newport, Vermont, but when the pandemic hit they were cancelled due to the organizing committee being mostly made up of Canadian citizens.
Disappointed that the lecture series has yet to pick back up again in Newport, a group of locals decided to start a series on this side of the border.
“When the border closed, we were not able to get across to Vermont anymore. As far as I know, the Vermont section of the program has not started back up again,” said Ann Montgomery, one of the organizers of the lecture series. “A number of us just met for lunch, casually, a while ago and we were just saying how much of a shame it was that we didn’t have these talks to go to anymore.”
After some discussion, they decided to organize something on their own.
“We thought we would start off slowly with three lectures this spring, and then if that all works out fine to expand the program a little bit for next fall, and then just carry on from there,” added Montgomery.
When asked where the name for the lecture series comes from and if it had anything to do with the theme of the series, Montgomery noted that it is not to be confused with the monster, referring to Lake Memphremagog’s so-called sea serpent monster named Memphré that has long been a part of Eastern Township’s folklore.
“We were looking for a name and our little groups is kind of from all over the region here. Georgeville is on the shore of Lake Memphremagog, most of us are in touch of it, and we are all in the Memphremagog MRC so we thought that would just be a catchy name,” she mentioned.
The Memphré Lecture Series invites different guest speakers that will introduce a variety of topics to attendees.
“It’s a total variety, it just depends on what speakers we’re interested in and who we can get to come at any particular time. I was a member of the organizing committee of the program in Newport and we had a series of speakers lined up for 2020,” said Montgomery. “So I’m starting with the people that agreed to talk to us in 2020 when the program was cancelled. (…) I’m starting with the Canadian ones.”
The first lecture kicks off on April 19 at 1:30 p.m. with Dr. Allan Smith, a retired professor from the Université de Montreal, followed by Dr. Val Behan Pelletier, honorary research associate for the Canadian National Collection of Insects, Arachnids and Nematodes, on May 3.
“He (Smith) is a neuroscientist so he is talking about brain issues, which I think will be really interesting. The second one is a neighbour of mine here, Dr. Val Behan Pelletier, who is a biotechnologist, and her specialty is the composition of soil and what role mice and other little bugs play in making soil. I’ve heard her talk on this before and she is absolutely fascinating,” Montgomery highlighted.
The last lecture lined up for the spring is with Dr. Andrea Fairchild, a retired professor of art history at Concordia University, on May 17.
“She was the Dean of Fine Arts at Concordia University, but now lives in Austin and is actually a member of our organizing group here. Her specialty at the moment is women painters in Mexico. She spent some time there and she’s done quite a lot research. She’s going to be talking about three woman painters that are not Frida Kahlo,” she added.
Montgomery said that she hopes that people will come, have fun, and discover something new.
“It’s a new venture here. We hope that it will be attractive to people, that people will enjoy it. I know that there were a lot of people in this region, and really the whole Townships area, all the way from Knowlton to Drummondville, that used to go to these lectures in Vermont that are missing them,” she mentioned. “We hope that some of them will say ‘yes, I’d like to do it again,” and they’ll come to Georgeville.”
All three lectures will start at 1:30 p.m. on their respective dates at the Murray Community Centre located at 4680 Channel Road, J0B 1T0, Georgeville. There is a $10 admission fee, which includes the refreshments at the end of the talks.
Listen to the full interview below: