Passed down for generations, folk songs provide insights into the lives of ordinary people in centuries past. Diane mines these traditional songs for clues to the inner lives of people in Europe and America from about 1500 to 1850, especially women. Women left few written records, but we can learn much about them through the music that they used to speed their work, lift their spirits, or ease an aching heart.

Bootmaker and Artist Sarah Madeleine T. Guerin presents her work as an artisanal Keeper of Tradition in Massachusetts and a working artist. With a thorough knowledge of traditional Western bootmaking, Sarah researches and analyses the connections between evolving methods of footwear making craft of the 1800s in Massachusetts - with an architectural focus on vernacular Ten Footer Shoe Shops - to the stability of a contemporary art practice heavily based in handmade footwear techniques and skills.

Join us for a group screening and discussion of 'Contradictory Place': Cotton Mills Alongside Anti-Slavery Efforts in Lowell Massachusetts.