A varied roster of spring classes from one called “Easy Bluegrass Jamming” to a class titled of “Chaucer’s Pilgrims: Their Lives, Many Sins, and Occasional Virtues” offers stimulating learning opportunities for both new and returning members of Coastal Senior College. Classes are $35 each; membership is $25. All classes meet during the daytime in Knox and Lincoln counties. “If you want to meet wonderful people and be stimulated intellectually, then there’s no better deal in town,” said one Coastal Senior College instructor.
Two eight-week classes will meet on Mondays. “Easy Bluegrass Jamming,” with instructor Resa Randolph, who teaches guitar, voice, and banjo, will begin on Monday, April 3. It will run from 10 a.m. to noon for eight weeks and will meet in the undercroft of St. Andrews Episcopal Church in Newcastle. The cost of this class does exceed the normal fee by $10 – it is $45. Open to players of any acoustic instruments that fit into the bluegrass genre, the course offers a low-key and friendly environment for learning all aspects of bluegrass music and jamming etiquette. Beginning a week later, on Monday, April 10, Antoinette Pimentel, biochemist and art history teacher extraordinaire, will offer “Tenebrism and Chiaroscuro: How a Single Candle Can Both Defy and Define Darkness.” A study of Caravaggio and his use of darkness as an artistic ruse to create both drama and tension will be a focus of this course. The course will be held from 10 a.m. to noon at the Bremen Library in Bremen.
Tuesday’s class, “Where Are My Keys? A Journey into the Aging Mind,” will be taught by veteran Coastal Senior College instructor Paul Somoza and has a class limit of 30 — and all slots were filled within the first three days of registration. Those with their hearts set on taking this class may call to be put on a waiting list.
Sometimes after the Coastal Senior College catalog goes to print, a class that is listed must be canceled. One of five upcoming Wednesday classes, “When Nomadism Ends: The Fate of Israel’s Bedouin Citizens,” with popular instructor Steve Shaw, will not be offered this spring.
Four classes will be offered on Wednesdays. Two are writing classes. Those who registered for “The Memoir Cafe” during the first days of enrollment, which opened on March 7, filled the first class. A second writing class, “Editing Techniques: How to Cut and Prune Your Writing,” will be taught by Caroline Janover in the media room of The Lincoln Home in Newcastle from 3-5 p.m. for six Wednesdays. It offers a supportive and inspiring environment for memoir writing. Sign up for this class to share stories with a small group led by an inspirational teacher.
Two more Wednesday classes, one on French Impressionism and the second on American democracy, will round out the midweek offerings. Instructor Jane Roos offers “French Impressionism: Mostly Monet”; the course focus is the formation of the Impressionist group, the development of their painterly approach, and the reasons behind the critics’ hostility. The course will begin on May 10 and will run for five Wednesdays from 12:30-3 p.m. at the Bremen Library. For those interested in a discussion of democracy led by an expert facilitator, instructor Carmen Lavertu’s seminar on the history of American democratic rule and civic engagement, including references to writers and poets from Walt Whitman to Bob Dylan, will be a stimulating class. “Ideals of Democracy” will begin on April 5 and run for eight Wednesdays from 1:30-3:30 p.m. at The Episcopal Church of St. John Baptist in Thomaston.
Two classes will meet on Thursdays. The first, “Hollywood as Ideology,” taught by William Solomon, a media studies expert, will examine how movies distort the complexity of modern life as they reaffirm and sometimes revise the values that pervade U.S. popular culture. During each class, students will watch a feature film and then critique it. The class will begin on April 6 and run for eight sessions from 12:30-3 p.m. at the Camden Public Library. The second course offered Thursdays will be “Allons Enfants! The French Revolution and the People,” taught by Charmarie Blaisdell, whose course repertoire includes medieval, Renaissance, and Reformation history. This turbulent time period will be explored through lecture, class discussion, and visuals. Class will begin on April 6 and run for eight sessions from 1-4 p.m. in the Porter Meeting Hall at Skidompha Public Library in Damariscotta.
Two class offerings on Friday will both begin on April 7. Paul Kando, engineer, researcher, and energy expert, offers “After Capitalism,” an exploration of belief systems, economics, and science to help examine the following questions: How well does the current economic system serve the basic human needs of every member of society? If it does not, what can we do? This class will run for six sessions from 10 a.m. to noon at University College at Rockland. Also beginning on April 7, but running for eight sessions from 1-3 p.m. at the Bremen Library, is “Chaucer’s Pilgrims: Their Lives, Many Sins, and Occasional Virtues.” Instructor Ann Nesslage, whose focus is British, Irish, and Welsh literature and mythology, will lead students on an exploration of Chaucer’s witty and satirical style as they explore the flawed, bawdy, and complex world of the pilgrims and their tales of love and lust.
To read complete descriptions for spring trimester classes and instructor bios, and to register for a class, one can choose from several options. Go to coastalseniorcollege.org and download a registration form to mail in. Pick up a complete catalog, which includes a registration form, at many local businesses and libraries in Knox and Lincoln counties. Call 596-6906 to register. Go in person to the University College at Rockland office, Ste. 402, in the Breakwater Building at 91 Camden St. in Rockland.