Culture Cafe Returns to Madison Library

The summer theme of "One World, Many Stories" will come to life in the Tuesday and Wednesday evening series "Culture Cafe" series at the .  

The series will begin on July 5 at 7 p.m. with the presentation of the film" The Education of Little Tree."  The film, which is rated PG and was released in 1998, stars James Cromwell, Tantoo Cardinal, Joseph Ashton, and Graham Green. It tells the story of Little Tree, an eight-year-old Cherokee boy in the Depression era who loses both of his parents and goes to live with grandparents and learn the wisdom of the Cherokee way of life. It also examines how the Caucasian settlers first befriended the Cherokee, then used the army to take their lands and forced them to re-locate, resulting in many deaths. When the state's social services finds out that Little Tree is not attending school and is assisting his grandfather in selling liquor, they compel him to re-locate to an oppressive Catholic school, where things take a turn for the worse.

On July 6 Kim Darst and lead dog, Cotton, present "The Iditarod Experience," at 7 p.m. in the Chase Room. Rookie Iditarod musher Darst had to decide between a dog or her dream. She had trained for a decade to enter the sled dog race that is to Alaska what the Super Bowl is to the lower 48 states. The Blairstown resident was halfway to her goal of becoming the first New Jerseyan to finish the Iditarod, and eight days into the race, the musher and her 16 dogs had taken the most punishment Alaska had to offer: temperatures of 45 degrees below zero; an unexpected blizzard that left snow up to her waist; a grueling 200-mile stretch that took her from 77 feet above sea level to 3,177 feet above. At one point a blizzard left one of her dogs, Cotton, with a temperature nearly 20 degrees below the normal average of 101.3.  Afraid the dog would die before the next checkpoint, Darst had to choose between the dog and her dream. She chose the dog. Darst will share her experience of the Iditarod and the effect it had on her life.
  
Refreshments will be served at all Cafe Culture events, which are open to visitors of all ages. Please call 973-377-0722 for more infomation.