for the ARTS record
Historical insights Teacher-turned-historian Barbara White will conduct a presentation for the Nantucket Historical Association to bookend Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

White, who originally did research in the 1970s on Nantucket school segregation, retired three years ago from teaching history at Nantucket public schools in order to revisit the topic. She has focused in recent years on Anna Gardner, a white teacher who taught the students of the segregated African school, and NHS principal Cyrus Peirce.

She will share a little of what she's learned, in addition to her veteran insights on Eunice Ross, the young African-American woman whose struggle to attend an integrated school on Nantucket went all the way to the State Legislature, prompting the first American civil rights law on the books regarding fair education. This presentation is part of the NHA's Brown Bag Lunch Series, "Food for Thought." When: Thursday, Jan. 18, noon Where: Nantucket Historical Association

(Discovery Room), 13 Broad Street Cost: Free For more information, please call 228-1894, ext. 0.

Nantucket on PBS this week In Todd English's weekly "Food Trip," the celebrity chef travels to a regional locale to follow food preparation from the wilds to the table. This week, his "Nantucket: On the Waterfront" episode features some local faces - Spanky Kania, Susan Warner and Tom and Bambi Mleczko - as the Boston-based chef goes fishing for striper, learns how to harvest Nantucket Bay scallops, offers some tips on seafood preparation and takes a few minutes to enjoy our island home before putting together a clambake at Olive's in Boston. You can watch the episode on Saturday, Jan. 20, 2 p.m. on WGBH. For more on the show, go to www.toddenglish. com/foodtrip.

Festival Winners Film Series: "Water" The Atheneum brings other nations to Nantucket with the Festival Winners Film Series - a monthly screening of foreign films that have been awarded prizes at film festivals all over the world.

This month, the Atheneum is showing "Water." The Atheneum synopsizes "Water" as a film "set in 1930s India during the rise of the independence struggles against British colonial rule. The film examines the plight of a group of widows forced into poverty at a temple in the holy city of Varanasi." By acclaimed director Deepa Mehta, "Water" includes in its list of laurels Best Feature Film from the Bangkok Film Festival. When: Saturday, Jan. 20, 7-9 p.m. Where: Nantucket Atheneum (Great Hall),

1 India Street Cost: Free For more information, please call 228-1110.

"Godspell" Auditions For the first time on island, The Theatre Workshop of Nantucket and Nantucket High School are officially combining talents and resources to put on a show with "Godspell," which will function as the NHS spring musical. Actors from the school and from the community at-large will come together to perform the "energetic series of skits about the life of Christ that was conceived and directed by John Michael Tebelak and is bursting with toe-tapping, hand-clapping, infectious music," according to TWN President Pam Murphy. TWN Board Member Gordon McGregor will direct the cast, which will be staffed by the best performers available at auditions, regardless of age. "This is a perfect opportunity to combine the incredible talents of the Nantucket youth with the knowledge and experience of the TWN team. I'm very excited about the whole idea," McGregor said. The show is set to go up March 16-18. When: Monday and Tuesday, Jan. 22 and 23, 4-7

p.m.

Where: Nantucket High School (Auditorium),

10 Surfside Road

For more information, please call 221-1091

or visit www.theatreworkshop.com.

Women's Voices Book Discussion: "The Rice Mother" In this tumultuous time of geo-political affairs, it makes good heart-sense to plug into the realities of women across the world. The Atheneum is offering a series of book discussions with this mission in mind, continuing this week with Rani Manicka's debut novel, "The Rice Mother." The Atheneum calls it "as luscious and mysterious as its Malaysian backdrop - it is more than an engrossing family epic."

"It interweaves magical realism with traditional folklore and is studded with an array of evocative motifs," according to the Atheneum. "Above all, it is a meditation on emotional and psychological wounds that take generations to heal- the consuming nature of repressed grief- and about how even a Rice Mother cannot save her children from savage tragedy."

The Worldwide Women's Voices Book Discussion Group has its last meeting of the season on Feb. 27, when readers will share their thoughts on "Desert Queen: The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell." When: Tuesday, Jan. 23, 5:30 - 7 p.m. Where: Nantucket Atheneum (Kynett Room),

1 India Street Cost: Free Please sign up online or call 228-1110, ext. 118.

One Book, One Island Stories - told around campfires by every people in existence - have always been the first shared community cultural experience. And the opportunity to have a story shared by the entire community at the same time is what the Atheneum offers with its annual One Book, One Island program. This year's books are "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini (for adults and high school students), "The Breadwinner" by Deborah Ellis (for middle school students) and "The Librarian of Basra" by Jeanette Winter (for children). They are available Jan. 22 at Nantucket public schools and on Jan. 26 at participating organizations, including the Town Building, the Atheneum, Stop and Shop and Grand Union. For more, go to www.nantucketatheneum. org and click on the "One Book, One

Island" link. I