Mondo Lizzie Borden

On Thursday, September 24, the mock trial of Lizzie Borden was held in the very courtroom in New Bedford where she was tried in 1893.

While the ballots were being counted, Judge Kane was asked about what was the difference between then and now, between trials from Lizzie’s time and current procedures. His responses may surprise you!

Monday, September 28, 2009.
6:30 pm
Bristol Community College, Fall River, MA
Building C, room 111

NOTE: Last week’s lecture was AGAIN standing room only, so please arrive early!

Annette Holba, Ph.D., author

Lizzie Borden as “Conscious Pariah”: A Discussion About Private Life

Lizzie Borden and the Borden murders are often sensationalized and exploited in some fashion by contemporary media. From the 1975 made-for-television movie, The Legend of Lizzie Borden, to some more recent mediated offerings that have exploited the Borden story through the slasher film genre, The Curse of Lizzie Borden (2006) and The Curse of Lizzie Borden 2: Prom Night (2008), it is evident that the stories lose factual basis and they are potentially exploited. This presentation enters the conversation about the Borden phenomenon through an alternative lens intended to shed a different light on the person, Lizzie Borden. Unmarred by her post-trial reputation and disconnected from some of the theories that have come and gone in the last one hundred years, this presentation looks at some of Lizzie’s public action as a parallel to one of the twentieth century’s most significant female political theorists, Hannah Arendt. Lizzie Borden made life choices in the aftermath of the murders that are consistent with Hannah Arendt’s notion of a “conscious pariah,” a label that Arendt gave to herself in the aftermath of her noteworthy critique of Adolf Eichmann in Eichmann in Jerusalem (1963). Lizzie also made conscious choices in her public life that perhaps she knew would be in disfavor with the larger public. Consequently, we can learn more about Lizzie as a conscious pariah in her environment that might offer more constructive insight for ongoing contemporary public discourse.

Dr. Annette M. Holba is Assistant Professor of Communication Studies in the Communication and Media Studies Department at Plymouth State University, New Hampshire. She earned her B.A. in Law & Justice Studies from Rowan University, her M.A. in Liberal Studies from Rutgers University (Camden), and her Ph.D. in Rhetoric from Duquesne University. She has articles published in The Hatchet: Journal of Lizzie Borden Studies, World Leisure Journal, PRism, Cosmos and History: Journal of Social and Natural Philosophy, The Pennsylvania Speech Communication Annual, New Hampshire Journal of Education, Florida Communication Journal, and The Review of Communication. Dr. Holba has a book chapter in Media(ted) Deviance and Social Otherness: Interrogating Influential Representations, and is the author of Handbook for the Humanities Doctoral Student; Philosophical Leisure: Recuperative Praxis for Human Communication; and co-editor of Philosophies of Communication: Implications for Everyday Experience; and Lizzie Borden Took an Axe, Or Did She?

A very cool product exists called Fizzy Lizzy soda.

Of course, this has nothing to do with Lizzie Borden, but I like the idea of her being carbonated!

Here is their website.

On Thursday, September 24, 2009, the Superior Court of Massachusetts, in commemoration of 150 years of existence, sponsored and produced a mock trial of Lizzie Borden in the very courtroom that she had been tried in 1893.

I was there and taped the show. Here is Lizzie Borden’s testimony. Played exquisitely by Lucy Bly.

Remember, Lizzie never testified at her own trial, so this appearance by her on the stand was a fictional moment.

For part two, visit YouTube HERE.

Tonight in New Bedford, in the very courthouse, the very court room that she was tried 116 years ago, Lizzie A. Borden was once again adjudged not guilty.

Testifying were Emma Borden, Dr. William A. Dolen, Bridget Sullivan, and (surprise!) Lizzie Borden herself.

This is Emma on the left, and Lizzie with her council and Reverend Jubb by her side.

If you don’t have ticket, I guess you could still join the standby folks who are hoping some don’t show for this event . . . .

The mock trial of Lizzie Andrew Borden is this evening in New Bedford, in the very courtroom she was tried in in 1893. I wonder how strange it will feel to be there listening, and judging, the case, pretending we are back in time and trying to figure out a woman’s guilt or innocence.

I have heard that every other recreation or mock trial has found Lizzie not guilty. We shall see if this is again the case.

Details on the event will be posted later or tomorrow. As a member of the audience/jury, I am wondering how I will be voting!

Monday, September 21, 2009.
6:30 pm
Bristol Community College, Fall River, MA
Building C, room 111

NOTE: Last week’s lecture was standing room only, so please arrive early!

Bonnie Mendes, Director of the Somerset Public Library and Ann Rockett-Sperling, educator

Parallel Lives: A Social History of Lizzie A. Borden and Her Fall River
Readings from the Fall River Historical Society’s upcoming publication

Relying on an extensive number of previously unpublished manuscripts and diaries, including a plethora of material gleaned from private collections, Parallel Lives provides unprecedented insight into Lizzie’s world, into Her Fall River. Researched and written for the Society by its curatorial staff, Parallel Lives uses the time span of the family of Andrew Jackson Borden as the framework around which the story unfolds. No attempt is made to retell the story of the Borden murder case, but, rather, a picture is painted of the Fall River Lizzie knew. It was a city of sharp contrasts, where a privileged few, entrenched on “the Hill,” lived their lives surrounded by the factories and laborers that were their lifeblood, with one unable to exist without the other. Fall River is brought to life: the people, the sounds, and the events that formed its history. Parallel Lives takes the reader back in time and provides a never-before-seen look at her life, and the environment in which she lived it. Here we meet a flesh and blood Lizzie in full color—a woman who was anything but the icon created by those who did not know her personally. Those who did painted an entirely different picture of the mistress of Maplecroft—and the stories they had to tell are here collected for the first time in Parallel Lives.

As the Library Director of the Somerset Public Library, Bonnie Mendes is well known in the local community. A Somerset native, she attended Fitchburg State College, obtaining her degree in English with a concentration in American Literature. After graduation, she began work in the Reference Department of the Fall River Public Library, thus sowing the seeds of her passion for Fall River history. She attended the University of Rhode Island, graduating with a Masters in Library and Information Science in 1986, and at that time began work as the Reference Librarian at the Somerset Public Library. She currently holds the position of Library Director, and is a candidate in the American Library Association’s Certified Public Library Administrator program. An avid reader, she is involved in a number of professional library associations as well as many community organizations. Visit the website for the Somerset Publc Library!

Ann Rockett-Sperling, a retired elementary educator in the Fall River Public School System, is an active member of the Fall River Historical Society.

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I created a short film on the history of the Quequechan River, Fall River, Massachusetts, for the recent lecture titled “The Hidden Divide—The Struggle for the Quequechan Watercourse: Private Rights versus Public Interests.” This was part of the lecture series commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Massachusetts Superior Court.

I uploaded the film to YouTube, but it is in a format too large to display on this blog.

If you would like to see it, please visit YouTube at this link.

Feedback will be appreciated.

Yet another tantalizing tidbit from the Fall River Historical Society’s new book, soon to be published, titled Parallel Lives: A Social History of Lizzie A. Borden and Her Fall River.

This one is a stunner! Soon, very soon, we will be able to view, read, and consume a letter or letters from Lizzie’s incarceration in Taunton in 1893! Oh, what intimate thoughts and fears might be contained within those pages?

I can’t wait.

Read all about it here.

The Hidden Divide
The Struggle for the Quequechan Watercourse:
Private Rights versus Public Interests

Thursday, September 17, 2009, 6:30 p.m.
Bristol Community College, Building C, Room 111

Free

Speakers: Alfred J. Lima, WIlliam G. Kenney, Jay J. Lambert, John Friar II, Donald Leighton, and John Grosvenor.

Visuals by Stefani Koorey

Part of the Bristol County Superior Court Series of Programs to Commemorate the 150th Anniversary of the Massachusetts Superior Court.

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The Fall River Garden Club, the Fall River Historical Society, and the Little Theatre of Fall River, Inc., are presenting History Underfoot III, a walking tour of Oak Grove Cemetery.

Guided tours of the grounds featuring characters who knew Lizzie Borden well.

Sunday, October 4, 2009 (raindate October 11), 11 am to 3:30 pm.

Advanced tickets are available at the Fall River Historical Society or at the Prospect Street Gates on day of event.

$15.

Stefani Koorey, Ph.D., Borden scholar, will be presenting a free lecture, titled

“Myth Busting Lizzie Borden: Facts on the Life of an Enigmatic Woman”

Presented by the Fall River Historical Society as part of their Lizzie A. Borden Lecture Series.

Lizzie Borden still fascinates. She intrigues us mostly because, even after 117 years, we know very little about her private life. After her acquittal for the murder of her father and stepmother, she remained in Fall River, Massachusetts, and spoke to no one publicly about the case ever again. And yet, there have been more than 30 so-called nonfiction accounts of her to appear in print. What exactly do we know about Lizzie A. Borden? And how has her particular story become more urban legend than authentic narrative?

Stefani Koorey, Ph.D. is a Borden expert and the publisher and editor of The Hatchet: A Journal of Lizzie Borden and Victorian America, in its 6th year of publication. She has been featured in the Discovery Channel’s recent documentary “Lizzie Borden Had an Axe,” and lectures far and wide on the subject. Her most recent discoveries of the portraits of Andrew Borden and his first wife Sarah, as well as the image of Emma Borden as a young woman and Lizzie Borden when she was a child, have helped to renew interest in this fascinating unsolved mystery.

WHEN: Monday, September 14, 2009, at 6:30 PM.

WHERE: Bristol Community College, Fall River, MA
Siegel Health Technologies Building
Room c111

For further information, visit the Fall River Historical Society

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This just in . . .

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At first, the Superior Court of Bristol County’s 150th Anniversary had announced that they were presenting a Lizzie Borden Trial “Reenactment.” That sounded interesting and well worth seeing all three times it was advertised.

Now, the posters are calling them a “Mock Retrial” with the audience serving as the jury. Even better!

Lizzie, Redux
A Mock Retrial of Lizzie Borden

New Bedford Superior Court
441 County Street, New Bedford, MA

Thursday, September 24, 2009
at 7PM.

There is no charge for tickets but seating is limited. For tickets, mail a self-addressed stamped letter to
Lizzie, Redux Request
c/o Clerk Magistrate Marc J. Santos
Bristol County Clerk of the Courts
441 County Street
New Bedford, MA 02740

Two tickets per request. Tickets will be honored until 20 minutes before the presentation, after which there will be a general admission until capacity is reached.