Poet's descendant brings 'Lecture Theater' to area

BY KENNETH HICKSON, THE DAILY IBERIAN

If you’ve lived in the Teche Area long enough, you’ve probably heard the name Henry Wadsworth Longfellow or learned about him in school. This week, New Iberia is getting the chance to learn even more about the American poet from his distant cousin.

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“My great-great grandfather was his younger cousin,” Dr. Layne Longfellow said during a seminar at New Iberia Senior High School Tuesday.

Longfellow, who has a Ph.D in experimental psychology, started what’s called the “Lecture Theatre.” It’s a method of combining music and images to present a subject. In 1995, Longfellow was driven into retirement by a fall that broke his back and injured his brain, and it was during his rehabilitation, six years later, that he found himself involved with the works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

“The connection in the poetry he has written moves me deeply,” Longfellow said. “When I became mobile again, I began to read his poetry aloud. One of the things I’ve loved is finding poems that he has written that no one has heard of.”

But, it’s a very popular poem that has made Henry Wadsworth Longfellow arguably the most popular poet in the Teche Area even though he was born in Portland, Maine. That poem is called “Evangeline.”

“He (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) draped Acadian history on two lovers,” Longfellow said.

Evangeline describes the story of two lovers who were separated as the British deported Acadians from Canada during the “Great Expulsion.” The story of Evangeline has become common among descendants of the Acadians who ended up in the Teche Area; people we know now as Cajuns.

Dr. Layne Longfellow will address students at Catholic High School from 1 to 3 p.m. today and also address people at 6 p.m. at the Acadian Memorial in St. Martinville.

He will make another presentation Thursday from 5:45 p.m. to 6:45 p.m. at the Sliman Theater of Performing Arts.