Remembering Frank McCourt

Frank McCourt at The CT Forum on May 4, 2001

When we asked Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison several years ago who she might like to have a conversation with on stage at The CT Forum, she didn't hesitate with her response: Frank McCourt.

And on one memorable evening back in May of 2001, to our great delight, she did just that.



Thank you, Toni, for having that conversation with the wonderful Frank McCourt - an exchange of thoughts and ideas that is as intriguing now as it was then.

Today, we celebrate the life of Frank McCourt. We celebrate his vibrancy, his warmth, his hard-won wisdom, and his incomparable wit.

"He says, you have to study and learn so that you can make up your own mind about history and everything else but you can’t make up an empty mind. Stock your mind, stock your mind. You might be poor, your shoes might be broken, but your mind is a palace."
— from Angela's Ashes

"People everywhere brag and whimper about the woes of their early years, but nothing can compare with the Irish version: the poverty; the shiftless loquacious father; the pious defeated mother moaning by the fire; pompous priests; bullying school masters; the English and the terrible things they did to us for eight hundred long years.

Above all -- we were wet."


"It’s lovely to know that the world can’t interfere with the inside of your head."
— from Angela's Ashes

"Love her as in childhood
Though feeble, old and grey.
For you’ll never miss a mother’s love
Till she’s buried beneath the clay."
— from Angela's Ashes

For more video clips of Frank McCourt at the CT Forum, visit CTForum on YouTube.

If These Walls Could Talk: A Forum Virtual Open House

By Jamie Daniel, Forum Advancement Associate

Forum Playbills Line the Walls

Last week we hosted an Open House at our office to kick-off our 17th Season. We had longtime friends to The Forum and newcomers alike, and everyone had a chance to peruse past playbills, have a glass of wine, talk to YOUTH Forum members and check out the pictures on the walls.

As a new employee of The Forum, this event was a chance for me to experience a bit of the buzz that surrounds Forum events and to take in some of the history of The Forum.

I see the proof of the amazing Forum history every day, but this open house gave me the chance to sit back and really think about the organization that I am now a part of and all the dynamic and interesting personalities that have come to The Forum over the years.

Walter Cronkite was here? Toni Morrison? Bill Cosby? Benazir Bhutto? Jennifer Weiner, Joyce Carol Oates and Kurt Vonnegut?

All of these amazing people came to Hartford to engage in conversation and discuss the things that are important to them? It's a lot to think about.

Here are a few pictures off the walls of our office that provide a glimpse of the Forum past and present. Enjoy!

Bucky Dent and Carlton Fisk together on stage - and laughing!

Nobel Peace Prize winners Elie Wiesel (at left), Jody Williams and Oscar Arias came to The Forum for A Nobel Evening to discuss war and peace, ironically on the very first day of the Iraq war.

In The Power of Music in 2002, Trey Anastasio (below) was totally enthralled with Nicholas Payton's trumpet tunes. Trey later invited Nicholas to perform on his next album.

Thomas Friedman naps (above) while Malcolm Gladwell thinks and twirls his hair.
So this is what happens in the Green Room back stage!