New Bedford's Portuguese Moby-Dick Marathon drawing interest in three continents
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NEW BEDFORD – The epic adventure of Moby Dick echoed across three continents on Jan. 6 as the New Bedford Whaling Museum hosted a four-hour read-a-thon of the Portuguese language adaptation of Herman Melville’s iconic novel in synchrony with several institutions in Portugal and Cape Verde.
“For the first time, we’re offering a Zoom webinar so anyone in any country can follow along,” said the Whaling Museum’s Associate Curator of Science and Research Robert C. Rocha, Jr., who coordinated the reading.
Forty-eight individuals read excerpts from an abridged version in Portuguese of the 1851 classic novel in the museum’s Cook Memorial Theater, using an adaptation created seven years ago by Tiago Patrício.
On a giant screen, via Zoom, other groups of readers could be seen doing the same at the Angra do Heroísmo Museum in Terceira; the Azores Ocean Observatory in Horta, Faial; Nova University’s Center for the Humanities in Lisbon; the Whaling Museum in Caniçal, Madeira; and National Library in Santiago, Cabo Verde.
“It’s been fun for us,” said Rocha. “Next year, the Museu do Pico is going to join in Lajes do Pico, Azores.”
Rocha was also pleased that new faces showed up to read at the New Bedford Whaling Museum.
“We have nine new readers,” he said. “It’s always good when we get new people.”
Denise Paulson-McAllister, manager of Interpreter Services at Saint Anne’s Hospital, who read for the first time, said her biggest incentive to participate was to play a part in helping promote Portuguese language and culture.
“I wanted to get involved in some activities that involve Portuguese language, and I did think it was fun,” she said.
The Portuguese reading was presented in collaboration with the Azorean Maritime Heritage Society and the Portuguese Consulate of New Bedford as an offspring of the Moby-Dick Marathon weekend at the Whaling Museum, which features a 25-hour read-a-thon in English.
Rocha urged anyone interested in participating in the Portuguese Moby-Dick Mini Marathon to contact him.
“We’ll do this again next January. If they’re interested in getting on the spreadsheet for possible readers for 2025, they can send an email to me at rrocha@whalingmuseum.org and I’ll add them to the list,” he said.
This article originally appeared on The Herald News: Portuguese Moby-Dick Marathon drawing interest in three continents
