The Ocean County Library main branch: “Revisiting the Founding Era: Teens Debate”

The Ocean County Library main branch in Toms River will host a trio of programs during March that explore the roles of women, dialogue and media in building a new nation immediately after the American Revolution.

The opener is “Revisiting the Founding Era: Teens Debate” on Monday, March 9, at 5:30 p.m. Teens will discuss and illustrate how dialogue and rhetoric helped to form, structure and ratify the U.S. Constitution.

“Making America in the Media” is scheduled for Thursday, March 12, at 6:30 p.m. Ocean County Cultural and Heritage Commission Division Director Tim Hart and Claude Taylor, Monmouth University adviser in residence for academic transition and inclusion, will discuss how media communicated America’s founding era.

On Wednesday, March 18, at 7 p.m., “Over Here, Molly Pitcher” will be performed. It is a dramatic interpretation of the lives of women who “belonged to the army” during the American Revolution. An actress portraying Molly will recall events at Valley Forge, Monmouth and Morristown.

The programs are part of Revisiting the Founding Era, a three-year national initiative of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History presented in partnership with the American Library Association and the National Constitution Center, with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.