Speakers Roster

Kentucky Writer

On December 7, 1941, the USA was plunged into World War II; life changed for everyone, including the children on the home front. Kilroy Was Here tells stories of one Kentucky family through soldiers' letters, a recipe, radio advertisements, and a series of oral history interviews conducted with people who were growing up during that turbulent time. Ms. Alexander's presentation features excerpts from her book, Kilroy Was Here, and allows time for questions and discussion of oral history as a way to capture family history and community stories that should not be forgotten.

Microphone and lectern required.

Who Needs June Cleaver?

When the publisher of Murray's newspaper asked Constance Alexander to pen a column in 1989, he said she could write about anything, "as long as it's not political or controversial." She accepted that challenge and has penned weekly installments of Main Street ever since. Her award-winning essays have addressed a range of topics — including cheerleaders, guns, assisted suicide and politics — but her most popular columns have been about growing up as the youngest child in a large family. Ms. Alexander’s presentation features readings from her award-winning columns and stories about family life in a small town in the 1950s and 60s.

Microphone and lectern required.

Journey Stories from Between the Rivers

NEW TALK 2012

According to the Smithsonian Institution, "Each of us has a powerful journey story deep in our personal heritage." For some, the journeys are calculated in miles, while others are calibrated in heartbeats. In western Kentucky — when dams were built and the right of eminent domain displaced hundreds of families living between the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers – a rich cultural heritage was disrupted. Constance Alexander's presentation provides highlights from a documentary radio series she produced for WKMS-FM, an NPR affiliate. She tells stories of strong communities and hard-working people, as well as light-hearted tales of life Between the Rivers before the TVA created Land Between The Lakes.

Microphone and CD player with speakers required.

Projection screen required.

Possibilities: Creative Nature Photography

NEW TALK 2012

View stunning images of iconic North American landscapes, flowers, and wild creatures. Travel along a journey of discovery learning about light, color, design, and composition as award-winning photographer Thomas Barnes takes you to Yellowstone, the Tetons, the beach, prairies, and other beautiful natural areas.

NEW TALK 2012

This presentation will explore some of Kentucky's most famous flags, using them as a teaching tool in the discussion of Kentucky's history. A few of the flags featured in the discussion include:
• THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER: The United States flag consisting of fifteen stars and fifteen stripes. At the time of it's use it was commonly known as The Kentucky Flag.
• 20th KENTUCKY VOL. INF U.S. FLAG: The 20th Kentucky's Flag was presented by "The Loyal Ladies" of Lexington and is so inscribed.
• 4TH KENTUCKY CONFEDERATE INFANTRY: This flag was preserved after the battle of Jonesburg, Georgia, by Mrs. Bettie Phillips of Uniontown, Kentucky. Mrs. Phillips was the wife of Capt. William S. Phillips, and officer of the Fourth Kentucky.

Kentucky Writer

Late in the 19th century, women from Central Kentucky and New England were instrumental in creating centers of learning in Southeastern Kentucky called Settlement Schools. Alice Geddes Lloyd and June Buchanan started Caney Creek Community Center in the 1920s. This learning center eventually became Alice Lloyd College, a private work-study college in Pippa Passes. Katherine Pettit and May Stone started the Hindman Settlement School in 1902. Other settlement schools include Pine Mountain Settlement School, Stuart Robinson School, and Kingdom Come School. Many of these schools are still in existence, though some have a new mission. The women who led these efforts often spent their lives in these small, rural communities in Appalachia, dedicated to educating people in the mountains of Kentucky.

Microphone, lectern, projection screen, and Power Point projector required.

Mattie Griffith Browne — Kentucky Abolitionist

Civil War

(Martha) Mattie Griffith Browne was a driven, self-motivated woman from Kentucky. Born in the early 19th century in Louisville to a family of wealth and privilege, she received a formal education, became a prolific writer and was raised with slaves serving her and her family. Yet she freed the slaves she inherited. Browne is best known for her book, Autobiography of a Female Slave, printed in 1857, followed by Madge Vertner, published in serial form in the National Anti-Slavery Standard in 1859-60. Through her writing, Browne gives us an insight into the thoughts and fears of an enslaved woman. She took a great risk in
writing a book that would provide sympathy for the enslaved Africans throughout the South and an even greater risk in freeing the slaves she inherited from her family. Browne was a single woman and poor for many years. She married late in life to a man who supported her abolitionist work and efforts. As a part of this talk Burnett will read short selections from her books.

Microphone, lectern, projection screen, and Power Point projector required.

Kentucky Writer

Giving Voice to Rebecca Boone

Lectern and microphone required.

Kentucky’s Forgotten Women Poets

NEW TALK 2012

In 1854, Maysville’s Mary Elizabeth Wilson Betts penned the poem that later would become a rallying piece for the Spanish-American War, “A Kentuckian Kneels to None but God.” Between 1871 and 1895, Lexington’s Sarah Morgan Bryan Piatt published 15 volumes of poetry. In 1921, Perryville’s Elizabeth Madox Roberts won the University of Chicago’s Fiske Prize for a group of poems she published as Under the Tree. This talk will discus these and other forgotten Kentucky women poets of the 19th and early 20th centuries with readings from their works.

The Songs that Johnny Reb and Billy Yank Sang

Civil War

This 50-minute program offers a lively presentation with recordings of some of the most popular songs from the North and South during the American Civil War. Claypool discusses the origins, importance, and placement in historical context of each song.

Lectern required.

The Derby: A Celebration of Kentucky and its Heritage

Claypool traces the origins and development of the Kentucky Derby, the world's most famous horse race and a powerful influence on Kentucky society and culture. He will use memorabilia collected during his 40-year passion for the race.

Lectern; electrical outlet; display table required.

Rascals, Heroes, and Just Plain Uncommon Folks from Kentucky

In this talk, Claypool will profile a choice selection of the many colorful Kentuckians—male and female, noted and notorious—whose stories make our history so interesting and entertaining. The format of the program contains an exciting and stimulating surprise for the audience.

Lectern required.

Andrew Jackson Smith

Civil War

During the Civil War, Andrew Jackson Smith escaped slavery in Lyon County to fight for his freedom. His bravery in battle earned him the Medal of Honor, but not until 2001, more than 136 years after his act of “extraordinary valor in the face of deadly enemy fire.” Seventeen African Americans won the Medal of Honor for their participation in the Civil War. Smith was the only one from the Bluegrass State

Lectern required.

Kentucky Writer

What Really Happened at Pearl Harbor?

NEW TALK 2012

In the years since that “day of infamy” in 1941, no less than nine investigations have attempted to get at the facts determining how the Japanese managed to totally surprise the American Navy. Despite these studies, the attack still remains shrouded in mystery. One indisputable fact is that Henderson native Husband E. Kimmel was in command of the of the Pacific Fleet on that December morning and subsequently took the brunt of the blame. In this talk, Elliott follows Kimmel’s rise through the ranks in his outstanding naval career, presents some of the lesser-known aspects of the attack and highlights Admiral Kimmel’s side of the story.

Lectern, Power Point projector, and projection screen required.

American El Dorado

NEW TALK 2012

“While many things are too strange to be believed,” said Thomas Hardy, “nothing is too strange to have happened.” That quote is particularly apt concerning the swindle Hardin County native Philip Arnold pulled off in 1872. A moderately successful “49er,” Arnold convinced several influential (and wealthy) California financiers that he had found that mythical spot somewhere in the largely unexplored West where not only diamonds, but emeralds, sapphires, and rubies waited to simply be picked up off the ground by those who were savvy enough to have invested with him. In an almost unbelievable tale of greed and egotism, before he was through Arnold had hoaxed some of the biggest names in America. In the end, Arnold returned to Elizabethtown with nearly $500,000 in scam money in his pocket. Mr. Elliott will detail the hoax and illustrate that crime does not pay: Arnold did not live long enough to enjoy his ill-gotten gains.

Lectern, Power Point projector, and projection screen required.

NEW TALK 2012

Walking along the edge of fiction and memoir, Normandi Ellis helps is understand how story and humor shapes our lives —whether these stories are passed along as oral tales, memoir, or family stories crafted into fiction. She walks us through the decisions a writer makes to craft memoir or fiction, reading excerpts from her books Voice Forms, Going West, and Sorrowful Mysteries, and drawing parallels to family journals and memoirs. She also gives a few tips on approaching story and memoir.

Microphone and lectern required.

From the Kentucky River and Down the Nile

NEW TALK 2012

Great rivers shape great cultures; and the stories of those places and times shape our lives, too. Normandi Ellis has spent half of her life studying the great civilization of ancient Egypt, its mythologies, its mysteries and its people. She finds similar tales arising from both the Biblical Great Flood and The Great Flood of 1937. She uses personal experience of her 30 years of travel to Egypt and a lifetime spent in Kentucky to explore the birthplace of civilization and how we think about "Home".

Microphone and lectern required.

During the 19th century, cholera raged through the United States several times, and Kentucky had very high fatality rates. In 1833, cholera killed one-tenth of Lexington’s population in just a few weeks. Foody will examine the devastation in Lexington from many angles — environmental, commercial, social, and medical. She will discuss early altruistic efforts, the black woman behind the white hero, the toll at the lunatic asylum, and societal trends revealed in death reports. Despite great medical advances, cholera is still a worldwide killer. Foody will explain why and compare it to other threatening global diseases, such as SARS and pandemic flu.

Baseball evolved out of the English games of cricket, rounders, and several American versions like the New York game. From 1876 to present there have been approximately 300 Kentucky-born Major League baseball players. Earle Combs was born in Pebworth, Kentucky, in 1899, and played baseball at Eastern Kentucky State Normal School. He is one of four Kentucky-born members of the Baseball Hall of Fame. Combs played his entire career for the New York Yankees (1924-1935). Combs batted leadoff and played center field on the fabled 1927 Yankees team, often referred to as “Murderers Row.” Nicknamed the “Kentucky Colonel,” Babe Ruth said Combs was more than a good ball player, he was always a first-class gentleman. There are many more players, teams, and of course, the Louisville Slugger baseball bats that make Kentucky part of baseball history.

Hail to the Red, White & Black: A Look at "the Colored Troops" of the Civil War
Civil War
This talk looks at the roles of African-American soldiers during the American Civil War. Oddly enough, these soldiers fought on both sides of the conflict. This talk focuses particularly on Kentucky’s Camp Nelson where, according to some figures, more than 10,000 African-American soldiers were encamped (including the recently reactivated 12th U.S. Colored Heavy Artillery) making it the third largest recruiting and training depot for African Americans in the nation.

Lectern, projection screen, and DVD player required.

Wanted: Freedom—Dead or Alive!

This talk explores and honors the lives and legacies of Kentucky travelers on the Underground Railroad. Rare newspaper “wanted notices for runaways” that provide fascinatingly detailed insight into these courageous individuals inspired this talk. These and other archival newspaper clippings along with texts from “Slave Narratives,” poems, and Negro spirituals give further texture to the lives, personalities, and plights of those who sought freedom by any means necessary: some via the Underground Railroad, others via the “Train to Glory.”

Lectern and microphone required.

Lift Evr'y Voice and Sing

Projection screen and Power Point projector required.

African American Women’s History in the Quilting Arts in Kentucky

NEW TALK 2012

Lectern, projection screen, and Power Point projector required.

Kentucky Writer

One-Room School Days

Stories told by former teachers about the one-room school era are truly insightful and relative to life and times prior to television — and even after, in many instances. Teachers and students walked along dirt or muddy roads, crossed creek beds or rode horses or mules to reach the secluded areas that were home to one-room schoolhouses. In this talk, Montell relays the stories he collected, which describe school-day events, teacher-student relationships, students’ personal relationships, lunch-time foods and activities, stories about other teachers, and the importance of one-room schools as viewed by their teachers.

Lectern and microphone required.

Ghost Stories from the 1930s

NEW TALK 2012

Ghost stories included in this presentation were gathered throughout Kentucky by employees of the Federal Writer’s Project during the years 1935-1943. Persons who obtained the stories were former school teachers, factory workers, artists, musicians, etc. who had lost their jobs during the Great Depression era but were receiving monetary support from the U.S. Government for services performed. Archival stories included in this presentation are truly informative and interesting.

Lectern and microphone required.

Super Humorous Stories

Special professional and public groups located across the Commonwealth know how to spin lengthy, truthful, humorous yarns relative to their own personal careers and their colleagues. The truly humorous stories told during this presentation focus on descriptive accounts told by Kentucky lawyers, judges, physicians, funeral directors, school teachers, and preachers. All stories included in this talk were recorded by Montell during interviews with each storyteller for inclusion in relative books.

Lectern and microphone required.

Kentucky Writer

Arab and Jewish Women in Kentucky: Stories of Accommodation and Audacity

NEW TALK 2012

Based on her book, Arab and Jewish Women in Kentucky: Stories of Accommodation and Audacity, this talk will focus on Arab and Jewish families, some of whom peddle their way through Kentucky communities to establish themselves in the new world. Unlike previously told stories of the southern Jewish peddler, however, this talk will center on women and their role in family businesses. It will also highlight parallels between the lives of Jews and Arabs in Kentucky, a place where their presence is often overlooked. Moosnick will use oral histories to tell the stories of ten Arab and Jewish women whose families currently or at one time had stores in Kentucky. She will share the stories of Jews and Christian Arabs who are long-time residents and compare them with those of Muslim women relatively new to the state. The accounts in Arab and Jewish Women in Kentucky and this talk offer an opportunity to explore, by way of women's words, how cultures interconnect in unexpected places.

Power Point projector and screen required.

Stereotypes Confronting Arabs and Jews in the U.S.

NEW TALK 2012

Strong images come to mind when thinking about Arabs and Jews and their religions, ethnicities and lands. Arabs, in particular, are in the public eye and thought to be "foreign" and Muslim, an attitude that neglects the many Arabs who may be Christian or secular and not foreign at all. A similar homogenization might apply to Jews as well insofar as Americans understand them in relation to the Holocaust or Israel. Irrespective of how Jews and Arabs are viewed separately, they are inevitably construed as opposing forces engaged in a conflict of global and biblical proportions. This construal overlooks the many close relationships that Arabs and Jews have forged. This talk discusses the stereotypes confronting Arabs and Jews, both in Kentucky and more broadly in the U.S. It examines both how Arabs and Jews stereotype each other and how they are stereotyped by non-Arabs and non-Jews.

Power Point projector and screen required.

Poet Laureate

The Role of Place in Poetry

It is generally known that Southern writers anchor their work in place. Though she is not a native of Kentucky, having spent her childhood in central Illinois, Maureen Morehead’s longtime residence in the Commonwealth has resulted in poetry that is filled with the images and stories of her adopted state. As a Kentucky writer, she is part of a large, strong literary tradition that has always celebrated the state’s natural beauty and looked out for its best interests. In this talk, Morehead will discuss how living in and learning about Kentucky has influenced and shaped her poems. She will read from her work to illustrate that influence.

Introduction to the Poetry of Thomas Merton

In 1941, when Thomas Merton entered the Abbey of Gethsemani, a Trappist Monastery in Kentucky, monks were allowed to write two half-page letters four times a year. At the time of his death in 1968, Merton had become one of the most prolific writers of the twentieth century, publishing poetry, religious writings, autobiography, essays, reviews, and photography. At his death, he left 800,000 words of unpublished personal writings, letters and journals, and tape recordings of talks he had given, which have since been transcribed, edited, and released. What we know about Merton is that his life was a paradox: he was a man who loved the silence afforded a monk, yet needed the political platform of a social activist. So he wrote about the beauty of the world, the individual’s search for meaning, the unity of creation, silence and contemplation; and he wrote about the atrocities of the modern world: the nuclear bomb, Hitler’s death camps, protest against the Vietnam War, and frustration over his country’s racism. This lecture will take a close look at Merton’s poems written from both the contemplative and the activist sides of his nature. For Merton these two poles, which became inseparable, were each vital for salvation.

Kentucky Writer

Widder’s Landing

Civil War

As a surgeon for various regiments of the famous Orphan Brigade and John Morgan’s partisans, Kentucky native John Orlando Scott practiced his trade at numerous Civil War battles, including Shiloh. Ridenour will display Scott’s personal scrapbooks, from which this presentation is taken.

From Pantry to Table: History, Recipes, and Other Gifts

Hear the saga of the Green family dynasty of Falls of Rough and share Kentucky’s culinary past through an heirloom recipe collection rescued from the pantry of the Greens’ 1839 mansion. Carolyn Ridenour joins her husband for this journey into a bygone time when food preparation required perseverance and talent and setting a fine table was a social necessity. Green family dining items will be displayed.

Kentucky Writer

Hearing Kentucky’s Voices

Records can’t talk. Or can they? We need only read them to know. The back rooms of courthouses across Kentucky and many other states are home to string-tied loose court bundles dating back to frontier times. These 200-year-old pieces of paper — including tax and probate records — are often the sole source of evidence regarding slaveholding and slavery. They paint a clearer picture of Kentucky from its founding as a frontier settlement through the Civil War. Piecing a story together from records like these is an archeological task. Join Smith to brush off the dust and reveal what these official documents can teach us about early Kentucky.

Microphone, Power Point projector, and projection screen required.

Charles Chilton Moore Jr. (1837-1906) was an ex-preacher, memoirist, and editor of the prohibitionist/free thought newspaper, the Bluegrass Blade. Moore used his newspaper to publicly embrace women’s suffrage, prohibition, publication of scientific information related to human sexuality, and agnosticism. The controversial nature of his writing led to many physical altercations and attacks on Moore as well as an attempted assassination.

Microphone and lectern required.

No Ordinary Dame: Kentuckian Mildred Potter Lissauer & the Colonial Revival Movement

NEW TALK 2012

During the 1930s, the Colonial Revival Movement encouraged Americans to look back at the past and develop the practice of so-called traditional crafts, including quilt making. Mildred Potter Lissauer, a most unusual woman, took this to heart and created the Godley Quilt, an extraordinary textile that still turns heads today. This program uses letters, photos, and illustrations from ladies' magazines and pattern books to tell this unique story of one award winning quilt and the woman who made it.

Projection screen, lectern, and microphone required.

Fabulous Flappers:1920s Fashion in the Jazz Age

Kentucky Writer

Kentuckians are Storytellers: So Are You Writing Yours Down?

Storytelling is bred into the DNA of Kentuckians, or as Stamper says, “Storytelling was the only thing that kept generations of Kentuckians from going stark-raving mad during those long, cold winters in the tobacco stripping room.” The stories play an essential role in binding family and community, and defining people. With humor and reflection, Stamper reads from her personal stories of place and kin, encouraging listeners to remember and treasure their own.

Lectern and microphone required.

You Might as Well Laugh Mother Always Said
From country stores to country clubs, Kentuckians are known for their humorous stories about the everyday. In this entertaining presentation culled from her most popular NPR commentaries, Stamper continues in this tradition. She explores challenges of her ordinary life in Kentucky including her misadventures as a counterfeit southern cook and her experience as a Decades Diet group leader in one of America’s plumpest states. And always she tiptoes along Erma Bombeck’s “thin line that separates laughter and pain, comedy, and tragedy.”

Lectern and microphone required.

Butter in the Morning

NEW TALK 2012

A seventh generation Kentuckian, Stamper grew up in Wendell Berry country on her family’s tobacco farm. Her understanding and appreciation of the region’s character is on display in Butter in the Morning, her latest collection of NPR commentaries and newspaper columns. Like the frog that fell into the cream but kept paddling so it wouldn’t drown, Stamper’s “extraordinary-ordinary Kentuckians” come up sitting on a pad of butter in the morning. Part humorist, part folklorist, part memoirist, Stamper’s presentation celebrates and reflects on Kentucky’s unique agrarian culture and the perseverance inspired in its people.

Lectern and microphone required.

Kentucky Writer

NEW TALK 2012

Bettie Frazier Marrs (1864-1953) was the second wife of the Rev. Elijah P. Marrs (1840-1910). He was a Civil War veteran, an organizer of three Louisville churches, the first administrator of a theological college now known as Simmons College of Kentucky and writer of a book about his life entitled Life and History of the Rev. Elijah P. Marrs. But little has been written about Betty who was twenty-four years younger than her husband. This discussion will cover property that they owned which was sold to the church where he was the minister and Bettie was a pianist. Betty's life, her children, and what became of her after the death of Elijah will be discussed. Part of the discussion will include Bettie's sister Jane who also married a Civil War veteran. They were the parents of Amanda and Lillian Randolph of radio and Hollywood fame.

Power Point projector, screen and microphone required.

Travel Regions: 2, 3, 4