African Americans in the Appalachia Region

Greetings, Class Community.

I am so grateful that Dr. AnnKingsolver shared the history of African Americans and race relations in Eastern Kentucky and the Appalachian region of the United States with us.  We also benefitted from viewing the movie starring Evelyn Williams about property rights in the Appalachian region. 

Dr. Kingsolver would like to share the notes from the lecture with you. I will load them on Blackboard under course content. She also wanted to make sure that you were aware of the course offerings with the Appalachia Studies Program. The course descriptions will follow.

BUT FIRST, please describe how did Dr. Ann Kingsolver’s lecture affirm, complicate, or change your knowledge of African American life and culture?  Be specific. Consider what you believed about African American culture and slavery in Kentucky and the broader Appalachian region.

Yours truly,

Dr. Hill

A&S 500 (section_): NGOs & the Politics of Humanitarian Aid

Instructor: Sasikumar Balasundaram

Meets: Time, Date, and Classroom TBA

This course will use a critical approach to examine the political nature of humanitarian aid. This course will provide students with a foundation for understanding humanitarian crises, how the international aid communities function, and the role of NGOs in humanitarian crises. Using cross-cultural examples, students will compare and contrast the roles, power, and politics of states and NGOs in humanitarian interventions. This course will offer an opportunity for students to understand development discourses and international aid.  In addition, we will also examine the challenges faced, and damages caused, by humanitarian regimes in the Global South and how aid-receiving communities respond to them. Requirements for undergraduates and graduate students will be different.   

A&S 500 (section_): Global Appalachia

Instructor: Ann Kingsolver

Meets: Time, Date, and Classroom TBA

In this course, we will examine the ways in which Appalachia has always had strong global connections, environmentally, economically, and culturally. Instead of seeing mountain regions as isolated, we will focus on the shared histories and concerns of communities in Appalachia and other mountain regions, including social and economic marginalization, resource extraction, low-wage industries, migration, and environmental challenges. This course will also emphasize what can be learned from global mountain regions about sustainable livelihoods, community identity and action, and social capital at a time when the nation-states that have marginalized mountain communities now face some of the same challenges. There will be different requirements for graduate and undergraduate students in the course.  This semester, the course will focus on water issues in Global Mountain Regions, and students will have the opportunity to communicate directly with students in Global Mountain Regions around the world.

Local Cultural Events

Greetings, AAS 200.

I am listing local cultural events pertaining to African American and ethnic studies. Most of them are free. You may want to check them out. 

Monday, Oct 21 - 7:00 pm W.T. Young Library @ University of Kentucky

"Becoming Frum: How Newcomers Learn the Language and Culture of Orthodox Judaism"

Past Events:
September 1^st  3-5pm. The Lyric Theatre & Cultural Arts Center, along with Toyota Motor Manufacturing of Kentucky, are happy to announce the Lyric Theatre’s Summer Film Series. This free  film series will take a nostalgic look back at a variety of films defining different eras in African American cinema. From the musical styling of Lena Horne in the 1943 classic ‘Stormy Weather’ to the comedic styling of Bill Cosby and Sidney Poitier in 1975′s ‘A Piece of the Action’, the films in this series serve to both entertain and also provide a chance for a younger generation to participate in the movie-going experience and culture of times past.

September 7, 2013 10am – 12pm

This two mile walking tour will start at The Lyric Theatre and proceed out E. Third Street to the Isaac Murphy Memorial Art Garden, up Nelson Avenue to William Wells Brown School, down Fifth Street to Race Street and back to Third Street. Participants will learn of the plans for the Memorial Art Garden, the development of Nelson Avenue, the history of the old Kentucky Association Race track and of the housing that developed on the property. As we come down Race Street more information about the residents on the street and why the name was changed from Lincoln Street to Race Street. Tour will be led by local Historian Yvonne Giles. Wear comfortable shoes and clothing suitable for the weather.

September 7, 2013 - Roots and Heritage Festival at the Lyric Theatre

Affrilachian Poets Showcase

4:00pm “Coal Black Voices” documentary

Coal Black Voices is an intimate mosaic of images, poetry, and storytelling by the Affrilachian Poets as they give glimpses of life in the American Black South and Appalachian region.

5:00pm “Affrilachian Poets Showcase”

As experienced in The Roots & Heritage Festival’s initial years, The Lyric Theatre is bringing back the Affrilachian Poets- this time to The Lyric stage.

Saturday, September 7th 4pm – 5pm at the Lyric Theater. Monica Blackmun Visona`, Ph.D. is giving a gallery talk in the exhibit of African objects hosted by the Lyric Theater,  addressing questions like:

•      If you purchase a statue from an African vendor, are you stripping the continent of its cultural heritage? 

•      Why would sculptors in Cameroon create bronze images of Nigerian king?  

•      Is the mask that you purchased in Kinshasa worth any money today?  

Remember that the Roots and Heritage festival will in full swing, so leave enough time to find a place to park.

September 9, 8:00 pm at Transylvania University 
Malian artist will be performing at Transylvania University. The concert is free and it's at 8pm.  More details on the event can be found in the link below.
http://www.transy.edu/about/spotlight/SidiTourePoster.pdf

Thursday Sept. 12 at 10 PM
Free screening of THE GREAT GATSBY, co-sponsored by Sigma Tau Delta and the Night Night Film Series. Get there early, at 9:30 or so, to get a good seat, free popcorn, and a chance to win our drawing or our trivia contest.  Prizes include copies of THIS SIDE OF PARADISE (F. Scott Fitzgerald's first novel, set at Princeton University),  the soundtrack to GATSBY, Starbucks giftcards, and more.

Sleep Dealer is set in a near-future, militarized world marked by closed borders, virtual labor and a global digital network that joins minds and experiences where three strangers risk their lives to connect with each other and break the barriers of technology

Thursday, September 19 5:30
Diversity in the Headlines: Stand Your Ground- A Dialogue on the Trayvon Martin Trial
Thursday, September 19^th in the Martin Luther King Center @ 5:30pm - Soup Provided!!!
 
Sep. 25th, 7:30 PM at the MLK Center. Gustavo Arrellano, author of Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America and the syndicated Ask a Mexican column, will be giving a talk for the UK's Year of Mexico.

Oct 8 Carnegie Center - Kentucky Great Writers series reading event. 

The fun starts at 7:00 with an open mic, and we hope GCWA members will come out and read their works! There is a 3 minute limit per reader. Then at 7:30, we’ll have readings by thriller writer David Bell (Never Come Back), Affrilachian Poet Kelly Norman Ellis (Offerings of Desire), and Kentucky Literary Award Winner James C. Nicholson (Never Say Die). Admission is free.