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This lecture is made possible by the generous support of Nana Lampton and presented in collaboration with the Filson Historical Society.

A reception will be held before the lecture beginning at 5 PM.  The lecture will start at 6 PM.

For acclaimed writer and environmental activist Rick Bass, it can be wearying to dwell relentlessly upon the broken, fragmented, the dead and the dying, and the doomed-to-extinction. Activism is a necessary part of the environmental movement, but so is the time-honored celebration of the beauty that inspires us.

Spanning his storied career, these new and selected essays attempt to take a brief step to the side, away from lamentation and prescription, and to inhabit, as deeply as possible, the greater depths of beauty in-the-moment. With Every Great Breath ranges from the extremely local—a long-form essay about the community affected by the largest Superfund site in U.S. history, in Libby, Montana—to the far-flung: the Galapagos, Namibia, and Alaska. Throughout, Bass offers a portrait of our planet that is always alert to its wonders, even in the face of environmental crisis.

Rick Bass is the author of more than thirty books. He is a winner of the Story Prize, the James Jones First Novel Fellowship, a PEN/Nelson Algren Award Special Citation for fiction, and a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award.

Lonnie & Twyla Money: 50 Years of Kentucky Appalachian Folk Art is the story of two iconic Kentucky artists who have not only been making highly regarded folk art pieces for nearly 50 years, but who have helped to shape this unique Appalachian art form.

Karen Abney grew up in the Ohio River Valley and has since traveled extensively, led by a natural curiosity and desire to seek out beautiful things. Kentucky has been her adopted home for nearly 40 years—familiar because of her Appalachian heritage, and enjoyed for its natural beauty.

Karen has been a designer since creating her first logo at age eight. An early love of letters led her to a career in Graphic Design, which evolved into work in Marketing, Environmental Graphic Design, Wayfinding and Signage Design, and Digital User Experience Design. She has won numerous awards for her work in each category.

An accomplished painter, fiber artist, and photographer, she has exhibited at several galleries across the region. She enjoys spending time hiking, kayaking, and traveling with her sons, Kyle and Alex Huninghake.

In person tickets are now sold out.  Virtual viewing is still available. 

This event is brought to you by the Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute’s Baldwin-King Project in partnership with the Filson Historical Society.

A reception with food and drink will be held before the lecture starts from 5-6 PM.

Three accomplished Black men discuss Black History and contemporary racial struggle. They intentionally do so after Black History Month. Their conversation moves from the impetus of “Miseducation of the Negro” author Carter G. Woodson founding Negro History Week in 1926 to current political, educational, and political attacks on “diversity,” which they see as the latest iteration of “American anti-Blackness.”

Mawuli Mel Davis, J.D., Founding partner of the Davis Bozeman Johnson Law Firm. Davis is a former Naval officer who is now a civil rights attorney, human rights organizer, and author based in Atlanta, Georgia. Davis Bozeman Johnson Law, one of Georgia’s largest African American-owned law firms has three offices in Savannah, Statesboro, and Decatur, Georgia. He is the author of “We Need You: Encouraging My Son’ Generation for Black Liberation.”

Ricky L. Jones, Ph.D., Baldwin-King Scholar in Residence, Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute & Professor of Pan-African Studies, University of Louisville. Jones is the past chair of the Department of Pan-African Studies, opinion columnist for the Courier Journal/USA Today Network, and organizer of the Envirome Institute’s “Baldwin-King Project.” He is author of “Black Haze” and “What’s Wrong with Obamamania?”

Derrick White, PH.D., Professor of History and African American and Africana Studies, University of Kentucky and Author of "Blood, Sweat, and Tears".

Sponsored by The Association for Teaching Black History in Kentucky.

**Due to travel complications the speaker will be joining us virtually.  The Filson will still be holding a reception and have seating to view the lecture for those who wish to attend in person at the Filson Historical Society.**

Reception begins at 5:00 pm, with the discussion beginning at 6:00 pm.

For hundreds of years, the American public education system has neglected to fully examine, discuss, and acknowledge the vast and rich history of people of African descent who have played a pivotal role in the transformation of the United States. The establishment of Black studies departments and programs represented a major victory for higher education and a vindication of Black scholars such as W. E. B. Du Bois and Nathan Huggins. This emerging field of study sought to address omissions from numerous disciplines and correct the myriad distortions, stereotypes, and myths about persons of African descent.

In An Introduction to Black Studies, Eric R. Jackson demonstrates the continuing need for Black studies, also known as African American studies, in university curricula. Jackson connects the growth and impact of Black studies to the broader context of social justice movements, emphasizing the historical and contemporary demand for the discipline. This book features seventeen chapters that focus on the primary eight disciplines of Black studies: history, sociology, psychology, religion, feminism, education, political science, and the arts. Each chapter includes a biographical vignette of an important figure in African American history, such as Frederick Douglass, Louis Armstrong, and Madam C. J. Walker, as well as student learning objectives that provide a starting point for educators. This valuable work speaks to the strength and rigor of scholarship on Blacks and African Americans, its importance to the formal educational process, and its relevance to the United States and the world.

Eric R. Jackson is professor of history and associate dean in the College of Arts and Sciences at Northern Kentucky University. The former director of the Black Studies program at NKU, he has published reviews and articles in a number of journals, including the Journal of African American History, the Journal of Negro Education, International Journal on World Peace, and Journal of Pan African Studies. He is coauthor of Cincinnati's Underground Railroad and Unique Challenges in Urban Schools: The Involvement of African American Parents.