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NOTE: This program has been rescheduled for Thursday, February 13 at 6:00 pm due to weather. If you are currently registered, your tickets and/or zoom link will transfer.

This program seeks to inform the audience of Louisville, KY's early post-slavery housing patterns.  Many assume that residential segregation has always been a thing of our society.  However, segregation is more reflective of comfort for those with power.  This program will also examine the early home-to-work patterns, Louisville's Urban Renewal and current ramifications of spatial mismatch.  This program is free to the Public; registration is required.

Dr. Camara Douglas graduated with his PhD from the University of Louisville in Pan-African Studies (2022).  He received a bachelor's degree in Sociology from the University of Louisville (UofL).  His first master's degree was completed in the Sociology department at UofL (2007).  With a second master's degree in Pan African Studies in 2007 from UofL, his research focus areas are the disproportionate education achievement levels for African Americans in K-12 public schools with a focus on teacher bias.  Additional research includes an examination of the historic trends of redlining which caused generations of African American students to live in underdeveloped communities and attend underdeveloped schools. Dr. Douglas is currently an Assistant Professor in the Sociology department at Simmon College, an HBCU in Louisville, KY.

Dr. Camara Douglas has also had the pleasure of conducting JCPS professional development panel sessions. Each session discussed civil rights in the South with specific interest in the movement's association with Louisville, KY.

Before Dr. Camara Douglas' acceptance as a full professor at Simmons College of Kentucky, he was a Community Outreach Specialist at Russell: A Place of Promise with a focus on homeownership and community collective ownership as a part or Cities United which does national Community Violence integration.

The in-person ticket for this event is now sold out. This event is available to be live streamed through the virtual ticket option.

This program is produced in partnership with the Louisville Orchestra and made possible with support from the Jewish Heritage Fund. A reception will be offered before the program.

The Louisville Orchestra (LO), in partnership with the Filson Historical Society, presents a special community event exploring the profound historical and artistic legacy of Der Kaiser von Atlantis. This powerful opera, composed during the Holocaust, will be brought to life in an engaging evening featuring thought-provoking discussions and a unique opportunity to connect with local musicians and scholars.
Led by LO Music Director Teddy Abrams and moderated by Cantor David Lipp, the evening includes selections from the opera performed by LO musicians, a panel featuring composers from the LO Creators Corps, and insights from experts on the cultural and historical significance of the work.

This concert is made possible with support from the Jewish Heritage Fund. Be part of this extraordinary collaboration as we honor the resilience of art and humanity through the lens of history.

Teddy Abrams, Grammy Award winner and Musical America’s 2022 Conductor of the Year, has been the galvanizing force behind the Louisville Orchestra’s (LO) extraordinary artistic renewal and innovative social impact since his appointment as Music Director in September 2014. His work has been profiled by CBS Sunday Morning, the New Yorker, NPR, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and PBS NewsHour.

Dr. Ann Glazer Niren recently joined the staff of the Filson Historical Society as the Curator of Jewish Collections. As a pianist and historical musicologist, she previously taught at Indiana University Southeast, for which she won three awards for excellence in teaching.

David A. Lipp came to Congregation Adath Jeshurun as Hazzan in 1994. He has established a reputation as an inspiring worship leader and transmitter of Jewish musical tradition, from ancient to contemporary.

Dave Maass is the writer of the graphic novel, "Death Strikes: The Emperor of Atlantis," which was published by Berger Books/Dark Horse Comics in January 2024. An award-winning journalist, Dave works as director of investigations at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, researching surveillance in law enforcement and at the U.S.-Mexico border, and is a scholar in residence at the University of Nevada, Reno Reynolds School of Journalism.

Adam Millstein is a violinist who is developing a multifaceted career as a performer, lecturer, and music curator with a passion for uncovering overlooked masterpieces of the 20th century. He is currently pursuing his DMA at UCLA in violin performance studying with Varty Manouelian and Movses Pogossian.

This program is being sponsored  in honor of the Association for Teaching Black History in Kentucky, the Thomas D. Clark Foundation, in addition to UPK and Berea College. A reception will be held from 5:00-5:55 pm.

In 1859, a mob of sixty-five prominent armed men rode into Berea, Kentucky, and forced the closure of its integrated one-room schoolhouse. Founded by Kentucky-born abolitionist John Gregg Fee, the school was open to anyone, regardless of their race or gender—a notion that horrified white supremacists. The mob evicted thirty-six community members, including Fee's family, but Fee and the others returned to Berea in 1864 and reestablished the institution, still committed to educating Appalachia's most vulnerable populations.

In Lessons from the Foothills, Gretchen Dykstra profiles modern Berea College with its rich and beloved history. This book is the first to focus on contemporary Berea and its eight Great Commitments—the principles and practices that provide clear aspirations for the college and its community. Each chapter functions as a deep dive into the history, practice, and significance of one Great Commitment, from providing opportunity for the most marginalized, to the college's high academic standards and its commitment to environmental sustainability. The college has pledged to "provide an educational opportunity for students of all races, primarily from Appalachia, who have great promise and limited economic resources."
To achieve this goal, the college eliminated tuition in 1892 and it also provides jobs for students to assist with living expenses.

Drawn from interviews with a range of members of the Berea community, including alumni, students, faculty, and staff, Lessons from the Foothills is an engaging portrait of a unique and historic institution and its enduring commitment to nurture and support academic excellence and service.

Gretchen Dykstra, author of Echoes from Wuhan: The Past as Prologue and Civic Pioneers: Local Stories from a Changing America, 1895–1915, and coauthor of Pinery Boys: Songs and Songcatching in the Lumberjack Era, has written articles for several publications, including the New York Times and California History. She lives in Haverford, Pennsylvania.

This event is now sold out.

Sponsored by the Kentucky College of Art and Design.

Join the Filson Historical Society for the holiday Jazz at the Filson! The Dick Sisto Trio featuring Dick Sisto on vibraphone, Jeremy Allen on double bass, and Mike Hyman on drums will collaborate with NYC guitarist Steve Cardenas, who has performed and recorded with many of the Jazz greats, on an all-Thelonius Monk show. "Monk," as he was known, has been called the "greatest jazz composer of all time" by the one and only Duke Ellington. The repertoire will include several Monk classics, including Blue Monk, Ask Me Now, Misterioso, and many more. Owsley Brown III will join the group for a few choice selections in each set from The Great American Songbook. This yearly holiday Jazz event will be one to remember and not to miss. Light refreshments will be provided.

Join us for an evening of history inspired creativity in the second part of our series showcasing the Filson’s History Inspires Fellowship (HIF) recipients. This program features two of the 2024 cohort of fellows, John Akre and Zed Saeed who will share with the public the materials researched in the Filson’s collections and how the items were a source of motivation in their artistic projects.

John Akre used items from the Filson collection to inspire the creation of two stop motion animated movies. The first, "We Went to the Movies," illustrates passages from the diary of teenager John Mason Brown, who, in the time he documented, 1915-1917, attended movies at downtown Louisville movie theaters almost daily. Much of this film was created collaboratively with young people at the Filson's Cultural Pass days this summer. The second film documents the work and process of Ivey Watkins Cousins, who created a Google Earth-like record of the streets of central Louisville in 1959-1963, right before the completion of I-65 and the demolition of many of those streets.

Zed Saeed’s project, “Walnut Street Revisited”, is meant literally as a journey of re-visitation in the present. Being a research-based photographer, he used the Filson archives to study portions and places along the old Walnut Street to get a flavor of what existed in certain sections of Walnut Street and who lived in other portions of it. Using photography as his sole medium, some of his images are before/after shots, while others examine the loss of an entire way of life, for which we only gained empty parking lots. He was lucky enough to locate a few remaining buildings from the heyday of Walnut Street, one of which became the focus of his project.  HIF allowed Zed to take a big first step in a direction that he hopes to continue exploring and discovering with his camera.

The HIF program continues to build relationships with artists by promoting the Filson Historical Society as a resource for artistic scholarly research and inspiration.