UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY APPALACHIAN CENTER

Ron Eller receives 2009 Weatherford Award

Ron Eller’s
Uneven Ground (University Press of Kentucky 2008) received the Weatherford Award for the best non-fiction work on Appalachia at the Thirty-Second Annual Appalachian Studies Conference held on March 27-29, 2009.

He has published more than sixty articles and reports but is most well known for his award-winning book Miners, Millhands and Mountaineers: The Industrialization of the Appalachian South. He has served as Chairman of the Kentucky Appalachian Task Force, founding Chairman of the Kentucky Appalachian Commission and as a member of the Sustainable Communities Task Force of President Clinton’s Council on Sustainable Development. read more

 

Some of you may remember the Kentucky Appalachian Advisory Council which was established in the 1990’s and made important contributions to policies that impact Appalachian communities.  During the upcoming Leadership East Kentucky conference, the reestablishment of the Council will be explored at an early-bird session.  Attached is an invitation from the planning committee as well as a history of the Appalachian Task Force. You can find the “Communities of Hope” document on the Appalachian Center’s website.

We hope you will participate in this important discussion on Thursday, April 23rd at 3 pm at the First Federal Center in Hazard. 

Learn more about the conference at www.eastkentuckyleadership.org

Documents to download:

Advisory Council Letter April 2009.doc
The Kentucky Appalachian Task Force--James Goode Article.pdf

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE read more

 Jack Tales and Mountain Yarns, as Told by Orville Hicks, is available in bookstores and Online and can be ordered from John F. Blair, Publisher at www.blairpub.com (Ph: 1-800-222-9796) or Ingram, Baker & Taylor, and other major wholesalers. ISBN 978-1-933251-64-6 for hardcover, $19.95; ISBN 978-1-933251-65-3 for soft cover, $14.95; for ages 8 to adult; 208 pages; 8” x 10”.

Jack Tales and Mountain Yarns
as told by Orville Hicks
Transcription and text by Julia Taylor Ebel
Illustrated by Sherry Jensen
Afterword by Thomas McGowan

Gurney Norman Appointed Kentucky Poet Laureate for 2009-2010 Term - read more

FRANKFORT, KY — The Kentucky Arts Council announces that Gov. Steve Beshear has appointed Gurney Norman as Kentucky Poet Laureate for a two-year honorary term. Norman will be formally inducted on Kentucky Writers' Day at 11:00 a.m. E.D.T., Friday, April 24, 2009, in the Capitol Rotunda in Frankfort.

Over the past thirty years, Gurney Norman has been a major force in the literary and cultural renaissance throughout the state and region. He played a significant role in the founding of the Appalachian Poetry Project and helped establish the Southern Appalachian Writers Cooperative. A charter member of the Hindman Settlement School's annual Writers Workshop faculty, he continues to be involved in the Workshop as Senior Writer In Residence.

Playing With Fire - New Play Opens in Cumberland April 17th 

 

A new play created from stories and music collected in Harlan County, Kentucky, will open at the Edsel T. Godbey Appalachian Center in Cumberland April 17th.  Playing With Fire is the sequel to the 2005 play Higher Ground, and continues to explore how Appalachian coalfield communities draw on  cultural strength to address the issues facing them.

Performances will be April 17, 18, 24, and 25 at 7:30 and April 19 and 26 at 3:00 with a sneak preview performance on April 16 at 7:30.  For ticket information contact Mary Jo Brashears at (606) 589-3148 or maryjo.brashears@kctcs.edu.  For more information about the production contact Robert Gipe at (606) 589-3130 or robert.gipe@kctcs.edu.

 

2009 Affrilachian Poet bus tour to stop in Berea - read more

Appalachian Center Gallery, Bruce Building 

Affrilachian Poets will roll through Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia with a series of daily literary readings, creative writing and performance workshops, a theatrical/dance production, and film screenings at community centers, colleges, universities, libraries, and high schools, as part of the collective’s mission “to help make the invisible visible.” Readers taking part in Berea will be Frank X Walker, Ricardo Nazario Colon, Bianca Spriggs, Amanda Johnston, Bernard Clay, and Norman Jordan. Sponsored by African and African American Studies, the Department of English, Communication, and Theatre, the Black Cultural Center, and the Appalachian Center.

'Up the Ridge' - click for flyer

Appalshop's award winning documentary on prisons in Appalachian communities was shown on February 10, 2009 to a small, highly engaged audience. View their comments on the Up the Ridge Forum at the Appalachian Research Salon.  Amelia Kirby shared her experience making this film about the prisons' impact on her community in Southwestern Virginia. The film is available at the W. T. Young Library and at www.appalshop.org. The program was the inaugural film in the new series "Interlocal Dialogues: Participatory Documentaries as Critical Geographies"  organized by Department of Geography graduate students.  

The University of Kentucky Appalachian Center Announces A Scholarly Exchange Opportunity at The University of Rome, Italy - read more

Applications  have been accepted from University of Kentucky faculty and graduate students to participate in an annual exchange of scholars with the Department of American Studies at the University of Rome.  Each academic year two scholars -- one from the University of Kentucky and one from the University of Rome will be able to spend up to one month’s residency visiting the other institution to pursue scholarly activities and share expertise.  

Application deadline was January 20th, 2009.  The top three applications have been forwarded to the University of Rome LaSapienza faculty  for review.  

 

The UK Appalachian Center works with university and regional partners to address the issues, challenges, and opportunities of importance in Appalachia.  The Center integrates research, service and learning into three program areas: New Solutions, Essential Knowledge, and Dynamic Networks.

 

 
New Solutions

We cultivate innovative, cutting edge strategies for improving quality of life in Appalachian communities.

Dynamic Networks

We facilitate collaboration between organizations and communities so that they can share resources and knowledge.

 

Attachment	Size
Advisory Council Letter April 2009.doc	27.5 KB
The Kentucky Appalachian Task Force--James Goode Article.pdf	106.45 KB