History of Mother Jones:Appalachian Leader

The UK Appalachian Center, in partnership with the Robinson Scholars Program and institutions in the Appalachian region of KY, will be sponsoring a two-week residency by internationally known scholar and artist Dr. Si Kahn, Oct. 22-Nov. 5, 2012. During that residency, he will be giving a joint presentation with a speaker from an Amazonian indigenous community in the Global Mountain Regions conference, lecturing to the UK Core Course APP 200, giving concerts in Lexington, Richmond, and Berea, working with theater students at Berea College, giving talks and concerts broadcast throughout Appalachian KY via WMMT, a radio station associated with Appalshop in Whitesburg, KY, and giving history lectures. Dr. Kahn, whose Ph.D. is in American Studies and who has run a leadership institute, will also be giving leadership workshops to Robinson Scholars and participants in the Mission Appalachia college preparation program associated with the Robinson Scholars program, in collaboration with UK's extension facilities in Breathitt County. This proposal is to the Kentucky Humanities Council for a $1500 minigrant to support Dr. Kahn's history lectures on the leadership legacy of Mary Harris Jones in eastern Kentucky, to be given as free public talks in Whitesburg, Frenchburg, and possibly Maysville. Letters of support will accompany the proposal from those host venues. This residency supports the University of Kentucky's land grant mission to serve all Kentuckians. Since arts and humanities programming has received little support in eastern KY schools and community venues, the UK Appalachian Center works to make sure that artists and scholars visiting UK also perform and speak in eastern KY venues, without charge. External support is sought to support that outreach in the arts and humanities, along with parallel outreach in the sciences.