History Burgoo

You’re Listening Anyway, Come on Down and Learn How to Record it!

KHS Collection: Chescheir family collection, 98M03.Punitive Expedition into Mexico, ca. 1916

Seriously, I know that you enjoy listening to your parents, grandparents, friends and neighbors tell stories about their life experience. Don’t tell me you have never thought, “Someone should really be recording this!” Okay, I am calling you out – YOU are that someone who should be recording it.

Especially think about the holiday coming up this Sunday. Independence Day is a time when we get together with our friends and family and cook out, swim, camp, blow up fireworks…all that good stuff. But it is also a time we remember what it means to be a part of this country, and to celebrate our continued freedom – and thank our VETERANS for that freedom. Take some time this weekend to listen to a veterans experience, and when you do, go ahead and record it – the best part, I AM GOING TO TEACH YOU HOW!

This Thursday, before you get settled in for your long weekend, join me at KHS from 5-7pm to learn about how to do oral history interviews with veterans. We are celebrating the 10 year anniversary of the Veterans History Project at the Library of Congress’ American Folklife Center. The American Folklore Society (established 1888 – I find this impressive!) is sponsoring a workshop for YOU to learn how to participate in the VHP with the Library of Congress. I am going to show you how to setup an oral history interview, talk about recording equipment for this and give you all the paperwork and tools for you to participate, on your own or in conjunction with the Kentucky Historical Society.

Want a sample: here is a clip of Raymond Turley from Mt. Sterling talking about the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

Turley Pearl Harbor

If you want to encourage someone in your life to participate, but don’t want to be the one to do the interview, give me a call, I will get you scheduled here at KHS – we are still conducting military related interviews as a part of our current exhibition  Kentucky Military Treasures.

Check out some of the Kentucky interviews already at the LOC, only 5% of what they receive goes online, there are 106 KY interviews up.

Seriously, Here is your chance! If you can't make it this Thursday, or you are too far away, I will also be offering the same training (with the same sponsorship) on July 29 from 5-7pm at the Perry County Public Library in Hazard and on August 5 from 5-7pm at the Hardin County Public Library in Elizabethtown.

Tell your friends and family - let's get those stories saved!

(Image above: Mary McElroy Perry interviewing Neal Hammon for the Military Treasures Exhbition at KHS)

- Sarah Milligan

Skit-Daddle! A Play on Words

Students appearing in a Shakespearian play at Pine Mountain Settlement School, ca. 1919-21.

URL: http://205.204.134.47:2005/u?/Pmt2,75

When I was a precocious little boy (and there are LOTS of stories there) I said many things that I ‘ought not to.  Things that I didn’t understand at the time that made my Momma wash my mouth out with soap.  I promise not to use any of those words here, but I do want to share with you a word that turns my stomach every time I hear it. "Skit!"

What exactly is a skit?  What is this strange little word?  It sounds like something I yell at my dog when she tries to eat a cookie out of my daughter’s hand.  “Skit you crazy dog!”  When I think of a skit, it is a quirky little something that a bunch of people tossed together to make others laugh.  I think of a skit as unrehearsed, and unfinished.

Merriam-Webster however describes a skit as a jeering or satirical remark or a satirical or humorous story or sketch, a brief burlesque or comic sketch included in a dramatic performance (as a revue), a short serious dramatic piece; especially one done by amateurs.  Amateurs?  That hurts.  Let me elaborate.

I am the Director of the Museum Theatre program.  I have an awesome job!  I get to pretend everyday.  I work with some really professional actors, directors and playwrights and if we do our jobs correctly, we get applause just for “playing on the job.”  I believe if everyone got a round of applause for doing their jobs, they would be as happy as I am.

 

Imagine you’ve just finished that big budget review and made 20 copies for the board members, when suddenly everyone stands up in their cubicles and awards you with thunderous ovation.  If the world were more like that, I bet we would have less people looking for their missing stapler.

 

The Kentucky Historical Society Museum Theatre program began over 11 years ago.  The idea was simple: present short plays in the exhibitions that entertain and inform guests.  The idea was not new, the International Museum Theatre Alliance (IMTAL) had been experimenting, discussing and presenting theatre in cultural institutions around the world for many years.  But the concept was new to our institution.  Luckily for me, the right people were brought in to conceive of and begin the program, and I was hired to help them.

 

The director of the new Museum Theatre program, Mike Thomas, hired me as an actor and together we set out to create challenging and quality theatre.  Some things worked and some didn’t, but the biggest thing that I learned was how much work went into these short 15-minute plays: often months of research, rehearsal, and costume construction.  On top of that we had to learn to work within the confinements of a museum.  Neither of us knew anything about museums. Did you know that lights can damage paper documents?  Did you also know that without lighting, the audience can not see the actor?  When Mike left several years ago, I worried that I would not be able to live up to the standards he had set.

 

Over the years, the Museum Theatre program continued to grow and experimented with different performance styles.  I have worked with some of the most talented performers in the Bluegrass, most importantly Adam Luckey.  I hired him a few years ago, and together we hope to continue to grow the KHS Museum Theatre Program.

 

We put a lot of time and thought into our productions, much more than I did as a kid performing a “skit” at church, or in college with my buddies.  Time and thought are the biggest difference here.  We create short plays...not skits.  Yes, most of them are only 15 minutes, but we try to make them feel more like a full production with lights, sounds, skilled performers, playbills, layers of meaning, and emotional and entertaining scripts.  And I believe our institution has benefited from the positive feedback we receive from visitors, and not just through their applause.

 

If you haven’t had a chance to see any of our live productions, please plan a visit.  Our calendar is available online.  I’ve also included a little video, that just gives you a taste of what Museum Theatre looks like.  But in order to feel the power of our productions, you have to be here, in our exhibits watching “theatre” happen live.

Ah yes, THEATRE, another contentious word, just because I choose to spell it with and “re” instead of an “er.”  What is the difference anyway?  Well, I’ll have to address that in the next “continuing story of MUSEUM THEATRE.”

 

-Gregory Hardison, Director of Museum Theatre

 

C. O. Christophel's Co.

URL: http://205.204.134.47:2005/u?/ORP,496

Yes, I Was Sent to Summer Camp. . .Last Week!

KHS Collection: w1990ph2.9BOD27. Picnic Grounds at Clyffeside Park, Ashland, which closed in the 1920s. ca. 1900

Okay, maybe our picnic wasn't this big, but we at least had one this last week in the Ashland Central Park.

It has been a really long time since I was a youth at any summer camp, but last week I had the opportunity to be a Camp Counselor and oral history adviser! The Kentucky Remembers! Heritage Youth Training Program is a continuing pilot project to work with youth (middle school and high school) to appreciate and document their local human rights history and contemporary issues. Their mission is: To support a statewide commitment to preserving and teaching and we did a lot of that in the first week of this summer camp at the Greenbo Lake State Park Resort.

Past camps in 2007 were held in Bowling Green, Paducah, Louisville, and Richmond. Here is the Bowling Green Class:

This year, the camp was held in the NE part of the state and invited participation from Greenup and Boyd Counties (which the state park serving those areas is named after “GREENup and BOyd”).

From 9am – 2pm all week, we worked with youth delegates to map their community (sense-of-place exercises), learn and practice oral history techniques, take field trip to local historic sites (McConnell House, AME Church in Greenup and the Booker T. Washington School site in Ashland, as well as Adena Mounds), research history of human rights in community and interview local historians and policy participants about human rights issues in the region.

The camp this year is run by University of Louisville's Ashley Jackson and Mikal Forbush with help from Union College student Zhanine. Under their direction, the delegates blew me away with their quickness to grasp the concepts of oral history and their willingness to research and discuss their interview framework. They worked as teams and were very cohesive, even though they had just met their teammates for the first time 5 days before.

As the camp continues this week and wraps up on Saturday, I can’t wait to see what else comes from the delegates, but also how these students use this information and these community resource and research tools in the future. It really gives me hope of those proverbial batons being passed in these communities.

Here is a sample of the camp song created by the Bowling Green KY Remembers! class in 2007-- get motivated with it!

If you are in the Greenbo area on Saturday, head out to the amphitheatre at the Greenbo Lake State Park and join in the camp's community celebration. You too could experience the great things going on there the last two weeks and support the youth delegates re-entrance into their communities.

--Sarah Milligan

Row, row, rowing, down the Kentucky River...sort of.

There are many ideas of what makes a community, right?  Some people will say it’s your neighborhood, others what occupation you’re in.  Some will tell you a community is those who share the same government or it doesn’t even have revolve around being within physical contact (hey, just look at Facebook).  I like to think that everyone is right.

Why this exposition on communities? The other day, as part of my mission to process the Kentucky Folklife Program’s archival holdings, I started working on processing a project known as the “Kentucky River Project.”  

At its base, it’s a survey of the people who are bound by the influence of the Kentucky River…that’s their community.  And they’re proud of the connection.  Running 259 miles across the state, this tributary of the Ohio River touches many lives.  I definitely consider myself part of the community now that I’ve experienced the Kentucky River flood!

It’s thought that over 700,000 people rely on the river for a water source, so it can be said it’s a big influence*.  According to the interviews that were conducted for this project in 1989, people remembered all sorts of activities associated with the river, from logging to the oil business, from farming to quilting. 

Now, the Kentucky River isn’t navigable past Lock #4, but it still binds everyone together. 

Commercial fisherman call the river home, but so do their wives and the others who live along side it.  Oral histories are such a great way to learn about a community—there is something in the recorded voices that tell you more about the people than mere text could. 

So, as I’m planning a few weekend excursions, I’m making it a point to listen to some interviews.  I can’t wait to see what I might find with their help.    

 

*Don't blame me for using Wikipedia...it's convenient!

--Alisha Martin

The KHS Library catalog gets a makeover

The Kentucky Historical Society Special Collections & Library has a new catalog! Okay, it’s not really “new.”  It’s actually the same catalog system we’ve always had, but it has a completely new look, and some new features, which we’re very excited about.

Our goal with this new interface was to make the catalog look more like the KHS website, so we used the same color scheme and tried to make the layout look similar.  There are also links across the top of the page which point to the KHS homepage, hours, and other library & special collections resources.

One of the new “features” is that you can now access the catalog directly by going to KHScatalog.kyvl.org.  Of course you can also find the catalog from our homepage (history.ky.gov) by clicking on “Search our Collections.”

You may notice that we’re calling this our “collections” catalog, instead of just the “library” catalog.  That’s because the catalog has descriptions of much more than just what’s in our library.  It can also be used to search our manuscript & photograph collections, rare books and pamphlets, and some maps and oral histories.  We’re working on projects to add all of our oral histories and all of our microfilm to the catalog too!  Basically, it is the place to go to find out if KHS has the material you want to use for your research.

So let’s take a quick tour.  The catalog opens up to the basic search page. This page has a simple search box, with a few options for customizing your search.  You can specify the type of search (title, author, subject, etc.), or use the “Limit To” box to narrow down your search by type of material.  The tabs along the top link to other search pages, including specific pages for author and subject searches, and an advanced search page if you want to search for a phrase, restrict your search to certain years, or search for multiple words or phrases.  For example, do an Advanced Search for “Smith” as author and “Cumberland County” as a subject phrase to find all the books about Cumberland County written by someone named Smith.

On the search results page, you’ll see another new feature, which is the ability to filter your search by material type.  For example, if you do a search for Fayette county and then decide you’re really only interested in seeing what’s available in the library, just click “add filter: Library Collections.”  You can also remove filters after you’ve applied them to go back to your original search.  Or click the “Edit Search” button at the top of the page to go back and change your search.

You can select items from the results list and either print or email them.  You can also print or email from the item record.  All of the information about the item, including where it’s located at KHS (Library, Archives, etc.) and any links to related materials online, is now available on a single screen.  This information used to be split up under several different pages, so it’s a big improvement.

And even though the “new” catalog is now up and running, it doesn’t mean that we’re finished working on it.  Be on the lookout for new features, such as a tool that demonstrates how to cite a particular item in various bibliographic styles, and persistent links that you can copy and then use later to link directly back to the item you were looking at.

So take a look at our catalog, see what kinds of materials we have, and if you have any comments (or find any mistakes), please let us know!

-Jennifer Howard

All Your Burgoo are Belong to Us*

 
Above: 2005 Kentucky Folklife Festival visitors gaze upon a hot kettle of bubbling burgoo.

Hello, I'm Mark Brown with the Kentucky Folklife Program, and this is my first History Burgoo blog post.  My friend and colleague Sarah Milligan suggested that someone write something about burgoo, the traditional stew for which this blog is named.  I accepted the opportunity to share some experiences, encounters, and thoughts related to burgoo.

Lest this post become a large block of uninterrupted text, here is a list of some facts about burgoo that I have learned while working as a folklorist in Kentucky: 

• No one is certain about the origins of the word burgoo.
• When saying the word, some people place emphasis on the first syllable, “bur-goo,” while others say “bur-goo.”
• Burgoo is almost exclusively a Kentucky food. It is similar in some ways to Brunswick Stew found elsewhere in the southern U.S.
• Early burgoo recipes called for whatever ingredients were available. Meats included beef, pork, and chicken as well as wild game like deer, possum, and squirrel. Vegetables like corn, beans, and potatoes were added, along with various seasonings and thickening agents.
• Today, many burgoo-makers keep their recipes secret, but most burgoos made for the public do not include wild game anymore.
• Burgoo is cooked for long periods of time, often overnight, and it is considered ready to eat only after the stirring stick can be released to stand on its own in the pot.
• Historically, burgoo was linked to celebrations like abundant harvest and successful hunt. Still a celebratory food, today burgoo is sold at many social, political, charitable, and religious gatherings.

State folklorist Bob Gates asserts that Everyone Likes Food, especially folklorists.  Foodways is a major topic of study by folklorists and anthropologists because it is something every group of people, or folk group, has.  Almost every human consumes some type of food.  Foodways includes not only ingredients and recipes, but the context surrounding foods, which includes when, where, why, how, for whom, and by whom food is prepared and eaten. 

One way to learn about someone’s cultural background, aesthetics, and identity is to ask about food.  Sometimes food questions trigger fervent responses that reflect deep-seated beliefs.  Here is an example:  sweet cornbread – manna from heaven, or impious abomination? 

When engaged in such lively conversations, most folklorists try to adhere to an ethic of cultural relativism, meaning no culture is superior or inferior to another.  We are trained to recognize our own beliefs and practices, and be aware of how they affect our work. 

Now is a good time to disclose that I’ve been a vegetarian since 1996.  Before that time, though, I ate burgoo on at least two occasions at the famous Moonlite Bar-B-Q Inn in Owensboro, and I remember it clearly.  Its unique aroma, color, texture, and flavor made a lasting impression.  Moonlite’s website includes their version of the Burgoo Soup Story and a Burgoo Recipe.

Besides Moonlite, burgoo is available in many other Kentucky locations.  Downtown Lawrenceburg, Kentucky is home to the Anderson County Burgoo Festival.  Every year in late September, this festival is a popular pilgrimage to what some recognize as “the burgoo capital of the world.”  I attended one evening in 2004 when vendors, shocked to have underestimated the demand, were entirely sold out of burgoo. 

The Kentucky Folklife Program has documented several burgoo specialists, and presented some of them at the Kentucky Folklife Festival.  These include Russ Kennedy of Frankfort, David New of Owenton, and the green-and-yellow-clad burgoo team from St. Mary Magdalene Catholic Church in Owensboro. 

In 2005, filmmaker Stan Woodward received a Kentucky Arts Council Folk Arts Project grant to support research on his film Burgoo! which aired on KET.  Woodward teamed up with folklorist Saddler Taylor to present an exciting exploration of burgoo and the culture surrounding it, including ingredients, implements, techniques, differences in burgoos made in western and central Kentucky, and enlightening interviews with burgoo masters. 

Whether you love burgoo or can’t stand being near it, I hope you have enjoyed reading about this quintessential Kentucky food phenomenon.  These days, I don’t miss eating burgoo or any other carnivore delights, but I love vegetarian foods that are supposed to taste like meat (not-dogs, tofurkey, facon, etc.).  What to you think, readers?  Is there a market for vegetarian burgoo?  If so, by what clever name would it be known?

* The post title is not a typo, but a reference to the classic Internet meme “All your base are belong to us.”

Musings on Boone Day

This past Saturday I got the chance to experience my very first Boone Day.  Having recently moved here from Ohio, I wanted to know what all this was about.  The invitation to the event stated “A Kentucky Historical Society tradition since 1897, Boone Day commemorates June 7, 1769, when Daniel Boone looked out across the Cumberland Gap into the fertile land that would become Kentucky.”  

 

The events for the day, however, did not address Daniel Boone, but instead celebrated other aspects of Kentucky’s rich history, architecture and cultural arts.

So where was I to find more about Daniel Boone?  I checked out our historical markers database at Kentucky Historical Marker Database and found that there are 44 markers scattered across the state that have to do with Daniel Boone.  Wow!  

And as I was reading the titles and text for these markers, one in particular caught my eye.  Marker number 1524 is for the old State House.  Well, this weekend was also the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the opening of the new State Capitol here in Frankfort.  Coincidence?  I think not!  And it just happens to be one of KHS’s sites!

Marker text:  

Old State House

Marker Number 1524

County Franklin

Location Old State Capitol grounds, Broadway, Frankfort

Description: Kentucky's third capitol on this site was built in 1827-1829 of Kentucky River marble. The two previous capitols were destroyed by fire. Gideon Shryock of Lexington, one of the state's most distinguished architects, designed the building which introduced Greek Revival style to Kentucky. Its most outstanding feature is the self-supporting, stone circular stairway. Joel Scott, keeper of penitentiary, invented a wire saw to cut the rough stone to expedite construction. This building, Shryock's masterpiece, served as seat of government for eighty years until completion of New Capitol in 1909. Daniel Boone and wife Rebecca lay in state here in 1845 before their reinterment in Frankfort. Only state capitol in U.S. captured by Confederate forces, September 1862. Gov. William Goebel assassinated here, January 30, 1900. Home of the Kentucky Historical Society since 1920; restored, 1973-75. Extensive museum-open to public.

I noted that Daniel Boone and his wife lay in state at the Old State Capitol in 1845, which brought to mind a new book we have in the library by Michael Kammen: Digging up the dead; a history of notable American reburials.  In this book there is a description of the fascinating controversy surrounding the reburial here in Frankfort Cemetery of remains supposed to be those of Daniel Boone.   

Apparently, commemoration is a more complicated business than I had first thought.  Well, I will just have to keep looking for clues!

Louise Jones

A Great Morning at the Old State Capitol!

On the morning of June 5, as part of KHS’ annual Boone Day event,
art historian Estill Pennington held forth on three Kentucky artists who were active in 1910, the year in which Kentucky’s “New Capitol” was completed. The presentation took place in the Senate chamber of the Old State Capitol, a venerable room which always lends an air of historical purpose to any event held within it.
    One of his subjects was Kate Matthews, a photographer whose subjects were the people, architecture, and landscapes of her Pee Wee Valley home. She worked in a time in which it was most unusual for a woman to devote herself to an artistic life.
    But rather than linger on this presentation (which was illuminating as well as enjoyable) I offer it as an example of the way in which attendance at one of KHS’ events so often triggers interest in another historical subject.
    Afterward, I went downstairs into the rooms of the exhibit, “Great Revivals: Kentucky Decorative Arts Treasures”. This was not my first walk-through, and I remembered that some of the work of Kentuckian Kate Mosher is on display there.
    Her elaborate hand carving, based on natural forms, may be admired on the stained oak cabinet on view there. The profusion of intricate carving covers virtually the entire piece, even those parts on this tall item which could only be scrutinized by climbing a ladder (or, perhaps, by peering over an elegant staircase).
The date carved into a drawer-front is 1892, which, along with its naturalistic theme, places it stylistically within the Aesthetic Movement.
    When I noticed Cathy Moore, one of our knowledgeable KHS staff members, in an adjoining room I motioned her over. The information she shared about this artist and her work led us into a conversation about the group of women who, in late 19th century Cincinnati, learned the art of fine wood carving from expatriate Englishmen working and teaching in the area.
Kate Mosher was one of this group of upper-class women who had the advantage of leisure time, but also the passion to develop their skill. One of their teachers, William Fry, wrote: “The work of the women has, to me, a far deeper significance than its intrinsic value. It is for women the beginning of a new era, defining for them clearly and truly the doctrine of woman’s rights.”*
In the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition of 1876, these carvers displayed over 200 pieces which were enthusiastically received. It suggested the idea that women could produce marketable artwork as an alternative to teaching, one of the few socially acceptable careers for women of that era.
To close the circle, these women and their art were the subject, last October, of one of KHS’ noon-time historical presentations, this one by Patrick Snadon, assoc. professor at the School of Architecture and Design at University of Cincinnati. It was a fascinating talk, and obviously stayed with me.

*from a “Cincinnati Enquirer” article, May 11, 2003, about a Cincinnati Art Museum exhibit.

Betsy Cupp

Everyone likes food--especially Folklorists.

Sometimes folklife research can make big demands on your body. I am not talking about the injuries incurred while toting recording device (in the old days when small digital recorders were only a dream) or moving sound systems for narrative stages. I am talking about the subtle but long-term havoc foodways research can have on one’s body.

I was relatively thin before I became a folklorist back in 1983, but thanks to years of barbeque, burgoo and most recently Latino food sampling, I can’t remember how I fit into a size 34 jeans. I really can’t blame it all on foodways research. I just love food. When I found out you can be paid to study it I was amazed. Food is a very important part of a community’s culture. The trouble with studying food traditions is that not only do you talk about the food, but you often get to observe it being cooked and served. And if you are asked, you are required by folklore research law to taste it. I just made up the law part, but I have to admit tasting is my favorite.

I remember much of my early folklore days by the food. In Upstate New York, I sampled Buffalo chicken wings in the bar where they were invented. In Louisiana, I ate more crawfish than I thought humanly possible and in a little house by a lake in Mississippi I was served canned carp. Though the meat looked kind of funny floating around in a jar with some small bones, it really tasted good, sort of like canned salmon. Over the years we have used the foodways stage as a fun way to explore a group’s culture. The Foodways Stage at the Kentucky Folklife Festival has presented a wide range of folk groups and an even wider range of food stuff.

From fried squirrels to goetta, barbeque to the styles of regional chicken and dumplings you can find in Kentucky. We have even shared “Dad’s meals” -- the food your dad would do to show he was helping out in the kitchen. We enjoy the foodways stage so much that we have been taking it on the road. We lend out our portable foodways stage, complete with an overhead mirror and sound system, to festivals like the Mushroom Festival in Estill County where mushroom hunters explain how to find and cook up their favorite morels.

Next week we will take the stage to the first annual “Celebrando Comida Latina,” the Latin American Food Festival in Shelbyville, Kentucky. The festival will take place Sunday, June 13 from 2-6 pm on the green grass in front of Marimba’s restaurant. The address is 2059 Midland but you can’t miss it if you travel on route 60 west of downtown Shelbyville. The festival is the brainchild of the Sara Fouts of the Cultural Diversity Committee of Shelby Prevention and we look forward to a great day of food, craft and music. For the last three weeks we I have been visiting most of the many small Latino grocery/restaurant establishments in Shelbyville.

Sara was more disciplined when it came to sampling the research but I felt the sense of duty that comes with this job and I have begun running and playing Wii Fit to make up for it.

I hope you will join us next Sunday and sample some the more unique food traditions reflecting a diversity of Latino cultures that have found a recent home in Shelbyville. Many of the foods are not the sort that you will find in the restaurants because the owners are uncertain that the everyday foods that they eat at home or serve to the Latino workers who come in at lunch time would be of interest to those gringos who are used to the traditional Tex-Mex. This festival would be a good place to try it out and see what we have been missing.

 -Bob Gates

KHS Film Series - Strangers and Kin: A History of the Hillbilly Image

I'm sure that many of you are aware of the stereotypes that are attached to the people of Kentucky.  That we're uneducated.  We don't have any culture.  And that we're all poor.  These are just a few of the descriptions I heard about my home state when I went off to college in Indiana.  No matter what the reason, Kentucky just gets a bum rap.  This topic is exactly what Appalshop filmmaker Herb E. Smith explores in his 1984 documentary "Strangers and Kin: A History of the Hillbilly Image" which will be screened at the Kentucky Historical Society on Thursday, June 10 at 6:30 p.m.  The hour-long documentary uses images from popular and news media sources and interviews to talk about what really is a hillbilly and how did that stereotype get placed on residents of Kentucky, specifically those living in Appalachia. 

What struck me most while watching this film was the concept of progress.  Many of the people interviewed in the documentary said that people living outside of Kentucky view eastern Kentuckians as resistant to progress.  And there is evidence of this outside view throughout the film, as seen in segments of Walter Cronkite's "Depressed Area USA" and Paul Henning's "The Beverly Hillbillies."  

While the film works to help dispel these myths, it also encourages one to think about how and why these myths exist in the first place. Other images and clips throughout the film are at times frustrating and often leave you scratching your head.  In order to help counter these stereotypes there are some funny segments woven throughout the documentary that involve reenactments and dramatic readings.  I won't give away more than this.  You'll just have to come here to watch the movie.

For more information on "Strangers and Kin" or the KHS Film series please visit our website at www.history.ky.gov.

When: Thursday, June 10 at 6:30 p.m.

Where: Thomas D. Clark Center for Kentucky History

Admission: $4 members or $8 non-members; admission fee includes film, refreshments, and admission to KHS campus

--Mike Deetsch