2019-2020 Humanities Catalog

Speakers Bureau
Kentucky & Immigration
Jack & Angene Wilson
Kentucky Writers
Lexington, KY
859.223.3746
angenewilson@windstream.net
Travel: Statewide
Who is a Kentuckian? Identity and the Immigration Debate
The Wilsons will use concepts and examples from their book, Voices of African Immigrants in Kentucky: Migration, Identity,
and Transnationality, co-authored with Francis Musoni and lddah Otieno, to inspire a discussion about the important
and timely issue of immigration. Stories and quotations from oral history interviews conducted with nearly 50 African
immigrants in Kentucky will introduce first generation immigrants’ connections and contributions to both Kentucky and
the United States and to African countries of origin, as well as their views about identity. Must one be born in the Commonwealth
to be considered a Kentuckian? How important is assimilation and what does it mean? What is transnationality?
How can individuals consider both “here” and “there” part of their identity? Can immigrants be included in what
Kentucky author bell hooks writes about in Belonging: a culture of place?
Struggles and Successes of African Immigrants in Kentucky
Using examples from their book Voices of African Immigrants in Kentucky: Migration, Identity and Transnationality, coauthored
with Francis Musoni and lddah Otieno and published by University Press of Kentucky in 2019, the Wilsons will
talk about the lives of African immigrants as described to them in interviews that are housed in the African Immigrants in
the Bluegrass Oral History Project at University of Kentucky’s Nunn Oral History Center. The immigrants interviewed
include individuals from 26 countries such as university professors originally from Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, and Sierra Leone
who have now been in the U.S. for decades, more recently arrived immigrants who came on diversity visas from Algeria
and Ivory Coast, and refugees coming from war in Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Liberia.
Poetry
Jeff Worley
Kentucky Poet Laureate
2019-2020
Lexington, KY
859.277.0257
jworley@uky.edu
jeff-worley.com
Travel: Statewide
Voices from Home: A Reading of Kentucky Poets
In this presentation Worley will read poems from modern and contemporary poets from the state and will provide
historical and personal background on those writers. The starting point for the reading will be the anthology
What Comes Down to Us: 25 Contemporary Kentucky Poets. Among the poets included are Wendell Berry, Kathleen
Driskell, Jane Gentry, James Baker Hall, George Ella Lyon, Maurice Manning, Richard Taylor, and Frank X
Walker. These poets have had an active literary presence in the state for decades; several have served as Kentucky
Poet Laureate. Worley will also feature the work of younger Kentucky poets who have gained recognition and
acclaim for their work.
A Poetry Presentation by Jeff Worley
Worley will read from his books, which have won national, regional, and state prizes. Part of this presentation includes
a discussion of how poems get written, the poetic process — a discussion focused not only on Worley’s own
poems but also the work of other poets. Where do poems come from? How is a writer inspired to write his or
her poems? What literary influences come into play in the writing of poems? How real is “writer’s block?” What
techniques can overcome it? This part of the program will be interactive, involving the writing experiences of those
attending the reading.
Equipment needs: Microphone (unless it is a small group)
48 kyhumanities.org