I’m tired. With perhaps a little more nuance than usual, my friends. This woman’s heart is a landscape of potholes at the moment, and I feel like a lonely body eclipsed by a gray, lunar surface whenever it beats. It’s getting bad, kids. Real, real bad. The culture of Myself is shifting, and I’m shedding quit a lot of skin and wearing a great many different hats. Limbo is a wearisome place to float for long stretches of time, I’ve found. Things are beginning to morph into that half-sleep memory murmur, where everything that really happened seems absurdly un-really able to have happened. I should practice lucid dreaming.
But while I spend more and more time infolding within my own personal memory culture – what about the world on the outside?
History comes in many forms as well, and the saga written for our state is a lot more nuanced, rich and wonderful than perhaps those silly “un-really” memories would have us believe. Discover the most excellent caliber of Kentucky heritage as historian James Klotter brings his new book, Bluegrass Renaissance: The History and Culture of Central Kentucky, 1792 – 1852, to The Filson Historical Society this Thursday, October 18th, at 6pm.
Once nicknamed “the Athens of the West”, central Kentucky and the Lexington area of ye olde Kentucky were abundant centers of lush cultural innovation. Plentiful, of course, in our beautiful horses and fine tobacco, central Kentucky was also a region home to a wealth of advances in higher education, visual arts, architecture and music. Discussing these heritage marks, as well as exploring the further contributions of famous Kentuckians – such as Henry Clay and John C. Breckinridge – James Klotter brings this history front and center with his book, Bluegrass Renaissance.
Klotter, a professor of history at Georgetown College and the current State Historian of Kentucky, will bring his research to The Filson in conjunction with the University of Kentucky Alumni Association. Following a reception at 5pm, Klotter’s Renaissance will take center stage as he explains how this crucial moment in cultural and local history helped shape the heritage of our state.
Grab your cocktail and take some notes for me, kids; for whenever I leave this murky water of memory behind, I’m sure I’ll be keen for a good dose of a good story of cultural renewal.
The Filson Historical Society is located at 1310 South Third Street.
This event is free for both Filson Members and members of the University of Kentucky Alumni Association. The price for non-member peeps is only 5 cool smackers, and please, friends, make reservations.
Image: Courtesy of the Louisville Free Public Library www.lfpl.org
