Annelle Lindsey, who we interviewed for her specialty sweet potato pie, stands next to her photo on the exhibit
Eula Stitcher, with her granddaughter Angela Tyson, stands besides the exhibit panel with a photograph of her making biscuits.
Center
for Public History
University of West Georgia
Recent Events and Activities
2007 upcoming events
Set Your Fields on Fire public concert: The Center is planning the fourth in its series of public concerts on regional music traditions in March 2007 at the Townsend Center for the Performing Arts on the UWG campus. This event will celebrate the release of Volume 2 of Set Your Fields on Fire. For more information, contaact Bethany Campbell or Heather Thayer.
Folklife programs in the schools: With funds from the Georgia Folklife Program, the Center will be able to sponsor five programs that will bring artists from our regional music project into 8th grade classrooms in the West Georgia region. If you are interested in sponsoring one of these programs at your school, please contact Bethany Campbell at the Center.
2006 events
New traveling trunk on World War II history: The Center for Public History announces a new traveling trunk to teach about World War II to 5th graders. Prepared by Veterans History project coordinator Amanda Corman, the trunk features artifacts and teaching materials that mesh with the new Georgia Performance Standards for teaching 5th grade social studies. If you are interested in borrowing this trunk for your school, please contact Amanda Corman, Veterans History project coordinator, at the Center.
CD Release concert: The Center sponsored a public concert and CD release party for Set Your Fields on Fire 1 in February 2006 at the Townsend Center for the Performing Arts. Six musical groups featured on the CD performed to a near full house. The CD is now available for sale at Horton's Books and Burson's Feed and Seed, both on Adamson Square in Carrollton, and through the Center for Public History.
"It was passed down from generation to generation": The Center's exhibit on regional baking traditions continues to travel around the West Georgia region, most recently at New Hope Missionary Baptist Church in Powder Springs in July and August. To schedule the exhibit at your site, please contact Sandy Pollard at the Center at 678-839-6141.
2005 events
Voices Across Time Exhibit at Warren Sewell Library in Bremen, Georgia: From October 1 through November 11, the Center is exhibiting its "Voices Across Time" project which showcases the display panels based on interviews with nine area veterans. Nine area youths completed these interviews and panels as a community service project in 2004.
Release of our third Regional Music CD! The Center released Set Your Fields on Fire 1 in November 2005, a compilation of both white and African American gospel and sacred music traditions in the West Georgia region. To order a CD, contact the Center at 678-839-6141.
"Biscuits, Cornbread and Teacakes," traveling exhibit: The Center's exhibit on southern baking traditions will be traveling throughout the region this fall. In September, it will be at the Villa Rica Senior Center. Watch for it also at the Carrollton Junior Women's Club Fall Festival on Adamson Square the first weekend of November. To bring the exhibit to your site, please contact the Center.
2004 events
Oral history workshop, fall 2004: The Center is organizing an oral history workshop in concert with its new Veterans History Project. For more information, contact Katie Reed
Regional Music School Programs: The Center will again offer school programs focusing on regional music traditions for 8th grade classes during the 2004-5 year. Center staff will invite traditional musicians to come and share their stories about music and what it has meant in their lives. To schedule a program, please contact Ann McCleary.
Traveling exhibit: "Biscuits and Cornbread: Baking Traditions in the Georgia Piedmont." Sponsored by the Georgia Humanities Council, this twelve-panel traveling exhibit is available to tour in venues throughout the West Georgia region by January 1, 2004. Past venues include the Carrollton Junior High, Jonesville Middle School, Neva Lomason Library, Coweta-East Newnan Public Library, Carrollton Senior Center, and the Warren Sewell Public Library in Bremen. If you want to reserve this exhibit for your venue, please contact Dr. Ann McCleary or more information. To learn more about the Southern Baking project, click here.
Annelle Lindsey, who we interviewed for her specialty sweet potato pie, stands next to her photo on the exhibit |
Eula Stitcher, with her granddaughter Angela Tyson, stands besides the exhibit panel with a photograph of her making biscuits. |
Public Concert--"Alton Stitcher and Friends: An Evening of Old-Time Music" at the Townsend Center, University of West Georgia campus, January 31, 2004. If you missed the concert, check out the pictures!
School programs featuring regional music in Carrollton and Caroll County Middle Schools, spring 2004, at Jonesville Middle School, Mt. Zion Middle School, and Temple Middle School.
J.N. and Onie Baxter, left, and Alton Stitcher, right, perform
at Mt. Zion Middle School, April 2004.
Tours of historic Pinson Street, Newnan, Georgia, February 21, 2004. Graduate student Jessica Hendrickson Ruckheim helped Cynthia Rosers of the African American Alliance in Newnan to organize a tour of homes in this historic neighborhood. Jessica conducted research and helped organize the tours as part of her graduate thesis project. the event was funded by the Georgia Humanities Council.
Jessica Ruckheim leading a tour of the Pinson Street neighborhood,
in Newnan, Georgia.
Voices Across Time project, spring 2004. Dr. Rebecca Bailey and graduate students John Wall, Matt Ellis, Sarah Finney and Walter Todd conducted another series of interview projects with students from the juvenile justice courts in Carroll and Haralson Counties, in which the students conducted tape-recorded interviews with veterans. For more information on this project, contact Dr. Rebecca Bailey
New Banning Mill website, spring 2004. Teresa Beyer, the graduate research assistant for the Banning Mill project, is developing a new website to highlight the rich history of Banning Mill for her thesis project. The website will be updated through April 2004. To visit click here.
2003 events
Public concerts--"Everybody's Tuned to the Radio": To promote our new CD entitlted "Everybody's Tuned to the Radio: Rural Music Traditions in West Georgia, 1947-1979," the Center held two live concerts on Friday, March 7th and on Sunday, March 9th, at the Carrollton Cultural Arts Center. The concerts brought together seven groups of performers from the golden age of live radio in West Georgia to share country, gospel, and bluegrass music. These groups included The Bluebonnet Boys and Louise, J.N. and Onie Baxter with Joe Will McGuire, the Willing Workers, Alton Stitcher, Charles Cole and His Southern Kinfolks, and the Sewell Gospel Quartet. These groups hae all been featured on CD, which is available through the Center. To read more about the concert, click here. For more information on ordering the CD, contact the Center at 770-838-3031 or Dr. Ann McCleary
University Oral History Project Reception: The first three years of the University Oral History Project have been a great success with over fifty-two alumni, faculty, and staff interviews conducted. As a way to thank these project participants, the Center held a reception on April 5, 2003. it was an afternoon of story-swapping, reminscing, and meeting other alumni. To learn more about the University Oral History Project, click here.
Southern Foodways Alliance Oral History Workshop: In early October, 2003,Dr. Ann McCleary and graduate student intern Helen Chambers participated in the 2003 Southern Foodways Symposium in Oxford, Mississippi, presenting a pre-conference workshop entitled "Bringing Oral Histories to Life: A workshop on Baking, Memory, and Public History." Emily Erwin joined us as the new director of the Capps Museum and Archives at Delta State University in Cleveland, Mississippi. Click here for photos!
Student presentations at the Oral History Association Annual Meeting: Graduate research assistants Teresa Beyer and Erin Brasfield made presentations on their research at the Center at the OHA meeting in Washington, D.C. in October 2003. Teresa is conducting interviews on Banning Cotton Mill and Erin is doing oral histories focusing on the development of the University of West Georgia from its A&M years to the present.
"Voices Across Time" workshops: Dr. Rebecca Bailey is coordinating a series of five Saturday workshops for students and veterans participating in the "Voices Across Time" project, funded by the Georgia Humanities Council. These events are being held on Saturdays in October and November, 2003.
"What's Cooking for the Holidays?": For the Carrollton Junior Women's Club Art Show on November 1, the Center developed an 'exhibit' of baked goods prepared by local cooks participating in our Southern Baking project. The Center booth included Red Velvet Cake, Punchbowl Cake, Sweet Potato Pie, Chocolate Pie, Caramel Cake, and Christmas Lizzies among its samples to be tasted by local residents. As part of our project, we prepared a "cookbook" with these recipes. For more information on this project or to obtain a copy of the cookbook please contact Dr. Ann McCleary, project director The recipes are now on-line at What's Cooking for the Holidays?