Events

WINTER BROWN BAG SERIES
Wednesdays, 11:30 AM – 1:00 PM
Pebble Hill, 101 S. Debardeleben Street, Auburn
Free and open to the public

January 15, 2025
D-Day: June 6, 1944 – A Battle That Shaped Our World
Frank Broz

Step back into one of the most pivotal days in modern history as we explore the Allied invasion of Normandy during World War II. This presentation delves into the strategic planning, heroic sacrifices, and lasting impact of D-Day, a daring operation that marked the turning point in the fight against tyranny and reshaped global history. Frank Broz holds a BA in history from Loyola University Chicago and has taught several courses for OLLI.

January 22, 2025
Searching for Camp Watts
Meghan Buchanan

Meghan Buchanan is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology specializing in archaeology. Dr. Buchanan earned her bachelor’s degree in anthropology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, her Master of Arts at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, and her PhD at Indiana University. She has taken part in archaeological projects throughout the Midwestern (Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Wisconsin, Kansas) and Southeastern (Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky) United States and Mexico. She has directed archaeological projects in Missouri, Indiana, and Alabama. Her research explores the intersections between warfare, sociopolitical transformation, and daily activities among the indigenous towns and communities of the Southeastern United States during and after the Mississippian Period (ca. AD 1000-1600). Her current research analyzes archaeological collections housed at Auburn University, looking at the material practices of indigenous communities along the Tallapoosa River in east Alabama, as people negotiated social, political, and economic practices during a period of great upheaval.

January 29, 2025
How Will They Remember Me? Tomb Reuse in Renaissance Florence
Anne Leader

In 1384 a marble slab carrying an effigy was installed at the foot of the stairs before the high altar of the Badia Fiorentina, the oldest monastery in the city of Florence, Italy. The portrait showed the silk merchant and magistrate Filippo di Ser Giovanni Pandolfini. Perhaps contradicting his portrait, the inscription around the perimeter of the slab indicated that the grave was not only for Filippo but also for his descendants. Both women and men were buried under their forbear’s slab from 1384 through 1663 when the church floor was redone. The singularity of the tomb’s portrait effigy masks the repeated use of this gravesite and raises interesting questions about what it meant to be a tomb honoree in the Renaissance, who was remembered, and how. Anne Leader is Visiting Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities (IATH) at UVA. She received her Ph.D. in the History of Art and Archaeology, with a specialization in Italian Renaissance Art, from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University.

Her research and publications explore a range of topics in Italian Renaissance art, architecture, urbanism, and religious tradition, including: Michelangelo’s final project for the Sistine chapel, Benedictine monasticism and artistic patronage, Renaissance workshop practices and artistic authorship, and, most recently, burial practices and tomb monuments including articles on the tomb of Leonardo da Vinci's father. She is especially interested in sacred art and architecture, specifically in how images and buildings were used by individuals and institutions for devotional practice, doctrinal instruction, and propaganda.

February 5, 2025
Dramatic Monologue: Henrietta Lacks
Rosalyn Thomas

Step into the extraordinary, untold story of Henrietta Lacks, the woman whose cells changed the course of science without her knowledge. In this powerful dramatic monologue, journey through Henrietta’s life, her struggles, and the profound ethical questions surrounding her immortal HeLa cells.

Rosalyn Thomas is an Auburn native who completed her undergraduate and graduate studies at Auburn University. A retired educator, Thomas is a talented storyteller who brings her characters to life helping audiences gain a fuller understanding of history.

February 12, 2025
Girls’ Education: The Magic Bullet to Solving World Hunger, Poverty and Population Growth
Douglas Coutts

This presentation examines how empowering girls through education can break cycles of poverty, reduce hunger, and stabilize population growth. Explore the ripple effects of investing in girls’ futures—a solution that benefits not just individuals, but entire communities. Douglas Casson Coutts, a retired United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) veteran, introduced and taught Auburn's inaugural undergraduate course on "World Hunger: Causes, Consequences, and Responses" during his sabbatical from 2008 to 2012. With 30 years of experience in the United Nations system, he now serves as a Distinguished Visiting Professor Emeritus in the AU Office of International Programs, where he occasionally shares his expertise as a guest lecturer and speaker.

February 19, 2025
“Crackerman” filmmakers
John Dijulio and Bruce Kuerten

DiJulio has over 22 years experience in all aspects of film and television production. He has produced several long-form documentaries for national PBS including First Frontier; Ain't Nothin' but the Blues; From Fields of Promise; and an original drama, the Cracker Man. Along with producing partner Bruce Kuerten, DiJulio has received a CINE Golden Eagle, a Gold Medal from the New York Festivals, a Golden Apple from the National Educational Film Festival, recognition from the Directors' Guild of America, a 'Best Feature Film' Award from the Sidewalk Film Festival and the prestigious Crystal Heart Award from the Heartland Film Festival. He has received a Fellowship in Screenwriting from the Alabama State Council on the Arts and been invited to participate in the Producer's Conference at Sundance Institute.

Bruce Kuerten (with John DiJulio) has written, produced, and directed award winning documentary films, which have been shown at the Chicago, Venice, and New York festivals and broadcast on PBS, the Turner Networks, and the Discovery Networks. He has been recognized for "Directorial Achievement" by the Directors Guild of America. His dramatic credits include The Cracker Man, which reached 67 million households, nationwide and a feature screenplay, and The Kris, which earned him admission to The Sundance Institute's Producers' Workshop. Kuerten has designed innovative educational technologies for Auburn's Executive MBA programs and built in-class programming for Auburn's Colleges of Liberal Arts, Nursing, and Science and Mathematics. Surveying and Layout—an interactive digital textbook created for building science, which is now in its second printing by Wiley and Sons—is available on Amazon and is currently distributed internationally.

February 26, 2025
Growing Community: The Muscogee Nation Community Garden Project
Courtney Natseway

Courtney Natseway is a citizen of the Mvskoke Nation and the extension coordinator for the College of the Muscogee Nation (CMN). After earning a degree in Tribal Services from CMN, Natseway studied public horticulture, earning a degree in public horticulture from Oklahoma State University. Since returning to CMN, she spearheaded the creation of a campus garden which provided over 50 pounds of produce primarily for the elders of the community. In collaboration with Muskoke media, she launched a YouTube series, “Muskoke Gardening.”

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ARTS & LETTERS LECTURE SERIES
Thursdays, 2:30 PM – 4:00 PM
Sunny Slope Annex, 1031 South College Street, Auburn
Free and open to the public

January 16, 2025
The Poetry of Memory: A Reading and Discussion with Jeanie Thompson

Jeanie Thompson is the author of eight books of poetry including The Myth of Water: Poems from the Life of Helen Keller, The Seasons Bear Us, White for Harvest: New and Selected Poems, Witness, Litany for a Vanishing Landscape, How to Enter the River, and Lotus and Psalm. Her poems have been published in The Southern Poetry Anthology Volume X: Alabama, Whatever Remembers Us, High Horse, Working the Dirt, and The Best of Crazyhorse, among others. Jeanie has been a poetry faculty member in the Naslund-Mann Graduate School of Writing since 2002. She was founding executive editor of Black Warrior Review, literary journal. She is executive director emerita of the Alabama Writers’ Forum, a statewide literary arts service organization. In Spring 2024 Jeanie received the Albert B. Head Legacy Award for her work as a literary arts advocate and poet. https://www.jeaniethompson.net/about-me

January 23, 2025
Film as Poetic Expression: A Talk with Todd Boss

Todd Boss has influenced millions as an independent American producer, writer, installation artist, and innovator who has contributed to Emmy-winning and Grammy-nominated projects. He has created AR/VR installations and building projections, published four books of poetry with W. W. Norton and a children's book with Simon & Schuster's Beach Lane imprint, written lyrics that have premiered at Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall, produced more than 150 short films that have screened around the world, patented consumer product innovations and brought them to market, conceived and executed nationwide activations, and launched an award-winning podcast.

His motto is "Wake to the wonder of the world." A farm kid from Wisconsin's Chippewa Valley, he sold all his possessions in 2018 and circled the globe in a series of 40+ house-sits. In 2024 he settled in Austin with his life-partner, multi-Grammy-winning soprano Hila Plitmann. He has an MFA in Poetry from the University of Alaska-Anchorage. His practice of writing poems on private commission evolved into an award-winning podcast called There's a Poem in That, in which he helps strangers discover the poetry in their most intimate stories — now available on all platforms. The podcast has spun off a mobile pop-up Poetry Therapy Clinic and the world's first poetry commissioning agency.

January 30, 2025
Stitching Stories: A Dialogue with Yvonne Wells and Gail Andrews

Gail Andrews and Yvonne Wells discuss the historical and cultural significance of Southern folk art.

Yvonne Wells is an internationally renowned quilter who lives in her hometown of Tuscaloosa, Alabama. In 1985 she made her first appearance at the Kentuck Festival of the Arts in Northport, Alabama, where she won her first of six Best in Show awards. Wells’s work has been exhibited in Japan, France, and Italy, as well as displayed in the prestigious Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., and the American Museum of Folk Art in New York City. Six of her quilts are held in the permanent collection of the International Quilt Study Center and Museum in Nebraska, and she has garnered numerous awards for her work. The University of Alabama Press Faculty Editorial Board awarded Wells and Professor Stacy Morgan the 2021 Anne B. and James B. McMillan Prize, given for a work “Most Deserving in Alabama or Southern History or Culture,” for their forthcoming book The Story Quilts of Yvonne Wells.

After an NEH internship at Colonial Williamsburg, Gail Andrews joined the Birmingham Museum of Art in 1976 as assistant curator of decorative arts, subsequently serving as assistant director and ultimately as director of the museum for twenty years. An acknowledged authority on folk art and textiles, she has written numerous articles and catalogues including Black Belt to Hill Country: Alabama Made Quilts, Southern Quilts: A New View, quilt and needlework chapters for Made in Alabama: A State Legacy. In 2017 she received the Jonnie Dee Riley Little Lifetime Achievement Award from the Alabama State Arts Council.

February 6, 2025
Home Sewn: Alabama’s Quilting Traditions with Ryan Blocker

Ryan Blocker has been with the Alabama Department of Archives and History for the past thirteen years. She currently serves as the Museum Collections Coordinator, where she is responsible for the care and preservation of a diverse collection of artifacts. Ryan also oversees the work of the NAGPRA and the Museum Services programs. She is a past President of the Alabama Museums Association and was appointed by the Governor to serve on the Board of the Governor's Mansion Authority in Montgomery. Ryan is a graduate of Auburn University at Montgomery, where she received a B.A. in History, and the International Preservation Studies Center, where she received certification in Collections Care, focusing on Textile Conservation and Preservation.

February 13, 2025
Southern Fiction and Storytelling: A Conversation with Marian Carcache

Marian Carcache grew up in Jernigan, a small community in rural Russell County, Alabama. She lives in Auburn, Alabama and has been teaching English at the university level for over twenty years. Marian's short stories have appeared in Shenandoah, Chattahoochee Review, and other journals. Her work has been anthologized in Due South, Belles' Letters, Crossroads: Stories of the Southern Literary Fantastic, Climbing Mt. Cheaha: Emerging Alabama Writers, and Chinaberries and Crows. Her first book, The Moon and the Stars: New and Collected Stories, was published in 2013 by Solomon & George Publishers. Under the Arbor, an opera made from her short story and libretto, appeared on PBS stations nationwide, was nominated for a regional Emmy, and was a finalist in the New York Festivals. She has a weekly column in The Citizen of East Alabama.

February 20, 2025
The Power of Voice: A Conversation with Cindy Juyoung Ok

Cindy Juyoung Ok is the author of Ward Toward and the translator of The Hell of That Star by Kim Hyesoon. A former high school physics teacher, she is an assistant English professor at the University of California Davis.

February 27, 2025
The Daily Practice of Drawing with Zdenko Krtić

The Croatian American artist Zdenko Krtić is best known for his drawings, collages, photographs, paintings and installations. In his talk the artist will discuss his studio practice involving variety of mediums and approaches. A particular attention will be given to importance of using a sketchbook/notebook - considered a significant and valuable part of any creative process.

Zdenko Krtić, an artist and a retired professor of painting from Auburn, holds a BFA in painting form University of Zagreb (Croatia) and an MFA in Drawing/Painting from University of Cincinnati. Croatian American artist Zdenko Krtić is known for his work consisting of drawings, installations, photographs and paintings. Artist’s work has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions in US and in Europe. His most recent solo exhibition was held in Palermo, Sicily (2024). Zdenko Krtić was named 2024 Visual Arts Fellow awarded by the Alabama State Council on the Arts.