Peter Morrin and John Begley, retired UofL fine arts faculty members and community arts executives, organized the yearlong celebration of the Ohio’s impact on nature, art, history, literature, economy, culture and more, especially in Louisville and southern Indiana. They started with one exhibit because they were fascinated by underappreciated Kentucky artist, writer and environmentalist Harlan Hubbard’s watercolors but then expanded their efforts to “explore the river that fascinated him all his life,” Begley said.

“As we talked with other community groups and individuals, we found all were bound to the river in one or another way, many in multiple ways,” he added.

Several museums, galleries and academic institutions are participating, and UofL faculty and staff members have volunteered to draw from their wide-ranging specialties to lecture at various venues.

“The faculty expertise at UofL has been a real boon to Afloat and really appreciated by all the institutional hosts,” said Begley, also former director of UofL’s Hite Art Institute galleries.

“It provides an opportunity to showcase our excellent faculty and the relevance of their research to the community,” said John Gibson, director of UofL’s Commonwealth Center for the Humanities and Society. “’Afloat’ is the brainchild of Peter Morrin and John Begley, and CCHS is delighted to partner with them on this exciting initiative.”

“So far we have placed our professors at the Frazier History Museum, Historic Locust Grove, Farmington Historic Plantation, LFPL-Main Library, Falls of the Ohio State Park, with plans to arrange more faculty talks in the months to come,” Gibson said.

Here’s the current lineup of participating College of Arts and Sciences speakers, topics and venues:

• June 13 – “Work Along the River Jordan: African American River Labor in the Ohio River Valley and the Development of Black America,” David Anderson, English associate professor, 6:30 p.m., Farmington Historic Home, 3033 Bardstown Road.
• June 29 and July 16 – “The Fish in the Ohio,” Linda Fuselier, associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and biology associate professor. The June talk will begin at 3 p.m. at the Falls of the Ohio State Park, 201 W. Riverside Drive in Clarksville, Indiana, and the July one will start at noon at the Carnegie Center for Art and History, 201 E. Spring St. in New Albany, Indiana.
• Aug. 25 – “Emerson, Thoreau and the River in American Art,” John Gibson, philosophy professor and CCHS director, and Alan Golding, English professor, 2 p.m., Frazier History Museum, 829 W. Main St.
• Oct. 24 – “River Stories: Mother Love on Slavery’s Border,” Susan Ryan, English professor, 6:30 p.m. at the Louisville Free Public Library’s Main Library, 301 York St.
• Nov. 6 – “Traversing Indian Diplomacy on the Ohio River,” Frank Kelderman, English assistant professor, 1:15 p.m., Locust Grove, 561 Blankenbaker Lane.

Also, during the spring semester, UofL archivist and historian Tom Owen and English faculty member Sarah Strickley participated in an April 2 panel on “The Great Flood of 1937” at the Frazier History Museum.��

.��

To help bring that story to life, Locust Grove recently reached out to the .�� 

, a teaching assistant earning her MFA in performance, was tapped to reenact the role of an enslaved distiller for visitors at the . Her job is also to help craft the character and storyline for the role she’ll be playing.

It’s no easy task. There are few records of the who lived at Locust Grove and none left in their own words.

“Slaves were the majority of the people who lived here 200 years ago. But it’s more challenging to recreate their experience than the owners of the farm because the owners left behind letters that tell of their perspective,” said Brian Cushing, Locust Grove Program Director, in a. “We’re trying to respectfully and authentically bring the characters of the enslaved African Americans who lived and worked at Locust Grove to life in the same way that we do other characters from the site’s history.”

To prepare, Edwards learned the distilling process, read letters from Locust Grove owners’ and reviewed an inventory of slaves which described them only by name, age and duty. She said she’ll ultimately create a composite character culled from her broader research.  

Storytelling about slavery is “touchy, you have to approach it carefully,” she said. “Many people, black or white, seem to prefer to avoid it.” 

She’s appreciative of the opportunity to represent African Americans in such a context to help educate people.

“No matter how hard a thing it is to do, it’s still an important thing to do,” she said. “Children and people should know that slavery was a part of our American history. I like being a representative in that way.”

When Locust Grove initially contacted Theatre Arts,, whose teaching, directing, writing and storytelling focus on people of the African diaspora, offered some thoughts on involving students in the reenactment.

“I explained it would not be appealing or interesting to an African American to perform the role of an enslaved character that is marginal to the main action. The character must be central to the story, not peripheral,” Burton said. “Also the actor must have the freedom to create stories that actually represent the enslaved people’s lives and feelings, and not some made up, soft pedaling of what it meant to be enslaved.”

Edwards said she’s felt supported and appreciated by Locust Grove’s staff through the process.��

Edwards, who also teaches at Kentucky Shakespeare’s camp, is playing the lead role in the .

She earned her BFA in musical theatre from William Peace University in North Carolina and chose to come to UofL for graduate studies as Theatre Arts offers the only in the country.

“Both heritage and theatre are very important to me,” she said.