Poet Frank X Walker is officially credited with
coining the term “Affrilachian,” an adjective that relates to African Americans
who reside in or come from Appalachia. In so
doing, this Kentucky native added new color to
society’s perceptions of the multi-state region of Appalachia
and has gone on to celebrate a style of verse based on this unexpected, but
appropriate, idiom. Walker’s
pieces are not always black-and-white, but rather cross barriers to connect the
intellectual, political and cultural struggles of people. Walker will be talking up historical poetry
when he hosts a writing workshop aptly titled “Making a Case for Historical
Poetry” at Woodland Pattern Book Center on Saturday, Dec. 5, from 2
to 4 p.m. The $25 fee covers the community seminar as well as admission to a 7
p.m. public reading. Walker is the author of
four poetry collections and currently serves as the writer-in-residence and a
lecturer of English at Northern
Kentucky University.
Milwaukeean Amelia Klem Osterud is a tattooed
academic librarian, so no one should be surprised that her first manuscript is
called The Tattooed Lady: A History.
Yet while Osterud is indeed permanently inked, this publication is no autobiography.
She writes of a time when it was entirely unseemly for a woman to show off a
tattoo. The Tattooed Lady is a
momentous tale that chronicles the women behind the tattooed bodies, women who
traveled across America
on circus trains during a time when even to reveal an ankle was outrageous.
Osterud provides veritable accounts of these fearless females by bringing them
front and center out of the carnival tents and into real life. By combining
research with period photography, this local author explores women’s history
alongside the cultural movement of tattooing. Osterud will visit Woodland Pattern Book
Center as part of a new
prose series on Wednesday, Dec. 9, at 7 p.m.
