Kentucky is far from being a unified region. Though known as the Bluegrass State, it divides into six regions: Western Coal Field, Pennyroyal, Bluegrass, Knobs, Jackson Purchase and Eastern Mountain and Coal Field Region. Each region “differs as sharply in geography, culture, economic activity, and social habit as if they were widely separated areas. Each is populated by people who have adjusted themselves to their environment and who, in the process, have developed habits and attitudes differing markedly from those of their fellows in other divisions.”
The Kentucky Gateway Museum Center has chosen “The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek” by Kim Richardson for our yearly Community Read. This book is centered in the Eastern Mountain and Coal Field Region of Appalachia during the Great Depression of the 1930’s.
The hardscrabble folks of Troublesome Creek have to scrap for everything — everything except books, that is. Thanks to Roosevelt’s Kentucky Pack Horse Library Project, Troublesome has its very own traveling librarian. (The WPA eventually had 30 different libraries. The project helped employ around 200 people and reached around 100,000 residents in rural Kentucky.)
The heroine, Cussy Mary Carter, named for a French town in the Normandy region from which an ancestor came, of our Read On this year wants to bring the joy of books to the hill folks, but she’s going to have to confront prejudice as old as the Appalachians and suspicion as deep as the holler. [Cussy is a pack horse librarian and she delivers books and other items to people living in the mountains of Kentucky. The year is 1936 and the setting takes place in the Appalachian Mountains in the woods of Troublesome Creek. Cussy is a 19-year-old and she is the last living female of the rare Blue People ancestry.] It is inspired by the true blue-skinned people of Kentucky, dealing with discrimination, and the brave and dedicated Kentucky Pack Horse library service of the 1930s.
There are many themes that our teachers and community can explore through the book and events, covering the WPA, The New Deal, Appalachian Folk Art, The Stock Market Crash, Agriculture, the Dust Bowl and all other aspects of the 1930’s Great Depression. Author Kim Richardson also uses the theme of distrust of authority to show how the people of rural Kentucky are taken advantage of and how they are vulnerable in their poverty and lack of contact with the outside world. This theme also gives more context to the location and characters – especially of poor, rural, non-white folks and workers in eastern Kentucky. Richardson also uses this theme to prove the arbitrary and complex nature of authority, but ultimately the meaninglessness of it. She proves this distrust through the power of the employer, the power of the medical establishment, and the power of the government. And the reaction to this distrust is simply a request for survival and basic dignity.
What a wonderful way to celebrate literacy with a story of raw courage, fierce strength, and with the belief that books can carry us anywhere — even back home.
You can pick up a free book copy at the Mason County Library, Fleming County Library, at any of the events planned to enhance your reading, and of course at the Kentucky Gateway Museum Center at 215 Sutton Street, Maysville.
Books and events are provided in part by grants from: International Paper, The Scripps Foundation and The Hayswood Foundation.
Saturday, Oct. 3, The Wizard of Oz – Russell Theatre 7:30 p.m.
Thursday, Oct. 8, KYGMC Parking Lot 7 p.m., Read On Kick-Off — Pie Party and Blue Grass
Saturday, Oct. 10, The Bride of Frankenstein – Russell Theatre 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, Oct. 17, KYGMC Saturday Seminar, WPA Post Office Murals with Tom Coe streaming live on Facebook 10:30 a.m.
Thursday, Oct. 22, Maysville Country Club 6:30 p.m., Chautauqua presentation, Jean Ritchie: Damsel with a Dulcimer.
(Please look for updates or changes on the website or call in advance of events in case of changes or cancellations.)
Readers may email questions to [email protected] @ Kentucky Gateway Museum Center Maysville, Ky.
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