A Series of Five Public Programs
Telling the Story of the Federal and Kansas Writer's Projects
during the Great Depression of the 1930's
May 12 - June 28, 2009
Sponsored by Wichita State University Libraries and
their partners,
Wichita Public Library and the Wichita Sedgwick County Historical Society
The Wichita State University Libraries and community partners are pleased to bring A Soul of a People: Writing America's Story to Wichita and Kansas.
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| Family in front of shack home, Oklahoma City, 1939. Courtesy of Library of Congress |
We will be sponsoring a series of programs through May and June to highlight the New Deal Federal Writers' Project, an important but often overlooked program designed to put Depression era individuals to work by noting down the stories and experiences of everyday Americans.
With these programs, we will join the American library Association, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and libraries across the country to explore what the Writers' Project can tell us about life in the 1930s, as well as what came before. The national project will culminate in the broadcasting of a documentary called Soul of a People, produced by Spark Media and airing in the fall of 2009 on the Smithsonian Channel HD.
The Program Series
Wichita State University Libraries has been selected as
one of 30 libraries nationwide to receive a grant from the National
Endowment for the Humanities to support the Soul of a People
documentary.
All programs are free and open to the public. Please see the
Events section for program dates, locations and descriptions.
In addition, Special Collections & University Archives at the WSU Libraries
has created an online exhibition titled: "Kansas as a Work in
Progress during the Great Depression,"
which can be found at:
http://specialcollections.wichita.edu/exhibits/soulofapeople.html.
This digital exhibit shows images of how Kansans responded to the demands
and hardships of life during the 1930's. This website contains both a
photo gallery and excerpts from the research summaries submitted by the
staff writers who worked on the Kansas Writers' Project for the Works
Progress Administration.
Soul of a People: Writing America's Story is a major documentary
television program about the Federal Writers' Project produced by Spark
Media, Washington D.C., scheduled for broadcast in Fall 2009 on the
Smithsonian Channel HD. Soul of a People programs in libraries are
sponsored by the American Library Association Public Programs Office with
the support of the National Endowment for the Humanities: great ideas
brought to life.
