Storytellers Kathryn Tucker Windham and Joseph Sobol to Present Curtis Endowed Lecture March 30

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Kathryn Tucker Windham and Dr. Joseph Sobol will be the Curtis Distinguished Lecturers for the 16th annual James P. Curtis Lecture on March 30 at 7 p.m. in the Ferguson Center Ballroom.

Both speakers have long careers in the art of storytelling and have been featured many times at national storytelling festivals. This year, they are coming together to present an evening filled with the magic of Windham’s gift of storytelling and with Sobol’s experience in using storytelling as an educational tool.

Kathryn Tucker Windham is a master storyteller, author of 24 books, playwright, accomplished photographer, and popular public television and radio personality. Her National Public Radio segments for All Things Considered have won her national acclaim. Though ghost stories predominated much of her earlier career, Windham has written several cookbooks and collections of reminiscences covering a wide experience of Alabama life. Many in the history community agree that her work is a treasure trove of source material documenting Alabama’s social history.

Windham has received honorary doctorates from Huntingdon College, the University of Montevallo and Spring Hill College. Other honors include the establishment of the Kathryn Tucker Windham Museum in Thomasville on the campus of Alabama Southern College (2003), induction into the UA College of Communications Hall of Fame (2001), Alabama Humanities Award (2000), Governor’s Award for the Arts (1995), the National Storytelling Association’s Circle of Excellence Award and Lifetime Achievement Award (1995), the UA Society of Fine Arts’ Alabama Arts Award (1990) and Selma Rotary Club’s Citizen of the Year (1995). She was one of 13 Alabama artists selected by the Alabama State Council for the Arts to represent Alabama in France and Monaco in 2000.

Storyteller, musician, folklorist and author Joseph Daniel Sobol is an artist of wide-ranging accomplishments. An artist-in-residence for many years in North and South Carolina, he received a master’s degree in folklore from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and a doctorate in performance studies from Northwestern University. He toured the country from 1994-1999 with his award-winning musical theater piece “In the Deep Heart’s Core” based on the works of Irish poet W. B. Yeats.

His book on the American storytelling revival, “The Storytellers’ Journey,” was published in 1999 by the University of Illinois Press. In addition, he has released a cassette and three CDs of music and stories alone and with his group Kiltartan Road. His most recent recording “Citternalia: Celtic Music for Cittern” was honored with a Homegrown CD Award by Acoustic Guitar Magazine, which called the album “a watershed project–dazzling speed and precision.” After 11 years in Chicago doing folklore residencies with high school ESL and multilingual programs and performing regularly with some of America’s top Irish traditional musicians, he is proud to have been named director of the graduate program in storytelling at East Tennessee State University.

The James P. Curtis Endowed Distinguished Lecture Series was created by the board of directors of the Capstone Education Society to bring an educator or public figure of renown to the campus each year to lecture about contemporary education issues. It was named in honor of Dr. James P. Curtis, a faculty member in the UA College of Education for 23 years. During his service to the University as professor of administration and educational leadership and assistant dean of the bureau of educational services and research, and through his guidance, Curtis influenced the lives and careers of countless students who have become prominent educators across the state, nation and internationally.

For more information, contact Rebecca M. Ballard at rballard@bamaed.ua.edu or 205/348-7936.