Commonwealth Institute for Black Studies

For 20 years, Torch has cultivated a community where Black women writers are amplified and supported. To mark this historic milestone, we invite you to join us to celebrate four phenomenal women during our 20th Anniversary celebration, A Gathering of Flames, September 25-27!

Our third recipient of the inaugural Legacy Award for Literary Excellence is Crystal Wilkinson. Crystal Wilkinson, a recent recipient of a Writing Freedom fellowship, is the award-winning author of Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts, a national bestseller and culinary memoir; Perfect Black, a collection of poems; and three works of fiction—The Birds of Opulence, Water Street, and Blackberries, Blackberries. She is the recipient of an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Poetry, an O. Henry Prize, an Academy of American Poets Fellowship, a USA Artists Fellowship, and an Ernest J. Gaines Prize for Literary Excellence. She has received recognition from the Yaddo Foundation, Hedgebrook, The Vermont Studio Center for the Arts, The Hermitage Foundation, and others. Her short stories, poems, and essays have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies, including most recently in The Atlantic, The Kenyon Review, STORY, Agni Literary Journal, Emergence, Oxford American, and Southern Cultures. She was Poet Laureate of Kentucky from 2021 to 2023. She currently teaches creative writing at the University of Kentucky, where she is a Bush-Holbrook Endowed Professor and Director of the Division of Creative Writing. Her memoir Heartsick is forthcoming from Crown.

Learn More: https://torchliteraryarts.org/so/95P_g9CsL?languageTag=en&cid=cf839906-6b56-4a46-aab4-bcab8a6ef3b3

Friday episode! Nikki L. Brown on the podcast talking about historical research and writing, visual culture, and national and transnational perspectives in Black Studies. Here and on most streams: go.umd.edu/NikkiBrown

A fascinating peak into the important research of CIBS faculty affiliate Dr. Daniel Vivian.

UK researcher explores how communities remember the Underground Railroad A person in a blue blazer stands in a brick courtyard in front of a large historic red-brick building with tall windows and a covered entrance. The building is slightly out of focus in the background.

Happening. This. Week! 160th Anniversary of Camp Nelson!

The National Park Service (NPS) commemorates the 160th Anniversary of Camp Nelson with special events on July 17-18, 2026!

The anniversary marks the closing of Camp Nelson in 1866 after the Civil War and features 2 programs:

July 17th (7:00 pm - 8:30 pm):

History at Sunset (Campfire): US Colored Troops in Texas and Mexico after the Civil War

July 18th (10:00 am - 4:00 pm):

Civil War for Civil Rights Symposium: “Life, Liberty, and The Pursuit”

The programs feature special presentations by historians and other guests at the park.

For all the details, including the Schedule of Events, please visit the park website:

https://www.nps.gov/cane/160th-camp-nelson-anniversary-commemoration.htm



IMAGE: 160th Anniversary of Camp Nelson Poster.

Colored Orphan Industrial Home Lexington, KY | Lexington Daily Leader, 1899

From 1906 - 1911, Simeon Thomas and his wife Katie Creth Thomas of Elm Bend took on the important work of running the Colored Orphan Industrial Home in Lexington. The Home provided education, trade training, religion, and care for orphans. (https://kyhi.org/colored-orphan-industrial-home/) Simeon must also have taught shoemaking as he owned his own shoe shop on Georgetown Pike after he left the Home. He is listed in the Lexington Directory as both a shoemaker, shop owner, and repairer annually until his death in 1927. Katie passed away in 1925.

(https://nkaa.uky.edu/nkaa/items/show/3117) African-American Shoemakers, repairers, Shiners, from NKAA.

Simeon and Katie had grown up in Elm Bend farming with their families. Simeon’s father, Samuel Thomas, was born in 1809 in Virginia. Likely enslaved, he was brought to south Woodford County, where by 1880 he owned his own farm. He married a woman named Emeline, who was 35 years his junior. When Samuel passed away, Emeline remarried a man named Taylor and moved to Danville with her daughter Mary.

Katie, formally known as Catherine, was the daughter of Lewis Tolbert and Bettie Creth. She was born in 1869. She and Simeon were married at the Elm Bend Church by Reverend S. Lee in 1891. Simeon sold the family farm at 1108 Cummins Ferry Road in 1910 to James Creth, his brother-in-law. The Creths owned the farm until his death when T. H. Sutherland took ownership.

Simeon Thomas Record in the City Directories in Lexington:

Simeon Thomas (1865-1927) Shoemaker 327 Georgetown Pike 1912 p.510 in Polk's Lexington City

Simeon Thomas (1865-1927) Shoemaker Shoe Shop Owner - Georgetown Pike 1920 U.S. Census

Simeon Thomas (1865-1927) Shoe Repairer 319 Georgetown Pike 1921 p.796 in R. L. Polk and Co.'s

Lexington (Kentucky) Directory 1921

Simeon Thomas (1865-1927) Shoe Repairer 319 Georgetown Pike 1925 p.761 in R. L. Polk and Co.'s Lexington (Kentucky) Directory 1925; Kentucky Death Certificate File No.27457, Registered No.976

Simeon Thomas (1865-1927) Shoemaker 327 Georgetown Pike 1912 p.510 in Polk's Lexington City Directory 1912

Simeon Thomas (1865-1927) Shoemaker Shoe Shop Owner - Georgetown Pike 1920 U.S. Census His Name was recorded incorrectly by census maker as “Samuel Thomas”

Simeon Thomas (1865-1927) Shoe Repairer 319 Georgetown Pike 1921 p.796 in R. L. Polk and Co.'s

Lexington (Kentucky) Directory 1921

Simeon Thomas (1865-1927) Shoe Repairer 319 Georgetown Pike 1925 p.761 in R. L. Polk and Co.'s

Lexington (Kentucky) Directory 1925

https://elmbendky.com/unexpected-stories/f/simeon-katie-creth-thomas-headed-lexington-colored-orphan-home

Congratulations Dr. Thorpe!

Congratulations to CHET core faculty member Dr. Shemeka Thorpe on being selected as a 2026 National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) Health Disparities Research Institute Scholar!

Sen. Georgia Davis Powers, first woman and first African American elected to the Kentucky Senate, was born near Springfield, KY, in 1923. Elected to State Senate from Louisville in 1967, Powers served five, four-year terms and advanced legislation on public accommodations, fair employment, open housing and other issues that affected women, children, and the poor.

Before her career in politics, she was active in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and civil rights protests.

Photo from The Courier-Journal: https://ow.ly/mRlg50ZeYXm

Commemorate The Legacy of York, the enslaved Black servant to William Clark and a key member of the Lewis and Clark expedition, tomorrow at George Rogers Clark Park in . There will be tours, talks, singing, and poetry readings with special guests; sculptor Ed Hamilton, poet Frank X Walker, Louisville Juneteenth Jubilee Commission member Dr. John Chenault and the Filson’s Jim Holmberg.

Frazier History Museum The Filson Historical Society Kentucky Center for African American Heritage Roots101: African American Museum Louisville Parks and Recreation, and the Louisville Juneteenth Jubilee Commission.

Full schedule of events here:
Fraziermuseum.org/calendar/the-legacy-of-york

In June 1979, a small group of music industry insiders lobbied President Jimmy Carter to officially recognize Black Music Month.

Black musicians have driven major cultural innovations that are often misunderstood today. For example, while the banjo is widely perceived as an instrument of white Appalachia, its origins and development are deeply rooted in Black culture.

Let's celebrate the Black creators who shaped the American soundscape!