January 23 — Celebrate Kansas Statehood by a cavalcade of musical guests. Great “Kansas style” music will be enjoyed as we celebrate our statehood, January 29, 1861.
February 27 – African American Entrepreneurship in Wichita: Past and Present by Robert E. Weems, Jr. The history of black entrepreneurship in Wichita featuring highlights of Weems’ “Wichita African American Business History Project.”
March 27 – The Story of Pizza Hut and the Creation of the Museum by Rachelle Meineke. How the original Pizza Hut was started and how Dan Carney’s vision for the museum came to fruition.
April 24 – The Victory Arch by Gary Huffman. How Wichita celebrated the U.S. entry into the Great War, the end of the war, and the Victory Arch built in 1919 to honor the soldiers returning from the war.
May 22 – Wicked Wichita by Joe Stumpe. Local author Joe Stumpe tells the real stories of the city’s best-known and least-known criminals and misfits.
June 26 – The Four Horseman and a Sage by John Burchill, Humanities Kansas. Fighting the rising tide of nativist sentiment in the early 20th century, a few Kansas leaders took a stand to stop the forces of intolerance in our state.
July 24 – David Tell, author of “Remembering Emmett Till” This talk examines racial justice then and now, as well as local connections.
Up next:
August 28 – History of Vietnamese in Wichita by Dr. Anh Tran. Hear her personal immigration story and an overview of how Vietnamese people made Wichita their home.
September 25 – Fresh Produce: Kansas’ Orchardists, Market Growers, and Truck Farmers by Cindy Higgins, Kansas Humanities. Historical presentation highlighting commercial specialty crops, agriculture experimentation, horticultural “royalty” marketing, and the evolving local foods movement.