Kentucky Humanities has announced a documentary and a series of events celebrating the life and work of Guthrie native Robert Penn Warren as the organization urges citizens across the Commonwealth to read one of his most celebrated novels.
It’s titled “Robert Penn Warren: A Vision” and it will premier Monday, October 22 in the Van Meter Auditorium on the campus of Western Kentucky University. The documentary will air on Kentucky Educational Television this fall.
As previously reported, the University Press of Kentucky has partnered with Kentucky Humanities on its new statewide literacy project, Kentucky Reads: All the King’s Men. The program utilizes Warren’s Pulitzer Prize–winning novel to guide a statewide conversation on contemporary populism and political discourse and their relationship to journalism.
Kentucky Humanities will host a series of community discussions and events centered on Warren’s celebrated work and what it can teach us today.
One of those forums, titled “Democracy & the Informed Citizen” will be October 23 on the WKU campus. The only other session in the western part of the state will be Tuesday, September 18 at the Market House Theatre in Paducah.
Meanwhile, the University Press of Kentucky has released “Robert Penn Warren’s All the King’s Men: A Reader’s Companion” by Warren scholar and Northern Kentucky University professor Jonathan Cullick. He examines Warren’s political masterpiece with an eye toward how contemporary readers can apply the lessons of his narrative to our current political climate.
More information on all of the projects can be found on the Kentucky Humanities website.