Kentucky Humanities Presents the Kentucky Book Festival on November 2 in Lexington
While at KET, he began the KET Book Club and during that time he became familiar with the Kentucky Book Fair, which was founded by journalist Carl West in 1981 and was held yearly in Frankfort. In 2015, simultaneously, Bill was hired as Director of Kentucky Humanities, they assumed leadership of the event and it was moved to Lexington.
Bill states the mission of Kentucky Humanities in very simple terms: telling Kentucky’s stories past, present and future that span the state.
“Since I have been here and well before my arrival, we have tried to reach a broad spectrum of people to tell Kentucky stories,” states Mr. Goodman. Goodman continues, “Our Chautauqua program brings valuable stories about Kentuckians and their contributions in history to life in schools around the Commonwealth. I have people tell me all the time they heard one of our Think History vignettes which run on media across the state and they learn a fact of history they had never heard.”
Through programs that tell the lore of the state, Kentucky Humanities has delivered. Since 1992, the Kentucky Chautauqua program has sent performers to schools and community organizations throughout the state delivering historically accurate dramatizations of Kentuckians who made valuable contributions. Think History has a collection of 1,300 historical shorts that tell of years past in the Commonwealth.
And there’s no better way to tell the stories of Kentucky than The 2024 Kentucky Book Festival. The event will be held on Saturday, November 2nd at Joseph-Beth Bookstore in Lexington. Doors open at 9:30 with presentations from authors beginning at 10:00 AM. “I think this year’s lineup is one of the most diverse we have presented,” exclaims Bill. “Our headliner will be Al Roker from the Today show as he’s written a cookbook with his daughter. Al and chef Edward Lee from Louisville will be interviewed by Ouita Michaels, owner of Holly Hill and many other restaurants in the Lexington area. We also have a sitting Pulitzer Prize winner, Jonathan Eig, who has written a biography of Martin Luther King, Jr.”
Check out the schedule of authors and workshops as well as the many sponsors of the event by visiting https://kybookfestival.org to view the happenings throughout the day. The activity is free and will have many family activities for children. “You have writers, friends, and families . . . all mingling together. It’s one of Kentucky’s finest days”, expresses Goodman.