Daily Archives: March 22, 2013

by | March 22, 2013 · 9:03 pm

The Waltons Actress Mary McDonough leads workshop

Mary McDonough4x5The Waltons Actress Mary McDonough leads
workshop on body image at Book Fest

Bowling Green, Ky. –Well-known actress, author, and life coach Mary McDonough will be presenting “Body Branding: Getting Comfortable with the Skin You’re In” on Saturday, April 20 at 8 am at the Knicely Conference Center. Widely known for her role as Erin on The Waltons, McDonough leads groups to help with personal change, create life balance, and return to a sense of self.

According to her website, the Body Branding workshop explores how we view ourselves, the best way to undo any negativity about ourselves, and how to change how we project ourselves to the world. Suitable ages for this workshop are tweens, teens, college age, and adults. The breakfast & workshop costs $15 per person. Tickets are available at the Warren County Public Library, (main and Kirby branches), Barnes & Noble, and WKU Libraries Dean’s Office.

McDonough will be joining more than 140 authors for adults, youth, and children at this year’s SOKY Book Fest, including well-known actor and author Henry Winkler, radio host Bob Edwards, and bestselling authors Sherrilyn Kenyon and Mary Alice Monroe. Bestselling children’s author Obert Skye will headline Children’s Day on Friday, April 19 and other children and youth authors attending include Amy Ingnatow with The Popularity Papers series and Jarrett Krosoczka who wrote the Lunch Lady series. Krosoczka will also be leading a writing workshop on that Saturday, April 20 for upper elementary to middle school grade children.

All Book Fest events, including the Kentucky Writers Conference, will take place at the Knicely Conference Center in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Children’s Day will be on Friday, April 19 from 9 am to 2 pm, and the Kentucky Writers Conference will also take place on Friday from 9 am to 3:30 pm. The main Book Fest event with all the authors will be from 9 am to 3 pm on Saturday, April 20. All events, with the exception of the McDonough workshop, are free and open to the public.

SOKY Book Fest is a partnership project of WKU Libraries, Warren County Public Library, and Barnes and Noble Booksellers. For more information, visit the website at sokybookfest.org or contact Book Fest organizer Kristie Lowry at WKU Libraries at (270) 745-4502 or Kristie.lowry@wku.edu.

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by | · 6:57 pm

Derby Girls

Vette City Roller Derby

Vette City Roller Derby

Thomas Harper, a folklife intern in the Manuscripts & Folklife Archives section of WKU’s Special Collections Library, writes this about a collection he has recently processed:

Beginning in 2009, the Bowling Green sports scene was forever changed with the introduction of Women’s Flat Track Roller Derby.  Vette City Roller Derby offers a thrilling, fast-paced spectacle of skill, speed and bone-jarring hits at each bout.

“Derby girls” come from all walks of life; they are women you know and interact with on a daily basis in the community.  They are housewives, stay-at-home mothers, university professors, and other professionals.  These amazing women share a common passion for competing in the sport and participating in the unique culture of roller derby, among them costuming and body art.

Folk studies graduate student Molly Bolick conducted ethnographic fieldwork during the fall of 2011 for her course in Folk Art (FLK 561).  A copy of Bolick’s paper, Embodied Art: Identity, Adornment, and Style in Women’s Flat Track Roller Derby, is housed in WKU’s Folklife Archives.  In her paper, Bolick explains that she centered her research around Pravina Shukla’s idea that everyday dress is a marker of identity in everyday life and can therefore be a means to explore personal differences within cultures.  With Shukla’s basic model for the study of body art as her guide, Bolick focused her research on the personal choices of adornment, aesthetics, and taste in the dress of the individual skaters, and how these choices fit within the broad scope of “derby style,” yet maintained individual expression.

A finding aid for Embodied Art can be downloaded by clicking here.  For more folklife collections, search TopSCHOLAR and KenCat.

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