August 4 at noon: Stories by Sarel

An expert in historic restoration and preservation and a gifted storyteller, Sarel Venter will share some of his favorite tales as a South African living in WV.

July 28 Ulysses S. Grant

Gettysburg resident Kenneth Serfass, a retired U.S. Marine and living historian, will portray Union Commanding General Ulysses S. Grant. Serfass has portrayed Grant for a History Channel documentary and is the bandmaster for the Antebellum Marine Band.

Ken's bio:

Kenneth J. Serfass, Gunnery Sgt USMC, retired

(Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant)

Gunnery Sgt Kenneth J. Serfass was born in Bethlehem, PA on June 18th, 1966. He joined the USMC in 1984 and his final tour was with the First Marine Division Band during Operation Iraqi Freedom. After a 20 year career as a US Marine bandsman, he settled in San Diego California to raise his daughter.

Since retiring in 2004, he has been very active as a tubist and conductor of varied community bands and also a music educator spanning grade levels from K through college level.

Ken has been an active civil war reenactor and impressionist since his boyhood in Pennsylvania, and from his forty years of study of his self-avowed childhood hero US Grant, he has created a niche as a full time professional living historian portraying Ulysses S. Grant. His adventures and travel as US Grant are documented on the Facebook page, “US Grant in living history” and through "Linked In", an internet networking site.

Ken has been appearing publicly as General Grant since 2009, performing in a History channel production in 2010, “Lee & Grant” , in 2013 for an HBO series, “Family Tree” in an episode set at a reenactment along with a Time Warner Cable commercial which played nationwide after Superbowl Sunday, 2014.

Currently he speaks at events across the country and has visited the major areas of Grant’s military campaigns in Virginia and Mississippi. He has participated in the Remembrance Day parades for the past three Novembers in Gettysburg. These appearances have led to opportunities for him to present the general in walking tours, horseback tours, train rides at "Steam Into History" and at various living history and roundtable events on a regular basis across most of the north east and along the west coast with events at Pamplin Park and Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.

It is with a profound honor that he tells the story of one of America’s greatest military leaders and Ken takes it very seriously to reaffirm Grant’s place of honor among the most respected people of our nation’s history.

July 21 at noon: Riding on Comets: A Memoir

Riding on Comets is the true story of an only child growing up in a working-class family during the 1950s and ‘60s. Cat Pleska whispers and shouts about her life growing up around savvy, strong women and hard-working, hard-drinking men. Unlike many family stories set within Appalachia, this story provides an uncommon glimpse into this region: not coal, but an aluminum plant; not hollers, but small-town America; not hillbillies, but a hard-working family with traditional values.  

and at 7 PM: 

PEOPLE'S UNIVERSITY ARCHAEOLOGY

Class 4: July 21 “Prehistoric Petroglyphs”

Exploring possible symbolic meanings represented by some of the prehistoric rock carvings found in WV. You will make your own clay petroglyph to take home!

Instructor: Andrea Keller, Cultural Program Coordinator, Grave Creek Mound Archaeological Complex

July 14 at noon: Poet Randi Ward

Poet Randi Ward will discuss the ethnographic fieldwork she conducted in the Faroe Islands as well as how this inspired her debut photo-poetry collection, Meditations on Salt. Ward will read from her multilingual collection, share a selection of the photographs, and talk about her work as a translator of Nordic literature. She will also discuss and read from her forthcoming poetry collection, Whipstitches. Ward is a writer, translator, lyricist, and photographer from Belleville, West Virginia. She has lived in Norway, Denmark (Faroe Islands), and Iceland.




& at 7 PM: People's University, Archaeology Continues

Class 3: “The Ins and Outs of Archaeology”

Heather Cline will talk about the “Ins”, that is, what happens to artifacts and documentation after being brought into the lab. Andrea Keller will discuss the “Outs,” that is, archaeological field work.

Instructors: Heather Cline, Lead Curator, and Andrea Keller, Cultural Program Coordinator, Grave Creek Mound Archaeological Complex

July 7 A Visit from Mother Jones

Irish immigrant Mary Harris "Mother" Jones was an active force in the labor movement in the early 20th century. She campaigned for the rights of workers in many occupations, including miners, railroaders, steel workers and children in the textile mills. Karen Vuranch recreates the fire and energy that was Mother Jones in a living history performance, leaving the audience knowing how it felt to sit in a union hall and listen to the outspoken Mother Jones.

and at 7 PM: People's University, Archaeology, Class 2

“Regional Archaeology”

An exploration of the major time periods: Paleo, Archaic, and Woodland.

Instructor: Travis Henline, Site Manager, West Virginia Independence Hall