10 am | Complimentary coffee and bagels
10:30 am | Program begins

About the talk: “A More Joyful Place: Black Recreation and Leisure in Wichita” is a presentation about the claiming of Black leisure spaces. In an era of systemic exclusion, Wichita’s Black community commanded their right to rest, transforming leisure into acts of self-determination. This was achieved by establishing vital sanctuaries of excellence, such as the Water Street Branch YMCA, McAdams Park, and the Dunbar Theater, and a network of local social clubs. These spaces, whether on the tennis court, the golf green, or at a sprawling church picnic, cultivated unyielding community pride and autonomy.

About the speaker: Donna Rae Pearson is a radical historian with a master’s degree in history with an emphasis in public history from Wichita State University. Her research focuses on the history of African Americans in Kansas and historic preservation. She highly values participatory history-based research projects that give underrepresented groups agency to tell their stories in the most accessible way possible. She has conducted and participated in numerous history community engagement and oral history projects and has developed themed walking and driving tours for organizations. Many of these projects are through her consulting companies, Kitchen Table History and the Other Road. During the past 30 years, her skills have helped her engage diverse communities in creating and preserving their local history. Currently, she works for the Kansas Museum of History as a Collection Development Specialist, where she helps acquire new objects for the collections and is helping to craft a ‘new Kansas history’ for the permanent gallery.