American sharpshooter Annie Oakley was born in Darke County, Ohio—a rural spot nestled against the Indiana border along the state’s western edge. Preserving her legacy is, among other things, Clay Johnson’s job. He is the first professionally trained CEO of the Garst Museum, home of the National Annie Oakley Center. The task before him was daunting, including creating and managing … Read More
The Film Fellows
By Taylor Starek Backed by a rich history of uplifting documentary filmmaking—and energized by what’s possible—Ohio Humanities has launched a partnership with Ohio State University’s Wexner Center for the Arts to support independent filmmakers. The three-year film fellowship will help fund as many as five filmmakers-in-residence at the Wex each year who are working on humanities-informed documentary films with a … Read More
Faith as a Compass: Representative Ismail Mohamed
The number of places of worship nationwide is decreasing, but faith remains. What role does faith play in the modern world? We asked five Ohioans to share what it means in their daily lives. Ismail Mohamed is an Ohio State Representative and the first Somali-American attorney to practice in Ohio. A refugee from Somalia, he lives in Columbus and owns … Read More
A Quiet Faith: Lucy Enge
The number of places of worship nationwide is decreasing, but faith remains. What role does faith play in the modern world? We asked five Ohioans to share what it means in their daily lives. Lucy Enge is a member of Wilmington Friends Meeting and a graduate of Wilmington College, where she concentrated in food policy and nonviolence. An enthusiastic eighth-generation … Read More
God Haunted: Joe Mackall
The number of places of worship nationwide is decreasing, but faith remains. What role does faith play in the modern world? We asked five Ohioans to share what it means in their daily lives. Joe Mackall is the author of The Last Street Before Cleveland, Plain Secrets: An Outsider Among the Amish and Yesterday’s Noise. He’s an emeritus professor of … Read More
Never Lost, Always Found: Ashton Colby
The number of places of worship nationwide is decreasing, but faith remains. What role does faith play in the modern world? We asked five Ohioans to share what it means in their daily lives. Ashton Colby is a trans spirituality advocate, keynote speaker and the founder of Gender YOUphoria, a social enterprise on a mission to shift the global and … Read More
Ohio’s role in the nationwide fight for school integration
When their school district refused to integrate after Brown v. Board of Education was decided in 1954, a group of Black mothers in Southwest Ohio marched their children to the white school, demanding admission, only to be turned away every day for two years. Their activism resulted in one of the longest sustained protests of the civil rights era—one that began before … Read More
Storyteller Spotlight: Dr. Carlotta Penn
Dr. Carlotta Penn is Senior Director of Partnerships and Engagement for the Office of Equity, Diversity, and Global Engagement in the College of Education and Human Ecology at The Ohio State University. She holds a PhD in Education and an MA in Comparative Studies from The Ohio State University, a BA in Mass Communication from Wright State University, and spent several years as … Read More
Reading Women’s History Month, in Ohio and beyond
We’re bookworms at Ohio Humanities. In celebration of Women’s History Month, here are some of our favorite books that tell women’s stories, in Ohio and beyond: Stay and Fight by Madeline Ffitch Sisters In Law: How Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg Went to the Supreme Court and Changed the World by Linda Hirshman When Grandma Gatewood Took A Hike by Michelle Houts … Read More
The Storytellers: Amanda Page
By Taylor Starek Amanda Page didn’t set out to be a filmmaker. The 46-year-old is a Columbus-based writer and founder of Scioto Literary, a nonprofit that supports storytellers in Scioto County. She found her way to filmmaking thanks to a case of writer’s block. She was struggling to pen an essay on her hometown of Portsmouth, located in southern Ohio, … Read More