Evenings with History Lecture to Address AIDS Activism in Arkansas
The University of Arkansas at Little Rock鈥檚 next Evenings with History lecture will address the history of the AIDS epidemic in Arkansas through a conversation between Ruth Coker Burks, who is known as the 鈥淎rkansas Cemetery Angel,鈥� and Dr. Andrew Amstutz, a former assistant professor of history at 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock.
The lecture, 鈥淎 Conversation with Ruth Coker Burks, the 鈥楢rkansas Cemetery Angel鈥�: AIDS Activism & New Archives in Arkansas,鈥� will take place from 7-8:30 p.m. Nov. 7, at the Historic Arkansas Museum in Little Rock. Refreshments will be served at 7 p.m., and the talk will begin at 7:30 p.m.
Burks was a caregiver and AIDS activist in Arkansas from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s who provided a final resting place in the Files Cemetery in Hot Springs for some of the men she cared for. In turn, the Files Cemetery has become an important and contested site of LGBTQ+ memory. In recent years, renewed newspaper coverage and the publication of Burks鈥� memoir, 鈥淎ll the Young Men,” has brought both wider acclaim and criticism to Burks鈥� work.
Amstutz, who is now an assistant professor of history at Queens College, will discuss the 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock Center for Arkansas History and Culture鈥檚 ongoing efforts to collect Burks鈥� archive along with the archival materials of other AIDS caregivers and activists in Arkansas. Following this, he will interview Burks to discuss her life and work.
The Evenings with History series, sponsored by the University History Institute, features presentations by 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock faculty and guest speakers sharing their research and teaching interests. Admission to the series is by subscription, but visitors are welcome to attend individual talks for free. 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock students may attend free of charge.
For more information about the History Institute and its Evenings with History lecture series, contact Dr. Michael Heil, associate professor of history at 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock, at [email protected] or visit /history/history- institute/.