Upcoming Events

While most of Jefferson City’s history has been told from the perspective of men, author Michelle Brooks’ Interesting Women of the Capital City offers a different look, instead focusing on the women who made their own way in the city’s first two centuries. The 10 featured individuals range from Lydia Montague, who opened the community’s first school for African Americans before the end of the Civil War, to the nation’s first female news bureau chief, Jerena Giffen, who covered the 1954 Missouri State Penitentiary riot in evening-wear. Also recalled is the early suffrage work of Dolly Sheldon, the hotel operations of Emma Mathews, the civil rights leadership of Estella Diggs and more. Join us as Brooks recounts the lives of these resilient women who made the best of their circumstances and the opportunities afforded them.

In recent years, the Deaf community has gained greater visibility in popular culture. The success of CODA (2021), starring Deaf actors Troy Kotsur and Marlee Matlin, along with Nyle DiMarco’s groundbreaking achievements as the first Deaf winner of Dancing with the Stars and America’s Next Top Model, showcase this shift. Yet, Deaf Americans have been shaping history and defying barriers since before our nation’s founding.

Lawrence Yates, President of the Missouri School for the Deaf, and Becky M. Davis, Executive Director of the Missouri Commission for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, will highlight the extraordinary life of one Deaf Missourian: Laura Redden Searing. A gifted poet and journalist, Searing published under both her own name and the pen name Howard Glyndon. During the Civil War, The St. Louis Republican sent her to Washington, D.C., where she not only reported on the conflict, but also wrote poems about the events she witnessed on the battlefield. Join us as Yates and Davis share how, despite living as a Deaf woman in the 19^th century, Searing rose to become one of the leading literary voices of her day, defying the presumed limitations of her disability.

American Sign Language Interpreter will be provided.