News from Transy

LEXINGTON, Ky.—In 1954, Anne Braden, a white Louisville journalist from an established family, helped an African American couple purchase a home in a white suburb. Soon thereafter she was charged with sedition against the state of Kentucky and discredited as a “Red” in newspaper headlines. Thirty-five years later, Braden was awarded the first Roger Baldwin Medal of Liberty from the American Civil Liberties Union as a “lifelong leader of the movements for racial justice, labor rights, and peace in the South.” In those intervening years, Braden distinguished herself as one of the most courageous, committed activists in the civil rights era. She and her husband endured time in jail and separations from their children, but they refused to be silenced. Braden became a model for young white women who wanted to join the movement and mentored three generations of social justice activists. Appalshop filmmakers Anne Lewis and Mimi Pickering used interviews and archived film footage to share the tale of how Braden, sometimes by the sheer force of her personality, helped foment societal changes that slowly improved conditions for minorities. “Anne Braden: Southern Patriot” will be shown in Transylvania’s William T. Young Campus Center Thursday, Nov. 7, at 7 p.m. Afterward, Pickering will lead a discussion of the film. The event is sponsored by Transylvania’s Creative Intelligence Series and is free and open to the public. Pickering is an award-winning filmmaker and director of Appalshop’s Community Media Initiative. According to

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LEXINGTON, Ky.—One does not expect to find a Yankee Jewish scholar teaching the New Testament in the Bible Belt. But that is exactly what Amy-Jill Levine does. The decidedly unorthodox scholar will visit Transylvania University on Tuesday, Nov. 12, to give a lecture titled “How Jews and Christians Read Scripture Differently.” The event is free and open to the public. Levine is University Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies at Vanderbilt Divinity School and College of Arts and Sciences and an affiliated professor with the Centre for the Study of Jewish-Christian Relations in Cambridge, England. “Professor Levine is probably the premier scholar on Jesus today,” Transylvania religion professor Paul Jones said. “Her religious tradition, intellectual acumen, and insightful sensibilities allow her to illuminate the text or the subject she’s working with in ways that are unparalleled.” The talk, which is part of the Franklin B. Moosnick Lectureship in Judaic Studies, will be at 7 p.m. in Transylvania’s Carrick Theater. Levine will also give a lecture titled “Hearing Jesus’ Parables as Jewish Stories” at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 13, at Temple Adath Israel in Lexington. “Professor Levine combines historical-critical rigor, literary-critical sensitivity, and a frequent dash of humor with a commitment to eliminating anti-Jewish, sexist, and homophobic theologies,” according to her online biography. Read more about her in this New York Times article. Levine earned a B.A. from Smith College, an M.A. and Ph.D. from Duke University, and honorary doctorates

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