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Meet Our Staff
Josh Porter, Assistant Executive Director
josh@faulknermorgan.org
Josh Porter is an art historian and curator based in Lexington, Kentucky. In 2023, Josh received his MFA in Curatorial Studies from the University of Kentucky. Born in Eastern Kentucky, Josh brings a unique perspective to the archive in viewing Kentucky’s LGBTQ history through the lens of art, particularly photography. His writing, design, and photography has appeared in Oxford American, Brooklyn Rail, Art In America, Queer Kentucky, UnderMain, and elsewhere.
Meet Our Officers
Jonathan Coleman, Ph.D., Co-founder and President
Raised in Eastern Kentucky, Jon was a James Still Fellow at the University of Kentucky where he received his doctorate in history in 2014. He often lectures on queer history and was a consultant for the Kentucky LGBT Heritage Initiative funded by the National Park Service. Coleman’s book, Anywhere, Together: A Queer History of Kentucky, is forthcoming from the University Press of Kentucky.
Robert Morgan, Co-founder and Vice-president
Bob is a Lexington native and an HIV/AIDS activist and artist. His work can be seen in galleries and museums throughout the country. He has worked on numerous projects, both artistic and political, in the LGBTQ community for over fifty years. Recently he coordinated the I'll Be Your Mirror exhibition at Transylvania University and The Henry Faulkner Symposium.
Emily Reeves, Secretary and Treasurer
Emily is a sixth-generation Kentuckian with deep family ties throughout the state. A child of the 1960s, Emily was at Woodstock to Johnny Angel Disco to Cafe LMNOP, and her firsthand experience of Lexington's LGBTQ community has been a vital asset to the archive since its formation. A longtime ally of the LGBTQ community, Emily supports numerous charities with her time and talent.
Paul Michael Brown
Paul Michael Brown is an arts writer and curator based in Lexington, KY. He served as the Director for Institute 193 from 2017-2020 and is a recipient of the 2020 Arts Writer's Grant from the Andy Warhol Foundation and Creative Capital. His writing has appeared in Art Papers, Burnaway, Raw Vision, Gayletter, Momus, Art F City, Queer Appalachia, and elsewhere.
Vanessa M. Holden, Ph.D.
Holden is Assistant Professor of History and African American and Africana Studies at the University of Kentucky. She completed her Ph.D. in African American and Women's History at Rutgers University in 2012. Her work focuses on the Southampton Rebellion of 1831 (Nat Turner's Rebellion) and the participation and experiences of women before, during, and after America's most famous slave rebellion. She is also the co-organizer of the Queering Slavery Working Group (#QSWG). Her research and teaching interests include African-American history, women's and gender history, the history of the American South, and U.S. history (pre-1865).
Silas House
Silas House is the nationally bestselling author of six novels and serves on the fiction faculty at the Spalding School of Creative Writing and as the NEH Chair at Berea College. He has lectured internationally and is widely regarded as one of the major writers of the American South. His work frequently appears in The New York Times and Salon. He is a former commentator for NPR's All Things Considered. Born and raised in Eastern Kentucky, his work and activism frequently center on the intersection of his regional and sexual identities.