Explore the exciting life and times of artist Henry Faulkner. Using Faulkner’s own words and personal photos, Dr. Jonathan Coleman details how Faulkner’s art, personality, and reputation were framed by his identity as a gay Kentuckian.

Dr. Jonathan Coleman is Co-founder and President of Faulkner Morgan Archive, Inc., a nonprofit with a mission to share Kentucky’s LGBTQ history. He was the James Still Fellow at the University of Kentucky, earning 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. Dr. Coleman is also the Executive Director of the Blue Grass Trust for Historic Preservation.

Join us and the Kenton County Public Library as our co-founder, Jonathan Coleman, Ph.D., shares the rich cultural heritage of Kentucky’s LGBTQ community though the stories housed at the Faulkner Morgan Archive. 🏳️‍🌈

📅 Thursday, June 13
🕓 6pm to 8pm
🏛️ Kenton County Public Library
📍 Virtual Presentation

Walk in Henry’s footsteps! The Faulkner Morgan Archive proudly presents the Official After Party for "Under The Southern Cross: The Art and Legacy of Henry L. Faulkner," sponsored by The Bar Complex. Join us for drinks, enjoy the legendary "million-dollar dance floor" of Johnny Angel fame, and mingle with filmmaker Jean Donohue and other featured personalities from the film. Your $10 donation at entry supports the Faulkner Morgan Archive's mission.

We are so grateful to The Bar Complex for their generous sponsorship of the Official After Party, and for donating 50% of the night’s drink sales!

Make sure to join us earlier that evening for the premiere of "Under The Southern Cross: The Art and Legacy of Henry L. Faulkner." Produced by Jean Donohue of Media Working Group, this groundbreaking film explores Faulkner's profound significance in LGBTQ history. As an openly gay artist in post-World War II America, with close ties to luminaries like Tennessee Williams and fellow gay Kentucky artist Edward Melcarth, "Under The Southern Cross" highlights Faulkner's often overlooked but far-reaching impact on the nation’s sexual landscape.

"Under The Southern Cross" Film Premier
📅 Thursday, May 30 at 7:15pm
🎥 The Kentucky Theatre
📍 214 E Main St, Lexington, KY
🎟️ https://prod5.agileticketing.net/websales/pages/info.aspx?evtinfo=386704~4bf9e7f1-1009-40cc-a9d9-a2c743b0ce02

Official After Party
📅 Thursday, May 30 from 9pm to 10:30pm
🥂 The Bar Complex
📍 224 E Main St, Lexington, KY
🎟️ $10 cover at the door

Join us Saturday, March 2, from 1pm-4pm for the 7th Annual Transylvania Liberal Arts + Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thon!

For the last seven years, Transylvania University students, faculty, staff, and community members have come together to collaboratively edit Wikipedia to increase the presence of people from marginalized communities on the online encyclopedia. This year, Transylvania University is partnering with the Faulkner Morgan Archive to collectively add the histories of LGBTQIA+ Kentuckians to Wikipedia!

Editors of all experience levels are welcome to join, and we will provide training materials, research guidance, and snacks as we engage the collective power of collaborative history writing.

Faulkner Morgan Archive invites you to join us as we celebrate Henry Faulkner's 100th Birthday!! Kentucky Poet Laureate and FMA Board Member Silas House will be reading the poetry of Henry Faulkner.

🗓️ Sunday, January 7
⏰ 3:30pm-5:30pm
📍 21C Museum Hotel

This free event will feature live music, hors d’oeuvres, a cash bar, and a pop-up Henry exhibit! Come learn about the archive, Henry’s legacy, and his impact on Lexington’s LGBTQ+ history as we celebrate! This fundraising event is free and open to the public, but please consider a donation to support our mission. 💚🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

We will also be unveiling our most ambitious campaign yet to save and share Kentucky's LGBTQ+ history!

Join the Facebook Event! https://fb.me/e/9vkU3II6U

Join us for a Gallery Talk at Institute 193 on October 19th at 6:30 PM with Bob Morgan, Dr. Jonathan Coleman, Paul Brown, and Cooper Gibson.

A SPECIAL, ONE-TIME-ONLY SCREENING IN PARTNERSHIP WITH INSTITUTE 193

Q&A with the filmmaker

Filmmaker Jean Donohue unravels the story of an underground gay, gender bending Lexington community rooted in the Civil War and on a continuum from closeted Old South homosexual society, 1960s gay liberation, and the ecstatic 1970s to the grip of fear at the rise of the religious right and AIDS epidemic of the 1980s. In 1970, as Old World Southern gay culture was changing, enter The Pagan Babies, a loose group of artists and drag queens who set out to challenge the hierarchical homosexual society with guerrilla theater and fantastic costumes. Before Robert Mapplethorpe's infamous photos, there was R. Michael Walker and John Ashley who documented the Pagan Babies.

Institute 193 is pleased to co-host the film The Last Gospel of Pagan Babies, presented in tandem with the publication of the book Pagan Babies by the Faulkner Morgan Archive and Institute 193 and distributed by the University Press of Kentucky.

A look at Lexington's LGBT history.

For LGBT History Month, join us for a showing of The Last Gospel of the Pagan Babies. Presented by the Lexington Public Library, the Faulkner Morgan Archive, and Institute 193.

An event 50 years in the making! A publication like no other.

In Robert Morgan, John Denny Ashley found his archetypal sexual outlaw, and in Ashley, Morgan discovered an artistic collaborator worthy of documenting the free-spirited, sexually adventurous rebels of the American South. Together, they brought forth a collective work that serves as a bracing testament to Morgan’s baroque imagination and Ashley’s talent for breathing life into his vision.

The result is this book. At last.

Join us as we celebrate the publication of Pagan Babies at INSTITUTE 193, September 14, 2023, 5-9pm.

Purchase your limited-edition copy.

We are grateful to the John Burton Harter Foundation for their generous support of this publication and exhibit.

Join us as we show the iconic film, The Last Gospel of the Pagan Babies at UK! Come and watch the unfolding of 150 years of local queer history. After the film, there will be a talkback where we will discuss queer performance art, drag, LGTBQ history in Lexington, and photos/videos as tools for preservation.

This event is free and open to the public!
Where: William T. Young Auditorium
When: Monday, April 10 from 6pm-8:30pm

Before the exhibition, check out "Here, Black, Femme, & Queer" at the Little Fine Arts Library!