LUNCH AND LEARN SPEAKER SERIES
Explore Houston’s History with a historical expert while enjoying your brown bag or ordered lunch from Tres Market Foods. This series of speakers is generously underwritten by a 2025 Donor.
Thursday, January 16, 2025: Andrew “Dru” Sanders, "Texas in the International Civil War"
February 20, 2025: Dr. Caleb McDaniel Black History Month: “Captain’s Story: Slavery and Freedom in the Archives of The Heritage Society and Rice University”
March 20, 2025: Dr. Karen Kossie-Chernyshev, Professor of History atTSU and Founding Director, SWATH “Women’s History Month: Black Women’s Empowerment through Education”
April 17, 2025: Suzanne Simpson, "Wild Houston: A Natural History of the City”
May 16, 2025: Samuel Collins, The Birthplace of Juneteenth
May 22, 2025: Bryanna Jenkins, LGBTQIA History Month
MARCH
“Black Women Empowerment through Education”
At noon, on March 20, celebrate Women’s History Month with speaker Dr. Karen Kossie-Chernyshev, Professor of History at TSU and Founding Director, SWATH.
Dr. Kossie-Chernyshev's presentation, "Black Women’s Empowerment through Education: The Cases of Lillian Jones Horace (1880-1965) and Johnnie Mae Taylor (1939-Present)," uses the lives of two Black Texas women, which together span 145 years, to explore the significant role that education has played and will always play in Black women’s social, political, and economic empowerment and that of the communities they serve.
Speaker’s Bio
Karen Kossie-Chernyshev is a native Houstonian, a fifth-generation Texan, and the first African American woman to earn a Ph.D. in the field of history from a Texas institution (Rice University). She currently serves as a professor of history at Texas Southern University, where her research focuses on African American women’s intellectual history, African American religion, and topics in the African Diaspora. She has hosted local and international workshops and published scholarly essays and chapters on African American history and religion with the support of various fellowships and grants, including awards from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Humanities Texas (Texas Council for the Humanities), Summerlee Foundation, and the Mickey Leland Center for World Peace (Texas Southern University). Her edited works include Recovering Five Generations Hence: The Life and Writing of Lillian Jones Horace (Texas A & M University Press, 2013) and Angie Brown: A Jim Crow Romance (Outskirts Press, 2017). Her most recent publications and projects focus on family and oral history, including her award-winning essay "Texas 'Our' Texas: My Family's Deep Roots in the Lone Star State" (Stirpes, 2023), her forthcoming essay "The Lumberman, The General, the Watchman, and 'The Comeback Queen': The Afterlife of Slavery in the Bayou City" (Stirpes, forthcoming March 2025), and the Lillian Jones Horace Documentary Project (2023-Present).
APRIL
At noon, on April 17, celebrate Earth Day and Natural History with speaker and author Suzanne Simpson for “Wild Houston: Explore the Amazing Nature in and around the Bayou City”.
Houston’s long-held reputation as a concrete jungle is getting debunked. Embark on thrilling adventures with local author, Suzanne Simpson, as she navigates the natural history and unique wildlife that mark Houston as a biodiversity hotspot. Join her as she takes you on a mesmerizing journey with her book, Wild Houston, and shares insider tips for exploring the breathtaking nature of the Bayou City. With captivating trail tales and wondrous wildlife, Suzanne will ensure that you have a blast while discovering the hidden gems of Houston. Earth Day is on April 22, 2025, so celebrate Mother Earth this spring with appreciative activities.
Speaker’s Biography
Suzanne Simpson is a Houston-based ecologist working to protect the natural landscapes that define Texas. She maintains certification as a professional ecologist from the Ecological Society of America and is a trained Texas Master Naturalist. Her favorite moments outdoors include hiking with her hound and finding snakes, but not at the same time.
She is the coauthor of an equal parts natural history, field guide, and trip planner, Wild Houston. It is an extensive guide looks at the factors that shape local nature and profiles over 100 local species, from the Barred Owl and the Western Rat Snake to the Houston Burrowing Crayfish, the Rainbow Scareb, and the Nine-banded Armadillo. Also included are descriptions of day trips that help you explore natural wonders on hiking trails, in public parks, and in your own backyard.
“Wild Houston encourages Houstonians to ‘look under the hood’ of the city’s concrete facade to see the wild, natural world that occupies the Bayou City.”—Houston Chronicle
PAST EVENTS
Description: This presentation places Civil War–era Texas in an international perspective. Arguing that trade was the central point of contention in Civil War Texas, the presentation looks to the nexus of that trade, Matamoros, where merchants from Mexico, the US, and Europe competed and collaborated to reap the benefits of wartime border commerce. While distant federal governments found it difficult to exercise their goals on the border, wealthy merchant capitalists successfully juggled the realities of war to profitably participate in the Atlantic trade in cotton grown by enslaved people. For these merchants, loyalty and identity were fluid and contingent on circumstance, and they took advantage of their evolving postures toward different governments. While capitalism generally rests on trust, this one was built on precariousness. The merchant class of Matamoros learned how to thrive in the space between competing legal systems by engaging in shady commerce and seeking state compensation when their bets failed. o About the Speaker: Dru Sanders is a PhD candidate at Rice University. He completed a bachelor’s degree at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, and a master’s degree at Norwich University in Northfield, Vermont. Before coming to Rice, he taught at the Windward School in White Plains, New York. His research interests include the nineteenth century US, slavery and capitalism, the US-Mexico borderlands, and the Civil War in an international context.
1100 Bagby Street, Museum Gallery. Free Parking at 212 Dallas
Members attend Lunch and Learns for free! Lunches from Tres Market Foods are additional. Membership information here- https://www.heritagesociety.org/membership-join
