God Haunted: Joe Mackall

The number of places of worship nationwide is decreasing, but faith remains. What role does faith play in the modern world? We asked five Ohioans to share what it means in their daily lives. Joe Mackall is the author of The Last Street Before Cleveland, Plain Secrets: An Outsider Among the Amish and Yesterday’s Noise. He’s an emeritus professor of … Read More

Never Lost, Always Found: Ashton Colby

The number of places of worship nationwide is decreasing, but faith remains. What role does faith play in the modern world? We asked five Ohioans to share what it means in their daily lives. Ashton Colby is a trans spirituality advocate, keynote speaker and the founder of Gender YOUphoria, a social enterprise on a mission to shift the global and … Read More

Ohio Holocaust and Genocide Memorial and Education Commission Announces Grant Awards

The Holocaust Memorial on the south grounds of the Ohio Statehouse

The Ohio Holocaust and Genocide Memorial and Education Commission (OHGMEC) has awarded $100,000 in grants to support Holocaust and genocide education throughout the state. The inaugural grant program was administered by OHGMEC in partnership with Ohio Humanities, a nonprofit organization that shares stories to spark conversations and inspire ideas. Eligible grant applicants were not-for-profit, educational or governmental organizations in Ohio, … Read More

Ohio’s role in the nationwide fight for school integration

When their school district refused to integrate after Brown v. Board of Education was decided in 1954, a group of Black mothers in Southwest Ohio marched their children to the white school, demanding admission, only to be turned away every day for two years. Their activism resulted in one of the longest sustained protests of the civil rights era—one that began before … Read More

Ohio Humanities hiring Digitization Intern

Ohio Humanities, the state-based partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities, is hiring an intern to assist in digitizing and cataloguing the organization’s archives. The intern will assist in all parts of the project, including sorting through archived files to select documents to be digitized, scanning those documents, creating the finding aid, and preparing the digital files for a … Read More

Storyteller Spotlight: Dr. Carlotta Penn

Dr Carlotta Penn

Dr. Carlotta Penn is Senior Director of Partnerships and Engagement for the Office of Equity, Diversity, and Global Engagement in the College of Education and Human Ecology at The Ohio State University. She holds a PhD in Education and an MA in Comparative Studies from The Ohio State University, a BA in Mass Communication from Wright State University, and spent several years as … Read More

Ohio Holocaust and Genocide Memorial and Education Commission, Ohio Humanities Announce Grant Program

The Holocaust Memorial on the south grounds of the Ohio Statehouse

COLUMBUS, OH—The Ohio Holocaust and Genocide Memorial and Education Commission (OHGMEC) is partnering with Ohio Humanities to launch an inaugural grant program funding educational projects and programming in communities across the state about the Holocaust and genocide. “The Commission will enable institutions both large and small to receive funding that will support Holocaust and genocide education programming throughout Ohio,” said … Read More

Reading Women’s History Month, in Ohio and beyond

A woman reads a book while surrounded by other books in an aisle of a bookstore

We’re bookworms at Ohio Humanities. In celebration of Women’s History Month, here are some of our favorite books that tell women’s stories, in Ohio and beyond: Stay and Fight by Madeline Ffitch Sisters In Law: How Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg Went to the Supreme Court and Changed the World by Linda Hirshman When Grandma Gatewood Took A Hike by Michelle Houts … Read More

The Storytellers: Amanda Page

Filmmakers Amanda Page and David Bernabo stand in front of a mural that reads '#Portsmouth.' Image courtesy Amanda Page

By Taylor Starek Amanda Page didn’t set out to be a filmmaker.   The 46-year-old is a Columbus-based writer and founder of Scioto Literary, a nonprofit that supports storytellers in Scioto County. She found her way to filmmaking thanks to a case of writer’s block.   She was struggling to pen an essay on her hometown of Portsmouth, located in southern Ohio, … Read More

The Storytellers: Yemi Oyediran

Filmmaker Yemi Oyediran holds on to his headset with his right hand while standing in front of a microphone, recording music for Queen City Kings

By Taylor Starek Secret American lives.   That’s what Yemi Oyediran calls the often-overlooked experiences of racial and cultural minorities. And those stories matter.   So Oyediran, the child of immigrants from Nigeria, co-founded a company to tell them. Oyediran—alongside friend and business partner JP Leong, who is Chinese American—runs AfroChine, a production company that not only partners with Cincinnati arts organizations … Read More