Three programs and an exhibit on Lincoln at Haywood County Public Library

by Kristina Blackford

The Haywood County Public Library shows the Civil War and beyond as it relates to Abraham Lincoln in an exhibit and programs, June and July.

A traveling exhibition, “Lincoln: The Constitution and the Civil War,” opens at the library, June 23, with a reception at 1:30 p.m.  At 3 p.m., David Madden, novelist and Civil War historian, presents the talk, “Lincoln’s Second Gettysburg Address.”

The exhibition runs through August 2.  

Madden, author of many novels and works of non-fiction, and founder of the U.S. Civil War Center, imagines, in his June 23 talk, what Lincoln might say at a “second Gettysburg Address,” if delivered today.

 On July 12 at 2 p.m., he presents the lecture, “Lincoln Chose Louisiana,” at the library.

“Lincoln’s unique relationship with Louisiana,” Madden says, “is that he chose this state to be the first to re-enter the Union and to function as a model for all other Southern states in the implementation of his non-vengeful vision of Reconstruction.”

Unionism in Western North Carolina plays out on the library’s stage in actress Barbara Bates Smith’s one-woman performance of Ron Rash’s short story, “Lincolnites,” July 15, 3 p.m.

Jeff Sebens accompanies Smith with period music. 

“Lincolnites,” published in Rash’s 2011 story collection, Burning Bright, centers on a woman, Lily, living alone in the Appalachians during the Civil War while her husband is hiding out from Confederate recruiters and bushwhackers. Learn more about Smith’s show at www.barbarabatessmith.com.

The Lincoln exhibition was created by the National Constitution Center and the American Library; and made possible by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Friends of the Haywood County Library.

All events will be held at the Haywood County Public Library, 678 South Haywood St., Waynesville.  For more info, visit www.haywoodlibrary.org; call the library at 452-5169; or contact Kathy Olsen at kolsen@haywoodnc.net.

PHOTO

Davif Madden, 2012