'Alabama Stories' symposium Nov. 10 honors 30th anniversary of Auburn University’s Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts and Humanities

"Alabama Stories: A Symposium in Honor of the 30th Anniversary of the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts and Humanities" will be held Tuesday, Nov. 10, from 8:30 a.m. to noon at The Hotel at Auburn University and Dixon Conference Center. A grand reopening of Pebble Hill will follow the symposium.

Leah Rawls Atkins, the center's founding director, will tell its story. Auburn Professor Emeritus of history Wayne Flynt, Auburn Professor of history Kathryn Braund and retired Auburn Professor of English Bert Hitchcock will tell little-known stories of Alabama individuals. Longtime collaborators Shirley Spears and Georgia Calhoun will tell the story of the impact of public humanities on their communities, Sylacauga and Choccolocco.

The symposium will feature a keynote by William Ferris, author of "The Storied South: Voices of Writers and Artists." Ferris is associate director of the Center for the Study of the American South and former chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Pebble Hill is an 1847 cottage that serves as home to the center. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, it has been renovated to honor its mid-1800s origins. A companion building designed to complement the main building was added and includes an assembly room and office space. The renovation and building project allows Pebble Hill to resume its on-site programming of conferences, exhibitions, book talks, lectures and other events.

Lunch, tours, book signings and more will be part of the grand reopening event at Pebble Hill. Copies of "The Storied South: Voices of Writers and Artists" will be available for purchase and signing.

The symposium is free and open to the public; lunch at Pebble Hill is $15. For more information or to register, go to www.auburn.edu/cah. Pebble Hill is at 101 S. Debardeleben St. in Auburn.

The Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts and Humanities in the College of Liberal Arts at Auburn University strengthens the bonds between the College of Liberal Arts and the public by creating and implementing arts and humanities programs that explore our individual and collective experiences, values and identities through the past, in the present and for the future. Based on the extension ideal of our land-grant institution, the Center was established by Auburn University in 1985 to develop and offer programming in Alabama schools, towns and communities.