www.appalshop.org/kennedy

Project Description

RFK in EKY (The Robert F. Kennedy Performance Project) was a site-specific, three day performance that recreated Kennedy’s 1968 “poverty tour” of eastern Kentucky. Led by artist John Malpede, and in collaboration with Appalshop, Inc., the real-time 2004 tour was performed along with a series of public conversations and activities about the politics of the 1968 tour and its relevance today.

Robert F. Kennedy’s “poverty tour” was two-days and 200 miles long, beginning on February 13, 1968. The purpose in touring eastern Kentucky was to examine the outcomes of the first wave of the "war on poverty" legislation, visiting the people it most affected. The first day of the tour began with a hearing in Vortex, KY in a one room schoolhouse where the entire student body consisted of children from a single rural family. Kennedy then went to attended a second hearing at the Barwick School in Hazard, KY, and to a strip-mining site to view the physical destruction that results from surface mining. The first day of the tour ended with a rally at Alice Lloyd College. The next morning, February 14, 1968, Kennedy gave an early morning speech on the Letcher County Courthouse steps, and then went to a formal hearing at the Fleming-Neon High School gym. After meeting with families in Hemphill and Haymond, KY, and then giving a speech at the Fiscal Court and Library in Prestonsburg, KY, he was flown in the governor's plane to attend a dinner in his honor at the home of the Binghams in Louisville, then owners and publishers of the influential Courier-Journal. During the dinner of filet mignon, Kennedy was unable to stop himself from noting the disparity of the experience; eastern Kentucky was the last place he visited before announcing his candidacy for presidency less than a month later.

The 2004 performance, with an all-local cast of hundreds, re-enacted the significant events of Kennedy’s 1968 visit. The performance began in the evening of September 8, 2004, with an orientation for the participating audience members and a reception honoring Peter Edelman, author of Searching for America's Heart: RFK and the Renewal of Hope. On September 9, 2004, participants and audience members had a pancake breakfast and were all put into costumes reflecting the 60s. The tour began at Vortex, similar to Kennedy’s, where there was a re-enactment of the hearing of the senate subcommittee on employment, manpower, and poverty. Next, the performance moved to Barwick, KY, where Peter Edelman, teacher Bonnie Jean Carroll, and Zona Akemon discussed hunger, poverty, and the Barwick School. After traveling to Hazard, KY, audience members heard a speech by Bill Gorwin, then toured the mine in Yellow Creek, and ended the day at Alice Lloyd College, just like Kennedy’s tour.

The following morning, September 9, 2004, participants had a pancake breakfast and styling party and then traveled to Whitesburg, KY, for the Fleming-Neon Hearing. This three-and-a-half hour hearing was the cornerstone of Kennedy’s 1968 visit, bringing together planned testimonies from noted mountain activists like Harry Caudill, as well as social workers and unemployed mine workers. In 1968, some Evarts High School students protested at the event, wearing brown paper bags over their heads in objection to the proposed flooding of Kingdom Come Creek, which would have led to the displacement of the community. The 2004 re-enactment of the hearing was held in the new Fleming-Neon Gym, with students from the school joining the cast members and audience. Finally, the performance traveled to Prestonsburg Fiscal Court House. In 1968, a young student at Prestonburg Community College, Ronnie Dee Blair, filmed Kennedy’s speech; in the 2004 performance, Blair shared his tape and personal story of seeing Kennedy speak with the audience. To conclude the tour, there was a discussion of Kennedy’s Appalachian legacy, the war on poverty, and the issues raised by the 2004 tour.

September 11, 2004, the day after the 2004 re-enactment, the cast and audience of RFK in EKY celebrated the Neon Days Festival with local residents. This annual festival is a combination of a county fair and a heritage and music showcase. For the event, Appalshop, Inc. hosted a booth where visitors were invited to have their photo taken with Robert F. Kennedy and Carl D. Perkins. During the festival there was also an exhibition showcasing Robert F. Kennedy memorabilia and artifacts, a community dialogue about the legacy of the “Maximum Feasible Participation of the Poor” programs, and an artist talk with John Malpede, Harrell Fletcher, and the RFK in EKY cast and crew.

At the end of RFK in EKY, The American Festival Project held an event, a festival called an Art and Democracy Gathering. Founded in 1981, The American Festival Project has been dedicated to supporting artists who work with communities, with the hope that together they will collaborate to imagine and create a better future. It was at The American Festival Project’s 2000 “Artist and Community Gathering,” in fact, where RFK in EKY was first conceived. The goal of their September 2004 festival, scheduled in conjunction with RFK in EKY, was to bring together national and international artists and cultural workers who were in town attending the performance. Through their event, they hoped to encourage “artistic cross-pollination,” by bringing together two genres of people (art and democracy) to build a coalition. 

Civic Engagement/Dialogue Activities

RFK in EKY not only re-created an historic moment, it held a mirror to that moment and asked people to join the conversations that were not had in 1968. In doing so, the audience members were not only able to reflect on their past, but better analyze their current situations (in their communities, local, or national governments). Furthermore, the topic of the project was very appealing to local participants. Kennedy's tour of the region was not a unique event: his brother John had planned to come in December of 1963, Johnson came in 1964, and, in later years, Nixon, Ted Kennedy, Bill Clinton, Paul Wellstone, and Jesse Jackson all conducted "poverty tours" that included eastern Kentucky. However, people of the region remember Robert F. Kennedy’s tour as the most meaningful because he was so understanding and open to listening to them. Long-time residents often cite his large family, his warmth, and his genuine concern when they talk about his effect on them, and they speak of the way he brought hope to eastern Kentucky—hope that was dispelled a few months later when he was assassinated in June 1968.

RFK in EKY provided an opportunity to revisit the warmth and care felt by the community during Robert Kennedy’s 1968 tour, as well as to revisit the essential (and still pertinent) questions raised. Artist John Malpede believes that many of the concerns raised in 1968 are similar to those in 2004, especially since both were pivotal election years. These concerns include topics about the environment, economic stagnation, the quality of education, the role of the local government, and war. For example, Malpede says that in 1968 hunger was an issue, but today poor diet is one, as demonstrated by extremely high levels of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. More specifically, participants from the 2004 tour discussed the representation of marginalized populations in the national consciousness; the role of government in maintaining a quality-of-life safety net; the government’s role in fostering sustainable economic development, educational, and vocational advancement; how to stem the out-migration of rural young people and the loss of natural resources; and the priorities of a government administration engaged in a protracted war. RFK in EKY, like Kennedy and those who created his tour, recognized these questions as part of a possible national dialogue that could take place in today’s politics, and that Appalachia is one of many regions in the U.S. demonstrating what participants must see and understand in order to be able to fully engage in this conversation.

In December 2004, RFK in EKY held a reunion with all of the project’s participants. This reunion provided participants to share what they had processed, the lessons they had learned, and the ideas they had incubated since the September performance. Currently, the creators of RFK and EKY are focusing on gathering documentation of the 2004 event, particularly for their project website. They hope the website will support additional educational, artistic, and political explorations of the issues addressed in Kennedy’s original visit, as well issues addressed in re-creation. Appalshop, Inc. staff members plan to continue to add to the website by building an archive, designing curriculum resource material, and creating transportable presentations for various audiences. Ultimately, RFK in EKY hopes to generate a complete documentary film on the project, as well as a book.

The ultimate goal of RFK in EKY was to provide people with the opportunity and the courage to listen, speak, and act as free citizens in a true democracy. As the project evolves, new forms of these dialogues are planned to continue. These events are said to range from being analytical to deeply personal, but all will use art as the occasion for creating space for public meetings in rural communities. The next topics Appalshop, Inc. plans to tackle in the community are art, drugs, and community intervention. To do this, RFK in EKY will continue it’s partnership with the Leslie Knott Letcher Perry Head Start Program, and will also begin a partnership with Unlawful Narcotics Investigation Treatment and Educationand the Letcher County Action Team. The goal of this project is to develop regional discussions on art and rehabilitation and to explore treatment alternatives to drug incarceration.