ArchiTreats: Food for Thought begins another year of informative talks on Alabama history at the Alabama Department of Archives and History.  Many of the programs in 2011 highlight the Becoming Alabama Initiative or the Year of Alabama Music.  For the next five years, we will commemorate and study significant events in our state and national history relating to the War of 1812 and Creek Indian War, the Civil War, and the Civil Rights movement as part of the Becoming Alabama Initiative commemorations.  During 2011, we will also celebrate and examine Alabama musical traditions during the Alabama Tourism Department's Year of Alabama Music.  Join us, at noon, on the third Thursday of each month as we reflect, remember, and preserve Alabama's fascinating past.

January 20        The Road to War: January - April 1861 by Robert B. Bradley

February 17      My Father, Hank Williams by Jett Williams

March 17           The Civil War Pharmacy by Michael Flannery 

April 21              To Kill a Mockingbird: Successes and Myths

                             by Nancy Anderson

May 19               The Freedom Riders Come to Alabama by J. Mills Thornton

June 16             Mobile Brass Band Traditions & Mardi Gras by Kern Jackson

                            with a performance by Marcus Johnson and the Bay City          

                            Brass Band

July 21              Alabama Stories: Food and Memory by Scott Peacock

August 18         Race Relations in Alabama, 1965-1968: A Photojournalist's      

    Perspective by Jim Peppler

September 15 Tecumseh at Tuckabatchee: Fact and Fiction by Kathryn Braund

October 20      The Legacy of Alabama Gospel Quartets by Doug Seroff with a

                            performance by the Four Eagles Gospel Singers

November 17  The Civil Rights World in Alabama, 1961-1962: Reflections by

                            Fred Gray

December 15  Southern Music of the Civil War Era by Daryl Masters with a

                           performance by the 33^rd Alabama Campfire Players

  The 2011 ArchiTreats series is made possible by the Friends of the Alabama Archives and is co-sponsored by the Alabama Humanities Foundation, a state program of the National Endowment for the Humanities.   The public is invited to bring a sack lunch and enjoy a bit of Alabama history.  Coffee and tea will be provided by the Friends of the Alabama Archives.  For more information, call (334) 353-4726.