The Georgia Circuit
Announcing the inaugural bureau of the Georgia Circuit!
The Georgia Circuit connects communities with storytellers, scholars, artists, and culture bearers for free and engaging public programs.
What is the Georgia Circuit?
Modeled after a traditional speakers bureau—but broader in spirit and more dynamic in form—the Georgia Circuit brings storytellers, scholars, artists, musicians, culture bearers, and community leaders to towns and cities across Georgia to share their knowledge, spark conversation, and inspire civic imagination.
The Georgia Circuit provides public programs to libraries, schools, museums, historical societies, arts centers, civic clubs, and other community partners. Whether you’re planning a lecture, a musical performance, a story circle, or a panel discussion, the Georgia Circuit can help you bring high-quality, engaging humanities programming directly to your audience.
Applications for 2026 have closed.
Review Our Recent Call For Proposals »
Coming soon!
Contact Mary Wearn »
Olga Amarie
Olga Amarie, Professor of French at Georgia Southern University, presents the story of Nicolas Anciaux, a French figure of the American Revolution whose life and legacy in Georgia come into focus through newly uncovered historical details, including the rediscovery of his gravesite.
Lisa Bratton
Lisa Bratton, historian and professor of African American Studies, shares firsthand accounts from her extensive oral history work with the Tuskegee Airmen, bringing forward the experiences of Georgians who shaped this pivotal chapter in military and civil rights history.
Greg Brooking
Greg Brooking, historian and biographer of Georgia’s final colonial governor, presents new research on Sir James Wright that reveals how loyalism shaped Georgia’s identity during the turbulent years leading up to the American Revolution.
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Alyssa Canepa
Alyssa Canepa, Lecturer of First-Year Writing at Georgia Southern University, offers a multimedia presentation centered on reclaiming identity through creative storytelling, drawing on her work with systems-impacted writers and her own lived experience in recovery.
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Robert Davis
Robert Davis, a longtime scholar of Georgia’s past, tells the story of Austin Dabney, a Black soldier of the American Revolution whose path to freedom and lasting place in state memory reveals a deeper view of Georgia’s earliest struggles and triumphs.
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Gordon Johnston
Gordon Johnston, writer and veteran teacher of creative writing, presents A River Runs Through Us, a performance that weaves personal narratives with ecological reflections to show how Georgia’s waterways have shaped the people who have lived beside them across many generations.
Gene Kansas
Gene Kansas, preservationist and author of Civil Sights – Sweet Auburn, presents a program on protecting Atlanta’s civil rights heritage, showing how safeguarding historic places strengthens community identity and keeps the district’s stories alive for future generations.
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Mark Wallace Maguire
Mark Wallace Maguire, author and longtime writing instructor, leads an interactive workshop that guides Georgians in exploring their sense of place and identity through creative writing rooted in shared culture and personal experience.
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Kaye Lanning Minchew
Kaye Lanning Minchew, historian and longtime director of the Troup County Archives, shares a documentary-centered program on Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s years in Georgia, showing how his experiences in Warm Springs shaped his leadership and forged ties across the state.
Michael Morris
Michael Morris, historian of Early America and Native America, presents a program on Mary Musgrove that reveals her essential role in Georgia’s founding and the cultural relationships that shaped the colony’s earliest years.
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Abraham Tesser
Abraham Tesser, studio furniture maker and cultural arts lecturer, will present an illustrated talk on how handcrafted furniture supports Jewish cultural continuity by carrying forward family stories and communal traditions through material culture.
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Darius Wallace
Darius Wallace, nationally touring performer and interpreter of Frederick Douglass, presents a dynamic one-man show that brings Douglass’s journey from enslavement to influential public figure to life through powerful storytelling and dramatic performance.
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James Welborn III
James “Trae” Welborn III, cultural historian and co-director of Georgia BBQ Trails, offers Red, White, and ’Cue, a presentation that uses barbecue stories to illuminate Georgia’s past and the communities whose traditions shaped the state’s identity.
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Joyce White
Joyce White, Interim Director of the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Center and scholar of Gullah Geechee literature, offers a presentation that explores the enduring history and cultural presence of Gullah Geechee communities and their deep influence on Georgia’s identity.
Paul Wolpe
Paul Wolpe, director of Emory’s Center for Peacebuilding and Conflict Transformation, shares insights from decades of work in conflict mediation and global reconciliation centers to help communities rebuild trust and restore meaningful dialogue across deep divides.
Richard Utz
Richard Utz, Professor & Senior Associate Dean for Strategic Initiatives at Georgia Tech, uses the active reception of medieval culture in nineteenth- and twentieth-century architecture and literature around Atlanta to explore the south’s indebtedness to medieval Europe.
How It Works
- Hosts choose from a curated roster of presenters, listed above
- Presenters offer flexible formats: talks, performances, workshops, dialogues, exhibits, and more
- Georgia Humanities covers the speaker’s honorarium
- All programs must be free and open to the public
Get Involved
We’re looking for organizations that bring people together around shared ideas and experiences through free public programming. If your organization hosts lectures, workshops, cultural events, or community gatherings, you’re a perfect fit for the Georgia Circuit.
Ideal hosts include:
- Public libraries and library systems
- K–12 schools and colleges
- Museums, archives, and cultural centers
- Historical societies and civic organizations
- Arts councils and community-based nonprofits
Coming Soon: Host applications and our presenter roster will be available in late 2025.
Calling all scholars, artists, musicians, storytellers, and community leaders. Join our roster of Georgia Circuit presenters to share your expertise with audiences across the state.
We provide:
- $300 honorarium per presentation
- Distance-based travel stipend
- Statewide promotional platform
Applications for our 2026 roster have now closed. Check back soon to meet our presenters.
By the People: Georgia Stories of Belonging and Becoming
As part of the nationwide commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the Georgia Circuit’s inaugural roster will reflect a central civic question: What does it mean to belong to a democracy?
Presenters will explore this question through a range of approaches, including:
Who are “We the People”?
How do individual stories and identities contribute to our collective civic life?
Stories in the Landscape
How do our natural and built environments hold the memory of who we are—and who we hope to be?
The Practice of Democracy
How do Georgians keep democracy alive in everyday acts of care, culture, dialogue, and expression?
Stay Connected
For questions about the Georgia Circuit, please contact Mary Wearn and sign up for our newsletter to receive updates about application cycles.
