PRESS RELEASE- For Release 3/5/2026
Media Contact: Natalie Stewart
natalie.oslund@archives.alabama.gov
(334) 353-1881
FOOD FOR THOUGHT LUNCHTIME LECTURE AT THE ARCHIVES
THURSDAY, MARCH 19 AT 12:00PM
YOU MAY PLOW HERE: THE NARRATIVE OF SARA BROOKS
PRESENTED BY THORDIS SIMONSEN
Montgomery, AL (3/5/2026) – The Alabama Department of Archives & History (ADAH) will continue its 2026 Food for Thought lunchtime lecture series on Thursday, March 19, at 12:00pm CT. Thordis Simonsen will present You May Plow Here: The Narrative of Sara Brooks. The program will be held in the ADAH’s Joseph M. Farley Alabama Power Auditorium in Montgomery. It will also be livestreamed on the ADAH’s Facebook page and YouTube channel. Admission is FREE.
Thordis Simonsen is a writer, editor, and artist focusing on oral history and cultural narrative. She edited You May Plow Here: The Narrative of Sara Brooks, first published in 1986, and is the author of Dancing Girl: Themes and Improvisations in a Greek Village Setting and Dances in Two Worlds: A Writer-Artist’s Backstory, which received the 2012 Colorado Book Award for creative nonfiction. She is the founder of the Museum of Authenticity in Salida, Colorado, where she resides.
In her presentation, Simonsen will discuss the research and editorial process behind You May Plow Here: The Narrative of Sara Brooks. Her book documents the life of an African American woman born in 1911 and raised on a farm in Monroe County, whose family worked to secure and maintain land ownership during the Jim Crow era. Simonsen will examine the historical context of Black landownership, the significance of first-person women’s narratives, and the broader implications of the Great Migration as reflected in Brooks’s life story.
For additional information, contact Alex Colvin at alex.colvin@archives.alabama.gov or (334) 353-4689. A complete schedule of our 2026 lunchtime lecture series is available at archives.alabama.gov. Food for Thought 2026 is sponsored by the Friends of the Alabama Archives.
The Alabama Department of Archives and History is the state’s government-records repository, a special-collections library and research facility, and home to the Museum of Alabama, the state history museum. It is located in downtown Montgomery, directly across Washington Avenue from the State Capitol. The Museum of Alabama is open Monday through Saturday from 8:30 to 4:30. The EBSCO Research Room is open Tuesday through Saturday from 8:30 to 4:30. To learn more, visit www.archives.alabama.gov or call (334) 242-4364.
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