Maurice Manning and Sue Massek come together to provide a Lunch with the Arts of poetry and music. This performance kicks off our Kentucky Humanities Cultural Connections Lunch with the Arts Series focusing on Appalachia. Manning will be reading narrative poems in the tradition of the Appalachian Jack-Tales. Jack-Tales often feature a trickster character, someone who skirts ordinary custom and defies expectation. Massek will provide complimentary music to Mannings tales. Many of the poems in Mannings work have strong female characters reflecting a rather organic tradition of female independence which is found in bluegrass and mountain music. Manning and Massek will examine this Appalachian matriarchal tradition through poetry and music, explore the Jack-tale tradition, and demostrate the common roots poetry and song share.