Friends established the Wilma Dykeman Stokely Memorial Lecture in 2007 to honor the late writer, speaker, teacher, historian, environmentalist, and friend of local libraries. Friends of the Knox County Public Library and John C. Hodges Society of the University of Tennessee Libraries have co-sponsored the lecture since 2014. Dykeman’s papers are part of the Betsey B. Creekmore Special Collections and Archives at the UT Libraries.
Speakers represent a wide range of backgrounds, experiences, and work, but all have a deep connection to one or more of Stokely’s passions: Appalachia, the environment, and racial and gender equity.
2020: Michael W. Twitty
2019: Silas House
2018: Nikki Giovanni
2016: Robert Morgan
2015: Dom Flemons
