Awards

IU Indianapolis Spirit of Philanthropy Award - 1996

About Rita Kohn

Giving voice to the silenced, giving visibility to people, places and events rendered invisible, runs through Rita Kohn's published books and articles, produced plays and aired documentaries. Her career as an educator, editor, journalist and public scholar have intersected with a strong sense of civic responsibility and advocacy for arts in everyday life.

A pioneer for bringing visibility to libraries through strong marketing/public relations led to publication of three benchmark books. Still in-print with Scarecrow Press are: You Can Do It: PR Manual for Librarians, 1981; Have You Got What They Want? Public Relations Strategies for School Librarian/Media Specialist, 1982; 2nd ed. 1990; Experiencing Displays, 1982.

Following her work with the Indiana Humanities Council/National Endowment for the Humanities project, Always A River: The Ohio River and the American Experience, leaders of the Woodland Indian tribes who had assisted her requested that she undertake oral histories of their elders to preserve their cultural and historical memories. Always A People: Oral Histories of Contemporary Woodland People was published to acclaim by Indiana University Press in 1997. Four picture books on current Woodland Indians preceded, in 1995, published by Children's Press. Celebrating Summer, The Fall Gathering, Winter Storytime, Spring Planting are each illustrated by American Indian artists and serve equally as math-centered books for children pre-school upward.

The commitment to bring visibility to American Indians now living in Indiana led to Kohn's co-founding the Indiana American Indian Theatre Company, for which she has written two scripts, Shadow Speakers of Night Sky Stories (with Joseph Bruchac) and People of the Turtle. With the first she wrote a classroom guide, with the latter, a companion publication, Finding Our Way Home: the Great Lakes Woodland People, published by the Indiana Historical Bureau, 2001. This was followed by the making of a documentary and a companion book on the Delaware Indians who sojourned in Indiana prior to forced removal in the 1820s. Long Journey Home, produced by WFYI-public television, aired in Indianapolis during April 2003.

She is in her 20th year as editor of the Ohio River Valley Series published by the University Press of Kentucky. A continuation of the Always A River project, these books illuminate the importance of America's first interstate transportation system. Lacking a spokesperson as intriguing as Mark Twain, the Ohio River early lost precedence to that other river whose north to south route intersects with the Ohio's east to west, creating a combined story of continuing importance.