Good evening everyone. On behalf of carmichaels bookstore welcome to tonights event of a can all take a moment to silence our folder would appreciate that. Tonight we are joined by kathy cassie chambers her book hill women she later went on to receive her degree from harvard law and now works with Domestic Violence survivors in kentucky. She lives in louisville with her husband. Please join me to give her a very warm welcome. [applause] thank you for being here and coming out in the rain it means so much to have people from all different phases and stages of my life. Also carmichaels please purchase books if you want to have these independent bookstores and they need your dollars to do that i would appreciate if you purchase your book i will be signing them at the signing table. So what i want to do tonight i will read excerpts of hill women and why i wrote the book and what inspired me to write it and to give you an overview of how the book came to be and into the world and after the i will answer questions for anything that is on your mind. And i look forward to hearing your thoughts on the book and the subject matter and anything on your mind. The first part comes from the introduction from kentucky one of the poorest counties in all of america in deep appalachia a small county of 4500 people one of the highest poverty rates in america. Its hard for me to know which part i should show the rest of the world. Presenting the broken places helps people understand the extent of the poverty perk i do want them to know how deep it goes. If they understand it then they can help fix it. But i also dont want them to think that poverty is all that exist in appalachia to see Eastern Kentucky is hopeless or broken and dirty. Thats not what i see when i look at this place that i love. On the square and i continued driving along the way some lines are scattered with what appears to be junk of old car parts and childrens toys but i know that for some people the piles of seemingly useful stuff serve a purpose in the entrepreneurial one. People make a living however they can selling used car parts or refrigerators organizing yard sales. They collect anything a possible value because they never know what will come in handy if nothing else they can sell it in the next town 50 a trunk load they are always helping neighbors and provide for family creativity and drive and effort in unexpected places. Some people look at this image with a sense of disgust they see unkempt humans living in unkempt homes others look at a sense of pity poor people trapped in such awful circumstances i look at it with a sense of respect to remember how hard they are working to survive in the corner of the world they call home but last year the other view that fits into the category outsiders want to create there is hope for those that find creative ways to exist in a community or men and women who take care of each other when the outside world is not take care of them and people who broke their bodies in tobacco fields to make a living in a community theyve ever known. But you see the hope and the poverty and the spark against the backdrop in the grit of the mountain women. I have come to know that well i see it every day and my clients doing what it takes to keep them and their children safe. Once i recognize this family, people, communities and the way it has shaped me. Of course everything is exceptional exceptionally horrible and virtuous and whatever we want it to be and in many ways it is ordinary for people to live ordinary lives its a different shape than some other places but the needs are the same. People care about Loving Community and family. About a mile outside of town is a gravel road plunging steeply into the hollow below that shares its name with the creek that cuts through it a few hundred yards farther at the bottom of the valley on the top of one of the hills is a farmhouse looking at the field below it resembles an elderly woman following the ever weakening structure there is a strength in the brokenness it is vacant now waiting and watching it feels like home and the house feels like family. There are stories of resilience and love and strength the Community Knows that well that they havent reached into the outside world instead it is ricocheted growing more with time and afraid the stories will be forgotten because they have the power to make this community visible as i stop the vehicle and walked toward the house the memories wash over me like the sunlight on the hill. So this introduction says why i wrote hill women to be in conversations with appalachia in 2016 there a lot of things said about appellation and of course these were problems that i saw and were familiar with but what i wasnt hearing is the hope of Creative Solutions and so i wrote the book in large part to tell that side of the story that there really is hope in these communities with strength and communities that struggle i had always known this and have been aware of the virtues of appellation but not until i began to see these other portrayals that i realized something about the story of this community and the story of my family is not worthy you dont know this is something anybody else would be interested in them from those who came from this background of appellation with the halls of the ivy league end somehow that there were lessons to take away from that. People were telling me stories that had very similar points to my own story so thats what my life looks like. It looks like a story being born in a trailer to two young parents i cannot afford to run the air conditioning and then have the opportunity to earn a degree from yale and harvard law but that is very different from what i was reading about and for me everything i havent every opportunity i had was because of my community and the people that shaped me and informed me. I talk about this book a lot the anti bootstrap narrative because we know for yourself up by the bootstraps narrative play yourself up of out of poverty and get the Ivy League Degrees reason i could do that or i had boots at all is because not just my immediate family but the generations before me and how the women each tried to do Something Better for the next generation and for the women that came after them. That is what hill women is all about and the ways they work to make their communities and families better for those that come after them. So just to give you a context and a flavor for hill women and the stories that are in it first is my grandmother perk i call her granny she had a first grade education and born into extreme poverty so bad shes a scream at night because her house was so cold she never got to play or go to a restaurant she lived life that was hard and treated like an adult from the time she was a child more than anything even though she had the opportunity to get an education and didnt have the ability to understand what that meant she wanted her children to do better than she had done and to go further than she was able to go she had seven children the sixth was my mom she pushed my mom to graduate high school and get an education and because of that also encouraging to get a degree she was the first to graduate high school and college. She went to buy a college and allowed her to get a Free Education her family didnt have money for her so she had to go into debt thats not something people did so she wouldve had the chance to get her degree. And my mom coming from that background saw the way education and changed her life and made the world smaller so she felt she had come so far from that hauler in kentucky where she felt she could learn about ideas in the world and how her horizons broadened she raised me to believe that there is nothing i was capable of doing because she came so far that i had the ability to do anything in the world that i wanted to so because my mom said how early it was to get an education and take chances because she took chances i could go earn a scholarship to yale college and graduate from harvard law and then the book talks about how i believe when you are the person three generations have worked to give opportunities to all the effort and care into who you are you are under the obligation to pay it forward perk i returned to kentucky working with low income women trying to provide other families and women with the same opportunities from my family. I have another excerpt to read about my mother going to college when i was five my mother graduated from college perk i remember getting for vacation the first i had owned. Lace trim and a delicate flower print. My mother bought me a cap and gown let me walk with her in the processional. We are graduating i told my family as we walked down the aisle. I didnt know then how true that would be how graduated with her degree my mother change both of our lives how the value she had come to place an education would be into my car into my core far beyond appalachia her ability to better understand herself and her family would set me up for success. The day after the Graduation Ceremony the newspaper ran a picture of the two of us my mother and me standing sidebyside. Eyes focused forward graduating to the next phase of our lives. So the last thing i want to talk about and then i would hear your thoughts and questions and have a conversation of the depictions of appellation and ways to move forward to think of rural poverty how is different from urban poverty and education the last thing you want to talk about is paying it forward because i believe when the Community Gives you opportunities you are incumbent to pay those forward so during my career working with women in a state of crisis those trying to keep them in their children safe and to protect them and their families i work in roll county i call myself one woman traveling law firm i meet clients at subways and gas stations in Public Libraries i got very good figuring out when they didnt have access to technology or not even having an email address and i have fond memories from life on the road. But in this work one of the things that was important to me was to find tangible ways to make the system better because my experience in rural kentucky and Eastern Kentucky showed me there are a lot of barriers in places we dont necessarily see them. Working with the criminal Justice System i saw ways there were financial barriers that stopped women to fully access a support system to keep them safe. We talk about this in the criminal law context you have in a right to an attorney and people dont have that same right in civil law. When i was working with these women to get custody orders or protective orders they did not necessarily have the right to get an attorney for guy was representing them for free and that was helpful but not always enough because a lot of times there are fees like having an attorney appointed for your children or pay hourly fees to have your case heard on the docket. They add up. One of the things that i noticed is there was a law on the books that required women , or anyone to divorce and abusive partner that was in jail the law requires they be appointed an attorney which isnt a bad thing they should have a lawyer to make sure their interests are represented but the problem is who has to pay for the attorney cranks it in these situations is the person seeking the divorce normally the one that was a victim of abuse or the person was in jail for abusing them it was that person that victim or survivor that was stuck with a legal bill. I saw time and again how it made women feel the court system was working for their abuser made them hesitant to go to the legal system to get the help that they needed for a place that did not protect their interest so i decided to work with one of my clients, a woman named jeanette to address this problem i believe in partnering with people to experience the problems the most so i want to read an excerpt from the latter part of the book where i talk about our work together. So it started off to say that can i tell your story can i read it as a way to make the system better . She had a pretty dramatic story. She had the experience violence and abuse at the hands of her then husband. One night he came home intoxicated and assaulted her. He fired a pistol at her and bullet ripped through her closing her clothing there still in place custody. She filed for divorce and we helped her navigate that process. At first it was just me asking if i could use her story then she got stuck with a legal bill so he could have a lawyer even though i represented her for free. And every time i ask survivors can i tell your story to make things better for other people they have said yes absolutely if i can help somebody, use it so the fact she had to pay for her incarceration to have an attorney although she could not afford one she wanted to tell the world and use that in a way to make a change so i wrote an oped to tell her story i got attention and lawmakers filed bill. Then at that point jeanette said im okay telling my story myself i want to use my face and name im not ashamed anymore not embarrassed or afraid i want to make the system better myself. We had some conversations how she could do that and one of the most powerful things i had ever seen was her deciding to testify in front of the kentucky General Assembly to tell anyone that would listen about her experience and why it mattered in my things needed to change. As a result a bill passed through the General Assembly and its called jeanettes law and is named after her it is the things she is the most proud of in the world im so proud to watch her transform the system that had taken advantage of her so i want to read an excerpt. It was a powerful reminder of the importance of telling the story her voice left tangible changes in the state law because of her bravery other womens lives will be better each win is that in each is a reminder to change also a reminder those who were victimized by a spouse or unjust system are powerful those are portrayed Domestic Violence as weak some are portrayed the women of appellation the same way. I think jeanette story illustrates the opposite. When given the right tools, support and environmen environment, these women are capable of changing the world. So with that i will conclude my reading part of the night i look forward to hearing your questions. Thank you to carmichaels for hosting this event please buy books to support your local bookstore. With that i will open to questions. [applause] one of the books you are talking about i would like to hear your thoughts because i also had a similar negative reaction so one of the things i want to ask you how you pronounce the word vienna sausages. [laughter] thats a new pronunciation for me that is good to know. One of the books i gained a lot of attention one of the things about appellation was hillbilly all the g and why we always think its good for people to tell their personal story i do think that book talks about appellation in a way thats not helpful it focuses on the problems of people and doesnt acknowledge the way the system marginalizes people and of communities and how much honor there is in that that the community has been marginalized over time so that was part of the driving force to put something out there in the world that shows the Positive Side of appellation because my experience women in these communities take on leadership roles and in the larger world i think this is a book i hope to elevate womens voices to tell the their stories. Thank you for the question. Any other questions . Someone in the back. Can you talk what it was like to write about your family and know they would read it. Thank you for the question. The question was the process of writing a memoir and people that will read the book. To write a memoir i think is an interesting process there is a lot to be said. You have to work with an editor who really understand you and im lucky that my editor is here tonight i hope youll stick around to meet her shes an incredible woman im glad she came down. One of the things she did a lot of was asked me questions. Why did you make this decision . Why did soandso make this decision was understand the surface the way you understand your story . And that is why it is important at a deeper level with this systemic issue and the real value of any story. I was lucky i worked with an amazing editor who helped me dig into that. Did not occur to me until i got to publication the people i was writing about what actually read the book and then i have the prospect to say heres the book i hope you like the way you are portrayed. [laughter] which is quite an experience because you would write about it is different than we think of ourselves. I got some advice from the outset that said never regret to be overly generous in your portrayal of people at the time that didnt make sense but what else can you tell me about writing a memoir now hindsight thats the best because thats what i tell other people is to be generous in your portrayals of people the way you write about them on the page lives forever so you will never regret being kinder than was your initial inclination to make just talked about the process of writing the book i was lucky i didnt take that long to write because when you write about your story you already know it i did a lot of interviews with family members and said i heard the story of granny getting married at 15 but tell me about that. Was interesting to see the way everyones memories differed this is not a Research Book i acknowledge everyones memory is different with their account that she had brown Wedding Dress know it was blue. [laughter] now i said it may have been brown. [laughter] but it was fun to sit down to talk to relatives about their memories and my mom was involved to sit down and share her life story and memories we were lucky to have that opportunity to have that conversation because a lot of us dont have that chance to tell them how much we admire them so i was grateful to have that opportunity. Congratulations on your book. I wondered growing up and then going off to yale and then you came back so many people in Eastern Kentucky so how did that wind up to be your decision . You couldve went anywhere so tell us about that process. I fell in love with louisville when i was a law student i always talk about what i love big enough to have everything you need and small enough to use it. A coffee shop or a nice restaurant so for me there is so much value and interest in the whole urban world design that we have more in common than what divides us. I love living in cities because the unique and interesting things that happen and kentucky always felt like home i felt this was a place i could land in and make a difference so i moved here and then i was locked into life. So that at the end of the day to have the opportunity to bring rural and urban areas those to talk in those areas thank you for the question. Wyatt is the Common Thread between louisville in poverty quick. Thats an interesting question. But it does look quite different it is a significant problem we need to have resources there are unique challenges around world poverty in particular in cities there are organizations that provide social services with the entire multicounty area. That yet for my income clients they may not have Reliable Transportation to drive an hour and a half or afford the gas or make it. Transportation and infrastructure really matters and then bring people together to access services. And you have to have different strategies and that to say either is a more pressing concern than the other. But i guess it was 2010 to a protective order so with those urban areas so with those urban areas so with those urban areas so with those urban areas if it is 12 to 15 hours to get to a judge. So the question is in Rural Counties those that dont have wifi access may be paper orders and the flag time of what happens. That ive had to call police because there is safety threat and that there is a delay but that shouldnt happen we should make sure that doesnt. That we live in a world where we talk about access to the internet and wifi that its a financial right and then to participate and i have relatives to the state have never used a computer and dont own a cell phone theyve never seen a Facebook Page so if i say would you like to come to my wedding day didnt know how to get there. They dont know gps some of them have not used a parking garage that isnt just an option for them. So wise and some of your family coming they might as well be in taiwan. They dont have bad ability to navigate and that is something that people find shocking that disparity that exists with access to technology and information i think its important we are talking about these poverty areas and how we teach young people to use the technology of the future and also through job and economic opportunities. Can you point to any policy decisions . The question is what specifically what played a role in that. And my family was on food stamps ours as medical expenses and i went to a Public School went to Public Libraries in a public park talk about being born to two young parents every day they are conditioning is at the public library. That i could go and learn and beat the summer heat i am such a big believer to have a place to provide those opportunities because my family took advantage of those. And with large amounts of medical debt. Otherwise my life would have been very different. I believe we have to have policies in place and to make sure every child has an opportunity that i have. I work in dropout prevention engagement. And of those advanced notification to go on to higher ed. So from your perspective is that true whats the best way to address those complicated things quick. Thats what i talk about in the book that my mom experienced and wanting my mom to go to college and get an education. But she did not want my mom to leave for that same reason. That children stay close to families why would you go away or leave . You think i cannot provide a good life for you here. Broke his heart to think one of his children going in his mind was 50 miles but he never had a drivers license and rarely lef left. It mightve been in different country. And the ways that it changes their communities and a lot of people and then to bring back the communities. And then with that education and then and then to hear stories that my entire world is there i will never leave. I have heard Young Children say colleges and for me high school isnt for me i will grow up and work at the jail. The value of home and those that make good legitimate choices and that they feel they have the choice to choose Something Else if they want. So i am hearing that our time is out. Thank you for coming tonight. Its great to have you all here. And take you to my agent and my editor for making the trip down. I was lucky to have a team of amazing women supporting me and thank you to carmichaels work i will be signing books. Thank you for being here. [applause]