A free presentation, co-sponsored by the Oklahoma Oral History Research Program, will be held on Friday, December 5, from 1 to 3 p.m. The talk will focus on the subject of Renaissance festivals in Oklahoma and will be held in the Musser Learning Lab in the Oklahoma History Center.

Cate Kurtz will highlight the history of Renaissance festivals and jousting in Oklahoma. Renaissance festivals began as grassroots organizations in the 1960s before developing into large entertainment enterprises throughout the United States. Despite the contemporary expansion of Renaissance festivals, Americans have engaged in medieval culture through themed events and jousts sparked by the Gothic Revival of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Agrarian communities throughout the American South integrated jousting into their equestrian pastimes, and it was common for community festivals to include medieval imagery.

Today, jousting is a main event at most Renaissance festivals and has spread into living history communities and competitive sports. Kurtz will discuss how new oral history interviews with members of the greater jousting community provide further insight into the development of jousting in Oklahoma alongside the expansion of Renaissance festivals in the state.

Cate Kurtz is a recent graduate from Oklahoma State University’s Public History Program and holds a certificate in Museum and Curatorial Studies. Her research interests include public history, oral history, museum studies, medievalism, and American cultural history during the 20th and 21st centuries. She currently works in education and is applying to doctoral programs in public history.

This program is co-sponsored by the Oklahoma Oral History Research Program. This event is free. Light refreshments will be provided. Registration is requested.

Preregister for this workshop.