First up this week is a visit to Jazz and the Spoken Word, the monthly spoken-word showcase at the Jazz Factory in Louisville. The event pairs enthusiastic improvisational jazz musicians and eager writer-readers. Its founders, writers Amelia Blossom Pegram and Dianne Aprile, hope that it will help fuel the reading-aloud movement throughout Kentucky.

Next, meet Cynthia Changaris, a storyteller who helped start the Kentucky Storytelling Association—the first statewide organization in support of storytellers, story collectors, and the art of storytelling. Stories, she believes, open up the heart and mind and offer people a chance to make pictures in their heads and see the world in new and different ways.

Continuing the literary theme, Morehead writer Bob Sloan performs two readings accompanied by acoustic musicians (and fellow Rowan Countians) Jesse Wells on fiddle and Brett Ratcliffe on banjo. Bob is the author of several books and a contributing columnist for the Lexington Herald-Leader. In addition, his commentaries have been featured on National Public Radio’s Morning Edition.