This Thursday, April 5th, join us for a very special presentation from a survivor of the Jonestown massacre, Laura Johnston. Her lecture, “Don’t Drink the Kool Aid: Advice from a Jonestown Survivor” will take place in RPL 300. A reception will be held at 5:30, with the talk scheduled to begin at 6:00 P.M. She will also sign copies of her book, Jonestown Survivor: An Insider’s Look, following the presentation.
Admission is free and open to the public. The event is hosted by the ATU Department of Behavioral Sciences, the ATU Department of History and Political Science, and the ATU College of Arts and Humanities.
Kohl was one of 87 members of the Peoples Temple who survived the Jonestown massacre in Guyana on Nov. 18, 1978. A total of 918 individuals perished in what was the single largest loss of American civilian life by a deliberate act until Sept. 11, 2001.
“I was a member of Peoples Temple for seven years in California before moving to Guyana,” writes Kohl in her bio. “I lived in Georgetown and Jonestown, Guyana, for another nearly two years. I happened to be in Georgetown with about 80 other survivors when my wonderful friends and adopted family were murdered in Jonestown. It took me 20 years to accept my survival and rebuild my life.”
Now a bilingual middle school teacher in California, Kohl’s speaking engagements focus on such topics as surviving tragedy, survivors’ guilt, sociology, political science, psychology and the red flags associated with cult dynamics.
Want to learn more about Jonestown before the lecture? The Ross Pendergraft Library had additional resources on this historical tragedy:
- The Road to Jonestown : Jim Jones and Peoples Temple / by Jeff Guinn (2017, BOOK)
- Seductive poison : a Jonestown Survivor’s Story of Life and Death in the Peoples Temple / by Deborah Layton (1998, BOOK)
- A Thousand Lives : the Untold Story of Jonestown / by Julie Scheeres (2012, BOOK)
- Jonestown : the Life and Death of the Peoples Temple (2007, DVD)
- Salvation and Suicide : Jim Jones, the Peoples Temple, and Jonestown / by David Chidester (2003, EBOOK)
For more information about Kohl’s appearance at Arkansas Tech, contact Dr. Joshua Lockyer, associate professor of anthropology, at jlockyer@atu.edu.