Lawrence.com

"Sunflower Journeys," a public television series produced by KTWU in Topeka, is celebrating its 15th anniversary with a Lawrence concert featuring some of the artists who have appeared on the series over the years.

The three-hour concert begins at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in Liberty Hall. The lineup includes the Celtic and frontier music of Connie Dover and Roger Landes; Flint Hills folklorist Jim Hoy; blues musician Lemuel Sheppard; the gospel music of the Fellowship Temple Choir; Dan Wildcat and The Tribe from Haskell Indian Nations University; Navajo dancer Dennis Rogers; and Stan Lombardo, a Kansas University professor and translator of Homer's "Odyssey."

Tom Averill, a Washburn University professor, will portray his radio character William Jennings Bryan Oleander and act as emcee for the show.

Why is the show being staged in Lawrence rather than in Topeka?

"We think of ourselves as serving the regional community," said Dave Kendall, co-host of "Sunflower Journeys." "We did our fifth and 10th (anniversary shows) in Topeka."

Of course, Jayhawk pride doesn't hurt either: Kendall earned his bachelor's and master's degrees at Kansas University; his co-host, Amanda Shaw, earned her master's degree at KU; and Bill Shaffer, one of the show's producers, also received his master's degree at KU.

"Sunflower Journeys" premiered in January 1988, Kendall said. His first program, "Kansas," started with an excerpt from "Star 34," a travelogue made in the 1950s by Centron Studios, a Lawrence-based studio that produced more than 400 industrial, educational and documentary films.

"It was a Herk Harvey and John Clifford production," Kendall said. "It was about how Kansas was viewed."

Harvey and Clifford, fellow employees at Centron, went on to make the cult classic "Carnival of Souls" in the 1970s.

Kendall's second segment explored the film "Kansas," starring Matt Dillon. The third segment took a look at the Kansas City jazz scene.

Later segments examined the state's land, wildlife, history and art; the communities of Fort Scott, Topeka, Kansas City, Lawrence and central Kansas; the physiographic regions of the state; the state's vocational, religious and ethnic communities; the river basins and water issues; and two tours of the state based on William Least Heat-Moon's book "Blue Highways."

"We do 39 segments in a season," Kendall said.

Since its second season, the show has been financed by grants from the Kansas Humanities Council.

"We work one to one and a half years ahead because we go to the humanities council for funding," said Kendall, who grew up in Morris County. "We already have 13 programs outlined for 2003."