Kentucky Arts and Culture

Frank X Walker visited The Academy Wednesday morning to brainwash a class of about 20 students. But what Kentucky’s poet laureate described as brainwashing was really a creative exercise to show the students that poetry is connected to the brain. Walker drew a rectangle with a circle in the middle of it on the whiteboard and asked the students to tell him what they saw.

Fifteen nominations to the National Register of Historic Places were approved today during a meeting of the Kentucky Historic Preservation Review Board at Metro Development Center in Louisville.

Their favorite key boardist is honored this weekend by the Lexington Singers.   Jay Flippin, who’s also well known in academic circles, often accompanies the region’s choral groups.  So, Rich Copley, who covers culture for the Lexington Herald Leader, says Flippin’s work is the focus of a Saturday afternoon concert.  Read more...

Everything is coming together financially for a major expansion of Lexington’s Living Arts and Science Center. A milestone in a fundraising effort came this week.  Director Heather Lyons says school buses are a common site outside the historic Living Arts and Science Center.  She says they drop off some of the 40-thousand children and adults who visit her center each year.

Classics will bookend the Lexington Philharmonic’s next season.  Artistic Director Scott Terrell says they’ll start in September with Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture.”   And then, to finish up the season, Terrell will conduct Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. “The seminal work to end the year, which is Beethoven’s 9th Symphony.  It will be my first Beethoven 9, so as a conductor and student of music, there are pillars that one takes on, that is one of them,” said Terrell.

Oprah Winfrey once explained this way her outlook on life after rising from a difficult childhood to a status of wealth and influence: "Though I am grateful for the blessings of wealth, it hasn't changed who I am," she said in her magazine. "My feet are still on the ground. I'm just wearing better shoes." Which brings the (maybe not obvious) question: What do those shoes look like? Louisville has something of an answer. The Muhammad Ali Center is exhibiting about a dozen pairs of shoes from famous and significant people; the Right Foot exhibit an addition to the traveling Global Shoes project of shoes worn by people from around the world meant to spotlight cultures through footwear.

When I moved to Louisville as a freshman English major, one of the first bits of trivia I learned about my new city was that Daisy’s house from “The Great Gatsby” was right down the street. Daisy Buchanan, the It Girl at the heart of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel, was socialite Daisy Fay when poor soldier Jay Gatsby courted her during a brief stint at Louisville’s Camp Taylor, where Gatsby – like the author himself – trained during the first World War.

The Evan Williams Bourbon Experience, a $10 million tourism center for bourbon maker Heaven Hill, will become the eighth distillery on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. The five-story Evan Williams center, on Main Street in downtown Louisville, is scheduled to open in October. On Thursday, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer toasted the news, alongside bourbon industry representatives.

More than 110,000 fans are expected at Churchill Downs Friday for the 139th running of the Kentucky Oaks. Oaks Day has long been considered “Louisville’s Day at the Races,” and in recent years has also become platform to heighten awareness of breast cancer and raise money for research.

Justin Rivers, 29, of Bowling Green, will continue his journey on “The Voice,” after advancing Tuesday night to next week’s live performances on the NBC singing competition show. Rivers, who is worship pastor at Crossland Community Church, was pitted against fellow contestant Savannah Berry during the knockout rounds broadcasted Tuesday.

Two Frankfort natives have been nominated for Tony Awards, highlighting their work in theater. George C. Wolfe was nominated in the best director category for his work on Nora Ephron’s “Lucky Guy.” He’s one of four directors competing for the Tony in that category. And Will Chase was nominated for best actor in a featured role in a musical for his performance in “The Mystery of Edwin Drood.” He’s among five men vying for the award.

The Kentucky Arts Council awarded more than $50,000 in grants to six organizations to provide “creative aging and lifelong learning” arts programs for Kentucky’s senior citizens.  The Arts Access Assistance grants were created last fall to support programming for specific underserved groups. The first fiscal year of funding will support programs for the state’s senior citizens.

In the annual Kentucky Writers' Day program at the Capitol, Governor Steve Beshear inducted poet Frank X Walker as the state's new poet laureate. Walker is the first African American to hold the post, and at 53 years old, the University of Kentucky professor is also the youngest. The Kentucky Arts Council announced Walker's appointment in February.

Almost the entire life of Andy Narell has been devoted to mastering the steel drum.  The steel drum, also known as the steel pan, was invented in Trinidad, where it was first made from the lids placed atop oil drums. The Grammy-Award winning percussionist describes his instrument as an engineering feat that defies the odds. Narell spoke with WEKU’s Roger Duvall.