Kentucky Arts and Culture

The Paul Laurence Dunbar High School marching band has been selected to march in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in 2014. Wesley Whatley, creative director for Macy's, flew from New York City to Lexington to make the surprise announcement during a concert Thursday night. Whatley said more than 175 bands applied to participate in the parade, and just 10 were selected.

Her personality, the times and her background gave Mary Todd Lincoln a place in history and made her one of the more controversial first ladies to occupy the White House.  The Lexington native is the subject of a documentary airing Monday on C-Span.  Producer Mark Farkas says his documentary fills gaps left by Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster film “Lincoln.”  Reporter Stu Johnson spoke with Farkas.

Thousands of people converge on Pike County this weekend for the 37th annual Hillbilly Days Festival.  It will feature crafts, food, and games plus a good dose of Appalachian heritage in downtown Pikeville.  Some 300 vendors have set up for the event.  Southeast Kentucky Chamber of Commerce President Jared Arnette says it’s a time to show their pride and products.

Time magazine has issued its 100 "most influential people in the world" with two Kentuckians on the list. Actress Jennifer Lawrence—an Academy Award winner and star of The Hunger Games franchise—is listed among influential artists, alongside Steven Spielberg, Frank Ocean and Jimmy Fallon. Though she now lives in California, Lawrence was born and raised in Louisville and her family is still in town. (And she was recently spotted at a Louisville coffeeshop.)

Heaven Hill Distilleries celebrated a milestone in its history Tuesday with the filling of its 6.5 millionth barrel of straight Kentucky bourbon. Local elected officials and bourbon industry professionals gathered in the cistern room to witness the filling of a new white oak barrel marked No. 6,500,000 with 53 gallons of the spirit. “It is indeed a proud day for our company and our extended Heaven Hill family,” Max Shapira, Heaven Hill president, said.

An inaugural auction of Sporting Art is planned this fall at Keeneland.  It will feature a wide assortment of paintings and sculptures of equine, hunting, and fishing from the U.S. and England.  The first Sporting Art Auction will follow Keeneland’s fall meet and November sales event.  It will include about 200 artworks from contemporary British and American painters and sculptors.  Keeneland President Bill Thomason says it’ll cap off a busy autumn.

Volunteers will soon be recruited for the maintenance of Kentucky’s abandoned cemeteries.  Through its “Adopt a Cemetery” program, Ann Johnson of the Kentucky Historical Society, says people can commit to the care and restoration of abandoned graveyards.  “But, they would take care of it and go back and do a maintenance like maybe once a year.  That type of thing.  And if they want to discontinue that, they can discontinue that.  We would hope that they would not, but at least, if they’ve adopted it to begin with, then they’ve gotten it cleaned up and in really good shape, that’s the most important thing,” said Johnson.

It might not be uniquely Kentuckian, but bourbon is certainly uniquely American.  Its roots can be traced back to the first European colonists who discovered corn whisky was a nice alternative to rum. A new book from Louisville Historian Michael Veach traces bourbon’s influence on US history.  Veach spoke with reporter Charles Compton.

The Iroquois Hunt Club has a long history.  Founded in 1880, the central Kentucky club is named for Iroquois, the first American horse to win the English Derby. 133 years later, the Iroquois Hunt Club remains active from October through March.  Most hunts today focus on coyotes, not fox.  Deaths are rare, but member Glenye Oakford says they do occur.  “People think we come out specifically to kill and it is called hunting and I suppose maybe that’s why people think that.  But, it’s very, very difficult when you are riding with a pack of hounds and that is the only way of catching a wild animal running over territory it is intimately familiar with,” said Oakford.

Sue Wylie, a longtime Lexington talk radio host for WVLK-590 AM and a television anchor before that, announced her retirement Monday. "I thought about it a long time," she said. "Your heart just tells you when it's time to go." Wylie leaves a considerable legacy. Recognized as a pioneering woman in broadcasting, she was inducted into the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame in 1999.

  It is not unusual for Bianca Spriggs to be reading her poetry on a Saturday night. But something is different this evening at Lexington’s West Sixth Brewing: A lot of people in the audience have portions of Spriggs’ poem, “The _______ of the Universe,” written on their bodies. It’s a Magnetic Poetry party for the Lexington Tattoo Project, the latest community involvement art project from Lexington artists Kurt Gohde and Kremena Todorova.

Cue a power ballad, stretch your arms out like you're king of the world and scribble "Oct. 5, 2013" in your sketch book because a Titanic exhibit is coming this fall to Lexington Center Museum & Gallery. The real, haunting remnants of the world's worst maritime disaster are featured in Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition, a display that explains the fate of the 1,500 souls who perished in the cold Atlantic 101 years ago.

Trevor Jones pulled up a window blind on the second story of the Kentucky Military History Museum to reveal one of the state's most stunning views. There's the Kentucky River with little boats bobbing, downtown Frankfort, and off on a far hill, the Kentucky Capitol. It's a reminder of how impressive the Kentucky landscape can be. And the Kentucky Military History Museum is a reminder of some of the commonwealth's impressive historical artifacts.

After 35 seasons, Kentucky Repertory Theatre (formerly Horse Cave Theatre) in Hart County has turned off the lights. Jobe Publishing reported earlier this week that the board of directors voted to close the organization. Under the direction of producing artistic consultant Ken Hailey, the theater staged 14 shows in 2012, but it wasn't enough to save the theater financially or re-ignite the passion Kentucky and the theater community once held for the official state repertory theater.