Frank X Walker Poems Added, Latin Pop Artist Asly Toro to Perform, Introducing Shared Sundays, and More
It’s Juneteenth, June 19.
It’s also known as Emancipation Day, celebrating the end of slavery in the United States.
It was on June 19, 1865, that enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, finally received the news that they were free.
It’s a federal holiday, not a state holiday in Kentucky, but here in Louisville it is considered a city holiday.
And this year the city has added new activities to its Juneteenth Jubilee Celebration.
The celebration kicked off on June 10 and will wrap up tonight here at the Frazier with our program Load in Nine Times: United States Colored Troops: An Evening with Former Kentucky Poet Laureate Frank X Walker.
Frank X Walker. Credit: Frank X Walker.
Walker will debut a collection of poems centered on African Americans in Kentucky during the Civil War.
I’ve had a chance to read them, and they are powerful, all inspired by archival photographs, documents, even slave ads.
He will perform many of them tonight and talk about a very personal connection to this work.
This Bridging the Divide program is free, but registration is required. We’ve moved it into a bigger space at the Frazier because so many of you want to listen, learn, and reflect.
What a meaningful way to spend Juneteenth. We hope you will join us.
After the program, Walker will be selling and signing copies of his books, including the expanded edition of Buffalo Dance: The Journey of York, which we sell in our Museum Shop. Buffalo Dance is also the latest read by the Frazier Summer Book Club.
Coming up in today’s Frazier Weekly, curator Amanda Briede takes a deeper dive into one of Frank X Walker’s poems that will be displayed in our Commonwealth exhibition, Simon Meiners features a unique voice in Musical Kentucky that will have you struttin’, and there’s new Cool Kentucky artworks at the Frazier showing what these artists can do, not what they can’t.
Rachel Platt
Director of Community Engagement
Frazier History Museum
This Week in the Museum
Curator’s Corner: Frank X Walker Poems Added to The Commonwealth
This week at the Frazier, we are so excited to be adding eighteen new poems by Frank X Walker to The Commonwealth: Divided We Fall. These poems will be debuted this evening at our Juneteenth event featuring the poet himself. Following the event, the poems will be on display in The Commonwealth for the first time.
Frank X Walker, a Danville native, is a teacher, writer, and activist. He was the first to coin the term Affrilachia and is the first African American writer to be named Kentucky Poet Laureate. I was first introduced to Walker’s work as a sixteen-year-old while attending Governor’s School for the Arts. His words made an impact on me then, and I feel honored to work with him now.
Walker’s new collection of poems, LOAD IN NINE TIMES: United States Colored Troops, is inspired by African Americans in Kentucky around the time of the Civil War. With help from Reckoning, Inc., a Louisville-based nonprofit whose mission is to examine the legacy of slavery in America, Walker found inspiration in photographs and historic documents of the time.
Slave trade ad published in 1853. Credit: Coleman Collection, University of Kentucky Special Collections.
The poem “Why I Don’t Stand” by Frank X Walker. Credit: Frank X Walker.
Exhibits and design manager Nick Cook installs a print of the Frank X Walker poem “Why I Don’t Stand” in the Frazier’s Commonwealth exhibition, June 15, 2023. Credit: Frazier History Museum.
In one poem, titled “Why I Don’t Stand,” Walker combines the original, racist, lyrics of “My Old Kentucky Home” with the words of a slave ad published in Lexington in 1853. The combination provides a powerful contextualization from the year the song was written.
We are excited to display eighteen of these new poems and the historic documents that inspired them. The poems that we selected tell the stories of African Americans in Kentucky before, during, and after the Civil War. They help to provide greater context for the stories and objects in the exhibition.
These powerful poems bring emotion and humanity to what can sometimes appear to be static historic documents. The poems, along with the glass installation by artist Ché Rhodes, allow us to connect with history in a different, more personal way.
If you can’t make it in for the Juneteenth event this evening, don’t worry. These poems are now a permanent part of The Commonwealth, so be sure to look for them the next time you visit.
Amanda Briede
Curator
Museum Shop: Pride this Month and every Month
A selection of pride merchandise sold in the Frazier’s Museum Shop and online. Credit: Frazier History Museum.
In the words of our friends at Kentucky for Kentucky, “Y’all = All Y’all.” Get your pride stuff today and every day, online or in the Museum Shop.
Musical Kentucky: A Song from each County, Henderson–Knott
Musical Kentucky graphic. Credit: Frazier History Museum.
As a supplement to our Cool Kentucky exhibition, we’re curating a Spotify playlist of 120 songs: one song from each county in Kentucky. In 2023, once a month, we’ll share songs from ten counties, completing the playlist in December. For June, we’re sharing songs from these counties: Henderson, Henry, Hickman, Hopkins, Jackson, Jefferson, Jessamine, Johnson, Kenton, and Knott.
Speaking of Jefferson County (which is coextensive with the city of Louisville), many times since we launched this project, I’ve been asked: “Whose song will you pick to represent Louisville?” I decided to select a Spanish language artist, because, unlike the other counties, Jefferson has a robust Latin music scene, featuring artists such as A-Corde, Appalatin, Daniel Whit, Giovani, Itakma Luna, Leu-G, and Mario Santiago.
Vocalist Asly Toro performs with Billy Goat Strut Revue at the inaugural Michter’s Speakeasy at the Frazier, June 23, 2022. Credit: Frazier History Museum.
But ultimately, I picked Asly Toro. Awarded the title of Best Female Latin Artist (2019, 2020, 2021) at the Latin Music Awards Kentucky, Asly is a talented vocalist from Venezuela who moved to Louisville in 2013. I met her last June when she performed as the new frontwoman of the jazz act Billy Goat Strut Revue at the inaugural Michter’s Speakeasy at the Frazier. While much of Asly’s solo music has a slower R&B vibe, her work with the Revue is fast, lively, and fun to cut a rug to.
To hear Asly Toro and Billy Goat Strut Revue perform their Roaring Twenties numbers live, snag tickets for the second annual Michter’s Speakeasy—which is this Thursday!
A final note: my selection for Jessamine County, Hong Shao, does not currently have music streaming on Spotify. But she’s too good to pass up! So, while I work on getting her added to Spotify, check out her music via YouTube and KET.
Confessions by Reba Rambo, 1980. Credit: Light Records.
Hong Shao plays the pipa, c. 2017. Credit: Hong Shao.
Don’t Come Home a Drinkin’ (with Lovin’ on your Mind) by Loretta Lynn, 1967. Credit: Decca.
“With a Friend Like You” by Reba Rambo. (Released November 1, 1980.) In 1967, Dawson Springs, Hopkins County, tenor vocalist Reba Rambo toured Vietnam performing with her family for US troops. By 1980, she was one of the most decorated contemporary Christian soloists in gospel music. Written by Rambo and her then-husband, “With a Friend Like You” is a high-production-value pop earworm.
“String’s Mountain Dew” by Stringbean. (Recorded c. 1962.) At twelve, Annville, Jackson County’s David “Stringbean” Akeman (1915–73) traded two prize bantam chickens for his first banjo. During his decades-long stint on the Grand Ole Opry, where he wore an elongated shirt tucked into comically low-waisted pants, he adapted “Good Old Mountain Dew,” a ditty a moonshiner’s attorney wrote in 1928.
“Mañana” by Asly Toro ft. Adrian Raylo. (Released June 10, 2022.) In 1999, five-year-old Barinas, Venezuela, native Asly Toro got a singing role on the TV show ¿Cuánto Vale el Show? In 2013, she moved to Louisville, Jefferson County, where she now makes Latin pop music. She’s also the frontwoman of the 1920s-style jazz act Billy Goat Strut Revue, a staple at the annual Michter’s Speakeasy at the Frazier.
“Bring Me a Rose” by Hong Shao. (Released 2016.) Born in China, professionally trained music educator Hong Shao of Nicholasville, Jessamine County, holds workshops on Chinese music for Kentucky students and teachers. An expert on the pipa, a pear-shaped lute, she performs songs such as “Bring Me a Rose” composed by Wang Fandi. In 2006, she cofounded the Pipa Club at Scott County’s Garth Elementary.
“Don’t Come Home a Drinkin’ (with Lovin’ on your Mind)” by Loretta Lynn. (Released 1967.) Born to a coal miner and subsistence farmer in a one-room log cabin in Butcher Hollow near Van Lear, Johnson County, Loretta Lynn (1932–2022) is the quintessential Kentucky musician. In 1967, she released “Don’t Come Home a Drinkin’ (with Lovin’ on your Mind),” which became her first number-one country hit.
Simon Meiners
Communications & Research Specialist
Behind the Scenes of WDRB’s Michter’s Speakeasy Preview
There was a party at the Frazier last Tuesday that started at 5 a.m. with catered food from Bristol Catering, music by Billy Goat Strut Revue, dancing courtesy of Bravo Dance Studios, Roaring Twenties–style clothes from Nitty Gritty Vintage, and Bourbon flowing thanks to our neighbors at Michter’s Distillery.
Our parties usually don’t start that early, but they do when WDRB and Keith Kaiser come knocking to promote our Michter’s Speakeasy.
Billy Goat Strut Revue performs at the Frazier on WDRB in the Morning, June 13, 2023. Credit: Frazier History Museum.
Michter’s master of maturation Andrea Wilson prepares a cocktail in the Frazier’s Order of the Writ on WDRB in the Morning, June 13, 2023. Credit: Frazier History Museum.
Models pose wearing Nitty Gritty Vintage–provided 1920s attire at the Frazier on WDRB in the Morning, June 13, 2023. Credit: Frazier History Museum.
Here are some pictures that show the fun during our live shots. Now come join us at a more reasonable hour for the real thing this Thursday, June 22!
There is plenty of room for you and your friends, so buy your tickets here. And no worries: no passwords are needed to enjoy this night of fun at our Speakeasy. Everyone is welcome!
Rachel Platt
Director of Community Engagement
Get Tickets for Chance to Buy a 17-Year-Old Single Barrel Bulleit Bourbon
Do you want a bottle of 17-year-old Single Barrel Bulleit Bourbon?
Bourbon & Bites with Bulleit and Blade & Bow graphic. Credit: Frazier History Museum.
On June 29, we’re hosting our first annual Bourbon & Bites program featuring whiskeys from Blade & Bow and Bulleit distilleries, including a 17-year-old single barrel Bulleit Bourbon selected by our staff at the Frazier Museum. Join us for cocktails and tastings from both distilleries, including the single barrel. We’ll also have delicious bites from local restaurants Pig Beach (which opens next month!), Biscuit Belly, Bristol Bar & Grille, and Art Eatables.
And to make things even more exciting, everyone who buys a ticket to the event will get a chance to buy a bottle of the exquisite 17-year-old Bulleit Bourbon! A barrel that old doesn’t yield a lot, so each ticketholder will have their name entered, ensuring equal opportunities for all. Whether you’re a seasoned connoisseur or someone who simply appreciates the art of whiskeymaking, this raffle presents a remarkable opportunity to add a bottle of this distinguished 17-year-old single barrel Bulleit Bourbon to your collection for only $149.
Don’t miss out on this extraordinary chance to indulge in the finest Bourbons and food! Purchase your ticket today for Bourbon & Bites. But hurry, this event is almost sold out!
Haley Hicky
Product & Program Manager
New Exhibit Highlights Down Syndrome of Louisville’s Cool Kentucky Art
Twice a year I have the pleasure of receiving new artwork for our Cool Kentucky Student Art exhibit. It’s always so much fun to see how a new group of artists will interpret the question: “What’s cool about Kentucky?” They use their creativity to share drawings, photographs, mixed media, and paintings on the theme.
This is our fifth rotation and new ideas continue to flow in, with this exhibit highlighting Kentucky’s natural beauty, the Louisville Bats, Waterfront Botanical Gardens, Waverly Hills Sanatorium, and much more!
WDRB reporter Adi Schanie interviews Down Syndrome of Louisville waiver services director Shelly Durbin, June 8, 2023. Credit: Frazier History Museum.
WDRB reporter Adi Schanie interviews Down Syndrome of Louisville artist Corey Morgan, June 8, 2023. Credit: Frazier History Museum.
During the installation of the exhibit, Down Syndrome of Louisville waiver services director Shelly Durbin and artists Corey and Brian stopped by to see the exhibition come together and chat with staff from WDRB news who came to learn about and report on the project.
The next time you’re at the Frazier, be sure to stop by the Second Floor Marshall Foundation Education Center to check it out!
Megan Schanie
Manager of School & Teacher Programs
“Carpet Walkers” to Lead Tours on Shared Sundays
Here at the Frazier, they call us the carpet walkers. Many of our Admin’ offices are on the fourth floor in an area that is mostly carpeted. Our guest services folks work on the hard and durable surfaces at ground zero, the starting point for our guests’ museum visits and the epicenter of our museum engagements. I think it’s safe to say that our folks downstairs may think the carpet walkers are a bit soft.
With that in mind, our senior director of mission, a cutting-edge carpet walker herself, is scheduling all of us Admin’ types to lead tours and engage with guests all summer. The rotating schedule of unaccustomed tour guides starts next Sunday with yours truly. I, for one, can’t wait!
Each Sunday throughout the summer, our tours—and some of our tastings—will be led by staffers who don’t get to regularly engage with our guests. I think it will be great for our visitors and incredible for our team. I have led hundreds of tours at the Frazier, but it has never been anonymously, organically, and unannounced. I can’t wait to learn what I learn.
If you want to swing by, I’ll be conducting tours in our Cool Kentucky,Commonwealth: Divided We Fall, and Spirit of Kentucky® exhibitions this Sunday, June 25. I hope to see some of you here!
Andy Treinen
President & CEO
Frazier Offers Free Admission with Cultural Pass, Sundays and Mondays
The 2023 Cultural Pass is your passport to creativity!
Cultural Pass offers young people ages 0–21 and their families in the Greater Louisville area access to participate in arts and cultural activities provided by over fifty venues, free of charge, from June 1 through August 6, 2023.
As the Frazier History Museum is one of those fifty venues, the Cultural Pass admission to the Frazier can be redeemed any Sunday or Monday now through August 6!
A mother and child look at an installation in the Frazier’s Commonwealth exhibition, May 2022. Credit: Mary Helen Nunn.
A family explores the Frazier’s Commonwealth exhibition, May 2022. Credit: Mary Helen Nunn.
Designed to curb summer learning loss, the Cultural Pass program creates learning experiences through programs, activities, and education. The program fosters a life-long relationship between Louisville’s children and the city’s arts and cultural institutions.
Cultural Pass is a partnership of Louisville Metro Government, Arts & Culture Alliance, Fund for the Arts, Louisville Free Public Library and regional libraries in the Greater Louisville area, and the participating arts and culture venues.
If you’ve got a Cultural Pass, come visit us on a Sunday or a Monday!
Simon Meiners
Communications & Research Specialist
Today’s Woman Photographs 2023 Most Admired Women at Frazier Museum
When the Today’s Woman magazine staff was brainstorming locations where we could photograph the winners of our twenty-first annual Most Admired Woman Awards last month, the Frazier History Museum was our unanimous first choice. These awards celebrate the accomplishments of sixteen women who represent all facets of our community, so it made sense to photograph them in a museum that also showcases so many different aspects of our city.
When we approached Frazier president and CEO Andy Treinen with our request, his response was to throw open the doors. The Frazier team sprung into action, with director of community engagement Rachel Platt reserving a large private meeting room and communications and research specialist Simon Meiners giving us a grand tour so we could plot out two days of portraits. We had our choice of stunning and evocative backdrops—from the locker rooms and mascot displays in the Kentucky Rivalries exhibition to the speakeasies and sparkling Bourbon collection in The Spirit of Kentucky®, the 2007 Corvette C6, the movie star costumes in Cool Kentucky, and the modern outdoor atrium.
Bonhomia owner and founder Catherine Jones poses by KMAC Couture dresses on the Frazier’s mezzanine, May 12, 2023. Credit: Kylene White, Today’s Woman.
Louisville Metro Office of Equity executive director Joi McAtee poses by the balcony in the Frazier’s Gateway Garden, May 11, 2023. Credit: Kylene White, Today’s Woman.
University of Louisville director for Hispanic, Latinx, and Indigenous initiatives Mónica Negrón poses by the mascots in the Frazier’s Kentucky Rivalries exhibition, May 11, 2023. Credit: Kylene White, Today’s Woman.
We spent sixteen hours shooting at the Frazier and picking up history trivia along the way. While our director of photography, Kylene White, and I settled on a scenic setting that matched each winner’s personality and role, Simon regaled everyone with history and anecdotes and Rachel helped greet our high-profile guests. The winners clearly enjoyed this VIP experience and many mentioned that they will return for their own work events or with friends for a Bourbon tasting. And, after our two successful days, we are already thinking about other ways we can partner with this local gem of an institution that’s so immersed in all things Louisville. We can’t thank them enough for helping us pay tribute to women who play a part in making our city a museum-worthy destination.
Christine Fellingham
Chief Branding & Innovation Officer, Today’s Woman
Guest Contributor
