Louisville basketball is back. Don’t take my word for it: those are the words of new U of L head basketball coach Pat Kelsey. The comeback is being dubbed Operation ReviVILLE and the question is: are you a believer?

If you have to see to believe, your first chance will be this week when the newly formed team takes the court in the Bahamas for two exhibition games as part of the Baha Mar Hoops Summer League. The team has added thirteen new players in just two-and-a-half months, courtesy of the transfer portal. That foreign tour means the gift of ten extra practices for the Cards, and a chance to solidify the “power of the unit” and build rapport and chemistry among players.

The Frazier History Museum is also giving you a chance to renew your faith in the Cards on September 17 for our special program Welcome Coach Pat Kelsey: Operation ReviVILLE. Coach Kelsey will be our special guest, fielding questions from our president and CEO Andy Treinen (a former sportscaster) and me (not a former sportscaster). But I love to ask questions about what makes people tick! And, as something really special, we’ve invited iconic media sports names like Van Vance, Paul Rogers, Bob Valvano, and Russ Brown to join us to talk about this new chapter for Cardinals basketball. There will also be time for your questions.

U of L’s Pep Band will get us hyped starting at 5:30 p.m., with Coach Kelsey taking center stage at 6 p.m. for our program. Click here to buy your ticket to join us. If you need some hype now, take a look at this video of Coach Kelsey donning a space suit to enter the transfer portal and re-emerging with the message that Louisville basketball is back!

Also, in today’s issue of Frazier Weekly, Bourbon lovers get ready for a Kentucky Hug, learn about competitions that were just too weird to continue at the Olympics, explore our Commonwealth with Simon Meiners, and local quilter Joe Mallard is in the spotlight again.

Rachel Platt
VP of Mission
Frazier History Museum

This Week in the Museum

Curator’s Corner: Coach Denny Crum’s Red Jacket

As U of L basketball fans look forward to the beginning of a new era with a new coach and hopefully a new winning record, we are looking back at one of Louisville’s iconic coaches: Denny Crum. We honored Coach Crum at a special program in 2022 featuring several former U of L coaches and players. It was a touching evening, with special guests sharing stories and laughter. We continue to honor Crum, who passed away in 2023, by displaying one of his iconic red sport coats in our Cool Kentucky exhibition. We are lucky enough to have this jacket on loan from Crum’s family. The coat is featured in a case featuring several other U of L objects, including a basketball signed by the 1980 championship team and the basketball from Crum’s 500th career victory, alongside some things from that blue team in Lexington.

Next time you are at the Frazier, be sure to stop by the Competitive Kentucky gallery to learn more about U of L’s basketball legacy!

Amanda Briede
Sr. Curator of Exhibitions

Frazier Debuts Kentucky Hug Bourbon Tasting Experience

Getting to educate people in the museum is a part of my job that gives me great joy. Getting to educate them about Bourbon is just the added cherry or orange peel on a great Old Fashioned. We already have a great tasting menu, with our lineup ranging from Ready, Set, Go! to the blind tasting that is Flight Club. Getting tasked with creating a new experience is always a challenge I love to take on. So drum roll please . . . I present to you our newest tasting, the Kentucky Hug!

We want to continue the love of great Bourbon and of course focus on great Kentucky Bourbon in particular. There is so much rich history, from the start of the River City to all the laws that were put into place for the Bourbon industry to be what it is today. This thirty-minute tasting touches on the lore and history of Bourbon in Kentucky while serving a beautiful thematic lineup of Bourbons produced in our great state. It’s offered every day at 3 p.m. Come join us!

Heidi Janes
Sr. Manager of Operations

Thanks to All 2024 Summer Beer Fest at Frazier Attendees

Thank you to everyone who came out Saturday to enjoy 2024 Summer Beer Fest at Frazier! We had dozens of Kentucky breweries, delicious pizza, hot dogs, and other foods; and a Fun Zone with a dunk tank, beer pong, and more! We even had a costumed chicken lead festivalgoers in a rendition of the “Chicken Dance,” performed by the Brass Band of Louisville. Proceeds from tickets support the museum and our mission, so we are grateful for every one of you. Please come back next year!

Simon Meiners
Communications & Research Specialist

As part of our 120: Cool KY Counties exhibit, we’re curating a list of 120 unique sites to visit: one site in each county! In 2024, once a month, we’ll share sites in ten counties, completing the list in December. For July, we’re sharing sites in these counties: Knox, LaRue, Laurel, Lawrence, Lee, Leslie, Letcher, Lewis, Lincoln, and Livingston. I extend a special thank you to Kentucky Historical Society, whose Historical Marker Program has been a brilliant resource for this list!

Replica Thomas Walker Cabin. (36°50’21.2”N, 83°55’08.3”W) In April 1750, Dr. Thomas Walker of Virginia led five or six pioneers into southeastern Kentucky via the Cumberland Gap for the Loyal Land Company. At what is now Barbourville, Knox County, they built a log cabin—the first cabin a European built in Kentucky—and planted corn, a common ritual for claiming a tract of land.

Sinking Spring. (37°31’50.3”N, 85°44’14.6”W) On February 12, 1809, future president Abraham Lincoln was born in a one-room log cabin near this spring outside present-day Hodgenville, LaRue County. He likely took his first drink of water from the spring. It exemplifies a karst window, a sinkhole into a karst aquifer. The Lincoln family lived on Sinking Spring Farm until 1816.

Camp Wildcat Battlefield. (37°15’53.1”N, 84°12’00.7”W) On October 21, 1861, Union Brig. Gen. Albin Schoepf’s companies battled Confederate Brig. Gen. Felix Zollicoffer’s forces atop Round Hill, Laurel County, a mile east of Camp Wildcat. That night, the CSA forces retreated to Cumberland Ford. The battle is considered one of the first Union victories of the Civil War.

Big Sandy Cooling Tower. (38°10’22.9”N, 82°37’14.3”W) On November 8, 1962, Gov. Bert Combs dedicated the Big Sandy Power Plant near Louisa, Lawrence County. Its 320-foot tower cooled 120,000 gallons of water per minute for steam condensing. Using a natural draft of air instead of mechanically forced air, it was said to be the only tower of its kind in the Western Hemisphere.

Daniel Boone Backcountry Byway. (37°37’12.8”N, 83°40’26.0”W) Established in 2016 by the Southern Four Wheel Drive Association, the DBBB is a 98.7-mile system of high-clearance 4wd routes and unimproved county and public roads for offroading. Centered around the Red River Gorge and Daniel Boone National Forest, it passes this spot at Hell Creek Road in Lee County.

Frontier Nursing University. (37°09’53.7”N, 83°22’43.4”W) In 1925, Mary Breckinridge founded the Frontier Nursing Service. Midwives from England helped to bring medical service that saved hundreds of mothers and babies of “remote hollows and hills of Clay, Leslie, and Perry counties.” In 1928, a twenty-eight-bed hospital opened here near Hickory Street in Hyden, Leslie County.

Kingdom Come Overlook. (37°00’19.2”N, 82°57’40.4”W) In the early 1800s, deeply religious and God-fearing settlers in eastern Kentucky dubbed this fertile valley “Kingdom Come”—a phrase borrowed from the Lord’s Prayer. This overlook on Little Shepherd Trail along the southern border of Letcher County offers a scenic view down into Kingdom Come State Park in Harlan County.

Pin Oak Tree. (38°35’04.3”N, 83°25’11.9”W) Located off KY 10 and Ben Willen Branch south of Vanceburg, Lewis County, is one of the largest and oldest pin- or swamp-oak trees in the world. In 1970, State Highway Commissioner Eugene Goss adjusted a highway construction to spare the then-150-year-old tree. Its trunk circumference was 16.2 feet and total height was fifty-eight feet.

St. Asaph’s. (37°31’49.5”N, 84°40’40.3”W) On May 1, 1775, Col. Benjamin Logan pitched a camp here at the spring one mile west of present-day Stanford, Lincoln County. He went on to build a fort here, called St. Asaph’s or Logan’s Station. According to one story, as May 1 is the feast day of Saint Asaph, who lived in sixth-century Wales, a Welshman in Logan’s party suggested the name.

Mantle Rock. (37°21’06.6”N, 88°25’43.8”W) Located just west of Joy, Livingston County, Mantle Rock is the largest natural bridge east of the Mississippi River. The 154-foot-long alcove arch has a thirty-foot-tall opening. During the winter of 1838–39, about 1,800 Cherokees forcibly displaced to Oklahoma on the Trail of Tears waited here for the impassable frozen Ohio River to thaw.

Simon Meiners
Communications & Research Specialist

Lights on Main Exhibition to Return for the 2024 Holiday Season

How would you and your organization like to be an active participant in the 2024 Lights on Main exhibition?

Is your organization ready to be part of a truly sensational holiday experience for Christmas 2024? Look no further than the Lights on Main exhibition, hosted by the Frazier Museum in partnership with I Would Rather Be Reading! From November 20 to January 6, our museum will be transformed into a dazzling holiday wonderland featuring up to 100 beautifully decorated trees by local companies and organizations.

Sponsoring a Corporate Tree for the six-week event is an incredible opportunity for your company to shine. The inaugural Lights on Main in 2023 attracted over 9,000 visitors, all of whom enjoyed the spectacular displays and learned about the sponsors behind them. For just $1,000, you can sponsor a tree, and your contribution is tax-deductible, supporting both the Frazier History Museum’s Title 1 school field trips and I Would Rather Be Reading’s after-school programs.

Lights on Main is more than just an exhibition. It’s a fantastic holiday experience that will create cherished memories for you and your organization, all while making a positive impact on children’s lives during the holiday season.

To reserve a space for your organization’s tree, contact me at syates@fraziermuseum.org or Frazier membership and partnership manager Leslie Anderson at landerson@fraiermuseum.org. You and your organization do not want to miss out on this festive and worthwhile opportunity!

Stephen Yates
Community & Corporate Sales Manager

My good friend Joe Mallard is in the spotlight again, and deservedly so. Four of his quilts are now on display at the National Quilt Museum in Paducah. As Joe says, that museum is a “Mecca” for quilters and quilts around the world. Joe was part of a program on quilts we held at the Frazier in January, and I have a feeling we will have more news to share about Joe and his quilts in the coming months. Take the time to read about Joe, his quilts, and why every time I get together with him, I leave a better person.—Rachel Platt, VP of Mission

Sunshine Joe Mallard: Threading his Grandmother’s Needles
National Quilt Museum Exhibit
July 26–November 12, 2024

Mr. Mallard’s quilts are unique in that they are comprised of tens of thousands of tiny, colorful, hand-tied knots and stitches. He traces an outline of his design on canvas, stitches neckties and other objects onto the surface, and then fills the surrounding space with a swirl of color and commentary. His quilts bloom slowly over time and, as he watches current events unfold, he stitches the names of places, people, and events into his work. In essence, his stunning quilts are “artifacts of American culture.”

About the Artist: Joseph Mallard

Born in Summit, Mississippi, “Sunshine Joe,” as he is often called, perfected his art over his entire life. Mr. Mallard learned needlecraft at the feet of his great great-grandmother Mandy Green, a woman born into slavery in the Deep South. He remembers fondly how he would thread her needles because of her diminishing eyesight. A child of the “hippie” generation in the sixties and seventies, Joe covered his clothing with artistic stitches and designs to showcase his free-spirited creativity.

Mr. Mallard was inspired by many individuals, but took a huge burst of inspiration from Rosie Greer, the former Los Angeles Rams defensive tackle who took up needlepoint as a hobby and stress reliever. He began his first large format work the day his youngest son was born, a tapestry quilt that chronicles the first twenty-one years of his son’s life. It also demonstrates Mr. Mallard’s patience, perseverance, and dedication to his craft. The large format quilts that Joe creates today typically take four to five years to complete.

Joe was given the name “Sunshine Joe” by a fifth-grade student who said, “the sunshine brings light, and you do, too.” Joe deeply enjoys teaching students the craft of quilting while discussing history and culture. He teaches in classrooms, community centers, homeless shelters, libraries, and universities. In 2022, he was artist in residence with the Children’s Defense Fund national youth program at the Freedom School in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

For more than fifty years, Mr. Mallard has chronicled world events through his vibrant and intricately detailed thread collages. Born of brilliantly colored embroidery floss, fabric, patience, and time, his quilts have been showcased in the United States and Europe. He has been profiled in Quilter’s Newsletter Magazine, featured in Linda LaPinta’s book Kentucky Quilts and Quiltmakers: Three Centuries of Creativity, Community, and Commerce, inducted in the Mc Comb Mississippi Wall of Fame, and honored with the ArtsReach “Living the Vision” Award. Joe’s feature quilts include his Obama Tie Quilt, which chronicles the first four years of the Obama administration, and an embroidered denim jacket he presented to former President Jimmy Carter, which highlights key events of his political life.

Although “Sunshine Joe” is passionate about his work, his greatest joy is knowing that God is the source, and he is the vessel. “This is the only way I know how to live my life,” Joseph said. “It is the only way I want to live my life.”

The 2024 Summer Olympics are underway with opening ceremonies that made history! For the first time, they didn’t take place in a stadium but were held in the heart of Paris along its main artery, the Seine. Several athletes from Kentucky and Indiana will compete, including Yared Nuguse in track and field. The graduate of duPont Manual High School is making his Olympic debut. Also keep an eye on fencing competitor Lee Kiefer, whose hometown is Lexington; it’s her fourth time at the Olympics. We met one of Kiefer’s family members recently at one of our engagements and she was beaming with pride. Track and field and fencing have long been traditions at the Olympics, but what about some competitions that didn’t last? Hold on, it’s going to be a bumpy ride!—Rachel Platt, VP of Mission

The Summer Olympics kicked off last Friday with 10,500 athletes representing 206 countries parading through the heart of Paris. Among the participants were runners, swimmers, divers, weightlifters, gymnasts, pole vaulters, and wrestlers, along with other athletes we have come to associate with the Olympic Games. That said, if it were possible to travel back in time to witness the Paris Olympics of 1900, one might also see duelists, dog groomers, firefighters, poets, and sculptors among the more “traditional” athletes. As the Modern Olympics was still finding its identity at the start of the twentieth century, the door was left open to try out some of the most bizarre events ever to be held on an international stage.

Take, for example, the strange and unusual “sport” of poodle clipping. During the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris, 128 participants competed in front of 6,000 spectators by clipping the hair off as many poodles as possible in under two hours. Winning gold with a grand total of seventeen (undoubtedly traumatized) poodles was Avril Lafoule, a thirty-seven-year-old farmer’s wife from France. One must wonder who supplied this canine bounty.

With Kentucky unofficially known as “the Dueling State,” it might excite some of you to learn that dueling (though outlawed in our Commonwealth) was an official event at both the 1908 London and 1912 Stockholm Olympics. At the 1908 games, competitors fired at each other with wax bullets while sporting protective gear on the torso, face, and hands. In Stockholm, however, participants forwent firing at each other in favor of mannequins with painted targets on their chests. A far more humane approach, I suppose . . .

Perhaps a bit more familiar to the average field day participant is the tug-of-war competition—first held at the 1900 Paris Olympics and lasting through the 1920 Olympic Games in Antwerp. This unusual event was noteworthy in several ways. The first being that countries were allowed to enter multiple teams, giving these nations a chance to monopolize the medal podium. Indeed, this is precisely what the United States did in 1904, taking home the bronze, silver, and gold medals. Even more peculiar (and unlike any other Olympic event before or since), tug-of-war teams could be composed of participants from different countries. This is exactly what transpired when competitors from Sweden and Denmark teamed up to defeat France for the gold medal.

As you can see, the 1900 Olympic Games were a hotbed for the odd and uncanny. Also debuting in Paris: ballooning (judged on distance, duration, and elevation), croquet (the first Olympic event to allow women competitors), and firefighting (Portugal took gold in the volunteer division, while the United States came first in the professional division). In 1912, at the behest of Modern Olympics founder Pierre de Coubertin, competitions were also held in the categories of literature, music, painting, architecture, and sculpture. Amazingly, these “artistic” events ran through the 1948 Summer Olympics in London, when concerns over the amateur status of competing artists led to them being discontinued.

Today, most Olympic events are quite familiar, with most related to some form of traditional sport. That said, a touch of the odd and curious persists into the present day with events such as the trampoline, walking, and the paradox of solo synchronized swimming. It might even be argued that the Olympics itself is a bit of an odd duck. In this case, be sure to let your freak flag fly alongside the Stars and Stripes when cheering on our US athletes!

Jason Berkowitz
Stories in Mind Facilitator

20th Anniversary Photo: Hugh Haynie Cartoons Exhibition, 2013

From 1957 to 1997, Courier Journal editorial cartoonist Hugh Haynie (1927–99) covered some of the most iconic moments in US history, from the Kennedy assassination to Watergate and the Vietnam War. From November 9, 2013, to January 26, 2014, the Frazier featured much of that work in the exhibition Hugh Haynie: The Art of Opinion. Today, visitors can find a Haynie cartoon on display in the Frazier’s Flashback: Louisville Media Through the Years exhibition.

Simon Meiners
Communications & Research Specialist

Bridging the Divide

Black Future Fest: A Celebration of Creativity in Louisville’s West End

We are excited to share some news from Shauntrice Martin, who was one of our guest artists at the Frazier this summer with camps. Shauntrice has long been a believer in uplifting more Black artists and now it is happening! Keep reading to learn more about Black Future Fest, and congrats Shauntrice.—Rachel Platt, VP of Mission

Louisville is set to make history as it hosts the first-ever Black Future Fest—a groundbreaking event that celebrates Black art, culture, and history.

Black Future Fest
Saturday, August 3, 2024
1–6 p.m.
California Community Center
1600 W. St. Catherine St.
Music, art, African dance, food, and more
Art for sale!

In 2023, a group a Black creatives came together to discuss what was missing from the local arts scene. After speaking with dozens of artists, they found that many art spaces didn’t feel welcoming . . . and some even had racist practices. From there, the team organized with local community partners to host a West End arts showcase with the eventual goal of building a Black arts district. Black Future Fest features a range of artists including painters, sculptors, and dancers. Featured artists: Sheila Fox, Ashya Denise Watkins, Daphne Walker, Timothy Sloss, Ada Asenjo, Anton Miller, Bradley Gilmore, Kenyatta Bosman, Toni McCadden, Dr. Jabani Bennett, Shauntrice Martin.

Attendees can expect live performances, art installations, workshops, music, and a children’s art station. It is a family-friendly event. Beyond the artistic showcase, the festival aims to foster economic growth by providing opportunities for Black-owned businesses to connect with potential customers.

The event promises to be a day filled with inspiration, creativity, and community. Sponsors include Speed Art Museum, Fund for the Arts, SisterSong, Play Cousins Collective, Tiger’s Eye Collective, and Okike.

RSVP for the Black Future Fest here and learn more at blackfuturefest.org.

Shauntrice Martin
Founder, OKIKE
Guest Contributor

A Gesture of “Goodwill” for DeVone Holt

I just wanted to give a shoutout to DeVone Holt, who recently had a street named after him at Twenty-Eighth and Broadway. He was a force of nature to help raise money for Goodwill’s multimillion-dollar expansion at that corner. It’s a corner of transformation with Norton’s West Louisville Hospital being built in that same vicinity with its opening set for November.

Holt, who grew up in the West End, is a tireless champion of the area, as was one of his heroes, Muhammad Ali.

It’s fitting that DeVone Holt is now the president and CEO of the Muhammad Ali Center, the first Louisvillian to fill that role.

We wish you well, DeVone, and hope as neighbors we work together to bridge divides in our community.

Rachel Platt
VP of Mission