On Monday, February 26th, at 5:30 pm the Kentucky Folklife Program (KFP), in the WKU Department of Folk Studies and Anthropology, hosted an online premiere of the Spring 2024 issue of its digital magazine, Kentucky Folklife. This eighth issue highlights a variety of work exploring folklore and ethnographic projects centering on the African-American experiences in Kentucky.

Editor-in-Chief Delainey Bowers, along with Kentucky Folklife Program Director Brent Bjorkman and Folklife Specialist Camille Acosta, facilitated a virtual conversation with the contributors and artists about the process behind the Spring 2024 issue on Zoom from 5:30 pm CST to 7:00 pm CST.

“Since 1989, the mission of the Kentucky Folklife Program has been to document, present, and conserve the traditional cultures and heritage of the Commonwealth,” said KFP Director Brent Bjorkman. “Through the Kentucky Folklife magazine, the KFP provides a platform from which community scholars and others throughout the state can share their research beyond their communities.”

Thanks to funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, Kentucky Folklife is a digital publication dedicated to highlighting emergent contributors exploring “folklife,” or diverse expressive cultures, across the Commonwealth. The digital magazine accepts submissions in a variety of media, including written essays, photo essays, audio/video productions, and artistic interpretations like poetry and visual arts. The editors consider submissions from those documenting aspects of expressive culture and traditions in the Commonwealth, and editors work with accepted contributors to collaboratively hone their work for publication. The Spring 2024 issue is dedicated to the power of African-American communities, traditions, and stories explored through ethnographic work.

Read the Kentucky Folklife Digital Magazine Here!

“I’m incredibly proud of how hard our contributors have worked to create an issue that highlights and celebrates Black voices throughout the state,” shares Editor-in-Chief Delainey Bowers. “I’m looking forward to the future of Kentucky Folklife digital magazine and its continued efforts to preserve and share the long-standing and emergent traditions that make our Commonwealth unique.”

The issue opens with a Guest Editor’s Letter by Emily Jones Hudson, director of the Southeast Kentucky African American Museum and Cultural Center in Hazard, Kentucky. The articles that follow are:

• “Traditional Art of LaVon Van Williams: The Living Rhythms of Woodcarving,” by Edward White
• “‘Our Land of Promise’: One Man’s Journey Towards the Historical Preservation of African American Heritage,” by Aaron Banther
• “Shifting the Power Dynamic: An Introspective on the Making of By Parties Unknown,” by Joshua Niedwick and Michael Morrow

During the online premiere of the Spring 2024 issue, participants engaged in a Q&A with the Editor-in-Chief of the magazine, the KFP staff, and the contributors to the issue.

-KFP-

Established in 1989, the Kentucky Folklife Program (KFP) is the Commonwealth’s statewide public folklife program, with the mission to document, present, and conserve the diverse traditional cultures and heritage of Kentucky. In 2012, the KFP moved from Frankfort to the Department of Folk Studies and Anthropology at WKU.

For more information, contact KFP Folklife Specialist Camille Maria Acosta: camille.acosta@wku.edu or KFP director Brent Bjorkman:brent.bjorkman@wku.edu

-NEA-

Established by Congress in 1965, the National Endowment for the Arts is an independent federal agency that is the largest funder of the arts and arts education in communities nationwide and a catalyst of public and private support for the arts. By advancing equitable opportunities for arts participation and practice, the NEA fosters and sustains an environment in which the arts benefit everyone in the United States.

-WKU-

Western Kentucky University prides itself on positioning its students, faculty and staff for long term success. As a student-centered, applied research university, WKU helps students expand on classroom learning by integrating education with real-world applications in the communities we serve. Our hilltop campus is located in Bowling Green, Kentucky, which was recently named by Reader’s Digest as one of the nicest towns in America, just an hour’s drive from Nashville, Tennessee.