Bibb House Museum Reunion
Russellville is home to the SEEK Museum at Bibb House, a museum that chronicles, as the acronym reflects, Struggles for Emancipation and Equality in Kentucky. The Bibb House itself is an artifact of America’s history of slavery.
“Even though it’s a beautiful home, has interesting architecture, had some nice furnishings, those things are so minimal compared to the real story of what happened here,” says Gran Clark of Historic Russellville, Inc. “That was the story of enslavement and emancipation.”
Learn more about the Bibb House and watch the video.
The Freedom Singers
In 1995, Kentucky Life met The Freedom Singers, a group that started during the 1960s civil rights movement and continued to perform and educate audiences for decades.
“What we wanted people to know was what was really going down in the nitty-gritty, everyday work in the south,” says Charles Neblett of The Freedom Singers. “You had local leaders who would get shot and killed, jailed, maimed, and the news media just didn’t pick that up. So we were kind of like a traveling newspaper.”
Read more about the Freedom Singers and watch the video.
Glass Artist Ché Rhodes
At the University of Louisville, art students can learn to work in the medium of glass thanks in large part to artist Ché Rhodes.
“I think with Ché and other [glass] artists working today, particularly the ones that he is teaching, they’re giving glass as a material the kind of visibility,” says Scott Erbes, Curator of Decorative Arts and Design at the Speed Art Museum in Louisville. “They’re showing its expressive potential, just as much as painting or video art or performance art. And to actually watch a glass artist work is essentially performance art.”
Continue reading about Ché Rhodes and watch the video.
Goatscaping
Al Dilley’s goats appear to have a life of leisure, spending their days chowing down on their favorite forages. But those goats are actually hard at work, keeping overgrowth and invasive plant species in check.
“I teach school part-time, and in the summertime I’m a shepherd,” says Dilley, owner of Glasgow, Kentucky-based Goat Browsers. “We lease goats to properties where heavy equipment and herbicides can’t be used. It’s another tool available to land manage and for land owners to do it a little bit more environmentally friendly on their property.”
