Paddle Faster, I Hear Stereotypes: Breaking Down “Violent Appalachia”
“Paddle faster, I hear banjos.”
In the early 2010s, this phrase felt like it was on a t-shirt in every store I walked into. Usually, it was accompanied by stick figures or silhouettes of people in a canoe. Other times the shirt inexplicably featured popular TV characters like Family Guy’s Brian and Stewie. Regardless, the phrase showed up enough that 15-year-old me took notice. And despite never having seen the film these shirts referenced, I could sense that they were mocking someone - someone who kind of felt like me.
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Creatives Collaborate on Storytelling Journeys “By Any Media Necessary”
Civic Imagination (CI) Incubator is a partnership between Western Kentucky University's (WKU) Potter College of Arts and Letters, its Innovation Campus and the University of Southern California (USC). “The program originated out of media fandom,” says Sam Ford, the Executive Director of AccelerateKY and Board Chair of Kentucky to the World. “How do people react to pop culture stories, social issues, civic issues, politics? They were using fictional worlds to tell stories in Appalachia. … This is a natural partnership. We’re matching content with an outlet.”
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Fighting Back Against Backwardness: Understanding “Degraded” Appalachia
The one I noticed the most by far is a trope I’ve come to call Degraded - the idea that Appalachians are primitive, degenerate, and destitute. Sometimes, these images are meant to be funny; others, deadly serious. In all cases, Appalachians are positioned as a society wholly separate from the rest of the world - a group that is other.
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Breaking Down Appalachian Stereotypes: How a Charity Episode of American Idol Turned Me Into a Media Scholar
It became clear to me at a young age that stories were how we learned about and connected with each other. They were a source of joy, remembrance, wisdom, and humor. But as I grew up, I realized that stories can have a dark side - especially when they’re used against you.
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Turnbuckles and Bluegrass: How Wrestling Stars in Kentucky
The next time you think about what is synonymous with our great state, don’t forget to throw professional wrestling in the mix. Kentucky is woven into the fabric of this great and entertaining brand of sports entertainment.
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Animating Icons: Carol Wyatt’s 35 Years in TV and Film
Acting as illustrator, animator, painter, color stylist, and color supervisor for shows ranging from The Simpsons to Rick and Morty, Carol Wyatt has adapted her approach over 35 years to cement her status as an authority in visual media.
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New Documentary Features Successful Magnet Program at Central High School
A Pathway Forward tells the story and celebrates the success of Central High School’s Law and Government Magnet Program through the eyes of current students and alumni. Directed by award-winner Jesse Nesser, founder of Overseas Cowboy Films, and KTW, it provides a model for other legal communities to adopt, adapt, and sustain.
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A Whiffenpoof Homecoming: Jake Latts Sets the Stage
As one of the head arrangers and Assistant Music Director for the Whiffenpoofs, the world’s oldest a cappella group, Jake Latts is “so excited to be bringing the group to Louisville.”
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Desi Lydic Offers a New Political Discourse in Kentucky
An unwavering motivation to debunk stereotypes and offer unexpected perspectives has been consistent in Desi Lydic’s work as a correspondent on The Daily Show. It was because of this commitment that she was asked to host last Spring. “It was really a total dream come true to even get that opportunity to do it for even a brief moment,” she told KTW. But after nine years at The Daily Show, it feels like she’s just getting started.
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Representing a New Kentucky: Gia Combs on Pageantry, Service, and the Future of the Commonwealth
As she gets ready for the international pageant in October, she aims to maintain the momentum she’s carried all year. And after considering how she got here and who helped her along the way, her chances this Fall are as high as her potential.
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Harry Pickens Explains the Paradox of “My Old Kentucky Home”
In an exclusive interview with Kentucky to the World, he shares how our culture’s devotions to artifacts like “My Old Kentucky Home” can be viewed as a symptom of a much larger problem – and how an educational refocusing can respond to it.
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SEDONA DELANEY RESPONDS TO ‘STATE OF SONG’
As I grew, studied history and became passionate about learning Louisville’s vast and interesting past, I realized that the world of The Stephen Foster Story was not all pretty dresses and romance. It was unbelievably dark in ways we cannot truly imagine.
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DAVID COOPER RESPONDS TO ‘STATE OF SONG’
The truth is that American exceptionalism is a lie. Moreover, for Kentuckians, the song “My Old Kentucky Home” and the play about its writer, The Stephen Foster Story, in Bardstown are lies, too.
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"Home" by Hannah Drake and Kentucky Students
As the Kentucky Derby approaches viewers across the nation will hear the controversial state song, “My Old Kentucky Home,” which has been part of the Derby Day traditions since the 1920s. As a rebuttal to the state song, Louisville-based non-profit Kentucky to the World presents “Home,” a poem by local spoken word poet, Hannah Drake, that serves as a compelling response to the Kentucky state song.
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Valerie Combs: Basketball Pioneer, Community Pillar
As she rose to the challenge of being one of the first women to receive a full-ride scholarship to U of L, she would become the first female athlete to score 1,000 points for U of L. A hall of famer, an entrepreneur, and now the Director of Development for Diversity and Engagement at her alma mater, Valerie Combs continues to be a pioneer for underserved athletes both on and off the court.
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Emily Bingham Aims to Build a New Kentucky Home
Emily Bingham’s text masterfully weaves the history of the creation of the actual song, the context of the social and political cultures that embraced it and transformed its meaning, and its still evolving legacy.
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How the WKU Innovation Campus Integrates Economic and Cultural Development
Through its role as an accelerator for small businesses, a collaboration space for people across industries and disciplines, and an incubator for tech startups and research programs, the Innovation Campus at WKU has turned its headquarters from an old mall into the epicenter for economic growth in the state.
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How OCEARCH Gives Our Oceans a Lifeline
Founded by Kentuckian Chris Fischer, OCEARCH has developed and adopted cutting-edge strategies that focus on pragmatic, forward-thinking sea conservation. And through his leadership, he has been able to disrupt the field of oceanic research by presenting data-backed solutions to real-world problems.
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Robotics, Automation, and the Future of Work in Kentucky
And while this could be an unnerving development for many who have already felt the consequences of massive economic transformations in the past 50 years, Dr. Daniela Rus, Director Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at MIT, predicts that Kentucky is uniquely poised to integrate the use of robotics seamlessly and equitably.
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