Coming up on Kentucky Life.
Explore the life and works  of renowned Kentucky author  and activist Bell Hooks.
The Lexington Writers Room  survives the pandemic  and a terrible accident  through the efforts  of their founders  and the Lexington  Creative Community.
A radio station  in Cadiz, Kentucky celebrates the history of radio  all while serving  as a shining example  of why local radio  is still so important.
And the butterfly greenhouse  at Wilson Nurseries  and Plant Company  educates Kentuckians  about the importance  of native pollinators  by providing  an up close experience.
All that's next on Kentucky Life.
Hey, everybody, and welcome to the season 28 finale of Kentucky Life.
I'm your host, Chip Polston.
We've got a great show in store for you today and check this out.
We're visiting the Hot Rod MotorTel in Morgantown.
Such a cool space.
It's modeled after a vintage garage and features some really amazing vehicles that we know car enthusiasts will really be excited to see.
Can't wait to show you more but for right now, let's dive into our first story.
Kentucky has a legacy of producing artists, writers and thinkers who become known on the national stage.
And what better example of this than legendary author, thinker and activist Bell Hooks.
Born in Hopkinsville, Hooks was groundbreaking in the feminist movement, a legacy that lives on even after her passing.
Bell, I want to say is even though she's passed because her work and her life is so present.
So, she is probably the preeminent contemporary scholar, one of the most prestigious scholars and thinkers in the country and in many parts of the world.
Bell Hooks is a feminist icon.
She was born  Gloria Jean Watkins  and later she adopted  the pen name Bell Hooks  and that is the name of her  great maternal grandmother.
She chose to not capitalize Bell Hooks because she said herself that she wanted the attention to be on the work and not on her as a personality or her ego.
Gloria was born September 25th, 1952 in Hopkinsville, Kentucky.
I think that  there's a lot about her  that people don't know,  but one thing that I think  people surely should know  about her  is that she was  an intellectual genius.
I think what's amazing about Bell  is that she names the problems  that other academics I think  talk about in abstractions.
So long have feminists wanted to think about the intersections of difference but what Bell does is she names those intersections.
She says it's imperialist, white supremacist, capitalist, patriarchy and so she names the nexus.
And her concerns were about bringing in classism and racism into the conversation of feminism.
She holds feminism's feet  to the fire and says,  if you're not dealing  with anti racism  and especially anti blackness,  you're not a feminist.
Crystal:  I mean,  I think one of her books  out of her Vinny 40  really that represented  her life's work  is feminism is for everybody.
And when I met Bell in '93 that's what hit me the most.
The first room that I entered that Bell was in was not full of academics.
That room was full of mail carriers and hairdressers and people who cleaned up and sanitation workers and all women but from all walks of life.
And I think that that was sort of the center of her work  that equal rights for women  is for women  but it's also for everybody that giving women rights empowers the children, empowers the women and also empowers the men.
Love, of course, was a concept  that she came to later on  but true love is radical.
Bell's vision  was that the wrongs in society  could be dismantled with love  like one person at a time.
One of the things that I loved that Bell says is that love is an action that it's a verb.
And so if it is, then of course, it's radical.
She would sometimes say that it's about loving yourself  enough to end domination.
And I'll quote her.
To me, I think the world has lost the love.
And if we could come back to love, things could be different.
There was a way in which  she inhabited the world  that was about the critique,  which is why people  kind of glob on to love because they see it as a break from her critique of popular culture.
But I honestly think we have to read these things together.
When Bell talks about love,  she's not describing  a state of affairs.
She's saying if we enact love in this way, justice is the destination.
What she will be remembered for  is naming the intersections  of injustice  that she thinks  love can ameliorate.
We knew of her work and we admired her for it and we appreciated it and we were in awe of it.
But when she passed, December 15th, 2021, we were... overwhelmed at the response  from all over the world.
I see her legacy as being able to change people's lives.
Reading her books and finding yourself in them has the ability to sort of make you walk differently, make you hold your body differently, gives you a certain amount of confidence for you a woman academic, mail carrier, a lunch lady.
I think knowing that Bell Hooks  was a Kentuckian  was born  and raised in Kentucky,  makes the rest of us know  that we are capable and able  to achieve greatness.
That little bookish nerdy black girls from the heels and hollers and small towns and the large towns or wherever we were from in Kentucky  could have something to say  and to use  our individual passions  for the benefit  of the larger community.
Lexington author Lisa Haneberg had an idea to create a safe and enjoyable space for Lexington writers where they could create new work.
A co-working and event space, the Lexington Writer's Room weathered the pandemic and start up growing pains only to see the dream nearly destroyed in 2022.
Luckily, the Lexington Creative Community responded, helping the writers room literally rise from the ashes.
Lisa:  Imagine a space,  it has a comfortable vibe,  it has rooms  where people can collaborate.
There are quite corners,  everyone's needs are met.
It was something that I could feel, I could see... in my mind, but I knew did not exist.
It's a place for writers.
And from that, the idea of the Lexington Writer's Room was born.
What if we had a space  that was where writers write.
The business world  already thought about  how do you set up space  to help people  do their best work  and to create community.
The literary arts world had not as much.
And so,  while this is a community  that wants to  support the writers, there hasn't been a place for them to go.
Gwenda:  The Lexington Writer's Room  is a community co-working  and event space for writers.
It's a place for writers to write,  to meet other writers, to get support and advice.
Lisa:  The notion  for what the Lexington  Writer's Room would become, didn't really get fleshed out until I met with Gwenda Bond and Christopher Rowe.
So, she heard of us from the Carnegie Center and we heard of her from out of nowhere.
She calls us down to her office.
She lays out this completely crazy, super ambitious plan to build a new writing community and shared workspace in Lexington, which has a tremendous, extraordinary, supple, vibrant, diverse writing community.
She wanted some place to bring that all together.
She had a plan, we looked at it and we said, "You know, if this could work."
You know, writers room is one important part of this writerly or literary community that we have.
And that's what most of these organizations and individuals do is they take something that's already rolling and say, "Okay, I'm going to donate my little push to it."
Gwenda: So, we started out at Base 110,  which was fabulous for us.
We had our first open house, our soft launch the week the pandemic closed everything.
So, ideal time to start a co-working space really.
And while that was tragic and awful, it gave us time to think.
And one of the things we realized is that we didn't have enough space.
We went from a notion to a community in a matter of weeks and months.
It was amazing.
Lisa:  And we found a space  in a 200 year old building,  a block away  from the Carnegie Center  right in the middle of  the literary hub of Lexington.
It was awesome.
We made it cozy and warm  and interesting and quirky.
We were coming out of the pandemic.
We were getting our funding together.
We were building our community... And we did start to grow there and we thought it was our dream space.
And then it was gone.
TV Reporter:  A piece of Lexington history was lost in a fire overnight... TV Reporter:  And all that windy weather  helped fuel the flames.
All this happening  around 3:30 this morning  at a building  on West Second Street,  WLEX-18's,  Evelyn Schultz has the story.
Evelyn:  Flames destroyed  multiple businesses,  including a law office  and a nonprofit called  The Lexington Writer's Room Lisa:  It was our building with flames coming out of the ceiling.
We lost everything.
All the art we had curated  much of which was Lisa's.
All the books that we had built.
We had a pretty  significant library, including some rare books, a lot of our signed personal books we had put in the collection and all those were were gone.
But you know what?
This group of people is the most determined, efficient group.
We took a step back.
We took a breath in and we made a decision.
That decision was that we were going to rise from those ashes, those literal ashes and rebuild better and stronger than we were before and that's exactly what we did.
The community came to us immediately and started helping us.
Donations were coming in.
Over a dozen local artists  immediately contacted us  and said I want to help.
We also had emails and text messages with people who had stuff,  desks, chairs, lamps.
And so, we had organizations and individuals reach out and say, I think you need this as well and we would like to provide it.
So, one of the silver linings  from all of this was that we found this space,  which is the former  Common Grounds coffee house.
And so, many of our members  and donors they came here,  they wrote here, there was a lot of connection to this space  and we had a huge work party  to put it all together.
And on June 1st, we reopened.
Now, one of the last things that we needed to transform was the mural that was on the stage.
And so, Gwenda Bond and I immediately reached out to local muralist Wiley Cadell  and asked him  if he would do a mural for us.
And it's a phoenix rising  from the ashes because we are.
We need to represent the community that we live in.
And there's people out there  who if they're not seen  and if they're not heard, nobody ever knows they're here.
And it's just a great place  for writers  to come to be in a community  that helps people  to live their dreams.
Lisa:  We're a collective of writers and this space is our muse.
The end.
During what was called the golden age of radio, families would huddle around a set in their living room to find out firsthand the news of the world and to be entertained.
A facility in Cadiz, Kentucky is celebrating the medium with a remarkable display of hundreds of antique radios all while showing how local radio stations remain a viable and important source in their community, especially in light of a disaster of epic proportions.
Radio Voice:  This is Wednesday, December 10th, 1941.
Last Sunday, December 7th,  the United States of America was attacked by armed forces  of the Japanese Empire.
Chip:  By 1934,  radios were in more than 60%  of American households.
It was the first  true electronic medium  bringing the world  into living rooms  as World War II loomed large  on the horizon.
When a small community  got their own station,  it was absolutely a point  of pride.
That was the case in Cadiz, Kentucky back in 1966  when WKDZ  first went on the air.
It was such a big event  that classes were stopped  at Trigg County High School,  so the radio station's sign on  could be played  over the intercom.
Radio Voice:  WKDZ sign on the air  11:00 AM Friday,  April 8th 1966.
Chip:  The station  was eventually bought  by Kentucky Journalism  Hall of Fame inductee  DJ Everett III  as what he thought  would be a retirement project.
Everett was already a legend  in Kentucky broadcasting,  having owned several radio  and TV Stations.
And at one point  owning the rights  for the UK Radio  Sports Network.
Working in radio was something Everett dreamed about as a kid.
Another person who dreamed  about radio as a youngster was Beth Mann.
She met Everett when she was  a sophomore in college  and he became a mentor to her.
One thing  they shared in common,  a love of old radios.
He had radios everywhere.
He had radios at his house, he had radios spread out through the radio station.
I found them out in his workshop, in his little shed behind the house.
It seemed like he was just kind of a tinkering kind of guy and he loved radio.
Chip:  When Everett died in 2012  he specifically outlined  in his will  that the radios  were to go to Mann.
He knew how much she loved them  and the business in general.
Beth:  Then I'm like, "Okay,  so what am I going to do  with the stuff that's left  in storage?"
And we were completely  out of space in our facility.
So, I thought I'll add on  and we'll build something  maybe that looks  and feels like a museum.
We'll put those radios in there  and we'll name it after DJ.
Chip:  The facility became  a passion project for Mann  who now owns the station.
She's impressively built  upon what she inherited and has created a comprehensive  history of the medium.
More than 325 radios  are in the collection  and Mann  loves seeing people's reaction  when they first walk  in the facility.
Beth:  Their face lights up  like it's Christmas morning  and almost  always they'll go somewhere  and they'll find something  where they'll say,  "Oh, my grandmother  had one of these radios."
And they remember,  they will recall  or tell me something  they heard on the radio  or tell me something  about their family member  that they shared that radio  listening experience with.
The radio room here at WKDZ captures the golden age of radio.
Some may say that time has passed.
Local radio is a tough business to be in these days.
And small stations are disappearing at an alarming rate all across the country.
But on a dark day in this region's history, the staff here provided a master class in why local radio matters.
As tornadoes ripped across the area, WKDZ and their sister station in Princeton WPKY  fought to stay on the air  to warn listeners  of the impending deadly storm.
They lost power.
Staff members rushed  to the station  with their personal generators  and extension cords  to keep broadcasting.
They then spent days on the air  telling people  where to get help.
Local radio works because it serves a community and you'd be hard pressed to find a better example of that than what happened here on the night of December 10th, 2021.
Beth:  I came in about 4:30  on Saturday morning.
I was trying  to get close to daylight,  so we could see  what our damage was.
We could get  equipment everywhere  that we needed it  to be out in the field.
We had guys still here  who stayed all night,  they were still on the air.
So, at that point, I kind of started redirecting some people to various places because we needed to cover some -- It was widespread.
Did you call people and tell them to come in?
How did that work out?
No, I did not call anybody to tell them to come in.
They just came in.
I mean, they're that committed to the community.
They knew the situation was very serious.
106.5, WKDZ 19 away from Fort Bill on the live afternoon drive.
Chip:  WKDZ and WPKY  are music stations.
For 18 days they were wall  to wall news and information  on how people could receive  and give help.
The news was heavy.
57 people in the area  lost their lives that night  but amidst the chaos,  there were amazing stories  to be found.
I remember the coroner of Cowell County coming in to talk with us.
And at the time he didn't know  if his son was alive or not.
He was out looking for bodies  and did not know for sure  if his son was one of those.
And at some point he was there pulling some things together and he got a call from his son and he told us that story on the air and Chip, we were in tears.
Chip:  The media landscape  looks far, far different  from that April day in 1966  when the switch was flipped  and WKDZ came to life.
The future of radio  to some may seem cloudy  but Mann firmly believes  what local radio can deliver  is unmatched  in the media landscape.
Beth:  Local radio in my mind has never been more important than it is today.
It is the trusted source for people.
We're there for the highs  and the lows.
We're not just there  when national media flocks  to Princeton Kentucky  for a tornado  and then they're gone.
I mean we're in church with you  on Sunday, praying beside you  for our neighbors  and our friends,  and that can't be replaced  with another source.
Butterflies play an important role in pollinating flowers and providing stability for our ecosystem.
That's why Wilson Nurseries and plant company in Frankfort created the butterfly greenhouse.
Now there you'll find more than 100 different plants chosen to attract, feed and provide a habitat for our native pollinators.
Let's take a closer look at these magnificent flying creatures.
Jennifer:  I think the main thing  that we are trying  to promote here is of course, we want to give them habitat but also one of our main purposes is to educate  and to have opportunities  for people  to just get up close  and personal  with these butterflies  to the point  where they're landing on you  and you're feeding them  by hand.
And that's just not  an opportunity?
that people have a lot.
And then also, of course, for us, we want to just continually promote  the plants  that the butterflies need  because we're a plant place.
That's what we do and everything we do is plants.
So, this has been  kind of this little segment  of Wilson Plant Company  that is a focus area  that we can do something  totally different  and very pollinator focused.
I'm the owner of Wilson Nurseries and Plant Company.
We're located in Frankfort in Lexington.
And my role here is everything that an owner and a president would do as it pertains to everything that we do here, including growing  and all aspects  of running business  and especially as it pertains  to the butterfly greenhouse.
I suppose I created it,  ideated it and designed  and built it originally  and we're in our fourth year  and we just continue to grow  and do different things  with the butterfly greenhouse.
The greenhouse as a whole is a privately supported public benefit space.
Our mission is to bring Kentuckians closer to our native pollinators and give them a new experience.
Ruth:  Inside the greenhouse  are mostly nectar plants  and we also have  some foliage areas  for the butterflies to rest on  and hide if they need to, take cover from the weather.
So, all these plants come from our greenhouses at Wilson Nurseries and that's what we focus on inside the greenhouse is nectar, providing food and shelter for the butterflies.
Jennifer:  We want people  to come and spend some time  and really in a fun way,  learn about plants  and really play.
So, the children's garden  is focused around the concept  of educational  learning centers,  but we want them to go  from place to place  within the children's garden  and be able  to learn different concepts  as and most of which  all of which I suppose relate to plants or wildlife in our case, butterflies and birds.
So, one of the most  surprising things for me,  I think in the last four years  is that I initially  really thought  that the butterfly greenhouse  was going to be,  it was going to draw  mainly families with children.
And it's been so surprising  to see all ages,  all types of people,  but really all ages  and the one  that surprised me the most  is teenagers and they're not  with their parents.
So, they take  a lot of pictures, lots of selfies with butterflies which is fine but teenagers all the time.
And it's just been really nice  to see anything  from babies in strollers  to seniors  and sometimes  much older seniors  who want to make it out here  and they're bound  and determined to be here.
So, that's nice  and really refreshing.
So, we want our customers to do research on native butterflies and what plants that they like for their host plants.
So, what plants they're going to lay their caterpillars on.
And a lot of butterflies  are very specific to that.
So, I think if you're going  to grow a butterfly garden,  it's very important  that our customers know  they need the host plants  for the butterflies.
So, do the research on that  and then provide host plants  and then also provide  the nectar plants  throughout the season.
So, not just nectar plants  for spring,  but for spring, summer,  and fall.
Chuck: We need to more than ever become stewards of the land and begin protecting our pollinators.
They do so much for us.
We don't actually really realize how much they do for us, but they pollinate, not just our pretty flowers,  but our food crops  and our forests.
So, everything  that they do for us,  we should be able to give back  in spades to them as well.
So, that wraps up season 28 of Kentucky Life.
Wow, now, I can tell you firsthand that everybody here on our remarkable crew, the folks behind the camera whose names you'll see here in just a couple moments have absolutely loved sharing these stories with you from all across the commonwealth and we're already working on season 29 with more fascinating stories on tap about this great state that we call home but for now, I'll leave you with this moment.
I'm Chip Polston, cherishing this Kentucky Life.