4 minute read
ARTS AND CULTURE
from Ace March 2021
by First Media
Civic Artist in Residence
Applications for the Civic Artist in Residence program are open through March 26. This inaugural program is a partnership between CivicLex and the City of Lexington, and allows three artists in residence to collaborate with three LFUCG departments—Environmental Quality & Public Works, Finance, & Social Services—to reimagine how they work and engage with the public.
The residency includes learning how your selected department functions, attending meetings, meeting city workers, and spending time “in the field.” Artists will develop and carry out one or more projects alongside city staff.
The residency runs from June 2021 through July 2022 and selected artists will receive a stipend.
DV8 Kitchen Table Art Reveal
Fourteen central Kentucky non-profits within the recovery community paired up with local artists to create art on tables for DV8 Kitchen’s forthcoming second location at The MET this spring.
BOOKS
New Books
Kentucky author Robert Gipe’s latest is Pop: An Illustrated Novel, set in the fictional Eastern Kentucky county of Canard. Graham Marema, writing for The Daily Yonder, says of a pivotal moment in the book, “It’s a scene that seems almost wistfully fantastical, the idea of filmmakers coming into Appalachia and letting the ‘hillbillies’ tell their own story. Too often Appalachian voices are left out of Appalachian stories told at a national level. The memoir Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance is a potent recent example, receiving mixed reviews for its broad generalizations about the region. It certainly didn’t help that its 2020 film remake lacked Appalachian voices at the helm.”
Jake’s Birthday Book Drive
In honor of late Councilmember Jake Gibbs, a book drive will be celebrated during his birthday week from March 14 through 21.
Books can be dropped off at some of his favorite places like Good Foods Co-op, High Street YMCA, Sav’s Restaurant, 3rd Street Stuff, A Cup of Commonwealth and West Sixth Brewing. Donated books will be delivered to International Book Project, an organization that distributes books locally and abroad.
THEATRE
Sam Perez
Artist Natalee Chartier and the nonprofit Rachel’s House (Lighthouse Ministries) won first place in the popular vote.
Busbee, Foster, Logsdon & Vance with the Shepherds House Inc. won first place in the judge’s contest.
Team Kentucky Gallery
Kentuckians are invited to lend their artistic talents to a new Team Kentucky Gallery, which will be located in a main hall of the state Capitol in Frankfort. The gallery will feature art in six-month installments. The deadline to submit artwork for the first installment is May 15.
10-Minute Play Festival
Studio Players is accepting submissions for their Annual 10-Minute Play Festival to be performed in July 2021. Six strong plays will be featured. Any playwright may enter; only one script per playwright. The play must be a 10-minute play. All plays should be emailed, with a separate cover page, with: play’s title, author’s name, email address, mailing address and phone number. The play itself should only have the title; no identifying information contained in or on the 10-page script. Deadline for submission is March 2, 2021.
In Memory: Nick Stump
Wonderin’ where the lions are
“his generation now lives only in the stories we tell and those memories we hold close. You can’t have basketball or love without losing sometime. So, I like it that spring comes at the end of basketball season. We will take our victories and losses with hope for next year. And I will always cherish those few precious times when this old hillbilly was given a break.” —Nick Stump, “Love and Basketball,” Ace Magazine, 2014
On the bleak and icy morning of February 17, Lexington woke to the shattering news that legendary bluesman and writer, Nick Stump, had died after a brief hospitalization. As his daughter, internationally renowned DJ Marea Stamper shared with friends, “He hung on with life support, but when his ride showed up he was ready to go.”
Stump, née Michael Stamper, was best known as the frontman for the iconic Metropolitan Blues All-Stars. A patriot, poet, screenwriter, and musician, he modestly characterized his Vietnam wartime service as “low-level intel analyst.”
In recent years, pre-Covid, he’d had a standing Thursday evening gig with friends at Henry Clay’s Public House downtown.
—Lexington artist John Lackey
Stump was preceded in death in February of 2013 by his beloved bride, the writer Bonnie McCafferty. The two married in 1992. She wrote, “The wedding ceremony was much like our courtship — swift, heartfelt, slightly surreal and absolutely hilarious.” In a piece called, “The Comeback,” she later wrote movingly about her 1993 brush with death, when she suffered a double aneurysm and spent nine days in a Louisville ICU awaiting surgery.
An outdoor joint memorial will be planned for Stump and his bride Bonnie later this summer.
