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The commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War is now in full swing across the country and two exhibits in Louisville explore Kentucky’s unique position as a Civil War border state.     

At the Filson Historical Society, there’s a new exhibit called “United We Stand – Divided We Fall.”

It contains letters, photographs, weapons, clothing and other artifacts from the Filson’s extensive Civil War collection.

Kentucky began the war as officially neutral. It eventually became a Union state, but family loyalities and opinions on issues such as slavery could be deeply divided, resulting in the storied “brother vs. brother” scenarios.

Filson Curator of Special Collections Jim Holmberg says one of the more high profile divisions occurred within the family of Kentucky Governor John Crittenden.

“His sons actually split. One was a general in the Confederate army, another was a general in the Union army, so here’s this kind of like poster family for something like this that happens. But it did happen,” Holmberg said.

The Filson’s collection includes an 1861 letter Crittenden wrote to his son, George, imploring him not to resign his Union military commission and join the Confederacy.

“Be true to the country that has trusted in you,” the elder Crittenden wrote, “and stand fast to your nation’s flag.”

It was advice that George Crittenden would not heed. Both George and his Union general brother, Thomas, survived the war.

Joan House says it was long established that her third great-grandfather, Benjamin House and his brother, John, both served in the Union army. But she kept hearing rumors about a third brother.

“So I went back and looked at the records and it seems that the youngest boy, Sam, signed up with Morgan’s Calvary in Lexington in 1861 and rode with him throughout the war.”

House says no one really knows why Sam joined Morgan’s Confederate riders. John House was killed in the battle of Lebanon, where Sam also saw action.

While Civil War divisions have endured for generations in some families, Joan House says the surviving House brothers put aside their differences and returned to Jessamine County to work the family’s land.

They also followed their mother’s admonition not to discuss the Civil War in her home.

“The only thing that they really talked about was that they were very against war after that,” House said.

The Filson Society exhibit includes some pieces from its large collection of Civil War era sheet music. The wistful ballad “Lorena,” is about a broken engagement, but its story of longing became a favorite of soldiers on both sides.

Division, longing and homesickness are addressed in another Louisville Civil War exhibit, “My Brother, My Enemy” at the Frazier History Museum.

Many of its artifacts are on loan from the descendents of William Albert Thormyer and his son, George, German immigrants who joined the Union army but spent the war apart.

George’s great-great grandson Albert Thormyer of Austin, Indiana, came into possession of the items, including wartime letters written in German, from an uncle.

When he was up in years he said you know I want you to take all this stuff. So we decided that that would be the best place where everybody could enjoy them for some period of time, Thormyer said.

Despite his family’s rich history, Thormyer says he’s not a big Civil War buff, but that’s not the case with Joan House.

She’s the preservation coordinator for the Perryville Battlefield State Historic Site in Boyle County, Kentucky. Next October will mark the sesquicentennial of Kentucky’s bloodiest battle, where more than 1,400 men were killed.  Hundreds more would die from their battle injuries.

“I don’t think people really get what a loud, ugly, noisy, hateful place this was 150 years ago,”  House said as she and the park staff prepared to close the battlefield musuem for the winter.    ”People come out and see all the pretty trees and the flowers and it’s very peaceful. And I think the soldiers would be okay with that.”

Photos, from top: Perryville Battlefield monument, George Crittenden (from Wikipedia), Joan House, “Lorena” sheet music (from Civil War Librarian blog,  Thormyer letter (from Frazier History Museum)

The Luther Luckett Correctional Complex in Oldham County is home to about 1100 felons and one unusual theatre company.

It’s an all-inmate ensemble called Shakespeare Behind Bars. For sixteen years, the group has staged full productions of plays like Hamlet and Macbeth and Julius Casear. Each year, they do a series of performances, some for other inmates and some for the public.

This year, they’re taking on a new challenge. Shakespeare Behind Bars has recently begun rehearsing its next production: Romeo and Juliet.  One of the troupe’s first challenges: Casting.

“As far as personality traits, the feminine is not really embraced,” Hal Cobb says with a laugh. Cobb is a founding member of Shakespeare Behind Bars. He’s played numerous parts over the years. He’s serving a life sentence for murder. He’s also openly gay. “Many people try to project an ultra macho image just to survive in this place and to let down that wall can leave somebody feeling pretty vulnerable,” he says.     

Enter inmate number 166200 – Romeo.  

She speaks:
O, speak again, bright angel! for thou art
As glorious to this night, being o’er my head
As is a winged messenger of heaven

James Prichard asked to play Romeo because he identifies with the character. “I’ve been in love, I’ve lost love. I’ve taken a life,” he says. “There’s a lot of qualities that Romeo goes through that I’ve been through.”

So what about Juliet? What prison inmate is going to step forward to take on what may be the most iconic female role in all of literature? His name is Derald Weeks: “I’ve got Aryan Brotherhood tattooed on my stomach. I got SWP with some lightning bolts on my chest. It stands for Supreme White Power. You get them for committing violent acts.”

Weeks is also serving a life sentence for murder. He says for a long time he was angry and wanted to impress or intimidate the people around him. “Then one day it came into my head, what do I care what these people think when I can’t stand the sight of myself?”

Weeks’ epiphany eventually led him to join Shakespeare Behind Bars. (Cobb and Prichard are among his friends in the group.) Weeks says he was drawn to the character of Juliet because he didn’t identify with her.

“When I first got locked up, I was about 16 years old, I got out for less than year. And I’ve been back since 20 and I’m 33 now. So there’s lots of feelings expressed in that play that I never felt. So this is my opportunity to try to get that and see what happens with that feeling.”

Ron Brown is another member of Shakespeare Behind Bars. In Romeo and Juliet. Brown plays Juliet’s confidant, Friar Lawrence. Brown and Weeks have become friends, which is somewhat of a testament to Weeks’ transformation, since Brown is African American.

“When I look at Derald,” Brown says, “I’ve watched him physically and mentally commit to a role I would never dreamed he would have picked. And what you realize is that it’s not about a female, it’s about exploring a human being. And I’m really proud of him.”

Matt Wallace is Shakespeare Behind Bars’ artistic director. He’s not an inmate, but a theatre professional who chooses and directs the plays. He says traditional theatre companies try to create an experience for the audience. Shakespeare Behind Bars tries to create an experience for the actors. “By using the text, by putting themselves in the shoes of these characters, they’re becoming more empathetic, more responsible, better human beings and ultimately, better neighbors.”

According the Justice Department, about 95 percent of inmates housed in state prisons like Luther Luckett will one day go free.  

As the members of Shakespeare Behind Bars rehearse their lines their focus is on preparing to present Romeo and Juliet in the spring. But at the same time, they’re also preparing for something beyond scene numbers and monologues and iambic pentameter. They’re preparing for the performance of their lives. 

Derald Weeks sits in the middle of a circle of his fellow actors and inmates and begins reading his lines:

Romeo, Romeo

Wherefore are thou Romeo?…

What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet

Throughout November, we presented a series of radio stories honoring and celebrating immigrant entrepreneurs in our community. The five-part series culminated with a public forum in our performance studio.

Phillip M. Bailey interviewed Louisvillians about the struggles, sacrifices and successes of their lives and businesses. The conversation covered everything from discrimination to the challenges that arise when degrees and certifications obtained in one country aren’t honored in another.

For audio from the forum, listen below.

You can revisit the individual interviews at these links:

• Yung Nuyen, co-founder of VINE (Victim Information and Notification Everyday) and CEO of IVS accessible voting system.
• Eddie Maamry, proprietor of the now-closed Road to Morocco.
• Kadiatu Jalloh, owner of Maa Sha-Allah West African Restaurant.
• Papa Gueye, owner of the African Millennium Market on Bardstown Road.
• Cedric Francois, MD/PhD, Co-founder & Chief Executive Officer/President of Apellis Pharmaceuticals.

This series was made possible by a grant from the Greater Louisville International Professionals.

Cedric Francois describes the human immune system in military terms: scout cells go out looking for enemies, then signal the soldier cells to attack and destroy them. The drug therapies he’s worked to develop focus on the scout cells, which can give the wrong instructions to the fighter cells under their command. Cedric has co-founded two pharmaceutical companies now, seeking more effective therapies for asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and Macular Degeneration.

Cedric was born in Belgium, where he says, “we love the U.S.” He was working on his plastic surgery residency in Argentina, but residencies are unpaid there, and his money was running short. Meanwhile, doctors in Louisville were beginning to work on the first hand transplant. Cedric wanted to be a part of the project, so after saving some money during a year-long stint as a cruise ship physician, he headed here, or as he says, “Louisville chose me, not vice versa.”

Initially planning to stay for a few years and finish his PhD, he says he fell in love with the U.S. and that’s when he turned his attention to medical research. Cedric sat down with WFPL’s Phillip M. Bailey in the offices of Apellis Pharmaceuticals, his second drug company. He talked about his experiences as an immigrant entrepreneur in Louisville, including whether he’d ever felt he faced discrimination.

Hear more interviews in our Immigrant Entrepreneurs series, made possible by a grant from the Greater Louisville International Professionals.

Sunday marks the beginning of the season of Advent in the Roman Catholic Church—-the spiritual preparation for Christmas.

But it will also mark a major milestone for millions of Catholics across the country, including the 200,000 members of the Archdiocese of Louisville.

Sweeping changes to the church liturgy–the ritual prayers recited during Mass—go into effect.

One of the revisions involves a greeting between priest and congregation. The priest says, “the Lord be with you.”

Right now the congregation responds with, “and also with you.”  The new response will be “and with your spirit.”

It’s among many changes in the newest translation of the Roman Missal, the third since the Vatican directives of the 1960s that allowed for an English-language Mass.

This version bears the mark of the late Pope John Paul II, who called for an English translation more faithful to the original Latin text.

Dr. Judy Bullock, director of the Archdiocese of Louisville’s Worship Office, says the new missal is intended to provide a richer understanding of the Latin ritual.

“They get more of a word-for-word translation, so we’re going to actually be praying more exactly what is there for the universal church around the world.”

Bullock says by and large, parishioners she’s encountered are enthusiastic as they prepare for the changes.

But the revised liturgy has its critics.

“In general, it is not needed,” says Micheal Diebold.

Diebold spent ten years in the priesthood and remains active in a Louisville-area church.  He’s co-chair of a group called Louisville Liturgy Forum, which has been speaking out against the changes.

He says the new translation is often awkward and it contains obscure, less conversational words like “consubstantial,” and changes that he fears will mark a return to a more patriarchal church and alienate Catholics.

“They will not, in my opinion, be able to easily enter the Paschal mystery of Christ dying and rising that they can now, with the translation that we have now,” he said.

But church leaders say there’s no reason for anxiety.

“I tell people jokingly that it’s kind of like me taking a golf lession,” says Louisville Archbishop Joseph Kurtz.   ”It gives me a chance to get back and in a sense look and redo the things that I love about the game and hopefully I’ll play it a little better.”

Kurtz says, yes, there are a few words in the new liturgy that you probably won’t hear on the street, as there are now, but he doesn’t believe they will be disruptive.

“I think they will find more vivid words. I use the example that is one of my favorites is right now.  At the Eucharistic Prayer, the priest says ‘from the East to the West.    We’ll be saying in the new translation, “from the rising of the sun to the setting.” That’s poetic, it’s biblical, gosh I think it’s much more inviting.”

At the O’Bryan family home in eastern Louisville, eight members of St. Albert the Great Parish are gathered in the living room for their weekly Why Catholic? meeting. It’s a program that allows Catholics to meet in small groups and discuss their faith.

This group is not overly concerned about the changes.  Member Steve Teaford sees it as another learning opportunity.

“We take it for granted, and I think we’ve come together in a group and sort of talked about some of these things. And it’s given us a new perspective, sort of a new energy for the liturgy in a lot of different ways,” Teaford said.

While parishioners have been preparing for the liturgical changes, Archbishop Joseph Kurtz expects there will be some initial confusion with the new missal, but he hopes they will take it in stride.

“And I hope in some ways not get so serious that we don’t enjoy even making a mistake occasionally,” he said.

(Photo courtesy of the Archdiocese of Louisville)

Papa Gueye says he came to the United States for the same reasons many immigrants do: “Looking for new opportunities, escaping persecution, trying to better our lives.”

After spending a few months in New York City, Papa came to Louisville in 1997 on the advice of a friend, who told him it was a nice place to live, “especially if you want to go to school,” which—along with perfecting his English—was his primary focus.

Along the way, he noticed he and others in his community were having a hard time accessing one of the comforts of home; West African food was almost impossible to find in Louisville. He says people would make due with goods from Chinese or Mexican groceries, which have some similar dietary staples. “I’ve always been an entrepreneur myself,” he explains. “I’ve always wanted to own my own business.” He started out by using a basic business principle: identify a need, and fill it.

Papa Gueye now owns the African Millennium Market on Bardstown Road. He sat down with WFPL’s Phillip M. Bailey to talk about his transition to the US, the immigration debate, and the American spirit.

Hear more interviews in our Immigrant Entrepreneurs series, made possible by a grant from the Greater Louisville International Professionals.

Morocco native Abdel Jalil “Eddie” Maamry was working on a cruise ship when he met JoAnne, the woman who would become his wife. She was from Pennsylvania and lived in Louisville, and after two years of a long-distance relationship, he joined her here in what he calls “a big small city.”

In May of 2007 he opened Road to Morocco, a restaurant and bar on the first floor of the Henry Clay building, downtown. He served Mediterranean food and sold imported goods like carpets, glassware, jewelry and home decorations from Morocco.

Eddie says location, along with the economic downturn that affected most businesses, is responsible for the failure of Road to Morocco, and wonders if his business would have seen more success had it been in the Highlands or a neighborhood that might be more interested in ethnic foods.

WFPL’s Phillip M. Bailey sat down with Eddie at Sullivan University, where he is now a full-time professor, teaching Hotel-Restaurant Management & Beverage Management.

Find out more about our Immigrant Entrepreneur series

At the beginning of the 1980s, 22-year-old Yung Nguyen left Vietnam—one of millions of Vietnamese who fled the country after the Fall of Saigon and the resulting takeover by the Communist regime. He and two friends set out to walk and bike across Cambodia and Thailand. Of the three, only Nguyen completed the trip; his companions were arrested and imprisoned.

He made it to a refugee camp, then out of the region. “When I got to the refugee camp, I would go anywhere,” he explained, but since he had family already living here, and since he had studied the United States in school, he ended up in Louisville.

Nguyen went to college here—first at JCTCS, then in the engineering program at the University of Louisville, where he met Mike Davis, a fellow student who shared his entrepreneurial ambitions. Together, they developed VINE, a system that notifies crime victims when their perpetrators are released from custody and when court dates are scheduled. VINE is now used in 48 states and has expanded across the border to Canada.

“When we started, we just thought that we’d develop something to address a problem here locally, but then we learned afterward that it’s a national problem,” he explains. “I feel very privileged to have the opportunity to work to develop that solution.”

He sold his share in the company and is now CEO of his newest start-up, IVS, an accessibility system that allows people with disabilities to vote independently and in private.

WFPL’s Phillip M. Bailey spoke with Yung Nguyen about his journey and his experiences as an immigrant entrepreneur in Louisville.

Find out more about our Immigrant Entrepreneur series

This interview is the first in a month-long series on immigrant entrepreneurs in Louisville, made possible by a grant from the Greater Louisville International Professionals.

Coal-fired electricity is one of the reasons Kentucky’s utility rates are among the lowest in the nation. And as new pollution regulations take effect, coal is the reason Kentucky will be among the hardest hit states. Rate increases currently before the Public Service Commission are one sign of the changing tide.

In September, dozens of people showed up at a public meeting in Louisville to weigh in on proposed electricity rate increases. Most of them, like Rev. Milton Seymore, were against the higher rates.

“We don’t have no problem with the shareholders making money,” he said. “But at the same time, the shareholders cannot make their profit on the backs of the needy and the poor and the downtrodden.”

Although few would volunteer to pay more for electricity, Kentucky customers have long paid less than most Americans. In 2009, Kentuckians paid about 8 cents per kilowatt hour at home—the fifth lowest in the country.

“And that’s probably going to change,” says Andrew Melnykovych. Melnykovych is the spokesman for the Kentucky Public Service Commission, and he says Kentucky’s proximity to both the Appalachian and Illinois coalfields means that transportation costs are lower.

“The other thing that has helped keep rates down is the fact that a lot of the power plants that generate the power for Kentucky are fully depreciated,” he said. “I mean, they’ve been paid for and they’ve been paid for for a long time.”

But that’s changing, too. As the state’s coal-fired power plants age, companies are being forced to consider costly upgrades to remain in compliance with federal laws. Louisville Gas & Electric has announced plans to replace its Cane Run plant with natural gas—a move that it expects will result in a small rate increase for Kentucky Utilities customers who will be using most of the electricity.

The Kentucky Chamber of Commerce has long contended that the state’s cheap power is one factor that draws investment in Kentucky. Vice President Bryan Sunderland says it’s an advantage Kentucky has over its neighbors.

“Like anything there are a number of factors a business will consider depending on what they do,” he said. “Education is always a huge factor. Taxes, regulation and transportation. Our central location is a huge factor as well. Energy costs really is one of those competitive advantages where we see a big difference between us and some of our surrounding states.”

Kentucky does have the lowest rate in the region for industrial electricity. Industrial customers paid 4.9 cents per kilowatt hour in 2009. (The lowest rate in the country for industrial electricity is in Washington State, which relies heavily on hydroelectric power.)

But as prices rise, the challenge for Kentucky will be to attract businesses for other reasons. Jason Bailey of non-profit Mountain Association for Community and Economic Development says the commonwealth will have to learn to adapt.

“Some things are changing and we won’t ever go back to the time when electricity was as cheap as it was,” Bailey said. “So the question for Kentucky, we think, is ‘how are we going to grow jobs and grow an economy in a different setting?’ We can’t do that just by being cheap because there are cheaper places to do business regardless of our electricity prices in Kentucky.”

Bailey says as it is, most Kentuckians don’t get to take advantage of the low rates. Poor housing stock and a lack of insulation means the rates are only low on paper.

“People pay bills. They don’t pay electricity rates,” he said. “In fact, for utilities that serve around 37 percent of the population, the average monthly electricity bill for households is actually higher than the U.S. average. And for a smaller portion of utilities, the bills are at least 20 percent higher.”

The Public Service Commission will consider Louisville Gas and Electric and Kentucky Utilities’ proposed rate increase in a public hearing next week. The commissioners will make a decision on the case by mid-December.

Nobody’s going to put the pink mucket on a bumper sticker as a call to action for the environment—it’s not nearly photogenic enough—but a team of scientists is dedicated to restoring an essential part of the river ecosystem.

Tigers, grizzly bears, sea turtles and humpback whales have long been mascots of endangered species. But then…there’s the pink mucket, which once peppered river bottoms in Kentucky, but has been decimated by pollution.

Earlier this week, a team of scientists ventured into the Green River in an effort to reintroduce lab-grown pink muckets into their natural habitat.

“You better not get on my right side!” Monte McGregor warns. He’s wearing a snorkel, preparing to go underwater. “Stand on this side because as soon as I blow my snorkel, you’ll be in the direct path of my water.”

Every time he comes up, McGregor’s colleagues hand him four baby mussels to push into the river bed. The mussels are tiny…a little bit smaller than a penny.

“These animals today that we’re releasing, the pink mucket—Lampsilis abrupta is the scientific name—are just as rare as things you see at the Louisville Zoo or out in the wild in Africa,” McGregor says. But he’s trying to change that.

McGregor is an aquatic scientist with the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife and he works in one of the nation’s few mussel hatcheries. With his staff, he raises endangered species in the lab and then releases them into healthy waterways.

Nobody’s going to put the pink mucket on a bumper sticker as a call to action for the environment—it’s not nearly photogenic enough—but what McGregor’s doing is restoring an essential part of the river ecosystem.

The mussels act as filters, consuming bacteria and cleaning the water. McGregor says these bivalves are a good barometer of a river’s general health.

“These animals are probably the most sensitive animals that live in the rivers and streams today,” he said. “They’re similar to a canary in a coal mine. So if the canary dies, there’s no oxygen. Same thing in the river. If these mussels are dying off, then something’s going on in the water that’s causing that water not to be clean anymore.”

Besides killing mussels, pollution also wreaks havoc on their sex lives. Okay…so the muckets don’t exactly have sex, but their reproduction is a team sport.

It takes bass—as in the fish—to make more muckets. When a female mucket is fertilized, she incubates the larvae in her shell. Then she puts out a lure especially designed to attract bass. When the fish bites, she releases the larvae. They stay on the bass for weeks, then drop off and live alone.

“It’s not easily done. There’s a lot of chances for that chain of events to break down,” says Leroy Koch, a scientist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

“All they really need to do is replace themselves throughout their lifetime to keep their population stable,” Koch said. “But I think often they’re not even able to do that. So the immense numbers that females produce and that process, it’s not real conducive to a quick population growth.”
By growing them in a hatchery and releasing them into the river, Koch and McGregor hope to give the muckets a fighting chance in their natural habitat. The Green River has started to recover from years of pollution and now a single 10-mile stretch contains about 16 percent of all the species in the country.

Monte McGregor is in the river, too, exhilarated by his several minutes in the fifty-degree water.