LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Dozens of people gathered inside the Kentucky Performing Art Center, Sunday, for a program called The State of Song: "My Old Kentucky Home" Faces a Changing World.
The event was organized by non-profit organization Kentucky to the World (KTW), in collaboration with Kentucky Performing Arts.
According to the KTW website, its mission is “to elevate the cultural and intellectual reputations of our Commonwealth on the global stage."
Though, Sunday, the group sponsored an event taking on one of the state’s controversial legacies: the centuries-old ballad “My Old Kentucky Home.”
The song is just about as ingrained in the grounds of Kentucky as the blue grass that grows from out of it. But the KTW program had attendees looking at it through a different lens.
“I want people to think about this song,” Madison Victor, a performer at the event said. “There is so much meaning behind that song.”
It's a meaning Victor said many people may be unaware of.
“‘It talks about slavery, and it has slurs in it,” Jayus Rasheed, with the group Mighty Shades of Ebony, said. “That's not what we want to be teaching the children and youth.”
The ballad pre-dates the Civil War. Its original meaning told the story of an enslaved person being sold down the river. It was often performed at blackface minstrel shows.
As Louisville historian Emily Bingham described it in her book “My Old Kentucky Home: The Astonishing Life and Reckoning of an Iconic American Song,” the song was “defined exclusively to meet white needs, feelings, and desires, a unity that self-consciously discriminated against its Black citizens.”
“They're major chords that make you feel happy but when you really delve into what it means, you don't feel so proud anymore,” Oren Hatchett, another member of the Mighty Shades of Ebony, said. “You just ask yourself the question, 'How long can this go on anymore?'"
The question was front and center during the program, which the non-profit organized to be dynamic and engaging.
“We've created a programming format that we feel is singular. It is unique,” Tommy Johns, director of strategic planning for KTW said.
"We look forward to furthering the Kentucky narrative through artistic and educational mediums,'' Shelly Zegart, KTW President and CEO, said in a press release. "By combining improvised musical interactions with conversation and audience participation, this program seeks to begin the conversation about how we can work together towards rewriting Kentucky's song to the world."
The program included musical performances, audience participation and conversation with musician and author Harry Pickens, blogger and activist Hannah Drake, Kentucky-born cellist and songwriter Ben Sollee, and Emily Bingham.
Sollee said he took part in the showcase in hopes of redefining the legacy of “My Old Kentucky Home.”
“I hope that we can inspire a conversation, and maybe even some action out of this,” he said.
Others, like those belonging to Mighty Shades of Ebony, said that action is clear.
“[We want] a new version or revised version of this song. I know it's hard to let go of because its been maybe hundreds of years of singing [it] with pride,” Hatchett said. “But, there's a contrast between how good the music sounds and what it actually means."
No matter your take on Kentucky's state ballad, the hopes are that a simple conversation can lead to a better state for all Kentuckians.
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