Join us April 9 at the Frazier History Museum for a community conversation to learn more about Norton West Louisville Hospital opening in November. You’ll meet the newly announced leadership team and learn what services the hospital will offer as well as dozens of job opportunities. There will be a program with Russell F. Cox, president and CEO of Norton Healthcare, and Corenza Townsend, chief administrative officer of Norton West Louisville Hospital, to discuss the historic opening. It’s the first hospital to be built west of Ninth Street in more than 150 years. The forum is free and open to the public, but registration is encouraged.

Join us as Ben Chandler shares stories of his grandfather, A. B. “Happy” Chandler, who served as Commissioner of Baseball from 1945 to 1951. In 1947, Chandler was pivotal in breaking baseball’s “color barrier” by giving the necessary Commissioner approval to Jackie Robinson’s contract. Chandler supported Robinson and other players behind the scenes as they faced ongoing hostility and racism. As the nation gets ready to play ball once again, Ben will recount details of this time. He’ll also share how his own personal love of the game grew out of that family tradition. Lexington author Dorian Hairston will also join us to read from “Pretend the Ball is Named Jim Crow: The Story of Josh Gibson”, his debut poetry collection that explores the Black American experience through the lens of Gibson’s life. Louisville Bats President Greg Galiette will be here too, talking about the upcoming season and their efforts to highlight the diverse stories of baseball.

Join the Frazier History Museum, Louisville Metro Government Office of Equity, and the Courier Journal as we present March on Frankfort: The 60th Anniversary.

We’ll talk with organizers of the march, hear from people who took part, and discuss its impact. We’ll also talk about where we are today with civil rights and race relations, the threats to continued progress, and how we all play a role in making things better.

We invite anyone who took part in the March 5, 1964, march with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to join us and bring any mementos.

Some of our special guests include Rev. Louis Newby, Raoul Cunningham, John Johnson, Senator Gerald Neal, State Rep. Keturah Herron, Mattie Jones, Chaka Cummings, Charlene Holloway, Lamont Collins, and Mike Ward.

Click for streaming options.

Join author Linda LaPinta as we discuss her new book Kentucky Quilts and Quiltmakers: Three Centuries of Creativity, Community, and Commerce. As LaPinta says, we’ll consider quilts “through the lens of Kentucky history, women’s history, social history, the history of race relations, gateways to our past and doorways to our current state.” Special guests will include quilt artists “Sunshine Joe” Mallard and MJ Kinman, each of whom is featured in LaPinta’s book. They will share their quilting journeys and some of the stories behind their breathtaking quilts. Registrar and manager of collections engagement Tish Boyer will be on hand to show and discuss quilts from the Frazier Museum’s collection. Guests can purchase copies of Kentucky Quilts and Quiltmakers from the museum’s shop and the author will be available to sign them.

Stop the Stigma is a community storytelling and musical event on World Mental Health Day - October 10 - produced by LPM and the Frazier History Museum, in partnership with Tales from the Jukebox.

Almost everyone has that ONE SONG. It's the song you turn to when you need to feel lighter. Or maybe it's the song you listened to on repeat for a full year to get through the grief. Maybe it's the song you listen to when you need a cathartic cry, or to feel that warm glow of the sense-memory of where you were and who you were with when you first heard it... or both.

Hear three storytellers tell you all about their ONE SONG, then hear the songs performed by local musical artists.

Get ready for a dose of inspiration from author, blogger, and Louisvillian Jenny Smith.

It was more than thirty years ago, at the age of sixteen, she suffered a spinal cord injury while practicing gymnastics, leaving her paralyzed from the neck down.

Her book Live the Impossible: How a Wheelchair Has Taken Me Places I Never Dared to Imagine takes you on her journey of overcoming adversity as a quadriplegic.

She has traveled overseas to provide wheelchairs to developing countries, she has become an avid rower, but perhaps most importantly she has taught us all to never give up.

Join us as Jenny Smith shares her journey and lessons for all of us to live a full and active life.

Join us for a special Juneteenth commemoration with poet Frank X Walker as he debuts a collection of poems centered on African Americans in Kentucky during the Civil War.

Eighteen of those works will be unveiled as part of our Commonwealth exhibition at the Frazier History Museum.

Walker will talk about photos and archival documents that provided inspiration for the overall collection, which began with Reckoning, Inc. He will also perform some of his poetry.

Walker, a native of Danville, was the first African American writer to be named Kentucky Poet Laureate.

Guests will include Dan Gediman, Executive Director of Reckoning, Inc., historian Robert Bell and poet Hannah Drake, who will provide a special introduction.

Louisville author and podcaster Jermaine Fowler joins us to discuss and sign copies of his book The Humanity Archive: Recovering the Soul of Black History from a Whitewashed American Myth. He’ll also answer a few questions from both Rachel Platt and you, our audience.

Fowler’s book recently made the New York Times Best Sellers list, and Vanity Fair says his passion for his material is palpable.

Fowler himself will tell you his passion as a storyteller is sharing untold stories in history.

First a KET documentary, and now your chance to hear from Wade and Alice Houston in person about breaking barriers in sports and life. You’ll hear about the tough lessons they learned along the way—and what has kept them grounded as a couple and as a family.

Join us for a community forum to discuss how Metro Louisville, The Louisville Metro Police Department and Louisville residents move forward together following the recent DOJ report. U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland announced a federal judge will monitor the city’s progress in adopting reforms in the way it polices its residents.

It’s a refrain heard time and time again with African Americans researching their ancestry, the challenges of getting past the 1870 “brick wall.”

Now there is a huge breakthrough that is unlocking information and helping families find one another, thanks to research by Reckoning, Inc.

Reckoning, Inc., in partnership with the Frazier History Museum, will share that research and how it ties back to ledger books created to keep track of African American men who joined the US Colored Troops (USCT) from Kentucky in the Civil War.

What do we know about Kentucky’s Native history and how far back it dates? As part of our exhibition The Commonwealth: Divided We Fall, we know Native Peoples first arrived in the land we now call Kentucky more than 12,000 years ago. As we commemorate Native American Heritage Month, we’ve assembled a panel of experts to give us the facts, dispel the myths, and show us what has been uncovered to reveal the truth. What tribes were here? How did they live and what happened to them? And what about current day in Kentucky and beyond and the stories still unfolding? We’re also inviting guests in our audience to share their native stories.

WFPK and Frazier Museum are partnering to create an open forum for discussion about mental health and the importance of shared personal stories to STOP THE STIGMA surrounding mental health. This event hopes to create a welcoming and judgment free environment facilitated by experts from our community, and will culminate in a short concert by a musician who will also provide exposition between songs about their own mental health journey.

The Frazier History Museum will commemorate Underground Railroad Month with a night of stories, music, art, and the special reading of names unearthed through the (Un)Known Project.

The Louisville Free Public Library, Lean Into Louisville and the Frazier History Museum have partnered for a day of celebration, honoring the Louisville Western Library and vision and legacy of Reverend Thomas Fountain Blue. 

A police stop in 1968 in Louisville led to outrage, the Louisville Rebellion in Parkland, and the arrests of five Black men and one woman—a group who would come to be known as the “Black Six.”

They were prosecuted and would stand trial on conspiracy charges related to the rebellion, a case that was eventually dismissed.

Their story is part of the Frazier’s West of Ninth: Race, Reckoning, and Reconciliation exhibition. But how much do you know about it, and how does that history relate to events in our community today with law enforcement, brutality, and suspicion?

We will talk with some of the original members of the Black Six, as well as relatives, about what happened, how it impacted their lives forever, and lessons that can be applied today.

They are catalysts for change in Louisville, Changemakers, who are breaking new ground, breaking barriers, and leading us into the future. From a transformative track facility to Molo Village, elevating the arts, improving lives, and engaging in community service, they bring new ways of thinking in their respective organizations and to Louisville. Join us for their journey. Hear their message, hear their voice, and be part of the change.

For more information, click the event picture.

As JCPS discusses possible changes to the Student Assignment Plan, we look back at a school system that’s been celebrated and criticized for its plan. Our conversation centers on a way forward with diversity, choice, and access to ensure success for all students. From integration, forced busing, racial guidelines, court challenges, and now new proposals from Superintendent Dr. Marty Pollio, we talk about it all with questions from the audience.