Free Family Day Saturday, Aflora Exhibition Opening, Step into History Walking Tours, and More
With every story we tell at the Frazier, we hope folks can see themselves in history in some way. That’s why telling diverse stories is so important, not just to you but to us. A partnership with La Casita Center is expanding our footprint of those stories in new and exciting ways in our museum.
Free Family Day with La Casita Center flyer.
We have teamed up with La Casita Center for the Aflora exhibition that will open Saturday, September 13, featuring more than a dozen works by Latinx artists. “Aflora” means to flourish. To help celebrate the opening, we invite you to our free family day at the Frazier from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. for flamenco and salsa dancing, other live performances, food, crafts, and a chance to meet the featured artists alongside their work.
This is what community looks like.
“Aflora is more than an exhibition: It is a testament to the power of our community,” La Casita Center said. “Born from the belief that art belongs to everyone, it began as a way to showcase our community’s talent and has grown into a movement that transforms institutions into places of belonging. In the face of chaos and oppression, Latinx artists remind us that creativity is resistance, resilience flourishes where hope is planted, and, together, we celebrate not only art, but the unyielding spirit of seeds that refuse to be buried.”
Please join us Saturday as we fulfill our mission to inspire, engage, and educate—and to ensure everyone can see themselves in the stories we tell.
Keep reading as my colleague Amanda Briede details the sentiment behind the exhibition. Also, in today’s issue of Frazier Weekly, our popular Step into History Walking Tours are back, how you can sign up for an immersive Bourbon Through Bluegrass experience with Bernie Lubbers, plus interesting days in September.
Rachel Platt
VP of Mission
Frazier History Museum
This Week in the Museum
Curator’s Corner: Aflora Exhibition Opens this Saturday!
Artworks installed in the soon-to-open Aflora exhibition at the Frazier, September 5, 2025.
Things are getting exciting around here as we prepare for the opening of Aflora this Saturday! Aflora is an art exhibition hosted in partnership with La Casita Center featuring seventeen local Latinx artists. Curator Ada Asenjo wrote this description of the exhibition:
“Aflora began in 2019 at La Casita Center as a showcase of Latinx art and talent. It has become an annual event that not only includes an art exhibition, but opens with a fiesta complete with food, dancing, and activities. As its curator, I am honored to be partnering with the Frazier History Museum which wholeheartedly supports this year’s iteration: Aflora: We Flourish in the Midst of Chaos and Oppression. This exhibition of work by seventeen Latinx artists reflects the times and circumstances in which we are living—and how we thrive despite the odds. The work celebrates everyday moments, fractured identity, family unity, the balm that is Nature, and idyllic futures; it highlights Joy, the historical antidote to subjugation.”
Nearly all the artworks for the exhibition have been hung. We will put the finishing touches on it this week. We hope you will join us this Saturday, 10 a.m.–2 p.m., for the opening party, a free family day filled with food, music, dancing, activities, and much more. We are so proud to host this exhibition in partnership with La Casita Center. The work of these local artists honors the legacy of Latinx Kentuckians of our past and highlights the vibrancy of our Latinx communities today.
Amanda Briede
Sr. Curator of Exhibitions
Frazier’s Step into History Walking Tours Return for the Fall
Step into History Walking Tours graphic.
Last fall, we launched our Step into History walking tours. They were so popular, we offered more in the spring (and one really hot one in the summer). I’m excited once again to gather with interested folks this fall to see and share some of our favorite history tied to locations that are all within a short walk of the Frazier.
From the Great Flood to a strange fountain, we’ll cover a lot of time and a significant amount of Main Street.
The tours are included with museum admission and free for members, but you’ll need to reserve your spot. They fill up quickly!
Tours are offered on September 18, October 16, and October 23. Each tour begins at 10:30 a.m. and lasts a little over an hour.
Join us for a fun and interesting morning!
Mick Sullivan
Curator of Guest Experience
Frazier Classic Silent Auction is Now Live—and Raffle Tickets are Limited!
Myers & Co. graphic.
Damascus steel 6-knife chef set with leather roll.
Denny Crum’s cabin in Yellowstone.
The countdown is on to the Tenth Annual Owsley Brown Frazier Classic Sporting Clays Tournament—and that means our silent auction is officially open! You can start browsing and bidding on unique items and experiences, including:
· A landscape design package from Myers & Co.
· A custom Damascus steel 6-knife chef set with leather roll
· Handmade Bourbon barrel stave décor
· A stay at Susan and Denny Crum’s cabin outside west Yellowstone, July 2026
Webley & Scott 920BC Two-Barrel Combo Shotgun.
Plus, don’t miss your chance to win the Webley & Scott 920BC Two-Barrel Combo Shotgun (with case and accessories) in our raffle. Only 200 tickets will be sold at $50 each!
Both the silent auction will close and the raffle will be drawn on Friday, September 26, 2025.
Your participation supports the Frazier History Museum’s mission to preserve and share Kentucky’s history, heritage, and culture. We thank you!
Hayley Harlow
Sr. Manager of Fundraising
Frazier Launches Bourbon Through Bluegrass—and Returns to Bourbon & Beyond
Yvonne Gougelet poses with the Frazier’s Model T at a past Bourbon & Beyond music festival, September 15, 2022.
Time to shine, Kentucky! It’s Bourbon Heritage Month, the wrap-up of the Kentucky Bourbon Festival, and the opening of Bourbon & Beyond in the Bluegrass state.
For folks working in the Bourbon industry, it’s a time highlighted on the calendar each and every year. For Kentucky’s most amazing music festival, Bourbon & Beyond, the Frazier will be back in our Model T this year, taking pictures and telling national and international visitors about the place Where the World Meets Kentucky. It doesn’t hurt that we were just named the Best Museum in Kentucky by Kentucky Living magazine readers.
A sneak preview of the Bourbon Through Bluegrass tasting experience at the Frazier, 2025.
Our crew will also promote a bit of music of our own with our new Bourbon Through Bluegrass tasting experience.
It’s a concert, a comedy show, a history lesson, and a high-end Bourbon tasting all wrapped in one. Call me crazy, but I believe this experience with Bernie Lubbers and Steve Cooley is also the most creative, the most entertaining, and the most engaging tasting experience in Kentucky.
If you don’t believe me, come see for yourself!
Andy Treinen
President & CEO
Museum Shop: Kentucky Country Music Legends T-shirt
Kentucky music legends t-shirt sold in the Frazier’s Museum Shop and online.
Our exclusive Kentucky music legends shirt is here—so don’t miss your chance to own it! Tyler, Dwight, Loretta, Chris, and Sturgill: one name is all it takes to be a legend, and these Kentucky icons prove it. Many of these music legends are represented right here in the Frazier’s Cool Kentucky exhibition! Celebrate the musicians who need no introduction with a shirt that’s as iconic as they are. These shirts are available only in the Frazier’s Museum Shop and online.
Last Week’s Michter’s Speakeasy was the Cat’s Meow!
Thank you to everyone who packed the house for our 2025 Michter’s Speakeasy at the Frazier!
Michter’s served a lineup of tastings featuring four of their premium expressions. The cocktails—the Socialite and the French 75—got rave reviews. And RK Bluegrass served sweet and savory treats in the style of Old Hollywood.
The Gatsby Gang jazz band kept the dance floor filled. Best of all, Bravo Dance Studio instructor Ann Marie Werner led beginner-friendly dance instructions. Partygoers of all ages and experience levels got to learn the steps to the Charleston Boogie!
We hope you had a rip-roaring good time, 1920s-style. We’ll see you next year, guys and dames!
Simon Meiners
Communications & Research Specialist
History All Around Us
Detail of the branch of a pawpaw tree at Leesylvania State Park in Woodbridge, Virginia, April 16, 2020. Credit: Judy Gallagher, Flickr.
Did you know the pawpaw tree is a big deal in Kentucky? National Pawpaw Day is celebrated on the third Thursday in September. The Louisville Nature Center hosts an annual Pawpaw Festival on the first Saturday of September. America’s only academic pawpaw research program is at Kentucky State University, where they hold an International Pawpaw Conference that focuses on research, breeding, and cultivation of the pawpaws. We’ve asked Engagement Specialist Susan Reed to shed light on what makes this elusive fruit so special in Kentucky!—Simon Meiners, Communications & Research Specialist
Pickin’ up pawpaws, puttin’ ’em in your pocket
Way down yonder in the pawpaw patch.
Many of us remember singing this American folksong. But what is a pawpaw? Voted “the next big fruit” in 1916, the pawpaw today is largely forgotten, endangered due to its special growing needs and loss of habitat.
Originating from Central America, pawpaws were growing in North America more than fifty million years ago. Today, the pawpaw can be found in twenty-six states—and Kentucky is the second-largest habitat for them, Ohio being the first. The largest edible native fruit to North America comes from the pawpaw tree (Asimina triloba). The fruit ripens from August to October and has a taste that has been likened to a blend of mango and banana. Because of its association with the state of Kentucky, particularly Appalachia, the pawpaw is also known as the Kentucky Banana, the Hillbilly Mango, a “poor man’s banana,” and the Bandango.
The pawpaw has specific growing requirements. The tree likes sun, but not full sun, and it prefers low-lying areas. The pawpaw is sensitive to ultraviolet light, which means that pawpaw seedlings may not reestablish and grow back after forests have been clear cut. With deforestation, the pawpaw is losing its natural habitat.
The pawpaw was an important food source for indigenous peoples. The Shawnee marked their respect for the pawpaw with a “pawpaw moon” at the height of pawpaw season in September. The Iroquois mashed pawpaws and made the flesh into cakes and then dried them in the sun. The cakes were used as a travel food or mixed with water into bread. Even the older mound-building cultures included stores of pawpaw and seeds in their mounds.
Explorers Lewis and Clark and their men relied on the pawpaw for food on their travels. A journal entry dated September 18, 1806, recorded that the men were “entirely out of provisions” but “appear perfectly contented,” living “very well on the pappaws.” The pawpaw was a favorite of Daniel Boone and Mark Twain.
The pawpaw also has a rich history with American presidents. The pawpaw was considered to be the favorite dessert of George Washington, who noted in his diary on March 7, 1785: “Planted all my Cedars, all my Papaw, and two Honey locust Trees in my Shrubberies and two of the latter in my groves—one at each ‘side’ of the House and a large Holly tree on the Point going to the Sein landing.” Washington was known to like to eat his pawpaws chilled for dessert. Thomas Jefferson grew the pawpaw at Monticello and, in 1786, as minister to France, he had pawpaw seeds and plants shipped from Virginia to friends in Europe. Lastly, during his term, President Obama had a pawpaw tree planted at the White House.
As the pawpaw is considered to be a superfood full of antioxidants, amino acids, magnesium, copper, zinc, iron, potassium, phosphorus, and vitamin C, enthusiasts disagree on the best way to consume the fruit. For many, straight from the tree is the only way. But others bake the fruit into custards and pies and pawpaw ice cream is considered a delicacy. Many field-to-fork restaurants now incorporate the pawpaw into their menus.
Here in Kentucky, Appalachian cooks make a custard out of “Poppaws.” Consider this recipe:
“Seed them, mash them, add milk, a little sugar, an egg, and some allspice. Pour the batter into custard cups and set those in a bread pan with some water in the bottom of the pan. Bake at a medium heat. Stick a broom straw or toothpick in, and when it comes up clean it’s done.”
You might decide that you would like to drink your pawpaw. If that is the case, Sig Luscher Brewery in Frankfort, Kentucky, crafts pawpaw beer and Jeptha Creed Distillery in Shelbyville makes pawpaw brandy. The Kentucky-produced soda Ale-8 created a well-received pawpaw flavor this summer, but it has proven to be as elusive as an actual pawpaw.
Here's hoping that you find and enjoy this historical food!
Susan Reed
Engagement Specialist
