Saving Stories

May is national Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage month and WUKY's award winning history series Saving Stories marks the occasion with a segment on a new oral history project that examines the challenges and achievements of Asians, Asian Americans, Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders living, working, and studying in Kentucky. Nunn Center director Doug Boyd highlights an interview with Dan Wu, a member of the Lexington City Council who describes his childhood as an immigrant from China, growing up in Lexington, and how his career took him from California to New York City and then back to Lexington. Wu also talks about his identity as an Asian American, how he finds community in Lexington, and why he decided to enter into local politics.

This past legislative session the General Assembly passed a bill legalizing the sale and use of medicinal cannabis under certain conditions. This landmark legislation represented a turning point in Kentucky politics and called to mind the many efforts of Gatewood Galbraith. The colorful and seemingly perennial candidate was a vocal proponent for full-on legalization. In this installment of WUKY’s award winning history series Saving Stories. Doug Boyd from UK Libraries’ Nunn Center shares audio from a 1990 interview with Galbraith where the well-known defense attorney and cannabis activist lays out his reasoning and offers up his overall positive vision for the future of the state.

WUKY's Award winning history series Saving Stories celebrates Women's History Month. Nunn Center Director Doug Boyd shares audio from a rare oral history interview with Martha Layne Collins; the only woman ever to be elected governor of Kentucky. She talks about her approach to the office, convincing Japanese automaker Toyota to build a plant in Georgetown and how she hoped Kentuckians would look back on her time as governor. Saving Stories is a collaboration between WUKY and the Louie B. Nunn for Oral History in the UK Libraries.

In celebration of this weekend's Academy Awards, WUKY's award-winning history series Saving Stories, goes Hollywood. Doug Boyd, director of the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History in the UK Libraries, shares an interview with film producer Frank Price. He was a major figure in the field of American television from the 1950's-1970's, including as an executive producer of "Ironside," before becoming head of Universal Studios and head of Columbia Pictures in 1978. Price left television to continue his career in motion pictures. He discusses some of his movies, (Gandhi, Out of Africa, Kramer vs Kramer and Ghostbusters) and why a film like Out of Africa wouldn't even be made in today's Hollywood.

In this Black History Month edition of WUKY's award winning history series Saving Stories, Doug Boyd, director of the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History in the UK Libraries highlights an extraordinary interview with Malcolm X from June of 1964. The conversation with Robert Penn Warren was part of a series of interviews the Kentucky author and poet conducted as part of his book “Who Speaks for the Negro.” The Muslim minister provides his opinions of the white race and the lasting effects of slavery and oppression on both the white race and African Americans. Malcolm X also questions the effectiveness of integration as well as non-violent tactics, like those advocated by Martin Luther King in the civil rights movement. Less than a year after this interview was conducted Malcolm X would be assassinated on February 21, 1965.

This past weekend the University of Kentucky, and all of the Commonwealth lost a treasure in former dean of UK Libraries Terry L. Birdwhistell. Over a 40+ year span with the university, the Kentucky native conducted nearly 1,000 oral history interviews and was responsible for establishing the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History. In this special edition of WUKY's award winning history series Saving Stories, Nunn Center director Dr. Doug Boyd shares the story of how and when his colleague, mentor and friend managed to score a one-on-one interview with Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis in 1981.

In this special MLK Holiday edition of WUKY's award winning history series Saving Stories, Doug Boyd, director of the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History in the UK Libraries highlights an extraordinary interview with Dr. King from March of 1964. Hear the non-violent advocate and activist at the height of his influence in a one-on-one conversation with Kentucky author Robert Penn Warren discussing the revolutionary nature of the Civil Rights movement and where he thought it should go next.

A significant milestone will be observed this weekend in western Kentucky. It was a year ago that more than a dozen tornadoes ripped through the region leaving a giant trail of death and destruction. In this edition of WUKY's award winning history series Saving Stories, Doug Boyd with UK's Nunn Center shares interviews from a project featuring emergency management personnel and first responders on the front lines during and after the December 2021 tornado outbreak in Western Kentucky. They talk about the opportunity to learn about the long-track tornadic system and how Western Kentuckians successfully overcame adversity from such devastation.

WUKY is participating in this year’s Public Media Day of Action on Thursday November 10th. It’s a movement led by Public Media For All; a diverse coalition of public media workers of color, whose purpose is to raise awareness of the negative effects of a lack of diversity, equity and inclusion in public media while sharing solutions for individuals and organizations. To provide a historical perspective of the media landscape, Doug Boyd from the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History in the UK Libraries is here with a segment of Saving Stories looking at how Lexington's daily mainstream newspapers handled coverage of African American communities. In 2004 the editor of the Lexington Herald Leader apologized for the newspaper's failures in covering the 1960's Civil Rights Movement.

In this special edition of WUKY's award-winning history program Saving Stories, Doug Boyd from the Nunn Center for Oral History in the UK Libraries shares audio from an interview between the Country Music icon and a Kentucky middle school student. It's part of the Nunn Center's Bonnet Productions collection. In 1983, students at Henderson County North Middle School, under the direction of teacher Roy Pullam, began conducting videotaped interviews with prominent people in Kentucky. The Nunn Center is now in possession of all these interviews.