another year in Kentucky

In July 2021, I attended a fundraiser at Kentucky’s Old Governor’s Mansion for the Nettie Depp sculpture. 

I was invited by Amanda Matthews, who had sculpted Alice Dunnigan and was still working to get the Nettie sculpture finalized. (If you’d like to learn more about that sculpture, I’ve republished my college capstone project here.) 

I was thrilled that Amanda had invited me to an event that celebrated Kentucky women and featured prominent Kentucky dignitaries—and really good cookies. And when I went to the bathroom, I was delighted to find a framed broadside of a poem called “In Kentucky.” I took a photo of the poem and liked that I could see myself reflected in the frame. I captioned it “self-portrait in a poem.” 

Last November, Loui and I attended the Larkspur Press Open House, an annual event that features Kentucky printmakers and other artisans. Gray Zeitz, owner of Larkspur Press, had an “In Kentucky” print for sale. I was sorely tempted, but I decided not to purchase it. 

Both times, I forgot that I had already encountered and loved that poem: in the epilogue of Alice Dunnigan’s second book, The Fascinating Story of Black Kentuckians: Their Heritage and Traditions. When I first flipped through that book in May 2021, sitting at the feet of Alice’s sculpture in Russellville, I noticed the poem and took photos. This spring, when I was working on rewriting my book about Alice, I found the poem again. 

Then I really, really wanted a broadside of that poem.

I checked with Lizz Taylor of Poor Richard’s Books, who didn’t recognize the print and noticed it was a Black Swan Books exclusive. So then we visited Black Swan Books, a Lexington bookstore I had written about in college but hadn’t visited in years. I found plenty of books to buy, including a Jesse Stuart Reader from the Kentucky section, but no broadside. So I called Gray Zeitz, who said he’d keep an eye out for another one; he called me back a few weeks later to say he’d found one. 

Loui picked it up for me this past Friday—just in time for Kentucky’s 234th statehood day tomorrow. Kentucky became a Commonwealth, part of the United States, on June 1, 1792. Stuart would eventually call it “the very heart of America.” 

I don’t yet know much about the poet of “In Kentucky,” James H. Mulligan, who was also a judge and politician. From the UK Special Collections Library, I know that Mulligan wrote the poem for a banquet for Kentucky legislators, held in February 1902 at the Phoenix Hotel in Lexington.  

The poem is very funny, and its language is lovely and loving toward Kentucky: “The moonlight falls the softest / In Kentucky; / the summer days come oftest / In Kentucky; Friendship is the strongest, / Love’s light glows the longest.” 

But the poem also contains criticism of my beloved, Mulligan’s beloved, Kentucky. The next lines are: “Yet, wrong is always wrongest / In Kentucky.” 

I can easily understand why Alice Dunnigan chose to include this in her book—her book about heroic Black Kentuckians that she felt was necessary because Kentucky children weren’t learning about Black history. Kentucky is not just one thing; Kentuckians are not just one people. I’ve quoted this many times, but I always think of how Silas House eulogized bell hooks: “She was troubled by Kentucky, but she also loved it fiercely, like the best Kentuckians do.”

I love Kentucky more than words can say, and I can’t wait to see how one and 10 and 234 more years make this Commonwealth even better.