WKU News

WKU graduate Maxine Ray of Bowling Green was among the recipients of the 2022 Governor’s Awards in the Arts.

Ray, who earned a master’s degree in Folk Studies, received the Folk Heritage Award for her work to document and share the stories of Jonesville and other Black communities in Bowling Green.

“I’m honored and humbled to know that my work is recognized by my community as well as those outside of my community,” she told the Kentucky Arts Council.

Each year, the Kentucky Arts Council coordinates the presentation of the awards, which recognize individuals and organizations who have made extraordinary and significant contributions to the arts in Kentucky. The awards were presented Jan. 10 in Frankfort.

“Maxine Ray is a dedicated folklorist whose passionate life-long research focus has centered on Bowling Green’s African American community and been an inspiration to many,” said nominator Brent Bjorkman, Director of the Kentucky Folklife Program and Kentucky Museum. “Our university and region continues to benefit from Maxine’s ongoing insightful documentation work which has been instrumental in both driving the current Jonesville exhibit that uplifts the voices the community’s past residents and their descendants and sharing her ongoing research work and process with a growing body of community scholars who are enlivened to further gather these stories.”

The Jonesville neighborhood was removed during the 1960s as Western Kentucky University expanded its campus. As Ray collected her own family stories, she realized there were many more stories to preserve if the artistic lives and cultural expressions of Jonesville were to be remembered and honored. Her work resulted in a highway marker on University Boulevard commemorating the Jonesville neighborhood.

Ray completed the Kentucky Folklife Program’s Community Scholar training and helped found the Bowling Green African American Museum, which recently joined with the WKU Department of Folk Studies and Anthropology, Kentucky Museum and the Kentucky Folklife Program to create an exhibit telling the stories of Jonesville.

“The history of a neighborhood or an area is vital to the knowledge of the past, present and future of how we got here today,” Ray said. “Cities, towns and general areas change often in the name of growth. If you don't know the history of a neighborhood, you won't understand how the present got here or the ‘why’ when the future makes a change.”

-WKU-

Western Kentucky University prides itself on positioning its students, faculty and staff for long term success. As a student-centered, applied research university, WKU helps students expand on classroom learning by integrating education with real-world applications in the communities we serve. Our hilltop campus is located in Bowling Green, Kentucky, which was recently named by Reader’s Digest as one of the nicest towns in America, just an hour’s drive from Nashville, Tennessee.