The Golden Thread 2026

Co-founder, Affrilachian Poets

Multidisciplinary artist Frank X Walker holds the endowed C.R. Lezius Professorship in the Arts at the University of Kentucky and is the College of Arts and Sciences 2026-2027 Distinguished Professor. A Cave Canem Fellow and co-founder of the Affrilachian Poets, he is the author of the award-winning childrens’ book, A is for Affrilachia and thirteen collections of poetry including Load In Nine Times, winner of the 2025 Pen/Voelcker Award for Poetry and Turn Me Loose: The Unghosting of Medgar Evers, winner of the NAACP Image Award, and Buffalo Dance: The Journey of York, winner of the Lillian Smith Book Award.

Voted one of the most creative professors in the south, he is the originator of the word, Affrilachia, and is dedicated to communicating how literacy and the arts impact our quality of life. The Lannan Poetry Fellowship Award recipient has degrees from the University of Kentucky and Spalding University as well as four honorary doctorates from the University of KY, Centre College, Spalding University, and Transylvania University. Photo by Patrick J. Mitchell

Myles Gee is a 14-year-old aspiring musician from Madisonville, Hopkins County. Gee is a prodigious guitarist phenomenon who’s gone viral across social media on multiple occasions, especially for his appearances and informal jams with Billy Strings. Gee has recently appeared on the reboot of "Star Search" on Netflix and performed at MerleFest, and he will release his debut record this year.

Mady Dinh is a freshman at the University of Kentucky studying aerospace engineering with a plan to minor in creative writing. She is the 2026 Kentucky Youth Poet Laureate, 2025 Lexington Youth Poet Laureate Runner-Up, a 2024 GSA Creative Writing alum, and a 2026 SCAPA Literary Arts alum. While she mainly focuses on short fiction and poetry, you can also find her painting, crocheting, or hanging out with her friends.

Born and raised in rural Indiana, Lacey Guthrie has called Louisville, Kentucky home for the last two decades. She’s a songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose powerful voice grabbed listeners as the vocal engine of dream pop heavies Twin Limb, but her project roster spans many genres: from folk (Bunny Day & The Mercy Buckets) to punk (Reading Group) to post-punk (Ouzelum) to psych/noise (Pleasure Boys) to dark art-folk with old-time influences (duchess). In any soundscape, she finds herself at home on the hook of melody and emotion.

Lacey’s solo project is a limitless, genre-less composition and self-expression playground. Her solo records include The King of Holding Onto Things (2021) and Flower-Eating Monster (2024), with a new album in the works.

This performance is a collaboration with Amy Lee Montgomery (percussion, vocals) and Regan Heckscher (vibraphone, marimba), breathing new life into songs from Lacey’s solo albums with new instrumentation.

Hailing from Columbus, OH, Aubrielle Whitis began their professional career at BalletMet in 2014. Aubrielle relocated to Louisville in 2017 to join the Louisville Ballet. At both companies, they performed in classics like the Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, and Giselle. They also had opportunities to choreograph, such as assisting Adam Hougland in his creation of Romeo & Juliet and collaborating with Dominic Guarnaschelli on Suppression of the Heart. After five years in the ballet world, their career shifted to more contemporary and experimental styles. Opening them up to a whole new side of the dance world. Now, Aubrielle is best known for their fluid movement, strong improvisational skills, and passion for multi-disciplinary collaborations. Following that passion led to the creation of Move. Listen. See. – an immersive improv experience blending the worlds of dance, music, and visual art. This project was established in 2023 with Sarah Hawkins and Trevsax.

Angel Ballew is a fourth-generation Kentucky farmer and co-owner of Ballew Farms in Richmond. She is passionate about land stewardship, strengthening local food systems, and creating opportunities that help beginning farmers succeed. Through her work, she has come to believe that agriculture is about more than producing food—it is a way to build community, preserve working lands, and create lasting opportunities for future generations.

Before returning to her family's farm, Angel built a career in education, business operations, and federal grant management. She has spent years navigating contracts and grant funding, helping organizations turn good ideas into real projects. Today, that experience informs every part of her work on the farm, from developing new programs to helping other farmers find opportunities to grow.

Check out this short documentary about Ballew Farms!

Sara Bradley (she/her) is a James Beard Award finalist, chef, restaurateur, author and television personality. Her debut cookbook, The Kitchen I Came Home To (Ten Speed Press), releases September 29, 2026. Through more than 100 approachable recipes and personal stories, the book celebrates the traditions, flavors and people that shaped her cooking in Western Kentucky.

A Paducah native, Sara learned to cook alongside her mother and grandmother, whose Jewish heritage and "waste not, want not" philosophy continue to influence her cooking today. After more than 20 years in professional kitchens — including working under Michelin-starred chefs in New York and Chicago — she returned home to open freight house in 2015. Located in a historic railroad freight depot, the nationally recognized restaurant celebrates seasonal ingredients, traditional Southern techniques and global influences while showcasing one of Kentucky's outstanding bourbon and cocktail programs. Sara believes every dish tells a story, and freight house reflects the history, people and agricultural traditions of the region she proudly calls home.

Sara is a two-time Top Chef runner-up, finishing as a finalist on Top Chef: Kentucky (Season 16) and Top Chef: World All-Stars (Season 20). She is also the first-ever winner of Food Network's Chopped Legends tournament, champion of Chopped: All-American Showdown, runner-up on Tournament of Champions VI, and returned to compete in Tournament of Champions VII. She has cooked at the James Beard House, participated in the James Beard Foundation's Bootcamp for Policy and Change, and was named a James Beard Award finalist for Best Chef: Southeast in 2025.

Beyond the kitchen, Sara is passionate about creating a more equitable restaurant industry. As the mother of two young daughters, she champions work-life balance for hospitality professionals and advocates for breastfeeding and pumping parents, believing no one should have to choose between a career they love and their family. Outside of freight house, she and her husband raise cattle and support numerous nonprofit organizations and community initiatives throughout Western Kentucky.

Karina Barillas is co-founder and Executive Director of La Casita Center, a Latinx and feminist-led nonprofit borne from a vision of, and commitment to, accompaniment, empowerment and advocacy. That vision has made La Casita Center a respected place of safety, cultural celebration, inclusivity and belonging for families facing extreme poverty, food insecurity and lack of resources. The Center is committed to diversity: It is the only organization in Kentucky to host an annual Latinx Pride for the LGBTQ community, and openly and actively supports the Black Lives Movement. 

A native of Guatemala, Barillas is a recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship and received her Master of Education degree in Counseling in 2002 and her Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Studies in 1996, both from the University of Louisville, where she also served as president of the International Students Organization. 

Barillas previously worked for the Center for Women and Families, counseling Latina women victimized by domestic violence, sexual assault, and trafficking. She co-hosted the first Spanish TV show in Kentucky, Amigos en Louisville. 

Her reputation as an unflinching advocate in the work to create spaces affirming every member of our community as worthy of opportunity, investment and respect has earned numerous awards and recognitions, including the Center for Women and Families Women of Distinction Award; the Mexican government’s Ohtli Award; Trinity High School’s Peace Medal; the National Conference for Community and Justice Peace Maker Humanitarian Award; the University of Louisville’s Community Spirit Award; and the Arte Sana National Latina Advocate Award. The Community Foundation of Louisville also awarded Barillas its Alden Fellowship, allowing her to attain a Duke University Executive Certificate in Nonprofit Leadership. 

In 2022, Barillas became the first Latina to receive the city of Louisville’s “Keepers of the Dream Freedom Award,” and the Kentucky World Language Association’s Amici Linguarum (Friend of Languages) Award for her contribution to multilingual communities in Kentucky. That same year, Metro United Way and Louisville's Office for Women honored her as one of Louisville’s Most Impactful Women.

In 2023, Berea College presented Barillas with its College Service Award, and Kentucky Rep. Morgan McGarvey honored her with a Congressional Leadership Award. Also that year, the University of Louisville honored Barillas with its Diversity Alumni Award, which is presented to recognize graduates who have highly distinguished themselves in their professional fields and are exemplary ambassadors for the university. 

Barillas has been featured in Louisville Magazine, Leo Weekly's People, and Today's Woman. During the COVID-19 pandemic, local and national media outlets documented the commitment of Barillas and La Casita to the well-being of the Latinx community. 

Barillas is the proud mother of Ali and Fatimah, and loves to dance salsa, sing, garden and cook with her loving husband Louis.

Max Moran is a sixth-generation Kentucky farmer and a Germantown city commissioner. He helps lead We Are Mason County, a group pushing back against a proposed hyperscale data center in Mason County. Photo by Michael Swensen for NBC News 

Adrian Williams moved to Lexington, KY in 2019 and has called the Bluegrass state home ever since. A lifelong tenant, they believe that housing is a human right, and that tenants should have autonomy and self-determination over where and how they live. They have been a member of Kentucky Tenants since 2021, and came on as the organization’s Executive Director in February 2025 after a decade in library work. In their new role, they have taken on building up KYT’s operations, organization-wide strategic planning, and cross-chapter member leadership.

KY Tenants is an organization of tenants–which we define as renters, unhoused folks, homeowners with mortgages, folks in transitional housing, and anyone else who does not have direct control over where and how they live–who seek to build the power and self-determination of tenants in Kentucky. Through strategic unionization and issue campaigns, leadership development, political education, and direct action, we are fighting for a future where everyone in Kentucky has access to safe, good quality, permanently affordable housing that is governed by the community. We are moving this work forward through the organizing of building- and neighborhood-level tenant unions, the passage of city- and state-level tenant protections, and organizing for social housing, specifically community land trusts and housing coops.

KY Tenants’ Lexington chapter won public funding for an eviction diversion pilot program in 2022, a local ban on source of income discrimination in November 2023, and its first building-level tenant union, the Westminster Tenants Union, won over $20,000 in repairs across the property, interpretation in the leasing office, and a lawsuit filed through the Human Rights Commission to address mismanaged recertification paperwork of non-English-speaking tenants at the property. Meanwhile, the Morehead chapter has moved the city of Morehead to hire additional Code Enforcement officers who are strictly on inspecting new construction housing units, as well as one additional Code Enforcement officer for Rowan County. Its Morehead State University student chapter is campaigning for MSU to hire maintenance workers at a liveable wage in order to make it so that dormitories and other university buildings are properly maintained and kept in good repair. The Eastern Kentucky Community Land Trust is a social housing project of the Morehead chapter. The EKY CLT has been canvassing mobile home parks and neighborhoods to bring poor and working class tenants together to take action around taking housing off of the speculative market and into the community's control.

Susan Montalvo-Gesser is the Director of Catholic Charities for the Diocese of Owensboro. She has led the organization to help marginalized communities and provide immigration services. She has also been part of the Hispanic Alliance of Greater Owensboro and served as a federal clerk (staff attorney) for the Western District of Kentucky (Judge Joseph McKinley) and ran the Owensboro office of Kentucky Legal Aid. She ran the first Latino law clinic in Owensboro and became the first Latina to serve on the Kentucky Bar Association Board of Governors.

Montalvo-Gesser has made it a priority to always be busy helping clients. Whether it be immigration law or domestic violence, she always tries to ensure the community is informed and represented well.

Robert Gipe is the author of the award-winning Canard County Trilogy—Trampoline, Weedeater, and Pop—published by Ohio University Press. His debut novel, Trampoline, received the Weatherford Award for outstanding Appalachian novel, and the trilogy was honored with the Judy Gaines Young Book Award. Gipe’s illustrated storytelling and unforgettable characters have made him a leading voice in Appalachian literature. He is the founding producer of the Higher Ground community performance series and his creative work extends to film and television, including contributions to Hulu’s Dopesick and the feature film The Evening Hour. Gipe grew up in Kingsport, Tennessee, and lives in Harlan County, Kentucky, where his writing continues to celebrate the complexity, humor, and resilience of Appalachian life.

Mady Dinh is a freshman at the University of Kentucky studying aerospace engineering with a plan to minor in creative writing. She is the 2026 Kentucky Youth Poet Laureate, 2025 Lexington Youth Poet Laureate Runner-Up, a 2024 GSA Creative Writing alum, and a 2026 SCAPA Literary Arts alum. While she mainly focuses on short fiction and poetry, you can also find her painting, crocheting, or hanging out with her friends.

President & CEO, Kentucky Performing Arts

Louisville (Jefferson Co.)

Kim is a strong and dynamic leader in the arts community, with extensive experience in the areas of arts administration and theatre management, communications, programming, and development.  She became President & CEO of Kentucky Performing Arts in 2014. Her lifelong passion for the arts was ignited when she was a teenager by her participation as a student in the very first class of Kentucky Performing Arts' Governor’s School for the Arts. She received her Bachelors of Arts degree from the University of Kentucky’s College of Fine Arts in the Arts Administration and often returns as a guest lecturer for the program.

Kim has been awarded several honors, including the 2019 Arts Innovation Award at Louisville’s Annual Awards in the Arts Celebration as well as the 2019 Today’s Woman Most Admired Woman in the Arts.  In 2020, she was celebrated as one of Louisville’s most admired CEOs at Louisville Business First’s annual award ceremony.  Kim was also a participant in the Community Foundation of Louisville’s Alden Fellows. 

Kim is a connected national leader in the performing arts, and she represents Kentucky Performing Arts as a member of the Broadway League, the Performing Arts Consortium, the International Association of Venue Managers (IAVM), as well as the Association of Performing Arts Presenters.

Co-founder, KY RUX / Exchange Director, Art of the Rural

Louisville (Jefferson Co.) / Grayson Springs (Grayson Co.)

Savannah is Exchange Director of Art of the Rural – a national organization that works to resource rural and Native artists and culture bearers across the country to build the field, change narratives, and bridge divides. Her work to support rural arts and culture spans two decades – beginning as a Grayson Co. High school student who co-founded a local arts agency and community festival, and more recently as a National Programs Director at the Rural Policy Research Institute, board member to the Center for Performance and Civic Practice, a facilitator for PA Humanities, and as an advisor to grantmakers across South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Oregon, and New York. Savannah co-founded the Rural-Urban Exchange in 2014, and has been working with visionary Kentuckians and Minnesotans for the past decade to build stronger relationships between the people and places that share those geographies.

Frankfort (Franklin Co.) / Paducah (McCracken Co.)

Michael G. Adams is Kentucky's 86th Secretary of State.

Michael graduated from McCracken County public schools, was the first in his family to get a bachelor's degree, and attended Harvard Law School on low-income aid. Michael worked for Senator Mitch McConnell and Governor Ernie Fletcher before moving to Washington to serve as Counsel to the U.S. Deputy Attorney General in the second Bush Administration.

In 2007, Michael began private practice in election law, ultimately building a national practice in the field. He has represented several national political committees, numerous national political figures, and statewide campaign efforts in all 50 states. Because of this unique experience, in 2016 Michael was appointed to the Kentucky State Board of Elections.

Inaugurated as Secretary of State in 2020, just before the onset of coronavirus, Michael used emergency powers to conduct safe and secure elections that became a model for other states. Having expanded voter access while also tightening election integrity, in 2021 Adams presented the state legislature with the most ambitious election reform plan since 1891, and it passed both chambers with near-unanimous support.

Michael's work in making it easy to vote and hard to cheat has earned praise throughout America and across party lines. In 2023, Michael sought reelection and was the top vote getter of all candidates for constitutional office, carrying 118 of 120 counties. In 2024, the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation presented Michael the JFK Profile in Courage Award, which recognizes public servants who have risked their careers by putting the public interest ahead of their own political standing.

Michael is happily married to Christina and is the proud father of Lucia. 

Louisville (Jefferson Co.)

Chef James Coogle is an experienced, gifted, and passionate culinarian. A graduate of Sullivan University, Chef enjoys utilizing the freshest, locally sourced ingredients to create delicious, beautiful dishes. Chef has over a decade of experience in the food and beverage hospitality industry, with a resume that includes cooking for Bistro on Chestnut, Huber’s Orchard and Winery, Noosh Nosh, Jack Fry’s, Omni Hotels and Resorts, and Captains Quarters. Chef’s dishes have been featured at Taste of Derby, Taste of 502, and Bourbon and Beyond. Kentucky Performing Arts and Curved Apron Hospitality are proud to feature the culinary works of Chef James Coogle through this VIP experience.