Kentucky to the World

Kentucky to the World is a non-profit organization based in Louisville, KY, that strives to elevate the intellectual reputation of the state through multimedia storytelling and presentation-style programs, which are primarily held at the Kentucky Center. My role in the organization, since I joined in July 2019, has been to contribute long-form editorial content that highlight the work and stories of important Kentuckians and cultural narratives to help the organization accomplish its mission.

Food for Food’s Sake: Damaris Phillips and the Art of Kentucky Cooking

I am surprisingly not related to Damaris Phillips, despite us sharing the same last name and growing up in the same neighborhood in Louisville. Still, drawing on interview footage gathered by other team members of KTW, I was able to craft a story about the Food Network celebrity chef who maintains her connection to the Commonwealth. Because of this blog, which was shared across different social media channels and within the organization’s newsletter, our new website was able to generate 228,000+ impressions.

KTW Culinary Spotlight: Chef Nikkia Rhodes Is Staying in School

I helped interview Nikkia Rhodes in her dual-serving industrial kitchen and classroom. She heads the Culinary Arts Academy at Iroquois High School in Louisville, KY, and she gave us intimate access to her facility for some compelling video footage. An immensely talented chef, she’s even more impressive in the classroom. Also, this illustration — along with all the others put out by Kentucky to the World — are produced by local artist August Northcut.

Kentucky to the World Artist Spotlight: Justin Kamerer’s Surreal Screen Printing

Leading up to the organization’s program on Walking Dead co-creator Tony Moore, the creative team at KTW decided to focus on highlighting important illustrators and artists connected in some way to Kentucky. As we did research and gathered interview footage of Tony Moore leading up to the program, we discovered his friendship with renowned screen printer Justin Kamerer. I wrote this article to showcase some of his work and his connection to our upcoming featured speaker. Kamerer, who found himself surprised by our attention, shared the article across his social channels and in his personal newsletter. His 20k+ Instagram followers were able to view the piece, and it was our first exposure to reaching a large audience in a digital space.

How Finis “KY” White’s Kentucky Identity Shapes His Success

This was my first article for the organization, which focused on the featured speaker for the program. It was fun to explore Finis “KY” White’s rise to success as a multi-platinum audio engineer for artists like Lil Wayne, 2 Chainz, and Nikki Minaj, to name only a few. Again, he shared it across his social channels, ultimately helping our overall promotional campaign leading up to his program. While I enjoyed writing this article, I can’t help but remark on how much better my titles have gotten since I first started writing for the organization.