9.28.25

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the reading of the Courier Journal for Sunday,
September twenty eighth, twenty twenty five, which is brought to
our Louisville listeners the a Louisville Public Media. As a reminder,
Radio I is a reading service intended for people who
are blind or have other disabilities that make it difficult

(00:23):
to read printed material. Your reader for today is Kathy Cleary.
Will begin with the weather forecast brought to you by
w h A s Today sunny and very warm, with
a high of eighty seven degrees. Tonight clear with the
low of sixty three. On Monday, very warm with some

(00:47):
sun high of eighty six, low of sixty five degrees.
On Tuesday, mostly sunny with a high of eighty five
and a low of sixty four. On Wednesday warm with
plenty of sun high of eighty two degrees and a
low of fifty seven. On Thursday, mostly Sunday and nice,

(01:12):
the high of seventy nine and a low of fifty
eight degrees. And on Friday, again plenty of sunshine with
a high of seventy nine and a low of fifty eight.
Turning to the weather almanac in Lowville. On Friday the
high was eighty one, normal high seventy nine. Low was

(01:34):
fifty nine, normal low fifty eight. The record high was
ninety three and nineteen hundred, and the record low was
thirty nine in nineteen forty. Precipitation on Friday was zero
month to date four point one seven inches, normal month

(01:56):
to date three point one two inches, today forty three
point one four inches, and normal year today thirty six
point five three inches. The pollen counts were not available.
Air quality Saturday and today in the good range. Sun

(02:20):
and moon cycles on Sunday sunrise seven thirty six am,
sunset seven thirty pm, moon rise two seventeen pm, and
moonset eleven twelve pm. On Monday, sunrise seven thirty seven am,

(02:41):
sunset seven twenty nine pm, moon rise three oh nine pm,
and moonset none. First quarter moon will be on September
twenty ninth, full moon October sixth, last quarter October thirteenth,

(03:03):
and new moon October twenty first. Turning now to the
front page story see forward how refugee Kevin YUSNGA and
his nonprofit are striving to fill a void in the community,
and you see the full page picture on the front

(03:25):
page of mister Yusennga. He's standing with the sport coat
and button shirt in front of a bookshelf and smiling
at the camera. Turning now to the inside page for

(03:46):
this story. A Lifeline for Refugees. How one man has
helped thousands of African immigrants in Louisville. This article is
by Maggie Mandurski of The Courier Journal. Kevin Yusinga's phone
rang at all hours of the day and night. In

(04:08):
the ten years since he had left his native Rwanda,
the Louisville accountant had unwinningly become a lifeline for other
immigrants and refugees in the area. In twenty fifteen, he
picked up a second job as director of outreach at
Buckle United Methodist Church twenty eight seventeen Hikes Lane, and

(04:31):
quickly became a trusted advocate for the church's immigrant population.
Hundreds of East African immigrants in Louisville sought his council
whether a baby was about to take its first breath
or a beloved grandmother was about to breathe her last.
Sometimes he helped newcomers with job applications. Other times he

(04:55):
advocated for children in the public schools. Or problem, solved
transportation issues. If he couldn't communicate with an immigrant or
refugee from East Africa, he knew to find someone who could.
But there are roughly ten thousand immigrants and refugees from
that region in the Louisville area, and as much as

(05:16):
he wanted to, Usenga couldn't help them all by himself.
It just kept growing and growing, He told the Career Journal.
I got to a point where I realized that if
I was going to be effective and efficient in serving
the community, I needed to found an organization that could
allow me to reach out to other people. Today, Usenga

(05:38):
is a licensed pastor and the founder of See Forward Ministries,
which helps immigrants learn English, find jobs, and break down
barriers to success such as childcare and transportation. In recent months,
the Trump administration's policies have chipped away at federal grants

(05:58):
and programs available for immigrants, so now more than ever,
the nonprofit is striving to fill a void in the community.
Tax documents show that in fiscal year twenty twenty three,
more than seventy five percent of Sea Forwards income came
from government grants. The organization's annual operating budget is one

(06:22):
point one million dollars and is aiming to raise three
million dollars over the next three years, which will guarantee
the operation of its programs past the end of next
fiscal year. Since it was founded, the nonprofit has received
financial support from Louisville Metro Government and Kentucky Office for Refugees,

(06:44):
as well as the Gaines Foundation, Jewish Heritage Fund for Excellence,
and James Graham Brown Foundation, among other organizations. Ideally, YUSENGA
would instead like to see at least seventy percent of
See Forwards funds come from donations, but we realized, just

(07:05):
as any of these other nonprofits impacted by the changes,
we need to find ways to have individual donors that
can sustain and continue our work, and that's the right
thing to do anyway, Usenga said. As resources have diminished,
Usenga has been a friend raising and fundraising to continue

(07:31):
programs that help African immigrants and refugees move from survival
to a point where they can thrive. Usenga knows what
it's like to be focused solely on survival. He lost
almost all his family in the Rwandan genocide in nineteen
ninety four and spent much of his childhood and teenage

(07:52):
years ending for.

Speaker 2 (07:53):
Himself on the streets.

Speaker 1 (07:57):
It wasn't until he met an American missionary in two
thousand and five that he began to see beyond survival
and think about living. The missionary took him in and
encouraged him to apply for college in Louisville, where his
uncle lived. She told him that once he got to
the United States, he needed to find a church to
be his home. I've gotten a chance to really get

(08:20):
good support through school, through mentors, through my church, he said.
People just came up and surrounded me and exposed me
to all this support. More than a decade later, he's
paying that kindness forward every day to passers by.

Speaker 2 (08:38):
On hikes Lane.

Speaker 1 (08:39):
Sea Forward Ministries looks like any other suburban Louisville Christian church,
but inside it's the solutions driven powerhouse. The nonprofit serves
immigrants from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania,
and Somalia, among other countries. Many have resettled in the

(09:01):
United States because of war and dangerous circumstances in their homeland.
Between October twenty twenty three and May twenty twenty four,
over eighty two hundred refugees arrived in Louisville, according to
a report from the Quarterly Community Consultation on Refugee Resettlement

(09:22):
in Louisville. Of that group, eight hundred twenty two people
came from the DRC, which was only second in size
to Cuba. According to the report, a culture whiplash occurs
when someone who has spent months or years in a
refugee camp and then lands in a bustling society like Louisville.

(09:45):
Finding a job and a place to live tops the
list of immediate needs. The Seaporwerd's mission goes much deeper.
They were struggling to make it to the next day
and to make sense of their life here. Usenga said
of people help during his early days at the church,
I can help these people with that seeing forward, seeing

(10:06):
they can actually make it. From twenty seventeen to twenty twenty,
the organization focused on tutoring elementary age immigrants and refugees,
partnering with local churches to host sports tournaments for children,
and provided English as second language to about sixty adults.

(10:27):
In the recent years, services have ballooned to help mothers
find childcare within the community. Provide mentoring for middle school
and high school students, and offer resources for obtaining and
maintaining employment. Today, Sea Forward Ministry serves more than five
hundred households in the Louisville area. Many refugees have lost

(10:52):
everything they owned and now need to stock their kitchens
with cookwar and closets with clothes, and has a blessing
room on site that's equipped with household items and clothes,
and immigrants are encouraged to take whatever they need at
no cost. Sea Forward also has a computer lab on

(11:14):
site and volunteers who can teach computer basics to give
refugees to tools to access things like bus schedules, job listings,
bill paying and vital news and information. For example, when
the COVID nineteen pandemic hit, Sea Forward Ministries launched its

(11:34):
own YouTube channel that translated safety protocols and best practices
into each community's native languages. Over the past five years,
it's garnered more than eight thousand subscribers. Now that the
pandemic has passed, Usenga still uses that channel to keep

(11:54):
immigrants in the know about events, civic issues, and to
introduce them to community leaders. Yusenga, who speaks English, French, Swahili,
Kurundi and his native kin Ruwanda. Works with a group
of ambassadors from each country to assess and meet the

(12:15):
needs of each immigrant community. Eventually, he'd also like to
tackle transportation issues and create after school care for families
living in under resource areas. The idea is to provide
more than a roof over their heads and an income.
The organization strives to give immigrants tools to create a

(12:38):
holistic life with the spiritual, social, intellectual, physical, and emotional balance.
That's a stark shift from laser focusing on survival, and
for many it doesn't feel possible that Yusenga is proof
a person's situation can improve and that eventually someone who

(12:59):
is struggling may have a life beyond the difficulties they're
wading through today. There's life after you've lived the life
of survival, Usenga said. One crucial part of moving past survival,
Usenga said, involves reckoning with the past and tapping into
mental health resources. How Americans managemental health is a completely

(13:23):
new concept for several Barramununga and the two thousand or
so immigrants in Louisville from Burundi, Barramununga, who is the
past president of Louisville's Burundi community, took training through Sea
Forward to provide mental health workshops to local Burundians. He's

(13:46):
hosted three of them so far. We don't have a
program of mental health in my country, Baramanoonga said, I
introduced it and I explained it so that people can
understand that having some issues is okay. One major issue
lately has to do with families separated longer than expected

(14:08):
due to shifts in the United States resettlement process. That's
become a hot button issue under President Donald Trump's second administration.
Sea Forward Ministries doesn't facilitate bringing immigrants and refugees into
the country. Rather, Usenga helps them find their footing once
they're here. In recent months, that has included helping immigrants

(14:32):
cope emotionally with delays. Now they're being told that you're
not going to see those people, and so they're struggling
a lot. Usenga said, it's challenging, and so we try
to provide the resources and talk about it. The Sea
Forward team also draws on resources within the community to

(14:52):
help meet needs. For example, many of the women who
immigrate to the US from East Africa are single mothers.
Yusenga said, often See Forward will utilize a village like
mentality to make sure every adult can work and children
have the care they need. Sometimes that means empowering one

(15:15):
woman in the community to launch an in home nannying operation.
Other times they'll pay an immigrant mother who works shifts
with a mother from the same country on the day shift.
That way they can lean on each other for childcare
while still working. We pull these people and bring them

(15:35):
together to learn from each other and hopefully support each
other and live up to the highest potential. Yusenga said,
they don't know what's next. Over the years, Lowell has
garnered a reputation as a popular place for immigrants to
find jobs. About twenty nine hundred refugees resettled in Kentucky

(15:57):
and fiscal year twenty twenty four, and nearly sixty percent
of them came from the DRC, according to the American
Immigration Council. The same report estimates there are twenty thousand
refugees living in Kentucky currently and of them, ninety nine
point four percent are employed. It's difficult to know just

(16:19):
how many East African immigrants are in Louisville, Usenga said
because the data does at track secondary migration, which is
when immigrants move between states after formal resettlement. But Yusenga
suspects that if you look at the population as the
region of East Africa rather than as individual countries, that

(16:41):
it would be the second or third largest group of
immigrants in the city, behind Cuba and maybe Haiti, which
means there are plenty of people in Louisville who can
benefit from Sea Forward services. Barumanoonga, who serves as Sea
Forwards Community Ambassador for Louisville's Borundi community, came to the

(17:03):
United States in December twenty twelve, but it took three
more years before his wife and children could join him.
He was a chemistry teacher in his homeland, but he
didn't speak enough English or have the right certification to
teach science at Jefferson County Public Schools. Initially, Barrowmenoonga worked

(17:25):
in a warehouse until he learned enough English to find
a job that matched his level of education. Now he's
fluent and is an educator at j CPS's Newcomer Academy,
which teaches English as a second language to middle and
high school students. He's also earned his American citizenship. Barromenoungu

(17:48):
knows he has made He has a much easier time
adjusting to Louisville than some immigrants because he benefited from
higher education in his homeland, which positioned him to learning
English quickly. Not everyone who immigrates to the United States
is familiar with that level of studying and schooling, he said.

Speaker 2 (18:08):
If they are educated.

Speaker 1 (18:09):
From their country when they arrive here, they can learn
English faster. Borromonungo said, and the language is the key
for many things, so c Forward Ministries does everything it
can to give that key to its clients through a
series of language classes. In one room. On a recent

(18:29):
Tuesday morning, a beginner's language class chanted in unison as
they repeated the months of the year back to the instructor.
In a slightly more advanced class, they took turns writing
the date on a dry race board. Part Way through
each session, Sea Forward Ministry's job developers, Stanislaus Wuegua and

(18:53):
kefe Uwera, popped in to tell each group about an
upcoming job fare from a lone workforce solution. While warehouse
work and housekeeping jobs don't usually require strong English skills,
immigrants still need to get through the application process, which
is often in English. Job fears are helpful because Muengua

(19:18):
and Uera can be on site to help guide prospective
immigrant workers and can insist in filling out applications as
well as answer questions.

Speaker 2 (19:26):
And explain the hiring process.

Speaker 1 (19:30):
Uwera, who immigrated to the United States from Miranda as
a teenager, remembers how hard her parents worked when they
first came to this country. She intimately understands how long
it can take to feel settled. Seeing forward in those
early days can seem impossible.

Speaker 2 (19:49):
They come in.

Speaker 1 (19:50):
Here and they're very worried, Uera said, they're hopeless. They
don't know what's next. But Yusenga and See Forward administer
can help them find those answers. Awera strives to be
as helpful to immigrants and refugees as her family's caseworker
was for them a decade ago. But more than that,

(20:11):
Uera hopes her experience in her family's story can inspire
newcomers and give them hope. They worked so hard for
eleven years and now my parents have their own home.
She'll tell them, if you keep working, it will get better.
And you can reach Courier Journal features columnist Maggie Mendurski

(20:34):
at m Mendurski at Courier Journal dot com and that
last name is spelled mind er Ski. There are a
number of photos accompanying this article. The first one shows
instructor Chris betuns Gaza teaching basic English to immigrants inside

(20:57):
a c Forward Ministry's classroom on August eighteenth, and you
see mister Betangaza in the background facing his students and gesturing,
and one of the students is in the foreground facing
the instructor. The second photo shows Severin Baramanoonga, also an

(21:25):
immigrant who's pictured here on July twenty eighth He's a
community ambassador who helps connect recent arrivals to the country
with resources in conjunction with Sea Forward in Louisville, and
mister Barramenungo is seated in a chair with a sign

(21:46):
about the Sea Forward Ministry in the background and he's
speaking and gesturing to someone. The third photo shows the
Blessing Room inside Sea Forward Ministries on August eighteenth, which
offers free clothing and housewares for struggling immigrants. Sea Forward

(22:09):
uses YouTube to reach more than eight thousand subscribers. It's
never easy being away from your loved ones, SEID executive
director Kevin Luisenga. And you see inside the blessing room
with racks of clothing hanging and boxes of other donations.

(22:36):
In the next photo, you see a man with his
infant child with him as he sits in a basic
English language class at Sea Forward Ministries near the bon
Air neighborhood on August eighteenth. And you see the man
sitting at a desk and the baby is sitting on
his lap. Next is a photo of Yvonne Triplet of

(23:02):
Louisville folding and hanging donated clothing items at Sea Forward
Ministries located in Buckle United Methodist Church on Hikes Lane
in Louisville on July twenty second, and hiss Triplet is
seen holding some clothing items and folding and hanging things.

(23:31):
The last photo shows a man carrying his infant child
arriving for English language learning on August eighteenth, and you
see the man. Uh looks to be the same man
that was in the last photo. Uh. He's walking in
with a backpack on his back and holding a crying baby.

(23:57):
Turning now to the transparency page inside the story of
Sea Forward Ministries again by Maggie Mendurski. The first part
of the transparency page gives the background on Sea Forward Ministries,
which we just read about. Immigrants, refugees, and resettlement have

(24:22):
been at the forefront of news since President Donald Trump's
second term began in January. A variety of organizations, including
Sea Forward Ministries, have seen an unprecedented dip in federal
funding and are having to rethink how to provide resources
to the communities they serve. It's my pleasure to introduce

(24:43):
you to Yusenga Sea Forward Ministries in the local Eastern
African population it serves in Louisville, Now Q and A
with Maggie Mendursky. How did you learn about Sea Forward Ministries?
Months ago, I had the pleasure of meeting with Kathy Turner,
the communications director for Louisville Metro Health and Wellness. I

(25:07):
have a background in health reporting and I was eager
to pick her brain on some of the resources and
programs that might make good feature stories. Turner worked closely
with Yusnga during the COVID nineteen pandemic, and she suggested
we meet. Courier Journal photographer Jeff Foender and I were

(25:28):
both wowed at Yusenga's multi prong approach to connecting East
African immigrants and refugees with resources. In addition to our
inaugural interview, we popped into two different language classes and
spent some time with a handful of immigrants who work
as employment specialists. What impact or outcome do you hope

(25:51):
to achieve with this story? Usenga genuinely inspired me, and
I hope our readers feel that too. It's hard to
imagine the trauma he had to overcome as a young
person in Rwanda, and yet decades later he's serving immigrants
from several countries in East Africa. He feels fortunate to

(26:12):
have received all the help and support he did as
a young adult, and now he's paying that kindness forward
to more than five hundred other East African households in Louisville.
What was the most unexpected or surprising finding? I did
not realize that Louisville's East African immigrant and refugee population

(26:34):
was as large as it is. About twenty nine hundred
refugees resettled in Kentucky and fiscal year twenty twenty four
and nearly sixty percent came from the Democratic Republic of Congo,
according to the American Immigration Council. Yusenga told me it's
difficult to know just how many East African immigrants are

(26:54):
in Louisville because the data doesn't track secondary migration, which
is when immigrants moved between states after formal resettlement. Often
immigrants resettle in Kentucky because the Commonwealth has a strong
reputation as a good place to find a job. What
is your favorite part of being a journalist, especially in

(27:16):
your current beat. I'm so grateful to people like Usenga
who invite me into their world and give me the
chance to share their stories. He gave me an honest,
vulnerable interview, and he welcomed Foeender and me without any hesitation.
It was such a privilege to tell his story and
to give our readers a small glimpse of what life

(27:37):
is like for Louisville's East African immigrants. Maggie Mandersky is
the features columnist for the Caurier Journal in Louisville, which
is part of USA Today Network. This concludes readings for
the first sections of the Career Journal for Sunday, September

(27:58):
twenty eighth, twenty twenty five. Stay tuned for more news
to follow immediately. Your reader has been Kathy Cleary. Now
to continue reading from the Courier Journal for Sunday, September
twenty eighth, twenty twenty five. Your reader is Kathy Cleary.

(28:18):
We will start with the obituaries. We read only the name, age,
and location if given. If you would like further information
on any of the obituaries, please call us during the
weekdays at eight five, nine, four, two, two sixty three
ninety and will be glad to read the entire obituary
for you. I'll repeat that number at the end of

(28:40):
the listings. Today's death notices Colonel John Edward Aubrey eighty six, Louisville.
Next three are also from Louisville. Kenneth Richard Balls eighty seven,
Henry A. Burke ninety and Russell Crenshaw seventy six, all

(29:04):
of Louisville. Larry Crosby eighty seven, Ramsay, Indiana. The next
three are from Louisville. Missus Willie May Foster seventy six,
Albert H. Havoc seventy four, Donna K. Stephens Hagens sixty nine,

(29:26):
all of Louisville. Tamara, Jean Kincaid seventy six of hilton
Head Island, South Carolina. Morris King, aged ninety of Palm
Beach Gardens, Florida. The next group are all from Louisville.

Speaker 2 (29:45):
Carol F.

Speaker 1 (29:46):
Norpe known as Candy seventy eight, Delma pat Larymore eighty nine,
Isaac B. McDonald ninety three of London, Kentucky, and the
remainder are all from Louisville. Thomas Richard Menotti known as

(30:10):
Tommy sixty seven, Sam Waldo Morgan sixty five, Mary Beth
Coke Quick seventy seven, Joyce Mann and Ross eighty six,
Robert Byron Rutherford Junior seventy five, Betty Hols hopfel Wellendorff

(30:32):
Smith ninety one, Paul Vincent Stoltz eighty seven, Joe Neil
Somerville seventy eight, Raymond Terrence Swark eighty seven, all of Louisville.
Elwilda Joyce tally one hundred one, no town given, and

(30:55):
the last two are both from Louisville. Lowry Gilbert Wilson
one hundred and one and Bob Winter sixty eight. If
he would like further information about any of the listings
today call us on weekdays at eight, five, nine, four, two,
two sixty three ninety and will be glad to read

(31:18):
the entire item to you. Turning now to the metro section.
Can I legally trim my neighbor's tree? This piece is
by Keighley Doll. There's a photo showing trees lining a
chestnut street and the century old home in the Russell

(31:39):
neighborhood in West Louisville on July six, twenty twenty. Can
you cut a neighbor's tree? In Kentucky? It depends if
the trunk of the tree is on your neighbour's property.
You're only allowed to cut branches that are across your
property line. Likewise, you can't go onto your neighbour's property

(32:02):
to cut any branches, and all debris that falls on
your side is yours to dispose of. But just because
some branches are over your property line doesn't quite give
you a free reign. Substantially damaging or injury a neighbour's
tree could leave you liable to fees or fines for damages,
something that can quickly get expensive. According to state law,

(32:26):
finds for cutting down or damaging trees not on your
property can quickly reach into the thousands of dollars. As
with most neighborly disputes, it's best to communicate with all
parties about issues around property lines. If a tree straddles
the property line, both owners must agree on maintenance and removal.

(32:48):
In nineteen eighty five, Kentucky adopted the Massachusetts Rule, which
involves tree related damages between neighbors. Under the rule, property
owners are are not liable for damages caused by healthy
tree limbs or roots that extend past the property line.
So if your neighbor's tree branch falls into your yard,

(33:10):
it's likely your problem. And next, the best thing I
ate this week, Great Bagel and Bakery shop serves sandwich
people can't get enough of. This piece is by Amanda Hancock.

(33:32):
Even though Great Bagel and Bakery just opened in Middletown,
some customers feel right at home when visiting the new
to Louisville bagel shop. I'm not exaggerating when I tell
you that one out of every four people that walk
in that store is already so supportive of the brand.
Owner Laura Swan told The Career Journal, we already have

(33:54):
this beautiful built in base that's due to Great Bagel's
huge fandom in the rest roon's hometown of Lexington, Swan
has heard from many Louisville residents with strong Great Bagel
bonds from attending University of Kentucky or spending time in
this state's other major city. Excitement sparked in July when

(34:15):
Swan and her husband Robert announced the expansion. The response
was overwhelming in the best possible way, she said. Swan
began thinking about a Louisville location nearly a decade ago,
saying it always felt like the natural next step. The couple,
with roots in Chicago and Boston, moved to Lexington in
twenty ten in hopes of getting out of the rat

(34:38):
race of bigger cities. About a year later, they opened
Great Bagel and Bakery near UK's campus. They had a
hit right away, Swan recalled, it didn't take time at all.
We were very much in the right place at the
right time. After switching to milling their own flour and
adding a second Lexington location in twenty nineteen, the farm

(35:01):
to Bagel operation isn't slowing down, and that means an
introduction to Louisville patrons who have never heard of Great Bagel.
There's a huge population of people who have no idea
who we are, Swan said, so we do what we
do best by welcoming people and telling people.

Speaker 2 (35:19):
Why what we do is so special.

Speaker 1 (35:22):
At twenty nine oh five Shelbyville Road, you'll find at
least a dozen varieties of bagels and weekend specials. If
you want to order like a true Great Bagel disciple,
go with the American breakfast sandwich. The maid to order
sandwich comes with your choice of bagel, eggs, crispey bacon,
hamm er sausage, and American cheese. You can sub the cheese,

(35:46):
but it's called the American for a reason. It may
sound simple, but Great Bagel sells the classic item all
day every day. People can't get enough of it, Swan said.
When the sandwich's popularity comes from its outer layer. Since
Grape Bagel makes its own flour and uses quality ingredients,

(36:08):
Swan says, you don't feel like garbage after. I think
any sandwich lives or dies based on the breadt's on.
Swan said, so I would not underestimate the bagel. Lunch
sandwiches are also available, such as one called BMB that's
made with spicy pork meatballs, pickled carrot and die con Serrachimeo, Jalapago,

(36:33):
and Cilantro. Just a month into business in Louisville, Swan
says she's already considering a second shop here. It's very
clear that it's a town we want to be a
part of for a long time, she said. Great Bagel
is opened seven am to two pm daily. We featured
Grape Bagel and Bakery in the latest installment of our

(36:54):
Best Thing i Ate series. Follow along by visiting Instagram
dot com Career Journal, you can reach food and dining
reporter Amanda Hancock at A Hancock at Courier hiphen Journal
dot com. Now we turn to the inspiration page Elmer

(37:19):
Lucille Allen still creating at ninety four. She was the
first black chemist at Brown Foreman Corporation. This piece is
by Matthew Glowiki. The article begins with a photo showing
Elmer Lucille Allen looking over small samples of textile art

(37:43):
created using the Shibori method of dying fabric. October eighth,
twenty fifteen. Allen was recently awarded the Kentucky Museum of
Art and Craft's first Art and Advocacy Award. She has
been a longtime leader in the anc African American community
and in the arts community.

Speaker 2 (38:04):
And you see Miss Allen.

Speaker 1 (38:07):
Standing next to a table full of textile art, and
she's kind of thumbing through those, and you see more
textile art hanging on the walls behind and beside her.

(38:29):
Elmer Lucille Allen smiles from a mural painted in her
honor on a building along Jackson Street in Smoketown. She
smiles from another in Russell featuring influential Black Louavillians. The
ninety four year old trailblazer became the first black chemist
to work for Spirits Plant Brown Foreman when she joined

(38:54):
the company in the nineteen sixties, embarking on a thirty
plus year career. She's a Kentucky Colonel, a Kentucky Bourbon
Hall of Fame inductee, founding member of the Louisville Arts Council,
and co establisher of the Kentucky Coalition of African American Artists.

(39:19):
And most recently, at the end of her street, a
green street sign newly declares the corner Elmer Lucille Allan Way.
What does the namesake of the newly christened corner. Think
about her many accomplishments and accolades. It doesn't bother me
at all, she said, smiling on a recent afternoon at

(39:40):
her Shawnee neighborhood home, letting out a distinctive warbling laugh.
Modest as she might be, Allan has much to celebrate,
from her decades long career as a chemist to post
retirement endeavors as an accomplished artist in ceramics and fiber.
Born in nineteen thirty, Allan was named after both her

(40:02):
father and her brother, though her brother went by Bud,
avoiding household confusion. She grew up in segregated Louisville and
recalls how as a young babysitter for white children, she
would take them to Shawnee Park but wasn't allowed to
use the bathrooms in the whites only park. Still, she
said it did not discourage her from seeking out what

(40:24):
she wanted to do. She took a wide array of
classes at the all black Central High School, and when
she graduated in nineteen forty nine, she came in the
first in her family to finish high school. She admired
her teachers there and credits her wide ranging education with
giving her a strong foundation in math and science. It

(40:47):
was there that she overcame a childhood's stutter, she said,
when she needed to give a speech her senior year
after being named an honor student, with the help of
her English teacher, who told her to practice her speak
each and a mirror at home, she conquered the speech
line by line. On her high school graduation day at
Memorial Auditorium, she delivered the speech stutter free. When she

(41:13):
graduated from Nazareth College now Spalding University in nineteen fifty
three with a degree in chemistry, she and another woman
became just the third and fourth black women to graduate
from the all girls Catholic school. Alan later helped establish
a scholarship there in honor of the first two black graduates.

(41:35):
The university now hosts an annual conference on African American
studies named in Allan's honor, and last year awarded her
an honorary degree for her community contributions. Yet, when she graduated,
she couldn't find a job in the chemistry field in Louisville,
she said, because of her race. She did find employment

(41:57):
as a typist in Indianapolis, but within in five years,
she returned to Louisville, working as a laboratory technician at
Children's Hospital, then as a research chemist at American Synthetic
Rubber Company, and then as a chemist at U of
L Medical and Dental Research. It was there, in nineteen

(42:18):
sixty six that a fellow chemist told her about an
open position at Brown Foreman. Allan's husband was already working
at Brown Foreman's dining room, and soon the two worked
just a few floors apart. There, she analyzed bourbons and
the raw materials such as corn and rye that helped
create the spirit. Despite working for a famed bourbon distiller,

(42:42):
Alan didn't drink alcohol and still doesn't. When she started
at Brown Foreman, she recalls working alongside just a few
female colleagues in laboratory at a time when women were
often limited to secretarial roles. I make myself welcome, she said,
that is me. You can't make differences as for any

(43:05):
hardship she faced because of her gender or race, Alan
said she let her work speak for herself. I don't
accept it, she said. You take me as you see me,
and I haven't changed. After retiring in nineteen ninety seven
as a senior analytical chemist, Alan pursued artistic endeavors in
ceramics and fibers. She first got into ceramics in the

(43:29):
nineteen seventies to help alleviate arthritis in her hands, but
grew to love the tactle creative form of expression and
continued working in that medium. In two thousand, just shy
of seventy, Alan was as to enroll in a master's
program at u of L, studying ceramics in fiber, and

(43:52):
graduated in two thousand and two. At ninety four, Alan
is still creating. I like working with my hands, and
I like working with people, she said. Though she no
longer drives, she uses Tark three to get around town.
Twice a week she's on u of l's campus taking
pottery classes. She also has a studio at Melwood Arts

(44:15):
Center where she works with fiber. Though she's blazed trails,
she still wants to see more diversity in spaces from
her ceramics class, where she is currently the only black student,
through the ranks of upper leadership at her longtime employer,
and her wisdom for the next generation, respect yourself, finish

(44:38):
what you start, get a college education. Learn all the time.
You have to learn how to be independent, she said,
and it might be simple things that you learn that
you learn every day. Learning doesn't stop, and you can
reach growth and development. Reporter Matthew Glowiki at m Glowiki

(44:58):
at Courier hyphenjer Ernal dot com. There's a second photo
accompanying this article that shows Louisvillion, Elmer, Lucille Allen, a
retired Brown foreman, chemist, and artists standing in front of
a mural at Black Coffee in the Russell neighborhood that

(45:20):
honors black trail blazers. And you see miss Allan standing
along with mural art behind her. She's wearing jeans and
a black long seeve top and her hair is gray

(45:44):
and she has a long braid. In other news, i
ACE fires projectiles at Chicago protesters. Illinois facility has seen
frequent demonstrations. Pieces by Michael Lauria of the USA Today.

(46:06):
There's a photo showing federal agents firing pepper balls at
protesters on September twenty sixth outside the Broadview Ice Processing
Facility in Illinois. Dateline, Broadview, Illinois. Around two hundred Chicago
area protesters rallying against immigration enforcement endured a barrage of

(46:31):
chemical agents and projectiles fired by federal agents on September
twenty sixth outside the site at the heart of President
Donald Trump's crackdown. The tense protest outside the Immigration and
Customs Enforcement facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview comes
over two weeks into Operation Midway Blitz, the White House's

(46:55):
effort to ramp up deportations in the long time sanctuary city.
Trump has repeatedly said the crackdown is aimed at the
worst of the worst criminals who are immigrants. But the
president's crackdown, which has seen one immigrant fatally shot by
a federal agent, has sparked nearly around the clock protests
at the facility. It feels like chemical warfare. Ricky Hendon

(47:21):
said through a gas mask after a barrage of pepper
balls fired by immigration agents. The Chicago area tech worker
said he was protesting inhumane conditions reported at the deportation
processing center. This needs to be shut down. Assistant Secretary
of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin called the protesters rioters and

(47:45):
tied them to a September twenty fourth attack on an
immigration facility in Dallas.

Speaker 2 (47:51):
Rioters are what they.

Speaker 1 (47:53):
Are, MacLauchlan said, and adding that a firearm was found
on one protester outside Chicago. This is just two days
after we saw that vicious, discussing attack on our facility
in Dallas, and the fact that there's now a firearm
or there was a firearm in Chicago is very alarming.

(48:14):
Protest organizers denied that anyone connected to the group brought
a firearm. Among officials and leaders protesting on September twenty sixth,
where Alderman Andre Vasquez, Evanston, Mayor Daniel Biss and congressional
candidate Cat Abugazola. The small, boarded up and fenced off

(48:41):
building in Broadview serves as a processing center for people
being detained before they're transported al of Illinois. Data shared
with USA Today by immigration enforcement researchers shows that the
site has become a major hub in recent months. Department
of Homeland Security of PHILAES said over seven hundred immigrants

(49:02):
have been arrested since the launch of the Blitz. Among
them are gang members, murderers, child rapists, and drug traffickers,
said Emily Covington, assistant director for i's Public Affairs office.
These arrests reflect our commitment to targeting the worst of
the worst who pose significant threats to the community, Covington said.

(49:25):
According to data compiled by Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a
research group that tracks immigration enforcement data, over six thousand
detainees have come through the facility during fiscal year twenty
twenty five. Susan Long, co founder of the Syracuse University
Research Group, said immigration enforcement processing centers play a significant,

(49:50):
though not widely known role in immigration enforcement. They give
immigration agents a place to register new d detainees and
hold them over night if necessary. The immigration facility in Dallas,
targeted in a shooting that left an immigrant dead and
two detainees critically wounded, was also an agency processing center.

(50:13):
Immigration agents have begun using the Chicago area facility significantly
More data obtained by Long's group via the Freedom of
Information Act shows during fiscal year twenty twenty four and
preceding years, almost no one was staying at the facility overnight.
Long said by June twenty twenty five, the number of

(50:35):
people staying overnight had reached thirty per night. It's unclear
how many people have been staying at the facility overnight
since the start of the blitz. Immigration enforcement processing centers
are supposed to hold people for seventy two hours or less,
Long said. The Chicago area immigration attorneys say clients at

(50:57):
the site have reported being held there for a das
many as five days. Detainees also report over crowding at
the facility, according to Erandira Rendon, an immigration law advocate.
Rendon said clients have reported as many as two hundred

(51:17):
people staying overnight at the facility. According to data obtained
by Long's group, the facility has the capacity for one
hundred twenty three people. We have been seeing a lot
of abuses inside, Rendon said at a news conference on
September twenty fifth. Everybody goes to sleep sitting down, There's

(51:38):
very little food, and it's difficult to get medication. Immigration
agency officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment
on facility conditions. Among people recently arrested in Chicago by
immigration agents, according to agency officials, are a man who's

(52:00):
criminal history includes sexual abuse of a child, a man
convicted of domestic violence, and a man arrested for aggravated
unlawful use of a weapon. Carlos Barrera Vega, a criminal
illegal alien from Mexico, according to Covington, has a criminal

(52:20):
history including sexual assault of a victim under the age
of thirteen, residential burglary, and battery. Jose Alex Gornios Granados,
also from Mexico, was convicted of multiple counts of domestic
battery and strangulation and sentenced to nine years in prison.

(52:41):
Covington said, However, Chicagoans say federal agents are indiscriminately targeting
people who look like they could be immigrants. Jaime Perez
of Chicago's South Side said that his fiancee, Laura Marillo,
was taken by immigration agents in the early hours of

(53:02):
September twenty fifth, as she was selling to Molly's on
the street. Heerez said. Bourrio has been in the country
for twenty years. Caerez says she called him as she
was being detained. You're hurting me. You're hurting me, he
heard her telling agents. Pez said he tried talking to

(53:23):
an agent who took the phone. I want her, We're engaged,
Perez said, he told the agent and he just shut
the phone. The next from the archives, silos bearing U
of L signs stood tall for nearly one hundred years.
His piece is by Leo Bertucci of The Courier Journal

(53:48):
and USA Today Network. There's a photo showing on November thirteenth,
two thousand and nine, a plane flying over the old
Roston silos long IS sixty five painted with the University
of Louisville letters on them, and you see these tall
silos spelling out University of Louisville. The red and white

(54:15):
UFL sign facing I sixty five went up in nineteen
ninety eight, coinciding with the opening of a new football stadium. City,
county and university officials each chipped in fifty thousand dollars
for installation, maintenance, and the materials needed for the sign.
To rent space on the one hundred foot tall silos,

(54:37):
UFL agreed to pay ten cents a year to Protein
Technologies International, who owned the structures at the time. Before
moving ahead with the construction of the KFCM Center downtown,
u of l's athletic department floated the idea of building
a new arena on the site of the silos. Months

(54:59):
after the plants shuttered in twenty thirteen, the university hired
a demolition company to tear down the silos in order
to make way for a parking lot. A lot mays
years later, sitting near athletic stadiums and training centers. And

(55:20):
there's another photo showing employees of FAST Signs making their
way to the top of the silos of Protein Technologies
International to continue their work on the University of Louisville's
signs being hung there. This concludes excerpts from the Courier
Journal for Sunday, September twenty eighth, twenty twenty five. Your

(55:43):
reader has been Kathy Cleary. Please stay tuned for continued
programming on RADIOI