KRNL Lifestyle + Fashion Fall 2019

LIFESTYLE + FASHION VOLUME 2 | ISSUE 1 | FALL 2019

ON THE COVER PHOTO BY MICHAEL CLUBB POPS RESALE SNAKE RING | 5 STREET SCENE BLACK FUZZY COLLAR CARDIGAN | 24 SEE MORE ON PAGE 58 2 | KRNL LIFESTYLE + FASHION

KRNL OUR MISSION

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he mission of KRNL Lifestyle + Fashion is to promote the individuality, creativity and uniqueness of storytelling by University of Kentucky’s students utilizing all of our publishing platforms.

KRNL Lifestyle + Fashion strives to bring awareness to the stories that inspire us— through art, human interest, enterprise, investigative, health and well-being or recreation— on and around campus and throughout our community.

Whether through words or pictures, our diverse staff invites, welcomes and embraces all perspectives, allowing us to bring to life a variety of stories that we want to tell.

Produced and distributed in the fall and spring semesters on the campus of the University of Kentucky and throughout the city of Lexington, KRNL Lifestyle + Fashion aspires to be an important voice for our community.

FALL 2019 | 3

from the editor

I

n August 2016, I pulled out of my driveway and drove about 12 minutes down Nicholasville Road. When I parked my car and got out, I was simply prepared for four more years of school in my hometown. I wasn’t expecting to begin what seemed like a new life.

Being in a new place can do that to you, though. In college, we are given the time and the resources and put in an environment that allows us to experience all walks of life. For the first 18 years of our lives we get comfortable in our ways and beliefs. Then, campuses, including ours, are filled with a variety of people that come from different places, love different things, and fill their time with different activities. We are given the opportunity to learn from each other and experience new culture, even if it is just down the street from where you grew up. If you allow it, you can learn something from most people you encounter.

As the clock runs out on 2019, I am beginning to look back on what has changed since walking into my dorm freshman year. With an open mind and surrounding myself with inspiring and motivated peers, I have found my niche in this world at Kernel Media.

That is why we at KRNL Lifestyle + Fashion want to introduce you to all new walks of life. This semester, we have chosen to tell stories of different people, what makes them unique, and the ways that they express themselves. As you read, we encourage you to open your mind and let yourself be touched by the members of our Lexington community.

ALWAYS,

FALL 2019 | 5

FEATURES OF EXPRESSION INJECTED ART STORY BY BAILEY VANDIVER | PAGE 8 “SOME PEOPLE LIKE TO HANG ART ON THEIR WALLS, AND I JUST GET IT INJECTED IN MY SKIN.” - EVAN LENZEN SIX UK STUDENTS SHARE HOW THEY EXPRESS THEMSELVES THROUGH THE INK ON THEIR SKIN.

THE WIDE WORLD OF GUY MENDES STORY BY LAURYN HAAS | PAGE 26 GUY MENDES SEATS HIMSELF IN FRONT OF HIS IMAC ON THE SECOND FLOOR OF HIS PHOTOGRAPHY STUDIO AND GUEST HOUSE IN THE BACKYARD OF HIS LEXINGTON, KENTUCKY, HOME.

FOR THE LOVE OF ART STORY BY NICOLAS TORRES | PAGE 74 STREET ART IS A “LOVE LETTER TO LEXINGTON.” THIS IS HOW THE ORGANIZATION PRHBTN VIEWS STREET ART, SAID CO-FOUNDER JOHN WINTERS.

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Table of

CON ENTS 5

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

8

INJECTED ART

12

LET’S GET GREEN

16

RELIX BRIDAL

18

FLYING HOME

26

THE WORLD OF GUY MENDES

31

ATHLESUIRE MEETS PROFESSIONAL

38

HEALING THROUGH EDUCATION

41

FALL EXPRESSION

42

ARTISTS IN YOUR BACKYARD

48

LEXINGTON AND LOUISVILLE BALLET

49

JAMESC BOUTIQUE

50

SA/VS: AN INSPIRING SPACE

52

POPS RESALE

53

COMMUNITY THROUGH YOUR SCREEN

54

HISTORICAL HAUNTS HIGHLIGHTED

56

UK COLLEGE OF DENTISTRY

57

UK INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

58

BACK TO 2000S GRUNGE

68

BE A GOOD CITIZEN

70

QUEEN OF THE NEIGHBORHOOD

74

FOR THE LOVE OF ART

78

WESTERN TAKEOVER

86

WHO, WHAT, WEAR

87

FEAR AND LOATHING ON A CATURDAY

95

LETTER FROM THE CREATIVE DIRECTOR FALL 2019 | 7

“

“

SOME PEOPLE LIKE TO HANG ART ON THEIR WALLS, AND I JUST GET IT INJECTED IN MY SKIN.

- Evan Lenzen, UK Senior HERE ARE SIX UK STUDENTS WHO EXPRESS THEMSELVES THROUGH THE INK ON THEIR SKIN.

BY BAILEY VANDIVER PHOTOS BY ARDEN BARNES ILLUSTRATION BY TORY STEPHENSON

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KYLIE MCFEE SENIOR | DIETETICS

When Kylie Mcfee was 18, she got a matching tattoo with her mother and brother.

Her brother is covered in tattoos, but her mom is more reserved, so it was her and her daughter’s first tattoo.

“It was just kind of an experience that we wanted to do together,” Mcfee said.

The tattoo is on Mcfee’s foot and says “ohana,” which means family, in her mother’s handwriting. It is one of three tattoos on Mcfee’s body.

Her second is a bird on her side, with the national eating disorder symbol in the wings. Mcfee battled bulimia in high school, and when she got to college, she reached a milestone: one year since relapsing.

Her third tattoo, which she said is her favorite and the one she researched the most, is script down her spine that says, “daughter of the King,” which represents her faith.

PHOTOS BY MICHAEL CLUBB

CHEYANNE CUNNINGHAM SENIOR | COMMUNICATIONS

Cheyanne Cunningham’s arm is like a road map— a floral road map.

The tattoo that covers much of her right upper arm is a hybrid of flowers that represent each state she has lived in.

“I was just like, ‘I really want a flower tattoo,’” Cunningham said. “And I was trying to think of something so it wasn’t just random flowers.”

Cunningham’s dad was in the military, so their family moved a lot. On her arm, she has flowers for each home: a hibiscus for Hawaii, where she was born; a columbine for Colorado; the orange blossom for Florida; an apple blossom for Arkansas; a poppy for California; and dogwood for Virginia.

Cunningham said she has not yet decided if she’ll add Kentucky’s goldenrod to her arm.

“Maybe after I graduate I’ll decide,” she said.

FALL 2019 | 9

JORDAN BRADT

EVAN LENZEN

JUNIOR | ENGLISH

SENIOR | PSYCHOLOGY AND RUSSIAN LANGUAGE

Jordan Bradt likes to honor her favorite pop culture references on her skin. Among her nine tattoos, several reference TV shows or movies, especially anime.

Bradt said pop culture and media designates what she likes because “it’s just always been with me.”

“You get so tangled up in it,” she said.

She has a Ralph Steadman piece on her back. She has a VHS tape with the movie title, “Akira”— and she has a real-life VHS collection.

On the back of her arm, she has a scene, which she designed herself, from “Donnie Darko,” another of her favorite movies. She said she has plenty of ideas for more tattoos she wants; it’s just a matter of what she decides to get next.

The robin on Evan Lenzen’s chest represents his sister, Robin. He got it when he was 18, fresh out of basic training. Earlier, Robin had gotten a tattoo in his honor, so it was his turn to return the gesture.

It was his first tattoo, and now he has somewhere around 15.

“My mom told me that I never wanted to get tattoos when I was younger,” Lenzen said. “I don’t remember that, but apparently I said that.”

Lenzen said he’ll think of a tattoo idea, and if he still likes it six or seven months later, he’ll go get it. He also needs that time to forget how much they hurt.

“Some people like to hang art on their walls, and I just get it injected in my skin,” he said. “Which is weird.”

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ALEXIS MORRIS

SENIOR | MARKETING AND MANAGEMENT Alexis Morris figured her dad couldn’t say no to her getting a tattoo.

She was 16 and he had already signed off on her getting one tattoo— a small “XX” on her left wrist.

Just a few months later, she asked him if she could get another, this one of her mom’s signature, above her heart.

Just as she expected, her dad said yes and again drove her to a tattoo parlor.

Morris’s mother had passed away years earlier from cancer, when Morris was 11. Now, above her heart, she has the words “Love always Mom.” Those are the only two tattoos that Morris got before she turned 18– “I knew I was kind of pushing my luck a little bit,” she said. She now has seven total.

LYNN BOWDEN JR.

JUNIOR | COMMUNITY AND LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT With 72 tattoos, it might seem like a hard task to choose just one favorite, but Lynn Bowden Jr. has an answer: the bricks and hearts on his neck.

They represent his home on Superior Street in Youngstown, Ohio. “I love that place,” he said.

The first of the 72 was inked onto Bowden’s skin when he was almost 14. It was his initials, LB, on the back of his arm.

“I just wanted a tat,” he said. “I was kind of thirsty.

My older brother, he had just gotten one. I’m like, I need to go get one now.”

He said he’s “long overdue” for his next tattoo: the number 1 with flames around it. He wears the number 1 as a wide receiver for the UK football team.

REPORTING BY RICK CHILDRESS FALL 2019 | 11

LET’S GET GREEN

PHOTO BY ARDEN BARNES Light shines into greenhouse 12, part of the Agriculture Science Center North Greenhouse Complex, on Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2019, in Lexington, Kentucky.

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A member of UK’s Horticulture club plants venus fly traps during the club’s meeting at the Agriculture Science Center North Greenhouse Complex, on Sept. 11, 2019, in Lexington, Kentucky.

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BY ARIZZONA ALBRIGHT PHOTOS BY ARDEN BARNES

n “indoor rainforest” is hidden on UK’s campus– in the Agriculture Science Center North Greenhouse Complex.

“It is beautiful,” said Kelly Pohlman, junior plant and soil science major and member of the Horticulture Club on campus. “There are always flowers blooming... and a whole wall of orchids.”

Unknown to many UK students, the College of Agriculture, Food, and Environment, including the hidden gem of the teaching greenhouse, sits on a far end of campus.

The complex is on the corner of Nicholasville Road and Cooper Drive and contains 12 greenhouses in total. Unless students have had a course in “Ag North,” they may have never passed the greenhouse complex before. Inside live an abundance of plants that serve all different purposes for the College of Agriculture, Food, and Environment.

For example, plants needed for PLS 220: Plant I.D. are grown there, Pohlman said.

“Students can go look at the plants and learn to identify them,” she said.

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Maintaining the greenhouses can be very intricate.

Shari Dutton, staff horticulturist in the Department of Horticulture, explained the intensely controlled environments in the greenhouses.

“The environments within the greenhouses are controlled by a sophisticated computer-driven system that opens and closes air vents, moves air with the aid of fans, turns on heat or cooling needs, manages lighting needs, and monitors and adjusts for humidity,” Dutton said.

Due to the intricacy of the greenhouses, several groups of students help care for the greenhouses in various ways.

The greenhouses are renovated and maintained in the summer months to ensure that plants are blooming for the upcoming school year. Dutton said that not much other than plant collection happens during the summer.

Students participating in a College of Agriculture internship actively research greenhouses one through 11. These greenhouses remain locked at all times due to this and other, more restrictive private

Greenhouse 12, part of the Agriculture Science Center North Greenhouse Complex, is often home to plants that are used in various classes in the college. research being done during the school year.

“Some are even under USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture), so access is very restricted to those,” Pohlman added.

Beyond students’ use of the first 11 greenhouses for research, agricultural education and plant pathology courses also use the greenhouse complex for educational purposes.

The Horticulture Club meets in greenhouse 12 to host workshops and weekly markets along with many opportunities for networking and hands-on experience. It is open to all majors, with a $5 fee to join.

Meetings are held in the greenhouse 12 classroom every Wednesday at 5 p.m. For more information, visit the group’s Facebook page.

Recent UK graduate and previous Hort Club member Sarah Atkins has extended her greenhouse experience to the real world. She became especially interested in horticulture after joining the club.

“Hort Club is what got me interested in the field, so it helped me pick out my classes and now my career path,” Atkins said.

Last summer, she interned at the New Orleans Botanical Garden. She now works in a nursery in Frankfort.

“I went from spending just my Wednesday afternoons in the greenhouse at school for workdays, to working in one six days a week,” Atkins said.

Atkins said that the Agriculture Science Center North Greenhouse Complex is one of her “favorite spots on campus to just hideout and chill during a busy day.”

Although the greenhouse complex is out of reach for some, it is a trip worth taking to experience all that takes place there. If flowers, plants, or research on the subjects interest you, greenhouse 12 is open free to students from Monday through Friday during regular business hours.

Lindsay Jarrell, a research analyst in plant soil sciences, waters hemp plants outside greenhouse 12, part of the Agriculture Science Center North Greenhouse Complex, on Sept. 11, 2019, in Lexington, Kentucky.

FALL 2019 | 15

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SPONSORED CONTENT

A

BY MADISON DENNIS | PHOTOS BY ARDEN BARNES

once in a lifetime day calls for a once in a lifetime experience.

In a world where everyone tries to fit in, Relix Bridal offers its brides a unique experience. As they walk through the doors, each bride will be greeted with top designer dresses for them to try on, unlike anything else found in Lexington.

“I want the bride leaving understanding who she is more than who she was when she walked through the door,” said Chasta Foust, co-founder and boutique manager. “Because her wedding day is kind of like becoming a woman, generally one of the more important days in someone’s life.”

Foust said she wants every bride “to feel confident and comfortable not only in herself but also her decision on a dress.”

Relix Bridal stylists are able to give their brides this unique experience because of their combined 25-plus years of experience and history in the bridal industry.

“As they enter into Relix Bridal, we make them feel like it’s their home,” Foust said.

Foust said stylists talk to brides about designers, collections, fits, fabrics and more. Relix Bridal also offers a great incentive package and walks the bride through the process beginning to end.

“So they know the type of experience they are

getting. Not only just being in the store when they purchase the dress or do fittings for the dress, but the entire journey from saying ‘yes’ and to walking out for their wedding day,” Foust said.

Even with the ideas that the bride comes in with, Relix Bridal stylists go the extra mile and sometimes think outside the box to find a “wild card” to help the bride find her dream gown.

A bride might come in wanting an A-line dress with no lace and already have a photo of a dress, for example. She may try on several dresses like that, but three or four dresses in, “she is not sure she has found ‘the’ one,” Foust said.

“So we go out on the floor, we look through our collections, we pull something completely different from what she is describing to us thinking this might be the dress and quite often tears start flowing and she’s saying ‘yes,’” she said.

Relix Bridal is located at The Summit at Fritz Farm, which Foust said has a vibe that fit her vision.

“It was the type of clientele I wanted to reach,” she said. “I needed to be among them and offer a great experience surrounded by brands similar to mine.”

Relix Bridal help brides make their vision a reality, reminding them: “Don’t be like the rest of them.”

FALL 2019 | 17

UK professor David Stephenson takes photos on his iPhone of his racing pigeons as they are released for training on Sept. 18, 2019, at the industrial park in Lebanon, Kentucky.

FLYING HOME STORY BY BAILEY VANDIVER PHOTOS BY MICHAEL CLUBB

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Editor’s Note: UK professor David Stephenson is the photo adviser for Kernel Media. Typically we wouldn’t feature our own adviser in our magazine, but we couldn’t listen to him talk about pigeons one more time without sharing his story with our readers.

A

t 5:29 a.m., David Stephenson steps into the pigeon loft in his backyard.

It’s Wednesday, training day for his racing pigeons ahead of Saturday’s big race.

He passes through the first section of his loft, which holds about 30 hens, into the middle section, where his team of 17 young racing pigeons perches. Through another door are about 30 cocks.

Stephenson used to wear a headlamp, but he lost or broke it, so he holds a small light. Once he starts grabbing birds, he holds it between his teeth.

“I can do this in the dark,” he says, “because I know where they all perch.”

Stephenson picks up the birds one by one, inspecting each one for injury before depositing it into the crate.

“Ah, shoot,” he says, when a pigeon wiggles out of his grasp.

By 5:37, Stephenson has all the pigeons stowed in the crate— including the last, “sneaky” one. He counts them FALL 2019 | 19

twice, like they’re on the naughty or nice list.

Before exiting the loft, he puts feed down, opens the door for the pigeons to re-enter and starts the clock.

About an hour later, Stephenson and his pigeons arrive in Lebanon, the release point for that training day.

He normally “tosses” the pigeons by a hemp field, but he beat the sunrise and he’s always wondered what the industrial park is like, so he follows the signs.

“This is perfect,” he says, parking and setting the crate of birds outside his truck.

Stephenson and his birds wait for the sky to brighten; a pigeon sticks its head out of the barred top of the crate and looks around.

The sun rises at 7:25 a.m. At 7:35, Stephenson opens a hatch on the side of the crate. The pigeons explode out of the crate in a flurry of wings. Within seconds, they are specks in the sky.

“They’re going home,” Stephenson said. “They know where they are.”

Stephenson gets in his truck to drive home. He will try, as always, to beat the pigeons to the loft.

He never does.

Stephenson was seven or eight years old when he developed a nearly simultaneous interest in birds and photography.

When he began using his parents’ cameras to take photos, he needed subjects.

“It was either of my buddies or it was nature,” Stephenson said. “Birds were not boring to me. Trees and flowers got old fast.”

He once climbed a hawthorn tree in his front yard to take photos of mourning doves in their nest. Then he noticed a neighbor a few blocks away who had aviaries attached to his garage, which were visible from the street.

Stephenson stopped to ask what was in the aviaries, and the neighbor showed him: domesticated ringneck doves. Then he gave Stephenson a pair of doves of his own.

Stephenson put them in an old rabbit hutch in his backyard, and the doves “made babies and it was all fun,” he said. But he didn’t like that he had to keep the

Seventeen racing pigeons wait in a crowded crate to be released for training on Sept. 18, 2019, at the industrial park in Lebanon, Kentucky.

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UK professor David Stephenson feeds racing pigeon Kastle 1729 from his hand on Sept. 20, 2019, at Kastle Loft in Lexington, Kentucky. doves cooped up. He wanted birds that he could let out that would return to him.

That’s when he discovered homing pigeons, and he realized “that was the way to go.”

So he found the local racing pigeon club and then-president Loftus Green. He must’ve been about 12 by then, he said; he has a picture of him and Green holding a pigeon, and he looks about 12.

Stephenson bought a pair of racing pigeons— all racing pigeons are homing pigeons but the opposite isn’t true— from Green, but he said he was terrible at raising them. He once let one of the pigeons out, and it returned to Green’s loft instead of his.

Soon after, his family moved from Lexington to Berea because his father had been hired as president of Berea College. Stephenson saved up his money, and when he was in high school, he had a loft built, this time for doves again, in the backyard of the president’s house at Berea. It remained there for a few years after the Stephensons moved out, but it’s gone now.

Stephenson nearly went to college for ornithology— the study of birds— but he decided to study photojournalism at Western Kentucky University instead. He moved away, so he had to get rid of his birds.

“You know how it is,” he said, like most people have pet birds to part with when they go to college.

After college, Stephenson lived the transient life of a journalist, making it impractical to raise birds. But when he and his family moved back to Lexington and bought a house on Kastle Road 12 years ago, he finally had a big enough yard.

He built the loft, and this time he knew what he wanted: racing pigeons.

And he knew where he could get them.

He called Loftus Green, and 25 years later, Stephenson got another set of birds from Green’s loft.

And that set of birds has become close to 80 currently in his loft, with other birds he owns living and racing from other lofts as well.

Pigeon racing is based around pigeons’ knowing where their home loft is. For a race, the pigeons are released a certain amount of miles from their loft— 100 miles, for example. Then they fly to their home loft, and their speed is calculated in yards per second.

The pigeon with the fastest average flying speed wins— and in some races, winning means big money.

One race this fall had a purse of $1.2 million. And pigeons are bought and sold, too, sometimes for crazy amounts of money. The world record for a pigeon sale is $3 million; the domestic record is $100,000. The most Stephenson has ever paid for a pigeon is $2,000.

He compared the high-selling pigeons to thoroughFALL 2019 | 21

breds in the horseracing industry.

“These guys are athletes,” he said.

Stephenson said his goal from the beginning has been for his hobby to pay for itself, which is why he also sells birds sometimes.

In the last few years, he’s had another revenue stream to fund the pigeon racing: Kastle Pigeon, a pigeon health supplement company owned and operated by Stephenson and his wife Angie. Formulated with the help of Alltech, they produce and sell various products to other pigeon owners.

It’s not easy for Stephenson to balance his hobby, his small business and his full-time job as a UK journalism professor and adviser to Kernel student publications.

But his various passions also work well together, and a perfect example of that is his pigeon calendar.

He started when he was seven, and he’s never really stopped taking photos of his pigeons. When he realized that people liked his photos, he started producing and selling a calendar of his photos.

“I was uniquely poised to take these two passions and put them together and have something that no one else in the racing pigeon hobby would have,” he said.

He has nearly 12,000 followers on his Instagram account, pigeonphotographer, and he’s been featured twice by Apple for his iPhone photos of pigeons.

Stephenson said he particularly likes freezing the motion of the wings in photos, so people can see the different shapes pigeons make in flight that they can’t see when it’s happening so fast.

“But when you can freeze it, and really see what they look like, I think they’re really quite beautiful,” he said.

When Stephenson got back to his house shortly before 9 a.m. on Wednesday morning, the pigeons weren’t actually back in the loft yet.

He never beats them home— if the pigeons go straight back home. But sometimes they make a stop first, such as on top of the water tower at the UK Arboretum, where they feel safe from hawks.

Because of hawks and even hunters, there’s no guarantee that the pigeons will ever come home. Sometimes they’re not injured but decide to find a new home with a feral flock or at another loft.

But on Friday afternoon, all 17 pigeons were back in the loft, going through the Wednesday morning ritual again— being

UK professor David Stephenson examines the wing of one of his racing pigeons before training on Sept. 18, 2019, at Kastle Loft in Lexington, Kentucky.

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FALL 2019 | 23

inspected, one by one, and put in the crate.

“Guys, big day tomorrow,” Stephenson said to the pigeons.

Saturday would be the 300-mile race, one of the biggest events of the young bird racing season— which is open only to pigeons born this calendar year. Stephenson said he has been working toward this race for 10 or 11 months.

Once he had the pigeons crated again, he took them to the garage, where the Lexington Racing Pigeon Club was about to assemble.

Its membership isn’t just Stephenson and his pigeons. Other humans come. Other pigeons, too.

The Lexington Racing Pigeon Club is a group of (mostly older) men who raise and race pigeons. Stephenson, who is 49, is the club president. Every Friday night of racing season, the members gather in Stephenson’s garage, which fittingly features a racing club poster on the wall and a pigeon mat in front of the door.

Around 4 p.m., the first of the club members started to arrive, pigeons in tow. By 6, the nine men were ready to begin a sort of pigeon assembly line to consolidate all their pigeons into four large crates.

Stephenson’s pigeons were the first to be registered, so he stayed out of the assembly line— the pigeon owner isn’t allowed to register his own pigeons, to prevent cheating.

A member would pick up a pigeon, scan it into the system, then deposit it into one of the large crates. And so on, until all 17 of Stephenson’s pigeons were safely stowed.

“Hi, babies,” Stephenson said, peering over the crates at his pigeons.

Then it was on to the other members’ pigeons, until eventually each crate held 20 or 21 pigeons. Then the members played a giant game of Jenga to fit the four crates into the back of Stephenson’s Toyota Tacoma.

It was his turn to drive the birds to Louisville that night, where they’d join pigeons from Northern Kentucky and Louisville. The clubs pay one person to drive the birds to the release point, where the birds will begin flying on Saturday morning.

At 7:45 on Saturday morning, the pigeons were released along I65, near the Arkadelphia, Alabama, exit. If all went according to plan, Stephenson’s 17 pigeons would arrive back at his loft sometime that afternoon— hopefully early enough to win the race for him.

On Saturday afternoon, Stephenson’s multiple interests were again colliding.

He was keeping up with other races around the country and waiting for his birds to come home, but he also had to help some Kentucky Kernel photographers with their entries for the College Photographer of the Year awards. So he invited several over for a “Kernel bureau.”

His eyes would flicker from a laptop screen in front of him to the loft visible through the window. At 1:30, he moved the bureau outside so he could better see any returning pigeons.

It was a long time before he saw any. He said on Friday that he didn’t have a good feeling about this race, because it was the longest of the season so far and it was extremely hot. He figured his pigeons would take a rest along the way instead of coming straight home.

Stephenson sat in his backyard staring at the sky for about 45 minutes, and still no birds. Finally he turned his attention to a laptop again, looking at a student’s photos.

“Here they come! Here they are!” he yelled shortly before 3 p.m., jumping up and running to the loft. Two pigeons had flown into the backyard but had settled on a power line or on top of the loft. The pigeons have to enter the loft and cross a pad to register that they’ve finished the race. Stephenson whistled and encouraged the birds until they entered the loft.

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UK professor David Stephenson reaches for one of his racing pigeons on Sept. 20, 2019, at Kastle Loft in Lexington, Kentucky.

They clocked in at 2:53:06 and 2:53:07.

As of now, the two pigeons are known only as 67 and 25— his pigeons normally earn their names, Stephenson said. But this was at least the second race that 67 had flown well in, so he might be on his way to a name instead of a number.

After checking on the birds— “They stopped; they got muddy feet”— Stephenson calculated their speed. They had flown 310 miles in seven hours and eight minutes, an average speed of 1,274 yards per minute.

The birds trickled in until Sunday morning, when the 13th bird arrived home. Three days after the race, four birds were still missing, but that doesn’t mean there’s no hope. Stephenson has had pigeons return home as long as six months after a race.

Stephenson’s pigeons didn’t win the race, though the results wouldn’t be official until the next meeting of the Lexington Racing Pigeon Club.

The fact that they come home is still one of Stephenson’s favorite things about pigeons.

He said he likes that they’re affectionate, so they’re “fun to be around.”

“I admire how tough and beautiful they are at the same time— and smart,” he added. “Tough and beautiful and smart, all at the same time.”

FALL 2019 | 25

THE WIDE WORLD OF GUY MENDES

BY LAURYN HAAS PHOTOS BY ARDEN BARNES

G

uy Mendes takes a seat in front of his iMac on the second floor of his photography studio and guest house in the backyard of his Lexington, Kentucky, home. Born and raised in New Orleans but a Kentucky resident since moving to Lexington to attend UK in 1966, Mendes is now a Kentucky guy at heart. The letters KET are stitched across the pocket on his denim work shirt, a token from his years as a writer, producer and director for public television.

“The New Yorker magazine wanted some pictures,” he says, “but my internet has been down for weeks.”

He explains how he had to sponge off the Wi-Fi in the UK SA/VS building— where he teaches Arts and Sciences 380 Black and White Darkroom Photography— and points to the router just outside of his window. He and his wife chose a local

Guy Mendes prepares to take a self-portrait using an old medium format camera outside his studio on Aug. 22, 2019, in Lexington, Kentucky.

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Guy Mendes looks at his syllabus for the fall 2019 semester with his corgi, Frances, nearby in his studio on Aug. 22, 2019.

FALL 2019 | 27

internet provider, just as he has formed local connections throughout his life— although he has had better luck with the latter.

Mendes is known as a successful photographer, but his roots link him back to his time at UK, as a journalist for the Kentucky Kernel, and with his mentors whom he met on assignment as a student: bestselling Kentucky author Wendell Berry and Lexington-native photographer Ralph Eugene Meatyard.

“In one day I [got] to know the two men who would change how I thought about words and pictures,” Mendes said. “Wendell Berry changed the way I thought about words and Gene Meatyard changed the way I thought about photography.”

Above where he is seated in his studio, photos of Meatyard and Berry are pinned to the wall. Prints of his earliest work, a photo of him on the basketball court when he played as a walk-on during his freshman year of 28 | KRNL LIFESTYLE + FASHION

college, a portrait of his son in an astronaut button-down shirt and newspaper clippings fill out the board. The structure is a personalized space, and Mendes has been frequenting it daily since he retired from KET 11 years ago.

He and his wife had the studio built 25 years ago because Mendes kept hitting his head on both the basement and attic ceilings— two failed attempted locations for the studio. UK architecture professor Richard Levine designed the space with brickwork patterns inspired by his time in Northern Italy. The place suits Mendes; he loves to travel.

“I like to make photographs of things I haven’t seen before,” he said.

And once he takes these photos, he processes them in Adobe Lightroom.

“One thing about photography is that it’s all an abstraction even if it’s based on the real-world image, it’s

A photo of Guy Mendes’ sons, Wilson and Jess, hangs in his darkroom in his studio on Aug. 22, 2019, in Lexington, Kentucky.

Guy Mendes prepares a negatives sheet in his darkroom in his studio on Aug. 22, 2019, in Lexington, Kentucky.

smaller than the real world,” Mendes said. “Even color is not like the real world because of the way you can jack with it and push your sliders and exaggerate your reds or your yellows or your greens.”

He’s even open to iPhone photography and notes that some photographers have created beautiful work using iPhones. A few days prior, Mendes snapped a picture on a dog walk of a muddy footprint because it resembled a footprint on the moon.

“I’m not opposed to any method of image capturing.

I don’t care how you capture the image; it’s the image that matters,” Mendes said.

But before the age of the desktop downloadable Adobe Suite and the Instagram filter, Mendes was a Kernel reporter.

“I started working for the Kernel my first semester at UK, and it was a pretty radical newspaper back then with very bright, smart and passionate people who were in-

Guy Mendes tacks up prints for an upcoming show in his studio on Aug. 22, 2019, in Lexington, Kentucky. volved, who were very impressive to me, and they were running this daily paper,” Mendes said. “Being given assignments and having to call people and go visit them to interview them… got me out into the college community and opened my eyes to a lot of things.”

New Orleans had just integrated the first and second grades when Mendes packed up and headed to move into his freshman dorm at UK, so this was the first time he experienced an integrated school environment.

For the Kernel, Mendes covered Black Student Union meetings, and he started to make friends through this interaction.

“One of [my new friends] took me back to his apartment, put on a record by Hugh Masekela, an African musician, and he started talking about Africa and it was like the scales fell from my eyes and I suddenly realized,” Mendes said. “We weren’t taught civil rights, we weren’t taught black history in Louisiana schools when I FALL 2019 | 29

was growing up. I didn’t know anything about the black experience and here was this wonderful, handsome, smart man telling me about it, and, wow.”

40 portraits taken in 40 years of friends and family, and he summarizes their lives and accomplishments beside each photo.

During his time on staff, Mendes also moved up to sports editor the same year that black football players were first allowed to play on UK’s team, becoming the first black players in the SEC. He remembers covering their journey and their struggles quite vividly.

Mendes doesn’t need to keep up his stringer gig anymore. He’s been published in magazines such as the New Yorker (they received the photos despite the Wi-Fi issue), exhibited in art shows in museums across the country and featured in books of poetry by other artists.

Making opportunities for yourself and being open to collaborations with other artists is one of Mendes’ greatest pieces of advice.

“They were threatened,” he said. “Their lives were threatened. They persevered.”

Journalism took Mendes to Houston, where he worked as an intern at Newsweek, “back when interns got paid,” for two consecutive summers. He was tasked with assignments such as flying up to the headquarters in New York City to deliver 25 photos from the moon landing so they could go into print the next day.

Although he was dedicated to his work and beginning to earn bylines, he recognized early on that journalistic-style writing wasn’t enough for him.

“One thing I learned was that I wanted something more than the who, what, where, when, why and how,” Mendes said.

So he switched his major to literature, although he stayed on as a stringer for Newsweek because he “got paid for it.” He incorporates writing into his career now by creating paragraphs to accompany his photos in his books, for example. His book, 40/40, is a collection of

“I would recommend to young photographers that they seek out other artists and have a wide world view and be open and receptive,” Mendes said. “It’s all about paying attention and bringing in all this info and all that we hear and see every day. That all goes into our visual databank and our databank of words and how words fit together.”

Mendes pays attention, and he brings all his tools of the trade with him just in case an opportunity, like that muddy moon footprint, arises.

“Sometimes I don’t know what’s going to be the best format to use, what color, small negative, large negative, so it’s just a bigger world when you’ve got more options,” Mendes said. “And my wife always says how many cameras do you have to be carrying today? Well just three, you know, as many as my knees will hold up under.”

Guy Mendes looks through an old medium format camera while prepping to make photos in his studio on August 22, 2019, in Lexington, Kentucky.

30 | KRNL LIFESTYLE + FASHION

Athleisure

MEETS PROFESSIONAL

MACY’S TOMMY H CAMO JACKET | 160 CHAMPION GRAY HOODIE | 45 CHAMPION GRAY JOGGERS | 40

MACY’S FREE PEOPLE DENIM JACKET | 76.8 NIKE TRACK PANTS | 65

PHOTO BY JORDAN PRATHER

MACY’S ADIDAS YELLOW TRACK PANTS | 60 ADIDAS T-SHIRT | 22.5

FALL 2019 | 31

PHOTO BY JADE GRISHAM MACY’S ADIDAS YELLOW TRACK PANTS | 60 FREE PEOPLE TANK | 20

WORDS BY RACHAEL COURTNEY

A

thleisure, which is athletic clothing being worn in other settings besides athletics, is a recurring trend on college campuses across the country.

It is functionality mixed with fashion. It’s popular because it is a way to be comfortable and stylish. Athleisure is perfect for a student that is always on the go.

We collected pieces from Macy’s, Athleta and POPS Resale for this shoot. When wearing athleisure clothing, it is important to not forget about accessories. The stylists chose pieces that college students wear daily and elevated each outfit by incorporating unique accessories such as sneakers and jewelry.

The goal of this shoot was to take athletic pieces and make them more professional.

We chose to have the shoot on campus in areas that students recognize, such as Rose Street Garage and the walkway by Funkhouser. You can see examples of athleisure on our campus.

We wanted to inspire students by showing attainable fashion on our campus. Athleta is an affordable and eco-friendly brand that is accessible to students a few minutes off of campus. Sixty percent of Athleta’s materials are made with sustainable fibers.

They recently launched a collection of leggings made from recycled water bottles.

College students are also able to attend yoga classes in-store and receive discounts off their purchases.

We wanted to showcase the trend of sustainable fashion, so we also included one of our favorite local thrift stores, POPS Resale.

“POPS Resale is the only place in town where you can get a wide variety of stuff from records to vintage clothing, to video games,” said Dan Shorr, owner of POPS Resale.

It is a secondhand store where people can sell old vintage clothing as well. Many people enjoy thrift shopping. Shoppers can find unique pieces that may no longer be on the market.

PHOTO BY JORDAN PRATHER ATHLETA RENEW RIBBED TEE | 20

PHOTO BY JORDAN PRATHER POPS RESALE CAMO CARGO PANTS | 19 CONSTRUCTION JACKET | 30 MACY’S NIKE LONG SLEEVE SHIRT | 17.5 FALL 2019 | 33

ATHLETA CONSCIOUS CROP IN POWERVITA | 59

PHOTOS BY JORDAN PRATHER MACY’S ADIDAS CORAL DRESS | 45 ADIDAS FLORAL TRACK JACKET | 70

34 | KRNL LIFESTYLE + FASHION

MACY’S TOMMY H CAMO JACKET | 160 CHAMPION GRAY HOODIE | 45 725 CHAMPION GRAY SWEATS | 40

ATHLETA RECYCLED CITY SLICKER | 125

FALL 2019 | 35

MACY’S NIKE CROP TOP | 35

PHOTOS BY JORDAN PRATHER MACY’S NIKE JOGGERS | 60 LEVI’S OVERSIZED DENIM JACKET | 89.5

MACY’S CHAMPION C-LIFE TERRY RINGER T-SHIRT | 50 CHAMPION LOGO-PRINT BACKPACK | 65

36 | KRNL LIFESTYLE + FASHION

TIME TO GET

e l b a t r o f Com

POPS RESALE NIKE TEE | 35 BLUE UK TRACK PANTS | 23

FALL 2019 | 37

Sawyer Sanchez poses with dog, Brinlee, on Friday, Sept. 13, 2019, outside of White Hall on UK’s campus.

38 | KRNL LIFESTYLE + FASHION

38 | KRNL LIFESTYLE + FASHION

HEALING THROUGH EDUCATION SAWYER SANCHEZ MAKES A WISH FOR A DEGREE

BY RACHEL PORTER PHOTO BY VICTORIA ROGERS

S

This type of cancer can be found in the blood cells which help to fight infection in the body. It can depend on the type of blood type and DNA a person has.

awyer Sanchez boarded a plane on Aug. 19, 2016, ready to see his grandparents in New Mexico.

But this was not like any plane ride Sanchez had ever experienced before. As he sat in his airplane seat, he felt his body slowly beginning to freeze, and he felt like he was stuck. He attempted to stand up but failed. He attempted to eat but had no appetite. He could not stand the misery, but he waited.

When he heard the news, Sanchez said, he took a 30-minute private jet ride from New Mexico to Virginia with his mother to immediately start receiving treatment. He needed it so quickly because his white blood count was very high, but his red blood count was extremely low.

After three days of sleeping in New Mexico, he and his family were in desperate need of an answer.

They decided to visit the doctor, ready to hear he had pneumonia or the flu, something that a 16-year-old could easily catch in school. The first urgent care said he had a virus. The second urgent care said he had strep throat. The third urgent care just gave him an antibiotic shot. Finally, the ER said he had, in fact, leukemia.

“

“The doctors told me I needed to start treatment within 24 hours or I would not make it,” he said.

The Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughter was the closest hospital to his home in the Outer Banks of North Carolina; it was his home for the next four months. Sanchez’s junior year of high school was spent lying in a hospital bed where he would receive chemotherapy and lose 50 pounds, his hair and the strength in his knees, but surpris-

“I was actually a terrible patient,” he said with a laugh. “I would leave my room all the time, walk down the street with my IV to eat some food, and would get calls from nurses to come back there.”

Sanchez’s friends would visit as well and talk to him just like old times. He was at that hospital until it was time for him to receive his bone marrow transplant at Duke University.

Sanchez explained that a bone marrow transplant is when the lost blood cells from transfusions are replaced by new ones. The doctors took his DNA to hopefully find a match with someone else’s blood in the database. They finally found one match out of hundreds in the system.

After one month of Sanchez’s body trying to accept the blood or DNA from a 10-year-old girl, whom he is still trying to find, it worked.

“

“I walked off the plane and felt dead,” Sanchez said.

ingly also receive and learn lifelong lessons and memories among the nurses and friends he met there.

I JUST KEPT TELLING MYSELF I WAS GOING TO GET OUT.

-SAWYER SANCHEZ FALL 2019 | 39

“

“

GOING THROUGH TREATMENT SHAPED WHO I AM.

-SAWYER SANCHEZ

“If I were to rob a bank and leave blood somewhere, the police would think it is the girl who committed the crime,” he joked.

Sanchez has the blood of somebody else and a life that many people did not think he would have. But he said he knew he would always get out of the hospital— which is why he waited to make his special decision.

This special decision he was waiting on was his Make-A-Wish. This foundation grants a wish to children 18 and younger who have cancer in case they do not survive. Many might wish for a concrete object or a trip to their dream destination, but what Sanchez decided to ask for was something that many people take for granted: education.

With college approaching, Sanchez decided he wanted his tuition paid

for. He was determined not only to survive but also to obtain a degree in hopes of being a doctor one day.

Each year he is given $7,000 toward his tuition through East Carolina Make-A-Wish foundation.

includes no carbs or sugar. Doctors have even told Sanchez that he is healthier than the average person.

“My major is human nutrition and I want to go to medical school to change how hospitals view nutrition,” he said. “I never ate the hospital food, so I want to implement this idea of nutrition more into the food.”

“Living with cancer was all about the mindset. When I was in the hospital, I said when I get out, I want to buy a dog. I bought a dog. When I get out, I want to start getting tattoos. I got tattoos. As soon as I get out, I am going to buy a car. I bought the car I have always wanted.

I just kept telling myself I was going to get out.”

Sanchez is currently attending the University of Kentucky. He attends class, works out and hangs out with his friends as most students do. He follows the ketogenic diet, which he believes is one of the reasons he is still alive. It supposedly starves cancer cells. His diet consists of things with high protein and high fat, such as eggs, meat, vegetables; sadly, it

“Going through treatment shaped who I am,” Sanchez said. “If I could go back in time, I would do it again.

During his sophomore year, he hopes to attend the DanceBlue Marathon, compete in bass fishing tournaments, and live a positive, healthy life that he will certainly never grow tired of.

FALL expression KRNL PLAYLIST VOL. II

“It Wasn’t Easy to Be Happy For You” The Lumineers

“fake smile” Ariana Grande “Born This Way” Lady Gaga

“Follow Your Arrow” Kacey Musgraves

“Do My Thang” Miley Cyrus “Love Myself” Hailee Steinfeld “S.L.U.T.” Bea Miller

“Fighter” Christina Aguilera

“That’s Life (feat. Mac Miller & Sia)” 88-Keys

“La Vie En Rose” Daniela Andrade

“Undrunk” FLETCHER “party favor” Billie Eilish

“Love Galore (feat. Travis Scott) SZA, Travis Scott “Woman” Kesha, The Dap-Kings Horns

“Unbreakable Smile” Tori Kelly

“Slow Burn” Kacey Musgraves

“Dear Universe” Lauren Sanderson

“Exhale” Sabrina Carpenter

“La La Land” Demi Lovato “You Don’t Own Me Grace” G-Eazy “Part Of Me” Kate Perry “Daylight” Taylor Swift “The Man” Taylor Swift

“Lie To Me” (feat. Julia Michaels) 5 Seconds of Summer “Catching Feelings” (feat. SIX60) Drax Project

FALL 2019 | 41

PHOTO BY ARDEN BARNES

Brianna Armstrong, left, and Angie Willcutt are both artists based in Lexington, Kentucky. Armstrong is a student at the University of Kentucky and Willcutt is a student at BCTC. 42 | KRNL LIFESTYLE + FASHION

Artists

IN YOUR BACKYARD

BY LEDJEN HAASE

T

hroughout history, many have tried to limit what is considered mainstream art— often putting the emphasis on European art.

But “art has no box,” said Angie Willcutt, a Lexington artist and member of the LGBTQ* community.

Embracing her colorful personality, queerness and outlook on art, Willcutt said she wants to diminish the structured themes created by European art.

“Native American and black art desperately needs more representation within art history,” Willcutt said.

“Being underrepresented can lead to feeling uninspired or unmotivated when creating, which is why I like to look at what other minority artists are doing.”

She said she doesn’t want any other artists to feel “like they have to conform when making art or think that their art has to have a certain look,” she said.

Brianna Armstrong, who will graduate December 2020 with a major in art studio with a minor in psychology, is a minority artist who also understands the struggles of being underrepresented in art.

“Showcasing minorities in a different light and highlighting those who are underrepresented is what provides the representation needed in the art world,” Armstrong said. “I try to stay self-motivated and to create pieces that aren’t usually seen, to be a represen-

tation for others.”

Willcutt’s love for artistry is rooted in her father’s guitar shop and appreciation for Chicago artist Peyton Stewart’s music.

The guitar shop motivated her “passion for the arts,” and she said plays music when she feels strong emotions.

Her childhood in general continues to influence her art, including her jewelry making. Willcutt said her parents have a house full of toys and charms that she loves to explore.

“I like to keep a childlike essence when I create art to prevent from being as serious as the world may intend us to be,” she said. “I never want to lose sight of this essence or the freedom of creating art.”

But sometimes she does, which can lead to her feeling uninspired or unmotivated.

“I at least make art once a week or look at what other artists are doing to get motivated or feel validated when making art,” Willcutt said.

She also benefits from the support she gets from her partner, Cory Baker.

“Cory is a great support system,” Willcutt said. “We enjoy making art together.”

Willcutt also carries a journal with her for when inspira-

FALL 2019 | 43

PHOTOS BY LEDJEN HAASE

‘Ray of Sunshine’ by Angie Wilcutt BELOW: A variety of earrings created by Angie Wilcutt

44 | KRNL LIFESTYLE + FASHION

Angie Wilcutt shows off her Troll Doll Necklace, Magic Leaf Necklace and Rubik’s Cube Necklace.

tion strikes, so she can “doodle, write or draw anywhere and everywhere.”

Armstrong, who won first place at the SA/VS Art Exhibition when she was a freshman and was selected as a senior to have studio space in SA/VS, said she has liked art since she “came out of the womb.”

She said the strong black women she was raised by— her mother and grandmother—motivate her to pursue art.

“I’m so grateful to have a family that supports me and my craft,” she said. “My mother is who pushes me to remain focused, and my Nana is my main reason for even going into art,” she said.

When she started at the School of Art and Visual Studies in 2016, many of her early pieces revolved around her grandmother and were dedicated to her.

“

I NEVER WANT TO

“

In the future, Willcutt hopes to own a cat café and art shop. For now, she showcases her art on the first Saturday of every month at High on Art & Coffee and shares her creations on her Instagram account, @angiewillcutt.

LOSE SIGHT OF

THIS ESSENCE OR THE FREEDOM OF CREATING ART.

-ANGIE WILLCUTT

Armstrong said she wants to use her art to empower women and black people. She uses themes of politics, feminism and sexuality when creating art, often uniting

FALL 2019 | 45

“

“

TURN NOTHING INTO SOMETHING IS MY MOTTO FOR MAKING ART. - BRIANNA ARMSTRONG

LEFT: “RAPUNZEL SELF PORTRAIT”

BY BRIANNA ARMSTRONG PHOTO BY HAYLEY BURRIS

T

46 | KRNL LIFESTYLE + FASHION

fabrics, synthetic hair, old blankets and personal clothing.

“Turn nothing into something is my motto for making art,” Armstrong said.

Armstrong has frequently created fiber art, thanks to the influence of SA/VS professor Crystal Gregory.

“Crystal has been there to support me, uplift me and provide different art techniques,” Armstrong said.

“Without her, I never would have discovered one of my art inspirations, Faith Ringgold, nor be the artist I am today.”

In addition to SA/VS faculty, Armstrong finds motivation from the SA/VS building itself.

“The SA/VS building motivates me when I’m creating art,” she said. “I get very focused.

“I should pay rent here,” Armstrong joked.

Armstrong also tries to include elements of hope, self-reflection and growth in her work.

“There is always hope or a new door to be opened, so I want people to remember that when they see my pieces,” she said.

Her art uplifts herself, too.

“Art is therapeutic, it is uplifting and helps me through my rough patches,” Armstrong said. “After all, you got this far for a reason.”

Armstrong can be found on Instagram at @l.ilmama.

T

PHOTOS BY LEDJEN HAASE Brianna Armstrong, a student in UK’s School of Art and Visual studies, sits in her art studio in SA/VS. LEFT: Several paintings by Brianna Armstrong, including a piece called “nana & me” in the chair.

FALL 2019 | 47

SPONSORED CONTENT

UNITED IN DANCE

BY MACY HAGAN PHOTO PROVIDED BY LEXINGTON AND LOUISVILLE BALLET

T

wo cities. Two companies. One message.

Never before done in Kentucky’s history, the artists of Louisville Ballet and Lexington Ballet are coming together, not only for a shared love of dance but a passion for what is greater.

Though it may seem out-of-the-ordinary for rival cities to work together, they each bring unique talent to the stage. While this will be a performance of the arts, the two companies are taking this opportunity to demonstrate that there is more to ballet than the act of dance.

Ballet can bring healing and tell stories that impact lives. Speaking to the motivation behind this partnership, Cherie Pérez, Marketing Director for Louisville Ballet, expresses that ballet will not be the only thing communicated to the audience. “We stand for unity and inclusion,“ Pérez said. “That includes lifting up other organizations to recognize the hard work of others.”

Louisville Ballet places emphasis on partnering with other nonprofits to strengthen, support, and celebrate differences within society.

The three-act show, United State of Dance, will include dancers of both companies and multiple styles of dance.

The attendees are encouraged to wear red or blue attire to support their respective city, not to show divide but to instead unite the crowd in color. Opening night to the public will be on Friday, Oct. 25, at the Lexington Opera House and will continue throughout the weekend with two shows on Saturday and a Sunday matinee.

If you’re not inspired to attend the performance yet, there’s something else you should know about this special event. Louisville Ballet and Lexington Ballet are giving $5 from every ticket purchased to DanceBlue. This is a beautiful reality of dancers helping dancers being done in a way that will help kick off the charity’s fundraising efforts. In addition, the families and medical professionals involved with DanceBlue will receive a behind-thescenes, private performance.

A vision of one united, powerful voice is rooted in

United State of Dance. This voice, spoken by the two performing arts companies, has the influence to make both cities more welcoming and connected. The Artistic 48 | KRNL LIFESTYLE + FASHION

+ Executive Director for Louisville Ballet, Robert Curran, said that, “It’s important today that people, institutions, and cities that seem to be enemies can rise above and lend a megaphone to the messages of others.” In their collaboration, Lexington and Louisville are accomplishing exactly that. Simply put, in the words of Curran, “This is an event where red meets blue where blue is, and blue meeting red where red is.” United State of Dance will be a performance you don’t want to miss.

This event will be worth three Spirit Points for DanceBlue dancers.

SPONSORED CONTENT

GET DRESSED WITH

BY ALLIE KING PHOTOS BY JORDAN PRATHER

“

Some things never go out of style and Lexington is all about keeping up with the trends, but always keeping those classic staple pieces the main focus,” said Carrie Burkett, UK alumna and owner of JamesC Boutique.

Kentucky’s weather doesn’t make it easy to be prepared for changing seasons. JamesC Boutique, located a short walk from campus in Chevy Chase, is stocked with stylish pieces that you can layer to support your season’s wardrobe.

“New arrivals come in daily and we are all about keeping up with the trends while maintaining super affordable prices,” Burkett said.

Visit JameC Boutique when shopping for clothes to wear to events this fall, including for game-day outfits that are already pieced together and ready to wear off the rack.

CJ CROPPED LEOPARD DENIM JACKET | 54 ROSA RUFFLE ROMPER | 52

KEENELAND

MUSTARD SKY EYELET CUT OUT ROMPER | 44 LIV LEOPARD HEELS | 44

GAME DAY

JUDE STAR CROPPED JEAN JACKET | 55 KATE COBALT BLUE DRESS | 38 BONE COLORED ANGELA BOOTS | 44

The School of Arts & Visual Studies building is located on Bolivar Street in Lexington, Kentucky.

SA/VS: AN INSPIRING SPACE

I

BY NICOLE MARTIN PHOTOS BY JUSTIN ALCALA n the 1890s, the building was a tobacco processing plant.

In the early 2000s, it held the University Loft student apartments.

Since 2015, after award-winning renovations, the building has been a home to budding creatives as the School of Art and Visual Studies.

Before moving into the current building— known to most simply as the SA/VS building— the School of Arts and Visual Studies was housed in the Reynolds building on Scott Street.

Robert Jensen, UK faculty member since 1994 and director of SA/VS since 2012, oversaw the move from Reynolds to the current building on Bolivar Street.

Jensen said the move was met by some graduates with sentimentality, but the faculty was very enthusiastic.

The Reynolds building had its share of problems, from 50 | KRNL LIFESTYLE + FASHION

staircases collapsing to lack of temperature control to security issues that allowed people to wander into the building.

But despite the imperfections, many students still cherished it for its character. Its large size offered freedom, and many drew inspiration from the aging building.

Following the move, Jensen said he wanted to ensure that the new building stayed in good condition over the next several decades. Looking to choose an architectural partner that prioritized longevity and a collaborative workspace, Jensen and his team decided to partner with Omni Architecture.

Omni Architecture is a Lexington-based firm that specializes in frictionless workspaces, which fit the goals of SA/VS faculty. Incorporating the good elements of Reynolds while fixing the things it lacked was a priority.

A student walks down a hallway on the second floor of the SA/VS Building, on Sept. 14, 2019.

The SA/VS building was inspired by the MIT Media Lab in the Wiesner Building at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where glass and metal framework were utilized to create an open space for collaboration and design.

building can also extend beyond the College of Fine Arts.

Recently, SA/VS began a collaboration with Dr. Michael Winkler, associate professor of radiology and medicine, to begin printing custom 3D hearts for physicians and their patients.

This feature was applied to the design of SA/VS to increase collaboration between students and faculty. In 2015, SA/VS received the Honor Award for Design Excellence from the Kentucky Chapter of the American Institute of Architects.

According to a UK press release about this project, these 3D prints allow physicians to create physical stimulations of their patients’ organs, giving the physicians time to identify problems and plan before the surgery.

The efforts to increase collaboration between students has been successful to some extent, said Jacob Reynolds, a digital media and design senior with an interest in photography.

“I think that you can network as far as you want here,” Reynolds said.

“Because [SA/VS] is so winged off, I only ever really see the photography people,” Reynolds said. “Most people burrow into whatever they want to do.”

Reynolds said he spends a large chunk of his time working in the Photo Lab as a student and lab manager.

“I have made some great connections with faculty,” Reynolds said. “I think it’s interesting how you can have more of a friendship with them, as opposed to just a student-instructor relationship.”

The networking and relationships that can occur within the SA/VS

A view of the main common space in the SA/VS building.

FALL 2019 | 51

SPONSORED CONTENT

FILE PHOTOS BY MICHAEL CLUBB

OLD-SCHOOL IS IN STYLE AT POPS

O

BY MACY HAGAN ut with the old, and in with the… older?

Meet Dan Shorr and his vintage emporium, POPS Resale, and he’ll tell you that old-school is still the style. Opened in 1996 by Shorr and his wife, POPS sells various vintage clothing items, records, video games and decorative accents. Located on Leestown Road, this resale store has been serving the Lexington community for more than 20 years.

treasures waiting to be found in every part of the shop.

Introducing records to its inventory is what sparked the growth that POPS still experiences today.

The shop’s story has come full circle.

Each record may not take up a lot of space, but with the size of the collection at the shop, customers can spend hours exploring and enjoying each record they thumb through.

Listening stations are available to use before customers take home a record to make sure customers leave with what they love.

“I grew up in a music heavy environment,” Shorr said, “and I worked in electronic manufacturing and sales before 1996.”

As for clothing, another top-selling item, POPS buys from community members, then sells at a fair and reasonable price: $6 and up.

When an opportunity came for Shorr and his wife to pave a new path in their lives, POPS was born.

Wanting to offer Previously Owned Products, which is what POPS actually stands for, the shop’s collection of vintage items has grown substantially since they’ve been in operation. In the beginning, only half of the building was in use, but now there are

Throughout the year, there will be sales and discount opportunities within the record department. Record Store Day and Black Friday are two major days for record sales; however, mini sales throughout the year helps circulate the vast collection.

52 | KRNL LIFESTYLE + FASHION

“There are about 80,000 records on the shop floor, and another 200,000 in back stock,” Shorr said,

which makes the place feel hip.

As if the shop wasn’t atmospheric enough, POPS has a shop dog, named Junior, always ready to say welcome.

Supporting local businesses is important in any community, and POPS Resale should be on your radar, for sure. If you’ve been looking for a store with an array of vintage items at fair prices, then stop the search and go to POPS.

COMMUNITY THROUGH YOUR SCREEN

BY PRESLEY DOSS

F

acebook is sometimes known as the “old” people’s way of social media, but this is not the case.

Facebook is focusing its ways of communication on a mission “to give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together.” Facebook is allowing its users to form social groups where users can communicate with other people who have the same interests. People from around the world are creating groups for a variety of niche subjects, creating one-stop-shops for people in search of answers regarding certain topics and bringing groups of people together through similar interests.

These Facebook groups range from support groups about mental health to beauty groups that talk about the latest trends. With the wide variety of Facebook groups people can join, these groups allow users to get the two-cents of interested parties from all different corners of the internet.

Every Facebook user is bound to find a group that interests them. For Lexington residents, a Facebook group called “Lexington Yard Sale and MISC [Miscellaneous]” is a platform for you to put items up for sale, like an online version of yard sales.

Krystian Blackwell, an adminstrator for the “Lexington Yard Sale and MISC” Facebook group, said users “can find things pretty cheap when people are on a budget,” which goes for college students as well.

Blackwell said there are tough parts of running a Facebook group as well. It is “sometimes intense” being an admin for a large Facebook group like hers, she said, especially when “so many people ask to join.”

Another Facebook group that is beneficial to college students is called “Fighting Anxiety/Depression and Other Mental Illnesses.” This group creates a safe space for individuals to share their stories and support each other through good and

bad times.

Angie Leigh, one of the administrators of the page, said this Facebook group “is a relatively safe place to talk” and also added that the group “gives people the numbers to crisis lines so they can reach out when and if necessary.”

Leigh also talked about the struggles with running a page with this kind of content. She explained how hard it is hard to monitor the comments and posts because you never know what could be a trigger to someone, but at the same time, you want people to be able to help each other.

Leigh said this type of Facebook group is very rewarding in certain cases.

She said that seeing people confide in others, relate to one another and get the help they need, all from her Facebook group, is very bittersweet and makes her feel as if she is making a small impact in these people’s lives.

There are many groups on Facebook you could join to get questions answered, get support for hard times or even get advice on

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HISTORIAL HAUNTS HIGHLIGHTED IN LEXINGTON

BY GRAYSON DAMPIER PHOTOS BY JORDAN PRATHER

G

hosts, ghouls, things that go bump in the night.

Though we love the sense of suspense and terror that we get from these, we seek comfort in knowing they aren’t real... or are they?

Right here in Lexington, Kentucky, paranormal activity is no tall tale. “History Alive” is an emerging TV series from DMZ Productions, which is based in Richmond, Kentucky. The TV series explores paranormal activity in some of the most historic buildings in our country.

Darren Zancan is the mastermind and executive director behind “History Alive,” as well as the owner of DMZ Productions. Zancan is also a part-time instructor at UK, teaching a Media Arts and Studies course.

to different locations in Kentucky. Waveland is where they filmed their pilot episode, which can be viewed on Facebook.

Zancan is creating a show in an already crowded genre, but he isn’t intimidated.

“I don’t focus on the competition,” he said. “Not to seem naive, but I don’t worry about them. I want to do my work to the best of my ability without the distraction of comparing myself to others.”

Zancan’s goal for the series? “To end up on the History Channel.”

The Lexington Paranormal Research Society has a podcast called “LPRS: Before Dark” where members discuss episodes of “History Alive” and respond to questions that viewers have asked on the group’s Facebook page.

After Zancan earned his master’s degree at Northwestern University, Owner of DMZ Productions Darren Zancan poses for a he launched DMZ Proportrait at the Historic White Hall mansion in Richmond, ductions and moved to Kentucky.

Lexington. Although he In one episode, had several other projects going on, Zancan wanted to Zancan and the hosts discussed episode two of “History create a paranormal TV series, so he drew up a synopsis Alive,” titled “The Shadows of White Hall.” in July 2018 and contacted paranormal teams in the Despite your first reaction, no, this is not White Hall region. That is where his relationship with the Lexington on UK’s campus. White Hall is a mansion in Madison Paranormal Research Society was born.

County, just north of Richmond. The hosts elaborate on Zuncan may love the paranormal, but you won’t find scenes from the episode, including stories of unexhim at haunted houses come October. plainable noises caught on film and several accounts of “If we went to a haunted house, I would squeeze your seeing a “Woman In Black” seemingly float up to the hands off,” he said. “That terrifies me. Going into actual historic building’s staircase. haunted property, let’s do it.”

Tune in to the podcasts, if you dare. Zancan explained The series fuses both the history of buildings and the present-day paranormal activity found within them. The team’s home and the primary location is the Waveland Historic Site in Lexington, though they also travel around

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that they’re pitching the TV series to some broadcasting entities, but until they get their big break, you can find episodes of “History Alive” on the Lexington Paranormal Research Society’s Facebook page.

Darren Zancan, a part-time instructor at UK in the Media Arts and Studies program, is the executive director behind “History Alive,� a series focusing in the history of buildings and the panaoraml activity found within them.

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SPONSORED CONTENT

PHOTOS PROVIDED BY UK COLLEGE OF DENTISTRY

UK COLLEGE OF DENTISTRY KEEPS YOUR SMILE BRIGHT

C

BY MACY HAGAN

oming back from summer can be a challenge and getting into the college routine can take a bit longer than expected. Students always seem to be balancing too many things to pay attention to the smaller details in life.

But the smaller details matter, especially when it comes to dental care. Everyone loves a bright and beaming smile, but just because someone has pearly white teeth doesn’t mean there isn’t damage going on at a deeper level. Something as simple as taking time to brush your teeth twice a day is a good start to helping maintain a healthy mouth.

Thanks to the College of Dentistry in UK, we can seek and receive trustworthy tips to incorporate into our lives.

Serving the Commonwealth for over 55 years, the University of Kentucky College of Dentistry is home to more than 2,400 alumni, a commitment to innovation and a leading program worldwide. Their mission is rooted in providing quality education, an advancement of oral health and unique discoveries through research, all while building community.

Wondering about some common issues that impact the smiles of busy college students? Kathryn Wade, a dentist and professor within the UK College of Dentistry, has shared some quick tips to pass along to students when it comes to caring for their teeth this school year.

1. Be mindful of the drinks we consume other than water. “Other options, such as soda, juice, energy drinks, and coffee may have high sugar content and/or be high in acidity— both of which can work to damage your smile,” Wade said. While water is the most hydrating drink for our bodies, it also assists in cleaning our mouth 56 | KRNL LIFESTYLE + FASHION

from bacteria, making it a vital ingredient for overall health.

2. Late-night snacking is a common activity among students in college, and many times we consume comfort or junk foods and drinks. Even when study sessions run into our sleep time, it is still so crucial to brush and floss afterward. “Don’t give the bacteria in your mouth the chance to build up overnight,” Wade said.

3. While growing in society today, vaping, Juuling and using e-cigarettes may not be the best for teeth. Wade warned that the ingredients in these products include “a wide range of chemicals, some of which may allow cavity-causing bacteria to better stick to, and damage, the surface of teeth.”

4. As we are heading into a colder season, we may want to use weather as an excuse to slack on our oral care routine— sort of like when we don’t brush our hair and we stick a beanie on, instead. Any dentist would tell you, though, that it’s best not to slack on regular dental appointments as they can “help ensure you maintain a healthy smile and catch any potential issues early before they become bigger problems,” Wade said.

Thankfully, the College of Dentistry has multiple clinics that are eager to serve students at the University of Kentucky. Experienced faculty dentists see patients for both general and specialty dental services.

Appointments can be made at one of several on-campus locations or the UK HealthCare clinic at Turfland on Harrodsburg Road. For scheduling, call 859-323-DENT, and commit to caring for your oral health this school year.

SPONSORED CONTENT

THE PEOPLE BEHIND UK INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY’S STUDENT FOCUS

BY JADE GRISHAM

“

ITS about technology… ITS about innovation…

ITS about you!” The University of Kentucky’s Information Technology Services (ITS) slogan defines the direction of the department and the initiative to be one of the most innovative campuses when it comes to the usage of technology.

With nearly 300 staff members, including full-time, temporary and student employees, ITS develops and supports student systems, enterprise payroll, enterprise networking and infrastructure, research computing resources, staffing and maintaining computing labs, including the Student Media Depot, and provides in-person and virtual customer support.

that provides more cybersecurity to our students, faculty and staff.

“It is a much better approach,” Baker said. Three groups within ITS make the secure network function, Baker said: 1) Design Engineering, 2) Operations Engineering and 3) Collaboration Engineering.

Exposing students to a secure network that protects their private information, such as passwords and accounts, and with some of the other cybersecurity tools ITS has implemented, like Two-Factor Log-In, will help them tremendously down the road, said Baker.

COLIN BAKER

Through engagement with the university community, ITS actively responds to the ever-evolving technical needs and challenges of higher education.

UK launched the first-year iPad initiative, a component of a broader “Smart Campus” initiative and UK’s strategic plan, with a focus on student success; teaching and learning objectives; and career preparedness, said Associate Chief Information Officer Heath Price.

HEATH PRICE

“I’m excited when I think of UK’s new motto “Wildly Possible” and hope students will see the first steps in this iPad initiative as a sincere effort to fuel these dreams,” said Price.

ITS lead developer Joshua Wilson and his team recently created a new Student Financial Aid Portal. The project focused on improving the student experience and the project team made every effort to study the issues students were facing to really understand what they needed in a new portal. The team gathered students’ feedback throughout the creation process, via interviews and studies of how students were utilizing the portal. Students were also included in the prototype testing. The result is a Student Financial Aid Portal carefully developed utilizing student feedback with a built in ability for students to provide ongoing feedback within the portal.

ITS is filled with incredibly talented individuals who are dedicated to making Price hopes the iPads offer a tool our university a technology friendly that empowers students from the first JOSHUA WILSON and innovative place to learn and weeks of their college experience. At a micro level, the iPad ensures that all incoming stu- work, while encouraging students to be involved and strive for students to graduate with skills to dents have technology they need. At a macro level, launch their future. Interested in getting involved? the iPad can be a tool for students who are dreamThere are many ways students can get involved with ing about what is possible for their life to use.

ITS. ITS offers internships for college credit and stuIn addition to supporting the iPad initiative, ITS dent employment opportunities where you can gain has launched several cybersecurity initiatives over real world experience. In addition, ITS is always the past year and a half. Including the eduroam looking for student feedback on new/upcoming WiFi network that debuted on campus in spring products. Email ITSaboutYou@uky.edu to let them 2018, replacing the open network, ukyedu, in know what they can do for you.

August 2018. Colin Baker, team lead for Network Engineering, explained that eduroam is a network

#ITSaboutYou

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PHOTOS BY SYDNEY CARTER STREET SCENE ZEBRA PRINT BLAZER | 26

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GOODWILL CREAM TURTLENECK | 4.59

BACK TO

2000s

E G N U R G

IT WASN’T JUST A PHASE

I

WORDS BY LINDSAY BAISAS

n the world of fashion, it is common to see old trends make their way back into the spotlight.

This season, the 2000s/grunge style is the “new” wave, nostalgic of the many stars we saw on TV as children, such as Christina Aguilera or Mary-Kate and Ashley.

It is also the inspiration for many of the looks we see today— even on the runway. Mini-skirts, platform combat boots, and choker necklaces can be attributed to the grunge aesthetic. Although it is an edgy approach to fashion, it is also very ambiguous and can be made to fit anyone’s style.

“To us, grunge and the 2000s were all about rejecting the idea that you’re ‘supposed’ to be any certain way,” said Madison Wathen, a manager at Street Scene. “It’s about expressing that idea outwardly through the way that you dress.”

KRNL’s goal for this photoshoot is to showcase just how relatable this style can be to the everyday fashion of students here on campus.

To fully embrace the “recycled” trend, the stylist team chose to use the following vendors: POPS Resale, Goodwill and Street Scene. These are all local vintage/thrift stores that have the hidden gems to take you back to any decade of fashion.

The stylist team has put together ensembles to reflect the 2000s/grunge aesthetic in a very fashion-forward way. In every outfit pictured, there are specific details that allow you to pick apart what aspects of this trend could fit into your wardrobe.

“Our mission with Street Scene has always been to make people feel like they can be whoever they want to be and find unique pieces to reflect their heart and soul,” Wathen said.

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TAKING A

closer look

PHOTOS BY SYDNEY CARTER

GOODWILL JEANS | 5.79 SILVER HEELS | 4

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STREET SCENE BLUE VELAR JACKET | 16 SUNGLASSES | 12 MINK EARRINGS | 20 BUTTERFLY AND SNAP CLIPS | 0.30

POPS RESALE DENIM PURSE | 23

PHOTO BY MICHAEL CLUBB

STREET SCENE BLACK FUZZY COLLAR CARDIGAN | 24

POPS RESALE LIGHTNING EARRINGS | 12

GOODWILL RHINESTONE TANK | 4.29

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PHOTO BY JADE GRISHAM POPS RESALE VEST | 25 WEBN TEE | 17

PHOTO BY MICHAEL CLUBB GOODWILL PINK SWEATER | 4.59 NINE WEST BOOTS | 4 STREET SCENE KANGOL BUCKETHAT | 20 CHECKERED EARRINGS | 5

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PHOTO BY JADE GRISHAM

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PHOTOS BY JADE GRISHAM POPS RESALE KISS VEST | 25 SUNGLASSES | 12 STREET SCENE PLAID AND GRAY HAT | 14 GOODWILL RED SLEEVLESS TURTLENECK | 4.29 PANTS | 4.59

LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION

| PRICE | PRICE | PRICE | PRICE

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PHOTOS BY SYDNEY JANDA POPS RESALE AVRIL TEE | 10 WHITE JEANS | 13 ZEBRA SHOES | 19 SKULL EARRINGS | 8 STREET SCENE KANGOL BUCKET HAT | 20

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BE A GOOD

Citizen

KNOW YOUR POLITICS

BY BRITTANY LYDEN

T

hroughout history, most major countries have experienced economic collapse, revolutionary wars or overall reconstruction of government.

We in the United States should not think ourselves immune to this possibility. Due to our governmental structure, we the people have sway in the evolution of our country. This means we all, especially the rising generations, should be more knowledgeable about what is being discussed, debated and decided in our country as it affects us and will continue to affect us and future generations.

Figuring out our own opinions seems to be getting

more and more difficult, but the first step is becoming educated. We hope to provide you with enough information about the importance and issues at stake in our current political climate to encourage you to do more: Read more, have more conversations, expose yourself to diverse viewpoints.

“Avoid the bubble,” said Stephen Voss, an associate professor of political science who is on leave this semester. “Fight to get diverse friends.”

Most of all, we want to encourage you to vote in every election. Expressing your voice is good for you and for the future of our democracy.

Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us.

The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a president and senators and congressmen and government officials, but the voters of this country.

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

TAX POLICY DEMOCRATIC VIEWPOINT A portion of the democratic party is more willing to pay higher taxes in an effort for governement spending to be better utilized.

This policy holds that when the government collects taxes and funds programs, those programs may pump new money into the economy.

REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY U.S. Structure

The word Democracy originates from the Greek words, “demo” meaning people and “kratos” meaning authority; the people have the authority.

We are a representative democracy: Rather than each citizen casting a vote on every issue, we instead elect individuals to represent our interests in Washington, D.C.

REPUBLICAN VIEWPOINT Many conservatives are against high taxes because they believe that they could stifle the economy.

Republicans typically support tax policy that allows for the government to collect taxes to enforce contracts, maintain basic infrastructure and national security, and protect citizens against criminals.

They believe that the national government should collect taxes only for the country’s essential functions and as much money as possible should stay with the citizens or at least their state and local governments.

Graves, Lucas. Deciding What’s True: The Rise of Political Fact-checking in American Journalism, 2016. Print.

Legal Dictionary. “Representative Democracy,” https://legaldictionary.net/representative-democracy/ |(accessed Oct. 7, 2019).

Hill, Kathleen and Gerald Hill. The Facts on File: Dictionary of American Politics, 2001. Print.

Dr. Steven Voss | Associate Professor at the University of Kentucky

HEALTH CARE POLICY AFFORDABLE CARE ACT (A.K.A. OBAMACARE) The Affordable Care Act is a law enacted in an effort to ensure that all Americans have access to affordable health insurance. ACA does this by offering consumers discounts (known as tax credits) on government-sponsored health insurance plans, and by expanding the Medicaid assistance program to include more people who can’t afford health care. “Democrats initially pushed back against calling the ACA ‘Obamacare’ because they thought it insulting,” Voss said. “But it was too catchy to resist and eventually President Barack Obama embraced the term.”

HEALTH CARE REFORM Rand Paul, junior U.S. senator for Kentucky, proposed a reform of the Affordable Care Act which would increase competition across state lines. In theory, health care providers would have to decrease prices in order to stay competitive.

The typically conservative standpoint on health care is to decrease the amount of everyday expenses the act covers and primarily turn into “catastrophic care.”

Voss offered a comparison to car insurance to explain what sorts of instances catastrophic care would cover: “Car insurance is meant for when you get in an unexpected wreck, not when you need to get your oil changed.”

SUPREME COURT JUSTICES

The Supreme Court has ultimate jurisdiction over all laws within the United States and is responsible for evaluating the constitutionality of those laws. Each justice is nominated by the president and confirmed or denied by the Senate. This is the highest federal court in the country and the head of the judicial branch. In 1869, Congress set the number of seats as nine. The Supreme Court is currently divided between four liberal associate justices and four conservative ones, with the chief justice often being the swing vote.

Chief Justice: John Roberts Jr., born 1955 Appointed by President George W. Bush Ruth Bader Ginsburg, born 1933 Appointed by President Barack Obama

Clarence Thomas, born 1948 Appointed by President George W. Bush

Stephen Breyer, born 1938 Appointed by President Bill Clinton

Samuel Alito, born 1950 Appointed by President George W. Bush

Sonia Sotomayor, born 1954 Appointed by President Barack Obama

Neil Gorsuch, born 1967 Appointed by President Donald Trump

Elena Kagan, born 1960 Appointed by President Barack Obama

Brett M. Kavanaugh, born 1965 Appointed by President Donald Trump

Photos from supremecourt.gov/about/biographies.aspx Rand Paul U.S. Senator for Kentucky. “Dr. Rand Paul Unveils Obamacare Replacement Act.”https://www.paul.senate.gov/news/dr-rand-paul-unveils-obamacare-replacement-act | (accessed Oct. 7, 2019).

Investopedia. “Republican vs. Democrats on Taxes: What’s the Difference?” https://www.investopedia.com/articles/economics/09/us-parties-republican-democrat-taxes.asp by Stephanie Barton (accessed Oct. 7, 2019)

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Jack Duarte leads his miniature horse, Darleigh, from her grazing spot near his driveway on Sept. 9, 2019, in Lexington, Kentucky.

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Duarte rubs Darleigh’s nuzzle in his living room on Sept. 13, 2019, in Lexington, Kentucky. “When she comes in the house, she’ll very often put her head on my knee and kind of go to sleep,” Duarte said, “I can feel the pressure getting heavier and I know she’s asleep.”

QUEEN OF THE NEIGHBOORHOOD: DARLEIGH THE MINI HORSE

T

ARTICLE & PHOTOS BY ARDEN BARNES he most photographed horse in Lexington is not a thoroughbred or Derby winner.

It’s a miniature horse named Darleigh, at least by the count of her owner, Jack Duarte.

Around 3 p.m., Duarte sits with Darleigh in his driveway as she grazes on a small patch of grass easily in view to passerby on the street.

It’s not uncommon for people walking or driving home from work or school to stop and give Darleigh a few pets or snap a photo with her. Duarte said everybody loves Darleigh. “She’s a fixture,” he said.

Darleigh has been in the Duarte family for 12 years. Duarte’s wife grew up around horses and thought they should have one, but their backyard was too small for a full-size horse, he said.

They were at a party when a friend mentioned miniature horses, Duarte said. “[My wife] got the idea in her head that a miniature horse could possibly be the answer to our problem,” he said. The next week they went to a farm in Harrodsburg and were immediately drawn to Darleigh.

Darleigh often accompanies Duarte and his dogs, Luna and Cisco, in his home while he writes novels.

“I’m a halfway successful author, but nobody knows that,” Duarte said.

“Everyone just knows me as Darleigh’s dad.”

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Xzylia Girardi and her dog, Mazzyin, stop to pet Darleigh on Sept.16, 2019, in Lexington, Kentucky. “She’s just a wonderful, wonderful ambassador to the city and I love being able to have so many people derive so much pleasure out of her simple existence,” Duarte said.

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“

I’m a halfway successful author, but nobody knows that. Everyone just knows me as Darleigh’s dad.

“

-Jack Duarte

Darleigh licks a salt block in Duarte’s living room with Luna, a German shepherd, and Duarte watching close by on Sept. 13, 2019, in Lexington, Kentucky.

A ‘miniature horse crossing sign’ is tacked to a tree in Duarte’s front yard. “She’s basically the queen of the neighborhood,” Duarte said.

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Geoff Murphy and Graham Allen of SquarePegs Studio & Design work on the finishing touches of their mural on Aug. 28, 2019, in Lexington, Kentucky.

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FOR THE LOVE OF ART

BY NICOLAS TORRES 2019 | 75 PHOTOS BY SYDNEYFALL CARTER

Graham Allen and Geoff Murphy work on the finishing touches of their mural of Willa Beatrice Brown, a black aviator and civil rights activist from Glasgow, Kentucky.

S

treet art is a “love letter to Lexington.”

This is how the organization PRHBTN views street art, said co-founder John Winters.

Organizations like PRHBTN and SquarePegs Studio and Design contribute to many murals and other artwork around the city, which range in size from covering part of a wall to scaling the entire side of a building.

In 2011, John and Jessica Winters founded PRHBTN to help celebrate local artists and their various art styles— styles that may have been unappreciated or unrecognized as art by the public.

“The idea was brought up by Jessica after I recommended her to watch the Bansky film, ‘Exit Through the Gift Shop,’” John Winters said.

The 2010 film is directed by Banksy, the well-known but anonymous street artist from England.

The name PRHBTN was derived from artists’ being prohibited to show their art in public, as well as a nod to the Prohibition era since the organization started in Kentucky, a state with lots of pride in its bourbon.

Creating the organization was the first step toward supporting artists and helping them express themselves without the fear of their art being marginalized by public opinion.

“We do it for the city,” John Winters said.

The couple works year-round to prepare for the PRHBTN festival by reading street art blogs and keeping up on multiple social media platforms to look for the artists they are wanting to invite to the following year’s festival.

After starting with a long list, the Winters whittle it down to nine or 10 national and international artists before inviting them to participate in the festival.

“We’ve been lucky enough to get some amazing artists to participate,” John Winters said.

For the past eight years, along with the ninth year coming up in October, PRHBTN has been sponsored by local businesses and citizens through its Kickstarter fundraiser program.

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The Winters also deal with their fair share of complications when preparing for the festival, including artists not getting their visas in time, paint not arriving and lifts getting stuck in the mud.

“We try to think of it in a Murphy’s Law kind of concept,” John Winters said. “Where ‘anything that can go wrong will go wrong,’ so we try not to be as rigid in our thinking and focus more on solving the problem.”

The ninth annual festival began Oct. 18, 2019, and continues through the end of the month.

The gallery is free to all at the Loudon House, located at 209 Castlewood Dr. “Good things come from good people” is the logo of Kentucky business SquarePegs Studio and Design, another organization that contributes to the art scene in Lexington.

Friends Graham Allen and Geoff Murphy have been running this business since 2014, and since then, their work has gained recognition from their clients, ranging from restaurants, breweries and bars, shopping malls and universities, and both public and private commissions.

Allen and Murphy have more than 20 years of combined experience. Allen said he takes pride in his work and will make sure to provide a client with whatever they need to gain business.

SquarePegs’ art includes the Pazzo’s Pizzas Pub outside patio walls on South Limestone; branding products for Atomic Ramen and Bear & The Butcher; and the “Inspiration Series,” which includes murals of Harry Dean Stanton, Muhammad Ali, Tom Waits and John Prine.

The studio also has some lettering and graphic work in the Barn at the Summit at Fritz Farm and has contributed artwork to UK for raffles.

Allen said he enjoys creating things that can motivate and inspire positivity in the community.

For the future of street art, Allen said he would enjoy seeing more type-based art, more “Easter eggs,” which refers to some hidden element in a work, more thought-provoking installations and more murals hidden from public view. One example is this year’s “LOVEBOMB” mural on the roof of the Hive Salon and Art Haus, which is the first rooftop mural in Lexington.

As for SquarePegs specifically, Allen said he wants the business “to grow while remaining manageable and intimate.”

Graham Allen finishes final details on the mural of Willa Beatrice Brown as part of the “Inspiration Series” on Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2019, in Lexington, Kentucky.

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PHOTO BY JORDAN PRATHER

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GAME DAY FASHION WORDS BY RACHEL PORTER

U

niversity of Kentucky tailgates and football games are memorable for many fans— from the RV lot to Benny Snell’s weekly reminder that all students must show out to fireworks in the stadium after a touchdown.

However, the fashion aspect of game day is one factor that may be overlooked. Fashion is not something that matters to everyone, but it is something that can make an impact and a statement. With a stadium that can hold more than 60,000 people, it can be hard to stand out in a sea of royal blue. On a campus with more than 25,000 students, it is hard to be heard. By utilizing, creating and displaying creative pieces, this magazine hopes to encourage readers to show who they are through their outfits and more.

Through inspiration from country singer Kacey Musgraves, rapper and singer/songwriter Lil Nas X and Kentucky horse culture itself, KRNL combined the western chic trend with tailgate attire to show how students can add a personal flair and twist to UK events and potentially every day attire.

Upholding one’s own fashion standards can be expensive and time-consuming, especially if you want to be trend consistent. Although this is an obstacle, it can be conquered.

The KRNL stylist team have used three affordable and local vendors for this shoot to show how it can be done: POPS Resale, Buckle, and JamesC Boutique. Carrie Burkett, owner of JamesC boutique, said it is important to find staple and versatile items for your tailgate wardrobe. She recommended royal blue tube tops or jean jackets “because you can make them look different every time you wear them.”

PHOTO BY ARDEN BARNES POPS RESALE HORSE FLANNEL | 17 LEE’S JEANS | 15

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PHOTO BY MICHAEL CLUBB

PHOTO BY ARDEN BARNES BUCKLE CULT DENIM | 185 POPS RESALE LEATHER BELT | 12 COWBOY HAT| 12 BLACK AND WHITE SIDE PURSE | 13 HANDKERCHIEF | 12

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PHOTOS BY JORDAN PRATHER JAMESC BOUTIQUE MINI DENIM SKIRT | 38 POPS RESALE BLUE JACKET | 19 COW PRINT BOOTS | 50 82 | KRNL LIFESTYLE + FASHION

BUCKLE BKE ATHLETIC FIT BLUE BUTTON UP | 44.95 JEANS ACID WASH | 88

ABOVE: POPS RESALE UK JERSEY | 17 KENTUCKY COWBOY HAT | 25 BLACK FRINGE BOOTS | 19 JAMESC BOUTIQUE BLUE FRINGE PURSE | 28

JAMESC BOUTIQUE WHITE FRINGE PURSE | 34 FALL 2019 | 83

PHOTO BY ARDEN BARNES POPS RESALE WHITE LACE DRESS | 10 BLUE BOOTS | 25 LEATHER PURSE | 30

PHOTO BY MICHAEL CLUBB POPS RESALE BELT | 60 BUCKLE LONG GOLD EARRINGS | 14.95 PHOTO BY JORDAN PRATHER POPS RESALE HANDKERCHIEF | 12

PHOTO BY MICHAEL CLUBB POPS RESALE VEST | 21

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WHO, WHAT, WEAR: WORLDWIDE STYLE

Editor’s Note: If you bring a unique culture to our campus though your style, contact us.

This is a continuing report and we want to be able to tell as many stories as we can.

W

BY RACHAEL COURTNEY

hat a person wears says a lot about who they are and where they come from.

The norm on SEC college campuses may be to wake up, throw on a Comfort Colors T-shirt and rush out the door to an 8 a.m. lecture, but some students take a different approach when expressing themselves through fashion.

International students add diversity to our campus in many ways, including by bringing their unique taste in fashion to UK’s campus. International students have built a reputation among some for sporting designer brands and on-trend clothing in their day-to-day looks.

Many international students’ style reflects the fashion in their home country, and fashion is a way for them to create a home away from home.

Other international students, however, may dress according to the trends of their new home.

Francisco Léniz, a student from Chile, said his style may have changed after moving to Lexington to attend UK. “On one hand, I get to use more blue-colored clothing than before compared to the clothing I wore when I was at my alma mater,” he said. “On the other hand, I’ve got more casual and outdoor clothing.”

Léniz said he’s rather ironically wearing more Patagonia garments now that he’s at UK than he did before, even though the Patagonia logo is the

PHOTO BY SYDNEY CARTER 86 | KRNL LIFESTYLE + FASHION

outline of Mount Fitz Roy in the border between Argentina and Chile, Léniz’s home country.

Paulina Zörner, originally from Germany, said her style didn’t really change after her move.

“It did not change much because I did not go shopping a lot,” Zörner said.

When she does go shopping, Zörner said she frequents Zara, Uniqlo and local boutiques.

Zörner said she does not compare her style to other students’ fashion and just wears what she feels comfortable in; she said she thinks fashion should be about expressing yourself.

Léniz said he doesn’t consider his style much different from others’ style.

“I may look a little bit messier or out of place, maybe between outdoorsy and skateboard style, as I don’t really care about how I look,” Léniz said— except, of course, when he does dress up.

Léniz said it’s debatable whether international students are more fashionable than American students or not.

“For some cases, it may be due to exchange students being more exposed to the global trends in Europe, Asia and other continents, which may evolve faster and can be really high-fashion,” he said.

Check out the spring edition of KRNL Lifestyle + Fashion for more about how international students express their fashion in the Bluegrass.

PHOTO PROVIDED

Caturday

FEAR AND LOATHING ON A

BY RYAN BROKAMP ILLUSTRATIONS BY TORY STEPHENSON

Editor’s Note: This is a piece of gonzo journalism, which is a type of journalism that lacks objectivity and often includes the writer as part of the narrative. This is inspired by Kentuckian Hunter S. Thompson’s work, such as “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.” It should be considered an opinion piece.

A

t 2:23 a.m. on Aug. 20, the last Tuesday of summer break, a metal monster bulldozed down the tracks that run parallel to Crescent and perpendicular to both State Street and University Avenue. A howl whistled through the streets that have quite the reputation amongst the students of the University of Kentucky.

The vibrations of the howl bounced by all the cheap Christmas lights hung on porches and off windows with Greek letter flags behind them, eventually finding its way past three Lexington Police cruisers, whose presence was being felt sitting in the empty lot on the corner of State and Elizabeth.

I don’t know what the police were doing there that night. The whistle was the only real noise heard besides

the constant hum of warm weather crickets. The block wasn’t alive with the usual beat it has on any given weekend of the school year. Perhaps the memories of last year’s game against Florida, when hundreds of Wildcat fans flipped a white Volvo, are what inspired the police presence. After that infamous riot, it seems the Lexington Police Department has made that abandoned lot its home base in the war against UK tailgate culture— which is absolutely absurd.

But absurdity is vogue nowadays.

School is back in session and the energy can be felt in the breath on campus. The beginning of the year brings its own energetic atmosphere that makes one wish college life could last forever. Friends are reuniting and FALL 2019 | 87

laughing, everyone still has clean clothes and football is back. However, amongst the old Kentucky off-campus homes, tailgate culture tragically sits in limbo.

I have to be honest, I’m not really a good student journalist. Being a good student journalist would imply that I studied an Associated Press style book and I abide by laws that have guided the news for decades. I’ve only taken one journalism class. In that class Professor Jen Smith, hot off the Wildcat football beat, told us that journalists’ first obligation is to the truth. So, while this story might not be a respectable piece of journalism, at least it is the truth, which can be hard to find these days.

Skill aside, I do like to think I have done some decent reporting. During the first week of classes I got a text from an editor and either out of respect or necessity, she asked if I wanted to continue my role as a student journalist with KRNL. When I told her I was working on a story of how UK’s drinking rules reflects the socioeconomic conditions in Kentucky and that I was thousands of words in, she sent me a very nice message back saying, “Hey Ryan we actually already had someone write that story :/ I’m sorry, I didn’t realize you were writing it!”

Who knew such an everyday text could inspire the passions that followed? I had been thinking about this story all summer and, as foolish as it seems, was emotionally invested. Luckily there isn’t any criteria to tell someone you’re a writer so I could still talk to sources, but I needed to get in the stadium to see for myself.

I found myself inside a Commonwealth Stadium that was without fans but not empty. The team had just taken the field to practice by the time I got seated in a secluded location. The players warmed up to the bass-heavy hip hop that was playing throughout the stadium. The team looked healthy and was preforming well.

But I wasn’t there to cover the team; plenty of Kernel journalists do that extensively. My goal was to try to find a way to get into the parts of the stadium where patrons were permitted to drink openly. The first target was the Lexus Loge but the doors were very much locked and maintenance workers who might ask questions were all around. I made my observations and dipped; it was time for my next task.

Since a press pass wasn’t going to be handed to me, I went looking for the holy grail. Earlier I was able to dig up information saying that those with passes could pick them up between gates 10 and 11, so that’s where I went. My journey to find a pass eventually led me up a staircase to the press box, past a communications director setting up a greet88 | KRNL LIFESTYLE + FASHION

ing table and into a lovely carpeted room. Any reporter covering the Wildcats is blessed; the press box seemed to me to be more of a private suite than it was a place for journalists to work. It’s hard to differentiate the room for the writers from the rooms for the wealthy.

Doors with donor names on them lined the long the hallways of the private parts of the Commonwealth, bringing a sense of irony to the original name of the stadium. I wandered these walkways endlessly looking for anything that could be hidden in this luxurious maze.

Being in such a pristine aroma made me think of the conditions of the classroom I was in earlier that week.

The basement of the Funkhouser building is not a place you’ll see on the SeeBlue university tour. The grey plastic that lines the room where the wall meets the floor is missing at points, exposing the original red brick.

The room smells almost exclusively of must, mold, ink and old books. The projector speaker works a minority amount of time and water drips from the ceilings on rainy days. Regardless of the room, an English professor teaches American literature with the same passion of an employee who enjoys all the resources of a well-funded liberal arts college.

The contrast of the two places makes one ponder the priority of the school. How is it that an area made for established professionals is immaculate compared to the

rooms students are paying to be receiving their education in? It seems all the big donors forgot about the little basement classrooms.

The press passes were nowhere to be seen, reminding me of my lack of professionalism. While I didn’t secure a pass, I had gained valuable information. As I walked out of the stadium, I saw a player in his practice jersey and a coach in a Nike sweat suit trying to get into the stadium. They were on a phone apologizing for being late. Being the team player I am, I let the coach know about a cracked door I saw. With a suspicious smirk he said, “Good eye, kid” and went it. Maybe the team does need the students.

Walking back from the stadium, toward the Johnson Center, I came across what remained from the battleground of past tailgate culture, the Bowl.

I remember the Bowl. It was a beautiful place, if you don’t think that every student who sips a beer should be labeled a sinner. Going to the Bowl was a time for the very private Greek Life community to come together with the campus to celebrate the Wildcats. When I was a young Bowl attendee, I had just joined my fraternity and my first trip to the soon-to-be-hallowed grounds was set to take place on a beautiful day. As the sun rose over Woodland Glen III on the first Caturday of 2017, I was finishing steaming my Vineyard Vines polo and cleaning the lens of my matte black Vans sunglasses. I was going to look sick. But midway through my morning routine, as I was blaring DJ Envy’s “Text Ur Number (feat. DJ Sliink & Fetty Wap)” my inner astrological signs began

to sense that the vibe in the room was off. I was able to feel that my roommate, who was not a frat star like myself, had slipped into a deep depression because he was without plans for game day. I felt for the first time the power of the Bowl. It was then I turned to him, dried his tears and said, “Don’t worry, just come to the Bowl.

It’ll be tight.”

And tight it was.

It is at this point in the story a most tragic truth must be addressed. Freshmen and sophomores with whom we share our campus have no memory of the bowl. Sure, they’ve heard stories and seen pictures, but they never experienced the place for what is was.

They never stood on the grass hill that sits in between Cooper Street and the UK Tennis facilities. It wasn’t much but it was ours. Students would go there before UK’s home games to enjoy a glimpse of what many consider to be a typical student gameday experience. Over the grassy knoll SEC tailgate classics blasted from blown out speakers over the constant commotion. The run-off water from Cooper Street always settled in the Bowl, leading to a wet sloppiness in its turf. It was here where we laughed too hard, yelled too loud, sang too passionate and lived too openly.

It was a place you could tell a crush your feelings and then the next day blame it on the moment. Boisterous tough guys were there to curse or punch at to get a rush of adrenaline to remind you of life outside of our passive world. Couples publicly argued and displayed their affection. Yes, the bowl was a cesspool of bad decisions,

FALL 2019 | 89

but it was ours. It was a place to be unapologetically human. At the end of the week, after countless mundane minutes of classes, we had somewhere to go where we could forget about the unstable job market we were about to jump into with mountains of debt we’ve been incurring.

But the Bowl was taken away.

It wasn’t replaced either; the university tried to have its manufactured Student Gameday Zone, but it was a disaster. No students wanted to show up, wait in line and sign into a supervised tailgate. Honestly, I had more fun taking calculus exams than I did at the Gameday Zone.

It seemed like the tide was in our favor; it was obvious the university ruined tailgating for its students and the expectation was that they’d find a better way, but in the fall of 2018 tragedy struck.

The morning started much like another fall Saturday, except now without having the haven of the Bowl. At 9:30 a.m. Jacob Heil was at an off-campus tailgate. That afternoon, as UK was in midst of beating Murray State, Heil struck 4-year-old Marco Lee Shemwell, who died two days later from his injuries.

I remember the day. I, like Heil, had been at an off-campus tailgate earlier that day. In the back of my mind the similarities between me and Heil remind me that I was not far off from finding myself in his scenario.

I covered the freshman’s not guilty plea for the Kentucky Kernel. I sat in court with him and his family and heard his lawyers speak on his behalf. When he walked out of court, while I stood waiting for a statement, the photographer I was working with snapped unwanted pictures of the defendant walking through the field of press. And while I sat with my head hung for having experienced the fear, shame and pain I felt in that courtroom, the other reporters just typed on their phones and folded up the tripods of their big expensive cameras. While the trial is still yet to play out, the ending result will be relatively menial. No matter how the jury rules, nothing will change what happened on that day. A 4-year-old child will never grow old. On that day UK students saw the impact that their relaxing on the weekends can have. It’s easy to assume the culture of students is responsible for the death of Marco Lee Shemwell, but in reality, nothing is that black and white.

So, after the banning of the Bowl and the tragedy of 90 | KRNL LIFESTYLE + FASHION

the Murray State game, University of Kentucky’s tailgate culture is at our most defining hour. With no direction from the school, students continue with their off-campus tailgates under a more watchful eye. Every Saturday morning Lex PD cars sit and plan their daily patrols.

Warnings are hung days in advance, State Street closes and citations are given. Gamedays are quieter now, except for the drinking and partying that goes on closer to the stadium.

In K-Lot, students move their cars on Saturdays to make way for those alumni who can afford the tailgate spots. In the spots in front of the stadium there are never very many students.

Instead the lot is filled with tents, trailers and coolers all meant to accommodate the upper-class football fans.

Crews come early in the week to set up for this crowd; their experience cannot be anything less than perfect.

These are the people who contribute to the K-fund and Kentucky Can campaign. Maybe some of those people even shelled out the money for a ticket to the Lexus Loge or Woodford Reserve Club inside Commonwealth Stadium Kroger Field.

Over the summer of 2019, while many other SEC schools announced they would be opening alcohol sales to general admission guests in their stadiums, UK decid-

ed against it. The Kentucky Kernel reported UK Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart’s statement: “It is our goal, as well as our responsibility, to create a safe, secure, positive, engaging environment for fans of all ages and from all walks of life. We believe we have an outstanding college fan experience at our games.

Though we recognize we can always find ways to do better, we’re also careful about disrupting what we have currently in place.”

not create the best product?

Regardless of the situation, the desire to tailgate is at an all-time high. When I told my buddies that I planned on reporting instead of enjoying a Caturday, they were insulted. The idea that I would pursue a venture that could improve my academic resume instead of partaking in our timeless tradition failed to register with any of them. Not taking part in the comradery would cast my commitment to the group into doubt. They were right and I couldn’t do it. I decided to stay with them and write the story of how Kentucky tailgates actually are.

And that statement would work if UK was like Georgia, Alabama, Clemson or LSU, but guess what, Mitch, the Wildcats aren’t exactly an asses in seats type team.

The attendance numbers for Wildcat games are sporadic but the ticket sale trend slopes downwards. The stadium didn’t even sell out for the home opener. The UNIVERSITY OF Wall Street Journal reported KENTUCKY’S TAILGATE that attendance to NCAA college football games is down CULTURE IS AT OUR 3.2 percent and even more concerning is its reporting MOST DEFINING HOUR. that the attendance number given by universities is usually inflated by 29 percent.

But students coming to the game isn’t a top priority for anyone trying to manage a successful program. At the end of the day students and the working class aren’t buying premium-priced tickets. However, what isn’t considered on gamedays is the thousands of dollars that students and recent alumni have paid in tuition to just be a part of the school that’s on the players’ jerseys.

To the naked eye the difference between college football and professional football isn’t obvious. There are the same number of players, only a few small rule changes and the players are unpaid students.

The spirit of college football is what keeps the NCAA in competition with the NFL. That spirit is made up of the stories that revolve around what happens on Saturdays in the fall on college campuses all around the country.

Getting students and everyday fans excited could really help the team; a rowdy home field advantage has been proven hard to play against. Currently any team playing the Wildcats now just has to hold out till half time and wait for a majority of the crowd to leave the stadium. If the goal is to sell the most tickets, then why

We decided not to sleep the night before; in our minds it would be better to just stay awake than it would be to try to wake up the morning of. We spent most the night on my front porch looking out over the lot the cops sat in weeks ago. The sun came up on us as we shared all our embarrassing stories from previous gamedays and drank Bang energy drinks.

At 8 a.m. we were already starting to feel the effects of our sleep deprivation, so we went house to house waking up the rest of our Caturday companions. Slowly our group grew to the handsome bunch we are and we went to the undisclosed, hidden, ever-elusive, off-campus, gameday tailgate location.

In the next part of this story, nothing can be confirmed or denied. It is either the truth or crazy ramblings; you will have to decide.

The scene is pretty much what anyone would expect.

Guys with striped blue and white shirts who tuck their messy hair tucked under backwards hats are playing corn hole and throwing dice on homemade tables. Girls are standing on elevated surfaces wobbling around in their heels, always one wrong move away from a quick fall. All over students are congregated— gossiping, flirting and joking around.

I talked to a student visiting her friend from out of state. She was an advertising major whose real passionate was filmmaking. She told me how she thought UK was supposed to be a big SEC football school but she felt like she was back in high school sneaking into houses, hiding from parents. She wasn’t used to the paranoia that UK tailgaters can expect, not knowing if at any FALL 2019 | 91

second the police would come by pull the plug.

It’s not always bad when your tailgate gets a visit from Lexington’s finest. They are pretty funny guys and some of the most honest people out there. Sometimes they even seem as if they are even having fun riding their bikes together and if you look closely, they can be caught smiling.

One of my interviews with a Lex PD officer ended with him saying he should write us a ticket for “not having enough girls at the party and being a bunch of losers.”

Then he threatened to come back when he was off the clock and beat us in our own backyard games. I don’t care what the Republicans say, police brutality is real.

room, but isn’t that who most college football fans are or once were?

I was able to get into the game against Toledo, thanks to my buddy’s managers scheduling him to work. The Lexus Loge was loaded with security and luck hadn’t been in my favor that day. Caffeine and blaring EDM could no longer hold me together and delusion was kicking in.

The secret is out. Off-campus fraternity tailgates are lame. It’s a lot of sitting around looking at the same people you see every weekend. With no place to gather, Caturday energy has no way to spawn from the student population.

The closest I got to alcohol in the stadium that day was when I managed to sneak into a seat near the private lounge. From the outside looking in I could only observe. I had failed at my goal to bring true immersive journalism to the students of Kentucky. It was my last opportunity to get any information that could be used in the writing process and all I had was rough notes and a few entries to my voice recorder. My story would have no facts of my own, or interviews with important administrators.

Students aren’t asking for much. We don’t need a place where booze flow abundantly and openly, but we need a place to be ourselves. The university needs to listen to the students when it comes to the direction of tailgate culture on this campus. I know I’m just a naïve college kid typing away on a computer in a poster-filled

As I looked into the faces of the fortunate fans, I tried to search for some sort of poetic description but nothing original came to mind. To think I was a poet was as stupid as thinking I was a good student journalist. There was no romantic language to describe the moment because it wasn’t romantic. Looking into the crowd, there

92 | KRNL LIFESTYLE + FASHION

was no excitement, there weren’t anything resembling emotions in the looks of anyone from the high-class crowd, they watched the game as if they were looking at any other luxury their money could buy.

It was a stark difference from the degenerates I was with earlier that day. Those people cared, some of them had money on the game, some of them wouldn’t even watch the play by play but all of them had spent the whole week thinking about Caturday and all of them enjoyed it to the best of their ability.

Before my rampage of self-destruction that led to the narrative you just endured, I did manage to do a piece of actual journalism. In a phone interview with Dr. James Ziliak, the Gatton Endowed Chair in Microeconomics and Director of the Center for Poverty Research, we discussed the socio-economic state of Kentucky. He led off the interview saying that he did not have any statistics in front of him and I reassured him that statistics weren’t my style.

Dr. Ziliak talked about how the Bluegrass has a below average fraction of the population who has a college degree and how most higher earnings go to those who

have a higher education. In my interpretation, this disparity leads to a gap in income inequality and a gap in the people who can drink at UK football games.

Tailgating will live on. There will always be irresponsible college students like myself who will wake up every Saturday with a grin on our face and a spring in our step.

The reality of the situation is that the high-water level is rising. Young people today live with passion. If you read the news we are in midst of a chaotic world; politicians fight like children, the earth is either going through global warming or climate change, and the economy is said to be heading towards recession. We’re playing against a stacked deck.

As I walked away from Commonwealth Stadium at the end of my investigation, I saw two little boys holding their mother’s hands. The two young kids were moving their feet as fast as they could go. The mom stayed firm, holding her boys back from running away into the crazy world of the tailgates around them. The two cried and complained, angry at their mom for not letting them run wild, but she knew there was no reasoning with them.

Maybe some things never change.

FALL 2019 | 93

e h t fromative director cre 94 | KRNL LIFESTYLE + FASHION

D

uring my junior year, I stumbled onto the third floor of McVey Hall. I was finally listening to advice from a family friend, Scoobie Ryan, who is also a journalism professor here at the university, and I started my journey as a Kernelite. Journalism is not my major, but more experience is a good experience, right? KRNL Lifestyle + Fashion became the place that I got to explore my love of creativity and design. Coming in as a photo shoot coordinator turned quickly into creating my own role as Creative Director. I found myself in the office as much as I could, trying to get as involved as possible. While working at KRNL L + F, I have had the chance to work with people who challenge me and have helped me grow creatively.

From the conception to creation and now to print, our magazine has been a work of art, as our origin idea revolves around expression and creativity in our community. Having a student-run publication allows our staff to push the limits and collaborate in an effective, team-oriented environment.

All the people behind the scenes made this publication possible, especially our Assistant Media and Design Adviser May May Barton. From helping create my position to tolerating our crazy breakdowns in her office, she makes this experience not only possible but successful. Having the space to tell stories gave us the opportunity to properly feature the individuality of each person who worked on creating this magazine.

Now, buckle up for our look books, podcasts and publication this coming spring.

BEST,

FALL 2019 | 95

CONTRIBUTORS

LEFT: EDITOR-IN-CHIEF ALLIE KING RIGHT: CREATIVE DIRECTOR BRITTANY LYDEN

COPY EDITOR

PHOTO EDITOR

LIFESTYLE EDITOR

FASHION EDITOR

BAILEY VANDIVER

ARDEN BARNES

ASHLYNNE ARNETT

RACHEL PORTER

BLOG EDITOR LAURYN HAAS ASST. BLOG EDITOR ARIZZONA ALBRIGHT

PHOTOSHOOT COORDINATORS TORY STEPHENSON LEDJEN HAASE

SOCIAL MEDIA TEAM ABBEY TEMPLEMAN LEANNA WILLIAMS MAKENNA THEISSEN

MODEL COORDINATOR PRESLEY DOSS

WEB DESIGNER GRAYSON DAMPIER

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ASST. FASHION EDITOR RACHAEL COURTNEY STYLISTS LINDSAY BAISAS KEAIRA BURNS NICOLAS TORRES LEDJEN HAASE

CONTRIBUTORS WRITERS ARIZZONA ALBRIGHT ARDEN BARNES RYAN BROKAMP RACHAEL COURTNEY GRAYSON DAMPIER MADISON DENNIS PRESLEY DOSS JADE GRISHAM LAURYN HAAS LEDJEN HAASE MACY HAGAN ALLIE KING BRITTANY LYDEN MAGGIE MARRS NICOLE MARTIN RACHEL PORTER NICOLAS TORRES BAILEY VANDIVER LEANNA WILLIAMS PHOTOGRAPHERS JUSTIN ALCALA ARDEN BARNES HAYLEY BURRIS SYDNEY CARTER MICHAEL CLUBB JADE GRISHAM LEDJEN HAASE SYDNEY JANDA JORDAN PRATHER VICTORIA ROGERS

BEHIND-THE-SCENES MAY MAY BARTON RYAN CRAIG ANDREA GIUSTI DAVID STEPHENSON DESIGNERS ALLIE KING MYA LACLAIR BRITTANY LYDEN NICOLE MARTIN ILLUSTRATORS BRITTANY LYDEN TORY STEPHENSON MODELS PEYTON ASTON RYAN BURKE KEIARA BURNS RICK CHILDRESS JEFF EDWARDS RILEY FEDDOCK SEDONA FLECK TEKIYA GARR-CARTER CHRISTIAN GATEWOOD LEDJEN HAASE AIME MABIKA BENJAMIN MERCER ANDY MOUNTAIN ASA PHILIPS ZELLIE ROHER VANESSA URQUIZO LEANNA WILLIAMS

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