Almost a hundred years later the building dodged the wrecking ball thanks to the combined efforts of the non-profit group, Save the Grand theatre which operates the venue today.
In 2011 board member and video producer Joanna Hay made a documentary about the building and its connection to the community.
While more celebratory and nostalgic in nature, the film also featured interviews with African American patrons who described the days when the Grand was subject to Jim Crow segregation.
27 year old Black Lives Matter activist and Frankfort resident Katima Smith Willis says the laughter and lightheartedness in those interviews belied the obvious racial injustice.
Now Smith Willis and Kentucky historian Kayla Bush are joining certified community scholar Joanna Hay for a new phase of the Stories from the Balcony project where Smith Willis will re-interview some of the patrons and have new conversations with others. She says she plans to dig deeper in an effort to get at their true feelings; something they may not have felt comfortable doing with a white interviewer.
President Cull and board member Mike Fields, who was interviewed for the original Hay film, say the new phase of the project is an important part of capturing all of the Grand’s history.
And they hope the new interviews will paint a clearer picture of the past while also inspiring an overdue conversation about our collective future.
The project is partially paid for by several non-profit groups and a drive is under way to raise the required matching funds. Information on how you can help is at https://grandtheatre.thundertix.com/donations/new?campaign_id=2316.
