Coming up on Kentucky life... Lexington's Southland Drive is known as Music Row.

We explore the music shops.

And even the summer concert series.

That make this a popular spot.

Strip mines turned back into woodlands.

As the goal of Green Forests Work, A Kentucky nonprofit that looks to heal these scars.

On the landscape.

The Burnside community in Pulaski County.

Was forced to relocate when Lake Cumberland was created.

We'll tell you the story of the area before it was flooded.

And introduce you to some former residents of.

Old Burnside.

And we'll go to Bowling Green where a special theater camp.

For autistic children is giving them a place to grow and learn.

All that's next on Kentucky Life.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Hey, everybody, and welcome to Kentucky Life.

I'm your host, Chip Polston.

Now, this week, our show has taken us to Northern Kentucky.

To Covington, to be exact here to the Behringer.

Crawford Museum.

Now, the facility preserves the history of the Ohio Valley.

And tells the story through various forms.

Of transportation used in the region and other exhibits.

Now, back during the civil war, this area was actually.

The sixth largest city in the United States.

And it holds a rich heritage worth celebrating.

You'll see more of this great museum throughout our show.

But first, Southland Drive is a well-known part of Lexington.

One of the city's earliest shopping centers.

Was located there.

But the street has also garnered a reputation within.

The local music community.

Deemed Lexington's Music Row by a former mayor, Southland is home to a number of music shops.

And even a summer concert series known as Tahlsound, An anagram for Southland.

Let's check it out and learn what makes this community.

So special.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Southland Drive is a historic area in Lexington.

Back in the '60s and '70s, it was the end of town.

After it, it was all fields and by the time the '90s developed, Then they built the mall and Nicholasville and Fayette County Grew closer.

Southland still kind of stayed the same.

There were, at one time, five or six music stores in the area.

In 2010, Mayor Newberry dubbed Southland, Lexington.

Is music-pro.

The Southland Jamboree held its concerts on Tuesday evenings.

Over in the Collins Bowling Alley and they were part.

Of the inspiration to showcase Southland, The music of Lexington to Lexington's music corridor.

Tahlsound Summer Concert Series was born from.

Tahlsound Music Festival, Which was a dream of a group of friends that really honestly.

Just as a labor of love wanted to bring music back to.

Southland Drive.

Southland Jamboree was an established organization.

And showed us that this neighborhood really does love.

Live music.

And unfortunately.

Due to some renovations at the bowling alley.

They had to move off of Southland Drive.

And it had been a dream of ours for so long.

But that was kind of the impetus for us.

To go ahead and say, you know what.

The neighborhood wants it, we can do it.

We are a community-focused concert series focusing on.

Bringing people together and elevating.

The people that are here Recognizing them and celebrating All these different types of music.

We don't focus on one type, one genre, We have certain themes, you know, Where we might bring like things together in a different way.

In a new setting, But that is our goal as an organization.

The history of Southland Drive is what drew us to it, Even before Tahlsound was an event.

Most of us met here, whether it was friends' homes.

Or jobs that we had here on Southland Drive.

It was something that drew us here.

And I will say specifically that there is a creativity.

There is an unusualness about it beyond just the music shops.

And the cool shops and the wares that are here.

It's the community that surrounds it.

It's a lot of the neighborhood people gathering.

For the music and it's fun.

I mean, you know like, music is happy and great.

And it's very important for the community.

To have something like this.

The diversity of music that we feature this season.

And the last several seasons have been tried to be.

Geared around since we've moved on to the concert series.

Each night focusing on a little bit different kind of feel.

Whether it's Bluegrass, Americana.

There's huge pools to draw from in here in town.

We've also tried to feature Latina night.

And We've also had reggae fest that is part of showcasing.

The talent that is in Central Kentucky and in Lexington.

It's not just country western, it's not just blues and rock.

There's so much music that we want to offer.

The educational aspect of Tahlsound, honestly.

Stemmed from one of our original programmers.

Being involved in childcare.

It's something that made perfect sense as far as wanting to have.

You know, we looked at the demographic of the neighborhood.

And saw who would be coming and realized that.

There would be kids here, So we should give them something to do.

It's been a great honor to participate with.

A lot of organizations.

Central Kentucky Youth Orchestra Lexington Music Education.

Kentucky Mountain Music, and on and on and on.

To provide kids who are going to be the next generation.

Of musicians that will hopefully be playing Tahlsound.

You know, 10, 15, 20 years from now.

With the opportunity to expose them to music.

I think it's important to raise up.

The next generation of artists through shows.

Through performances like this because.

Everyone was a local artist at some point.

No matter where they're from.

And so often, you know, we're fed things on sort of.

The macro level, but it starts here, it starts.

In your backyard.

You can find some wonderful music.

And You'll find out that you actually have, you know.

Common friends with people that are making music.

And making art in your community And so I think it's very important and it also.

Especially for kids, you know, these days that might not get.

Exposed to a variety of art and experiences like this.

I think it's very important to give them all of the chances.

Available to see how large the world is, you know.

Both creatively and artistically and so I'm glad to be.

A part of that.

I've been so impressed to see the growth of our event.

I played the very first set—my band did the very first set.

—Of the very first Tahlsound to, I don't know, 12 people.

And then this year we're seeing things like in May.

We saw five-hundred- and something people, Which is the first time that we've broken 500, and in July, We broke 1,000.

We have seen just this continued growth, which means that the.

Community really wants to see an event like this.

And that Maybe we're on the right track and we just hope.

To see it continue to grow in the future.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ A Kentucky-based nonprofit organization has been hard.

Restoring native forests and formerly mined lands.

In Appalachia and beyond.

Let's head up to the mountains and take a closer look.

At how Green Forests Work.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Green Forests Work is a program that we established in 2009.

To restore ecosystems that have been influenced by.

Surface mining for coal in the Appalachian region.

And it's not only an environmental type of program.

But we created the program to also address the decline.

In the coal economy that was happening, you know, While we were thinking about reforestation and the idea.

Behind Green Forests Work is to utilize some of the people.

That were involved in the coal mining and create.

New opportunities and new jobs for folks to come out.

And do ecological restoration in the Appalachian region.

And so we're trying to bring back native forest to areas.

That were forest prior to the mining.

They mined the coal and then they reclaimed them.

Usually to a non-forested type of state, Often using aggressive nonnative grasses.

Sometimes exotic shrubs on these landscapes.

So, within the Appalachian region, we have about.

A million acres of lands that have been impacted by.

Surface mining for coal and these lands, you know, Represent a lot of problems for the areas.

One is they fragment our native forest and that causes issues.

With wildlife, and we see declines in migratory birds and.

Things like that associated with decline of the forest habitat.

We also see a lot of water quality problems.

But then we're also looking at doing reforestation on these.

Sites as a way to mitigate climate change.

So, growing the trees that will take up CO2 and sequester it in.

Their biomass and in the soils.

And it's sort of a holistic way to look at.

Coming back and doing something with these lands.

That are often neglected after the mining companies move away.

We found that the lands were way over compacted and so.

In an effort to stabilize these sites and prevent.

Landslides and erosion, The mining companies were heavily grading or compacting.

These sites and then planting these nonnative grasses.

And it just created a situation where the trees wouldn't grow, You plant them, they die, you plain again, they die again, So on and so forth until finally grasslands became the norm.

In Central Appalachia.

And so our research showed that.

If you break up that compaction, Either by ripping the soil or handling the material.

During the mining process a little bit differently.

That we could actually get the native trees to grow.

In this particular setting,it's very steep.

And It's a very active landscape and so as the rock weathers.

That weather material becomes a part of the soil.

The slopes are steep and so that just naturally that soil slides.

Or washes away very easily and then more rock weathers.

And it's a continuous sort of conveyor belt.

Of rock weathers to soil, soil erodes, etc.

And so there are these thin soils in our forests.

In our forests in eastern Kentucy.

Are adapted to that environment.

When we mine that thin soil isn't available anymore.

And so you're going back to bare rock.

And you have to then artificially generate.

A medium for trees and plants to propagate in.

And that takes time.

The soil forming process can take thousands of years.

so being able to artificially generate that process in years.

or decades is an engineering accomplishment.

And it's an engineering challenge.

The first thing that we're doing is removing.

All of the unwanted vegetation.

So, we have bulldozers here that are just scalping that off.

And then once that happens.

we have another really large bulldozer.

that has two ripping shanks or two plows, if you will.

And it'll come through here and rip up all of this land.

and de-compact it, which is necessary for the trees to grow.

The roots to get down into the soil.

But it also allows for water to infiltrate instead of runoff.

So, we see actually improved water quality on these projects.

Just by changing the way that water moves in these systems.

So, we'll do all this site preparation.

During the fall and then we'll come back in the spring.

With a planting crew and plant it.

With about 20 different species of native plants.

So, with all of our projects, there's sort of three phases.

That we refer to as far as the recovery of the forest.

You have the sleeping phase, which is the first, About three years after we plant.

And the trees are putting all their energy.

Into growing roots and just getting established.

And then from about year three to about year seven.

We have sort of the creeping phase where they start to.

Move up and you see some height growth.

But then after about year seven, we say that.

The leaping phase.

And so the trees actually start competing with each other.

And trying to, you know, gain the sunlight.

And they really do take off and leap.

And so somewhere around between year seven and ten, We get canopy closure, and you start to.

shade the forest floor, you start to see litter development.

And loss of all of those nonnative grasses.

So, it's about a 10-year process and once we get to.

That 10th year, the forest just sort of takes off.

on its own.

One of the things we've been doing from.

The university perspective is looking at wildlife usage.

Of these lands and we're seeing,and for instance.

A site we did on Pine Mountain last year.

where we built some wetlands on the mined landscape.

We had over nine different species of amphibians come in.

And utilize those wetlands, which was amazing.

Because those wetlands weren't even there, and we created them.

We're seeing the use of these sites by birds.

By small mammals, bats.

So, bringing back the forest is one thing.

But bringing back the habitat is an entirely.

You know, other thing.

which we're seeing that we can do and that's very promising.

And very hopeful for the future.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ In 1951, Wolf Creek Dam was built to combat flooding.

From the Cumberland River.

This led to the creation of one of Kentucky's.

Most popular recreational locations, Lake Cumberland.

But after Lake Cumberland's creation, the City of Burnside.

Located along the Cumberland River, was forced to move.

When the old town was flooded.

Some residents moved up on the hill, as they said.

Above the old town, but many others scattered.

To other parts of the state.

Let's meet some of the former residents of Old Burnside.

And revisit memories from our show's past to learn about.

Life in Burnside before Lake Cumberland.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Burnside is probably 90 miles south of Lexington, Kentucky.

The town was found by General Burnside, that's where.

It got its name, it used to be Point Isabel.

And renamed the town, Burnside, after the General.

Well, the Town of Burnside is just a small little community.

It's very tight knit.

You've always heard of one-stoplight town, this is us.

Of course, we have Lake Cumberland here.

Amd we have the Marina and General Burnside Island.

It's the only island in the state of Kentucky.

Well, it was a great place to grow up.

I grew up in the '40s and it was small town.

You knew everybody, you know like they say on Cheers.

Where Everybody Knows Your Name.

That's true.

And not only the name, but you also know the family.

Well, Burnside, of course, was a river town.

Boats, river boats, around from Nashville, Tennessee, To Burnside and it was lumber.

It was the main mill, lumber mills, Burnside Veneer Mill.

That mainly lumber companies start off with.

The main part was that the community.

Was actually built next to the river, naturally.

It's the closest thing.

So, when the spring floods and stuff would come in.

It would wipe out and flood the entire town.

And we had flood sometime twice a year.

And the main part of Burnside never did flood.

But the lower part and what they call West Burnside.

Across the river.

I mean, sometimes it flooded twice a year.

People would move out, while horse and wagons.

Move up on the hill, let the water go down, go down.

Clean their houses and move back in.

Lake Cumberland was created in 1952.

The Wolf Creek Dam was created then as well.

To help with flooding and hydroelectric.

This was not created for recreation when the Army Corps.

of Engineers decided to create Lake Cumberland, But absolutely became a recreational spot.

For the five counties that surround it.

If Wolf Creek Dam was not in existence.

we would still have the Cumberland River.

And we would have to worry about major flooding.

All the way down to Nashville, Tennessee.

Downtown or The Bottoms as it was called.

It was the part that had to be destroyed and moved.

And cleared for the lake to come in.

where the Burnside Marina is now,is just about.

It was the center of town geographically.

And all the businesses were on one street of Main Street.

When the creation of Wolf Creek Dam came into play.

Obviously, is devastating for our little town because one.

We lost all of our transportation with the river.

And then, of course, we had to relocate, quite literally.

Half, if not, more of the entire town.

To get out of the flooded area.

And Burnside never fully recovered from that time period.

And the people said, it'll take it forever to fill up.

But it didn't take it long.

After it started backing this water up, the poor old animals.

Possum, coons, they would have been found as high.

As almost into the Fountain Square at Somerset.

They didn't know what had happened or where to go.

Then I took my daddy, he wanted to see it.

And I took him to a bluff at Burnside, he got out.

Looked and he got back in the car, and he said.

Let's go home, they've ruined it.

They've ruined Burnside and the river... And my mood, up on the hill, probably in '49 and '50.

And down in Old Burnside, down where the lake is now.

That property, we rented for $10-$12 a month.

You know, these houses, those people had to leave.

They didn't build $10 rent houses back up on the hill.

Population decreased very bad when we moved.

And there was a lot of sad people, you know.

Have to leave Burnside.

You didn't have a choice.

The government took it right in the domain.

They took the property.

They paid them what they figured was fair.

Maybe a little better than fair, but it would not move them.

Up on the hill and build them a new home.

Today, people will look at it,another generation That don't realize what they've covered up and in mounds Artifacts, that'll never be found.

If you were to travel to Burnside right now.

You wouldn't realize that.

That used to be at the bottom of Lake Cumberland.

And if you are there around Burnside Marina, actually.

or if you're crossing the Burnside Bridge.

You can actually see a tunnel that was located before.

Or Lake Cumberland was created.

Anybody can canoe through it.

You can take wonderful pictures of it, and if you're a diver.

sometimes you can find remnants of Old Burnside.

Burnside, never fully got back to where they was, as far as.

The money that was making off the industry.

But Burnside is definitely a great community.

And a great area to come and visit, see Lake Cumberland.

We have multiple boat ramps and stuff here.

A lot of nice restaurants, and it's very welcoming community.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Children on the autism spectrum need a strong foundation.

Of events and services that foster communication.

Social interaction, emotional regulation, and other skills.

Thankfully, the Public Theater of Kentucky, located.

In Bowling Green has partnered with the Kelly Autism Center.

To find an interesting way to give children on the spectrum.

A place to grow and learn.

They're sending them to theater camp.

I think you have a responsibility as a member.

Of a community.

And a responsibility as a person in the arts to make it.

inclusive for everyone.

And when you see that certain skills can be helped And that helps the community as a whole.

I just think using theater as a tool to do that.

Is what you have to do.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ We're here at the Public Theater of Kentucky and for the past.

Two weeks.

we have been doing our special stages theater therapy.

Inclusive summer intensive.

It's for students who have an ASD diagnosis.

Autism spectrum diagnosis and their neurotypical peers.

I had been wanting to do an inclusive program.

And then I realized there's not really a program.

For students on the autism spectrum.

We had a connection with the Kelly Autism Program.

And Michelle and Caroline helped us as far as knowing.

How to teach the students what would be most effective.

How many hours it should be, how many days a week it should be.

We talked about schedules, we talked about visual schedules.

we talked about fidgets, we talked about what it might.

look like when a student becomes dysregulated.

And they have been spot on and making sure and asking us.

Is there anything we need to do here?

Can we do.

You know those kind of things.

So, couple of face-to-face meetings.

And tons of emails back and fort We are putting on a short play called Dorothy's Adventures.

In the Magical Kingdom of Oz.

And we introduced the play.

The very first day of camp.

We had a day of auditions.

Everybody did an excellent job.

You all are going to have lines.

I think theater is naturally set up for some of.

Those behavioral norms, those social norms that our students.

our young people who may be neurodiverse.

May not necessarily instinctively know.

It helps them with problem solving.

It helps them learn how to relate to other people.

As far as modeling goes.

We have personally two student workers there who are students.

Here at Western, who are there as a part of the program.

To help with maybe behavior or help with.

To engage students who may not be ready quite to engage.

In other ways or even to just to give them a break.

So, you've also had four students.

Who are master level students.

They're working on their Masters So, they are coming there and doing an actual social lesson.

With the students every single day.

So, for about 30 minutes they're taking a skill.

A focus skill in pragmatic language and teaching these.

students a lesson in that, whether it be gesturing.

which goes right along with theater.

whether it be facial, and other body language.

And different things that we do So, every single day they're doing a new lesson.

It's been phenomenal.

We've had students who wouldn't even look you in the eye.

And didn't want to participate in the read through.

And now they are coming on stage in costumes that they created.

They're performing their parts, they memorized their lines.

And they're really just loving being on stage.

And like I said, I just feel nothing but pride.

And I'm excited for them to share their hard work.

With their family and friends.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Events like this are so important for building community So, why do I partner?

Why does the Kelly Autism Program partner?

Because we want our kids that we serve every day.

To know you're not limited, and you can do anything.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Tonight's performance is a sensory friendly performance.

So, what that means is the house lights are gonna stay.

on at half, the stage lights are only gonna go to half.

And the sound cues aren't going to be as high.

As they are normally would in our other shows.

So, please enjoy Dorothy's Adventures.

In the Magical Kingdom of Oz.

So, I think that if we can learn to be patient.

I think if we can realize the potential of that person.

Sitting in front of us, and give them a chance.

Give them a shot.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ They just wanna be heard.

And they wanna be treated.

Just like you would treat the person beside you.

They are not their diagnosis and I think that that's a big thing.

They're not their diagnosis.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ We're just thrilled and thankful that they've let us be a part.

Because it's certainly been a great experience for us.

And those students, and the progression.

And how they've grown as little actors.

And actresses has been really fun to watch.

I'm so proud of them.

Like, we asked people to use sign language for clapping.

And I had to like refrain from, just being like.

It reminds us of why we do it and why we need to do it.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ We've had a great time here today.

At the Behringer-Crawford Museum in Covington.

Now, if you'd like to learn more about the museum.

Be sure to like the Kentucky Life Facebook page.

Or subscribe to the KET YouTube channel.

For more of what we call, Kentucky Life Extras.

Where you'll learn more about this museum.

And have access to lots of other great videos.

Until next time, I'll leave you with this moment.

I'm Chip Polston, cherishing this Kentucky life.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪