CENTRAL/WEST

Community members gather for Smoketown Arts Fest

Kristina Goetz
@KGoetz1

Scores of people gathered Saturday for the Smoketown Arts Festival, a free community event that celebrated the 150-year anniversary of the neighborhood. The event — with arts activities, performances and music — also paid tribute to the late Smoketown artist and icon Zephra May Miller.

The event was sponsored by IDEAS, a community-based association that promotes economic development and civic engagement, and YouthBuild Louisville, a non-profit organization that provides education, counseling and job skills to unemployed young adults.

Josh Miller, co-founder of IDEAS, said there's a lot to celebrate.

"Historically, it's the oldest African-American neighborhood in Louisville," he said. "It was settled following the civil war by freed slaves who migrated to the city. So a lot of families have lived generation after generation in the neighborhood, which has really kind of kept it close-knit.

"And because of all of those generations people have been really excited to come back together and have these shared spaces that they can now gather in now that a lot of the construction is done."