As we celebrate the 250th Anniversary of Lexington, Kentucky, I’m thrilled that part of this yearlong celebration is the recognition and honoring of the Still family in Lexington with UK Opera Theatre presenting Sanctuary Road. Most Kentuckians know my brother Art and I as the University of Kentucky’s most dominant brother and sister athletic superstars. But the Still family legacy is much more than that!  It is a legacy of faith, freedom, fellowship and family. It is a legacy of self-respect, self-awareness, self-sovereignty and self-empowerment.It is a legacy of fearless, altruistic superstars! My great-great granduncles Levin Jr and Peter as boys, were sold to a man in Lexington shortly after it was established. Their youngest brother William would eventually become the most important and powerful abolitionist in the operations of the Underground Railroad. Over 170 years later I accepted an athletic scholarship to the University of Kentucky. Sanctuary Roads tells our story. I am inviting all my Kentucky family, and friends and family across the USA,  to join me on this most auspicious weekend and share an historic happening together with my brother and I. This story is one that unites, inspires, uplifts, empowers and reminds us that we all are superstars…pure, positive, peaceful, powerful, unlimited energy.

-Valerie Still