Farm to Front Porch: Local Women Building the Future Without Forgetting the Past brings together four Southern Kentucky women whose work reflects a shared belief that progress and preservation can go hand in hand. Through an interactive panel conversation and audience participation, the panel will explore how nostalgia, heritage, and community storytelling help shape the future of the places we call home. From restoring historic spaces and building small businesses to sharing local stories and strengthening civic life, these voices represent the spirit of a region rooted in tradition while continuing to grow. Guests are invited to pull up a metaphorical front porch chair and join the discussion about honoring the past while thoughtfully building what comes next. Free admission, bring a friend or two.
Featured panelists:
Brie Golliher: Brie Golliher, known locally as The Pie Queen, is a hard-working, creative entrepreneur deeply dedicated to her community. In 2012, she and her husband, Brad, purchased Boyce General Store in Alvaton, Kentucky, giving Brie a place to pursue her passion for baking. Together they transformed the small grocery and deli into a welcoming restaurant known for its burgers, drawing in locals, tourists, farmers, and business professionals alike.
Laura Gilbert: Laura’s roots are deeply planted in Kentucky’s farming, rural land usage, mineral rights, and real estate development. Growing up in a family-owned hotel with an off-site farm, she learned the value of a family-run business early on—a tradition she’s proud to continue with her own children. Today, Pennyroyal Market serves as a junction where food, marketing, and design collide. Located at the corner of Lovers Lane and Cemetery Road, it prioritizes local ingredients and products while utilizing the space for sample collections and creative marketing efforts. Its mission is to foster a dialogue about Kentucky artists, tourism, and sustainable land usage.
Leticia Cline: Leticia Cline is a Cave City native, entrepreneur, and preservation-minded community leader dedicated to helping her hometown rediscover its identity as more than just a quick stop along the interstate. After years of travel and work around the country as a writer, journalist, and motorcycle racer, Cline returned home with a vision to invest in the place that raised her. She purchased and restored the historic Ace Theatre building, transforming it into Ace Coffee Co., a vibrant gathering space with an upstairs apartment, while also revitalizing the surrounding property into The Dive, a welcoming neighborhood bar that has quickly become a community anchor.
Telia Butler: Telia Butler is a storyteller, community builder, and lifelong Kentuckian whose work is grounded in a deep love for home, heritage, and the traditions that shape small-town life. Raised in the Greenhill community of Bowling Green with strong ties to family, land, and rural community, she often describes herself as having an “old soul,” drawn to the values and character of earlier generations. Influenced by her hardworking parents (a farmer/bus driver, and 5th grade teacher), her Nana and Granddaddy on the farm, her disco-winning Grandma and Grandpa from old Germantown in Louisville, and her Aunt Brenda and Uncle Lou (another couple of teachers and coaches), she grew up in a world of cross cultural life mixed with old and new. Growing up on recorded VHS tapes without cable or dial up internet, cultural figures like Dean Martin, Davy Jones, and Michael Landon were her favorites. She believes in the enduring power of sincerity, hospitality, and storytelling that centers humanity. Those influencers shaped both her voice and her work, guiding a perspective that honors dignity, vulnerability, and the shared experiences that connect communities across generations.