From NKAA, Notable Kentucky African Americans Database (main entry)

Kenneth H. Clay was born in Louisville, KY. In the 1960s he opened the Corner of Jazz, the first African American culture shop in Louisville. In 1978, he co-founded the Renaissance Development Corporation, a cultural arts administrative organization that promoted Black art and culture in Kentucky.

In 1983 Clay joined the staff of the Kentucky Center for the Arts, where he remained for more than 21 years. He received the Chicago Kuumba Theater's 1993 Liberation Award for Presenting African American Artists, and the 1999 Governor's Community Arts Award. In July 2004, Clay left the Kentucky Center for the Arts and became a freelance arts consultant. He is president of Ken Clay & Associates. In 2025, he was named as one of two Louisvillians of the Year, along with his wife, Carolle Jones-Clay.

For more see "Ken Clay takes a bow," Courier-Journal, 30 May 2004; Kenneth Clay in Kentucky Minority Artists Directory, 1982; Ken Clay in Who's Who in Black Louisville, Inaugural Edition, p. 103; listen to a Kenneth Clay interview, housed at the University of Louisville Libraries' Oral History Center (and available online); and Ken Clay, Louisville Renaissance Man, on inside Louisville, 6/15, 2025.