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VIEWS

EDITOR’S NOTE

LOUISVILLE’S NEXT MAYOR NEEDS TO TRANSFORM THE CITY’S IDENTITY

By Aaron Yarmuth | leo@leoweekly.com SO the race to be the next mayor of Louisville is off and running.

This is that moment when we feel like Al Pacino in “The Godfather Part III”: “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!”

Of course we all deserve a break from politics, but there are two main reasons to already be excited about the race to be Louisville’s next mayor (three if you count the possibility that occasional LEO contributor Dr. Ricky Jones follows through with a partjoking, part-serious announcement he made on social media about considering a run… which would turn up the dial past 10 on this race!): 2022 has a chance to comprise the most diverse field of candidates in Louisville history, and provide an opportunity to fundamentally transform the city’s identity.

So, Louisville, what do you want in your next mayor? There’s a candidate for everyone!

Want a crime-fighter? A businessman?

An educator?

How about an environmentalist?

Should they be young or experienced? A political insider or outsider?

Should the next mayor be a woman?

Should they be a uniter or an activist?

Should Louisville elect its first-ever Black mayor?

For starters, after Mayor Greg Fischer’s third and final term, he and former-Mayor Jerry Abramson will constitute 32 of the last 36 years leading the city. (For context, Louisville’s median population is just over 37 years, so it’s quite-literally a lifetime for much of the city.) While it’s unfair to broad brush three decades of failures and successes, advances and setbacks, Louisville has voted in a moderate Democrat (and white guy) to lead the city. This election has all of the ingredients to challenge that “status quo.”

Demographic changes, increased partisanship and a generation of politicians who have “waited their turn” will contribute to a large, diverse field. Yet, it’s clear that the issue of racial injustice (when considering policing, education, redlining, etc.) makes this election a unique opportunity for change.

The two candidates in the race, so far, indicate how different this mayoral election could be, both generally as well as among Democrats: Shameka Parrish-Wright — a

manager at The Bail Project, organizer, activist and regular presence among Breonna Taylor protests; and Metro Council President David James — a former police officer. Even James, who represents political establishment in many ways, would signify a divergence from the “status quo.”

I’m not going to analyze these Democratic candidates, or speculate on the others, yet — there will be plenty of time for that in the next 15 months. But, instead of waiting for the next 10, 15, 20 or more candidates to jump in, I think it’s important we welcome these candidates in with our expectations.

What do we want the identity of the city to be post-Mayor Fischer? Postpandemic? After more than 150 days of protests calling for racial justice? I don’t just mean identity as in race, age, gender — any of those are fine if that’s your answer — but, more broadly, what do we want Louisville to be known for?

Personally, I want the next mayor of Louisville to declare our intention to be the best at something. Whatever it is, I want Louisville to be the best in the country — or world.

For a long time, my desire was for

Louisville to endeavor to be the national, or global, leader in modernizing public education. What would the city’s reputation be if we resolved to rebuild every outdated school, capped class sizes at 20 and started teachers’ salaries at $75,000?

Our goal could be to eliminate homelessness, or achieve net-negative carbon emissions.

Or, in this moment, we have an opportunity to become a leader in police reform.

I’m not suggesting it will be easy (or that I’m the first to suggest “police reform is important”), but I want a mayoral candidate, this year, to stick his or her stake in the ground and say this is where we’re going as a city.

(Unless it’s Ricky Jones, in which case… just hang on for the ride!)

There is untapped potential in Louisville, in countless ways, and I want the next mayor to take a risk at realizing that potential. This mayoral race is our opportunity to change the identity and future of Louisville. Instead of “Possibility City” we can say, definitively, “The Greatest _____ in the World.”

Doesn’t that sound exciting? •

LEOWEEKLY.COM // JANUARY 27, 2021

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VIEWS

THE SENATE SHOULD STILL CONVICT DONALD TRUMP

By Sam Marcosson | leo@leoweekly.com AFTER THE EVENTS of Jan. 6, in which the official has left office. In 1797, the House impeached Tennessee Sen. William Blount sitting president of the United States incited and the Senate convicted him even after he his supporters to violence and was responhad already been expelled from office. And sible for their subsequent insurrectionist storming of the U.S. Capitol, there should be in 1876, Secretary of War William Belknap was impeached by the House and tried by no remaining question that Donald Trump the Senate (even though he was not conis both unfit for office and has committed victed) after he had resigned. In addition, as impeachable offenses. The ideal path to his professor emeritus at Harvard Law School removal would have been for Vice President Laurence Tribe has argued, the impeachment Mike Pence and more than half the cabinet case from British law that was prominently to invoke the 25th Amendment, but that ship in the minds of the framers of the Constitusailed. tion involved the former colonial governor Since the vice president didn’t use the of India, Warren Hastings, who was tried 25th Amendment, Congress has begun on impeachment and convicted after he left the process of impeaching and convicting office.

Trump, with the House of Representatives In a recent op-ed, former U.S. Circuit voting on Jan. 13 to make Donald Trump Court Judge Michael Luttig took issue with the first president in history to have been this conclusion, arguing not only that the impeached twice. The House’s action came Constitution does not permit such impeachdespite the realities of the calendar: There ments, but that this result is clear on the face was only a week between the impeachment of the Constitution. In discussing the quesand Joe Biden’s inauguration as the 46th tion of whether the Senate could try Trump president. There are two important points after he leaves office, Luttig wrote, “The to make about this. First, even now, after Constitution itself Trump has left office, the Senate can try Since the vice pres- answers this question clearly: No, he cannot him on the article of ident didn’t use the be. Once Trump’s impeachment passed ends on Jan. 20, by the House. And 25th Amendment, term Congress loses its second, the Senate constitutional authority should do precisely Congress has to continue impeachthat. begun the process ment proceedings First, as to the him — even if “can” question. While of impeaching and against the House has already impeachment is primarily about removal convicting Trump, approved articles of impeachment.” of a corrupt official with the House of Unfortunately for from office, there is Luttig’s argument, he an additional purpose Representatives offers little evidence evident from the text of Article I, Section voting on Jan. 13 to for this “clear” conclusion. He points, 3 of the Constitution make Donald Trump of course, to Article of the United States: “Judgment in cases of the first President II, Section 4 of the Constitution, which impeachment shall not extend further than to in history to have reads, “The President, Vice President and all removal from office, been impeached civil officers of the and disqualification United States, shall be to hold and enjoy any twice. removed from Office office of honor, trust on Impeachment for, or profit under the and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or United States.” If impeachment were only other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.” The about removal, the Constitution would not point Luttig makes is that the impeachment explicitly refer to the additional penalty of clause refers to “all civil officers” as the disqualification from office. class of individuals subject to impeachment Moreover, there is precedent for exerand removal, meaning that a former officer cising the impeachment power after an

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LEOWEEKLY.COM // JANUARY 27, 2021

no longer falls within the terms of Article II, Section 4.

To be sure, this is not a frivolous textual argument. But, as I have already noted, it is inconsistent with historical precedent, and it is contradicted by the additional constitutional text in Article I, Section 3 that adds disqualification from future office as a penalty for conviction, since it makes impeachment meaningful for officials even after they leave office. If removal was the only consequence, then impeachments would be moot when an officer no longer holds office. But, it plainly is not moot if Congress seeks to bar the official from future office.

Less needs to be said about whether Congress should impeach and convict Donald Trump. His actions, both at the rally at which he spoke on Jan. 6, and in the weeks and days leading up to that event, made Trump directly responsible for the attempt by his supporters to use violence to not just disrupt the business of Congress, but to interrupt the specific and constitutionallycritical peaceful transfer of power. The goal of the insurrectionists was to prevent Congress from counting the electoral votes and certifying Joe Biden’s election as president. Every previous incumbent president who sought and lost reelection — from John Adams in 1800 to George H.W. Bush in 1992 — acceded to the transfer of power.

Donald Trump’s refusal to do so until after the events of Jan. 6 (and, even then, grudgingly at best) constitutes a grave threat to our constitutional system and a violation of his oath of office. He constantly claimed, on Twitter, in public statements and in an endless stream of frivolous lawsuits, that the election had been “stolen,” perpetuating a lie that primed the pump for his supporters to believe that they could and should act to prevent an illegitimate president from taking

office.

Finally, it is curious that some have argued that Trump’s Jan. 6 speech is not impeachable because it did not amount to incitement under the Supreme Court’s First Amendment precedents.

There are two problems with this. First, the standard for what constitutes incitement (and what is protected speech under the First Amendment) is not the standard for impeachment and removal. An official — especially a president — can be held to a higher standard than avoiding criminal incitement (or any other criminal conduct, for that matter). Second, focusing solely on Trump’s Jan. 6 speech ignores the broader context surrounding his actions since the election. He didn’t just incite the mob and send them to the Capitol despite the clear danger they represented. He built up their conviction that the election had been stolen in the weeks between Nov. 7 (when Biden’s victory was declared by major media outlets) and Jan. 6, repeatedly lying in tweets, court filings and public statements. Trump maintained a constant rhetorical drumbeat that the country was at risk if an “illegitimate” president who “lost and lost badly” was inaugurated. And once the insurrectionist mob had descended on the Capitol, Trump ignored repeated pleas to publicly call for the violence to end and call up National Guard troops to defend the Congress. These are acts and failures to act that amount to the most fundamental failure to fulfill the president’s oath of office to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution, and they amply support the determination that he should be barred from seeking office again. The Senate both can, and should, act. • Sam Marcosson is a professor at the UofL Brandeis School of Law. The views expressed herein are his alone and do not speak for UofL or the School of Law.

NEWS & ANALYSIS

WILL 2022 BE THE YEAR OF THE GRASSROOTS MAYOR CAMPAIGN?

By Danielle Grady | dgrady@leoweekly.com

THORNS & ROSES THE WORST, BEST & MOST ABSURD ABSURD: ONE SIDE OF THE MIRROR

Sen. Rand Paul had a banner-day in the Sedition Hall of Fame for his appearance Sunday on “This Week” with George Stephanopoulos. It would be impossible to identify the most outlandish of Rand’s gaslighting defenses of falsely claiming election fraud. Yet, Rand reached the pinnacle of humiliation when he claimed, “There are two sides to every story, George. You’re forgetting who you are. You’re forgetting who you are as a journalist…” We understand why an adult with Rand’s hairstyle would like to think there are two sides to every story (there are not… it’s bad, full-stop). But perhaps he should look at the other side of the mirror to remember who he is: an ophthalmologist, not a Constitutional scholar (or journalist); and, a libertarian, who supposedly believes in state’s rights (i.e. holding their own elections). We understand why he wouldn’t want to, though. If Rand looked in the mirror, he’d see a man who once called Trump a “delusional narcissist,” and now is one.

(Plus… the hair.)

THORN: MCCONNELL’S DEFINITION OF UNITY

This is part one of a two part series about grassroots candidates in the 2022 Louisville mayoral race.

SHAMEKA Parrish-Wright was lying in a hotel bed on Jan. 6 after a day of campaigning in Georgia for the recent Senate runoff election when she received confirmation that Mayor Greg Fischer would be naming Erika Shields as Louisville’s new police chief.

Shields, who resigned from her post in Atlanta after a white police officer killed a Black man, Rayshard Brooks, would now be in charge of the police department responsible for killing Breonna Taylor, a Black woman.

So, Parrish-Wright, a bail fund manager and community organizer who has been active at this past year’s racial justice protests in Louisville, posted some news of her own: She’d be running to replace Fischer, who cannot seek reelection in 2022 due to term limits.

“We’ve been saying that behind our protest fist is policy...being elected to office, getting on these boards and planning commissions,” said ParrishWright, who is now back home in Louisville. “All of those things are necessary steps to bringing social justice and human services to a level

where you and I are directly impacted by it. So we couldn’t choose the chief; we couldn’t decide if those officers are fired, arrested and prosecuted. But, we can get people in place that are going to hold their word and that are going to listen to the people and bring the people’s voice in every way.”

Louisville could see more Democratic mayoral candidates like ParrishWright this year — those running from outside the establishment — than in races past, according to some Kentucky political observers. Sixteen months out from the primary, Ricky Jones, a professor and chair of UofL’s Pan-African Studies Department, has also publicly expressed an interest in running. This predicted influx in nontraditional candidates is because of Louisville’s transformative and challenging year, with protests over Taylor’s killing and other racial injustices extending over 150 days (although Jones said this was not one of his reasons for entertaining a run). Grassroots candidates will still be competing against more traditional options for mayor, such as Metro Council

President David James, a Democrat who announced his candidacy a little over two weeks after Parrish-Wright did. Louisville residents will have to choose which type of candidate is best for the city: Someone whose draw is experience, or a political outsider with a new perspective.

Colmon Elridge, who was recently elected as the Kentucky Democratic Party’s first Black chair, is one of those who believes Louisville’s racial justice movement will inspire more grassroots candidates to run.

“I think we will see that, and I think we should see that,” he said. “Because, frankly, you know, politicians don’t have a hold on leadership and service.

And I think that is important to remember, as well. I don’t dismiss the importance of serving and having an understanding of the mechanics of government. But, you know, I think we’re just at a place where, as important as that is, it’s also going to be important how you connect in the community and how you have carried some of the burdens of the community that haven’t always made their way to

Don’t worry about trying to understand all the procedural mechanics of the U.S. Senate. Sure, they’re important and complicated. More importantly, the rules are just there to serve Sen. Mitch “Minority Leader” McConnell. Washington Post columnist Greg Sargent explained the situation perfectly, writing: “McConnell has calculated that the press will place the onus of achieving bipartisan cooperation on President Biden, while allowing Republicans to cast their own withholding of bipartisan cooperation as proof of Biden’s failure to achieve it.” It’s almost as though we’ve seen this before…

ABSURD: ANOTHER LOCAL INSURRECTIONIST BITES THE DIGITAL DUST

A sixth Kentuckian is being charged in relation to the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 — and, you guessed it, this 23-year-old man posted proof on social media. A tipster provided the FBI pictures from the man’s Snapchat account.

These people were so delusional and poisoned by the president’s words, that they thought it was OK to storm the Capitol, commit some domestic terrorism, and brag-post about it. This all continues to be an insane and toxic mixture of swollen stupidity, blind violence and exceptional narcissism, that caused death and destruction.

ROSE: A VIRUS IN DECLINE?

For two weeks straight, COVID cases in Kentucky have been on the decline. After a rocky holiday stretch, one that brought a heavy number of deaths, we’re finally looking at some hopeful numbers. And, with the vaccine rollout, there’s an end in sight. Now, we just need to be smart and careful, and end this nightmare as soon as possible, which will hopefully be easier without that slobbering mad dog of a former president who valued being clapped for by his brain-dead base above American lives.

LEOWEEKLY.COM // JANUARY 27, 2021

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NEWS & ANALYSIS

Jones said he wasn’t inspired to run the most powerful seats in government.”

by Louisville’s racial justice movement, Tom Owen, a retired councilman who exactly, but, partially, by the state of the ran a grassroots campaign for mayor in nation: The country is on a possible “preci1998, said that Taylor’s killing and subsepice of change” after four years of Donald quent protests have created a new coalition Trump being president, during which “so of voters. many ills” were exposed, such as racial and “In the last 10 months, there’s been economic inequality, said Jones. some upturning, overturning of the apple “So being on that possible precipice cart,” said Owen, who is also a UofL archiopens the door for people who actually vist for regional history. “There’s a newly are innovators and different thinkers to energized voter constituency that came step into that gap and make some of that through Black Lives Matter and Breonna change,” he said.

Taylor and the controversies there — and Anthony Oxendine, the owner of Spring new alliances struck. I guess you would say Valley Funeral Home and a former candiwhite, African American, progressive allidate for Floyd County, Indiana, coroner, ances are probably deepened.” has also said he is runHe guesses that ning, according to the seven to 12 grassroots James has been Courier Journal. candidates might be Parrish-Wright, energized to run for rumored to be who has experienced mayor. homelessness before, Both Elridge and a successor to said that she would be Owen expect that the Fischer for years a different candidate Democratic primary than the rich, white will be packed with now. Owen sees men who have run candidates. And that some of those mayoral him as an obvious in the past. And, she agrees that Louishopefuls will be more candidate by ville’s racial justice traditional. has created James has been virtue of being in movement a more hospitable long-rumored to be a environment for her to successor to Fischer. government so run in.

Owen sees him as an long. James has “The short answer obvious candidate by is yes,” she said. virtue of James being been on Louisville “We are primed for in government so long. James has been Metro Council for better leadership, for leadership that’s more on Louisville Metro 10 years. inclusive, that’s more Council for 10 years. inviting and is not Before that, he was more of the same, and a local police officer I think that you have that with me as mayor and president of the Louisville police of Louisville.” union, although, as a council member he When asked the same question, Ryan has at times criticized the Louisville Metro Fenwick, who ran a grassroots campaign Police Department — notably, former for mayor in the primary against Fischer in Chief Steve Conrad and the administra2018, cautioned against getting too “galaxy tion’s handling of the Explorer sex abuse scandal. At James’ campaign announcement brained” about the consequences of a local “inflection point”, but he said he’s excited at a Teamsters Union hall, he told LEO by what he’s seen happening with constituthat he sees himself as “experienced” not ents in the city. “establishment.”

“That movement has brought out the “I think that the condition that Louisrighteous anger of thousands of people in ville finds itself in now, it needs someone the city who have never been politically with experience and day-to-day operational active,” he said. “And I think that can know-how to get the city back on its feet,” translate into the urgent fact that we have to he said. change things electorally here in the city.”

The day after James’ announcement, Fenwick said he is not interested in runJones, the UofL academic, tweeted his own ning again, but he is energized by Parrishinterest in Fischer’s seat, “I would like to Wright, a movement leader, doing so. announce that I’m considering running for In Jones’ opinion, the people who have mayor of Louisville. [thinking emoji] Why announced their candidacy and who are not?”

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LEOWEEKLY.COM // JANUARY 27, 2021

rumored to do so are, for the most part, “wedded to the status quo.”

“It doesn’t seem to me at least, nothing that I have seen or heard thus far, anything that speaks to any type of serious progressive innovation,” he said. “And when I say progressive, I’m not speaking of politicallyleaning. I’m talking about progress itself, progressive innovation, or difference from what we have — people who are really rich in thought and rich in creating a new city or a new world.”

Jones, who said he is not fully committed to running, but not fully joking about doing so, either, said he, ideally, could be that person.

“I’m a different kind of guy,” Jones said.

Parrish-Wright said, as mayor, she would invest in underfunded programs, such as homeless outreach groups FEED Louisville and Hip Hop Cares, as well as parks, community centers, pools and public health. In her announcement post, ParrishWright invoked pretrial incarceration reform, or what is often called bail reform.

She also wants police reform, but ParrishWright said she is not anti-police. (“What I want is police to be held accountable just the way you and I would if something was to happen.”) And, she isn’t anti-business either. (“I think if we do this right, we can attract the new businesses, we can attract the bigger corporations. We can stop them shutting their office doors and moving to cheaper locales and stay with us and invest in our community.”)

At his announcement, James addressed several issues facing the city: making the city a destination, murder-rates and overdoses, the city’s housing crisis, poverty, government inefficiency, frivolous spending (particularly on Derby guests), clean streets and equity and inclusion.

Elridge, the KDP chair, said he appreciates that both announced candidates, Parrish-Wright and James, are different from those who have been mayor before in at least one way: Louisville has never had a Black person in its executive office.

“I am elated to see two African Americans who may have different reasons for running, but who are committed to building a better Louisville,” he said. “As the first African American to chair this party, that is a clear sign to me of where we are going as a Commonwealth.” •

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WHAT’S POPPIN POPPIN’’

LOUISVILLE’S POP-UP DINING SCENE OFFERS A GLIMPSE OF THE NEW NORMAL DURING AND AFTER COVID-19

By Michael C. Powell | leo@leoweekly.com NO CORNER of the economy has weathered These Uncertain Times™ unscathed, but perhaps none have been as publicly volatile as restaurants. Open. Closed. Open but at 50% capacity.

Open at 25%. Closed for now, but open again when Jupiter and Saturn align. The result of local leaders following a moving target against a federal response equivalent to “lol I dunno,” the operational gymnastics doled out onto restaurants was untenable and maddening for an industry already juggling razor thin margins, even outside the occasional, every-100-years plague.

Suffice to say, restaurants will not look the same on the other side. Curbside and takeout could become a permanent fixture where they weren’t before. Chefs might realign their thinking toward more travel-stable dishes versus elaborate plating. And some of the most exciting dining in town may have no fixed address. Enter the world of pop-up restaurants, which, in 2020, were everywhere.

Different than food trucks, pop-ups attach themselves to a

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LEOWEEKLY.COM // JANUARY 27, 2021

bar, restaurant or other public space, and either bring all their own gear or make use of whatever facilities exist to execute service. Newer bars and breweries like TEN20, ShopBar and High Horse have all welcomed pop-ups, and so have established locales, many with their own restaurant, like Zanzabar. The famed 610 Magnolia invited guest chefs such as Charim’s Yeon Hee Chung to serve food from their wine studio, while the mecca of vegan comfort food, Morels Cafe, recalibrated their concept into a revolving, themed menu every weekend. Without a truck to maintain or the weight of a traditional storefront’s stack of bills, the pop-up path offers a much lower financial barrier, creating a viable route into the industry — and allowing for increased creativity — with significantly less risk during economically turbulent times.

GRUB IN THE TIME OF COVID

Though the pop-up formula existed in various forms before-

hand, COVID-19 forced some of the most robust experimentation from restaurateurs in almost every pocket of the city, creating an almost unified response from trendier locales interested in giving such an idea a whirl. In many ways, Schnitzelburg’s theMerryWeather became the de facto epicenter of, and incubator for, all the new, transient, nomadic restaurants in Louisville. It was, after all, the storefront that most frequently embraced the pop-up idea before the pandemic, and most enthusiastically during it. While co-owner Emily Ruff modestly rebuffs such labels, it turns out she possibly could be some sort of clairvoyant. “I am psychic, but not in any way that helps with business outcomes,” Ruff said with a laugh. Pivoting in early 2019 from her lauded neighborhood restaurant Lydia House to a late night dive with a touch of tiki, Ruff and her partner and theMerryWeather co-owner JC Denison kept the former kitchen intact after the transition. “We planned the space around having pop-ups specifically,” Denison said. “There is a half door with a counter at the kitchen that doubles as a spot

A nascent instance of the pop-up approach can be traced back six years with LocalsOnly. where chefs can take orders and pass food. We envisioned that from the beginning and it’s served us well.”

“I pretty much swore to myself I’d never go back to working in a kitchen. I don’t think either one of us ever wanted to run a restaurant again,” Denison said about the transition between Lydia House and theMerryWeather.

“Yet we wanted others who were either operating food trucks or looking to establish a customer base, before they tried opening their own spot, to have a space from which to operate,” he said. “It’s such a win-win,” Ruff said. “We get to have food at the bar without managing a kitchen, and the chefs can do business in a low-investment, low-risk arrangement with a built-in clientele.”

A nascent instance of the pop-up approach can be traced back six years with LocalsOnly, a collaborative experiment between Lawrence Weeks, now executive chef at Ouita Michel property Honeywood, and Jeff Harman of, at the time, Jack Fry’s. Striving to serve elevated cuisine in unconventional spaces, LocalsOnly POCO at ShopBar. | PHOTOS BY KATHRYN HARRINGTON slung plates at cocktail bars like Meta and, prophetically, Lydia House. In 2015, there was nothing quite like it. LocalsOnly stood alone in an creatively stifling,” he said of environment where food trucks were still the taste du jour, and the his former career. “It paid the lines between restaurant, bar and event spaces were much more bills and provided insurance, rigged than the more modular and malleable nightlife scene today. but it was also a lot of chicken Cited by other pop-up restauranteurs as the first splash in Caesar salads.” Looking for an today’s larger and more defined pop-up movement, River City outlet to assuage the boredom, Supper Club first popped-up at theMerryWeather just a couple RCSC began as a weekend months after its opening in spring of 2019. According to Denison, passion project and a laborathe bar hosted two to five pop-up events a week leading up to tory to experiment and, as he the first statewide shutdown last year. Though their doors closed puts it, “to sharpen my skills.” between March and October, Ruff and Denison took advantage “I’m relearning a lot of techof the warmer weather with sidewalk window service, creating niques. I’m making sausage their own afternoon pop-up known as The Cantina and welcoming again, for example. I’m doing peers like Renshoku Ramen back into the fold. “[We have] always creative things,” Hargrove found a lot of success with late night crowds, inside events, and said. Living close to theMerbands, none of which we can really make work right now. So ryWeather, Hargrove saw an being able to have pop-ups has been a wonderful asset,” Dension opportunity to make prodisaid. “[During shutdown,] a few of our regular pop-up chefs came gious use of the former Lydia in and did curbside and raised some money for bartenders at those House kitchen and tap into his events, which was really sweet,” Ruff said. “Since we have been 20-year deep knowledge of the back open, I think pop-ups have brought people into the bar at restaurant industry. The Supper earlier hours than they would normally come in pre-pandemic.

Club now enjoys an extended That has been helpful since we have to close at midnight.” weekend residence there.

Pop-ups, unlike restaurants, CHEFS RETHINK THE IDEA OF A don’t necessarily need to be tethered to a concept. LeavRESTAURANT. THESE ARE THEIR STORIES ing no cuisine behind, River *DUN DUN*.

City Supper Club’s widely Airline catering. That’s how Michael Hargrove, co-owner and varying menu has featured executive chef of River City Supper Club, made his living before pho, scotch eggs, empanadas, launching the pop-up with his partner Danielle Beebe. “It was

Chef Connie Hartsock.

LEOWEEKLY.COM // JANUARY 27, 2021

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Launching right before the COVID-19 shutdown, POCO has become one of the more prominent pop-ups, moving sprightly about town and consistently selling out their food. fried chicken, jackfruit tacos and poutine — all in the last three months.

This dynamic approach also appealed to the founders of POCO, a three-person roving restaurant, who reflected on their yearlong journey during their pop-up at ShopBar on the mild sunny evening when the 46th president was inaugurated. More than one item featured Cheetos dust, and could be paired with a Maker’s 46 shot and beer special. The patio was (distantly and safely) packed and the mood jubilant. On a Wednesday. In January.

Launching right before the COVID-19 shutdown, POCO has become one of the more prominent pop-ups, moving sprightly about town and consistently selling out their food. POCO was born out of friendship — the desire for Bri Hlava, Matt Pope and Connie Hartsock to stay together after The Butchertown Social, where they worked both front and back of house, shuttered at the end of 2019. “The business model was us wanting to hang out, and not necessarily think about business,” Pope said.

So far, business is good... and exceeding their expectations.

Their experience in a more traditional pub restaurant environment helped organically shape the direction of POCO. “At Butchertown [Social], our most successful nights were the one-offs where we changed the full menu and we had special drink menus just for that night,” Hartsock said. “So we were already doing pop-ups within our own bar. People like the excitement of one-night only, not wanting to get FOMO.” Like their brick-and-mortar counterparts, POCO recalibrated throughout the shifting winds of shutdown and the phased reopening. Acting in parallel to the swiftly varying responses to the pandemic, pop-ups were nimble, resembling the 2020 hospitality industry in general — always changing, fluid, unpredictable. “I think the pandemic has given pop-ups a name of their own,” Pope said. “Quarantine has catapulted us,” said Hartsock in agreement.

As the inauguration party wore on, more items were crossed off the menu as they sold out one dish at a time.

One of the more utopian tenets of rethinking labor — universal basic income, for example — is that people wouldn’t stop working altogether. Rather, folks would shift their efforts toward passion projects, helping the community, and contributing to humanities, rather than toiling in jobs that may or may not have any quantifiable benefit. To change is natural. That’s a whole other discourse, of course, but the shutdown and subsequent relief packages presented opportunities to those with a little ingenuity and a whole lot more time. This was the genesis of a few pop-ups.

A layoff pushed Hargrove into making the preexisting RCSC his full-time gig. For others, it became the springboard for something new.

Laid off from his job and awaiting unemployment to kick in, Rudy Bamba started rolling and selling lumpia, or Filipino-style eggrolls, to family and friends. It was here that he and his wife Emma created the Filipino street food pop-up Bamba Eggroll Co. “[His lumpia] sold quickly because Rudy already had a ton of fans who had come over for birthday parties and cookouts and various gatherings, so he started adding family-size entrees,” Bamba said. “After about a month, we were starting to get a lot

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of messages from people we didn’t know, and we decided that we needed to start a legitimate business.” Kicking off at farmers markets, Bamba Eggroll Co. swiftly moved into the same spaces as their pop-up cohort, such as ShopBar, NoraeBar and Apocalypse Brew Works.

Despite Louisville’s robust international food scene, Filipino cuisine was a niche unfulfilled since the closure of Sari Sari and Lola’s Kitchen in Clifton. “Pop-ups were the only way to start with relatively no money,” she said. According to Bamba, serving good, harder-to-find cuisine has established a loyal customer base with solid sales, though in a scaled-down reality that sees both lower volume but also lower overhead. “COVID actually gave us the opportunity to try [Bamba Eggroll Co.] out in a time that [Rudy] couldn’t earn a living the way he always had,” Emma said. POCO’s Hlava saw a similar silver lining. “When we lost our jobs [to COVID] and didn’t have anything else to do, we wanted to feed our friends, give them a distraction, make them feel like everything is OK when they are with us,” Hlava said.

Unlike POCO and RCSC, Bamba Eggroll Co. adopted a more traditional, defined concept while following an unconventional path, a trajectory similar to the newly minted Zini. Michael Stansbury, whose CV includes kitchens in Milkwood and bar Vetti, became intrigued by casual Roman street food during a trip to the Italian capital — cuisine antithetical to, as he calls it, a meal you “eat in candlelight during date night.” Zini serves more easily handheld and straightforward Italian dishes in the form of trapizzini and supplì. “Because of the impossible times we are in, the best restaurants in the world are serving really simple, really approachable food. Putting really simple, really delicious stuff into really good bread felt like it could work as a bar concept,” Stansbury said. Zini has made a home in theMerryWeather and will soon take up residency in the modern Butchertown saloon High Horse starting in February.

For Nick Bean, owner of Phantom Chef, the pop-up model offered both an escape route and a path forward. After 10 years

Matt Pope.

working on the line in Louisville, Bean moved to New York to work for chefs like Tom Colicchio and Jean-Georges Vongerichten. “I have a dream of one day attaining a Michelin star,” he said.

Bean gradually became frustrated, uninterested in navigating the politics and problematic, well-documented club mentality of the kitchen scene. “I just kept constantly finding myself in this dark corner of my career; not belonging to any chef’s culinary team, not progressing in life like I wanted to. I was always overlooked either simply because I was the wrong color or just didn’t fit into the ‘box’ I was given,” he said. “Politics play a major role in today’s industry, especially when it comes to the minority cooks.

It’s never based on who has the skill set for the job, it’s more of who likes or dislikes this person the most.”

The flexibility of the pop-up model presented Bean an avenue for moving up in his career by owning his own concept, even if it’s a moving one, a notion he’s toyed with since 2017. Now, his one-man operation has been serving up eclectic cuisine — from street food to three-course prix fixe — at The Limbo, Tim Faulkner Gallery and many of the usual aforementioned suspects. “[Pop-ups] allow me to create specialized menus for each venue, giving each pop-up its own theme and atmosphere.” While Bean said he would like to own a restaurant with an actual address one day, he says he’s “totally fine with not having any overhead looming or other worries that come along with owning a restaurant, especially in the age of COVID-19.”

“Pops-ups are joyous,” Bean said.

CONCESSIONS OF THE CONCESSIONS

But, as old Frankie Blue Eyes once crooned “that’s life,” and pop-ups present their own scenario of ups and downs, compromises and concessions. “[With pop-ups,] it’s a new set of problems,” RCSC’s Hargrove said, “but combined with a lot of liberating qualities.” Due to their reduced volume, according to Hargrove, pop-up restauranteurs may not have access to the purchasing power available to the brick-and-mortar set through

The back, outside area of theMerryWeather.

For the properties hosting these pop-ups, it’s a value-added proposition, whether they’re giving their own staff some time off or offering food service outside normal hours. distributors like Sysco and Gordon Food Service. And social media becomes a unique and challenging lifeline, where likes and shares are capital much more than a Google or Yelp search. “We completely rely on social media to promote what we’re doing,” POCO’s Pope said. “But that’s how it seems now for a lot of businesses these days. Finding out on social what anyone is doing that particular night.”

And, of course, moving all your shit around becomes a real slog. “Bringing all this, it’s a hustle,” Connie Hartsock said, gesturing toward the portable kitchen built on ShopBar’s patio. “You don’t have a home base where you have everything you need.

I bring it all — spoons, ladles, things you wouldn’t think of.”

Rather than a shared location, POCO operates out of three homes, so organization is paramount. “Every day is a checklist,” Pope said, adding that roughly two weeks of preparation goes into each pop-up event. For Bamba, living in a four-season climate cuts into the bottom line. “It takes an entire weekend of [wintertime] pop-ups to make less than what we would have made in just one of many of the summer and fall pop-ups we did,” she said.

On the positive, POCO’s Hartsock adds “you do a lot of work but you’re only open three to six hours. Then you can pack up and leave, where at a restaurant you have to fight through slow nights to get to a busy one.” For RCSC’s Hargrove, the pop-up model helps him balance quality with access. “I’ve found you can use a higher end product and charge less for it because you don’t have that crazy overhead of a restaurant,” he said. And for Zini’s Stanbury, it removes traditional obstacles, like signing a bunch of papers. “The pop-up model has allowed me to try something new, week after week, without putting everything I have at risk,” he said. “To me, it feels like a safer way to enter the food scene.”

Ultimately, as Stansbury says “[Pop-ups are] easier in that I’m not paying monthly payments on a $50,000 truck or who knows for a dining room, and I can grow at my own speed. I don’t think most people would want to do pop-ups forever but it does allow you to build a following and work on your concept before moving forward.”

The kitchen at theMerryWeather.

FEEDING THE HAND THAT FEEDS YOU

For the properties hosting these pop-ups, it’s a value-added proposition, whether they’re giving their own staff some time off or offering food service outside normal hours. The host will keep a small percentage, but that amount is completely eclipsed by traditional operational costs. More importantly, pop-ups create a culture of collaboration where different bars and restaurants root for the success of their industry brethren. “We’ve really enjoyed seeing a lot of the pop-up chefs stretch their imaginations in regards to how to use our space and elevate the pop-up concept,” theMerryWeather’s Denison said. Ruff added,“I have for a long time been interested in finding solutions to the many issues that plague the restaurant industry. This non-traditional format allows experimentation that might translate into new business models that could benefit all.” As POCO’s Hlava summed up, “The restaurants who have been quick on their feet and creative are going to thrive.”

For the current pop-up movement, the pros can outweigh the cons for those interested in a little adventure. “[Pop-ups offer] a lot of options as far as level of involvement goes,” said Zini’s Stansbury. “Maybe you are trying to build something bigger.

Maybe you are trying to cover the paycheck you lost because of another restaurant shutdown. Maybe you love your job but enjoy doing something every now and then.” For others, pop-ups provide some social normalcy. “It’s not just a pop-up. It’s a vibe,” said POCO’s Pope. “It’s a baby house party for three hours that we throw at a bar. It’s not just coming to the pop-up, it’s also seeing people you haven’t seen in a while, under one roof. And

Emily Ruff and JC Denison at theMerryWeather.

there aren’t 500 things going on, it’s just good food, drink and conversations. I like the feel of that.”

Though rooted before the pandemic, pop-up restaurants have transformed into a product and innovation of These Unprecedented Times, born out of making something work in impossible circumstances — you know, like velcro and the other amazing inventions spawned by the space race. Such a nontraditional approach to dining offers a serious opportunity, without the gatekeeping, for a chef to try something different or pivot their career. The transient restaurant is but one dimension of an intriguing, sometimes ominous post-COVID world — a case study in realigning our notion of work, business, spaces and socializing, where issues with a lot of gravitas meet you or me crushing burritos at our preferred watering holes. •

LEOWEEKLY.COM // JANUARY 27, 2021

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STAFF PICKS

SATURDAY, JAN. 30

Survival Hike

Blackacre State Nature Preserve | 3200 Tucker Station Road blackacreconservancy.org | $10 members, $15 public | 1 p.m.

THURSDAY, JAN. 28

Family Feud-style Trivia

Mile Wide Beer Co. | 636 Barret Ave. | Search Facebook | Free | 7 p.m.

A trivia night that brings the iconic show into the digital age, this game happens in person but is played on your phone or device via an app. Hosted I KNOW THIS ONE by Last Call Trivia, the format features six rounds with three questions per round. First, second and third place teams get $30, $20 and $10 gift cards respectively. —LEO

If you’re an outdoorsy person at all, it’s good to know at least a little bit about safety and survival methods, so you can build a plan if things go wrong. On this SURVIVAL group hike, naturalist Lee Grace will be sharing some basic survival techniques in case you get lost or stranded in the woods. Call 266-9802 to reserve a spot. Masks required. —LEO

SATURDAY, JAN. 30

Winter Orchard Care Workshop

FRIDAY, JAN. 29

Portland neighborhood | 2017 W. Main St. | Search Facebook | Free | 2-5 p.m.

Late For Dinner With Bon Air And Copiers YouTube Live | Search Facebook | Free | 8 p.m.

Welcoming the weekend with a local concert is a tradition not lost in Louisville during the pandemic LIVE thanks to Art Sanctuary’s Late for Dinner series. This week’s musical guests are Bon Air, a guitar/drum duo, and Copiers, a psych band who prefers to impress you with their sounds rather than lyrics. They’ll be playing live; you can watch on YouTube. —LEO

Copiers.

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Looking to get outside in the middle of winter? Join others in helping to maintain the community orchards in The West and South ends. In addition to getting COMMUNITY some physical activity and fresh air, you might discover a new hobby while learning to prune fruit trees… or just help improve the community and meet some new friends. Organizers will supply the tools, but they request that you sign up (using the link on the Facebook event page). Also, if you can’t make this one, the same link lists all future planned events, including other community orchards. —LEO

STAFF PICKS

SATURDAY, JAN. 30

SUNDAY, JAN. 31

Planet of the Tapes | 640 Barret Ave. | Search Facebook | Free | 2 p.m.

Play Louisville | 1101 E. Washington St. | Search Facebook | $12 | 8 p.m.

Saturday Morning Cartoons Let’s just get out in front of this one: The best Ninja Turtle is COWABUNGA Raphael. Always has been, always will be. Anyway… revisit your youth at Planet of the Tapes, where, every Saturday morning, they will be showing classic cartoons. Brunch will be available outside from Riot Cafe, and there will be speciality breakfast-themed cocktails. —Scott Recker

Drag Race 13: Tina Burner

We said in a recent Staff Pick that you might soon see a contestant from the 13th season of RuPaul’s Drag Race on the Play stage. Well, the season isn’t even over and the QUEEN Louisville club is already booking names from the show. Last week, Joey Jay was a guest. This week, come see Tina Burner, a queen from New York City and the reigning National Miss Comedy Queen. Tickets are limited, and masks are required. —Danielle Grady

SUNDAY, JAN. 31

Mermaid Wars: Cocktail Competition The Limbo | 411 W. Chestnut St. | Search Facebook $5 ($10 admission + tasting) | 1 p.m.

Tropical tiki bar, mermaids, Caribbean cocktails… just thinking about Mermaid Wars warms the soul. The Limbo’s annual tiki cocktail competition is featurWET OR DRY ing clairin and Plantation rums in this year’s judged contest. Each participant will make three cocktails (rules provided at the event), which will be scored by three judges. The best part for you is, you get to sample all of the creations before the DJ sets things off after the competition. You can also purchase bottles of clairin and Plantation rums if you want to recreate the cocktails — or take a shot — at home. —Aaron Yarmuth

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 3

Free Salsa & Bachata Lessons

CC’s Kitchen | 800 S. Fourth St. | Search Facebook | No cover | 7-11 p.m.

Get those hips moving with free salsa lessons set to romantic Dominican Republic music known as bachata. Don’t worry, you can learn while socially distancLET’S DANCE ing, so when the time is right, you can show off your new moves up close with someone special… rawr rawr. Chef Cecilia will also be offering a special menu of Latin food, along with margarita drink specials. —LEO

LEOWEEKLY.COM // JANUARY 27, 2021

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Mamba - Say hello to the gorgeous and sweet Mamba! Mamba is a two-yearold Domestic Shorthair kitty with a beautiful black and white coat. This princess made her way to the Kentucky Humane Society from an overcrowded shelter and is now ready to find her forever home! When Mamba arrived, the shelter really stressed her out so we decided to send her into a foster home while she waits for her forever family to come along. In her foster home, Mamba is an absolute delight! Her foster parent says, “Mamba is a real sweetie who likes to be in the same room with me, sleeps on the bed, plays with toys and is getting very good at sitting in laps. She is well-behaved about using her litter box and staying off tables/counters too!” While Mamba does need to be the only pet in the home, she promises she has enough love for the entire family! Could you be the one for this sweetheart? Mamba is spayed, micro-chipped, up-to-date on vaccinations and ready to go home with you. Mamba is staying with a foster family until her forever home comes along. If you are interested in meeting Mamba, please first submit an online adoption application located at www.kyhumane.org/cat-app. Once we have received your adoption application, our foster team will follow up and provide you with more information.

Tess - Calling all Boxer lovers! Meet Tess, an 8-year-old Boxer with a zest for life and a bounce in

her step! Tess loves walks, car rides, arranging her bed just so, getting butt scratches and watching her human prepare Tess’ dinner. Tess weighs 55 pounds and is a pretty fawn color with just a hint of brindle and a black mask, and she has the softest fur. She’s a typical boxer who snores gently when she sleeps (no need for a white noise machine!). Tess lost her home after living with the same family since she was a puppy. When she arrived at KHS, she was suffering from very painful dental issues.

After KHS removed a number of terrible teeth, Tess is now so much happier! Tess is currently in a foster home, and her foster family reports that Tess is an easy house guest. She’s very quiet and only barks if someone is at the door or the gate. She loves spending the day snoozing on a dog bed (Tess does not like to sleep on couches or human beds). As soon as her foster mom puts on a coat, Tess gets super excited to go for a walk. She loves walks more than anything! And while she loves her foster mom and likes meeting new people, she really loves her foster dad. She seems to be a “daddy’s girl.” In her foster home Tess is relaxed when left alone and not destructive. Tess lived for many years with another dog, but her previous owner reported that she sometimes growled at the other dog over food. If you have another dog at home, we recommend you bring your dog to your adoption appointment so you can make sure that Tess and your dog want to be pals. Tess is spayed, micro-chipped and up-to-date on vaccinations. Tess is staying with her foster family until her forever home comes along.

If you are interested in meeting her, please first submit an online adoption application located at www.kyhumane.org/dog-app. Once we have received your adoption application, our foster team will follow up and provide you with more information.

STAFF PICKS

THROUGH APRIL 4

‘Land Is: Parks, Cultures, Stories’

KMAC Museum | 715 W. Main St. | kmacmuseum.org | Prices vary Frederick Law Olmsted, landscape architect of revered Louisville sites such as Shawnee and Cherokee parks, believed spaces have “the genius of a place” with FIGHT INEQUITY ecological and spiritual qualities. Social change artist Ramona Lindsey acknowledges that some parks and open areas can lose those qualities by falling victim to systemic inequity. She curated “Land Is” to focus on “what happens to community when economic and racial inequity leads to oppressive and under resourced public spaces.”

The exhibition features work by Nubia Bennett, Jonathan P. Cherry, Joshua Jean-Marie, Abdul Sharif, City Voices, T. A. Yero and Lindsey. A virtual panel discussion by the photographers in the show is on Wednesday, Feb. 10 at 6 p.m. Attendance is free but registration is required. —Jo Anne Triplett

“Wild Eggs takes pride in providing our guests with LEO Weekly as they enjoy their breakfast, brunch, or lunch.

Whether they are dining alone and appreciate some quiet time to read or grabbing LEO Weekly on their way out the door, we know that it always flies off our racks!”

Bill Stenzhorn, President Wild Eggs

Wild Eggs

1211 Herr Lane, Suite 290 Louisville, Kentucky 40222 www.WildEggs.com If you'd like a LEO Weekly rack at your business, email distribution@leoweekly.com ‘Buechel Park’ by Joshua Jean-Marie. Photograph.

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LEOWEEKLY.COM // JANUARY 27, 2021

MUSIC

LIVE AGAIN AT Z-BAR

By Nik Vechery | leo@leoweekly.com SATURDAY night was the second night of Mama Said String Band shows at Zanzabar. These are the first concerts at the venue since last March when COVID-19 shut everything down.

They were an experiment of sorts to try to work out a path to reopen the venue while keeping everyone as safe as possible. Many things have changed, but others are largely the same.

Don’t worry. Vern, Louisville’s premier doorman, is still at his post just inside the door.

He took everybody’s temperature as they entered the venue as a first safety step.

Masks, of course, are mandatory and enforced within the building. Further in, the bar is filled with plants that direct patrons to two locations so they can order food and drink behind a plastic curtain. Red ropes and six foot spacers on the floor also help keep the bar area socially distant.

It felt strange being at a live venue after so many months — like a muscle that hasn’t been used and is finally being stretched again. In a way, it was everyone’s first concert all over again and everyone had to learn a new sort of concert etiquette.

Saturday was not a night of shoulder-to-shoulder, standing-room-only music viewing.

Tickets were only sold by the table. Arrangements of four-top and six-top tables were spread throughout the venue with at least six feet of distance between them. The tables closest to the stage were placed back at least 12 feet to create distance from the vocalists as they sang.

Hand sanitizers were on every table next to a small sign with several safety rules everyone

had to adhere to.

A few minutes after 8 p.m., Nicholas Jamerson walked out on stage to perform an hourlong set of somber country songs, many from his recently released EP. This was his first time being on stage since February of last year, and it would be completely forgivable to think he would have been out of practice, but he performed like he just got off stage a day ago. “I really needed [to be on stage]...this last year was tough but we made it,” he said while tuning his guitar between songs.

Mama Said String Band came out shortly afterward and was an upbeat reminder of how a live show can make one feel. This weekend was a two day residency at Zanzabar to celebrate the release of their EP, Mariah. The bluegrass quartet played songs about boxed wine, proclaimed “emo songs” and songs about the killing of Rachel Hoffman. They also showed no rust and kept the tempo moving with dueling violin/banjo solos and by slapping the stand-up bass.

These shows were a calculated risk — with COVID-19 burning through the world — but Zanzabar went to great lengths to make them as safe as humanly possible. The thought and care they put into making this a success is something to be admired. It was a paradox to feel strange about being in a venue and comfortable at a show at the same time, but Z-bar’s approach was a key piece of strategy to slowly work live concerts back into our lives. •

PHOTOS BY NIK VECHERY

LEOWEEKLY.COM // JANUARY 27, 2021

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FOOD & DRINK

RECOMMENDED

HIKO-A-MON’S FINE JAPANESE STYLE REWARDS OUR EYES AND PALATES

By Robin Garr | LouisvilleHotBytes.com IT’S HARD TO BELIEVE that Louisville got its first sushi bar, of sorts, as recently as the mid-‘80s. (It’s also hard to believe that I’ve been writing about food and drink for that long, but that’s another story for another day.)

Back when Louisville had its first taste of locally-made sushi, served over a Fourth Street drugstore lunch counter on Thursdays only, the idea of sushi was a bit divisive. A few of us yelled “Yay!” Some responded, “Yuck! Raw fish!”

Times have surely changed. Now that we can get boxes of sushi at the neighborhood grocery or even, if we dare, at a gas station, sushi is no longer strange and exotic. Just about everyone yells “Yay” nowadays, but there’s a gotcha: The most popular boxed sushi is maki, the familiar rice-wrapped sushi rolls, built in a tube and sliced into convenient rounds.

Nigiri sushi, the bite-size treat that features a healthy chunk of raw seafood or fish spread atop a ball of sushi rice with a dab of fiery green wasabi horseradish, wins praise

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from sushi geeks. So does the even more basic sashimi, which features artfully cut bits of fish laid out on a plate for consumption au naturel. If I just heard a “Yuck” from the peanut gallery, my point is made.

I could be a sushi snob and demand that you join me in a nigiri and sashimi feast today, but let’s save that for another occasion. Rather, let’s talk about quality maki rolls from one of the best Japanese restaurants around town: hiko-A-mon in Westport Village.

One of the first tenants of the renovated East End shopping complex, hiko-Amon has earned deserved popularity with Kyoto-born Chef Hiko (who goes by only the single name) at the helm. We usually go there to sit down at the sushi bar to watch in wonder as the sushi chefs slice, dice and gently set one delicious and colorful wonder after another on your plate.

That’s a wonderful way to do sushi, but we’re in a pandemic right now, and I’m not ready to sit among strangers doffing our masks to enjoy sushi even with proper

Two sushi rolls at hiko-A-mon: Eel roll at the top and veggie roll beneath, with pickled ginger, wasabi paste, and a tub of soy sauce on the side. | PHOTOS BY ROBIN GARR.

Oshinko, Japanese pickles, make a crisp and colorful palate-cleansing side dish at hiko-A-mon.

FOOD & DRINK

A bowl of warm and nourishing miso soup makes an excellent starter for a meal at hiko-A-mon.

social distancing until herd immunity arrives. Not to mention that unlimited sushi can add up in price. That’s an issue, too, during the pandemic economy.

But wait! This is where the roll comes in! A couple of good rolls, a Japanese salad and a colorful dish of oshinko pickles don’t add up to all that much. They’re served cold, so there’s no issue with getting them home.

And they’re really, really good to eat.

Suiting action to thought, I pulled up hiko-A-mon’s online menu and put in an order, passing over the many fine entrees ($15-$45) as well as fried items like tempura, on my way to the apps and rolls.

It’s hard for me to think of a better use for iceberg lettuce than a Japanese-restaurant salad. And the refreshing hiko-A-mon salad ($6 regular, $3 small) is a good one. The lettuce was crisp and cold, neatly chopped into bite-size squares. The traditional dressing mix of ginger, garlic, onion and carrot was more textured than smooth, a pleasant variation on the typical creamy sauce.

A bowl of miso soup ($3) was warm and nourishing, an umami-rich broth of white miso and dashi bonito flakes with a few tiny cubes of tofu and strips of dark-green seaweed enjoying a warm bath. A plastic-foam cup provides sufficient insulation to keep the soup hot all the way home.

Moving on to the sushi rolls. We ordered a pair: eel roll ($9) and veggie roll ($7).

Both were served in the same attractive takeout box, cut into eight pieces each and neatly arranged with pickled ginger and wasabi paste at one end and a tub of soy sauce on the side.

The eel roll was perfect. This roll is customarily served with a generous ration of sweet, thick “eel sauce” on top, but they

complied with my request to keep it light and painted on only just enough to keep it traditional without turning it into dessert.

The roll contained thin-cut strips of eel — a dark, oily, unctuous fish — contrasting with crisp, julienned cucumber. It was all tightly wrapped in crisp nori seaweed with tender, sticky sushi rice rolled around it on the outside.

The vegetable roll ($7) was also a treat, assembling strips of crisp cucumber, crunchy carrot and soft, earthy, dark mushrooms to achieve an appealing contrast of flavor and texture within the standard noriand-rice inside-out roll.

Wrapping it up, an order of oshinko ($4.50), four different Japanese pickles, made a crisp and colorful side dish. The contrasting yellow, green and brownish colors of pickled seaweed, green and yellow peppers, plus gingery mushrooms were a treat for the eyes and palate.

Our bill for a delicious sushi treat came to $34.34, including a 20 percent tip, tax and a $1.49 service charge from the online menu provider. •

@leoweekly

HIKO-A-MON Westport Village 1115 Herr Lane, Suite 130 365-1651 hikoamon.com

Another location: 416 W. Muhammad Ali Blvd., Suite 100 625-3090

LEOWEEKLY.COM // JANUARY 27, 2021

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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

PARENTING AND CREATING DURING A PANDEMIC

By Erica Rucker | erucker@leoweekly.com THIS week, I spoke with five local artists who are trying to answer the “how” about creating with kids, during a pandemic. Some have found a well of creativity, while others are struggling to just feel human. All of the artists for this piece are working with the aid of a supportive partner. That fact can’t be lost. Most are married and some already work at home.

These particular sets of circumstances add to the ability for these creators to work. Artists who parent solo don’t have the same luxuries. Sadly, we may find that we are losing valuable work because there simply isn’t enough targeted support for artists in these situations. I invite any artist, who is also solo parenting, to “Talk Back” in the comments and tell LEO how you are managing your work.

SKYLAR SMITH

Skylar Smith is an artist, an educator and a curator. Smith launched her curatorial “BallotBox” project during the week the first pandemic shutdowns were announced. The almost year-long project, first supported by the city of Louisville and housed in Metro Hall, quickly morphed into an online virtual exhibition supported by 21C Museum Hotels.

Smith is also a mother to two girls, Forest (10) and Eleanor (7). When the pandemic began, she went through the same anxieties as most. There were so many unknowns and she wondered what would happen to her “BallotBox” show.

“When it first started happening, I couldn’t go anywhere,” she said. “Normally I’m out and about. I was doing ‘BallotBox,’ meeting people and that was shut down.”

She wasn’t sure what to do but quickly decided that she needed to focus on something that she could control.

“With COVID and not being able to go anywhere and all the anxiety and questions that we had, it was like making art was saving my life.”

Something felt different about making art during quarantine. It became necessary.

“I’ve never felt like making art mattered as much,” she said.

She found relief in her home studio despite the added challenge of helping her kids with their online schooling. Whenever she can steal a moment, she goes to her studio and tries to do something creative.

“I can work on something for an hour then go help a kid,” she said.

She has scaled her work to a smaller size, letting the constraints of space and on-hand materials dictate what she creates. She chose to use materials that she already had in her home.

Some of the works she conceptualized before the pandemic, but they took on new significance after.

“I kept thinking about this idea of a mandala,” she said. “I was thinking about it in the way Carl Jung thought about it.”

Swiss psychologist Carl Jung believed

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LEOWEEKLY.COM // JANUARY 27, 2021

creating mandalas offered a “safe refuge of inner reconciliation and wholeness,” providing a sacred space to invite the “Self.” He used them to calm his patients.

Making time to create, Smith believes, will make her a better person for her kids.

“I think they know that, too.”

RHEONNA NICOLE THORNTON

Spoken word artist and Lipstick Wars poetry slam creator, Rheonna Nicole, as she is known on stage, wakes up early to get started on her writing.

“For me, I like to get up early in the morning,” she said. “It seems to be when my brain is operating the best.”

In the wee morning hours, Thornton is either at her desk or hiding in a dark bathroom working on new poems.

“It’s just great and it just flows.”

Her child is young, so homeschool or NTI hasn’t entered the picture, but the challenges of COVID have touched her as a mom and artist.

“This is a process for both of us,” she says of parenting a toddler who is moving about and learning quickly.

“I’ve been writing a few poems just inspired by her presence.” Thornton’s daughter, Harlem Rose, is almost three.

“A lot of times, I’ll perform or write to myself and use her as the person I’m reciting to,” Thornton said, laughing. “She’ll just stop or she’ll start yelling out with me. That’s fun to see how she’ll react to things I say.”

In the pre-pandemic days, Thornton felt that she had more outlets for her daughter whether that was with family or the ability to get out of the house. “Before, I would be able to do a playdate or I felt comfortable going to the park and having her interact with other kids.”

COVID created some sticky situations for Thornton when she had to cancel events.

“Last year was supposed to be one of the biggest years for my poetry events,” she said.

“When this happened, this all just came to a crashing halt. It caused me to think outside the

box.”

She discovered that by holding virtual events and licensing her “Lipstick Wars” name to venues through the country, she was able to reach a bigger audience and have Lipstick Wars subsidiary events in more places. This included Nashville, Chicago and New York City.

GIBBS ROUNSAVALL

Artist Skylar Smith lifts the mood with her daughters

Like Thornton, Gibbs Rounsavall is another early riser, waking up around four in the morning to get started for his day. He and his wife, Sara have two daughters, Edith (9) and Thea (6). At the beginning of the pandemic, he was in a unique position to relocate from his studio behind the house to his new studio at the end of the dining room table.

“I was already primed to handle this in a certain way, but my studio is not conducive to learning,” he said. “So, I had to adjust to working in my house.”

At the other end of the dining room table are his daughters doing schoolwork.

“I don’t even sit down because I’m moving between what I’m doing and what they’re doing so often that it’s inefficient for me to be seated.”

Artist Gibbs Rounsavall and Efficiency is important to Roun- Wife Sara, Daughters Edith (9) and Thea (6) savall, an artist whose work can be seen in public around the city and in many private collections locally. He is a prolific creator usually making larger works. The revamped “studio” space has forced him to also consider the scale of his pieces.

“It’s been interesting, in that, I like to work big in scale but when I

Skylar Smith

Spoken Word Artist Rheonna Nicole and Daughter Harlem Rose

Gibbs Rounsavall

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Artist Lance Newman II (AKA Mr. SpreadLove) with his family.

moved into the house, that wasn’t really practical,” he said.

He’s also been working in series, which is another change for Rounsavall, who typically would finish one piece and begin something not necessarily related. He’s been able to generate more work.

“I, like everyone else, hit a wall of anxiety,” he said. “I was able to work. I felt a sense of urgency to work.”

Despite working fervently on his creative projects, Rounsavall knew that his kids were going to need a structured environment. Since he had the educational background as an art educator with JCPS, he felt prepared.

“I turned into Mr. Rounsavall on day one,” he said.

He feels that as much as this is a test for his daughters, it’s also “pass or fail for us too.”

“We definitely had a system in place where one of us is usually home,” he said. His wife Sara is an independent food stylist.

Rounsavall feels this time has been precious and that the pandemic has given life a “frontier-like quality.” Despite the isolation, he feels that this moment in history has given his kids something they’ll never forget.

“We are bonded,” he emphasized. “It’s kind of a beautiful thing.”

LANCE NEWMAN II

Lance Newman II (aka Mr. SpreadLove)

Artist Laurie Hrdina Shepherd and kids Gus (2) and Etta (5).

is well known in Louisville as a multifaceted creative force. His credits are long. Newman is a writer, a poet, a playwright, both a visual and teaching artist. He is busy. To boot, he’s father to four children.

“I’m an artist with four children ages 9, 4, 3, and 1 years old, so I’ve had to learn to juggle the creative process,” he said.

“My 9 year old is homeschooled,” he said.

“While the younger children are at daycare, my 9 year old and I are balancing our time between CORE curriculums and our own personal one.”

Creating during the pandemic with even one kid at home is a challenge, but Newman doesn’t shy away from those. He’s gotten used to the ebbs and flows of not having enough time.

“This life of an artist has always fluctuated,” Newman said. “So I’ve learned to be flexible with the timing of artistry and responsibility.”

Newman was a member of the inaugural group of Hadley Creatives. Hadley Creatives is a professional development fellowship for artists sponsored by the Mary Alice Hadley trust through the Community Foundation of Louisville.

He spends much of his time teaching creative writing and performing under his “SpreadLovEnterprise” moniker. Pre-pandemic, he hosted the KMAC Poetry Slam, which was one of the longest running poetry

Laurie Hrdina Shepherd ‘s Self Portrait “(Only) Day 34 of Quarantine”

events in the city of Louisville.

Currently, he is using the break to offer virtual poetry workshops via KMAC’s website.

The video classes feature both poetry readings and instruction on crafting poems to help future slam poets to sharpen their skills.

“As we speak, I’m fighting off my 4 year old who is pretending he’s a superhero and I’m a bad guy, while my 1 year old imitates her older brother.”

Newman doesn’t believe that the artist has a choice about creating.

“The times are ever changing but the artist must remain consistent in their production,” he said.

He will be playing Mercutio in the Actors Theatre of Louisville production of “Romeo and Juliet” due to air sometime in February.

LAURIE HRDINA SHEPHERD

Laurie Hrdina Shepherd moved to the area from California a little over two years ago.

First, she and her husband, Caleb and their little ones, Etta (5) and Gus (2), settled in Sellersburg. Soon after they moved to New Albany.

Shepherd realized that she enjoyed creating as a young child but didn’t explore it deeply. It wasn’t until she finished cosmetology school that she felt the pull of the artist’s life.

“I just started to paint a lot for fun,” she said. “I signed up for a class at a community

college. The day before it started, I almost backed out.”

Her fear soon turned to joy. She felt that she thrived in the class and made the decision to return to school for a degree in studio art.

“When I finished with that, I did a short summer program with Yale in France,” she said. “It wore me out.”

She’d been signed up to enter a graduate program, but the pressure of the Yale program made that option unattractive, and she backed off going.

She decided to just explore art on her own.

“Now, I have kids,” she said. “It totally changed it [my art] because I don’t have time anymore.”

For Shepherd, finding time to work is difficult. Her kids are young and require more face time.

“I do find it a lot easier to draw,” she said.

“When I get 10 or 20 minutes to draw, I’ll do a quick portrait and that’s about what I can get done for the day.”

Her husband supports her by scheduling his vacations so that she has time to paint.

“We’ve been in survival mode all year,” she said. “It was easier to do art before the pandemic. I was more rested because I got more time away from the kids.”

“Now when I have time to myself, I’m too tired. I want to watch ‘Doctor Who.’” •

LEOWEEKLY.COM // JANUARY 27, 2021

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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

INAUGURATION INSPIRED LOOKS:

LOCALS CELEBRATE THE NEW ADMINISTRATION

By Erica Rucker | erucker@leoweekly.com FASHION is a language that blends creation, concept and meaning. It is also art. To argue that it’s not is to miss a fundamental piece of what art does. It communicates.

Fashion is not unlike painting, sculpture or poetry. It uses the same tools and carries with it our histories, cultures and innovations. From creating garments in an atelier to coordinating looks from the closet, the art of clothing involves hands bringing to life ideas and dreams — offering meaning in a way that speaks so that we don’t always have to.

On Wednesday, Jan. 20, the United States swore in its

46th president and 49th vice president. To celebrate, people all over the world added a little extra to their outfits signaling their support of President Joseph R. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

Cheering the end of chaos and welcoming the new administration, local first responders, frontline workers and other inauguration watchers used their outfits to communicate how this moment made them feel. • Here are some of LEO’s favorite looks from Inauguration Day:

Arlo watching his first female VP being sworn in.

Ms. Beatrice Bush celebrating the first Black, Southeast Asian and female VP.

Frontline Worker Amy Walkup celebrates “trusting science” by getting her COVID-19 vaccine.

Dr. Ashley Hopkins wore Lady Liberty earrings, pearls and an RBG t-shirt.

Biden’s biggest fan Tracey Stewart

Stylist Jude Jett celebrates with LuLu

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Erica Oliver cheers the new VP with pink and green, the colors of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorrority. The green is a tree for a model train set.

Artist Tatiana Rathke celebrates the end of the “glass ceiling.”

Dr. Cherie Dawson-Edwards poses with her daughter and Emi Ramirez to mark the occasion.

ETC.

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SAVAGE LOVE

been supporting her financially for the last six months, which is weird since her job pays twice what mine does.

Just Seeking Guidance

THE BOYFRIEND EXPERIENCE

A: It’s entirely possible your girlfriend was black-out drunk that whole weekend and incapable of offering meaningful consent and the person she was with knew she was too fucked up to consent to sex—and wasn’t too fucked up to consent to sex himself— and she was raped. It’s also possible your girlfriend was drunk but not so drunk she couldn’t consent, JSG, and is overstating how drunk she was because she doesn’t want to share the details with you—details you aren’t entitled to. It’s also possible she was raped and is reluctant to go to the police because she knows telling her story—which could be entirely true—won’t result in an arrest, much less a prosecution, and so going to the police wouldn’t get this rapist—if the guy is a rapist—off the streets and could cause her further trauma.

Zooming out for a second… you assume a man forced your girlfriend to do something she didn’t want to do (fuck him all weekend) and your response is to force your girlfriend to do something she doesn’t want to do (file a police report). You need to stop that. If you think she’s showing signs of trauma, you should urge her to seek help from a rape counselor or trauma specialist, i.e. someone in a better position to assess the situation than you are, JSG, someone who doesn’t have cause to feel conflicted or resentful or angry about what did or did not happen that weekend.

And if you want to end the relationship, you should, JSG, and you can break up with someone without being an asshole or abandoning them. Offer her your support— offer your emotional support, withdraw your financial support—and give her the names of some local rape crisis centers in your area.

By Dan Savage | mail@savagelove.net @fakedansavage

Q: Sex-positive bi woman here. I have recommended your column to many people over the years to help them feel normal and human in their kinks, fantasies, sexuality, etc. But I’m having a more difficult time extending similar acceptance to myself. I was in a three-year relationship with a cis straight man. I recently moved across the country for graduate school and this was the catalyst for me to put my foot down about opening the relationship in order to get my sexual needs met. He agreed and we tried being open but he found it too emotionally challenging, so now we are on a “break.”

When we were together he showed me love in many ways, Dan, but he would not eat my pussy or finger me or use a vibrator or any other sex toys on me. He quit his own therapy for depressive symptoms and anxiety after just three sessions; he won’t do couple’s therapy; he won’t even have a conversation with me about why, exactly, my pussy and sexual pleasure are aversive to him. Even hearing me moan in pleasure or arousal seemed to make him recoil. All he wanted was blow jobs and occasional sessions of intercourse. He had some ED issues that he felt bad about but I told him multiple times that erections are not a big deal for me—what I like about sex is the intimacy, the play, and mutual pleasure.

He is not a bastard, but the sex remained phallocentric. Writing this, I know that I made a reasonable decision for myself.

Yet I continue to be wracked with guilt over pursuing (pandemic-safe) sex when I know this guy, who I love very much and care about very deeply, still has feelings for me and still wants to us be together, exclusively.

Two questions: Do you have any idea of what gives, based on your experience? I’ve been trying to understand and open the lines of communication for years. And, how do I stop beating myself up for hurting his feelings when my friends keep telling me I gave the relationship my all and I know that my soul couldn’t stand any more one-sided sex?

Feminist Under Compulsive, KinkInduced Nauseous Guilt A: You’re not responsible for the hurt feelings your ex-boyfriend—please make that break permanent—more than earned.

You gave him three years and God alone knows how many blowjobs and he either didn’t love you enough to work on himself

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LEOWEEKLY.COM // JANUARY 27, 2021

or he’s so damaged he’s incapable of doing the work. Either way, FUCKING, your ex-boyfriend is not in good working order, sexually or emotionally, and that’s not gonna change. He won’t talk to a shrink about his own shit, he won’t see a couples’ counselor about your shared shit, he won’t touch your pussy and he doesn’t want anyone else to touch your pussy—oh, and if you make even the slightest sound during sex, if a moan or, God forbid, a request for should escape your lips, he recoils.

Charitable reading: your ex-boyfriend is a closeted necrophiliac and any sign of life from you turns him off. Slightly less charitable read: your ex-boyfriend was raised to believe that sex is something a woman endures, not something a woman enjoys, and any sign that you might actually enjoy sex turns him off.

I don’t know what his issues are, FUCKING, and neither do you. All we know for sure is that he has issues and, whatever else they might be, they are disqualifying.

You asked for the only accommodation that might make it possible for you to stay in this relationship and stay sane—opening it up so you could seek sexual satisfaction elsewhere—and he couldn’t handle it.

Q: My girlfriend of six months got drunk one week into a work-related physical separation, ghosted on me, went to a hotel, and had sex for two days straight with another man. She then called and confessed everything. She’s remorseful and says it was alcohol-related and that she doesn’t remember the details. My take is that if she was too drunk to remember the details, she was too drunk to consent, which equals rape, right? I encouraged her to file a police report and get this rapist off the streets. She says she doesn’t know his name or number and doesn’t want to pursue legal action. She does remember the sex was unprotected and took Plan B today and is getting a full STI screening.

She’s exhibiting signs of trauma—I’ve been down this road with an ex—and I’m trying to be supportive but I don’t think I can continue. Would I be the biggest asshole in the world to end this? Other details: she was married to a woman for the past five years and I was the first man she was ever with until this rape happened.

I’m 50 years old, she’s 28 years old. What the fuck do I do? She’s fragile and I have

Q: I'm a 59-year-old gay man with a problem I've struggled with for all of my active sex life. I rarely orgasm during sex. I’m now involved with a couple that has welcomed me to be part of a loving relationship and they want me to be as satisfied as they are. I enjoy pleasing both of them, but they also want me to be pleased. I appreciate this but I feel pressured to come and I just can't. Any time I feel pressured to do anything I start to feel defensive and shut down. I enjoy being with these men very much and I want so much to share myself with them. How can I overcome this? I feel like I'm letting them down, and to be honest, I feel like there's something wrong with me because I can’t orgasm during

sex. Any help you can suggest is greatly appreciated.

Can’t Orgasm Mostly Ever A: This couple sees orgasm as a sign of sexual satisfaction, COME, and it’s usually a pretty good sign. And while it’s always better to err on the side of satisfying a sex partner—you don’t wanna be like FUCKING’s ex-boyfriend—there are people who can’t come during partnered sex or at all. We should do whatever it takes within reason to get our partners’ off, but if a partner tells us they don’t need to come or can’t come but still enjoy sex? We need to take their word for it. So, COME, explain to your boyfriends that you love sex and you love getting them off but you rarely come during sex yourself and feeling pressured to come makes those rare events rarer still.

Promise them that you’ll say something when you feel like coming and be clear about what they can do for you when that time comes. mail@savagelove.net Follow Dan on Twitter @FakeDanSavage www.savagelovecast.com

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If you'd like a LEO Weekly rack at your business, email distribution@leoweekly.com LEOWEEKLY.COM // JANUARY 27, 2021

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A.

CATEGORIES:

Literary Literary Lite WRITING: (1) Short Fiction (up to 1,000 words) (2) Poetry (up to 48 lines) CARTOON: (3) A single-page cartoon. Can be either a single or multiple panel cartoon.

PHOTOGRAPHY: (4) Color Photography — a single photo (5) Black-And-White Photography — a single photo

LEO LEO LE On March 17, 2021, we’re turning LEO over to you, all of our creative readers.

B.

Do not include your name or other personal identification in the file name or meta-data.

Submission Fee: Free!

Literary Literary Liter Literary LEO is accepting submissions at leoweekly.com from Monday, Jan. 4 at noon until Monday, Feb. 8 at noon.

THE RULES (please read carefully):

LEO LEO LE So get to writing, shooting and drawing!

C.

Picture your picture on the cover of LEO.

Imagine your fiction, poetry or cartoon published in our pages.

CARTOONS: Must be submitted as a .JPG and in a resolution of at least 200 dpi, with 300 dpi preferred. The title on the document must match the file name.

Literary

Literary

Lite

LEO LEO LE Winners will be published in the Literary LEO issue.

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PHOTOS: Files must be submitted as a .JPG and in a resolution of at least 200 dpi, with 300 dpi preferred.

SHORT STORIES AND POEMS: Text must be submitted in one of these formats: Word (.DOC or .DOCX) or Rich Text (.RTF). For all entries, the title on the document must match the file name. For instance, if the poem is called “Roses,” then the file name will be “Roses.” If the piece does not have a title, then use “untitled” in the file name and on the document.

Yep, here it is — the call for the 2021 Literary LEO, our annual writing and photography contest.

D.

You may submit one entry in a single category or in all of them. Do not include your name or any personal identification on your submissions. Stories, poems or photos with names or personal identification will be disqualified.

LEOWEEKLY.COM // JANUARY 27, 2021

By submitting material, authors grant LEO one-time print publishing rights, including permission to publish material on LEO’s website. LEO employees and regular freelancers are not eligible.

Winners will be published in the March 17, 2021 issue of LEO Weekly Go to leoweekly.com to find the submission form. The link will also be pinned to the top of our Facebook and Twitter pages.

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