LOUISVILLE’S
BLACK SIX
What has changed since 1970?
NOTHING
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WHAT YOU WANT IN A NEW POLICE CHIEF | PAGE 9 NEW MISFITS COVER ALBUM | PAGE 21
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LEOWEEKLY.COM // AUGUST 26, 2020
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A LETTER TO THE COMMUNITY
LIKE LEO? HERE’S HOW TO HELP. BY LEO WEEKLY We at LEO offer our sincerest congratulations to The Courier Journal for winning its 11th Pulitzer Prize, this one for studiously and unrelentingly chronicling the avalanche of last-minute pardons and commutations handed out by the corrupt, craven and mercenary Gov.-reject Matt Bevin. We are fortunate as a city to have it as our paper. In a poignant tribute and plea, former CJ reporter Howard Fineman wrote in The Washington Post that the paper’s latest plaudit “should remind us (and surely was meant to remind us), that what we call ‘local’ journalism is profoundly essential to self-government as the Founders designed it, and to the American way of life.” He cited a study that found nearly 1,800 newspapers have closed since 2004, and he said, “Virtually all of the remaining 7,000 are thinner and weaker than ever.” He implored you to subscribe to the paper because, as the op-ed’s headline said: “My former newspaper is struggling — and is more important than ever.” This is all true, but there is more. What Fineman’s op-ed neglected to underscore is that the news media landscape extends far beyond daily newspapers and must include alternative weeklies. Alt-weeklies also provide “local journalism” and are “profoundly essential.” They are critically important because they work in the margins and areas where newspapers do not or cannot. They provide free-to-read accounts of a community’s culture, ethos and priorities. Good ones are not substitutes for daily newspapers, although their coverage and stories may overlap. At LEO, our goal since John Yarmuth founded it in 1990 has been to dive deeply into areas that The CJ and other mainstream news media have neglected, dismissed or overlooked. Accordingly, LEO is the authority on local music, theater and visual arts. We publish A&E guides twice a year. Every issue of LEO has (or had) at least two food and drink stories, including reviews, a beer column and insiders’ views on the service industry. We offer a range of commentary, which, admittedly, skews left but also has included conservative and right-leaning views (such as a column from, gasp — Mitch McConnell). We print op-eds that The CJ would not, such as from Black Lives Matter. We champion equality and provide a voice to the LGBTQ+ community. Our printed and online lists celebrate the best things to do in the region to help you plan your week and weekends. We also publish news stories that are written differently (we’d like to say, more interestingly) than a newspaper would run. They include primary source stories (first-person) and stories told through alternative (there is that word again) formats. Our core topics include those that the daily paper rarely touches, such as urban planning, race relations, labor and the environment (since The CJ’s ace enviro reporter moved on). And, they include media criticism (we are looking at you CJ, but we have given ourselves thorns) because who else is going to do it? In short, Louisville has at least six ways you can get your news, counting TV and radio. We try to not be like any of them. We try not to tell the same story. We try to be more interesting and less predictable. And the hundreds of thousands of people who read us and click on our stories tell us we are doing something right. Alas, LEO, as you might imagine, also has been crippled by this virus, as have alt-weeklies across the nation. LEO is free to pick up and relies almost entirely on advertising. No subscriptions. No grants. No membership drive for donations twice a year. The backbone of our advertising is entertainment (think: music, ballet, theater and visual art) and food and drink. Similarly, we distribute to places where people enjoy those activities and relax (think: bars, coffee shops, restaurants, etc.), and those have been closed. LEO already runs lean and has not had to furlough any editorial staff — yet — but our editorial budget has been cut by three-quarters. LEO has been online-only mostly since the epidemic began. Starting with this issue, our goal is to publish a print edition every other week. Fortunately, we have been an outlier among alt-weeklies, so far. A story from NiemanLab listed more than 40 alt-weeklies that had taken steps to survive within just days of us all realizing this pandemic was real. Many suspended print publication, others furloughed staff and, still, others asked for donations. They included Pittsburgh City Paper, which launched a membership program: “in order to help fight some of these losses, with the hope that readers who depend on our daily coverage of local news, arts, music, food, and entertainment recognize the importance in the work we do to keep the city informed and want us to continue.” We like that idea! Won’t you please consider helping to fund LEO’s mission by underwriting a reporter or providing financial support for more stories? You could sponsor a reporter to cover a specific topic or issue, such as visual arts or theater or labor… or poverty… or the environment or… you name it. Perhaps you want to sponsor a weekly column on dance or jazz, or you want to underwrite a series of stories on land use in The West End. You would not have a say in exactly what we write and what gets printed, but you would see more coverage in the area you have selected. If you are interested, please contact us at: leoweekly.com And, please, if you value LEO and want us to continue to survive and thrive, continue picking up the papers, continue sharing stories on social media and consider advertising if you do not already. As always but particularly now, thank you for reading LEO, and thanks to all of you who have emailed and called to ask when you would see another printed edition on the news stands.
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LEOWEEKLY.COM //AUGUST 26, 2020
click on LEOWEEKLY.COM READ MORE AT LEOWEEKLY.COM/WEB
Local artists at BreonnaCon painted a mural in honor of Breonna Taylor. | PHOTO BY KAELAN DAVIS.
PHOTOS FROM BREONNACON In this PDF, you’ll find plenty of coverage of Louisville politics and culture, but keep an eye on leoweekly.com for a few extra photo sets from protest-related events around the city. Check our website and social media pages for photos from the Until Freedom march and earlier BreonnaCon events, including the barbecue Sunday.
LOUISVILLE’S
BLACK SIX
What has changed since 1970?
NOTHING
ON THE COVER FREE AUG.26.2020
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PHOTO BY KATHRYN HARRINGTON
WHAT YOU WANT IN A NEW POLICE CHIEF | PAGE 9
PHOTOS FROM BREONNACON | PAGE 15 EL MUNDO HIGHLANDS IS OPEN! | PAGE 22
LOUISVILLE ECCENTRIC OBSERVER
Volume 30 | Number 38 974 BRECKENRIDGE LANE #170. LOUISVILLE KY 40207 PHONE (502) 895-9770 FAX (502) 895-9779 FOUNDER
John Yarmuth EXECUTIVE EDITOR
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Billy Bob
Meet Billy Bob! This adorable senior is a nine-year-old Shepherd who was surrendered to the Kentucky Humane Society after living with his elderly owner for eight years. Sadly, his owner had health issues and she could no longer care for him. Billy Bob’s favorite activities are eating (who’s isn’t?), and sometimes playing with toys. Billy Bob wasn’t doing great at the shelter so we sent him into a foster home to be spoiled while waiting for his forever home to come along. His foster parent says Billy Bob is a dream! “He is just so sweet! He is always happy as long as he is with you. He will follow you around (but not in an annoying way) he just loves being in the presence of someone. Every time someone walks past our home he gets so excited and grabs a toy and waits by the door because he thinks they are coming to play with him. He is a super easy dog, he can be left alone at home with zero concern he’ll destroy anything.” Billy Bob is a big guy who weighs 106 lbs and would love to meet any potential doggy siblings before going home. According to his previous owner, Bill Bob is house-trained and does fine without a crate. If you are looking for an older dude to spoil, we hope you’ll give Billy Bob a chance! Billy Bob is neutered, micro-chipped and up-to-date on all vaccinations. Visit https://www.kyhumane.org/adopt/dogs to learn how to schedule an appointment to meet Billy Bob!
Looking for a friendly kitty to keep you company? Meet our Sunkist beloved Sunkist! Sunkist is a one-year-old orange tabby cat who came to the Kentucky Humane Society looking for a second chance at happiness. When Sunkist arrived at KHS, he tested positive for FIV or Feline immunodeficiency virus. While this may sound intimidating, it’s really not! With regular veterinary visits and proper care, FIV positive kitties can live long, healthy lives like any other cat. FIV is very hard to spread to other cats too! Sunkist is such a sweet guy and has quickly stolen all of our hearts at KHS. He loves to snoop out a space before settling in to make sure there’s enough space to nap and observe. After he’s determined he’s in the right location, he relaxes and observes his kingdom! Could you be the one for this affectionate guy? If so, schedule an appointment at https://www.kyhumane.org/adopt/cats to come meet him! Sunkist is neutered, micro-chipped and up-to-date on vaccinations.
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Pets OF THE Week
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LEO Weekly welcomes letters, emails and tweets of no more than 350 words. Ad hominem attacks will be ignored. We may edit for length, grammar and clarity.
ON: THE NULU PROTESTS, DID THEY WORK, WERE THEY APPROPRIATE?
I support BLM but not the NuLu strong-arming. It comes off as a threat. It’s what turns moderate people against a movement. They need more strategic thinkers in the BLM movement. They were strong-arming small restaurants that already have a good representation of minorities working there. Just my opinion — yours may vary. —John Maggio John Maggio ,or at least some real policy ideas instead of demands/ultimatums. —Derrick Pedolzky
ON: EDITOR’S NOTE, HOW CAN COLLEGES RISK SO MUCH FOR SPORTS?
Mental health is more important for the athletes and fans of college football than COVID at the moment. Finding ways to play football safely this fall is extremely important for the health of the state. From a health standpoint, we can’t afford to not play football. —Alex Thompson @AThompson_3 I love college football as much as anyone, but with a second lockdown looming. It’s a risky and unnecessary gamble. Maybe if they tested them every day, no fans allowed and mandated face masks while playing, it could work. But they aren’t going to do that. —Matt Russell How can they? Money, money, money. —Jack Faulkner
KY News- Paper Summons Notifications Notice Of Summons, For A CIVIL ACTION, In The UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT Of Arizona, Case No. CV-20-39-TUC-DCB. The Company and/or People Are Hereby Notified That A Lawsuit Has Been Filed Against Those Listed Below. Beth A. Green, MetLife Nurse Consultant, Lexington KY Within 21 Days After Service Of This Summons On You, (NOT Counting The Day You Received It.) OR 60 Days If You Are The United States OR A United States Agency OR An Officer OR Employee Of The United States, Described In Fed. R. Civ. P. 12 (a)(2) Or (3), You Must Serve On The Plaintiff and/or His Attorney An Answer To The Attached Complaint OR A Motion Under Rule 12 Of The Federal Rules Of Civil Procedure. The Answer OR Motion Must Also Be Served On The Plaintiff, (By Certified and/or Registered Mail) Whose Name and Address Is: Paul Jozwiak, 404 South Cedar Avenue, Marshfield, WI 54449. You Must Contact The Plaintiff So That His Representative May Serve The Documents, OR You May Contact The Arizona District Court, 405 West Congress Street, Ste. 150, Tucson, AZ 85701-5010 To Obtain Your Copy Of The Court Summons and All Related Court Documents. This Is To Also Inform Those Listed That Another Copy Of These Court Summons and All Related Court Documents Were Accepted and Signed For By Named Employer Above and The Defendants May Obtain Their Packages From Their Named Employer. If You Fail To Respond, Judgment By Default Will Be Entered Against You For The Relief Demanded In The Complaint. You Also Must File Your Answer Or Motion With The Court. Dated: 5/28/2020 Signed By: Debra Lucas / CLERK OF COURT 4
LEOWEEKLY.COM //AUGUST 26, 2020
ON: WHY IT’S NOT SIMPLE TO ARREST THE COPS WHO SHOT BREONNA TAYLOR Anybody can be arrested. Then, there’s the trial to determine guilt for a crime. If they’re not even being arrested, then they will never be able to say that they didn’t commit a crime, and it just makes them look more suspicious. —Bruce Murray
ON: PROTESTERS KEEP UP PRESSURE
All while alienating a big portion of folks who were initially extremely sympathetic. :-( —Roseanne Johnson Southard Roseanne Johnson Southard, and you don’t feel that way now because.. .why, exactly? Because they’ve been protesting for three months? Please note that the actual reason for the protests hasn’t been addressed, which is why they’re still protesting. You wanna be mad at someone? Be mad at this city, which clearly refuses to do the obvious right thing about the Breonna case. If that happened, there wouldn’t be a protest. —Floyd Patterson Jr. Sympathy is nothing but focus on yourself and gets no one anywhere. So quit pretending. —Scott A Coulter
ON: WEST OF NINTH, HELP SAVE SYL’S LOUNGE I wonder why she wasn’t qualified for the small business loans. I know places that got plenty of help and didn’t need it at all. But I’m definitely making a donation. —Wade Carter
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EDITOR’S NOTE
REFORMING POLICE TO CURB SHOOTINGS By Aaron Yarmuth | ayarmuth@leoweekly.com THIS SUMMER’S SPIKE of gun violence is pushing Louisville toward a record year of deadly shootings. Over 100 people have been killed by a gun in 2020, closing in on the city’s record of 117 in 2016, and we’ve still got four months to go. As though the coronavirus and racial injustice crises aren’t enough to divide our city, the epidemic of gun violence is amplifying tensions and division. What is causing it? Gang battles fought by people who find no other way to succeed in a society that pushes them down? Probably, but probably not entirely. The underlying issues are complex and age-old. But one clear response to the problem should not be adding police to Louisville’s streets or allowing them to militarize, thereby encouraging them to wage war during every call. As spoken by poet and activist Hannah L. Drake said: “Police don’t prevent crime. They show up after it happens. Crime pre-
vention starts with funding social programs and creating opportunity.” For the cynical, All Lives and Blue Lives Matter crowds, every shooting is an opportunity to attack calls to “defund the police.” Oh, so now you want the police to show up? See, this is what happens when you treat our heroes like the enemy. It is true that “defund the police” is a bad slogan to rally around. It is ambiguous, a bumper sticker phrase that allows more nefarious political actors to undermine profound reform of Louisville’s police. It does not explain that for those who suffer from police harassment and, worse, those who live closer to the gun violence, simply adding police won’t stop the next shooting. Or the next 100 shootings. As some on the one side of the defund police have said, the violence doesn’t happen until the police show up. Although I hew closer to Drake’s assessment, it is impossible to ignore legitimacy in that claim.
Here are examples. There was no violence at YaYa’s BBQ until the Kentucky National Guard showed up, killing David McAtee; there was no violence in an Atlanta Wendy’s parking lot, until the police showed up, killing Rayshard Brooks; there was no violence when Tamir Rice, a child, was playing in a Cleveland park, or when John Crawford was holding a BB gun for sale in Walmart; nor was there any violence in George Floyd’s car, or Breonna Taylor’s home — until police showed up. And, nobody was shot or killed in Kenosha, Wisconsin this weekend, until the police showed up and shot Jacob Blake in the back seven times, with his children, 3, 5 and 8, in the car. Police cannot be the solution to gun violence. That is why some say “defund the police.” Yet, nobody means to defund without funding other social health programs — programs that work. We need more funding for programs such as Cure Violence, launched in 2017, which approaches gun violence as a public health epidemic. It includes violence interrupter programs, proven to prevent some of the
violence. Unfortunately, state pension cuts forced city budget cuts in 2019, and the Metro Council rejected a small insurance tax, so these programs were defunded. Instead, Mayor Greg Fischer and Metro Council need to bolster these programs. And — it may be snarky to say but — a good place to start would be with the salaries of the police officers responsible for Breonna Taylor’s death. Defunding the police also means reforming how the police do their job. Police should not be asked to do the things they’re currently required to do, such as responding to calls involving mental health or homelessness or vagrancy or minor traffic violations. We need to take those responsibilities away from them: Redirect those funds and resources to professional, trained experts in mental health and social work and advocacy for poor people. And retrain the police so they do not approach every situation, every call or dispatch and every traffic stop as though they were approaching an armed, hostile enemy. Then, maybe, just maybe, so many people — read: Black people — wouldn’t be shot so often or at all. •
UNDERCOVER
MANOFMETTLE.COM LEOWEEKLY.COM // AUGUST 26, 2020
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JECOREY ARTHUR ON RACIAL JUSTICE AND DOWNTOWN: ‘YOU CAN’T PROTECT THE CITY IF YOU DON’T PROGRESS THE CITY’ THE LOUISVILLE FORUM’S meeting this month engaged elected and business leaders on the question: Can the push for racial justice and a vibrant downtown coexist? The following is an excerpt from Metro Councilman-elect Jecorey Arthur’s remarks. Arthur, who is the youngest person ever elected to the council and a teacher and musician, will represent District 4, which includes downtown. “Peace, love and justice. You cannot understand Louisville if you do not have this book or you’ve never read this book. It is called ‘Two Centuries of Black Louisville,’ and I will share just a blurb from the beginning of the origin of Louisville .... [S]tandard history projects the story of the white pioneers into the foreground and pushes the story of the Native Americans into the background. African Americans are usually altogether invisible or have no story at all. I am here on this panel, eventually on Metro Council, on this Earth, to reveal those stories, amplify those stories, and to make sure that some of those stories don’t repeat themselves. It is 2020, two and a half centuries after Louisville was founded, and I can’t believe I’m on a panel asking the question about racial justice and a vibrant downtown coexisting. This panel in of itself is based on the assumption that downtown was never meant to be racially just, and the truth of the matter is that downtown is not designed for us, but it was built by us. Slaves were dispatched in advance of their owners to clear land, plant crops and build houses in Louisville, and by the 1840s, there were slave trade businesses all around this city, and some of those slave pens were located downtown. There was a white settler named William Gibson who described the slave auction on Jan. 1, 1848, and he said that Market Street was the scene of this American evil, and when you look west of downtown, in my neighborhood Russell, 91% Black, 82% of the land is owned by people who don’t even live in the neighborhood, 52.7% of us live in poverty, or when you realize that 78.3% of the unsheltered families in this city are Black, or when you go to the local governments open data site and LMPD doesn’t even have Breonna Taylor’s name listed as someone who was involved in officer-involved shootings, you realize that, just like the 1840s and before, we still experience this American evil in Louisville,
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LEOWEEKLY.COM //AUGUST 26, 2020
Kentucky, and I look forward to talking about that today in this forum.” “You can’t protect the city if you don’t progress the city. There is this ongoing narrative that the protesters are wild animals, and I am here as one of the protesters to say that’s not the case. These protesters are mothers, students, citizens of a city that we all love, but the issue is the city hasn’t always loved us back. These protests have a purpose. They are not just happening for the sake of happening. Around the same date Aug. 1, 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King came to Louisville, spoke to hundreds about fair housing, organized in the same way that people and protesters are organizing right now, and that fall we elected a new board of aldermen who eventually went on to influence people like [state] Sen. Georgia Powers and influence state law to make the Kentucky Fair Housing Act something that came into fruition. So, these protests have a long-term justice purpose. They are not just protests for the sake of protest, but we have to keep in mind, and I will use an African proverb to bring this point home: ‘A child who is not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth,’ and you can take that in a number of ways, but when you have a group of Louisvillians, and I mean Black people who descend from slavery — not people of color, because before when Louisville was founded in 1776 it was largely Black and white and the natives that eventually were forced to flee, it was Black and white. There were no other people of color. It was just us for decades and decades and decades. We were impacted by the coloredonly sign. We were impacted by Jim Crow laws that discriminated in housing, educa-
Metro Councilman-elect Jecorey Arthur prefaced his remarks during the Louisville Forum by recommending this book, ‘Two Centuries of Black Louisville.’
tion, insurance, employment — the list goes on. So Black Americans who descend from slavery have really been on the bottom of a city that we built for so long. So everything happening between the pandemic and the protest is really just those centuries imploding on themselves. Outside, zooming out, America 400 years, but in Louisville really just over two centuries. So, I truly believe that if we’re going to talk about protecting the city we have to talk about how do we progress the city beyond just the status quo. Because protecting just means clutching our pearls and keeping it the same old way and that doesn’t work anymore in 2020.” [Arthur was asked what the city can expect after the attorney general decides whether to charge the officers.] “That African proverb about the child who is not embraced will burn it down to feel its warmth isn’t literal. It’s about understanding the system, and when we think about systems of white supremacy, oftentimes we celebrate with Band-Aids, whether a small grant to Black nonprofit or statues being torn down. ... We need to tear down those systems. That includes changing laws. That includes long-term fixes that are going to make sure we don’t see this happen
again 50 years from now like we saw happened 50 years ago like we see happening today. I can’t say and guess the future of what’s going to happen if [state Attorney General] Daniel Cameron turns around and comes back and says they are not going to be charged, but I will say we as a collective, not just Black Louisville — Kentucky, brown Louisville, yellow Louisville and everybody in between — we have to realize even if Daniel Cameron does come back and say these officers are going to be charged, and they go to the, go to court, that doesn’t change the poverty level in this city, that doesn’t change the homeless, homelessness in the city, that doesn’t change discrimination that is still embedded in the city. That in of itself is still a Band-Aid, so I hope from my new position and from working with all of the voices that are on this virtual call right now, we can have a deeper discussion outside of firing those officers. Because that is... I would say four-months justice, but we need to be thinking about 400-year justice, and it’s really bigger than Louisville. Louisville is a part of a fabric of oppression, but we have a responsibility here as locals to address what we can locally, but we need to pull in partners and form a coalition across the country that is going to have long-term impact.” •
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#JUSTICEFORBREONNA
ELDERS TAKE RACIAL JUSTICE DEMANDS TO AG’S LAWN MARY HOLDEN, 68, was arrested and charged with criminal trespass for sitting on the lawn of state Attorney General Daniel Cameron’s house to demand justice for Breonna Taylor. Altogether, 14 elders staged a protest on his law, some of the seven who remained on the lawn were charged with criminal trespass. Below is what Holden calls “A Granny’s Manifesto.” All of the photographs were taken by Sonja Wilde-de Vries.
A GRANNY’S MANIFESTO
I live in a white neighborhood in the
city — the same house for 43 years. Next door in an apartment lives a young woman who works at a hospital. She works 12-hour shifts and wears scrubs to work. When she comes home in the evening, she looks weary from work and glad to be home. I have started calling her “Breonna” because that is what Breonna Taylor wore to work when she worked her 12-hour shifts. She must have come home weary from work and glad to be home, too. I imagine my neighbor on a welldeserved day off going out to dinner with her boyfriend and coming home to “veg out” in front of the TV with a movie. But what I cannot imagine is a quasi SWAT team in
plain clothes with a back-up of other cops using a battering ram to burst in her apartment while one of their team fires indiscriminately through a curtained window at my “white Breonna” next door. These things don’t happen in nice, white neighborhoods. And, yes, there are drug dealers in my nice, white neighborhood. This story needs to get out there. If those complicit don’t tell it in a timely manner, then people and the internet and social media will piece it together bit by bit. The timely manner would have been in March. Those complicit are the judge and the detective who generated the no-knock warrant, the chief of police, the FOP, the mayor and
state Attorney General Daniel Cameron. All have kicked the ball up the street. Black lives are beginning to matter here in Louisville, Kentucky. Daniel Cameron, I have no idea how your mind works that so young in your own life, with so much education and drive, that you are not moving way faster on this case. And, yes, you have kicked the ball up the road, too. We’re supposed to be waiting on the FBI now? Put out some transparency now, today. Tell the story and what you have of it. Justice for Breonna is waiting.
Mary Carrigan (Holden)
Granny and retired teacher
Nancy Jacubiak speaks with reporters.
Bob Lockhart. LEOWEEKLY.COM // AUGUST 26, 2020
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LEOWEEKLY.COM //AUGUST 26, 2020
Bob Markert.
Mary Holden.
Phil Schervish.
Don Pitts.
Sandi Otte.
Sr. Catherine Mahady.
NEWS & ANALYSIS
SURVEY SHOWS WHERE LMPD AND COMMUNITY DIVERGE AND AGREE ON NEW POLICE CHIEF By Danielle Grady | dgrady@leoweekly.com
THORNS & ROSES THE WORST, BEST & MOST ABSURD
THE city surveyed and spoke with more than 10,000 people to create a profile of what Louisville community members and police employees want in a new police chief. It was done, ostensibly, to help Louisville hire a chief to replace Chief Steve Conrad, who was fired in the midst of protests over the death of Breonna Taylor, shot by police during a drug raid that turned up no drugs. Of the 10 most common themes that 10,102 community members brought up in an online survey, “defunding” the police was at the top. It received close to 2,500 mentions, followed by just over 2,000 referThe top ten themes that appeared in online survey responses from Louisville residents, sugences to “community.” The most gesting ideas for a new police chief and reformed police services. | IMAGE FROM LOUISVILLE CHIEF SURVEY. popular themes from there, in order, were “accountability,” “transparency,” Police officers agreed with com“honesty,” “integrity,” “compassion,” Louisville Metro Police Department munity members on some of the “leadership/proven leader,” “training” employees. But, LMPD answers were most common themes identified in and “fair.” In addition to surveying not quantified and ranked like the the online survey with some minor community community’s differences. members, more online survey Around 120 Community members and elected than 185 Louanswers were. officials said they wanted a police isville police And, Louisville leaders, chief to bridge the gap “between the employees were community community and the police departpolled by the members could including Metro ment, developing trust and improvPolice Executake the online Council members, survey multiple ing dialogue.” Police employees tive Research wanted the same, minus the mention Forum of Washtimes. PERF business people, of the “dialogue,” but plus “trust” ington, D.C. did not measure via the online how many times and “legitimacy” within the departreligious leaders ment, too. Community members and survey and this happened, and members of elected leaders wanted implicit bias, listening sesso results may de-escalation and cultural competency sions. Most of have been the international training for police. LMPD employees the same themes skewed. wanted “systemic racism and better emerged, community and Around 120 implicit bias training” and more trainexcept, notably, Louisville leadactivist groups ing for new recruits. defunding the ers, including There were some significant department. Metro Council were also differences. members, busiThe results consulted in Community members often ness people, from the survey religious leaders mentioned they want the chief to and listenlistening sessions have greater autonomy in running the and members of ing sessions, police department. Police employees the international released in held by PERF. commonly said they’d like the police community and early-August, department to decentralize to allow activist groups were flawed. more decision making at lower ranks. were also consulted in listening sesThey included common themes Community members also brought sions held by PERF. and frequently used phrases from
ROSE + THORN: THE MORE YOU KNOW
The Courier Journal published, deleted and then republished a story it said was based on an internal police report and other reporting about the Breonna Taylor case. The first story led with how she had deeper ties to the drug dealer targeted by the police. The new story leads with how the new information may show why police used such force and says: “However, it provides no explanations or evidence aimed at justifying the shooting ... ” It also quotes an unnamed law enforcement official: “Breonna Taylor did not deserve to die no matter what her role in all this.” The previous version included: “‘But criminal activity always has consequences,’ he added.” Why not keep that? Doesn’t it go to how police think (wrongly) about policing? Regardless, we hope The CJ’s speed in reposting the story and the tempering, contextual changes will silence the armchair journos who accused paper of folding under pressure from the mayor or that the paper deleted the story because it did not fit the its narrative. CJ Editor Rick Green gets a rose for owning the error and quickly refocusing the story on the most important question: Should charges be brought? All of you jackwads — who so profoundly misunderstand journalism but are so quick to tweet — get a thorn. The CJ gets a rose for the scoop, but, ironically, police get a thorn for leaking the report as an obvious smear.
THORN: EVERY LIFE IS SACRED — NOT
All of the Republican clown council people and six Democlowns rejected an ordinance aimed at preventing women using the state’s only abortion clinic from contracting the virus. It would have cleared a 12-foot-wide zone from entrances to the curb. That means not having people scream in your face and thrusting germy fists at you. The ordinance would have applied to all medical facilities. The CJ reported that opponents worried about limiting free speech. Can’t you yell from 6 feet away just as effectively up in someone’s grill? If the real reason they opposed the ordinance is to limit abortions, then aren’t they further endangering precious lives by allowing virus-frothers to get close to these women? “I just don’t think this is a very good look for the council, with the protests, the destruction and the disorder that’s been allowed to happen in the city” Councilwoman Marilyn Parker, R-18th District, said. “We need to think about this. Why does this group get special privileges for safety?”
ROSE: ‘GRANNIES FOR JUSTICE’
Huzzah to the elders who occupied Attorney General Daniel Cameron’s lawn to demand justice for Breonna Taylor and profound reforms in the police department. CJ columnist Joe Gerth noted: “In an odd twist, Daniel Cameron tells old people to get off his lawn.”
ABSURD: CORONAVIRUS OF THORNS MERCH! The Ark Park says it is throwing the world’s largest Christian music festival next year — 40 days and 40 nights!
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TACTICS, REPRESSION THE SAME TODAY: THE 1970 PROSECUTION OF LOUISVILLE’S BLACK SIX
By Kurt X. Metzmeier | leo@leoweekly.com ON MAY 8, 1968, a white Louisville police officer, Michael Clifford, pulled over Black schoolteacher Charles Thomas, who was friends with Manfred Reid, a West End real estate broker. Seeing his friend harassed, Reid confronted the police, who then beat and arrested both men. Clifford was suspended for brutality in the arrest, but on May 23, a Civil Service Board reinstated him. After years of similar treatment, however, the Black community’s outrage reached a new high. Four days after the officer’s reinstatement, Black activists planned to protest. It turned into what Louisville civil rights icon Anne Braden called the Louisville Rebellion, several days of confrontation with police and the National Guard. It also led to the arrest of five Black men and one woman, who quickly became dubbed the “Black Six.” Fifty-two years later, the underlying causes of the unrest still fester in Louisville and across the nation. The Louisville Rebellion had burned out the Black commercial district at 28th Street and Greenwood Avenue, leaving a scar in the Parkland neighborhood that has not healed.
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L to R: Walter T. ‘Pete’ Cosby, Manfred G. Reid, Ruth Bryant, Robert Kuyu Sims, Samuel Hawkins and James Cortez. | ‘THE BLACK SIX TRIAL’ BY MARY COBB FROM THE MARY B. COBB COLLECTION AT THE FILSON HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
The yearly anniversaries of the unrest and continuing impact on West Louisville were well covered by the local media, with stories in the Courier-Journal and local broadcast news. But there was scant attention to the later malicious prosecution of the six Black Louisvillians who were prosecuted for inciting the rebellion. They were prosecuted by city officials under a fantastic legal theory with little connection to reality — a modern day inquisition that unfairly placed the lives of six Black Louisvillians in legal jeopardy for two years. Their trial began 50 years ago this July, which also marked the second month of protests in Louisville over the fatal police shooting of an unarmed, emergency room technician, 26-year-old Breonna Taylor, during a botched raid that yielded no drugs. The outrage over police brutality in 1968 remains today, if not more so. And what is significant about the Black Six arrests and trial is that little has changed regarding law enforcement and
the Black community in Louisville. When drawing lessons, it is important to understand that all the legal mechanisms used by the police and prosecution against the six are still available to authorities. Vague conspiracy charges, exploitation of gun laws, punitive use of bail, abuse of grand juries — all are still available to the overreaching prosecutor.
THE BLACK SIX GET CHARGED
A new group, Black Urban League of Kentucky, or BULK, had planned the protest for May 27 near 28th Street and Greenwood Avenue in the Parkland neighborhood. Seeking to engage more young people, BULK leaders Robert Kuyu Sims and Ruth Bryant asked James Cortez, a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, or SNCC, if he could come to Louisville. Cortez had led them to believe he would bring Black power leader Stokely Carmichael but, in fact, he never contacted the former SNCC chairman.
But the rally was spirited; photos show Cortez and Hawkins speaking from atop of a car to a large crowd. Cortez told his audience that police were keeping Carmichael’s plane from landing. As the crowd was breaking up, knots of young people began to throw rocks. Police charged in, and several days of unrest ensued. The National Guard was called in and eventually order was restored after significant property damage around the city and the loss of two Black lives. A signature image of the event is of a defiant Black man calmly lighting a cigarette in front of a spiky line of bayonets held nervously by young National Guardsmen. After the unrest, Mayor Kenneth A. Schmied and Commonwealth’s Attorney Edwin A. Schroering Jr. were determined to prosecute someone for the damage. Unable to accept the organic nature of the unrest, Louisville’s white leadership sought to prosecute a cross-section of the African American activist community for planning the disturbances. The Black Six were indicted for conspiring to start a riot and blow up West Louisville chemical plants — a conspiracy hatched in the fevered imagination of Louisville’s white establishment, driven especially by Schmied and Schroering. Schroering kept the defendants lives in abeyance for over two years in a flimsy case that fell apart at trial and was dismissed by Judge S. Rush Nicholson after a motion for a directed verdict. Nonetheless, by exploiting the prosecutorial tools of the state, the authorities were able to wear down and neutralize political activists. In the words of Ann Braden, the city “ignored the basic social problems” behind the unrest, including police brutality in The West End, and instead focused on the “outsider” Cortez, the Bradens (their usual suspects) and BULK. They first arrested Cortez. His hotel room was raided, and police conveniently found a sawed-off shotgun at which point he was charged with federal weapons violations. Schroering then convened a grand jury that indicted Cortez and five others for a conspiracy to blow up West End chemical plants and to destroy property. In addition to Cortez, the grand jury indicted: — two local, Black power activists, Sims and Samuel Hawkins, — Bryant, a middle-class civil rights activist who happened to live with her family right across the street from the plant she was alleged to have planned to blow up, — Reid (whose arrest had started the conflict),
Attorneys Dan Taylor, Robert Delahanty and William Allison with Sam Hawkins and Manfred Reid. | PHOTO COURTESY OF MANFRED REID.
— and Walter T. ”Pete” Cosby. In one sign of the contrived nature of the alleged conspiracy, Cosby, a business partner of Reid’s, had never even met some of his alleged conspirators.
organizations. The repression of purported communists and Black activists of all political shades was taken up locally by Kentucky police and prosecutors.
WHY IT HAPPENED
LOUISVILLE WAS NO BETTER
In extraordinary times of turmoil, the threat of political repression is heightened. The norms of “respectful debate” are disrupted by political conflicts so existential to the status quo that government uses its police powers to suppress democratic dissent. Nowadays, the 1960s and early 1970s have a tie-dyed glow about them but those days weren’t all Beatles’ songs and day-glo Jimi Hendrix posters. The McCarthy era was over but most of the instruments of political repression remained. To counter the civil rights movement and the mobilization against the Vietnam War, federal and state officials often joined forces. The House Un-American Activities Committee or HUAC, was still operating and by the 1960s it was under control of conservative Southerners who saw communism behind both movements. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover shared this belief and directed his agents to harass both the nonviolent protests of King and the more militant Black Power movement, using a special unit, COINTELPRO to plant agents to infiltrate, spy on and disrupt Black
In 1954, Anne and Carl Braden were prosecuted as communists under the state sedition law. The Bradens had bought a house near Shively, an all-white neighborhood of Louisville, and deeded it over to a Black couple, Andrew and Charlotte Wade. White segregationists harassed the family, shot out the windows of the house and burned a cross in front of it. They finally drove the Wades out of the home by bombing it. Instead of tracking down the bombers, prosecutors arrested the Bradens and eventually convicted Carl Braden. Released on appeal, he later would be prosecuted by HUAC for contempt of Congress. Ordinary African Americans in 1968 faced a long history of small indignities and larger repression by Louisville police. Historian George C. Wright has chronicled a depressing history of police harassment of Black citizens of Louisville from the end of the Civil War up to the mid-20th century. A white newspaper in 1910 explained that the purpose of LEOWEEKLY.COM // AUGUST 26, 2020
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listening, Nicholson found that prosecution had not proved its case and declared the defendants not guilty.
NO WINNERS, SOME LESSONS
The Black Six were not winners. Cortez was in federal prison on firearms charges. Cosby and Reid’s real estate business was in bankruptcy. Hawkins and Sims had lost any idealism about the American political system. Bryant, on the other hand, remained active in her community up to her death in 2013. She was inducted into the Kentucky Civil Rights Hall of Fame in 2003. Her daughter, Cheri Bryant Hamilton, would serve on the city council. Manfred Reid would lose everything and end up in public housing where he became an avid activist for residents. In 2017, he received the Mayor’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Freedom Award for his years of work as an advocate for affordable housing in Louisville. Manfred Reid. | PHOTO BY KATHRYN HARRINGTON.
the harassment “was to establish in every home of a Negro man or woman in this city a condition of terrorism, a living fear of the billy and the revolver.” That same year the NAACP’s The Crisis expressed it this way: “The policemen act upon the assumption that the Negro has no rights, civil or political, that a police bully is bound to respect.” Despite the introduction of Black officers in the 1920s, Louisville police harassment continued well into the civil rights era. In 1968, a Black police officer confided to the Louisville Defender that the police department is “led by known Klansmen. … There’s more race hate on the police force than there is outside.” While cities like D.C., Chicago, Cincinnati, and Kansas City rioted in the aftermath of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968, Louisville maintained an uneasy peace. But feelings were still raw from the long open-housing protests (which saw an appearance by King in 1967). The administration of Mayor Schmied (whose Republican party had sought to block the new housing discrimination law) did nothing to ease smoldering tensions. But what sparked the May riot was a case of police harassment and brutality all too common in Louisville and the fact that — after the briefest of suspensions — the police officer who beat and arrested two Black businessmen was cleared of misconduct. This reaffirmed to many African American Louisvillians that no matter how hard they strived for middle-class respectability, the institutions of the city government placed controlling Blacks above their dignity.
THE BLACK SIX TRIAL
A multiracial coalition was organized to support their legal defense and the Bradens’ Southern Conference Educational Fund, or SCEF, kept the pressure on Louisville’s white community. The plight of the Black Six also attracted a group of lawyers that would distinguish themselves in future. Three of Louisville’s leading African American attorneys made appearances in the case. Neville Tucker, a Democrat
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who in 1969 became the first Black ever elected a Louisville Police Court judge, represented several defendants. Benjamin “Ben” F. Shobe, who served as judge of the Jefferson Circuit Court from 1977 to 1992, represented Bryant. (James A. Crumlin, Jr, a former president of the Kentucky NAACP who had sued to integrate UK in 1948, was an assistant commonwealth attorney.) Cortez was defended by Daniel “Dan” T. Taylor III, the late stalwart of the Kentucky Civil Liberties Union, or KCLU, who at one point alerted the court that the defense team might include William M. Kunstler, whom The New York Times called “the country’s most controversial and, perhaps, its best-known lawyer.” Future Louisville Alderman Bill Allison (a civil rights attorney whose later firm Allison, Soreff and Garber would win a major case against the Louisville police department on behalf of Black police officers) also joined the KCLU team. The prosecution dragged on for almost two years. The case was moved to Munfordville to secure a “fair” trial — which supporters of the Black Six thought was an attempt to get a white, rural jury. Two SCEF activists sent a letter to every household in the city — which led to their prosecution for jury tampering. While KCLU attorney Allison got that case dismissed, it was enough to get the case bounced back from Hart County to Jefferson County. Judge S. Rush Nicholson caught the returned case in late February 1970 and determined to try it without more unnecessary delay. “I am convinced … that we can have a fair trial in Louisville,” he told reporters. He shuffled his docket, moving a murder and an armed robbery trial to set a June 22 trial date. Barring TV cameras from his courtroom, he also ordered attorneys not to discuss the case with the press. After nine days, in which the prosecution could never place the six alleged conspirators in the same place, the trial ended. The defense moved for a directed verdict, arguing that the prosecution had failed in its minimal obligation to prove enough of a case to take it to the jury. As defendant Cosby — a person whose name was never once mentioned by a witness during the whole trial — sat
AND NOW — TODAY
There are signs nationally that a new repression of Black activists is underway. In an episode reminiscent of the COINTELPRO era, in 2018 the FBI arrested Black activist Rakem Balogun for his Facebook posts criticizing the police, claiming they proved he was a “Black identity extremist,” a designation that the Trump administration has invented to target Black political organizers as if they were terrorists. The case fell apart — a FBI raid on Balogun only turned up legally acquired firearms and books — but it is a chilling echo of the potent powers of a federal government bent on punishing dissent. And from Portland, Oregon to Washington, D.C., federal law enforcement continues to track Black activists. In the recent Justice for Breonna demonstrations and marches, the militarized Louisville Metro Police Department has targeted journalists and used confrontational tactics against protesters. It has spent more than $300,000 on pepper balls, grenades, and flashbangs, and used tactics so aggressive that the ACLU has filed suit. And in another echo of the past, on June 1 a state National Guard member killed Louisville restaurateur David McAtee, recalling the four protesters slain by the Ohio National Guard at Kent State in 1970. The most depressing lesson of history is what has not changed in 50 years — or even since 1910. In 2020, police still have African Americans in what Georgetown law professor Paul Butler calls the “chokehold” of over-policing. These are the daily tools local police have historically employed to harass Blacks and poor people: traffic stops for minor offenses like defective equipment and petty charges like loitering, trespass and disorderly conduct. And serving midnight no-knock warrants. However, the stubborn notion that African Americans have no civil rights that the police are “bound to respect” has outraged young African Americans and was the genesis of the Black Lives Matter movement. The fact that despite this long history, yet another generation of Black activists have taken up the struggle is one thing we can take heart from. •
ONE OF THE ‘BLACK SIX’:
PEOPLE DON’T CHANGE BECAUSE YOU ASK By Danielle Grady | dgrady@leoweekly.com THE YEAR when Manfred Reid Sr. was born, 1936, was the same year that the last Black man was publicly hanged by the justice system in the United States — and it happened in his home state of Kentucky. “So, my socialization as a child from my parents was being aware of the risk of being harmed by just moving around within the community where you lived,” Reid said. Thirty-two years later, in 1968, this lurking threat of unprovoked violence caught up to Reid, who by then was the owner of a profitable real estate business. A Louisville police officer attacked Reid with a blackjack while he was checking to see if a friend who was being questioned was OK. Reid sustained several strikes and then was arrested. The officer was suspended at first but then reinstated by a Civil Service Board. This sparked what activists called the Louisville Rebellion: close to one week of protest from a Black community sick of police violence and racial inequality. Protesters received no concessions, and the city charged Reid and five other Black people, most of whom he barely knew, with conspiracy to destroy property and to blow up West End chemical plants. A judge found the “Black Six,” as they were called, not guilty, but Reid had already lost everything: his license, the business, his wife and support from the community. Before 1968, Reid had actively supported the civil rights movement and had even worked with an attorney to eliminate restrictions for Black people who wanted to buy homes from white people. But, Reid didn’t consider himself an activist. “I never participated in demonstrations. You know, as a business person you just don’t do that,” he said. “… It just wasn’t my temperament to get involved like that.” The events of 1968 sent Reid on a life journey that crescendoed with him becoming a Louisville affordable housing advocate, a role that he still fulfills at 84 as the long-time chair of the Louisville Metro Housing Authority. In those same 52 years, the world has changed in some ways but remained the same in others, Reid observes. Police, he believes, are still at odds with the Black community. And, Breonna Taylor’s shooting death is proof of that. But, as Louisville is caught up in its biggest racial justice movement since 1968 — inspired this time by Taylor instead of Reid — he sees hope for progress.
SOCIETY’S JOURNEY
Reid believes the culture of law enforcement in America is the same as it was in 1968 when he was beaten by an officer. And, he says it’s the same as when publicly funded forces first emerged in the United States to protect property
and preserve slavery. Essentially, police have never considered Black people to be human, Reid said, and their duty is to guard the white community from the Black community. He was reminded of this when Louisville police killed Taylor, a Black woman, in a botched raid on March 13. But, the protests Reid is seeing in response are different than what he’s witnessed before. The demonstrators are more diverse; the protesters during the Louisville Rebellion were mostly Black. Demonstrators also maintain a camaraderie that continues over time, Reid said. “We didn’t have that.” Reid thinks Taylor, unlike him, will receive justice — that the police officers who shot their weapons will be indicted and, hopefully, convicted. There are aspects of the 2020 protests that worry Reid, particularly the reaction of the far-right, who have brought their guns to counter-protests. Black militias like the Not Fucking Around Coalition have done the same. “This appears to me to be a precursor of a much more difficult time to come as a racial conflict between the races,” Reid said. “I hope that’s not true. But, if they’re both going around with guns — both sides — and the government being what it is today, it only takes a spark for a bunch of people to get killed.” But, Reid thinks it’s possible for law enforcement to change if officials follow the lead of the community. “Law enforcement is an instrument of government,” he said. “So, the government has to begin to join the community in the initiating changes that create a tranquil community.” Flash-points like Reid’s assault and Taylor’s death can create the opportunity for those cultural shifts. “People don’t change overnight,” Reid said. “And they don’t change because you ask them to change. There has to be circumstances in time that creates the opportunity by which people can begin to take consideration of their existence and find a new path.”
A PERSONAL JOURNEY
At 10 years old, Reid became an orphan. His mother and father had moved the family from Reid’s hometown near Hazard, Kentucky, to the Parkland neighborhood of Louisville in 1944. Reid’s father, a coal miner, died of black lung in 1945. His mother passed in 1947. Raised from there by his uncle, Reid knew he had to work to survive. Even before his parents died, Reid sold newspapers. From there, he transitioned to delivering groceries. Then, to
selling shoes and working as a janitor at Holiday Shoe Store on Fourth Street. Reid’s manager fired him from that job after Reid praised the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision. Reid had to drop out of Bellarmine College because he didn’t have enough money to stay in school. But, after getting married and having kids, a friend persuaded Reid to become a real estate salesman. They solicited home buyers for a realty company while studying for their salesman examination. Reid later passed his broker exam, too. It was a fruitful time to start a realty company when Reid began his own business in his late 20s or early 30s. Almost every Sunday, Reid found himself showing houses. “It was quite lively,” he said. “There was the idea of Blacks could buy houses anywhere in The West End, and that created a sense of excitement. And people wanted to get out on the weekends and on Sundays to see what they could find.” It was also an important moment for civil rights. Black people across the country were calling for equal treatment. In Louisville, civil rights activists were organizing sit-ins at Fourth Street lunch counters.
THE ASSAULT
On May 8, 1968, Reid was driving east on Broadway with two fellow Black businessmen (Walter “Pete” Cosby and Luther Wilson) when they saw a friend being questioned by police. The friend was a Black teacher named Charles Thomas. Reid didn’t know this, but police said they had stopped Thomas because he was driving a car similar to one used in a burglary. Reid, Cosby and Wilson stopped the car and got out to make sure nothing happened to Thomas. “We were aware of the risk we faced just by trying to offer our assistance to him,” Reid said, “but we try to do that.” They addressed Thomas, asking him if he needed help and watched as he got arrested. “We said, ‘We’ll come up and get you out on bail,’” Reid said. “Then, the one police officer, Michael Clifford, he jumped up and said, ‘Get out of the street.’ So, we started complying with him.” But Clifford didn’t calm down. He took out his blackjack and hit Reid. By that time, around 200 Black community members had gathered to watch the scene, yelling from the sidelines, according to the UK’s Notable Kentucky African Americans database. Reid and the officer tussled, Reid said. Another blow followed, possibly even a third or fourth one — Reid isn’t sure. He used his arms to shield himself. It would have been normal, expected even, for Reid to be mangled or killed by the officer, he said. But, the assault ended in bruises and a LEOWEEKLY.COM // AUGUST 26, 2020
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night in jail. The officer was suspended. Reid was left with a feeling that he did something wrong. It might have been over. But, something much worse was coming for Reid.
THE AFTERMATH
On May 23, the Civil Service Board reinstated Clifford, and Black Louisville revolted. Over 2,000 National Guardsmen were called in. Around 400 people were arrested, two teens were killed and property damage abounded. Reid did not participate in the protests. Although, one day, when the crowds came to 20th Street, he left his home to watch from a distance. As Reid watched the city burn in his name, he realized that he might be in trouble of his own. He tried to assess how much. After the protests, he got his answer. Reid found out by reading the newspaper that a grand jury convened by Commonwealth’s Attorney Edwin A. Schroering Jr. had indicted him and five other people for conspiracy. Reid lived a mile from The West End chemical plants he was accused of plotting to blow up. And, he personally knew only one other supposed co-conspirator: Pete Cosby, his friend who he conducted business with. Reid knew of Ruth Bryant, Robert Kuyu Sims and Samuel Hawkins — all local Black activists who lived in the neighborhood. But, before the protests, he had no knowledge of James Cortez, an activist that Bryant and Sims had invited to Louisville for the protests. Bryant and Sims were members of the Black Urban League of Kentucky, which held the first protest of the Rebellion. Together, they were dubbed the Black Six. The reason they were indicted, Reid’s sure, was racism. Their court case continued for around two years. A Louisville judge eventually ruled the Black Six not guilty. But during that time, Reid’s life had collapsed. The Real Estate Commission, a conservative organization, stripped him of his license. Everything else important to him soon followed. No one wanted to associate with Reid, even the rest of the Black Six. If they did, it would just invite suspicion from investigators. “When they break you,” Reid said, “whenever you begin to lose your banking credibility and you lose your community support out of fear and you lose the family,
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you’re alone. And you just simply have to begin to try to rebuild your life.”
FROM BUSINESSMAN TO ACTIVIST
The court case that took everything from Reid also gave him a new purpose. Left with nothing else, Reid turned to activism. One of his first positions echoed his time in the housing business. He became a member of the West End Community Council, which attempted to curb white flight in Louisville’s Western neighborhoods. Reid joined while still fighting his court case. During that same period, he started working with Anne and Carl Braden’s Southern Conference Educational Fund, or SCEF. To explain why he got into activism, Reid pulled out a resolution he helped pass at a SCEF Board of Director’s meeting. The first sentence reads, “The essence of freedom in any society is the power to determine policy both economically and politically and the control of cultural development throughout the community.” “That’s what I wrote in 1970,” Reid said. “That was my perception of social change and economic change in The West End of Louisville. So, the more I realized the depth of those social issues that I was entangled in, I began to find support, counsel and direction through SCEF.” Almost 20 years later, after Reid was forced to move into Beecher Terrace, he became the president of the public housing developments’ resident association. Then, Mayor David Armstrong appointed Reid to be a commissioner of the Louisville Metro Housing Authority. Since 2000, Reid has been the chair of the board. In his time on the board, Reid is proud of updating, and in some cases replacing, almost all of the city’s publicly-owned housing complexes: Cotter and Lang Homes, Sheppard Square and Clarksdale. Critics argue that some of these projects have displaced residents, but Reid stands by them. His time, though, is almost over. Following his business instincts, he’s focusing on how to set up the Housing Authority for the future. “Based on the mission of the housing authority, how do I begin to participate in setting the stage for the future of housing production and an attack on poverty, providing livable wages and new ideas in terms of home ownership as it relates to marketing and financing?” Reid said. “These are the visions that we need to have for the future.” •
NEWS & ANALYSIS Continued from page 9
up some issues that officers didn’t, such whom Jones believed the public had faith as de-militarizing the police and requiring in, but many officers didn’t like him, Jones social workers and mental health workers said. A 2012 Courier Journal article by to respond to “critical incidents.” Jessie Halladay (now an LMPD spokesBoth groups mentioned the police union person) said that White was criticized for being secluded and not spending enough contract. time with officers. Community members wanted to rene“That tells you the balance, right, that gotiate it to reflect “community concerns.” needs to be struck,” said Jones. Police employees complained about it not Jones said he wants a police chief who being renegotiated, too, but didn’t say what treats Louisville’s various communities they wanted from a new contract. the same. And, he’d prefer a chief who After the survey was released, Mayor is a thinker — someone with “scholarly Greg Fischer said in a statement that sensibilities.” PERF’s results “reflect the reality that “You know, I we’re a city of would ask a police almost 800,000 Ricky L. Jones, chief some differpeople and there’s a ent questions than diversity of perspecchair of the Panwhat’s the most tives on policing and effective body mass leadership.” African Studies to hit if you got to His takeaways Department at UofL shoot somebody or were that the chief should be a good when you should use and a member of communicator, able a gun versus when to strengthen the you should use a the city’s Citizens trust between police Taser,” Jones said. “I Commission and the public, would want a police accountable and chief who is an intelon Police transparent and able lectual at this point. to connect with Accountability, did Who really has a and inspire police deep and profound not take part in the sense of American employees to rally them around public and how race survey, but, based history safety reform. The has played out in chief should also on his experience, American history. recognize that their Because, let’s face he thinks the job is to serve and it, this is at the heart protect, Fischer said. of the problems that community and we’re having: race.” “Ultimately, we police employees But, ultimately, all want the same Jones said that surthing — a safer, diverge on what more racially just veys such as PERF’s and more equitable are rarely used by they want in a city, and a city that the governments that police chief. shows the rest of distribute them. America how to “I think that those move from tragedy types of tools, and to transformation,” Fischer said. I’m not saying this is what they’re doing Ricky L. Jones, chair of the Pan-African right now, but those types of tools are usually used to create an illusion of democStudies Department at UofL and a member racy, you know,” said Jones. “I mean, the of the city’s Citizens Commission on community members at large obviously Police Accountability, did not take part in the survey, but, based on his experience, he are not people who have decision-making power on who the person who’s going to thinks the community and police employbe chosen will be. But, this gives folks ees diverge on what they want in a police who actually have the power of choice the chief. ability to say we went through the process “They’re living in very, very differof polling the community and having a ent worlds,” he said about community democratic process.” • members and police officers. “They have different views of one another.” Robert White was the last police chief
PHOTO ESSAY
#JUSTICEFORBREONNA
BRE-B-Q CENTERS ON BLACK JOY IN PUSH FOR RACIAL JUSTICE By Kathryn Harrington | leo@leoweekly.com AHEAD of a demonstration in Louisville on Tuesday, a barbecue and concert event called Bre-B-Q was held Sunday in Shawnee Park to honor Breonna Taylor and continue the battle for racial justice. The event was held on the second day of BreonnaCon, a “community convention” organized by the New York-based social justice group Until Freedom and Taylor’s family. The four-day event included workshops, men’s and women’s empowerment programs, community service and much more in an effort to amplify the demand for justice
for Breonna Taylor. Until Freedom is the same group behind the sit-in on the lawn of state Attorney General Daniel Cameron. The Bre-B-Q was centered around Black joy, and featured local artists and musicians such as poet and activist Hannah Drake and rapper Sasha Renee as well as national musicians including Rapsody and Trae tha Truth. Here are photographs from the day. •
Louisville activist poet, author and spoken word artist Hannah Drake spoke at the Bre-B-Q on Sunday. | PHOTOS BY KATHRYN HARRINGTON. LEOWEEKLY.COM // AUGUST 26, 2020
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PHOTO ESSAY
Artist Precious Stallings worked on a banner honoring Breonna Taylor at the Bre-B-Q in Shawnee Park on Sunday.
Attendees of the event raised their hands in solidarity during performances.
Artist Angelo Picasso worked on a piece honoring Breonna Taylor at Bre-B-Q on Sunday.
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LEOWEEKLY.COM //AUGUST 26, 2020
PHOTO ESSAY
Certified with No Haterz motorcycle club hugged Tamika Palmer, mother of Breonna Taylor.
Two of the 502 Live Streamers, Tara Bassett and Antonio T-Made Taylor covered the Bre-B-Q event on Sunday, hosted by Until Freedom.
Social distancing and other anti-COVID-19 measures were evident at the event. LEOWEEKLY.COM // AUGUST 26, 2020
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PHOTO ESSAY
The event was hosted by the New York-based social justice group Until Freedom and was centered on Black joy.
Children painted banners in the kids’ corner at the Bre-B-Q.
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LEOWEEKLY.COM //AUGUST 26, 2020
STAFF PICKS
FRIDAY, AUG. 28
100 Years Later: The Collective Power of Women
Online | Muhammad Ali Center/Facebook Live | Free (or $10 donation) | 10-11 a.m.
THROUGH AUG. 28
The Hunt: Virtual Getaway Week
Lower Frankfort Avenue | Search Facebook | Free | Noon-8 p.m.
Clue No. 2 for The Hunt: Virtual Getaway Week. ‘If you brought your fur-baby along on this hunt – pop in this shop to get your best friend a homemade treat.’
A scavenger hunt could be one of the safest in-person activities VIRTUAL HUNT to do together while separate during a global pandemic. The Kentucky School for the Blind Charitable Foundation organized The Hunt on historic Frankfort Avenue for anyone to participate on their own timeline. It begins at the Crescent Hill Library and, from there, you will “receive” clues in the captions of pictures posted to the KSBCF social media platforms. Track down 20 locations, all within an easy walk of the others, according to organizers, and take a selfie of yourself and/or your group, upload to (just one) social media platform, tagging KSBCF in your photo and include #TheHunt. The quickest to complete #TheHunt wins a $25 gift card for Heine Brothers’ coffee and $25 to Carmichael’s Bookstore. —Aaron Yarmuth
THROUGH AUG. 30
‘The Public Record’: A Virtual Speed Cinema Presentation
Online | speedmuseum.org/cinema | $5 nonmembers, $3 members | Any time How will historical records capture 2020? “The Public Record” could be the real-time log of history from regular people living through this pandemic 2020 IN HINDSIGHT and a generational social and racial justice movement. The filmmakers invited 60 Louisville residents to use smartphones to record their daily lives, which were weaved together to tell the intimate story of the city and a country. Following the documentary is a discussion with Director Ben Freedman, Executive Producer Stephen Kertis, Editor Tobias Van Kleek and documentary participants Mariel Gardner and Keith McGill. Rent the film on Vimeo to stream for a 24-hour period any time though Aug. 30. — Aaron Yarmuth
An image from ‘The Public Record.’
Every year, the Muhammad Ali Center honors female leaders of social change, activism and pursuits of justice with its Daughters of Greatness program. In WOMEN POWER commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment (granting women the right to vote), the Ali Center and Metro United Way are hosting this virtual (and in-person) conversation “on the collective power of women, the systems that divide us, and the imperative for true unity.” A diverse group of past Daughters of Greatness will lead the talk, including founding Daughter, Ambassador Shabazz (the oldest daughter of Malcolm X) and Cate Fosl of the Anne Braden Institute. —LEO
Ambassador Shabazz speaking at the 2017 Festival of Faiths. | PHOTO BY JOHN NATION.
FRIDAY, AUG. 28
‘The Keep Going Song’ Watch Party & Talkback Facebook Live | Search Facebook | Free ($15 and up for the show) | 7 p.m.
Abigail and Shaun Bengson will bring a special — unique to 2020 — performance to Actors Theatre of Louisville. In this performance, the indie folk couple, who FOLKTALES provide inspirational storytelling through their music, will “explore living fully even in moments of fear, choosing to love fiercely, and cultivating joy as a form of personal activism.” To view, virtually, you can find a link to purchase “pay what you can” tickets through the Actors’ website (you can also find the link on the Facebook event page), starting at $15. Once purchased, a special link will be sent to you in a confirmation email, which will only be active for four days following the purchase. Watch the show before Friday so you can participate in this Facebook Live talkback about the show. —Aaron Yarmuth Abigail and Shaun Bengson are The Bengsons. | PHOTO BY PAUL DE LUNA. LEOWEEKLY.COM // AUGUST 26, 2020
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STAFF PICKS
WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 2
MONDAY, AUG. 31 - SEPT. 2
Facebook Live | Search Facebook | Free | 3-3:45 p.m.
Online | pivotchamps.com | $50-$175 | Times vary The annual Derby Diversity & Business Summit — which has the goal of bringing together diverse executives from all over the nation to network is going online DIVERSITY this year, with a schedule packed with events. With a focus on minority, women and LGBTQ business leaders, the three-day summit will feature speakers, breakout sessions and a live challenge with winners receiving money and mentorship. Even though COVID hasn’t allowed much business travel and in-person networking, the Derby Diversity & Business Summit has pivoted to digital to keep the experience alive. —LEO Weekly
Art Making: Blotted Line Drawing Bringing the Andy Warhol exhibit, “Revelation,” to the Speed isn’t about just viewing the iconic pop artist’s work — it’s also meant to inspire the artist in all of us. POP ART Blotted line is the unmistakable Warhol technique, combining drawing and printmaking to create wildly unique imagery. The Speed’s first live art making event is an opportunity, or your children’s (ages preschool and up), to try your hand at creating Warhol-esque pop art. A list of supplies you will need is on the Facebook event page. — Aaron Yarmuth
Derby Diversity & Business Summit
ANY TIME MONDAY, AUG. 31-SEPT. 4
Virtual WorldFest
Online | Search Facebook | Free | Times vary While there will be no in-person celebration for this year’s WorldFest, the annual event will happen this year online. There will be music, food demonTHE VIRTUAL WORLD strations, crafts and more with representations from more than 20 nations. WorldFest is one of the best events in Louisville, so even though you can’t eat and drink and buy this year at the Belvedere, support it by tuning in to MetroTV or Lift Up Lou and Louisville Metro Special Events on Facebook. —LEO Weekly
A past WorldFest. At least you won’t have to brave the heat this year.
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LEOWEEKLY.COM //AUGUST 26, 2020
‘The Beecher Terrace Story’ Online | ket.org | Free
This 30-minute documentary film by Lavel D. White explores the role that the historic Beecher Terrace housing project had in the Russell neighborhood. LOCAL HISTORY In 2016, Louisville Metro Housing Authority received a $29 million federal grant to replace Beecher Terrace complex with mixed-income housing. This documentary looks primarily at the people, families and history of Beecher Terrace, but it also looks at what the redevelopment might mean and look like. —LEO Weekly
An image from ‘The Beecher Terrace Story.’
MUSIC
ONCE EVERY 13 YEARS
LOUISVILLE BABYLON RETURNS WITH MORE MISFITS COVERS By Scott Recker | srecker@leoweekly.com EVEN THOUGH he’s in grad school in another state, John King decided to release a new version of Louisville Babylon, a once-every-13-years compilation of local artists covering songs by the Misfits. While he’s crunched on time, King said he knows that the coronavirus has ripped away a lot of opportunities for musicians, so he figured this project would help repair some of that damage. “Out of nowhere, shows were canceled, regular band practices were canceled, and that sort of camaraderie and creative outlet that comes not only from playing live, but also privately with friends, that disappeared,” said King, who has played in numerous Louisville bands through the years. “And this gave a great opportunity to regain some of that.” Louisville Babylon III: Devilockdown will be released on Oct. 2, but a teaser EP — featuring three songs from the album — will be out this Saturday, Aug. 29 on Bandcamp. The free, three-song EP features Misfits covers from Natalie Felker, Rat Bastards and Golden Dead. The full-length album that will follow in October will also feature Dahm Majuri Cipolla, Cobra Jet (members of Planetary Overdrive), Drift City, The Excuses, Eyeball, Hawks, Horseless, John King & Jessica Bailiff, Prayer Line, Pardieu, Team Blood (members of Team Totoro), Tender Mercy, Season of the Witch and Yellow Cellophane. All songs were recorded between March 1 and June 1 during quarantine. King said that he was undecided about whether to keep alive the tradition of the Babylon comp, but his friends’ posts on social media inspired him to once again put it together: “I was scrolling through Instagram in March, and all of these artists were putting up videos of them covering songs, and I was like ‘Oh man people are doing this sort of thing anyway, so why don’t we make it a community project?’” The first Louisville Babylon was released in 1994 by Analog Distillery. It featured storied bands such as Endpoint and sold for $6.66 as a cassette tape at ear X-Tacy. King played on that first compilation as a teenager. “For my very first turn as a musician to be on a compilation with my heroes — Rodan, Crain — was a huge deal,” King said.
In 2007, 13 years after the first compilation, King ran into a bunch of local musicians at a bar when they were home for the holidays. That night’s conversation led to Louisville Babylon II, which King released on his label, Louisville Is For Lovers. Fast forward another 13 years, and 2020 is seeing the third installment. “Early on in the COVID outbreak everyone was dismayed, locked at home, feeling some sort of despair,” King said. “And I thought, ‘Well, it’s the 13th anniversary again — let’s give a project to Louisville artists to have something to work on and look forward to.” Something that changed this time around was how quickly the musicians sent in their submissions. Within two weeks, King received about 70% of the songs. Someone even sent their song the day after it was assigned. “Usually, after three months, I’m begging artists, but time around, in a flash, I’m getting all of these great recordings,” King said. King said that he was also surprised that, for many artists, it remained a collaborative effort with several songs featuring multiple musicians who used technology during the pandemic to create together — doing things like sending working files back and forth and using programs such as Zoom to work out songs. “I was surprised a lot of the artists choose to do full band recordings,” he said. “Some of it was really unique in the way they were able to do it.” Natalie Felker, whose cover of “Die, Die My Darling” will appear on both the advance EP and the full length, said she was interested in the song because of the ways
John King. | PHOTO BY NIK VECHERY.
she could adjust the structure and meaning. Her sloweddown, synth-heavy version is an innovation reimagining. “I’m not that familiar with The Misfits catalog, but I was drawn in by the juxtaposition of the threat coupled with the term of endearment in the title,” Felker said. “I feel like the campy horror movie trope of the murdered woman is a little tiresome, especially when you consider how much violence there is against women in real life, or how much exponentially higher that is for trans women, or how this kind of misogyny is tide to a patriarchal culture of toxic masculinity. I thought it would be interesting to reimagine it from a femme perspective. Less of an aggressive threat, more of a dramatic invitation.” Like King, Felker said the compilation
was a good way to keep people connected during a time when most of us have been somewhat isolated. “We’re fortunate to have someone like John who’s been producing compilations like this for decades featuring Louisville bands,” she said. “They’re a good opportunity to have fun, be creative and build community.” • LEOWEEKLY.COM // AUGUST 26, 2020
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FOOD & DRINK
No-touch pickup is as safe as possible at El Mundo Highlands, where only one person at a time may come into the lobby to pick up dinner in a bag.
RECOMMENDED
EL MUNDO HIGHLANDS HAS OPENED By Robin Garr | LouisvilleHotBytes.com El Mundo Highlands’ juicy, creamy carnitas is fashioned from pastured pork that’s deliciously spiced, roasted, then flash-fried in the old Mexican tradition. | PHOTOS BY ROBIN GARR.
IT TAKES A CERTAIN BOLD spirit and lack of risk aversion to open a new restaurant during a pandemic when, at best, restaurants face an extraordinary burden of regulation for our health and safety. That didn’t slow down the folks at El Mundo, though. Not only did they open their second restaurant — El Mundo Highlands — last month, but they did it in the oversize (4,000 square-foot, four-levels) space that long housed Asiatique and much more briefly its successor, Flavour Restaurant. I got only a quick glimpse inside during a visit to pick up takeout lunch, but it’s still sprawling and stylish, with a large mainfloor bar that looks like a great place to have a drink. I’ll get back there eventually for that drink and dinner — to its credit, but let’s get this COVID-19 thing out of the way first, mmkay? Meanwhile, I’m doing curbside or takeout, and I can tell you that El Mundo Highlands is handling those important functions remarkably well. For dining in, El Mundo’s website clearly outlines expectations and is pretty insistent about our following the rules, and it goes into quite a bit of detail about that. Summing up: Make a reservation, wash and sanitize, wear your mask unless you are actively eating and drinking and stay seated. Arrive on time — you have a 10-minute window. Get your menu digitally if you can.
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Also, you have 1 hour, 15 minutes to dine in, starting at the time of your reservation. Yes, this is strict, but, the website points out: “Unfortunately, for dine-in to remain financially viable for us as a small restaurant, we need to turn these tables at that rate in order to make it by on razor-thin margins.” That’s fair. Don’t gripe, follow the rules, enjoy your meal. Takeout orders must be placed and paid for online, including a mandatory 18% tip. A separate pickup entrance admits you — one person at a time — to a small, spanking-clean lobby where your bagged meal will be ready for you to pick up without coming into contact with anyone. Don’t come in until your assigned time, and don’t come in if someone else is already in there. “Thank you for your continued support,” the website adds. “It means the world to us!” In these troubled times, I truly believe that. The online menu remains limited because social distancing requirements make it difficult to craft an extensive bill of fare in the kitchen. It does cover a range of Mexican favorites, though, and all the dishes we tasted still show the creative touches that made me love the original El Mundo ever since it arrived on Frankfort Avenue some 25 years ago. A half-dozen appetizers range from
Crisp, yellow corn chips and fiery, green tomatillo-jalapeño salsa from El Mundo Highlands.
FOOD & DRINK
El Mundo Highlands’ chile relleno features a broad poblano pepper, fire-roasted and stuffed with your choice of filling.
$2.25 (for chips with two salsas) to $8 (for a small caesar salad). Queso is made with three Mexican cheeses, tomatoes and a mild chipotle kick. The app list also includes two choices of bottled hot sauce (both $5.99) and a $6 set of attractive coasters. Not counting the $11 large Caesar, a dozen dinner entrées are from $11.95 (for a quesadilla) to $15.95 (for carnitas, fish tacos, or bake-at-home nachos for two). Most of the entrées are available with your choice of meat or meatless filling including chicken, pork, bison, vegan chorizo, beans, spicy beans or cheese. There’s also a wide selection of sides and a single takeout dessert, cheesecake ($8). The takeout beverage list includes several Mexican soft drinks ($3) and a short list of frozen margaritas ($11 to $22). We started with a huge paper bag of crisp, yellow corn chips ($2.25) and a generous tub of textured, green salsa that showed a good balance of tomatillo and jalapeño flavors that pushed through its warm but not fiery heat. A chile relleno ($12.95) was built on a broad, dark-green poblano that picked up a hint of smoke from fire roasting. It comes stuffed with your choice of the fillings, blended with jack cheese, topped with green chile sauce, baked and served with El Mundo’s good Mexican rice and beans. We opted for the vegan chorizo filling because I
think the modern development of vegetarian meats is really interesting, and I’m generally willing to try one to see how it worked out. I was impressed. It comes in small, firm, rather chewy dice — possibly wheat-based seitan — with a spicy, aromatic flavor that came close to the real thing. The carnitas plate ($15.95) is fashioned from pastured pork that’s deliciously spiced, roasted, then flash-fried. The pork was cut into small chunks with crisp, charred edges from the roasting oven and boasted a delicious juicy, creamy character almost like confit. It was mixed with strips of wellgrilled red onion and accompanied with fresh and clean spring mix lettuce, shredded cheese, tubs of tomatillo salsa and pico de gallo and two good-quality, flour tortillas (corn is also an option). Both dishes came with excellent refritostyle black beans and delicious Mexicanstyle rice, aromatic with smoky chili-pepper heat and cumin. An exceptional meal for two came to $40.49 including the mandatory 18% tip; I added a few bucks more. •
@leoweekly
EL MUNDO HIGHLANDS 1767 Bardstown Road 384-5633 502elmundo.com
LEOWEEKLY.COM // AUGUST 26, 2020
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52 Smooth-tongued 53 Painter Magritte 54 ‘‘The Simpsons’’ character with a Ph.D. 55 Catch 59 Nail-polish brand 61 Shortcut for a frequent contact 63 Approximately 66 Outmoded part of a laptop 69 Hither and ___ 70 What a koozie might keep cool 71 Seller of the Ultimate Waffle Sandwich 72 Nile snakes 73 ____ Hari 74 ‘‘Regardless …’’ 76 Stone to cast? 77 Slugger Hideki named the 2009 World Series M.V.P. 78 Pasture parent 80 Nuevo ____ (Mexican state) 81 Like grass you can smell, perhaps 82 IDs assigned at birth: Abbr. 84 Boxer Ali 86 Tharp who choreographed ‘‘Hair’’ 87 Modem letters 91 Soothing summer soak 93 Chart-toppers 95 Raised sculptures 100 Prefix with pathetic 102 Needs medicine, say
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1 Like commercials, often 2 First name of a Peace Nobelist that ends ironically 3 ‘‘Einstein on the Beach,’’ e.g. 4 ‘‘____ say!’’ 5 Scholar 6 Seating section 7 Recipients of venture capital 8 Joined a petition 9 What a dental scaler removes 10 Senator Klobuchar 11 Production co. behind ‘‘Rhoda’’ and ‘‘Newhart’’ 12 ‘‘Once upon a midnight dreary …’’ penner 13 Ending with ultra- or super14 Sauce on chicken Parmesan 15 Parts of zygotes 16 French automaker 17 They don’t go much higher than the tongue 18 Soft leather 19 Two-door or four-door 24 Unenthused response to ‘‘Wanna?’’ 29 Upper limit 32 Turned in 34 Charles ____, religious leader known as ‘‘The Father of Modern Revivalism’’ 35 Lengths for rulers 36 Killed time 37 Workload that must be met 39 Pets kept in terrariums 42 Bank-backing grp. 43 Something trademarked 44 Laptop brand 46 ‘‘____ be an honor’’ 49 Head-butts 50 [Actually, don’t delete this]
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1 Red Guard members 8 They can get canceled 14 Sticky situation 20 Remove braids from 21 ‘‘Likewise!’’ 22 Way to go 23 Alternative title for ‘‘The Dirty Dozen’’? 25 Sorted in order 26 Hear here! 27 Complete 28 ‘‘Vous êtes ____’’ (French map notation) 30 Alan with six Emmys 31 Pulled from a raffle drum 33 Alternative title for ‘‘Cleopatra’’? 38 Words to a betrayer 40 Partner of cut 41 St. ____ Chapel, New York City public building in continuous use since 1766 42 Dessert often topped with caramel sauce 45 Newswire co. 47 Zip 48 Disc-brake components 51 Alternative title for ‘‘Frankenstein’’? 55 Took a load off 56 Monopoly token elected by an internet vote 57 ‘‘Sure, that makes sense’’ 58 Trust 60 ‘‘____ Another’’ (NPR game show) 62 Toyota model since 1966 64 Van ____, Calif. 65 D.C. donor 67 ‘‘Hey, pal, over here!’’ 68 & 70 Alternative title for ‘‘To Kill a Mockingbird’’? 72 Female friend, in France 75 Phillipa who played Eliza in the original cast of ‘‘Hamilton’’ 76 Hook’s sidekick 79 ‘‘The Hangover’’ co-star 83 Mortgage co. 85 Just out of the freezer 88 They feature clowns and rope tricks 89 Grp. organizing school dances 90 Make a move 92 Alternative title for ‘‘Titanic’’? 94 Hello Kitty company 96 Calendar spans: Abbr. 97 Actress Tyler who will be an apt age in 2031 98 Stopovers 99 Gives a hoot
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S T A I V E A R N T T U O R I T L L Y E S L A C I O L L A D B D A I T C H
Across
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BY FRANCIS HEANEY / EDITED BY WILL SHORTZ
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101 ‘‘Ella and ____’’ (1956 jazz album) 104 Sandal brand 106 Alternative title for ‘‘Gone Girl’’? 110 Sheepskin holders 114 Shankar who taught sitar to George Harrison 115 ASCAP alternative 116 ____-faire 118 ‘‘Blueberries for ____’’ (classic children’s book) 119 Nabisco’s first cracker brand, introduced in 1899 121 Alternative title for ‘‘The Name of the Rose’’? 126 Duck dish 127 ‘‘Welp, guess I have to try again’’ 128 Develop over time 129 Lowbrow art 130 Round things? 131 Terry Bradshaw, for his entire career
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The New York Times Magazine Crossword
PHOTO BY RACHEL ROBINSON
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SAVAGE LOVE
By Dan Savage | mail@savagelove.net @fakedansavage
TALL ORDER
Q: I’m a cis male in my late 20s. I’ve recently become consumed by a specific fantasy I fear is unattainable, a fear that has been made worse by several failed attempts to research it. A little background: Except for a couple dates and make-out sessions with other men, my sex life has always been exclusively with women. I’ve had male crushes and often thought I might be bi or pan, despite never masturbating to thoughts of men or gay porn. (Don’t worry, Dan: I’m not going to ask if I’m gay. I promise.) In general, I’ve led a privileged sex life. I’ve never been broken up with, and it’s rare for me to experience any form of rejection. But in early 2020, my libido vanished. I stopped masturbating and only orgasmed once or twice a month when my now ex-girlfriend would insist that we have sex. But then a couple of weeks ago, I began imagining being one half of a loving gay couple that replaced all MM penetrative sex with MMF sex. My sex life with my male partner would revolve around the two of us going out and finding submissive women for kinky threesomes. Since then, I’ve been masturbating to this fantasy daily, and I’m excited at the possibility of finding a new lifestyle that brings me a lot of joy. However, I’ve grown concerned that nothing else seems to turn me on at all. Equally as concerning, even minor adjustments to this fantasy ruins the whole thing. And to fulfill it I’d need a man who’s at least all of the following: 1. Sensitive, giving, easy-going, and an allaround good guy. 2. Very physically attractive. 3. Into cuddling and general affection, some make-out sessions, and occasional hand jobs and blow jobs — but absolutely no penetrative sex or anal play. 4. Into picking up submissive women for MMF threesomes. 5. Into penetrative sex with said women. 6. Into using roleplay and D/s to take out our kinks on said women. 7. Into giving me the more dominant role. Now for my questions: Does anyone like this actually exist? Is there a name for the fetish I’m describing? Does it have a community? Is it similar to any more accessible fetishes out there? Does my loss of libido and this specific fantasy say something about me that I’m too close to see? Can Anyone Tell Me Anything Now
A: First and most importantly, CATMAN, kinks aren’t things you “take out” on other people. They’re things you share and enjoy with other people. Perhaps that “take out on” was a slip of the tongue or a little premature dirty talk; lots of people into D/s get off on talking about their kinks—BB or TT or CBT—as if they’re things a sadistic Dom gets off on doing to a helpless sub. That’s the fantasy, CATMAN, but in reality, the Dom and sub discuss their desires in advance, identify areas of overlap, and set limits. (Not just bottoms; tops have limits too.) However brutal things may look to someone who wasn’t a part of those negotiations, however degrading things might sound, kink play is consensual and mutually pleasurable — and if it’s not consensual and mutually pleasurable, CATMAN, then it’s not kink play. It’s sexual assault. Again, maybe it was a slip of the tongue and I’m being a dick; You did mention a desire to find submissive women, CATMAN, which most likely means you were planning to seek out women who wanna be “used and abused” by two hot bi guys in love. And you’re in luck: There are definitely women out there who would be into this scenario — some readers probably went all WAP reading your question — but you’re unlikely to meet those women on a night out. Meaning, you shouldn’t be thinking about casually picking women up, CATMAN, but rather cultivating connections online or at kink events with submissive women who would get into subbing for you and your imaginary boyfriend. Finding a guy who meets your long list of particulars is a taller order. It frankly doesn’t sound like you’re looking for a partner, i.e. someone whose needs you want to meet, but rather a guy you can plug into your masturbatory fantasies. He’s gotta be bi but not into butt stuff, a good guy, a hot guy, a sub where you’re concerned and a Dom where women are concerned… and any deviation from that long list not only disqualifies him from consideration for your life partner-in-crime, making each and every item on that long list a deal breaker. Relationships require compromise, CATMAN, no one gets everything they want, and a long list of deal breakers makes for even longer odds. If you can’t budge on any of the items on your list… well, then you might wanna think about getting yourself a
sex doll or two. You also might wanna give some thought not just to your long and rigid list of deal breakers, but to why that list is so long and rigid that you’re unlikely—as you suspect—to ever find someone. Zooming out… You say your libido tanked in early 2020, CATMAN, and studies show you’re not alone. The twin pandemics — the COVID-19 pandemic and the stupidity pandemic — have tanked a lot of people’s libidos. So, if this fantasy is working for you right now, I think you should lean into it. It may be a tall order, it may be so unrealistic as to be unachievable, but indulging in this very specific fantasy has cracked your libido open and continuing to beat off about this fantasy might blow your libido wide open. I don’t like to pathologize people’s kinks or attach meaning to what are usually arbitrary, random and inexplicable sexual interests. But the taller the order, the less likely it can be filled, CATMAN, and it’s possible you may not want it filled at all — at least subconsciously, at least right now. Sometimes when sex is scary, we obsess about fantasies that are impossible to realize or partners who’re impossible to find because it allows us to avoid partnered sex. I know at the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, I was obsessed with a guy I couldn’t have because it got me off the hook. My list of deal breakers at that time was ironically pretty short: He had to be Tommy. If he wasn’t Tommy, I wasn’t interested. Tommy was amazing — totally obsession-worthy — and I did love him. But I know now that I threw myself into my obsession with Tommy to protect myself from a terrifying epidemic. Maybe you’re doing something similar, CATMAN. But if I’m wrong — if this is what you want — there are cities out there with kink communities large enough for two partnered bi guys to find a steady stream of submissive women who wanna sub for them. But your list of deal breaker is going to have to shrink if you ever hope to find a guy who’s close to what you want. And that’s all any of us ever gets, CATMAN. Something close. Q: I’m a 39-year-old gay man living in Chicago. Recently, a good friend of mine got engaged to a wonderful man from Gambia in West Africa. She’s planning a ceremony there next summer and has invited me to attend. After doing a little research I found out that being LGBT is a crime in that country, and the punishment is execution. Should I go to the wedding and stay in the closet the whole time? In general, what do you think about gays traveling to countries that murder our LGBT brothers and sisters?
Intensely Nervous Venturing Into This Event A: I wouldn’t go, INVITE, and if I were a straight girl, I wouldn’t expect my gay friends to risk their lives in order to attend my wedding. While a quick search didn’t bring up news about any gay Westerners being executed in Gambia in recent history, gay tourists have been arrested, imprisoned and fined. So instead of attending your friend’s wedding next summer — which may not even happen, due to the pandemic — make a donation in her name to Initiative Sankofa D’Afrique de l’Ouest (www.ISDAO.org), an organization working to improve the lives and legal position of LGBT people in Gambia and other West African nations. mail@savagelove.net @FakeDanSavage On this week’s Savage Lovecast, learn all about cuckolding. savagelovecast.com
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