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Fr Br hel To H se Of Healing: THE STORY OF LOUISVILLE’S MOST FAMOUS MADAM AND THE PLANS FOR HER FORMER HOME WHERE BILLS STAND IN KENTUCKY LEGISLATURE | PAGE 5

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From Brothel To House Of Healing: THE STORY OF LOUISVILLE’S MOST FAMOUS MADAM AND THE PLANS FOR HER FORMER HOME WHERE BILLS STAND IN KENTUCKY LEGISLATURE | PAGE 5

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VIEWS

EDITOR’S NOTE

COUNCIL REPUBLICANS’ GROSS EXPLOITATION OF POLICE OVERSIGHT BOARD NOMINEES By Aaron Yarmuth | leo@leoweekly.com MICHELLE OBAMA once became a “political liability” for her husband’s presidential campaign because she said, “For the ﬁrst time in my adult life, I am really proud of my country.” Metro Council Republicans, apparently, wouldn’t consider her qualiﬁed to serve on the new police oversight board. Her past comment makes it clear she doesn’t have a fair, unbiased perspective of America. Of course, she was offering a profoundly honest, candid perspective of her American experience. It was Barack Obama’s political rivals, meanwhile, who saw political opportunity in smearing the future-First Lady’s character. The gross exploitation of Michelle Obama’s comment piqued the unspoken (or unrealized) resentments of many: the audacity of a Black woman to say such a terribly unpatriotic thing. Two of the 11 nominees to Louisville’s new police oversight board were subjected to a similar, racially-tinged game of political piñata last week. Republican members of the Metro Government Oversight and Audit Committee opposed nominees Stachelle Bussey and Antonio Taylor, both Black Louisvillians, because of respective comments they made on social media regarding police. Republicans said the posts prove that neither can be trusted to fairly and objectively assess the complex, sensitive investigations into police.

To be fair, it is not Republicans’ job to rubber stamp nominees. But Republicans weren’t simply out to question the nominees about their past comments — or that the nominees’ current views made a difference. Republicans had predetermined their course of action: They subjected these two candidates to unwritten, arbitrary standards, and they were going to grandstand on Bussey’s and Taylor’s comments for personal political gain. The problem is that Republicans attempted to undermine two qualiﬁed nominees by attacking their character — candidates who were nominated, in part, because of their trustworthiness within the Black community. The tragedy is, they tried to make an example out of two Black people who dared to speak out. The audacity. (You can Google the comments if you’d like, but I’m not going to cut-and-paste partial quotes, out of context, which have been weaponized to tarnish Bussey’s and Taylor’s credibility.) “In regards to these two candidates, their opinions are public, and I can’t see any way that they could be thoughtful and fair when reviewing these sensitive cases and circumstances,” Republican Councilman Anthony Piagentini said in a letter to his colleagues before the committee meeting. In fact, it was Piagentini and other

Republicans who couldn’t be unbiased or fair. So why did they even bother asking Bussey questions? Why did they challenge Taylor’s character, his ability to be fair and objective, if he had made his mind up days ahead of time? Answer: Political opportunism — exploit the candid, sometimes raw, thoughts and emotions of two Black Louisvillians’ personal experiences. I’m not here to defend Bussey or Taylor… they acquitted themselves admirably on their own. Yet, it’s important for the community — if not Council Republicans — to realize what this board is: public service. A position on this board is not a path to wealth or even power, and it will likely lead to infamy faster than fame. Bussey, Taylor and the other nine board members have volunteered to put themselves in the middle of the most public, scrutinized tragedies our community will face, because they want to make Louisville a better community. Republicans would like you to think they’re on a vendetta to try, convict and sentence every hero who wears a badge. But none of these volunteers are judge, jury or executioner. If they were, I’d agree with Republicans — I would oppose

Bussey’s and Taylor’s nominations. But that’s not the job. In fact, the board doesn’t have any unilateral power or punitive authority. It is strictly a body designed to provide civilian oversight over police investigations, to ensure public transparency and accountability. At its very foundation, oversight can only come from the skeptics: people who bring real-life experiences; who have been exposed to the unsanitized images of police and who have the ability to challenge authority. It’s not the responsibility of Black people to trust police. The same is true of the Civilian Review and Accountability Board. An inherent trust of police would, in fact, be more disqualifying for this board than someone who hates police. So, despite the Republicans’ gross political exploitation of these two nominees, I look forward to hearing their voices speaking truth to power. With their help, we can build a police department we can be proud of. •

LEOWEEKLY.COM // MARCH 24, 2021

VIEWS

THE MIDWESTERNIST

IT’S NOT NORMAL TO WISH FOR A CAR ACCIDENT By Dan Canon | leo@leoweekly.com EARLIER this week, I posted this tweet:

And hoo boy, did #LawTwitter react. It turns out a lot of us think about harming ourselves (if just a little bit) in order to get a break.

I received a lot more of these responses (and dozens of similar DMs), but this next one meant a lot to me, since the lawyer who wrote it was the first person I ever heard articulate — to a group of horrified first-year law students — the banality of self-harm:

LEOWEEKLY.COM // MARCH 24, 2021

When Shelly (the author of the last tweet) said out loud that she was wishing for a car accident every single day, I didn’t process it as a “sick” thought at the time. To hear her say it was enormously validating, but still my brain was like, “Huh, that’s part of the job for everyone, I guess!” My original tweet was part of a larger thread about the self-destructive behaviors endemic to American lawyer culture (and the American workplace overall). The thread itself was a bit of sublimation to help me, and whoever else was reading, process the fifth Kentucky lawyer suicide since Christmas. In fact, as I was finishing up a piece about the four suicides we’d had since Christmas, I heard about number five. And that suicide was just the latest of dozens of colleagues throughout my career. We’re talking people in my immediate community, of course; the annual number of lawyer suicides nationwide is in the hundreds, and undiagnosed mental health conditions for American professionals are quite literally countless. The purpose of this post is to make one simple point: It isn’t healthy to want to be sick or injured. For any reason. At all. Not even to get a break from the unyielding samsara of deadlines, demands and dickhead opposing attorneys. If you’re thinking “I could hurt myself a little to escape for awhile” it’s not that big a leap to thinking “I could just kill myself and escape altogether.” That’s exactly what many of us do. Making good on that impulse only takes a second. If you’ve never experienced the desire to smack your car into a tree or have a minor surgery to escape the demands of your daily life, good on you. You probably didn’t need to read this post. Likewise, I’m sure there are quite a few people who entertain such thoughts, but recognize them for the dangerous brain parasites they really are. If that’s you, please feel free to skip the last few paragraphs. But if you have had these thoughts and dismissed them as perfectly normal occupational hazards, listen to me: That’s fucked up. You are fucked up. Something is fucked up in your head, and you need to try to fix it before something terrible happens. Equally important is to remember that if you feel this way, it’s not your fault. American hyper-capitalism will steal all your time, rob you of your family, take every last bit of joy you have, sap your will to have ever existed, and still demand more. For you professionals, type-A personalities who like to

do everything society expects of you, it may take years — even decades — of juggling chainsaws to realize that your society’s expectations are inﬁnite, and will never be met no matter how many hours you put in. If/when you have this realization, you’ve probably thought about harming yourself in all kinds of creative ways for so long that it just feels like part of your daily routine. Anyway, I don’t pretend to know what anyone else is going through, or how to ﬁx the legal profession’s blight of suicides. I just know that I was lucky enough to get a break for long enough to realize that wanting to be in a hospital bed isn’t healthy in any way, by any standard, in any profession. It’s fucked up. Don’t let yourself believe it’s normal. •

Dan Canon is a civil rights lawyer and law professor. “Midwesticism”is his short-documentary series about Midwesterners who are making the world a better place. Watch it at: patreon.com/dancanon.

NEWS & ANALYSIS

WHERE BILLS STAND IN KENTUCKY LEGISLATURE By Danielle Grady | dgrady@leoweekly.com

THORNS & ROSES THE WORST, BEST & MOST ABSURD

ALMOST 70 bills whizzed through the General Assembly last Tuesday in a 16-hour blitz waged mostly by Republicans to pass legislation before Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto period. If the governor chooses to veto any of the bills, lawmakers will still be able to override his decision. It was the Act 1 ﬁnale to a hectic, short legislative session during which lawmakers have so far managed to pass a budget and over 100 bills. The General Assembly convenes again at the end of the month for two more days. Beshear will have the authority to veto any bills passed during that time. Since lawmakers are taking a break, let’s assess where we are. What bills have passed, and which are in danger of failure?

PASSED BILLS

Criminal Justice Reforms The same legislature that passed a Blue Lives Matter bill in 2017 did manage to pass some criminal justice reforms in its 2021 session — even as the Republican supermajority has grown. Senate Bill 52 and Senate Bill 80 both address policing directly. The ﬁrst would make it a crime for police ofﬁcers to have sexual contact with individuals in custody. (As Rep. Rachel Roberts, D-Newport said, “How is this not already a law in

Kentucky?”) And, SB 80 will make it easier to decertify police officers by prohibiting them from resigning or retiring before internal investigations are complete. It also expands the number of offenses eligible for decertification, including the addition of unjustified use of excessive or deadly force. Senate Bill 84 would create new protections for people who are pregnant and incarcerated. It ends solitary confinement for pregnant people, provides six weeks of postpartum care, allows infants to stay with their incarcerated parent for 72 hours and connects them with a social worker to help with childcare and substance use treatment if needed. House Bill 126 raises Kentucky’s threshold from felony theft to $500 — low for the country — to $1,000. It’s expected to save the state $4 million in prison costs. Senate Bill 10 - A Commission on Race and Access to Opportunity Its sponsors called it an important step forward, its detractors are sick of too many studies and not enough change. Senate Bill 10, a bipartisan bill, would create a commission in the legislature that will analyze racial inequities and recommend legislation. House Bill 563 - School Choice This school choice bill has several

measures that prompted Sen. Reggie Thomas, D-Lexington, to call it “the beginning of the end for public education in Kentucky.” When students attend a school outside of their district, it would increase funding to those schools — diverting resources away from others. The disinvestment in public education would continue, detractors fear, with state funds instead being directed to tax credits for people donating to scholarships for some private schools. But, if Beshear vetoes it, which he says he’s considering, Republicans might not have the votes to overturn it. Limiting Beshear’s Powers The main priority for Kentucky Republicans this year seemed to be seeking revenge on Beshear for caring about human lives during the pandemic. In the ﬁrst few weeks of the session, they passed Senate Bill 1 and 2 and House Bill 1 — all of which limit Beshear’s ability to issue executive orders like his mask mandate. These are being challenged in court now. The legislature also passed Senate Bill 228, which strips Beshear of the ability to name a replacement of his choosing should one of Kentucky’s U.S. Senators leave their seat mid-term (*cough* McConnell *cough*). Instead they’d grant that honor to the state party of the departing representative, who would draft a

ROSE: YARMUTH, PICK ON SOMEONE YOUR OWN SIZE Louisville’s congressman and chairman of the House Budget Committee put lowly Sen. Mitch McConnell, minority leader, in his place. In an op-ed to the Courier Journal last week LEO founder John Yarmuth said: “Mitch McConnell is a man of few words, but when he speaks, you can be sure of one thing: He’s worried.” Yarmuth, who worked alongside McConnell in Sen. Marlow Cook’s office in the 1970s, would know. “[N]othing ruffles McConnell’s feathers more than the escalating pressure on Democrats to reform or eliminate the filibuster — more accurately described as the minority veto — that allows as few as 41 of 100 senators to defeat a piece of legislation in the Senate. The reason could not be simpler; the minority veto is McConnell’s most powerful weapon, and its elimination would be his Kryptonite. So it was no surprise to see Mitch on the floor this week, frenetically predicting legislative Armageddon in the Senate should Democrats attempt to disarm him of his precious filibuster.” Hey Yarmuth, we know he used to be a big deal, but isn’t Mitch beneath you now? ABSURD: MCCONNELL TOOK THE BAIT Well, Yarmuth was right… McConnell is worried! McConnell responded to Yarmuth’s CJ op-ed with one of his own, saying: “Congressman John Yarmuth likes to pretend he knows me. He talks to reporters and writes in these pages as if he’s some sort of ‘McConnell-whisperer.’ That’s a full day’s drive from reality.” Mitch, we can assure you that Yarmuth (nor anyone else for that matter) wants to be within whispering distance of you. And if you’re interested in a full-day’s drive to reality, try this on: Because of Yarmuth’s leadership, he and Democrats passed the American Rescue Plan Act, which will bring $4.2 billion to Kentucky and $430 million to Louisville. You, Mitch, voted against it. After campaigning on all your power as Senate majority leader, claiming you alone allowed Kentucky to “punch above its weight,” it turns out you are the one who’s a full day from reality. In fact, without you, Kentucky has a puncher’s chance. ROSE: BESHEAR NEEDS MORE INK Gov. Beshear’s stamp-arm must be sore, after he got busy vetoing some of the Republican’s absurd legislation. Among the vetoed bills was the Senate Vacancy Bill, which would strip the power of the governor to appoint someone to fill a vacant U.S. Senate seat. That’s bad news for state Attorney General Dan Cameron, who might have to wait for Mitch McConnell to retire… and win an election to become Senator. Although, if McConnell was planning on retiring early, perhaps that’s bad news for all of us. ROSE: SLOWING THE ST. PATTY’S SPREAD On St. Patty’s Day, The Irish Rover did curbside carryout only, purposely missing out on a windfall of cash, in order to be responsible during the pandemic. They usually have a sociallydistanced beer garden going, but that sort of thing can be hard to keep under control on the drunkest holiday of the year. What they did took courage and restraint, unlike some of the other pubs around town that are basically just never-ending frat parties. LEOWEEKLY.COM // MARCH 24, 2021

NEWS & ANALYSIS list of three nominees for the governor to choose from.

@leoweekly

The Budget Kentucky Republicans passed their budget this session, leaving many of the funding boosts that Beshear had chamSenate Bill 125 - West End TIF pioned behind. That means no raises for A proposed West End TIF (tax-increteachers or state workers, no new social ment finance) district would pay for ecoworkers and no money for improving nomic development projects in the area for school buildings. Instead, lawmakers the next 30 years with the projects’ own decided to use a projected surplus and future tax revfederal CARES To make funding to more To make sure residents enues. sure residents than double could stay in the Kentucky’s rainy could stay in the area, the biparday fund… for area, the bipartisan tisan legislation a year when the would freeze state is drownlegislation would homeowner ing. But, the freeze property taxes. property taxes legislature still for that same has yet to craft a The proposal was not time period. The plan for how to spend the $2.6 without its detractors, proposal was not without its billion coming who still feared that detractors, who to the state from still feared that the American the TIF district would the TIF district Rescue Plan Act. displace renters, since would displace renters, since BILLS IN landlords could still landlords could DANGER raise housThere is still raise housing costs — still ing costs — even time for new with a compoeven with a component bills to pass, but nent requiring not much. Here requiring residential residential develare the ones with opments with an uncertain developments with TIF financing to future. include affordTIF financing to able housing. Subpoena include affordable Others were conPower for cerned that the Civilian Review housing. Others were board regulating Board the TIF would concerned that the A top issue not have enough for Louisville board regulating the community repofficials — give resentation. The the city’s new TIF would not have TIF board would police civilian be required to enough community review board or have five seats inspector general representation. for community subpoena power members and — has turned for 50% of the seats to be filled by Black into a political quagmire. Senate Bill 247, members. Senate Minority Leader Morgan McGarThe bill has been assigned to the vey’s solution to the issue, would have Senate’s Appropriations & Revenue allowed judges to grant subpoena power, Committee. but it was passed over. Instead, Republicans tried to push House Bill 309, which would require the civilian review board to ask the Metro Government Oversight and Audit Committee for subpoenas, which could only grant it for city employees. The

LEOWEEKLY.COM // MARCH 24, 2021

bill also would limit Louisville mayors to two terms. McGarvey said that Metro Council “would rather have nothing” than HB 309. They might get it. The bill passed in the House and awaits a vote in the Senate.

LGBTQ Bills, Good and Bad The General Assembly has yet to devote much time to LGBTQ issues this year, for better or for worse.

Several anti-trans bills faltered in the legislature, including Senate Bill 106 and House Bill 471, which would ban trans girls and women from competing in school sports. House Bill 336 would prohibit gender-affirming healthcare for minors. But two bills that would have helped Kentucky’s LGBTQ community, a conversion therapy ban (Senate Bill 30, House Bill 19) have also not seen much movement, despite bipartisan support. SB 106, the anti-trans school sports bill, is the only bill to have been assigned to a committee. Senate Bill 211 - Criminalizing Police Insults In retaliation for protesters in Louisville exercising their constitutional right to assemble this summer, this bill attacks another part of the First Amendment: Free speech. SB 211 would make it a misdemeanor to accost, insult, taunt or challenge “a law enforcement officer with offensive or derisive words, or by gestures or other physical contact that would have a direct tendency to provoke a violent response.” In general, the bill seeks to crack down on “rioters,” including by requiring them to be held in jail for a minimum of 48 hours after being arrested. It passed the Senate and is awaiting a committee assignment in the House. Senate Bill 4 - No-knock Warrants A bill regulating no-knock warrants, in response to Breonna Taylor’s killing, passed in the Senate. And now, weighed down with floor amendments, it’s awaiting a vote in the House. Some of the amendments would overturn key components of the bill, including one that would allow no-knock warrants for some drug-related raids (instead of limiting them for violent situations) and another that would extend the time period during which a no-knock warrant could be executed to midnight (instead of limiting it to 6 a.m.-10 p.m.). The amendments would also allow officers without specialized training to execute the warrant. •

A police booking photo taken of Anna Haines in Louisville.

The s ry Anna Haines, L isville M t Fam s Madam FORMER BROTHEL TO BECOME HOUSE OF HEALING

By Lisa Pisterman | leo@leoweekly.com

I HAVE SPENT the past several years researching the life of Louisville’s most famous madam, Anna Haines. I dove into census records, city directories, newspaper clippings, archived case ﬁles in Frankfort, police booking photos, property records and the original district court order books in order to ﬁnd her footprint. Needless to say, a complex woman emerged. This is the story of a Louisville madam and her brothel. It’s the story of how a girl born into poverty, loss and abandonment learned to survive.

In February, 2020, Father Philip Erickson and I sat down to talk about 768 Eastern Parkway, the former home of Anna. He arrived at Our Mother of Sorrows, which is located across the parking lot from Anna’s house, in July 2019 but he had already heard stories about Anna from another priest, Father John Dalton. He told me that Father Dalton had been an associate at Our Mother of Sorrows during the time that Anna lived next door to the church, and Father Dalton thought that Anna was a “nice lady.”

They would exchange waves from time to time as he passed her house going to and from the church and school. She had a prolific green thumb and she cut flowers for the nuns to place on the altar of the Blessed Mother. The balcony over the porch was always filled with potted plants. She probably did her best to mind her own business, although it was natural for the school children next door to be curious about what went on behind her doors and behind the high fence, which once blocked their view into her LEOWEEKLY.COM // MARCH 24, 2021

The former house of Anna Haines at 768 Eastern Parkway. | PHOTO BY LISA PISTERMAN.

backyard. The children couldn’t help noticing the license plates from all over the country on the cars parked in front of her house as they walked back and forth from the church to the school. Anna bought their raffle tickets, and sometimes she was seen in the back row during services. There was a tacit toleration on the part of the congregation to their neighbor, and the delicate balance sometimes teetered, but generally remained in place until the 1960s, when Anna finally sold the property to the church. Now Father Erickson would like to bring the property, which he has named “St. Anne’s House,” full circle from a former brothel to a house of healing. He chose the name St. Anne in homage to the biblical Anne, mother of Mary and the grandmother of Jesus. He invited eight people, including myself, to the table, and the board for St. Anne’s House was formed. In 2021, the building was inspected and found to be structurally sound. The original roof was replaced and the oak trees flanking the porch were trimmed back. The plan is to spend this year remodeling the inside into four, safe, secure apartment units. Father Philip has worked with women in

LEOWEEKLY.COM // MARCH 24, 2021

the past who have been caught up in the sex trade, trying to ﬁnd their way out. Aware of the hard choices that the women are forced to make in order to survive and/ or take care of their families, he envisions the building being used as a recovery place for women trying to break the cycle of poverty, exploitation, abuse and/or domestic violence or perhaps as a place where single mothers could stay while taking college courses.

THE REAL ANNA

Anna Belle Shelton was born Aug. 20, 1899 in Brandenburg, Kentucky in Meade County, the 10th of 12 children of William “Henry” Shelton and Annie Thomas

The property line at 768 Eastern Parkway. | PHOTO BY LISA PISTERMAN.

Inside of one of the rooms at 768 Eastern Parkway. | PHOTO BY LISA PISTERMAN.

Shelton. Annie Thomas and Henry Shelton were married April 28, 1884 in Brandenburg. Annie Thomas was 16 years old and Henry was 22. By 1900, Henry and Annie had a houseful of children including Dora, Charley, Myrtle, James, Rose, Flora, William Henry, Frederick, Anna, Richard, Floyd and Charley, who was born in 1887, and died shortly after his first birthday in 1888. Anna’s father was a seine-haul fisherman. Henry Shelton and his partners cast their nets from 11 p.m. to 2 a.m. at Morvin’s Landing on the Indiana bank of the Ohio River, just across from Brandenburg. The three-man team could catch up to 2,400 pounds of fish per night. The fish were sorted and placed in barrels of ice which were then shipped by river to Louisville and Tell City. Henry earned about $60 from each consignment. When not fishing, Henry was a tenant farmer. The family got by well enough until Henry died suddenly on Oct. 4, 1904. Anna was just five years old. Her mother was now destitute with nine young children to care for, ranging in ages from 1 to 12. Just six months later, in July of 1905, Annie Shelton moved from Brandenburg to Jeffersonville,

Indiana, where she married Willis Curry, a carpenter who worked on the Big Four Bridge. Willis was a recent widower himself as his wife, Laura, had died in September 1904. Willis rented a small cottage on 13th Street where Clark Memorial Hospital is now located. The tiny house would have been crowded with new wife Annie, nine stepchildren and Willis’ own ﬁve children, who were all under the age of 9. Anna’s 22-month-old brother, Floyd Shelton, died in Jeffersonville in July 1906. Annie and Willis added a daughter to the family, Nellie Marie Curry, born March 9, 1907. By 1910, Annie and Willis had parted ways, but they never divorced. The 1910 census reveals exactly how splintered the Shelton family had become. Annie’s three eldest children had each gotten married. The Shelton children under the age of 18 were scattered in homes over several Kentucky counties. Daughter Rose, age 16, was in a boarding house on 9th Street in Louisville. Flora Shelton, age 14, was a hired girl for the Buttman family (confectioners) in Hardin County. Henry, age 12, was the ward of the Cowley family in Hardin County. According to one of his

grandsons, Henry said that he barely knew his family and that he had been “given away” at the age of 7. Frederick Shelton, age 11, was taken in by the Childs family in Meade County. The three youngest Shelton children — Anna, Richard and Nellie — are not found in the census records at all. One explanation for that may be that Annie Curry had become ill with typhoid fever and was living with her son James and his wife at 705 Vine St. in Louisville. It is possible that due to her illness, the youngest children needed to be temporarily removed from their mother. Possibilities in the 1910 Census include an Anna [with no last name], age 11, who lived at the Masonic Widows and Orphans Home on South Second Street and a Nellie, age 3, who resided at the Home of the Innocents on West Broadway. Annie Curry moved regularly, living with her son, James, her married daughters and sometimes extended family including in-laws. Annie Curry had no income and may not have been physically able to work. By 1913, Anna was running wild when along with stepsister, Lucile Curry, she was arrested and charged with disorderly LEOWEEKLY.COM // MARCH 24, 2021

conduct in Jefferson County Juvenile Court. After 10 days in the Louisville Children’s Home, on Sept. 12, 1913, the girls were released into the custody of the Sisters of Charity of the Convent of the Good Shepherd. The convent, located at the corner of 8th and Walnut, housed homeless and at-risk girls, teaching them vocational skills such as sewing, cooking and laundry. When Anna resurfaces in records again, it’s 1915, and she is living in Kings Mills, Ohio. Somehow Anna, age 15, and her younger brother Richard, age 14, managed to make their way from Louisville to Kings Mills, 144 miles away, on their own. Anna found work at Peters Cartridge Co., a munitions plant. About a year later, on July 6, 1916, she married a machinist named Joseph W. Doherty, age 31. Although she was just a month shy of 16, on the marriage certificate Anna added five years to her age, claiming that she was born on Aug. 20, 1894. Anna would use this birth date the rest of her life. Anna and Joseph’s marriage was probably short-lived though there is no readily available record of divorce. Both Joseph Doherty and Anna’s brother Richard enlisted in the Ohio Military Men in 1917. It is during that time that a Cincinnati madam by the name of Doretta Walker Dubois may have taken Anna under her wing. Dubois was an independent woman who bought and sold her own real estate, had been married three times and was arrested now and again for prostitution-related offenses. She was older than Anna by 15 years. The connection between Anna and Dubois lasted a lifetime. Dubois moved to Louisville following her third husband’s death in 1927. Dubois and Anna would later operate a house together on River Road. Following her fourth husband’s death, Dubois would move to 768 Eastern Parkway where she lived with Anna until her death in 1954. Anna returned to Louisville in 1917, and she did well financially, working as a prostitute during those years. Between 1910 and 1920, prostitution in Louisville was not legal but it was common and it was extremely lucrative. Jobs offered to unmarried women in the late teens and early ‘20s included shop-girl, factory worker or domestic servant. All of these occupations earned barely enough to rent a room and purchase food. Meanwhile a prostitute could easily earn five times the hourly wage of a factory job. A madam could compound her earnings based on the number of girls working for her. It was the type of income that brought security and comfort, and it was a difficult lifestyle to give up when considering going back to a more “respectable” line of work. In November of 1920, when she was just 20 years old, Anna purchased her first piece of real estate — a home for her mother Annie at 2227 St. Xavier St.. Annie Thomas Curry lived in the cottage on St. Xavier Street until her death in 1928.

BECOMING ANNA HAINES

In 1921, Anna fell in love with a floor finisher named Nicholas “Nick” Haines, a veteran of WWI. Anna’s brother Richard was also a floor finisher and likely worked with Nick. Nick was married at the time to Lyda Sillman Haines, and they had one son, Carl. According to Nick’s divorce petition, Lyda had abandoned the marriage after about a year, leaving Carl in the care of Nick. Anna and Nick lived together at 1907 W. Market, and although Nick was still married, Anna began to call herself “Anna Haines.” Nick and Lyda divorced in February, 1923. Anna and Nick did not have a lot of time together, and they never married. He had contracted tuberculosis during the war and his condition worsened rapidly. He died in September of 1924 and was interred in Cave Hill Cemetery. Following Nick’s death, Anna returned to her

LEOWEEKLY.COM // MARCH 24, 2021

mother’s house at 2227 St. Xavier. Another jarring event occurred in April 1925, when Anna’s brother James died of gunshot wounds during a domestic dispute. James was described by the paper as a “shell-shocked veteran of the World War.” James and his wife, Bessie Seeley Shelton, were both found shot in their automobile on River Road in Indiana. Bessie Shelton was dead at the scene but James was barely alive having sustained three shots to the chest. James was able to be interviewed by police, reporting that his wife had shot him three times before turning the gun on herself. James died from his injuries on April 20, 1925, and the case was closed. On June 29, 1926, Anna married Charles Brown, a proofreader for the Courier Journal. Anna was only 26 and Charles was 47. Like her first marriage, it was short-lived. Anna filed for divorce a little over four months later in October 1926. In her testimony before the court, Anna stated that Charles was a cruel alcoholic and beat her often. She described his behavior as a “settled aversion” to her. Her sister Myrtle corroborated Anna’s testimony in that she had witnessed Charles knock Anna down several times before while he was drunk. The marriage was dissolved in 1927. Anna had purchased a house at 512 East Brandeis several months prior to her marriage to Charles. Following the divorce, Anna kept the Brandeis property, which she used as a “house of call.” There are few first-person accounts of Anna’s life, so court records and newspaper articles speak best for the events of her daily life. She was the subject of many urban legends and particularly one that she was arrested “hundreds of times” in her life. Court records, however, reveal that by 1953 she had only 37 arrests. The earliest indexed criminal case in Louisville Metro Archives appears to have been Commonwealth v. Anna Haines, Case No. 53521, dated Feb. 22, 1928, wherein Anna and five other women were charged for keeping a disorderly house at 523 W. Broadway. As was the City Health Department’s protocol, she was quarantined in the City Workhouse and tested for disease. Had Anna been found to be infected, she would have been required to remain in the Workhouse under quarantine until she was cured. In August 1932, Anna purchased two parcels of property on Miller Avenue. She commissioned the building of a four-unit apartment building, with additional living quarters in the basement, plus a carriage house behind with living quarters over the garage. The building’s address was 768 Eastern Parkway. It appears that Anna wanted to create a comfortable and homey environment at 768 Eastern Parkway. The building remains largely unchanged since it was sold to Our Mother of Sorrows Church in 1965. The first floor has two apartment units with a stairway between them going to the second floor. Immediately inside the door is a vintage brass mailbox for the four apartment units with four doorbells. Each unit has a living room, kitchen, bath and two bedrooms. Arched doorways, plenty of built-in shelves and cupboards and many original light fixtures remain in place. The bathrooms are the best vintage feature of the house. One bathroom features the vintage subway tile and basket weave pattern flooring accented in pink penny tile, a pink tub and pink sink, while the other is the same but accented with all lilac fixtures. A bantam wallpaper border still circles the wall in one of the kitchens. The second story windows offer a view directly into the windows of the classrooms next door. Father Dalton told Father Erickson that the teachers at the school kept the blinds closed on that side of the building due to Anna’s girls sunbathing in the backyard. Anna’s spacious basement apartment has been completely stripped of everything except her kitchen sink and cabinet. The apartment over the four-bay garage still has its tiny kitchenette,

original gas stove and knotty-pine paneling throughout.

GENTLEMEN ALWAYS SEEM WILLING TO LEND A HAND

Anna’s clientele in the ’30s and ’40s primarily consisted of railroad workers. A civil case ﬁled in 1936 gives readers a look, revealing a humorous look inside Anna’s personal life at 768 Eastern Parkway. A railway engineer claimed that he loaned Anna the sum of $500, which Anna never repaid. Anna countered with a response that the money was not a loan, but a gift. During his deposition, the petitioner admitted that he initially loaned Anna $300 ,which she failed to repay. He went to Eastern Parkway to confront her in her kitchen where she was “hulling beans” and then loaned her an additional $200. In his testimony, the witness admitted that, over the course of two years, he bought Anna several gowns, coats and hats. He took Anna to Geher Stove Co. at 215 W. Market, where he bought several stoves for her. He told the clerk at the store that he wanted the best stove they had “for his wife.” The witness eventually admitted that, in two years, he had voluntarily given Anna between $1,200 and $1,700, cash. The case was dismissed.

THE CHURCH MOVES IN

In March 1937, Our Mother of Sorrows Catholic Church broke ground for a church on one side of Anna’s property and a school on the other, leaving Anna’s house of ill-repute sandwiched in the middle. She set up business again in downtown Louisville, choosing a two-story building at 305 W. Market, known in more recent times as the former Deke’s Marketplace Grill on Market. In 1938, Anna sold her mother’s house on St. Xavier to her trusted friend and mentor, Doretta Dubois. Dubois was then living in Louisville, and in due course, she and Anna began to operate a house together at a location called the Circle Inn on Upper River Road. In 1941, a petition in equity was filed which described the Circle Tavern as a “tourist cabin, building and bungalow building” a quarter mile east of Indian Trail on Upper River Road. The property became such a nuisance during WWII that police raided the location. Anna, Dubois and multiple women were arrested. The buildings were padlocked and the furnishings seized. This case led to the first court order being entered in 1942 enjoining Anna from ever operating a house of assignation and prostitution again anywhere in Kentucky. Despite the 1942 ruling against Anna, she was arrested again in April 1943, along with her sister Flora, after police raided the second floor of 305 W Market St.. While it is true that Anna ignored the injunction, police had entered the apartment without a search warrant. Anna was fined $200, and her sentence was suspended. Anna was charged again in 1947 at the same address. Attorney Brent Overstreet put forth a valiant defense, arguing that although detectives observed many soldiers entering the address, there was no proof given that the rooms were used for immoral purposes. In fact, the only thing that the detectives saw during the raid was a “group of people eating chicken in the kitchen.” Judge Scott Miller overruled Overstreet’s motion for a dismissal and sentenced Anna to 90 days in jail. In 1950, Anna was arrested at 768 Eastern Parkway and charged with keeping a disorderly house. Judge Lorraine Mix released her after payment of a $25 fine. The occasional arrests at 768 Eastern Parkway continued until 1953, when Anna faced federal charges for violation of the Mann Act. The Mann Act is

a federal law which prohibits transporting “any woman or girl” across state lines for prostitution or any other immoral purpose. The arrest was made after police officers observed Paul Reeder Jacobs of Jeffersonville, Indiana, dropping off his wife Betty at 768 Eastern Parkway. Betty went into the house and Paul drove away, only to pick her up several hours later and drive her back home to Jeffersonville. Anna testified that Betty was a longtime friend and was just visiting her. According to The Courier Journal report, it took the jury about 15 minutes to find Anna not guilty and the case was dismissed. Additionally, in 1953, Anna was charged with federal tax evasion for failing to pay taxes from 1941 to 1952. While the case was pending, the Rev. John A. Floersch filed suit in Circuit Court in an effort to force Anna to sell her property to Our Mother of Sorrows Church. According to the suit, Anna had promised to sell the property to the church but later refused. The church contended that the sale was necessary to complete a planned expansion of the church campus. The suit was defeated due to the fact that Anna’s tax evasion case was not yet resolved. The tax evasion suit was the closest thing to an interview ever given by Anna. Anna testified about particular facts of her life including that she had never spent a day in school, that she was never married to Nick Haines and her primary source of income was monetary “gifts” from friends and from renting her real estate. The suit was settled in 1956 with a ruling that Anna was liable for income taxes for those years with a 25% delinquency penalty. The occasional prostitution arrests continued through 1961 when another injunction suit was filed to bar Anna from using the premises at 768 Eastern Parkway for purposes of prostitution. Judge Stuart Lampe signed the order and warned Anna that if she violated the order in the future, she would be arrested for contempt. Despite the warning straight from the judge’s lips to Anna’s ears, she continued to operate the house from 1961 to 1966. In 1966, another injunction was filed. Miraculously, Anna’s attorneys were able to successfully argue that the original 1942 order did not comply with statute, and it was agreed that the case would be dismissed — as long as Anna didn’t engage in prostitution. Anna finally sold the property at 768 Eastern Parkway to Our Mother of Sorrows in 1965. She moved to a property at 1202 Preston St., next door to a drug store. She rented the apartments over the drug store, with a street address of 338 E. Oak, and resumed keeping a disorderly house. Between 1967 to 1970, Anna would be charged a few more times with keeping a disorderly house, would endure another hearing on the violation of the 1942 injunction and would face another tax evasion case. In the tax evasion case, she pleaded guilty and was fined $6,000. She was not given time to serve due to her age and poor health.

VICE AND VIOLENCE

In July of 1972, while conducting a prostitution investigation, Louisville police officer Bobby W. Branham was shot in front of 338 E. Oak by Ivan Ray Jackson. Officer Branham and his partner were staking out Anna’s rented apartments in relation to a suspected prostitution ring when he observed two men stealing a police radio from his vehicle. Branham pursued the men on foot and caught one of them. As he was returning to his car with the suspect, both officers were approached by Ivan Ray Jackson. Jackson raised his gun and fired point blank at Branham, striking him in the abdomen. Jackson was then shot by Branham’s partner, Detective James H. Stevenson. Jackson fled, but the blood trail led

The vintage bathrooms have remained largely unchanged at 768 Eastern Parkway. | PHOTO BY LISA PISTERMAN.

to his quick apprehension. He was subsequently found guilty and sentenced to prison. Ofﬁcer Branham suffered serious complications from the wound for the rest of his life and required many surgeries over the years. He died in May 2013 following surgery to deal with the scar tissue from the gun shot wound he sustained 41 years earlier.

FAITHFUL ERNIE WEAVER

In May of 1977, the city ﬁled suit and obtained a restraining order to halt the use of 338 E. Oak Street as a house of prostitution. The Courier Journal ran an extensive article about the location including photographs of the interior. Anna’s health had so deteriorated at this point that her longtime employee, Ernie Weaver, was taking care of the business. Weaver was a veteran of WWII and had sustained a fractured skull which left him with a permanent brain injury. He was able to do odd jobs after his discharge. Weaver told the reporters that he had met Anna about 30 years prior. He had been walking up Preston Street each day looking for work when he found Anna having car trouble in the parking lot of White Castle on Eastern Parkway. After he got her car running, she offered him a job. Over the next three decades, he took care of her properties, ran errands and drove Anna to the bank and to doctor appointments. When the Courier Journal reporters found Weaver drinking coffee at Jim Dandy’s, they persuaded him to give them a tour of 338 East Oak St., which Weaver described as “the cleanest whorehouse in town.” The photos capture tidy, feminine bedrooms with framed pastel pictures of ballerinas on the wall, white-antiqued bedroom furniture, and “softly patterned bedspreads without a wrinkle.” The article describes the pillows as

“big and soft,” the sofas as “rich and vibrant,” and the rooms were lit with colored light bulbs. Reporters canvassing the neighborhood were told that Anna’s girls were good neighbors and kept to themselves. Anna died June 7, 1979, in Louisville. At the time of her death, Anna had no last will and testament. Her sister Flora’s daughter, Marjorie Logsdon, applied to be administrator of the estate. The only sibling to survive Anna was her youngest half-sister, Nellie Curry Hepperle. She was also survived by 28 nieces and nephews. She was buried at Resthaven Memorial Gardens on Bardstown Road beneath a stone inscribed with her false date of birth and the epitaph “Beloved Aunt.”

THE HOUSE THAT ANNA BUILT

To know Anna’s real story is to know that she was more than all the urban legends and the mockery made of her in the press. Women today still face the same exact struggles as Anna did at turn of the 20th century. Anna is only different in that she managed to build a place for herself by way of a dangerous, risky profession — one so many women do not come out of alive. Now, the house that Anna built may be the ﬁrst stop for women needing escape, rehabilitation or recovery. • If you are interested in making a donation to St. Anne’s House, please forward your contribution to Our Mother of Sorrows, 747 Harrison Ave., Louisville, Kentucky, 40217. Please make a notation or your check or enclose a note indicating that the donation is for the beneﬁt of St. Anne’s House.

LEOWEEKLY.COM // MARCH 24, 2021

STAFF PICKS THURSDAY, MARCH 25

Meet The Artists: Zaynab’s Night Of Destiny Online | Zoom | Search Facebook | Free | 7 p.m.

“Zaynab’s Night of Destiny” is a new children’s audio immersive, inspired by stories from the Louisville community, from Commonwealth Theatre Center and set to be MEET released this August. In preparation for the show and in celebration of Women’s History Month, director Zeina Salame, playwright Denmo Ibrahim and Director of Creative Engagement Hallie Dizdarevic will talk about “the genesis of the project, how it has adapted during COVID and the importance of intersectional feminist perspectives in children’s theatre” in this public discussion. They’ll also read the script and participate in a Q&A. —LEO

SATURDAY, MARCH 27

Abrams Plays Ravel

Online | louisvilleorchestra.vhx.tv | $20 | 7:30 French composer Maurice Ravel was an innovative composer, pianist and conductor who liked to experiment, so it makes sense that Louisville Orchestra ORCHESTRA Conductor Teddy Abrams would want to pay tribute to him. Abrams, who’s both a student of the classics and someone whose always trying to push boundaries and break barriers, will both play and conduct Ravel’s work at this show. This is a live virtual concert. —LEO

Director Zeina Salame, playwright Denmo Ibrahim.

THURSDAY, MARCH 25

2021 Arts-Louisville Theatre Awards Virtual “Spotlight” Edition Facebook Live | Search Facebook | Free | 6 p.m.

The performing arts have been shut down for more than a year, with only scaled down and reimagined shows happening since the beginning of the pandemic. AWARDS But Arts-Louisville.com still wanted to recognize the vast amount of talent in the local theater scene, so they restructured their seventh annual Theatre Awards to celebrate the companies that have strove for diversity and inclusion in an industry that has had serious problems with equity. —LEO

LEOWEEKLY.COM // MARCH 24, 2021

SATURDAY, MARCH 27

St. Baldrick’s At Logan Street

Logan Street Market | 1001 Logan St. | Search Facebook | Donations encouraged | Noon-4 p.m. In the words of a popular TikTok sound, “Five years from now, if you don’t shave your head, you can never say you shaved your head.” And, you can defiBALD IS BEAUTIFUL nitely never say you shaved your head to benefit childhood cancer research like you could if you participate in St. Baldrick’s Day. Logan Street Market is hosting a mass head shaving event (words I never thought I’d type) for the charity. But, you don’t have to go the Vin Diesel route if you don’t want to. Come to watch and donate. Hey, maybe you’ll be inspired to change up your look anyway. Plus, there will be drink specials and, as always, the many local vendors that make up Logan Street Market. — Danielle Grady

STAFF PICKS

SATURDAY, MARCH 27

Oskar’s | 3799 Poplar Level Road | Search Facebook | No cover | 11 a.m.-5 p.m.

Pints&union | 114 E. Market St., New Albany, Indiana | Search Facebook Free | Noon

Våronna At Oskar’s

Wildflowers at the base of converging mountains, wavNORDIC ing to sparkling fjords. Spring in Norway is beautiful, or at least, that’s what it seems like from a Google Images search. Oskar’s, Louisville’s Scandinavian-influenced slider bar, is trying to capture the beginnings of springtime, or Våronna, with a market — complete with nature- and Nordic-inspired art, an Idlewild Butterfly Farm booth, plants, planters, desserts from Smor Nordic Bakeri and Oskar’s delicious food and cocktails. No mask, no service. —Danielle Grady

SATURDAY, MARCH 27

Wild�lower Hike, Trail 5

Charlestown State Park | 12500 State Road 62, Charlestown, Indiana Search Facebook | $9 out-of-state, $7 in-state | 2 p.m. It’s officially spring. So, aside from the rain, 40-degree temperature swings and infamous Ohio Valley allergies… it’s time to leave the confines of THE GREAT OUTDOORS your COVID quarantine and enjoy the great outdoors. What better way to get the season started with a hike in search of nature’s beautiful, budding wildflowers? Join others in the two-mile trek of Trail 5 in Charlestown State Park, less than a half hour up the Ohio River from downtown Louisville. Admission fees are collected at the gate. —LEO

The Dark Bazaar

A pop-up market place that leans into the gothic and mysterious side of life, The Dark Bazaar is back, featuring local art, handmade jewelry, oddities, Tarot readings GOTH and “other alternative curiosities.” Vendors will be located inside and outdoors. Drinks and food will be available by counter service. —LEO

THROUGH APRIL 5

‘Paper Dolls’ By Jagged Little Quill

Revelry Boutique + Gallery | 742 E. Market St. | revelrygallery.com | Free Jagged Little Quill, the creative pseudonym of EXPRESSION Kasey Petrocelli, is a self-taught paper quilling artist. I confess I was unfamiliar with quilling and had to look it up. Also called paper filigree, the artist uses strips of rolled or shaped paper to create a design. “My process is long and time consuming, which is what I love about it,” said Jagged Little Quill. “It starts with a sketch, painted on canvas, then I cut hundreds of strips of paper and finally get to start the quilling. I usually have a picture in my head but as time goes on it never quite ends up like that, and I really enjoy the surprise of it all.” In this, her first solo show, Jagged Little Quill has created narratives about emotional health and self-care. —Jo Anne Triplett

‘Bookworm’ by Jagged Little Quill. Paper quilling on canvas panel. LEOWEEKLY.COM // MARCH 24, 2021

GET YOUR

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Street Box @ Heine Bros • 3965 Taylorsville Rd

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Paul’s Fruit Market - Bon Air • 3704 Taylorsville Rd

Climb Nulu • 1000 E Market St

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Street Box @ Marathon Frankfort Ave • 3320 Frankfort Ave

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Metro Station Adult Store • 4948 Poplar Level Rd

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Liquor Barn - Okolona • 3420 W Fern Valley Rd

Kremer’s Smoke Shoppe • 1839 Brownsboro Rd

ClassAct FCU - Fern Valley • 3620 Fern Valley Rd

Big Al’s Beeritaville • 1743, 1715 Mellwood Ave

Hi-View Discount Liquors & Wines • 7916 Fegenbush Ln

Mellwood Arts Center • 1860 Mellwood Ave

Happy Liquors • 7813 Beulah Church Rd #104

KingFish - River Rd Carry Out • 3021 River Rd

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Party Mart - Rudy Ln • 4808 Brownsboro Center

Full list at LEOWEEKLY.COM/DISTRIBUTION 14

LEOWEEKLY.COM // MARCH 24, 2021

MUSIC

YOU NEED TO KNOW MELANCHOIR By Erica Rucker | erucker@leoweekly.com

SOMETIMES, the unsolicited band email hits just right. A couple of months ago, MELANCHOIR sent some preview songs to LEO asking that we listen. We almost always listen to the music you band folks send, and sometimes it’s great, sometimes it’s just all right. This ain’t one of those latter times. On first listen, I was dusting off my anarchy patches and ready to reclaim my ‘90s tiny backpack glory. Their album, SYSTEM OVERLOAD! is somewhere between Bauhaus, Joy Division, Jane’s Addiction, Slowdive and the best Louisville hardcore. In listening, you will find the sweet spot that is uniquely MELANCHOIR and, despite all influences, it will stand mightily on its own two feet... well, four feet — there are two of them. Doug Campbell, 19, and Zack Meredith, 24, are the musical minions behind MELANCHOIR. Listen to me, you will love it and make it part of your summer skating soundtrack. Fuck, this is good...where are my old docs? The new ones hurt my feet. Barefoot is good, too. This record is a whole summer mood. LEO: Tell us about MELANCHOIR. MELANCHOIR: We are a two piece that records and mixes all of our own music. We try to explore a lot of genres and make sounds that everybody hasn’t heard yet. Whether it be guitars, synthesizers, organs or drum machines, we strive to make sounds that grab people’s attentions and keep them guessing. Tell us about your new album. SYSTEM OVERLOAD! is our second album with “THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS LOVE” being the second single. The first album was partially lost to a dead hard drive and was released, unfinished, under the name 2b. We started working on SYSTEM OVERLOAD! right after the release of our first record. We knew when we started working on it that it would be a more refined set of songs with a heavier emphasis on a holistic listening experience. We set out to make a record that carried the listener from point (a) to point (b) with songs that focused on current political matters, historical tragedies and love. When you’re not making music, what are

you listening to? The local bands that we love are Mosquito, Zerg Rush, Grandma’s Boys and King Kong. Our inﬂuences overlap a lot, while being very different. We admire the eclectic style of Xiu Xiu, Death Grips and Talking Heads and the textures of Animal Collective and even some John Carpenter movie scores. Why do you think music is so important? Meredith: Music is a necessary art in a lot of ways for the audience and the artists. As an artist, I use music as a tool to express my experience and perspective; but as a listener, music is everything to me. It’s a bottomless pit of cathartic and sometimes transcendent experiences. Campbell: Music has been a necessity for people around the world since cavemen started banging rocks together. It’s my belief that music is more than art and more like a subconscious primal thing that everybody has to express in some way throughout their life. Whether their expression is humming along to music in the car or actually banging rocks together, it’s all just the act of releasing what’s in every one of us. LEO: Have you played live? We have only played a few shows as The Sleeping Bag, but we got the privilege of playing alongside amazing local and touring artists including Yellow Cellophane, Couch Cadet, Shadow Year (New York), Iven (Nashville) and Cut Corners (Indy).

Punk band MELANCHOIR

SYSTEM OVERLOAD! is currently on streaming services, including Bandcamp, Spotify and Apple Music. When the world reopens, which looks like it could be soon — and Melanchoir announces a show — get thee to that show and may your ears be blessed. • MELANCHOIR’s Doug Campbell and Zack Meredith LEOWEEKLY.COM // MARCH 24, 2021

MUSIC

DRUNK, HORNY MONKS HAVE HELPED ME SURVIVE THE PANDEMIC... By Carolyn Brown | leo@leoweekly.com

LATELY, I’ve been losing myself in the has reawoken my motivation for my work — because that’s exactly what sumptuous music of Carmina Burana, a my favorite part of it, “Tempus est cantata that sets medieval monks’ poems iocundum,” does. Everything about about destiny, sex and alcohol to epic, this piece just works. powerful arrangements like “O Fortuna,” Those opening notes — the high“Were diu werlt alle min,” and my perpitched women’s voices in sync with sonal favorite, “Tempus est iocundum.” the tambouThe composer, Carl rine — set up Orff, wrote the music in the 1930s A 2006 NPR piece the rest of the piece so and 40s, but the best about Carmina beautifully and pieces have had seribrightly. Each ous staying power Burana described “quo pereo!” is a (in pop culture and burst of pure joy. elsewhere) throughit as being full of Even the way that out the last century. “extremes and the baritone soloist A 2006 NPR glances at his female piece about Carmina excess.” Outside counterpart gives us Burana described the sense that we’re it as being full of LEO, I make a not just an audience of “extremes and living in theater to a song, but to two excess.” Outside of characters in their LEO, I make a living photography, the own scene. in theater photograintersection of The best part, phy, the intersection though, is that of two art forms that two art forms that gorgeous, weighty make melodrama “totus ﬂoreo,” out of everyday make melodrama which means “I am life. “Extremes out of everyday wholly blooming.” and excess” are my this concert hall career, yet so much life. “Extremes and In — stately and highof 2020 neutered me walled, yet warm into a life at home, excess” are my and earthy like a without theater. Daily, career, yet so much medieval tavern — I saw the same dusty the phrase rings so laundry room. The of 2020 neutered beautifully that I am same backyard. The tempted to tattoo it same neighbors’ cars. me into a life at onto my arm. The same wooden home, without But I am not ﬂoor onto which light wholly blooming. spilled, not from theater. Daily, I saw I am still living at the lofty rafters, but home. I am still from the fridge. It the same dusty working through was a struggle to get laundry room. The the aftershocks of through a photo class pandemic: the doing staged “perforsame backyard. The the betrayal when one mance” photography of my closest friends at home last spring same neighbors’ turned into an antibecause I knew that cars. masker. The panic it just wasn’t real. It when he suddenly wasn’t right. got sick. The loss But rediscoverof income when my summer job was caning Carmina Burana through the Munich celed last-minute because of COVID. The Percussion Ensemble’s 2017 performance

LEOWEEKLY.COM // MARCH 24, 2021

loss of faith in my government to prevent something like this from happening. For what it’s worth, not every song in Carmina Burana is equally capable of being a necessary distraction. “Were diu werlt alle min,” a song about forsaking the world to romance the Queen of England, conjures up images of imperial triumph and victory in only 56 thunderous seconds. But its counterpart, the jarring “Ego sum abbas,” is less a transporting piece of music and more a depressing monologue with an occasional interjection from the percussionists. It’s just uncomfortable. That’s not to blame the performers, by any means; the musicians are skilled and the baritone soloist, Carl Rumstadt, has a powerhouse of a voice. A listener will take to it better, though, in pieces like “Circa mea pectora,” in which the swells of the orchestra and the male chorus back up the singer as he moves toward his ultimate decision, punctuated by the quick notes from the women that imply an anxious internal dilemma. It’s the most beautiful, longing ode about a man cheating on his girlfriend that the classical music world has to offer. Two of the ﬁrst pieces in Carmina Burana that I ever listened to were “Veni, veni, venias” and “Floret silva nobilis” in high school. I didn’t know the full meaning of either song; I knew that “veni” was encouraging something to come forth, and I assumed “ﬂoret” meant something

to do with plants growing. Musically, they were both bouncy and sprightly, so, in my head, they both had the same approximate meaning: please come, spring! A great sentiment in any year. But in this particular year, when we’re dependent on what spring can offer — the vaccine, the opportunity to get outdoors, to be safe and warm and amongst friends — that message is even more urgent. Listening to those songs — even knowing now that their meanings are deﬁnitely not what I had thought they were — almost feels like I am sending up a plea to Fortuna, destiny, herself. The poems that make up the text of Carmina Burana predate the Black Plague, but we and the people of the medieval age share the same love of theatrics, of excess, of extremes. It’s stayed with our species through the ages. We want to get together in person and feel the soaring glory of a chorus hitting a high note — or a “totus ﬂoreo” — deep in our souls. We just don’t want to worry that doing so might threaten the lives of our loved ones. Through the last few months of winter, getting lost in Carmina Burana has been my method of self-preservation, a way of reminding myself that beautiful performances like this one will return to the world. There will be shows again. There will be actors, there will be lights, there will be songs. This year and next, the performing arts and I will, once again, bloom. •

FOOD & DRINK

DINING IN AT MONNIK FEELS SAFE AND COMFORTABLE By Robin Garr | LouisvilleHotBytes.com

LAST WEEK, almost exactly one long year since my last venture inside a restaurant, I decided it was time to go back in. Masked up and fully vaccinated, we pulled open the front door of Monnik Beer Co., chose a table, sat down and you know what? It felt great! I felt ready. You may not. Let me emphasize at the top of this review that everyone must make their own decision about when indoor restaurant dining feels safe for you. COVID-19 is still a dangerous disease, particularly for your older friends, relatives and neighbors. Be careful out there. But the good news is that vaccines are rolling out at last. More and more of my friends have received the jab, or two. The metro’s COVID-19 positivity rate is declining, and we’re not a red zone anymore. I hope spring break and the mobs that hit local bars for St. Patrick’s Day last week won’t change that. Feeling comfortable with that second Pﬁzer dose established in our systems, Mary and I did our due diligence and

identiﬁed several local eateries that seem to be doing a good job of keeping diners safe. Monnik clearly passed that test, with its carefully masked staff and tables that appear to be even more distanced than the rules require. I had a great time and didn’t worry at all. Mary worried just a little. And we had a delicious lunch that reopened my eyes to what we’re missing when we do takeout: Crisp, sizzling fries; frothy, fresh craft beer; dishes that come to the table warm; beef and lamb still juicy and pink at the center the way they should be. I’ll continue to do takeout mostly until the nation hits herd immunity, but now that I’ve broken the spell, I’ll be less wary about dining in when the opportunity beckons, and much less fearful of welldistanced patio dining. Monnik was a great place to start. Its portfolio of a dozen-plus craft brews is impressive, and its eclectic bill of fare offers elevated, appetizing dishes that go far beyond everyday pub grub. Only a hectic work day limited me

Jjigae is a hearty, spicy Korean stew of hot-sour broth filled with carrots, potatoes, and fiery kimchi. Monnik makes it a veggie dish with jackfruit filling in for meat. | PHOTOS BY ROBIN GARR.

Side dishes at Monnik: earthy, savory Brussels sprouts and bacon, and a huge, single onion ring. LEOWEEKLY.COM // MARCH 24, 2021

Trez - Give a warm welcome

to Trez! This gentle, fiveyear-old Shorthair came to us at the Kentucky Humane Society after his owner moved and could not take Trez along with them. Trez is a bit introverted - which means he is prone to staying in his favorite spots and coming out for the essentials: affection and food. But, like a typical introvert, he is loyal and quirky around his friends once you’ve given him time to feel comfortable! He has lived with cats and dogs, so we imagine he is fairly savvy with other animals. He’s just looking for someone patient to give him a chance. Maybe a fellow introvert? If you’re searching for an easygoing couch potato, come visit Trez and see if he’s the one for you! Trez is neutered, micro-chipped and up-to-date on his shots. Head over to kyhumane.org/cats to schedule an adoption appointment at the East Campus, 1000 Lyndon Lane, today!

Dolly - Introducing the pouty and magnificent Dolly! Dolly

is a seven-month-old American Pit Bull Terrier mix pup who came to the Kentucky Humane Society from an overcrowded shelter. Now she’s ready to settle down with a family of her very own! This goofy, energetic lady weighs nearly 40 lbs and has a zest for life and all of the adventure that comes with it. Since she is new to us, we haven’t seen her around other animals or young kids yet. You are welcome to bring your dog in for a meet and greet to see if they can be best buddies. Being a young pup, Dolly will need to learn the ropes of how to be a great adult dog, so a patient family with a desire to learn alongside her would be awesome for Dolly! Do you have what it takes to be her bestie? If so, schedule an appointment to meet Dolly at the East Campus, 1000 Lyndon Lane, by visiting kyhumane.org/dogs today! Dolly is spayed, microchipped and up-to-date on all vaccinations.

LEOWEEKLY.COM // MARCH 24, 2021

FOOD & DRINK

Our first venture back to dining in after a full 12 months was made comfortable by carefully masked staff and tables distanced significantly more than the basic pandemic rules require.

to a single tasting sample of its popular Hauck’s American Pilsner, a crisp, golden, flavorful lager in the old style. The menu offers about 15 appetizers, subdivided into bar snacks, mids and house-cut fries. They range in price from $7 (for beer cheese or pub pretzel apps or Belgian-style war fries) to $15 (for a locally-sourced charcuterie plate). There are ten mains, including dinner salads and burgers. Meats and produce are sources from local and regional farms. Lamb toast ($12) was an appetizer and as filling as a light meal. A pile of shredded Freedom Run Kentucky lamb was perched atop a thick slice of lightly grilled Blue Dog levain bread. The braised lamb was mild and sweet, infused with the flavors of long cooked veggies. It was decorated with orange dabs of carrot puree, and topped liberally with paper-thin, crisp slices of heirloom breakfast radish. The lamb was pink at the center, as ordered — a feat that’s been difficult to accomplish with takeouts. The experience tempted us to add another meat item, a single, local, grass-fed, unadorned beef patty ($6.50). It was prepared as a smash burger, pounded thin and crispy crunchy on the outside, but it was still pink inside, too, with delicious juices running out. A vegetarian option, jackfruit jjigae ($15) is a Korean specialty that I can most clearly describe as a comforting kimchi stew with bits of jackfruit, a standard substitute for beef. It came in a large bowl filled with a bright red soup, fiery and sour with gochujang Korean spice. It was loaded with a gallery of goodies: nappa cabbage-based kimchi, chunks of carrot

and potato, thin chewy rice-cake rounds and meaty bits of jackfruit. I ordered a side of war fries ($7), forgetting that this Monnik specialty is a meal in itself, best enjoyed with plenty of beer. A large pile of excellent fries, right out of the fryer, were long and thin-cut, crisp and delicious. The Belgian-style condiments — peanut sauce, mayo and chopped white onion — came in a tub on the side. I mixed it all into the fries to make a gooey, delicious poutine-style treat. A side of Brussels sprouts and bacon was generously portioned for the $1 price. Even this side dish showed the chef’s skill. Brussels sprouts were cut in half, slathered in oil and roasted until the outer leaves were crisply charred like potato chips. They were soft and sweet on the outside, ﬁrm within, with bits of bacon and a smoky ﬂavor note. We couldn’t resist a single, very large onion ring for $1, thickly battered and fried crisp, hot and good. Dining-in still has its allure, and this is what it’s about. A delightful meal for two totaled $49.17, plus a $10 tip. •

MONNIK BEER CO. 1036 E. Burnett Ave. 742-6564 Another location: 415 Bank St., New Albany, Ind., (812) 913-4259

FOOD & DRINK

BEER ME!

HERE’S WHAT IS COMING NEXT TO THE LOCAL CRAFT BEER SCENE By Craig and Whitney Martin | leo@leoweekly.com THE PANDEMIC may have lightened our pocket books, made us want to disown our children and generally crushed our souls but, on the plus side, it also made us drink a lot of good beer! So much so that the local beer scene has been able to continue to grow and expand. Since our last article, TEN20, West Sixth Nulu, and Butchertown Brewing have all opened their doors, and Monnik has added a second location in New Albany. What else is on the horizon? Here are a few things we’re excited about:

UPLAND (OPENING FRIDAY, APRIL 9)

Imagine it’s a beautiful spring day, perhaps in the first week of May. You’re sipping an Oaks Lily-inspired crisp cranberry and orange beer topped with a spritz of woodaged blackberry sour beer, while staring at the sparkling Louisville skyline and listening to the gentle waves of the Ohio. Now, look to your left and wave at the cool couple at the table next to you, because… trust us, we’ll be there! The space that used to be Buckhead Mountain Grill in Jeffersonville will soon have solid food, wine, liquor and an upgraded patio with a free-flowing environment between the inside and out. “We’re doubling down on what is the clear showpiece of that space—the view,” says Upland president David Bower. Oh, and they’ll have beer. Flowing from the 24 taps in Jeffersonville will be a mix of Upland’s flagship products as well as sours and small batch experimental stuff coming from their three Indiana-based breweries. We are excited to try taproom-exclusive small-batch stuff, like the Lilyinspired beer described above, or the recent Teddy Bear Kisses Russian Imperial Stout variant with hefeweizen yeast, which adds banana and clove notes. “Whatever keeps the brewers [and us beer snobs!] entertained,” says Bower. Upland also enjoys collaborating with other breweries and hopes that once they are “officially locals,” there will be opportunities to partner with our other fine beer creators. Personally, I just hope other collabs are as fun as the Overcompensation Double IPA battle Upland does with Against the Grain. Google it to find excellent two-way trash talk like, “sure, the guys and gals at Against the Grain have better tattoos than us and the uncanny ability to shotgun beers with more C-list celebrities, but…”

HI-WIRE BREWING (OPENING MID- TO LATESUMMER)

Since they began distributing here two years ago, Louisvillians have been enthusiastic consumers of Asheville, North Carolina-based Hi-Wire beer. This is one of the reasons Hi-Wire chose Louisville for its sixth taproom — they already know we like them. Previous patrons of Phoenix Hill Tavern will be able to retrace their drunken steps and grab a beer once more. This time, however, they can expect an

Wild Hops Brewery at Logan Street Market.

open, bright, whimsical space with plenty of light-hearted, family-friendly, fun vibes. The taproom will have 21 taps pouring Hi-Wire beer, plus one local cider and three wine taps. They will not have liquor, and food will be available through other tenants of the mixed-use complex, including Carali’s Rotisserie Chicken. Hi-Wire brews a little bit of everything from lagers (which co-owner Chris Frosaker is especially proud of) to hoppy beers, sours, dark beers, etc. The location will have a small pilot system where Hi-Wire brewers can tinker when they come visit. Hi-Wire is also excited about collaborating with other local breweries as they have in the past with Against the Grain. Hi-Wire is all about FUN, and the taproom will offer plenty of ways to entertain yourself while you savor the flavors. In addition to ping-pong,-foosball and shuffleboards, the taproom will also have a 20-by-30 foot soccer pool field (Frosaker describes it as playing billiards with soccer balls). But what could be a somewhat unique differentiator for Hi-Wire is how they embody family-friendly fun. In our personal (and rather extensive) experience in taprooms across the country, we’ve found that many beer establishments say “family friendly,” but really mean “mildly kid tolerant.” North Carolina breweries, however (more so than anywhere else we’ve spent time) have actually found ways to create environments enjoyed by grownups and kids like. “Everyone deserves to have fun,” says Frosaker, “and that includes parents.” Thank you, Chris! We feel so seen.

WILD HOPS BREWERY (THE REBOOT?)

Wait, what? That brewery opened like two years ago. While that is technically true, a combination of circumstances limited brews coming out of the Logan Street Market-based brewery to a few collaboration beers. However, the 15-barrel, three-tank system is now fully operational and ready to churn out beers created by new brewer, Blake Cotton. A native Louisvillian and Eastern High School (and UofL) grad, Cotton cut his brewing teeth at Fullsteam Brewery in Durham, North Carolina. Fullsteam specializes in “Farm, Foraged, and Value Added” ingredients, and we can expect Cotton to bring this experience to Wild Hops, working with locally-sourced ingredients. For example, Cotton once led a group on a foraging expedition at a nature preserve where they picked invasive species and then incorporated those ingredients (think elderflower, black walnuts, etc.) into beers. Go check out Cotton’s inaugural brew — a Kentucky common — and enjoy it in the recentlycompleted, large, lounge-like space next to the bar within the Market. Lastly, I want to thank Upland’s president David Bower for validating our almost spiritual reverence for beer. As a philosophy major, Bower explains that, “Philosophy is about finding ways to solve for the mysteries of life and finding connections between people and concepts. And beer helps do that too.” Yes it does, David. Yes it does. • LEOWEEKLY.COM // MARCH 24, 2021

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT | GAMING

WOMEN WHO GAME HAVE ALWAYS BEEN, BUT SOCIETY CONVENIENTLY FORGETS By Brittany Vincent | leo@leoweekly.com IT’S A HEADLINE you’ve likely seen making the rounds: 45% of gamers are women. Did you hear the good word? Women are no longer relegated to steamy romance novels. We like games, too! It’s a sentiment trotted out annually at this point. Women are gamers — the numbers prove it! But here’s the thing. We always have been. Maybe we’ve come out in full force recently. Maybe survey participants have become more comfortable with sharing their love for the hobby. But that doesn’t change the fact that we’ve always been gamers. So why does society still treat us like its most novel (and disposable) demographic? Why is it so difficult to accept that we exist and have for years? To enjoy gaming as a woman is to practically invite abuse in some form or fashion, be it casual sexism or out-and-out misogyny. We play too many casual games to be hardcore. We’re too hardcore to be attractive. Attractive women don’t play games, after all, because they’re too busy being hot. If we dare to express an opinion online about a game’s quality, we invite the “actually…” crowd, or at worst, death threats. If we break into the video game industry, we rarely see the same pay as male colleagues. It’s not like we’re difficult to find. Anyone with a computer can find a woman charging into her favorite first-person shooter on streaming platform Twitch in minutes. Social media is regularly ablaze with sentiments about the latest game announcements or proclamations of love for characters from women around the world. We aren’t, as so many believe, diamonds in the rough. Look around and you’ll find us. In fact, you needn’t look any further than our weird and wonderful city to find us. Louisville is positively teeming with women who, like me, spend hours in front of their TVs, computers or phones shooting down alien dropships or exploring fantasy realms. And the games we love are as diverse as we are. From the dark, post-apocalyptic adventure “The Last of Us” to the dating sim-crossed-withtactical-RPG “Fire Emblem: Three Houses,” Louisville’s women can’t get enough of gaming. “I really, really love the relationship between Joel and Ellie in ‘The Last of Us,’” said Katie Sims, a dispatcher and lifelong gamer who reached out on Facebook. She shared thoughts on her time with the PlayStation 4 exclusive, reminiscing on her immediate connection to the title. “It’s like finding family in the worst of situations.

LEOWEEKLY.COM // MARCH 24, 2021

They have a bond stronger than blood.” “‘Fire Emblem: Three Houses’ has a long and challenging story, and I play it when I have some downtime,” said Ashley Binder, a pet groomer who excitedly shared her thoughts via Twitter. The self-proclaimed ‘Three Houses’ superfan always makes time to run around Garreg Mach and chat with students before heading into battle. “I can always get a battle or two in “The Last of Us” part 1 or turn off my Switch and go when I have to take a break.” “I can’t stop playing Fortnite,” laughed office worker Samantha Marquess, adding that her son got her into playing regularly while in lockdown during the pandemic. During our brief phone chat she confided that she doesn’t have any intention of going pro, but finds excitement in the grind: “I don’t really care if I’m good at it. I just jump right back in and see how long I can last.” It only took a casual glance through my immediate network to find women around me willing to share their experiences with gaming. I’m willing to bet that if anyone took the time to do the same and really got to know us instead of assuming, things might stand to be a bit different. Games and the stories they tell don’t need to change. I welcome both beautiful warriors in miniskirts and himbo beefcakes in armor. Gory horror and cutesy party games are equally exciting. There are more diverse and inclusive adventures to join than ever, and for that I’m grateful. But the way the world views women who love gaming does. There’s no need for special

“Fire Emblem: Three Houses”

treatment, but some common courtesy from the industry and community that claims to celebrate us every year would be a good start. Like a round of “Overwatch” where we aren’t told to take our own lives while using voice chat. A retail employee who doesn’t assume the new “Call of Duty” we’re buying is for a signiﬁcant other. It’s time to stop the cycle of “learning” that women who love games exist, engaging in per-

formative behaviors to “celebrate” us, and then leaving us out in the cold when it’s time to step up and engage with us beyond the bare minimum of engagement. Women game. It isn’t news. It never has been. But maybe one day the way society views us when we pick up a controller and get down to business will. •

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT | POETRY/COMICS

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT | COMICS

By T.E. Lyons | leo@leoweekly.com

COMIC BOOK REVIEWS!

A STORM TO BRING US NEW BEATS? JUST A FEW MONTHS AGO, a LEO book review roundup praised poet Ron Whitehead’s homage to his friend Lawrence Ferlinghetti— one of the last Beat Generation poets. Ferlinghetti had just turned 100, but now he’s gone — along with Diane di Prima, another recently departed Beat icon and friend of Whitehead. The same year that took those two renowned voices also saw escalating tension regarding race, gender and sexual identities, citizenship and voting rights and so much more. Will conditions, circumstance and timing inspire a generation of poets of potentially equal impact? Whitehead believes so. In fact, he refers to these times as “a perfect storm” in a recent phone call with LEO to discuss “From the Ancestors: Poems and Prayers for Future Generations” (Trancemission Press), a new compilation he edited. But as Whitehead discusses how cultural and artistic ancestors can lift our collective spirits to stand and move forward in the storm, he’s also mourning a more-recent generation that had a very pronounced effect on him. These friends inspired cross-pollination of their bravely bookish San Francisco with Whitehead’s Louisville, as he shared when quoting a piece of journalistic verse from earlier in his career: searching for Lawrence Ferlinghetti I look in “A Coney Island of the Mind” and “Pictures of the Gone World” bearing gifts I come photos of his journey through Kentucky standing at Merton’s grave Literary Gethsemani memories of drinking Budweisers at The Do Drop Inn “Nice People Dancing to Good Country Music” and I’ve come bearing gifts tapes of his reading in Louisville jazz between poems silence between poems blank spaces on the walls between paintings and My Old Kentucky Home is still singing your song and I’m searching for Lawrence Ferlinghetti

YOUR FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD By Krystal Moore and Atticus Moore | leo@leoweekly.com

“the one who’ll shake the ones unshaken the fearless one the one without bullshit” [from “on flight from San Francisco to Kentucky 11:33pm 5.24.93”] The Beats didn’t see themselves as a cohesive unit intent on mutual support, Whitehead says. But when Allen Ginsberg publicly read his provocative “Howl” and Ferlinghetti pounced on the moment to publish the poem (leading to an obscenity trial that eventually opened doors for creativity), each in his own way knew they had a part of something to offer. And that whole was the potential to shake up and wake up anyone ready to see concerns more deep-rooted than the lawns of 1950s America’s then-burgeoning middle class. Some might see and hear similar intent in recent readings from Amanda Gorman. She’s certainly on her way to the highest mantle—but in the meantime, America still has a poet laureate, who is one of many notable contributors to Whitehead’s latest. Jo Harjo’s “The Creation Story” leads off the prayers and blessingsin-verse of “Ancestors.” The voices here are contemporary associates worldwide Whitehead admires and appreciates as part of a working style where “the more creative collaborations I am in, the more inspired I become.” Participants to this venture (which morphed and expanded partially because of lockdown limitations and opportunities) include musicians. Two CDs are available with accompaniment as well as spoken-word recordings. Not all 17 languages of the participants are translated — an interesting gambit challenging the ear and mind to accept universalities of intent and tone. As Whitehead puts it, “Listening to the voices of places you are not, transports you to other places — and somewhere along the line, awakenings occur inside the individual.” With the upheavals of recent cultural and political shifts, he sees a wide-scale awakening happening now. And he’s conﬁdent that in its coming fullness the awakened come to have voices intent on speaking for equality, freedom and justice. Not all that different from Whitehead’s earlier, mentoring friends. •

Karmen No. 1

Story and Art by Guillem March Review by Krystal Moore, The Great Escape

Guillem March is a Spanish artist and writer best known for his work on DC Comics’ Batman, Catwoman and Harley Quinn, but don’t shy away from this book thinking it’s in the superhero genre because of that. The art and story are very different in this Image book than the typical good guy/bad guy stuff. That said, if you’re a fan of Sandman, you’ll be right at home! There’s almost nothing I can say about the characters that wouldn’t be giving too much away. There is a love story at the center, and that is the reason for all the things that are happening, but it’s most definitely not a simple story of two people falling in and out of love. There is a supernatural spin here, but I wouldn’t call the story supernatural, at least not yet. I know that doesn’t make sense, but maybe it will once you read it. The art is gorgeous, giving even more meaning to the words. This is a pretty perfect book. Please, do yourself a favor and pick up Karmen No. 1. Hopefully, each book in this five part series will be as amazing as this first chapter.

Maniac of New York No. 1 Written by Elliott Kalan Art by Andrea Mutti Review by Atticus Moore, The Great Escape

I initially picked up “Maniac of New York” excited to see a new take on the slasher genre mixed with social commentary about systemic issues in America and how they’re ignored by those in power. The concept is interesting: A masked killer has been terrorizing New York for so long that the city accepts this as just an unfortunate aspect of life. The art style is unique and works perfectly for this kind of story. This is clearly a passion project, and I look forward to what comes in the following issues. Unfortunately, this ﬁrst issue is so heavy handed with its themes that it almost comes off as parody. The comic holds your hand and makes sure to eliminate any subtlety by having the characters spew out exposition on every

page. Another let down was this issue’s handling of the slasher genre and its lack of awareness of what actually makes those movies entertaining. I could definitely understand the lack of interest from the cops if this was like an actual slasher flick with Harry showing up once or twice a year to kill a handful of camp counselors or college kids at a party. That could work. Harry showing up and killing hundreds of people every year in public and no one cares? It’s too much of a stretch, and the world isn’t fleshed out nearly enough for it to make sense. I’m hoping that issue No. 2 feels more organic and that the writers start playing around more with the subgenre.

LEOWEEKLY.COM // MARCH 24, 2021

ETC.

25 28

52 57

64 67

82 86

104

105

106

97 101

107

100

91 95

70 75

102

108

103

109

112

113

120

121

122

123

124

125

111 118

119

Singer James Drink for un bébé A full moon will do this Life force, in China ____ Majesty Hosp. areas The Jazz, on scoreboards Brown shade Things for happy campers? Picky person’s pick?

A O N E

A A R T H A P O R A A R T I S P

108 109 110 112 114 115 116 117 118 119

L E E R Y

E L M E R O R D I N A N C E

S L E E K B R A

Ethnic group of Rwanda and Burundi Two, for four Coin with 12 stars ‘‘Zoom-Zoom’’ sloganeer Hollywood composer Bernstein with 14 Oscar nominations Guarded Like pets and parking meters ____ Slam (tennis feat) Julius Caesar’s first name Words of hopelessness Mature naturally, in a way ____ Writers’ Workshop Electronic Hasbro toy One side of the coin Arias, typically Scottish folk dance Alternative explanation for a lucky guess, in brief Ear: Prefix Letters on some badges ‘‘Stillmatic’’ rapper Seen Kind of skate Brown shade Kids’ observation game Hit musical with an ‘‘Emerald City Sequence’’ Yoke HP product Narrowly beats (out)

117

E U R O

116

E D G E S

115

T O N E R

114

110

S T R A P

O A T E S

P O S S E

S W I L L

A N T O N

31 39

72 73 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 83 86 87 88 89 94 95 96 97 98 99 104 105 106

67 68 69 70 71

R U M P S

T H O M E A I P T H Y S E A S S L E I S E D A O C N O F R Y E A L D Y

U R R T E E T S P E T E R R U N O S P E D U T E C A K P E P I A A T M S S A S E Z F O R D B L E A I O N S A U W N A R N I N V I T E S T E

LEOWEEKLY.COM // MARCH 24, 2021

T H E W I Z

52 53 54 58 60 61 62 63 66

Entourage Hall’s partner in pop Part of a thong ‘‘OK, you can stop the story right there’’ Old-fashioned ‘‘cool’’ One might speak under it Co-star of Kline in ‘‘A Fish Called Wanda’’ Start of a compilation heading Times for some vigils Letters on many towers Busy mo. for C.P.A.s Go bad Three-sport event, for short A chest often has a large one States Recharge Photocopy, e.g. It’s the law! Item said to have been burned in protest, once Musical prefix with beat Memphis-to-Nashville dir. Emphatic assent Lively dance genre Hone Contract details Beehive State city Aerodynamic Bishop’s jurisdiction Antagonist Hotel-room staples Top-notch Booties Playwright Chekhov Garbage Drink similar to a slushie About 460 inches of rain per year, on Kauai’s Mt. Waialeale HBO satire starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus ____ bar Org. that takes the lead on lead? Baby fox How a flirt may act Football stat: Abbr. NaOH Radio broadcaster: Abbr. Legislation that was part of F.D.R.’s New Deal

W T O T H E G V E R D S T M E S N L S Y T H R E N U O T O E O U T S T P O S I I S L E P T A N Y A I N N T A

57 59 60 64 65 66 70 73 74 75 76 82 83 84 85 90 91 92 93 100 101 102 103 107 109

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 24 29 31 32 34 35 36 38 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 50 51

DOWN

C B E L E V E A S E E F T S S R O E O F F O I N V E C O E E R E A E M P T T I F T O U A R W R I E A B L E Y S L E T H O U T E R T A R S A

ACROSS

After the fact, as a justification Co-star of ‘‘The Golden Girls’’ Knock over, so to speak Quaker fare Go poof Drop the ball ILLUS__RA__ORS What a third wheel might see, in brief Setting for most of ‘‘Life of Pi’’ Tests the weight of One of the Greats? Oscars of the sporting world Good sign for an angel Intl. org. headquartered in Geneva Some bad sentences ACC__L__RATOR Grapple, in dialect Exercise too much, say A as in Arles LUXUR__ __ACHT ‘‘____ Agnus Dei’’ (Mass phrase) Peak in Turkey mentioned in both the ‘‘Iliad’’ and the ‘‘Aeneid’’ Runner Sebastian who once held the world record for the mile What you might get from a trailer Sport played at British boarding schools Post production? ____ mater, membrane surrounding the brain Popular 90-min. show ENDANGER__EN__ Man’s name that coincidentally is Latin for ‘‘honey’’ Word with small or fish Weak What may result in a handshake Help to one’s destination The Blue Jays, on scoreboards Comeback to a challenge of authority Bitter CONFIG__ __ATION Actor Somerhalder Most in the style of comedian Steven Wright Unfocused POI__T OF __IEW Go all out French fashion inits. ‘‘Kinda sorta’’ Pan-cook, in a way Supermodel Bündchen Pepé ____ (cartoon skunk)

I N L I N E

1 8 17 20 21 22 23 25 26 27 28 30 33 34 37 39 44 47 48 49 54 55

No. 0314

Drop off Admit (to) __OTIC__ Hit the weed? Have guests over Guest, e.g. Place full of guests Start of a seasonal request Some kitchen utensils

N V A I S E W E D

BY CELESTE WATTS AND JEFF CHEN/ EDITED BY WILL SHORTZ

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G I V A C I I A N U N E S T R G I C O P H O E I N N

The New York Times Magazine Crossword TAKE TWO

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SAVAGE LOVE

By Dan Savage | mail@savagelove.net @fakedansavage

LIVESTREAM

I want to thank everyone who attended our third Savage Love Livestream last Saturday night. Mistress Matisse was our very special guest and we tackled a lot of questions about BDSM over a very lively ninety minutes. We didn’t get to every question—there were so many—but I will now, as promised, power through as many livestream leftovers as I can in this week’s column… You say people need to be in “good working order” to be in a relationship. What if you will never be in “good working order” because you cope with a mental health condition? Having a mental health condition isn’t proof a person isn’t or can’t be in good working order; likewise, not having a mental health condition isn’t proof a person is in good working order. I mean, we all know people without mental health conditions who are walking disasters. Now someone with a mental health condition who refuses to get help or to stay on their meds might not be in good enough working order to be in or sustain a relationship. But taking care of ourselves is one of the most important ways we demonstrate that we are, in actual fact, in good enough working order to fuck, date, or marry. Or all three. So far from proving you’re not ﬁt to be in a relationship, having a mental health condition that you’re doing something about—having one or more that you’re actively coping with—is evidence you are good working order. I’m a bi widower and not out to anyone. While teaching a zoom class to young people I accidentally left open a tab that read “gay.” One of the students alerted me in the chat and I closed it right away. It was embarrassing and awkward. Should I just ignore it or address it in some way? If you wanted to come out you could seize this opportunity to do so. If you don’t want to come out, well, you aren’t obligated to, gay tab or no gay tab. Unless parents are complaining and demanding an explanation, you’re free to shrug this off. And if someone assumes you’re gay because they saw a gay tab, well, you’re free to tell them that their mistaken… because you’re not gay, you’re bi.

little sweat equity (and homeowner cred) by taking the lead on fixing the place up. I have a question about the “tech-savvy, at-risk youth” who work on the Savage Lovecast. Wouldn't it be nicer to just refer to them as the tech-savvy youth? How do they feel about having the “at-risk” label applied to them? Surely it gives you guys a perhaps deserved pat on the back, but I can't help thinking that little bit of stigma could be damaging. I was once an “at-risk” youth myself and even though I enjoyed and benefited from programs that were specifically created to help teens/youth in my situation, I was always keenly aware that it made me feel "less than" and like I needed special treatment. I wasn’t trying to give myself a pat on the back when I started referring to the kids who were working on the Lovecast as the “tech-savvy, at-risk youth.” It was just a joke—maybe not a funny one—as they were all certainly tech-savvy, for sure, but the only risk they were running was being in the same room with me. I’m sorry if that joke reminds you of a time in your life when you felt “less than.” We have a friend who could be a unicorn. They have already subtly expressed interest though they are generally possessive and need to be “number one” in a relationship. We're interested but we worry about their possessiveness causing problems. I’m guessing your friend is hot—I mean, that would explain why you’re willing to overlook how emotionally unsuited they are for the unicorn role. Because if you’re looking for someone to play a sexy-but-subordinate role in your relationship, if you’re not seeking an equal partner and/or you’re not open to your unicorn becoming an equal partner, the last person on earth you should consider for your unicorn is someone you know to be possessive and interested in being first, not last. I’m a 27-year-old queer/poly woman from NYC. My question: I used to babysit my friend’s baby. And when I would

show up to babysit, her husband would be there to let me in to the apartment and we would chat for ten minutes before he left for work. I don’t babysit anymore, but sometimes he texts me a picture of the baby and I’ll reply with, “So cute!” That felt normal. But one day he texted me two selfies. I didn’t reply because I thought that was weird. Is this something I should mention to my friend? I can’t tell if this is weird enough to bring up to her. Or is there something I should have said to him? You don’t know what’s going on in your friend’s relationship—maybe ﬂirting with others is allowed—but do you know how you feel about her husband sending your selﬁes: you don’t like it. If your silence wasn’t enough to put a stop to it and he sends more photos and/or messages that make you feel uncomfortable, tell him to knock it off. If he doesn’t knock it off, tell him he’s gonna leave you with no choice but to alert his wife. If he still doesn’t knock it off, alert his wife. I’m 39 years old, cis, and female. COVID has really tanked my sex drive. I’ve masturbated like twice in the last four months. I guess my question is... do you think things are gonna go back to normal? Please tell me yes. Yes. I have imposter syndrome when I go to rope jams and such, but I really love the community of kinksters. Is it ok to go to kinky events even if I have trouble identifying my kinks? So long as you’re respectful—so long as you aren’t gawking or taking photos without permission or making shocked faces—you’re more than welcome at most big kink events. Sometimes the hosts of smaller and more intimate play parties have rules that would preclude the attendance of someone who had no kinks of their own or had yet to identify their kinks; at smaller parties the host might want everyone to be in a certain kind of gear or interested in a certain kind of play. If you’re wondering if you’re welcome to observe the play at a particular rope jam or event, email the organizers and ask. I've got a friend who wanted to do pet-play and talked about being a cow and bought breast pumps to try and start lactation. Have you any advice on how to safely support her in this? I'm potentially open to play with her, if it's safe, and I'm curious about her even being able to start lactation. Do people keep cows as pets? Regardless, according to the

La Leche League, regular use of a breast pump can “induce lactation,” which is “the ofﬁcial term for making milk without pregnancy and birth.” So the sooner your friend gets started with that pump, the sooner she can pretend to be your sexy, sexy pet cow. Thanks again to everyone who joined us for the livestream and we’re going to schedule another one very soon! mail@savagelove.net Follow Dan on Twitter @FakeDanSavage. www.savagelovecast.com

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I’m way more into BDSM than my huzzben. He enjoys it, but he does not initiate play. How can I encourage him to be the instigator of rough sex? We have negotiated limits and safe words but he finds using restraints and toys to be too much work! Since your huzzben has made it clear that restraints and toys are a too much work, I would advise you to relieve him of the burden of tying you up and shoving toys in your ass by finding a third who enjoys your kinks and/or regularly attending play parties with or without your husband—when the pandemic ends, of course. Who knows? Your husband might not like doing the work of tying you up but he might enjoy making out with you (or someone else) while someone else does the work of tying you up. If my fiancé bought a house, do we say, "We bought a house"? I got laid off at the start of the pandemic, but her career has taken off and she's proud of being able to afford a house all on her own. So how do we keep things respectful while still honoring her accomplishment? She wants the house to feel like mine as well. (I'm a dude.) To casual acquaintances you could say, “Hey, we got a new place.” To close friends and family you could say, “She’s doing so well that she bought this house—I’m really proud of her and so lucky to be with her.” Hell, you could say those things to casual acquaintances and close friends interchangeably because both are true. And assuming you live in a marital property state, Mr. Dude, the house becomes yours too after you’re married. In the meantime you can earn a LEOWEEKLY.COM // MARCH 24, 2021

LEOWEEKLY.COM // MARCH 24, 2021