LEO Weekly July 14 2021 by leoweekly

ATTICA SCOTT VS. JOHN YARMUTH | PAGE 5

THE LEGACY OF WRITER WALTER TEVIS | PAGE 21

LEOWEEKLY.COM // JULY 14, 2021

Lollie

Meet our precious lady Lollie! Lollie is an almost two-year-old orange tabby who came to the Kentucky Humane Society when her family could no longer care for her. Now this beautiful princess is looking for a new place to call home! Lollie weighs around 8 lbs and has the most adorable white marking on her nose. She loves giving gentle kisses, head butts and making soft eye contact. She rolls on her back when you pet her and loves to be brushed! In Lollie’s previous home, she lived with a young child who was very rough on her and Lollie would run and hide anytime the child came near. Because of this, we feel she would do best in a home with older kids who understand she is not a toy and needs time to warm up. Lollie has been through so much in her two years of life and wants nothing more than a quiet home to spend the remainder of her days. Could you be the loving, patient human she’s been waiting for? Lollie is spayed, micro-chipped and up-to-date on vaccinations. Come meet her today at the Main Campus, 241 Steedly Drive, or learn more at kyhumane.org/cats.

Squash

Are you ready for SQUIIIISSSHHH!!! If this was a video jock jams would be playing, and fireworks would be going off in the background. That’s how crazy excited we are to introduce you to our boy Squash. This 70lb Sharpei mix is 2 years old and ready to party with a fun forever family. Squash came to the Kentucky Humane Society when his family had to move and could no longer care for him. Squash is in what we would consider his “teenage years”. He’s got a big boy body but can sometimes forget his manners because everything is so EXCITING! He gets good grades in school and is extremely smart. However, he can be distracted by shiny things and small, furry animals. When he sees a squirrel running off, he takes it as a personal challenge to get to said squirrel, so hold on because he is strong! We’ve been working with Squash on his polite leash walking and he’s doing well but will need a person or family that is experienced in handling large dogs. Squash enjoys playing with other dogs but insists that they don’t get to play with his toys or eat his food. He prefers to be an only child and promises he will give you back all the love you could ever want. While he enjoys all people, his rambunctious ways make him a candidate for children over 10. Squash’s previous home tells us that he’s housetrained, crate trained and loves to snuggle in the bed with you. Could you be the one for Squash? He’s neutered, micro-chipped, upto-date on vaccinations and ready to meet you! Squash is a student in our Behavior Modification program. Please read his description above. After reading his description in full, and if you are interested in meeting him, you must submit an online adoption application located at www.kyhumane.org/dog-app. Once we have received your adoption application, our behavior team will follow up and provide you with more information. You can also email behaviorteam@kyhumane.org for more info.

LEOWEEKLY.COM // JULY 14, 2021

LOUISVILLE ECCENTRIC OBSERVER

Volume 31 | Number 31 974 BRECKENRIDGE LANE #170. LOUISVILLE KY 40207 PHONE (502) 895-9770 FAX (502) 895-9779

ON THE COVER

COVER BY TALON HAMPTON

FOUNDER

John Yarmuth PUBLISHER

Laura Snyder, lsnyder@redpinmedia.com CONTROLLER

ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES

Marsha Blacker, mblacker@leoweekly.com Lisa Dodson, ldodson@redpinmedia.com DISTRIBUTION MANAGER

Megan Campbell Smith, distribution@leoweekly.com

Elizabeth Knapp, eknapp@leoweekly.com MANAGING EDITOR

Scott Recker, srecker@leoweekly.com A&E EDITOR

Erica Rucker, erucker@leoweekly.com STAFF WRITER

Danielle Grady, dgrady@leoweekly.com ART DIRECTOR

Talon Hampton, thampton@leoweekly.com CONTRIBUTING VISUAL ARTS EDITOR

Jo Anne Triplett, jtriplettart@yahoo.com CONTRIBUTORS

EUCLID MEDIA GROUP CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

Andrew Zelman

CHIEF OPERATING OFFICERS

Chris Keating, Michael Wagner

VP OF DIGITAL SERVICES

Stacy Volhein

www.euclidmediagroup.com

Robin Garr, James Wilkerson, Allie Fireel, T.E. Lyons, Syd Bishop, Krystal Moore, Felix Cornell, Marty Rosen, Dan Savage Writer Illustrations by Yoko Molotov

LEO Weekly is published weekly by LEO Weekly LLC. Copyright LEO Weekly LLC. All rights reserved. The opinions expressed herein are exclusively those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Publisher. LEO Weekly is available free of charge, limited to one copy per reader. No portion may be reproduced in whole or in part by any means, including electronic retrieval systems, without the express permission of LEO Weekly LLC. LEO Weekly may be distributed only by authorized independent contractors or authorized distributors. Louisville Eccentric Observer (LEO) is a trademark of LEO Weekly LLC.

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VIEWS

EDITOR’S NOTE

LOUISVILLE’S CONGRESSIONAL RACE IS A CLASSIC CATCH-22 By Erica Rucker | erucker@leoweekly.com THIS feels a bit like dusting off some old boots. I’ve not written an op-ed in a long time, but Louisville, I have to be honest with you, you’re in for a wild ride in your next congressional race. I’m not going to really help you out with that decision, but I’m here to let you know, I get it. I understand. This won’t be an easy decision. You are getting two candidates that, for the most part, are beloved by the city and will do the work to bring Louisville the best they can from the federal level. It really couldn’t be a tougher situation. Louisville’s congressional races are usually pretty easy to call. A bad Republican candidate tries to run against the popular Democratic candidate in the most liberal part of the state and then loses. This year, you’re being given a primary challenge for your current Democratic champion. Yarmuth has been in a primary race before, so that factor won’t be new, but a race between two popular public ﬁgures could provide for some interesting antics from both sides. For Yarmuth, a couple of the previous primary contenders had issues with lack of name recognition and/or other more detrimental troubles. This year, state Rep. Attica Scott will be running against Congressman John Yarmuth. Scott is well known to Louisvillians as a popular and

active part of the local civic landscape, as a progressive state politician and as a former Metro Council member. LEO confirmed that Yarmuth will be seeking reelection for the next term, and for that reason, this race presents a conundrum. In Scott, we have a candidate who found the overwhelmingly Republican state legislature refusing to move any of her bills out of committee. Scott, however, had a successful stint in Metro Council and would likely continue her progressive policy fights in the U.S. House. She would further aid in diversifying the makeup of the house as a Black woman. In Yarmuth, we also have a candidate whose votes have generally also fallen on the left side of most issues, although Yarmuth has not embraced a few of the looming progressive policies that Scott has, such as Abolish ICE and the Green New Deal. Yarmuth’s advantage truly is his seniority and position in House leadership. He is the chair of the House Budget Committee, a member of the Committee on Education and Labor and on two subcommittees within that assignment. There are tangible benefits to both of these assignments for locals and Kentucky. The choice is difficult, and I can’t tell anyone in Louisville which way to go. I

wish that I could walk that road with you, but because I moved across the bridge, my vote wouldn’t count. I have opinions, for sure, because this still affects me as a worker and daughter of the city. As it stands, I don’t know which side I’d fall on. I see advantages to both. Here’s what I can say, and what I hope to see from this race as it goes forward — since both candidates are worthy of the House seat, I hope that both are given real consideration from local Democratic voters. I hope that folks use the opportunity to truly weigh the differences based on facts and pick a candidate based on the issues that matter most to them and not because of popularity. Both are great. What I don’t want to see is a city where this primary becomes a series of attacks. Neither candidate should resort to mudslinging. This should be a contest where voters are

given the facts and differences on policy. The argument should follow allowable rules of persuasion without falling into fallacious and nasty attacks. I don’t want to see either tear the other down. That would be more heartbreaking than inspiring, and, in a year that Democrats really need to be united and move this nation forward, our races at home should help inspire us to ﬁght fairly with each other and maintain a united front against the real enemies. May the best candidate win and may the race be a model for others to build a strong progressive coalition instead of seeking and destroying for the sake of a win. •

LEOWEEKLY.COM // JULY 14, 2021

VIEWS

TITLE IX GUY

THE MONSTER AT MY LAW SCHOOL By James Wilkerson | leo@leoweekly.com

Editor’s Note:The following is an excerpt from James Wilkerson’s book “The Title IX Guy: Several Short Essays on Masculinity (Both the Good and Bad Kind), Rape Culture, and Other Things We Should Be Talking About” which is currently on sale for $16.99.

SEPT. 21, 2016

It was 11:24 a.m. I was checking my morning Facebook notifications, while sitting at my dead-end job when he messaged me. I didn’t know much about him. We went to same law school where he was one year ahead of me. But we never had class together, or even spoke to one another. Why was this stranger reaching out to me? He apologized for his intrusion, then explained excitedly that we were from the same high school. How did this stranger know this? Was my hometown public on my page? He asked if I planned to take our home state’s bar exam once I graduated. I told him I did, as I wished to eventually move back home so my young daughter could have access to a better school system. He then suggested that we take a selfie together. This struck me as an odd request considering we literally just met each other. I nervously laughed his request off saying maybe we could snap a shot the next time we saw each other in school, secretly hoping we wouldn’t. We continued our small talk. He told me to keep it to myself, but that he could “hook me up with airline tickets” to anywhere I liked if I would give him 30 days’ notice. He said he only did this for people he found trustworthy, another peculiar statement as this was still only our first conversation. We continued our small talk. He asked if I was on campus and I told him I was. He wanted the selfie. He claimed our high school wanted to write a story about two of its own in law school. Once again, a peculiar statement as two old alumni enrolled in law school is hardly an appealing story for the old high school news rag. Still, I agreed to his impromptu photo shoot. Anything for the alma mater, right? He said he was on his way. I stood on my office’s steps, awaiting him. After about 10 minutes, I saw his car pull into campus from the main road; plod-

LEOWEEKLY.COM // JULY 14, 2021

ding toward my building, and eventually creeping to a stop. It was an all-black luxury sedan with shadow tinted windows, hiding the figure within. He had clearly arrived. Darkness in the daytime awaited me through the sedan’s unlocked door. I entered the front passenger side, the cold air from the vents running a chill over my arms. While the tone of our Facebook conversation had been jovial, the tone of our in-person conversation lacked any of the emotion my mind had attributed to his words. He extended his arm, took the selfie, and that was that. I got out and headed back to my office, shaking the eeriness of the whole exchange off as the product of my stressed, 2L nerves. A few years later during “the incident”, I’d curiously comb through his Instagram feed looking for any clues he may have hidden in plain view about his current situation. After numerous rows of selfies, I would finally see our picture from that day. Due to how we were angled, I couldn’t see his face when we originally snapped the picture. But here he sat, all these years later; lips slightly pursed, eyes void of emotion, void of warmth. Two cold eyes, staring back at me, casting a familiar chill over my arms.

SEPT. 30, 2016 – MAY 13, 2017

Nine days later, Facebook would alert me of yet another message. It was him. He sent no words, only two pictures of me, sitting at the bench in a courtroom, during one of my internships. From the distortion of the picture, I could tell it was snapped from the back of the room, using his phone’s zoom lens. No words, no context. Just two pictures taken by someone I did not even know was in the room. That would be the last contact I would ever have with him. I would dismiss our encounters as bizarre and would do my best to avoid him in between classes. But try as you might for avoidance, rumors have their way of rustling through law school halls.

James J. Wilkerson.

Allegations about him and other classmates lurked in the dark corners of the school, murmured to those who were curious. Students would whisper, professors would balk, and complaints would be formally ﬁled. However, without an opposing testimony at his eventual student conduct hearing, he walked away from all the complaints. In May of the following year, he would don his purple velvet graduation hood, walk across the commencement stage, and seemingly out of our lives.

JAN. 17, 2020

I crossed the street and trudged up the stairs of the courthouse with a stack of judicial pleadings to be ﬁled tucked under my arm, protected against the icy January winds. Another day meant another task at my current law clerk job. I passed through the metal detector and paused a moment to warm myself a bit, when I felt my phone vibrate in my back pocket. Was it an employer looking to save me from the professional pit I found myself stuck at the bottom of? I looked at the caller ID to see the name of a classmate I hadn’t heard from

since graduation. “He’s in the news!” More texts from other classmates would come. “They arrested him.” “Oh my gosh, did you hear what he did?” “He’s in jail.” I rushed through my task, then back down the escalator, across the street, into my building, and to my desk. The other law clerks stared at me as I feverishly logged into my computer and Googled his name. And there he was, on a local news channel. The mug shot of his face stared back at me with the same cold, emotionless eyes from our selﬁe, three and a half years prior. Above his image was the headline in bold font, declaring the reason for his arrest. “Extraordinarily disturbing child porn case.” James J. Wilkerson, J.D., is the director of Staff Diversity and Equity and the Deputy Title IX Coordinator at IU Southeast.

NEWS & ANALYSIS

THE NITTY-GRITTY OF SCOTT VS. YARMUTH By Danielle Grady | dgrady@leoweekly.com

THORNS & ROSES THE WORST, BEST & MOST ABSURD ROSE: GETTING VULNERABLE WITH THE SMITHS

Usually Jada Pinkett Smith and her family members interview a celebrity on their popular Red Table Talk Facebook show. Last Wednesday, they spoke to a local name: 2019 Kentucky Teacher of The Year Jessica Dueñas, who shared her story of recovery from alcoholism. We can’t think of a better Louisvillian to catch the national spotlight. And we appreciate her shedding her own light on a form of addiction that is often dangerously normalized in our culture.

THORN: THE CRITICAL RACE THEORY PHANTOM

Republican lawmakers swear that critical race theory is being taught in Kentucky schools, but when they’re given the opportunity to get specific, this “Marxist” spectre suddenly becomes hard to locate. At a legislative committee hearing on critical race theory last week, state Rep. Mark Lockett, who is sponsoring a bill that would ban some discussions about race in Kentucky schools, said that in one first grade classroom, a group of students were divided by race, with the white children being told they were oppressors and the Black students being told they were oppressed. He decided not to say where this had occurred, however. Lockett might not be transparent, but his motives are: This is looking more and more like a political stunt designed to play to the fears of his base.

THORN: THE FARCICAL RAND PAUL

LAST WEEK, state Rep. Attica Scott announced she would be running against U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth for his Congressional seat. (Yarmuth is LEO’s founder.) Scott, who has made her mark as a strong fighter for racial justice and progressive causes in Kentucky’s Capital, will be up against a popular Democratic incumbent with his own progressive cred... and a senior position in Congress. For many Democrats, choosing who to vote for will likely come down to the fine differences between them. So, let’s get granular. Here’s a look at their political careers: When they got started, their landmark causes, defining moments and potential campaign pitfalls.

QUICK STATS

Attica Scott Born: Jan. 30, 1972 Before ofﬁce: Community activist, adjunct faculty member at Bellarmine University (2009-2011), Jefferson

Before ofﬁce: Staffer for Republican County school board candidate Sen. Marlow Cook (1971-1975), Lou(2010) isville Today founder (1976-1982), Political positions held: Louisville Jefferson County comissioners canMetro Council, District 1 (2011didate (1981), 2014); Kenassistant vice tucky House of In 1985, Yarmuth president for Representatives, made the decision UofL university District 41 relations (1983(2017-Present) to transition from 1986), LEO Background: Weekly founder Scott was being a liberal and columnist named after the Republican to (1990-2006) Attica prison Political uprising. She being a Democrat positions held: grew up in the Beecher Terrace over concerns with U.S. House of Representaaffordable housPresident Ronald tives, District 3 ing complex. Her mother died Reagan, according (2007-Present), Chair of the of an overdose House Budget at 16, and her to the Courier Committee dad was caught Journal. (2018-Present) in the cycle of Background: incarceration. Yarmuth is descended from Jewish immigrants John Yarmuth from Russia and Austria. He graduBorn: Nov. 4, 1947

Per usual, Senator Rand Paul had a big week of nonsensically challenging vaccination efforts and — very minimal — preventive COVID measures. First, he dramatically Tweeted that when the Senate returns to session that he’s going to introduce a repeal of the mask mandate on planes. Then he tried to frame a door-to-door vaccination effort as fascism. This guy clings to scare tactics, hoping to create enough boogeymen out of popsicle sticks that he gets to stay in power. Probably because he has no real ideas on how to better the country.

ROSE: A BALLOONING ECONOMY

Last week, Gov. Andy Beshear announced a $1.1 billion dollar general fund surplus to end the fiscal year, and in a video announcement he called the economy “on fire.” Now we just have to rely on the state government to use those funds fairly and correctly to benefit all Kentuckians…

LEOWEEKLY.COM // JULY 14, 2021

NEWS & ANALYSIS

ated from Atherton High School, Yale University and Georgetown law school. His family owns the Sonny’s BBQ restaurant chain. He is a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

DEFINING MOMENTS

Attica Scott Scott was chosen by the Louisville Metro Council to replace longtime council member Judy Green, after she was removed from office for ethics violations. She was reelected to her post in 2012 and served until 2014, when she lost the post to Jessica Green, the daughter of Judy Green. The election was marked by political attacks, including one that targeted Scott’s stance on plans to establish a Walmart in Louisville’s West End. Scott had expressed concerns about the idea, including the city’s proposed incentives for the development. When Scott was elected to the Kentucky state House, she became the first African American woman elected to the Capitol in almost 20 years, garnering her national press. In 2016, Scott publicly opposed a policy at Butler Traditional High School in Louisville that prohibited dreadlocks, cornrows and twists. In 2020, Scott was tear gassed and arrested while protesting with other demonstrators demanding justice for Breonna Taylor in downtown Louisville. The charges were dropped, and Scott is now involved in two lawsuits against the city. John Yarmuth In 1985, Yarmuth made the decision to transition from being a liberal Republican to being a Democrat over concerns with President Ronald Reagan, according to the Courier Journal. He made his final decision to split when evangelical leader Jerry Falwell Sr. called anti-apartheid activist Desmond Tutu a “phony.” In 2006, Yarmuth beat Republican incumbent Anne Northup to become a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Northup had been in her seat since 1997. In 2010, Yarmuth voted for the Affordable Care Act. In 2018, after serving on the Representatives’ Budget Committee for 11 years, he became the chair, a coveted position. In this position, he requested documents to investigate allegations that former President Donald Trump had withheld defense funds to the Ukrainian government in exchange for political favors. In 2019 and 2021, Yarmuth voted to impeach Trump.

ians who had been convicted of felonies once they served their time.

close loopholes and prohibit devices that feed guns with lots of ammunition (not passed)

• Scott was the vice chair of Metro’s vacant property committee, which collapsed after Scott lost her office. She also supported finding a revenue stream for the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, although that did not happen while she was in office.

• A bill to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour over seven years (not passed)

• Kentucky House of Representatives: In recent years, Scott has been the primary sponsor of bills that would have: • Studied maternal health mortality rates along race lines • Banned taxes on feminine hygiene products • Ended state-sponsored discrimination against race-based hairstyles (the CROWN Act) • Banned no-knock warrants in Kentucky (Breonna’s Law) During her career, Scott has introduced over 80 bills, but none have passed, although this is not surprising for a General Assembly locked into a Republican supermajority. While she has been in ofﬁce, only one Black legislator has passed a bill that they primarily sponsored. Meanwhile, white Democrats have managed to pass 4.6 of their bills per year on average. Scott has also co-sponsored bills that would have regulated guns, increased the minimum wage, protected reproductive rights and expanded cannabis legality. She co-sponsored a statewide Fairness Law, as well.

Attica Scott Metro Council: As a Metro council member, Scott sponsored several important ordinances, including: • Ban the Box, a bipartisan law that barred the city from asking about criminal convictions on job applications • Legislation to raise the minimum wage in Louisville to $9 an hour. It passed but was struck down by the Kentucky Supreme Court.

• A bill that would study and halt mountaintop removal mining, which has devastating environmental impacts (not passed)

• A resolution to restore voting rights to Kentuck-

• Gun regulations that require background checks,

LEOWEEKLY.COM // JULY 14, 2021

• A bill to decriminalize marijuana (not passed)

During her career, Scott has introduced over 80 bills, but none have passed, although this is not surprising for a General Assembly locked into a Republican supermajority. While she has been in office, only one Black legislator has passed a bill that they primarily sponsored. Meanwhile, white Democrats have managed to pass 4.6 of their bills per year on average.

John Yarmuth According to congress.gov, Yarmuth has sponsored 99 bills and has been a co-sponsor on more than 2,000 in his 14 years in ofﬁce. Some signiﬁcant ones include: • A constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United, the Supreme Court case that allowed corporations to spend as much as they wanted on federal elections (not passed)

LANDMARK CAUSES

• A bill allowing banks to service legitimate cannabis-related businesses (passed!)

In 2019, Yarmuth signed on as a co-sponsor of “Medicare for all” bills, a signiﬁcant move in his role as Budget Committee chair. The Courier Journal reported at the time that Yarmuth been a supporter of single-payer health care since 2007. But, he didn’t become a co-sponsor until after he had hosted hearings about Medicare for All and after the Louisville Democratic Socialists of America branch threatened to run a candidate against him. In 2021, Yarmuth sponsored the American Rescue Plan Act, a wide-ranging, economic recovery plan in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. This $1.9 trillion plan included another round of stimulus checks and payments to state and local governments. Kentucky has been allocated $2.183 billion and Louisville is set to receive $388 million.

POLITICAL AMMO

Every politician has dirt with their name on it, waiting to be ﬂung. Here’s what might foil Scott’s and Yarmuth’s races. Attica Scott Tamika Palmer, Breonna Taylor’s mother, has come out in support of Yarmuth over Scott. Palmer previously called Scott a “fraud” in a Facebook post, but she has not commented on why.

John Yarmuth Yarmuth has declined to embrace the Green New Deal, and he has said in the past that he does not support the move to abolish Immigrations and Custom Enforcement. These are two progressive issues that Scott is running on. •

GET YOUR

Ciao Ristorante • 1201 Payne St Party Center - Fern Creek • 5623 Bardstown Rd Street Box @ Piccadilly Square • 5318 Bardstown Rd Jay “Lucky” Food Mart #1 • 5050 Billtown Rd Cox’s - J-Town • 3920 Ruckriegel Pkwy Bearno’s Pizza - Taylorsville • 10212 Taylorsville Rd Louisville Athletic Club - J-Town • 9565 Taylorsville Rd Cox’s - Patti Ln • 2803 Patti Ln

PICK-UP LOCATIONS

L.A. Fitness • 4620 Taylorsville Rd Habitat ReStore - Taylorsville • 4044 Taylorsville Rd

Third Street Dive • 442 S 3rd St

Feeders Supply - Hikes Point • 3079 Breckenridge Ln

Jeffersonville Public Library • 211 E Court Ave

Street Box @ Heine Bros • 3965 Taylorsville Rd

TAJ Louisville • 807 E Market St

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

Climb Nulu • 1000 E Market St

Jewish Community Center • 3600 Dutchmans Ln

Come Back Inn • 909 Swan St

Street Box @ Marathon Frankfort Ave • 3320 Frankfort Ave

Stopline Bar • 991 Logan St

Boone Shell • 2912 Brownsboro Rd

Logan Street Market • 1001 Logan St

Ntaba Coffee Haus • 2407 Brownsboro Rd

Metro Station Adult Store • 4948 Poplar Level Rd

Beverage World • 2332 Brownsboro Rd

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

Bungalow Joe’s • 7813 Beulah Church Rd

Party Mart - Rudy Ln • 4808 Brownsboro Center

Full list at LEOWEEKLY.COM/DISTRIBUTION LEOWEEKLY.COM // JULY 14, 2021

W H A T H A P P ENS NE TA LKING ABOUT THE

X T ? FUTURE OF THE AR T S

By Allie Fire el | leo@leo weekly.com

LEOWEEKLY.COM // JULY 14, 2021

Alisha Espinosa as Esperanza in the play ‘American Tales’ in 2018. | PHOTO BY NIK VECHERY.

WHEN I interviewed the playwright Idris Goodwin a week or so back, he said what I’ve been thinking, and said it better than I can, so: “Crisis reveals the weaknesses; it reveals a moment where people have to double down on their true values and what they’re in this game for. All COVID did was put people’s backs to the wall. ‘Cause listen, there’s been a state of emergency in the performing arts — particularly theater — for a long time. Covid only revealed where the weaknesses were.” Goodwin is currently director of the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, but his work is regularly featured on Louisville stages, and he’s the former head of Louisville’s StageOne Family Theatre. His statement applies to every art form. As our cultural scene emerges from the COVID lockdown, there are two big questions. One: Will we continue to embrace innovative ways to create and disseminate art, including experiments in the digital realm? Two: After a lot of big talk, and changes in their mission statements and their Instagram proﬁles, will our arts institutions follow through on making longterm changes to combat the systemic racism and bigotry that permeate the

American cultural establishment? Before we get rolling, I believe it’s always important when discussing systemic racism and white supremacy to point out that I am a white arts writer, in a cultural scene where reporters and journalists of color are few and far between. Now, after interviewing several people, recording hours and hours of conversation, we’re using the interviewees own words with minimal editorializing, and offering thoughts from 13 people, including artistic directors, dancers, gallery owners, CEOs, composers, playwrights, painters, performers and plenty of people who ﬁll multiple roles — artistic and administrative. We hope this selection of snippets illustrates some of the breadth and depth of thinking happening right now. Sometimes we’ve focused on concepts, sometimes we zoomed in on speciﬁc projects that perhaps illustrate different approaches, and we have not sugar coated any of it. Still — this is not the iceberg, it’s just the tip. This group represents only a tiny fraction of Louisville’s fecund and fractured creative landscape. And it barely even dips its toes into the world of the music scene, let alone comedy,

burlesque and all the weird shit that happens in the smaller venues on the fringe of the cultural scene…. so, TL; DR: we think this is a good start, but we also know we need to have a lot more conversations where we ask “what happens next?”

SANJAY SAVERIMUTTU, DANCER AND CHOREOGRAPHER, LOUISVILLE BALLET On starting back up: “‘Access’ is the big buzzword, as companies hoped [digital offerings] could cater to a wider socioeconomic and racial range and bring in audiences who would normally not go in to see a live show. Unfortunately, this is not the time to start doing that; this engagement framework needed to begin before the pandemic, and it’s a hard lesson on the amount of work that’s going to take when we get back to ‘normal.’” On digital inequality: “I’ve seen a lot of artists of color, queer artists and women ﬁnally get the spotlight they’ve deserved for many years. However, I wish their opportunity was also on a big stage, LEOWEEKLY.COM // JULY 14, 2021

that they didn’t have to prove their worth through a less risky medium. I’ve seen so many white men get their big breaks on main stage season shows plenty of times, but many others have to constantly prove themselves in smaller venues.” “If the digital future of the arts isn’t handled correctly, then it can further increase the socioeconomic and racial divide in audiences and creators. I’ve thought that perhaps future live performances can be livestreamed for audiences at a lower ticket price, but that can push marginalized communities out of theater spaces instead of bringing them in. If specialized performances for a digital platform exist, then we need careful consideration as to who creates on those platforms: do they have the ability to create for live theater shows? And is the diversity across both platforms equal, or is there a disparity one way over the other?”

SUSAN MOREMEN, OWNER MOREMEN GALLEY On paying the rent: “You want to give people a chance that are new artists and who are doing something different. In a city like this, often you don’t have the range of buyers that are going to buy it. And that’s a problem [because] the work is also political a lot of times. And in general, political work is harder to sell. And a gallery is a business. You have to say, ‘I need to have at least two shows that sell a lot, in order to have shows that don’t sell as much, shows from people that should be seen but maybe won’t sell.’ It isn’t all monetary, but you have to pay the rent and pay people that work [on the exhibition]. It’s certainly not a business where you’ll get rich in a small city.” “[The protests have] really helped the Black artists, the people who are doing good work. Their sales have gone way up. There’s much more national interest in these fabulous artists that are getting so much more attention.”

ROBERT CURRAN, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR LOUISVILLE BALLET, CHOREOGRAPHER [Note: Kentucky! volumes 1, 2, and 3 are massive projects announced by Louisville Ballet in 2019, originally planned as live ballet performances.] On changing an epic vision: “‘Kentucky! Volume 2,’ at this point in time, and 3, are both going to live in the digital world for the time being. So, I would like to go back and remake ‘Kentucky! Volume 1.’” “I do feel like the opportunity we have with ﬁlms is to get a wider reach into the Commonwealth and beyond. And I’d like to see that be the way we get it started. And then bring it back to the stage in the future.” “I want it to live in the ﬁlm world so that whether you are seeing it at the cinema, watching it at home, whether you’re watching it on your TV or iPad, that we can get a broader reach. Also into schools, because we can take it into schools and there are great education packets that have been built around ‘Kentucky! Volume 1.’”

NXTTIME, PRODUCER WITH ALWAYS LOOK 10

LEOWEEKLY.COM // JULY 14, 2021

INWARD (A.L.I.) ENTERTAINMENT, EMCEE On the direction of hip-hop: “I think the content of hip hop is gonna start changing. Like we were big in the trap phase the last couple of years and big into a heavy street mentality. And the streets is always gonna be the streets, that’s always gonna be there, that’s not ever gonna fade, because there is always gonna be people impoverished, so until we solve that kind of issue there’s always gonna be people who voice that struggle and pain. And now, how we voice that struggle and pain is gonna be totally different in the next couple of years. It’s gonna be more like that early ‘90s type deal, where everybody was rappin’ like Q-tip and A Tribe Called Quest. That old boom boom bap type of feel? It’s gonna be like that but with a lot more melodies. A lot more singing. Everybody is gonna sound like the Fugees. And there’s gonna be a lot more pain as well. ‘Cause people are still sad, or they may be happy now, but what they’ve written about for the past year is their sadness, so they have to come out and tell you about it.” On overcompensation: “And then there will be, I feel like there is gonna be another extreme where motherfuckers is gonna be lit. They ﬁxing to open up the world, and turn up, and motherfuckers is gonna overcompensate. They gonna come out and try to make up for that one year locked in. They gonna turn up and come out and try to make up for all of it in a couple months. It’s gonna be funny to watch a few people, but pace yourself.”

MATT WALLACE, PRODUCING ARTISTIC DIRECTOR KENTUCKY SHAKESPEARE, DIRECTOR, ACTOR On putting dollars behind it: “I’m inspired by work other organizations are doing, and it makes me want to raise the bar.” “We have to be more intentional. We have to put dollars behind it — which is, I’m so delighted for our board, that was one of the first things I said last year was, we have to considerably increase our housing budget, so we know that if we can’t find the actors or technicians of color in our community, we have to be able to go find them and house them. We’d ideally like to find them here, but I think so often that’s an excuse — ‘Well we don’t have anybody here,’ you know?” “It just takes time, it takes money, it takes a lot of energy. But we’re committed to that. And there are going to be more blind spots.” On universality: “We’ve been looking through a new lens; we say this in our anti-racism statement, but we’ve doing it as well — look-

Matt Wallace, producing artistic director, Kentucky Shakespeare.

ing at the idea of the words of Shakespeare being ‘universal.’ We’re actually in the process of changing that, because that’s harmful. And that’s not something we really thought about.”

IDRIS GOODWIN, DIRECTOR OF THE COLORADO SPRINGS FINE ARTS CENTER, FORMER HEAD OF LOUISVILLE’S STAGEONE FAMILY THEATRE, PLAYWRIGHT, EMCEE “I think many of us who have been wanting to embrace the digital, and livestream, and hybridity, the many of us who’ve been asking this question for years, this was our opportunity to jump and say, ‘Let me show you what I mean by this.’ So, there are many of us that are NEVER leaving this stuff behind. We can’t unlearn what we’ve learned and unknow what we know, about the ability to create reach.” “Listen man, I’m gonna say this, I’m not gonna soften this, for an industry that’s supposed to be about creativity, there are some very conventional minded people who have a very limited amount of very antiquated ideas. And they don’t know how to be ﬂexible, they don’t know how to be resourceful, they don’t know how to, and I’m gonna use a tired cliche, they don’t know how to think outside the black box.” On people changing their mission statements and websites: “Where’s the bravery? There ain’t nothing brave about

putting some words on a website. I need to see bravery; I need to see courage. I need to see you building some stuff that’s gonna help people.” “And folk want to talk about, well let’s compromise, let’s meet in the middle. Nah nah nah — I don’t wanna meet in the middle of white supremacy. There is no middle ground for that.”

meaningful part of who we are as an arts and culture institution as social enterprise. That links us to all our stakeholders and constituents locally and globally as it always has, just perhaps with different details of implementation given the changing socio-political and economic landscape.”

On storytelling: “For Actors Theatre of Louisville, the more salient and compelling question we’re considering is: Are the storytelling experiences compelling and engaging? Are we deepenJOHN BROOKS, OWNER QUAPPI PROJECTS, ing our commitment to unlocking human potential, buildVISUAL ARTIST ing community and enriching lives through our process of inquiry into our work and play? I On artistic freedom: wouldn’t be so presumptuous as to “We must make sure that when we deﬁne what anything is for others, think of Black artists, we don’t think “We must make but I am certainly intrigued with the of them in monolithic terms. Meaning power of creating and interpreting that Black artists — just like anyone sure that when storyworlds and feel a deep sense of else — can make any kind of work. gratiﬁcation from our engagement we think of Black So, institutions and galleries and curawith those processes.” tors [run by] white people like me, artists, we don’t need to make sure that we are thinking KIM BAKER, PRESIDENT about Black artists in the same ways think of them in that we’re thinking about other artAND CEO OF KENTUCKY monolithic terms. ists. It can’t just be that, when we’re PERFORMING ARTS showing the work of Black artists, it Meaning that Black On access at home and abroad: is about a racial issue. Sometimes it will be, of course, and rightfully so, “What we saw was that the artists — just like but part of the joy of being an artist digital realm provides opportunities anyone else — can for access that we had never really is having freedom. And Black artists deserve that freedom.” explored before. People that live too make any kind of far away or that maybe physically can’t come to see a live performance work. So, instituROBERT BARRY FLEMING, but want to be part of the arts and tions and galleries cultural scene and community.” EXECUTIVE ARTISTIC

DIRECTOR OF ACTORS THEATRE OF LOUISVILLE, DIRECTOR, ACTOR, CHOREOGRAPHER, DANCER

On discourse: “My hope is that the good consciousness raising avocation included in the discourse continues to afﬁrm that all are deserving of being treated humanely in anti-oppressive work environments and more full-ﬂourishing equity will come from it. But, of course, I can’t speak to any upcoming plans nor others’ reactions to it.”

and curators [run by] white people like me, need to make sure that we are thinking about Black artists in the same ways that we’re thinking about other artists.

On exploration: “We have found the exploration into and investment in emergent technologies one of the most positive outcomes of the demoralizing circumstances of the public health crises of 2020. We will certainly be a hybrid storytelling organization as such plans were a part of our long-term artistic plan well before the pandemic hit.” “Our ﬂuid sense of what kind of storytelling gets foregrounded at Actors Theatre of Louisville will undoubtedly continue to include spoken word poetry, music and many forms of visual and aural creative expression on multiple platforms as a radical investigation of form and content are a

“I do believe that there will be more [digital and internet-based] exploration. And in a way, prior to the pandemic it was heading that direction with multimedia, that fascination with live performance with digital mixed in, and multimedia performance.” On collaboration: “It’s important to make sure you’re not taking the place of what someone else could be doing. We’ve been thinking about, ‘How can we look in our community,’ and ﬁnd places and partners, where we can really leverage what we do with what is done there to make growth happen.”

“We have access to great performers that can come in and do residencies. So, who are the partners that we can work with who can make the most impact with those residencies?”

NEFERTITI BURTON, CHAIR OF UOFL’S THEATRE ARTS DEPARTMENT, DIRECTOR On energy and answers: “Everyone I know, everyone I’ve talked to, is still ﬁguring things out, still trying to work through what we can do, how

we can do it, how we have to be ready to pivot to something else, what kind of hybrid situation can we come up with that will bring our audiences back, bring our energy back up to the level where we need it to be… that interactive energy that is so hard to capture on screens in that digital space. So, nobody knows what the answer is.” On the companies that didn’t make it: “The fact that so many entities have passed away during this period, and I’m wondering, how do you get resources — human and ﬁnancial — and facilities to bring those back, or, if they’re not coming back, will some new versions come back, and what that’s going to look like. I’m excited to think about much younger artists, like kids in middle school, OK? Kids who have been through this.” On reopening theaters: “I’m nervous about [reopening the theaters] frankly. I want to be optimistic and hopeful, and open, but I don’t see that the behaviors of enough people are leading us in a direction where we can make immediate change.” “Obviously, it’s going to take some time. The very fact that there is not a mandate for vaccination, and it’s not legal or appropriate to ask people. That means we can’t change how people behave.”

MICHAEL J. DRURY, PRODUCING ARTISTIC DIRECTOR PANDORA PRODUCTIONS, DIRECTOR, ACTOR On collaboration: “I think any collaboration between arts organizations is important. And while there are artistic collaborations going on — there is also a lot of collaboration going on behind the scenes.” [Note: This winter, Pandora Productions and Kentucky Shakespeare are collaborating on a production of “Shakespeare’s R & J,” a radically altered version of the play where four boys at a Catholic school read the play, act out scenes and explore their queer identities.] “This collaboration came about because Matt Wallace has had on his list of things he wanted to do, ‘Shakespeare’s R & J.’ He had approached me years ago about the possible collaboration on that project, even before he took over at Kentucky Shakes. Because he really loves that play. At the time it wasn’t right for us; now it’s a great opportunity to collaborate with Kentucky Shakespeare and Matt.” “We’re launching a new project called ‘Intersections,’ and it is about how the gay community intersects with the BIPOC community. I’m also interested in how it intersects with — I would love somebody to write a play on two spirits of the Native Americans. And that’s a national new play search.” “Amazingly, our donations did not go down; they increased a little bit. and mostly that came from people who made extra donations because they knew we needed it. It has helped to keep me optimistic about the future. We’re very optimistic about Pandora’s future.” LEOWEEKLY.COM // JULY 14, 2021

TEDDY ABRAMS, MUSIC DIRECTOR AND CONDUCTOR OF THE LOUISVILLE ORCHESTRA, MUSICIAN, COMPOSER On the connection between Jewish and Black musicians: “Many of the greatest composers of the early 20th century and mid-20th century were ultimately killed in the Holocaust. And what’s fascinating about the music that was being written, is a lot of it was connected to Black culture in America, because these two groups — you have suppressed Jewish artists, and not just Jewish artists, and totalitarian regimes fear that because it is real thinking. So, you have that, at the same time that in America our most popular music is being made by Black musicians, but the establishment doesn’t know how to recognize that. So you have suppression from the, you might say the ‘cultural elite’ as they call themselves. And so, these two groups kind of saw each other… and Jewish composers are in concentration camps writing jazz-based classical music; you have Jewish composers writing settings of Langston Hughes, and we’re seeing Black musicians inspired by the Old Testament. Next year, we have a gospel composer retelling the story of Moses, which premiered on a national radio broadcast and was cut off mid broadcast because many people complained. And that was the reality, and it’s like, there is a real story, a real relationship there.”

ALISHA ESPINOSA, FREQUENT PERFORMER ON LOUISVILLE STAGES INCLUDING STAGEONE AND KENTUCKY SHAKESPEARE, PLAYWRIGHT, CURRENTLY LIVING IN NEW YORK On kings, color and context: “The piece [I’m acting in] right now is a play called ‘Seize the King,’ and it’s written by Will Powers. It’s an adaptation of ‘Richard III,’ and it’s so interesting, because to me it meets this intersection where, the playwright, he’s a Black man, and our cast is primarily Black, but the actual text itself, the character descriptions and the nature of the actual language on the page is non-racially speciﬁc.”

LEOWEEKLY.COM // JULY 14, 2021

Teddy Abrams performing at Forecastle in 2016. | PHOTO BY NIK VECHERY.

“This is the current debate around color-blind casting. It is helpful in this idea that it may force you to say ‘oh — well, that [role] doesn’t have to be a white man, like it is every time.’ But it can be detrimental… My body onstage tells a different story than someone else’s body on stage. For all sorts of reasons. Gender, color, size. And color-blind casting is ignoring the reality that your body onstage tells a different story. It’s saying ‘Oh, you can be a neutral palette,’ which, sometimes it’s fun to be a neutral palette. Other times it’s an insidious denial of you bringing your own experience to the stage. It’s a way that they say ‘Oh no, that’s too Black. You’re supposed to be neutral,’ and it’s like, ‘no, I’m still Black, last time I checked.’” “So, ‘Seize the King’ is doing a different thing than Kentucky Shakespeare is doing, the classic works of William Shakespeare. And the work that I do, the play I wrote, ‘Prisoner Tongues,’ is a little bit different than what Will Power is doing, because the play I wrote is speciﬁcally saying, ‘No, these are Black characters, Black Latinx characters. These are the ones who inhabit this epic world. But moving it into a contemporary context. And you know, it all has a place.’” ***** Having barely scratched the surface, and with a big footnote pointing out that I’m a white journalist writing for a

newspaper with a predominantly white staff, we’ll end with some final thoughts from Goodwin, but first, a suggestion. Let’s all meet back here in one year and ask Louisville’s arts leaders what they actually accomplished from now until then and what they want to accomplish in their ’22-’23 seasons. Will these organizations still be dedicated to discovering not only what kind of art to make next, but how to make sure everyone gets to make art and experience art? Or are these promises empty fictions that are — to quote the not quite universal words of Macbeth — “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing?” Now those final thoughts from Goodwin I promised: “Until folks start acting and behaving and making choices and policies that prove that BiPOC lives matter, then it’s just some words on a website. I’ve been saying Black lives matter in my work, through my whole damn career. So, these people just showing up now? I’m not impressed, I’m not moved. I will have an opinion in five years, for now I’m like, welcome. It’s nice of you to finally show the hell up.” •

STAFF PICKS STREAMING JULY 14

‘Heist’ Netflix

In 2013, almost 200 bottles of the famous Pappy Van NETFLIX & CHILL Winkle bourbon and about 27 bottles of Pappy Van Winkle rye were stolen. The value was almost $30,000. Once the police began to investigate, they found more than $100,000 in stolen bourbon and 10 people involved in an organized crime unit profiting from the stolen goods. This case will be chronicled on a new Netflix show called “Heist,” a true-crime documentary series that features three different crime stories, with two episodes devoted to each. In the one about the Pappy theft, titled “The Bourbon King,” ringleader Toby Curtsinger was sentenced to 15 years behind bars but got off in 30 days for shock probation. So if you’re interested in watching how privilege can game the criminal justice system, this might be exactly what you’re looking for. —Erica Rucker

SATURDAY, JULY 17

Celebrating Poorman’s Poetry

Zanzabar | 2100 S. Preston | zanzabarlouisville.com | Suggested Donation $10 | 7 p.m. D.S. Poorman (Dave Baker) was a man of literary adventures POETRY and initiatives — from wooden handbound bookcrafting (now gracing UofL’s library) to organizing one of Louisville’s most imaginative festivals (Insomniacathon, in 2001). He passed away young a couple years’ back, leaving a wealth of poetry that had not seen the light of published day, as had his three novels. But now comes “Before the Grave,” a generous collection of his poems — capped with a loving and honest biographical essay by Kent Fielding, the book’s editor and Baker’s close friend. Other friends are joining in to give this collection a proper launch into the world, with Zanzabar hosting a full evening of music, readings and remembrance. Donations will go toward a David Scott Baker Scholarship for kindred literary-minded souls. —T.E. Lyons

THURSDAY JULY 15

Cocktails and Conservation

High Horse | 1032 Story Avenue | $25-30 | 6:30 p.m. Four Roses Bourbon and the Forecastle Foundation present TASTING Cocktails and Conservation with Louisville band, Bendigo Fletcher. The event will take place at the High Horse bar on Story Avenue. Bendigo Fletcher will be playing from their album, Fits of Laughter, offering a dreamy psychedelic folk experience. Four Roses will offer free bourbon tastings from 6:30 – 7:30 p.m. and Four Roses specialty cocktails throughout the night. Tickets are available via eventbrite. —Erica Rucker

SATURDAY, JULY 17

Paella & Sangria Cookout

Americana Community Center | 4801 Southside Drive | Search Facebook | Prices vary | 5 p.m. A burgers and brats cookout is OK, I guess, but a paella and sangria cookout is something special. Professional chefs will make the paella, a Spanish rice dish with COOKOUT saffron, vegetables and your choice of seafood or chicken and chorizo. There will also be Spanish sangria available, made by Trouble Bar Beverage Director Felicia Corbett. And to really set the vibe, Yapa!, a Latin fusion band, will be playing. Proceeds go to the Americana Community Center’s programs from refugees and immigrants. —Danielle Grady

FRIDAY, JULY 16

Summer Lovin Drag Show

NoraeBar | 717 E. Market St. | Search Facebook | $15 pre-sale, $20 at door | 9 p.m. See a drag show while also contributing to homeless outreach. All proceeds from this community drag SUMMER extravaganza go to Change Today, Change Tomorrow’s Umoja Project, which passes out barrier-free resources to the housless community once a week. After this sure-to-be fabulous show, stick around for $2 karaoke, specialty cocktails and mocktails and giveaways. —LEO LEOWEEKLY.COM // JULY 14, 2021

STAFF PICKS

SATURDAY, JULY 17

MONDAY, JULY 19-25

Multiple Locations | deerparklouisville.com | Free | 1 p.m. – 5 p.m.

Various Locations | louisvilleburgerweek.com | $6 Burgers | Times vary

Porchfest

The Deer Park neighborhood is hosting PorchNEIGHBOR fest, a unique concert where homeowners with porches or other spaces use their homes (or porches) as the stage for a band or musicians to play. The festival spans several streets in the Deer Park neighborhood. A map and show schedule are provided on the festival website. The event is free and guests are invited to walk the neighborhood and experience the music which spans all genres. —Erica Rucker

Louisville Burger Week 2021

It’s once again time for the great burger wars. Actually, it’s just more of a friendly marketing bump for area restaurants, but we love discussing and debating all of the BURGER findings at Louisville Burger Week. The options are full of creativity, but the concept is simple: Visit any of the more than 25 participating restaurants from July 19-25 for a unique speciality burger that costs just $6. Local cooks putting fresh spins on a classic for cheap is a no-brainer. Stop by the event’s website for locations. —LEO

SATURDAY, JULY 17

MrBikey Comedy Experience

Lavish Looks | 935 W. Hill St. | Search Eventbrite | $20 | 9-11:30 p.m. It’s an all-woman lineup for MrBikey’s Comedy Experience, featuring “some of COMEDY the funniest ladies in our city,” aka Westend Pookie, Ash Marie and Catherine Perkins. —LEO

WEDNESDAY, JULY 21

Neighborhood Nights

The Highlands | Search Facebook | No Cover | 3-9 p.m.

SUNDAY, JULY 18-19

Kentuckiana Pride Day

Kentucky Kingdom | 937 Phillips Lane | Search Facebook | $39.95 | 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Fill Kentucky Kingdom with pride by buying a ticket on July 18 PRIDE or 19, with $10 going to the Kentuckiana Pride Foundation. Not only will you get full admission to the park for the day, you’ll also have access to free soft drinks and a private after-party/drag show from 6-8 p.m. in the Beer Garden: Bourbon Craft House. Ticketholders are encouraged to wear their favorite pride color “to help identify friendly faces in the crowd.” —LEO

LEOWEEKLY.COM // JULY 14, 2021

Last summer the pandemic stole most of the outdoor festival season, and we lost not only big multi-day music events, but also the small pop-up and street NEIGHBORHOOD festivals that bring neighborhoods alive. Neighborhood Nights in the Highlands aims to help bring back some of the latter, with free trolley rides down Bardstown Road, from Broadway to Douglas Loop, and live music planned at several locations. So, get out, shop, walk, eat, drink, listen and support local businesses. —LEO

MUSIC

STAFF PICKS

THROUGH JULY 30

‘Beginnings: Selected Works By Uhma Janus’

Pigment Gallery, Mellwood Art Center | 1860 Mellwood Ave. | mellwoodartcenter. com | Free “Beginnings” is the solo show of Mexican artist Uhma Janus. Originally from Leon, Guanajuato, she has lived in Louisville for 15 years. Janus specializes in line abstraction, ART working in acrylic, oil, graphite, colored pencils and mixed media. While she has great interest in the visual and performing arts, math and the sciences come to play in her art as well. “Some elements that can be found in my work draw from geometry, physics, biology [and] biochemistry, as the descriptive notional tools for the representation of reality,” said Janus. —Jo Anne Triplett

‘Spiny Meanderings” by Uhma Janus. Acrylic ink on paper.

THROUGH AUG. 1

‘Organic Expressions’

KORE Gallery | 942 E. Kentucky St. | koreartgallery.com | Free There are 14 definitions for organic in the MerriamEXHIBITION Webster dictionary, most having to do with nature. That’s a good way to think of the art in this exhibition — a group show that focuses on the natural world. Patricia Brock specializes in nature as well as architectural elements. As an available light photographer, her “goal [is] to capture the images as they look with the play of light, shadows and colors.” Wood turner Michael Robinson also focuses on the organic. “Being drawn to nature, I find Lily Pad Bowl by Michael Robinson. Cherry. flowers, plants and butterflies fascinating,” he said. “These motifs find their way into my pieces.” Painter Anil Vinayakan is another artist inspired by living organisms, “observing, interpreting and connecting with nature.” —Jo Anne Triplett

ALBUM REVIEWS: NEW MUSIC FROM PRAYER LINE AND YONS By Syd Bishop | leo@leoweekly.com

PRAYER LINE

THRILL ME, LICK ME, FUCK ME, KILL ME

Horror punk mutants Prayer Line know how to have a good time, and it’s wholly on their own terms. The music here continues the nightmare metal of their earlier releases, amplified by virtually every conceivable standard. Vocalist/bassist Jake Hellman leans hard into his inspirations, channeling the visceral growl of Rob Zombie with the rock and roll strut of Gene Simmons. To wit, the cover features a long tongue out, hued in deep green and red tones, a fitting image that seems to capture Hellman’s turn at the microphone, devil horns up as he screeches his Satanic Panic-infused drawl into the mic. Phil Olympia, who shares vocal duties and rounds out the guitar, returns to form with his own thrash punkinfluenced, southern-fried delivery, half-sung and half-hollered. In both cases, the lyrics are centered on the aforementioned horror, celebrating with heinous glee. From a compositional standpoint, the music on Thrill Me, Lick Me, Fuck Me, Kill Me builds on their previous oeuvre, now emphasizing thick guitars and stacked lead harmony lines. Listen close, and you can hear the slick pinch harmonics of guitarist Jake Miller, as he leans into the schlock and awe of the project. Drummer Trent Combs rounds out the lineup wonderfully, using double kick drum theatrics to propel these tracks in a way that guarantees you’ll have a bangover. This is a catchy album, with plenty of straightforward hooks and the kind of chug-chug parts that would make Dave Mustaine blush. You can check them out on July 17 at Headliners Music Hall for their album release with Stagecoach Inferno and Tyler Lance Walker Gill.

YONS

SPACE TRAP VOL. 1

Producer and emcee Yons is an incredible force of creative energy. If you follow his journey, you can hear his perseverance and persistence in vision. With Space Trap Vol. 1, the emphasis is on trap music and sound production. The EP is a proof of concept for his skills at sound production, meaning that every beat, drum sound, synth or base is something carefullyconstructed for this sound kit. An instrumental release, this is somewhat of a change for the artist from before, as Yons would often replicate the sounds that you might have otherwise considered culled from a record or movie himself. Each song clocks in at around two minutes, making it an ideal exhibition of skill. Yons uses sub-bass and trap work as the backbone of each track, leaning into each texture with warbly synths and basslines. His intermittent use of FX to punctuate tracks makes for a sonic onion, a complex maze of sounds and beats that continue to yield new and exciting layers across multiple listens. As usual, Yons shows his talent across multiple genres, whether that’s creating a powerful sample pack or a lo-key summertime banger. LEOWEEKLY.COM // JULY 14, 2021

FOOD & DRINK

RECOMMENDED

A HAPPY RETURN TO EL MARIACHI, A FAVORITE TAQUERIA

Three hearty tacos! El Mariachi seems to grill the corn tortillas in oil before forming the tacos, which imparts a deliciously greasy, weighty character. | PHOTOS BY ROBIN GARR.

By Robin Garr | LouisvilleHotBytes.com HOLA! Last week, I ﬁnally got back to one of my favorite taquerias, El Mariachi, and oh did it make me happy. Now I wish it hadn’t taken me so long, but I felt uneasy about the idea before I ﬁnally got fully vaccinated. There’s typically some language barrier for me at the storefront places I love best — I can read Spanish fairly well, but I’m not good with conversations en español — so I couldn’t gear up to investigate a favorite spot’s takeout and curbside delivery options. Now that’s over, and I hope it’s over to stay. We headed out to Lagrange Road to El Mariachi for lunch and found it back in full operation. This little place, with its roots in Mexico’s Guanajuato region, looks the same as I remembered: Walking in feels like crossing a barrier into the colorful, little, subtropical Mexican village of your dreams. Just about every surface, including the heavy wooden chairs and booth backs, is covered with big, bright works of Mexican art, depicting such varied scenes as toucans, an ox cart, and a woman gently holding a big clay pot.

LEOWEEKLY.COM // JULY 14, 2021

El Mariachi social media is bilingual, declaring itself “Restaurante mexicano una nueva experiencia en tacos con sabor original” (“Mexican restaurant, a new experience in tacos with original ﬂavor”), while assuring Anglophones that “Our chefs prepare every dish with care…casual, everyday style food made from fresh, natural ingredients from local farms makes our menu reminiscent of Mom’s home cooking.” The menu — accessible via smartphone from a QR code on each table — is bold in color, too, with large images of many dishes. It’s entirely in English, with only the names of familiar dishes in Spanish. Ten pages long, it includes both familiar Mexican dishes and a separate section for Tex-Mex options. You’ll ﬁnd just about all the basics, starting with a dozen soft tacos priced from $2.49 to $3.49, an attractive toll that invites one to order several. A choice of eight tortas — Mexican sandwiches on traditional bolillo rolls from the panaderia next door — are $10.99 to $12.99.

You won’t find a meatless option on El Mariachi’s menu any more, but upon request they gladly crafted a delicious veggie-and-cheese model with plenty of perfect Mexican rice and beans.

FOOD & DRINK

You wouldn’t expect green salsa verde to be even hotter than hot red salsa rojo, but there you have it: Delicious and fiery.

Thick gorditas and open-face sopesitos are just $3.99; oversize huaraches topped with taco fillings are $8.99. On the Tex-Mex side, quesadillas, chimichangas, taco salads and burritos start at $2.99 (for a crunchy American-style taco) to $13.99 (for a seafood-stuffed burrito de mariscos). Fajitas and other favorite entrees top out at $17.99 for fajita Guanajuato (the only dish explicitly billed as Guanajuato-style), loaded with arrachera (marinated spicy skirt steak), grilled onions and peppers and Mexican sausage. Dinner entrees include caldos (large beef soups filled with ingredients); molcajetes de la parrilla (grilled meat or seafood served in stone bowls), and a dozen fancy seafood dishes ranging from $14.99 to $25.99. We didn’t get into the pricey dinner entrees, but I’m happy to report that our simple lunch was well prepared and delicious, just as I remembered it. It’s easy to unthinkingly scarf down the complimentary chips and salsa that are almost ubiquitous at Mexican eateries, but it’s worth pausing to savor El Mariachi’s chips. They are thick and crunchy and full of the flavor of masa, Mexican cornmeal — they’re freshly fried from thick, just-made corn tortillas. The roughly pureed tomato-and-green-chile salsa is simple, just gently piquant, and very tasty, too. We ordered three tacos from the list: lengua (tongue, $3.49), carnitas (pork, $2.49) and lomo (beef, $3.49). They all came out packed tightly together in a plastic basket lined with wax paper. They were each built on doubled, fresh

corn tortillas that seemed to have been quickly fried or grilled with oil, imparting an unfamiliar, yet appealing gently-greasy character. They were all topped with the traditional garnish of fresh cilantro and chopped raw onion. Beef tongue scares some people, but if you won’t eat a lengua taco you’re missing a Mexican experience. It was cut into small pieces, tender and reminiscent of gamey pot roast. The lomo beef was sliced very thin with fatty edges and on the tough side, with a strong beef flavor. I’m committed to include a good vegetarian option in every review, but that can be tough at a meat-centric taqueria. The manager, whose English was quite a bit better than my Spanish, worked with me to come up with an off-menu veggie burrito ($6.99). It turned out delicious, a large wheat tortilla stuffed with crisp, slightly oily, fresh-fried bits of onion and red, green and yellow pepper, coated with melted queso. First-rate Mexican rice and frijoles refritos alongside made it a meal. Squeeze jars of fiery red salsa and even fierier green salsa brought it all together. With a sweet-tart Jarritos Tamarindo ($2.49) Mexican soft drink, our taqueria lunch came to a reasonable $20.09. I tossed the 20% rule out the window for a tab that small and added a $10 tip. •

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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

YOUR FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD

COMIC BOOK REVIEWS! By Krystal Moore and Felix Cornell | leo@leoweekly.com

‘Batman: Reptilian’ No. 1 Written by Garth Ennis Art by Liam Sharp Review by Krystal Moore The Great Escape

@leoweekly

You know how Batman can be a dark character? Well, in “Batman: Reptilian” No. 1 he, as well as Gotham City, is DARK. Garth Ennis is no stranger to dark themes having written “Preacher,” “The Boys,” and a nine year run on “The Punisher.” Liam Sharp provides art that is literally dark as well as figuratively. Think “Blade Runner” if it was Gotham City, and the characters are backlit in neon. So we’ve set the scene for a story where a super grim Batman is seeing all his foes taken down in horrific ways. He turns to the seedy bars where the criminals tend to gather to find a witness who survived the massacre. He uses his own scare tactics to persuade the man to return to the insane inner circle of Gotham’s villains to give Batman a chance to save his enemies. This book is for fans of darkness. This isn’t Adam West’s version of Batman. This is an unlikeable character who is able to be scarier than the Joker in order to get someone to do his bidding. But, in his mind, the mission is what matters. The art is stunning and perfectly compliments Ennis’ six part story. If you’re up for it, dive into this gritty world where there’s a very thin line between the villains and the good guys.

‘Parasomnia’ No. 1 Written by Cullen Bunn Art by Andrea Mutti Review by Felix Cornell The Great Escape

What if the wall between dreams and reality was just a little bit thinner? This question is asked in “Parasomnia,” a new dark fantasy tale from Cullen Bunn (“Harrow County”) and Andrea Mutti (“Port of Earth”). Parasomnia follows a nameless stranger as he seeks out his missing son in a grim, high fantasy dreamscape. He’ll use any means necessary to ﬁnd him, even as he’s being hunted down by a faceless Queen who wants him dead. The story is told non-linearly, as it dips in and out of the dream and waking worlds. While the ﬁrst issue doesn’t give away too many solid details, it does introduce us to both worlds, as well as the nefarious groups that inhabit them. The connection between these two stories appear to be young boys: one missing, one sick. Something that I really enjoy about “Parasomnia” is the way Mutti’s distinctive style changes for the two worlds: the waking world is far more colorful, while the fantasy dreamscape is darker. While context clues could tell you which story you’re reading, it’s lovely having a more aesthetic distinction. While issue No. 1 will certainly leave you asking plenty of questions, the set up alone will have you hankering to see how all the pieces of this mystery will come together in the end.

LEOWEEKLY.COM // JULY 14, 2021

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

DA REVIEW OF KENTUCKY SHAKESPEARE’S STUNNING ‘HENRY V’

By Marty Rosen | leo@leoweekly.com

IN 2017, when Kentucky Shakespeare set out on a four-year plan to stage Shakespeare’s Henriad cycle (“Richard II,” “Henry IV” parts one and two, and “Henry V”), the company branded the project as “Game of Kings.” I suppose that not-so-subtle pop culture reference was designed to overcome audience reluctance to attend a collection of n plays that bear a not-so-appealing label — “history plays.” Five years later (after last season’s e hiatus), any such reluctance must be a thing of the past: more than 1,000 people came to Central Park’s C. Douglas Ramey Amphitheater last Friday for the opening of “Henry V.” a The multi-year schedule was ambitious is in itself, but even more ambitious was the n company’s decision to build a multi-year to plan around the idea of maintaining a nearly entirely intact company of actors and technical personnel across the entire span of the project, so that, for instance, Zachary Burrell could inhabit the part of Prince Hal/Henry e’s V across the span of three (make that four) seasons. There are not many repertory companies in the world that could envision and then shepherd a project like that. But Matt Wallace (the company’s producing artistic director) and Amy Attaway (the company’s was associate artistic director and director of all in four productions in the cycle) did what they ul- set out to do. The result is a piece of stunningly beautiti ful theater. This is a sprawling play with something like 40 characters whose lives sy play out in courtly palaces, seedy taverns, army camps and turbulent battlefields. It’s a play that is heady and bloody, bawdy and y romantic, graceful and glorious and raunchy and grotesque. And it’s a play — like one of e those enormous medieval tapestries — that oes achieves its greatness only when every incident and character is rendered with complete on attention and perfect clarity. That’s a hard thing to achieve, but it’s what happens here. And it’s a hard thing g- to fairly describe in detail the work of two dozen performers (many in multiple roles) a who bring all these characters to vivid life. That’s something for which, alas, there is not sufficient space. My recommendation is just to head to the park, find a comfortable

seat not too far from the stage and immerse yourself in this remarkable world. On opening night, from the very beginning, the audience was caught up in and responding to the wit and the urgency of this production. In a brilliant stroke, Attaway has magically imported a key scene from “Henry IV Part 1” to serve as a kind of preface: Prince Hal (Burrell) and Falstaff (J. Barrett Cooper) playact together a stern interview that might take place between the youthfully undisciplined Hal and his stern father Henry IV. It’s a scene that begins in fun, but quickly goes sour — at least for Falstaff — and foreshadows who Hal will become and how Falstaff will wind up. Then the opening action of the play proper ﬁnds the now-King Henry V (Burrell) asking the Archbishop of Canterbury (Gregory Maupin) whether Henry has a legal claim to throne of France. In response, Maupin answered with a perfectly deadpan lecture on history and theology so dry and tedious that on Friday night, he was only a few lines in when the audience started laughing. From then on, as Henry would say later in the play, the game was afoot. Then the action volleys back and forth like balls across a tennis court. In the royal court, treason is discovered, and three nobles (played by Alex Gordon, Tony Reimonenq III, Shaquille Towns) are sentenced to death. In an Eastcheap Tavern, Falstaff’s friends recount and mourn the details of his death in a scene that — like everything related to Falstaff — is at once raunchy and inspiring, and it’s here that we see for the ﬁrst time in the body of this play, Shakespeare’s superbly humanistic treatment of the underclasses, in superbly wrought performances by Kyle Ware, Jon Patrick O’Brien, Hallie Dizdarevic, Mollie Murk, Jennifer Pennington, and Gregory Sanders, all of whom work craft a wonderful ensemble. Meanwhile, the members of the French royal court, who know of Henry V’s youthful wildness, dismiss him as a serious threat

Shaquille Towns plays the Earl of Westmoreland in Kentucky Shakespeare’s Henry V | PHOTO BY JON CHERRY

in a delicious scene played with breezy confidence by Jon Huffman as the doddering King, Dizdarevic as the imposing Queen Isabel (she also narrates the prologue and interstitial material), and Will DVary as the Dauphin (whose preoccupation with his horse is just one of the delights of this play). Other members of the French faction include Tom Luce as a voice of reason, O’Brien and Braden McCampbell as Governor of the besieged city of Harfleur — and BeeBee Patillo in a memorable turn as the French court’s emissary to Henry. In addition, there is a diplomatic romance at the core of this play, one that involves the King of England and Princess Katherine of France. And while war is brewing elsewhere, Katherine (Murk) gets instruction in the English vocabulary of human anatomy in what must be one funniest scenes in all of English drama, especially since her tutor, Alice, is played by the formidable Abigail Bailey Maupin. For romantic comedy, a later scene that brings Henry and his future bride together, is just about as fine. The romance may be blissful and witty, but at heart, this is a play about war, and especially Henry’s conduct of it. Attaway’s staging of the war scenes, with thrilling work and blazing action from fight chroreographer Eric Frantz is as powerful as can be. In fact, all the technical aspects of this production are outstanding: Karl Anderson (set design); Megan Bliss (choreography;

Casey Clark (lighting); Donna LawrenceDowns (an enormous array of costume designs); Laura Ellis (sound design); Rachel K. Carter (dialect coach), and several more… Key action here involves the siege of Harﬂeur, Henry’s restless decision to roam in disguise amongst his troops on the eve of Agincourt, the brutal battle itself, Henry’s steely willfulness and the extraordinary comic scenes that ﬂow in and out throughout and feature virtuoso performances by Greg Maupin as the thickly accented Welshman Fluellen, Kyle Ware his hapless leek-eating nemesis Pistol. But it’s Henry who matters, of course. And on that matter I will say only this: I feel reasonably sure that if during the St. Crispin’s Day speech Burrell had asked the amphitheater audience to jump up and storm the stage, a quite large contingent would have done so. Amazing. • Kentucky Shakespeare’s “Henry V” plays at 8 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday, through July 18, then it runs in rotation with “Shakespeare In Love” through Aug. 1. The plays are free and take place at C. Douglas Ramey Amphitheater, Central Park, 1340 S. Fourth St. Check kyshakespeare.com for information.

LEOWEEKLY.COM // JULY 14, 2021

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

HENRIAD AND THE CHANGING FACE OF HONOR: A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE By Marty Rosen | leo@leoweekly.com IN 1398, King Richard II of England did something that astonished the cutthroat, blood-soaked world of medieval England: he stopped two noblemen from killing one another. The incident is recounted in great detail in Raphael Holinshed’s “Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland” and in another chronicle by Edward Hall — and should you ever find yourself wishing desperately for another season of “Game of Thrones,” just download Holinshed from Project Gutenberg — you’ll soon wonder how anyone at all survived the Middle Ages. These chronicles, published in the 1500s, had an enormous influence on the course of English culture and history. They became source material for a slew of Shakespeare’s plays (not only the histories, but “Macbeth “and “King Lear”), as well as a number of his contemporaries. What happened in 1398 is that two noblemen, Thomas Mowbray and Henry Bolingbroke, came to Richard’s court and accused one another of treason. Richard tried to talk them down, but failed: They threw their gages (armored gloves) upon the ground and in the custom of the day the challenged one another to trial by combat as part of a code of honor. According to both chronicles, the day of their battle was a grand affair, with some 10,000 knights on hand to keep the peace in case a fight broke out between the men’s factions. But, at the last possible minute, Richard halted the affair and sentenced both men to exile. This moment leads inexorably to Richard being deposed and Bolingbroke eventually becoming King Henry IV. For hundreds of years, trial by combat was a fixture of European law, and though King Richard II had the power to stop the duel, his doing so must have felt as disruptive as, say, a U.S. President deciding to suspend the Supreme Court. It was such a fraught moment that two hundred years later, in 1595, Shakespeare used the incident to kick of his play “Richard II” and the epic four play cycle that contemporary critics call The Henriad: “Richard II,” “Henry IV” (parts 1 and 2), and “Henry V.” These four plays cover a quarter century that ushers in a new world order. By the end

LEOWEEKLY.COM // JULY 14, 2021

of “Henry V,” the romanticized old world order — represented in “Richard II” by John of Gaunt, who famously laments Richard’s degradation of his beloved “sceptered isle” — has given way to a world where “honor” can first be mocked by the smart, cynical Falstaff — and then comically satirized as Shakespeare depicts people in the scruffy lower classes start to mimic the language and behavior of the gentry. War, honor and trial by combat are central to the chivalric culture of the Middle Ages — at least among the nobles. It was an expensive affair to be outfitted with horse and armor — or even a bow. And, by most accounts, was a prerogative and requirement for nobles But right around 1400 — just as this cycle of plays begins — things started to change. In 2017, in The Journal of Economic History (Cambridge University Press), Neil Cummins, a professor at the London School of Economics, published a paper entitled “Lifespans of the European Elite, 800-1800.” Cummins doesn’t mention Shakespeare — and Shakespeare certainly couldn’t have replicated Cummins analytical tools. But what Cummins finds is that, “European nobility specialized in the execution of violence,” and that for the first 600 years of this period (that is, 800-1400), approximately 30% of male European nobles died of violence (warfare and combat). Beginning around that time, the lifespans of European nobles starts to climb — and the percentage of deaths by violence drops to around 5%. Cummins doesn’t offer absolutely firm conclusions about why noble combat deaths declined so much. But he does touch on something that military historians sometimes call “the infantry revolution,” a long period during which military technology and tactics gradually shifted away from nobles on horseback to commoners on the ground, who

Mollie Murk and Tony Reimonenq III play soldiers in Henry V. | PHOTO BY JON CHERRY

will soon enough become cannon fodder. Taken as a whole, The Henriad is an extraordinary achievement. In terms of the historical record, Shakespeare never veers from the accounts in the chronicles. But his imagination takes him — and us — into an imaginative realm that sheds light on the historical record. The three central ﬁgures in this four play cycle are two great noble ﬁgures — Richard II and Henry V — and the cynical, loutish, drunken Falstaff, who by all accounts was at the time (and arguably still is) the most popular of Shakespeare’s characters. Why did Richard II halt the death match between Mowbray and Bolingbroke? There are plenty of theories — but Richard explains himself, saying, “Our kingdom’s earth should not be soil’d with that dear blood which it has fostered.” Richard II is often described as “irrational” and “arbitrary” — and sometimes played as something of a madman — but Shakespeare’s Richard II is also extraordinarily smart and insightful. And perhaps he was tired of bloody battles over honor. Much later in “Richard II,” as Bolingbroke rises to power, there is another scene involving the throwing of gauntlets. By the time it’s over, a half-dozen men are throwing gloves

all over the state in a comic frenzy that only ends when one of them runs out of gloves to throw. It’s as silly as a golden age Saturday Night Live skit — and it signals the end of a certain view of “honor.” The great Falstaff, of course, is often called a “coward” because of his disdain for war and his meticulously argued dissection of the false nature of “honor” in “Henry IV Part I.” What is honor, he asks, “Does he that died a’ Wednesday, doth he feel it? No.” But in his way, Falstaff is echoing Richard II in rejecting the code of honor. It’s left to Henry V — whose own approach to honor can be construed as either cynical or inspiring, or both, to engineer the shift from the old world to the new, and turn “honor” into a tool for mobilizing the commoners. Before the Battle of Agincourt, Henry V is reported to have given a rousing speech. Whether it was as great as the “band of brothers” speech Shakespeare wrote for him is impossible to say, but its promise, “he to-day that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile, this day shall gentle his condition,” has had an enduring inﬂuence for 400 years. •

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

KET PRESENTS DOCUMENTARY ABOUT KENTUCKY AUTHOR WALTER TEVIS By Erica Rucker | erucker@leoweekly.com THE WORK of author Walter Tevis is seeing renewed interest after Netflix turned his novel “The Queen’s Gambit” into a limted series last year. Tevis wrote several works that have been adapted to the big screen including “The Hustler” and “The Color of Money.” “The Queen’s Gambit” is the first mini-series of his work. Tevis was born in San Francisco but his family was from Kentucky. As a young child, he developed a heart condition and his family abandoned him in California, where he was placed in a children’s convalescent home. When he was 11, he rode a train across the country and rejoined his family in Kentucky. He spent much of the rest of his life in Kentucky. For the first time, his life is being chronicled in a KET documentary titled, “Walter Tevis: A Writer’s Gambit,” directed by Tom Thurman whose work has included “Buy the Ticket, Take the Ride: Hunter S. Thompson on Film,” and another KET documentary about Louisville dancer Wendy Whelan. Thurman grew up in Shelby County where Tevis also spent time. For him, as a fan of Tevis, this project was a great opportunity to tell the story of this somewhat troubled but prolific Kentucky writer. LEO caught up with Thurman to discuss the documentary and Tevis’ life. LEO Weekly: Tell me about the documentary. Tom Thurman: Well, the documentary’s an hour long, and it allows me the opportunity with KET’s support, of course, to examine both his life and his work and more importantly, the real distinct and clear overlap between the two. So, I was also fortunate enough to, um, secure the participation and support of Walter Tevis’ two children, his daughter Julie and his son Will. So that allowed me to make what you might deem an authorized documentary, because no feature-length documentary on Walter Tevis exists. What drew you to documentaries? When I was a child growing up in Christiansburg, Kentucky, which is a small farming community in Shelby County, we had two very important things upstairs. We had a television and we had a pool table. So since there was no theater in Shelbyville, going to the movies was, you know, some-

what difficult because we had to go to Frankfort or Louisville. The television was a lifeline where I could watch films, and I loved playing on that pool table. So when I got to high school, instead of reading books that were assigned to me in English class, I read novels that I wanted to read. And one of those was ‘The Hustler,’ which is Walter Tevis’ first novel. So my interest in Walter Tevis started over 40 years ago. And then, of course, you know, the pandemic hits, everybody’s inside, we’re watching more television than we’ve ever watched before. And bingo, here comes ‘The Queen’s Gambit’ and it’s an absolute success both commercially and critically. And so it seemed like the perfect time to propose a documentary on Walter Tevis to KET, especially since he has such deep Kentucky roots. Tevis had a life that mirrored his work. Tell me about that Walter Tevis was born in San Francisco during the Depression and at age nine, maybe 10, he developed a heart condition and he was placed in a convalescent home in San Francisco, and his parents… they abandoned him there, essentially. They came back to Kentucky and so here’s this 10-year-old kid, and he is all alone. To make matters worse, at that time in the late ‘30s, convalescent homes decided it was best to pump the kids, these young kids, full of barbiturates three times a day to keep them quote, unquote, ‘under control.’ And so, you know, it’s a very tragic story, but it’s obviously something that he worked his way through, especially in ‘The Queen’s Gambit’ through the character of Beth because you don’t have to have a crystal ball to make the

The KET Documentary about the life of Walter Tevis airs this week on KET2.

connection between Walter Tevis’ upbringing and Beth and what she went through, early in her life being orphaned. I read about his addictions and thought about “The Queen’s Gambit” There was this 17 year drought after he published his novel, ‘The Man Who Fell To Earth.’ Between the publication of that book and the publication of his next novel, which was in 1980, a novel called ‘Mockingbird,’ that’s a very long drought. Um, and during much of that time, he was a professor at an Ohio university. And by all accounts, he was a terriﬁc professor. He did ﬁnally sober up. He went to a treatment center in Columbus, Ohio, and

eventually moved to New York and kind of reinvented himself and had this extremely proliﬁc period from 1980 to 1984 with novels like ‘Mockingbird’ and ‘The Queen’s Gambit’ and his last book, ‘The Color of Money, which was the sequel to his ﬁrst book, ‘The Hustler.’ • “Walter Tevis: A Writer’s Gambit” will air again on Thursday, July 15, at 9 p.m. on KET2.

LEOWEEKLY.COM // JULY 14, 2021

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Even-tempered Skedaddled They might be made after a fight Runs again Without fail State flower of Illinois or New Jersey ____ Faire (event with jousting, for short) Is mad about Source of the milk for chèvre cheese The ‘‘R’’ of R.B.G. Ready for business Condé ____ What might make a ewe turn Spanish monarch

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

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Criminally aid Yawn-inducing Make yawn Campus leader With the bow, musically Bungle Vipers with upturned snouts Part of a religious title that means ‘‘ocean’’ Southern California county ‘‘Mood ____’’ (Duke Ellington classic) Quit drinking Golf’s ____ Ko, youngest golfer to be ranked No. 1 In draft form High degrees, for short Setting for many a Super Mario Bros. level Temporarily out Pesach observers Most peaceful Groups of bees? ‘‘You can’t expect me to believe that!’’ Laughable Typical way to take a multivitamin Is legally entitled ‘‘It’s a possibility for me’’ Family members that get talked down to? Kind of massage Travels ____ River, part of the Texas/Oklahoma border

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DOWN California-based soft-drink company Divisions of long poems Historical records Place for a pitcher ‘‘I’m such a dummy!’’ Olympic poker? Military hospitals, briefly Period of history Back in Fresh, in a sense A one and a two Bursts in on And the rest, for short Twin in Genesis Prizewinner Instrument often played for comedic effect Tennessee Williams’s ‘‘The Night of the ____’’ Babysitter’s handful ‘‘____ Fideles’’ ____ Simmons, real name of the late rapper DMX See 35-Across Affectionate attention, briefly One enforcing traveling rules Kind of jacket ‘‘Ish’’ Xbox 360 competitor Chicken Total domination, in gamer-speak Whole bunch Racy Polite form of address similar to ‘‘Mr.’’ or ‘‘Ms.’’

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ACROSS Rackets Spruce or fir Japanese city that shares its name with a dog breed Home to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum Homemade headgear for pretend pirates Conducted, as a campaign Undo, legally Highly specialized knowledge Color whose name is derived from ‘‘lapis lazuli’’ Frequent comics collaborator with Jack Kirby Belief Hubbubs ‘‘See? I knew what I was talking about!’’ Gives an edge Indignant denial Bozo ‘‘I 30-Down the fool!’’ speaker GPS suggestion: Abbr. What might follow you 1966 Donovan hit Sinatra, to fans Band whose ‘‘Gold: Greatest Hits’’ has sold over 30 million copies Raised a false alarm Tennis’s Nadal, informally Fruit with crimson-colored flesh Guest feature? Popular folk-rock duo Place for a canal or a kernel 1968 self-titled folk album A.L. West team, on scoreboards Rubik with a cube Ice cream holder Cal’s game-winning kickoff return against Stanford in 1982, familiarly World’s deepest river Little tasks that crop up Wood-shop item Investigate, à la Sherlock Holmes Wunderkinder Implement for an Amish driver Features of classic cars It’s covered in paint in the Sherwin-Williams logo Oscar-winning song from ‘‘Slumdog Millionaire’’ ‘‘Likewise’’ Media watchdog agcy. ‘‘Strange Magic’’ band, for short Medium for Kehinde Wiley’s ‘‘President Barack Obama’’

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94 Took a load off 95 Mars 100 Harmful bits of sunlight 105 Remove calcium deposits from 106 Sharp shooter, for short? 108 Harder to grasp 109 Changes by degrees 111 Whole bunch 112 You might cry if you slice it 115 Word rhymed with ‘‘ami’’ by Lafayette in ‘‘Hamilton’’ 116 Like Merriam-Webster’s inclusion of the word ‘‘irregardless,’’ originally 119 College admissions fig. 120 Delta hub, on luggage tags 121 Birth-control option, briefly 122 In the blink of ____ 123 Deli or bar order 124 Stags or bucks 125 Biblical possessive 126 Alcoholic’s affliction, briefly 127 Complicated, as a relationship 128 Retired flier, for short 129 Explosive stuff

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SAVAGE LOVE

By Dan Savage | mail@savagelove.net @fakedansavage

EMOTIONAL ARSONISTS

Q: I’m a 19-year-old girl who was dumped few months ago. My partner found out he didn’t like my body when we were having sex for the ﬁrst time and he told me right after. We were actually still in bed naked when he told me. He kept cuddling me to make me feel a bit better but it still hurt to hear. Other than slight doubts about genitals and my face (I have Asian features and having my face and living in a western country isn’t always easy), I didn’t go into that experience expecting to be rejected. We had talked about all the sexual stuff we wanted to do and he had previously told me I was attractive and thicc and paid me other compliments. Undressing for someone and then being rejected was devastating and I don’t have other experiences to weigh this one against and take reassurance from. My self-esteem dropped. I know his tastes and preferences shouldn’t be a problem for me now, since we are no longer together, but I can’t stop thinking about them. I’ve known him for ﬁve years. He means a lot to me and we want to continue to be friends. I wish someone had told me that having sex with someone isn’t a guarantee that everything will always work out. (Having sex with them being sexually open and generous and having nice tits too!) I started therapy but I also wanted some advice from you. Babe Only Desires Intuitive Emotional Support A: “People who are brutally honest generally enjoy the brutality more than the honesty.” The late Canadian humorist and newspaper columnist Richard Needham wasn’t talking about your ex-whatever-he-was when he made that observation, BODIES, but he could’ve been. Yeah, yeah: sometimes we only realize we aren’t as attracted to someone as we thought until after we’ve slept with that person. That’s sadly the case sometimes. But your ex-whatever’s comments were so gratuitously cruel, BODIES, that it’s hard to avoid concluding (if I may borrow a phrase) that cruelty was the point. He could’ve and should’ve given you a million other reasons why he didn’t want to sleep with you again—this may be one of those rare instances where ghosting would’ve been kinder. At the very least

he should’ve given you a chance to get dressed before he let you know he wasn’t interested in having sex with you again. That your very first sex partner chose to brutalize you like this—that he didn’t make the slightest effort to spare your feelings—is an almost unforgivable betrayal. Unless this boy is somewhere on the spectrum and has difficultly anticipating how a direct statement might hurt another person’s feelings, BODIES, there’s no excuse for what he did. Sticking around to cuddle after saying that shit isn’t proof he’s a good person. The arsonist who sticks around to piss on your house after setting it on fire isn’t being kind, BODIES, he’s warming his dick by the fire and enjoying the blaze. Please know that being rejected by someone doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with your body, BODIES, or with your genitals or your face or your race or your features. Swiping right on someone who didn’t swipe right on you or sleeping with someone who doesn’t want to sleep with you again isn’t proof you’re flawed or unattractive. It just means you’re not right for that particular person, BODIES, and for reasons particular to that person. Rejection sucks and it always hurts and for that reason we should strive to be as considerate as possible when we have to reject someone. Considerate but clear, considerate but unambiguous, but always considerate. And what this guy did to you—not even letting you get dressed first—was as inconsiderate as possible and you have every right to be angry with him. If you had to get a therapist after sleeping with someone, it’s a pretty good indication that person should have no place in your life—as a lover or a friend—going forward. Keep seeing your shrink, BODIES, and stop talking to this asshole. Q: I’ve gone through many variations of relationships, from monogamous to open. My new partner is incredibly smart, open-minded, loving, GGG—all the things, right? So, I find myself a bit perplexed and troubled by a statement she made. She was in a relationship prior to the one with me and the person she was with wanted to be free to do as he wished sexually. She told him that was “fine” so long as he used protection and she didn’t

know about it. Apparently that worked so well for her that she made me the same offer after we decided to become sexually exclusive: she told me to use protection if I should ever cheat and not to tell her about it. At first I was like, “Cool, but I’m not going to cheat,” but now I find myself thinking about it. And if I do cheat I will use protection and keep it to myself, per her request. So why am I writing to you? I have a high sex drive and a history of parental neglect and abuse. I find that I seek validation from women and I have a fairly good idea that it’s due to what I endured from my mother. We’ve only been seeing each other for a few months since we have been dating and I do love her. I know people often get caught— even with a hall pass—and I don’t want to lose her because of this. I want to make peace with never being with another person or with using the “hall pass” I’ve been given. How do I do that? Hesitant About Lying Lest Partner’s Anger Sabotages Situation A: You can make all the peace you want with being monogamous, HALLPASS, but that won’t make being monogamous any easier for you. Zooming out for a second: Your desire to have sex with more than one person might have something to do with the trauma you suffered in childhood… or it might not. A lot of people have high sex drives and risktaking personalities and a desire for variety and not all of them were neglected or abused as children. But the culture encourages people who don’t wanna be monogamous (that’s a lot of people) or who find monogamy difficult (that’s everybody else) to see themselves as damaged. And yet we’re told that monogamy is always easy for people who are emotionally healthy— which is a lie—and then we waste time digging through our childhood histories for something that might explain why this thing that’s supposed to be easy—monogamy—is so hard for us. (Spoiler: it’s hard for almost everyone.) It’s a waste of time, HALLPASS. You can and should see a therapist to help you work through the trauma you suffered as a child, of course, but don’t waste your time with a therapist who pathologizes your relatively normal desires or seeks to assign blame for them. So what do you do about your girlfriend? How about you… maybe… talk to her? Your new girlfriend has been perfectly clear—she doesn’t care if you cheat so long as you use protection and she doesn’t find out about it—but you need additional clarity. If you were to sleep with someone

else and she found out about it despite your best efforts to prevent her from finding out about it… what then? If finding out you used the hall pass she gave you is something she couldn’t forgive, HALLPASS, then you obviously can’t use it without risking the relationship. (You’re right: people get caught.) Additionally, if that’s really how she feels, then your girlfriend shouldn’t be handing out hall passes in the first place. But if cheating is something she could tolerate—so long as protection was used and some consideration was shown for her feelings, i.e. you at least attempted to be discreet/keep it from her—then you don’t have to hand in that hall pass. mail@savagelove.net Follow Dan on Twitter @ FakeDanSavage. www.savagelovecast.com

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