LEO Weekly Dec 15, 2021 by leoweekly

DECEMBER 15, 2021 1 MAYFIELD CANDLE FACTORY’S LABOR PRACTICES UNDER SCRUTINY IN WAKE OF DEADLY TORNADO | PAGE 8 EGGHOLIC LIGHTS UP EGG DISHES WITH INDIAN FLAVORS | PAGE 20 A Brief History Of The Confederate OfFicers Patriotic Squad in JefFerson County DEC.15.2021FREE

2 LEOWEEKLY.COM // DECEMBER 15, 2021 FOUNDER John Yarmuth PUBLISHER Laura Snyder, lsnyder@leoweekly.com CONTROLLER Elizabeth Knapp, eknapp@leoweekly.com MANAGING EDITOR Scott Recker, srecker@leoweekly.com A&E EDITOR Erica Rucker, erucker@leoweekly.com DIGITAL CONTENT EDITOR Danielle Grady, dgrady@leoweekly.com STAFF WRITER Josh Wood, jwood@leoweekly.com STAFF WRITER/PHOTOGRAPHER Carolyn Brown, cbrown@leoweekly.com ART DIRECTOR Talon Hampton, thampton@leoweekly.com CONTRIBUTING VISUAL ARTS EDITOR Jo Anne Triplett, jtriplettart@yahoo.com 974 BRECKENRIDGE LANE #170. LOUISVILLE KY 40207 PHONE (502) 895-9770 Volume 31 | Number 44 LOUISVILLE ECCENTRIC OBSERVER 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. ON THE COVER CONTRIBUTORS Robin Garr, Dan Canon, Jared Bennett, Tyrel Kessinger, Melissa Chipman, Dan WriterSavageIllustrations by Yoko Molotov ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES Marsha Blacker, mblacker@leoweekly.com Lisa Dodson, lisa@leoweekly.com EUCLID MEDIA GROUP CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER Andrew Zelman CHIEF OPERATING OFFICERS Chris Keating, Michael Wagner VP OF DIGITAL SERVICES Stacy www.euclidmediagroup.comVolhein A Brief History Of The Confederate OfFicers Patriotic Squad in JefFerson County BY TALON HAMPTON

CHILE, when I say these last two years have been rough, they have been killer. I’m tired. I know y’all are too. If we journey back to the start of 2020 when we were out for our last meal, dropping our kids at school for the last time, saying goodbye to our co-workers or consoling our friends, we’re hit with a strange and profound feeling of grief. We each went into our holes and the distance between us all in those first weeks of the pandemic felt enormous. I remember seeing my neighbors across the street and it felt like suddenly a million miles were put between us, and our kids had to wave and chat through walkies while sitting in trees on opposite sides of the street.Soon we were lulled into a kind of cozy comfort and despite the fear of this plague entering our homes and potentially killing us or our family, many of us relaxed and began to think about our lives differently— what did it mean to work, to live, to be with people.Then, summer came and the protests took over the nation and especially here at home with the Breonna Taylor protests. We marched, honored and kept vigil while scores of people worked behind the scenes to shift narratives about police violence and the policies that keep police feeling secure enough to abuse their power. The mayor of the city did a lot of hiding, acquiescing and generally a poor job as a leader. When he was interrupted by protesters at a ribbon cutting in Portland, he tucked tail and scurried away. He did eventually make himself available to protesters, but insomuch as it was made a safe space for him.Summer turned to fall and an election came and went where we had the chance to shift the country towards something better. Yet, COVID didn’t miraculously evaporate, nor did the struggles of the past year go out with an old administration. We rolled last year into this year and, to be honest, it’s only marginally better. We’ve had better access to vaccines and the chance to see our friends and family, but because we still suffer with those who refuse to vaccinate or take even the simplest precaution, we’re seeing more variants of this disease. But wait, in our city, like many across the nation, violent crimes and gun violence rose. And too damned many young lives have been ended because of it. So we’re still sitting in the midst of a lot of grief, pain and struggle and now with the recent out-of-season tornadoes, we’ve lost homes, members of our families and for some, any gains on the spirit we might have had. To add a cherry to the top of all the other shit, a very rude screenwriter named Nell Scovell decided that this tragedy would be a great time to remind Kentuckians that our senators are bottom feeders. We know, Nell, thanks for your callousness, but read the room. This isn’t the time. We’re coming to the end of years that have figuratively and literally reshaped all of our lives and we’re not sure what we’ve got to face in 2022. COVID has changed again and we’re in the midst of a new wave of infections (yay), and we’re still trying to figure out our jobs, our society and each other. We’re different now. We are fundamentally shifted. But we aren’t finished. We haven’t been defeated. What I want you to take from this is one thing: We have survived. Nicked, bruised, emotionally battered and we’re literally dragging our asses across the finish line of 2021, but as Miss Celie says in one of the final scenes of the film, “The Color Purple,” “Everything you done to me, already done to you. I’m poor, Black. I may even be ugly, but dear God, I’m here! I’m here!”

These two years have done a lot to us and you may be reading this and thinking that you are not poor, Black or ugly, but guess what, you’ve also still survived. Fuck it, y’all… You’re here. So am I, and that is something to take comfort in. This holiday season and this New Year, pour one out for those that won’t cross the ﬁnish line of this year with us, but breathe in the strange Louisville air, look around and know that we’re all still here, together and next year, even with new and some of the same challenges, we have a chance to make this life a bit better for everyone. I expect you to take that challenge seriously. Make music, make love, make a lot of happy cacophonous noise if for no other reason than to let the universe know that we’re coming back stronger. See ya in 2022. •

By Erica Rucker | erucker@leoweekly.com

VIEWS EDITOR’S NOTE IF YOU’RE READING THIS, YOU’RE STILL HERE WITH ME AND I’M GLAD.

LEOWEEKLY.COM // DECEMBER 15, 2021 3

• Dan Canon is a civil rights lawyer and law professor. His book “Pleading Out: How Plea Bargaining Creates a Permanent Criminal Class” is available for preorder wherever you get your books.

THE TORNADOES will come again.

Floods, ice storms, heatwaves and hurricanes, too. There have been more than 7,000 major natural disasters in the last 20 years. That’s nearly double the number of disasters from the two preceding decades. By now, it is apparent that world leaders are not going to take the dramatic measures required to reverse, or even halt, the planet’s slow incineration, and so we will continue to be pounded by increasingly deadly storms for the foreseeable future. This is the world we’ve purchased.Forthe American worker, all that inclement weather means a lot more of what we saw last week: people trapped in big concrete boxes, huddled under tables or in bathroom stalls, praying for the roof not to cave in, and then praying to be rescued when it does. Will employers act to prevent more deaths like the ones in Kentucky, Illinois and elsewhere? This is a variation on a question that is older than climate change, i.e., do we value a working-class life more than selling a few extra baubles? The question is nearly always answered in the negative. The trope of factories burning to the ground with workers trapped inside has morphed only slightly over the last century; it lives on as one of workers made to drive over solid sheets of ice, wade into ankle-deep water and fill empty Mountain Dew bottles with piss. Still, we’ve made some progress since the days of mill towns and company stores. Even if we can’t do much to stop the weather, we can predict when a storm is going to give us a good shellacking. We citizens of the newly-expanded Tornado Alley know that a “watch” should be taken seriously, and that a “warning” means “clear your calendar and get your ass to safety.” We know how to make sturdier spaces for those seeking shelter. And we have all kinds of apps we can use to tell people to stay home. Alas, the law lags behind all that progress. Employers can still fire workers who refuse to show up, no matter how bad the weather. Federal and state regulations technically require certain safety precautions in the workplace, but public officials have to enforce those requirements, and they usually don’t until it’s too late. Employers in most states can terminate employees who report unsafe conditions without fear of meaningful consequences. And through “no-phone” or other restrictive communication policies, employers can legally prevent workers from knowing about a deadly storm warning at all. Even if the worst negligence by the worst employer results in the worst workplace death imaginable, the employee’s family is often limited to miserly workers’ compensation remedies (and they may have to fight to get them). Compared to other leading economies, America’s workers are uniquely on their own; our laws leave them without much refuge or recourse. I have heard some mild defenses of employers following last week’s storms. They gave workers the option to go home. They told them to shelter in place. What else could they have done? One might reasonably be skeptical of these apologetics given both the long history of wage workers used as crash dummies for big business and the short history of Dec. 10, 2021, in which a severe tornado had been predicted for at least ten hours prior to major devastation. But if we’re asking questions, a few good ones might be: Did they really have to come to work in the first place? If there’s half a chance of a tornado, is keeping the doors to the bauble factory open worth the risk? Do we even need to make baubles 24 hours a day? In any event, it is true that fault does not lie solely with the supply side. Consumers who want the baubles they ordered to arrive in time for Christmas may not care if a few Amazonian serfs got squashed in the process. Workers who need more hours over the holidays so they can buy more baubles (or just keep the lights on) may not want to go home, storm or no storm. Perhaps the manufacturers, deliverers and buyers of baubles all deserve some blame here, and some sympathy: All are victims of a issympathymeritslaw,ethos.diseaseddeeply-workButthewhichnoatall,thechiefenabler of that ethos. So long as statute books subordinate people to profits, nothing stops employers from frogmarching workers into funnel clouds, viral hot zones and burning buildings (of both the figurative and literal varieties). In just a few weeks, legislatures will be back in session. It is too difficult to forecast whether last week’s tragedies will inspire any of them to act to protect workers. The only thing we can say for sure is: The tornadoes will come again.

By Dan Canon | leo@leoweekly.com

4 LEOWEEKLY.COM // DECEMBER 15, 2021 VIEWS THE MIDWESTERNIST SEVERAL FACTORY WORKERS DIED DURING THE WEEKEND’S TORNADOES. WILL EMPLOYERS AND THE LAW KEEP IT FROM HAPPENING AGAIN?

You posted that your campaign is “dedicated to addressing the strains of our judicial system” and that seems to, as you insinuated, be more evident now than ever in the city. Can you talk about the system’s major ﬂaws and what real change looks like? I know that’s sort of a big question, so feel free to take it in any direction. Sure. First of all, I’m not insinuating anything, I’ll say it out loud. I don’t want to be that kind of candidate, who avoids taking big issues head on. I deﬁnitely don’t want that. I want to be somebody who speaks as openly and honestly as I possibly can. So, I think what systemic change in Louisville would look like is a commitment to transparency. When I was a lawyer, I had a death penalty case in which I discovered that there are no consequences for not showing up to jury duty, so I did research and discovered in the administrative procedures of the court, a procedure where a second letter could be sent to jurors that didn’t answer their summons and, in that case, that second letter increased participation, especially among economically disadvantaged people and people of color, tremendously. Because of that litigation, that’s now how jurors are summoned in Jefferson County. The procedure I made a motion for was granted in that particular case is now done in every case in Jefferson County. So, that shows my commitment to transparency.

TAYLOR PROTESTERS.

Ted Shouse: I’ve been a lawyer 22, almost 23 years now, and this seems an appropriate time, and given, particularly the events — both locally and nationally — of the last year, I thought that I had a voice that I could contribute as a judge in Louisville, and because I think that I have a voice I can contribute, I think it was incumbent on me to run.

NOW HE’S RUNNING FOR JUDGE.

IF YOU followed the mass arrests that happened at the protests sparked by the police killing of Breonna Taylor, you likely know who Ted Shouse is. Shouse, a criminal defense attorney of more than two decades, along with another local attorney, Courtney Kellner, organized a group of more than 100 lawyers to represent many protesters free of charge. He even represented state Rep. Attica Scott, who was arrested at a protest with her daughter Ashanti. (The charges against the Scotts were ultimately dropped, and Ashanti is currently Shouse’s campaign manager.)

Now, Shouse is trying to take the next step in his storied career: Last week, he ﬁled to run to be the next Circuit Court Division 7 judge. He is not the only lawyer who represented protesters to be running for judge: Tracy Davis is seeking Jefferson County Circuit Court’s Division 5 seat.

By Scott Recker | leo@leoweekly.com

LEO: What made you decide to run for judge?

I think what I wrote last year during the protests around police violence regarding how search warrants are obtained, and my suggestions for changes in how search warrants are obtained would go to transparency. I still continue to believe that the interactions between the police officers and the judges should be recorded and those recordings should be provided to the defendant as soon as applicable after execution of the warrant, and I believe that the judges should be assigned randomly to review search warrant applications. When I’m elected, I will push for that change. I think that that search warrant issue could be addressed by a change in the local rules that just randomly assigns judges and the interactions are recorded and turned over after execution of the warrant, just like grand jury tapes are being done now. If they wanted to indict you today, they would put an officer on a stand in front of a grand jury and he would say he thinks Mr. Recker committed this crime and here’s why. You would be indicted and, after you were indicted and arraigned, then that grand jury tape would be given to your defense lawyer so you know what evidence was presented without you being there, to the grand jury — that’s what I’m talking about with search warrants. And then, finally another commitment to transparency, would be… some years ago, maybe 10 now, our local judges passed a rule change that says that the ‘discovery’ in the case — that’s the evidence against the defendant — for years and years and years that discovery was placed in the court file where the public and the media could come and access that discovery. Some years ago, they changed the ruling. Now that discovery is not available in the court file. The public and the media have no access to what evidence exists against a defendant and so when a case settles in plea bargain before trial, if it’s resolved through a settlement, nobody ever knows what evidence was had in that case, because now it’s all kept secret. I would push really hard to repeal that rule.

LEO caught up with Shouse to talk about why he’s running and the systemic changes he envisions for the court system.

LEOWEEKLY.COM // DECEMBER 15, 2021 5 VIEWS THIS LOUISVILLE LAWYER REPRESENTED BREONNA

Another way in which [we should look at] systemic change… is this: I want to establish a second mental health court in Louisville. We have one. It’s run by Judge Susan Louisville defense attorney Ted Shouse.

Three people recently died in Metro jail. Activists are calling for reduced incarceration. How do we achieve that? Well, the running of the jail is exclusively an executive function, and our chief executive ofﬁcer is the mayor, but there is a role for the courts to play in reducing jail overcrowding — my work with the Bail Project, demonstrates to me that systemic bail reform would go a long way to reducing jail overcrowding. Clearly the jail has a personnel problem, and they’re going to have to hire more people, more ofﬁcers, and they are going to have to do it quickly. But, the role of the court system in that would be to take a good, hard look at comprehensive bail reform, along the lines of what I was talking about a few minutes ago, of increased use of surety bonds, increased use of the court monitoring center, the day reporting center, which are organizations that keep track and keep tabs of people who are on pre-trial release. Using cash as the sole determinant of who stays in jail and who doesn’t is not only not fair, but it’s punitive and not predictive of people’s behavior. So, that’s what the courts can do. Is there anything else that you want to add, either about the campaign or how to make the courts more equitable?

I’m looking forward to this very, very much. I’ve spent over 22 years, almost 23 years, as a criminal defense attorney. I got to say, I’ve found the events of the last two years inspiring, and that’s why I want to run. I want to recognize the inherent dignity of everyone who appears before the courts. That’s ﬁrst and foremost — to recognize the dignity of all of us. I think that equal treatment under the law, equal application of the laws and the rules as they exist, could appear revolutionary and could appear as a change, but that’s what I’m committed to: recognizing the equality of everyone. And ﬁnally, I do believe that love toward our neighbors will go a long way toward making the court systems work more fairly. And I know that might sound naive, but I’ve represented very serious cases, murder cases and death penalty cases, for 22 years — I do not think I am naive. And I think a real spirit of love and equity and dignity in the courtroom can make a tremendous difference in the delivery of justice. •

tototally.don’tfunctioning,barelybutIthinktheyeverstoppedfunctioningSo,Ithinkthethingtolearnisthatwe’regoingtohaverelyalittlemoreontechnologythanweeverhavebefore,butIthinktheotherthingthatwelearnisthatthetechnologyexiststoweatheranotherstormlikethis.”

“I think, here locally, we could have been a little quicker to adopt Zoom. Telephone court was not ideal. But, we did the best we could with what we had to work with, and the courts did continue to function. There were lots of times were it was really

Gibson. So, it’s not some radical new or strange idea. I think our current mental health court could use some help, and could use somebody to help do some of the lifting. I would start a mental health court as soon as I took office. I would learn from the lessons that Judge Gibson has learned from. It’s like drug court but for people who suffer from serious mental health illness, and their case is taken out of the traditional prosecution framework and their case is placed in a mental health court where they get hands-on, substantive help from professionals. They ensure they go to their doctors visits. They take their medications. They’re given social services. If they successfully complete a course through mental health court, the case is potentially dismissed. That will also relieve some of the burden on the general prosecution of criminal cases, because it will take those mental health cases out of the regular docket.Another thing that systemic change would look at, as you may or may not know, I’ve been the pro bono lawyer for the Bail Project ever since they came to Louisville. Bail reform is desperately needed to relieve overcrowding in the jail, but also to address the systemic inequities that bail creates. Wealthy people get out of jail because they can post their bond and economically disadvantaged people stay in jail because they don’t have any money. That’s not fair; that’s not equal treatment. There’s a whole toolbox of nonfinancial conditions that could take the place of cash bail — court monitoring center, the day reporting center, the use of surety bonds, should they extend it broadly across Jefferson County. A surety bond is where, if you’re a defendant, and you’re in front of a judge and the judge says, ‘The bond is going to be $5,000,’ and you’re like, ‘I don’t have $5,000 and nobody I know has $5,000.’ Ok, ‘Is there someone who cares about you enough to come down to the court house and sign their name saying that they’ll make sure you make it back to court?’And they’ll vouch for you. And, if you don’t come back, that person will owe the state $5,000. You would be amazed at how many people say, ‘Oh yeah, as a matter of fact, I have good friends, or an uncle or aunt or a mom or a dad or a wife or a husband who will vouch for me, and who will get me back to court.’ That would get economically disadvantaged people out of jail so they could fight their cases more expeditiously. And, bail, as it currently exists, is largely punitive, except in violent offenses. Obviously, the system I’m describing does not involve murderers and serious assaultive behavior. What I’m talking about is lower level offenses where the people are found not to be at risk to reoffend and not to be a risk to flee, and so let’s get them out of jail and get them back to a productive role in society and get them coming to court to fight their cases. Another reason I’m running is because people, here locally, have lost faith in the court system. There’s poll numbers nationally that show faith in the court system is dropping, and here locally, I know a lot of people have lost faith in the court system. And I think a different kind of judge, which I would be, could restore some faith and some transparency in the system. What has representing protesters taught you about the courts and the system? When I began, it was actually on the first Saturday. The first large protest in Louisville was on a Thursday. On Friday night, there were massive numbers of arrests. On Saturday, my goodShamekafriend Parrish-Wright [who is the community advocacy and partnership manager at the Bail Project and a mayoral candidate] asked me to go to the jail to see what I could do about the vast number of arrests. Of course, I did, and that led to me working with a lawyer named Courtney Kellner, and we helped each other to organize a group of volunteer lawyers. So, what I learned is this: The vast majority of those arrests were unwarranted, and that’s not just my opinion, the county attorney has dismissed the vast majority of those arrests. That the police were faced with a chaotic situation, and they were arresting people catch-as-catchcan, overwhelmingly. I learned also, at the beginning, that bail is punitive because the first few days and weeks of protest, lots of people stayed in jail who shouldn’t have stayed in jail; they just had bonds placed on them.

I also learned that the lawyers of this community stepped up when needed. We had 110 lawyers volunteer. I’m very proud of the bar for answering that. I learned that a commitment to change still exists in our community. Most of the protesters were regular residents of Jefferson County who were seeking justice for a cause that they believed in. And I learned, fundamentally, a lawyer can make a difference. And the lawyers that volunteered all made a difference. And I’m very proud. I was inspired by the protesters, their bravery, their commitment, their resilience all inspired me.

6 LEOWEEKLY.COM // DECEMBER 15, 2021 VIEWS

The courts, like everything else, were rattled by the pandemic. What do you think the court system should learn from pandemic? I think the court system, as a whole, across Kentucky, did about as well as they could. No one saw this coming. No one in the court system had ever faced anything like this before. I think, here locally, we could have been a little quicker to adopt Zoom. Telephone court was not ideal. But, we did the best we could with what we had to work with, and the courts did continue to function. There were lots of times were it was really barely functioning, but I don’t think they ever stopped functioning totally. So, I think the thing to learn is that we’re going to have to rely a little more on technology than we ever have before, but I think the other thing that we learn is that the technology exists to weather another storm like this.

• UK College of Medicine: Kentucky Tornado Relief Fund

• United Way of Kentucky: Disaster Recovery Fund

• Sunrise Movement Bowling Green: Direct aid in Bowling Green

• United Way of Southern Kentucky: Tornado Crisis and Recovery Fund

• The LEE Initiative: Western Kentucky Disaster Relief Fund

• Muslim Americans for Compassion: Raising Funds to Help Victims of KY Tornadoes

• Kentucky Veterans Brigade: Bowling Green KY tornado relief

• Matthew 25: Ministries: Donate • Mayﬁeld Community Foundation: Mayﬁeld Kentucky Tornado Relief

• Queer Kentucky: LGBTQ+ Storm Victims Mutual Aid Fund

LEOWEEKLY.COM // DECEMBER 15, 2021 7 shopsassyfoxconsign.comfashionforwardwithoutspendingafortune New Hours Tue–Fri 11–5 pm Sat 10–4 pm 502.895.3711 150 Chenoweth Ln Visit LouisvillePublicMedia.org/support or call 502-814-6565 PUBLIC MEDIA 89.3 WFPL 90.5 WUOL 91.9 WFPK KyCIR Give the gift of thismembershipseason! VIEWS WHERE TO DONATE TO HELP VICTIMS OF OUTBREAKDEVASTATINGKENTUCKY’STORNADO By Carolyn Brown | leo@leoweekly.com KENTUCKY has been reeling from the devastation and destruction caused by the tornadoes that hit our state this weekend. Here’s a list of 35 ways to donate online to help your neighbors. Visit leoweekly.com to ﬁnd direct hyperlinks to all of these donation pages. • Aspire Appalachia: PayPal • BG Freedom Walkers: Venmo • Bowling Green Micro Pantry: Venmo • CARE: Kentucky Tornado Emergency Response Fund • Christian Food Bank of Hopkins County: PayPal • Community Foundation of West Kentucky: West Kentucky Tornado Relief Fund • Convoy of Hope: Disaster Services • Disaster Relief At Work: PayPal • Feeding America, Kentucky’s Heartland: Donations • Foundation for Connecting Communities: Donations for Tornado Survivors • Global Empowerment Mission: Kentucky Tornadoes • GlobalGiving: Midwest US Tornado Relief Fund • GoFundMe: Veriﬁed fundraisers set up by community members • Gov. Andy Beshear: Team Western Kentucky Tornado Relief Fund • International Medical Corps: Kentucky Tornadoes Fund • Kentucky Baptist Disaster Relief: Tornado Donations • Kentucky Cannabis Community: Crisis Response Fundraiser

• Relevant Church: Mayﬁeld Tornado Relief

• Louisville Food Trucks: Help Feed Tornado victims and ﬁrst responders

• Marshall County Exceptional Center: PayPal

• Presbyterian Disaster Assistance: Disaster Relief

• Rise and Shine!: Disaster Relief Mutual Aid (Venmo)

• Samaritan’s Purse: Disaster Relief

• United Methodist Church: US Disaster Response and Recovery

8 LEOWEEKLY.COM // DECEMBER 15, 2021 NEWS & ANALYSIS MAYFIELD

SCRUTINYPRACTICESFACTORY’SCANDLELABORUNDERINWAKE OF

ROSE: THE COMMONWEALTH COMES TOGETHER The tornadoes were not good. Period. But, particularly in these politically divided times, it’s been bittersweet to see the state come together to help each other out: to donate money, to load up trucks with supplies, to look for volunteer opportunities (even though there aren’t many yet for the average citizen). We said it throughout the pandemic, but LEO didn’t quite believe it until now: We’re in this together.

DEADLY TORNADO

The decision to keep the factory open has led to tremendous scrutiny for Mayﬁeld Consumer Products, THORN: THE WORST TORNADO EVENT IN KENTUCKY HISTORY

THORN: HOW DID IT GET THIS BAD? Earlier this month, three inmates died at Metro Department of Corrections in the span of one week. The jail has requested that the FBI conduct a civil rights investigation into one of the deaths, director Dwayne Clark told Metro Council’s Public Safety Committee. The ACLU is calling for reduced incarceration and ending cash bonds, except in cases where there is a “serious threat to the community.”

THE WORST, BEST & MOST ABSURD Robert Daniel (second from right). | Photo submitted.

THORN: THE BAD TWEET After the devastating tornadoes, writer Nell Scovell — who splits time living on both U.S. coasts — tweeted: “Sorry Kentucky. Maybe if your 2 senators hadn’t spent decades blocking legislation to reduce climate change, you wouldn’t be su ering from climate disasters. If it’s any consolation, McConnell and Rand have f’ed over all of us, too.” As you can imagine, it went viral and people rightfully criticized Scovell, because, you know, trivializing a tragedy to make a political point that contains no nuance from the con nes of your wealthy lifestyle makes you a shit person.

This story was produced by the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting, a nonprofit newsroom by Louisville Public Media, in collaboration with Newsy. For more, visit KyCIR. org. JANINE JOHNSON-WILLIAMS was afraid of storms. But she also feared that she wouldn’t be able to give her 19 grandkids a special Christmas if she called out of work at the Mayfield candle factory Friday night. The company had been ramping up production, and she was pulling 10 to 12-hour shifts. Her husband, Ivy Williams, said coworkers told her that if she missed a scheduled shift, she wouldn’t get another one for the remainder of the holiday season, although a spokesperson for the company denies this. Williams, 62, and his wife, 50, started working at the factory at the same time around nine months ago. He retired in October. She died there Friday evening after one of the deadliest tornadoes in Kentucky history blew through the factory. Up to 70 people there were initially feared dead, but by Monday, company and state officials were certain that most of the 110 people there that night were accounted for and alive. Johnson-Williams was one of eight people killed there, including a deputy guarding incarcerated people hired through the Graves County jail. The way her husband sees it, nobody should have been in the factory that night. “I just wish they had called and said, ‘No one come in till it’s over, till we see what’s going on. Till it’s passed over.’”

People dead. Homes destroyed. There’s nothing clever to say about tornadoes that ripped through four states and leveled several Western Kentucky towns. It’s fucking heartbreaking.

By Jared Bennett | Kentucky Center For Investigative Reporting

Daniel Johnson, president of FOP Lodge 77, called the situation “completely unsafe” due to sta ng shortages. Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer announced that there’s a tentative agreement to bump Metro Department of Corrections pay by 8%. Although the terrible situation is likely a con uence of factors — some decades deep — it’s sad and unacceptable that the city’s leadership and the court system let it get this bad.

THORNS&ROSES

Continued on page 28

FACTORY’S DECISIONS, HISTORY QUESTIONED By the time the factory’s workers clocked in Friday, warnings about severe weather and possible tornadoes that night had been publicized for hours. The violent storm took lives across five states, and Kentucky officials have so far confirmed at least 74 deaths. In his press briefing Monday, Beshear said he didn’t know about the severe weather procedures in the candle factory — “and I don’t have any reason to fault that, either.” “I mean, how do you tell people that there’s going to be one of the most powerful tornadoes in history and it’s going to come directly through your building?” Beshear asked. Employees told media in the hours after the storm that they went to a hallway, the designated shelter area, when the sirens went off.

tract speciﬁed that any complaints Hernandez had about his

The factory also had an agreement with Calloway County Jail, but jailer Kenneth Claud said no one from his jail was there the night of the tornado.

Hernandezoverweight.wasone

The lawsuit included a screenshot of a text message allegedly sent by Mayﬁeld CFO David Burch, which says, “We are working diligently to clean up the epileptic, obese, pregnant, and special needs issues.” WKMS reported that the lawsuit alleged it referred to Puerto Rican recruits with physical limitations, medical conditions, disabilities, or a combination of Thesubsequentthatainweren’tconditions.Theallegationsairedoutcourtbecausejudgedismissedlawsuit,andaappeal.factory’scon-

KyCIR has requested but not yet received details about the jail workers’ wages.

John Caudill, a Bowling Green-based attorney who has represented former employees of the factory, wants to know why 110 people were still in the factory when the tornado hit. “That tornado was well known for a couple of hours. You could track it on a number of different weather apps,” said Caudill, a former assistant U.S. attorney. “This wasn’t the 1800s where a storm comes in the dark of the night and no one knows about it.” Caudill became familiar with Mayfield Consumer Products after he filed a lawsuit in 2019 on behalf of Armando Rivera Hernandez, a worker from Puerto Rico who alleged the company fired him for being of dozens of workers recruited to work on the factory floor by company representatives in Puerto Rico, Caudill said. Bob Ferguson of the D.C.-based public relations firm Hawksbill Group said Mayfield Consumer Products is constantly recruiting in a tight labor market, including in Puerto Rico. “Many of these people don’t speak English. My client didn’t speak English,” Caudill said. “These are people who come from challengedeconomicallybackgrounds that are willing to move to Kentucky from Puerto Rico for jobs paying $10, $12 an hour.”

LEOWEEKLY.COM // DECEMBER 15, 2021 9 BC plumbing company • 502-634-9725 • www.bcplumbing.net NEWS & ANALYSIS a supplier for brands including Bath & Body Works. Company officials have expressed condolences for their employees and their families in recent days, and a public relations firm working for the company said Monday that any allegation workers were threatened with lost work is untrue.Butfour employees told NBC News they were threatened with firing if they left the factory early Friday night. And public records, court documents and interviews show the company has a history of worker safety violations, accusations of discrimination and relying on vulnerable workers like those incarcerated and recruited from Puerto Rico for low-wage jobs.

CARTOONS: Must be submitted as a .JPG and in a resolution of at least 200 dpi, with 300 dpi preferred. e title on the document must match the le name. By submitting material, authors grant LEO one-time print publishing rights, including permission to publish material on LEO’s website. LEO employees and regular freelancers are not eligible. Winners will be published in the Feb. 16, 2022 issue of LEO Weekly Go to leoweekly.com to nd the submission form. e link will also be pinned to the top of our Facebook and Twitter pages.

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

PHOTOGRAPHY: (4) Color Photography — a single photo (5) Black-And-White Photography — a single photo Do not include your name or other personal identi cation in the le name or meta-data.

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

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

Submission Fee: Free! THE RULES (please read carefully): You may submit one entry in a single category or in all of them. Do not include your name or any personal identi cation on your submissions. Stories, poems or photos with names or personal identi cation will be disquali ed.

A Brief History Of

The OfFicersConfederatePatrioticSquadinJefFersonCounty

LEOWEEKLY.COM // DECEMBER 15, 2021 11 HOW AUSTIN, INDIANA SAVED ITS SYRINGE EXCHANGE | PAGE 8 DAVE PAJO IN HIS OWN WORDS| PAGE 20 LEO TAKES A TRIP THROUGH NEWSPAPER ARCHIVES FROM THE ‘60S-90S TO TELL

THE STORY OF LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS WHO WERE IN THE KLAN.

IN THE SUMMER of 1985, Robert and Martha Marshall were moving from their West End apartment into a new home. They wanted what a lot of people do: A house big enough for their family with a yard for their kids to play in — and at a price they could afford. They found that on an all-white block of the Sylvania subdivision out near Pleasure Ridge Park. But any hope for tranquility was shattered when Martha noticed her 11-year-old son’s bedroom was on fire early one morning. Martha was up late — uneasy in the new home after men driving by in a pickup truck shouted the n-word two days before — and was able to get her son and 13-year-old daughter to safety quickly. The fire destroyed one bedroom and caused smoke damage to the rest of the brick house. Robert was staying at the family’s rental on Algonquin Parkway with their 9-year-old daughter at the time of the fire. When he returned to their fire-damaged new home, he found a “Join the Klan” sign and a swastika on trees outside. “I never thought that something like this could happen in 1985,” he told the Courier Journal after the blaze.

The Marshalls’ search for answers and justice would ultimately yield convictions, with two men arrested within 10 days of the attack ultimately pleading guilty. Their search would also set in motion a series of events that would lead to the uncovering of a Ku Klux Klan faction active in the ‘70s and ‘80s — the Confederate Ofﬁcers Patriotic Squad — that was led and dominated by Louisville area police ofﬁcers. Among the group’s members was a man who was chief of the now defunct Plantation Police Department

By Josh Wood | jwood@leoweekly.com

The Backstory

At the end of the paper’s story about the fundraiser, the address of P.O. Box for donations to the defense fund was listed.Inthe immediate aftermath of the attack, some Sylvania residents had told the CJ that earlier attempts by Black people to move into the area had been met with cross burnings and firebombings, driving them away. (“These kinds of incidents were not unheard of, but they weren’t always investigated. They didn’t always come to light like this,” said Catherine Fosl, a professor of women’s, gender and sexuality studies at UofL who was the biographer of the late Louisville civil rights activist Anne Braden). The firebombing of the Marshalls’ home quickly resurfaced memories of another Black couple, the Wades, whose Shively home — which was under 24-hour police guard — had been dynamited nearly 31 years to the day before the Sylvania attack. The state had said there were two theories behind the bombing: That it was meant to get the Wades out of a white neighborhood or that it was a communist plot meant to “stir up trouble” between the races. With the United States in the grips of the Red Scare, civil rights activists Carl and Anne Braden, who were white and bought the home for the Wades to circumvent housing segregation, were charged with sedition along with five others. Painted as a communist, Carl Braden was convicted on sedition and would ultimately serve seven months in prison.

for three years in the early 1980s. The ripples are still being felt: Just last month, reporting by the Courier Journal revealed that two officers with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office had been formerly associated with the Klan faction. Those two officers, Gary Fischer and Mike Loran, have since left the department.Butthehistory of the Klan faction has largely been forgotten. Wading through Courier Journal archives from the 1960s-1990s and speaking to experts, in recent weeks LEO Weekly has pieced together a history of local law enforcement officers who were in the Klan.

Three decades later that kind of violence was still occurring. In the pre-dawn hours of Aug. 24, 1985 — less than two months after the ﬁrebombing — the Marshalls’ now-empty home was set on ﬁre again, destroying it.

12 LEOWEEKLY.COM // DECEMBER 15, 2021

The next night, the Klan held a rally in Sylvania two blocks away, telling those gathered that Black people needed to stay out of white neighborhoods like the one they were in.

As in the ﬁrst ﬁrebombing, the KKK denied responsibility. “Every time something like this happens, it’s the KKK. We get the blame for it. I have no idea who possibly could have done this,” Kennedy, the local Klan leader, told the CJ.

No arrests were made in the second arson attack.

C.O.P.S. wasn’t the rst time there were worries about local police in the Klan; This is a Courier Journal article from 1968.

More than three weeks after the firebombing of the Marshalls’ home, Jefferson County Police Chief Russell McDaniel said he received a call accusing a 36-year-old officer named Alex Young of being a Klansman. After being questioned, Young, who worked in the department’s helicopter unit, admitted he was in the Klan and police said he agreed to leave the white supremacist organization. Young was quickly transferred from the helicopter unit to the department’s property room — a move the department denied was punitive — but no other action was taken. Like the last time there was news about Klansmen on the force nine years before, the department said they had a chat with the concerned parties and resolved the issue — case closed, no problem. Two 20-year-old white men, Carl Ray Bramer, and Billy Wayne Emmones, as well as an unnamed juvenile, had already been arrested and charged with the attack on the Marshalls’ home by the time Young was spoken to. Bramer was charged with first-degree arson and told police that he had used gasoline and a cigarette lighter to set the Rutledge Lane home on fire. Emmones was charged with complicity.

Kennedy, the local Klan leader, was there and decried the suspects’ bail amounts, set at $20,000 for Bramer and $5,000 for “I’mEmmones.saying this is racism against whites,” he said.

According to the CJ, one 20-year-old resident at the rally said that the Marshalls “had their equal rights to stay in the West End. We want our equal rights to keep them out of Sylvania.”

A little more than two weeks after the ﬁrebombing, more than 80 people gathered a few doors down from the Marshalls’ residence for a fundraising drive for the two jailed men. There were shouts of “keep them out” and “this is the American way.” More signs encouraging people to join the Klan were hanging on fences and posts in the area.

While they initially pleaded not guilty, they would go on to plead guilty in 1986. Bramer was sentenced to 30 years in prison while Emmones, who pleaded guilty but mentally ill, received a suspended ﬁve-year sentence and ﬁve-year probation.Afterthe arrests, the Jefferson County Police said that Klan was not involved and had actually assisted them in their investigation; A local Klan leader, Jim Kennedy, denied that, saying, “the Klan would never turn in a white man for any racial attack.”

In January 1968, the leader of the Kentucky Ku Klux Klan, Grand Dragon Boyd Smallwood, told the CourierJournal that there were three Louisville police officers and one county police officer in his organization, including one who was a “high ranking” official in the Klan. He added that he would relinquish control of the Klan if there was a police official that wanted to take it over.

Three years before the ﬁrebombing of the Marshalls’ home, a Klan rally in the gymnasium of Valley High School on Dixie Highway attracted an “enthusiastic crowd” of 800.

LEOWEEKLY.COM // DECEMBER 15, 2021 13

At the time, the Jefferson County police chief, McDaniel, said he had discovered two ofﬁcers who were Klan members. He would not make their names public, but said they had decided to leave the KKK and that neither were working in areas with large Black populations.

“That ridiculous narrative that white supremacism or racism is particular to the south, well, that’s total bullshit.

While the unveiling of C.O.P.S. was big news in Louisville, it was not the ﬁrst time there had been signs of police involvement in the Klan.

It’s everywhere,” said Louisville-based activist Hilary

Louisville’s experience with police ofﬁcers involved with extremism during that era was not unique.

Louisville’s police chief at the time, John Nevin, said the FBI did not identify speciﬁc ofﬁcers in the Klan and that there was nothing departments could do anyways as being in the Klan was not against department regulations.

In the city of Richmond, California, just north of Oakland, a group of officers called “the cowboys” were unveiled during a civil trial over the deaths of two Black men at the hands of police. In 1983, the city was ordered to pay $3 million in damages to the families of the men after Richmond citizens and fellow police officers testified about how the group habitually targeted Black people with harassment and discrimination.Andinthe1990s, a federal judge would call a group of Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputies, the Vikings, a “neo-Nazi, white supremacist gang.”

Smallwood described police as “stable and effective” Klan members and said efforts were underway to recruit more of them. At the time, Jefferson County’s police chief said they had “never heard a whisper” about Klan activity on the Inforce.June of that year, after quitting the Klan, Smallwood would tell the paper that the four officers he had previously mentioned had also left the group. Then, in 1976, the FBI warned the county and city police departments of Klan members within their ranks. According to a 1977 story in the Courier Journal, an FBI report the previous year found that 13 city and county police officers were members of the Klan. Informants also told the feds that one county officer was trying to organize a law enforcementonly Klan branch in the area.

“Policemen generally are good loyal Americans that you can depend on,” he explained to the paper.

The Lawsuit That Dug DeEper Just before their home was set alight for a second time, the Marshalls had filed a suit in federal court against Bramer, Emmones, the minor and “unknown defendants” who were members of the KKK. As part of that suit, the Marshalls’ lawyer, Morris Dees (who was also chief trial lawyer for the Southern Poverty Law Center) sought to force Young to turn over Klan membership lists after Southern Poverty Law Center investigators found that the officer had rented a post office box used as a mailing address for the Klan and a “Confederate Officers” group believed to be made up of local police. The suit saw Young and other officers subpoenaed and kicked off a two-yearlong legal battle to get Young to turn over a list of officers involved in his group. The Mashalls and their lawyers never accused Young of involvement in the firebombing. Rather, they suspected potential Klan involvement and believed that a list of Klan members could help lead them to perpetrators.Testifying under oath in November 1985, Young outlined details about the Confederate Officers Patriotic Squad, or C.O.P.S., the Klan faction that he led, which he said had about 40 members — more than half of them law enforcement officers.

Besides the Jefferson County Police Department, Young said that officers from the Louisville, Jeffersontown, Rolling Hills, Prospect and Plantation police departments were part of his organization. But according to the CJ, no names of officers in the Klan were included in the court documents relating to Young’s deposition.Inthatdeposition, Young also said he “probably” used an FBI computer to see if Klan members were wanted by the police or not and that he knew of the August Klan rally in Sylvania a week beforehand but did not inform superiors. He considered it “common knowledge” on the force that he was in the Klan and claimed he was one of the top 10 Klan members in the entire country. Days after news of C.O.P.S. broke, Young was fired from the Jefferson County Police Department for lying about quitting the Klan and distributing more than 10,000 pieces of “extremely disrespectful, discriminatory and derogatory hate literature.” After Young was fired, the Jefferson County Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 14 gave a vote of confidence for members to belong to any organization they wish so long as it does not interfere with their job as a police officer.

In that interview, Young also claimed that C.O.P.S. was a name that he had made up and that he was the group’s only member.

14 LEOWEEKLY.COM // DECEMBER 15, 2021 Klan efforts in the 1980s. Not long after Young was ﬁred, more details about C.O.P.S. started to ﬂood out. In December 1985, just weeks after news of the C.O.P.S. faction was publicly revealed, the former police chief of the small home rule-class city of Plantation in eastern Jefferson County told the Courier Journal that he had been a member of the Klan group. The former chief, Roy Shaffer Jr., said the group’s purpose was to push back against “reverse-discrimination” and maintained that the group was not violent. “We were sworn to uphold the law. We wouldn’t tolerate people who would break the law,” he told the paper.

Jefferson County patrolman James Dunlap Jr. would say C.O.P.S.’s role was to “write to politicians to keep white rights as well as Black rights.”

Gary Fischer, who left the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Ofﬁce last month after his membership in the Klan resurfaced, said in a December 1985 deposition that he joined the group thinking it was “more or less a social organization.”

He denied that he was anti-Black and said that he instead “bent over backwards” to treat Black people fairly knowing that one day he might be exposed as a Klan member. He characterized the Klan as “not anti-Black…it’s very pro-white.”

In his deposition, Fischer also denied any recent involvement with C.O.P.S., saying that after he was initiated into the group, he no longer participated in their activities and did not consider himself a Klan member. Fischer also served as vice president of the River City FOP Lodge 614, stepping down in 2004. The FOP Deputy Sheriff’s Lodge 25 website currently lists him as the group’s sergeant at arms.)

In the depositions, Snyder, Fertig and Dunlap said they had donated money to Young’s legal fund, but denied any recent involvement in C.O.P.S. An Anchorage ofﬁcer told the CJ he believed he was subpoenaed because he had won a country ham at a rafﬂe to raise money for Young’s defense.

1986, the release of depositions of other ofﬁcers shed more light on the group.

In transcripts of a November 1985 interview between Young and Jefferson County Police Department investigators obtained by the Courier Journal in early 1986. Young said that he joined the Klan because “I get kinda bored with just the average routine life… I think white people should have an organization they can go to without fear of gettin’ transferred.”

Young did not feel that being in the Klan impacted his job as a police ofﬁcer, saying “I always liked being a police ofﬁcer…I just happen to like being a party of a right-wing movement, too.”

coincidental.namebutdueKlantionsofatmoment—C.O.P.S.alsoshopfer’sShaf-gun—calledhadforabeenthecenterinvestiga-intolocalactivitytoitsname,hesaidthewaspurelyInJanuaryof

One Louisville police officer, Robert Snyder, would say he joined Young’s group because of its stance against communists, but did not initially realize it was a KKK faction. He said he quit because of the group’s racial and religious discrimination. Another Louisville officer, George Fertig III, said frustrations with affirmative action drove him to join the group. In a December 1985 deposition, Fertig said he did not see any conflict between being in the Klan and being a police“I’veofficer.never felt it was a conflict whatsoever,” he said, according to the CJ. “I’ve always been a professional police officer… and it’s never interfered with any of my duties.”

Wallace, of Showing Up for Racial Justice, said while there was a certain tolerance among many white Louisvillians at the time for Klan activity, there was also a lot of opposition put forth. Over the decades, that pressure on the police to watch its ranks has mounted. After the news of the two Sheriff’s Ofﬁce ofﬁcers in the Klan broke, she knew the department would have to get rid of them, that they would not keep their jobs as Klan members had in the past.

In December 1987, Young would finally agree to turn over a roster of Klan members to the Marshalls’ attorneys after more than two years of court battles. However, it was ordered that the list be sealed and only open to parties in the case.Young attempted to sue the Jefferson County Police Department for millions of dollars in damages over his firing and, later, the Louisville Police Department for not hiring him.In 1992, it was revealed that former county police spokesperson Bob Yates, who had previously commented to the press about issues that potentially involved the Klan over the years, had appeared in a photo wearing the robe of the white supremacist group. He denied he was in the KKK and said he put them on as a joke at a Christmas party at C.O.P.S. Klan leader Alex Young’s house more than a decade earlier. But he said he suspected Young was in the Klan given the decorations in his home — including a picture of a burning crosses above the bar. He said he went to Young’s house because Young threw good parties. The photo had allegedly been purchased from Young by the owner of a cemetery who thought they might be able to use it as leverage against the police department, but that’s a story for another day. A year later, in 1993, another former Jefferson County police officer, John Bersot, testified that he had been in the Klan when he was with the force in the 1970s, saying he joined over issues like affirmative action and busing. Back in the 1980s, he had been questioned in connection to the Marshalls’ probe into police officers on the Klan. At the time, he told the press he had never been in the Klan.

A former police officer, James was hired by the Louisville Police Department in 1984 as the force was under federal orders to hire one Black officer for every two white recruits until the department met a diversity goal. On his first day on the job, he found a note on his locker calling him the n-word and telling him to quit. Two years later, a white officer would call him and another Black officer that same slur in the parking lot of the old FOP lodge on West Breckenridge Street.

And after C.O.P.S. entered the public eye and Young found himself embroiled in legal battles, court records would show that Young placed phone calls to what the Southern Poverty Law Center attorney who was representing the Marshalls called “the most militant neo-Nazi and Klan leaders in the U.S.” Two of the leaders contacted by the paper said Young had asked them for ﬁnancial or legal assistance.

Lasting Legacy Carla Wallace, the co-founder of Showing Up for Racial Justice who was an activist with the Kentucky Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression at the time that C.O.P.S. was unveiled, saw hypocrisy in how ofﬁcers said they could balance the Klan with their job. “You cannot take an oath to the Klan and an oath to serve the public and carry a gun,” she said in an interview with LEO. “Those two things contradict each other, because the oath you take to the Klan is totally counter to serving the public equally and targets Black people, Jewish people, LGBT people.”

While C.O.P.S. members who became known to the public downplayed the group — likening it to a social club and saying it was about lobbying politicians and voicing frustrations — the literature handed out by Young were a nod to its Accordingextremism.totheCJ, one pamphlet distributed by Young showed the face of a Black man with the words “HE MAY BE YOUR EQUAL, BUT HE SURE ISN’T OURS.” Another depicted a white barber decapitating a Black customer.Asked about the hate literature he had distributed in the November 1985 interview with police investigators Young said, “It’s, just, uh, something you’ll ﬁnd, like, on Polacks [a derogatory term for people of Polish descent] that you’ve seen passed around the police department.”

In the end, James said the continued diversiﬁcation of the department brought on by the consent decree helped change the department.

LEOWEEKLY.COM // DECEMBER 15, 2021 15

“He felt very comfortable calling me the n-word in front of his friends; He didn’t feel so comfortable after I hit him in the mouth,” James said. For white officers on the force, that kind of behavior “was not unheard of back then… it was okay.”James said he didn’t know of fellow officers who were in the KKK back then, but there were rumors about some as well as colleagues he knew didn’t like him because he was Black. When the news about the C.O.P.S. faction broke in 1985, some officers went out of their way to tell him they weren’t a part of it and that they stood against it.

“When you had that big influx of Black officers on the police department, it helped change the culture, because my incident — hitting somebody in the mouth in the FOP parking lot — wasn’t the only one,” he said. “So people learn, hey, there’s more Black officers on the department and they’re not going to put up with x, y or z.”

“They had to do it because it’s a PR nightmare now. After the Black-led uprising of last summer, they have to start acting differently,” she said. •

When Louisville Metro Council President David James heard the news about the former Klan members still working for the Sheriff’s Ofﬁce, he was not surprised.

16 LEOWEEKLY.COM // DECEMBER 15, 2021 CannabisHighlandsCompany 1906 Bardstown 502-409-9410Road 3223JeffersontownRuckriegelPkwy502-365-2068 Clarksville, In 1400 Main Street 10mgLOCALwww.onelovehempdispensary.com812-557-6550#112www.onelovedelta8.comCANNABISEXPERTSSINCE1988WE'VEGOTALLTHEDELTAS!Delta9GummiesHaveArrived!8910HEMPDERIVEDDELTA9THCLEGALFARMBILLCOMPLIANT

The Fleur de Flea Vintage Urban Market is hosting its “Indoor” Holiday Market. This year, the holiday ea market gets an upgrade with not only an enormous amount of very cool vintage goods but also food trucks and a special holiday pop-up bar. This event is family and pet-friendly, so time to get your kids and pets event-friendly, because they are welcome. Some proceeds from the event will go to The Healing Place and a relief fund for tornado victims. —Erica Rucker HOLIDAY SHOPPING xxx.

SATURDAY, DEC. 18-19

The Fleur de Flea Vintage ‘Indoor’ Holiday Market 1250 River Road | the eurde ea.com | Free | 5 p.m.

Toy Factory: A Christmas Horror Experience | Black Orchard Haunted House | 704 Kentucky St., Shelbyville | blackorchardhaunt.com | Prices vary | 8–11 p.m. The barn becomes Santa’s toy factory during this two-night event, rescheduled from its original dates earlier this month, but be prepared for more jumpscares than joy and jolli-

SATURDAY, DEC. 18 Bully Zanzabar | 2100 S. Preston St. | zanzabarlouisville.com | $20 | 8 p.m. With a straight-shooting, heart-on-your-sleeve grunge ethos, but plenty of genre-bending nuance to match, Bully takes punk, pop and garage rock on the steepest of emotional rollercoasters. The project, spearheaded by Alicia Bognanno, has released three lean full-length albums — all solid chapters in a candid story that’s still unraveling. The live show is exactly what you’d expect — raw, charged, thoughtful, simultaneously uplifting and crushing… everything rock should be. —Scott Recker

Although the o cial Krampus Day was last Sunday, the mythical half-goat Christmas demon will be coming to the Culbertson Mansion for a new holiday haunted house experience. Buy your tickets at the door: it may be the last thing you ever do.

Gravely Brewing Company | 514 Baxter Ave. | redpintix.com | Free | 7- 9 p.m.

Louisville Laughs presents Comedy Night at

MUSIC

LEOWEEKLY.COM // DECEMBER 15, 2021 17

Louisville Laughs presents a night of giggles as comics from Indianapolis set up shop at Gravely Brewing Company. The show will feature Gwen Sunkel, a popular comic in the Indy area who has hosted shows that have raised more than $15,000 for reproductive health. Sharing the stage with her from Indy are Dyke Michaels, Dustin Burkert, Tennah McDonald and Blake Champlin. Louisville’s Hillary Boston and June Dempsey will also join. This event is free. There will be fresh beer and food from Mayan Street Food. —

Haunted Holidays: Two events This weekend, two local scare attractions will be hosting events to bring some horror to the holiday season. Get ready for Christmas lights and Christmas frights. Krampusnacht | Culbertson Mansion | 914 E. Main St., New Albany | Search Face-

STAFF PICKS

Free Need to buy something for Christmas — like right now? Don’t let the supply chain problems get in the way. Stay local by getting art, well, o the wall. PYRO’s annual holiday show has viewers buying artwork and taking it home at the same time. No red dots (meaning the work is sold), no waiting until the exhibition is over. There’s plenty to choose from by the 19 members of the artistic co-operative in various media, including photography, ber and painting. Anne Triplett ART Highlands Tap Room Bar & Grill | 1058 Bardstown Road | Search Facebook | 9 p.m. | No cover “Dress to impress” for champagne, karaoke and dancing. Coat Check New Years Eve | Zanzabar | 2100 S. Preston St. | zanzabarlouisville.com | 10 p.m. | $15 advance, $20 day-of Dance away the last of the year with DJ sets from Sam Sneed, McKinley and Hi Def.

—Jo

—Danielle Grady WE SURVIVED

‘Storage For Pears’ by Corie Neumayer. Acrylic.

The Christmas Vacation Bar

I DON’T KNOW, MARGO!

The Limbo, a tiki bar at 411 West Chestnut St., has taken on a new theme for the holidays: for the month of December, it is The Christmas Vacation Bar. The pop-up, which is themed around the 1989 movie “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation,” opened Dec. 1. The sta are debuting several new cocktails for the season named after famous scenes in the movie: “Eat My Rubber” (gin, peppermint, lemon, and orgeat, served with a candy cane); “Shitter’s Full” (vodka, cinnamon syrup, vegan almond “eggnog,” and St. George co ee liqueur, served in a rainbowcolored poop-emoji-shaped mug); “Bit Nipply Out” (coconut rum, white rum, blue curaçao, and pineapple coconut cream, served frozen); and “Kiss His Ass” (Uncle Nearest whiskey, hot cocoa, whipped cream, salted caramel, served in a Santa mug.)

18 LEOWEEKLY.COM // DECEMBER 15, 2021 STAFF PICKS SUNDAY, DEC. 19 Synthmas The Flamingo Lounge | 119 S. Seventh St. | Search Facebook | 8 p.m. If you like holiday music, but you’re tired of the pop standards, this event turns the traditions a little weird by reimagining Christmas songs on synths and other alternative instruments. So, if you like both Kraftwerk and “Here Comes Santa Claus,” this might be your thing. — Scott Recker MUSIC THROUGH DEC. 24 ‘O�f The Wall’ PYRO Gallery | 1006 E. Washington St. | pyrogallery.com |

THROUGH DEC. 31

The Limbo | 411 W Chestnut St. | thelimbo.club | Times vary

FRIDAY, DEC. 31 Louisville New Year’s Eve 2022 2022 is going to be our year! You know, barring any new pandemics or Capitol insurrections. Start the year o on a high with these New Year’s Eve parties across town. New Year’s Eve Beer Dinner | Sergio’s World Beers | 1605 Story Ave. | sergiosworldbeers.com | 6 p.m. | $70 Indulge before your resolutions kick in with six courses and six beers. NYE Afro Ball Hosted By Artist BM | Afrokanza Lounge | 1578 Bardstown Road | Search Facebook | 6 p.m.-3 a.m. | $60+ Ring in the new year somewhere new, Afrokanza Lounge on Bardstown Road, complete with an included champagne toast at midnight. New Year’s Eve Celebration | 3rd Turn Brewing | 10408 Watterson Trail | Search Facebook | 7 p.m.-1 a.m. | $60 cash Toast the new year with two drinks and a midnight bubbly toast, as well as hors d’ouevres by RecBar and donuts. NYE String Band Bash: A New Year’s Celebration | Gravely Brewing Co. | Search Facebook | 8 p.m. | $20 advance, $25 day-of Enjoy New Year’s Eve performances from Dark Moon Hollow, Mama Said String Band and Restless Leg String Band. NYE Live! | Fourth Street Live! | 411 S. Fourth St. | 4thstreetlive.com | 8 p.m. | $80+ The closest thing Louisville has to a Times Square experience. Drink packages start at $80 with free access to the clubs and a champagne toast. New Years Eve: Willam | Play | 1101 E. Washington St. | playdancebar.com | 8 p.m.3 a.m. | $25 Party with the drag queens, including RuPaul’s Drag Race star Willam. NYE Masquerade Ball |

—Carolyn Brown

By Irene Mudd. Hand embroidered and painted fabric. ‘Live Beautifully Despite the Murky Water’ by Cheryl Ulrich-Barnett. Mixed media.

LEOWEEKLY.COM // DECEMBER 15, 2021 19 STAFF PICKS

—Jo Anne Triplett

WONDERFUL THROUGH JAN. 3 ‘Lost And Found’ By Cheryl Ulrich-Barnett Bourne-Schweitzer Gallery | 137 E. Main St., New Albany | bourne-schweitzergallery.com | Free Being an meansartist never standing still. Cheryl UlrichBarnett is a good example of that. A graphic designer by trade, she found her personal artistic interests leaning towards providesuseBarnettturalmymaterialsobjects“incorporatingEventuallyceramics.shebeganfoundandotheralongwithceramicsculp-pieces,”Ulrich-said.“Theofmixedmediaadditionalinspiration and depth … [resulting in] themes of perfection/imperfection, whimsical creatures … and present-day concerns.” Thus, her assemblage pieces were born. Masks are required. —Jo Anne Triplett ART

THROUGH JAN. 3 ‘Winter Wonderland’ Revelry Boutique + Gallery | 742 E. Market St. | revelrygallery.com | Free No one wants a naked tree. A fectperplace to remedy that situation is Revelry during its 5th annual ornament show. These handmade decorations were created by 13 local artists, including Bri Bowers, Harrison Fogle and Bloomed Roots. The gallery is vocal in its support of “Artists over Amazon,” showing its solidity by being covered with ornaments made in ceramic, resin and pressed owers, among others.

App Developers John Geddes and Noah Rough PHOTO PROVIDED BY GROUPIE.

GROUPIE COMES TO LOUISVILLE

LEO: Tell me about how Groupie came to be in the ﬁrst place. Noah Rough: A couple years ago, my buddy started sharing music on Instagram. I go to music festivals a lot, so [I’ve] been around that community of ongoing concertgoers. So I was like, I kind of like that idea. I started sharing so much of my personal music taste on my Instagram that I was starting to wonder how many people actually cared about it. A lot of people don’t really engage with people who [share] music, so I was like, what if I made my own Instagram for this and asked my followers [to engage.] I made this account called The Music Ark where I would share daily music ﬁnds and then weekly themed playlists. I ended up starting there, which ended up leading to Groupie. Tell me about some of the features that make the app stand out. One of the most interesting things about Groupie is that it’s not like other social media apps. If you look at Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, a lot of their engagement is all about you and yourself, and quoteunquote, ‘Who you want people to think you

By Carolyn Brown | cbrown@leoweekly.com

20 LEOWEEKLY.COM // DECEMBER 15, 2021 MUSIC

TWO LOUISVILLE app developers, Noah Rough and John Geddes, have released an app called Groupie, a social media platform for music fans. LEO spoke with Rough about his inspiration for creating the app, the Louisville music community and his plans to make the app’s userbase even bigger. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Anything else our readers should know about the app? [Groupie] is for people who just love talking [and] sharing music; or, if you’re a concertgoer, and you’re that person who goes alone, and you’re looking for people who would love to join you along that experience, this is for you.

• One of my favorite [Groupie features] is called the Record Wall. I personally love collecting vinyl records, and I got this idea actually from my sister. She would hang vinyl records on her wall as decor. And I was like, how would I do that?

LEOWEEKLY.COM // DECEMBER 15, 2021 21

MUSIC are.’ It’s like a persona. With Groupie, you’re talking only about the music — only about what is getting you through today, if you’re really amped about something, like, ‘This song, this playlist, is making me feel great today.’ You’re talking about the artist itself, and you’re promoting them alongside being able to connect with others, having that shared experience that only art or music can do. One of my favorite [Groupie features] is called the Record Wall. I personally love collecting vinyl records, and I got this idea actually from my sister. She would hang vinyl records on her wall as decor. And I was like, how would I do that? So I started collecting vinyl records, and then that carried over into a feature in Groupie, where, if you swipe right on your profile or anyone else’s profile, you can highlight the music that defines you. Everyone has their own unique music tastes, so you can showcase your favorite albums, your favorite songs, even playlists, too. A lot of the promotional material you have for this features musicianslocal–tell me more about that. I’ve grown up in Louisville all my life. I’ve become very familiar with the recent Louisville music scene. I actually went to middle school with Logan [Hopkins], Gaven [Hopkins] and Shane [Spader] from Boa Boys, so I’ve grown up with them. It’s really cool to see them gain a following. There’s such a great community of musicians. Everyone here really supports each other, whether you’re super well-known [or if] you’re just now coming up. I wanted to highlight that and just try and build a community within a community. As we talk more about local bands, we find out that we overlapped a year at Manual. We get into a long digression about classmates and teachers we both know from high school and elsewhere. Here’s the thing about Louisville: I like this town. It’s a great little city, but everyone knows each other and it’s really scary sometimes. [laughs] Tell me about how the first few weeks have gone. It’s been really exciting. It’s funny, I’ve been trying to talk with John about getting this out every month for the past six months. I keep saying, ‘It’s gonna be out this month, it’s gonna be out this month.’ But, y’know, things happened. We experienced obstacles, and, okay, it’s fine. But I honestly think [launching on Nov. 30] was definitely for the best because we released it a day before Spotify dropped their Wrapped. As for users, I think right now we’re sitting at around 100. What is next for the app? This whole month is pretty much just bug fixes. At the start of 2022, we want to launch a Kickstarter, which will basically allow us to see how many people are truly invested in this. John and I already [are.] I fully believe in this; I think that it definitely can go somewhere and gain a large audience. But in order to do so, time is money; you gotta see who’s fully invested, so we want to make a Kickstarter. I’m designing merchandise right now, t-shirts and hats and stuff that will go along with that. I want to partner with local musicians and probably put out a bi-weekly [or] weekly interview video to see, what is their Groupie account? What are they listening to? What’s next for them?

22 LEOWEEKLY.COM // DECEMBER 15, 2021 Worried about managing your bill payments? Take the month off, on us. SilverBills eliminates the stress and hassle of managing bills. • Each client is paired with a dedicated, U.S.-based account manager who advocates for your household. • All household bills are guaranteed to be paid on time.* • No computer needed to use our service. Call today for a free month trial or custom quote: * as long as appropriate funds are available 833-919-2176 AS SEEN ON TV ® One touch of a button sends help fast, 24/7. alonealoneI’mneverLifeAlert® is always there for me at home and on-the-go. HELP AT HOME HELP ON THE GO GPS!with For a FREE brochure call: 1-833-599-1178 Saving a Life EVERY 11 MINUTES MUSIC SONIC BREAKDOWN THE BREAKLIGHTS — ‘CARROLLTON, KY’

“It’s basically a love song in which the protagonists feel like they need to pack their bags and leave town in order to escape the growing mountain of problems they’re facing, like fınancial problems or disdain for their job or just coping with every day life,” he said. “So, I guess the philosophy behind it is just to touch on that common human experience of feeling like we’re trapped in a loop and living a existence.”mundane

THE BREAKLIGHTS’ Jared Kelley has a good idea what most people are all about. “Finding love and having a conflicted relationship with where you come from,” the band’s singer and guitarist says. With that in mind, Kelley penned “Carrollton, KY,” a song he wrote as a way to crystallize the emotions and changes both of these life situations often bring with them. “It’s basically a love song in which the protagonists feel like they need to pack their bags and leave town in order to escape the growing mountain of problems they’re facing, like financial problems or disdain for their job or just coping with every day life,” he said. “So, I guess the philosophy behind it is just to touch on that common human experience of feeling like we’re trapped in a loop and living a mundane“Carrollton,existence.”KY” is what happens when ‘90s alternative production values meets the loose Southern twang of Son Volt or early Drive-By Truckers, infused with the Breaklights’ own particular punk aesthetic and a smooth twist of bluegrass guitar runs. It’s a fun, lazy shuffle of a song that enjoys itself, todaringoptimisticallyanylistenernotgetupandtwo-step on the spot or, at the very least, vigorously nod their head. Kelley sings with perfectly slurred conviction that he thinks it’s time to leave this town and, for some reason, we’re ready to go with, him. “I wrote this song years ago [originally under the Ice Cream Socialist Party moniker] but it never really found a home until Symone [Soltero, bass], Brandon [Kindoll, lead guitar] and KC [Ken Carter, drums] started playing it with me,” Kelley said. “There’s something about this group that, when we play together, we sound truly unique, to me, at least. It was interesting coming together and doing this song because Brandon and I have known each other almost our entire lives but never played music together until 2020 when Symone and I were jamming on my back porch, socialdistance style, during the pandemic. As it turns out, a bluegrass lead guitar was exactly what our punk rock band was looking for.” There’s a duality to Kelley’s message in the song, however, one that he himself was living while writing the song. Sometimes, he says, the things you think you want when you’re younger aren’t the same as what you’re after when you get older. “It’s funny because the song title really makes you think that I wanted to run away from my hometown of Carrollton, Kentucky, but I was actually living in Walton when I wrote it and was really running back to home. I think most people that grow up in small towns have mixed feelings about it, especially during your teens and early 20s. I remember being in high school and everyone wanting to ‘get out,’ but I was always more complacent and happy to stay. So, of course, I ended up leaving and most of them stayed. Naturally, I’ve drifted in and out a few times, but have always loved my old hometown and the people that reside there. So, while it sounds like this song is about escaping it, it’s more of a love letter to it than a ransom note.” •

By Tyrel Kessinger | leo@leoweekly.com

You could call cheese katori Indian Gujarati-style deviled eggs, lled with mashed yolk and attention-getting Indian spice and topped with grated paneer.

Ordered mild, egg bhurji still hits your palate with a pleasant warming note. It’s Gujarati-style eggs mixed with mild spices and veggies chopped as ne as grains of rice. PHOTOS BY ROBIN GARR. Robin Garr leo@leoweekly.com

FOOD & DRINK

RECOMMENDED EGGHOLIC LIGHTS UP EGG DISHES WITH INDIAN FLAVORS By

EGGS ARE POPULAR. Most people love them for breakfast, lunch and even breakfast-fordinner. So it’s no surprise that egg-centric eateries draw crowds in Louisville. Wild Eggs landed some 15 years ago, and Con Huevos brought its Mexican flavors to our world of eggs in 2015. Now EggHolic has come to town to tantalize us with delicious egg dishes in the style of the Gujarat region of Northwestern India.AChicago-based, quick-service restaurant just on the cusp of becoming a chain, EggHolic is branching out from its original two Chicagoland locations to open in Columbus, Ohio, and Louisville. More shops are coming soon in Nashville and the Dallas and Washington, D.C., suburbs. Eggs may sound like a strange ingredient in Indian fare, but EggHolic’s founders Lay Patel and his cousin Bhagyesh loved them when they were growing up in Gujarat’s largest city, Ahmedabad.“Egg Night” meant a rush for egg-based street food, Patel told the Chicago Reader in a 2019 interview. “Every time we’d go there, we’d try something different,” Patel said. Having moved to Chicago’s western suburbs with his parents in 2005, Patel quickly grew into a fast-food entrepreneur, opening several Subway shops in the city. But he and his cousin missed Gujarati egg dishes and the street-food carts called laaris that served them. They opened their first EggHolic shop in 2018 in suburban Schaumburg, Illinois, creating a sort of hybrid between a laari cart and a quick-service Subway stand. They opened their second shop on Chicago’s Halsted Street a year later, and the Columbus operation shortly after that. Now it’s Louisville’s turn, and we’re lucky to be one of the first franchises. As a matter of strange reality in this shrinking modern world, it may actually be easier to get an Indian egg dish in Louisville right now than it is in Ahmedabad. According to reports in Al Jazeera and Indian Express, in mid-November authorities ordered the removal of non-vegetarian food stalls from main roads in five Gujarati cities. In the local context, “vegetarian”

LEOWEEKLY.COM // DECEMBER 15, 2021 23

Pricing is reasonable, too: Just about every dish ranges in price from $6.99 to $10.99, with “eggetizer” starters priced from $1.99 to $4.99. Most of the dishes are vegetarian, though a half-dozen entrees feature halal chicken and range up to $12.99. With a menu full of eggs and plenty of paneer Indian cheese, I’m afraid our vegan friends are out of luck this time. In quick-service fashion, you order from a counter at the back of the large, modern shopping center space, take a number and wait for your food. It won’t take long. We started with a shared appetizer, cheese katori ($4.99). Four egg halves topped with grated shreds of mild white cheese were very much like deviled eggs with an Indian accent. The yolks had been chopped into tiny cubes rather than mashed, then mixed with a spicy greenish-brown sauce. They weren’t fiery but had a warm kick and a haunting taste, hard to identify, that might signal unfamiliar but delicious Gujarati spices. A main dish, egg bhurji ($7.99), was enjoyable, and it was large: Perhaps two and a half cups of scrambled eggs chopped into tiny bits and mixed with chopped onion, cilantro and hot peppers. Ordered mild (the only options are mild or spicy), it was still warm but not at all intolerable, with complex spice flavors. We went with the spicy option for toofani curry ($10.99), and it was hot enough to light me up. At least three hard-boiled eggs cut into quarters came in a shallow bowl, covered with a thick, textured reddish-brown soup that the menu describes as “a spicy gravy,” garnished with chopped cilantro. It too was hard to describe, and so fiery that it was hard to discern individual flavors, but it definitely got the endorphins working.

Masala chaas ($3.99), salted buttermilk, was similar to salty yogurt lassi but thinner. Mixed with cumin and coriander, it tasted good, but a spicy kick made it a less effective heat antidote than lassi.

24 LEOWEEKLY.COM // DECEMBER 15, 2021 FOOD & DRINK

Gujarati-style roti/chapatti atbread comes paper-thin and touched with char marks and full of sweet whole-wheat avor.

Paper-thin rounds of gently chewy roti/ chapati ﬂatbread, (free with meals, $1.19 à a la carte) were dotted with char marks, and full of sweet whole-wheat ﬂavor. They were great for dipping into the soupy dishes.

A hearty lunch for two came to $29.64 plus a 20 percent tip.

means what we would call “vegan.” So eggs were outlawed, too, as authorities shut down the laaris to avoid “hurting the religious sentiments of vegetarian Hindus” in the conservative state. But we’ve got EggHolic, and EggHolic’s got eggs. Do they ever have eggs! The menu offers more than 60 dishes, and as far as I can tell, just about all of them save for a couple of dishes for children and a few cheese sandwiches and chaats are egg-based.

• EGGHOLIC 1947 S. Hurstbourne Parkway theEggHolic.com690-2116

BRYN DU ART SHOW

THE FINE ART OF FINANCING: GRANTS, RESIDENCIES AND OTHER FUNDING FOR ARTISTS

The Big Four Arts Festival in Louisville has been the most attended two-day event ever held in Louisville at Waterfront Park on the Big Four Bridge Lawn. Held on the weekend following Labor Day, the two-day event accepts applications from Jan. 1 – May 10, 2022. There is a cap of 150 artists and $2,500 in prize money at stake. The festival is open to individual and collaborating artists who make their own ﬁne art and ﬁne crafts by hand. Apply here: bigfourbridgeartsfestival.com/

This is our monthly list of arts-funding opportunities. Look back at our past lists on leoweekly.com for opportunities that might still have open deadlines.

FICTION BY BIPOC AUTHORS — NATALIE SHEREE

Natalie Sheree is an independent digital publisher dedicated to supporting BIPOC creatives and sustainability. According to the call for submissions, “Our mission is to help close the publishing race gap. We also strive to increase readership of books published by BIPOC authors.” The publisher is seeking novella length: 10,000 to 40,000 words and novel length: 70,000 to 100,000 words. Submit the first chapter, a synopsis and a bio. The deadline is Dec. 31, 2021. Submissions here: www.clmp.org/members/open-submission/ science-fiction-contemporary-fiction-by-bipoc-authors/ ROLLICK MAGAZINE FICTION PRIZE

SCIENCE FICTION & CONTEMPORARY

By Melissa Chipman | leo@leoweekly.com

The Rollick Magazine Fiction Prize is valued at $1,000 and is awarded for the best piece of unpublished short story (2,000-6,000 words). According to the call for submission, “Rollick’s mandate is to attract cutting-edge, quality stories that inspire real engagement. We will consider work that expresses unique and original thought. Rollick Magazine is an independent literary magazine for contemporary ﬁction, thought and opinion about popular culture, society and everything on the periphery.” Deadline is Dec. 31, 2021. Submissions here: rollickmag.com

The Bryn Du Art Show is an annual juried exhibition held at the beautiful Bryn Du Mansion. Just east of Columbus, Ohio, this historic Federal-style mansion has dominated the landscape of the 52-acre estate in the charming village of Granville, Ohio, since 1905. This year’s 18th Annual Art Show will be held from March 3-26, 2022, featuring current works of visual art. A $1,000 prize will be awarded for Best in Show, and two additional excellence awards of $500 each will be awarded to two additional artists. There is a $35 entry fee for up to three works. The deadline is Jan. 15, 2022. For more information, visit: brynduartshow2022.artcall.org/users/register

FANTASTIC FIBERS 2022

Yeiser Art Center in Paducah is now accepting entries for the Fantastic Fibers 2022 international juried exhibition. The exhibition seeks to showcase a wide range of outstanding contemporary works related to the fiber medium. Contemporary and innovative works created with fiber as the primary medium or concept are welcome. This exhibition is open to all artists 18 years and over working in the field of fiber art. There are no size restrictions. Up to three separate pieces per artist are permitted with an entry fee of $45 to cover all entries. $2,000 will be awarded. Deadline is March 1. Submissions: theartguide.com/callforartist/ fantastic-fibers-2022

LEOWEEKLY.COM // DECEMBER 15, 2021 25 ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

THE BIG FOUR ARTS FESTIVAL

HOW on earth did an artist like Stan Squirewell end up in a place like Louisville?

LEO stopped by Squirewell’s studio and did our ﬁrst in-person studio visit. We talked to Squirewell about his work, his ﬁrst recognition of being a minority and being able to create well and eat well.

STUDIO VISIT WITH MIXED-MEDIA ARTIST STAN SQUIREWELL

By Erica Rucker | erucker@leoweekly.com

I started drawing with my cousin, drawing boxcars from a book my grandmother had gotten us for Christmas, and I hated my drawing, couldn’t stand the way it turned out. It didn’t look like a boxcar. I crumpled it up and threw it in the trash can. My cousin’s car looked great. He’s a year older than me. He went to the trash and ironed the paper, looked at it, and said, ‘Man, you shouldn’t give up on yourself so quickly.’ He said, Photo of Stan Squirewell in his studio | Photo by Erica Rucker.

LEO: How did you get started? Stan Squirewell: It’s so many stories I’m trying to pick, because they’re all strung together.

26 LEOWEEKLY.COM // DECEMBER 15, 2021 ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Simple: Louisville is great, rents and home ownership are within reach and love can make many things possible. Squirewell got his start in Washington D.C., but it wasn’t smooth, and like many young men with not enough to do, he thought about getting in trouble and following the wrong crowd. He was lucky to ﬁnd roadblocks at every wrong turn, all directing him back to the right path, back to his paintbrush.Beinga successful artist feels like a distant dream to many Black artists. Even Squirewell had no idea where he wanted his work to go until he took a rude comment by a teacher as a challenge. He met that challenge and has exceeded it and many others, showing several times at Miami’s Art Basel, winning the Bombay Sapphire Artisan series prize in 2013, then sending work this year to Art Basel where the pieces were sold before they were hung on the walls.

‘If you fix this one line. Fix this one line right here, it would look just like a car. So he did it and I’m just looking at the car like, ‘Oh my god, this is not as bad as I thought.’ So that was the thing. Like, ‘Okay, man, never give up on yourself. Keep going.’ Like, ‘If you make a little deviation, just try to pick yourself back up and get back on and keep moving.’ Tell us a moment that changed your perspective. Years later, about maybe eight years old or possibly 10, my great aunt... I’d go over to her house all the time and I never saw the artwork on her walls. I went downstairs because she and her husband, my uncle John, lived in the basement and the boys lived upstairs. I went downstairs and I saw my uncle with this easel and his oil painting. It was this amazing landscape. And because I never saw anyone paint for real-for-real, in real time — it blew my mind. He was painting. He was sort of the following Bob Ross. But his painting was a little bit different because he went a different direction with it because he would take magazine cuttings of animals and embed them into the scene. I was just so blown away. Every single weekend, I would bring my drawings over to him. ‘Uncle John, this is what I did,’ and he would just encourage me and say, ‘Man, you can do it.’ While in middle school and drawing in the margins of his papers, a teacher asked him whether he was taking art classes. He was not, but she encouraged him and helped him discover his high school where he could hone his artistic talents. Squirewell attended the Duke Ellington School of Arts in D.C. where he spent three productive years mastering his skills as a painter. Did you go to college for art? I went to this college and it was my first time being around people who did not identify with the same problems and culture that I had. I come from this 99.99% city with nothing but Black folks in there. And, all of a sudden, now, I’m in this environment where I’m truly the minority. It weighed on me very heavily. So I ended up, even though I had the skill sets and all that, I flunked out. My early childhood, early teen and teenage years were insulated with Blackness, you know? So I didn’t even know what to say. I thought they were alien. That was the first time feeling racism. I remember distinctly being in this one class. It was a nude model drawing class. I was taking a very long time doing this particular drawing of this model. And the teacher came around and he asked me, ‘Why are you taking so long with this drawing?’ I just looked at him and said, ‘Because, I really am enjoying this. I like doing this.’ But then he says to me, ‘It’s not like any of your work is ever going to be in a museum.’ And the moment he said that was the moment I was like, ‘Oh, that’s where my work is going. That’s why I’m doing this.’

Squirewell’s ﬁrst major show was at the Banneker-Douglass Museum, where he dropped off a piece of work he’d done in high school and it was accepted by the curator on the spot. He was taken underwing by many great D.C. artists like Michael Platt and Lou Stovall, who helped him and pushed him toward getting his work into major exhibitions like Art Basel in Miami. When did you realize you could make art and eat? As I was down there [at Art Basel for the ﬁrst time], I remember just thinking that the art world runs... this is the generator that runs everything. That year they sold somewhere upwards of $2 billion worth of art. I’m walking around and, in these little spaces, I’m seeing Picassos and [inaudible] and Beardens and Basquiats and everything, just on these temporary walls. And people in suits all over the place — Prada bags. I was thinking to myself, ‘Yo, I’m in the right business here, baby.’ Nobody could tell me from now on that the starving artist thing is the way to go.

Mixed Media artwork by Stan Squirewell | Photo by Gill Holland

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•

employment in Mayﬁeld would be routed

@leoweekly

Bianca Tylek, executive director of the advocates against the exploitation of jail sick days. They have literally just no real

Though Friday night’s tornado already ranks as the most deadly and devastating said. “And we don’t have the answers to OSHA regulations say companies have to identify places to take shelter, be familiar with community warning systems and establish procedures to account for people in the building. “The next question is do these companies follow those policies or is it just lip service, window dressing?” Caudill asked.Federal safety records show the factory had more injuries per 100 fulltime employees than is average for the industry.According to records from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Mayﬁeld Consumer Products reported 4.2 injuries per 100 full-time employees in 2020, compared to 3 at other similar manufacturers. For injuries resulting in days away from work, restrictions or transfers, also known as the DART rate, the factory clocked a rate of 2.4 in 2020, again above the industry average of 2.1 injuries per 100 full-time employees. None of the injuries were fatal, but several required days off from work or other accommodations.

The company also had contracts with Seven people from the Graves County tions-approved work program, along with jail deputy Robert Daniels. Daniels died would go to paying off any fees they had accrued, and the rest would be deposited workers were paid offhand, but believed it was anywhere from $13 to $15 an hour.

28 LEOWEEKLY.COM // DECEMBER 15, 2021

The company contested all 12 violations found by inspectors. The factory complied with standards from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and OSHA, according to Ferguson of the Hawksbill Group. Ferguson said employees were free to stay home or leave their shift early with no Theretribution.factory did regular drills and training, he said, and on the night of the storm, employees were taken to the strongest part of the factory in the designated shelter area. There was no basement in the facility. “The training and the drills were effective and we were able to get all our employees in the strongest part of the plant. And I think that’s why, so miraculously, 102 employees survived this awful, unprecedented storm,” Ferguson said. • Contact Jared Bennett at jbennett@ kycir.org.JessClark contributed to this report.

OSHA ﬁned the company $16,350 for violations found during an inspection in 2019. OSHA considered seven of those violations serious, including defects in electrical protective equipment, control of hazardous energy and practices regarding handling electrical equipment.

LEOWEEKLY.COM // DECEMBER 15, 2021 29 ETC. CHOICE WORDS The New York Times Magazine Crossword BY ALEX EATON-SALNERS / EDITED BY WILL SHORTZ No. 1107 ACROSS 1 Action done while saying, ‘‘Good dog’’ 4 Mischief-makers 11 It might click for a writer 14 Fall mo. 17 Kind to Mother Nature 18 Harris in the Country Music Hall of Fame 19 Living ____ 20 Member of the superfamily Hominoidea 21 Noted Apple release of 1968, to fans 23 Haphazard 25 Some crumbly blocks 26 Inits. for a theatrical hit 27 Send away, in a way 29 Accomplished the task 30 What wiggly lines in comics may represent 32 Cause of boom and bust? 34 Convene for another session 36 Up to it 37 What’s frequently used by poets? 38 ‘‘To quote yours truly . . . ’’ 41 ____ dish 42 Heath 43 Desperate 45 Traditional British entree 48 Tries for a role 49 S.F. metro 50 ‘‘Hey . . . over here!’’ 51 Derby lengths 53 Equivalent of the Face With Tears of Joy emoji 56 Give a buzz 61 Inconvenience 64 Execute, as a royal of old 67 Classic concert chambers 68 Noted U.S. rock group? 70 Approximately 73 See captain? 74 Studio fixtures 76 ‘‘I’m game!’’ 77 State of equilibrium 80 Code-cracking grp. 81 Match-ending rugby call 82 Bygone sovereign 85 Dance-a-____ 87 Build on 90 Military dismissal 96 ‘‘You game?’’ 98 State to be the case 99 ____ Kornfeld, music promoter for Woodstock 100 Daddy-o 102 Great Basin native 103 Stun 104 Heavy weights in Britain 106 ‘‘Murder, ____ Wrote’’ 107 Samuel ____, business partner of Marcus Goldman 109 Gradually wear away 111 Lipton competitor 113 Keypad triplet 115 Critical remark 116 Regardless of the outcome 118 Hectic trip abroad 121 Card in a royal flush 122 Purposes 123 One runs from Me. to Fla. 124 Seminoles’ sch. 125 ‘‘You betcha!’’ 126 Northern ____ (curiously named apple variety) 127 Have 128 Boggy expanse DOWN 1 Fare that’s hands-freeeaten 2 Wanted badly 3 Mano a mano 4 Negligent 5 Silicon Valley’s ____ Research Center 6 Candy bit that comes in a plastic roll 7 ‘‘Battlestar Galactica’’ robots 8 Clerical vestment 9 F, in music 10 Southern region of Mesopotamia 11 Fabric options 12 Sense of self 13 Fluent speaker of Elvish, say 14 Uttered a sound 15 ¥å 16 Bugs 19 Relative of a bug 22 Churchill ____ Rooms (London tourist attraction) 23 Long ball 24 City with a Little Havana 28 Nickname for José 31 Farthest down? 33 Anklebone 35 Least messy 39 Sorority member 40 Yang’s counterpart 44 ‘‘I Wanna Be Sedated’’ band 46 Horrid 47 Maximum degree 49 The brainy bunch? 52 Profligate sort 54 Measures of electrical resistance 55 One of the fire signs 57 Alveolar trill, as it’s commonly known 58 Concept, in Cannes 59 Just in case 60 Glasgow gal 61 Mischief-makers 62 ____ court 63 Stage between larva and imago 64 Consecrates 65 Act investigated by an insurance company 66 ____ ex machina 69 QVC alternative 71 Journalist Fallaci who wrote ‘‘Interview With History’’ 72 Bindis, e.g. 75 Running behind 78 Kinda 79 Berate blisteringly 81 They can be wrinkled or thumbed 83 Field that deals with fields 84 The newest trend, in slang 86 Inits. at Westminster 88 Trigger 89 Head for the hills? 90 Moved aside (for) 91 Cupidity 92 Changes from commercial to residential, perhaps 93 Words to live by 94 Wash out 95 Popular tick repellent 96 Piercing eye hue 97 Trial 101 ____ of Alexandria (wonder of the ancient world) 105 Clinch 108 Puerto Rico clock setting: Abbr. 110 Ballpark figures, in brief 112 Semiserious ‘‘Got it!’’ 114 Places hangers hang 117 Guff 119 Distributor of CARES Act funds 120 ____ Moines PENSEPPATRASCALS ECOEMMYLOUWAGEAPE THEW*EALBUMHITORMISS FETASRODEPORTDIDIT ODORSTNTREMEETABLE OFTASISAYPETRIMOOR DOORDIELIVERAN*NIONS READSMUNIPSST METRESLOLTHRILL IMPOSEONBEHEADODEA MOUNTRUSH*MOREORLESS POPEEASELSSURELETS STASISNSANOSIDE SHAHTHONADDTO MARCH*GORDERSINOROUT AVERARTIEHEPCATUTE DAZETONNESSHESACHS ERODENESTEAABCSHOT WINORLOSEWHIRL*DTOUR ACEAIMSUSROUTEFSU POSSESSFENYESSPY The“*”squares,fromtoptobottom:HIT/MISS,DO/DIE, MORE/LESS,IN/OUT,WIN/LOSE 123 45678910 11 1213 141516 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 3839 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 535455 56 57585960 616263 64 6566 67 68 69 70 7172 73 74 75 76 77 7879 80 81 82 8384 8586 87 8889 90919293 9495 96 97 98 99 100101 102 103 104 105106 107108 109 110111 112113114115 116 117 118119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128

@fakedansavageROBINSONRACHELBYPHOTO

A: Hm… my guess is you might be hesitating, BALKING, because your soon-to-be-ex-husband stomped on your heart and turned your life upside down LESS THAN SIX MONTHS AGO. And you’re doing great: you got a new place to live, you got a new job, and you recently got back on the apps. Maybe you’re not ready to start dating again right this minute but getting back on the apps is a sign you will be soon. Lowering the temperature with the guys you’re connecting with online might help (be chatty, not ﬂirty), as will keeping the stakes low on those ﬁrst dates when you are ready (a quick coffee, not a dinner). You can do this! Q: I recently read this in your column: “PIV or PIT or PIB.” Ok, I know PIV (“penis in vagina”). But the other two? I’ve been reading you nymsthis!stumpedyearsforandI’monCreativeAcro-TotallyCon-foundHim

QUICKIES

Q: My wife and I are in a great ENM marriage. We have two couples that we are friends with and get together regularly for sex, and we each pursue solo FWB relationships. During Covid, we started posting pictures on Reddit, which were well received. This morphed into my wife starting an OnlyFans account because why not? So, at what point do we spill the beans to our FWBs? We don’t show our faces on OnlyFans, we use fake names, and we only post content made with people that know it’s going up on OnlyFans. Is this just “our secret” and doesn’t hurt anyone, so, who cares? Or do our FWBs have a right to know? Posting Intimate Content A: You’re under no obligation to tell your casual sex partners that you have an OnlyFans account where you share photos and videos you make with your other casual sex partners. OnlyFans seems like something you should be able to share with your FWBs, but “you should be able to” ≠ “you are obliged to.”

By Dan Savage | mail@savagelove.net

Balking At Love, Knowing I’m Nervous, Gah!

studentpositiveallythere.mindbutkink-positiveisn’twhereevery-mentsmove-equalityaninstance,havingemployedyouenoughcomesonemeetyou’lllucky,you’resome-whoclosetowhatwant—anpenis-person,forwho’sallytobutexactlyhasanopenandcouldgetOranemotion-healthy,kink-penis-havingwhoisn’trolling

30 LEOWEEKLY.COM // DECEMBER 15, 2021 SAVAGE LOVE

A: Hm… you probably could’ve worked this one out on your own, CACTH, if you’d given it a moment’s thought. Besides vaginas (PIV)… where else do penises go? PIT stands for “penis in throat” and PIB stands for “penis in butt.” I could’ve gone with PIM (“penis in mouth”) and PIA (“penis in ass”), I guess, but why not go for the rhyme? (Oh, and ENM means “ethical non-monogamy.”) Q: I just discovered your column. I’ve been reading you for a month. Four weeks, four disgusting columns. I do not give a rat’s ass about the sex lives of strangers. If you do not reevaluate your content,

newnewNeedlesstogether.tosay…thisallsucks.I’vehadtostartmyentirelifeoveragain.I’vesettledintoahomewithajobandI’mtrying to be a badass about the whole situation. But it’s been a lot. I’ve gone back and forth on when to start dating again. I feel mounting pressure to “get back out there” and I’m on the apps again but I bail about a week into every new ﬂirtation. Why am I hesitating?

ETC.

Q: Cis-het black woman. I have been working on myself for a while and a side effect of that is now I have standards and I am unwilling to settle for mediocre partners. For me a quality partner is a cis or trans man (a penis haver) who is an ally to equality movements (sex, gender, race, etc.), emotionally healthy, kink-positive, and can afford their own life. Where does one find a person who meets these criteria? I’ve tried Tinder, Bumble, OkCupid, and FetLife, etc., with no luck. Never Gonna Settle A: There is no settling down without some settling for. If in dough right now but has a realistic career plan. And where do you find that guy? Well, you might get lucky and find him on one of the sites you’re already on—keep those profiles up and updated—or you might get lucky and meet him through friends, at work, in a bar, etc. Keep at it, NGS, because you never know when your bad luck is going to run out.

Q: I’m a 34-year-old female and my husband (of only two years!) blindsided me by asking for a separation on my birthday in June and a divorce via text message a month later. We owned a home and ran a business

HELP WANTED

your

miserably unsatisfying that you’re seriously thinking about

Harris Automotive, dba, Cottman Transmission, 4047 Taylorsville Road, Louisville, KY 40220, (502) 479-6081 has intention to obtain title of a 2013 Ford Escape with a VIN #1FMCU0GX6DUB22103. Owner of Vehicle: Michael Adams. Lien Holder: Neals Auto Sales. Unless owner or lien holder objects in written form within 14 days after the last publication of this legal notice.

You’re

A: If you just ﬁnished reading your letter, D, and you’re reading my response now… you’re gonna want to stop reading now. Because you’re really not gonna like the next couple of letters.

your

LEGAL CLASSIFIED LISTINGS

Unknown Heirs or Bene ciaries of Brian Link Unknown Owner(s) or Creditor(s) Year: 1984 Make: Model:UnknownUnknownVIN:Unknown Located at 31 W. Wilshire Blvd. in Southland Mobile Home Community Pursuant to KRS 376.480, the following abandoned mobile home located at 21 Daytona Drive, in Southland Mobile Home Community, Louisville, Kentucky shall be sold by Southland via sealed bid on Friday, December 17, 2021 at 10:00 AM to recover rent, storage and legal fees incurred by the owners of said mobile home. The sealed bids will be accepted at 401 Outer Loop, Louisville, KY 40214. Title to the mobile home is not warranted, subject to prior liens and all sales are nal. Seller reserves the right to bid. Terms of sale cash only.

eating you out, which

you

yourself.) My

Cellco Partnership and its controlled a liates doing business as Verizon Wireless (Verizon Wireless) proposes to build a 39- foot public lighting communications structure at the approx. vicinity of 3010 Whiteway Ave, Louisville, Je erson, KY 40205. Public comments regarding potential e ects from this site on historic properties may be submitted within 30 days from the date of this publication to: Trileaf Corp, Jennifer, j.lewishobgood@trileaf.com, 1515 Des Peres Road, Suite 200, St. Louis, MO 63131, 314-997-6111.

in lots of places.

Pursuant to KRS 376.480, the following abandoned mobile home located at 31 W. Wilshire Blvd., in Southland Mobile Home Community, Louisville, Kentucky shall be sold by Southland via sealed bid on Friday, December 17, 2021 at 10:30 AM to recover rent, storage and legal fees incurred by the owners of said mobile home. The sealed bids will be accepted at 401 Outer Loop, Louisville, KY 40214. Title to the mobile home is not warranted, subject to prior liens and all sales are nal. Seller reserves the right to bid. Terms of sale cash only.

on how to get the speciﬁc sensation of oral sex when you don’t have a willing partner, I welcome your advice.Disgusting Obsession Grosses GirlOut

LEOWEEKLY.COM // DECEMBER 15, 2021 31 ETC.

long-term.werecouldfulkindwonderingI’mwhatofharm-effectsthisifwetodoitMakingEnqui-riesAboutTakingUrethralSoundsA: urethra—issomeone’ssteelstainless-ingsounding—slid-Urethralawell-lubedrodinto

Q: I am a 24-year-old woman in a mostly happy marriage. My husband is not interested in oral sex. At all. Not giving it, not receiving it. In previous relationships this was the way I most youyourcuriousit.Iofsomethingalegallybeimaginelickunforced—andoncomemyinbutterputtingthecuriousmuchintimacythisorgasm.tentlyconsis-achievedImisstypeofsoI’mnowaboutlegalityofpeanutonmyselfhopesthatdogwoulduptomehisown—itoff.Ithistonodifferentthandogeatingoutyourhand.haven’tdoneButIamaboutopinion.Ifhaveotherrecommendations

and your

Q: Someone assigned male at birth, with male genitalia, but on estrogen to feminize their appearance and identiﬁes as trans-agender. Curious how to identify their sexuality. They are only attracted to people who identify as women or femme-nonbinary. So how does someone without gender deﬁne their sexuality if they are only attracted to one gender identity?

Darryl Hester Unknown Heirs or Bene ciaries of Alice Foree Unknown Owner(s) or Creditor(s) Year: 1994 Make: Model:FleetwoodReectionVIN:Unknown Located at 21 Daytona Drive in Southland Mobile Home Community

Korea Saehan Church of Louisville: Assistant Pastor: Prepare and deliver sermons and pastoral services for youth and Korean speaking congregation in the church. Organize and lead religious services. Master of Divinity or Theology required. Send resume to 10409 Taylorsville Road, Je ersontown KY 40299

First Korean Baptist Church of Louisville Associate Pastor Prepare and deliver sermons & pastoral services for English speaking congregation. Organize and lead religious services and meetings for church youth members. Min. Master of Divinity or Theology is required. Send resume to 5937 Six Mile Lane, Louisville KY 40218 Humana Inc. seeks Senior Application Architect in Louisville, KY. Designs & develops IT applications architecture solutions to business problems in alignment w/ the enterprise architecture direction & standards. Pre-employment drug screen & background check req'd. Applicants may apply https://www.jobpostingtoday.com/ Ref # 10824.

I shall not continue to read.Disgusted

to google

an actual medical procedure with legit medical purposes (also easily googled!), but some people enjoy recreational sounding, both for how it feels (good, I’m told) and what it symbolizes (penetrating a penetrator’s penetrator). So long as you’re using sterilized sounds and sterile lube, you and your husband should be able to safely enjoy sounding on the regular. Besides upping his risk for the occasional UTIs, there’s not much risk of harm—so long as you don’t force it, you stop if there’s pain or blood, and you have access to an autoclave.

A: You’re 24 years old and your sex life with your husband is so miserably unsatisfying that you’re seriously thinking about tricking your dog into eating you out, which is illegal in lots of places. (Since I don’t know where you live, DOGGO, you’ll have to google it yourself.) My advice: put down the peanut butter down and back away from it. Then get a divorce, get a lover (a human one), or get yourself one of those new clit-sucking sex toys that—according to the reviews I’ve read by clit-having people—do a pretty amazing job of simulating the speciﬁc sensations of oral sex. Hell, get all three! Q: I have a question about urethral sounding. My husband wanted me to do this to him for two years and I ﬁnally did. It was interesting! But

Narrow AttractionsMultifacetedComplicateIdentity

A: “It’s complicated.” Also, I’m pretty sure lumping all “women or femme-nonbinary” people into a single “gender identity” is incorrect. (And would lead to a Title 9 complaint at Oberlin.) I mean, I’ve personally and biblically known gay men who identify as femmes and there are lots of femmenonbinary people out there— AMAB, AFAB, ACAB—who would object to being lumped into a single category with mere women. It’s all so very, very complicated. Which is great, of course, because we can’t talk about climate change and the growing threat of authoritarianism all the time, right? love.merchDan’sFakeDanSavage.Followquestions@savagelove.netDanonTwitter@columns,podcasts,books,andmoreatwww.savage. 24 years old sex life with husband is so tricking dog into is illegal (Since don’t know where live, DOGGO, you’ll have it advice: put down the peanut butter down and back away from it.

32 LEOWEEKLY.COM // DECEMBER 15, 2021