LEO Weekly Apr. 13, 2022

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How Psanctuary, Louisville’s Psychedelic Mushroom Church, Is Finding Faith With Fungi LAWSUITS OVER LOUISVILLE JAIL CONDITIONS | PAGE 8

| PAGE//28 AN INTERVIEW WITH STEVE-O LEOWEEKLY.COM APRIL 13, 2022

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How Psanctuary, Louisville’s Psychedelic Mushroom Church, Is Finding Faith With Fungi LAWSUITS OVER LOUISVILLE JAIL CONDITIONS | PAGE 8

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AN INTERVIEW WITH STEVE-O | PAGE 28

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4/1/22 9:43 AM

VIEWS

THE GOP SUPERMAJORITY HAS ONCE AGAIN PROVEN THEY’RE A DANGEROUS BUNCH

FIVE OF THE WORST MOMENTS FROM THE 2022 LEGISLATIVE SESSION

By Scott Recker | leo@leoweekly.com EVERY NEWS CYCLE now moves so fast that it’s frustratingly easy to forget heavy, terrifying breaking stories a few days later, but when the General Assembly is in session, that concept gets sent into hyperdrive. And, this year, unsurprisingly, the state’s lawmakers have constructed a tornado of harmful, dog-whistling legislation, shameless rhetoric and empty ideology.

The GOP supermajority has proven they’re a dangerous bunch: The mad-dog younger generation perpetually try to turn religious belief systems and hardline party ideals into law, and the old-guard obstructionists know how to snipe any sort of real progress from a mile away. Add in the ineptness and bigotry, and we’ve got a party that never stops and thinks, only acts to achieve senseless moral victories. Like several people have recently said, I’m not sure what they even stand for anymore.

It’s been a long and exhausting session in the statehouse and it will honestly probably be a long and exhausting decade, at least politically-speaking, in Kentucky.

But, as the session is winding down, with the last two post-veto period days taking place on April 13-14 (meaning many of you may be reading this after the legislative session ends), I wanted to briefly remember five egregious things from the 2022 General Assembly.

Now, there are many more than five, so if you send over the old ‘Hey, you didn’t mention this’ line on Twitter, I’ll probably just agree with you. This isn’t meant to be comprehensive, just a few quick snapshots that show how much of a mess our state government is.

For instance, we’re going to skip over major topics like gerrymandering, a massive attack on public education and public assistance slashing, because this a short column and we wouldn’t have room in this entire issue to recap all of the absurdities that the 2022 session brought us.

So, here’s a few, um, whatever the opposite of highlights is: 1) Let’s start with a late amendment to House Bill 690, which would allow lawyers to carry guns inside courtrooms. Gov. Andy Beshear, who recently vetoed the bill,

said he did so at the request of the Chief Justice of the Kentucky Supreme Court, the Kentucky Fraternal Order of the Police and the Kentucky Commonwealth’s Attorneys’ Association, among others. In the veto, he said criminal defendants accused of murder could be inches from a weapon under this law. He wrote: “Courtrooms are venues of often volatile disputes that can be filled with emotion and tension.” With a super majority in both chambers the Republicans will have an opportunity to override the veto.

2) When discussing negotiating process during a Capital Projects and Bond Oversight Committee in February, two lawmakers, Sen. Rick Girdler (R-Somerset) and Rep. Walker Thomas (R-Hopkinsville) used the phrase “Jew Them Down.” They both eventually apologized, but it’s unacceptable and embarrassing that lawmakers are using hateful language.

3) Senate Bill 83, better known as the anti-trans sports bill, would amend an existing law to add that “an athletic activity or sport designated as ‘girls’ shall not be open to members of the male sex.” It passed through both chambers and was vetoed by the governor, although it’s likely the supermajority will override. During a February Senate Education Committee meeting that advanced the legislation, Sen. Reginald Thomas, a Democrat from Lexington, asked the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Robby Mills, a Republican from Henderson, if he was aware of any issues or disputes concerning transgender students and sports occurring in Kentucky. Mills said he couldn’t provide any statewide examples or reasons why the bill was necessary, basically cementing it as copy-and-paste lobby legislation that focuses on party beliefs more than problems. At that committee meeting, a seventh grade transgender girl, Fischer Wells, who spearheaded getting the minimum number of players together for a girls field hockey team at her school said that “it’s disgusting that this bill is even suggested.”

“I really don’t want this bill to pass, because I really want to play and it will be extremely detrimental to my mental health, as well, because, I know sports is a great

way for me to cope with things,” she said into the microphone, sitting next to her parents, in the crowded room.

4) A super restrictive, bare-bones bill on medical marijuana was purposely stalled by Senate leadership, leaving Kentucky once again in the dust of an industry that provides both relief for serious ailments and flows of additional tax revenue for participating states. Currently, 37 states are providing some form of medical marijuana access, while 18 also allow legal access to recreational.

Rep. Jason Nemes, a Republican from Louisville, who has been championing Kentucky medical marijuana legislation for the past few years, tried to push through House Bill 136, which would only allow medical marijuana for a small number of conditions, including cancer, chronic pain, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis and nausea or vomiting. It’s embarrassing that we can’t pass something so simple.

ban abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, overriding the current law, which bans abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy — similar to a controversial and legally-contested Mississippi law. Beshear vetoed the bill, but, again, the Republican supermajority will most likely easily override it. There’s nothing I can say about this bill that Sen. Karen Berg (D-Louisville) hasn’t already put more articulately and knowledgeably.

During debate, Berg — who is a diagnostic radiologist, a doctor who often does the first trimester of ultrasounds — said that the abortion medication aspect of the bill was based in personal belief systems and not medicine.

“Why are we doing this, guys? And I know the answer,” Berg said back in March. “So, you have to ask, what is the purpose behind this legislation?

Why are we so over-regulating, such a safe and and wanted medical procedure?

The answer is very clear. There are certain legislators who feel that they have a right to regulate their personal religious and their personal moral beliefs over the rest of us, under the guise of safety for women. I will tell you again that this procedure is exponentially safer than child birth. It is a medicallyaccepted procedure.”

Well, I’ve doubled my allotted word count, and I’ve barely scratched the surface of the worst of what came from this year’s legislative session. So, as always, stay active and angry, and don’t forget to vote. •

5) House Bill 3, a layered, omnibus bill sponsored by Rep. Nancy Tate (R-Brandenburg) would amend state law to make it harder for minors to get abortions in cases when a parent is not able or qualified to provide written consent, as well as restrict access to abortion medication. It would also LEOWEEKLY.COM // APRIL 13, 2022

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VIEWS

LET ALL KENTUCKY KIDS PLAY

By Chris Hartman | leo@leoweekly.com

THIS YEAR marks my 14th Kentucky General Assembly as the Fairness Campaign’s lobbyist for LGBTQ rights, and I can’t believe how much harder it has gotten. We’ve halted virtually every anti-LGBTQ bill for years, but now Kentucky is on the precipice of final passage of one of the worst attacks on queer kids passing in the state legislature — Senate Bill 83, a total ban on transgender girls and women playing girls’ sports in our Commonwealth.

From the start, this bill has been more about fear than fairness. In Kentucky’s entire school system, there is only one openly transgender girl we know playing on a school sports team. That student started her school’s field hockey team, recruited all of the other team members, and just wants the opportunity to play with her friends her eighth grade year.

Instead of solving Kentucky’s real problems, the politicians behind this bill have used their power to bully this student and others like her. At a previous House committee hearing of the bill, those politicians had to fly in people from out of state to give testimony in support of the bill, because few Kentuckians would. The bill is a carbon copy of other anti-trans bills sweeping the nation this past year, which ignore the policies already in place to ensure an equal and inclusive playing field for student-athletes.

When we are talking about sports, every child wants the same things — to play with their friends, get a good education and be happy and healthy. Every child should have the opportunity to play with their friends in sports that help them stay active and learn about teamwork, discipline and sportsmanship — including transgender kids.

The truth is, very few transgender kids play sports beyond middle school — and they play sports for the same reason as every other kid: to do something they love and spend invaluable, memory-making time with their friends that will last their whole lives.

In the rare instance when a transgender kid goes on to play sports in high school or beyond, sport associations already have policies in place to ensure a level playing field. In fact, Kentucky already has a strict, restrictive policy through the Kentucky High School Athletic Association. But that won’t stop the political posturing and the use of trans kids as political pawns.

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Chris Hartman.

Last month, I sat and listened to the state legislature debate a bill to lower Kentucky’s income tax. They speculated a 1% deduction, maybe ultimately no income tax, would start bringing people back to the state.

Because the recent census showed what so many of us already knew — Kentucky is dramatically lagging behind its peers in population growth.

Well, let me tell you, it’s not a 1% reduction in income tax that’s going to draw people here. We know why they’re not coming. I know why they’ve left. Ask your gay nephew why he left the state. Ask your lesbian aunt why she moved out west.

Ask your former coworker why their whole family moved to provide better opportunities for their transgender daughter.

They’re not making Kentucky more attractive by passing these laws. They’re making us last on the list. More than 160 major employers across the nation, many of whom operate right here in our Common-

wealth, sent an open letter to the Kentucky General Assembly adamantly opposing these types of bills — Brown-Forman Corporation, PepsiCo, Amazon and countless others.

Are they going to move their next corporate headquarters here? Will the other signers open more stores here, like Target, CVS and Macy’s? Or will they look to states that share their values and protect their employees and their families?

Not to mention the most obvious potential blow to our commonwealth — the bill runs afoul of NCAA guidelines, threatening our participation in NCAA sports and championship tournaments. Simply put, discrimination doesn’t dribble. It’s also a clear violation of Title IX that will trigger an automatic costly lawsuit. Idaho and West Virginia both currently have federal injunctions against similar laws for violating Title IX, including a ruling from Chief Judge David Nye of the U.S. District Court of Idaho, who was nominated by former President Donald Trump

and confirmed 100-0 by the U.S. Senate.

The one ray of hope is Gov. Andy Beshear, who joined the Republican governors in Utah and Indiana in vetoing this discriminatory legislation. They agree that these bills are unnecessary and harmful to kids, particularly kids that are transgender. But the rights of transgender people in Kentucky are still in danger. This week, the legislature is expected to override Gov. Beshear’s veto.

You can still speak up to stop it. Call 1-800-372-7181 and visit Fairness.org/LetKidsPlay to message your state lawmakers and House and Senate leadership to let all Kentucky kids play. • Chris Hartman is the executive director of the Fairness Campaign, a Kentucky LGBTQ advocacy organization founded in 1991.

LEOWEEKLY.COM // APRIL 13, 2022

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VIEWS

THIS EARTH IS YOUR EARTH

HOW YOU CAN HELP THE ENVIRONMENT

By Jean Christensen | leo@leoweekly.com

THIS YEAR’S Earth Day celebration falls on Friday, April 22. Earth Day took shape when U.S. Sen. Gaylord Nelson realized that to correct the environmental devastation he witnessed in this country, it would take a groundswell of citizens aware of the need to protect the environment and ready to come together to express their admiration and love of nature. On the first Earth Day, April 22, 1970, 20 million Americans participated in organized rallies in parks, auditoriums, college and university campuses and on the streets, making it the “biggest secular gathering in American history.” This led to laws protecting water, air and endangered species, and eventually to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency. Earth Day spread internationally in 1990, and in 2016 the Paris accord protecting the global environment was signed on Earth Day. For the 50th anniversary in 2020, over 100 million people participated in the “largest online mass mobilization in history.” These are highlights of a now-extensive history, but every other year, it is usual, in some communities to celebrate for one day; in others, programs and actions are planned for the whole week.

While the back story of the development of Earth Day celebrations is replete with competing principles and complex characters, the guiding spirit for Earth Day activities remains the benevolent celebration of the planet. Children are central to the activities as they are encouraged to engage with nature. They are the future, of course.

This year, Earth Day is in a shadow cast by the recent report issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [IPCC] in which 278 scientists from 65 countries examined 18,000 sources. Their conclusion is that immediate and large carbon reductions are necessary to keep the global temperature from rising more than 1.5 degrees Celsius. Already, at a rise of 1.1 degree Celsius, we have had increased floods, hurricanes, wild fires and drought, and we may be approaching tipping points where the damage will be beyond repair. The two key factors driving all of this are our current lifestyles that warm the atmosphere, ocean and land, and runaway emissions from industrial agriculture, oil and gas production and abandoned coal mines.

You might ask, what can I do? First real-

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ize that your personal actions actually have an effect. Recycle glass, paper, aluminum, cardboard and plastic. Learn what those numbers in the triangle indicate, because some plastic cannot be recycled and it is harmful when it slips into the environment.

Reduce your digital footprint; turn off your power strip and lights when you aren’t using them. Use public transportation when possible, choose an electric bicycle or car and buy offsets if you must travel by air. Support environmental projects. Eat fewer animal products, shop locally and don’t waste so much!

Visit the website of Kentucky Interfaith Power and Light (kentuckyipl.org) for their lists “25 Steps Under $25” and “25 Steps Over $25.” Each item lists its CO2 reduction. If you purchase energy-efficient compact fluorescent bulbs for the lights you use the most, you reduce your CO2 production by 180 pounds per bulb. Louisville Climate Action Network also has many far-reaching suggestions, guided by the “Five Rs”: “Refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle, restore,” and the real message here is, “Don’t buy if you really don’t need it.”

Get full satisfaction from joining a group of like-minded people. Both Louisville Climate Action Network and Project Warm: Energy Conservation Associates

list volunteering as a way to be involved.

Many volunteer groups welcome newcomers with a variety of ideas and expertise. They include, for example, 100% REAL (Renewal Energy Alliance Louisville), which works toward 100% renewable energy for the city by 2040. Everyone in that group brings their own expertise to the project. The Louisville Sustainability Council works in tandem with Louisville Grows to develop greener neighborhoods. FIN (Food in Neighborhoods — check out their excellent website) is an umbrella group that identifies with all aspects of urban agriculture, including land acquisition. If food is not your thing, but plants are, you can look up the Louisville Nature Center, the Passionist Earth and Spirit Center, the Native Plant Society, or the local chapter of Wild Ones, which focuses on native plants and insects. If your interest is advocating for bicycling, check out Streets for People (formerly Bicycling for Louisville), or, the Falls City Community BikeWorks, Louisville’s non-profit community open-bike shop where you can repair your bike or find a used one.

Beyond the local groups, we have chapters of national organizations that meet regularly, share information and advocate in Washington for specific causes. A portion of the meetings of the Audubon Society is

devoted to local bird sightings and information about birding equipment; Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL) is focused on advocating for legislation pertaining to climate change; and the Sierra Club has local outings as well as a focus on threats to natural resources and wild sites. They are a powerhouse in Washington, D.C. Perhaps the group of advocates facing the greatest challenge are those that are statewide and deal with Kentucky regulations and laws. They tend to have professional leaders and include Kentucky in their name: Waterways Alliance, Conservation Committee, Resources Council, Student Environmental Coalition, Interfaith Power and Light. Last, but certainly not least, check out the Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, the most diverse, active and organized group of all. Finally, if all of this seems overwhelming, go for a walk in Bernheim Forest or some other woods, and enjoy the refreshing experience of “forest bathing.”

Jean Christensen is a member of the Louisville chapter of Citizens’ Climate Lobby, “a nonprofit, nonpartisan, grassroots advocacy organization empowering people to experience breakthroughs exercising their personal and political power.” •

VIEWS

USE PRIVILEGE FOR OTHERS

By Nicholas Nunnelley | leo@leoweekly.com

BY LAW, we stand free to express our deepity — towards a world absent of hatred and discrimination. But this change can only est thoughts, publish our inner unsettlings, be obtained when privilege breaks from devote ourselves to something beyond our secular world, and peacefully assemble in an self-interest and is redirected towards the benefit of others. For many of us, the world expression of our shared values. However, we live in is already set up for our success; these freedoms are only as powerful as our who we are does not blockade the life we privilege. For those who casually enjoy wish to live, our beliefs are not swallowed lives of extensive advantages, their freedom by sieges of prejudice, the tint of our skin is as profound as the status they hold. Yet, does not hinder our liberties and pursuits of for those who live without these privileges, for the people who fall between the cracks happiness. We live openly, yet we are blind, molded by those in power, their freedom oblivious to the fact that others do not have is as absent as the privileges they cease to the same advantages as us; this blindness is possess. the obstacle to our world’s needed change.

Privileges, the ones that can so distinctly We live in a country that has the potential determine the pavement of our lives, are to embody the freedoms it was supposedly abundant for many — some out of our conbuilt upon, but that potential can only be trol, yet most can be adjusted for the good reached when we start treating people as of others. Adjustment people — not as us or only comes, however, them, not as poor or Rationally, the way when injustice is rich, not as Black or someone is treated realized, when we white, but as people. realize that the world Privilege brings about should never stem we live in is not equal self-advantage, but it and that our current from the complexion can also bring about society is built only equality for others. of their skin, yet, in for the benefit of the Stop the hatred. privileged few. We the aversion, our world, it seems to Stop live in a time when the prejudice, the one’s characteristics be the only thing that discrimination. Stop — religion, gender, hindering someone matters. sexuality, skin color because of who they — can determine are. Let your privitheir path. That is not the freedom we so lege disperse into the goodness of others. fervidly hold dear, but much rather the oppo- Create a world where skin color does not site. It is injustice. hinder liberties, where beliefs are not swallowed by sieges of prejudice, where who These injustices persist so profusely — you are does not blockade the life you wish some stimulated by physical appearance — to live. Raise your voice, not so as to shout, but for what? What is gained from disbut so that others may be heard. Let your criminating against someone based on their privilege fortify the freedom of others, not appearance? Rationally, the way someone is treated should never stem from the complex- deplete it. • ion of their skin, yet, in our world, it seems Editor’s Note: The Center for Interfaith to be the only thing that matters. Now, some Relations recently solicited essays from would say that after we abolished Jim Crow emerging young authors (ages 13-18) as and adopted Civil Rights ideologies into part of its Young Authors Essay Contest. law, we dissolved and dismissed the racist The nonprofit asked participants to reflect roots upon which our country was built; yet, on issues of race and racial injustice, and in reality, we are nowhere close. By law, our the following column was the winner. CIR country may grant the freedoms that one so is committed to celebrating the diversity of rightfully deserves, but those liberties are torn down by the inhumanity that crawls faith traditions and strengthening the role of amply within our lives. faith in society through common action. The nonprofit hosts the annual Festival of Faiths.

As humans, our quest for perfection is immutable yet unattainable. Even in About the Author: Nicholas Nunnelits impossibility, however, our struggle ley is a senior at St. Xavier High School in for perfection inches us towards equalLouisville.

LEOWEEKLY.COM // APRIL 13, 2022

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NEWS & ANALYSIS

‘I FEAR FOR MY LIFE’

INMATE LAWSUITS OFFER GLIMPSE AT CONDITIONS IN LOUISVILLE’S JAIL

By Josh Wood | jwood@leoweekly.com

THE WORST, BEST & MOST ABSURD ROSE: LOUISVILLE UNITES The unionizing bug has bitten Louisville, and it’s beautiful to see. First, Louisville renters organized to advocate for better public housing conditions as part of the new Louisville Tenants Union. Then, Heine Brothers’ employees announced that they would be starting the process of unionization in order to advocate for better wages and benefits.

(Oh, and a local Starbucks has started the fight, as well.)

THORN: FRANKFORT… DOESN’T Speaking of workers rights, Newsweek reports that a Frankfort, Kentucky, gym manager — presumably driven mad by the power of protein powder — hung up a sign forbidding workers from talking about their salaries. This is obviously illegal. Apparently, the workers weren’t surprised because their supervisor is a known “tightwad.” What a surprise.

Since Nov. 29, 2021, eight inmates have died at Louisville’s jail. | PHOTO BY CAROLYN BROWN.

[Editors note: Due to the sensitive nature of the allegations and the current conditions at Louisville Metro Department of Corrections, LEO made the editorial decision to withhold the surnames of plaintiffs named in the lawsuits. This story ran online on April 1, 2022. It has been updated for time references.]

A SERIES of recent handwritten federal lawsuits filed by people incarcerated in Louisville’s jail paint a grim picture of a facility that they say is dangerously overcrowded, filthy and understaffed, where inmates fear that they will be the next to die amid a recent surge in jail deaths.

“I fear for my life and that the understaffing and overcrowding has caused rude and unusual punishment and if I die; staff will not [resuscitate] me in a timely manner,” wrote Tyree, a pretrial detainee, in a federal lawsuit filed on Feb. 28.

Tyree’s lawsuit came after six Louisville Metro Department of Corrections inmates had died since Nov. 29 of last year. Since the lawsuit was

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filed, two more people have died in LMDC custody.

In 2020, there were three handwritten federal lawsuits against then LMDC director Dwayne Clark. Last year, there was one such lawsuit up until Oct. 1. But since Oct. 1 of last year, there have been at least 29 handwritten lawsuits filed by inmates complaining about conditions, a surge in lawsuits that coincides with a surge in inmate deaths at the facility. “[I] am traumatized by the ongoing deaths within the jail and fear for my own mental and physical health,” wrote Tyree in his Feb. 28 lawsuit, which also alleged he was denied medical treatment after exposure to an inmate who had tested positive for COVID-19. “I have seen inmates get brutally beat and no help from staff. I have filed up to 10 grievances and they continue to go unanswered.

We have gone up to a week without cleaning supplies during the pandemic. We are made to be held in cells in preparation for court unmasked and the staff is unmasked

as well.”

The themes brought up by Tyree’s lawsuit were repeated in other lawsuits.

In a lawsuit filed on Feb. 22, Leslie, another pretrial detainee, wrote: “Plaintiff housed in a overcrowded dorm with sick inmates which cause plaintiff to get sick and officers on 4th floor denied plaintiff Leslie [Redacted] medical attention when needed it and medical staff tell plaintiff ‘he will be fine quit complaining unless you have a life of death issue.’”

The 29 recent lawsuits that LEO reviewed were filed by inmates acting as their own counsel. Some have similar handwriting and use similar wording, likely pointing to a person inside the jail acting as a “jailhouse lawyer” for incarcerated persons at LMDC. Without legal counsel, such lawsuits face an uphill battle. But their contents — and the sharp uptick in filings in the last six months — provide a rare window into the jail, although lawsuit claims represent only one side’s version of

THORN: EXCUSES, EXCUSES In a letter explaining the exoneration of a Louisville police officer filmed punching a protester during an arrest, Chief Erika Shields found it necessary to repeatedly bring up the victim’s criminal history and “attention-seeking” behavior. This history was not why Officer Aaron Ambers said he punched Denorver “Dee” Garrett in the face repeatedly, and it wasn’t the reason given for why Ambers was let off the hook. But, mentioning it has the dual impact of discrediting Garrett and detracting attention away from LMPD’s decision not to punish the officer. We’re tired of saying it, but we’ll keep on saying it: No matter your criminal history or personality, you still don’t deserve to be beaten by police.

ROSE: CONSIDER US CANCELED It’s boring to hate on Louisville all the time, but if you’re going to do it in a funny way, we’ll allow it. Shout out to Twitter user @BigFakeInHell who started a conversation by soliciting “cancellable Louisville takes,” aka unpopular opinions, from the site. Some truth nuggets emerged, including this one from @DigDoug: “Small minded assholes in Frankfort aren’t doing more harm than the ones in Anchorage.”

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events.

Cara Tobe, an organizer with The 490 Project, an activist group focused on public safety reform, saw the presence of lawsuits from before the spike in jail deaths began as troubling.

“If those complaints were happening pretty consistently beforehand, they knew something was going on. Leadership knew that this was happening. Leadership at the jail knew that the conditions were — and are — very poor and inhospitable and inhumane,” she said after LEO provided her with several of the 29 complaints. “They just kept putting more and more people back into cages. And from [the lawsuits], they’re not even keeping the cages clean.”

The most constant allegation in the lawsuits is that LMDC did not follow

An excerpt from a Feb. 28 federal lawsuit filed by Tyree, an incarcerated person at Louisville’s troubled jail.

COVID-19 protocols, even as the omicron variant was spreading at a recordpace in Kentucky. Lawsuits allege that the jail knowingly left sick inmates in their dorms instead of segregating them, failed to provide cleaning supplies and refused to respond to medical requests from sick inmates. Many of the plaintiffs say they contracted COVID-19 as a result of the jail’s actions.

Tyree, who filed the Feb. 28 suit, wrote that in late December, “around 9 inmates and myself became bedridden.

One inmate pressed the intercom saying ‘he’s gonna die’ but nobody came.”

He wrote that on Dec. 28, 2021 he filled out a Health Services Request slip complaining of severe headache, neck pain and toothache. However, he wrote that it took until Feb. 11 — a month and a

half after the complaint — to be seen by medical staff.

An inmate named Nathaniel, who filed a federal suit on Feb. 18, wrote that he “thought he was gonna die due to his health problems” after he came down with COVID-19 along with asthma, high blood pressure and trouble breathing. He said his Health Services Request slips he filed were never responded to.

Metro Corrections did not respond to repeated requests for interviews.

But in a Jan. 19 response to one inmate’s lawsuit, a lawyer from the Jefferson County Attorney’s Office representing LMDC and Dwayne Clark wrote: “Defendant denies the allegations of the Plaintiff’s complaint that the conditions of the jail are or were dangerous; states that there were proper protocols in place

for Covid 19 to prevent the spread of the virus in response to the Plaintiff’s allegations.”

The Jefferson County Attorney’s Office asked for the dismissal of the complaint in its entirety. Barring that, they requested a trial by jury “on all triable issues” as well as “The Defendant’s costs incurred in defending this action, to include a reasonable attorney fee; and…

All other relief to which the Defendant may appear entitled.”

The lawsuit the County Attorney’s Office was responding to was filed on Nov. 4 of last year by a man who described the jail being so crowded with people sleeping on the floor that “us inmates can’t walk around without stepping on somebodys bed.” He also said he was denied medical assistance while disLEOWEEKLY.COM // APRIL 13, 2022

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NEWS & ANALYSIS

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playing COVID-19 symptoms “because taken steps to reduce inmate counts and they said they was scared of catching to attract and retain “top talent” to work COVID-19.” at the jail. The statement added that the Daniel Johnson, president of the city is reviewing its medical contract with union that represents jail workers, took Wellpath, the health care company that exception to Clark’s denial that the jail provides medical services at LMDC. is dangerous, as conveyed by the County Kungu Njuguna, a policy strategist Attorney’s Office’s response to the with the ACLU of Kentucky said that inmate’s lawsuit. while he could not comment on the veracity of the claims in the lawsuits, “We are overcrowded. We are under“given the uptick in the number and staffed. It is absolutely dangerous,” he what we know that is actually happensaid.

A pamphlet for inmates about COVID- ing because people are dying, I think it’s something the city and officials should 19 protocols at the jail dated July 2020 pay attention to.” said: “If someone in your housing locaMany lawsuits reviewed by LEO tion tests positive for COVID-19 that person will be moved to medical isolaconsistently alleged that conditions inside tion & your housing unit will be placed LMDC were filthy and that inmates were on lockdown / quarantine for airborne denied adequate cleaning suplies. precautions.”

“I’ve been requesting cleaning supIt added: “Medical staff will determine plies dailey but have only been given a broom,” wrote a person named Jariian when your dorm can return to normal in a lawsuit filed on Feb. 13. “I’m also operations.” waking up to horrible smells and a floor Johnson, the union president, said full of other sleepthat solution was ing inmates. My unable to stop the Speaking to LEO on bail is so high that spread of COVIDMarch 30, Johnson my family nor am I 19, with the virus able to pay it.” already spreading said there were 467 Johnson, the jail within dorms once worker union presian individual who people in custody on dent, said he had tested positive was the fourth floor of not heard of issues removed. the deliv“You pretty the jail with only two regarding ery of cleaning supmuch had to deal plies. However, he with everybody as offıcers. if they were COVID then went into detail positive,” he said. describing how “We were breaking up fights with people officers at the jail are so short-staffed that that were COVID positive and fightthey are overwhelmed and in “constanting one another… We had to do CPR movement, non-stop” doing their rounds, on people who were COVID positive, getting inmates ready for court, letting and then go home to our families. It’s a inmates confined to solitary out at their dangerous environment.” designated time, assisting food and medical distribution and breaking up fights.

Louisville’s health department did Speaking to LEO on March 30, Johnnot make a representative available for an interview. But in a written statement, son said there were 467 people in custody spokesperson Kathy Turner said: “We on the fourth floor of the jail with only meet with LMDC weekly to field any two officers.

COVID related questions, provide guid“You’re talking about one or two ance and recommendations. Regularly officers on every floor with 400 people we review their COVID testing reports, you’re trying to manage. It’s impossible,” accommodate requests for testing suphe said. “Then you throw cleaning supplies and tour the facility to make specific plies in on top of that? We get lucky if we recommendations on how individuals are can get cleaning supplies in once a shift.” housed.”

As deaths at the jail continue, so does the flow of lawsuits raising the alarm of The mayor’s office declined to comconditions inside the facility. ment on pending litigation. But, respondIn a lawsuit filed on March 29, a ing to a question about jail conditions, spokesperson Jessica Wethington said the pretrial detainee named Danny wrote that city remained “committed to creating the his dorm was so overcrowded that people safest jail conditions possible” and has were “sleeping on top of tables, by sinks

NEWS & ANALYSIS

& toilets, showers.” He wrote that in early February — at a time when masks were still required in Louisville government buildings and omicron case counts remained high — guards refused to wear masks when entering his cell.

The guards “laughed at me for saying please put face mask on,” he wrote.

In response to a Feb. 8 grievance form the person filled out complaining of overcrowding and accusing the jail of not following COVID-19 protocols that is attached to the lawsuit, an officer wrote: “Per policy, inmate cannot regrieve the same issue within a six month period.”

The breadth of inmate grievances filed with the jail is not clear. LEO filed an open records request for inmate grievance forms from recent months, but that request was denied, with Metro Government saying: “Grievances of inmates are being withheld at this time pursuant to KRS 197.023 [the state law surrounding Department of Corrections’ duty to maintain grievance reports.] A grievance report shall be an open public record and made available to any person who requests to see the file at the site as long as the inmate has signed a waiver of confidentiality.” The only grievance forms LEO has seen were those attached to federal lawsuits.

The deaths of eight inmates over the span of 119 days means that the jail averaged one death roughly every two weeks, though over the course of one week spanning the end of November and start of December, three inmates died.

The rush of deaths has put pressure on LMDC as well as city government as a whole. In February, Metro Council issued a vote of no confidence in LMDC director Dwayne Clark, who the 29 recent lawsuits are against. The body also voted to hire a former FBI agent to investigate recent deaths at the jail.

Last month, director Clark announced that he would be retiring. Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer quickly named Clark County, Indiana jail commander and LMDC veteran Jerry Collins the new director. The move was criticized by those calling for new blood and who wanted to see transparency in the selection process. Collins took up his post on Monday, April 4.

On March 28, after the most recent death, LMDC announced increased security measures to protect against overdose deaths, including the use of new body scanners, delivering copies of mail instead of some original mail items to

inmates and no longer allowing inmates to receive books and magazines from third-parties.

While the most recent measures have focused on overdoses, three of the deaths have been described as suicides.

Njuguna, the ACLU policy strategist, said efforts by his group and others to encourage reform felt like “yelling into the void” after the two most recent deaths.

“It doesn’t appear that anything has changed,” he said. “I think if the systematic changes we were calling for were in place, I think some of these individuals would not have died. We could have saved lives. They just do not have the urgency we think they need to have.”

Reforms the ACLU of Kentucky has asked for include stopping arrests for low-level offenses and ending the issuance of bench warrants with cash bonds except in cases where there is a serious threat to community safety.

At a press conference in downtown Louisville’s Jefferson Square Park on March 30, Cane Weitherspoon, the son of Stephanie Dunbar, one of the eight inmates to die at the jail in recent months, spoke out.

“Anybody who passed away, it’s not they fault that they passed away because y’all was understaffed,” he said. “That’s y’all’s fault that y’all was understaffed.”

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HIGHER

POWER

By Carolyn Brown | cbrown@leoweekly.com

How Psanctuary, Louisville’s Psychedelic Mushroom Church, Is Finding Faith With Fungi LEOWEEKLY.COM // APRIL 13, 2022

IN A FIELD of yellow wildflowers at a large metropolitan park on a perfect spring Sunday afternoon, a small Louisville church congregation was sitting on blankets, about to microdose psilocybin mushrooms.

Anyone could have been forgiven for thinking that this group was one of the others that populated the area that day — the yoga class, perhaps, or the people playing fetch with their dogs. Nothing immediately gave away their purpose, though from a distance, onlookers would miss the hints — the neon mushroom-themed blanket on which two church founders sat, the references to “the mushroom space” dotting the conversation throughout the afternoon.

This church was Psanctuary: The Sacred Mushroom Church, a religious organization in Louisville that uses psilocybin mushrooms, which have psychedelic properties, in their religious practices and regards them as a tool for communing with a higher power and nature. Like in most of the country, psilocybin mushrooms are illegal in Kentucky. The “sacred mushrooms,” as the church often calls them, are a Schedule I controlled substance that can carry a punishment of up to three years for possession, but registered 508(c)(1)(a) churches like Psanctuary have certain legal protections they say allow them to use mushrooms in controlled worship contexts. This afternoon’s gathering, their fourth of its kind since the church’s inception in 2021, was, in their phrasing, a “subtle sacrament encounter” — less than a full trip experience (a “congregational communion”), but a communion with the world nonetheless, by way of mushrooms.

First, though, the congregants shared their intentions for the day — “to be me,” “to find myself again,” to be a good representation for the church — as well as what they were grateful for. A young Psanctuary cleric in training, Tristan Harris, said he was looking forward to the chance to “connect with you all and with this” — he patted the earth — “big ball.”

Psanctuary’s founder and minister, 43-year-old Eric Osborne, pulled a small Pyrex container out of a tote bag. Inside it was a collection of small psilocybin mushroom caps, tiny things, each one 0.10 grams and barely bigger than a fingertip.

A “sacred mushroom,” Eric told the group, “is just a gift of nature,” one you “don’t even have to grow” — “just got to pick ‘em and there they are.”

“Heaven’s right here,” he said, “if we allow it to be.”

His wife Courtney McClure, Psanctuary’s secretary and co-founder, had already passed around a clipboard with a waiver, which all nine people in the circle (except me) had signed. The group was a small frac-

Members of Psanctuary discuss their faith on a Sunday afternoon as part of a “subtle sacrament encounter,” an afternoon that involves hiking in a Louisville park and microdosing psilocybin mushrooms. | ALL PHOTOS BY CAROLYN BROWN.

tion of the approximately 30 local members and the 120 or so internationally who make up the church — technically, the “nondenominational, international faith-based community.”

Eric distributed the mushroom caps, and, together, each group member popped theirs into their mouth in an instant. A few winced at the taste.

Once everyone had eaten their cap, Courtney read the church’s statement of faith: “We believe that Sacred Mushrooms are a primary source of personal and divine revelation. We seek counsel from the mushroom, to find direction and inspiration in our faith practice. And we believe that all individuals who seek true revelation from Divinity can do so.”

Psanctuary uses psilocybin mushrooms the way they do because they’re a registered 508(c)(1)(A) organization, and the Kentucky Religious Freedom Restoration Act prohibits the government from “substantially burden[ing] a person’s exercise of religion.”

That’d be true if they were a “normal” church, too, but their exercise of religion involves something most churches, to put it mildly, would likely frown upon.

Still, Psanctuary’s exercise of religion is about connecting people to mushrooms in a way that goes beyond a list of

thou-shalt-nots.

“We want to change the culture around religious experiences and psychedelic experiences,” Eric told LEO. “I’m not against recreational psychedelics, but that’s not how they’re best applied. If you really believe, like we do, that these mushrooms are a sacrament that can connect you to your higher power, then they should be used intentionally.”

GOING TO CHURCH

There were nine of us that afternoon (plus two dogs), and we sat on blankets in groups of two and three. Eric and Courtney shared one that was decorated with designs of psychedelically colored mushrooms, a gift from a therapist who’d worked with their former upscale wellness retreat business in Jamaica, MycoMeditations. Their dog Smokey lay in the grass in front of them.

Young husband and wife Tristan and Cassie Harris sat on a pink blanket with their dog Luna, who often trotted away from the group throughout the afternoon, prompting one of them to follow after her. Tristan, the aforementioned Psanctuary cleric in training, hails from Pike County. After he finishes the eight-week training process, he’ll be able to help Eric (and/or Psanctuary’s two ministers

in training) officiate sacrament experiences while getting paid for it. (Other church members will be able to train as ministers in a ten-month program starting on May 25.)

I shared a green blanket with Alex, a tall, gentle-voiced guy who asked that LEO not share his last name. I was the only one present who had never tried psychedelics of any sort; my closest foray into that world was one incredibly underwhelming experience smoking weed in California.

Psanctuary co-founder and treasurer Athena Short joined an older couple, Stephen and Nancy Headland, on a white blanket across from Eric and Courtney.

Unlike everyone else in the group that day, the Headlands, two founding members of Psanctuary’s congregation, do not live in Kentucky — yet. They hail from Paso Robles, a sunny, semi-rural town in California’s wine country. They’re so new, in fact, that a reference to planning an event around Thunder Over Louisville confused them: “I thought you had the ability to predict actual thunder in the sky!” laughed Nancy.

They were in Louisville for the week for a “fact-finding mission” — looking at neighborhoods, scouting out potential places to live. So far, so good: they’d loved the welcoming and diverse locals and had not “met anybody who was cross or even looked cross; everybody’s been super friendly,” LEOWEEKLY.COM // APRIL 13, 2022

13

Psanctuary cleric in training Tristan Harris climbs a tree after the hike.

Nancy said. They’re looking forward to having four weather seasons, even thunderstorms, and to making use of the city’s sizable park system. Their plan is to be here in August — around the one-year anniversary of them joining Psanctuary.

In fact, they’re moving to Louisville because of Psanctuary.

Stephen and Nancy had both met Eric and had had experiences with mushrooms before joining the church; after they’d each attended a MycoMeditations retreat a few years ago (albeit not at the same time), they’d come back to the U.S. feeling transformed, “lighter,” with an impetus to make huge changes in their lives.

“While not a panacea and not a magic bullet,” said Stephen, who has given up all drinking and smoking since his retreat experience, psilocybin mushrooms “really awakened in me the idea that things could be different — things could change.”

They continued to keep up with Eric through his podcasts, “Psilocybin Says” and “The Psilocybin Chronicles,” and joined the church last year; they’re the first nonfounding members whose faces you see in Psanctuary’s promotional video, which was filmed at the church’s retreat in Brandenburg last September. Now, they’re looking forward to being part of its in-person community and further exploring their relationship to psilocybin.

“Each time I commune with the mushroom, I get something out of it,” Stephen told LEO. “Sometimes it’s a little something. Sometimes it’s a harsh something.

Sometimes it’s a soft, warm something. But there’s always a lesson. I feel like the mushrooms are there to teach.”

14

LEOWEEKLY.COM // APRIL 13, 2022

HOW IT STARTED, HOW IT WORKS

Psanctuary was founded in February 2021 and held its first Zoom service on May 2, 2021. By early September 2021, when their website went live, the church had already grown to nearly 100 members, which Eric commemorated in an Instagram post: “I suspect you will see this community expand rapidly as it is founded in love, compassion and honesty. Anything else is destined to fail.” (Incidentally, Psanctuary’s URL used to belong to a Christian church in England.)

They finally got an in-person meeting space earlier this year.

On May 7, 2021, Psanctuary officially got its 508(c)(1)(A) status, making it a nonprofit religious organization.

A 508(c)(1)(A) organization, in layman’s terms, is a church in the eyes of the law, but one that might not fit the mold of what attorney Greg Lake, a consultant and author who specializes in laws relating to entheogenic (psychedelic) religious groups like Psanctuary, calls a “picture-perfect orthodox church.” If Psanctuary — which is one of his clients — were to file as a 501(c)(3) church, the more traditional option, they’d essentially be “asking the IRS to comment on validity of [their] religion,” Lake said.

In any case, Lake said, the practice of using psychedelic substances spiritually has existed for millennia so Psanctuary is, in a sense, nothing new. About groups like Psanctuary, he told LEO, “You can’t regulate these things out of existence.”

A 2002 article in the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies [MAPS] Bulletin, a journal published by the foremost

Nancy and Stephen Headland share their experiences with mushrooms with other members of Psanctuary.

authorities on psychedelic research, noted close to 40 churches and religious organizations in North America and Europe (many of which are now defunct, in part due to legal threats) that have centered their religious practices around cannabis, ayahuasca, peyote and, of course, psilocybin mushrooms. The landmark U.S. v. Boyll case in 1990 ensured that members of a Native American religious group that used peyote (even non-Native members like Boyll himself) were exempt from laws that criminalized the use of peyote because they did so in “bona fide religious ceremonies.”

Psanctuary says it exercises using mushrooms under the auspices of House Bill 279, the Kentucky Religious Freedom Restoration Act, a successor to the original federal law passed by Bill Clinton in 1993 that was struck down in 1997. It reads: “Government shall not substantially burden a person’s freedom of religion. The right to act or refuse to act in a manner motivated by a sincerely held religious belief may not be substantially burdened unless the government proves by clear and convincing evidence that it has a compelling governmental interest in infringing the specific act or refusal to act and has used the least restrictive means to further that interest. A ‘burden’ shall include indirect burdens such as withholding benefits, assessing penalties, or an exclusion from programs or access to facilities.”

Gov. Steve Beshear vetoed the bill in 2013, citing concerns that it would “cause serious unintentional consequences that could threaten public safety, health care and individuals’ civil rights,” according to a statement at the time, but a Republican-

majority General Assembly overrode his veto. In various states, laws like this one have been used in cases about LGBT discrimination and vaccine mandates, among other issues, but they have, in general, been a boon for members of psychedelic churches.

But, as Eric told me: “We are practicing our sincere faith. And until someone can prove to us that it is insincere and that we are putting the public at risk, then we’re going to keep on practicing our faith.”

‘INTENSE AND INTENTIONAL’

People who think Psanctuary is solely about eating psychedelic mushrooms will be sorely disappointed. Much of the “work” of being in the church is about talking with fellow congregants.

Of course, Psanctuary’s ministry is chiefly focused on psilocybin mushrooms and their benefits. Even their logo is a stylization of the underside of a mushroom cap, with the mushroom’s gills radiating out from what appears to be an eye in the middle.

Likewise, Psanctuary has their semantic particularities. Psilocybin mushrooms themselves are often referred to singularly as “the mushroom” or “the sacrament,” variably with or without capitalization, or sometimes “sacred mushrooms.” Eating mushrooms is “partaking in the sacrament.” A trip itself is a “sacrament experience”; microdosing is a “subtle sacrament experience.” A bad trip is a “challenging experience.” One’s headspace during a trip is “the mushroom space.” A group trip is “congregational communion.” Their name, of course, is “Psanc-

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up until the very end, right before Courtney concluded the group and offered people slices of homemade hawthorn berry heart cake.

THE ROAD TO PSANCTUARY

Eric Osborne, the founder and minister of Psanctuary, holds a collection of psilocybin mushroom caps, which his church considers sacred.

tuary,” spelled with a P like in “psychedelic” and “psilocybin,” and their twice-monthly meetings are known as “Psacred Circles.”

Sunday services and some emails end with the send-off “Mush love.”

Still, the “trip” experiences — both the subtle sacrament encounters like the one last Sunday and their multi-day retreats — are only a fraction of their overall ministry, and they’re members-only at that. To become one, you have to pay a nonrefundable onetime fee of $35, then choose your monthly giving tier — $10, $20 or $30, plus a $0.50, $1, or $1.50 processing fee, respectively.

(It’s a sliding scale system; all tiers have the same benefits.) After that, you fill out an application, then sign their code of ethics and liability waiver. Once that’s done, you schedule a call with the founders to talk about the church and your intentions with joining. Members have access to the congregation’s Telegram channel and Discord server.

As you might expect, they’ve had to turn away people who’ve come to the church only for an easy supply of mushrooms. Those people, Eric said, will “pretty quickly exit themselves out” after hearing the in-depth and personal conversations that Psanctuary members have at their in-person and virtual gatherings.

“Because we are so sincere, we are so intense and intentional behind what we’re doing, if that’s not what you’re into, then you’re gonna go find somewhere else to do drugs. That’s easy,” he told LEO. Anybody can find someone to do mushrooms with, he added, but “not just anybody can come and sit and have a two-hour conversation about their own real personal vulnerabilities or pain and trauma.”

Those two-hour events — bi-monthly Psacred Circles in person and weekly

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LEOWEEKLY.COM // APRIL 13, 2022

Sunday Services on Zoom — make up the bulk of the church’s programming, though their recent and upcoming events also include mindfulness sessions, a cacao ceremony and a silent disco vendor’s market.

Their in-person events take place inside a cozy studio space on East Broadway, where the only thing immediately indicating its purpose is a string of decorative mushrooms right inside the entrance. Potted plants sit atop a cubby shelf; paintings by Eric — a poinsettia, some Van Gogh-esque plants — add color to one of the exposed brick walls.

I went to both the Community Psacred Circle on Tuesday, March 29, led by Eric; and the Women’s Psacred Circle on Saturday, April 2, led by Courtney.

Eric’s circle was heavily mushroomfocused. There were ten of us — all men, except for Athena and me — but our conversations focused more on mental health, trauma, organized religion, and the pros and cons of using mushrooms for healing.

Alex spoke heartfeltly about the concept of communion.

At the women’s circle, Courtney asked us to keep anything personal that was shared inside the circle fully inside the circle, to which we all agreed. Still, I can say that it was slightly larger than the previous one — there were 14 of us, including one service dog, but we were all female.

We didn’t talk about mushrooms, though — we talked about emotions. We did a “body scan meditation,” then played several rounds of “The Noticing Game,” where we shared observations about how we (collectively and individually) were feeling and existing in the space. It wasn’t always easy; I struggled to come up with a response on two of the four rounds, but it helped us connect as a group.

The word “Psanctuary” didn’t even come

The long journey to Psanctuary didn’t begin with a prayer to God or a cry for salvation or a Bible verse. It began with another walk in the woods.

Eric was 19 in 1999, a student at St. Catharine College, a small, now-shuttered Catholic school near his hometown of Springfield, Kentucky, working on an associate degree in liberal studies. He’d graduated from a Catholic high school a few years earlier.

By that point, though, he’d already started to question the faith he was brought up in.

“As I got older, I started to see that where I really felt in touch with God was not in the Church,” he said. “I mean, I was fully bought into the Catholic thing. When the pedophilia scandal broke out, by then, I’d already started to really question the validity of what I was engaged with all the time. But then I just said, ‘Look, this is hogwash. This is corrupt to its core.’”

Disillusionment with the Church led him to explore nature more — to spend more time in the woods, hiking and hunting for mushrooms, initially for food.

When he discovered psychedelic mushrooms, it was a revelation. Years of church experience had failed to give him a spiritual connection, yet here was something that could — something “real and direct” and “not a theoretical thing anymore.”

Eric was already plenty familiar with the sacrament of communion, how, in the Catholic Church, through the process of transubstantiation, a thin wafer gets transformed by the priest into the body of Christ.

But a psychedelic mushroom — this did not need to be consecrated. To him, it was already holy and perfect by its own existence. It was a doorway to God, nature and the universe, and he could hold it between his fingertips.

Still, after he transferred to UofL and graduated in 2004, he taught English for a few years at a Catholic middle school in Louisville.

In 2009, he made a complete pivot: he started a mushroom farm, Magnificent Mushrooms, in rural Paoli, Indiana, about an hour northwest of downtown Louisville.

He would have preferred to have stayed in Kentucky, he said, but a board member at his school had an empty farm and needed

someone to maintain it, so the opportunity was there.

Eric turned the farm into a thriving business that grew close to 15 different varieties of mushrooms over the course of its time in Paoli. He grew 100-150 pounds of edible mushrooms a week for restaurants, private caterers and a grocery store in Louisville and Southern Indiana. Locally, his clients included Le Relais, Harvest (which has since closed) and the Wiltshire group. He led educational workshops about the benefits of mushrooms — both edible and psilocybin.

In 2011, the Indiana State Department of Health recognized Eric as a wild mushroom identification expert.

On April 8, 2013, he met Courtney McClure, a former competitive figure skater who was then working at the Middletown branch of the local health food market Rainbow Blossom. They married in October 2016, and they now have four children between them, including two from Eric’s previous marriages.

In November 2013, Eric started leading trips to Jamaica — where psychedelics are legal — with MycoMeditations, the wellness retreat company he’d founded the year before. MycoMeditations, which specializes in high-end psilocybin-assisted retreats, offers guests guided mushroom trips and licensed therapists in an ocean-front environment in an attempt to combat depression, anxiety, PTSD and addiction.

But in June 2015, Courtney and Eric entered what he calls “the worst, hardest period of our lives” when police raided their 87-acre Magnificent Mushrooms farm in Indiana and took them away to jail.

The Paoli Police Department said officers found five pounds of psilocybin mushrooms and seven pounds of cannabis butter on the property (though, Eric disputes this, claiming that officers included the weight of the dirt in the mushroom weight and that there were “probably only three ounces” of weed in the butter).

Arrested on a slew of drug charges, Courtney was locked up for a day before getting bailed out while Eric was held in jail for eight days. After their release, they’d spend eight weeks on home incarceration.

In the end, they were sentenced to two and a half years of probation.

They say the relatively lenient outcome was likely because they were both white and neither one had an arrest record.

“People’s lives are taken away every day because of plants,” Courtney said.

Despite the ordeal, Eric managed to give off a slight smile in his mugshot as he posed against the white cinderblock walls.

“I was doing my best to smile because this has always been my faith and practice.

I have always had some kind of trust in the mushroom, and I trust the process,” he said. “Even though that was a horrifying day, there was still a part of me that knew everything was gonna work out, that still had that faith.”

In 2017, he and Courtney moved to Treasure Beach, Jamaica, to restart Magnificent Mushrooms and continue MycoMeditations.

Still, Eric said, he missed his home state.

In Jamaica, he’d often play John Prine’s “My Old Kentucky Home, Goodnight,” and he even adopted a dog named Kentucky.

(She’s still doing well, but she now lives on a hemp farm, where she has more room to run around that she needed than she had at Eric and Courtney’s house.)

Eric decided to leave Myco in late 2020; his replacement, Justin Townsend, is a former Myco facilitator who has since become CEO and Head Facilitator. (Currently, the cheapest option via MycoMeditations is a week-long “Classic Retreat” that starts at $4,300 per person for a double occupancy, and $5,550 for single occupancy.)

Since then, Eric and Courtney started a podcast, “Psilocybin Says,” in April 2021; founded a psychedelic coaching business, More Than Integration in May 2021 and started Psanctuary the same month.

Eric treasured his time in Treasure Beach, but now, he’s back in Louisville, continuing to share his beliefs about psilocybin mushrooms.

“I just love Kentucky,” he told LEO. “I want to help people heal here.”

OUT OF THE WOODS

Back in the park, I caught Alex staring up intently at a bare tree and went over to photograph the moment. He said he was appreciating the patterns of its branches and how new leaves were coming in; still, he shied away from a photo because he “can’t be natural now that I know there’s a camera.” I looked over at Athena, who was having fun on a nearby swing set. Tristan and Luna followed shortly after, and Cassie took photos of them on her phone. A few minutes later, Courtney took Tristan’s place.

Both she and Athena were wearing flowers in their hair. They were giddy and happy and eventually tried to synchronize their swinging before they jumped off, which they asked me to photograph.

While this was happening, others in our group were chatting with parkgoers about the tribulations of using the grody bathrooms — this one doesn’t lock; that one has no toilet paper.

A realization struck me: those people have no idea that our group is microdosing.

Eric Osborne, right, and his wife Courtney McClure, left, are both co-founders of Psanctuary.

It also struck me: any of them could be microdosing right now, too.

At that point, we’d been hiking around the park for about an hour, walking along the trails and admiring a broad expanse of flowers that spread out gorgeously under the trees. As we’d walked, at one point joyfully passing a turtle sunning itself on a rock, everybody was in good spirits. Stephen said the mushrooms were giving him a heightened appreciation for the nature that surrounded us — they were making the nice day feel like a “nice day squared.”

As we made our way down the pedestrian side of a long stretch of road, and I spotted our blankets through the trees, which lay like gigantic flower petals through the barren woods.

By the time we returned to the circle, it was already 3:45 p.m. The harsh earlier light had already mellowed; the shadows had softened. Courtney offered people some chocolate as she and others sat down, basking in the beautiful day. Eric walked around with Smokey; Tristan reclined on a fallen tree nearby.

Not long after, we all gathered together again. For two hours, as the sun continued to fall slowly behind the trees, we just talked — about psilocybin, dreams, mushroom hunting, palliative care, divinity, stigma, consciousness, past lives, infinity, ego deaths and relationships, amongst many other topics.

At one point, Eric relayed a story: a client who had debated whether or not he should work with Eric (and ultimately did so) went to a psychic about the matter. The psychic said that this was Eric’s “last incarnation” on Earth.

“I don’t buy it,” Eric said. “I wanna keep coming back.”

We concluded with a mindfulness meditation.

It was quiet and peaceful. Some sounds overlaid each other: soft piano music from Courtney’s bluetooth speaker, which pulsed rainbow colors; mourning doves, cars, a slight breeze.

Nancy told the group she’d had a feeling of something right before the timer went off to end the meditation. When she opened her eyes, she was staring right at Luna, who stared directly back at her.

We all laughed; Tristan congratulated his dog on being the “something” — “Good job, Luna.”

Before the circle dispersed into a round of standing hugs, Courtney asked us to remind ourselves of the intentions we’d shared hours before and consider if we’d achieved them during the afternoon. One by one, the group members named them: to recenter, to represent the church, to “create a greater connection to this soil,” to “soak it in” — both the day and the conversation.

Multiple people referenced an intention to “be present.” All agreed that their intentions

had been met.

As others walked out to the parking lot, I stuck around to interview the Headlands.

I wanted to know more about what would bring them from California to Louisville to be part of a psychedelic mushroom church.

Psychedelic mushroom experiences aren’t always easy — even psychedelics experts like Eric readily admit that — and moving cross-country certainly isn’t, either.

But they were ready. There were still a few months’ worth of logistical preparations to account for, but they already knew what the mushroom — and the Psanctuary community — had done, and would continue to do, for them both.

We continued talking as we walked to the parking lot, backlit by the peak of golden hour. At one point, we stopped — unintentionally — right in front of a single yellow wildflower, which grew alone in a big expanse of grass.

Nancy was elated. It was a serendipitous moment, she said — a beautifully-timed parallel for their upcoming move to Louisville.

“It’s gonna work out the way it’s supposed to work out, and things just keep aligning themselves,” she said. “As we move forward in our journey in this move, things are just working out. And that, to me, is serendipitous. It tells me that we are on the right path and this is what we need to do.” • LEOWEEKLY.COM // APRIL 13, 2022

17

STAFF PICKS SATURDAY, APRIL 16

Elton John

KFC Yum Center | 1 Arena Plaza | kfcyumcenter.com | Prices vary | 8 p.m.

Prince. Beyoncé. Dylan.

Adele. Elvis. You’ve probably reached ROCKETMAN the highest level of iconic — in any industry — when someone can mention just your first or last name, with next to no context, and it’s perfectly clear who is being talked about. Elton falls into that category. Because like the rest of the people on that list, his music is not only ubiquitous, but he’s a larger-than-life talent with a larger-than-life persona. Like some staff pick blurbs, I don’t have to spend any time explaining his career, sound or importance.

You already know. And it’s his final tour. —Scott Recker

SATURDAY, APRIL 16

Paristown Garden Show

Christy’s Garden | 720 Brent St. | thefleurdeflea.com | Free | 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.

In the mood for “a fabulous Outdoor Garden Show brought up you by The Fleur De Flea and Paristown?” We are and we’re ready for the heat. Let’s hope that this show, which will have plenty of vendors, native plants, flowers, vintage garden decor and garGREEN den tools, will also bring with it, warmer temps. Let’s claim it. There will also be wine and food and speakers talking about a variety of gardening topics. Doesn’t hurt that it’s free and lots of free parking to boot. —Erica Rucker

18

SATURDAY, APRIL 16

Taproom Prom!

Highlands Tap Room | 1058 Bardstown Road | Search Facebook | No cover | 9 p.m.

-4 a.m.

You may know Highlands Tap Room as the home of Metal Mondays, amongst their many other musical offerings, but this Saturday, it’ll be the home of a prom that CROWN will (possibly) be better than the one you had in high school — for one thing, there’ll be booze. All levels of fanciness welcome, but keep in mind that the candidates for Prom King and Prom Queen will be judged (in part) based on their style. — Carolyn Brown

SATURDAY, APRIL 16

FriendsFest 2022

The Enchanted Forest | 41 W. 1st St, New Albany, Indiana | Search Facebook | $15 | Doors at noon The Enchanted Forest will play host to cool jams for a good cause this Saturday afternoon and evening: eight local musical acts, including Tyler Lance Walker Gill, Bandshee BFF and The Mighty Ohio, will come together to raise money for the Floyd County Child Abuse Prevention Council. — Carolyn Brown

Tyler Lance Walker Gill LEOWEEKLY.COM // APRIL 13, 2022

STAFF PICKS

SATURDAY, APRIL 23

SATURDAY, APRIL 23

Brown Theatre | 315 W. Broadway | kentuckyperformingarts.org | $34.81-$58.21 | 4 p.m. and 7 p.m.

Thunder Over Louisville is returning to the waterfront after last year’s multi-neighborhood firework show and 2020’s cancellation. You can watch the show along the THUNDER Louisville riverfront for the price of a Pegasus Pin, of course, but there are other, less crowded-options. Here is a list of parties you can attend — some for viewing, others just an excuse to celebrate.

Leanne Morgan’s ‘The Big Panty Tour’ Country girls bring the laughs. Leanne Morgan talks about her kids, going to concerts with old people and big JOKES panties. She’s from the middle of Tennessee and lives in the foothills of the Appalachains. More than anything, she will have you giggling and cackling at all the fun being a woman, hitting menopause, being married or having children might bring.

Sometimes, she talks about Jesus but even that is pretty darn funny. —Erica Rucker

Thunder Over River Road @ Zero’s Luxe Lounge | 1346 River Road | thunderoverriverroad.eventbrite.com | $50 per person | Noon Your meal is included with a ticket to Zero’s Luxe Lounge’s Thunder party, also featuring private parking for some ticketholders and cornhole/other games in the parking lot.

Leanne Morgan

SUNDAY, APRIL 24

Fresh and Clean with Jake Hovis

Planet of the Tapes | 640 Barret Ave. | planetofthetapes.biz | Free | 7 p.m.

Planet of the Tapes website asks, “Is dirty comedy just not for you?” If FUNNY your ears are pristine, and you’d like to keep them that way, this comedy show might be the one for you.

Jake Hovis is hosting a showcase of local and regional comedians keeping it classy and cute with clean jokes. The event is for those over 21 and will feature Planet of the Tapes table service with their silent ordering system. —Erica Rucker

Jammin’ At The Jefferson @ The Jefferson Venue | 715 W. Riverside Drive, Jeffersonville, Indiana | Search Facebook | $65-$150 | 1 p.m.-11:30 p.m.

Thunder Over Louisville @ Play Louisville | 1101 E. Washington St. | Search Facebook | $35-$60 | 5 p.m.-4 a.m.

Enjoy live music from Clayton Anderson and a beer garden while watching Thunder from a venue with a prime location at the base of the Second Street Bridge.

Spend the local holiday making thunder of your own on the dance floor, featuring beats from “two legendary house and techno DJs,” Mark Farina and Stacey Pullen.

ThunderBlast @ Kentucky Science Center | 727 W. Main St. | kysciencecenter.org | $35-$125 | 2 p.m.-10 p.m.

Thunder Rolls! Rooftop Thunder Viewing Party @ Copper & Kings | 1121 E. Washington St. | Search Facebook | $125 | 7-10:30 p.m.

Enjoy the full experience of the Kentucky Science Center, food trucks and great views of the Thunder action.

Jake Hovis

MONDAY, APRIL 25-MAY 9

Je�frey Bennett Pop-Up

Tim Faulkner Gallery | 991 Logan St. | tfgart.com | Free It will soon be time to welcome artist Jeffrey Bennett ART back to Louisville. The Los Angeles resident hasn’t been back here in over a decade. He will be showing his “Map Series” paintings for two weeks in a pop-up exhibition at the Tim Faulkner Gallery. There will be a meet and greet on Friday, April 29 at 6 p.m. and a reception on Wednesday, May 4 with live music by The Hollis Orchestra. —Jo Anne Triplett

Thunder Over Louisville Parties

Thunder Over Louisville @ Upland Jeffersonville | 707 W. Riverside Drive, Jeffersonville, Indiana | Search Facebook | $100-$180 per person | 2-11 p.m.

Enjoy a beer garden and fantastic river views from Upland Brewing Co.’s Jeffersonville location.

Thunder Over Louisville! @ KingFish | 601 W. Riverside Drive, Jeffersonville, Indiana | kingfishrestaurants.com | $100-$185 | 3 p.m.

Chow down on an included all-you-can-eat seafood buffet while watching Thunder from one of Southern Indiana’s riverfront restaurants.

‘Constellation (US)’ by Jeffrey Bennett. Oil over paper map on wood panel.

An intimate Thunder viewing party, with a welcome cocktail and hors d’oeuvres.

Houseplant & Mr. Please Thunder Bash @ Vernon Lanes | 1575 Story Ave. | Search Facebook | $15 | 8 p.m.

Enjoy live music at the newly renovated Vernon Lanes bowling alley, with Thunder viewing from the parking lot.

The Crashers + Thunder Fireworks Stream @ Christy’s Garden | 720 Brent St. | Search Facebook | $15-$50 | 8 p.m.

Christy’s Garden is far away from the Thunder hubub, but you’ll be able to watch the show on the outdoor venue’s giant LED wall while also enjoying the sounds of the Louisville Crashers. —Danielle Grady

Thunder @ 300 Spring | 300 Spring St., Jeffersonville, Indiana | Search Facebook | $10-$20 | 3-11:30 p.m.

Take a break from the elements, organizers say, to enjoy live music and drink specials.

LEOWEEKLY.COM // APRIL 13, 2022

19

20

Celebrating 20 years of connecting you with gardening & nature

A N

E V E N I N G

STAFF PICKS

THROUGH MAY 8

‘Fruit/Bodies’ By Ann Dawkins

garner narrative contemporary fine art | 642 E. Market St. | garnernarrative.com | Free There’s a long tradition in art of painting fruit and BODY vegetables to represent parts of the human body.

The Renaissance artist Giuseppe Arcimboldo was a master at it.

Louisville painter Ann Dawkins takes it a step further by analyzing society’s preoccupation with appearance in her latest works.

“There’s so much pressure on bodies to look a certain way, to function a certain way, to exist for the pleasure or purposes of others,” she said. “Bodies just are … A rotten bruised peach is still a peach if it cannot be consumed. Having a body is a practice in vulnerability, especially if that body is met with unwelcome eyes.” —Jo Anne Triplett

‘Big Fat Feminist Mandarins (detail)’ by Ann Dawkins. Oil on panel.

W I T H

L I N D S E Y B U C K I N G H A M

THROUGH MAY 8

‘Windows Into The Community’ By Danny Seim KMAC Museum | 715 W. Main St. | kmacmuseum.org | Prices vary

B R OW N

T H E AT R E

04.30.22

Know someone who inspires fellow Louisvillians?

CIVIL RIGHTS UofL’s The Urban Design Studio, in collaboration with the Portland Museum, has an ongoing project celebrating people who have helped make the city a better place. Danny Seim has drawn 40 people who were anonymously nominated, with the show “Windows Into the Community” exhibiting the portraits. His drawings have also been enlarged and attached to downtown buildings. If you would like to suggest someone for a future portrait, visit The Urban Design Studio’s website at udstudio.org. —Jo Anne Triplett

KentuckyPerformingArts.org

Elmer Lucille Allen by Danny Seim. Marker on paper.

LEOWEEKLY.COM // APRIL 13, 2022

MUSIC

SONIC BREAKDOWN YELLOW CELLOPHANE

WANTS FOLKS TO ‘LEARN TO LET GO’

By Tyrel Kessinger | leo@leoweekly.com

HANNAH SEXTON — the sole mastermind behind Yellow Cellophane — doesn’t beat around the bush when it comes to the meaning of her song “Learn To Let Go.” “It’s about FOMO,” Sexton explained.

“We’ve all experienced it in one way or another — you want to stay in but all of your friends are going out or doing something, and that little voice in your head is telling you, ‘If you don’t go, you’ll miss out on something or everyone is going to forget you or you go, you have a good time, but you feel like you’ve given a piece of yourself away. You feel emptier after going out than you would have if you’d just stayed at home. So this song is about telling yourself it’s OK to stay home, give yourself permission to do what you want to do, and let those fomo feelings go. You won’t be forgotten. There will be another show or another cool thing happening. Take care of yourself first, and do what you want to do.”

To highlight the ephemerality of time, Sexton has drenched the spirit of “Learn To Let Go” in a ghostly wash of graceful acoustic guitar that quietly fades into the ether before you can wrap your head around it.

Sexton’s vocals are also much the same, an airy croon that is nothing if not thoroughly haunting.

“Musically, I always try to come from the heart and bare my soul in every song

I write,” Sexton said. “My music has always come from my own experiences, I’ve always used it as like a journal. I even started Yellow Cellophane from some entries I wrote when I was going through a bad breakup. But it’s always been comforting when I can relate to a song, like I’m not alone, and my goal is for people to feel like that with my music.

I’m also really inspired by Stevie Nicks’ songwriting style, the way she conveys her message in metaphors, and I use that a lot in my own process.”

Sexton also said that “Learn To Let Go” was created with a dear friend of hers, which makes the song particularly endearing to her regardless of what anyone else Hannah Sexton. takes from it.

“My best friend at the time, who was in school for music therapy, had to write a song for her class and asked if I would help her,” Sexton said. “So she came over to my teeny-tiny studio apartment, and we crowded around my makeshift coffee table in my living room and got to it. Unfortunately, life happens, though. People drift apart, and even though we aren’t as close as we were when we wrote this song, it’s a memory I’ll hold close forever. Every time I play this song, I’m thinking about her and all the memories we shared together.”

So it would seem that some things, perhaps, shouldn’t be let go. •

@leoweekly

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21

MUSIC

CREATING BEAUTY AMIDST GRIEF, AND NEW LIFE

GANG OF YOUTHS’ MAX DUNN TALKS ‘ANGEL IN REALTIME.’

By Erica Rucker | erucker@leoweekly.com

BLOCK PARTY PRESENTED BY CHURCHILL DOWNS AND HUMANA SATURDAY, APRIL 16

10 AM - 8 PM

NORTON HEALTHCARE SPORTS & LEARNING CENTER

FREE

Your community. Your celebration. Your Festival.

As we return to tradition, it’s time to start a new one with the Kentucky Derby Festival Block Party! This all-day event features over a dozen food trucks, local entertainment, a nonprofit village, the MELANnaire Marketplace, a health & wellness area and lots of kids’ activities including an inflatable playground and Easter egg hunt. As the Block Party presents even more of what the community has to offer, it is sure to become a staple Festival event.

More info at

KDF.ORG #KYDERBYFESTIVAL    YOUTUBE PRESENTED BY

Gang of Youths. | PHOTO BY RASHIDI NOAH.

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SUPPORTING PARTNERS BRAIN FREEZE - CONES FOR A CAUSE ERICA DENISE ENTERTAINMENT LEAN INTO LOUISVILLE

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GANG OF YOUTHS is coming to the Mercury Ballroom on Monday, April 25, bringing their brand of maximum beauty alt-rock to the local stage. The group, formed in Australia but with members from all over the globe, is touring in support of their third album, Angel in Realtime. The record was created to memorialize the complicated life of singer David Le’aupepe’s late father. LEO caught up with bassist Max Dunn, who was hanging out with his family in Singapore, to discuss the new record, kids, touring and

creating moments of beauty.

LEO Weekly: Tell me about the new record.

Max Dunn: It took forever. It took like two and a half years and it was definitely the hardest thing we’ve ever done. It went up and down. We made many, many, many versions of some of the songs, and probably made the whole album twice — if you were to like aggregate it — in different studios and stuff. Then we kind of just realized we

MUSIC

had to do it ourselves.

That’s when we got a room in Hackney, which is like just a random part out in London. We just went in every day — treated it, like, I mean, it was a pandemic, right. So we weren’t doing much else and, we just treated it like we were able to be a bubble because we hang out all the time, you know what I mean? We just became a bubble and went and did it. You were allowed to go to work, so technically we weren’t breaking the rules. Yeah.

Dave has this overarching vision. It’s his story, and he’s writing these songs, and then we kind of write music along with them and try to execute that vision.

I think it works ‘cause everyone sort of serves that, and everyone has their role. No one’s trying to be the Dave. It’s just kind of like everyone works towards that vision.

What I mean by free, is there’s no instrument roles.

Everyone plays whatever, which I think kind of lended itself to this record because the album’s... it’s so random. It’s such, it’s such a departure from a standard rock record, and I mean, it’s always gonna — in my head — it’s always gonna feel like that ‘cause Dave’s voice is so engaging and compelling, in my opinion.

How did having time influence how you created this record? The sound feels very full.

Maybe on some songs, but I think there’s other songs where we didn’t add a lot of layers, like ‘Forbearance,’ one of the tracks, which was very simply-produced. It’s really a couple of parts, and then probably the only layering would come with the drums.

They’re trying to create that kind of breaky, hypnotic, drum and bass sort of bed.

And then obviously songs like ‘Brothers’ didn’t need anything or ‘Hand of God’ is just Dave on a piano. So I think the time probably helped, to go into depth and it probably allowed us to realize the album we wanted to make, if that makes sense. (chaos ensues momentarily as my dog, Martin — the interrupter of many an interview — starts barking when my son arrives with a friend... Dunn continues after quiet resumes.)

I guess the pushback to that is that we didn’t try to... we really wanted to make this album. I think the time helped because we made a lot of stuff that we didn’t like that would’ve been liked by people, if that makes sense.

How important is it to create a record for maximum impact on listeners? You mentioned striving for “maximum beauty” in an interview with Atwood Magazine.

I think that’s like the entire point, and that’s not me saying what’s beautiful, you know.

I’m trying to think of a modern band, that’s like very different to us. I love Celebration Rock by the Japandroids, which is extremely aggressive punk. I think it’s extremely beautiful to what they were trying to do. We are always trying to think how we make people feel, what we want ‘em to feel or the song should have from feel.

With this record, it’s about a really complicated man, who I loved very much, and I knew very well, as well: Dave’s father, and his story. Then this kind of — in the context of what we are doing — what’s beautiful, was to like weave together a bunch of things and build motifs and take people on a bit of the journey with it, hoping to sort of mirror a journey that obviously his life was.

Been to Louisville before?

Uh, no. We have a friend from Louisville who makes guitar builds, and that’s pretty much the extent to which I know about Louisville, so I’m excited to come. It should be good. What should we expect? Did you say that it’s right on the border with Indiana?

Yep. We’re separated by a small river.

Louisville is a deeply creative place and, of course, I’m also biased. OK, last question. Since we’ve talked about beauty and the pandemic: What good things would you like to see come out of this last two years?

(Dunn’s young child is waking up in the background.)

The obvious answer is that that people have the ability to stop more. I think a lot of people have been owned by their job and, probably to an extent, drawn identity from their job, including me. Not getting to tour or really make much money for two years from my job but getting to spend every day with my kid, which would not have happened. I feel like some of the lessons from sort of looking out for each other. I hope that that comes from the pandemic. • This is the brief version of our Max Dunn interview, trimmed for space and clarity. Look for the full interview on leoweekly.com.

LEOWEEKLY.COM // APRIL 13, 2022

23

FOOD & DRINK

RECOMMENDED

BIG BAD BREAKFAST BRINGS ANOTHER MORNING OPTION

By Robin Garr | LouisvilleHotBytes.com AFTER Lynn’s Paradise Cafe closed abruptly in 2010, it left a vacant building and a crowd of nearby merchants sad over the loss of a neighborhood commercial anchor.

Martin’s Bar-B-Que Joint filled the space for a couple of years, but soon became a victim of the pandemic.

It took another year for the latest occupant to fill the space again. Big Bad Breakfast looks like a good fit, though. Like Lynn’s, the new entry — the first Kentucky location of a small but growing chain based in Oxford, Mississippi – offers hearty breakfast and lunch dishes in a downhome setting.

Like Lynn’s at its peak, Big Bad Breakfast appears to be drawing a happy, noisy crowd that craves breakfast from morning through midday. It’s filling those seats in the face of plenty of competition, too.

After all, Louisville loves breakfast, and probably always has. We’ve got dozens of eateries that focus on the morning meal. You want breakfast? We’ve got breakfast. You’ve probably got your favorites… me too! But there’s always room for more, and Big Bad Breakfast nicely fills the space that once was

24

LEOWEEKLY.COM // APRIL 13, 2022

Lynn’s.

The wacky decor, ugly lamps and offbeat antiques that gave Lynn’s its characteristic personality are gone, replaced by a generic faux-Southern look with funny slogans, folk-art drawings of farm animals, and a wall-size mural of Louisville celebrities posed in a black-and-white parody of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

The chain’s founder, chef and cookbook author John Currence, who grew up and earned his cooking spurs in New Orleans, won the James Beard Award for Best Chef South in 2009 at his City Grocery in Oxford. He founded Big Bad Breakfast (let’s call it BBB) there in 2010, and the chain has expanded slowly across five Southern states. Louisville’s outpost opened in February as the chain’s 10th property.

We stopped by for lunch the other day and enjoyed a bountiful meal and first-rate service in a clean, bright and happily-noisy scene.

The menu offers some three dozen brunch standards, all available throughout the 7 a.m.-2:30 p.m. operating hours, so

The huevos rancheros grit bowl brings south of the border flavors to the table with pico de gallo, black beans and tortillas to accompany poached eggs and cheese grits. | PHOTOS BY ROBIN GARR.

Two triangular portions of crisp-crusted, dark-golden brown potato hash browns make a tempting and filling side dish.

FOOD & DRINK

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HOLE-IN-ONE GOLF CONTEST

THURSDAY, APRIL 14 - FRIDAY, APRIL 22*

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SUNDAY, APRIL 24

10 AM - 5 PM

Your drive. Your prize. Your Festival.

Only $1 per ball!

The Yard Work skillet dish offers scrambled eggs, cheese and avocado atop a bed of sauteed veggies and herbs. It comes with your choice of bread or Big Bad Breakfast’s fluffy black-pepper buttermilk biscuit.

you’re welcome to enjoy breakfast for lunch, lunch for breakfast, or both. It’s subdivided among specialties, biscuit dishes, egg dishes and omelets, skillet dishes, pancakes and waffles, sandwiches and wraps, and lowcalorie lean plates. Just about all the entree options are priced between $10 and $16.

Coffee drinks feature local Sunergos coffee, and a short list of brunch-style cocktails includes Bloody Marys, mimosas and a decadent Kentucky Coffee laced with bourbon and cream liqueur and topped with whipped cream.

The Huevos Rancheros grit bowl ($13.50) caught my eye. Two perfectly football-shaped soft eggs showed some serious poaching skills from the kitchen.

They were built into a fancy preparation that hinted at the flavors of Mexico with a spiciness that didn’t whack your taste buds with hellish fire.

The excellent eggs perched atop a spoonful of black beans and pool of cheesy, soupy very smooth grits, billed as Weisenberger Mills’ finest, but more finely ground than I expected. Dark green salsa verde, diced tomatoes and spicy pico de gallo surrounded the eggs, and the dish was topped with pale tan crunchies that looked like shoestring potatoes but were actually crisp-fried tortilla strips. A sliced half of an avocado and a spicy chicken sausage, halved lengthwise, flanked the plate.

The Yard Work Skillet ($11) is one of the few vegetarian dishes on the menu, although our server said just about any dish can have its animal protein removed upon request.

Presented in a rectangular black-iron serving

dish, it was basically an egg-and-cheese casserole baked atop a bed of sautéed veggies that became enveloped as the white cheese and egg melted into diced tomato, green pepper, onions and mushrooms as the dish cooked. It wasn’t the most exciting dish ever, frankly, but it felt reasonably healthy, and the sliced half-avocado on top made a pleasant treat.

The Yard Bird comes with your choice of white or wheat bread or a black-pepper buttermilk biscuit ($2 as an a la carte side).

Naturally, I summoned the biscuit, and it was a good one: Huge and square and a good inch thick, it was moist and slightly tangy, with a whiff of black pepper, a coarse crumb and a thick, brown top crust.

Another side, a crispy hash cake ($3.50) came in a generous portion — two large triangles — and I could have eaten more.

Finely grated potatoes that almost melted into a mash were fried to a very dark, delightfully crisp golden brown that surrounded a steaming, creamy interior.

With an excellent latte served in a coffee mug ($4.25), a hearty lunch for two came to $34.19, plus an $8 tip for our friendly and efficient server, Dominique. •

BIG BAD BREAKFAST

984 Barret Ave. 289-8227 bigbadbreakfast.com/locations/ louisville

DETAILS AT KDF.ORG

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4/5/22 10:00 AM

Scooby Dooby Doo, where are you? Looking for a home I see! This is the one and only Scooby, a 73-pound giant who has the appearance of a Shepherd/Labrador Retriever cross. Scooby is about two years old but still has quite a high activity level. He was returned to the Kentucky Humane Society when his owners realized they couldn't accommodate his energy needs. Now he’s ready for an active family to spend his days with! Scooby enjoys playing and is a professional toy catcher! He does not enjoy other dogs and would need to be the only pup in your life. He promises you won’t need another dog with him around though! He has plenty of love to give! Scooby hasn't been around children or cats before, so we would like him to meet any kiddos who are in the home to make sure everyone is comfortable with his zest for life.

Scooby enjoys greeting people by leaning into their legs... or throwing his booty around for some scratches. But he doesn't always realize he's a big boy and still considers himself to be a lap dog! Scooby is full of love for all who meet him. Won't you give this guy a chance? He is neutered, micro-chipped and up-to-date on his shots. Visit Scooby today at the Kentucky Humane Society’s East Campus, 1000 Lyndon Lane, or learn more at www.kyhumane.org/dogs.

Meet our big, adorable boy Javier! Javier is a four-year-old tuxedo colored kitty who weighs a little over 18 pounds and is looking for a family to love. This sweetie came to the Kentucky Humane Society when the other cat in the home was stressing him out and causing him great unhappiness. Javier's family was devastated to part with him but they wanted Javier to be happy and knew if he stayed in their home, he would never be relaxed enough to be his true self. When Javier isn't stressed, he is the cuddliest and most affectionate cat ever! He loves playing with his toys, being brushed, cuddling up with his people and taking long naps in the sunshine.

Since Javier does so much better in a quiet home as a solo pet, he needs to be the only animal in the home and with kids age 10 and older who won't stress him out. His former family says, "Javier is a very cuddly cat! He especially likes to cuddle at night when you lay down to read/go to bed. He also likes to cuddle first thing in the morning when you wake up! Sometimes he will Javier cuddle beside you while watching TV (just not in your lap- you might be grateful because he is close to 20lbs). He loves toys, especially the feathery kinds. He loves being brushed and will jump up onto the toilet seat to signal to you that it is time to brush and pet him. He LOVES catnip- he will roll around and play with any cat nip toy, but especially loves the ones that you fill with fresh cat nip--- you can put fresh catnip in the floor and lightly brush through his hair and he will roll around for an hour appearing quite happy! Javier is also highly food motivated. I'm convinced he thinks every treat you give him makes him think you love him more. He will give you "boops" to let you know he would like a treat (especially if he hears the rattle of any bag)--- so be steady and ready on your feet because when he is excited he will weave in and out of your legs. Once you build up trust, he even loves belly rubs if they are soft and go in the direction of his fur. He's a cat who cares a lot about how he looks and he grooms himself a lot. The corner brushes are his favorite to brush his cheek againstespecially if they have cat nip in them. He is deserving of a home where he can be someone's spoiled baby!" Could you be the one for this gorgeous boy? If so, come meet him! Javier is neutered, micro-chipped and up-to-date on all vaccinations. Visit Javier today at the Kentucky Humane Society’s Main Campus, 241 Steedly Drive, or learn more at www.kyhumane.org/cats.

LEOWEEKLY.COM // APRIL 13, 2022

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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

KENTUCKY SHAKESPEARE PULLS OFF THREE ‘HENRY VI’ PLAYS IN ONE WITH A VIRTUOSIC ENSEMBLE

By Marty Rosen | leo@leoweekly.com I was surprised (and slightly embarrassed at my ignorance) to learn recently that across its six-decade history, Kentucky Shakespeare has never produced Shakespeare’s three-part “Henry VI” cycle. That’s an oversight that ought to be remedied.

And to be clear, Stephanie Shine’s adaptation, which opened last weekend at the company’s impressive new headquarters, does fill that gap.

Shine’s version, “Henry VI: The Wars of the Roses,” has its own distinctive merits, but it’s a completely different creature from Shakespeare’s sprawling epic.

There is a longstanding argument among some Shakespeare scholars that the “Henry VI” cycle is lower in quality than other parts of the Shakespeare canon (and there are definitely pages in my copies where the footnotes are more entertaining than the spoken lines on the page). But that argument is also much disputed, and nearly any time you see Shakespeare on a stage, you can be sure that the script has been edited for length and clarity (and even, sometimes, for ideological reasons).

But if you leave all the scholarly debates aside and just focus on the three parts of the “Henry VI cycle” as dramatic storytelling, what you find is a potent theatrical account of a period that is powerfully and disturbingly relevant to our own time. The cycle opens with the untimely death of Henry V, who has just led his ascendant nation to a great triumph in France. And in the wake of that, they cover a fraught period during which the kingdom he leaves behind is unraveling, its domestic institutions and foreign interests under such enormous internal partisan pressure and external threats that it often seems on the brink of becoming a failed state.

The plays that chronicle this period are filled with vivid stories of self-sacrificing valor, self-serving venality, sexual intrigue and violence in back rooms and battlefields.

And this English epoch is shaped by the dynastic politics of the War of the Roses and a ferocious battle over what constitutes a legitimate government. The red and white blossoms that represent the contending sides in that battle can easily be construed as prototypes for the red and blue bumper stickers and campaign buttons that symbolize our own political factions.

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Across the Channel, in France, the militant religious fervor of Joan of Arc is a defining feature of the era. Meanwhile, in England a figure named Jack Cade leads a populist revolt against government corruption and taxes – revolt that culminates in a violent, murderous invasion of London.

And just to show the extent to which this era foreshadows ours, here are some words that Shakespeare puts in Cade’s mouth regarding the topic of state-sponsored education: “Thou hast most traitorously corrupted the youth of the realm in erecting a grammar school; and whereas, before, our forefathers had no other books but the score and the tally, thou hast caused printing to be used…”

Anyway, that’s my summary argument for presenting all three parts of “Henry VI.” But let’s move on to the actual production under review.

Shine’s adaptation could be glibly likened to the satirical work of the Reduced Shakespeare Company, which offers a fun, if sophomoric, compressed version of the entire canon with three performers in a single evening’s entertainment.

Similar tactics are at play here: a cast of eight shape-shifting performers and rapid jump-shifts in the action. But Shine’s adaptation and Amy Attaway’s staging have a much more serious sense of purpose. The goal here – largely achieved – is to cover a lot of ground and at a minimum convey the force and power of the contending ideas and forces that shaped the period.

And whatever the tactics sacrifice in gravitas, they make up in urgency and pace.

It takes a virtuosic ensemble with plenty of wit and craft to pull this off, and KY Shakes has plenty of that, both on- and backstage.

In the audience, you might feel (as I did) that you’re watching a revolving door of spinning characters on and off the stage as actors come and go in a stream of different guises. But the players are deft in movement, fluent in tongue, efficient when called upon for quick cameos and rich when given the space to build their characters. And most of them have worked together and with Attaway long and hard enough that they play together like a virtuoso jazz ensemble, even as they shift their instruments from character to character. (If you know the plays and want to see the full list of cast assignments, see the program on the KY Shakes website).

Shaquille Towns, Abigail Bailey Maupin, Gregory Maupin, Mollie Murk in Henry VI. PHOTO BY BILL BRYMER

Though the compression and the pace of the production are unlike the original work, the end result ironically reveals the lack of authorial judgment that is so fundamental to Shakespeare’s depictions of character, but are so often weighted with judgment by directors’ and actors’ choices. In general, all of Shakespeare’s characters are protagonists in their own story, until our perceptions turn them into something else. And in general this production is a vivid illustration of that point.

Shaquille Townes is a sympathetic, emotionally complex Henry VI. Abigail Bailey Maupin is a formidable Queen Margaret (this casting alone offers a strong argument for staging the Henry VI cycle in its entirety.) Gregory Maupin’s nimble acting brings a sly, smart edge to the strategizing machinations of Henry’s advisor (and matchmaker) Suffolk.

If you’re following roses, the White roses belong to the Yorks (of whom the most famous character in our pop culture is Richard III). In this production, the Yorks are led by David Hussey (a relative newcomer to the company) in a compelling portrayal of the Duke of York, who argues that he has a true claim to the throne. And if you were fortunate enough to have seen Neill Robertson as Richard II a few years ago, you will be intrigued to learn that, in this production he plays not only Shakespeare’s satirized version of the rebellious Jack Cade,

but offers a preview of the role he’ll play this summer: Richard III. And that alone is reason enough to see this production, if you can get a seat.

Mollie Murk is a fervent, happy warrior as Joan of Arc (and equally fervent as an ally of the Yorks). BeeBee Patillo is a notably strong presence in alliance with Henry as Somerset. And Jon Huffman – always a crafty presence on stage – is especially adroit here, as he plays characters on both sides of the conflict: Henry’s ally, the thoughtful Exeter; and Edward of York.

Over the last year or so, Kentucky Shakepeare’s new headquarters in Old Louisville has become an increasingly effective performance space, and this production highlights its functionality. Lighting by Jesse AlFord and Lindsay Krupski; scenic design, Eric Allgeier; sound design, Laura Ellis; costume design, Donna Lawrence-Downs.

Eric Frantz created the fight choreography.

Gregory Maupin served as dramaturge. And Clare Hagan is the stage manager. • ‘Henry VI: The Wars of the Roses, adapted

by Stephanie Shine’ runs through April 16 at Kentucky Shakespeare Headquarters, 616 Myrtle St. Tickets are $20 and times vary.

Proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test are required, masks requested. For more info, visit kyshakespeare.com.

CODE

SANFORD BIGGERS

THE SPEED ART MUSEUM PRESENTS

Codeswitch is the first survey of quilt-based works—inspired, in part, by the rich creative legacies of African American quilters—produced by the American interdisciplinary artist Sanford Biggers. The works, part of Biggers’s Codex series, consist of mixed-media paintings and sculptures done directly on or made from antique American quilts.

Members see it all for free!

Advanced ticket purchase strongly encouraged.

Visit speedmuseum.org

Sanford Biggers: Codeswitch was co-organized by Rivers Institute for Contemporary Art & Thought, New Orleans, and the Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York, and curated by Andrea Andersson (Founding Director and Chief Curator, Rivers Institute) and Sergio Bessa (former Director of Curatorial Programs, Bronx Museum). The exhibition and catalog are made possible by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund: Culpeper Arts & Culture Program, Henry Luce Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Beth Rudin DeWoody, Marianne Boesky Gallery, Massimo De Carlo, David Castillo Gallery, Monique Meloche Gallery, Baldwin Gallery, and Yale University Press.

Leading sponsors: Brooke Brown Barzun & Matthew Barzun Stephen Reily and Emily Bingham Contributing sponsors: Hardscuffle, Inc. Jeffrey and Susan Callen Colin and Woo Speed McNaughton Lopa and Rishabh Mehrotra

Exhibition season sponsored by: Cary Brown and Steven E. Epstein Paul and Deborah Chellgren Arthur J. and Mary Celeste Lerman Charitable Foundation Debra and Ronald Murphy

Image: Sanford Biggers American, b. 1970 Quilt 35 (Vex), 2014 Antique quilt fragments,treated acrylic, and tar on antique quilt.

Exhibition opening sponsor:

Laura Lee Brown and Steve Wilson

2035 S. 3rd Street Louisville, KY 40208

LEOWEEKLY.COM // APRIL 13, 2022

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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

YOUR FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD JACKASS’ STEVE-O TALKS ‘THE BUCKET LIST,’ COMIC BOOK REVIEWS! SKYJACKING AND AGING IN A CAREER THAT’S MADE FOR By Krystal Moore and Felix Whetsel | leo@leoweekly.com Armorclads #1 YOUTH Written by J.J. O’Connor and Brian Buccellato Art by Manuel Garcia Reviewed by Krystal Moore

By Erica Rucker | erucker@leoweekly.com

Steve-O comes to Bomhard Theater next Sunday April 24. | PHOTO PROVIDED BY STEVEO.COM

STEVE-O has done a lot of living. Not all of his decisions is he proud of, but he certainly understands the color his antics as a member of the “Jackass” crew, and other experiences, have given to his life. He’s nearing 48 years old, and the idea of time has completely changed for Steve-O. Once, he didn’t think he’d live long enough to see 30, and now, as he is growing into middle-age as a man who made his name with youthful risk-taking, he’s got new goals and is working furiously towards them. On April 24, Steve-O will bring his storytelling/comedy show to the Bomhard Theater at The Kentucky Center.

He will share his continued quest for the outrageous and other tales about his life and relationships. LEO caught up with him for a phone call recently. Steve-O was reflective and thoughtful as he spoke about the career of his past and the one he is forging for his future. Does that mean he’s toned it down?

Absolutely fucking not. Now he just has to do it as a fully present person, in middle age, in a committed relationship.

LEO: What has being a ‘Jackass’ taught you about living?

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Steve-O: I heard somebody say something about becoming extremely wealthy — and that’s not to suggest that ‘Jackass’ has made me extremely wealthy — but that to become extremely wealthy doesn’t change who you are, it just amplifies who you are.

I would say that the notoriety, that ‘Jackass’ afforded me, amplified who I was, and I don’t know if that’s specific to ‘Jackass.’ I think that that would just kind of happen.

I think that becoming famous on any level involves inherent growing pains. I think that developing a public profile comes with growing pains, probably for most people, I should say, because if you are a healthy, well adjusted person, then I’m sure you’ll be fine.

But, in my case, I was not. I really was not.

I mean, let’s not make it like I was a particularly big deal, but my increased clout, I abused every which way that I possibly could.

I think I’m more well adjusted. I think, now I would interpret the question... I would say that the short answer for the big picture of it all is, ‘Jackass’ taught me to fend for myself.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 31.

In this futuristic world, a mineral called The Pure is uber valuable, and if those in charge are to be believed, The Pure is what enables other planets and humans to survive with food, clean air and allows them to, of course, prosper.

On the planet of Xeru, genetically engineered workers wearing exoskeletal armor known as armorclads are battling hostile wildlife even as they are being driven by armed supervisors to mine more of The Pure. My mind went to various sci-fi themes from “Alien” to “Blade Runner” to “Firefly” in the opening pages.

The workers are constantly called “grubs” by their bosses and reminded via video just how important they are to the grateful people whose lives and wallets they improve endlessly.

When one of their own is threatened, the group has to decide between their own lives and that of their not-so-kindly boss. Now, not only are they battling monsters on an unfriendly planet, but the not-so-grateful folks control and prosper from the dangerous job they’re trying to do.

The art and colors in this book do justice to the earthly beauty of the planet while giving a sense of heat to the battle scenes. I see a little “Avatar” here. I have a feeling the writers are pop culture nerds just like the rest of us, inspired by all the great stories we all love!

Call Me Nathan OGN Written by Catherine Castro Art by Quentin Zuttion Translated by Evan McGorray Reviewed by Felix Whetsel

Puberty is difficult for everybody — raging hormones, growth spurts, changing social expectations, etc. What makes it even harder is when you know in your heart you’re going through the wrong puberty.

“Call Me Nathan” is the true story of Nathan, a family friend of the author, and his journey of selfdiscovery as he comes to terms with being transgender. It’s a brutally honest look at the highs and lows of gender discovery — it tackles topics such as first love, self harm, rejection, bullying and more. It starts when Nathan first gets an inkling that he feels different from the girls in his class, how wrong he feels putting on a dress, how he doesn’t have any desire to grow breasts like his female friends. We watch as Nathan’s doubts turn into certainty that he was born in the wrong gender, and the resulting struggle of coming out and his eventual transition.

Such a complex story is told through simple yet efficient illustrations, including some rather graphic ones. But even the borderline gory spreads are beautifully illustrated and emphasize that there are elements of transitioning that are scary, but the results are worth it to finally feel at home in your own body. That’s ultimately what “Call Me Nathan” is about — overcoming the lows to reach the highs of gender euphoria.

ETC.

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BY CHRISTINA IVERSON | EDITED BY WILL SHORTZ

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SAVAGE LOVE

By Dan Savage | mail@savagelove.net @fakedansavage

CLAP BACK

Q: Bisexual female in an open/monogamish relationship with a heterosexual male.

My partner and I have some friends in the swinging lifestyle that invite us to parties and group sex events. They recently picked up gonorrhea at a hotel takeover and did not find out until after hosting 20 people at a sex party. So, the group is now dealing with a gonorrhea outbreak—mostly oral infections, as we are all very diligent about condom usage for PIV. We are being treated, but I am pretty upset. The thing that bothers me most is how nonchalant they are being about the situation! One person even called this an “inconvenience” and compared it to “the common cold.” (WTF?) While some STIs are easily treated, gonorrhea is treatmentresistant and something like herpes, HPV, or HIV would obviously be a very big deal and permanent. They don’t plan to retest after getting their shots and are already planning group sex events in the next few weeks, which I find concerning. I don’t think I’m comfortable engaging with their group if they are not going to take things like an STI outbreak more seriously. So, my questions are: 1. My test came back negative (my partner was positive) but shouldn’t they ALL retest after treatment? Especially if it is an STI known to be antibiotic resistant?

2. Am I overreacting or being unfair to our friends? Is this just part of the swinging lifestyle territory that we all have to accept?

3. If we decide to not engage with the group because of their attitude towards STIs, how do we get back into the lifestyle? We are afraid we will lose access to events and people in the scene, as these friends have introduced us to everyone we know in the scene and have gotten us access to all the events we’ve been to before.

Completely Lost About Panicking A: 1. “Gonorrhea in the throat is the most difficult to treat,” said Dr. Ina Park. “So, folks that have oral sex and end up with gonorrhea of the throat should get a repeat test in two weeks and abstain from oral sex in the meantime. For rectal and genital infections, the cure rates for gonorrhea are still so high that routine 30

LEOWEEKLY.COM // APRIL 13, 2022

retesting after treatment isn’t recommended.”

Dr. Park is a Professor in the Department of Family Community Medicine at the University of California: San Francisco, CLAP, and also serves as a Medical Consultant for the Division of STD Prevention at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And while she thinks your sex friends who aren’t getting a follow-up test after being treated for oral gonorrhea are making a mistake, she explained that you’re wrong about gonorrhea.

“Gonorrhea can still be easily treated with a single injection of an antibiotic called ceftriaxone, and there is almost no resistance to that drug in North America,” said Dr. Park. Which is not to say gonorrhea is no big deal or that things couldn’t get worse. “Those of us in the business of STI research do worry about an outbreak of multidrug resistant gonorrhea, but luckily it hasn’t yet happened,” said Dr. Park.

“The bad news is that over half of the gonorrhea strains circulating in the US are resistant to at least one class of antibiotics, and onein-five are resistant to two or more classes of antibiotics. We currently only have one antibiotic in the US that can reliably treat gonorrhea.

But there is one new antibiotic in late-stage clinical trials, although nothing is immediately available if standard treatment fails.”

Which it hasn’t, CLAP, at least not yet. So, that means you and partner and all your sex friends—if you get treated and tested again in two weeks—can emerge from this experience gonorrhea-free.

2. Your friends are underreacting—gonorrhea shouldn’t be compared to the common cold— but you’re overreacting. While contracting an STI isn’t anyone’s goal at a sex party, whenever you’re having sex outside the bounds of a committed and sexually exclusive relationship, CLAP, you’re running the risk of contracting or spreading an STI. And since people in monogamous relationships cheat, there’s no guarantee you won’t contract an STI in a committed and sexually-exclusive-in-theorybut-not-in-practice relationship either. The only way to eliminate your risk of contracting an STI is to never have sex with anyone ever again, CLAP, including your partner.

If the pleasures of attending sex parties aren’t

worth the increased risk of contracting an STI, you shouldn’t attend sex parties. You could still have an open relationship, CLAP, but you’ll have to be a lot choosier and make the other people you fuck jump through a lot of hoops. You can ask all prospective new partners to get screened for STIs, provide you with proof of their negative tests, and then refrain from fucking anyone else for a few weeks before meeting up with you. Not everyone is going to wanna jump through those hoops, CLAP, which means you and your partner will have fewer opportunities to fuck other people.

I regret to inform you that the people you wanna fuck could lie to you about abstaining from fucking other people after testing and before meeting up to fuck you a few weeks later, just like people in monogamous relationships sometimes lie. So, to ensure your other partners aren’t fucking other people during that time, CLAP, you’ll have to lock them in your basement.

3. Swapping hosts—going to sex parties and swinger events organized by people who haven’t already given you gonorrhea—isn’t the magic amulet you seem to think it is.

Anyone who regularly goes to sex parties to fuck 20 other people is going to be exposed to HPV on a regular basis and is essentially volunteering to be exposed to and very likely contract herpes. (If you aren’t already vaccinated against HPV, get vaccinated.) If you’re using condoms religiously and correctly, and there’s no man-on-man action at these parties (and there usually isn’t at events organized by and for opposite-sex couples), your risk of contracting HIV is very, very low. You can reduce your risk of contracting gonorrhea, syphilis, and chlamydia orally by using condoms and latex barriers for cunnilingus and anilingus, but STIs that are passed through skin-to-skin contact are almost unavoidable when 20 people pile into a living room with a dozen mattresses spread out on the floor.

If you can’t live with those risks or you’re going to fall to pieces if or when you contract another STI, CLAP, sex parties aren’t for you.

Follow Dr. Ina Park on Instagram @ InaParkMD. And, hey, it’s STI Awareness Week! I can’t think of a better way to mark STI Awareness Week than reading Dr. Park’s memoir Strange Bedfellows: Adventures in the Science, History, and Surprising History of STDs, which is out now in paperback. The New York Times called Dr. Park’s memoir “joyful and funny,” and praised Park for using

compassion and humor to “take the stigma out of these infections.” It’s a wonderful book that I would recommend to anyone, but I would especially recommend it to you, CLAP!

Q: I just moved to New York and moved in with a friend from college. He’s gay, I’m a straight woman, we’re both in our 20s. The apartment is small, and I often overhear him having sex. (I assume he’s overhearing me having sex, too.) And again and again, I’ve heard guys call my roommate a “faggot” during sex: “You like that cock, faggot?”

Do gay men just say these sorts of things to each other? I asked him about it and he shrugged and said, “I love it,” and immediately changed the subject. I’ll take him at his word: He loves it. But why would he love it?

I don’t get it.

Concerned Over Name-Calling Eroding Roommate’s Necessary Esteem Daily

A: It’s not yours to get, CONCERNED, but I’ll try to explain…

When one gay man pulls his cock out of the mouth of his boyfriend or his husband or his Grindr hookup and says, “You’re such a faggot,” it’s not an insult. Like a vaccine with a tiny (and inactive) trace of a deadly virus in it, the word faggot—in the context of two out gay men having consensual sex—obviously has traces of a deeply harmful insult embedded in it. But instead of being terrorized or diminished by the insult, those two gay men are in a sense boosting their immunity to it. Because the word “faggot” not only can’t hurt us when we’re alone together, but it is also ours to use, ours to play with, and ours to enjoy. At that moment, CONCERNED, the word “faggot” is not an insult. It’s an affirmation.

That said, not all gay men enjoy degrading dirty talk, and the fact that some gay men get off on tossing the word “faggot” around during sex does not give straight people license to use it. But if you’re hearing the f-word every time your roommate has a guy over, CONCERNED, you can rest assured: it’s not happening by accident. The men calling your roommate a faggot when they’re fucking his face aren’t suddenly blurting that word out.

They’re saying it at your roommate’s request. questions@savagelove.net Listen to Dan on the Savage Lovecast.

Follow Dan on Twitter @FakeDanSavage.

Columns, podcasts, books, merch and more at www.savage.love!

ETC.

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CONTINUED FROM PAGE 28.

I guess you sort of answered my next question, how is life different now than your younger ‘Jackass’ days?

I’ve been really fortunate to learn from my experience, and I’m so grateful for that.

I think that, I owe it all to my process of being in recovery. I really think that being in recovery is... I owe everything to that. I can’t say that enough.

I think that those of us alcoholics and drug addicts, who actually do put in the work and achieve long-term sobriety, we are in such a better position than so many people, because the way I think of it is that with any other disease that you can possibly suffer from, once you’re stricken with it, the best you can hope for is to become as healthy as you were before stricken with it.

But, with alcoholism and drug addiction, when we are stricken with it, and we treat it, we somehow become, like, greatly improved versions of ourselves, better than we ever were before. I’m so grateful for that. I can’t even put it into words. It’s really, really remarkable what it’s done for me.

I was making mistakes, going in the wrong direction, and, nowadays I waste virtually zero time. All of my time is like pretty well laser focused on accomplishing goals, which I’ve been very deliberate about setting.

Talk to me then about some of those goals and, then how you made the pivot to comedy and stand up.

Well, it’s really pretty simple and I wouldn’t wanna — at the risk of seeming trivial or one-dimensional — I can say that, at the point when I got clean and sober, it was 2008. At that time, I was 33 years old and, for my entire life, I never imagined that I would see the age of 30. I really, really believed that I was critically flawed and not equipped to navigate the world.

I wasn’t concerned with savings. I didn’t have any form of longterm career goals.

At the point, in 2008, when I became clean and sober, I had burned every bridge in my professional world. To the best of my ability, I had closed every professionally [door], and I hadn’t really saved an impressive amount of money.

I got into standup comedy and started touring in 2010, I mean, I’m gonna be perfectly honest. Like, I absolutely wanted to tour as much as I possibly could and earn every fucking penny that I could, because I was so terrified of all these decades that I might have in front of me to live.

Tell me about the new show, ‘The Bucket List.’

I had two things that were really big priorities for me. No. 1, was that standup comedy up to that point had been an exercise in regaling my past. I felt like I was turning into a douchebag who wouldn’t shut up about what he could bench press when he was in high school. You know, like this glory days kind of a thing and living in the past.

As crazy as my past was, and as entertaining as much material as there was for me to mine from, it felt pretty depressing. I didn’t wanna live in the past anymore.

I knew I was shooting for the moon to really raise the bar for the crazy kind of antics I’m known for. And it just worked out as I thought about it, that I had a handful of ideas, which had been sitting around forever, and they were just never really intended to happen because they were so ridiculous. Like the one where my idea for being butt naked in an airplane with another man strapped to my back and furiously masturbating, so that when I ejaculate, I’m simultaneously ejaculating, as I fall out of an airplane with another man strapped to my back and I’m butt naked. That idea was darn near, if not fully 20 years old before I did it. I called it Skyjack. It was a crazy, funny thing to say out loud.

All of these things that I did for ‘The Bucket List’ show, they’re all things that I could not have done for ‘Jackass,’ because you just can’t masturbate to completion and ejaculate everywhere on ‘Jackass.’

Of all your antics and accomplishments, what are you most proud of?

I’m proud of my hustle. I‘ve always had hustle, and I’m proud of that. I’m proud that I’ve set myself apart, and that I’ve created my own momentum with a career for myself, because like I said, ‘Jackass’ has really taught me the importance of fending for yourself.

Steve-O will perform at the Kentucky Center’s Bomhard Theater on Sunday, April 24. The show is at 6:30 p.m., and ticket prices vary. See the full interview on leoweekly.com.

LEOWEEKLY.COM // APRIL 13, 2022

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