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Death Behind Bars: The Failures Of LouisviLle's Jail
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ILLUSTRATION BY MARC MURPHY
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THE AMERICAN BULLET, TYRANNY’S GREATEST WEAPON By Erica Rucker | erucker@leoweekly.com
side. Let me clarify that I am not villainizing the man who stopped the mass shooter. He thought he was doing his duty and he did likely save lives. What I mean by this statement — that they are instruments of the same side — is that neither of their weapons were used or available to fight tyranny; they were both used against another citizen. One citizen, of course, putting many others in danger, sold on the idea that guns can solve problems. The “good guy” used his weapon as judge, jury and executioner for the state, sold on the same idea — that guns can solve problems. Do you see where I’m going? This is deeper than the surface of this situation. On a very basic level, we have two people who likely share some very simple core beliefs about guns and the rights to bear arms. Both shooter and “good guy” get their information from the same source, the idea that their guns are within their rights and that they are for personal protection or to fight against the appearance of being oppressed. This situation certainly seems to fit that plotline. Except that while these two gunmen were shooting it out in the mall, the people who made this event possible in the first place —gun-pimping modern Republicans —were actively passing laws to make both of their lives less truly free. Modern Republicans call themselves the right or even the “hard right,” which is directly linked to ideology that we were taught is dangerous when we learned history as children. This ideology brands itself as moral, for the people, et cetera, but in practice its functions are restrictive and inhumane. Voting restrictions, healthcare restrictions, nativism — except in the practice of material support for the citizens. This ideology increases militarization of the police and heavily funds the military, and while the citizens in America are also able to be armed (ahem, some citizens), the level of personal gun ownership and access will always be below the level to truly subvert the risk of totalitarianism. “Pew pew” vs. tanks, planes and bombs. The truth is, on the backside of this shooting at Greenwood Park Mall, we’re left with bodies and no accountability. Why? Because for accountability to be achieved, we would need to restrict personal gun ownership which would start a landslide of citizens
truly asking for the return of power to them from their government. Less tanks, planes and bombs… because if we can’t have them, neither can you. And, what we know is that the government isn’t relinquishing any control. So blood on American streets will continue to be spilled and nothing will happen with guns because as long as we are fighting and killing each other under the guise of personal
protection, freedom and “tyranny,” those in power are safe to truly do whatever they wish to restrict our freedom, movement, ability to reproduce or not… We’re doing their job for them. We’re the tyranny for the tyrant. Capiche? •
MARC MURPHY
I KNOW this isn’t exactly a Louisville story, but after the mall shooting in Indianapolis at the Greenwood Park Mall, I feel obligated to say something that might not be said in the midst of the chatter surrounding this incident. There were three people shot and killed by a gunman with a long gun and many rounds of ammunition. The gunman was stopped, killed by another person, the mythical “good guy with a gun.” The type of gun hasn’t been identified just yet, but no matter; here we are with another shooting. In just hours, we’ll be on to the next and will let this one fade like all the others into memory with inaction from our politicians and citizens. The gun nuts and their weapons are instruments of the tyranny they claim to fear. Yes, I said it. It bears repeating: the gun nuts and their weapons are instruments of the tyranny they claim to fear. I’ll address the “good guy with a gun” later. The American attraction to guns borders on obsession and is a kink like no other in this country, fed by the neofascism of the modern Republican party. If Republicans feed the kink, they don’t fear it being used against them. They get to be the dom while their subs get to hold the weapons and point it where their masters tell them. Coincidentally, it is never pointed at their masters. Modern Republicanism is the sort of oppressive, rights-stealing, fake morality pimping, herd-mentality leading that creates the perfect framework for their brand of fascism to slide in undetected as “tyrannical,” or as it is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary, “the cruel, unreasonable, or arbitrary use of power or control.” The way that Republicans will say that “guns don’t kill people” and turn the argument to the person and the type of control necessary for “those kinds of people,” is simply a dogwhistle that their belief system is about the control of the body, and not the instrument of deadly force. So, in the Greenwood Park Mall shooting, we have a shooter with a long gun and 100 rounds of ammo, and we have the “good guy with a gun” who shot and killed the shooter. On the surface we have “danger” and the “stoppage of danger” by another with a weapon. It looks like a very simple scenario until we realize both shooter and good guy are one in the same, instruments of the same
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THE SUPREME COURT has ended our federal constitutional right to abortion and overturned Roe v. Wade — turning its back on nearly 50 years of precedent. The court has failed us all — especially our most vulnerable communities who have arguably been living in a post-Roe reality already, due to A protest in downtown Louisville following the barriers to accessing overturning of Roe v. Wade. | PHOTO BY KATHRYN HARRINGTON. abortion and other healthcare services that have always existed. Miscarriage. Ectopic pregnancy. These Barriers like, finding childcare, taking time are all forms of pregnancy that can require off of work and navigating the costs of an abortion for life-saving care. Yet polititransportation and lodging associated with cians with zero medical background are traveling hundreds or even thousands of inserting their opinions into our exam room, miles to the closest provider. With this new forcing physicians to withhold care or face decision, the number of people dealing with criminalization. Forcing pregnancies that these obstacles to get the essential healthcare could not only jeopardize a person’s wellbethey need will skyrocket. ing but their right to decide their own future. But Planned Parenthood Alliance AdvoThe consequences of the Supreme Court decision have been swift and devastating cates of Kentucky will not back down. We for communities nationwide: Overturning have the majority behind us in supporting Roe means 26 states could swiftly move to access to safe and legal abortion, and we ban abortion, including 13 states with laws must do everything within our power to that could immediately go into effect. That protect it. means in half the country, people would no We can do that by voting no on Amendment 2 this November, a dangerous constilonger have power over their own bodies and tutional amendment that would explicitly their own lives. If we don’t protect our state eliminate any state right to abortion in Constitution at the ballot box in November, Kentucky. Make sure you are registered to immediately one million women and people vote and join Protect Kentucky Access, the who are of reproductive age will lose access coalition working against the amendment at to abortion. www.protectkentucky.com. No exemptions for rape, incest or the life of the pregnant person. Nothing. After Roe fell, Kentucky’s “trigger law” Generations before us have fought went into effect immediately, banning abortion across the state. Soon after, Planned Par- tirelessly to gain and protect the rights we have today. Planned Parenthood will not enthood and the ACLU of Kentucky sued to back down. Together, we are going hard to restore abortion access under the Kentucky make sure that everyone has the care they state Constitution. Right now, abortion is need to control their bodies and build their accessible because of a temporary restrainfutures. That means no politicians, no bans, ing order while we continue to argue in state court that our state constitution affords Kenno judges should block our personal medical tuckians the right to access abortion under decisions. It’s not over. We have strength in the right to privacy and self-determination. numbers and power in our united voices. This is it. Our state Constitution is our last Join us in protecting Kentucky access. chance to protect a basic right to care for Vote “NO” on Amendment 2 this November. Kentuckians today and in the future. •
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THE MIDWESTERNIST
A BILLION-DOLLAR IDEA By Dan Canon | leo@leoweekly.com ENTREPRENEURS: Are you looking for a way to start a business that helps marginalized people, thereby lending direction to your purposeless, empty life? I have a billiondollar1 idea that you can have for free. First, some background. If you’re familiar with criminal justice problems in the region or if you’re pressed for time, you can skip past the numbered list.
1. THE JAILS AROUND HERE ARE BAD.
Other LEO writers and I have covered this extensively, so I don’t see reason to spill more ink on it here. If you still need convincing, read the rest of this issue.
2. THE PROBLEMS ARE BIGGER AND BADDER THAN YOU THINK.
For every horrible death you hear about, there are at least a million constitutional violations that happen at jails and prisons all over the region. Incarcerated people are denied medications, beaten up by guards, tossed into solitary confinement for months at a time, deprived of bedding and basic hygiene items, and generally subjected to what anyone who knows international human rights standards would call “torture” all day, every day. Most of this stuff is so common as to be considered unnewsworthy. Even run-of-the-mill deaths can go unnoticed, especially in rural areas where there are few reporters, attorneys or other outsiders with access to prisoners.
3. THE COURTS COULD MAKE THINGS LESS BAD.
We have been taught that a lawsuit should be the standard response to violations of one’s civil and constitutional rights for about seven decades in America. For purposes of this article, let’s assume this is still true. Yes, the federal courts are mostly populated with psychopaths, and the current Supreme Court is like a council of spiderdemons from a Neil Gaiman book. But Louisville is about to seat some of the most forward-thinking state-court judges in the country; judges who understand the plight of incarcerated people, or who at least possess a modicum of compassion. Many other metropolitan areas are seeing similar shakeups. There’s still a pathway through the courts,
however narrow, to something resembling justice.
4. THERE AREN’T ENOUGH LAWYERS TO HANDLE ALL THIS BADNESS.
Assuming that the courts are willing and able to fix things a bit, there’s still the question of how a case might get to a judge in the first place. There are only so many hours in a day, and the few self-employed lawyers who represent incarcerated people need to make enough dough to pay their overhead and eat. The amount of money won at trial for, say, a garden-variety jail beatdown is usually not enough to justify the time and expense spent litigating said beatdown in court for a year or two. As such, private attorneys can only afford to take the worst of the worst cases: Paralyzing injuries, deaths or class actions. More than 90% of all lawsuits against jails and prisons are handled pro se (without a lawyer), and those are brought only by prisoners who have the wherewithal to file them in the first place. Federal courts know that no one will notice if they dismiss those cases quickly and quietly, so that’s usually what happens. As a result, penal institutions (and their insurance carriers) have little incentive to correct anything that doesn’t result in shocking, gruesome, newsworthy death, and most constitutional violations go totally unchecked. This brings us to my billion-dollar2 idea. Presently, I know of no nonprofit between here and Chicago that both 1) focuses on criminal justice issues and 2) has an advocacy arm (that is to say, it employs its own salaried lawyers). You should start one. Such organizations exist in just about every other region in the country. Prisoners’ Legal Services of New York, for example, has five chapters throughout the state, and there are umpteen orgs based in the nation’s capital. California has a few options, including Prison Law Office and For the People. Washington has Columbia Legal Services. In the South, you’ve got the Florida Justice Institute, North Carolina Prisoner Legal Services, and others. These nonprofits do great work, but there’s nothing like them within a 100-mile radius of Louisville. Public defenders don’t do civil cases, Legal Aid doesn’t handle criminal justice issues, and LEOWEEKLY.COM // JULY 20, 2022
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most other nonprofits rely on volunteer legal help from private lawyers. The closest thing we’ve got are the state ACLU chapters, and they’re busy dealing with the incessant, screeching madness emanating from Frankfort and Indianapolis. Too often, we hear about a social problem and think, “That’s terrible, but at least someone is taking care of that.” We are usually wrong, especially when it comes to the rights of incarcerated people. Of the tens of thousands of bodies crammed into more than 200 facilities in Indiana and Kentucky, only those few who can get the attention of a private lawyer have any shot at getting help or vindication, even if they’ve been subjected to unspeakable horrors. A dedicated nonprofit organization wouldn’t correct this problem, of course, but it would help. A small team of salaried attorneys can litigate the cases the private bar can’t afford to take. Over time, they’d be able to identify patterns that news crews don’t see. And they can hit the same institution over and over until its warden/director/insurer decides that the price of settling multiple cases might be more costly than addressing the underlying problem.
So there you have it. A couple of grants, a partnership with a law school, maybe a little3 startup cash, and you’ve got yourself a brand-new, billion-dollar4 nonprofit along with a new raison d’être. When you’ve got enough of a budget to hire an outrageously overpriced consultant, I hope you’ll think of me. • Spoiler: This article is about starting a nonprofit. You will not make a billion dollars from this idea. But you’ll feel like a billion dollars if you do it! 2 See n.1, supra. 3 By “a little” I mean “a lot.” It would take a lot. 4. Again, see n.1, supra. 1
Dan Canon is a civil rights lawyer and law professor. His book “Pleading Out: How Plea Bargaining Creates a Permanent Criminal Class” is available for preorder wherever you get your books.
NEWS & ANALYSIS
POLICE MISCONDUCT INVESTIGATIONS IN LOUISVILLE COULD SPEED UP WITH NEW INSPECTOR GENERAL’S OFFICE By Josh Wood | leo@leoweekly.com
LOUISVILLE’S newly-created inspector general’s office could speed up investigations into police misconduct, with the office free of obstacles that sometimes drag out Louisville Metro Police Department breach of policy investigations for a year or more. LMPD often waits for criminal investigations related to allegations of officer misconduct to conclude before beginning internal investigations that could lead to an officer being fired. But that practice can result in long delays: As LEO Weekly reported in April, for example, LMPD had not started a breach of policy investigation into an officer who fired pepper balls at a TV crew nearly two years earlier as it waited for the FBI to conclude its own probe into the incident. Headed by Edward Harness, the Office of the Inspector General is tasked with investigating allegations of misconduct and can make disciplin-
THORNS & ROSES THE WORST, BEST & MOST ABSURD THORN & ROSE: BIDEN TRIES TO SLIP ONE PAST KENTUCKY President Biden has abandoned his plans to nominate a right-wing, anti-abortion attorney as a federal judge in Kentucky. This is a good thing, but the rose here doesn’t go to the president, but instead everyone who made enough noise to help derail the plan. The White House’s slimy plans to nominate Chad Meredith — a former Matt Bevin associate who has defended Kentucky anti-abortion laws in court — was initially reported by the Courier Journal. Allegedly, the president entered in a handshake agreement with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to nominate Meredith. The White House claims that the decision to backtrack was based on opposition from Kentucky’s other U.S. Senator, Rand Paul. Despite the bizarre, damage-control finger pointing, shout out to the CJ and everyone else who put pressure (they all get a rose) on the politicians (thorns all around).
Protesters ordered to sit in Bardstown Road in The Highlands in 2020. | PHOTO BY KATHRYN HARRINGTON.
ary recommendations to the chief of police. The office plans on being free of the red tape that has held up LMPD investigations. “We could certainly do an administrative investigation that would not have any criminal implications and not interfere with a criminal investigation,” said Harness, Louisville’s inspector general, who arrived in Louisville in December after serving a similar role in Albuquerque, New Mexico, at a time when that city’s police department was under a federal consent decree. “My experience with the Department of Justice, my six years in Albuquerque, was that the best practice was to have simultaneous investigations taking place, not waiting until the criminal is finished.” Even in cases where no criminal investigation is taking place, LMPD has taken longer than the 180 day limit for investigations outlined in the police
union’s collective bargaining agreement with the city to investigate breaches of policy. Harness said his office plans on finishing its investigations in a timely manner. “I’m coming from an environment where we had to do them in 90 days,” he said. “So, as long as we’re gaining access to all the information that we need, and our caseload remains manageable, there’s no reason for us not to be able to get it done in 180 days.” The Office of Inspector General has the ability to make recommendations to LMPD Chief Erika Shields, but she ultimately decides whether discipline is merited. The inspector general office also has the ability to pass the case along to prosecutors if their office finds potentially criminal conduct. LMPD did not respond to repeated requests for comment about how the addition of the inspector general’s office would affect internal LMPD
THORN: MORE GOP ANTI-SEMITISM As reported by the Courier Journal, a post by the Bracken County Republican Party on Facebook called new ATF Director Steve Dettelbach, who is Jewish, a member of the “Jewish junta.” The post was deleted and Bracken County GOP Chair Karin Kirkendol would later claim that their Facebook page had been “hacked.” But that doesn’t really pass the smell test in a state where Republican lawmakers apologized just months ago after being caught using anti-Semitic language on a hot mic. ROSE: THE RETURN OF LOTTIE THE TRICERATOPS After spending the last decade and a half sitting next to a warehouse in the California neighborhood, Lottie the Triceratops — one of nine dinosaur statues to appear at the 1964 World’s Fair in New York — is getting a touch up and returning to the public eye. According to the Courier Journal, the Kentucky Science Center is committing $55,000 to rehabilitating Lottie and plans to display the dinosaur at their Main Street museum. Here’s to Lottie! THORN: HERE WE GO AGAIN The National Weather Service in Louisville has issued a heat advisory for Wednesday, July 20, the day this paper hits stands. It’s supposed to hit 94 degrees and feel like 105. Winter doesn’t seem so bad right now…
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investigations or the discipline process. In a sit-down interview with LEO, Harness discussed the process by which citizens can submit complaints against police officers, his office’s role in the city and the wide-ranging Department of Justice investigation into Louisville’s police force.
A LESS-INTIMIDATING PROCESS FOR CITIZEN COMPLAINTS
Say hello to loyal Alistair! This one-year-old Chartreux mix is blessed with a plush grey coat, gentle personality, and charming face to leave you instantly smitten. This handsome fellow came to the Kentucky Humane Society as an unwanted gift. Now that he's with KHS, he can't wait to find a family of his own! Alistair is a proper gentleman and keeps to himself for the most part. Once he's made your acquaintance though, Alistair loves to curl beside you or headbutt your leg to let you know he'd like attention. This kitty is extra unique because Alistair has the Feline Leukemia Virus (FeLV). This virus weakens a cat's immune system and tries to cause secondary infections in the body. Although FeLV-positive cats can live long, normal lives - the virus may persist and cause a shortened lifespan. We think ALISTAIR Alistair deserves happiness just like any other cat and we can't wait to see him go home! Alistair has lived with another cat and loves giving boops to potential friends. He would be a great option for another FeLV-positive cat! (Maybe one of the other FeLV-positive kitties at KHS?) One of our favorite things about Alistair is his endlessly expressive face! You can tell right off the bat how Alistair is feeling just by looking at him. Alistair does have one true weakness; wet food. He will gobble a can of cat food at 60 miles an hour if permitted! If you're in the market for a loyal friend who will keep you laughing, come meet Alistair at our East Campus, 1000 Lyndon Lane, today or learn more at https://www.kyhumane.org/adopt/cats/. He is neutered, micro-chipped and up-to-date on his shots. All he needs is you! Meet our buddy Leo, aka Grandpa! This ten-year-old prince is a gorgeous American Staffordshire Terrier mix who weighs 75 pounds and is ready to find a forever home. This lovely old man came to the Kentucky Humane Society from an overcrowded shelter and has been stealing hearts and treats ever since. How could he not?! He is an absolute delight and greets everyone with a giant smile and tail wag. While he may be an older guy, he still has plenty of energy and loves to get outside. He keeps a pretty tidy kennel too so we suspect this glorious ray of sunshine may be house-trained! Leo has let us know that he cannot stand cats so he needs a home without feline buddies. We have not seen him with other dogs yet so he would love to meet any potential canine buds before going home. Leo may be older, and he may be covered in old man warts, but he is deserving of a wonderful family to spoil him through his senior years. Could that be you? Leo is neutered, micro-chipped and up-to-date on all vaccinations. Come say hello to him at our Main Campus, 241 Steedly Drive, or learn more at https:// www.kyhumane.org/adopt/dogs/.
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The Office of Inspector General will investigate allegations of police misconduct brought forth by the public. Harness said there is no restriction on bringing old cases of alleged misconduct forward, but warned that in his experience, after six months have elapsed it can be difficult to find evidence in these kinds of cases. People can also bring forward police misconduct cases that were already investigated by LMPD. After beginning to take in complaints at the start of June, Harness said the office had received eight complaints through early July. Citizens can submit complaints to the inspector general’s office using an online form, emailing OIG@ louisvilleky.gov, calling 502-574-5555 or by going to the City Hall Annex and filling out complaint paperwork in person. After a complaint is submitted to the inspector general’s office, the 11-person Civilian Review and Accountability Board will then vote on whether to proceed with a full investigation. At the conclusion of investigations, the board reviews the findings of the inspector general’s office. Harness said the findings would also be posted publicly, though the officers being investigated and complaining parties will not be identified. Both the inspector general’s office and the Civilian Review and Accountability Board were the result of Metro Council legislation signed into law in late 2020 aiming to give more oversight over the police department following the police killing of Breonna Taylor and subsequent unrest in Louisville. Harness told LEO that the creation of the inspector general’s office will make it easier and less intimidating for citizens to come forward with complaints about police conduct. “One of the services we provide is
access. So you no longer have to go to [LMPD’s Professional Standards Unit] to swear out your complaint, you can come to us and do that,” he said. “So the process will be much less intimidating by providing the open access for complaints and investigations. That’s a big step.” In addition to investigating police misconduct, the Civilian Review and Accountability Board also has the ability to recommend changes in LMPD policy and training.
SOME LMPD OFFICERS UNAWARE OF DOJ INVESTIGATION
Ahead of investigating complaints, Harness and his office’s investigators embedded with LMPD officers for 40 hours as required by the legislation that created the inspector general’s office. Harness, who was previously a Milwaukee police officer, said he was surprised to encounter LMPD officers who did not know their department was currently under a wide-ranging federal pattern or practice investigation. “I was a little surprised — a couple of the ridealongs I went on, some of the officers weren’t aware of the Department of Justice investigation. Edward Harness. And they certainly didn’t know what our role was,” he said. “So we’re going to be going back out and I’ll be going to all the roll calls across the city now that we’re up and functioning and let them know who we are and what we’re doing.” Like Louisville, Albuquerque’s police department came under Department of Justice investigation, with federal investigators finding that the department had a “culture of aggression” and “culture of indifference to constitutional policing.” As is widely expected to happen in Louisville, Albuquerque came under federal consent decree. However, Harness said the implementation of the consent decree in Albuquerque was hamstrung by a police chief and other city leaders who were initially resistant to its changes and obstructed progress. He has hope that things will go more smoothly in Louisville. “What I see here is an administration and a chief who are ready to embrace the changes that are brought forth,” he said. “So I wouldn’t anticipate that level of resistance or obstruction happening here.” •
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LOUISVILlE’S JAIL
IN just over 14 months, 10 inmates have died at Louisville’s jail. Eight of those deaths came in the span of four months. Three of those deaths were in the span of a week. The city pledged to get to the bottom of what was causing deaths to spike. But the city also grew quiet on those promises as the rate of deaths slowed and the conditions at the jail fell out of the news cycle. In the following pages, you will read a story LEO Weekly broke earlier this month about an inmate who committed suicide after being held not in a cell, but in an attorney LEOWEEKLY.COM // JULY 20, 2022
booth which was not designed for incarceration and failed to provide even the most basic human needs. You will also read about other missteps at the jail and hear what experts and criminal justice reform advocates say those failures show. “There’s the good, the bad and the ugly,” one incarceration expert told LEO. Louisville’s jail “really sounds like the ugly if there’s this many deaths that have occurred in such a short period of time.”
SHE WAS LOCKED IN AN ‘ATtORNEY BOoTH’ AT LOUISVILlE’S JAIL AND NOT CHECKED ON. SHE KILlED HERSELF. By Josh Wood | jwood@leoweekly.com
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A photo of the “attorney booth” where Louisville jail inmate Stephanie Dunbar hanged herself last December. | PHOTO VIA LOUISVILLE METRO DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS.
FOR THE LAST 18 HOURS of her life, general population. Stephanie Dunbar was kept locked in a Dunbar, a 48-year-old Black woman, cramped “atwas homeless at torney booth” at the time she was Dunbar, a 48-yearthe Louisville booked into jail jail. Unlike a days earlier on old Black woman, was traditional cell, it Nov. 30 on an homeless at the time lacked a mattress, assault charge. running water or Despite policy she was booked into jail mandating a toilet. The room wasn’t designed days earlier on Nov. 30 “detox inmates” for incarceration, like Dunbar be on an assault charge. but Metro Correcchecked on by tions sometimes officers every 20 uses the booths minutes, an interwhen single cells aren’t available and nal investigation found the only time an inmate needs to be segregated from guards had eyes on her for the 18 hours LEOWEEKLY.COM // JULY 20, 2022
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said Trenton Burns, the attorney repshe was confined in the booth was when officers “happened to walk by while resenting Dunbar’s family. “It’s pretty conducting other business.” The evening clear to me that their failure to observe before she hanged herself using a pair of is the reason why this happened.” soiled pants, one of those officers gave The investigation found that eight her the middle finger through the rectan- LMDC officers violated the departgular window of the booth’s door. ment’s observation policy by failing to follow proper protocol for detox A 432-page Louisville Metro Department of Corrections breach of policy inmates. Two of those officers were also investigation into Dunbar’s death found to have forged observation sheets, provided to LEO Weekly by her family’s labeling parts of the jail “all secure” attorney ultimately determined that eight at times when they were elsewhere in officers had not followed the facilthe facility. And the officer who gave ity’s observation protocol for detoxing Dunbar the middle finger was found to inmates. If they had, the report conhave violated LMDC’s code of conduct cluded, she may not have died. and code of ethics. In a statement to LEO Weekly, “If detox protocol had been followed LMDC spokesman Maj. Darrell Goodand Inmate Dunbar had been observed lett said that “several officers were disregularly at intervals less than twenty ciplined” as a result of the investigation (20) minutes and had a One-on-One watcher to observe her around the clock, and received suspensions of between two and five days. the incident may not have occurred Daniel Johnson, or may have been discovered Documents obtained the president of the quick enough to union that repreby LEO earlier this change the outsents Metro Correccome,” wrote Sgt. tions officers, told year showed that Jacob Whidby of LEO that suspenLMDC’s Internal sions were given Dunbar was one of Affairs Unit in his to the officer who several inmates who gave Dunbar the investigative report, which was written middle finger and died in LMDC after more than three two officers who months ago. forged observation being recommended sheets. Dunbar was one for release by Pretrial The statements of eight inmates by LMDC in to die in the Services. In each case, response to LEO custody of Loujudges disregarded represent the first isville’s troubled the departjail between late the recommendation time ment has publicly November of last acknowledged that year and late March and instead held the jail officers faced of this year. During defendants on bond. discipline in relathat period of time, tion to any of the there were more eight recent inmate deaths at Louisdeaths. ville’s jail than there were at New York City’s Rikers Island, a facility many times larger than LMDC that narrowly avoided federal takeover earlier this year over inmate conditions. At one point, Dunbar was booked into LMDC on inmates at LMDC were dying at the rate Nov. 30 on an assault charge. She was of one roughly every two weeks. being held on a $25,000 cash bond. The investigation into Dunbar’s death According to Burns, her family’s provides the most complete look to date attorney, she had been living on the at the problems at Louisville’s troubled street in Louisville for at least months jail at a time when a rush of inmate before the arrest. One of her sons would deaths sparked outrage and urgent calls frequently make the 280-mile drive from for reform and accountability. Chattanooga, Tennessee to bring her “The jail has policies and procedures food, toiletries and other basic supplies, in place that specifically were not folbut she rebuffed his efforts to bring her lowed by the corrections officers in the home, Burns said, insisting on finding jail in general. And I think that directly her own way. contributed to Miss Dunbar’s death,” Burns said the incident that led to
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A screenshot of security camera footage provided by attorney Trenton Burns shows an LMDC officer giving Dunbar the middle finger.
inmate in the management software used Dunbar being taken into LMDC — a stabbing, according to court records — by the jail. was the result of somebody trying to According to interviews with LMDC take her belongings. officers included in the investigation, after a fight in Documents general populaobtained by LEO For inmates like tion that led to earlier this year another inmate showed that Dunbar who are on being sent to the Dunbar was one hospital, Dunbar of several inmates detox protocol and was removed who died in LMDC being housed outside from the dorm after being recomarea and placed mended for release of general populainto an “attorney by Pretrial Serbooth,” a small vices. In each case, tion, LMDC policy room designed for judges disregarded mandates that they be inmates to meet the recommendatheir counsel tion and instead checked on once every with through a large held the defendants on bond. 20 minutes and notes window that sits above a metal According to be made on their ledge. the Metro CorSecurity camera rections Professtatus. footage shared sional Standards with LEO by Unit investigation, Burns showed a woman he identified upon processing, medical staff classias Dunbar arguing with another inmate fied Dunbar as an alcohol detox inmate. who approached her and then threw a To identify her as such, she was given punch at her. The two women tumble a blue armband and listed as a detox LEOWEEKLY.COM // JULY 20, 2022
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said it on the news, I’ve said it in the to the ground and the woman identified newspaper, I’ve said it everywhere. And as Dunbar appears to strike the other inmate in the face with her knee. sure enough we didn’t have enough people to get around and monitor Additional footage from the previous somebody and she was able to commit evening showed several inmates attacksuicide.” ing Dunbar after an inmate removed her Johnson said the low staffing levels mattress from a bed and placed it on the mean officers are often in positions floor. The dorm was so crowded that at where it is “impossible to supervise least five inmates were already sleeping everybody adequately.” on the floor at the time. He added that inmates are kept in The compact attorney booth rooms attorney booths when single cells are like the one Dunbar was placed in have a plastic chair, but no other furniture. full, but that “typically” inmates weren’t Without a toilet or running water, held there for 18 hours like Dunbar was. inmates must request to be let out to “That was unusual,” he said. go to the bathroom or get something to In a statement to LEO, Maj. Goodlett, drink. The rooms are not intended as the LMDC spokesperson, said changes housing, but with only 19 single cells on have been made at the jail since Dunthe female floor of the jail, officers turn bar’s death. to attorney booths as temporary housing “In the wake of her suicide, a while waiting for a single cell to open renewed emphasis on mental health up or before placing an inmate into a and inmate safety is being instilled into new dorm. the culture of Metro Corrections,” said Goodlett. “Newly appointed Director of For inmates like Dunbar who are Metro Corrections, on detox protocol Jerry Collins, has and being housed Johnson, the presialready made an outside of genimpact.” eral population, dent of jail offıcers’ Collins took LMDC policy over as the jail’s mandates that they union FOP Lodge 77, boss on April 1. In be checked on once told LEO that at the Collins’s time as every 20 minutes the jail’s director and notes be made time of Dunbar’s there has been one on their status. It is inmate death, on also LMDC policy death, no “one-onJuly 8. to have a trained one watchers” were Goodlett added inmate “one-on-one that Collins had watcher” stationed available. appointed a fulloutside of the detox inmate’s door. He pinned the inabil- time psychologist to oversee mental The LMDC ity to keep watch health treatment. investigation deterSpeaking at a mined that none of over Dunbar on the Metro Council these protocols was budget hearing in followed. jail’s chronic staff April, Collins said “The only time shortages. LMDC’s planned Inmate Dunbar was fiscal year 2023 observed while budget included secured in the funds to increase the number of suicideattorney booth was when the officers or sergeants just happened to walk by resistant cells on the jail’s mental health while conducting other business,” wrote walk from one to nine and to install Whidby, the investigator, in his report. video cameras in single cells. Johnson, the president of jail officers’ union FOP Lodge 77, told LEO that at the time of Dunbar’s death, no “one-onone watchers” were available. He pinned the inability to keep watch After Dunbar was first put into the over Dunbar on the jail’s chronic staff attorney booth on the evening of Dec. shortages. 3, corrections officer Shakeara Ware “For the last year and a half, I’ve was observed on video giving Dunbar been saying we don’t have enough the middle finger as she walked by the people to do our job,” said Johnson. meeting-room-turned-cell. “I’ve said it in [Metro] Council, I’ve
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“I don’t recall it, but I was very Cunanan and Gabrielle Webb, were found to have forged observation sheets, upset,” Ware told an investigator in an interview. “Not gonna say it sounds readeclaring specific parts of the jail “all sonable, but I could have possibly.” secure” at times when they were captured on video camera in other parts of In her interview with an investigator, the facility performing different tasks. Ware said she was upset with Dunbar “Officer Webb signed the Dorm 4 because “she would just start fights” observation sheet at 1100 hours and with other inmates and had urinated 1132 hours and made the observation and defecated “everywhere on purpose” ‘AS’ or ‘all secure’ for both times,” before being placed in the attorney Whidby’s investigative report reads, booth. “To have that kind of reaction describing one example of the breach of towards an inmate policy. “However, just in the course of Officer Webb can For inmates like you doing your job be seen on video at Dunbar who are on is pretty horrible. 1100 hours doing a So I was pretty move list at Dorm detox protocol and discouraged to see 3 and at 1132 hours that,” said Burns, being housed outside passing newspapers the attorney for out to the dorms of general populaDunbar’s family. on the Northside. “I know there’s During both of tion, LMDC policy staffing issues and those times, Officer there’s a lot of mandates that they be Webb was not in different factors in Dorm 4 or even checked on once every near Dorm 4.” play as far as some of the failures of Webb told the 20 minutes and notes LMDC LMDC as a whole, investigator but you never want she was working on be made on their to see a corrections forced overtime — status. officer who’s sworn a common occurto protect inmates rence for officers as just casually staffing shortages walk by and give a middle finger to an continue — and was the only person inmate. It’s just beyond inappropriate.” working on the women’s floor of the jail A little more than an hour before an for a time on Dec. 4. Cunanan provided a similar excuse: officer returning from a smoke break “[B]ecause I was the only one on the saw Dunbar’s body hanging in the floor. I mean, I have to do other things. attorney booth on the afternoon of Dec. 4, Sgt. Timothy Myers-Angeline entered Like, I have to print out sheets. I have other responsibilities.” the room. Myers-Angeline had been Burns, the attorney, said Dunbar’s assigned to check fire extinguishers, children regarded her as a strong, resiland saw Dunbar standing up on a metal ient and caring woman who had fallen ledge holding her pants up to a vent. on hard times. Myers-Angeline told an investigator “They just can’t imagine their mom that Dunbar told him she was trying to that they know and love, being such a dry her pants and that he told her to get strong woman, succumbing to the hordown from the ledge. “She was removing her foot and, you rors of the jail and passing away the way that she did,” he said. “I really think that know, doing as I asked her to. Didn’t seem any, you know, nothing out of just kind of highlights the atrocities in the ordinary,” he said, according to the the jail as it relates to the jail’s failures, report. and in this particular case to assist, help, observe, look after, care for Miss Myers-Angeline left the attorney Dunbar. It’s really just sad all the way booth and continued with his duties; around.” • the investigation exonerated him of any wrongdoing. The night before, another officer said they had taken a sheet away from Dunbar in the attorney booth after she was observed doing “weird stuff” with it. As part of the investigation into Dunbar’s death, two officers, Deidre
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A MISSED TRANSFER, AN IGNORED INMATE AND A LATE INVESTIGATION
INSIDE THE MISsTEPS AT LOUISVILlE’S JAIL
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THE SUICIDE of Louisville Metro DepartAnd a third inmate’s death was not ment of Corrections inmate Stephanie subjected to an internal breach of policy Dunbar in a cramped “attorney booth” investigation for nearly four months that lacked a bed, — and that invesrunning water or tigation was only LEO Weekly has a toilet was not initiated as the the only death result of a jourobtained fıles related at Louisville’s nalist’s prodding. to the investigations troubled jail Despite where missteps pledges from city of three of the ten were made. leadership to find Just days out what was jail deaths that have behind the surge before an officer occurred in Louisville in fatalities at a returning from facility that the a smoke break since May 16, 2021, mayor said previfound Dunbar’s ously averaged body hanging, a span of just over 14 another LMDC about three deaths months. inmate had died a year for the past after he was decade and a half, meant to be transferred to a hospital but little remains known about most of the kept in jail due to a “miscommunicadeaths. tion,” records show. LEO Weekly has obtained files LEOWEEKLY.COM // JULY 20, 2022
related to the investigations of three of the ten jail deaths that have occurred in Louisville since May 16, 2021, a span of just over 14 months. In all three cases reviewed by LEO, there were significant missteps. LEO’s attempts to get files on other jail death investigations have failed, with the city repeatedly denying open records requests. Incarceration experts LEO spoke to were disturbed by both the number of deaths at Louisville’s jail as well as conditions in the jail. “There’s the good, the bad and the ugly,” said Aaron Kinzel, a criminologist with the University of MichiganDearborn who previously spent a decade behind bars. “This really sounds like the ugly if there’s this many deaths that have occurred in such a short period of time.”
‘THE TOUGHEST TYPE OF HARSH ENVIRONMENT’
Experts who spoke to LEO Weekly said they had never heard of a jail using an attorney booth — a small room where inmates meet with legal counsel through a window — as housing before. “I have not heard of a scenario before where someone was placed in an attorney visiting area as a housing alternative. That is just crazy to me,” said Michele Deitch, director of the University of Texas at Austin’s Prison and Jail Innovation Lab. “Not to mention illegal to put them somewhere that doesn’t have a bed, doesn’t have a toilet. I’ve never heard of something like that before.” Dunbar, the inmate who hanged herself on Dec. 4, had been kept in an attorney booth that lacked a bed, running water or a toilet for the last 18 hours of her life. She was put in the booth after a fight in general population because no single cells were available. Despite policy requiring that detox inmates like her be checked on every 20 minutes, an internal breach of policy investigation provided to LEO by an attorney for Dunbar’s family found that officers did not regularly check on her and that her death might have been prevented if policy had been adhered to. Kinzel, the formerly incarcerated University of Michigan-Dearborn professor, said being kept in solitary confinement without running water was “the toughest type of harsh environment” a
person can face in jail or prison. “Think about it: You don’t have running water. You’re pissing or shitting on yourself. You can’t clean up yourself,” he said. Kinzel said when he was in his early 20s, he spent three days in a prison cell with no water after corrections officers turned off the water as punishment after a neighbor had flooded his cell. He said he was so dehydrated he started hallucinating. “Of course that’s going to cause them to go into a state of psychosis or suicidal ideation. Because they’re so desperate,” he said. Inmates locked in attorney booths like Dunbar have to request that guards let them out to go to the bathroom or get something to drink. While Dunbar was meant to be checked on every 20 minutes, an LMDC investigation of her death determined the only time guards checked on her was when they “happened to walk by while conducting other business.” Responding to a question from LEO at a July 15 press conference, jail director Jerry Collins said attorney booths like the one Stephanie Dunbar died in could still “possibly be used” when single cells were full, but said, as a result of a policy change, they could not be used for longer than an hour and that the inmate had to be observed while they remained in an attorney booth. Asked if the policy change was a result of Dunbar’s death, Collins, who was not with LMDC when Dunbar died, said he was not sure when the change occurred. Christine Tartoro, a professor of criminal justice at New Jersey’s Stockton University who studies suicide in correctional facilities, said jails and prisons are obligated to provide inmates with access to basic needs. “When the government restricts somebody’s freedom, the government then becomes obligated to provide people with some basic needs, including water, sanitation and other basic necessities. Because we are restricting someone’s ability to go get those things themselves,” she said.
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conditions. Video footage showed that the night before Dunbar was placed into an attorney booth, she was attacked by several inmates in a dorm after she tried to reclaim a bunk inmates that had thrown her mattress off of. At the time, the dorm was so crowded that at least five inmates were already sleeping on the floor. Then, Dunbar was placed into an attorney booth because all 19 of the women’s section’s single cells were already full. “Overcrowding places a stress on every aspect of life in the facility,” said Deitch, the University of Texas at Austin’s Prison and Jail Innovation Lab director. “It strains the delivery of services. It strains the delivery of programs. It strains relationships between incarcerated people and between incarcerated people and staff. It leads to increased levels of violence. You name it, whatever aspect of life you’re talking about in prison or jail is implicated by overcrowding, and it’s made much worse for it.” Understaffing, Deitch added, leads to a lot of “cutting of corners” which can see inmates who need to be checked on, like Dunbar, go unwatched. During the investigation of Dunbar’s death, two officers were found to have forged observation sheets, declaring that parts of the jail were “all secure” at times when they were actually in a dif-
ferent area of the facility. When confronted by an investigator about the discrepancy, the guards pointed to a lack of staffing. One officer said they were alone by themselves on the women’s floor of the jail for a time and were working on forced overtime. “It winds up being a situation where you don’t have enough staff members there and the staff members who are there are exhausted and just have extremely low morale,” said Tartoro, the jail suicide expert. “So it winds up being a perfect storm in terms of not being able to properly supervise people and just not doing the job according to the standards that are set.” In the internal investigation into Dunbar’s death, a total of eight LMDC officers were found to have violated the jail’s policy on monitoring detox inmates. Of the eight, two were also found to have forged observation sheets and another was found to have given Dunbar the middle finger as she was locked in the attorney booth. According to LMDC spokesperson Maj. Darrell Goodlett, “several” officers were disciplined and received suspensions of between two and 15 days. “We have to start thinking about the types of individuals we hire to oversee people. Corrections officers and their actions in this case were sickening,” said Kungu Njuguna, a policy strategist with
the ACLU of Kentucky. “They have complete control over peoples’ lives and the complete lack of care and understanding that they showed with Miss Dunbar — I don’t even have the words for it.”
JAIL MISsTEPS NOT ISOLATED
The jail’s missteps were not a one-off surrounding Dunbar’s death. In late November, Kenneth Hall’s health was declining. The 58-yearold inmate, who had been booked in Louisville’s jail weeks earlier on a charge of failure to comply with the sex offender registry, was refusing to keep his colostomy bag on, increasing health risks. One officer described Hall’s cell as having an “infection” smell. In poor health and either unwilling or unable to take care of himself, Hall was meant to be transferred to the University of Louisville Hospital on Nov. 24, according to a Louisville Metro Police Department investigation obtained by LEO Weekly under Kentucky’s open records law. However, that transfer never occurred. “I was advised by LMDC PSU Lieutenant Redmon the victim was never sent to University fo Louisville Hospital as requested by medical staff,” wrote Sgt. Scott Beatty with LMPD’s Public Integrity Unit in a Jan. 24 report. He added that a supervisor with Wellpath, the company contracted to provide healthcare in the jail, “stated a miscommunication occurred between shifts, and it was believed the victim went to the University of Louisville Hospital and returned the same day.” That supervisor, Beatty wrote, “stated in her tenure with Wellpath an instance of a medical inmate not being transferred to the University of Louisville Hospital had never occurred, and a new protocol was in place to assure it never happened again.” Days later, Hall was dead. An inmate work aide responsible for checking on other inmates who require additional monitoring told investigators that the night before Hall died, he was “laying on the floor of his cell knocking on the door. The inmate was laying in urine and feces and was asking to be helped back up on his bed, but no one helped him.” The report did not say what policy had been changed as a result of Hall’s death. In a written response to LEO, Good-
lett, the Metro Corrections spokesperson, said: “The process that was referred to is a formal way of reporting in writing to all shift commanders the need for an inmate to be transported to the hospital at a later time. Because of ongoing litigation, I am unable to talk specifically about the miscommunication you refer to.” Wellpath did not respond to requests for comment. LMPD investigations to determine if criminal charges are warranted are standard practice after a jail death. The LMPD investigation obtained by LEO Weekly only included investigator summaries of witness interviews instead of verbatim transcripts. An open records request made by LEO in June for the jail’s internal breach of policy investigation into Hall’s death received no response, despite Kentucky’s open records law only allowing five business days for an agency to respond to such requests. In his statement to LEO, Goodlett said no staff were disciplined as a result of the jail’s breach of policy investigation.
‘I WOULDN’T CALl IT A PROBLEM’
David Dahms, 37, died on May 16 of last year after being found unresponsive in his cell. But an investigation into his death would not be initiated until Sept. 9, nearly four months after Dahms’ death and just hours after a Courier Journal reporter asked about the lack of an investigation. “Per our conversation an internal investigation will take place for the death of David Dahms,” wrote Lt. Mike Redmon of LMDC’s Professional Standards Unit in a Sept. 9, 2021 email to then-jail director Dwayne Clark one hour and 41 minutes after a Courier Journal reporter emailed a series of questions about the lack of an investigation to former mayoral communications director Jean Porter and jail spokesperson Steve Durham. The newspaper had learned there was no breach of policy investigation through a response to an open records request. “Proceed with an investigation,” responded Clark to Redmon’s email about an hour and a half later. Additional emails from that day showed confusion among city officials as to whether or not an investigation had occurred as they discussed how to
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respond to the journalist. The emails were provided to LEO Weekly by Dahms family attorney Trenton Burns, who obtained them in discovery in part of an ongoing lawsuit. The delay of the investigation was first reported by WAVE 3 News in March. In a deposition with Burns in February, Clark was asked if it was a problem that the investigation didn’t start until four months after the death. “I think it’s concerning. I wouldn’t call it a problem,” he said. When the investigation was ultimately completed, it found no breaches of policy by LMDC staff. The death was deemed an overdose. In his statement to LEO Weekly, Goodlett, the LMDC spokesperson, said current LMDC Director Jerry Collins, who took over in April, was committed to conducting investigations promptly and said he was unaware of any other delays in investigations.
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been cautiously optimistic about Collins taking over, saying the shift in leadership could result in some changes. But they also say that more needs to be done and that the still-emerging picture of recent jail deaths points to systemic failure. Among them is Shameka ParrishWright, the runner-up in May’s Democratic party mayoral primary and the director of the newly-formed organization VOCAL-KY, which focuses on mass incarceration, homelessness and other issues weighing on Kentucky. “It is our responsibility, when we incarcerate someone, to make sure their human rights are honored, that they have dignity, that they have respect. No matter what they are charged with or how long they have been sitting in there. This is a complete failure,” she said. Parrish-Wright added that she does not think that real changes will happen until the jail population is “severely reduced.” She also fears that jail conditions will be used by some to push for a CALLS FOR CHANGE CONTINUE new jail in Louisville, leading to more incarceration without the jail dealing LMDC says it is working to improve with its internal problems. inmate safety. Njuguna, the The jail has ACLU of Kentucky appointed a fullstrategist, is crititime psychologist cal of the lack of to oversee mental LMDC says it is information about health treatment. working to improve jail deaths many The jail also says it months after they has taken measures inmate safety. occurred. to try to stop drugs “I think there’s from entering the The jail has appointed a complete lack of facility, including a full-time psycholo- transparency,” he the use of a new “I think as body scanner they gist to oversee mental said. soon as these invessay has intercepted tigations were over, narcotics on at health treatment. the city should have least 45 occacome forward and sions since April. said we are done LMDC now has a with the investigation, here it is and here program to hire back retired officers and are the findings. If we are ever to have a lateral transfer program that would any trust in government, they need to be make it easier for correctional officers open and transparent and held accountto transfer to LMDC has been approved, able for their failings.” both measures that Collins believes will To Parrish-Wright, the lack of infor“greatly increase” staff numbers in the mation about jail deaths means the lives coming months. And the jail hopes to of inmates remain in danger. add suicide-resistant cells as well as “It’s the police policing themselves. cameras that will help monitor inmates It’s the jail policing themselves. And held in single cells. they’re not going to be transparent Since Collins took over as LMDC’s enough for us to have the clarity we director on April 1, there has been need to prevent these jail deaths,” she only one inmate death, a July 8 incisaid. “Every jail death is preventable.” • dent jail authorities have portrayed as drug-related. After that death, Collins said investigations were launched “immediately.” Some advocates of jail reform have
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Speed Art Museum | 2035 S. Third St. | speedmuseum.org/cinema/lost-highway | $12 non-members/$8 members David Lynch, Rammstein, Nine Inch Nails, Smashing Pumpkins. Okay, did I mention David Lynch? Bill Pullman, Balthazar Getty and Patricia Arquette star in this noir hinged LOST on deceit, murder and madness. It is a fine example of modern noir with David Lynch weaving two tales that connect in Arquette’s characters. She plays two, or is it one? No, it’s two women whose men find themselves in dire predicaments. Only a tiny bit confusing. See what Roger Ebert meant when he said Lynch made the film with “such breezy contempt for the audience.” — Erica Rucker
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No Comply Night 2
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Nick Dittmeier & the Sawdusters (Album Release Show) The Whirling Tiger | 1335 Story Ave. | Search Facebook | $8-$10 | 7 p.m. The local alt-country band Nick Dittmeier & ALT the Sawdusters are releasing their new album, Heavy Denim, a sharp and rootsy record that tells the stories of the down and out. The Hill Figs open. —Scott Recker
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SATURDAY, JULY 23-25
52nd Annual World Championship Dainty Contest Outside Hauck’s Handy Store | 1000 Goss Ave. | schnitzelburg.org/dainty | Free See folks in their 40s and up hit a tiny piece of stick with a bigger BIG STICKS piece of stick. Sounds silly but it’s a damned good time. The Dainty Contest is in its fifth decade and there will be food trucks, bologna sandwiches, ragtime and, of course, beer. It’s a Germantown festival, after all. There will be plenty of merch and fun people. —Erica Rucker
Vegan Melt Burger
Impossible meat patty topped with melted vegan mac and cheese between texas toast.
F.O.B. Burger
Quarter pound patty with KBBQ glaze in butter toasted sesame buns with asian slaw, pickled onions, and mozzarella cheese.
304 West Woodlawn Ave Louisville, KY 40214
(502)398-5777 StrEateryBooking@Gmail.com
WEDNESDAY, JULY 27
7/27
WFPK Waterfront Wednesday 20th Anniversary Season with Moon Taxi Big Four Lawn, Waterfront Park | 401 River Road | wfpk.org/2022/waterfrontwednesday | Free | Gates at 5 p.m., music at 6 p.m. Live music from Moon Taxi, Sarah WATERFRONT Shook & the Disarmers and Routine Caffeine at this month’s edition of the popular outdoor concert series. Make sure to bring a blanket or chairs, plus money for the food trucks. — Carolyn Brown
MOON TAXI
SARAH SHOOK & THE DISARMERS | ROUTINE CAFFEINE
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WATERFRONT PARK’S BIG FOUR LAWN • EVENT BEGINS AT 5PM • FREE ADMISSION OUTSIDE ALCOHOL IS PROHIBITED. NO COOLERS, GLASS OR PETS ALLOWED MEMBER SUPPORTED PUBLIC MEDIA • WFPK.ORG
LEOWEEKLY.COM // JULY 20, 2022
Moon Taxi.
STAFF PICKS
THROUGH JULY 31
‘Stories In Stitches’ By Kathleen Loomis PYRO Gallery | 1006 E. Washington St. | pyrogallery.com | Free Kathleen Loomis is a fiber and mixed media ART artist who started out making traditional quilts, but “… over the years the quilts came off the bed and went onto the wall,” she said. While many of her contemporary textile designs are abstract, several of them tell stories, “sometimes narratives from real life, sometimes actual words, sometimes made-up scenes that invite viewers to imagine what’s going on.” As one of the top fiber artists in town (and a world traveler), she has many stories just itching to be told. —Jo Anne Triplett
It’s GAME time!!
Join us for Burger Week 2022 and follow us on Instagram #gamelouisville for each days special burger. ‘A Bird in the Bush’ by Kathleen Loomis. Hand stitching on vintage quilt block and found textiles.
1611 Norris Place Louisville, Kentucky 40205
www.shenanigansbar.com
(502) 454-3919
THROUGH AUG. 1
‘ALT’
Revelry Boutique + Gallery | 742 E. Market St. | revelrygallery.com | Free Reduce, reuse, recycle. We’re all familiar with the popular RRR slogan — it’s just not often that it applies to art. For the third time, Revelry has organized an exhibition that uses alternative materials. This group show is full of creative imagination, with the standards of paint and clay swapped out for VHS tapes, silica gel packets and wire hangers. —Jo Anne Triplett
ZANZABAR ZANZABARLOUISVILLE.COM
UPCOMING EVENTS
2100 S PRESTON ST
JULY/AUGUST
20 WILDERADO + TOLEDO 21 DURRY + RAGS AND RICHES FOOD 22 BIT BRIGADE PERFORMS MEGA MAN II & CASTLEVANIA 22 HOT BROWN SMACKDOWN + DARK MOON HOLLOW 23 SOMO + MOONLANDER 24 WAYLON PAYNE LIVE MUSIC 26 SAVANNAH CONLEY + SECONDHAND SOUND 28 TYLER RAMSEY + CARL BROEMEL + SAM FILIATREAU 29 CAVE IN + AUTHOR & PUNISHER 30 HILL FIGS + THE WELL DRINKERS + LUKE TRIMBLE ARCADE 31 NIGHT MOVES + FREE MUSIC 03 KINGDOM COLLAPSE 05 INDIGNANT FEW + CREEPS INC. + MORE! 07 DAISY CHAIN + DEEP ABOVE + THE ANCHORITES
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‘Red Macaw’ by Herb Bradshaw. Soda cans.
F*CK (08/08) - MAGIC CITY HIPPIES (09/09) ON SALE NOW HOLY KING BUFFALO (09/18) - THE 502S (09/20) - SALES (10/18) LEOWEEKLY.COM // JULY 20, 2022
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STAFF PICKS
THROUGH DEC. 31
‘What Li�ts You?’ By Kelsey Montague
Muhammad Ali Center | 144 N. Sixth St. | alicenter.org | Prices vary
3826 Hamburg Pike * Jeffersonville IN
Kitchen Hours
Kelsey Montague is an internationally-known artist, famous for her outdoor wing murals created to be interactive and readymade for social media. Her new works at the Ali ALI Center are inspired by Ali. “Muhammad Ali epitomizes strength, compassion and integrity,” she said. “I designed each piece to give the viewer an opportunity to reflect on [his] incredible life and to interact with the strength and compassion that defined him.” The center also wants to remind visitors that Ali was an artist (there are a few of his works on the fifth floor) as was his father. —Jo Anne Triplett
Mon-Thu: 11A-2P & 5P-8P Fri & Sat: 11A-2P & 5P-10P
All American Cheese Burger Celebrating Louisville Burger Week @ all 3 Area Locations!
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Half pound of fresh beef sprinkled with our special steak seasoning then char grilled to perfection. This is our most popular burger.
Neighborhood Burger Specialty burger for the occassion. Half pound fresh beef stuffed with cheddar cheese and bacon then grilled to perfection, topped with KY bourbon BBQ sauce and beer battered onion rings.
Served with fries HIGHLANDS
WHISKEY ROW
$7
JEFFERSONVILLE
Must be 21 or over to dine in with us.
Are you struggling with CPAP?
‘What Lifts You x Muhammad Ali’ by Kelsey Montague. Title boxing gloves, acrylic paint.
Hear from doctors in your area about Inspire, a sleep apnea treatment that works inside your body. No mask. No hose. Just sleep. Additional events added frequently. Inspire is not for everyone. Talk to your doctor to see if it’s right for you, and review important safety information at InspireSleep.com.
LEOWEEKLY.COM // JULY 20, 2022
Visit InspireSleepEvents.com to register for a free event.
GET YOUR
Ciao Ristorante • 1201 Payne St Party Center - Fern Creek • 5623 Bardstown Rd Street Box @ Piccadilly Square • 5318 Bardstown Rd Jay “Lucky” Food Mart #1 • 5050 Billtown Rd Cox’s - J-Town • 3920 Ruckriegel Pkwy Bearno’s Pizza - Taylorsville • 10212 Taylorsville Rd Louisville Athletic Club - J-Town • 9565 Taylorsville Rd Cox’s - Patti Ln • 2803 Patti Ln
PICK-UP LOCATIONS
L.A. Fitness • 4620 Taylorsville Rd Habitat ReStore - Taylorsville • 4044 Taylorsville Rd
Third Street Dive • 442 S 3rd St
Feeders Supply - Hikes Point • 3079 Breckenridge Ln
Jeffersonville Public Library • 211 E Court Ave
Street Box @ Heine Bros • 3965 Taylorsville Rd
TAJ Louisville • 807 E Market St
Paul’s Fruit Market - Bon Air • 3704 Taylorsville Rd
Climb Nulu • 1000 E Market St
Trager Family JCC • 3600 Dutchmans Ln
Come Back Inn • 909 Swan St
Street Box @ Marathon Frankfort Ave • 3320 Frankfort Ave
Stopline Bar • 991 Logan St
Boone Shell • 2912 Brownsboro Rd
Logan Street Market • 1001 Logan St
Ntaba Coffee Haus • 2407 Brownsboro Rd
Metro Station Adult Store • 4948 Poplar Level Rd
Beverage World • 2332 Brownsboro Rd
Liquor Barn - Okolona • 3420 W Fern Valley Rd
Kremer’s Smoke Shoppe • 1839 Brownsboro Rd
ClassAct FCU - Fern Valley • 3620 Fern Valley Rd
Big Al’s Beeritaville • 1743, 1715 Mellwood Ave
Hi-View Discount Liquors & Wines • 7916 Fegenbush Ln
Mellwood Arts Center • 1860 Mellwood Ave
Happy Liquors • 7813 Beulah Church Rd #104
KingFish - River Rd Carry Out • 3021 River Rd
Bungalow Joe’s • 7813 Beulah Church Rd
Party Mart - Rudy Ln • 4808 Brownsboro Center
Full list at LEOWEEKLY.COM/DISTRIBUTION LEOWEEKLY.COM // JULY 20, 2022
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MUSIC
SONIC BREAKDOWN YOUNG ROMANTICS — ‘CLICHÉ’ By Tyrel Kessinger | leo@leoweekly.com
Have you had Week-End Burgers Today?
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Old fashioned Smashed Burgers made right. Classic double, Mushroom & Swiss, Patty melt Phily steak sandwiches & much more !
We invite you to come to dine with us, and treat your self to one of the best Burgers Louisville has to offer. Save room for homemade desserts, ice cream or shakes! In a hurry? Curbside pick up available.
Online ordering is available 5600 National Turnpike for your convenience at Louisville KY 40214 weekendburgers.com (502) 742-9027 LEOWEEKLY.COM // JULY 20, 2022
AT LEAST once in their life, everyone has had that nameless someone they’ve seen at a store or a bar, and wondered what it might be like to be with them, even if only for a brief moment. It’s a scenario rife with possibility and one that Young Romantics explore in one of their latest songs, a groove-driven, mid-tempo soul number called “Cliché.” “At its core, it’s a song about fantasy romances with the people you’re drawn to throughout your day-to-day life,” says Mitchel Manuel, lead singer for the band. “You don’t know the person or how to make things real, so you keep them in your head. The song plays out a circumstance where you approach one of those people and actually make a move. This concept of not wanting to be ‘cliché’ plays into wanting to treat that scenario as honestly as possible, none of those games people tend to expect when getting to know someone romantically. Basically, why be cliché if we both know what we want?” But the band decided to go even further, exploring the backend of this idea of meeting your fantasy mate. Would it be a good idea, they ask. Would it be worth it? “The song speaks to why such fantasy relationships are often more appealing than the real deal in the first place,” Manuel said. “To commit and seek out one of those people in question would be to, potentially, destroy the story so carefully crafted in your daydreams. And who wants that? And by the nature of not knowing that person beyond the spark attraction, you can’t say what a
relationship with them might actually look like.” What makes the song so fascinating is how the band manages to combine ‘90s guitar aesthetics, sax-driven easy listening and ‘70s R&B suaveness into this modern, soul-tinged song. While the song is relatively straightforward, there are multiple layers at work here, a blend of different but subtle sounds that slowly reveal themselves on repeat listens. Meanwhile, Manuel croons his way through the mix à la early-years Daryl Hall. When the band was building the song, after a quick bout of creativity and improv, the first portion was finished quickly, but Manuel revealed that there was was still some time before the song was finished. But this is something, Manuel says, that is in line with the band’s creative philosophy. “The second half of the song was written nearly a year after the beginning,” he says. “We initially performed the song live as a kind of interlude and only committed to finishing it once we knew recording was on the way. This ‘second’ writing session was me, Griffin, and our drummer Matt, essentially locking ourselves in my bedroom until it was finished. Ultimately, we see our music as, principally, a vehicle by which we make sense of life and express ourselves. We never want our music to feel forced or to be something we seek out rather than vice versa.” •
MUSIC
CONNECTING TO THE COSMIC WITH WEZSYM By Erica Rucker | erucker@leoweekly.com
COMPELLING, mystical and ethereal are all words that describe what classically-trained musician of 23 years, Reiki master, healer and painter, WEZSYM (aka Weslyn Wolven) does in their music. Coming to Southern Indiana from Chicago, WEZSYM gets to spend time with their German Shepherd dogs, walking their cat and in nature where they feel at home. Their music reflects that connection with the world around and the aim to call from that space a strong spiritual connection. LEO caught up with WEZSYM and decided to find out more about this unique local artist.
LEO: TALK TO ME ABOUT WEZSYM — THE STYLE AND INSPIRATION.
WEZSYM: My style is ever-evolving, as I am constantly discovering myselves. I love exploring as many genres as I can, to express the music that plays in my head. Creating bass beats, choral pieces, jazz and rap are some of the styles channeling through me… I do my best to translate the etheric melodies I hear when I dance, do yoga, or when I am communing with nature. I feel anything’s everything, as an empath — my music begins at times from a phrase written by a friend, or by art I experience and most often from my dreams. I have dedicated many years to astral projection, lucid dreaming and meditation that provide interdimensional other worldly visions that inspire me as a composer.
THERE SEEMS TO BE A MOVEMENT OF CREATORS WORKING IN GENRES LINKED BACK TO FOLKLORE OR HERITAGE IN SOME WAY. HOW DID WEZSYM CHOOSE TO WORK IN THIS WAY?
I desire to evoke dreams and inspire creativity — through sharing such a wide range of different types of music, I hope to reach the imaginations of the many. I seek to make people dance, because, for me, movement is the motion of emotion.
WHAT ARE THE THEMES IN YOUR WORK?
Deep commitment to spirituality. As a Reiki master and healer of modalities, my lyrics have many hidden conscious mean-
“Art is my playtime, dance is how my soul speaks and music is why I AM,” says artist/singer/flutist WEZSYM. | Photo provided by WEZSYM.
ings. In divine certainty with detached expectation, I believe in a new world we build together with kindness as currency and celebration of diversity as we remember, all are one, as one is all.
ing the songs, loop by loop, right there with the audience. I delight in playing music for flow artists and ecstatic dance communities. I crave the symbiotic exchange of creative energy.
addition to doing all my own graphic design and video editing, I am also a visionary painter, costume designer, mixed medium artist, and create fully posable dragon creatures for stop-motion fun.
HOW DID YOU BEGIN MUSIC? FAMILY? EDUCATION?
WHAT ARE SOME ARTISTS THAT YOU LISTEN TO?
To stay up to date on all of WEZSYM’s releases and events, visit Facebook.com/ WEZSYM, WEZSYM.com or follow on Instagram @WEZSYM. •
I sang before I spoke. Creating is how I have transmuted all the chaos of this life. Music, dancing, theater have always been a part of my world, and I went on to double major in music education with my primary instruments being flute and voice. I started composing my own music and live looping in 2018 while living on the road in my beloved van ‘Coney.’ Streetperforming opened my world to how I want to connect with people through music, build-
The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Eric Whitacre, Imogen Heap, Kimbra, Aurora, Illuminati Congo, Andrew Lloyd Webber, and oh so many more.
DO YOU CREATE THE GRAPHICS FOR YOUR WORK OR DO YOU WORK WITH OTHER ARTISTS FOR VISUAL CONTENT? Yes! All graphics are created by me. In
LEOWEEKLY.COM // JULY 20, 2022
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FOOD & DRINK
RECOMMENDED
WE ENJOY THE CHICKEN AND THE EGG AT CHIK’N & MI By Robin Garr | LouisvilleHotBytes.com I’M NOT going to say I’ve solved the ancient riddle about whether the chicken or the egg came first, but I can tell you that we enjoyed both those good things and more in a delicious brunch at Chik’n & Mi. It shouldn’t come as a huge surprise that the fare is excellent at Chik’n & Mi, as it’s the only local eatery I know of where both owners/chefs — the husband-and-wife team of Jason McCollum and Aenith Sananikone McCollum — are graduates of the prestigious Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. Chik’n & Mi has earned considerable popularity in its relatively short run of five years or so. It arrived in March 2017 in a small building on Lower Brownsboro that had housed a long string of short-lived eateries. It moved into its current larger quarters in the spring of 2020, when the pandemic forced Jason McCollum to close his other restaurant, Hearth on Mellwood Eatery, after less than a year of operation. Chik’n & Mi appears to be thriving in its new location where Clifton meets Butchertown, a historic farmhouse that for many
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years housed L & N Wine Bar, Bistro 1860 and Hearth on Melwood. It’s open for dinner only on weekdays, brunch and dinner on Saturdays and brunch on Sundays, with an attractive, shady patio in addition to the old-house space and a comfortable bar inside, which features an extensive sake collection, craft beers and creative cocktails. In the land of Kentucky Fried Chicken and a host of down-home eateries that offer country-fried chicken, Chik’n & Me charts a bolder path. Drawing on Aenith’s Laotian heritage, it features Laotian-spiced fried chicken. There’s also a variety of “Asianinspired comfort foods” across China, Korea and Japan (ramen is a specialty), and on to a world-spanning range of other delights through Mexico to the U.S.A. The weekend brunch menu is similar to the dinner menu but a bit more concise. It offers nine brunch starters and ten brunch dishes, along with its regular range of three ramen bowls and Asian fried FreeBird brand chicken. Most of the brunch appetizers are $8 to
A subtly flavored palette to display your choice of sauces, Chik’n & Mi’s Laotian spiced fried chicken is so crisply fried that the skin cracks pleasantly when you bite down. | PHOTOS BY ROBIN GARR.
A taste of fusion on a world-spanning menu, spicy huevos rancheros wouldn’t be out of place at a taqueria. They’re tasty here, too.
FOOD & DRINK
Built on tender Bibb rather than more sturdy iceberg lettuce, generously portioned tofu lettuce wraps require some care if you choose to pick them up to eat, but it’s worth the effort.
$9, save for fried calamari ($15) and oysters on the half-shell ($15 for a half-dozen, $29 for a dozen). Brunch dishes range in price from $12 (for chilaquiles) to $16 (for fried chicken and waffles). Miso pork, chicken noodle or vegetarian ramen are all $16; add a dollar for the spicy or garlic lovers’ option. The Asian fried chicken is priced by size, from $8 for a chef’s choice trio of thighs, legs or wings, to $15 for a large order of breast-meat nuggets. You’re also welcome to order a traditional breakfast a la carte with two eggs, bacon or sausages for $4 each plus other traditional fixings. Everything we tried showed off the kitchen’s skills. There wasn’t a sour note in the entire meal. A cherry ginger salad ($9) featured a delicious, complex, faintly smoky cherryginger vinaigrette. Noodle-thin julienne strips of zucchini, yellow squash and watermelon radish added flair to a fresh, clean and flavorful salad greens mix, with a generous portion of thin-sliced toasted almonds on top. Tofu lettuce wraps ($8) offered plenty of neatly diced firm tofu mixed with thinly sliced red onions, julienne carrots, chopped cilantro and mint, piled high atop large, bright-green Bibb lettuce leaves. A dish on the side bore a seductive, creamy spicy peanut sauce and bright-orange sweet-hot chili sauce. I wondered for a minute if iceberg lettuce would work better as I struggled to wrap tender Bibb leaves around the filling to make a taco-style wrap. But the flavor and texture combination made the effort
worthwhile. Asian fried FreeBird chicken ($8 for a three-piece dark-meat order) was very tasty, firm and mild flavored. We were hard-pressed to detect anything that made it clearly Asian-inspired — perhaps an elusive hint of anise-scented “five spice” — but it was delicious all the same, fried with a paletan crust so crisp that it cracks when you bite into it. Perhaps it’s intended as a fresh palette to bear choice of sauces — sweet soy, hot Laotian jeaw bong or X-tra hot. We chose the naked option, free of sauce, with house-made mild peppercorn ranch on the side. From the chicken to the egg: We crossed to the Americas to enjoy a Mexican brunch favorite, huevos rancheros ($13). This dish would do credit to a taqueria. A pair of delightfully crunchy tostadas made a sandwich around two very runny eggs and a deeply flavored black-bean puree, drenched under a bath of spicy salsa roja and striped with creamy queso fresco and a cilantro garnish. It came with a small dish of fresh fruit and a bowl of spicy home-fried potatoes. A delightful, filling brunch totaled $40.28, plus a $10 tip. •
CHIK’N & MI
1765 Mellwood Ave. 890-5731 chiknandmi.com
427 S. 4th St. louisville, ky 40202
(502) 568-1400 LEOWEEKLY.COM // JULY 20, 2022
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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
THEATER REVIEW
SHAPED BY TIME: ‘TWELFTH NIGHT,’ ‘RICHARD III,’ AND ‘THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR’ By Marty Rosen | leo@leoweekly.com
PETER BROOK, who died last week, has long been hailed as the preeminent theater director of the last… oh, let’s just keep it simple and say the last century. He was a radical, disruptive and polarizing figure whose ideas were at once both innovative and old school. And, in many ways, this season’s Kentucky Shakespeare Festival exemplifies the principles Brook expounded. First, Brook believed that the most important ingredient in the making of great theater is time: time for a troupe to
The Jazzy “Twelfth Night.”| PHOTO BY BILL BRYMER.
explore and experiment, time for the corps of on-and-off-stage personnel to discover what Brook called “the true unspectacular intimacy that long work and true confidence in other people brings about.” Second, Brook believed in the power of what he called “the rough theater.” His “roughness” is a muti-faceted idea, but to single out just one aspect, he was an advocate for theater that’s performed not in the typical formal settings, but “on carts, on wagons, on trestles, audiences standing, drinking, sitting around tables, joining
in, answering back; theater in back rooms, upstairs rooms, barns.” And third, Brook had a strong notion that the audience plays an essential role in the making of great theater, not merely as passive observers but as partners in this ancient rite of communal storytelling. All summer long, Kentucky Shakespeare has been a living example of those three ideas, first with Matt Wallace’s dazzling hot jazz-inflected production of “Twelfth Night,” then with Amy Attaway’s brilliantly insightful “Richard III” and finally with
Wallace’s rollicking take on “The Merry Wives of Windsor.” These are productions shaped by time. Over the last several years, Kentucky Shakespeare has evolved into an actor-centered theater company, with an unusually stable core group of performers, many of whom have now worked together for years — and work all year long, thanks to the company’s expanded schedule. And the Festival cast has had scripts in hand since February, by now has been rehearsing and performing together for months — and has the added benefit of LEOWEEKLY.COM // JULY 20, 2022
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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
working together in multiple contexts, since most cast members appear in two or more productions. As for theater in the “rough,” Central Park is a superb example. The C. Douglas Ramey Amphitheater is surrounded by (and contains within its bounds) great looming trees. It’s in the heart of the city, where the words of Shakespeare roll amidst a backdrop of distant sirens, barking dogs, fireworks, midsummer breezes and the rumble of jet airliners overhead. In rough theater, those elements are not distractions; they’re essential. This is not an environment like the conventional modern theater space, designed to reinforce the conceit of an invisible fourth wall that divides the onstage universe from the world of the audience. Rather, it’s a shared space in every way. First, at 8 p.m., when the plays begin, the actors and audience live in the same light, and are commonly visible to one another — until dusk sets in, and gradually casts its dark magical spell across the audience.
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Second, and crucially, there is the matter of sound. In the “rough” theater, both the players and the audience are aware that they share the same world, a world where everyone can hear the hoot of a barred owl or the call of a great crested flycatcher. And when a jet flies overhead during “The Merry Wives of Windsor” and an actor wins laughs and applause with an improvised funny double-triplequadruple take to fill Richard III. | PHOTO BY BILL BRYMER. the space between the beginning and the end of a spoken line, it becomes an uproarious reminder that all of us are living together in the same moment in the same universe. In great theater, this is not a bug, it’s a feature. And it’s just one of the things that comes naturally when performers know one another’s work. And finally, that sort of incident is just one of the things that builds an audience’s awareness of itself as playing its own essential role. I’ve been sitting in theaters for years where every audience reaction is rooted in the fixed conventions of an etiquette where generally any and all audience reactions are strictly controlled by the idea that neither the actors nor the audience should acknowledge the existence of the other. But that’s not the guiding principle at Central Park — and it’s been one of the great pleasures of this summer’s season to sit amongst people whose alert interest and uninhibited enthusiasms punctuate the action
with spontaneous cheers and applause. There are, of course, lots of reasons why people attend the theater — many of them related to such a sterile sense of obligation that attending the theater is itself a kind of performance — a thing one just must do to demonstrate that one does such things. But that’s simply the corruption of a great thing. The best reason to go is to experience the thrilling moments when everyone — on and off stage — suddenly comes together in shared surprise at a new discovery – whether it’s tragic, comic, enlightening or unnerving. It’s not customary to review audiences, of course. But the audiences this summer at the C. Douglas Ramey Amphitheater have been uncommonly responsive — which is testimony to both the work of the company and evidence that this audience has helped to build the kind of theater company it wants and deserves. Starting this week, through July 24, you can see all three offerings (“Twelfth Night,” “Richard III” and “Merry Wives of Windsor,” running in rotation (Tuesday through Sunday), followed by two more weeks, one given over to the Globe Players (the company’s estimable professional training program for high school students) performing “Much Ado About Nothing.” And finally the Louisville Ballet’s production of “Shakespeare in Dance — As You Like It.” I have written in detail about this summer’s startling and insightful “Richard III.” As for the two comedies in this season’s Festival, I would summarize by simply noting that in this midsummer of our American discontent, I think there is no better response (other than working directly for change) than lifting your spirits by joining together in laughter and romance, and the two comedies are spectacular. “Twelfth Night,” directed by Matt Wallace, is set in the hot jazz milieu of New Orleans, complete with the flamboyant sounds of “The Illyrian Singers,” an ensemble that includes trombone (Allison Cross, who also leads the ensemble), tuba (May O’Nays); trumpet (Joshua Polion); drums and percussion (Elijah Smith) and Laura Ellis as singer and musician, and a sprightly selection of freshly composed songs by Greg Maupin (who plays both Feste, the jester, and the ukulele in this production). And by the way, there are glorious — GLORIOUS — glorious costumes by Donna LawrenceDowns that all by themselves are worth taking in. The performances are as fantastic as the tale itself, which deals with two twins separated by a shipwreck, each thinking the other has perished (Mollie Murk and Zachary Burrell) who come to ground in a new
land where the sister’s decision to disguise herself as a male (she resembles her brother) triggers some deliciously tangled comedy that is basically a cascade of great acting — both verbal and physical. “The Merry Wives of Windsor,” also directed by Wallace, may be the quintessential “rough” Shakespearean comedy — especially since it is famously his one work that really focuses on “common” (hah!) rather than nobles. Besides, at its center is the single most popular character Shakespeare ever invented: Falstaff, the inveterate, irreverent trickster, debtor, crook, conniver and purveyor of earthy realistic philosophy. We know from historical accounts that Falstaff was the most popular character in Shakespeare’s own time (and indeed there is a tale that Shakespeare was required to write this play because Queen Elizabeth herself wanted more Falstaff). As for me, I think Falstaff is the most “modern” character Shakespeare ever invented, and here his indefatigable energy is finely captured by Brian Hinds. There are two plotlines in this play. Front and center is Falstaff’s plot to repair his fortunes by seducing a woman. To double his chances of success, he thinks to himself, “Why not seduce two?” So he sends identical missives to two of Shakespeare’s most formidable women: Missus Ford (Abigail Bailey Maupin) and Missus Page (Jennifer Pennington). And when they compare notes… Ach, the things Falstaff endures, and even worse are the humiliations Mr. Ford endures when he suspects his wife of cheating on him, and then sets out to catch her in the act. And there’s more. In the other plotline three very different men — one rich, one a physician and scholar and one a true romantic — seek the hand of Miss Anne Page (Ashley Nicole Cabrera) and each of them has an advocate: Anne’s father (Keith McGill) wants her to marry the money; her mother wants her to marry the doctor; and Anne yearns for romance. Serving as hired go-between and matchmaker for all the candidates and their advocates is Mistress Quickly (a foil to Falstaff across his Shakespearian trajectory and in some other plays of that era). Here it turns out that Quickly is exquisitely positioned to profit from all the suitors — no matter which wins Anne’s hand. And it turns out that Georgette Kleier is an exquisite Quickly, playing the role with the kind of polished brassy comic energy you might expect from Carol Burnett. All of this action is enhanced by beautifully integrated Renaissance music (Rus-
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
YOUR FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD
COMIC BOOK REVIEWS! By Felix Whetsel and Krystal Moore | leo@leoweekly.com
Liebestrasse
Written by Greg Lockard Art by Tim Fish and Hector Barros Review by Felix Whetsel
The ever-so “Merry Wives of Windsor.” | PHOTO BY ZACHARY BURRELL.
sell Cooper, music director). This is one of the great and enduring absurdist madcap comedies in the history of our language — and it is (like many of Shakespeare’s plays — including “Richard III” ) animated by the spirit, wit, and intelligence of the women Shakespeare wrote for us. For students and lovers of acting, these three plays can serve as an academy in themselves. During the history cycle that concludes with this season’s “Richard III,” Kentucky Shakespeare published a graphic designed to help audiences keep track of the intricate genealogies and alliances that shaped the dynastic politics of the War of the Roses. It would be a fine thing in the future to supplement the program listings with the same sort of graphic for the performers who appear across Festival lineup — if only so audiences could more easily track the astonishing range and virtuosity of the members of this troupe. From now until the end of their runs, you can do that yourself. For instance, you could watch how Braden McCampbell transitions from the noble lovestruck Orsino of “Twelfth Night” to become both murderer and hero in “RIII” and finally a pedantic parson in “MWW.” You might take note Brittany “BeeBee” Patillo’s deftly smitten Olivia in “TN,” clarity of purpose as RIII’s political ally Catesby, and of RIII’s effective political allies, and Falstaff’s not-so-loyal comical aide in “MWW.” You might focus on Gregory Maupin’s shifts: not only was he instrumental (note: pun) in the editing and music of the plays, he also plays the colorfully clad musical jester in “TN,” then Richard’s self-serving, cynical enabler in “RIII,” and finally gives
an outrageously funny performance in “MWW” as the husband so obsessed with his suspicions about his wife’s fidelity that he engineers his own series of humiliations. You could track Jon Huffman’s transformations from the self-regarding Malvolio in “TN” through the wounded, weakened pathos of King Edward IV in “RIII,” and then to one of the comic capstones of the season, his French-inflected Doctor Caius in “MWW.” In a troupe generously stocked with vivid performances, it seems small to single out only a few, but for me, one of the highlights of this season is the interplay of Abigail Bailey Maupin and Jennifer Pennington. Both had fine turns in “TN.” But both were brilliant in “RIII,” Maupin as the griefmaddened Margaret and Pennington as the embittered mother of the King she wishes had never been born. And as the ever-so-sly and ever-so-Merry Wives of Windsor they are diabolically funny. Basically, to sum up: If you haven’t already seen these productions, you should. And if you have, you should return. I’ve seen the plays evolve over time, and from now through the end of the run, I think you have the opportunity to see the best theater Louisville has witnessed in many, many years. • These offerings from the Kentucky Shakespeare Festival run in rotation through July 24 at C. Douglas Ramey Amphitheater in Central Park. Check the schedule and see them all. It’s free.
If a summary includes the phrase “queer historical romance,” you bet your buns I’m going to check it out. “Liebestrasse,” written by Greg Lockard, with art by Tim Fish and Hector Barros, is a love story set in the tumultuous political atmosphere at the end of the Weimar Republic. Samuel is an American working in Berlin in 1932. While perusing an art museum he runs into a handsome blonde man, only to get truly acquainted at a backdoor gay bar. Philip introduces him to an entire underground community where they can be openly themselves, despite the rise of Nazism. While Philip dreams of an escape together, Samuel insists that they must fight
against fascism. 20 years later, Philip returns to Berlin to find the man he loved, the man he lost in the chaos of the fall of the Weimar Republic. “Liebestrasse,” which translates to “love street,” refers to the last place they were together, and is a story of forbidden love in a time where marginalized people were struggling to survive, and the guilt of those that do. If you’re looking to learn more about the genocide of the queer community during World War II, it also includes a list of books and films about the topic.
New Fantastic Four #1 Written by Peter David Art by Alan Robinson Review by Krystal Moore
In the original run of “Fantastic Four,” issues 347, 348 and 349, the “new Fantastic Four” made their debut. That was in 1990, and since then, fans have lamented that Marvel never gave that legendary team their own series. Now those fans can rejoice as the awesome team of Spider-Man, Hulk, Wolverine and Ghost Rider are finally getting at least five issues together in this limited series. The “Hell in a Handbasket” storyline has a very colorful looking but dark-themed beginning. A lot of Marvel books will carry a teen or mature rating that seems questionable, but I think this one might be deserving of it. Long story short, something mystical happens, bringing our four heroes together in Las Vegas, not long after the timeline of those original issues. Something is afoot in Sin City involving priests, nuns, demons and the homeless who are living in underground tunnels. The book is written by Peter David with artist Alan Robinson and outstanding colors by colorist Mike Spicer. Just the different personalities of the teammates is entertaining, but throw in some pretty serious goings-on and you’ve got a seriously fun comic! I hope the next four issues are as good as this one. We don’t want to disappoint fans who’ve been waiting 30 years for this!
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LEOWEEKLY.COM // JULY 20, 2022
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
LOUISVILLE FRINGE FESTIVAL IS EXPANDING ITS BIG DREAMS WITH NEW VENUES AND PARTNERSHIPS By Erica Rucker | erucker@leoweekly.com
THE Louisville Fringe Festival is a festival of indie arts productions that range from theater to music to comedy and sometimes all of the above. With performances at the Whirling Tiger and a reading series at the Old Louisville Coffee Co-op from July 28 - 31, the festival will happen in two venues. This year the festival is partnering with Derby City Playwrights. LEO got the latest on Louisville Fringe Festival from Founding Artistic Director Allie Fireel, who shared their thoughts on this year’s events. They had plenty.
LEO: TALK ABOUT THE AIM OF THIS YEAR’S FRINGE FESTIVAL?
Allie Fireel: The aim is the same every year, which is to bring together a community, support that community and challenge that community to make better art, make a better arts scene for artists and audiences and ultimately to make a better world. Like, we have big dreams. We’re dreamers. But the way that expresses itself changes every year, and it always emerges early in the planning stages. This year, David Clark from the Derby City Playwrights contacted us very early on, you know, like last fall or something, and asked if we wanted to team up and host DCP’s new play reading series, or you know, if there were other ideas we had about what a collaboration could look like. So that really became the main focus for me, and I spent a lot of time talking with David about this year — and the future. This year, we’re doing a reading series, and putting up one production of a play written during an earlier season. My dream — and I love saying this out loud because I’ve learned that saying shit out loud is kind of what you have to do to make yourself do something. My dream is the reading series, six full plays, and a 15-minute play festival. Ten-minute plays? Pffft. That’s last century. 15 minutes is where it’s at.
WHAT IS NEW AT THE FESTIVAL AND SOMETHING THAT IS DIFFERENT FROM PREVIOUS YEARS? Well, because Fringe is in a lot of bars and stuff usually, a lot of people don’t realize I’m sober. When I first quit drinking, there weren’t many places to see new inde-
pendent theater that didn’t serve alcohol. I was scared to even be in a room with alcohol. So, the DCP reading series this year is actually being held in The Old Louisville Coffee Co-op, a safe space for people who are sober, and a space for queer people of all ages. And it’s like, queer kids between, like, 13 to 21, they don’t have a lot of places, because so much of the queer community is in bars and stuff.
WHO ARE YOU WORKING WITH TO BRING THIS FESTIVAL TO LIFE? We have a mindblowing number of excellent partners. There’s DCP of course, and the Co-op. We’re also doing co-productions with several cool groups. Haus, which is an awesome drag and burlesque show, the storytelling show Double-Edged Stories is joining us. And also just — I mean everyone. Again, Fringe, to me, is about that community of creativity. Then, of course, the rest of the Fringe board, i.e. the other suckers like me who are doing all the work. I end up in the literal spotlight more than they do for Fringe. But Nick Hulstine, co-founder and associate artistic director, and Gracie Taylor, associate producing director, and Jon, ahem let me say it right, Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Jon Cherry, our development director. They are the people who make it work. I just talk a lot.
Louisville Fringe Festival Founding Artistic Director Allie Fireel| PHOTO PROVIDED BY LOUISVILLE FRINGE FESTIVAL
WHAT SHOULD THE AUDIENCE FOR FRINGE EXPECT THIS YEAR? So much — theater, stand-up comedy, burlesque, storytelling, drag, sideshow, hopefully a fire eater, one-person shows, some shadow puppets, some hip-hop, selections from a rock opera. I’m sure I’m forgetting something.
WHEN DID YOU START WORKING ON FRINGE AND WHAT DRIVES YOU TO CONTINUE TO DO IT YEAR AFTER YEAR?
Well, looooong ago, Nick and I put together opening night festivities for the third year of the Slant Culture Theatre Festival. That’s how we met. A couple years later, I was helping out with organizing DCP, and Nick was just starting to work on getting the Fringe festival going. DCP decided to have some stuff at that first festival, and I sort of defected, I guess. Nick and I just clicked again, so as soon as he and I started talking, we realized we wanted to do Fringe together. And that first year was a trial by fire. It was so much work, we just had no idea what we were getting into. I was walking around
my house bumping into walls and muttering “never again.” But then the festival happened. And it’s just love. The artists get to do what they love; they get to see art and fall in love with it, and fall in love with each other artistically. You know, a lot of us, artists and stuff, we kind of isolate sometimes, and there is a huge amount of fear and vulnerability to creation. You rip out your heart so people can poke it with sticks. Especially when you are trying to do new shit. We get to help make sure that there is a safe place to be brave. And we get to try new ways of making it work. And that really encompasses what we believe in. Brave artists deserve safe space, and audiences need safe places to be uncomfortable. Not unsafe, uncomfortable. And that’s why we keep coming back. Love, community, creation and a way to actively push back against all the fucked up parts of the arts scene. • Louisville Fringe Festival takes place from from July 28 - 31 at Whirling Tiger and Old Louisville Coffee Co-op. Tickets prices will be set by artists, but many are around $10, and can be purchased at the door. For more information, visit loufringefest.com. LEOWEEKLY.COM // JULY 20, 2022
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Records in advance Time for a shootout Memorable quote from 70-Across Apple device Affirms Some college classes ‘‘Thanks, but I already ____’’ Diet Coke doesn’t have a single one: Abbr. Wipes out ‘‘The Clan of the Cave Bear’’ heroine What’s raised in a ruckus Waste of an election? Confesses Bad thing to be stuck in On-line connection? Arrive at, as a solution Memorable quote from 70-Across ‘‘Take your time’’ Audacious A target for Target, say It might be a shocker ‘‘The Simpsons’’ character Social media star Addison Partner of one French skin-care and cosmetics giant ____ teeth (proverbial rarity) Noble title Follower of black or special Slanders Director Waititi Ones involved in a transaction Nutty confections So-called Breakfast of Champions They might end on a high note Sound of a jaguar Let out, in a way
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Rock subgenre named for its vocal aesthetic Like some space-saving beds Styles that are picked, informally Amateur Disinclined (to) Royal figure of sci-fi Grammy for Kendrick Lamar’s ‘‘DAMN.’’ or Cardi B’s ‘‘Invasion of Privacy’’ Shuts down American, abroad Apt name for a worrier Moving toward equilibrium, in biology Legerdemain Horse color Prepares for a Ms. Olympia competition, say Tiny foragers ‘‘Here’s an example .?.?. ’’ Insect with distinctive pincers Without stop Subj. for some future bilinguals Sources of music in musicals Splinter group Brewing brothers Capital of Japan’s Hyogo Prefecture It might be broken in overtime Waits to publish, as an article Second-rate Pronoun pairing Loop trains Hornswoggle De-creased Luxury Hyundai ‘‘Still da ____’’ (Trina title track of 2008) Fluster Kind of squash One using cloves or garlic What gets filled at a shell station? Monthly condition, for short Hairstyle protectors Tabbouleh topping Build, as interest Kind of test Board figure, informally Recipe unit Goddess in a peacock-drawn chariot Marilyn Monroe wore a fuchsia one while singing ‘‘Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend’’ Beverage that was a medieval source of nutrition ____ President
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Literary protagonist raised by wolves ‘‘The Sound of Music’’ household ‘‘Horned’’ creature Turn one’s back on Laces (into) Apelike University of Montana city Weasel word? ____ Fielding, co-host of ‘‘The Great British Bake Off’’ beginning in 2017 Suffering from a losing streak, in poker slang Secret exits represented five times in this puzzle’s grid ‘‘Bus Stop’’ playwright Camping shelter Advocates Romanov ruler Vulnerable Most likely to inspire ‘‘thirst’’
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SAVAGE LOVE
By Dan Savage | mail@savagelove.net @fakedansavage
GAYS AND CONFUSED
This is a preview of this week’s Savage Love. The full version is now exclusively available on Dan’s website Savage.Love. From the end of Roe to the assault on democracy to the climate crisis to the war on Ukraine, it’s all bad news, all the time, for everyone. But the monkeypox outbreak is an extra little helping of bad news specifically for gay and bi men. (More than 96% of monkeypox cases have been in gay and bisexual men.) Hey, faggots? If you have a rash or feel like you have swollen glands, stay home. And if you’re sexually active or hope to be soon, get the monkeypox vaccine at your earliest opportunity. In the meantime, here’s a column featuring all gay questions to remind us that gay life isn’t just freaking out about ingrown hairs. – Dan Q: I’m a mid 50’s gay man, married to a man. We’ve been together 30 years. We love each other and have built a great life together, but our sex life is so lackluster it’s nearly extinct. After years of trying to get my spouse to talk about our likes, wants, needs, and differences, and after years making suggestions about how or what we could do either together or apart to improve our sex life, I finally had enough and began having dalliances here and there. I encouraged him to pursue sexual satisfaction where he likes, but his response is always, “I couldn’t do that.” So, what’s the problem? I’ve always been drawn to Daddy/boy scenarios—it plays into my submissive tendencies—and I recently met a hot Daddy. We’ve been meeting up for six months, we’re both GGG, and the sex is awesome! But my spouse does not know about 38
LEOWEEKLY.COM // JULY 20, 2022
my relationship with Daddy. I would love for the two to meet, as I think they would enjoy each other’s sense of humor and personality, as they are both wonderful men. Is it possible to introduce them so that the three of us could be friends and maybe ease my spouse into opening things up? My spouse and I are both sub bottoms and my Daddy is a gentle Daddy Dom. Do I bring them together or do I keep these two relationships separate? Lusting After Daddy A: If what you’re seeking from me, LAD, is some way to tell your husband you’ve been fucking another man for six months without upsetting him, I can’t help you. He’s most likely going to be upset. Additionally, there’s no way to tell your husband about your recently acquired fuckbuddy without putting your vague DADT agreement at risk. Now, assuming your husband isn’t an idiot, LAD, he knows you’ve been having sex with other men. When you told him to pursue sexual satisfaction elsewhere, he must’ve known you planned to do (or were already doing) the same. But there’s a difference between knowing something because you kindasortafigured, LAD, and knowing
something because you were literallyfucking told. And there’s a difference between having sex with other men—one-offs, one at a time—and having sex again and again with one man. (Which, during this monkeypox outbreak, is a far safer option for you and your husband than one-offs.) Sexual infidelity is one thing, emotional infidelity is
another. But the odds your husband will leave you—after 30 years— seem slim. And even if he’s upset at first, who knows? If he’s open to meeting your boyfriend/daddyfriend once his anger dissipates, and if he’s attracted to your Daddy Dom and your Daddy Dom is attracted to him, a series of hot threesomes might revive your sexual connection with your husband. Things could also go from not great to truly terrible—you could wind up getting divorced—but things aren’t going to get better on the sexual front
without a shakeup, LAD, and telling the truth is a pretty good way to shake things up. All that said, LAD, telling your husband, “I have a boyfriend, I’d like you to meet him, I think you two might click,” is a big risk and there are no backsies. Q: I’m a 26-year-old gay man in Arizona. I was with my 38-year-old boyfriend for a year and a half. We were monogamous from the start but when we “laid our kink cards on the table” about six months in (I’m a longtime listener and reader), he “confessed” that he wanted to watch me get fucked by another guy. Or guys, plural. He brought it up literally every time we had sex for a year. Two weeks ago, I got on Grindr (with his okay) to see what was out there. I found a couple and showed him their photos. He was thrilled. We went over to their place, and it felt right, and they both fucked me in front of my boyfriend. My boyfriend— who jerked off and came while watching me get fucked—had a complete meltdown after we left. He called me a bunch of names and accused me of enjoying it too much and broke up with me. I still have my own apartment, thank God, so I took some clothes and left. He says he wants a monogamous relationship now, but not with me because of what happened. I didn’t do anything he didn’t ask me to. I’m heartbroken and filled with regret and can’t stop crying. Was I supposed to fake hating it? Is there any way to salvage this? Wholly Heartbroken Over Relationship Ending
ETC. A: There’s no way to salvage this, WHORE, but there are two ways of looking at it… To continue reading “Savage Love,” go to savage.love/ savagelove!
questions@savagelove.net Listen to Dan on the Savage Lovecast. Follow Dan on Twitter @ FakeDanSavage.
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