LEO, April 10, 2024

By Erica Rucker

FINAGLE AROUND AND FIND OUT

BY ERICA RUCKER

Erica Rucker is LEO Weekly’s editor-in-chief. In addition to her work at LEO, she is a haphazard writer, photographer, tarot card reader, and fair-to-middling purveyor of motherhood. Her earliest memories are of telling stories to her family and promising that the next would be shorter than the first. They never were.

Isn’t it funny that when Republicans can’t get their way through honest means, they resort to shenanigans in order finagle their agendas. You know, the agendas they accuse everyone else of having.

With the recent passage of HB 388, a bill that would, in part, strip party affiliation from Louisville Metro government races, Republicans are looking for a way to get their grimy toes in the door on Louisville’s government because of course, they can’t win on their ideas.

The idea that they can hide their party affiliation and gain control in Louisville is an idea that has fueled the histrionic, hairy-palmed, circle jerks of Republicans for years. It’s almost like they believe the public won’t see through their rhetoric to the red “R” emblazoned on their too-tight neckties.

In the bill that upon first read seems like an adjustment to taxation and emergency dispatch, there is text that alludes for the bill to “...create a new section of KRS Chapter 65 to provide that members of local boards, commission, committees, and other bodies created by or appointed by local governments have geographic and political party affiliation diversity…”

I ‘can’t even’ with their attempt to use the word diversity when they have been puking all over themselves about Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) and how terrible it is for everyone but herein lies the golden nugget of their deceit. They don’t want diversity — not when it means Black and brown people might be elected or that citizens might like the fair person better. Nope, they want “diversity” that leans towards them and their cronies.

It’s such a cheap and flimsy shot to move the goalposts to help them do better in a city that just doesn’t fucking want them.

How much clearer can Louisvillians be that Republicans can take long walks off short piers?

It isn’t that people just don’t want them, it is that their ideas are rehashed and rebranded versions of the same old discriminatory, sexist and racist shit. We’ve seen it and heard it so many times, but I have to give it to them, these bastards are persistent.

Louisville… and Kentucky, I want y’all to take in a short Bible verse. I’m not religious but so many of you are that I’m just not understanding how you continue to allow these folks to “dwell” in the House and Senate, within the state and beyond.

Psalms 101:7 reads, “No one who practices deceit shall dwell in my house; no one who utters lies shall continue before my eyes.”

Yet, these people lie, deceive, discriminate and spread hatred, many times hiding under the guise of the book you rely on for faith and guidance. I think a mass eviction in your houses is due, Kentucky.

Like Daniel Cameron, I want to say hard pass to HB 388 and hard pass to any further interference in how people in the state of Kentucky and the city of Louisville get to choose their leaders.

We don’t have to agree on politics but we should certainly agree on bullshit and know when we’re getting served a giant plate of it. HB 388 and all the other recent legislative tricks in the Republican-led legislature are big fat servings of shit. In no way do these bills — check our legislative update in our News section — improve any quality of life for Kentuckians. What they do is further an agenda by people who really want Kentucky to live in an Orwellian nightmare controlled by men who can’t protect their hairlines much less the people they are elected to serve.

Why?

Because they only care about the lobbyists who write and send the bills to them along with perks and checks. Just to be sure, you didn’t think they really wrote all this shit themselves, did you? This mess is basically a copy and paste from all their special interests. Just check similar bills in other states. Same shit, different demons.

HB 388 has yet to receive any action from Gov. Beshear as of this writing; but I can tell you the people of Louisville want Republicans to keep the name of our city out of their filthy mouths and their meat paws off our local government. Keep finagling around with Louisville, and you will find out why you don’t want to mess with this city.

SOAPBOX: WHERE WE KNOW WHAT YOU’RE THINKING

We like it when you talk to us, even if you’re upset. This space is for you. Sometimes, we talk back.

High School Woes

In my opinion your article was offensive toward many races religions and cultures. I don’t understand the need for the article other than reinforcing stereotypes.People with your ability to reach out to the community should help to reinforce some good.Help the community to heal from the years of bigotry and racism.Thank you.

–Curtis Thurman

It’s a slideshow, and calling out these old stereotypes is absolutely to find light in the ideas that have tried to keep us apart. The question, “where did you go to school?” perpetuates, in part because these stereotypes do. Ignoring them won’t change that.

I am writing you in response to your publication’s recent article “What Your Louisville High School Says About You.” While I would agree with the staff’s position that entirely too often Louisville’s citizens use the question “Where did you go to high school?” to help them better understand who they are talking to; there are several concerns I have for the manner in which you chose to address the issue. My major concern regarding the article is that it stereotypes people badly, and stereotyping is not very productive if your goal is to reach a more inclusive Louisville community.

In 2022  attended an ASALH  national conference that centered the study of African American life and history. One of the breakout sessions included a deeper dive into the role of newspapers in pre-Civil War America. Ads for run-away slaves was a big money generator for the publications and so, while the newspapers may not have been actively participating in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, their well-being and, in some cases, mission became intertwined with the mission of legalized forced labor that was chattel slavery. When I read an article like “Where did you go to high school?”I have to wonder where the newspaper’s loyalties lie.  Redlining in Louisville and across the country developed and cultivated a divided group-think by geographical area by limiting perspectives historically. Your article seems to understand this division, but does

not adequately address the positive cultural connections that are being cultivated across community boundaries and a deeper dive is needed. To move forward we must recognize our unconscious bias to make decisions based on these same limited perspectives.  I am also troubled by the timing of the piece. As a JCPS teacher who is working hard to keep our students engaged as we recover from a historic pandemic, I really do not appreciate an article that could be interpreted as pouring salt on the wounds of public education. There are serious decisions that must be made within our JCPS and Kentucky public education systems on the table as I write. The future depends on getting these issues resolved in such a way that our most vulnerable are lifted up. Please publish articles that emphasize inclusion rather than division in the future.

Sincerely,

–Greg Tichenor

It is the ignoring of these stereotypes and division that let’s them fester. My advice is to read more of LEO’s articles if you want to know where we stand, and have historically for over 30 years. We are certainly concerned about how all communities are treated, but we are not above making fun of the things that have been used to stereotype or divide us. Even in today’s school system the question, “where did you go to school,” has implications for categorization. We’d suggest that your concern be better placed on the transportation and whether or not your students have schools to attend next year.

I skimmed this article and found a couple funny and spot on. Then I read what you said about Moore High School and thought you all were better than being racist. And Valley wasn’t much better.Kind of disappointed if I’m being honest.

–Angela Bray

Kids at Moore H.S. of all stripes and colors wore gold teeth in the ‘80s. The yearbooks tell all tales. We’d also invite you to check the history of the South End of Louisville including Valley Station and Shively. Perhaps read about the bombing of a Black family’s home in the ‘60s.

RItttenhouse Schmittenhouse

I finally sat down and read through the last issue (March 27) and I really appreciated your column on the Rittenhouse event at WKU. I hate everything that criminal stands for. While many were calling for the cancellation of that event, I was uneasy about saying “Yep, cancel that talk”, and frankly until I read your column I hadn’t been able to articulate why. Now I’ve got the words, your words. Thank you. Keep writing!

–Mark Rountree

Your article was fantastic thank you.

–Mary Nestor O’Toole

KENTUCKY LEGISLATION TO KEEP AN EYE ON AS DEADLINE LOOMS

BY CALEB STULTZ

Kentucky is in the midst of one of the most crucial moments of legislation in recent history, with many bills passing quickly through the Kentucky House and Senate. As many laws move at such a fast pace, it can be difficult to keep track.

Here are some of the most important bills and what they mean for Kentuckians across the Commonwealth.

HB 9: Eliminate DEI in Kentucky colleges and universities

House Bill 9 was introduced in January by Waddy Rep. Jennifer Decker (R) with the intent of dismantling diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives across Kentucky’s colleges and universities.

The bill would also restrict schools from offering courses or training based on DEI or “discriminatory concepts,” including the prohibition of “a public postsecondary education institution from providing differential treatment or benefits on the basis of an individual’s religion, race, sex, color, or national origin,” according to the bill.

access to education to meet their needs.

“The bill creates a definition for ‘divisive concepts’ in postsecondary educational institutions that will chill speech and eviscerate organizations, activities, and administrative mechanisms (like bias incident reporting) that create a sense of safety and help create healthy environments for students from marginalized communities, among many other things,” The ACLU of Kentucky said in a letter to the House Education Committee on March 14.

Where is the bill in the legislative session?

As of Feb. 14, the bill has remained on the floor as three amendments to the bill have been filed.

SB 6: DEI Elimination in postsecondary education with financial penalties

Senate Bill 6, a bill similar to HB 9 in its efforts to suppress DEI initiatives in Kentucky’s state postsecondary education facilities, was introduced on Jan. 2 with

“This committee sub would allow our public postsecondary institutions to return their focus to providing students with a high quality academic instruction in an environment that is inclusive and welcoming to all,” said Decker on the House floor on March 15.

Opponents of the bill argue that having DEI integration at the postsecondary level would allow for students to have greater

lawmakers posting nine amendments to the bill. Eight of them were defeated before the bill was passed in the Senate 68-18. SB 6 would penalize institutions who violate the act anywhere between $1,000 and $100,000 per violation. Those violations include the penalization, discrimination or “adverse treatment due to the individual’s refusal to support or endorse any divisive concept.”

Where is the bill in the legislative session?

SB 6 is dead this year after lawmakers broke for a veto period, which means they will not have enough time to override a veto from Governor Andy Beshear. The bill could be refiled during next year’s legislative session.

HB 5: Safer Kentucky Act

House Bill 5 was introduced in January and has moved quickly through the legislative session, introducing harsher penalties for crimes committed in the state.

Fentanyl, which was found to have been the cause of over 1,500 overdose deaths in Kentucky in 2022, will now have a harsher sentence for a fentanyl trafficking conviction. Those found guilty of trafficking fentanyl that lead to a person’s death will be classified as manslaughter in the first degree.

Another major piece of HB 5 is the three strikes clause, which calls for a life sentence for those who have committed and were found guilty of three violent crimes in Kentucky.

“The final passage of House Bill 5 is not a surprise, but it is a disappointment,” said Kungu Njuguna, the ACLU-KY Policy Strategist in a release. “This bill will undoubtedly cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars, cause irreparable harm to our houseless neighbors, unnecessarily entrap people with substance use disorder in the criminal legal system, and add to the dangerous problem of jail and prison overpopulation.”

Jefferson County, which accounts for 17% of the entire state of Kentucky’s population, only includes 12% of all people in the Commonwealth serving time for felonies. Rural counties in Kentucky like Carroll County, have imprisoned people four times the amount than Jefferson.

Costs of the “Safer Kentucky Act” could span more than $1 billion dollars over the next decade through an influx of more prisoners and the construction of more jails across the state. Though the estimates are limited, Kentucky statutes require bills to prepare costs, with just one person in the correctional system costing over $850,000 over the span of 20 years.

Where is the bill in the legislative session?

After amendments one through five were withdrawn (which would have removed the three strikes clause along with other important pieces to the bill), the Senate passed the bill and has been delivered to Governor Andy Beshear (D) to either sign or veto. If it is vetoed, the Kentucky legislature has the power to override his veto and make this bill into law.

HB 388: Nonpartisan elections in Louisville

House Bill 388 was introduced earlier this year and also moved quickly through the session, breaking down party affiliations for candidates running for office in Jefferson County.

It would also allow easier access for smaller communities to form their own cities within the county. These nonpartisan elections would include council members and mayoral candidates in Jefferson County.

“I think HB 388 will go a long way to helping realize the potential of merger, making all of our community more a part of our Metro government,” said Rep. Jason Nemes, who represents the 33rd district and majority whip in the House.

The bill includes specific language on “diversity” of political affiliation, stating: “...provide that members of local boards, commissions, committees, and other bodies created by or appointed by local governments have geographic and political party affiliation diversity…”

The Louisville Urban League, which opposes the bill, says in a release that the bill being passed “quietly” on March 20 is a clear division of its promise to transparency.

“We are also concerned that elected officials within the Louisville Metro Government are unaware or have little say on a bill that

will have an outsized impact on their job,” the organization said in a statement.

Where is the bill in the legislative session?

After passing 79-21 in the Senate, it was signed by both the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate and has been delivered to the governor to sign or veto.

SB 215 Prohibition of Emission Standards

Senate Bill 215, which was filed in February, has also moved quickly through the House and the Senate. The bill looks to keep any “state agency, department, or political subdivision from adopting or enforcing emissions standards on new motor vehicles, or from requiring purchase or sale of electric vehicles.”

The bill would forbid any of those state agencies to adopt or enforce emission standards that were set by California on motor vehicles.

Kentucky is slowly dropping emission levels over the last decade, but has had an uptick since the pandemic in 2020.

Where is the bill in the legislative session?

The bill passed quickly through the Senate 80-17 and was filed without the Governor’s signature with help from the Secretary of State on March 29.

Kentucky’s carbon dioxide emissions from 2013 to 2021. U.S. Energy Information Administration

Craig Greenberg on Election Night, after winning the race to be Louisville’s next mayor.

Carolyn Brown

What’s Next for Louisville’s Urban Core with the Loss of Three Major Corporations?

Innovation is the key to the survival of the important urban environment

BY ERICA RUCKER

Humana, LG&E, and Fifth Third have said they are leaving the downtown core. Courier-Journal’s Joe Gerth called it “another death knell for downtown,” and scoffed at Mayor Greenberg’s suggestion that it’s an opportunity.

If an opportunity is to be made of the changing urban core, what might that be?

With the departure of these major corporations to smaller buildings and not directly inside Louisville’s urban core, questions about “What’s Next?” for the downtown area have arisen. Some feel that more corporations should move in to take the places of Humana, LG&E, and Fifth Third Bank.

Others have called for a decentralized downtown model, which takes the traditional cultural core of a city and disperses it out of the urban center. In many models, this unfortunately results in suburban sprawl, fractured city governments, and dying city cores.

But what do urban planners and developers think?

Answering this definitively would likely be tougher than German mathematician David Hilbert’s unsolvable equations. The fact is developers and urban planners (sometimes the same person) have as many ideas as governments, businesses, and the other citizens of the city.

In exploring the new paradigm for downtown, it seemed fair to reach out to the University of Louisville Urban and Public Affairs Department for input from the expertise of some of the top thinkers in urban planning and community development. This piece will only scratch the surface of the conversations to be had. Expect followup.

Dr. John “Hans” Gilderbloom serves in the Graduate Planning, Public Administration,

Sustainability, and Urban Affairs program at UofL. For him, a decentralized downtown isn’t optional. He believes strongly in a centralized and well-functioning urban core. One of the ways that he sees that happening is through some very basic corrections in how the Louisville downtown moves.

“I think the problem with the downtown is that they need to make some corrections. And when Pete Buttigieg ran for president from up in Indiana, we’d been in contact about transforming downtowns from speedy, reckless accidental prone one-way streets to multilane, one-way streets to two-lane, two-way streets.

“And, we thought, that was a really good idea. I’ve written before for LEO and for the Courier-Journal — articles talking about the benefits of two-way streets, which finally Fischer [former Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer] agreed to when David James ran in Old Louisville that they would transform Brook and First Street into two-way. They did that, and it was highly successful.”

For Gilderbloom, the maze of one-way streets in downtown Louisville works antithetical to making it a more vibrant area. This change in Brook and First gave him some hope that Louisville was moving in the right direction.

“That was like 15 years ago. We thought there’d be a movement. The good news is they are transforming Muhammad Ali [Blvd.] and certain other strategic streets to slow, calm,

and cool. The idea is that pedestrians would like to walk more and feel safer. And you see a lot more baby carriages out there, skateboarders, people walking around”

The downtown Gilderbloom envisions is one that is found in many larger cities. Cities like Nashville where there is booming business and cultural activity.

“I am proudly from San Francisco, and our family’s been involved in San Francisco ever since it burned down in 1906. My grandfather was bravely carrying buckets of water, but said, ‘You know, there’s a better way to save the buildings, and that is to fix the maze of water pipes throughout the city.’ He had come over here as a plumber, so he’d done that.”

These seemingly simple solutions increase accessibility and flow.

“I don’t think we should give up on the downtown, but I do think I’ve seen this movement where converting the empty places into housing and trying to get people, more people, to live down there. Well, the difficulty of downtown right now with housing is parking,” GIlderbloom said.

“You’ve gotta get parking there, which is, again, people recognize that the parking is itself a challenge.

“For example in Cincinnati where they are coming back, and it’s notable in terms of how they’ve done it, is there’s few, very few empty spaces there in terms of parking just on the surface parking. And it’s an eyesore. But it is doable.”

Developer Gill Holland sees the use of downtown’s empty spaces with a creative eye. Holland is responsible for several development projects around Louisville, most notably the development that changed East Market St. into Nulu, starting with the Green Building.

Holland was out of town when LEO reached out for comment but shared some thoughts via email.

“It would be cool if some big company just gave KyCAD or Fund for the Arts a building. The building would then be a nonprofit so there would be no property tax — just would need to have enough to cover LG&E, MSD, maintenance, and insurance. And, business gets the tax deduction for the donation.”

Like Gilderbloom, he doesn’t feel that many of these buildings would be easily convertible to living situations. For him, that’s based on HVAC, ceiling heights, and plumbing logistics.

“If we did inverse property tax so the folks who own the parking lots would pay way MORE based on the lesser value of what is on their property, and someone who invested a bunch, built big buildings, converting the lot to a higher use, would pay LESS property tax, that could be a good idea.

“Even the parking lot folks could then build a 5-story parking garage if they wanted, and that then frees up downtown space for more living space buildings.”

Aside from the streets being one-way and parking creating an untenable situation. Downtown Louisville has another larger and more complex-to-solve issue, and that is its western half surrounded by “44 toxic chemical companies that are just smoking it out and reducing your lifespan,” according to Gilderbloom. He cites these plants as one of the major reasons why Louisville was bypassed for Nashville when Amazon was looking for a large hub.

“We are currently ranked among mid-size cities as one of the top polluters, actually number two,” said Gilderbloom.

“I’ve been studying this stuff, the urban dynamics, since I was an undergraduate, where I worked with these two great planners, Harvey Molotch and Richard Applebaum, who wrote about what makes a city dynamic, and what makes it work, what makes it affordable, what makes it pleasant, what makes it

Three views of downtown Louisville: Former LG&E headquarters (top left), buiilding fronts on Main St. (top right), and the Repurposed on Main space from below. (bottom) Erica Rucker

civil, what makes it beautiful.”

Molotch, a sociologist, is famous for his work in creating the field of environmental sociology, as well as his book, “Urban Fortunes,” which examined the city as a “growth machine.”  He proposed that the city was not a series of empty pieces of land waiting for humans to interact with them but was already associated with specific human interests — commercial, sentimental, and psychological. He felt that real estate interests of people who own properties that gain value when growth takes place were important in shaping cities. He labeled these people the “local growth machine” and suggested that cities needed to be studied (and compared) by examining the organizational structure, lobbying, manipulation, and structuring done by these “growth machine” people. He suggested that the shape of a city including the distribution of its population is due to social actions including opportunistic interests, and not interpersonal or geographic necessities.

This thinking has become standard in how urban planners and developers approach advising a city about how to revive its urban core. Applebaum, like Molotch, approaches the ideas of cities from that of sociology. He, however, focused on the city and economic justice including housing, homelessness, and labor. His work falls firmly in the world of activist-academic.

Gilderbloom’s work with both thinkers created a lasting impact on his approach to cities. His prescription for downtown has simple two first steps: Fix the streets and fix the pollution.

As conversations loom on what to do about Louisville’s downtown, the Humana building is embroiled in a lawsuit with the firm of famed architect Michael Graves who designed the former tower that housed Humana’s headquarters.

Humana alleges that inspections in 2019 found faulty construction and evidence that it had been hidden behind drywall and that other corners were cut in significant design and structural areas of the building.

With the tower tied up in litigation, it is unclear when or if it will be used for a new purpose.

Gilderbloom would hate to see it torn down.

Some have suggested retrofitting the Humana tower or other buildings for housing but with the lawsuit and issues with the tower that doesn’t seem to be the course of action.

Gilderbloom does believe that housing in downtown can be addressed and that it shouldn’t be another “luxury” housing development.

A project that he has consulted on with Underhill Associates involves a conversion of the former Louisville Urban Government Center and Old Baptist Hospital in the Paristown Pointe neighborhood. There was some scandal, according to Gilderbloom, in that the city sold the property for cheap to be razed and used for luxury housing.  “But, imagine 300,000 square feet of

housing, 300,000 square feet, which could create 200 – 300 housing units, and that could help the elderly.

There’s a market for that. And, of course, students going to Bellarmine and downtown.”

The luxury market, which is accustomed to living with a view, would likely be remiss to find the area as desirable because of the lack of a view.

“The view and the location, and so on is not one that people who wanna buy a luxury house like, or who are used to along the river are going to reject.”

A final note

The loss of large businesses in the downtown core is more than an economic shift for businesses, there is a shift in the culture and not just in Louisville, in no small part, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Workers learned to work at home and when the restrictions of the pandemic were lifted, these same workers refused to return to fluorescent-lit offices and a lack of free movement.

In Louisville, we are looking at three major towers being vacated. In cities like New York, this is closer to 30 empty buildings.

According to a January 2024 CBS news report, the effects of empty office spaces could ricochet through the economy because of the way these buildings are financed, at least in places like New York City. The risk of real estate firms not being able to make their rent and potentially defaulting on loans could increase the risk for banks (and taxpayers) who often have to bear the cost of failed industry. See the recession of 2008 and the auto industry collapse.

But that risk doesn’t translate to the way people are working now. In short, it’s not the fault of the worker. It’s time for the industries to adapt.

According to CBS, “By some estimates, the price of office buildings has tanked by as much as 40% since the pandemic. At Columbia Business School, real estate professor Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh has modeled out the impact of hybrid work on pricing. He calls it a “train wreck in slow motion.”

In the article Van Nieuweburgh also said that reimagining these spaces can and should be “ambitious” with the use of both private and public monies.

“We no longer have to live where we work,” Van Nieuwerburg said in the piece. “And that’s a very transformational idea. And I believe society is only at the beginning of realizing the full potential of that idea.”

In Louisville, we are also standing on that same precipice. What do we do if business isn’t at the core of our cities? How do we maintain a strong urban center that serves our city in a way that keeps the cultural integrity intact?

It seems that the answer is both simple and complex and best summed up in a single phrase, one that has aided humans throughout our time on the planet. Innovate.

We need to innovate to survive and the same can be said for our cities. Innovation is the way that we will create the paradigm of living in our new post-COVID, post-office, world.

EAT, DRINK AND SEE IN THIS WEEK’S STAFF PICKS

THURSDAY, APRIL 11

Fancy Feathers, Murderous Millinery + Winning Colors

ARTPORTAL | 1535 Lytle St. | portal-louisville. com | free | 6 p.m.

To celebrate the 150th renewal of the Kentucky Derby, ARTPORTAL presents a dual exhibition. “Fancy Feathers, Murderous Millinery” displays Derby hat fashions from the Victorian era to the present. The curation of “Winning Colors” incorporates vivid color designs that both celebrate the history and anticipate the future of Derby.

—Aria Baci

FRIDAY, APRIL 12

Alabaster Glory

MFA Gallery | 1616 Rowan St. | Hite Institute of Art and Design | free | 5 p.m.

The reception for the MFA thesis exhibition of Taiwanese-born Chloe Cheng is at the Hite Institute of Art and Design’s student gallery space in Portland on Friday. Featuring three installations that represent three stages of human life: the beginning, living in the world, and the end. The concept behind the multimedia representations of these three stages is the relationship between creator and creations.

—Aria Baci

THURSDAY, APRIL 11

Dancing Plague “Elogium” release tour

PORTAL | 1535 Lytle St. | portal-louisville.com | $10 presale $15 at door | 7 p.m.

The solo project of Conor Knowles (half of the dream pop duo Psychic Guilt), Dancing Plague brings goth-tinged dark wave electronica from Portland,OR to the Portland neighborhood on the release tour for the album “Elogium.” Emotionally charged lyrics with themes of depression, anxiety, and mortality set to the pulsing rhythm of electronic body music will infuse PORTAL with a mix of the sinister and the sublime.

—Aria Baci

FRIDAY, APRIL 12

Drift City with Elk Hound Nach Bar | 969 Charles Street | Search Facebook | No Cover | 8 p.m.

Singer Jason Rivers and his band Drift City are excited to share their latest release, Sky Unconscious. Even more than that they are stoked to be playing a show with friends Elk Hound at the great local watering hole, Nach Bar.

—Erica Rucker

FRIDAY, APRIL 12

Katt Williams: The Dark Matter Tour

KFC YUM! Center | 1 Arena Plaza | kfcyumcenter.com | $63+ | 8 p.m.

Legendary comedian and Emmy Awardwinning actor Katt Williams makes his Louisville stop on his latest comedy tour with a hilarious new set that has no equal. On April 12, he comes back to the Commonwealth with a blend of head-turning truths and hard-hitting observations that challenge how Americans view one another.

—Caleb Stultz

FRIDAY, APRIL 12

Louisville Folk School Presents: Dawn Landes & Special Guests with Ellie Ruth 21c Museum Hotel | 700 West Main Street | louisvillefolkschool.org | $25 | 7 p.m.

Acclaimed singer/songwriter and Louisville native Dawn Landes has built her reputation as one of music’s best independent singer-songwriters by exploring a wide variety of styles and melding elements of indie rock, alt-country, and folk into her songs. On April 12th, she comes back home to perform songs off her brand new album The Liberated Woman’s Songbook, which reimagines music from the women’s liberation movement from 1830 to 1970. With the repeal of Roe v. Wade, these tales could not be more prescient; women have been fighting for their voices to be heard for centuries, and these messages are just as timely today as they were then - and Landes is the perfect choice to tell these stories.

—Jeff Polk

SATURDAY, APRIL 13

Racing Louisville v. San Diego Wave Lynn Family Stadium | 350 Adams St. | racingloufc.com | $19+ | 7:30 p.m.

It’s opening night at home for Louisville’s premier women’s soccer team on Saturday. Racing Louisville FC finished with the ninth best record (6-9-7) in its third year in the National Women’s Soccer League. The club takes on the San Diego Wave FC, a team that successfully managed the best record in the league last year (11-7-4) including Alex Morgan, the forward most notable for her tenure with the American professional team on the world stage.

—Caleb Stultz

MONDAY, APRIL 15-21

Louisville Taco Week

Various locations | louisvilletacoweek.com | $2.50

Forget tax day, the 15th is the official start of Louisville Taco Week, a holiday worthy of celebration. You’ll have all week to check out participating restaurants offering specialty tacos for $2.50. Some restaurants will offer up to three different taco options. Make sure you download the Louisville Taco Week app in Google Play or the App store for a chance to win prizes.

—Sydney Catinna

SATURDAY, APRIL 18

Eat, Drink, Germantown

Germantown Gables | 986 Swan St. | greatergermantown.com | $45 | 6-10 p.m.

The Greater Germantown Business Association presents the inaugural Eat Drink Germantown culinary showcase celebrating the best of Germantown’s culinary scene and business community. Enjoy food samples from multiple Germantown-area vendors, including Canary Club, Awry Brewing, Merryweather, Monnik Beer Co., Bean Coffee, Perso, and more. Attendees will also have the opportunity to indulge in a selection of Germantown-made beers and cocktails. The event will also feature “The Germantown” cocktail competition presented by Campari. Beginning April 8th, participating vendors will create unique cocktails that customers can vote on as best representing the Germantown neighborhood. The winning cocktail will be announced at Eat Drink Germantown on April 18th and served to attendees.

—Sydney Catinna

TUESDAY, APRIL 16

Louisville Cardinals Baseball v. Kentucky Wildcats

Jim Patterson Stadium | 3015 South 3rd St. | gocards.com | $5+ | 7 p.m.

The in-state rivalry is back between two heavy hitters (no pun intended) as Louisville takes on the juggernaut Kentucky baseball program. The rivals had to postpone its last matchup on Wednesday, April 3 after the game was rained out. The Cardinals return back home to play in (hopefully) clear weather against a Kentucky program that has run through the SEC with relative ease so far this season.

—Caleb Stultz

FRIDAY, APRIL 19

ALICE IN DERBYLAND!

Art Sanctuary | dragdaddy.pro | $20+ | 8 p.m.

A drag show about Derby? Count us in. Join Alice as she arrives in Derbyland just in time for the first Saturday in May. With the help of the Mad Milliner, the FascinateHare and the Churchill Rabbit, the princess faces off against the evil Delta Queen and the Seersucker Cat. Catch one of two performances at Art Sanctuary on the 19th and 21st.

—Sydney Catinna

SATURDAY, APRIL 20

Record Store Day

Various locations | recordstoreday.com | Free | Hours dependent upon store

With the impending closure of Underground Sounds, it’s more important than ever to support our local record stores, and on 4/20, you’ll have good reason to do just that. Now in its 17th year, Record Store Day was created to “celebrate and spread the word about the unique culture” surrounding the independently-owned brickand-mortar record stores worldwide. Hundreds of RSD exclusive releases are planned spanning every genre of music, available in limited quantities and only on Record Store Day. Check out the list of titles at recordstoreday.com and get yourself to any and all of the locally participating record stores: Better Days Records (both locations), Guestroom Records, Matt Anthony’s Record Shop, Modern Cult Records, The Great Escape, and Underground Sounds. —Jeff Polk

LETTERS OF ACCEPTANCE

Band members John Norris and Clint Newman

Talk About Forming The Band, Influences, And Shadow Problems.

BY JEFF POLK

If the feeling of complete contentedness had a soundtrack, it would be the music of Letters of Acceptance. How this Louisville/ Lexington-hybrid four-piece has been able to turn out some of the most well-written, catchiest, world-class power pop tunes for a few years now while remaining under the radar is beyond me. The band - made up of Louisvillian Clint Newman (guitar, vocals), and Lexingtonians John Norris (guitar, vocals), Scott Whiddon (bass), and Tim Welch (drums) - released three EPs over the course of 2023 into 2024: Shadow Problems 1, 2 and 3, respectively. All 15 tracks from the three EPs have been compiled into a single full-length album, Shadow Problems, which is available now as a digital download and as a nine-song vinyl LP, (the LP comes with the full 15-song album on cd as well). LEO recently caught up with John and Clint, and here’s what they had to say. (This interview has been edited for length and clarity)

or another for several years. Clint Newman: My grandmother was a piano teacher and, on rare occasions, would show off by playing “Rhapsody in Blue” from memory or something equally as stunning. That made a big impression. I started taking Suzuki Method piano lessons when I was around 7 or 8 and loved playing by ear, but I could not be bothered to learn to properly read music. Inspired by my discovery of classic rock, I took to guitar quickly around age 15. I wanted to learn to play blues, which I’d say is the foundation of my playing. A few years later I got into major label alt rock which led me to the indie/punk world. Despite playing guitar constantly, I didn’t really start playing in bands until much later when I was living in New York. There I met some great singers/ songwriters in a band called The Mendoza Line who were doing what I wanted to do; combining the noisier indie rock world with committed lyricists like Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello, David Berman, etc.

LEO: Give us a rundown of your musical past. John Norris: I had a very musical family growing up, so there were always guitars, banjos, and dulcimers around the house. My family was very involved in Appalachian folk music, so I would often end up at folk festivals and workshops around the state as a child. At the time I didn’t fully appreciate it and went more towards rock and underground music, but I think a lot of those early experiences have ended up informing what I do now, maybe at a subconscious level. I do realize now that rock songs are just folk songs played loud. Bandwise, I started making little home recordings under the name Harlan in the early 2000’s which eventually became a band that lasted in one form

How did Letters of Acceptance come about?

JN: Clint and I had mutual college friends and then both ended up living in Brooklyn in the early 2000’s, though at slightly different times. When our paths did cross, we’d play music and it always seemed like there was something interesting there. However, we both ended up living in different places and never had a chance to truly collaborate until we both happened to move back to Kentucky around 2016. We worked as a duo for a while, and then Scott Whiddon (bass) and Tim Welch (drums) came on board and that really upped our level musically – they are amazing players and great people to have as part of this experience.

Where do you draw influences from when writing lyrics?

JN: I try not to write words down for a while and just see what comes. They’re usually a series of images and slightly absurd scenarios which are totally inscrutable to me at the time. Then about six months later it’s totally obvious to me what I was writing about. We also collaborate on lyrics, which can be very fun and allows the songs to open up a bit.

CN: My favorite lyrics are the ones you can’t quite get to the bottom of. As an audience I want to be able to return to a song many times and each time have moments where I’m not sure if I’m being led down a dead end or through a door. I don’t think lyrics are poetry but I like reading poetry as inspiration for lyric writing. What was behind the decision to do the three Shadow Problems

EPs in one year?

JN: It was not any kind of predetermined plan. We just were having a lot of fun recording with Scott and Tim for the first time at a great studio, (Otto Helmuth engineered the record at his Lexington studio). Then we suddenly had fifteen songs. That’s when we decided to put five songs out at a time digitally, and then wrap the whole thing up by picking some of our favorites to go on a record.

What Letters of Acceptance song are you most proud of, and why?

At different times, you’ve both moved away from Kentucky, then moved back. What took you away from the state, and what brought you back?

CN: I left KY for New York to study acting. Gradually music took over the acting. I was there almost 15 years - 10 of those with my wife, who is from Louisville. Practically all our family is here and we never wanted to spend the rest of our lives in NY, so when a long-term job ended we made the jump back to KY.

JN: For me, I moved around the south a lot for art school and then various teaching gigs at universities. I finally came back when I started teaching art at the University of Kentucky.

JN: I currently like “I Do Not Care / Sound Control Is Mind Control” – in part because it’s just a weirdo two-part song that morphs from a fast krautrock thing into a slow psychedelic ballad. But I also like the story it seems to tell. It begins as a dark portrait of a character that’s fallen into a world of bitterness and conspiracies, and then in the second part it reveals some of the pain and the backstory that’s underneath all that darkness. The way the lyrics and the song structure mirror each other was a satisfying discovery.

CN: I think I’m with John - that’s my favorite right now for all the same reasons. But to be slightly selfish I’ll say I’m pretty happy with “Let Go Disaster”. It grooves, has a big chorus, slippery chord changes, a fake alt country bridge, etc. You can find out more about the band and order their latest album, Shadow Problems, on their website: lettersofacceptance.org

LOA Burl

Photo submitted by band

LISTEN LOCAL: NEW LOUISVILLE

MUSIC BY JEFF POLK

Ben Fugate & The Burning Trash Band

Ben Fugate & The Burning Trash Band - EP

The first thing you notice as soon as opening track “Dream Song #1” begins playing is that this isn’t your typical run-of-the-mill, boring, pop-country dreck that dominates the country music airwaves and charts. This is the realdeal honky-tonk, traditional country music straight out of the Appalachian Mountains. But don’t let Hazard, KY, native Ben Fugate’s youthful appearance fool you, this is a man who writes, plays, and sings his songs with all the heart and soul of a seasoned country music veteran — bringing to mind legends like Hank Williams, George Jones, Joe Diffie, Keith Whitley, Travis Tritt, and Charlie Daniels, (all influences of Fugate). Backed by The Burning Trash Band — a group of extremely talented musician and songwriters - Fugate and company are a throwback to the days when country music was about more than image, while also bringing a southern rock feel and vibe to their sound. After amassing a large following on Tik Tok and Spotify, Fugate was signed to sonaBLAST! Records here in Louisville in 2021. Label founder Gill Holland brought Fugate and his band to Louisville to work with Anne Gauthier at La La Land Studios, whose production work I have raved about many times in the past, resulting in 8-songs of pure, true, real country music.

Catch the band at the album release show Thursday, April 11th at The Monarch, 1318 Bardstown Rd., at 8 p.m. Tim DeLonjay & The Level Ride open. Free, but donations are appreciated.

linktr.ee/burningtrash

Chenille oKeel

“Knuckle Sandwich (Barry and the Baseball Glove)” / “Magical Fish” - singles

If you’re one of the many thousands of Spotify listeners who’ve heard any of oKeel’s previous releases, then you might think you know what to expect here. And you’re right… but you’re wrong. I’ll explain: oKeel’s music has always been heavily rooted in 1980’s British new wave synth-pop, but with modern day EDM and trip hop influences that create lush, danceable soundscapes. But for his latest two new tracks, oKeel has stripped down his sound a bit. And by a bit, I mean a lot. If you’ve ever listened to his music and thought, “He really needs more ukulele,” you’re in luck! Gone are the synth and EDM beats — this is just straight up ukulele and vocals, Tiny-Tim-style. However, that ukulele is backing oKeel’s distinctively unique, wonderfully strange vocals and his somewhat off-the-wall but thoughtful and introspective lyrics. Put that together and what you get are two sweet, fun, and oddly charming songs. Honestly, this shouldn’t work; yet oKeel has a certain charisma that comes through in his music — a sense of self-awareness and enough of a “I’m being serious, but I’m not being serious” goofiness to his style of vocals that make him extremely likable, all of which come through in spades on these two tracks. With oKeel, you have to check your expectations at the door, close your eyes, and trust that he is going to take you on a weird, wonderful ride.

cchaga.bandcamp.com

FuriousFloyd

The Invincible Spit Kicker 3 - album

Rappers who come out slinging lyrics about how hard they are, how much money they have, and how many girls they get are a dime a dozen. The same can also be said about pop rappers with corny lyrics about nothing. But rappers who can look deep within themselves, at the world around them, and present the listener with the good, the bad, and the ugly through an unflinching eye, those are the diamonds in the rough that truly shine brighter than the rest. FuriousFloyd is firmly planted in that latter class of rappers. His latest album, the aptly titled, The Invincible Spit Kicker 3, is an 11-song journey through his life and his world as seen through his eyes and experiences, and the results are staggering. A Long Island, NY native but a Louisvillian since 2014, Floyd isn’t new to the rap game by any means, but he brings a level of wisdom, honesty, positive outlook, and raw authenticity to his lyrics that cannot be faked, only learned through years of living through it all. And, Floyd is an amazing storyteller; painting vivid pictures for the listener throughout each these tracks. Each lyric meticulously sharp and pointed, leaving no doubt where he stands and where he’s taking you. And with his boom bap style of hip hop, Floyd hits hard — his flow taking center stage, bringing to mind legends like Wu-Tang Clan, KRS-One, and Mobb Deep. He is currently giving the download of the full album away for free on his label’s website, so there is no reason why you shouldn’t be listening right now.

bkr8v.com

High Commander

The Melody Industrial Complex - album

Describing your band as “a very low rent jazz group from the Dixie Highway side of South Louisville,” is certainly a great way to grab my attention. The thing is though — there is nothing low rent about this band. These are some seriously talented musicians who bring an amazing amount of originality and complex songwriting skills to their music. Self-described as “a unique style of South Louisville trap jazz,” High Commander combine bebop, funk, lounge, and bluegrass with elements of hip hop, rock, punk and ska for a sound they’ve dubbed “Economy Music,” going on to say; “With High Commander you get the basics flavors of almost every genre, but nothing extra.” It’s not surprising to learn that most of the band cut their teeth in the hardcore, metal and punk scenes here in Louisville before gravitating towards jazz, as they play it with such vigor and energy that you can help but get excited while listening to these guys jam. This album is a blast to listen to, and is one of those few records that as soon as it was over, I couldn’t wait to play through the whole thing again. Formed in 2019, The Melody Industrial.

Complex is already the band’s third full length album and is set to be released on April 20th. High Commander is proof that while the chances of a mosh pit happening at a jazz show are extremely low, they’re never zero.

highcommander.bandcamp.com

FUN, MUSIC, AND FIVE LOCAL EATERIES AT THE VILLAGE MARKET

BY ROBIN GARR

Here’s the thing you should probably understand about the five restaurants that line the walls of cavernous Village Market in Paristown: This is a place to have fun and grab a bite and a drink and enjoy music, and that’s a good thing.

Just don’t expect a destination dining experience. That’s my conclusion after a Saturday visit and stops for a bite at each of

why there wasn’t a squadron of LMPD cruisers lined up waiting for a stereotypical snack. The tiny Paristown neighborhood borders Germantown and the Highlands two miles east of downtown Louisville. It got a new look in recent years as an evolving arts and culture hub anchored by historic Louisville Stoneware and the old Louisville Leather Co. Tannery building (now home to The

the five eateries and a long look at its extensive bar.

Our dishes from the side-by-side stands housing Bunz Burgers, Banditz Pizza, Noche Mexican BBQ, and Sarap Filipino Eatery rose to the level of pretty good in a local fastfood kind of way. Well, we might need to talk about that taco, Noche.

What’s more, a couple of oversize donuts from Jeff’s Donut on the other side of the hall were so good that I can’t understand

Café) and the new Old Forester Paristown Hall, a 28,000 square foot performing arts venue.

Still in the planning stages is a $183 million proposal by Paristown Preservation Trust to convert the old Urban Government Center property nearby as apartments, offices, a boutique hotel, and more. (LEO Weekly, March 23, 2022)

The Village Market, a modern food hall and bar, joined the mix last autumn.

Bunz Burgers

Bunz, a fixture on the Baxter Avenue nightlife strip since 2009, moved over to The Village last year. Its menu features 10 burger combinations and another half-dozen sandwiches. I went with The Californian ($11), with the veggie burger upgrade (50 cents).

The hefty plant-based patty looked like the Dr. Praeger’s brand, a genuinely vegetable burger made with a dozen different veggies processed into a burger-like patty. It shared a golden, fluffy bun with a slice of swiss cheese, pale tomato, and schmears of guacamole and mayo that tasted great but made for a slippery sandwich that kept losing its parts.

Banditz Pizza

The z on the end of Banditz’ name may or may not signal a corporate connection, but this outfit and Bunz Burger appear to share the same point-of-sale system and staff. The simple menu includes five specialty pizza choices and two build-your-own options. It is the only one of Village Market’s five eateries that includes prices on the online menu: The pizzas are $14 for small, $18 for large; a dollar less for the veggie or the margherita pie.

I tried a mall Margherita pizza ($13) and was rewarded with a still sizable oval flatbread topped with the traditional mozzarella, snipped fresh basil, and wan winter tomato slices reflecting the white, red, and green colors of the Italian flag. The crust has already developed a cult following for its solid construction that’s lovably crisp on the surface yet light and soft within. Gently spicy tomato sauce was a plus, as were rounds of melted fresh bocconcini mozzarella.

Sarap Filipino Eatery

“Sarap” means “delicious” in Tagalog, the language of the Philippines, and Sarap Filipino Eatery’s menu holds promise. I’d like to come back and try the pancit noodle dish, chicken adobo, or even the silog brunch plate on weekends. This time, though, we went with a single lumpia ($3), the trademark Filipino egg roll. Long and skinny, a golden-brown fried pastry tube resembling a cigar but clearly more edible, it was filled with a simple mix of crumbled ground beef and noodles.

Noche Mexican BBQ

I’ve enjoyed dinner at Noche Mexican BBQ’S sit-down eatery in the old Calvary Lutheran Church building on Bardstown Road, but our choice, from Noche’s more concise Village Market menu – a $5.99 smoked brisket taco – wasn’t up to that mark.

Left: The California burger from Bunz Burger in The Village Market Food Hall, comes with a slice of Swiss on a golden bun slathered with just enough guacamole and mayo to make it a slippery experience.

All Photos by Robin Garr

Right: Banditz Pizza’s margherita pie is built on an oval base of fresh, crisp flatbread and topped with the traditional tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil.

A single lumpia from Sarap Filipino Eatery, a crunchy long pastry roll filled with beef and veggies.

The Village Market Food Hall & Bar

712 Brent St.

No published phone number

villagemarketfoodhall.com

facebook.com/TheVillageMarketFoodHall

instagram.com/villagemarketfoodhall

A large flour taco was spread on a brownpaper-lined tray, loaded with a ladle full of beef chunks and broth lifted from a simmering pot, topped with chopped tomatoes, pepppers, red onions, and cilantro, and finished with a drizzle of spicy avocado crema, and served with lime wedges and salsa verde on the side. The soupy topping made this a knife-and-fork taco. It was a generous portion, but the meat was disappointing at best. It was almost entirely chewy translucent fat, holding together just a few tiny shreds of beef.

Jeff’s Donuts

Dessert? Yes, please! Jeff’s Donuts, the sixth unit in a local chain that started in

Jeffersonville, Indiana, creates donuts to compete with Louisville’s best. A chocolate-topped glazed donut and a cinnamon twist ($2.50 each) were both light, and fluffy, and huge. Not to mention perfectly fresh and just about as good as donuts get.

Noise Level: The combination of loud music and a happy crowd can make this large hall difficult for conversation when the roar hits a peak.

Accessibility: A step bars independent wheelchair access to the door closest to Brent Street, but wheelchair users may navigate a longer route through an outdoor seating area to a level side door.

Robin Garr

Top: Drenched with juices, birria-style, Noche’s brisket taco is big and filling, though the beef’s high fat-to-meat ratio left us less than satisfied.

Bottom: Oversize, light and fresh pastries from Jeff’s Donut were a highlight off the Village Market experience.

DO NOT EXPECT TOO MUCH FROM THE END OF THE WORLD

Endtimes are upon us, so says Romanian Cinema.

BY TRACY HEIGHTCHEW

Cinema as an art form is only 130 years old, and has seen a long list of threats to its existence over that time. The change from silent film to talkies, the end of the studio system, the influx of television, and then home gaming, — all of these changes ended much loved eras and opened the door to new paths forward. Now, deep into our worldwide shift to smartphones, film exists in a fractured state, outside of the usual gate kept avenues.

woman on the streets of Bucharest film. Get in the passenger seat with Angela (Ilinca Manolache), a tough, hard-working, and exhausted production assistant, inexplicably draped in a sequin party dress as she drives from one end of town to the other.  In service to a nameless multi-national company, she interviews disabled workers in their homes as they recount the workplace accidents that landed them in dire straits. She needs

Are Instagram reels film? Is watching a manic creator spout off on a tiny screen in bed cinema? If, as T.S. Eliot wrote, the world ends in a whimper, will it be on TikTok? Romanian director Radu Jude seems to think so.

Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World

April 19-21

Speed Art Museum, 2035 S. 3rd Street $12 / $8 for Speed Members

Ilinca

in

Not Expect Too Much From the End

Taking his title from Holocaust survivor and Polish poet Stanislaw Jerzy Lec’s work, Jude follows up his COVID-era sleeper film “Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn” with another

to find the right person to star in an industrial film that will erase company responsibility and instead lay blame on the hurt workers themselves.

A truth-teller being paid (late) to create big business propaganda, Angela expresses her opinions about billionaires and dictators to these strangers, building trust with them and with us, the audience. But we come to sideeye that trust when we meet Bobita, Angela’s TikTok alter ego, a grotesque wannabe manfluencer created with a snapchat filter who spouts Andrew Tate nonsense.

Though all these flitting hummingbird moments with ideas and opinions provide a rich text, the vast majority of the film is spent watching Angela drive the busy, packed

streets of Bucharest. As she fights and cusses her fellow aggressive drivers, Jude intercuts her scenes with slowed down sequences from a 1981 film “Angela Goes On,” starring Dorina Lazar. Created under the censoring eye of Nicolae Ceausescu, the earlier film focuses on a woman taxi driver cruising these same streets. But the exhaustion that overtakes present day Angela is nowhere in the earlier film, and the 1981 Angela is instead looking for love in manageable traffic. Present day Angela barely manages a quickie with her lover, much less has the time to pursue a new love object. It is this look back at the earlier movie that gives this film its greatest achievement. Angela meets an older woman, also named Angela, who is played by Dorina Lazar, the lead actress in the earlier film. “Angela Goes On” becomes a true story, the fruits of her romantic life now fading out, and the Angelas compare their lives as drivers and feminists. This sequence is a beautiful collage bringing the two films together, playing with form to create something new and deeper than the pieces are capable of creating alone.

Director Jude spends nearly three hours of this long, long film playing with form. He is in conversation with cinema history, referencing well known film titans like JeanLuc Goddard, Michelangelo Antonioni and Chantel Ankerman, as well as lesser known (at least outside of Europe) talents like Angela Ricci Lucchi. It also brings to mind contemporary films that experiment with form and social media personalities such as “Dashcam,” “We’re All Going to the World’s Fair” and “Zola.”  Whereas Angela’s present day life is shot on grainy black and white, scenes that are mediated through a screen, such as Bobita’s misogynistic rants, cabbie Angela’s journey, or the 40 minute industry film shoot that ends the film, are in color. In another film, that black and white photography would lean into miserablism, but Angela is our guide not through misery, but through hyper realistic absurdity. Whether it is talking through the problems of self-driving cars with a descendant of Goethe, or defending one’s vile unibrowed alter ego to one’s own mother, this film trades in the kind of absurdity that calls for us to recognize just how ridiculous it is that we are grinding ourselves into the ground, and for what?

Manolache

“Do

of the World”

Courtesy of Speed Cinema

KMAC COUTURE CONTINUES CONNECTING FASHION AND ART

LEO Talks With Four Creators In The Show

BY ERICA RUCKER AND ARIA BACI

Cynthia Norton

“Honey Biscuit Derby Dress” Wedding Dress

For KMAC Couture

2024, multidisciplinary artist Cynthia Norton designed a wedding dress that evokes the Kentucky Derby through a lens of Southern culinary culture by using flour packages designed to contain biscuit mix produced by Weisenberger Mills.

Weisenberger Mill, located on South Elkhorn Creek in southern Scott County, opened in 1865 — 10 years before the first Kentucky Derby. Nortons explains that the mill has been providing a local source of fresh biscuit mix during Derby and other domestic celebrations for 160 years. Inspired by the mill’s place in Kentucky’s history, Norton designed her wedding gown with flower sacks as adornment to the blousing fabric, offering “a conceptual filigree, a kind of drop biscuit, honey-golden, silhouette.”

A live band will escort “Honey Biscuit Derby Dress” down the runway. As an accessory to the garment, Norton is crafting an instrument made of biscuit mix. This sculptural detail recalls one

of Norton’s first solo exhibitions, which incorporated bread instruments, kinetic sculptures of bread hair, and Depression-era images of advertisements for bread.

The central metaphor of sustenance and concepts of “extender-based economics” in the Depression-era South inspired Norton’s MFA thesis exhibition in 1995 and have stayed with her throughout her artistic career. The folkloric and the historic will be on display in her entry into KMAC Couture 2024.

—Aria Baci

Deji Lasisi

Balancing Haute Couture Fashion with Engineering

Full-time engineer and KMAC board member

Deji Lasisi says “My dress this year embodies the essence of horses, roses, excitement, glamor, and class. It’s a celebration of tradition and elegance fused with the thrill of the race day atmosphere.”

As he designs his garment, Lasi merges two

KMAC Couture has become a staple in the weeks leading to the Kentucky Derby. It’s an event that elevates Louisville’s art scene with a good dose of fashion. The fundraiser event for KMAC Contemporary Art Museum is in its 12th year and its popularity has grown. It is one of the events that locals, in particular, look to before the official Derby kick-off.

KMAC Couture is a “wearable live art runway show.” The show features artists at all career stages from emerging to established. As well costumers, designers, and milliners show off their talents in this wonderful display of creativity and concept.

This year, KMAC Couture happens on Saturday, April 13. The show starts at 7:15 p.m. beginning with a cocktail reception, followed by the runway show and then the after party… and what an after party it is! Tickets can be purchased through the portal at kmacmuseum.org. This year, LEO wanted to highlight a few of the artists who are participating in KMAC Couture. The artists from different careers, and different stages as artists; and are participating in the KMAC show for different reasons. For some, it is a way to connect with lost loved ones, or with pasts that have moved on. One thing is for certain, this year’s runway will be as special and spectacular as ever.

aspects of his creative style. “Leveraging my analytical mind as an engineer, I meticulously consider spatial aspects and motion, ensuring the flow of my dresses while maintaining an inherent simplicity.” Each fold, curve, and embellishment is calculated to harmonize with the model’s movement as well as with the overall aesthetic of the piece.

Lasisi says he also channels his inner artist in the hope that it will keep his art abstract enough for each viewer to interpret it in their own way. “I believe that art should evoke emotion and stimulate conversation,” he says. “Some of my most cherished moments during the event are the diverse conversations sparked by the interpretations of my work.”

His creative process begins with sketching and painting, followed by material selection, with a consideration of texture, drape, and ability to “bring my envisioned geometry and motion to life.” For Lasisi, the process often involves experimentation, “pushing the boundaries of traditional materials to achieve innovative effects.” He approaches sewing with a consideration of

physics, particularly for his intricate 3D designs. Each stitch is strategically placed to enhance not only the structure of the garment, but also, the movement of the garment, in an effort to ensure that form and function are integrated.

Over the past eight years of KMAC Couture, Lasisi’s designs have explored a wide array of materials, from feathers and Yorùbá Ashoké (Nigerian hand-woven fabric), to LED light, stained glass, cowries, beads, and wiring. “With each success, I’ve become more courageous in exploring new fabric manipulation techniques, pushing the limits of creativity and craftsmanship to create wearable art that captivates and inspires.”

—Aria Baci

Lilli Hale

“Spinning a Different Derby”

16-year-old Lilie Hale is a student at Francis Parker, a private, progressive independent school. This year she is participating in KMAC couture for the second time. She participated previously in 2023 with a friend. The theme for the show is Kentucky Derby and she wanted to do something different.

“This year I wanted to put a fun spin on the Derby,” Hale told LEO via email. “The Derby has never been something that has been a huge deal in my family so coming up with a design that resonated with me took a bit, but I knew I wanted to do something different than everyone else, expecting a lot of designs based on roses or old fashion pieces, so I took inspiration from the whimsicalness of a carousel.”

Hale, who studies art with another local visual artist, painter Skylar Smith, is creating her piece for KMAC from traditional and non-traditional means.

“I am working with different fabrics in my piece, but the material that stands out the most

is the toy horses hanging from the skirt.”

Hale prefers textile work including sewing and crocheting but said painting and sketching are also enjoyable in her free time.

She lets her work direct the projects she does and how she executes.

I’ve always had a passion for art, doodling in school, and drawing whenever I could. Art really became important to me through my grandmother, who taught me how to sew, and was my biggest fan when it came to art. After her passing my biggest goal through my work is to create something that I know she would have loved to be a part of.”

Amanda Von Kannel “Creating in Spirit”

And so whenever I was coming up with a design, she helped me a lot with her opinions, and techniques that I should use. And, she was hoping to get to come because she’s like, ‘okay, when is it? It’s April. Okay, I can do that.’ Because she had brain cancer — glioblastoma — she didn’t make it, but she made it to the opening party.”

The design for Von Kannel’s dress pays homage to the Woodford Bottle.

—Erica Rucker

Amanda Von Kannel teaches at Liberty High School, a Big Picture school that helps give students additional resources that help them build success at their current grade level and for their advancement into higher grades. She’s been working on her KMAC Couture project for several months with input from her mother. Just a few weeks ago, her mother passed away from a glioblastoma, an aggressive brain tumor. It was her mother, along with her grandmother that taught Von Kannel how to sew. For many, such a life-changing event might derail a big project.

But, Von Kannel is moving forward with her project knowing that it meant a lot to her mother, who helped her with the design and was able to attend the opening event. Now, working on and finishing the project gives her a sense of peace and purpose.

“It’s pretty important for me to do because my mom just passed away, and she’s the one that taught me how to sew — her and my grandma taught me how to sew,” said Von Kannel. “She helped me make all my costumes, and all kinds of dresses ever since I was in high school.

“My dress is a nod to the Woodford bottle, with the mint juleps, and things like that,” she said. “My hat is like more of a nod to a mint julep and my dress, at least the silhouettes, it’s kind of like a Woodford bottle. And then, of course, I’m incorporating roses with the programs of the races, which I love because that’s how I pick my horses by getting a program.”

Each year, Von Kannel creates her own Derby hat or fascinator and loves the event. To obtain the racing programs, she asked the track for a donation. With these programs, she is making roses that she will incorporate into her design.

As a teacher, having her students see her progress and how she is creating is giving them some inspiration. She’s had students who participated in the event in previous years but this is her first KMAC Couture.

“During Covid stuff, they had a KMAC Couture field trip, a virtual field trip. I’d seen it. I was like, ‘Oh, this is awesome.’ I was doing it with my students, but while watching it, I’m like, ‘I wanna do this. I wanna do this.’ That’s kind of how it all started.” —Erica Rucker

KMAC Couture highlights creatives in the city and beyond. It is more than an art show, more than fashion. It can be a transformative experience for the audience and certainly for the artists. If you’ve never been, mark your calendars for next year and if you’d like to create for the show, keep your eyes on the kmacmuseum. org website.

Opposite page: KMAC couture stage Clay Cook Honey Biscuit Derby Dress by Cynthia Norton Courtesy Photo

Deji Lasisi (still from KMAC Couture video)

Lillie Hale and Work In Progress garment from Lillie Hale Courtesy Photos

WHAT TO SEE: A ROUNDUP OF LOCAL GALLERIES

BY JO ANNE TRIPLETT

A gallery roundup of art shows to see in Louisville this month.

Note: This list is a selection of current exhibitions.

H20

Through August

Art featuring water.

This We Believe

Through December

Art that considers the costs and consequences of allegiance.

21c Louisville

700 W. Main St. Hours: Mondays-Sundays, 9 a.m.-9 p.m. 21cmuseumhotels.com

Fancy Feathers, Murderous Millinery

April 11-May 11

Group show of original outrageous Derby hat designs

Art Portal

1512 Portland Ave.

Hours: Mondays-Fridays, 8 a.m.-5 p.m.; Saturdays, 9 a.m.-2 p.m. portal-louisville.com

Errata Regatta

Through April 21

New work by Rich Merwarth focusing on the existential challenges we confront in today’s world.

Intersections & Places Between

Through April 21

Solo show by Ashley Brossart on how architecture and the natural world relate.

Aurora Gallery & Boutique

1264 S. Shelby St. Hours: Thursdays-Saturdays, noon-8 p.m.; Sundays, 12-7 p.m. auroragallerylouisville.com

Down To The Crossroads: Images

From The Mississippi Delta

Through May 11

Photography by David Modica.

Beaver Street Gallery, Harrison County Arts

113 E. Beaver St., Corydon, Indiana

Hours: Wednesdays-Saturdays, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. harrisoncountyarts.org

Rituals And Totems

Through May 7

Two solo shows by Larry Beisler and Beatrice Guarneschelle-Holt.

Bourne-Schweitzer Gallery

137 E. Main St., New Albany, Indiana Hours: Thursdays-Fridays, noon-5 p.m.; Saturdays, 1-3 p.m. bourne-schweitzergallery.com

Spheres Collide

Through April 21

Recent work by Sam Parker.

Capacity Contemporary Exchange

641 W. Main St. Hours: WednesdaysThursdays, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.; Fridays, 12-8 p.m.; Saturdays-Sundays, 12-4 p.m. capacitycontemporary.com

Mark Hengartner

April 11-May 4

Solo show of paintings.

Chestnuts and Pearls

157 E. Main St., New Albany, Indiana Hours: Thursdays-Fridays, 12-4 p.m.; Saturdays, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.; Sundays, 12-4 p.m. chestnutsandpearls.com

New Albany Floyd County Secondary Schools Art Show & Competition

Through April 20

Annual art competition from grades 5-12. Floyd County Library Cultural Arts Center (formerly the Carnegie Center for Art & History)

201 E. Spring St., New Albany, Indiana

Hours: Mondays-Thursdays, 10 a.m.-7 p.m.; Fridays and Saturdays, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. carnegiecenter.org

Derby 150

Through June

The latest Derby-themed art by the gallery’s artists.

Kentucky Fine Art Gallery

2400-C Lime Kiln Lane

Hours: Tuesdays-Fridays, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Saturdays, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. kentuckyfineartgallery.com

Clay Cook X Anchal: Stitched In Strength

Through May 19

Solo photography exhibition by Clay Cook featuring behind-the-scenes shots of the brand Anchal.

Wild In The Streets

Through May 19

Show using streets and other outdoor spaces as the canvas, stage or subject.

KMAC Museum

715 W. Main St. Hours: Wednesdays-Sundays, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. kmacmuseum.org

2024 Art In City Hall

Through January

Group show with art by five artists: Brian Bailey, Adam Barmore, Uhma Janus, Humberto Lahera and Barry Motes.

Louisville City Hall

601 W. Jefferson St. Hours: Mondays-Fridays 8 a.m.-5 p.m. louisvilleky.gov

Be Careful Out There

Through May 11

Solo show by Ceirra Evans.

Moremen Gallery

710 W. Main St., Suite 201

Hours: Thursdays-Saturdays, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. moremengallery.com

Shining A Light: Women In Sports

Through Jan. 20

A special photography exhibition on women in sports that’s associated with the United Nations Sustainability Goals on gender equity.

Muhammad Ali Center

144 N. 6th St. Hours: Wednesdays-Sundays, 12-5 p.m. alicenter.org

Looky/Hear

Through April 12

Show featuring work spanning Tad DeSanto’s career.

Outsider Art Museum and Gallery

2510 Portland Ave. Hours: ThursdaysSaturdays, noon-6 p.m. outsiderartky.com

Recent Acquisitions 2024

Through May 31

Paul Paletti’s latest photography purchases.

Paul Paletti Gallery

713 E. Market St.

Hours: Mondays-Fridays, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. paulpalettigallery.com

Guess What?

Through April 28

PYRO’s annual invitational exhibition featuring 36 artists. The closing reception is Sunday, April 28 from 1-4 p.m.

PYRO Gallery

1006 E. Washington St. Hours: FridaysSaturdays, noon-6 p.m.; Sundays 1-4 p.m. pyrogallery.com

India: South Asian Paintings From The San Diego Museum Of Art

Through May 12

First major exhibition of South Asian art the Speed Art Museum has displayed.

Speed Art Museum

2035 S. Third St. Hours: Fridays, 1-8 p.m.; Saturdays-Sundays, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. speedmuseum.org

Both/And

Through May 11

Art by identical twins Matthew and Mitchell Bradley.

WheelHouse Art

2650 Frankfort Ave. Hours: Tuesdays-Fridays, 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m.; Saturdays, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. wheelhouse.art

David Modica is showing at Harrison County Arts’ Beaver Street Gallery in April.

Photo by David Modica

Newsletter.FreeWillAstrology.com

freewillastrology@freewillastrology.com

BrezsnyAstrology@gmail.com

FREE WILL ASTROLOGY

Week of March 13

ROB BREZSNY

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Now is a favorable time to make initial inquiries, ask for free samples, and enjoy window shopping. But it’s not an opportune time to seal final decisions or sign binding contracts. Have fun haggling and exploring, even as you avoid making permanent promises. Follow the inklings of your heart more than the speculations of your head, but refrain from pledging your heart until lots of evidence is available. You are in a prime position to attract and consider an array of possibilities, and for best results you should remain noncommittal for the foreseeable future.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Author Betty Bender said, “Anything I’ve ever done that ultimately was worthwhile initially scared me to death.” Painter Georgia O’Keeffe confessed she always harbored chronic anxiety—yet that never stopped her from doing what she loved. Philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Anyone who is not everyday conquering some fear has not learned the secret of life.” I hope these testimonials inspire you to bolster your grit, Taurus. In the coming days, you may not have any more or less fear than usual. But you will be able to summon extra courage and willpower as you render the fear at least semi-irrelevant.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Richard the Lionheart (1157–1199) was a medieval king of England. How did he get his nickname? Scholars say it was because of his skill as a military leader. But legend tells an additional story. As a young man, Richard was imprisoned by an enemy who arranged for a hungry lion to be brought into his cell. As the beast opened its maw to maul the future king, Richard thrust his arm down its throat and tore out its heart, killing it. What does this tale have to do with you, Gemini? I predict you will soon encounter a test that’s less extreme than Richard’s but equally solvable by bursts of creative ingenuity. Though there will be no physical danger, you will be wise to call on similar boldness. Drawing on the element of surprise may also serve you well.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Will the adventures heading your way be unusual, amusing, and even unprecedented? I bet they will have at least some of those elements. You could encounter plot twists you’ve never witnessed or imagined. You may be inspired to dream up creative adjustments unlike any you’ve tried. These would be very positive developments. They suggest you’re becoming more comfortable with expressing your authentic self and less susceptible to the influence of people’s

expectations. Every one of us is a unique genius in some ways, and you’re getting closer to inhabiting the fullness of yours.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): At least for now, help may not be available from the usual sources. Is the doctor sick? Does mommy need mothering? Is the therapist feeling depressed? My advice is to not worry anout the deficiencies, but rather shift your attention to skillful surrogates and substitutes. They may give you what you need—and even more. I’m reminded of The Crystal Cave, a novel about the Arthurian legend. The king, Ambrosius Aurelianus, advises the magician Merlin, “Take power where it is offered.” In other words: not where you think or wish power would be, but from sources that are unexpected or outside your customary parameters.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): The rest of the story is not yet ready to emerge, but it will be soon. Be patient just a while longer. When full disclosure arrives, you will no longer have to guess about hidden agendas and simmering subtexts. Adventures in the underworld will move above ground. Missing links will finally appear, and perplexing ambiguities will be clarified. Here’s how you can expedite these developments: Make sure you are thoroughly receptive to knowing the rest of the story. Assert your strong desire to dissolve ignorance.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): In the coming weeks, you can ask for and receive more blessings than usual. So please be aggressive and imaginative about asking! Here are suggestions about what gifts to seek out: 1. vigorous support as you transform two oppositional forces into complementary influences; 2. extra money, time, and spaciousness as you convert a drawback into an asset; 3. kindness and understanding as you ripen an unripe aspect of yourself; 4. inspiration and advice as you make new connections that will serve your future goals.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Read the two help-wanted ads below. Meditate on which appeals to you more, and treat this choice as a metaphor for a personal decision you face. 1. “Pedestrian, predictable organization seeks humdrum people with low-grade ambitions for tasks that perform marginally useful services. Interested in exploring mild passions and learning more about the art of spiritual bypassing?” 2. “Our high-octane conclave values the arts of playing while you work and working while you play. Are you ready and able to provide your creative input? Are

you interested in exploring the privilege and responsibility of forever reinventing yourself? We love restless seekers who are never bored.”

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): What is a gourmet bargain? What is a discount marvel? How about an inspiring breakthrough that incurs no debt? Themes like those are weaving their way into your destiny. So be alert for the likelihood that cheap thrills will be superior to the expensive kind. Search for elegance and beauty in earthy locations that aren’t sleek and polished. Be receptive to the possibility that splendor and awe may be available to you at a low cost. Now may be one of those rare times when imperfect things are more sublime than the so-called perfect stuff.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): “There is always one moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in,” wrote novelist Graham Greene. For me, it was three days near the end of third grade when I wrote a fairy tale about the unruly adventures of a fictional kid named Polly. Her wildness was infused with kindness. Her rebellions were assertive but friendly. For the first time, as I told Polly’s story, I realized I wanted to be an unconventional writer when I grew up. What about you, Capricorn? When you were young, was there a comparable opening to your future? If so, now is a good phase to revisit it, commune with your memories of it, and invite it to inspire the next stage of its evolution in you.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Even when you are your regular, ordinary self, you have a knack and fondness for irregularity and originality. And these days, your affinity for what’s unprecedented and uncommon is even higher than usual. I am happy about that. I am cheering you on. So please enjoy yourself profoundly as you experiment with nonstandard approaches. Be as idiosyncratic as you dare! Even downright weird! But also try to avoid direct conflicts with the Guardians of How Things Have Always Been Done. Don’t allow Change Haters to interfere with your fun or obstruct the enhancements you want to instigate. Be a slippery innovator. Be an irrepressible instigator.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Below are truths I hope you will ripen and deepen in the coming months. 1. Negative feelings are not necessarily truer and more profound than positive ones. 2. Cynical opinions are not automatically more intelligent or well-founded than optimistic opinions. 3. Criticizing and berating yourself is not a more robust sign of self-awareness than praising and appreciating yourself. 4. Any paranoia you feel may be a stunted emotion resulting from psychic skills you have neglected to develop. 5. Agitation and anxiety can almost always be converted into creative energy.

Homework: What’s your best method for dissolving bad habits? Tell me so I can benefit from your wisdom!

Hey Dan: I’m a woman in a new polyamorous relationship with a man who has a five-year-old daughter. He and his ex-partner split up about a year ago and until two weeks ago, his ex wasn’t allowing him to see his child. However, once she learned of my existence, she suddenly changed her mind. I believe she’s letting him see his child now because she thinks this will drive a wedge between us. In reality, we’re both over the moon that he’s reconnecting with his daughter. Now here’s where I am going to ask for advice. My new boyfriend has recently begun exploring polyamory, and his ex doesn’t know I’m not the only woman he’s seeing. He’s not yet publicly out with the new woman, as it’s a recent thing, whereas we’ve been together more than six months. However, all three of us are getting along very well, and people in our social dance scene have started noticing. This dance scene is where his ex learned about me. Do you think that it’s safe for us to be open about his other relationship? Or do you think his ex will get angry and jealous that he’s enjoying life to the fullest and cut off contract with his daughter again?

–Regarding A Vengeful Ex

“For seventeen years, I’ve represented clients in child custody cases throughout New York State where being polyamorous — or kinky or a sex worker or frequenting sex workers or other issues of personal sexuality — is being used against a client,” said Diana Adams, Executive Director of Chosen Family Law Center. “And whether it’s safe to be openly polyamorous when you share custody with an ex who could potentially take you to court and bring it up in a child custody case sadly depends on your zip code.”

This is going to seem crazy, FAVE, but that’s because it is crazy: Before making the obvious move here — before your boyfriend lawyers up and takes his ex to court to secure his parental rights and responsibilities (he is making child support payments, right?) — you’re gonna need to look the results of the last three or four local elections.

“The best indicator of success is how conservative the area is, which is an indicator of how open-minded or conservative the judge, social workers, and other appointed professionals will be in evaluating by the subjective standard of ‘the best interests of the child,’” said Adams. “We don’t yet have much protection from discrimination based on polyamory or other relationship statuses — which is precisely why I’m engaged in advocacy for relationship and family structure non-discrimination laws.”

The kind of non-discrimination statutes advocated by Adams — which have already been made law in two east coast cities and they’ve currently moving through city councils in two west coast cities — would bar conservative

judges and social workers from discriminate against people practicing polyamory. But if you aren’t lucky enough to live in one of the two cities where these laws are already in force, the passage of these laws and the debate around them where they’ve yet to pass could benefit your boyfriend and his daughter in the long run.

“These nondiscrimination laws don’t just make it unlawful to discriminate in those jurisdictions,” said Adams, “they influence public thought and make discrimination elsewhere less acceptable as well.”

As for the short run — as for whether it’s safe for your boyfriend to be open about his polyamorous “lifestyle” (awful term, I realize, but sometimes it can’t be avoided) — the answer doesn’t just depend on your zip code, RAVE, but on the reaction his ex is likely to have. And seeing as she has a history of weaponizing access to their child (which is not in the child’s best interests), I don’t think his ex can be trusted to react benevolently, whatever her feelings about open relationships might be. Which is why your boyfriend should — if he safely can — lawyer up and take his ex to court.

Diana Adams is the executive director of the Chosen Family Law Center, a non-profit advocating for a more inclusive definition of family. To support their work, donate here.

Hey Dan: I was told you help women who feel shamed about their orgasms. I’ve been in my relationship for five years and always had a difficulty orgasming. About a year ago, I had an affair during a manic episode. I hardly remember any of it, but it haunts me every day. It doesn’t help that my boyfriend constantly brings up the affair when we have sex. He knows two solid ways to make me orgasm, but he’s focuses instead on two ways I have a hard time orgasming and gets very angry when I don’t. When I tell him that it’s not him, it’s just my body, he brings up the affair and angrily says I was able to orgasm these ways with stranger. I now feel anxious to have the big O as fast as humanly possible and try to guide him to do what feels best and even show him how do it. But it always ends in an argument about how I orgasmed doing these things with someone else he gets angry about it. Now I feel like my vagina is broken. He says it’s because I’ve had too much sex and accuses me of preferring sex with strangers and then starts berating himself for being too small. It doesn’t matter if is penetrative, oral or by hand, he always says the same things. I’ve had many successful orgasms with him from penetrative and oral sex. I don’t understand why I can’t from his hand or when he’s behind me and those are the only ways he cares about. Can you help me? It’s been a consistent problem. We’ve had this fight at least three times a week for the last eleven months.

–Feeling Increasingly Broken Somehow

BEST INTERESTS

You don’t have any trouble getting off during sex — you’re fully orgasmic (even during PIV alone!) — but for reasons I’ll get into/speculate about in a moment, FIBS, your boyfriend has decided to ignore what he knows works for you and the gentle feedback you give him during sex. Instead, he’s choosing to do what doesn’t work — what he knows doesn’t work — and then when what doesn’t work winds up not working, FIBS, your boyfriend throws mean-spirited tantrums about the size of his dick and the regrettable affair you had during a mental health crisis. (An affair you told him entirely too much about! He may have needed to know about the affair, but he didn’t need to know exactly how you got off with your affair partner.) He’s not having sex with you to reconnect after the affair or even just for sex’s sake; he’s having sex with you to control and punish you. He doesn’t want to get you off — he’s intentionally setting you up for failure — because wants to throw this affair in your face again and again and again. Which means he hasn’t forgiven you, FIBS, and given how long he’s been staging these meltdowns — three times a week for eleven months — he clearly has no intention of forgiving you.

Someone who can’t stop demanding apologies won’t be satisfied by the millionth one. Yes, you had an affair and, yes, that was wrong. But there were extenuating circumstances — you were in a manic state — and if he can’t forgive you and get past it, FIBS, he has no place in your life, your bed, your vagina, or your mouth.

P.S. You aren’t broken — not yet. But longer you stay in this hell of a relationship, the likelier you are to start having the problem you’re worried about, i.e., difficultly climaxing. You’re in good working order right now — you can come, and in a variety of positions, doing a variety of things. Don’t let your angry future ex-boyfriend take that away from you. DTMFA: dump the motherfucker already

P.P.S. Some people insist on being told everything in the wake of an affair. Every detail, however small. But telling the person you cheated on everything — or extracting everything from the person you cheated on — is the relationship equivalent of salting the earth. Everything withers and dies, and nothing new grows.

Hey Dan: I have a very good friend of nearly fifty years. She has four kids, six grandkids, and ten great grandkids. She told me yesterday that the partner of one of her granddaughters just came out as transgender. But she told me in a gossipy and joking way that shocked me. I told her that this must be a difficult time for everyone and changed the subject. I want to support this young woman, her partner,

BY DAN SAVAGE

and kids, and of course my friend. Any ideas?

–Appalled With Friend’s Unkind Laughter

Was your old friend gossiping or was she confiding in you? Was she making cruel jokes or was she using humor — perhaps ineptly, perhaps insensitively — to defuse whatever tension she might’ve been feeling in the moment and/or whatever tension she incorrectly assumed you might’ve been feeling?

When I came out to my mom — decades ago — she said the right thing first: she still loved me. Then she told me she didn’t want to meet anyone I was dating… which hurt to hear… and then she told me a joke about two men attacking a woman in a famously cruisy park in Chicago. The punchline: “One held her down, the other did her hair.” So, two minutes after I had done what seemed impossible me five minutes earlier — saying “I’m gay” out loud in the presence of my mother — my mother told me a joke that was 50% gay joke and 50% rape joke. If I was a different sort of person, gay or otherwise, I might’ve been hurt or angered. But my mom was struggling and the joke — again, 50% gay and 50% rape — was an effort on her part, however clumsy, to connect with me through our shared sense of humor. And one day I would sit at the dining room table and listen to my mom laugh as she told my first serious boyfriend about the night I came out and retell that same joke. Which she did not to insult him, but to make him feel like he was part of the family.

Look, AWFUL, your old friend may be a transphobic bigot. But I think your old friend, like my late mother, deserves the benefit of the doubt: assume the best, assume she was nervous, and let this go. When you see her next, ask whether her granddaughter’s partner wanted her family to spread the word about her coming out — some queer people do — or if you aren’t supposed to know yet. If her relative wanted family to run and tell (and, again, some queer people do), send a note to your friend’s granddaughter and her partner expressing your support. If you’re not supposed to know yet, keep your mouth shut.

P.S. My mother confided in someone without asking me if it was okay — an old friend of hers, a priest — and his kindness helped get my mom to a place where she could sit across a table from the guy who was sodomizing her third son and laugh about family stories. If you scold, you won’t be able to be that friend. So, don’t scold. Listen.

Got problems? Yes, you do. Send your question to mailbox@savage.love!

Podcasts, columns and more at Savage.Love

Notice is hereby given by AAMCO Transmissions #46851 11696 Dixie Hwy, Louisville, KY 40272 502-933-4747 to obtain title. Owner has 21 days to respond in writing.2014 FORD ESCAPE VIN#1FMCU0GX5EUD64382, owner Michael or Shantae Rorex1134 Okolona Terrace, Louisville, KY 40219 Lien holder AUTO VENTURE ACCEPT 6626 Preston Hwy, Louisville, KY 40219.

Notice is hereby given by AAMCO Transmissions #46851 11696 Dixie Hwy, Louisville, KY 40272 502-933-4747 to obtain title. Owner has 21 days to respond in writing. 2016 CHEVROLET TRAVERS VIN#1GNKVGKD5GJ182339, owner Musick Thomas Harris III 5504 Littleridge Drive, Louisville, KY 40229. Lien holder ALPINE AUTO FINANCE PO BOX 20831, LOUISVILLE, KY 40250 Lien holder EAGLE FINANCIAL SERVICES 7100 PRESTON HWY #104, LOUISVILLE, KY 40219

Notice is hereby given by AAMCO Transmissions #46851 11696 Dixie Hwy, Louisville, KY 40272 502-933-4747 to obtain title. Owner has 21 days to respond in writing.2012 DODGE JOURNEY VIN#3C4PDDDGXCT148083, owner Reginald Steele or Mariesha Cromwell-Steele 11702 Tazwell Drive, Louisville, KY 40245 Lien holder EXETER FIN LLC PO BOX 677, Wilmington, OH 45177.

needed in Louisville, KY. Send resume to Brittany Brohm, Norton Healthcare, 4801 Olympia Park Plaza, # 3000,

Pursuant to KRS 376.480, the following abandoned mobile home located at 5 Royal Drive, at Southland Mobile Home Community, Louisville, Kentucky shall be sold by Southland via sealed bid on Friday, May 10, 2024 at 10:00 AM to recover rent, storage and

Everest Special, LLC would like to place on notice the acquisition of a 199’ (204’ including all appurtenances) guyed tower known as 5506 Billtown Rd (736.9’ ground elevation). The tower is located at 38°9’52.6” north latitude and 85°34’5.6” west longitude near 5506 Billtown Road, Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky 40299, ASR File #A1264600. The application for this project can be viewed at www.fcc.gov/ asr/applications by entering the ASR file number. If you have environmental concerns about the structure, a Request for Environmental Review may be filed with the FCC at www.fcc.gov/ asr/environmentalrequest or by writing to FCC

TNFLX26A54072RL12

at 5 Royal Drive, at Southland Mobile Home Community

Requests for Environmental Review, ATTN: Ramon Williams, 445 12th St SW, Washington, DC 20554. The FCC strongly encourages interested parties to file Requests for Environmental Review online. Requests for Environmental Review may only raise environmental concerns and must be filed within 30 days of the date that notice of the project is published on the FCC’s website. If you have any concerns regarding historic properties that may be affected by this undertaking, please contact: Abby McKay, Lotis Environmental, LLC, at Legals@ TheLotisGroup.com or (509) 387-0700. In your response, please include the undertaking’s location and a list of the historic resources that you believe to be affected along with their respective addresses or approximate locations.

FEELING POSSESSIVE

BY JOHN KUGELMAN

Edited by Joel Fagliano

John Kugelman, of Gainesville, Va., is a software engineer and musician. This is his third crossword for The Times — all Sundays. Crossword construction and music ‘‘tickle all the same brain cells,’’ he says, as each is ‘‘half-creative and half-technical.’’ He adds: ‘‘Sundays are like the progressive rock of crosswords. I love 20-minute songs and I love 21x21 grids.’’