EDITORIAL
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Audience502
From grassroots tree planting to energy-efficient housing, Louisville is redefining what going green looks like—despite ranking near the bottom nationally.
BY CALEB STULTZ
Louisville has a sustainability problem— and it’s not a small one.
Louisville came in close to the bottom of a recent WalletHub national ranking of eco-friendly cities, ranking 96th out of 100. The city’s low score was caused by gaps in environmental policy, low adoption of renewable energy, and poor use of public transportation. That ranking presents an awkward question for a metro area renowned for its parks, rivers, and sense of community:
In reality, what does Louisville need to do to go green?
More often than not, the solution is that many small, local actions add up to something much larger.
On paper, Louisville struggles. Transportation emissions remain high, energy sources still lean heavily on fossil fuels, and urban sprawl continues to stretch infrastructure thin.
But on the ground, something else is happening.
Across neighborhoods, nonprofits, city agencies, and residents are quietly building a sustainability movement that doesn’t always show up in rankings—but is reshaping the city block by block.
Take Louisville Grows, for example. Their work focuses on one of the simplest—and most overlooked—climate solutions: trees.
The Urban Forest Movement
Louisville’s tree canopy has been shrinking for years, especially in historically underserved neighborhoods. Fewer trees mean hotter streets, worse air quality, and increased flooding risk.
Louisville Grows is trying to reverse that trend.
Through its Citizen Forester Program, residents are trained to become hands-on leaders in urban forestry. Volunteers don’t just plant trees—they learn how to maintain them, organize planting events, and advocate for greener neighborhoods.
These “Citizen Foresters” have become a backbone of the city’s environmental efforts, leading large-scale planting events that often draw more than 100 volunteers at a time.
There’s also the Tree Champion Program, which pushes sustainability even deeper into neighborhoods. Instead of relying solely on organizations, it empowers residents to take ownership—educating
neighbors, coordinating plantings, and ensuring trees survive long after they’re planted.
It’s not flashy work. But it’s effective.
And it reflects a broader shift: sustainability in Louisville is becoming less about policy headlines and more about community infrastructure.
The Louisville Metro Housing Authority (LMHA) is emerging as a leader in sustainability. Its developments are increasingly built around energy efficiency and environmental design—not just cost.
At Liberty Green, one of its flagship projects, sustainability isn’t an add-on—it’s the foundation. The development includes:
• Energy Star-certified appliances
• Advanced insulation and efficient lighting
• Recycling systems integrated into daily life
Even more ambitious is the Liberty Green Community Center, which is targeting LEED Gold certification. Features include geothermal heating, low-toxicity building materials, and stormwater management systems like rain gardens and permeable pavement.
These aren’t just environmental upgrades—they’re economic ones. Lower energy bills and reduced maintenance costs directly benefit residents, making sustainability a tool for affordability, not just activism.
For most residents, going green doesn’t start with a major housing development or a citywide initiative. It starts at home.
And Louisville’s sustainability push is increasingly focused on behavior—how people live day to day.
Organizations like the Louisville Climate Action Network emphasize a layered approach:
• Simple steps: turning off unused electronics, switching to LED lighting, reducing water waste
• Bigger steps: composting, reducing meat consumption, investing in efficient appliances
• Civic steps: advocating for policy changes, supporting local sustainability efforts
Even transportation choices play a major role. Driving less—whether by walking, biking, carpooling, or using public transit— can significantly reduce an individual’s carbon footprint. For a city built around cars, that shift may be one of the hardest—but also one of the most impactful.
Sustainability isn’t just about energy—it’s about waste and consumption.
Louisville residents are being encouraged to rethink everyday habits:
• Ditching single-use plastics in favor of reusable containers
• Composting food scraps instead of sending them to landfills
• Buying locally produced food to reduce transportation emissions
Farmers markets, community-supported agriculture (CSA) programs, and urban gardens are gaining traction, creating a local food ecosystem that’s both more sustainable and more resilient.
Even small actions—like printing less paper or using refillable water bottles—add up when adopted at scale.
If there’s one area where Louisville still struggles most, it’s transportation.
The city ranked near the bottom nationally in this category, reflecting limited public transit usage and heavy reliance on personal vehicles.
Efforts to improve this—like expanding bus access and encouraging carpooling—exist, but adoption remains uneven.
There’s also a cultural barrier. In many parts of Louisville, driving isn’t just convenient— it’s necessary.
That makes transportation the toughest piece of the sustainability puzzle, and likely the one that will determine whether Louisville can truly improve its environmental standing.
So, Can Louisville Catch Up? Louisville isn’t going to leap from the bottom of national rankings to the top overnight. Cities like San Francisco, Seattle, and Portland have spent decades building infrastructure, policy frameworks, and cultural norms around sustainability.
Louisville is earlier in that process, but the pieces are starting to come together:
• Grassroots environmental programs are expanding
• Housing is becoming more energy-efficient
• Residents are adopting greener daily habits
• Local organizations are building momentum
The challenge now is scale. Can these efforts grow fast enough—and reach enough people—to shift the city as a whole? Louisville’s sustainability story in 2026 isn’t one of success or failure. It’s one of transition. The city may rank near the bottom today, but beneath that statistic is a network of people and programs actively working to change the outcome.
And if those efforts continue to grow, Louisville’s future might look very different from its present.
BY DEBRA MURRAY
Survival Bloc, a BIPOC-led climate survival network based in Kentucky and New York City, recently launched Grandmother’s Garden, a food production project in the West End of Louisville.
According to the USDA’s Food Access Research from 2020, 68.5% of Louisville residents lived over a mile from their nearest grocery. In the East End, there are multiple Kroger stores, two Publix markets, a Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, and more – while in the West End, over 60,000 residents are shopping between two full-service grocery stores, the local Black Market KY on West Market Street and convenience stores.
Grandmother’s Garden is a community effort to bring fresh food to areas of Louisville that do not have those resources, particularly the West End, which has very few grocery stores, Alastair Flowers, a member of Survival Bloc’s stewardship team working on Grandmother’s Garden, said.
Food apartheid refers to food inaccessibility as a result of systemic, racial, and economic segregation in food access that disproportionately affects Black and Brown people and low-income people. Black and Brown neighborhoods typically have fewer supermarkets and more fast food options and convenience stores. In 2023, one in four Black people in the United States experienced food apartheid, according to the USDA.
“Grandma’s garden is one of those efforts in order to bring fresh produce to people who otherwise lack those kinds of resources,”
Flowers said. “It is intended to be a community effort to bring individuals of the community together in order to foster better relationships between people there and create a better environment.”
Survival Bloc’s quarter-acre will be an herb and vegetable garden, an education space, and a water catchment and filtration system, with one eighth-acre hosting a high tunnel to be able to grow food, and then another quarter-acre of land that will be prepped in the spring to begin growing crops there.
The program’s name is inspired by Alice Walker’s book “Our Mother’s Garden,” and the program itself was inspired by the works of different Black feminists, including Audre Lorde, Assata Shakur, and Walker.
“Their work expresses the importance of community building and how community building is found within the home,” Flowers said. “It’s a source of how we’re able to feed people and from there, able to provide people the sense of safety in order to facilitate more connection, more growth.”
Flowers described the Black Panther Party’s work to create the Free Breakfast Program in 1969 to combat childhood hunger as an essential program that served as one of the inspirations for Grandmother’s Garden.
Their breakfast program quickly spread across the U.S., forcing the federal government to adopt a national school breakfast program in 1975. This program is still in schools today, and as of 2016, 14.57 million children were participating in their school breakfast program nationwide, according to the USDA.
“The free breakfast program, which was initiated by the Black Panther Party and Assata Shakur herself, to further along and provide for communities, and just doing that is what led to nationalized free breakfast programs through schools themselves,” Flowers said. “When we look at the actions of so many black female revolutionaries, we can see how the simple act of providing people with food, with care in a community, can establish so much.”
Eventually, Survival Bloc plans to host workshops and educational events as the space further develops.
Survival Bloc’s first event relating to Grandmother’s Garden was at West End Town Hall on March 28, as people interested in becoming involved in the project learned how the garden plans to address problems faced by West End residents.
If you’re interested in becoming involved with Survival Bloc, follow them on Instagram or subscribe to their newsletter to stay up-to-date about different involvement opportunities.
By Joe DeSensi and Frank DeSensi
Writing the Veg Out column for the LEO Weekly for gluten free vegetarians to navigate the Louisville food scene, I have been able to have a lot of amazing conversations about current green initiatives, farm to table innovations and general sustainability. Less waste and more efficiency makes sense with food costs climbing, expensive labor and rent, and diners expecting amazing, healthy, affordable meals. If you run a kitchen in Louisville today, you know how thin the profit margins can be. But what if
the blueprint for our modern eco-conscious food scene already exists?
Long before sustainability became a marketing buzzword, restaurant owners practiced what we can call pioneer sustainability. They did not operate this way to save the planet per se. They did it to save their businesses. Coming out of the Great Depression and World War II, food shortages and tight budgets defined the late 1940s and 1950s. Every scrap of food, every drop of oil, and every piece of paper held value. My family immigrated from Italy in the 1910s coming to work on the railroad coming
through Mobile, Alabama with many putting down roots here in Louisville. . . the first Catholic friendly town they found. Great Grandpa Joe and Grandpa Frank opened a small restaurant in Louisville in the 1940s, living right above the dining room. Their survival depended on an absolute, uncompromising commitment to making do and stretching a dollar. Looking back at their daily routines reveals a masterclass in zerowaste management. These old-school frugal habits offer incredibly practical insights for today’s high-cost, environmentally aware food industry.
In the 40s, convenience foods did not exist. If you needed ingredients to serve your customers, you sourced them yourself, often in their rawest forms. This harsh economic necessity forced restaurant owners to look at ingredients differently. A single chicken was not just a meal. It was a collection of valuable uses and profit centers. When my family needed poultry for the restaurant, they bought live chickens because they were the cheapest option. The
processing happened entirely in-house, and nothing went to waste.
We talk today about root-to-stem or noseto-tail dining. My family practiced beak-totailfeather economics. When they butchered the chickens, they bled them carefully and used the blood to create rich, nitrogen-dense fertilizer for the backyard vegetable garden. They plucked the feathers and took them to a neighbor down the street, who cleaned them to stuff pillows and sofa cushions.
The meat, of course, fed the customers. But the internal organs and necks formed the base of savory soups and hearty stews. They even took the chicken feet to another local woman who specialized in rendering them down for soup and natural gelatin. Any remaining scraps were cleaned and mixed into food for neighborhood dogs and cats.
When you look at this process through a modern lens, it is the ultimate zero-waste model. Every byproduct found a secondary purpose, creating a localized circular economy right in the heart of Louisville.
Modern menus frequently highlight locally foraged, wild-caught ingredients. We treat these items as premium delicacies. In the late 40s and early 50s, scavenging around the Louisville area was simply a way to keep the pantry full without spending money.
Long before farm-to-table was a movement, it was a daily reality. Family members would scour the local landscape to find fresh watercress, wild mushrooms, dandelions, and acorns. These free, wild ingredients added nutrients and flavors to the restaurant’s dishes.
The local waterways provided another crucial food source. They regularly fished the nearby creeks and the Ohio River, pulling in catfish, skipjacks, bass, bluegill, and the occasional sturgeon or walleye. They supplemented their meat supply by hunting local game, including rabbits, squirrels, and pigeons. In fact, one of my grandparents raised pigeons specifically to supply other restaurants on his block, establishing a micro-supply chain within the neighborhood.
This deep connection to the local geography meant the restaurant’s menu reflected exactly what the land and rivers could provide in any given season.
Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of pioneer sustainability involves how my family managed cooking oils and fats. Today, converting restaurant grease into biodiesel is a celebrated green initiative. In the 1950s, it was just common sense.
In their restaurant kitchen, they used cooking oil repeatedly. They only stopped using it when it developed a noticeable smell. But they never threw that spent oil away. Instead, they poured it into a
designated collection can. Once full, they transported this used oil to farms outside Louisville, where farmers poured it directly into old diesel engines that generated their electricity.
Even animal fats served multiple purposes. Bacon grease was far too valuable to toss in the trash. they saved it in a tin can, using it as both a cooking medium and a rich seasoning for vegetables. During the war years, housewives and restaurant owners even collected excess bacon grease and took it to designated recycling centers to support the war effort.
When a pig was butchered for the restaurant, the fat became lard for baking, the skin turned into cracklins, the intestines served as sausage casings, and the feet were pickled. They extracted maximum utility and energy from every single purchase.
Waste management in a 1940s kitchen looked entirely different than it does today. Leftovers and unwanted items almost never went to the city dump. They were repurposed, recycled, or traded.
In the back of the family restaurant, they kept a special bin strictly for vegetable trimmings. A local farmer picked up this bin every single week. He used our fresh vegetable scraps to feed his chickens, turning our food waste into his poultry feed. In return, the agricultural loop continued.
Similarly, they saved meat scraps and leftover bones in a refrigerator. Another local farmer collected these to grind into high-protein food for his working dogs. They diverted hundreds of pounds of organic waste from the landfill simply through community partnerships.
Behind the restaurant, they maintained their own garden, growing beans, cabbage,
and Romaine lettuce. They turned the inedible weeds and garden waste into compost to fertilize the next year’s crop. This practice, combined with the victory gardens that dotted Louisville yards well into the 1960s, created a resilient, hyper-local food system. Even paper waste had strict recycling protocols. They read several newspapers daily, including The Courier-Journal and The Louisville Times, but they never threw them away. They bundled them for the local rag man, rolled them tightly to use as fireplace fuel, or repurposed them as wrapping paper and cage liners.
When we look at the green initiatives sweeping the Louisville restaurant scene today, it is clear that we are actually getting back to our roots. The modern push for sustainability relies on the exact same principles my family used seventy years ago: reduce consumption, maximize resources, and
eliminate waste.
For modern restaurant owners, these historical practices offer a powerful change in perspective. When you view food waste not as garbage, but as a lost financial asset, your approach to kitchen management shifts.
You might not need to save chicken blood for your backyard garden, but you can build relationships with local farmers who need compost. You might not need to hunt for your meat, but you can source locally to reduce your carbon footprint and support the regional economy.
By embracing this pioneer sustainability, you do more than just lower your environmental impact. You protect your profit margins, build stronger community networks, and honor a long, proud tradition of culinary resilience. The old-school wisdom of the 1940s proves that environmental stewardship and smart business are, and always have been, the exact same thing.
BY LEO WEEKLY STAFF
Friday, April 10
KY Flea Market Spring Fling
Kentucky Exposition Center | All ages | Free
Browse treasures from across the country at the KY Flea Market Spring Fling, one of the nation’s top flea markets. Shop antiques, collectibles, clothing, jewelry, toys, and more from a wide range of vendors. With free admission and something for every kind of bargain hunter, it’s a perfect outing for casual shoppers and serious collectors alike.
Saturday, April 11
TreeFest 2026
Thurman-Hutchins Park | All ages | Free
Celebrate Arbor Day at TreeFest 2026, a family-friendly event highlighting the importance of trees and sustainability. Enjoy hands-on activities, educational experiences, and community fun designed for all ages. It’s a great way to spend an afternoon outdoors while connecting with nature and learning how trees impact everyday life.
Saturday, April 11
Pig and Swig
Fourth Street Live! | 21+ | Ticket prices vary
Indulge in the best of bourbon and BBQ at Pig and Swig, a high-energy festival at Fourth Street Live! Sample more than 100 bourbons—including rare finds—while enjoying smoky BBQ, live music, DJs, and entertainment across multiple venues. With tasting tokens included, this is a must for bourbon lovers looking for the ultimate Kentucky experience.
Sunday, April 12
Louisville Water Tower Community Open House: Spring into Sustainability
Louisville Water Tower | All ages | Free
Celebrate Earth Month at the Louisville Water Tower Community Open House, a free event focused on sustainability and environmental awareness. Meet local organizations, explore eco-friendly initiatives, and learn how small changes—like reducing plastic waste—can make a big impact.
Saturday, April 11
Tacos and Tequila Festival
Louisville Slugger Field | 21+ | Ticket prices vary
Spice up your weekend at the Tacos and Tequila Festival at Louisville Slugger Field. Sample a variety of tacos using tasting tokens, sip margaritas, explore tequila brands, and enjoy cervezas while dancing to lively music. With food trucks, merch, and a festive atmosphere, this adults-only event is perfect for a flavorful night out with friends.
Wednesday, April 15
Mint Julep Making Class with Maker’s Mark Waterfront Botanical Gardens | 21+ | $45
Learn to craft the perfect Derby cocktail at this Mint Julep Making Class with Maker’s Mark. Enjoy a guided bourbon tasting, dive into the history of the julep, and create your own signature drink using fresh mint. Guests will also take home a julep glass and mint plant, making this a hands-on and flavorful experience for bourbon lovers.
Thursday, April 16
Stock Yards Bank $1 Million Dollar Hole-In-One Golf Contest
Saturday, April 18
Restore: Healthy Planet. Healthy Us Bernheim Forest and Arboretum | All ages | Free
Saturday, April 18
Thunder Over Louisville
Waterfront Park | All ages | Free
Seneca Golf Course Driving Range | All ages | $1 per ball
Take your shot at a life-changing prize at the $1 Million Dollar Hole-In-One Golf Contest, a longtime Derby Festival favorite. Open to all skill levels, this event lets participants test their swing for a chance to win big—or walk away with other prizes. With daily specials and multiple chances to play, it’s a fun, competitive outing for golfers and spectators alike.
Wednesday, April 22
Earth Day 2026
Waterfront Botanical Gardens | All ages | Free (registration required)
Celebrate sustainability at Earth Day 2026 with a morning of community, conservation, and learning. Enjoy a thoughtful discussion on mindful consumption, plus a preschoolfriendly play date featuring stories, songs, and hands-on activities. Whether you’re looking to learn or just enjoy the gardens, this event offers something for all ages.
Reconnect with nature at Restore: Healthy Planet. Healthy Us, an Earth Day celebration at Bernheim Forest. Enjoy self-care activities, educational experiences, and peaceful outdoor settings that promote sustainability and well-being. It’s a refreshing way to welcome spring while learning how a healthier planet supports a healthier you.
Thursday, April 23
Chow Wagon
Waterfront Park | All ages | Free with Pegasus Pin
Grab a bite and enjoy live music at the Chow Wagon, a Derby Festival favorite along the Ohio River. From turkey legs and elephant ears to sweet treats and more, there’s something for every craving. With concerts, a lively beer garden, and a scenic riverside setting, it’s the perfect spot to relax, eat, and celebrate.
Kick off Derby Festival season with Thunder Over Louisville, the largest annual fireworks display in North America. With a full day of festivities, including one of the nation’s top air shows followed by a massive pyrotechnics finale, this iconic event draws hundreds of thousands to the waterfront. It’s a can’t-miss Louisville tradition packed with energy, excitement, and unforgettable views.
Thursday, April 23
L&N Federal Credit Union Great Balloon Glow
Waterfront Park | All ages | Free with Pegasus Pin
Watch the night sky come alive at the Great Balloon Glow, one of the most visually stunning Derby Festival events. Stroll among glowing hot air balloons as pilots light them up in sync with music, creating a magical, immersive experience. With a parade of balloons and close-up views, it’s a one-of-a-kind evening on the waterfront.
BY AUDIENCE502
The Louisville Orchestra recently announced their 2026–27 season, continuing the exceptional momentum of one of the nation’s most dynamic arts organizations. The new season offers major collaborations, world premieres, and an ambitious artistic vision rooted firmly in Louisville.
Under the direction of Music Director Teddy Abrams, the season brings together major symphonic works, internationally recognized guest artists, world premieres, Louisville Orchestra commissions, and ambitious collaborations. Highlights include Verdi’s Requiem, Sibelius’s Symphony No. 2, Brahms’s Symphony No. 4, Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 “Titan,” and a Beethoven Piano Concerto Marathon featuring Stewart Goodyear performing all five Concertos across two performances. Guest artists throughout the season include violinists Ray Chen, and Kerson Leong, with guest conductors Earl Lee, Peter Oundjian, and Mélisse Brunet. A season highlight, Richard Strauss’s Salome will be presented in collaboration with Kentucky Opera, bringing a semistaged operatic production to Whitney Hall. Rhapsody Reimagined features Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue transformed through Latin Jazz by Cuban pianist, Ahmed Alom.
New music remains central to the
Louisville Orchestra’s identity. The 2026–27 season features a full-orchestra presentation of Julia Wolfe’s Anthracite Fields, newly commissioned for the Louisville Orchestra, New Symphony by Timo Andres, Teddy Abrams’s Seasons in America for violin and orchestra, and world premieres by Louisville Orchestra Creators Corps Composers Susanna Hancock and Seare Ahmad Farhat.
Additional premieres by KiMani Bridges and Chelsea Komschlies, Creators Corps Alumna (25-26), continue the Orchestra’s long-standing commitment to living composers and new work.
“The Louisville Orchestra’s 202627 season reflects the extraordinary energy of our musicians, the passion of our audiences, and the strength of our community,” said Teddy Abrams, Music Director of the Louisville Orchestra. “Our Orchestra has reached a level of national prominence for our creative programming and artistry, and our new season will show off our capabilities in every way – from virtuosity to sublime beauty, with massive collaborations and intimate, life-changing moments. This is our most daring, exciting, dramatic season that we’ve programmed since I’ve arrived!”
The Pops Series, led by Principal Pops Conductor Bob Bernhardt, continues to drive audience growth with performances
built around instantly recognizable music and star power. Highlights include A John Williams Halloween, featuring iconic film scores, a symphonic performance by Grammy and Tony Award winner Leslie Odom, Jr., Michael Feinstein celebrating the music of Johnny Mathis and Henry Mancini, and Ledisi honoring the legacy of Nina Simone and Dinah Washington.
The NightLites Series returns to the Ogle Center at Indiana University Southeast and expands from four to five Friday evening concerts, focusing on defining orchestral works by Prokofiev, Brahms, Haydn, Mozart, Bizet, Mendelssohn, Debussy, Ravel, Vivaldi, and Beethoven. The series features performances by Associate Concertmaster Julia Noone, Concertmaster and Resident Conductor Gabriel Lefkowitz, and guest conductors Ziwei Ma, Na’Zir McFadden, and Molly Turner.
The series Teddy’s Picks returns for the 2026–27 season as a proven guide for new audiences and a focused subscription option highlighting the performances that define the year. Personally selected by Music Director Teddy Abrams, the four-concert package includes Ledisi, Brahms’s Fourth paired with Seasons in America, Salome with Kentucky Opera, and Bizet and Mendelssohn.
In addition to subscription concerts, the Louisville Orchestra will present free
community events announced throughout the year, reaching audiences across the region through initiatives including In Harmony – The Commonwealth Tour, Music Without Borders, and family-focused programming. The Orchestra also welcomes a growing number of students from Jefferson County Public Schools and Southern Indiana to concerts throughout the season. Through these collective efforts, the Louisville Orchestra serves more people through free programming than paid performances each year reinforcing the Orchestra’s role as a civic and cultural resource.
“People are seeking real, shared experiences,” said Nathaniel Koch, Interim Executive Director. “This season reflects who we are as an organization: confident, growing, and deeply connected to our city. We are investing in artistic excellence, expanding access points, and continuing to serve more of our community through free events and educational programming than ever before. Louisville is showing up for this Orchestra, and we’re meeting that enthusiasm head-on.”
Subscriptions are on sale now offering audiences access to a wide range of performances across five different series: Classics, Pops, Coffee, NightLites, and Teddy’s Picks – all available at LouisvilleOrchestra.org or by phone at 502-587-8681.
2026-27 SEASON
Classics and Coffee Series
Verdi’s “Requiem”
Friday, October 16 and Saturday, October 17, 2026
Whitney Hall
Teddy Abrams, conductor; Ben Robinson, director
Giuseppe Verdi: Requiem
Teddy Conducts Music of the Mines
Saturday, January 16, 2027
Whitney Hall
Teddy Abrams, conductor; Louisville Chamber Choir and Cardinal Singers
Music by Copland, Ruggles, Schubert, Jean Ritchie, Julia Wolfe, and a world premiere by LO Creators Corps Alumna Chelsea Komschlies
Sibelius Symphony No. 2
Friday, January 29 and Saturday, January 30, 2027
Whitney Hall
Earl Lee, conductor; Chris Choi, timpani
Music by Franck, Daugherty, and Sibelius Brahms Symphony No. 4
Friday, February 26 and Saturday, February 27, 2027
Whitney Hall
Teddy Abrams, conductor; Ray Chen, violin
World premiere by KiMani Bridges; World premiere of Seasons in America by Teddy Abrams; Brahms Symphony No. 4 Mahler Symphony No. 1 “Titan”
Friday, March 5 and Saturday, March 6, 2027
Whitney Hall
Peter Oundjian, conductor; Kerson Leong, violin
World premiere by LO Creators Corps Composer, Seare Ahmad Farhat; Piazzolla’s Four Seasons of Buenos Aires; Mahler Symphony No. 1
Beethoven Piano Concerto Marathon
Friday, April 2 and Saturday, April 3, 2027
Whitney Hall
Mélisse Brunet, conductor; Stewart Goodyear, piano
Beethoven Piano Concertos Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 over two performances
Rhapsody Reimagined
Friday, April 23 and Saturday, April 24, 2027
Whitney Hall
Teddy Abrams, conductor; Ahmed Alom, piano
World premiere by LO Creators Corps Composer, Susanna Hancock; Latin Jazz reimagining of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with Ahmed Alom; Timo Andres New Symphony
Salome
Friday, May 7 and Saturday, May 8, 2027
Whitney Hall
Teddy Abrams, conductor; Ben Robinson, director; Kentucky Opera
Richard Strauss: Salome
A John Williams Halloween
Friday, October 30, 2026
Whitney Hall
Bob Bernhardt, conductor
Leslie Odom, Jr.
Saturday, January 23, 2027
Whitney Hall
Bob Bernhardt, conductor; Leslie Odom, Jr., vocals
Michael Feinstein: “My Celebration” The Music of Johnny Mathis and Henry Mancini
Saturday, March 27, 2027
Whitney Hall
Bob Bernhardt, conductor; Michael Feinstein, vocals
Ledisi
Music of Nina Simone and Dinah
Washington
Wednesday, April 14, 2027
Whitney Hall
Bob Bernhardt, conductor; Ledisi, vocals
Prokofiev & Brahms
Friday, September 25, 2026
Ogle Center at Indiana University
Southeast
Ziwei Ma, conductor; Julia Noone, violin
Haydn & Mozart
Friday, October 9, 2026
Ogle Center at Indiana University
Southeast
Teddy Abrams, conductor
Bizet & Mendelssohn
Friday, November 20, 2026
Ogle Center at Indiana University
Southeast
Na’Zir McFadden, conductor
Vivaldi & Beethoven
Friday, February 19, 2027
Ogle Center at Indiana University
Southeast
Gabriel Lefkowitz, violin and conductor
Debussy & Ravel
Friday, March 12, 2027
Ogle Center at Indiana University
Southeast
Molly Turner, conductor
For tickets and more information, visit LouisvilleOrchestra.org
BY LAURIE JONHATAN
Twice a week, a community of women gather in a studio off of Chamberlain Road for a common purpose: empowerment.
It’s personified as their pink belt.
One that is tied neatly around their uniforms, marking their completion of the “Women Empowered” courses.
The program teaches women how to defend themselves against a number of attacks but despite the gravity and severity of the topics at hand–any given class can be met with laughter, applause and cheering for every mastered move, a testament to the community built at Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Louisville.
“It was very important to us to make sure that women had a safe space and that we also addressed the most common situations that women specifically have to deal with,” Leann said.
Ten years ago, Leann and Alan Manganello traveled to California and brought back the Gracie-certified training program, “Women Empowered,” home to Louisville. And, as of today, they remain the only studio in the entire state
to offer courses of this kind.
Made up of 20 different classes, the program is meant to equip women with techniques that address real-life situations, with the moves grounded in the practice of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu.
“It’s like chess. You do not get to pick what they do, the move that they make. You have to be two steps ahead and think, ‘Okay if they make this move, then I’m going to do this.” Leann said, “So that’s why we have so many different techniques. I like to say, ‘tools in our tool belt.’”
Each technique is tailored to the most common attacks women face, from strangers and, unfortunately, familiar faces. The techniques were designed by survivors of sexual assault and former law enforcement officers, and they are often led from instructors with similar backgrounds, including Leann’s husband Alan, a former LMPD officer and member of the SWAT team.
“Our techniques are not by opinion. It is proven. This is what actually happens.” Leann said, “They took that data and they
know the most common scenarios, and he’s lived them.”
An experience that Leann, who is also an instructor and a proud survivor of domestic violence, knows too.
“I know how it happens, because it happened to me.” She said, “I am also living through that and surviving through that.”
Her survival transformed into a passion for learning practical self-defense and giving back to her community, helping to empower other women.
“What Jiu-Jitsu has done for me, it has ‘given Stella her groove back.’ It has made me more confident.” Leann said, “I’m not just compassionate through the situations that women have gone through but I also personally have healed and know that there is a light at the end of the tunnel for them.”
The program not only equips women with the physical self-defense moves, but the instructors also help guide them through the importance of the mental and the emotional: how to set boundaries,
to trust your instincts, to be aware of your surroundings and so much more.
“We just let people know that we meet you where you are, in your self defense journey, in your healing journey.” Leann said, “So that’s really important to us as well, is that our instructors are trained to be able to guide people based on where they are with their life or what has happened to them in their past.”
Attending even just one class is to be met with open arms. To sit in a circle of women of all ages, all levels of strength and athleticism.
It’s to be greeted by friendly instructors, who volunteer their free time, apart from their daily 9-to-5’s, who are dedicated to your growth.
“To see women after, you know, doing these classes, to see their transformation, to see their confidence grow is just truly–it’s something that I can’t really put into words.”
BY KRYSTALA ALLEN, ARTS ANGLE REPORTER
This article brought to LEO Weekly by Arts Angle Newsroom, a program of Arts Angle, a not-for-profit elevating high school students’ voices and connecting them to local arts and issues through journalism. See how you can support Arts Angle here.
Morning doomscrolling. Searching for headlines. Many of us have all fallen victim to the trap of the blue light as it sucks us into a world on fire. Artists in a new show in Louisville called “Doomscroll” are using their art as a way for the community to process what we’re seeing, on the screen and off.
Grady Goods Artpunk Gallery’s new exhibit features art work that depict how politics impact local communities. In one piece titled “Judgement Day,” Jeffrey Epstein drags Donald Trump to hell. In another, a doe lies in a patch of gray with text along the side: “You will not kill my softness.” This is the work’s title. These two different works in this show show opposite sides of the spectrum.
Gallery owner Jae Grady sees “Doomscroll: A Group Art Show About Resistance, Grief and Resilience” as an unofficial follow up to a 2024 exhibit he participated in at Aurora Gallery and Boutique. That show, he said, shifted the focus toward how current events affect local communities.
“It was healing,” Grady said. “It was such a powerful show that we thought, wouldn’t
it be fun if we did a second version of that show here.”
With nearly 100 participating artists, “Doomscroll” marks one of the gallery’s largest exhibitions. Its opening is 6 to 10 p.m., April 3, and the exhibit runs from through May 3.
For Grady, constant exposure to bad news and nonstop doomscrolling made one thing clear: artists needed a space to respond freely.
“People stay engaged when they’re pissed off,” he said. “Which is what I love about an open-community show like this. It’s very cathartic,” he said.
The art reflects diverse experiences — from immigrant stories to generational histories.
Alexandra Rumsey is the exhibit’s co-curator.
“I hope [the] artwork makes people feel something,” Rumsey said, “no matter what — political or not.”
Some artists draw directly from world events and reflect it in their work. Art and politics have always been intertwined and often given voices to those who cannot always safely vocalize their opinions. While inviting people to feel something, the show also helps viewers recognize they are not alone in any collective grief they are experiencing.
Scrolling through social media and many posts refer to a common source of that grief: videos of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. Their actions have sparked strong reactions, and become part of
be fun if we did a second version of that show here.”
With nearly 100 participating artists, “Doomscroll” marks one of the gallery’s largexhibitions. Its opening is 6 to 10 p.m., April 3, and the exhibit runs from through May 3.
For Grady, constant exposure to bad news nonstop doomscrolling made one thing clear: artists needed a space to respond freely.
“People stay engaged when they’re pissed off,” he said. “Which is what I love about an open-community show like this. It’s very cathartic,” he said.
The art reflects diverse experiences — from immigrant stories to generational histories. Alexandra Rumsey is the exhibit’s co-curator.
hope [the] artwork makes people feel something,” Rumsey said, “no matter what political or not.”
Some artists draw directly from world events and reflect it in their work. Art and politics have always been intertwined and often given voices to those who cannot always safely vocalize their opinions. While inviting people to feel something, the show also helps viewers recognize they are not alone in any collective grief they are experiencing. Scrolling through social media and many posts refer to a common source of that grief: videos of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. Their actions have sparked strong reactions, and become part of
lies on a gray patch, a blue ribbon around its neck with printed words extolling, “You will not kill my softness.” The colors and composition convey quiet defiance, resilience and hope in the face of struggle. Gillespie, born and raised in Louisville, creates art that offers a softer response to today’s harsh political climate. Through her work, she encourages people to hold on to their compassion, even in the face of anger and suffering.
“We have to hold on to that piece of ourselves that lets us be that kind human that cares about one another,” Gillespie said. Her hopeful outlook paints a softer picture next to some of the more pessimistic pieces.
the bigger conversation around immigration. These videos have drawn attention to the political issues that artists in “Doomscrool” address in their art.
References to these events show up in artist Olivia Bunger’s work. Born and raised in Louisville, Bunger has created art since she was a child and describes herself as a found-collage artist who uses repurposed materials.
The moment Bunger saw ICE entering people’s homes and violating their rights, she knew she had to make her feelings physical. In a piece called “[expletive] ICE,” Bunger uses a bag of ice as the canvas. She pulls from recycled materials — anything she can find, even old magazines. The piece depicts the President as a clown and incorporates text scribbled by hand that reads, “Surveillance = Undertones.” It expresses her anger toward ICE through the layered imagery. Bunger uses blues to represent people’s tears, contrasted with dark reds symbolizing blood and frustration.
“It’s also an act of resistance, using joy to fight this all-encompassing, overwhelming hellscape we’re in,” Bunger said.
While Bunger channels her anger into her layered art, Jessica Cipriani’s piece reflects on
the apathy she sees around her. Her piece titled “Just Keep Scrolling,” painted in vibrant acrylics, shows fire raging outside a train car filled with people of different races and religions indicated by their attire. Inside, figures stare at their phones, detached from the chaos around them. Muted grays and blues create a sense of disconnection in an image of the world burning where no one notices. In 2009, Cipriani moved from California to Louisville. She said her work reflects what she’s seen over time, with class disparities and capitalism standing out as the issues she believes people need to be aware of. She uses art as an outlet to process the apathy she sees around her.
“That’s literally what I was seeing every day is just people walking around like zombies staring at their phones,” Cipriani said, “while I feel like everything around us is burning.”
The contrasts between Cipriani and Bunger’s art are representative of our own diverse reactions in times of trial and tribulation.
Another perspective of today’s struggles comes from artist Kim Gillespie. She painted her art on a heart-shaped wood panel using soft purples and earthy browns featuring branches and moths in the background. A doe
Another take on handling these tumultuous times comes from artist Grant Goodwine, who moved to Louisville from rural Illinois in 2018. His art, like his piece in the exhibit’s “Judgement Day,” tackles politics with pessimistic satire that can make you laugh. His wit turns serious issues into entertainment, while still providing insightful commentary into the country’s challenges. Inspired by the release of the Epstein files and fueled by his frustration with political hypocrisy, Goodwine channels his anger into what he defines as therapeutic art.
“I try to direct a punch,” Goodwine said, “and I hope you get a laugh out of it and find unity in the community that also sees the ridiculousness of everything.”
“Doomscroll” shows that outrage, sorrow, and resilience aren’t purely individual. The combination of optimism and pessimism in the exhibit creates a satiric and serious tone that reverberates throughout. Whether it’s expressed through Cipriani’s depiction of apathy, Gillespie’s quiet defiance, Bunger’s fiery resistance, or Goodwine’s sharp humor, these voices can ripple through communities and spark dialogue, reflection and connection.
Communities across America are feeling these kinds of stories, not just Louisville. With themes of injustice, grief, and hope, “Doomscroll” highlights how art can unite people across different experiences, spark conversations and inspire change.
Doomscroll: A Group Art Show About Resistance, Grief and Resilience. Grady Goods Artpunk Gallery 976 Barret Ave.
Opening Reception: Friday April 3, 6 to 10 p.m Exhibit: April 3 to May 3
Grady Goods Artpunk Gallery on Louisville’s Barret Avenue, where the exhibit “Doomscroll: A Group Art Show About Resistance, Grief and Resilience” is showing this month.
Artist Olivia Bunger’s work “(expletive) ICE,” part of the new exhibit.
Artist Grant Goodwine’s work “Judgement Day,” part of the new exhibit.
Artist Jessica Cipriani’s work “Just Keep Scrolling,” part of the new exhibit.
Krystala Allen, Arts Angle Newsroom.
April 8-21
ROB BREZSNY
ARIES (March 21-April 19): Unexpected deliverance? Lucky rides? Beginner’s grace? Dreamy, gleaming replacements? To the untrained eye, it may look like you are bending cosmic law in your favor. In truth, you’re simply redeeming the backlog of blessings you earned in the past—acts of quiet generosity and unselfish hardship that never got their proper reward. Serendipitous leaps? Divine detours? Shortcuts to victory? Welcome the uncanny gifts, Aries, even if they’re not what you expected.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): The current phase of your destiny could disturb you if you’re not super patient. Life seems to be teasing you with promises that then go into hiding. You’ve been having to master the art of living on the edge between the BIG RED YES and the GREY MURKY NO. My advice: Imagine your predicament as an intriguing riddle, not a frustrating ambiguity. See if you can figure out how to grow wiser and stronger in response to the evasive mysteriousness. My prediction: You will grow wiser and stronger.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Why it’s always triple-great to be a Gemini, drawing on an abundance of mercurial wisdom: 1. You excel at the art of translation and are skilled at finding common ground between different realms. You can oscillate and flow between the lyrical and the pragmatic, the insightful and the comic, the detailed focus and the big picture. 2. You know that consistency is overrated. Your capacity to harbor multiple perspectives is a superpower. 3. You get to be both the question and the answer, proving that wholeness includes all the fragments. All the aptitudes I just named should be your featured approaches in the coming weeks.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): The saga of Troy is one of the most renowned tales from ancient Greece. Yet the fabled setting of Homer’s epic tale, the Iliad, was a settlement of just seven acres. Let that detail resound for you in the coming weeks. It’s an apt metaphor for what’s taking shape in your life. A seemingly modest situation could become the stage for a mythic turning point. An experience that starts small may grow into a story of immense and lasting significance.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Many people have a favorite number they regard as lucky. Some choose it because it showed up at a major turning point in their life. Others derive it from their birthday or from the numerology of their name. Plenty are drawn to “master numbers” like 33, 77, or 99. Personally, I give three numbers my special love: 555, the square root of -2, and 1.61803, also known as the golden ratio in Fibonacci-related patterns. I hope this nudges your imagination, Leo.
Your fortunes are shifting now in the direction of an unusual kind of luck, so it’s a potent moment to select a new lucky number. I suggest that you also choose a new guiding animal, a fresh initiation name, and a charged symbol to serve as your personal emblem.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Do you know what ignorance is causing you to suffer? Is there a teacher or teaching that could provide an antidote? I suspect you are very close to attracting or stumbling upon the guidance you need to escape the fog: maybe a therapist who can help you undo a hurtful pattern, a mentor to inspire your quest to do work you long to do, or a spiritual friend who reminds you that you’re not merely your latest drama. Your task in the coming weeks is not to obsess on fixing everything at once, but to seek one or two sources of wisdom that illuminate your blind spots and educate your heart.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): I’m an honorary Libra, with three planets and my lunar north node in your sign. So I speak with authority when I declare that fostering harmony, which is a Libran gift, is only superficially about smoothing away friction and asymmetry. More importantly, it’s about rearranging reality so that beauty is a central feature. The goal is to accomplish practical wonders by stimulating grace and fluency. When I’m best expressing my Libra qualities, I don’t ask how I can please everyone, but rather, how I can serve maximum goodness and intelligence. Here’s another tip to being a potent Libra: Know that your enchanting charm is a lubricant for the truth, not mere decoration. Here’s your homework: Beautify one system you use every day so it serves you with less friction and more pleasure.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): You are potentially an expert in creative destruction. You have a knack for eliminating what’s unnecessary and even obstructive. What has outlived its usefulness? You’re prone to home in on energy drains and unleash transformative energy. And yes, this intensity of yours may unnerve people who prefer comfortable numbness—but not me. I love you to exult in your talent for locating beauty and truth that are too complicated for others. I applaud you when you descend into the darkness to retrieve dicey treasures. PS: You’re not shadowy or negative. You’re a specialist in the authentic love that refuses to enable delusion or sanction decay.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): My Sagittarian friend Artemisia bemoans “the scarcity of collective delight.” She wishes there were more public acclaim for stories about breakthrough joys, miraculous marvels, and surprising healings. Why are we so riveted by
reports of misery, malaise, and muck, yet so loath to recognize and celebrate everything that’s working really well? She also mourns the odd habit among some educated folks to mistake cynicism for brilliance. If you don’t mind, Sagittarius, I’m assigning you to be an antidote in the coming weeks. Your task is to gather an overflowing harvest of lavish pleasure, fun epiphanies, and richly meaningful plot twists. Don’t hoard any of it. Spread it around to everyone you encounter.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): “Id” is a psychoanalytic term. It’s the part of the psyche where basic instincts, needs, and drives reside. On the one hand, the id supplies a huge charge of psychic energy. On the other hand, it mostly operates outside conscious awareness. Consider the implications: The fierce, pulsing center of your life force is largely hidden from you. Most of the time, that veil is protective. Encountering the id directly can be overwhelming or unsettling. But in the coming weeks, you Capricorns are poised to cultivate a more interesting and righteous relationship with your high-voltage core. Do you dare? Treat your id as a brilliant but untamed creature. Extend a careful, curious invitation for it to show you more about itself.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): In architecture, a “clerestory” is a high window that brings light into a space without compromising privacy. It illuminates without exposing.
I suggest that you find metaphorical equivalents for clerestories, Aquarius. Look for ways to let spaciousness and brightness into your world without disturbing your boundaries. Your assignment is to avoid swinging between total lockdown and overexposure. The best option: strategic vulnerability and selective transparency. Allow people to see selected parts of you without giving them access to everything. Be both open and discriminating.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): In 1903, the Wright brothers flew a primitive model of the first airplane. How did they prepare the way for their spectacular milestone? Their workshop was a bicycle shop, not a hightech, state-of-the-art lab. By building and fixing bikes, they learned key insights about flying machines. The lesson for you, Pisces, is that mastery in one area may be transferable to breakthroughs in another. With this in mind, I invite you to evaluate how your current skills, including those you take for granted, might be repurposed. Methods you developed in one context could solve problems in another. You shouldn’t underestimate the value of what you already know.
Homework: Even if you don’t send it, write a letter to the person you admire most.
Newsletter.FreeWillAstrology.com
freewillastrology@freewillastrology.com BrezsnyAstrology@gmail.com
BY DAN SAVAGE
Hey Dan: Which brand makes the best glass dildos? Asking for a friend!
“Glass toys are not only gorgeous but also provide an amazing experience thanks to their weight, smooth surface, temperature-play options, and compatibility with any kind of lubricant,” said Jeneen Doumitt, the owner of SheBop, a Portland-based sex toy shop. “One of our favorite brands is Crystal Delights, a small glass toy maker based in Washington that offers a wide array of products at various price points. Best known for their butt plugs, they also have dildo options such as the Galaxy Curve. For more options and reasons why glass is a fantastic choice, check out our blog post here: She Bop’s Guide to Glass Toys!” You can follow SheBop on Instagram @ SheBopTheShop and shop for toys on their website or at one of their two silicone-dick-andmortar locations in Portland.
Hey Dan: My on again/off again ex of many years was recently widowed. We had our difficulties, but we also had some great sex. I was thinking of making one more run at her. What would be a considerate time to wait before approaching her?
Judging from a recent question from a recently widowed caller and some helpful feedback from two women who’d recently lost their husbands, widows’ fire — “a disorienting, intense, and unwelcome surge of sexual desire occurring after partner loss,” according to the Association for Death Education and Counseling — kicks in at about six months. I would suggest sending your condolences at least two months before sending a “Hey, you up?” text. (And, yes, there’s a dating app for widows and widowers.)
Hey Dan: My wife of sixteen years has begun to lose interest in sex in a BIG way. We are on completely different wavelengths regarding the frequency of sex and the variety of sex. (Particularly pegging.) How do I remain in this marriage when I feel that a HUGE part of me is being neglected?
Before the commenters jump in: Are you doing something wrong? Are you doing everything wrong? Are you neglecting your personal hygiene? Are you doing your fair share of the household labor? And when you do have sex — which isn’t as often or as varied as you would like — is your wife getting off? (You only mention one sex act — pegging — and while many women enjoy pegging their male partners, none of your wife’s nerve endings are located in a dildo.) If you’re doing everything right and the sex is infrequent and unfulfilling, you have four options: ask for permission to get it elsewhere, cheat and get it elsewhere, leave in the hopes of getting it elsewhere, or stay and suck it up.
Hey Dan: How do you find a third for a threesome?
If you’re a gay couple, you can go to a bar or bathhouse or create a joint couples account
on Threads or Instagram and wait for one of the “normalize monogamy in the gay community” boys to slide into your DMs. If you’re a straight couple, you can get on a hookup app like Feeld or 3Fun or #Open.
Hey Dan: Forty-year age gaps?
I will not tolerate any hate being directed at Dick Van Dyke — that man is a national treasure — because he’s married to a woman who is 46 years younger than he is. Leave Dick alone.
Hey Dan: Is there an evolutionary reason for prostate pleasure/orgasms?
“Great question,” said Dr. Matilda Brindle, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Oxford. “I wish there was more research into this — just as I wish there was more research into the female orgasm. (People just throw their hands up and look the other way because, hey, if it’s not a penis, who gives a shit!?!) I’m no expert in this, but my answer would probably be that the prostate is densely packed with nerves because it’s crucial for ejaculation, which requires surprisingly precise motor control. For obvious reasons, ejaculating is pretty important for reproduction! So, given that the prostate is a control center for ejaculation, prostate pleasure is probably closely linked to the same neural circuitry that makes penile orgasms feel good. It’s possible that prostate-only orgasms could be a way of reinforcing prostate massage, which might help relieve conditions like prostatitis, but there’s no solid evidence for this — scientists need to get researching!”
Follow Dr. Brindle on BlueSky @matildabrindle and on Instagram @DrMatildaBrindle.
Hey Dan: My metamour is a shitty person. Should I break up with my partner if I can’t stand her?
I have to assume you’re not the primary partner… because playing the “Her Or Me” card would be a primary partner’s first move in the case of a shitty metamour. And if you’re willing to dump your partner to get away from their other partner without playing the HOM card, that means you could take or leave your partner — whether you’re the primary or not — which is a good sign you should leave.
Hey Dan: How old is too old for a sex club?
It depends on the club, it depends on the night (some sex clubs have nights for under 30s or under 40s), and it depends on your tolerance for shitty techno music and rejection — but the latter is true for everybody, regardless of age.
Hey Dan: Is anal fisting just not possible for some people given their physiology?
Where there’s a will, there’s a way — except when it comes to fisting, which simply isn’t possible for some people. Which is fine! Not
everything has to be for (or get shoved into) everybody.
Hey Dan: I helped a chick I’m dating move and discovered they have a large Nazi flag in their closet. Run?
Yes — but Captain Von Trapp that thing first.
Hey Dan: Best pegging position for a newbie?
Missionary, doggie, cowgirl: one or all of the usuals should work. Go slow, use lots of lube, and let the person being penetrated — the peggee — set the pace!
Hey Dan: Am I the only person creeped out by heterosexual couples who look exactly alike?
You are not — at least the people behind the popular Siblings Or Dating? account on Instagram, which has more than a million followers, seem pretty creeped out by it too.
Hey Dan: What do you think about the A-Ball from Polari Labs, which is being billed as the first alternative to douching?
So, the A-Ball — a product that does not exist but which is nevertheless being hailed as alternative to douching — is a gelatin egg up you’re supposed to shove up ass right before you want to have anal sex. (Think a menstrual cup designed to hold back shit instead of blood.) Some people seem to think it will work — their Kickstarter has raised more than a quarter of a million dollars — but the professionals are dubious. “I don’t see how someone can shove a ball up their ass far enough to block poop from coming down,” said Dr. Carlton Thomas, a gastroenterologist, award-winning queer health advocate, and the co-host of Butt Honestly, a podcast that covers backdoor play and health. “I’m concerned about causing obstructions — I’m also concerned about the potential for ‘the dam to burst’ in the middle of sex and there being a giant mess. But I will reserve final judgement until I get a sample.”
P.S. Shoving a gelatin egg up your ass — eggs that melt as the gelatin comes to body temp (hence Dr. Carlton’s fear of the dam bursting) — is not new. People who fantasize about aliens laying eggs in them have been using “ovipositor dildos” dildos for years… and making their own gelatin eggs for laying purposes. So, anyone who wants to shove a gelatin ball up their ass to see if it can replace douching (and pray that egg doesn’t melt too soon) don’t have to wait for Polari Labs to release their gelatin eggs. There’s already a recipe here.
Hey Dan: Everyone on Feeld seems to be shaved or waxed. I rock a trimmed bush. Do I need to put a disclaimer on my profile?
You do not.
Hey Dan: I went through my partner’s phone and found nothing. I feel guilty about it and don’t know if I should confess.
You should not.
Hey Dan: Is it normal for a man’s orgasms to be stronger in his fifties than they were in his twenties?
It is not.
Hey Dan: How does one find a bodybuilder to worship in Minneapolis?
TheBestFlex.com comes highly recommended by a few of my muscle-worshipping friends.
Hey Dan: I’m nonbinary AFAB and I overheard my newish and very binary AMAB masc-presenting cis male partner tell a cis friend of theirs that they were into me despite — and I quote — “the annoying nonbinary stuff.” They had been drinking when they said this. Is it over?
If you can’t respect your partner’s gender identity by using his preferred pronouns — surely someone who was assigned male at birth, presents as masc, and is “very binary” uses he/him pronouns — then I don’t think you have a future together.
P.S. You opted for fourteen syllables and a redundancy (your new male partner was assigned male at birth?) when “boyfriend” (two syllables) was sitting right there. Using a lot of unnecessary jargon is actually kind of annoying — which means your boyfriend might have a point. I’m not suggesting that “nonbinary stuff” is annoying in any objective sense — it most certainly is not — but there could be something annoying about the way you’re doing it.
Hey Dan: Is it a red flag if someone describes all their exes as “crazy”?
Definitely a red flag. And while people have had the misfortune of dating three or four crazy motherfuckers in a row — stranger things have happened — someone who doesn’t realize that describing all their exes as crazy even if all their exes were crazy is waving three different other red flags: no common sense, no judgment, no filters.
Hey Dan: I’m into a very specific kink that I’ve never told anyone about. How late into “dating” is too late to bring it up?
In general, kink cards should be faceup on the table no later than three months in — assuming the person you’re “dating” is someone you met on a vanilla dating app or in a vanilla setting, e.g. at work, at school, through friends. But it would help to know what very specific kink we’re talking about. If you’re into feet or fuzzy handcuffs — if you’re into a kink that a GGG vanilla person might be willing and able to explore — you should lay those kink cards down without hesitation. But if you’re into something more extreme… if you’re into shit or puke or aliens laying eggs in your ass… you probably shouldn’t be dating vanilla people (or presumed-to-be-vanilla people) at all. Instead, you should find people
who share your very specific kink online and date them instead.
Hey Dan: I’m straight and monogamously married. I only just came to the realization — at age 28, five years into my marriage — that I am asexual and sex averse. I enjoy being wanted, and my husband definitely wants me, but I can’t go through the motions of having sex anymore now that I know who I truly am. Is my marriage over?
You wanna be wanted but you don’t wanna be had…
I wouldn’t say your marriage is definitely over, but I would say you’re obligated to release your husband from the monogamous commitment he made to you back when he thought — and you thought — you weren’t revolted by the thought of having sex with him. If you don’t wanna fuck him but can’t stand the thought of him fucking anyone else, have the decency to leave him — don’t draw it out.
Hey Dan: What are the sleeping arrangements in your house? How can three people sleep in one bed?!? I must know!
The sleeping arrangements in my house are… none of your business. But if you must know:
me and my boyfriend and my husband and his boyfriend share a tiny bed in our living room just like Charlie’s grandparents in Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
Hey Dan: Bi-cis male confused about douching. This one guy insists I clean out “until it’s clear” and gets squicked out if there’s a tiny speck of shit on his dick after. But I’ve been told that the kind of deep cleaning my friend wants — using a shower attachment — can be harmful to intestinal linings and such. There’s contradictory advice everywhere I look online. Figured you’d know someone who knows what’s best? I like getting buffed by my pal but I don’t want to screw up my guts.
“Cleaning out ‘until it’s clear’ shouldn’t require deep rinsing or a shower attachment,” said Dr. Evan Goldstein, a proctologist and the founder and CEO of Bespoke Surgical. “Consistent fiber intake — through a daily supplement, high-fiber diet, and proper hydration — can do most of the heavy lifting by making bowel movements more complete. Overusing a shower attachment can irritate the rectal lining and disrupt your natural balance, so if you douche, stick to a small bulb with an isotonic and iso-osmolar solution. Also, check out Future Method for all things
anal, also with a science of sex educational hub. And remember: expecting surgical-level spotlessness every time is more about your partner’s expectations than your body.”
In other words: It’s a butt — and while proper prep can help you avoid shit, sometimes shit happens. And if a single speck of shit ruins things for “this one guy,” that one guy shouldn’t be fucking your butt or anyone else’s.
Follow Dr. Evan Goldstein on Instagram @ DrEvanGoldstein and learn more about his practice at BespokeSurgical.com.
Hey Dan: How about one for us old farts? I’m an old wanker who’ll never see 81 again — but I’m in good health. Female friends these days include some older women who are interested in companionship, but I have no interest whatsoever in sex. For this old wanker, sex these days involves marijuana, pornography, and masturbation. Is this practice good or bad for my health? What about my prostate?
Jacking off is good for you! It’s good for your morale and your prostate, as ejaculating frequently reduces your risk of developing prostate cancer. But even if getting high, watching porn, and blowing loads shortened your lifespan — which it doesn’t — you’ve
already beaten the actuarial/life-expectancy odds. We all gotta go at some point, gramps, and there are worse ways to go than on a THC-enhanced wave of oxytocin.
Hey Dan: I’m a straight woman with a bisexual boyfriend. I want to watch him suck a cock. He won’t let me watch in person and he won’t let me see videos he has on his phone of him sucking cock. He says it feels creepy and he doesn’t want me fetishizing his bisexuality.
Search through your boyfriend’s social media. If he was one of those bi guys complaining on Twitter (around Christmas 2024) that “only” one-in-five straight women were open to dating bisexual men (cry me a river, bi guys: only one-in-twenty men are open to dating men!) then he’s not allowed to complain about a girlfriend who’s so into him being bisexual that she wants to watch him suck a dick.
Got problems? Yes, you do! Email your question for the column to mailbox@savage.love!
Or record your question for the Savage Lovecast at savage.love/askdan!
Podcasts, columns and more at Savage.Love
BY ENRIQUE HENESTROZA ANGUIANO AND MATTHEW STOCK
Edited by Will Shortz
Enrique Henestroza Anguiano, of Oakland, Calif., is a data scientist. Matthew Stock, of Gainesville, Fla., is a master’s student in school counseling. They met through the online indie crossword community as fans of each other’s puzzle blogs. This puzzle was constructed entirely over email, but as Matthew writes, ‘‘We’re long overdue for a video call!’’
Note: Once filled in, the contents of the six shaded squares will spell a word associated with this puzzle’s theme.
Across 1 New dog owner’s purchase
6 Dog-adoption grp.
11 Pop group with an ‘‘army’’
14 Setting for ‘‘Heidi’’
18 ‘‘We’re not standin’ in their way!’’
19 Pepper grinder?
20 Put to work
21 Word with good or blood
22 Extra lives or additional gems, for a freemium game
24 [Gasp!]
26 Pastoral setting?
27 ‘‘Who am I? Two-four-six oh____!’’ (‘‘Les Misérables’’ lyric)
28 Cracker shape
29 ‘‘____-Olution’’ (2002 rap album)
30 Avoided a tag, in a way
31 ‘‘The kids these days have gotten way better than me’’
35 Two-million-year-old discovery in 2022 in the frozen soil of Greenland
36 Cereal bit
37 Something to butter up
38 Text communication inits.
41 Shaggy hairstyle
42 File-creating command
44 Actress Thompson
48 Former minor-league team that played at Aloha Stadium
51 Spot for food and craft beer
53 Opt
54 Significant stretch
55 Crane look-alike
57 ‘‘Do you really see me that way?’’
58 Range rover . . or something to
do in a Range Rover
59 Craft that uses drafts
63 What a cracker might crack
64 Something for the rest of the military?
65 Scrabble bonus seen six times in this puzzle
70 ‘‘The Chase’’ channel
72 Was published
73 In which ‘‘Ciamar a tha thu?’’ means ‘‘How are you?’’
74 Booped body parts
77 Member of the fam
78 Count for a jury
80 I, in German
81 Slip past
82 Product lines?
84 Something delivered by Jake Tapper or Anderson Cooper
89 Kofi of the U.N.
90 Pan feature
91 Yank
92 When repeated, [‘‘Is this thing on?’’]
93 Battle royale
96 Nickname next to a heart emoji, perhaps
97 Cyrillic letter pronounced like the ‘‘zz’’ of ‘‘pizza’’
98 ‘‘The English Patient’’ actress
104 Attenuated
108 ‘‘South,’’ in Hanoi
109 Place to chill, paradoxically
110 Home of the Hockey Hall of Fame: Abbr.
111 Device that works with CarPlay
113 Single guy?
115 Executive’s acumen
117 Apt domain for basketball’s King James
118 Scanning inits.
119 Something to believe in
120 Didn’t just assume
121 Part of the body to slap
122 Queen ____
123 To be, in Spanish
124 Easily irritated
Down
1 Film-archive bits
2 Kidney-related
3 Maker of the Flashback console
4 Lukewarm
5 Birds with deep booming calls
6 ‘‘Better Call Saul’’ channel
7 Very sexy
8 Texas city that’s home to FritoLay
9 Lawyer’s bundle of work
10 ‘‘____ you not entertained?’’
11 ‘‘Au contraire!’’
12 Cannon fodder, at times
13 Appear that one may
14 Urgent time to start gathering tax documents: Abbr.
15 TikTok star Gray
16 B.Y.U.’s city
17 Scatter about
21 ‘‘Here’s the thing . . ’’
23 A group of them is called a ‘‘crash’’
25 Texter’s reaction button
28 Post
32 Syrupy covering for ham
33 Protagonist in ‘‘2001: A Space Odyssey’’
34 Crockpot filler
35 ____ Mendeleev, creator of the periodic table
38 ‘‘____ All That’’ (1990s teen comedy)
39 Soda-shop order
40 Vegetable often eaten without utensils
Aviculture : bird :: heliciculture
49 Taiwanese tech giant
50 Pink-furred cat in ‘‘Garfield’’
51 Antipasto dish of tomatoes on grilled bread
52 Campus military org.
56 Make more meaningful
60 B.S., for one
61 Letter that rhymes with the letters before and after it
62 Direction giver’s suggestion: Abbr.
66 Jab
67 Tony winner Renée ____ Goldsberry
68 High-strung
69 Coin collection
70 Enclosed rhyme scheme
71 Cereal bit
75 Poet St. Vincent Millay
76 Creep out, perhaps
78 Counterpart of ‘‘been there’’
79 Sgt. or cpl.
83 Engine parts
85 Bigwig
86 Coup d’____
87 Time when most people are asleep
88 One birthed in Perth
90 Shrug or wave
94 Sekhmet, the Egyptian goddess of war, takes the form of one
95 Place in a crypt
98 Announce one’s presence, in a way
99 Invisible household hazard
100 ‘‘My luck’s bound to turn around!’’
101 Adorable sort
102 Beginning stage
103 Crete’s highest point, for short
104 The ones nearby
105 Indicates ‘‘Out of my way!’’
106 Miniature map
107 High-maintenance, say
112 Exam with ‘‘calculator’’ and ‘‘no calculator’’ math sections
114 G.I.’s rations
115 Dating inits.
116 Negative Boolean operator
Last week’s answers
Rikishi compete in it
Slightly
