Modern Louisville

The Power of Passion $3.75 MAR//APR

FOUR WOMEN DISCUSS EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY INCLUSION IN THE WORKPLACE

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Creative Director Wil Heuser Production Director Joanna Hite Shelton Style Editor Lori Kommor

Advertising Operations Director Bridgette Rhea Staff Writer Remy Sisk Ben Gierhart

Graphic Design Malissa Koebel

Hannah Krill

Lead Account Executive Laurie Pfeiffer Lennon Account Executive Judy Royce

Receptionist Holly Griffitt Neeld Distribution Sales Coordinator Rocko Jerome

Circulation Administrator John Aurelius

Photographer Antonio Pantoja Crystal Ludwick

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Contributor Nicholas Moore

March • April 2016 ||| MODERN LOUISVILLE

For advertising information or to order a subscription, call 502.897.8900 Modern Louisville™ is published bi-monthly by Blue Equity Publishing Louisville, LLC, P.O. Box 3222, Louisville, Ky. 40201.

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U.S. Postage Service ID: Louisville (ISSN 2380-3355) Email: editor@modernlouisville.com Website: www.modernlouisville.com POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Modern Louisville; 735 East Main Street; Louisville, Ky. 40202. ©2015 Modern Louisville™

The Power of Passion page 8

The Role of Gender page 30

A Providential Partnership page 18

table of contents MARCH • APRIL 2016

A Planet for all People page 22

Character Sketch page 36

King of Kings page 38

A View From Both Sides page 42

The Insight of Failure page 48

Dating Dudes in Lou page 52

From Silent Films to Star Wars page 54

MAP Louisville page 63

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the POWER of

PASSION Written by REMY SISK // Photography by ANTONIO PANTOJA

Major change does not happen organically.

For there to be a significant shift in mentality and policy, specific individuals must fight against the current to make progress a reality.

Brown-Forman, an internationally known Louisville-based company, has always been on the forefront of forward thinking; however, thanks to several passionate employees – four of whom Modern Louisville was lucky enough to sit down with – the company has become only makes astute business decisions but one that always does the right thing.

Kirsten Hawley, chief human resources officer; Emma Hutchens, regional compensation manager supporting corporate groups; Lottie Chestnut, Jack Daniel’s global marketing director; and La Toya McClellan, people development manager for global production, are four extremely intelligent and driven women who have ardently fought for diversity inclusion and equality at Brown-Forman. Although they each, through their own journeys, have made contributions to this forward movement, it has not been together as a cohesive unit.

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“We are not a formal group,” Hawley asserts. “We are women who work in various parts of the business who support women, who support African-Americans, who support Latinos and Latinas, who support LGBT employees. So I think what you have here is a group of women who are very committed to diversity in all its forms – formally through the work we do in our Employee Resource Groups and informally in just how we come together as colleagues.”

Hawley, at 19 years, has been with the company the longest out of these four and

the POWER of PASSION

has seen absolutely extraordinary growth since she began at Brown-Forman. But it was in 2007 with the hiring of Ralph De Chabert as the company’s chief diversity officer that she really noticed how unique the company’s commitment to diversity inclusion was. “To have such an expert in the field choose to work at Brown-Forman – and that there was a job title and real work that started to coalesce under his leadership – that to me was a defining moment,” she recounts.

With him, De Chabert brought the formal creation of Employee Resource Groups or ERGs, one of which was GROW – Growing Remarkable and Outstanding Women. Hawley’s first foray came in the form of membership in GROW. Her greater aspiration though was a leadership role in Bring Your Own Diversity (BYOD), the LGBTQ-focused group that was developed in 2009 and would later be rebranded as PRIDE. She eventually conveyed to De Chabert her interest in the position, but her passion for the fight for LGBTQ equality is longstanding and indeed personal.

Hawley has been a champion of LGBTQ rights from a young age thanks to one of her most influential family members. “My uncle is gay, and he is one of the most important people in my life,” she says. “And knowing his journey as a gay man and what he had to endure in many cases – I do this to honor him. That’s really where it comes from. I honor him and his partner every time I stand up for the LGBT community.”

Emma Hutchens’ story is similarly personal.

She arrived at Brown-Forman in 2008 but was not yet out as a lesbian to anyone save a few close friends. In 2010, however, Fabricia Mounce, a co-leader of BYOD, reached out to Hutchens and personally invited her to join the group. Hutchens was reluctant at first, but after much persisting, she gave in. “It was through the course

Kirsten Hawley chief human resources officer

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the POWER of PASSION

Emma Hutchens

regional compensation manager supporting corporate groups

of a number of conversations with her and a number of invites that I passed on because I just wasn’t ready yet – and then maybe it was maybe the sixth or seventh invite, I received that I said, ‘OK, I’m just going to do it. I’m going to show up.’ And I was out at work before I was out at home,” Hutchens recalls.

From there, Hutchens’ voice only got louder. She got more and more involved with diversity on campus and, in fact, learned that diversity and inclusion was actually a priority at the highest level of leadership at Brown-Forman. She still believed though, at her level, that homosexuality had a sort of covertness to it. So when she and another prominent voice for diversity, Jill Jones, were part of an ally drive, she never expected it to be as successful as it was.

Roughly 300 magnets that said, “I’m an ally” were ordered, and Hutchens

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remembers thinking only a few – if any – would be picked up. By the end of the event, only a few remained, which hit Hutchens hard simply because it represented a major shift in mentality. “The point was to make it visible, to have a marker around campus that it’s safe,” she explains. “A marker that it’s OK. So that people like me who hadn’t come out yet but wanted to could see – visibly see – that it’s OK.” And the visibility only increased. In 2010, Mounce had led the charge to take part in the Kentuckiana Pride Parade. She saw 12 people – which was a big number – show up to participate. But in 2015, roughly 65 attended and marched in their rainbow, Jack Daniel’s t-shirts. “It’s one thing to march in Louisville under the banner of Brown-Forman, but it’s something else entirely to march under the banner of Jack

the POWER of PASSION Daniel’s, our most well-known consumer brand,” maintains Hawley.

Chestnut, global marketing director for Jack Daniel’s, recalls the process of bringing the brand’s logo to Pride. “We simply approached it from the vision of the brand, which is ‘Make every friend a friend of Jack,’” she says. Meanwhile, Hutchens believes this moment is more representative of a larger truth at Brown-Forman. “That’s something I want to make sure we don’t understate, and that is it was just about asking the question,” she emphasizes. “I think it’s a theme here at Brown-Forman. It’s not that something won’t be supported – you just have to ask. Because while there’s always a strong business case for diversity, I think what makes Brown-Forman unique is that we’re doing it because it’s the right thing to do. Because we care.”

Perhaps, at least for Chestnut, there was

no greater illustration of Brown-Forman’s genuine care for its employees than when she received an assignment to go to China.

Chestnut’s partner, Brenda, is a cancer survivor, and Chestnut was trepidatious about going to a country where the government would not recognize Brenda as being under Chestnut’s healthcare plan. “So Brown-Forman made Brenda an employee in order to enable that medical card membership so that she could have her name solo and there would be no question should we need to have medical in China,” Chestnut recollects.

“That was phenomenal to me. It brings tears to my eyes every time I tell that story.”

Chestnut’s impact on the LGBTQ community on Brown-Forman actually started long before her China assignment – before she even arrived a the company, in fact. Whenever a new employee is about to

Lottie Chestnut Jack Daniel’s global marketing director

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the POWER of PASSION

Brown-Forman Received a

Perfect

2016 CORPORATE

EQUALITY INDEX

Corporate Equality Index Rating Criteria: • Prohibits Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation for All Operations • Prohibits Discrimination Based on Gender Identity or Expression for All Operations • Has Contractor/Vendor Non-Discrimination Standards that Include Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity • Offers Partner Health/Medical Insurance • Has Parity Across Other “Soft” Benefits for Partners • Offers Transgender-Inclusive Health Insurance Coverage • Has Firm-wide Organizational Competency Programs • Has Employer-Supported Employee Resource Group OR Firm-Wide Diversity Council • Would Support ERG if Employees Express Interest • Positively Engages the External LGBT Community • Has internal guidelines that prohibit philanthropic giving to non-religious organizations with an explicit policy of discrimination against LGBT people

• SOURCE: hrc.org/cei 12

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the POWER of PASSION

La Toya McClellan people development manager for global production

start at Brown-Forman, an internal email goes out, proclaiming “So-and-so and his wife moved to Louisville from…” and when Chestnut accepted her position at Brown-Forman four and a half years ago, the email went out saying, “Lottie and her partner…” – for the first time recognizing an LGBTQ relationship.

Hutchens recalls seeing the email: “It was loud. It was visible. It was palpable.

It had an impact on the conversation. Of course, Lottie didn’t even know!” However, that announcement was very much in line with how Chestnut wanted to live her life in Louisville, coming from a company where she worked for 19 years without anyone knowing she was gay. “I made a vow coming here that I was going to be truthful and live fully and just be free,” she expresses. “That was my personal journey.”

Now, Chestnut is immensely respected for her assertiveness and leadership in the LGBTQ community, but she doesn’t necessarily see herself in the same way others see her. “I feel like I show up,” she simply says. “I don’t use the word leader in the sense most people would use, but when you show up and make the time, that makes a statement, and that makes an impression. And you’re doing something by showing up.”

McClellan, while the newest to the

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the POWER of PASSION

Kirsten Hawley, Emma Hutchens, Lottie Chestnut and La Toya McClellan

company, has still been a part of this movement. She’s been with the company for almost four years but has always had an ingrained fervor for inclusion and equality.

“For me, diversity inclusion is a passion,” she affirms. “And I think it comes from values of equality but also experiencing being a minority personally. I feel like I get, from my perspective, what that feels like, and I really want to make sure I can be an ally to all groups because there’s a need to really galvanize together.”

And what can be accomplished when forces align is truly astounding. Take for example a momentous occasion that took place on a national level: the June 26, 2015 Supreme Court ruling on marriage equality.

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Hawley in particular recalls being so overcome with emotion and so desperate for an outlet for her feelings. On that day, she took to the company’s internal communications site and wrote a letter expressing how she felt about that moment in history and published it.

“And then I caught myself,” she says after posting it, “and I thought, ‘I’m the head of HR. Did I need to get anybody’s permission to do that?’ So I went to Paul, my boss, and said, ‘Do I need to run this kind of stuff by you? Because I recognize that I’m speaking from what I truly believe, but I don’t know if my beliefs align with the company’s beliefs so – are we good?’ And he said, ‘Of course we’re good.’”

the POWER of PASSION Hutchens recalls reading the letter and becoming similarly emotional. “That letter was one of the most impactful things that happened in our Brown-Forman LGBT diversity journey because that letter demonstrated on the day that we were all celebrating, so was our top ally in the company,” she describes. “It was monumental.”

Indeed, Hutchens goes on to say that the LGBTQ presence within the company has grown exponentially in recent years thanks to the voices of people like her and people like Hawley. “The level of visibility of the groups, of the allies has significantly changed,” she asserts.

“And that’s important for people like me, but it’s also important for parents who may have a daughter who’s just come out or a son or a trans child. But if they walk around and see Kirsten Hawley who is the chief human resources officer with [an ally pin] on her badge and an ‘I’m an Ally’ sticker on her door, then that signals that this is a safe place to have a conversation if you need to.”

But, as Hawley insists, this sort of tone of inclusion is set from the top. She and her colleagues have undoubtedly been proponents of change, but Brown-Forman as well has made diversity inclusion as priority in its policy-making. “The way that work is distributed across an executive leadership team says a lot about a company’s priorities, and it will also be an indicator of what will be discussed when executives get together to figure out how to grow the business,” she reasons.

“Our CEO has created a set of teams that are co-led by executives that speak to the most important priorities of our business, and they include the things you would expect from any global company, but they also include a diversity and inclusion team.”

So of all the things Brown-Forman could be discussing at the highest level, diversity is one of them, which speaks not only to the integrity of the business but to those like Hawley, Hutches, Chestnut and McClellan – those who have been advocates and voices for this sort of policy since they arrived.

And there’s no end in sight. “Right now, we are figuring out how to include a training module on unconscious bias for everyone who’s engaged in the interviewing process,” Hawley explains. “That to me shows the more exposure, learning, conversation, dialogue that can happen between and among people who care about this company and care about each other, the more we

can actually make change happen that doesn’t feel like people screaming at each other.”

Hutchens agrees that the culture of the company is truly conducive to this sort of dialogue as it’s right in its foundation. “All of these conversations are aligned with our core values, which are trust, respect, integrity, teamwork and excellence,” she says. “If we are really living by those core values, then that happens naturally.”

Again though, change of this magnitude cannot happen organically. It takes a team. Perhaps not a team, but a collective mentality of what the forward direction must be. As Chestnut points out, “Even the four of us – or the five including Jill Jones – we may not work directly with each other, but there’s a connection. Through interactions with each other indirectly, we somehow make each other different and better.”

What these women have done, with and without each other, is significant. It points to not only the progressive culture of Brown-Forman but to the power of passion. To what an individual’s

“ I think it’s a theme here at Brown-Forman. It’s not that something won’t be supported – you just have to ask.

Because while there’s always a strong business case for diversity, I think what makes Brown-Forman unique is that we’re doing it because it’s the right thing to do.

Because we care.” voice can do alone and even more so when that one voice becomes a chorus invoking change and equality.

And those voices make moments happen. Critical moments that direct the future. As Hutchens muses, it’s not one moment that has brought this company and ideology to where it is now; it’s the collection that makes the here-and-now what it is. “If there were one moment, it would be disingenuous,” she asserts. “That’s one event.

This is a collection of behaviors and actives and reinforcements that demonstrate this is who we are. It’s not what we’re doing – it’s who we are.”

Fashion provided by

MODERN LOUISVILLE ||| March • April 2016

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ChaRaCtER sKetCh Missy Vitale WritteN by wiL HeuSer • pHotO by antonio Pantoja

Some characters are drawn, others are drawn to them.

Missy Vitale is the immediate image of confidence. Often seen in jeans, a button-up and a bow tie, Vitale is definitely the type of character who draws you in. Upon first glance, you can tell this woman is a leader. Her energy and sense of fun can command the attention of any crowd. A mover and a shaker, Missy is constantly on the go. When she’s not working as an IT project manager for Healthcare First, she devotes 99.9 percent of her free time to charity.

If you are lucky enough to catch a moment with this powerhouse, you’ll see that her leadership suggests a social luminary rather than a commander in chief.

Although born in North Canton, Ohio, Vitale was raised in Louisville from the third grade on. One of three siblings, she grew up in a very diverse family. “My mother was the ‘welcome wagon’ of the community. She kept my brother, sister and me diverse and always allowed us to be who we are. My brother’s a little bit rock and roll, my sisters a lil’ bit country and I’m the gay one,” she laughs.

“We’re all very different but love each other very much.”

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“During the late ’80s and early ’90s, I lost so many wonderful friends to [HIV/ AIDS]. I saw so many kind, generous people who, at the end of their life, were left with no generosity.

So I became heavily involved with numerous HIV/AIDS charities.”

- M I S S Y V I TA L E -

Although she was encouraged to be authentic, knowing oneself at a young age can be a difficult challenge, especially during the 1980s. In middle school, Vitale adopted the nickname “George” and was an all star on the little league softball scene: “I was absolutely a tomboy, but I definitely felt pressure not to be. I remember in the eighth grade, I bought a ‘clap purse’ and tried to fit in with all the other girls.” From then, throughout her high school years, she kept up with the fashion trends but never stopped playing sports.

It wasn’t until college at the University of Kentucky that Vitale really broke free of the pressure to fit in. “I think being gay is an important part of my personality. Up until my sophomore year in college, being gay was kept very quiet. I had no gay friends. There was a girl in my dorm who was ‘out,’ and one night, she took me to a gay bar in Lexington called The Bungalow,” she recalls. “I danced and twirled the night away, and for the first time in my life, I felt totally free.”

After ditching efforts to fit in, the values Vitale’s mother instilled in her as a child rose to the surface. “My mother always told me there wasn’t anything I couldn’t do in life, and throughout my life, I’ve never let

go of that mentality,” she maintains. “I may have tried to hide it, but it’s always been in me.” The instilled values from her mother propelled Vitale to be a leader as she transitioned from college to the work world.

After graduating from college in the ’90s, Vitale charged her way back to Louisville and, as she states, “The liberation kept coming.”

During the ’90s, Vitale worked as a wellness consultant and moved to Chicago. Her time there opened up doors to new friends and charitable organizations. “During the late ’80s and early ’90s, I lost so many wonderful friends to [HIV/AIDS]. I saw so many

kind, generous people who, at the end of their life, were left with no generosity,” Missy states as to why she formed a strong bond to promote HIV/AIDS awareness. “So I became heavily involved with numerous HIV/AIDS charities, and subsequently, my sister was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. So I moved back to Louisville to care for her.”

Upon her return to Louisville, Vitale brought back resounding drive and a new compassion for those living with HIV. She became involved with The Glade House, now known as The House of Ruth, which offers housing and support services with a holistic focus on individuals who are HIV positive, as well as their family members who count on them for financial and emotional support.

“It was a period in history when the stigma of AIDS kept people infected with the virus from getting proper care and, more importantly, love and comfort. The general population was afraid. I wasn’t.” Vitale’s statement reminds us of so many, like herself, who took a stand during the HIV epidemic and fought to break down the barriers unawareness built. “I couldn’t watch another friend pass away without knowing I was doing everything I could to help prevent it, or at least, let them pass in peace with adequate care and compassion.”

Vitale’s drive and compassion have now propelled her to the force she is today. She still fights for HIV/AIDS awareness and serves on the board of various organizations, and her unique history has given her an unassuming compassion: “I believe everyone should give back to the community in some way. Time is just as valuable as money. Everyone should get involved.”

To learn more about Missy Vitale visit TheWilShow.com.

Wil Heuser interviews Missy, as Missy, up close and personal in a hysterical video sketch.

MODERN LOUISVILLE ||| March • April 2016

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A

Providential

Partnership T

Written by Ben Gierhart // Photography by Antonio Pantoja

here’s a misconception that real estate is easy.

That it – similar to teaching – is for those who are unable to do anything else. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Any realtor worth their salt knows that one of the pressures that comes along with the job is that there is no real set schedule and that one’s availability needs to be open around the clock. Simply put, a job in real estate is not a 9-to-5. Real estate agencies are ubiquitous due to the relative ease with which people can receive their certification; however, achieving actual success is exponentially harder.

And if you’re looking for success in the Louisville real estate market, you can look no further than Lenihan Sotheby’s International Realty. They are self-described as the premier provider of luxury Louisville real estate, and when I sat down with Mary Nancy Chatel and Josh Laughlin – a dynamic duo at Sotheby’s – I learned why.

Mary Nancy was born and raised in Louisville, but she spent a lot of her time up until her late 20s in Nashville. It was there that she attained her real estate license and got her experience working in a boutique agency for five years. She returned to Louisville to begin a family and just had her third child in June 2015. She has been with Sotheby’s for the last five years.

Enter Josh Laughlin, the other half of the partnership. Hailing from Madison, Indiana, Josh amassed the bulk of his experience in New York, working in sales, textiles and design consultation.

Though his experience was not directly in real estate, he knew that the skills and abilities he had

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spent years building in one of the most fashionable places in the world would be more than applicable to the work he wanted.

The winds of fate brought Mary Nancy and Josh together, placing them at the same cocktail party.

“We hit it off right away,” says Mary Nancy. “I blame the alcohol.” Mary Nancy saw something in the aspiring realtor and used some clout to get him an interview at Sotheby’s. “It’s rare for a newbie to start at Sotheby’s, but I said that he was someone they just had to interview,” she recounts. “They told me that I would have to sign my name and vouch for him and that I would have to take him under my wing. I’d never trained anyone before, but I was willing to do it.”

Josh learned quickly and impressed Mary Nancy – along with everyone else in the office – and the two forged a partnership that has proven incredibly effective; their 2015 was a record-breaking year.

“We really just balance each other so well,” says Josh, “Mary Nancy knows this city like the back of her hand. For most in Louisville, their home is their biggest asset, so working with someone who understands that made all the difference. Having Mary Nancy as a mentor was amazing.”

“Yes,” Mary Nancy adds, “he also is so helpful and understanding when I have to be a mother and can’t make a 7 a.m. showing. It’s a partnership that really works.”

It’s also worth noting that Josh is an openly gay man, so his presence diversifies their client base: “There’s not really a home that a gay buyer will necessarily purchase over a straight one,” Josh relates.

“However, I have had people hire me because I’m gay, either in hopes that I’ll bring a gay buyer, which has happened, or that they’re simply more comfortable with a gay agent. Louisville is really, for the most part, a progressive city.”

“I’ve always been an open-minded person, but working with Josh has really made me a better, more compassionate person,” says Mary Nancy.

“I see things now in a different way than I would have before. I see people can still be cruel and judgmental. Now, I’ve never seen anyone be that way to Josh, but I’m more aware now.” She goes

on to say that, as a realtor, one often wears many hats. In addition to their obvious duties, a realtor can serve as a marriage counselor, a financial planner or even a nanny, often at the same time.

It’s a delicate balance that is only achieved when a strong business plan and partnership is in place.

“He’s one of the smartest men I’ve ever met,” exudes Mary Nancy. “Our love is like a sibling love except in the four years that we’ve known each other, we haven’t had a single spat.”

Whatever the secret to their success may be, it’s working. In 2015 alone, the two brought in roughly $30 million, comfortably seating them in the top one percent of realtors in the city. It’s an incredible figure, and it’s one that doesn’t seem to show any signs of diminishing as their relationship becomes stronger than ever.

MODERN LOUISVILLE ||| March • April 2016

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A

a l p net

people for all

Written by Nicholas Moore // Photography by Antonio Pantoja

T

he Planet Experience has style.

When you walk into the space, you are transported somewhere else. Your senses immediately heighten. First, there’s the soft blue lighting lining the walls. Its hue is just cool enough to relax the eyes but just vivid enough to let you know this place knows how to party. The light cascades across the bar, and your eye follows, next hitting silver chrome chandeliers, sleekly slipping down from the ceiling. White floors are topped with white leather furniture, seats, the bar and high top tables. Benches line the walls.

Robbie Bartlett is singing jazz from the corner with all the life and melody a song

stress can share. Glass windows surround the room. The hustle and bustle of the Highlands is moving along, and you have a front-row seat to all of it. People are happy.

People are laughing. There are men and women chatting with one another, people who have stopped in for a glass of wine and some “Bistro Bites” after work and ladies in baseball caps waiting to watch the UK game that starts in the next hour. The bartenders are trendy, with slicked back hair and tatted arms. They want to make you feel comfortable. They want you to feel safe, and above all, they want you to feel like whoever you are, you have a place here to simply enjoy MODERN LOUISVILLE ||| March • April 2016

ANTONIO PANTOJA

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the evening with no worries or stress. This is the brand of The Planet Experience.

To be clear, The Planet Experience is not a lesbian bar, even though LEO readers voted them the third best lesbian bar in Louisville.

“I think [the other gay bars] looked at that and said, ‘How the hell did The Planet get on this list?’” jokes manager Marge VanGilder, director of fun and frivolity. It’s no secret that a segment of The Planet’s clientele is the lesbian community, but that doesn’t bother Marge: “I’m so cool with that. We said whoever comes in can claim this bar, and it can be whatever they want it to be.”

But The Planet regularly sees patrons that cross all demographics. On New Year’s Eve, it was filled with frat boys doing the Cupid Shuffle on the dance floor. And amidst the swanky aesthetic and lesbian ladies are several other walks of life. There’s a straight woman who just got off work enjoying a glass of moscato, a couple 20-somethings downing a shot of Fireball or two and a couple of guys just hanging out who simply walked in from the street because they thought it looked cool.

A preeminent concept when creating The Planet was to make the environment friendly and safe where all feel comfortable. Brittany Michelle Cook, AIDS Interfaith Ministry of Kentuckiana community engagement coordinator, definitely feels like The Planet has delivered on this. “Of course, men – both gay and straight and everywhere in between – come [to The Planet], but it’s the only spot in Louisville where I’ve never been groped or felt uncomfortable ... It’s not common to see people overindulge or act out while there, unlike most bars in Louisville. Plus, they have a strong community feel because they offer so many artists the opportunity to perform at a calm and relaxing venue and also constantly seek chances to host fundraising and networking events.”

“We really wanted to combine good food, high-end wine, a safe place and a bathroom seat you could sit on without taking a disease home with you,” says Marge. If you’ve ever seen the bathrooms at some of the other bars around town, you know that a bathroom sans disease can sometimes be hard to find.

Marge and her wife, owner Jennifer Gilland VanGilder, loved to entertain at their home on Cherokee Road and wanted to open a bar that was an extension of the vibe of their home so they could keep entertaining.

They also wanted to emulate what they them24

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It’s the only spot in Louisville where I’ve never been groped or felt uncomfortable ... It’s not common to see people overindulge or act out while there, unlike most bars in Louisville. Plus, they have a strong community feel because they offer so many artists the opportunity to perform at a calm and relaxing venue and also constantly seek chances to host fundraising and networking events.”

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The Planet Experience Owners Marge VanGilder and Jennifer Gilland VanGilder.

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We really wanted to combine good food, high-end wine, a safe place and a bathroom seat you could sit on without taking a disease home with you.” selves sought in a bar. “We wanted people to remember what drink we like, to say ‘Marge and Jenn, come on in!’ … and we wanted to be able to relax and enjoy good music.”

The Planet is absolutely delivering on this. Their Bistro Bites include quesadillas, hummus, beer cheese, spinach and artichoke dips – literally the best things your palette could ever crave while having drinks.

Perfectly convenient to eat and share and exactly what you needed to satiate that bit of hunger that arises after your first beer. And, oh yes! They serve a whole plethora of libations from domestic and craft beers, hard ciders, seasonal beers, Manhattans, Cosmos and absolutely the best, most extraordinary and savory Bloody Mary that has ever poured over my lips. And don’t forget about their Wine Down Wednesday, where all kinds of delicious vino, from Spain, Chile, Italy, California and beyond are ready to grace your

glass at just the right price.

If you remember anything about this article and about The Planet Experience, remember this: The Planet is for everyone. It boasts an eclectic crowd, delicious food and drink and, above all, an environment where anybody can feel at home when they walk through the doors. Men, women, queer, straight, gay and all the lovely areas in between – we all deserve a stylish place where we can enjoy an eclectic crowd and feel safe and welcome. So stop in, have a drink, have a bite, flirt respectfully, see the beautiful array of people the Highlands is known for and enjoy it – because that is something all of us deserve.

The Planet Experience is open Wednesday and Thursday 6 p.m. to midnight, Friday and Saturday 6 p.m. to 4 a.m. and ​Sunday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information, visit theplanetexperience.com or facebook.com/theplanetexperience.

MODERN LOUISVILLE ||| March • April 2016

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F

or this issue of Modern Louisville, I wanted to write about a woman in theatre. So I thought it over – who is a woman in a position of leadership in Louisville who may make for a compelling story? And then, all at once, I realized: There are very, very few. There is no dearth of men in theatre I could write about, yet why does the pool of women seem so shallow? Instead of looking past that fact and picking one of the few women available, I decided to pull together a few of the most influential women in the Louisville theatre community and talk through this issue. Is this lack of gender balance indeed a problem? Are there ways to resolve it? And most importantly, with this knowledge, where do we go from here? I recently sat down with four inspirational female theatre leaders at the Louisville Palace and talked through these questions and more.

Kathi Ellis is quite a prominent woman on the Louisville theatre scene due to her position as co-artistic director of Looking for Lilith Theatre Company and co-producer/director of Josephine Sculpture Park SummerStage in Frankfort. Ellis arrived in Louisville in 1990, but it wasn’t until 2006 that she first became involved with Lilith.

Nefertiti Burton, meanwhile, has been working at the University of Louisville since 1999 but in July 2015 became the chair of the Theatre Arts Department. Burton has been engaged with theatre her whole life, having done much professional and semi-professional work in the Boston area, first as an actor, then as a director. Amy Attaway similarly transitioned from acting to directing, having begun her theatre career as an actor and now serving as co-artistic director of Theatre [502] and a freelance director for a multitude of companies. Finally, Whitten Montgomery also used to spend more time on stage before

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GENDER

Four women discuss the presence – and lack thereof – of women in leadership roles in

LOUISVILLE THEATRE

MODERN LOUISVILLE ||| March • April 2016

ANTONIO PANTOJA

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Kathi Ellis, Amy Attaway, Whitten Montgomery and Nefertiti Burton

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becoming tour manager for CenterStage and development director of Acting Against Cancer, a company she founded when she was only 9 years old.

Attaway remembers recently facing the same truth that I realized when I began planning this article: “The first time it hit me that there weren’t very many other women in leadership positions in theatre was when one of the local magazines did a story about small theatre companies in Louisville,” she describes. “And this wasn’t Actors Theatre and the Orchestra – it was small theatre companies. And other than Lilith and me, there were no women. Me and Looking for Lilith.

No other women. And I was like, ‘Okay, this is a thing.’”

Perhaps this inequality is not always so apparent at first glance due to theatre’s positioning itself as a sort of bastion for the underdog, a safe haven for anyone and everyone creative. But as Burton suggests, it really isn’t all it may seem. “Although theatre in some ways presents itself as being on the forefront or the vanguard of issues, the world of theatre is very conservative when it comes to some things,” she contends. “When it comes to people of color in leadership roles and women in leadership roles – I just think theatre has a long way to go nationally.”

However, as she continues, perhaps even those involved with theatre don’t recognize the very patriarchy they’re upholding simply by lack of action. “I say that not to point the finger at actors but just to show that even actors – who are some of the most collaborative people in the world – have been indoctrinated,” Burton elucidates. “And they’re not aware of it, but we have been indoctrinated as a society in all areas that women do not have the chops, do not have the emotional stability, the ability to manage money, the authority to be in that kind of position.”

Ellis agrees: “There are societal preconceptions about who manages money well and who manages people well, and that’s part of the dynamic,” she says. “The playing field is not even in so many different ways that unless we sit down and articulate it and think about it intentionally, it won’t ever change

Although theatre in some ways presents itself as being on the forefront or the vanguard of issues, the world of theatre is very conservative when it comes to some things...

– NEFERTITI BURTON

– because every younger woman is not going to have that ‘a-ha’ moment.”

So by sitting down and talking about it, what can we figure out? Well, for one, that the change must start with these very women in one indestructible form: mentorship.

All four unanimously agree that, to level the playing field Ellis speaks of, a re-education must take place. It’s entirely common, in 2016, for young women to have the same mentality as Attaway, who admits, “I don’t always foreground that I need to look out for other women because there’s a part of my brain that thinks that everybody’s fine.” But Burton affirms, “It is a re-education. We cannot allow generations of young people, however they identify, to grow up thinking that they don’t have to continue to work for what it is that was earned before they were born.”

For Montgomery, the youngest member of the group, the fact that she did have a strong female mentor in theatre means that she has never questioned her own authority. “Thanks to my own mentor, Sharon Kinnison, I’m very lucky because I’ve never looked at myself as a woman needing to succeed; I’ve only had to look at myself as an individual needing to succeed,” she explains. “But more often, it’s every woman for herself. To be frank, it’s hard in our field to find the time to arrange formal mentorships. Usually, we’re all in the stress of production. But I want to help. And I know that I should make the time to help.”

And there are, furthermore, other ways beyond mentorship that women can look to for a more hopeful future. Burton particularly

stresses the importance of young women interested in theatre looking beyond the stage.

“One of the things that happens is that we become aware of theatre because we see what’s on the stage and we see what’s on the screen, so the opportunities that we think exist are just those,” she insists. Women – and men – so often do not consider the myriad of other ways to be involved, i.e. directing, designing, stage managing, etc. She, along with the others, wholeheartedly believes that UofL would benefit from an arts administration program and indeed reveals that it is on the department’s immediate radar.

So, yes, this inequality is a problem, but not one without a solution. Louisville is ready to see more women leading theatre, and these women are ready to take action. I’d also like to point out – by no means are these the only women making changes in leadership roles in Louisville theatre; there is, in fact, a host of others. I simply chose four of varying ages and experiences to get a more collective perspective. But if their thoughts are any indication of the mentality of other women in similar positions, it is entirely safe to say that we will see some major shifts in the coming years as their voices not only get stronger but much, much louder.

MODERN LOUISVILLE ||| March • April 2016

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Providential

Partnership T

Written by Ben Gierhart // Photography by Antonio Pantoja

here’s a misconception that real estate is easy.

That it – similar to teaching – is for those who are unable to do anything else. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Any realtor worth their salt knows that one of the pressures that comes along with the job is that there is no real set schedule and that one’s availability needs to be open around the clock. Simply put, a job in real estate is not a 9-to-5. Real estate agencies are ubiquitous due to the relative ease with which people can receive their certification; however, achieving actual success is exponentially harder.

One of several quality real estate agencies in town is Lenihan Sotheby’s International Realty. When I got the chance to listen to Mary Nancy Chatel and Josh Laughlin - a dynamic duo at Sotheby’s - I learned just how profitable their partnership is for their company as well as how providential it was that they met in the first place. It’s an arrangement that seems to hum like a well-oiled machine.

Mary Nancy was born and raised in Louisville, but she spent a lot of her time up until her late 20s in Nashville. It was there that she attained her real estate license and got her experience working in a boutique agency for five years. She returned to Louisville to begin a family and just had her third child in June 2015.

She has been with Sotheby’s for the last five years.

Enter Josh Laughlin, the other half of the partnership. Hailing from Madison, Indiana, Josh amassed the bulk of his experience in New York, working in sales, textiles and design consultation. Though his experience was not directly in real estate, he knew that the skills and abilities he had spent years building in

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one of the most fashionable places in the world would be more than applicable to the work he wanted.

The winds of fate brought Mary Nancy and Josh together, placing them at the same cocktail party. “We hit it off right away,” says Mary Nancy. “I blame the alcohol.” Mary Nancy saw something in the aspiring realtor and used some clout to get him an interview at Sotheby’s. “It’s rare for a newbie to start at Sotheby’s, but I said that he was someone they just had to interview,” she recounts. “They told me that I would have to sign my name and vouch for him and that I would have to take him under my wing. I’d never trained anyone before, but I was willing to do it.”

Josh learned quickly and impressed Mary Nancy – along with everyone else in the office – and the two forged a partnership that has proven incredibly effective; their 2015 was a record-breaking year. “We really just balance each other so well,” says Josh, “Mary Nancy knows this city like the back of her hand. For most in Louisville, their home is their biggest asset, so working with someone who understands that made all the difference. Having Mary Nancy as a mentor was amazing.”

“Yes,” Mary Nancy adds, “he also is so helpful and understanding when I have to be a mother and can’t make a 7 a.m. showing. It’s a partnership that really works.”

It’s also worth noting that Josh is an openly gay man, so his presence diversifies their client base: “There’s not really a home that a gay buyer will necessarily purchase over a straight one,” Josh relates.

“However, I have had people hire me because I’m

gay, either in hopes that I’ll bring a gay buyer, which has happened, or that they’re simply more comfortable with a gay agent. Louisville is really, for the most part, a progressive city.”

“I’ve always been an open-minded person, but working with Josh has really made me a better, more compassionate person,” says Mary Nancy. “I see things now in a different way than I would have before. I see people can still be cruel and judgmental. Now, I’ve never seen anyone be that way to Josh, but I’m more aware now.” She goes on to say that, as a realtor, one often wears many

hats. In addition to their obvious duties, a realtor can serve as a marriage counselor, a financial planner or even a nanny, often at the same time.

It’s a delicate balance that is only achieved when a strong business plan and partnership is in place.

“He’s one of the smartest men I’ve ever met,” exudes Mary Nancy. “Our love is like a sibling love except in the four years that we’ve known each other, we haven’t had a single spat.”

Whatever the secret to their success may be, it’s working. In 2015 alone, the two brought in roughly $30 million, comfortably seating them in the top one percent of realtors in the city. It’s an incredible figure, and it’s one that doesn’t seem to show any signs of diminishing as their relationship becomes stronger than ever.

MODERN LOUISVILLE ||| March • April 2016

37

KING OF

KINGS 38

March • April 2016 ||| MODERN LOUISVILLE

Written by Nicholas Moore // Photography by Antonio Pantoja

TB SPARROW

is one of the most beguiling performers one could imagine. Seen often locally at Play Louisville, PRIDE Bar and, at times, The Connection, Sparrow has something tantalizing about her that excites the senses – her moves, her makeup, her smirk. She brings an amazing essence to the stage that is totally unique and original. Her charisma is refreshing in a club scene saturated with drag queens and kings who often look just like the last. She represents the evolution of drag performance, a renaissance of artisanship and tasteful deviation from the usual. This woman is fit to be a king.

TB Sparrow grew up as Tammy Lynn Baldwin in Louisville’s own Pleasure Ridge Park. Early on, she felt different from the other girls. She never had an interest in being a princess; “The Wolf Man” and “The Mummy” were more her style. She loved hardcore horror. Her home life as an adolescent was not easy, and her parents were alcoholics. To deal with her stresses, Sparrow found a coping mechanism that would stay with her for the rest of her life: She would go into her room, shut the door and listen to Alice Cooper, a performer who drew his style, according to writer Steven Thomas Eriewine, author of “All Music: Alice Cooper,” from “horror movies, vaudeville and garage rock to pioneer a macabre, theatrical brand of rock designed to shock people.”

“He was like my hidden babysitter,” Sparrow describes. “He had this alter ego – his ‘Alice.’ It was this person he just changed into and made his statements. I think that was a way I could hide.”

It wasn’t long before Sparrow was

performing her own “Alice.” She clearly remembers her first performance. At a junior high slumber party with some of her classmates, while the other girls were rolling each other’s hair, she was performing Alice Cooper drag. “Well, I didn’t know it was drag at the time. I had the parents put the needle on the record for me, and I performed ‘I’m Eighteen.’

And I was never invited back again,” she chuckles. But all jokes aside, this was when she realized how much she enjoyed donning the male persona, loved getting a reaction from people and loved the adoration that came with both.

Years later, circa 1985, she found herself working in the biggest drag closet one could imagine. She had made her way to Ft. Meyers, Florida, and was managing a vintage clothing store.

While most vintage clothing stores have a plethora of eclectic attire, this vintage clothing store was different. “The older people moved down there to die,” she says. “They would donate furs, alligator purses and shoes.” All of the high-end items her store received, plus the wide array of items at area Goodwill stores, laid the perfect costume closet at her feet. All she needed now was a little inspiration.

She found this inspiration watching Charlie Chaplin films while at work.

“They looped all day at work. He was adorable, kind of sneaky – how can you not like this guy?” Sparrow was so inspired that she started dressing like and impersonating Chaplin during store promotions, in large-scale parades and even at area restaurants on special occasions. She enjoyed seeing how excited older people got when she played Chaplin. “They were like, ‘Charlie! Oh my God! Charlie!’” she fondly remembers.

Her career as a performer grew from there, different pageants, different cities, different clubs. All the while, even though she was a woman impersonating

MODERN LOUISVILLE ||| March • April 2016

ANTONIO PANTOJA

39

mostly men onstage and mostly at gay clubs, she never thought of herself exactly as a “drag king.” She had never really seen a female doing male impersonation.

“I didn’t think of it as ‘drag.’ I just thought of it as performing,” she says.

This is exactly what makes TB Sparrow so great. She has never sought to fit into any category, and she focuses on delivering the art of the performance.

People all across greater Louisville agree.

Shawn Wallace, who performs as Shawna the Dead with Blue Moon Circus, says the following of Sparrow and her skills on and off the stage: “She is unique, talented, a brilliant entertainer and one of the sweetest, most loving people you will ever meet. The first time I saw this lovely entertainer was at Play Louisville on ladies night. When she took the stage as Captain Jack Sparrow, I was instantly fixed on her. Her presence, attitude and gift for bringing a character to life was mind-boggling, and I knew I needed to meet her. She is one of those people who capture you for a moment in time when she graces the stage, bringing you into her world. Even offstage, while still dressed, she keeps the character, never skipping a beat. She has a talent that is unlike any other, and Louisville is a better place with her in it. I am truly grateful to call her not only a friend but a colleague.”

Audrey Lanford, a New Albany resident who has seen Sparrow perform at bars and clubs around the area, echoes Wallace’s sentiments: “I don’t think I’ve ever met someone who could transform themselves into as many characters as TB Sparrow does.

When her name is announced during a show, I never know who I’m going to see up there on stage. Charlie Chaplin? Jack Sparrow? Alice Cooper? A rock star in red leather with a mohawk? I’ve seen a vast number of her personas by now, either live or through pictures, and I’m always amazed by her abilities to channel such different personalities and remain true to herself. When she’s onstage, TB embodies the rock star image – confident, sexy, powerful, perhaps even intimidat-

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ing for some people – but isn’t afraid to also show her softer side from time to time. But if you sit down and have a conversation with her, TB is down-to-earth and big-hearted. In my opinion, she is an example of what someone can do in spite of people who say things like, ‘You’ll never amount to anything.’ TB pushes boundaries and proves that it doesn’t matter what gender you are – if you feel like a king, you are one.”

Clearly, Sparrow has come a long way since that junior slumber party and that vintage clothing store in Ft. Meyers. She is still a humble team player who believes that being a good performer takes earnest work. She also doesn’t really mind or notice that she’s a woman in a largely male-dominated performance industry.

Backstage, she sees everyone as fellow performers, and gender simply doesn’t come into play. “We’re zipping each other up, helping with costumes, then someone yells, ‘Does anyone have green hair I can borrow?’ Then someone else yells, ‘Yes!’” Above all else, TB Sparrow has one resounding hope: to see drag kings cement their equitable position as performers in the club scene. “[Drag kings] are climbing the ladder, one rung at a time. We need more publicity. We need to put it out there. Some people still don’t know what a ‘drag king’ is.”

Despite this lack of ubiquity, she isn’t losing sight of her true passion for her position. She relishes all the job’s opportunities, and it’s a good thing she’s having so much fun – because this gig suits her oh so very well.

She is unique, talented, a brilliant entertainer and one of the sweetest, most loving people you will ever meet.

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March • April 2016 ||| MODERN LOUISVILLE

A VIEW FROM

bothsides Written by Nicholas Moore // Photography by Antonio Pantoja

J

ay Thomas knows what it takes to be a man, and it starts out with being a woman.

For 29 years, Jay moved through life with the gender label of “female,” but this never sat right with him. Nonetheless, he tried earnestly to make it work. Through ups and downs, triumphs and tragedies and a whole lot of courage and heart, Jay has come out on the other side and begun a new life. For the first time, he feels comfortable in his own shoes, and he is grabbing life by the balls.

Jay’s transition process started about a year ago. Up until that point, he never really felt comfortable as himself, but he wasn’t sure why. This discomfort weighed more heavily on him as time passed. He didn’t go out much, wasn’t very happy and found himself drinking a lot. He tried to put on a good show because that’s what he thought he was supposed to do. “In reality, I was miserable,” he admits. “I wasn’t happy about anything. But I couldn’t ever pinpoint why. It never really made sense.”

Before his transition, Jay tried living life as a straight woman dating men and also as a lesbian dating other women. Neither of these fit. When he gave dating guys a whirl

(again, while living as a woman), he really put in his best effort. He got a makeover, grew his hair out, wore makeup and feminine clothes – the whole nine yards. During this time, he actually became pregnant and unfortunately had a miscarriage. After that

relationship ended, he started dating another man, and they eventually moved in together. His family loved the guy, but Jay was far less than thrilled. “He saw me as his girl that he could show to all of his friends,” he describes. “I hated it. I hated being that person. Being the cute little curvy girl with

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43

“ He saw me as his girl that he could show to all of his friends.

I hated it. I hated being that person.

Being the cute little curvy girl with tattoos.” tattoos.” Needless to say, they broke up.

When Jay explored being a lesbian and dating girls, it didn’t feel right either. “I told a friend that I didn’t want to be some 30-year-old [hyper-masculine] lesbian,” he recounts. “That just didn’t fit what I was supposed to be in my head.” After two failed relationships during this time, it was clear being a lesbian wasn’t the answer. Jay became more withdrawn, became more uncomfortable around people and started drinking more. He had hit a wall and felt discouraged.

Jay is not a frivolous person. This feeling of unrest was not the result of the usual craziness that happens to all of us in our 20s. It also was not some Freudian result of any childhood psychological trauma. In fact, Jay had a very happy upbringing. He was an only child growing up in rural Kentucky and remembers his strong Southern family culture very fondly. There wasn’t anything wrong, per se, but the more he tried living as a woman, the clearer it became that something wasn’t right.

He went back to the drawing board and started doing some research. The idea that he might be transgender began to take shape. He was open to this, as what he tried before certainly wasn’t working. He reached out to some close friends to get their thoughts. These first friends he told

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March • April 2016 ||| MODERN LOUISVILLE

said, “That makes a whole lot of sense.”

It made sense to Jay too, and this scared him at first. “I was terrified,” he remembers. “I was scared I would lose my friends, that I would be this outcast.” He had never even heard the word “transgender” growing up, and the few trans people he did know at the time had not had good experiences.

But the more he talked about it, the more he felt a weight lifting off his shoul-

ders. He became more open and more social. The more he came to terms with this, the better he felt. He felt free and suddenly wanted to be part of the world around him.

It was a year ago that Jay began the biochemical process of transitioning from female to male with testosterone hormone replacement therapy. The way he felt and thought began to change as who he was inside finally began to match his outside. The

point here is not that this emotional shift was good or bad. The point is that for Jay, it finally felt right. “Things are just more logical now. I think more with my head and less with my heart. I like it a lot better. The world makes so much more sense!” he exclaims.

Currently, Jay is working on finishing his fourth degree. That’s right – fourth.

His first three are in biology, massage therapy and medical massage therapy, and his current degree program is

in business restaurant management.

He is very complimentary of the staff of O’Shea’s Irish Pub in the Highlands, where he is a cook. He commends them for their support of him today and through his entire transition process. He also speaks fondly of his army brothers. Before transitioning, Jay served in Germany, Afghanistan and locally at Fort Knox. He speaks very fondly about his time serving with his unit and greatly appreciates their support of him since his transi-

tion. “Now in emails, texts, calls, all of the guys I was in the army with, they call me ‘brother.’ That is something that has really meant a lot to me.”

Looking back on his former gender and examining his current one, Jay has gained some exceptionally insightful knowledge that so few have access to. “To be a woman, it’s power,” he asserts. “You have to make a name for yourself. You have to be strong within yourself to present yourself to the world because of the way women

MODERN LOUISVILLE ||| March • April 2016

45

are treated overall in the world … Being a man, you have got to be softer than what I was told growing up a guy was supposed to be. Women were supposed to be soft and delicate, and when you talk about men, it was rough and almost barbaric. But, in my opinion, the reality of it is the opposite.” How’s that for a lesson in egalitarianism, humanity and social psychology? We should all be so lucky as Jay, to be able to shed the gender stereotypes that society places upon us and live in a way where we feel complete, free from social constructs, feeling empowered and ready to seize the day as individuals who have fully embraced the masculine and feminine in all of us.

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March • April 2016 ||| MODERN LOUISVILLE

“ Now in emails, texts, calls, all of the guys I was in the army with, they call me ‘brother.’

That is something that has really meant a lot to me.”

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s one of the greatest countries on Earth, America cultivates a culture of success. Its history is filled with tales of men and women overcoming unbeatable odds or, at worst, learning from mistakes to reach new levels of enviable affluence. This philosophy seeps into every nook and cranny of the national psyche, and people are taught seemingly from birth to be competitive, to go for nothing but the best. As well-meaning as this way of thinking is, it’s not sustainable; it ignores the fact that not everyone can win, which is perhaps an explanation for why when someone in America attains something that is deemed failure, it is not only ostracizing but also unforgivable.

For some people, however, the tools for success can only be forged in failure.

Garth Greenwell is a Louisville native and celebrated author. His first novella, “Mitko,” won the Miami University Press Novella Prize and was a finalist for the Edmund White Debut Fiction Award as well as the Lambda Award. His work has appeared in The Yale Review, Boston Review, Salmagundi, Michigan Quarterly Review and Poetry International, among others. He has received the Grolier Prize, the Rella Lossy Award, an award from the Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Foundation and the Bechtel Prize from the Teachers & Writers Collaborative. He was the 2008 John Atherton Scholar for Poetry at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. If this long list of awards and superlatives sounds impressive, it is, but we’re not here to talk about that.

Greenwell attended Manual High School as a communications major and “was a terrible student,” he admits. “C or D was good for me. I even failed my freshman English class, which is something I loved to tell my students when I was teaching, especially the ones who were struggling.” He came out as gay at the age of 14, and the resulting change in dynamic in his school and home life brought about a slew of risky and destructive behaviors such as truancy, self-harm and indiscriminate sex. “I don’t know how there wasn’t an adult who wasn’t watchful enough to see what was happening and intervene,” relates Greenwell.

After a guidance counselor advised him to change his major, Greenwell chose choir as the easiest option to get him to graduate on time. It was then that he met David Brown, whom he cites as the first positive influence on his life: “He heard something in my voice.

He offered me voice lessons after school, gave me a role in the spring musical. He gave me something to live for.” Greenwell was recommended to the summer program at the Interlochen Arts Academy in Interlochen, Minnesota, an opportunity that set the stage for the rest of his life. “I forged my parents’ signatures, and my dad eventually let me go because it was financially advantageous for him to do so due to scholarship and financial aid,” Greenwell recounts. “It was there that I saw a passionate life of the mind from adults. I found out that

“ To go from a Harvard Ph.D. program to teaching high school is the definition of failure for many.”

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TheINSIGHTof

FAILURE Written by Ben Gierhart

Photography by Antiono Pantoja

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it was a life I wanted.”

From there, Greenwell attended the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, where he majored in voice and opera. A chance poetry class there once again changed the course of his life, instilling in him a deep love for the medium. He promptly transferred to SUNY Purchase College in Westchester, New York and graduated with a degree in literature. Subsequently, he completed an M.F.A. in poetry at Washington University in St. Louis and began a Ph.D. program in English at Harvard University. “My mother didn’t understand opera or poetry, but she understood Harvard,” says Greenwell.

Carmichael’s Bookstore hosted author Garth Greenwell for a signing and reading from his novel, “What Belongs to You” on February 11, 2016.

To the surprise of many, Greenwell began teaching high school after Harvard – three years in Ann Arbor, Michigan and four in Bulgaria. “To go from a Harvard Ph.D. program to teaching high school is the definition of failure for many,” he explains. As rewarding as this time was, Greenwell felt the urge to write full-time again when he turned 35, and he applied to the prestigious Iowa Writer’s Workshop to fulfill that need. “Two hours

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of writing before school in the morning every day was not cutting it, and when I turned 35, I reached a sort of crisis where I felt like I hadn’t achieved everything I thought I was capable of as a writer,” he recalls. “The great gift of Iowa was that it gave me the confidence to trust my intuition and instincts as a writer.”

“Mitko,” which was released in 2011, is the name of Greenwell’s novella as well as a character in “What Belongs to You,” the novella expanded into novel form, released in January 2016. “As I was working on the project that became my novel, it was a surprise for me that Mitko kept coming up. The novella ended up becoming part one, but the expansion was made by adding new pieces.

There was a gravity that holds all three pieces together that convinced me that it was a novel,” he regales. “I didn’t know what I was doing.”

“What Belongs to You” is obviously influenced by every facet of Greenwell’s life. The nameless narrator is an American teacher who instructs Bulgarian youth. He meets Mitko in a public restroom and solicits him for sex. Their subsequent complicated relationship deals with the questions of loyalty of human sexual connection, even when the origins of that connection come from a place of artifice. Greenwell will be the first to explain, however, that this is not biography or even non-fiction: “If you call something non-fiction, you are pledging yourself to the truth as you understand it. I feel no such allegiance. I borrowed from fact heavily. I was trying to represent the country and the lives of the LGBT people I met there, but the facts are used in a way that is entirely accidental. Where I use facts, it is because I found it aesthetically useful.”

The setting of Bulgaria – a country that was occupied for 500 years and in severe political turmoil when it wasn’t – exudes an atmosphere that is the polar opposite of the arrogance of success that can be found in America. Failure is the assumed state there, and it is perhaps Greenwell’s own familiarity with what others consider failure and defeat that both draws him to Bulgaria and enables him to write so insightfully about it. The reviews of the novel have been numerous and overwhelmingly positive – Publisher’s Weekly even called it “the first great novel of 2016.” The irony is that without the insight of failure, it could have never been written at all.

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Dating Dudes In Lou

BY NICHOLAS MOORE

Q

Kissing For Hope

DEAR DUDE,

I’ve had my share of bad dates and rarely go on them. But recently, I was asked out by a very attractive guy, and I want some advice. This guy was younger – I’m 30 – but seemed mature and knew all the right things to say. After he picked me up, we went to a bar down the street and started sipping on cocktails. Suddenly, a girl came over to us and inserted herself right between me and my date. Turns out the girl was my date’s bestie! He introduced me to her and informed me that he had invited her to join us.

He hoped I didn’t mind. I spent a miserable hour in silence as they gabbed away and laughed. I was never so glad as when my date dropped me off at home. He kissed me in the car – a kiss well worth having given him my phone number – but then he asked me out again. After a moment’s consideration, I declined. Should I have pursued the second date?

-KISSING FOR HOPE

A

DEAR KISSING,

Seems like there was an important miscommunication here. He thought you were “hanging out” (hence the “bestie” invite), and you thought it was a proper date.

My suggestion is to really ask yourself what you are looking for. Once you discover this, ask him what he’s looking for and see if it matches up. If it doesn’t, say, “Bye, Felicia!” Might as well just put it out there – we’re not getting any younger. And, in case you weren’t aware, gay men experience an accelerated age-perception in our community, so by now, you’re

approximately 134. Grab the eye-cream!

I understand that after many fruitless attempts at dating, it may seem like it’s never going to happen and that there’s not a guy out there for you. But this isn’t true. He’s out there somewhere. Don’t lose sight of what it is you actually are looking for in a man. It sounds like you’re seeking a guy that has a bit more know-how and confidence than this guy. Am I right?

My sense is you already know if he’s right for you or not. Stay strong in what you’re looking for, and don’t settle!

If you’d like to ask The Dude — not of the Coen Bros. variety — for some spot-on dating advice, forward your stories and questions to edtior@modernlouisville.com. We’d love to help!

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OUTLOOK DAY 4.16.2016

STUDENT ACTIVITIES CENTER FLOYD THEATRE • RED BARN 9:00AM – 2:00PM

CARDINAL OUTLOOK DAY 4.16.2016 Register at

An exciting day designed to showcase UofL as the school of choice for exciting day designed toLGBT showcase high school students and their allies.

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An exciting day designed to showcase UofL as the lgbt@louisville.edu bt@louisville.edu school of choice for LGBT high school students and their allies.

Register at www.louisville.edu/admissions/visit/special/out

lgbt@louisville.edu

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Written by Ben Gierhart

T here is no doubt about it. When it comes to the awareness and acceptance of LGBTQ people, as well as their inclusion in mainstream media, things have improved dramatically in a relatively short period of time. The LGBTQ community is being discussed in realistic and progressive ways, and it is inevitable that the long-term effects will be positive. The success in this arena is especially noticeable when the current situation is juxtaposed with the long, uphill battle that is the history of LGBTQ individuals in cinema. Despite these gains, it is also worth reflecting on this history and realizing that, perhaps, the war is far from over.

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The first notable form of alleged homosexuality occurring in film was in the 1895 movie “The Dickson Experimental Sound Film,” which includes a scene featuring two men dancing. There is no evidence that the director intended to present the men as a romantic couple. Still, this imagery was significant, as such a depiction – even as a joke – had not been displayed in film previously.

In the time leading up to the Great Depression, drag was often used for comedic effect. Charlie Chaplin’s “A Woman” depicted the silent film star as a woman toying with several men’s affections. Wallace Beery – an actor who would later win an Academy Award for his portrayal of a heavyweight boxing champion – played a Swedish maid named Sweedie in nearly 30 films from 1914 to 1916. In 1930, however, the institution of the Hays Code changed everything.

After several risqué films and a series of off-screen scandals involving Hollywood stars, the studios enlisted Presbyterian elder Will H. Hays to rehabilitate Hollywood’s image and appointed him president of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA). His solution was the Motion Picture Production Code or Hays Code. Through a loophole in this code, studios were willing to allow “sexual perversion” if it was depicted negatively. The fact that homosexuality was classified as a mental illness at the time only supported this way of thinking. Alfred Hitchcock’s 1948 film “Rope” examines the lives and crimes of the infamous gay couple Leopold and Loeb who murdered a 14-year-old boy. The implied relationship between the Leopold-and-Loeb-inspired characters made it past the censors due to the aforementioned loophole.

Mainstream American cinema efforts at marketing films for the LGBTQ audience did not begin until the ’70s with “The Boys in the Band.”

While presently sometimes negatively regarded due to its somewhat stereotypical depictions, “The Boys in the Band” was one of the first films to discuss homosexuality in a completely non-coded way. It also showed Hollywood how marketing to the LGBTQ audience could prove financially advantageous. This success, coupled with the ’50s and ’60s decline of the Hays Code, opened the floodgates to a wave of films that remain beloved to this day including “Cabaret,” “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” “La Cage aux Folles,” “Victor Victoria,” “Kiss of the Spider Woman” and “My Beautiful Laundrette,” to name a few.

The outbreak of HIV was an unquestionably monumental event in LGBTQ history, and it deservedly took a front seat in queer cinema of the ’80s and ’90s with such films as “Parting Glances,” “Longtime Companion,” “Philadelphia”

and “Gia,” a rare film on the topic of HIV among lesbians.

While all were groundbreaking, many filmmakers began to feel that this somber oversaturation was not representative of the entire LGBTQ community.

The response was the New Queer Cinema movement, which developed in the ’90s and is continuing today. “Mrs. Doubtfire” and “The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert” were its progenitors, but it is ongoing and includes films in modern memory like “Brokeback Mountain,” “Milk,” “Black Swan” and “The Imitation Game.” “Carol” and “The Danish Girl” are the latest examples of sterling quality in this wave. The former is particularly noteworthy for portraying a relationship that – despite enduring hardship as a result of the time period in which it is set – is ultimately triumphant.

Queer cinema has come a long way, but challenges still lie ahead in the fight for true representation. More often than not, gay and transgender characters are portrayed by straight and cisgender actors, while gay and transgender ac-

tors are seen as incapable of playing straight and cisgender roles respectively. It’s an unfortunate double standard that is one of the largest obstacles in the way of LGBTQ equality in Hollywood today.

Family entertainment is another notorious hurdle.

While slowly becoming more progressive and certainly beloved by many, Disney animated features operate under strikingly similar production values to those of the films of

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the Hays Code era. The use of stereotypically negative traits to demonize characters remains common, and several Disney villains are queer-coded, including but not limited to Scar in “The Lion King,” Governor Ratcliffe in “Pocahontas” and Ursula from “The Little Mermaid.” Even the supporting character Chi Fu in “Mulan” is displayed as effeminate and cowardly. When asked about the dearth of LGBTQ characters on the Disney Channel in particular, network president Gary Marsh told Salon in 2013 that it’s “for the audience to interpret” who is and is not of that community, seemingly unaware that this line of thinking is nearly 100 years old.

With “Frozen,” Disney at least employed queer coding with positive traits in mind. Elsa’s desire to hide her abilities and her ostracization when they are revealed are analogous to the coming-out experience for many. By the film’s end, not only is her self-acceptance journey complete, but her relationship with her sister is renewed. She is also beloved by all in her kingdom (queendom?).

Q ueer coding is an antiquated practice,

and it is the natural progression for filmmakers to finally abandon it. whether it ends up being with Poe or not, it’s time, and one can only imagine the new kinds of films that will be created when the chances that the hotshot pilot is gay and the chances that he’s straight are equal.

There is another ray of hope for LGBTQ audience members, this one in a galaxy far, far away. Many fans found there to be a possibility that “Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens” character Poe Dameron (portrayed by Oscar Isaac) may have romantic feelings for his comrade Finn (John Boyega). Ignoring the fact that Isaac stated in an interview on the talk show of gay icon and Disney vet Ellen Degeneres a day before the film’s release that he was playing a “subtle romance,” the relationship between Poe and Finn is almost a textbook case of queer coding.

Poe first meets Finn by being rescued. It’s a damsel-in-distress scenario that is not only a popular trope in general storytelling but a familiar beat in past love stories in Star Wars films. After the rescue ends with a crash-landing, resulting in Finn’s belief that Poe is dead, Finn screams Poe’s name and keeps the other man’s jacket as a memento.

When the two are united again, it is a moment of unapol-

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ogetic relief and joy. Finn moves to return the jacket to its rightful owner, but Poe stops him, saying that Finn looks good in it and should keep it. He also eyes Finn up and down and quickly does something that looks a lot like a lip-bite before a playful fist bump on the shoulder. It’s all subtle, but that’s how queer coding works. It perfectly aligns with Isaac’s statements in the “Ellen” interview.

Now, John Boyega has said in an interview with Shortlist that this relationship is in “Oscar’s head,” but that’s not really a reason for abandoning hope. If it is in Isaac’s head, that means that the actor was portraying the character as gay, which is unexplored territory when it comes to an action-adventure family film. The shipping of these two characters persists, and even Rian Johnson – the writer and director of the next episode of the Star Wars series – has retweeted videos and pictures parodying Finn and Poe’s potential relationship.

All this speculation may very well be for naught. If Poe, even without reciprocation from Finn, was revealed to be either gay or bisexual, it would be a momentous occasion in cinematic history. It would be unprecedented and therefore unlikely. There is also the fact that audiences in China – now the second biggest movie audience in the world after the United States – would not react well to such a reveal.

Disney would lose a significant amount of money unfortunately, but surely if any franchise can survive a risk or two, it’s Star Wars?

An upcoming, in-canon comic book depicting the adventures of Poe Dameron may shed light on the character’s past romantic dalliances, and that very well may be a less risky way to discuss the character’s sexuality. Indeed, Boyega has even backpedaled on his Shortlist interview with a quote given to The Advocate: “But now I’m learning what Mark Hamill said before when he didn’t know that Darth Vader was Luke’s father – you never know what they’re going to pull.” Hamill himself even tweeted to a curious fan that Luke Skywalker’s sexuality is “whatever the audience wants it to be.” It’s nothing substantive, but all this information and the fact that “Episode VIII” was delayed due to script rewrites to accommodate the unexpected attention the new characters were getting is enough to make any queer fan wonder.

Queer coding is an antiquated practice, and it is the natural progression for filmmakers to finally abandon it.

Whether it ends up being with Poe or not, it’s time, and one can only imagine the new kinds of films that will be created when the chances that the hotshot pilot is gay and the chances that he’s straight are equal. From two men dancing to two men shooting down starfighters, it is a marvel how far we’ve come and how far we still have to go.

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community 05 calendar M A R C H

March / April

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40th Humana Festival of New American Plays The Humana Festival of New American Plays is the premier event of its kind, celebrating some of the most talented voices in American theatre. Each year, thousands of theatregoers come to Louisville for the opportunity to see groundbreaking works before they travel to stages across the nation and around the world. Experience these new plays before anyone else – and when they receive acclaim in New York, Chicago and further afield, you can take pride in having seen them first at Actors Theatre. Ticket packages are onsale now.

MORE INFO actorstheatre.org or 502.584.1205 Don Flemons at the Clifton Center Multi-instrumentalist star Dom Flemons will perform at the Clifton Center, located at 2117 Payne St., on Thursday, March 3 at 7:30 p.m. Grammy-winner Flemons is co-founder of the famous Carolina Chocolate Drops and has played for over a million people in the past year, including the Newport Folk Festival, Bonnaroo and the Grand Ole Opry. Tickets are $22.

MORE INFO cliftoncenter.org or 502.896.8480

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“Spring Collaboration” presented by Louisville Ballet and Louisville Orchestra In an unprecedented collaboration, on March 4 and 5, the Louisville Orchestra will join forces with Louisville Ballet for “Spring Collaboration,” which marks their first full co-production together. Comprising of three fully-staged ballets,, the program showcases Stravinsky’s “Petrouchka” alongside his “Cold Virtues,” set to the music of Philip Glass, and a world premiere ballet, “Union,” with original music, “Unified Field,” by Teddy Abrams. The event takes place at The Kentucky Center from 8 to 10 p.m. on both nights.

MORE INFO kentuckycenter.org or 502.584.7777

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The Speed Opening Gala The Speed Ball is the Speed Art Museum’s most significant fundraiser and is critical for the current and future success of the Museum. With the opening of the new Museum in March 2016, The Speed Opening Gala will serve as the 2016 Speed Ball and will be the inaugural celebration for the new Speed Art Museum, having been closed since 2012 for a $60-million renovation and expansion. Dress is white or black tie at this event, which will feature rich cultural and culinary offerings.

MORE INFO speedmuseum.org

The Who Hits 50! North American Tour 2016 The Who, one of rock’s most legendary and defining bands, is celebrating their 50-year legacy when they bring their “The Who Hits 50!” tour to North America including a stop in Louisville on March 12. The set list will take The Who’s audience on an “Amazing Journey” through their entire career, from the band’s early days to classic albums including “Who’s Next,” “Tommy,” “Quadrophenia,” “My Generation” and “Live at Leeds,” through the present day. The show – described by Pete Townsend as, “Hits, Picks, Mixes and Misses,” will see the band play all their classic anthems as well as tackle deeper cuts from their catalog. The show begins at 7:30 p.m., and tickets start at $39.50.

MORE INFO thewho.com/tour

Decision Making & Diversity with Brian Sims Nationally renowned women’s rights and LGBTQ advocate Brian Sims will come to Kentuckiana to speak on strategic leadership in diversity and how today, more than ever, one voice can be the catalyst for change. He was recently included in The Advocate’s annual list of 40 “exemplary” LGBTQ people who are fighting important battles for social justice and named one of the “Eight LGBT Names to Know in 2016” by the Washington Post. Sims has been chosen as the Indiana University Southeast Common Experience’s spring keynote speaker. The event will take place at The Ogle Center at IUS, and admission is free.

MORE INFO ius.edu/sims

Drag Brunch at Garage Bar Garage Bar in NuLu will host a drag brunch on March 19 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. $45 gets you a fabulous buffet brunch, a complimentary mimosa to get your morning started right and a show from some of the fiercest queens in Derby City.

To top it off, you can feel good about indulging because this event benefits the Kentucky AIDS Alliance.

MORE INFO 502.749.7100

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“We the People” ACLU/Fairness Dinner The American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky, Fairness Campaign and Susan Hershberg with Wiltshire Pantry are hosting the “We the People” Dinner on March 26 at 6:30 p.m. in the Viewpoint Room at the Muhammad Ali Center.

Since 2000, this event has raised crucial funds to support the important progress of Fairness and ACLU. Both organi-

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music and lyrics, Cathy tells the story of the relationship from end to beginning, while Jamie tells it from beginning to end. The intimate and emotionally cathartic musical grapples with what it means to be young, what it means to be ambitious and what it means to love another. The palpable and resonant passion between these two characters not only makes for a compelling story but also confronts the audience with the true challenges and wonders that are all a part of being in love. The show runs through April 10 in The MeX Theater of The Kentucky Center for the Performing

“How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying” presented by CenterStage Power, sex, ambition, greed … it’s just another day at the office in this classic satire of big business. Winner of both the Tony Award for Best Musical and a Pulitzer Prize, “How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying” follows the rise of J. Pierrepont Finch, who uses a little handbook to climb

office party, backstabbing co-workers, caffeine addiction and, of course, true love. With a brilliant score by Frank

Arts, and tickets are $19.

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Loesser and a clever book by Abe Borrows, Jack Weinstock

MORE INFO actingagainstcancer.com

GonzoFest 2016 GonzoFest Louisville is a literary and music festival honoring Hunter S. Thompson as well as the lasting mark he has made on art, music and literature. Through live music, poetry, art, spoken word and more, GonzoFest Louisville celebrates the life and times of Hunter S. Thompson in his hometown. The 2016 festival is Saturday, April 16 on the Big Four Lawn of Waterfront Park and will feature bigger bands, bigger venues and this year will bring some of the

and Willie Gilbert, “How to Succeed” keeps winning au-

biggest names in the Hunter S. Thompson universe to Lou-

diences over generation after generation. The show runs

isville in the biggest gathering of the Gonzo family since his

through April 10 at CenterStage at the Jewish Community

funeral in 2005. The festivities begin at 2 p.m.

Center, and tickets are $20 in advance.

MORE INFO gonzofestlou.com

MORE INFO centerstagejcc.org

“Legally Blonde” presented by Derby Dinner Playhouse Based on the hit film starring Reese Witherspoon, this musical follows Elle Woods, who appears to have it all. Her life is turned upside-down, however, when her boyfriend, Warner, dumps her so he can start getting serious about his life and attend Harvard Law. Determined to get him back, Elle uses her charm to get into Harvard Law as well. At school, she struggles with peers and professors, but with the help of Paulette and Emmett, Elle quickly realizes her potential and sets out to prove herself to the world. The show runs through May 15.

MORE INFO derbydinner.com

fall in and out of love. Through Jason Robert Brown’s book,

MORE INFO 502.893.0788

dangers as the aggressively compliant “company man,” the

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Over the course of five years, two New Yorkers in their 20s

place – one that values all people.

the corporate ladder, tackling such familiar but potent

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“The Last Five Years” presented by Acting Against Cancer

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The Louisville Orchestra presents Broadway Rocks A trio of talented Broadway veterans – Christiane Noll, Capathia Jenkins and Rob Evan – share the spotlight in a high-energy concert performing selections from rock and contemporary Broadway hits. Christina Noll, Capathia Jenkins and Evan join the Louisville Orchestra for music from “Wicked,” “Hairspray,” “The Lion King,” “Mamma Mia!,” “RENT,” “The Wiz” and “The Phantom of the Opera,” among many others. Principal Pops Conductor Bob Bernhardt continues to bring his unique combination of easy style, infectious enthusiasm and thoroughly professional musicianship to this city and orchestra. The show begins at 8 p.m., and tickets are $26.

MORE INFO kentuckycenter.org or 502.584.7777

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Modern Louisville Launch Party On January 10, guests braved winter’s first snowstorm and made it out to Mercury Ballroom for the launch of Modern Louisville’s January/February issue. Attendees celebrated the magazine, which featured Fairness Campaign’s Chris Hartman, as they enjoyed hors d’oeuvres by Wiltshire Pantry as well as a cash bar. Theatre company Acting Against Cancer also delighted with a preview of “American Idiot.”

Photos by TIM VALENTINO

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1 Steve and Sandy Montgomery, Kristi Getsfred, Laurie Lennon, Judy Royce, Rob Prince and Maria Velasco-Lockard Nohalty 2 Anthony Burton, Mike Tomes and Danial Cole 3 Tara Bassett and Chris Hartman 4 Tina Thomas and Glenn Gail 5 Brett Corbin and Samantha Wallace-Corbin 6 Caitlan Cole, Chad Mize and Aubrey Majesky 7 Devin Bundrent, Louis and Peggy Heuser and Lori Kay Scott 8 The cast of Acting Against Cancer’s “American Idiot” 9 Dennis Tapp, Stella Strong and Sheri Wright 10 Zachary Mercer, Omicah House, Kyle Duncan, Ryan Benningfield, Elsa Haddad, David Graham, Rowdy Whitworth and David Green 11 Joshua Miller, Wil Heuser and Maria Velasco-Lockard Nohalty 12 Bob and Remy Sisk, Charlie Meredith and Elsa Haddad 13 Lynn Hartman, Travis Lay and Ren Scheuerman 14 Sydney O’Bryan, Crystal Ludwick and Stephen Cox 15 Jan, Dana and Abigail Romine 16 Jaclyn Lyons and Amanda Bray

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Carden/Gillum Engagement Party Chris Robert, along with Doug, Karen and Natalie Carden, hosted an engagement party for Nate Carden and Drew Gillum at Gilda’s Club Louisville on January 31. Family and friends of the happy couple enjoyed a Sunday brunch to celebrate the pair’s engagement.

Photos by TIM VALENTINO

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1 Sara Von Roenn, Linda Carmella, Jason Loren and Amanda Jessee 2 Nate Carden and Drew Gillum 3 Butch Sager, Tyler Murphy and Latee Dolley 4 Jeremy and Otis Johnson with Nate Carden 5 Chloe Sampson and Trevor Morrall 6 Christo Foros, Kris Ritcher and Drew Gard 7 Shawn Bierne and Kevin Bryan 8 Hadley Wheelock, Jameson Gray and Chris Robert 9 Tracy Shewmaker and Drew Gillum

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MAP Louisville On January 15, MAP – Making Acceptance Possible – Louisville held its annual event at the Brown Theatre. The evening featured entertainer Brad Loekle performing “My Big Gay Life.” The event was a way to enhance awareness and stimulate support for a much needed cause. All proceeds benefited the Fairness Campaign.

Photos by TIM VALENTINO

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1 Sara McRae, Brenna Visocsky, Kim Francis, Ryan Freeman, Tricia Robbins and Peter Sang 2 Missy Briery and Danielle Dolan 3 Jordan Houser and Cam Cates 4 James Reynolds, Brad Loekle and Glenn Cullen Wright 5 Heather Falmen, Rich Miller and Beth Wilkerson 6 Michael DeSpain and Matthew Venderburg 7 Henry Brousseau and Jamie McClard 8 Chris Hartman and Glenn Cullen Wright 9 Joe Walker, Greg Lepatosky, Shannon Campbell, Scott Brooks, Mike Ice and Keith Klusman 10 Carl Simpson, Stacey Robinson and John Reisert

MODERN LOUISVILLE ||| March • April 2016

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Lobster Feast Lobster Feast is Actors Theatre of Louisville’s most fantastic and fantastical fundraiser of the year, and this year’s event was no exception. On February 6 at the Louisville Marriott Downtown, attendees dressed in their best fairytale garb and enjoyed an evening filled with magical costumes, silent and live auctions, signature Herradura cocktails and, of course, an all-you-can-eat lobster buffet!

Photos by TIM VALENTINO

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1 Bill and Michelle Mudd, Arnie and Virginia Judd and Brian Kane 2 Anna Blanton, John Aurelius and Michael Vettraino 3 Allison Lewis and Walls Trimble 4 Zach Barlar, Melissa Wildt and Larry Stanfield 5 Heather Falmen, Puss N Boots and Keith Zirbel 6 Gill Holland, Jennifer Bielstein, Les Waters and Augusta Holland 7 Ellen Kronauer and Cheri Sims 8 Heidi Storie, Stephanie Cornell and Nickie Shever 9 Susan and Aaron Miller with Cynthia and Mark Knapek

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March • April 2016 ||| MODERN LOUISVILLE

INSPIRE D CUISINE SINCE

{1989 }

NERISSA SPARKMAN

FIND US ALL AROUND TOWN

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