Cover Story
Exclusive: Inside the Center of the Abortion Storm
You notice her when she enters the EMW Women’s Surgical Center early one July morning. She is accompanied by a man, who has a brightly colored blanket slung over one shoulder, and a toddler, which explains the blanket. Or maybe it’s for her, later on. The family makes it past the circus outside, one approaching…
10 things to do under $5 this week in Louisville (8/28)
MONDAY Community Yoga Tim Faulkner Gallery $5 suggested donation | 6-7 p.m. The Kentucky Yoga Initiative, which strives to create “possibility and empowerment in each person’s life,” is bringing a community class to Tim Faulkner Gallery so everyone can have the opportunity to “stretch, build strength, have fun and empower your life!” This power yoga…
The story of two Louisville antifa in Charlottesville
Two weeks ago, Holly McGlawn-Zoller, Sean Liter and other Louisvillians loaded up and headed to Charlottesville to counter-protest the Unite the Right rally. Both McGlawn-Zoller and Liter identify as antifa, or anti-fascist. And both witnessed a nationwide tragedy — the killing of Heather Heyer by a neo-Nazi in a car. In the crowd that Saturday,…
5 Things To Do This Weekend in Louisville (8/25)
FRIDAY Watershed Festival 2017 (Aug. 25–27) Locust Grove $10-$60 | Times vary Celebrate Kentucky’s cultural heritage at this festival that showcases traditional Kentucky music styles — including Old Time, Appalachian, Jug Band and Bluegrass. This festival not only preserves Kentucky’s vibrant culture through storytelling and music, but also works to ensure its continued growth by…
Snopes.com investigates reaction to Chanelle Helms’ “White people…” piece in LEO Weekly
Fact-checking website Snopes.com has written about viral backlash against a LEO Weekly article in which a Black Lives Matter Louisville leader proposes ways to reverse racial generational poverty. Hundreds of thousands of people around the world have viewed the piece by BLM Louisville cofounder Chanelle Helm, and it has been picked up by websites and…
Another view from a Black Lives Matter leader on economic inequality
Ever since Aug. 16, when Chanelle Helm wrote “White people, here are 10 requests from a Black Lives Matter leader,” I will be conservative and say the response was… astonishing. Don’t get me wrong: The words Black Lives Matter have never brought forth a warm and fuzzy response, but the vitriol created by this particular…
The sound of one hand clapping
Donald Trump has accomplished many things in his first seven months as president. Unfortunately, most of his accomplishments have degraded his office, as well as the reputation of our country. For example, he has destroyed the meaning of the word “unbelievable.” I have given up using it, because there is nothing he could do that…
Thorns & Roses: The Worst, Best and Most Absurd
This needs explaining? | Absurd The Courier-Journal’s online headline read: “Why you can’t buy Confederate stuff at state fair.” Outrage tastes better with a side of truth | Rose Of course, our own dear founder, U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth, wasted no time or words in rebuking tRump. “Your comments yesterday were truly deplorable (yes, I…
Kentucky Farm Bureau breaks the state’s heart
“While we all have experienced change since my first fair, some things remain the same. The Kentucky State Fair has always been a place to celebrate our heritage, our diversity and our love for this great state.” —Freddy Farm Bureau, Aug. 1, 2017 Freddy, I’ve loved you since I was young, but you’re full of…
Haiti’s Lakou Mizik rose from tragedy to help a country heal
“Go tell them.” On the title track of Lakou Mizik’s debut album, Wa Di Yo, the nine-piece weaves a positive, resilient energy into those words, reflecting the band’s mission of helping Haiti heal after the 2010 earthquake. “Go tell them / Go tell them / We still there.” “The idea was there at the beginning,”…
Cut Family Foundation releases their first album, ‘Funky Public’
After hearing one of Cut Family Foundation’s early funk songs on a local compilation, Black Birds of Paradise drummer Nick Layman reached out to guitarist Matt Hendricks, asking to join the band. Together, they built up a repertoire of jams, culminating with this month’s Funky Public, their first full-length, an exploration of unity and togetherness…
Record Review: Tycoons of Teen — Dad’s Angry Again
Tycoons of Teen makes punk that pops, like the Dead Kennedys filtered through the Beach Boys. This is sweet music, the sort that makes you want to grab your best gal or guy and swing them out onto the dance floor — skirts, leather jackets and all. Their newest, Dad’s Angry Again, should come with…
Record Review: Jordan Jetson — ‘Critical Mass’
On the seven-song, 21-minute Critical Mass, rapper Jordan Jetson shows that he’s not a fan of wasting time, resulting in an incredibly lean record that still manages to pack a ton of ideas into a small amount of space through dense lyricism and a whirlwind of layered production that’s remarkably clever and agile without waltzing…
Record Review: Various Artists — ‘Don’t Be Hostile’
Don’t Be Hostile Opening with a track from pop-punkers Fast Friends, the Don’t Be Hostile compilation seems to be a self-fulfilling title, breezy and laid back. But, it features a dynamic range of music, from the explicitly chill manifest in the delicate piano ballad of Æves, to the hip-hop of Touch AC or the blistering…
Record Review: Cereal Glyphs — ‘The Second Hand’
The Second Hand More charged and visceral than their self-titled debut, Cereal Glyphs returns with The Second Hand, 10 pieces of psychedelic-leaning garage-punk that still values atmosphere and ambience, but kicks a little harder these days. Loaded with Saturday night riffs, wild and roaming guitar leads, somehow simultaneously distant and urgent vocal performances and sharp,…
Record Review: Bendigo Fletcher — s/t
Through breezy, evocative, harmony-laden folk, Bendigo Fletcher tips its hat to the ‘70s West Coast folk scene, but it could never be mistaken for it as a whole. Where “Joni Blue” is a pretty close take on something from before Reagan was elected president, songs such as “My Dad” and “Dislodger” are big and layered,…
Record Review: Wombo — ‘Staring At Trees’
Although Wombo is a little more heavy, menacing and ominous than the chaotic, yet catchy indie that they produced in The Debauchees, Sydney Chadwick and Cameron Lowe are still dedicated to their trademark strange and complex arrangements. The three-piece band they started with drummer Joel Taylor recently released their debut album Staring At Trees, which…
Record Review: Transgression — ‘Hateful Demonstration’
Hateful Demonstration The music of Trangression is proto-punk goodness, feedback heavy and reverb-drenched vocals unapologetically barked into a hot mic. You can hear the sneer in the vocals, and the rage in the band, manifested here in enormous riffs, chugging breakdowns and the occasional blast beat or two. Self-described as “a collective of queers —…
Record Review: Equipment Pointed Ankh — ‘Plastic Fantasizer’
Plastic Fantasizer Quietly, Jim Marlowe and a who’s-who lineup have spent years working on Equipment Pointed Ankh, making some of the weirdest, free-form ambient music in town. There is little sense of controlled direction, as Plastic Fantasizer is a mellifluous void of warbling guitars and unconnected patterns that never grate. There are moments of Morricone-esque…
Sonic Breakdown: Maximon — “Colorbridge”
Maximon — “Colorbridge” ?from the album If Yes Do (2017) [Editor’s Note: Sonic Breakdown is LEO’s new music column that deconstructs a single song from a Louisville band.] “Colorbridge” is an unabashed love song with airy, ethereal-yet-dark textures and reverb-soaked crooning, exploring the universal theme of compromise and self-sacrifice within a relationship. Anyone who’s been…
‘Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson,’ a play of this? very moment, a show-no-mercy satire
When it stops being fun and your patience is done, And you see being President’s hard. With this country before you that cannot be governed, You find yourself powerless, bloody and scarred. And what is it for? The love of a people! And who is it for? This nation we made. That guy who did…
Comic Book Reviews: ‘Dark Nights’ and ‘Spy Seal’
‘Dark Nights: Metal’ No. 1 Writer Scott Snyder Artist Greg Capullo Reviewed by Meredith Harris, The Great Escape Louisville Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo have an impressive track record separately and as a team, so it’s no surprise that “Dark Nights: Metal No. 1” had some hype behind it. Snyder wrote and Capullo drew about…
Little-seen Louisville through a legend’s lens
Bud Dorsey has spent five decades chronicling African-American life in Louisville as both a freelance photographer and a staffer at the city’s only black newspaper, The Louisville Defender. This month, the 76-year-old celebrates two firsts — the release of the photo book “Available Light: Louisville through the Lens of Bud Dorsey,” and an accompanying exhibition…
Mojito improves the small plate
I want to find the culinary genius who invented small plates and give them a hug. Or at least go to Mojito and hug someone there for doing small plates so well. I mean it now. What food trend of the past generation can you think of that represents such perfection? Not only can you…
Don’t watch Mayweather-McGregor, drink here instead
There’s been a lot of hype lately around the outrageous, circus spectacular that is the impending boxing match between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor. Admittedly, up until recently, I didn’t know or care a damn thing about it, but like most folks, I became curious about all the commotion. Originally, I set out to write…
Gravely Brewing opens to enthusiastic crowds
Look out, Louisville craft beer enthusiasts — the next hot, new brewery has arrived. After a few days of soft opening, Gravely Brewing at 514 Baxter Ave. opened its doors to the public Friday at 3 p.m., and by 5 p.m., the place was almost impossible to navigate through, thanks to the surging crowd. Several…
Savage Love: ‘blackmail packages’ and ‘crazy pills’
Q: I’m a female masochist and super subby — I see nothing wrong with that. For the last couple of months, I’ve been pursuing “death wish” fantasies. When I start feeling low, I seek out guys on hookup sites who are sadistic enough that they might potentially help me carry it out. I’ve even gone…
On understanding reparations
When Chanelle Helm penned “White people, here are 10 requests from a Black Lives Matter leader” for LEO’s last issue, many readers were unprepared to hear or decipher what she meant. Helm’s piece was satirical, but the point she expressed is serious — America needs to start talking about how to help families who live…
Keep kids out of solitary
“Solitary confinement for juveniles is cruel, unusual and wrong,” U.S. Sen. Rand Paul told me in an email recently. “Our nation’s laws should be focused on imprisoning the most dangerous and violent members of our society, not trapping nonviolent offenders in a cycle of poverty, unemployment, and incarceration.” Paul is the author and cosponsor of…
We white people…
Satire is not always funny. Satire can include irony or exaggeration. Chanelle Helm’s piece, “White People…,” was her satirical list of ways white people can help end racism. Does she expect people will actually send her money? Or include her in their will? Of course not. Her message was not an appeal for charity. Her…
