Cover Story
Dan Johnson’s fight to stay in city hall has split his district
Dan Johnson has quietly represented South Central Louisville for 25 years, first as Sixth Ward alderman and now as District 21 councilman. This year, he is getting more attention than ever. Unfortunately for everyone involved, it is because of sexual harassment allegations against him. Johnson is accused of having groped Councilwoman Jessica Green during a…
Listen: Stream Boa’s single “Swift Camp Creek” a few days early
The psychedelic-leaning, groove-centric rock band Boa will release their first single on Friday and debut EP on Oct. 7 at Zanzabar, but right now you can advance stream that first single, “Swift Camp Creek,” below. The song is breezy, swampy and packed with layers, showing why they’ve been a live band to see around town…
Protesters call on city to remove the Castleman Statue
[photos by Nik Vechery] Protesters rallied Monday in front of the John B. Castleman Statue on Cherokee Road in The Highlands to encourage the city to remove this monument to a Confederate military officer. Organized by SURJ Louisville, the hour-long rally included chants, songs and speakers in front of the statue, which recently was vandalized…
10 things to do under $5 this week in Louisville (8/14)
MONDAY Take down the Castleman Statue Cherokee Road and Cherokee Parkway Free | 6 p.m. Louisville SURJ (Showing Up for Racial Justice) is holding a rally to call for the removal of Confederate monuments, following the deadly violence in Charlottesville, Virginia. On the Facebook event page, Louisville SURJ says that “symbols of oppression have been…
Louisville rallies Sunday end peacefully, counter racist protesters in Charlottesville
[photos by Nik Vechery] Hundreds of people at rallies in Louisville on Sunday protested the violence in Charlottesville, calling for an end to white supremacy and warning neo-Nazis they cannot operate in the city without challenge. The Lville2Cville Rally & March at the Carl Braden Memorial Center in West Louisville, and another at Jefferson Square…
Managing Editor’s Note: Tear down those statues — Louisville’s and Charlottesville’s monumental problems
An American patriot was killed Saturday by a neo-Nazi who had traveled to Charlottesville to protect the statue of a white supremacist who tried to divide this nation more than 150 years ago. Charlottesville’s plans to remove the statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee fueled the violence there that led to Heather Heyer’s death…
A Q&A with visual artist Kayla Bischoff
Kayla Bischoff (kaylabischoff.com) is one of the hardest working young artists in Louisville. Unless an artist is lucky to get a full-time art job (as plentiful as unicorn sightings), they have to piece together their livelihood. But she is a visual artist foremost, one who already has representation (quite an achievement for a young artist)…
Councilman Dan Johnson says he’ll take leave, deepening controversy
Metro Councilman Dan Johnson now says he is taking a 90-day medical leave of absence, complicating Thursday’s move by five fellow council members to remove him from the council. The five council members needed to launch impeachment hearings for Johnson filed a complaint Thursday, claiming he is guilty of “misconduct, incapacity” and “willful neglect” in the performance…
5 Things To Do This Weekend in Louisville (8/11)
FRIDAY The 168th Annual St. Joe’s Picnic: For the Kids (Aug. 11–13) St. Joseph Children’s Home Free | Times vary Hard to believe, but it’s already time for another St. Joe’s picnic. This annual picnic helps raise funds for the St. Joseph Children’s Home, which provides housing for vulnerable children (orphans and victims of abuse,…
In Effort To Fix UofL, Law Sidestepped As Costs Balloon
Ed. note: The following story outlines issues with how the UofL audit is being financed. A follow-up story explains how two local philanthropic organizations have agreed to pick up most of the costs of the audit. The UofL’s publicly-funded forensic audit was meant to lay bare the scandals and secrets that have plagued the school’s…
UofL: Private Groups Will Cover $2 Million Of Audit Instead Of State
Two local philanthropic groups will pay most of the costs of the taxpayer-funded, $2.2 million forensic investigation of UofL’s troubled nonprofit organization, the university announced Tuesday. The C. E. & S. Foundation and the James Graham Brown Foundation — both of which threatened to pull support last fall for the University of Louisville Foundation —…
Thorns & Roses: The Worst, Best and Most Absurd
In like a lamb, out like… | Thorn If Gov. Matt “Oblivious” Bevin spent as much time governing as he does accusing the news media of lying, using drones to spy on his children and treating him unfairly, Kentucky would be in great shape. Are we in great shape? One of his targets is a…
Pride President Rodney Coffman on the 2017 festival and the future
For more than a decade, the Kentuckiana Pride Festival has grown continually each year, showing and reinforcing the unity of the region’s LGBTQ community. In recent years, the U.S. Supreme Court ruling on marriage equality and the Pulse nightclub massacre, have inserted into the festivities more pointed messages for attendees. For instance, during the 17th…
King Buzzo of The Melvins talks about love, death and The Dickies
It’s no small feat digging into the Melvins’ catalog, which spans more than three decades, with a staggering amount of releases. Led by the irascible King Buzzo and Dale Crover, the duo has collaborated with a who’s who of musicians over their storied career, influencing Nirvana to Tool, and plenty in between. Their newest record,…
Sonic Breakdown: Wax Fang — ‘Serenity Now’
Wax Fang — ‘Serenity Now’ from the album Victory Laps (2017) [Editor’s Note: Sonic Breakdown is LEO’s new music column that deconstructs a single song from a Louisville band.] Wax Fang leader Scott Carney describes “Serenity Now” as a buoyant, later-era Talking Heads-style song (i.e. “Wild Life”) with some Hendrix-meets-Sonic Youth guitar work — a…
Ballet, music make ‘Lady Lear’ a fresh take on shakes
Kentucky Shakespeare’s parade of excellent community partners culminates this week as it hosts The Louisville Ballet’s “Lady Lear,” an ambitious, new work inspired by “King Lear.” Last summer, Louisville Ballet teamed with KY Shakes to present choreographer Roger Creel’s “William’s Folly,” a new work based on Shakespeare’s 154 sonnets. The result was excellent, pairing spoken…
Comedian Tony Hinchcliffe: A giant bat and steroids?
When Tony Hinchcliffe is on one of his dark, improvised, tangents, he comes off like a character who got cut from the movie “Mean Girls.” Maybe Regina George’s gay best friend, who also happens to be straight. (He says he is “a straight man with a gay face.”) Lately, there has been a lot of…
Comic Book Reviews: ‘Kill or be Killed’ and ‘Warlords of Appalachia’
‘Warlords of Appalachia’ Writer Phillip Kennedy Johnson | ?Artist Jonas Scharf Review by Krystal Moore,? The Great Escape Louisville The second civil war has come to America, and it seems Kentucky is the last holdout. This is a timely story about what happens to a country when an elected leader takes a different view of…
Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s … SuperChefs!
Holy pancakes and waffles, Batman! This place has got a bat-ton of food, piled as high as Gotham’s towers! With great power comes great responsibility and SuperChefs’ latest and most impressive location meets that standard and then some. Indeed, SuperChefs’ superhero-themed bill of fare may challenge Ramsi’s for largest and most diverse menu on Bardstown…
Your Monday drink map
Each and every Monday, when my 9-to-5 comrades are devastated to be heading back to their offices, their tired, weekend warrior bodies trudging reluctantly, I have to admit I find quiet joy in my own personal sabbath. Sure, I had to miss the best shows at Forecastle on Saturday night, and the soft opening of…
Gravely Brewing to open with history on tap
When Gravely Brewing Co. opens Aug. 18, it will hark back to a significant piece of Louisville beer history — a time when bicycle racing was a spectator sport and campaigning politicians were known to stop in for rallies. The brewery at 514 Baxter Ave. formerly the Pride Tile Co., is on part of what…
Savage Love: Commit to Something
Q: My boyfriend of eight months, K, and I are polyamorous. We started the relationship on that foot, and for a while I was the partner he spent the most time with. There have been ups and downs, but overall our relationship is solid and loving. However, recently we both started dating the same woman,…
Why are we still talking about sex ed?
I learned something today. Louisville Sexual Education Now and the Family Foundation of Kentucky each want to change how sex education is taught locally. Both want children taught how to avoid sexually transmitted disease and early pregnancies. And both think delaying sexual activity is important for the development of young minds. So what is the…
Speaking of mental illness
In September 2015, I was in handcuffs again. I was carrying a battered lunch box filled with totems of my chaotic manic episode, including a marijuana pipe and un-bottled psychiatric pills. As they read me my rights, I invited the arresting officers to be in my “movie,” a film that existed only in my delusional…
Most dangerous fake news
Fake news wasn’t invented in 2016. Remember what you browsed as you checked out at the grocery store: “Loni Anderson Gives Birth to Aqua Child with Gills!” Whether people were in it to profit, or to undermine politicians, state leaders and institutions, they have been publishing fake news for centuries. Today, there are three kinds…
