Cover Story
Mayor’s racial equality plan: Who did he (not) listen to?
Mayor Greg Fischer has declared racism a public health crisis in Louisville and prescribed a cure: an Advancing Racial Health Equity plan. But, some Black leaders and community organizers say Fischer failed to properly consult them and the public during the creation of his executive order, signed Dec. 1. “I know that we serve 1,000…
The second stimulus will help local music venues survive
For the last several months, local indie venues have feared they would not make it through the pandemic without assistance from the federal government. Help has appeared to have arrived: The latest $900 billion stimulus package includes the Save Our Stages Act, a $15 billion grant program for the nation’s indie venues. On Monday, the…
How To Support Racial Justice, Diversity and Activism This Week In Louisville (12/21)
MONDAY, Dec. 21 Visit Santa’s Workshop 2600 W. Broadway Suit 205 Free | 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Play Cousins Collective is holding a Santa’s Workshop with free gifts this Monday through Wednesday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. All you have to do is join the group’s Facebook page, for Black families raising children 2 months to…
Mischievous Christmas gifts for Kentucky politicians
FRANKFORT, Ky. — Thirty-nine years ago, Ed Ryan, then the Frankfort Bureau chief of The Courier Journal, wrote a column headlined “Possible gifts for officials, first family.” Ed had great material to work with — Gov. John Y. Brown Jr., his appointees and wife Phyllis George Brown — and he made the column annual. Ed…
How To Support Racial Justice, Diversity and Activism This Weekend (12/18)
FRIDAY, Dec. 18 The Muses Mouth Open Mic Riot Cafe No cover | 7 p.m. Inspired by the #MeToo movement, The Muses Mouth Open Mic started as a place for female-identifying and nonbinary individuals to share their thoughts in a safe space. Now, organizers are offering the stage up to men, too — starting with…
LEO Weekly is hiring an Arts & Entertainment Editor
LEO Weekly is looking to hire a versatile journalist who is able to identify, write and assign stories about Louisville KY’s visual arts, music and theater communities. We’re looking for a motivated person who can work both as part of a small team and independently, implementing their vision into LEO Weekly’s arts sections by working…
Condensed Rabbi Heschel bio-drama is weighty
In 1938, the Polish-born Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel was living in Frankfurt, Germany, when he was arrested by the Gestapo and deported to Poland. In 1939, he left Poland for England, several weeks before the German invasion. From there he immigrated to the United States, where he taught for awhile at the Hebrew Union College…
Kentucky golfer gets true crime treatment
“The Murder of Marion Miley by Beverly Bell (South Limestone/University Press of Kentucky; 260 pages, $19.95) Novelization of true crimes: In the five-plus decades since it was begun with Truman Capote’s big bang, this genre of writing/publishing has expanded phenomenally. The core concept is still fascinating, given that the fundamental feature organizing bookstores and libraries…
The Map is Never the Country: Susanna Crum’s ‘Watershed Globe Project’
I have long been fascinated by maps. As a child, when my father would take me on long car trips, he always made a point of stopping at a service station whenever we crossed a state line to pick up a map for me which, back then, were free to travelers. As we passed through…
Savage Love: Gay Dream Believer
Q: I’m wondering if you can help me with some dream interpretation. If it helps for context, I’m a single 29-year-old gay man. For just about as long as I can remember, I’ve been having mildly unsatisfying sex dreams in that the dreams never seem to lead to sex itself. My dream partners range from…
As stimulus talks drag on, the risk grows for local indie venues
Headliners Music Hall co-owner Billy Hardison said that the future of indie venues is in the hands of the federal government. He said that he and many other indie venue owners and operators are risking their personal futures to keep their small businesses from closing, holding onto hope that they’ll be included in a second…
Taco Choza’s burritos are bigger than your sled… Well, almost
Imagine yourself with a burrito on your plate. A hefty El Compadre burrito from Taco Choza — that’s a good one. Are you getting hungry? I sure am! Lift it, feel its weight, admire the tasty char marks on its textured wheaten surface. Mmm, mmm, good. This is what I love about a burrito: When…
Republican Econ 101… Or: ‘If no one can afford barbecue, it doesn’t matter what my tax rate is’
About 100 years ago, President Calvin Coolidge famously said, “The business of the American people is business.” Ever since, and probably even before, the American people, including most Democrats, have thought of the GOP as the business party. Business people have overwhelmingly supported Republicans with dollars and votes. A lot of that support has related…
Thorns & Roses: The Worst, Best And Most Absurd (12/16)
Thorn: Silence is complicity More than 120 Republicans in the U.S. House signed on to the ridiculous, Texas-born lawsuit designed to subvert the Constitution and give tRump a win. Amazingly, Kentucky’s delegation of brown-nosers was not on that list. U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth, founder of LEO, tweeted that it “seems ludicrous to applaud my fellow…
Incoming U.S. Attorney, please investigate Taylor case
Well, that’s that. On Dec. 4, the Kentucky Prosecutors Advisory Council denied the request of Breonna Taylor’s family to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the circumstances of her killing. Taylor’s family had asked PAC to appoint a new prosecutor to review the Kentucky Attorney General’s performance and potentially present charges to a new grand…
Attorneys Say the Darndest Things
Attorneys are often considered pillars of the community. Often thought of as vigorous champions of justice, attorneys are bound by their rules of professional responsibility to be zealous advocates on their client’s behalf. Sometimes though, zealous advocacy leads to the absurd. And when it does, three years of professional school is not enough to keep…
Hanukkah II — Honoring 2020
Hanukkah was never celebrated in my house when I was growing up. My Catholic mom and Jewish dad were fairly explicit from early on that figuring out religion was entirely up to me. (So, holidays are for presents, and Sundays are for golf. Easy!) Well, I finally figured one thing out: America deserves its own…
