Cover Story
Cash bail keeps the poor in jail…a new bill aims to change that
During Shameka Parrish-Wright’s jail stay, she made a friend. Her friend faced a charge of felonious aggravated assault. So did Parrish-Wright, stemming from what she says was self-defense. The difference was that Parrish-Wright couldn’t pay the $1,000 bail. The friend could and was released. The 18-year-old Parrish-Wright spent 38 days in jail, cut off from…
10 Things To Do Under $5 This Week In Louisville (1/21)
MONDAY, JAN. 21 MLK Day Celebration: “The Fierce Urgency of Now” St. William Catholic Church Free | 1:30-3:30 p.m. A long list of locally-operating nonprofits, including The Bail Project and Cultivating Connections, have put together this Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration, which offers music, drumming, movement, poetry and “a puppet parade alongside an exciting…
LEO Presents: Maddy Lobeck, live in studio
Singer-songwriter Maddy Lobeck brings her country-leaning, contemplative folk to the LEO Presents, our video series where we ask local musicians to stop by our studio to play three songs. Watch past episodes of LEO Presents here.
Young writers get a laugh from “Something Rotten!”
Arts Bureau Edge, a youth arts journalism initiative, brought five young critics to the press opening of “Something Rotten!” at The Kentucky Center, with the help of PNC Broadway in Louisville. This effort is the fourth since Arts Bureau Edge began in June with a mission to give young people experience in writing about the…
A Q&A with mixed-media artist Teri Dryden
To know Teri Dryden (teridryden.com) is to smile. She’s one of the happiest artists I know. Her latest delight-inducing adventure was her residency at the Shiro Oni Studio in Onishi, Japan (For more information on that experience, listen to LEO Weekly’s Dec. 7, 2018 podcast). LEO: What type of artist are you? Teri Dryden: As…
5 Things To Do This Weekend In Louisville (01/18)
FRIDAY, Jan. 18 After Hours at the Speed Speed Art Museum $20 (free for federal employees) | 5-10 p.m. Federal employees get in free with identification at this month’s After Hours at the Speed. The agenda for the evening includes a performance of banned songs by GRLwood and a winter edition of Jecorey Arthur’s Classical…
Public market closer to opening, can it fill a neighborhood need?
The banner draped across the entrance of the Shelby Park warehouse proclaimed “Coming Autumn 2018 Logan St. Market.” Autumn 2018 had passed. In fact, the banner was still up less than two weeks before 2019 — an entirely new year. But Logan Street Market is still coming. The Logan Street Market, a public market like…
Thorns & Roses: The Worst, Best and Most Absurd (1/16)
Finally, Kentucky can be No. 1? in something | Thorn Emboldened by the U.S. Supreme Court’s right-wing shift, Kentucky’s Republican majority christened the 2019 session with bills designed to erode the state’s legal abortion access. One would criminalize abortion if a fetal heartbeat is detected, about six weeks after gestation. Courts have struck down this…
Music, diversity, inclusion and the Louisville Rock Lottery
In January 2018, I participated in the second annual Louisville Rock Lottery, where 25 musicians were invited to Headliners Music Hall in the morning to have their names randomly drawn, creating five bands. Then, the newly-formed bands went to different rehearsal spaces across town to write a few original songs in 12 hours for a…
Crosley Vinyl Artist Program helps indie musicians press records
There’s been an undeniable resurgence in vinyl over the last decade, and pressing records can be beneficial for up-and-coming bands and musicians, but it’s also expensive and risky. Crosley Brands — a Louisville-based turntable and jukebox manufacturer — is helping artists through its Vinyl Artist Program, which, at its top tier, covers the cost of…
Orchestra Enigmatic begins 2019 with a tribute to Björk
Orchestra Enigmatic, a group of chamber musicians dedicated to creating concept concerts, is continuing their regular series of tributes in 2019 with perhaps their grandest yet: The Björk Ball. In collaboration with the community-oriented art space Art Sanctuary and the interdisciplinary art collective interstice, the event combines a night of musical performances and visual art,…
Three concerts ?to catch this week
GRLwood Friday, Jan. 18 | Speed Art Museum The guitar-and-drums, punk-leaning, scream-pop duo GRLwood will perform songs that have been banned in the past. Singer/guitarist Rej Forester said that GRLwood will perform “Rape Me” by Nirvana and “Lola” by The Kinks, among others. They are part of a censorship-themed After Hours event sponsored by Louisville…
‘Pipeline’ poignant examination of racism, ‘Dada Woof Papa Hot,’ clever and charming
The title of Dominique Morisseau’s 2017 play, “Pipeline,” refers to the school-to-prison pipeline phenomenon that too often occurs with young black men in America. In an interview that she gave in July 2017, she explained that she was driven to write the story after an incident in which her “surrogate-nephew” was heavily criminalized, as well…
Mickey Hess’ new book on hip-hop and race
“A Guest in the House of Hip-Hop” by Mickey Hess (Ig Publishing; 264 pages, $16.95) This book’s subtitle cuts straight to its heart: “How Rap Music Taught a Kid from Kentucky What a White Ally Should Be.” The author grew up dirt-poor in Science Hill under emotional conditions that were often nightmarish — but unfortunately…
‘The other South:? Photographs? by Laura Lee Brown’
In the early part of the 20th century, the western United States was alien territory to most who lived on the East Coast. Travel, at the very least, would have been difficult due to the lack of roads and what we know to be modern transportation. There were trains, of course, but few took them.…
Comic Book Reviews: ‘Spider-Man’ and ‘Young Justice’
‘Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #1’ Writer Tom Taylor and artists Juann Cabal and Marcelo Ferreira Review by Krystal Moore, The Great Escape Louisville There are so many Spider-Man books coming out at the moment that I wondered how this one could be different. Well, it actually is! This book takes place in Peter Parker’s neighborhood as…
Shreeji brings street-style Indian fire and flavor
Even if you think you know something about Indian food, the chances are that the first time you see the menu at Shreeji Indian Vegetarian Street Food, you’re going to be bewildered by a lot of names of dishes that you don’t recognize at all. Only seasoned travelers or natives of the subcontinent are likely…
Try chai gin!
For many cultures, communities and families across the world, a cup of tea is much more than a beverage to keep us warm or to quench our thirst. A cup of tea is a gesture of hospitality and kindness, and for Kartik Kamat, the fragrant aroma of cardamom, clove, ginger and various other spices feels…
Taco Tico: ?Revisiting an old friend
What was your teenage hangout? The local mall? Mr. Gatti’s? I worked at a Ponderosa Steakhouse in Clarksville, and mine was a Taco Tico restaurant, which was just across the street. I hung out there with friends for hours and ate taco after taco (meat and cheese only in those days) and got to know…
Ask Minda Honey: Why is it so Hard to Find a Black Man who Dates? Black Women?
In a relationship or life jam? Lemme unstuck your life — send your questions to: AskMindaHoney@leoweekly.com or reach out to me on Facebook.com/AskMindaHoney Hi Lou-vers! Wait… Do we like that? You know like, Louisville + Lovers = Lou-vers. I’ll put a poll up on my Facebook page, and you can let me know if you…
Savage Love: Big Little Lies
Q: I’m a middle-aged man dating a younger guy. He wanted to be a “boy” to a Dom top daddy, and I was happy to oblige. The sex is amazing, and we click as people, too. Then a couple days ago, he told me he wanted to explore small penis humiliation (SPH). I was taken…
People, in their own words…(1/16)
Jan. 7, 2019 Ms. Syl, owner of Syl’s Lounge in Russell “Well, we will go back to the ‘50s, where it first started. This used to be a grill. It happened due to urban renewal. It came through and wiped out all the businesses. It wiped out all the black businesses on Muhammad Ali. The…
‘An attack on the rule of law itself’
I was asked to share my remarks from the wonderful Jefferson District Court Investiture ceremony Jan. 6. All of us — especially lawyers — need to stand between the governor’s and the president’s attacks and the judiciary. That’s the wall that matters. “Mr. Chief Justice, Justice Hughes, distinguished guests, judges of the Jefferson District Court…
High Time for Medical Pot
The science-based reasons for legalizing medical marijuana are too numerous to list here, but that doesn’t matter — state lawmakers are impervious to facts. So, how about this argument: “It worked for me,” and “I can get it anyway.” Those arguments were made by a Republican supporter of House Bill 136, which calls for legalizing…
