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8.14.2020
“There definitely should not be another Breonna Taylor — anywhere.” — Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, at a press conference yesterday
FIVE.
1. Thursday marked five months since the death of Breonna Taylor, who was shot and killed in her apartment March 13 by LMPD officers executing a controversial (and since-banned) no-knock search warrant. The C-J and WFPL have stories about the press conference, where Ben Crump, who’s part of the legal team representing Taylor’s family, recounted a Wednesday meeting with Mayor Fischer, saying, “We challenged him to make sure that he is courageous and responsible in trying to lead his city out of this tragedy, not only as a legacy for his administration, not only as a legacy for his city, but as a legacy for Breonna Taylor.
“He has that power, and we want him to rise to the occasion.”
2. Earlier this summer, Louisville Magazine opened its office to seven of the city’s Black leaders — Jecorey Arthur, Charles Booker, Quintez Brown, Hannah Drake, Brianna Harlan, Cassia Herron and Ricky Jones — for a socially distanced, intergenerational discussion about racism, the protests, Gen Z, police brutality, Breonna Taylor, reparations and so much more. I hope you’ll spend some time with what they have to say.
When I think back to that morning-that-turned-into-early-afternoon, one of the quotes I keep coming back to is from Harlan, a mixed-media artist and community organizer whose nana is civil-rights activist Mattie Jones. Toward the end of the conversation, Harlan was talking about Breonna Taylor and said, “When I hear my own name, I have to keep from this fight-or-flight mode, like this panic. I think it may be why my mom has stayed completely clear of all protest. And Breonna Taylor is the same age — she was the same age. We were born in the same year. We both grew up in the West End. It’s so close that when I hear my name now, sometimes I think that I’m dying, and I have to remind myself that I’m not, that no one’s talking about me. But they kind of are.”
3. In a Five. Oh! Too… earlier this summer I mentioned a 1996 Louisville Magazine profile of the Rev. Louis Coleman, “Louisville’s most outspoken provocateur for civil rights.” (After a series of seizures, he died in 2008 at age 64.) At the end of the story, his second wife, Etta Coleman, said, “He doesn’t have much of a home life, but that is how he likes it, and so that is what I want. He is a man who really thrives on the struggle. He needs it.” Coleman said, “I’ve neglected my family. Even when I am with them, my head is thinking civil rights. What I do is a commitment.”
The end of that quote — “What I do is a commitment” — reminded me of every single person who was part of the convo at the LouMag office. To clear his mind, Coleman, a self-described “health nut” and former star baseball player, jogged two miles every morning regardless of the weather. Thinking about that made me ask this question to some of the discussion participants: When you need some down time, even just a little break from everything, how do you escape?
Harlan: “Louis Coleman also took fishing trips when he needed some space. As for me, nothing gives perspective like nature. I’ll take it in whatever doses I can — gardening, hiking — but I don’t get to as much I’d like. I’m reading fiction, learning to play my piano. Tea breaks and stretching during a work day are important. This is a great question because we’re all always trying to figure it out, aren’t we? I know I don’t take enough breaks, and I’m excited to explore balance as a priority. It’s always surprising what we can see when we come up for air.”
Cassia Herron, Kentuckians for the Commonwealth chairperson: “Eighteen months ago, I moved from Shelby Park to the Wyandotte area. It’s much more walkable, and Nyla, my German Shepherd, and I get out a lot. Instead of escaping to food, I am finding that more and more I crave being outside and being active. The South End has a beautiful and mature tree canopy and diverse neighbors, and I love the activity in the park. It all drives me to get outside. I also dance to escape and let loose. I love Anderson .Paak’s new ‘Lockdown’ song, and Beyoncé’s ‘My Power.’ The latest from Big K.R.I.T. and Teyana Taylor are also in heavy rotation. ‘Jam’ by StarBoy is a new song I discovered that just makes me smile. I’ve also recently started listening to Lindsey Webster and Tony Momrelle and love their voices. Folks like Lil Jon, Rich Homie Quan, Migos, T-Pain (‘Buy U a Drank’) always make me get up and move. And I always lean on Marvin Gaye’s ‘Got to Give It Up.’”
Hannah Drake, writer and poet: “This is work that, I always tell people, they must count the cost. This work will take from you. It takes your time, impacts your friendships and relationships. You must count the cost of activism because it will cost you. A peaceful night’s rest can be elusive because even your dreams will become consumed with everything going on.
“I spend time in my garden. To some it may seem like work, but I enjoy pulling up the weeds, planting and watching things grow that I know will feed myself and my friends. I believe I love it because when you are in the garden you can’t do anything else but be in the garden. You can’t be on Facebook or Twitter. You can’t focus on the world. You need both of your hands to do the work if you are going to do it well, so that is a time I put down my phone. All I focus on is the garden, the weeds, the plants, and I feel so proud when I see it all come together. I believe I like gardening because it fills up every space in my mind, if even for just a few hours. I get a break from the world and I know my hands planted something that produced a harvest.”
Jecorey Arthur, musician, Simmons College professor and winner of the Metro Council seat representing his home neighborhood of Russell, which will make him the youngest person ever elected to the council: “I don’t have a mental escape. The books I read are about the struggle. The music I play is about the struggle. The movies I watch are about the struggle. The most ‘escape’ I have is playing with my toddler, who thinks he is Spider-Man, but even that reminds me of the struggle because he, and millions of youth across the country, are my No.1 reason for fighting.
“Book recommendation: Two Centuries of Black Louisville. This should have been named The Bible of Black Louisville.
“Music recommendation: ‘Afro-American Symphony’ by William Grant Still. The first Negro to have his music played by a professional American orchestra, and the first to conduct one.
“Movie recommendation: Malcolm X. The 1992 film was released the year I was born. I share a birthday with Malcolm, so this is divine for me.”
4. In a column this week about Churchill Downs’ Derby attendance plans, WDRB sports reporter Rick Bozich asked, “How is a gathering of 23,000 people here not a candidate to become a virus super-spreader event that the Louisville area as well as the state of Kentucky will be confronting for weeks?”
5. After I finished last week’s newsletter Bri and I took our kids to the palatial patio at Agave & Rye (formerly Ward 426, formerly the Brewery, formerly Big Blue Country, formerly…), on Baxter Avenue across the street from those sand volleyball courts. The server steered us toward the “Epic Tacos” portion of the menu, recommending the Swipe Right (honey-lime grilled chicken, sweet-and-spicy bacon, aged white Cheddar, salsa and sour cream) and the Alderman (carne asada, street corn salad, cotija cheese, spicy salsa). I couldn’t muster the willpower to resist the Easy Ranchero, with two shells — soft flour AND crunchy corn — queso, salsa, white Cheddar, something called “Cowboy Candy,” a fried egg and salt-and-pepper fries (no, not on the side but INSIDE THE TACO). Dear Easy Ranchero:
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OH!
A little something from the LouMag archive.
A 2009 piece titled “The Mother of All Pandemics” told the story of Louisville during the 1918 flu, when streetcars carried signs that read, “Spit spreads death.”
“The Kentucky Board of Health instituted a quarantine on public gatherings in early October. Schools, churches, theaters and ‘other places of amusement and assembly’ — even funeral parlors and the courts — were ordered closed.
“The C-J printed a list of preventable measures, which included avoiding crowds, breathing through the nose and not the mouth, choosing and chewing food well, drinking a glass or two of water upon waking up, wearing loose instead of tight clothing, keeping windows open and ‘smothering coughs and sneezes — others do not want the germs which you would throw away.’”
TOO...
The zoo has extended the run of its Wild Lights: Asian Lantern Festival through Aug. 30. Here are two pretty pics Emilia, my first-grader-to-be, took there the other weekend. Dragon was worth the wait.
Josh Moss
editor, Louisville Magazine
jmoss@loumag.com
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