Awesome Every Day

Louisville Magazine

I’m not super shocked, y’all.

I used to write regularly for Louisville.com, which is owned by Louisville magazine.

I went to the Louisville Magazine holiday party. It was held at a beautiful home in the Crescent Hill neighborhood.

I was one of two people of color in attendance. 

How can a group of people who have likely never gotten out of their cars west of 9th street accurately and compassionately tell the stories of a neighborhood they’ve researched for a short period of time.

Louisville Magazine has never actually been a magazine about the entirety of Louisville. It’s a magazine about St Matthews, Crescent Hill, Prospect, The Highlands and a little bit of the Downtown Business District.

It is not a magazine about Shelby Park, Smoketown or the lower income neighborhoods that are still west of those neighborhoods but have “E” on the street addresses. It’s not about South Louisville — beechmont and such, Southwest Louisville —Shively, or neighborhoods like Parkland, California, Russell, Park Duvalle, Portland,  (all neighborhoods in West Louisville) or people of color.

So I feel like the frustration and outrage about Louisville Magazine’s “West Louisville Exists!” issue is the exact same frustration and outrage about the show Girls.

Girls is not comprehensively about girls. Louisville Magazine is lying to itself and others if it thinks it’s comprehensively about Louisville.

Acting!

Just did my first read-through with 80% of the cast of “Suckers,” and I’m feeling pretty great about it!

The director said we did well, and he thinks we’ll be right on track. Opening day is April 11th, which is hella-soon, but everyone is pretty cool, so I think we’ll be alright.

FOR INSTANCE

Recently, Louisville opened a walking bridge from here, across the Ohio river to Indiana.

It was a big deal because government had been sitting on its hands about that for at least a decade.

Then on twitter, someone suggested to our mayor that they pump WFPK, our local public music station on the bridge. His people tweeted back saying what a great idea it was, and they’d look into doing it.

WHAT! No!!!

Now, let’s get something straight. I like WFPK.

I adore public media. WFPK even has a concert series in the summer (Which is largely attended by white people) that I REALLY enjoy. 

However the music WFPK plays is mostly Americana, country, rock and college/indie jams. They have a few shows where they program reggae, blues, swing/jazz, but they are not normal daytime programming. When Janelle Monae busts out with a new album, they’ll play her stuff, but she’s not exactly the norm, you feel me?

The idea of playing WFPK all the time on city/state property is oppressive as fuck. You mean to tell me that you’re going to decide what our city listens to? People should be able to listen to their headphones, or have a conversation. 

There are entire neighborhoods that don’t even care if WFPK exists, let alone are they looking for something outside of hip hop, r&b, pop and whatever qualifies for that “Urban” grammy award.

Anyway, it’s just another subversive way of saying, “Black folks, you’re not welcome here.” If I hear country coming from a bridge, I’m going to be concerned that I might end up hanging from said bridge, attached to a rope. 

Fuck that. My tax dollars, and my neighbors tax dollars, paid for that fucking bridge, and I will walk/jog/bike across it without having to listen to twang.

If this terrible idea comes to fruition, expect me to raise all kinds of hell.

This city expects that people of color should lower our standards, accept that white people run the show and be seen and not heard.

I am not about that life, and I will tell white people about it right to their faces everywhere I go, weather they are ready for it or not until they get the point.

Happy Black History Month.

My Boss just got a new job

(The article about his new job)

Y’all. I’ve only known Anthony Smitih for about a year, and he is one of the kindest, smartest, most genuine human beings I’ve ever met. 

I can’t express how much his mentorship has meant to me on the job, how valuable his insight has been for how I think about working for change and how wonderful it has been reporting to a boss who doesn’t yell at me if I say I’m not coming to the office until 10am. 

His heart and his passionate for better outcomes for black youth in Louisville really makes me hopeful that this administration is doing the right thing for Louisville and is smart enough to know that the status quo has to change. 

I’m really excited that young people of color all over the city will see Anthony’s intellectual gifts and giant heart on TV, grinning the way he does while all suited up talking about how important they are to the future of the world and this city. I’ll really, really bummed out that he won’t be at NC3 all the time anymore, and I’m going to really, really miss him being around to help with the day to day stuff, but I can’t complain too much because I can see the future for this city changing already, and I couldn’t be happier.