Arts and Culture – 89.3 WFPL News Louisville

Friends, family & fans remember Louisville artist Mark Anthony Mulligan

Stephanie Wolf — Thu, 01 Dec 2022 17:43:10 +0000

Mark Anthony Mulligan, a beloved Louisville folk artist, died Monday at Wedgewood Healthcare Center in Clarksville, Ind., according to his obituary. He was 59.

Mulligan was a visual artist and performer, perhaps most known for his vibrant illustrations of street scenes, packed with signs and logos.

The remembrance said Mulligan “loved telling jokes and stories, and he loved to eat. He loved God and loved singing.”

In the past few days, there’s been an outpouring of love for Mulligan online, with community members, artists and the social media accounts of art institutions sharing memories of him.

“He meant so much to people here in Louisville, for his art, his spirit, his joy, his sense of humor. He’s really fun to be around, all the way up to the end,” said Gregory Luchini Maddox, who visited with Mulligan on Thanksgiving.

On the holiday, Mulligan shared a 57-page work – a mix of poem and song, accompanied with sketches, he had written over the last several months of his life with Maddox, who said it was a testament to the artist’s drive to create art no matter his circumstances.

Maddox first met Mulligan in the early 90s along Bardstown Road, where Mulligan was seen frequently. At the time, Maddox was a social worker involved in local outreach efforts to people experiencing homelessness, “so I got to know him in that capacity.” Struck by Mulligan’s art, Maddox directed a film about him called “Peacelands/Mark Anthony Mulligan,” which debuted in 2015.

“When he was very young, he would drive around Rubbertown with his family,” Maddox said of Mulligan’s recollection about his childhood. “And he would see these big gasoline containers, the real big ones that had the signs like Gulf [Oil] and Standard Oil. And I think it really caught his imagination.”

He started sketching the logos and signs he saw as a kid, and stuck with it.

Courtesy the artist/Gregory Maddox

A piece of artwork made by Mark Anthony Mulligan.

Local artist and curator Albertus Gorman described Mulligan’s work as versatile and “amazingly conceptual.”

“There was just this creative drive that you could see that manifested itself in these drawings and paintings, and actually some of the performances he would do singing songs that he would also compose,” he said.

Gorman helped organize an early exhibition of Mulligan’s at the University of Cincinnati and curated a 2005 show of the folk artist’s work at the Kentucky Folk Art Center in Morehead. He said Mulligan’s work was deep, perhaps even deeper than many realized, inviting people to challenge their preconceived notions of what they saw.

“Something we see every single day and pay absolutely no attention to, in fact we may decry the fact that all this stuff is there, but Mark Anthony goes beyond that,” Gorman said, adding that Mulligan invoked spirituality into his work to say these signs and urban logos exist for a reason.

In a Gulf Oil sign, Mulligan would see the message, “God’s unique, undying love forever.”

“The fact that he was able to kind of see much more of what was happening in the urban landscape here, that he was able to kind of plug into the visual excitement,” Gorman said.

Julia Finch, the interim director at the Kentucky Folk Art Center, said visitors have told her Mulligan’s work helps them feel connected to the urban landscapes that they call home.

“He gives it a sense of intimacy by talking about his journey… his world is marked by these monuments,” she said.

The artist found ample inspiration on his lengthy TARC rides – his obituary cites his love of seeing the city “while on his many long TARC bus tours.”

TARC assistant director of transportation Darlene Franklin, who got to know Mulligan over the course of her decade as a coach operator, said she never saw him without a smile on his face.

“It was nice to be able to get him where he needed to go,” Franklin said. “As drivers, we don’t always get a chance to see people who are smiling and can pass along that smile. So to actually see that every day, it was welcoming. And I just know he’ll be missed.”

As an adult, the artist experienced homelessness for years. Friends and colleagues said he also struggled with some health problems, and contracted COVID-19 last year and doctors put him on a ventilator.

Gregory Luchini Maddox hopes Mulligan is also remembered for his love for living.

“Mark proved that, despite challenges, great challenges, you can still enjoy your day,” Maddox said. “You can still get up and find things that you are excited about, relate to people, spread joy… You’re never too hopeless that you can’t enjoy your life and do good things.”

That perpetual desire to find the good in life is evident in a video posted to the “Peacelands” film Facebook page. Mulligan shared these words for his fans, friends and family: “Don’t give up on life. No matter what problem you have, take it to the Lord above… Waking up and seeing the sun shine, that’s a miracle right there.”

Mulligan’s family is organizing a way for the public to pay tribute to him at the Calvary Apostolic Church in Jeffersonville, Ind. Visitation is at noon on Saturday, and the celebration service begins at 1 p.m.

A Leitchfield, Ky. couple is breathing new life into a downtown historic hotel and theater

Stephanie Wolf — Fri, 25 Nov 2022 20:00:44 +0000

The Alexander Hotel and adjacent Alice Theater were once a bright spot in the public square of Leitchfield, Ky.

Mandi McKinzie remembered coming to the theater with friends when she was a teenager.

“This is where we all came to see movies,” she said. “I watched ‘ET’ in here, ‘Star Wars.’”

But the theater shuttered decades ago, followed later by the hotel and its restaurant. Despite multiple ventures to resuscitate or demolish the property, it sat empty for years. Leitchfield paper Messenger-Inquirer reported that utility usage indicates the hotel and theater have been vacant since at least early 2013.

Then McKinzie and her husband, Robert, purchased the property last year, intent on turning it into an event space, restaurant and short-term rentals.

The couple, who run a nonprofit and co-own two local coffee shops, had eyed the building for years, weighing what it would take to restore it.

“It’s been such an eyesore of our community for so long,” McKinzie said.

Stephanie Wolf | wfpl.org

The Alexander Hotel in downtown Leitchfield has sent empty, without windows or doors, for years.

They put the idea out of their heads though, initially because the work seemed untenable – there was so much to do, said McKinzie, given that a previous owner had auctioned off much of the building’s removable parts and framings, including doors and windows.

There was also an attempt to sell stocks in the theater and hotel, an opportunity the McKinzies had jumped on, but the effort ultimately failed.

“We were just like, ‘Well it’s just out of the cards for us,’” she said.

Then she went to a Sunday church service.

“I was praying, and God just spoke and was like, ‘You’re supposed to do that building and you’re supposed to do it for the community,’” McKinzie said.

Her husband had a similar feeling during worship, and in September 2021, they became the new owners of the Alexander Hotel and Alice Theater.

The former movie theater will be renovated into an event center, McKinzie said. She’d like to see local school drama clubs get use out of the small stage, and can envision live music, comedy or personal milestones like weddings and birthday parties happening in the space. The old hotel rooms will be transformed into short-term rentals, and a fine-dining Italian restaurant will go in downstairs.

Stephanie Wolf | wfpl.org

McKinzie and her husband bought the Alexander Hotel and Alice Theater in 2021. Despite the failed attempts to restore the building in the past, McKinzie says, “I’ve spent a lot of hours in these walls and I feel nothing but peace up here.”

“It’s gonna mean a whole lot to our downtown,” said Leitchfield Mayor Richard Embry, who has long advocated for the rehabilitation of the hotel.

Embry told WFPL News the work being done at the Alexander Hotel and Alice Theater are “part of the puzzle” in bringing more business and residents, especially younger ones, to Leitchfield’s Public Square. He thinks providing more local entertainment and hospitality will generate jobs and tourism, and provide services he believes residents are hungry for.

“I think just meeting a demand which a community’s wanting,” Embry said.

The McKinzies have been documenting much of the restoration work on Facebook.

Community members have offered words of encouragement online.

“I’m so excited to see the awesome outcome of this renovation,” one commenter posted. “Love that this building is being renovated and wasn’t torn down!”

“This makes me happy,” another person posted in response to a summer update on the construction.

The structure itself also includes messages of support, written by hand onto the 2×4 studs upstairs – bible scripture in permanent marker plus well wishes to the McKinzies, letting them know, “God is with you all the way.”

As the drywall goes up, the personal notes will remain and become embedded into the building.

Stephanie Wolf | wfpl.org

Some of the notes from fellow churchgoers and community members wrote on the building’s upstairs 2×4 studs.

McKinzie feels invigorated by all of the efforts to restore business on the public square. The pandemic made that more true for her.

“I guess because everybody was cooped up, we just missed fellowshipping and that type of thing,” she said. “For me, my family and friends, it just taught us to love harder, love deeper, like don’t take things for granted.”

As for the hotel and theater specifically, McKinzie said they had anticipated the project being around $500,000. It’s ballooned to approximately $1.3 million.

“But it will be worth it,” she said.

She hopes to be open for business as early as next summer.

5 films we can’t wait to see: Here’s Hollywood’s holiday bounty

Bob Mondello, NPR — Thu, 24 Nov 2022 19:57:12 +0000

Sure, you want to snuggle by the fireplace as the weather turns cold. But it’s Hollywood’s job to lure you out of the house, so at this time of year, it trots out blockbusters, awards contenders, and star vehicles. Here are five to whet your appetite:

Avatar: The Way of Water

Even if nothing else were opening this season, Hollywood would be pumped about the sequel to the biggest box office smash of all time. In the works for more than a decade, it features much of the original cast (even those who played characters who died — Sigourney Weaver’s back as a Na’vi teenager, for instance). Where the first Avatar marked big advances in film technology, director James Cameron claims this one will be even more eye-popping (and as the first of four planned sequels, it had better be.) December 16

Emancipation

Antoine Fuqua’s Civil War epic takes its inspiration from the true story of a man who became a potent symbol for the abolitionist cause when photos of horrific whipping scars disfiguring his entire back were published in 1863. Will Smith stars — his first role after an Oscar ceremony where he won Best Actor and slapped Chris Rock. December 9

Babylon

Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie star in La La Land director Damien Chazelle’s comic take on the moment when silent film was giving way to talkies, and Hollywood debauchery was prompting talk of a Production Code. Brassy, boozy and gargantuan at three+ hours (reportedly down from a four-hour first cut), the comedy promises Jazz-era decadence writ large – murders, suicides, overdoses, rattlesnake wrestling and mountains of cocaine. December 23

Women Talking

Sunlight streams through slats in the walls of a barn where women and girls gather in Sarah Polley’s compelling adaptation of Miriam Toews’ 2018 novel about a remote, patriarchal religious colony. The women have long kept quiet about abuse at the hands of the colony’s men – taught by their faith that it’s not their place to question or challenge. But their abusers are unexpectedly in jail, and for the few hours before they’ve posted bail, the women have a chance to discuss what should come next. December 2

Living

Ramrod straight, tailored in bowler hat and pinstripe suit, Bill Nighy is Mr. Williams, a buttoned-up widower toiling in a public works office in post-World War II London. His days shuffling papers as head of a staff of six, are unvarying and pointless. His staff embodies bureaucratic inertia, with “skyscrapers” of papers piled atop desks, tasked with shuttling them (and the people who bring them) from department to department. An elegant, exquisitely sad retelling of Kurosawa’s 1953 drama Ikuru (To Live), brimming with period detail, and gorgeous performances. December 23

Consider making less food and composting leftovers this Thanksgiving, experts say

Ashley Ahn, NPR — Thu, 24 Nov 2022 15:51:17 +0000

Environmentalists urge people to think twice about how much food they make and how to deal with leftovers this Thanksgiving.

New York City, reportedly the world’s most wasteful city, last year produced 5% more trash the week after Thanksgiving than during a typical week, according to the city’s Department of Sanitation.

By composting leftovers, a process that converts organic materials into nutrient-rich soil, people can help reduce the amount of trash being dumped into landfills, environmentalists say.

“Over 70 billion pounds of food waste reaches our landfills every year, contributing to methane emissions and wasting energy and resources across the food supply chain,” said Andrew Wheeler, then the Environmental Protection Agency’s administrator, in a statement the day before Thanksgiving in 2020. “This holiday season, we must all do our part to help people and the environment by preparing only what we need, cutting down our food waste, and sharing or donating what we can to feed others.”

Some U.S. cities have set up curbside composting that allows residents to leave food waste in labeled bins for pickup. Those who do not live in neighborhoods with this service can bring food scraps to a compost drop-off location or community garden.

New York City’s Department of Sanitation is conducting a pilot program of “smart bin” composting for easy food-scrap drop-offs. People can open these bins, scattered throughout Lower Manhattan, via an app and drop off organic waste, which will then be taken to local and regional composting facilities.

Experts also advise Americans to freeze extra food to eat later, donate excess nonperishable food to local charities and consider making less food.

Food composting has increased slightly over the past decade but has not become a prevalent way to manage food waste. From 2010 to 2018, the U.S. saw a 23% increase in the amount of municipal solid waste composted. But only 4.1% of wasted food and other organic solid waste was composted in 2018.

Food contributes more to landfills than any other material, making up 24% of city solid waste. Landfills are the nation’s largest source of methane, a greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming and gets emitted when organic waste such as food decomposes.

“Preventing food from going to waste is one of the easiest and most powerful actions you can take to save money and lower your climate change footprint by reducing greenhouse gas emissions and conserving natural resources,” EPA spokesperson Robert Daguillard said.

Here’s how Light Up Louisville will affect traffic

Breya Jones — Thu, 24 Nov 2022 14:00:58 +0000

People can ride a holiday train, listen to live music, shop at a market, visit Santa’s workshop and see the man in the red suit himself during a parade at this year’s Light Up Louisville.

The annual tree lighting ceremony is from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. Friday on West Jefferson Street, near Metro Hall.

The parade begins at 7 p.m. After that, Santa Claus and Mayor Greg Fischer will light up a large tree in Jefferson Square Park and turn on Christmas lights throughout downtown at 8:30 p.m.

In order to accommodate the festivities, several streets will be closed from noon to 11:30 p.m.

The closures will impact the following streets:

West Jefferson Street from South Third Street to South Eighth Street
West Liberty Street from South Fourth Street to South Ninth Street
South Fourth Street from West Market Street to West Muhammad Ali Boulevard
South Fifth Street from West Muhammad Ali Boulevard to West Market Street
South Sixth Street from West Market Street to Cedar Street
South Seventh Street from West Market Street to West Muhammad Ali Boulevard
South Seventh Street from Cedar Street to West Jefferson Street
South Eighth Street from West Market to West Liberty Street
Armory Place from West Muhammad Ali Boulevard to W Liberty
Congress Alley from South Sixth Street to South Eighth Street
Court Place from South Fifth Street to South Sixth Street

There will also be restricted access along South Fifth Street from Muhammad Ali Boulevard to the Fourth Street parking garage.

The Baird Tower parking garage and the Hyatt Regency will also have restricted access.

DETOUR UPDATED
PLEASE SEE DETAILS BELOW
Rider Alert: Due to Light Up Louisville & Lots of Lights parade, a detour will be in effect for Rts. 2, 4, 6, 10, 15, 17, 18, 28, 31, 40, 43, 63, 71, and 72 beginning Nov. 23 at 9 a.m. through Nov. 26 at 6 p.m. More: https://t.co/SnPMqq366O

— TARC (@ridetarc) November 22, 2022

TARC routes will also be impacted by Light Up Louisville. Several routes will have detours in place until 6 p.m. Saturday.

Indigenous people reflect on how to better honor their history and cultures on Thanksgiving

Breya Jones — Wed, 23 Nov 2022 11:00:59 +0000

Thanksgiving and its history are a large part of United States lore. Even as some parts of the country have replaced Columbus Day with Indigenous People’s Day, Thanksgiving remains a mainstay in popular culture and education. But for some Native American people, Thanksgiving is not observed as a holiday at all.

“It wasn’t our holiday. It was just more of just another day of surviving,” said Fred Keams, a member of the Navajo Nation.

Keams grew up on a reservation in Arizona. He said any observance of Thanksgiving for him was focused on the food associated with the day, but never the holiday itself.

Growing up on a reservation also informed Keams’ understanding of the story of Thanksgiving.

“What was taught to us was the Pilgrims came over and they wanted to take over, that we tried to come help and they didn’t want any help and it came out to a big fight,” Keams said. “It wasn’t a peaceful thing for us.”

For Native folks who grew up off reservations or were not connected to their communities’ traditions, the story of Thanksgiving and the celebrations around it were in line with typical understandings.

Mi’kmaq nation member Venus Evans grew up celebrating the majority culture, while having to hold back Native traditions.

“As far as being able to share ceremony or our heritage, that just didn’t happen,” Evans said.

Similarly, Helen Danser, a member of the Piqua Shawnee nation and chair of KY Native American Heritage Commission, said her family enjoyed all the Thanksgiving classics without realizing the historical implications of the food on the table — food that comes directly from early colonists learning the farming practices of Native people.

It wasn’t until Danser began to connect with members of the Native communities that would have interacted with Pilgrims and early settlers that she began to hear different stories about the first Thanksgiving and what happened afterward.

“One of the stories that I am aware of is that after the Indians fed them and started going back to their villages, they were shot and killed. Other stories indicate that there were some friendships made during that first Thanksgiving,” Danser said. “It is not possible for us to know what really happened after that first Thanksgiving.”

What is clear, however, is that most U.S. public schools don’t give the full story surrounding Thanksgiving. That has contributed to the holiday’s overall history being lost to lore.

“All the history of everything is going right out the door now. No one really cares about what had happened in the past,” Keams said.

Like the lore around Thanksgiving, there are several pieces of misinformation about the Native community that have made their way into the popular media.

This includes depicting all Native communities as a monolith, issues with Hollywood portrayals of Indigenous communities, and the idea that Native people don’t exist in the U.S. anymore. Evans said there are more than 570 federally recognized and 60 state recognized tribes, along with others that are unrecognized.

Many people believe the best way to combat stereotypes and misinformation and properly honor the history of Indigenous people in the U.S. is through education.

That includes information about ongoing court battles to protect Native sovereignty, continued erasure of the existence of Native communities and harsh living conditions on reservations.

Evans said with more education, people could be more willing to question the traditions and story of Thanksgiving, similar to how discussions around Christopher Columbus have evolved.

“That’s where it starts: education. Start with our children,” Evans said. “We’re not in the past, we’re not ‘used to’ or ‘we were.’ We are.”

Portland Museum retrospective captures 25 years of Squallis Puppeteers

Stephanie Wolf — Fri, 18 Nov 2022 16:07:55 +0000

The Portland Museum in Louisville features the art of Squallis Puppeteers in a show opening Saturday.

“Twenty-Five Years of Squallis Puppeteers,” on display through March, is the group’s first solo museum exhibition, featuring items from Squallis’ inaugural show to its most recent.

“It’s been great. It’s also been kind of emotional,” said Squallis co-founder and executive director Nora Christensen, who has been writing down the organization’s 25-year history for the first time.

“A lot of sweet memories have come up and … it’s just a good way to kind of review and reflect, and so it’s been really, really sweet,” she continued.

The local puppetry arts company puts on shows and educational programming. It’s perhaps most recognized for its giant puppets of figures like Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Kurt Vonnegut, often seen at public events, festivals, art fairs and protests about issues like climate change or racial justice.

Christensen said, from the start, they’ve wanted their work to have a message.

“I think the reason we wanted to make art in the first place was because we had opinions about things and wanted to use art as a communication tool to express our opinions in a creative visual way,” she said.

Puppetry has “always spoken truth to power,” added performer, puppet maker and Squallis board member Shawn Hennessey.

“There’s always been something to protest,” he said. “You look at the history of Squallis, and it’s the Iraq War, police brutality in Louisville and injustice, and Trump.”

Christensen started the organization with her sister and several friends, “just experimenting and playing.” Early on, she said the work largely centered around creating puppet theater, then eventually shifted to a heavy focus on education. Squallis has since visited schools all over the state.

Both Christensen and Hennessey enjoy how puppetry requires a diverse set of skills — including sewing and paper mache — and is a versatile art form.

“You’re never really done exploring it,” Christensen said. “It’s so multifaceted.”

The next chapter of Squallis’ history includes moving to Portland. The neighborhood museum has been planning and fundraising for an immersive art center called AHOY, the Adventure House of You Children’s Museum. Part of that expansion will be a new home for Squallis, where they can develop more youth programming.

Additionally, Christensen recently returned to school to pursue a degree in social work. She hopes to find a way to merge what Squallis does with what she’s learning in the classroom.

“I was running Squallis for all this time and realized that, as much as I love making puppets, it wasn’t just about the puppets. It was about what the puppets could do,” she said. “I kept finding I was missing bits of information or training, and so I decided to learn more about how to make change.”

When the creek does rise, can music survive?

Stephanie Wolf — Thu, 17 Nov 2022 17:10:30 +0000

It was weeks before Doug Naselroad could bring himself to set foot inside the Museum of the Mountain Dulcimer in Hindman, Ky. He knew the space all too well, having co-curated its exhibits, and had felt heartsick every time he tried to wrap his mind around what it would look like empty. When he finally did get up the nerve to visit, he says, the sight of the place gave him a ghostly chill — “like you’re Indiana Jones exploring his own tomb. You have trepidation and dread looking in at the things you cherish and trying to will them back.”

In the early hours of July 28, after days of heavy rain, floodwaters from nearby Troublesome Creek rushed through the museum with enough force to blow a door off its hinges and shatter the front windows. The water carried away dozens of historic instruments, including early examples of the hourglass-shaped dulcimer, developed and honed in Knott and Letcher counties in southeast Kentucky, and one once played by Appalachian music legend Jean Ritchie. About two-thirds of the collection “just disappeared.” What was recovered will need extensive restoration.

“Now we’re in just a big salvage operation,” Naselroad says. Sounding philosophical, he adds, “Is this a hopeless project? You tell me.”

Eastern Kentuckians are familiar with flooding; the region’s creeks and mountain runoff have wreaked havoc on these communities for decades, centuries. But there’s a distressing redundancy in the responses I heard when asking people about this particular weather event, which swept through Central Appalachia but did the most concentrated damage here, in the southeast part of the state.

“This was like an unthinkable that happened,” says John Haywood, a tattoo artist and musician who lives in Letcher County and specializes in the “old-time, drop-thumb, overhand east Kentucky” style of banjo. “I’ve never even seen the water get above a certain level, let alone like five, six feet above that level,” he says. “I think that’s one of the reasons why it was so devastating, because it was just so huge.”

Stephanie Wolf | wfpl.org

Damaged instruments from the Museum of the Mountain Dulcimer line the upper floor of Hindman’s Appalachian Artisan Center.

By the time this summer’s historic floods subsided, tens of thousands of eastern Kentucky households had lost power. Thirteen counties had received major disaster declarations from the federal government. Twenty-one public water systems were operating at reduced capacity and two more were fully disabled. A report from Gov. Andy Beshear’s office has put the official death toll at 43. Driving along Kentucky Route 15 in early August, I saw school buses shoved into buildings and entire homes forced off their foundations.

Three months later, the floods have receded from national headlines as new weather emergencies have hit Florida, South Carolina, Puerto Rico and elsewhere. But the absence of news cameras doesn’t mean a catastrophe is over. There are still hundreds in temporary housing in state parks and travel trailers, who don’t yet know when their lives will return to normal. And for the people, places and institutions that make up the region’s storied music scene, a more complicated question looms: What does it actually mean, after a disaster like this, to rebuild an artistic community?

The practical steps toward recovery, though daunting, are already in motion throughout the region — repairing facilities and venues, restoring instruments, wrangling the logistics and raising the funds to gradually get programs and performances back on the calendar. But the music-minded residents I encountered while traveling through these counties often spoke of a higher responsibility, inherent to their roles as artists, educators, craftspeople or simply listeners. To play and share music in Appalachian Kentucky, the wisdom went, is to be a steward of its traditions — and that duty is never more serious than in times like these, when the tangible is lost.

Stephanie Wolf | wfpl.org

Sarah Kate Morgan, a director at Hindman Settlement School in Knott County, with her mountain dulcimer. After the floods, Morgan’s role shifted from education to coordinating relief operations.

I met Sarah Kate Morgan at Hindman Settlement School in Knott County, where she serves as director of traditional arts education. The school is 120 years old, established to educate the children of coal mining families. Immediately after the floods, Morgan’s role shifted from teaching kids about Appalachian music and dance to coordinating relief operations: helping house displaced people in the undamaged parts of the campus and providing transportation for those trying to apply for federal aid.

“For the next year, we’re going to be focused on rebuilding what we lost instead of reaching out, like we usually do,” Morgan explains. “We won’t be able to do as much of the good work that we used to … and I fear that we’ll lose some momentum.”

While the humanitarian need was the priority when we spoke, she’s also begun thinking about the region’s cultural recovery. Her staff and volunteers have been trying to salvage every bit they can of the school’s precious archives, which contain journals, photos, documents, quilts and historic records curated and cared for by generations of Appalachians. The collection, which predates the school itself, was submerged in several feet of water.

As we were wrapping up our interview, Morgan fetched her own mountain dulcimer from her on-site apartment, saying, “It’d be nice to play music for a second.” Her brief set included a subdued rendition of Ernie Carpenter’s “Elk River Blues” and Ola Belle Reed’s “I’ve Endured.” When I thanked her for the performance, she answered as though I’d done her a favor: “It was good for me to share.” Music, she confided, had been a scarce presence in her life lately.

Half an hour away in the hard-hit town of Whitesburg, water soaked another extensive archive housed at the arts and media center Appalshop. It included artifacts made by local artisans, documentary films and master tape recordings of musicians who helped shape the region’s cultural landscape.

“It does really hurt to think about what is going to end up being lost,” says Carrie Wells Carter, a musician I met in Whitesburg. “It makes you just want to cling to and hold onto every single piece of recorded music that you can get your hands on, everything written about everybody that’s ever lived here and been in this place and shared their music or art.”

A spokesperson for Appalshop said they were able to get all of their materials into “stabilizing environments” (the nonprofit had put out an urgent call for freezer trucks immediately after the floods), but it remains unclear how much can be salvaged. The center’s film department, radio station and youth education center, the Appalachian Media Institute, lost all of their equipment and many instruments.

Both Appalshop and Hindman Settlement School have digitized portions of their collections. But to Haywood — who, in addition to his music and tattooing pursuits, considers himself an archivist of his own family’s old photos and relics — knowing that the information an object carried is preserved doesn’t diminish the heartbreak of losing the cherished original.

“There really is something special about being able to go through the actual photos and the actual items because those are like your firsthand accounts,” he says. “People can digitize stuff, but often, through that, they miss certain things” — such as the smell and tactile qualities of an instrument, or the feeling of an original photograph in your hand.

With all of these physical pieces of eastern Kentucky’s music community endangered — performance venues, centers of learning, rare documents and instruments — I asked Haywood what it would mean to him to rebuild. “It’s an interesting question,” he replied. “Because there’s the fear in everyone’s mind: This is going to happen again.”

Stephanie Wolf | wfpl.org

Photographs soaked by the flooding at Hindman Settlement School dry on clotheslines.

Flooding is becoming more severe and more frequent in eastern Kentucky, a trend that has been linked to climate change and the region’s history of strip mining and mountaintop removal mining. Haywood’s tattoo shop is located on Main Street in Whitesburg, and suffered heavy damage when water overwhelmed that part of town. The task of rebuilding a livelihood is daunting enough in itself — but the fear of losing it all again has had him weighing whether he and his family may need to relocate.

“There’s a lot of uncertainty,” he says. “I think everyone’s kind of feeling it out.”

Wells Carter and her husband, Matthew Carter, also a musician, asked themselves the same question, especially as flash-flood warnings persisted in the area well after the initial disaster. But Wells Carter says she feels a deep connection to this land that may be irreplaceable. Her family’s roots in the area date back to the 1700s, and include a lineage of fiddle players whose legacy she feels proud to continue, playing fiddle and electric bass in her own local bands.

“It’s just part of my soul,” she says. “You either get it or you don’t.”

Banjo player, guitarist and vocalist Kevin Howard, who is the event coordinator at Appalshop, says his ideal vision for rebuilding is one where cultural institutions can come back fortified against future weather-related disasters. “I hate to use the phrase, because it’s become a little cliché,” he admits, “but hopefully it’s an opportunity to build back better.”

Howard says that he, too, has no intention of leaving eastern Kentucky. But beyond his own lifestyle, his concern is for the health and preservation of local musical communities that are little-known outside of the region.

“There’s more here than what you think is here,” he says, emphasizing that the area has fostered robust punk, metal and hip-hop scenes in addition to its contributions to country and Americana. “If you really want to help us, you can buy our music, you can come to our shows or donate to organizations that are helping musicians.”

Stephanie Wolf | wfpl.org

Dwight Yoakam, Chris Stapleton, Ricky Skaggs and Patty Loveless perform in October at Kentucky Rising, a benefit concert for those affected by the 2022 floods.

On Oct. 11, roughly 14,000 people packed into Rupp Arena in Lexington for Kentucky Rising — a benefit concert organized by the Lexington-born, east Kentucky-raised Chris Stapleton, who had shown up to help with relief work in person in the days following the floods. Tyler Childers and Dwight Yoakam co-headlined with him; Ricky Skaggs, Patty Loveless and S.G. Goodman, all nationally successful artists with deep roots in the state, made guest appearances.

“You did a good thing tonight,” Stapleton told the arena crowd during the event, which also streamed for paying viewers online and brought in a total of more than $2.9 million, according to partner organization Blue Grass Community Foundation. “Thank you all for being with us tonight, coming out for a good cause, helping folks out who need some help. That’s what we do here in Kentucky.”

When I first met Doug Naselroad in August to talk about the damage to the dulcimer museum, his outlook was less optimistic. We were standing among piles of warped wood at one of his own businesses in Hindman, the Appalachian School of Luthiery, which the July floods had turned into a “mudhole,” destroying instruments, materials, sound equipment and large collections of work drawings and blueprints. The same befell his nearby Troublesome Creek Stringed Instrument Company, a local builder of guitars, dulcimers and mandolins.

“This whole town is gutted,” he told me. “Everything I’ve built here in the past 10 years has been destroyed.”

When we reconnected on the phone many weeks later, his tone had softened. The destruction on the ground was as real as ever, but he was reminded of something left intact in the wreckage of those buildings, a prize the flood couldn’t touch.

“Appalachia is a place where you’ve always had to make your own fun,” Naselroad says. “And because so many people are individualistic here, music is a very personal thing. We wouldn’t want to live here without music.” Whether steeped in tradition or finding voice in more contemporary styles, he says, the music made in Appalachian Kentucky has long been a celebration of survival. “That’s where an awful lot of our joy occurs, is in music.”

Stephanie Wolf | wfpl.org

Doug Naselroad examines damaged equipment at his Appalchian School of Luthiery.

To him, that joy has been a powerful incentive to rebuild — even when it feels hopeless. Naselroad and his team have begun the long process to restore both the luthiery and the factory, and he hopes to be building instruments again in an alternate facility before the end of the year. As for the museum and its recovered instruments, he says, their story just got bigger: not merely artifacts of the builders and musicians who brought them to life, but now, witnesses to a historic crisis, and participants in the collective recovery.

“The things that can be restored, that can be repaired, that survived? I think it’s a powerful statement,” he says. “Our heritage can’t be destroyed.”

John Haywood told me he agrees — but adds that preservation can happen even when those physical objects are beyond saving.

“We can lose all of our instruments, but the instrument isn’t really where the music was even kept,” he says. “I realized early on that the music is kept by the people.”

Stephanie Wolf is an arts and culture reporter at NPR member station WFPL in Louisville, Ky.

Film celebrating NEA Heritage Fellows features Southern Indiana fiddle player Michael Cleveland

Stephanie Wolf — Wed, 16 Nov 2022 20:17:43 +0000

The National Endowment for the Arts is releasing a film that celebrates its 2022 National Heritage Fellows, and bluegrass fiddler Michael Cleveland, of Charlestown, Indiana, is among the featured artists.

Cleveland was one of 10 creatives to receive the distinction this year, which comes with a $25,000 cash prize.

The film, called “Roots of American Culture: A Cross-Country Visit with Living Treasures of the Folk and Traditional Arts,” will stream on the NEA’s website Thursday at 8 p.m. EST.

The NEA award has been around since 1982. It’s considered one of the highest honors in the folk and traditional arts.

Cleveland feels he’s in good company, as past fellows include bluegrass legends like Bill Monroe and Jerry Douglas.

“Bluegrass music is my life,” Cleveland told WFPL News. “It’s something I love. It’s something that I do every day. For anybody to consider giving me an award like this, that so many of my heroes have won, I’m just thankful and very honored.”

Cleveland said he’s been listening to bluegrass music since his birth. His grandparents would take him to shows every Saturday night.

“People have told me, ‘I remember seeing you in a stroller when you were about six months old, keeping perfect time,’” he said.

He became fascinated with the fiddle specifically at 4, after hearing someone play “Orange Blossom Special.”

“I remember being captivated by all the sounds that the fiddle could make,” Cleveland said. “I just knew I had to learn to play that song, and I became obsessed, I guess you could say.”

The musician enrolled at the Kentucky School of the Blind, where he learned the Suzuki method of violin.

Cleveland said, eventually, he started bringing his instrument to local bluegrass shows.

“There’s a lot of good players in this area, a lot of good musicians that I had the opportunity to be around and learn from and who were very patient with a little kid scratching around on the fiddle,” he said.

He knew he wanted to devote his life to music after learning about country, bluegrass and folk artists who were also visually impaired, like Doc Watson and Ronnie Milsap.

“I think that’s when it clicked for me that, hey, you know, these guys are visually impaired, and they’re out doing it.”

In 2006, Cleveland formed his band, Michael Cleveland and the Flamekeeper. He’s gone on to be inducted into the National Fiddler Hall of Fame, win a Grammy and be named a 2022 NEA Heritage Fellow, among other accolades.

“My dad always said to me, ‘You need to have fun, whatever you do, you need to have fun doing it.’ … So my main philosophy is, and this is not just music but anything, if you’re having fun and you believe in what you’re doing, then you’re doing it right,” Cleveland said.

New play ‘The Moth and the Masked Man’ is a tale of love, grief and magical realism

Stephanie Wolf — Tue, 15 Nov 2022 11:00:59 +0000

A play using magical realism to explore themes of grief, love and found family opens in Louisville this week.

“The Moth and the Masked Man,” running Thursday through Sunday at the MeX Theater, is set in Louisville’s Highlands. The story follows a college student known as the Wanderer, who hears whispers of a strange Masked Man, first from a fellow student after their mother’s death.

Louisville playwright Clarity Hagan told WFPL News the relationships between the characters are the heart of the play.

“Those relationships can be so deeply important for dealing with grief, for coming to find other people who see you for who you are, and understand the invisible things you might be carrying with you,” they said. “Grief is so often one of those invisible things that people carry with them that, until you meet someone else who understands what you’re carrying, it feels like you’re alone.”

This is the first full-length, fully produced work for Hagan, who had a staged reading of the play at the Louisville Fringe Festival last year, presented by the Derby City Playwrights.

They said it’s been “surreal to watch it all come together.”

“It has reminded me exactly why I love theater so much because it’s been so special to watch this become something that is more beautiful than anything I could have created in isolation,” Hagan said.

Director Shannon Woolley Allison, who is also co-founder of Louisville’s Looking for Lilith Theatre Company and directed the 2021 reading of “The Moth and the Masked Man,” said the work interested her because she has spent the past few years dealing with a lot of loss. She had already discovered that theater could be a good conduit for processing bereavement after directing the 2021 play “Good Grief,” about an outside-of-the-box support group.

“‘The Moth and the Masked Man’ uses this magical realism and this interacting with death as an actual entity that’s walking around with us seems like the right part of my journey for me to deal with, and in a way that, this is going to sound strange, has been more fun than dark,” Woolley Allison said.

“The Moth and the Masked Man” also centers women and queer characters.

“There’s also definitely an undercurrent of queerness, or overcurrent of queerness, running through the show,” Hagan said. “That’s another aspect of something that is somewhat unseen, that once you meet other people who understand that aspect of your experience it’s like life becomes more colorful.”

That aspect of the work resonated with Adama Abramson, who plays the Wanderer. Abramson also connected with how the play shows death and rebirth as something that can be experienced biologically, within relationships and one’s self.

“To have that be so beautifully articulated in a play, and to have that overt queerness, but have it not be the topic, have it just be another layer that exists in the world… just felt like something that was like a gift,” they said.

The play has pulled Rocket Powell back to the stage after performing only sporadically for approximately a decade. Powell, who is the Moth in the production, said the character’s grief is both seen and validated.

“I think what I love about this particular version of found family is that it’s about finding that family. It’s about how a traumatized person learns to become comfortable with another traumatized person, essentially,” they said.

Powell said they also empathize and agree with much of what the Moth says about death. They said it feels special to really mean the words coming out of the character’s mouth.

“The Moth and the Masked Man” is a work of processional theater, in which the audience physically moves with the actors from scene to scene. During the play, less than 30 people get to move throughout the MeX Theater, including backstage. It’s meant to be an intimate experience.

Hagan has attended several processional projects and found them moving: “they showed me what theater could really be.”

On top of that, the pause of live theater brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic gave room for a number of theater artists to question the systems and structures that shape the industry, “starting to look at different hierarchies and see how we might be able to subvert or break those down.”

Artists scrutinized whose stories were getting told, how work was created and who held the power, Hagan said.

“But one of the relationships that I hadn’t seen interrogated as much was the relationship between the audience and the actors because normally actors are literally put up on a pedestal, talking down to an audience,” they continued.

They felt the processional style opened up the possibility for more collaboration between audience members and artists, a chance to be on the same level literally, but also interact with the work.

“It felt so in line with what I want to do as an artist and as a person… while also being something that when executed well is just something I find incredibly engaging,” Hagan said.

Dance, music & Bollywood trivia: U of L student group hosts annual Diwali event

Stephanie Wolf — Fri, 11 Nov 2022 21:55:03 +0000

The Indian Student Association at the University of Louisville hosts its annual Diwali celebration Saturday evening.

This year’s Jalsa, the Hindi word for celebration or a big social gathering, features Bollywood fusion and Bhangra dance troupes, a multilingual student band, food from Louisville restaurant Tandoori Fusion, and Bollywood trivia.

Twenty-one-year-old Vaibhavi Venkataramanan, the student group’s VP of communications, said it’s a great showcase of local talent.

“Ya know, just bring their own personality and different characteristics to the stage,” she said. “And overall, basically bringing together the community and encouraging collaboration and celebration all in one.”

ISA has been producing Jalsa for more than a decade, and a portion of the ticket sale proceeds goes toward a charitable fund for pediatric cancer care and supporting families impacted by the disease.

“We are following in tradition and trying to give back to our community, as well as our student body on campus, by hosting this spectacular event every year,” said Vatsa Vemuri, who directs this year’s event.

Vemuri, 19, is most looking forward to “the gratification, and the response from the audience.”

“I want to see how they feel about the show this year because we have a lot of new things and new elements,” he said.

Both Venkataramanan and Vemuri said a big part of the event is promoting cultural awareness on campus and developing cross-cultural understanding.

“Everybody is included,” Vemuri said of Jalsa. “Everybody is having fun.”

Forecastle Festival is ‘taking a pause’ next year

Stephanie Wolf — Fri, 11 Nov 2022 19:22:39 +0000

Forecastle Festival will take a break in 2023.

In a statement posted on the festival’s website, organizers said there are aspects of the event they want to improve upon and need to hit pause on the music event to think through a course of action.

“So we’re going to take some time to strategize and determine the best path forward for the festival,” the statement read.

The statement didn’t include specifics on where organizers see room for growth, nor does it say whether the festival is expected to return in 2024.

“We are grateful for your loyalty and support over the years and will come back to you with updates. We hope to share more good times in the future.”

The 20-plus-year-old music festival returned to Louisville’s Waterfront Park for the first time since before the pandemic in May, featuring headlining acts like Phoebe Bridgers, Tyler the Creator and hometown rapper Jack Harlow.

In the past, the festival was held in July. But organizers said they pushed it up to Memorial Day Weekend this year so fans would not have to brave the city’s muggy summer heat.

Attendees from near and far celebrated its comeback.

“I just love the community,” Jillian Gerhard, who has gone to Forecastle since she was 16, told WFPL News in May. “And I love the people. I love getting to see different people’s outfits, [to] meet different people. For me, that’s what it’s really all about.”

Louisville Orchestra’s next chief executive has a head start on understanding the organization and community

Stephanie Wolf — Thu, 10 Nov 2022 21:29:17 +0000

The Louisville Orchestra has named a new chief executive.

Graham Parker, who served as the interim director for the last year, is staying on board long term, the organization announced Thursday.

Parker told WFPL News that working with the orchestra and its music director, Teddy Abrams, has been invigorating.

“I really just became more and more captivated by the orchestra, by the community I was meeting and the enthusiasm for what seemed to be the path that the Louisville Orchestra had been taking throughout its history, but most recently with Teddy, and what more I could add to that journey,” he said.

Parker has spent decades working with arts nonprofits, including orchestras, and was general manager for New York Public Radio’s classical station, WQXR. He was also the president of the recording label Decca Records, a division of Universal Music Group.

It was through Decca Records that Parker met Abrams, signing him and producing the 2017 album “All In” and the 2019 release “Order of Nature,” a collaboration between Louisville Orchestra and My Morning Jacket singer-songwriter Jim James.

CoAndrew Kung Group

Graham Parker.

“I started coming down to Louisville, and Teddy and I formed a really wonderful kind of musical partnership and friendship,” Parker said.

Parker felt that relationship has strengthened in the past year.

“I respect his artistic role. He respects my role as the kind of executive leader of the organization. Sometimes those will be in harmony, sometimes those will be reasons we have to kind of moderate and adjust, and we both respect that of each other,” he said.

In a news release, Abrams called Parker a “tireless champion for this extraordinary orchestra.”

“We share a deeply held belief that the LO can be a leader locally and globally in reshaping the role of the orchestra as a vital and essential part of our world today,” Abrams said. “We are very fortunate to have Graham’s talent and passion at the helm of our team, and I can’t wait to continue working with him as a partner here in Louisville and throughout Kentucky.”

Board chairman Andrew Fleischman said the board appreciated Parker’s “relentless energy, leadership qualities and commitment to our orchestra.”

In the time Parker was interim with the orchestra, he had a hand in securing a $4.3 million appropriation from the Kentucky General Assembly last legislative session to support a two-year, statewide tour. He’s also credited with helping launch the Creators Corps residency, paying three composers to live in Louisville and create music for and with the community.

His aspirations in Louisville include furthering the orchestra’s commitment to civic engagement, through initiatives like Creators Corps and Music Without Borders free concert series.

“Whilst it is true that we really kind of articulated a very current idea of the orchestra as an artist-driven civic leader, that we can be – and actually must be – essential to healing the city through generational divide and inequity, I would actually say that has been a part of the DNA of the law of the orchestra since 1937,” Parker said.

The orchestra’s origins date back to terrible flooding in Louisville in 1937 that washed out its downtown.

“We saw that an orchestra was essential to the rebuilding and the reestablishment of Louisville,” Parker said. “This kind of current expression of how we can show up for the people of the city and the state is that next natural expression.”

Another priority is ensuring the organization’s fiscal health, Parker said, especially as arts organizations around the world continue to recover from the effects of pandemic-related shutdowns.

Clarification: This story has been updated to reflect that Graham Parker is the Louisville Orchestra’s chief executive.

Disclosure: The Louisville Orchestra is a financial supporter of Louisville Public Media.

Festival of Faiths panel explores how Millennials and Gen Z are redefining religion for themselves

Stephanie Wolf — Thu, 10 Nov 2022 20:45:47 +0000

The 26th annual Festival of Faiths began Wednesday.

This year’s event, organized by the Center for Interfaith Relations in Louisville, focuses on the power of storytelling.

The panel discussion “Changing Story Keepers: Millennials and Gen Zers” on Thursday, featured speakers exploring their spiritual journeys. It highlighted how younger generations are reframing faith practices to speak to their present-day realities.

“That connects to generations that are seeing stories differently, but also seeing themselves differently,” Afro-futurist filmmaker and performer storäe michele told WFPL News. “Also relating back to social justice movements, it causes them to join these movements in a way that is more authentic to who they are now.”

Panelist Najeeba Syeed is the El-Hibri endowed chair at Augsburg University in Minneapolis and executive director of the school’s interfaith institute. She participated in Thursday’s panel discussion. Before the event, she told WFPL younger generations’ faith practices are examined through narrow definitions. But religion is complex and diverse.

“I think we live in a current culture and society in which we even have legal definitions of religion… [and] there are certain factors in which we have to measure what a religion is,” Syeed said. “Whether it’s a scholar, whether it’s the context that you live in, whether it’s a nonprofit structure, they’ll always be some form of defining boundaries of religion.”

Through her studies and research, Syeed has found that Millennials and Gen Zers are developing their own language and ways of expressing and understanding their religious identities — she gave the example of people connecting to religious texts through technology, specifically phone apps.

Some young people are also finding religious meaning in places outside traditional houses of worship, such as a group of young Muslims she spoke with who “felt that service was their calling” and helped out in a mosque’s food pantry to feel closer to their faith.

“There’s so many ways in which we can think about who defines religion, and whose definition is acceptable to whom, but I wanted to point that out because religion is such a dynamic force already in society, not just in religious spaces, but also in secular spaces,” Syeed said, adding that common understanding of religion as an organized, hierarchical convention with a governing body doesn’t have a religious origin.

“Nowhere in the Quran, or in the Hebrew Bible, does it say, ‘And ye shall have a board of directors or an executive director’… so it’s fascinating that [it] becomes the prototypical idea of a religious community,” she continued.

Younger generations might also navigate away from religious institutions because they find them “resistant to change” or a space that represents trauma. storäe michele said Millennials and Gen Z individuals might not “see themselves reflected in those ministries,” and are finding other ways to congregate.

“If your spiritual faith or walk means that you spend your Sundays having brunch with friends, I think that that’s also spiritual because, as relational beings, being able to connect with each other, to share with each other is all a part of what I think we’re called to do as humans,” they said

For michele, who went to divinity school to initially become a minister, exploring their own faith and religiosity is what led them to filmmaking.

“I began to see how film is ritualistic and how film is its own ministry within itself,” they said.

They’ve also shifted toward eco-theological practices and rituals, which focus on humans’ relationship with and responsibility to the natural world, as well as learning more about Indigenous and African-based faiths and traditions, like Yoruba.

“My faith changed from just thinking about like a godhead or spirit to also looking around me to see how spirit is moving and honoring my ancestors, those that I knew and did not know, and understanding that they were also guiding my path,” michele said.

Syeed said, as the United States’ population has diversified, so has its religious makeup, and there’s a reclamation of religious practices that were disrupted by things like colonialism or migration, whether forced or voluntary.

“It’s really that hybridity, for instance of whether it’s an Indigenous identity and a spiritual and religious identity, and elevating those Indigenous practices to understand that they have legitimacy as religious and spiritual sources, that they’re not secondary to another form of religious identity,” she said.

Syeed and michele were in conversation with Lyla June, an Indigenous musician, community organizer and scholar of Diné (Navajo), Tsétsêhéstâhese (Cheyenne) and European lineages. Michael Brandon McCormack, associate professor of Pan-African Studies and Comparative Humanities and director of the Anne Braden Institute for Social Justice Research at University of Louisville, served as moderator.

The panel was Thursday afternoon, and the festival runs through Saturday.

Sessions and panels are live streamed on the festival’s website and YouTube channel. They will also be archived on YouTube.

Photos: Louisville’s Día de los Muertos celebration packed with dancing, art and music

Stephanie Wolf — Sat, 05 Nov 2022 20:47:13 +0000

Louisville’s annual downtown Día de los Muertos event was a showcase of some of the city’s local Latino and Mexican-American artists.

Mariachi music filled Fourth Street Live!, and Louisville’s México Lindo, a dance group specializing in different styles of folklórico dance, wowed the crowd with performances from dancers of all ages. Actors Theatre of Louisville presented a preview of “La Egoista,” a play about family making its world debut in the new year.

Actor Marianne Zickuhr, who performed the excerpt, said the event was an important display of local artistry and culture that exists all year round in Louisville.

“And I hope it inspires people to know that that flavor and culture are part of our city at all times,” she told WFPL News.

Additionally, University of Louisville’s Latin American and Latino Studies organized the downtown ofrenda, built this year by local students.

Stephanie Wolf | wfpl.org

The University of Louisville’s Latin American and Latino Studies department helped organize the 2022 downtown Day of the Dead event and recruited college and Jefferson County Public School students to build the ofrenda.

Stephanie Wolf | wfpl.org

Marianne Zickuhr previews an excerpt from the new play “La Egoista” at Fourth Street Live! She hopes people who came out for the Day of the Dead event “experience everything, the flavor, the culture. And I hope it inspires people to know that that flavor and culture are part of our city at all times.”

Stephanie Wolf | wfpl.org

Marianne Zickuhr performs an excerpt of the play “La Egoista,” presented by Actors Theatre of Louisville, during the Day of the Dead downtown celebration at Fourth Street Live! on Nov. 2, 2022.

Stephanie Wolf | wfpl.org

Young dancers with México Lindo, a Louisville folklorico dance troupe, perform at Fourth Street Live! for the city’s annual Day of the Dead event.

Stephanie Wolf | wfpl.org

Itzel Nava (foreground and to the right) performs alongside Naomi Retano at the 2022 Day of the Dead event at Fourth Street Live!

Stephanie Wolf | wfpl.org

Young dancers with México Lindo, a Louisville folklorico dance troupe, perform at Fourth Street Live! for the city’s annual Day of the Dead event.

Stephanie Wolf | wfpl.org

People stop to watch the México Lindo dancers perform, and many pull out their phones to photograph or record the dances.

Stephanie Wolf | wfpl.org

México Lindo dancer Charisse Rueda performs at the city’s annual Día de los Muertos event.

Stephanie Wolf | wfpl.org

Isabel Angeles performs with México Lindo dance troupe on Nov. 2, 2022 during Louisville’s annual downtown Día de los Muertos celebration.

Stephanie Wolf | wfpl.org

México Lindo dancers put on a show at Louisville’s Fourth Street Live! to celebrate Day of the Dead.

Stephanie Wolf | wfpl.org

Vicky Ramírez wows the crowd during the Day of the Dead event at Fourth Street Live! on Nov. 2, 2022.

Stephanie Wolf | wfpl.org

México Lindo dancer Vicky Ramírez twirls her skirt during a solo at the Day of the Dead event in downtown Louisville.

Stephanie Wolf | wfpl.org

México Lindo dancer Ana Lane, whose two daughters also dance with the company, performs a solo during the Day of the Dead at Fourth Street Live! event.

Stephanie Wolf | wfpl.org

México Lindo dancer Ana Lane twists her body and dances with her skirt during a performance at the Day of the Dead at Fourth Street Live! event.

Stephanie Wolf | wfpl.org

Rosa Luna and Flor Miguel perform with México Lindo dance troupe at Louisville’s Day of the Dead event on Nov. 2, 2022. This dance comes right at dusk, creating a surreal mood with the lighting and smoke.

Stephanie Wolf | wfpl.org

México Lindo dancers perform at the 2022 Day of the Dead event in Louisville.

Stephanie Wolf | wfpl.org

Amaya Lane performs an Aztec dance during Louisville’s 2022 Día de los Muertos event.

Stephanie Wolf | wfpl.org

México Lindo dancer Rosa Luna performs in a large ensemble number for the city’s annual downtown Día de los Muertos celebration.

Arts and Culture – 89.3 WFPL News Louisville

Friends, family & fans remember Louisville artist Mark Anthony Mulligan

A Leitchfield, Ky. couple is breathing new life into a downtown historic hotel and theater

5 films we can’t wait to see: Here’s Hollywood’s holiday bounty

Avatar: The Way of Water

Emancipation

Babylon

Women Talking

Living

Consider making less food and composting leftovers this Thanksgiving, experts say

Here’s how Light Up Louisville will affect traffic

Indigenous people reflect on how to better honor their history and cultures on Thanksgiving

Portland Museum retrospective captures 25 years of Squallis Puppeteers

Louisville children’s museum receives $500,000 donation

When the creek does rise, can music survive?

Film celebrating NEA Heritage Fellows features Southern Indiana fiddle player Michael Cleveland

New play ‘The Moth and the Masked Man’ is a tale of love, grief and magical realism

Dance, music & Bollywood trivia: U of L student group hosts annual Diwali event

Forecastle Festival is ‘taking a pause’ next year

Music lovers find community at Forecastle Festival’s return

Hip hop group The Homies rep Louisville at Forecastle Festival

Louisville Orchestra’s next chief executive has a head start on understanding the organization and community

Louisville Orchestra’s new season features world premieres from composer residency

Festival of Faiths panel explores how Millennials and Gen Z are redefining religion for themselves

Photos: Louisville’s Día de los Muertos celebration packed with dancing, art and music

Food plays a key role in Día de los Muertos celebrations for these Louisvillians