Friday made one year since protests started here in Louisville and yesterday was the one year anniversary of my first taste of tear gas. While the calendar says only a year has past it feels like it's been at least a decade. I wasn't able to make it downtown Friday for the events marking the occasion but I was able to make it there yesterday.
LMPD and the National Guard have an annoying tendency to seal off downtown so I like to park a bit outside of it and hike it. It's easier to exfil on foot and keeps my vehicle away from the worst of the excitement (usually, there was one day when the SWAT team ended up deploying next to it), plus it lets me get a feel for the vibe downtown and what the next few hours might bring. The photo above is from my hike in yesterday, it was the only building I saw that was boarded up, seemed more than a bit incongruous.
There was a noticeable lack of barricades and roadblocks compared to my last few visits to the square. The night before, LMPD had turned out in riot gear for a few dozen protesters marching but they seemed to be taking a different tact yesterday. While I didn't see a single cop during my time in the square at least five rolled past me while I covered the nine blocks between my car and Injustice Square.
The square had a much different feel from a year ago, more somber, befitting a memorial. There'd been a de-escalation training in the park earlier that day but by the time I arrived the park was mostly filled with tributes and memorials to those that have died.
While Breonna Taylor was the primary focus there were also memorials to the others that have been killed in the year since protests began.
Chef and restaurant owner David McAtee, shot and killed by LMPD and National Guard on the fourth night of protests here.
Photographer Tyler Gerth, shot and killed in the park on June 27, 2020.
Activist and organizer Travis Nagdy, shot and killed near the University of Louisville on November 23, 2020.
The Breeway and Travvway signs in the first photo of this post are in reference to Breonna and Travis. While the weather was cool (60F) and gloomy the crowd wasn't letting it get to them. After a while in the park most everyone packed up and headed west to 18th & Muhammad Ali for The Love All Serve All In Unity Positive Hip Hop Music Festival.
The festival was both party and protest, with music and spoken word poetry, vendors and speakers, even bouncy houses for the kids (complete with strategically located cupcake stand right next to them). It was also the launch of an anti-violence initiative (so far this month Louisville has had 17 homicides as well as 52 people who were shot but survived).
The photo above is of one of the people doing spoken word, he'd been on death row at one point and has since made it his mission to keep others from ending up in similar situations.
State Representative Attica Scott (she's a badass) was there as well.
After the insanity of the last year it was nice to see people relaxing and enjoying themselves.
There was so much good food it was difficult to decide what to eat. You could smell the smokers before the festival even came into sight. We eventually settled on rib tips with green beans and tater salad and it was extremely tasty.
In the photo above festival organizer Jibriyll Izsrael and former Metro Councilwoman Barbara Sexton Smith perform a tribute to Louisville native Muhammed Ali to mark the anniversary of his passing. Behind them is Amira, one of the hunger strikers from last year who was doing much of the MCing.
Last but not least, this last photo is of a young lady who treated us to several of her poems. We eventually called it a day but it was a day that had ended much better than the one a year before.