Every two weeks, LPM’s Giselle Rhoden discusses their recent reporting and shares what’s new in arts and culture around Louisville in the free Arts, Culture, Et Cetera newsletter. This edition is all about Halloween-themed events.
WUOL’s Daniel Gilliam spoke to Rhoden about what to check out during spooky season.
This interview was edited for length and clarity.
Daniel Gilliam: Tell us about some of these recent stories you’ve been working on. It’s a lot of Halloween themes this time of year.
Giselle Rhoden: It is spooky season. So, of course, it’s now time for the Jack O’ Lantern Spectacular at Iroquois Park. I got an inside look at the entire thing. It was super cool to see 5,000 glowing pumpkins that make this iconic Halloween trail.
And coming away from the spooky theme, we’ve also got some other things that I’ve been working on. There’s a new Frazier exhibit called “Documenting Kentucky.” It’s got three photographers that spent about 50 years of their life working on this project, and they added some from another project that does kind of the same thing, of documenting all 120 counties in Kentucky, and it’s about 90 years altogether of Kentucky life that’s put into one exhibit at the Frazier. So I got to talk to two of the photographers about this journey and how they ended up creating this exhibit.
And then also, Michelle Tyrene Johnson spoke to Black Azz Camping, which is pretty cool, in their mission to promote outdoor activities and camping in the Black community. So we’ve got a lot going on, aside from spooky stuff too.
DG: That’s a big variety. Pumpkins and history and camping. Our music stations are also highlighting some cool local and national stuff on air. Tell us more about that. What are your favorites?
GR: WFPK’s Laura Shine got all the details about one of our Louisville bands Second Story Man and their return to music. Now, they have two singles that are dropping soon. And also “Kyle Meredith with”, in his new episode, talked to the band DEVO. They have a Netflix documentary that’s now out, so he got to talk to them about their American wave band style. But also, Daniel, I know you’re excited for the upcoming New Lens concert. So what can we expect?
DG: This is our concert series we’ve been doing now for about six years or so. It’s ticketless, it’s open to the public, and this Sunday is going to be featuring a world premiere from TJ Cole.
Now, TJ was a Creator Corps in the first year of that program with the Louisville Orchestra, which is a really unique program where they hire composers to work with the orchestra for a season. So TJ had their work on that season. We also had TJ’s work a couple of years ago on another New Lens.
But this Sunday, they’re bringing a brand new composition called “TAROT: A Guide to Queering Human Connection” for live cello, pre-recorded audio video collage featuring audio stories from trans, queer and polyamorous individuals in Louisville, Kentucky. Gabriel Cabezas is going to be the cellist for this brand new work, and it’s also going to be featuring some collaborators, including performance artist Tigress Blue, who’s also going to be doing some tarot reading at 21c. If you’ve never had that done before, this might be a cool opportunity. I’m kind of looking forward to that too. TJ also collaborated with a trans video artist, Joyce Barber, to create this 10-movement work that weaves together spoken word, audio, poetry and video. That’s on Sunday at 21c Museum Hotel, 7 p.m.
GR: New Lens is one of so many events happening around town this October.
DG: You got anything quick on your radar?
GR: The Old Louisville Ghost Tours are back. We’ve also got the Shelby Park Pumpkin Patch that’s coming up on Oct. 17. We’ve also got the Via Colori Street Painting Festival. It’s on the 18th. And we’ve also got an escape room that guides you with a smartphone app that’s going to be starting on Oct. 30. It’s kind of a spooky outdoor escape room kind of vibe. So there’s a couple things on my radar, but I’m super excited for the stuff that we’ve got going on this spooky season.
Editor’s note: The Frazier History Museum and Louisville Orchestra provide support to Louisville Public Media.