If you're lucky enough to live in Tom Owen's district then you get to participate in Front Porch Tuesdays. The first one is tomorrow night. Sorry for the late notice, I meant to write about it earlier.

"This is the third year, we have encouraged Front Porch Tuesdays. Each year, it continues to grow," says Owen. "With the beautiful spring we have had so far, we've structured a time for neighbors to talk and visit with one another."

The idea is a simple one. On two Tuesday evenings in the month of May, neighbors will either host or go visit their neighbors on the opposite side of the street. On May 13^th, people who live on the odd numbered side of the street will host. Then on May 20^th, the even number side of the street will welcome an evening of conversation.

"To often, we have let time go by and we just do not get know the people who live right next door to us or the people we may throw a glance at when we hop in the car in the morning to go to work," says Owen. "Many of us remember the days growing up when you knew just about every one in the neighborhood. That is the goal here."

Owen says hosting does not have to be elaborate. The idea is just to talk and find out if there is anything in the neighborhood that may be of common interest as you get to know other home owners. "After all," he says "for some, community is built one 'howdy do' at a time."

To let your neighbors know you're participating you can pick up a sign at Highlands/Shelby Park Branch of the Louisville Free Public Library to put in your yard. 

After being named one of the best cities for biking it's only appropriate that the Mayor's Healthy Hometown Hike & Bike event be right around the corner. Mayor Jerry wants you to be more active people and I'm with him on that plan.

Mayor's Healthy Hometown Hike & Bike

Memorial Day, May 26 10 a.m. at Waterfront Park

Starting point is near the "Dancing Waters" feature on Witherspoon St.

Booths with cycling information, bicycle assistance and healthy snacks available.

Four bands from Mom's Rockschool will perform from Noon - 2 p.m.

On-street parking is available near Waterfront Park. All TARC buses are equipped with bicycle racks for cyclists who want to leave the car at home.

The Hike & Bike cycling route will highlight various Louisville attractions and historic locations, beginning at Waterfront Park and progressing west to the Portland neighborhood, along tree-lined Northwestern and Southwestern Parkways, though Shawnee Park and back to Waterfront Park.

The complete bicycle route is approximately 15 miles, with several turnoffs available providing alternate routes as short as two miles. For walkers, a "Mayor's Mile" loop will be marked in Waterfront Park.

The cycling route will be marked with signage and include several break stations staffed by volunteers to assist with directions and water. In addition, the Louisville Bicycle Club is providing "bike captains" to help cyclists obey the rules of the road, and "bike doctors" will be along the route to assist cyclists who might encounter equipment problems. Louisville Metro Police will provide traffic assistance at key intersections and the Louisville Metro EMS bicycle team will patrol the route.

Abramson said live music is being added to this year's event, compliments of Mom's Rockschool. Four bands with youth ages 8 to 18 will perform after the Hike & Bike from 12 - 2 p.m.

A healthy marketplace with nutritional snacks, music, free children's activities and several informational booths will begin at 9 a.m. at Waterfront Park. A limited number of free T-shirts will be available and the Brain Injury Association will distribute 350 bike helmets to riders who don't have one. Instructors from Jazzercise will help get participants going by leading warm-up and stretching exercises prior to the biking and hiking.

Subway Restaurants will distribute 2,500 gift cards at both the Memorial and Labor Day events. Each gift card, valued at $2.20, upgrades a regular sub purchase to a "Fresh Value Meal" by covering the cost of a drink and chips.

One of these days I'm actually going to make it to one of these Sustainable City events.

The next forum of the Urban Design Studio's Sustainable City Series will examine climate change and explore the framework for addressing the issue from the local level to that of the United Nations.

Art Williams, director of the Louisville Metro Air Pollution Control District, and Keith Mountain, associate professor of geography and geosciences at the University of Louisville, will speak.

Both Williams and Mountain have extensive backgrounds in the subject. Williams attended the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bali and heads efforts on climate change locally through the Climate Change Committee of the Partnership for a Green City.

Mountain, who recently was appointed state geographer by Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear, is a glaciologist and global warming expert with more than 20 years of experience.

The Sustainable City Series is designed to raise the community's awareness of sustainable practices. Its ultimate goal is to provide a catalyst to move Louisville and the region towards a sustainable model for the nation.

Climate Change: From Bali to Louisville
May 13, 6 p.m.
Glassworks, 815 W. Market St.
Admission to the lecture is free and open to the public. Space is limited. Reserve a spot

Bicycling Magazine has named Louisville, Washington D.C. and New York city as the three most improved cities for biking in the country. That's so very cool. I haven't completely drank the Kool-Aid (as I've mentioned I'm scared to death most of the time when I ride my bike on Bardstown Road) but I know the city has made a lot of improvements for cyclists and that it continues to do so.

Well done Louisville. Keep up the good work.

Way back in March I gave you an early head's up about the spring Bardstown Bound. I hope you put it on your calendar but if not here I am reminding you about it again.

Bardstown Bound celebrates Summer! Bardstown Road and certain side streets open their doors for some more fun with an evening of sidewalk shopping and singing, sampling, and saving on our City's favorite strip, Bardstown Road. Bars, boutiques and shops host the FIRST event of the year, presenting tastings of local favorite restaurants in boutiques to sidewalk music, many other attractions, LG&E's Louie the Lighting Bug will be on hand to entertain the kids on safety. Walk the corridor on Friday, May 16 2008 from 5:00p-whenever and find Happiness in the Highlands!

Friday, May 16, 2008 marks the 10th BB and the 1st of the Year! This 1-night event will offer 15% discounts and showcase the areas most beloved businesses. Discounts on clothing, art, home furnishings, and appetizers provided by Avalon, Bristol Bar & Grille, Bearno's Highlands, Amazing Grace and Le Gallo Rosso Bistro will be featured at the participating boutiques. So shop, taste, drink and enjoy Bardstown Road. The hours of happiness will be from 5:00p -? Bearno's Highlands, Impellizzeri's, Avalon, Bristol Bar & Grille and Asiatique will raise a glass and toast another BBC Bardstown Bound Bubbly Hours to celebrate this evening and offer drink and food specials, including cold BBC Beers and Live Local entertainment.

Participants of this Bardstown Bound event will donate proceeds to benefit the newly opened Gilda's Club of Louisville located in the Highlands. At Gilda's Club you will find support, information, fellowship, laughter, hope and inspiration. Gilda's Club Louisville is a free community where men, women and children who are living with cancer, along with their families and friends, can join with others to build social and emotional support as an essential supplement to their medical care.

A few participants: Luna Boutique, Swanson Reed Gallery, Clay & Cotton, Dot Fox, Presents Gallery, ear X-tacy Records, Asiatique, WHY Louisville, We the People, Cherry Bomb, Hal-Lai, Longest Time, Alcott & Bentley, Impellizzeri's, Eden Side Gallery, Days Coffee, Comedy Caravan, Event Design Library & Emporium, Swabek's Highland Fitness, Tree of Life, White Linen Tea Company, Avalon, ArtClub of the Highlands, Bearno's Highlands, Amazing Grace, Le Gallo Rosso Bistro, Bristol Bar & Grille

No, he's not really coming to Derby (as far as I know anyway), and no I don't want to discuss politics with you. I just want to point out this cool edition of the Obama logo for Derby.

It's part of a push to get campaign supporters and volunteers out for Derby.

If you're interested you can find more information at the campaign's site.

I feel so out of the loop that I didn't know anything about this project. Granted it just officially launched today, still yet, I should have known! I should have given you an early heads up! Alas, I did not know and could not give you an early heads up but I'm telling you know.

Photographer extraordinaire Leslie Lyons has just launched I Live in Louisville. I'm not 100% I've got the relationship right but I believe I Live in Louisville is the first ongoing project sponsored by The Five0Two campaign. Up until this point The Five0Tw0 has released one new, original work of art each month. I Live in Louisville is an ongoing project. So what is it? I'm just going to copy the entire about text:

There's much going on in Louisville. With the recent merger of Metro Louisville and Jefferson County, we've been identified as the 16th-largest city in America. A city with quantity is one thing. But a city with quality - now that's special. Louisville is special.

This is a city with much to offer: culturally, aesthetically, and economically. All these Louisville features are the result of people who make things happen here. Interesting people, smart people, creative people, innovative people. People who live here and make a difference in this community. And in many cases, exporting ideas, products, and arts to the world at large.

If you live here, you probably know what I'm talking about. Tell me who you are and what you do. If you don't live here, it's probably about time you came to visit. The people in this project will offer an intriguing reason for you to do so.

Sounds good right? I thought so. The artist's statement is even better:

There is a map of the world in the local restaurant, Lynn's Paradise Café, with a sign attached that says "It's not where you've been. It's where you're from." 

Visitors are then invited by the sign to peel off a colored dot and place their sticker on the map to show where they are from, where they were born, the place they represent. I stood there, looking at the dots in some of the places I've been in the world . . . Barcelona, Montreal, Kingston, London and New York City where I lived for 18 years. But I was born in Louisville, Kentucky and just like the sign implies . . . that is what really matters. 

I took Louisville with me to all those places whether I was aware of it or not. But how does the saying go - The best journeys are ones that lead you home? Well, I have settled back in Louisville again after clocking in years away longer than those I spent here. I thought it was time to balance the scale back in my hometown's favor.

First off did you know about the Kentucky Film Lab? You better not cause I'm going to be agitated if you were holding on me and not telling me about yet another cool IdeaFest initiative. You weren't holding out on me? Good, now we can both congratulate the Kentucky Film Lab for getting a grant from the fine folks that bring us the Oscars every year.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has awarded a $5,000 grant to the Kentucky Film Lab (KFL), to support KFL's 2008 Filmmaker's Studio.

The grant from the Los Angeles-based Academy, best known for its Oscars, comes as the non-profit KFL is gearing up for its fifth Filmmaker Studio in Louisville this fall.

"It's great news that the Academy recognizes the importance of our mission - supporting cinematic arts in the region," said KFL co-director Brad Riddell.

"This will pay long-term dividends for filmmaking in Kentucky," said Arthur Rouse, KFL managing director. KFL studio participants have gone on to direct their own films, form writers' groups, and work on feature-film crews.

The KFL Filmmaker's Studio is a rigorous three-day educational seminar covering the fundamentals of filmmaking, from script to screen. It includes hands-on production training, individual script analysis, and a series of speakers working today in film and television.

I love the idea of this project. Film has been on my mind a lot lately what with Allison Anders recent visit, the premier of Winding Road and all the great stuff the Louisville Film Society has bee ndoing.

While perhaps not as exciting as free bourbon free trees are nice. The fine folks at Doe-Anderson will be giving away trees during lunch today in honor of Arbor Day. Yay, trees.

Free to a Good Home For Arbor Day, Doe-Anderson will be giving away mighty Oaks that from tiny acorns have grown. Okay, they're not quite mighty yet (we didn't have room for the full-grown kind), but they're well on their way and just need good homes. We've got 50 or so for anyone who would like to give back to the earth on this special day. Some of our fellow earth-friendly employees will be handing out these sweet saplings outside of our building at 620 West Main from noon till 1 on Friday, April 25th, Arbor Day!

I like that they're doing this doing lunch on a work day so people who work downtown can swing by and participate instead of having to drive someplace else. Way to look out for the environment and decrease pollution. Stay classy Doe-Anderson, I dig it.

OK that title is perhaps a little misleading. Mixing and drinking this cocktail probably won't attract a new paramour for you (though it might) but it will allow you to be all sentimental and full of civic pride and thus share your Louisville Love. If you think about all the things the recipe tells you to you might even choke you up a little bit. Well probably only if you're the kind of person who tears up like a little baby every single year during the playing of My Old Kentucky Home for Derby. I don't know anyone at all like that. *cough*

Tim Laird from Brown-Forman invented this drink for the GLI annual meeting back in March but I think it sounds tasty and thus I'd like to see it turn up on bar menus. So I'm, you know, writing about it here in the hopes that some brilliant bar manager will send an email round that says "Michelle, come have a Possibilitini at our place."

Possibilitini
In a shaker with ice add:
2 ounces of Woodford Reserve Bourbon (representing the area which is known as Bourbon Country)
1 ounce of Chambord Black Raspberry Liqueur (this is a French liqueur which represents Louisville's relationship with France)
Shake vigorously to demonstrate how Louisville is shaking things up and is definitely a, "mover and shaker" of a City

Pour into a tall Martini glass representing Louisville's growth and potential
Garnish with a green maraschino cherry (this represents both, Louisville's green movement and prosperity)

Obviously the drink is tied into the Possibility City campaign, (full disclosure I'm working on Imagine Louisville) and I'm a-ok with that. My only question is whether my good friends over at Maker's Mark will come up with an equally civic pride filled cocktail that I can sip somewhere soon. I'll never choose between Woodford and Maker's and you can't make me. I love them both.

The Bardstown Road Farmers' Market has been open for  a few weeks now and the Phoenix Hill Farmers' Market officially opens this afternoon. They sure do have a great day for their first market of the year. The weather is absolutely perfect today. So get thee downtown this afternoon from 3PM-6:30PM to buy direct from farmers. Knowing where your food came from is very, very cool.

Phoenix Hill Farmers' Market
Parking lot of Mellilo's/The Bodega
Market Street
Louisville

I got a press release about a the premier of a locally shot and produced film by student filmmaker Justine Feldt. It sounds like she and her partner pretty much bootstrapped the film and have been working on it like mad for the past year.

Local filmmaker and college student, Justine Feldt, will hold the premiere of her new film Winding Road on April 25 at Jefferson Community and Technical College.  The event will be in the Hartford Building basement located on 649 South First Street. A mini-concert featuring soundtrack artists such as Douglas Lucas, Teneia Sanders, and Cast Iron Airplane will take place at 7pm. The film will begin at 8:30pm. The event is free and open to the public.  

An avid filmmaker, Feldt has spent the last year working non-stop on Winding Road.The film follows the story of a young Haley Smith, who dreams of becoming a famous songwriter. Without her mother's knowledge, Haley leaves home for a prestigious songwriting competition in Chicago. Along the way, she hitches a ride with a young man who is her complete opposite. Through their journey, they form an unlikely friendship, despite Haley's growing concerns about the young man's true intentions.

Winding Road is a low-budget independent film, funded solely by Feldt and her co-producer and assistant director, Claire Thixton. Because of Louisville's thriving art scene and support of independent artists, Feldt was able to find many volunteers and musicians to help make the film a success. The film was entirely shot in Kentucky, with the majority of scenes filmed in the Louisville area.  As a female filmmaker, Feldt is an advocate for gender-equality behind the camera. Feldt, who has attended the New York Film Academy and was apart of the 2006 Samsung Fresh Films competition, hopes that Winding Road will lead her to more filmmaking opportunities.

I dig that last paragraph. Particularly the part about Louisville's thriving art scene and support of independent artists." Damn skippy. I hope lots of people take the opportunity of the Winding Road premier to come out and show support for Louisville's art community.  

What an interesting sounding event this is: the second annual Kentuckiana Green and Local Business Mini-Conference.

From the event website:
Earth Week Keynote address: Judy Wicks will be speaking at 7:00 p.m., Sunday April 20 for the Local Living Economies Earth Week Kickoff . Judy will be speaking on her experience in creating sustainable community business through the White Dog Cafe, her famous restaurant in Philadelphia and the growing success of sustainable businesses around the world. A Reception will begin at 6 pm.

At 8 a.m. Monday, April 21 Judy Wicks will kick off the morning with a Business Breakfast for the Green and Local Business Mini-Conference. Judy will discuss the Business Alliance for Local Living Economies, the global network of local business associations she co-founded.

Schedule:

April 20th
6 p.m. - Judy Wicks: Reception
7 p.m. - Judy Wicks: Living with Local Economies
* Free and Open to the Public!

April 21st
8:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m. - Business Breakfast with Judy Wicks and others. Going Green and Local: Business Success Stories
10:00 a.m. - 12 p.m. - Where Do We Go From Here? Business & Community Partnerships for a Local Living Economy
12 p.m. - 2 p.m. - Lunch and Learn: How Do We Network & Market for Sustainable Business Success?

Location for all Events:
The Clifton Center
2117 Payne Street
Louisville, KY For more information visit: www.centerforneighborhoods.org

Thanks Kurt for the info.

One of my beloved's very good friends died from Leukemia while they were in college as such the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society are right up there with the Alzheimer's Association. So I'm happy to share the press release I got for a benefit at Flame Run on April 26, 2008 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

Flame Run contemporary art glass studio is hosting a Glass Extravaganza on April 26 to raise money for the Kentucky and Southern Indiana chapter of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. The public is invited.

About 20 pieces made by Flame Run artists will be sold at auction or given away through raffles from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Some of the pieces will be made during the evening of the event by Flame Run artists. Attendees will buy raffle tickets at the door for $10, $15 and $50. Refreshments will be served.

Flame Run co-owner Susie Slabaugh White planned the event after she was nominated as a candidate for Woman of the Year by the Kentucky and Southern Indiana chapter of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. She is one of 13 business and community leaders competing for the titles in honor of the Boy and Girl of the Year - local children who have survived blood cancer. The winners are judged solely on a philanthropic basis - the male and female candidates raising the most funds win. Last year's events raised $132,000, according to Carolyn Harper, who is coordinating the campaign for the society.

"I am honored to be given this opportunity to raise awareness about leukemia and lymphoma," said White, whose grandmother died of lymphoma about 10 years ago.

Flame Run
828 East Market Street
Louisville, KY

Remember that Bushmill's Twin City Contest...thing? Turns out Louisville won!

Bushmills master distiller Gordon Donoghue will present Louisville Metro Mayor Jerry Abramson with a $40,000 grant, which must be used for preservation and advancement of the city's traditions and culture, and for programs that promote responsible drinking.

$40,00 for preservation and advancement of traditions and culture sounds pretty good to me. Congratulations Louisville and thanks to all who voted for our fine, fine hometown.

It's not often that I get to use the word Hootenanny and that's a sure shame. Thanksfull the folks from Mighty Kindness helped me out by calling their Earth Day celebration a hootenanny. Details:

Mighty Kindness invites you to their first annual Earth Day Hootenanny on Saturday, April 19th at Willow Park in the Highlands from 12-6pm. Together with Community Farm Alliance,Rainbow Blossom, Louisville Independent Business Alliance (LIBA), Sustain Kids, and Heine Bros.Coffee,the Mighty Kindness Earth Day Hootenanny is a free celebration for the whole community featuring the Art of Earth Performance Stage, a Kid's Tent, a Free School workshop & education area. There will also be an assortment of individuals representing their organizations such as Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, Campaign for a Dept. of Peace, Cultivating Connections, Amazing Grace Wholefoods, and many other Earth-friendly groups, local green businesses, alternative healers, local farmers, peace and social justice organizations.

The Art in Earth Performance Stage will feature the music of Leigh Ann Yost, Teneia Sanders, John Gage, Tamara Dearing,Troubadours of Divine Bliss, Kentucky Bootleggers, Acoustic Tomato and Fool's Crow. You can also experiencethe magical movement of the Earth Mamas Dance Co. and workshops by Salsa Rueda & Playback Theatre.

The Mighty KIDness tent will be host to Divinity Rose's "Kid's Open Stage & Storytelling", John Gage's workshop on music for the whole family, flower planting and finger knitting with the Waldorf School, face painting and other children's activities.

The Free School will be offering educational workshops on a wide variety of environmental and community interests. Some workshops and talks will be on community gardens, composting, raw foods, homemade green cleaners, mountaintop removal, eco-landscaping as well as peace & social justice interests.

There will be free gifts abound including books and give-aways from local businesses. Bring the whole family and pack a picnic for there will not be refreshments in order to keep it a "Money-Free Festivity!".

Mighty Kindness is a local community unity organization and online resource that seeks to bring together all things in our eco-region that create a circle of sustainability and contribute to our common wealth. Please visit www.mightykindness.org to find resources for local farms, community services, local green businesses, peace & social justice groups, alternative medicine and healing, spirituality, environmental organizations and meet like-minded souls in the Mighty Kind Community.

Join us in honoring the Earth on Saturday, April 19th at Willow Park. Come enjoy inspiring local performers, witness the wonder of our mighty kids being educated and entertained, discover Community services that you never knew existed, find out about products provided by your neighbors that are good for you and eco-friendly, and meet local farmers & get fresh produce delivered to your door. Come hobknob with the heart of our commonwealth - where earth-advocates, peaceful warriors, union members, social justice workers, eco-conscious business people, artists, healers, dreamers, heroes & heroines all come together to create a community with vision, beauty, wholeness, and a healthy respect for our beloved Earth!

Bicycling for Louisville is offering a Confident Cycling Course for Adults beginning next Wednesday April 16, 2008.

This hands-on course will cover:

basic bicycle selection and fitting

fixing flat tires

inspecting a bicycle for safety

understanding traffic laws

communicating with motorists

riding safely through traffic on various types of streets and intersections and

avoiding crashes using emergency maneuvers

Confident Cycling offers information and skills for experienced as well as casual bicyclists. If you would like to feel safer and more comfortable riding in motor vehicle traffic, you will find this course especially helpful.

The course costs $30, which includes all materials. If you can't afford the $30 fee, please contact us for scholarship assistance. To register, please contact Bicycling for Louisville via e-mail or call 582-1814. Mention that you want to sign up for Confident Cycling, and give your name, daytime telephone number, and e-mail address (if available). Bring a bicycle in good working order and a helmet to each class.

It's April. You know what that means don't you? Earth Day and environmental awareness events like mad. I'm not saying these are bad things, I'm just saying what about the other 11 months of the year? Oh, don't mind me, I'm just grumpy this morning.

The Belknap Neighborhood Association along with area neighbors and Belknap businesses is celebrating Kentucky Arbor Day by giving away 800 seedlings from the Kentucky Division of Forestry to anyone who pledges to plant and nurse each tree to adulthood. These 12 to 24-inch, bare-root seedlings of canopy species will mature into 70 to 120-foot trees - the choices include Oaks (Bur, Shumard and Cherrybark), a mix of Hickories, Bald Cypress, Persimmon and the Kentucky Coffeetree. Also available is the Eastern Redbud, The festivities include refreshments and entertainment along with plenty of information and expert advice from foresters, arborists, tree huggers, and area naturalists associated with the Olmsted Parks Conservancy and the UK School of Agriculture Cooperative Extension.

459-1405 or http://BelknapNeighbor.info

I love that my neighborhood association is doing this. It certainly makes me less grumpy.

Plant for the Planet Tree Giveaway
Saturday, April 05, 2008
9AM-3PM

Warheim Park
1832 Overlook Terrace
Louisville, KY

If you don't know allow me to introduce myself as a walking/biking fool. I mentioned just last week how much I enjoy walking to the Bardstown Road Farmers Market and that's just one of the ample walking opportunities I take advantage of by living in the Highlands ¹ . Even still I wish our city was more pedestrian and bicycle friendly, I wish more people walked the mile or so to places in their neighborhoods instead of always taking cars. I understand that there are barriers to walking for some people though and I'm so pleased to see the city looking to address these issues and encourage walking in our city with the Louisville Pedestrian Summit in May and several workshops leading up to it.

While not everyone is a driver or a cyclist, we are all pedestrians at some point in every day.

Despite how important walking is, Louisville has limited resources to devote to pedestrian projects and programs.  The Pedestrian Summit and Walkability Plan will, with your help, establish priorities to make sure that the resources we do have are used wisely.

This is our effort to create a Walkable Louisville.

Community workshops are happening through the month of April. Please look at the schedule for them and find a topic or two you're interested in specifically. Then attend the workshops and give your input. Please, let's all get involved and make some positive developments in our city.

1. I'm still afraid to ride my bike down Bardstown Road though. I'm currently trying to figure out the best connection of side streets to get me from my house to Ramsi's on my bike. The key goal is to spend as little time on Bardstown Road as possible because cars aren't always courteous of bikes on Bardstown Road. Be nice to bike riders! Seriously, we just want to get from place to place too!  ↩

Totally unrelated but let me mention how much I used to love watching the British soap East Enders on BBC America. Then they took it away from me. Hateful.

Metro Councilman Kevin Kramer will host the Fifth Annual District 11 clean-up on Saturday, March 29. The clean up will run between the hours of 9:00 a.m. until 11 a.m. with District 11 volunteers meeting at the Hurstbourne Springs Sales Office (3400 Stony Spring Circle near the intersection of Raintree Drive and Hurstbourne Parkway). Volunteers at the event will receive free t-shirts, trash bags and gloves as they help to clean up common areas near the railroad tracks off Raintree Drive.

I don't know much about this event or the Anne Braden Institute so I'm just going to paste the email I got in its entirety:

The University of Louisville's recently established Anne Braden Institute for Social Justice Research is hosting its first Regional Symposium. Featuring national speakers, roundtable discussions and sessions on engaged scholarship and its relevance to social justice ideals.

April 3, 4:30
Chao Auditorium of Ekstrom Library
"Social Justice and the Engaged University," Dr. Steven Rosenstone, Vice President for Scholarly and Cultural Affairs and Former Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, University of Minnesota

April 4, 3:15
Brandeis School of Law  "Black Studies as Engaged Scholarship," Dr. Peniel E. Joseph, associate professor of African and Afro-American Studies at Brandeis University, and author of Waiting Til the Midnight Hour:  A Narrative History of Black Power

Sessions all day April 4 from 8:30-5:30 include arts and social change, academic-advocacy partnerships, initiatives for food and environmental justice, and more

This symposium is free and open to the public. First 100 registrants received free box lunches. Register online: http://louisville.edu/annebradeninstitute/symposium

Next Saturday April 5, 2008 from 10AM to Noon there is a free guided, educational tour of a Beargrass Creek area trail in Cherokee Park.

Environmentalists David Word and Ben Wolff will guide you on a trail adjacent to Beargrass Creek in Cherokee Park to learn more about stream ecology, aquatic insects, water quality assessment techniques and what we can do to improve water quality in our community. Easy to moderately-easy walk on trails. Tennis shoes or boots are recommended.

Space is limited so register early by calling Sarah Wolff at 502/432-2677 or e-mail Sarah at sarah.wolff@olmstedparks.org.

As I know I've mentioned before the Alzheimer's Association is an organization near and dear to me. Each fall I work as hard as I can to raise money for the annual Memory Walk. That's a not so subtle way of letting you know I'll be harassing you to donate come August. I want to raise more money that ever for the Memory Walk this year and I sincerely hope you'll give me your support. In addition to supporting me in the Memory Walk here is another cool way you can support our local branch of the Alzheimer's Association:

Local film production company Hart-Lunsford Pictures helped produce the independent film "Diminished Capacity." The film stars Alan Alda, Matthew Broderick, and Virginia Madsen. In the film Alan Alda plays a man with Alzheimer's. On Sunday April 13, 2008 a local premier of the film including a Q&A with screenwriter Sherwood Kiraly is being held as a fundraiser for the Kentucky-Southern Indiana chapter of the Alzheimer's Association.

Tickets are $50 and include a wine/beer/ hors d'oeuvres reception, film viewing and the Q&A. The entire $50 ticket price will be donated to the Alzheimer's Association.

Tickets must be purchased through the Center for The Arts. They can be purchased online starting today at www.kentuckycenter.com or over the phone at 502-584-7777.

Sunday April 13, 2008
6:00PM
Kentucky Center for the Arts

You know I love me some Jefferson Memorial Forest. One of the things I love it about it is that it's in such great shape, so well cared for and so litter free. Next Saturday March 29, 2008 is your chance to volunteer to keep it that way.

The Commonwealth Cleanup at Jefferson Memorial Forest will be held on Saturday, March 29^th from 9 a.m.- Noon. This event is part of the Metro Community-wide Clean-up organized by Brightside. We will be focusing on trash pickup and tire removal from these three areas of the Forest: Scott's Gap, Bearcamp Road, and Jefferson Hill. Meet at 9am at the Tom Wallace parking lot (across from the Welcome Center at 11311 Mitchell Hill Road). We will shuttle individuals using our Park's Van to work locations. Water, gloves and bags will be provided. Please dress for the weather and wear sturdy shoes and clothing that can get dirty.

To register to volunteer, call the Welcome Center at 502-368-5404

Jefferson Memorial Forest
11311 Mitchell Hill Road
Fairdale, KY 40118

Amy Wheeler of Tallulah Cosmetics sent me this information about a fundraiser for Blessings in a Backpack, a program "designed to help meet the nutritional needs of children over weekends." On Friday April 4, 2008 YPAL and Junior League of Louisville will be throwing a "Backpack and Donation Drive."

On April 4, 2008 the Junior League of Louisville (JLL) and the Young Professionals Association of Louisville (YPAL) are joining forces to raise awareness about child hunger in our community and other communities. The event will be held at 4th St Live and will feature a presentation from Stan Curtis (the groups founder), Chris Spalding (YPAL President), Melissa Marvel Buddeke (JLL President) and others about the program, how it helps the community, and how more individuals can become involved. Volunteers from both organizations (YPAL and JLL) will be handing out fliers about the program and representatives from Blessings in a Backpack will be on hand to answer questions and take donations (monetary, backpacks, and can goods). In addition, businesses surrounding 4th St Live will be collecting donations in the weeks prior to the event.

More info about Blessings in a Backpack

Blessings in a Backpack began in 2005 with just one school in Louisville, Kentucky. The program is celebrating its second year of operation outside of Jefferson County and the Louisville, Kentucky Metro regions. This program is designed to help meet the nutritional needs of children and families over weekends. The Blessings in a Backpack is a program being initiated through the efforts of concerned citizens. Every Thursday afternoon, volunteers will fill selected student's backpacks with non-perishable food items and pass them out to students on fridays at the end of the school day.

Metro Louisville Councilman David Tandy and Congressman John Yarmuth will be the featured guests at a community meeting at Sojourn Church tomorrow March 18, 2008 from 6-7PM. "Representatives from LMPD, Public Works, Metro Parks, Neighborhoods, Animal Services, Inspections, Permits & Licenses, Codes & Regulations, Economic Development, and Planning & Design will be present to listen to concerns and suggestions."

Sojourn Community Church
930 Mary Street
Louisville, KY 40204

The Urban Design Studio is hosting an event on Tuesday March 25, 2008 to discuss local food and agriculture (things that are near and dear to my heart).

We are excited to present the next forum in our Sustainable City Series - Local Food & Agriculture. This event is sure to be a hit with foodies, farmers, health nuts, sustainability advocates and many others. We have a great lineup of speakers including: Susan Hamilton of Louisville Metro's Economic Development Department, Ivor Chodkowski owner of Grasshoppers and member of Community Farm Alliance, Bill Huston of Urban Fresh, and Chef Mark Williams - Executive Chef at Bourbon Street Cafe and local Slow Food movement advocate Slow Food Bluegrass.

Local Food and Agriculture presented by The Urban Design Studio
Tuesday, 25 March 2008, 6:00-8:30PM
The event is free but you must register and seating is limited

Glassworks
815 W Market Street
Louisville, KY 40202

Local web startup Metro Mapper has entered a contest with the hopes of getting some funding and making some business connections to ensure the startup's growth. The contest, by Net Squared has the ambitious goal of "remixing the web for social change." Micheal at Metro Mapper says "The contest provides funding and resources for innovative projects that foster social change and empower individuals." The winners are determined by popular vote. Anyone can vote, you just have to register.

Metro Mapper is a free service currently based in Louisville, KY. We have a set of tools that let us gather public information and put it on interactive maps, which you can see on our site.

But what we are missing is community contributions, data for other United States cities and rural areas, and the ability to show lots more information.

We want to become Your Mapper, a new site that has all of this and an empowered public. The Net Squared project would let us begin to do that. Read all about what we want to accomplish on our Project Page. Register now!

This is a cool local project, let's all support it by voting!

A new project called Create Louisville has just launched to discuss what's going on in the Louisville advertising and creative communities.

Everyone's a critic, right?  That's especially true for creatives.  How many times have you wished you could grab the person that designed an ad or billboard and say, "Hey, there are other fonts besides Myriad Pro!" or "FYI, white glows around objects died in 1987." or better yet, "Nice layout!  Keep up the great work!" 

Now you can.

CreateLouisville.com is a forum for constructive criticism and stimulating conversation.  We want to get better at our craft, and help raise the bar on work that comes out of our city.  We've found that the only way to do that is to first admit that there is always more to learn, no matter how long you've been in the industry.

I think this project is a great concept and I'm not saying that just because the project organizers hired me to do a little behind the scenes work on the site (HTML, CSS, Movable Type). I love the idea of the advertising community being able to openly discuss, praise and criticize the work that's coming out of Louisville, in a constructive manner instead of the "that sucks" you frequently hear when someone is criticizing creative work online.

The site has already looked at some work that I like a great deal like the Bill Green poster from the Five0Two project and a Ben Sollee show poster designed by Circle One Design. I can't wait to see what they talk about next.

Next Thursday March 20, 2008, there is going to be a townhall style meeting to view clips from and discuss an upcoming PBS documentary that Louisville is featured in called Unnatural Causes. The forum put together by Dr. Adewale Troutman and the Louisville Metro Department of Public Health and Wellness is an opportunity to discuss "Unnatural Causes...is inequality making us sick?"

This soon to be released four-part PBS documentary featuring Louisville sounds the alarm about our huge and alarming socio-economic and racial disparities in health and searches for their causes...causes that might not be what we expect.

The social circumstances into which we are born, live and work can actually get under our skin and affect our risk for disease as much as germs and viruses. You are an important part of the discussion. Please join us.Be one of the first to preview clips from the series.

Town Hall Meeting on March 20th
RSVP required by March 18 502-574-6525
Reception 5:30 p.m.
Meeting Begins 6:00 p.m.

Kentucky Center for the Arts
Bomhard Theater
501 W. Main Street
Louisville, KY

Back in January I linked to a Fast Company blog post about comparing how the states of New York and Kentucky are dealing with flexibility and innovation regarding workers and work life. The point of the piece was that some programs in Kentucky are actively trying to embrace a culture of flexibility because it's good for workers as well as business. Now the city of Louisville is getting aboard the flexibility movement.

Quoting Business First

Louisville is one of 30 cities that have been chosen to participate in When Work Works, a national research project on workplace flexibility.

The project is run by the Families and Work Institute, the Twiga Foundation and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Institute for a Competitive Workforce. Locally, it will be managed by Greater Louisville Inc., the metro chamber of commerce.

As part of the program, GLI will hold educational forums on workplace flexibility and When Work Works will provide research reports and business toolkits to help guide companies in implementing flexible work practices.

Louisville employers also are eligible to apply for the Alfred P. Sloan Awards for Business Excellence in Workplace Flexibility, which recognize organizations that are using flexible work practices to improve workplace effectiveness.

I think as a culture we pay far too little attention to worker happiness and work/life balance issues. I'm excited that Louisville is getting the chance to participate in a project like this one that is focusing on such issues and how more workplace flexibility can improve the lives of workers and benefit business.

A reader (thanks John!) sent me the info on this weekend's Living Lands and Waters Xstream Cleanup.What, you might ask, i an Xtreme Cleanup?

The Xstream Cleanup is a community-based event focusing on cleaning up the waterways in the Louisville metro area.  This event is spearheaded by Living Lands & Waters (LL&W) and sponsored by the Louisville Metropolitan Sewer District (MSD), Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS), Metro Parks, American Commercial Lines, Jefferson County Soil & Water Conservation District (JCSWCD), and Anheuser-Busch Companies.  Volunteers are needed to assist with cleaning up several different sites.

They're looking for volunteers for various sites around town so head over to the website, pick a volunteer location and signup online.

Living Lands and Waters Xstream Cleanup
Saturday March 15, 2008
8:30AM-1PM

Kentucky Books for Patients is an interesting project that collects donations of new or gently used books by Kentucky writers or writers associated with Kentucky. Their goal is to "establish book collections in cancer centers of hospitals and clinics throughout Kentucky."

Next Thursday March 14, 2008 a special evening of readings and music by Kentucky writers and musicians is happening at The Jazz Factory in support of Kentucky Books for Patients.

"Presented as part of The Jazz Factory's Jazz & Spoken Word monthly series, the event will feature readings by an all-star cast of the region's best-known writers, including poets Jane Gentry Vance (Kentucky's Poet Laureate), Frank X Walker, Sarah Gorham, Leatha Kendrick, Kathleen Driskell, Maureen Morehead, Frederick Smock, and Mary Welp. Poems by Aleda Shirley, a former Louisvillian and cancer survivor now living in Mississippi, will be read, in her absence, by poet Emma Aprile.

Also reading will be Dr. Donald Miller, head of the James Graham Brown Cancer Center; writer Dianne Aprile, producer of Jazz & The Spoken Word, and Clint Morehead, the University of Louisville fourth-year medical student who created The Kentucky Books for Patients Project to establish book collections in cancer centers of hospitals and clinics throughout the state."

The Jazz Factory
(in The Glassworks Building)
815 W. Market St.
Louisville, KY

Part of my reading goals for 2008 is to read a good deal of Wendell Berry's work. I've been doing that and enjoying Berry very much. So I imagine that my donations to this cause are going to be in the form of Wendell Berry books because everyone needs to read them.

In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut,
in the center of the shopping district,
I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization
that I loved all those people,
that they were mine and I theirs,
that we could not be alien to one another
even though we were total strangers ...
There is no way of telling people that they are all
walking around shining like the sun.

Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander

I know almost nothing about Thomas Merton so that quote and the information from the press release below is all the information I have to share but I must tell you that I find that quite inspirational and will be looking into Thomas Merton right away.

Shining Like the Sun: A Celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Thomas Merton's Louisville Epiphany
 
Tuesday, March 18th
4:30 p.m. Light Refreshments
5:30 p.m. Program
Muhammad Ali Center, Auditorium

An enlightening experience for the community. Please join us and our panelists who will be discussing how their personal epiphanies have shaped their individual lives.  Light refreshments will be served.

Guests can also enjoy the opening night exhibition of A Hidden Wholeness: The Zen Photography of Thomas Merton.
 
In addition, guests can enjoy a tour of the Center's 2 1/2 levels of award-winning exhibitry after th