Divya Karthikeyan

Louisville Public Media • 30th October 2023

Tamika Palmer fights for her daughter, Breonna Taylor, by opposing Daniel Cameron

I told the story of the Black community's response to Kentucky's first ever Black republican gubernatorial candidate through the lens of police violence and the killing of Breonna Taylor. I interviewed her mother Tamika Palmer, usually a private person, who decided to canvass for her daughter and take a stance against the candidate -- who was previously the state Attorney general and chose not to indict her daughter's killers. The story won 3rd place for Best Political Coverage at the local SPJ awards.

NPR • 20th August 2023

A church in Louisville is standing behind its female pastor, despite controversy

For NPR, I spent a few weeks profiling Fern Creek Baptist Church in Louisville was expelled in June by the Southern Baptist Convention, because it has a female pastor. Congregants at the church say still they support their pastor.

NPR • 1st April 2023

Grief and tangled politics were at the heart of Kentucky's fight over new trans law

For NPR, I covered the passage of a bill banning gender-affirming care in Kentucky. One of Kentucky's state senators, Karen Berg, lost her trans son to suicide months before its passage. This is the story of the debate that played out in the state legislature over the bill, and Berg's own personal struggle and loss at the center of it.

The New Republic • 1st October 2021

What If Pandemic Aid Went to Tenants, Not Landlords?

It took Ziaul Hassan, a New York City taxi driver, four months to hear back after he applied for emergency rent help because the pandemic had devastated his business. By the time he received an email last week informing him that his application for New York’s federally funded Emergency Rental Assistance Program had been approved, he owed 12 months of back rent for his apartment in Queens, where he lives with his family of four. His landlord had taken him to court already, in 2020. “I wasn’t scar...

Louisville Public Media • 11th July 2024

Safer Kentucky Act, which punishes homelessness, will take effect soon

The Safer Kentucky Act this year, which makes street camping a class B misdemeanor and a $250 fine on repeat offenses, passed this year. I talked to city and state representatives on the far-reaching consequences of the Act that they support -- cities can be sued by the state for not enforcing it; it would also add to overcrowding in jails and create a bigger strain on service providers.

Louisville Public Media • 21st June 2024

Some Baptist women don’t see themselves in Southern Baptist Convention priorities

Reverend Linda Barnes Popham no longer reads the Southern Baptist Convention digest. It reminds her of the family that ousted her.Popham is head pastor at Louisville’s Fern Creek Baptist Church. It was one of the first churches formally removed last year by the SBC for having a woman pastor, Popham herself. She could not attend the convention in Indianapolis this year. So, she learned about the narrow failure of a vote banning women pastors when a friend called to tell her.The effort’s failure is...

Louisville Public Media • 27th May 2024

Louisville mayor’s plan to defund environmental agencies could worsen food insecurity

Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg’s proposed budget effectively eliminates funding for two local agencies that help farmers working to address food insecurity.The agencies subsidize native plant gardens or high tunnels for growing vegetables, and they educate people new to gardening and growing plants. Both the Jefferson County Soil and Water Conservation District and the extension agency offer free soil tests for local residents to help check the soil for lead and other chemicals.LeTicia Marshal...

Louisville Public Media • 2nd May 2024

A federal discount internet program has ended. Here’s how it affects Louisvillians.

Last year, the federal Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) took over internet service at Parkway Place, an affordable housing complex in west Louisville’s Algonquin neighborhood.Nischia Granger lives there. She has chronic diabetes, and she relied on the internet to make doctors’ appointments and manage her insulin.Her internet was free under a two-year contract between Spectrum and Louisville Metro Housing Authority. When that expired last year, the ACP filled the gap.While her internet wasn’...

Louisville Public Media • 22nd April 2024

Unhoused residents, service providers in Louisville concerned about Safer Kentucky Act

On a recent rainy Thursday morning, outreach worker Angel Sivado got into her packed SUV. She was ready with snack bags and harm reduction tools like Narcan and fentanyl test strips for people struggling with substance use issues.Sivado works for the Louisville service organization St. John Center, and was doing her daily rounds to check on clients across the city.Tagging along in the backseat was Clayton, who didn’t want us to use his full name. Sivado said the plan was to take him to the hotel...