Lawrence magazine
| sunflowerpub.com |
wi 13
$5
Lawrence magazine
| sunflowerpub.com |
wi 13
$5
Lawrence magazine
| sunflowerpub.com |
wi 13
$5
Lawrence magazine
| sunflowerpub.com |
wi 13
$5
Lawrence magazine
| sunflowerpub.com |
wi 13
$5
Lawrence magazine
| sunflowerpub.com |
wi 13
$5
Lawrence magazine
| sunflowerpub.com |
wi 13
$5
sunflowerpub.com
winter 2013
wi 13
editor Nathan Pettengill Designer/art director Shelly Bryant Chief Photographer Jason Dailey advertising representative John W. Kramer (785) 865-4091 ad designer Jenni Leiste copy editor Deron Lee contributing writers Mick Braa Becky Bridson Melinda Briscoe Katherine Dinsdale Mary R. Gage Pam Grout Suzanne Heck Susan Kraus Paula Naughtin Cheryl Nelsen Katy Seibel Julie Tollefson Sureva Towler Liz Weslander CONTRIBUTING ARTIST Darin M. White general manager Bert Hull
Subscriptions $ 2150 for a one-year subscription For subscription information, please contact lawrencemagazine@sunflowerpub.com 645 New Hampshire St., p.o. Box 888 Lawrence, KS 66044 (800) 578-8748 Fax (785) 331-0633 E-mail comments to lawrencemagazine@sunflowerpub.com facebook.com/lawrencemag twitter.com/lawrencemag
LET’S ADMIT IT: VERY FEW OF US COULD WEAR THIS LONG BLACK GOWN OF TULLE AND RAZOR-SHARP LINES LIKE BRANDON EISMAN CAN.
76
But while Eisman’s looks— and the image he creates with stage persona Deja Brooks—are fabulously singular, his involvement in Lawrence is a very universal story. For the past three winters, Eisman has co-hosted and hosted an extremely successful event called “Transformations By Invitation Only.” By this year, the dance and stage performance will have raised tens of thousands of dollars for charity and is on its way to becoming part of the collective community calendar, perhaps to join favorites such as the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, the Holiday Farmers’ Market and the OldFashioned Christmas Parade. Like Transformations, most community events begin (and often continue) because of one person or a very small group of people responding to something that has transformed them or someone they love. The reasons behind Brandon’s involvement in Transformations are rooted in his life and the incidents he relates to writer Cheryl Nelsen beginning on page 76 of this issue. It’s a story that underlines how one person’s failure or success impacts others. It’s a story that shows how love overcomes marginalization. It’s a story that ends in a citywide celebration. And it’s a story that speaks to all, even to the 99.9 percent of us who would have no chance of beating out Deja Brooks for a beauty crown.
Lawrence Magazine is a publication of Sunflower Publishing, a division of The World Company.
Nathan Pettengill
editor’s letter
3
sunflowerpub.com
winter 2013
alternate covers
71 | Coffee-goers Field Guide to Lawrence Sipsters
Now you can share in the sport and pleasure of identifying one of Lawrence’s most colorful downtown species
76 | Deja’s View
A glamorous queen—along with the Lawrence man who portrays her—provides perspective on life, as well as a bit of regal pizzazz for a popular charity event
Lawrence magazine
Lawrence magazine
wi 13 | sunflowerpub.com |
features
We are usually spoiled for choice in our cover options each issue, but this winter edition seemed to offer several strong possibilities for art director Shelly Bryant. Abstract designs from the artists featured in Mick Braa’s “LM Gallery” section, variations of portraits of subjects in these pages and even a kindly-looking bridge player with a cutthroat playing record were considered. You can see all of these alternative covers by going online to our Facebook page.
$5
Lawrence magazine
on the cover Rhonda LeValdo stands in traditional dress and wears the customary long hair of the Acoma Pueblo people. A journalism instructor at Haskell Indian Nations University, LeValdo is recognized as one of the leading educators in developing the next generation of media professionals for American indigenous peoples.
contents
9
10
Lawrence Magazine
winter 2013
living 14 | Their Home, for the Holidays
18
Lawrence couple prep their house—and their five trees—for visitors in annual charity-event tradition
community 18 | LM Fashion & Style Whether the team wins or loses, Kansas Couture’s Katy Seibel helps you be the best courtside attraction
20 | CSI Lawrence: Story in the Snow Winter snowfall reveals the daily drama of urban wildlife
25 | Lawrence’s Old and New Holiday Classics
20
Better than lords-aleaping, these 12 holiday traditions will keep you in the spirit
29 | The Bridge of Kaw Valley Twenty years in hand, competitive card club continues to gather new members at its tables
34 | LM Gallery
65
departments
Sacred cows beware: These artists live up to their names with delightful images defying simple categorization
40 | LM Bookmarks Celebrate Kansas Day in a literary Kansas kind of way with these suggestions from local authors
43 | Table For One, Please Writer Sureva Towler makes the case for an enjoyable dinner with nobody
identity 46 | Quilt-Minded National influence and generous collaboration characterizes local quilt community
53 | A Native Voice Haskell educator mentors young journalists to create stories that go beyond clichés and speak directly to native communities
wellness 58 | Dinners With Dr. Neanderthal David Frayer traces taste buds through time and brings the best global cuisine back home
65 | LM Fit The New P.E. Squad Three local educators represent physical education’s trend in teaching lifelong health
in every issue in every issue
86 | Winter 2013 Event
www.CheriDrake.com
Brandon Woods Tour an aparTmenT home DecoraTeD for The holiDays anD enjoy richarD bronaugh aT The piano in The lobby aT
1501 inverness Drive
12:00 pm - 5:00 pm
HealtH Care aCCess Holiday open House at the Smith Center
4730 Brandon WoodS terraCe
December 8, 2013 1501 Inverness Drive / Lawrence, KS 66047 / 785-838-8000 / www.brandonwoods.com
The boutique will feature a bake sale, Christmas decorations for sale and artists are displaying their artwork for purchase.
sunflowerpub.com
winter 2013
13
In each issue of Lawrence Magazine, we try to discover new sights and new insights into a subject that most of our readers know extremely well—their hometown (or perhaps their favorite other hometown). Fortunately Lawrence is large and diverse enough that we never lack for subjects. And often our subjects lead to others. That’s the case in this issue’s edition of “LM Bookmarks,” Mary Gage’s regular column on Lawrence authors with new releases. This time she revisits past subjects and asks them to share their favorite Kansas-themed book. Collective wisdom also unearths local delights in “LM Gallery,” Mick Braa’s grouping of three Lawrence artists with a common theme. Even though Mick is an artist and has been in the local arts scene for several decades, his interviews continue to lead him (and us as readers) to new talents and to new projects by old friends. Explorations near home are also a theme in Suzanne Heck’s portrait of Haskell Indian Nations University instructor Rhonda LeValdo, who talks about bridging cultural gaps in communities that share the same space, but different histories and cultures. In a time when you can access any type of information from a global search engine, it’s refreshing to know that there are seemingly endless, delightful chance discoveries close to home. We hope you enjoy reading about some of them in these pages. Please feel free to lead us to yours as well.
14 18 20 25
Their Home, for the Holidays LM Fashion & Style CSI Lawrence: Story in the Snow Lawrence’s Old and New Holiday Classics
29 The Bridge of Kaw Valley 34 LM Gallery 40 LM Bookmarks 43 Table For One, Please 46 Quilt-Minded 53 Native Voice 58 Dinners With Dr. Neanderthal 65 LM Fit
de p a rt m e nts Rhonda LeValdo, faculty member at Haskell Indian Nations University, wears traditional Acoma dress for ceremonies as well as for occasional professional events.
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Lawrence Magazine
Holiday decorations at the Hertlings’ house appear in early November and remain on display until February. This year, the public is invited to see the home’s garland, trees and even holiday moose as the Hertlings open their doors for the Health Care Access Holiday Homes Tour.
living
winter 2013
Their Home, for the Holidays Lawrence couple prep their house—and their five trees—for visitors in annual charity-event tradition story by Liz Weslander
photography by Jason Dailey
sunflowerpub.com
15
winter 2013
T
he truth is, it’s a little nerve-wracking to open your home to strangers looking to catch some Christmas magic. But as first-time participants in the Health Care Access Holiday Homes Tour, Mike and Phyllis Hertling look forward to sharing their West Lawrence home’s heartfelt version of Christmas. “I’ve been on the tour, and some of the decorations in some of the houses are like department-store quality,” says Phyllis. “My stuff is more homey. It’s not like I go out and spend tons of money. These are things you can make yourself, where you go out to Hobby Lobby and just have fun.” “What was that part about you not spending a lot of money?” Mike mischievously replies. The holiday atmosphere in the Hertlings’ home centers around a collection of five different trees, 35 Santa figurines, and a Nikko Christmastime dinner set. Phyllis says she starts taking out decorations on November 1 and doesn’t put the last of them away until February. “This place gets transformed into Christmas,” says Phyllis. “People come in here and tell me that it’s magical.” The Hertlings’ main tree, in their living room, is filled with sentimental ornaments that represent memories of trips and moments in their son’s child“Christmas was hood, but the candy-themed tree in their the one time kitchen is dedicated to the next generaeach year that tion, their 7-year-old granddaughter. “Last year she came from Virwe got toys ginia for Christmas,” says Phyllis. “She and candy— reminded me not to decorate that tree until she arrived. It’s her little tree.” not a lot, but it A small tree sits in the Hertlings’ was something bedroom, a more formal tree decorates that you really the dining room and the fifth tree sits looked forward in the basement as an homage to Mike’s alma mater—Notre Dame. to.” “We go to other people’s houses and -Phyllis Hertling there’s all these KU trees, so I decided I would do a Notre Dame tree,” says Phyllis. “There’s even a Notre Dame Irish Santa down there.” Phyllis says her love for the holiday season comes from the fact that she grew up in a household with seven children, which meant living modestly most of the year. Waiting for the special items her family received at Christmas made the season all the more special. “Birthdays were not a big deal in our house,” says Phyllis. “So Christmas was the one time each year that we got toys and candy—not a lot, but it was something that you really looked forward to.” Mike and Phyllis became involved with Health Care Access through the Cosmopolitan Club, an international organization dedicated to fighting diabetes. The couple joined the local chapter, River City Cosmopolitan Club, when they moved to Lawrence 23 years ago. The Hertlings help organize the annual River City Cosmopolitan Diabetes Golf Classic, sponsored by KU Credit Union, which also benefits Health Care Access, and Mike is currently on the board of Health Care Access.
living
Bruce and Kris Barlow relax outside their home with their dog. Color and style flourish inside and outside the Barlow home.
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Lawrence Magazine
winter 2013
Annual Health Care Access Holiday Homes Tour Sunday, December 8, 2013 Noon—5:00 p.m. Tour is open to the public, and will showcase holiday decorating ideas from a variety of traditions at many locations in Lawrence. In addition, a boutique will be available at one of the tour homes for purchasing holiday gifts and delicious baked goods. Ticket sales begin November 1. $15 in advance./$20 the day of the event. Tickets available at both Lawrence Hy-Vee locations, both Sigler Pharmacy locations, Weaver’s Department Store, Health Care Access Clinic, and online at www.healthcareaccess.org (click on “Donate,” go to events and select Holiday Homes Tour). All proceeds benefit Health Care Access, providing medical coverage for low-income Douglas County residents.
living
sunflowerpub.com
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winter 2013
Mike says their friendship circle is based around the Cosmopolitan Club, and that doing the Holiday Homes Tour is a natural extension of their commitment to the people and the cause. “That’s the real reason why we’re doing this,” says Phyllis. “We do a lot of good, but we also have more fun than anything. It’s not work, because it’s fun. You’re with people you love.”
Thinking of making a
move?
Call Connie & Bev Benefiting … The Health Care Access Holiday Homes Tour kicks off the holiday season for many Lawrence residents with inspiration and a chance to socialize—all for a good cause. This year’s Holiday Homes Tour showcases six homes throughout Lawrence that are decked out for the holidays. There is also a boutique and holiday shop at Brandon Woods that provides refreshments and the chance to do a little holiday shopping. “We aim for a good variety of locations and décor so that each home offers something different for tour-goers,” says Kim Scarbrough Polson, Health Care Access communications and policy manager. “We’ve had a few repeat homes over the years, but we try to find new ones each year to keep up the variety and keep it fresh.” All proceeds from the Holiday Homes Tour benefit Health Care Access, which provides medical services for Douglas County residents with limited financial means who are not covered by private or governmental insurance programs. Polson said this population includes people who are homeless and out of work, but also a number of people with non-benefit jobs. In 2011, Health Care Access received the “Patient-Centered Medical Home” certification from the nonprofit National Committee for Quality Assurance.
Connie Friesen Cell 785.766.3870 connie@askmcgrew.com
Bev Roelofs
Cell 785.766.4393 bev@askmcgrew.com
For quality professional service for all your real estate needs • Full service Realtors representing local, transfer, and investor Buyers or Sellers in all price ranges. • Combined experience of over 40
Health Care Access receives some state and county funding, but relies heavily on donations to stay afloat. The Holiday Homes Tour is one of the organization’s primary fundraising events. “I think one of the reasons that this event is so successful is that people can do something that they enjoy while contributing to a cause they really care about,” says Polson. Mike and Phyllis Hertling, opposite upper left, decorate their home, above, as a tribute to Christmases past, and now with the help of their grandchild who insists on one tree being decorated only upon her arrival.
www.askmcgrew.com living
fashion
&
style
Story, Styling and Modeling by Katy Seibel Photography by Jason Dailey
sunflowerpub.com
OLD-SCHOOL STYLE Whether the team wins or loses, Kansas Couture’s Katy Seibel helps you be the best courtside attraction
Just because you’re heading to the big game doesn’t mean you have to don the predictable uniform of jeans, a team tee and tennies. Why not flex your sartorial muscle and sport a winning outfit worthy of roaring applause? Tips for the fashionable fan Stay true to your Jayhawk spirit. You don’t have to give up your team attire. Search for a vintage or vintagestyle Jayhawk tee that has a little more character. Think a ringer with a faded logo or one that features an old Jayhawk design. Pair it with jeans, ankle boots and a denim or leather jacket. Ditch the literal. Your clothes don’t have to be plastered with slogans and emblems to express your team pride. Try crafting an outfit around the team colors. Get on board with the color-blocking trend and combine a blue sweater with crimson pants and neutral accessories. Take a cue from the hooligans. Get inspired by European football fans and reach for a sporty knit scarf or hat. Study the classics. Go for a vintage collegiate look and opt for preppy pieces like plaid skirts, blazers and kneesocks. Timeless menswear fabrics and prints are very of-the-moment this season. Look to players of the past. Lace up a pair of classic Converse All Stars paired with tall striped socks. For an unexpected twist, complete the look with an easygoing dress. Stay cozy and comfy. Believe it or not, sweatshirts have the fashion world buzzing this season. Shop around for one with a fashionable spin such as jewel or stud embellishments. Or, you can always add your own. You’ll look current without feeling out of place in the crowd. Be a glamour girl. Back in the day, many occasions we now consider casual were grounds for getting gussied up, including sporting events. If you’re feeling adventurous, treat the game like a formal affair. Accent your favorite frock with pearls, a faux fur stole or even gloves. You may want to stick with comfortable footwear, though, like flats or wedges. Combining stilettos and sports is a stretch! Comfort, style and team spirit can all come together if you make the right plays. Put a little care into your game-day getups, and you’ll be a fashion champion in no time!
winter 2013
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CSI Lawrence: Story in the Snow Winter snowfall reveals the daily drama of urban wildlife
community
story by Lee Gerhard
illustrations by Darin M. White
sunflowerpub.com
winter 2013
21
N
o human heard the scream. But for some reason, Molly wanted out at a time when she would usually nap. “OK, but I’m going out also. You’re up to something I probably won’t like,” I told her. Molly hit the door almost running, then rounded the corner of the deck, barking, before skidding to a halt, butt down, ears up. “Whoa!” I yelled at her. It was cold, so cold that the snow still squeaked, even in the afternoon and under the sun. It hadn’t thawed in this part of Kansas for days, and this was when spring was supposed to be sneaking in behind ever-increasing day length. For North Dakota, it might have been OK weather. For eastern Kansas, this was cold and ugly. Out in the back corner of my yard, the witch hazels were trying to bloom, but small frozen cotton balls nestled over the reddish-orange, twisted, tiny petals of the blooms. Before the snow, I had seen the tendrils of crocuses just breaking surface. Now there was nothing but ice and snow, broken by tracks of man and dog getting their healthful exercise despite the discomfort of zero-degree temperature. Snow creates a kind of memory storage, only erased when thawing wipes it clean. Whatever imprints the snow remains, even when overwritten, until disintegration of the crystal structure. The record becomes fuzzier with time, but only the melting completely destroys the recording. Molly pointed for a moment, then trotted out into the snow across our yard and to the neighbors, following her nose and whatever had gotten her attention earlier. I followed. There, in a patch of churned-up snow, was a big patch of blood. What? I studied that patch for what seemed like eternity, maybe because my whole body was cold, as I had forgotten to put on a coat in the wake of Molly’s rush to this spot. It hadn’t been there earlier this morning. As I studied the patch, I could see some bits of fur— squirrel fur.
community
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Lawrence Magazine
winter 2013
Snow creates a kind of memory storage, only erased when thawing wipes it clean.
community
OK, so what happened? It had been pretty recent, because it probably was what threw Molly into a fit to get outside and investigate. Anything else amiss? Oh, yeah. There was a 15-yard-long line dragged into the snow, reaching from near the evergreen spreaders out back of the house almost to the blood patch. It started with a slight pointed swoosh, spreading into a threeor four-inch wide set of parallel grooves, maybe a half-inch deep, headed directly into the blood patch, but ending a foot or so before. I retraced the pathway of the line. About twothirds along the grooves, there was one drop of blood just off to the side, then another, larger spot. The groove set was interrupted by a blank spot, where a slight depression marked the edge of small snowdrift. I returned to the beginning of the grooves. Just studying the snow, looking for any clue, I discovered—three feet before the start of the groove—one tiny nit of fur, right in the midst of some squirrel tracks. This told me what to look for. I traipsed back to the blood patch, and started to examine the ground more carefully. There they were: bird tracks, maybe an inch and a half long, maybe two inches—just a few, trending at an angle to the blood patch and grooves. Now we knew the story. Every one was hungry outside. Starving squirrels had been gnawing the redwood deck posts. The snow and cold sapped strength and energy. More cold meant the squirrels needed more food, and there was less food because of the snow. The squirrel was out foraging near the evergreen spreaders. The hawk was in the tree not far away. We have often seen an American kestrel hanging around the house, probably because we have lots of squirrels and in the summer, baby cottontails. On silent wings the hawk flew through the air, and its talons hooked the squirrel off its feet. The heavy squirrel kept the hawk from flying up, and was dragged across the snow, leaving grooves and starting to bleed from the talon wounds. The fight was over when the hawk dropped down on the slight hillside next to my driveway and killed the squirrel. Molly heard the scream. Molly barked and the hawk took off with a hot meal and all the evidence. There were no eyewitnesses. But the snow had memorized the vignette … and allowed us to relive the scene.
785-856-9090 • 543 Lawrence Avenue Suite D.
The new
peds in Town
Lawrence Pediatrics provides complete preventative care and healing for children and adolescents from birth to 21 years of age.
Office HOurs: Monday to Friday 8 AM to 5 PM
www.lawrencepeds.com
Dr. Kirsten Evans, M.D., Ph.D., F.A.A.P.
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• Cabinets/Countertops, Flooring, Furniture, Accessories, Window Treatments, Space Planning
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1410 Kasold Dr. Ste 21 Lawrence, KS 66049
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785-856-1383 • www.vintagechiclawrenceks.com • Exclusive retailer for CeCe Caldwell Chalk and Clay Paint. A naturally “green” product. • Paint and waxing brushes • Decorative stencils for walls and furniture • Hand painted “repurposed” furniture and home decor • Custom painting and faux finishing (walls, furniture, you name it!) • Chalk and Clay paint 101 and Finishing Workshops • Local art and handmade accessories, jewelry and other products.
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winter 2013
Lawrence’s
old&new Holiday Classics
Better than lords-a-leaping, these 12 holiday traditions will keep you in the spirit
Life can get overwhelming during the holidays. It’s tempting to just hunker down in your own cozy home, purchase gifts online, and pretty much channel your preredeemed Grinch or Scrooge persona. That might work, but there also could be another way—a way to recharge your energy and bring joy to your spirits. It’s not that hard at all to do in Lawrence, especially with the following list of events that range from the sublime and holy to, well, the funky and soulful.
story by Paula Naughtin
community
25
nd the
Mundane
Dec
7
This is the 25th year that St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center will share Lessons and Carols with the community. Music director Brian Nelson conducts a combined choir of students, community members and alumni who will fill the soaring space with solemn ritual. The program intersperses scripture readings with chants, motets, anthems and carols—some familiar ones that the audience can join in with, and others that, though unfamiliar, will draw the listener into their interwoven harmonies. Nelson welcomes all comers to the event: “We see it as an outreach to people of all faith and no faith, a way to draw the community in.” He adds, “It’s really a just beautiful way to meditate on the Christmas mysteries.”
Museum H
Join the
ns
SantaCon, starting at The Sandbar on 17 E. Eighth St. Saturday, December 14, 3 p.m. Free, but participating Santas are asked to contribute to Ballard Community Services.
24 Dec
J
ur
7
or all!
This jubilant soul and funk concert is also a homecoming for some of Lawrence’s most talented former residents. Native son Dave Shelton, who is a professional bass player in Brooklyn, started the event five years ago. “I was planning a trip home for the holidays and thought to myself, ‘I should get some of the best musicians I know in Lawrence together and pull off a show.’ ” Now the Christmas Eve show is a tradition, with the music lasting into Christmas morning. There were eight musicians in the first pick-up band; this year there should be at least 11, producing an amazing, polished sound with little rehearsal time.
Feed yo
Playing Tchaikovsky’s iconic music with mandolins as part of an orchestra may seem peculiar, but when you hear the first notes of the overture, you realize that the music is both charming and most fitting for this adaptation set in 19th-century Kansas. Jeff Dearinger arranged the score and leads the musicians. Says director Ric Averill, “We felt that the orchestration with semi-folk instruments would evoke a sense of the Kansas prairie and the times.”
Dec
Dave Shelton’s Christmas Eve Soul Shakedown Tuesday, December 24; time and place to be announced. Nominal cover charge
ul So
Been shopping all morning downtown? Tired and cold? Stop by the Watkins Museum for hot chocolate and performances ranging from a brass quintet to an ensemble of singers from the Lawrence Civic Choir. Watkins programs coordinator Abby Magariel says, “If shoppers need a break, it’s a perfect chance for them to put their feet up and hear some music.” In addition to the music, family activities are planned all day on December 7. On the Hill, on December 27, Spencer Art Museum Director Saralyn Reece Hardy will provide hour-long “Home for the Holidays” tours of the museum, providing her personal take on the space and the art on display.
14 Dec
Santas and more Santas strolling through Lawrence! Organizing Santas Debbi and Bailey explain: “The event is open to anyone, but you must be 21 to enter the bars, and the only requirements are to wear a Santa suit or other holiday costume, be happy and not scare kids.” The Santas do drink and they do go to bars, but it’s a good kind of jolly, says Santa Debbi: “It’s not a drunken pub crawl with obnoxious people giving Santa a bad name. Last year, I even took my infant, wearing an elf costume, along in a stroller. Even if people don’t dress up and participate, it’s a great day to go downtown just to see the spectacle.”
A Kansas Nutcracker at the Lawrence Arts Center, 940 New Hampshire St. December 13-14 and 20-21 at 7 p.m.; December 15 and 21-22 at 2 p.m. Tickets: $20 adults, $17 seniors, $14 student/child.
f am
December Music Series/ Family Activity Day, 1047 Massachusetts St. Saturday, December 7, 14 and 21, 1 p.m. for concerts. Friday, December 27, 1 p.m., 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. No charge
Jo ty lli
av e , 7, 14 Dec &27 21
community
5, 13-1 c e 1 D 20-2
Lessons and Carols at St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center, 1631 Crescent Road. Saturday, December 7, 6:30 p.m.; prelude, 7 p.m. No Charge
ditiona l M u
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Hemi Jam at The Granada, 1020 Massachusetts St. Saturday, December 7, 6 p.m. Tickets $10, Silent and live auction, drawing. This is an all-ages event with plenty of music and dancing, and an auction to benefit the Hemispherectomy Foundation’s support of children and families affected by hemi surgery. There will be a drawing for a New Belgium Fat Tire bike and some fabulous auction items for those on your gift list. Reserved tables are available, so it’s a perfect event for a company holiday party. More info: www.hemijam.org, or hemi jam on Facebook.
Locally Shop
5-8 Decf Dec.)
(all
o
S
Get up close and personal with the people who make and grow your gifts. Check out:
O ing
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LOLA, December 7-8, time and location to be announced. Van Go Holiday Adornment Sale, 715 New Jersey St., month of December. Holiday Farmers’ Market, to be announced. Bizarre Bazaar, Lawrence Arts Center, Thanksgiving weekend. Gingerbread Auction, December 5 (with viewings Dec. 6-8), Abe and Jake’s Landing: a benefit for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Douglas County.
ut
Old-Fashioned Christmas Parade Downtown Lawrence December 7, 11 a.m. Free event
14 Dec
The Lawrence Civic Choir will present its annual winter concert at the Free Methodist Church, 3001 Lawrence Ave. Saturday, December 14, 7:30 p.m.
Wagons, saddles, Stetsons and at least a few horses wearing reindeer antlers all converge in Downtown Lawrence for what has become the city’s most widely attended holiday event: the Old-Fashioned Christmas Parade. No word yet as to whether @Horse1863, the people’s-choice hero of this summer’s online Quantrill Raid commemorations, will be at the head of the parade. But this 21-year tradition continues to attract horses and people from across the Midwest with thousands of spectators lining the streets.
Jin
gl eB
ells
7 Dec
led in Musi c h oo c S
Dec
2 8&1
The KU School of Music celebrates the season with many concerts, including these at the Lied Center: Vespers. Sunday, December 8, 2:30 or 7:30 p.m. Jazz Vespers. Thursday, December 12, 7:30 p.m. Collegium Musicum (Bales Recital Hall). Thursday, December 12, 7:30 p.m.
A li
ttl
rt ea
n with a big w o h et Dec
7
If you are tired of the bustle, drive south to Vinland, a tiny town with an abundance of community feeling. What follows the Soup Supper? The Baldwin High School Brass, of course, then the Witness Band, which plays “every imaginable type of music,” according to pastor Shirley Edgerton. The Kansas Methodist Youthville is the beneficiary. Edgerton says, “The concert is well attended and people bring gifts for the youth at Youthville. They also provide a special ‘moving’ kit for kids who are moving into foster homes or being adopted.”
ue oq
27
DYI Holiday Official events are wonderful, but the holidays are also a perfect time for homemade memories Thanksgivukkah: No public celebrations have been scheduled so far, but this convergence of Thanksgiving and the first night of Hanukkah calls out for a feast (latke and cranberry sauce?) in the company of loved ones. This is a once-in-a-lifetime holiday overlap, so why not go overboard with some of the commemorative shirts, posters and symbols such as a menorah shaped like a turkey—a Menurkey (no, we’re not making this up). Cookie exchange: No time to bake a variety of cookies? Bake just one kind, enlist your timechallenged friends to do the same, and gather for a cookie exchange. Caroling: Make your own music with a group of friends, singing your way through your neighborhood or workplace, or call to visit a nursing home. Music makes the heart light! Share the spirit: Help prepare and serve those in need at the Lawrence Interdenominational Nutrition Kitchen’s Community Christmas Dinner, taking place at First United Methodist Church, 946 Vermont St., on Wednesday, December 25, at 11 a.m.
M a gi c
Ba r
Musical Benefit at Vinland United Methodist Church. Saturday, December 7. Soup Supper 5 p.m.; Music at 7 p.m.
winter 2013
Dec
8
Choral tradition at Plymouth Saturday, December 8, 9:30 a.m.
Plymouth’s holiday choral concert tradition began in 1969, but this year’s music—“Messe di Minuit pour Noel”—is a bit older, dating back to the late 1600s, and is thought to have been composed for the Jesuit church of St. Louis in Paris. This free concert is open to the public. Beginning in mid-November, Lawrence Magazine will be updating this list with periodic reminder postings, additional information and links at our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/lawrencemag.
BRING YOUR
MEETING
HOME
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Hello Lawrence, new ro le as Direct or of I am very excited for my and have ion & Visit ors B ureau the Lawrence C onvent r great e ec onomic impact for ou th d lea to in ht rig d jumpe community. ence get inv olved! The Lawr to u yo of ch ea g kin as I am y of you are o our community. Man int s ing et me ing br ose to hard anizat ions. Bringing th org s CVB has been working ort sp d an , al ion al , civic, educat oups the pr ominent in pr ofession r you to show these gr fo ity un rt po op l fu er is a wond meet ings to Lawrence nsas. d pr ide of Lawrence, Ka a meet ing to diversity, tradition an of f your cit y by br inging ow sh to u yo e ag ur co submit I would like to en your meet ing home, and ing br on ck cli , om c e. nc go to awre bmitted, our team will su Lawrence. G o to visitl ce On . ts en ev or s ming meet ing br ing your inf or mation on any upco ine how we can work to rm te de to er nn pla ing e meet work to reach out to th in . with me and the CVB gr oup to our community g rin ne rt pa r fo e nc va u in ad booking I would like to thank yo ct the local ec onomy in pa im to e inu nt co to es ll be uniti your inf or mation, you wi ed identifying key opport itt bm su e u’v yo r te d events. Af ificate. addit ional meet ings an Lawrence Inc. gift cert n ow nt ow D 0 25 $ a to win ! automatically entered br ing your meet ing home to er th ge to rk wo ’s let Get inv olved today, C hr ist ina P helps Direct or
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sunflowerpub.com
winter 2013
The Bridge of Kaw Valley Twenty years in hand, competitive card club continues to gather new members at its tables
story by Julie Tollefson
photography by Jason Dailey
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Helping Hands Want to learn to play bridge? Already know how to play, but want to improve your skills? The Kaw Valley Bridge Club can help with that. The club offers a weekly mentor game on Thursday mornings for novice players. The game pairs experienced and less experienced players. Participants play fewer hands, and the structure allows plenty of time for discussion about how they might have played each hand differently. “I think it’s one of our more interesting games,” says Eldon Herd. “There’s a lesson taught with it. It’s a good learning situation.” The club is committed to keeping the atmosphere welcoming for both experienced and novice players. “It’s proven to be a wonderful thing for people who come into the community without a lot of friends,” says Virginia Seaver. “People who come here because their children live here and they’re retired or something find it’s a way of meeting people with like interests.” Bonus: Playing with Kaw Valley Bridge Club is inexpensive entertainment. Just $7 a game ensures four hours of play. Popcorn and coffee are free for players.
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irginia Seaver played her first game of duplicate bridge as a young newlywed in Ithaca, New York, in 1941. Eldon Herd began playing at Coldwater, Kansas, in the 1950s, becoming serious about the game in the early 1990s. Both are now pillars of the Lawrence bridge scene. Several days a week, Seaver and Herd meet with dozens of others—some partners, some adversaries—in a former storefront in North Lawrence to play duplicate bridge, a more competitive form of the familiar game played in living rooms everywhere. “There are some very good players, nationally ranked, that play here because they like the atmosphere,” says Seaver. “We’re not cutthroat or nasty. And believe me, people can be. Duplicate bridge in general was practically moribund 20 or 30 years ago because people were so unpleasant.” That’s about the time Herd and his late wife, Glenna, both University of Kansas alumni, moved back to Lawrence after 40 years. The Herds found that duplicate bridge games open to the public around Lawrence were scarce, so in 1993 they— along with Seaver—started the Lawrence Duplicate Bridge Club, now flourishing as the Kaw Valley Bridge Club. “The bridge society here within Lawrence has grown so much in the last 20 years,” says Herd. “In fact, 14 years ago, we started running tournaments here in Lawrence. When we do this, a couple hundred people from several states will come here and play.” Herd, 87, plays three days a week at the Kaw Valley Bridge Club and travels to out-of-town tournaments every other month. “After awhile, you find you know quite a few people,” he says. “You meet them and all the sudden they’re old friends.” Or young friends. Though bridge players tend to be older, and the popularity of the game itself has faded in this videogame era, Kaw Valley Bridge Club members range in age from early 30s to 90-plus. “The young people treat me like they’re coeval,” says Seaver, who turns 94 in December. “It’s nice that people who are young enough to be my grandchildren treat me like a friend.” Dues-paying members number about 100, but two or even three times that number join for games in the course of the year, says Chris Lane, club manager and treasurer of the board. About a quarter of the players come from out of town—from Wakarusa, Manhattan, Topeka, Kansas City, Leavenworth, Linwood, Baldwin, Ottawa and other cities.
sunflowerpub.com
Kaw Valley Bridge Club veterans include Eldon Herd, p. 29, and Virginia Seaver, above.
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“I consider it a success if we stay pretty even. I kind of keep a steady stream of recent retirees coming in, so we’ve managed to pretty much stay constant,” says Lane. “It’s a college town. You’ve got a lot of smart people. Logic says there should be a lot of bridge players.” Bridge and duplicate bridge Though anyone who plays party bridge—the staple of card parties for decades— will recognize the game, a twist in the method of scoring means duplicate bridge appeals to those with a strong competitive streak, says Lane. In party bridge, teams—or pairs—take their positions (north-south or east-west) and face off in a style familiar to anyone who has played Hearts or Spades. Duplicate bridge adds another layer of competition: All hands are dealt before play begins and every team plays every hand. Though north-south pairs play individual hands against east-west pairs, the challenge is to play any given hand better than every other northsouth pair that plays the same hand. “In party bridge, if you get good hands, you tend to win,” Herd says. “In duplicate, you can get bad hands and win because a bunch of people play those very same hands.” Bridge, for lore and score Like fishermen, bridge players like to tell stories about the one that got away. Herd and Seaver, both recognized as life masters by the American Contract Bridge League, have decades worth of tales. Like the day Herd had a hand overflowing with points but through quirks of play, never got the chance to capitalize. Or when Seaver severed her connection to one partner, known as “everybody’s favorite bridge enemy.” “It’s an experience. Every afternoon you’re out here playing, there’s going to something out here that jerks you around a little bit,” says Herd. But for both, a large part of the joy of bridge now is the same as when they began playing: competition and friendships, in equal measure. “Over the years, people would say to me, ‘I only play bridge for fun,’ ” says Seaver. “I want to say to them, ‘What do you think I play for’? It just happens to be a lot more fun if you’re playing a competitive game.”
The language of bridge Virginia Seaver and Eldon Herd compare the art of bidding to learning a language. “Some bids tell you something, and some bids ask you something,” says Seaver. “It’s a conversational thing.” Partners complete convention cards, in which they agree how they will approach a game. “I have seven players that I play with every month. We have a slightly different convention card with every person,” says Herd. One thing, though: Kaw Valley Bridge Club bids are all made silently, by displaying bid cards, to eliminate as much nonverbal communication between partners as possible. “You’d be surprised at how much intonation can enter into a one-heart bid,” says Seaver. “One heart? One heart! One club.”
Clubhouse coordinates Kaw Valley Bridge Club 1025 N. Third St. Suite 120 (785) 838-3196 Game Schedule 12:30 p.m. Monday 12:30 p.m. Wednesday 9:30 a.m. Thursday (free lesson at 8:30 a.m.) 12:30 p.m. Friday 1 p.m. Sunday Chris Lane, club manager of the Kaw Valley Bridge Club, shows the trays used by club members. The use of the trays, the bidding system and the rules of duplicate bridge are taught to novices at weekly mentoring games every Thursday morning.
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Free to Create
Sacred cows beware: These artists live up to their names with delightful images defying simple categorization
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o understand or judge a work of art, you rarely look to the name. Artists often struggle to say where inspirations came from and how a particular work evolved to become its final offering to the world. Their works are frequently inspired by patterns, textures, man-made structures, images or cast light and shadows, which might be isolated and abstracted. Therefore, the titles artists give to works are—not always, but often—afterthoughts. With these three Lawrence artists, however, I find myself wondering if perhaps it is no accident that their own names—each a derivation of the word “free”—seem to hint at their freedom to see, explore and create images in new or different ways. Certainly, there is no logical reason for this connection, but it’s there in their works to see … and you can feel free to draw your own conclusions. Howard Freedman Is it a modern painting or industrial waste photographed up close? Ravaged is a deteriorating plaster wall that becomes an impressionist landscape, but is it a photo collage with layers of digital manipulation, or is it simply a carefully composed and cropped photo? For photo-artist and writer Howard Freedman, it is all a process of seeing visual elements freed up, in a new context or even by chance. Freedman, who remembers selling Cub Scout jamboree tickets to buy his first camera, remains turned-on and tuned-in to all the nuances of form, light and color decades later. Sometimes the viewer figures out his image, and sometimes it remains a mystery. Freedman gets hot on images for a while, and then might take years doing something else, like writing. Lately, he’s been writing
Howard Freedman’s work includes, clockwise from upper left, Ravaged, Skool and Sanctuary.
lawrence magazine gallery
story by Mick Braa
sunflowerpub.com
winter 2013
short stories and novelettes with one work in hard copy and several online. But when Freedman sees something that sets him off, he returns to working on images. Perhaps this back-and-forth stimulates both arts; his writing process is not unlike his image-making process. “The abstract photos are what I really like to do,” says Freedman. “A lot of times I’m not really shooting for an image, but I am out shooting for a pattern or a texture or something I can use later. In Sanctuary, what you are looking at is the mesh of a batting cage. I started by mirroring it, then quadrupling it and then shading it in certain areas to adjust the light and colors and black and whites—and then I threw the butterfly in for good measure.” Another work, Skool, was created in a program that Freedman wrote in which he could load part of a bitmapped image and mask it with a shape to paint with it as his brush. He says he feels clumsy with real paints and has become a sort of free-form painter using the computer mouse. “In one of my pre-digital periods I was pretty much doing nudes and figure studies to show, and basically living in the darkroom. Now, I’m sitting at a monitor, and you can just do so much more with images these days—a lot more latitude to come up with very different kinds of composites.”
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winter 2013
Stephanie Freeman When entering Stephanie Freeman’s brightly decorated home, you immediately sense being inside a three-dimensional, constantly evolving work of art. And like that immense work, Freeman’s paintings explore spatial relationships, textures and colors, perhaps simultaneously inspired by and adding to the ultimate work of art that surrounds her. “I’ve pretty much always done abstracts,” she says. “For a while, I did images of catbirds, onions and things with patterns, but blown up and cropped—not realism but not surrealistic either. Then I moved into non-representational work.” Freeman’s abstracts need to be seen in person to really explore their interconnecting spaces and textures between colors and shapes. Sometimes the colors are brilliant and crowded together, and sometimes they are subdued and spread apart. Blank canvases and empty spaces don’t stymie Freeman. She has learned not to be afraid to cut or burn something out of a filled-in canvas, but rather to paste it over or raise it up and allow a hole to show through to another layer. “My painting process is very intuitive and evolving, and I try not to impose what I have learned about art but let it just develop,” says Freeman. “I use the things around me like landscapy shapes, the lines and textures of rocks and plants, brushing it in while not looking at the canvas, like doing a blind contour drawing. Then I start adding color, but I don’t put a lot of color in before stepping back to look at it. Sometimes there are beautiful moments, or areas that really work, that become like sacred cows that I don’t want to get rid of—this and that and this area may work, but not all together. The only way to deal with a sacred cow is to destroy it. I started burning out parts of the canvas with a small torch and leaving the blackened edges.” Freeman’s more recent works differ from the highly colored abstracts, perhaps allowing an exploration of the edges and spaces between the subtle shapes and colors. She may leave open spaces, or raw canvas showing. She doesn’t understand why some artists are afraid of using certain types of colors, even bright primary colors, but she advises being careful that the colors don’t start to define the whole canvas. “Matisse said that you need to leave some space, some white to let the colors breathe—I really like that!”
Stephanie Freeman’s work includes, top to bottom, Effexor Gangbusters (detail), Airy Red (detail) and Pig’s Head (detail).
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Lawrence Magazine
winter 2013
Herb Friedson Herb Friedson has been creating enameled art since his high school teacher told him “you must not stop!” in 1951. So Friedson bought his first kiln in 1952 and started his “commercial” period, making hundreds of ashtrays, candy dishes, fruit bowls and such to sell at shops, shows and fairs. That perfected his skills and even paid for part of his college education. With a sculpture degree from the Cleveland Art Institute that included enameling, Friedson oddly began a career as a textile consultant in New York City, using his design skills for printed fabrics. He loved the work, but left the big city after a few years and returned to enameling, which brought him to Lawrence, where he completed an MFA in design and was offered a nontenured position teaching jewelry at KU. “At the time I never intended that I would stay in Lawrence, but with a job offer in hand, one thing led to another,” says Friedson. “That position lasted a few years, and then I really couldn’t leave Lawrence, and it’s been great. I can’t think of a better place.” Friedson’s richly colored plaques, enamel-inlaid wooden boxes and fused copper-enamel paintings are inspired by nature and the world around him, including microscopic forms. He cites Kansas landscape artist Birger Sandzén as his “favorite colorist,” but dance, opera and theater seem to equally influence Friedson’s compositions—as if he were staging or choreographing his own images. “I work with a lot of hard edges and often segments that have to fit together—that’s the nature of enameling large compositions on copper—but within those edges I can deal with the softer things like shading and blending,” he says. “I sketch out an idea, and as it works out I blow everything up to scale, refine it, begin to select colors and then produce each segment.” Friedson continues to pass on his techniques in classes at the Lawrence Arts Center while he develops new approaches. Some of Friedson’s more recent works include cutting copper sheets with a special torch to leave small melted beads along the edges. Other new elements have often made a home in his work, including scorch marks, fusible decals, wire mesh and inlaid woods that add texture, pattern and variations in materials. “One of my most recent pieces is very three-dimensional, built up in layers and deeply framed. It is the first piece I’ve done on steel. And you can also enamel on aluminum, but I haven’t done that … yet.”
Herb Friedson’s work includes, clockwise from upper left, Symbiotic Species, Masquerade (detail), Symbiotic Species (detail) and Spatial Aggregation (detail).
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LM Bookmarks
Celebrate Kansas Day in a literary Kansas kind of way with these suggestions from local authors Pete Shortridge (author of Kansas City and How It Grew, 1822-2011): “I keep coming back to John Ise’s memoir, Sod and Stubble. It’s the classic ‘to the stars through difficulties’ story that early Kansans made into their official motto and can still serve as a source of pride today.” Megan Kaminski (author of Desiring Map): “My favorite book about Kansas is Anne Boyer’s The Romance of Happy Workers. It’s a gorgeous romp through/with Kansas that finds its romance, humor, and heart in the people of the place and their labor for something bigger than just wages—with appearances by Laura Ingalls Wilder and Woody Guthrie.”
Kansas celebrates the anniversary of statehood each winter, on January 29. And if you’re a reader, why not mark Kansas Day this year by immersing yourself in a season of reading eloquent, compelling and heartfelt writing inspired by our state? When I think of some of my favorite Kansas-themed books, beloved old friends come to mind. Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House on the Prairie, a childhood classic, was one I read to my own children years after first reading it myself, marveling at how Ma could quiet squabbling siblings with just a look. In Prairyerth, William Least HeatMoon took me on a deep and wide journey into Chase County in the heart of the Flint Hills. I experienced a bit of Scotland in central Kansas with Thomas Fox Averill’s The Slow Air of Ewan MacPherson, and explored the roaring ’20s era of New York City cross-cut with windswept Wichita in Laura Moriarty’s The Chaperone. Shelf space I reserve for my travel books would feel empty without Rex Buchanan and James McCauley’s Roadside Kansas, Pam Grout’s Kansas Curiosities or Pete Shortridge’s Kaw Valley Landscapes. We asked some of the Lawrence authors covered in “LM Bookmarks” over the last few editions to share their favorite Kansas book. And here, for your reading pleasure, are their responses:
Laura Moriarty (author of The Chaperone): “I would select one of my favorite books, The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton by Jane Smiley. It’s a brilliant historical novel set in Lawrence when it was a dangerous hotbed of abolitionists, and I loved the main character.”
Kelly Barth (author of My Almost Certainly Real Imaginary Jesus): “Virgin of Small Plains by Nancy Pickard. Not only is this a riveting murder mystery, it contains the best depiction of a tornado I’ve ever read.”
Harriet Lerner (author of Marriage Rules): “Tom Averill’s Ordinary Genius. In these elegant short stories, ordinary Kansans find all that is common, yet genius, in themselves and in the Kansas where they live.”
Kij Johnson (author of At the Mouth of the River of Bees): “I taught The Wizard of Oz this spring, but that’s a very obvious choice, isn’t it?”
community
story by Mary R. Gage
James Gunn (author of Transcendental): “I’ve always been fond of Bob Day’s The Last Cattle Drive. Of course, it helps that I know the author.” Daniel Woodrell (author of Winter’s Bone): “My book mention is Liar’s Moon: A Long Story by Phillip Kimball. Brilliant in all the ways you hope a novel will be, a book and author that ought to be regularly celebrated in Lawrence.”
Pam Grout (author of E-Squared): “I just started reading Nightmarriage by a local guy, Chad Thomas Johnston, and it’s fun reading about Lawrence, about the bridge I cross every day and other landmarks I know so intimately.” Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg (author of The Divorce Girl): “The book I suggest is Kim Stafford’s Early Morning: Remembering My Father, William Stafford. I’m immensely moved by this biography of William Stafford, the eternal poet laureate of Kansas for many of us. Written by his son, also a poet and writer, this biography dives into the creative process, what it means to live as an artist or writer, balancing family and work with one’s art, and especially how the places we love and live speak through our writing.”
SHORT TAKES November 14 at 7 pm: The Lawrence Library presents “Coming Home to Poetry” with Wyatt Townley, poet laureate of Kansas, at the Cider Gallery, 810 Pennsylvania. Refreshments and book signing. Sponsored by the Kansas Humanities Council. December 7 at 2 pm: Author Andrew Jewell reads from The Selected Letters of Willa Cather in honor of Willa Cather’s 140th birthday at The Castle Tea Room, 1307 Massachusetts.
photography by Jason Dailey
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sunflowerpub.com
winter 2013
Table for One, Please Writer Sureva Towler makes the case for an enjoyable dinner with nobody
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ining alone doesn’t mean you’re lonely. It might indicate you’ve got a yen for Chinese, curry or tiramisu, delicacies you’re neither mentally nor physically equipped to prepare. Perhaps it suggests you don’t want to go home to whining kids, a frozen pizza, or a broken dishwasher. Or maybe you want to dump your diet with no one watching, or don’t want to share your dessert. You just yearn to relax, sit at a clean table and have someone hand you food. It’s fun to study the menu front to back, and order by whim. You don’t have to make small talk, think about when to excuse yourself to go to the restroom, worry about whether spinach is stuck between your teeth. Sometimes you eat out when you’re traveling and have nowhere else to go; this is a good time to whip out a notebook and pencil and pretend you are compiling a Michelin Travel Guide or are looking for bullet holes in the back-bar. Occasionally you just want to dress up sassy, check out the nearest tapas bar, and forget your problems or replace them with new ones. Sometimes you want a beer, sometimes a cocktail … occasionally you just want to get zonked. It’s fun to sample obscure cocktails and pricey microbrews, run into the mayor at a piano bar, meet a gazillionaire, blow the expense account, watch the Jayhawks on an Olympic-sized screen, celebrate with a Democrat or commiserate with a Republican. But never confuse eating with dining. Solo eaters are most frequently breakfast regulars. They start the day with the same server, pancakes and cup of coffee. They will look up from the morning paper only long enough to greet the waitress. People having lunch alone are generally distracted, taking a temporary break for a quick bite while engrossed in the crossword puzzle or sports section. Eating breakfast or lunch alone is unconditionally accepted. People eat alone in front of the refrigerator, at delis, roadhouses— places where fast food and speedy service are valued and ketchup is considered a vegetable. Dining, on the other hand, requires you to chew with your mouth closed, and more frequently involves
story by Sureva Towler Models: Erin Medina and Hector Medina; Location: Genovese
photography by Jason Dailey
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radicchio than meatloaf. Food tastes different when you dine alone. You have time to take in the local scene, to study the menu, to pretend you’re a queen with the wait staff in attendance. After all, who doesn’t enjoy an elegant meal that hasn’t been defined by the likes or dislikes of a spouse, teenager or mother-in-law? Dining is for people who wear pearls, enjoy an aperitif before dinner and loiter over a brandy afterwards. Dining is classy and quiet. It conjures up an elegant venue far from a strip mall, somewhere with candlelight, long-stem roses and a violin playing softly in the background. Dining solo is a luxury, an extravagance—an exquisite love song to the pleasure of food. The trend, nationally and in Lawrence Eating alone is “the new normal,” according to The Hartman Group, a marketing research firm, which finds that 40 percent of all adult meals are eaten alone. They claim that eating with friends will increase consumption by 18 percent and that the quality of what you consume declines when you eat alone. But there are some dishes that should never be eaten alone, such as fondue, entrees prepared at your table by a chef, and meals at venues where you are required to order wine by the bottle. Yes, there are times when the age-old stigma of dining alone can’t be overcome. Dining solo on Thanksgiving or Valentine’s Day, for example, may be an admission that your life is a failure and the only acceptable alternative is takeout. But takeout is always just as cold as the leftovers at home. The Lawrence Visitor Guide estimates that there are more than 120 restaurants in town, and every single one of them is eager to accommodate the solo diner’s need for convenience, comfort, adventure, privacy or self-indulgence. Longtime Lawrence restaurant managers at allday downtown breakfast eateries, fast-casual spots on Iowa Street, and a variety of fine dining venues on Mass. Street all welcome single patrons and seat them at the bar, two-tops, and window seats, never in front of kitchen or restroom doors. They tell the same story: Younger diners read and order wines that have never won an award; older ones live in the neighborhood and most frequently eat a late lunch or early dinner. Women sit at the bar if they want to chat, generally about the weather or pasta. They tend to eat grilled chicken or salmon salad; men eat hamburgers, or nachos, and anything that requires hot sauce.
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Lawrence Magazine
winter 2013
Marla Jackson quilts and mentors young students from her studio in East Lawrence.
sunflowerpub.com
winter 2013
Quilt-Minded
National influence and generous collaboration characterizes local quilt community
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hey aren’t lawyers; you don’t have to pass a bar exam to become a quilter. Nor do you have to annually renew some type of state certification. But there are some unwritten requirements to become a quilter: You have to love the art, of course, and have a tendency toward polite sharing. Quilting has grown and continues to grow in a community of like-minded, quilt-minded artists who form a large group which, like the quilts they create, is full of individuality and warmth. Marla Jackson “I was always the kid in the neighborhood who liked to go sit with the old folks because I liked to hear all of the stories they had to tell,” says Marla Jackson. From a very tender age this Lawrence-based artist has enjoyed collecting tales, and when you sit down with her, you find that she has many stories of her own to offer. Lively banter? She can give it and she can take it. And then there’s that contagious laugh that makes you want to grab a cup of coffee, pull up a chair and just dish it with this delightful sister-friend. Over the past years, Marla Jackson has emerged as a nationally recognized quilter with exhibitions across the nation, including one piece—Angelic Watch—on permanent collection at the Smithsonian’s Anacostia Community Museum in Washington, D.C.
Most of Jackson’s creations are what she describes as “story quilts”—works of art that provide warmth and narrative history. “I’m a quilting poet,” Jackson explains when asked to define her art. “What I want to accomplish with my work is to challenge common beliefs and promote questioning. And I want to inspire others.” Jackson attributes much of the inspiration for her career to her upbringing in a small community outside of Detroit. Raised in a family of eight children by what she says was “the most beautiful, talented mother ever,” Jackson grew up surrounded by creativity. “I guess you’d call my family artsy. Very artsy. And we got it all from our mother.” Jackson’s mother sewed all of the children’s school clothes and made special gifts as well. “One time my mother asked me what I wanted and I told her a black doll, which you couldn’t easily find in a store in those days. My mother made me a beautiful doll out of black velvet, and she had pearls for eyes.” Family remained essential to Jackson as she moved to Kansas in the 1970s to work for the state as a social support worker. Now her studio in Lawrence is a small enclave of relatives. Two of her brothers, Maurice and Mark, stop by to visit, prompting wisecracks and good-natured sibling rivalry: “Who do you think is oldest?” Jackson asks. “I’m the best looking, so it should be easy to figure it out.” As the brothers and sister joke, a younger family member observes them rather incon-
story by Melinda Briscoe and Katherine Dinsdale
photography by Jason Dailey
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“I was always the kid in the neighborhood who liked to go sit with the old folks because I liked to hear all of the stories they had to tell.”
-Marla Jackson
winter 2013
spicuously behind the studio’s computer work station. This is Nia Rutledge, Jackson’s 15-yearold niece. “I do the computer stuff because my Aunt Marla gets frustrated with it whereas I can sit here working at the PC for three hours and not get bored,” she says. “Out of our family, I’m the quiet one.” Jackson hears her niece’s explanation and offers her assessment: “She’s the Gayle to my Oprah. She keeps me in check because I can get off the chain!” But Jackson has taken a focused approach to her art ever since one of her social work clients, a young lady with a disability, gave Jackson her first quilting lesson. It was a skill that Jackson quickly applied to her work, believing that the discipline, hard work and creative problem-solving involved in quilting could benefit at-risk children. Jessica Pennewell, a friend of Jackson’s since the time she arrived in Kansas, says that Jackson continues to apply that approach of art and wellness in her ongoing work mentoring younger generations. “Marla has seen some hard times; so have the children she teaches,” says Pennewell. “But sometimes it’s those difficult times that help a person go deep within and look for something beau-
tiful. Sometimes those hard times are reflected in the artwork, and it can be very therapeutic.” Currently, Jackson works with five students, all from diverse backgrounds but with much in common once they focus on their art lessons. “They’re all at-risk in some kind of way, but I challenge them,” says Jackson. “If you come in here, you’ve got to be ready to figure it out because you’re going to help run this program. These kids are artists. They excel in music, photography and drawing. They may not fit in with other groups, but they fit in here.” Jackson, in turn, says she derives energy from the youth who explore quilting and story-telling with her. “I have a loving boot camp. In order to work here, you must first realize that you are brilliant, you are a genius, and therefore you’re going to have to think and troubleshoot.” Jackson says she intends to continue her program of mentoring students and speaking to area schools to share the stories from her life and from her quilts. “I’m like a Robin Hood type because I feel like what I have to give are riches,” she explains. “I want them to know they are valued.” Melinda Briscoe
The Guild Members
Deb Rowden
Deb Rowden Deb Rowden has a journalism degree, once worked on community papers for the U.S. Army, and is now a freelance editor. Her love of words and stories flows well with her love of fabric and color; she has been quilting since she was a senior in high school. So how does she decide whether to read or sew? “I couldn’t live without either. I have to have a book to read and something to sew, all the time. After being on the computer all day, it’s really fun to mess around with fabric,” she says. “We all want to touch something; quilting is a tactile art. It gives you something you can touch.” Rowden takes on a voice I think I’ve heard from Kristen Wiig on Saturday Night Live: “Don’t make me choose,” she faux-whines. And so Rowden combines these interests. Among the projects she has edited is Linda Frost’s Happy Birthday Kansas! A Sampler Quilt Celebrating 150 Years on the Prairie. She has also authored Quilters’ Stories: Collecting History in the Heart of America, which she says she wrote because she was tired of editing books that included patterns for beautiful quilts without any information about the women who quilted—no insights on why they
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quilted or how they felt when they quilted. Rowden interviewed 14 Kansas quilters for the project, including Barbara Brackman, Terry Thompson and Chris Wolf Edmonds of Lawrence. After doing editing work in the mornings, Rowden crosses through her house to spend afternoons at her home studio, which features a design wall made of a huge slab of foam-core insulation attached to a portable clothing rack—the perfect surface for pinning scraps and testing out design ideas. Rowden makes and collects improvisational quilts, quilts that are constructed without patterns, usually for utility rather than as art. She points out a quilt with a yellow floral design alongside a red check. She found it at a random antique shop on the side of a road. Another quilt she shows has squares, triangles, stripes and tiny patches. Rowden deems it “hilarious.” Another includes obviously worn bits of clothing. Some projects are hard to finish, Rowden says, because another idea and then another come tumbling in. “I would always rather start a quilt than finish one, but I make and collect what I love and it seems to work out. I have a pretty good time with this,” she says. “This is supposed to be fun.”
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Linda Frost
“Every woman has a story. And every quilt top tells a story, too.”
-Kelly cline
Kelly Cline
identity
winter 2013
Linda Frost The Lawrence home of Linda Frost is filled with color and texture. Her basement studio has a wall of cubbies, each stuffed to the gills with fabrics in similar colors. The drawers of an old card catalog contain thread or embroidery floss, filed by color, along with a collection of rickracks, knickknacks and notions; and a quilter’s wealth—a drawer full of sharp scissors. There is also much laughter, which in this artist’s empty nest comes from a surprising source: three parrots housed in a sun porch. They cackle, they snicker, they hoot, they guffaw. Loudly. Frequently. But possibly only because a visitor’s laughing eggs them on. The abundance of color and sound hasn’t distracted Frost from creating and writing about quilts. In 2011, she authored a beautiful and affectionate tribute to her home state in Happy Birthday Kansas! A Sampler Quilt Celebrating 150 Years on the Prairie, published by Kansas City Star Books. The creatively assembled how-to book includes patterns for 14 quilt squares depicting the best and worst of life in Kansas and photos of the completed quilt, designed and sewn by Frost, as well as renditions of the individual block patterns constructed by other quilters. Frost knows her home state well and loves it anyway; her quilt block repertoire includes tornados and floods, bugs and late frosts. There’s a “middle of nowhere” block depicting a car stopped under a sign with arrows pointing opposite directions: “Mountains, 650 miles” and “Beaches, 750 miles.” Frost weaves some Kansas history into her descriptions and even includes in the book the only known photograph of her father. In the background is an old stone fence post, hence Frost’s block “Stone Fence Posts,” rendered with barbed wire embroidered on her own hand-dyed, two-dimensional fence posts. Frequently, Frost designs a quilt block for Kaw Valley Quilt Guild members to complete in their choice of fabrics. Frost is currently preparing a new series of robot-themed quilt blocks, but is in the meantime stitching a chuppah canopy for her daughter’s upcoming wedding. It has a cream-colored background with dark tree branches and green, yellow and orange leaves with two birds, perhaps swallows, in the center. After the ceremony, it will likely be used as a wall hanging in her daughter’s New York City apartment. Quilting is the art of choice for this woman with a degree in pharmacy. Her reproductions of antique quilts, using reproduction fabrics and traditional patterns, as well as her abstract and contemporary quilts, have been exhibited in galleries and quilt shows through the country. She writes in Happy Birthday Kansas! that quilting offers her an opportunity to be both famous and reclusive. The very idea might regale her parrots into another laughing fit.
Kelly Cline Lots of good stories begin in dusty bookstores. Bookseller Kelly Cline of Half-Price Books saw the writing on the wall when the Lawrence store announced it would be closing in May 2013. Knowing she needed to figure out what her own next chapter would be, Cline recalled sitting down a few months before this to test drive a long-arm quilting machine. As she remembered this experience, the stitches, the stars and her latent fine arts degree (with a special interest in calligraphy) aligned. “Oh, what shall I do with my days?” “This,” Cline’s inner career coach crooned. “I almost wept,” Cline recalls. “I could tell right away that this was what I was supposed to do.” Plenty of new cars cost less than long-arm quilting machines, but Cline jumped into her new career with confidence and a highly contagious gusto. She had joined the Kaw Valley Quilt Guild, which meets monthly in Lawrence, and was smitten. “Oh, my gosh,” she told herself, “I’ve found my people.” Cline says she has loved learning from the group of smart women who are similarly passionate about what they do and eager to share what they know. Surrounded by like-minded quilters, set up with her long-arm machine and awaiting a second grandchild, Cline felt the decision to leave the regular work world for quilting seemed entirely right. And if she had any doubts, a chance encounter seemed to confirm her choice. Just before her job at Half-Price Books ended, a customer who was a former professor came by the store with the news that his elderly mother had passed away. Cline offered condolences and, learning that the man’s mother had fabric at her home, offered to finish, free of charge, any family quilt tops. Months later, the man brought in an incredibly musty box of old quilt tops. Cline washed them, and washed them again. Each of the man’s mother’s neighbors had sewed a block of a friendship quilt. His mom’s square was in the middle of the top, embroidered with beautiful flowers. Cline spent 25 hours finishing the quilt. She transferred a handwritten note she found tucked among the fabric onto the back of the finished quilt: “Made by Mom in 1937 and by our friends in this neighborhood and your aunt.” “Every woman has a story,” Cline says. “And every quilt top tells a story, too.” Cline’s story is that now she quilts full time. “Sometimes people just don’t realize how very good life can be. I pretty much divide my days between quilting and time with my grandchildren. It’s a very good life, and I’m thankful for every day.” Katherine Dinsdale
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Native Voice Haskell educator mentors young journalists to create stories that go beyond clichés and speak directly to native communities
T
here are some lessons you encounter as a student that stick to you for the rest of your life. For Rhonda LeValdo, one of these was during her time as a graduate student at the University of Kansas in 2007. Going through the April 5 edition of Jayplay, a magazine insert in the student newspaper, she came across an article about campus costume-theme parties. There were the usual quirky and risqué outfit suggestions along with one picture and section that stopped her short—the “Cowboy and Indian” theme party. “It just floored me when I saw it,” recalls LeValdo, an Acoma Pueblo. “I couldn’t believe that no one in the journalism school thought it might be offensive.” It wasn’t that LeValdo objected to any picture of a cowboy or an American Indian, it was the way in which American Indians were categorized as just another jokey theme, along with “CEOs and Office Hos” or “Anything but Cloths.” And then there was the article’s text describing how the cowboys chased down and shot the lone Indian who showed up at the party. In a response letter to the campus paper, signed by three other American Indian students in Lawrence, LeValdo noted it was particularly strange that the partygoers hadn’t thought of how the “garish, costume-store get ups” might be perceived by authentic American Indians in the community who were preparing just that week to hold the annual University of Kansas Powwow (a Jayhawk tradition that has now been celebrated for 25 years). “Is it thought Native Americans don’t care—or are they all merely assumed dead? Will this form of playing Indian also be
Rhonda LeValdo, past president of the Native American Journalists Association, mentors students in news and storytelling at Haskell Indian Nations University.
story by Suzanne Heck
defended as an honor? Does a KKK-theme party where some dress like Klansmen and others wear black-face to be chased around—or better yet a Nazi-themed party where one group merrily tracks and affixes another with a star of David—need not be taken seriously? It’s all good fun, right?” wrote LeValdo. Years later, this type of controversy still lingers on in the American media, as the recent debate over the names of professional football teams demonstrates. And while LeValdo has made her stance on the NFL team names clear, she has also changed her approach. These days, though LeValdo still cares deeply about how American Indians are portrayed in the press, she is equally—if not more concerned—about how the American Indian press goes about portraying the world and its own community’s place within it. As past president of the national Native American Journalism Association (NAJA), LeValdo served as the voice for American Indian journalists across the nation. And as adviser for The Indian Leader, founded in 1897 and the oldest Native American student newspaper, LeValdo mentors a network of student and alumni contributors through weekly editorial staff meetings and discussions. LeValdo says she tries not to influence story content or what her staff writes, she does suggest that the paper should strike a balance between pressing issues and uplifting stories. “I urge students to write positive stories about Native Americans versus stories about being misrepresented or angry about their lot in life,” says LeValdo. “I also want them to be creative but stress to them to get the facts right.” photography by Jason Dailey
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Under LeValdo’s watch, her students released a profile of an up-and-coming American Indian fashion model and her appearance on a top television program. The staff also followed through on a series of articles that held the Haskell student government president to account when he tweeted a message flippantly endorsing domestic violence in the American Indian community. Both these stories won collegecategory awards at the latest NAJA national competitions; in fact, LeValdo’s group walked away with eight of the 11 prizes. Margaret Holt, NAJA member and standards editor at the Chicago Tribune, says of LeValdo: “Everyone who knows Rhonda is aware of how committed she is to helping young people.” Shirley Sneve, executive director of Vision Maker Media, which produced PBS series such as The Silence and Geronimo, praised LeValdo’s work: “She is an advocate for showing Native American stories through NAJA. She exemplifies what a native woman should aspire to be—she balances work and home and excels at both.” Outside the classroom, LeValdo continues to work as a journalist. In addition to continuing her work with NAJA, she also hosts the weekly “Native Spirit Radio” show on Kansas City station KKFI 90.1 where she plays Native American music and airs news briefs and interviews with noteworthy Native Americans such as scholar Vine Deloria Jr. LeValdo also has assisted in expanding Native American Health Alliance, a non-profit project founded by Teresa Trumbly Lamsam (an Osage nation member and associate professor at University of Nebraska, Omaha) dedicated to serving as an information resource for health issues in indigenous populations.
“She exemplifies what a native woman should aspire to be.”
-shirley sneve (about Rhonda LeValdo)
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While deeply involved in projects throughout the nation, LeValdo has called Lawrence her home for almost 20 years. Originally from Acoma, New Mexico—where tribal tradition says her ancestors have lived more than 2,000 years—LeValdo came to Lawrence following in the footsteps of her uncle, mother, sister and the thousands of other American Indians who had landed in town to attend Haskell. She remained after graduation, a choice she says is typical of many Haskell alums. “There are so many people who went to school at Haskell and never left. We are a big part of the citi-
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zenry of Lawrence, and many Indians who have come from tribes all over the country live here now.” And as Haskell feels that it is part of Lawrence, LeValdo hopes that Lawrence feels it is a part of Haskell. “A lot of people don’t realize our campus is open for people to visit. All of our athletic games are open to the public and we also have Powwows, the Haskell Art Market each fall, and our film festival in the spring. We always invite the outside community; we want them to see those films. If people come visit Haskell during any of these events, they can see all these different tribes and see our students living in the present.”
Haskell Success
Rhonda LeValdo’s students at Haskell Indian Nations University (HINU) had a prize-winning run at the most recent convention of the Native American Journalists Association (NAJA), taking eight of the 11 top prizes in the collegiate awards category. General Excellence 1st Place – The Indian Leader Best Photo 1st Place – Marcus Barnoskie, HINU Best Feature Story 2nd Place – “Watchman on ANTM” by Joshua Woosypitti, HINU 3rd Place – “Follow-up to commencement powwow” by Janice Mendez, HINU Best News Story 1st Place – “Confusion surrounds student senate election” by Kyle Griggs, HINU 2nd Place – “Caught in a tweet” by Janice Mendez, HINU 3rd Place – “Chiller barrels delay A/C at Blue Eagle” by Janice Mendez, HINU Best TV News Story 2nd Place – “Apology to Native Americans” by Ashley Ignacio, HINU
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D
Dinners With Dr. Neanderthal David Frayer traces taste buds through time and brings the best global cuisine back home
wellness
story by Paula Naughtin
avid Frayer has lived in Lawrence for nearly 40 years, at a little east-side farmstead-in-the-city for 24 of those. Here, he keeps chickens, has a bountiful garden bright with flowers and vegetables, and hosts a group of devoted friends at his legendary weekly dinners. An anthropologist winding up his teaching career at the University of Kansas, Frayer is an expert on fossil teeth and the evolution of humans in Europe from Neanderthals to the Neolithic. He has shared his expertise all over the world: living, traveling, researching, lecturing, eating and cooking, cooking and eating. Frayer’s two lives come together in his latest project, Freestyle Frigo Recipes and Stories. It is a cookbook that spins forthright stories about friends and family in Lawrence and across the globe, features a pictorial record of their refrigerators, and provides a collection of mouth-watering recipes. Frayer’s dishes range from his mother’s pretzel salad, which is pure Ohio-covered-dish, to a number of homemade pastas. “I like to make my own pasta,” says Frayer. “It’s something really easy to make, it’s fun to do; it’s therapeutic.” There are complicated recipes, like Chicken Big Mamou; less complicated ones, like Crema di Mascarpone, Noci e Gorgonzola (or Mascarpone, Walnuts and Gorgonzola); recipes to make liqueurs like limoncello and walnut brandy; and scrumptious desserts, such as a gluten-free chocolate cake that includes two whole oranges that are boiled for two hours. Frayer includes recipes (and refrigerators, which he calls “frigos”) from the U.K., Turkey, Hungary, Croatia, Italy, Thailand and other countries. It’s a culmination of more than 10 years of work, often done during sleepless nights after traveling abroad, and it can be used as a cookbook or simply read for the stories. It should be noted: The stories are not particularly edited for language, meaning some might not be suited for tender years or ears. The book also has some frank news for Brussels sprouts: “Some people have a genetically-based dislike of the bitter taste of Brussel sprouts due to their possession of a variant of
photography by Jason Dailey
David Frayer’s home kitchen showcases a repertoire of recipes he’s gathered from around the world.
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David Frayer’s Crostini/Bruschetta This appetizer of sliced bread with various toppings is simple to create, but often steals the show. “Crostini is my favorite,” says David Frayer. “It’s the perfect way to start a meal. It’s such a colorful way to put different kinds of foods together. You can do different crostini in the spring than in the winter. There is nothing more rewarding than bringing a glistening platter of crostini to the table and get ‘ohs’ and ‘aahs’ from the guests.”
Standard topping: Slice 3 cups cherry/Roma tomatoes; mince 2 cloves of garlic, some parsley, a pinch of red pepper and a fragrant extra-virgin olive oil. Do this an hour or so before serving to let the tomato soak up the oil. If using wintertime, store-bought tomatoes, add 1 tsp. red wine vinegar.
Cavalo nero (Tuscan cabbage) topping: Take one bunch of cabbage, cut out spines and slow-cook in a covered pan with a little garlic and extra-virgin olive oil.
Cannellini topping: Drain a can of cannellini. In a skillet, cover the bottom in extra-virgin olive oil, add two garlic cloves and brown to flavor the oil. Remove the garlic and add a medium shallot, very finely sliced. Cook a few minutes until the shallot slices are glossy, then add beans and rosemary leaves stripped from a few sprigs. Simmer to remove the water. When cooled, transfer the beans to a food processor and emulsify.
Black-olive topping: Put olives in a mini food processor, add just a little extra-virgin olive oil and grind up.
Sautéed mushroom topping: Slice mushrooms (porcini, button, brown, oyster, etc.) and slow-cook in butter and extra-virgin olive oil. Add a drop of truffle oil at the end and some chopped parsley.
Balsamic onion topping: Thin-slice 3 sweet onions and slow-cook in extra-virgin olive oil for 30 minutes without browning them. Turn up the heat and add ¼ cup of balsamic vinegar, reducing the mixture to a thick syrup.
Balsamic, red or yellow peppers topping: Burn off the pepper skins on the stovetop. Slice thin and fry in extra-virgin olive oil for 20 minutes. Add ¼ cup of balsamic vinegar, reducing the mixture to a thick syrup. There are many other options with zucchini, eggplant or virtually any vegetable, and all can be made in advance and put in bowls for rapid assembly.
Presentation: Slice the bread in half-inch rounds or larger for bruschetta, brush with extra-virgin olive oil and grill both sides. Except for the mushroom topping, which should be brushed only with butter, rub each side with a garlic clove before dressing the bread with toppings.
wellness
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the TAS2R38 gene. Interestingly, the identical recessive variant of the gene on chromosome 7 is shared by Neandertals with us and they would have disliked Brussel sprouts too. We know this because of Neandertal DNA sequenced from a 50,000 year old cave in northern Spain.” Taste buds might not have changed over the millennia, but communication about taste treats has. Frayer chose to package his text along with audio and video clips on flash drives (sold in Lawrence at The Etc. Shop) rather than releasing them in a traditional cookbook. His recipes are pulled out in a separate recipe file that makes them easier to follow since they are not imbedded in the stories. Originally, Frayer wanted the flash drives shaped as refrigerators, but he settled for tooth-shaped drives that hark back to his anthropology career. The boxes that hold the flash drives, however, do look like refrigerators (except for the limited edition of 20 that are packaged in a wooden box with art by Wayne Propst). Why the fascination with refrigerators, or frigos? Frayer, in the opening of the text, explains: “The frigo serves as the introduction to each entry— unlike the stove that just processes the food, the frigo is the larder. Stoves do not vary much among kitchens or across Western cultures, but frigos, their size and what comes out of them tell us about the personal and cultural attitudes about food. … The open frigo is the window to the food culture of the house.” But the window to Frayer’s food soul might be found in his dinner journal. “I write down everything I make, the people that came, the date, and what we had. Last year we had 92 dinners here (not including brunches) and I was gone six weeks,” he says. “One guest was here 62 times. I estimate that he has eaten my food more than 1,000 times. He can remember almost every meal and what was served with it. He’s an amazing dinner guest.” It’s fitting that Frayer should pay tribute to his own guests because, as he gratefully acknowledges, his own life has been enriched by sitting at the tables of other hosts. “I’ve been really lucky. I love my job. I get to do my research outside of the country; I travel a lot. Last year I went to a conference in Turkey and met an old friend and put some of her recipes in. I’ve gotten to experience the food firsthand instead of reading about it in a cooking magazine. That’s what’s fun about doing the book; you can tell stories about the people.”
wellness
“The open frigo is the window to the food culture of the house.”
-David Frayer
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LM FIT
photography by Jason Dailey
Three local educators represent physical education’s trend in teaching lifelong health
story by Becky Bridson
The New P.E. Squad
Reenie Stogsdill Langston Hughes As the nation faces an obesity epidemic, physical education teachers have less time and fewer resources to plant healthy seeds in the early lives of their students. In spite of these hurdles, educators strive to recreate physical education classes as lessons that lay the foundation for a life of exercise and healthful living. “My goal is to teach students skills and concepts, but they need to be healthy and active for a lifetime,” says Reenie Stogsdill, P.E. teacher at Langston Hughes. Stogsdill grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, and ended up in Lawrence after receiving an athletic scholarship to play softball at the University of Kansas, where she competed on two teams that would be inducted into the KU Athletics Hall of Fame. A full-time employee of the Lawrence school district since 1991, Stogsdill also coached softball at Lawrence High School for 16 years. “The discipline I had to have playing Division I has made me a better teacher and all-around person,” says Stogsdill. “I had the best of both worlds teaching and coaching.” Currently, Stogsdill has her students begin each session with a warm-up and provides a fun fact that may entail anatomy, metabolism, nutrition or anything pertaining to current health and fitness trends. Then they begin a class emphasizing overall fitness, with favorites such as “the mountain trail,” an indoor obstacle course where students traverse “terrain” trying not to fall over into the swamp—moving up, down, over, around and through obstacles. “I want it to be fun,” says Stogsdill. “I want them to be moving. I want them to feel successful. I don’t care if they’re the best athletes. That has nothing to do with it. I think if I can do that, then they’re going to be able to find something that they can do for a lifetime.”
wellness
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Lawrence Magazine
winter 2013
Mike Martin Prairie Park Mike Martin attests that a lot has changed since his school days in Wellsville, Kansas. “When I was in school, unfortunately, P.E. was all about sports-related skills,” says the Lawrence school district’s 2008-09 Teacher of the Year. “If you were a jock, you were great. If you weren’t, then you kind of hid. I try to focus on the whole kid. We do things that are sports-related, but I break it into a skill level more than I break it into a sport. I do a throw-and-catch unit instead of a football unit.” Teaching in the district since 1996 and at his current post since 1999, Martin has introduced thousands of students to his creations of “Square Tag,” “Fastest Tag in the West” and “Luck of the Roll”—all high-intensity games with no eliminations. Even the coach can’t sit out. “A lot of times I will jump in and do things with the kids,” says Martin. “The kids get really excited. It’s important for them to see an adult being active. That’s a big thing, if we can model for them. They need to know fitness is a lifelong skill. If you ever get away from it, it’s bad for your health.”
“I try to focus on the whole kid.”
-Mike Martin
Jason Bott Deerfield Jason Bott passes on lessons emphasizing simplicity, sportsmanship, fun and maturity—adjusting them drastically for each grade. “In kindergarten, I don’t go a lot in-depth with activities,” says Bott. “Basically, it’s about teaching them how to run around without running into somebody.” A teacher since 2005 and at Deerfield since 2009, Bott played various sports growing up, particularly basketball, but like his counterparts, he does not emphasize level of athleticism—rather the joy movement provides. “I try not to talk too much,” says Bott. “I want them to get in plenty of activity, and the main thing is to make sure they’re having fun. That’s what I think exercise is supposed to be. It’s supposed to be fun.” He also teaches young people about sportsmanship, helping them understand that loss is a part of life. “You’re going to learn more from losing than you would from winning,” says Bott. “Each year, I want the kids to grow up a little bit more, mature, be able to work well with others.”
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Things have radically changed at Lawrence coffee shops, contends longtime barista Andrew Holliman, who has been plying his art at La Prima Tazza for three-plus years. “In my opinion, wifi killed the coffee culture.” Few would argue, however, no one’s ready to surrender the laptop farm that coffee shops have become. Coffee shops are the last oasis of slow life. At Weaver’s, for example, you can have your makeup done, buy a dress shirt, try on shoes, but you can’t really “people watch.” You can’t loiter. You can’t surpass the unspoken time limit. Likewise, you can’t really “hang out” at say, Zen Zero. You can probably get by with an hour, maybe 90 minutes, but eventually the wait staff will begin clearing their throats, giving you “the look.” Despite the changes, coffeehouses remain the downtown institutions (and we don’t use that term lightly) where lingering is not only acceptable, it’s encouraged. These welcoming respites offer ready companionship and, with their ever-creative caffeinated concoctions, the ultimate “legal” buzz. These gossipy watering holes host business meetings, first dates, blind dates, the securing of dates (there are more viewable options on La Prima Tazza’s 32 seats—not counting the outdoor benches—than on Match.com) and weighty philosophical discussions bending towards lefty angst. Still, everyone’s welcome. And there are still communal tables, board games, bulletin boards and baristas who know their favorite sipsters by name. That’s why, in this issue (and in the spirit of good fun), we have created a “coffee-goers field guide to sipsters”—our introduction to the main types of colorful species keeping the coffeehouse culture alive and well. Pam Grout for Lawrence Magazine
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Coffee-goers Field Guide to Lawrence Sipsters
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Deja’s View
fe a t ures Erin Fox portrays one of Lawrence’s most-common coffee house archetypes—the hipster-sipster.
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Now you can share in the sport and pleasure of identifying one of Lawrence’s most colorful downtown species
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If you’re a birder, you know how advantageous an identification guide can be when you’re out in the field exuberantly ticking off say, the white-throated needletail or the upland sandpiper.
The
BFF Identification: Tends to be female and travels in packs of two, often ordering the same drink.
Likewise, this fully-illustrated field guide to downtown coffee drinkers will help naturalists like yourself quickly identify the vast array of species you’re likely to encounter on your forays through downtown coffee shops. Many people are afraid to pursue this important hobby because, as they reluctantly admit, they’re “unable to differentiate a hipster from a Phi Delta Theta.” Others perhaps have shied away because of unfamiliar terminology. Don’t do yourself this needless injustice. Although there are more than 1,000 species of sipsters on the planet, and while proper recognition of subspecies differentiation will eventually become of interest to serious sipster-spotters, this guide will enable you to confidently identify the 10 most commonly spotted sipsters in downtown Lawrence. With this guide, the enjoyment of sipsterspotting, whether casual or professional, is dependent neither upon intensive study nor academic qualifications.
Field Marks: Varies widely, but to the unstudied eye, each member of the pair appears to adorn themselves with clone-like garments. Behavior: Quiet sounds punctuated by “Are you kidding me?” and “Did she really say that?” Phones often traded back and forth. Habitat: Congregates in corners. Field Notes:
Behavior: Independent, edgy and annoyed by the general public.
The
Hipster
Habitat: Can also be spotted at indie concerts, art gallery openings and “Game of the Week” kickball.
Identification: Androgynous 20- to 30-something-yearold who flocks, breeds and runs counter to the dominant culture. Field marks: Tattoos, vintage and thrift store-apparel, thick-rimmed glasses and old-school sneakers, especially early-edition Vans and Adidas.
Subspecies of note: Model-T hipsters. Tip to avoid misidentification: Look for acrobatic hair, cemented with gel, glasses with brightlycolored lenses and cell phone with 24-pt. type. Field Notes:
The rules of sipster identification are few and simple.
How to use this Guide
The
Romance Seeker
1. Be patient. You cannot expect, especially if you are a rank beginner, to identify every sipster the first time you lay eyes upon him or her. You must stay within spotting distance yet allow the sipster to go on about his or her own affairs. 2. Remain quiet. You will not spot many sipsters if you plunge noisily through their habitat on Mass Street. Sipsters have been known to fluster, scatter or apply headphones and the ever-popular “do not speak to me” persona when threatened.
Identification: Has starry eyes that dart from table to table, expends extreme attention as each new subspecies enters the territory. Field Marks: Fingers with no discernible bands of gold. Behavior: Giddy, gleeful and desperate, in equal measure.
Habitat: Strategically positioned for best viewing angle, insufferably ready to pounce. Subspecies of note: Blind dates. Easy tip to avoid misidentification: surrounded by an uncomfortable cloud of awkwardness. Field Notes:
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The
Pontificator Identification: Frequently discusses GMOs; appears to have completed college, although without closer examination of its nest, it can be difficult to ascertain whether a degree has actually been granted. Field Marks: Out-of-style fashion apparel, frequently accompanied with untied sneakers. Behavior: Tends to perch on a soapbox and proclaims to be an expert on most topics; is either extremely well-rounded or extremely dumb—the difference can be hard for beginners to determine. Habitat: Flocks with either a) like-minded sipsters or b) opposite-minded sipsters with whom they gloriously peck and cajole. Field Notes:
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The
Milker
Identification: Large flocks on “deal days” such as Two-for-One Tuesdays at La Prima Tazza. Field Marks: Surrounds itself (when not stuffing in purses and bags) with extra sugars, creams and other condiments. Behavior: Nurses single drink for hours; tips poorly, if at all. Habitat: Can also be spotted at Taco Tuesday at Taco John’s and Two-Fer Tuesday at Liberty Hall. Subspecies of note: Office refugees. Tip to avoid misidentification: Travels alone with laptop and briefcase, rarely amenable to advances from other species. Field Notes:
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The
Power Broker Identification: Usually suited up, often constricted by tight, brightly-colored, rope-like garment around neck. Field Marks: Polished shoes, usually leather or the hard-to-differentiate pleather, commonly recognized as the bane of all serious sipster-spotters. Behavior: Enters habitat talking loudly on BlackBerry, impatiently places order and quickly flies away, to-go cup in hand. Habitat: On rare occasions when a power broker remains on site, it often joins with similarly-marked species and engages in intense backand-forth noises that appear to be extremely vital to the continuation of the species.
The
Earnest Freshman Identification: Young, noticeable lack of offspring, appears not to have begun mating yet; unusually focused on small 2x6-inch device with even smaller screen; wires of varying colors emerge from the ears.
The
Parent Trapped Identification: One of the easiest species to spot due to accompanying stroller and bulky bags filled with rattles, books and Cheerios.
Field Notes: Field Marks: While the mature specimen of this species often clads itself in loose-fitting and other pajama-like apparel, said offspring are consistently dressed like miniature celebrities; other P.T.s “ooh” and “ahh” accordingly.
The
Vegan/ Vegetarian/ Rasta AKA Non-Coffee Drinkers
Field Marks: Often clad in red and/or blue T-shirts emblazoned with a strange bird sporting an oversized head and beak and yellow tennis shoes. Behavior: Appears to identify more with said 2x6-inch device than with other species near by. Habitat: Travels alone or in pairs. Field Notes:
Behavior: At the same time concluding that java juice is better than Mother Goose, this species engages in occasional outbursts such as, “Asher, get that coffee bean out of your mouth. Now!” Habitat: Due to the size of its many accoutrements, this species takes up a larger-than-normal territory; often clusters with other P.Ts. Subspecies of note: Yoga moms. Tip to avoid misidentification: tight-fitting Lycra. Field Notes:
Identification: Noticeable lack of bra, makeup and coffee drink.
Habitat: Can also be spotted at Third Planet and South Park.
Field marks: The scent of sandalwood, often accompanied by dreads, bongos and/or hula-hoop.
Field Notes:
Behavior: Requests organic, fair trade chai and refuses coconut milk because it’s not grown locally.
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Story by Cheryl Nelsen
Photography by Jason Dailey
de j a’s v i ew A glamorous queen—along with the Lawrence man who portrays her—provides perspective on life, as well as a bit of regal pizzazz for a popular charity event
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Brandon Eisman with half-face makeup for the character Deja Brooks
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Brandon Eisman, 33, feels he left behind a fraught, double life in 2001 when he came out of the closet to tell his mother he was gay. “I think I always knew that I was different,” Brandon says. “She took it kind of hard and thought she would never have grandchildren.” His mother, Kathy Eisman, says of that moment, “I wasn’t a happy camper.” She recalls 2001 as a time when horrible things were going on in the world, and she was fearful for her son. So she asked him to share more.
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Brandon Eisman, portraying Deja Brooks, won this crown in the 2009 Miss Gay Tri States America pageant.
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“When I heard things from his point of view, it all made sense,” Kathy recalls. “I told him up front I needed to meet his friends, to be a part of whatever he was going to be a part of.” There were introductions, new friendships—and Brandon’s single, working mother began to feel that she was becoming a surrogate mother for a multitude of people she describes as some of the most caring and respectful individuals she knows. Brandon’s mother was also introduced to the world of Deja Brooks, Brandon’s outgoing, fabulously gowned, brown-haired stage performance alter ego, who never shies from dance moves and center stage. Performing as Deja, Brandon was selected in 2005 as the Kansas City Gay Pride Queen and in 2009 as the Miss Gay Tri States America, a regional preliminary to Miss Gay America. By 2011, Brandon says, he was ready to “throw my heels back into the ring and go to Vegas.” There he won first alternate in the western states regional qualifier for Miss Gay America. Brandon plans to compete in the future for that title, which would bring not only a crown but essentially a year-long job promoting a platform— in Brandon’s case, proud parenting and AIDS awareness—and serving as ambassador for the pageant system. “This truly is a male pageant. You can’t have any alterations done below the neck,” he says. At least not physical alterations; Brandon’s body is altered through his use of hip pads and layers upon layers of dance tights to transform him into the glamorous Deja. Because, as Brandon says, “Cover Girl don’t cover boy,” he uses MAC makeup and Dermablend, a product typically used by men or women who have scars, have been severely burned or have tattoos to cover. The waterproof— or more accurately, sweat-proof— makeup is used in two to three different shades to contour his cheeks. Features are exaggerated, and his eyebrows are covered and redrawn. Jewelry is glued on with nail glue so everything stays securely in place. Kathy Eisman and Brandon Eisman, mother and son.
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Queens Onstage “Who doesn’t want to be made over into glitz and glamour, and also raise money for a charity they believe in?” says Brandon Eisman, when asked to describe the runaway popularity of the charity event, “Transformations by Invitation Only,” that he founded with Bronda Silvers. Having raised more than $17,500 for charity in its first two years, the event looks to continue that success with its third annual performance at Liberty Hall in January 2014. Part talent show and part glam-fest, Transformations pairs 10 community women with 10 female impersonators to compete in a pageant whose prize money goes to the winner’s chosen charity. After the contestants reveal their superstar looks in evening gowns, they each perform a talent number. Previous talents have included a violin performance, dancing, and a synchronized swimming routine complete with male backup swimmers as dolphins. In between the women’s talent numbers, the female impersonators perform onstage. But, Brandon says, the show is really about the volunteer contestants. After the gown and talent portions of the pageant, the contestants are narrowed down to five by a panel of community judges. During onstage questions, the five are able to talk about their charities and how they would benefit from the donation. The event opens with Brandon appearing as himself, and the closing number is Brandon’s persona Deja Brooks lip-synching to “What Makes a Man a Man?” “While I’m performing the song, I’m actually taking everything off. So I’m transforming back to Brandon onstage in front of the audience. It’s a really vulnerable song,” Brandon says. “It’s just you and a spotlight removing in five minutes what took you two hours to put on.” Kathy Eisman and Brandon Eisman performed songs from Hairspray as part of the Miss Gay America competition.
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Brandon Eisman prepares to portray Deja Brooks: just add attitude, glamour, padding and plenty of make-up. Photo courtesy of Katy’s Photography
It’s not unusual for contestants to be stitched into their evening gowns because judges are not supposed to see zippers or seams. After an interview with a panel of judges and an evening-gown segment, contestants do a three-minute solo act followed by a longer act in which, Brandon says, “Everyone pulls out the big guns, the fireworks.” Brandon’s most recent firework performance was a lip-synch of a mix of “Good Morning Baltimore” and “You Can’t Stop the Beat” from Hairspray that he performed with his mother. Kathy said her onstage performances before that were limited to lipsynching 1950s music with Brandon at the Linwood Pioneer Festival. Competing in the national competitions can be expensive. Unlike in NASCAR, there aren’t many corporate sponsors with deep pockets for drag queens. To help cover these expenses, Brandon’s friend Bronda Silvers, a Lawrence-based software entrepreneur, suggested he raise money by creating an event comparable to RuPaul’s Drag U. Instead of doing that, Brandon partnered with Bronda to create the charity fundraiser “Transformations by Invitation Only,” which will be in its third year in January 2014 (see side story on page 81). Fundraising fits in with Brandon’s employment as an event planner for Mfactor, out of California, and as the director of catering for Maceli’s. His work allows him flexibility to travel for events and to work on his goal to become Miss Gay America. But the job that is near and dear to his heart, he says, is proud parenting of his son. Brandon’s road to becoming a father began when he was working at Community Living Opportunities and a colleague, Tasha Foster, asked him to be a donor for her and her partner to have a child. He agreed, and his son, Kian, was born in 2006. Ever since Kian’s birth, Brandon has been active in his son’s daily life.
Photo courtesy Claus Wawrzinek
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By 2011, Brandon says, he was ready to “throw my heels back into the ring and go to Vegas.”
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Queenly Charity Brandon Eisman, as himself and as Deja Brooks, has lent his talents to the following local charity events over the past two years:
2012
• Photographed as Bettie Page for the Daisy Bucket Kansas City AIDS Walk Calendar. • Created “Transformations by Invitation Only” with $7,500 split between Van Go, Inc. and GaDuGi SafeCenter. • Created the team Deja’s Walking Divas for the Douglas County AIDS Project Walk • Joined DCAP Board of Directors. • Co-chaired the DCAP Red Ribbon Art Auction with Kim Murphree from 1320 KLWN and raised $19,000.
2013
• Photographed as Little Red Riding Hood for the Daisy Bucket Kansas City AIDS Walk Calendar. • Raised $10,000 for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Douglas County through Transformations by Invitation Only. • Hosted the DCAP Drag Brunch at Maceli’s. In addition to raising $2,100 for DCAP, the last song raised $550 for a technology grant. That amount was matched by the Douglas County Community Foundation, bringing the total to $1,100. • Chaired the DCAP AIDS Walk. • Co-chaired the DCAP Red Ribbon Arts Auction.
“I want to educate people that you don’t have to be a husband and wife in order to have a child and have a child know that he is loved by a diverse, mixed family. There’s so many gay dads out there as well as lesbian parents who have just as much, if not more, love for their children as a husband and wife,” Brandon says. Kian, along with Tasha and Kathy, regularly attend Brandon’s pageant performances. “We taught Kian at an early age that this is no different than an actor or an actress on stage in a theatrical production, a musical, a movie, or television. I’m just acting as a female. I don’t wear women’s clothing around the house; I don’t go to work in drag. Deja can entertain you for an evening, and then she’s done her job,” Brandon explains. “I would not wish it on my son to be gay,” he adds. “It’s a harder lifestyle. You don’t get to choose your lifestyle. The majority of gay people who have not come out live a double life. It’s hard.” Brandon says he believes one of his jobs as a father is to encourage his son to ask questions and not make assumptions about people. For his part, he says he will support his son “just like my mom supported me” in whatever path he travels.
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STORIES & THEMES FOR COMMUNITY MINDS This past year, Lawrence Magazine began a partnership with the Lawrence Public Library to create a series of free events highlighting subjects and people featured in the most recent issue of our publication. Our first year of “About Lawrence …” included presentations by graphic novel artists (and a sneak peek into an ongoing book project featuring a family of moonshining werewolves); an overview of the history of Jayhawk sporting traditions, from early cheers to the hatching of Baby Jay; a concert by the Uptown Mandolin Quartet to celebrate their 40 years of original music in Lawrence; and an April Fool’s Day charity comedy showdown featuring a wide range of Lawrence comedians.
Our fall event has a later start this season, join us NOVEMBER 19, 7 p.m. at Johnny’s Tavern (North Lawrence, original location) for a panel discussion on the future of women’s competitive sports featuring Kansas Sports Hall of Fame inductee Joan Wells; World Pentathlon Champion Lori Norwood; Record-breaking football Our kicker Abby Vestal; Tennis pro winter Kirstey Elliott; Rugby player event, based and medical expert Amy on this issue’s Hecker; and Fitness “Coffee-Goers Guide to trainer Becky Lawrence Sipsters” enables Bridson. you to get in touch with your inner sipster by joining us for a program about the history, origins and current trends of coffee. There will be samples. Set for late January or February, look for more information through the Lawrence Public Library and Lawrence Magazine websites.
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