THE READER OMAHA JULY 2023

Story By SaRa lOckE

publisher/editor

graphic designers

John Heaston john@thereader.com

Ken Guthrie Albory Seijas

news Robyn Murray copy@thereader.com

production editor Michael Newgren spike@thereader.com

lead reporter Chris Bowling chris@thereader.com

associate publisher Karlha Velásquez karlha@el-perico.com

report for america corps member Bridget Fogarty bridget@el-perico.com

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

arts/visual Mike Krainak mixedmedia@thereader.com

backbeat MarQ Manner backbeat@thereader.com

dish Sara Locke crumbs@thereader.com

film Ryan Syrek cuttingroom@thereader.com

hoodoo ................ B.J. Huchtemann bjhuchtemann@gmail.com

over the edge .............

Tim McMahan tim.mcmahan@gmail.com

theater ................... Beaufield Berry coldcream@thereader.com

Farewell for Now

The ReadeR and el PeRico plan to end with September’S iSSue

it was always an unexpected journey.

What started in 1992 as Sound News & Arts to preserve the old Sokol polka hall (today’s Admiral), led to launching an alternative investigative newsweekly with arts coverage that caught the wave that was Omaha’s indie culture explosion and all that followed. Partnering with Omaha’s original bilingual media helped center equity in our coverage and contributing to a vibrant nonprofit and community media ecosystem, one that helped bend local news coverage to be more fair and just. It’s been nothing short of an incredible adventure and honor.

However, due to life circumstances, I’ve decided it’s time that I can no longer do what’s best for myself or those closest to me by being a local media owner and operator. I currently intend for The Reader and El Perico to cease operations, effective by the end of August, and with our September issue.

This isn’t an easy decision, but I’ve made no secret of my medical challenges. I thought I could come back as if nothing had changed. But I made a commitment to myself and now, a bit over a year out, is a time for a reckoning to honor that, even as my treatments continue.

I need to slow down. I need to find more space in my life. I will focus my time catching my breath, managing health, maybe even smelling some roses, with some consulting, thinking about the future of local media and hoping to otherwise make myself useful.

This is a very personal decision. I’m still very bullish on local media opportunities and still intend to contribute as I’m able in other capacities. The Reader and El Perico are viable businesses with some extra work, financing and if you can find that secret sauce with some staying power, potentially quite profitable. They have a lot of the right ingredients, but this line cook has to hang up

his apron. They could only continue in the right hands, and if you think that’s you, I’m open to a conversation. Absent that, the hardest part of this is helping our outstanding team find their own next adventures. They embraced our mission and there is not a group out there more dedicated to supporting and telling stories that need to be told. I can not endorse them enough. Any organization would be lucky to have them.

I want to express my deep gratitude for a city full of stories we’ve been allowed to tell over these last decades. These are your stories. It’s been our honor to share them. Grateful for an audience that supported that coverage. For all of our paid members, we will prorata refund your membership fees, though we would encourage you to redirect them as donations to Omaha Documenters. That’s the type of program that will really redefine journalism’s future.

Fortunately, we have a number of great, strong local community newsmedia operations — Flatwater Free Press, the Omaha Star, 1st Sky Omaha, Mundo Latino and Nebraska Examiner — working on reinventing local media and journalism. They have my full support and I hope I can help them thrive to meet the needs of our growing, diverse metropolis.

So as we wind down almost 55 combined years (29 years for The Reader, 24 years for El Perico), we’d love to hear your stories, and to share those in these last issues. And you can bet there will be a little shin-dig at that old polka hall. Welcome any thoughts or suggestions on that. Let’s celebrate all that we’ve done together.

Thank you, as always, for reading.

John heaston PuBLISHER/EDITOR

Civilian Jobs on Offutt AFB — FOrCeS, JOIned —

BY TAMSen BuTler

Of all the employers within the Omaha metropolitan area, one consistently ranks on top when it comes to the number of employees. Ahead of Nebraska Medicine, CHI, Mutual of Omaha and Union Pacific Railroad, according to the Greater Omaha Chamber, is Offutt Air Force Base.

Located in Bellevue, Offutt AFB employs around 8,000 people, both military and civilian. For those familiar with military life, it probably comes as no surprise that Offutt ranks high on the list of top employers. After all, behind the security fences, every military base is a thriving community. It’s more than a flight line and training areas. In addition to neighborhoods, there are financial institutions, child care facilities, a chapel, a newspaper, a grocery store (called the Commissary), a gas station, and a store similar to a Target or Walmart called the Base Exchange — everything a community needs to function.

And these places need employees. The civilian jobs on base aren’t all specialized roles for people familiar with defense or who have a military background. Entry-level jobs can also be found.

Can I work on base as a civilian?

As a civilian, you won’t have free reign of the base, but you will be able to enter the area to do your job. You’ll receive an ID card that grants you access to the base. You’ll quickly learn the protocol of being on a military base, such as reduced driving speeds on most roads, halting your car for the daily playing of Retreat, which signals the end of the workday, and the national anthem, and how to get through the security gates without incident.

Is it true that veterans and military spouses get the best jobs?

Certain groups get priority for some jobs on the base. Military spouses, veterans and people with disabilities may receive more consideration for some, but not all, jobs. Certain veterans can claim a higher status, based largely on the medals they earned while serving. Applicants who want to claim a disability must submit a proof-of-disability letter and complete the Schedule A Certification.

Is the military culture on base inclusive of civilians?

The Offutt community touts itself as a “One Team, One Fight” group, with everyone working together to get the job done. You shouldn’t allow your

lack of military affiliation to stop you from pursuing a job on base.

What’s a “GS”?

“GS” stands for “General Schedule,” which is basically a pay scale. Similarly to military rank, the higher on the scale, the more money you earn. For example, a GS-3 might be an internship or student job, while a GS-6 is likely an entry-level position. The ranking system goes up to GS-15, which is likely either someone in a highly technical job or someone who supervises others.

Your education and experience — and the role for which you apply — dictates where on the GS scale you land.

How do I apply for a job on Offutt AFB?

Depending on the employer, you might find Offutt AFB jobs on regular job sites online, but you can view full-time, professional jobs at the Air Force Civilian Careers website (afciviliancareers.com) or at the job website for the U.S. government, usajobs.gov

Go to offutt.af.mil for more information.

Offutt AfB emplOys ArOund 8,000 peOple, BOth militAry And civiliAn.

PHOTO: FacebOOk

Company: Concentrix CVG

Customer Management Group Inc.

Job Title: Product Owner #504983

Concentrix CVG Customer Management Group Inc. has mult. openings for Product Owner in Omaha, NE; travel and/or reloc to various unanticipated locations throughout the U.S. is required. Telecommuting may be permitted. Develop/write computer programs to store, locate, retrieve specific documents,data, information.

Req. Master’s degree in Comp Sci, Engg (any), or related tech/analytical field, plus two (2) yr of exp in an IT/Comp-related position.

To apply, email Resumes via email to Ctlyst_postings@concentrix.com with Job Ref# 504983 in subject line.

Senior Data Engineer

Multiple Positions: develop/maintain enterprise data warehouse and business intelligence solutions. Design, build, test solutions for transformation and modeling from data sources. Work with customers to understand reporting/analytics needs. Collaborate with BI analysts to design and build BI semantic solutions to enable governed self-service. Act as team resource and technical subject matter expert. Work with product owners and Scrum masters on priorities and assess timelines. Participate in Agile ceremonies and architectural design. Identify new tech and design patterns. Establish and maintain coding standards, source control, scalability, and testing processes. Prioritize unit tests (manual and automated) to ensure code quality. Assist in DevOps practices, including CI/CD pipelines. Mentor data engineers. Lead problem management and root cause analysis. Stay current on data analytic trends. Employ best ETL, ELT and Data Analytics practices. Review code and document all solutions and metadata. Benefits include Day 1 health, dental, vision, 401(k), EAP; employer match after 6 months; paid life; short and long-term disability; multiple voluntary benefits; paid holidays and parental leave with flexible PTO and schedules; connectivity stipend; additional comp opportunities. Annual salary $157,550 - $190,000. Telecommuting or remote employment within US available.

Requires Bach degree or equiv in Data Science, CS, MIS, Electrical Engineering or a closely related analytical field with 5 yrs exp with data warehousing design and delivery, including Azure cloud experience (Azure SQL, Data Bricks, Synapse), building and designing BI semantic models in SSAS tabular, with Microsoft Office Suite esp on Excel (pivot tables, v-lookup, data from BI semantic models), and in Python; familiarity with modern data science languages (Python, R, etc.); knowledge of data transformation tools (Azure Data Factory or SSIS), push down ELT methodologies and tools, BI and database security models and practices, data visualization tools (PowerBI, SQL) and tuning SQL (including analysis of query plans), and paginated and tabular reporting tools (e.g. SSRS); skill in data modeling for data warehousing/analytics (star schema and Power BI semantic model); understanding of logging and supportability.

Send resumes to Kaitlin Hilgenkamp at Medical Solutions, 1010 N 102nd St, #300, Omaha NE 68114 (Kaitlin.hilgenkamp@medicalsolutions.com).

Company: Concentrix CVG

Customer Management Group Inc.

Job Title: Software Engineer #382648

Concentrix CVG Customer Management Group Inc. has mult. openings for Software Engineer in Omaha, NE; travel and/or reloc to various unanticipated locations throughout the U.S. is required. Telecommuting may be permitted. Responsible for designing, programming, coding, and analyzing new computer programs and data structures in accordance with specifications and user needs. Req. Master’s degree in Comp Sci, Engg (any), or related tech/analytical field, plus two (2) yrs of exp in an IT/Comp-related position.

To apply, email Resumes via email to Ctlyst_postings@concentrix.com with Job Ref# 382648 in subject line.

Nebraska is creative. Full of ingenuity and inspiration.

Going Solar

Omaha COmpanIeS Say embraCInG SOlar pOwer IS GOOd fOr buSIneSS

BY Jane McGill

In the race to lower carbon emissions amidst the ongoing climate crisis, a growing number of Omaha businesses are installing solar panels on their buildings in an effort to become more sustainable.

This increased emphasis on sustainability may be motivated by the rising demand for climateconscious businesses among workers and customers. A 2021 poll by the Pew Research Center found that 71% of millennials and 67% of Gen Zers say that climate should be a top priority to ensure a sustainable planet for future generations.

Millennials and Gen Zers make up 42% of the U.S. population, according to a 2020 Brookings Institution analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data, and more than half the nation’s population is millennial or younger.

“There’s a strong business case [for sustainability] now,” said Craig Moody, co-owner and managing partner at Verdis Group, a sustainability consultancy that helps businesses develop strategies to reduce their impact on the climate. “This is a way to actually do well by doing good. Younger generations are more attuned to this issue than older generations typically. As those leadership transitions start to occur, and the younger generations are taking over leadership positions, they tend to be more knowledgeable about the need for this work.”

Moody said the company, which he co-founded in 2009, experienced moderate growth in its first decade before seeing demand for its services rise swiftly in 2019.

But it’s not just young people who support climate action. A 2023 study from the Pew Research Center found a majority of Americans now support the U.S. becoming carbon-neutral by 2050.

Moody said solar panels are frequently part of the decarbonization plans of the businesses that Verdis consults for, as other methods of decreasing energy consumption are usually unable to reduce emissions to the point necessary to mitigate their impact on the climate.

In a survey of 22 Lincoln businesses conducted as part of University of Nebraska-Lincoln student Carson Schwalbach’s senior thesis in 2019, 68% of respondents identified solar power as the form of renewable energy that interested them most for their businesses.

Several institutions in Omaha have already invested in solar. The University of Nebraska Medical Center installed solar arrays on three buildings in its flagship campus in Omaha in December 2018. The 1,487 panel installation generates an average of over 30,000 kilowatts of electricity per month for the Michael F. Sorrell Center, Truhlsen Eye Institute, and Maurer Center for Public Health.

“The energy that has been produced has been consumed on site at that building, and then whatever is not actually produced, right there is going to other buildings on campus,” said Jerrod Bley, sustainability manager at UNMC. “The goal is to offset electricity that we would otherwise be purchasing from OPPD.”

Despite the size of the arrays, the electricity generated by the

solar panels represents only 0.3% of the campus’ annual electricity usage.

“It’s a massive, massive campus with very big, very tall buildings,” said Moody, who consulted on the project. “Hospitals are on the higher end of the spectrum when it comes to the amount of energy that they use per square foot. You got a very dense tall building, it doesn’t have a lot of roof space. So there’s just no physical space for them to put all the panels in.”

In 2010, UNMC and its clinical partner, Nebraska Medicine, adopted ambitious sustainability goals, which include net-zero carbon emissions, net-zero waste and net-zero water use by 2030.

When UNMC and Nebraska Medicine set their emissions target, the Omaha campus was releasing around 154,000 metric tons of CO2 into the atmosphere annually. In the decade since, it’s been able to cut annual emissions by almost 25% to 116,000 metric tons of carbon a year.

Bley said that while solar panels are a very small part of the medical center’s efforts to reach its net-zero goals, the visibility of the arrays has been beneficial.

“There was a lot of promotion around [the solar array],” said Bley. “People know that we’ve made the investment as an institution … I think it has to some extent helped with both recruiting and retaining some talent. Students want to be part of an organization and a university that are really taking tangible and actionable steps toward [addressing] the climate crisis.”

SOLAR ARRAYS SIT ATOP DUCHESNE ACADEMY OF THE SACRED HEART, GENERATING ELECTRICITY FOR THE SMALL OMAHA CATHOLIC SCHOOL. Photo by Chris bowling.

Dundee Bank installed a 30-panel solar array on the roof of its main branch in August 2020.

“That was kind of the beginning of maybe more of a sustainable approach for the bank,” said Mandy Mellott, vice president of marketing for Dundee Bank and a member of its green committee. Mellott said the array now accounts for 55% of the branch’s electricity consumption. That large percentage is likely the result of the branch being a one-story office building, which Moody says has a fairly low energy consumption compared with more hospitals and multi-story buildings that are far more energy intensive.

Hello Apartments, a 171-unit complex that is the latest addition to the Millwork Commons area in downtown Omaha, had a 70-panel solar array installed on its roof near the end of its construction in 2022.

“Sustainable is kind of a common goal of that neighborhood,” said Aaron Kloke, development director for Bluestone Development Group, which owns and manages Hello Apartments. “What we tried to do is kind of follow through on that goal of sustainability and set a good example for future development in Omaha. So, you know, we can share our experience with others and say, ‘Hey, we’ve done solar panels, it wasn’t that hard.’”

The solar array is intended to power only common spaces in the building, such as the lobby, fitness room, garage and office space, so it will reduce costs for the apartment complex but not tenants.

In the fall of 2019, students at the all-girls Duchesne Academy of the Sacred Heart in Omaha led a push to install solar panels on the roof of their school. The 30-panel array, paid for by donors, was originally installed to offset the energy used by the school’s DREAM (Duchesne Research Engineering Art Media) Lab.

The solar project is just one of many sustainability efforts the school has undertaken in recent years. In November 2022, it reached net-zero waste by diverting 90% of its trash through recycling, composting and other methods. And much of the school’s perimeter was turned into

gardens. Several courses also include, or center on, sustainability.

For Eric Krakowski, assistant vice principal at Duchesne, these efforts are about more than shrinking the school’s carbon footprint.

“Our hope is our students see what we’re doing, hear what we’re doing, learn about things in the classroom, have their eyes open to things going on in the world around them,” Krakowski said. “That’s the social awareness — that they see a need and that they feel driven, to some degree, in their own lives to act on that.”

In 2022, Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo installed a 168-panel solar array on the sloped, south-facing rooftop of its IMAX cinema. In a press release, the zoo projected that the panels would generate 116,000 kilowatt hours of electricity, a third of the building’s annual power requirements. The zoo previously installed a solar array on the Skyfari station near the African Grasslands Exhibit.

“Solar panels are just one way that the Zoo and Aquarium is committed to going green,” Dennis Pate, the zoo’s former president and CEO, said in a statement. “Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium strives to increase recycling and the reuse of materials, conserve energy and water, use green building methods, and practice environmentally preferable purchasing.”

A spokesperson said the zoo is actively developing a climate action plan to further reduce waste.

Kiewit Luminarium, a science museum that opened in April as part of Omaha’s riverfront revitalization, installed a solar array on its rooftop in partnership with OPPD.

“[OPPD] was really great about providing consultation and insight into the solar panel array and how we could go about incorporating that in terms of our roof structure,” said Chris Stratman, community engagement manager for the Kiewit Luminarium.

Stratman said that although the Luminarium’s solar array is not visible to museum visitors, the hope to raise awareness around renewable energy.

“We’re all about exploration and discovery,” he said. “It’s

really important to us that we’re communicating that to others and educating others about what we’re doing to try and increase interest and awareness.”

OPPD’s Trade Ally program includes a list of solar panel companies that have been trained and vetted. The power district offers a $2,000 rebate to businesses that install a solar array through one of its trade allies.

“There’s no one solution,” said Bley, who emphasized that his views on the climate crisis are his

own, and do not necessarily represent those of UNMC or Nebraska Medicine. “This is such a large, complex and overwhelming issue. Because it’s so different than business as usual, for any organization or any individual or household. You have to look at the full suite of options that are available that will reduce your energy and your carbon footprint.”

Chris Bowling contributed to this report.

confronting the ugly Legacy of redlining in omaha

Documentary ShineS a Light on LocaL DiviSion in an effort to BuiLD a nationaL coaLition

BY Tom Knoblauch

What kind of legacy do we want for our city? When people across the country talk about Omaha, what is it we hope they’ll say? These are choices made every day and, perhaps most consequentially, at the ballot box. In my experience, one of the first things outsiders learn about Omaha is how divided it is – and how that fact seems intuitively to be rooted in our history of redlining.

Sure, redlining, which disproportionately and often intentionally targeted low-income communities of color through economic disinvestment, was outlawed in the Fair Housing Act of 1968. But much like claiming that the same year’s Civil Rights Act ended discrimination – or, to be more dramatic, that the Sixth Commandment ended killing – laws, racism, economics, violence, and their intersections are rooted in complex histories that still shape the present. As James Baldwin wrote in The New York Times in 1962, “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”

This is the mission of director Lizzy Barrett with the new documentary “Divisible,” which will be playing at the Benson Theatre on July 8-9 and Culxr House on July 27. Barrett, a Colorado-based photographer, videographer, and documentarian, first came to Omaha in 2020

to film a fundraising video for a North Omaha-based nonprofit and, though she had what she calls “a baseline understanding of redlining at the time,” her actualizations of the concept were mostly rooted in major cities like Chicago, Detroit and Los Angeles.

“Once I started researching Omaha’s history and the ongoing impact of redlining here,” Barrett said, “I knew there was a much larger story to be told – one that really speaks to the pervasiveness of these maps. For instance, nearly 75% of white families in America owned homes in 2022, compared to approximately 45% of Black families – a 30 [percentage point] gap. But in Nebraska, the contrast is even starker. Only 28% of Black families here own their home, compared to more than 70% of white families who own their homes – a 42 [percentage point] gap. A large portion of this disparity can be traced to these government-drawn maps. So the impact of redlining in Omaha is a great case study to understand how it has and continues to play out in cities across the country who are less visibly segregated than Omaha.”

Barrett, who worked on Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s presidential campaign, decided from the beginning that, to take on the project that would turn into “Divisible,” she’d need to include Nebraskans in the process.

“I had the privilege of speaking with countless individuals about the direct and indirect impact redlining has had on them individually, and oftentimes, generationally,” she said. “It’s these personal accounts and the generosity of each participant willing to share their knowledge and experiences that really complete this story and make Omaha a compelling example of this national phenomenon.”

Beyond these personal accounts, Barrett established a somewhat unusual dynamic for a documentary. In addition to her role as director, she relied on a governing board with deep ties to Nebraska to collaborate on the overall vision: the Rev. Dr. Nikitah Okembe-RA Imani, a professor of Black studies at UNO; Schmeeka Simpson, a Creighton alum who is a member of the Malcolm X Memorial Foundation; and Terri Crawford, who teaches Black studies at UNO and is a

community fellow at the UNO Service Learning Academy.

Simpson explained that this structure lent itself naturally to the subject matter. “A top-down culture that controls a particular narrative is oftentimes suppressive of those whom the narrative is about,” Simpson said. “Our governing board allows us to all participate in this project, have all of our voices and concerns heard, and we all have a personal

“Once I started researchIng Omaha’s hIstOry and the OngOIng Impact Of redlInIng here, I knew there was a much larger stOry tO be tOld.” — Lizzy Barrett. ‘DivisiBLe’ Director

stake in the outcome of the film. As a board, we have been able to bounce ideas off of each other, hold each other accountable, collectively celebrate milestones reached and encourage each other through our collective disappointments. I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Barrett was adamant that building a credible picture of this problem would require communicating with those affected by redlining as well as local academics and scholars whose work focused on or related to redlining and its implications.

“Luckily, there are a plethora of people working in a variety of spaces from academia to advocacy who were willing to speak with me both on and off camera about what redlining in Omaha really looks like and the history that surrounds it,” Barrett said, adding, “It was during this process of information gathering and personal study that I recognized the absence of redlining from my own education. Even though history and social justice issues have been two major interest areas of mine since middle school, I couldn’t remember learning about redlining in any of my classes. And once I started to understand just how transformational these maps and policies were across all major aspects of American life, I knew I wanted to create something that would start to fill that gap in our collective understanding of this critical issue and its long-lasting impacts.”

To achieve this, Barrett and the board believed a documentary was the medium most suited to the message.

Crawford noted that media consumption patterns in re-

cent years have meant that “the American public has started to shift from traditional print news consumption to video and other multimedia formats. As a result, documentaries are able to reach a broader audience across the available platforms, which is critical for increasing widespread education around these issues.”

And theatrical screenings of a film can offer something crucial that is not easily replicated by print or online writing in our fractured media landscape: a forum for discussion by members of a community in the same room. In a way, it’s going digital to go analogue. How can a community solve problems? First, it needs to face them. For Barrett, that’s ideally happening together at the same time.

The production is teaming up with several organizations and venues to host free screenings of “Divisible.”

In addition to the Benson Theatre and Culxr House, other venues targeted are The Union for Contemporary Art, The Malcolm X Memorial Foundation, and potentially several universities and lower-level schools

across the metro in a long-term effort to include clips within local curricula.

IF YOU GO:

o Where: Benson Theatre

o When: July 8, 7 p.m., July 9, 2 p.m.

o Where: Culxr House

o When: July 27, 7 p.m.

o Tickets: Free Admission (divisibledoc.com/)

“Each of these screenings will include panel discussions with experts and leaders from the North Omaha community to discuss the historical and ongoing impacts of redlining, and how to translate the information learned from the film into impactful action,” Barrett said. And following that, “We want ‘Divisible’ to serve as a metaphorical coalition – building space, connecting organizations and initiatives who are working to undo the impacts of redlining to those who need access to their relief services as well as those who are interested in supporting their work. In doing so, we hope to generate a best practices methodological template for change in areas and communities that face similar empirical challenges. Once we have established and solidified a local presence and impact in the Omaha metro area, we will expand our screening and outreach efforts to other cities in the Midwest and nation as a whole.” Omaha is just the starting point. This

suggests a twofold audience for a project like “Divisible”: the communities and the elected officials. And it raises a question: Is there a disconnect between people in power and their constituents when it comes to the relevant issues of Barrett’s mission statement?

“There is a simple but succinct maxim that gets to the heart of the answer to this question: ‘Where you stand is intimately connected with where you sit,’” Barrett said. “Politicians represent political constituencies. Their views are conditioned by the spheres they represent. It’s rare for a sitting politician to speak out against the political status quo, because they are presiding over and maintaining that status quo. Occasionally revolutionary politicians appear, but they tend to last only a brief time.”

If there’s one kind of politician Omaha is unlikely to elect, even in the wave of a revelatory documentary, it is a revolutionary, though Barrett points out that Omaha is not unique in this regard, and often what is considered revolutionary can be traced to phrasing found in the Constitution. “Divisible” challenges Omaha, and America beyond it, to confront the legacy of what it has done, not in definitive condemnation but as a challenge: rise up to your own stated ideals. If we, as Americans, believe that all people are created equal with unalienable rights such as life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, then why not start acting like it? Why not legislate toward it? Is that really so revolutionary?

Barrett is optimistic, and perhaps one has to be, that once the enduring problem of redlining is faced, it can be changed – even from the top.

Lizzy Barrett is a CoLorado-B ased photographer, videographer and doCumentarian.

the rev. dr. nikitah okemBe-ra imani is a professor of BL aCk studies at uno.

sChmeeka simpson is a Creighton aLum who is a memBer of the maLCoLm X memoriaL f oundation.

terri Crawford teaChes BL aCk studies at uno and is a Community feLLow at the uno serviCe Learning aC ademy.

It’s My Pity Party, I’ll Cry If I Want To

OMAHA NATIVE’S BOOK EXPLAINS HOW SADNESS IS A KEY TO HAPPINESS

BY Bridgit Kuenning-PollPeter

Chelsea Harvey Garner knew if she wanted to sell the idea that sadness is the key to happiness, she’d have to come armed with real-world examples. And where better to start than with her own story.

The Omaha native and now therapist in New York City faced trauma early in her life. Her grandmother, Janis Campbell, became her defacto mother and role model as Garner navigated life, adversity and healing. That journey led to the book, “A Pity Party Is Still A Party: The Feel-Good Guide to Feeling Bad,” written and illustrated by Garner, which is available July 11 through HarperCollins. She will be on tour for the book, with a stop in Omaha at Dundee Book Co. on Aug. 5 at 6 p.m.

The book offers a roadmap to facing difficult feelings and helping others in similar situations. In it, Garner uses her own comical, emotional and genuine story to

show people if she can do it, so can they.

“I just believe in the wounded healer model of being authentic and, I just think there’s some healing power in it,” Garner said.

A central character in the book is Garner’s grandmother — a woman built from steel who endured hardship but always led with kindness.

Throughout Garner’s life, whether she was a young person finding community in Omaha’s music and improv scenes, or an adult helping people heal as a therapist in New York City, her grandmother’s principles stuck with her. When her grandmother died in 2017 the lessons she taught Garner helped the therapist cope with loss and inspired the idea that later became “A Pity Party Is Still A Party.”

“It never got easy,” Garner said. “She had a hard life until the

end… [but] she had developed this attitude of like, ‘This is life and there’s still beauty and all we can really do is be with each other.’”

Garner’s own parents lived with addiction and cycled through the criminal justice system. As a child, she found support and stability with her grandparents, who ended up raising her.

Despite dealing with anger and frustration over her parents’ situation, she had the ability to see beyond her circumstances. It was obvious to Garner that support was lacking for people and families living through similar situations. There were not enough services to help her parents, and very little support was offered to families trying to help loved ones dealing with addiction and incarceration.

“I could see how the lack of resources and the lack of support, and the continuous nature of the

trauma was also limiting their ability to make better choices,” she said.

Garner’s grandmother never shamed her for feeling sad, and always allowed Garner to express herself. When Garner was in school and being bullied, school administrators encouraged her to hide her feelings.

“Don’t let the bullies see that you’re hurting,” she remembered them saying. “If you do, they will have won.”

But even at a young age, Garner didn’t think that made sense. Her response was, “If I’m already hurting, what good will hiding it do?”

School staff didn’t agree, but her grandmother didn’t waver.

“She felt comfortable in whatever state I was in,” Garner said.

And it’s this recognition of emotions and confronting trauma that

| PHOTOS COur TeSY OF Chelsea garner

Chelsea Garner as a toddler sleepinG on top of her Grandmother Janis Campbell.

Chelsea Garner and her Grandmother Janis Campbell on the day of her ColleGe Graduation.

allowed Garner to carry on, even after the passing of her grandma. The book offers a guide of sorts to contemplate the societal objections around expressing emotion, and how this leads to trauma instead of dealing with it.

This trauma informs her practice today. Garner is aware of how systems impact people, and the cycles of trauma people experience.

One of her main societal targets is what she calls “toxic positivity.”

Positivity is desperately sought in American culture. Posters abound with affirmations and positive messaging. While balancing negative with the positive has benefits, to Garner this movement can shroud important emotions that help us grow and find happiness.

“Toxic positivity takes it too far by implying that attitude is the only thing that matters, and that by changing our mindset, we can alter or even evade the most painful aspects of existence,” Garner said.

The book is also coming at a time when people are still coping with the collective trauma wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic. Ninety percent of adults believe the country is facing a mental health crisis, according to a March 2023 report by the Kaiser Family Foundation. The COVID-19 pandemic also coincided with increased rates of depression, anxiety and substance abuse.

Garner didn’t write this book as a response to COVID-19. She sold it to HarperCollins just before the pandemic hit as a guide to coping with loss. But the messaging of seeing people for who they are, allowing them to work through trauma by acknowledging flaws and accepting imperfection is just as apt.

The confessional tone of the book came naturally, Garner said. It seemed only fair to be candid about her own experiences in a book if she was going to persuade people to be vulnerable to their most challenging emotions.

She also is uncomfortable with being a blank slate. Honesty and transparency are important, especially in this kind of work.

It also stems back to her relationship with her grandmother. She instilled a mission in Garner to start with herself and then learn how to care for others.

“That was something that I can see now really shaped like who I am and how I’m able to show up with others as well and with myself,” Garner said. “And I didn’t quite realize how rare that messaging was at the time.”

Garner believes caring for the collective, and not just the individual, must be the fundamental shift if our society is going to face our mental health crisis. As a writer and therapist and founder of Big Feels Labs, an organization focused on treatment and education, her goal is to create safe spaces, and help people harness their pain in order to find purpose.

Beyond promoting “A Pity Party Is still a Party,” Garner isn’t sure

what the future holds, but she knows how proud her grandma would be.

“She would be just so excited, and this is what she thought would happen to me,” Garner said.

JANIS CAMPBELL HAS NOTHING BUT LOVE FOR GRANDDAUGHTER CHELSEA GARNER.

CHELSEA GARNER AND HER GRANDMOTHER JANIS C AMPBELL EMBRACING AFTER A MUSICAL PERFORMANCE.

Singing in Defiance RIvER CIT y MIxED ChoRuS DISPlayS SuPPoRT foR lGBTQIa+ CoMMunIT y

BY Bridgit Kuenning-PollPeter

The River City Mixed Chorus (RCMC) took the stage for its annual June concert, and the audience at the Holland Center broke into cheers and applause. The music took us back to the ’70s, and the love emanating throughout the room was palpable. A room full of LGBTQIA+ people and allies gathered to celebrate Pride.

Pride Month

June is Pride month. Pride has been nationally recognized for only 24 years, but its roots go back 53 years. In June 1969, police raided the Stonewall Inn in New York City, a popular gay bar. Riots broke out, and the uprising lasted six days. A year later, in June 1970, the Christopher Street Liberation March in NYC saw hundreds of LGBTQIA+ people and allies march in memory of the Stonewall uprising. This is considered the first Pride parade, and since then, June has seen Pride events expand and continue.

It’s no mere whim RCMC chose music from the ’70s to celebrate Pride. Known as a decade of uprooting and evolution, and forcing systems to adopt more inclusive policies, the ’70s saw marginalized communities demand justice and equity. More than glitter and stardust and discos, the ’70s were a time of disruption. Movements established new concepts — concepts the world still wrestles with and marginalized groups fight for.

“Our mission is to create exceptional performances and show what diversity looks like,” said Barron Breland, RCMC’s artistic director. “At our core, we want to be a safe place for all types of people to gather. We have a message of inclusion and acceptance.”

No surprise, gay and lesbian choirs started emerging in the

1970s. After the 1978 assassination of Harvey Milk, the first openly gay supervisor in San Francisco, several of these choirs held vigils in the City by the Bay. RCMC was created in 1984 with nine men and one woman. Now, RCMC boasts 140 members, and is the largest chorus in Nebraska.

“We leave rehearsals uplifted,” said Breland. “It’s a weekly reminder what humanity can be.”

As the audience grooved to the songs of Earth, Wind and Fire, Elton John, Carol King and more, it was a pure celebration. Embracing all bodies, all identities was the message. The Holland Performing Arts Center was full of people in support of this message. But outside the doors of the auditorium was a state ready to vilify and erase most of the identities represented during the concert.

‘We Won’t Be Erased’

Nebraska recently passed LB574, which, among other items, restricts gender-affirming care for people under the age of 19. It’s a copy-and-paste bill seen in legislators across the U.S, including Arkansas where a Judge struck down the legislation as unconstituional in late June — a development celebrated by opponents of LB574. It’s one of many steps being taken to erase LGBTQIA+ identities in the state.

“The purpose of this legislation is to eradicate queer folk, especially trans people. They want to make it difficult to thrive and exist,” said Cameron Koenig-Barker, RCMC chorus member. “RCMC sends the message that we won’t be erased. We aren’t going anywhere.”

LGBTQIA+ people spent centuries living in the closet.

For decades local and national movements have pushed against anti-LGBTQIA+ efforts. During the concert, Breland commented on how a few years ago, it was debated if LGBTQIA+ choirs have a purpose anymore. At the time, it seemed the world had become more accepting and embracing of the LGBTQIA+ community. Among queer choruses and activists, many believed the work was done. But in the last few years, those terrified of queer identities have taken steps to stomp out these voices. “They’re scaring marginalized communities out of existence,” said Ashley T. Brundage, founder of Empowering Differences.

Brundage is a transgender woman who lives in Tampa, Flordia and focuses her advocacy on inclusion of trans people in business. She teaches others how to leverage their differences to make an impact in the world. It’s her belief that when all people are included, the world is a better place. “It’s important to hear from people who are different, because you gain a different perspective,” Brundage said. “We have the ability to impact everyone along the journey of life.”

Making an Impact Through Music

RCMC is impacting the community through performance. Like so many performers and

artists who came before, RCMC is participating in a long history of using artistic expression to uplift and take stances. “We are out and proud and singing, and that in and of itself is activism,” Koenig-Barker said.

Part of its activism is to build community and create hope, especially for youth. While the chorus is comprised of those 18 and older, it’s aware of the power it has to impact young people in Nebraska.

Karen Davidson-Fisher has been in the chorus since the ’90s. She recalls going into communities and schools to perform for students. She’s thrilled to see so many young people interested in RCMC, and hopes the chorus leaves an impression on them. “It’s going to make things better for young people, seeing young and old people up on stage, singing about important things,” she said.

With the passing of LB 574, and other potential legislation in the pipeline, it’s a scary time for the LGBTQIA+ community, especially transgender kids. RCMC wants to encourage young people to find hope and connect with those who understand their struggles.

“It’s super important young queer adults see there’s a life after high school,” said Koenig-Barker. “It’s impactful to see healthy, happy, fulfilled adults, and that you can be queer. Life is not just

The RiveR CiT y Mixed ChoRus on sTage aT The holland peRfoRMing aRT s CenTeR. PHOTO BrOck STillmunkS

pain, there’s joy. This is powerful for youth.”

Whether performing classical music or pop songs, RCMC always seeks to bring the community together and support LGBTQIA+ people. It uses music to resist, to uplift, to find strength. It’s a collective voice singing in defiance.

“Our presence is a protest our community needs to see,” Breland said. “There’s a storm coming for our trans community. We are a refuge, a place of strength.”

rcmc’s future

Next year will mark the 40th season for RCMC. Through ups and downs in the world, it remains a light for LGBTQIA+ people in Nebraska. “It’s truly a family,” Davidson-Fisher said. And it continues to grow, not stopping anytime soon.

Its annual holiday concert will happen later this year. Then, RCMC prepares for a whirlwind of a 40th season in 2024. One of many activities will be attending GALA’s international chorus conference in Minnesota. GALA leads the North American choral movement. Hundreds of LGBTQIA+ choruses will descend upon Minneapolis and celebrate through song. Breland also announced during the June concert that RCMC is expanding from two performances a year to four, one being a cabaret.

Anyone 18 and older can audition. People who are 17 can audition and participate with a parent or guardian. The audition is simple and laid-back. Auditions are open to LGBTQIA+ or allies. Auditionees are asked to sing a few bars of “My Country, ’Tis of Thee,” do a range check, and discuss membership commitments.

RCMC also strives to be accessible by eliminating financial barriers, to embracing different expressions of movement by modifying physical movement. Regardless of what a person’s background is, or what the access needs are, RCMC wants its members to feel uplifted.

Through the rest of 2023 and into its 40th year, RCMC will face anti-LGBTQIA+ rhetoric with hope and love and joy.

“The primary human need is love,” Breland said. “We are people, human like anyone else. Where you find love is good and worthy and beautiful.”

Catching Up With Imani Murray of Ital Vital Living

JuIce and SmoothIe BuSIneSS PromoteS healthy lIfeStyle

BY BRIdgeT FogaRT y

Imani Murray started making juices out of her home in North Omaha in 2019 to educate people about healthy eating. That passion grew into Ital Vital Living, a juice and smoothie business she runs with her mom and sister at 2323 N. 24th St.

The Reader met with Murray to learn how the business has grown over the past two years as a drive-thru brick-and-mortar shop. (This conversation has been edited for clarity and length.)

The Reader: When we first chatted (in June 2021), the store’s paint job was new, you were just opening, and cars were lined up around the drive-through. How has the support from the community evolved?

Imani Murray: The community has always supported us so much. It’s just crazy having this business, and every day there’s five new customers that’ve never been here before and it’s their first time coming in. That always hits me — like, wow, people are still finding out about us and learning about us and we’re still getting the word out there about us, too.

TR: What have you learned about building a brand and promoting your juices and your products?

IM: It’s funny, the start of Ital Vital was never to have a brick-and-mortar. That wasn’t on my mind — it was just to promote a healthy lifestyle. I started off just doing recipes [on YouTube]. So I’ve always had the mindset of OK, I’m gonna promote my brand Ital Vital and then teach people how to make these smoothies or juices because not everybody has those tools, and juicing is still kind of new to people. So that’s how it started.

I feel like over time, [the brand has] just gotten stronger. Our partnerships have been huge. We’ve done a lot of collaborations when it comes to events and doing special smoothies for people. We’ve worked with Frozen [at the Orpheum] and

Opera Omaha. We just did a high school poetry competition night. So the more collaborations we do, I feel like the more people reach out. That really helps both brands — myself and whoever I’m collaborating with — build each other up.

TR: That’s so cool. So the educational piece that’s always been a center point of your Ital journey is still a throughline in your business. What’s a collaboration you’ve enjoyed most?

IM: Project Intentional [a nonprofit providing resources for women in Omaha] paid for smoothies for expecting mothers. The first year, they bought over a thousand smoothies or juices, and offered them to new or expecting mothers. It was a really good turnout. That’s been my favorite collaboration.

TR: What do you look forward to for Ital Vital Living in the next two years?

IM: We want to stay on 24th Street just because this has been home for so long. We want to expand into a sit-down restaurant, or health hub, to have healthy vegan food, other healthy things and vitamins, like a health store.

TR: What have you learned as a business owner in the past two years of having a brick-and-mortar?

IM: The biggest thing I feel like I learned is just to pivot and go with the seasons of business. There’s always ups and downs and slow seasons. Just being able to survive through that, I think, is the biggest thing for all businesses. You’ve got to go through the waves to survive and think of new ideas. We do a lot of new smoothies and new juices. I feel like that helps us. Our innovation really sets us apart and helps us stay afloat.

TR: What do you think young entrepreneurs need from the city?

IM: Being a young entrepreneur, you don’t always see a lot of

other young people doing it. So I feel like that can make people intimidated by it. I just feel like Omaha needs to be more welcoming, and probably just have more community for more young professionals to do things. And seeing more representation is really huge.

TR: Do you have any advice for other entrepreneurs starting out?

IM: Just do your best to put your brand out there. Really put yourself out there doing pop-ups, going to meetings, networking. I think that’s really huge just to start — be very consistent and don’t give up. Sometimes it takes a while to see a vision really happen. I’ve been doing this for four years. I’m just now seeing a little bit of the fruits of my labor. So it takes time, you know?

TR: What has surprised you most about your journey of creating Ital Vital?

IM: It’s funny, I’m very shy and not very outgoing. But then when it came to something I was passionate about, I was just knocking on doors and emailing everybody because I was really passionate about getting the story of Ital Vital out there. So I feel like the growth within myself has surprised me a lot with my business.

Ital Vital Living’s storefront at 2323 N. 24th St. is open from 1 to 6 p.m. on Tuesday through Saturday.

Find Ital Vital juice products at the Aksarben Farmers Markets on Sundays.

Contact the writer at bridget@el-perico.com

The BoB Marley is iTal ViTal liVing’s MosT popular sMooThie. Photo: ImanI murray

A TImelIne Of OmAhA’S CulInAry TASTeS And TrAdITIOnS Food For Thought

By Sara Locke

In recent years, Omaha has repeatedly been named in the top ten, five, and eventually top two foodie cities in the United States. The road to recognition, however, was long and winding. While it wasn’t until the late Eighties and Nineties that nationally recognized restaurants would set up shop in our neck of the woods, Omaha has been homegrowing talent since just about the very beginning. This month, The Reader has taken a virtual tour through Omaha’s culinary history.

1854 –Breaking Ground

As aptly stated by local historian and author of “Wicked Omaha,” Ryan Roenfeld, there is difficulty in deciding what counts as the first restaurant in Omaha. “I guess the question we have to answer first is, what are we calling a restaurant?”

It turns out that the answer was fairly easy for Roenfeld to come by. The first dining establishment in Omaha was also the first hotel, and home to the first regular church services. In fact, it was the first building to have been built in the city. Construction began and ended on The St. Nicholas Claim House (eventually referred to as “hotel”) in 1854. Built by the Council Bluffs and Nebraska Ferry Co. to encourage settler use of the company’s ferry, the claim house was taking guests by summer of the same year.

“Omaha’s first newspaper, The Arrow, printed an ad that

simply stated: ‘Venison, foul, bird, or fish. Cooked in any manner you please,’” Roenfeld said.

“It was hard to open a restaurant at that time, because saloons offered free lunches to entice customers to drink. Why would you go to a restaurant and pay for food when you could just sit down with a drink and get a free meal? But The St. Nicholas would prepare any meats a hunter or fisher would bring in. Eventually, places started buying meat from hunters to serve to diners.”

Roenfeld’s other observation on the period was a little on the fishy side.

“Oysters,” he said. “Oysters were everywhere in the 1850s and 1860s. Without refrigeration and in a landlocked state in the center of the country, everyone was eating and serving oysters.”

Today we have Shucks and Absolutely Fresh, and fresh oysters are easy enough to come by. If your relatives were eating oysters in Omaha in the 1850s, however, they’re possibly who you have to thank for the immune system that saw you to this side of the pandemic.

1880s –Growing

This was the first time Omaha is named among the fastest-growing cities in the United States, largely due to local packing plants and their willingness to hire immigrants. The Union Stockyards (which closed in 1999) was a boon not only for Omaha’s economic status, but

also its population. Omaha became the top livestock market and meat-processing authority of the time, surpassing the previous title holder, Chicago.

1917 –Omaha Steaks

J.J. (Shames) Simon and his son B.A had butchery in their bones. J.J.’s father, Lazar, founded a packinghouse and meat market in his home of Riga, Latvia, before the family came to the United States fleeing religious persecution in 1898. Today, the Simon family is still active in Omaha Steaks’ operation, and the company has grown from a railcar luxury to an internationally renowned retailer.

1922 –Johnny’s Café

Located at 4702 S 27th St., Johnny’s Café has served Omaha for more than a century. Legendary not only for its longevity, but for the nostalgic touches that remain the focal point of the establishment’s décor.

1929 –Blackstone

Beautiful architecture and exorbitant prices made Blackstone

one of Omaha’s most beautiful places to live. But the stock market crash of 1929 stopped the westward expansion of Omaha’s elite in their tracks. The ornate homes soon proved impossible to maintain during the financial crisis and were converted into boarding houses. By the ’40s, many of the structures had been repurposed as funeral homes. Recent efforts to revitalize the stretch of Farnam have resulted in the reopening of The Blackstone Hotel alongside many of Omaha’s most notable restaurants and nightlife attractions.

Johnny’s Cafe has been proudly serving omaha for more than 100 years.

(via Johnny’s Cafe on faCebook)

1947 –El Charro

While South 24th Street, and Omaha in general, is increasingly well known for its authentic Latin fare, Antonio Espejo’s El Charro was the first Mexican establishment to grace the city’s restaurant roster. Originally opened at 5407 S 24th St. in 1947, El Charro served tamales,

Thanks Omaha for voting us BEST BREWPUB, AGAIN

Proud pioneers of the fermenter-to-table movement.

tacos, and arroz con pollo before moving into a larger establishment. The new location offered a full cocktail bar, and El Charro would eventually become known as the first Mexican steakhouse. The Espejo family moved locations twice more before opting for closure in 1977. The establishment’s third move was to 3802 Leavenworth.

It would be wrong to say the freshest beer is automatically the best beer. But the best beer almost always tastes its best when it is, in marketing speak, at the peak of freshness. And it’s hard to get any fresher than beer brewed thirty feet away from your table. And it’s doubly hard to get any better than when that table is here at Upstream. But we suspect you already knew that.

ImmIgrant-owned el Charro was omaha’s fIrst mexIC an restaurant. (via Omaha histOry GrOup)

1954 –Fair Deal Café

Known locally as “Black City Hall,” the North Omaha eatery was home to some of the city’s major political and social discourse of its time. A meeting place for leaders and change-makers such as Ernie Chambers, Jesse Jackson, and Brenda Council met over traditional soul food. The name and recipes have changed hands a few times since the early Fifties, but Jackson’s Fair Deal Café is still proudly serving at 2118 N 24th St.

1957 –Todd’s Diner

Steve Urosevich’s father was a Serbian immigrant who came to Omaha to work in a packinghouse, hoping to provide a better life for his family. Just one

generation later, Steve bought Wishbone Steakhouse and converted it into Todd’s Diner, a drive-in that soon became the go-to spot for Omaha’s teens. The establishment closed in 1969, but not before gaining some national attention and being spotlighted in Esquire magazine.

1974 –Spaghetti Works

You might not think of the all-you-can-eat pasta spot as one of Omaha’s shiniest of gems, but as the Old Market nears its 50th birthday, you have to admit there is something to the staying power of bottomless Bolognese.

1994 –The Reader

Born of a desire to hear from truly local voices, The Reader has

spent 29 years serving the Omaha community, and being served by it. The monthly publication has been delivering arts, music, culture, and dining news from citizen reporters you have come to know and trust, and will continue to do so until the final issue is printed in September.

“The thing I loved most about (reporting on) the Omaha food scene is that it never let me down,” said Tamsen Butler, former Dish contributing editor and local author. “I knew I could confidently suggest spots to eat to anyone visiting from out of town and they would get a great meal. I also loved how nearly every restaurant I profiled was eager to tell me about their efforts to source locally, and oftentimes would add a story or two about how they work closely or cooperate with another local restaurant. It’s like the Omaha food scene is a close-knit group of people all working together for the betterment of the Metro as a whole.”

2009 –MCC Institute for Culinary Arts

While the college was founded in 1971, it wasn’t until 2009 that Omaha’s home-grown talent was given a local place to cut their culinary teeth. A culinary degree isn’t required to become a successful chef, but the school has turned out some of Omaha’s most accomplished makers.

Associate Dean Brian O’Malley had this to say about Omaha’s culinary evolution:

“The speed at which we strengthen our food culture is directly related to a strong public discourse on the topic. One that has been enhanced greatly over the years by the presence and impact of the Omaha Reader and its many contributors related to food and drink. They have

given voice, vision, accolades, and marketplace for all.”

The dean and former chef/ instructor of the institute wildly understates his role as teacher and mentor to many of Omaha’s culinary elite. Graduates of O’Malley’s methods have helmed some of Omaha’s most lauded kitchens, with new recruits enrolling every semester. The school has also leaned heavily into sustainability culture, and has become a leader in ethical and local sourcing.

2014 –Modern Love

While the establishment could be notable for any of its mouth-watering dishes, 2014 was notable as Modern Love became Omaha’s first entirely vegan dining establishment. Before Post Punk Kitchen’s (2003-2005) host and vegan cookbook author Isa Chandra Moskowitz’s opening of Modern Love, plant-based diners were stuck with a dry side salad or dining at home. Moskowitz’s written works include “Vegan with a Vengeance,” “Veganomicon,” “Isa Does it: Amazingly Easy, Wildly Delicious Vegan Recipes for Every Day of the Week,” “Appetite for Reduction” and “Fake Meat: Real Food for Vegan Appetites.” She opened a second Modern Love location in Brooklyn, New York, in 2016.

***

We have seen huge growth in the last decade, with local chefs being recognized by the James Beard Foundation, featuring on Food Network, and leading the way in sustainability and creativity. The dignity and agility Omaha showed in response to the pandemic proved that the minds behind the menus are ready for any obstacle. The Reader has been proud to be here supporting and reporting on Omaha’s thrilling and thriving culinary culture, and we can’t wait to see what the next decade has in store.

Jackson’s Fair Deal c aFe retains much oF the nostalgia, anD all oF the saFety oF the original. (via Jackson’s Fair Deal on Facebook)

esquire magazine calleD toDD’s Diner the city’s most popular spot F or teenagers. (via esquire)

THE PIE RIDE to ELMWOOD

Pizza, dessert pie, free concert, 5-8pm Drive out, or ride the MoPac to Elmwood, Nebraska. For more information go to bikecasscounty.com or find Bike Cass County on Facebook!

July 6 - Slick Fiction

July 20 - Kuzi Taki!!

August 3 - The Dustin West Band

August 17 - Josh Hoyer and Soul Colossal

If the weather is bad we’ll have music at an indoor location - come out! An unstructured ride to Elmwood, Nebraska to enjoy delicious slices of pizza pie, dessert pie, good company and free concert!

Funded by visitcasscounty.com

Share Your Memories

Do you have a favorite article, picture, comic or other memory from The Reader that you’d like to share? Perhaps a concert listing of your favorite band in Cool Things that led to an epic night out? Or maybe something you learned through us? We want to hear from you Send us your memories! We’ll share some of them over these next couple of issues...

Go to our website for info on how:

from each other, as well as art that celebrates toys as a unique and impressionable form of media.”

More information and gallery hours can be found by contacting alex@bffomaha.org or at bffomaha.org.

July 8

Second Saturday Cottonwood Hotel

to do in JULY

Omaha Places will host its initial pop-up in the Dundee Bank parking lot on July 8 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The debut event will feature a market of over 20 local businesses, offering guests a diverse and immersive experience. Meanwhile, vendors can share their one-of-akind eats, art and other goods in a united fashion.

A Local Collective and Little Bohemia have partnered with Omaha Places to make this event possible.

Check out what your talented neighbors and creators have to offer.

July 9

Dear Neighbor Slowdown

If you are down to try out new drinks, check out this month’s Second Saturday event at the Cottonwood Hotel on July 8.

Every second Saturday of the month, the Blackstone District hosts the titular shindig at a different locale to spotlight some of the great work done by businesses in the district.

July 6 — Aug. 10

Jazz on the Green

Turner Park

Jazz on the Green kicks off every Thursday between July 6 and Aug. 10 at Turner Park, meaning you have six free outdoor concerts to look forward to this summer.

And for no cost, why would you miss Larry McCray (July 6), Xperience (July 13), Ron Artis II (July 20), Bobby Watson (July 27), Chad Stoner Band (Aug. 3) and Ana Popovic (Aug. 10)?

Bring blankets and chairs. please leave camping gear, flames, and hard liquor at home. Seating opens at 5 p.m., and music starts at 7:30.

July 7 — Aug. 25

Fist Fulla Toys

Petshop Gallery

Why aren’t toys more represented in contemporary art? Petshop and curator Lew Lunbeck have set out to correct this oversight with their July exhibit, “Fist Fulla Toys.” Billed as “an artists’ toy showcase,” featuring works by ZWIAN, Stephen Kavanaugh, and Lunbeck’s Nofunctiontoys.

“Fist Fulla” opens at 7 p.m. July 7 and continues through Aug. 25. Expect to see, as described in the show statement, “kit-bashed, clay-sculpted, sofubi (soft vinyl), resin, plaster, and plastic-cast toys, hand-made and all unique

This time, both the Cottonwood Hotel’s cozy atmosphere and the sippable variety of local wines and whiskeys will be on vibrant display for the drinking public.

Connoisseurs and casuals alike, sip to your heart’s delight.

July 8

Omaha Places Pop-Up

Dundee Bank Lot (Little Bohemia)

Dear Neighbor will headline a stacked local lineup at the Slowdown on July 9.

The Omaha indie-rock closers are set to perform alongside fellow Omaha folk/progressive outfit Wyrmwood and Lincoln band Big World.

Dear Neighbor released its debut EP, a collection of acoustic songs entitled “Tree House,” in 2018. Wyrmwood released its debut EP, “House on a Hill,” in 2022. Big World released its first EP in 2021, called “Calvert.”

Tickets are $12-$15, before fees, for the 8 p.m. show, with doors opening at 7.

July 11 – Aug. 29

Tempo Twilightof

Lauritzen Gardens

The B. Bar is hosting the second annual Not Fade Away concert on July 15, with music by Unbroken Chain, Doom Lagoon, Dr. Webb, and David McInnis.

The event is meant to honor the memory of a fallen Deadhead and beloved local lad, Nate Dietrich, who was much more than just a Grateful Dead fan to those who knew him. The event will take place on Dietrich’s birthday; he would have turned 34.

The bands that are set to perform will rock the house in his memory, with music starting at 6 p.m.

July 19

Little Feat Orpheum Theater

Lauritzen Gardens will host the Tempo of Twilight outdoor concert on July 11, 18, 25 and Aug. 1, 15 and 29.

Each of the six Tuesday events will start at 6 p.m. and feature bands to set the mood: the Come Together Band (July 11), Vertigo Blues Band (July 18), the Churchill Boys (July 25), Back Alley (Aug. 1), The Brits (Aug. 15), and Envy (Aug. 29).

Guests can bring chairs and blankets to set up after 4 p.m. The event is free for garden members, and standard garden admission is $9-$15 before fees.

July 13 – Sept. 2

Sanctuary

Union for Contemporary Art

A decade after his exhibit “Stochastic,” Andrew Johnson returns to the Union for Contemporary Art with “Sanctuary,” which opens July 13 from 6-8 p.m. and continues through Sept. 2.

“Sanctuary” – a collection of new works on paper – explores form, composition, and color.

The show statement says the work acts as a counterweight to the trials of modern daily life, neither premeditated nor post

rationalized. They are about everything and nothing.

Johnson is an artist and engineer born and raised in Nebraska. Johnson’s work integrates art, mathematics and science, striving to reduce their superficial boundaries.

He is a self-taught artist and works with a variety of media.

July 14 – Aug. 18

Body Defiance Generator Space

of enacting gender,” opens at Generator Space on Vinton Second Friday, July 14, from 6-9 p.m.

The artists, who identify as Black, transgender, non-binary, AFAB, use digital photographic and video media to explore personal and universal threads in the emergence and power of gender determination.

Both artists are based in Omaha. Bennett is an artist, curator, community activist, and host of ohMahART! — a podcast giving voice to local artists and makers. Emerging mixed-media artist Le’Shawn often combines photography with embroidery and painting to address such themes as intimacy, vulnerability and resilience.

July 15

Not Fade Away

The B. Bar

“Body Defiance,” a collaborative exhibition organized by Ang Bennett and Sheree Le’Shawn focused on “tracing the daily ritual

The prolific blues rock band Little Feat will play the Orpheum on July 19. Soak up the sound that has garnered buzz among critical circles for generations.

Singer/guitarist Lowell George and keyboardist Bill Payne formed Little Feat in 1969, and the band was active in its first run for 10 years before George died. Then the group reformed in 1987 and has been taking names ever since.

Leftover Salmon, a fellow fusion band 30 years old, will open the show.

Music begins at 7 p.m. Tickets cost $49.50 to $69.50 before fees.

Andrew Johnson’s “sAnctuAry”

July 20 – Sept. 14

Wanderings: A Walk in the Woods

Fred Simon Gallery, Nebraska Arts Council

In keeping with its mission to bring significant regional and international art to Omaha, Baader-Meinhof will exhibit “Chicago” as the first installment of its annual summer group series. These surveys promise to provide a window into the shared ideas, conversations and culture happening in various localities around the world.

jazz albums chart, making her the only artist to do so.

Her 1999 album “When I Look in Your Eyes” broke records when it spent 52 weeks at No. 1, and it even scored two Grammy wins.

Music starts at 8 p.m., and tickets start at $59 before fees.

July 28-29

The restless eye of UNK professor Derrick Burbul will be featured in the photographic exhibition “Wanderings: A Walk in the Woods,” opening at the Fred Simon Gallery with a reception July 19 from 5-7 p.m.

Burbul’s primary fascination is with the intersections of nature, humans and human nature, rivaled only by his experimentalism with photographic processes old and new.

As a way of reframing intersections of experience, Burbul often presents his works as collages, montages and assemblages, intentionally disrupting traditional compositional flow in favor of a fragmentation that encourages connections beyond those of specific time and place.

July 22 – Sept. 1

Group Exhibition

Baader-Meinhof

“As diverse and sprawling as Chicago is,” Baader-Meinhof Director Kyle Laidig said, “it is by no means comprehensive, a near impossible task, and instead endeavors to conjure a slant bit of context for the current social entanglements and material contributions of Chicago’s vibrant creative community.” The exhibit opens Saturday, July 22, from 6-9 p.m. and continues through Sept. 1.

Participating artists are Michelle Grabner, Paul Heyer, Gareth Kaye, Tarik Kentouche, Michael Madrigali, Tim Mann, Devin T. Mays, Isabelle Frances McGuire & Bailey Connolly, Julian van de Moere, Ryan Nault, Haynes Riley, Kira Scerbin, Micah Schippa, Nick Schutzenhofer, José Taymani, Liz Vitlin and Kevin Weil.

July 28

Diana Krall

Holland

Maha Music Festival

Stinson Park (Aksarben Village)

Steve Miller Band and many more. His latest album, “Out of the Blues” in 2018, commemorates his five-decade career in blues music.

Keb’ Mo’ will open the 7:30 p.m. show. As a 71-year-old blues artist, Mo’ has five Grammy wins and numerous full-length releases. His latest album is “Good to Be” in 2022.

Tickets start at $44.50 before fees.

July 29-30

Benson Days

The 15th annual Maha Music Festival will take place on July 2829 at Stinson Park.

Maha brings together a sea of music lovers for prominent local and national artists, and this year’s lineup does not disappoint.

Performing artists include Turnstile, Big Thief, Alvvays, Peach Pit, The Beths, Ekkstacy, Terry Presume, Black Belt Eagle Scout, Say She She, Icky Blossoms, Bib, M34n Str33t, Hakim, Omaha Girls Rock, Garst, Ebba Rose, and NFM Silent Disco.

Tickets cost $50-$100-plus, depending on how many days you attend. Music starts at 4 p.m. on Friday and 2 p.m. on Saturday.

July 29

Downtown Benson

Benson Days will take place in Downtown Benson on July 29-30. The annual two-day festival will feature a parade, food, a community bike race and more.

The parade will begin at 10 a.m. on Saturday, but beforehand, The Pancake Man will host a pancake feed beginning at 8 a.m.

And if you want to compete on Sunday, the Mode Shift bike race kicks off at 9 a.m., followed by kickball tournaments.

Canadian jazz pianist and singer-songwriter Diana Krall will bring her trademark sound to the Holland on July 28.

Guests can embark on a soulful journey through the artist’s critically acclaimed discography, in which eight of her albums debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard

Boz Scaggs & Keb’ Mo’

Orpheum Theater

The Orpheum will host two blues legends on July 29.

At 79, Boz Scaggs is a legendary singer-songwriter, recording artist, and touring musician, having worked with the likes of the

While you visit, the event organizers encourage you to stroll around to get more familiar with the area’s vibe.

— This report was compiled by Matt Casas, Mike Krainak, Janet L.

Farber and Kent Behrens.

Four Winds music Festival is nice enough

Promoter SHareS

HiS tHougHt S on omaHa’S HiP-HoP Scene and tHe tHird-Year event

by MarQ Manner

Hip-hop music in Omaha is always a hot topic among many local music supporters and the artists themselves. Ever since the genre became a permanent part of music culture, one of those topics has been support for the genre in Omaha, or lack of support. Long-time observers can say things have changed for the better in recent years. After all, local hip-hop artists are touring, racking up hundreds of thousands and even millions of streams, and some are headlining the main stages in Omaha.

One person who has been part of these changes is Justin Strawstone, a promoter, booking agent, tour and artist manager, and an artist himself. He is a founder and partner in Nice Enough Entertainment, a company that has achieved some success in its four years of existence. Strawstone is promoting the Four Winds Music Festival at The Waiting Room Lounge and The Reverb Lounge on Aug. 4-5. He talked over coffee about the festival, the state of hip-hop in Omaha, and his role in the area music community.

“I got started in 2019. I started Aorta Hip-Hop under the Aorta Music Management brand,” Strawstone said of promoting. “Nick Rowe (owner of Aorta Music) brought me in, and I was just supposed to start doing local hip-hop shows. I started going to these rock shows, and then I started working at The Lookout, and I was like, ‘These are well attended, people are enjoying themselves, they are spending their money, and they seem to be having a good

time.’ And the bar, even though it wasn’t thriving, was staying busy off of non-hip-hop shows.

“So I was wondering if I could apply the simple start on time, not have 15 people, don’t do pay to play, and let people make money to see if that same thing could work with hip-hop. Then I kind of got addicted to it.” Strawstone did Aorta Hip-Hop for seven months, was booking mixed-genre shows, and wanted to do something more.

“I felt like I was getting boxed in,” he said, “even though Aorta HipHop was really cool for me and my friends.” He then thanked Rowe for the opportunity and started Nice

Enough Entertainment. “I was not looking to compete with Aorta or the other promoters around,” he said, “but just kind of wanted to put my own stamp on what I was doing because it was becoming everything I cared about very quickly, so I wanted it to be something that represented me.”

Omaha’s hip-hop scene, like hiphop in many places, has a degree of toxicity to it. There seems to have been a shift toward a more amicable scene recently. Asked about his role in that, Strawstone said, “I think in order to make change, you have to have people have coming-to-Jesus moments

as to how things are done. There were so many people in the hiphop scene that were just so used to that toxicity that the people putting on the shows were also the headliner, and people just wanted to put themselves above other people. So I had to come in and show that it could be a community thing again and that we don’t have to be in those shitty rooms with shitty sound. We don’t have to have 15 artists, and just because pay to play worked for you doesn’t mean it’s the right way or good for the city.

“So, really, I had to be annoying for two years, three years. To this day, I am still annoying, but it was to show people that there is a different way and then also to show people that things can be more serious by doing it.”

Strawstone says some of the ways Nice Enough Entertainment has shown that serious side is by booking all-local hip-hop shows and working with national headliners and venue owners. Strawstone has been focused on building tours for artists such as King Iso, Otis Julius, and more. He has been on the road for much of 2023, and he believes that is another way he can benefit the Omaha music community.

“I think one of the reasons people care when it comes to our shows is that we can tie these other markets together,” he said. “The mentality of being stuck in your hometown or being stuck playing to other bands or to other rappers is a very real thing. So partnering with someone who is also in Des Moines, Sioux Falls, Tulsa, Kearney

or Denver creates a network and gives them a reason to want to do really well in their home city. All of a sudden, they can start to network.

“I am just this weird guy who kind of got lucky in this whatever world we live in, and I get to do really cool shit, and as soon as I am not that option to the masses, I am nobody, so I have a lot of people that count on me and believe in me, but literally it is a projection of them believing in themselves. I know that my existence is an everybody thing, and I caught onto that pretty early on.”

o Where: Waiting Room Lounge and Reverb Lounge

o When: Aug. 4-5, 8 p.m. Friday & 7 p.m. Saturday

o Tickets: Etix.com $15 per day or $25 for two-day pass

BackBeat

of many genres, not just hip-hop. The festival originated in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where organizers will hold their eighth annual event this year. So, how did Strawstone get involved in the festival, and how did it come to Omaha?

The Four Winds Music Festival, in its third year in Omaha, will feature 39 artists, including 16 from out of town, over two days. It is a mixture

“Corey Church is who started it and founded it,” Strawstone said. “He is also the second part of Nice Enough Entertainment. He books a lot of the non-hip-hop acts. He is the quiet member of Nice Enough, but he does a lot of cool stuff. He builds tours and books festivals in multiple states. The way Four Winds was approached to me was to take the people that actually give a shit and give them a great

day in some great rooms and let it be all about them. Let the people that carry the lineups all work together for once in a mixed-genre kind of way. Here we have this well-oiled machine, and everyone is motivated. The artists are getting more than a 50% cut on it, and it’s just really to give everyone a great look without opening for a national act and without having to feel like you are just another opener on a local show.”

Who does Strawstone think will stand out at this year’s festival?

“Alyeska has been absolutely killing it this year,” he said. “They have sold out a few venues. They work

with some great bands. They always pull their weight. Their music is great. Their promotion is great. Those are just my boys. I am just excited. When you like someone, but they actually put in the work, it makes it easy to do a lot of fun stuff with them.”

He also mentioned C10 and Faith Freeman. A surprise act? That could be Forest, he said.

“We hope that the festival creates a whole lot of networking, and it usually does,” Strawstone said, “so this is going to be our biggest one in Omaha yet.”

Promoter Justin strawstone

At a Crossroads (Not the Mall)

BY Ryan SyRek To

Be or NoT To Be (A CriTiC)?

This isn’t goodbye yet. I still have two more months with you, here in print. Thank yous come next month, goodbyes the month after. For now, I just have a question: Should I keep doing this?

My answer to how long I’d be a film critic has always been “As long as The Reader will have me.” That sincere-but-flippant reply is now out of gas. Although the print edition is riding off into the sunset, I have been told that thereader.com will keep on keeping on, at least for the foreseeable future, as a functional URL I can use to post reviews.

Should I?

To be clear, this isn’t rhetorical. The email address is film@ thereader.com, and it still will

be. Or go on Facebook, Twitter, or any other way you want to respond. This is like the time DC asked readers whether or not they should kill Robin, and Batman had to watch as the Boy Wonder done got blowed up because fans more or less wanted to see what would happen. Nobody is gonna go boom here, and I’m not going to tally votes.

I just need to know if this is still worth it.

In the 21 years since I started, criticism has exploded from blogs to YouTube videos to podcasts to TikToks. We do not have a shortage of opinion sharing, despite folks continuing to assert the utter uselessness of movie critics. Specifically, my perspective as a white cis-hetero

dude isn’t exactly a cry from the wilderness. I’d say my thoughts are a dime a dozen, but inflation, you know?

Another caveat: This isn’t me begging for praise. This isn’t me asking, “Tell me nice things.” I have tried to be in a dialogue about cinema, leading the conversation due to the one-sided nature of writing about movies. Hopefully, I’ve made you giggle a few times while doing it. But I never saw it as a performance but a starting point for folks to engage with the context and undercurrents of film. So the real question is whether the other side of the discussion, your side, wants the dialogue to continue.

For now, my plan is to keep going. Weekly reviews, as usual,

posted on Fridays at thereader. com/culture/movies. However, without a print publication driving it, the only reason to do so is because you want me to. If you don’t, totally cool. Drop a line and say, “Time to move along.” It would not only not hurt my feelings, but it would help. If you want me to persist, you do have to Tinkerbell this for me. Don’t clap, but message somehow to let me know this won’t be some egotistical delusion, wherein I put out my thoughts because they “should be heard.” I suffer no such narcissism. I’m here, or not here, at your pleasure. Always have been.

Tinkerbell or Robin: I leave the choice to you.

It’s tIme to ask all of you a very Important exIstentIal questIon about myself, and I really do want an answer! Image: a stIll from Kenneth Branagh’s “hamlet”

No, Speed Racer. No!

‘The FlaSh’ IS FluSh WITh FlaWS

by Ryan SyRek

If it were up to me, the first thing I’d have figured out before dropping a few hundred milly on “The Flash” was how to make someone running really fast not look stupid. Maybe that’s the second thing I would have done, immediately after ensuring the person I cast as the lead wasn’t on a multi-year crime spree.

Anyway, the point is that “The Flash” is a movie about a hero who runs really fast, and all the scenes with fast running look stupid and bad. Seems like a problem.

Director Andy Muschietti told Gizmodo that it looked like shit on purpose. Honestly, considering that VFX workers are sorta the Nike shoe factory workers of Hollywood, I don’t hate that he tried to own it. It means I don’t have to feel bad when I tell you that I have seen anthropomorphic mucus characters in pharmaceutical commercials that look better than most of this film. The CGI is so bad, I think I hate computers now. bring the abacus back.

The opening sequence features barry Allen, aka The Flash (Ezra Miller), saving a bevy of babies who look like they were animated by an alien who was very briefly told what human babies might look like. They get the shape loosely right.

Felix Vasquez at Cinema Crazed says: “It wants to be a science-fiction drama, a superhero comedy, and fan service all rolled into what felt like a two-hour

Flash is there to help batman (ben Affleck), who can’t even be bothered to explain what’s happening. Shortly thereafter, the speedy superhero accidentally figures out he can accelerate so hard that he can go back in time and save his mother from being murdered. As the old saying about time travel goes: “Step on as many butterflies as possible. It’s totally cool.”

barry gets stuck in the recent past with an 18-yearold version of himself. As with “Shazam: Fury of the Gods,” DC movies apparently believe that all teenagers must be consistently restrained from eating

comic book movie constructed by a committee.”

Wenlei Ma at News.Com.Au says: “Despite superhero fatigue, lead star Ezra Miller’s off-screen controversies, and the fact ‘The Flash’

glue or making boom-boom in their pants. Eighteen-year-old barry isn’t “young and wild,” he acts like a lobotomized toddler.

The two barrys (barries? barrii?) find batman, who is now a different bruce Wayne (Michael Keaton). They need his help to restore older barry’s powers and to find Superman, who is needed to fight General Zod (Michael Shannon). because somehow The Flash fixing his mom’s death made it so Superman never became Earth’s champion? The explanation they give for this involves a demonstration with dry spaghetti noodles, in case you

crams in two too many elements, there is something distinctly exciting about it. It’s not something new, it’s something borrowed.”

Angelica Jade Bastién at Vulture says: “The Flash” is “the

think they were just bullshitting and making it up as they go.

To be nice for a moment: Keaton’s batman remains a treasure. His keen awareness of how to walk the line of goofy self-awareness and “I am vengeance!” has been so sorely missed after several decades of serious bat-brooding. A slew of other cameos would have been inspired and fun, were they not just plopped out there using goofy-ass CGI. Resurrecting dead actors who have worn DC cowls and capes flirts with poor taste, but using animation to depict an actor who is very much alive and very much

cinematic equivalent of a snake eating its own tail. This isn’t a film so much as brand management in flailing motion. It’s debilitation. It’s the closing down of all the possibilities a multiverse is meant to represent.”

One Michael KeatOn can’t sOlve things fOr twO ezra Millers. that’s just pure Math right there. IMAGE: A stIll froM “ thE fl A sh”

known for being willing to star in anything seems lazy.

Those were the nice things I have to say.

Not-so-nice stuff includes Miller’s wretched double performance. It’s not just that their real-life behaviors inevitably taint a character who is supposed to be kind and naïve, it’s that they are palpably anti-charismatic. An overly verbose, awkward doofus works 0nly if the character feels genuine. Both Barrys are wholly unlikable, at least partially because Miller’s aggressive intensity feels somehow sinister and not playful. The other part isn’t their fault but the fault of the writers.

If “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” showed how the multiverse can be a resplendent wonderland, “The Flash” shows how it can also be a graveyard for amateur, half-baked ideas. Supergirl (Sasha Calle) isn’t just wasted, she’s flagrantly and hostilely disrespected. Zod, the only real villain to speak of, is barely present. Keaton’s Batman so nakedly steals the show that his ejection from the storyline by the final act is wildly upsetting.

The buzz for “The Flash” was everywhere for a very long time. It had stalled in development and was plagued with issues, and the defense was always, “But it is so good that it must be seen.” It mustn’t! I have seen it, and it absolutely did not need to be seen. Even the post-credit scene is so useless and lame, so without cleverness, that the only thing that can be done for the “DCU” is to nuke it from space and start over. Also, bring Keaton back for a live-action “Batman Beyond,” you cowards. Rant over.

Grade = F

CUTTING ROOM

By Ryan SyRek

One of the maddening things about the mad dash to disparage human rights education is how recent this “history” is. Film can be a great way to cut through the lies and noise, and that is why you should get to Benson Theater on July 8-9 for a free screening of “Divisible” (divisibledoc.com). The documentary is about redlining in Omaha. Our city is still confronting the repercussions from this racist practice of housing discrimination because it happened until very recently. This is the sort of thing that everyone who lives here should know about, but we don’t because learning makes some people feel icky. Fixing the sins of the past begins by admitting and understanding the sinning, so get thee to the theater for this forced confession.

Given the all-out blitzkrieg on LGBTQIA+ rights in America, we should add a week to Pride month for every piece of hate legislation proposed. By my count, Pride now lasts until 2042 or so. Anyway, Film Streams (filmstreams.org) gets it. In July, the arthouse will show queer films that are straight bangers. “Pink Flamingos,” “The Watermelon Woman,” and “Bound” run July 7-13 at The Ruth Sokolof Theater, with “Hedgwig and the Angry Inch” screening on July 13 at The Dundee Theater, which is where I first saw it, when my knees didn’t sound like an Orville Redenbacher orchestra. What a splendid small collection of truly exceptional cinema certain

to make someone in government want to do a censorship.

Speaking of revenge, Sam Raimi gets a lot of horror love, but my favorite film of his may be his western. “The Quick and the Dead” is a wild, weird “horse opera,” which is a real thing they used to call cowboy movies. The Alamo Drafthouse (drafthouse.com/omaha) is bringing the 1995 cult classic back to the big screen on July 26 at 7 p.m. It features Sharon Stone, Gene Hackman, Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe. If you haven’t seen it, you gotta get to this “oater,” which is another real thing they used to call cowboy

movies. Packed with brutality and Raimi’s trademark goofiness, this “grass blaster,” which is not a real thing they used to call cowboy movies, is worth seeing.

Cutting Room provides breaking local and national movie news … complete with added sarcasm. Send any relevant information to film@ thereader.com.

Check out Ryan on KVNO 90.7 on Wednesdays and follow him on Twitter @ thereaderfilm

PRide iSN’ T CONfiNed TO JuNe, eVeN if The faCT ThaT “hedgWig aNd The aNgRy iNCh” iS mORe ThaN 20 yeaRS Old maKeS me feel aNCieNT, WhiCh iSN’ T a PROud feeliNg. IMAGE: A stIll froM 2001’s “HEdGwIG And tHE AnGry IncH”

Celebrating the Blues

14tH Street

Playing With Fire event founder/talent booker

Jeff Davis kicks off a 19th season of free concerts with shows Friday and Saturday, July 14-15, in Turner Park at Midtown Crossing. At 6:45 p.m. Friday, July 14, two of top contemporary U.S. blues artists share the bill.

Eddie 9-Volt is part of a twenty-something generation of blues players. The Atlanta guitarist’s high-octane contemporary take on the music is rooted in traditional Memphis, southern-style blues. Headliner Sugaray Rayford is a powerhouse, soulful showman who has received multiple Blues Music Award nominations and honors, including the prestigious B.B. King Entertainer of the Year award in 2020. He took home the award for 2023 Soul Blues Album of the Year for his record “In Too Deep.”

Davis regularly travels to check out new talent in Europe and Canada. Saturday, July 15, he features artists showcasing the worldwide appeal of the blues. Northern Ireland’s Dom Martin Band has received multiple UK

BY B.J. HuCHTEMAnn

and European blues awards, including induction into the 2022 UK Blues Hall of Fame. The Netherlands is represented by Twelve Bar Blues Band’s Chicago — and New Orleans-style blues in its first U.S. appearance. Rounding out Saturday is the guitar-driven blues-rock of the Justin Saladino Band from Montreal, Quebec, Canada. In 2018, Saladino was nominated for New Artist of the Year in Canada at the 21st annual Maple Blues Awards. See playingwithfireomaha.net.

BSO 25th Anniversary

The Blues Society of Omaha (BSO) is celebrating 25 years of promoting and presenting the blues in eastern Nebraska. A big outdoor 25th anniversary show is planned for Wednesday, July 26, 7 p.m., at Falconwood Park, 905 Allied Dr., Bellevue. National blues-rockers Mike Zito and Albert Castiglia were scheduled to perform together in their Billboard Blues chart-topping Blood Brothers project.

At press time, it was announced that Zito’s wife, Laura, is going into hospice care after a year’s battle with pancreatic cancer and he is leaving the tour to focus on time with her. There is a GoFundMe account for the Zitos. Zito announced rock-blues guitar star Gary Hoey will join Castiglia and the band for the summer tour. Hoey is an acclaimed guitarist who has produced Lita Ford,

rocked with Johnny Winter and recorded with Dick Dale before digging into the blues over the last decade. See garyhoey.com for more. Visit omahablues.com and facebook.com/bluessocietyofomaha for event details. Gates open at 4:00 p.m. Tickets are $30 in advance or $35 the day of the show. For tickets see 254BSO. eventbrite.com.

In the Market for Blues is scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 5, in downtown Omaha. The multi-venue blues festival is the brainchild of Omaha’s 2020 International Blues Challenge solo/duo award-winner Héctor Anchondo. With the help of the BSO, the event has continued to grow. This year features 12 hours of blues from over 30 bands on indoor and outdoor stages in the Old Market, the Capitol District and the Holland Center’s Mammel Courtyard. Highlights include Chicago blues-rocker and Alligator Records star Toronzo Cannon, plus popular guitarist-singer-songwriter Hadden Sayers and his new duo, BoomCHANK, with acclaimed Texas percussionist Brannen Temple, a musical collaboration that began in Ruthie Foster’s band. Other regional and national talents performing include Hurricane Ruth, Tony Holiday, Shaw Davis & the Black Ties, Josh Garrett Band, Polly O’Keary & The Rhythm Method, Kevin Burt, Scott Ellison Band, Levee Town, Blue House with the Rent to Own Horns, The Mezcal Brothers, Josh Hoyer & Soul Colossal and Kris Lager & the Assembly of Assassins. Anchondo plays full band and solo sets.

A special $85 VIP ticket includes a show featuring Rocky

Athas at The Jewell on Friday, Aug. 4, and other perks. Athas is a Texas blues-rock guitarist who spent eight years with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers before returning to his solo career. See rockyathas.com. Advance general admission tickets are $25 until July 15 and $35 from July 16 through Aug. 5. Find details and advance tickets at omahablues. com/in-the-market-for-blues

Zoo Bar Anniversary

Lincoln’s historic Zoo Bar celebrates 50 years as a bluesroots venue with their three-day ZOOFEST street festival Thursday, July 6, through Saturday, July 8. See the lineup and ticket information at zoobar.com. And check out my cover story from the June issue of The Reader, available online, that tells some of the stories behind this nationally recognized venue.

Hot Notes

Jazz on The Green is back for another season of free music every Thursday, July 6 through Aug. 10, 7:30 p.m., in Turner Park at Midtown Crossing. The events kick off with blues guitarist Larry McCray on Thursday, July 6. The mix of blues and jazz concerts includes Grammy-nominated jazz sax man Bobby Watson on Thursday, July 27, and ends with notable blues guitarist Ana Popovic on Thursday, Aug. 10. See o-pa.org/jazz-on-the-green

Check out the calendars for Waiting Room, Reverb Lounge, The Admiral, the Steelhouse and other venues to make sure you don’t miss a great indoor show during this busy summer of concerts.

AwArd-winning blues voc Alist sugArAy rAyford will deliver his chArismAtic, soulful sound At the free Pl Aying with fire show fridAy, July 14, At midtown crossing’s turner PArk.

PHOTO CREDIT: FORT y BElOw RECORDs

Pl AyiNg WitH Fire iS BACk, tHe BSO MArkS 25 yeArS & ZOOFeSt Pl AyS tHe BlueS ON liNCOlN’S

John Beasley

June 26, 1943

– May 30, 2023

For generations of aspiring dramatic artists, stage and screen actor John Beasley, who died at age 79 in his native Omaha, represented what a professional career beyond Nebraska entailed.

“His career inspired me in a way that showed me what was possible for me as a Black artist,” Omaha actress-director Kathy Tyree said. “John was extremely faithful to his craft and gift. It sent a message to each of us actors watching of not only what it would take to move our careers forward, but also what the reward could look like.”

Though he didn’t pursue full-time thespian work until age 45, Beasley established himself as an in-demand character actor. He scored major theater gigs in Minneapolis, Chicago, Atlanta, and eventually in Boston and Washington, D.C., becoming a stock company player in productions of playwright August Wilson’s work. He produced Wilson’s 10-play cycle at his own John Beasley Theater & Workshop in South Omaha.

Beasley broke into TV and movies (“Rudy”) in the 1990s, turning heads as Brother Blackwell in the 1997 Robert Duvall

film “The Apostle.” After years appearing in big Hollywood features (“The Sum of All Fears”) and as a regular cast member in TV’s “Everwood” and “The Soul Man,” Beasley was set to make his Broadway debut in the musical adaptation of “The Notebook” when he died.

Duvall remembered him as “a great guy and a wonderful actor.” The pair meshed with their shared passion for authenticity. Recalled Duvall, “Somebody said, ‘Where’d you get that non-actor to play the preacher?’ And I said, ‘That non-actor has his own (theater) company and did Shakespeare and everything.’”

In a 2022 American Theatre interview, Beasley said he appreciated wherever his career as “a working artist” took him. “If I never got to Broadway, I would still feel I’ve had a pretty successful career.”

He encouraged others to follow their dreams. Actor Andre McGraw said, “The biggest thing I took from John was that you have to get over the fear to just start. You have to commit to the commitment and just go do it … He was right.”

Actor-writer Vincent Lee Alston said, “Many of us cut our teeth at the John Beasley Theater. It was a training ground, a boot camp, where you could explore what it meant to be an actor. It was our Shakespeare – a place where we could go to do ‘us.’ If you were blessed enough to share the stage with him, you found him filling the space. always giving, present, committed to his choices and in the moment. He believed in realism and accepted nothing less.”

— Leo Adam Biga

John Beasley as older noah with Maryann Plunkett as older allie in the 2022 ChiC ago shakesPeare theatre ProduC tion of “ the noteBook.”

Photo by Liz Lauren

John Beasley was known nationally for Playing irv harPer on “everwood.”

Photo the Wb/eVerett

CONNECT WITH TRUSTED PROS

Parker

Sept. 11, 2009

– April 18, 2023

Born on Sept. 11, 2009, Parker moved from house to house until March 15, 2015, when he found his forever home. He lived, played and was loved in Benson and by Benson.

He was funny and weird and had more accessories than many humans ever will. He loved Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, hot dogs, and his G-pa. He hated white trucks, “NCIS” and paintings of corgis. Parker was Parker because he had all of you to love him. All of you to pet him in his backpack. All of you to feed him snacks in his wagon. All of you to cheer him on running down Maple in his wheelchair.

I’m hesitant to say Parker was survived by me (Lauren), Brad and Coco, because everyone who knew and loved him became his family. He was a one-of-a-kind little man, and we are all lucky to have gotten to love him. I know I am better for having gotten to love him.

Parker, or Peter Parker Spider Dog, left us on April 18 at the age of 13. In lieu of flowers, pet your furry ones and hug them a little more today for us and for you.

— Lauren Garcia

@BBBOmaha

Garry Trudeau

Jeffrey KoTerba

Jen SorenSen

Squeeze Play

The ASTro TheATer enTerS A CroWded MArkeT of oMAhA MuSiC VenueS

By Tim mcmahan

With the grand opening of The Astro indoor music venue and amphitheater in La Vista in late August, competition for booking national touring bands and performers just got that much more intense.

But before I get into that, let’s talk more about The Astro. The project was announced five years ago in June 2018 as a partnership among Omaha’s One Percent Productions, Kansas City’s Mammoth Inc., and developer City+Ventures. Thanks to a nasty pandemic, the project didn’t break ground until late September 2021.

Now, almost two years later, The Astro is ready for its debut. Located in the heart of La Vista at 8302 City Centre Drive, The Astro and The Astro Amphitheater boast state-ofthe-art everything — acoustics, lighting and sound systems — with room capacities of around 2,400 in indoor venue and 5,500 at the connecting outdoor amphitheater.

“A lot of extra energy and detail went into the back stage, artist experience and customer experience,” Mammoth President Jeff Fortier said about the Astro project.

“The backstage area has two catering rooms, a break room,

a gym, a game room and more dressing rooms, showers and bathrooms than acts of this size need. We overdelivered. The venue also has the capabilities to do arena shows. The dock loading area is unbelievable. The Astro can handle 10 semis worth of gear. It’s not a normal venue, and the capabilities we have are unbelievable.”

Fortier co-owns Mammoth with business partner Josh Hunt, the company’s CEO. Fortier and Hunt have been booking shows in the Omaha market for more than 30 years at venues that include Sokol Auditorium and Underground,

The Ranch Bowl, even legendary punk club The Cog Factory.

Astro business partner One Percent Productions — which, at its heart, is businessmen Marc Leibowitz and Jim Johnson — also has been booking live music in Omaha since 1997. One Percent, along with Saddle Creek Records, was critical in establishing Omaha as an indie music mecca in the early 2000s.

Earlier this year, the two companies — in partnership with Lincolnites Sean and Becki Reagan, who operate The Bourbon Theater — opened the remodeled and refurbished

The AsTro indoor music venue And AmphiThe ATer will open in lA visTA in l ATe AugusT.

Sokol Auditorium, renaming it The Admiral Theater.

“What One Percent Productions and Mammoth have done together with The Admiral and The Astro represents almost 30 years of hard work and patience,” Fortier said. “We’ve worked our whole careers and a good chunk of our lives to be able to create these venues.”

Over the years, One Percent wasn’t Mammoth’s only partner. The company partnered with Live Nation on a number of projects, including shows at The Uptown and Starlight theaters in Kansas City and arena shows in Omaha. But Live Nation’s aggressive business tactics began to pose a potential threat to Mammoth’s livelihood.

OVER THE EDGE

“The writing was on the wall; either we were going to go national or go out of business,” Fortier said.

He and Hunt put a plan together during the pandemic to go national. Mammoth currently employs more than 50 people in offices in New York, Portland, Los Angeles, Nashville, Lawrence, Kansas, and Kansas City.

How the Astro deal came about is a complicated story involving the developer, 1%, Mammoth and Live Nation. In the end, Live Nation was the odd man out, but not for long.

Live Nation ended up putting together its own project with Omaha Performing Arts (O-pa) to build the 3,000-plus capacity Steelhouse Omaha,

which appears to be hosting the same kind of national touring acts targeted by The Astro.

“(Live Nation) is pushing to do exclusive tours and keep anyone else from doing those kinds of acts,” Fortier said, “and they offer huge bonuses. And because they own the ticket company, the production company, the management company, the VIP company and the merch company, how is anyone going to compete?”

Fortier, who hopes to continue to work with Live Nation as well as The Holland Center and The Orpheum — venues controlled by O-pa — said it could get a little tricky competing with Steelhouse. Are there maybe too many players in a pond the size of Omaha?

“I think that is the understatement of the day,” Fortier said.

“Listen, we’ve tried to design the venue so we can do bigger stuff than them and smaller stuff than them and leave them their lane, and hopefully figure out a way that the market works for all of us.”

Fortier says both Mammoth and One Percent will book The Astro. “We have a 50/50 co-pro with One Percent,” he said. “They do a lot of heavy lifting at The Admiral, and I think that we’re going to be doing bigger chunks of heavy lifting at The Astro.”

As of June 19, The Astro has booked nine shows for its indoor venue, including funk band Here Come the Mummies on Sept. 7; Beth Hart on Sept. 16; Ancient Aliens on Sept. 21; Casey Donahew on Sept. 22; Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band on Sept. 24; The Gaslight Anthem on Sept. 30; Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder on Oct. 15 and Wilco on Oct. 23. The Astro Amphitheater kicks things off Aug. 30 with Rick Springfield, followed by Goo Goo Dolls on Sept. 23; 311 on Sept. 29 and Dropkick Murphys on Oct. 5.

The current concert lineup reflects the kind of acts The Astro will be booking moving forward, Fortier said. “I think we’ll take a look at all the different cultures and communities that are part of Omaha,” he said. “We’re going to try to represent everybody. I think we’re off to a great start.”

Over The edge is a mOnThly cOlumn by reader seniOr cOnTribuTing wriTer Tim mcmahan fOcused On culTure, sOcieT y, music, The media and The arTs. email Tim aT Tim.mcmahan@gmail.cOm.

311 will play The a sTro amphiTheaTer on sepT 29.