RACHEL HUGHES SERVES CROCHET COUTURE
by BELLE YENNIE
tech N9ne’s BLISS is a challenging, thoughtful culmination of a career that uses the rapper’s platform to push for a more inclusive world
Kansas City’s favorite rapper Tech N9ne packs a variety of sounds and societal messages into his newest album BLISS and invites listeners on a journey of celebrating their hometown, but also waking them up to what needs improvement. Collaborating with scream vocalist Kim Dracula and rappers RMR and Qveen Herby, Tech showcases his talent to create artistry with just about anyone. BLISS unpacks gun violence, embraces the LGBTQIA+ community, and gives fans his own “Fatha Fig Ya” advice on how to live a good life.
Overland park 7-year-old Avery Vehlewald competes in Japan at the pokémon World Championships
Don’t mess with 7-year-old Avery Vehlewald’s award-winning Pokémon strategies. After receiving first place in the 2023 North America International Championship, Avery travels from Overland Park to Japan to battle at the world competition. He says the most difficult part, however, is battling his talented brother, Glenn. Their mother Amanda dives into the sportsmanship and public speaking practice both kiddos receive when making international friends. Though video games are virtual, Amanda says the competitions provide life skills for her sons, too.
14
Grass Ceiling
The Funky Skunk caters to the cannacurious
BY HANNAH STRADER15
Service-Oriented
Red Hare Leather offers inclusive leather goods that go beyond just kink
BY SOFIA MONGILLO16
FOOD & DrINK
Cargo Worthy
A glimpse inside the Iron District shipping containers that feed North Kansas City
BY LAUREN TEXTOR18
Hopscotch
City Barrel Pizza + Patio set to open in former Bier Station location BY JORDAN
BARANOWSKI
19
eat this Now
Cinnamon Rolls from Tin Pan BY SARAH
SIPPLEDrink this Now
Negroni at Hillsiders
BY SARAH SIPPLE20
mise en place
Let’s Go to Court hosts keep their crime podcast unique in a crowded genre Podcast hosts Brandi Pond and Kristin Caruso dish on all things true crime and the origin story of Let’s Go to Court. The childhood best friends started their comedy series in 2018 and have seen their audience grow in recent years, garnering thousands of raving reviews. With a podcast world seemingly inundated with true crime, the pair says what sets them apart is their friendship that goes back to fifth grade. The pair discuss their favorite episodes, switching up their format and being careful and sensitive consumers of true crime.
ADVICe Keep them Coming Boundaries and healing
BY KRISTEN THOMASKansas City’s art of homage with Guroux Khalifah of District Biskuits
BY SARAH SIPPLE22
mUSIC
Flushed Away
LFK’s Toilet Bowl comes to a clog, leaks success for local DIY scene
BY
DREW WINDISH24
toggle Switch
How the Penechar brothers became the wizards behind Fountain City Guitarworks and Seüf Guitars
BY NICK SPACEK26
eVeNtS
September events Calendar
BY THE PITCH STAFFKC CAreS
KC CaresL.M. Alcott Art
Center Foundation BY BETH LIPOFF
Editor-in-Chief
Brock Wilbur
President & Chief Operating Officer
Andrew Miller
Director of Marketing & Promotions
Jason Dockery
Managing Editor
Steph Castor
Community Manager & Food Editor
Sarah Sipple
Sales Executive
Erin Carey
Music Editor
Nick Spacek
Film Editor
Abby Olcese
Little Village Creative Services
Jordan Sellergren
Art Director
Cassondra Jones
Contributing Writers
Liz Cook, Michael Mackie, Barb Shelly, Beth Lipoff, Kristen Thomas, Jordan Baranowski, Lauren Textor, Caroline Rose Newman, Adrian Torres, Kate Frick, Scott Poore, Hannah Strader, Tyler Schneider, Ashley Lindeman, Nathaniel Kennon Perkins, Nina
Cherry
Editorial Interns
Emma Hilboldt, Jacqulyn Seyferth, Brynn Winkler, Belle Yennie, Sofia Mongillo
Design Interns
Brooke Tramel, Hugo Juarez-Avalos, Jacqulyn Seyferth
Contributing Photographers
Zach Bauman, Chase Castor, Jim Nimmo, Chris Ortiz, Maura Dayton, Isabella Galvan, Allison Scavo, Pilsen Photo Co-op
Contributing Designers and Illustrators
Alex Peak, Jake Edmisten
VOICE MEDIA GROUP
National Advertising
1-888-278-9866 vmgadvertising.com
DISTRIBUTION
The Pitch distributes 20,000 copies a month and is available free throughout Greater Kansas City, limited to one copy per reader. Additional copies may be purchased for $5 each, payable at The Pitch’s office in advance. The Pitch may be distributed only by The Pitch’s authorized independent contractors or authorized distributors. No person may, without prior written permission of The Pitch, take more than one copy of each week’s issue. Mail subscriptions: $22.50 for six months or $45 per year, payable in advance.
Application to mail at second-class postage rates is pending at Kansas City, MO 64108.
COPYRIGHT
The contents of The Pitch are Copyright 2023 by The Pitch LLC. No portion may be reproduced in whole or in part by any means without the express written permission of the publisher.
The Pitch
3543 Broadway Blvd., Kansas City, MO 64111
For information or to share a story tip, email: tips@thepitchkc.com
For advertising: andrew@thepitchkc.com or 816-218-6792
Letter from the Editor
A FEVER YOU CAN’T SWEAT OUT
By Brock WilburHello, dearest readers, and welcome to the September issue of The Pitch.
In an issue full of oversharing, I’ll go first: One of my most perverse traits—real sicko hours—is that ever since I was a little boy, I’ve been convinced that the 24-hour day is a personal slight against me.
As a baby, it was impossible to get me to sleep. I did not nap. I would never, in the totality of my life, become a being that napped. This was waste. This was wasting precious time.
I was the only child at Meadowlark Ridge Elementary in Salina, KS, who was furious that there were simply not enough hours in the day. One of the first “projects” I can remember completing in second grade was an attempt to get my classmates and teachers to move to a 48-hour system, whereby I would come to school less, and we would all stay up all night… every other night. Which would, I suppose, technically, just now be called one “night.” I didn’t have many of the details worked out, but I was certainly sure of my correctness on the matter.
Unfortunately, nothing about this is cute. There’s no epiphany at the end where I make peace with the limitations of life.
As late as middle school, my family was having difficulty getting me to shower daily because I didn’t think it was a good use of my time. Personal hygiene for a teenage boy, in retrospect, was not robbing me of the hours I needed each day to accomplish the massive creative endeavors that I planned out in endless, manic To Do lists. Being the smelly kid was not the trade-off enabling me to write the Great American
memoir Each One Teach One continues where a 1991 Pitch article left off in the political battle for supporting houseless populations
Amid our country’s worsening housing crisis, a 1996 memoir detailing the story of a lifelong advocate for the unhoused and his work is back in print. The story of Ron Casanova follows his journey from the time he was houseless while growing up in New York to his years organizing the houseless community in Kansas City and eventually founding the Kansas City Union of the Homeless. Stephen Blackburn, co-author of the memoir (and former Pitch writer), says this story is more important than ever, with a stagnant federal minimum wage and unhoused rates in the U.S. climbing by about 6% each year since 2017.
Novel, but I was convinced that it was all going to work out that way.
And that’s all I wanted the time for: making. There were so many ideas—good and bad ideas—that lived inside of me, that needed to exist in the world, and this whole kerfuffle with going to sleep at night and eating three meals a day… those were preventing me from making all the things that needed to be made.
It’s perverse that this belief still lives in me today. Not that there weren’t decades of proof that perhaps being healthy and living a normal human way was a better route for all of this, but recent events put a cartoonish topper on a lifelong low-level mental illness. That topper was COVID. There was a voice inside of me on the day I first tested positive that was a little excited—a little thrilled that there was a designated two weeks where the world would have to leave me alone, and I would have time to do nothing but make things. I would like to blame the fever for all of this, to claim that only a melting brain would convince itself that a pandemic infection was the only path to creative freedom, but I can’t give the fever that much credit.
When I had COVID, I watched four seasons of Married at First Sight and I ate a lot of frozen BBQ chicken pizza. I was forced to nap. No Great American Novel.
Truly, the worst thing that has ever happened to anyone.
I thought, in the wake of that, perhaps this was the end of that part of my brain— that channel that constantly beeped in the night to say, “No, you could be using this time! For art and such!” I’d seen the proof now that the only art waiting on the other end of misused time was finding out too much information about a Subway franchise owner who should have never agreed to appear on television. Perhaps I could willingly one day become the kind of guy who just accepted naps.
Then we found Rachel Hughes. She’s
on the cover of this issue of The Pitch because, during the pandemic, she watched some YouTube videos and taught herself how to crochet. Now she makes high-end fashion that doesn’t just turn heads—it snaps necks. It turns out that some of us just needed a little break from the normal cycle of days, and we’d produce the kind of art that changes the world.
Goddammit.
Hughes is one of a dozen creators/creatives we’ve profiled in this month’s magazine, which is all about those people who figured out how to make capital “a” Art and also get sleep at night. Here’s hoping you feel as inspired by supporting these makers as we felt learning about their craft.
Pitch in, and we’ll make it through,
P.S. There were so many folks from KC that we tried to squeeze into this month’s issue we almost broke the presses. Follow this QR link to a tremendous photo essay by our own Brooke Tramel that captures the high life of participating in First Fridays.
ings, and a move to KC seemed like the right fit for her new chapter.
“Sometimes people are like, ‘I’m so sorry,’” she says of abolishing that particular manifestation of holy matrimony. “I’m not.”
That disarmingly charming bluntness is also a characteristic of Maria-Breona’s work. The Rutgers and Liberty University alum has already carried a bit of that around with her. Her paintings—vivid expressions of femininity, Black empowerment, and mental health awareness—echo these inclinations.
pieces depicting influential subjects ranging from Nas to Frida Kahlo, Angela Davis, Billie Holiday, Andre 3000, and Big Boi. Several of these fall under her Woman of Audacity series—an impassioned collection that has sold well thus far.
“I try to make statements of passion in my art, and I want someone to think when they’re looking at it,” Maria-Breona says. “Why is that facial expression used? Why are the colors used? Why is it kind of chaotic in the background?
Woman of Audacity
DAISHA MARIA-BREONA PAINTS WITH PURPOSE
By Tyler SchneiderDaisha maria-breona’s first introduction to painting came as a high school senior in 2012, but it wasn’t for another decade, following a move to Kansas City in 2020, that she began to blossom as a creative.
“It wasn’t until September of last year that I took it seriously. I’d gone through a bit of a mental break, and painting was what really helped get me grounded again,” Maria-Breona says.
Maria-Breona was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in April 2022. A little over a year later, the 28-year-old, third-year Kansas City resident has elevated herself to the point where she now produces and sells
outstanding works under her New Dai Art Studio umbrella—this on top of working a full-time job as a highly educated professional Black woman.
“It came from a lot of PTSD. It came from anxiety, depression, and all of that mixed together. And it was very, very, very hard to focus or to do anything to even stop crying for a long period of time. During those really down times is when I would paint, and it would help me,” Maria-Breona says.
A “military brat” originally from Jersey City, Maria-Breona’s parents settled down in the Midwest during their retirement, Maria-Breona explains. In May 2020, she found herself midway through divorce proceed-
“I’ve always been a little rebellious, but for the greater good. That’s why I got my master’s in leadership—because I thought a lot of leaders that I had were idiots. I think my art kind of represents that in some ways,” Maria-Breona says.
The works are “rugged, urban, with Jersey City vibes.” She’ll often use cardboard as a base, complimenting it with monochrome, vibrant colors and, often, expressively impressionistic flowers.
One exemplary piece is titled “Bloom.”
“[The subject] has her face, her mouth is there, but her eyes and everything else are covered. It’s just meant to encourage you to grow in a beautiful way, no matter what it is. And obviously, the flowers are messy— so it’s not going to be perfect, the way you grow,” Maria-Breona says.
Another work, “Hue: For Troubled Boys,” was inspired by a song by KOTA the Friend and addresses a particularly conscientious message on men’s mental health and, more pointedly, on that of Black males.
“It talks about Black men’s mental health and how it is okay to be vulnerable. It has a man just kind of in a relaxed, almost like a meditative state, [and] he’s all in blue. Blue can represent peace, it can represent depression, it can represent a lot of different things. I want any man to be able to feel like they can… be human,” Maria-Breona says.
Some of her best work thus far includes
The latter consideration, chaos, plays an important role in Maria-Breona’s artistic progression.
“At first, I was scared of really messing anything up. It would take me the longest time just to draw a line because I just wanted to be so perfect,” she says of her former self.
It’s a sensation that any artist who is truly putting forth one’s weight in their endeavors knows intimately, and it took Maria-Breona a decade or so of working through her passions, strengthening her revolve and agency as a creative, to get to where she’s at today.
“I’m finally in a place where these are original pieces, there’s a lot more freedom in it. I always say I have, like, a structure. So you can see the face pretty clearly. But the background is usually some kind of graffiti or palette knife. I can allow myself to just be messy in a sense, and I didn’t allow myself to do that before. I find that authenticity is actually what people gravitate toward a lot more. So that’s kind of how it evolved,” Maria-Breona says.
Maria-Breona has shown her work at Art Garden KC and other events in the area. She also has an online shop and takes commissioned pieces.
New Dai Art Studio instagram.com/_daisha.mb linktr.ee/daisham
“I’ve always been a little rebellious, but for the greater good. that’s why I got my master’s in leadership— because I thought a lot of leaders that I had were idiots”.
Field of play
By Tyler SchneiderHad he played for the Chiefs in an earlier era, patrick mahomes II most likely wouldn’t have been allowed to buy or even rent a house in the Country Club plaza. In 2023, however, he is the face of Kansas City—and the entire National Football League.
How did we get here?
Kingdom Quarterback, a new book by KC journalists Mark Dent and Rustin Dodd released in August, attempts to weave a narrative of a symbiotic relationship between the city’s history and the football team that has called it home since 1963.
It opens not with Arrowhead or 13-second miracle drives but with scenes of the WWI Liberty Memorial completion in 1926.
“The people of Kansas City simply thought that constructing a giant new memorial might change the destiny of the place,” Dent and Dodd write in the introduction.
That project was guided by the forceful hand of J.C. Nichols, a controversial founding figure in the metro’s history who build the Country Club Plaza and designed “model” neighborhoods that included hard racially-restrictive housing covenants.
“We grew up in Kansas City in the ‘90s at a time when—especially if you grew up in the suburbs—you knew the broad strokes of the J.C. Nichols story. But the true, unvarnished story was rarely told to a wide audience,” Dodd says. “As we were doing our research, we couldn’t find a very clear, easily understandable [source] that could explain exactly what happened.”
The book addresses these inequalities and the city’s complicated relationship with people of color as it traces the city’s transformation from cow town to Pendergast years, follwed by the upbringing and may-
oral tenure of Quinton Lucas, the rise of the KC Tenants in city politics, and the Chiefs’ second Super Bowl victory in four seasons.
Dent and Dodd both grew up in Overland Park—one of KC’s “manicured suburbs”—and met in 2006 while they were both journalism students at the University of Kansas.
“We were good friends, but we always stayed in touch professionally as well, just sort of enabling each other as friends in the business,” Dodd says. “We have a similar writing style, and we kind of look at journalism very similarly.”
Dodd is now a senior writer at The Athletic out of New York City, and before that, he was a sportswriter for the Kansas City Star from 2010 through 2017. Dent now lives in Dallas but has had his work published in outlets like The New York Times, Texas Monthly, Vox, Wired, and more.
In 2020, following the Chiefs’ Super Bowl LIV win, Dent proposed the book idea to Dodd, suggesting they co-write it. Dodd agreed, and from there, the two split duties required to submit a proposal to publishers. They eventually signed a contract with the Penguin imprint, Dutton.
“We’d won the World Series a few years before, but this still just felt a little different. It felt like there was still so much more that was going to happen with Patrick Mahomes and with the Chiefs. I just kind of got to thinking, ‘Okay, so what does this mean for Kansas City?’ Because you could tell that it was changing in a lot of ways, in the sense that it had been growing in population for a while, especially downtown,” Dent says.
Over the next 18 months, the pair versed themselves in the city’s lore and conducted as many as 100 interviews. Dodd was at Super Bowl LVII, while Dent, at one
point, made the roughly 100-mile trek to eastern Texas to visit Patrick Mahomes, Sr. in Tyler.
“I think the most interesting, shocking thing that I discovered during the reporting process was the highways. We know US71 goes through that stretch there on the east side, but that was actually just one option,” Dent says. “The other, of course, was to go through the Country Club District, and there were actually some plans for it [along the Trolley Track Trail]. I talked to some people who lived on the east side at the time, and, as they put it, there was no chance it was ever going to be built on the Plaza or near the Country Club District.”
When the Chiefs couldn’t run it back following a Super Bowl LV loss to Tom Brady’s Bucs in 2021, the authors were granted some more time to sift through the archives. The discoveries and revelations kept coming, strengthening the final narrative.
“I think one thing we found was that at places like the Kansas City Call, Black journalists in KC throughout the 20th century were telling these stories... and nobody was listening,” Dodd says.
On the sports side of things, Kingdom Quarterback is littered with deeper cuts like Curtis McClinton, a Black player who scored the Chiefs’ first-ever touchdown in 1963—a preseason game, though he still went for 73-yards—and who was later discriminated against when trying to find a home near the Plaza.
The book also tells of the unconventional and sometimes contradictory nature of the late Lamar Hunt’s style of ownership, how he almost considered keeping the Texans’ team name when the franchise moved from Dallas to Kansas City in 1963, as well as his hiring of Lloyd Wells, the first Black scout in NFL history.
“Hunt was never confused for a progressive. He was, however, a strident capitalist, an AFL outsider trying to disrupt the establishment NFL,” Dent and Dodd write. “So Hunt hired Wells. The relationship came to change the fortunes of the Kansas City Chiefs—and alter the face of professional football.”
Wells was responsible for the decision to draft Buck Buchanan in 1963—the first time an AFL or NFL team would draft a Black player first overall. Buchanan played 12 seasons with the Chiefs as an offensive lineman, won a Super Bowl, and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1990.
Another third of the book discussed Mahomes’ upbringing, his natural tendencies to experiment on the field, the “contours and influences of his raspy, twangy, Kermit the Frog voice,” and most importantly, his place as the standard-bearer of a long line of Black quarterback trailblazers like Marlin Briscoe, Warren Moon, and Doug Williams.
Just like the restricted “Troost Divide”
housing ecosystem was long and quietly enforced, the league-wide cultural stigma against Black quarterbacks took decades to begin to dissipate. Mahomes and contemporaries such as Philadelphia’s Jalen Hurts have achieved new heights for the cause’s visibility.
After the Chiefs won Super Bowl LVII earlier this year, the final pieces of the puzzle began to fall in place as if Mahomes was firing them off left-handed on a bum ankle in the playoffs.
“Some of this stuff sounds a little cliche at this point, but the Chiefs are never really out of a game. You literally just have that feeling of, ‘they’re going to win,’” Dodd says. “I’m not sure KC has ever had that feeling about anything.”
The timing was perfect, with the pair finding time between championships to interview members of KC Tenants, including leader Diane Charity. The conversations proved to be key in bringing the Kingdom Quarterback story full circle (or as close as possible while the saga is ongoing).
After explaining over a century’s worth of history on redlining and similar racially discriminative city planning practices, Dent and Dodd found the city’s current emphasis on affordable housing to be another hint that greater progress off the field is also beginning to take place.
“The Tenants help illustrate what’s happening with these issues now that people are a lot more alert about the wrongs that were done in the past and thinking of ways to fix them,” Dent says.
In many ways, the final product—a 388-page (306 without the post-script) fusion of sports, urbanization, politics, and the human spirit—is almost more about the good, the bad, and the ugly of KC history than it is about Patrick Mahomes or his dynasty.
“I think our book kind of explains what happened to the American city—and Kansas City is easily the American city,” Dent says. “I think for people who live elsewhere, it offers a valuable lesson—both to understand what happens to cities and to see what people are doing about it now.”
The football stuff, while fantastic and insightful, often plays the role of the appetizing topping to a story that deserves to be told with or without sports. With them, however, the book’s many overlapping topics work together in tandem with shorter chapters that alternate from subject to subject on their way to presenting a narrative that feels shorter than it actually is.
As Dodd says, “Write the things that you really want to read.”
As it turns out, Kingdom Quarterback is exactly that.
Kingdom Quarterback can be ordered or downloaded as an e-book via Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other major retailers, as well as on the shelf at your local bookstore.
Crochet Couture
RACHEL HUGHES THREADS THE NEEDLE ON RUNWAYREADY GARMENTS
By Belle YennieAs a little girl, rachel Hughes carried a plastic binder with fashion sketches around her elementary school. Classmates stopped to view her work, asking if she would pretty please share what she designed. Sometimes, the teacher requested a chat with Hughes about the commotion, but the students still needed to catch a glimpse of her runway artwork.
Similar to the students, crowd members today turn their heads and drop their jaws when they see Hughes’ designs come to life out of yarn.
“In those sketchbooks, I would draw the women on a runway because I just wanted my looks to be there,” says Hughes. “Something that I’ve just dreamed about since I was a little girl is really happening.”
Hughes eventually learns her selftaught fashion craft from YouTube and achieves her childhood dream of becoming a designer. However, she doesn’t know how to use a sewing machine. Instead, she crochets every outfit from hand, using 24,000 feet of yarn to create her Heartland International Fashion Week collection. With a fringe and flowers theme, her designs showcase scrunched yarn strands mimicking boa scarves and draping vines on a lily-pad-inspired outfit. Balancing a fulltime job, husband, and two kids, her passion is tough to manage with limited hours. Hughes says it takes her a while to make a single outfit: a week, give or take.
Her crochet journey didn’t always come naturally. Hughes remembers when it took nearly two weeks to craft a single stitch for family Christmas scarves in 2018. The process frustrated her but paid off when she received compliments from family and strangers about her work. Even today, when challenges arise in her crochet career, she repeats her mother’s encouragement to keep going. Instead of only heavy winter clothing, Hughes crafts pieces that last into summer and channel her inner childhood sketches.
“I sucked. I was not getting it. I wanted to just throw it all away and buy a scarf instead of making it. But my mom—she just said ‘stick to it,’” says Hughes. “Once I realized that I could crochet clothes, I mixed my new hobby with my longtime dream.”
As a 2020 New York Fashion Week designer, Hughes’ eye-catching crochet work receives appreciation from models. If the
piece isn’t fitting a model correctly, Hughes makes crocheted alterations without the yarn unraveling or starting over. Her internet knowledge of YouTube videos and Facebook group inspirations helps her prepare for alterations and create unique designs. Sometimes she adjusts triangle tops, layered fringe skirts, or the bodice of an outfit. Hughes tailors to all body types and creates friendly relationships with the models. She never knows who will give her a connection to the next big fashion event.
“I’m watching reruns now of Project Runway, like it’s on pause on my TV right now,” says Hughes. “I always wanted to be a part of New York Fashion Week, and for [a model] to give me that opportunity was just amazing.”
Hughes will showcase more of her designs this month at the Critique Fashion Show and the Exclusive Productions Fashion Show, but the pressure is on without the help of additional hardware. While prepping two collections and crafting all pieces by hand, Hughes feels envious of the fast-paced sewing machine designers. With an immense to-do list, she stays organized
and carefully maps out what looks she’d like to accomplish each week. She also emphasizes why crochet pieces can be more costly than other handmade clothing items. Other designs can map out a piece, cut fabric, and get to sewing, but Hughes must dedicate additional time to weave her material.
“Unfortunately, with crochet, I don’t have that [fast] luxury. I have to create the fabric myself,” says Hughes. “A hat could be 1200 stitches that you’re creating by hand, working your wrists.”
While a sewing machine can quickly stitch different fabrics, Hughes weaves them during early mornings and late nights when her family is still asleep. Other times, she crochets with her arms wrapped around her 3-year-old son while her 6-year-old daughter hangs by her head. As the children watch Hughes, she can see the way her kids try to understand how the crochet needle works. She hopes to pass on the craft to one of her kids, but even if that doesn’t happen, she wants to be a role model. Hughes wants her kids to see that they can achieve anything.
“Especially since I have children, I
would love for them to look at me and say, ‘Wow, look what mom did,’” says Hughes. “‘I can grow up and be whatever I want to be because mom did it.’”
When Hughes isn’t designing for a fashion show, she crafts pieces for her Etsy shop. The online store features bucket hats, beanies, and even necklace accessory pieces. On occasion, she also makes designs for her family, like a rainbow tunic with a unicorn face bodice for her daughter. When she receives custom requests, they challenge her to build something new. One of her favorite customer requests includes a mushroom hoodie with a red and white dotted cap and neutral flared sleeves.
“It was probably one of my favorite pieces I ever did because it’s something I wouldn’t have done on my own. To have that customer push me to do something outside my normal box, that was really cool,” says Hughes.
While Hughes enjoys her uniqueness in fashion, she hopes to see more crochet designers like her reach the runway. That said, she’ll have to compete with upcoming fiber artists. Hughes now prepares to ele-
vate her work from the rest by making each creation more intricate than the last. She looks forward to the challenge and hopes the crochet community can expand its influence on fashion.
“I’m so positive that in the next few years or even months, you’ll start to see a lot more crochet artists joining in these runway shows,” says Hughes. “That’s gonna keep pushing me to do better.”
For anyone struggling with a passion, Hughes says it’s important to never give up. She recalls watching eight different YouTube videos before understanding her first stitch. Even though Hughes’s greatest enemy is time, she still persists against the clock and stakes her name in the fashion industry. With many roles as a mother, wife, full-time employee, and designer, she says it’s never too late to follow your dreams.
“I just really hope that people get inspired to do something that they questioned whether they could or should do,” says Hughes. “If my mom didn’t tell me to just keep going after I got frustrated, then I wouldn’t be sitting here talking to you today.”
“I sucked. I was not getting it. I wanted to just throw it all away and buy a scarf instead of making it. but my mom—she just said ‘stick to it.’
Once I realized that I could crochet clothes, I mixed my new hobby with my longtime dream.”
Grass Ceiling
THE FUNKY SKUNK CATERS TO THE CANNA-CURIOUS
By Hannah Stradertucked in an unassuming strip mall off blue ridge Cutoff in raytown is a sign featuring a grinning cartoon skunk with a suggestive droop to its eyelids. The Funky Skunk has been operating there for years as a CBD and smoke shop, only recently moving a few spaces down from their original location to realize one of its main goals to become one of the first established cannabis lounges in the Kansas City metro. Now, the space is making its name as a lowkey hangout spot for the canna-curious to explore different dosing methods and relax in a no-pressure social setting.
“We had a smoke shop in the hopes that when [legislation] passed, we would have this opportunity. We’ve been bamboozled a lot, and it sucks, but you have to continue to stay diligent and find other ways to be impactful in this industry,” owner Andrew McDowell says.
McDowell, along with business partner and longtime friend Roderick Pearson, started the Skunk to provide their knowledge and expertise to a broader audience as medical and recreational cannabis began to gain traction. McDowell first began experimenting with cannabis after a sports injury in college left him with residual pain. Following his return home, Pearson suggested the two put their heads together and come up with a way to make their positive experiences with pot into something profitable.
“We’ve been doing this for six or seven years, but it was all gearing up toward this point right here,” Pearson says. “We were the first Black-owned smoke shop to convert to CBD. So once the industry starts moving, we can jump with it.”
At one of its first events, The Funky Skunk hosted a 4/20 Puff and Paint. For varying ticket prices, guests received access to the lounge, paint, and a canvas. The pricier packages included a choice of a glass wa-
ter pipe to decorate and potluck-style food.
Across town, the Smokey River Entertainment District simultaneously hosted around 8,000 people at its newly developed Canna Village for an elevated evening of music. It featured national acts like Wiz Khalifa and Joey Bada$$ and industry heavy hitters like Mike Tyson and Ric Flair.
Despite the stoner stereotype that consumers are “too lazy” to leave the house, social disorders can be a major underlying factor for cannabis use. Forging headfirst into a sweaty mass of strangers in the hopes of glimpsing a celebrity onstage isn’t ideal for a lot of smokers.
“I don’t really like stuff that’s big. I used to, but crowds and stuff like that give me anxiety. I don’t really feel safe,” one attendee said. There was similar concern over the rules and regulations, especially concerning law enforcement presence.
“I’d usually just be at home, so this is a good chill outing for me,” said Destiny, a self-identified artist who chose The Funky Skunk as an alternative way to spend her evening. “[Consuming is] stimulating to the mind and creative— just to see what you come up with.”
Creativity and education are at the heart of what McDowell and Pearson do.
While McDowell is busy promot-
ing and planning events like cultivator gatherings, watch parties, movie nights, infused meals, private rentals, and other activities, Pearson hones in on the horticulture.
“That’s my niche because it’s more hands-on. I get particular about the strains that I grow just because I grow them for me. I don’t have anyone I caretake for,” Pearson says.
His deep understanding of the plant itself, combined with McDowell’s event planning, has already worked its magic and made The Funky Skunk a staple in certain circles. More recently, they hosted an event called The Re-Up, where consumers were able to meet with licensed cultivators to build connections while sampling products. The business technically operates in a
legal gray area, but The Skunk has done its due diligence to make sure their neighbors and the City of Raytown are aware of their presence.
“At the end of the day, because people are coming into the city to do something, somebody’s gonna leave and stop at the gas station on their way out of here. Vendors are coming in from other states, and they have an opportunity to see it. When they leave, they’re talking about Raytown,” McDowell says. “We’re working hard to bring Raytown and Kansas City to the forefront because it’s important to us. This is the city we grew up in.”
SERVICEORIENTED
By Sofia MongilloArtisan leatherworker Faye Woods is the owner, designer, and manufacturer of all things red Hare Leather. The queer-owned, local hand-stitched and hand-cut leather goods boutique is known largely for its unique and striking harnesses, as showcased at various events around Kansas City.
What started as a hobby has turned into a full-blown business catering to individuals of all shapes, sizes, genders, and identities. Now, they are set up in a make-
shift workshop based in the basement of their Midtown home.
Woods embarked on their leather-making journey after a trip to Brooklyn, New York, where they came across your typical big-city overpriced knickknack. The item in question was a $45 keychain.
“I was just not going to buy a $45 keychain,” says Woods. “I took a bunch of pictures, came home, and made it myself. I really enjoyed that process. I started investigating more, and I think that my
creative brain really just kind of fell in love with it.”
With a screenprinting and painting degree under their belt, Woods’ artistic abilities were already there. It was just a matter of taking on new, foreign media and materials.
“Later on, a friend asked me to make a chest harness for them,’” says Woods. “They wanted something they could wear over clothes that elicited a kind of sexy vibe. They showed me a picture of something online that would probably break right away, and I was like, ‘Yeah, I can do that.’ We took some measurements, and I made it for her. It was easy and fun. Then a couple of other people were like, ‘Hey, can you make me this?’”
Woods currently produces lines of wearables, accessories, home goods, and fetish gear. These items range from beer koozies to dog collars to human collars to wallets. While Woods can make usable, functional pieces for bondage and BDSM, they say it’s not necessarily always about kink.
“Really, I’m just trying to make people feel good in their bodies,” says Woods. “That’s why every piece I make is custom to that particular person’s body measurements that we’ve taken together. I don’t make small, medium, large, and extra large. I make it based on what that person’s body is, what they want, and how they want it to move on their body. All bodies are beautiful and different. It’s really about empowering people to feel sexier and strong and alive, whether they wear it with clothes or without clothes. I enjoy catering to untraditional body types—bigger bodies, trans bodies, disabled bodies, queer bodies—and making everybody feel seen in feel-good and sexy products.”
A seasoned creator in crafting pieces to hug each body differently, Woods’ skills are enticing for the runway, and the artist is no stranger to fashion shows, such as the “West 18th St. Fashion Show: Summer
Colosseum” that took place in June. Before designing the custom pieces, Woods takes the measurement of each and every model to ensure a perfect fit. Only after this can the hands-on work begin. According to them, prepping for events like these is no stroll in the park, especially with a fulltime job and kids.
“Every day after my job, I would come home and work for a couple of hours after hanging out with my kids until it was done,” says Woods. “Sometimes you got to put in two hours, and sometimes you gotta put in 10. For the fashion shows, it’s definitely two to three months’ worth of hard work.”
While certain machinery can help take the load off some of the heavy lifting, equipment can be pricey and might not provide the same results achieved by the work of two hands.
“Leather is expensive and a severe physical cross man’s craftsmanship,” says Woods. “It’s super heavy on your arms. I do a ton of hammering and pounding, and I love that it’s like a personal workout, but also, my wrists, joints, and hands are taking a toll. When you punch a hole, there’s no fix in it, and you’ve got to work around it because now it’s there. You have to be really thoughtful and intentional with your cuts in pieces. I am a very impatient person, so it’s a real test of willpower.”
Woods’ love for producing high-quality, handmade, local goods makes the work happen. Furthermore, their love to include everyone in the process keeps the products coming.
“When I first started doing all of this, I didn’t know many folks that would make things for our bodies here in town—in different colors, different hardware with different functions, and in different styles and designs that would make individuals feel strong and accessible to what their body shape was,” says Woods. “Now, I’m very proud to be queer, trans, and local to Kansas City.”
Cargo Worthy
If you don’t already know what the Iron District is, then hearing the name might cause you to picture exposed brick buildings, railroad tracks, and/or an industrialized wasteland that’s only commonly frequented by blue-collar workers. Your mental image would be partially right— it is made up of repurposed shipping containers. But they’re far from being rusty, graffiti-covered safety hazards that have fallen into disuse.
The Iron District’s colorful containers house twelve locally-owned food and retail businesses.
“When the original co-founders were creating the Iron District, they thought of using shipping containers as an in-between space,” says General and Marketing Manager Madison Moore. “We can still bring on small businesses, but they don’t have to be traveling food trucks. We also don’t have to jump straight into building a brick-andmortar that can be an expensive time commitment that’s not accessible to everyone.”
Since opening in 2019, the Iron District has created a space for a rotating cast of budding Kansas City businesses, which now includes Vegan Crave Burgers & Bakery, Meltbox Ice Cream, and The Rolling Garden.
This summer, a new addition joined the container park’s family: Iron Grill. It’s the Iron District’s first in-house project, meaning that it’s owned and operated by the same team that owns the property as a whole.
“We were able to incorporate what we’ve learned from our vendors,” Moore says. “We have a lot of factories and blue-collar jobs in the area. We wanted something that was the right price point for the workers to come up and grab something for lunch. Smash burgers are quick, and it’s easy to collaborate with other vendors.”
An early (and delicious) example of this partnership is a recent weekend special. The Elephant Wings Smash combines the Indian fusion of neighboring vendor Elephant Wings with a classic burger patty. It was introduced on Friday, Aug. 4, and sold out the next day.
In addition to managing social media and day-to-day operations, Moore has her own container, and it’s delightfully Barbiecore: women’s apparel boutique Madhouse Clothing.
“I had Madhouse first, and then I took on a part-time marketing role in Iron District,” she says. “When I became full-time, it allowed the flexibility for me to do both. It makes it easy for me to greet the musicians when they arrive or host pop-ups outside of my container.”
Moore’s advice for first-time (or repeat) visitors is simple: Try everything.
“Grab some drinks and appetizers from one place, and get a couple of entrees from two different places. That’s the idea with the vendors—none of them have crossover items,” she says. “They’re all in their own niche. It gives you the opportunity to
come and enjoy all different types of food in one spot.”
The containers cluster around ample picnic table seating, and an upper patio level offers extra shade as well as an indoor coworking space with free WiFi.
There’s also a live music lineup every Friday and Saturday night from May to October. Local musician Sam Harvey has performed frequently at the Iron District since its opening.
“I think it’s one of the coolest concepts for a commercial venue I’ve ever seen,” Harvey says. “The food and drinks are great, and every single staff member I’ve ever spoken to has been warm and welcoming.”
Meet the Vendors
taco tank
Roman Raya owns Taco Tank, which serves up traditional Mexican-American street food with a side of mouth-watering Tank sauce. Although he was originally interested in operating a container in the Iron District several years ago, the lack of availability put the plan on pause until a space opened up shortly after Taco Tank’s 2021 launch in Parlor.
“We were a food truck before [renting the container],
so it felt like a good step to move from what was essentially a taco cart to something more substantial, yet not make the full leap to a brick-andmortar,” Raya says. “The Iron District is a great summer venue. It’s great for families, and it definitely doesn’t hurt to see all the dogs out here, either. It gives us the freedom to really run our own menu and have a sense of ownership while still having a community aspect.”
Taco Tank offers three options for street tacos (Carnitas, Adobo Chicken, or Old School ground beef) as well as Tank Nachos and Esquites (grilled street corn with chipotle mayo, cotija cheese, chile, and lime).
“We have a small menu, and we keep it small so that we can focus on the quality and the execution of the food,” Raya says. “The carnitas are always my favorite. Growing up and having those on Sundays was really special to me. I definitely take pride in preparing those tacos. The way that we prepare the carnitas—it’s a very traditional method.”
The adobo chicken, on the other hand, is juicy, well-marinated, and served in cheese-crisped, gluten-free corn tortillas with chihuahua cheese, cilantro, and Taco Tank’s savory secret sauce.
The Tank’s limited menu has proven so successful that Raya and his team opened up a full-service restaurant this spring. Barbacoa fuses traditional Mexican cuisine with American-style barbecue in the form of brisket taquitos and smoked turkey with molé.
the Sourdough Spot
Like many people, Maegan Vaughan received some unexpected time to explore niche interests when the world ground to a halt during the ini-
tial COVID-19 pandemic.
In the early days of the virus’s takeover, sourdough began trending on TikTok as a practical alternative to budgeting for bread on weekly grocery store runs. Vaughan and her children spent plenty of quality time baking together, and she figured she was more than capable of providing hearty loaves for family and friends.
“I love watching the dough become a big, beautiful loaf at the end of the bake,” Vaughan says. “It’s a long process, but it’s a hands-off, no-knead recipe, so you’re in and out. It’s been a great creative outlet.”
In March 2021, Vaughan launched her business online with Etsy. She converted her garage into a workspace and began delivering local orders less than a year later.
There were three major factors in Vaughan’s decision to apply for a space in the Iron District: budget, size, and foot traffic. The converted shipping container that houses The Sourdough Spot is similar to Vaughan’s previous workspace, and it already included large work tables and a fridge, which she would have to fund on her own if she moved into a blank slate brick-and-mortar. From her deliveries, she learned that most of her local customers are concentrated in North Kansas City. Plus, the broad appeal of an outdoor community space and food court attracts consistent crowds.
“Having this location here has grown my business even faster than I was imagining,” she says.
In addition to selling plain, focaccia, and flavored loaves, the container offers Fat Beans cold brew coffee, grilled cheese, peanut butter and jelly, topped toast, and cheesy garlic breadsticks with marinara.
Vaughan is even able to offer classes at her current location. Next month, she will host “Sourdough Foccacia: Learn to Make, Dress, and Bake” from 5-7 p.m. Sept. 10 and “Sourdough Bread 101: Learn the Essentials for Making Sourdough Bread” from 5-8 p.m. Sept. 24. Tickets can be purchased on The Sourdough Spot’s Linktree for $50 and $60 respectively.
elephant Wings
Ameet Malhotra didn’t always plan on becoming a restaurateur.
Malhotra moved to Kansas City in 2001 to work for Hallmark as a graphic designer. His penchant for creating mouth-watering food began with a simple desire to cook the meals he missed from home.
“I started experimenting with a few recipes which my grandma had given me,” he says. “My dad lived in New York at the time, and he had never cooked either, but he was in the same boat as me. We both started cooking, and we would exchange recipes and different ideas over the phone.”
As he improved, Malhotra began hosting dinner parties for his friends, which eventually blossomed into a side business as a locally-renowned private chef.
“I go into people’s homes, and I bring everything— the food, the linens, the flowers, the plates, the glassware, silverware, and the music,” he says.
In February 2021, Malhotra was laid off from Hallmark. He pivoted to restaurant work with friend and fellow chef Anourom Thomson at the American-Laos restaurant Anousone. In October 2022, he expressed interest to the Iron District’s team about opening an Elephant Wings container and signed the lease only a few weeks later.
“We buy the baguettes from Farm to Market, but nothing else is bought ready-made— the tikka masala sauce, the chutney, the aioli that goes with the fries. Everything is made fresh by me,” Malhotra says.
The proof is in the pudding—or, in this case, the well-seasoned menu. For $15, customers can sink their teeth into a half sandwich (the Bombay-Mi cumin chicken, the Paneer Tikka, or—Malhotra’s personal favorite—the Unholy Cow) with Tandoori fries and Iced Masala Chai.
The Tikka Masala Poutine ($15) is a twist on Québec’s signature meal. Fries are smothered in tikka masala sauce, yogurt, scallions, jalapeños, curried paneer, and cilantro with the customer’s choice of chicken, beef, or paneer. (Hint: there’s no way to go wrong here.)
POWERED BY AZURA CREDIT UNION
SUPPORT LOCAL JOURNALISM
hopscotch
CITY BARREL PIZZA + PATIO SET TO OPEN IN FORMER BIER STATION LOCATION
By Jordan Baranowski
As our calendars turned over from 2022 to 2023, the Waldo/brookside area lost an institution. Bier Station, the combination beer shop and taproom, filled their final pint glass and closed their doors for good. Owner John Couture saw Bier Station struggle during the pandemic, and he found his passion wandering more to the realm of local politics as business started returning.
Lucky for locals, he found a worthy successor to pass the baton to: City Barrel Brewery. The popular Crossroads brewery will open soon in Bier Station’s former space with a new concept and a total revamp. I got to sit down with City Barrel Brewery’s co-owner, Joe Giammanco, and General Manager/Executive Chef Ben Wood to share some pints and talk about what we can expect when City Barrel Pizza + Patio opens this fall.
“We both love John and what he did with the Bier Station space over time,” Giammanco says. “And we can’t wait to breathe new life into it with our Pizza + Patio concept.”
For inspiration, Giammanco turned to some of his favorite spots growing up.
“We really want the new space to have that old-school, ‘fun palace’ vibe—the types of places we all used to hang out in as kids,” he says. They’re aiming for a community-oriented spot that will fit right in with the other local faves in the Waldo and Brookside areas.
City Barrel Pizza + Patios plans to have board games, arcade machines, and pinball tables, along with plenty of TVs to catch local teams like the Chiefs, Royals, and KC Current. Giammanco is also looking to add weekly events like bar trivia and music bingo.
The new space will see some changes
from Bier Station’s overall footprint. It will feature a much larger kitchen in order to make things more functional as a restaurant. With a moniker like “Pizza + Patio,” there are plans for a bigger, more in-depth patio space, including fire features. That said, some familiar remnants of the previous space will remain. The team is planning on keeping some of the coolers, which will be mostly stocked with cans and bottles from local breweries. The upstairs will remain as well and will be geared more toward parties, events, and meetings.
Of course, with City Barrel Brewery involved, you know there are going to be some tasty eats and drinks. They plan on having 15 beers on tap at the new location—mostly City Barrel, with a few guest taps—in addition to keeping plenty of other local faves and classics.
The major leap in the new spot is going to be the food menu. Giammanco hails from Chicago, and Wood grew up in New York City. Naturally, this calls for pizza. Wood has been developing his pizza recipe for months, studying the craft and working out the perfect sauce, cheese blend, toppings, and more. The menu will focus on square pies with a focaccia-style crust. Wood is also lucky to have the best taste testers he could ask for: His kids are more than happy to offer up their opinions on what’s working and what’s not.
Wood has enough experience in the game that he’s planning a menu full of fun surprises. Although recipes are still in development, he is planning for plenty of sandwiches, shared apps, salads, and other standards to sit alongside the pizza stars of
the show. There will be a selection of housemade wing sauces for their chicken wings, along with Italian deli-style sandwiches. There’s a salad dedicated to Miss Anna, a sweet Italian woman who made a dynamite eggplant parmesan, which has stuck in their memories for years.
The team is hoping to take standard, beloved foods and elevate them—the type of lunch or dinner that will keep customers coming back again and again.
“Ben’s always been good at taking something basic and elevating it to something unbelievable. He captures every taste element you want, distilled into recognizable items, and served with fun,” says Giammanco.
In the spirit of inclusivity and community-building, City Barrel Pizza + Patio will also have gluten-free crust options, as well as a wine list, cocktails, mocktails, and more. They’ll be open for lunch and dinner, and the goal is to create a space where people want to stay and hang out rather than rushing lunch and sprinting out the door.
The current plan for the grand opening is fall 2023, so we’ll keep our eyes peeled as to when those pies will start slinging.
Cinnamon rolls from Tin Pan
BY SARAH SIPPLE
Order online at tinpankc.com
these cinnamon rolls are a sweet, gooey, double-edged sword. On one hand, they might be the greatest cinnamon rolls. On the other hand, it means disappointment in other cinnamon rolls henceforth.
For this Makers issue, Tin Pan Cinnamon Rolls Chief Baker Dan Edwards instantly came to mind. Kansas City is a trove of talented culinary professionals in a broad spectrum of formats. Tin Pan does not operate from a storefront and instead offers home delivery within 25 miles of downtown Kansas City. Oh, and the best part? They’re still warm when Edwards hands you the gleaming pan.
The key difference in these cinnamon rolls lies in Edwards’ focus on the namesake ingredient. The amount of cinnamon is shocking, but they do remain sweet and balanced. Instead of a cream cheese frosting, Edwards is committed to a traditional powdered sugar frosting—the pure sweetness balances the earthiness of the cinnamon rather than adding a savory-leaning component.
The most surprising element of these rolls is that the outside layers are just as desirable as the final inside bite. Swimming in a pool of glaze is one way they stay moist for days, but the other is a baking technique called “tangzhong,” which improves texture and delays the process of going stale. The extra step in the baking process means that those who don’t finish the pan in one sitting can enjoy fresh-tasting rolls for the next few days.
If straight-up cinnamon isn’t your thing, you’re in luck. Through the end of October, Tin Pan also offers an apple streusel roll featuring fruit from Cider Hill Orchard in KCK.
Negroni at Hillsiders
BY SARAH SIPPLE
403 N 5th St., Kansas City, KS 66101
Flair, clever names, kitschy glassware… I love a themed bar as much as (okay, more than) anyone, but sometimes a classic neighborhood bar hits the spot. Strip away the trendy finishes, and you’re left with the studs: your drink, your company, and hopefully a comfortable spot to sit. Hillsiders has the relaxed aura of a dive bar sans the smoke-stained walls and scratchy cracked-leather stools.
Here’s your sign to stroll into the dimly-lit bar, order a Negroni and snack mix, play a game of pool, and only have spent $10.
The Negroni is batched in-house using Brokers Gin, Campari, sweet vermouth, and orange peel. It’s smooth and easy—bitter with a pleasant level of sweetness—and arguably one of the best in KC with its mild blend of citrus, juniper, and licorice root. It happens to be the most popular cocktail but by thin margins.
Add a $1 snack mix of cheese balls and nuts or a Turkey Sando on ciabatta for $8, and you’ve got yourself on a sweet and salty cycle.
“Our idea behind the menu is rooted in the neighborhood. We are not specifically focused on cocktails, so we wanted to be able to provide staple cocktails and centennial recipes, all priced at under $10 to keep the wallet in mind,” says owner Logan Smith.
Classic cocktails and effortlessly-cool vibes aren’t all that Hillsiders has to offer. From Marsh Mellow Mondays with $2 s’mores kits and the Sunday Special of a hot dog and Hamms for $4 to pop-ups with burgers, live music, or comedians—there’s always something happening. But, like, you know, in a laid-back way.
MISE EN PLACE
KANSAS CITY’S ART OF HOMAGE WITH GUROUX KHALIFAH OF DISTRICT BISKUITS
By Sarah Sipple
Guroux Khalifah kneads classical training and generational wisdom into his restaurant in North Kansas City, District Biskuits. But there’s more to it than buttery, structurally-perfect biscuits. Guroux speaks on the balance of homage and interpretation, scaling a business, and milkshakes for breakfast.
The Pitch: tell us about your journey from Le Cordon bleu College of Culinary Arts in Atlanta to District biskuits in North Kansas City. Guroux Khalifah: I came back to Kansas City after I finished school and worked at some of the best hotels and restaurants. I would say my true background is savory, but I do enjoy baking a lot. Hence the biscuit, which was something that my mother taught me. I wanted to create something that people will be familiar with but also something different—which was building the whole menu around biscuits. My idea was originally called The District Biskuit House in 2017. I bartered a deal with a local restaurant to operate in the hours that they weren’t open and started with only $150. I bought a package of chicken, some flour, and butter. A few months in, I had a line wrapped outside of the door.
How have you personalized the biscuit? Mine is more towery and buttery than most. I wanted to give it more of a Southern feel. I know that people may see this as sacrilegious, but one of the examples that I went off of was Popeye’s. I wanted to put my own twist on the field and wanted it to be able to hold up as a sandwich to the ingredients inside and not crumble. A lot of people didn’t think that The Crown (a double smashburger) would work on a biscuit. Now it’s one of our top sellers. The rich and fatty flavor from the meat soaks up into the already rich base.
What do you find unique about the Kansas City food scene? This city does a really good job of showing respect to wherever a product comes from. I think we show respect. Like, I think that Tay’s does a really good job with their Philly Cheesesteaks, paying homage to Philadelphia. Pizza Tascio and Providence Pizza pay homage to New York-style pizza. I feel that I show respect for the Southern-style biscuit. I can’t take any credit for inventing it, you know,
Mise En Place is a series of questions, answers, recommendations, and culinary wisdom from the food and drink masters that push KC flavor further. The following answers have been edited for length and clarity.
DIStrICt bISKUItS
504 Armour Rd. North Kansas City, MO 64116 districtbiskuits.com
outside of developing a recipe that works for the concept that I’m attempting.
Do you bake much at home? No, but here I’m constantly tweaking and refining the recipe—I’m looking to get into distribution, so I need the product to hold up to freezing so I can distribute to coffee shops and bakeries that don’t necessarily have this product.
What is the ultimate District biskuits brunch meal? DB Hash, Cookie Butter Shake (a secret menu item), and black coffee. That way, you get a little bit of everything—crispy hash brown coins, chicken sausage gravy, sauce, scrambled eggs, bacon jam, and shredded cheese. And it’s never too early for a shake.
the South Side Shake has crispy fried potato bits in it. Did you grow up dipping french fries in milkshakes like I did? Yes, thanks to my brother Tech N9ne. He took me to see Batman Beyond for the first time and introduced me to the sweet and salty combo. One of my very vivid memories of childhood.
(top) Guroux Khalifa. Sarah Sipple
(bottom) A work of art. Zach Bauman
D essertW eek
SEPTEMBER 18-24
Berry Fruit Slice
LIMITED TIMEThurs, Sept. 21. 3:00-5:30pm only. This summer berry fruit slice is composed of thin sheets of almond joconde(cake), mixed berry mousse filling & a mixed berry gelee glaze to finish. This is one of many half-priced options that will
be featured. The price for this item will be $2.50. Located on the SE corner of JCCC in the WHCA building. Enter from the Quivira entrance. The building will be ahead of you, slightly to the right.
12345 COLLEGE BLVD
OVERLAND PARK, KS 66210
Cupcake
Vanilla, chocolate,strawberry, red velvet, lemon, carrot cake. Cream cheese or dairy free frosting.
Cheese Cake
Stop in at Bizz and Weezy confections for 1/2 price cheese cake. These scratch made cheeses come in the following flavors.
• New York Style
Cheesecake topped with fresh cut strawberries and whipped cream
• Chocolate
Cheesecake topped with whipped cream
• Oreo Cheesecake topped with whipped cream and cocoa powder.
1800 BALTIMORE AVE.
KANSAS CITY, MO 64108
BIZZANDWEEZY.COM
PHONE: (866) 962-7953
Warm Blueberry Buckle
Whipped ricotta, cayenne agave
9711 E. 63RD STREET
RAYTOWN, MO 64133
MORGANASKC.COM
PHONE: (816) 631-3469
Handmade Danish
Enjoying a handmade Danish from Ridgewood Donuts lies not only in its mouthwatering taste but also in the appreciation of the artisanal effort put into crafting such a delicious pastry. The fillings range from sweet fruit fillings bursting with natural goodness to velvety cream cheese that envelops your taste buds. A fine drizzle of glaze on top completes the Danish, enhancing its sweetness and creating a visually pleasing finish.
4309 BLUE RIDGE BLVD
KANSAS CITY, MO 64133
PHONE: (816) 353-8333
4814 ROANOKE PKWY
KANSAS CITY, MO 64112
JAXFISHHOUSE.COM
PHONE: (816) 437-7940
Flushed Away
By Drew WindishEditor’s note: First names will be used in this article to refer to those running The Toilet Bowl, in service of privacy.
Flooding your basement usually spells the end of a well-furnished subterranean hangout spot, but for Lawrence’s DIY concert venue, the toilet bowl, it was just the flush they needed to cement their legacy as one of the grooviest underground locales within the music community.
With worldwide ever-rising wait lines, general admission costs, and Ticketmaster consternations, the larger KC area has seen a resurgence of DIY concert venues within the past few years.
DIY revivalism this time around marks a notable underground scene compared to previous pre-pandemic concerts. With rising rents and the pandemic closing local platforms, circumstances have morphed these venues into a much more behindthe-scenes affair, taking a little bit more of a Google search to get in.
The Toilet Bowl’s traffic and word-ofmouth reputation was birthed within the community and on their Instagram page, where they would drop impromptu show dates and share their location—no narcs allowed. The page says their venue is for “big stinky turds,” but don’t be fooled, The Toilet Bowl was created as a “Fem/Queer safe space” for anyone looking for a jukebox plunge, asking for $10-20 at the door, depending on how generous you feel.
With the music industry’s current reality of suffocating, male-dominated moshpits and lingering pickpockets, coordinator Emma champions The Toilet Bowl as a safe community for Lawrence attendees.
“I want people to know there’s a fem behind this because it’s important, it’s not something that a lot of spaces have,” says Emma.
Operations Specialists Austin and Emma had been sitting on the idea of a basement venue for years, wondering where to start. But they were inspired to dive in head-first after seeing the band Midwestern perform in Kansas City.
“[Midwestern] deserves a little credit because they were the first [basement] show I’ve ever gone to. And that’s when I was like, ‘Oh, we just have to do it,’” says Emma.
Before they could start, though, their
mission was clogged due to a lack of a name… and some plumbing issues.
When they first obtained the basement in Aug. 2021, it was unusable for a month because the pipes had flooded the place with sewage, covering the ground with an inch of toilet-papered water. After some refurbishing and gallons of bleach later, they designated the basement as The Toilet Bowl.
“We wanted to use something with the name ‘toilet’ because it’s edgy, and it’s part of some Toilet Bowl lore we like to share,” says Emma.
The Toilet Bowl, at first glance, embodies the typical punk-core bravado expected
Even with all the ground-up raunchy atmospheric elements in place, the real significance that The Toilet Bowl has implemented within the Lawrence DIY community has been its ability to garner a safe space for music lovers under a fem-operated atmosphere.
“The Toilet Bowl was the most inviting and comfortable venue I had ever been to,” says frequenter Jed Morrison, “I could always count on a fun and friendly space for Queers and punks to hang out and rock.”
From headliners to DIY in Lawrence, the music industry has been a male-dominated scene with little to no designated
says Cat F!ght’s guitarist Chloe Frazier. “We only want to support spaces that are proQueer/safe spaces, and The Toilet Bowl is the perfect place for that. They gave us a good opportunity to perform and get our name out there.”
In contrast to the high-energy moshpits and cat clawing that occurs in the venue from performances like Cat F!ght, JackOffs, and Sewing Circle, the proximity of the DIY scene allows for all kinds of energies to fill the space.
Miles Luce, now joined with his band, the Cowtippers, was able to saddle The Toilet Bowl with a Kansas cowboy twang that proved the space to be a champion of all kinds of music and themes. But while the headliners may change from time to time, Luce elaborates that the scene does more for the artist’s sound than the audience.
of a basement venue with a stone rock foundation circumnavigating a claustrophobic concrete extravaganza of scattered incandescent lighting. But the stripped-down presentation is also representative of the coordinator’s caution-thrown-to-the-wind commitment to live performance.
Austin and Emma made The Toilet Bowl a reality by borrowing equipment from the University of Kansas’s radio station, KJHK 90.7 FM. Through the help of contributions by attendees and donations from neighboring DIY venues, The Toilet Bowl was pieced together by the community with full equipment by the summer of 2022.
space or maneuverability for Queer/Fem young adults. But The Toilet Bowl set out to shake the status quo from the start.
“A part of why we wanted to do [concerts] here was to create a space that was safe for everyone,” says Emma. “It’s really important for me to protect women and fem-read people in my space.”
The Toilet Bowl began revolutionizing the path for inclusive venues and set the scene for the emergence of new types of bands and music.
The most notable of these has been the up-and-coming all-women band Cat F!ght.
“We knew we wanted to play The Toilet Bowl ever since we started being a band,”
“The difference between a DIY and a venue, for example, is the more personal, intimate feel. You can really connect with the people you’re playing for, and they can, equally, with you,” says Luce. “I think if we weren’t playing to crowds at The Toilet Bowl, our thinking would be much different as songwriters.”
Luce describes one of his shows with a stripped-down sing-along, inviting everyone down to sit on the floor while cookies were passed around in campfire solidarity.
“The important thing about The Toilet Bowl didn’t have anything to do with the place but with the people,” says Luce. “People like Emma are invaluable to the Lawrence scene and make it a better place. I’m excited to see what’s next.”
The Toilet Bowl, while leaving us, remains a relative newcomer to the DIY scene. With more established venues like
“people in the community just don’t communicate with us, and if they did, they would understand the importance of this space for Queer and non-binary persons.”LFK’S TOILET BOWL COMES TO A CLOG, LEAKS SUCCESS FOR LOCAL DIY SCENE
The Haunted Kitchen and Farewell, The Toilet Bowl’s inspiration and significance to the LFK community still remain alive and intact.
“There are still newer DIY venues. People coming in here and seeing what we have done with what little we have, have been able to make it happen for themselves,” says Emma.
Post-pandemic pop-up DIY venues now in Lawrence include names such as the
BauHaus, The Hobbit Hole, and The Dungeon.
While the scene’s closing marks a bittersweet end to a niche era of the local DIY scene, the final moments of The Toilet Bowl strike a considerable concern for the safety of LGBTQIA+ communities on the whole.
Both the penultimate and final house shows were shut down by Lawrence Police officers called in by noise complaints. Emma explains that while these might seem
like minor incidents on the surface level, they characterize a growing barrier against the growth of Queer mobility and spaces.
“People in the community just don’t communicate with us, and if they did, they would understand the importance of this space for Queer and non-binary persons,” says Emma.
While headliners of these previous shows were unable to produce their set, The Toilet Bowl was able to send out the basement with one final flush. On Aug. 31, headliners Hildy, Snotgirl, Digidream, N1N4 Frequency, and Lilith Leyva set the stage at the Bottleneck through the coordination and booking from the team at The Toilet Bowl to give the venue an ultimate farewell.
“It is so important for the mental health of young Queer adults that we have a place to socialize and enjoy music and people we love without having to fear for our safety, and I am so happy that Emma and Austin were able to provide that to Lawrence for so long,” says Morrison.
Emma will continue to regale folks with the spirit of The Toilet Bowl with her new freelance production company Idolatry Production.
“Fuck old white fart men. Lawrence and KC to the Top,” says Emma.
Rest in Pe(e)ace The Toilet Bowl. The hype may be drained, but the filthy flow will be missed.
TOGGLE SWITCH
HOW THE PENECHAR BROTHERS BECAME THE WIZARDS BEHIND FOUNTAIN CITY GUITARWORKS AND SEÜF GUITARS
By Nick Spacek
When I get to Fountain City Guitarworks’ location in the Squier park neighborhood of Kansas City, I am not quite sure I’m where I’m supposed to be. Located on a quiet residential street between Troost and 71 Highway, the business looks just like another house. I spend a solid minute double-checking things on my phone until I see a man carrying a guitar case confidently walk to the front door and ring the bell. I scurry up behind him and enter the front room.
The entire ground floor of this stately old house is outfitted with a drill press, belt sander, bandsaw, and innumerable hand tools. There’s a faint smell of paint and lacquer mixed with sawdust. After introductions all around, we pull some stools into a corner of the shop, and I sit down with the co-owners of Fountain City Guitarworks, twin brothers Mark and Shaun Penechar. I immediately mention how when that front door opens, it is not what you expect.
“It’s a pretty magical thing,” says Mark. “It’s like walking into Narnia.”
Fountain City is the Penechar brothers’ business, born out of the pair taking over Dave Seüferling’s Seüf Guitars when the luthier retired in 2016. Two years later, they started a new repair business with a third partner, no longer with the company, and the two businesses have been running sideby-side ever since.
“Instead of just being Seüf Guitars, we just married the two, but I always wanted to have a separation between builds and repairs,” Mark says. “That’s born of necessity, but before, Seüf was also the repair shop that you were taking guitars to. Now it’s Fountain City Guitarworks, but we’re still making Seüf guitars because they had an established brand.”
Seüf’s iconic blend of custom creation married with a vintage look has made them very highly regarded in the music world, but Fountain City Guitarworks doesn’t have a specific clientele.
“It’s top to bottom,” says Mark. “All walks. From touring musicians—we just got
a bunch of guitars ready for a touring band yesterday—and then a lot of local folks who play six, seven nights a week.”
From hobbyists to blues lawyers, Fountain City fixes guitars for everyone: young, old, acoustic, electric, short, and tall, the pair joke. Their Seüf clientele skews the same, although they do mention the fact that they’ve made one for Kevin Morby. Phoebe Bridgers’ bass player plays a Seüf bass, and there’s a guitar sitting by the front door waiting to ship out for a member of Mild High Club.
S er VIC e
On the repair side, right now, Mark is working on a restoration of a 1955 Stratocaster for writer Dan Erlewine, whose seminal books like Guitar Player’s Repair Guide, Guitar Finishing Step by Step, and Trade Secrets grace several shelves in the workshop.
“The guy that wrote all the books over there,” says Mark while pointing at the bookcase. “Getting to work for your idol and the fact that he asked? That’s pretty cool. I’m gonna refret the neck, and the neck pickup needs to be rewound. It’s gonna be really fun for me to get to do that, and it’s very rare. We
get a lot of vintage adjustments in, but not a lot of second-year Stratocasters.”
It’s an interesting career for two guys who, less than 15 years prior, had no woodworking experience whatsoever. Mark started doing finish sanding at Seüf back in 2011 and, from there, worked his way up to running that shop during the week. Shaun came on in 2014 and started doing the same thing Mark was doing and then worked his way up, as well. The brothers have been playing music since they were 12 and currently do time in the bands Bolinas and Doubledrag, but as to how they came to be making some of the finest custom guitars in the Midwest—that’s a little less direct.
“Well, you have to start off with a crappy pizza job or be a bar back or something like that,” jokes Mark. “Then, you luck into it. And then basically, you learn how to use a router, planers, bandsaws, and all that.”
of our interview when Mark and Shaun show me around the rest of the house. Every square foot is packed with guitars or guitarsin-the-making. There’s a room upstairs with dozens of instruments waiting for repairs and another across the hall with necks and bodies hanging as the paint cures on them. The pair break down just who does what.
“Shaun does stuff that I haven’t done in years, and I do stuff that Shaun hasn’t done in years,” Mark says.
“I’ve never wound a pickup,” Shaun says.
“I make 30 pickups a month,” says Mark. Shaun does most of the woodworking and finishing, along with sanding and painting, and is just generally in charge of the way they look. Mark will be threading necks, making sure fingerboards and necks are straight, along with the wiring—and the aforementioned pickups—with the brothers
“I took a shop class in middle school, but I don’t remember anything,” Shaun says. “I might’ve made a birdhouse or something.”
“I’d never used a drill before I started,” Mark admits, making what the pair and their team do all the more impressive. To go from knowing nothing to building whole-ass, very well-respected guitars in 13 years is mind-boggling. That’s a steep learning curve, but thanks to the pair being in their twenties when they started this, they had the time, energy, and passion to commit themselves to the craft.
“I dropped outta college and had a lot of free time,” Mark says. “School and I didn’t resonate very well, but as soon as I got into it, I was like, ‘Man, I really, really love doing this,’ so I spent all of my nights doing my homework, research, and practice and then finally just gelled.”
It’s paid off for both of them, and their knowledge is apparent when Shaun offers up opinions on the various considerations to be made when selecting wood for their guitars. The big four that Seüf uses are alder, swamp ash, tempered pine, and mahogany.
“The tempered pine’s actually kind of a new thing,” Shaun says. It’s pine that’s kilndried in a vacuum chamber so that you can heat it beyond its smoke point. It basically fossilizes the cell, and it apparently was supposed to sound like old wood. I love working with it. I love the sound of it. It’s fairly unique in its tonal qualities beyond that.”
In the construction of Seüf guitars, the division of labor is fairly stark due to how busy the company gets. It’s clear at the end
splitting the final setup and assembly. The Penechars also added two full-time employees on the Fountain City side and one parttime worker who’s currently being trained to help with builds, which has helped the two immensely.
The job does bleed over into the Penechars’ lives outside the shop, despite the pair trying to keep their time within the space at 40 hours a week. As Mark puts it, you don’t go to a dive bar and not run into a musician who needs some work done.
“Everywhere we go, we run into somebody that is a client or a potential client or something,” says Mark. “It’s weird. People come up to me like, ‘You’re that guy!’ and like, I am.”
Fountain City Guitarworks’ Guitar maintenance Advice
• Change your strings more often. “You gotta change your strings more often than you do, everybody,” the pair immediately tell me.
• Clean your frets. “When you change your strings, it’ll make your strings last longer,” Shaun advises.
• Humidify in winter. Low humidity can result in cracks in the body or the bridge lifting and/or totally separating.
“I took a shop class in middle school, but I don’t remember anything. I might’ve made a birdhouse or something.”brothers mark and Shaun penechar bring guitars to life in their home studio. Pilsen Photo Co-Op
September 6
An evening with Alexis Nikole Nelson Liberty Hall
Outdoor educator and forager Alexis Nikole Nelson is making a stop in Lawrence to talk edible plants, tasty sustainability, and all things wild food. With millions of followers across her social media platforms, the cook and internet sensation uses her voice to entertain while educating. Catch her comedic, sometimes musical session Sept. 6 at Liberty Hall and learn about food deserts, African American food traditions, and have a good laugh in the meantime. Entry is free with advance online reservation. The event begins at 7 p.m.
September CALeNDAr
By The Pitch StaffONGOING/mULtIpLe:
September 2 - October 15
Kansas City Renaissance Festival, Bonner Springs, KS
September 4-11
Dancefestopia Music & Camping Festival 2023, Wildwood Outdoor Education Center
September 7 - October 1
Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812, The Black Box
September 14-23
Terra Luna | A Light & Sound Experience, Overland Park Arboretum & Botanical Gardens
September 16-17
Lawrence Art in the Park 2023, South Park
Jesse James Festival Kite Show, Jesse James Park
September 9
Janelle monáe the midland
Kansas City-raised R&B phenom Janelle Monáe is headed to KC for a night at The Midland. The homecoming show is a part of her 26-city “Age of Pleasure Tour” on the heels of her namesake album release in June. The Grammy-nominated artist’s fourth studio album (and first in five years) was preceded by the release of steamy singles “Float” and “Lipstick Lover,” which left fans wanting more of… everything. Tickets start at $51.50. Doors open at 7 p.m., show at 8 p.m.
September 7
Kansas City Chiefs vs. Detroit Lions, GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium
Secret Gardens, Greybloom, Silk, Big Fat Cow, Replay Lounge
eVeNtS
September 1
Kurt Travis, recordBar
September 2
Bump, Set, Adopt Sand Volleyball Tournament, Volleyball Beach Memphis May Fire, The Bottleneck
September 3
Fame on Fire, Encore Room
September 4
Shinedown, Papa Roach, Spiritbox, T-Mobile Center
September 5
The Criticals, Encore Room
“Paris is Burning” Movie Showing with Vogue Demonstration, Liberty Hall
September 6
Taj Mahal & Los Lobos, Uptown Theater S. Carey, recordBar
Poppy & PVRIS, The Truman
Summer Concert Series: Katy Guillen & The Drive, Crossroads Hotel Kansas City Cas Haley, Knuckleheads
September 8
Pinky Patel, The Truman Nature Boys, Drugs & Attics, Arc Flash, Replay Lounge
September 9
Totally Rad Vintage Fest, KCI Expo Center
September 10
Baddie’s Dream House Drag Show, Replay Lounge
Gregory Porter, Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts
September 12
Joy Oladokun, The Truman CAAMP, The Midland
September 13
Jai Wolf, The Truman
September 14
Beth Hart, Uptown Theater
Taste of Lawrence, Lied Center of Kansas
September 15
Rob Zombie & Alice Cooper, Azura Amphitheater cupcakKe, The Madrid Theatre
September 16
Grieves, The Bottleneck
Charles Wesley Godwin, The Truman
September 17
Bright Light Social Hour, Encore Room
King Parrot, The Bottleneck
Fantasia with Joe, Starlight
Corey Feldman, Lemonade Park
Peelander-Z, Dog Party, The Nature Boys, recordBar
Midwest Hairstyling Awards, Uptown Theater
September 18
Eyehategod, Goatwhore, recordBar
September 19
Nickelback: Get Rollin’ Tour, T-Mobile Center
September 20
Queens of the Stone Age
Starlight
Josh Homme and the fellas from the world’s most famous desert rock outfit hit KC as part of their “The End is Nero Tour” wherein—as appears to be the case across the new album
In Times New Roman—Homme has just discovered the joys of dad-joke portmanteaus. Naming goofiness aside, the new album marks the heaviest groove that the rockers have hit since the days of “Go With The Flow” and the nearly tribal grind of teeth-grit anger is a welcome return to form. In an early interview with The Pitch, bassist Michael Shuman confirms that certain songs that have been out of circulation [since the untimely departure of previous members] are finally making their return to rotation. We can’t wait to have God back in the radio. Tickets start at $30. Doors open at 6 p.m., show at 7 p.m.
September 20
The Used, Uptown Theater
Twin Tribes, The Bottleneck
September 21
The Kenny Wayne Shepherd Band, Uptown Theater
Herb Alpert & Lani Hall, Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts
Dead on a Sunday, Big Fat Cow, miniBar Chevelle & Three Days Grace, Starlight
High Pulp, recordBar MEST, Authority Zero, VIVO Live Events
September 30 St. Louis blues vs. Dallas Stars Cable Dahmer Arena
The pros are taking over the barn once again. Join hockey fans and KC Mavericks stans as the St. Louis Blues go head-to-head with the Dallas Stars in the NHL preseason game at Cable Dahmer Arena—a rare chance to see Stanley Cup contenders on the ice in the Kansas City. The annual event serves as a warm-up for the 2023-2024 Mavericks season and will feature a variety of family-friendly activities before, during, and after the game. Tickets range from $60-$180. Doors open at 5 p.m. Puck drops at 6:05 p.m.
September 22
ZZ Ward, The Madrid Theatre Jungle Rot, Granada Ringo Starr and His All Starr Band, Uptown Theater
September 23
Brincos Dieras, The Midland Motionless in White: The Touring The End Of The World Tour, Uptown Theater
September 24
Owl City, The Truman Bryce Vine: The Interstate Tour, Liberty Hall
September 25
Like Roses, Remorsefully Numb, Clearfight, Farewell KCMO
September 26
KC Symphony Orchestra with Special Guest Blake Pouliot, violin, Lied Center of Kansas
September 27
Senses Fail, Granada
September 28
Giovannie & The Hired Guns, The Bottleneck
Grand Funk Railroad and Jefferson Starship, Uptown Theater
Hiplet Ballerinas, Lied Center of Kansas
September 29
Gregory Alan Isakov, The Midland
September 30
Bishop Briggs & Misterwives, Grinders KC Backyard Movies: Romy & Michele’s High School Reunion, Screenland Armour Chat Pile, The Bottleneck
BOUNDARIES AND HEALING
Content warning: This piece discusses sexual violence and consent violation.
Let’s talk about it again…
It’s Sexual Health Month, and this year’s theme is Consent. Since I recently provided a framework for navigating weed and consent in the April issue, this time I want to offer advice for navigating consent violations.
Consent, from a sex education standpoint, is conceptualized as permission or an agreement for something to happen. Local sexual health advocates and educators Barrier Babes say on their condom packs to remember the acronym: COME (Clear, Open, Mutual, Enthusiastic). Add “Revocable” to that list, and you have your basics covered.
Local therapist Chuck Franks of the Midwest Sexual Health Institute believes there is a more nuanced approach to consent.
“I shift the conversation from an act-centered definition to a principle-centered definition,” Franks says.
On imparting the concept of consent, Becca Anderson, MSW with MOCSA, says,
“I always talk about how if you’ve ever been invited to a party that you thought was awesome, and then you got there and it wasn’t awesome, you have the right to leave.”
Informed consent means you have all the information you need to consent or decline. Omission of facts like not disclosing STI status or not getting clear and enthusiastic approval for things like filming a sex act are violations of informed consent.
Deep consent conversations happen in some communities, be it gay males, kinksters, swingers, and other sex-positive groups, for example. They have complexities around consent that some folks simply don’t experience. Consent isn’t always so cut and dry, and neither is a violation.
What is a consent violation?
The Consent Academy says that a consent violation happens when “someone believes their consent was broken or a set boundary was crossed.” It further asserts that “only the person who experienced harm within the event gets to decide if
their consent was violated.”
Anyone—any gender, age, or ability— can experience a consent violation. This could include unwanted touch like a hug from a first date even though you said “no,” a partner who touches your body in a way you’ve asked them not to, sexual violence, and more.
When discussing what happens in real life, it can be incredibly complicated to pin down further.
Franks says, “I have sexual health conversations with individuals and couples about how they define consent rather than me being authoritarian and imposing an ex-
“A lot of times we have an initial trauma response,” Anderson says.
MOCSA has a support line anyone can call to discuss their situation. You can talk to a therapist or counselor you already know. Support professionals will not tell you what to do but rather offer potential action steps. Ultimately, you are the only one who can decide how to proceed.
In situations where you want or have to continue to be around the person that violated your boundaries, and you decide to discuss their actions in order to move forward, how the violator reacts may dictate if accountability and transforming harm are
ternal definition of consent.”
To say there must be continued learning on this subject is an understatement. For example, my teen brain could never have processed what not going to the cops looked like after intimate partner violence, but after countless conversations, I know far too many reasons for not reporting. My 30-year-old self didn’t know that there are processes for transforming harm and reconciling a situation between parties when a consent violation has happened in a sex-positive community, such as in the instance of sex educator Reid Mahalko’s public accountability process.
Your boundary was set. You have determined your consent was violated. Now what?
Since there is such a large spectrum of consent violations, there is no perfect way to handle a consent violation against you. It’s complicated and messy because humans are complicated and messy. Take what resonates with your situation and leave the rest.
Safety first: If you need to leave and find a safe place, then go. If you have to stay or aren’t sure if you’re unsafe, you may consider turning to organizations like MOCSA or Safe In Harm’s Way for support.
Talk to someone if you need help sorting through feelings.
Anderson says, “We never want to define somebody’s experience.”
She reminds people that just because something isn’t illegal doesn’t mean it was okay.
Talking to someone can help normalize whatever you’re feeling.
Everyone handles trauma differently.
even possible.
The offender doesn’t get to decide that they did not cross a line.
“There are explanations that aren’t excuses. So maybe giving context for what they were thinking so that they can make sure that that doesn’t happen again can be helpful,” says Anderson.
If they become defensive, say they didn’t do anything wrong, ignore you, tell you you’re crazy, or do a number of other acts that are outside of ownership and accountability, it may not be possible to do the work together until they can.
Ask yourself if this is a repeated pattern or if you were surprised by their violation.
A friend, who was kind enough to discuss their consent violation with me for this piece, said that taking into account the oneoffed nature of the offense influenced their decision to move forward once an apology was issued and they were ready to be held accountable. Had it been a pattern of behavior, they may have treated the situation differently.
Communication is the vehicle for connection to other humans. Talking about these things is only part of the equation. Discussing the harm an action caused, holding space for the person who was harmed, apologizing without excusing behavior, and deciding how to move forward together can be healing for both parties.
Resources: MOCSA, Midwest Sexual Health Institute, The Consent Academy, RAINN, 988, National Domestic Abuse Hotline
You can find Kristen @OpenTheDoorsKC on Twitter or openthedoorscoaching com. Check out her podcast Keep Them Coming.
You can find Kristen @OpenTheDoorsKC on Twitter or openthedoorscoaching com. Check out her podcast Keep Them Coming
It’s complicated and messy because humans are complicated and messy.
MORE ANNOUNCED NEXT MONTH!
L.M. Alcott Art Center Foundation
By Beth Lipoffthe arts are very much alive inside an old elementary school in Kansas City, Kansas. With visual art classes, theatrical productions, and gallery exhibitions, the L. M. Alcott Art Center Foundation is making sure everyone has access to creative expression.
It all started when the Louisa May Alcott Grade School building went up for sale over 20 years ago. To keep the site from becoming a minimum security prison, a group of locals bought the building with help from the Central Avenue Betterment Association and established an arts center.
Now, every second Saturday from April to October, there’s a new art exhibit for people to see along with $5 art classes for kids ages 6-17 every Wednesday evening. It’s not just drawing and painting—classes range from origami to henna to spoken word poetry to interpretive dance.
Usually, there are two theater productions each year: a youth-focused event in the spring and Shakespeare in the Parking Lot in the fall.
This year, the kids put on The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Normally, they’d have Shakespeare in September, but it’s being bumped to honor the building’s centennial celebration on Saturday, September 9.
Executive Director Chris Green says she’d love to operate all year round, but the building doesn’t have heat. That’s a goal for the future if they can raise enough money.
She estimates about 100 people participate in the classes and theater productions
“You can see their progression. We’re teaching them to hold paintbrushes and paint a piece of ceramic. They learn, and you can see whether or not they enjoy art and have an interest in being creative,” Chris Green says. “We draw them over to the art side.”
Darryl Woods, a local artist, is a board member with Alcott. He loves to interact with the kids who show up for the center’s events.
“Kids come up to me and say, ‘Hey, mister. I draw. Can you look at this?’ And there’s such incredible talent,” Woods says.
When he offers them a chance to display their work at Alcott, he relishes how they seem to just blossom.
“I think they see a lot of stuff on TV where at these fancy art galleries—you have to have a lot of money to get in or know someone,” Woods says.
Woods often contributes his own artistic talents to making drawings or paintings of familiar characters such as Scooby-Doo or Spider-Man at Alcott’s events. Mentoring kids keeps him coming back regularly.
He loves to tell kids about how he started drawing on a card table in his basement and ended up catching Disney’s eye for
in from class fees or tickets to their productions goes right back into their work, paying teachers and acquiring performance rights.
“The building itself needs work. That’s on our agenda,” says Chuck Green, who also volunteers with Alcott.
Like Woods, he enjoys seeing the kids who come to the center.
“We’ve got two young girls that come from kind of a dysfunctional family, and it’s their outlet. If Alcott couldn’t make the effort, they’d sit at home bored and not feel much self-worth,” Chuck Green says.
Chris Green agrees.
“Once you take a class or two or participate in a show, you become family. The Alcott has a family, and it’s a heart-warming feeling when people truly care about these children who just need the space to get away from their life for a while or just come and be themselves. You can come here and be yourself with no judgment,” Chris Green says.
The
Foundation always needs volunteers who can help out
L. M. Alcott Art Center
Ganjier certification is a rigorous, multi-tiered cannabis education and training. It’s the highest level of cannabis training currently available. To be awarded Ganjier certification is to be recognized as one of the top cannabis experts in the world. ReLeaf Resources Dispensary has the region’s ONLY TWO certified Ganjiers. Like a master wine sommelier for cannabis, our ReLeaf Ganjiers are ready to match you with the experience you’re looking for.
