The Pitch: April 2018

April 2018 I FREE I PITCH.COM

INSIDE • Dogspotting at the Heart of America Kennel Club show • Hermon Mehari straddles Paris and the Plains • Missouri women: coming soon to a ballot near you • Haw Contemporary’s Crossroads play

LITTLE RIVER BAND

CAMPANAS DE AMERICA

MAY 4

MAY 5

CHICKS WITH HITS

AKA SOUTHERN MOMMA

MAY 11

MAY 19

HERMAN’S HERMITS

STRYPER MAY 25

DARREN KNIGHT

STARRING PETER NOONE

FEMMES OF ROCK

JUNE 2

JUNE 9

Join us in the Star Pavilion for our thrilling upcoming shows. Get your tickets at ticketmaster.com or visit the Ameristar gift shop to receive $5 off the standard ticket price with your mychoice ® card.

Free Live Entertainment 8:30p –12:30a M80S • April 6 AMANDA FISH BAND • April 7 SASS MONKEY • April 13 BUCKET BAND • April 14

VANTAGE POINT • April 20 RAMBLIN’ FEVER • April 21 NOW & THEN • April 27 SOULROOT • April 28

Must be 21 or older to gamble. Must be a mychoice member to receive mychoice discount. Must be at least 18 or accompanied by an adult to enter Star Pavilion. Must be at least 21 to enter Depot #9. Tickets available online at ticketmaster.com (service charges and handling fees added by ticketmaster.com), or at the Gift Shop. No refunds/exchanges unless canceled or postponed. Offer not valid for persons on a Disassociated Patrons, Voluntary Exclusion or Self Exclusion List in jurisdictions which Pinnacle Entertainment operates or who have been otherwise excluded from Ameristar Kansas City, MO. Gambling problem?

Call 1-888-BETSOFF. ©2018 Pinnacle Entertainment, Inc. All rights reserved.

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THE PITCH | April 2018 | pitch.com

Concerts are held in Helzberg Hall at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.

FEEL-GOOD FUN FOR EVERYONE MOVIE + LIVE ORCHESTRA

BACK to the FUTURE in CONCERT Friday and Saturday, April 20-21 at 8 p.m.

ADDED PERFORMANCE: Saturday, April 21 at 2 p.m.

Sunday, April 22 at 2 p.m.

Jason Seber, David T. Beals III associate conductor Experience the thrill of the ’80s cinema classic “Back to the Future” on a huge screen in Helzberg Hall with your Kansas City Symphony performing the entire fun-filled score live!

This production also features additional music by composer Alan Silvestri written especially for the film’s 30th anniversary.

Adult tickets from $40 and youth tickets from $25. ©2009 Paramount Pictures. ™ CBS Studios Inc.

ONE NIGHT ONLY

SPECIAL PERFORMANCE

CLASSICAL CONCERT

Saturday, May 5 at 8 p.m.

Sunday, May 20 at 3 p.m.

Friday and Saturday, June 1-2 at 8 p.m.

Sunday, June 3 at 2 p.m.

AUDRA McDONALD with the KANSAS CITY SYMPHONY Andy Einhorn, music director for Audra McDonald

Audra McDonald is among today’s most highlyregarded performers. Blessed with a luminous soprano voice and an incomparable gift for dramatic truth telling, she is equally at home on Broadway, opera stages and in concert halls as she is in roles on film and television. Share in this special performance with the Kansas City Symphony as Audra visits the American Songbook as only she can. Tickets from $49.

SYMPHONY CHORUS presents BEETHOVEN’S “EMPEROR” DURUFLÉ’S REQUIEM and WAGNER’S RING Kansas City Symphony Chorus, Charles Bruffy, chorus director

Join us for this very special afternoon performance of Duruflé’s Requiem, a soaring Gregorian chant-themed masterpiece. You’ll also enjoy a piece by Kansas City composer Mark Hayes and witness an exciting 20th anniversary performance of Morten Lauridsen’s radiant Lux Aeterna. Tickets from $20.

Note: The Kansas City Symphony does not perform during this presentation.

Johannes Debus, guest conductor ‹ Martin Helmchen, piano

WAGNER Selections from The Ring BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 5, “Emperor” Experience Beethoven’s grand masterpiece, his Piano Concerto Number 5, “Emperor,” along with selections from Wagner’s thrilling “Ring” cycle.

Big, bold and exciting music for everyone!

Tickets from $25.

ORDER NOW (816) 471-0400 / kcsymphony.org pitch.com | April 2018 | THE PITCH

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CONTENTS

THE PITCH

Publisher Stephanie Carey Editor David Hudnall Digital Editor Kelcie McKenney Contributing Writers Tracy Abeln, Traci Angel, Liz Cook, Karen Dillon, April Fleming, Natalie Gallagher, Roxie Hammill, Libby Hanssen, Deborah Hirsch, Larry Kopitnik, Angela Lutz, Dan Lybarger, David Martin, Eric Melin, Annie Raab, Aaron Rhodes, Barbara Shelly, Nick Spacek, Lucas Wetzel Little Village Creative Services Jordan Sellergren Contributing Photographers Zach Bauman, Chase Castor, Jennifer Wetzel Graphic Designers Jada Escue, Kirsten Overby, Kelcie McKenney, Katie McNeil, Vu Radley, Brandon Love, Alex Peak Director of Marketing and Operations Jason Dockery Senior Multimedia Specialist Steven Suarez Multimedia Specialists Jada Escue, Becky Losey Director of Operations Andrew Miller Social Media Specialist Savannah Rodgers

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CAREY MEDIA

Chief Executive Officer Stephanie Carey Chief Operating Officer Adam Carey

VOICE MEDIA GROUP

National Advertising 1-888-278-9866 vmgadvertising.com

DISTRIBUTION

The Pitch distributes 35,000 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 2018 by Carey Media. No portion may be reproduced in whole or in part by any means without the express written permission of the publisher.

The Pitch 1627 Main St., #600, Kansas City, MO 64108 For information or to share a story tip, email tips@pitch.com For advertising: stephanie.carey@pitch.com or 816-218-6702 For classifieds: steven.suarez@pitch.com or 816-218-6732

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THE PITCH | April 2018 | pitch.com

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Howard Iceberg An elder statesman of Kansas City roots music returns with a concept album.

BY DAVID HUDNALL

Making a Donator The Midwest Innocence Project looks to the next generation.

BY KELCIE MCKENNEY

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Germinating Black Dirt, Jonathan Justus’ long-awaited second act, sprouts up on the South Plaza.

BY LIZ COOK

Hats in the Ring Missouri women are ramping up to run for office.

BY TRACI ANGEL

The Ambassador At the age of 30, Hermon Mehari is already one of KC’s top cultural exports. How long can we keep claiming him?

BY NATALIE GALLAGHER

QUESTIONNAIRE

POLITICS

Flip Flop We’re old enough to remember when Kevin Corlew wasn’t such a champion of women’s workplace rights.

BY BARBARA SHELLY Rural Uprising Metro areas like KC aren’t the only places in Missouri where Trump’s election has prompted women to action.

BY TRACI ANGEL

NEWS

CAFE

PROFILE

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ARTS

Back to the Future Haw Contemporary’s circular path to the Crossroads primetime.

BY DAVID HUDNALL

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PHOTO ESSAY

Very Good Boys Behind the scenes at the Heart of America Kennel Club’s annual dog show.

BY BARRETT EMKE

COVER

Dog Fancy, by Barrett Emke

CONTENTS

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Piggin’ Out You would be wise to join us for Bacon & Bourbon, April 12 at the Guild.

International Disaster Pacific Rim: Uprising is a colossal dud that may very well sink the entire franchise.

Plus: what to stream this month.

BY ERIC MELIN

EVENTS

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MUSIC

Odd Future Mackenzie Nicole’s debut signals a new direction for Strange Music.

BY NICK SPACEK

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PAGES

Keep It Travel writer (and Kansas native) Rolf Potts’ latest book ponders the souvenir.

BY JONATHAN ARLAN

FILM

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Lakeside Live Live MUSic at tHe winery and brewery

Letter from The Publisher

SAVAGE LOVE

Ace & the Hole What are we really talking about when we talk about asexuality?

BY DAN SAVAGE

It feels this month as though Kansas City is just waking up from a long nap.

From our office in the Crossroads, I watched fans come out in droves in March to watch the Big 12 basketball tournament at the Sprint Center. I can remember a very different downtown scene from the office windows of another Kansas City newspaper back in 2005, so it’s still a little shocking to see so much activity.

It’s easy to take for granted the hustle and bustle of a vibrant downtown Kansas City, but it certainly didn’t happen overnight. We still have a long way to go, including that massive construction project near Bartle Hall that promises to deliver the convention hotel our elected leaders keep telling us we so desperately need.

From St. Patrick’s Day shenanigans (oh, Kansas City, you did not disappoint this year) to the upcoming excitement of Opening Day at the K, the spring seems to bring everyone out of their winter blues.

And based on all the event listings you’ve submitted to our online calendar (local.pitch.com), it appears we are in for a delightfully busy season. I couldn’t be more thrilled to see our calendar back up again.

I hope you enjoy our April issue (I’m personally obsessed with the floofy face on the cover) and wherever this month takes you. And please come out and enjoy Bacon & Bourbon with us on April 12 at the Guild. That should really wake you up, Kansas City.

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CALENDAR

Going Out What to do this April.

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Cheers, Stephanie @QueenofQuirky #OurPitch

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Worth the drive! pitch.com | April 2018 | THE PITCH

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QUESTIONNAIRE

What’s your drink? Fireball whiskey, supercharged with Big Red chewing gum Where’s dinner? Harry’s Country Club Kansas City got it right when ... we devoted the time, energy and money necessary to fix our dysfunctional public school system. (Oh wait, I’m thinking of someplace else.)

Kansas City needs more ... bohemians, fewer suits, and a genuine metro-wide desegregation effort.

Kansas City screwed up when ... it commercialized the arts district.

What did you want to be when you were growing up? A cowboy, a fireman, a baseball player, a cartoonist, a scientist, a writer What’s your dream concert lineup? The Clash, The Pogues, and Buddy Holly Current favorite record: Billie Holiday and Lester Young: Complete Studio Recordings

KELCIE MCKENNEY

Howard Iceberg

Favorite TV show: The Sopranos or Curb Your Enthusiasm Last book you read: The Pugilist At Rest,

by Thom Jones

AN ELDER STATESMAN OF KANSAS CITY ROOTS MUSIC RETURNS WITH A CONCEPT ALBUM.

BY DAVID HUDNALL

After working as an immigration lawyer in Kansas City for nearly four decades, Howard Eisberg began sliding into retirement a couple years ago. He received his official approval from the Missouri Bar to be placed on inactive status in early 2017.

Three days later, Trump announced his first travel ban.

“I was back on a teleconference the next day with immigration lawyers,” he says.

“I’m gonna try to stay retired, but will probably get dragged back in, in some volunteer role, if the deportations start to be massive.

Like in the movie: I tried to get out, and they pulled me back in.”

Happily, Eisberg’s alter ego — the prolific roots songwriter known as Howard Iceberg — still has plenty of fight left in him as well. Last month marked the release of Netherlands, the latest record from Howard Iceberg and the Titanics. It’s a bit of a departure. His croaky voice and tuneful songs are present as ever, but it’s a story-based album — a first for the 70-year-old troubadour. “[It] chronicles an imaginary love story from beginning to end, with all its highs and lows,” Iceberg says. “Each song is a chapter in that story. It’s made up, like all love stories.”

Musically, it’s filled with more horns

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THE PITCH | April 2018 | pitch.com

and piano than previous work — the byproduct of recording with “some KC jazz cats,” he says. Iceberg describes Netherlands as a nod to the Great American Songbook in terms of its themes and structure. But why name a Great American Songbook record after another country?

“I wrote and recorded a song for the album called ‘All the Places That We Never Went,’ and I pictured Netherlands as one of those places,” Iceberg says. “The song didn’t make the final cut. But the place did.”

Netherlands is streaming now on Bandcamp. Below, Iceberg’s responses to The Pitch Questionnaire.

•

•

•

Hometown: Kansas City, start to finish Neighborhood: Westside, 35 years Describe yourself: I used to be a lawyer who wrote songs. Now I’m a songwriter who used to practice law.

What’s your addiction? Caffeine What’s your game? Poker

“EACH SONG IS A CHAPTER IN A LOVE STORY. IT’S MADE UP, LIKE ALL LOVE STORIES.”

What’s your hidden talent? Empathy (or possibly self-delusion) What’s your guiltiest pleasure? Jimmy John’s Who is your sidekick? My pal Fred What’s your closest brush with fame?

The tribute show they threw for me in 2012, with about 50 musicians singing songs of mine. Many people who heard about the show but didn’t go assumed I died, and I ran into a number of surprised people in the weeks after.

Who’s your hero? Martin Luther King What’s your current greatest struggle?

Coca-Cola What’s the best advice you ever got?

Be who you are where you are.

What was the last thing you had to apologize for? My big mouth What makes Kansas City special for you: My friends, the music scene, my memories

pitch.com | APril 2018 | THE piTCH

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POLITICS

Hats in the Ring CHASE CASTOR

MISSOURI WOMEN ARE RAMPING UP TO RUN FOR OFFICE.

BY TRACI ANGEL

It’s International Women’s Day, and Hillary Shields is early — 25 minutes, to be exact.

It’s been less than four months since Shields narrowly lost a state senate seat to Republican Mike Cierpiot in her Lee’s Summit district. Her campaign ran on grit and the steady hum of neighborhood-canvassing volunteers, many of whom drove from all over the metro area to help.

But she was up against a big, dark tsunami of Republican money that crashed down on local media markets, outspending Shields’ campaign 10 to 1. The ad campaign included a commercial that lied about Shields’ stance regarding a state lawmaker who made questionable comments about the president. “They didn’t have anything real,” Shields says, “so they had to make stuff up.”

The loss has not deterred Shields. On February 27, the first day to file for the district’s next race, she signed up to run again.

She’ll likely face Cierpiot.

On this Thursday evening in early March, Shields is joined at the Uptown Arts Bar by dozens of other similarly determined women. They’re tired of holding their breath while looking at their newsfeeds and looking to do more than “Like” anti-Trump Facebook posts. It’s time for action at the local, state, and national levels, and it begins

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THE PITCH | April 2018 | pitch.com

with the elections this fall.

“It starts with the idea that a lot of people believe women are the biggest solution to what is going on,” Uptown Arts Bar owner Greg Patterson tells me before the event.

“Women are the key to changing politics in our country, and I am trying to support women who are progressive.”

One by one, local women running for (or currently holding) political office take the Uptown Arts Bar stage and speak about their experiences, their challenges, and their goals. Shields goes first, noting that she recognizes in the crowd the faces of people who knocked on doors for her last fall. She says she went through various stages of grief after the 2016 election, including anger and denial.

“I never quite got to acceptance,” she says. “People were attacking my values, attacking families in my community, attacking public schools.”

Shields organized Indivisible KC events to talk about health care and hold rallies outside local Congressional offices.

“The people who were supposed to be representing me were not,’’ she says. “The answer was that we need better people, and we need better policy.”

Renee Hoagenson is challenging Vicki Hartzler in Missouri’s 4th Congressional

Upcoming “Women in Politics” events at the Uptown Arts Bar

Saturday, May 12

A benefit for Planned Parenthood. 7-9 p.m. $10 cover

Wednesday, July 25

“Orange Day” to benefit Moms Against Guns, 7 p.m.

Tuesday, Nov. 6

Election Day watch party and celebration, 7 p.m.

District this fall. Much of the money she has raised for the seat (which represents 26 counties, and includes a boundary touching the southeastern Kansas City metro area) has been from small donations. Her platform includes campaign finance reform and taking the redistricting decisions out of politicians’ hands. “I want a Congress that is not interested in padding the pocketbook,” of itself and its friends, Hoagenson says.

Lauren Arthur is running for State Senate District 17 in a special election on June 5, after serving in the Missouri House for the last four years. She went into politics because she thought that millennials were not well represented in the state.

“My reward [for winning] was being confused with an intern, a daughter, a wife, anything but,” a lawmaker, Arthur says. She has seen women mistreated, disrespected, and dismissed in meetings and hearings.

But, she says, “I’ve also seen women come together in so many rooms like this.”

Like others who spoke that night, Keri Ingle, who is running for a Missouri House seat, mentioned that she didn’t see herself as a politician, but as a daughter, a mother, a friend, and a social worker. She held her two-month-old daughter after the 2016 election and vowed to help create “a community and world she would thrive in and feel safe in,” says Ingle, who has worked in hospitals and health centers for women and children and marginalized populations.

At the local level, Stacey Johnson-Cosby is running for a sixth district city council seat in Kansas City. She formed her committee in February and is expected to officially launch her campaign in May. It was her first

time speaking as a candidate. She works in real estate and wants to bring attention to the housing shortage, help create highpaying jobs, and emphasize transportation issues in Kansas City. And she hopes to put together a road map for “outsiders” seeking to run for office that will help them navigate the political process.

“I’d like to put together a big list of volunteer opportunities and make it well known,” Johnson-Cosby says, “with one place to look so someone could find a vol-

Alissia Canady (above) and Hillary Shields addressed the crowd in early March.

unteer role and make an impact.”

A theme of being political-candidate newcomers underscores the evening, but many with experience joined them and offered encouragement. Judy Morgan, who is serving in the Missouri House, addressed the crowd, as did McClain Bryant Macklin, who is policy director for Kansas City Mayor

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pitch.com | April 2018 | THE PITCH

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POLITICS

Flip Flop WE’RE OLD ENOUGH TO REMEMBER WHEN KEVIN CORLEW WASN’T SUCH A CHAMPION OF WOMEN’S WORKPLACE RIGHTS.

BY BARBARA SHELLY

The first of several female-centric political gatherings planned for the coming months.

Sly James and serves on the elected board of trustees for Metropolitan Community College. Crystal Williams of the Jackson County Legislature spoke of feminist intersectionality ­— the idea that people of color and other ethnicities need to be involved in the growing push for women in office.

Will it all be enough to push out the increasingly noxious Republican party and engage younger voters on the left? A woman named Heather Rozzo sits near the stage, sipping her drink. Rozzo voted for Bernie Sanders in the primary, Hillary Clinton in the general.

“We need more women in politics to fix things,” she says. “It’s really ridiculous that we are half the population and do not have the same representation in public office.”

But, she adds, observing the relative lack of young women in the audience, “A lot of younger voters are upset with the Democrats. They are wanting something further left.”

CHASE CASTOR

“IT’S REALLY RIDICULOUS THAT WE ARE HALF THE POPULATION AND DO NOT HAVE THE SAME REPRESENTATION IN PUBLIC OFFICE.”

Rural Uprising

METROPOLITAN AREAS LIKE KANSAS CITY AREN’T THE ONLY PLACES IN MISSOURI WHERE TRUMP’S ELECTION HAS PROMPTED WOMEN TO ACTION.

BY TRACI ANGEL

A month after the 2016 election, I wrote a Pitch story about how much Mexico, Missouri, a smallish town in the north-central part of the state, had changed since I left there as a young person. Many people back in Mexico read the piece as a direct personal attack on them. But I also received kind words from people who had grown up in rural areas and watched how things have shifted in their hometowns. These people, like

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THE PITCH | April 2018 | pitch.com

me, were puzzled as to how the same people they’d grown up with could support our current president’s sentiments and policies.

Those who read all the way to the end of the piece would have found that I nevertheless expressed hope in the future of the Mexico community. Ayanna Shivers — with whom, full disclosure, I attended high school at Mexico Senior High — is one of the reasons I continue to have such hope.

In late February, on Facebook, Missouri Rep. Kevin Corlew officially, if belatedly, became a friend of the #MeToo movement.

“As our law currently stands, if a person has been sexually harassed or abused in the workplace, employers can require confidentiality or non-disclosure agreements when arbitrating,” he wrote in a post. “That’s why I filed [House Bill] 2552. Workplace policy must change to make sure that victims of sexual harassment can expose their harassers if they choose. No longer will perpetrators be able to hide under a cloak of secrecy.”

The bill represents smart politics on Corlew’s part. A Republican who represents a Northland district that includes parts of Kansas City, Riverside, and a few other smaller communities, Corlew is campaigning to win a special election for the Missouri Senate seat recently vacated by Ryan Silvey.

It’s a district where Democrats hold a registration edge. And Corlew’s Democratic opponent, Lauren Arthur, has been speaking and voting on behalf of #MeToo since before it even became a movement.

That Corlew is trying to brand himself as an ally to women who are sexually harassed in the workplace is a deeply ironic twist, though. Corlew was for secrecy in workplace lawsuits — or at least neutral about it — long before he was against it.

As a matter of fact, arbitration has been a core Corlew issue from the time he was

“EVERYBODY ON THE CITY COUNCIL LOOKED THE SAME. IT WAS VERY HOMOGENEOUS.” Ayanna Shivers

seated in the legislature in 2015. Responding to lobbying on the part of Hallmark Cards, Inc., the Missouri Chamber of Commerce, and some other business groups, Corlew has sponsored legislation every year that would make it harder for people with workplace grievances to take their cases to court. He wants arbitrators themselves, not courts, to decide if an employee’s workplace agreement binds the employee to arbitration.

Corlew, a lawyer, attempts to frame his legislation as a matter of fairness.

“Given my background as an attorney, I’ve understood a lot of the issues surrounding the litigation environment here in Missouri, and I thought I’d work on some of those issues to make sure we have a fair court system for all individuals,” he tells The Pitch.

Arbitration isn’t necessarily fair, however. As Arthur points out in an op-ed published in The Kansas City Star, arbitrators are paid by the parties in a dispute “and because employers are recurring customers, arbitrators have financial incentive to favor those employers.”

Arthur also notes that arbitration agreements frequently bind both parties to confidentiality. “This means that [victims] cannot share their story with friends, family members, or support networks. Vitally, it also means that they cannot hold perpetrators of sexual abuse publicly accountable or

Since moving back to Mexico in 2014 — she previously worked in the counseling education department at South Carolina State University — Shivers has organized events, won a city council seat, mentored young people, and generally been a driving force in town. She recently decided to run for a state senate seat.

Shivers’ political ambitions are a timely example of grassroots efforts sprouting up across Missouri. Officials at the Missouri Secretary of State office do not track the number of female candidates, communications director Maura Browning told me. But a look at candidates on file in late March shows that about a dozen women are running for the 17 state senate seats up for election this fall. Many other women have filed to run for U.S. Congress, state offices, and

POLITICS

ARTHUR (ABOVE) HAS FOUGHT LEGISLATION THAT WOULD SILENCE THOSE SPEAKING OUT ABOUT HARASSMENT IN THE WORKPLACE.

state house races.

I interviewed Shivers in late March, one day before she officially put in her name for the race.

You have a doctorate in education, a master’s in education in school counseling, a master’s in theology, and a bachelor’s in journalism. And you had a nice career on the East Coast. Why did you decide to return to your hometown in the middle of Missouri?

I thought I was going to move closer to home, but not necessarily back to Missouri.

Then I realized I wanted to be closer. I would come back [to Mexico] for a month in the summer because I was off work and would see there was a need [here] to start working with some kids. But you can’t help anybody in a month. You can put a Band-aid on it,

warn co-workers.”

Corlew didn’t seem too worried about silencing the victims of sexual harassment when he sparred with Democratic Rep. Gina Mitten, a lawyer from St. Louis, during a committee hearing in the Capitol in late January.

Mitten pointed out that many arbitration pacts, including those in sexual harassment allegations, contain confidentiality agreements. “Meaning the public is never, ever, ever aware of the sexual harassment claims that are made against employers. I personally have a problem with that,” she said.

“Well,” Corlew replied, “this bill does not deal with the public relations aspect of whether someone has a claim or not.”

“Are you implying that sexual harassment claims are public relations problems?”

Mitten shot back.

“No, I’m not,” Corlew said. He clarified that his bill does not impose a gag order on any party in an arbitration proceeding. (But it doesn’t prohibit it, either.)

For a while, it looked like 2018 would be the year Corlew would achieve the feat that would endear him to corporations and business groups. (Which, as it happens, are enthusiastic contributors to state senatorial campaigns.) His bill cleared the committee process and was headed for a vote on the House floor.

Then came the brakes, pumped by an individual nobody expected. Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley joined attorneys general from every other state in signing a letter asking Congress to outlaw arbitration in sexual harassment cases.

Hawley’s signature put House Republicans in a tight spot. Corlew’s bill contained no carve-out for sexual harassment cases.

And it wouldn’t look good for the caucus to take a vote that put legislators at odds with their party’s candidate for U.S. Senate in November. In fact, a lot of legislators decided this might be a good year to pass on the mandatory arbitration issue altogether.

That left Corlew twisting in the wind.

He rallied by taking an amendment that Mitten had tried to attach to his original bill, and using it to sponsor new legislation banning confidentiality agreements in sexual harassment arbitration.

Corlew tells The Pitch his thinking had evolved as his bill was debated in committee and news headlines served up daily helpings of the harassment that takes place in workplace settings.

“It really had been brought to light over the last six months or so, with the claims against prominent men in business and sports and things like that,” Corlew says. “I think that really has shone a light on a need for these kinds of protections.”

Arthur sees her opponent’s change of heart differently.

“He tried to co-opt the criticism and make it his idea,” she says. “And now he’s actively promoting his bill.”

The arbitration dustup is a prelude for what is certain to be a hotly contested special election for Missouri Senate District 17 in Clay County, scheduled for June 5. The seat became vacant after Gov. Eric Greitens nominated its most recent occupant, Ryan Silvey, for a well-paying seat on the state’s Public Service Commission. Silvey, a centrist Republican with a habit of thinking for himself, had become a headache for GOP leaders, and the job offer got him out of the way.

Silvey had won election twice in the Democratic-leaning district, where 57 per-

cent of voters chose Jason Kander over Roy Blunt in 2016. But neither of Silvey’s opponents could claim Arthur’s credentials or star power. Arthur, elected in 2014, is a former teacher who now is regional director for a leadership program. She is admired in her district and in the legislature for her hard work and ability to distill issues.

Corlew has been a go-getter as well.

After losing a House race to Democrat Jon Carpenter in 2012, he won a spot on the board of education of the North Kansas City School District. He ran in a different legislative district in 2014 and won.

Corlew notes that his legislative district also has a Democratic voting edge. He generally follows Silvey’s playbook in veering from the GOP party line on a few key issues.

He didn’t support the legislature’s ultimately successful attempt to undermine collective bargaining with its so-called right to work agreement, for instance. Like Arthur, Corlew has called for Greitens to resign as the governor deals with a scandal involving an affair with his hair stylist.

Arthur says she expects Corlew to outmatch her in fundraising, as competitive Republicans usually do in Missouri races. But Democrats — and women — are fired up for this year’s elections. Since her first term, Arthur has spoken out against the sexual harassment and bad behavior that is baked into the culture of the Missouri legislature.

She vigorously protested legislation last year that makes it harder for employees to prove discrimination cases against former employers. Corlew was outspoken in support.

All of which is to say, if Corlew hopes to make support of women and workers a plank of his campaign, he’s going to need more than a hastily assembled piece of legislation and a Facebook post.

but you can’t fix it.

You returned back to the community in August of 2014. In three short years, you have taken roles on various boards, founded a nonprofit, and you pastor at a nearby church, all in addition to your job as college placement and counseling director at Missouri Military Academy. Why did you decide to run for public office?

I started going to the city council meetings because I would hear people complain and wanted to see what they were saying.

Everyone on the council looked the same.

It was very homogeneous. I thought, “You know what, I see something that needs to be done and, worst-case scenario, I fail.” I lost the first [race in April 2016], but what happened is that people who didn’t go out to vote could see that I only lost by a few points.

It hit them. Actually, me losing might have been the best thing that happened. I thought about running for the [Missouri] House of Representatives, but it looked like the senate might be the best race for me. I was approached by the [Democratic] party and I knew I had that backing.

You mentioned after you were elected to the city council that you hoped to get more people involved in the community.

How has that worked out?

Last fall, ADM [Archer Daniels Midland, a global food processing company] had been buying up property in what used to be the historically black part of town, and they wanted to rezone it for commercial. I stayed away from the [planning and zoning] meeting, but 40 people showed up, and they [the planning and zoning com-

mission] were shocked. The person [heading] the department said that they couldn’t move forward because they had so much opposition and would need more information. It’s really important to go to local city council meetings because it makes them more accountable.

What do you think the biggest challenges will be for you as you campaign in the coming months?

As a school counselor, I can see both sides of issues. My biggest goal is to get people to think about what is polarizing them and find what they have in common. What can we really do that will positively impact the quality of life for the majority of our constituents? And, hey, let’s move on to funding our educational systems and having affordable health care. pitch.com | April 2018 | THE PITCH

11

NEWS

Making a Donator THE MIDWEST INNOCENCE PROJECT LOOKS TO THE NEXT GENERATION.

BY KELCIE MCKENNEY

The statistics are staggering: between two and seven percent of all prisoners in the U.S. are innocent. That means at least 40,000 people — and as many as 155,000 people — are rotting behind bars for no reason. Ryan Ferguson (pictured right) was once among these ranks. He spent nearly ten years in prison for a murder committed in Columbia, Missouri, in 2001. He was 17 at the time.

“You miss a portion of your life, and for me it was all of my twenties,” Ferguson, who now lives in Florida but was back in Missouri recently to visit his father, says. “Even now, I’m still struggling to figure out my place in this world.”

Freeing wrongfully convicted people like Ferguson is complex work that takes time, money, and compassion. In the states of Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, and Arkansas, this work often falls to the Mid-

west Innocence Project (MIP), the local chapter of the national nonprofit that’s “dedicated to the investigation, litigation, and exoneration of wrongfully convicted men and women.” The MIP’s nine-person staff, plus a collection of volunteers, are constantly pushing boulders up judicial hills in the heartland. But it’s not cheap.

“Trying to bring people’s cases back in the courts, after all the doors have already been closed on them — it’s extraordinary work,” says Matthew Merryman, an attorney who volunteers with the MIP. “And they do it on shoestrings.”

Currently, the MIP has 13 cases in litigation with a list of 78 approved for investigation — meaning witness interviews, DNA testing, forensic testing, and more needs to be completed before litigation. On top of those numbers is an ever-growing list of

LARRY F. LEVENSON

560 applicants waiting to be screened. MIP director and attorney Tricia Bushnell leads every case, along with another staff attorney and volunteers, including law students, who help screen the applicants and develop strategy.

“The biggest obstacle is that we have a system that values finality over fairness,” Bushnell says. “The United States Supreme Court has yet to find that innocence alone is a reason to let someone out of prison.”

Bushnell adds: “Missouri is ranked 49th

in the country for funding for public defenders. What that means is, because we don’t pay for justice on the front end, it’s even more expensive to find on the back end.”

Fundraising is how some of those back-end costs are defrayed. The Faces of Innocence Gala, held on Thursday, April 26, at KC’s downtown Marriott, will include speakers Ferguson and Amanda Knox, who spent four years in an Italian prison for a wrongful murder conviction. The Gala is the primary fundraising event for the MIP, a

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NEWS

magnet for big law firms and deep-pocketed donors looking to give to a worthy cause.

But the MIP needs more than just money. It needs a broader awareness of its mission. Recognizing this, Merryman founded the Next Gen Board in 2016 as a way to reach a younger demographic.

“The idea was to bring in some young money,” says Kathleen Irish, current president of the Next Gen Board and an immigration attorney since 2009. “[To find people] under 40 and help them find ways to get involved.”

The Faces of Innocence Gala is $150 for a ticket — a prohibitive cost for many socially conscious young people. But entry to the Champions of Justice event (featuring music and the stories of local exonerees), to be held on October 2 at RecordBar, is only $10.

“That by itself gets into 200 people’s minds that may not have ever known about [the MIP] before,” Irish says. “That’s something. That’s planting a seed.”

Social media has also helped connect MIP with younger generations, especially through MIPSO, the Midwest Innocence Project Student Organization through the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law. Its fundraisers and GoFundMe

“NO ONE LEAVES PRISON EMOTIONALLY UNSCATHED. AND THE PROCESS OF HEALING ONLY BEGINS WHEN AN EXONOREE IS RELEASED.” Tricia Bushnell

drives help support recent exonerees once they’re free. These services are especially necessary in Missouri and Kansas, which are two of 18 states where exonerees receive no compensation and aren’t entitled to reintegration services after being released.

“They don’t even give you an apology,” Ferguson says. “They just kick you out the door, and you’re gone. It’s pretty amazing that they won’t even provide the most basic of assistance.”

Lacking a job, a work history, a residential history, steady income, and credit, recent exonerees face long odds securing basic needs. Ferguson had a supportive family, friends, and financial resources that helped him build a life after exoneration. But that’s rare.

“I feel like my story is an anomaly that doesn’t even warrant a reason to talk about,” Ferguson says. “I’ve had more than most exonerees ever will have upon leaving.” “[Exonerees] have endured what some mental-health experts have analogized to torture,” Bushnell says. “No one leaves prison emotionally unscathed. And the process of healing only begins when an exoneree is released.”

MIP’s success seems to be gradually

translating into awareness of these postprison obstacles. Headlines continue to note the injustice of sending people like Richard Jones (who served 17 years after being wrongfully convicted of snatching a purse) and Lamont McIntyre (23 years for a murder he didn’t commit; see The Pitch’s 2017 story) back out into the world without a dime in their pockets. Currently wending its way through the Kansas legislature is Senate Bill 336, which would pay exonerees $80,000 for every year of wrongful imprisonment, minus civil judgments from lawsuits. It would also require that records be expunged and purged.

For Merryman, this is why the Faces of Innocence gala and the Next Gen Board’s mission of reaching out to younger activists is so necessary: it attracts the attention and resources that ultimately drive policy on a local (and, ideally, national) level. It has also inspired Merryman to get in the political ring. He’s currently mounting a challenge to Jackson County Executive Frank White.

“If we all just sit around and wait for change to create itself, then we are all going to be sitting around for a very long time,” Merryman says. “If you don’t step up and lead, who will?”

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13

PROFILE

The Ambassador

AT THE AGE OF 30, HERMON MEHARI IS ALREADY ONE OF KC’S TOP CULTURAL EXPORTS. HOW LONG CAN WE KEEP CLAIMING HIM?

BY NATALIE GALLAGHER

To catch a glimpse of Hermon Mehari in his element, you could do worse than attend the Mardi Gras party his jazz-soul band, the Buhs, has held the last four years running.

The 2018 soirée, held on a cold, mid-February night inside a West Bottoms warehouse, had a DIY superhero theme, which meant that, in addition to the feathered and glittery Mardi Gras outfits, a handful of homemade Supermen, Wonder Women, vikings, and wizards were roaming the space. There was a guy on stilts. There was a Joker. Mehari — lithe, with a thin, dark mustache and a bright smile — wore a makeshift Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle costume.

Strip away the costumes, though, and you’d find an interesting Kansas City crosssection of artists, musicians, service industry folk, and revelers with a nose for a good time.

Howard Hanna, chef-owner at the Rieger, manned the gumbo station. Boldface-name bartenders Andrew Olsen (bar manager, Rye) and Brock Schulte (The Monarch) served up cocktails. The Buhs, born out of a one-off Michael Jackson tribute concert five years ago, are themselves a mix of diverse and exciting talents; members include soul singer Julia Haile, rappers Reach and Les Izmore, and Mehari, who is best known as a jazz trumpeter.

During the Buhs’ set, Mehari stood at the side of the stage, one hand clasped around his trumpet and the other tucked under his arm. He shifted to the spotlight for a few solos, but for the most part, he stayed in the shadows, quietly lifting the talents of the musicians around him: Haile’s buttery voice; Reach’s thick lines and Les Izmore’s twisting flow; Ryan Lee’s dynamic drumming; the thudding bass from Ben Leifer; and Matt Villinger’s twinkling keys.

His head keeping time with the beat of every song and a grin etched into his face, Mehari seemed to be drinking in the moment. He had earned it, having organized everything from lining up the talent to booking the venue to coordinating security. Even the video collage displaying on a screen behind the stage was his own creation. If he were anyone else, Mehari might have a side-hustle as an event planner. But there’s no time: He is one of Kansas City’s most in-demand musicians — despite a home address in Paris.

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Seated at the Rieger chef ’s counter on the Tuesday prior to the Buhs show, Mehari or-

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THE PITCH | April 2018 | pitch.com

ders some shared plates and sips a few glasses of red wine. He’s a self-described “natural wine nerd” these days, though he didn’t start drinking until he was 26. He didn’t want the distraction. He was focused on working at his craft and making a name for himself as a jazz musician in Kansas City. It didn’t take him too long.

“KC is unique in that there are a bunch of musicians, and we’re playing almost every night of the week, sometimes multiple times a night,” Mehari says, “and I guess, in moving [to Paris], I sacrificed that bubble of comfort of not having to worry about booking stuff and having things set up. But … ” He blows a raspberry. “That’s one of those things that could be a sacrifice, but it’s also a release to get away from that routine, especially if you want more than that. And I want more than that.”

In retrospect, it seems naive to think we could have kept Mehari to ourselves here in Kansas City. A first-generation American born to Eritrean refugees, he arrived in Kansas City in 2006 already a budding jazz prodigy, with scholarship offers from Berklee College of Music and Eastman School of Music. But Mehari was from Jefferson City, and the famed saxophonist Bobby Watson was the director of jazz studies at the University of Missouri-Kansas City’s Conservatory of Music and Dance. So KC it was.

He has racked up awards and prestige ever since: the National Trumpet Competition (2008, while still enrolled at UMKC); a record deal with Seattle’s Origin Records for his group, Diverse Jazz, in 2009; second place in the International Trumpet Guild competition in Sydney, Australia (2010); semifinalist in the Thelonious Monk Jazz Competition (2014); and the winner of the Carmine Caruso International Trumpet Competition (2015).

Local music enthusiasts know Mehari less for these accomplishments than for just being a guy who’s kind of everywhere: jazz spots like the Blue Room and the Majestic; collaborating with rappers and rockers at venues like RecordBar; gigging some fancy private party; grabbing coffee at Broadway Cafe. During his short trip back to KC in February, he lined up the Buhs show, a few nights at champagne bar Ça Va, a performance at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, and — the main reason for the flight from Paris — to play trumpet at a

Bobby Watson-led tribute to Kansas City jazz at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, featuring the Kansas City Symphony. Mehari calls Watson his mentor; Watson considers Mehari “family.”

“He’s a good ambassador for the music,” Watson says of Mehari. “He has the social skills that it takes to be in a social art form such as jazz. If you’re gonna be a jazz musician, you don’t sit around the house waiting for the phone to ring. You can’t stay at home and practice and expect things to happen. You have to go out, you got to be a regular on the scene so people get to know you. It’s about relationships in this music.

You’ve got to go out and take your horn with you and be ready to sit in if someone asks you. You’re a traveling salesman: You’re selling your talent, your vibe, your gift, and you gotta keep it moving.”

Heeding this advice, or perhaps just intuiting it, Mehari and his bandmates in Diverse spent a month in Paris in 2010, playing shows and networking.

“That trip was an investment,” Mehari says. “We wanted to open up opportunities. We spent the days checking out the city, and our nights we spent gigging or going to jam sessions and meeting other musicians.”

It paid off: By 2016, Mehari had been to Paris over half a dozen times, both with Diverse and at the request of other ensembles.

Paris became the jumping-off point for any European tours he had routed. At the

end of 2016, Mehari began to transition his permanent residence there. He received a three-year artist visa. Those are difficult to obtain; applicants are required to prove that their gift is beneficial to the nation of France and worthy of “artist” status.

“Being around Hermon really made me believe that a lot more things are possible than you might think,” says Diverse drummer Ryan Lee. “I would shoot things down in my mind, and he would say, ‘Of course, we can go and spend a month in Paris.’ I think a lot of artists doubt themselves, but Hermon never thought like that. He has a way of elevating whoever he’s working with, and I think at heart, he’s trying to push us and make us realize what we’ve got to offer

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“HE’S LIVING IN THE MOMENT, WHICH IS WHAT ALL ARTISTS SHOULD DO. I THINK HE REPRESENTS WHERE MUSIC IS AT TODAY IN THE 21ST CENTURY.” Bobby Watson

Mehari and the Buhs celebrate Mardi Gras in a West Bottoms warehouse.

to the world.”

And it’s the whole world that Mehari is interested in — which is the real reason Paris holds such appeal.

“For me, it’s not really about being in Paris — it’s about being in Europe,” Mehari says, “because once you’re in Europe, travel is easy. It takes me the same amount of time to go from Paris to Rome or Madrid as it takes me to go from Kansas City to New York. On a train, I can get to Belgium in two hours and London in three. That’s what makes sense for me.”

Plus, American jazz artists are something of a novelty across the pond. Demand is high for good ones, and the ample amount of European jazz festivals that populate spring and summer calendars offer innumerable (and often lucrative) opportunities for musicians to perform and sell records.

Mehari can work multiple angles this way: as an individual player invited to shows across the continent, or by arranging his own tours with the Hermon Mehari Quartet (a rotating cast that usually includes some combination of Lee, vibraphonist/ pianist Peter Schlamb, bassist Karl McComas-Reichl, drummer John Kizilarmut, and a few others).

Mehari also keeps a permanent gig at a Paris café called La Fontaine de Belleville, where he is in charge of the music program; he plays there every Saturday as long as he’s in town. The show draws a reli-

able turnout of café regulars, musicians and out-of-towners in the know — a healthy, varied crowd that speaks to Mehari’s likability almost as much as it does to his skill as a musician.

“Hermon has always thought that the world is bigger than Kansas City,” Schlamb says. “He’ll just pick up and go somewhere and bring his trumpet, and he’ll meet people and musicians and chefs and bartenders, everyone who is doing something cool. He’s passionate about people who are passionate about what they do.”

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Last year, Mehari released Bleu, his debut album. It was well-received critically and held the top spot on the iTunes jazz charts for a short time. It was also the first album Mehari had ever worked on that was entirely his — a truly personal creative statement.

“It’s interesting when it’s your first album, and it’s the first thing that you’re proud to say, This is me,” Mehari says. “[It was shaped by my] experiences from day zero. It was just something I needed to do.

It’s something I feel like I’ll be proud of 10 or 15 years from now.”

Bleu was also shaped, in large part, by Mehari’s father, who died of a heart attack while he was on tour in Mexico, shortly before he began recording. While Mehari’s mom was wholly supportive of his career, his dad, like many immigrant parents, was less enthusiastic about his son choosing the life of an artist.

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PROFILE

“My dad, I had to convince him that what I was doing was right,” Mehari says.

“He came to understand that before he passed ... He was ultimately proud of me and happy to see me succeed in the world.

But him passing made me feel like, ‘OK, I’m more of an adult and a man now. I don’t have him holding me up anymore. It’s more me.’ I felt like I had to record Bleu.”

Mehari assembled a dream band for the recording. Pianist Aaron Parks, based in Seattle, is a celebrated jazz prodigy and composer in his own right; Kansas-born alto-saxophonist Logan Richardson is considered a rising star of the contemporary jazz world; New York City-based Rick Rosato is an acclaimed jazz bassist. Lee and Schlamb, Mehari’s longtime friends and collaborators, completed the ensemble.

Bleu covers a variety of material, all of which seems to nod in different ways to Mehari’s priorities. He offers up original arrangements, friends’ originals, and some standards. The standards are reinvented under Mehari’s direction, and the album hopscotches between rapid electronic tantrums and slow-burning, hair-raising trumpet solos. Mehari even threads in a cover of Nick Hakim’s “Cold,” featuring singer Kevin Johnson; it’s the only song with lyr-

Tim Braun (left), Mehari, and Reach (seated in background) prep for an upcoming show.

ics, and it’s the clearest example of Mehari’s R&B influence, though there’s plenty other evidence. In all, Bleu is an impressive collec-

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tion that does more than show off Mehari’s technique: It glimpses his vision.

Watson agrees. On Bleu, he says Mehari’s respect for jazz traditions doesn’t cloud his creativity: He’s not trying to recreate a certain era or emulate anyone else’s style.

“He’s living in the moment, which is what all artists should do,” Watson says. “I think he represents where music is at today in the 21st century.”

There is no hiding in jazz. True talent is easy to spot — fired off a velvet-curtained

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PROFILE

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stage, you can hear it clear as a gunshot.

You can spot a phony just as easily, too. A lot of musicians transcribe in jazz: They learn notes and licks — motifs or an idea over bars of a song — verbatim. When a jazz player improvises, he might pull out a lick he has memorized and manipulate that harmony into other songs, embellish on it.

“Hermon has done a lot of transcribing on licks and stuff, but I’ve never heard him play a line that somebody else has played,” Lee says. “He uses the concept, but never the exact thing. If the concept is the range, he spits out the note an octave higher. The way that he’s pieced together how to play and improvise is based on minimal nuggets — four notes here and there — and over time, those things have connected. There’s no collection quite like that. The great innovators do that.”

Mehari has a high degree of natural ability, but he’s also logged countless hours of practice. The trumpet is a physically demanding instrument: Hitting the soaring notes Mehari achieves requires powerful diaphragm muscles and a tightly controlled embouchure. For serious trumpeters, this means daily practice, no matter the skill level. In high school, Mehari practiced three or four hours a day and gigged every weekend with a friend’s family band; at the Conservatory, he practiced as many as five hours a day, on top of taking lessons and attending rehearsals for the numerous ensembles and projects in which he participated.

He’s also incredibly deliberate about what he wants to learn and practice “His freshman year in college, he’d study all these different things really intensely,” Schlamb recalls. “He had a month called bebop month, where he listened to bebop recordings from a very specific period. He did that for a few months in a row with different things.”

“I remember he used to say, ‘This month, I’m only doing Clifford Brown, next month I’m doing Lee Morgan,’” Watson says.

Schlamb: “He was good at compartmentalizing and figuring out the structural elements of music and systematically working his way through it to improve on his instrument.”

It might surprise jazz fans to learn that these days, Mehari’s laser focus is trained on learning the ins and outs of music production software like Ableton Live. He’s got a new project in mind, one that pivots off his jazz background toward a more modern, electronic aesthetic.

“Right now, the project is called Noir — and it’s noir in every way you think noir is,” Mehari says.

Presentation will be a key component: Mehari is an avid photographer, and he’s building visual and video elements to

feature in his shows. He won’t be booking jazz venues with Noir: He’s aiming for rock clubs and electronic festivals. And unlike most of Mehari’s other projects — Diverse, the Buhs — Noir will be tied to his name.

“I want people to recognize this as me,” he says. “The branding of it is going to be Hermon Mehari. The album will be called Noir. That’s kind of my way of stepping away from the jazz branding. Doing it this way can open me up to collaboration with DJs and producers across other genres. I’m already meeting some amazing people in Europe that are on top of the world in those areas.”

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Friday, February 9, was a celebratory evening at Helzberg Hall. The show, “A Tribute to Kansas City Jazz: From Basie to Bebop,” drew a crowd eager to hear the city’s jazz heritage played back to them by Watson, the Symphony, and special guests like Mehari.

“Being able to play those arrangements that way at the Kauffman — that was like winning the championship game,” Watson says. “It was a bucket list item. Some of those arrangements that we played, I’d been hearing since I was a kid.”

Vocalist David Basse delivered a theatrical rendition of “Everyday I Have the Blues,” and Deborah Brown lent her voice to a shatteringly poignant “How Deep is the Ocean.” But it was “Wilkes’ BBQ,” a cut from Watson’s own The Gates BBQ Suite — a seven-part suite Watson recorded in 2010 with a hand-picked ensemble from the UMKC Conservatory — that had a thunderstruck audience applauding the hardest.

Mehari, flown in from Paris for the occasion at Watson’s invitation, delivered a rich, soulful solo that twisted and turned and reached around Watson’s funky rhythm, and when he finished, a joyful smile split his face.

Ask anyone about Mehari, and you’ll get a recital of similarly platitudinous adjectives: He’s a hard worker, passionate about what he does. He’s stayed humble, despite the success he’s seen, which only promises to increase. He’s a great listener and a generous friend. He’s figured out how to enjoy life while continuously getting better at living it. Everybody says more or less the same thing, and they all seem to really mean it.

Does Hermon Mehari have it all figured out? Maybe a little bit. Maybe Watson put it best after the show: “Hermon’s just one of those cats.”

Mehari’s local release party for Bleu will be held on Friday, April 13, at 8:30 p.m. at The Blue Room (1600 E. 18th St.) He also performs two shows (3:30 p.m. and 7 p.m.) at Murry’s in Columbia, Missouri, on Sunday, April 15, as part of the “We Always Swing” jazz series.

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ART

Back to the Future

HAW CONTEMPORARY’S FULL-CIRCLE PATH TO THE CROSSROADS.

BY DAVID HUDNALL

“The Crossroads,” John O’Brien told The Kansas City Star in 2007, “is going to continue to develop whether I’m here or not.”

O’Brien, a pioneer of the downtown arts district, was explaining to the paper why he had decided to sell 1901 Baltimore, the building that housed Dolphin Gallery, home to his beloved gallery and frame shop. The buyer of the property was R. Crosby Kemper Jr., founder of the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, which had been looking to set up an outpost in the area’s fast-growing arts scene.

O’Brien took Kemper’s dough and headed down to the West Bottoms, where he reopened the Dolphin at 1600 Liberty, in a big, white, boxy space that felt as much like a museum as it did a gallery.

“I felt we didn’t have a space in this city, other than museums, that lived up to the

quality of the work being produced by our local artists,” O’Brien told me recently. “And I wanted to get out of my comfort zone a little bit. See if I could be a part of making something happen in the West Bottoms, sort of like what I’d been a part of in the Crossroads.”

Prodding him down to the area was Bill Haw, owner of the Livestock Exchange Building and a good chunk of property on the southern edge of the West Bottoms. A few years after opening the new Dolphin, Haw’s son, Bill Haw, Jr., and his family moved back from Tokyo, where Haw had been working as a director for Amazon Japan.

“When I came back in 2010 and walked into the Dolphin for the first time, I didn’t want to leave,” Haw says. “The space is just amazing. And John is kind of a pied-piper type, and I pretty quickly drank the Kool-Aid and got caught up in the magic of the place.

ZACH BAUMAN

I’d be, like, the last guy there drinking beer at 2 a.m. after the opening.”

The Dolphin was, for all intents and purposes, the top gallery in town, a magnet for the most interesting artists in the city. So when, in 2013, O’Brien announced that he planned to close the Dolphin, “people in the visual arts were acting like it was the end of the world — which, it kind of was, in a way,” Haw says.

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over as director of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, and they’d become friends. Haw suggested to Zugazagoitia that the Nelson buy the Dolphin space and turn it into a museum annex for contemporary art.

“And I told Bill that he should buy it instead,” Zugazagoitia says.

“A few days later, I went into my dad’s office and said, ‘Listen to this dumb idea Julián had,’ and he was like, ‘I think that’s a great idea,’” Haw recalls. “I was like, ‘You’re all crazy.’”

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ZACH BAUMAN

Haw continues: “I’d always been really into art and music — I played music all through college and collected art books and all that kind of stuff. But it seemed like such a nonstarter for a career. I always felt like, ‘I gotta make money and send kids to college.’

But being back in Kansas City, and starting to collect art, being around people like John and Julián, I guess I started to see how maybe it could work. And now, five years later, I can see that it’s the best thing I’ve ever done.”

Haw bought the Dolphin building from O’Brien, and Haw Contemporary debuted in 2013.

“I got a year of goodwill from arts supporters because people were just so happy I was keeping what John had done alive,” Haw says. “After that, it was about walking the line of respecting the good things about the Dolphin without just aping it, and putting our own stamp on it, and working really hard at it.”

Haw continued to represent many of the artists in O’Brien’s stable (Wilbur Niewald, Marcie Miller Gross, Anne Lindberg), subtracted a few, and gradually began adding new ones. All the while, he endeavored to preserve and carry forward the Dolphin’s legacy of good times and stimulating art.

“One of the great things about the Dolphin was that people felt like they owned a piece of that place,” Haw says. “Artists, collectors, art kids — I mean, a lot of art kids don’t feel comfortable coming to most galleries. But Dolphin had this loose vibe, and that non-exclusive thing is something we’ve really tried to continue here [with Haw Contemporary]. I like that juxtaposition, where we have the premier space in town, with what I think is the best group of artists in the Midwest, but

the environment itself is very approachable and less off-putting than a lot of other galleries you walk into.”

The success of Haw Contemporary, which now represents about 45 artists, led Haw to start thinking about expanding his gallery. But rather than plant his flag on an embryonic arts landscape — the Northeast, maybe, or Strawberry Hill — Haw this month will open a second location of his gallery amidst the $16 cocktails, luxury apartments, and banks that now populate the Crossroads.

And the address is familiar: 1901 Baltimore, the same building O’Brien owned before moving to the very West Bottoms space Haw Contemporary currently occupies.

•

•

•

In early March, Haw — brown boots, blue jeans, clear-frame glasses, stylishly mussed hair; a youthful 53 — gave me a tour of the new gallery, which opens March 30 with a solo exhibition from Eric Sall. (Haw says he expects the Crossroads space will swap out new work every five or six weeks.

When Sall’s work comes down, a new Archie Scott Gobber exhibition will move in.)

It was late afternoon on a First Friday, and 19th Street was beginning to stir: vendors and artists setting up tables on street corners, speakers blasting down the block at the arcade bar Up-Down. Jay Tomlinson, a principal at Helix Architecture + Design, strode past the north-facing windows and gave a knock and a wave. Suzie Aron, a prominent Crossroads real estate agent, stopped by to say hi and introduce Haw to one of her clients, a young man looking to open a sneaker shop around the corner.

“I wasn’t here, really, when the Crossroads was in its infancy, artistically,” Haw said, in between descriptions of construction materials and light fixtures and layout plans. “But you get the sense that it has kind of morphed into this free-for-all down here...”

He trailed off. Something resembling modesty, or perhaps good business instincts, prevented Haw from saying the full truth, which is that 1.) With the exception of a handful of galleries, much of the art found in the Crossroads these days is either decorative or not particularly interesting (or both), and 2.) This is probably not unrelated to the fact that there is a tremendous amount of money sloshing around down there right now.

Haw’s move to the Crossroads would appear to be an attempt to capitalize on those two realities. Presuming Haw continues to show exciting work from the city’s most talented artists, his gallery will add considerable prestige to the Crossroads, an area that everyday feels less like an arts district and more like a trendy playground for people who work at Cerner. And by occupying a big, prime, visible piece of real estate in the Crossroads, he’ll be able to get his artists the attention of people who can afford to drop some real money.

“I think Bill having a gallery there will give him proximity to more people that are committed collectors,” Zugazagoitia says.

“And I think there are people in Kansas City who are just beginning to collect and explore what they like, and I think it [the new Haw space] is in a good position to give them their first point of entry into that world.”

O’Brien agrees.

“In my Dolphin days, there was maybe 10 collectors in town, but nowadays there’s much more room for new collectors to be

ART

developed,” he says. “And Bill is doing the right kinds of things to engage with them, like serving on corporate boards and meeting new people and all that.”

It also doesn’t hurt that Haw will soon be literally sharing an address with Farina, a new restaurant from the James Beard Awardwinning chef Michael Smith, slated to open later this year. Since former American Century CEO Bill Lyons bought 1901 Baltimore from the Kemper late last year, it’s been divided into two spaces: a 5,500-square-foot area that will house Farina (in which Lyons is an investor) and a 2,000-square-foot gallery for Haw Contemporary.

“I approached Bill because he has the leading gallery operation in the area, and a following not just with customers but also with the artists he represents, who are so loyal to him,” Lyons says. “And with [Farina], I think there’s some overlap in terms of customers there. I think inevitably you’ll peek in the door and see what’s going on in the gallery, and maybe vice versa.”

Does success in the Crossroads require that Haw be more reactive to the whims of the rich? Will the art in the new space reflect these more upscale surroundings?

“Of course: it’s going to be fancy people only,” Haw jokes. “Honestly, though, 80 percent of our sales come from inventory. With lots of galleries, the show is a main driver of revenue. But we have so much storage space down in the Bottoms — plus lately we’ve been selling more paintings just from Instagram posts — that the commercial viability of the show isn’t as important to us as it maybe is to other galleries.”

He goes on: “I think, both here in the Crossroads and in the Bottoms, the shows we put on are more about the artists getting it on their résumés and us having a fun opening. I think there have been shows in the Bottoms where I’ve spent more on beer for the opening than I’ve made selling art at the opening.

But we make it up on the other end. So as far as I’m concerned, as long as everything works financially in the aggregate, then if the Friday opening is just Art Institute kids drinking free beer, then good — great. That’s part of the culture we’re trying to create.”

O’Brien, whose business, Hammer Out Design, is now based in a huge industrial building in Independence, says it’s been a pleasure to observe the full-circle synergy of Haw’s new spaces in O’Brien’s old places.

“Back in 2007, or whenever it was, I felt like I was stretching the rubber band by leaving the Crossroads and going to the Bottoms,” O’Brien says. “And I think Bill is doing the same thing with this. He could sit in the Bottoms in that nice, big space, and be very comfortable. But he’s stretching the rubber band in the other direction, bringing his eye to the Crossroads. You know, some people think art is all one thing. But it’s not. It’s different things.” pitch.com | April 2018 | THE PITCH

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PHOTO

Very Good Boys

BEHIND THE SCENES AT THE HEART OF AMERICA KENNEL CLUB’S ANNUAL DOG SHOW. WORDS AND PHOTOS BY BARRETT EMKE

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THE PITCH | April 2018 | pitch.com

On March 10 and 11, I photographed the Heart of America Kennel Club’s annual cluster of dog shows, held at Hale Arena in the American Royal Center. Professional handlers and owners commingled in this all-breed competition, where the dogs were judged by breed, group, and, finally, best in show. As a casual onlooker, I found the competitive portions of the event to be the least exciting. Formally dressed handlers waited patiently as judges painstakingly evaluated their dogs according to a set of criteria that would seem mysterious to most outside observers.

The real action occurred behind the scenes, in the staging area where the dogs underwent frenzied, meticulous grooming before being whisked to their respective events. Rows of grooming tables and crates extended back into the large, warehouselike space behind Hale Arena. The dizzy rush of competition permeated the room.

Here, the personalities of the dogs and their handlers came to life. Purebred dogs seated on brightly colored towels barked, paced, whined, and reclined stoically as their humans coaxed, washed, brushed, and teased their coats to perfection. The handlers and groomers worked fastidiously, pruning and trimming, all before tossing off their apron to replace it with a jacket or blazer and rushing their dog out to the next event — ad infinitum, all weekend.

pitch.com | April 2018 | THE PITCH

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Germinating

BLACK DIRT, JONATHAN JUSTUS’ LONG-AWAITED SECOND ACT, SPROUTS UP ON THE SOUTH PLAZA.

BY LIZ COOK

Does anything sound more frivolous than a fritter? Order one and try to stop the hard consonants from fizzing off the tip of your tongue. No other food insists so fervently on its own cuteness. Never mind that fritters, by definition, must be battered and fried — and fried foods, say the snobbiest among us, are for TGI Fridays, not lofty bastions of nose-to-tail New American cuisine.

No one got the memo at Black Dirt, the new South Plaza playground for James Beard-nominated chef Jonathan Justus.

Here, the fritters are compulsory. Three golden-brown rounds of rich duck confit and creamy Missouri rice, each the size of a pocket watch, are plated atop a silky, canary-yellow puree of butternut squash and malted barley. Colorful accompaniments — a sour tangle of vibrant red cabbage, a sagegreen dollop of a zippy poblano chive aioli — balance the plate. Chase down a morsel of every ingredient with your fork, and they harmonize to something greater than the sum of their parts.

That’s the promise of Black Dirt, where the dishes are frequently good but occasionally exceptional. Justus and his wife, Camille Eklof, opened the restaurant in January after three years of planning (and three years of breathless, anticipatory press coverage). The couple’s first restaurant, Justus Drugstore, in Smithville, has been a destination for fine dining for over a decade.

It might be tempting to bill Black Dirt as the younger, messier crack-up to Justus Drugstore’s responsible elder sibling. Meals here are simpler and less expensive, and cheaper cuts of meat and offal are well-rep-

resented. An enormous, U-shaped wooden bar juts out from the wall like a tongue, giving the dining room a focal point and the space a more casual vibe. The bar program feels like more of a focus, too — the cocktail list is small but thoughtful, and I found something to like in nearly every drink I tried. (That said, the “Heels in Paris” is my pick: the pear brandy, Calvados, Champagne and Angostura bitters blended into a round, rich drink with unexpected warmth.)

But in some ways, Black Dirt is more ambitious than its ancestor. The restaurant seats nearly twice as many diners as Justus Drugstore, and the menu can seem less intuitive. Where Justus Drugstore groups plates into traditional numbered courses, Black Dirt groups plates by size and temperature.

Diners can order a “larger plate” for themselves or compose a communal meal from an impenetrably arranged selection of “small plates cold,” “small plates cold and warm,” or “small plates warm.”

The larger plates are a little less adventurous, which is not to say they’re less interesting. I would gladly re-order the fried chicken, a Campo Lindo chicken quarter surrounded by a moat of creamy mashed potatoes and pale-green sage gravy. The chicken was succulent, the herbed breading was thin and crisp, and dainty islands of slightly charred, bitter broccolini cut through the rich flavors with all the drama of Moses parting the Red Sea. The sage gravy had formed a dull, unappealing skin by the time it hit my table, but it had a great personality.

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25 ON THE MALL

plement the fish’s bold spice paste. And the milk-braised pork was beautifully plated: slices of moist Berkshire pork loin, cooked to an attractive ballet-slipper pink, fanned across the plate beneath fork-tender golden beets the sunny shade of egg yolks. Still, a couple of the supporting players were miscued: the “mustard-seed scented cauliflower” didn’t offer much in the way of mustardseed flavor, and the “pumpkin cracklins” were soggy by the time they arrived.

On my three visits, the servers offered little guidance on how to compose a meal from the small plates (even a recommended number of plates would have helped). But two plates per diner felt right for a light meal with communal sampling.

A few of the small plates matched those fritters in their near-symphonic blends of textures, colors, and flavors. The seared scallops were lightly browned with an airkissed crust, their insides tender and buttery. The broth was light but complex, dotted with acorn squash and pumpkin-seed pesto.

The duck egg fettuccini was similarly well-balanced. Shreds of peppery arugula clung to each chewy noodle, and a dollop of crème fraiche with lemon zest and fruity olive oil brightened each bite. Curls of wild mushrooms mellowed the dish, adding earthy low notes like an orchestra bassoon.

Other plates seemed flat by comparison. The chicken gizzard salad was just OK. Though the herb-breaded gizzards were boldly spiced and tender (admittedly not a word I often apply to gizzards), the salad was lackluster. Besides a few scant slivers of radish, there was little to complicate the dish but a bitter and overly salty “house cultured buttermilk dressing.”

The “crispy pig tail” was stronger. Justus snips his pig tails into segments no larger than a finger joint, helping squeamish diners temporarily forget what they’re eating. Don’t let the anatomy deter you. Black Dirt’s pig tails showcase all the glories of meatdom in one petite package: crisp skin, melting fat, slightly sour and grassy meat, chewy tendon.

But their accompaniments were confusing and unpleasant. Pig tails are finger food; I’m not sure what I was supposed to do with a crunchy medley of bean sprouts, whole cilantro stems, and slices of seeded jalapenos that seemed cribbed from the garnish plate of a phở joint.

At times, Black Dirt shows stress fractures from its attempts to unite volume and intimacy, quality and value. The new-construction space at 5070 Main is enormous — 5,000 square feet — but Justus and Eklof have parceled it out into smaller dining rooms to manufacture coziness. It’s a smart strategy with mixed effects. The ever-changing palette of lights, finishes, and materials made me feel at times as though I were in the kaleidoscopic showroom of a furniture store.

The southwest dining room, just beyond the bar, is the most welcoming. Tufted, caramel-colored banquettes and busy floral carpeting give the space a summery feel to match the natural light streaming through the south-facing windows. Avoid the narrow-shouldered dining room in the center of the restaurant, which deadens the ambience with sedate gray paneled walls, somber farm prints, and tray ceilings accented with queasy blue LEDs. The menu descriptions are similarly conflicted. For all Black Dirt’s earthy, populist aspirations, Justus can’t seem to stop himself from inflating commonsense ingredients to the level of opaque modernist koans. A tantalizing octopus plate is served with “acidulated crispy potato”; a dish of sautéed mixed mushrooms is topped with “Microplaned cheese.”

This last description is especially baffling. The Microplane is a trademarked, name-brand zester/grater. It’s great. It grates.

It’s a cheese grater. It’s really great at grating cheese. At Black Dirt, you can order a dish of sautéed mixed mushrooms and pecans topped with grated cheese. Which is all just to say: some of the lingo feels a little offbrand for a restaurant with “no compromise, no jargon” in its mission statement.

The best way to experience the Black Dirt ethos is to sit at the bar, where you can order from the full restaurant menu as well as from a smaller menu of bar bites. Here, Black Dirt’s stated aversion to pretension feels the most honest. The bartenders are casual and chatty, and you feel just as comfortable ordering a Hamm’s draft as you do a Founder’s Breakfast Stout (I ordered both).

The bar food is unfussy but refined. I adored the brandade, a dip of smoked, miso-and-sake-cured Missouri trout whipped into a feather-light fluff with potatoes, dill, and extra virgin olive oil. A delicate, goldenbrown layer of Shatto Lilly cheddar cheese crisped the top, and the crostini served alongside was a feat of engineering: the restaurant shaves “aged” bread from dinner service on a mandoline to achieve a crisp, light, razor-thin toast.

Also good: the classic burger, which topped a supple housemade bun with grassy Barham Family Farm beef, raw cheddar, and house-cured and -smoked bacon. The fries were crisp and substantial, served the way they should be: with ketchup and mayo.

With only two months under its belt, Black Dirt is already a worthwhile stop for thoughtful cocktails and comforting entrees, and the kind of place where overlooked ingredients get — and earn — top billing. It has time to work out the intermittent tension between its aspirations and expressions.

And, lucky for us city-dwellers, following along with Justus no longer necessitates a hike out to Smithville.

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occasion of the party.

It’s being held at bad-ass Crossroads event space the Guild (1621 Locust). There will be over 20 bourbons to sample, among them: Bulleit (the co-sponsor of the party), Lagavulin, Union Horse, George Remus, Pinckney Bend, Crown Royal, Seagram’s, Oban, Talisker, and more. Local bartenders will be mixing specialty, limited-edition cocktails for our

“Whiskey War” competition. And, of course, delectable, bacon-centric creations from the likes of Parker at The Fontaine, HopCat, District. Pour House + Kitchen, Crazy Good Eats, Pig & Finch Leawood, ClusterTruck, and more to be announced. Hogshead will also be there, serving up the mouthwatering treat you see in the image below. (Technically, it’s a “bacon-bourbon

s’more”: housemade bourbon marshmallow, chocolate-dipped thick-cut bacon, and a barrel-aged maple graham cracker. Drool.)

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The date is April 12. VIP entry is at 6:30 p.m., and general admission doors open at 7 p.m. Consider skipping lunch. See you then.

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Best of Missouri Life Market Fair at Powell Gardens April 28-29, 2018 Join us at the beautiful Powell Gardens, Kansas City’s botanical garden, for a market fair featuring Missouri-made products you can buy straight from the artists and producers. Peruse dozens of booths with everything from artisan products to good eats right off the farm.

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31

MUSIC

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MACKENZIE NICOLE’S DEBUT SIGNALS A NEW DIRECTION FOR STRANGE MUSIC.

BY NICK SPACEK

“The reason I’m doing pop isn’t to be, like, some pop princess,” says Mackenzie Nicole, seated at a massive wooden conference table inside the Lee’s Summit headquarters of Strange Music. She’s confident and cheery, wearing a black leather jacket that lands somewhere between hard rock and hip hop.

Technically, though, Nicole is something of a princess. As in: she’s Strange Music royalty. As in: her father, Travis O’Guin, co-founded the label in the basement of her old house. Nicole is 18 years old — roughly the same age as the label itself.

“I love and respect Taylor Swift,” she continues. “But I don’t know if that’s something I want for myself. I have to be careful wording that, because I do love her, but different strokes for different

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THE PITCH | April 2018 | pitch.com

THE LABEL’S CORE ARTISTS — TECH, KRIZZ KALIKO, BROTHA LYNCH HUNG — WRITE DARK, ABRASIVE RAPS. IS NICOLE’S RADIO-READY POP A BRIDGE TOO FAR?

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MUSIC

folks, y’know?”

She likes how Rihanna did it. The Barbadian singer kicked off her career with club jams like “Pon de Replay,” then went on to try her hand in different genres. “She made the masterpiece that is Anti, but she built a foundation so that she could build and experiment without becoming a jack of all and master of none,” Nicole says.

If a teenager in eastern Jackson County with global pop ambitions perhaps sounds a bit pie-in-the-sky, consider the following. Strange Music is one of the most successful independent record labels in the world. It has leveraged the popularity of its founding artist, Tech N9ne, into a subculture through which entire careers can be launched. Undergirding its success is a rabid, loyal fanbase that buys tickets, records, and merch in amounts that makes the Merges and Matadors of the world salivate.

Since its inception, Strange Music has been a hip-hop label. But the release this month of Nicole’s debut, The Edge (April 13) marks a turning point. Nicole is the first artist on StrangeMain, a new, poporiented imprint underneath the larger banner of Strange Music.

“We have this established machine that’s proven successful for us,” says O’Guin, citing the label’s vertically integrated structure of booking its own tours, screenprinting its own merch, and marketing itself via social media. “Hip-hop will always be the cornerstone of what Strange Music is about, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to limit ourselves to focusing on one genre of music.”

The Edge is not particularly edgy. It is full-on pop, with anthemic choruses and big, danceable beats that plainly aim for arenas. It’s a ways off from previous Strange Music contributions by Nicole, who made her official debut at the age of nine on the Tech N9ne song “Demons.”

“It featured Three Six Mafia, and I wasn’t allowed to hear it after it was finished,” Nicole says, laughing.

As she grew up, she continued to do features for other Strange Music artists, including Prozak and CES Cru, but it wasn’t until a few years ago that she recorded her first solo track, “Actin’ Like You Know,” on the Strangeulation Vol. II compilation. The song went on to become the biggest single from the comp, racking up over 3.5 million views on YouTube and nearly 2 million streams on Spotify.

“That made all of the execs look up and take notice,” Nicole says.

The momentum led naturally to the decision to cut a proper record. But, contrary to the narrative of Nicole’s whole life steadily leading up to a Strange Music

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THE PITCH | April 2018 | pitch.com

release, she says The Edge came together at a speed she almost wasn’t ready for. Ultimately, it was recorded with Mike Mani and Jordan Omley (known as The Jam) over the course of twelve studio days.

“The album that you have and are hearing is very different than I anticipated,” Nicole says. “Literally, [we did] a song a day. Over the course of three months, there were twelve work days, and then I blinked, and my album was done. It was almost anticlimactic, because it was years of buildup just to have it be there, suddenly.”

Though much of The Edge hews close to universal, rote pop themes, Nicole occasionally leans in with something a little more raw and personal. On “Only With You,” the beat drops out, and Nicole offers a confessional: Even if I want, I can never be mad at you / I can never seem to keep my hands off your tattoos / I’ll do this forever / You’ll never find any better.

“That song — which I rewrote and rerecorded — is the song that’s most written by me,” Nicole says. “When you co-write, things become more biographical than autobiographical. It was written at a different time than the rest of the album, and at a time where I was like, it felt right. I think you can feel the sincerity in that. It’s now become probably my favorite off the album.”

The big question about Nicole is whether the proudly subterranean Strange Music fan base will rally around her. The label’s core artists — Tech, Krizz Kaliko, Brotha Lynch Hung — write dark, abrasive raps. Are Nicole’s radio-ready songs a bridge too far?

“The only person that the fans — who are family — are going to trust to execute this in a way that does Strange justice is me, because they know me,” she says.

“They’ve grown up with me since I was nine years old. They knew me from being in the back, onstage, and during Tech’s tours before that.”

And maybe, in this increasingly fractured, post-genre music-and-media landscape, the pop label means less than the Strange label. As we’re wrapping up, Nicole indirectly alludes to this, noting her excitement about being added to this year’s Boulevardia festival in June. She whips out her phone and ticks off the names of the other performers.

“Oh my god, I love Guster!” she says.

“Tech N9ne and Guster? I think it just reiterates that we’re about music. Whenever you see a lineup like Boulevardia and the first name you see is Tech N9ne, and then you see Bleachers, you’re going to be confused. But then you go to a Tech N9ne show, and you get it.”

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TRAVEL WRITER (AND KANSAS NATIVE) ROLF POTTS’ LATEST BOOK PONDERS THE SOUVENIR.

BY JONATHAN ARLAN

Wichita native Rolf Potts has been traveling, teaching, and writing in various farflung places for over twenty years now. His new book, Souvenir, is borne out of those adventures. It’s a fascinating, slyly eyeopening exploration of the impulse to buy things when we travel, a look at the history of buying such things, and an examination of how these things come to acquire meaning once we get them home. (As it happens, I’m writing this from the Portuguese capital of Lisbon, where, despite the sun-kissed and sanctified loveliness of the city, I’m finding myself spending an awful lot of time browsing tacky, tourist-baiting souvenir shops; I read Souvenir shortly before leaving KC.) For Potts, home these days is a rural property in Saline County, Kansas. We recently chatted over email about what makes souvenirs such a fascinating topic, and about his own collection, which includes decades of Kansas City Royals mementoes.

Potts will be reading from Souvenir at The Raven bookstore in Lawrence on Friday, April 13th.

You’ve done an enormous amount of traveling and travel writing over the last 25 years. When did you start thinking of writing a book about souvenirs?

I’m an obsessive note-taker — a habit that predates (and feeds into) my travel-writing career. So many of the notes I scribble down on the road aim to illuminate the thread of a single journey, but over the years I came to realize that my various far-flung wanderings were also in conversation with each other.

Thailand might not have much in common with Syria or Uruguay in a cultural or geographical sense, but all of those places compelled me, for some reason, to collect souvenirs as a way of making sense of my experiences. I came to realize that I had always been using souvenirs to narrate my own life to myself, in a way that went beyond the stories I was writing for places like National Geographic Traveler and Outside.

About fifteen years ago I began saving all my souvenir notes in one computer file, and those notes formed the seed of the book. I came to discover that most all travelers, without even realizing it, use souvenirs as a form of folk storytelling. There is something very poignant and ultimately existential about this travel ritual — so I set out to make sense of it.

Souvenir traces the very, very old tradition of buying, taking, stealing, or being given things to bring home from a

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THE PITCH | April 2018 | pitch.com

long journey. Thomas Jefferson and John Adams did it when they went to England; fourth-century Christian pilgrims did it when they traveled to Jerusalem; ancient Egyptian princes did it when they visited neighboring kingdoms. Where do you think this comes from, this – as you write — “impulse to make faraway places tangible?” I think the compulsion to collect small mementoes as we travel is innate. When a little kid finds a colorful pebble or an old bottle-cap in a vacant lot across the street from her home and runs back to show it to her mother, she is, in effect, participating in the same ritual as the traveler collecting seashells or shopping for antiques in Bali. It’s a way of creating a sense of connection to an unfamiliar environment, a way of remembering a moment of wonder and discovery, a way of engaging (and attempting to assert a small token of control over) a world that is far bigger and older than we are. It is, in essence, a ritual of reverence.

The book is studded with reflections on your own history of souvenir collecting.

I’m wondering how your buying habits have changed over the years, or since you started researching and writing this book? What’s the go-to Rolf Potts souvenir now? I think most everyone’s souvenir-buying habits change over time. This is something that has been observed by the scholars who’ve gone out and researched the psychology of souvenirs: Empirically speaking, first-time and less-experienced travelers spend more time shopping for souvenirs— and a bigger percentage of their budget buying them — than more seasoned travelers.

As people become more experienced as travelers, they tend to get a more personalized sense for what they collect. In my case I’ve found that almost all of my souvenirs in recent years are found objects rather than purchased ones. Gift-shop wares remind me of gift shops, whereas stones or ticket stubs — or even the goofy stocking cap an Indian guy gave me when I underestimated how cold it would be in Himachal Pradesh — more directly evoke specific travel experiences.

You spent some time at the industry’s largest trade show, the Las Vegas Souvenir & Resort Gift show — an event that sounds both overwhelming and bizarrely fascinating. What was the most surprising takeaway from that experience? Well, the most surprising takeaway for me was that, like most close-knit com-

FRITZ LIEDTKE

it feels like they could one day be the subject of a Netflix-type mockumentary. Insider scuttlebutt aside, I was taken by how many of the vendors and manufacturers put most of their resources into slight variations on standard-issue tourist fare such as t-shirts and coffee mugs. Seasoned travelers may poke fun at tourist kitsch — magnets, keychains, shot glasses — but perennial consumer demand makes these objects the bread-and-butter of the industry.

“I CAME TO DISCOVER THAT MOST ALL TRAVELERS, WITHOUT EVEN REALIZING IT, USE SOUVENIRS AS A FORM OF FOLK STORYTELLING.” Rolf Potts munities, the world of industrial souvenir vendors is filled with insider gossip, professional rivalries, and cutthroat power-struggles. Most of these gossipy details were too off-topic to make it into the book — though

I have to ask about your Kansas City Royals memorabilia, which you say amounts to a kind of shrine at your home in north-central Kansas. How long have you been collecting? Any pieces you’re particularly attached to?

My earliest Kansas City Royals souvenir is a “Grand Slam” game program from the first game I attended — a 10-1 Royals victory over the California Angels on July 5th, 1978.

When the Royals won the World Series in 1985, my Aunt Lynda — who had taken me to that first game seven years earlier — sent me a commemorative stein, which for years was my most cherished Royals possession.

When the team became a contender again a few years ago, I was so insufferably enthusiastic that my friends began to give me gift-shop baseballs (I have one from Dinosaurland National Monument in Utah, of all places, and another from Paris). One day I may well ask to be buried with my ticket stub from the 2014 Wild Card game — and when the Royals won the World Series that following year, I made a point of buying a stein that matched my 1985 one. Like all of my souvenirs, my Royals mementoes evoke a very personal story — one that changes, ever so subtly, as the years go by.

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37

FILM

that hangs over every action by the couple, even with their new partners, and it becomes clear that the title of the movie is meant to be interpreted in the most direct way possible.

Young Alexey, played by Matvey Novikov, is front and center on the film’s poster, but he’s barely present in Loveless.

Rather, he haunts every frame of the picture like a ghost. How his absence is felt and processed by his parents and community speaks in a larger sense about a modern Russia that seems to be isolated from its feelings. By the end of the movie, both parents are in a dissociative state, and after two hours of Loveless, which was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards last month, viewers may feel the same way. Rest assured, it is intentional.

Loveless is playing now at Tivoli Cinemas.

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International Disaster FILM STILL PACIFIC RIM: UPRISING

PACIFIC RIM: UPRISING IS A COLOSSAL DUD THAT MAY VERY WELL SINK THE ENTIRE FRANCHISE.

BY ERIC MELIN

Let me tell you from experience: The worst choice you can make before seeing the new action sequel Pacific Rim: Uprising is to bone up by watching Guillermo del Toro’s 2013 Pacific Rim, which introduced a world where giant kaiju monsters come from the deep to destroy the world and are battled by scrappy two-person teams of humans that power giant mechanical Jaegers.

Sure, they share the same silly premise, but watching them back to back makes it clear what a unique touch del Toro (who moved on from this project to direct recent Best Picture winner The Shape of Water instead) has for design and detail, and how much of that imagination is lacking in Uprising.

This new entry into what is likely now a doomed franchise — at least in America; more on that in a bit — stars John Boyega (Star Wars: The Last Jedi) as Jake Pentacost, the rebellious son of Idris Elba’s fiery commander from the first film. Boyega is dialed down quite a bit compared to Elba, and so is Charlie Day, who returns in his role as a kaiju-obsessed scientist. Maybe it’s because the usually manic actor recognizes how lame most of his dialogue is, but Day looks like he doesn’t even want to be there.

Writer-director Steven S. DeKnight and his three co-screenwriters have essentially taken the bare bones of del Toro’s premise — epic scale, world-building, a sense of danger — and replaced it with generic young-adult adaptation fantasy tropes. The original wasn’t Shakespeare, but the “rah-rah” rally

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THE PITCH | April 2018 | pitch.com

cries were underpinned by well-established stakes. You never get the sense the rest of the world is watching — or even cares — about the supposedly world-ending battles in Uprising. (One pilot actually radios to another during a skyscraper-shattering skirmish that the people of the city — briefly seen fleeing seconds before — are now safely underground, clueing in the audience that it’s OK now to demolish everything in sight without fear of casualties.)

The Top Gun-style macho posturing in Pacific Rim was so big and corny it was almost satirical, and often undercut by cunning displays of female prowess or the tough guy being brought down a notch. In DeKnight’s Uprising, everyone is equally blunted by blandness. All the kids who undergo military training are constantly reminded they need to act like a family, but the script never affords them the opportunity.

Pacific Rim’s most interesting concept was “drifting,” where two people must essentially mind-meld their thoughts and memories and work together in order to power a jaeger. Uprising reduces this to a flashback that apes a memorable sequence from the first film but without all the wonder. This is followed by a complete betrayal of the whole idea, in which a non-drifting pilot abandons the group to man a gun turret. Yawn.

If much of Pacific Rim: Uprising — where the robots outnumber the monsters at least two to one, maybe more — seems like a more international Transformers Lite, there’s a reason for that. The 2013 flick earned $101

million domestically, but overseas it took in a cool $309 million. Uprising is stacked with international movie stars in vague supporting roles (including original star Rinko Kikuchi, who has even less to do here than Day) in the hope that it can duplicate that success. But because it’s just a shadow of its predecessor, that hope is dim, and so are the chances of any more movies in this visiondepleted universe.

•

•

•

Efficient cubicles, sterile apartments, barren forests: the settings in the new film Loveless from Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev (Leviathan) are as bleak as the film’s subject matter. Parents Zhenya and Boris are in the middle of a divorce, and they have already started completely separate lives with other partners. They treat their 12-year old boy Alexey more like a nuisance than a son, and when he disappears one day after school, they barely notice. The police are reluctant to expend any effort to find him, so a local volunteer group starts searching the area. But even as Loveless develops the mystery at its core, it continues to stay focused on the utterly ordinary life that surrounds it.

Zvyagintsev approaches his characters all with a kind of detached observationalism. His shots are austere and his camera moves slowly, if at all. He fills the story with the minutiae of daily modern life — being on the phone, in front of the computer, driving, making coffee. There is a total malaise

•

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Opening at the Tivoli on April 13 is the acclaimed and controversial Israeli drama Foxtrot, which was shortlisted for the Oscars last December but just missed getting a nomination. Like Loveless, it also explores the way a son’s tragedy affects his parents, but in terms of technique and storytelling style, Foxtrot couldn’t be farther from the Russian film.

Writer-director Samuel Maoz (Lebanon) puts the deeply-in-touch-with-themselves parents in his movie through an emotional wringer. First they find out that their son, who is serving in the Israeli Defense Forces, has been killed. The initial shock gives way to grief, but many questions about his death go unanswered. They eventually receive a piece of shocking news, and suddenly the setting abruptly shifts to their son’s checkpoint, which he mans with three other soldiers.

Foxtrot almost plays like three tonally different short films. Maoz moves abruptly from the dreary tones of the wealthy couple’s Tel Aviv home to the bright, heavily saturated colors in the desert. The introduction to this checkpoint, in fact, comes in the form of a funny dance scene tonally at odds with everything that precedes it.

The son’s story continues to take on a surreal quality as he and his buddies encounter various odd travelers, and as they find ways to pass the time out in the middle of nowhere.

By the time Foxtrot returns to the parents, there’s a deeper understanding of not just the mysteries of the plot — which involve a cover-up that has angered Israel’s real-life Minister of Culture — but also the emotional space the characters live in. Foxtrot is indeed a unique, sometimes dreamlike reflection of a society in which multiple generations seem stuck in a spin cycle of trauma.

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WHISKEY WARS

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Presented by:

Drinks created by: Kelsey Shelton from The Fontaine Sean Sobol from Mo Brew Jay Sanders from SOT Scott Helling from Pawn & Pint Guy Grondman from Brick House

April 12 VIP entry 6:30 p.m.

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A portion of proceeds benefitting

Dan Essex from The Monarch Cocktail Bar and Lounge More to be announced!

Don’t miss the third Whiskey Wars at Bacon & Bourbon where eight of KC’s best bartenders sample their best bourbon cocktails & attendees of Bacon & Bourbon get to vote for their favorite craft cocktail.

Stop by all participating venues to try their Bacon & Bourbon Specialty Drinks anytime before April 12.

LAST YEAR SOLD OUT. GET YOUR TICKETS TODAY!

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Wild Wild Country (Netflix) This six-part doc turned heads at Sundance, and it lives up to the hype, profiling the followers of an Indian sex-cult leader who moved to a 63,000-acre ranch in Oregon in the 1980s. Armed with a ton of archival footage and revealing new interviews, it whips up a strange morality tale about desperation, arrogance, naiveté, and fear that’s even more interesting viewed through today’s cultural lens.

Sneaky Pete (Amazon Prime) Season Two finds the premise of this con-man show starring Giovanni Ribisi stretched improbably thin and stuffed with way too much plot, but it’s still tough not to keep binging through all 10 episodes.

Derren Brown: The Push (Netflix) A British illusionist carries out an elaborate reality-prank/Milgram experiment-type scheme to see if he can get one person to commit murder within an hour. Torrid, fascinating stuff, masquerading as social commentary.

Collateral (Netflix) This U.K. import miniseries stars Carey Mulligan as a detective charged with solving the seemingly random murder of a pizza delivery driver. Instead of a typical procedural, though, it’s a thoughtprovoking, decidedly post-Brexit tale about a country struggling with its own identity.

The Square (Hulu) Last year’s winner of the Palm d’Or at Cannes is a divisive satire set in Stockholm, Sweden — but more pointedly, in the self-important art world. It’s two and a half hours of buttonpushing that I’m glad I experienced and will never watch again.

Lucky (Hulu) A stubborn 90-year-old atheist (the typically understated Harry Dean Stanton, in his final role) wrestles with the specter of death in this oddly touching debut film from actor-turneddirector John Carroll Lynch.

Wind River (Netflix) Hell or High Water writer Taylor Sheridan makes his directorial debut with this absorbing and affecting mystery about a U.S. Fish & Wildlife agent (Jeremy Renner) and a rookie FBI agent (Elizabeth Olsen) trying to solve a murder on a Wyoming Indian reservation.

Jessica Jones (Netflix) Season Two of Marvel’s best Netflix show returns, further busting “superhero” stereotypes, and expanding the show’s supporting characters to create a story with rich thematic concerns and real psychological depth. A fierce Janet McTeer should be headed for an Emmy nomination. pitch.com | April 2018 | THE PITCH

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SAVAGE LOVE

Ace & the Hole WHAT ARE WE REALLY TALKING ABOUT WHEN WE TALK ABOUT ASEXUALITY?

BY DAN SAVAGE

Dear Dan: I’m a 26-year-old cis queer woman. My best friend has identified publicly as asexual for the past two years. She constantly talks about how since she doesn’t “need” sex, this means she is asexual. She does have sex, however, and she enjoys it, which I know isn’t disqualifying. But she also actively seeks out sex partners and sex. But, again, she insists that because she doesn’t “need” sex the way she presumes the rest of us do, she is asexual.

I have an issue with this. I’ve never had partnered sex and never really felt the need or desire for it. I’m plenty happy with emotional intimacy from others and masturbation for my sexual needs, and I do not particularly desire a romantic or sexual partner. My friend gets offended if anyone questions her label, which occurs often in our friend group as people try to understand her situation. I usually defend her to others since she’s my friend, but as a person who is starting to identify more and more as asexual, I’ve grown annoyed at her use of “asexual” as an identifier, to the point that this may be starting to affect our friendship. I’ve kept silent because I don’t want to make her feel attacked — but in the privacy of my own head, I’m calling bullshit on her asexuality. I don’t particularly want to come out as asexual to her, given the circumstances.

Am I just being a shitty gatekeeping asexual?

Do I need to just accept that labels are only as useful as we make them and let this go?

Actually Coitus Evading Dear ACE: Asexuality — it’s a real thing.

“Several population-level studies have now found that about 1 percent of individuals report not feeling sexual attraction to another person — ever,” Dr. Lori Brotto writes in the Globe and Mail. Dr. Brotto has extensively studied asexuality, and the data supports the conclusion that asexuality is a sexual orientation on par with heterosexuality, homosexuality, and bisexuality. “[Asexuality] is not celibacy, which is the conscious choice to not have sex even though sexual desires may endure,” Dr. Brotto writes. “Rather, for these individuals, there is no inherent wish for, or desire for, sex, and there never has been. They are asexuals, though many prefer to go by the endearing term ‘aces.’”

Asexuality — it’s a point on a spectrum and it’s a spectrum unto itself.

“There is a spectrum of sexuality, with sexual and asexual as the endpoints and a gray area in between,” says whoever wrote the General FAQ at the Asexual Visibility and Education Network website (asexuality.org). “Many people identify in this gray area under the identity of ‘gray-asexual’ or

‘gray-a.’ Examples of gray-asexuality include an individual who does not normally experience sexual attraction but does experience it sometimes; experiences sexual attraction but has a low sex drive; experiences sexual attraction and drive but not strongly enough to want to act on them; and/or can enjoy and desire sex but only under very limited and specific circumstances. Even more, many gray-asexuals still identify as asexual because they may find it easier to explain, especially if the few instances in which they felt sexual attraction were brief and fleeting.

Furthermore, [some] asexual people in relationships might choose or even want to have sex with their partner as a way of showing affection, and they might even enjoy it. Others may want to have sex in order to have children, or to satisfy a curiosity, or for other reasons.”

As for your friend, ACE, well, according to the Protocols of the Elders of Tumblr, we’re no longer allowed to express doubt about someone’s professed sexual orientation or gender identity. So if Republican US senator Larry Craig of Idaho gets caught trawling for dick in an airport bathroom — which he did in 2007 — and insists it was all a misunderstanding because, you know, he’s 200 percent straight, well, then he’s straight.

(And if Jeffrey Dahmer says he’s a vegetarian…) So even if your friend pulls the cock from her mouth and/or the pussy off her face only long enough to shout, “I’M ACE,” before slapping her mouth back down into someone’s lap, then she’s ace, ACE. Maybe in the same way Larry Craig is straight, your friend is asexual — or, hey, maybe she’s asexual in the “gray-a” sense, i.e., under certain circumstances (awake, aware, conscious, alert, sentient), she experiences sexual attraction. Or maybe she’s not a gray-a who identifies as ace but an actual asexual who is having sex for “other reasons.” A person doesn’t have to be celibate to be asexual or to identify as asexual, ACE, and until there’s an asexual accreditation agency — which there never will be and never should be — we’ll just have to take your friend’s word for it.

But just as asexuality is a thing, ACE, so too is bullshit. Denial is a thing, and sex shame is an incredibly destructive thing.

Like the guy who has a lot of gay sex but refuses to identify as gay or bi, it’s possible your friend is just a messy closet case — a closeted sexual, someone who wants sex but doesn’t want to be seen as the kind of person who wants sex since only bad people want sex. Some people twist themselves into the oddest knots so they can have what they want without having to admit they want it.

But even if it sounds to you (and me) like

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your friend’s label is suspect, you should nevertheless hold your tongue and allow her to identify however she likes. Ask questions, sure, but challenging her label will only damage your relationship (or further damage it) and make you feel like a closeted, gatekeeping ace.

And if you find yourself getting annoyed when your ace-identified friend starts in on how she doesn’t really “need” all the sex she’s having, ACE, do what I used to do when I had to listen to guys I knew for a fact were having tons of gay sex (because they were having it with me) go on and on about how they didn’t really “need” cock: smile, nod, roll ’em over, and fuck ’em in the ass again. (Feel free to swap “change the subject” for “roll ’em over” and “leave the room” for “fuck ’em in the ass.”)

Dear Dan: Settle a dispute between friends?

I’m a straight man who gets hit on fairly often by women, mostly at the gym. I usually respond with a variation on “I would be interested, but I’m married.” Some of my friends argue that by saying, “I’m interested, but I’m married,” I’m telegraphing an interest in some sort of affair. That isn’t my intent. I mean it as a compliment. What I’m trying to communicate is, “You’re an attractive person who put yourself out there and I don’t want to crush your spirit with a curt ‘No.’” What is your take, Dan? Mutual Attraction Rarely Results In Erotic Dalliances Dear MARRIED: Which is it: “I would be interested, but I’m married” or “I am interested, but I’m married”? Because there’s a difference between “I would” and “I am” in this context. When you say, “I would be interested but I’m married,” you’re shutting it down: We could fuck if I wasn’t married, but I am so we can’t. But when you say, “I am interested but I’m married,” that can be read very differently: I’m down to fuck but — full disclosure — I’m married. If that’s OK with you, let’s find a stairwell and do this thing.

Would be politely shuts the door, MARRIED, am opens the door a crack and invites the sweaty woman at the gym to push against it to see if it’ll open all the way.

Question for Dan? E-mail him at mail@savagelove.net. On Twitter at @fakedansavage

COTERIE THEATRE AT CROWN CENTER Tuck Everlasting | Now through April 5 2450 Grand Blvd, Kansas City, Mo. (816) 474-6552 or thecoterie.org KANSAS CITY BALLET’S DANCE FESTIVAL April 6 - 15 | kcballet.org Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts AMERICAN JAZZ MUSEUM Anat Cohen Tentet, Musical Director Oded Lev-Ari Saturday, April 7 at 8 p.m. | Gem Theater AmericanJazzMuseum.org/events THE WHITE THEATRE AT THE J Wiesenthal - An ordinary man who did extraordinary things | April 11 – 14 at 7:30 p.m.

5801 W. 115th St., Overland Park, Kan. (913) 327-8054 or TheWhiteTheatre.org MTH THEATER AT CROWN CENTER Musical Monday & Tuesday: The Music of Motown April 16 and 17 (816) 221-6987 or mthkc.com UMKC CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC & DANCE UMKC Jazz Night | Thursday, April 19 at 7:30 p.m.

Folly Theater (816) 235-6222 KANSAS CITY SYMPHONY Back to the Future: Film + Live Orchestra April 20 – 22 at Helzberg Hall Kauffman Center (816) 471-0400 QUALITY HILL PLAYHOUSE Billboard Blockbusters Counting Down the Top 40 Hits | April 20 - May 20 303 W. 10th St., Downtown Kansas City, Mo. (816) 421-1700 or QualityHillPlayhouse.com FOLLY THEATER SFJAZZ Collective: The Music of Miles Davis and Original Compositions Friday, April 27 at 8 p.m. (JazzTalk at 7 p.m.)

300 W. 12th St., Downtown Kansas City, Mo. (816) 474-4444 or FollyTheater.org KANSAS CITY REPERTORY THEATRE OriginKC: New Works Festival Brother Toad and Welcome to Fear City, plus more!

April 27 – May 27 at the Copaken Stage Downtown Kansas City, Mo. (816) 235-2700 HARRIMAN-JEWELL SERIES Free Discover Concert: Julia Bullock, soprano Saturday, April 28 | HJSeries.org Folly Theater, Downtown Kansas City, Mo. LYRIC OPERA OF KANSAS CITY The Barber of Seville | April 28, May 2, May 4 at 7:30 p.m. & May 6 at 2 p.m.

Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts (816) 471-7344 or kcopera.org KAUFFMAN CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS A Conversation with Mark Bittman Wednesday, May 23 at 7:30 p.m. | Kauffman Center (816) 994-7222 or kauffmancenter.org Follow KCLiveArts on Facebook and sign up for E-News Alerts at KCLiveArts.org pitch.com | April 2018 | THE PITCH

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EVENTS

APRIL 12, 2018

WHISKEY WARS

1621 Locust St, KC, MO

Presented by:

Drinks created by: Kelsey Shelton from The Fontaine Sean Sobol from Mo Brew Jay Sanders from SOT Scott Helling from Pawn & Pint Guy Grondman from Brick House

April 12 VIP entry 6:30 p.m.

APRIL 1

APRIL 6

Harvey, Alamo Drafthouse

Baths, RecordBar

APRIL 2

Julien Baker, The Granada

Martin Sexton with the Mighty Pines, Knuckleheads Saloon

APRIL 4

Dover String Quartet, 1900 Building

APRIL 7

GA Entry 7:00 p.m.

Erick Gotschall from Piropos

A portion of proceeds benefitting

Dan Essex from The Monarch Cocktail Bar and Lounge More to be announced!

Don’t miss the third Whiskey Wars at Bacon & Bourbon where eight of KC’s best bartenders sample their best bourbon cocktails & attendees of Bacon & Bourbon get to vote for their favorite craft cocktail.

Stop by all participating venues to try their Bacon & Bourbon Specialty Drinks anytime before April 12.

LAST YEAR SOLD OUT. GET YOUR TICKETS TODAY!

$25 GA & $35 VIP LIMITED NUMBER OF TICKETS AVAILABLE AT THIS PRICE THROUGH APRIL 11!

TICKETS AVAILABLE AT PITCH.COM OR CALL 816.561.6061

Anat Cohen Tentet and Oded Lev-Ari, Gem Theater Dweezil Zappa, “Zappa Plays Frank,” Knuckleheads Saloon

Shelf Life: Live Storytelling with David Wayne Reed, The Brick

Dan Auerbach and the Easy Eve Sound Revue, The Truman

Mojo’s Comedy Xplosion with Mojo Brookzz aka Mr. James, Gossip Nightclub

APRIL 2-6

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42

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“We All Come from Something,” by Judith G. Levy, UMKC Gallery of Art

APRIL 5-29

APRIL 8 Dashboard Confessional, with Beach Slang, The Granada The Darkness, The Truman

The Mascot, The Living Room

Sleep, Liberty Hall

APRIL 5

Meet the Experts: ViewMasters with Curator Amy McKune, National Museum of Toys and Miniatures

The Steeldrivers, Liberty Hall The Night to Remember on 21st Street, Tivoli Cinema Pale Waves, RecordBar

pitch.com | April 2018 | THE PITCH

43

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APRIL 9

APRIL 14

Phoebe Bridgers, RecordBar

Calvin Arsenia, David W. Jackson, and others celebrate music, books, and the LGBTQ Community, Kansas City Center for Inclusion

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The Queers, Davey’s Uptown Ramblers Club

APRIL 11 Erika Wennerstrom (Heartless Bastards), Knuckleheads Saloon

APRIL 12 Kevin Nealon, Arvest Bank Theatre at the Midland Bacon & Bourbon, The Guild

APRIL 13

World Music & Dance Showcase, St. Mark’s Hope & Peace Lutheran Church

APRIL 15 Teach Them to Soar, Theis Park

APRIL 18 Cigarettes After Sex, The Bottleneck

APRIL 20 City Style Fashion Show, Johnson County Community College

APRIL 20-22

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Earth Day Bike Tour Happy Hour, Kansas City Community Gardens Third Friday, Downtown Overland Park Outlander fan Convention, Liberty Memorial

APRIL 21

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1-816-533-0048 More Numbers: 1-800-926-6000 Livelinks.com, 18+

Girls!Girls!Girls!

Stand Up for Science: A Benefit for the KU Natural History Museum, Abe & Jake’s Landing

Bloom Party Presents: Cirque Electrique, The Truman Whole Living Festival, Unity Church of Overland Park

APRIL 22 Nelson Freire, Folly Theater

Playmates and soul mates...

J. Roddy Walston and the Business, The Bottleneck

30 minute Free trial 18+ 816-841-1577 // 913-279-9202 44

THE PITCH | April 2018 | pitch.com

Kansas City:

816-841-1521

18+ MegaMates.com

EVENTS

APRIL 24

APRIL 27 Of Montreal, RecordBar Jessie Ware, Madrid Theatre

C

Rogue Wave, Riot Room

To place a classified advertisement

Jack White, Providence Amphitheater

APRIL 25

call Steven Suarez 816.218.6732 steven.suarez@pitch.com

Lord Huron, The Truman

APRIL 26

Kevin Hart, Sprint Center After Hours at the Towers, Starlight Theatre

APRIL 28

Alvvays, RecordBar Midwest Innocence Project: 2018 Faces of Innocence Gala, Muehlebach Tower at the Marriott

APRIL 26-29 West Bottoms Reborn Walking Tours, West Bottoms

Riff Raff, The Bottleneck Franz Ferdinand, The Truman Friends of Chamber Music’s Soirée 2018, 1900 Building

APRIL 28-29 Spring Chick Event, Downtown Olathe

on

LIVE MUSIC

Rainbow Kitten Surprise, The Madrid

S D E I F I S S A L

WED 4/4

JEFF & NORM

THUR 4/5

BILLY BRADY BLUEGRASS JAM

FRI 4/6

SCOTT DUNCAN 7PM

SAT 4/7

THE BUTTER BAND 6PM

WED 4/11

JEFF & NORM

LONNIE RAY 9PM

THUR 4/12 BARCLAY BROTHERS FRI 4/13

NACE BROTHERS 7PM

SAT 4/14

ROCK PAPER SCISSORS 5PM

WED 4/18

JEFF & NORM

THUR on 4/19 BROTHERS HUDSON FRI 4/20

BETTER OFF DEAD

SAT 4/21

REX PRYOR SONG CIRCLE 2PM ALLIED SAINTS 8PM

WED 4/25

JEFF & NORM

THUR 4/26 JIMMY & DAVE NACE 7PM

FRI 4/27

GULLYWASHER

SAT 4/28

DRY DOLLAR BAND 4PM TOE JAM

1515 WESTPORT RD. 816-931-9417 pitch.com | April 2018 | THE PITCH

45

MARKETPLACE LOCAL 910

LEGALS

$99 DIVORCE Simple, Uncontested + Filling Fee. Don Davis.

816-531-1330

1000

REAL ESTATE/RENTALS

VALENTINE NEIGHBORHOOD $400-$850 Rent 1 & 2 Bedroom Apartments & 3 Bedroom HOMES.

816-753-5576

Colliers International. EHO

CALL TODAY! KS-KCKS | $515-$615 913-299-9748 HEAT & WATER PAID...

NO GAS BILL! KCK 25 acre setting. 63rd & Ann 5 minutes west of I-635 & I-70.

One bedroom $505. Two bedroom $620. No Pets Please. You CAN NOT BEAT this value! Don’t miss out on this limited time offer!

Call NOW! MUCH NICER THAN THE PRICE!

Classifieds

steven.suarez@pitch.com 816-218-6732

2000

Secluded Cabin

5 miles from Montauk State Park and Current River.

WHER E NEIGHBO RS AR E BEST FR IENDS

EMPLOYMENT

Computer Systems Analyst: (Overland Park, KS) Provide assistance with solving computer related problems. Req: Bachelor’s Degree (or its foreign equiv. in edu., exp., training or any suitable combo. thereof) in Computer Information Systems or a closely related field.

Mail resume to Sarin Energy, Inc. at 9209 Quivira Road, Overland Park, KS 66215.

Eastland Court 816-363-9684

Spacious one-bedroom cabin, sleeps four. $ /night

85

25 one-time cleaning fee

$

BACCALA’ STRIP CLUB NOW HIRING DANCERS Contact Frank 7pm-3am Mon-Sat 816-231-3150

7000

MUSIC & MUSIC ROW

Piano, Voice, and Guitar lessons

Available from professional musician and instructor. Instructor teaches in a fun and meaningful context from ages 4 to the young at heart. Sessions are ½ hour and 1 hour. Students who sign up before April 30th will receive $5 off

FREE

SAMPLES

Largest seLection of cBD ProDucts in Kansas city!

Hemp Oil Tincture, Topical, Edibles, Lotion, Lip Balm and E-Juice

400 E 18th Street, KCMO, 64108 • 816-474-7400 Thecbdstores.com

BUY, SELL, TRADE

WANTS TO purchase minerals and other oil & gas interest. Send details to P.O. Box 13557, Denver, CO 80201

1/2 month off special 1 bed. | 1314 SQ. FT. $1375

BRAND NEW, 1&2 BEDROOM APARTMENTS FOR THE ACTIVE ADULT (55+)

N OW L E AS I N G!

Free Heat, Electric, Cable, Water & Garbage Small Pets Welcome!

In-Suite Washer and Dryer

Emergency Call Systems

Central Air Conditioning

Beauty Salon & Large Community Room

Patios/Balconies

Close to Shopping, Restaurants, and Places of Interest

Smoke-Free Living

Fitness Center

Elevator/Secure Entry

19301 East Eastland Center Court | Independence, MO 64055 eastlandcourt@clovergroupinc.com

For more info Please call/text Kathleen 913-206-2151 or Email: klmamuric@yahoo.com

4000

Senior Apartments Rents Starting at $1,020/mo.

901-233-4496

NEWto see& what RESALE ALL AREAS | ALL PRICES Want your Short Sales-Foreclosures-Condos Townhomes-Single Family Homes.

CALL NOW

home is worth?

Sharon Sigman, rE/maX STaTELinE 913-488-8300 or 913-338-8444 www.FormLS.com

AUCTION DATE: 5/2/18 WEATHER PERMITTING

The following vehicles will be sold at public auction on Wednesday, May 2nd, 2018 unless claimed by owner and all tow and storage charges are paid in full.

For information, please contact Insurance Auto Auction at 913-422-9303.

YR MAKE/MODEL

available Jan. 5th 2 bed. 2 bath | 1477 SQ. FT. $1515

Hydroponic, Aquaponic, & Aeroponic Systems

816-741-5040 | 2109broadwaylofts.com

Something for everyone!

Mon-Sat 10aM-6pM Year-roundgarden.com

117 S Mur-Len oLathe, KS 66062 913-397-0594

2015 HYUNDAI SONATA 2011 NISSAN MAXIMA 2017 TOYOTA YARIS 2002 FORD TAURUS 2003 CHEVROLET IMPALA 2005 ASVE CHOPPER 1999 INFINITI I30 2005 JEEP GRAND CHEROKEE 2000 BUICK LESABRE 2005 FORD F250 2007 CHRYSLER 300C 2001 VOLKSWAGEN PASSAT 1996 CHRYSLER CYRRUS 2015 FORD MUSTANG 2012 NISSAN VERSA 2012 NISSAN MAXIMA 2001 CHEVROLET MALIBU 2008 GMC ACADIA 2006 FORD EXPLORER 2003 DODGE RAM 1500 2013 VOLKSWAGEN GTI 1999 PONTIAC BONNEVILLE 1993 GMC SUBURBAN 2011 HONDA CIVIC 2011 MAZDA 3 2002 FORD EXPLORER

VIN# 5NPE34AF4FH084133 1N4AA5AP4BC833821 3MYDLBYVXHY155906 1FAHP56S92G110694 2G1WF52E339429618 SW102500R1HTUC184 JNKCA21A8XT777949 1J4GR48K25C651163 1G4HP54K2YU139456 1FTSX21535EB79722 2C3KA63H87H684672 WVWTH63B01P289413 1C3EJ56H3TN127415 1FA6P8CF5F5362816 3N1BC1CP6CK222010 1N4AA5AP9CC836375 1G1ND52J716133939 1GKER23798J279488 1FMEU64E46UA86784 1D7HU16DX3J600908 WVWHV7AJ1DW138377 1G2HX52K4XH219151 1GKFK16K8PJ752623 19XFA1F90BE004921 JM1BL1VF4B1460682 1FMDU74E62ZA27265

YR MAKE/MODEL 2001 LEXUS IS 2008 FORD FOCUS 2011 GMC TERRAIN 2007 SUZUKI GSX1300 1998 DODGE RAM1500 1997 DODGE RAM VAN 2005 JEEP LIBERTY 2000 FORD ESCORT 2006 KIA RIO 1999 DODGE AVENGER 2001 OLDSMOBILE SILHOUETTE 1997 CHRYSLER SEBRING 2004 GULF STREAM INNSBRUCK TRAVEL TRAILER 2012 FORD F550 2010 TOYOTA PRIUS 2001 DODGE STRATUS 2007 DODGE CHARGER 2013 VOLKSWAGEN JETTA 2016 BMW S 1000 2008 TOYOTA PRIUS 2004 LINCOLN LS 2000 HONDA ODYSSEY 2009 MERCURY GRAND MARQUIS 1991 JEEP WRANGLER / YJ 1989 BUICK REATTA

VIN# JTHBD182610011948 1FAHP35N38W120264 2CTFLUE56B6263251 JS1GW71A972106792 1B7HC16X5WS727393 2B6HB21X7VK603817 1J4GL38K65W659213 3FAKP1138YR221723 KNADE123066108492 4B3AU52N8XE157173 1GHDX03EX1D218696 4C3AU42N7VE176405 1NL1NTM2241055904 1FDUF5HT7CEC53525 JTDKN3DU6A1145340 1B3EJ46X61N676473 2B3KA43G57H636877 3VWDP7AJ0DM245913 WB10D2102GZ354961 JTDKB20U483455736 1LNHM87A34Y636564 2HKRL186XYH593474 2MEHM75V79X636397 2J4FY19P7MJ110704 1G4EC11C5KB900357

Many of these vehicles run and drive. If you are looking for cheap transportation, don’t miss this auction/sale.

We welcome all buyers. Terms of auction: All sales are “as is” “where is”. No guarantees or warranties. Paper work to obtain new title will be $75.00 Per vehicle. No guarantee that paperwork will produce title.Bidding will be number only. Terms are cash or certified check. Vehicles must be paid for in full at end of auction. No exceptions. All sales are final. No returns.

INSURANCE AUTO AUCTION 2663 SOUTH 88TH ST. KCKS, 66111 913-422-9303 46

THE PITCH | April 2018 | pitch.com

NOW HIRING

Full & Part Time Positions Available Work hours for some positions will vary depending on the time of year. More hours will be required during our spring season. Positions available in our three retail store, service divisions and our growing farm. Entry level positions available, we will train.

• • • •

Cashiers Phone Operators Equipment Operators Drivers – CDL Class A & B and Non CDL (requires a valid KS or MO license) • Plant Sales

• Landscape Maintenance (Trimmers and Mow Crews) • Hardgood Sales • Horticulturists • Laborers

Immediate Openings! Growing production at our Farm.

APPLY IN PERSON Suburban Lawn & Garden Corporate Office 13635 Wyandotte, Kansas City, Mo 64145 FAX: 816.941.3838 APPLY ONLINE: www.suburbanlg.com

PhOEnix naTuRal WEllnESS, llC full line of american Shaman CBD Products

In all correspondence, Attn: Human Resources.

Please contact our Human Resources Department with any questions you have regarding employment with Suburban Lawn & Garden at 816. 941.4700

Tinctures Water Soluble Pet Health Vape Products Edibles Soaps Topicals

DON DAVIS ATTORNEY AT LAW

$99 DIVORCE $99

SIMPLE UNCONTESTED PLUS FILLING FEE TRAFFIC TICKETS & CAR WRECKS

CBD STORE

KS/MO Injuries, KS Divorce, All Family, Juvenile & More

9627 W. 87Th STREET OVERlanD PaRK, KS 66212 913-730-8520 www.phoenixnaturalwellness.com

NOW HIRING HOUSEKEEPERS | HOUSEPERSONS SERVERS | BUSSERS

Call

Attorney Since 1976

913.345.4100

Best Kratom Prices in Kc!

DWI, Solicitation, Traffic, Internet Crimes, Hit & Run, Power & Light Violations, Domestic Assault

Swords & More

mOn-Sat 10am-8pm

FOLLOW US AT LIKE US AT

@PHILLIPS_JOBS HOTEL PHILLIPS

for a FREE consultation

Scared? Anxious? Confused?

HELP IS HERE!

cBD products • Smoking accessories • Metaphysical Essential Oils • Swords • Knives, Figurines

APPLY: www.arborlodging.com/careers

Greg Bangs

Gifts & Decor Loyalty program for Kratom

Employment Opportunities Link to

816-531-1330

d w o r C S m e t SyS

913.782.4244 Sun 12pm-6pm

123 S. mur-Len, OLathe, KS 66062

Criminal Defense Attorney

David M. Lurie

816-221-5900 www.The-Law.com

Now hiriNg part-time eveNt Staff COnCerts, COnventiOns, and sPOrting events

Apply in person 4050 Pennsylvania ave ste 111 KCMO 64111

or online www.CrOwdsysteMs.COM pitch.com | April 2018 | THE PITCH

47

GEORGE CLINTON

JOHN MUELLER’S 1950’S DANCE PARTY

APRIL 4

APRIL 28

DADA LIFE

BACON BROTHERS

MAY 18

JULY 14

TICKETS ON SALE NOW

Tickets available at VooDooKC.com or Ticketmaster.com/voodookc or by phone at 1-800-745-3000.

Located minutes from Downtown Kansas City. Unlimited Free Parking. All shows are 18 & up.

Know When To Stop Before You Start.® Gambling Problem? Call 1-888-BETSOFF. Subject to change or cancellation. Phone and online orders are subject to service fees. Must be 21 years or older to gamble, obtain a Total Rewards® card or enter VooDoo®. ©2018, Caesars License Company, LLC.