THE READER OMAHA FEB 2022

FLI

PC OV ER

F E B R UA RY 2022 | volU M E 28 | I SSUE 12

Locked Out of the American

Dream

new homes, new neighborhoods and the new omaha, but who was it built for? by CHRIS BOWLING

JOBS: ‘POVERTY’ & CHILD CARE PROVIDERS | NEWS: White Student Enrollment Slides in OPS and Nearby Districts | ARTS: Fresh ‘Insight’ Artist Shawnequa Linder | DISH: JAVA & SOCIAL JUSTICE | HOODOO: THE COMPLICATED MUSIC SCENE | FILM: CREAM OF THE CROP FOR 2021 | FILM REVIEW: MACBETH’S TIMELY TRAGEDY | OVER THE EDGE: TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES | PLUS: Picks, Comics & Crossword

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OMAHA JOBS: ‘Poverty’ & Child Care Providers

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COVER: Locked Out of the American Dream: In Omaha, Your Ability to Achieve the American Dream Depends on Where You Live. And That’s Not by Coincidence.

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NEWS: White Student Enrollment Slides in OPS and Nearby Districts

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VISUAL ARTS: Fresh ‘Insight’ Artist Shawnequa Linder Reveals Her Changing Perspective

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Dish: Urban Abbey: Coffee, Cause, Communion

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FILM: The Best Movies of 2021 Were Just OK!

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FILM REVIEW: Fascism: Frowned Upon for at Least 400 Years

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February 2022

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O M A H A

J O B S

The ‘Problem of Poverty’

Among Nebraska’s Child Care Providers

by Leah Cates

This story is part of a series, published in The Reader and on omahajobs.com, which spotlights the experiences of low-income, working families in Omaha. This article is also part of a larger series about inequity in Omaha, titled “(DIS)Investment” (read more on page 8).

stay off assistance, Felt worked 60 to 75 hours each week. That took a personal toll in numerous ways.

“It took me two years to take my mother’s ashes to [my hometown] to scatter them because I couldn’t afford to go,” Felt said.

Poverty statistics among Nebraska child care workers are staggering. Twenty-seven percent of in-home providers and 20% of center staff receive public assistance, according to a January 2020 report by the Buffett Early Childhood Institute (“Elevating Nebraska’s Early Childhood Workforce”). The same report states the average annual pay for early childhood professionals is $25,980 for those providing in-home care and $18,706 for center-based providers. And in the months after COVID-19 hit, one in four providers saw their income drop more than 50%.

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hen Erika Felt signed child care workers’ welfare paperwork, she felt like garbage. As director of a local child care center, Felt didn’t set workers’ $9.25/ hour wages –– that was up to the owner. But she still felt awful, staring down what she calls the “problem of poverty” among those teaching Nebraska’s youngest children.

“It’s hard to watch people not get paid anything but do one of the most important jobs,” said Felt, who left the center and now runs an in-home child care, The Playschool House.

It especially stung because Felt, who’s worked in child care for more than two decades,

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According to Erika Felt, who’s been in the child care industry for more than two decades, it’s relatively common for child care workers to be on welfare.

Photo by Sonya Tisdel was once in a similar situation.

Years before, she provided subsidized child care to fami-

February 2022

lies while she was on welfare to feed, clothe and house herself and her children. To eventually

Felt doesn’t think society views child care as a true career.

“If it’s a woman taking care of kids, that’s not [considered] work,” Felt said. “There’s this myth of ‘big mama on the block,’ that we live to sacrifice

O M A H A ourselves for others while being a bottomless resource for the community. We’re taken for granted.”

The idea that child care is not real work couldn’t be further from reality. Felt said running an in-home child care like her Playschool House means being a well-trained teacher –– who often spends more waking hours with children than their own families –– and a business owner.

And child care, whether inhome or in a center, is an expensive business.

“My wages [go back into the child care] to cover electricity, water, cleaning supplies, toilet papers, groceries, curriculum enhancements, trainings, licensing fees,” said Felt, who’s passed up three opportunities to open a child care center (as opposed to running her in-home business). Between overhead, furnishing and insurance, she knows she won’t have enough money left to pay staff a living wage.

Felt said Nebraska providers who offer state-subsidized child care are in a particularly tough spot, since Nebraska offers limited compensation for providers when children are absent. If siblings have the flu for two weeks and can’t

J O B S

attend day care, for example, their provider can only bill up to five absent days per child each month, so they’re out one week’s wages. In April 2020, soon after COVID hit, the governor signed an executive order temporarily letting providers bill an unlimited number of absent days every month –– but it’s since expired.

“For 20 years I’ve yelled about how Nebraska is behind the majority of states in how they pay providers for subsidized child care,” said Felt, who believes legislation making this a permanent change would not only give child care workers a pay boost, but also encourage more providers to offer subsidized child care.

Despite it all, Felt adores her career. She loves how children beam with pride and delight when they master a new skill. Switching careers, Felt said, would be like denying an artist their medium. She just wishes her career was recognized as bona fide –– and essential –– work that deserves adequate compensation.

“I’ll work [in child care] until I’m 70-something, Lord willing,” Felt said. “This is my passion. But child care providers should not be broke.”

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N E W S

Locked Out of the American Dream

In Omaha, Your Ability to Achieve the American Dream Depends on Where You Live. And That’s Not

by Coincidence.

by Chris Bowling This story is part of (DIS) Invested, an ongoing series from The Reader and El Perico investigating the solutions and obstacles to solving SYSTEMATIC inequality in Omaha through housing, education, criminal justice and family issues.

T

he canary yellow Ford sailed down Center Street in the twilight of a Midwest winter.

Louis Sanders leaned into the ‘64 Galaxie 500’s upholstery and watched the mother of his children handle the steering wheel.

The couple was driving home after visiting friends in the southwestern suburbs of Omaha. That’s when red and blue lights flashed behind them.

“What’s the matter, officer?”

Sanders, now 80, remembers asking in the mid-‘60s as he rolled down the passenger-side window.

The officer looked inside the car and turned to yell at his partner.

“They’re Black!”

The officer jerked him from the car and Sanders punched him in the nose before eight

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more squad cars arrived. As Sanders sat handcuffed, the first officer smacked him in the face with his club.

payers half a billion dollars in the last 20 years and contributed to creating two very different cities.

Although Sanders said the charges against him for assaulting a police officer were dropped in the story he told The Reader, he knew his real offense. He was Black in a white neighborhood. Now, more than half a century later, Sanders can’t say the social codes in Omaha are much different.

In most areas east of 42nd Street, children growing up face low or very low likelihoods of getting good educations, jobs and incomes, according to data collected by Brandeis University.

If you drive to western suburbs, more kids read at higher levels, have better access to nutritious food, graduate high school and go on to high-skill employment.

“Things have changed to some amount. But I don’t know if they’re better,” he said. “[Racism] has a way of hiding.”

The racism that existed in plain sight in the 1960s did not disappear. It became embedded in many social and governmental systems, including the way cities grew. In Omaha that’s meant a push westward, fueled by government-subsidized development that has cost tax-

February 2022

The divisions look the same as the city’s concentrations of race and poverty, which look the same as federal maps drawn in the 1930s to deny people of color from obtaining home loans. Today people of color in Douglas and Sarpy counties are still more than twice as likely to be denied a home loan, according to federal data.

And because owning a home is one of the most important ways people in America build wealth, the trend has prohibit-

Naomi Hattaway (left) and Meridith Dillon of Front Porch Investments. — Photo by Kamrin Baker Creative

N E W S ed many from breaking cycles of generational poverty. Meanwhile, Omaha’s 80,000-unit deficit of affordable housing means many are stuck in a tight rental market, paying too much for often substandard, unsafe housing concentrated in low-income neighborhoods.

“How can we look at that past and then look at the current state of things and not think that there’s not some kind of responsibility to address those issues?” asked Meridith Dillon, executive director of a new housing advocacy organization, Front Porch Investments. “It’s not just the past. It impacts the present.”

Identifying the problems isn’t hard. Omaha has done it repeatedly for years.

In 1965, a local television reporter introduced “urban renewal” to viewers — a new way for Omaha to reinvest in declining neighborhoods on the east side.

“I feel whenever you have a need that is so massive and so vast as blight in a whole community, you need some agency like the government to take it over,” Urban League of Nebraska executive director Nelson Nichols Jr. said at the time. “It’s a little too big for private enterprise.”

In Omaha’s Master Plan, passed in 1993, the city lists expanding affordable housing as a primary issue, especially among low-income renters. Meanwhile, it became relatively cheaper for richer Omahans to move westward. In years to come, reports credited the pattern with holding the city back from attracting young professionals and new businesses as well as furthering racial inequity. What the city should do, the Master Plan said, is establish compact growth, prevent new strip office/commercial development and reverse deterioration in the central part of the city. The Omaha City Planning Department did not return requests to comment for this story.

In 2020, a private report financed by Omaha’s biggest nonprofits identified almost the

F

or people tackling housing issues such as low-income development, homelessness and community building, taking advantage of state and federal money is a necessity. Here are a few of the most common grants and tax incentives: / Low Income Housing Tax Credits: a HUD tax incentive that has helped build 1,751 affordable dwellings in Douglas and Sarpy CountIES since 1988.

State Sen. Justin Wayne, of District 13 in North Omaha. — Photo courtesy of the Nebraska Legislature. same issues in housing. Now, another city report on affordable housing is in the works, a new requirement under state law.

For state Sen. Justin Wayne of District 13, who helped pass that law, as well as others to promote equitable development, better housing means better jobs, schools and futures for a state facing serious workforce issues.

But like many before him, he’s seen little change.

“There’s no ownership for housing,” said Wayne, who plans to introduce a bill this legislative session to create a state housing director. “The key to doing anything in governance is somebody has to be in charge of it. It has to be their responsibility, so in 10 years, if housing isn’t getting any different, then it’s that person’s fault.”

can become noise. What’s easy to understand is the feeling that the end product has hardly changed.

“The city has been discriminating on housing for a long, long time,” he said. “That stigma is still in a lot of people’s minds I think.”

A City Takes Shape Marshawn Ford-Rush knew she’d have to talk about race with her kids at some point. She just never imagined it’d have to be at Girl Scouts.

“I’m so sorry my daughter said that,” Ford-Rush remembered a mother telling her at a meeting about a decade ago when her daughter was in kindergarten.

“What’d she say?”

The other key to change: money.

“That she didn’t like her because she was Black.”

Coincidentally, Nebraska has a lot to spend — about $1 billion (plus about $112 million in Omaha and $111 million in Douglas County) from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). The federal money, which must be spent by 2026, can be used for everything from fighting the pandemic to strengthening infrastructure.

Since her children were babies, Ford-Rush’s one goal has been to give them the best education Omaha has to offer. That meant hours of research and moving from rental home to rental home in more expensive areas, sometimes picking up trash on the property for cheaper rent, so her family could go to the best schools. But it’s come at a price.

For people like Louis Sanders, the trends, politics and money

/ Community Development Block Grants: a HUD grant that’s funded $97.4 million worth of community development work since 2003. / HOME Investment Partnerships Program: a HUD grant that’s funded nearly $49 million in low-income housing development since 2003. / CoC: Continuum of Care Program and Emergency Services Grant Program: two HUD grants that have funded nearly $64 million to address homelessness since 2003. / Neighborhood Stabilization Program: another HUD grant that’s funded $1 million to address deteriorating neighborhoods since 2011. / Nebraska Affordable Housing Tax Credits: state tax incentives that bundle with federal credits to build low-income housing projects. / Tax Increment Financing: a program that has financed half a billion dollars in projects since 2006, with only 4% going toward affordable housing projects.

February 2022

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N E W S Douglas County

Code Violations Crowd East Omaha Though code violations can be found throughout the city, they’re most common in the poorer, more racially diverse neighborhoods of East Omaha.

Douglas County

Sanitary and Improvement Districts Aid Suburban Push Starting in the ‘50s, developers BEGAN forming Sanitary and Improvement Districts (SIDs) to build profitable suburban developments with state GOVERNMENT-BACKED, no-interest loans.

SIDs that were later annexed by the city are shown in BLUE.

Ford-Rush said all of her kids have experienced racism.

the American dream to turning farmland into profit.

“Is it fair to those kids?” she wondered. “I didn’t walk the walk. I didn’t walk the halls. I wasn’t the one being slandered.

I’m just the one fighting for [my kids]. So if you ask me, ‘Why do I put my kids through that?’ Well why should they be denied? Because of the color of their skin?

No. We gon’ be there. But that’s not taking into account the fight.”

“Nearly every developer agreed that without SIDs there would have been little or no growth west of Omaha’s 72nd Street,” the UNO report reads.

The inequities faced by families like Ford-Rush’s are spurred by development that’s spread resources thin and divided Omaha. Arguably the most impactful tool has been sanitary and improvement districts (SIDs), according to Creighton Law Professor Palma Strand.

A unique taxpayer-subsidized development tool, SIDs have been described as a “ponzi scheme,” and were once the reason Nebraska led the nation in Chapter 9 bankruptcies, according to a 2012 article in the Lincoln Journal-Star. A 1975 University of Nebraska at Omaha report found SIDs swelled Omaha’s debt four times faster than the 42 largest American cities.

State Sen. Justin Wayne calls them “a joke.”

To many others, SIDs represent everything from realizing

Following World War II, white Omahans left the city for new, spacious neighborhoods outside city limits. Many developments used patchwork systems of wells and septic tanks as Omaha couldn’t afford to extend water and sewage lines.

In 1949, state laws were introduced allowing developers to create small governmental bodies that can use tax-exempt financing to build quality infrastructure while levying taxes among residents. Eventually, many SIDs are annexed by the City of Omaha, which absorbs their land, residents and debt.

According to county records, Omaha has annexed 222 SIDs since 1958, and there are currently 148 remaining in Douglas County. SIDs are also popular in Sarpy County, although Omaha is unable to annex across county lines.

The first boom in these developments took place at the same time police beat Louis Sanders in the mid-1960s, building neighborhoods inaccessible to people like him. Between 1938 and 1964, the United

TIF Financing Spikes in Core Areas While Tax Increment Financing is supposed to support “blighted” and “substandard” areas, many say it rarely reaches the communities that need it the most. Others say it’s spurred needed development that continues to push Omaha forward.

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February 2022

Lee Terry Sr., a reporter for KETV, stands in front of a “blighted” home for a 1965 broadcast about urban renewal. — Footage donated to History Nebraska

N E W S States awarded 98% of its home loans to white people, according to the Center for American Progress. Suburbanization also stretched city services thinner, economically starved urban centers and required new forms of transportation. Omaha’s streetcar system, once one of the most robust in the country, dwindled into nonexistence.

Highways were built by razing homes, businesses and churches in many minority neighborhoods.

“They destroyed a community and a neighborhood,” Manny Cook, a former city planner and transit advocate from North Omaha, told The Reader in 2021.

Meanwhile, someone had to pay for the westward development aided by SIDs, and much of that fell on the very people left behind.

“They were subsidizing, through their tax dollars, developments that they legally could

not have access to,” Strand said of people of color whose tax dollars helped pay off annexation debt.

Many of these trends continue to this day. White people still get 10.6 times the loan amounts of people of color in Douglas and Sarpy counties, a difference of more than $31 million, according to federal data from 2007 to 2017. Other factors — availability of jobs, reliable transportation, generational poverty and more — compound to exacerbate challenges. Today white people are about twice as likely to be homeowners than Black people in Douglas County, although homeownership has fallen across demographics in the last decade.

Despite all this, the American dream is not dead for many.

When Marshawn Ford-Rush imagines success, for her it’s owning a home. She and her husband never reached that, but now her kids can.

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N E W S “Me and my husband never had money or learned how to budget a checkbook,” she said.

“You just enter into it blindly trying to make it. We never had any credit. We never had a savings account … I love that my kids are in a position where they could buy a house in a couple years if they wanted to. I mean, it’s crazy. That would be the greatest win for me. No more running around.”

‘A Drop in a Drop in a Drop in a Bucket’ More than a quarter of Omahans pay more than 30% of their income on rent or a mortgage, according to a 2020 report released by several area nonprofits, meaning they are housing cost-burdened by definition of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. In poor areas the effects are even worse, and often people find it difficult, if not impossible, to find better options.

In 2018, the City of Omaha identified about 2,000 code violations at one North Omaha apartment complex, including gas leaks, bed bugs, leaking ceilings and mold. But as former Omaha City Councilmember Ben Gray put it, it was “only the tip of the iceberg” as code violations run rampant, especially in East Omaha, and take longer than a year on average for the city to fix.

Joe Garcia, the director of the Fair Housing Center within Family Housing Advisory Services, an organization dedicated to improving housing opportunities and eliminating poverty, has investigated housing discrimination since 2001. He said he and his staff of six people investigated 270 cases last year, mostly involving people with disabilities.

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eral ARPA money, state Sens.

Justin Wayne and Terrell McKinney hope to do the same with about $245 million for housing and education in North Omaha.

Berglund and Dillon said their nonprofits are among a group requesting $20 million from the city that they hope to leverage into $60 million to address area housing issues.

Creighton Law Professor Palma Strand.

Family Housing Advisory Services’ Fair Housing Center Director, Joe Garcia.

Garcia said his office is also responsible for ensuring fair housing for people across Nebraska and Iowa with cases spanning from Chadron to Cedar Rapids.

In Omaha, residents can also call the city’s Department of Human Rights and Relations. But Garcia’s authority is limited.

Dillon spent the mid-2010s in the Omaha City Planning Department helping produce a 678-page report on housing inequity. A few years later she helped lead a similar report that highlighted many of the same issues.

“I’ll [tell people I’m investigating]. I’m the program director for the Fair Housing Center of Nebraska and Iowa, but the bottom line is, ‘So what?’” he said.

“Joe Garcia ain’t diddly because he don’t got no authority. What Joe Garcia does have is the fair housing law behind him. That puts a little more clout behind what we do. But the bottom line is, Joe Garcia don’t mean squat.”

Many say to address the inequitable way Omaha’s been set up, the city needs stronger oversight and intention, especially around development.

That leadership could help implement viable solutions, such as Missing Middle Housing, which allows for the construction of additional units on existing single-family homes, aiming to increase density and affordability. No such units have been built since city code was changed to allow them in 2020, according to Grace Thomas, an advocate with the Omaha Missing Middle Housing Campaign.

Many see the city in a state of arrested development. Meridith

February 2022

Omaha City Council President Pete Festersen thinks the city has more than enough information to take big steps forward.

“I do think we have a big opportunity right now to really move the bar on that issue,” he said. “And we shouldn’t wait for the comprehensive plan to be done. The opportunity has presented itself. I think it needs to have some urgency and should be a priority.”

Federal COVID-19 relief funds provide the best opportunity to accomplish that, said Jamie Berglund, executive director of the grassroots advocacy group Spark CDI, which focuses on routing investment to disinvested communities. Because while groups like hers have, or are building, funds to combat historically inequitable housing trends, they can’t compete with private developers.

“In real estate development, that is a drop in a drop in a drop of a bucket,” she said.

As the city, county and state decide how to spend their fed-

“This is a once-in-a-generation level of investment that’s in Nebraska right now,” Berglund said. “We need to take advantage of this. If for some reason it goes to something that is not catalytic in addressing major issues, should that prevent us from still trying? Absolutely not.

Like what’s the alternative? We just can’t not have this conversation. We can’t not act upon it.”

Growing Pains When Louis Sanders drives around Omaha, it’s easy to see how things have changed. The area where police beat him in the ‘60s used to be near the outskirts of town. Now 72nd Street is the city’s geographic center lined with big-box retailers and casual restaurants.

Though the city’s still highly segregated, families like Marshawn Ford-Rush’s continue pushing the boundaries just like so many have before them, making schools and neighborhoods across the city more diverse.

Other times it’s too easy to see the past. Most of the people who live in nice, new neighborhoods look the same as they did half a century ago. And you can still find homes with sagging roofs and pockmarked streets in the same places long promised “renewal.”

But something else seems to be happening. Something that tells Sanders, maybe, things are changing for the better.

“People don’t take what they used to take,” he said. “In today’s age everybody’s fighting back.”

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N E W S

White Student Enrollment Slides

in OPS and Nearby Districts Story and Photos by Bridget Fogarty

This story is part of (DIS) Invested, an ongoing series from The Reader and El Perico investigating the solutions and obstacles to solving SYS TEMIC inequalit y in Omaha through housing, education, criminal justice and family issues.

White student enrollment has been on the decline for years in OPS schools, including South High, and other metro public school districts.

W

hen the pandemic shut down in-person and virtual classes for Omaha Public Schools in March 2020, Jenelle Emory would sit in her home with her daughters — a first-grader and a kindergartener at Adams Elementary — and walk through the packet of optional work they’d been given for the week. She noticed her kindergartener needed more time and guidance on most of the concepts.

After going through the lessons with her at home, Emory discovered her kindergartener has dyslexia. She thinks that wouldn’t have been caught by a teacher in a crowded OPS classroom.

“That really encouraged me that I needed to give her that more oneon-one time,” said Emory, a Black reiki practitioner, business owner and now homeschool mom.

In late summer of 2020, she and her husband registered their household for homeschooling under the Nebraska Department of Education right before the deadline — joining the influx of homeschool filings across the state in response to local schools’ decisions on remote or in-person learning.

She thought, “We can fool around with the public school system, or we can take their education into our own hands.”

14

At OPS, Black student enrollment also has steadily declined over time, but not nearly as sharply.

Between the fall of 2011 and 2021, Black student enrollment at OPS dropped from 26.2% to 24.5%.

By contrast, Hispanic or Latino students now represent the largest group of students at OPS. During the same decade, their numbers increased from 30.5% to 38.3% of students in the district, a 29% jump.

OPS declined requests for interviews on the subject.

The Emorys are part of a swath of families in Nebraska — and across the nation — that has left public schools since the start of the pandemic. In Nebraska, roughly 5,231 students left their public schools in the fall of 2020, contributing to the first drop in public school enrollment in 20 years, the Omaha World Herald reported.

Omaha Public Schools lost about 1,602 students between fall 2019 and fall 2020, an almost 3% drop, according to district data.

Millard Public Schools lost about 405 students, about a 1.7% decrease, during that same time period, while Westside Community Schools dropped by 0.05%.

There’s myriad reasons families in Omaha have left their schools throughout the pandemic — poor experiences with virtual learning, preferring one district’s COVID-19 safety measures over another and disapproval of mask mandates, to name a few. For the Emory family, homeschooling was the best choice over moving to another school district or paying for private school tuition.

February 2022

But one trend in OPS enrollment that began long before the COVID decline has continued throughout the pandemic. White student enrollment in OPS and other metro public school districts has fallen each year. The drops have been largest at OPS, which has seen the trend for more than a decade.

In 2013, 16,031 white students made up about 31% of OPS enrollment. That dropped to 12,081, or 23%, in the fall of 2021 — about a 24% decline.

Enrollment data in western, predominantly white public school districts shows similar, yet smaller, trends. According to the Nebraska Department of Education, white student enrollment declined by almost 7% at Millard Public Schools and about 10% at Westside Community Schools, between 2013 and 2020. On the other hand, Elkhorn Public Schools increased in total student enrollment and was up about 43% in white student enrollment between the fall of 2013 and 2020. (NDE data for 2021-2022 was not available ahead of publication.)

David Jespersen, public information officer at the Nebraska Department of Education, says lots of factors could be causing the trend.

Families could be utilizing the enrollment option program, an application process students can use to transfer into neighboring school districts. The process isn’t meant for families to shop around for schools, Jespersen said. Rather, it’s a one-time opportunity to opt into a school outside of your home district. The Reader and El Perico requested demographic data from the Nebraska Department of Education of students in the metro who have utilized the enrollment option program, but the request could not be fulfilled before this issue’s printing.

The changing populations in Douglas and Sarpy counties could also give clues, he said. While both counties grew at higher rates than others in Nebraska between 2010 and 2020, they saw fewer white people and more people identifying as Hispanic, according to the latest U.S. Census data.

The Omaha metro’s population has experienced rapid foreign-born growth — about 28.4% from 2010 to 2019, which is more than double

N E W S the 12.9% national rate, according to Census Bureau data highlighted in a 2021 report by Heartland Forward, an organization focused on economic growth in the central regions of the U.S. Experts project the number of immigrants, particularly from Latin American countries, to rise in the coming decades.

“The demographics of communities affect the demographics of the school district,” Jespersen said.

These shifting demographics mean schools need to change the way they serve and support students. At OPS particularly, while fewer than one in four students is white, the majority of OPS teachers are white. OPS teacher Michael Silva (whose name has been changed to remain anonymous) says teachers need to reflect the student populations they serve.

Students from Latin America and English learners have been the majority in every OPS class Silva has taught. He’s seen how much it means to his students to have a teacher from South Omaha that can connect with their lived experiences.

“They see someone who looks like them sitting in a place where they may not feel they fit in,” he said.

Silva wants to see a community-based approach to hiring teachers for OPS schools — one that creates pathways to becoming a teacher without an education degree and makes it possible for more people to teach in the schools in their communities. He thinks that not only helps students survive, but thrive.

“There’s always been this fear in Omaha about ‘the minority’ taking over,” he said. “If our student population is one way, what does that mean for our city in the future?”

Omaha has a history of white students leaving the OPS district for suburban districts or private schools. White student enrollment in the OPS district plummeted in 1976 when a U.S. federal court order mandated busing to integrate Omaha Public Schools. Following the order, white families moved from North Omaha to suburbs west of the city.

Recent data shows Omaha’s largely white suburbs are some of the fastest-growing areas in the city, partly driven by cheaper

housing and development costs, according to the Center for Public Affairs Research at UNO. Becky, a white mother who preferred not to share her last name, had hoped to keep her twin sixyear-old boys at their OPS elementary school through their early years and then move to Millard for junior high and high school.

The pandemic accelerated those plans. Her family moved to the Millard Public Schools district in April 2021, and her sons started first grade at a Millard school in the fall.

“The decisions that were being made through the OPS Board of Education and the superintendent regarding remote learning were really the driving force,” Becky said.

Keeping up with virtual learning while both working full-time jobs became too much for Becky and her husband. She felt like her kids were falling behind.

“I have a kiddo in speech therapy, and while the teachers and the therapist did the best they could with what they had, it just was not conducive to an effective learning environment,” she said.

Sussie DeVeney, a white mother of four and a former OPS teacher now working a part-time job, was already hesitant about continuing at the district after her oldest son experienced bullying and got his phone stolen at his OPS middle school. Like Becky, virtual learning was the tipping point for DeVeney’s household.

In one instance during the 2020 school year, her first-grader was confused with what was going on in class and raised his hand, not realizing it was a pre-recorded video he was watching and no teacher could respond. “(OPS) put kids on a tablet, and were like, ‘Nope, watch these videos, this is how you’re learning today,’ and expect them to understand, then expect the teachers to somehow follow up on that, and then just assume that they get it,” she said.

DeVeney called around to private schools in the area, and by October, all three of her school-aged kids were enrolled at St. Wenceslaus, a Catholic school located at 15353 Pacific St. Within that first week, her son’s new teacher sent an email saying her son was below the first grade reading level.

Hispanic Student Enrollment Continues Rising

by Geiler Damian

E

nrollment in the Omaha Public School district is changing, especially between white and Hispanic students.

Almost a decade ago, white students made up the majority of OPS enrollment. Now, Hispanic students have eclipsed other demographic groups as the majority.

Between 2018 and 2021, the number of white students enrolled in OPS high schools dropped from 3,667 to 3,255, an 11% decrease. At the same time, Hispanic enrollment in high schools went from 5,202 to 5,634, an 8% increase. The total decrease in white enrollment in OPS high schools (412) is almost the same as the Hispanic increase (436).

Between 2018 and 2021, Central High School went from 956 white students to 841, North Magnet dropped by 14%, from 594 white students to 433. At the same time, South Magnet High went from 231 white students to 224, according to Omaha Public Schools district enrollment data.

Hispanic or Latino student enrollment tells another story.

Central High increased Hispanic enrollment by 18% between 2018 and 2021, from 720 students to 849. At the same time, North Magnet went up 14%, from 258 to 293 students, and South High Magnet School increased by 12%, from 2,161 to 2,410 students, according to the data.

The changes haven’t gone unnoticed for Yesenia Flores, a South High Magnet School student.

“It’s really noticeable, especially in South,” Flores said. “There are past pictures of South where you can see many white people and as time goes by, you slowly start seeing more and more Hispanics.”

Flores said second-generation immigrants now have better access to education and value the opportunity more than previous generations did.

“Many first-generation immigrants didn’t care about school or weren’t able to attend it,” Flores said. “Now, as the second generation of immi-

grants grow in number, first-generation parents know their children’s education is important.”

Sonia Ramirez, a Central High School student, thinks the changing demographics could be directly associated with Nebraska’s changing population.

“A big section of the white population usually won’t stay in Omaha and will leave for better opportunities, opposite of most of the Hispanic population living in Omaha that tend to stick around more,” Ramirez said.

More students with parents of different races or ethnicities may choose how they identify for themselves, Ramirez said. She understands this first-hand — her mom is white and her dad is Hispanic.

“Mixed children like me can identify more as Hispanic, and that adds up,” Ramirez said.

“When people ask me what I am I usually say Hispanic; I think I’m kind of used to it,” Ramirez said.

Ramirez explains that if she were asked in more depth she would answer “mixed Hispanic/white.” But normally when people ask about race they want a simple answer and therefore she says Hispanic but she does mean her answer.

“Hispanic is usually what I consider myself even though I am half-half,” Ramirez said. “It’s different for each person but I tend to lean more on the Hispanic side when talking about myself.”

Despite the enrollment changes being clearly noticeable, Ramirez and Flores don’t necessarily care much about it although Flores does find a positive aspect.

“I think it’s not relevant enough for me to pay mind to; however, I think many people don’t want to get involved in any potential racial issue therefore it is not commonly discussed,” Ramirez said.

“To me, it’s not good nor bad,” Flores said. “If anything, I think it’s cool because more Hispanic people are staying in school.”

February 2022

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N E W S Even though the migration of some students can be explained by families switching to private schools, that’s not the whole picture.

During the pandemic, enrollment dropped in schools within the Archdiocese of Omaha, which oversees 70 schools across 23 counties in northeast Nebraska. Nationwide, most dioceses are seeing a decrease in Catholic school enrollment, largely due to the pandemic and the cost of education, said Tracey Kovar, assistant superintendent of the Archdiocese of Omaha.

At the 22 Catholic schools within the OPS district boundaries, there’s been about an 11% decrease in white student enrollment in schools since the 2016-2017 school year, according to the archdiocese. That could mean those families are moving west of the OPS district boundaries, Kovar said. On the other hand, she said, the Hispanic population increased

Omaha Public Schools lost about 1,602 students between fall 2019 and fall 2020, an almost 3% drop, according to district data. by about 30%, mostly due to the support of a Latino outreach coordinator who works with families in the community.

As white student enrollment dips in OPS and surrounding public school districts, it’s unclear exactly what could be the effect.

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February 2022

The pandemic has sent more students off-track overall, contributing to the achievement gap between Nebraska’s students of color and their white counterparts. The Nebraska Student Centered Assessment System, a yearly benchmark for student overall success, shows that in the 20202021 school year, 56% of white students were proficient in English Language Arts compared with 31% of Hispanic/Latino and a quarter of Black students.

Fifty-five percent of white students reached proficient levels in math, compared with 19% of Black students and 28% of Hispanic/Latino students.

Lower enrollment overall could negatively impact the federal and state funding a school receives, which is typically based on headcount. Roughly 78% of OPS students qualify for free and reduced lunch due to their household’s

low-income level. And with less funding, there could be fewer resources to address critical issues impacting the students who remain.

As COVID-19 persists in disproportionately impacting Black and brown communities, students of those same communities continue a third year of learning interrupted by the pandemic. Empty seats for students who are out sick or missing is the norm in OPS teacher Silva’s classes as omicron surges.

“There’s been a total lack of communication from the district for the past two years,” Silva said.

Before the pandemic, teacher shortages and overcrowded classrooms among other issues had already put the district in crisis. Since the pandemic began, he said, the district has been in triage.

“You can’t really advocate for your students when you’re trying to make sure the school doesn’t fall apart,” Silva said. “No one has time to do the important work because they’re stuck in survival mode.”

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ART

Fresh ‘Insight’

Artist Shawnequa Linder Reveals Her Changing Perspective in UNO Exhibition

by Mike Krainak

Jeremy Menard chose Shawnequa Linder of Omaha and Harold Smith of Kansas City. They are prolific and expressive artists who present complementary work, both using mixed media, collage and painting, both recognized as process-driven and experimental.

Smith’s paintings are bold and aggressive in execution and color. Grounded in urban expressionist stylings and social-issue comMe and My Shadow, 2021 Acrylic mentary, they on canvas, 12” x 14” often emphasize attitudes, perou may not know this, but the gallery at the Universi- ceptions and acceptance of Black ty of Nebraska at Omaha’s male masculinity in contempoSchool of the Arts occasionally rary western society. shows artists not affiliated with Though Smith is the relative the university. Last summer, the unknown here, Linder’s many Gallery Committee agreed to fans may be pleasantly surprised focus some exhibits on artists by a recent development in her from underrepresented groups more familiar portraiture and — specifically Black, indigenous landscapes. and people of color. CommencIn Linder’s work, we find more ing with a planned opening for purely abstracted images, but Jan. 28, the gallery will present equally expressive explorations a new two-person show called into the psychological territory “Insight.” of self-examination. Often emaFor this exhibit, former Curator nating from figure/shapes or fan-

Y

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February 2022

tastic landscapes, they are less obvious in their connection to any socio-political issue or cultural specifics. Linder’s portraits are not usually depictions of specific people, nor are they meant as self-portraits.

Her earlier works featured visible facial features — eyes, lips — but ry for other people to tell.” still were distorted or obscured Linder’s works invite close at times, mostly based on the artist’s personal ideas or dreams. visual analysis. She is forever exSometimes, they were simply ve- perimenting with new processes, hicles to apply her experimental trying various materials, adding textures and layering, and other layers and washes, then scraping methods of depicting stress or decay, elements very important in her work.

In fact, Linder’s most recent showings feature even more abstracted faces, what she calls her minimalist works, and they have fewer, if any, facial features. She shies away from calling them self-portraits, however. Not one to influence viewers as to what they should see in her work, the artist says she prefers to keep it free and open to interpretation, no matter what her initial idea.

“It’s almost like Fine and Mellow, 2021, Acrylic telling a story,” she on canvas 12” x 14” said, “but it’s the sto-

ART first love, photography.

One of Linder’s first jobs was that of imaging specialist with the Omaha World-Herald, using her graphic design background to color correct photos for publication. It was here she developed an interest in photography. She soon obtained permission to shadow staff photographers to try to learn more, possibly leading to a job as a photoSomewhere in the Sky, 2021, Acrylic on journalist. canvas, 18” x 24” Logic and job requireand sanding to reveal previous ments necessitated that she purdetails or color. sue courses in photography at Linder’s predilection for de- Metro Tech, where she discovpicting complex textures of decay ered the work of Aaron Siskind. and stress has always been a re- She took to Siskind’s depictions source for her paintings. It comes of urban decay, peeling paint and directly from what she calls her rusty, timeworn, urban detritus.

It was then on to Bellevue University for a BA in studio art, with an emphasis on painting and p h o t o g r a p h y.

Here she developed a fondness for painting, and found further inspiration, mostly from the collage work of Robert Rauschenberg and Anselm Kiefer, and the paintings of Gerhard Richter. It was in their work that she began to see distinct possibilities for her art.

Linder does not limit herself.

She sees everyShadow of Beauty, 2022, mixed media on thing as available

canvas, 16” x 20”

to her and is just as inclined to mix in powdered concrete to get an effect as she is to adding collage elements or sanding off a layer of red until it’s gone.

She teaches part time, usually painting, drawing and sculpture, preferably to younger children, through the Joslyn Art Museum and occasionally through WhyArts. She retains a fullLet Go, 2021, mixed media on time job, opercanvas, 16” x 20” ating the digital presses at Boys Town. Her art has to be done at in five years “definitely showing out of state.” Until now, she night and on weekends. didn’t believe she had a large or Linder grew up in a military cohesive enough body of work. family, and her early childhood And while her work historically was spent in Okinawa, Japan, of has been smaller in size, she is which she holds fond memories. slowly making her landscapes a “I specifically remember having bit larger. She prefers to keep her friends over for pizza. They would portraits at a more intimate size use chopsticks to eat the pizza,” for now. she said with a laugh.

Over the past three to four But moving often was part of years, Linder built an extensive the deal, and it was difficult to CV and won numerous honors keep long-term friendships. Con- through the Omaha Entertainstantly moving could have affect- ment and Arts Awards. ed her creative process, as she Linder recently received comfinds it difficult to land on one thing, always trying new process- mission work: A book cover for internationales and methods, and not content award-winning, ly renowned poet J.C. Todd, in her own artistic stability. and four paintings for Nebraska “I’m all over the place, but I’m Shakespeare that depict each of focusing,” Linder said. “There’s the plays to be performed this all this pressure just to have con- year. sistency with your work. It’s hard Yet even as the artist’s career on an artist that tries so many difexpands, gallery exhibitions such ferent things.” as the current Insight on view at This includes using her pho- UNO’s Art Galley continue to be tography as a source of ideas for a mainstay for Linder and her folpaintings. She often considers lowers. taking the plunge and including “We’re big fans of her and her photography in a show but reartwork,” Split Gallery co-owner mains pragmatic. “What people want from me is my paintings,” Brian Wetjen said. “Seeing her evolution over the years has been she said. a pleasure, and it’s always excitContent with photography in ing when she shows new the background, she sees herself work.”

February 2022

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D I S H

Urban Abbey:

Coffee, Cause, Communion Old Market Shop Doubles as Church to Serve Java, Social Justice

by Tamsen Butler

O

n any given day, you can walk into Urban Abbey Coffee Shop at 1026 Jackson St. and find children reading, students using the Wi-Fi to research homework, and friends meeting over a cup of hot, iced, or blended coffee. If you walk into the Urban Abbey coffee shop on a Sunday morning, however, you will discover a church service going on.

Don’t be surprised if you find yourself staying for the sermon, surrounded by friendly, progressive people.

the Urban Abbey Coffee Shop theurbanabbey.org 1026 Jackson St.

Monday – Saturday: 8:30 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Sunday: noon – 5 p.m.

Sunday services: 9 a.m. & 11 a.m. (in-person & online)

When Sunday services start, one of the first things the Rev. Debra McKnight mentions to the congregants scattered throughout the space in the Old Market is that someone might walk through the doors at any time “not realizing this is a bookstore/coffee shop/United Methodist Church.” She asks everyone to practice looking toward the door, smiling — with eyes, because everyone is masked — and welcoming the person, even beckoning them to come sit.

When the congregation practices waving and smiling Sunday mornings, most often it’s Sarah Comer they practice on because she’s usually posted at the door, handing out bulletins and welcoming people.

Comer is also director of the Campus and Young Adult Ministry. She found Urban Abbey after graduating from Iliff School of Theology in Denver with a master’s degree in social justice and ethics. She said she was looking for a church that offered a blending of progressive theology with civil rights issues, something that can be rare. “Some churches like to dance around it, offering occasional social-justice events like bringing in speakers and stuff like that,” she said.

While others may tread lightly around the issues, Urban Abbey dives right into a veritable mosh pit of social justice. Sermons are frank and current -- and based in scripture.

“Expect a welcoming environment,” Comer said. “Expect to ask questions and to get questions. It’s a space that encourages learning and fosters individual expression. You can truly be yourself and put in the work to help build the community.”

While there are certainly challenges associated with hosting church

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February 2022

services in a coffee shop, McKnight laughs and takes them in stride.

“It happens less now, but it used to be that at least once a month people would come in while we were having church, walk up to the counter and order a smoothie,” McKnight said. “Once a lady came in during service and wanted some coffee beans grinded.

“One evening we had the doors open during worship. A person popped in, took a bunch of pictures, and then left,” McKnight said.

“Another time someone yelled in, ‘Where’s the gay section?’ but they left before we could answer. What we would have said was, ‘Everywhere!’”

When people realize the coffee shop is also a church, there are mixed reactions. Sometimes the font is mistaken for a bird bath. But when visitors to the Abbey begin glancing at the book selection, it quickly becomes obvious this is a faith-based space. And when people realize this faith-based coffee shop is progressive, things can get a little dicey.

McKnight says some customers buy coffee, and then upon realizing the coffee shop is a church with progressive leanings, ask for their money back. “This has happened many times. We just give them back their money and say, ‘Have a nice day!’”

One instance McKnight remembers once instance when a customer saw their PFLAG (“Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) sign and immediately demanded a refund.

Because of its partnership with the Nebraska AIDS Project, the Abbey has free condoms available to customers. “The condoms have received negative attention from some folks,” McKnight said. “One woman

was ‘aghast’ that we had condoms in a church -- at least, that was the word she used in her email to us.”

But for many progressive Christians in the Omaha area, the Urban Abbey is a safe space to not only grab a coffee and treat, but also to worship. “One person told us, ‘I wanted to go to the exact opposite of Chickfil-A, so I came here,’” McKnight said.

The menu at Urban Abbey is standard fare for a coffee shop. Creative seasonal drinks, signature lattes, teas, hot cocoa and blended drinks pair nicely with the small-bites selection. Oatmeal, yogurt, scones, muffins and biscotti are sure to satisfy a sweet tooth. Urban Abbey sets aside 10% of purchases for local nonprofit community partners. Previous partners included the Women’s Fund of Omaha, Nebraska Appleseed, the Circle Theatre and the Old Market Association.

When Urban Abbey started around ten years ago, McKnight didn’t drink coffee, but instead was a tea drinker. After having her daughter, she learned the benefits of coffee’s caffeination. Her favorite drink from the coffee shop is the Peppermint Mocha. “I know it isn’t a real coffee drink, but I like it,” she said with a laugh.

Comer’s favorite drink at the Abbey? The Smashing the Patriarchy a Latte.

From marching in the Pride parade to leading the call for social justice to leading clean-up efforts in and around the Old Market, Urban Abbey is so much more than a coffee shop.

It’s a place where people can grab a cup and be themselves – and maybe even discover or strengthen their faith.

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February 2022

W PICKS W MESSAGE FROM THE READER’S EDITORIAL STAFF: Stop us if you’ve heard this before.

We need you to wear a mask, get vaccinated, get boosted and take COVID-19 seriously.

We originally had more event picks filling these pages, but we couldn’t condone non-COVID conscious gatherings when Douglas County hospitals are at record capacities and thousands of Nebraskans have died from the virus. And while 64% of Nebraskans have gotten the shot, the more contagious omicron variant poses serious threats as cases continue spiking.

We don’t want to pull stories to remind readers COVID-19 is serious, especially as we enter our third year of the pandemic. But that’s the reality.

As cases persist we will not promote shows, concerts, art galleries or other events that don’t ensure proper social distancing, masking and vaccination requirements. Get your loved ones vaccinated and boosted. Make sure you have a mask in hand when you need to go to the grocery store. Pandemic fatigue or not, it’s not just possible to beat this, but necessary.

held in such varied institutions as the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Sheldon Museum of Art in Lincoln.

Through February 24

Insight UNO Art Gallery

Masks are required in all UNO campus buildings.

The new exhibition Insight pairs prolific Omaha artist Shawnequa Linder [story page 18] and longtime Kansas City painter Harold Smith and brings a fascinating opportunity to contrast their singular, experimental approaches to expressive figurative work.

Smith is known for his assertively colorful and texturally dense portraits of men of color, toward his goal of addressing the complexity of the Black male experience in American society. Linder is also recognized for her mixed-media portraits, but her sitters are intentionally anonymous, often without distinct facial features, in service of a psychological underpinning that elicits levels of tension and anxiety. She will also exhibit a group of new landscapes.

Insight, featuring Shawnequa Linder and

Harold Smith runs through Feb. 24 at the UNO Art Gallery. On the first floor of the Weber Fine Arts Building, the gallery is free to the public and open Monday to Thursday from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. Smith will give an artist’s talk on Feb. 9 at noon; Linder on Feb. 23 at noon. Visit http:// artgallery.unomaha.edu or its Facebook page for updated information, as these events may be rescheduled due to covid.

— Janet Farber

Through February 26

Mavis Pusey

U-CA patrons can enjoy this exhibit provided by a private collector until Feb. 26. Please take note of show updates and all COVID protocols at u-ca.org/exhibition/mavis-pusey.

— Mike Krainak

Hot Shops is following the Douglas County mask mandate for all visitors.

Photographs by Jerry Dantzic The Durham Museum

Visitors must wear masks.

Prominent for inclusion in the pivotal 1971 exhibition Contemporary Black Artists in America at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, Pusey’s work is

Hot Shops Art Center

Billie Holiday at Sugar Hill:

Union for Contemporary Art

The Union for Contemporary Art is featuring the work of groundbreaking painter and printmaker Mavis Pusey (1928 – 2019) in its Wanda D. Ewing Gallery. A “leading abstractionist” of the 20th century, Pusey dealt with bold geometric forms that reflect the dynamism of the ever-changing urban landscape as noted in the venue’s exhibition statement.

Scanxiety

Through February 27

Geometric Abstraction

Capacity is limited to five guests in the gallery at one time, and masks must be worn.

February 4 - 28

A traveling Smithsonian photo exhibit documenting Billie Holiday comes to The Durham Museum.

Visitors can glimpse into one spring week in 1957 as Holiday performed at a Newark, New Jersey, nightclub called Sugar Hill.

Critics have noted how the lively photojournalist’s work contrasts the hyper-tragedy surrounding the iconic singer’s life.

The museum is open Tuesday – Saturday from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. and Sunday from noon – 4 p.m. The exhibit is free for members and $7-$11 for nonmembers.

Website: durhammuseum.org.

— Matt Casas

Following Hot Shops’ Portrait of Medical Humanity group show of Creighton art and med students, its curator, Rachel Mindrup, returns with her own solo exhibit, Scanxiety, opening Friday, Feb 4.

Scanxiety focuses on Mindrup’s ongoing series of paintings related to the genetic disorder neurofibromatosis, including the difficulties of coping with the “what next?” experienced by those who suffer with this genetic disorder of the nervous system.

Mindrup is an assistant professor of drawing and painting and the Richard L. Deming, MD Endowed Chair in Medical Humanities at Creighton University. She received her MFA from the Art Institute of Boston at Lesley University. Her current painting practice is about the study of the figure and portraiture in art and its relation to medicine, healing and identity.

Scanxiety’s opening event is Feb. 4 from 5-8 p.m. The show continues until Feb. 28 at Hot Shops Center, 1301 Nicholas St. For more information regarding

February 2022

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W PICKS W the exhibit and gallery hours, go to www. hotshopsartcenter.com.

— Mike Krainak

February 4 — March 5

OEAA Visual Arts Showcase

Roberta & Bob Rogers Gallery Viewers are required to be masked.

Ahead of the 16th annual Omaha Entertainment and Arts Awards ceremony Feb. 20, the Roberta & Bob Rogers Gallery will host the OEAA Visual Arts Showcase on Feb. 4 with an opening reception from 5-9 p.m.

Artists, public art projects and exhibitions were nominated in 10 categories for work on view from September 2020 to August 2021. In all, 65 artists are being recognized, and at least 35 will be featured in the showcase. This assemblage provides a great reminder of the diverse and high level of creative achievement in Omaha. A list of nominees may be found at www.oea-awards.org/current-nominees.

The OEAA Visual Arts Showcase opens at the Roberta and Bob Rogers Gallery, 1806 Vinton St. There will be an opening reception on Friday, Feb. 4, from 5-9 p.m., as well as one on Vinton Second Friday, Feb. 11, from 5-9 p.m. The show runs through March 5. For more information, visit www.rbrg.org or the gallery’s Facebook page.

— Janet Farber

February 5 – May 1

Allison Janae Hamilton Joslyn Art Museum

Joslyn requires all visitors ages 5 and up to wear a well-fitting mask while in its building.

Procrastination is not an option for fans of Joslyn’s Riley CAP Gallery, which closes its season for the next two years with a mini mid-career survey of multi-media artist Allison Janae Hamilton (Feb. 5-May 1). Recent photographs, sculpture and video will showcase her narratives of life in the rural American South, blending the ethereal, material and the theatrical.

The exhibition focuses on mythologies drawn from folklore and experience, inspired by the physical and social landscapes of Florida’s coastal, marshy Big Bend region. In particular, Hamilton explores how climate change, environmental and land-use policies disproportionately affect communities of color.

Allison Janae Hamilton is open at Joslyn Art Museum from Feb. 5-May 1. The museum is at 2200 Dodge St., and the show is free. For more information, visit www. joslyn.org.

— Janet Farber

February 14

Lauritzen

Valentine Dinner Lauritzen Gardens

February 25

Colson Whitehead

Final Fantasy VII Remake

The Arts Center at Iowa Western CC

Please wear a mask.

Award-winning author Colson Whitehead will speak at the Iowa Western Community College Arts Center in Council Bluffs.

Whitehead is maybe best known for his 2016 historical fiction novel The Underground Railroad. There is a successful Prime Video miniseries adaptation (2021).

With high ratings for the book and show, fans of the written word and aspiring writers should enjoy this one-hour event.

Tickets are $10, and the show starts at 7 p.m. Link: iwcctickets.universitytickets. com — Matt Casas

February 20

7-10 p.m.

Online Event Masks are required when not eating or drinking.

People seeking creative Valentine’s Day ideas for dinners and dates can find one at Omaha’s premier botanical center and living museum.

The Lauritzen Gardens is hosting a three-hour Valentine’s dinner for you and your loved ones.

The package includes one first course, your choice of the main course, dessert, and a glass of wine, all served within a lovely atmosphere from 6-9 p.m.

Contact Merri at (402) 346-4002, ext.

201, or via email at m.sears@omahabotanicalgardens.org.

— Matt Casas

February 2022

Holland Performing Arts Center

Masks are required indoors.

Omaha Entertainment & Arts Awards

Reservations are $75 per person and required. Keep in mind there are limited seating options.

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February 17

“Final Fantasy VII” became one of most critically acclaimed video games of all time when it was released on PlayStation in 1997. The game’s 2020 remake also received critical acclaim for its gameplay, visuals, sound design and soundtrack.

To celebrate the remake’s success, the orchestra used for the game is venturing on a world tour to perform songs from the soundtrack. While featuring over 100 musicians in the orchestra and chorus, projections showcasing footage from “Final Fantasy VII Remake” will appear in the background.

The show will start at 7:30 p.m. on February 25. Tickets range from $40-$85.

More information can be found at ticketomaha.com.

— Efren Cortez

Black History Month

The 16th annual Omaha Entertainment and Arts Awards will again take center stage at the Slowdown.

Livestream the hybrid virtual/live event from your home.

The event is made possible by donations, and since 2006, the ceremony has recognized Omaha artists working in the visual and performing arts.

Check out the list of nominees online, and tune into the livestream on the OEA-Awards Facebook page to see if your favorite artists win. Don’t miss these showcase performances that represent what the celebration is all about. Go to facebook.com/oeaawards — Matt Casas

E v e n t s February 8

Unbought:

Chamber Music Theatre by the Core Ensemble 10:30-11:45 a.m.

Online Event Since 1993, the Core Ensemble has celebrated diversity and championed the

Together again!

W PICKS W arts through its Chamber Music Theatre.

Now, the performers will present the enduring stories of Ida B. Wells, Sally Hemings and Shirley Chisholm.

The music blends classical, jazz and notable works by influential Black female composers.

Zoom.us Meeting ID#93284563849

February 8

A Taste of Soul

11 a.m. – 1 p.m.

UNO Milo Bail Student Center Food Court A Taste of Soul features delicious soul food, with the first 100 people getting a free meal.

Otherwise, you need a meal ticket – $10 at the Office of Multicultural Affairs on the day of the event.

Please wear a mask except when eating.

February 15

Video & Discussion:

Inside Buffalo 2:15-4:45 p.m.

Online Event

An online event tells the story of the 92nd Infantry Division (Buffalo Soldiers).

Led by Metropolitan Community College academic advisor Eldridge Bell, the event explores an all-Black segregated infantry unit that fought the Nazis in Italy during WWII, looking at racism at home and abroad from white counterparts.

Inside Buffalo (2010) is an award-winning film.

Zoom.us Meeting ID#97224134957

February 17

Film Streaming:

Black Panther Virtual Event

UNO Multicultural Affairs will stream Black Panther for one day only.

The epic 2018 superhero film features a star-studded Black cast, including the late Chadwick Boseman and one of the few Black directors employed by Disney, Ryan Coogler.

Register and stream the film at bit.ly/ BlackPantherUNO

February 17

Virtual

Book Fair 6:30-8 p.m.

Online Event

Eight Black authors will share their literary works and experiences during this virtual book fair.

Karen Johns, adjunct professor at UNO and a retired OPS teacher, will moderate the panel of writers.

The featured authors are Paul Bryant, Charlene Ligon Butts, Charlotte Duncan-Wagner, Barbara Freeman, Todd Hunter, Dr. LaTonya Jackson, Ronnette Smith and DM Whitaker.

Zoom.us Meeting ID#99568907284

February 18

Black History:

Omaha Civil Rights Workshop

Back Sundays IN PERSON @ 10:50 am ONLINE via Facebook

We WILL NOT be resuming other activities.

Masks & social distancing will be required.

7020 Cass Street 402.556.6262 www.fumcomaha.org

8 a.m. – 9:30 p.m.

Great Plains Black History Museum A 90-minute workshop about Omaha Civil Rights comes to the Great Plains Black History Museum.

LeClara Gilreath hosts the event, which is free and open to middle school through adult ages.

No registration is required. Please let the museum know ahead of time if you bring a group by calling 402-932-7077 or emailing infogpbhm@gmail.com.

Celebrating Over 30 Years Of Making Ice Cream Th e Old Fashioned Way

February 22

Sugar Rush 11 a.m. – 1 p.m.

UNO Office of Multicultural Affairs

Two Omaha Locations:

Old Market

Downtown • 1120 Jackston 402.341.5827

The UNO Office of Multicultural Affairs hosts two catering services serving treats.

Benson

6023 Maple 402.551.4420

tedandwallys.com

Life Elixir Juices, by Susan offers refreshing juices made from natural ingredients. Soul Brothers Inc., specializing in soul food, has desserts to share with those who want to celebrate Black History Month.

Please wear a mask when not eating or drinking.

— Compiled

by Matt Casas

Home of America’s Most Premium Ice Cream Ted & Wally’s Ultra-Premium 20% Butterfat Made from Scratch with Rock Salt & Ice February 2022

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F I L M

The Best Movies of 2021 Were Just OK! In an Underwhelming Year, My Top 10 Films Whelmed

by Ryan Syrek

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ike a scapegoat birthed from a bad bat burrito, the pandemic can be blamed for virtually everything. From relationships crumbling (thanks to both partners working from home) to that thing where people literally die, COVID’s icky-bad damage now includes cinema. 2021 was a dumb, ungood year for movies.

lists. Is it meta that studio interference likely prevented writer/ director Nia DaCosta’s exploration of artistic exploitation from being pitch perfect?

Candyman didn’t simply ride the wave of Jordan Peele’s reshaping of modern horror, it actively commented on the ethics of leveraging racial trauma for Hollywood profit. And it did so with bee-barfing terror and the best use of mirrors for spooky time in cinematic history.

I don’t even have honorable mentions for this list. If you’re not on this list, consider your film at least marginally dishonorable. That isn’t – I Blame In a year most of us would like to forget, here are 10 films we should to say the ones that did remember.

Are you surprised that A24 movies made my list?

Society make the cut should be I’m basic, and you know it. ashamed of themselves.

Speaking of meta, They are the most sowriter/director/actress/ when we’re surrounded by and slow-burn horror or you don’t ber drunk drivers. They are mass dying due to the bad kind every consider it horror unless Cap’n mischievous malcontent Gillian murderers with the lowest body damn day.

Crunch delivers “Oops, It’s All Wallace Horvat’s mocumentacount. They are the least expired Jump Scares.” Writer/director ry winks and nods so hard that milk. You get the idea. Jokes – Golden Arm Rose Glass’ meticulous, methodi- heads roll. The maniacal satire aside, I do stand by this list. In the is basically a look at how what it Would that it were so simple as cal film explores the insidious and takes to make it in the film indussame way that a disgraced polititerrifying line between religious cian’s wife stands by her adulter- to have a list filled with nothing try is the same skill set it takes to but well-meaning “lady comedi- devotion and life-threatening be a really successful serial killer. ous husband. faith-as-fanaticism.

Not that it’s ans on a road trip” movies … MelIf the inside baseball of a film I love them despite myself. anie (Mary Holland) and Danny particularly resonant in an age about films doesn’t do it for you, of divine vaccination exemption (Betsy Sodaro) go over the top it’s still jam-packed with quotable – Barb & Star Go of Over the Top in this affable pile … Morfydd Clark’s performance lines and goofy killin’. Please let is so haunting, nuanced, and layto Vista Del Mar of cliches made to look like an ered that it’s funny to think about her do whatever she wants next.

No one has ever said, “I wish arm-wrestling film. Relentlessly how dudes like Jared Leto need this SNL sketch lasted another 90 pleasant, sporadically quite hilar- to “method act.”

– Matrix minutes.” And yet, Kristen Wiig ious, and deceptively kind, this Resurrections and Annie Mumolo’s goofy, puck- is the kind of pleasant diversion – Candyman that would be hyped into a $100 The absolute, unmitigated ish parody is pretty much exactly If the studio had allowed the chutzpah that it takes to make a that. It’s also a hoot and a half. million franchise if the leads were remake of this ’90s horror cult reboot-sequel like this … To be The half a hoot is what really gets bro-medians. classic to have the extra 30 min- clear, separate from everything you. Inarguably the movie I’ve – Saint Maud utes it needed to properly finish else, an action movie in which quoted and rewatched most from this list, rolling around in the fun Either you love to slowly sup its story, many other critics would the lead never uses a gun, filled kind of stupid feels pretty good on the 18-course meal that is also have this one on their top 10 with gorgeous cinematography is

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February 2022

F I L M aces, my friends. But the fact that writer/director Lana Wachowski basically turned “I am so sick of you assholes misinterpreting The Matrix into a feature-length film is just a cinematic chef’s kiss. Retroactively pardoning the clunky romance stuff from the original trilogy, a series I adore with no reservations, this is just more fodder for my thesis: Give the Wachowskis enough money to do whatever they want, whenever they want.

4 – The Harder They Fall

What happens when you fill a boilerplate Western with a stacked cast of Black actors and let a stylish, up-and-coming director go to town on it? Why, you get one of the slickest, most-entertaining blockbusters of the year. Whether the genre is too tainted by its century-long celebration of Native slaughter to be redeemed by inverting racist expectations here is beyond my intellectual pay grade.

What I know is that writer/director Jeymes Samuel’s film actually feels like what Edgar Wright and Quentin Tarantino think they’re still making.

3 – Spider-Man: No Way Home

What, was a Spider-Man movie not going to be in my top 10? You know who I am by now (I hope).

The central purpose of Spidey, to hammer home personal responsibility, has never been more crucial and less present. Unapologetic in its nostalgic pandering, what No Way Home does best is reposition the character as our modern mythological mascot.

The laughs are fun. The action is nifty. The multiverse is keen. But the restoration of Peter Parker as an economically downtrodden champion for the importance of community is what pushed the film onto this list. Well, that and Andrew Garfield’s delivery of “I love you guys.”

2 – The Green Knight I remember my greasy adolescent fingers thumbing through

pages of a King Arthur graphic novel. The potential in that world has never left my imagination, even if the grease has hopefully left my fingers as I learned that handwashing is supercool yo.

The Green Knight is the first time that Camelotian potential felt realized to me. Writer/director David Lowery’s potent, symbolic film actually weaves a lesson quite similar to the web Spidey weaves: Personal sacrifice for the benefit of the whole gang is good. Lying is, you know, pretty bad. Look past the sword-wielding Swamp Thing and loads of pagan-colliding-with-Christianity imagery, and you’ll see a timeless morality play. The longer we go without playing with morality the more we play footsie with mortality. I’m just saying, wear a mask.

1 – Zola I walked out of Zola thinking, “I bet that’s the best movie I see this year.” You know what? It was! Writer/director Janicza Bravo made the best film in cinematic history ever based on a Twitter thread about Floridian sex work, and I don’t care who hears me say that bold statement. What’s stunning about the film, and it is absolutely and totally stunning, is how it feels authentic and respectful while simultaneously being hilarious and thrilling.

One of my all-time favorite films, Holy Motors, best replicates what it feels like to share in someone else’s actual dream. Zola best replicates what it feels like to sink into the craziest, most impossibly sounding story a friend ever told you. Sophisticated AF and almost impossibly smart, it has taken up permanent residence in my brain, which is what only the best films (and worst commercial jingles) could ever hope to do.

Whew! Tell me what your favorite films of 2021 were over on Twitter (twitter.com/thereaderfilm) and then let’s forget this whole damn year ever happened. Deal?

Fascism: Frowned Upon for at Least 400 Years The Tragedy of Macbeth Remains Upsettingly Timely

by Ryan Syrek

If no one else will, I’m gonna say it: This Denzel Washington fella may turn out to be a pretty big deal. That is, once he gets a halfway decent writer and not some hack named “Shakespeare.”

S

hakespeare’s continued relevance sucks. Oh sure, his plays are “timeless masterpieces” that “redefined language.”

But it’s decidedly not great that squinting isn’t necessary to see modern-day reflections in a delusional fascist ruler encouraged by prophetic messages to violently secure power. A triumvirate of witches cackling predictions about forests that walk wouldn’t make a top 10 list of Most Bonkers QAnon Forecasts.

Joel Coen (Fargo¸ No Country for Old Men), not to be confused with Joel Cohen (Garfield), opts for minor tweakage of The Bard with The Tragedy of Macbeth. If you’re not familiar with the play, congratulations on most likely having a more useful college degree than I do. Symbolism is foregrounded with plot waiting in the wings, as it’s just about Macbeth (Denzel Washington) and his wife (Frances McDormand) deciding to seize the throne of Scotland at knifepoint. Wildly unpleasant things happen thereafter, notably including spots, witchcraft, and infanticide.

Critiquing the script feels a bit “Christopher Marlowe.” The success of Shakespearean film adaptations always comes down to what savory toppings got dumped on the Elizabethan cinematic popcorn. Perhaps most notably here, McDormand plays Lady Macbeth as neither a puppetress nor tragic victim but as a caring coconspirator undone in parallel to her bloody-handed lord. Washington largely resists “going big,” strategically deploying his bombastic scene chewing.

Both are expectedly great, but Kathryn Hunter is next-level jaw-dropping as the Weird Sisters. From her contortionist entrance to her coy appearances throughout, she is appropriately spellbinding in every instant she is on the screen. If Judi Dench can get an Academy Award for showing up the length of a sneeze in Shakespeare in Love, Hunter damn well better be stirring her cauldron with an Oscar by spring. The other players play well, too, from Corey Hawkins as a grimly just Macduff to the always-delightful Stephen Root as the only funny dude in all of Scotland. But Hunter’s turn will stick to your brain like a blessed curse.

Although black-and-white can feel like a pretentious film option, once you’re doing Shakespeare, you may as well roll with it. The effect here reiterates the emulation of classic stage and cinema, from the sparse, practical sets to the nostalgic cinematography of Bruno Delbonnel. The contrast between the nuanced, delicate modern acting and the throwback visuals and script creates a blissfully hallucinatory feel. It’s nightmarelike in an oddly pleasant way, even if the thematic condemnation of personal ambition and narcissistic governance is decidedly upsetting.

Everyone in love thinks The Beatles are speaking to them. Every sociopolitical dynamic still echoes back to Billy Shakes.

Humanity hasn’t really come a long way, baby. YMMV when it comes to drinking deep from the poet of Stratford-upon-Avon. If you are so predisposed, as far as largely straightforward adaptations go, you’d need a literal sorceress to do it much better than this.

Grade = A Other Critical Voices to Consider Collier “CJ” Jennings at But Why Tho? says: “Coen hits the high notes of Macbeth in a breezy runtime that skirts under two hours, often choosing to let his camera favor actors as they deliver monologues, or the scenery, which is stark in both design and how it’s captured on film.”

Karen Gordon at Original Cin says: “For me, the Coens’ movies have always been a kind of Old Testament discussion on the meaning of one person’s life in a silent universe. Is there a God, and if so do we even matter to him or her? Or do we live in a Godless universe where our struggles and difficulties are all for naught?”

Travis Hopson at Punch Drunk Critics says: “If you know each line by heart you’ll probably recite them as the film goes along. But a recitation is all this version of Macbeth is. The soul is, sadly, long gone.”

February 2022

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C R O S S W O R D

The Birthday Game

AnswerS in next month’s issue or online at TheReader.com

— not the right calendar section —

by Matt Jones

Across

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1. Rootless aquatic plant

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5. “Don’t make me laugh!”

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8. Steve Irwin exclamation

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3

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15. Modern prefix with tourism

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19. “The Audacity of Hope” family

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20. Have ___ of mystery

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30. “Green Acres” costar Eva 32. Godparent, sometimes

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36. Late performer who once dated Nicole Richie and Mandy Moore

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41. Bar fixture

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44. Wallace’s dog 45. Composer Grieg 46. “Aaagh! That’s way too bright!”

41 43 48

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50 53 58

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37. “Hawaii Five-O” setting 38. Les Etats-___

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35. Newtonian topic

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48. Count for MLS or NHL games 49. Disney World attraction 51. Arm bones 52. Liver secretion

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53. Grand ___ (auto race)

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55. Anti-mosquito device sound 56. ___-Locka, Florida

43. Purchasing agent

60. Mission to the moon 3. Andromeda, for one 12. Greek vowel

57. U.S. currency

44. Onyx or opal

4. Fess up 61. French dressing ingredient no longer regulated by the FDA 5. “I’m with ___” (2016 campaign slogan) 62. Frigid finish

59. Not feeling so good

50. Unlikely to fall over 39. 2018 Hannah Gadsby stand-up 52. Girl with a flock special with quite a few serious moments 54. “___ Rock ‘n’ Roll” (Joan Jett & the 40. “Mad Men” actress Blackhearts song) born ... in exactly 55. Leo’s home? the right month?

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33. “Fences” playwright 47. College maj. for instrumentalists born four months too soon?

48. Tabletop gamer, stereotypically 36. Tennis variation

42. Take ___ (lose money)

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21. Hanna-Barbera feline

29. Like some ciders

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17. “The $64,000 Question” emcee born one month too late?

26. Mike the Tiger’s sch.

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16. Emu or ostrich, e.g.

25. One of many during 2021 for “Jeopardy!”

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34. Decreases

14. Mario Kart character

23. Ready to leave the queue

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63. Most bleached out

64. T-shirt size that may 7. Sounds from mall Santas cost slightly more 65. SFO listings

Down

1. Convenient 58. Queen guitarist/ 2. Ride while you wait astrophysicist born for repairs two months too late?

February 2022

6. Bank holding, briefly

8. Holey footwear 9. Morocco’s capital 10. “Let’s just leave ___ that”

13. “That’s pretty much it”

© 2022 Matt Jones

18. Rocket, in the U.S. 22. Surname of Roth’s complainer 24. Alerter of the 2000s 26. Deadly sin

AnsweR to last month’s “Free Fifty”

27. Little twerp 28. “Reader” whose last print edition was in 2019

11. Family that runs the 31. Industrious sort “Convenience” store in a Canadian sitcom 32. Taproom orders

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A V R E E R C K B I T O O R T I S O N O M O G R E N I G N E S T E S

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W H I N E S

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C E S T A

C O M I C S Garry Trudeau

JeffREY Koterba

Jen Sorensen

February 2022

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H O O D O O

On or Off

Scheduling and Supporting Live Music Continues to Be Complicated as We Balance Safety and Community

by B.J. Huchtemann

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chedules are changing so check for updates before you head out. Obviously COVID-19 numbers have surged.

Please make choices to take care of yourself and your community.

Support live music where you can, but please do it safely and with consideration for others. Remember you can support artists with online purchases, too.

Here is a rundown of interesting shows on the books as of this writing. Two big shows are happening Thursday, Feb. 3. The Blues Society of Omaha presents Indigenous featuring founding member and popular blues-rock guitarist Mato Nanji at The Waiting Room, 6-9 p.m. Nanji is nationally recognized, not only for leading the band Indigenous but for his work since 2002 with the Experience Hendrix all-star tours. Also Feb. 3, 8 p.m., The B. Bar presents the Willie Waldman Project featuring members of moe. with the Omaha Beat Brigade.

BSO Presents Series The Blues Society of Omaha weekly shows are not all booked as of this writing. Venues and dates continue to rotate depending on the show. Check omahablues.com or facebook.com/bluessocietyofomaha for updates and additional show announcements.

Shows currently on tap include Blues Music Award-nominated guitarist James Armstrong on Friday, Feb. 4, 5:30 p.m., at The B. Bar. Then Thursday, Feb. 10, 6-9 p.m., the BSO Presents series is at The Jewell, hosting Dustin Arbuckle & The Damnations.

Arbuckle is a founding member of the acclaimed band Moreland & Arbuckle. After that group dis-

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banded, Arbuckle launched this project that finds him making some stomping, high-octane roots music from a larger musical palette than just blues. See dustinarbuckledamnations.com. Keep up with other jazz and blues bookings at The Jewell at jewellomaha.com/ shows.

A BSO show double-header is up Thursday, Feb. 17, 6-9 p.m., at Stocks ‘n’ Bonds featuring the big, soulful sounds of the 2018 International Blues Challenge winners from Houston, Keesha Pratt Band. The Scott Ellison Band opens. Ellison is a native of Tulsa, Okla., and spent years in California as a popular session guitarist before starting to record his own music in the 1990s.

The BSO co-hosts the rockin’ rockabilly sounds of The Mezcal Brothers at The B. Bar on Friday, Feb. 18, 5:30 p.m.

Thursday, March 3, the BSO teams with Buck’s Bar and Grill, 27849 W. Center Rd. in Venice, to present Nashville’s honky-tonk trio David Graham & the Eskimo Brothers, 8:30-11:30 p.m.

Check out the rest of Buck’s always excellent schedule of up ’n’ coming artists at bucksbarandgrill.com.

If you’re going to Buck’s, go early for the dinner specials.

Zoo Bar Blues Lincoln’s historic Zoo Bar is offering music most evenings.

Friday, Feb. 4, 9:30 p.m., hear Mike Bourne & The Kansas City Boogie. The soulful blues of Houston’s Keesha Pratt Band takes the spotlight Wednesday, Feb. 16, 6-9 p.m. Dustin Arbuckle & The Damnations perform Friday, Feb. 18, for the 9:30 p.m. show. Saturday, Feb. 26, 9 p.m. - 1 a.m., catch Nashville’s all-female,

February 2022

self-identified queer Southern rockers Thelma & The Sleaze along with Katy Guillen & The Drive and Bull Face.

There’s a lot more happening at the Zoo Bar, including the weekly Monday piano bar happy hours with Emily Bass (5 p.m.) and house band The dynamic and soulful 2018 International Blues Challenge winners the Keesha Pratt jams (7 p.m.), Band have two metro gigs scheduled. Photo Jazzocracy courtesy keeshapratt.com jams Tuesdays, 7-9 p.m., Tuesday late-night Cha Cha’s. dancing with DJ Relic, Thursday Blues man Robert Finley was karaoke with live band Sh#thook after 9 p.m., and the popular Fri- recently on The Late Show with Steday Afternoon Club shows at 5 phen Colbert, performing with The p.m. There’s even a highly success- Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach, who ful weekly Sunday night comedy has been a regular collaborator serious called Zoolarious. Find with Finley. Finley’s blues is infludetails and show updates as they enced by soul, R&B and gospel. are posted at zoobar.com and face- Finley is scheduled at Lincoln’s Bourbon Theatre on Thursday, book.com/zoobarblues.

Feb. 17, 8 p.m. Listen at robertfinleyofficial.com.

Hot Notes Hoodoo favorite DeVotchKa and their happily dizzying, soaring, cinematic swirl of roots, cabaret and European folk music are scheduled at The Waiting Room on Wednesday, Feb. 9, 8 p.m. The Denver band is hard to classify but their sound is truly exhilarating.

Hear their music at devotchka.net.

A couple of early warnings to keep an eye on: Americana singer-songwriter Hayes Carll is scheduled at Slowdown on Thursday, April 14, 8 p.m. Tommy Castro Band is celebrating 30 years of rockin’ the blues. They have a show scheduled at Lincoln’s Zoo Bar on Monday, April 11.

The Waiting Room also serves up a real Mardi Gras celebration Tuesday, March 1, 8 p.m., with two acclaimed New Orleans bands.

Lift your spirits with the feel-good music of The Dirty Dozen Brass Band and Nathan & the Zydeco

The Blues Foundation’s annual International Blues Challenge (IBC) in Memphis has been rescheduled for May 6-9, now overlapping with the annual Blues Music Awards on May 5. See details at blues.org.

O V E R

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Truth or Consequences People Will Believe Anything, Even If It Kills Them

by Tim McMahan

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he nurse quietly and efficiently unhooked the IV from my wife’s arm while discussing the cold snap that was marking the beginning of the new year. It was post-procedure time. The doctor already had said the routine exam had gone well — no polyps!

— and now we were left with the nurse unhooking the machinery, telling us about her daughter, an athlete fighting for a place on the starting lineup of her varsity squad.

I mentioned offhand how the ward seemed quiet, considering all the hubbub in the media over the Omicron variant, which had left hospitals in a state of emergency scrambling to meet the enormous wave of COVID-19 patients crashing against their shores.

“That’s upstairs,” the nurse said.

“It doesn’t really affect us down here.”

“Down here” was the area of the hospital where routine exams like colonoscopies are conducted.

I told the nurse the recent COVID spike could have been avoided if people just got vaccinated and boosted. I didn’t understand why anyone wouldn’t get the shot, except those with serious medical reasons.

“Well, my ex-husband isn’t vaccinated,” she said without looking up from one of the gadgets. “He believes the vaccine is a way for the government to microchip us so they can track us.”

I’d heard about these conspiracy-theory people, but hadn’t talked to anyone actually connected to one of them. Surely the nurse’s ex-husband was either suffering from a mental health condition, chemically dependent or was just plain stupid.

Nope. Her ex-husband was of sound mind, a well-employed, well-adjusted professional, though “he has some crazy ideas. It’s a shame because he’s missed all of his daughter’s basketball games since he refuses to wear a mask and isn’t vaccinated. He told me not to vaccinate the kids, but I did anyway. We just don’t talk about it.”

The question screamed in my head: How could any rational person believe the COVID-19 vaccine contains microchips used to track people? There is (of course) no scientific evidence to support this conspiracy. Conduct a Google search for “COVID vaccine microchip theory” and you’re met with dozens of headlines from mainstream news outlets like CNBC and Forbes explaining why it’s not true, that Microsoft’s Bill Gates isn’t the evil genius behind it, that the vaccine does not contain the mark of the beast. As Gates said, “It’s hard to deny this stuff because it’s so stupid …”

Still, CNBC reported on a survey conducted last fall of 1,500 Americans that said 5% believed the microchip hoax was “definitely true,” and 15% said it was “probably true.” How is that possible?

Here’s another one. A recent post on the nosey Nextdoor website warned neighbors that our 5G cell phones are killing bees and causing cancer. The post included a screen-cap from a website that repeated the claim. A few worried neighbors began to weigh in.

Could this be true? The usual backand-forth ensued.

I don’t post on Nextdoor, but when I see these sorts of threads, I sometimes chime in — in this case with a link to an article from the National Audubon Society that re-

futed the theory. Moments later, a few people “liked” my comment, but then the original poster began to refute Audubon. If you look long enough, you can always find something on the internet to support your position. The neighbors bickered until the thread was eventually taken down.

People have always believed in things that have no basis in reality. I know a number of people — smart, industrious, well-spoken liberals — who give great credence to the idea that how the stars are aligned — either on their birthdates or at any given moment — directly affects events in their lives.

I know people who absolutely believe in ghosts — the spooky kind that haunt houses and spell out messages on Ouija boards.

I know people who go to palm readers. I know modern-day Wiccans and self-proclaimed witches. These folks aren’t “just having fun” — they sincerely believe these things with their hearts and souls.

Who am I to roll my eyes and tell them it’s hooey? People getting their zodiac charts read or hosting a seance or burning sage to ward off negative energy have no impact on anyone’s lives but their own. Unlike these conspiracy theorists.

We’re living in a new era in which people get lost in conspiracy, fueled by their own “research,” desperately looking for someone who supports their beliefs, and at the same time, supports their actions.

An amazing article by Kerry Howley in New York Magazine traces how three rational people got caught up in conspiracy theories and found themselves storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. And how two are now paying a legal price, while the third is dead.

The best line from her story — “A country that protects the right to spin fantasy necessarily risks the well-being of those who easily lose themselves to it.” It also risks the consequences of their actions, be it an uprising against our government or a heartbreaking rise in COVID-19 infections, which — as of this writing — are at the worst levels since the pandemic began.

Over The Edge is a monthly column by Reader senior contributing writer Tim McMahan focused on culture, society, music, the media and the arts.

Email Tim at tim.mcmahan@ gmail.com.

February 2022

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