PHOTOGRAPHY BY ELIZABETH MIRANDA
WHERE YOU WANT TO BE IN AUGUST
August
14
GO: Sunday, August 14. 8 pm.
Liberty Hall in Lawrence.
‘FOR THE LAST TIME’ While out on tour, Melissa Etheridge often finds herself heartbroken about the unrest she sees across the country. “I feel for my country, my people,” Etheridge says. The Leavenworth-bred Etheridge’s people are, specifically, Kansans—she’s always thought of her home state as “neutral.” She remembers her high school as an accepting place, where people were judged on their character more than their ethnicity or political stance. Etheridge says it’s no coincidence that Kansas has been involved in other landmark cases, like Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, which ended racial segregation in public schools. The country’s eyes are again on Kansas in the runup to the August 2 election,
which, in the wake of the overturning of Roe v. Wade, will determine whether abortion will remain legal in the state. “I think we’re very special people,” Etheridge says. “I think a lot of good can come out of Kansas, so I’m always hopeful.” There are still incredibly good people [in Kansas] who really believe in the live and let live.” Etheridge has also found herself examining her own past in her 2021 album, One Way Out. With more time during the pandemic, she began revisiting old songs that missed the cut on previous albums. “The songs are full of that twenties and thirties angst of mine and that sort of hunger that I don’t indulge in so much anymore,” Etheridge says. —MOL LY HI G G I N S READ THE FULL INTERVIEW AT KANSASCITYMAG.COM
KANSASCITYMAG.COM AUGUST 2022
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