Kansas City magazine September 2024

A Comprehensive Guide to 54 Can't-Miss Kansas City Events

FALL

PREVIEW

kansascitymag.com | September 2024 | $4.95

PLUS The Monarchs: KC’s Other Baseball Team A Backstage Pass to the Starlight Plaza Tennis Courts Bounce Back Breaking the Mole: Is KC Ready for Mexican Fine Dining?

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913.800.1812 MALFERKC.COM Malfer & Associates is a team of real estate agents affiliated with Compass Realty Group, a licensed real estate broker and abides by Equal Housing Opportunity laws. All material presented herein is intended for informational purposes only. Information is compiled from sources deemed reliable but is subject to errors, omissions, changes in price, condition, sale, or withdrawal without notice. Photos may be virtually staged or digitally enhanced and may not reflect actual property conditions.

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OUR MISSION

Unplug & Reconnect

We love Kansas City like family. We know what makes it great, we know how it struggles, and we know its secrets.

Through great storytelling, photography and design, we help our readers celebrate our city’s triumphs, tend to its faults and revel in the things that make it unique.

PUBLISHER

Dave Claflin EDITOR

Dawnya Bartsch ART DIRECTOR

Kevin Goodbar ASSOCIATE MANAGING EDITOR

Molly Higgins FOOD EDITOR

Tyler Shane

MUSIC EDITOR

Nina Cherry

DIRECTOR OF SALES

Angie Henshaw

DIGITAL MEDIA STRATEGIST

James Lampone

DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS

Alex Healey

PRODUCTION COORDINATOR

Dominique Parsow COPY EDITOR

Kelsie Schrader WEB COORDINATOR

Madison Russell ART INTERNS

Gio McGlothan and Teddy Rosen WRITERS

Daniela Barzallo, Nina Cherry, Jill Draper, Nicole Kinning, Rachel Layton, John Martellaro, Ian Ritter, Tyler Shane, Joyce Smith and Hampton Stevens PHOTOGRAPHERS

Zach Bauman, Annie Bolin, Samantha Levi, John Martellaro, Gio McGlothan, Laura Morsman, Pilsen Photo Coop, Gary Rohman and Ian Simmons SUBSCRIPTIONS

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Kansas City magazine is published monthly by KC Publishing, LLC. No part of this publication can be reprinted or reproduced without the publisher’s permission. Kansas City magazine assumes no responsibility for unsolicited materials. Kansas City magazine adheres to American Society of Magazine Editors guidelines, which requires a clear distinction between editorial content and paid advertising or marketing messages.

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Kansas City September 2024

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Join us for this community-favorite event, showcasing the artistry of current Hallmark employees and retirees. Interact with the artists and purchase their artwork on Sat., Sept. 14 from 10am-4pm.

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features

SEPTEMBER 2024

42 54 things to do and see this fall

64

The Reigning Monarchs A look at KC’s other baseball team

12

Kansas City September 2024

74

Play-by-Play

Meet the Royals’ newish announcer

80 T’ähä

Is KC ready for fine dining Mexican cuisine?

PHOTOGR APHY L AUR A MORSMAN

Cover Story Fall Arts

The Missouri State Penitentiary is a beloved treasure to history buffs and thrill-seekers alike. Tour and learn of the penitentiary’s 168-year operation and infamous criminals who were housed inside “The Walls.”

DO TIME IN

JEFFERSON CITY

Binder Park

MissouriPenTours.com

After doing time, discover the scenic views, old-world architectural charm, mouthwatering eateries and exciting events Jefferson City has to offer all year long.

Joe Wilson’s Serenity Point

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september

IN THIS ISSUE

21 loop

27 beat

37 current

79 savor

21 Tallgrass Prairie

27 Glo Wild

37 Leather Goods

79 Breakfast Treat

Meet the artist keeping an historic tallgrass prairie viable

Light up the night at the zoo

A local leather goods company makes the perfect fall bag

This couple makes craveworthy conchas

24 Tennis, Anyone?

Making magic at the Starlight Theatre

38 Music Therapy

34 Backbeat

A KU research lab studies the effects of music on Alzheimer’s patients

The Paza’s historic tennis courts bounce back

32 Behind the Curtain

A two-day St. Louis music festival is worth the drive

40 Skyline Sketches Meet a local creator who sells her city-themed art across the country

IN EVERY ISSUE

Editor’s Letter................ 16 Up Front........................... 18 Calendar......................... 28 Surreal Estate............... 92

ON THE COVER:

Photography by Samantha Levi (Learn more about our cover shoot on page 20).

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Kansas City September 2024

80 Magic Mole A new fine dining Mexican restaurant hits the Plaza

84 Tiki Tastes Meet KC’s very first permanent tiki bar

86 Perfect Day Lisa Peña’s hiking company makes Kansas Citians tourists in their own city

88 ’Cue Card Fine dining ’cue

90 Newsfeed

SHOW OFF YOUR BIG WIN Showcase your Best of KC accomplishment with a sophisticated keepsake to display in your establishment. The plaques you purchase directly from the magazine utilize the official Best of KC artwork. Be proud and show off your big win to let patrons know you’re among the best in KC!

Contact Angie Henshaw for additional details: ahenshaw@kansascitymag.com

kansascitymag.com September 2024

15

F R O M T H E E D I TO R

Feeling Fall ONE OF THE THINGS I like best about Kansas City is the seasons. I spent most of my life living in

a part of the country with no seasons at all, and I can honestly tell you, it gets boringly mundane.

When the temperatures would dip below the 60s, people would bust out parkas, boots and knit caps. It was exciting.

I’m often asked if I miss the mild climate. I don’t. I’ve been here for several years now and I still love it all, even the muggy summers and frigid winters. Maybe in another 10 years I’ll change my mind and in the height of the season decide I need a little break, but then I’ll just head to Florida like everyone else.

However, that being said, I will admit there is definitely something extra-special about the fall. The leaves turn a pretty golden hue, the weather is perfect for a leisurely dog walk, and I can drink hot coffee without feeling weird. I always order my coffee hot, even if the temperatures are soaring over 90, but come September, a warm drink is expected, and I don’t have to endure a side glance from the barista crafting my steaming latte.

The fall also means a whole new slew of entertainment activities, from Broadway musicals and theater to community fairs and rock concerts. There is something for everyone to see and do this fall in Kansas City. That’s why our fall arts preview is always so fun. We looked around and found the 54 must-see events to help not only us here at Kansas City magazine plan our calendar, but you, too.

Dawnya Bartsch EDITOR

dawnya@kansascitymag.com

Contributors

16

Gio McGlothan, Photography Intern

Gina Favero, Marketing Intern

Hampton Stevens, Writer

Photos for this month’s story about a local artist and his historic tallgrass prairie were taken by Gio McGlothan, a student at Liberty University. McGlothan carries his camera around wherever he goes.

Gina Favero, who is pursuing her MBA at Kansas State University, was a valuable part of the KC magazine team this summer. She spent a significant amount of time creating a social media strategy and explaining how it all works to some of the slightly older staffers.

This issue’s profile on Royals announcer Jake Esienberg was written by KC native Hampton Stevens, who has written for regional and national publications, including The Atlantic and ESPN The Magazine. He lives with his dog, Bodhi.

Kansas City September 2024

UP FRONT

Feedback

Say What?

Goodbye A video posted on our Instagram account @kansascitymagazine showing the demolition of the Seventh Church of Christ, Scientist at the northwest corner of 47th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue in the Plaza shopping district elicited hundreds of comments—most of them not so positive.

The historic Romanesque Revival church was built in 1942. In 2024, the congregation sold the brick church to developers, who plan to build a fourstory restaurant complex on the site.

Wow- this is so sad. The detail and history that the temple had will never be replicated. No care to preserve or incorporate any piece of it.

–Kali Buchanan

So sad that they could not repurpose it. This is why European cities are so beautiful and full of history.

–Don Kania

Wishing architectural pieces could’ve been removed safely before demo.

Especially those gorgeous diamond leaded windows and arched molding.

–Alexis Faulkner Ceule

Everybody who is mad doesn’t realize that the owners of the building were the ones who sold it so that it could be destroyed.

They refused to let it be registered as a national historic landmark so they could get top dollar.

–Kevin KeeVee

Oh my goodness, this may be about the saddest thing I ever saw disguised as progress. This breaks my

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Kansas City September 2024

heart. A significant building with history, design detail and beauty that gave a sense of place to the plaza is being replaced by a generic, bland development that could be anywhere. Regardless of the financial aspect, this is a bad decision.

–Andrea Glinn

I was there shooting some details yesterday and learned that the original pipe organ - a pull stop type - is in that pile of rubble. I won’t discuss its value. Then, I have a shot of the west side stained glass being smashed.

There was definitely a pit in my stomach watching it all come down.

“That’s when it’s time for you to tell the audience that the pitcher is staring into his catcher’s mitt and there’s a bead of sweat dripping down over his right eyebrow, and the batter is gripping the bat a little bit tighter.”

Numbers From This Issue

14

The number of courts at the historic Plaza Tennis Center Page 24

165

feet The length of the Power and Light bridge Page 92

89,000 feet The amount of fabric used to cover the metal lantern frames for the Kansas City Zoo’s Glo Wild event Page 27

–Jake Eisenberg, Royals announcer

–Brian Turner

Contact Us

KC Publishing, LLC 605 W. 47th St., Suite 200 Kansas City, MO 64112 (913) 469-6700

Email

editor@kansascitymag.com

Shout-out

Scan the QR code to check out Kansas City magazine online.

A big thanks to Mica Thomas and Brent Martin of the Quixotic group for not only letting us use the Quixotic studio space for our cover shoot but getting it ready for us, too

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A B O U T T H E C OV E R

Behind the Scenes PHOTOGRAPHER Samantha Levi shot an assem-

bled cast of artists for this issue’s cover photo at the Quixotic studio.

To illustrate the magazine’s main feature, a preview of can’t-miss fall art events, and to demonstrate Kansas City’s art diversity, we asked artists who work in a variety of mediums to come together for a photo shoot. –DAWNYA BARTSCH

Mike Savage, who grew up in the Strawberry Hill neighborhood, is one of Kansas City’s iconic painters. Known for his impressionistic depictions of Kansas City scenes and landscapes, his work can be found around town at various galleries.

Actor Ben Ferguson, who will be performing the lead role in KC Repertory Theatre’s Once production throughout September, hails from Texas.

His lengthy resume includes performing in regional theater companies around the country, and in the off-broadway show The Old Man and The Old Moon.

20 Kansas City September 2024

Ramona Pansegrau has been Kansas City Ballet’s music director for the last 17 years.

She arrived via the Boston and Tulsa ballet companies, where she held numerous musical positions including conductor of the Tulsa Symphony orchestra for ballet performances.

Aerialist Maggie Andriani studied ballet with the Kansas City Ballet for 10 years before moving onto the Indiana University Ballet Theater. Upon graduation, she joined Quixotic as one of its core performers in aerial, dance and fire dancing.

Rapper and trombonist Kadesh Flow is a local musician who can be seen around town performing at various clubs and bars. He is classically trained but dabbles in a large swath of genres. He has worked as a studio trombonist with Janelle Monáe and Tech N9ne.

Ballerina Naomi Tanioka, originally from Sapporo, Japan, trained at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School in Canada. She joined the Kansas City Ballet in 2019 and has performed in numerous productions with feature roles, such as Sugar Plum and the Snow Queen in The Nutcracker.

Photography by Gio McGlothan

L EAD ING T HE CONVERSAT ION IN KA NSAS C I T Y

Flowers, Art and a Tallgrass Prairie?

A local artist is mixing his various passions in an effort to preserve nature

By Jill Draper ARTIST MATTHEW DEHAEMERS’ longtime vision to merge a fam-

ily-owned natural tallgrass prairie, the world of cut flowers and contemporary art is coming to fruition.

“It’s a perfect match,” says the artist, who is no stranger to merging disparate worlds through his large public art pieces, such as his Photography by Gio McGlothan

galvanized steel Seven Sentinels art piece at KC’s municipal tow lot.

The Leawood native’s work can be found throughout Kansas City and the Midwest at sites such as Arrowhead Stadium and Operation Breakthrough at 31st and Troost.

(Continued on next page) kansascitymag.com September 2024

21

LO O P

“I’m kind of in awe of nature—how amazing it looks and how full of intricacies and complexities it is.”

His latest endeavor is a cut-your-own flower farm with the usual garden-variety flowers intermingled with native prairie flowers. The farm is just west of town off K-10 Highway a few miles south of Eudora. This very personal project is also public, just like Dehaemers’ art.

Visitors can create their own colorful bouquets from native prairie flowers and foliage, plus traditional garden favorites. At the same stop, they can browse through Dehaemers’ studio and tour a hilltop prairie that’s home to butterflies, bees and more than 100 types of plants and flowers.

“I’ve always loved landscaping and trying to compose with plants that are tall and short and have different bloom times,” he says. “It’s like this is my other canvas.”

Dehaemers’ name for his flower farm, Compass Prairie Art Farm, is a nod to the iconic compass plant, which can grow 10 feet high and live for 100 years. The plant produces sunflower-like blossoms, grows a long, sturdy taproot and often orients its leaves on a north-south axis.

22 Kansas City September 2024

There is so little natural tallgrass prairie left; Dehaemers says that his family’s plot, which was purchased by his wife’s grandfather in the 1960s, makes them caretakers of an increasingly rare and ecologically valuable plot of land. By many accounts, these types of pre-settlement grasslands that once sustained bison and Native Indians have shrunk to less than a percentage point of an area that used to span 14 states and cover millions of acres.

Alongside his family prairie, Dehaemers has designed geometric-shaped beds into “walls of flowers” that offer coneflowers, cosmos, basket flowers, bachelor buttons, sea holly, pineapple sage, sunflowers and many-hued zinnias for making bouquets. Prairie flowers such as rattlesnake master, goldenrod, aster, blazing star, black-eyed Susan and compass plant can be added, too, although Dehaemers will do the cutting on those.

That’s to make sure the prairie is not over-picked and continues to prosper, he says.

The heritage tallgrass prairie is not maintenance-free. Dehaemers battles invasive weeds like lespedeza and bull thistle, and every three years the acreage must be burned.

“It’s just an incredible thing,” he says. “You burn it black, a few weeks later it’s green and then everything explodes with growth.”

In addition to his original 10-acre prairie, Dehaemers is restoring a previously plowed eight-acre parcel Photography by Gio McGlothan

TA L LG R A S S P R A I R I E

Water Ways back to prairie. But that never truly works, he says, because the complex relationship between plants and microorganisms that exist in the soil takes thousands of years to establish.

Future ideas for the farm include offering artist residencies in a small house on the property, creating an open-air chapel for weddings and building an amphitheater from limestone blocks terraced into the side of a slope. Dehaemers is taking the advice of an architect friend, though, who told him not to rush into decisions. He’s letting the next step occur organically, perhaps like some of his smaller art pieces that mix tree branches, bird netting, chicken wire and old farm tools with embroidery thread, paint and fabric.

“It’s an embarrassment of riches out here,” Dehaemers says. “I’m kind of in awe of nature—how amazing it looks and how full of intricacies and complexities it is.”

Dehaemers will be selling flowers in mid-September at Limitless Brewing Company’s Oktoberfest in Lenexa. The following month, three artist friends will join him in showcasing their work on Oct. 5-6, when Compass Prairie Art Farm welcomes visitors during the Kaw Valley Farm Tour.

Meanwhile, the farm (1923 N. 800 Road, Eudora, KS) is open for gathering bouquets, starting at $15, on Saturday mornings and some Tuesday evenings. Check the Matthew Dehaemers Facebook page for details.

PHOTOGR APHY PROVIDED

By Jill Draper

Step inside a giant multicolored water drop at Lenexa’s Mill Creek Streamway Park and the side panels create shimmering prisms of light, much like an oil slick in the sun. Then notice 81 strands of rope arching over a bridge, and braided together until they become a single massive twist that ends at a metal shutoff valve borrowed from WaterOne. Maybe this contemporary artwork illustrates rivulets and streams merging into a large river that serves as our drinking water source. Maybe the various colors of rope reflect our watershed’s many challenges, such as fertilizer runoff, herbicides and trash. Or maybe the rope stands for the convergence of caretakers—water treatment chemists, stormwater ecologists, engineers and others—who join together to counteract the contaminants.

All of the above, says artist Matt Dehaemers, who created the temporary installation titled “Is It Water Under the Bridge?” during an Art and Natural Resources Residency with Johnson County Park and Recreation District.

Additional support from the Johnson County Stormwater Management Program contributed to his piece, which spans Mill Creek in Lenexa, just north of Prairie Star Parkway.

After a three-week immersion into the world of water management, which Dehaemers calls “mind-blowingly complex,” he decided to use PVC tubing and polycarbonate sheets layered with dichroic film to create the colorful water drop. Community volunteers helped braid some 3,500 feet of polypropylene rope before the artwork was dedicated in June.

Although he first studied painting and printmaking, Dehaemers later realized this type of art was not the final product for him. “Everything I was drawing I wanted to see 3D in a sculpture,” he says. Dehaemers is best known now for his large public art installations. He especially enjoys repurposing materials, taking conventional things and elevating them to art objects to create “a powerful chain reaction event.”

He’s not sure what will happen to the water drop in the future, but through December 2024, it will remain in the park, where thousands of bikers, runners and walkers pass by.

“Hopefully, it’ll be up long enough to see snow on it,” Dehaemers says. kansascitymag.com September 2024

23

Plaza Tennis Courts Bounce Back

USTA brings historic Plaza public tennis courts back to life

By Ian Ritter ON A RECENT cloudy afternoon with a rare break in the summer heat, Mary Bus-

chmann shows off the newly refurbished Plaza Tennis Center, just east of the shopping area for which the facility is named, and enthusiastically talks about the nearly 100-year-old courts’ future.

Buschmann is CEO and executive director of the United States Tennis Association Missouri Valley/Heart of America, the organization that recently replaced the public tennis courts’ previous management, Genesis Health Clubs. The for-profit health club chain defaulted on its lease agreement to operate the facility, failing to pay the city in 2023.

When media reports came out earlier this year that the tennis center’s operation arrangement wasn’t working and the city was considering selling the very run-down property to commercial developers, an alarmed tennis community met with officials.

Not many cities can boast the charm of having public tennis courts smack-dab in the middle of an urban historic shopping district—and for nearly a century, no less.

“People love the history here and the players that have played here,” Buschmann says. “They love when the [street corner] drummers are out there playing. They love the ambience.”

In February, after hearing from the community, the city brokered a court management deal with USTA. Under the agreement, USTA will manage the tennis courts through the end of 2024 and share 40 percent of the courts’ net profits with the city. City officials also earmarked nearly $500,000 to repair the 14 crumbling courts.

24 Kansas City September 2024

T E N N I S , A N YO N E ?

In years past, the tennis center was known for hosting regional tournaments. However, due to neglect, tournament organizers felt compelled to move their competitions to other facilities. But now that the courts have been resurfaced and some improvements have been made to the clubhouse (with more on the way), people are again eyeing the courts for play.

The phone has started ringing again, Buschmann says, with groups telling her, “‘OK, I want to bring my tournament back.’ We’re starting to hear all that, and we have booked a lot,” Buschmann says.

The transformation has been dramatic, says Kendell Hale, UMKC’s women’s tennis coach. “They’ve just done amazing things down there,” says Hale, who’s worked and played at the Plaza courts for more than two decades. UMKC, along with Rockhurst College and several area high schools, uses the courts for their programs. This month, the Plaza Courts will once again host a tournament: the USTA League Sectional Championship for mixed 40 and over players.

The improvements have also coincided with the much-anticipated Dallas-based HP Village Management’s acquisition of the 800,000-square-foot Country Club Plaza. Buschmann says she has already noticed more of a security presence on the Plaza’s streets, both on foot and in vehicles. That “does nothing but help” make more people want to visit the area, she says, pointing out that a future KC Streetcar stop will also increase foot traffic.

But USTA’s continued management of the courts isn’t a given. The Parks and Recreation Department is required to issue a Request for Quote for operation of the courts for 2025, and USTA will have to compete with other groups that might want to operate the facility. The contracts offered by Parks and Rec are for one year, with an annual option to renew for each of the following four years, essentially making it a conditional five-year contract.

Buschmann hopes to also rent out the facilities and partner with various groups to hold non-tennis events as a way to increase revenue. She cites a recent bridal shower and yoga event as examples. For Buschmann, the biggest pitch to the public is the ability to play and book time on historic courts at such a central location for $7 per hour, less than the cost of a Big Mac meal at McDonald’s.

“You know, our pricing is really pretty low,” Buschmann says. “It’s seven bucks an hour. It’s not per person. Seven bucks an hour. There’s no membership.

There’s none of that.”

PHOTOGR APHY PROVIDED

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GloWild at the Zoo

By Daniela Barzallo GOING ON ITS third year, the GloWild Lantern Festival is set to light

up the night at the Kansas City Zoo and Aquarium with steel and fabric sculptures lit from within—hence the term lantern.

The large handmade sculptures dot a mile-long path that meanders through the zoo. After hours, visitors walk the path to take in the art. This year’s theme, “Legends and Lore,” features dinosaurs, legends such as Atlantis, an enchanted forest and a fairy Photography by Carla Farris

garden. The dozens of sculptures are handmade by more than 150 artists. Thirty-four tons of steel make up the frames, and 89,000 feet of fabric cover them. The sculptures are provided through the zoo’s partnership with Lektrik Art. The walk takes about an hour and a half and is open in the eveGO: nings from Wednesday to SunGloWild Lantern Festival, Wednesday–Sundays, day. On Wednesdays, the aquarSeptember 6–December 29, ium is also open and included in 6 to 9 pm weekdays the ticket price. and 6 to 10 pm weekends.

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kansascitymag.com September 2024

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sept B E AT

WH AT YOU WA N T TO DO TH I S MO NTH BY MOL LY HI G G INS

6–8

PBR KC Outlaw Days

The third season of the groundbreaking Professional Bull Riders Team Series returns to T-Mobile Center. The Outlaws are KC’s first professional bull riding team, and they will be competing in the PBR Team Series, which takes bull riding from an individual sport to a team competition. This season features the number one bull rider in the world, Cassio Dias, and there are now 10 teams competing in riding games held across a dozen events.

September 6 & 7, 7:45 pm; September 8, 1:45 pm. T-Mobile Center.

11

Grupo Frontera

Celebrate the start of the 2024 NFL season with the Super Bowl LVIII champs on kickoff night. The Chiefs will be on their home turf, GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium, against the Baltimore Ravens in a highly anticipated rematch of last year’s AFC Championship Game. September 5. 7:20 pm. GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium.

28 Kansas City September 2024

tember 11. 8 pm. T-Mobile Center.

13–15

Stravinsky’s Firebird, Alisa Weilerstein Plays Dvořák

This special classical concert series marks the beginning of Matthias Pintscher’s tenure as the new music director of the Kansas City Symphony. Cello virtuosa and MacArthur “genius grant” recipient Alisa Weilerstein breathes renewed life into Dvořák’s beloved Cello Concerto. This concert also provides a rare opportunity to hear Stravinsky’s celebrated ballet, The Firebird, in its entirety. September

13 & 14; 8 pm; September 15, 2 pm.

Helzberg Hall.

14

Cage The Elephant

Formed in Kentucky in 2006, rock band Cage The Elephant moved across the pond and made it their home shortly before their debut self-titled album was released. The British influence can be heard in their poppy, often upbeat indie-pop songs, like ever-popular radio hits “Cigarette Daydreams” and “Come a Little Closer.” They’re coming to KC on the Neon Pill Tour, named

PHOTOGR APHY JEREMEY THERON KIRBY; PROVIDED

5 Chiefs Opener

Six-member Texas-based Mexican cumbia group Grupo Frontera came up playing and recording locally in border towns in Texas, but their collaboration with global superstar Bad Bunny last year landed them on the coveted Coachella stage. The band’s success is considered to be integral in the recent mainstream popularity of the regional Mexican genre. They’re hitting KC in support of their most recent album, Jugando a Que No Pasa Nada. Sep-

28 C A L E N DA R

after their newest album released in May of this year. September 14.

6:30 pm. Starlight Theatre.

17–22 Peter Pan

The classic adventure by J.M. Barrie, a favorite for nearly 70 years, is reimagined for the stage in this new adaptation by playwright Larissa FastHorse, directed by Emmy Award winner Lonny Price, with choreography by Lorin Latarro.

Reexperience the magic of Peter Pan with old favorites like the Lost Boys, Tinker Bell and Captain Hook as Peter Pan convinces the children—and audience—to join him on an unforgettable adventure to the enchanted Neverland. September 17–22. 8 pm.

Dionne Warwick

Dionne Warwick established herself as a music icon whose career spans decades. She recorded 18 consecutive top 100 singles, including “Walk on By” and “Say a Little Prayer.” Warwick joins the Kansas City Symphony for a celebratory collaboration of this groundbreaking artist. September 28. 8 pm.

Starlight Theatre.

19

Joe Pera

Standup comedian, writer and filmmaker Joe Pera developed a cult-like following after his unassuming series on Adult Swim, Joe Pera Talks with You, gained surprising uber-popularity. In the show, Pera plays a fictionalized version of himself and talks directly to the viewer about ordinary subjects like breakfast and sleeping. His stand-up, The PERAS Tour, follows suit by gaining laughs with a quiet awkwardness and surprising, wholesome simplicity. September

19. 7 pm. Uptown Theater.

20–22 Jurassic Park in Concert

Part of the wildly popular film with live orchestra series, the Kansas City Symphony presents Jurassic Park in concert. Guest conductor Jason Seber leads the symphony playing John Williams’ iconic score as Steven Spielberg’s legendary 1993 blockbuster Jurassic Park plays. This now-iconic action-adventure becomes an all-out battle between prehistoric dinosaurs and modern scientists for a true test of survival of the fittest—because “life finds a way,” always. September 20

& 21, 8 pm; September 22, 2 pm.

Helzberg Hall.

22, 25–28 Kansas City Fashion Week

Each year, Kansas City Fashion Week features local and international designers showcasing

Helzberg Hall.

their work in runway shows and networking across avenues in the fashion industry, including makeup, photography and modeling.

Folks can also order the runway looks, and the KCFW Vendor Market on Saturday provides a diverse collection of vendors selling their unique fashion and lifestyle goods. Designer Collections

28

27

Nick Swardson

Gallery opening: September 22.

2 pm. Hotel Kansas City. Runway shows: September 25–28.

Times vary. Union Station.

Perhaps best known for his role on Reno 911!, actor-comedian Nick Swardson has become one of those recognizable but not big-name comedic actors that you have to Google. Most notably, he has been a part of Adam Sandler’s production company and is now touring the U.S. with his ironically named (or aptly titled?) Toilet Head tour. Septem-

26

27 & 29

Performance group Malevo specializes in Malambo, a traditional Argentine folk dance—but with a contemporary twist. Created by director, choreographer and dancer Matías Jaime, the group goes beyond traditional limits with a modern, avant-garde twist to create a hybrid performance with other styles like flamenco and urban percussion. After being named an official “Cultural Ambassador to the National Identity of Argentina” and performing with Cirque du Soleil and Latin pop star Ricky Martin, Malevo presents their brand new touring performance. September 26.

Lyric Opera of Kansas City presents this show by Pulitzer Prize winner Kevin Puts. Based on letters between artist Georgia O’Keeffe and her husband, photographer Alfred Stieglitz, this innovative new work plays Puts’ songs while showing projections of O’Keefe’s floral figments and the couples’ letters. The correspondences paint the shifting shape of their decades-spanning relationship. The second half of The Brightness of Light will consist of opera and Broadway hits specially selected and sung by Renée Fleming and Rod Gilfry for Lyric Opera audiences. September

Malevo

7:30 pm. Yardley Hall.

ber 27. 6:30 pm. Uptown Theater.

Two Door Cinema Club

Northern Ireland pop-rock band Two Door Cinema Club has been a favorite in the indie scene since their debut album was released a decade ago. With a poppy vibe and consistently catchy tunes, Two Door Cinema Club has proven to have enduring popularity. You can still hear their massive 2010 radio hit “What You Know” at least once an hour on 96.5 Not-the-Buzz.

September 28. 7 pm.

Starlight Theatre.

The Brightness of Light

27, 7:30 pm; September 29, 2 pm.

Muriel Kauffman Theatre.

28

Greg & Dana Newkirk’s Haunted Objects Live!

Paranormal investigators Greg and Dana Newkirk have a passion for collecting and caring for cursed objects, possessed dolls and other supernatural artifacts. In their show, the Newkirks share the history, folklore and real accounts of encounters with haunted objects, including the untold truth about famous cursed objects like the Crying Boy painting or the supposedly demon-possessed Dybbuk Box. September 28. 7:30 pm.

Polsky Theatre.

kansascitymag.com September 2024

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Kansas City September 2024

Photography by Ian Simmons

BEHIND THE SCENES

When she hits the cue light and issues the command, “Go!” a crew member unlocks a rope and lowers a latticed castle gate onto the floor.

Thousands of onlookers in the audience see one version of Starlight’s summer Broadway musicals. Behind the scenes is a different show played by the supporting staff who make it happen.

“Usually, there are more people backstage than onstage,” says Starlight’s director of marketing Rachel Bliss, who describes the hustle and bustle as orchestrated chaos.

“Everything happens on a much grander scale than most people realize.”

Situated in the heart of Swope Park, Starlight celebrates its 75th anniversary next year. It’s seen various improvements since opening in 1950, but 2000 was a game changer, according to Caroline Gibel, vice president of programming and production at Starlight.

A capital campaign at the time financed an enclosed, climate-controlled “stage house” with a 10-story-tall fly system of ropes, pulleys and counterweights for raising and lowering scenery, props, lights and the occasional flying actor. The front curtain, formerly fabric, was replaced with a giant airplane hangar door. Altogether, the changes provided enough bells and whistles to attract major Broadway touring shows for the first time.

Until then, Starlight produced all of its own shows. That tradition remains alive in the theater’s commitment to putting on one show each summer that employs around 100 local actors, dancers, musicians and stagehands.

In August, that show was West Side Story. In 2023, it was Legally Blonde.

“Only two theaters in the U.S. do outdoor self-produced shows of this size,” says Gibel. The other is the Municipal Opera Theatre in St. Louis. “There used to be a lot more.”

One reason is the expense. Big Broadway means big sets, big ensembles and big money. Most theaters are just trying to break even, Gibel says, earning profits mainly from concessions, parking and ancillary events.

Another reason is the challenge of hot, windy and rainy weather.

Starlight pays Evergy for multiple sources of power. If one goes out (as it did during Dream Girls a while back), the tech crew hauls the power lines to its backup source some 300 feet away.

Touring Broadway shows run throughout the summer, usually Tuesday through Sunday. The busiest day is opening day or “load-in.” Props, scenery, costumes and equipment are unpacked from several semi-trucks, although shows with elaborate sets, such as Frozen, The Lion King and Phantom of the Opera may have 20 or more trucks.

Most shows travel with their own lights, musical instruments and a large floor mat that lays atop Starlight’s sprung wooden dance floor. It’s all for consistency. A recent tour of Shrek even came with a portable drum room, fully miked and paneled with acoustic tiles, in which the drummer sat stage left behind black curtains.

“I’m still fascinated by how a show comes together,” says Liz Kelley, who grew up dancing in 1960s-era Starlight ensembles and now works on the wardrobe team. In July, she was nursing a “corset sprain” on her thumb from zipping up Little Mermaid costumes. These strapless outfits are especially tight-fitted because the actresses undulate throughout the show.

One night she forgot to retrieve a mermaid tail reeled in by a fishing line when Ariel became human, but she had a good excuse: She was on the phone arranging an emergency leather strap repair for a character’s ballroom shoe.

It’s dark backstage. Kelley wears a head lamp plus a multi-pocketed apron that serves as a dresser’s tool belt filled with hair bands, safety pins, scissors, a shoe horn and cough drops.

Not all shows have quick changes, but it’s not uncommon. During Shrek, the actors worked out of close-by baskets holding costumes and accessories, ignoring the hallway of dressing rooms across the way. Frozen washcloths and cooling towels were handed out between scenes to those outfitted as furry animals. The lucky ones scored an ice vest.

At some point during most productions, usually on opening night, there’s a cast and crew party. “These parties sound very sexy, but they are not,” says Gibel. “Everyone is pretty wiped out after all the go-go-go. It’s a time to sit down with your theater family, have a drink and pat yourself on the back.”

Because the backstage show deserves a round of applause—even if the applause is self-produced.

Backstage Pass

Take a look behind the scenes at the Starlight Theatre

By Jill Draper

THE HOT, HUMID air hangs heavy at Kansas City’s

outdoor Starlight Theatre, and the actor’s costume clings like plastic wrap. A wardrobe assistant peels it off backstage and lets it drop damply to the floor.

Standing in his skivvies behind a makeshift partition, the actor steps into his next outfit, gulps a quick drink of water and strides back onstage.

The discarded costume, hung up to dry for use in another scene, billows from a well-aimed fan. At evening’s end, it will be spritzed with a vodka and water mix for odor control. That’s for garments that need dry-cleaning. Other outfits are tossed into one of three washing machines so they’ll be fresh for the following night’s performance.

Meanwhile, another actor is sweating off his green makeup, a mishap noticed by the stage manager via a camera screen. “Can we get an extra blot or fan?” she calls out to the makeup, hair and wigs team. Next, she orders the repositioning of a prop hanging from metal poles high above the stage.

“On the rail, stand by for the portcullis into its low trim,” she announces. When she hits the cue light and issues the command, “Go!” a crew member unlocks a rope and lowers a latticed castle gate onto the floor.

kansascitymag.com September 2024

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More Than Music

that’s informed modern music in R&B and hip-hop and rock and a little bit of electronica,” Hansen says. “When you celebrate your roots, it really is all things and all music.”

Once again, this year’s festival is well worth the four-hour drive along I-70.

By Nina Cherry Saturday’s lineup is predominantly focused on hip-hop and R&B. Headliners include rap legend Big Boi, psychedelic funk band Black MUSIC AT THE Intersection has become a staple of the Midwest Pumas and R&B singer Lady Wray. But the final day is heavy on festival scene. jazz. Along with soul superstar Chaka Khan, Sunday will feature jazz Now in its fifth year, the two-day mid-September festival in St. fusion pioneer Stanley Clarke, vocalist Samara Joy (who won last year’s Louis offers something for everyone, drawing in listeners of all ages Grammy Award for Best New Artist), versatile bassist and singer Espeand backgrounds. I watched last year’s headliner, Herbie Hancock, in ranza Spalding and the always fun and funky Trombone Shorty. awe. Now, later this month, festivalgoers are looking to Chaka Khan Many of the festival’s acts have some sort of tie to St. Louis, includto be this year’s standout performer. ing R&B singer Jordan Ward, rapper Chingy and the festival’s artist “We always celebrate our living legends, elevate our rising stars and in residence, trumpeter Keyon Harrold. our St. Louis acts,” says Chris Hansen. Hansen is the executive director “It’s exciting to put that type of tapestry together and really celof the Kranzberg Arts Foundation, the festival’s executive producer. ebrate our sister city connections,” Hansen says. “When we talk The festival lineup is reliably top-notch. Last year, several local St. about St. Louis’ history and American music history, you’re able Louis artists and blues legend Taj Mahal performed to go much deeper into world cultures,” Hansen before Hancock shredded on keytar. Also performing says. “The festival is truly diverse and sees all walks GO: were hip-hop legend Grandmaster Flash, New Orleof life. That’s what makes us uniquely different.”

Music at the Intersection, ans-based Tank and the Bangas, and the grooving The While festivalgoers are welcome to leave and reenter September 14-15.

Grand Center Arts District, Fearless Flyers. the event—whether to explore the surrounding arts Saint Louis.

“Music at the Intersection is a celebration of our district or cool down in an air-conditioned space—I’ll Tickets are on sale at past—our roots in jazz, blues, soul and gospel—and how musicattheintersection.org. be staying put with such a stacked lineup.

This St. Louis music festival is worth the drive

↓

34 Kansas City September 2024

Photography by Tyler Small

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Local Leather

By Molly Higgins

PHOTOGR APHY PROVIDED

FALL IS QUICKLY approaching, which means pumpkin spice lattes,

crunchy leaves, cozy sweaters and leather goods. With school in full swing and temperatures dropping, it’s time to ditch last year’s bag for something a little more timeless and upscale—you deserve it for making it through yet another Missouri summer.

Our go-to bag for fall is one that never goes out of season: an artisanal, handmade leather bag made right here in KC by Madison Stitch.

Born out of Madison Flitch furniture studio during Covid, Madison Stitch founder John Pryor began making masks, then soon pivoted to bags and other hand-stitched products. Today, Madison Stitch

products are made by local artisans using local materials right here in their KC design studio and showroom (507 E. 16th St., KCMO).

A lot of care and thought goes into every locally sourced detail.

The wood tags and other elements on their bags come from trees they harvest themselves and the leather is from a local tannery using traditional 200-year-old techniques. The materials are hand-stitched in the studio, and the company offers lifetime guarantees on their bags.

Madison Stitch also holds in-studio classes like whiskey tasting and leather craft, belt making, jewelry making and wine tasting.

Whether you want to upgrade your briefcase, need a duffle that will withstand the conveyor belt in baggage claim or are after a cute fall accessory, KC-made Madison Stitch’s timeless products will withstand the elements—and the fads.

kansascitymag.com September 2024

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CURRENT

TREND

Lepping, who minored in piano, worked as a pianist shortly after her undergraduate studies.

A Tale of Two Passions

How KU Med’s program studying the effects of music on Alzheimer’s patients came about

By Rachel Layton WHEN SHE STARTED her major at Wichita State University, Rebecca Lepping planned

on becoming a professional pianist. But in 1997, at 21 years old, she changed her major from flute and piano performance to psychology. She knew she was in for a long ride. She had lots of classes to take and a vision that she could somehow combine both her passion for music and psychology into a career.

Thus began a 15-year journey that would marry her musical ability with her scientific training.

Now a neuroscience faculty member at the University of Kansas Medical Center, Lepping developed the Power of Music Laboratory, known as PROMUS, in 2020.

She’s one of the first researchers in the country to study the neurological impacts of music on a person’s physical health.

PROMUS Lab research seeks to combine scientific methodology with music theory to conduct brain imaging research on the physiological, psychological and neurological effects of music. PROMUS places a unique focus on interdisciplinary communication between the two fields. “We have all of the different expertise that we need to answer both the artistic questions but also the medical and scientific questions, so we work with multidisciplinary teams,” Lepping says.

38 Kansas City September 2024

Currently, PROMUS is in the early stages of conducting research on the effects of music on patients with Alzheimer’s. The lab’s initial research dealt with music’s effects on the body’s neurological pain responses for patients with chronic pain conditions, such as fibromyalgia. “Music can be a very powerful distractor,” Lepping says, “but we want to know, is it something special? Is it something different? Is there anything additive about music versus some other distraction?” Lepping thinks there is.

Lepping, who minored in piano, worked as a pianist shortly after her undergraduate studies and before flying across the Atlantic to enroll in a music and psychology masters program at the University of Sheffield in England. At that time, there weren’t any graduate programs in the U.S. that combined music and psychology, Lepping says. After returning to Kansas City, she attended UMKC’s Conservatory and received her masters in performance before moving on to KU to complete a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology. “That was when I was finally able to combine music and psychology into the same research,” Lepping says.

Currently, PROMUS is one year into a two-year-long professional development grant program within KU provided by the Frontier Institute. Working alongside the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, Lepping works with mentor Kristine Williams, a professor with the School of Nursing, on communication strategies between researchers, care providers and their patients.

This program is in line with the lab’s mission to foster interdisciplinary collaboration between musical and medical professionals.

In May of 2023, PROMUS was included in an initiative

by ArtsKC to found their Neuroarts Coalition. Lepping, a member of the coalition’s advisory committee, defines neuroarts as “trying to understand how the arts are associated with our neurological functioning. I want to know what’s happening in the brain and the body that’s related to psychological experiences that people have.”

This past spring, ArtsKC held its first thought leadership summit, with Lepper as a presenter, to foster “cross-sector collaboration to examine the power of arts-integrated practices.”

Photography by Gary Rohman

GASCONADE RIVER Dixon, MO

AND SHE LOVES TO SHARE. Gentle rivers full of twists and turns, spectacular Ozark scenery, and phenomenal fishing make for a fantastic fall adventure! But that only scratches the surface of all Pulaski County offers. Fill up on tales as old as time at our historic military and Route 66 stops. Test your skills in archery, golf, indoor shooting, and more. Grab delicious eats and treats at our unique diners. Then, do it all again as you work your way through our day-after-day adventures.

Come Say “Hi” to Mother Nature.

For more info, visit pulaskicountyusa.com.

CURRENT

I N T E RV I E W

“I’ve seen a lot of people maybe not buying as much, but when they do buy it, they want it to last. I’m glad I really don’t make anything that’s throwaway. Everything can last for years.”

Tell us about the process of creating the landscape designs. People love things about their hometown.

The Sky’s The limit

Tammy Smith creates uber-popular city themed goods sold in stores across the country

By Molly Higgins BEST KNOWN FOR her popular city landscape designs sold on everything from

prints to tea towels, Kansas City native and artist Tammy Smith is no stranger to the world of specialty gifts. After working as a Hallmark artist for 20 years, Smith pivoted to sculpture design and took her wares on the road, selling at festivals and fairs around the country for several years.

In 2014, after she stopped traveling, she took what she knew about product devlopment from her time at Hallmark and began making skyline designs—first of her hometown, Kansas City, and later of St. Louis and Chicago.

Before long, requests were pouring in from social media and her Etsy shop to create other towns. Now, Smith has created art for all 50 states and countless cities across the globe, selling the skyline imagery on all types of home goods, including baby onesies and dinner trays. Her work is carried both in stores both locally and nationwide.

It’s been 10 years since Smith created her first KC skyline design, and her designs are ever-popular. We talked with the artist about the inspiration behind and creation of her timeless designs.

40 Kansas City September 2024

We’re so Kansas City proud here. So it’s really fun to create an illustration with all the stuff I love about Kansas City. KC has a lot of beautiful landmarks. I’ve always loved going to the Plaza. Visually, it’s really fun to draw. The Kauffman, too—we’ve had some great architects design here.

Our skyline is also changing, and it’s really interesting. People want to see their favorite restaurant or their favorite landmark on the product. I look at the most popular landmarks in each city, then I look at things like weirdest landmarks or offbeat things to do in each city. I want to do something unique to each city, too.

What inspires your art? I love mid-century modern

design, and that’s why I use limited colors in my illustrations. If you look at the ’50s, a lot of those illustrations were limited color, and so I want to keep that vibe. That’s why I started my cities with just three colors. Quirky illustrations and sculptures also inspire me, [like] the Garden of Eden in Lucas, Kansas. I also do ceramics, so I have another business called Small Ideas Studio.

I have a studio in Brookside where I teach workshops and stuff, and it’s totally different—whimsical with a lot of characters. I do some jewelry, vases, salt and pepper shakers and votive holders—all kinds of different things.

I’ll do shows around the city and sell those there.

What trends do you see, and what are people gravitating toward with design or products? I think people

are looking at reuse a lot. People don’t want some single-use bag. I’ve seen a lot of people maybe not buying as much, but when they do buy it, they want it to last. I’m glad I really don’t make anything that’s throwaway. Everything can last for years.

Photography by Laura Morsman

Introducing the

AdventHealth Fertility Center AdventHealth is pleased to welcome the patients, providers and staff of Midwest Reproductive Center, now providing expert fertility care for women and men at AdventHealth Shawnee Mission.

For information, visit AdventHealthKC.com/Fertility or call 913-780-4300.

Now called the AdventHealth Fertility Center, the practice is led by experienced, Board-certified reproductive endocrinologist Dan Gehlbach, MD. Dan Gehlbach, MD

Goldie Bjornstad, APRN, FNP-C

Johni Kilton, APRN, WHNP-BC

MUSIC / DANCE / THEATER / VISUAL ARTS

FA L L

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A RT S

54 FA L L A R T

E X P E R I E N C ES NO ONE SHOULD MISS

P R E V I E W

From live Broadway musicals to candle making workshops, this year’s fall art season has something for every Kansas Citian

BY KANSAS CITY MAGAZINE STAFF ARTIST PORTRAITS BY LAURA MORSMAN

kansascitymag.com September 2024

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“ I S T O O D O N S TA G E WITH PEOPLE I GREW UP L I S T E N I N G T O, L I K E M A C Y G R AY A N D MICHAEL BOLTON. I NEVER THOUGHT I WOULD MEET T H E S E P E O P L E .”

44 Kansas City September 2024

A RT S FA L L

P R E V I E W

MUSIC

B Y T H E B O OKS SINGER BRODERICK JONES IS SET TO RELEASE A CHRISTMAS ALBUM THIS WINTER

By Nina Cherry KANSAS CITY POP STAR Broderick Jones says he never saw himself making music.

Jones’ career in the entertainment biz didn’t start with singing. His first gigs were as a hip-hop hype man. As a high schooler working for rapper Rashiyd Ashon, Jones opened up for Mac Miller, Vanilla Ice and Machine Gun Kelly. However, when Ashon needed someone to sing a song for a performance, Jones figured he’d give it a try.

“It was the beginning of high school and I was a little nerd,” Jones says. “Justin Bieber was really popular and I wanted all the girls to love me.”

Jones spent the next few years under the radar, honing his skills as a singer, before releasing his first single in 2014. By 2016, he had a viral hit: a Pokémon Ü remix.

The viral hit came about when a German producer, who goes by the name it’sDifferent, reached out to Jones about tracking vocals on the remix. Jones was hesitant to take on the project at first, despite loving the game, but he ultimately did. Released on the precipice of the launch of the mobile game Pokémon Go, the remix got over a million views on YouTube in 24 hours.

In 2018, Jones made the move to LA to continue to pursue his career.

Last year, Jones’ music saw an even wider reach. Representing his home state of Kansas, the singer-songwriter was selected out of a hundred artists to compete in NBC’s American Song Contest—a show with judges Snoop Dogg and Kelly Clarkson based on the international Eurovision Song Contest. While on the show, Jones made it to the finals performing his original music. He particularly enjoyed overseeing the artistic vision for his performances—handpicking dancers, costumes and more.

“I stood on stage with people I grew up listening to, like Macy Gray and Michael Bolton,” Jones says. “I never thought I would meet these people.”

Jones’ original music melds R&B and hip-hop, and lately, he finds himself heavily influenced by Motown, as heard in the rich vocal stacks on his most recent EP, Hope Youre Listening [sic]. The recording was released last year, around the same time the singer moved back to his hometown of Olathe.

Since returning home, Jones has been reconnecting with KC’s music scene, including a performance at Boulevardia this past summer. Now, the singer is eagerly working on a Christmas album—set to release on Nov. 4—that will feature a mix of original songs and classic holiday tunes. In terms of style, Jones is trying to make sure he doesn’t feel confined by conventions.

“If it feels good, it feels good,” Jones says. “It doesn’t have to be by the books.”

kansascitymag.com September 2024

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FA L L

MUSIC

P R E V I E W

A RT S

BE HZOD ABDURAIMOV AND S HAH SADIKOV The Park International Center for Music Orchestra and NAVO Arts team up to create a night of classical and neoclassical music at Folly Theater. Pianist Behzod Abduraimov and conductor Shah Sadikov, both alumni of Park ICM, are this performance’s featured artists. The music will include pieces by Ingrid Stolzel, Johannes Brahms, Mozart and more.

As one of the only American music programs based on the European apprenticeship model, Park ICM prides itself on turning student protegés into talented classical artists. NAVO seeks to create opportunities for arts students in the Midwest through the guidance of several internationally recognized musicians like Sadikov.

September 20, 7:30 pm 300 W. 12th St., KCMO

SU R: MUS I C O F SOU TH AM ERI CA

K H AT I A B UNI AT I S H VI L I This year, the Harriman-Jewell Series’ 60th season will feature the return of Khatia Buniatishvili, a Georgian pianist known for her classical performances.

Her music, which includes Beethoven, Chopin and more, won the Borletti-Buitoni Trust award in 2010. You can find her music, including her latest album, Labyrinth, on several streaming platforms. Aside from her feature event on Sept. 17 at Helzberg Hall in the Kauffman Center, Buniatishvili will also play at the 60th anniversary Prelude gala the day before.

September 17, 7 –9 pm 1601 Broadway Blvd., KCMO

46 Kansas City September 2024

NICKI MINA J This October, the Pink Friday 2 World Tour will be making a stop in Kansas City. Known fo hits like “Super Freaky Girl,” Nicki Minaj’s concert at T-Mobile Center will serve as part of her first tour in five years and the second North American leg of the highest grossing tour of all time by a female rapper.

October 1, 9 pm 1407 Grand Blvd., KCMO

ANDY GRAMME R Andy Grammer, the artist behind singles like “Honey, I’m Good” and “Keep Your Head Up” is coming to the Kauffman Center.

This concert, Greater Than: A One Man Show, aims to create an intimate atmosphere for a night full of storytelling and poetry, as well as music. From old hits to new songs like “I Do” and “Without You,” this event is sure to put its audience in a chin-up mood.

October 22, 7:30 pm 1601 Broadway Blvd., KCMO

DI D YOU KNO W ?

Kansas City holds the Guinness World Record for the largest tuba ensemble.

The impressive and unique record was achieved in 2018, when 835 musicians performed for the annual TubaChristmas concert, a tradition hosted by the Kansas City Symphony.

The ensemble performed an arrangement of “Silent Night” for six minutes and 34 seconds, breaking the 2007 record of 502 players.

PHOTOGR APHY PROVIDED; SHUT TERSTOCK; WIKIPEDIA

Colombian guitarist and vocalist Nilko Andreas and Bolivian singer Gian-Carla Tisera headline Sur: Music of South America, a concert that celebrates the blend of the two countries’ sounds. This event is part of the Ensemble Iberica’s 2024 concert series, which aims to connect local audiences to music from around the world. If you’re looking for a snack before or after the performance, the 1900 Building will have refreshments available for purchase in the lobby in addition to the restaurant inside the building.

September 14, 7–9 pm 1900 Shawnee Mission Parkway, Mission Woods

SONIA DE LO S SAN TOS : A CEL EB RAT I O N OF L AT I N A M E R I CA Sonia De Los Santos is coming to the Midwest Trust Center to bring smiles to all the families in the Kansas City area. Born in Monterrey, Mexico, De Los Santos sings heartbeat melodies in both English and Spanish to delight children of all ages.

She began her musical career with the Grammy-winning Dan Zanes and Friends and recently performed with The Okee Dokee Brothers in their bilingual show, but she has also released three albums as a solo artist and been nominated for a Latin Grammy. Her event at Polsky Theatre will showcase De Los Santos' versatile talent as she incorporates various Latin American rhythms like huapango, cumbia, salsa, festejo and even North American folk styles into her songs.

October 25, 10 am 12345 College Blvd., Overland Park

MOZART ’S REQUI E M If you’re looking for a night of classical music, Kansas City Symphony Chorus’s Mozart’s Requiem is a performance you don’t want to miss. Guest conductor Bernard Labadie joins the Kansas City Symphony Chorus at Helzberg Hall for an event filled with music and community engagement.

While the concert on Saturday and Sunday will include Symphony No. 5 in B-flat Major by Franz Schubert as well as the Requiem, Friday night will look a little different. As part of the new Friday Symphonic Piazza series, the performance will feature a shorter concert along with social opportunities for concertgoers to mingle with the musicians, including beverages and activities before and after the performance.

November 1–3, times vary 1601 Broadway Blvd., KCMO

CREED Time to get ready for Creed’s Are You Ready? Tour. After their rise to fame in the 1990s, the rock band separated in 2012, but they’re back and better than ever more than 10 years later. The group will be coming to the T-Mobile Center this fall for their extended reunion tour with special guests 3 Doors Down and Mammoth WVH. November 6, 7 pm 1407 Grand Blvd., KCMO

BILLIE E ILIS H With Billie Eilish coming to town, Kansas City is about to be Happier Than Ever. One of the stops in the world tour for her new album Hit Me Hard and Soft, the show at the T-Mobile Center will host the Grammy-winning artist on Nov. 16.

This bold new album, written and produced by Eilish and her brother, Finneas, ushers in a new era for the powerhouse pop star.

November 16, 7 pm 1407 Grand Blvd., KCMO

THE KING’S S INGE RS IN HOLIDAY CONCE RT Talented group King’s Singers is visiting the Folly Theater for the Harriman-Jewell Series. Formed in 1968 when choral scholars performed at Queen Elizabeth Hall, this a capella group has been singing around the world for over 50 years.

Attendees will listen to holiday music and get to experience Jonathan Howard’s last performance before he retires from the group.

December 19, 7 pm 300 W. 12th St., KCMO – Listings by Daniella Barzello

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“ I A L WA Y S S O R T O F I M A G I N E D M U S I C W I T H M O V E M E N T W H E N I P L AY E D, BUT WITH THE DANCERS, I G O T T O S E E I T C O M E T O L I F E .”

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GREATER THAN THE WHO LE KANSAS CITY BALLET MUSIC DIRECTOR R A M O N A PA N S E G R A U E M B A R K S ON HER 18TH SEASON

By Nina Cherry FROM THE FIRST time pianist and conductor Ramona Pansegrau accompanied a

dance class, she was hooked.

Although the Kansas City Ballet’s music director started playing piano at age 4, it was during her doctorate program in piano performance at the University of Iowa that she first played for a ballet class. Joffrey Ballet—a premiere, Chicago-based dance company—came to the university. When the company’s pianist injured their hand, Pansegrau volunteered to step in.

“I always sort of imagined music with movement when I played, but with the dancers, I got to see it come to life,” Pansegrau says. “I still love that, every second of the day.”

Pansegrau went on to be the principal pianist of Boston Ballet, followed by a position as music director of Tulsa Ballet.

Now, Pansegrau is embarking on her 18th season as the Kansas City Ballet’s music director. She’s seen the ballet grow a lot throughout her tenure, coming on board shortly before the construction of the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, where main company performances are held. She also saw the organization expand from a small three-studio facility to the seven-studio Bolender Center, just next door to Union Station.

In her day to day, the maestra does it all. Just a few of her roles include conducting the orchestra, reorchestrating scores and leading a team of more than 20 accompanists. While Pansegrau says it’s rare for music directors to both conduct and still play for classes, she loves being in the classroom—it’s what led her to ballet years ago.

“There’s a lot of variety in what I do and I really, really enjoy that,” Pansegrau says. “A day is never the same from one to the next.”

Next month, the season will open with ALICE (in wonderland), bringing a classic story to life through a melding of ballet and contemporary dance. For the rest of the season, Pansegrau is especially looking forward to this spring’s production of Don Quixote, a project that has long been in the making. Although Pansegrau wrote the orchestration herself, this is the first time Kansas City stages will see the work.

“I love the melding of dance and music because it seems that two wonderful entities together become something greater than the whole,” Pansegrau says.

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DANCE I N T H E PAR K

T ERRA LUNA Quixotic combines technology, music, acrobatics and dance to create the immersive experience Terra Luna, a halfhour walkable journey through Overland Park Arboretum and Botanical Gardens.

Visitors will witness dance, acrobatics, art displays and more as they enter this multi-sensory experience. Food, drinks and souvenirs will be available before entering the path, and all profits will benefit the arboretum.

September 12–15 and 19–22, times vary 8909 W. 179th St., Overland Park

ALI C E ( I N WONDE R LAND) This October, Kansas City Ballet is ready to send you down the rabbit hole and straight to wonderland. With choreography by Septime Webre and music written by Matthew Pierce and performed by the Kansas City Symphony, this surreal performance of Alice (in Wonderland) adds a new modern twist to Lewis Carroll’s classic tale, blending ballet and contemporary dance to bring new life to the the beloved tale.

Audience members are welcome to come to the Belger Footnotes an hour before the curtain opens at Muriel Kauffman Theatre to learn even more about the show’s creation and the details that make it truly magical, if a bit mad.

October 11–20, times vary 1601 Broadway Blvd., KCMO

DI D YOU KN OW?

NEW DANC E PART N E R S New Dance Partners, a project orchestrated by the Midwest Trust Center, features four different local dance companies with elite choreographers, each performing original works of modern and contemporary dance at Yardley Hall. This year, Kansas City Ballet will work with choreographer Peter Chu, while Owen/ Cox Dance Group, Störling Dance Theater and the Regina Klenjoski Dance Company will team up with choreographers Alexander Anderson, Hélène Simoneau and Kia S. Smith, respectively.

September 20–21, 7:30 pm 12345 College Blvd., Overland Park

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Kansas City is home to the KC Feis, an annual Irish dance competition in its 21st year.

It attracts some 500 dancers from across the country to compete in all forms and levels of Irish dance.

S IM PLY TINA AND BOOGIE NIGHTS Aztec Shawnee Theater presents Simply Tina and Boogie Nights KC, an event full of song and dance.

Attendees can first enjoy the Tina Turner tribute, which celebrates her discography and greatest hits. Next, disco band Boogie Nights will come on stage, and attendees are encouraged to hit the floor and boogie in the disco dance style. With great music, energetic moves and a full bar, "Let's Boogie."

November 9, 7 pm 11119 Johnson Drive, Shawnee

PHOTOGR APHY KENNY JOHNSON; SHUT TERSTOCK; WIKIPEDIA

Thanks to City in Motion Dance Theater, appreciating local talent has become a walk—or dance—in the park. This free event, located in Roanoke Park, will include a fair with vendors and snacks followed by a youth dance performance and a dance demonstration.

Be sure to pack enough in your picnic basket to last until Dance in the Park’s main event, which will feature City in Motion Dance Theater’s own group as well as a diverse selection of other local dance groups.

September 7, 5:30 pm 3601 Roanoke Road, KCMO

T H E N U TCR ACKE R It wouldn’t truly be the holidays without Kansas City Ballet’s annual performance of The Nutcracker at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. Since artistic director Devon Carney first reimagined the show for the ballet in 2015, it’s become a tradition for many KC families.

With opportunities for professional photos with characters before and after the performance, along with a scenic designer who doubles as an author and illustrator of children’s books and a family VIP experience, The Nutcracker will be entertaining for young fans and older ones alike.

December 6–8, 11–15 & 18–24, times vary 1601 Broadway Blvd., KCMO

CHR IS TM AS W ITH THE CE LTS Come celebrate the holiday season with the band The Celts at the Midwest Trust Center. Using the combined talent of Irish and Nashville musicians, the band’s Irish-Americana music is inspired by traditional Irish music but often includes more modern components, too. From contemporary music with Irish instrumentation to classic Irish Christmas carols accompanied by traditional Irish dancing, The Celts are sure to bring a vibrant and engaging performance to Kansas City.

December 10, 7:30 pm 12345 College Blvd., Overland Park

THE NUTC R AC K E R AND THE MOUS E K I NG Before The Nutcracker we all know and love took the stage, there was The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, a novella written in 1816 by E.T.A. Hoffmann. This holiday season, Owen/Cox Dance Group is back by popular demand to take on this older and darker story. Their performance at the Midwest Trust Center will feature contemporary jazz and live music from The People’s Liberation Big Band of Greater Kansas City.

December 13 & 15, 7:30 & 2 pm 12345 College Blvd., Overland Park – Listings by Daniella Barzello

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FE STI VALS TO LI GHT UP YO U R FALL

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DANCEFESTOPIA MUSIC AND CAMPING FESTIVAL Dancefestopia Music and Camping Festival is back for its 12th year, and it’s promising plenty of opportunities for music lovers, with over 200 artists from across the nation on four different stages. Wildwood Outdoor Education Center, a non-profit children’s camp, gets converted into Dancefestopia’s “Emerald City.” The festival aims to celebrate high-energy music and provide an escape from the everyday.

Visitors may choose to camp from three to seven days amid the Emerald Forest’s picturesque hills and enjoy activities such as ziplining, canoeing and fishing to immerse themselves completely into Emerald City.

September 2–8 7095 W. 399th St., LaCygne, KS CAMP LEAVENWORTH Pack your bags and get ready for s’more fun at Camp Leavenworth, a free festival near Leavenworth Landing Park and the C.W. Parker Carousel Museum that provides various outdoor activities. While some campers might be lured in by the promise of fireworks or children’s activities like balloon art or craft projects, others might want to try out more creative games like sidewalk chalk contests or silent disco.

Visitors will also have access to the Makers Fair, which features a variety of handmade items for sale, as well as several food trucks to keep attendees energized. The festival is even partnering with the new Leavenworth Local Hotel so overnight campers can comfortably room less than a mile away from camp.

September 20 & 21 2 Cherokee St., Leavenworth, KS

OVERLAND PARK FALL FESTIVAL The Overland Park Fall Festival has plenty of autumn fun for the whole family. With more than 75 local and regional artisans along with live music and performers for both adults and children, visitors will be able to appreciate all the best local talent. There will also be food trucks and vendors in addition to the nearby restaurants and OP Farmers’ Market at this free event.

September 27 & 28 7935 Santa Fe Drive, Overland Park LIBERTY FALL FESTIVAL Liberty Fall Festival is celebrating 47 years of autumn entertainment. With over 200 artists and vendors selling everything from jewelry and pottery to funnel cakes and turkey legs, the event provides plenty of choices for all interests. One of the festival’s highlights is the carnival, which will open on Friday at 5 pm and continue throughout the weekend. A parade, live performers and various games and contests add even more excitement.

September 27–29 1 Courthouse Square, Liberty KC OKTOBERFEST If you’re looking for a taste of Munich in the Midwest, KC Oktoberfest, the largest Oktoberfest in the area, is the place to be. Hosted by hometown favorite Kansas City Bier Co. at the Crown Center, this festival features a variety of Bavarian-style food and plenty of fresh bier from the largest locally owned brewery in the area.

From Masskrugstemmen, a competition to see who can lift a liter of beer the longest, to performances from German-inspired bands like Die Schlauberger and ÜberCool, Oktoberfest provides a variety of contests, activities and performances modeled after the original Oktoberfest in Germany.

October 4 & 5 2450 Grand Blvd., KCMO

FALL FESTIVAL OF ARTS, CRAFTS & MUSIC This October, the 48th Annual Fall Festival of Arts, Crafts and Music provides the perfect wagon ride to the past. Inspired by 19th century celebrations during the harvest season and located in the Missouri Town Living History Museum in Lee’s Summit, which showcases over 25 historic buildings, furnishings and tools from 1820 to 1860, this festival features artists, musicians and even experts ready to explain historic events or play historic characters.

October 5 & 6 8010 E. Park Road, Lee’s Summit GREATER KANSAS CITY JAPAN FESTIVAL This fall, the Heart of America Japan-America Society hosts the 26th Annual Greater Kansas City Japan Festival, a celebration and showcase of Japanese culture. Held at the Johnson County Community College, this year’s theme is Yōkai & Japanese Folklore, so don’t be surprised when Yōkai, ghost-like beings who haunt travelers and rural areas, sneak into some of the festivities, including a yōkai parade, yōkai history lecture and a yōkai-themed cosplay contest.

The festival will also include traditional Japanese dance performances, origami and taiko drumming workshops, Japanese food and plenty of fun for all ages.

October 5 12345 College Blvd., Overland Park WESTON APPLEFEST For decades, this festival has been the apple of Weston’s eye. With food and craft vendors, live music, kids’ games, a parade and a variety of apple-themed events and treats, the Weston Applefest is a great opportunity to explore the surrounding restaurants, shops and attractions of historic Weston and try some famous apple dumplings.

October 5 & 6 526 Main St., Weston, MO

MIDWEST SOUL VEGFEST Any festival can be fun, but not all of them can be healthy and sustainable, too.

The Midwest Soul Vegfest’s mission is to provide eco-friendly education and celebrate the benefits of a vegan lifestyle, but there’s plenty of entertainment to enjoy along the way. With delicious and healthy food, talented speakers, live music, yoga, cooking classes and more, this festival’s sixth year is sure to be a success.

October 5 & 6 1103 Westport Road, KCMO CHICANO ART FESTIVAL This fall, the Chicano Art Festival is celebrating Chicano culture through art, music, food and other creative outlets that showcase the diversity of their community, with a special emphasis on lowrider cars. The festival is partnering with and fundraising for Lowriding 2 Success, a program that understands the importance of the lowriding community and helps at-risk youth use the construction of lowrider bikes to improve their lives.

Two highlights of the day will be the R/C Lowrider KC City, a display of remote-controlled lowrider cars, and the Lowrider HOP competition, which features hopping performances with the cars. The festival will even hold a recognition ceremony for a selected “lowrider legend” who has made a significant impact on the lowrider community.

October 6 Liberty Courtyard, West Bottoms, KCMO HEARTLAND BOOK FESTIVAL If you’re tempted to skip all these festivals and just stay home to read a good book, then it might be time to give the Heartland Book Festival a try. Located at Kansas City’s Central Library, this collaboration between the Kansas City Public Library, Missouri Humanities and the Missouri Center for the Book aims to celebrate all things literature. From visiting authors and panel discussions to writing workshops, this fest is perfect for readers and writers of all levels of expertise.

October 12 14 W. 10th St., KCMO

MAPLE LEAF FESTIVAL Baldwin City’s Maple Leaf Festival began in 1958 as a way to celebrate the harvest and appreciate the changing colors of the maple leaves. Now, every third weekend of October, attendees can enjoy activities such as a 5K run, parade and and even family-friendly opportunities such as face painting and a petting zoo.

More artistic folks might prefer to check out the craft booths, quilt show and live country music.

October 19 & 20 711 High St., Baldwin City, KS FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS The only thing more beautiful than Powell Gardens in the spring is the botanical garden in the winter, shining with holiday lights. The Festival of Lights is a great opportunity to appreciate the garden’s landscape and architecture while ushering in the holiday spirit. In addition to the mile-long walking path, which includes over 20 miles of lights, attendees may enjoy other attractions such as winter plants like poinsettias, local artwork, opportunities to visit Santa and even workshops on how to make holiday decorations and drinks.

November 14–January 4 1609 N.W. U.S. Highway 50, Kingsville MAYOR’S HOLIDAY FESTIVAL The Mayor’s Holiday Festival in Downtown Overland Park is a perfect way to celebrate the upcoming holidays. Activities include the tree lighting ceremony, which features the mayor himself, along with pictures with Santa, live music and carolers, holiday shopping and family hayrides.

November 15 8045 Santa Fe Drive, Overland Park

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“I’VE DONE SEVERAL MONTHS-LONG RUNS WHERE YOU PERFORM THE SAME P L A Y E V E R Y N I G H T, B U T I T ’ S N E V E R T H E S A M E S H O W T W I C E .”

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D I A L H FOR HI L L A R Y C A T C H H I L L A R Y C L E M E N S A N D H E R PA S S I O N FOR PERFORMANCE THIS MONTH IN AN EXCITING ’50S-ERA THRILLER

By Nicole Kinning THE THEATER HAS always been beautifully woven into Hillary Clemens’ life. She

began her acting career at age seven in Kansas City, performing in community theater, and quickly landed roles at prominent local venues, including the Kansas City Repertory Theatre, The Coterie and the Heart of America Shakespeare Festival.

While spending her college and early adult years working in Chicago’s theater scene, Clemens met her husband, actor Matt Schwader. One of their most memorable moments together was discovering, on the opening night of a show, that she was expecting their first child. “We were performing in The Great Gatsby together, playing Gatsby and Daisy,” Clemens says. Soon after that moment, the couple moved back to Clemens’ hometown, Kansas City—motivated by nearby family but sold by the vibrant theater community and arts scene.

Today, Clemens is an active board member of the Kansas City Actors Theatre, where she serves on the artistic committee. In addition to her work behind the scenes, she continues to take on acting roles locally while raising two children. Her life is vibrant and dynamic, to say the least.

“I’ve done several months-long runs where you perform the same play every night, but it’s never the same show twice,” she says. “That’s the great thing about theater—it’s different each time based on the cast, the audience and the world outside. The ephemeral nature of it is thrilling and hard to replicate.”

In 2020, when the pandemic shut the world down and halted theater productions—including Broadway for 18 months—Clemens, her husband and other KCAT talents adapted by producing radio theater shows. “We combed through a bunch of old public domain scripts,” she says, and the couple converted their basement into a makeshift recording studio using an old pack-and-play and blankets. “It’s a completely different experience,” Clemens says. “You’re telling a story entirely with your voice, realizing that no one can see you nod or raise your eyebrow. But it felt like a small gift we were sharing with the community.”

Clemens’ next project premieres this month with KCAT. She’ll play Maxine in the 1950s-era thriller Dial M for Murder. The show runs from September 11–29, and Clemens describes the production as both exhilarating and distinctive. “It’s a classic thriller with several new adaptations to the characters, including Maxine,” she says. “There’s a great new energy injected into this play. Laughter is always great because it’s involuntary, but my other favorite reaction is hearing people gasp.

I think there will be a few good gasps in this one.”

From her community theater beginnings and commercial roles to Dial M for Murder and venturing into theater production management, Clemens embraces growing as an actor. “Every time I think about what’s to come, I get excited,” she says. “Aging opens up a whole new range of fantastic roles.”

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ONCE Once is your classic guy-meets-girl story.

Two musicians named Guy and Girl bond over their love for music and learn important lessons about love along the way. Based on the 2007 film by John Carney and directed by Stuart Carden, this performance at the Spencer Theater includes songs like the Oscar-winning “Falling Slowly” along with a heartfelt message about love and music.

September 3–22 4949 Cherry St., KCMO

If you’re looking for a live murder-mystery with plenty of tension and twists, just pick up your phone and Dial M for Murder. Originally written by Frederick Knott, the show was adapted by Jeffery Hatcher to provide a more modern and fast-paced energy to the thrilling story.

Presented by Kansas City Actors Theatre, which employs and supports the local professional theater community, the performance will come to City Stage in Union Station this fall.

September 11-29 30 W. Pershing Road, KCMO

LADY DAY AT E ME RS ON’S BAR AND GR I LL

MERRILY W E RO L L A LO N G

HOTE L E LS I NOR E

Don’t get it backwards! With music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a recent Broadway revival in 2023, the show Merrily We Roll Along is not one you want to miss. The show will run at B&B Live, a movie theater complex that doubles as a live theater. Presented by MTKC Pro, the professional branch of Music Theater Kansas City, this musical tells the story of Franklin Shepard and his lifelong friends Mary and Charley in reverse chronological order as Frank’s dreams and character are corrupted.

September 13–16 & 19–22 16301 Midland Drive, Shawnee

If you’re checking into Hotel Elsinore in the Midwest Trust Center, don’t be surprised if you find any skulls or ghosts in the room. In this Hamlet-inspired play that won the Carol Tambor Incentive Award at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2022, the playwright Susanna Hamnett and her son and daughter Joshua and Lily MacGregor star as the family of late actor Henry Elder, who was set to play Hamlet in the Elsinore Shakespeare Festival the next day and is struggling to find peace with his own absence.

October 16 & 17 12345 College Blvd., Overland Park

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Come experience the life and songs of Billie Holiday like never before in Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill. With classic songs like “Strange Fruit” and “God Bless the Child” and scenes based off of many of her true life events, this play will be performed at Copaken Stage in the Power and Light District.

October 8–27 1 H and R Block Way, KCMO

DI D YOU KN O W ?

Character actor Ed Asner (1929–2021) was born in Kansas City and graduated from KCK’s Wyandotte High School. He is most famous for portraying character Lou Grant during the 1970s and early 1980s on both The Mary Tyler Moore Show and its spin-off series, Lou Grant, making him one of the few actors to portray the same character in both a comedy and dramatic series.

Asner is distinguished among his peers for winning the most Primetime Emmy Awards ever.

PHOTOGR APHY PROVIDED; WIKIPEDIA; SHUT TERSTOCK; DON IPOCK

DIAL M FOR MU R D E R

T H E H E A RT SE L L E RS While the difficulties of immigration and integration are not new social themes, The Heart Sellers asks the question: Just how much of yourself are you willing to sacrifice for a new home? The play introduces new Americans Jane and Luna, who contemplate their American dreams while celebrating Thanksgiving without their husbands, who are at work. Hosted by the Unicorn Theatre, who often host plays that tackle complicated and diverse social issues, The Heart Sellers will pull on your heartstrings.

October 23–November 10 3828 Main St., KCMO

A C HR I STMAS CAROL A Kansas City tradition for more than 40 years, this Charles Dickens classic is a cemented part of Spencer Theatre’s Christmas past, present and future. A Christmas Carol is the perfect way to get into the holiday spirit and a reminder of what the festivities are really about.

November 23–December 28 4949 Cherry St., KCMO

T H E MU SIC MA N Your favorite traveling salesman is on his way to Overland Park. The Jewish Community Center presents The Music Man at the Lewis & Shirley White Theatre. A con man with no musical knowledge convinces the people of River City, Iowa, he can organize a boys’ band. This Broadway classic will mark the beginning of the J’s 20th season.

Thursday, Saturdays & Sundays from October 26–November 17 5801 W. 115 St., Overland Park

JOURN E Y TO OZ Some shows figuratively pull the audience into the performance, but Journey to Oz really does bring them on stage. Presented by Children’s Mercy Kansas City at Starlight’s indoor theater, this show is catered toward children ages five to nine who wish they had followed Dorothy into that tornado and straight into Oz. About 16 people will be chosen to perform individual roles on stage with the cast and the entire audience will be invited to interact by singing, making sound effects and playing collective roles like Munchkins and Flying Monkeys.

November 9, 11 am 4600 Starlight Road, KCMO

T H E R E A L BA R BE E : U N M A S K E D Kansas City Public Theatre presents The Real Barbee: Unmasked, a cabaret performance starring Victoria Barbee and directed by Elizabeth Bettendorf Bowman. In this free one-woman show at the Black Box, experience song, dance and more as Barbee brings the audience along on a journey of empowerment and self-discovery. Opening night will also include a dance party, called Come On Barbee, Let’s Go Party, immediately following the performance, featuring beverages, art, disco music and more.

November 17–19 1060 Union Ave., KCMO

E BE NE ZE R S C ROOGE’ S BI G KC MO C HR I STMA S SHOW Once you’ve enjoyed the classic Dickens story, you might consider checking out a less conventional retelling. Directed

by Ernie Nolan, Ebenezer Scrooge’s Big KC MO Christmas Show at the Unicorn Theatre on the Levin Stage promises a performance full of music, laughter and fun. Watch five actors take on multiple characters, including Scrooge, Tiny Tim, the ghosts and more, in this family-friendly show personalized just for Kansas City.

November 26–December 22 3828 Main St., KCMO

FU NNY GI R L Originally performed on Broadway in 1964, this revival is coming to say “Hello Gorgeous! Hello Kansas City!” Based on the life of comedian Fanny Brice and the story of her rise to fame, Funny Girl will bring its vivacious energy and hit songs like “Don’t Rain on My Parade” and “People” to the Kansas City Music Hall for its North American Tour.

December 3–8 301 W. 13th St., KCMO – Listings by Daniella Barzello

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“I’M ONE OF THE VERY FEW LUCKY PEOPLE IN THE WORLD WHO GETS T O S A Y, A T T H E E N D O F T H E D A Y, I WA S D O I N G S O M E T H I N G T H A T I B E L I E V E D I N A N D T H AT G I V E S M E P L E A S U R E P E R S O N A L L Y.”

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MUSEUM CURATOR WILLIAM KEYSE RUDOLPH TALKS ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF ART

By Hampton Stevens THE PANDEMIC PROVED something to William Keyse Rudolph. It showed him

that art matters.

Granted, he kind of already knew that. You don’t get to be the deputy director of curatorial affairs at the Nelson-Atkins Museum without knowing that art is important. Still, the pandemic drove it home.

When 2020 began, Rudolph was co-interim director at the San Antonio Museum of Art. That February, he agreed to a new job in KC. Just a few weeks later, the world shut down. He started working remotely. “I was in the same living room for months,” he says.

Weren’t we all.

The explosion of online, pandemic-era creativity showed him how much people care about creative endeavors.

“People need art,” Rudolph says. “The culture industry is something that people want and turn to for entertainment, for inspiration, for solace, for helping them get through the day. And that just underlined it indelibly for me.”

The son of an academic, Rudolph spent his first few years in Blacksburg, Virginia. Just before he started grade school, his family moved to Lincoln, Nebraska, when his father was named dean of libraries at the university.

He tells me this in his Nelson-Atkins office. One wall is covered in bookshelves, a window overlooking the Walter De Maria reflecting pool installation on the north side of the museum. His dark hair is cut short, features sculpted.

Growing up in Lincoln, Rudolph’s first experiences of Kansas City were going to Worlds of Fun and seeing the Plaza Lights. As an adult, he’s found so much more to love about the city. He sees a willingness to dream big and embrace the future in our town, whether it’s a new airport, the World Cup or the KC Streetcar.

“What is palpable to someone like me, coming from outside and living here now, is that the city does have an energy,” he says. “Change is afoot.”

That energy, of course, is fueled by the arts. Rudolph is thrilled by the city’s generosity and the “amazing benefactors for the Nelson and other institutions.” He glories in the “robust artistic infrastructure”—not only museums and galleries but also local arts organizations, artist groups and the Kansas City Art Institute, which he calls “one of the country’s great art schools.”

His job as a curator, which includes organizing creative works into coherent narratives, is certainly a form of storytelling. Rudolph’s first love, though, was telling stories with words.

“I always thought I would be a trash novelist,” he says. “I grew up loving and reading every trashy thing you could ever imagine.” He calls it the “sex and shopping genre,” listing the likes of Jackie Collins, Harold Robbins and Judith Krantz.

A revelatory Art History 101 class in college changed that trajectory, though, and he eventually decided to be a curator, despite not really understanding the job.

“I think I had read a trashy novel where a curator was a detective,” Rudolph says.

“So I didn’t really know what they did. But I knew they sort of played with art and got to be in a museum environment.”

He understands far more now, of course. And knows that he made the right call.

“I’m one of the very few lucky people in the world who gets to, at the end of the day, say, well, I was doing something that I believed in and that gives me pleasure personally, but also that I believe—in a hippy-dippy sort of way—makes the world a better place.”

Art matters, in other words. And you don’t need a pandemic to prove it.

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A RT S FA L L

P R E V I E W

VISUAL ART S

REVER B ERAT I O N: FAIT H I N M OT I O N

T H I RD F RI DAY ART WA L K Every third Friday through October, artists and businesses set up booths and exhibits starting at EPIC Clay Studio in Downtown KCK for the Third Friday Art Walk, a celebration of local talent and creativity in the community. A program

by Community Housing of Wyandotte County with the help of the Downtown Shareholders of Kansas City, Kansas, the event is great for the whole family.

Check the digital map on their website to see each month’s vendors and events.

September 20 & October 18, 5–9 pm 609 N. Sixth St., KCK

60 Kansas City September 2024

PLAZA ART FAIR With three live music stages, over 20 restaurant booths and 240 artists spanning nine city blocks, the Plaza Art Fair, now in its 93rd year, isn’t just a well-known national event; it is a well-loved Kansas City tradition.

More than 250,000 people from around the Midwest are expected to come appreciate one of the city’s best annual events.

While the fair features numerous talented artists who excel in everything from photography to jewelry, one highlight you won’t want to miss is the work of featured artist Lydia Randolph, a painter who often uses basic shapes to depict nature that typically has some connection to her life.

September 20–22, times vary 4706 Broadway Blvd., KCMO

M ANHATTAN S HORT FILM FE S TIVAL Ready for a Manhattan movie night?

This fall, Johnson County Library and the Lenexa Arts Council are hosting the area’s 27th Annual Manhattan Short Film Festival at the Lenexa Civic Center. Film lovers from over 500 cities around the world will watch the top ten entries and vote for Best Film and Best Actor. The films chosen will qualify for the 2025 Oscars.

September 26, 6:30–9 pm 17101 W. 87th St. Parkway, Lenexa

DI D YOU KNO W ?

Although everyone knows about the four large shuttlecocks on the grounds of the Nelson-Atkins Museum, not everyone knows that the fiberglass sculptures were inspired by two images: a Frederic Remington painting that features Native Americans wearing feathered headdresses and a satellite image of the museum’s grounds, which resemble a grassy ball court.

Three of the shuttlecocks are on the south side of the museum building and a fourth is on the north side. The building represents the net.

PHOTOGR APHY PROVIDED; WIKIPEDIA

Through Reverberation: Faith in Motion, Emily Cramer shows how artwork can go beyond the canvas and force its viewers to consider the emotions and lessons it invokes. The Kansas City artist’s dreamlike depictions of water and ripples are meant to show how our faith impacts others in ways more dramatic than we might imagine.

Open every Saturday throughout September and October at the Four Chapter Gallery, this thoughtful and heartfelt exhibit will have its opening reception, which will include an artist talk and Q&A, on the evening of Sept. 6.

Reception on September 6, 5:30–9 pm Exhibit on Saturdays from September 7–October 26 208 W. 19th St., KCMO

SUSAN M O RENO L I VE PA I N T I NG This fall, local artist Susan Moreno will be installing the last portion of her painting at the Union Station KC Streetcar shelter. In the last of four opportunities to see Moreno’s paintings grow, guests are welcome to come speak with Moreno, watch her work and learn about her artwork.

As an Art of the Loop event, this live painting is one of many outdoor exhibitions and performances. The artists chosen for this honor are asked to create art inspired by the concept of convivencia, a Spanish word that means shared life, which highlights the joys and struggles of living in a world full of so many complex individuals.

October 4, 5–7 pm 30 W. Pershing Road, KCMO

T H E 16 T H ANNUAL VI S I ON S OF T H E F L I N T HILLS ART B ENEF I T AN D SA L E With artwork inspired by the largest tallgrass prairie in North America, the Visions of the Flint Hills Art Benefit and Sale is a juried exhibition that aims to celebrate the beauty of the region and raise money for its care. Half of all proceeds from sales will go to Friends of Konza Prairie, which supports research and educational experiences in the Konza Prairie Biological Station—one of the largest remaining areas of the Flint Hills.

The exhibition at the Buttonwood Art Space will be open from Oct. 1 to Dec. 11, but come to the opening reception on Oct. 4 for live music and drinks.

October 4, 5–8 pm 3013 Main St., KCMO

LOCAL ART I S TS GO M I N I AT U R E Go mini or go home! A new exhibition at the National Museum of Toys and Miniatures will feature miniature objects created by local artists within 60 miles of Kansas City, all selected by a group of jurors to be part of the exhibit. Their artwork can depict any real or imagined object, but must be smaller than a foot all the way around. The exhibition’s opening reception on Oct. 25 will include food, drinks and entertainment, but don’t worry if you can’t make the special day. The art will be on display at the museum through June 9, 2025.

October 25, 6–8 pm 5235 Oak St., KCMO

HOLIDAY KID MAKE R S M AR KE T These young makers truly prove that art knows no age. At the Holiday Kid Makers Market at Lenexa Public Market, attendees can shop for a variety of products made by artists under 18 years old. This event hopes to encourage and cultivate local children’s creativity while giving them the opportunity to promote and showcase their work.

November 24, 10 am–2 pm 8750 Penrose Lane, Lenexa

W HAT IF PUPPE TS “S HIV E R ME PAINTB RUSH: A PIRATE ’S ADV E NTU RE IN ART” These puppet pirates are setting sail to new artistic waters. In this show intended for children in pre-K to second grade, First Mate Mâché must learn how to use art tools in order to find Captain Colorful. The goal of this performance at the Midwest Trust Center—and all events presented by the What If Puppets program—is to inspire play through puppetry, using stories to educate and connect to children.

December 4–7, times vary 12345 College Blvd., Overland Park – Listings by Daniella Barzello

M I N D S I N MOTION TOUR : M Y FAVOR I TE THINGS The Nelson-Atkins Museum teams up with KU Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center and Alzheimer’s Association-Heart of America Chapter to create a free gallery tour for people who struggle with memory loss.

With the help of specially trained docents who understand Alzheimer patients’ particular needs, these visitors, along with their caregivers, can appreciate the beauty the museum has to offer.

While the Minds in Motion series hosts several events throughout the year, this event will encourage its attendees to consider the sights, sounds and smells that the art suggests.

November 7, 1 pm 4525 Oak St., KCMO

kansascitymag.com September 2024

61

Focus On Fall

Beauty Treatments

From correcting summer sun damage to preparing for the holiday season, fall is the perfect time of year for a variety of beauty procedures. Some of the best local providers have weighed in with their recommendations and why it’s an ideal time of the year to focus on fall treatments for the face and body.

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If you’re looking for a more “natural” approach to skin rejuvenation microneedling with natural PDGF (Microneedling with Platelet Derived Growth Factors) is the go-to treatment! It’s ideal for skin concerns such as pore size, texture, acne scars and loss of luminosity and elasticity. Not only is it minimal downtime, but it is also safe, and FDA approved. The best part is that no blood draw is needed!

IT’S PEEL SEASON IT’S THE PERFECT TIME FOR LASER HAIR REMOVAL The Grove Spa thegrovespa.com

Reveal smooth, radiant skin this fall with laser hair removal.

The Grove Spa utilizes the GentleMax® Pro Plus featuring advanced cooling technology for a more comfortable experience.

This dual wavelength laser combines higher energy and shorter pulse durations, allowing it to safely and effectively treat darker skin tones and finer hair.

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Sunlighten Day Spa sunlightendayspa.com Fall is the perfect time to try a chemical peel to heal from the summer sun. Chemical peels exfoliate the skin and advance growth of new, healthier skin cells, boosting cellular turnover and encouraging collagen production. It will improve skin texture, reduce fine lines and wrinkles, correct skin tone, and create a youthful radiance to the skin. The estheticians at Sunlighten Day Spa offer their expertise in choosing the peel most suited for you.

TRAVIS SWAGGERTY

BY MOLLY HIGGINS / PORTRAIT BY IAN SIMMONS

A Le gacy o f Roya lty THE MOST ICONIC BASEBALL TEAM IN THE NEGRO LEAGUES, THE MODERN-DAY MONARCHS FIGHT TO KEEP ITS LEGACY ALIVE

64 Kansas City September 2024

PHOTOGR APHY CHAD CUSHING

MONARCHS BASEBALL PLAYER Travis Swaggerty walks out

into the outfield at KCK’s Legends Field barefoot, a practice he calls grounding. He takes this time before every game to connect internally and externally.

The 27-year-old outfielder’s day has begun like any other in the relentless dog days of summer, which, in Kansas City, can be devastatingly hot. The weather doesn’t care if you have a doubleheader and a night on the road ahead. The sun keeps shining, the humidity thick in the air—it’s baseball season.

Swaggerty began his day Facetiming his wife and young daughter, who are back home in Mississippi. He made breakfast with his roommate, fellow Monarchs outfielder Danny Amaral, before getting to the stadium near their temporary home. The late afternoon will be filled with stretching, batting, hitting and throwing practice. Swaggerty will get live reads in the outfield, and after “BP” (batting practice), he’ll hit the training room or just hang inside, staying cool in air conditioning, until the early evening. Then, it’s time to play ball.

The practices don’t last long in the thick afternoon heat of Legends Field, which neighbors the sprawling Legends Shopping Center and a massive IKEA. Both after and during baseball season, the field is transformed into concert spaces and pop-up events. A recent music festival put further strain on the field, which has dealt with intermittent flooding after an unusually rainy summer. Many games have been postponed and turned into doubleheaders due to weather and field conditions.

The Monarchs season hasn’t been exactly what Swaggerty or others on the team had been hoping for—or expecting. The team has pretty much stayed solidly in the middle of its division, a stark change from past seasons where they dominated.

Travis Swaggerty and the Monarchs team celebrate his gametying home run against the FargoMoorhead RedHawks.

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The Monarchs play in the American Association of Professional Baseball, an MLB Partner League (the team is not directly affiliated with the MLB). This means they are part of an independent professional baseball league, which operates in the Central United States and Canada, mostly in cities not served by Major League Baseball teams or their minor league affiliates. The league is split into two divisions, East and West, with six teams in each. The Monarchs play in the West division, and the regular season lasts 100 games throughout the summer and ends on Labor Day. The top four teams from each division at the end of the regular season go to the playoffs, which has two rounds in a best-of-three series. One team from each division advances to the Miles Wolff Cup Finals, where the winner of that best-of-five series is crowned league champion.

Monarchs manager Joe Calfapietra took the helm seven years ago and has led the team through one of its most successful stints, making it to the division ​​ championships every year he’s been a coach. The team has won three American Association championships: in 2018, 2021 and, most recently, last year.

Outfielder Swaggerty played in the big leagues for the Pittsburgh Pirates from 2018 until last year, and like all players on the Monarchs, he hopes his performance with the team will help him fight his way back to the major leagues.

66 Kansas City September 2024

“THERE’S PEAKS AND THERE’S VALLEYS, AND BASEBALL IS ALL ABOUT RIDING THE WAVE—AND THAT GOES INDIVIDUALLY AND AS A TEAM.”

PHOTOGR APHY PROVIDED

The Monarchs celebrate Travis Swaggerty’s walk-off win over the Lincoln Saltdogs.

Swaggerty was born in the small town of Lacombe in southeast Louisiana, but Hurricane Katrina displaced his family when he was a child, and they moved to a town outside of Baton Rouge. Swaggerty, an admitted “bad loser,” tried various sports in high school, including football and basketball, before fully setting his sights on baseball.

“When I got into high school, I was still 5’2”-5’3,” a buck forty,” he says. “I was like, ‘I am not going out there with these gargantuan humans in football and basketball.’

Baseball was the only sport I could still be really good at and not have a problem with my size.”

Swaggerty is all-American handsome, and traces of his Louisiana roots can be heard in his occasional drawl. His leg bounces, and I can tell he’s ready to stop answering questions—though not in a rude way. He’d just rather be out on the field playing ball.

“I have played right field [during] most of this season here,” he says. “In my career, I mostly exclusively played center field. So it’s a little bit of a change, but I don’t mind it. I actually had a conversation with Joe about playing right field here. He said, ‘You know, based on how big right field is and the short wall and everything, it’s the hardest of the three positions to play here.’ So, I guess he trusts me in right field. I’m like, ‘All right, you can put me anywhere—as long as I’m in the lineup, I don’t care.’”

Swaggerty’s need to just play ball is echoed throughout the team. For most, the Monarchs is a stepping stone to break into the MLB or, in Swaggerty’s case, to get back in.

Playing for the Monarchs is one of the best ways to get into the majors, both because the team is good—they won last year’s championship and had several amazing seasons the past few years—and Kansas City is centrally located, so scouts can come watch, look at a player’s data and see if he might be a good fit for their team. The next step is for the player to get signed internationally, often with teams in Mexico, or get back into affiliated ball, the minors and, hopefully, eventually the major leagues.

“We started out really, really hot,” Swaggerty says. “But then there’s circumstances with our field here. There’s a concert that rips apart our outfield, and then we pretty much play the whole month of June on the road, so that’s been tough. You’re riding on a bus eight hours overnight and you try to sleep in the hotel just long enough to have some energy for the game that night. Ideally, we would like to have a better record than we do right now, but there are challenges. There’s peaks and there’s valleys, and baseball is all about riding the wave—and that goes individually and as a team.”

Swaggerty chose to come to the Monarchs because of their reputation but also because of the potential to get signed elsewhere if they—and he—have a good season.

“Individually speaking, I don’t really necessarily care about what the numbers say, as long as I’m helping and making an impact on each and every game that I play in,” he says. “[That’s] what I try to do every night. If I can do something productive to help us win, that’s all I care about. Baseball’s got a funny way of evening out, so I think the tides –Travis Swaggerty are about to turn.”

THEN, A ROYAL LEGACY

PHOTOGR APHY WIKIPEDIA

IN 2018, THE TEAM, then called the Kansas City

T-Bones, won their first-ever American Association championship during Calfapietra’s first year as manager. In January 2021, under relatively new entrepreneur-owner Mark Brandmeyer, the team began a partnership with the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and rebranded to the Monarchs, one of the founding teams of the league.

The Monarchs have a storied history in Kansas City, but they also played an important role in the history of baseball. The Kansas City-based Monarchs were the the longest-running franchise in the history of baseball’s Negro Leagues. They were also the best.

Before integration, they won 10 league championships. In 1924, the won the first Negro World Series.

In their legendary tenure, the team had only one season in which they did not have a winning record.

Overall, they generated more major league players than any other franchise in the Negro Leagues.

J.L. Wilkinson, who was owner of the Monarchs for nearly 30 years, helped catapult the team to new heights by becoming more active in the community. Wilkinson was the first person to implement special baseball days, like “Ladies’ Day” and “Kids’ Day.” That legacy can still be seen in the Monarchs’ community engagement, where they host special themed days and events. Several times a year, the Monarchs become the Los Monarchs to honor the Hispanic and Latino community.

This past season, they also hosted special events aimed at children, a Star Wars-themed game and even a Taylor Swift-inspired night, where they rebranded as the “Kansas Swiftie Monarchs” and gave away two Taylor Swift concert tickets.

In 1930, the Monarchs started playing night baseball to try to get more people to come to more games. The team had portable light systems powered by generators that could be transported on their bus to any game. They became the first team (including any of the major league teams) to play baseball under artificial light.

Night baseball gave the Monarchs more time to play more games, which increased their visibility, popularity and, of course, profits, which helped cement them as one of the most solid Negro Leagues franchises.

Some legendary baseball players were part of the Monarchs Negro Leagues team, including iconic Hall of Fame pitcher Satchel Paige and one of the most beloved and

“YOU GO INTO IT WITH THE UNDERSTANDING THAT YOU’RE HERE TO TRY TO TEACH THEM, TO WIN GAMES AND HELP THESE PLAYERS MOVE ON TO THEIR GOALS.” –Joe Calfapietra

historically significant athletes of all time, Jackie Robinson. Robinson became the first Monarch to make the historic move to white baseball in 1946, integrating to the major leagues with the Dodgers in 1947, where his legacy was forever cemented.

As baseball gradually desegregated in the late ’40s and ’50s, the Monarchs became the premier developer of talent for the major leagues.

Calfapietra continues that legacy today, ceaselessly fostering his players’ talent. Although the team may take a hit when their most successful players leave, Calfapietra is helping make his players’ dreams come true, with many moving to affiliated baseball or signing to Mexico teams mid-season.

“It always is sad when you lose people that you care about,” Calfapietra says. “But that’s what it’s really all about—the players moving to big leagues.

You go into it with the understanding that you’re here to try to teach them, to win games and help these players move on to their goals.”

Jackie Robinson in 1945 playing shortstop for the Monarchs.

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TODAY, A TEAM OF CHAMPIONS MANAGER JOE CALFAPIETRA is the best in the

league. In his last seven years with the team, he has elevated the Monarchs’ game, got them to division championships, helped them win three championships and won the American Association’s Manager of the Year award twice.

All of the Monarchs players I talk to say the same thing: he’s one of the best coaches, if not the best, they’ve ever had. He has faith in them and just lets them do what they came to do—play ball.

“Joe is a player-first manager, and he really cares about all of his guys,” Swaggerty says. “You want to play for guys like that. He really cares. I mean, he hugs every guy before the game, tells him he loves him. It’s cool to have a guy that has your back. Coaching-wise, he’s really good about just letting the guys play. If there’s something he needs to get done, obviously he will voice that.

But for the most part, we just go out there and he lets us play. It’s been refreshing.”

Calfapietra is no-nonsense in the best way. A self-proclaimed “Philadelphia guy,” he has an East

68 Kansas City September 2024

“THEY UNDERSTAND WHAT IT MEANS TO EMBRACE BEING A KANSAS CITY MONARCH—THE TRADITION OF NOT ONLY WHAT WE’VE ACCOMPLISHED OVER THE PAST FEW YEARS—BUT WHAT THE MONARCHS MEAN TO THE CITY.” –Joe Calfapietra

PHOTOGR APHY EMMA CROUCH

Outfielder Chavez Young celebrates during a winning game against the Lincoln Saltdogs.

Coast accent that more genteel (less Midwestern) ears could probably distinguish and a friendly face that has been sunburnt from the season—and 30 years of coaching baseball.

I can see what the players are talking about. He has sort of a gruff but loveable energy, like an uncle that will simultaneously razz you but will ensure you’re wearing your seatbelt when you leave his house with a tupperware of lasagna in hand. During our on-field interview, Calfapietra makes sure I take a bottled water and untangles a beetle that had (unbeknownst to me) flown in my hair.

“The guys really have embraced what we’ve wanted to accomplish here,” Calfapietra says. “They’re very excited to be a part of our organization. They understand what it means to embrace being a Kansas City Monarch—the tradition of not only what we’ve accomplished over the past few years—but what the Monarchs mean to the city.”

When talking about the season, Calfapietra echoes Swaggerty’s disappointment, but with three decades of experience, he knows how the season can ebb and flow.

“We’re setting our feet in the ground and looking forward to making a really good run here,” he says. “Every day is different, and we’re just looking for every day to get better. We’re happy with the players that we have in house right now, and every day development is constantly getting better.”

Despite a sometimes disappointing season, both players and coaches are proud of the team that they’ve built this year. And from my time interviewing, watching practices and games and taking an accidental trip into the locker room, I can attest that the Monarchs’ spirit is as fun and filled with camaraderie as ever (I’m sure in no small part to Calfapietra’s legacy and managerial style).

“Playing with the Monarchs has been fun,” Swaggerty says. “I’ve been on teams in the past where it gets cliquey—sort of like pitchers hang out with pitchers and hitters hang out with hitters.

But this team has been pretty good with getting everybody involved. We hang out in the hotels, we play video games together. It’s all about building that relationship with guys off the field so that on the field it’s even better. Plus, I think those long bus rides have absolutely helped our relationships, too.”

Because most of the men on the team have been in the upper levels of the minor leagues or in the majors themselves, there’s a natural camaraderie—a team working together and trying to prove to themselves, and others, that they’re still as good as they’ve ever been. Swaggerty talks about things

PHOTOGR APHY IAN SIMMONS

Kansas City Monarchs Manager Joe Calfapietra

that the team has done this season, like instating Kangaroo Court, which is used as a fun way to keep everyone in check in the locker room.

“Kangaroo Court is when you give out fines to people for doing something that’s not correct, basically,” Swaggerty says. “Guys that are newer to the team that weren’t here with us on opening day, I have a dollar fine for each of them for being late to the season. There was a day we had a guy forget his jersey here [at Legends Field], so he had to play wearing somebody else’s jersey. Like, obviously that’s a finable offense. Most of them are a dollar. But if it’s egregious—like the shirt one’s egregious—that’ll be a five

dollar fine. And all the money at the end, we’ve decided to allocate those funds to tip our bus driver who drives us while we’re on the road.”

With this year’s season wrapping up, the Monarchs’ dream of earning a championship for a second year in a row are virtually out of reach. However, Swaggerty, Calfapietra and the rest of the team’s part in continuing the Monarchs’ enduring legacy lives on.

“I think we’ve upheld our tradition with the Monarchs in the time that we’ve been here,” says Calfapietra. “We hope to continue and to win another championship—that’s why we’re here.” kansascitymag.com September 2024

69

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visitbentoncomo.com 19-20-Warsaw Heritage Day – Over 200 handmade craft booths, food vendors, live music and more!

19-20-Kaysinger Heritage Days – Live demonstrations at 5-7-Cole Camp Fair – This fair has the most unbelievable floats in

MO – must-see! Carnival rides, food vendors, contests, competitions, car show, 5K, and much more!

14 -Lincoln Fly-In – “Fly-in” to the last of the remaining grass roots

airstrips in MO and have a bite to eat, chat with the pilots and enjoy all of the unique planes that come in.

14-Lincoln Fall Market/Balloon Glow/Strongman Competition Activities include a Farmer Strongman Competition, Pie Auction, Pumpkin Growing Contest, Live Music & Beer Garden all day, Hot Air Balloon Glow, a and Rides, Beer Garden with The Groove Pilots following the Balloon Glow!

19-22-Mozarkite Rock and Gem Show (Lincoln) 28-Cole Camp Oktoberfest – Live German music, food and

this working 1800’s pioneer village with log cabins, a General Store, tradesman, craftsman,

25-26-Cole Camp Haunted House at RiOak 26-Cole Camp Pumpkin Fest – This unique Halloween event includes a Spirit Stroll, pumpkin carving contest, spooky scavenger hunt, haunted house, food vendors, 5K Zombie Run & Walk, food trucks, Costume Contest and more!

31-Warsaw Halloween Hoopla – A big safe Halloween

experience downtown Warsaw. Businesses set up cover about 6 blocks. Main and Van Buren. Booths open at 6 pm. Costume Contest by Creative Palette.

31-Lincoln Frightfully Fun Family Night – Join us at the

big city park in Lincoln for Halloween activities and a trunk or treat for the whole family!

traditional festivities held in Downtown Cole Camp!

28-Antique Farm Show (Cole Camp) – They have apple

cider press, apple butter, churned butter, beekeeper, blacksmith, wheat threshing & straw baling, sugar cane & molasses press, corn meal, sawmill, Grandma Kitchen Museum.

15-16-Benton County Boutique Crawl – Shop small-town boutiques, home décor and specialty shops with specials and fun things to do and get entered into drawings for cash prizes!

22-Lighting of Warsaw – Be included in watching the lights come on at Drake Harbor for the annual Lighting of Warsaw!

23-Cole Camp Christbaumfest – Over 50 quality crafters, music, Santa and Mrs. Claus and more.

1-Cole Camp German Christmas Concert – Community Concert choir of mixed voices performing songs in German.

6-Cole Camp Christkindlmarket – This is a family-friendly event featuring shopping in stores, hot apple cider, foodN trucks, pictures with Santa and Mrs. Claus, wagon and carriage rides, carolers, living windows and more!

6-7-Kaysinger Christmas – Visit the pioneer village decorated for Christmas! Stroll the candle lit trails between the historical buildings and duck

inside to warm your mittens by an open fire. Immerse yourself in an 1800’s style Christmas with warm food, cider, and hot chocolate for the kid in all of us.

14-Lincoln Christmas Parade, Craft Fair & 4H Soup & Chili Supper -Enjoy the spirit of the season with the Christmas Parade on

Main Street , Craft Fair at the Lincoln School and the Benton County 4-H/FFA Youth Fair will be hosting a Free Will Donation Chili/Soup Dinner in the school Cafeteria.

14- Hallmark Christmas in Warsaw – Breakfast with Santa, Children’s craft projects, food trucks and holiday market, live nativity scene, horse drawn carriage rides.

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FALL KicKoff SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

FALL EVENTS

FALL TRAVEL DESTINATIONS

Overland Park Fall Festival Dig in to fun and festivity for all ages at the Overland Park Fall Festival on September 27-28.

Discover unique finds at the Artisan Fair, groove to live concerts in the park and indulge in delicious bites from local food trucks. Bring the kids for exciting activities and enjoy lively performances by talented artists. Head to Downtown Overland Park for a weekend filled with community spirit and unforgettable memories. visit opkansas.org/fallfestival

Jefferson City Kick off this fall with flights, frights, and musical nights in Jefferson City! The Show-Me State Airshow takes off September 14-15 with breathtaking aerobatics, tactical military demonstrations, and a whole lot of family fun. For a spooky time, the popular ghost tours at the decommissioned Missouri State Penitentiary are perfect for thrill seekers. And make sure to catch a concert at the MUCR Amp for some catchy tunes! visitjeffersoncity.com

Hallmarket: A Hallmark Art Festival This community-favorite creative event showcases the artistic talents of current Hallmark employees and retirees. Come see what they create outside of their 9-to-5 jobs at Hallmark. This free, family-friendly event offers the opportunity to interact with artists from Hallmark’s creative community and to purchase their artwork. The event features live music performances, local food and drink vendors, Kaleidoscope hands-on creativity and other fun activities. September 14, 2024 from 10am – 4pm. (Rain or Shine) Free admission. hallmark.com/hallmarket

Cedar Crest Lodge located just 45 minutes south of Overland Park, the 100+ acre property offers breathtaking views, serene walking trails among trees and ponds, and a tranquil outdoor heated pool. It's the perfect place for a romantic, nature-inspired, all-inclusive getaway this fall. After a hike through the Certified Wildlife Habitat, you'll be ready to unwind with one of their indulgent spa treatments, relax in the outdoor hot tub or sauna, enjoy a gourmet dining experience, or just retreat to your choice of one of the comfortably luxurious guest rooms or suites. cedarcrestlodge.com

Get outside this fall and explore all that Missouri has to offer. Whether you stay in town or enjoy a weekend getaway, it's time to enjoy the new season.

FALL ACTIVITIES

Johnny Morris’ Wonders of Wildlife Embark on a journey through the world’s greatest wonders! Nestled in the heart of Springfield, Missouri, Johnny Morris' Wonders of Wildlife National Museum & Aquarium stands as a testament to the beauty and diversity of the natural world. Travel through 350,000 square-feet of diverse habitats from the African savannah to the depths of the ocean, showcasing an astounding collection of over 35,000 live fish, mammals, reptiles and birds. wondersofwildlife.org Dogwood Canyon Nature Park Unveil the beauty of the Ozarks this autumn at Dogwood Canyon Nature Park! Experience vibrant foliage as it transforms the native landscape into a tapestry of rich reds, oranges, and yellows. Explore the scenic trails and serene sights and sounds of nature. Whether you’re hiking, biking, touring our wildlife pastures, or simply soaking in the views, Dogwood Canyon offers an unforgettable autumn adventure that captivates the senses and rejuvenates the spirit. dogwoodcanyon.org Pulaski County, MO: Hogs & Frogs Festival Rev up your engines for a memorable autumn adventure in the heart of the Ozarks! The 3rd Annual Route 66 Hogs & Frogs Festival from Sept. 20-22 welcomes bikers from across the country to glide through Ozark scenery and gather with fellow bikers in historic Roubidoux Park.

A motorcycle show, live music, axe throwing, beard and pin-up contests, family-friendly events, and more elevate this road trip to legendary status. visitpulaskicounty.org

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Kansas City September 2024

Summer’s New voice THE SECRET TO JAKE’S SUCCESS

BY HAMPTON STEVENS PORTRAIT BY JASON HANNA

Jake shoots me a look.

It’s July 3rd at Kauffman Stadium, late in a game against Tampa Bay. Jake Eisenberg, young play-by-play man for the Kansas City Royals, is describing the top of the eighth inning. Richie Palacios bats against James McArthur. The Royals are up 4-2. There are two outs, but the Rays have a man on. Eisenberg describes Palacios as the “potential tying run,” then turns in his swivel chair and shoots a look my way.

He does it as a little joke. Three hours before, during our interview in an auxiliary broadcast booth overlooking the field, we talked about the self-described logophile’s love of words.

I asked about an addition he often makes to an especially common formulation in sports broadcasting: the word “potential.” kansascitymag.com September 2024

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Since the dawn of time—or at least the dawn of radio— baseball play-by-play announcers have been describing players as “representing” things, usually the tying or winning run. Esienberg adds “potential.” As in “the potential winning run is on first.” He is correct to do so. That hypothetical runner on first, for instance, could certainly come around to score, but he also could “represent” the first out of a double play.

It’s a small thing, granted. But it’s indicative of Eisenberg’s extraordinary commitment to the accurate and effective use of language.

I was surprised when he shot me that look, though, because I’d become mesmerized watching him and partner Steve Stewart call the game. It’s a consuming thing, calling a baseball game. Over the course of two hours and 43 minutes, I watched Eisenberg, Stewart and producer and engineer Eric Guthrie create a theater of the mind. Eisenberg in particular always seemed in motion. Headset on, overlooking the field, he’d lean forward on his desk, then back again, twirl a pen, jiggle a leg or tap a foot. Open laptop to his left, cell phone and binoculars in front, he took notes, gestured and reacted to big plays. He read live promos on the air.

He constantly consulted a specially designed scorecard covered with tiny, insanely meticulous notes handwritten in four colors, representing a truly gobsmacking level of preparation. At one point, he came up with an idea for a comment about reliever Angel Zerpa, researched it on a site called Baseball Savant and seamlessly relayed it over the air.

The casual virtuosity of it all was hypnotic. The fact that he still had the presence of mind to turn and share a silent, little joke—particularly during a tense part of the ballgame— was almost shocking. Imagine, for instance, a great actor in the middle of a dramatic monologue stopping to give you a wink that no one else can see.

It was a remarkable level of poise, particularly for a guy who’s not yet 30. In fact, when the Royals hired Eisenberg in late 2022, filling the seat left by Steve Physioc’s retirement, Eisenberg was the youngest play-by-play man in Major League Baseball. I soon found myself searching for the secret to his rapid rise. How, exactly, does someone so young get such a prestigious and demanding gig?

Talent comes first, of course, and Eisenberg has it. His delivery is musical and fluid. His language is sharp, crisp and strong. He has a particular gift for setting a scene, describing the look of a player’s uniform, the feel of the evening air or the quality of light on the field.

He also has a willingness to get better. Seriously. It would be difficult to overstate the amount of work this man pours into the perfection of his craft. We talked about that dedication and much more during the friendly, pre-game hour or so we spent in conversation.

“I think about it maybe more than I should,” he said.

He wore a powder-blue polo shirt, navy slacks and white sneakers with ankle socks. His face was round. His eyes were piercing blue. His smile was boyish. You see that boyishness when he posts pictures of himself at Fenway, Yankee Stadium or some other shrine of the game. It’s a happy grin, like he can’t believe his good fortune.

“I dissect these broadcasts to a molecular level, for better and for worse,” he said. “Like, the thing that I think about and harp on the most is when there’s a ball put in play. I think about the syntax of what I’m saying, that it’s to the ear grammatically correct. Speaking in an active voice and present tense.”

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Kansas City September 2024

“THAT’S WHEN IT’S TIME FOR YOU TO TELL THE AUDIENCE THAT THE PITCHER IS STARING INTO HIS CATCHER’S MITT AND THERE’S A BEAD OF SWEAT DRIPPING DOWN OVER HIS RIGHT EYEBROW. THOSE ARE THE MOMENTS WHEN YOU BUILD THE TENSION” –Jake Eisenberg

He demonstrated this “molecular” dissection for me after the game. As fireworks exploded behind us, we listened to the replay of his call on the evening’s signature play: Kyle Isbel’s dramatic and potentially (wink) game-saving, wall-bashing, snow-cone catch in centerfield. Eisenberg took the call apart for me, analyzing his performance sentence by sentence, word by word.

Maybe, I thought, his secret is in his background.

He, and a twin sister Taylor, come from a baseball-loving family in Port Washington, New York, less than an hour from where the Mets play in Queens. Eisenberg is not, however, the scion of an already-famous broadcaster like Joe Buck, Kenny Albert, Chip Caray or Todd Kalas. His dad is a neurosurgeon, his mom a dietitian and nutritionist.

Eisenberg always loved the game, but he wasn’t one of those kids who turned the volume down on a broadcast and did their own play-by-play into a wooden spoon—a common trope in broadcaster origin stories. He did some broadcasting in high school on the student radio station, but didn’t really do play-by-play baseball until he got to college at the University of Maryland.

Once there, he did one game as a freshman. He covered a handful more, maybe eight to 10 as a sophomore, after he and a few friends created the Maryland Baseball Network, a multi-platform media home for the Terrapins.

“We were there to do every single game—home, road— podcasts, articles, the whole nine yards that, frankly, was as close to a professional operation as a student operation could be,” he says.

That same sophomore year, he met Jen, who would eventually become his wife. They were married in January of this year.

Eisenberg called a lot more Maryland games as a junior and then covered Cape Cod League baseball the summer of his junior year. Ultimately, he spent five seasons broadcasting minor league ball, including stints in Brooklyn, Winston-Salem, Richmond and at the Royals’ Triple-A affiliate in Omaha. He also called more than 40 games for the Mets and even worked a few with his biggest influence, storied Mets announcer Howie Rose—the broadcaster Eisenberg grew up listening to.

Eisenberg raved about Rose. “He could not have been kinder in extending his contact information for me to ask him questions and send some tape and get some feedback, and he would give me active, tangible feedback on the tapes,” he said.

“What sort of feedback?” I asked.

“One of the notes that he gave me is I had the instincts of describing uniforms or describing a way a pitcher was set on the mound or the way a batter was positioned in the box.

But I wasn’t sharing those details with purpose. I was kind of throwing them at the wall like a Jackson Pollock. They were being shared to fill space that I thought I had to fill.”

He learned to use those sensory details for dramatic effect in, for instance, the bottom of the ninth in a close game.

“That’s when it’s time for you to tell the audience that the pitcher is staring into his catcher’s mitt and there’s a bead of sweat dripping down over his right eyebrow, and the batter is gripping the bat a little bit tighter,” Eisenberg said. “Those are the moments when you build the tension.

If I tell you that in the bottom of the second inning, when there’s bases empty, one out, it doesn’t hit the same way.”

I asked what else makes Rose so good.

“It’s vivid. It’s sharp. It’s situationally aware.”

“What does that mean—situationally aware?” I asked.

“A way of knowing what’s going to happen before it happens or just understanding the situation immediately,” said Eisenberg.

Fabled Royals broadcaster Denny Matthews has a high level of situational awareness, too, Eisenberg told me. He spoke of Matthews, who was unfortunately absent on the day of my visit, with the sort of reverence that a young musician might use to describe The Beatles. The comparison is apt, in fact, not only because Matthews is among the best ever at his craft but also because Matthews started calling Royals games in 1969, when The Beatles were still making records—an almost unfathomable longevity.

“So much of what a broadcaster does is mentally preparing for something that they might see,” Eisenberg said. “Everything happens so spontaneously and instantaneously that we’re effectively blind-reacting to the thing that’s happening.

But if you have some sort of precognition to simultaneously describe, ‘here’s the 2-2 pitch,’ and also have this weird daydream about what that 2-2 pitch might end up being or might end up going, you’re just maybe a fraction of a second better prepared to call the moment that’s to come. And every now and again, I get these feelings. And I’m guessing that Denny gets these feelings all the time.”

As the game’s first pitch grew closer and more people started stirring on the field below, we covered other aspects of the job. Eisenberg talked about the differences between broadcasting for TV and radio. He described using chest

Royals announcer Jake Eisenberg’s specially designed scorecard covered with his meticulous handwritten game notes.

voice instead of head voice for a richer tone. He spoke of striving for a “controlled pace” and bringing one’s personality to the fore. He mentioned his Buddha-like mantra of “Be where your feet are,” an aphorism about staying focused on the task at hand. He talked about overcoming “broadcaster voice,” the kind of cliched, exaggerated tone lovingly pilloried by the likes of Hank Azaria in Brockmire and Bob Uecker when he deliberately hammed it up for Major League.

Everything Eisenberg said in our interview made sense. Every question was affably answered. Despite that, and even after spending an evening in the broadcast booth, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was missing some key element to his success. Yes, there is talent. Loads of it.

Sure, there’s a fantastic work ethic and a commitment to excellence. He’s a kind man, too, which matters in everything.

All of it contributes, but I couldn’t escape the idea that I was missing some final, mysterious ingredient.

Then I remembered the rainbow.

It was the bottom of the fifth in the game against Tampa. The day had been overcast, but the clouds parted at sunset.

A burst of horizontal light hit the Blue Moon billboard in right field. A moment later, a vivid double rainbow appeared above the right field wall, crisp and radiant against a murky cobalt sky.

A strange and happy sensation swept through the park. Everyone felt it. It was a sign. We knew the Royals were going to win. Which, a few innings later, they did.

It was one of those oddly beautiful sports moments that every fan knows—a flash of synchronicity when a team, crowd, city and the natural world itself all seem to merge into a kind of mystical force. You get a vibe. You just … believe. It’s the same energy that makes us think wearing our lucky socks or sitting in a certain chair can impact a game that’s being played a thousand miles away.

Moments like that are when baseball becomes more than just an athletic endeavor. These are the ideas that Bernard Malamud wrote about in The Natural and W.P. Kinsella touched on in The Iowa Baseball Confederacy and Field of Dreams. It’s a kind of magic, really, where faith and superstition meet, when the game rises to the level of near-religion.

I thought back to what Eisenberg said about the “weird daydreams” and the precognition that great broadcasters can have. I remembered how he didn’t want it quantified. Maybe, I thought, that’s his secret. Eisenberg seems to have great reverence for the unknowable, enchanted parts of baseball.

That led me to another thought. Something far simpler.

I remembered the gleeful way he smiles for pictures at the ballpark. I thought of the excitement that pours from the radio when he’s calling a game and his sheer, authentic joy when the Royals win. At heart, I realized, he is simply a great fan of this strange, beautiful, magical, intensely demanding game. That might be the greatest secret of all. kansascitymag.com September 2024

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Chappell's Restaurant and Sports Museum 323 Armour Rd, North Kansas City, MO 64116 816.421.0002 - chappellskc.com 78

Kansas City September 2024

EATING AND DRINKING WELL IN KANSAS CITY

Conchas Are The New Donut

By Tyler Shane HIDDEN ON THE first floor of Overland Park’s BOK Financial building

is Aurora Cafe and Bakery, a small eatery serving cold brew lattes, wellcrafted sandwiches and some seriously sensational pastries. Husband and wife duo Javier and Kerrianne Nuñez bring both their culinary backgrounds to create a menu that you can’t go wrong choosing from, but it’s Javier’s artisan conchas that steal the show.

Conchas are a Mexican sweet bread recognized for their seashell-looking cracked top. They’re usually cheap and delicious, but Photography by Pilsen Photo Coop

depending on who makes them, they can often be too dry. But not Javier’s conchas.

The baker, who recently helmed Ibis Bakery’s bread program, uses sourdough techniques that result in a softer, fluffier product. Along with a fermentation starter, locally milled Marion Milling’s whole grain flour adds another layer of flavor and depth.

Raspberry cream cheese, lemon, funfetti and chocolate made with real cacao are just a few concha flavors in rotation, but if you see the crème brûlée concha behind the pastry case, drop everything and order several. It’s filled with vanilla pastry cream and coated with a glassy layer of burnt sugar that’s thin and fragile enough to give a pleasant crunch when biting into it. Whatever your usual morning doughnut of choice is, skip it. Aurora’s conchas should be your new sweet, fluffy treat. kansascitymag.com September 2024

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BREAKING

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REVIEW

THE MOLE T’ähä is the kind of restaurant KC needs.

But with its price point, will it deliver what KC wants?

By Tyler Shane Photography by Pilsen Photo Coop CONSIDERING HOW HISTORICALLY undervalued Mexican food has

been, T’ähä came onto the scene confidently and unapologetically— as it should. Flanked between the Plaza’s swanky Fontaine hotel and bougie Monarch Bar, T’ähä may have one of the priciest menus you’ve seen offering enchiladas, tacos and tamales. Again, as it should.

Everything is made from scratch, from the moles to the hand-pressed, cooked-to-order tortillas.

Considering KCK just launched a tour bus to explore their lauded and nationally known Taco Trail, Kansas Citians aren’t exactly lacking great options for Mexican food. However, we are lacking regional Mexican cuisine—and certainly in the fine dining realm. T’ähä’s menu, full of ingredients like “huitlacoche” and “xoconostle” and priced at an average of $40 per entree, reads like a breath of fresh air and fills a gap in KC’s high-end restaurant scene. But high prices also mean high expectations, and while the restaurant is starting out on a strong note, dishes need to be fine-tuned to deliver the kind of customer satisfaction that will keep it in business for years to come.

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REVIEW

Jose Gomez opened T’ähä alongmuch to be desired beyond the few side his father, Fidel Gomez. They’re roasted vegetables that accompanied no strangers to the restaurant world. the plate. The half cornish hen smothFidel opened and continues to own two ered with mole was another fun and Little Haciendas in Branson, the first well-cooked protein dampened by not of which has been open for over two enough complexity. It was so hearty, decades. They’re more Tex Mex-style, it needed another flavorful element or but with T’ähä, which means “dream” two, something to tactfully play off the in Otomi—the indigenous community earthy, smokey mole and break up the Fidel’s mother is from—Fidel offers monotonous richness of the dish. flavors closer to his roots in Hidalgo, You may have seen a chef or two on Mexico. T’ähä’s menu is all him.

Netflix’s Chef’s Table, or some other Considering the immense undertaking cooking show, come damn near to tears that opening an authentic and regional when talking about Mexico’s beautifine dining Mexican restaurant is, the ful, complex and soulful mole sauce.

Gomezs’ years of experience in the It is certainly something that should industry is immediately palpable. From be held in high regard, and T’ähä aims the sophisticated environs and solid serto do it justice. Their red mole is Jose’s vice to the bar program and women in grandmother’s recipe and contains 24 the kitchen working masa into tortillas ingredients. (Jose was able to indulge on the daily, the 172-seat operation (patio me in a few: dark chocolate, ancho chilincluded) is running smoothly. They ies, peanuts, almonds, mulato chilies, know their clientele and the neighborplantains, fried tortillas, even toasted hood, and they cater to it well. bread.) Over the enchiladas, it was Having taken over the former Jax beautiful. On the cornish hen, it was PREVIOUS SPREAD: Dishes from left to right: T’ÄHÄ’s Fish House and Oyster Bar, Jose and bitter. Jose says they’ve almost got a margarita, lamb barbacoa, branzino sarandeado.

Fidel kept the former layout, large standardized recipe worked out.

THIS SPREAD: From left to right: The aguachile verde bar included, but hired the local When I ask Jose about T’ähä’s high with scallops, T’ähä’s interior. bcDESIGNGROUP to implement an prices, he says that, sure, his Plaza interior that plays more to the likes of location adds to the cost, but his a contemporary restaurant in Mexico restaurant is also about breaking a City, with various textures of wood and tile. The result is smart and glass ceiling. After all, no one blinks an eye when paying for upscale stylish without trying too hard.

European restaurants.

The menu is a clear labor of love. T’ähä sources organic natural heir“Why are Mexican cuisine, Mexican labor and Mexican products loom corn from Wichita-based Pinole Blue and Las Marias, a Northeast expected to be cheap and fast?” Jose asks. “Our team is doing so tortilleria that creates masa using the traditional Mesoamerican method much labor with love and care for the culture. We’re hand-pressing of nixtamalization. To get a taste of the beauty that is freshly pressed all of our tortillas to order, using fresh, quality ingredients. The salsas masa, order an empanada appetizer—it doesn’t matter which one. The are homemade, along with the 24-ingredient moles. We’re so proud soft crackle of the fried blue corn stuffed with cheese is decadent. The of our tortilla ladies because that is not an easy job. It really is a small, fluffy tortillas of the sopecitos de chorizo are comforting but from-scratch kitchen.” give texture and depth beyond your usual Tex-Mex order.

T’ähä reminds me of the South JoCo fine dining Indian restaurant, Appetizers are kept comforting and err on upscale approachability.

Of Course, helmed by Swetha Newcomb. We dubbed Of Course one of Ordering the app of beef meatballs containing hard boiled eggs, a KC’s Best New Restaurants last year, and Newcomb was similarly open traditional recipe from Central Mexico and one from Jose and Fidel’s with the struggles of offering Indian food, albeit with a Midwestern childhood, isn’t necessary, but you will like it. The meatballs swim in a flair, in an elevated format. Diners are hit with confusion when they see soupy, savory and bright cactus sauce that reads like a thin marinara.

Indian ingredients fused into gourmet plates and priced accordingly.

Through the appetizers, as well as a couple entrees, T’ähä takes the I see T’ähä’s vision, even if it didn’t always show up on the plate. opportunity to feature a cornerstone of Mexican cuisine—seafood.

I stopped by the Plaza restaurant last-minute on a Taco Tuesday to The crudos and aguachiles are kept classic. Scallops and octopus are take advantage of the a la carte options. I ordered every single one. served delightfully fresh. On one visit, my dining companion and I Unfortunately, none wowed, and in a city where great, affordable happily dove into the branzino entree, although for $40 we would tacos are so accessible, that’s what they needed to do. I followed have liked to see the head kept on to add a bit of grandeur. it up with the tamale served over a banana leaf and topped with a The entrees are where T’ähä invites you to see the full scope of guajillo sauce. The pork was bland, the guajillo sauce salty and bitter.

Mexico’s culinary diversity. The signature dish of lamb barbacoa T’ähä has only been open since late May. Like Of Course, it’s natural pays homage to the influx of Lebanese immigrants to Mexico in the that finding its footing is going to take some time. It’s a new venture early 1900s. Just as goat is traditionally used in birria tacos, lamb is not only for Jose and Fidel but for KC, too. Plus, you most likely won’t traditionally used when cooking barbacoa. Fidel sits his lamb lollipops be going to T’ähä for tacos. You’ll go there for the experience of on a bed of hummus infused with peppers and lamb stock, giving being in a special environment and trying dishes and flavors you’ve tribute to Mexico’s Arabic influences. never had before. I have hope that as more thoughtful components The rabbit—grilled, baked and tossed with guajillo chilies—is served and technical precision are added along the way, T’ähä can offer the with a hefty schmear of guajillo sauce. It’s a dish reminiscent of consistent wow factor it needs to deliver the authenticity and culture Fidel’s childhood in Hidalgo, but pairing guajillo with guajillo left Kansas Citians crave. kansascitymag.com September 2024

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DRINK

The result is something a little sweet, a little nutty and insanely delicious. Danner says customers have compared the taste to cereal milk.

Creepy Tiki

By Tyler Shane “I DON’T THINK tiki has to be purely Hawaiian or Polynesian,” says Roxie Danner,

co-owner of Strawberry Hill’s new cocktail lounge The Blue Palm.

The Blue Palm (204 Orchard St., KCK) has all the elements of a quintessential tiki lounge: nautical decor, cocktails swimming with rum and lighting so dim you’re sure to lose track of time. Still, it manages to take on an identity of its own. Amazingly, it’s the only brick-and-mortar tiki bar in the metro, and its subtle spooky twist makes sure it will continue to stand out regardless if more tiki bars pop up. After all, “tiki is whatever you make it,” Danner says.

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Tiki’s cult following has bred an array of subgenres like “geek tiki,” featuring tiki mugs fashioned as characters from pop culture, and “creepy tiki,” which takes on an occult-ish charm and is Danner’s specialty. Among The Blue Palm’s three owners (Dan Doty and Houston Defoe are fellow co-owners), Danner spearheads the cocktail program, adding her creepy tiki twist to it. The menu features several drinks from her pop-up days as Hellfire Tiki, including the bestseller Taro Deck.

Taro refers to taro root, a popular flavor of bubble tea that inspired the drink. Danner makes a taro coconut cream base and mixes it with a housemade passion fruit syrup, lemon juice, dark rum and a tropical velvet falernum, a spiced Caribbean liquor commonly found in tiki drinks. The result is something a little sweet, a little nutty and insanely delicious. Danner says customers have compared the taste to cereal milk.

Aside from its incredible flavor, the Taro Deck should be ordered if only to match the ambiance of The Blue Palm’s interior. Its hue matches the bar’s highlighter-purple walls, which are accented with a pitch-black ceiling. I visited in the early evening on a hot July day.

The sun was shining, but one step inside The Blue Palm and I was engulfed in a dark tropical time warp—an intoxicating environment, literally and figuratively.

“That’s part of the tiki experience,” says Danner.

“There’s a level of escapism. Whatever the state of the world, come in, relax, ease your mind a bit.”

Photography by Zach Bauman

LET’S MAKE INSULIN INJECTIONS AND FINGERSTICKS A DISTANT MEMORY KU Medical Center aims to expand its research in Type 1 Diabetes to pioneer new therapies in Kansas City.

Dr. David Robbins, director of the Cray Diabetes Self-Management Center, and David Block, founder of the Emilie Rosebud Diabetes Research Foundation, are leading a community fund-raising effort to help cure Type 1 Diabetes. The University of Kansas Health System is supporting with advanced equipment and space. The first step is to recruit a visionary program leader.

LEARN HOW YOU CAN HELP RAISE FUNDS:

HWHEAT@KUENDOWMENT.ORG 913.562.2708

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Walking & Talking

Lisa Peña’s hiking company makes Kansas Citians tourists in their own city

By Tyler Shane KANSAS CITY ISN’T exactly known for its great hiking trails. It’s not

even known for being very walkable. But Lisa Peña has built a business proving that walking and hiking around KC isn’t just doable—it can open your eyes to the city’s many overlooked wonders, too.

Through Urban Hikes KC, Peña takes you through the city’s nooks and crannies to reveal its unique history, street art, coffee, sculpture gardens, tacos and more.

“I thought that KC would be a good place for this because we have so much history and outdoor art like sculptures and murals,” says Peña, a KCK native. “A lot of Kansas Citians don’t know the history of KC. I knew there was so much to be shared.”

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P E R F E C T DAY

Peña began Urban Hikes KC in 2019. She says her past work experience made transitioning into the role of “tour guide” easy. After college, Peña joined the Peace Corps as a health volunteer in the Dominican Republic.

As part of that role, she gathered women for a three mile-hike to get their pap smears and they discussed health practices, like self breast exams, on the way.

After the Peace Corps, she gave presentations as an educator at a child abuse prevention center and went on to become the manager of the Hispanic initiative for Girl Scouts.

“Whether I was giving kids a personal safety presentation or talking to Spanish-speaking moms about how to be a troop leader for Girl Scouts, I was always educating and connecting with an audience,” Peña says.

Urban Hikes KC started as a side gig for Peña. Now, it’s her full time job, and she employs eight other hiking guides. Peñas’ company offers 18 different kinds of hikes L I S A P E Ñ A’ S or walking tours, each exploring a different P E R F E C T D AY I N KC part of the city. If you think this sounds like an adventure strictly for out-of-towners, Rise and Shine you’d be wrong. Eighty percent of Peña’s I’d take the free bus to breakfast at Seven Swans hikers are locals.

Crêperie. I’m a sucker for Some tours focus on art galleries while sidewalk cafes, and theirs is so nice. There’s a crepe that has others take you foraging at Kaw Point Park lemon curd and blueberries or to local cafes for exclusive coffee tastand it is so delicious. ings. There’s even one that delves into KC’s Bike Ride infrastructure and transportation history.

I would rent a bike at Rain or shine, hot or cold, hikes are availRideKC. It’s really affordable able throughout the year. and they have electric assists so they’re really easy to ride.

The winter hike, for example, is hosted I’d ride to the Freedom Trail in collaboration with the KC Streetcar and in the West Bottoms where there’s a sculpture park. It’s begins by exploring Hotel Kansas City, its a really peaceful park with origins as a men’s club and its storied hisnative plants. tory with political boss Tom Pendergast.

KCK After a stop for coffee at Made in KC’s cafe, Then, I’d ride into KCK’s “hikers” explore the 21c Museum Hotel’s Strawberry Hill and stop at current art exhibition and restaurant, The a Mexican restaurant on Sixth Street, Tarahumaras Savoy, which claims it’s the oldest restau#2. I love their birria tacos. rant in Kansas City. To finish, they take a I’m ordering them with a consommé, no matter how ride on the streetcar. hot it is outside.

As for Peña’s favorite hike, she can’t choose. It’s between the Strawberry Hill Something Sweet Across the street from Urban Hike or the Crossroads’ West Side Tarahumaras #2, I’d stop into Urban Hike.

Hey Sugar on Strawberry Hill “The observation park in the West Side for some artisan ice cream.

It’s locally owned. They have has a really great view of the KC skyline,” a lot of flavors out of the Peña says. “The majority of Kansas Citians norm, but I’m getting their lavender honey ice cream. have never been there before.”

Photography by Annie Bolin

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Cue Couture

A farm to table dinner proves ’cue can hold its own in the cuisine scene

By John Martellaro CAN REAL KANSAS CITY barbecue ever really be considered fine dining?

Scott Umscheid, chef and owner of Scott’s Kitchen, answered that question with a definitive and resounding “yes” at a recent American Royal Farm to Table Dinner in the Royal’s Governor’s Building in the West Bottoms.

Given the opportunity to show off just how elegantly satisfying slow-smoked meat can be, Umscheid channeled his inner Escoffier—seasoned with a splash of Henry Perry—to create a memorable four-course dining experience.

The appetizer course was a smoked lamb “lollipop,” a single rib from a rack of lamb napped with a creamy mustard-thyme sauce and served with Parmesan crostini. The sauce was a delight—bold enough to stand up to smoked lamb but still subtle and nuanced.

Next came a summertime spinach salad with strawberries, bacon, feta cheese, purple onion and candied pecans, all tossed in a sweet onion vinaigrette. Yes, there was a lot going on there, but a vivid, dominant flavor from the truly ripe strawberries brought the varied ingredients together into a harmonious whole. Given the evening’s theme, the bacon was a must, playing a substantial supporting role.

88 Kansas City September 2024

’CUE CARD

The main course was a mixed grill that paired a classic from Umscheid’s restaurant, Berkshire pork spare ribs, with a sweet barbecue glaze. It had a stunning partner: a smoked Akaushi beef short rib topped with a mushroom and red wine reduction. Roasted garlic mashed potatoes and roasted green beans with Parmesan and lemon completed the plate.

The pork ribs demonstrated why Scott’s Kitchen is one of the metro’s most celebrated barbecue houses, and the short rib was astoundingly good, with beef that didn’t need slow-smoking to be wonderful yet was still enhanced with a true pitmaster’s skill. This was an example of barbecue worthy of the classic French sauce it bore.

The massive entree platters elicited gasps as they came to the table, along with more than a few diners asking, “We’re getting to-go boxes, right?” (Yes, they were provided.)

The potatoes and vegetables were no mere afterthoughts. The citrusy, tender-firm green beans were particularly delightful.

Dessert was smoke-free but no less satisfying: a dulce de leche and caramelized banana verrine with whipped vanilla cream, dark chocolate shavings and puff pastry crisps.

Elizabeth Gunter, event coordinator for the American Royal, says the dinner—the first of three farm-to-table meals the organization is hosting this year—is designed to show off local agricultural products and producers and demonstrate the Royal’s mission of celebrating food and agriculture and preserving its stature in the community for generations to come.

“We want to inspire positive conversations around the diversity of food and agriculture through a unique dining experience,” Gunter says. “This year, our organization wanted to continue to highlight local products and farmers and feature our barbecue history with local pitmasters.”

Umscheid, a self-described “4H and FFA kid from Wamego, Kansas,” was the perfect choice to lead off.

He says he was thrilled with the opportunity to spread his wings and take classic barbecue to a higher level.

“I loved it,” he says. “It’s great when you get a chance to do something new and different. This really hits home for a kid from Wamego.”

Local producers played a major role. The lamb was provided by Cannington Farms near Smithville, a ranch owned and operated by Umscheid’s wife’s sister, Amy Gray, and her husband, Tom. The Akaushi beef was provided by Paradise Locker Meats in Trimble, Missouri. Much of the produce came from Farm Wife’s Table, a farm and market also in the Smithville area.

The final farm-to-table dinner will be a non-barbecue event hosted by the Saddle and Sirloin Club of Kansas City on Nov. 9. Tickets and information are available at the American Royal website.

PHOTOGR APHY JOHN MARTELL ARO

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Kansas C Ciity

2024

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What’s new in Kansas City food and drink

Good Vibrations

We’re shining a light on those that are making an impact on KC From healthcare to homes and finance to fitness, we are excited to connect you to our city.

Meet the FACES of KC-coming this November!

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90 Kansas City September 2024

Steven Blakley is bringing a new kind of dining experience to KC. His new spot, Triune, a moody small plates restaurant, opened last month in the former Screenland Theatre building off 17th and Washington (1656 Washington St., KCMO). It’s a destination that Blakley says will provide a “vibrational dining” experience.

What does “vibrational dining” mean? It’s all in the restaurant’s name.

“Triune is this idea of three things coming together and functioning as one,” says Blakley, who owns the restaurant group UHUNGRY? “It’s the atmosphere, the service and you, the customer.”

At Triune, Blakley says each of these three elements will come together to provide an exceptional restaurant experience whether it’s where you choose to start or end the night.

Before it was the Screenland Theatre, the building was a fish house.

Blakley decided to keep some of the original elements, such as a pair of old steel doors, exposed brick and even some of the original paint, creating a moody atmosphere. The 2,300-square-foot space seats 89 and has a large patio.

A moody ambiance will be enforced with dim lighting, a modern interior and a “well thought-out bar program with craft cocktails and mocktails,” says Blakley, whose restaurant group also owns Sauced, a burger stand in the Crossroads.

“There’s a need for places that are just kind of the cool places to be, that prioritize ambiance and vibes,” Blakley says.

Rodolfo Rodriguez, who previously cooked at Blu Hwy, The Capital Grille and La Bodega, is the executive chef and has created Triune’s American fusion menu. The menu consists of small plates and entrees influenced by worldly flavors like crispy brussels sprouts, crab dip, jumbo sticky shrimp with tomato jam, bacon that’s cut and smoked in-house, coffee-rubbed short ribs with an espresso orange demi-glace and more.

Breads like focaccia, ciabatta and biscuits will be made in-house.

PHOTOGR APHY PROVIDED

By Tyler Shane

BITES

Frozen Cocktails, Push Pops and Beach Snacks

By Joyce Smith

A new cocktail bar called Frost specializing in, you guessed it, frozen cocktails plans to open this October.

The Westport bar will open in the 2,400square-foot former Julep cocktail lounge space (4141 Pennsylvania Ave., KCMO). Frost will offer frozen drink classics such as pina coladas, daiquiris and margaritas; seasonal frozen drinks; collaborations with local companies such as distilleries and wineries; and frozen mocktails.

It will also have beer and wine. Snacks will be a play on what you would throw in your cooler when you head to the beach, so look for a variety of pretzels, flavored popcorn, meats and cheeses.

“It will have nods to that nostalgic family vacation that takes you back, [like] classic push pops for the kids during the day,” says Lynne Pierce, creative consultant. “The idea of gathering and community, truly a space for making memories and escaping the day-to-day.”

The owners—Jim Baxter, Chris Rainbolt and Tommy Mueller—bring a range of experiences in the real estate and hospitality industries to

their new endeavor. The ownership group also has a lease for the neighboring 3,600-squarefoot former Becoming retail space and plans to expand into that space with a more extensive menu.

Holy Brunch!

By Joyce Smith

During the pandemic, Drue and Kat Stewart decided there was a void in food truck options—

namely, brunch. So they rolled out Holy Brunch KC, setting the truck up in spots from Lee’s Summit to Olathe.

“It just blew up from there,” Drue says.

“Everything is really different and funky—not like your normal breakfast. And our portions have always been huge.”

In July, they opened their first storefront in Westport (204 Westport Road, KCMO), and with its bright magenta and black signage, it can’t be missed.

Holy Brunch specializes in made-fromscratch waffles topped with such ingredients as Cinnamon Toast Crunch, fresh strawberries, Oreos, banana cream, Fruity Pebbles and powdered sugar. It also has waffle sliders with hash browns and a choice of meat (fried chicken, smoked sausage, Philly cheesesteak or bacon).

Then there’s the Taste of Holy Brunch Sampler, which has eight wings, four tenders, fries and the dessert of the day. Customers can also order such combos as four wings and fries or three tenders and a waffle. Even though the menu is already quite extensive, the Stewarts plan to add more items.

As for the name, Drue says it was a spiritual choice. “I had a dark past and got saved,” he says.

2025 FIVE STAR WEALTH MANAGERS WHO WILL BE NAMED? Find out next year in a special section inside the FEBRUARY ISSUE. TO LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR RESEARCH PROCESS, GO TO: fivestarprofessional.com/public/research

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T H E S TO R I E S B E H I N D K A N S A S C I T Y ’ S M O S T E Y E- C ATC H I N G S T R U C T U R E S

surreal estate

The metal panels have round perforations of various sizes that are based on electrical sine waves, a nod to the actual power within.

Building Bridges

This dark metal bridge moves power, not people

By Dawnya Bartsch

HAVE YOU EVER wondered just what, exactly, that long perforated steel structure

spanning the length of Interstate 670 near the Power and Light District is?

So have we. And now we know.

While most bridges are built to usher people, cars and trains between two points, this bridge, known as the Kansas City Power and Light Bridge, was created to safely move power across “the cut” without being too much of an eyesore.

92 Kansas City September 2024

The 165-foot-long rectangular structure hovering over the interstate is actually an electricity conduit that connects the Crossroads Arts District with the Power and Light Entertainment District, two of KC’s largest entertainment and arts hubs.

The bridge was designed by Helix Architecture and Design and is clad in “dark zinc metal panels that play on its length and make it appear like an important structure,” the designers say. The metal panels have round perforations of various sizes that are based on electrical sine waves, a nod to the actual power within.

The bumped and dimpled indentations of the bridge structure occur at varying depths and represent a field of electrons through which electricity moves.

To add another layer of visual interest, at night, it is internally illuminated with a series of programmable LEDs running the length of the bridge. The internal blue pulsating light can be seen through the perforations, animating the bridge when the skies are dark and letting passersby know that it is alive with electricity.

The architects at Helix were inspired by the physics of electrical power and tried to represent it in various ways throughout the bridge’s structure. The bridge’s pieces were created and installed by KC-based Zahner.

Photography by Eric Linebarger

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