Riverfront Times, May 15, 2024

[QUOTE

OF THE WEEK]

WEEKLY WTF?!

BUG WATCH

What: an insect emergence of Biblical proportions, a plague beset upon us sinners by a displeased and wrathful god

When: 2:51 p.m. Thursday, May 9

Where: the front yard of an unsuspecting home in Chesterfield Aren’t these things, like, really really loud? WHAT? I SAID AREN’T THESE THINGS REALLY LOUD? WHAT?? NEVER MIND! FUCK, THAT ONE WENT UP MY NOSE!

15 SECONDS of FAME VOYEUR OF THE WEEK ALEC DRAGO

Clayton Police finally collared the Peeping Tom terrorizing the Moorlands neighborhood, who had been captured on surveillance video creeping along the sides of houses to peer in their windows. Surprise! Turns out it’s a repeat offender, a guy who was sentenced to five years in prison after being caught peering through the window of an O’Fallon home in 2015. And that arrest came after two previous arrests for trespassing and similar voyeurism.

Appallingly, though, this time Alec Drago faces only a misdemeanor. Apparently state law changed in 2017 so that invasion of privacy is less likely to be a felony. Good going, Missouri lawmakers! We’re sure glad this habitual creeper will soon be back on the streets and even climbing up our walls. That really helps us

“Barricading the east end of campus so they can’t see the city while leaving the west end open to the county is quite the choice and juxtaposition.”

— Caroline on X, responding to “Now Wash U Really Doesn’t Want You to See What They’re Up To,” our story about Washington University fencing off its campus before commencement

FRONT BURNER 5 Previously On

LAST WEEK IN ST. LOUIS

MONDAY, MAY 6. After 13 years of lowcicada bliss, the cicadapocalypse has now begun, at least in the county, and carcasses are already piling up. As if we didn’t have enough to deal with around here! Meanwhile, Hazelwood City Councilman Warren “Butch” Taylor is caught on Zoom referring to two female colleagues as bitches — or, more specifically, “This is Jen, and this is the other bitch.” Unsurprisingly, Jen and the other bitch were not pleased.

TUESDAY, MAY 7. Early morning thunderstorms and even a tornado watch … not a restful way to start the day! Also, KSDK reports that the woman killed in a crash over the weekend in Kirkwood was the beloved assistant principal at Confluence Academy South City. RIP, Sarah Howell

WEDNESDAY, MAY 8. Wash U informs Valencia Alvarez, who is getting a master’s in public health, that she won’t get her degree while disciplinary matters are pending. Alvarez was swept up in the mass arrests on campus on April 27. “They’re basically trying silence us by using us as examples in the campus movement for a free Palestine,” she tells the P-D. Meanwhile, St. Louis Public Radio reports that the developers who gave a bait-and-switch to University City residents, buying up half their neighborhood for a taxpayer-subsidized Costco and leaving the other half stranded in its shadow, have inflicted another indignity. St. Louis County Police are using vacant homes on their street — cleared out by the developers before they abandoned plans to expand further — for SWAT practice. We sold these neighbors to the devil for good access to Kirkland meatballs and $1.50 hot dog/ drink combos? For shame, U. City.

THURSDAY, MAY 9. It’s quite possibly the most beautiful weather ever: blue skies, zero humidity and green everywhere. Local inboxes are bursting with requests to do your part for Give STL Day. Gotta hand it to the St. Louis Community Foundation; the holiday is phonier than Sweetest Day, yet we’re all coughing up $$ for charity. Today’s outrage: the conduct of Attorney General Andrew Bailey, who’s using taxpayer-

funded resources to defend lawmakers being sued for defamation after, well, defaming an innocent man. Senators Denny Hoskins, Rick Brattin and Nick Schroer wrongly accused Denton Loudermill of being both an undocumented immigrant and the shooter at the Chiefs victory parade in February. Now Loudermill is suing, and somehow we’re footing the bill for the lawmakers’ legal defense. Parson says, “This gentleman did nothing wrong whatsoever other than he went to a parade and he drank beer and he was Hispanic.” Loudermill is not actually Hispanic, but points for compassion and common sense in a state where both are often in short supply.

FRIDAY, MAY 10. The morning starts with a shooting near City Hall, and a St. Louis police officer opens fire and kills the shooter. Mayor Tishaura Jones, never one to let a good crisis go to waste, then orders the homeless encampment nearby to be cleared, never mind that police have yet to connect it to the camp. The shooting is no visit from Kamala Harris, but it’ll do, apparently.

SATURDAY, MAY 11. Speaking of shootings … there’s one on a crowded MetroLink platform near Forest Park that leaves a young woman dead. Awful. Also awful: The Cardinals, who lose their seventh game in a row. Team President Bill DeWitt III tells Fox-2’s Martin Kilcoyne that he “chuckles” when he hears fans say they won’t show up in order to send a message to team owners. That’s “illogical reasoning,” he says, “because we turn this revenue machine into a payroll machine.” But does anyone trust these guys to spend the payroll machine on competent players? Oh, hey, City SC finally wins, with a 3-1 victory over Chicago.

SUNDAY, MAY 12. A 17-year-old girl is charged in yesterday’s MetroLink shooting, which is completely depressing. The Cardinals finally win, 4-3, after manager Oli Marmol and bench coach Daniel Descalso get ejected. Says Marmol, “At times with a little skid, you’ve just got to get something going.” So that’s the key, no more Marmol? If only.

sleep well at night.

Welcome to the next four to six weeks of our lives. ZACHARY LINHARES

Alec Drago, shown at the time of his 2015 arrest, was more recently arrested in Clayton. | FILE PHOTO

These little guys have been wreaking absolute havoc on my diet. I must have gained three-quarters of a pound!

Score One for the ‘Crazies’

“The soul of the Republican Party is at stake”

BY RYAN KRULL

Agroup of Republicans who refused to follow the strictures set forth by their party’s far-right wing were kicked off the ballot in one Missouri county last week on the same day that, in another part of the state, a former KKK member fought to remain on the GOP ballot for governor.

On May 9, in Vernon County, what one strategist calls the “crazies” in the Missouri GOP scored a win in court when a judge barred eight candidates from running as Republicans in the August primary. Judge Gayle Crane’s ruling was a boon for those in the state party advocating that all Republican candidates pass a vetting process before being allowed on the ballot with an R next to their name. In Vernon County, the vetting process involves potential candidates taking a “values survey” as well as having their legal and financial records scrutinized by the central committee.

“The crazies want this,” a state GOP insider told the RFT last month. “More broadly, the soul of the Republican Party is at stake here.”

In Vernon County, the eight candidates now booted off the ballot had declined to be vetted. Among that group were five incumbents, including the county treasurer and the police chief of the city of Rich Hill.

The ruling came as a result of a lawsuit filed in March by right-wing political activist Cyndia Haggard, who claimed that the Vernon County clerk had acted improperly in putting the eight unvetted candidates on the ballot. Haggard is represented in the case by attorney Mark McCloskey. (Yes, that Mark McCloskey.)

Not coincidentally, Haggard founded the Republican Association of Central Committees of MO, an organization whose website says it is dedicated to the state’s county central committees, which are heavily involved in the candidate vetting process. In Vernon County, the central committee has ties to a pastor long considered a thought leader in the “White Identity movement” — and who the Anti-Defamation League says helped inspired Olympic bomber Eric Rudolph. In siding with Haggard, Crane wrote that in order to put a candidate on the ballot, the county clerk needs to be given a receipt showing the candidate paid the filing fees to their county party. However, in the case of the eight unvetted can-

didates, the county party refused their filing fees, therefore there was no receipt to be sent to the clerk.

David Rice, also known as the Hick Christian on Substack, wrote approvingly that the ruling “will lead to an earthquake in politics.”

The GOP insider who called those pushing candidate vetting “crazies” agreed the ruling would be consequential, though they took a dimmer view of what the consequences would be.

“A rogue judge basically just legalized these county parties implementing a totally arbitrary system for picking candidates,” he says. “A total disgrace. Where is Governor Parson? Where is the state party? There is no leadership here.”

The issue of filing fees is also a key factor in the Missouri Republican Party’s effort to boot Darrell McClanahan III from the primary ballot for governor.

McClanahan, who is currently slated to have his name listed atop the Republican primary ballot, made national news when it came to light he had been a member of the KKK, though he said his affiliation was merely an honorary one. A photo of him giving the Nazi salute in front of a burning cross resurfaced as well.

The state GOP subsequently sued both McClanahan and Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, who oversees state elections, to have McClanahan’s name removed from primary ballots. A hearing in that suit was held in Jefferson City last Thursday.

McClanahan now has as his attorney Dave Roland, director of litigation for the Freedom Center of Missouri, whose past and present clients include everyone from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch to pastors ticketed by the city for handing out bologna sandwiches to the homeless.

Roland says he got involved because he keeps an eye on pretty much all legal matters involving elections in the state,

and it looked to him like McClanahan was going to get “railroaded.”

Roland says that at the May 9 hearing, the lawyer representing Ashcroft said that they don’t have a position on the matter, implying they were fine with McClanahan getting the boot.

Roland says that he thought McClanahan’s case was an important one to take up because, setting aside the specific candidate here, the idea that a small group of party insiders could kick someone off the ballot is something that ought to set off alarm bells.

“There is absolutely zero principled reason that if the judge rules against Mr. McClanahan in this situation, that [in the future] pro-Trump officials couldn’t just say, ‘You know what? You’re not proTrump, if you’re not willing to sign a loyalty oath to Donald Trump, you are no longer a part of this party.’”

If McClanahan loses, Roland says, it would give license for “that small handful

of insiders” who control political parties to eliminate whoever they wanted from contention before voters even had a chance to cast a ballot one way or another.

Roland believes that the law is on McClanahan’s side. Crucially, unlike in the case of the eight candidates in Vernon County, the party accepted his filing fee.

“They’ve got buyer’s remorse. They regret their decision,” Roland says. “Missouri law doesn’t provide any mechanism that allows them to take back their decision.”

Roland also points out that the state party is asking the judge to issue an injunction blocking McClanahan’s run. But typically a judge only issues an injunction in order to prevent some sort of irreparable harm. In court, Roland wondered aloud how the party is harmed if McClanahan’s candidacy is a dud at the ballot box.

“How is the party harmed by virtue of the fact that almost no one in their party wants to vote for this guy?” Roland says.

Although Roland acknowledges that the judge who booted the eight candidates off the ballot in Vernon County is on firmer legal ground than those attempting to remove McClanahan, that doesn’t mean he’s a fan of candidate vetting. He says that to his mind, it harkens back to American politics more than 100 years ago when it was party insiders, rather than voters, who picked the candidates to run in the general election.

“The reason that we have primary elections is because people got justifiably sick and tired of party bosses picking their preferred nominees for elections,” he says. “That was a huge problem all throughout the 19th century.”

In Vernon County, the attorney representing the county clerk told the Kansas City Star they are still weighing next steps. In the McClanahan matter, attorneys had until Tuesday to submit further filings to the court. n

Church of Israel Pastor Dan Gayman has come under fire by the ADL — but he’s in a position of power with the Vernon County GOP. | SCREENSHOT

Attorney Dave Roland sees troubling consequences if his client is booted from the ballot. | SARAH FENSKE

Honorary KKK member Darrell McClanahan remains on the GOP ballot, for now. | CAMPAIGN PHOTO

Commencement Boos for Martin

But keynote speaker Jennifer Coolidge steered clear of international relations

BY KALLIE COX

Loud booing and chanting punctuated some of the speakers at the commencement for Washington University Monday morning — most often directed at Chancellor Andrew Martin, who has become the focal point of anger from activists after mass arrests on campus April 27.

Administrators had ordered a temporary encampment erected on campus that day to disperse, and when protestors refused to do so, 100 were arrested, including 23 students and at least four faculty members.

Martin later begged students not to protest at this year’s commencement and presided over fencing going up around campus. In recent weeks, anyone entering the Danforth Campus has had to produce university-issued ID.

As a result, actual protests were limited to the streets around campus. But even beyond the boos that could be heard during the ceremony, and a few students walking out, there were also references to the recent unrest — some more direct than others.

Alejandro Ramirez, who was wearing a keffiyeh, took the stage as the university’s undergraduate speaker. Cheers erupted at the end of his speech as he expressed his support for the Palestinian people, and Pro-Palestine protestors beyond the fence, saying: “Today, I stand in solidarity with my peers, faculty, and community members who have experienced hardship during this last semester, who found their why and used it to express solidarity with the Palestinians around the world.”

As for the keynote speaker, actress Jennifer Coolidge, she danced around the topic of protests, saying she is proud of young people for using their voices and rolling comments of “war and famine” into calls for action about climate change, women’s rights and LGBTQ+ rights. She did not say the word “Palestine.”

Coolidge made jokes about her manager trashing parts of her speech before commencement. She read part of what they told her to delete, saying: “When I think about your generation and I see all the wonderful things you’re doing, and how passionate and vocal you are and engaged you are about your futures — our future, actually — it makes me feel so happy, because this is progress. Seriously, in all seriousness, we need you. And we need your strength, we need your truth.”

Protesting Outside the Fence

Ironically, during the ceremony Mar-

Northern Lights, South of the Missouri River

tin welcomed the class of 1974 to commencement as they celebrated their 50th anniversary. The majority of these students would have been freshmen in 1970, when Washington University became a flashpoint in protesting the war in Vietnam after students burned its ROTC building on May 5. (That act led to felony charges — and one activist going on the lam for years.)

Protesters on Monday relied on speech, not fire. Dozens gathered on the four corners of the intersection of Big Bend and Forsyth just outside Wash U’s campus on Monday morning. Hundreds of cars and pedestrians passed them as they made their way to the ceremonies.

The activists were on the outside of the temporary fence enclosing the cam-

pus, but that didn’t stop them from raising their signs high above the barricades and calling on the university to divest from Boeing and disclose its financial ties with the company.

The protestors chanted and handed out fliers to those walking past, using megaphones and speakers while they held homemade banners and posters.

“Kill yourselves,” one passerby shouted at them, laughing and shoving a phone in their faces while walking with a group of parents and other students.

“Bomb Palestine,” another person screamed from the window of their car before peeling off. The activists ignored them.

A little over an hour into commencement, police threatened to arrest protestors using voice amplifiers to make their message carry to campus. One person who was driving by and honking was detained.

Sarah Nixon, one of the protestors, tells RFT that in addition to divesting from Boeing, Wash U needs to disclose where its investments are going and drop the charges against all of the protestors who have been arrested.

“I think some are like, ‘Why can’t you let us enjoy our graduation?’” Nixon says. “To that I say, ‘We wish that this is a moment that everyone can celebrate, but we know that all 12 of Gaza’s universities have been destroyed, over 6,000 university students killed, over 100 professors — these were future aid workers, doctors, artists, who had every hope of getting to celebrate ... like our Wash U community, but instead they’re fighting for their lives.” n

The Northern Lights illuminate the sky on May 11 over a farmer’s field in St. Charles. An extreme solar storm sent energy, light and particles at high speeds towards Earth, giving states like Missouri a rare sighting of lights traditionally only seen much further north. | ZACHARY LINHARES

Protestors chant outside Wash U’s fenced-in campus during its commencement. | KALLIE COX

MISSOURILAND

Party in the O-Block

Walnut Park East was bumping on May 4, its Hood Day

WORDS AND PHOTOS BY ZACHARY

LINHARES

Hundreds of residents of St. Louis’ Walnut Park East neighborhood shut down the intersection of Thekla and Oriole avenues on May 4 to enjoy their Hood Day.

Celebrated across St. Louis, Hood Days are marked by each hood’s block numbers; in Walnut Park East, that’s 5400, hence the date of festivities. The all-day block party featured cookouts, music video shoots, bounce houses, blunts, booze and neighborhood hangs.

The origins of St. Louis’ Hood Day celebrations are mysterious, but for lifelong Walnut Park East resident Brick Deuce,

they don’t matter. To him, Hood Day is about what it is today: family.

“It’s just family shit, coming together without no death, have fun, just kickin’ it,” Deuce says. “Everybody has a good time, families, friends, kids. It’s for everybody.”

Most of Walnut Park East’s Hood Day celebration took place on St. Louis’ own O-Block. O-Block is a reference to the Parkway Garden Homes, a housing project in Chicago popularized by rappers King Von and Chief Keef. But in Walnut Park East, it’s Oriole Avenue.

“We in Walnut Park, Oriole to be exact, in the middle of the trenches. It be good when muhfuckas be comin’ together and there ain’t no B.S.,” Deuce says.

The St. Louis tradition of Hood Day highlights the abundance of uniquely local culture found throughout the city. These celebrations aren’t paid for by brands or pushed by city leaders. Instead, Hood Day is the embodiment of community: people coming together with a shared experience and love for where they come from. n

Labor of Love

When loved ones can’t or won’t help, abortion doulas are there

Jen Jester is no stranger to grief.

Throughout her career as a midwife and doula, she has become adept at helping grieving parents advocate for the ashes of their lost children, at helping mothers say goodbye to babies that were never born, and at sitting with these parents as they experience the darkest days of their lives.

Jester learned these skills by helping three patients through their abortions.

The first was a particularly devastating emergency induction that lasted

BY KALLIE COX

for four days after the loss of a 22-week pregnancy. This was unimaginably difficult for the family, especially because they were delivering within a Catholic hospital, she says.

“We had to really fight with the administration to get them to receive services for the loss, because it was a medically induced abortion,” Jester says.

Jester had to help advocate for a medical procedure known as a laminaria, which opens up the cervix so the fetus is

actually “born” through the birth canal.

“When she goes into labor, you’re laboring with them, just like you would any other birth,” Jester says.

This includes helping them to stay comfortable by rubbing their back, making sure they are eating and sleeping, checking in with their partner and monitoring any bleeding. The last part of that support can save lives. Jester’s patient began to hemorrhage after her birth while the doctors and nurses were out of the room. Jester alerted them to the emergency.

Much of the work Jester helped with was emotional rather than strictly medical, and she played a special part in the grieving process.

“That baby, when she was born, was swaddled and given to the mother right away. We talked the mother through how to touch and talk to the baby, cry with the baby. I educated the parents that they can spend as much time as they want with the baby. Whether it’s two minutes or two days, it doesn’t matter,” Jester says. “Helped them understand what it means when the funeral home

“full-spectrum” doulas help with abortion procedures to thwart efforts to add Medicaid coverage for doulas.

The aftermath of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling didn’t lead to the creation of abortion doulas. Full-spectrum doulas have been around for years. Instead it brought more attention to them, leading to more awareness of the resource and more media coverage.

In addition to doulas who practice privately, many abortion clinics nationwide — including Planned Parenthood affiliates — partner with abortion doulas to provide education and emotional support during procedures.

Deciding whether to obtain an abortion can be a traumatic, emotional and private decision. Since the reversal of Roe v. Wade led to a near-total abortion ban in the state of Missouri, this decision has become even more difficult.

Now instead of speaking with loved ones, counselors and even pastors about their decision, some people are unsure of who they can trust with this information, lest they become complicit in a crime as the ever-changing landscape of abortion laws become murkier.

Abortion doulas are stepping in to fill these support gaps for those seeking care, providing education, a hand to squeeze and even transportation across state lines.

Abortion Isn’t Going Away

Nancy Lewis remembers when Roe v. Wade passed, and its overturning struck her hard.

Lewis says she’s always been an abortion rights advocate and, as an educator of more than 25 years, she understands the importance of information and being able to decide things for yourself. This, coupled with alarming statistics surrounding Black infant and maternal mortality rates, inspired her to become a doula. Providing services relating to abortions was just another piece of that drive.

“I believe in autonomy. I don’t think that other people, especially men, need to tell women what to do with their bodies,” Lewis says.

The project got to work and wrote the first and only abortion doula training in the state, Redditt says.

These doulas have a simple but daunting task: to educate and support.

“A lot of times people don’t even know what that process is, what it looks like, what the law is centered around it right now,” Redditt says. “We help them by educating them on what to expect when they go to the clinic and what the implications might be.”

A doula can also help a patient by working with them to determine the best procedure for an abortion based on the viability and gestational age of a fetus, Redditt says. Then, the doula will review the procedure step by step and help the patient to know what to expect at the clinic.

Redditt says that after attending the procedure with the patient, doulas provide postpartum care that is very similar to what they would provide following a live birth.

“I don’t care what anybody says, after you have an abortion, you still gave birth. And you still have a postpartum period that can last just as long as the bleeding after a live birth,” Redditt says. Overall, the care doulas offer abortion patients looks incredibly similar to the same support they give parents experiencing live births. They offer resources and check-ins, and can connect patients to mental health services and counseling. One doula in the collective has even helped a patient find housing when she was displaced, Redditt says.

Abortion doula training enhances and builds upon the information doulas are already trained in and adds a more intense focus on the legal roadblocks thrown up by lawmakers. It also covers more practical aspects of the job including what to carry in a doula kit when assisting with an abortion and how to help someone physically and mentally through the lactation process that they may still undergo.

Doulas do not assist with giving any kind of medication to the patients, Redditt stresses.

comes in to collect the baby’s body, what kinds of things they can ask for from the hospital for the future, in terms of things like the baby’s footprints or advocating for the baby’s ashes.”

This abortion experience “was a long, hard first initiation into loss,” Jester says.

It wasn’t abnormal. For a midwife assisting with all types of births, abortion and miscarriages are par for the course, Jester says. But now, the act of doulaing an abortion has become highly politicized. Doulas fear that Missouri Republicans will use the fact that some

Lewis signed up to train as an abortion doula shortly after the Supreme Court ruled on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization in 2022, and now she serves as board secretary for the St. Louis Doula Project. This collective of doulas has been leading the charge in the state to train and provide resources to doulas assisting with abortion care.

LaKisha Redditt is co-chair of the board. She says that following Missouri’s abortion ban taking effect, doulas in the organization were inundated with pleas for help. Patients wanted support during the procedure, which was made infinitely scarier by a tenuous legal situation, and help understanding the law and what they could advocate for while receiving care.

“We talk about racial bias, and what that looks like in health care. We talk about trauma-informed care, what that looks like. We talk about grief and loss,” Redditt says. “A lot of people don’t understand that there’s still grief associated with the loss of a child, you still are losing that fetus, if you decide that you are not going to keep it.”

Training and specifically knowing the ins and outs of an evolving abortion law landscape are especially important in Missouri, which has some of the most stringent laws in the country.

“Part of the abortion doula training is not just the knowledge of the laws, but how to keep the abortion doula and the client safe as a result of the laws,” Lewis explains. “We have to be very careful and cognizant of how we are meeting clients.

LaKisha Redditt, left, and Nancy Lewis. Both Redditt and Lewis sit on the board of the St. Louis Doula Project. The organization trains and provides resources on abortion care for doulas across Missouri. | ZACHARY LINHARES

ABORTION DOULAS

Continued from pg 13

We don’t work with them with other family members and friends because this has to be very confidential because it is illegal in Missouri for them to have an abortion.”

The biggest barrier to providing this care is not knowing who to trust, Redditt says.

“We don’t know who’s really on the same side as us half the time because people can say, ‘Oh, yeah, I’m on the side of that. I agree with that.’ And then the next thing you know, you’re in handcuffs and you don’t know why.”

During RFT’s conversations with Redditt and Lewis, both women were worried that their support for those seeking abortions would be used by the Missouri legislature as an argument against allowing Medicaid to cover all kinds of doula services.

Now Redditt and Lewis worry that as they work to seek Medicaid reimbursement for doulas, their unwillingness to abandon patients who are having abortions is becoming politicized.

Historically, it’s been a long road for advocates working toward Medicaid reimbursement for doula services, Okunsola Amadou, founder of Jamaa Birth Village, explains. The organization has been credited by doulas like Jester for leading the charge in the legislature to expand Medicaid’s reimbursement to doulas.

In 2021, Jamaa Birth Village joined forces with other leading maternal health advocates to write a Medicaid Doula Reimbursement brief. In 2022, the organization began meeting with

Representative LaKeySha Bosley (D-St. Louis) about a bill that would allow for this reimbursement.

The lack of Medicaid reimbursement for doulas predominantly harms Black and brown communities, Amadou says. Doula support and care can be lifesaving for Black women, who face higher rates of maternal mortality.

“Black women are dying and being harmed at higher rates than white women while they are debating over dollars and while they’re debating on the policy, and it is deplorable,” Amadou says.

Unfortunately the bill won’t see passage this session, Amadou says.

“We’ve had some challenges, but we’re hoping to continue to work with Bosley and her office and advancing this next session,” she says.

While the support for doula reimbursement is a bipartisan issue, misconceptions about doulas are working against the bill’s passage, Amadou says.

This includes abortion.

“Abortion does play a role in that because the Republicans were put in control of the House at this point; that’s why we’re having issues with that,” Amadou says. “So we do need to be clear that you have many different types of doulas and to not lump them all in the same thing respectively.”

Abortion is not specified in the reimbursement legislation under discussion in Missouri. Instead it focuses on covering a person’s entire pregnancy journey whether that results in a loss, live birth or termination.

“I think the misconception is that we only support one thing,” Redditt says. “I

consider myself a full-spectrum doula. And for me, my definition of full-spectrum means the entire spectrum of reproductive possibility. So if that means that this parent is choosing to do surrogacy, that this parent is choosing adoption, that this parent is choosing abortion, that this parent is choosing to give live birth, I support their reproductive choice because this is their reproductive system, it ain’t mine.”

Despite the legal hurdles, Redditt says she is still fighting because she recalls her own experience with a dilation and curettage procedure, which some people who’ve recently miscarried in Texas have had trouble obtaining due to the abortion ban there.

“I lost my baby in 2018, and I was 16

Jen Jester at her office in St. Louis. Jester is a doula who assists in all types of births and abortions, providing emotional and medical support for her clients and assisting them in the grieving process. | ZACHARY LINHARES

Pictures of human reproductive organs and a doll with an umbilical cord are among the tools Jester uses to help her clients. | ZACHARY LINHARES

ABORTION DOULAS

Continued from pg 15

weeks pregnant. But at the ultrasound at my next doctor’s appointment, they didn’t find a heartbeat for my baby. And when they did the measurements to check out gestational age, I had miscarried three weeks prior but my body never went through the miscarriage process,” Redditt says, noting that she had to get a procedure to remove the tissue. “I think back to how scared I would have been had I been in this situation during this time.”

Love and Loss

The second abortion Jester supported was a 20-week loss she encountered as a midwife.

“A client found out at her 20-week scan that the baby’s intestines were outside of its body,” Jester says. “And the baby had something called hydrocephalus, where there’s like a bunch of fluid on the brain, and so the chances of survival are incredibly slim. There’s no surgeries that this baby could have received because of how bad it was.”

Jester talked the parents through their options and helped them decide whether to continue the pregnancy or to end it, knowing their child would likely not survive regardless.

“I stayed in the room and waited for them to come out of surgery and was there when she woke up and cried with them, and helped her for six weeks with her postpartum recovery like a normal midwife would do, monitoring her health and her bleeding and her cessation of lactation,” Jester says.

Jester also helped the parents through the process of advocating for a biopsy of the fetus’ remains so that they could have a better understanding of what happened.

“What was interesting about their story is that they went on and became pregnant again,” Jester says. “And we worked together, and they had a long road with genetic counseling and things like that with that next pregnancy, and so that wound up being a really neat, full-circle experience for them. But yeah, that one

was pretty tough.”

The other abortion Jester supported more closely resembles what many people think of when they hear the term “abortion.”

A 19-year-old became pregnant by accident and decided, after speaking with Jester, to go through with a medication abortion as they were still only about six or seven weeks along in their pregnancy. Jester drove the teen to Planned Parenthood and stayed with them as their main source of emotional support during the appointment and ultrasound. She was also there as the teen took the pills for the medication abortion, she says.

Then it was a matter of keeping them comfortable, ensuring they had enough pads and ibuprofen, monitoring their bleeding, ensuring they took the pills at the proper time, and providing comforting herbs and heating pads to help with the stress and pain, Jester says.

“This person didn’t want to connect with the contents of conception and so we just managed that bit by bit and helped them know when it was all done and then what to expect postpartum,” Jester says. “I even connected them with a spiritual healer that they wanted, so that they could sort of make peace with the loss of the pregnancy. Because they eventually became sad about the choice, even though if they were to go back, they would still choose that. But it’s still an emotionally painful choice to have to go through. And so getting them connected to spiritual counselors and things like that that are in their comfort zone is another part of that process.”

The hardest part of Jester’s job as a doula and midwife assisting with abortion is helping each individual in a way that caters to their specific needs.

“While they’re emotional, figuring out what they need can be difficult, because sometimes people don’t even know what they need. And so that’s hard,” Jester says. “If I have a special connection with that person, sometimes it’s really hard to watch them struggle. And it’s also really hard to know when you’re supposed to help and when you’re supposed to sit on your hands and let them have their story.” n

Medical equipment sits in a drawer inside Jen Jester’s office. Jester has provided six weeks of postpartum recovery for a client who underwent an abortion. | ZACHARY LINHARES

MAY 2, 9, 16, 23

6–8pm • Forest Park • Museum’s North Lawn mohistory.org/twilight-thursdays

CALENDAR

BY RIVERFRONT TIMES STAFF

THURSDAY 05/16

Skin Show

In what has become a celebrated tradition for local lovers of boobs, butts and bawdy behavior (the four Bs!), the 13th Annual Show-Me Burlesque festival is bringing glitz, glam and a whole lot of ass to Cherokee Street this week. Though founder Lola van Ella no longer lives in St. Louis, she has made an indelible impression on the number of shaking tatas the city sees in any given year — and that’s a beautiful thing, in our book. This year’s three-day celebration will take place from Thursday, May 16 to Saturday, May 18 at the Golden Record (2720 Cherokee Street) and the nearby Casa Loma Ballroom (3354 Iowa Street). As is the case with these affairs, the festival promises “spectacular productions and fabulous burlesque, vaudeville, circus, and variety entertainment from every gender and from around the world,” according to promotional materials. The performers include the aforementioned van Ella, as well as Jeez Loueez, Auralie Wilde, Sailem and many more whose talents (among other things) will be on full display. The festivities kick off with an opening night bash at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday. Tickets range from $25 to $140 and can be purchased here at showmeburlesque.com/tickets.

Smooth Operation

Those interested in the shinier things in life will find much to enjoy at the Saint Louis Art Museum’s (1 Fine Arts Drive) Shimmering Silks: Traditional Japanese Textiles, 18th-19th Centuries exhibit. Curated by Philip Hu, SLAM’s

curator of Asian art, the exhibit features more than a dozen works that came to the museum as gifts or purchases over the last century, and celebrates traditional silk textiles from the 1700s through the 1800s. During that time period, SLAM says, “the main centers of traditional silk textiles in Japan were the old imperial capitals of Nara and Kyoto, supplying a clientele that included the imperial family, members of the hereditary nobility, feudal lords and ladies, high-ranking Buddhist clergy and the uppermost echelons of civil society.” The most lavish silks were used for imperial and Buddhist ceremonies, performances of Kabuki and Noh theater, formal wear and wedding costumes — so we’re talking about some high-quality stuff here. The exhibit will be on view during SLAM’s normal business hours through October 20, and admission is free. Details at slam.org.

FRIDAY 05/17

Forget All Your Cares

Outside of sporting events, there can be a dearth of large-scale gatherings in downtown St. Louis these days— let’s face it, many of the city’s biggest celebrations take place where the tallest buildings aren’t. But this week breaks that trend, as the City Social Block Party returns for its third year, throwing one of the biggest, best block parties in town in the heart of the city on Washington Avenue. The event will feature live music, food, drinks and games. It’s like the neighborhood party you might have on your street — except the damn whole town is invited. Wash Ave eateries such as Hot Pizza Cold Beer, Levels, Sugarfire

and many others will be hosting pop-ups on the sidewalk, keeping everyone fed, while 4 Hands Brewery will be among the great vendors serving drinks. Tons of phenomenal music acts will take the stage at Washington and 14th Street, including Marquise Knox, DJ Mahf, Joanna Serenko and more. Best of all, the whole affair is completely free to attend. The good times start at 5 p.m. For more information, visit shorturl.at/vEKSU.

A Matter of Taste

Get ready to celebrate everything that is great about the Maplewood and Richmond Heights food scenes this weekend at the 16th Annual Taste of Maplewood Street Festival. Held on Friday, May 17 from 6 to 10 p.m. and Saturday, May 18 from noon to 8 p.m., this big block party aims to bring neighbors together while also supplying a small sample of all the area has to offer. In addition to downing tasty bites from local restaurants, guests can stop by the tents at this free festival and do a little shopping. There will also be two stages set up with plenty of entertainment options — enjoy performances from Mattie Schell, the Chris Shepherd Band, Raised on Radio and more, or catch the St. Louis Irish Arts song and dance exhibition on Saturday afternoon. Visit midcountychamber.org for more information, including the entertainment schedule, details on where to park and a list of vendors scheduled to be on site.

SATURDAY 05/18

Outside(r) Art

Bougie types may hold out for Clay -

WEEK OF MAY 16-22

ton’s Saint Louis Art Fair, where artists have to apply and it’s hard to find a painting for less than $800. But if your tastes run to quirky, not fancy, you will find yourself happily at home at the Bevo BAZAAR-O , the wonderfully named yard sale/craft fair in Bevo Mill. Unlike some of the more uptight affairs in this town, there’s no screening of these vendors — they just pay $10 per parking spot at 5000 Gravois Avenue, set up a display of their crap and get to selling. Sure, that lack of overall quality control means you’re assuredly going to find some real junk — but also, who knows what kind of treasures lurk in south city? The event runs from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday, May 18. Attendance is free. Details at shorturl.at/jBT67.

SUNDAY

05/19

One Last Hurrah

Lo-Fi Cherokee said its goodbyes last month, as the low-key festival featuring a series of single-day music video shoots spent one last Saturday capturing a dozen local musical acts in and around Cherokee Street businesses. But because this is a music video festival, not a music festival, the fun isn’t really over until the videos premiere — and that makes this Sunday, May 19, the true end of the festival that videographer Bill Streeter started 14 years ago. Sob! Swing by Off Broadway (3509 Lemp Avenue) for the LoFi Cherokee Final Premiere Party to see the results of Streeter’s day-long sprint and celebrate the community that’s sprung up around it. Oh, and you can catch some pretty good music videos, too. Doors open at 7 p.m. with the screening at 8 p.m. Tickets are $10. Details at lofistl.com.

MONDAY 05/20

Pushin’ P

A lot of good things start with the letter P. For example, prize, pizza, pups, pub and paws. And when you combine them together into Needy Paws Rescue’s Pizza for Pups at Felix’s Pizza Pub (6401 Clayton Avenue), something exponentially great happens. It’s like ASMR, but better, like fireworks in the mind! Anyway, if the thought of paying a mere $35 for an all-youcan-eat pizza buffet, all-you-can drink domestic beer, wine and well cocktails, and giveaways sounds as good to you as it does to us, head to Dogtown from 6 to 8 p.m. on Monday, May 20. It’ll just be a bonus that all that fun helps support pups in need. For more details, head to shorturl.at/biOR0. n

The Show-Me Burlesque Festival makes its triumphant return this weekend — and you know Lola van Ella and Co. always bring it. | THEO WELLING

The Heat Is On

Chuck’s Hot Chicken is taking over St. Louis, and then maybe the world. Get ready to sweat

Ayear or so ago, literally moments after I’d filched a bite, and then another, of my son’s hot chicken sandwich from Chuck’s, I was wrenching my car into gear and scorching my Michelins all the way to Rock Hill. And never mind the nonsense about the 20-minute distance between any two points in this town; that journey seemed to take forever. I can completely promise that I’d never experienced this rather ugly, certainly greedy and exceedingly “present-day” must-have-now! reflex with food before, although I experience it most days on Amazon with non-comestibles like fake nails and little gold chains. Which is a long and boring way of saying to you that I absolutely loved it. I loved that hot chicken from the Rock Hill Chuck’s.

So I’m pleased. The gods have delivered. A brand new Chuck’s has seeded itself 1.38 miles from my house in the Courtesy Diner’s old space on Kingshighway. And it’s seeded also in Maryland Heights, O’Fallon and Wichita, Kansas, with another franchise in Arnold on the way in the summer. Speaking on the down-low, a manager told me there were even rumblings about taking the chicken over the river (to Edwardsville and Collinsville). My heart sank a little, thinking about things like rarity and specialty, even though clearly there’s a current trend for this kind of spicy poultry. And yet, the closings in

the past couple of years of more elevated restaurants in town serving it (Southern, Sunday Best, etc.), seem to suggest otherwise.

I was glad to be with my friend at the new Chuck’s (which is a walk-up window with picnic tables and no inside seating). I had a warm sun on my back and was already liking my picnic because it came in sturdy cardboard, not styrofoam. But I wasn’t necessarily digging the view. There was a man pumping his gas a few feet away — so close that an earlier version of me might have punted a corn fritter his way. But I’ve grown up a bit; those dear little footballs of clustered kernels like jewels were far too good to be shared. So, yes, there’s a gas mart right next door and an O, O, O, O’Reilly Auto Parts across the street. But bite by bite, these jerry-built surroundings seemed to matter less and less.

If a waffle longed to be a doughnut its whole life, if it yearned to be a puffed and tender, cross-hatched hotcake (buttery, and crunchy with sugar crystals), it would be finding inner peace at Chuck’s. I couldn’t get over them and went at mine like a weasel on eggs. “Oh dear, weren’t those supposed to be eaten with the chicken?” I said. The chicken — although not entirely its fault, this was a damn good waffle — then felt a bit subordinate. It didn’t have the tenderness I remembered from that halcyon day on Manchester Road. And isn’t that the rub when it comes to

chains? Consistency is not only key, but a must. Although, to be fair, the chicken’s exterior — ruddily, crustily spiced and definitely not too oily — was familiar to me, and the rubberiness inside did mostly depend on the part we happened to be eating. The breasts — the usual problem — edged toward tough. But, “mmmm,” my friend said, chomping down on a wing. “This tastes just like KFC.” I checked her face; I couldn’t tell if she was being rude. She wasn’t. She was smiling and her head was nodding. It was the third time in about a week I’d heard someone laud the Colonel, who, with our current obsession, may be having another day in the sun. As to the syrup which came alongside, I wanted to say, “Lose the Smucker’s!” But still, I doused it on. There are six possible heat levels at Chuck’s. We came to a quick conclusion that we were — shall I say? — too chicken for much beyond zero, for surely only a drunkard with cauterized taste buds from a previous visit would claw to the top of this heat ladder. If ever there were a drinking challenge, this is it. And actually, as the menu cautions, it’s no joke. So much of a no-joke, in fact, that Jason Robins, general manager of this Kingshighway branch, said he’s been tempted to send out any order of heat level five or above with a barf bag. Yup, hands down, that sells me on a restaurant. Charles Fulks, who was picking up some GrubHub to deliver, told me

CHUCK’S HOT CHICKEN

3155 South Kingshighway Boulevard. Open Tues. - Sat. 11 a.m.- 8 p.m., Sun. 11 a.m.- 7 p.m. Closed Mon.

Chuck’s 2x2 combo includes two tenders and two whole wings, as hot as you want them.

BY ALEXA BEATTIE

PHOTOS BY MABEL SUEN

he ordered a level one and then, on a subsequent visit, upped it another three rungs. “I said, ‘We gotta go home,’” Fulks said.

Robins wouldn’t talk about specific spices, but he did explain Chuck’s process, which creates varying degrees of heat via an initial dip in cayenne oil followed by a partial or whole dredging in thermogenic “salt and pepper.” Add in the kind of death sauce that’s kept behind glass and you’re all the way to the top. This chicken, quite literally, will blow your beans. Like I said, though, heat wasn’t our game. We know better. There’s a lot to be said about a subtler, milder chicken. For one thing: You can actually taste it.

We ordered a zero and we ordered a level one, and then some other gentle things: The garlic cheese curds, for instance, are sweet, soft little pebbles, bouncy and herb-flecked. I tried and tried to elicit the “squeak” that a friend from Wisconsin tells me is the mark of a good one, but they didn’t peep. The chicken sandwich (with pickles and Chuck’s umamish special sauce) was mostly what I wanted it to be. But the buns, I’m afraid, were as dry as level five is hot. No biggie.

I’m still slightly tempted to say, “Ditch the Smucker’s,” but that would be snobby, and it would be me not standing by my claim that we don’t need to be posh when it comes to what is, in essence,

Highlights from Chuck’s include confetti cake, the Nashville hot chicken sandwich, garlic cheese curds, sides and waffles.

Warren Hamilton IV was previously the manager of Chuck’s Rock Hill location. He’s now the chef/owner of the Kingshighway location.

Chuck’s Hot Chicken takes over the space that used to be Courtesy Diner.

one of this country’s more honest and unaffected things to eat. We don’t need flounce when it comes to hot chicken, because it may actually taste better when you’re sitting at a red metal picnic table next to a gas pump, across from an auto parts shop, with Home Depot rising like an umber hill in the distance. And I’d only rather Chuck’s wasn’t becoming a chain because with chains, there’s that gnarly issue of consistency, and because with chains, I see dollar signs; a lust for more. But while “more” can feel like less to me, I’m feeling pretty confident that our Chuck will make it work. n

A Small Island

Rue Lafayette will soon see new life as Lafayette Local, a classic cafe in a European style

BY SARAH FENSKE

More than 10 years have passed since Rue Lafayette closed, but people in Lafayette Square never stopped talking about it. The cafe at 2026 Lafayette Avenue was reportedly a victim of the divorce of owner Richard Zimmer and his wife, Araceli Kopiloff, when it shuttered in 2013, and yet no one seemed certain the closure was final, even after the divorce was. Everyone seemed to think something, surely, could be worked out, and the occasional pop-up on the site in the years that followed only kept the flame alive. Whenever the lights were on after dark in the standalone building on Lafayette Avenue, people wondered: Is something finally happening at Rue Lafayette? Something finally is happening at Rue Lafayette. Eleven years after Kopiloff closed the cafe, a new arrival to Lafayette

Square, Britt Hayes, is preparing to open a cafe of her own in the space. She’s calling it Lafayette Local, with an emphasis on “local” — and has dreams of creating the kind of local spot that British people (like her life partner, Jonathan Meyer) know so well: a place where you can get a drink, a bite to eat, some friendly conversation. “When I was on the road,” Hayes says of her previous life running an executive consultancy, “I would seriously search for places like that.” Of Lafayette Local, she says, “You should feel comfortable coming in by yourself and running into people.”

Hayes has been in Lafayette Square just long enough to know how well that will suit the neighborhood. “It’s in and of itself a small village,” she muses.

Like many well-heeled transplants, when Hayes and Meyer first moved to St. Louis (for his job, which is with Edward Jones), they were steered toward a rental in Clayton, which was lovely enough. But a chance conversation on a plane got Hayes looking toward the city, and Lafayette Square specifically, as a permanent St. Louis residence. “From day one, we really fell in love with it,” Hayes recalls. “I’d go on walks and was just overwhelmed by the architecture. It’s so beautiful.”

Like many a person walking around

Lafayette Square, Hayes found herself contemplating Rue Lafayette, wondering why it sat vacant in a neighborhood that otherwise thrummed with life. Unlike the others, though, she ended up tracking down the owner, Zimmer. “We started this dialogue,” she recalls. “He said, ‘It’s not for sale.’ He had hopes of reopening at some point.” But they kept talking and bonded over Zimmer’s love of local history. “Literally, for three and half years, we checked in with each other.”

For those years, Hayes split her time between St. Louis and New York City, where her youngest son was finishing high school. But he graduates this June and, conveniently, is heading to college at Mizzou. Even as Hayes was preparing to be in St. Louis full-time, her conversations with Zimmer finally seemed to be moving forward, and she was able to get the building appraised. “It was a mess, but a beautiful mess,” she says.

Finally, in February, Hayes was able to close on the building she’d dreamt of — and begin the process of creating the cafe she dreams of. That came with Zimmer’s blessing: He sold it on the condition that she do something good for their neighborhood, and she intends to make good on that promise.

She envisions a small bistro-style menu, with food designed for a casual

bite but that would welcome you to stay for dinner, if you wanted. She wants to be open for breakfast, for grab-and-go coffee and for people to linger over a glass of wine. Mindful of the high percentage of families in the neighborhood with young children and the nearby Lafayette Prep charter school, she wants to serve soft-serve ice cream. There will be tables inside and on the large patio overlooking Lafayette Park, but also a few couches, a la the coffee shop in Friends. “It can be the stopping place before you go out to dinner,” she says, adding, “I really don’t want to compete with anyone. I truly see it as complementary to the offerings in the neighborhood, and I hope this business lifts others as well.”

Hayes hopes to be open by October, and the buzz around the streets of Lafayette Square, which never really died, has now reached a fever pitch.

“Every time I was walking in the park, people would say, ‘Any news, any news?’” She gave a sneak peek to neighbors a few months ago, and that only heightened the excitement. She still has plenty of work to do, but she’s starting to see her vision come together.

She says, “Now that we’re getting the clutter out, we’re able to really see the space, and it’s beautiful.” And soon, more than 10 years after Rue Lafayette closed, the locals will finally get to see it, too. n

Britt Hayes and her dogs are preparing to welcome Lafayette Square to Lafayette Local, which she hopes to open in October. (But be forewarned: Only the patio will be dog-friendly.) |

ZACHARY LINHARES

A Fatter Caf

Popular Filipino/BBQ spot

Fattened Caf gears up to open its first storefront

BY JESSICA ROGEN

St. Louis’ favorite Filipino barbecue fusion restaurant is set to become even more of a permanent fixture in town. The concept, run by husband and wife Charlene Lopez-Young and Darren Young, is working on opening a brick-andmortar storefront at 3405 South Jefferson. “It feels really good but really scary at the same time,” Lopez-Young says. “The brick-and-mortar was always the goal.”

The couple started the Fattened Caf as a series of increasingly popular pop-ups in 2018. Then they expanded into consumer goods with their packaged longganisa and sauces (now available for purchase at Schnucks) and began providing food at Earthbound Brewing and a location on the campus of Washington University.

Lopez-Young says they have been slowly working on the new location for months and hope to open sometime this summer. But that’s all still up in the air.

“We’ve been taking our time,” she says. “We didn’t want to feel rushed.”

The duo live on Cherokee Street, so they prioritized the nearby area when they were looking at potential spots. They ultimately didn’t have to go far: Their new storefront is at the corner of Cherokee and Jefferson next to the Hop Shop.

Though there’s still a lot to do — construction is underway inside the space right now — Lopez-Young has a good idea of what the concept will look like. It will be open for breakfast and lunch (unlike their spot inside Earthbound, which follows the brewery’s evening-only, Thursday through Saturday hours), host events and expand the Fattened Caf’s offerings a bit.

One thing she knows they’ll offer is a variety of silogs, which are dishes of cured meat with garlic rice, as well as pork belly tocino (“Filipino-style bacon”) alongside classic Fattened Caf offerings such as chicken wings, pork steak and more.

“People can really just enjoy a fuller Fattened Caf menu than what they have be -

fore,” Lopez-Young says. She also says that they are planning on staying at Earthbound Brewery, though they may switch up the menu there. So it’s

New Life for Cotter’s

The owners of the soon-to-be South City Sports Bar are planning on 13 TVs — and early morning hours

BY SARAH FENSKE

Randy Heisner and Chuck Powers, who hope to open a new bar on South Kingshighway in a few months, have the perfect origin story for two would-be saloon keepers: For 20 years, they hung out together at the bar that used to be located on site. For pretty much their entire friendship,

the bar was Cotter’s Sports Bar, a lowkey St. Louis neighborhood spot at 4610 South Kingshighway in Bevo Mill. As Heisner tells it, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the bar’s longtime owner sold it, but the new owner wasn’t able to make it work. The regulars were disgruntled, and then sad, as the place closed entirely.

Now Heisner and Powers are bringing new life to the small, standalone space, which they are preparing to open as South City Sports Bar. “We bought the building, and we’re putting our all into it,” Heisner says.

Heisner is a former manager of Molly’s in Soulard, and he says Powers also has extensive bar experience through his girlfriend, who owns a different bar in Soulard.

more Fattened Caf growth in all directions.

“The new location allows us to really set up a footprint that is ours and that we have full control over,” she says. n

They’re working on a full remodel of the place, adding new tables, new bar stools and two pool tables. They’re planning no fewer than 13 TVs (two 75 inchers, two 65 inchers and nine 55 inchers, Heisner says) and have ordered streaming services for all the major sports, including City SC. Crucially, they’re also giving the place a good deep cleaning. “Cotter’s had one pool table and didn’t have much else going on there,” Heisner says. “We’ve got a new floor, drywall. It’s all freshly painted. It’s all nice and clean. It’s never been clean in that place!”

But while it should be significantly cleaner than in its heyday, the duo hopes to keep the friendly spirit that animated Cotter’s. “It was like Cheers,” Heisner recalls. “Every-

body knew your name. Nobody let you drive drunk. People looked out for each other. We want to make it a family bar again.”

They plan minimal food, probably just frozen pizza and popcorn, with Heisner noting that there’s a White Castle on one side of the building and a McDonald’s on the other: “If they get hungry, they can go there.” He also notes the surprisingly big patio out back, which can seat 40 to 50 patrons, and the fact they plan to open at 7 a.m. to serve workers coming off the night shift.

But perhaps the most inspired part of the fledgling enterprise is its name: simple and completely on point. “I was really shocked South City Sports Bar was available,” Heisner says. “If you Google us, hopefully you’ll find us right away.” n

Charlene Lopez-Young (left) and Darren Young first launched the Fattened Caf in 2018 as a pop-up. | SARAH LOVETT

Chuck Powers (left) and Randy Heisner will open South City Sports Bar. | COURTESY RANDY HEISNER

The building that previously housed Cotter’s is a familiar presence to people on South Kingshighway. | COURTESY RANDY HEISNER

WEDNESDAY, 5/15/24

Wallace 4:30P - 6:30P / FREE SHOW!

Canan’s Voodoo Players: VOODOO PHISH 9:00P - 12:30A / $14 COVER

THURSDAY, 5/16/24 THE BUTTERY BISCUIT BAND 9:00P - 1:00A / $9 COVER

FRIDAY, 5/17/24

MOM’S KITCHEN 9:00P - 1:00A / $14 COVER

SATURDAY, 5/18/24

ROOSTERED UP 12:00 - 3:00P / FREE SHOW! JAKE’S LEG 9:00P / $14 COVER

SUNDAY, 5/19/24

MONDAY,5/20/24

TUESDAY, 5/21/24

REEFERFRONT TIMES 27

No Munchies

Good Day Farm’s THCV gummies have impressive appetitesuppressing effects

BY ZOE GARCIA

As cannabis becomes increasingly commonplace in Missouri, and the companies peddling it work hard to set themselves apart from the pack, a growing number of more obscure cannabinoids are popping up in their products. When I saw Good Day Farm’s High Dose Daydream THCV-infused gummies at Codes Dispensary marketed as a sativalike product — my personal preference when it comes to weed — my interest was piqued. Spoiler: I didn’t find them to be too reminiscent of sativa-forward products; however, the THCV gave the gummies something unique.

THCV, or tetrahydrocannabivarin, is one of the “the major components isolated from cannabis sativa,” along with CBD and THC, and has “unique properties that set it apart from the more common cannabinoids,” according to the National Library of Medicine. THCV can reportedly both decrease appetite and increase satiety, as well as boost

metabolism, leading Healthline to note that THCV has been called “diet weed” and “weederall.” Stay tuned to see how that played out with my incessant weedinduced munchies.

The whole bag cost me $64 and contained 10 gummies that each had 20 milligrams THC and 5 milligrams THCV. The product description states that “each multi-dose gummy is scored into four parts,” which was not the case. It’s fine: I can estimate where to cut, but I do prefer a product to come as advertised.

I tried them for the first time on a Friday evening, taking roughly a quartergummy, for 5 milligrams THC and 2.5 milligrams THCV. They were imbued with citrusy notes as described, and the texture was soft, chewy and melted fairly well in my mouth, but the chemical solvent flavor lingered a bit — not unheard of for gummies made with extracted THC rather than rosin.

It was about an hour before I began to feel the gummy take hold, and from there, the high crept on and escalated a bit over the next couple hours, rather than a hard hit right out of the gate. I never did get those cheery cheer-squad vibes I was expecting for a sativa-adjacent product. However, my typical urge to eat all of the things remarkably didn’t make an appearance (hallelujah!), and I did sleep pretty well, so that was nice. I decided to try the gummies again during a trip to the Tower Grove Farmers’ Market with a friend whom I al-

ways get the giggles with, stoned or not, thinking it might lead to a more sativalike experience. Alas, no hilarity ensued, which is completely unheard of for us. But I again did not have the munchies, which have been the bane of my pothead existence.

At first, I was disappointed these weren’t giving me the typical euphoria and happy-go-lucky vibe I’ve come to love about cannabis, but I sensed THCV could be otherwise useful. Perhaps these gummies would be best in the comfort of my home with a new mindset, rather than for a social outing.

I decided to forgo my loosely self-imposed guideline of no weed during the week and try them again with the intention of chilling and not eating the entire contents of my pantry, as I often do when high. This was the sweet spot. Indeed, I was able to zen out at home without the urge to eat everything in sight. I was also fairly productive for being high, which made me feel a little better about their categorization as a sativa gummy, though I still never got that initial rush of elation I’ve come to expect.

If you’re looking for edibles that will allow you to relax peacefully while also not giving you insane munchies, these would be a great fit. The lack of energetic euphoria means they are not my top choice for a social event, but they’re perfect in the comfort of your home or perhaps at a foodie event where you want to be a little stoned without going overboard on snacks. n

THCV has the unique ability to decrease appetite and increase satiety, a rarity in the weed gummy world. | ZOE GARCIA

[MUST SEE]

OUT & ABOUT

This week sees Australia’s finest Ramones-aping, smoke-breaking, lightning-struck band of unruly reprobates, the Chats, pull their 6-litre GT-R up in St. Louis for a Friday night rager at Off Broadway — and hopefully you already have your tickets because they are otherwise long since sold out (though we’re betting you could get the band to let you in the back door if you offer ’em a carton of Missouri’s relatively reasonably priced smokes). Elsewhere, guitar whiz Gary Clark Jr. makes his now-annual pilgrimage to our fair town for a Thursday night affair at the Factory, BJ the Chicago Kid posts up for a two-night stay Tuesday and Wednesday at City Winery, and Kublai Khan teams up with Harm’s Way for a crushing Thursday night karate competition at Red Flag. All that plus Austin’s premier purveyor of “glam senselessness and country sensibility” (that would be the delightfully named Pelvis Wrestley) in our picks for this week’s best shows!

THURSDAY 16

GARY CLARK JR: w/ Abraham Alexander 7:30 p.m., $49.50-$99.50. The Factory, 17105 N Outer 40 Rd, Chesterfield, 314-423-8500.

KUBLAI KHAN: w/ Harm’s Way, Pain of Truth, Justice for the Damned 7:30 p.m., $25-$49.50. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

FRIDAY 17

38 SPECIAL: 8 p.m., $35-$65. River City Casino & Hotel, 777 River City Casino Blvd., St. Louis, 314-388-7777.

THE CHATS: w/ Dirty Fences, Paint Fumes 8 p.m., $28. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

SATURDAY 18

CAIRO JAG: w/ Shitstorm, Vulture Vulture 8 p.m., $10. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309.

POINTFEST: 1 p.m., $39.50-$139.50. Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre, I-70 & Earth City Expwy., Maryland Heights, 314-298-9944.

SAY ANYTHING: w/ AJJ, Greet Death 8 p.m., $36.50-$51.50. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

SUNDAY 19

21 SAVAGE: w/ JID, Nardo Wick, 21 Lil Harold 7 p.m., $29.50-$129.50. Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre - St. Louis, MO, 14141 Riverport Dr, Maryland Heights.

ALEJANDRO ARANDA: 8 p.m., $20. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444.

HAVOK: w/ Exmortus, Stormrazor, Chaos Bloom 7 p.m., $25-$49.50. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

LO-FI CHEROKEE FINAL PREMIERE PARTY: 8 p.m., $10. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

MONDAY 20

BORN OF OSIRIS: w/ Attila, Traitors, Extortionist, Not Enough Space 5:30 p.m., $30-$49.50. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

ELITA: 8 p.m., $15. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444.

MESSA: w/ Van Buren 7:30 p.m., $20. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309.

NONCONNAH: w/ Suroor, YOUPEOPL 9 p.m., donations. CBGB, 3163 S. Grand Blvd., St. Louis.

TUESDAY 21

BJ THE CHICAGO KID NIGHT 1: 7:30 p.m., $48-$60. City Winery St. Louis, 3730 Foundry Way, Suite 158, St. Louis, 314-678-5060.

CHARLIE PARR: 8 p.m., $20. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505. KNOCKED LOOSE: w/ Loathe, Show Me the Body, Speed 7 p.m., $39.50-$55. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. NEEDTOBREATHE: w/ Judah and the Lion 7 p.m., $29.95-$69.95. St. Louis Music Park, 750 Casino Center Dr., Maryland Heights, 314-451-2244.

REAL ESTATE: w/ Water From Your Eyes 8 p.m., $25. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

WEDNESDAY 22

BJ THE CHICAGO KID NIGHT 2: 7:30 p.m., $48-$60. City Winery St. Louis, 3730 Foundry Way, Suite 158, St. Louis, 314-678-5060.

IN FLAMES: w/ Gatecreeper, Creeping Death 7 p.m., $32.50-$132.50. The Hawthorn, 2225 Washington Avenue, St. Louis. PELVIS WRESTLEY: w/ Pealds, Howdyfuckers, Thomas Dollbaum 8 p.m., $10. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309. n

The Chats. | LUKE HENERY

Frozen

BY DAN SAVAGE

I’m a 40-year-old woman, he’s a 35-yearold man, we’ve been together for 15 years. We met young, and I was his first serious partner. In the beginning, sex was fun, but I’ve never had an orgasm with anyone, ever. We had a ton of other things in common, and we stayed together because it mostly worked. Fifteen years later, I have two big issues: I can’t orgasm — that’s issue No. 1 — and even if I could accept that, the sex I have with my partner is unsatisfying and has been for years. He’s a caring partner, but he’s not good in bed. My attempts to explain to him what gets me excited were ignored. When he’s unsure, he gets quiet and retreats. When I finally told him I couldn’t keep having unsatisfying sex, his self-esteem in bed was completely destroyed. Now we don’t have sex at all. Neither of us wants to end the relationship. We still cuddle, and we’re a great team. We have shared hobbies that take up 95 percent of our time (mountain sports), no kids (by choice), a decent income (finally!), and an otherwise rewarding life. We’ve also never demanded monogamy from each other, but living in a small town in rural Canada makes seeking out others extremely complicated. I sometimes wonder if exploring my sexuality with someone else — maybe even a woman (I’m pretty sure I’m bi) — might help me get my playfulness back and inspire me to try again with my partner. We talk about these things very openly, so it wouldn’t be cheating. Has that ever worked? About never having an orgasm: It’s not just him. Nothing I’ve ever tried — toys, masturbation, different toys, more masturbation, pot, alcohol, porn — has helped. I just can’t come. Arousal builds then abruptly ends before I come. People say, “just masturbate more,” but I’ve been doing that for years and nothing changes. I’m pretty frustrated and wondering if I should just give up. But if I break up with my partner over this and I can’t orgasm with the next person I fall for, what was the point of breaking up? Years ago, I had a super-hot summer fling with a very attractive guy — which my partner knew about and encouraged me to enjoy — and still zero orgasms. Am I just broken? Has anyone who never orgasmed finally achieved one? What worked?

Sadness Over This Inability Ruining Entire Days

“Pleasure is why people are motivated to have sex,” said Dr. Lori Brotto, a Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of British Columbia. “When pleasure is absent, it’s not surprising that motivation and desire fade.”

Now, it’s certainly possible to have a pleasurable sexual experience without coming, but if you never come and the sex isn’t very pleasurable and your partner doesn’t listen when you suggest ways to make sex slightly more pleasurable, soon-

er or later you’re gonna give up or blow up.

But even if you decide to give up on sex — at least for now, at least with your longterm partner — Dr. Brotto, who is also a sex researcher and sex therapist, doesn’t want you to give up on orgasms.

“Most people assigned female at birth who cannot reach orgasm during insertive vaginal sex — 80 percent of females — but most can reach orgasm on their own during clitoral stimulation,” said Dr. Brotto.

“SOTIRED mentions needing her mind needing to be very present, which is not only normal but required for high arousal and orgasm in females. Thus, having her mind ‘totally there’ is an excellent skill, and I’d encourage her to build on that.”

Now, Dr. Brotto isn’t just telling you to “masturbate more,” SOTIRED, she’s telling you not to give up.

“But if, despite experimenting with all types of stimulation and focusing her mind on sensations in the present moment, SOTIRED still isn’t reaching orgasm during masturbation, more may be going on,” said Dr. Brotto. “I would want to rule out any physical causes like vulvo-vaginal pain, skin dermatoses, nerve damage from an injury, diabetes, or neurological issues. I’d also ask a physician to review the medications she’s on — and was on previously — to see whether there’s something pharmacological blocking climax.”

As for your partner, SOTIRED, Dr. Brotto thinks you should see a sex therapist.

“A good sex therapist can reframe ‘working on it’ in a pleasure-focused way,” said Dr. Brotto. “And a therapist could perhaps convey to SOTIRED’s partner that learning to give his partner pleasure will directly benefit him as well. And since many sex therapists offer virtual appointments, living in a small town is no problem.”

And now, at the risk of making myself deeply unpopular in the comment thread this week, I rise in defense of your dense partner. If you pulled your punches when you tried to talk to him about your dissatisfaction … if you prioritized your male partner’s ego over advocating for your own pleasure because that’s what cis women are socialized to do … your partner may not have known you were this unhappy. If you were gentle and opaque, SOTIRED, if you said something like, “Things are great! But this [small change, vibe shift, sex act] would make things even better,” he may have come away from those conversations thinking, “Hey, things are great,” not because he’s an insensitive asshole, SOTIRED, but because he was socialized as a cis man. Many cis women (and most gay men!) will find the tiniest criticism under a mountain of compliments; many cis men (and some gay men!) will entirely miss the mountain of criticism because they can’t take their eyes off the single, half-hearted compliment perched on top.

Being confronted by a deeply dissatisfied romantic partner won’t leave a scratch on a selfish asshole who couldn’t care less about his partner’s pleasure, SOTIRED, but

SAVAGE LOVE

it has the power to devastate a decent person who was too dense to hear what you were trying to say. So, the fact that your partner was hurt when finally blew up is a good sign. Which is a very long way of saying I agree with Dr. Brotto about seeing a sex therapist and giving your partner a chance to make the sex work.

And don’t lose hope — for yourself as an individual, SOTIRED, or for you and your partner as a couple.

“People can experience orgasm after years, even decades, of not being able to orgasm,” said Dr. Brotto. “But the key ingredients to getting there are 1. knowing what the inhibitors are and how they’re getting in the way, 2. being open to experimenting with a variety of new types of stimulation, including ones you hadn’t considered before, and 3. working with a skilled sex therapist. And if a partner is relevant to this equation, having a partner who is focused on prioritizing your pleasure without guilt or shame is quite important too.”

Finally, SOTIRED, sometimes people will say, “I feel so safe with my partner — I don’t understand why the sex isn’t working?” Well, sometimes the sex isn’t working because things feel too safe. Stepping outside your comfort zones together — taking risks together — can make sex feel dangerous and exciting and chaotic again. Deciding to get sex elsewhere could be exciting, but you risk putting more distance between you and your partner. That said, deciding to wait until you’re finally having good sex with your partner isn’t without risk. If leaving your partner is the only way to have sex you’re actually excited about, SOTIRED, that incentivizes leaving your partner. And you may find, as so many other open couples have, that getting out there and fucking other people will make you wanna fuck each other again until you’ve given it a try.

I was chatting with a couple of friends and the topic turned to clearing out a loved one’s belongings after they’ve passed away and some of the interesting, strange, or inexplicable belongings we found. One said that, while cleaning out her father’s place she found — amongst other sex items — a metal butt plug in his freezer. None of us had an explanation as to why, and I just threw out that maybe he was freezing it to kill the bacteria. That seemed to satisfy them, but the truth is I don’t know; I was just riffing. It seems to me washing it or wiping it with alcohol would be just as, if not more, effective and I’m not sure if freezing it would even work. So, I’m turning to you. Do you have any idea(s) about why a guy would keep his metal butt plug in a freezer? Is there some kink associated with putting an ice-cold butt plug up your rectum? It seems like it would do some damage; that scene in A Christmas Story comes to mind. Perplexed By Frozen Treat

The crucial difference between that flagpole in A Christmas Story (and what it did to Frankie’s tongue) and that butt plug in the

freezer (and what it did for the deceased’s ass) is this: your friend’s dad had to remove that plug from his freezer, carry it to his bedroom, and cover it with room-temperature lube before shoving it up his butt — each step causing the surface temperature of his metal butt plug to rise — whereas the boy who touched a metal flagpole with his tongue in A Christmas Story had essentially joined that flagpole in the freezer; the flagpole was frozen solid because it was freezing outside, the boy was freezing outside with the flagpole. And while I’m not an atmospheric scientist, I feel confident saying that if Frankie had carried that flagpole into his heated classroom and lubed that flagpole up before touching it with his tongue, his tongue wouldn’t have gotten stuck to it. (Also, your friend’s father had the option of running his plug under a little warm water to bring it closer to the desired/workable temperature before use.)

As for what that metal butt plug was doing in the freezer, the obvious answer is almost certainly the correct one: chilling. Some people enjoy the sensation of cold toys in their butts — some people enjoy slipping actual ice cubes in their butts — but I wouldn’t advise the inexperienced and/or nervous to experiment with icecold ass toys. (The point of anal foreplay is warming a butt up; a frozen toy is going to the opposite effect.) Additionally, the fact that the metal butt plug was the only sex toy in the freezer suggests your friend’s dad and/or one of his sex partners liked an ice-cold plug; if he thought putting sex toys in the freezer was a good way to sterilize them, your friend would’ve found more of her dad’s sex toys in his freezer. (But if he thought he could sterilize his butt plug by freezing it, he thought wrong: “Freezing to 0 °F inactivates any microbes — bacteria, yeasts, and molds — [but] once thawed, however, these microbes can again become active,” says the USDA. To sterilize steel, glass or silicone sex toys, boil them in water for a few minutes, toss them in the dishwasher or hand wash them with antibacterial soap and hot water.)

There’s only one other possible explanation that I think of: your friend’s father didn’t want his regular sex partner(s) to find his butt plug — maybe he didn’t want anyone (other than his heirs) to know he was into butt stuff — so he hid his tell-tail toy in the freezer instead of keeping it in his bedroom with his other sex toys. But all we can do is speculate, PBFT, as the deceased is the only one who knows why that butt plug was in that freezer and he’s not taking questions.

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Or record your question for the Savage Lovecast at savage.love/askdan!

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