Riverfront Times, September 7, 2022 by Chava Communications

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riverfronttimes.com SEPTEMBER 7-13, 2022 RIVERFRONT TIMES 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS Publisher Chris Keating Editor in Chief Rosalind Early EDITORIAL Managing Editor Jessica Rogen Editor at Large Daniel Hill Digital Content Editor Jaime Lees Food Editor Cheryl Baehr Staff Writers Ryan Krull, Monica Obradovic, Benjamin Simon Copy Editor Evie Hemphill Contributors Thomas K. Chimchards, Joseph Hess, Reuben Hemmer, Andy Paulissen, Olivia Poolos, Famous Mortimer, Victor Stefanescu, Mabel Suen, Graham Toker, Theo Welling Columnists Ray Hartmann, Dan Savage Editorial Interns Kasey Noss ART & PRODUCTION Art Director Evan Sult Creative Director Haimanti Germain Production Manager Sean Bieri Graphic Designer Aspen Smit MULTIMEDIA ADVERTISING Associate Publisher Colin Bell Account Manager Jennifer Samuel Directors of Business Development Rachel Hoppman, Chelsea MARKETINGNazaruk Director of Marketing & Events Christina Kimerle Marketing Coordinator Sydney Schaefer BUSINESS Regional Operations Director Emily Fear CIRCULATION Circulation Manager Kevin G. Powers EUCLID MEDIA GROUP hief xecuti e cer Andrew Zelman hief erating cers Chris Keating, Michael Wagner Executive Editor Sarah Fenske VP of Digital Services Stacy Volhein Audience Development Manager Jenna Jones VP of Marketing Emily Tintera, Cassandra Yardeni Executive Assistant Mackenzie NATIONALwww.euclidmediagroup.comDeanADVERTISING VMG Advertising 1-888-278-9866, SUBSCRIPTIONSvmgadvertising.com Send address changes to Riverfront Times, 5257 Shaw Avenue, St. Louis, MO, 63110. Domestic subscriptions may be purchased for $78/6 months (MO add $4.74 sales tax) and $156/year (MO add $9.48 sales tax for first class llow da s for standard deli er www.riverfronttimes.com The Riverfront Times is published weekly uclid edia rou erified udit e er Riverfront Times PO Box 179456, St. Louis, MO, www.riverfronttimes.com63117 General information: Founded by Ray Hartmann in 1977 Riverfront Times is available free of charge, limited to one copy per reader. Additional copies of the current issue may be purchased for $1.00 plus postage, payable in advance at the Riverfront Times office. Riverfront Times may be distributed only by Riverfront Times authorized distributors. No person may, without prior written permission of Riverfront Times , take more than one copy of each Riverfront Times weekly issue. The entire contents of Riverfront Times are copyright 2022 by Riverfront Times, LLC. No portion may be reproduced in whole or in part by any means, including electronic retrieval systems, without the expressed written permission of the Publisher, Riverfront Times , PO Box 179456, St. Louis, Mo, 63117. Please call the Riverfront Times office for back-issue information, 314-754-5966. INSIDE Hartmann 7 News 8 Missouriland 10 Feature 12 Calendar 20 Cafe 23 Short Orders 27 St. Louis Standards 30 Reeferfront Times 34 Music 38 Film 39 Culture 40 Stage 41 Out Every Night 42 Savage Love 45 COVER The Mecca of Basketball How a long-time staffer and tireless volunteers made the city’s Wohl Community Center into a basketball powerhouse Cover Photo by THEO WELLING

Trouble is, none of this sort of “filth” is targeted in the new legis lation to which so many are over reacting. And no one’s going to jail, unless they bring Stormy Daniels’ Greatest Hits to show-and-tell.

The whole furor is about noth ing. The only thing that can make this relevant is if a handful of school officials overreact preemp tively and turn this into a giant self-fulfilling prophecy.

Written by RAY HARTMANN S ome books were banned recently from a few publicschool libraries in the St. Louis area — a hideous exer cise in primarily anti-LGBTQ bigotry — so you’d expect people of good conscience to scream from the mountaintops about the knuckle draggers responsible. Sorry, hard pass. And not just be cause Missouri doesn’t have moun tains. And certainly not because the offending parties don’t deserve scorn for their hateful ways. No, just don’t give the fools the attention they seek. The best way to react to RsMo 573.550 — en titled “Providing explicit sexual material to a student, offense of” — is to follow the principle of “ig noring creepy wingnut politicians who crave attention, wisdom of.” The slightly revised statute pur ports to create a Class A misde meanor for “providing sexual ma terial to a student.” It effectively tweaked existing law — yes, such a thing was illegal before — but it pretended to represent some new crackdown from the culture-war police of the Republican Party. It is not. The new legislation is just an empty threat. It is the un serious handiwork of far-right ex tremist state Senator Rick Brattin, R-Harrisonville, via an amend ment to an otherwise solid piece of education legislation. If you didn’t know better — and most folks don’t — you’d think Brattin had achieved some great victory by giving legislative teeth to the national cause of cracking down on woke leftist librarians poisoning our children in schools. Nothing could be further from the truth. The bill is only a poten tial threat to someone who would provide actual, visual pornogra phy to students which, again, they could not do before. And should not be able to do. It appears that some school of ficials have tried preemptively to remove some books from the shelves, presumably to protect their librarians from going to jail. But it’s all nonsense. No one’s get ting busted unless they’re truly handing out porn.

Don’t take my word for it. Just read the revised legislation. I just happen to have it here. To begin, let’s take a look at the definition of “sexually explicit material” as defined now by sMo 573.550 And let’s take it slowly, in parts. Here’s the first (1) “‘Explicit sexual material’, any pictorial, three-dimensional, or visual depiction, including any photography, film, video, picture, or computer-generated image, showing …” ow, for the first stop in our tour. Note there is no reference to the written word. Maybe Brat tin doesn’t trust written words, or maybe he didn’t know what he was doing. Or maybe he truly didn’t want the law to affect written words. But it doesn’t.

It’s all talk and no action. And by the way, it doesn’t even target school librarians any more than it does someone from outside com ing to class to make a presentation.

The new law is toothless. No one this side of a porn distributor is going to jail under this law. There’s nothing to fear. If anything, the new law that’s supposed to be so threatening to school officials is quite the oppo site. They should be comforted by the specificity of the narrow defi nition of sexual content, as well as the long and compelling list of exculpatory exceptions.

Now, for part two of section one, listing the specific images that cannot be shown “human masturbation, devi ate sexual intercourse as defined in section 566.010, sexual inter course, direct physical stimulation of genitals, sadomasochistic abuse, or emphasizing the depiction of postpubertal human genitals; pro vided, however …” Emphasis added by me, just be cause I can. Read that list again. It looks like it was cut-and-pasted from some legislator’s web-search history.Finally, let’s look at maybe the best part, the exceptions. Even if someone distributes videos to stu dents showing graphic images of S&M abuse, genitalia, masturba tion and the like, these are the ex ceptions that would make it per fectly legal under Missouri law “[W]orks of art, when taken as a whole, that have serious ar tistic significance, or works of anthropological significance, or materials used in science courses, including but not limited to ma terials used in biology, anatomy, physiology, and sexual education classes shall not be deemed to be within the foregoing definition.” More emphasis added by me at the end. This doesn’t apply to science class or sex ed or all the other possible contexts for which school officials seem to fear the legislation can be twisted.

No one this side of a porn distributor is going to jail under this law.

MissouriPornLegislativeMorefor

Consider whom the law applies to 2 “ erson affiliated with a public or private elementary or secondary school in an official ca pacity’, an administrator, teacher, librarian, media center personnel, substitute teacher, teacher’s assis tant, student teacher, law enforce ment officer, school board mem ber, school bus driver, guidance counselor, coach, guest lecturer, guest speaker, or other nonschool employee who is invited to pres ent information to students by a teacher, administrator, or other school employee. Such term shall not include a student enrolled in the elementary or secondary school.”Moregood news for liberal pur veyors of pornography at the end there our elementary, middle school or high school student cannot be busted if he or she decides to share the latest Ron Jeremy porn video in social studies class.

So, here’s a suggestion from someone who has spent many an hour getting shushed by librar ians Don’t argue in the library. Just ask the nice person at the desk for a copy of RsMo 573.550, “Providing explicit sexual mate rial to a student, offense of.” ead it share it with a school offi cial. And tell them to calm down. n

State Representative Ian Mack ey, D-St. Louis, put it quite well in an RFT interview last week. He described such school officials as being too “risk averse” and “need[ing] a little bit more back bone,” as well as being “overly de fensive” and “caving in a way they absolutely don’t need to cave.” Good for him. Not many public officials have the spine to speak so candidly. But that’s precisely the tough love needed here. Very few saw it, but Brattin’s press release upon passage of his amendment provides a tell ing insight into his intended ef fect. Here’s how this fence post of a state senator put it “In schools all across the country, we’ve seen this disgusting and inappropriate content making its way into our classrooms. Instead of recognizing this as the threat it is, some schools are actually fighting parents to protect this filth. The last place our children should be seeing pornog raphy is in our schools.”

School districts cannot take the bait by banning books over a toothless new law

I cannot emphasize this enough

HARTMANN Ray Hartmann founded the Riverfront Times in 1977. Contact him at rhartmann1952@ gmail.com or catch him at 7 p.m. on Thurs days on Nine PBS and St. Louis in the Know with Ray Hartmann from 9-11 p.m. Monday thru Friday on KTRS (550 AM).

The first part of Brattin’s stupid statement was a clumsy refer ence to the sort of insidious pro paganda many of the Left want to use to brainwash our children. ou know, inappropriate content suggesting that Native Americans weren’t grateful to the valiant ex plorer Christopher Columbus or that our Founding Fathers might not have been perfect or that slav ery was all bad.

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e long-running legal saga stems from the 2017 Jason Stockley protests, and it might not be over yet Written by RYAN KRULL O n August 29, a judge in the 22nd Circuit Court dis missed five-year-old charg es against Darryl Gray, a reverend and activist who was charged with interfering with law

t. Louis’ unkillable Loop Trolley just got another round of life support. The East-West Gateway Council of Governments voted last week to give the deeply unpopular yet surprisingly resilient transportation boondoggle an additional $1.2 million in federal grant monies after the Bi-State Development Agency requested additional funds to keep it going for the next two years.

Civic Leaders Won’t Let Loop Trolley Die e $51 million trolley has been granted an additional $1.2 million to continue operations

The criminal case against Gray is playing out against the back drop of a long-running federal civil rights lawsuit brought by Gray in 2018 against the City of St. Louis and the officers Gray alleges beat him in September 2017. n

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Written by MONICA OBRADOVIC S

Charges against Darryl Gray were dismissed last week.

| DOYLE MURPHY

“It’s had a rough start, but I think it would be good for the region for the trolley to at least have a chance to operate with this two-year test,” Wild tells the RFT. Wild says the trolley is supposed to become self-sustaining in two years. In the meantime, the newly approved funding allows the Loop Trolley Transportation Development District to build up a reserve of taxes collected in the area, he explains. The district levies a special tax in the area surrounding the trolley’s 2.2mileSt.route.Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones has historically spoken against the trolley project. In October, St. Louis Public Radio reports, Jones said the project “should have never been built.” Nevertheless, Jones and other regional leaders have said the trolley needs to restart. They fear a failure to get the Loop Trolley up and running again would risk St. Louis’ eligibility for future federal funding.“Failure to ﬁx the Loop Trolley problem risks future federal support we need to improve and expand public transit in the St. Louis region through projects like Northside-Southside Metrolink expansion, which will transform our city and connect residents to good jobs, health care opportunities and more,” Jones said in a statement last week. The beneﬁts probably outweigh the negatives, Wild says, especially when the negatives involve repercussions to future projects.“Ifwe can’t show that we are able to perform on projects that they give us money for, the feds could penalize us in future requests,” he says.

“Which one of the three is it?” he asked. But it was one request that seems to have caused the case to get dismissed. “We successfully argued that the city had an obligation to share with us derogatory information about the officers’ credibility,” Khazaeli says. “As soon as they were ordered to do that, their two main officers … refused to testify.” Gray’s case has been winding its way through the circuit court since December 2019. In a 2020 statement, the City Counselor’s Office blamed Gray for the case’s long life, saying Gray is one who has “chosen to spend more time [in the circuit court] seeking an appeal.” Although St. Louis Circuit Judge Theresa Burke dismissed the case, she rejected the defense’s request to do so with prejudice, meaning the City Counselor’s Office could appeal to the Missouri Court of Appeals or refile the charge.

This extra $1.2 million with a $540,000 match from the Loop Trolley Transportation Development District will keep the trolley going as it works toward a more sustainable future, according to Jim Wild, executive director of East-West Gateway Council.

DarrylAgainstCity’sDismissesJudgeCaseRev.Gray

n NEWS 8

The trolley has already cost taxpayers $51 million in federal and state dollars, but local ofﬁcials feared it’d all be for nothing if they failed to revive it after a three-year hiatus. The Federal Transportation Administration threatened to demand $37 million back from the Loop Trolley Transportation Development District in December if the trolley still wasn’t up and running by summer. Earlier this year, the development district offered up an abbreviated schedule for the trolley to operate Thursdays through Sundays during summer and fall months. The revived trolley executed an astonishingly successful run on its ﬁrst day back on August 4, shocking everyone by not breaking down or hitting any parked cars for a change.

Still, Bi-State Development, which took over operations in February, needed some extra funding to continue to manage the seemingly bottomless money pit.

“The maximum amount of mon ey the taxpayers would get on this case is $500,” Khazaeli says, re ferring to the maximum penalty Gray faces. “It’s clear that the city has spent many, many times that.”

Theenforcement.caseagainst Gray stems from a 2017 incident at protests following the acquittal of for mer St. Louis police officer Jason Stockley who had been accused of murdering Anthony Lamar Smith, a 24-year-old Black man. In September of that year, Gray and other members of the clergy attended a protest that took place after a Cardinals game. The clergy members were there to act as a buf fer between protesters and police. Other members of the clergy there that night told the RFT that police officers manhandled two female pastors near the stadium, and when Gray protested verbal ly, he was body-slammed to the ground by an officer. However, officers at the scene said that no one touched the female pastors and gave their own version of events in which an enraged Gray pushed an officer in the chest. Gray’s attorney, Javad Khazaeli, tells the RFT that those officers are now refusing to testify. The case was first litigated in municipal court, where Gray was found guilty in 2019. That trial was a bench trial, meaning there was no jury. It was also conducted without deposi tions or discovery. The judge, like all municipal judges, is appointed by the Graymayor.appealed and won a new trial, this time in St. Louis Circuit Court.Khazaeli made the most of the new venue, which allowed him to take depositions and request dis covery from the city. In late August, Khazaeli filed the motion to dismiss the case, arguing that the city’s court filings against Gray were woefully inadequate. Khazaeli wrote in his motion that the city “provides no detail, no alleged facts at all.” He also wrote that the city is “failing to provide this Court suf ficient information to consider whether any violation of any ordi nance is even alleged.” Court filings made by the City Counselor’s Office accuse Gray of interfering, obstructing or hinder ing law enforcement. In a preliminary hearing in court on August 24, Khazaeli won dered aloud about the city’s use of the word “or.”

5. Enhance the building and site arrival experience from all directions. The Steinberg Skating Rink was established in 1957 and is now considered the oldest rink in the Midwest. The renovations are an extension of the Forest Park Master Plan, approved in 1995. It’s not too late for you to weigh in on the design. Organizers will hold a public open house at Steinberg on Saturday, October 8, from 4 to 7 p.m. They will also hold a virtual open house on Monday, October 10, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. n

Prospective plans for the Steinberg Pavilion and Rink. |

2. Embrace ecological sensitivity and energy efﬁciency.

Collins-Muhammad pleaded guilty to accepting $13,500 in cash, $3,000 in campaign contributions, a 2016 Volkswagen CC sedan and an iPhone 11 from Almuttan since January 2020. In addition to two bribery charges, Col lins-Muhammad pled guilty to one charge of honest services bribery/wire fraud. Reed also admitted to accepting cash bribes to help Almuttan obtain Minority Business Enterprise certiﬁcation and win city trucking and hauling contracts. For these favors, Reed accepted $6,000 in cash and $3,500 in campaign contributions for his mayoral Collins-Muhammadcampaign.resigned from his position a few weeks before federal courts unsealed the indictment against him. Since then, voters have elected his successor, Laura Keys. Boyd’s entrance into the scheme began in July 2020, when Collins-Muhammad introduced Boyd to Almuttan at Boyd’s banquet facility. They sought Boyd’s assistance for Almuttan’s proposed purchase of property in Boyd’s ward at 4201R Geraldine Avenue. At the time, the property was listed by the city’s Land Reutilization Authority at $50,000.Theproperty ultimately sold to Almuttan for $14,000 after Boyd pressured staff at the LRA to accept Almuttan’s low bid. In addition, Boyd accepted cash and two free car repairs from Almuttan in exchange for his aldermanic letter of support for tax abatement on the property. He helped Almuttan draft an application for the tax abatement and sponsored a board bill that granted substantial tax savings for the property. Boyd also pleaded guilty to an unrelated insurance fraud scheme tied to Almuttan. In January 2021, a vehicle crashed in Almuttan’s used car lot in Jennings and damaged four vehicles, one of which belonged to Almuttan’sBoyd.insurance wouldn’t cover the damage to his three vehicles, so Boyd suggested they claim to his insurance company that the vehicles belonged to his own used car lot, The Best Place Auto Sales on Dr. Martin Luther King Drive in St. Louis. Boyd’s insurance company rejected his claim. Boyd resigned as 22nd Ward alderman after his indictment came to light in June. His former constituents elected Norma Walker to serve the rest of his term. Reed, Boyd and Collins-Muhammad have not spoken publicly about their charges. All three walked silently out of the Thomas F. Eagleton Federal Courthouse after their hearings while swarmed by journalists with questions. All three are scheduled to be sentenced on December 6.

e rink could add year-round activities Written by BENJAMIN SIMON S teinberg Pavilion and Rink could be getting a face-lift and new, yearlong Organizedamenities.by Forest Park Forever and the City of St. Louis Department of Parks, Recreation, and Forestry, the project is still in the design phase and may change. But an informational pre sentation at the Forest Park Advisory Board Meeting on August 26 already paints the picture of a place robust with added beneﬁts. In the winter, for example, visitors could see the addition of ice car bumping/curling, pond hockey and speed skating, according to the presentation. In the summer, the rink could offer roller skating, concerts and festivals. The presentation also proposes restructuring the building to feature a party room, ringside cafe, multipurpose room, rooftop terrace and rooftop cafe. According to the presentation, the project’s vision is “to reimagine the Steinberg area as a place for all-season fun that is equitably, environmentally, and economically sustainable and inspires a variety of structured and unstructured activities that are welcoming to all.” The current design plan is the result of feedback from more than 3,300 people through outreach events, social media, surveys and more. Organizers have also held 35 community presentations and interviewed stakeholders, such as the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis, Black Women Who Hike and St. Louis Public Schools. The project has ﬁve goals: 1. Foster a shared sense of ownership among diverse communities.

The three men admitted to accepting cash bribes and other gifts in exchange for doling out political favors. The three men pushed legislation through the Board of Aldermen to pass tax abatements for a developer, identiﬁed in the indictment as “John Doe.”

Written by MONICA OBRADOVIC I n August, former St. Louis Board of Aldermen President Lewis Reed and former Aldermen John Collins-Muham mad and Jeffrey Boyd all pleaded guilty to federal corruption charges in a scheme to secure tax breaks for a local developer.

All three aldermen were charged with two bribery-related charges after a 2-and1/2-year federal investigation. Their downfall entailed hours of recordings of various meetings and telephone calls, as well as ﬁnancial and other records.

Though federal prosecutors have not named Doe, it’s widely assumed the devel oper is Mohammad Almuttan, who owns multiple businesses in St. Louis city and county. Businesses mentioned in the in dictment correspond to property records and business ﬁlings in Almuttan’s name.

3. Reinforce historic and aesthetic signiﬁcance of building and site. 4. Provide building and site amenities that support all-season activity.

Boyd’s wire fraud charges carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. Reed and Boyd’s bribery charges could result in up to 15 years in prison and a $250,000 Collins-Muhammad’sfine. honest services bribery/wire fraud charges carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. His bribery charges carry a 10-year maximum and the other has a five-year maximum. n Lewis Reed pleaded guilty to federal charges. OBRADOVIC

Former Aldermen Plead Guilty to Corruption

The aldermen’s scheme began with Collins-Muhammad, former alderman for the 21st Ward. In January 2020, Almuttan requested Collins-Muhammad’s assistance in obtaining tax abatement for his planned gas station/convenience store in CollinsMuhammad’s ward. After multiple attempts at securing tax abatements for Almuttan, Collins-Muhammad, with support from Reed, secured tax abatements for Almuttan on April 30. In exchange for the favor, Reed admitted to accepting $9,000 in cash bribes.

e three former civic leaders face sentencing later this year

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| MONICA

Steinberg Pavilion and Rink Getting a Redesign

COURTESY FOREST PARK FOREVER

10 RIVERFRONT TIMES SEPTEMBER 7-13, 2022 riverfronttimes.com A Welcome Return Festival of Nations returns to Tower Grover Park, and everyone rejoices

Words and photos by DMITRI JACKSON n August 27 and 28, St. Louis’ cherished Festival of Nations returned to Tower Grove Park after a two-year absence, bringing back a much-missed cultural kaleido scope of sights, sounds and smells. The event was virtual in 2020 and held at 9 Mile Garden in a limited capacity in 2021. This year’s event represented Festival of Nations’ triumphant return. Hosted by the International Insti tute of St. Louis and featuring more than 40 food booths and 30 gift ven

dors, the festival was a celebration of food and culture. This year’s en tertainment included Chinese lions leaping and twirling on stage, infec tious Afro-pop music and lessons in Japanese calligraphy. As the heat and humidity swelled throughout both days, so did the exuberant crowds. Given that it was the first time since the dawn of the pandemic that Tower Grove Park has held the festival, it was a huge release for the esti mated 125,000 visitors hankering for the global smorgasbord. n

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riverfronttimes.com SEPTEMBER 7-13, 2022 RIVERFRONT TIMES 11 A CELEBRATION OF THE UNIQUE AND FASCINATING ASPECTS OF OUR HOME[ ]

12 RIVERFRONT TIMES SEPTEMBER 7-13, 2022 riverfronttimes.com

The Rec Center that

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Now, Tatum is that NBA player, returning to Wohl multiple times a year. He paid for the basketball court to be refurbished and for a new computer lab. He also hosts an annual summer basketball camp. He even brought ESPN to the court for an exclusive interview.“This,”he told ESPN in 2021, standing in the Wohl Center, “is like my home.” On this Tuesday afternoon in August, Tatum is Continued on pg 14

How a long-time staffer and tireless volunteers made the city’s Wohl Community Center into a basketball powerhouse

Michael Nettles, 58, a sta er at the Wohl Community Center, is the architect behind this sports institution. | THEO WELLING

BY BENJAMIN SIMON

t feels like a normal day at the Wohl Community Center — kids running everywhere and adults doing their best to keep up. Then, suddenly, out of nowhere, Jayson Tatum appears. Shrieks echo throughout the building. Jayson Tatum, the Jay son Tatum, the Boston Celtics player who people are calling the next all-time great, is walking through this recreation center in north St. Louis. The entire place orbits around him. Kids, grand mothers, volunteer coaches, even babies and staff ers. Everyone is running up to Tatum. Some want a photo. Some just want to see him in the esh. The NBA star towers over everyone; his head looks close to hitting the ceiling, as if he no longer fits. Tatum, now 24, was once one of these Wohl kids. Up until high school, Tatum traveled to Wohl mul tiple times a week from his home in University City. There was always something going on: a pickup game, a workout, a men’s league game, kids shoot ing“That’spool. just kind of how it was,” says his mom, Brandy Cole-Barnes. “They don’t turn anybody away.”

As a kid at Wohl, Tatum saw his first Bentley in the Wohl parking lot, when two NBA players pulled up to play in a Pro-Am game, his mom says.

that Built Jayson Tatum

A plaque commemorating Patrick Coleman’s e orts hangs at the center. THEO WELLING

e Wohl Community Center sits in Sherman Park at the intersection of Kingshighway Boulevard and Dr. Martin Luther King Drive. | THEO WELLING

O n Tuesday afternoon in the Wohl basketball gym, kids are screaming, coaches are yelling, balls are ying, par ents are chatting, rap music is blaring and more balls are ying. It’s chaos. On one half of the court, a coach is putting on a workout for 10 kids, ranging from ages 3 to 15. On the other side of the court, a coach is running a kid through a cone drill, but instead of cones, they’re using a combination of disc slam containers and pool noodles. It looks like a normal rec center, but it’s not supposed to look like a normal rec center. This place is supposed to be the mecca of bas ketball. It should, at the very least, be neatly organized, right? Or at least have a shooting machine or a coach with innovative drills that no other coach has or maybe a high-tech movie room, where peo ple can break down jump shots. Instead, it has Michael Nettles, the man who coached Tatum and, well, everyone. He’s 58 years old and often sporting red-and-white Air Force 1s, a large silver cross, Celtics sweatpants, multiple varia tions of Celtics at hats, sometimes an earring and sometimes a tooth pick. He’s technically a city staffer, serving as a recreation leader at the Wohl Center. Really, though, he runs the basketball gym. But on this day, Nettles isn’t coaching. He’s just sitting on the sidelines and talking. Nettles is always talking. He mumbles fast. He throws out names of former St. Louis high school basketball play ers as if everyone knows them. He goes on long tangents about bas ketball philosophy and St. Louis basketball history. Nettles talks to everyone. He knows everyone, usually, by a nickname he gave them –– Too Tall, Lil Steph, Slaughter, Mo hawk, T Mo, not to be confused with J WhileMo.the chaos rumbles along, a six-year-old girl walks up to Nettles. She calmly places her foot on his knee. Without pausing his conversation, Nettles ties one shoe and then the other. Who is that? “That’s my Wohl grandbaby,” he says.Nettles grew up in north St. Lou is. His father was a trash man and also worked in construction. His mother was a nurse at Homer G. Phillips, the acclaimed Black pub lic hospital that closed in 1979. They weren’t sports fans. His par ents preached waking up early and studying in school. Nettles got up at 4 a.m., but he didn’t always do well in school. He constantly picked fights with bul lies, he says, getting him kicked out of multiple middle schools. “I disliked the bullies,” he says. “I hated bullies.” As the years went on, Nettles calmed down. He found solace in sports and played basketball at State Technical College of Mis souri before transferring to Har ris-Stowe State University. He graduated in 1988, taught in schools and then, in 1992, took a job with the city’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Forestry. He clocked in at every rec center in the city, he says. He even worked in the Medium Security Institu tion, better known as the Work house, where he reimagined the recreation program, adding hand ball, basketball tournaments and otherThen,activities.in1996, Nettles arrived at Wohl. And he ru ed up the status quo.“I had to go through certain things,” Nettles says. “‘You grown folks can’t have the gym all damn day.’ Boom, boom, boom. So, hey, I kicked them out. Some people didn’t like me. I didn’t care.” Nettles can be a loose cannon when he talks –– or as he calls it, he “raw dogs it.” “You jack off the game,” he tells one of his players. “Byron ain’t shit,” he yells in the air, with Byron standing there. But this is just jokes, Nettles’ fa mous banter. If the Wohl Center has a beat ing heart, it is Nettles. He instantly knows when someone new is walk ing the hallways. “Hey hey hey!” he’ll call after them. Then, he’ll ask for your name, your story and, probably, your parents. Then, you can get a workout.

The rec center has produced elite athletes: NBA players includ ing Tatum, Larry Hughes and Patrick McCaw and college super stars including Torrence Watson, Courtney Ramey and Caleb Love, who recently led North Carolina to the March Madness finals. There are also countless local leg ends who never made the NBA but old timers still mythologize, like Antonio “Windmill” Rivers, whose head nearly hit the rim when he dunked. This is a public rec center on the corner of Kingshighway Boule vard and Dr. Martin Luther King Drive, where the grass is unkempt and the rims seem a little too high. Yet, somehow, it continues to produce some of the best basket ball players in the world.

RIVERFRONT TIMES SEPTEMBER 7-13, 2022 riverfronttimes.com running a backpack drive, com plete with Jordan bookbags, Beats headphones, notebooks, pencils, Chick-fil-A chips and Celtics hats.

WOHL CENTER Continued from pg 13

Tatum’s family is there, including his four-year-old son, Deuce, who chases a bouncy ball around the gym with Wohl kids. Any rec center with Jayson Ta tum to its name would have a lot to boast about. And Wohl does.

It’s for Wohl kids –– and Wohl kids only. There’s no press, no fanfare.

Tatum’s name is plastered on the hardwood oor that he donated. A banner in the gym reads, “Home of Jayson Tatum.” But there’s also a wall-length glass case in the hallway, layered with foot-long trophies earned by former Wohl legends who went on to star in college basketball and the NBA. Wohl, they say, is the mecca of St. Louis basketball.

For Nettles, that’s a month he was at Wohl working with Wohl kids. Nettles doesn’t use that phrase lightly: Wohl kids. Wohl, or “Wohls” as most peo ple call it, isn’t only a noun to Net tles. It’s an adjective. A Wohl kid is someone who is there all the time, week after week after week. “They tough. They mental. They prepared for life,” Nettles says. When a new peewee kid walks into the gym, Nettles introduces himself. “Hi, I’m Mike,” he says, shaking the kid’s hand, introduc ing him to Coach Stephon — alum nus and volunteer coach Stephon King — and sending him into an already-in-progress workout with teenagers.“I’mnot like everybody else,” Nettles says. “Like, I work with ev erybody. ... I don’t care what you’ve done. I care how you treat me. If you for real what you for real then I’m for real what you for real.” One day, he’s teaching a threeyear-old how to shoot. The kid catapults airball after airball on a mini-hoop. Nettles keeps grabbing the rebound and handing him the ball. It’s like clockwork. “CatchAirball.it, and do it again, baby!” Nettles“CatchAirball.says.it,and do it again, baby!”

Over and over again, until the kid is tired and needs some water. “You getting it up there now, baby!” Nettles says, beaming. W hen Wohl was opened in 1960, it was lauded as the best recreation cen ter in the city. Through a city bond and a donation from David Wohl, owner of Wohl Shoe Company, the new building featured a pool, kitchen, multi purpose room and an NBA-length basketball court. “An architectural gem from entrance to exit,” the editor of the American Recreation Journal wrote at the time, “the Wohl Cen ter is one of the nation’s outstand ing buildings.” It was also the best place to play basketball.Thatstretched back decades, though, before Wohl was even built. Before Wohl, there was Sherman Community Center, lo cated up the hill in Sherman Park. With multiple basketball courts, its basketball box scores ran in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch as early as the“It1920s.was the main place to play basketball,” says Ron Golden, who lived in the neighborhood in the 1950s.When Wohl replaced the for mer center in 1960, it inherited that basketball culture. During the 1980s, the Jodie Bailey Super Sum mer League, considered St. Louis’ first comprehensive area-wide high school basketball league, took place at the Wohl Center. In the 1990s, there was the Midnight League, with games anywhere between 9 p.m. and 1 a.m. It was designed to keep people occupied during the night when crime often took place. “It was the biggest for basketball in St. Louis,” says Derrick Murray, who grew up going to the Wohl Center in the 1990s and 2000s.

In 1995, Corey Frazier was a ris ing freshman on the Saint Louis University basketball team. But before he even played a game of college basketball, a teammate made him play at Wohl. When he arrived on a Sunday evening, he was confused about what made this place so special.

On an afternoon in early Au gust, a mom who hasn’t brought her preteen son to Wohl in weeks walks into the rec center. “I ain’t messing with him,” Nettles tells her. “He ain’t no Wohl kid.” He’ll let the kid work out, of course, but not before taking an opportunity to crack jokes at the mom’s expense. Nettles rarely leaves the north side –– unless he’s going to a travel basketball tour nament. Recently, he went on va cation. Asked where he went, he said St. Louis. Where else would he“Igo?don’t talk to her no more,” he says about the mom to the crowd of people on the sideline. “She wanna spend all that money in the county and then come back!” “He’s only been out there for a month!” she protests.

The gym was dim, and the rims were too high. No one cared, or knew, about Frazier’s pedigree as a prized recruit. His opponents Continued on pg 17 Volunteer coach Stephon King sits on the sidelines at Wohl with Auria, his daughter. | THEO WELLING Nettles shows a picture of NBA great Jayson Tatum visiting Wohl. Tatum spent a lot of time at the community center growing up and continues to support it. | THEO WELLING

Kids are always in the gym. Kids from the neighborhood, kids whose parents drive them from the county –– even kids who don’t play basketball but just want a place to hang.

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“Everybody from everywhere was coming to the Midnight League.”

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For two decades, Coleman coached at Wohl. Although he left in 2018 to return to 12th & Park, a banner hangs in the gym de claring Wohl “the house that Pat built.” Over time, he helped Net tles organize workouts, in-house leagues, city-wide leagues and, eventually, travel teams that were separate from the Wohl Center. In the 2000s, the gym had all kinds of leagues –– high school leagues and women’s leagues and peewee leagues. Mike Nettles would ref the games, and he pissed off everyone –– players, coaches and fans alike — because he rarely called fouls, and he rigged the games, so they would always end in a close score.

talked trash, never let him call a foul and made him power through every bucket.

Continued from pg 15

There were never enough places to sit, and most fans spent the af ternoons standing. Cars filled the lot, street and grass around the center. “If you could [park in the parking lot],” Miles Nettles, Mike Nettles’ son, remembers, “you got a good parking spot.” Wohl always seemed to be open. The coaches held basketball ac tivities on weekends and late at night. If there wasn’t a league game, there was always pickup. And if you didn’t like basketball, there were always programs out side of basketball –– karate, sum mer camp, dance, football, cheer leading and boxing.

“I earned my respect in St. Louis that day,” says Frazier, now a pro fessional skills trainer. Then during the late 1990s, Wohl went through a rough patch, says Pat Coleman, who volunteer coached at Wohl for two decades.

Continued on pg 19 Volunteer coach Vassar Willis trains kids nearly every a ernoon. | THEO WELLINGOne of the multiple trophy cases at the Wohl Community Center. | THEO WELLING

On a typical weekday afternoon, a sea of people crowded the gym. A line snaked outside of the kitchen and the smell of fries filled the air.

The Midnight League organizers were accused of stealing nearly $60,000 of donated money from the league from 1995 to 1996. Shortly after in October 1997, a year after Mike Nettles arrived, one of the rec center’s most prom ising alumni, Sean Tunstall, who played at the University of Kan sas, was shot and killed in Wohl’s parking lot. There was a “stigma around the Wohl Center,” Coleman says. Originally from the 12th & Park Recreation Center, Coleman start ed coaching at Wohl in 1998. Pick ing up his sisters from summer camp, he saw Nettles on the base ball field trying to train 20 kids in T-ball. Coleman, who’d served time in jail, recognized Nettles from his stint as a staffer at the Workhouse and offered to help. “I knew he couldn’t teach all of them at the same time,” Coleman says.

Even after the rec center closed for the night, the older guys went to the kitchen to play dominoes or dice or pool. Kids would stay in the gym to shoot hoops.

Throughout it all, Nettles and Coleman, who was a full-time vol unteer, stayed together and built Wohl’s reputation as a training ground for youth players, with a focus on fundamentals. They forced kids to dribble with two balls, practice weaving through cones, shoot baskets with boxing gloves on and dance in the defen sive stance to the “Cha-Cha Slide.”

“I love Mike to death,” says Ta tum’s mom, Cole-Barnes. “But even if it wasn’t the most organized, if you didn’t have enough advance notice, you knew if you showed up that, at some point, if there’s enough kids in the gym, we’re play ing basketball. Mike is gonna go in the back and pull out jerseys.” Over the years, though, the neighborhood around Sherman Park experienced a dramatic pop ulation loss. Once a middle-class Black community in the 1960s and ’70s, when Wohl was first founded, the area struggled through de cades of disinvestment. Businesses closed their doors, houses became vacant lots, baseball fields grew weeds and crime increased. The city did little to reverse the neigh borhood’s decline. People left in ocks. From 2000 to 2020, each of the four neighborhoods bordering Wohl lost population –– dropping by, on average, 38 percent. In King sway East, for example, the popu lation fell from 3,797 to 2,355. Quite literally, there were fewer kids in the community for Wohl to pull from. And they had fewer resources to provide for the kids that did stop by. For decades, funding across rec centers in the city continued to decrease, says the city’s recre ation department director, Evelyn Rice. Staff members were laid off. Some rec centers had to close over the weekend. Others shut down altogether. In 1960, for example, when Wohl was first built, there were more than 10 city recreation centers. Now there are only six. That’s changing now, little by lit tle. Under Mayor Tishaura Jones’ administration, funding has in creased, with an in ux of A A funds, allowing the centers to rehire staff, open during the week end and bring back programming, such as singing, dance, photogra phy and maybe even another ver sion of the Midnight League. But even during those “lean years,” Rice says, she would drive by Wohl when it was “closed” for the weekend, only to find it open. There would be Nettles coaching or Dana Moorehead, the recreation center director, watching kids. “When the staffing gets cut, then you can’t offer programs as fre quently,” she says. “You can still do basketball but not to the level and extent you want to.”

She “Unlesspauses.you have somebody like a Mike Nettles, who does it any way.”

WOHL CENTER

Back in north St. Louis in the 1960s and ’70s, a village built Mike Nettles, he says. “Every body took care of everybody,” he says. And it’s a village that Nettles builds, volunteer coach by vol unteer coach, parent by parent, peewee athlete by peewee athlete, Wohl kid by Wohl kid. For all of the work he does, there are other Mike Nettles coaching football, baseball, boxing and organizing non-sports programs. There’s Ms. Dana, the head of Wohl, who over sees everything, so that Nettles can focus on the basketball gym. “It’s a wonderful place,” says Rice, the city’s recreation director.

ike Nettles still wakes up at 4 a.m. He takes a shower, watches the news and, by 5:45 a.m., he’s driving to his day job in west county, where he arrives by 6:30 a.m. By day, Nettles is a behavioral specialist at CenterPointe, where he works with adults who are dealing with detox, depression, suicidal thoughts and addiction. He leaves CenterPointe at 3 p.m. and drives straight to the Wohl Cen ter, where he’s supposed to work from 4 to 8 p.m. as the program di rector. But normally, he stays until 9 or 10 p.m. It amounts to a near 15-hour workday. When he’s done, he goes home, spends time with his wife and watches ESPN, Blue Bloods or Criminal Minds Sitting in the rec center, looking over the basketball court, Nettles re ects back on his years at Wohl. “Now I’m old enough to say I apologize to the ladies that I dated,” he says. “We never broke up be cause of me cheating or something like that. It was just quality time.” Does he feel like he’s missed out on life –– relationships, kids, TV shows, sleep –– because he’s al ways at Wohl? “No no no no no,” he says. “Actually,” he says, pausing. “The honest truth, and I’ll prob ably get teared up with this …” This is surprising to hear him say. His son, Miles, said he has never seen Nettles cry. But there’s a story Nettles carries with him –– a story that even his son might not know. It’s “the reason,” Nettles says, “that I do what I do.” Back in the 1980s, when Net tles was in his 20s, he returned to St. Louis after junior college. He met up with friends, who had all played on the same childhood basketball team. They started drinking — and people opened up. “What I learned was, when somebody drinking, they all tell — the what? — the truth,” Nettles says, answer ing his own question. That night, some of his team mates confessed that they had been molested by their childhood coach.

“Mr. Mike Nettles,” she says again in a soft voice. He turns to her and looks her in the eye. His hands are folded in his lap, patiently waiting. “You’re at work,” she says, with a sly look. “Why do you have on slides?”“I’mnot at work,” he shoots back. “This is where I live.”

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WOHL CENTER Continued from pg 17

“It’s almost like church.” It’s not money, not special drills that built Jayson Tatum. It was this village and the quality time missing from Nettles’ previous relationships. It was all spent here, at Wohl, allowing Tatum and so many others to become some of the world’s best basket ballTowardplayers.the end of one of these 15-hour-long days, a little girl walks up to Nettles, who’s seated on the baseline. She’s about the height of Nettles in his chair. “Mr. Mike Nettles,” she says. Nettles, yelling across the gym, doesn’t seem to hear.

S ince COVID-19, Wohl hasn’t been the same. Because of the pandemic restrictions, pickup games were cut, and the leagues have shrunk. Maybe that will come back in the future. It’s not clear. Nettles says he’s “easing it back.” There are still adult leagues at Wohl, including a 40-and-over league, but most of the leagues and pickup moved away from Wohl. Now, Nettles runs high school leagues at Tandy Recreation Center or Cardinal Ritter College Prep. This way, people like Coach Stephon can run workouts for six-year-olds at Wohl, and Nettles can run a league for high schoolers at Tandy. “You need multiple gyms to try to help everybody,” Nettles says. “If we keep everything at Wohls? Wohl’s area is good. What about Gamble [rec center]? What about 12th & Park? What about Tandy?” But that doesn’t mean Wohl is empty. Summer camps fill the building all summer. Boxers pound bags upstairs, and students study in the computer lab. Nettles has a stable of volun teers who run workouts at Wohl during the afternoons and eve nings. One of those people is Ste phon King, Coach Stephon, Net tles’ former player, who still looks like he could be a Wohl kid at 28 years old, with a little scruff cov ering his youthful face. For the last seven years, King has been coaching at Wohl. He has a wife and kids. He works a full-time job as a manager at QuikTrip. “In my spare time, I come here,” he says, laughing. “Which is a lot of time.” On a regular basis, his kids, wife, mom, nephew and older brother watch him coach from the sideline or participate in the drills. His son, Lil Steph, zig-zags from basket to basket like a wind-up toy in a black tank top. The ball ap pears bigger than his body, but he slingshots it from his hip and it goes in, a Kinglot.has been coming to Wohl since –– well, he doesn’t really know. Maybe since he was three? His mom needed somewhere to send her kids. Everyone in his fam ily went here. It’s where they hung out with friends, shot pool in the multipurpose room, took karate class and played basketball. He was coached by Nettles, Coleman and anyone else who showed up. “We was just here,” King says. “And that made us better.” Even when King moved away from the area, he took the bus ev ery day to Wohl. If he couldn’t catch the bus, one of the coaches picked him“Thisup. is my home,” King says. “I say my home was my second home. This is my first home because I was here so much.” But it’s more than just a basket ball facility. Leave the gym at 7 p.m., while the sun is setting over Wohl, and boom. You’ll see people every where. Quite literally everywhere. There won’t be an empty spot in the parking lot. Little girls dance and yell in high-pitched voices against a rec-center wall during cheerlead ing practice. Parents watch peewee football. Little-league players field ground balls on baseball fields sprouting weeds. Kids climb on the playground. Adults lean against their cars, smiling, chatting and reminiscing.Intheheart of north St. Louis, where outsiders say crime is ram pant, homes are vacant and parks are dangerous, the Wohl Center buzzes with life. I t’s 7 p.m. and the Jayson Tatum backpack drive is coming to a close. Tatum has left. His family has left. Volunteers are packing up the extra bookbags and fold ing up tables. But Nettles is sitting in the stands, talking with his wife. It’s hard not to think that, with a player like Jayson Tatum on his re sume, Nettles could be anywhere. Maybe a college coach, a profes sional trainer, or at the very least, a high school coach. No one would think twice if he left. That’s what you’re expected to do. Wohl kids go off to college, some make the NBA, some become box ers, doctors, lawyers, construction workers, barbers, but Nettles sits in the same place he has since 1996.When asked if he’ll be at Wohl forever, he squints as if he’s confused by such an outlandish question.“Yeahyeah yeah yeah,” he says. “Guess what though? If I hit the lottery, I ain’t going nowhere. Here it is: If the good Lord took me today, I’m not mad at him be cause I really enjoy life.” Kids start to run on the court. Their legs are dragging, and their arms are opping. Celtics greenand-white balloons still oat above their heads. After the kids do a few suicides, Nettles appears on the baseline. “You should have a ball in your hand at all times!” Nettles says, raising his voice. He points at each player. “You should have a damn ball, and you should have a ball! So go get a ball out my rack, dude!”Jayson Tatum is gone. And that means the Wohl kids –– and Mike Nettles –– are back to basketball. n

“I don’t know what –– something just came on me,” he says. “I just say ‘Look, I’m gonna coach all the kids … I’m gonna know everything. I’m gonna see everything. I’m gon na pay attention.’ It was just some thing that I had to do. I want the kids to have everything. I want to make sure these kids are safe.” He pauses. Only two people in the world know this story, he says. “It’s why I joke with these kids,” he continues. “It’s why I have con versations with these kids. In the huddle, we talk about life. Do you feel uncomfortable at home? Who is this guy? That’s why anybody who come in here, I already know.” Nettles says he doesn’t care about winning or losing –– unless it’s a playoff or tournament. Bas ketball is about molding adults and training kids for life’s setbacks. Lots of coaches pay those ideas lip service. But Nettles really doesn’t seem to care if his team wins or loses. Either way, he’s still going to be at Wohl, and either way, he’s going to invite kids back for a free workout. If he cared about winning, he would be coaching all the time instead of sitting on the sideline, yelling “Byron ain’t shit!” or running T-ball practice. He drives kids home from work outs, gives shoes to those who don’t have them and lets families crash at his place when they need somewhere to stay.

Reimagining 911

SATURDAY 09/10

A StrongHalf-Century

The numbers “911” can be a safety net, a call for help, the first phone number you teach your kids. They can also be a threat, a source of angst, a source of tragedy. Recog nizing the relationship between institutional and systemic racism and our emergency response sys tems, Forward Through Ferguson has launched Transforming911, a community movement aimed at reimagining the area’s pub lic safety by thinking through its emergency response system. This Friday, September 9, the organiza tion will host its second meetup of its #Transforming911 Storytelling Event & Photo Exhibition Se ries, where residents are invited to share their experiences with calling 911 through oral and visual storytelling in partnership with Humans of St. Louis. Attendees are encouraged to share their perspec tives on the system as well as pro vide ideas for how the area can im plement positive change. The free event takes place from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Thomas Dunn Learning Cen ter (3113 Gasconade Street, 314353-3050). Attendees are encour aged to register via Eventbrite.

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For its second year, Music at the Intersection (musicattheintersec tion.org) will see more than 50 acts converge on Grand Center, with neo-soul singer Erykah Badu and blues-rock guitarist Gary Clark Jr. topping the bill. St. Louis’ pre mier festival of soul, jazz, blues, hip-hop, rock and everything in between will also feature perfor mances from Hiatus Kaiyote, Ka masi Washington, Buddy Guy and Robert Glasper, as well as a slew of St. Louis-based acts including the Urge, Foxing, NandoSTL and more. The festival will take place across four outdoor stages in the Grand Center Arts District on Sat urday, September 10, and Sunday, September 11. Tickets range from $69 for a day pass to $129 for the full weekend, with VIP options that can go as high as $650.

A Grand Old Time

Thursday Night Jams

The event runs from 10 a.m. to 2

CALENDAR RIVERFRONT

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Few spots in St. Louis can speak as strongly to the city’s musical and gastronomic heritages as Blueberry Hill, that Delmar Loop stronghold of top-notch onion rings, pop-culture memorabilia and weeknight darts. It was also the storied concert venue where Chuck Berry played his last con cert. So it’s almost a civic duty that St. Louisans gather at the storied spot this week for Blue berry Hill’s 50th Anniversary Party . The celebration will fea ture live music and karaoke in the Duck Room, a champagne toast, birthday cake, door prizes and ra es, an anniversary pho to booth, a trivia contest, a video screening and time capsules. The venue will be debuting a new brew, Rock & Roll Beer, in col laboration with 4 Hands for the occasion. Celebrate the anniver sary at 7 p.m. at Blueberry Hill (6504 Delmar Boulevard, 314727-4444, blueberryhill.com). Admission is free.

On Thursday nights, anyone can play music at the National Blues Museum (615 Washington Ave nue, 314-925-0016, nationalblues museum.org). There’s no cost, no genre requirements, no mini mum level of experience. Bring whatever musical instruments you can find and jam at Sittin’ on the Porch. Meet other local musi cians and try some new riffs. But you don’t need to be on stage to enjoy the event. Music fans can bring a chair, grab some barbe cue from Sugarfire and enjoy the collection of artists playing the blues. The event takes place every Thursday night, but each one sounds different. That’s what makes it special. The show lasts from 6 to 9 p.m. with doors open ing 30 minutes before the music. Entry is free but requires a ticket that can be reserved online or at the door.

The Saint Louis Art Fair (saintlou isartfair.com) returns to downtown Clayton this fall. This year’s fair fea tures hundreds of artists, both local and national, selling their wares; a huge area for kids to make art; and local music acts on the art fair’s in dependent artist stages. You might see people being especially assidu ous looking at the art; those are probably jurors. The fair is also a contest with some artists taking home top prizes. Whether you’re in the market for some new work for your home or office or just want to munch on great eats from area food vendors, the event offers something for everyone. The Saint Louis Art Fair is Friday, September 9, from 5 to 10 p.m.; Saturday, Sep tember 10, from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; and Sunday, September 11, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. in downtown Clay ton. Admission is free.

Missouri Grown Landscaping with native plants is one of the simplest ways that St. Louisans can help native wildlife and pollinators, prevent water runoff and improve air qual ity. In addition, plants inherent to the region tend to be lower maintenance and suited to what ever problem areas your garden might hold. You can pick up those vegetal stars at the Native Plant Sale, hosted by Grow Native and the Missouri Prairie Foundation.

Held at the World Bird Sanctuary (125 Bald Eagle Ridge Road, Val ley Park; 636-225-4390), the event will feature wild owers, grasses, shrubs, trees, vines, sedges and seeds from Gaylena’s Garden, Ozark Soul Native Plants, Papillon Perennials and River City Natives.

Love Is in the Art

e Saint Louis Art Fair brings art, music, food and merrriment to Clayton. | DAVID KLOECKENER

THURSDAY 09/08

From 2000 to 2016, the art world in Puerto Rico was rocked by a series of exhibitions. PR Invitational, Gran Tropical Bienal and Cave-In pushed the country’s art scene in new and independent directions, giving birth to a self-reliant gal lery community. The Contempo rary Art Museum St. Louis (3750 Washington Boulevard, 314-5354660, camstl.org) is remember ing those seminal art exhibitions and the works that changed a na tion with We didn’t ask permis sion, we just did it… The exhibit — guest-curated by Christopher Rivera and Manuela Paz, found ers of mbajada, a San Juan-based gallery — draws on the archives from each of the three seminal ex hibits. The exhibit opens Friday, September 9, at 6 p.m. and runs through Sunday, February 12, 2023. Admission is free.

FRIDAY 09/09 No NecessaryPermission

Race the Square

The St. Louis Game Bring some pizzazz to your Mon day by gamifying the city you live in with the Amazing Scavenger Hunt Adventure - St. Louis. The event, put on by Urban Adven ture Quest, has essentially turned downtown St. Louis into a giant game board or a giant sightseeing tour, depending on your perspec tive. Using a smartphone, groups will be guided through the wellknown and obscure gems of St. Louis while learning about his tory and solving challenges. The game requires about two miles of walking and should take about three hours to complete, based on how focused players are. The scavenger hunt start time is ex ible and kicks off from the Old Courthouse (11 North 4th Street, 314-655-1700). Tickets cost $44 on ventbrite for a group of five.

WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 8-14

MONDAY 09/12

Sure, the actual first day of fall is September 22, but for many in St. Louis, fall is ushered in with St. Louis Symphony Orchestra’s Forest Park Concert. Mid-September is known for having some of the most beautiful weather of the year (read an almanac), so chances are high you’ll be able to bring some lawn chairs or a picnic blanket to Art Hill and enjoy the music and fireworks display. This year, the concert in cludes John hilip Sousa’s “The Stars and Stripes Forever,” Scott Joplin’s “The ntertainer” and an excerpt from Gioacchino Rossini’s William Tell Overture. In addition to the crowd-pleasing songs, there will be food trucks from Balkan Treat Box, Go Gyro Go, Holy Crepe and more, and a bar from STL Bar keep and Urban Chestnut. The free concert starts at 7 p.m. on Art Hill (35-43 Fine Arts Drive, slso.org/for estpark). n Have an event you’d like consid ered for our calendar? Email cal endar@riverfronttimes.com.

Find Out Often viewed as the Midwestern oracle of these modern times, journalist and academic Sarah Kendzior rose to national promi nence for being one of the first to predict Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential win through her 2015 collection of essays The View from Flyover Country. Since then, Ken dzior has stayed busy with a pop ular podcast, Gaslit Nation, and more books, the latest of which is They Knew: How a Culture of Conspiracy Keeps America Complacent, which delves into the dangers of U.S. conspiracytheory culture across the political spectrum. It goes on sale Tues day, September 13, and Left Bank Books will present a book launch at the Ethical Society of St. Louis featuring a conversation between Kendzior and St. Louis Public Ra dio reporter Jason osenbaum. The book launch takes place at 7 p.m. at the Ethical Society of St. Louis (9001 Clayton Road, Ladue; 314-367-6731). Admission is free.

riverfronttimes.com SEPTEMBER 7-13, 2022 RIVERFRONT TIMES 21 p.m. Saturday, September 10, and has an $8 entry fee.

Man’s DrinkingBestFriend

The pro competition starts at 8:10 a.m. with the fun run kicking off 15 minutes later. Race entry costs $30.

Kick off your Saturday with a pub crawl with your best friend: your dog. As is only appropriate, Dog town will host its first-ever Dog town Pup Crawl. Proceeds will benefit St. Louis area nonprofits that support animals, including the 50 Roses Foundation, Stray Paws Adoptables, the Feral Com panion, Dogs for Our Brave, Stray Rescue of St. Louis, Animal House Cat Rescue and Adoption Center, and the Animal Protective Associa tion. Attendees will receive a spe cial event beer mug or wine glass (based on the drinker’s preference) and will then be able to make their way through the neighborhood with their best friends, stopping at pubs and other surprise locations and filling up a paw-port along the way. The event kicks off at noon in downtown Dogtown (6401 Clay ton Road), and tickets are $30 on Eventbrite.

SUNDAY 09/11

Filled with historic architecture, Lafayette Square is one of the pret tiest neighborhoods in St. Louis, and there’s no better way to take in its sights than by running as fast as you can up and down its streets. The first annual Lafay ette Square Patriot Day Race is the perfect opportunity to do that while raising money for a wor thy cause: BackStoppers, Charter Athletic League and the Lafayette Square Neighborhood Association. The top three men and women will be taking home prize money, but the mile-long race is great for novice runners as well. Every run ner over 21 gets a free cocktail or beer after crossing the finish line. Packet pickup and same-day regis tration begins at 6:30 a.m. at 1800 Park Avenue (Fountain Plaza), with a ceremonial military and first responder run at 7 50 a.m.

TUESDAY 09/13

WEDNESDAY 09/14

Autumnal Tunes

Tracy Stanton speaks at a Transforming 911 event. | COURTESY FORWARD THROUGH FERGUSONBlueberry Hill celebrates 50 years this week. | COURTESY BLUEBERRY HILL

22 RIVERFRONT TIMES SEPTEMBER 7-13, 2022 riverfronttimes.com

riverfronttimes.com SEPTEMBER 7-13, 2022 RIVERFRONT TIMES 23 [REVIEW]

New Growth Cafe Natasha’s successor, Salve Osteria, delivers a transportative dining experience

CAFE 23

For Bahrami and Fricker, this means building upon the already thriving Gin Room, turning the interior and the lush outdoor gar den space into a celebration of the art of beverage. xpanded lists, an Amaro pushcart and a service staff with an encyclopedic knowl edge of libations will be on offer.

Natasha Bahrami, Michael Fricker and Matt Wynn are the minds behind Salve Osteria. | MABEL SUEN

Bahrami’s mother, the vivacious Hamishe Bahrami, needed to re tire after having spent the majority of her life toiling for the business. Like her daughter, “Mom,” as she’s known by her friends and guests, was ready to live life on her own terms. It was the push Bahrami and Fricker needed to make the dream that would become Salve a reality. Bahrami and Fricker found the perfect partner to help them bring Salve to life. Matt Wynn, a chef whose culinary resume includes Tom Colicchio’s Craftsteak and the former Central West End cocktailfocused restaurant Taste, was ea ger to join on to their project. Like Bahrami, Wynn was ready to ex his muscles in the industry; hav ing spent his career working in support of others’ visions, Wynn wanted to find his own voice. The three met and, in no time, real ized that they all wanted the same thing out of a restaurant. At that moment, Salve was born.

Written by CHERYL BAEHR Salve Osteria 3200 South Grand Boulevard, 314-7713411. Thurs.-Sun. 3-10 p.m. (Closed Monday through Wednesday.)

Though Bahrami, Fricker and Wynn described Salve as both “har vest centric” (read: seasonal) and loosely Mediterranean focused in their opening press, they’ve come to see the restaurant as being de fined less by food than by the ex perience they want to provide. No longer confined by Cafe atasha’s long shadow or, in Wynn’s case, the particulars of the restaurants he’s worked for, the partners are able to do things how they want to do them, untethered from anything but their own creativity. At Salve, this means a menu, cocktail list and experience that is ever evolving.

For Wynn, this means an oppor tunity to find his culinary voice through an Italian-leaning menu that is continually evolving; he tweaks and tinkers with the dishes to make things just right, resulting in an impeccable execution and thrilling avors coming out of his kitchen. Bacon-fat carrots, for in stance, make you rethink the level of satisfaction that can be coaxed from something plucked out of a garden. The bacon infuses the car rots with savory depth and slicks them with a rich, almost buttery coating, and funky blue cheese crema beautifully underscores the carrots’ earthy avor. Salve Osteria’s menu features a selection of shareable plates, pastas, entrees and desserts. | MABEL SUEN Continued on pg 25

S alve Osteria may be less than four months old, but if you ask Natasha Bahrami, its seeds were planted all the way back in 2014. That’s the year Bahrami returned to St. Lou is from Washington, D.C., armed with an infectious passion for gin and a newfound desire to embrace a career in the industry she’d known all her life. As the name sake of the beloved Cafe Natasha’s, Bahrami had always understood the restaurant was her birthright, but she was never quite comfort able with the idea of simply car rying on what her parents started four decades prior. She wanted to build upon it, certainly, but even if she did not know what that looked like, she knew one thing for sure: It would be on her own terms. Bahrami founded the Gin Room in 2014 as a way to start defining her own role in the industry. Adja cent to Cafe Natasha’s, the bar be came an internationally acclaimed destination for the spirit, and Bah rami became a renowned gin am bassador. For eight years, the Gin Room and Cafe Natasha’s ran as complementary concepts, but this past April, Bahrami, together with her partner in business and in life, Michael Fricker, were ready to watch the seed that had been plant ed nearly a decade prior blossom in its own right. The timing was right.

24 RIVERFRONT TIMES SEPTEMBER 7-13, 2022 riverfronttimes.com

riverfronttimes.com SEPTEMBER 7-13, 2022 RIVERFRONT TIMES 25

In place of anchovies, the dressing is made with miso bagna cauda; this gives the salad a powerful umami bomb, which is brightened by citrus and fresh scallions. Utter ly addictive, this is the restaurant’s must-try offering.

Salve offers a few main courses that offer a more traditional en tree experience as opposed to the rest of the menu’s family-style vibe. Tuscan eggplant, spiced up with Calabrian chiles and accented with cherry tomatoes, ricotta and basil, provides a hearty vegetarian main course, while Wynn’s take on roast ed chicken — with harissa, yogurt and broccolini — offers a fun, North African twist on comfort food. Salve could be considered a suc cess based on any single compo nent; food, drinks and positively outstanding service are individu ally exceptional. However, put to gether, they create an overall expe rience that is less a meal and more a transportive feeling that allows you to immerse yourself completely in the moment. There’s no question that those seeds planted so long ago are not simply blooming; they have ourished into a Garden of den.

Salve Osteria Salve Caesar .............................................$15 Ravioli Roasted.......................................................$20chicken.......................................$25 Salve Osteria’s Caesar salad is a must try. | MABEL SUEN e orecchiette is served with lamb sausage and broccolini. | MABEL SUEN Michael Fricker pours a drink behind the bar. | MABEL SUEN SALVE OSTERIA Continued from pg 23 Salve Osteria’s menu complements the already-thriving Gin Room. | MABEL SUEN

Beets, too, are magical — soft ened but not mushy and pickled so that their usually pronounced earthiness is toned down. Pickled orange adds a citrusy brightness, pistachios give the dish a nice tex ture contrast and a creamy ajo blanco sauce made from crushed almonds and garlic ties the dish together in a decadent richness.

A dish of meatballs has both the familiar comfort of Grandma’s Sunday supper and a subtly nontraditional taste that keeps you interested. Here, Wynn blends chicken and beef and places them atop an unexpectedly spicy sauce — not overwhelming by any stretch, but the heat is there. This, paired with a gentle spice season ing on the meatballs, makes the dish seem less Western and more easternSalve’sMediterranean.aranciniitself is pleas antly typical of the form: Tender rice spheres the size of mandarin oranges are filled with mozza rella and zucchini. However, the thing that pushes this dish into the stratosphere is the accompanying date agrodolce, which stands in for the usual tomato sauce. This condiment is mindblowingly good. Richly, brown-sugary sweet, the dried fruit’s stickiness is cut with vinegar, giving it a pop of tang, re sulting in an otherworldly combi nation of sweet and sour. This con diment alone is a reason to put this dish on your Salve short list. Wynn has an entire separate kitchen dedicated to pasta produc tion, and his tagliatelle shows that he’s put it to good use. This pasta is the embodiment of summer: Bright cherry tomatoes, cooked down enough to soften and release their juices without breaking down completely, are paired with basil oil and Parmesan cheese. The beau tiful simplicity is breathtaking, whereas the deeply earthy com plexity of the pappardelle is also magical. Here, Wynn plays with a vegetarian version of a classic Bolognese-style ragu, using a vari ety of mushrooms as a stand-in for beef, pork and veal. Just a touch of tomato sauce brightens the dish. If the pappardelle hints at the warm vibes of Nonna’s kitchen, the ravioli drives it home in full force. Akin to an Italian-style chicken and dump lings, Wynn pairs ricotta-filled ravi oli pillows so tender you want to nuzzle them with succulent braised chicken, escarole and dried toma toes. A pan sauce that incorporates the cooking juices of each compo nent provides an outstanding, sa vory nectar that begs to be soaked up with the ravioli.

If Salve already has one signa ture dish, it’s the Salve Caesar, a stunning riff on the ubiquitous sal ad. Here, Wynn subs in grilled cab bage for romaine; the leafy vegeta ble holds up well to the heat and is infused with a gentle smoky taste.

26 RIVERFRONT TIMES SEPTEMBER 7-13, 2022 riverfronttimes.com

In a statement shared by the restaurant’s spokesperson, Brickler has the following to say about Grupe’s departure and the future of the restaurant: “With the end of summer approaching, we have decided to postpone service for the next few weeks to take care of ourselves, spend time with our families and restructure and refresh the restaurant. We plan to reopen in the fall and look forward to sharing updates with you along the Followingway.”an illustrious culinary career that was heavily steeped in the country club and competition circuit, Grupe opened Tempus in the fall of 2020 as an elegant yet approachable neighborhood spot. Though the restaurant was rooted in his vast culinary experience and the classical techniques he’d honed over the years, he envisioned Tempus as a more everyday sort of place, serving thoughtful interpretations of classic dishes. After the pandemic forced Tempus to operate as a takeout-only restaurant for its first year, the dining room finally opened in November 2021 to much acclaim. USA Today honored Tempus as one of its 10 Best New Restaurants in America, and Grupe earned an Emerging Chef semifinalist nod from the James Beard Foundation this past February. (Grupe was previously a JBF Best Chef: Midwest nominee for his work at Elaia.) Tempus’ spokesperson also confirmed that the restaurant’s sous chef Justin Bell is no longer with the restaurant. Pri or to coming on at Tempus, Bell worked alongside Chef Rob Connoley at the nowshuttered Squatters Cafe and his muchheralded Ozark restaurant Bulrush.

Press Your Luck Press brings smashed pizzas and dra cocktails to Fox Park

Ely describes Press as more casual than Lucky Accomplice, though the restaurant offers full service din ing. Options for the pressed pies in clude a BBQ kimchi and duck with scamorza cheese and shredded cab bage or a potato version with beer cheese, fontina, rosemary, mustard and frisée. The al pastor Hawaiian pairs Oaxacan cheese with lime and cilantro cream, and a Spanish chorizo pie pairs the avorful sau sage with Manchego cheese, mari nated red onions, Nicoise olives and membrillo. Leading the Press bar is Corey Moszer, who has put together an exciting selection of draft cock tails. The system, which serves the drinks refreshingly chilled, al lows him to tinker with different carbonation levels that best suit each individual libation. Current offerings include a Hemingway made with white rum, grapefruit aperitif and maraschino; the Lav ender, composed of gin, bergamot tea lavender and lemon; and a nonalcoholic Elderberry, which features NA tequila, elderberry shrub and tonic. Cocktails, like the food, are available for carry-out. n

Press is open Thursday through Monday from 5 until 10 p.m.

A spokesperson for Tempus conﬁrmed the news, which was ﬁrst reported by St. Louis Post-Dispatch restaurant critic Ian Froeb, noting simply that Grupe is no longer involved with the restaurant.

SHORT ORDERS 27

hef and owner Logan Ely is not sure what to call the main dishes served at Press (2509 South Jefferson Ave nue), the Fox Park restaurant he opened with his business part ner, Brian Schuman, on August 25. Pizzas? Calzones? Sandwiches?

Press, now open in Fox Park, is helping St. Louis rethink what’s possible with pizza.

Time Out Tempus closes temporarily as Chef Ben Grupe departs

“[Grupe] was brought on as Chief Operator and the face of Tempus at its inception, but it has always been owned by Peter Brickler,” the spokesperson says.

The restaurant’s owner, Brickler, is less well known. His Facebook profile notes that, in addition to his role at Tempus since April 2019, Brickler is an associate with the network marketing ecommerce company Bonvera. A LinkedIn profile shows that he was previously a bartender/manager at the Grand Center restaurant Lucha. The Riverfront Times reached out to Grupe, who confirmed that he was no longer involved with Tempus but did not comment further. n

“To me, that’s how creativity starts — when you start messing around,” Ely says. “Don Hinkle, who was our sous chef at Lucky Accomplice, was always say ing, ‘We should use those herb stems for this or that,’ and we just started messing around with this pizza idea. We were joking around about smashing them, so I ordered a panini press that night and said that we were go ing to try it. Maybe it will work; maybe it won’t work, but maybe there is something there. What we came up with wasn’t a pizza, so we thought, ‘Smash pizza sounds good. We’re going to call it that.’” Ely, Hinkle and Schuman had a feeling they were onto something with their smashed pizzas, but they weren’t necessarily planning on opening a restaurant dedicated to the form. However, when the opportunity arose to convert a va cant garage space in the same busi ness strip as Lucky Accomplice, the three decided to take the leap. “It was a crazy idea to put any thing here, but it went from ‘This would be fun; this might be crazy’ to ‘OK, let’s do it,’” Ely laughs. Looking at Press’s dining room, it’s difficult to imagine the mess Ely and company inherited when they took over the space. Formerly a garage, the storefront was filled with garbage, had various eleva tions to its oor and consisted of little more than a ramp that led to the rear alleyway. Doing most of the work themselves, Ely, Shu man and their team transformed the space into an inviting, modern spot. Gray concrete oors are a nod to the room’s former industri al life, but white, painted exposed brick, white globe light fixtures, sapphire-blue banquette cushions and an L-shaped bar covered in white penny tile and topped with charcoal-colored stone breathe fresh energy into the space.

| CHERYL BAEHR [FOOD NEWS]

A major shakeup is underway at one of St. Louis’ most acclaimed newer restaurants: Ben Grupe, a James Beard-nominated chef and culinary Olympian, is no longer involved with Tempus (4370 Manchester Avenue, 314-349-2878, tempusstl.com), the restaurant where he has served as the face and visionary since its inception. In the wake of his departure, the restaurant in the city’s Grove neighborhood has temporarily closed, though its owner says it will reopen in the coming weeks.

riverfronttimes.com SEPTEMBER 7-13, 2022 RIVERFRONT TIMES 27 [FIRST LOOK]

Written by CHERYL BAEHR C

Written by CHERYL BAEHR

Videira Wine Shop & Bar will open in Midtown this fall

Written by CHERYL BAEHR M ykel McIntosh was not planning on opening a wine bar. Though she’s been honing her beverage knowl edge in the industry for several years and has an infectious passion for wine, she was planning to use her gifts to support her friends, Ceaira Jackson and Misha Sampson, in their forthcoming venture, Nexus Cultural Cuisine & Craft Cocktails. Jackson and Sampson had other ideas. “My mom was diagnosed with cancer, so I was having these deep conversations with Misha and Ceaira,” McIntosh says. “They were telling me that they could not wait to open and put me in a position where I could help out and help them elevate everything. I told them I loved that kind of stuff, and they said they knew how much I love the industry. But then I said that I was thinking about opening a small wine and cheese shop one day, and they told me, ‘If anyone should do it, you should. Do it!’ Out of anybody in my life, they really pushed me to get to this point.”

Bottles will be available to drink there or to take home. In addition to wine, she’s also excited to offer a cocktail program. As for food, McIntosh plans on offering a limited menu of small plates, but she does not want to be overly ambitious at ﬁrst. Current dishes in the works include za’atar-seasoned pita with hummus, a burrata salad, charcuterie and cheeses.

Videira’s fellow tenants include Jackson and Sampson’s much-anticipated Nexus Cultural Cuisine & Craft Cocktails, as well as Anita Café & Bar. For McIntosh, Videira is the realization of a dream that began when she first started working in the industry in 2012. A psychologist by training, McIntosh found herself drawn to the hustle and bustle of the restaurant business, which dovetailed with her long-standing love for food and wine. It didn’t take long for her to be hooked. “I loved connecting with new people, forming relationships and giving custom ers an experience they couldn’t recreate at home,” McIntosh says. “Once I found that connection with food and wine — not just though the industry but through go ing out to eat and traveling as well — I found myself talking about it all the time and felt that I must be naturally good at it. I just started to have this thirst for knowl edge.”McIntosh dove headfirst into learn ing about wine, completing two different certification programs and developing her hospitality skills while working alongside Jackson and Sampson at the Central West End seafood restaurant Bait. With Videira, she’s excited to use what she’s learned as a foundation for building something to reflect her own unique voice. Though Videira is still under construction, McIntosh — together with her business partner, Marshall Darwish — is already excited with the way she sees things coming together. She describes the atmosphere as “a modern speakeasy but more lush,” noting that the decor will consist of black-and-white photos of old Hollywood, exposed brick, camel-colored leather barstools and high ceilings.

“In the beginning, we’re going to keep things small,” McIntosh says. “We want to be the place where people come after dinner for a cocktail, some cheese and to relax on the patio.” McIntosh is excited about sharing her passion for food and wine with the St. Louis community and feels lucky to be a part of all of the exciting things happening in Midtown. Because of its close proximity to the new Centene Stadium, as well as the other new business coming into the area, she looks forward to being a part of the action. “St. Louis is such a great community,” McIntosh says. “We love food, and we love alcohol. It’s really exciting. I’m nervous, but really, I just can’t wait.” n Mykel McIntosh is the owner of Videira. |

riverfronttimes.com SEPTEMBER 7-13, 2022 RIVERFRONT TIMES 29 [COMING SOON] Sip, Sip Hooray!

“It’s small and cozy, like a boutique wine bar but more elevated,” McIntosh says. Guests can expect a unique wine selection with a large number of rotating glass pours thanks to a special dispensing system that cuts down on spoilage and allows her to serve wine at temperatures appropriate for each varietal.

Now, those conversations have blossomed into Videira Wine Shop & Bar (2702 Locust Street), which McIntosh hopes to have open this fall. Videira, which means grapevine in Portuguese, will be located in Midtown and is part of a new food-focused development centered around the 2700 block of Locust Street.

COURTESY VIDEIRA WINE SHOP & BAR

These tenants of the business were instilled in him by Bender’s son, William Bender Jr. In 1977, LeGrand started working at Bend er’s and immediately gravitated to Bender Jr., who had taken over the shop from his father 20 years prior. LeGrand’s own father had passed away a few years before he started the job, and Bender Jr. took him under his wing, telling him the business’s history (it had the first frozen-food case west of the Mississippi), showing him the tricks of the trade and serving as a father figure to the then-teenage LeGrand.LeGrand soaked it all in. “I started working there as a bagger when I was 16, and we just hit it off,” LeGrand says. “The grocery business came easy to me because my mom and dad owned a confectionary called Pete’s Mar ket, and I was the one there selling penny candy. I was very familiar with working with the public, and I loved it. I loved seeing people and talking to people and know ingThougheverybody.”hehad a knack for the grocery business, LeGrand was passionate about horticulture and was pursuing studies in the field at St. Louis Community College-Mer amec while working at Bender’s. However, as his responsibilities increased at the store, he made himself indispensable — so much that when Bender Jr. retired in 1987, he sold the store to LeGrand and his brother, Joseph LeGrand. Though they kept the name the same for the first four years, they finally put their own stamp on the place in 1991 when they bought the building and christened it Le Grand’s Market & Catering. LeGrand has always understood the importance of maintaining Bender’s legacy, even while he and his brother made the place their own. Any changes — such as beefing up the catering business — have been gradual and are al ways in keeping with the market’s spirit. Perhaps the biggest addi tion is the store’s robust sandwich business, which started in 1998 thanks to some very St. Louisstyle“Weinspiration.startedit in 1998, during

LeGrand’s best seller is the Legend Club, which includes Salsalito turkey, pastrami, pepperoni, bacon, hot pepper cheese, Havarti, garlic cream cheese and red pepper sauce.

| ANDY PAULISSEN

Written by

Since 1937, LeGrand’s Market & Catering has found success by focusing on the people

LeGrand still displays the Tom Boy grocery chain sign above the store’s front entrance, carries a wide variety of high-quality meats that are cut to order and, most importantly to him, maintains warm, personal relationships with his customers.

ST. LOUIS STANDARDS 30

What PeopletheLove

“It was just cornfields and marsh when Cyrus Crane Willmore came in and made the subdivisions St. Louis Hills Estates and St. Louis Hills in 1935 or 1936,” LeGrand says. “Mr. [William] Bender had a store in the inner city and decided to build a store there — in ‘the county,’ which is what they called it then. His friends thought he was crazy to go that far out.”

While much has changed since Bender opened Bender’s Market — the combination grocery, butcher shop, cleaners and bakery that would go on to become LeGrand’s — its current owner is proud of what remains the same.

LeGrand’s Market & Cafe has been an institution since opening in 1937.

30 RIVERFRONT TIMES SEPTEMBER 7-13, 2022 riverfronttimes.com

CHERYL BAEHR LeGrand’s Market & Catering 4414 Donovan Avenue, 314-353-6128 Established 1937 J im LeGrand can’t help but laugh when he talks about how St. Louisans referred to St. Louis Hills when Bender’s Market, the store that would become LeGrand’s Market & Ca tering, opened in 1937.

| ANDY PAULISSEN

One thing LeGrand and his brother, who passed away six years ago, never considered changing was the market’s famous bratwurst. As LeGrand explains, the brats are the market’s defini tive offering, drawing in fans from all over the area; he’s so convinced of its quality that he often sends samples home with first-time cus tomers, convinced they will fall in love with the sausage and come back. They always do. “This is the story of the brat wurst — and it’s something not ev eryone knows,” LeGrand says. “In 1985, I was the head meat cutter, and Mr. Bender had ordered these spice packets that sat on top of the meat case. The idea was that cus tomers could buy the packets, add it to beef and pork, and make their own sausage. No one ever bought it … so we decided we had to do something with it. We decided to modify it so that it would work for bratwurst, so we added a few more ingredients, and that’s how it came to LeGrandbe.”believes his market’s bratwurst has such a cult follow ing because it’s different from oth er versions. Whereas the sausage is typically made with nutmeg, mace, dairy products and soy pro tein concentrate, LeGrand’s brat wurst has a more garlic-forward profile. Over the years, he and his team have added several more va rieties, each of which has gone on to become wildly popular as well, including one made with pine apple and brown sugar and an other spicy one that’s generously infused with jalapeños. Though he credits much of the market’s popularity to its brat wurst, sandwiches and quality meats, LeGrand understands that there is a deeper reason people continue to support his business. He is immensely grateful to his staff and believes that having the right people in his corner has helped him to succeed. Everyone who works at the shop — including his son, who is poised to take over the business when the time comes — is invested in making sure that anyone who walks through the front doors has a great experi ence, whether that means coming up with exciting new offerings or taking the time to chat with some one who might be unsure how to cook a particular cut of meat. Le Grand’s is a butcher counter, sure, but what the market really offers are“It’s,relationships.‘HiMary,hi Bob. How are your kids and grandma?’ and they are right back at me with the same question,” LeGrand says. “It’s all about customer service and treat ing people the way you want to be treated. A ‘hello’ and ‘thank you’ are massive. We love what we do here, and it feels really good to do something the people love.” n PEOPLE, PLACES & DISHES THAT ANCHOR STL’S FOOD SCENE

Jim LeGrand (right), who took over LeGrand’s in 1987, with his son Jimmy. | ANDY PAULISSEN Customers come for the meat but stay for the relationships they form with LeGrand. | ANDY PAULISSEN LeGrand’s is famous for its bratwurst. | ANDY PAULISSEN Linda and Roger Baltes have been shopping at the market for 45 years. | ANDY PAULISSEN

the Mark McGwire/Sammy Sosa home-run race,” LeGrand says. “We came up with the McGwire sandwich chased with Sosa sauce, and from there, we started adding sports-themed sandwiches. It just blew up. Our sandwich guy, Joe Scanlon, has been doing it here for almost 30 years, and he’s come up with practically every sand wich in the deli, as well as all the homemade sauces. He just has a way with doing things. He loves food and is an incredible cook.”

ICONIC

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riverfronttimes.com SEPTEMBER 7-13, 2022 RIVERFRONT TIMES 33

“I’m in support of legalization,” she says. “I wish the initiative was better, but it is what we’re given to work with right now.” Quade has concerns about the expungement provisions laid out in the amendment, as well as the fact that it will continue to allow the state to cap business licenses to grow and sell marijuana — a system she believes led to po tential corruption in the medical marijuana program. But even with those caveats, she’s a yes on Amendment 3. “It’s a starting point,” Quade says. “We definitely will have to make improvements if this passes.” Quade’s conundrum is not unique among Missouri Demo craticSupportleaders.for legalization and heartburn about the amendment’s details have led to soul-searching among Democratic arty officials across the state. The consterna tion is particularly acute among Black Democratic leaders.

Written by JASON HANCOCK

When she heard the news ear lier this month that a proposed constitutional amendment legal izing marijuana would appear on the November ballot, she thought her job might have just gotten a little easier.

This article was originally published by the Missouri Independent N early every day, Crystal Quade is somewhere in Mis souri knocking on doors. As Democratic leader in the Missouri House, Quade is hoping to help her party put a dent in the GOP supermajority that’s dominated the state legisla ture for more than a decade.

“I’m a yes for legalization,” St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones re cently tweeted, “but upon further study, it looks like the devil is in the details … literally and figura tively.”Rosetta Okohson, Jones’ cam paign manager, says the mayor remains concerned about a li censing system set up for medical marijuana that resulted in few successful applicants from Black and Brown communities. Since current license holders get first dibs on new recreational licenses, Okohson says Amendment 3 rein forces the inequity.

Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lu cas says he’s still undecided about the proposal, though he is “lean ingHeyes.”agrees with Quade that having legalization on the ballot should help Democrats’ chances in the fall. And he understands the concerns about the medical marijuana licensing process. But any electoral consider ations or licensing issues are out weighed, Lucas says, by the possi bility of making progress toward ending the “colossal failure” of America’s war on drugs that has been uniquely unjust in the Black community.“Idowant licenses to be more equitable. But I am not in the li cense game,” Lucas says. “I’m in the caring about the 500,000 people in Kansas City game. And I don’t want them busted for a small amount of pot if they find themselves in any community in the state of Missouri.”

34 RIVERFRONT TIMES SEPTEMBER 7-13, 2022 riverfronttimes.com [WEED LAWS]

Missouri Dems expect boost from marijuana campaign but split on whether it’s good policy

Jones also has concerns, Okoh son says, about a provision that would be enshrined in the state constitution allowing police to is sue citations for smoking marijua na in unapproved public areas, which critics have begun calling “stop and cite.” “When we are expanding police powers, and putting it in the con stitution,” Okohson says, “that’s always going to give Mayor Jones pause.”IfAmendment 3 is approved by voters, the only way to change it in the future would be to place an other constitutional amendment on the statewide ballot.

“I definitely think that it will bring out more voters,” Quade says of the marijuana proposal, which will appear on the ballot as Amendment 3. “It will bring out younger voters, and tradition ally, younger voters tend to vote Democratic. So that is looking like good news for us.” But asked what she thinks of the policy laid out in Amendment 3, Quade’s enthusiasm dims.

TIM BOMMEL/MISSOURI HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS

Faust Famineor

‘The baseline’ Amendment 3 asks voters wheth er to amend the Missouri Consti tution to remove bans on mari juana sales, consumption and manufacturing for adults over 21 years old, with some caveats. Representative Ashley Bland Manlove supports legalization but opposes Amendment 3. |

REEFERFRONT TIMES 34

“ I do want licenses to be more equitable. But I am not in the license game. I’m in the caring about the 500,000 people in Kansas City game. And I don’t want them busted for a small amount of pot if they ﬁnd themselves in any community in the state of Missouri.”

John Payne, campaign man ager for Legal Missouri, the orga nization behind the legalization amendment, downplays any elec toral impact the amendment could have for either political party. “It’s not really on our radar,” he says. “In other states that have had this on the ballot, it doesn’t seem to have a big effect on gen eralWhenturnout.”itcomes to winning over voters, Payne says the expunge ment provision is probably the amendment’s top selling point. “There are hundreds of thou sands of people who have been ar rested for marijuana possession in the state of Missouri in the last 3040 years,” Payne says. “All of them are going to be able to have those expunged as long as it’s not an of fense involving violence, sale to minors or driving under the in u ence. That’s pretty life changing.” Payne acknowledges many pro visions in the amendment, includ ing the expungement language, may not go far enough for some people. But he says the amend ment should be seen for what it is — a starting point. “This is the baseline,” Payne says. “This is not the final be all, end all on this subject.” Criticism of other aspects of the proposal, such as a provision al lowing law enforcement to issue citations for public use of mari juana, are “being done in bad faith,” Payne says. “It is already illegal to consume marijuana in public,” he says. “You’re going to get charged with what you have on you, which would be a misdemeanor under state law at the very least.” Payne says Amendment 3 makes illegal public consumption an in fraction, subject to a civil penalty and a fine. “We are reducing the penalty,” he says. But critics argue the goal of legalization should not be to re duce penalties. It should be to end them. And they fear enshrining a new infraction in the constitution will lead to further racial profiling and excessive use of force by law enforcement.“Nobodywants to implement ‘stop and cite’ because we know that,” says state Representative Ashley Bland Manlove, a Kansas City Democrat and chair of the Missouri Legislative Black Caucus.

In November 2019, a federal grand jury demanded the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services turn over all records pertaining to medical marijuana license applications of four indi viduals by the following January.

“I’m not gonna say that every single decision by the department was correct,” he says. “There’s ob viously been times that I’ve dis agreed with things they’ve done. But by and large, I think they have implemented a very successful program and it is a very competi tive market.” n

Soon after, the state legislature convened, and in the weeks that followed, FBI agents began inter viewing lawmakers, lobbyists and staff. Most questions focused on Steve Tilley, a lobbyist and close adviser to Governor Mike Parson who represents numerous clients in the medical marijuana indus try, including the Missouri Medi cal Cannabis Trade Association.

riverfronttimes.com SEPTEMBER 7-13, 2022 RIVERFRONT TIMES 35

In the current medical marijua na program, the state has issued around 200 dispensary and 65 cul tivation licenses.

The amendment would also cre ate a “microlicensing” program that would be granted through a lottery process. Applicants must be a resident from a ZIP code with high marijuana incarceration rates or meet other such requirements.

The Independent’s Rebecca Rivas contributed to this story.

The amendment includes auto matic expungement for certain people who have nonviolent mar ijuana-related offenses on their record. People who are still in carcerated would have to petition the courts to be released and have their records expunged.

“New York. Ferguson. Kansas City. We know that.” Despite the criticism, including being denounced as “deceitful” by the state’s largest Black newspa per, proponents of the amendment — which includes groups like the ACLU of Missouri and the St. Louis chapter of the NAACP — are opti mistic about its chances this fall. “We know there is still work to do,” Payne says. “But we know that this is an issue that is supported by a solid majority of Missouri voters, so we’re feeling good about our odds going into November.” FBI scrutiny Reports of irregularities in how li cense applications were scored, as well as allegations that con icts of interest within the Department of Health and Senior Services and a private company hired to score applications, have fueled criti cism of the medical marijuana program and inspired a House oversight committee probe. With legalization on the ho rizon, the industry has also en dured rumblings about federal law enforcement scrutiny, most recently in the closing weeks of the 2022 legislative session. The FBI interviewed a handful of lawmakers and legislative staff about lobbying efforts related to a bill that would have legalized recreational use without license caps. The bill, which was opposed by the medical marijuana indus try, cleared a pair of committees but was never debated by the full House before the legislature ad journed.Among those interviewed by federal law enforcement were state Representative Nick Schroer, a St. Charles County Republican who successfully added a poisonpill amendment to the marijuana legalization bill barring transgen der women from accessing nointerest loans for women-owned cannabisSchroerbusinesses.didnotrespond to re quests for comment by the Independent Also interviewed was House Ma jority Leader Dean Plocher, who decided during the final weeks of the legislative session not to bring the legalization bill up for debate. Plocher declined to comment about his conversation with the FBI.“Idon’t discuss private conversa tions with anybody,” Plocher says. “I just don’t think it’s right to do.”

Campbell, who revealed the FBI questioning as part of a sworn de position in a civil lawsuit unrelat ed to marijuana, was an investor in a company seeking licenses to cultivate and sell medical canna bis. Tilley served for a time as that company’s lobbyist. Payne defends how Missouri has implemented medical mari juana, saying a tightly regulated program has avoided problems some states have seen, such as a growing black market.

The department received two more federal grand jury subpoe nas in 2020. All three subpoenas that DHSS has turned over to the media were redacted at the request of the fed eral government to obscure the records being sought by law en forcement.Inthesummer of 2021, a Kan sas businessman named Joseph Campbell was questioned by fed eral law enforcement about mari juana licensing in Missouri.

It would create a regulated mar ket where, just like for medical marijuana, the state would have the authority to cap the number of licenses it issues to grow and sell cannabis. Those with a cur rent medical marijuana business license would be first in line to get recreational licenses.

Asked if he spoke with any lob byists about the legalization bill, Plocher said he heard from all sides of the issue, which he added was typical on nearly every bill that ends up on the House debate calendar.TheMay interviews were just the latest example of law enforce ment interest in Missouri’s mari juana industry.

MUSIC 36

Hiatus Kaiyote Jazz-funk act Hiatus Kaiyote is traveling nearly 10,000 miles to St. Louis from its hometown Melbourne, Australia — the least you can do is hear them out. Not that that’s a big ask; since play ing its first gig in 2011, the group has swiftly become a critical dar ling, with such luminaries as Ani mal Collective, Dirty Projectors, Erykah Badu, Questlove and even the late Prince counting them selves as fans. The band’s lush, spacey instrumentals, replete with elements from across the musical spectrum including elec tronica, R&B and tropicália, pair beautifully with singer Nai Palm’s exquisitely soulful vocals, and its latest, 2021’s Mood Valiant, even garnered the group a Grammy nomination in the Best Progres sive R&B Album category. Unsur prisingly, sampling Hiatus Kai yote songs has become a common practice in the world of hip-hop, and the band has seen its work borrowed by such superstars as Anderson .Paak, Kendrick La mar, Drake and Beyoncé in recent years. Catch the highly buzzed act’s set at 5:50 p.m. Saturday on the Washington Avenue Stage. Keyon Harrold presents “Jazz & The Birth of Hip Hop” feat. Black Milk, Chris “Daddy” Dave, Alex Isley & More ou’d be hard pressed to find an artist more qualified to present a show focused on jazz’s inextri cable in uence on hip-hop than Keyon Harrold. The trumpeter and singer-songwriter has a ca George Porter Jr. & Dumpstaphunk. |

For the second annual festival, or ganizers tapped more than 50 acts to play across four outdoor stages over two days, with top-notch per formers including Erykah Badu and Gary Clark Jr. topping the bill. While those acts are no-brainers, digging further into the lineup can be dizzying, with an array of talent that is world-class in nature and staggering in its ambition.

Discover six can’t-miss acts on this weekend’s star-studded Music at the Intersection lineup

36 RIVERFRONT TIMES SEPTEMBER 7-13, 2022 riverfronttimes.com [MUSIC]

Written by DANIEL HILL M usic at the Intersection is bringing an embarrass ment of riches to St. Lou is–based music lovers this weekend.

Foxing Foxing is somewhat of an outlier on Music at the Intersection’s line up. The vast majority of the acts playing the festival dabble in jazz, blues, funk, soul and roots music, with a bit of hip-hop thrown in for good measure, while Foxing works more in the world of indie rock. Initially finding success with its 2013 album The Albatross, the St. Louis act has one-upped itself with each new release, culminating in last year’s stunning Draw Down the Moon. The critically acclaimed album is still marked by the emo intensity of the band’s early work but also incorporates elements of danceable synth-pop and huge, arena-rock choruses, bringing a fully eshed-out sound and a level of conceptual maturity that has made the group one of the hottest acts in all of St. Louis. The ambition of that album was matched only by its rollout, which saw the group working with Emmy-, Tony- and Grammy-award-winning actor An dré De Shields on a music video for its title track; recording a concert film at the Grandel that was only available to stream for 24 hours upon its release; and even creating a series of Dungeons & Dragonsstyle puzzles that unlocked exclu sive content through the band’s website. It’s fitting, then, that ox ing be a part of the most ambitious music festival the city has to offer, and the group will surely walk away from this show with a slew of new fans who may not have caught them otherwise. Expect the unexpected during the band’s 1:45 p.m. set on the Washington Avenue Stage on Saturday.

JEFF FARSAI Erykah Badu. | COURTESY THE ARTIST NandoSTL. | LENORESLENS

See You at Crossroadsthe

But have no fear: RFT is here to help. Here we have a list of six can’t-miss acts performing at the festival this year. They are our picks for the most interesting, most groovy, most unexpected and the most at-out cool. These are legendary artists from around the country, across the globe and from our own backyard, and they all have one thing in common — they’re here to make you dance. It’d be best not to let them down. NandoSTL NandoSTL came about his success honestly, even humbly. The St. Louis rapper started writing and performing his own music in 2018 as little more than a creative out let, a way to break up his routine and keep things fresh. A family man with children and a career, he didn’t even bother to promote his debut, 2018’s Good Vibes EP. But talent like Nando’s can’t be kept secret for long. Soon the budding artist was a full- edged social media sensation, thanks to the viral success of standout tracks “I Don’t Even Smoke” and “All Night Long.” Nando followed up with the 2019 single “Outside,” which earned him the People’s Choice award at 2020’s SlumFest, where he was also named the Best New Artist. It’s easy to see why Nando’s music resonates with so many people; his sound is re freshing and expansive, with live instrumentation and elements of funk, soul and gospel undergird ing a poetic, storytelling approach to his vocals. Now a rising star in his own right, Nando has since played multiple sold-out shows in his hometown, released another banger with 2020’s critically ac claimed Bamboo EP and is set to drop his debut full-length this year, featuring a track with none other than the Ghost of Freaknik himself, rapper T-Pain. See what all the fuss is about during his Sat urday set at 1:10 p.m. on the Field Stage.

SAMANTHA WHITEHEAD

The New Orleans sound comes to St. Louis in a big way this week end, as the Big Easy sends two of its finest acts up the Mississippi to pay homage to the Meters, who alongside James Brown are wide ly credited among the originators of funk music. There’s certainly no one better suited to perform such a tribute. George Porter Jr. is a New Orleans legend, a crack bass player and vocalist who was a founding member of the Meters when he was still in his teens. Dumpstaphunk is meanwhile one of NOLA’s most celebrated mod ern funk acts, serving up filthy, ass-shaking grooves and bottom less low end, and featuring two members who are blood-related to the late Meters frontman Art Neville. Expect a high-energy set of swinging sounds and colossal grooves as the hybrid group digs into the Meters’ storied catalog, with funk classics “Cissy Strut” and “Look-Ka Py Py” serving as the tip of the iceberg. Get ready to get all the way down during the band’s Sunday performance at 5:15 p.m. on the Washington Avenue Stage.

If you happened to catch the dra matic reboot of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air from earlier this year, then you are already familiar with the work of Robert Glasper and Terrace Martin. The duo, who have known each other since they met at jazz camp in 1996, teamed up to score that project, and also worked together in the super group Dinner Party, along with Kamasi Washington and 9th Won der. Perhaps most notably, they also worked together on Kendrick Lamar’s groundbreaking To Pimp a utter album, with Glasper lending his keyboard and piano skills to five songs and Martin popping up on nearly every track as a producer and instrumental ist, playing horns, keyboards, vo coder and the alto sax. It makes sense that they would collaborate so frequently — their chemistry is undeniable, and their musical chops are legendary, with four Grammy wins and a double-digit number of nominations between the two of them. Witness modern jazz royalty in the esh on Sun day during their 7 p.m. set at the Washington Avenue Stage. n Music at the Intersection takes place in the Grand Center Arts Dis trict on Saturday, September 10, and Sunday, September 11. Tick ets range from $69 to $129, with VIP options that can go as high as $650. For the full schedule and ticket information, visit musicat theintersection.org. Terrace Martin. |

George Porter Jr. & Dumpstaphunk perform the Meters

riverfronttimes.com SEPTEMBER 7-13, 2022 RIVERFRONT TIMES 37 THE AUSTRALIANPINKFLOYDSHOWSat,Sept10 40TH ANNIVERSARYTOUR CHRISTOPHERCROSSFri,Sept16TROMBONESHORTY&ORLEANSAVENUEThurs,Sept22JUDAH&THELION PLUS SMALLPOOLS Fri, Sept 23 KSHE KLASSIC CAR SHOW & CONCERT FEAT. JACKYL & PEARCYSTEPHENOFRATTSUN,SEPT25WHEELERWALKER,JR.SAT,OCT1 NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLING AUTHOR RACHELHOLLIS RACH TALK LIVE! Sat, Oct KILLER8QUEEN A TRIBUTE TO QUEEN FEAT. PATRICK MYERS AS FREDDIE MERCURY Wed, Oct 12 105.7 THE POINT PRESENTS: ASPHALT MEADOWS TOUR DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE PLUS LOW THURS, OCT 13 MON,ADAMSRYANOCT17 reer that has taken him all the way to the White House, where he performed with rapper Common as part of NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert series. He’s worked with everyone from Jay-Z to Mobb Deep to 50 Cent to Big K.R.I.T. Additionally, the Ferguson native serves as the artistic adviser for Jazz St. Louis, a position he’s slated to hold until 2024. And the artists he’s brought along for the ride are equally up to the task. There’s Detroit rapper Black Milk, whose credits include work with Slum Village, J Dilla and Pharoahe Monch; there’s Houston’s Chris “Daddy” Dave, a first-call session musician who has lent his percussive skills to everyone from Raphael Saadiq to D’Angelo to PJ Morton; and of course there’s New Jersey singersongwriter Alex Isley, daughter of Isley Brother Ernie Isley and col laborator with artists including Scarface, Tank and the Bangas, and 9th Wonder. It’s a murderers’ row of top-notch jazz and hip-hop talent, and it’s sure to be one of the standouts of the entire weekend. Be prepared to be taken to school during the group’s 6:15 p.m. Sat urday set on the Field Stage.

Robert Glasper with special guest Terrace Martin

38 RIVERFRONT TIMES SEPTEMBER 7-13, 2022 riverfronttimes.com MUNCHIE MONDAY: 15% o edibles including: beverages, tinctures, and topicals. 25% o Mama J’s TOP SHELF TUESDAY: 15% o all eighths 45 and above, corresponding grams too. Teal 25% o WAXY WEDNESDAY: 15% o concentrates, 25% o Gas Carts; Rainbow and Notorious 25% o TWISTED THURSDAY: 15% o all Prerolls; AiroPro 25% o , Vertical 25% o FUN FRIDAY: 15% o everything; 25% o Heya STOCKUP SATURDAY: 25% o Beach; Buy any eighth 40 and above get a Heya or Mama J’s eighth 40% o ; Vivid 25% o SUNDAY - SPEND 5% o for 20$- 45$, 10% o for 45$-75$, 15% o ; MORE, SAVE MORE: 75$ and above - Curador Live Resin Pens 25% o , Farmer G 25% o FIRST TIME PATIENT DEALS 1st visit: 30% o entire store, 40% o in house brands 2nd visit: 25% o entire store, 30% o in house brands 3rd visit: 20% o entire store, 25% o in house brands 4th visit: 15% o entire store, 20% o in house brands “Medical decisions should not be made based on advertising. Consult a physician on the beneﬁts and risks of a particular medical marijuana products”

riverfronttimes.com SEPTEMBER 7-13, 2022 RIVERFRONT TIMES 39 [DOCUMENTARY]

First, the sweater that the Jane Doe was found in had been sent to a psychic in Florida and never returned. Second, the body had been buried in Washington Park Cemetery, but when investigators went to exhume her in 2013, the grave couldn’t be found. (Eventu ally historians helped identify the correct grave.) Sosa dug into these incidents, discovering a previously un known receipt from the psychic that implies the sweater was lost in the mail. He also believes that Jane Doe’s body might have been purposefully put to rest without proper markings to discourage grave robbers. But he found himself ba ed by a piece of commonly reported in formation: that Jane Doe had spina bifida, a birth defect where a por tion of the spinal cord is exposed.

FILM 39

Our JaneLittleDoe

St. Louis Jane Doe was discovered here at 5635 Clemens Avenue. | COURTESY 314 BIRD STUDIOS

He began the process by reach ing out to the police, feeling like he’d struck gold when he set up an interview with Joe Burgoon, a cold-case investigator for St. Louis County Police and one of the origi nal detectives on the case, thanks to a chance connection. “The head of homicide actually watched my first one, and then they wanted to be a part of it,” Sosa says, explaining he’d first produced an hourlong piece with four interviews before diving into the full documentary, which now runs over two hours. Sosa researched all the preexist ing reporting, noting the inconsis tencies among accounts and how they con icted with Burgoon’s ac count of the events. “So that changed my mentality,” he says. “[It led me to] put a story together with a timeline and ac tual verified information.” Several setbacks have come to define the Little Jane Doe case over the years. Two stand out starkly.

Edrar “Bird” Sosa learned about the gruesome cold case at 10. | COURTESY 314 BIRD STUDIOS

“If you read any reports, people just made up … that she had spina bifida occulta,” Sosa says. “I have the autopsy myself. It was never in the autopsy.” The documentary also features CeCe Moore, a genetic genealogist who frequently works with the police. Though he can’t yet fully share their findings, Sosa believes that Moore and the police are get ting close to discovering the iden tity of Jane Doe. In total, the documentary fea tures interviews with eight indi viduals who are either close to the case or are experts in some relevant area related to it. While Sosa is glad to be sharing the fin ished product with the public, he says he could have kept digging into the details and adding on to the film. “Honestly,” he says, “I don’t know that I will ever be done until she’s identified.” n

A documentarian sets out to solve a mystery that has haunted St. Louis for decades Written by JESSICA ROGEN E drar “Bird” Sosa vividly re members the day he first heard about the headless child who would go on to be come St. Louis’ most notori ous cold case. But it wasn’t cold yet. It was 1983, and Sosa was only about 10 years old, growing up in north St. Louis not too far from the house where a girl’s mutilated body had been“Myfound.mom told me, ‘You have to be in before it gets dark because they’re cutting little kids’ heads off now,’” he says. “That stuck with me … I didn’t understand it.” The girl’s remains still have not been identified, something that for many is as shocking as the crimeSosa’sitself.mother took him, as so many parents did in those days, to the mall to get fingerprinted and have his blood type taken. But that wasn’t the end of it for the two. Over the years, they’d talk new developments and wonder who Jane Doe really was. But Sosa wasn’t satisfied with talk. This month, he is releas ing Our Precious Hope Revisited: St. Louis’ Little Jane Doe, a docu mentary about the case from his production company 314 Bird Stu dios. That documentary will be available on streaming services and has been accepted into film festivals, including the Jackson Film Festival and the Chicago In die ilm Awards. In the film, Sosa has not only covered old ground but also clarified misconceptions and applied new advances in criminology, such as forensic ge nealogy, to try and discover the victim’s identity. The St. Louis Jane Doe cold case has fascinated and horrified St. Louisans for almost 40 years. It starts in February 1983 in the basement of 5635 Clemens Av enue, a then-vacant apartment building in northwest St. Louis about a mile north of the Delmar Loop. Two men entered with the intent of finding a metal pipe that they said they intended to use to repair a car. But instead, they discovered the headless body of a young Black girl. She wore only a yellow sweater and had her hands bound behind her back. Police searched for her head and cross-referenced missing-persons reports to no avail. They couldn’t discover her identity and, eventually, the case went cold. In 2004, the Riverfront Times published a feature, “The Case That Haunts,” on the Jane Doe, who has also garnered nicknames such as Hope, Precious Hope and the Little Jane Doe. Sosa says that, almost 20 years ago, the piece helped renew his interest in the case. Still, the documentary might not have come to be. In 2016, his mother passed away, and he told himself he should follow through and finally make it. Then, in March of 2021, he got a bad case of“ICOVID-19.toldmyself if I live, I was go ing to make this documentary,” Sosa says. “I got out [of the hos pital] after about six weeks. I sold my Mercedes, bought all the equipment for it and said, ‘I’m go ing to make it.’” Sosa was not a filmmaker he worked primarily in hotel man agement. But he wasn’t an entire ly unlikely candidate to make the documentary. He holds an under graduate degree in criminology and criminal justice from the Uni versity of Missouri-St. Louis.

The Arts Mean Business

CULTURE 40 WEDNESDAY, 9/7/22 DREW LANCE 4:30PM FREE SHOW! SEAN CANAN’S VOODOO PLAYERS PRESENTS: VOODOO PIGPEN! 9PM THURSDAY, 9/8/22 PIERCE CRASK & FRIENDS 3PM FREE SHOW! COTTON CHOPS 9PM FREE SHOW! FRIDAY, 9/9/22 THE GROOVELINER 10PM SATURDAY, 9/10/22 ARCH CITY SLINGERS 1PM FREE SHOW! THE BROCK WALKER BAND 10PM SUNDAY, 9/11/22 DREW LANCE & FRIENDS 2PM FREE SHOW! MONDAY, 9/12/22 BUTCH MOORE 5PM FREE SHOW! SOULARD BLUES BAND 9PM TUESDAY, 9/13/22 CARL BANKS 4PM FREE SHOW! ANDREW DAHLE 9PM ORDER ONLINE FOR CURBSIDE PICKUP! MONDAY-SATURDAY 11AM-9:30PM SUNDAY 11AM-8:30PM HAPPYSPECIALSHOUR MONDAY-FRIDAY 11AM-4PM

40 RIVERFRONT TIMES SEPTEMBER 7-13, 2022 riverfronttimes.com

Theevents.impact of the arts includes not only money spent directly on the arts but those funds that go toward everything from food, transportation and lodging for tourists to printing costs for programs to accountants to keep the books, and beyond.

Touring shows such as Hadestown (above) bring in tourists and revenue to the city. |

[ECONOMIC IMPACT]

Written by JESSICA ROGEN The arts have a real, though often un quantifiable, impact on the lives of those in the greater St. Louis region. A new study, however, seeks to quantify the economic impact of the arts industry. This week, the Regional Arts Commis sion of St. Louis announced that it was partnering with national arts advocacy organization Americans for the Arts on the Arts and Economic Prosperity Study 6, also known as AEP6. The study, which seeks to measure the economic impact of the U.S. nonprofit arts and culture in dustry, launches locally this month and will produce results in September 2023. As one of many study partners, RAC will coordinate survey gathering in the region. “We are an arts community, we are an arts industry and we’re going to talk about that differently,” said Randy Cohen, vice president of research at Americans for the Arts, while speaking to a group of arts ad ministrators at a kickoff event last week. “The arts inspire us, they create commu nities that we want to live in and work in … I want to challenge you to think about the arts not only as a charity but as an indus try that supports jobs, one that generates government revenue, one that is a corner stone of Resultstourism.”fromthe study will primarily be useful as advocacy tools for arts organizations to demonstrate the value of the arts and the power of investing in them, Cohen said. St. Louis has taken part in all the Americans for the Arts surveys, which began in 1994 and typically are conducted every five years. AEP6 was delayed due to the pandemic.

For this latest survey, RAC has decided to change its methodology to try and capture a broader array of arts organizations as survey respondents, with special attention paid to organizations that serve the BIPOC community in the region. For the previous iteration, AEP5, RAC found 285 area arts organizations qualified for the survey, but only 163 of those completed it. For this survey, the commission has identified more than 734 qualifying arts orgs. Despite the relatively smaller population size of the previous survey, AEP5 found that the arts have a significant fiscal impact in St. Louis. At that time, arts and culture organiza tions supported 19,129 full-time-equiva lent jobs in the region and created $476 million in household income and $57.8 million in local and state government reve nue. In addition, arts events brought in outof-state tourists, who spent 120 percent more than locals who were also attending arts

A study from the Regional Arts Commission and Americans for the Arts aims to show that arts can have a big economic impact

KEVIN BERNE

“What it does is changes the conversation, right?” Cohen said of the results. “We have to be relentless in our messaging. We’ve got to tell these stories again and again.”

OK, I’m on board. This will show how evil this place is because the new love af peror and put lives in danger. Well, not quite: While everyone does ﬁnd out about the affair, the reaction is mostly a shrug. But Roshni keeps seeing ghosts, and sometimes when she opens a door in the palace, she will be transported to a magi cal lake and mountains. In this fantasy world, she and Mariyam can get frisky (and they do), and surely ﬁguring out what this world is, who these ghosts are, is go ing to be critical to the story? Wrong again. In the end, the story is mainly about Noorah, the emperor’s daughter. She is actually running the kingdom behind her father’s back. She wants to step out from her father’s shadow and plans a coup.

riverfronttimes.com SEPTEMBER 7-13, 2022 RIVERFRONT TIMES 41

Written by ROSALIND EARLY House of Joy Written by Madhuri Shekar and directed by Lavina Jadhwani. Presented by the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis through Sunday, Septem ber 18. Showtimes vary. Tickets $23 to $92. H ouse of Joy, a new play at the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis by Madhuri Shekar, seems to be throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks: a ghost story, a love story, political intrigue, fantasy, bawdy jokes, ﬁght sequences, an assassination. As you can imagine, with that many different plot points, not much sticks. The play opens on Roshni (played by Tina Muñoz Pandya), who recently beat a man to death when he tried to hurt her sister. She’s approached by Salima (Omer Abbas Salem) about becoming a harem guard in the House of Joy, an allfemale cloister where the empire’s royal womenRoshnilive.agrees and discovers the magical house will let women enter but not leave and won’t let men enter at all, except the emperor. The only other person who is free to come and go as they wish is Salima, who is both boy and girl and the steward of the house. Hmm, a house you can’t leave. That seems sinister. But instead of becoming an escape narrative, the play veers in a completely different direction when Roshni falls in love with the emperor’s young, new bride Mariyam (Emily Marso).

So it makes sense that the play ends with Hamida facing a terrible choice between kingdom and friendship as the House of Joy crumbles around her. n

Tina Muñoz Pandya as Roshni in the Rep’s House of Joy.

The only hiccup is that Mariyam, the emperor’s young wife, just gave birth to a boy — who will inherit the throne. Hmm, OK. I’m still on board, but the political intrigue is probably the least interesting thread to follow in all of this.

| COURTESY THE REP

Still, the show is an interesting watch, beneﬁting from a beautiful set (from Dahlia Al-Habieli) — which cleverly transitions through the many scene changes with only the use of video display and a few well-placed props — and beautiful costumes (from Oona Natesan).

A Puzzling House e Rep’s House of Joy looks dazzling but has a few plot problems

We are inside the House of Joy, following the friendships; the ﬁghts; the games of fuck, marry, kill. So introducing a political intrigue about the wider kingdom that we’ve only been made vaguely aware of seems like a waste of all the storylines within the house itself.

Plus, in developing relationships — between friends, between master and servant, between lovers — is where Shekar really shines. The central relationship of the play is Roshni’s friendship with Hamida (Sumi Yu), which begins with a joyful, playful chemistry, but becomes strained and distant as Roshni spends more time with Mariyam and Hamida gets pulled into Noorah’s political intrigue.

TWENTY ONE PILOTS: 8 p.m., 39.50-$129.50. Enterprise Center, 1401 Clark Ave., St. Louis, 314-241-1888.SUNDAY11

DRAGGED UNDER: w/ Rivals, Aryia, Glasslands 8 p.m. The Ready Room, 4140 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929.

MUSIC AT THE INTERSECTION NIGHT 2: w/ Gary Clark Jr., Robert Glasper and many more 11:30 a.m., $79-$650. Grandel Theatre, 3610 Grandel Square, St. Louis, 314-533-0367.

42 RIVERFRONT TIMES SEPTEMBER 7-13, 2022 riverfronttimes.com

PIERCE CRASK: 7:30 p.m., free. The Frisco Barroom, 8110 Big Bend Blvd., Webster Groves, FRIDAY314-455-1090.9 AS THE CROW FLIES: 7:30 p.m., free. The Frisco Barroom, 8110 Big Bend Blvd., Webster Groves, 314-455-1090. BILLYE3: 7 p.m., free. Das Bevo Biergarten, 4749 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-224-5521. CHARLES WESLEY GODWIN: 8 p.m., $10/$15. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505. FEVER PITCH: 8 p.m., $12. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

PI’ERRE BOURNE: 8 p.m., $25-$30. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. SPITER: w/ Duskseeker, Trashgoat 8 p.m., $15. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, TUESDAY314-328-2309. 13 CRYWANK + CHASTITY: w/ Todd Moved To Portland 7 p.m., $15. The Ready Room, 4140 Manchester Ave, St. Louis, 314-833-3929.

TORY SILVER: w/ Tidal Volume, Coral Moons 7:30 p.m., $10. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309.

MONDAY NIGHT REVIEW: w/ Tim, Danny and Randy 7 p.m., free. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565.

LUKE BRYAN: w/ Mitchell Tenpenny, Riley Green 8 p.m., $36+. Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre, I-70 & Earth City Expwy., Maryland Heights, 314-298-9944. MICHAEL BOLTON: 8 p.m., TBA. Lindenwood University’s J. Scheidegger Center for the Arts, 2300 W. Clay St., St. Charles, 636-949-4433.

MICHAEL BUBLÉ: 8 p.m., $65-$145. Enterprise Center, 1401 Clark Ave., St. Louis, 314-241-1888.

JAMEY JOHNSON: w/ Blackberry Smoke 8 p.m., $24.50-$79.50. St. Louis Music Park, 750 Casino Center Dr., Maryland Heights, 314-451-2244.

OUTRUN THE FALL: 8 p.m., $12. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050. POLO G: 8 p.m., $44.50-$74.50. Chaifetz Arena, 1 S. Compton Ave., St. Louis, 314-977-5000.

Blueberry Hill’s 50th Anniversary Party w/ Googolplexia, Still Animals 7 p.m. ursday, September 8. Blueberry Hill’s Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Boulevard. Free. 314-727-4444. Blueberry Hill might be a bonaﬁde musi cal institution in St. Louis in 2022, but the journey to its hallowed status happened slowly over the course of 50 years, and with the support of many local bands and music fans. It’s easy to forget that the now multi-level food and concert hub started off with little more than a hot dog machine and an impressive selection of beer for its time. Before live music became a pil lar of the business model in the mid-’80s, Blueberry Hill was maybe best known for its Seeburg Jukebox, which saw a rotating selection straight from owner Joe Edwards’ massive record collection that, at the time, spanned more than 30,000 pieces of vinyl. Then came the Elvis Room in 1985, which kickstarted Blueberry Hill’s ﬁrst serious foray into live music, culminating with the grand opening of the Duck Room in 1997.

Locals Only: St. Louis’ own Still Animals will provide a live soundtrack to the festivities. If you haven’t yet heard of the local DIY rock outﬁt, start with Mind Water, an excellent tape released at the tail end of 2021 that was recorded at one of the city’s best punk venues, the Sinkhole. —Joseph Hess

MELEE ON THE MISSISSIPPI: 10:30 p.m., $15. Grandel Theatre, 3610 Grandel Square, St. Louis, 314-533-0367. MISPLACED RELIGION: w/ Feral Vices, Gold Steps, When the Sun Sets 8 p.m., $10. The Heavy Anchor, 5226 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-352-5226.

SHITSTORMTROOPER: w/ Daybringer, Willem Dafrend 7:30 p.m., $10. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309.

[CRITIC’S PICK]

INTERPOL: w/ Spoon, the Goon Sax 7 p.m., $31.50-$225. Stifel Theatre, 1400 Market St, St. Louis, 314-499-7600. JAMPACT: 6 p.m., $10. The Attic Music Bar, 4247 S. Kingshighway, 2nd oor, St. Louis, 14- 7 -5 1 . LIDA UNA: 8 p.m., $10. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444.

SATURDAY 10 THE AUSTRALIAN PINK FLOYD SHOW: 8 p.m., $39.50. The Factory, 17105 N Outer 40 Rd, Chesterfield, 14-42 -8500. BANGARANG: 7 p.m., free. Steve’s Hot Dogs, 3145 South Grand, St. Louis. BORIS: w/ Nothing 8 p.m., $25. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. THE FOUR HORSEMEN: 7 p.m., $15-$25. Pop’s Nightclub, 401 Monsanto Ave., East St. Louis, 618-274-6720. THE GASLIGHT SQUARES: 7:30 p.m., free. The Frisco Barroom, 8110 Big Bend Blvd., Webster Groves, 314-455-1090.

THURSDAY 8 THE DEFEATED COUNTY: w/ Let’s Not 8 p.m., $10. The Heavy Anchor, 5226 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-352-5226.

THE RADIO BUZZKILLS: w/ Modern Angst, Darling Skye, the Complaint Line 7 p.m., $10. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309. RAISE THE ROOF: 7 p.m., $25-$35. Lucas Schoolhouse, 1220 Allen Ave., St. Louis, 314-920-1058. SHERIE WHITE: 7:30 p.m., $20. Blue Strawberry Showroom & Lounge, 364 N Boyle Ave, St. Louis, 314-256-1745. THEM COULEE BOYS: 8 p.m., $15. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

PORKCHOP EXPRESS: 6:30 p.m., $10. The Attic Music Bar, 4247 S. Kingshighway, 2nd oor, St. Louis, 314-376-5313.

HOOTEN HALLERS: w/ Glory ‘n Perfection 7 p.m., $15. The Golden Record, 2720 Cherokee Street, St. Louis, N/A. HUNTER PEEBLES AND BAND: 7 p.m., free. Das Bevo Biergarten, 4749 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-224-5521. MALEVICH: w/ Warheadd, Cloud Machine 7:30 p.m., $10. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309. MICHELLE: 8 p.m., $17/$20. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989. NATE SMITH: w/ Karley Scott Collins 8 p.m., $12$15. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505.

WEDNESDAY 13: 7 p.m., $20-$100. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050. YOLA: w/ Jac Ross 8 p.m., $27.50/$32.50. The Pag eant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

MUSIC AT THE INTERSECTION NIGHT 1: w/ Erykah Badu, Keyon Harrold and many more 12:30 p.m., $79-$650. Grandel Theatre, 3610 Grandel Square, St. Louis, 314-533-0367.

YES WE CAN: A TRIBUTE TO ALLEN TOUSSAINT: 8 p.m., $20. Grandel Theatre, 3610 Grandel Square, St. Louis, 314-533-0367.

What better way to celebrate one of the river city’s many musical landmarks than with a huge blowout party hosted by our city’s very own human a cappella jukebox Googolplexia, a.k.a. Rob Severson? Sure, a case could be made for shutting down Delmar and plopping a big stage right in the middle of the street, but this event opts for a more humble vibe with wholesome activities such as a photo booth, trivia and a cake and champagne toast. A time cap sule from 2012 will be opened and a new one will be constructed — to be opened in 10 years, of course. What we now see as a historic building on one of the region’s busiest strips had humble beginnings, and that alone is reason enough to celebrate Blueberry Hill’s growth over the years, which has extended to the rest of the Loop.

MONDAY 12 COMEDY SHIPWRECK: 9 p.m., free. The Heavy An chor, 5226 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-352-5226.

OUT EVERY NIGHT 42

FARSHID, DAVE BLACK & SANDY: 8 p.m., $15-$20. Joe’s Cafe, 6014 Kingsbury Ave, St. Louis.

VISTA KICKS: w/ Little Cowboy 9 p.m., $17. The Golden Record, 2720 Cherokee Street, St. Louis.

THE DEAL: noon, free. Das Bevo Biergarten, 4749 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-224-5521. MARSH COBB: 4 p.m., $20. Blue Strawberry Showroom & Lounge, 364 N Boyle Ave, St. Louis, 314-256-1745.

DESCENDENTS: w/ H20, Surfbort 8 p.m., $40-$45. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. EMPEROR X: 8 p.m., $12-$15. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309.

SECRET WALLS: 7:30 p.m., $25-$99. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

E ach week, we bring you our picks for the best concerts of the next seven days! To submit your show for consideration, visit https:// bit.ly/3bgnwXZ. All events are subject to change, especially in the age of COVID-19, so do check with the venue for the most up-to-date information before you head out for the night. And of course, be sure that you are aware of the venues’ COVID-safety requirements, as those vary from place to place and you don’t want to get stuck outside because you forgot your mask or proof of vaccination. Happy showgoing! Googolplexia is St. Louis’ own human a cappella jukebox. | VIA ARTIST BANDCAMP

NOCHE DE VERANO SIN TI: 8 p.m., $15. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444.

NUMBER ONE SONS: w/ the Scatterguns, A Living Hell 8 p.m., $10. The Heavy Anchor, 5226 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-352-5226.

SUNGAZER: w/ Wednesday night Titans 8 p.m., $15. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

TOMLIN X UNITED: Sat., Nov. 5, 7 p.m., $32.75$102.75. Chaifetz Arena, 1 S. Compton Ave., St. Louis, 314-977-5000.

DREW SHEAFOR AND THE SOUL RANGERS: Fri., Sept. 16, 7 p.m., free. Das Bevo Biergarten, 4749 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-224-5521.

VOODOO DAVE MATTHEWS BAND: 9 p.m., $12. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

OUTRUN THE FALL: Sat., Sept. 10, 8 p.m., $12. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

FLASHER: W/ Trauma Harness, Tue., Sept. 20, 8 p.m., $12-$15. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309. HOLY FUCK: Sat., Sept. 24, 8 p.m., $18-$20. Off Broad way, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

THE OBSESSED: w/ Ecstatic Vision, Caustic Casanova, Cloud Machine 7:45 p.m., $18. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050. ODESZA: w/ Sylvan Esso, Elderbrook 7 p.m., $19.50-$69.50. Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre, I-70 & Earth City Expwy., Maryland Heights, 314-298-9944.

THE DEFEATED COUNTY: W/ Let’s Not, Thu., Sept. 8, 8 p.m., $10. The Heavy Anchor, 5226 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-352-5226.

ODESZA: W/ Sylvan Esso, Elderbrook, Wed., Sept. 14, 7 p.m., $19.50-$69.50. Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre, I-70 & Earth City Expwy., Maryland Heights, 314-298-9944.

DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE: Thu., Oct. 13, 8 p.m., $49.50-$69.50. The Factory, 17105 N Outer 40 d, Chesterfield, 14-42 -8500. DIESEL ISLAND: Fri., Sept. 23, 7:30 p.m., free. The Frisco Barroom, 8110 Big Bend Blvd., Webster Groves, 314-455-1090. Fri., Sept. 30, 7 p.m., free. Das Bevo Biergarten, 4749 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-224-5521.

READ SOUTHALL: W/ Matt Koziol, Sun., Oct. 2, 8 p.m., $20-$25. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505.

GINGER ROOT: 8 p.m., $15. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. HANNAH WICKLUND: 8 p.m., $15-$18. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505. KEVIN GATES: 8 p.m., $59-$75. Pop’s Nightclub, 401 Monsanto Ave., East St. Louis, 618-274-6720.

THE GAITHER VOCAL BAND CHRISTMAS: Sat., Dec. 3, 6 p.m., $24-$65. Family Arena, 2002 Arena Parkway, St Charles, 636-896-4200.

PALM: Sat., Dec. 3, 8 p.m., $15. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

THE RED PEARS: Sun., Nov. 13, 8 p.m., $15. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. RIVER KITTENS: W/ Nick Gusman, Jakob Baxter, R Scott Bryan, Leah Osbourne, Hunter Peebles, Wed., Oct. 12, 8 p.m., $15. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

TWENTY ONE PILOTS: Sat., Sept. 10, 8 p.m., 39.50$129.50. Enterprise Center, 1401 Clark Ave., St. Louis, 314-241-1888.

WHY DON’T WE: 7 p.m., $44.95-$249.95. The Fox The atre, 527 N. Grand Blvd., St. Louis, 314-534-1111.

YES WE CAN: A TRIBUTE TO ALLEN TOUSSAINT: Fri., Sept. 9, 8 p.m., $20. Grandel Theatre, 3610 Grandel Square, St. Louis, 314-533-0367.

ONE NIGHT OF QUEEN NIGHT 1: Fri., March 31, 8 p.m., $29.50-$69.50. River City Casino & Hotel, 777 River City Casino Blvd., St. Louis, 314-388-7777.

CHEER-ACCIDENT: W/ Season to Risk, Fri., Oct. 14, 8 p.m., $16. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

MUSIC AT THE INTERSECTION NIGHT 2: W/ Gary Clark Jr., Robert Glasper and many more, Sun., Sept. 11, 11:30 a.m., $79-$650. Grandel Theatre, 3610 Grandel Square, St. Louis, 314-533-0367.

LUKE BRYAN: W/ Mitchell Tenpenny, Riley Green, Fri., Sept. 9, 8 p.m., $36+. Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre, I-70 & Earth City Expwy., Maryland Heights, 314-298-9944. MELEE ON THE MISSISSIPPI: Sat., Sept. 10, 10:30 p.m., $15. Grandel Theatre, 3610 Grandel Square, St. Louis, 314-533-0367. MICHAEL BUBLÉ: Fri., Sept. 9, 8 p.m., $65-$145. Enterprise Center, 1401 Clark Ave., St. Louis, 314-241-1888. MISPLACED RELIGION: W/ Feral Vices, Gold Steps, When the Sun Sets, Sat., Sept. 10, 8 p.m., $10. The Heavy Anchor, 5226 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-352-5226.

TURNOVER: Wed., Nov. 16, 8 p.m., $25. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

ZACH DEPUTY: Tue., Sept. 20, 8 p.m., TBA. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505.

MONDAY NIGHT REVIEW: W/ Tim, Danny and Randy, Mon., Sept. 12, 7 p.m., free. Hammerstone’s, 2028 S. 9th St., St. Louis, 314-773-5565. MOONTOWER: Fri., Oct. 28, 8 p.m., $15. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444.

MUSIC AT THE INTERSECTION NIGHT 1: W/ Erykah Badu, Keyon Harrold and many more, Sat., Sept. 10, 12:30 p.m., $79-$650. Grandel Theatre, 3610 Grandel Square, St. Louis, 314-533-0367.

TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA: Sat., Dec. 10, 7:30 p.m., $26.99-$99.50. Enterprise Center, 1401 Clark Ave., St. Louis, 314-241-1888.

THE BUMPIN’ UGLIES: W/ Kyle Smith, Wed., Oct. 19, 8 p.m., $17-$20. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505. COMEDY SHIPWRECK: Mon., Sept. 12, 9 p.m., free. The Heavy Anchor, 5226 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-352-5226.

VISTA KICKS: W/ Little Cowboy, Fri., Sept. 9, 9 p.m., $17. The Golden Record, 2720 Cherokee Street, St. Louis, N/A.

THE BLACK ANGELS: W/ The Vacant Lots, Mon., Oct. 3, 8 p.m., $25. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

BUILT TO SPILL: Mon., Sept. 19, 8 p.m., $30. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

UPCOMING BETH BOMBARA: Thu., Sept. 22, 8 p.m., $15-$20. Joe’s Cafe, 6014 Kingsbury Ave, St. Louis.

WEDNESDAY 14

FALLING FENCES ALBUM RELEASE: Fri., Oct. 21, 8 p.m., $15. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

NOAH THOMPSON & HUNTERGIRL: Fri., Dec. 2, 8 p.m., $25. The Hawthorn, 2225 Washington Avenue, St. Louis. NUMBER ONE SONS: W/ the Scatterguns, A Living Hell, Fri., Sept. 9, 8 p.m., $10. The Heavy An chor, 5226 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-352-5226.

PARTIES IN THE PARK: w/ Two Pedros 4 p.m., free. St. Louis County Memorial Park, 41 South Central, Clayton, 314-615-4386. SIBLING RIVALRY TOUR: w/ Bob and Monét 8 p.m., $40-$101. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

BLACK LIPS: W/ Bloodshot Bill, Sun., Nov. 20, 8 p.m., $20/$22. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444.

ONE NIGHT OF QUEEN NIGHT 2: Sat., April 1, 8 p.m., $29.50-$69.50. River City Casino & Hotel, 777 River City Casino Blvd., St. Louis, 314-388-7777.

DINOSAUR JR.: Fri., Sept. 23, 8 p.m., $30/$35. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. DOLLY DISCO: THE DOLLY PARTON COUNTRY WESTERN DISCO DANCE PARTY: Sat., Dec. 10, 9 p.m., $12-$25. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

Wednesday Night Titans w/ Sungazer 8 p.m. Saturday, September 10. O Broadway, 3509 Lemp Avenue. $15 to $20. 314-498-6989. Have you ever heard a pro wrestler spit into the mic — what those in the biz call a “promo” — and thought there was a tuneful cadence to the words? Legend ary jazz fusion drummer Zach Danziger, a lifelong fan of wrestling, has found a way to tap into the ﬂow of speeches from per formers such as Ric Flair, Dusty Rhodes and “Macho Man” Randy Savage to form the core of some wildly infectious songs. Through the use of MIDI, programming and an elaborate series of drum triggers, Danziger and his bandmate Ted Technical wrap wiry funk riffs around a base of pro gressive rock ﬁlled with blood, sweat and tears. A projector screen works as a third member of the band, showcasing clas sic pro wrestling footage that bends and warps to the malleable set of songs, mak ing for an elaborate audio-visual display that is addicting to watch as synthesizers beget a kaleidoscope of video effects. The operative term is sensory overload, and the duo behind Wednesday Night Ti tans really pile on the gimmicks with cos tumes, loud banter in between songs and even decorations that make the stage it self feel like a wrestling ring. This isn’t the type of group to make and sell records — there would likely be a lawsuit waiting on the other side of the ring if they did that — so the live show here is really the best way to experience Danziger’s singular vision of nostalgic pro wrestling fusion. Closing Ceremony: While Wednesday Night Titans is worth the price of admis sion, the band is technically performing on this show in support of fellow New York group Sungazer. Led by producer and YouTube music theory guru Adam Neely, Sungazer offers a distinct blend of elec tronic music and acoustic instrumenta tion, which can be sampled on the duo’s incredible 2021 release Perihelion —Joseph Hess [CRITIC’S PICK] Continued on pg 44 Wednesday Night Titans. | VIA THE BAND

DAN CUMMINS: Sat., Jan. 28, 8 p.m., $29-$120. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

THIS JUST IN ATTILA: Tue., Oct. 4, 7 p.m., $20. Pop’s Nightclub, 401 Monsanto Ave., East St. Louis, 618-274-6720.

WELSHLY ARMS: Fri., Nov. 4, 8 p.m.. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505.

TAB BENOIT: W/ the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Sat., Dec. 17, 8 p.m., $30-$60. The Hawthorn, 2225 Washington Avenue, St. Louis.

riverfronttimes.com SEPTEMBER 7-13, 2022 RIVERFRONT TIMES 43

NATE SMITH: W/ Karley Scott Collins, Thu., Sept. 8, 8 p.m., $12-$15. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505.

JAMEY JOHNSON: W/ Blackberry Smoke, Tue., Sept. 13, 8 p.m., $24.50-$79.50. St. Louis Music Park, 750 Casino Center Dr., Maryland Heights, 314-451-2244. JOEL CORRY: Sat., Nov. 19, 10 p.m., $15-$400. RYSE Nightclub, One Ameristar Blvd, St. Charles. JOSH FUDGE: Tue., Oct. 4, 8 p.m., $12. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444. KANE BROWN: Fri., April 14, 7 p.m., $37.50-$87.50. Enterprise Center, 1401 Clark Ave., St. Louis, 314-241-1888. KELLER WILLIAMS: Fri., Nov. 18, 8 p.m., $47-$87. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505. KEVIN GATES: Wed., Sept. 14, 8 p.m., $59-$75. Pop’s Nightclub, 401 Monsanto Ave., East St. Louis, 618-274-6720. KITCHEN DWELLERS: W/ Daniel Donato, Wed., Oct. 5, 8 p.m., $17-$20. Old Rock House, 1200 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 314-588-0505.

FEVER PITCH: Fri., Sept. 9, 8 p.m., $12. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050.

POLO G: Sat., Sept. 10, 8 p.m., $44.50-$74.50. Chaifetz Arena, 1 S. Compton Ave., St. Louis, 314-977-5000.

CRAIG FINN & THE UPTOWN CONTROLLERS: Sat., Oct. 22, 8 p.m., $25-$30. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

VOODOO DAVE MATTHEWS BAND: Wed., Sept. 14, 9 p.m., $12. Broadway Oyster Bar, 736 S. Broadway, St. Louis, 314-621-8811.

RACHEL BOBBITT: Thu., Oct. 27, 8 p.m., $15. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444.

THE JOY FORMIDABLE: W/ Cuffed Up, Tue., Nov. 1, 8 p.m., $23. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444. JUKEBOX THE GHOST: W/ Corook, Wed., Oct. 5, 8 p.m., $25-$28. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989.

KEVIN BUCKLEY: Sun., Sept. 18, 10 a.m., free. Das Bevo Biergarten, 4749 Gravois Ave., St. Louis, 314-224-5521. Tue., March 14, 10 a.m., $20-$23. Wed., March 15, 10 a.m., $20-$23. The Sheldon, 3648 Washington Blvd., St. Louis, 314-533-9900. LUDO: Sat., Oct. 29, 8 p.m., $35-$100. Sun., Oct. 30, 7 p.m., $35-$100. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. MAXIMUM EFFORT: W/ Powerline Sneakers, Sole Loan, Fri., Sept. 16, 8 p.m., $10. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309. MY POSSE IN EFFECT: Fri., Nov. 25, 8 p.m., $15. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. OF MONTREAL: W/ Locate S,1, Fri., Sept. 23, 8 p.m., $21. Red Flag, 3040 Locust Street, St. Louis, 314-289-9050. PHOENIX: Thu., Sept. 22, 8 p.m., $60-$70. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. POKEY LAFARGE: Fri., May 19, 8 p.m., $40-$50. The Sheldon, 3648 Washington Blvd., St. Louis, 314-533-9900. RIVER KITTENS: W/ Nick Gusman, Jakob Baxter, R Scott Bryan, Leah Osbourne, Hunter Peebles, Wed., Oct. 12, 8 p.m., $15. Off Broadway, 3509 Lemp Ave., St. Louis, 314-498-6989. Thu., Oct. 27, 7:30 p.m., $15. Blue Strawberry Showroom & Lounge, 364 N Boyle Ave, St. Louis, 314-256-1745. RUSSIAN CIRCLES: Thu., Oct. 27, 8 p.m., $22. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

TITUS ANDRONICUS: Thu., Oct. 13, 8 p.m., $20$25. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444.

VIEUX FARKA TOURÉ: Fri., Sept. 23, 7:30 p.m., $25. Blue Strawberry Showroom & Lounge, 364 N Boyle Ave, St. Louis, 314-256-1745. WET LEG: Mon., Dec. 5, 8 p.m., $25-$30. Delmar Hall, 6133 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161. n

SPACEFACE: Sun., Sept. 18, 7:30 p.m., $12-$15. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309. SUBTROPOLIS: W/ Moon Goons, Boreal Hills, Thu., Sept. 15, 8 p.m., $10. The Sinkhole, 7423 South Broadway, St. Louis, 314-328-2309.

THIS JUST IN Continued from pg 43

Descendents w/ H20, Surfbort 8 p.m. Tuesday, September 13. e Pageant, 6161 Delmar Boulevard. $40 to $45. 314-726-6161. To say that the Descendents tend to do things at their own pace would be to dramatically understate the point. The legendary punk band has had a habit of going on hiatus for years at a time, due largely to vocalist Milo Aukerman’s side hustle as a postdoctoral researcher in the field of molecular biology — it’s important to have a diversity of revenue streams when working as a musician, after all — during which the rest of its members keep their chops sharp through the like-minded act All. But it looks like this most recent reformation, the Descendents’ fourth, might be the one that finally sticks. After 37 years as the band’s frontman and mascot, Aukerman announced upon the release of 2016’s Hypercaffium Spazzinate that he’d finally be hanging up his career in science to make music full-time. Lest you are understandably skeptical, the Descendents followed the album up with last year’s 9th & Walnut LP, marking the shortest passage of time between studio albums since the ’80s. Even that record came about on a typically Descendentsian timetable, though, featuring songs written between 1977 and 1980, instrumentals recorded in 2002 and vocals not laid down until 2020. Hey, whatever works. Go Ahead, Punk: Brooklyn punk band Surfbort, named by members of Blondie as one of their favorite new acts, and hardcore punk band H20 will open the show — you’d be wise to arrive on time. —Daniel Hill [CRITIC’S PICK] Descendents. | VIA DESTINY TOURBOOKING

ILLUMINATI HOTTIES: W/ Enumclaw, Olivia Barton, Tue., Oct. 18, 8 p.m., $20/$25. Blueberry Hill - The Duck Room, 6504 Delmar Blvd., University City, 314-727-4444.

TURNSTILE: W/ Snail Mail, JPEGMAFIA, Wed., Oct. 19, 7 p.m., $35. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

SOCCER MOMMY: W/ TOPS, Wed., Nov. 30, 8 p.m., $25/$35. The Pageant, 6161 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, 314-726-6161.

44 RIVERFRONT TIMES SEPTEMBER 7-13, 2022 riverfronttimes.com

There is more to this week’s Sav age Love. To read the entire col umn, go to savage.love. Hey Dan: I’m a 38-year-old cis het woman who is also a public high school teacher in a small town. After a string of unsatisfying rela tionships in my 20s, I realized that I’ve only experienced sexual plea sure without a partner. Despite be ing excited by the idea of partnered sex, once there’s a dick inside me, I hate it. Only one thing still seemed appealing: receiving oral sex. I’d love that with someone skilled. By age 33, I gave up dating since finding a artner onl interested in going down on me seemed both i ossi le and selfish ut all energy into my career, my family, and my community. After years of fighting the fascis that is gain ing hold in our public schools, I’m burnt out and my standard selfcare routines aren’t cutting it. I’m considering seeking companion ship once again. Is there an easy wa to find a artner interested in eating me out but not (or only rare ly) anything else? I know the best options are the apps but there are parents as well as former students on those. I already have a target on my back as a liberal teacher. I can’t afford to get caught seeking sex online and the time and energy to date before disclosing my sexual preference sounds exhausting. I don’t want another apple-themed gift. I want my pussy licked. Teacher After Cunnilingus Only Why would anyone want to be a teacher these days? Outraged parents, shit pay, shit tier governors, racist demagogu ery, book bans, “don’t say gay” laws … and on top of all that, not being free to look for sex where everyone else does these days — on the apps — because you might get spotted by a parent who is also looking for sex on the apps and then get attacked at a schoolboard meeting that makes the lo cal news and goes viral and then have to endure a month of death threats after getting dragged on Libs of TikTok and Fox News. According to ABC News, fewer and fewer people these days do want to be teachers. There are 300,000 teacher and school staff vacancies in the United States right now, a situation the Washington Post describes as “cata strophic,” with red states and Trump counties experiencing the worst shortages. Which should come as no surprise to anyone who’s been paying attention, as red states and rural areas are overrun with precisely the kind of deranged Trump supporters and other assorted conspiracy theo rists who keep attacking teachers and school librarians and admin istrators.Butthere are shortages of teach ers in more progressive places too, TACO, which means you could eas ily get a job in a big city in a blue state. Not only would you be less likely to be spotted on the apps by a parent with a kid in your school in a blue state (because there a lot more people on the apps in big cities), you would also be far less likely to be attacked by a par ent who did spot you on an app. (Less likely to get attacked, more likely to get licked.) And just as the governors of blue states think you should be able to teach about, oh, slavery and redlining and segre gation and Jim Crow (and the Chi nese Exclusion Act and Japanese internment camps during WWII and the Trail of Tears and on and on), most blue-state governors would be fine with you getting your pussy licked — on your own time, by other consenting adults — if that’s what you want. Hoping to get some tips from other teachers, I shared your email on Twitter. Suggestions ranged from getting on FetLife, which can be a problematic place, to checking out — and perhaps posting on — the r/RandomAct

Schooled Me Once BY DAN SAVAGE

riverfronttimes.com SEPTEMBER 7-13, 2022 RIVERFRONT TIMES 45

sOfMuffDive subreddit on Red dit. And more than a few of my followers wondered whether you might prefer a woman to a man, seeing as you never really cared forBeingdick. a gay dude, however, I know plenty of people who are at tracted to men but don’t enjoy get ting fucked. (Some guys are tops, some guys are sides.) Luckily for you, TACO, there are straight and bi men out there who only want to eat pussy. I’ve heard from scores of them over the years. Some had severe erectile dysfunction and preferred succeeding at cunni lingus to failing at vaginal inter course; others were straight male submissives who wanted to orally service a woman without getting anything in return; and more than a few were men who loved eating pussy and somehow wound up married to women who hated oral sex and these men wanted to find women to go down on — and just go down on — outside their rela tionships, with their wives’ per mission (in some cases) or with out it (in most cases). But to find them you’re going to have to get on the apps, TACO, which may mean getting out of your small town. Hey Dan: Gay kinky sub here and after quite a few years of meeting guys in bars, online, apps, etc., I’m questioning if there are ... Go to savage.love to read the rest!

Checkquestions@savagelove.netouttheSavageLovecast@FakeDanSavageonTwitter

SAVAGE LOVE 45 Most you—consentingownlickedgettingbegovernorsblue-statewouldﬁnewithyouyourpussy—onyourtime,byotheradultsifthat’swhatwant.

JOE NEWTON

46 RIVERFRONT TIMES SEPTEMBER 7-13, 2022 riverfronttimes.com

riverfronttimes.com SEPTEMBER 7-13, 2022 RIVERFRONT TIMES 47

Riverfront Times, September 7, 2022

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