IN Kansas City November 2021 by KC Media

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Holiday Food & Entertaining NOVEMBER 2021 | INKANSASCITY.COM

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Three fun-filled days at the Crestwood Shops! Event Chairs: Liz Lozier and Adelaide Perry

Gingerbread Way | NOV. 26TH – DEC. 8TH Bid during the silent auction on one or all of the Gingerbread Houses created by local pastry chefs on display in each of the shops in Crestwood.

Annual Luncheon | DEC. 3RD | 11:30 A.M.

Purchase your tickets in advance for the prix-fixe luncheon at Aixois with your friends and family.

• THURSDAY kicks off the weekend of festivities with cocktails, live music, shopping and of course Santa! 5pm-8pm • FRIDAY AND SATURDAY bring Santa back to the block each day with a horse drawn sled for that perfect holiday photo.

10% of the proceeds of each shop for the three day event benefit Child Protection Center. Make this year a year of giving back to those in need and have a fun time doing it as you check off your holiday list.

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IF YOU'RE THINKING ABOUT SELLING YOUR ROLEX, NOW COULD BE THE TIME

nlike many other luxury objects that a person purchases from trips to designer clothes, often buying fine jewelry offers an element of value retention, meaning that when you eventually sell the piece, you are able to recoup a respectable percentage of the initial purchase price. There are categories of the industry that are currently experiencing rapid appreciation. The most notable of these is Rolex watches. The advancements in technology and societies embracement of peer to peer selling, along with the growing appreciation of pre owned luxury goods has dramatically increased the value of Rolex watches. Rolexes exacting production standards produces far less new watches than there is global demand, thus creating ultra strong and appreciating values in pre owned Rolex models unlike ever before.

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Sicily Von Overfelt is a GIA graduate gemologist with over 14 years of experience in the jewelry industry and 10+ years with Diamond Banc. She began her jewelry career in retail sales, where she gained a vast knowledge of many designer brands. Sicily is the Director of Diamond Banc in Kansas City, authenticating and purchasing pre-owned luxury designer jewelry, diamonds, and watches from the public. Visit Sicily at her office conveniently located on the Country Club Plaza

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Arts&Culture

IN KC

Sara Sonié Joi Thompson-Ruffin THE CONTEMPORARY FABRIC ARTIST ANSWERS FOUR QUESTIONS by

Judith Fertig

photo by

n 2019, when the Nelson-Atkins acquired the powerful 20 Odd art quilt—now in the museum’s ongoing Testimony exhibit—many came to know renowned contemporary fiber artist Sara Sonié Joi Thompson-Ruffin for the first time. Growing up in the East Town section of Joplin, Missouri, during

NOVEMBER 2021

Corie English

the 1950s, she knew the deep security of close relatives, family friends, and caring neighbors. In a time of “sundown” towns, where Blacks were not allowed on the streets after sundown, her neighborhood was a safe haven. Thompson-Ruffin learned sewing from seamstresses in her family and crocheting from a Jewish neighbor with a number tat-

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tooed on her arm. That geography as well as those sewing skills repeat in the strong borders and exquisite workmanship Thompson-Ruffin employs in her art quilts. Jazz and piano music also wafted through her neighborhood and show up as lively forms in her quilts. “Joplin is right on Route 66 and when Black musicians were on their way to California, they were not allowed to stay at hotels, so they stayed in our homes. It was nothing unusual to hear Jay McShann playing the piano on a Saturday morning,” she recalls.

Proclamation was read to former slaves and free Blacks in 1863. Something made me want to take off my shoes and touch the ground under that tree. I could feel the reverberation. I knew something had happened there. I cried and I couldn’t get over that intense feeling. I began researching when the first slaves came to Virginia in 1619 and 20 Odd came from that. Once I had the story, I had to find the imagery. Twenty men from different villages in Africa chained and shackled and led from the drumbeats of their homeland to a slave ship.

INKC: Kansas City is a prime area for traditional and contemporary

INKC: What elements in your background continue to inform

quilt making. But you do something far different. What takes a quilt from craft to art? Thompson-Ruffin: Mine is not craft. I don’t use the principles of quilting; I use the form. I might singe a quilt. I might take a saw to it. I use quilts to explore an idea, to tell stories and testimonies. My quilts are huge rivers of meaning. I’m telling stories of African-American experience, of my family. When you see my work, you see my soul. INKC: How did 20 Odd come about? Thompson-Ruffin: A few years ago, when I went to visit family in Vir-

ginia, we went to the campus of Hampton University where there is an old oak tree, known as the Emancipation Oak where the Emancipation

NOVEMBER 2021

your work? Thompson-Ruffin: I am African, French, Irish, and Cherokee. I grew up

around educators, entrepreneurs, and musicians. People—my family, my teachers, my neighbors—demanded the best of me.

INKC: What do you like most about living and working in Kansas

City? Thompson-Ruffin: We have nurtured each other. Kansas City is still be-

coming an emissary for equality through two great integrators—sports and entertainment. This is where the Negro Leagues and the Monarchs began. We are a city of jazz. Kansas City is learning to embrace and realize the importance of these contributions—and many others.

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Arts & Culture BY

IN KC

Judith Fertig

TESTIMONY: AFRICAN AMERICAN ARTISTS COLLECTIVE IF YOU WANT to see Thompson-Ruffin’s moving 20 Odd, you can find this work and that of 35 local Black painters, sculptors, photographers, poets, illustrators, and performance artists in the Testimony exhibit at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Emotionally powerful when viewed from afar—Thompson-Ruffin’s rectangular quilt is roughly 4 by 12 feet long—it is equally searing when viewed up close. There you can see not only the superb craftsmanship but also the telling details—the 20 shackled captives silhouetted in different African fabrics, the drum border and sailing ship echoing their terrible journey as America’s first slaves to Jamestown, Virginia,. “The deeply personal truths expressed in Testimony range from meditations on the past and present to celebrations of Black futures, all while underscoring the fact that there is no monolithic Black experience or Black art,” says Stephanie Fox Knappe, the Samuel Sosland curator of American Art. For more information, visit nelsonatkins.org.

Left: The Hues of Her Father’s Dreams by Joseph A Newton.

Right: 20 Odd by Sara Sonié Joi Thompson-Rufﬁn.

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SCHEHERAZADE MEETS FLORENCE PRICE THIS Scheherazade! Plus Strauss concert could sound like a Kehinde Wiley portrait set to music. Take European classical music titans Rimsky-Korsakov and Richard Strauss and add neglected African-American female composer Florence Price, and you’ll get a lively evening that will make you think—especially—why has it taken this long for Price’s work to be performed? On November 5-7, guest conductor Peter Oundjian and pianist Janice Carissa join the Kansas City Symphony Orchestra for three pieces of contrasting styles. Scheherazade is a symphonic suite by composer Russian Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov in 1888, considered his most popular work. Arkansas-born Florence Price wrote The Oak as a tone poem, or a poem-like piece in one movement, in 1943. The Oak ebbs and flows and sometimes jolts. Over her lifetime, Price wrote more than 300 works including piano and violin concertos, symphonies, tone poems, arrangements of spirituals, and chamber music. A leading German composer of the late Romantic period, Richard Strauss was known for tone poems like Don Juan and operas such as Der Rosenkavalier. For more information and tickets, visit kcsymphony.org.

Florence Price

NOVEMBER 2021

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Arts & Culture by

IN KC

Judith Fertig

AEOLUS QUARTET

photo by kenny johnson

FOUR STRINGED INSTRUMENTS played by violinists Nicholas Tavani and Rachel Shapiro, violist Caitlin Lynch, and cellist Alan Richardson create ensemble music that takes on seasoned masterworks as well as cutting-edge contemporary. Praised in The New York Times for “dusky lyricism” and by Strad Magazine for “high-octane” excitement, their program will engage and reward the listener. Named for the Greek god of the four winds, the Aeolus Quartet plays on instruments by famed Brooklyn luthier Samuel Zygmuntowicz—four stringed instruments uniting to create one musical spirit. Their aim is to share the joy of chamber music with audiences perhaps new to the classics. Their stop at The 1900 Building on November 12 is part of a cross-country tour. For tickets and information, contact 1900bldg.com.

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BACH INSPIRED THIS CONCERT, originally scheduled as a live performance at the Plaza Library, is now going to be streamed on November 15. But you’ll still need a reservation to see and hear it. Claude Debussy once described the periwigged Johann Sebastian Bach as “a benevolent god to which all musicians should offer a prayer to defend themselves against mediocrity.” Today, JS Bach would be called a major “influencer” of musicians around the world. In this free concert, Bach Aria Soloists show the respect this 18th-century composer still commands in a program of Bach classics as well as Bach-inspired pieces, such as the British composer Benjamin Britten’s Suite No. 1 for Cello, Hungarian composer Bela Bartok’s Presto from his Solo Violin Sonata, Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos’ Bachianas Brasileiras, and Kansas City composer Narong Prangcharoen’s Dialogue. For tickets, visit bachariasoloists.com.

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Behind the Music

IN KC

usic was a sanctuary for Kasey Rausch as she grew up in southeast Texas, part of a large family whose romance with music goes back five generations. So was Kansas City— Parkville, to be precise—where Rausch was born and raised for a few years before her father’s job took the family south. But each summer, she would return to her native state to stay with relatives and immerse herself in her family’s lively musical vibe. A few days after graduating high school in Texas in 1993, she moved back to Kansas City for good. Right away, Rausch became involved in the local music community, as a performer and supporter, playing live gigs and releasing recordings, both as a solo artist and as part of other projects. A few years ago, Rausch stepped completely away from music and the local music world for a few reasons, including to pursue other professional and artistic options and to focus on her mental health. She recently answered questions from IN Kansas City about how her recent journeys have led her to places of enlightenment, discovery, and remedy.

Kasey Rausch by

Timothy Finn

photo by

Jada Hubbard

NOVEMBER 2021

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What are your earliest memories of music? Kasey Rausch: I remember being two or three years old, living in a tiny house on Melody Lane in Parkville and plopping down on the floor in the middle of a circle of music makers. There was likely my Grandpa Rausch on

mountain dulcimer or harmonica, my dad and multiple uncles on guitars, maybe a mandolin mixed in, and my mama and aunts singing along. At some point, I’d move to the couch, laying between the back of the sofa my pop made by hand and the backs of whoever was sitting on the edge with instruments on their knees. What was your childhood like? Aside from music, what were your interests? KR: My childhood was a mixed bag that included lots of joy, a big, extended family, involved grandparents, parents who always let me know I was loved, and a sister who became my best friend—eventually! My dad’s job took us from Parkville to southeast Texas when I was four, and from that time until high school graduation I would spend most of my school days in Texas, plus a brief stint in New Mexico, and every summer in the Kansas City area, hopping from relative to relative to sleep in whatever couch or bed was available, sitting in on every music makin’/ pickin’ party I could. I’d beg my parents to let me stay in Kansas City right up until just a couple days before school started, then back to Texas I’d go. I’m sure that’s why two days after I graduated high school, I was out of the state and back in Kansas City. Besides music, I was obsessed with gymnastics and competed for five years across the state of Texas. I had dreams of being an Olympian. (I wasn’t nearly that good.) My gym was in Huntsville, Texas, and I spent two training camps with the Károlyis—yes, the coaches whose

NOVEMBER 2021

facility Larry Nassar would later make nightmares come true for girls. Same coaches, different gym. It took lots of therapy as an adult to understand the impact that unhealthy ‘80s gymnastics training had on my mind and body, especially being autistic with ADHD and Sensory Processing Sensitivity, things we didn’t know when I was a kid. My childhood was not without trauma. Like far too many women and girls, I experienced sexual assault, the first at the age of five. I don’t remember a time in my childhood when I didn’t have to work through anxiety or big emotional meltdowns. Luckily, I had the balance of loving parents to help me navigate the big feelings that I was able to communicate and hold me tight through the ones I couldn’t say out loud because I didn’t have words for it all. Describe yourself as an adolescent/high school student. KR: I so badly wanted to be happy, kind, loving, working towards world peace, and I felt the best way I could do and be all of those things was through my guitar. Yet as puberty hit, many of my mental health traits escalated, and like so many females, it was written off as hormonal. I was sick often, missing tons of school. I went through several therapists, all missing the big cues of autism, ADHD, SPS, PTSD. Medical doctors finally diagnosed me with an autoimmune disease, also common with autism, though I didn’t have much guidance on how to take care of that. We didn’t have the internet available as a research tool. Still, through the ravages of an unstable thyroid and the

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Behind the Music

IN KC

workings of a neuro-divergent brain, I often could easily find joy and excitement in life. When I felt good, I was so excited to feel good! I was expressive, funny and creative, an easily recognizable black sheep of the small town I was in. Although I was seemingly well-liked amongst most of my peers, everyone knew I was “different.” They wondered why I missed so much school. As I got into high school my mental health suffered greatly. I got involved in an abusive relationship, too scared to tell anyone what was happening and too afraid to leave for fear of harassment. At 17 years old, I was institutionalized and diagnosed with long-term depression. We were just scratching the surface. Now as a nearly 47-year-old woman, I weep for the young girl who was already in it for the long haul with so little information to work with. At the same time, I celebrate as a grown woman for doing the work that now offers the tools to navigate my world on a healthier plane. Several years ago, it seems, your life took a turn toward something other than music. First, you studied American Sign Language (ASL). What inspired that and what has become of that pursuit? KR: I had been working hard at music for a long time, nearly 30 years, when I started getting burned out. I needed to know that I could do something besides music. I felt completely defined by music. All the while, I was watching a TV show with multiple deaf char-

acters whose hearing friends and family also communicated with sign. There was a particular scene, filmed from a deaf person’s perspective, that showed deaf teenagers rapping in ASL. They felt in their bodies the beat of the music through the speakers and used their hands and facial expressions in sync to express themselves. I was fascinated and was quickly falling in love with this beautiful language. I wondered if my hearing could be of service to others in the way of interpreting music and plays, which would give me a way to remain in the arts world, while being of service and earning a paycheck. I excelled quickly in my college classes, studying not only the language but deaf culture as well. However, just as I started my journey, the requirements for interpreters were increased. I realized with my limited funds and slow trek rate, it would take me many years to complete, and this, coupled with the realization that I also wanted to get away from working nights, caused me to shift my focus. I also had just started a new job while attending classes which felt like it was right where I needed to be. I had become a caregiver for a woman with Alzheimer’s. Let’s talk about that: You helped her all the way through end-oflife care. I suppose you could write a book about that experience, but distill as best you can how it enlightened and changed you. KR: Patrice Eilts Jobe—“Mama P”—taught me how to see beauty in the simplest, everyday things: the blue sky, the swaying trees, a nice color

After much anticipation, our new store is open! “The timing couldn’t be better,” You might say it’s a reopening. “We’re bringing back the original name in a new location at 124th and State Line Road.“ Serving customers for a lifetime. That’s the Peters Clothiers way; “We know our dad would be proud to see his name on the front of this beautiful new store,” Jerry says. “We can’t wait to show it off to all of our customers and to make new ones.” 816.753.3800 | PETERSCLOTHIERS.COM/NEWS 12319 State Line Rd, Kansas City, MO 64145

NOVEMBER 2021

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palette. She was an artist—she created the Kansas City heart fountain logo—and her dedication to her work up until the last year of her life was astounding. Even amongst her fear and frantic moments, she laughed often. She taught me that I don’t always have to defend myself because it’s not always about being right or being heard. Sometimes you just have to meet people where they are and love them the best you can. She taught me about trust and showing up for people. And through the experience I learned that one person can’t always show up for everyone. The foundation is that we show up for ourselves so that we can show up for others as we’re able. She taught me that it absolutely takes a village. You also stepped away from music and, pretty much the public/ social media world, for a long time for various reasons. You have since emerged, restored, it seems, in so many ways. In October, on the occasion of World Mental Health Day, you disclosed to your Facebook world that you are autistic and went on to talk about how you were among generations of women who were failed, ignored or overlooked by the mental health world. You went on to talk about how liberating it has been to know what has been affecting you all these years. Again, a giant topic worthy of more than a few words, but elaborate on that: how this diagnosis has freed you. KR: Once I got an absolute answer of autism, it’s like my whole world,

NOVEMBER 2021

my entire life experience, came into a clearer, sharper image. I can now look back at my life and offer myself a little more kindness, now understanding the scientific thing that was happening in my nervous system. To be clear: I was not diagnosed by a medical doctor. After being in and out of doctors offices and therapy as a kid in the ‘80s and ‘90s, a young adult in my early 20s, and intense psychotherapy in the last few years, I finally had to connect the dots myself. For many years, the majority of the research done on autism focused on boys. Scientists want an even playing field in their studies and mixing the female body in the group “muddled it up,” so to speak. For generations we were dismissed as hysterical, given lobotomies and sterilized. Seriously. My most recent therapist would point out traits I didn’t recognize that I had, and I started digging deeper, doing my own research. I remember coming across an article about Executive Dysfunction, a trait often present in autism, and forwarding it to my sister, weeping because I felt like I was reading an article about myself for the first time. It took me from seeing these challenges as something that I felt alone in, often selfish and bothersome to others, to something that was shared by a subset of neuro-divergent people. As I dug deeper, the path kept becoming more clear until I was absolutely certain that I am autistic. It was apparent very quickly; I just needed to let it soak in. The next step was to ask my mother about what kind of baby I was and hear her perspective on the overwhelming melt

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Behind the Music

IN KC

downs I had throughout my life. It was more confirmation. The reason I share this much of my path is because it is hard for a woman my age to get a professional diagnosis. My self-diagnosis is enough validation for me. I now know where to look for tools to help me navigate life in a neurotypical world. We must talk about this because the stereotypes that society and the media have created in regards to autism must be smashed. When a large population of people are pigeon-holed into one or two ideas of either a Rain Man type of person or a total non-verbal person—both of whom are beautiful kinds of people—so much that the many other traits aren’t recognized even by oneself, we have a damaging blindness. If I had understood my needs years ago, maybe I wouldn’t have struggled so much, but then, maybe that wouldn’t have led to a life of songwriting and music. I really wouldn’t “fix” that for the world. More good news to come from all of this: You have stepped back into the music world, which is reason for all of us to celebrate. What are your plans generally going in to 2022. KR: Thank you! Yes! I’m slowly dipping my toes back into the waters of music. For 2022 I’ll be in the recording studio a lot and I’m so excited! I love studio work. I have years’ worth of songs to catalog, and my intention is to take it as slowly and intentionally as I need and want.

November is your birth month, You turn 47. What is Kasey Rausch most looking forward to as she starts her 48th year in this world? KR: Watching my kids—all my “kids”—shine like the stardust they’re made from, laughing with my “Tiny Grama,” who this world is so lucky to have going strong for over 95 years, dancing with my greatniece, climbing mountains with my husband and hiking buddies, squeezing my parents, singing with my sister—all my “sisters”—learning the art of silversmithing from the world-famous Robyn Nichols, practicing loving better, listening better, being still longer, spiraling up more and being here now.

WANT MORE TIMOTHY FINN? Check out his weekly online-only content at inkansascity.com. Every Wednesday the website publishes his list of Top 5 Notto-Miss Concerts in the metro. Every week you’ll find his revered, rollicking, reasoned reviews and commentary. Email Timothy Finn at tfinn@inkansascity.com

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Look

IN KC

Fashion

Rachel Murphy

Blazers Be Gone. The Overshirt is Here

t’s not often that men’s fashion gets an overhaul, but this season, the overshirt has handily displaced the blazer as the best way to dress up your favorite knit shirt, turtleneck, or oxford for a night out. The overshirt isn’t new—the loose, boxy cut

shirts have been blue-collar favorites for decades—but now, designers are using their versatility to showcase luxurious fabrics and comfy cuts that bring casual wear up a notch or five. Give the blazer a rest and grab an overshirt for a fresh look for fall.

CANYON LIVING Overshirts have come a long way from the Carhartt logo and nothing else. Bring some pattern and color into your look with the Faherty Good Feather Canyon overshirt. Made from 100 percent organic cotton for soft comfort, this isn’t just a simple print—it was designed by Doug Good Feather, an artist, author, veteran, and teacher from the Standing Rock Lakota and Dakota tribes. Pair with a henley and fire pit for peak coziness. Glamnetic Faherty Good Feather Canyon overshirt, $178, available at Halls (Crown Center).

LIGHTWEIGHT LUXURY When layering is the goal for fall, keeping things lightweight is key. Adding in luxurious softness from virgin wool and alpaca is just a bonus of this overshirt by Maurizio Baldassari. With a muted neutral plaid pattern, this overshirt can easily take you from daytime at the office to cocktails and dinner. If your dining companion can’t keep their hands off you, you don’t have to give the overshirt credit, but it won’t hurt. Baldassari charcoal plaid wool overshirt, $1,125, available at Hudson & Jane (Crestwood Shops). NOVEMBER 2021 |

CLASSIC IN CAMEL Is an overshirt a jacket? No. But using the same classic colors can bring a bit of formality to the look. This classic camel color adds a touch of sophistication to any outfit. Pair with a black turtleneck for a wine tasting or your favorite white tee for Saturday errands. Made from 100 percent Melton wool, this is a low-maintenance, high-impact look that works anywhere. Wax London Whiting overshirt in camel, $185, available at Ulah (Westwood). 60 | INKANSASCITY.COM

Look

IN KC Beauty

Rachel Murphy

PinkLipps Cosmetics TEN YEARS AND BIG MOVES ON THE HORIZON

Kenyata Gant

ed to provide clean makeup for all skin tones. As a Black-owned brand, Gant says she specifically tries to provide makeup to the women whose colors are typically left out of most beauty brands. “We have a diverse community. I wanted to create makeup for the women who feel left out—those who don’t feel comfortable wearing certain lipstick shades or can’t wear foundation because their shade isn’t available. We create inclusive beauty products for those women,” Gant says. As the tenth anniversary approaches in November, Gant is excited to roll out her next big product line—skincare. After testing a rosewater hydration spray, Gant knew her loyal clients were ready for more. The Skin Is In line includes a hydrating cleansing milk, pomegranate greentea power toner, and a lightweight moisturizer with vitamin C. Gant is incredibly excited about the cleansing milk. “It’s the most effective cleanser to completely clean the face of all impurities, makeup, and dirt without stripping the skin. You don’t feel tight after washing. Once that happens, you’ve already stripped your skin of essential moisture,” Gant says. The skincare line will be available in a trial size set to start as she gauges reaction. Skincare products aren’t the only exciting thing on the horizon for Gant and PinkLipps. On January 23, 2022, PinkLipps will debut in 41 Target stores around the nation. From delighting her daughter with lipgloss to providing women of all colors clean products that improve their skin, Gant realizes her full potential with grace and joy. She says that she’s learned a ton in the past ten years. “Know that what’s for you is for you. Because when you know that, the ‘no’s’ are not disappointing. There’s no failure in this unless you actually stop doing it,” Gant says. She’s not stopping anytime soon. Visit Gant for products or makeup artistry at PinkLipps Cosmetics Store at 1112 East 47th Terrace in Kansas City or online at pinklippscosmetics.com.

ever underestimate the power and ingenuity of a single mother. When Kenyata Gant’s daughter was young and obsessed with lip gloss, Gant decided to take a crack at making some herself. After some wild experiments in Gant’s mother’s kitchen, she found that this might be more than just a craft activity with her daughter. “I never do anything halfway. I go all in,” laughs Gant. “It turned out really great. But then I had all these sample batches that I was giving away to family members. My mom encouraged me to turn it into a business.” But as a single mother, money was tight, and businesses need capital. On a whim, Gant posted on Twitter that she was looking for an investor. Amazingly, she found one as an offer to chat landed in her inbox. Ten years later, PinkLipps Cosmetics has a brick-and-mortar store, thousands of loyal fans, and big plans for the future. While PinkLipps may have started with lipgloss, they have expandNOVEMBER 2021 |

All Day Rose’ Facial Spray, $13. Everlasting Matte Liquid Lipstick, $12.

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IN KC

Wellness

Rachel Murphy

Mindful Mondays Help Rejuvenate Body and Mind

e know that the last 20 months haven’t been a walk in the park for anyone. With concerns about everything from essential health to job situations to politics, our minds are buzzy and distracted like never before. Fortunately, there are techniques to help quiet the mind and lead to a place of restoration. Jewish Family Services is excited to teach locals exercises to reduce stress and increase mindfulness. The virtual sessions, dubbed Mindful Monday, take place via Zoom each Monday from 11:30 to noon. The half-hour guided session is short so that people wouldn’t feel intimidated by the amount of time needed, says Sondra Wallace, MSED, JFS YouBeYou, and mental health coordinator. Led by Julia Grimm, a licensed therapist and certified mindfulness leader, the sessions begin with a grounding exercise, a bit of the science behind mindfulness, and end with a five- to seven-minute exercise focused on the session’s theme. Even that short amount of time is enough to lead to NOVEMBER 2021 |

healing, says Wallace. “Just that short amount of time really does allow your body to rest and reset and to be available to be healthier for the rest of the day or the week,” Wallace says. “Julia often talks about how there’s not just one way to practice mindfulness or to practice this approach to wellness. As individuals, we take what we need from it.” The free sessions started in late September but will continue through December 13th, with themes like trust, generosity, acceptance, and patience. Wallace says that even though there is the option for participants to verbally or visually share, it’s not required. Each participant is welcomed where they are at the time. Although the program can be done as a whole, Wallace says that jumping in for just a single session is encouraged as well. While all the themes build toward greater mindfulness in the everyday, each is beneficial on its own as well. To register for the next Mindful Monday, visit jfskc.org. 64 | INKANSASCITY.COM

Exactly what you want.

All in one place.

Living

IN KC

Gifts that Give Back BY

Stay Cozy candles, $30. Organic bamboo bedsheets, starting at $178. Cruelty-free silk pillowcases, $172 for two. All from Madi Apparel (Westside).

Patricia O’Dell

WE ARE HEADED INTO THAT TIME OF YEAR WHEN WE GIFT AND GATHER. IF YOU’RE PLANNING ON TAKING A LITTLE SOMETHING TO YOUR FAVORITE HOST OR HOSTESS, WHY NOT MAKE THE GIVING GIVE MORE?

MADI APPAREL After a long day of working or cooking, indulge yourself in a silky treat. Madi Apparel, which produces a lovely line of lingerie, also sells organic bamboo bedsheets and cruelty-free silk pillowcases. Throw in a little aromatherapy with their domestically grown soy wax candle. With names like Smells Like Him, Bamboo Linens, and Fireside Ingredients, how could you resist? You’ll sleep better knowing that Madi donates underwear to women in need in domestic shelters, homeless shelters, rape clinics, and disaster relief situations. madiapparel.com

Pride KC Heart Flag, $12. KC Pet Project Dog Bandanna, $12. CHARLIE HUSTLE Local T-shirt brand Charlie Hustle evokes a vintage look, but often has a forward-thinking cause. Their Communi-tees line supports area not-for-profit organizations. Dress your pet with the KC Pet Project Dog Bandanna or welcome a friend or family member with the Pride KC Heart Flag, which benefits Stonewall Sports. charliehustle.com

Do Good plastic-free sponge, $20. Bamboo utensil kit, $14. Beachwood long-handled dish brush, $10. DO GOOD CO. While Do Good Co. is known for its terrific and ever-evolving inventory of gently worn and vintage clothing, they carry a line of environmentally friendly and beautiful kitchen accessories as well. Each one—or the set—would be a lovely hostess gift. All purchases at Do Good Co. do good. A percentage of sales are donated to Kids TLC and Wayside Waifs. dogoodkc.org NOVEMBER 2021 |

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BIRDS OF A FEATHER

Birds Choice two-cup nyjer feeder, $14.99, from Backyard Bird Center.

DURING THE TIME that we went nowhere and saw the same four

or five people every day (I can’t say the “p” word anymore), folks took up some new hobbies and pastimes. I purchased a bird bath and was delighted by my bathers. Feeders followed, and did not disappoint.

Left: Holland Hill Songbird Essentials copper fruit and jelly feeder, $44.99 from Backyard Bird Center (Northland).

Right: Aspects HummZinger ultra feeder, $29.99 from Backyard Bird Center.

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Living

IN KC BY

Patricia O’Dell

First Come, First Serve

Beatriz Ball Platter, $53, available at Trapp and Company (Midtown).

Sophie Conran Bowl, $47, available at Pryde’s Kitchen and Necessities (Westport).

I’m

a horrible cook, but I do love to set a table. If you’d rather decorate than “season to taste,” upgrade your table and bar. Feeling selfish that you’re buying something for yourself at this time of giving? You’re looking at it all wrong. You’re doing it for your guests.

NOVEMBER 2021 |

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Heavyweight Crystal Shot Glasses, $24, available at Tyler Kingston Mercantile (Corinth Square).

ON THE MOVE

Bloom Lockup letterpress print on white paper stock, $25.

WAY BACK IN 1994, I ordered letterpress invitations from

a startup in the Crossroads, the location of which at the time might have been considered a retail risk. Lots more cool kids followed. Owner Brady Vest has taken his Hammerpress show on the road to a new home in the West Bottoms and debuted some new prints to boot. These Bloom Lockup prints are two of my favorites. hammerpress.net

Bloom Lockup letterpress print on kraft paper stock $25.

NOVEMBER 2021 |

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The Estate of Morton and Estelle Sosland Live Auction Incorporating Telephone, Internet and Absentee Bidding

Friday December 3 and Saturday, December 4

elections from the Sosland collections include important sterling silver headlined by a large Paul Storr Tureen, several pieces of rare Gorham Martele and Athenic, flatware and accessories by Tiffany, Shreve, Crump & Low, Porter Blanchard, George Jensen

Ken Ferguson

and others. Additional categories include Fine and Decorative Arts, Bronze and other Sculpture, Modern Furniture Wilbur Niewald

and Lighting, Hand Woven Carpets, Royal Tribal Arts

Copenhagen Flora Danica, Ken Ferguson and other Studio Pottery, Tribal Art, Asian Art, Antiquities, Jewelry, Designer Fashions and an outstanding library of books and reference material on art and Native American crafts.

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Tricia Gill

words by

Cindy Hoedel

IN CONVERSATION WITH

Calvin Trillin

e won the prestigious Thurber Prize for American Humor for Quite Enough of Calvin Trillin (Random House, 2012), a sweetly ironic title since most of his readers would agree you can never get quite enough of Calvin Trillin. Trillin was born in Kansas City in 1935. He graduated from Southwest High School in 1953, then left to attend Yale University, fulfilling a dream of his immigrant father, Abe, who is the subject of Trillin’s achingly tender and funny, Messages From My Father (Farrar Straus Giroux, 1996). Straight out of Yale, Trillin began reporting for Time bureaus in London, Paris, and Tunisia before spending a year at their Atlanta bureau, where he covered the Freedom Rides of 1961. Not long after moving to Time’s New York bureau, he joined the New Yorker in 1963. His first assignment was a three-part series about the desegregation of the University of Georgia. Over the years, he began contributing humorous pieces to the New Yorker. Many of them centered on family and food, although the food stories really are human stories that only seem to be about food, like The Magic Bagel, which isn’t about a pumpernickel bagel, but about a father’s longing for a far-away daughter to move back home. Over the years, readers came to know Trillin’s daughters, Abigail and Sarah, and his wife, Alice, by name. After Alice died of lung cancer in 2001, Trillin wrote Alice, Off the Page for the New Yorker, then expanded it into a book, About Alice (Random House, 2006) and a play in 2019. In an email to IN Kansas City, David Remnick, the editor of the New Yorker, where Trillin still works, wrote, “It is rare that anyone can do one thing brilliantly, but Bud Trillin’s talents are limitless. He is an extraordinary ‘serious’ reporter, as his civil rights work makes plain; he is a humorist of the highest rank; and he is a profile writer and memoirist at the highest level. And the guy can eat like nobody’s business. Oh, and he’s one of the finest human beings on the planet. So, what do I think of Bud? He ain’t chopped liver.” In a breezy midday telephone call from his home in Greenwich Village, Trillin’s voice was deep, soft, and even-keeled. He often paused before answering a question, as if looking for the most promising angle to take the conversation next, instead of rushing to wrap it up. NOVEMBER 2021 |

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Who calls you Calvin and who calls you Bud? Maybe two or three people call me Calvin and everybody else calls me Bud. It’s actually an argument for naming your child something you are willing to call them. So your parents called you Bud? Yeah, I don’t think they ever called me Calvin. When my daughters were little, and they answered the phone, they would say, “It’s somebody from Kansas City,” if the caller asked for Buddy. Through high school, I was Buddy more than Bud. Do you have an upcoming piece of writing that you are thinking about these days? Sort of. I’m thinking of putting together a collection of what we used to call around the office at the New Yorker “casuals.” That meant a sort of short attempt at humor. These days those would probably fall under the rubrik of Shouts and Murmurs and some of them would be called Personal History. You’ve lived in New York for a lifetime, really, and yet you still talk about Kansas City a lot. How can you have such a strong identity with this city that you left as a young man? It’s always been true. I sometimes have referred to myself in New York as a “resident out-of-towner.” When I did a book about my father, I mentioned that (when) hearing people talk about their childhood, you can often discern a theme, like “We come from a noble family, and you must do nothing to besmirch its name” or “We’re miserable because our father deserted us” or something. When I thought about what theme I would want for my daughters’ childhood—they were brought up in Greenwich Village—it was, “Despite all evidence to the contrary, you’re being raised in Kansas City.” I identify a lot with my father and his values. How often did you come back over the years and do you still? I’ve averaged every year or two, often I either had a story to do near there or when my mother was alive, I would stop to see her on the way to other places. I still have some family there and high school friends, so I like going back.

‘‘

I still feel connected

to Kansas City in a lot of ways even though I don’t go very often.”

I laughed when I read your Southwest High School classmates voted you third Most Likely to Succeed. Yeah, that was an interesting honor because it meant that you had already not succeeded. There are three or four people from my class at Southwest that I see when I go back. They don’t seem to come to New York much. They used to ask me how I could possibly live here. I always told them, “Because there are no chiggers in New York.” They would say, “Not even in the tall NOVEMBER 2021 |

grass?” I would say, “There isn’t any tall grass.” I still feel connected to Kansas City in a lot of ways even though I don’t go very often. You describe a method of travel you enjoy as “hanging around,” or plopping down in one place without a rigid itinerary. You recently returned from Nova Scotia—were you at the same summer home you’ve written about over the years? Yes. I think we bought the house in ’69, but it needed a lot of work. I think our first summer there was 1972. So yes, same house, same village. I think to my girls growing up, even though they lived in Greenwich Village, (the summer house) represented the Midwestern idea of “the home place,” partly because we had them to ourselves when we were there. It’s not a resort, it’s just a fishing village. We usually go in June and return Labor Day. This year the Canadians, despite all the nice things I’ve said about them over the years, wouldn’t allow me in until August, because of the pandemic. When my older daughter came to deliver her older daughter to college, she came to New York, and we went up for a couple of weeks. Last summer was only the second summer we had missed since the ’70s. The idea of missing two in a row really bothered me. Anyway, we had a fine time. I had listed ten or 12 things that could go wrong with that trip, like getting stuck in the wrong country or whatever, but none of them did. Alice died in September 2001. Was this September, the 20-year anniversary of her passing, hard? Not harder than any other day, no. I don’t have any special feelings on those anniversaries. It’s pretty much spread over everything. Has it changed, how you deal with missing her? No, that hasn’t changed. I would say it’s about the same. How do you deal with losing a spouse you are so happy with way too soon? I think people do what they have to do. You think of things you couldn’t manage, and then when they come round, you manage them. I have a lot of family and friends, they come around, so I don’t think of myself as sitting in a corner being lonely. Have you dated since Alice died? Yeah, I guess so, yeah. But you don’t have a romantic partner right now? You live alone? Yeah, I live alone. You started at the New Yorker in 1963. How has it changed since then? I think it’s more on the news than it used to be. That’s just the changing times. And internally, it’s changed. When I first went to the New Yorker, there was no table of contents. And there were no bylines, your name appeared at the bottom of the story. There were also a lot of two- and three-part pieces that would run in successive issues. That’s all changed. The New Yorker is a literary magazine, and you are strongly as74 | INKANSASCITY.COM

sociated with it, yet you are fundamentally a journalist. Do you have concerns about the current state of journalism? Yeah! I have concerns when you read, for instance, how many city hall reporters a large city has compared to how many they used to have. It concerns me that there are not enough of those people to sort of let them have the freedom to work on very long pieces. But on the other hand, the New York Times seems to be running more of those long investigations. For newspapers, one change is that everybody now sort of works for the equivalent of a news service because they can break a story at 3:30 in the morning. For 15 years I did a piece for the New Yorker every three weeks from somewhere in the country, except in summer when I was in Nova Scotia. Magazine writers would say, “How do you keep up the pace?” and newspaper reporters would say, “What else do you do?” The increasing wealth divide in the country and the attention being paid to it makes me think of the Alice Tax, which you described this way in Too Soon to Tell: “To state the provisions of the Alice Tax simply, which is the only way Alice allows them to be stated, it calls for this: After a certain level of income, the government would simply take everything. When Alice says confiscatory, she means confiscatory.” Do you think about how relevant that has become? I hadn’t thought of that until you brought it up, but I think the Alice Tax made a lot of sense. I think the people who study these things—and I’m not one of them—are all pretty much in agreement that this much disparity in wealth is not a good thing. I think the chance of the Alice Tax passing seems as remote now as it did when she first suggested it. And yet it seems more tantalizing. Yeah, it’s interesting. Even now when they talk about taxing the super-rich, they talk about taxing their income, not their wealth. And yet in a lot of cases their income is theoretically practically nothing, so they don’t pay taxes. I was thinking yesterday about the lobbyists’ efforts to influence the Biden social spending bill. It’s dispiriting, but I still am not the one to do anything about it. I thought a long time ago that you can’t bring down the government with iambic pentameter. While we’re talking about dispiriting things, you wrote Jackson, 1964, a collection of articles you wrote about race and racism over 50 years. At this moment in 2021, what does your gut tell you: Is racism in the United States intractable? Is it intractable in the human condition? Or can we somehow rid ourselves of it in some possibly distant future? I’d like to think that. But I’m not terribly optimistic about that, I guess. We’ve made a lot of progress. But so much (racism) is baked in. I was just reading about redlining and buying houses after World War II— the American Dream—and how the houses appreciated over the years so people had a serious amount of money compared to what they put in the house. And Black people were not allowed to have these houses. There are probably a thousand examples like that. I think the play for race is still there in politics and it has a lot to do with the immigration argument, the idea that the Democrats are trying to replace white people with dark people so they can get their vote. It is a political issue, but it also has something to do with your famNOVEMBER 2021 |

Trillin with his wife, Alice, who served as a muse to him and as the subject of his book, About Alice.

ily and how you think of yourself. I think of myself as coming from an immigrant family. None of my grandparents’ generation spoke standard English. Technically my father was an immigrant, although he was two or three when he came here. One of your often-repeated quotes is about childrearing: “Your children are either the center of your life or they’re not; the rest is commentary.” Your children are clearly the center of your life… Right! What do you see in your children and grandchildren that gives you hope for the future? For one thing, I don’t think they have any race feelings like we were talking about. And they’re supportive of each other. I think they’re going to be OK. I think they came along at a time when at least people are trying to reckon with all this (racism and inequality) as opposed to a time when it was sort of taken for granted, when it was what they call now passive racism. I never thought to ask when I was in high school why there weren’t any Black people in my high school. Missouri was legally segregated at the time; I didn’t think about it. Now we’re in an era where at least people are discussing it and thinking about it. I think that’s encouraging. And since they happen to be my grandchildren, I’m probably prejudiced, but I think they are particularly encouraging. (Laughs) Interview condensed and minimally edited for clarity. 75 | INKANSASCITY.COM

We Need a Little Christmas, Right This Very Minute AND JUST IN TIME. . . THE 70TH ANNUAL KAPPA KAPPA GAMMA HOLIDAY HOMES TOUR

there ever was a year when we needed a little Christmas, right this very minute—candles in the window, carols at the spinet—it is now. Last year the tour was canceled for the first time in its 70-year history. Here’s a look back at two homes from the 2019 tour.

words by photos by

NOVEMBER 2021

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Judith Fertig Aaron Leimkuehler

Homes for the Holidays Since 1951, the Kappa Kappa Gamma Holiday Homes Tour has transported us to a winter wonderland where all is merry and bright. This year, from December 7 through 9, Kansas City’s top florists and designers will show us how to put a little holiday spirit in every room. kappahomestour.com

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Right: In the living room, the main tree features coordinating plaid bows and Lynette Koester’s collection of needlepoint tree ornaments. Below: Baskets ﬁlled to the brim with magnolia leaves top the kitchen cabinets. Opposite: Boxwood wreaths tied with bold plaid ribbons accent the dining room trio of windows.

Updated Ranch

or empty-nesters Chuck and Lynette Koester, redoing their 1940s Plaza-area ranch was a chance to rethink their possessions. What stayed? Among them, Lynette’s precious needlepointed Christmas tree ornaments in vivid display on their soaring holiday tree encircled by a vintage fence. “It was pretty unique,” says an admiring Chuck Matney of The Little Flower Shop. He took his cue from there. Matney chose coordinating pops of red in candles, ribbons, and bows to add a jolt of color in the airy and spare setting. “I also like to do mounded arrangements of carnations or roses in different tones of red,” he says. On the kitchen island and the back cabinets, he did low arrangements of fresh magnolia. “I love magnolia because it keeps its color—green on one side, brown on the other. And you can have magnolia up all winter, even when it dries,” he says. “You can’t go wrong with keepsake ornaments, old-fashioned trees, and mercury glass that sparkles,” he says. The Little Flower Shop | thelittleﬂowershop.com

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Above: Rustic ornaments and a nativity scene are a highlight of a countertop in the kitchen. Below: Preserved boxwood topiaries surround the silver and gold statuesque nutcrackers. Opposite: In the breakfast room, frosty trees, glass vases, and silver ornaments evoke a snowy scene.

Pennsylvania Country

f there’s an argument between fresh and preserved greenery, Terry Mancuso of KC Surroundings in Prairiefire is firmly on the side of preserved. “Preserved greenery—especially boxwood—looks great and can last a long time if you take care of it,” Mancuso says. In the spacious Mission Hills home of Dave and Tracy Lockton, Mancuso used preserved boxwood wreaths, table trees, and topiaries to give the rooms a festive touch without those pesky dried evergreen needles. “After Christmas, you can take down the ribbons and ornaments and still enjoy greenery through February,” she adds. Mancuso used sparkling glass in a winter scene to grace the custom Unruh table, evoking a feeling of a snowy day in Vail, special to the homeowners. Standing sentry in the dining room are a trio of sleek, silvery nutcrackers. “Make your decor welcoming, homey, and cheery,” she says. KC Surroundings | kcsurroundings.com

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INCENSED words by

Katie Van Luchene

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Left: Local actor Terrick Trobough depicted the men in the film’s re-enactment scenes.

an Laurine was having his hair cut at a Crossroads Arts District salon. As long-time stylists and clients will do, the two chatted about what was happening in their lives and Laurine talked about his part in Procession, a documentary being filmed in Kansas City. The film’s subject matter made the man behind the chair pause; Laurine and five other local men were revealing on screen that each had been abused by Catholic priests when they were boys. He put down his barber shears and asked his friend, “Are you sure you want to do this? To be so vulnerable—so naked?” “I have to,” Laurine replied. “I keep thinking about all those kids who didn’t make it. Committed suicide, gave in to drugs or drinking to tap down the pain. I’m doing this for them.” The trauma survivors—Joe Eldred, Mike Foreman, Ed Gavagan, Michael Sandridge, and Tom Viviano, along with Laurine—had specific reasons to participate in Procession. Each intention is displayed, ranging from a whisper to red-hot rage, throughout the documentary. They couldn’t save themselves at the time, but perhaps by their bravery, through their emotional nakedness, they could keep other children from what they endured. Procession is the seventh feature film by director Robert Greene, Filmmaker-in-Chief for the Murray Center for Documentary Journalism at the University of Missouri. His films include Bisbee ’17, nominated for Best Documentary at the 2018 Gotham Awards and Sundance award winner Kate Plays Christine. For his latest film, Greene surrounded himself with an award-winning team comprised mostly of people he’s worked with for more than a decade including producers Douglas Tirola, Susan Bedusa, and Bennett Elliot along with the director of photography, Robert Kolodny. That close connection would be necessary as the group tackled a subject that is deeply personal. The film had its genesis in 2018 when Greene was moved to tears while watching a news clip with Kansas City lawyer Rebecca Randles and three of the men who would eventually participate in the film. Randles has investigated nearly 400 allegations against religious ministers in the Midwest. “For me, on a personal level, this was the hardest news story I’ve ever heard,” says Greene. “Knowing how silenced the survivors felt, I knew I couldn’t participate in that silence.” The project would eventually take three years to film and edit. He calls Procession a culmination of what he’s been working toward for more than ten years. “I believe in the power of collaboration, of working together, the potential for healing that the arts can provide,” Greene says. “I’ve seen it work in other projects, and yet I felt it’s been underexplored. “And,” he notes, “I knew we were ready to take on that challenge.” But first there needed to be an abundance of trust. The men had to believe Greene would tell their stories with empathy and sensitivity. “It’s trust we didn’t earn alone,” he says. “We were building on the trust Rebecca and Sasha Black, her right-hand partner, had with these guys

SIX MEN FROM KANSAS CITY REVEAL PERSONAL SECRETS IN PROCESSION, A DOCUMENTARY THAT IS AT ONCE HEARTBREAKING, HAUNTING, AND YET HOPEFUL

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Above, from left to right: Ed Gavagan, Michael Sandridge, and Dan Laurine.

for years. That gave us a level of grace.” During the filmmakers’ first meetings with the men, which included Monica Phinney, a trained drama therapist with a background in sexual assault, it was decided to have the men represent themselves rather than use actors. “Who else,” reasoned Dan Laurine, “would have as much skin in the game?” Yet Greene cautioned that reenacting the most painful times in their lives could retraumatize the men. They were ready to take the risk. It would end up being especially hard for Laurine; as the location scout for the film, he was involved in nearly every storyline. For Sandridge, the reason for participation was twofold. “I want to be heard. And I want to be believed.” Being believed was at the crux of Mike Foreman’s purpose; by the time he had a chance to confront leaders of the church with his accusations, they deemed him to be not credible despite collaborating accounts by other alleged victims. Ed Gavagan wanted to recreate scenes from his childhood to fight for justice in a pending criminal case against his abuser. Joe Eldred saw this experience as a way to finally stop the terrifying nightmares that had haunted him for years. Meanwhile, Tom Viviano, who couldn’t address his own story because of its ongoing legal status, lent his support by acting in the other men’s scenes. Throughout the film, each victim confronts his demons. Some are triggered by the vestiges of the churches where they worshipped as boys: The exotic aroma of incense and the clanging of the brass carrier. The

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liturgical garments and stained-glass windows. The polished wood. All part of sanctuaries and rituals meant to reflect peace and love. Taking in the light filtering in through colorful glass shapes at a midtown church, Sandridge wonders out loud, “Isn’t it beautiful? You can’t imagine anything bad happening here.” During the course of 118 minutes, all the men had breakthroughs, which ranged from dramatic to subtle. One of the most powerful scenes took place where Dan Laurine and his older brother Tim had been abused by the same priest at different times. The siblings never discussed the attacks as boys; “a testament,” says Dan, “to how the church uses intimidation and fear to maintain control.” The brothers had addressed the trauma as adults, yet it took that moment, caught on film, to break through the wall. This scene, explains Greene, shows how the camera can be used to create genre-influenced scenes, but also for therapeutic reasons. The audience watches as Tim asks forgiveness for not protecting his kid brother, and Dan absolves him of any guilt. “The camera,” Greene says, “became a kind of enabler itself, but in the most positive sense.” Ed Gavagan used his skills as a contractor to construct a set to recreate his abuse at the hands of a priest relocated to Wyoming from Kansas City. After filming, Gavagan destroyed the set with a sledgehammer, literally taking back the power. It’s a physical moment that demands the audience move beyond what Gavagan calls “the polite golf clap” inherent in many films.

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“That phrase is important,” says Greene. “Ed expressed so eloquently how many subjects of a documentary feel; don’t have a boring sort of pity for me—that polite golf clap.” “Ed also tasked us as filmmakers to not use cheap artifices to get to an emotional outcome. “And there’s a third part,” Greene continues. “As a viewer you can’t just say ‘I did my part by watching this film,’ then move about your day. You need to think deeply about this and then make some changes in the world.” Procession premiered at the Telluride Film Festival in September to outstanding reviews. Brian Tallerico of RobertEbert.com called it a “stunning achievement” and “one of the best films ever made about not just the long-term impact of traumatic events but the difficult, unpredictable act of healing.” David Ehrlich in IndiWire writes that Greene has made a “sober, powerful and even disarmingly playful film that hinges on performance as a kind of therapy.” One moment of levity takes place as Sandridge, an interior designer, scouts a location with Laurine. As the men enter a downtown Kansas City church Sandridge hasn’t seen in years, he comments on the new columns. “They’re beautiful,” he quips as he regards the gilt. “But I wouldn’t have done it.” In his review, Ehrlich adds that “Greene has assembled one hell of a cast here, and each of the six primary subjects in Procession is heard and understood with a measure of the clarity they’ve been denied for so long.” But it took the Telluride premiere for Mike Forman to feel he’d been heard. After the scene where he angrily confronts the church’s independent review board, the audience stood and applauded for what seemed to last a full minute. “It’s unlike anything I’ve ever experienced,” Greene recalls, who is grateful Forman was there to receive the validation. “What’s so powerful,” says Greene, “is that there’s such an awareness and love and understanding between these men. So, someone else’s

transformation, another’s validation becomes yours.” Indeed, Joe Eldred’s transformation was life changing. Those nightmares he’d endured several times a week stopped after the filming. Within days of its premiere, Netflix announced it acquired Procession, and, according to The Hollywood Reporter, “intends to mount a full-fledged Oscar campaign for it.” Greene says the Netflix participation is huge. “This will give us such a powerful audience,” he says. And the timing is perfect. “Here’s the thing. I think as a society we’re just starting to have meaningful conversations about the effect of trauma. And we need that no matter where it comes from: social unrest, the me-too movement, racial reckoning, the extreme loss so many have had because of the pandemic. “Ed said he thinks of this group of six men as the Avengers. Like the shared pain has given them superpowers. And I see these men as leaders of this moment. Their bravery in looking their fear in the face and crushing it. It’s a miraculous thing to me. “This film can take you by the hand and help you heal if that’s what you need. I’m just grateful to be part of it.” It could also become an avenue for what each of the survivors wants: to shine the light on the abuses and hold people accountable. Part of that would be to change the statute of limitations to allow decades-old accusations to have their day in court. As for the possibility of an Academy Award, Greene admits it’s easy to be cynical about awards. But he adds, “This recognition would be enormous. It means our documentary would be viewed by more people around the world. It could expand the opportunity for conversations about trauma and healing.” Kansas Citians will have an opportunity to see the documentary while the Oscar buzz escalates. In Kansas City, the film will open theatrically at the Screenland Armour Theatre on November 19, the same day it streams on Netflix.

photos courtesy of netflix

From left to right: Joe Eldred, Ed Gavagan, Michael Sandridge, Tom Viviano, Dan Laurine, and Mike Forman in a baptismal scene penned by Michael Sandridge.

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Sitting Pretty

HOLIDAY FASHION HAS A BIT MORE SPARKLE AND SHINE THIS YEAR

Jenny Wheat Ciara Davis SHOT ON LOCATION AT Parrin & Co. PHOTOS BY

HAIR & MAKEUP BY

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LOUNGE ACT This page: Rhode dress, $565; Annie Bing mules, $349; Maison Irem earrings, $150. All available at Clairvaux (Fairway Shops). Opposite page: Alice + Olivia vegan leather bustier and pants, $295 each; Jimmy Choo sandals, $575; Hazen & Co. pearl earrings, $80. All available at Halls (Crown Center).

SUIT YOURSELF Adelyn Rae dress, $128;Virtue earrings, $42, both available at Clothology: 135 (Parkway Plaza). Stuart Weitzman boots, $595, available at Halls (Crown Center).

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GRAPHIC CONTENT Vilagallo sequined jacket, $320; Joseph Ribkoff top, $88;Vilagallo pants, $175, earrings, $97.50. All available at Trapp and Company (Midtown).

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TAKE A SHINE Lush dress, $90; earrings, $25, both available at The Chic Closet in the Threshing Bee (Prairiefire). Jimmy Choo sandals, $675, available at Halls (Crown Center).

SOFT FOCUS D. Exterior dress, $495, available at Hudson & Jane (Crestwood Shops). Glitter pumps, $249, and silver necklace, $379, both from DelBrenna Jewelry (Crestwood Shops).

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BLUE PERIOD Scotch & Soda dress, $198; M Squared earrings, $50, both available at Luna (Westwood).

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GILDED AGE Gentle Fawn sequined dress, $158; Julie Zancanelli earrings, $78; Georgina Herrera ring, $376;Vince Camuto sandals, $110. All available at Alysa Rene Boutique (Park Place).

Above Board KC’S BEST CHARCUTERIE

words by

Kelsey Cipolla

photo by amante domingo

harcuterie boards are a reminder that simple is often best: With just a few thinly sliced pieces of prosciutto, a wedge or two of cheese, and a handful of nuts or fruit, this smattering of unassuming ingredients takes on tantalizing new life. No wonder they’re a favorite everywhere from bars and restaurants to your family holiday party. So where do you find these platters of perfection? We’re sharing our top picks.

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1889 Pizza Napoletana

2876 W 47th Avenue | 1889pizza.com

Boulevard Beer Hall

Perhaps it shouldn’t come as a shock that a pizzeria—aka a place that knows a thing or two about making magic out of Italian meats and cheeses—would nail charcuterie, but 1889 Pizza Napoletana’s board is still a pleasant surprise. In addition to a trio of both cheeses and meats, the shareable plate includes an olive medley, fig marmalade, Dijon mustard and toasted bread—all for less than $15. Just remember to save room for a few slices of pizza, too.

2534 Madison Avenue | boulevard.com Boulevard Brewing Co.’s Beer Hall naturally offers plenty of eats designed to be enjoyed with a beer, including the meat and cheese brewer’s board. It highlights local and regional producers including country ham from Burgers’ Smokehouse, based in California, Missouri; smoked cheddar crafted by Wiebe Dairy in Durham, Kansas; and aged gouda sourced from Iowa’s Frisian Farms. Throw some Spanish chorizo, crackers, pickles, olives, jam, and mustard into the mix, and you get a perfect snack to graze on between sips of beer.

Green Dirt Farm Creamery

Affäre

1911 Main Street affarekc.com

1099 Welt Street greendirtfarm.com/creamery

The German translation of charcuterie: aufschnittplatte. It might be hard to pronounce, but it’s a joy to eat at Affäre, where the platter includes an array of deli meats and cheese, plus the restaurant’s truly delightful house-made pickles and a selection of bread. While those foods can often make you feel weighed down, Affäre’s version eats surprisingly light. The shareable dish is also available for a steal—just $14—during the restaurant’s happy hour.

ADVANCED CHARCUTERIE Earn some extra credit for your next charcuterie spread at Local Pig, which offers a unique class that focuses not on arranging the elements of a board but making them: Participants learn how to cure a pork belly for creating bacon; mix, stuff, ferment, and smoke summer sausage; and create a curing brine that will turn a rear pork leg into a beautiful, slowly smoked ham. You’ll leave with a newfound appreciation for the work that goes into the easily overlooked slices of meat— and roughly three pounds of various items to take home. Sign

Cheese is the main attraction at Weston’s Green Dirt Farm, and it’s fittingly given the star treatment on the creamery’s menu. It boasts a whopping five cheese and charcuterie boards, which range from a seasonal selection to a deconstructed peanut butter and jelly sandwich-inspired board to the not-to-miss fresh cheese board, featuring three different flavors of the farm’s spreadable cheese, plus jam, honey, nuts, and gluten-free crackers. Pro tip: The boards are also available for pickup, should your holiday party need an extra dose of dairy.

up for upcoming sessions at localpig.com/classes

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Rye

King G

10551 Mission Road and 4646 Mill Creek Parkway ryekc.com

500 E. 18th Street kinggkc.com Although it’s a relative newcomer to Kansas City’s dining scene, King G has already jumped to the top of our list when it comes to all things deli meat. They’re well highlighted in the restaurant’s lineup of sandwiches, but the protein’s quality and flavor truly shine on the salumi board, a spread that includes mortadella, soppressata, capicola, and braunschweiger accompanied by mustard, pickles, toasted hazelnuts, and rye. Missing a cheesy element? King G also serves up creamy burrata on its bar menu.

Delectable pies and juicy fried chicken are probably the first things that come to mind when you think of Rye, but the restaurant also excels at charcuterie. The patês, sausages, rillettes, and sauces featured on the handsome butcher board served at the Leawood and Plaza locations are all made in-house. Diners can also opt for a domestic cheese selection, which feature a seasonal assortment of accompaniments and lavosh—both are available on the midday and dinner menus.

The Pairing

1615 Oak Street | thepairingkc.com At The Pairing, you’ll find all the items you need to build your own stellar grazing board, but you can also kick back and enjoy some of the most thoughtfully crafted charcuterie in town, including a plantbased option with imitation meat and dairy-free cheeses—vegans, rejoice! The boards offer great variety without breaking the bank, and they just might inspire you to leave with a few new finds to step up your own game.

Tannin Wine Bar & Kitchen

1526 Walnut Street | tanninwinebar.com Few things pair better with a charcuterie board than a glass of wine. Fortunately, Tannin Wine Bar & Kitchen excels at serving up both. The Crossroads restaurant offers one option focused on cheese accompanied by dried fruit, nuts, and crispy house-made lavosh, and another dedicated to meat served alongside pickled veggies, jam, and crostini. Can’t pick which one to order? Go ahead and order both—you know they belong together.

The Westside Local

1663 Summit St. | thewestsidelocal.com Choose your own adventure at this Westside favorite, which offers a selection of “localities and sweets” that can be enjoyed a la carte or combined into the plate of your dreams. Options include Farm to Market Bread Co. baguette slices, delectable house dill-pickle spears, brie, semi-soft port salut cheese, deviled eggs, and more. Or have the kitchen do the hard work of choosing for you and opt for the hearty chef ’s board, which comes with a seasonal selection of meats, cheeses, and assorted accoutrements.

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BRING THE BEST HOME IF PAINSTAKINGLY FOLDING A SLICE OF SALAMI INTO THE SHAPE OF A ROSE AND PLACING IT NEXT TO A CHEESE YOU SPENT 20 MINUTES PICKING OUT ISN’T IN THE CARDS FOR YOUR NEXT GATHERING, FEAR NOT—THERE ARE PLENTY OF LOCAL BUSINESSES THAT CAN CREATE A DREAMY CHARCUTERIE BOARD FOR YOU

MORE CHEESE PLEASE Choose from a traditional cheese and charcuterie, bagels and brunch, or a vegan board from More Cheese Please, which allows clients to pick from personal portions to full-blown grazing tables. Owner Jenna Warmund also offers private classes to teach Kansas Citians the trick of the trade in the comfort of their own kitchens. morecheesepleasekc.com

GRAZING KC Sarah Juenemann puts tons of time and effort into her customized boards, which often go beyond your standard meat and cheese to include delicious dips, sweet treats, and pretty much anything else you can dream of. Her creations are as satisfying to eat as they are to look at. grazingkc.org

SPREAD ARTISAN BOARDS Whether you’re looking for veggies, fruit, sweets, or good old-fashioned meats and cheeses on your board, Spread has you covered. You can even get your goodies charmingly packaged in boxes perfect for picnics or your next socially distanced get-together—because sharing snacks in 2021 is by no means a given. spreadkc.com

GRAZE & GATHER KC Graze & Gather KC owner Lena Jones believes charcuterie doesn’t have to be reserved for special occasions—it deserves a place at the table anytime. Spice up your next date night with charcuterie for two, which includes a couple-sized helping of meats, cheese, and accompaniments, or snack on a char-cutie cup, individual portions of board favorites. grazeandgatherkc.com

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David Tran and Ryan Hiser

THESE SERIAL REMODELERS ARE LESS “FLIP” THAN “FIX”

words by photos by

Patricia O’Dell Aaron Leimkuehler

yan Hiser and David Tran cannot resist the urge to renew. Their itch to restore old homes in Kansas City led them to contact the owner of a stately home near the Kansas City Art Institute. While the three-story brick house resembled a down-on-her-heels doyenne, the men were certain that she was a diamond in the rough. “It looked almost vacant,” Hiser says. “But we did some research and found the owner, and she agreed to sell.” The house had been divided into six apartments, two on each floor, and included bathroom additions for each room. Restoring

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The Art of Restoration

Hiser and Tran’s living room features many local ﬁnds, including the Milo Baughman Chiclet coffee table, which the couple discovered at Urban Mining. The painting over the mantel was a Plaza Art Fair purchase.

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The orange tree on the couple’s center hall table reminds Tran, a Florida native, of home. Linda Lighton lipstick bullet sculptures are among the men’s favorite pieces.

A convenient drinks tray in the living room saves the hosts a trip to the kitchen. The mobile is by their neighbor, Jason Pollen, professor emeritus of the Kansas City Art Institute.

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The traditional architecture and dining table are offset by the contemporary brass accents in the chairs and sconces. Photographs that lean casually on the wainscoting are by Clifton Henri, a Chicago, Illinois, photographer who exhibits at the Plaza Art Fair.

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the home to a single-family residence was not a simple task of spit and polish. At the time, Hiser and Tran were in the process of renovating and opening The Truitt, a boutique hotel nearby, but they were undeterred. Once the owner agreed to sell, they dug in. “The center hall and the milled woodwork alone sold us,” Tran says. Downstairs the couple set to work restoring much of the original floorplan. The center hall entry is traditionally flanked by the living room and dining room. The living room, rather than reflecting the formality of its age, is a balance of comfort and structure that provides the perfect spot to entertain. A deep sofa and sculptural chairs allow a combination of sit-back-and-relax and move-closer-I-don’t-want-to-missa-word. The couple purchased the stunning Chinese screen in the West Bottoms long before they purchased the house. “We love it in here. It’s like wallpaper without the commitment,” Tran says.

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The white walls of the dining room offset the graphic lines of the dark woodwork of the wainscoting and the beams of the ceiling. The couple echoed this graphic design with black-framed photographs that lean casually on the ledge. “I was so excited about this project,” Hiser says. “But when we were working on the dining room I wondered, ‘How are we ever going to find a dining room table big enough?’” He needn’t have worried. “We were at an estate sale in St. Louis and stumbled on this Duncan Phyfe table,” he says. “And we knew it was perfect.” While the men love these rooms, and entertain often, when they are home alone, they find that they gravitate to the library. The charcoal walls are accented with golden yellow velvet curtains, a cheerful touch for the serene space. “We find that we spend most of our time

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Left: All of the kitchen (except for the SubZero refrigerator) is contained within one massive, marble-wrapped island. Below: The couple likes to end the day enjoying this sitting area in the primary bedroom. Opposite: The library features a painting by Kansas City artist Harold Smith.

here,” Hiser says. “We really do like to do a dark room,” Tran adds. As most of the structural renovations are so in keeping with the age of the home, they are nearly invisible to a visitor. But the kitchen is modern punctuation. “There wasn’t a main kitchen when the house was apartments,” Hiser says. “The space was two bedrooms. We wanted to go back to the original footprint, but there were so many doors and windows, it was difficult to modify.” The couple decided that rather than opening up the space, which would have created an open-concept kitchen that they were trying to avoid, they would create a very contemporary galley layout. Upstairs, the primary bedroom serves as a haven. The men merged two bedrooms to create a luxurious suite that includes a sitting area, bedroom, master bath, and closet. “We weren’t sure of the original floorplan of the upstairs, so that made it easier for us to modify,” Hiser says. The primary bedroom is spacious enough for a seating area

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Matouk linens and Hugo Boss pillows from Terrasi Living and Scandia Home dress the contemporary canopy bed. The vintage highboy with a taxidermied pheasant perched on top is from Main Street Swanky. Top right: In the primary bath, black penny tiles carpet the floor. Bottom right: Matching vintage mirrors and contemporary pedestal sinks flank a marble and brass cart in the primary bath.

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good things good things

the art of restoration continued

come in in twos threes) come twos(and (and threes)

When it comes to creating beautiful custom storage solutions in your home, why stop with just one space? Reimagine multiple rooms for maximum Locally owned with locations in Overland Park and Briarcliff Village enjoyment — and minimum disruption. Visit our showroom today to arrange your complimentary design consultation, or visit us online at californiaclosets.com.

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Free Design Consultation | Financing Available Finishes may vary by location. ©2021 California Closet Company, Inc. All rights reserved. Franchises independently owned and operated. Contractor licenses are available at californiaclosets.com.

californiaclosets.com/locations/kansas-city 913-888-1199 Finishes may vary by location. ©2021 California Closet Company, Inc. All rights reserved. Franchises independently owned and operated. Contractor licenses are available at californiaclosets.com.

CAR WON'T WON'T GO? GO? CAR CAR WON'T GO?

around the fireplace, making a relaxing place to shake off the stressors of the day. As with the rest of the bedroom, it is a deft mix of contemporary and traditional, with black-and-white ticking stripe pillows at home on the chrome Wassily chairs. Rather than resorting to a wood-framed bed, the men chose a streamlined powder-coated iron canopy frame with sleek brass fittings. It converses easily with the antique chest and gilt mirror nearby. In their spa-like bathroom, a generous marble shower is filled with plants. The couple has found they have become regular customers at Soil Service Garden Center. “We wanted to feel as if we were in a garden year-round,” Tran says. The custom closet is nearly as large as one of the bedrooms, with well-lit alcoves for clothes and accessories. Lush carpet underfoot ensures no cold feet first thing in the morning. “It’s really a cocoon up here,” Hiser says of the bedroom suite. “It’s a great place for us to relax.” While the home appears complete, it’s likely that it will continue to evolve.

** TOW or 913.894.5201 | SANTAFETOWSERVICE.COM ** 913.894.5201 || SANTAFETOWSERVICE.COM SANTAFETOWSERVICE.COM ** TOW TOW or or 913.894.5201

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SANTEFE_1/4.indd 1 SANTEFE_1/4.indd SANTEFE_1/4.indd 11

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1/13/20 10:05 AM 1/13/20 10:05 10:05AM AM 1/13/20

The couple’s chic closet has the feel of an exclusive men’s clothing shop.

beautiful heart

Gifts Home | Baby | Cards Invitations

“We love visiting the local shops—for the house and the Truitt,” Tran says. “It gives us the opportunity to find things that are uniquely us. There’s nothing better.”

Hawthorne Plaza 4953 West 119th Street Overland Park, Kansas 66209 913/325-7354

THE IT LIST A few of Hiser and Tran’s favorite places to shop.

Main Street Swanky mainstreetswanky.com

Urban Mining urbanminingvintage.com

Terrasi Living & Scandia Home terrasi.com

Christopher Filley Antiques & Art 816-668-9974

Flowers Trapp and Company trappandcompany.com

NOVEMBER 2021

An Uncommon Shop cuorebella.com

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4110 MAIN ST. • WWW.TRAPPANDCOMPANY.COM • 816-931-6940

Holiday Events

More to celebrate

Holiday Season Premiere Saturday, November 20 (All day) Begin your holiday shopping and traditions with all the sights, sounds & beauty Park Place brings! - Arrival & photos with Santa Claus (1pm - 4pm) - Strolling Dickens Carolers - Special offers at stores and restaurants - Official opening of The Ice at Park Place

Shop Small Saturday & Holiday Market Saturday, November 27 (All day) Shop small and support local! Enjoy specials throughout the Village, a one-day outdoor Holiday Market featuring local specialty food and product vendors, and the sights and sounds that only the holiday season brings! - Special offers at stores and restaurants - Holiday Market along 116th Pl. (3pm – 6pm) - Photos (selfies) with Santa (1pm - 4pm) - Enjoy the Dickens Carolers

Strolling Santa & Dickens Carolers Saturdays, Nov. 20, 27 and Dec. 4, 11, & 18 (1pm – 4pm) Take photos with Santa Claus and Dickens Carolers as they visit Park Place each Saturday until Christmas.

Visit ParkPlaceLeawood.com for more details. Park Place is located on the northeast corner of Nall Avenue & 117th St., just north of AMC 20 Theatre.

Flavor

IN KC

In the Kitchen CRANBERRIES AND COMPANY BY

Cody Hogan

PHOTOS BY

essentially neglected the cranberry for the first 30 years of my life. I guess I never needed it. The jiggly cranberry jelly, shimmering and shaped like the can it just sprang from, sliced and served on a fancy pressedglass plate at Thanksgiving and Christmas—it just never held any interest for me. It was something the old people ate at holidays. Well somewhere along the way, I guess I became one of those old(er) people. As a cook, the cranberry is actually quite useful, especially during the time of year when freshness, acidity, and cheerful colors begin to fade from the culinary palette. If you cook with the seasons, cranberries are the berry equivalent of a relief pitcher when there are no other berries in sight for months. They also make a nice companion to all those winter squashes serving as a still life on your kitchen counter, complementing the squash’s sweet starchiness—and giving you an outlet for some of that squash. I like to combine the two, and with crunchy nuts and a creamy, rich cheese, they can become a very satisfying dish. This composition is really two recipes—a cranberry chutney that can stand alone, doing its duty next to a roast turkey, ham, or brisket; and a roasted winter squash salad that can be served at room temperature on a buffet or warm with melting cheese, garnished with dollops of cranberry piquancy. Roasted Squash with Cranberry Chutney To make the chutney, begin by putting a 12 ounce bag of fresh or frozen cranberries in a medium saucepan with one half cup of honey, one cup of water, and one cup of golden (or other) raisins, and bring it to a boil. (If your cranberries came in a larger increment like 16 ounces, go ahead and use all of them—because you know the leftover bits would most likely sit in the fridge and rot unless you are a habitual consumer of cranberries. Just increase the amounts of other ingredients accordingly). Meanwhile, remove the zest from an orange and add it (I like to use a bartender’s zester that removes the zest in long, thin sexy strips rather than a microplane or grater, although those would work). Squeeze the juice from the orange and add it to the pot, as well as one half cup of sugar, a one-inch knob of ginger peeled and finely chopped, one small cinnamon stick, and one heaping tablespoon whole mustard seeds (or even two if you like mustard as much as I do). When the pot boils, reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for about 15 minutes and taste. If the sauce is shockingly sour, add more sugar—one half to one full cup depending on how sweet you like it. Simmer NOVEMBER 2021 |

Aaron Leimkuehler

10 minutes more, adding a splash of water if necessary if there seems a danger of scorching, or the sauce just seems too thick (remember, it will thicken considerably when it cools). Taste a bite of mustard seed. It should “pop”between the teeth like sturdy caviar. If it is still tough, add another splash of water and cook a few minutes more. The remaining components of the dish can be prepared while the chutney cooks— or you can just forget about them and be happy with the chutney. To roast the squash, completely peel a small to medium-sized butternut squash and/or peel the tops of the ridges of an acorn squash (the acorn squash will look striped). Cut the squash in half lengthways and scrape the seeds and strings out of the hollow of the squash. Slice the squash crossways into finger-thick slices and toss them with oil, salt, and pepper. Arrange them on a parchment-lined baking sheet and roast in a hot (400F) oven until tender, around 20 minutes. The variety, water content and thickness of the squash can cause significant variations in cooking time, so keep an eye on the slices (they go from just tender to mushy in a short amount of time). Remove the squash from the oven, leaving them on the roasting pan until cool enough to handle. At the same time, briefly toast a big handful of pecans in the oven or in a skillet with a little butter or oil and salt. To assemble the salad, place slices of roasted squash, slightly overlapping, on a serving platter. Drop little dollops and drips of the cranberry chutney all around, then sprinkle on the toasted pecans, drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Lastly, scatter shavings or crumbles of goat (or other) cheese all around—my favorite is the elegant and lightly aged Humboldt Fog from Cypress Grove. The dish can be served like this, set out at room temperature. For an extra luxe treatment, heat the finished dish until the cheese begins to melt and serve warm. No matter your method of serving, I hope this recipe will become a part of your holiday celebrations, even if you’re not old(er). Notes for kitchen freestyling: Any type of winter squash would work. My favorite choices would be butternut, acorn, or delicata squash for this dish, but chunks of pumpkin, Hubbard, Kabocha or other squash family member would work, as would chunks of sweet potato, although the cooking times will vary. Other nuts or pumpkin seeds can be substituted for the pecans, or omitted entirely. If you wanted to extend the sauce or make it a bit less “cranberry”, you could add diced, peeled apple, pear or quince about half way through the cooking (quince take a much longer cooking time).

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In Your Pantry

CRAN-VARIATIONS CRANBERRIES are a fascinating and delicious fruit, so don’t let the

holiday season be the only time you use them. Look outside of the produce department and you can find all manner of cranberry-lusciousness year round. Indulge your next cran-craving with one of these:

Dried Cranberries Most dried cranberries have been “moistened” with some type of fruit juice—and a lot of sugar. If you’re trying to avoid sugar, this may not be the way to go. Dried cranberries are packed with flavor and can easily serve as a stand-in for raisins or dried cherries. They excel in cookies, muffins, crumbles, and other baked goods, as well as chutneys, relishes, and compotes. Try soaking them in brandy or Grand Marnier for an extra boost of flavor.

A spectacular, contemporary venue with transformable reception spaces and a magnificent courtyard. 1900bldg.com (913) 730–1905

Cranberry Preserves If you don’t have time or desire to make your own cranberry conserve, there are a number of delicious prepared cranberry condiments ranging from sweet and spreadable to peppery and chunky. They’re delicious with all manner of cheeses, spread on a sandwich, or made into a dip. And these are produced right here in KC, available in larger grocery and specialty stores like Better Cheddar.

Pure Cranberry Juice Take your juice game to the next level with 100% cranberry juice (as in not the typical juice cocktail loaded with sugar—often more than the average soda). These examples from Lakewood Organic are intensely ﬂavored, especially the cranberry juice concentrate, and loaded with antioxidants. Both juices are perfect for use in cocktails to knock your socks off, but the concentrate would be fabulous added to savory glazes and sauces or to ﬂavor homemade ice cream. Just be warned—the uninitiated might need a little something sweet to add, like honey or maple syrup. Available at specialty grocers.

Modern-American cuisine from award-winning Chef Linda Duerr. Chef Duerr and team present elegant fare and carefully curated menus for a variety of special occasions. therestaurantat1900.com (913) 730–1900

1900 Building 1900 Shawnee Mission Parkway Mission Woods, Kansas

NOVEMBER 2021 |

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JA NE LYNCH K AT E FL A NNERY AT T H E F O L LY T H E AT E R

TICKETS ONLINE: www.follytheater.org/ folly-frolic OR CONTACT US AT: 816.474.4444

JOIN US ON

SATURDAY NOVEMBER

Embrace the Holidays with an Iowa Getaway

visitmuscatine.com As snow blankets the landscape and Christmas lights shine in the night, Iowa’s towns offer a beautiful and relaxing holiday getaway with one-of-a-kind shopping destinations and exciting events. A true Iowa experience is only one tank of gas away. Find the perfect gift for loved ones in Cedar Rapids at the Czech Village and New Bohemia Main Street District’s shops. In less than half a day’s drive, you can catch the annual Deck the District event, held the first weekend in December, to experience fun holiday traditions. The District’s Holiday Guide also provides further inspiration for finding the perfect gift from local businesses.

thisisnorthiowa.com/visit

Head straight north after a busy day and by night you can be warm and cozy in a winter getaway cabin or hotel in Clear Lake and Mason City. Browse the main street shops decked out for the season and featuring locally made and sourced gift items and gourmet food. Savor the season with various events held throughout November and December, such as Home for the Holidays, Christmas by the Lake and Skate with Santa. Celebrate the holidays in style with a weekend getaway to Muscatine and a stay at the luxurious Merrill Hotel. After a worthwhile drive, explore the community’s unique shops, experience the historic holiday décor at the Muscatine Art Center, sip on smallbatch craft brews and enjoy chef-inspired cuisine at local eateries. The last weekend in January features eagle watching over the Mississippi River and a ragtime music festival. With beautiful snowfall, vibrant shopping districts and delicious eateries, your perfect holiday getaway is waiting for you in Iowa. For more information on holiday events and festivals at these and other great Iowa destinations, check out our online calendar at traveliowa.com.

issuu.com/mainstreet

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In Your Cocktail SERVAES BREWING CO. by

ourtney Servaes, the owner and head brewer of Shawnee’s Servaes Brewing Co., didn’t like beer when she first started brewing it. Courtney was struggling to build community after moving to Ottawa, Kansas, when an acquaintance invited her to a meeting of local home brewers. Even though she wasn’t a fan of drinking (let alone making) beer, Courtney appreciated the group’s passion and enthusiasm and decided to give it a go, working to brew a beer that she would actually enjoy. But once that goal was met, a new one took root. “I think almost everyone that homebrews has a dream of opening a brewery someday,” Courtney says. After finding success on the home-brewing circuit and working on her business plan as part of an MBA program years later,

Kelsey Cipolla

photo by

Corie English

Courtney decided to open her own brewery and taproom in downtown Shawnee with help from a crowdfunding campaign. With Servaes Brewing Co.’s launch in spring 2019, it became the KC metro’s first brewery owned and operated by a woman. Courtney is quick to say that because she didn’t come up working in breweries, she’s had a very different experience than many women in the industry and has felt supported by the local brewing community. And while she and staff encounter customers who are surprised or sometimes put off by the idea of drinking a beer brewed by a woman, there are plenty of visitors who flock to the colorful, family-friendly destination to try her inventive beers, which range from Courtney’s personal favorite style—IPAs—to wheat beers, stouts, and plenty of sours, which quickly became the brewery’s hallmark. “It’s a dirty little secret that I don’t actually NOVEMBER 2021 |

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like sours,” Courtney laughs, adding that she started brewing the style for her wife, Brandi. Now, they are the brewery’s bestsellers. Servaes Brewing Co. doesn’t have a flagship beer—its 20 taps are always changing to make room for Courtney’s latest wave of creativity. With so many options to choose from, flights are an ideal way to sample all the Servaes Brewing Co. has to offer—stop by on Thursdays when they’re $2 off or let them fuel you through the bar’s weekly Tuesday Trivia nights. (The brewery also offers four packs and crowlers of many of its beers so you can enjoy them at home.) Courtney loves to cook and takes a similarly experimental approach to brewing that she does in her own kitchen—trying new things to see what works. Sometimes that looks like a collection of pickle-inspired beers (this year’s lineup included the slam-dunk cucumber watermelon gose) or a collaboration with neighboring McLain’s Bakery where she incorporates their pastries into beers. Other times, it’s a potent combination of hops, like in the Earth to the Sun, a double New England IPA that Courtney counts among her favorites. It turns out Courtney isn’t the only member of the Servaes family with a knack for crafting creative drinks. After tagging along to breweries and events that didn’t offer much for kids to enjoy, her son, Aaron, had the idea to make his own root beer. Unsurprisingly, Courtney embraced the new challenge and Aaron came up with a long list of other soda ideas he wanted to try, many of which are now sold at the brewery as Aaron’s Craft Sodas. Making the brewery feel approachable and fun for families was part of Servaes’ mission from the start, and the kid-friendly drinks (as well as Servaes’ beers) can even be combined with ice cream to turn them into floats. servaesbrewco.com

Save t he Date ROMANTIC REVELS GALA Saturday, February 12, 2022 6:00 pm ‘til 10:00 pm InterContinental Hotel The Plaza . 401 Ward Parkway

$300 per Ticket with Patron Levels Available Jessica and Jason Chanos, Chairs

A Benefit for the Heart of America

SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL’S 30th Anniversary Production of Romeo and Juliet and year-round youth education programs

For More Details 816.531.7728 / kcshakes.org

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Kelsey Cipolla

TORN LABEL PUBLIC HOUSE BEER GARDENS and patios are all the rage during the

In Culinary News

spring and summer months, but come fall, we look to eat and drink somewhere a little cozier. Thankfully, Torn Label Public House is now an option. The restaurant inside the Crossroads brewery’s remodeled and expanded space opened this spring, serving up seasonally inspired dishes from former executive sous chef of Corvino Supper Club & Tasting, Vince Brink. You’ll find fun, beer-friendly fare with a twist, like Belgian frites tossed in tallow and served with a choice of sauces like curry ketchup and gochujang aioli, savory churros (made from potato and pickled white fish), and a selection of salads, sandwiches, and specials—like the fan-favorite pork tenderloin that has to be seen (and tasted) to be believed. facebook. com/tornlabelbrewingco

4308 NE Hoit Drive | Lakewood in Lee’s Summit Custom home in a much desired Lakewood community. Beautiful and private cul-de-sac lot. For more details, contact Julana. 816.582.6566 RE/MAX Premier Realty 2210 W 75th Street Prairie Village, KS 66208 913.652.0400 costellorealestate.com

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JOIN US FOR OUR SPRING 2022 SEASON! TICKETS ON SALE NOW! SCAN ME TO BUY TICKETS

jccc.edu/MTC Box Office: 913–469–4445 Monday – Friday, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. PILOBOLUS

JUDY COLLINS AND MADE LE INE PE Y ROU X

SOU TH PACIFIC

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J C C C . E D U/M TC THE GRE ATEST LOVE OF ALL A TR IBUTE TO WHITNE Y HOUSTON STAR R ING BE LINDA DAVIDS

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IN KC

Kelsey Cipolla

TRANSIT COFFEE PREPARATIONS FOR streetcar construction have made

In Culinary News

Main Street a frustrating road to travel on lately, but don’t let that deter (or detour) you from visiting one of KC’s newest coffee shops. Cleverly named Transit Coffee opened in late summer, and you’ll likely recognize the location from its many years as home to Oddly Correct—but Transit has a personality all its own. Owned and operated by Ben White, a veteran of KC’s coffee scene, the shop serves up a variety of coffees from roasters near and far along with pastries from Black Hole Bakery and sandwich ingredients sourced from local producers like Local Pig and Shatto Milk. And good things come to those who wait: When construction finally wraps up, Transit will be right along the newly expanded KC Streetcar route. transitcoffeekc.com

VIEW TOP PROPERTIES IN KANSAS CITY In Partnership with Better Homes and Gardens

We are working with some of Kansas City’s real estate agents to keep you in the know on some of the most exciting houses on the market.

MLS #2327173

Check it out at inkansascity.com/home-design/real-estate NOVEMBER 2021 |

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RACE FOR CHANGE 11.6.21 | 8pm

SAVE, Inc. cordially invites you to help take the lead and speed up the fight against homelessness in our community. Will you join SAVE, Inc.’s Pit Crew and help us continue to provide permanent, transitional, and emergency housing assistance to Kansas City’s most vulnerable? Rev up your engines and join us as we walk the streets of Miami Beach, sip on decadent cocktails, take photos with exotic cars and compete to win fantastic prizes! Can’t make it? Support SAVE, Inc. with a donation by visiting saveinckc.org/ homecoming. VACCINES ARE REQUIRED If you are requesting a vaccine exemption, please contact Blaine Proctor at bproctor@saveinckc.org or Torey Berndt at tberndt@saveinckc.org

TICKETS $100 General Admission Ticket — saveinckc.org/homecoming BECOME A SPONSOR Contact Torey Berndt at tberndt@saveinckc.org or (816) 531-8340 ext. 290. Location: Studio Dan Meiners | Attire: Luxury + Racing = Creative Black Tie

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Kelsey Cipolla

HIGH HOPES ICE CREAM HIGH HOPES ICE CREAM is something of a dream

In Culinary News

come true for Jamie Howard. After she fell in love with making the sweet treat while working at Betty Rae’s, Howard spent years trying to get her own concept off the ground, even buying up used equipment and storing it in her house. Now her dream is finally a reality at High Hopes, the Troost Avenue shop she opened late this summer. Howard crafts her flavors with locally sourced ingredients and plans to change them out each month, but early favorites include almond butter and Missouri peach and strawberry birthday cake, made with cream-cheese frosting and City Barrel’s Strawberry Shortcake Bar beer. High Hopes also has dairy-free options (and free Lactaid) available for lactose-intolerant customers. facebook. com/highhopeskc

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CHRISTMAS FESTIVAL Jason Seber, David T. Beals III Associate Conductor

UNFORGET TABLE CONCERT E XPERIENCES Symphony Classical Concert

Jason Seber

Johannes Debus

Peter Oundjian

Symphony Classical Concert

A Symphony Holiday Tradition

Yuletide Fun for Family & Friends

Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto

Friday & Saturday, Dec. 10-11 at 7 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 12 at 2 p.m.

PETER OUNDJIAN, GUEST CONDUCTOR JANICE CARISSA, PIANO

JOHANNES DEBUS, GUEST CONDUCTOR ERIC LU, PIANO

Price The Oak Strauss Burleske in D Minor Rimsky-Korsakov Scheherazade

Barber Essay No. 2 Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 4 Schumann Symphony No. 3, “Rhenish”

PATRICK DUPRÉ QUIGLEY, GUEST CONDUCTOR KANSAS CITY SYMPHONY CHORUS CHARLES BRUFFY, CHORUS DIRECTOR

Thursday, Dec. 16 at 7 p.m. Friday, Dec. 17 at 8 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 18 at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 19 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.

Important and necessary. Raucous and extravagant. Let our KC Symphony musicians take you on a musical roller-coaster ride. Tickets from $25.

The music is grand, vibrant and personal. It’s impossible not to be moved by this performance, PRESENTED BY filled with orchestral virtuosity. Tickets from $25.

Scheherazade! Plus Strauss

Friday & Saturday, Nov. 5-6 at 8 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 7 at 2 p.m.

Schumann’s “Rhenish”with Handel’s Messiah Friday & Saturday, Nov. 26-27 at 8 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 28 at 2 p.m.

The power of 200 instruments and voices combined with the impeccable acoustics of Helzberg Hall provides a triumphant experience of Handel’s majestic choral masterpiece. The Symphony and the Symphony Chorus invite you and yours to Handel’s glorious Messiah. Tickets from $30.

FREE SYMPHONY HAPPY HOUR - Tuesday, November 23 at 6 p.m.

Christmas Festival

JASON SEBER, DAVID T. BEALS III ASSOCIATE CONDUCTOR KANSAS CITY SYMPHONY CHORUS CHARLES BRUFFY, CHORUS DIRECTOR Enjoy stunning musical arrangements of cherished Christmas carols, songs of the season and our exciting guest vocalist, Broadway star Ashley Brown. PRESENTED BY Tickets from $25. Sponsored by

Bring friends and co-workers to the Kansas City Symphony for a delightful free chamber music performance. Visit kcsymphony.org for free tickets.

ORDER NOW

(816) 471-0400 / kcsymphony.org

12for$12 Limited Offer

Pros Know Best

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MADE IN KANSAS CITY

THE QUEER EYE GUYS’ COOL CROSSROADS LOFT FASHIONABLE FOOD

KC’S BEST ARTISANAL FOOD FARE KC START-UPS TO WATCH

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IN FASHION IN HOME DESIGN

the Pet

Issue

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DOG-FRIENDLY RESTAURANT PATIOS PET-FRIENDLY AND PRETTY COUNTRY AND CITY HOMES

IN FOOD

MULTI-PURPOSE MUDROOMS

AN EXCLUSIVE Q&A WITH KAY BARNES

PAWSITIVELY FUN FASHION

(and the pets are available for adoption)

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An exclusive Q&A

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Spring

Five

from QUEER EYE

WHAT TO DO ON A SUMMER WEEKEND

What to Wear to a Wedding

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KC’s Top Caterers A STUNNING PRAIRIE VILLAGE MAKEOVER

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Entertaining for Introverts, Summer Fashion & so much more!

MEN’S WATCHES

Just in time for Father’s Day

A Renovation Sensation Home

4 COOL POOLS + 1 LOVELY LAKE HOME

4 REAL WEDDINGS

Day Trips Destination Dining Staycations

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Restaurant Reviews, Recipes, Entertaining and more

A GARDEN IN TIME

Fall Fashion

A COLORFUL FAIRWAY COTTAGE

Exclusive Q&A with SNL’s HEIDI GARDNER

Paul Rudd AN EXCLUSIVE Q+A

Conquering KC’s Food Deserts

FOLLOW THESE FOODIE INSTAS

Talks about his movies, his hometown, his favorite charity (Big Slick, obvs.)

Fall Arts Preview

What To Wear Now —And This Fall

LOCALLY GROWN

Summertime!

Year the

Exclusive Q&A with bestselling author

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KC-CENTRIC PODCASTS YOU DON’T WANT TO MISS

Food

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Revisiting the Downtown Ballpark

LIVE LIKE A LOCAL

Tyrann Mathieu Kansas City Chiefs’ Safety

Holiday Fashion

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THE QUEER EYE “HEROES”

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

BOTTOMS UP The New Volume in Trousers This Fall

Kitchens to Covet

A STUNNING SUNSET HILL CONTEMPORARY

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TASTY GIFTS (LITERALLY!)

Talks Football, Philanthropy, and Food

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SPARKLE & SHINE!

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An In-Depth Interview with Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas

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Reservation for One TAILLEUR by

Kelsey Cipolla

photos by

eather White and Amante Domingo captured Kansas Citians’ hearts with The Russell, their rustic-meets-relaxed midtown restaurant. Now the duo is proving their versatility with Tailleur, a romantic European bistro that recently opened in the same neighborhood. Despite its newness, Tailleur feels lived in and well loved, thanks to a collection of paintings, gold-framed mirrors, and scores of other antiques and curiosities that decorate the space, extending from the first NOVEMBER 2021 |

Aaron Leimkuehler

floor up to the intimate second level. Dark wood paneling and inky blue walls give the dining room a moody feel that turns dreamy in the flickering light of candles and the soft glow of lamps. A table where a white-haired pair celebrates their anniversary later seats a couple that seems to be meeting for the first time, underlining that if Tailleur isn’t already at the top of your date-night list, it should be. The aesthetic is part French salon and part equestrian trophy room, with riding boots and other accoutrements sprinkled throughout. The 124 | INKANSASCITY.COM

sheer quantity of items paired with the restaurant’s layout—the bakery counter and shelving stacked with dishware extend into the dining room—can make it feel a little cramped, in true European fashion. But they also clearly convey a point of view that so many new restaurants sidestep in favor of being blandly stylish— and there’s nothing bland about Tailleur. The crowd is big and boisterous on a weeknight, and it seems no coincidence that many tables are sharing bottles of wine or Champagne. Guests interested in imbibing can choose from a short list of beers and wines as well as a bubbly red sangria, part of the restaurant’s one-page, single-sided menu that also includes food and dessert options. Soups, salads, and starters include a daily soup; thin, crispy frites; a Caesar with a Scotch egg; and a French classic, the Niçoise salad. The steamed mussels are an obvious choice, and although they are prepared with garlic and wine, the dish is surprisingly mustard-forward. The generous portion is served with crostini, but go ahead and order the bread basket to soak up the excess juices—or enjoy it all on its own. The pillowy slices of French bread and flavor-packed onion rolls are a delicious start to the dining experience, especially slathered with herbed garlic butter. The condiment is aggressive in the best way, showcasing the bold essence of garlic with just enough of its bite for a spread so powerfully good it rates among the meal’s standouts. The compound butter lends a bit of its magic to the duck confit, where portions of the skin have turned nearly jammy from rendering in fat. The bird’s meat practically melts off the bone and its richness works well with the frisée salad and fingerling potatoes that accompany it—simple sides that help ground the dish. Less successful is the Berkshire pork chop. Although it’s covered in a rich black-cherry peppercorn sauce, there’s no disguising the pork is slightly overcooked, and the texture lets down the otherwise flavorful entrée. Instead, look to options like the ground-brisket bistro burger with a sundried tomato aioli; roasted salmon with polenta and a garlic thyme pan jus; or the French dip with horseradish crema. After the exceptional bread, how could you possibly pass up Tailleur’s other baked goods for dessert, especially when there are so many to choose from? Prim lemon curd tarts, alluring bourbon brownies, and luscious dark chocolate cakes tempt but lose out to the 24 karrot cake. The dessert—which is actually not a slice of cake at all, but a robust cupcake—is spiced well but eats a little stodgy without the layers of cream cheese frosting you’d find in a traditional take on the cake. Still, it makes for a sweet last impression. But wait! The dish has some surprising competition as the meal winds down and the check is presented in a most unusual and charming fashion— tucked between the pages of a worn book. The experience of paying a bill has never felt more whimsical or thoughtful. The same could be said of dining at Tailleur, a restaurant in its first fantastic chapter. tailleuronmain.com NOVEMBER 2021 |

125 | INKANSASCITY.COM

2021 Kappa Kappa Gamma Holiday Homes Tour

2021 Kappa Kappa Gamma Featured Homes Holiday Homes Tour Featured Homes

5304 BELLEVIEW AVENUE, KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI 64112 Florist: Self-designed 849 West 53rd Terrace, Kansas City, Missouri Florist: The Little Flower Shop

6535 WENONGA TERRACE, MISSION HILLS, KANSAS 66208 Florist: Craig Sole Designs 6401 Aberdeen, Mission Hills, Kansas Florist: KC Surroundings

2901 W. 68TH STREET, MISSION HILLS, KANSAS 66208 Florist: Wild Hill Flowers 1231 West 56th Street, Kansas City, Missouri Florist: Studio Dan Meiner

10 DUNFORD CIRCLE, KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI 64112 Florist: Studio Dan Meiners 4107 Prairie Lane, Prairie Village, Kansas Florist: Monica Faught Flowers + Design

Tour tickets are $25 in advance at Hen House markets and

Tour tickets are $25 in advance at Hen House markets and online online (www.kappahomestour.com). Tickets also are available (www.kappahomestour.com). Tickets also are available for $30 for $30 on the days of the Tour at the featured homes and on the days of the tour at the featured homes and Holiday Boutique. Holiday Boutique.

Cocktails & Candlelight VIP Event | $75 Tickets ordered7th after November 20 may befrom picked up at Tuesday, December | 5-9pm | (Homes open 5-7pm)

“will-call” during tour hours at the boutique located in the Fountain Room inside the 1900 Building (1900 Shawnee Mission Parkway Mission Woods, KS).

www.kappahomestour.com

My Essentials

IN KC

JON STEPHENS CEO. VOLUNTEER. KC’S BIGGEST FAN

T PHOTO BY CORIE ENGLISH

he Kansas City native describes himself as a Ted Lassoesque optimist when it comes to our city. Stephens has held many roles that have allowed him to contribute to making Kansas City a vibrant, creative, and growing global city. At Port KC, he’s the president and CEO, and in his spare time, Stephens volunteers in various roles, including the chairperson of ArtsKC, and he serves on the Streetcar, KCPBS, and Downtown Council boards. He and his wife, Megan, and their two sons recently moved to the Westside. When asked what he loves most about his new neighborhood he says, “Literally everything! The views, the restaurants, the uniqueness of the homes. But if I had to pick just one thing, it would be the people. It is such a diverse neighborhood where everyone is welcoming and celebrates creativity and free expression.”

Jon’s essentials... DATE NIGHT: Variety is the spice of life, but live

GUILTY PLEASURE:

Hana’s Donuts in KCK. Each of the countless flavors are made with local ingredients and artisanal care. And like KCK as a whole, Hana’s is friendly and completely devoid of pretension. It’s a hidden gem.

MUST SHOP: Stuff

in Brookside. Sloane and Casey curate an ever-evolving mecca of jewelry, home items, and art featuring local and visiting artists.

FAVE COCKTAIL: SATURDAY-DAY-OUT: Saturdays are

usually reserved for being outside. A walk to Mildred’s for coffee, a riverfront run at Berkley Park with the dogs, biking through midtown to the NelsonAtkins, and then on to Stockyards Brewing in the West Bottoms.

There are so many great cocktail bars, but I have to go with The Horsefeather at J. Rieger. The whiskey is locally made, the flavors are perfect, and it fits every season. NOVEMBER 2021

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music, great food and the arts are always central to any date night. Dinner at Corvino and a show at the Kauffman Center one night is perfectly matched with a show at Knuckleheads followed by a late-night stop at Town Topic the next.

MADE IN KC: Kansas City has reclaimed its rightful place as a city of makers. My everexpanding closet full of “KC” branded clothing can attest. But for me, my favorite is buying and supporting local artists. My most recent purchase is a Wilco print from artist and illustrator A. Micah Smith.

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Visit our boutique on the Country Club Plaza.