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Looking Forward IT COULD ALWAYS be worse. We hear that a lot right now, and many of us are lucky enough that it glides past as an ambiguous idea, meant as a reminder to be grateful for what we have. But there are those who know worse. They know the hard details of not having enough to eat, of sleeping outside and of real danger. In this week’s cover story, veteran journalist Mike Fitzgerald spends time with Kenyan immigrants who are dealing with the added stress of lockdowns in St. Louis along with their normal struggle to mesh cultures, raise families and survive under an anti-immigrant president who has made them a target. But they have seen worse, and they have hope in a Florissant community garden they’re planting, a partnership with the Saint Louis Zoo to work on its upcoming North Campus project and the future in general. It’s a fascinating story, and while we offer it to you for free, the work we do isn’t free to produce. If you find value in the type of local journalism that continuously re-introduces you to St. Louis, please consider joining the Riverfront Times Press Club (www.riverfronttimes.com/stlouis/SupportLocalJournalism/Page) to help us continue on into the future. There are better days ahead. — Doyle Murphy
TABLE OF CONTENTS CAN’T
STO P
WO N’T
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Publisher Chris Keating Editor in Chief Doyle Murphy
E D I T O R I A L Digital Editor Jaime Lees Hero In A Hot Dog Suit Daniel Hill Contributors Cheryl Baehr, Trenton Almgren-Davis, Jenna Jones, Monica Obradovic, Andy Paulissen A R T & P R O D U C T I O N Editorial Layout Haimanti Germain Production Manager Haimanti Germain Design Contributor Evan Sult M U L T I M E D I A A D V E R T I S I N G Advertising Director Colin Bell Senior Account Executive Cathleen Criswell Account Managers Emily Fear, Jennifer Samuel Multimedia Account Executive Jackie Mundy C I R C U L A T I O N Circulation Manager Kevin G. Powers
COVER
E U C L I D M E D I A G R O U P Chief Executive Officer Andrew Zelman Chief Operating Officers Chris Keating, Michael Wagner VP of Digital Services Stacy Volhein www.euclidmediagroup.com
Growing Concern
N A T I O N A L A D V E R T I S I N G VMG Advertising 1-888-278-9866, vmgadvertising.com
COVID-19 disrupted Kenyan immigrants’ beloved garden, but they’re hopeful a groundbreaking partnership with the Saint Louis Zoo still bears fruit.
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The Riverfront Times is published weekly by Euclid Media Group | Verified Audit Member
TRENTON ALMGREN-DAVIS
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INSIDE Hartmann News Feature Short Orders Culture Savage Love 4
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Riverfront Times is available free of charge, limited to one copy per reader. Additional copies of the current issue may be purchased for $1.00 plus postage, payable in advance at the Riverfront Times office. Riverfront Times may be distributed only by Riverfront Times authorized distributors. No person may, without prior written permission of Riverfront Times, take more than one copy of each Riverfront Times weekly issue. The entire contents of Riverfront Times are copyright 2020 by Riverfront Times, LLC. No portion may be reproduced in whole or in part by any means, including electronic retrieval systems, without the expressed written permission of the Publisher, Riverfront Times, 308 N. 21st Street, Suite 300, St. Louis, MO 63103. Please call the Riverfront Times office for back-issue information, 314-754-5966.
HARTMANN Deliver Democracy Mail-in voting is long overdue, but Missouri’s GOP is still opposed BY RAY HARTMANN
O
n April 8, the noted Tweeter Donald Trump proclaimed the following words, to the liking of 145,400 people and bots: epublicans shoul fight ver hard when it comes to state wide sic mail in voting. emocrats are clamoring for it. remen ous potential for voter frau an for hatever reason oesn t or out ell for epublicans.” Trump cast his ballot in 2018 as a mail in voter registere in the state of lori a. on er that over
our evening sip of me icinal loro . ive the man cre it for a stunning ispla of can or. e is unapologetic in his belief that greater participation in emocrac is a bad thing because (he presumes) it s ba for epublicans. n the safe confines of Fox and Friends, Trump laid out his objection to a congressional proposal that oul have provi e for increase mail in voting earl voting an same a registration as a response to the coronavirus crisis he ha things levels of voting that if ou ever agree to it ou never have a epublican electe in this countr again ” rump sai . e e poun e at one of those ail rump ho ” briefings o mail ballots the cheat. a eople cheat. ail ballots are a ver angerous thing for this countr because the re cheaters. he go an collect them. he re frau ulent in man cases.” hen pressed, Trump went on to call
mail in voting horrible” an corrupt” an allege that ou get thousands and thousands of people sitting in somebo s living room signing ballots all over the place.” ac home in issouri the living rooms aren t uite so large. ut for hatever reason ” the state s epublicans are firml oppose to mail in voting. ith epublican ov. i e arson publicl oppose to the i ea it s har to imagine the s legislative mega majorit compromising ith the cluster of ouse an enate emocrats ho are inee clamoring for it.” othing is impossible but on t hol our breath. no means ho ever has the issue of mail in voting been lai to rest. n pril the an issouri oter rotection oalition file a la suit in ole ount ircuit ourt on behalf of the eague of omen oters an some others. ts goal to see injunctive an eclarator re-
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lief” that oul establish the right of issourians to vote b mail uner a provision of state la that allo s for it un er a narro l efine e ception in cases of illness or isabilit . istor is on the si e of the emocrats. issouri s state constitution is among the most stringent in protecting citi ens voting rights sa s on othert of issouri legal irector. n as othert notes the state upreme ourt has repeate l rejecte Republican attempts to impose crassl partisan photo re uirements for voting. s is its custom issouri is behin the times in the area of voting rights espite its constitution. olora o a aii regon tah an ashington alrea have universal mail in voting an sen ballots to all registere voters. nother states allo no e cuse” balloting, although those ballots must be re ueste . issouri is one of just si teen
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states that do not allow mail “no excuse” voting to all registered voters. Eight of those states have moved to relax their laws for at least some elections in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the lawsuit, which also notes that the Centers for Disease Control “is encouraging mail-in voting as much as possible as an alternative to in-person voting.” The lawsuit is essentially seeking to have a previous exception to the law become the rule. It argues that the “excuse” of having an illness or disability now extend to all of us, since so many “wish to confine themselves at home an vote absentee to avoid contracting or spreading the virus that causes COVID-19.” It asks the courts to declare that “all eligible Missouri voters should be able to vote absentee by invoking “[i]ncapacity or confinement ue to illness or ph sical disability, including a person who is primarily responsible for the physical care of a person who is incapacitate or confine ue to illness or disability.” That chapter of Missouri law (115.277.1(2), RSMo) exempts voters from needing to get their votes notarized, by the way. The lawsuit lays out a simple common-sense fact: “Without declaratory and injunctive relief from this Court, Missouri voters face the unconscionable choice between protecting their health and the health of their families and neighbors and forfeiting their right to vote or voting absentee at the risk of their ballots being discarded and potential criminal prosecution.” It’s important to draw a distinction between photo ID laws and mail-in voting. In the case of photo ID laws, the obvious purpose is to make it harder for people without ID to vote, and those people — disproportionately poor, people of color and disabled — are dramatically more likely to vote Democratic. Photo ID laws are a solution searching for a problem: There hasn’t been a single case of voter-impersonation fraud if Missouri history, if for no other reason than it’s such a logistically impossible concept. As for mail-in voting, the evidence isn’t quite so obvious that either si e oul benefit more unless one accepts the broad assumption — crassly enunciated by Trump — that greater partici-
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Missouri’s Republicans are firmly opposed to mail-in voting, and it’s hard to imagine them compromising with Democrats. pation in democracy is inherently bad for Republicans. Studies of voters in states allowing mail-in voting provides no clear partisan advantage, while increasing turnout slightly among infrequent voters, the Chicago Tribune reports. Trump’s claims are corroborated by studies done by no one. There is no denying that the national battle lines had been drawn this year, even before the pandemic, with Democrats wanting easier access to the voting booths through mail-in voting and the like, and Republicans generally opposed. But the pandemic has changed the political dynamic. A poll in early April “found that 72% of all U.S. adults, including 79% of Democrats and 65% of Republicans, supported a requirement for mail-in ballots as a way to protect voters in case of a continued spread of the respiratory disease later this year,” Reuters reported of its polling with Ipsos. Meanwhile, here at home, it’s not clear whether Republicans are planning another run at crafting a photo ID requirement for 2020. It may be that Missouri will have to settle for a court fight over mail-in voting to get its annual voter suppression fi . What a shame that Republicans dominate the political process so completely that they need not give serious consideration to the topic of mail-in voting in the General Assembly. That would force them to debate the wisdom of Donald Trump. He is, after all, the same guy who just wondered aloud about curing COVID-19 by injecting ourselves with disinfectant and shining ultraviolet lights up our butts. n Ray Hartmann founded the Riverfront Times in 1977. Contact him at rhartmann@sbcglobal.net or catch him on St. Louis In the Know With Ray Hartmann and Jay Kanzler from 9 to 11 p.m. Monday thru Friday on KTRS (550 AM).
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[ L AW A N D O R D E R ]
CommonSense Mercy Dimetrious Woods, featured in the Riverfront Times, granted clemency by Gov. Mike Parson Written by
DOYLE MURPHY
D
imetrious Woods, who has battled two Missouri attorneys general for his freedom, has been granted clemency by Gov. Mike Par-
son. The governor announced last week that Woods would be allowed to serve the remainder of his 25-year sentence on house arrest. “This was an act of mercy for a man that had changed his life,” Parson says in a statement. “Placing him on house arrest was the right choice under these unusual circumstances.” Woods’ evolving case was the focus of multiple Riverfront Times features written by Danny Wicentowski, dating back to 2016. The former drug dealer was convicted in of tra c ing cocaine. e was prosecuted as a “prior persistent drug offender” under Missouri’s version of “three strikes” law that allows for harsher terms for people with previous convictions. Crucially in Woods’ case, he was sentenced without possibility for parole. Woods had been convicted of second-degree assault as a sixteen ear ol an rug tra c ing as a seventeen-year-old. Missouri later amended the persistent drug offender law, but the state refused to apply it to people already in prison, such as Woods. In 2017, he sued and won the right to a parole hearing, eventually leading to his release. In the years since, he has operated multiple businesses in Columbia, Missouri, counseled the families and friends of others still in prison and generally proven to be a model citizen. But former state ttorne eneral osh a -
Dimeterious Woods will be able to serve his sentence on house arrest. | TRENTON ALMGREN-DAVIS
ley appealed the decision that allo e his release. hen a le hopped to the U.S. Senate, his successor Attorney General Eric Schmitt continued the campaign to lock up Woods again. It appeared Schmitt was going to get his way after the Missouri Supreme Court ruled against Woods, putting him on a path to return to prison within the coming ee s or months. is attorney, Kent Gipson, had written to Schmitt in a last-ditch attempt to get the attorney general to drop his appeal, but until last week it seemed Woods would be heading back to prison in the midst of a pandemic. It was not immediately clear what persuaded Parson to act. The governor stopped short of full clemency, leaving Woods under the restrictions of parole, but it’s still a victory for the former-inmate-turned-entrepreneur. n
Computing Against Coronavirus Washington University researcher’s project lets you fight COVID-19 with your home computer Written by
JENNA JONES
J
osh Bradley works as a patent examiner for the United States atent an ra emar ce. And these days there’s plenty of work to do on his computer as he sits there wondering if his brother, who works as a paramed-
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ic firefighter in t. ouis ill bring home COVID-19 to his wife and children. When the disease came to St. ouis ra le ante to help the best way he knew how as someone who has a plethora of science skills and time on his computer. Gregory Bowman, an assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biophysics at Washington University School of Medicine, had an answer for Bradley in the form of a computer simulation. “When COVID-19 started to become the public health disaster it’s become, I wanted to contribute my computer to this cause and help scientists fin a cure or a vaccine as quickly as possible to save as many lives as they can,” Bradley sa s. ol ing ome presente that opportunity.” ol ing ome is a research simulation run by Bowman and fueled
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b a vast net or of home computers across the orl . olunteers such as ra le o nloa softare that allo s the project to tap unuse processing po er on their machines collectivel provi ing enough ra computing muscle to rival the orl s mightiest supercomputers. he soft are runs several projects in or er to help spee up processes for vaccines or potential cures for iseases li e cancer lheimer s ar inson s an most recentl . he research loo s for potential bin ing sites to hich a rug can attach. o man hopes to help esign compoun s that bin the sites an pass the information to e perimental collaborators for testing. The demand for a COVID-19 simulation from those ho ant to help has put significant time pressure on o man an his team of volunteers. he cre has et to or on coronaviruses so there s been a lot of background research to figure out hat e actl the nee to simulate in or er to produce the best results. e all li e to see progress on COVID-19 sooner rather than later, an e have so man volunteers ho are eager to help run simulations ” o man sa s. e have enormous computing nee s an it oul be a shame if an of our volunteers left because e i n t have a simulation rea for them to o et.” he simulation has pro uce success so far. The team has uncov-
[ D O N AT I O N S ]
Cyclist Needs Help St. Louis bicyclist suffered broken neck, ribs, punctured lung in hitand-run crash in south city Written by
DANIEL HILL
A
St. Louis bicyclist who was the victim of a hit-and-run that was captured on a widely shared video last week was left with broken vertebrae in his neck, cracked ribs and a punctured lung. Joe Oder is the name of the man who was struck head-on while riding his bicycle, according to a fundraiser launched
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Dr. Gregory Bowman’s team uses a distributed computing network to make massive computational problems more manageable. | MATT MILLER/ WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY ere potential bin ing sites for a rug through the simulation. o man sa s the amount of volunteers has gone from 30,000 to over 2 million. his level of support for our or is ama ing an e re putting ever thing e ve got into tr ing to ma e the most of it ” o man sa s. ra le e icates his computer ever hour of the a to the project. e has al a s foun me ical research personal ith his famil an frien s having a i e range of me ical problems from cancer to muscular stroph to c stic fibrosis.
The simulation requires almost no or on ra le s part. e starts his computer an the soft are runs in the background as he goes on about his a . sers can select hen the soft are runs hether it s hen the evice is connecte to po er or hen the computer goes idle. t s no ifferent than installing an app on our phone then forgetting about it ” ra le sa s. here s no less time consuming a for someone to help a vance me ical research.” olunteers can o nloa the soft are from ol ing ome s
to help with his medical costs. The collision was recorded by a home security camera and shared by RFT last Wednesday. The shocking video shows a dark-colored sedan mowing Oder down on about 10 a.m. that morning before punching the gas and leaving the bicyclist lying motionless in the street. “Wednesday morning Joe was involved in a horrific hit-and-run accident while riding his bicycle,” reads the description of the fundraiser. “Joe is an avid bicyclist and is alive because he always wears a helmet. He was hit head-on by a driver who left the scene, leaving Joe lying in the street with injuries.” The bio for the fundraiser then goes on to explain that Oder is a server who is currently unemployed due to the stay-at-home orders aimed at slowing the spread of coronavirus. The GoFundMe’s goal is set at $10,000, but the bio
says that the amount required to cover Oder’s medical bills and costly rehab will likely be much greater than that. Police say they are still looking for the suspect in the case. They say they believe the suspect is a white male. Meanwhile commenters on the video believe they have identified the vehicle the suspect was driving; it is thought to be a black or dark blue Chevy Malibu manufactured between the years of 2008 and 2012, with tinted windows and a broken windshield. If you have any information that could be helpful for police, reach out to them at 1-866-371-8477. “I believe Joe would do anything he could to help his friends so I wanted him to not have to worry about the medical bills and concentrate on getting well,” reads the fundraiser’s bio. If you’d like to donate, you can do so at www.gofundme.com/f/help-joe-oderwith-medical-costs. n
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ebsite. f ou register a username the soft are saves statistics on our contributions an ill ran ou base on ho much or ou pro uce per a ee or month. m happ to help further this me ical research in an a that can an this is just one e ample of something that an one ith a computer can o ” ra le sa s. magine hat humanit coul achieve if all of our unuse processing po er ere funnele into these orth causes the billions of computers a vancing me ical research as the sit i le at an moment.” n
Joe Oder was left lying in the street by a driver who hit him head-on and then fled the scene. | VIA GOFUNDME
“We are concerned about an increase in domestic violence with the stay-athome order…”
[LOCAL MEDIA]
Join Riverfront Times Press Club No news is bad news: Bret Narayan on growing up with the Riverfront Times Written by
BRET NARAYAN This is one in a series of essays from Riverfront Times readers in support of our recently launched RFT Press Club.
“
Hold on, I just have to grab the local fish rap” as a common phrase out of m father s mouth an time he passe one of the red magazine stands throughout to n that hel copies of the Riverfront Times. I never quite got it as a kid. We alrea ha a paper elivere to our house ever a an he read it cover to cover. Whenever as e h he ha to grab this one too he just repl his one is ifferent than that one.” t asn t until got a bit ol er that reali e h the RFT as so ifferent than the paper got at m house ail . ure the ail let me no the a to a events of our local, state and federal government inclu e crime reports and had some solid comics — but the RFT let me no here to go an hen to go there to reall get the most out of m cit . hether it as a soli ne restaurant in to n opening up that i n t get coverage in some bigger publications a summer sho at iverport mphitheater t ill al a s be iverport to me ammit a pla at the o heatre stan up at a local come club or even just a local ban pla ing at one of our cit s great small venues for the night, the RFT helpe shine a light on parts of t. ouis that other publications simpl eren t homing in on. f course here to go an hen to be there is onl a tin part of hat the RFT reall oes. t s the place for both the short an stories of our to n that
Listen to Alderman Bret Narayan — and his dad. | COURTESY BRET NARAYAN
ma e ou laugh an some of the most serious, hard-hitting longform journalism in to n stories that can ma e ou sa or angr or reall rive change. hen talent li e o le urph or ann icento s i places someone or something in their crosshairs, it sho s e actl h ou never pic a fight ith someone ho bu s in b the barrel. he RFT s longform articles are orth the rea if ou on t chec them out ou re missing out. ith here no more than ever e nee both the eas laughs an the uic pic me ups offere b funn short stories that e on t see else here as ell as the serious real orl no le ge offere b the longform journalism that is prevalent at the RFT. oving for ar there are going to be man har uestions to be as e an ans ere b me ia an the citi enr . supporting local me ia ou can ensure that ou re ma ing ecisions ith as much information as possible in front of ou. lus hen all this cra iness is over here am going to fin out here to hea for inner an a sho ithout riters li e aniel ill an her l aehr Bret Narayan is the alderman of the 24th Ward in the city of St. Louis. n
Aid for Abuse Victims Order of protection forms go online as domestic violence rises Written by
DOYLE MURPHY
I
n another entr on the list of things that could have been one a before victims of omestic abuse can no file online for or ers of protection in t. ouis ount . he bur en of the ol paper filing s stem has long been a complaint for victims ho ha to sho up uring business hours at the count courthouse in la ton to fill out the forms in the ult buse ce an then ait for a ju ge s approval. ften that meant tr ing to arrange chil care leave or or even slip out the house ithout arousing an abuser s suspicion. n it might re uire more than one in person visit. ut no that i e s aths of the orl are stuc at home all t pes of services and functions are being reconsi ere . eople ith isabilities ho ve been tol for ears that online accommodations for classes
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ere impossible are fin ing that universities are uite capable of han ling it no that the rest of the stu ent population has been force off campuses too. or from home advocates have seen the sudden rise of the video conference meeting. n a number of inmates previousl ept in jail for months solel because the coul n t affor bail have been release in hopes of heading off outbreaks. t s ta en a global pan emic an sta at home or ers to move the form filing online for victims in t. ouis ount but it s more urgent no than ever as more people are isolate at home ith their abusers. Numbers are still coming in, but omestic abuse appears to be on the rise across the countr . e are concerne about an increase in omestic violence ith the sta at home or er currentl in place ” t. ouis ount ircuit Judge Jason Dodson said in a statement. e ant to ensure people have access to or ers of protection an the reme ies the provi e ithout having to leave their homes.” t. ouis ount is ahea of the rest of the state in offering an option to file online. o other ju icial circuit in issouri allo s it an there are fe in the countr accor ing to a ne s release from the court. or no the forms can onl be file uring business hours a.m. to p.m. on a through ri a a.m. to noon on atur a but the count is e pecte to move to an time filing. here ill be a ju ge on call at all hours to revie applications. ictims ill also have an opportunit to atten hearings on or ers of protection b vi eo conference. e evelope this innovation in response to the pan emic to protect not onl our staff but victims of omestic violence in t. ouis ount from potential e posure to the virus ” t. ouis ount u ge man a c elle sai in statement. ut this ill have a positive impact on the a our courts address domestic violence and assist the victims of domestic violence in the long term.” n
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Pastor Paul Macharia sifts through seeds of white corn at a garden in Florissant that has become a refuge for African immigrants. | TRENTON ALMGREN-DAVIS
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C
rouching over a cardboard box, Geoffrey Soyiantet peels back the strip of transparent tape that seals its top. Soyiantet pops open the box, then stares at its contents. He smiles warmly, as if he had just opened a carton full of newly discovered treasure. In a sense, he has. The box contains hundreds of white corn seeds, a staple of countless farms and gardens in Soyiantet’s native Kenya. “Look at this,” he says as he scoops up a handful of seeds and shows them off to a visitor. A few months ago, Soyiantet and fellow members of Vitendo4Africa, a social and economic support group for African immigrants in the St. Louis region, had envisioned planting the white corn, along with tomatoes, onions and other crops, in the eleven-acre plot of land behind Christ Covenant Church in Florissant. But now on this warm and breezy day in April, ith a cotton filament of clou s rifting la il across a deep blue sky — a perfect day for working in a gar en the fiel remains unplo e . he onl things growing in it are grass and weeds, yellowtippe flo ers tin sapling trees the isp rem-
nants of last year’s onion crop. The COVID-19 pandemic has kept Vitendo4Africa members from working in their Shamba ya Kijiji (Swahili for “community garden”), because of the area’s lockdown orders and fears of spreading the virus. The fact that such a beautiful day in the garden is being wasted rankles Pastor Paul Macharia, the church leader, who stands a few feet away, gazing istfull at the fiel . “It is a punishment,” Macharia says. The garden, which was started last year in collaboration with the Saint Louis Zoo, was a source of fresh, organic food. But it also became a popular cultural touchstone for the St. Louis region’s thriving African immigrant community, as well as a nexus for the homesick and a refuge from the stress and conflicts of an merican culture so ifferent from the one in which they had grown up. “Coronavirus is keeping everybody away from the garden,” says Soyiantet, Vitendo4Africa’s founder and executive director. “We use it as a social way to connect and get together. For the older people, they
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COVID-19 and stay-at-home orders have mostly kept African immigrants away from their garden, but they’re still optimistic about a partnership with the Saint Louis Zoo. | TRENTON ALMGREN-DAVIS
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use it as a therapeutic a to sta connecte .” ecause of the loc o n or ers an steep jobs losses resulting from it ever one is orrie especiall the chil ren he sa s. he are reall stresse out an orrie about their frien s ” o iantet sa s. he can t go to c onal s ... or go for a bi e ri e together .” he stress of so man hours insi e for oung people is e acerbate b hat the see on an social me ia sa s astor acharia a native en an ho move to the nite tates in the earl s to stu at ar ville niversit an ho to a lea s t. ouis rapi l gro ing frican immigrant communit . he see the ne s ” acharia sa s. o man people ing an being burie . speciall in e or or ashington tate or tal . ... ne thing the on t unerstan is h it happene all of a su en. t as but no all of a su en people are loc e in their homes. here as this before ” he current pan emic couple
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ith an unprece ente l ferocious economic o nturn poses big challenges for ever one. ut those problems are the latest in a litan of challenges the members of iten o frica have alrea been ealing ith from un erstan ing merican nglish to fin ing jobs an cre it an a place to sta to ealing ith cultural conflicts bet een immigrant parents an chil ren ho ish to a apt rapi l to the merican a of life. n then of course there is the an iet of life un er a presient ho uses his position in the hite ouse as a megaphone to broa cast a constant stream of anti immigrant policies an invective. n top of all that iten o frica members no orr about the fate of their collaboration ith the aint ouis oo on its orth ampus project a acre site in panish a e near the confluence of the issouri an ississippi rivers. he aint ouis oo ssociation use private onations to bu the orth ampus site from the nite ssociation of lumbers ipefitters ocal . n ovember t. ouis ount voters passe roposition to help fun
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It’s hard to overstate how important the North Campus project is to the Vitendo4Africa members, who have been helping with the design as well as execution. repairs to the oo in orest ar an to operate the orth ampus. hile a construction ate hasn t been set the oo hopes to open the par over the ne t five ears accor ing to the oo ebsite. nce complete the ambitious project oul allo visitors to replicate an frican safari here tourists in eeps coul be surroun e b a group of curious giraffes. conservation an animal
science center planne for the site oul help the oo manage en angere animal populations. ut of course those plans ere s etche before the orst panemic an financial crisis in a centur hit the t. ouis area a vicious one t o allop that s raising big uestions about the project s timetable among iteno frica members. t s har to overstate ho important the orth ampus project is to iten o frica members ho have been helping ith esign an e ecution as ell as outreach to the communities surroun ing it. he project stan s as a s mbol of their future hile also serving as a po erful tether to their past accor ing to acharia. t oul allo oung people in the area to have opportunities for the out oors ” acharia sa s opportunities to learn. pportunities to o camping. pportunities to interact ith il life. ost important is the mentorship aspect. ecause e ant to leave this legac to our chil ren. ... o hen ou become a goo neighbor the opportunities are there. hat is our hope.” ill rennan a oo spo esman sa s oo o cials are still
Normally, this would be planting season at the garden. | TRENTON ALMGREN-DAVIS
Pastor Paul Macharia (left) and Geoffrey Soyiantet at the garden. | TRENTON ALMGREN-DAVIS
finali ing plans for the site an that the e pect to finish construction sometime ithin the ne t five to si ears. ut rennan ac no le ges the pan emic an accompan ing economic o nturn coul pose obstacles to that timetable. he safe ans er is thin it coul ver ell set us bac a bit but e on t no ” he sa s. e re still e icate to getting the orth ampus roc in an rollin as soon as possible.” or his part o iantet remains hopeful about the project as ell as the future in general. e can al a s reference hat s happene in the past ” he sa s. n that gives us hope that e can come out of i cult times. i cult challenges in the past even this one e ll be able to get out of an overcome it.”
I
first met o iantet last ctober. t the time as intrigue b iten o frica s collaboration ith the aint ouis oo a partnership unli e an other in the nite tates. ante to learn more. ut as also see ing something else a reason to feel hopeful about the future.
or man ears a certain self pit ing sourness a shift to ar resentment an pessimism ha grippe man parts of the nation places here the merican ream ha been hijac e b something ar an ugl . n it as getting un er m s in. ruth is people in large s aths of the nite tates especiall in rural issouri an else here ha given up on the merican ream. ots of boo s an articles offere plent of e planations the ecline of organi e hristianit the seemingl unstoppable loss of millions of factor an farm jobs soaring rates of income ine ualit o n ar mobilit for t o generations of mericans the fact that the nite tates hite majorit is rapi l shrin ing an that ithin less than a generation merica ill be a majorit minorit nation after ears or so of un uestione hite ominance. hatever the cause mericans are ing in roves from this ave of pessimism. report b the ommon ealth un foun that the so calle eaths of espair” suici e alcoholism an rug a iction ere soaring especiall in the states that vote for onal rump in .
rump of course ha campaigne on a platform of racist populism an harsh anti immigration measures. nce in the hite ouse he uic l surroun e himself ith nativist e tremists such as tephen iller ho ma e no secret of his esire to slash the number of ar s inne immigrants coming to merica. as curious to see ho t. ouis frican communit as hol ing up ho a group of men omen an chil ren ho ha come to merica propelle b hope after surviving the horrors of ar genoci e plague an hunger ere oing after more than three ears of rump s racist invective. ut also ante to iscover the e to their resilience. o iantet hen e tal e refuse to sugarcoat an thing for me. ife as getting tougher he tol me in ctober. t s reall scar ” o iantet sai of rump s anti immigrant rhetoric. ou on t no ho ill ta e his or s seriousl . ... ecause of that a lot of those in the frican communit live ith a lot of fear. he thin on t no ho to trust no . ” hen first spo e to o iantet the rump a ministration ha just ramaticall slashe the number of refugees an immigrants allo e to come into the nite tates. n more eep cuts in immigration flo s ere e pecte ealing a severe blo to families alrea over here hoping to reunif ith love ones bac in frica. he receive the lo est num-
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ber in their histor in this area ” o iantet sai . lash for ar si months. t is late pril hen meet o iantet an other iten o frica members at their gar en. n the car rive there hear on the raio ne s stor after ne s stor about the brutal turn the econom is ta ing plus the ea l toll of the pan emic. n the same a that meet these communit members rump announces a a ban on immigrants see ing green car s for permanent resi enc . rump justifies it as part of an effort to protect mericans see ing to regain jobs lost because of the coronavirus pan emic. ritics ho ever slam rump s ne polic fla ing it as part of a partisan campaign to istract from his a ministration s slo an chaotic response to the pan emic. ne thing is clear ative born mericans are hea ing to ar a ne normal of economic har ship an fear. n the might learn a thing or t o about getting through this crisis from someone li e esil esse” imani ho immigrate from en a in . imani is alrea feeling the heat from the economic o nturn. e o ns a truc ing compan that has lost percent of its business in recent ee s because of the fast eveloping recession he sa s. ut imani still hangs on to hope. e alrea no s he ill get through an setbac s in the nite tates. fter all he s survive much orse bac home in en a.
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The hardships of the COVID-19 lockdown has been stressful, but members of the group say they have been through worse and are hopeful about the future. | TRENTON ALMGREN-DAVIS
GROWING
Continued from pg 13
“The good part is that, based on how we were brought up, and the challenges that we had gone through before, let me say, it’s and opportunity,” he says. “It’s like, if you were used to lifting 150 pounds every day, up and down, and then somebody comes and gives you 80 pounds, as a punishment. It’s really a kick to you. ... Just prepare for hardship. And when the hardship is over, use whatever is at your disposal and move forward.” Vitendo4Africa member David Githinji says his community has learned to survive by living “in our little cocoons. We became our brother’s keeper. You pass the difficult times.” He adds, “The past President Obama has given us a lot of hope, and that little hope is keeping us going.”
V
itendo4Africa is the Swahili word for “actions.” When Soyiantet launched Vitendo4Africa 4 Africa in 2010, he wanted to communicate that the group would be constantly on the move. “We focused on the need for the
African community so that we can connect them with different resources,” he says. Soyiantet, 45, grew up on a farm in rural Kenya and graduated with a degree in economics from Kenyatta University in Nairobi in 2004. Now married with three kids, Soyiantent arrived in the United States the same year he graduated after obtaining a visa through the Diversity Immigrant Visa, or “lottery,” program. He spent the next four years supporting himself as a dishwasher while working on a business degree from Lindenwood University. During this time frame — from 2012 to 2017 — the number of African immigrants in the St. Louis area surged, reaching more than 20,000, with the great majority settling in north St. Louis County. One of the biggest challenges the African immigrants face centers on how they raise their children, Soyiantet explains. “The parents come from a different environment. We want to bring them up the way we were brought up,” Soyiantet says. “That brings up a lot of conflicts between the parents and the kids, especially the teenagers.” Because they are so eager to assimilate, the children of immigrants “are quick to forget the
The community has learned how to survive. “We became our brother’s keeper. You pass the difficult times,” Vitendo4Africa member David Ginthinji says.
African culture,” he says. “They feel the African culture is a primitive way of life, and they want to adapt to the American way of life, which the parents aren’t ready to adapt to.” Another feature of American life that is hard to adapt to is its culture of gun violence, Soyiantet notes. “It’s really traumatizing to most,” he says. “You run away from violence thinking you were
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going to a safer environment. Now when you hear about all the gun violence, the school shootings, that is really traumatizing. ... Everybody owning a gun, it’s something we’re not used to. And it’s also very scary just to see somebody carrying a gun.” Meanwhile, as Vitendo4Africa 4 Africa was hitting its stride, a powerful anti-immigrant animus was building across much of the United States, especially in parts of the country that do not regularly encounter many immigrants, according to Anna Crosslin, president and CEO of the International Institute of St. Louis. Such a backlash against immigratiion is especially counterproductive considering that the United States is losing population among native-born residents due to plummeting birth rates and aging. “So the only way we build population to what it’s been is by having enough people to fill jobs that are here, particularly skilled jobs,” Crosslin says. “Building population is really important, and we’re not managing to replace the loss right now in population, particularly in our city and county.” It’s not just the job skills that immigrants bring, Crosslin adds.
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Macharia says the Saint Louis Zoo’s planned North Campus offers a lot of opportunities for immigrants and their children, and he’s eager to move forward. | TRENTON ALMGREN-DAVIS
GROWING
Continued from pg 15
“Immigrants are enormously resilient in many ways,” she says. “They take that resilience and turn that into entrepreneurship. And so, if we are to continue to create the businesses that are important ... then we need to have robust immigration programs.” So why the backlash against immigrants in a nation built by immigrants? Crosslin answers the question by pointing to a fear that has developed among many Americans that immigration poses a threat to something basic about the hope of America. People who fear immigrants worry “that the essential hope of America is in jeopardy because there are too many people who are coming who are not like the people who are already here.” A profound shift has happened in rural parts of the country, according to Crosslin. “Their optimism died,” she says. “And when that optimism died, they looked around at that point, and then looked at immigrants and said, ‘Oh, my God, immi-
grants are doing real well. What’s happening? Why are they getting ahead and we’re not?’ They got sold a bill of goods along the way because they lost their optimism, because they lost their work, because the companies went overseas. They couldn’t blame the corporations, so instead they blamed the immigrants because the immigrants, they thought, at least they were foreign-born.” But, truth be told, the immigrants coming to the United States, even while they might look different from native-born white Americans on the outside, “share many of the common values and beliefs that America is based on and is really part of their psyche,” Crosslin says. “This is about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” she continues. “The very essence of what we as Americans are supposed to be and believe in. These are exactly the types of things immigrants believe in, regardless of the country from which they hail.” Back at the garden, Soyiantet considers the many good things that will soon be growing there. A garden is a symbol the world over of hope, of resilience, of a bond
Geoffrey Soyiatet is hopeful about the garden and the future in general. | TRENTON ALMGREN-DAVIS
between humans and nature to nurture life. Above all, it is a contract with the future, and — in a time of pandemic and economic crisis — a declaration about the present.
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“The fact is that tough times don’t last,” Soyiantet says. “They last for a short time, and we’ll get back to our normal life. It gives us hope that, yes, things will not be bad forever.” n
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[SIDE DISH]
For Andy Printy, There Is Gratitute and Guilt in Work Written by
CHERYL BAEHR
I
n the time since the COVID-19 pandemic temporarily shuttered Bulrush (3307 Washington Avenue, 314-449-1208) in late March — and even in the weeks leading up to that point — Andy Printy has experienced a range of emotions. There was the uncertainty in the beginning about whether or not he would have a job and what that job would look like on the other side of the stay-at-home orders. There was gratitude that he had an employer — chef and owner Rob Connoley — who valued his team and created a business model that allowed them to remain productive even while the doors were closed to the public. Then came the guilt that he had a job when he knew others were suffering. “There was a solid month of feeling bleak, because I didn’t see us coming back, and we didn’t know how long this would last,” Printy explains. “But when it happened, there was a certain amount of guilt there. We’re one of three industries that lost jobs, and I am lucky that our restaurant has an ongoing research problem — learning how to tell a story that doesn’t get told very often, and the pitfalls for the average white male to tell that story. Rob keeps us busy, and while I’ve had a lot of off time, there has been somewhat of a schedule of projects so that we are employed. There’s some guilt about that, and I’ve been sitting here processing these emotions solo. You can try to do it digitally, but there, people aren’t always saying how they are really doing.”
Andy Printy stays busy with Bulrush projects, but he can’t help think about those in the industry who are out of work. | ANDY PAULISSEN
Like his peers in the bartending fiel rint has seen his orl turned upside-down as restaurants and bars closed in response to the pandemic. However, Printy considers himself fortunate because of the fact that Bulrush has found a way to continue its work, even as its doors remain closed. Not only was the restaurant able to secure a Paycheck Protection Program loan which provides Connoley with the means to continue to make payroll, but the fact that the restaurant is involved in ongoing research into Ozark food and culture means that there remains meaningful work for the staff to do. From foraging to working on how to vaporize part of the redbud tree, Printy has remained engaged in the restaurant and feels the responsibility that comes with it. “When we come back, we need to adjust to a new future and be driving new points home and give people new things to walk into,” Printy says. “We’ve had all this time and opportunity, so I don’t want to blow it. There’s the pressure.” Printy admits he has no idea what coming back will look like. On one hand, he notes that it’s human nature to want to get back to “normal” and act as if nothing happened. On the other hand, he
thinks the effects of social distancing will be felt for a while, with people remaining uncomfortable being in large public spaces, even after stay-at-home orders are lifted. However, one thing he is sure about is that his job is not in danger of becoming automated — and the other side of the pandemic will give him a little more clout when people get handsy with his ingredients. “I don’t see robot bartenders as happening,” Printy laughs. “People want to talk to a real person behind the bar. One thing that ill change though is that ll finally get to be really strict about who touches my garnishes.” Printy took some time away from his cocktail research to share his thoughts on the non-economic motivations for bartending, how he is trying to embrace this unprecedented time and the things that give him hope during this crisis. As a hospitality professional, what do people need to know about what you are going through? I think it’s important to know just how committed and ingrained most of us are into this industry. Most of us work beyond the scope of our “pay” to get the results we want and properly display these results to our guests. I say this because I’ve heard some rumblings
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about how it’s OK if some restaurants close, as others will open. This in no way takes into account the loss of time, effort and momentum that was invested prior to the closings, layoffs and concept changes. It’s a personal loss on all levels, and there’s been some grief to process because of it. What do you miss most about your job? I probably miss that look on a guest’s face when the cocktail, dish and service all line up to over deliver on their expectations! What do you miss least? ot a i cult one to ans er here polishing glassware. I mean, yeah, it’s gotta be done. I like the break in the action though! What is one thing you make sure you do every day to maintain a sense of normalcy? A lot of brands and other bartenders have been doing “live discussions” on social media, and I try to participate as much as possible. I think it helps us emotionally to still know we have ideas and concepts to share and help advance our vocation. But, to be honest, not a lot. Most of my “normal” routine has been put on the sidelines. I kind of decided to take a different approach and accept that nothing is normal, and I’m trying to use this “abstract” way of life to help
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inspire and prepare for when we reopen Bulrush. There’s a kind of hidden perfect storm of isolation, stress and life-changing events that should ideally generate some new perspectives and creative motivation. I think I’m just trying to be present for that. What have you been stress-eating/drinking lately? Top three: Bourbon — I’m shamefully on my second bottle of Four Roses Small Batch, Select Pizza — just tr ing to fill the voi left b Pie Guy and Kit-Kats — that’s new for me! What are the three things you’ve made sure you don’t want to run out of, other than toilet paper? Bourbon, toothpaste and dish soap, as I am constantly destroying and then cleaning my kitchen. You have to be quarantined with three people. Who would you pick? My good friend Cameron Sheridan. We have great chemistry when it comes to bouncing ideas and brainstorming. Zach Conley from Una Vida Tequila; he’s a chill gu that oul efinitel be forcing me to work out! Michael Winslow from Police Academy … could be fun to have someone making comical sound effects as I wander my apartment … Once COVID-19 is no longer a threat and people are allowed to go back out and about, what’s the first thing you ll do I have thought about this a lot. he first thing m oing is going to Pie Guy for a cheese pie! What do you think the biggest change to the hospitality industry will be once people are allowed to return to normal activity levels? I think our numbers are going to be less initially, but I think that translates into the guest’s experience. The ones who haven’t changed careers and come back are going to be the truly dedicated. What is one thing that gives you hope during this crisis? Not since the Marine Corps have I seen such an example of camaraderie. People in this industry have been leaning on each other since the start of all this. From Dustin Parres of Lux Row Distillers dropping off home cooked meals to furloughed bartenders, Una Vida and their “tequila fairy” program, to the exchange of care packages between peers based on what they have excess of. It all gives me this warm and fuzzy about the type of people that choose to be in the hospitality industry. n
Tip Your Bartenders Written by
CHERYL BAEHR
S
itting at the Waiting Room on the eve of St. Louis County’s order that shuttered restaurants and bars due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Sheri Beezley was positively crestfallen. To her, the bar’s owners, Shelly and Steve “Doc” Dachroeden, are much more than the people who keep the lights on at her favorite north county watering hole; they are dear friends. She didn’t know what to do, but she knew she had to do something. “That night, we were waiting for the announcement watching the news and just crying together,” Beezley says. “The Waiting Room is my Cheers; Doc and Shelley are my people. It’s just devastating. You’re there, you tip heavy and you go home, but you know that the shit is coming.” Beezely, now a nurse, spent much of her career in the service industry, and she knows what it’s like to live paycheck to paycheck. She understood that the restaurant and bar closures for dine-in service would have devastating repercussions for industry workers, so she racked her brain thinking of anything she could do to lessen the blow. The answer came to her while exchanging text messages with her friend, the Crow’s Nest’s Kenny Snarzyk. After throwing out several ideas to him — a T-shirt campaign, a raffle — she asked what he thought about an “Adopt a Server” program. The idea was simple: Industry workers who had been laid off or saw their incomes severely reduced because of the pandemic would put together Amazon wish lists, and adopters would purchase those items from the list.
The Whiskey Cure Written by
DOYLE MURPHY
I
t’s seen us through more than a few hard times, and now that trusted cure-all, whiskey, will help soften the economic blows raining down on people in the bar and restaurant business. Switchgrass Spirits distillery is selling bottles of an upcoming single malt called Common Bond for $45, with $15 going to the Gateway Resilience Fund. And because this COVID-19 stuff is pretty serious, whiskey has teamed up with another noted problem solver, beer. Eight greater St. Louis breweries — Urban Chestnut, Civil Life, Earthbound, Heavy
The idea for STL Adopt a Server was hatched by a Waiting Room regular and is spreading across the country. | DANIEL HILL Snarzyk agreed it was a great idea, and before signing off from their messages, they had the outline of what would become STL-Adopt a Server. “As soon as he said yes, I started the group on Facebook,” Beezley says. “I figured that I have all of these nurse friends who still have paychecks coming in, so I could help by hooking them up with all of my server and bartender friends. I had no clue how this would blow up.” STL-Adopt a Server has indeed grown into a massive operation. Since its founding on March 17, the group has amassed more than 3,600 members. There is already a chapter in Kansas City, one in Columbia and another in the works for Florida. In fact, the group has been so successful that it has had to stop accepting new adopters until it can find enough adoptees to match up with them. “I think it’s hard for people to ask for help,” Beezley explains. “I have people
Riff, Center Ice, Wellspent Brewing Co., Ferguson Brewing and Perennial Artisan Ales — are all working on this. Common Bond will be created with beer brewing ingredients. They hope to raise $90,000. The name Common Bond is a reference to the old war bond system on which the sales model is loosely based. Here’s the way it works: You pay for whiskey now, they give you a certificate that looks like an old-timey bond and you get whiskey in a year. The booze makers get cash immediately to donate to Gateway Resilience Fund and cover the operating costs while they let Common Bond age for twelve months in oak barrels. “Distilling whiskey teaches patience, but we knew we needed to move with speed on this project,” co-founder Nick Colombo says in a written statement. So this a solution to short-term and long-term problems. n
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ask me what to put on their lists because they don’t even know what to ask for. Some of them feel bad, but I tell them that there are good vibes both ways because it makes adopters feel like they can do something during this crazy situation. It’s not like it’s charity. It’s a gift someone wants to give.” Because of the overwhelming response to the group, Beezley, herself, has had to ask for help. Her acquaintances, Destiny Massey and Erin Rauch have been serving as admins for the group and running the day-to-day operations. As Beezley explains, it’s become a full-time job for the women. Even so, they are just happy that they can help. “I think that this is the thing that keeps me going,” Beezley says. “Even though I see a lot of crazy shit, when you see those ‘thank you’ posts from adoptees, it gives me hope for humanity. It’s amazing.” n
Switchgrass Spirits and eight brewers are working on a single malt whiskey to help people in the bar and restaurant industry. | COURTESY SWITCHGRASS SPIRITS
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CULTURE [HAZ-MAT]
Shark Week Will this costume protect me against coronavirus? I asked a scientist Written by
DANIEL HILL
I
f it’s done nothing else of any use to anyone, at least the coronavirus has caused people to get creative. With a worldwide lack of personal protective equipment leaving even medical professionals — let alone average Joes — vulnerable to catching the virus, people have been coming up with increasingly interesting ways of keeping themselves safe. In St. Louis and abroad, there’s been a push for homemade cloth masks, hand-sewn by armies of volunteers in an attempt to provide at least some protection for medical personnel and the population at large. Meanwhile, as early as January, reports were coming out that some travelers, hoping to avoid catching the virus, had begun wearing on their heads plastic ater jugs of the in ou fin as part of our o ce s ater cooler. And then, of course, there are the inflatable animal costumes. The reports of people wearing chub suit” self inflating alloween costumes, often made to look like dinosaurs or giraffes or sharks or sometimes astronauts, are so numerous that a simple Google search yields page after page of results. Being that I am both a man who loves to solve problems by way of costume and also a person who wants to live in a orl fille ith himsical creatures milling around in the grocery stores, I bought a shark costume in early March. But I’ve yet to wear it out, because I’m taking this thing seriously, and I’d not yet seen any studies as to their e cac . ne thing that seemed concerning is the fact that the costume self inflates through a little fan and a vent in the side of the costume — my concern is that it could just suck in bad air, which you’d then be trapped with inside
the suit. So I decided to ask a scientist. Colleen Young is a PhD candidate in biological anthropology at the University of Missouri-Columbia, as well as an educator in the Ecology and Environment Gallery at the St. Louis Science Center. She was kind enough to allow me to send her a photo of myself in said shark suit and indulge my questions as to the effectiveness of these kinds of costumes. “By themselves, they would not offer adequate protection from the virus, as there is, essentially, an air leak and this is how the virus is primarily transmitted,” she says. “They could offer splash protection — like if someone sneezed on you, it wouldn’t land directly on your face.” But the problem, she explains, is that the costume isn’t self-contained, as a haz-mat suit would be, and therefore it allows air particulate matter to flo in freel . n since the virus is primarily transmitted via airborne particles — it can live on surfaces for about 24 hours, according to Young, whereas it can hang in the air for up to 72 hours — that can be a problem. “Similar to other airborne respiratory viruses, SARS-CoV-2 is transmitted from person to person — and apparently to cats in a few instances — via tiny, microscopic water droplets,” Young explains. “As we breathe in air that contains the virus, the virus attaches to particular cells within our body via spike (S) glycoproteins on the surface of the virus. “These surface features (glycoproteins) bind with a special enzyme (ACE2) on the outer surface of cells,” she writes. “These enzymes that the virus binds to occur on cells throughout our body. pecificall the are foun in our lungs, kidneys, arteries, heart and intestines. So once we breathe in SARS-CoV-2 into our lungs, it sticks to cells in our lungs and then can travel throughout our body to other organs via our bloodstream (the enzymes it sticks to line our arterial walls in epithelial cells).” The vents and fans on the inflatable costumes have nothing to catch these particles — they weren’t designed to do so. If they ere e uippe ith or li e filters it might be a ifferent matter, she explains, but as it stands that’s not the case.
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A portrait of the author as a cool shark. | ANJELIQA PRATT
I asked if shoving some coffee filters over the vents someho would rectify this matter; her determination was no, not really. “It would be better than nothing ” she sa s. ut the filters are unique because they have fiberglass intert ine in the fabric. he fiberglass traps the particles. f course an thing is better than nothing, but a lot of particles can slip through any fabric that doesn’t have those intertwining fibers.” In other words: These $30 costumes are not hazmat suits, and aren’t designed for — or terribly effective at — protecting against a virus, to my great dismay. There is some hope, though, according to Young. coul see a filter speciall ma e to fit insi e the vent of the inflatable suit that oul filter any air coming in,” she says. “This oul significantl lo er the
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chances of the virus getting into the suit. Additionally, you could ear a face mas ith a filter inside the suit.” ere s hoping the professionals get on that! I want to live in a world of dinosaurs. Meanwhile, your best bet is to stick to the advice of the medical experts: Wear a mask when you are out in public, practice social distancing, wash your hands frequently and stay away from the public if at all possible. o ever if ou re properl socially distant, there’s no reason you can’t have a little fun out in the world while wearing one of these costumes — as made evident by the fact that Young herself apparently hit the town in her o n inflatable inosaur costume just last week. Stay safe out there, folks: Trust the scientists, but still try to have some fun whenever you can. n
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Looking for the best seafood in St. Louis or the Midwest—don’t fret, Crawling Crab is now open! Here, we drizzle everything in garlic butter and then sprinkle on our magic dust! In a fun and casual atmosphere, you’ll enjoy fresh, hand-cleaned seafood ranging from lobster, shrimp, and of course crab legs. All platters come with corn sausage potatoes and Cajun boiled eggs and shrimp that won’t disappoint. For those pasta and veggie lovers out there, there is a spot for you here too! Enjoy our double dipped garlic butter rolls along side with your meal. And if you are still not stuffed, we have homemade dessert on the menu too! Have a big family coming in or an event coming up? Enjoy our family meal options and our beautiful seafood tables. As we continue to grow, we are excited to add new items to the menu, get creative with new recipes, and give back within the community. Join us on the first Tuesday of the month for $20 platter specials, and $5 appetizers on every Wild Wednesday! Open Tuesday thru Saturday 4pm-10pm, currently located in the 24:1 Coffee House Cafe.
314.310.3343 4168 JUNIATA STREET ST. LOUIS, MO 63116 What began in 2013 as a passion project in the founder’s kitchen has now grown into a retail and wholesale potsticker manufacturing facility located right in the heart of Tower Grove South. Crispy Edge believes that potstickers are the perfect vehicle to explore authentic global flavors from breakfast to dessert: handheld, wrapped in dough, and CRISPY! The restaurant features indoor and dog-friendly outdoor seating, private dining room, and a café lounge. The full bar and hot beverage program highlight local specialty coffee, cocktails, and beers. All products are made in-house and sourced from the finest ingredients. From Ordinary to Extraordinary - Crispy Edge is a global community for those who want something fun, tasty, social and exciting to eat.
J. SMUGS GASTROPIT JSMUGSGASTROPIT.COM
THE KICKIN’ CRAB
314.499.7488 4916 SHAW AVE ST. LOUIS, MO 63110
THEKICKINCRAB.COM
Housed in a retro service station, J. Smugs GastroPit serves up barbecue that can fuel anyone’s fire. Married teams of Joe and Kerri Smugala and John and Linda Smugala have brought charred goodness to the Hill neighborhood, nestled among the traditional Italian restaurants, sandwich shops and bakeries. Part of St. Louis’ ongoing barbecue boom, the J. Smugs’ pit menu is compact but done right. Ribs are the main attraction, made with a spicy dry rub and smoked to perfection. Pulled pork, brisket, turkey and chicken are also in the pit holding up well on their own, but squeeze bottles of six tasty sauces of varying style are nearby for extra punch. Delicious standard sides and salads are available, but plan on ordering an appetizer or two J. Smugs gives this course a twist with street corn and pulled-pork poutine. Several desserts are available, including cannoli – a tasty nod to the neighborhood. Happy hour from 4 to 7pm on weekdays showcases halfdollar BBQ tastes, discount drinks, and $6 craft beer flights to soothe any beer aficionado.
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314.888.8688 9616 OLIVE BLVD OLIVETTE, MO 63132 The Kickin’ Crab has joined the Crustacean Nation and is here to satisfy your taste sensation. The Kickin’ Crab is a fun-filled Cajun seafood destination where patrons come and escape into flavor paradise. Offering a distinct ambiance to enjoy the finest and freshest Cajun seafood around! Kickin’ Crab is a great place to hang out with friends, family, or both! No plates... no utensils! Just your hands, a bib, and our unique and absolutely irresistible KC sauces - a combination of spicy, sweet and tangy flavors - over freshly prepared seafood that will give your taste buds satisfaction unlike anything else you’ve ever tasted. Join us and partake in the festivities and quality of seafood that The Kickin’ Crab has to offer.
[MAGNETS]
[CANCELLED]
Informed Clown Posse
Ticketmaster Will Offer Refunds for Postponed Shows
Even ICP is being more responsible about coronavirus than the Missouri GOP Written by
DANIEL HILL
O
nce, while I was reporting on the Insane Clown Posse’s Gathering of the Juggalos back in 2013, I came across a scene in which a man picked up a piece of poop with his bare hand and then slapped another man right across the face with it, as part of a playful dare in which both were participants. Consequently, I’ve never considered juggalos to be a particularly health-minded, germavoiding bunch. So you can imagine my surprise, then, when I awoke Thursday morning to the news that ICP had cancelled this year’s Gathering, citing coronavirus concerns. “It is with a heavy heart we announce that due to the COVID-19 outbreak, we can’t possibly in good conscience even consider trying to put on a Gathering,” the statement reads in part, later adding, “The bottom line is simply that we refuse to risk even one juggalo life by hosting a Gathering during these troubling times.” It’s the right move, not only from the obvious medical standpoint, but also from a financial one: There is just too much uncertainty at this time as to how the ongoing pandemic would affect turnout. Would people even want to show up to the festival, slated for August, if there are still health concerns? Would they even be able to afford to, given so many have been out of work for so long? In light of these considerations, I have to ask: How is it that the Insane Clown Posse, of all groups, has thought this through more than our own state government? Governor Mike Parson announced last week that most Missouri businesses will be able to reopen on May 4, even as coronavirus cases in the state continue to climb. The decision flies in the face of the recommendations of scientists and medical professionals, not to mention the recommendations of the Trump administration, which say that states should begin to open in a controlled way only after fourteen days of declining case numbers. “We’re working on the policy and the guidelines for that, but I will tell you almost every business in the state of Missouri will be able to open their doors,” Parson said in an address. “People will go back to work. There’ll be some guidelines we’ll have with that, but the majority of them will be open.” Parson’s announcement came just one day after hundreds of protesters
Written by
DANIEL HILL
If Missouri Gov. Mike Parson had as much sense as ICP, we’d be better off. | DANIEL SHULAR swarmed Jefferson City demanding the state be reopened, many of them refusing to wear masks or practice social distancing, many of them proclaiming the virus to be a “hoax” — proving that even if the state opens with “guidelines” about safety, many of our fellow citizens are just gonna straight up ignore them. It comes, too, after numerous Republican lawmakers and operatives have declared that the reopening of the economy is more important than the lives that would be lost in doing so, with Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick even going so far as to utter these astonishing words: “There are more important things than living, and that’s saving this country for my children and grandchildren and saving this country for all of us.” Let’s compare and contrast the two responses again: On the one hand, “There are more important things than living.” On the other, “We refuse to risk even one juggalo life.” Seriously, is this where we’re at now? Even if we were to take Lt. Governor Patrick at his word as to his motives for reopening the country, the logic here is (literally) fatally flawed. The reasoning behind the push for the reopening of states by various Republican leaders and operatives, not to mention by protest groups (which are meant to appear grassroots in nature but in many cases are actually backed by moneyed interests on the far right) is said to be to save the economy. But as even ICP apparently understands, a blind push to continue on, consequences be damned, is not going to be good for business. The small businesses that will be forced to open during a global pandemic will be putting their employees at risk while suffering through what will obviously be a suppressed demand for most goods and services as the majority of Americans continue to shelter in place. Polls show that more than 70 percent of Americans
support stay-at-home orders — it is absurd to think that same 70 percent will just say, “Oh, OK, never mind, let’s head out into a pandemic,” just because the government deems it so. So it’s not small business owners that this will help. It will help get people off of the unemployment rolls though, which “entitlement”-hating Republicans would love. Never mind the fact that even if they do have a job to go back to, they’ll be risking life and limb to do so. What’s more likely to happen here is that small businesses will suffer perilously declining revenues due to the loss of demand and will be unable to pay their mortgages and/or rent, and will be forced to shutter for good. Additionally, opening everything up will cause a second spike in cases, which will in turn cause a second round of lockdowns, which will sink even the small businesses who were able to weather the initial storm. And who will be best positioned to buy up and occupy that space? Wealthy developers, chain restaurants, mega corporations. Goodbye beloved local restaurant; hello to yet another Chipotle. Is this “saving this country for my children and grandchildren and saving this country for all of us”? No. A mortgage and rent freeze would go much further toward that goal — if you care at all about small businesses. This is a nice little boon for the big corporations, though. The fact that two guys in clown makeup are more able to grasp the health and financial implications of pulling the trigger too early on getting things going again than the clowns occupying office in wide swaths of our government is troubling at best, and intentional disaster capitalism at worst. Or, to paraphrase a popular Insane Clown Posse song: Fucking epidemiology, fucking economics — ICP knows how they work. Does the GOP? n
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icketholders were left in the lurch in recent weeks as COVID-19 lockdowns resulted in postponements and cancellations of, well, pretty much every concert in the nation, even as the world’s largest ticketing service quietly changed the wording in its policies to allow for fewer refunds than in pre-coronavirus days. ut no after a fierce bac lash the ticketing giant has changed course, assuring in a statement that it “intends to honor our longstanding practice of allowing refunds on cancelled or postponed shows.” The New York Times as the first to report on Ticketmaster’s initial change in its policy. As cancellations and postponements ravaged the entire live event industry and ticketholders, many newly out of work and struggling floc e to get their mone bac on those same sho s the tic eting service quietly changed the wording in its refund policy — which ha long been in place for an sho s that are rescheduled, postponed or cancelled — to read, “Refunds are available for cancelle sho s.” This left anyone who had tickets for a show that was postponed or rescheduled all out of luck. “If your event was rescheduled, we are working with the event organizer to identify new dates, and we will contact you as soon as we have confirmation ” the polic state further. he pushbac as s ift ith ire irecte at the compan b concertgoers and even some policymakers, including California state representative atie orter ho blaste the ali base organi ation in a t eet orbitant tic et fees for negligible benefits no ta ing a vantage of a crisis to line their pockets?” she wrote. “Next level.” Ticketmaster, apparently, got the message.
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TICKETMASTER Continued from pg 27
“To be clear, Ticketmaster intends to refund as many tickets as possible in as timely a fashion as is feasible,” Jared Smith, president of the company, writes in a recent statement. “We are working every day towards that goal.” Smith goes on to offer what he describes as “context” for the situation, explaining that on March 1, the company had more than 55,000 events on the books for the remainder of 2020. More than 30,000 of them were impacted by “government-mandated, and vitally necessary, restrictions on large public gatherings,” as the statement puts it, with 12,000 cancelled outright. “We are actively issuing refunds to every one of the purchasers of those events,” Smith writes. “Roughly 5,000 events have already been rescheduled, and organizers have authorized us to issue refunds to consumers who request them.” As for the approximately 14,000 remaining events, Smith writes that promoters are working through rescheduling options, but that the uncertainty surrounding when venues may be open for business again has ma e the tas more i cult. e insists that the company will offer refun s as soon as those events fin new dates. “Let me reiterate: neither our clients, nor Ticketmaster, intend to withhold refunds on postponed shows,” Smith writes. “In fact, as of today, both Live Nation Entertainment and AEG Live, two of our largest event organizers, have announced they will begin to provide refunds, on a rolling basis, for all events impacted by COVID-19.” In all, it sounds like good news for ticketholders seeking refunds for shows in St. Louis, which in the Before Times actually had a pretty large number of high-priced tours coming through town. The Rolling Stones, Rage Against the Machine, Billie Eilish, Sturgill Simpson and many more were slated to come through St. Louis this year. All of those concerts were impacted by the coronavirus restrictions on public gatherings. Now, it would seem those who shelled out big bucks and are hoping for refunds have a light at the end of the tunnel. It should be noted, though, that more postponements and cancellations likely loom on the horizon. “We fully anticipate more events will be impacted in the weeks and months ahead,” Smith writes in his statement. Let’s hope they at least have the refund system more solidly in place by the time that happens. n
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Matvey (Aleksandr Kuznetsov), handcuffed, finds himself at the mercy of Andrey (Vitaliy Khaev) in the riotous “Why Don’t You Just Die!”. | COURTESY ARROW FILMS
[REVIEW]
Still Kicking Why Don’t You Just Die! is a frenetic blast of blood and violence from Mother Russia Written by
JOHN W. ALLEN
A
young man, Matvey (Aleksandr Kuznetsov), stands outside an apartment, a claw hammer clutched in his left hand, as he waits for the old man inside to open the door. Right from jump, the audience knows something very bad and very violent is about to happen, that they’re watching a dormant volcano suddenly poised to erupt. Matvey is at that door because he believes the man inside, Andrey (Vitaliy Khaev), previously raped his daughter Olya (Evgeniya Kregzhde), whom Matvey is now dating. Olya has convinced Matvey that her father must die; what she failed to tell him is that Andrey is a powerful, thoroughly corrupt Russian police detective, and that he is damn near impossible to kill. The magnificent beauty of Why Don’t You Just Die! — the debut film from writerdirector Kirill Sokolov — is that nothing, and no one, is exactly what they seem to be, including the movie itself. On its surface, Sokolov’s movie is a frenetic blast of absurd and brutal violence populated by moments of surreal visual psychedelia, insane stunts and wire work and a truly skewed narrative perspective. But deep down, there’s a whole lot more at play. The film was set to be released in April in 20 theaters across the U.S. by Arrow Films, following a stellar festival
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track that garnered rave reviews for Sokolov’s originality and execution. That was before COVID-19, of course, before the world paused for a global pandemic, so now Why Don’t You Just Die! is being released instead on streaming Videoon-Demand platforms like iTunes and Google Play, and on Blu-Ray disc. If he’s disappointed by the change in plans, Sokolov doesn’t let it show. “When we made this movie, I didn’t think really it would be interesting outside of Russia,” he said from Moscow during a recent Skype interview with BVB: Blood Violence and Babes, “and now that it has traveled all the year around the world, when you understand that people from different cultures and different mentality understand your work and understand the themes you put inside of it and have fun watching it, it’s an amazing feeling.” Not surprisingly, Sokolov doesn’t consider Why Don’t You Just Die! to be a horror film. “It’s three stories about revenge, but from three different point of views,” he said. “I was really surprised when the movie started to travel through the genre/horror film festivals because I hadn’t thought about it like a horror. When I wrote it, I thought it’s about, I’m working on a kind of social drama, but I want to make it as fun as possible, so I put a lot of action in it and a lot of this extra violence stuff, but it still has very powerful social curve.” To say he’s been thrilled by how well his movie has been received would be an understatement. “What I understood, traveling through the festivals, that the horror and genre movie fans, it’s the best audience you can get,” he said. “These people really love this kind of movie.” The bulk of Why Don’t You Just Die! plays out like an adrenalized, fetishized approximation of a Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote cartoon. Matvey and Andrey pummel each other with an array of found objects, from a desktop computer monitor to a power drill. They throw them-
selves through walls. They shoot, strangle and dismember one another. Eventually, Olya and Andrey’s former police partner Yevgenich (Michael Gor) arrive to join the calamity and carnage. Sokolov uses a fantastic assortment of POV-shots to keep his audience enthralled. At first, he said, he worried whether he was deploying “too many different kinds of visual effects and styles in one movie,” but he chose to do it that way because he had written a film that’s largely set in one location with multiple actors. “It could be a problem, how to make this story really interesting and fun for an audience because they will get tired very quickly looking through the same walls, the same paper, the same location,” he explained, “and that’s how appeared all these small visual jokes and this style and genre changes because just to make the same apartment, the same location, seem new and fresh.” Calling on a variety of creative influences, from Sergio Leone to Park Chan-wook to Danny Boyle, Sokolov miraculously never lets you forget you’re watching a movie about life in Russia, where each character represents a different archetype, but all embody a mindset or personality found in his country. “I just tried to make the kind of movie I would like to see by myself in the theater,” he said. John W. Allman has spent more than 25 years as a professional journalist and writer, but he’s loved movies his entire life. Good movies, awful movies, movies that are so gloriously bad you can’t help but champion them. Since 2009, he has cultivated a review column and now a website dedicated to the genre films that often get overlooked and interviews with cult cinema favorites like George A. Romero, Bruce Campbell and Dee Wallace. Contact him at Blood Violence and Babes.com, on Facebook @ BloodViolenceBabes or on Twitter at @ BVB_reviews. n
SAVAGE LOVE Aroused State BY DAN SAVAGE Hey, Dan: I’m a 31-year-old female. Last week I suddenly started to experience an overwhelming, compulsive, and near-constant state of physical arousal. I’ve masturbated so much looking for relief that my entire lower region is super sore and swollen and still. It’s like my whole body is pulsating with this electric arousal telling me to ignore the pain and do it again. I have no idea if it’s normal to suddenly have a spike in libido — and I know a lot of people will say they wish they had this problem — but it’s interfering with my daily activities because I can’t focus on anything else. My college classes are suffering because of it. I’ve even had to remove my clitoral hood piercing, which I’ve had for over ten years! I feel like I have all of the reasons — high anxiety related to the pandemic, being stuck with an alcoholic boyfriend in the house tons of homework finances are low — to warrant a lack of arousal, so why am I drowning in it? Everything I’m learning in class states that sexual desire lowers throughout the lifespan so why am I literally pulsating with it? I really don’t want to call my doctor if I don’t have to. Any insight would be appreciated. Chronically Aroused
“There’s a general belief that sexual arousal is always wanted — and the more the better,” says Robyn Jackowich. “But in reality, persistent and unwanted sexual arousal can be very distressing.” Jackowich is a Ph.D. candidate at Queen’s University, where she works under the supervision of Dr. Caroline Pukall in the Sexual Health Research Lab. Jackowich has published numerous studies on Persistent Genital Arousal Disorder (PGAD), a condition characterized by a constant or frequently recurring state of genital arousal — sensations, sensitivity, swelling — in the absence of sexual desire. “In other words, there is a disconnect between what is happening in one’s body and mind,” says Jackowich, “and this can be both distressing and distracting.”
And while you would think stress would tank your libido — and preliminary research shows that the pandemic is tanking more libidos than it’s not — stress and anxiety can actually be triggers for PGAD. As you’ve learned, CA, you can’t masturbate your way out of this. So what do you do? Unfortunately, it’s the thing you’d really rather not do: Call your doctor. “It’s important to meet with a knowledgeable health care provider to ensure there is not another concern present that may be responsible for the symptoms and to access treatment,” says Jackowich. “Research on treatments for PGAD is relatively new, so it can be helpful to meet with a team of different health care providers to fin hat treatments oul be most effective for ou specificall . This could include a gynecologist urologist pelvic floor ph sical therapist, neurologist, and/or psychologist with expertise in sex therapy.” Talking with your doctor about this may be embarrassing, I realize, and it doesn’t help that many doctors are unfamiliar with PGAD. Jackowich actually recommends bringing printouts of information pages and research papers about the condition to your appointment and sharing them with your physician. And if your doc doesn’t take your distress seriously and/ or refuses to refer you to the specialists you need to see, CA, then you’ll have to get yourself a new octor. ou can fin those information pages and research papers at sexlab.ca/pgad, where you can also learn about currently available treatments and join support groups for sufferers.) “More awareness of PGAD and research on this condition is needed to help understand the symptoms and develop effective treatments,” says Jackowich. “If you experience these symptoms and would like to contribute to ongoing research efforts, the Queen’s University Sexual Health Research Lab is seeking participants for an online study.” To take part in that online survey, go to sexlab. ca/pgad, click on “participate,” and scroll down to the “OLIVE Study.” Hey, Dan: I’ve rekindled a romance with an ex from a decade
ago. We are long distance right now but getting very close. We have one recurring problem, though: She does not like that I’m friends with another ex. That ex has actually been a close friend for a very long time and our friendship means a lot to me. Our romantic relationship only lasted a few months. But since we did have a romantic relationship once, my current girlfriend sees my ex as a threat. I have reassured her several times that the relationship is in the past and that we are now only friends. But my girlfriend doesn’t want me to communicate with her at all. She wants me to un-friend her on Facebook and un-follow her Instagram, and at least once a week she asks if we’ve been in contact. It’s hard for me to throw a friend away in order to be in a relationship. Even though I don’t talk to my ex/friend all that regularly, I would like the option to at least check in every once in a while. Cutting her out of my life completely feels like a kind of death. I wish there was some way could find a compromise but this seems to be one of those “all or nothing” things. I also don’t like this feeling of not being trusted and fear it could lead to other problems down the line. Unhappy Girlfriend Has Sensitivities I can see why your current girlfriend might feel threatened by your relationship with an ex, UGHS, seeing as she — your current girlfriend — was until very recently just another one of your exes. Since you got back together with her, the green-eyed monster whispers in her ear, what’s to stop you from getting back together with your other ex? What the green-eyed monster doesn’t say, of course, is that you had every opportunity to get back together with your ex and didn’t. And cutting off your ex now doesn’t mean you can’t get back together with her later. And what’s to stop you from getting together with one of the 3.5 billion women you haven’t already dated? You have to take a hard line on this. Tell your current you’re happy to provide her with a little reassurance when she’s feeling insecure about your ex but you’re not going to un-friend or un-follow her or anyone else. You can make an appeal to reason — you wouldn’t be with your current
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girlfriend if you were the sort of person who cut off contact with his exes — but if your current girlfriend is the irrationally jealous type … well, an appeal to reason won’t help. Irrationally jealous people are b efinition incapable of seeing reason, UGHS, which is why they must be shown doors. Hey, Dan: This isn’t a sexy question, but you are wise and I am confused. I’ve been friends with a woman for about 16 years. She’s very funny, creative, loves to have a good time. She’s also intense, not very bright, and my family and friends don’t like her around. Now that we’re grown we do not see each other often, but I’ve been glad to maintain a friendship with her and get together now and again. Enter: my wedding. At the reception, she made a fool of herself (and me) by going on some strange, racist rant. The racist thing really surprised and disappointed me, and when I asked her about it she shrugged it off like, “Oh, just add that to the list of dumb things I do when I’m drunk.” Other things she’s done when she’s drunk: two DUIs, waking up in jail with an assault charge, having sex with strangers, etc. It’s been about seven months since my wedding, and I’ve basically been ignoring her while trying to decide what to do. I love my friend, but I do not want her hurting anyone else on my watch. Do I call her up and end it? See her once a year when no one’s around? Ignore her until she dies? Loyal To A Fault
Tell your racist friend to give you a call after she gets sober and confront her about her racism then — you know, when she’s actually capable of remembering the conversation reflecting on hat ou had to say, and perhaps changing for the better. If she can’t get both sober and better, LTAF, make sure she isn’t registered to vote and then ignore her until she dies.
This week on the Savage Lovecast: Dan chats with our epidemiologist pal about the state of the pandemic, and also with the founder of the Badass Army — a group working to fight for victims of revenge porn: savagelovecast. com. Questions? mail@savagelove. net. Follow Dan on Twitter @ FakeDanSavage.
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BELEAF’S LIFE’S OILS
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