Culture

[ARTS]

Heat Seeker

New annual arts magazine Search Party makes its debut, focused on St. Louis art and culture

Written by DANIEL HILL

Anew annual arts magazine focused on St. Louis-based creatives of color saw its debut Friday with a launch party at Cherokee Street apparel store rofield eserve.

The print and online publication, dubbed Search Party, is the brainchild of longtime journalist and St. Louis native Tara C. Mahadevan, who serves as its editor in chief. Mahadevan, a regular freelance contributor for Complex with additional bylines in a slew of publications including St. Louis’ Stereo Assault, Made Monarchs, Eleven Magazine and the Riverfront Times, conceived of the endeavor in the spring of last year and soon secured a Futures Fund grant from the Luminary.

According to Mahadevan, the effort started as a simple idea — and a case of great timing.

“It really just came as a thought. I tweeted about it,” Mahadevan explains. “And then I googled, you know, ‘art grant in St. Louis,’ and the Luminary’s art grant popped up, and it felt kind of like kismet. I mean, the grant had just opened like a week before I googled it, and then the week after there was an informational session. And the timing was so eerie, I was like, ‘I have to go for this.’”

With the grant secured, Mahadevan assembled a team that includes yan Brown a.k.a. Big Esco) as creative director and tephon hite a.k.a. phon as designer and photographer. Each are also rappers and artists in their own right, in line with the magazine’s identity as what Mahadevan describes as an “artistled collaborative publication.”

“I think it being artist led is really important,” Mahadevan says. “I just feel like a lot of major publications are run by people who aren’t artists themselves.”

In addition to that core threeperson team, a host of St. Louis creatives contributed to the publication, including writer Ymani ince who also contributes to the RFT) and rapper Mvstermind. All of the contributors are Black or people of color — around 30 people in total, according to Mahadevan.

“That includes all the writers, the artists being spotlighted and the visual artists,” she says.

For Mahadevan, the publication is a passion project meant to spotlight up-and-coming musicians and artists in t. Louis, specifically in the Black and community, and serves as a continuation of her longtime and ongoing efforts to bring attention to the city’s considerable creative talent.

“The magazine is really a culmination of the work I’ve done as a journalist and writer and really, you know, wanting to create a space for music discovery and emerging artists,” she says. “I’ve always tried to find a way to put on for St. Louis artists, and also [I’ve been] inspired by everything that’s been happening in St. Louis, in terms of the in u of people making stuff, just creating.

“And personally, it’s really important for me to always champion the underdog,” she adds. “The person who is just coming up as well as the person who has 20,000 followers.”

Hardcopy issues of the magazine are available for purchase for $15 apiece; PDF versions can be purchased for download for $10. For more information, visit searchpartystl.com. n

e annual publication will focus on emerging musicians and artists in the St. Louis area. | TARA C. MAHADEVAN

[BOOKS]

Andy Cohen Coming to Promote New Book

Written by JENNA JONES

Native St. Louisan Andy Cohen is headed back to the Lou, or more specifically, Clayton High School — his alma mater — in partnership with Left Bank Books. Fresh off a partnership with Clementine’s Creamery, Cohen heads to the high school to promote his new book, Glitter Every Day: 365 Quotes from Women I Love.

The book gathers quotes from women Cohen has worked with on his talk show or that he admires in his everyday life. Cohen returns to St. Louis to promote and discuss the book on Tuesday, November 23, at 7 p.m. in Clayton High School’s auditorium (1 Mark Twain Circle).

For those uunable to attend in person, Left Bank Books offers a livestream you can purchase tickets to. Guests will get signed copies of the book mailed to them after the event.

“Andy not only gathers 365 sayings and quotes from the icons, thought leaders, ‘Real Housewives’ and legendary celebs that fuel his fun,” a press release details, “he writes about the people and experiences that have made him live one of the most joyous lives that any little boy growing up in St. Louis could dream of so that you can, too.”

Tickets cost $28 and can be purchased at left-bank.com. Attendees must be fully vaccinated and wear a mask at the event, as well as bring a photo ID. n

Andy Cohen will be in the Lou to promote his new book. | VIA LEFT BANK BOOKS

NEW MUSIC + ARTS COLUMN!

Garden Glow is comgin back to make St. Louis evenings merry and bright. | MARY LOU OLSON/MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN

[LIGHTS]

Garden Glow Returns to Botanical Garden

Written by JENNA JONES

One of the staple St. Louis holiday-season events made its return this week. The

Missouri Botanical Gar-

den’s Garden Glow (4344 Shaw Boulevard) is now ready to bless our eyeballs with illuminated beauty.

More than 1 million lights will dazzle as you walk through the garden. The botanical garden’s website also promises “fun new experiences” along with photo opportunities, s’mores and festive drinks.

Photo opportunities include posing behind holiday frames or an in atable snow globe in designated photo areas. f course, pictures are encouraged everywhere in the garden. Santa Claus will also make several appearances at the garden in his sleigh at the Linnaean Plaza from 5 to 9 p.m. on certain days in November and December.

The Garden Glow requires masks for those older than five upon entry and exit, as well as indoors. Masks are recommended outside.

Tickets are available to purchase now at glow.missouribotanicalgarden.org. Non-members older than thirteen pay $18 for non-peak times and $20 during peak times, while children’s tickets cost $10. Members’ tickets begin at $14 and may cost as much as $16; prices for members’ children under thirteen begin at $3 and cost up to $8. The Garden Glow opens at 5 p.m. each night and lets its last guests in at 8:30 p.m. n some ednesday nights, however, children get in for $3 while adults get in for $18 due to “Family Nights.” The dates for Family Nights are November 17 and 24, and December 1 and 8.

The Garden Glow will run until January 8, 2022. Purchase tickets online at glow.missouribotanicalgarden.org. n

ELEVENTH HOUR

Rumor Mill

Welcome welcome to this occasional column, this little room I’ve set aside for us, where we get to trade rumors about the STL art and music world. As you know, this city is full of brilliant songs, gnarly instruments, lifer artists, legendary venues and all the brick-city stubbornness that keeps the city’s creative lifeblood flowing, even if and when everything suddenly shuts down for a year and more.

Note: There is no journalistic distance in this column. A lot of these people are friends and all of them are colleagues — anyone who plays music and makes art in this city is a colleague. I play drums and make posters (along with my partner and probable column contributor Paige Brubeck), buy records, read books and magazines, hang out at bars and venues and theaters and galleries, have opinions and love finding out about cool shit. The good news: All this shit is cool.

We’ll start with the very most important news:

GET HAUNTED: Bob Reuter’s Alley Ghost is the vengeful, gleeful spirit of the unstoppable Bob Reuter himself, now four years gone but still spitting out the classics thanks to his band — Brice and Kristo Baricevic, Mat Wilson, Bassamp and co. tearing through the songs that Bob made in all of his various bands. They just this week released TWELVE NEW RECORDINGS of Bob’s songs on Bandcamp, songs they perfected by touring together for months. Brice’s take on Bob’s yelping roar is uncanny, as is Ryan Koenig’s version of Bob on “Marie.” Consider this CRUCIAL INFO and get yrself to their bandcamp right now to start listenin’ to “You Belong to Me,” the eternal sacred devilish sound of south-city St. Louis. alleyghost.bandcamp.com/album/ you-belong-to-me

ALIGHT IN THE DARK: You know the St. Louis International Film Fest is happening right now, with full proof of vax and a few sensible rules (no eating, etc.) that should actually help keep you safe enough to enjoy the movie? Two highlights among many are some STL ex-pats made good. Leanna Kaiser, formerly of Frances With Wolves and STL, currently post-film school

BY EVAN SULT

in LA, has an award-winning experimental short (“Babes in the Woods”) in the fest, as does STL-to-NYC actor Pete Winfrey (“All Gone Wrong”). And there’s even “Maxi,” Zia Nizami’s documentary about our city’s own fairhaired, blueskinned, tricoastal fairy demon, Maxi Glamour! Tbh, by the time you’re reading this you probably missed the SLIFF screenings, but you can still track down these shorts online, and you should. (I’ve so much gossip about ALL of those folx, but I’ll have to save it for another column — remind me to tell you, yeah?)

FUCKIN HOT TEA: River Kittens just released a new video before heading out on tour supporting Samantha Fish and the Allman Betts Band on the Allman Family Revival tour. It’s been a freakin’ huge year for the Kittens, a.k.a. Allie Vogler and Mattie Schell, who’ve spent the last decade busting their musical tails while bussing tables — a day job now immortalized in the video for “Dressing on the Side,” which they re-recorded for their new album, Soaking Wet, that came out on Devon Allman’s Create Records label early this year. The song is a dead funny recounting of the shit you do at restaurants that drives the wait staff crazy, and the video, shot at the Fountain on Locust, is spot on, with some priceless cameos to boot. What up Big T!

WHERE WE STAND: Have you seen the Burney Sisters’ new hair colors? You really should. We did a story on them when they were just getting started in the region, and they’ve been working hard ever since. Olivia and Emma’s youngest sister, Bella, was barely in the band back then — and now they’re a polished, road-tested-but-never-weary powerhouse vocal trio with a stage presence as honed as their harmonies. They just announced a spot at the Folk Alliance International Fest in 2022, and if I were a bettin’ person (I try not to be) I would put my chips on these three. I recommend their version of Brandi Carlisle’s “Right on Time (In Harmony),” though they’ve got plenty of their own songs to check out as well.

More to come, stay tuned! And if you’ve got tips/thoughts/tea for me, find me at eleventhhour@riverfronttimes.com. Tell me what’s up with you, your band, your friend’s play, that show you saw and so on. Cheers, peers! n