PERRY LOCKWOOD
He’s doing it his way. From his North Lawrence studio, Lawrence’s cover-song artist and hit-maker releases the tunes and lives the dream.
For athletes, Ramadan fasting brings challenges and rewards. Four great local authors release four great reads. Karl Ramberg sets it all down in stone.
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Welcome to the winter edition of Lawrence Magazine!
As the calendar in the back pages of this issue attests, winter is always one of the most exciting and event-filled seasons of the year in Lawrence. Concerts, theater productions, and other events pick up pace around the city, with special events such as the 100th anniversary vespers concert taking place this year through the University of Kansas School of Music.
For the four athletes in our feature story by Aminah Syed, Fally Afani, and Jason Dailey, the winter calendar ends with the overlap of Ramadan and their regular training regime. For them, it is a time of intense physical demands and opportunities for spiritual growth.
Other calendar dates carry a more ambiguous meaning. Travel writer Susan Kraus takes us on a tour of the United States Capitol. As always, her story provides insight and savvy tips for making the best of our time. But she also notes how any tour of the area will remind us of the impending January 6 anniversary, and how the impact of that day four years ago continues to affect our lives.
There are some parts of our lives that we preserve to ourselves, as we should. Days when we free ourselves of calendar reminders and focus on ourselves, beyond the excitement or demands of outside events. In a sense, that is very much the core spirit of our magazine— interesting and inspiring stories about Lawrence, people who live here with us, and the spaces we share. This could be Perry Lockwood putting in just another day at his music studio, Spencer & Rains providing a timeless soundtrack, Karl Ramberg carving a stone, or any of the four local authors featured in this issue writing another line in another chapter for us to eventually read on a wintry day.
Whatever your focus is this winter, may it bring you peace and contentment. This will be my last edition as editor of Lawrence Magazine. I have had the privilege of working on this publication for approximately 19 of its 20 years. Every edition has been an honor to help create.
Nathan Pettengill, editor
My colleague, the talented Gina DeBacker, will pick up with the spring edition and continue with art director Shelly Bryant, copy editor Leslie Clugston Andres, sales executive Joanne Morgan, ad designer Alex Tatro, and our superb group of staff and contributors. I can’t wait to see and read what they do.
EDITOR
Nathan Pettengill
DESIGNER / ART DIRECTOR
Shelly Bryant
ADVERTISING
Joanne Morgan 785.832.7264
jmorgan@sunflowerpub.com
AD DESIGNER
Alex Tatro
COPY EDITOR
Leslie Clugston Andres
CONSULTING EDITOR
Fally Afani
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Amber Fraley Marsha Henry Goff
Lauren Kanan Susan Kraus
Nick Spacek Aminah Syed
Darin M. White
CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS
Fally Afani Jason Dailey
Carter Gaskins Doug Stremel
PUBLISHER
Bill Uhler
DIRECTOR
Bob Cucciniello
CONTACT
EMAIL COMMENTS OR SUBSCRIPTION INFO TO lawrencemagazine@sunflowerpub.com Lawrence Magazine is a publication of Sunflower Publishing, a division of Ogden Publications, Inc.
Home welcome
features smorgasbord
36 Fast and Faster
During Ramadan, competitive athletes across Lawrence will intensify their routines with the spiritual and physical challenge of fasting
On the Cover
8 ‘A Group of People … Making Something Happen’
A mixture of musicians and a blended family of fiddlers bring new sounds to Lawrence
12 ‘Something Ethereal’
Four local authors release new works: from an illustrated novel-in-stories to a locked-room murder mystery
22 Hard Hewing Never Ends
Lawrence artist Karl Ramberg sets it down in stone
27 Lawrencium Holiday Vespers
people
30 Livin’ the Lockwood Dream
Come on, does this look like a guy who would settle for bland tunes and a ho-hum life?
places
34 Under the Dome
A tour of the United States Capitol is a combination of a visit to a breathtaking art gallery, a history lesson, and a secular pilgrimage … now perhaps more than ever before
Perry Lockwood lights up his music studio in North Lawrence.
Photograph by Jason Dailey
‘A Group of People … Making Something Happen’
A mixture of musicians and a blended family of fiddlers bring new sounds to Lawrence
LAAND Concerts
The acronym for Lawrence arts organization LAAND stands for “Lawrence All-Ages Noise Destination,” and each word in that name is intentional.
Beginning with LAAND’s first show in August 2017, featuring Providence, Rhode Island, punk band Downtown Boys, and continuing today, the arts organization has brought a slew of acts to the area, including indie rock band Waxahatchee, harpist Mary Lattimore, and singer-songwriter Black Belt Eagle Scout. These concerts have been given across venues as diverse as the White Schoolhouse in North Lawrence, the Lied Center Pavilion, and Haskell’s Tommaney Library.
Board member Lira Mondal moved to Lawrence in 2022 with Sweeping Promises bandmate Caufield Schnug. She attended her first LAAND show at the Lied Center to see harpist/singer-songwriter Mary Lattimore and says she was drawn to the group’s eclectic membership and focus on creating memorable events.
“Since we’ve lived here, it’s just become even more and more apparent that if you just get a group of people who are interested in making something happen, they can do it,” Mondal explains.
“We’re putting on shows because we want to see these bands play,” adds fellow board member Paul DeGeorge, a musician and co-owner of the downtown art store Wonder Fair.
LAAND puts a lot of thought into considering what space will best match an artist, and heavy hitters in the Lawrence music scene have embraced LAAND’s vision. Avant-garde duo Drakkar Sauna played a summer reunion show on the back deck of White Schoolhouse, and the Get Up Kids have shot a music video while playing a free afternoon show in the White Schoolhouse basement.
Board member Robbie Robinson, a Native musician and manager of the Baker Wetlands Discovery Center, says bands appreciate the variety of venues, earlier stage times, and set fee.
“I think people are really tired of playing downtown at one in the morning,” Robinson offers. “I think it’s really nice for people—audiences and bands alike—here because we do a minimum guarantee. Despite whatever the door sales are, we make sure everyone gets paid, always, and we make sure it ends at a decent time..”
The LAAND board has found that hosting about one show a month keeps everything possible, fun and rewarding, without causing volunteers to burn out. Additionally, says attorney and board member Jennifer Roth, it allows them to go all-out when a show happens.
Faith Maddox, who initially performed at a LAAND show before recently joining the board, describes her joy in seeing the venue set up for her concert.
“Jennifer decorated—made these giant birds and barbed wire—just so beautiful. I remember almost crying, like, ‘I need a minute,’ because you feel so cared for.”
Going into 2025, the LAAND board has big plans. Roth mentions that they’ve been trying to book a show at the Outdoor Aquatic Center.
“I’ve been trying to book a show in the empty city pool before they fill it. Wouldn’t that be great? That would be awesome,” she says. “It would be cacophonous, but it would be amazing.”
Spencer & Rains, Plus the Next Generation
Walking into the home of fiddle duo Tricia Spencer and Howard Rains is like listening to their music. There’s a little bit of everything in the sounds of Spencer & Rains, who have been together since 2012.
“We played together before we even spoke, and within two months, we made what turned out to be my first album together,” Rains says. “We’ve been making music together in that sense since we met, basically.”
“We both have had a couple marriages behind us and felt like we just couldn’t trust in the fact that we had found each other,” Spencer adds. “So, we took our
OPPOSITE LAAND board members include (standing, from left) Faith Maddox and Robbie Robinson; (sitting, from left) Shawn Brakbill, Renee Huey, Ellie Wallace, Lira Mondal, Paul DeGeorge, Jennifer Roth and Jack Goodrich.
time, but we knew right away that making music was an obvious choice. And it was so easy and so, it took that time, but I definitely think the day we met, I knew that I found my best fiddle friend ever.”
It’s a blend of music that led to blended families. When they met, Rains lived in Texas and had a son, and Spencer lived in Kansas and had three kids. They had to find a way to keep making music and being inspired in that way, so they became touring musicians.
“We had to have total flexibility so that we could travel back and forth,” Rains explains.
As they traveled and performed, they also began concentrating on playing and preserving old Texas fiddle music, releasing The Old Texas Fiddle, now on its third installment.
The project is personal; both are linked to the music through people who taught them and through instruments they have played.
Rains retreats for a minute into the house and returns with a family heirloom.
“This fiddle was made for my great-grandfather in Dallas, Texas, in 1913,” Rains says. He explains
“We’re a blended family, but both sides of our families, when you put our kids to it, have been playing music for five generations, probably longer than that.”
–Howard Rains –
that his son Isaiah now plays it. “Great-grandfather, grandfather, dad, me, and then my son—that’s five generations that have played on this very same fiddle that was made in the place where my family comes from. That’s remarkable.”
The family connection continues in music. Spencer, Rains, and their children play together in a band called Lost Keys.
“We’re a blended family, but both sides of our families, when you put our kids to it, have been playing music for five generations, probably longer than that,” Rains notes. “Our kids are as steeped in it as they could possibly be.”
“My grandpa wouldn’t have even thought there was a conversation about that because he wouldn’t have known any different,” Spencer says. “He just played music, and his family played music, and there’s no reviving of that. That’s just who you are.”
And when Lost Keys plays together, it’s the living sound of that tradition and much more for the band’s senior members.
“It’s probably the greatest honor in my life that our kids want to play with us,” Spencer says.
LEFT
Lost Keys took first place in the band competition of the 2024 Kansas State Fiddling & Picking Championship in South Park.
RIGHT The Lost Keys are (from left) Ru Yother, Isaiah Sibi, Orion Spencer-Speirer, Tricia Spencer, and Howard Rains.
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‘Something Ethereal’
Four local authors release new works: from an illustrated novel-in-stories to a locked-room murder mystery
You can often find Chloe Chun Seim at The Bourgeois Pig. If the weather’s good, she’ll be outside with a cold brew in hand—or, depending on the day, maybe a Manhattan. And she’ll have a laptop in front of her, working on her next project.
Seim’s first big project came out of those days at The Pig. In 2023, she released Churn, an illustrated novel-in-stories.
Seim describes a novel-in-stories as a book of interconnected short stories, often with shared elements such as characters, setting or themes. (Think of James Joyce’s The Dubliners or Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.) Seim, whose first artistic love was drawing and painting, took this genre and added her own illustrations into the mix.
“The thing I really love about textual and visual arts is that you can kind of complicate meaning and play stylistically when you’re including illustrations,” Seim says. “So something I really liked about doing it for this book was finding images that maybe would not be what people would think of in their mind when they think about the chapter, but that kind of highlights something that shows the undercurrent of the story.”
Churn is a coming-of-age novel following a brother and sister who grow up in rural Kansas. The siblings are both queer and a quarter Korean. Their parents have a violent and chaotic relationship. Toward the novel’s beginning, the family goes on a trip to connect and reconcile, but another fight ensues. To escape the turmoil, the siblings swim to the center of a lake, where they are pulled underwater and face a near-death experience. When they reemerge, they are changed: the girl spews smoke when she’s angry, and the boy flops like a fish when he’s emotional. The rest of the novel then progresses through 20 years of their lives.
Seim’s writing journey began in her later years as an undergraduate student at the University of Kansas. Seim, 33, wrote the first draft of one of the Churn short stories in a creative writing class at KU.
Tom Lorenz, an associate professor emeritus at the University of Kansas, says that the short stories Chun wrote in his class “had a poet’s flair for original language coupled with a kind of visionary imagination that gave her characters a mythic dimension.”
And Adam Desnoyers, a lecturer, notes Seim’s distinctive voice.
“Chloe’s stories always had this strange and wonderful other layer to them. Nothing was mundane; there was always a sense of something bigger and darker behind the scenes,” Desnoyers wrote in an email to Lawrence Magazine. “She can transform a story about family or siblings or friends into something ethereal that you haven’t experienced before. I love how she writes about Kansas.”
Seim graduated from KU with a degree in art history and studio art, then earned an MFA in creative writing from the University of Missouri-Kansas City. She has lived in Lawrence for 14 years and is a development specialist at the nonprofit Literacy KC. Seim, who is bisexual, a quarter Korean, and has a brother, says the novel is “definitely inspired a lot by my personal history, my family history.”
Seim describes her book as “a love letter to Kansas and Lawrence and Salina.” Her portrayal of the state and its cities is not simple—they include criticism as well as praise. Seim wanted to show that there is diversity and complexity in small-town Kansas. As a mixed-race family in Salina with two queer children, the characters in the book not only experience racism and homophobia but also find their people and community.
OPPOSITE Chloe Chun
Seim wrote much of her novel at The Bourgeois Pig coffee shop in downtown Lawrence.
Photograph by Carter Gaskins
The Hossler family
Lawrence spots, such as Liberty Hall, make appearances in Churn. In one of the chapters, “Clinton Lake,” the sister—who now lives in Lawrence—invites her brother to visit in an attempt to convince him to move from the “dead-end central Kansas town” to the “less-of-a-dead-end eastern Kansas town.”
“I really liked writing that Clinton Lake story because it’s always been such a beautiful area to me,” Seim says. “And also, there was that year where flooding was so bad, and then it really changed … the landscape and all the trees had this paleness, to the parts that had been submerged.”
Seim completed the illustrations for the novel toward the end of her writing process. She felt the illustrations would tie the stories together since the novel does not have a standard chronology. Completing the illustrations also brought Seim back to her first artistic love. During her time at KU, Seim struggled with selfconfidence in creating art, which is when she switched over to creative writing. In Churn, Seim brings both of her talents together.
“So the illustrations in the book are kind of me coming back into art making,” Seim says.
The process also helped Seim come up with the title Churn. Illustrating the book made her more aware of some of the atmospheres in the story. “Churn” refers to the weather elements in the book—like thunderstorms, tornadoes and river currents—and connects to the story’s emotional core.
Seim hopes readers will finish her book with a better understanding of trauma and recovery, understanding “how that can be a very long-term project in your life.” Recovery is not always linear, Seim notes. “It can often be cyclical.”
Seim encourages aspiring writers to experiment and pursue unconventional ideas that are interesting to them. She originally had doubts about the structure of her novel and its fragmentary nature.
“But, you know, it ended up paying off in the end, and I think the work was so much better because I took those chances,” she says.
–Lauren Kanan
Matt Porubsky
For six years, Matt Porubsky composed and wrote the poems for Stand in Old Light (Spartan Press, 2024). Then, after allowing them to sit for a year, he took a standard 78-card Rider Waite tarot card deck, randomly matched a card to each of the poems in his book,
Chloe Chun Seim is reading:
A Reading
Matt Porubsky will read from Stand in Old Light at the Lawrence Public Library during National Poetry Month in April, date to be determined. By that time, he expects to be well on his way to finishing his next book, The Kansas Voice, which he describes as a led meditation in a highly experimental format, exploring the meaning of Kansas and including an encounter with some of the state’s historical legends.
and revised each poem to reflect the fate that its card had revealed.
Porubsky says the tarot cards were a way to “drive” the poems and make them more accessible. By pincushioning his poems with symbols and themes from the tarot cards, Porubsky hopes that readers, particularly those who are not necessarily huge fans of poetry, will recognize the symbols and use them as a handle to access the other stories within each verse.
“When you share a poem with a person, you don’t have too much of a chance to be successful. But when you lean into language that is heavy with deeper meaning, sometimes it is biblical or esoteric language, then people are able to connect with that,” Porubsky says. “I wanted to tap into language and stories that people were familiar with. And people have been looking to tarots for knowledge and interpretation for such a long time.”
Sometimes, a card’s influence on a poem is obvious. The opening poem, for instance, features a fish glancing over the rim of a cup, directly from the image of the Page of Cups, which matched up to the poem. Other card-poem connections are less obvious; there are references to stars and swords that seem entirely organic, or perhaps only lightly kissed by the tarots.
And then, because mystical, coincidental stuff happens when you open a tarot deck, there are the amazing coincidences, such as a poem about seeing a rainbow with his kids that just happened to match up with the Ten of Cups, the card featuring a rainbow festooned across its width.
As he explains that coincidental draw, Porubsky looks up from the conversation and earnestly confirms that it actually happened.
An acceptance of authenticity seems important for this book of poems, which Porubsky describes as his “most personal” and revelatory collection of the six books he has released.
The first section, full of tension and regret, chronicles a period that Porubsky looks back on as being about “ownership of decisions without blame … a self-exploration of mistakes you made, while not taking the blame for changing as a person, or not blaming someone else for changing.”
The second section brings the narrator into a desert landscape filled with references from tarot cards and Porubsky’s revelatory trip into the Arizona heat for an intense self-examination.
It’s a trope—the hero’s sojourn into a harsh land to test spiritual mettle—but one that Porubsky narrates without the complacent certainty of a triumphant ending.
In this desert, the narrator encounters “The Uncle,” a stand-in for a beloved figure in Porubsky’s life who drank himself to death. There is also a den of rattlesnakes, one of whom brags about the bullets it has dodged and has chosen to remain under the harsh sun of the desert whose “Glorious battle: heat, radiation” will leave others “burned to bruises” until the “final explosion, our universes expanding to a split, the darkness after.”
For the narrator, life after the trial in the desert is not darkness, but a renewed relationship with someone whose laugh is like “sun on water,” and then episodes of joyful exploration with sons and a daughter.
“I don’t see the rainbow / until they tell me. / They fling mud as high as they can. / I don’t tell them / the rainbow is just in our eyes, / not actually in the sky. / I grab a handful of mud, / throw along with them, / all of us adding, / a color each of us needs,” he writes.
And as the book ends, the tarot card symbols and stories overlap with stories that affirm the continuity of change yet suggest a confidence in growing from impermanence.
“New webs in doorways / pattern the mysteries together. / Standing back, you see how it all works together, / how it pulses from things unseen.”
Matt Porubsky matched randomly drawn tarot cards to each of the poems in his book and then revised each poem based on the card that matched with it.
Porubsky, who grew up in Topeka and whose family owned and ran a storied deli in the Little Russia neighborhood, studied poetry under Brian Daldorph at the University of Kansas. He then returned to Topeka to work as a freight conductor and switch operator with the Union Pacific Railroad, writing poems in his free time. He moved to Lawrence in 2019, when he took a copy editor job at the University of Kansas.
Stand in Old Light, while written in the voice of an anonymous narrator, presents four sections of poems that mirror much of Porubsky’s personal journey over the past two decades.
With this motif, Porubsky leads us to the end, the lines that provide the book’s titular image: “Pile the relics. / Pack them tight, if this night comes again / Enter through new doors, / shoulder years, / stand in old light, / fly.”
After reading this last line, Porubsky looks up with a smile: “I always wanted to end a poem with the word ‘fly.’”
–Nathan Pettengill
Sarah Smarsh
Sarah Smarsh’s latest essay collection, Bone of the Bone: Essays on America by a Daughter of the Working Class
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Photograph by Doug Stremel
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(Simon & Schuster, 2024), contains some of her most thought-provoking writing from the last decade. In it, Smarsh does what she does best— relates some of the grittier stories from her childhood to explore intersections of class, social justice and democracy in America. Her homespun tales from her modest Kansas upbringing are bolstered by the facts and figures of the public policy that directly affects lower-income families like hers. Because, despite her huge success in connecting with a swelling fanbase through essays pulled from her life, Sarah Smarsh identifies first and foremost as a journalist.
“I was actually in the last class at the William Allen White School of Journalism to receive what I would call old-fashioned newspaper training as a reporter,” Smarsh told a large crowd at Liberty Hall this fall. But as a new graduate in the early-2000s, she was forced, like everyone else, to embrace the huge changes the internet forced on the industry.
“That, of course, changed not only the way that you all consume news and feature information and thematic ways, but it also changed an industry involving jobs where there suddenly weren’t as many as there used to be, and that actually has everything to do with democracy.”
The first of her family to graduate college, Smarsh left Kansas for New York City, and the lesson she learned while working there was that the view citydwellers hold of folks in flyover country is simply wrong. That perception, she argues, colors how the media treats entire swaths of the country, including the Midwest and South, which become stereotyped as uneducated and not worth investing in.
She recalled the moment she realized the value in writing from her own experience, as opposed to the journalistic objectivity her college professors had drilled into her. It was when digital magazine Aeon published her long-form essay “Poor Teeth” in 2014. In this viral hit, Smarsh talks about the fear and shame of having visibly bad teeth, a clear marker of poverty in America.
“Over a million people read it,” she said. At the time, she was “fairly easy to reach,” and Smarsh found herself inundated with thousands of emails and direct messages from appreciative readers who shared her feelings. “What I experienced was like a collective swell
giving me feedback, saying, ‘No one’s talking about this, and let me tell you my story.’”
At that moment, she says, it was as if the national conversation was finally catching up with a subject she’d been focusing on for at least a decade.
“It was around that time that I had shifted to bearing direct and personal witness to experiences like poverty and rural life and being on a fifth-generation Kansas wheat farm like the one I come from, and seeing that farm need to be sold because of decades of public policy that privileged big ag over small, family agricultural enterprises,” Smarsh said.
Often, in those New York City newsrooms, Smarsh explains, she was the only person who’d grown up rural and poor, and her colleagues would turn to her as an authority for that entire demographic.
But that background also gave her an advantage.
“I found that while I always had a lens on class and place—even in that sort of third-person journalistic enterprise—I caught the stories that my colleagues missed because of my identity,” Smarsh said.
While “Poor Teeth” was the essay that thrust Smarsh into a new national conversation about class, her book Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth (Scribner, 2018) put her on the New York Times’ bestseller list.
“Hearing from that swell of people about 10 years ago was one of the honors of my life—and it hasn’t yet stopped—what that tells me is that yes, we’re starting to talk about class, but we’re just sort of scratching the surface, and people are longing to have real complicated discussions about it,” she said.
Bone of Bone, a collection of essays written from 2014 to 2022, contributes to those complicated discussions with more essays about class from Smarsh’s life, including “Dangerous Idiots,” in which Smarsh presents her grandmother as someone who doesn’t fit the media stereotype of the angry white Trump voter in Middle America. The truth, Smarsh points out, is far more complicated—her grandmother loathes Trump; white poverty exists all across America, not just in rural communities, but in cities; and Trump supporters often earn higher-than-average salaries.
“But, for national media outlets composed largely of middle- and upper-class liberals, that would mean looking their own class in the face,” Smarsh writes.
Bone of Bone goes on to discuss class not just as an economic issue but as a humanitarian one. Class inequalities, Smarsh argues, foster environments of abuse. In a capitalistic society, the poor are expected to
ABOVE Sarah Smarsh, one of the state’s most prominent non-fiction authors, releases a new collection of essays.
Photograph by Doug Stremel
give up everything—their health, bodies and lives—for those perceived to be their “betters.”
It’s a system Smarsh believes can be rectified only by truthfully telling people’s lived stories.
Smarsh’s future writing will likely continue to develop these themes and continue to draw on her experiences in Kansas, where she is living once again. She said it is because this is where she’s most happy, “but also because I felt that I could be of service to my craft, and my field, and to my purpose as a journalist.”
–Amber Fraley
Sarah Henning
Many Lawrence residents will recall Sarah Henning and her distinct voice as the features writer for the Lawrence Journal-World from 2008 to 2012.
Years later, Henning’s writing is still informed, humorous and rooted in dialogue and detail, only now it is fiction.
Henning’s first book, Sea Witch (Harper Collins, 2018), established her reputation as a rising talent, and she continued building on that success with a series of novels that intriguingly zig-zagged between themes. For example, her fantasy adventure trilogy of Kingdoms of Sand and Sky (2020–2022) was a gender-reversed Princess Bride homage while her sport-drama Throw Like a Girl (2020) combines romance, family tensions, a high-school football season with a girl quarterback, and a softball field fist-fight that sets everything in motion.
Now, Henning throws another curve, releasing The Lies We Conjure (Tor Teen, 2024), a classic locked-room murder-mystery scenario on the edge of young adult literature with intrigue, death, betrayal, and one good snogging scene in a cavernous library.
“The characters are a little bit older, a little bit darker. It has that dark academia vibe that is very popular and also very crossover,” Henning says. “It is on a line, but I am writing for kids first. I love when actual teenagers show up to my events.”
Told from a teenage perspective, the story follows two sisters who are offered
a job to impersonate the granddaughters of a seemingly harmless elderly lady at a large family reunion.
They agree after receiving a wad of cash and viewing photos of their pretend cousins—one is dreamy, and another hunky.
The sisters take fake names, put on posh dresses, and soon find themselves witness to a murder, locked inside a legendary Colorado mansion with possibly hostile witches, and forced to solve a series of crimes and discover hidden artifacts before a magical spell takes effect and seals them off from the world forever.
“I wanted this to be what I call a ‘gas-pedal’ book, where you are always moving forward. You finish one scene, and you go into the next,” Henning explains. “The type of book you can read before bed and not want to stop.”
While the plot moves rapidly, Henning sprinkles in enough clues to effectively land the denouement as she also details the history of the witch families and their distinct strains of magic.
“The characters are a little bit older, a little bit darker. It has that dark academia vibe that is very popular and also very crossover.” –sarah henning –
“I’m an opportunistic worldbuilder,” Henning explains. “Some writers build great, big worlds, and they are really cool, and the story goes in it, but I’m like, ‘I could really use x, y, or z—and so I build from there.”
Henning has already, in fact, built the foundation for a follow-up heist-themed companion piece to The Lies We Conjure, but the final writing of that project is on hold while she prepares to release another high-school sports drama in 2025 and then a mix of a rom-com and murder mystery in 2026.
New years, new books, new genres—as a talented and creative author, Henning seems determined to surprise and experiment. But she says she intends to remain focused on the young adult audience and that no matter how many murders she might pack into a book, she will always write to entertain with a dash of humor.
“I have a hard time with books that are so dramatic and serious that there is no levity at all,” Henning says. “Especially when you write for kids, you have to have levity.”
–Nathan
Pettengill
STORY BY Darin M. White PHOTOGRAPHY BY Doug Stremel
OOPPOSITE
Hard Hewing Never Ends
Lawrence artist Karl Ramberg sets it down in stone
ne summer, when I was slow with work, Karl Ramberg offered me employment and the chance to learn to dry-stack stone, to lay stone with masonry, create pathways and stairs, and occasionally carve a piece for a wall with him.
It was one of the hardest and most rewarding jobs I have done, and I don’t think I’m the only artist in town who has benefited from Ramberg’s mentoring.
What I didn’t realize then is that by working alongside Ramberg, I had become part of a long tradition he has maintained and passed along to other artists.
Ramberg has been carving stone for approximately four decades. In that time, he has also been gathering stories about his craft, and he now shares them in his 2024 book, Stone Diary: Confessions of a Hard Hewer
“A hard hewer was a term to describe a stone worker back in England in the old days. An accurate description ... yet here in Kansas it still flickers. My guess is that it flickers all over the world. It doesn’t burn as bright and its circumstances are different than they were,” Ramberg writes near the book’s opening.
Ramberg’s introduction to his profession came from education and exposure. Growing up in a family of artists who worked in Lawrence for decades, Ramberg attended the Berklee School of Music in Boston before returning to Kansas.
Back in Lawrence, his sister Laura, an accomplished painter, sculptor and carver, encouraged
him to try the art. After some time, Ramberg began working as a stone mason, learning from Keith Middlemass to lay paths, walls, stairs and more. He studied carving techniques under Elden Tefft, the late Lawrence stone carver and sculptor.
In one section of the book, Ramberg portrays Tefft as part artistic genius and part squirrel—an artist who stored treasures across the KU campus.
My days with Elden were endlessly interesting. We were forever traipsing off to some forgotten corner of the university to find something he had stored years ago. He had more hiding places than one could imagine. Several places under the bleachers of the football stadium, old offices that he had when he had started the National Sculpting Center, now the International Sculpting Center. … These and other sheds and outbuildings all over campus were full of Elden’s collections of material for making sculptures.
Not only a sculptor, Tefft was celebrated for reviving the “lost-wax” bronze casting technique. Ramberg, who absorbed Tefft’s ability to listen and seek techniques from the past, writes that the challenge of seeing new ways to apply this ancient craft is one reason the art appeals to him.
Twenty thousand years ago, a forbearer carved figures in stone that was millions of years old. He did this to ornament his architecture, his cave. I carve figures in stone that is millions of years old to ornament architecture of today. From the stone’s perspective, the forbearer and I are only a blink of the eye apart.
ABOVE Karl Ramberg has worked as a stone carver for approximately 40 years.
Ramberg lays walls, carves homes, and creates tombstones and monuments from stone.
From those beginnings in the caves, stone carving became an integral part of architecture. … Can stone carvings find a place in the modern aesthetic or does it only have a historic definition? Is there a way that this historical definition be changed to allow a use in a modern design? … How can stone carvings be part of what is next?
Ultimately, Ramberg says he does not have definitive answers to these questions, but they continue to haunt him. He’s dedicated to preserving and passing the craft to other artists, who can continue to create and find new ways to apply the art.
It took many years of helping Elden teach before I considered myself a teacher, but at some point, that is what happened ... and it happened without me quite realizing that I was becoming a teacher.
In addition to teaching stone-carving workshops, Ramberg teaches or has taught classes at the University of Kansas in conjunction with the architecture and art departments.
Ramberg’s legacy across the region is also literally fixed in stone. Over the years, he has worked on historic projects such as renovations and restorations of the Kansas Capitol. He worked on a large restoration of sculptures in Hiawatha, Kansas, for the famous Davis Memorial, and, along with his sister Laura, he contributed to replicas of eight grotesque carvings for the University of Kansas Natural History Museum located in Dyche Hall.
For private clients, Ramberg has carved many tombstones and decorative stone walls all over Lawrence.
If you created a Lawrence map of Ramberg’s works, dots would fill the city.
In his book, Ramberg describes working under Tefft on one of those prominent Lawrence stone sculptures, “Keepers of the Universe,” the stillunfinished trio of stone monuments overlooking the Kaw River in Burcham Park. And as he worked under his mentor, he learned more than carving.
Elden was working on being 95, and I would pick him up and take him down to the river and get him started. With the stones in place we began carving. In the beginning, there were a number of people who helped regularly, students for the most part. Though just by carving with Elden, you became a student. We would work on the center stone all through the nice months of spring and into the hot of summer and ending as it got cold in the fall.
Every time we carved, people who were visiting the park would stop to see what we were doing. Elden would want to know everyone’s story, and as they were leaving he would always invite them to his studio. Many would take him up on his invitation. If there were children, Elden would have me get out a hammer and chisel for them to try. So many children had their first try at stone carving down there at the river.
When people would stop by, one of the first question they would ask was: “How long have we been working on the stones?” And the next question was: “When do you think you will be done?”
Elden taught me to evade both questions: “I can’t remember when we started,” and “I hope it never ends.”
ABOVE Ramberg, who credits Elden Tefft and Keith Middlemass for teaching him his craft, now teaches younger artists his skills.
Lawrencium
Holiday Vespers Celebrates 100 years
Number of singers in KU’s first Vespers:
24
Number of musicians in KU’s first Vespers:
5
(Consisting of a string quartet and an organist.)
Number of singers in KU’s 100th Vespers: Approximately
365
(Consisting of 210 student singers on stage; 100 alumni singers in the balcony; and 55 pre-concert student singers in the Lied Center lobby.)
Number of musicians in KU’s 100th Vespers:
This year marks the 100th performance of Holiday Vespers at the University of Kansas, and KU will be celebrating by performing old favorites, as well as compositions written for the centennial.
Donald Swarthout, dean of fine arts at KU from 1923 to 1950, held the first performance in the chapel of Old Fraser Hall, which was demolished in 1965. Vespers quickly gained an enthusiastic following, with people driving in from miles around to attend.
While early performances had a Christmas theme, today’s Vespers now includes secular, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa music.
For the 100th anniversary performance, James Barnes, composer and KU professor emeritus, has composed HolidayVespersOverture,op.173, written specifically for the centennial celebration. Additionally, Vespers will feature appearances by the Lawrence Children’s Choir, the KU Trumpet Ensemble, and a performance by the Alumni Choir, with many members traveling in for the centennial.
LOCATION, LOCATION!
Number of years Vespers was held in Fraser Chapel
3
Number of years Vespers was held in Allen Field House
2
Number of years Vespers was held in Hoch Auditorium
63
Number of years Vespers has been held in the Lied Center 32
Vespers was first held in Hoch Auditorium the year Hoch was completed, in 1927, and remained there until Hoch was hit by lightning and caught fire in 1991.
JAZZ VESPERS
Vespers moved to the Lied Center after the concert hall was completed in 1993.
The 2024 KU Jazz Vespers, Wednesday, Dec. 11, at 7:30 p.m., will feature performances of holiday favorites in a captivating jazz and pop setting, including the celebrated KU Jazz Ensemble I and featured guest artists.
VESPERS WILL TAKE PLACE SUNDAY, DEC. 8, AT 7:30 AT THE LIED CENTER.
Tickets for both Vespers and Jazz Vespers are available at the Lied Center Box Office, 1600 Stewart Drive Lawrence, or through the Lied Center website.
STORY BY Marsha Henry Goff PHOTOGRAPHY BY Jason Dailey
Livin’ the Lockwood Dream
Come on, does this look like a guy who would settle for bland tunes and a ho-hum life?
While Kansas City football fans are hoping for a first-ever three-peat of a Super Bowl Championship, Lawrence’s Perry Lockwood has already achieved an unprecedented three-peat of his own. For the third year in a row, Lockwood has been voted Best Solo Performer in the annual Best of Lawrence contest.
Lockwood—who bears an uncanny resemblance to Brett Michaels, the heartthrob vocalist for heavy-metal band Poison, says his ol’ spotlight is big enough to share—and he has written and produced a music video for each of the last two KC championships. One was played during the pre-party at last year’s Super Bowl in Las Vegas—and Lockwood says he’s got another video ready to go should the team head to Super Bowl 2025.
Lockwood is also a Jayhawk fan and created a song for the men’s basketball team when they won the NCAA championship in 2022.
And, of course, he has a Christmas album—with a mix of traditional and pop tunes and a super-slick cover-photo pose that makes even George Michael look like a stale holiday biscuit.
The Lockwood Factory
All of Lockwood’s music, his two albums and his dozens of single releases, originate from his garage-converted studio in North Lawrence. Here, Lockwood writes both music and lyrics, sings lead and backup and creates the videos using a green screen, camera and computer.
“I try to do everything as cheaply as possible,” he explains, “but I do pay a yearly subscription for music stems, bits and pieces like guitar licks that I can splice in if they sound good with my music.”
The result is 100% Lockwood.
“There’s no auto-tune, no voice enhancer—it’s me,” he says. “If I go on stage, I want it to sound the same if someone requests a song I have done.”
A recent Halloween video shows his original song “It’s a Ghouls Night Out” sung by animated vampires, ghouls and ghosts. The song, Lockwood says, took only about 15 minutes to record, but the video took a long time because he had to go through hundreds
of clips to find one that looked like animations were singing the words. You can see this and some of his latest works at PerryLockwood.com, or watch him on his YouTube channel.
Lockwood sometimes takes requests on his website for cover songs, which he promises to turn around in 24 hours, one of which sounded so much like the original artist that YouTube took it down. In that case, he finally convinced the site’s admins that it really was his voice, but he loves the challenge of performing near-identical covers.
He’s particularly proud of his version of Taylor Swift’s “Love Story,” a recording that came in by request.
“None of that stuff makes me money,” he says of the covers. “I just do it because it is fun.”
Close to the Real Thing
As long as he remembers, Lockwood has had a talent for vocal mimicry.
He attributes this to “muscle memory” and to the fact that he developed it by imitating famous voices as a child.
“When I was a little kid, my brothers would say ‘Imitate this.’ I’d do Ronald Reagan, Mr. T, Elvis, Michael Jackson and others.”
It is also probably important that Lockwood was raised by an Elvis imitator, Bob Lockwood, who supported his son’s talent. In fact, encouragement and a $5 bill—big money for the young Perry at the time—persuaded him to get on stage to perform “Blue Suede Shoes” as Elvis.
Decades later, Lockwood still performs originals and covers, blending his own talent with ferocious roleplaying stage personas.
And off the stage, Lockwood is also living the dream.
In late November, he was in Washington D.C. for the Cowboys-Commanders game and after-party. Last year, he watched a Commanders’ game as the guest of Mike Bailey, former drummer for the band Poison, in the suite of one of Bailey’s friends.
“I shared the suite with John Riggins, Joe Theismann and other past NFL greats, got in a dance-off, got to wear the Super Bowl rings all game long because I won the
OPPOSITE Perry Lockwood records original and cover songs from his studio in North Lawrence.
dance contest. Then I went to an after-party at a big Playboy-type mansion,” Lockwood explains.
Coming from most other people, the summary of that trip might sound a bit exaggerated.
But Lockwood, well, he exudes rockstar vibes.
If he had a Maserati (and who is to say he doesn’t?), it would do 185.
Lockwood did become acquainted with Bailey, Bret Michaels and other Poison band members because of his uncanny resemblance to Michaels.
“I’d hang out with them when they came this way. And then I did a music video for Bailey because he has a record label, and we became friends,” Lockwood says.
Sometimes, Lockwood is mistaken for Michaels when he travels.
At a concert in Sweden, a photographer snapped his photo and said, “I know you.” Lockwood assumed it was a case of mistaken identity until the man said, “You’re the guy who does that video!” and he realized the man had seen him on YouTube—not Michaels, but Lockwood.
For Lockwood, that encounter underlined the importance and impact of his approach in releasing music online. His versatility— ranging from his original songs to covers and parodies—attracts fans worldwide.
Lockwood’s current production, which he describes as a Vegas show for a smaller venue, incorporates music, magic and video that will take the audience back in time. He believes it will entertain all ages and has been working on it for almost three years. He’s determined to see it finished.
Something to Believe In
When Lockwood isn’t recording new tunes, winning dance-offs with superstars, or exploding across a stage, he’s just a dude with rock legend looks, doing his errands, living his life, and punching the clock.
Lockwood has had his share of day jobs. He coached high school basketball for 13 years, worked for the Lawrence JournalWorld, and now referees basketball, kickball, softball, volleyball and pickleball games for children and adults.
He began at such a young age that he now referees games for the kids of parents he once refereed. They know him as “the Bret Michaels ref” or “the music guy.”
But even when he’s calling a game, Lockwood is Lockwood— you get what you see.
The only things fake about Perry Lockwood are his tattoos, which he wears for stage performances. His talent, personality and optimistic nature are authentic.
“Life is funny, and that’s the way I approach it,” he says. “I enjoy life. I’m put here for a reason, and I don’t know what that reason is. But if someone is having a hard week and I bring a little joy into their life, it makes me happy.”
Otoplasty
Facial
Under the Dome
A tour of the United States Capitol is a combination of a visit to a breathtaking art gallery, a history lesson, and a secular pilgrimage … now perhaps more than ever before
It’s impossible not to look up—and up and up again—when you walk into the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol. But if you can break your gaze from the interior of the dome, you would see that almost everyone around you is gawking … at the statues, the architecture, the frescoes, the dome … at all of it.
The U.S. Capitol evokes awe, from the details in the paintings along the walls to the frieze at the top of the dome, which appears small but would cover a basketball court if it were laid out.
There are many destinations described as a “an important walk through history,” but for Americans, the United States Capitol is easily near or at the top.
To stand in the very room where Abraham Lincoln argued a case to the Supreme Court before he ever ran for office? To track how the Capitol expanded as our nation expanded? To realize that so much of what has affected our nation was debated and decided here? These are not movie sets. This is where it really happened, where political divisions led to a Civil War, where democracy has struggled to survive.
And now, as the character and composition of our government follows its zig-zag democratic path and changes over once again, we are also approaching the four-year anniversary of another historic event. And as you walk through the Capitol and encounter reminders of history from one or two centuries ago … you also see that stairway, that hall, those window panes that you might well remember from urgently streamed videos in a bitter January.
And these memories, too, are likely to stir emotions.
Tour or no tour?
The question is not whether to take a guided tour of the Capitol (we, as visitors, cannot just meander around the building, ducking into any open door we see); the question is whether to pay. Multiple tour companies advertise that their tours will be more personal, require fewer lines, and simply give you a better experience.
Not true. This is your Capitol, maintained with your taxes, which pay for many things, including excellent tours.
The best tours are free and available by signing up through visitthecapitol.gov.
The site will reserve a tour timeslot under an experienced, knowledgeable, red-coated, official Capitol tour guide. On these official tours, you also receive headphones with a direct connection to
your guide’s live commentary. In the towering, echoing, noisy spaces, you don’t have to strain to hear your guide. Meanwhile, many of the commercial tour guides are yelling to be heard over the din.
In addition to the general tour, there are also free specialty tours, limited to 15 people. These cannot be booked in advance, but their times and themes are listed online. Recent themes and schedules include Monday–Friday: Halls of the Senate (the art of Constantine Brumidi); Votes for Women; Indigenous People in Capitol Art; Heroes of Civil Rights; Outdoor Tour of the Capitol (Monday–Saturday, architecture and arboretum.)
It is not possible to do all of the official themed tours in one day, but you could, with planning and luck, manage them all in two or three days. Even if you have to choose only one, it will be outstanding.
Planning it out
Thousands of visitors enter the Capitol most every day (except Sundays), and all enter through the Capitol Visitor Center on the east side of the massive building.
After lining up and passing through security, you can join a tour, which usually opens with a film orientation. Visitors then break into smaller groups for the walking tours that include the Crypt, the National Statuary Hall and the rotunda.
The current Visitor Center is a gem and has greatly improved the tourist experience. Construction started in 2002 (with much excavation, as it’s totally underground), and it opened in December 2008.
There is usually a morning rush into the Capitol, so it makes sense to book your tour in the afternoon. Arrive early, go immediately to the Info Desks and sign up for 1-2 Specialty Tours. Then take time to explore the Exhibition Hall and eat in the cafeteria.
To visit the chambers of the House of Representatives or Senate, visitors must have special passes that are distributed by your senator or representative. The Capitol website provides lists and contact info. You can go in person when you get to D.C., but contacting the offices in advance is recommend.
You can also walk an underground tunnel to the Library of Congress (open Tuesday–Saturday, 10–5), where there are multiple exhibits on diverse interests. Free timed-entry tickets for the library are available at loc.gov/visit, which also has guidance on planning a visit, all of the exhibits and special events.
The statues I did not expect to be so fascinated by the statues in the Capitol, but their presence and histories are mesmerizing. Each state can donate and display two statues. There are thirty-five in Statuary Hall, with more in the Crypt, Hall of Columns and the Capitol Visitor Center.
In 2000, Congress amended a law to allow states to replace their statues. Kansas was the first to do so, replacing George Washington Glick (from 1914) with Dwight Eisenhower in 2003. Then, in 2022, Kansas became the first state to replace both original statues when Amelia Earhart replaced John James Ingalls (from 1905).
Until the amendment in 2000, the statue collection was very white and male-dominated. It still is.
Black Americans are represented by two statues and two busts. Native Americans are represented by six statues; that count includes Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders. Latino Americans are represented in two statues. And Asian Americans remain unrepresented by statues, though there are some portraits.
Getting to the Capitol and getting around
Parking in Washington D.C. can be both challenging and expensive. It is far better to take the Metro, the city’s underground transport system. Exit at the Capitol South stop and walk two blocks to the Capitol Visitor Entrances. The Metro is clean, quiet, fast and affordable. Look into multi-day passes vs. individual rides. Rates drop significantly on weekends and evenings.
To get around, I recommend taking a step back in technology and abandoning your phone’s GPS. Instead, purchase a MallSmart 2024 laminated, foldable city map for under $10. It identifies the museums, monuments, neighborhoods and the Metro system stops. The map was very helpful, especially in locating the nearest Metro in a pouring rain. (I’m a serious fan of lamination.) It was also helpful in visualizing all the Smithsonian Museums, and strategically planning where to go next for the day.
But the composition of the statues is evolving, finally becoming more ethnically and racially representative of the nation. Nebraska presented Chief Standing Bear in 2019 and Willa Cather in 2023. Florida replaced a Confederate general with Dr. Mary McLoud Bethune in 2022, the first Black American in the National Statuary Hall collection. Arkansas just replaced its two statues in 2024, sending in civil rights activist Daisy Bates and the Capitol’s first musician-statue, Johnny Cash.
Exhibition Hall
A plaster model of the Statue of Freedom, the bronze figure on the top of the Capitol, greets visitors at the entrance to Exhibition Hall, an area well worth exploring.
The hall’s exhibits cover history and architecture, as well as the protocols of government, such as interactive exhibits on how to get a bill passed into a law or what Washington D.C. looked like when it was first chosen as the nation’s capital, and how the city grew, decade by decade, stone by stone.
Go slow. Watch the short films. Take it all in. Listen and learn.
The legacy of January 6
Pictures and video from January 6, 2020, show thousands of people chanting, pumping their fists, toppling barricades, attacking Capitol Police, climbing, pushing and storming up the west side of the Capitol, which faces the National Mall, where there are no public entrances. The east side of the building was also stormed, doors and windows smashed.
But no one entered through the underground visitor entrances.
On that day, the U.S. Capitol was closed to tourists, though who came inside depends on who you ask.
Donald Trump has referred to those who invaded the Capitol as “patriots” and those who have pled guilty to, or been convicted of, crimes, as “hostages.” Rep. Paul Goser of Arizona described those who entered as “peaceful patriots.” Rep. Andrew Clyde of Georgia opted for a “normal tourist visit.”
However they are called, they are in a minority for the simple fact that they came inside. Of the more than 330 million U.S. citizens, a majority of people have never visited the U.S. Capitol.
For many citizens, watching the endlessly recycled TV reels of January 6 was the first time they’d seen such extensive coverage of the interior beyond the two halls of Congress—the statuary, the marble halls, the massive murals and paintings, the sheer majesty of the rotunda.
While taking one of the free special tours of the Capitol, I turned a corner and abruptly faced a staircase that elicited intense déjà vu. I knew this staircase—as I imagine you do as well. We saw it over and over and over. We’ve seen these halls, down to the beautiful and intricate floor tiles, but crowded with people chanting and pushing and then fighting. When you walk in the actual halls, sit in the galleries of the House and Senate, what happened on January 6 becomes more personal and—for me—more frightening.
When I returned home to Lawrence, I pulled up news clips of the January 6 footage to rewatch the crowds swarming into the Capitol. There were the Proud Boy and Oath Keeper types, moving quickly as if on a mission.
But then there were others behind them. And while they, too, seemed to have a set political goal, I noticed for the first time how many of them, upon entering the Rotunda, could not help but stop and look up, and up again, taking in the interior of the dome, the massive canvases … the sheer majesty of the building. Some were jostled as others rushed past, and some continued to gawk, to stare and pull out their phones to video the area around them.
I like to think that in the midst of all that aggression and political mayhem, many were still struck by awe.
As I watched them, I realized that going to the Capitol felt like a pilgrimage. Perhaps it always has in some way. But now it feels like seeing a sacred site that has been desecrated but survived. And hopefully continues to do so.
Fast and Faster
During Ramadan, competitive athletes across Lawrence will intensify their routines with the spiritual and physical challenge of fasting
Story by Aminah Syed
Photography by Fally Afani and Jason Dailey
Toward the end of this winter,
as March begins, Muslims in Lawrence join faithful around the world in observing the holy month of Ramadan. During this period, many believers will focus on the five daily prayers, charity donations, readings and recitals of the Quran, as well as the practice of abstaining from all food and water from sunrise to sunset.
While Muslims observe Ramadan, the rest of the community continues its normal routine, so faith must be upheld within the framework of schedules and demands not created with the holy month in mind.
For many Muslim athletes in Lawrence, following their faith means adapting their bodies to train and compete as they observe the fast. They describe this period as a physical demand that deepens spiritual connections.
Yaseen El-Demerdash
Yaseen El-Demerdash spent last Ramadan fasting while training for swimming competitions at the 2024 Paralympics in Paris.
The 21-year-old University of Kansas engineering senior has been swimming competitively since he was 7 and fasting for Ramadan since he was about 11. During those years, when the competitive stakes were not as high, he was able to focus on developing a routine for training during Ramadan.
“When I was younger,” he says, “I fasted through everything just because performance didn’t really matter as long as I was healthy.”
In those early years, El-Demerdash would train in the evening before he broke his fast. Now, he trains in the morning after he starts his fast. He is intentional about the food he eats before he starts his fast and ensures he is hydrated before starting the day.
When he breaks his fast, El-Demerdash maintains constant hydration throughout the night.
During competitions, he tends to fast from food but hydrate with electrolytes.
As he has gotten older, El-Demerdash says that fasting while training has been a rewarding challenge. As he has learned how to adapt, whether in his training schedule, sleep patterns or his diet, he says the spiritual connection he gains through Ramadan is worthwhile.
“The betterment of my Deen [faith] and me as a Muslim and my connection with Allah far outweigh any physical detriment,” he says. “It’s just a thing that I have to deal with, and I have to adapt.”
El-Demerdash has Poland syndrome, a birth defect that causes deformities of muscles and bones. As a youth, he competed exclusively in mainstream divisions, and he continues to compete in these classes but has also added para-divisions since high school.
“I’m missing my right pec and a couple parts of my right hand,” he explains. “I didn’t identify as a person with a disability until I joined Paralympics, which was junior, senior year of high school, and I still don’t really view it as something that holds me back. It’s just something that makes me unique.”
El-Demerdash won four gold medals at the 2023 Parapan American Games and a gold medal at the 2024 CITI Para Swimming World Series. In the 2024 Paris Paralympics, El-Demerdash’s relay team placed sixth, and he took 9th, 10th, and 12th in three individual events.
El-Demerdash continues training for future competitions and says fasting has changed his perspective on sport, helping him reframe the challenges of swimming and training.
“When you approach activities and challenges with the mindset of ‘it’s a challenge, but it’s made to be overcome,’ it makes a lot of things easier. When I’m approaching swimming, and I’m approaching my goals, I recognize that it’s a challenge that Allah has given me.”
Zeina Ahmed is a sophomore honors student at the University of Kansas who began swimming when she was 3 and competing when she was 8. She started fasting during Ramadan when she
Ahmed now swims with the KU Swim Club, competing against similar clubs from different universities. In 2024, Ahmed’s club competitions did not overlap Ramadan, but she
“I was scared at first. I thought it would be really hard,” she says of learning to combine faith and sports. “I thought that I wouldn’t be able to keep up with the rest of my teammates, that I’d not be able to finish the workouts, and that my speed would plummet.”
Ahmed adjusts her schedule and what she eats during Ramadan. She moves her training to the hours just before she breaks her fast. At sundown, when she can eat and drink, she prioritizes hydration. When she eats, she focuses on protein and traditional quick-acting foods, such as dates.
She keeps the dates in her car, ready to eat as soon as the fast ends for the day, and she prepares food in advance of her practice, so that it is waiting for her as soon as she returns to her dorm.
Ahmed says that swimming and fasting have improved her faith and connection to Islam.
“Obviously, some days I’m so tired. I’m so hungry, I don’t want to go,” she says. “I had one day where I was literally not back at my dorm [all day]. I was outside from the morning till after practice. It was so tough.”
When she perseveres on days like this, Ahmed feels rewarded. “The fact that I did that while fasting made me proud of myself, and it proved to me that I really can do hard things,” she says.
“It does take a lot of patience because maybe your performance won’t be as good at first,” she adds. “But after you get in that rhythm, you’ll start to realize that it can be done and that it might actually benefit you in the end.”
Haris Ahad
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Haris Ahad practices jujitsu and bodybuilding while studying as a University of Kansas sophomore.
He continues practicing his sports when he fasts during Ramadan and says he feels a significant difference, particularly with bodybuilding.
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“I’m depleted of carbohydrates and glycogen while I’m training. It’s a lot more difficult for me to have proper force output,” he says. “The amount of weight I’m lifting is going down and corresponds to the feeling of me being more winded.”
But Ahad, who has fasted and trained since he was 13, says the combination allows him to improve his faith and strengthen his motivation.
“It makes me a lot more appreciative for the food and the water,” Ahad says. “It puts me in a situation where I realize that there are a lot of people on this planet who don’t have the same access to the food and the water that I have.”
Ahad monitors his food and water intake year-round because of his sports, and this attention to his diet becomes more
important when he fasts. He also adjusts his training time so that his workouts come just before he breaks his fast, and he can ensure proper muscle recovery.
Ahad says exhaustion is his primary challenge during Ramadan. As his body adjusts to new routines, it’s difficult to get the proper energy needed to keep up with training, classes and other extracurricular activities.
“There’s a very unique level of out of breath that you get when you’re training, like when you’re going upstairs or any kind of running around or sprinting,” he says. “It takes a lot more energy out of you. It takes a lot more time to regain that energy back.”
But Ahad believes that understanding and accepting these physical changes become part of the fasting process, which becomes easier as the holy month comes toward an end.
“You have to realize that you’re going to get weaker,” he says. “But, if you come to terms with that and begin to mature and manage your time and schedule, your training and eating, then it’ll become easier.”
Aliyah Kyle
Lawrence High School junior Aliya Kyle has been fasting during Ramadan for the past four years and competing on her school’s track team for the past two years.
Because Ramadan came slightly later in the calendar in 2023 and 2024, it overlapped with some of the most intense training and competition for track and field.
Kyle says fasting as a competitive athlete is an intense challenge.
“I was extremely nervous. I thought I had to break my fast. But the first day I tried it, it was not bad,” she recalls. “There were hard practice days where I would suffer. I’d have to push myself extra on days of hard practices.”
There were also challenges as a student-athlete. Kyle says she had to learn to communicate with her coaches and teachers.
“I’ve seen my grades drop during Ramadan because it’s just so much. Fasting, and then keeping your grades on track, and then doing track—it’s a lot,” she says. “My trust in Allah plays a big role. I think about it, and [I think], ‘Well, Allah will be proud of you.’”
Kyle says the past two years have deepened her faith and taught her, among other lessons, how the body can be sustained for long periods with only a little nourishment.
“I had this little thing that my sisters have noticed during Ramadan is like how we fast 13 hours, 16 hours and then in 10 minutes, we’re full. That just shows how much patience is worth,” Kyle notes. “Anything is possible, especially since it’s in Allah’s hands.
While school systems can accommodate religious practices, the University of Kansas, Lawrence Public Schools, and the athletic divisions in which they compete have no official accommodations for athletes or competitions during Ramadan.
The University of Kansas Athletics Department and the NCAA have no information online about religious accommodations or exemptions for those who are fasting. KU Athletics did not respond to questions about religious accommodations or plans to implement them.
The Kansas State High School Activities Association also does not provide official accommodations for Muslim students. Absent any official policy, the organization passes on the responsibility to individual schools.
“There are many faiths and beliefs in our state, and we respect each individual, but it would not be possible to accommodate all within the competition,” says Jeremy Holaday, the assistant director for the Kansas State High School Activities Association. “We trust that our member schools would do what is best for all their student-athletes, both during school and competition.”
In Lawrence, high school coaches are made aware of different practices.
“The high school athletic directors make their coaches aware of Ramadan and what the holy month entails for Muslim students,” writes Julie Boyle, the executive director of communications for Lawrence Public Schools. “They make sure that Muslim students do not lose opportunities due to excused absences from school, practice, or athletic contests due to observing Ramadan.”
Although coaches can accommodate athletes’ needs in their own programs, they cannot control when competitions are scheduled with other schools.
American athletes of other faiths have faced similar difficulties. For example, in 2022, a basketball team from the Oakwood Academy, a Seventh-Day Adventist high school in Alabama, was forced to forfeit a regional semifinal match because officials refused to adjust the Saturday game time. The Seventh-Day Adventist Church, a Protestant Christian denomination, believes the Sabbath, which it observes from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday, must be a day of rest and religious observance. The Oakwood Academy filed a lawsuit and eventually won a concession from the state’s high school athletic association.
Because Ramadan’s dates are based on the Muslim lunar calender, which is about 11 days shorter than the solar calendar, the holy month begins about 11 days earlier each year of the Gregorian calendar.
That means that Ramadan gradually shifts from one sporting season to the other. For example, in 2000, Ramadan began in late November, affecting winter sports. In 2010, it began in mid-August, affecting summer sports. Now with it beginning in March, it will affect spring sports the most.
When Ramadan falls during the academic year, then fasting during Ramadan can be particularly problematic for university athletes. For example, any KU student on the school’s dining plan must schedule their training so they can break their fast before most dining halls close at 8 p.m.
University of Kansas student and athlete Haris Ahad says that although KU does not offer official accommodations, many of his extracurriculars accommodate the times he has to leave or allow him to bring food so he can break his fast on time.
For KU student and Paralympian Yaseen El-Demerdash—and many other athletes—fasting and competing during Ramadan present logistical and physical hurdles to overcome.
“You have to make adaptations if you’re motivated and you want to accomplish your goals; it’s just another thing you’re going to have to work into your training,” El-Demerdash says. “Don’t ever use it as an excuse. Fasting is a privilege and fasting for Ramadan should never be an excuse for why you’re not performing as well. Obviously, it has its effects, but don’t give yourself the easy way out.”
Accommodations
Festival of Trees
November 29–December 8 oconnellchildrensshelter.org/festival-of-trees
View decorated trees, wreaths, and gingerbread houses—from classic to quirky—at this holiday event that benefits O’Connell Children’s Shelter.
Adornment
November 30–December various dates van-go.org
Award-winning youth arts program opens its holiday market of original, creative holiday gifts at affordable prices.
Cirque Musica Holiday Wonderland
December 4 | lied.ku.edu
A combination performance of circus acrobatics and holiday music arrives at the Lied Center.
Cottin’s Hardware Farmers Market
December 5–February 27 cottinshardware.com/farmers-market
Every Thursday, this indoor farmers market offers fresh local produce, eggs, meats, and jams.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
December 6–22 (various dates) theatrelawrence.com
Theatre Lawrence presents the family musical retelling of Ronald Dahl’s classic 1964 children’s novel.
Bird Watching at Loess Bluffs
National Wildlife Refuge
December 7 | lawrencebirdalliance.org
The Lawrence Bird Alliance hosts a carpool trip and guided excursion along the 10-mile observation loop at this sanctuary. Trumpeter swans, bald eagles, grebes, and many more species are expected to be seen.
Lawrence Old-Fashioned
Christmas Parade
December 7 | lawrencechristmasparade.org
Authentic horse-drawn wagons and carriages make their way through downtown Lawrence at this popular event.
Tails
and Traditions: Family Festival
December 7 | watkinsmuseum.org
Hobby horses and scavenger hunts take center stage at the Watkins Museum-hosted holiday crafts festival.
Holiday Vespers:
100th Anniversary Concert
December 8 | music.ku.eduand lied.ku.edu
A beloved KU and Lawrence tradition marks a centennial celebration with a special performance including two world premieres. The KU Symphony Orchestra will present Holiday Vespers Overture, op. 173 by faculty emeritus James Barnes, a composition specially created for this evening. Also premiering is I Only Want to Say (Blessings for the New Year) by current faculty member Forrest Pierce, written for choir and 4-hand piano, and commissioned by the KU School of Music to mark this historic event. Additionally, Vespers will feature appearances by the Lawrence Children’s Choir, the KU Trumpet Ensemble, and the KU Alumni Choir, with many members traveling to Lawrence for the special occasion.
Jazz Vespers
December 11 | music.ku.eduandlied.ku.edu
This year’s annual Jazz Vespers features performances of holiday favorites by the KU Jazz Ensemble I and featured guest artists.
The Nutcracker: A Kansas Ballet
December 13–15 | lawrenceartscenter.org
The Lawrence Arts Center presents its annual retelling of a winter family favorite.
winter 2024
Native Fashion Runway Show
December 14 | spencerart.ku.edu
Local and national Indigenous designers showcase their fashions on the runway at the Spencer Museum of Art.
Lawrence Christmas Bird Count
December 14 | lawrencebirdalliance.org
Join volunteers in helping carry out the annual census of Lawrence’s bird population.
Contra
Dance
December 14 | lawrencebarndance.org
The Lost Keys and caller Lisa Harris-Frydman lead an evening of all-age dances at Woodlawn Elementary. Beginner pre-dance lessons begins at 7 p.m.
Holiday Art Show
December 14–15 | lawrenceartguild.org
Members of the Lawrence Art Guild present a gallery of works, including holiday-themed items, at the Cider Gallery.
Lawrence Wedding Expo
December 15 | union.ku.edu
Meet wedding vendors from the surrounding area, presented by the University of Kansas Memorial Union.
Final Fridays
December 27 | explorelawrence.com
This Friday (and the last Friday of every month), Lawrence galleries, studios, and businesses open their doors for an evening of art showings and arthosted events throughout the city’s Downtown and Arts District.
Resolutions
January 11 | lawrenceorchestra.org
The Lawrence Community Orchestra celebrates the new year with a concert featuring contemporary works.
Crys Matthews
January 16 | lied.ku.edu
A powerful lyricist and social justice leader performs at the Lied Center.
Native Gardens
January 17–19, 23–26 | theatrelawrence.com
Theatre Lawrence presents a comedy drama that opens with a neighborly dispute and spirals into a war on class and privilege.
Braxton Keith
January 23 | libertyhall.net
The rising country songwriter performers at Liberty Hall.
Kaw Valley Seed Fair
February 1 | explorelawrence.com
The annual seed fair, hosted at Douglas County Fairgrounds, features seed exchanges, local vendors, and guest speakers.
Sunday in the Park with George February 7–9 | theatrelawrence.com
Theatre Lawrence presents a musical concert inspired by George Seurat’s painting “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island La Grande Jatte” with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim.
St. Patrick’s Day Bowling Tournament
February 8 | lawrencestpatricksdayparade.com
One of several charity events leading up to the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, this benefit supports 100 Good Women, ECM Community Center, and Theatre Lawrence.
Pretty Woman: The Musical
February 10 | lied.ku.edu
The Lied Center presents a musical based on the popular 1990 romantic film of the same name.
Myles Kennedy
February 11 | libertyhall.net
Rock singer, guitarist, and songwriter performs at Liberty Hall.
Lisa Damour
February 12 | hallcenter.ku.edu
Psychologist and author gives this year’s Emily Taylor and Marilyn Stokstad Women’s Leadership Lecture, “Gender and the Speech Police,” hosted by the Hall Center for the Humanities.
The Simon & Garfunkel Story
February 16 | lied.ku.edu
Chronicling the journey shared by folk-rock duo Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel, this concert-style theater show returns to the Lied Center.
Carnival Latino en Lawrence February 17 | lucialawrence.com
Salsa orchestra Mundo Nouvo headlines this dance party hosted by Lucia.
Bold Women
February 18 | spencerart.ku.edu
Spencer Museum of Art opens a new exhibit that portrays the visionary work of women and gender-nonconforming artists.
Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock Live February 20 | lied.ku.edu
Was not the world waiting for Jim Henson’s dancing, singing puppet troupe to appear on stage?
