The Pitch: May Summer Guide 2024

Play it cool: Ten spots with speakeasy vibes in Kansas City Everyone is always looking for that new hip spot in town. Whether it be a big venue where large gatherings occur, or hole-in-thewall type restaurants or boutiques, there is something for all in this wonderful city. For now, we highlight the not-so-common ‘speakeasy’ spots around town. Our Food Editor Sarah Sipple took some time to get familiar with a few establishments around the area that we would consider to have speakeasy vibes. These places are cool, comforting, and relaxing venues that can help you escape from the tensions and stress of the everyday grind. P.S. Speakeasy, Clandestino, Le Lounge, Lonnie’s Reno Club, Tom’s Town, Swordfish Tom’s, Hey! Hey! Club, Nighthawk, The W, and Panther’s Place are the spotlight of heading down this unbeaten path.

Tintoretta Tattoo provides safe haven for LGBTQ+ ink

For those looking for a safe and comforting experience while placing some permanent paint, Tintoretta Tattoo is the place to go. Formerly a Crossroads native, those at Tintoretta Tattoo have now moved to the Westside neighborhood. Priding themselves on being an all-inclusive and welcoming space, those within the LGBTQ+ community, or anyone looking to put some art on their skin, should look no further than their studio space. Artists Ana, Cat, Kane, Minh-Tu, and Theo occupy the space, providing the community with a comforting and cozy spot to plop some ink. As they get going in their newly found journey in the Westside neighborhood, they are more than open to donations from those willing to help them keep the lights on. Tintoretta Tattoo is located at 1017 W 29th St and recently hosted an open house to spread the word.

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Float Like a Butterfly, Sting Like KC Pickleball’s ruse in the metro sparks unexpected setbacks BY Gabriel Flynn

Pit Plunging The Rabbit hOle brings youth literature to (larger than) life in the Northland

Jill “Sixx” Gevargizian on the sounds (and soundtrack) of her new film Ghost Game

In April, Jill “Sixx” Gevargizian debuted her latest feature film Ghost Game at the award-winning genre festival Panic Fest at Screenland Armour Theatre. Ghost Game is a gritty turn from the neon imagery of Gevargizian’s last movie—2020’s The Stylist—but all the hallmarks of the director’s work, such as nuanced examinations of personal relationships and a spiral downward, are here in full effect. Her screening at the North Kansas City venue was sold out, as many anticipated the arrival of the film. Prior to her showing, we got the chance to speak with Gevargizian about the film itself, as well as her experiences during her time working in the industry. She dives into the behind the scenes decisions of transcending audio into the visual aspects of her feature.

Too Hawt to Handle Bayesian Hot Sauce is using AI to tweak the heat in four futuristic flavors

27

Mise en Place

Alan Kneeland is “bigger than the challenges” facing KC restaurants BY SARAH

SIPPLE

28

MUSIC

Strange Symphony

Tech N9ne goes high-brow with KC’s strongest strings BY NICK SPACEK

30

FILM

Pull some strings

34

KC CaRES

Sewing Solidarity

Pioneer Women Quilting serves comfort to the Leavenworth community

BY BETH LIPOFF

Drink

Simple Mischief Studio’s married puppeteers helped bring IF’s fantastical creatures to life BY

ABBY OLCESE

32

aDVICE

Keep Them Coming DIY during International Masturbation Month.

BY KRISTEN THOMAS

Photo by Sarah Sipple

Photo by Zoe Strohm

Courtesy Gevargizian

Letter from the Editor

HEAT VISION

By Brock Wilbur

Welcome, dear reader, to the annual Summer Guide Issue of The Pitch. This year, as every year, we’re here to give you the jump on how to beat the heat… by spending as much time in the sun as possible…? Hm, that can’t be right. Will circle back on that.

We do have a thick issue here, full of a few hundred of the most exciting events swinging through the extended metro area between now and September. Or whenever it is that summer decides to end. Spring has pulled its traditional near-non-existence, while winter made a last gasp effort in April, that then bled all over the start of tornado season. Hopefully with its temper tantrum out of the way, we’ll have a nice miserably humid, scorching hot couple of months. Y’know, normal midwest summer—a cruel summer that we’ve all adapted to thrive in (or against).

In putting together this issue’s diverse set of stories, we wanted to look at people and activities that are actively pushing themselves to tackle physically challenging situations, Herculean efforts, and (in one case) the devilish decision to create a devastating hot sauce line using digital dissemination. For those of us stuck behind a laptop each day at work, and gazing endlessly into the void of our phones in the evening, we found it energizing to just dip our sedentary toes into the worlds of local folks who are finding their happiest selves by sweating it all out.

These narratives gave me a kick in the pants that threw me back to my early school years; A time when the shift from 9 months of education to 3 months of adventure was a sudden, shocking inversion of my entire existence.

I was always an ‘inside kid’ at heart, but unfortunately paired with a body that the ‘outside kids’ really needed on their sports teams. [It’s hard to lock yourself away from the world to play Command & Conquer on your PC when you’re 6’7” in the 4th Grade. Turns out a lot of basketball coaches in central Kansas will simply, not let you go to waste.]

My competitive summers grew more intense in middle school and high school. Anyone who played football can probably remember that switch-over, when summer no longer meant total freedom, and instead meant three-a-day practices, drenched in sweat, broken down, and harboring a near homicidal inclination towards your coach’s

whistle.

As much as I did love the whole pantheon of in-your-face ball toss-about events with my friends, I do remember the brutality of practice combined with hours spent at a part-time job, and how it gave me a new perspective: I, for the first time, really missed school. Classrooms with A.C. and learning songs for a musical and generally fuckin-about on the early internet.

That summer heat, that flip of your world, is still what makes the season so important to me. My entire life doesn’t change, but even encroaching on 40 years old it still serves as smashing a reset button, and tweaking the way I look at my life, my world, and what brings me joy.

Just ahead of this Summer Issue going to press, the US Dept. of State brought a cadre of journalists to The Pitch offices. This delegation of investigative reporters came from places like Croatia, Albania, Ghana, Uganda, Sri Lanka, Saudi Arabia, and more. They spent the day with us, learning all about how we handle journalism, reporting, ethics, advertising, and giving back to our community. I’d be lying if I didn’t admit it was a huge honor to be considered an outlet worth traveling the world to pick our brains.

As we moved into taking questions from the foreign correspondents, their reactions to the situations we face here were distressingly familiar, from how bad things can get in their home countries, to shock regarding the uphill battles that we, as a

city and a country, are currently up against. Concepts like the recent stadium tax debate, the reasons why KC doesn’t have local control over their own police department. or how we exist between two states with wildly different laws—There was just a laundry list of conflicts from where we live that seemed incomprehensible to some of these seasoned journalists, and that includes a few who cover wars or live in countries we’d probably classify as “oppressive regimes.”

On their way out the door, we snapped a group photo, and then the entire team descended on our piles of recent Pitch magazines, grabbing dozens to take home with them. I won’t forget that moment anytime soon. They were so fascinated by how we write, how we sweat it out to get the stories we get, and the entire experience left us energized. Our summer started with a jarring moment that reminded us of what a small perspective shift can do to reorient your entire life and its purpose.

We’re excited to get back out there and push ourselves in the journalistic equivalent of two-a-day, to fight, to go harder and stronger against whatever heat we face. Here’s hoping that this issue spreads some magic dust rededication into your world.

Pitch in, and we’ll make it through,

Help support The Pitch’s local journalism with a donation today! the-pitch-kc-llc.fundjournalism.org/membership

Courtesy U.S. State Department

Sweat it Out

Sweat it Out

Juneteenth

May 18

3rd annual Miss JuneteenthKC Pageant, Gem Theater

JUNE 5-26

2nd annual Juneteenth Film Festival, Screenland Armour Theatre

JUNE 1

Juneteenth KC Cultural parade, begins at Benton Plaza

JUNE 7

Juneteenth KC First Friday Celebration, 18th and Vine

JUNE 8

Juneteenth Jazz & Blues Festival for Bennecker School Restoration, English Landing Park

JUNE 8

Juneteenth at the Johnson County arts & Heritage Center, Johnson County Arts & Heritage Center

JUNE 15

Juneteenth KC Heritage Festival, 18th & Vine

JUNE 15

Juneteenth Twilight Parade & Festival, Haymarket Square

JUNE 15

5th annual Peace March & Rally: a Juneteenth Celebration!, Thompson Park

JUNE 19

Juneteenth History Drop-In, John Wornall House

JUNE 22

Juneteenth Celebration, 4142 Main St.

Pride

May 11

Queer Bar Takeover, Location TBD

May 11-12

Missouri Gay Rodeo, Hale Arena

The Pitch’s Summer Guide To Greet The Heat 2024

The SummerPitch’sGuide To Greet The Heat 2024

By: Joe Ellett, Gabriel Flynn, Maddie McBratney, Brock Wilbur

JUNE 1

Lawrence Pride, Downtown Lawrence

JUNE 1

KC Royals Pride Night, Kauffman Stadium

JUNE 6

Paws and Pride Drag Show, Bar K

JUNE 7-9

KC Pridefest, Theis Park

JUNE 8

KC Pride Parade, Westport Road to Theis Park

JUNE 14

KC Current Pride Night, CPKC Stadium

JUNE 22

The Official Pride Bar Crawl, Howl at the Moon Kansas City

Fourth of July

JULy 4

Stars and Stripes Picnic, National WWI Museum and Memorial

Liberty 4th Fest, Capitol Federal Sports Complex of Liberty

Miller Lite Hot Country Nights: Tyler Booth, KC Live!

Ward Parkway Four on the Fourth, Ward Parkway

Red, White, & Blue Springs, Blue Springs South High School

July 4th Fireworks, College Boulevard

Activity Center Olathe

Platte City 4th of July, Platter City

Independence Day, Baldwin City Golf Course

Community Days Parade, Lenexa Smithville Fireworks Show, Smith’s Fork Park

Overland Park Star-Spangled Spectacular, Corporate Woods Office

Founders’ Park

Flags 4 Freedom Concert, Merriam Mrketplace

CarrollTON’s of Fun Day, Carrollton Recreation Park

4th of July Celebration & Bike Parade, Deanna Rose Children’s Farmstead Independence Day at Missouri Town, Missouri Town Living History Museum De Soto Celebration, Riverfest Park

Photo by Rebecca Rivas

Photo Courtesy of KCPP

“A must-see event”

“Epic” “Dazzles with intelligence and humor”

“Riveting”

(Praise for the Broadway Production Winner of the 2022 Tony Award® for Best Play)

SUMMER 2024

MAY 22 - JUNE 9

THE LEHMAN TRILOGY

BY STEFANO MASSINI ADAPTED BY BEN POWER

August 7 - 25

Stages

May 1

Tina Friml, Comedy Club KC

May 2

Greta Van Fleet, T-Mobile Center

Cledus T Judd, Comedy Club KC

May 4

Whiskey Myers w/ Lukas Nelson + POTR and Reid Haughton, Hartman Arena, Wichita

Tech N9ne w/ The Kansas City Symphony, Midland Theatre

May 8

Danny Lapriore, Comedy Club KC

May 9

ashley McBryde, Uptown Theater

Death Cab for Cutie w/ Postal Service, T-Mobile Center

Swans, recordBar

Steve Poltz, Lawrence Arts Center

May 10

NF, T-Mobile Center

Better than Ezra, Uptown Theater

May 11

Levee Town, Downtown Raytown Greenspace

John R. Miller, The Bottleneck

May 14

Cake, Grinders

May 17

John Garcia, Liberty Hall

Umphrey’s McGee, Grinders

May 17-19

Kansas City Symphony Presents SciFi Spectacular, Kauffman Center for Performing Arts

May 18

Kelce Jam, Azura Amphitheater

Maddie Zahm, Madrid Theatre

May 23

Bleachers, Grinders

May 26

Pete Davidson, Uptown Theater

May 31-JUNE 2

Margaret Cho, Comedy Club KC

Joshua Bell & Ravel, Kauffman Center for Performing Arts

JUNE 2

Not Just a “Phase” Fest, Legends Field

JUNE 5

James Taylor, Starlight Theatre

Noah Kahan, Azura Amphitheater

JUNE 6

Lionel Richie w/ Earth Wind and Fire, T-Mobile Center

Greensky Bluegrass, Grinders

amber autry, Comedy Club KC an Evening with yo-yo Ma, Kauffman Center for Performing Arts

JUNE 7

Tom Segura, Starlight Theatre

Death to all, The Granada

JUNE 8

Tim McGraw, T-Mobile Center

Brass Rewind, Downtown Raytown Greenspace

JUNE 9

Sarah McLachlan w/ Feist, Starlight Theatre

a Day to Remember, Azura Amphitheater

JUNE 12

Chris Stapleton, T-Mobile Center

JUNE 14-15

Boulevardia, Crown Center

Breakaway Music Festival, Azura Amphitheater

JUNE 14-16

Mahler’s “Resurrection” Symphony, Kauffman Center for Performing Arts

JUNE 21-23

Stern’s Farewell w/ Sibelius & Barber, Kauffman Center for Performing Arts

JUNE 20-22

Ron Funches, Comedy Club KC

JUNE 22

Flatland Cavalry, Grinders

JUNE 24

Mike Campbell & The Dirty Knobs, Kauffman Center for Performing Arts

Pixes, Modest Mouse, & Cat Power, Starlight Theatre

JUNE 25

amos Lee, Uptown Theater

New Kids On The Block, Starlight Theatre

JUNE 26

Little Feat w/ Marc Broussard, Uptown Theater

Menzingers w/ Lucero, Madrid Theatre

JULy 2

JJ Grey & Mofro, Knuckleheads

JULy 12

Wallflowers, Liberty Hall

JULy 13

annaLee & the So & So’s, Downtown Raytown Greenspace

JULy 14

The Beach Boys, Uptown Theater

JULy 15

Barbie: The Movie in Concert, Starlight Theatre

JULy 21

Jason Mraz, Starlight Theatre

JULy 22

Vampire Weekend, Starlight Theatre

Tesla, The Truman

JULy 26

Olivia Rodrigo, T-Mobile Center

JULy 31

The Last Dinner Party, The Truman

Charley Crockett, Midland Theatre

aUG 2 & 3

Chris Redd, Comedy Club KC

aUG 4

Kid Cudi, T-Mobile Center

aUG 8-10

JP Sears, Comedy Club KC

aUG 9

Hozier, Azura Amphitheater

Blink-182, T-Mobile Center

Photo by Chase Castor

found a job Match Sellers

SATURDAYS

MAY – SEPTEMBER ‣ 7 A.M.-1 P.M.

MERRIAM MARKETPLACE

aUG 10

The Vincents, Downtown Raytown Greenspace

aUG 11

Old 97s, Madrid Theatre

aUG 14

Smashing Pumpkins, Starlight Theatre

aUG 15

Luke Bryan, T-Mobile Center

aUG 15-17

Phil Hanley, Comedy Club KC

aUG 16

Turnpike Troubadours w/ Jason Isbell, Azura Amphitheater

aUG 17

The Greeting Committee, Midland Theatre

aUG 20

Green Day w/ Rancid and Linda Lindas, Azura Amphitheater

aUG 21 & 22

Zach Bryan, T-Mobile Center

aUG 25

alan Jackson, T-Mobile Center

Art and Exhibits

May 3-5

Brookside art annual, 63rd and Brookside Boulevard

May 11

Lenexa art Fair, Lenexa Civic Campus

aaNHPI Heritage Festival, Columbus Park

May 18

Playful Printmaking Workshop, Kansas City Artists Coalition

May 20

“Reflections on augusta” with artist

Brent OConnor, The ArtsKC Gallery

May 25

Walk, Ride, Paddle: a Life Outside, Kansas City Public Library-Central

May 28

My Black Country: a Journey Through Country Music’s Black Past, Present, and Future, Kansas City Public LibraryCentral

May 28 - JUNE 2

Summit art Plein air Festival, Stonehaus Farms Vineyard and Winery

May 31

2024 Prairie Village art Show, The Shops of Prairie Village

JUNE 1

art On The Side, 118 North Main Street

Photo by Tarik Sykes

JUNE 7 & 8

arts in the Park, William E. Macken Park 37th annual Sugar Creek Slavic Festival, William Henry Harrison Park

JUNE 9

Future Stages Festival, The Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts

JUNE 21

Make Music Day, Merriam Community Center Courtyard

JUNE 22

Stems: a Garden Soirée, Overland Park Arboretum & Botanical Gardens

JUNE 28

Night at the Museum | Build Better Series, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

JULy 9-14

Disney’s The Little Mermaid, Starlight Theater

For even more summer events (and additional information on some of these), make sure to bookmark and follow The Pitch Calendar!

JULy 10-12

art of the Imagination Summer Camp, National Museum Of Toys And Miniatures

JULy 13

homesick. New paintings & Old Photographs, Alcott Arts Center

JULy 19 & 20

Summer Chill art & Craft Expo, The Pavilion at John Knox Village

JULy 21

KC’s Lawn Party Quick Paint Contest, Theis Park

JULy 27

Chalk Walk, The Concourse Park

JULy 23-28 & 30-31

Moulin Rouge! The Musical, Kansas City Music Hall

Photo by Zach Bauman

JULy 31-aUG 3

Leavenworth County Fair, Leavenworth County Fair

aUG 6-11

Come From away, Starlight Theater

aUG 17 & 18

Kauffman Center Presents with Tobin Entertainment Bluey’s Big Play – The Stage Show, Muriel Kauffman Theatre

Food and Drink

May 3 & 4

KC Feastival, Union Station

May 4

Kansas City Crawfish Festival, St. Pius

X Church

May 6

Stockyards Legends Dinner, The Oliver

Building

May 9

annual Boulevard Brewery Bash, 2534 Madison Ave

May 11

2024 KC Summer Brew Fest, Arrowhead Stadium

Turkic Food and art Festival, Dialogue Institute of Kansas City

May 18

Paint & Sip art Class - Paint your Pet, Happy Trees Painting

May 18

Turkey Creek Festival, Merriam Marketplace

May 25

Dino & Vino, KC Pumpkin Patch

May 31-JUNE 2

Festa Italiana 2024, Zona Rosa

JUNE 1

Tacos and Tequila Festival, Legends Field

JUNE 1

Vaile Mansion Strawberry Festival, 1500 N. Liberty Street

JUNE 7

Wine, Brew, & Spirits Too, Independence Square

JUNE 14-15

Boulevardia Taps & Taste, Crown Center

JUNE 15

8th annual Lavender Festival and Craft Show, Gertie’s Lavender Farm

JUNE 21 aND 22

Great Lenexa BBQ Battle, Sar-Ko-Par Trails Park

JUNE 22

Sip and Shop, KC Wine Co.

The Flavors of Central Tour, Bethany Park

JUNE 23 & 24

The Q BBQ Fest, GEHA Field

JULy 4

Stars and Stripes Picnic, The National WW1 Museum and Memorial

JULy 13

Legends of Whiskey Summer Festival, Children’s Mercy Park

JULy 14

Cardboard Boat Regatta, Merriam Community Center

Photo by Zach Bauman

For even more summer events (and additional information on some of these), make sure to bookmark and follow The Pitch Calendar!

JULy 15-22

The Pitch Burger Week, Kansas City Metro

aUG 3

2024 KC Brew Fest, Union Station

aUG 3

Heart of america Hot Dog Festival, Negro Leagues Baseball Museum

aUG 16

The Pitch Margarita Experience, The Guild

aUG 30-SEP 1

Kansas City Irish Fest, Crown Center

Wellness

May 4

Mural Urban Hike with artist Femm 9, Union Station

May 5

Pickleball for Pets Tournament, Chicken N Pickle Overland Park

May 10

GEHa Field at arrowhead 5K, Arrowhead Stadium

May 11

Coffee and Chill KC, Chiropractic House, College Boulevard

May 12

Strawberry Hill & Downtown KCK Urban Hike, Strawberry Hill

May 16-19

The Pitch Scavenger Hunt, mobile

May 18

Sounds of Serenity Sound Bath Meditation, Waldo Thai Massage & Bodywork

May 19

Shawnee Mission Park adventure Race, Shawnee Mission Park

Kansas City History of Transportation Hike, Urban Hikes

May 21

Bark at the Park, The Kauffman Stadium

Photo by Zach Bauman

May 27 Going the Distance 5K/10K for the Brain Injury association, Loose Park

May 30 Goat yoga KC, Stonehaus Farms Winery

May 31 Coffee and Chill KC, Chiropractic House, College Boulevard

JUNE 8

Quindaro Ruins Urban Hike, Urban Hikes

JUNE 13

The Pitch Golf Tournament, Painted Hills Golf Course

JUNE 16

Village Shalom Father’s Day 5K/10K, Village Shalom

JUNE 21

KCK Third Fridays Golden Hour Kaw Point Urban Hike, Urban Hikes

JUNE 22

Kansas City Transportation History Hike, Urban Hikes

JUNE 29

Quindaro Ruins Urban Hike, Urban Hikes

JULy 13

KC Wide Open Block Party, Historic Downtown Liberty

JULy 14

Shawnee Mission Triathlon & Duathlon, Shawnee Mission Park

JULy 19

KCK Third Fridays Golden Hour Kaw Point Urban Hike, Urban Hikes

aUGUST

JCPRD’s Regional Pickleball Tournament, New Century Fieldhouse

aUGUST 17

JCPRD Kids Triathlon, Kill Creek Park

Courtesy Photo

The Most Avoided Woman in Boxing

SHAWNEE LOCAL SUMYA ANANI

CONTINUES TO RECEIVE FLOWERS FOR HER HISTORIC CAREER

By Joe Ellett

Ducking, dodging, and weaving: Three skills that will make or break a boxer in the ring. The only way to avoid the inevitable swift jabs and heavy haymakers. This was no problem for four-time World Champion Sumya Anani. But for her female boxing peers, it was—Inside and outside of the arena.

By the early-to-mid-2000s, Anani held a record of over 20 wins, one draw, and one loss in her professional boxing career. She was a cat that girls simply did not want to catch a stray from. With no luck eluding her within the squared circle, boxers took to leaving contracts blank in order to save face, literally. She had become the most avoided woman in women’s boxing.

To think that Anani, or anyone, stepping into the ring on a random day would ultimately lead them to becoming a World Champion in the sport would be foolish, right? Well that is not too far off of how Anani got her foot in the door, or hand in the glove rather.

Back around 1992, Anani was in a gym in Overland Park when a man she had never met before approached her. He said, “You look like you just stepped off the boat from Jamaica. You should do something with those muscles besides just look good, you should box.”

This was the voice of Barry Becker—the man who she would later learn to call coach. At the time, she had never had an interest in boxing, and had never watched a boxing match outside of the action-packed, fan-favorite Rocky movies. It was going to take some time and patience from Becker, to say the least.

“I’m not a boxer, I’m a massage therapist, I’m a healer, I’m a mom,” Anani told Becker.

The Island Girl

Shortly after their first encounter, Anani decided to move to Jamaica, packing up her son and putting about 1,800 miles of flight time between her and her hometown of Shawnee, Kansas.

Anani spent much of her time near the Caribbean meditating and learning to find a sense of self, without electronics bogging her

down with distractions. The open sea and cool breeze were her counterparts, along with her young son Matthew.

On a casual day on the rock in 1996, about four years after her departure, Becker paid her a visit. Wielding a Sports Illustrated magazine, he tossed it in front of her, pointed, and said “You can beat her! I know you can beat her!” ‘Her’ was then 35-1-2 Christy Martin—The face of women’s boxing at the time and one of the only female boxers to ever claim the cover of the male-dominated magazine.

Searching for her why made Anani take a chance on Becker and boxing. She thought that just maybe this could be her calling. “This guy has been bugging me. Maybe God is trying to tell me something through this man, haha,” she says.

So she booked it back to the Midwest just three months later: No money, no car, living with her mother, attempting to support a child, and her first fight just three weeks away for $400.

“So I was 24 years old, picked up a pair of gloves, and fought my first fight three weeks later,” Anani says.

Spoiler alert: Under ring name, ‘The Island Girl,’ she won her debut, launching her into a 16-0 start to her career, claiming one of her most prolific accomplishments within her 13th career bout against Christy Martin.

The Martin Matchup

From the get-go, a fight against boxing’s golden girl was on Becker’s calendar—He just wasn’t sure where to check it off. Anani v. Martin was initially scheduled to be broadcasted on Showtime Championship Boxing in 1998, but politics got in the way.

Just three hours before the match was set to take place, Martin pulled out of the fight, leaving Becker and Anani in a state of frustration and confusion. In the midst of both parties encountering one another at the venue, words were exchanged.

Becker asked Martin if she was going to put on the gloves and step toe-to-toe with

Anani. She responded with, “That’s like calling me a chicken.” Out of pure aggression, Martin rushed Becker, putting her hands on his neck, attempting a chokehold until Vegas security swarmed.

“That’s when I learned what a great trainer I have, because he didn’t knock her into a coma, which he would have if he would have hit her,” Anani says.

After pulling out of the first scheduled bout, Martin and her team were left with two options: Pay Anani outright and forget the fight, or schedule a new match within 30 days. They managed to fit another matchup within the time frame, though the rescheduling shifted what was supposed to be a pay-per-view Showtime event onto a much smaller cable network.

Fueled by Martin’s out-of-ring dance moves to get the fight rescheduled, and the fact that she put her hands on Becker, Anani took the most of her opportunity when she stepped foot against the well-known boxer, defeating her as Becker had prophesied.

“Every place I took her, she was a star. I told her ‘Sumya, you’re going to do this.’ And she did it, it was unbelievable,” Becker says.

Going The Distance

Concluding her professional boxing career with a record of 29-3-1 in 2006—having won titles in three separate weight classes—was nothing short of amazing for a right-handed and southpaw-style boxer who never stepped foot in a ring until 24 years old. But she could have never done it without her persistence, discipline, and amazing team behind her. Along with Becker, strength coach Steve Javorek is another large factor in her success.

“That’s a testimony to my trainer, but that’s also a testimony to my fear. I didn’t shirk on my workouts,” she says.

With her background in meditation and yoga, Anani went about, not only her training, but overall style of fighting and purpose in a completely different fashion than other boxers. She attributes five clusters of thought to

how she perceives life and the art of boxing: Anger, judgment, fear, resentment, and guilt.

“I learned to direct that fear that I had in a positive way in the ring. So that I could focus my mind, not be distracted. That fear propelled me to train. I say this with a real sincerity, I don’t think any female trained as hard as I did, because of that fear,” she says.

“She knew this is not checkers, this is tear the girl’s head off, you have to stop her,” Becker says. “She had the punches and the combinations, she just worked on ‘em, and worked on ‘em, and worked on ‘em. That’s why she was so good, she was a workaholic.”

Since stepping away from the bright lights for the last time, Anani has received a considerable amount of flowers within the boxing community, having been inducted into the Women’s International Boxing Hall of Fame, USA Martial Arts Hall of Fame, and most recently, the National Boxing Hall of Fame.

Inducted alongside the likes of absolute legends within the boxing community, such as Evander Holyfield, Micky Ward, Roy Jones Jr., Barbara Buttrick, and others this past April, Anani was starstruck heading into the event, even with her historic accolades backing her.

“I don’t know if I’m gonna be able to create sentences when I meet them, I’m gonna have to try really hard,” she laughed.

Anani has hung up the gloves, but don’t think that she has become some sort of couch potato since. She now owns and operates an exercise/health business geared toward the youth called Learning2Fly, which is located inside of Sunflower Gyrotonic off Johnson Drive.

She is also currently in the process of opening Chakra Circus—an 8,000 square ft. health center facility, also aimed at children’s health—as well as publishing a children’s book on the subject. Cemented in a career of unleashing pain onto others, now reemerged as the healer she always has been, Anani continues to use her Chakra ideology and perceptions of life in all of her ventures.

Photos Courtesy of Sumya Anani

The Gift of Lift

BREE SHELLEY SAVES YOUR RIDE IN STYLE

By Maddie McBratney

a few years ago, I had the unfortunate pleasure of having to call a tow truck driver when my 2009 acura TSX decided that it was done being a functional car. I knew that it was on the fritz and was likely going to need work done soon, but I wasn’t in a place where I could afford to take it in. When the dashboard lights started going crazy, I knew my luck had run out. Much like a toddler throwing a temper tantrum, my car crossed its arms and refused to move another inch.

When the tow truck arrived, it did not bring a wave of relief in tow. The man who got out to help me was a total stranger, and his vibe was simply off from the start. It’s a

gets the job done fast, efficient, proficient, and you might just be best friends by the time she’s done.”

They understand exactly what Shelley brings to the table.

Blue-collar work was always a part of the plan for our red-headed heroine. She grew up in a small town in Georgia, where she would watch her dad do ironwork on buildings often 18 stories tall. His specific brand of structural engineering wasn’t the right match, but one day she did a ridealong with a tow truck driver, and found herself unable to shake her true calling.

“She’s been rocking it out,” Shelley’s mom, Erica, says. “I mean, it’s impressive

“When I get out of the truck, people are so shocked. I think that it’s cool. They don’t expect a tiny girl to be doing this.”

vulnerable spot to be in—frustrated beyond all measure and suddenly at the mercy of a person you’ve never met, in a place you don’t know.

The entire drive to the mechanic, the tow truck driver proceeded to hit on me. I was already having a rough day, and some dude not picking up on my many attempts to let him know that I’m queer and very much uninterested, was the last thing that I needed.

I wish I could’ve had the number for a tow truck driver who was spunky, punky, and more like me. How different would things have gone if I’d gotten picked up by a driver who reminded me a lot of some of my closest friends?

Meet Breeanne Shelley, or “Bree” as the driver-side door on her tow truck reads— styled much like a callsign on a fighter jet. She’s a tow truck driver for Santa Fe Tow Service, and she’s an absolute badass.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2023, only about 9.5% of all tow truck operators are women. This statistic is one that Shelley is all too familiar with.

“When I get out of the truck, people are so shocked. I think that it’s cool. They don’t expect a tiny girl to be doing this,” Shelley says.

In an Instagram post featuring Bree at work (that went semi-viral) Santa Fe Towing said: “Imagine how relieved you’ll be when you see that the tow truck fairy showed up to save the day. Go ahead and let the delightful goth fairy vibes envelop you. She

when you see a woman step out of a tow truck in a man’s world. I think what makes her so good at this is that she has compassion for people. She understands that it’s a shaky situation and adapts to put them at ease.”

Shelley got her start in the field, operating the lifts for various tow companies where she never felt like the rest of the crew ever really accepted her. She felt like an outlier, an outsider, and despite being great at her job, just uneasy with these co-workers, as I’d been with the man dispatched to deal with my Acura.

As a woman in the field, Shelley’s experience has been ripe with many unique challenges that her male counterparts will never face.

“The sad reality is that, from what I’ve seen, we’re always going to have to prove ourselves more than the guys, as women in the industry. It’s not so common to see a whole lot of women welders or tow truck drivers, and people are so quick to judge us.”

When discussing how she got the job at Santa Fe Towing here in KC, Bree laughs and says, “I finally feel like I’m in the right spot. I found my second family here. Good luck getting rid of me y’all.”

Currently, Shelley drives a light-duty, flatbed tow truck and responds to about five or six calls within a single workday. ‘Light-duty’ means that she can tow up to 10,000 pounds at a time, making her the type of rescue that most commercial vehicle drivers are likely to require.

Extreme weather marks one of the most pressing battles on the job, outside of the physical and mental strength, interpersonal stills, and often complex problem-solving. She works frigid winters driving icy roads and loads vehicles in the blistering summer sun. You know, Midwest shit.

Recalling our recent bout of subzero temperatures this year, Shelley says, “It was all hands on deck. I’m not going to lie, it was very, very hard. It was so cold, so windy, and

we were all out there working over 12 hour days. We were busy responding to accidents from about 5 a.m. to around 8 p.m. There have been times when I’ve stayed out all night and never went home. We were running our asses around all night long.”

As the summer heat grows nearer, expect to see Shelley whipping around town dragging completely dead transportation like my Acura, as she haul cars (and their stranded drivers) off into the Kansas sunset.

Photo by Maddie McBratney

Float Like a Butterfly, Sting Like KC

By Gabriel Flynn

Few setbacks in life offer the poetic injustice of a sports injury—especially injuries that cause you to never be able to play the game again. So few other hobbies or pastimes carry with them the implied threat that, at any moment, your source of joy may suddenly be stripped from your world.

Such is the case of Daryl Wyatt, a tennis player who went All-American during his freshman year of college and departed academia to pursue his passion on a professional level.

Unfortunately, Wyatt’s career hit an unlucky roadblock: the road itself. “It wasn’t even a result of playing. Just a freak bicycle accident. I went over the handlebars of my bicycle and tore my wrist up, and that was the end of that.”

Wyatt kept his distance from the game, wounded by his inability to participate in the pathway he thought represented his entire future. With enough time, he wound his way back to the courts, this time as a coach.

“It was tough, but I love coaching. I’ve always loved coaching,” he says. “I love seeing growth. Whatever your potential can do, if you just work towards that, I’m happy, it doesn’t matter what your classification is.”

After all of that, his life took a change. He moved to Lawrence and eventually ended up in Leawood as co-owner of SW19—an indoor tennis complex [2008 W 103rd Terrace] which he would later convert into also supporting pickleball.

Pickleball, while being founded in 1965, has seen a rocket ship launch of popularity in recent years—leading many people like Wyatt to switch over from tennis, or picking the sport up completely fresh. The ability of pickleball to serve as a similar style of sporting, while also applying much less strain on joints and muscles, has made it an excellent backup for those who can’t (or don’t feel like) pushing themselves to the brink.

Wyatt’s love of his new adopted sport, alongside his partner Julie Gibson, led to the establishment of the city’s first official pro pickleball team in 2024: The Kansas City Stingers. Wyatt serves as the team’s coach.

The Stringers’ first game in the National Pickleball League will be on May 17 in Algonquin, Illinois. Kansas City proper will host its own games on the weekend of August 9.

Why are people picking pickleball over tennis, especially when tennis is a sport with a much longer legacy? Jason Grubb

says, “The athleticism is very similar, but pickleball is such a wonderful thing because it attracts families immediately. It’s an immediate activity.”

Grubb is the recent winner of SW19 men’s combine and was also an owner of a racquet club for over 18 years. With pickleball’s massive growth in popularity, he says, “it’s like the boom of tennis in the 1970s.”

Looking across the metro, it’s easy to see that many formerly empty 20-by-44foot spaces are being converted into hubs for the growing sport. But its popularity has prompted an unexpected backlash.

Controversy and Health

Prairie Village and Leawood both have been having ongoing noise complaints around pickleball, and have responded quickly with local legislation. Leawood established new, more stringent rules for the construction of any court, and has banned court lighting after 10 p.m.

Wyatt says that the courts are full at 5:30 a.m., so these restrictions in the evening are probably not as impactful as what happens in the morning. While a complex like SW19 may not cause many noise complaints since it’s indoors, for outdoor courts close to people’s homes, the complaints are understandable, as play can reach up to 70 decibel units.

So, how does this get better? “There are companies popping up all over that are dealing with fence curtains that are noise dampening, and trying to get all the clubs and all the cities and parks to buy that product,” Grubb says.

That investment from the city should pay dividends since the accessibility of the sport is central to its swift momentum in popularity. All one needs to do to participate is grab a racket online and then head down to any of the many new locations where games are popping up.

Unfortunately, in a new game where the novice player is entering unaware of possible pitfalls, there are newbies facing small injuries of their own.

“You’re talking about maybe people who didn’t go see an instructor, a certified instructor, and are just out there winging it,” Grubb says. “They might not have any idea of how to sway, how to move on the court, or they have the wrong shoes on. That’s what I see a lot when I go to Chicken N Pickle, for the families out there. That’s where a lot of injuries come from—people’s ankles and knees—because they haven’t had any instruction.”

For those looking into getting classes, the previously mentioned SW19 does offer classes. In Leawood, Kansas City Parks and Recreation offers classes at certain community centers for $5 or $3 for “active agers”— their term for those 60 years old and above who are starting to add a new activity to their weekends.

an Open Invitation to all

Pickleball’s sudden rise in the area means that everyone is looking for opponents. For those feeling somewhat social and walking past a court, you’re liable to get handed a paddle and told to play. Then you notice it’s four hours later and the streetlights have come on. Active recruiting appears to be the name of the game.

DUPR is a pickleball-specific style of ranking, matching those in leagues with others purely based on performance. So you’re getting matched up with people of

all ages, genders, wingspan, etc. It doesn’t matter if you can hit the ball and play about as well, you can get paired up. Other sports can obviously suffer from a major imbalance in the amount of popularity given to them, depending on gender. Rankings like DUPR help prevent this problem and allow players a fair shot regardless of things outside their control.

Of course, not every event follows this system, but the fact that it’s becoming widely adopted is a great sign for the future.

Outside of being welcoming when it comes to younger people looking to learn, Wyatt says, “With pickleball adding college scholarships and college teams, that’s another avenue for some of these kids to get in through. So we want to open that avenue up so that they get all the opportunities. We’re looking to lessen that gap or lessen the intimidation factor for kids to get to that level.”

Photo by Julian Jauregui

Pit Plunging

THE RABBIT HOLE BRINGS YOUTH LITERATURE TO (LARGER THAN) LIFE IN THE NORTHLAND

By Beth Lipoff

Tucked away in an industrial neighborhood in North Kansas City, the Rabbit hOle’s 150,000 square foot building doesn’t stand out much from the outside. Inside is a different story, as you go up, well, through a rabbit hole into a world of children’s literature.

When you stop by, you can visit Frog and Toad’s marshy abodes, get scolded by some cap-clad monkeys or climb through a tunnel to feed The Funny Thing.

And if you’re not familiar with every book featured, that’s fine. By each interactive display are copies of the book in question, so you can refresh yourself or discover a totally new story.

It all comes from former owners of The Reading Reptile, Deb Pettid and Pete Cowdin, who started dreaming up The Rabbit hOle in 2015. That dream became more solid in 2018, when they bought the building, and has continued to build through popups in the Crossroads, leading to March 12, when the non-profit museum finally opened its doors at 919 E. 14th Ave.

One thing parents don’t have to worry about is telling kids not to touch. A large portion of the exhibits have things to climb, tunnel through or poke. On opening day, The Fire Cat’s station attracted both little kids and teenagers who wanted to slide down the fire pole.

A few things, such as bike-riding mouse Anatole who travels on a track, are behind glass.

Emily Hane, development manager, says a lot of thought went into curating the various exhibits. Their John Steptoe exhibit doesn’t highlight one specific book but offers the experience of reading his books and those of other black authors in the setting of a 1960s New York bookstore.

Another exhibit highlights the work of Puerto Rican librarian and author Pura Belpré.

“I think that’s going to be a key element, ensuring we are finding creators of different backgrounds. The history of children’s literature is not particularly diverse. Everyone deserves to have a book by someone who looks like them,” Hane says.

Although they’ve received some philanthropic support from publishers, no donors get to determine what gets featured in the museum.

The nostalgia of it all struck visitor Genevieve Sloan, who has many happy memories of the books. For her, the muse-

um is like The Reading Reptile “on a 10,000 times scale,” she says.

Sloan says she especially loves physicality of the exhibits.

“It’s unbelievable to see my nieces and nephews experience what I did,” she says.

Many features were set to open at the end of April at their grand opening, but some may be available a little later in the year.

One such item is the tiger carousel highlighting the book “Sam and the Tigers”, a story from African-American author Julius Lester that reimagined the character Little Black Sambo.

Kids can sit in it right now, but it doesn’t move just yet. They’re still making a few adjustments to it before it will run.

Another is the automat café that will feature foods based on books in the museum. So if Strega Nona has you craving pasta or you get a hankering for Sal’s blueberries, they’ll eventually have it covered.

Also on the horizon are the story lab that will host writing classes and the print

shop that will detail all the steps of book binding.

The museum takes inspiration from the art-driven City Museum in St. Louis. Eventually, the idea is for the Rabbit hOle to expand not only to the upper floors of its building but through the roof, just like City Museum. Fundraising will dictate the pace of any expansions.

Two dozen artists are permanently on staff to craft and repair the exhibits. The challenge for them is to find ways to shift two-dimensional art into 3-D.

“Anything we make has to look exactly like the book we’re replicating, so it’s a big challenge for artists. And I think it shows how talented the Rabbit hOle team is, because an artist like Shel Silverstein who’s just black lines on white paper is completely different from an artist like William Steig. … It’s not only capturing the styles, the colors and the shapes of a book. It’s also capturing the spirit of the illusion,” Hane says.

To make some larger-than-life flowers,

Rabbit hOle artists shaped copper wire into petals, covered them with pantyhose and painted them. The Goodnight Moon bed required a deft hand at carpentry to deal with a few unconventional angles.

“We believe children deserve a place that is beautiful and that is built to celebrate children’s culture. And if they see something that is beautiful and interesting and it inspires them to pick up a book that they might not pick up otherwise, then we’ve really done our job. But most of all, we just want people to have fun,” Hane says.

The resulting displays throughout the space impressed local artist Taylor Loux, who visited on opening day. For Loux, the exhibits evoke not only City Museum but also Denver’s Meow Wolf.

“It feels really innovative and playful. To see all the materials they used— it’s an artist’s paradise,” Loux says.

Tickets to the museum are $16 for everyone, ages 2 and up. For more information, visit rabbitholekc.org.

Photos by Beth Lipoff

SUPPORT LOCAL JOURNALISM

Cloak and Dagger

COCKTAILS FROM CLANDESTINO ARE TELLING STORIES THROUGH THEIR ELABORATE DRINKS

By Jordan Baranowski

When you think of Westport, you probably aren’t envisioning a speakeasy-style craft cocktail bar with elaborate presentations. Subverting those expectations is exactly what Raul Valencia sets out to do with Clandestino, located inside the Latin-American restaurant Brix. Valencia serves as the Director of Operations and Head Mixologist there, where telling stories through his drinks is the number one goal.

Valencia moved to Kansas City from California and quickly noticed that the Midwest didn’t have much to offer in the world of Latin American spirits. “Everyone knows tequila, mezcal, and rum,” he says, “But even those basics tend to be underrepresented at a number of cocktail bars in Kansas City. We started Clandestino as a way to showcase the spirits and flavors of Latin America with an upscale twist.”

At Clandestino, you will find a number of tequila and mezcal options to quench your thirst, but you’ll also find craft cocktails that show off some lesser-known spirits. There’s Cachaça, a Brazilian favorite that’s similar to rum, made by fermenting fresh sugarcane juice instead of sugarcane molasses. You’ll find Cachaça in Clandestino’s El Fantasma cocktail. Another uncommon spirit is Pisco—It is essentially a Peruvian brandy, which you’ve probably only tasted if you’ve ordered a Pisco Sour. You’ll find it in a few of the drinks here, including The Alchemist and the Horseman’s Curse.

On top of those, Clandestino goes out of its way to utilize lesser-known distributors or regions that aren’t specifically known in the world of the more common Latin spirits. For example, Mexico isn’t normally known for its rum, but multiple cocktails use Gustoso Mexican Rum, made with sugarcane grown in the state of Michoacán. One such drink is the Piña Para la Niña—a clarified Piña Colada.

These little details add up to play a part in Valencia’s central goal as Clandestino’s head mixologist: using his drinks as a vehicle to share stories. “The pageantry of Día de los Muertos is always a major inspiration for me, so drinks like the Obscuro utilizes colors and flavors to help invoke the spirit of the Day of

the Dead,” he says. “Other drinks are inspired by our love of music, especially jazz. The Pianista and the Cantarita de Jalisco are just a couple of drinks we have in that realm.”

It isn’t just what is in the drinks that helps drive the story. The Pianista cocktail is an over-the-top limoncello and gin concoction that’s brought to your table on top of a tiny grand piano. The Cantarita de Jalisco is made tableside and served in the drink’s traditional spice-rimmed clay vessel. It’s all a ton of fun, and it’s definitely treated in an approachable way to keep things from becoming pretentious.

Valencia credits the entire staff of both Brix and Clandestino for helping create something truly unique in Westport. “Our servers help relay the story of every drink to our guests. Our chef creates dishes that complement our cocktails. Our music and our laid-back, intimate setting all help contribute to an experience you’re not going to get anywhere else,” he says.

If you’re itching to check out Clandestino, there are a few details you should know. For one, it’s very small—only seating about two dozen people—and there are no reservations. Once you’re seated, your group has the table for 90 minutes before you’re asked to make way for another party.

That said, if you’re waiting for a spot to open up at Clandestino, you can grab a spot inside Brix. It’s not quite as extravagant as its

speakeasy-style sister, but it still has plenty of tasty food and drink on offer inside of a cool location. And you’ll just be building anticipation for that drink served on top of a baby grand.

Clandestino is located inside Brix Latin American Cuisine at 4112 Pennsylvania Avenue, Kansas City, MO 64111. It is open Tuesday through Thursday from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 5:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m., and Sunday from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

Courtesy of Clandestino

By Sarah Sipple

Just like the balance of getting a sunkissed glow, but avoiding a burn, finding the sweet spot between wellness and “little treats” is heightened in the summer.

The two are not mutually exclusive in a well-adjusted worldview. But here, we’ll loop HealthWtr into our wellness routine and shaved ice into our little treat habit.

Miami Ice, in its retro blue and pink glory, sits on a corner on West 39th Street and Genessee. Shaded outdoor seating beckons you to rest and cool off, while the colorful art of flamingos piques your curiosity inside. Glass block dividers and pink interior walls continue the Miami motif.

The small shop is a family-run, longstanding part of the neighborhood that serves shaved ice and frozen custard in many formats. It’s a particularly hoppin’ spot for dates and family outings.

Tropic Wonder shaved ice is a featured flavor, pictured here. Sectioned pours of coconut, strawberry, and peach syrups top shaved ice and soft serve custard. The result is an icy Chiefs-kingdom-approved crimson and gold concoction that sends the senses south, to paradise.

Some opt to swirl the dish into creamy shaved ice, while others eat from the top down. I prefer the latter method, with the strong flavors of the syrups taking priority, until reaching the smooth custard that cuts the sweetness for a practically new, gentler treat. “A dessert for your dessert” as the menu states.

The soft-serve custard is a base for many other dessert options here, but nostalgia points me toward the shaved ice. Those jewel-colored syrup bottles evoke summers at the county fair and most obviously–one summer in high school spent working in a shaved ice “sno shack” parked in a McDonald’s parking lot.

Wherever you fall on the wellness to “little treat” spectrum at the moment, everyone can enjoy a bite of joy here. There are sugar-free syrups, straight-up snocones for a dairyfree option, and even protein-packed smoothies. Happy summer!

Healthwtr

By Sarah Sipple

Available at healthwtr.com and HyVee, Price Chopper, McKeever’s Market, and Hen House in KS & MO

What beverage had our Editor-in-Chief spurt out an enthusiastic string of expletives after two sips?

These fruity lil bottles right here.

I brought them to the office to share, specifically to verify that I wasn’t alone in my assessment. I was wowed. As it turns out, I was not alone.

This local version of a zero-calorie enhanced water, more than holds its own against big names like Vitamin Water, Hint, and Gatorade Zero. In an office where a few of us pay close attention to blood glucose levels, HealthWtr was quickly embraced.

Based in Overland Park, the HealthWtr label reads like a dream: 20 vitamins and nutrients with electrolytes and antioxidants; gluten-free and caffeine-free; zero calories, carbs, or sugars; free from artificial colors, flavors, sweeteners, and preservatives. At the same time, the taste is good enough that I find myself reaching for HealthWtr over a Diet Coke or sparkling water—which is saying a lot.

Flavors currently include lemon-tangerine, strawberry-pomegranate, and pineapple-mango.

Each variety has a gentle and natural taste. The lemon-tangerine gives the palate a sense of eating an entire fresh citrus fruit, bringing elements of the peel, rind, and juice together for a novel, but not overpowering taste. The bright citrus flavor that you may expect is lessened for more of a blended, whole-fruit flavor. The level, or impact, of flavor is more than that of a La Croix, but less than a classic Gatorade.

The strawberry-pomegranate flavor gives more of a general berry taste, leaning on fresh expressions of strawberry. And tropical is a spot-on description for pineapple-mango. In fact, it could make a fine mixer for cocktails this summer if that’s what you’re looking for. I would happily suggest Pineapple 360 Vodka from Weston, MO, or Mean Mule Distilling’s Poblano Agave.

Whether you try it over ice at home, mixed with some vodka by the pool, or straight from the bottle on a hike at Shawnee Mission Park, may you be as pleased as we were. String of pleased expletives optional.

Sarah Sipple

Too Hawt to Handle

By Lauren Textor

artificial intelligence has been called the final frontier of technology. If you’re a little creeped out by the idea that robots may soon consciously be making eye contact with us, you’re not alone. AI is already pervasive. It’s in our healthcare, our social media algorithms, our streaming services, and now, it’s at our local farmers’ markets. But put those dystopian premonitions on hold! It turns out that AI can also be delicious.

Brothers Shekeib and Shohaib Shaffiey created Bayesian Hot Sauce with the help of Bayesian AI software. Shohaib developed the algorithm, which tweaks Shekeib’s hot sauce recipes to create precise flavor profiles. They’re passionate about Bayesian AI,

because I’m Middle Eastern, and my dad would eat raw peppers with every meal. Just raw Serranos,” Shekeib says, laughing. “My brother would look at him like he was Superman because he was eating lava.”

Shekeib began experimenting with his first hot sauce recipes in his late teens and early 20s. Then, Shohaib received his master’s degree in computer science from Washington University in St. Louis, and he began using AI in his daily work.

“My brother was doing research on degenerative eye diseases, and he was predicting which patients would have these diseases,” Shekeib says. “He was talking about my hot sauce and saying, ‘Well, maybe I can help you predict what ingredients and amounts would be good.’”

The brothers start by limiting the range of each ingredient (for example, one to two tablespoons of salt). Then Shohaib inputs the information into his computer, which refines the amount. They rate the sauce on a scale of one to 10 and feed the rating back into the program. Shohaib’s algorithm assists as they tweak the ingredient amounts to get the taste closer to the desired rating.

“It’s hard to resist now that all these big companies are using it. How can we involve the human more so it’s not only AI? I think Bayesian optimization is a perfect answer for that. Our hot sauce is proof of concept.”

Without the help of AI to tweak the recipes and design promotional materials, such as the bottles’ labels, Shekeib estimates that he would have spent hundreds or even thousands of dollars to get the business up and running. AI has helped him speed up the launch process and cut through red tape so he can instead focus on what matters: the sauce.

“I’d like to keep going to the farmers’ markets and getting face-to-face with people. I feel like I get to explain what I think about AI and how this is used as a tool, and not such an end-all-be-all of human work,” Shekeib says. “It can be useful to even your average person who has no background in computer science or anything math or AI-related.”

specifically because it’s people-centered.

“You have to have somebody guiding the AI,” Shekeib says. “Otherwise, it’s just like a wrench sitting in a toolbox.”

Shohaib echoes this idea, emphasizing while AI can feel eerily human, it’s just another machine.

“It’s just math and statistics,” he says. “It’s not anything miraculous. I think it’ll be seen as more of a calculator in the future.”

Shekeib’s background is in industrial and organizational psychology, but when his daughter was born, he became a stay-athome dad. This gave him more time to focus on hobbies—one of which has now grown into a family business.

“I was always into hot sauce as a kid

“We’ve done that over 50 times for our first hot sauce, the jalapeño lime one,” Shekeib says. “It’s been heavily optimized, and I think we’re at the point where we’re going to be changing micrograms of salt to get it even more optimized.”

The jalapeño lime sauce includes only five ingredients for a simple, straightforward heat that spices up any meal, from tacos, to burgers, to pizza. A whiff of the habanero pineapple quickly reveals that it’s more intense—A bonfire as opposed to a few candles. A few drops are enough for palates used to milder fare.

When customers buy a bottle of Bayesian Hot Sauce, they’re encouraged to give the Shaffieys feedback so they can adjust the ingredient balances for the next batch. The ratings are then fed into the algorithm, and the process begins all over again.

“The AI world is coming,” Shekeib says.

Shohaib’s work is largely behind the scenes, but that doesn’t mean that he’s less passionate about the business or the people-first applications of AI.

“It was actually my brother’s expertise that drew me to pick him as the person to use AI with,” Shohaib says. “It’s his intuition that I believed in the most. He has the right idea of what people want. This AI software was just guiding the process. Maybe it gave him some ideas, but really it was him that guided the AI as well. I have a very close relationship with my brother. Anything he’s done, he’s been great at. Now he’s a wonderful father. That’s the genesis of why I chose this venture because I believed in him so much.”

Bayesian Hot Sauce is pending FDA approval, so orders cannot yet be placed through the website at bayesiansauce.com. However, you can fill out the contact form to get notified when the FDA’s blessing is secured. In the meantime, you can find the Shaffieys at Brookside Farmers Market or on Instagram @bayesiansauce.

BAYESIAN HOT SAUCE IS USING AI TO TWEAK THE HEAT IN FOUR FUTURISTIC FLAVORS

Photos Courtesy of the Shaffiey Brothers

By Sarah Sipple

Alan Kneeland is a champion for all things KC restaurants. Sure, it’s part of his responsibility as President of the Greater Kansas City Restaurant Association, but his reputation, passion, and involvement have preceded him for a couple of decades.

As the owner of The Combine, he combines his experience in food safety, nightlife, and specifically, pizza. The restaurant and rooftop patio space is a culmination–but not the final stop–of Kneeland’s journey through the complex but tight-knit service industry of Kansas City.

The Combine is located at 2999 Troost Ave., Kansas City, MO, 64108

How did you get into the restaurant industry? I started off working for Panera Bread as a dishwasher. As most people who start off in this industry, I worked my way up, doing every single position that was at Panera. Once I reached management, I just hit this wall and I said, I don’t want to be with this company for 10 years. I really want to run my own business. And through a mentor, Buddy Lahl, he said, ‘Hey, man, if you want to actually own your own small business, you probably need to get around somebody that owns theirs.’ So I ended up partnering with this guy named Jason Pryor who owns Pizza 51, and I ran his pizza shop out in Fairway, Kansas for about two years. I took a lot of that corporate experience from Panera Bread and brought it to the small mom-and-pop operation.

Other than your experience in a variety of restaurants, what specifically inspired you to open The Combine? Just my energy and my love for the industry. I think that’s what inspired me to get to this point of opening up a restaurant, as well as just my love for food, and my love for people. There are not a lot of places for Black and Brown people to go and just sit back, enjoy a cocktail and a slice of pizza. So to create a space that does that and welcomes all, that’s the motivation.

What is the best-selling dish at The Combine? Pizza is definitely our best-selling option. Specifically, the Cowtown.

What does it mean to you that the Troost Corridor is known as a food destination? When we first opened I had the vision of this being a “district,” and there

are actually videos on my Instagram of me saying, ‘Hey, welcome to the Combine at the Troost District.’ I love it. I mean, Troost is starting to lose that negative connotation, or whatever you want to call it, of a “bad area.” Now people are like ‘Oh, you going down Troost? Are you stopping by The Combine? Ruby Jean’s Juicery or Blackhole Bakery? Wah Gwan?’

Tell us about your involvement in GKCRa and journey to president. I got started about nine years ago, first as a board member. Whether that be community givebacks, coming together to support a fellow restauranteur during a hard time, or giving kids a chance to learn how to break down a chicken, I’ve done it all. All of that helped push me into presidency. I didn’t come to the Association wanting to be president, but after being here for years, that was pretty much my next option. To be the head of that Association means so much to me, and the responsibility is big. But I mean, I think I’m just a little bit bigger, and I’m able to handle those issues and help our Kansas City restaurants.

Is there a specific vision or goal you’d like to accomplish while President? I also want to make sure that restaurants are seen period, point blank, and for those restaurant owners, if they have any issues, whether it be with the smallest licensing and permits or whether that be ‘Hey, they need a second eye on their insurance’ or something like that, the association is here to help with all of those things.

What can customers look forward to this summer at The Combine? Patio season! Everybody loves being outside at their favorite restaurants and bars. We have a lot of rooftop events planned for the spring and summertime. Personally, I’m excited for patio season, as well as just being outside. There are so many concerts and festivals here in Kansas City, so it’s gonna be a good summer for, not only restaurants, but for everybody.

Photo Courtesy of Kenny Ellison

Strange Symphony

TECH N9NE GOES HIGH-BROW WITH KC’S STRONGEST STRINGS

By Nick Spacek

In the summer of 2014, a video of rapper Sir Mix-a-Lot performing his 1992 hit “Baby Got Back” with the Seattle Symphony went viral online, with over 1.5 million views within a week. Just a few months before Nas performed a 20th-anniversary concert for his 1994 classic Illmatic at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., backed by the National Symphony Orchestra—A show that would later be released as both an album and an episode of PBS’ Great Performances. A year later, Kendrick Lamar would also take the Kennedy Center stage with the orchestra, to take on a selection of tracks from his To Pimp A Butterfly.

In the decade since, there have been shows such as Common with the National Symphony Orchestra in 2017, or Jeezy backed by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra for a run-through of his 2005 major label debut Thug Motivation 101: Let’s Get It in 2023. Into this pantheon now steps Kansas City’s own Aaron Yates–better known to audiences the world over as Tech N9ne–when he tackles a selection of songs from throughout his career with the Kansas City Symphony at the Midland on Saturday, May 4, for a sold-out performance.

Even given that in the course of his lengthy career, Tech has worked with Tupac, teamed up with Boulevard Brewing Company to release a beer, and even managed to get actor and wrestler Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson to drop a verse on his 2021 single, “Face Off,” this was some next-level news when it was announced. When we spoke with the rapper ahead of the upcoming symphonic performance, even he seemed a little amazed at what was happening.

“It’s the thing they do with the greats, man,” marveled Tech. “And I’m honored that they approached me and said they wanted to get with me on this. It’s a big thing, for sure.”

As the rapper explains, it was the symphony’s own idea, and in a meeting with some of the people from the Kansas City Symphony and Australian arranger Tim Davies, they said, “‘Hey, we’ve been listening for a while and we have a list of songs we’d like to do.’ I was like, ‘Whoa,’ you know what I’m saying? It’s a big thing, man. Everybody can’t do this.”

Tech admits he was surprised by some of the more than 20 tracks selected by the symphony, such as “Worldwide Choppers” and “Like I Ain’t,” but says that he was flattered by just how many songs the symphony had considered. While it took a minute, they combined what the symphony had in mind and what the rapper’s setlist looks like these days to come up with a selection of songs from which they’d be working.

Arranger Tim Davies is no stranger to doing this sort of work, as he’s the one who worked with the National Symphony Orchestra on the aforementioned Nas and Kendrick Lamar shows, as well as several performances since. He was no stranger to Tech N9ne, either, with the rapper enthusing, “I know how massive that was for me to be sitting in the same room as him.”

Massive—along with intricate—could also be applied to the process of putting together a show like this. Thankfully, Tech’s engineer Ben Cybulsky—AKA “Bengineer”—knows the language of what was technically required, from click tracks, to breakdowns, to song stems.

“It’s been a lot and we’re still working,” Tech says. “The whole thing has been a challenge for sure because we had to do way more than we thought. I thought that if I sent him a full show recorded from my last tour with Hollywood Undead—the audio and everything—that it would help him. He didn’t really need none of that shit.”

Here, Tech laughs and says that Davies’ response was along the lines of, “‘Nah, we need way more than that. We need every piece of what instrument is where, and we got to pull these instruments out so the symphony can play those instruments, not over other instruments.’”

When we spoke with Tim Davies, he concurred.

“The process is to get the setlist and then get all of what you’re talking about from the artists,” the arranger explains. “Basically, ‘Send me everything you got. The more, the better. I can choose to ignore it or not need it, but once I start, I want to just be able to go for it.’”

That live show Tech sent Davies was a help, however, with Davies saying that he’ll often get a live version from an artist, because he needs that live version, versus the recorded track to know how an artist performs that song now.

“Often, songs change, especially older ones. They do in different ways,” Davies says. “So I need to know that, but I also want to go back to the original so I can hear how they played it originally. Like, what got left out over the years, because maybe that’s something cool I can bring back with the orchestra.”

One would wonder just how an Australian working in the film world came to collaborate with so many iconic American rappers, but Davies says it’s actually quite simple. He’d come over to America to study at USC and work on films. He studied film scoring and realized that wasn’t really what he wanted to do. Having always been an arranger, he realized film orchestrating is a

Photo Courtesy of Darryl Woods

good place to be because he gets to be with orchestras every week.

“I was always doing a few little arranging projects and a friend of mine—another film orchestrator Stephen Coleman—was working for a producer called Salaam Remi. Salaam would give us tracks and we would write orchestra on the top for him. Then, he would cut that up and put that into songs,” Davies explains.

“One of the tracks that I’d written for him, I didn’t even know he’d done it, but he’d used as the bed for a song for Nas that came out and that album Life Is Good went to number one, and I get this message from Salaam and he said, ‘Congratulations,’ and I’m like, ‘On what?’ Cause I didn’t even know that he had taken this. He basically sampled me.”

Cut to a couple of years later, and the Kennedy Center wanted to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Illmatic. They were looking for hip-hop arrangers and they couldn’t really find anyone.

“But bizarrely, the producer of the show and the artistic director of jazz at the Kennedy Center were in a car listening to a CD of Nas and this song came on and they said, ‘Well, who’s this kind of vibe?’” Davies says. “It was me. They Googled me, found me, that’s how I ended up on that project thanks to Jason Moran, who was driving, and Garth Ross, who at the time worked for

the Kennedy Center and was producing this Illmatic show.”

Part of what makes Davies so perfect for projects such as these symphonic hiphop concerts is that, as an arranger, he’s worked with varied composers, be it Mark Mothersbaugh on The Mitchells vs The Machines, Ant-Man with Christoph Beck, and The Simpsons Movie with Hans Zimmer, to name a few. He knows how to take music from a variety of talents and make it work with a symphony.

“I think we’re going to have everything there and record it professionally. you never know, people might be able to buy it. I’m not sure if it’s going to end up that way, but it’s not written in blood yet.”

“Coming from that Hollywood world, I’ve learned how to make an orchestra sound big, and how to make it sound epic,” Davies says. “The tricks that we use on those film scores when you want that big emotional kick and all of that. I’ve been able to use those skills to make these moments in the hip-hop world and make the orchestra

come alive.”

Davies is a drummer, originally, and grew up playing in bands, making it easy for him to understand how the artist side works with the band and rhythm section.

“I understand jazz and all of that,” the arranger continues. “I mean, a decent amount of the hip-hop samples, you know, come from that jazz world and have extended harmony and all that sort of stuff. Understanding all of that, not just being a jazz arranger, but coming from the film score world—When I put the cinematic with what I know from writing big bands, it’s my own sort of special blend. I think I do it a little bit differently than what a lot of people do.”

What better pairing than someone such as Davies with one of the greatest locals in Tech N9ne? Davies clues us into a selection of things planned for the upcoming show. While we’re not at liberty to discuss any of the surprises planned for the opening moments, the arranger assures us that once it gets going, it’s off to the races with the first 40 minutes of the show being a continuous performance.

“There’s no stopping,” Davies says. “There’s no gaps. It’s just kind of one big medley.”

When we spoke with Tech, it was more than a month and a half out from the show, and the performance had just sold out a few days prior. When we ask how he feels about

it selling out, the rapper pulls no punches.

“It might sound pompous, but I’m going to tell the truth,” he says. “But when I was just in Hawaii for Valentine’s Day my partner Travis O’Guin called me and said, ‘Hey man, we only got a hundred tickets left,’ I was like, ‘Yep, I already knew.’ I knew it was gonna sell out early.’”

For those left holding the bag and unable to get tickets, rest assured that you’ll likely be able to experience it eventually, says Tech.

“I think we’re going to have everything there and record it professionally. You never know, people might be able to buy it. I’m not sure if it’s going to end up that way, but it’s not written in blood yet.”

In the meantime, there’s plenty to catch from Tech N9ne. Even though his year to date has already included performances at Kansas City’s Super Bowl victory parade and the home opener of the KC Current, there’s still a lot to come, even amid this amazing feat.

“This is a major thing I’m working on in the midst of trying to plan a wedding, having our one-year-old’s first birthday party,” Tech says. “It’s all these things in the midst of me trying to record this new Collabos project, sending songs out, getting them back in, and trying to meet deadlines. Ah, it’s a wonderful time for Tech N9ne. I feel like such a Kansas Citian.”

Pull Some Strings

SIMPLE MISCHIEF STUDIO’S MARRIED PUPPETEERS HELPED BRING IF’S FANTASTICAL CREATURES TO LIFE

By Abby Olcese

When you ask a five-year-old what they want to be when they grow up, the standard answer is something like firefighter, astronaut, or zookeeper. When I was that age, I wanted to be an archeologist (my parents were going to accompany me to every dig and cook all my meals, obviously). That dream, like most pre-grade school career dreams, didn’t last long.

Spencer Lott, however, always knew exactly what he wanted to do. “I found a paper from kindergarten that said ‘I want to be the next Jim Henson,’ with a green scribble that I think was supposed to be Kermit,” Lott says.

Amazingly, Lott, who grew up in Lawrence before moving to New York to pursue his dreams, never wavered. His passion for puppetry eventually led to work with The Jim Henson Company as a teenager and Kansas City’s legendary Mesner Puppet Theater. It’s continued to blossom into a fruitful career any kindergartner would envy. Lott is a Sesame Street puppeteer—He puppets and voices the character of Samuel. He creates and operates puppets for film, TV, and theater—Grown-ups may have encountered his puppeteering on the Apple TV+ series Hello, Tomorrow!

Shortly after COVID, Lott and his wife— artist and social worker Grace Townley, herself a Kansas City-area native—co-founded Simple Mischief Studio—a shop that develops and builds puppets for a variety of clients. Together Lott and Townley have designed, built, and performed puppets for everything from KU theater productions, to Phish’s epic 2023 Madison Square Garden New Year’s concert, to the movie A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. Their latest adventure is the John Krasinski family film IF, out this month, for which they created practical references for the film’s computer-generated imaginary friend characters.

“We love telling odd, offbeat stories,” Townley says. “He’s a muppet, I’m a social worker. We balance each other out.”

The pair’s work varies from cartoonish to cuddly, absurd to elaborate, but it always has roots in championing handmade craftsmanship. “In our own work, the handmade aspect is really important,” Townley says. “It’s about it being made by a human, and I think that’s huge right now.”

Lott notes that simplicity is important to their work, too. “Simple is deceptively hard, trying to distill characters down to their simplest element,” he says.

Of course, Townley adds, that’s not all they’re interested in. “I think we like simple, with a touch of mischief,” she says.

a Visit to the Neighborhood

Unlike Lott, Townley’s journey into puppetry didn’t begin until adulthood.

“I always loved making art and also loved working with older adults, and I went into social work in college,” Townley says. “I got a master’s in social work to work with older adults, and did my art after hours.”

On the side, Townley also helped Lott on his own projects. That began to change, however, with A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood—a film inspired by the real-life friendship between children’s entertainer/ noted pop culture saint Fred Rogers and journalist Tom Junod. The movie marked Lott and Townley’s first official collaboration together, during a time when Townley was between jobs. Townley and Lott created show-accurate versions of the iconic puppets from Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood King Friday, Daniel Striped Tiger, Henrietta Pussycat, and others—or the film’s performers to use in re-creations of the show’s Land of Make Believe.

“We worked full-time together for the first time. We got to go to the Fred Rogers archive and immersed ourselves in the Mister Rogers world,” Townley says. “It was my first time working full-time as an artist and it was amazing. I felt so energized every morning, and excited to get started.”

Lott says the set reflected the values of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood: Under director Marielle Heller’s leadership, it was a nurturing place to work.

“Film sets are notoriously not kind places, but this set was,” Lott says. “It was surreal. We were making puppets to fit Tom Hanks’ hand, and teaching him how to puppeteer. I also did some doubling for his character in the close-up shots.”

The project made a great first on-thebooks project for Lott and Townley in more ways than one: Fred Rogers was Townley’s godfather.

“My dad is a writer and interviewed Fred several times. They became close friends, and we stayed in touch writing letters and doing phone calls,” Townley says. “I was a shy kid, so when we had a phone call I was intimidated, but then Fred would start talking like Daniel Tiger, and it would open me up.”

When the 2018 documentary on Rogers’ Won’t You Be My Neighbor was first announced, Townley and her parents revisited a box of Rogers’ letters they’d kept over the years. Following the documentary’s release, while Lott and Townley were visiting the Fred Rogers Archive to prepare for production on A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, the Townley family’s correspondence came up again in an unexpected way.

“The archivist said to Grace, ‘Your last name is so familiar. I think we have your family’s file,’ and they had a whole box of correspondence,” Lott says. “Fred was notorious for saving every letter and postcard, so the archive had all the letters the Townleys had sent, Grace’s notes to him when she was a six-year-old, and random thoughts she shared with him. It was professional and personal together.”

“It was unbelievable,” Townley says. “It was full circle and very meaningful.”

The experience was the catalyst for the couple to create Simple Mischief Studio, which carries the influence of both Lott’s

love of puppetry and Townley’s social work background.

“The way social work influences our work is baked in from the beginning,” Lott says. “There are other companies you can go to to give you big superheroes, but we’re trying to celebrate uncommon heroes that we can champion. Those are the stories we love the most.”

Townley agrees, adding, “I think it grounds the work and gives a little more depth to what we’re doing, especially in the storytelling aspect.”

Making Imaginary Friends

Lott and Townley’s collaborative dynamic is part of why they were brought on board to IF, by fellow puppeteer and maker Eric Wright—founder of the New York City-based shop Puppet Kitchen.

“I’ve always admired Grace and Spencer’s work because aside from being really skilled at what they do, just being really excellent puppeteers, designers, and writers, they also do what they do with a lot of heart,” Wright says. “Working with them as people is such a delight.”

Written and directed by John Krasinski, IF is about a young girl named Bea (Cailey Fleming) who discovers she can see imaginary friends ‘IFs,’ and goes on a magical journey to reconnect forgotten ‘IFs’ with their grown-up kids. You won’t see any puppets on the screen—The imaginary friend characters are all CGI. However, if Lott, Townley, Wright, and their collaborators are successful, you’ll see the fruit of their labor in the movie’s human performances.

“We built references for the characters that production used for sizing, spacing, texture references, and for acting and eyelines,”

Photos Courtesy of Justin J Wee & Daily Mail

Lott says. “You often think about a tennis ball and a stick in movies like this (with CGI characters added in post-production), but we got to build versions of a lot of the characters that gave people something to act against.”

Wright says this kind of work represents a growing trend in studio filmmaking that combines puppetry and visual effects. “It’s exciting to me because it’s not exactly puppetry, in that we aren’t capturing a performance, but we’re using the power of puppetry to create a set where everyone can get on board with who that character is,” he says.

“It really comes through, not just in the performances of the other actors onscreen

who now have something they can relate to and play with, but the rest of the production can say ‘Oh that’s what we’re talking about, that’s how to light them, that’s the size of them.’”

The film’s CGI characters had already been designed, but Lott says he and Townley could still offer limited input.

“We were able to suggest materials, colors, and techniques to bring the characters to life,” he says. “John Krasinski was super receptive and excited every time we pitched something, and excited to see them being made.”

Wright says he’s happy to see practical character design coming back into play for film and TV production—both from a creative and efficiency standpoint. “The magic of puppetry is how it changes how someone interacts with an object,” he says. “It doesn’t just impact the actors, it has an impact on everyone on set. That’s important to get a great production. I think it saves time and gets everyone on board more quickly.”

To Lott, puppet proxies and stand-in effects work represent the future of many jobs in the puppeteering industry. He cites Disney’s live-action remakes of The Jungle Book and The Little Mermaid as examples of productions that successfully used the technique of using puppets on set for actors’ eyelines and enhancing the human actors’ performances.

“Puppets can do some things really well, and VFX can do some other things really well. Our favorite kinds of movies are the ones that use both,” he says.

Prairie Fairies, Picture Books, and Beyond

Lott and Townley now live and work in the Kansas City area, having relocated from New York with their now four-and-a-half-yearold daughter shortly after the pandemic. The pair say it’s helped them balance their creative ambitions with a reasonable cost of living.

“When COVID hit, it was time for us to make a shift in location,” Townley says. “Part of why we did that was that it gave us the financial flexibility for me to quit my job and help run Simple Mischief.”

Lott adds that the network they built while living in New York helped them develop a base for finding work, but living in the Midwest gives them financial freedom to really explore. “It’s given us a lot of creative freedom and the ability to take risks. Things we just couldn’t do hustling in the city.”

That work has also helped the couple collaborate with other local luminaries. They helped with fabrication for the recently-opened Rabbit hOle in the northland, and are currently developing a project with pie maker extraordinaire Erin Jeanne McDowell called Prairie Fairy Kitchen. Lott describes it

as The Magic School Bus meets Nickelodeon’s The Tiny Chef Show

“Erin told us some kids actually request The Book on Pie as a bedtime story because they like looking at the pictures. Like, ‘Here’s an example of streusel.’ It really does feel like a fantastical fairy tale. You want to live in those pies,” Lott says of McDowell’s best-selling baking book. “We wondered, what’s it like to live inside a pie? It grew from there, and we dreamed up a world where a deer could come up to her window and request something like a boysenberry pie.” The pair hope that Missouri’s recently passed filming incentives can help them shoot the project locally.

Lott and Townley are also using Simple Mischief Studio to branch out into a non-puppet-related venture: picture books.

“We’ve always loved picture books, and even started collecting even before we had kids,” Townley says. “We were big fans of (author and illustrators) Oliver Jeffers and Jon Klassen even before our kid came along, and we’ve been thinking about writing them for a while.”

Speaking of their daughter, now that she’s almost the age Lott was when he decided on his future career, Lott says she’s become a valuable in-house resource. “It’s perfect, because we’re making stuff for kids right now, and she can give us real-time feedback,” he says with a smile.

DIY DURING INTERNATIONAL MASTURBATION MONTH

I’m not going to beat around the bush— Well actually I am because May is International Masturbation Month. We have Good Vibrations—A San Francisco-based sex toy retailer to thank for this 31-day solo sex-positive extravaganza. International (FKA National) Masturbation Month was founded in 1995, after the firing of Surgeon General Dr. Joycelyn Elders—Our nation’s first Black Woman to fill the role—for suggesting that including masturbation in our education talks could halt the progression of a deadly epidemic when asked her thoughts about the topic.

Dr Elders responded during a Q&A segment of a forum gathered for World AIDS Day in 1994 in New York City: “I think that masturbation is something that’s part of human sexuality and it’s part of something that perhaps should be taught. But we’ve not even taught our children the very basics. And I feel that we have tried ignorance for a very long time and it’s time we try education.”

One week later, President Clinton— who should have been more solo sex-positive himself—forced Dr. Elders to resign. Mind you, this was at the peak of the AIDS epidemic, which didn’t begin to subside

sex-positivity in your household, it’s never too late to begin!

Why do I call it solo sex? Because “masturbation” isn’t seen as sex by some people. The word itself is seen as vulgar to other people. Lastly, sex writer Michael Castleman—author of Sizzling Sex for Life—once told me on my podcast that the Latin root of

“Exercise, meditate, masturbate. If you can do one a day, great. If you can do all three, even better!”

owners and vulva lovers, alike. It is a virtual classroom about the findings of the largest study ever conducted about pleasure for women from the Kinsey Institute. It’s handson if you have a tablet, but its most valuable component is modules designed to inform, normalize, and offer technique guidance.

No Fap, No Way

It’s funny how ‘semen retention’ gets plenty of play on TikTok and Instagram, but I can’t use #SexEducation on either app. However, there is worry among medical experts that promoting this trend is promoting an unhealthy and unnatural approach to men’s sexual health. “The popularity of no fap ideas indicates a failure by the traditional medical establishment to serve the many people experiencing real concerns around sexual health, performance, and desire,” according to a recent NPR piece by Lisa Hagen.

until 1995. Solo sex, AKA masturbation, is a great alternative to risky sexual behaviors that can lead to unwanted pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections, and maybe even taking advantage of a young intern in the Oval Office.

By encouraging open discussions about sex, for one, people can gain a better understanding of their bodies, desires, and how to then discuss it with their future lover(s). It helps to normalize a natural and healthy aspect of human sexuality, reducing stigma and shame surrounding, not only self-pleasure, but all bodily pleasures.

Exploration of the kinds of touch you want—light, firm, tender, rhythmic, cupping of the balls, or DJ Vulva moves—everyone likes something different. Plus, it may depend on what your hormones are up to or how much you’re finding inspiration for mental fantasy exploration. Your brain is, after all, your biggest sex organ.

Solo sex is the safest form of sex. That’s not a statement on virtue or encouraging abstinence, but by destigmatizing solo sex and encouraging safer sex practices, everyone can create a more supportive and sex-positive world. If you weren’t raised with

masturbation means “manual defilement of oneself.”

Solo sex is not a defilement of our body. It is one of the safest and quickest ways to experience pleasure, and the cultivation of pleasure is one of the few things that separate us from primates. But, I still tend to use the two terms interchangeably.

I can think of several cases where it is better to rub one out:

• When you get a late-night “u up?” text. Just say no to booty calls.

• When you’re wondering if you should call your ex. No! You’re just horny! Have two orgasms and reconsider in the morning.

• When you’re reading the latest spicy book from Under The Cover Romance Book Shop or listening to audio erotica from Dipsea.

• Before going on a date. That way you can decide if you like them instead of getting tricked by your raging hormones.

• If you can’t sleep. Orgasm releases oxytocin and endorphins, which can contribute to better sleep quality. Masturbating before bedtime may help you fall asleep more easily and get into deeper, more restful sleep cycles.

• When you have cramps, back pain, or a headache. You can get a dose of endorphins when you cum, which is a natural pain reliever.

Masturbation allows people of every gender to explore their bodies, preferences, and fantasies. Understanding one’s own sexual response cycle can lead to improved sexual experiences, alone and with partners. If you’re in a relationship and not getting off on your own, consider it as part of a formula for enhancing intimacy and satisfaction in relationships. Maybe you’re good, but can it be even better?

OMGyes.com is a resource for vulva

Out of the 39 states (plus the District of Columbia) that have some sort of sexual health education as part of the school curriculum, only 13 require medically accurate sex education. No wonder myths permeate our culture so easily, leading to both physically unhealthy and mentally repressive means.

For people with a prostate, regular ejaculation through solo sex or sexual activity may help reduce the risk of prostate problems, including prostate cancer. Studies link increased instances of ejaculation with lower chances of prostate cancer because it expresses free radicals and lactic acid.

Also, hypertension is a contributing factor to heart disease, the top cause of death for Americans. Hypertension can be alleviated with activities such as exercise, dietary changes, and stress reduction.

Masturbation can be a natural stress reliever. The release of endorphins during orgasm can promote feelings of relaxation and well-being, helping to alleviate tension and anxiety. Regular sexual activity—including sex for one—may help strengthen your immune system. Increased circulation and the release of certain neurotransmitters during arousal, orgasm, and even via touch, could contribute to a healthier immune response.

A motto of mine that clients are familiar with me saying is, “Exercise, meditate, masturbate. If you can do one a day, great. If you can do all three, even better!”

Use International Masturbation Month to promote sexual health, empowerment, and education. By openly discussing and normalizing solo sex, we can create a more sex-positive culture that values self-exploration, consent, and pleasure.

You can find Kristen @OpenTheDoorsKC on Instagram or openthedoorscoaching com. Check out her podcast Keep Them Coming.

Photo by Nicole Bissey. Illustrations by Shelby Phelps

Sewing Solidarity

PIONEER

By Beth Lipoff

In a bright storefront in downtown Leavenworth, Pioneer Women Quilting is working to help stitch the community together. The basic idea? Take donated fabric and make it into beautiful and useful works of art that keep people warm.

Pat Crowson and Karen Auxier got it started about two years ago, but everyone in their group has been sewing much longer than that.

Most of the fabric in their store comes in via donations, but they never know what they’re going to get. Sometimes, it’s pretty slow. Other times, someone might stop by with 80 pounds of material.

Crowson and Auxier have pitched in some of their own money to buy plainer fabrics to pair with the patterned ones people often donate, so the patchwork will come together nicely in the quilts.

Even during the slower times, they’re always working on quilts with the two longarm quilting machines in the shop. The quilts they make come in all different proportions, from lap-sized, to some that would cover a queen-size bed.

Sometimes people even bring in partially completed quilts to donate. Pioneer Women Quilting volunteers are able to finish those and either sell or donate finished pieces.

And if you’re not a quilter, you can also commission them to make a quilt for a fee. Across the board from commissioned, sold, and donated quilts, they’ll make about 200 of them in a year.

Although their focus is on quilting, they’ll take donations for related items such as buttons, patterns, embroidery floss, or yarn. What doesn’t become part of their quilts goes onto their shop floor to sell at steep discounts, which helps keep the lights on.

They’ll even take gently used sewing machines. Periodically, they have someone come in who can service sewing machines so that people don’t have to bring their machines too far for repairs.

When they receive certain fabrics or other items they can’t use, they share those with others in the community. That can be folks who make sleeping bags for homeless people or the local high school’s sewing and theater classes.

Their community connection doesn’t stop there. Their lap quilts go to local nursing homes, receiving blankets to the Spar-

“I’ve been in town almost 20 years, and this is the most excited I’ve been about a community working together and coming together for the good of all.”

row Women’s Clinic, and Christmas stockings to Meals on Wheels recipients via the Council on Aging.

Although she doesn’t usually meet people who receive the donated quilts, volunteer Sheila Eye enjoys just knowing the group has made a difference.

“I feel like it’s a huge impact. You plant a seed, but you don’t always see the tree grow or bloom to bear fruit,” Eye says.

They’ve partnered with 11Worth Station BrewHouse numerous times by donating completed quilts to auction off in support of various other groups, such as dementia charity The Deeper Window Association.

“I really think that we’re not just a brick-

and-mortar store. In the last nine months, we have really branched out into the community by way of these other organizations. So everybody’s working together. It’s pretty cool,” Eye says. “I’ve been in town almost 20 years, and this is the most excited I’ve been about a community working together and coming together for the good of all.”

That spirit extends to the two commercial quilt shops in Leavenworth, too.

“Sometimes, quilt shops butt heads, but we do not. We work as a team,” Auxier says.

They often refer customers to each other, depending on what the person needs.

It’s not all serious business. Having a fun atmosphere in addition to doing some-

thing they love, has kept many of the volunteers returning.

“I come here for the adult conversation, because I live with cats, and they don’t really care,” volunteer Chris White says.

Currently, Pioneer Women Quilting has about 12 volunteers, but they’re always happy to have more to sew and help out in the store. Though, you do need to have some sewing knowledge.

Pioneer Women Quilting, located at 206 S. 5th St. in Leavenworth, is open from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays during the summer. To volunteer, send a message to them via their Facebook page.

Photos by Beth Lipoff