The Pitch: October 2020 by The Pitch KC

October 2020 I FREE I THEPITCHKC.COM

RESURRECTING

HAUNTED HOUSES

by Abbey Higginbotham, Allison Harris, Lucia Verzola

Bloodshed Therapy by Abby Olcese

Standing In Cast Shadows by Emily Cox

Fashion Forward by Joseph Hernandez

Bigfoot Taxidermy And You by Abby Monteil

GET OUT Check out more events at

thepitchkc.com/calendar

CONTENTS

THE PITCH

Publisher Stephanie Carey Editor in Chief Brock Wilbur Strategy Director Kelcie McKenney Music Editor Nick Spacek Film Editor Abby Olcese Contributing Writers Emily Cox, Liz Cook, Rachel Potucek, Barbara Shelly, April Fleming, Deborah Hirsch, Brooke Tippin, Roxie Hammill, Archana Sundar, Beth Lipoff, Riley Cowing, Ameerah Sanders, Dan Lybarger, Vivian Kane, Kara Lewis, Orrin Grey, Adrian Torres, Reb Valentine, Aaron Rhodes Little Village Creative Services Jordan Sellergren Contributing Photographers Zach Bauman, Joe Carey, Chase Castor, Caleb Condit, Travis Young, Beth Lipoff, Jim Nimmo, Rebecca Norden, Angela C. Bond Contributing Designers and Illustrators Austin Crockett, Jake Edmisten, Lacey Hawkins, Angèle Lafond, Jennifer Larson, Katie McNeil, Danielle Moore, Gianfranco Ocampo, Lauren Onions, Kirsten Overby, Alex Peak, Jack Raybuck, Fran Sherman, Frank Myles Director of Marketing & Promotions Jason Dockery Account Manager John Phelps Director of Operations Andrew Miller Editorial Interns Allison Harris, Joseph Hernandez, Abbey Higginbotham, Lucia Verzola, Celia Searles Multimedia Intern Hanna Ellington, Andrew Dodderidge Design Intern Katelyn Betz, Erin Hoyt, Connor O’Neill Marketing Intern Whitney Henry, Tyler Infinger

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Chief Executive Officer Stephanie Carey Chief Operating Officer Adam Carey

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DISTRIBUTION

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The contents of The Pitch are Copyright 2020 by Carey Media. No portion may be reproduced in whole or in part by any means without the express written permission of the publisher. The Pitch 3543 Broadway Blvd., Kansas City, MO 64111 For information or to share a story tip, email tips@thepitchkc.com For advertising: stephanie@thepitchkc.com or 816-218-6702

20 5 LETTER

16 ART

KC CARES

6 NEWS

20 FASHION

30 SAVAGE LOVE

Letter from the Editor AHH-OOOOOO, werewolves of Kansas BY BROCK WILBUR

Why We Need to Examine Police Academies Disconnects between police training and policing threaten us all, including officers BY HANNA ELLINGTON

The Eldritch Scale of the Real Exploring the Nelson-Atkins after six months in small spaces BY EMILY COX

Fashion, Turn to the Left West 18th Street Fashion Show pivots from runway to silver screen BY JOSEPH HERNANDEZ PHOTOS BY JEFF EVRARD

10 POLITICS

22 MUSIC

12 FEATURE

24 FILM

Praying for Tidal Waves How embracing this election’s blue wave is our best path forward BY BARBARA SHELLY

Don’t Breathe Haunted houses have devious designs to out-spook a murder virus BY ABBEY HIGGINBOTHAM, ALLISON HARRIS, LUCIA VERZOLA PHOTOS BY TRAVIS YOUNG

Barrier Babes Educating away the stigma around sex and menstruation BY BROOKE TIPPIN

Tales of Going Facebook Official and Trying to Break Up with Someone Who Won’t Let You. BY DAN SAVAGE

Wanna Hear Something Really Scary? Local musicians admit what raises the hair on the back of their necks BY NICK SPACEK

Trauma-O-Rama New study suggests horror fans might be better mentally prepped to cope with our new reality BY ABBY OLCESE

26 Big Fur and Cryptozoological Affairs Local director Dan Wayne discusses his Bigfoot taxidermy documentary BY ABBY MONTEIL

“THE CASTING OF THE BEAST” Photo by Travis Young, Cover Design by Katelyn Betz thepitchkc.com | October 2020 | THE PITCH

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LETTER

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR AHH-OOOOOO, WEREWOLVES OF KANSAS BY BROCK WILBUR

Growing up, I fucking hated The Wolf. In my quiet neighborhood in Salina, Kansas, the bane of each Halloween season was the moment of truth when I would come to face-to-face with my arch-nemesis. And what a fearsome foe I had been assigned. The Wolf was my dad’s friend Jim. Jim’s house was down the street from us by maybe ten houses. Jim and his family were basically our extended family; he was akin to an uncle. So skipping his houses was never an option. Even if I begged for it. Because sitting upon Jim’s front porch was a most unpleasant greeter: The Wolf. The Wolf was the size of a man, and he sat, unmoving, in a large wooden chair directly next to the front door. In order to ring the doorbell, you would have to extend a trembling hand upwards, directly adjacent to his toothy maw. Sometimes, this is when he would suddenly move, to snap. Other times, he wouldn’t move at all—the perfect fake-out. Biding his time. On occasions he would leap and grab you. Once, he stood up to chase me, and I thought that so long as I reached the street he could no longer follow. Turns out those are not werewolf rules, and the goddamned Wolf chased me all the way home. Jim’s house was, inevitably, always “trick” and never “treat.” The Wolf from my youth is perhaps the leaking reason why I don’t enjoy any lycanthrope/werewolf-based entertainment (save the feminist coming-of-age masterpiece Ginger Snaps) and also perhaps why I’ve carried an odd terror relating to even the smallest of dogs well into my adulthood. They could bite me at any time. Traumatizing children is a delightful time for adults. I’ve learned that since. In the summer of 1991, Disney released a Joe Johnston filmed entitled The Rocketeer about a stunt pilot who stumbles upon a jetpack and uses it to fight Nazis and save Jennifer Connelly from an exploding zeppelin, after Timothy Dalton has chewed all the scenery from its gondola. It was what I lived for. In preparation for the Halloween of 1991, I knew exactly what I had to become. And so, for weeks ahead of time, my father and I worked tireless to build a Rocketeer costume for my Halloween adventures. It involved nine layers of paper-mache over a balloon that was roughly the size of my skull. Then adding fins, spray paint, building a rocketpack, the flight suit—I had everything. I was ready. I was The Rocketeer. Look out Timothy Dalton, you Nazi piece of shit. The Great Blizzard of Halloween 1991 struck the midwest and upper midwest of the

Left to right: Brock Wilbur as Rocketeer, Mother, and his sister as a hotdog. TOM WILBUR

United States for the entire final week of October. In Duluth, snowfall reached 37 inches at one point. With windchill, the temperature reached tens of degrees below zero, and close to $100 million dollars in damage was reported, as most of the affected states also experienced power disruptions. This would not deter The Rocketeer. I’d worked too long. I’d believed too hard. Nothing could stop me from participating in trick or treating. My little sister gave me her bag. I would be collecting candy on her behalf, because obviously she would die out in these conditions. With two bags in hand, and almost completely incapable of seeing through my makeshift helmet, my father lead me out into the blizzard. As a second-grade boy, I was just barely taller than the snow, and so my father dragged my body house to house through the frozen tundra. When I rang doorbells, everyone was surprised. Who would dare braze this? No one else was out. Just one rocket-powered child. And then I reached the house of The Wolf. There he was. That awful sonofabitch. Sitting on the chair. And I knew, I knew, I knew in my heart that he was just a stuffed animal this year. No human could sit in these temperatures. I bravely approached the door and rang the bell, unafraid of being bitten. Uncle Jim opened the door. That’s when I knew there was no one inside of The Wolf. I had won. I had overcome my greatest fear. As the last house of the night, I had flown victorious over Halloween. That’s when The Wolf sprung to life and tackled me into the snow. I’ll never know who The Wolf was that night. I’ll never know how long they waited for me and me alone. But I’ll also never forget that Halloween that I overcame it all, including my worst enemy. Fuck you Wolf, I won. I thought that in a year where all victories must be hard fought over impossible forces (including this goddamned disease) that, perhaps, you might need to hear that you can do it. Anything a second grade Rocketeer can do, you can do too. Godspeed out there. Pitch in and we’ll make it through,

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NEWS

DISCONNECTS BETWEEN POLICE TRAINING AND POLICING THREATEN US ALL, INCLUDING OFFICERS BY HANNA ELLINGTON ILLUSTRATION BY KATELYN BETZ

In Kansas City,

incoming police officers spend approximately 1,000 hours training in a police academy for a lifetime career of policing. Of those hours, less than eight percent are spent on interpersonal perspectives, while nearly 73 percent are split between combat, weaponry, and defense training. The unequal divide between community engagement and conflict tactics has civilians and activists demanding change. Throughout history, police officers have been seen as the vigilantes fighting crime on the streets, equitable to superheroes and public saviors. This narrative was reinforced by the entertainment industry, where police officers were showcased as warriors in shows like Live PD and Cops. The career is chalked up to be one of thrill and danger, with police officers being the peacemakers in a world of chaotic criminals. “It’s not an office job, it’s something that has a little excitement,” says Ken Sissom, director of the Johnson County Regional Police Academy. “I always thought I’d be good at it. Probably influenced a lot by television.” Yet the career of being a police officer is unlike what it’s portrayed as. Police are expected to be mental health counselors, conflict navigators, traffic patrollers, law enforcers, report writers, and criminal investigators. All of this, and more, is expected to be learned in roughly seven months for members of the KC Police Department. Recruits train at the Kansas City Regional Police Academy for approximately 995 hours, a number that fluctuates with each class. These 32 weeks are split between legal studies, interpersonal perspectives,

THE PITCH | October 2020 | thepitchkc.com

technical studies, and skill development, according to the academy’s curriculum. Eighty-two hours are spent on legal studies. Interpersonal perspectives make up 78 hours, the least of the four categories. This section includes 32 hours on domestic violence, nine hours on cultural diversity, and one hour on minority relations, according to the KCPD curriculum. Technical studies—like building searches, criminal investigations, and report writing—add up to 327 hours. Skill development rounds out training, with 396 hours spent on various training and practice exercises. Firearms training makes up 120 hours of this category. “Our officers receive some of the finest law enforcement training anywhere in the country,” says Gregory Doll, the director of the KC Regional Police Academy. “Not to say that we’re perfect; we’re always looking for ways to enhance our training. In all of our practical, hands-on training, we’re always looking how we can improve and adjust to whatever the changing needs are.” Following the death of George Floyd by Minneapolis police on May 25, groups of local activists have been demanding police reform. But for Justice Gatson, founder and director of the Reale Justice Network, problems within the police force extend past what can be taught during the police academy. “We can’t train people into that. They have to come with a set of values that say, ‘All of these folks matter, and every single person matters.’ I don’t think they can train their way into or out of this,” Gatson says. Training exercises at the KCPD Regional Academy are continuously updated and reflect current events, as reported by

KSHB. One updated exercise involved a situation similar to the death of George Floyd, which officers say they hope will improve “ethical decision-making,” as told to KSHB. But not all academies are created equal. State-by-state requirements create training discrepancies across state borders, evident in the differences between Kansas and Missouri. “The number of hours that we train is adequate for the area that we police,” Sissom says. “If you want to compare our police department academy to the academy that they give at the LAPD, their police academy is another two to three months longer than ours. The level of training they get is much higher; the environment they’re going to be working in is much different than ours, and I would say they need a longer

academy than ours for that reason.” The differences in state requirements mean police officers across the U.S. aren’t spending the same amount of time in training. For Doll, who is also the Major of the KCPD Training Division, his training in KC outshined his previous training in New Jersey. “Having gone through a police academy that was well respected in the state of New Jersey, and then coming through this academy less than two years later, I felt I was much more prepared through my training here to go out and be an officer on the street than I was there,” Doll says. To become an officer, Kansas requires a minimum of 572 hours in training. Missouri requires 600 hours. KC Regional Academy exceeds this, with officers training for an additional 400 hours, while the Johnson County Regional Police Academy adds 72 hours. The average basic training program in the U.S. lasts 840 hours, or 21 weeks, according to a 2013 Bureau of Justice Statistics study. Comparatively, cosmetologists are required to train for 1,500 hours in a certified school to receive their license in both states. Missouri’s requirements are decided by the Peace Officer Standards and Training Program, which falls under the Missouri Department of Public Safety. The Kansas Law Enforcement Training Center,

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NEWS which is a unit of the University of Kansas, outlines the major requirements for the six satellite training centers across Kansas. The 16-week program at the Johnson County Regional Police Academy is one of six satellite centers. Their curriculum is broken down into 18 different courses, including 18 hours in communication skills, 92 hours in criminal investigations, 41 hours in crisis management, and 64 hours in firearms, among other courses. Apart from the state requirements, recruits at the JCRPA spend additional time training in chemical agents, crowd control and civil disorder, and interaction with special populations, among other categories. These recruits spend 47.5 percent more time in defense tactics than the state requires, according to the JCRPA curriculum. “We train them the best that we can in terms of the general circumstances that we have, and then it’s up to them to go out and apply it appropriately,” Sissom says. “All we can do is give them the tools, they’re the ones that decide when and how to use them.” Budget concerns impact the length of training at area academies. The KCRA and JCRPA train between 20-60 recruits in each class, split into three classes a year. Recruits in training are paid full-time salaries by their hiring agency. “Could we train them more if our academy was longer? Of course. We could expose them to more things, but at some point it becomes cost consideration. They’re being paid full salaries while they’re here, and they are needed to work out on the streets,” Sissom says. More than $223 million, or 87.5 percent, of KCPD’s budget is dedicated to personnel, an increase of nearly $6 million from last year, according to the 2019-20 budget. Instead of focusing on how police can be reformed, Gatson says she wants more money to be funneled into community resources, like mental health counseling. She says community resource workers, like herself, are more knowledgeable about available resources that can better serve the community than law enforcement officers. “Let’s just divest from things that haven’t been working in our communities, and let’s invest in things that do,” Gatson says. “We want to talk about getting rid of violence in our communities, why don’t we actually resource our communities so that folks aren’t in desperate situations and then they do something to try and get food, or do something to try and pay rent.” “I’d rather send a community health worker to a response than a police officer. Why? Because my community health workers know where everything is,” Gatson says. “I have never seen a cop direct people to a food pantry, or help people get set up for

THE PITCH | October 2020 | thepitchkc.com

some type of electrical service or help with an electrical bill. Anything like that. Those community health workers, to me, they’re impactful in the community because they actually help families get what they need.” Gaining knowledge about additional resources is something local officers acquire during their continuing education courses. KCPD officers must spend 24 hours in continuing education courses every year like racial profiling, women’s health, and skills training, according to the KCPD website. “Many officers get significantly more than that, that’s the minimum requirement to be able to maintain your license to be a police officer. At the academy, we’re constantly having outside training,” Doll says. Continuing education may help in filling the gaps for recruits who don’t enter the force with a relevant degree in their background. While the majority of those hired have an education in criminal justice, some recruits don’t, Doll says. Former careers range from construction workers and electricians to teachers and retail employees. Doaa El-Ashkar, a public information officer, was a customer service representative for AT&T and Delta Airlines before she joined the KCPD. She says there’s a benefit to having people from different backgrounds working together in the police force. “There’s a lot [of officers] here that have degrees in criminal justice. But that’s not a prerequisite. In fact, you probably want varying degrees because that’s what makes it diverse and that’s what has everybody bringing different strengths to the table,” El-Ashkar says. Those without a degree may struggle with technical aspects of the job, Doll says. When he entered the force in 1988 with a Bachelor’s degree in criminal justice, he says most officers didn’t have a degree. “The job has become more technical from when I first came on,” Doll says. “We didn’t have computers when I came on, and we didn’t have in-car video cameras or all of the technical stuff that officers use today.” “That doesn’t require a college degree, but it certainly requires knowledge and experience to be proficient with those things. If you don’t have that in your background, you’re going to be behind the curve because you’ll be exposed to a lot of training and concepts that are totally new to you,” Doll says. Another option for officer training is vocational training at area colleges. At Metropolitan Community College’s Blue River Police Academy, students don’t have to be hired by an agency to go through the academy. Instead, they pay their own way to earn a certificate, which is not the same as a degree. This also allows students to skip the vetting process from a hiring agency, an

action outlawed in Kansas. “For someone to sponsor themselves to come to an academy, they would have not undergone a background investigation or any kind of a vetting process,” Doll says. “Whereas, when an agency hires and sends a recruit officer, they’ve conducted a thorough background check and investigation on that individual before they sent them to our academy.” MCC’s full-time academy is also shorter than any other area academy, as students meet the minimum requirements of 600 hours of training. Additional credits are required to earn a degree in police science from MCC, according to MCC’s website. The problems that have infiltrated the police force through training have led Gatson to want a fresh start in terms of policing, she says. “I think it just needs to be burnt down, honestly. We need a do-over,” Gatson says. “We need to get to the moment of truth, and we need to put people in positions that are actually going to hold police accountable.” “Until we get there, there really is no sense in saying ‘How can we be better?’ and ‘How can our training be split?’ because, at the end of the day, if they’re willing to operate with this blue code of silence, and they’re willing to continue to protect each other when they do bad things, then it doesn’t matter about the relationship in the community. It’s a facade.” Law enforcement shifting to a community-minded approach will better serve Kansas City in the long run, Gatson says. “Police need to move away from using punitive measures as a way of correction to doing something that’s much more holistic,” Gatson says. “Being punitive to someone who’s poor and can’t afford to pay the ticket, it’s just never going to help them, ever.” “We have people who are police officers who don’t care about the communities they serve. They can’t say Black lives matter because they don’t believe it. They can never have a good relationship with Black communities,” Gatson says. By definition, a police officer is someone responsible for maintaining public order and safety, enforcing the law, and preventing crime. While police forces may have lost sight of this role, Gatson says we need to remind them of their true role in society. “Police need to remember, and we need to remind them, that they work for the community,” Gatson says. “I want to see us get to a place where police isn’t used as a weapon the way that it is now.”

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POLITICS

PRAYING FOR TIDAL WAVES HOW EMBRACING THIS ELECTION’S BLUE WAVE IS OUR BEST PATH FORWARD BY BARBARA SHELLY

Kansas City, it’s time to show the world who we are. It’s time to show ourselves who we are. Are we the city where fans booed a demonstration of racial unity during a nationally televised football game? Or are we the city where people of all races turned out for protests and prayer vigils to deplore the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and our own Black neighbors killed by police? What represents Kansas City—the hate we see on social media or the gorgeous Black Lives Matter murals painted on our streets? Here’s how we resolve the question: We vote on Nov. 3. We vote in numbers never before seen in these parts. Everybody votes! Just turned 18? Great. Your first election is epic. Just turned 90? Wonderful. Let’s make certain you get a ballot and that it gets counted. And, in case anyone thinks this is a bland appeal toward civic responsibility, it’s not. This is political. We need to vote Democratic, up and down the ballot. We in the Kansas City area need to make our own blue wave, one so big and beautiful it gets noticed in Jefferson City, Topeka, even as far as Washington. It sucks that, when the votes in the presidential election are counted, Missouri and Kansas are nearly certain to be counted for Trump in the damnable Electoral College. These are red states, and we probably can’t change that between now and Election Day. But don’t let that discourage you. This is about us making a statement. And electing a Democratic governor in Missouri. And a U.S. senator in Kansas.

THE PITCH | October 2020 | thepitchkc.com

Four years ago, 60 percent of registered voters in Kansas City—about 130,000 people—went to the polls, and 75 percent of them voted for Hillary Clinton and her Democratic running mate, Tim Kaine. Not. Good. Enough. We need more voters and more Democratic votes. Same with our suburbs. Why vote for Joe Biden, a 77-year-old gaffe-prone white guy? We have a million reasons. Because he’s fundamentally decent. Because he has Kamala Harris, the face of a better, emerging America, as his running mate. Because he understands the threat posed by COVID-19. Because good people will work for a Biden administration—people who care about human rights, the environment, and our rule of law. Because Biden will restore our standing among other nations. Because he won’t consort with tyrants. And this. This above all. Because Joe Biden is not Donald Trump. Who out there is not exhausted by the daily outrages this orange-haired man inflicts on our citizens, our psyche, on our notion of what America is supposed to be? If you raised your hand, you either have the stamina of Atlas or you are a Trump voter and we don’t even know why you’re still reading this piece. There is no place even to begin. The man lies about everything. His lies have killed people. He blatantly seeks to divide us along the lines of race and religion. He says white supremacists are “very fine people.” His administration rips children from the arms of parents who come to our southern border seeking nothing but safety. He wants

A Blue Wave could save us. ILLUSTRATION BY FRANK MYLES

to occupy cities with federal troops, not because he worries about the safety of citizens, but because he despises our diverse communities, our tolerance, and our ideals. Trump’s attorney general, William Barr, stomps all over our rule of law. His secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, is a puffed-up toady, unfit to be our face overseas. Anthony Fauci, one of the few trustworthy public faces left in government, has to be protected by

armed guards because he speaks the truth about the COVID pandemic and his life is threatened for doing so. Trump, meanwhile, suggested that we all drink bleach. Need more motivation? Vote because Donald Trump is trying to stop you from doing so. He’s trying to scare us from voting by mail. He wants to put security forces at the polls in swing states—but only in the

places likely to vote Democratic. Let’s hoist the man on his own oversized petard and run the score up against him. The same goes for the governor and secretary of state in Missouri. Mike Parson and Jay Ashcroft want to make voting as difficult as possible, especially in the cities and Democrat-friendly suburbs. With the pandemic in full swing, they had to be browbeaten into easing up on restrictions against mail-in voting, and even now most people will have to pay a notary to stamp their ballots. With COVID cases remaining high, Ashcroft persists in tweeting deceptive messages telling us that in-person voting is perfectly safe. This is the duo, remember, that wants to all but outlaw abortions in Missouri. Parson signed the legislature’s 2019 bill banning abortions after eight weeks of gestation, with no exceptions for rape and incest. Ashcroft nixed any hope of overturning the law with a citizens’ petition by delaying approval of the ballot language until it was too late to gather enough signatures. With outrages pouring out of Washington in an endless spigot, it’s easy to lose sight of the damage that Trump’s clones are wreaking in our states. (All of the Republi-

can party is Trumpian now.) Missouri voters have great Democratic candidates, with state auditor Nicole Galloway running for governor and West Point graduate, Army combat veteran and lawyer Yinka Faleti running against Ashcroft. The governor’s race, in particular, is winnable with a big Democratic turnout. And, while we’re at it, let’s cheer for our friends in Kansas to elect Barbara Bollier to the U.S. Senate. Let’s do this, people. The deadline to register to vote is Oct. 7. Absentee ballots are available now. You need to print out a mailin application from the secretary of state’s website, and mail it to your local election board. Or walk the application into your election board’s office or satellite office. Rock the numbers, Kansas City. We have a chance to show Donald Trump’s establishment in Washington and the state capitals that this region is a force to be reckoned with. Vote big and vote Democrat. Vote for a city and a country where Black lives do indeed matter, where immigrants are valued, where we lift people up instead of stomping them down. That’s who we are. And if that is who we aren’t, I weep for us all. thepitchkc.com | October 2020 | THE PITCH

FEATURE

DON’T BREATHE HAUNTED HOUSES HAVE DEVIOUS DESIGNS TO OUT-SPOOK A MURDER VIRUS BY ABBEY HIGGINBOTHAM, ALLISON HARRIS, LUCIA VERZOLA PHOTOS BY TRAVIS YOUNG

he spookiest time of the year is about to get a bit more spine-tingling for Kansas City, thanks to the growing presence of COVID-19. In a city with nearly 35,000 total COVID cases reported since March, Halloween is going to be unrecognizable from any previous iteration. Instead of canceling most events, many haunted productions plan to plow ahead with social-distanced scares. Halloween is a massive industry for Kansas City, so businesses are moving to hyper-sanitized haunted houses and maskedup trick-or-treaters. All scares aside, what could possibly be more frightening than a global pandemic? (A chainsaw. Real close to your face. Thought that answer would be obvious.) Unfortunately, some local staples will not be opening at all this October. “Halloween Haunt” at Worlds of Fun has been canceled for 2020, and the park will not reopen until 2021. Full Moon productions chose not to open the “Macabre Cinema” or the “Chambers of Edgar Allen Poe” for the Halloween season. However, the majority of KC haunted attractions will be ready for spooks like any other year, just with extra precautions. Amber Arnett-Bequeaith, the “Queen of Haunts,” grew up in the haunted house industry. Her family created and founded the Edge of Hell in 1975 when she was five years old. Nearly 50 years later, she is now the vice president of Full Moon Productions, the company that runs “The Edge of Hell,” “The Beast,” “The Chambers of Edgar Allen Poe,” and “McCabre’s Cinema.” Arnett-Bequeath put out a press release on September 8 regarding how they will be reopening Kansas City’s famous West Bottoms haunted houses this season. “We assessed whether we should open or not. We know more than ever, people need an outlet to break out of the doldrums, and that brings joy. It’s funny how staged-scaring does that,” Arnett-Bequeaith says. “We’ve taken so many precautions, such as requiring customers to wear masks, taking temperatures, hand sanitation, and meeting with city and health officials.” As a national spokesperson for the

THE PITCH | October 2020 | thepitchkc.com

haunt industry across the country, Arnett-Bequeaith is confident that care has been put into handling how best to open this season. She acknowledged that the decision to attend haunted attractions this year is one that individuals must decide for themselves. “It is the public’s responsibility to self-distance themselves. The rules are put out there by our government officials, and [we’re] all meeting those, but everyone needs to be responsible for themselves. You sign a waiver saying that you will do so before you enter.” “[It] comes down to listening to rules, keeping ourselves safe and kind but in the haunted attractions,” Arnett-Bequeaith continues. “So some people cry, scream, cough, crawl, pee their pants, or run. So, you know, it’s the same thing. You may have to stop and be a little bit patient and not run into someone else, or of course, we’re taking your temperature, there’s sanitizing stations, but these are all the things in our normal world now.” She continued: “We’re a very safe, family-oriented environment about celebrating a holiday that’s all about becoming something that you’re not every day. And that’s what we hope to continue to share as we embark on the 30th year of ‘The Beast,’ which is unbelievable. We do continue to face our own fears and provide an amazing, safe environment. But at the same time, we’re all responsible for our own choices.” Arnett-Bequeath sees another difficultly that comes with 2020’s changes: Navigating how to accomplish a sense of team camaraderie between the attractions’ actors. “We normally have food time together where we feed our actors. They’re talking about the different aspects of the show, we’re going over safety, we have a pre-meeting, then they go into makeup, then they go into costume. And right now, the change will be, they will be responsible for makeup and costume. They’ll have a pre-meeting but social distance. And their eating time, we will still provide for them because for a lot of them, this is part-time work, and they come straight from work, especially on a Friday night to be here, so they will be served in a very formal way with social distance[d] tables and things like that.” On September 9, Full Moon held open

Background: Jennifer Kolb, during the casting audition at The Beast. Above: Haunted House performers getting their temperature checked prior to walking into The Beast.

FEATURE

auditions for “The Beast” and “The Edge of Hell,” the two of four attractions chosen to open this season. It was the first time they ever had to face a decision of opening options in the 45+ years of continuous “Edge of Hell” runs; making it the oldest commercial haunted attraction in the United States. Though Full Moon has downsized its team compared to their usual number of employees needed when all four attractions are open, many extra workers are essential to keep even one haunted house up and running. “Just to get in the door is gonna take about 12 people. It’s a huge staff just to make sure everything is taken care of,” says Arnett-Bequeaith. The presence of the coronavirus didn’t stop veterans and newcomers from attending the audition to work here. Emma Turley showed up to audition day at “The Beast” in full-body devil makeup she created herself. Currently enrolled in cosmetology school, she sees working at the haunted houses as a way to help her accomplish her dream of becoming a special effects artist. Though her family was supportive of her decision to audition, Turley is worried about the possibility of exposing her family to the virus if she were to work at a haunted house. Jennifer Kolb, who has worked at the West Bottoms as a street character for seventeen years, is less concerned about what playing her part might threaten, as she works in the medical field during the day. This year, auditionees were faced with the challenge of incorporating a mask into their costume. Kolb accomplished this by hand-making a prosthetic out of liquid latex, paper towel, and toilet paper that she detailed with paint and fake blood, and then attached to her fabric mask with wiring from Christmas tree ornaments. Her efforts came together to create her character’s mouth as the “main jester” of the attraction. Harry Lewetzow—known in costume as Rat Man—has played almost every character at The Edge of Hell over the 35 years he has been in the business. He met his wife there, and all his children have worked there as well. “Rat Brat, my second youngest daughter, has been in the show lately and loves the rats like I do.” Lewetzow feels it is important for both visitors and workers like himself that the attractions open this season. “We see people go through year after year who say the release from their haunt visit was just what they needed. Maybe it is the day’s stress or a bad month for them. We don’t ask, but as we say, their screams and laughter are our applause. When you see the joy of scaring, you get hooked to working the haunts.” With the precautions set in place for actors and visitors alike, Lewetzow isn’t concerned about the virus. “It would be a bummer if I don’t pass the temperature check,

because I won’t be able to work, but I get it.” The live rats he works with every year scare him more than COVID-19, he says. “It keeps me on my toes because I never know if they are going to bite me or not.” If you are looking for something more historical that can still give you the chills, turn to the real haunted houses of Kansas City. For those less interested in jump scares and interactive Halloween attractions, various historical establishments are hosting haunted ghost tours this season, with new rules in place. The Wornall Major House Museum offers ghost tours in the fall that bring in hundreds every year. Sarah Badar-King, the curator and director of the public programming and events, gave a little background on the home: “The Museum is a non-profit organization that manages two of Kansas City’s most historic structures—the John Wornall House at 6115 Wornall Rd and the Majors House on 8201 State Line Road. We offer ghost tours and paranormal investigations of the Wornall House, often rumored to be one of the most haunted Kansas City locations,” Badar-King says. Because the house brings in so many customers each season, tour planning takes a large part of the year to prepare. However, the museum did not predict what 2020 would bring. Badar-King explained that they didn’t know what reopening would look like, if even possible: “We didn’t know what to expect. We were closed from March until mid-May. We expected to be back in the office by April, but we feel confident that we’ve made the changes to keep people safe at our programs and tours.” The museum has made many changes in order to keep their patrons safe. They require all customers to wear masks and have removed all of the museum’s touchable elements. They have also limited the number of people allowed in the museum for public tours, shortening the duration of tours to ensure visitors can maintain six feet of distance. “Everything seems to be changing daily. We are always aware of the possibility of shutting down, we will deal with that if it comes,” Badar-King states. “Our main concern is keeping everyone safe. As for our Ghost Tours, we will offer full refunds for tickets if we decide we can’t hold the event safely and have to cancel.” Wornall Majors Museum remains optimistic that they have done their part to ensure visitors enjoy themselves. Because many people look forward to the ghost tours every year, it’s important to the staff that they keep the event going rain or shine. “Community and traditions can bring us closer together even when we are physically separated,” says Badar-King.

Above: A trio sits inside a Full Moon Productions haunted house in Below: Emma Turley stands outside of The Beast in devil makeup.

Another historical, but slightly less scary, site to visit this Halloween is the St. Joseph Museum, home to the Glore Psychiatric Museum—a popular site associated with paranormal groups in the area. The museum was founded in 1968 by occupational therapist George Glore, who maintained the original exhibits that are still on display today. They were first created to be shown at an open house on mental health awareness. The museum always hosts the annual “Spend the Night at the Glore” event on the first Saturday in October. This year the event will have some extra COVID-19 adjustments, but they have also added new elements. Sara Parks, the programming and events manager at St. Joseph museums, spoke about the changes they have made for this fall: “Some of our changes included adding social distancing marks and paths inside the museum. We have also installed many more hand sanitizer stations throughout the building, limiting cash transactions, and masks are mandatory for visitors and staff.” If you’re interested in creepy history, these two museums are a great stop for safe

2019.

CAROLINA VANBUSKIRK

and exciting activities this fall. However, it can be difficult for families to decide what potential health risks are worth taking in the name of holiday tradition. In the time of a global pandemic, Halloween presents a bit of a moral dilemma for many homeowners who put on their own haunts and parents with children who would typically trick-or-treat. In cities like Los Angeles, trick-or-treating or trunk-ortreat events are specifically discouraged by city regulations. No such guidelines have been put into place yet for Kansas City, but it is likely they will come further into the season. Mark Allen, a homeowner in the KC metro, has put on a home-built haunted house for the last 24 years. Their haunt is a staple of the Olathe area, and they frequently encourage food donations to local food banks and charities. “In all of our years of setting up this Halloween display, we have never experienced anything remotely close. We have had to make changes due to snow storms but never anything like this,” he says of the challenges his home haunt will face this year. With a haunted house that usually thepitchkc.com | October 2020 | THE PITCH

FEATURE

This performer incorporated a mask into their costume for The Beast’s auditions this year. TRAVIS YOUNG

Mark Allen’s home decorated for Halloween 2019.

takes about three or four months of planning, it was tough for Allen and his family to imagine back in May that Halloween might be threatened ultimately. “We thought all of this would be over in a month or two. We were very surprised that we are still experiencing COVID-19 in September,” Allen says. Their planning for a global pandemic Halloween is still in the works. “We are considering whether to have a drive-by only display for the month of October and with no trick-or-treaters on Halloween. We are also looking at options to give candy out while being socially distanced safely, if possible. As the fall progresses, we want to make sure we balance our tradition with keeping our family, friends, and neighbors safe. As we get closer to Halloween, we will see where things stand before making a final decision.” Allen stresses that some traditions are essential to keep running to keep spirits up in a turbulent year for families of all kinds. “I think a lot of regular fall traditions are being upended this year. Going to the commercial haunted houses, fall festivals, etc. all seem to be out for this year. I think

THE PITCH | October 2020 | thepitchkc.com

COURTESY OF MARK ALLEN

finding ways to safely continue family traditions are even more important given our current situation and its impact on everyone. I think the traditions help give us a little bit of normalcy in a terrible year.” For trick-or-treating, Kansas City parents seem to be divided. With many younger children going back to school in-person and most fall festivities taking place outdoors, the risk level looks relatively low. However, the sheer amount of people that take part in trick-or-treating each year presents its own issues. Eric Schmidt, a father of two young children, explained that his feelings are not strong either way about the safety of taking his children out on Halloween. “I don’t think there is a ton of risk in it. But there could be. It just really depends. There are much worse activities going on every day. But there is definitely some risk.” Megan Gunn, a mother of 13 and 16-year-old Halloween enthusiasts, says the spooky season will be different for their family, despite their love for the holiday. “Both the kids and I don’t feel comfortable going out and about trick or treating. So we will stay home and do a scavenger hunt

in costumes and possibly video chatting with [their] grandma.” Chase Higgins, Kansas City native, says he will be allowing his daughter to trick-ortreat this year, but only if her costume has extra precautions built-in. “If we’re able to trick her into wearing a mask, by telling her it’s part of her costume, we might be able [to] coddle her sensitive nature without too much of a fight because ‘protecting her from a global pandemic’ should be ‘fun,’” Higgins says. Despite the challenges COVID-19 has brought to Kansas City, the spirit of Halloween is alive and well in the metro area. While traditional trick-or-treating may still be up in the air for many families, there will be opportunities for scares throughout the city. Haunted attractions putting precautions in place is one thing, but expecting visitors to follow these rules is another. Even if guests pass the temperature test, wear a mask, and maintain social distance while at haunted venues, these attractions have no control over what people do prior to arriving for their night of fun. With bars still open, late night haunts give adults the opportunity to come from

a night of drinking, where there are multiple people around who are most likely unmasked if they partaking in the drinking, to a haunted house, surrounded by more people. The super-spreader potential is endless. As much as we would like to believe that these haunted houses are completely safe to attend because of the care establishments have carefully implemented, they are not. It is up to the patron to decide whether it is in their best interest to attend haunted houses and ghost tours during a global pandemic, a decision that makes Halloween fear a whole lot scarier. Once inside haunted houses, will attendees being chased have the self control to remember to maintain distance between themselves and the group ahead of them? Who will stop if they don’t? Perhaps the masked monster chasing them can also serve as chaperone/health cop. And all of this exists around the additional variables of whether or not children are involved. People must remember that when you choose to partake in interactive attractions this Halloween season, the sign you’re traditionally used to seeing has become quite literal: “Enter at your own risk!”

thepitchkc.com | October 2020 | THE PITCH

ART

Emily Cox sits in front of Claude Monet’s Water Lilies.

THE ELDRITCH SCALE OF THE REAL EXPLORING THE NELSON-ATKINS AFTER SIX MONTHS IN SMALL SPACES BY EMILY COX

I paused in the high-ceilinged atrium of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Along with the rest of Kansas City, I hadn’t been here for at least six months. It was the last Saturday in August, and the museum wasn’t yet open to the public—just to its volunteers, its most elite members, and me. I wanted to see something big, so I headed towards Monet’s Water Lilies. Passing through the familiar baroque galleries on the way, Caravaggio’s Saint John the Baptist in the Wilderness stopped me in my tracks. I took slow steps closer, looking up at John, moody and imposing, larger than life. The high drama of the painting had my mouth gaping under my mask. I haven’t been in the presence of anything like that, not for months and months. At once, the museum felt like a playground; I had the urge to giggle, to run around from piece to piece, too many riches to take in. I toured the museum, returning to paintings I’ve loved for years, like visiting old

THE PITCH | October 2020 | thepitchkc.com

friends. Or I would stand in the middle of a gallery, swiveling my head at the feast around me, seeing what I hadn’t before. Josef Albers’ Homage to the Square was a pool of rich colors I wanted to soak in. I could feel my muscles relax, the more time I spent in the museum. I wanted to speak to the statues. I looked at Guanyin of the Southern Sea, I asked if he’d been lonely there, too, if he looked forward to having visitors once again. Without other museum guests hanging around, I lingered. There was no polite jockeying for position, no rushed viewings when you know someone else is waiting nearby. Fascination bubbled through me, clearing away pandemic-era detritus of worry, alarm, fatigue. I found myself appreciating works that I usually pass by without a glance, like the stained glass peonies by John La Farge. I usually find Kandinsky annoying (sorry Kandinsky fans), but on this day, even Kandinsky could do no wrong. Deep gratitude welled up as I saw new

things after months mostly spent in my apartment looking at screens. Doris Seidler’s Cathedral II was a marvel of textures, but looking at an image online now, it looks forgettable. The textures that jumped out at me in person fall flat on the screen. While I’m typically quick to critique museums for the norms they enforce, here, on this day, I was reminded how the museum offers a sacred space in which to be transformed by art. And all the virtual gallery tours in the world can’t make up for the in-person experience. Like with Anselm Kiefer’s Lichtfalle: At over 18 feet wide and 12 feet tall, it swallowed me whole. The depth of the mixed media, including glass and wire, creates a world unto itself. I am moved by its scale and intricacy, by the attention it demands. There are also artworks that just make more sense in person. Their occupancy of the space in the museum gives them weight. Look for the dual light bulbs of Felix Gonzalez-Torres’ Untitled (March 5th) #2 next time you’re in the Bloch Building. Reading the placard about this AIDS crisis-era work, then stepping back and looking at the piece, I felt a kick in the chest. There are changes at the museum, of course. While entrance remains free, they are asking you to register for tickets in advance of your visit so they can monitor occupancy levels. Travelling exhibitions and programming are all on hold at least their

TRAVIS YOUNG

GET OUT The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art Reserve your free tickets at nelson-atkins.org Hours: Mon 11-5; Tues & Wed closed; Thurs 11-9; Fri 11-5; Sat & Sun 10-5. Members can visit an hour early on open weekdays, starting at 10 a.m.

next fiscal year, beginning next May. But the Nelson’s collection runs deep, and new exhibitions will be curated from within. Gordon Parks x Muhammad Ali, which opened less than a month before the museum closed, will also bless museumgoers for an extended run through April 4, 2021. Parks’ portraits of Ali notice tender details of the young boxer. I was surprised to find photographs so mesmerizing, when I spend so much time, everyday, with photographs scrolling on my phone screen. But the grain of the prints made from film neg-

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atives gave me goosebumps. The subjects were there in the room with us. With nothing else but white walls, I was immersed in the composition, the story, the aliveness of Ali. While standing before Water Lilies, I’d looked at those flinging brush strokes, and I could see Monet’s hand in them. Later, I stood in front of the Eagle Feath-

ways to soothe those alarm bells of loneliness. (I had resisted the Zoom-hangout trend but then discovered that my biweekly virtual book club brings me so much joy from that togetherness.) But I do wonder for how long we will feel an aversion to being near others physically, for how long we will register the physical presence of others as a potential threat?

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Deep gratitude welled up as I saw new things after months mostly spent in my apartment looking at screens. er Headdress by an unnamed artisan(s) of the Northern Cheyenne. I could see the sweat stains on the fabric lining its interior; I could see the imprint of the man who wore it. Georg Pencz’s miniature engravings, just three inches wide, had me leaning forward, face near the glass, to make out all the tiny lines, all the incredible detail. I could imagine Pencz, too, leaning close, muscles cramping. Looking at each piece of art felt like forging a connection through space and time with the people who created them. The communion I felt with the artists through their handiwork was healing for the months of pandemic loneliness. I could feel the people present, and time collapsed around me. The museum didn’t feel empty; it felt vibrantly alive. Loneliness often perpetuates itself. We are wired to need others and raise the internal alarm when we are too alone. That clanging alarm often interferes with actually getting our social needs met; we enter hypervigilance where it’s easy to see rejection or abandonment everywhere we look. Being physically isolated from one another at a time when most of us could desperately use the comfort and care that being around other people provides is the worst irony of this pandemic. We are finding new

THE PITCH | October 2020 | thepitchkc.com

Maybe being near the physical creations of others can offer a surrogate social experience. Early in the pandemic, I exchanged snail mail letters with several friends. Handwritten envelopes with folded papers inside capturing whatever they were feeling and experiencing in the moment they wrote it. Receiving those, I felt as giddy as I did in the museum. This imprint of another human’s effort and creativity—of their existence—felt like a treasure. I felt less alone. Being at The Nelson, seeing the art in person, the full mind-body experience, the visceral reactions, it was something I hadn’t known I needed. Go. Let yourself be pulled down the hall by William Keith’s Sunset Glow. Whisper to the statues, ask what they’ve been up to without us. I smiled as I walked around, my turbulent brain calmed and focused on just what was in front of me. The cacophony of my pandemic anxiety quieted in the face of works of art that brought me fully present. All I needed was the companionship of the artists through their work, and the curiosity they evoked. At the end of my visit, I felt fed. As if, after months of eating dinner alone in front of the television, I shared a meal with dear friends, laughing and telling stories. Satisfied like that. I didn’t know a museum could do that.

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FASHION

FASHION,TURN When COVID-19 hit the country in midMarch, it put everything in the future on hold. Concerts, clubs, sports, museums, and just life in general shut down as we found ways to combat the virus and stay safe. Events racked up cancellation or postponement announcements. People wondered “what’s next?” as they couldn’t continue with their daily activities, jobs, or passion projects. Some, like Peregrine Honig, dipped into their bag of tricks to keep the ball rolling. Honig is in charge of the West 18th Street Fashion Show. As the creative director, she navigates the narrative of the show’s history and future, interlacing fashion and fine art. Originally from San Francisco, she’s been with the show since its inception in 2000. She and her team planned 2020’s show a week after the conclusion of 2019’s show with Bauhaus as the theme, which translates to “construction house.” Originating in 20th century Germany, the regime denounced Bauhaus artists for their “degenerate art” and later destroyed everything. Hosting this year’s edition was going to follow the format of previous years. It would feature a 100-foot runway constructed on a one-way city street created to platform regional conceptual garment makers. Models of all backgrounds, races, ethnicities, genders, shapes, and sizes would strut their stuff in beautiful clothing created in the designer’s image. The music playing in the background by artists contacted to play a role would fit the mood. Being there felt like a movie.

THE PITCH | October 2020 | thepitchkc.com

And then the pandemic forced a change of plans. The show, scheduled for June 13, would no longer take place. The team committed to finding a way to put on a show that would leave a lasting impression while following social distancing guidelines. They’d have to do something out-of-the-box to bring a unique flavor for fashion to Kansas City.

about Bauhaus and how to approach topics such as a pandemic and numerous cultural revolutions, a lot of things would be handled differently. Filmed in 19 of Kansas City’s most famous venues in 10 days, Summer in Hindsight takes viewers on a journey with Arsenia, as he goes through the experiences that they’ve all faced and how everything from

So they made a movie. Honig went from creative director to screenwriter. Emmy-award winning cinematographer Jeremy Osbern agreed to be the director of photography right before production. Khitam Jhibar became the movie’s director, sculpting the vision Honig had in mind. Calvin Arsenia added the main character role to go along with his duties as the music supervisor. The long runway transformed into an endless catwalk fit for the big screen. Bauhaus is still the theme. It fits with modern times and the film’s title, Summer in Hindsight. Knowing what people know now

grocery shopping to visiting family takes on new levels of weight and anxiety in the wake of COVID-19, as says by Osbern. “It is a film that is designed to showcase the work of 11 creators and in a way, acknowledges the current state that we’re living in, both with the racial revolution that we are watching and participating in, as well as living in a pandemic,” Arsenia says. “We’re trying to bring beauty in spite of the era and beauty in spite of the pain and beauty in spite of this feeling of isolation and coming together in spite of social distance.”

Creating the Magic Making a movie is hard enough, but doing it during a pandemic takes it to extreme difficulty. Each venue had guidelines to follow. Masks had to be on at all times. Everyone on set made sure to keep each other in check with constant reminders to wash their hands. If one person got sick, then everyone was probably also going to get sick, and that means this film might not have moved past the first day of shooting, much less completion. Shooting might be slow and there is a smaller crew, but safety became the priority. Osbern says that he turned down several jobs because he didn’t feel safe in those environments. “We had a really high-quality air filter company step forward and donate money to us and they also donated filters,” Honig says. “Every room where we had a green room, there was an air filter so when people are sitting and actively eating that room is also filtered. I’m not bragging, but it’s like ‘Damn, we are really pulling this off?’” Photographer Jeff Evrard spoke more about the working conditions during the film. He says that there was a lot of effort in trying to be there and be in every situation while maintaining social distancing. The protocols made by the different locations also made this a unique time to shoot, as it’s been quite a bit since the last pandemic. He couldn’t always talk through the mask to get what he wanted, making his role difficult. Everyone on the same page makes shooting great, as different groups of people

FASHION

TO THE LEFT were together in pods to shoot based on the venue they were at. He mentioned that he hasn’t had as many handlers on his work, which boosted his patience. “You have this kind of gravity that this is going to be important down the road,” Evrard says. “Besides just photographing models and designers, it just felt like we were all kind of doing something special.” The air filters and patience help, but this creation wasn’t possible without everyone’s involvement. Producers, directors, cinematographers, designers, models, musicians, and photographers were all-in on bringing this to reality. Celeste Lupercio, the executive producer, notes that it was a quick turnaround to finish the film and that it was awesome to have the crew they had to help them out. The designers are the only part of the crew that benefited from the pandemic. Their deadline for creating the clothing expanded from three to eight months, giving them plenty of time to craft it in their image while keeping the Bauhaus theme. In a perfect world, there would be no bumps in the road. But... There’s always a problem and it always comes at the worst time, as designer Van Shawn can attest to. Hailing from New Orleans, not only did he have to overcome traveling during a pandemic, but also Hurricane Laura, funding, medical conditions, and pushing himself to the finish line. Despite the challenges he encountered, everything fell right into place. “Once you get over those challenging moments or those challenging times, you definitely see the promise on the other side,” Shawn says. “It’s just getting over it or getting beyond, getting past, getting through that particularly difficult time.” One of his challenges, as he completed the looks, was solved thanks to a friend who purchased the shoes for the models, followed by a donation from his family. It led to an idea to add hairpieces and headdresses to bring the authenticity of New Orleans culture to Kansas City. He also drew inspiration from Mardi Gras Indian culture, which is in his bloodline. Shawn also mentioned how the music goes hand-in-hand with what’s on-screen. It facilitates and narrates the film and it wouldn’t be this way without Arsenia’s input. Arsenia asked each designer for the sounds

and music that inspires them. Whether it’s modern or something they grew up, his goal was to create original music reflecting their collections and their musical influences. “The designers have provided me with music that inspires their creative process, ranging from Red Hot Chili Peppers to Marvin Gaye, to Einstürzende Neubauten and the Dirty Projectors,” Arsenia says. “The scope of this soundtrack is incredibly daunting, but I think I like it like that.” Arsenia may like it like that, but he’s also “fucking scared” at the task of completing a complex soundtrack. He’s performed in thousands of shows in front of audiences, been on dozens of recordings, and written dozens of songs, but hasn’t scored a film. He and collaborator Mike Dillon have their hands full.

Strike a Pose For many of the models, this is their first time being in a film. Preparing for the runway is a beast in itself, but filming brings a new set of challenges. Gone are the days of backstages filled with models that are stressing out due to the pressure of walking in front of hundreds, sometimes thousands, of people. It’s replaced with connecting with the audience and catching their attention by presenting themselves as largerthan-life. After all, they are on the big screen. Summer in Hindsight marks the acting debut for Arsenia. He called it an emotional rollercoaster, as it was exciting and fresh because it’d been so long since he was around a group of people. Being on camera for nine consecutive days drained his energy, and he now understands why actors want a trailer on set. Arsenia isn’t the only one making his big-screen debut, as models Robin Rubash, Vincent Sung, and Jessie Green all appear with him at various points throughout the film. Rubash got into modeling thanks

to a friend’s recommendation. The ball kept rolling and Rubash’s appearances kept growing and it eventually led to connecting w i t h Honig. The two always wanted to do something together, and last year’s show marked the first time they did. Coming back for 2020, what they had planned for her wasn’t what she had in mind. The same can’t be said for Vincent Sung. A University of Missouri-Columbia graduate, he’s a regular for Honig, as he’s modeled for Honig’s store Birdies and has been a part of the show for years. However, his portion of the film also wasn’t what he expected when he signed up to participate. Green works at Birdies and also walked the runway in 2019 for the show. She was more than happy to help Honig, as she offered her assistance to model for anything if an extra was needed. Green says that being on set was fun, new, and interesting since her shot involved her doing something her mom didn’t want her to do as a child. The West 18th Street Fashion isn’t the only thing the three models share. They all represent communities that aren’t on the big screen as much as they should be. Rubash, a trans-woman, Sung, an Asian man, and Green, a Black woman, all recognize that people like them don’t get to shine in front of an audience as much as others. They all shared the same sentiment in that they hope to inspire people like them and show

WEST 18TH STREET FASHION SHOW PIVOTS FROM RUNWAY TO SILVER SCREEN WORDS BY JOSEPH HERNANDEZ PHOTOS BY JEFF EVRARD

them that they can do this. “I just want to be able to tell other girls that are just transitioning (that) you can do it. If they want to be a model, they can be a model,” Rubash says. “I think it’s important to be seen in general in my trans body because when I was growing up, I didn’t see any of that. Trans-women were nonexistent to me so it’s nice to be able to just exist to be someone else’s inspiration.” “It feels really good not only because of my ethnicity, but because I was the only male model in [Honig’s] collection, which is women’s lingerie,” Sung says. “For me, as a male model to represent her brand, it was an honor.” “It’s a very big thing to see brown and Black people in these films because it does uplift people. I know when I was a kid, I did not see myself, and I felt some type of way and to be an adult, I have to make it a point to put myself out there so that other kids can see themselves in me,” Green says. “I hope that some young person sees me and is like, ‘I can do that too’.” That diversity is what makes the show stand out. People deserve to see themselves do incredible things. Society’s standards on what’s hot and what’s not can only hold up for so long until people get tired of seeing the same thing over and over again. An authentic face on the runway—or film, for that matter—could inspire another model to accomplish the next big thing. Hindsight is 2020, and the West 18th Street Fashion Show film is hoping to give us all a fresh look at exactly that. thepitchkc.com | October 2020 | THE PITCH

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WANNA HEAR SOMETHING REALLY SCARY? LOCAL MUSICIANS ADMIT WHAT RAISES THE HAIR ON THE BACK OF THEIR NECK BY NICK SPACEK

Even though we’re not likely to have any Halloween parties this year, there’s no excuse not to have a holiday playlist of spooky songs at the ready to set the tone. If nothing else, given the nightmare hellscape in which we currently find ourselves, songs of doom and creepy circumstances can offer a sense of cathartic release. And, should we ever reach a point where folks can get together again safely, these songs offer up a chance to craft a sonic palette beyond obvious and playedout choices you’re going to hear playing in every cleared-out former department store now housing a Spirit Halloween. I love Bobby “Boris” Pickett’s “Monster Mash” as much as the next person, but it’s not really scary. These songs, though? Get ready to have your hair turn white and your blood chilled.

James Infirmary,” sung by Cab Calloway. I find it very spooky given we are living in a pandemic. The gravity of death we are constantly reminded of on a daily basis gets me thinking about how I, my friends, and loved ones want to be remembered when we pass. As Cab sings the haunting lyrics, it reminds me that life is short, loved ones can be lost, and visions of how we want to be remembered are hopefully somewhat true to the stories we tell ourselves to sleep at night. The horn section in this song has the delicate balance of what Heaven, Hell, or nothingness could sound like when we find ourselves stretched out on a long white table.

Kemet Coleman, Rapper, urbanist and entrepreneur Tech N9ne, “Tormented” from Anghellic

Waits sounds like he and the band entered a haunted barn in the middle of nowhere and proceeded to create instruments out of the broken tools and wood scraps they found. Wait’s voice seems to summon the spirits as he paints a scene where “crows as big as airplanes” and “locust take sky” as we face “his” wrath. “Hell doesn’t want you and heaven is full, bring me some water and put it in a skull” is my favorite lyric, I think, but the whole piece is amazing and feels as apocalyptic as 2020 continues to be. By the end of the song, I’m convinced the spirits began jamming with the possessed band.

If you look at the album cover for Anghellic, it will give you chills! Tormented scared the shit out of me largely because of the beat. The composition is undeniably dark and the vocal delivery is reminiscent of “Let’s Get Fucked Up,” giving it that Kansas City rap flavor. The feature from Grant Rice was perfect, in my opinion, because it framed Tech’s more precise yet rapid fire delivery with a dark reprieve I didn’t expect to experience during my first listen. I love the first bars of the song, “One for the devil two for my God,” because it explains the inner conflict Tech N9ne tried to convey but unfortunately, many folks who didn’t know his art thought he was a devil worshipper! Also, the sound effects are teeming with voices of hell, bombs, etc., making it a perfect Halloween song for a Kansas City hiphop fan! Julie Berndsen, Lead singer of Other Americans/backing vocals for Brandon Phillips and The Condition Cab Calloway, “St. James Infirmary” A song that chills me to the bone is “St.

THE PITCH | October 2020 | thepitchkc.com

Enrique Chi, Making Movies and founder of Art As Mentorship Tom Waits, “The Earth Died Screaming” from Bone Machine

Chase Horseman, Film composer/ singer/producer Jeff Buckley, “You & I” from Sketches For My Sweetheart The Drunk I was 12 when I discovered Jeff Buckley. He tragically drowned six years earlier in 1997. I was gobbling up any and all recordings I could find, as I had become absolutely obsessed (he’s my Elvis). Jeff ’s posthumous release, Sketches For My Sweetheart The Drunk, included a song that stopped me dead in my tracks the first time I heard it. It was absolutely horrifying. My almost-teenaged nerves couldn’t handle the brooding, gaseous atmosphere of the final track on

ILLUSTRATION BY KATELYN BETZ, PHOTO BY TRAVIS YOUNG

Disc 1, “You & I.” The vocal sits on top of this bed of hums and incantations that Jeff looped. “You were my only hope...” the disembodied voices called, drenched in a washed out reverb, as if it came from a corpse floating down the Wolf River. The ambient bed in the track is akin to something from Brian Eno’s desolate Ambient 4: On Land. It wasn’t until I had gotten a little bit older and learned more about the meaning behind the song that I was able to dive in and let the wash of my dead hero’s voice chant “You & I, You & I, You & I,” without having to do the listening version of running up the stairs at night. TyFaizon, Blackstarkids Sufjan Stevens, “The Only Thing” from Carrie & Lowell “The Only Thing” by Sufjan Stevens is a song that gives me the chills. It’s not intentionally scary or even bold in its sound. It’s actually really minimal in sound. What gives me the chills about it is how bluntly it tackles mortality. The album that it’s on, Carrie & Lowell, is about Sufjan dealing with the death of his mother. “The Only Thing” stands out to me the most, because it highlights how close we all are to our own

death. Realizing your mortality can be depressing and discouraging, but I try to use that fear as motivation to live the limited life that I have to the fullest. Britt Adair, Record buyer at Josey Records/Creative director at Firstcut Marketing Run The Jewels, “Walking In The Snow” from RTJ4 I turned my computer all the way up right after I downloaded the full album. I listened to the whole thing, track one to eleven. “Walking In The Snow” wasn’t my favorite song on the record, but I found myself rocking my body and cringing at the same time. It felt good and bad, equally messed up for my brain and my body. Killer Mike and El-P’s lyrics are super-calculated and resonate the realness of this shit year. RTJ doesn’t give the listener much time to breathe. You are told a messed-up story, really fast, and are trapped between voices as they take turns spilling the truth. I got chills because that messed-up story is a reflection of living in 2020 America. “... We be the heroes, the breakers of chains and the busters of locks (locks, locks)

You be them suckers supportin’ them snitches that talk to the cops This the Illmatic of turning your face in to fucker foie gras I’m not so sure opportunities knocking, it’s probably the law...” Jocelyn Olivia Nixon, Singer/ songwriter for The Creepy Jingles Radiohead, “Everything In Its Right Place” from Kid A Every time I hear this song, the hair stands up on the back of my neck. I legitimately have a general sense of dread and unease. It’s quite unsettling, alien, and cold. Now you’re probably saying to yourself, “C’mon Joc: that sounds a tad dramatic,” but you don’t know the background on my first spin. To set the scene, it was probably around 2002: I was at a friend’s house, and younger me had stupidly ingested copious amounts of cough medication an hour beforehand. An egregious amount, honestly. I was listening to something familiar like Rubber Soul, then this song comes on and kicks off Kid A and it certainly set the tone for one of the strangest and most disturbing experiences of my life. This song was not only my soundtrack, but my Virgil guiding me deeper through the nine circles

of my own personal hell. On a brighter note, I haven’t coughed since. Brodie Belt, guitars in Migrator and Drifter Battle of Mice, “At the Base of The Giant’s Throat” from A Day of Nights The entire album is essentially the Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours of post-metal, lyrically revolving around the abysmal relationship between singer Julie Christmas and guitarist Joshua Graham, but this particular track takes the crown for most unsettling. The final two minutes contain a stomach-churning 911 call that the band never gave an explanation for, nor ever confirmed if it was, in fact, a real call. Regardless, it’s a sobering reminder of the evil and horror people are capable of inflicting on one another, and (ostensibly) the realities of domestic abuse. It’s an album that, while lyrically dealing with these heavy subjects, is musically one of the most cathartic of the genre, but with this two-minute clip it brings that catharsis to a grinding halt and instills a stifling sense of hopelessness, effectively dragging you back to square one along with Christmas as she tries to navigate the minefield that is her relationship. thepitchkc.com | October 2020 | THE PITCH

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SILVER SCREAMS Inspired to awaken your inner horror fan? Try these socially-distanced options for spooky season viewing.

Friday Night Frights Join Greg Dedrick and Jenius McGee for a horror movie at Screenland Armour every Friday night at 9:30 p.m. Upcoming films include The Hunger, Videodrome, and Prince of Darkness. Check screenland. com for tickets and safety information. Shocktober Screenland is also hosting its annual Shocktober festival this month. Among the events on tap is a mystery triple feature hosted by Dedrick and McGee. Check Screenland.com for a full schedule of Shocktober events, tickets, and safety information. Horror at the Drive In Join Kansas City Horror Club at B&B Theaters Twin Drive-In on Oct. 17 for a 7 p.m. double-feature of Trick ‘r Treat and Pumpkinhead. There’s a swap and shop before, with horror themed crafts and vendors starting at 4 p.m. Visit the Kansas City Horror Club’s facebook page for ticket information. Panic Fest Goes Virtual On Halloween itself, you can enjoy a virtual film festival from KC’s own Panic Fest, including movies, shorts, podcasts and livestream Q&A sessions. Tickets and details are at panicfilmfest.com/tricks.

ILLUSTRATION BY ERIN HOYT

THE PITCH | October 2020 | thepitchkc.com

TRAUMA-ORAMA and PTSD related to the loss of her husband, and how it’s impacted her relationship with her son. “The ghost couldn’t be gotten rid of, it had to be confronted, accepted and lived with,” Gevargizian says. “I found that so beautiful and moving.” Dedrick and Gevargizian’s experiences aren’t isolated. In a recent study, researchers from the University of Chicago, Pennsylvania State University, and Denmark’s Aarhus University found that horror fans exhibited greater psychological resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic than non-horror fans. According to the study, the findings suggest horror fiction—in the form of literature, comics, or film—gives those who engage with it a scenario that helps them build up effective emotional coping strategies. In other words, that thirty-one day Slasher-Thon you’ve got planned for October might be more than seasonal entertainment. While you’re enjoying Freddie, Jason, or Leatherface, your psyche is helping you figure out how to navigate a real-world crisis. Film critic Anya Stanley, a lifelong horror fan, says the study’s finding mirrors her own experience with the genre. “I have generalized anxiety disorder, and so my body is constantly reacting to threats that do not exist. Horror innately operates in this space, and knows the feelings of dread and paranoia as intimately as I do,” Stanley says. “I already know how to function under extreme stress, but horror is a safe, removed way to engage with those feelings and sort of cozy up to my own demons.”

genre—always works on us beyond a surface level. “When we watch movies or read novels, we’re not just killing time. We’re actually charting the huge metaphorical landscape of possible worlds and hypothetical scenarios,” Clasen says. “What’s special about horror is that the genre lets us chart the dark areas of that landscape—the pits of terror and the caves of despair.” Clasen says that another important survival skill horror can communicate (beyond not splitting up and not going into a creepy, boarded-up basement) relates to the frequent social and political subtexts horror movies contain. “Horror fiction is very often about prosocial, altruistic, self-effacing characters confronting selfish, anti-social evil. I do think that the best horror works tap into not just ancient defense mechanisms in human nature but also societal fears,” Clasen says. Clasen gives George Romero’s classic zombie movie Night of the Living Dead as an example. “That’s about a basic fear of being eaten, but also taps into existential fears about the meaning of life as well as topical fears about the collapse of society, which were very much on people’s minds in the U.S. in the late 1960s.” Coltan Scrivner, who co-authored the study with Clasen, specializes in the psychology of morbid curiosity. A horror enthusiast himself, Scrivner speculates that part of his study’s findings may relate to the mindset of morbidly curious individuals. “I have a suspicion that if you approach something scary with curiosity, it changes how you think about it. With fear, it’s a worst-case scenario. With curiosity, it’s questions that don’t spark fear,” Scrivner says. “I think that might be partially the case with people who are morbidly curious. With coronavirus, they may not think ‘Am I going to die from this?” but rather ‘What does it do to your body?’ I don’t think they’re less afraid, just more interested.”

How does horror teach us? Mathias Clasen, an Associate Professor of English at Aarhus University, and one of the horror study’s co-authors, tells The Pitch that the fiction we consume—regardless of

I’ve got a gut feeling Jenius McGee is the President of the Kansas City Horror Club and co-hosts Nightmare Junkhead and Nerds of Nostalgia with Greg Dedrick. McGee says he agrees with Scriv-

NEW STUDY SUGGESTS HORROR FANS MIGHT BE BETTER MENTALLY PREPPED TO COPE WITH OUR NEW REALITY BY ABBY OLCESE

When you ask Greg Dedrick if a horror movie has ever helped him through a difficult time, he’ll give you a very specific answer. “Four or five years ago, I was going through a divorce and knew I was depressed but never really said it aloud,” Dedrick, cohost of the KC-based podcasts Nightmare Junkhead and Nerds of Nostalgia, says. Dedrick says the movie that helped him move forward was The Invitation, Karyn Kusama’s 2015 horror thriller in which a man’s ex-wife unexpectedly invites him to a dinner party with their estranged friends. “There’s a moment at the end when a character expresses grief and regret, and I just started bawling because I realized I didn’t want to be that person going ‘Boy, I really regret not doing that,’” Dedrick says. “This was a horror film that made me address my mental health in a real way. Horror helps heal, without a doubt.” Local filmmaker Jill Gevargizian has a similar story about watching Jennifer Kent’s The Babadook, which focuses on a widow and her son who are terrorized by a storybook demon. “That film truly rocked me,” says Gevargizian, whose debut feature The Stylist premiered at this year’s online Fantastic Fest. “I saw it a few years after my father passed away and it portrayed exactly what I went through, still was going through. The feeling of wanting to run away from it, to ‘get over it.’ Well, you don’t get over the loss of someone like the father of your child, or your parent. It’s something that changes you and lives with you.” In the film, the monstrous Babadook represents the main character’s lingering depression

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ner’s theory: “It’s not that nothing scares us, it’s the opposite,” he says. McGee says the fact that horror films also contain strong themes of action and consequence also makes them good social learning tools. “Us horror fans have seen the ill repercussions of what happens when we don’t listen. It makes us more aware of it,” McGee says. “We know we should close the beaches because there’s a shark attack. We’re more prepared because we know the consequences, because we’ve seen it before.” Some of those consequences are practical, like closing the beach if Jaws is feasting on unsuspecting swimmers. However, McGee says, they can also be existential. “A lot of horror movies show the ramifications of not dealing with grief, like Pet Sematary,” McGee says of the Stephen King adaptation in which a father resurrecrts his head child. “If you don’t deal with the root of the problem, it’s gonna eat you alive and consume you.” Anya Stanley says horror films also reward characters’ gut instincts when something feels wrong. “I have trouble discerning the difference between anxiety and intuition—I second-guess my gut instinct because it can lie,” Stanley says. “No genre is more aware of our collective slippery grasp on reality than horror. Seeing [Rosemary’s Baby protagonist] Rosemary Woodhouse have her reality and body manipulated by insidious Satanic forces is an odd comfort because, in horror, especially those dealing with cults, that gut instinct is right. There’s validation in that.” Let it bleed McGee says there’s another way that horror can help build emotional resilience: catharsis. “Sometimes after a rough day, it feels good to see people get hacked the fuck up,” McGee says.

“If you work in an office setting, and your boss is riding your ass all day long, watch Mayhem and check out some corporate shenanigans. I’m not the biggest fan of Midsommar, but I hear that movie helps. Whatever helps you release is always a good thing.” Catharsis can also impact different groups of viewers in different ways. Jill Gevargizian points to Coralie Fargeat’s 2017 rape-revenge film Revenge as an example. “I found Fargeat’s choices so incredibly confrontational and meaningful,” Gevargizian says. “She made the protagonist unapologetic and unashamed of her sexuality and sexual power. It asks the viewer, do you objectify her? Do you shame her? Do you blame her?” Dedrick says that feeling of release and emotional processing comes out not just through viewing films, but in the making of them, and the movie’s response to specific forms of fear. “Horror is a good way of responding to societal ills. The way that the world is right now, here in a few months, we’re going to see some really creative art that’s been generated through a lot of suffering.” McGee agrees, and says the ultimate strength of the genre is its ability to adapt to new cultural settings. Fear, after all, is universal, but the things we fear—and how we respond to them—are changing all the time. “It’s always gonna be there for someone, because there’s always going to be someone with a new perspective and a new form of fear that nobody thought of,” McGee says. “We wouldn’t have had Host 20 years ago,” he adds, referring to the 2020 horror film that takes place over a video chat. “Horror is for everybody. If more people understood what horror represents, we might have a better understanding of not just the genre, but each other as well.”

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thepitchkc.com | October 2020 | THE PITCH

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Behind the scenes on permanently capturing Big Foot. DAN WAYNE/WEDGE FILMS

you know, shares that same habitat with all of these other animals that we know are in danger, you know? But to me, Bigfoot stands for wilderness, because it’s this animal that thrives—it can only thrive in the wild, and we are losing our wild spaces so quickly that we run the risk of losing even the concept of a Bigfoot.

BIG FUR AND CRYPTOZOOLOGICAL AFFAIRS LOCAL DIRECTOR DAN WAYNE DISCUSSES HIS BIGFOOT TAXIDERMY DOCUMENTARY BY ABBY MONTEIL

When it comes to the art of taxidermy, the creator’s goal is generally to make a preserved animal seem as lifelike as it was when it was really alive. But what do you do when the creature you’re mounting hasn’t been conclusively proven to exist? Kansas City filmmaker Dan Wayne explores that question in his new documentary, Big Fur, which documents World Champion Canadian taxidermist Ken Walker’s quest to build an eight-foot-tall Bigfoot replica named “Patty” from Styrofoam and animal skins. “I’d been following some taxidermists with the idea of making a movie that’s character driven, and he was kind of at the top of the list,” says Wayne, who was working on his first documentary feature after years of collaboration with another local director, George Langworthy. “[Walker] told me that he was gonna make a Bigfoot, and that’s when I knew I had found a movie.” Even more than it touches on the art form of taxidermy or unveils the mythology of Bigfoot, Big Fur serves as a delightfully quirky portrait of Walker himself—a fervent Bigfoot truther who delights in recreating extinct and endangered animal species and

THE PITCH | October 2020 | thepitchkc.com

recounting his former days as a professional Roy Orbison impersonator. As the documentary unfolds, the taxidermist’s dedication to finishing his cryptid becomes much more certain than the trajectory of his own life—which is turned upside down on screen when he begins a shortlived affair with his friend and former mentee, Amy Carter, and balances his talent with his ability to meet the monthly mortgage. But even as Big Fur juggles these storylines, it all comes together thanks to its deadpan charm and inarguably one-of-akind protagonist. We spoke to Wayne about capturing Walker’s persona, what it’s like to own a Sasquatch in his living room, and more. The Pitch: Big Fur focuses on both Ken’s approach to taxidermy as an art form, while also incorporating the folklore of Bigfoot’s supposed existence. How did you strike a balance between including both of those subjects? Dan Wayne: Well, it was kind of tough. It helps that Ken is funny, and he doesn’t take

himself too seriously, but I was always struggling to make sure that I wasn’t making fun of him. So that was kind of a fine line, editing-wise. My initial goal was to make people appreciate taxidermy as a legitimate art form, and I think it’s successful in that way. Because I really started practicing [taxidermy] at about the same time that I started hanging out with him, I also learned a ton from him. He’s real happy with the film, which helps. And there’s certainly Bigfoot movies, Bigfoot documentaries out there, and I didn’t have any interest in doing that. I’m not trying to make anyone believe in Bigfoot, but I would like them to kind of consider the importance of Bigfoot, and maybe why it plays this big role in popular culture, and maybe because of what it stands for. The film also touches on how the mythology surrounding Bigfoot is tied to a larger mission of preserving the wilderness. Making the film, I was always surprised to find out that one of [hardcore Bigfooters’] main objectives is to preserve Bigfoot’s habitat. And I thought that that is completely ridiculous, when you consider that Bigfoot,

Did making this documentary change or challenge your own thoughts about Sasquatches and their existence? I had never thought about Sasquatch twice before I met Ken. I mean, I can recognize it in the pop culture sense, but it was never a big deal for me. But being up in Canada and the Pacific Northwest, there’s some areas up there that are just real wild. It really isn’t that far-fetched that they think something that was intelligent could live up there and elude humans if they wanted to. When I’m home, I don’t think so much about it. When I’m with Ken—almost every conversation with Ken ends up being about Bigfoot in some way. And he’s a pretty compelling character, and it’s hard to discount everything. The documentary also takes time to explore the impact that Ken’s passion for taxidermy has on his personal life. How did you make the decision to include his relationship with Amy? What were those conversations with Ken like? It came as a huge surprise to me when it happened, and it was very late in filming. And I believed they had a special relationship, but I had no idea that they had full-on fallen in love with each other while they were both still married. The three of us had the conversation about it, because ultimately, the movie is a biographical portrait of Ken Walker. I tried to do a version of the film without that part in there, and it just—the end of it just didn’t seem to make sense, because they were always together in the frame, and just the way Ken’s life changed after that, I felt like I really had to include it. Then there were also rumors being spread in the taxidermy community that Ken had taken advantage of her, which was not the case. So part of the reason to include it was to kinda clear the air, and really let people know what really happened. I know that Big Fur hit a number of festivals before COVID hit, like Slamdance and Big Sky, but what has remotely promoting and releasing a movie during the pandemic been like for you? A real challenge, because every other filmmaker is in the same boat I’m in right now. So we’re all out there pounding the social

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pavement, trying to get people’s attention, and people’s attention span right now is really small. The thing about Big Fur that I had going in my favor was that I’ve got Patty. I’ve got the 8-foot-tall sasquatch here in my living room, and I have a van that’s covered in fur that is specifically designed to get people’s attention and to haul her around. Ken told me he’d do anything he could to help me promote the movie, so I asked if I could borrow Patty for a while, and take her to screenings, and he was fine with that. So he gave her to me. Are you planning on keeping her in the living room for the foreseeable future? What are you guys thinking about doing?

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GET OUT Big Fur is now available to rent or buy on video on demand.” Can we move that to be a box, or ital it, or something to set it off?

I don’t know. My girlfriend—I think she’d prefer to have a little extra space in here. [Laughs.] I would probably try to find at least a temporary home in a museum somewhere. There’s several Bigfoot museums around. She’ll probably find a home somewhere else, where more people can see her. thepitchkc.com | October 2020 | THE PITCH

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THE PITCH | October 2020 | thepitchkc.com

Barrier Babes was first conceived in 2018, when Maddie Womack decided to put 100 condoms in both the male and female bathrooms on a Friday at RecordBar in Downtown Kansas City. By Sunday morning, no condoms were left in either of the bathrooms—and one of the buckets holding the condoms was missing too. (Hope it went to good use?) Two hundreda condoms picked up over a two-day period proved people would take condoms if given the chance. Whether they used them or not is a different story, but that question is one Barrier Babes hope will be answered in the yearly STI reports to come. After that first condom drop, between 2018 and 2019, STI instances in Kansas City did indeed drop by 28 cases. Although Barrier Babes can’t prove for sure those 200 condoms pocketed at RecordBar helped those cases, the program did provide free condoms to make sure people were having safe sex that weekend or in their future sexual endeavors. Barrier Babes believes in transparency, especially when it comes to sexual health education. They aim to work with the community to bring a safe and inclusive environment, where even the seemingly most embarrassing questions are comfortably asked. The youth of Kansas City deserve to have access to the resources, education, and products they need. Barrier Babes strives to educate on topics of sexuality, health, and menstruation through educational programming and to provide important resources such as tampons and pads in local schools and condoms in businesses like local bars and hangout spots. Their hope is that by providing crucial sex education and protection, they can tackle rising STI rates, as well as the stigma around sex and men-

A Covid friendly drop off of period products to A Turning Point.

struation. Their mission is to change the sexual health landscape of Kansas City for the better. In May 2019, Womack, Founder and CEO of Barrier Babes, was sitting at work when she heard the news of a dangerous abortion ban spreading across the county that would limit access to safe abortion significantly. Womack wanted to create a rally in solidarity with the first state set to be attacked, Georgia. She ended up inviting Planned Parenthood to co-host, which brought in the American Civil Liberties Union, The Kansas/Missouri Dream Alliance, Rep. Judy Morgan, Justice Gatson, and other important community figures. The rally ended up having nearly 5,000 attendees, and participants brought in several hundred condoms to benefit Barrier Babes. Throughout the pandemic, Barrier Babes has continued to grow their partner-

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ships and provide products and resources to the community. Currently, they are working with Kansas City Public Schools, A Turning Point KC, and BlaqOut KC. Unplanned pregnancy rates have gone up during quarantine, so condoms are especially needed right now. Period products are always in high demand as well. If interested in providing contactless donations, please notify them of your donation beforehand by emailing micheala@barrierbabes.org. All monetary donations go towards the collection and distribution of condoms and period products to be shared freely to continue to promote safe and healthy sex as well as alleviate the hardships that stem from period poverty in Kansas City. A $20 donation to Barrier Babes provides 20 condoms or a menstrual pack including seven pads, seven tampons, and seven liners. To make a donation visit: barrierbabes.org/donate

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SAVAGE LOVE

SAVAGE LOVE TALES OF GOING FACEBOOK OFFICIAL AND TRYING TO BREAK UP WITH SOMEONE WHO WON’T LET YOU BY DAN SAVAGE

Dear Dan: I’m a straight man who’s been dating a woman for not quite four months. In the beginning things were light. But things started to get heavy quickly. Two weeks in she revealed her very serious abandonment issues and then began asking me whether I really loved her and demanding reassurance that I wasn’t going anywhere and she wouldn’t be “just a single chapter” in my life. After a month, I met her sevenyear-old son, her parents, and her ex. Then we had a pregnancy scare. She told me that if she was pregnant she would keep it because then I would have to stay. That alarmed me. I voiced that we’d been dating for a very short time and this wasn’t a good time for either of us to have a child. She wasn’t pregnant, luckily. Even before this incident, my body had started to manifest signs of anxiety—upset stomach, sleepless nights, loss of appetite, etc. So, I summoned up all of my courage (conversations like this are extremely difficult for me) and told her that I couldn’t do this anymore. She started to cry and begged me to give her a second chance. I wound up spending the rest of the weekend at her place and agreed to stay in the relationship. But I didn’t feel good about it. When I finally got back to my place, I felt anxious, confused, hollow, and hopeless. I tried to end things again after speaking to my therapist, but she won’t take no for an answer and constantly brings up the promises I made her about really loving her. I hate this, and I feel terrible for her son. Any thoughts on how to dismantle this thing? Or do I just need to run? Passionate Reassurances Extracted So Soon Undoes Relationship Exit Dear PRESSURE: As I explained to a reader in a similar situation… “We need someone’s consent before we kiss them, suck them, fuck them, spank them, spoon them, marry them, collar them, etc. But we do not need someone’s consent to leave them. Breakups are the only aspect of our romantic lives where the other person’s consent is irrelevant. The other person’s pain is relevant, of course, and we should be as compassionate and considerate as possible when ending a relationship. (Unless we’re talking about dumping an abuser, in which case safety and self-care are all that matters.) But we don’t need someone’s consent to dump them.” Voice that it’s over, PRESSURE, and then refuse to get drawn into negotiations about whether it’s over. It’s over. If she needs to cry on someone’s shoulder, she’ll have to call a friend. And if she brings up the promises you made after she “revealed” her abandonment issues weeks into this relationship, apologize for not being strong enough to resist her obvious—if possibly subconscious—efforts to manipulate you. She shouldn’t have asked you to swear your undying love after you’d known each

THE PITCH | October 2020 | thepitchkc.com

other for such a short time, and you shouldn’t have made the promises you did. You failed her and yourself by not telling her it was too soon for that shit—too soon to say “I love you,” too soon to know whether she would be a chapter in your life, too soon to meet her son (!), her parents (!!), and her ex (!!!). Demands for premature reassurances of everlasting love, like all demands for premature commitments, are intended to make exiting the relationship more difficult. Not for the person making the demands, of course; they’re always free to go. They make it more difficult for the person those demands are being made of to go. And while I’m not calling your girlfriend an abuser, demands for premature commitments are often red flags for abuse; being asked to make a premature commitment after a few weeks or months— by moving in together or adopting a dog or (God forbid) getting married—makes it infinitely harder for a person to leave once the mask slips and they see the abuser lurking behind it. Again, I don’t think your girlfriend is an abuser, but she weaponized her insecurities (“It’s nice to meet you, now let me tell you about my abandonment issues!”) to extract what amounts to premature commitment from you. And she involved her son in that effort, which is really unconscionable. And while that’s on her, PRESSURE, not you, you should’ve refused to meet her son so quickly and seen her desire to introduce you to him as a red flag. Learn the lessons, PRESSURE: When someone you’ve only recently started dating says, “Will you love me forever?,” the correct answer is never, “Of course I will!” The correct answer is always, “I think you’re a wonderful person and I want to keep seeing you but we can’t know—at this stage—what the future will bring.” If they respond by saying, “You know what? You’re right,” keep seeing them. If they respond by melting down and bringing up their abandonment issues, well, they’ve just demonstrated that they aren’t someone you would want a future with. And finally, I’m #TeamAmanza on the issue of meeting a new partner’s children from a previous relationship. You should be seeing someone for at least six months to a year—you should be well out of the honeymoon phase if not quite into the farting-infront-of-each-other phase—before being introduced to your new partner’s kid(s). Dear Dan: I’m a 32-year-old straight man dating a 31-year-old straight woman. We’ve been seeing each other for eight months and became “Facebook official” (if that’s still a thing) in June. We are both in our first serious relationship after being divorced from relatively long marriages. (Me: eight years, two kids. Her: ten years, no kids.) My question is when does suspicion—

suspicion of cheating—become something you should bring up? I tend to spill everything that’s going on in my life, which she says she appreciates but isn’t used to doing. She’s a very independent person, which I’ve never experienced before. It’s refreshing to know that my partner has her own friends, but there are moments when I get stonewalled. Sometimes I get vague answers or no answers about where she is or who she’s with. She often tells me she “accidentally” turned off her notifications. Sometimes she will say she’s staying in, and then I later find out that she went out. Maybe I’m taking things way too seriously considering the amount of time we’ve been together, but I feel I have to take things seriously since kids are involved. The Absent Girlfriend Dear TAG: The uncharitable read: Your hunch is correct and your new girlfriend is being cagey about where she’s going and who she’s with because she’s cheating on you. The charitable read: Your new girlfriend is 31 years old, she was married for ten years, and you’ve been dating for eight months. Math has never been my strong suit but assuming her marriage didn’t end five minutes before you met, TAG, your girlfriend married very young. Which means she spent her entire adult life—most or all of her twenties and possibly a chunk of her teens—having to answer to a spouse. She only recently began to experience the kind of autonomy most of us get to enjoy before we marry and settle down (if we marry and settle down), TAG, and she may be reluctant to surrender that autonomy so shortly after achieving it. She may also have different ideas about what being Facebook official means. Does that mean you’re monogamous? If it does, does she define monogamy the same way you do? Some other questions: Was going Facebook official your idea or her idea? Did you ask for a premature commitment? You’re only eight months in—is it possible you involved your kids too soon? You obviously need to have a conversation with your girlfriend— if you can get her on the phone—about your expectations and definitions. If you expect her to let you know where she is at all times and who’s she’s with, TAG, make that clear. But if that is what you expect, well, here’s hoping she dumps you. Because even if you lived together, even if you were married, even if she wanted to spend the rest of her life with you, your girlfriend would still be entitled to a little privacy and her autonomy. Question for Dan? Email him at mail@savagelove.net. On Twitter at @fakedansavage.

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