The Pitch: March 2022 by The Pitch KC

Lotuspool Records Proudly Presents

“Our Music” The Bump Band

Jerald Scott (known as Bump Funk) was legendary in the Kansas City soul scene. From the late 60’s to the early 80’s, Bump and his bands electrified crowds across the country with live performances that rivaled the largest names of that era. “Our Music”, the Bump Band’s only full-length album, was recorded in 1983, but the original recordings were lost for decades. Recently recovered and remastered, Bump and Lotuspool Records knew that “Our Music” had to be shared. all streaming services and everywhere you buy music! Get “Our Music” on a

www.lotuspool.com 2

THE PITCH | March 2022 | THEPITCHKC.COM

March 2022 CONTENTS THEPITCHKC.COM

Courtesy of Lotuspool Records

Music

Bump Up The Jams BY NICK SPACEK For local label Lotuspool Records, getting their hands on the never-beforereleased 1983 album from The Bump Band was like unearthing the Library of Alexendria—if it were a funk music goldmine. For 50 years, the album was hiding on a tape record in Jerald “Bump” Scott’s attic. Now, it’s digitized and ready for the ears of the music world at large.

Sex & Love

Keep Them Coming BY KRISTEN THOMAS If you thought the Screenland Armor Theatre was the longest-running cinema in Kansas City, well—do we have a surprise for you. That title belongs to none other than The Strand on Troost. Its speciality? Pornos. Local Sex & Love columnist Kristen Thomas will have you stranding at attention as she explores the back rooms this analog-era sex theatre that’s survived into the 2020s.

5 LETTER

12 CULTURE

22 FOOD & DRINK

6 POLITICS

18 POLITICS

23 Eat/Drink This Now:

Letter from the Editor Chaos goblins of change BY BROCK WILBUR

Union Stations Collective action and capitalism’s reaction in hospitality BY LIZ COOK

MAAC + ME It’s all about boundaries, baby BY TYLER SCHNEIDER

Outrage Factory Northland Parent Association’s censorship approach to education BY BARB SHELLY

20 CULTURE

Affirma Wear Compression as affirmation BY KRISTEN THOMAS

Photo by Nicole Bissey, illustrations by Shelby Phelps

Thinking Outside the Pizza Box Devoured’s Jhy Coulter serves up a signature slice of life BY LIZ GOODWIN

The Breakfast Burrito at Mattie’s Foods & The Naranja (Orange) Gin and Tonic at La Bodega BY LIZ GOODWIN

Cover photo by Travis Young

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THE PITCH | March 2022 | THEPITCHKC.COM

March 2022 CONTENTS THEPITCHKC.COM

26 EVENTS

March Events For more events, visit thepitchkc.com/calendar BY MICHAEL CRIPE, FANTASIA WESLEY, THOMAS WHITE, ADAM WILBURS

29 SEX & LOVE

Savage Love Cunning linguist BY DAN SAVAGE

KC CARES

Hear2Help BY BETH LIPOFF

KC Cares design by Nidhi Shenoy

Letter from the Editor CHAOS GOBLINS OF CHANGE Welcome to the March issue of The Pitch. Our theme this time around is Changemakers. Many of these “changemakers” are positive influences on this community. Some of them are “positive,” perhaps, but iffy based on your perspective of the world. The one thing we wanted to tackle out of the gate here is the changemakers that are difficult to define as either positive or negative. Let us celebrate our local chaos goblins.

Westport Circle. Apparently this roundabout adjacent from Historic Westport is somehow a foundational piece of the city’s infrastructure, because we can find no other reason that it hasn’t been yeeted into the sun at this point. The vaguely pentagram-shaped axis is home to an outrageous number of traffic accidents. It also features a park that has been a refuge and protest site for the unhoused in recent years. If anything in KC represents a Bermuda Triangle of functionality, it’s this little hub.

Jungle Law. Our city’s artistic cornerstone of billboards features a long, complicated narrative series combining the beleaguered state of cavemen, the annoyance of DUIs, and the communal experience of rallying against #MeToo situations at the office. We’re fairly certain that the Main Streetbased law firm is fighting for the good of Kansas Citians, but the cartoonish imagery of the advertising makes us wonder if the

whole establishment would be better suited for a NewGrounds animated series.

Hi-Dive Lounge’s Mystery Beer. What you get is what you get. This is a general philosophy for 39th Street as a whole, but the mystery dispenser at Hi-Dive is that kind of chaos made manifest. I’ve never received a can of anything technically “good,” but I have taken on a few flavor pranks well worth the couple bucks.

Almost Andy Reid. Matt Black looks like Chiefs head-coach Andy Reid. As such, he’s spent the last few years participating in a bunch of fun, viral social media nonsense the actual coach doesn’t have time for. In 2021, we got to know Black much more intimately when he accidentally appeared in a pro-Scientology rap music video. He was not thrilled about the situation, but we were thrilled to become friends with a man who could find himself in such otherworldly situations—representing a different dude. Marsh’s Sun Fresh. I met two of my best friends here while waiting in a 90-minute checkout line on Thanksgiving Day 2019. This was also a place where employees have vomited on me twice. Truly, Westport’s best night spot. But only circa 3 p.m. on Wednesdays. Keep up the great work. Liz Cook. The Susan Orlean of food crime. The Michael Pollan of booze mistakes. Gonzo Louie Theraux’s slightly more-evil twin. The Mandalorian of mouth mistakes. We highly encourage you to subscribe to her Substack “Haterade” at your earliest convenience. If you like what she writes for us, you’ll be horrified to read what she writes for herself. Come for the Midwest mayon-

Editor-in-Chief Brock Wilbur President & Chief Operating Officer Andrew Miller Director of Strategy Lily Wulfemeyer Digital Editor and Staff Writer Savannah Hawley Director of Marketing & Promotions Jason Dockery Assistant Editor Steph Castor Music Editor Nick Spacek Film Editor Abby Olcese Contributing Writers Emily Cox, Liz Cook, Barbara Shelly, April Fleming, Liz Goodwin, Justin Burnell, Beth Lipoff, Tyler Schneider, Kristen Thomas Little Village Creative Services Jordan Sellergren House Designer Miroslav Pavlovic Contributing Photographers Zach Bauman, Chase Castor, Travis Young, Jim Nimmo, Chris Ortiz Contributing Designers and Illustrators Nidhi Shenoy, Megan Galey, Katelyn Betz, Shelby Phelps, Enrique Zabala Editorial Interns Michael Cripe, Fantasia Wesley, Thomas White, Adam Wilbers

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naise nightmares; stay for the Jeppson’s Malört curses.

The Bridge on Independence Ave. For 20 years, the Independence Avenue bridge has feasted upon semi-trucks, with no end in sight for its bloodlust. Standing at exactly 12 feet, the city has spent nearly $100k on signage to make drivers aware of the concrete murder-mouth that keeps decapitating large vehicles. By nature of that streak, you can tell the signage is not pulling off its intended goal. We’ve reached the point where The Bridge on Independence Ave. has its own social media account for celebrating its latest victims. While the piece of infrastructure continues to go viral for its brutality, KC Public Works is proposing ways to increase safety.

The Pitch distributes 20,000 copies a month and is available free throughout Greater Kansas City, limited to one copy per reader. Additional copies may be purchased for $5 each, payable at The Pitch’s office in advance. The Pitch may be distributed only by The Pitch’s authorized independent contractors or authorized distributors. No person may, without prior written permission of The Pitch, take more than one copy of each week’s issue. Mail subscriptions: $22.50 for six months or $45 per year, payable in advance. Application to mail at second-class postage rates is pending at Kansas City, MO 64108.

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Pitch in, and we’ll make it through.

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POLITICS

Union Stations

COLLECTIVE ACTION AND CAPITALISM’S REACTION IN HOSPITALITY By Liz Cook

t wasn’t a worker shortage, it was a wage shortage. Or maybe it was a work ethic shortage. People didn’t want to work anymore, or people didn’t want to work for crummy employers anymore. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. The explanations differed, depending on who you talked to, but the problem remained the same: nearly every bar or restaurant in town was short-staffed. The staffing crunch in the hospitality industry isn’t new—we started covering it almost five years ago. But the pandemic

THE PITCH | March 2022 | THEPITCHKC.COM

rubbed fresh salt on an old wound. Many workers who were laid off during the first shutdown orders in March 2020 haven’t returned to the industry. Those who weren’t laid off grew increasingly frustrated with poor working conditions and combative customers, and many left the industry voluntarily. Two years into the pandemic, the problem seems to only be getting worse. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, nearly 1 million leisure and hospitality workers quit their jobs in November 2021—

the highest number recorded in the history of the series. As businesses compete to attract a shrinking pool of workers, wages are starting to tick up. Benefits such as health insurance and 401(k)s remain scarce in the hospitality industry, but they’re becoming more common. The balance of power is shifting. This month, we’re digging into how that shift might reshape the local hospitality industry—and how it already has.

Unions are gaining ground (with a long way to go) “The labor shortage is employer-created and has been a long time coming,” says

“The labor shortage is employer-created and has been a long time coming.” Chris Fielder, a barista at the Plaza Starbucks. Fielder is a member of the organizing committee at the Plaza store, one of two metro Starbucks that filed for union elections last month (the other is in Overland

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Park, at 75th and I-35). If successful, Fielder and his coworkers would be represented by Workers United, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union. Fielder says unsafe working conditions, unchecked sexual harassment from customers, and wages that have barely moved for some of the coffee shop’s longest-tenured employees all contributed to his decision to join the effort. But he also mentions a leaky fridge that dribbled water onto the floor for months. It was only fixed, Fielder says, when a coworker slipped and got a concussion. “One of the material changes we need is working materials.” Hannah McCown, a shift supervisor

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Members of the plaza starbucks union organizing team from left to right: Chris Fielder, Addy Wright, Cali Sacramento, and barista Cam Brigham with her apron and union pin. Photo by Allison Harris, design by Megan Galey

at the Overland Park Starbucks at 75th St and I-35, says her store began organizing independent of the Plaza location, though they coordinated the timing of their public announcements. McCown cites weak pandemic safety policies, spontaneous cuts to store hours, and dangerous employee parking among the issues at her store. “Although our issues are different, we are asking for the same thing, which is for THE PITCH | March 2022 | THEPITCHKC.COM

POLITICS

our voices to be heard,” says McCown. They’re joining a labor movement that’s been growing across the country. At the time of this writing, 78 Starbucks locations in 23 states have filed for union elections, with new stores announced almost daily. Pandemic-related challenges have undoubtedly contributed to that movement, but so has the changing makeup of the workforce. “I definitely think it’s a lot of young people that are being hired into the company,” says Addao Cochran, a barista at the Plaza Starbucks. Cochran is only 18, but he helped lead the push to unionize at his store. He tells me at least three of his coworkers are around the same age. “I think that a lot of young people are now becoming a lot more politically conscious.” When The Pitch spoke to Starbucks employees at the beginning of February, they were still waiting for a response from Starbucks corporate. In mid-February, they got one. Instead of responding directly to employee petitions, the company launched an anti-union website titled “We Are One Starbucks,” urging employees to vote down the union efforts in their stores. “We don’t believe having a union will meaningfully change or solve the problems you’ve identified in your stores,” the website reads. “We know we aren’t perfect, but we believe our challenges are best addressed by working together.” If only there was some way for employees to work together to address workplace challenges! That befuddled corporate response was unsurprising to tenured members of the local labor movement. Businesses are out of practice negotiating with workers: U.S. union participation has been on a decades-long decline, one that accelerated precipitously in the 1970s and 1980s. The reasons for that decline are complex but include the persistent effects of state “right-to-work” laws and a series of National Labor Relations Board rulings during the Nixon and Regan administrations that dismantled union obligations. “Organized labor has been under attack for 35 years,” says Pat “Duke” Dujakovich, President of the Greater Kansas City AFL-CIO. The AFL-CIO is the nation’s largest federation of unions, which means Dujakovich represents more than just hospitality workers—his members range from custodians to firefighters to Patrick Mahomes. But the labor landscape is shifting locally, and Dujakovich says he’s clocked a resurgence of interest in unions among the hospitality industry in particular. That could be good for workers and businesses; the relationship doesn’t have to be adversarial. Although Starbucks has stymied organizers thus far, Dujakovich thinks unions might be able to appeal to smaller, independent restaurant and bar owners by

THE PITCH | March 2022 | THEPITCHKC.COM

offering them assistance with training, staffing, and access to higher quality health care plans for their employees. “If we can show value to these small businesses like that—that they can join a union, pay about what they’re paying right now and have access to our health care— then we’re going to have a much easier job organizing,” Dujakovich says. “This could be a great turning point for organized labor, but we’ve got to move quick, before the moment ends.” Workers don’t seem to be wasting any time. On Jan. 30, Cauldron Collective hosted an informational meeting at the Stray

three employees—Cooke, Kim Conyers, and Sylvia Metta—all own an equal share of the business and have equal say in its operations. We wrote about the Collective and their business model back in January, but we called them back up after the Jan. 30 union meeting to talk about where they think the broader industry is heading. None of the trio seemed surprised by the staffing issues facing local restaurants. Workers have been frustrated with conditions in the industry for a while, they say, and the pandemic only exacerbated things. “It’s less of a worker shortage and more

Cauldron Collective chefs from left to right: Olive Cooke, Sylvia Metta, and Kim Conyers. Photo by Liz Goodwin, design by Megan Galey

“It’s less of a worker shortage and more of a good employer shortage.” Cat Film Center for non-managerial industry workers to share grievances and gather information about how to unionize their workplaces. Although The Pitch was barred from attending, Collective member Olive Cooke says there were attendees from nearly every corner of the hospitality industry, from fast-casual to fine dining to school cafeterias. “We’re starting to realize, as workers, how important our power is,” Cooke says.

Worker-owned collectives are promising a new labor model Cooke and her coworkers aren’t the most obvious hosts for a labor organizing event. A union wouldn’t make much sense for their own restaurant, which is structured as a worker-owned collective. The Collective’s

of a good employer shortage,” Metta says. Hosting the union meeting to help organize workers was step one. Fostering an environment conducive to more worker-owned cooperatives is step two. “A union represents the workers to the boss, but the boss still owns what they produce,” Cooke explains. “Collectivism is the next step forward because it takes out that variable, the ownership variable, and gives everybody ownership over their jobs.” Worker-owned collectives aren’t new, but they’re still relatively uncommon in the hospitality industry. When the Collective started putting together their business plan, they found only about 50 cooperatively-owned restaurants in the United States. Most were located on the coasts, but there was a surprising cluster of worker-owned restaurants in the Midwest—in particular, the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro.

Conyers sees that as a sign of the model’s success (and local reproducibility). “Once the model starts in a place, the people in that direct area start talking and say, ‘oh my god, this is totally working.’ And it kind of takes off from there.” The collective model can pose challenges to restaurants, too, especially if the company wants to grow. Selling stock in a company can be complicated when only workers are allowed to have a say in that company’s decisions—shareholders might not have any influence on the restaurant’s operations or payout policy. And many commercial banks aren’t prepared to process loan applications with multiple worker-owners. But alternative financial services have been stepping in to fill that gap. The trio has consulted AltCap, a community development financial institution (CDFI) that specializes in microloans to underserved communities. They also recently launched a GoFundMe to help them finance the purchase of a food truck. They may not be the only collective in KC for long. In December, Kyle Gardner and Howard Hanna announced plans to open two cooperatively owned and operated restaurants—Small Axe, a modern diner, and Afi, a globe-trotting wine bar—under an ownership group called the Manaia Collective. The idea for the Manaia Collective came out of the pair’s experience during the pandemic, when they helped close down The Rieger and transform the restaurant into a community kitchen, serving pay-asyou-can meals to people in need. “Kind of overnight, that [collective] model just happened,” Gardner says. “Everyone started getting paid the same wage, their daily tasks were dependent on what we needed to get done that day. We didn’t have clear divisions between front of house and back of house. We didn’t have people saying, ‘no, I can’t do that,’ or ‘that’s not my job.’ Everyone just kind of found out what their skill sets were and made it work.” The details of how the Manaia Collective will operate aren’t yet finalized—they can’t be, Gardner says, until the opening teams have been hired. He wants his employees to have a say in every aspect of the restaurants’ operations, from how to share profits to what kind of soap to use in the bathrooms. But he does say each employee, whether they’re part-time or full-time, will get an equal say in the company decisions. One vote per employee; no votes for non-employee investors. Gardner mentions Cauldron Collective and their recent union meeting as positive developments in the industry’s labor movement. The restaurant industry has depended on exploitative labor practices since its inception; the pandemic only exacerbated some of those issues. But it also served as

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POLITICS

Starbucks Corporate has drawn ire during the recent wave of locations filing to unionize, as employees in union committees have been fired. Photo by Allison Harris, design by Megan Galey

a long-overdue wake-up call for workers, restaurateurs, and landlords alike. It’s going to be hard to go back to sleep. “I’m optimistic, actually,” Gardner says. “I think that we’re moving toward a more progressive dining scene in the city.”

Business owners are innovating and experimenting “Your meal is ready! Please take it away!” The Minnie Mouse voice emerged from the “head” of a four-shelf food delivery robot named Totoro, which had wheeled itself to my table in Sayachi Sushi in Brookside. I removed a bowl of agedashi tofu from its ribcage and hit a button that let the robot know I had what I needed. It wheeled away silently. A few seconds later, a (human) server appeared. “Did everything come out okay?” Sayachi isn’t the only business to experiment with putting robots on the payroll. Magic Noodle in Overland Park recently added their own food delivery robot, with a cat-like face and sleek plastic, pointed ears. They named it “Bella.” Robot workers tend to make the human ones uneasy; the fear is that automation will gobble up jobs. But right now, the robots only deliver food from the kitchen—they don’t take orders or bus plates. Sayaka Falcon, who owns Sayachi with her husband, chef Carlos Falcon, says Totoro didn’t actually eliminate any jobs at her restaurant. “The thing is, with staffing, even if we have the bodies, a lot of experienced industry people moved on to another career when the pandemic started,” says Falcon. “It’s been hard to find someone with experience.” Although the industry has been adding

THE PITCH | March 2022 | THEPITCHKC.COM

jobs at a breakneck pace, as of January 2022, by offering bonuses tied to a performance employment in the leisure and hospitality metric, such as fewer refires for kitchen sector was still down 10% from its February staff. 2020 pre-pandemic level. Many restaurants That small change has the potential to have had to turn to workers with less experi- boost line cooks’ paychecks while saving ence and training to fill vacancies. owners money (fewer refires means lower Falcon says the robot has allowed Say- food costs and happier diners). Similarly, achi’s servers to spend more time with cus- owners of existing bars and restaurants are tomers instead of running back and forth unlikely to fully hand over the business to from the kitchen to the tables. It also helps their employees—but they could institute keep kids entertained. The servpercentage-based profit-sharers don’t resent their new ing or employee stock coworkers—“they’re so options to incentivize grateful.” employees to beStill, the hoscome invested in pitality industry the business’s seems unlikely success. to go full cyborg, Some of even in the these changdistant future. es are already Remember all happening. those reports of Todd Johnboorish customson, owner of ers demanding Strip’s Chicken restaurant workin Olathe, says ers pull down their he started offermasks so they could ing his employees see their faces? U.S. dinprofit-sharing (distribers don’t like impersonal uted as a percentage of service; we want our hospitality their wages) and a 401(k) plan A food delivery robot. with a human touch. last year—14 of 15 eligible emPhoto courtesy of To solve the staffing shortployees are now participating in Kennon, design by age, restaurant and bar owners the latter. He also offers year-end Megan Galey are likely going to need to experbonuses based on an employee’s iment with a lot of other innovatenure ($50 a month for the first tions, too. Fortunately, there’s a lot of explo- year of service, $100 per month for the secration room between “business as usual” ond). and “burning capitalism to the ground.” Chris Zembrzuski, the owner of Chef Restaurateurs may not want to abolish tip- Kansas City, recently instituted a profping, but they could ease pay discrepancies it-sharing program as well. Zembrzuski between front- and back-of-house workers started Chef Kansas City in his garage six

years ago and has since grown it into a catering company and weekly meal prep service with three full-time employees. Last October, he began distributing a set percentage of the month’s net profits to each of those employees (he declined to tell The Pitch the percentage). It’s not benevolence—it’s business. “This business is my livelihood,” he says. “I wouldn’t implement it [profit-sharing] if it didn’t make sense.” Zembrzuski operates out of a ghost kitchen, and he acknowledges that his overhead costs are lower than many other business owners. He understands why profit-sharing hasn’t been adopted more widely, especially as the industry recovers from the pandemic. Food costs are rising, labor costs are rising, and a restaurant might operate with a 5 percent profit margin even in “normal” times. Cutting into those profits further is a tough sell. But Zembruzki and others are banking that those decisions will help grow the business long-term. Unwinding a yearslong staffing crisis isn’t going to happen overnight. Labor organizers are going to have to continue to push feet-dragging employers into the 21st century. Worker-owned collectives are going to have to demonstrate that their models are profitable and reproducible. And business owners are going to have to continue to innovate to compete for talented staff. Hospitality industry workers want what everyone wants—a living wage, yes, but also a chance to grow in an industry that respects their dignity and skill. Bread for the table, and roses, too. They’re not going to settle for a shift drink. “Thank you for your service” was never enough.

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CULTURE

IT’S ALL ABOUT BOUNDARIES, BABY

Tyler Schneider

n February 2021, Bianca Alonzo, a model and self-described “numbers person,” launched a survey designed for and shared with several of her peers in the Kansas City fashion industry. Her goal was to gather enough responses to gauge the prevalence of sexual misconduct in the local scene. “I started seeing the numbers come through, and they were shocking. Sixty percent of the people that I surveyed said they had experienced either a push back on boundaries or had been in a shoot where a photographer had been pressing for models to shoot beyond modesty level,” Alonzo says. Although the informal survey had a relatively small sample size of 31 respondents, the data—along with Alonzo’s personal experiences—indicated a need for advocacy in the Kansas City fashion scene that still wasn’t being met with organized effort. Last fall, Alonzo got together with her friends, model Kat Mock and designer Audrey Lockwood, and discussed how they might take action to combat these concerns. In January 2022, they launched the Models & Artist Advocacy Council (MAAC), a Kansas City-based non-profit organization “focused on providing education, advocacy, and resources to prevent and fight predatory behavior in the world of fashion.” By the time this story hits newsstands, the group will have launched a new website with links to donate, volunteer, or find information on MAAC events. The latter will come in the form of educational sessions designed to provide resources for models, photographers, designers, hair and makeup artists, and anyone else working in greater Kansas City fashion. “As a brand, we know we need to figure out how we’re going to shift the culture from inside,” Alonzo says. “Something we have said from the very beginning is, ‘How do we create an industry standard?’ Currently, there is no standard, no protocol, no oversight. You really don’t have any sort of entity that’s protecting you. While we understand that, we want to be that entity.” •

•

“I always knew there was a need for this,” says Lockwood. “And I always knew it was something that happened. But I didn’t know that there wasn’t already a resource

like this in the community.” In the fall of 2021, shortly after Kansas City Fashion Week, Lockwood, Alonzo, and Mock talked about their own experiences and decided to commit themselves to creating the change they felt was needed in a positive way. “We’re all very like-minded individuals, we all work full-time, and we’re all active in creative settings outside of our fulltime jobs. So this is an entirely separate endeavor that is important enough to us. And we’re passionate enough about it to make it a priority,” Lockwood says. Alonzo, an ICU nurse by day, began modeling locally in 2019. “I had just started branching into shoots and started meeting and working with more photographers . Then, right off the bat, I heard of a model who was drunk and assaulted. My first reaction was, ‘Well, I’m out, I can’t do this. This is not the environment for me’. I mulled it over for a couple of weeks and realized, ‘Wait a minute, why am I backing off? I should be able to enter into this space’,” Alonzo says. Alonzo crafted her survey as a direct result of these ruminations. “I started getting really interested in how we can keep this from happening. How can we get more involved? I started talking with [Lockwood and Mock] about resources and tools that we could provide, about consent conversations we could be having on the front end of working with each other,” Alonzo says. The fashion scene is rife with embedded stigma and stereotypes that silence models from speaking out about their negative experiences. “You have the #MeToo movement, which is heavily influenced by celebrities and actresses, but then there’s not a lot of sympathy for models when they get into those situations with photographers,” says Lockwood. “A lot of times, blame has been placed on the models because it’s something they wanted to do, or ‘they were asking to be in that environment.’” A collective advocacy group could be a powerful deterrent and an indispensable resource in the long term. “There’s a need in the industry for representation in cases where models have experienced sexual misconduct and harassment. It’s something that I feel has been ignored in the past and is much more common than people realize,” Lockwood says.

MAAC founders from left to right: Audrey Lockwood, Kat Mock, and Bianca Alonzo. Photo by Travis Young THE PITCH | March 2022 | THEPITCHKC.COM

CULTURE

Alonzo, of course, has the data to back this up. Forty-eight percent of those she surveyed responded that they had been touched without consent at shoots. “Across industries, anytime there’s a power differential, there is the likelihood, or at least the possibility, for sexual misconduct. We’ve seen it in gymnastics, we’ve seen it in Boy Scouts, and we’ve seen it in the Catholic Church. It’s part particularly risky for models in this industry, because it’s almost seen as, ‘Well, you, your body is the commodity.’ We want to break that cycle that perpetuates itself in these spaces,” Alonzo says. Mock cites the prominence of a quid pro quo culture in the industry as another hazard models frequently face. “It’s ‘you do this and I’ll do this for you.’ It’s really hush and you go home and you’re like, ‘That’s just part of the industry.’ It shouldn’t be,” Mock says. The three decided on the tagline #ItsBoundariesBaby for MAAC’s initial launch on social media. “At first, we were a little hesitant on the baby part, but it’s like, no, that’s us. That’s who we are. It’s boundaries, baby! It’s really that simple. Just set your boundaries and stick to them. It’s also okay to kind of experiment with what your boundary lines can be. Just make sure that you trust yourself and build your brand,” Mock says. •

•

From the get-go, Alonzo, Lockwood, and MAAC founders Audrey Lockwood, Kat Mock, and Bianca Alonzo. Photo by Travis Young

THE PITCH | March 2022 | THEPITCHKC.COM

Mock had a very specific vision of what they wanted to accomplish as a nonprofit. “We’ve talked about quite a bit, not wanting to be this entity that just comes in and starts pointing fingers. We’re not seeking to demonize everyone. We’re seeking to bring us all together so we can share the same standard and sort of abide by this law that we create for ourselves. So it’s more of a unification of the different parts of the

sure everything is model friendly and safe.” Future events and efforts will become more structured over time, following a specific theme in conjunction with MAAC’s quarterly social media campaigns. “One of our campaigns, for instance, will be Red Flags. Part of that education course would be what to look for—things that may not be so obvious. How can you prepare yourself when you’re working with

“You have the #MeToo movement, which is heavily influenced by celebrities and actresses, but then there’s not a lot of sympathy for models.” industry rather than an ‘us versus them,’ or ‘you’re the bad guy, we’re the victim,’” Alonzo says. Lockwood agrees, describing MAAC’s mission and goals as proactive and positive. The group aims to announce its first event—a panel with speakers from the Kansas City fashion industry—in the coming months. “We’re going to ease into it with something just to let the community know who we are,” Lockwood says. “We’re also going to try as much as possible to be present at local events, letting people know who we are as a resource, and checking to make

someone you haven’t worked with before? What should you look out for? What should you do when you do experience something problematic?” Mock says. “A big part of our effort is to not only educate models on safety, but also to educate photographers, designers, hair and makeup artists, and other creatives,” Lockwood adds. “We want to go beyond just the model-photographer relations.” Eventually, the trio will look to offer voluntary certification sessions for local industry professionals who attend one of these sessions. “They’ve come to us, they’ve received

training, they’ve taken steps to be accountable, and that’s a big positive step forward,” Lockwood says. •

•

Several months ago, Alonzo explains, “These problems were getting a little closer to home for all of us. It’s time, I think, that we all start organically from the inside and say, ‘Hey, this isn’t okay, we can’t tolerate this anymore.’ There are some things that we can do to get ahead of the game. The goal is to offer a pathway—if you ever needed it—on how to approach a situation if something does happen to you or someone you know,” Alonzo says. The #MeToo movement is one of the defining moments of our current era. At present, there are still battles to be won in all industries and all walks of life. It will come down to grassroots activism, in the Kansas City metro and beyond, from groups like MAAC and its founders. Leaders like Alonzo, Lockwood, and Mock are fighting to develop a new culture—one of transparency, accountability, mutual respect, and solidarity—that will become commonplace in both the fashion industry and in every other facet of human interaction. “I think the culture has been such that we’re just sort of expected to face these issues, live with them, and that’s just the way it is,” Alonzo says. “But you know, as we’ve progressed as a society, and as these conversations come to the forefront, I think it’s clear that this industry has to move with it. The problem has been defined, we see evidence of it in our practice. What are we going to do about it now?”

THE PITCH | March 2022 | THEPITCHKC.COM

POLITICS

Outrage Factory

NORTHLAND PARENT ASSOCIATION’S CENSORSHIP APPROACH TO EDUCATION By Barb Shelly In the summer, angry parents began commandeering the public comment periods of school board meetings in the Northland. They loudly objected to mask orders, read passages from books in school libraries and called them pornographic, and accused schools of indoctrinating their kids. Some claimed an affiliation with a new group, the Northland Parent Association. As classes started up in the fall and districts tried to cope with COVID-19 surges, the group played a more prominent and disruptive role. According to its president, Jay Richmond, the NPA has about 500 members and many more allies. “We are normal parents who are tired of having our kids being told what to do when it has nothing to do with education,” Richmond says. At the very bottom of the NPA’s website, I spotted a video that revealed a lot about the NPA’s philosophy. The video features a NPA member, Daryn Ross, interviewing a Kearney High School senior named Ethan.

THE PITCH | March 2022 | THEPITCHKC.COM

Ethan jumped the fence at a Kearney-Smithville football game and ran around the field with his shirt tied behind his head. For that, he was suspended for 10 days, banned from extracurricular activities for a semester, and placed under review for his graduation walk. Ross opines that the discipline was “over the top.” He says, “It’s kind of like the way they’ve lost their minds on making kids wear masks.” If Ethan had run around the field with a mask on, Ross suggests, “I bet you the administration and the school board members… would give you extra credit, probably a college scholarship, and maybe even let you walk at the front of the line [at graduation]. What’s your thoughts on that?” Ethan shrugs. “Yeah, I mean…Yeah, maybe.” Ross, who has a background in marketing and public speaking, takes the opportunity to make a pitch for the NPA. Then he gets to the Big Reveal: Ross and a few other parents—not the association itself—have pooled funds to present Ethan with a $150 QuikTrip gift certificate. With a high-five, Ross says, “Thank you for being so crazy, so fun, and getting out of your comfort zone and doing something really wild.” The video ends with Ross declaring, “Ethan, you are my hero.” Ross’s decision to reward him for bad

behavior speaks volumes about parental defiance. The NPA is typical of groups springing up around the country. Conservative-minded parents band together over mask mandates and school closures and move on to book banning. Then come the protests of school policies that promote diversity & inclusion, and discussions of systemic racism in America’s history. Seizing upon parental anger as a potent political weapon, a right-wing apparatus of funders and conservative media outlets has quickly formed to provide money, talking points, and legal advice. Conservative PACs began meddling in school board races in Johnson County last fall. The NPA made its mark in the Kansas City region with two actions. In late August, it filed a federal lawsuit against a host of school boards, districts, and public officials in Kansas City and North Kansas City, challenging mask mandates. In October, Richmond spoke at a North Kansas City School District board meeting and demanded the removal of several books from school libraries—including *Fun Home* and *All Boys Aren’t Blue*, two queer coming-of-age books—claiming they contained pornographic content. On the surface, neither action turned out well. A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit. The NKC school district initially pulled

Screengrabs from Northland town halls, NPA meetings, and from the NPA website. Design by Miroslav Pavlovic

two books but put them back on the shelves. A few weeks after Richmond’s presentation, a man who assisted Richmond by holding up posters of pages from *Fun Home* was charged with child molestation and domestic assault. But the lawsuit and the book banning uproar gave publicity to the NPA. Richmond says he hasn’t been politically active in the past. The pandemic, and restrictions imposed by the schools, changed that. Richmond has three sons. The youngest, an elementary student, struggled with the COVID protections. “He is a very social kid, and it changed his personality completely,” Richmond says. “He hated school. He didn’t want to have anything to do with it.” Richmond began speaking out at meetings of school boards and county health boards. When the NPA was formed, he was nominated to be its president. The pressure on school districts in the Northland, which leans conservative in its politics, is new. For years, the region has been a destination for families looking for public schools with solid academic performance and a full menu of sports and extracurriculars. Richmond says he used to

POLITICS

regard the schools that way, but no longer. “I grew up here,” he says. “And, yeah, the education in the Northland used to be a great and more of a classical learning style. But the last few years have shown that’s not the case. The school systems and school districts have an agenda. They’re pushing that agenda, and parents are waking up to it, and they’re fed up with it.” While not all aggrieved parents who show up at school board meetings acknowledge an affiliation with the NPA, they often use the same fear-mongering language. Once or twice a speaker has inadvertently lost track of which school district they were criticizing. In the Smithville School District, parent Whitney Carlile has made a name for herself by taking board members to task at nearly every meeting, accusing them of cowardice when they don’t respond to every complaint. “If you cannot handle making tough decisions and working with parents, maybe it’s time to consider if you are capable of performing the duties needed at this critical time,” she lectured the board in October. She took particular aim at board member Jeff Bloemker, the assistant division vice president at HCA Healthcare Physician Services Group. As COVID cases have surged, Bloemker has cited worries over hospital bed capacities to justify his support for school masking policies. “Jeff, if you are more concerned with ICU beds than our kids, you are on the wrong board,” Carlile told him. She sug-

gested he run for the county health board instead—although that board is also under fire from the NPA. While it’s not confirmed Carlile is part of the NPA, she is now a school board candidate and joins conservative candidates who are stacked up to run in nearly every Northland school board race. At this point, it’s difficult to gauge the political strength of the NPA. Richmond says it won’t endorse candidates, although when I talked to him, the association’s website stated on its front page that donations “are applied to anything from lawsuits to endorsing school board candidates.” Richmond also said the NPA is not a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, a classification banned by IRS code from participating in political campaigns. But the NPA’s filing with the Missouri Secretary of State office plainly states that “this association is organized exclusively for charitable and educational purposes within the meaning of Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue code.” Kevin Corlew, the lawyer whose name is on the NPA’s incorporation papers and who filed the mask lawsuit on behalf of the group, did not respond to requests for comment. Richmond seemed surprised when I told him the website mentions endorsing school board candidates as a purpose for donations. “I’ll have to check on that, cause that’s something we cannot do,” he said. Although Carlile and other conservative school board candidates speak as though they universally represent parents,

that isn’t the case. At the October Smithville School Board meeting, before Carlile denounced mask rules, two other parents stood up to defend them. Liberty Parents for Public Schools, an online group of about 1,500 parents and Liberty School District employees and patrons, has emerged as a counterpoint to the NPA. Its mission statement affirms that “public school should be an inclusive experience for all children.” The group has been supportive of mask mandates and other preventive health measures. But the most effective adversaries of the NPA have been high school students in the NKC school district. After Richmond’s denunciation of *Fun Home* and *All Boys Aren’t Blue*, students quickly organized, got a petition going, booked all of the public comment slots for the next school board meeting, and made an eloquent case for literature that deals with topics like sexuality, gender identity, and racism. Three of the leaders say they’d been following the NPA since summer. The students said they were aghast to see the school district pull two books after Richmond’s noisy protest at the October board meeting. “We really didn’t understand the ‘why’ behind that, and that confusion then turned to action,” said Charles, a senior. The district had already returned the books to its schools when the students spoke up at the November 22 board meeting, as an audience of their peers and par-

ents applauded heartily. “I think, for a brief moment, the NPA did win when they pulled those books,” said Phèdre, a junior. “It definitely proved the school board had the capacity to give in to that kind of rhetoric. But I think our speeches affirmed their decision to put those books back, and it proved to them that their own education was working and making us well-rounded citizens.” Kate, Charles’ sister and a high school junior, said the NPA and related groups push right-wing political agendas that are contrary to the goals of public education. “Students are smarter than these associations think,” she said. “I hope that more students across the nation are using their voices and speaking up because we can’t be afraid of them. We can’t let them have that power.”

THE PITCH | March 2022 | THEPITCHKC.COM

Transformative Terminology If you’re not familiar with the forms and figures that Treas is cutting for her clients, here’s a quick primer to get you started.

Male to female (MTF): A term that is preferred by some transgender people who were assigned female at birth, but identify as male. Chest binding: The act of flattening breast tissue to create a silhouette of a flat chest. Chest binding can be achieved with a number of different materials, including wraps, tapes, and binders made of restricting fabrics, or through the layering of clothes like sports bras. While chest binding is not exclusive to transgender men or people who wish to undergo top surgery, binding is often an alternative for transgender people who cannot afford or access surgery. As Treas points out, binding improperly, too intensely, or for too long can lead to serious injury. Top surgery: Let’s let the doctors explain this one. Mayo Clinic defines top surgery as a procedure for transgender men and nonbinary people “to remove breast or chest tissue (subcutaneous mastectomy). It’s also called masculinizing chest surgery.” Post-surgical vests or chest compression vests: With these, it’s all in the name. After top surgery, the patient must wear a vest for a number of weeks that prevent excessive “post-operative bleeding and fluid collections,” per the John Hopkins Medicine Center for Transgender Health. Surgical drains are attached to both sides of the chest to catch the fluids that do collect.

Whether you’re looking to explore your own gender identity, you’re a parent supporting your trans kid, or you want to be a good ally, there are a host of Kansas City-based queer resources at your fingertips. Here are a few to get you started. Kansas City Center for Inclusion is KC’s LGBTQ+ community center flying the pride flag high over Woody’s in Midtown.

Transformations KC is a youth organization providing community, resources, and events for transgender, gender-nonconforming, and gender expansive folks from the ages of 12-18. Treas says that many of her customers come through referrals from Gender Pathway Services (GPS) at Children’s Mercy. GPS is a “pediatric multidisciplinary approach to provide gender-affirming care after a diagnosis of gender dysphoria is made by a licensed mental health provider.” The Gender-Affirming Medicine department at the University of Kansas Health System is another resource for patients past pediatric age looking to explore gender-affirming care and procedures.

THE PITCH | March 2022 | THEPITCHKC.COM

CULTURE

Affirma Wear COMPRESSION AS AFFIRMATION By Kristen Thomas

aura Treas is the innovative Kansas City-based sewing artist and manufacturer creating shapewear for transgender people. Her creations include high compression tanks, post-surgical vests, and gender-affirming binders. Her passion for her work was palpable in her conversation with The Pitch.

The Pitch: What is compression shapewear and who do you make it for? Laura Treas: Compression shapewear started out in the beginning with our mother’s girdles, and we have progressed beyond that heavy-duty stuff. The heavy-duty stuff still has its place, but we want it to be comfortable. I make shapewear for people transitioning from female to male [FTM], and it needs to be safe and comfortable and still give the desired silhouette.

How does shapewear help affirm someone’s gender? When they have that silhouette in the mirror that they’ve been striving for, it’s emotional for everyone who is witnessing it. It’s amazing when it happens. Especially when it’s not a sports bra-style garment, the change is dramatic. [The client feels] aligned with what they feel inside. It’s a garment for THEM. And that’s very gratifying. Everyone’s always wiping their tears.

Why is it important for people transitioning to wear shapewear, and to not use wraps or tape as binders? With the tapes or wraps, they can just get too tight. The younger kids are trying their best to get as flat as possible. It’s just so tight that they can put ribs out of place, they can get acid reflux, they can have breathing problems. They can cause skin issues as well. Doctors really don’t want them wearing anything too tight. And it’s so hard to convince them because they’re trying to get that flat silhouette that’s in their head. They think the only way to get that silhouette is to be uncomfortable or just wear two sports bras. But when I can get someone in my garments, they get it. They don’t have to be uncomfortable or wear bras.

What’s the age range that you’re typically working with? Starting at 14, all the way to their 60s. If they’re younger than 14, I really try to push the lightest weight compression tank just to have something light, so they are not wearing a sports bra. I get a variety of clients. I mean, I’ve had couples here where the wife decided late in life that they’re not comfortable with their body. When they come in for a

Photo courtesy of Laura Treas

binder, you can see them just changing. And they [say], “I just feel so lucky that my husband is supporting me being me.” It’s all amazing!

Sounds like education on gender-affirming undergarments is part of the gig. Yes. It’s important to educate. The first thing I always educate the parents on—because their child is usually wearing two sports bras to bind themselves—is that the point is they’re still wearing a thing called a “bra.” That’s what [the transgender client is] trying to get away from. My tanks are designed a lot like a men’s undershirt. So the line is a different silhouette. Even if it’s a cropped one, it is still longer than a sports bra. It’s not going to look like a sports bra. It’s just going to look like a cropped tank.

Can insurance help with covering the cost of shapewear? Sometimes—for the post-surgical vest—it can be covered depending on the insurance company. There are all these qualifications, and one of them sometimes is that the drain pouches velcro on and off. So, on my post-surgical vest, the drain pouches do so.

Do clients need to take time off from wearing binders? That’s something that I have to educate wearers and families on, as well. You can’t compress 24/7. You have to have a day off, or if you’re at home, you need to wear the tank with less compression. There’s a middleweight tank for a day off, because [a client still wants] to feel good at home even though they’re not having maximum compression. Sometimes people even want to sleep in them, so I have a lightweight one for sleeping or relaxing at home. Once they understand there are options that are safe and comfortable, they relax into it.

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THINKING OUTSIDE THE PIZZA BOX

DEVOURED’S JHY COULTER SERVES UP A SIGNATURE SLICE OF LIFE By Liz Goodwin Jhy Coulter knows how to hustle. She’s been doing it since she was 15, working at various restaurants while juggling her school responsibilities. As she turns 30 this year, she has a lot of great meals and big milestones to look back on— but even more lies ahead. Coulter is the owner and pie master behind Devoured, the city’s first Black and queer-owned pizza place. She and her partner, Brit Estes, run the pop-up at various breweries, coffee shops, and other pizza-friendly settings around town. Where their trademark “cloud crust” goes, the lines will follow. Coulter’s culinary journey technically started at a stateside pizzeria, but it really took off across the Atlantic. Estes had moved to Spain to teach English, and Coulter de-

cided to take a break from her graphic design studies to fly out for a two-week visit, which quickly evolved into a “staying until further notice” trip. The pair taught English together and enjoyed the quintessential European experience: travel, eat, and repeat. “I was so addicted to the constant traveling, eating, and collecting things from different restaurants,” Coulter says. “I was just obsessed with how the European lifestyle was. And after we got back to the states, I said to Brit, ‘What do you think about me becoming a chef?’” Rather than go back to school, Coulter jumped into the world of fine dining, where she could learn cooking techniques up close and personal. Her nights were split between multiple kitchens, including at Webster House under Brandon Winn. Coulter

Top left: Two pepperoni pizzas await baking at a Devoured pop-up at Strange Days Brewing. Above: Coulter smiles while talking with guests and preparing pizza at a pop-up. Photos by Liz Goodwin

absorbed as much as she could while also continuing her design job with a nonprofit. She eventually took the leap into cooking at Webster full time, where she learned “next level chefing” and the inner workings of an advanced technique kitchen. Then, she transitioned to working in an executive kitchen at UMB Bank, where the all-women team could create as they pleased. But when March of 2020 came around, her kitchen gig became a casualty of the pandemic. With an excess of hours in her day, Coulter experimented with a Gozney pizza oven she’d randomly won in an online giveaway. After some trial and error with the crust formula, she hit her stride and began slinging pies for her friends and family. The demand was there, and the popups soon followed. “Any time I was doing something with food, it just made sense,” Coulter says. “Things would just come. It was something I had never experienced before. As soon as I started shifting into something I was really interested in, it was a whole new world.” Her food philosophy is centered in curiosity, served with a side of mischief. Coulters’ palate underwent a considerable evolution through her time abroad, cemeting a fearlessness in her sense of taste

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“Any time I was doing something with food, it just made sense. Things would just come. It was something I had never experienced before.”

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and a desire to share new experiences with others. If you think you hate a certain ingredient, Coulter will creatively invite you to think again. “I have a friend who hates mushrooms. I was shocked, and I was determined to find a way to convince him that they were good,” Coulter says. “I had made the portobello spread for the Vegan Bae pizza [made with said spread, blistered tomatoes, zucchini, and basil] and I had him try it. He was raving about how great it was and asking me about the sauce, and I said to him ‘I thought you didn’t like mushrooms?’ Once he realized, he was mind blown. There are so many ways you can make something good for someone. You can make things fun.” As she’s seen the Kansas City restaurant industry grow before her eyes, Coulter is thrilled to see the food culture hold space for smaller-scale creatives. The pop-up community has embraced Devoured with open arms, as have the brick-and-mortar joints that invite her to sell her pies on-site. She’s formed solid partnerships with other pop-ups like Café Cà Phê, and has been delighted to see the diversity, collaboration, and connection of the pop-up scene come to this area of the Midwest. “It’s exploding,” Coulter says. “I used to always envision this and would talk to people about setting up a food pop-up, and people would tell me it wasn’t possible. And I said, ‘Why?’ I’m so glad I didn’t fall for that.” With her eyes to the future, Coulter is riding a wave of success. She recently purchased a food truck that will allow her to be more mobile than before, and is in process of fundraising to acquire the necessary equipment to trick out her pizzeria on wheels. Once her food truck set-up is complete, she hopes to be able to park it in a queer area of Kansas City. “We have a pretty large queer community here in Kansas City, but sometimes I feel like we are all over the place,” Coulter says. “It would be really cool to be part of some type of queer space, like a ‘gayborhood.’ I would love to be a part of creating that, and I really envision Kansas City to be progressive in that way.” For now, she’s focused on getting her truck up and running and serving the people of KC some creative pizza slices with her signature smile. To quote her mom, even though Coulter puts pizzas inside of boxes, she will definitely never think inside of one. “I have to be able to express myself, which is why me being an entrepreneur makes so much sense,” Coulter says. “I just need to be creative, and I want to create something that I like and then share that with other people.”

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The Breakfast Burrito at Mattie’s Foods

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plant-based comfort food, is known for its simultaneously indulgent and healthy-ish creations. The breakfast burrito is a dish that lives up to the eatery’s reputation. I am a self-proclaimed champion of tortilla-based entrees for breakfast, and this folded pocket of flavor meets the mark. The breakfast burrito is the perfect hangover cure, guaranteed to keep you full but not too full until lunch time, and practically begs to be topped with some sort of hot sauce. The exterior is a perfectly crisped, yet still somehow internally fluffy flour tortilla. Tortilla connoisseurs know that texture is everything, but that softness can’t compromise the structure: nothing is worse than an architecturally questionable burrito. This one marries the best of both worlds. It’s then stuffed with the “Mattie’s hash” featuring perfectly sized potato chunks, meaty seitan that resembles slightly sweet and tangy sausage, and a creamy cheese sauce. Served with a side of salsa, the breakfast burrito truly brings the Tex-Mex flavor profile to its peak. This decadent and delicious breakfast bite is available for $9 from 9-11 a.m. Wednesday-Friday, and 9 a.m. to noon on Saturdays. If you happen to have leftovers, it’s also well suited for reheating in the oven or the air fryer at a lower temperature.

The Naranja (Orange) Gin and Tonic at La Bodega

BY LIZ GOODWIN Southwest Boulevard’s go-to

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spot for tapas, La Bodega, has an abundance of wines and cocktails to choose from as you dive into your tapas. The gin and tonic selection presents plenty of options, including the Naranja. For the most part, I am a hater of orange-flavored drinks unless it’s true OJ. But this beverage changed me. The Naranja is made with aromatic J. Rieger gin, a housemade orange tonic, orange bitters, and star anise. It’s well-spiced and not too sweet, a celebration of citrus and the diversity of flavors it can compliment. This drink is a liquified version of that fleeting chunk of time where summer melts into fall, which is objectively the best weather of the year. I prefer to enjoy it al fresco on an early September afternoon, but even when you’re in the thick of a classic Midwestern cold snap, this drink will remind you of warmer days ahead. Pair it with the Higos y Queso de Cabra, which are grilled baguette slices with goat cheese, fig coulis, and roasted peppers; or the Costilla Cortas, the chipotle-apricot braised short ribs with roasted peppers and fresh mint. The generously sized drink rings in at $12, allowing plenty of room in the budget to split a few plates amongst friends. THE PITCH | March 2022 | THEPITCHKC.COM

MUSIC

a booking artist and he had this big company called America’s Best Attractions and he filed some archives over there at UMKC. That’s how this Numero Group called me.” Bump adds: “It was like a validation of what we’ve been trying to do forever—since I got into the music business It was like it finally got out there.” As the keyboardist and bandleader put it, every time he would try to get the music going with his different bands and enough money saved up to go to the studio and record—tragedy would strike. “We’d save up money and somebody would say, ‘Hey, I got a problem,’” Bump says, sounding weary. “[Someone will say,] ‘I need my money.’ Then somebody else will say, ‘Well, if he gets his money, I want my money,’ and then we’d have to start all over again.” Bump and his group would eventually get enough money to record a full-length record in studio. The fruits of their efforts was the soon-to-be-released 1983 album, Our Music, recorded under the name The Bump Band. With Bump on keyboards,

THE BUMP BAND’S MANIFESTATION IS WORTH THE [50 YEAR] WAIT

By Nick Spacek

THE PITCH | March 2022 | THEPITCHKC.COM

A group photo of The Bump Band. Photo courtesy of Lotuspool records, design by Miroslav Pavlovic

erald “Bump” Scott has been making music for more than 50 years, but his output wasn’t available in any physical format until 2013. Five decades of material—a lifetime of creative yield—was somehow never an object you could hold in your

hands. Numero Group is a Chicago-based reissue label. They hoped to give Bump & The Soul Stompers, as well as The Unnatural Funk Band, the releases they finally deserved. Thanks to a cold call, Numero Group convinced Bump they’d be keen on releasing 45s of his entire life’s work. Bump liked the sound of that. “They found me through the UMKC archives,” he explains. “I didn’t even know we were over there. We were in the UMKC archives with Allen Bell Productions. He was

of Memphis’s Zuider Zee—is finally reaching appreciative ears after being shelved for decades. As label Secretly Canadian did for Death, and Light In The Attic did for Zuider Zee, Chris Garibaldi’s Kansas City label, Lotuspool, is looking to bring The Bump Band to the music world at large. Garibaldi and Bump’s son, Jeremy, work together. Jeremy—a budding rapper— had Garibaldi over to listen to an album he was recording. The music backing his raps was a variety of songs recorded by his dad’s band. “It was an amazing mix of ‘90s party rap and ‘70s and ‘80s funk,” Garibaldi explains. From there, the pair began working together with an eye toward releasing Bump’s album with Lotuspool. During that time, Jeremy asked his dad for a particularly special birthday present. He’d heard “Don’t Lie to Me” when The Bump Band practiced it in his basement when he was a little boy, and he wanted a recording. “Amazingly, Bump not only found a studio version of ‘Don’t Lie to Me,’ but he

“The world will be able to hear what we were, where we were headed. I knew we were headed for some top billings because, like I say, I write songs all the time. We could have been out there forever, like Earth Wind & Fire and all those groups. That was what I was headed for when we were doing this album.” Robert Clarkson on guitar, Robert Kelly on bass, Terry Grimmet on sax, Wanda Byrd on vocals, and Herman Lacy on drums, Our Music is an album that combines elements of soul and funk from the late ‘60s and on. It also showcases the greatest swath of Bump and his group’s talent. Our Music’s eight tracks bring something familiar, yet new and intriguing, to the world of funk and soul. The listener is initiated with the playful call-and-response opening of “Don’t Lie to Me,” before being led through a series of worthy soundscapes: the lounge-style instrumental jams as heard in “Snookie’s Vibe,” the party funk of “Can We Party Wit Cha” and “Are You Ready to Ride,” and the brilliant slow cruiser that is “Living In the Past.” The story behind the album is all too familiar. Bump Band—à la Detroit proto-punk band Death, or the hard power pop

found the rest of the Bump Band album,” says Garibaldi. “A day after Jeremy heard the album, he texted me, ‘I need to play you something.’ He came over to the studio with a bottle of rum. We drank and listened to the album. Three songs into the listening session, I turned to Jeremy and said, ‘We have to put this out immediately!’” Bump’s version of the story is similarly electric. Upon Jeremy’s request to hear “Don’t Lie to Me,” Bump set off on a treasure hunt. “One of the recorders that I’ve written most of my songs on—it’s kind of broke a little bit—and I had a hard time trying to find the songs because my recorder shuts off and I can’t find anybody to fix it,” Bump explains. “I don’t have the money to buy another one right now. I started going through all my tapes and stuff and I couldn’t find it. Then one day I saw it written on there on the

MUSIC

Cover of The Bump Band’s album, Our Music. Courtesy of Lotuspool Records

tape: ‘Oh man, there it is right there!” As Bump relates with some glee, he put the tape on and heard the first track. As soon as it finished, the next began, and another after that. It turned out Bump had taken the album, recorded all those years prior, and mixed it down to a two-track recording before storing it in his attic for nearly 40 years. “I really looked at the tape, ‘cause I write real small and I didn’t have my reading glasses and I couldn’t see that small writing,” Bump continues. “I put on my reading glasses and I sit and it said, ‘Bump Band album, 1983.’ I forgot all about that.” Thus, the story comes back around to the rum-filled listening session. Bump passed the recordings to his son, who played them for Garibaldi. Now The Bump Band’s Our Music is ready for the public’s ears. Of course, there was a bit of work in between discovering the tape, pressing it to compact discs, and creating the digital files. As the Lotuspool press release states, “[T]he original analog recordings were damaged [and] the music has been digitally remastered.” Additionally, Bump had to unearth the names of the other musicians on the album. “I couldn’t remember who was in the group ‘cause I’ve had so many bands through the years with new and different players,” Bump explains. “I had to figure out who was in the group and that was really hard to do.” Hard, in that Bump had to listen to the recordings and then, he says, he could hear the different people’s personalities—the voices with which they played. “Some of them had played with me for more than just The Bump Band,” Bump points out. “One player might’ve been in another group that I had, and I remembered how they played. By the sound of their instruments and the way they played

an instrument, I could tell who it was. I had to step back 30 years and just keep at it. I mean, it took me probably a couple of weeks to really figure out who everybody exactly was, and then it came to me.” It was bittersweet work, though, he says. Grimmet, Byrd, and Lacy have all since died. When asked whether this impending release feels a bit melancholy, Bump gets choked up and needs a moment before he can continue. “It’s sad that the album got lost and we didn’t get a chance to really do anything while everybody was still around,” Bump says after a moment of silence. “I’ll cry, listening to the album. It makes me tear up, just thinking about how we could’ve all been together, because we played together really, really well. Everybody got along with each other and it would’ve been fun having The Bump Band out there. It’s just sad that the album got lost and we didn’t get a chance to do anything with it way back when everybody was here.” There are many lifelong legacies of music-making embedded in the notes of Our Music. Bump himself started playing when he was at East High School in 1968. First, he formed Bump & the Soul Stompers, which became the Unnatural Funk Band, which then begat The Bump Band. For 40-plus years, he worked as a mail carrier, writing songs while delivering mail. Now in his 70s, he gets to see the music he’s been working on all his life get a proper release. “I’m super happy that the album is getting out,” Bump says. “[Some of the other band members are] not around to hear it, but their kids will be able to hear what their mother and father did. The world will be able to hear what we were, where we were headed. I knew we were headed for some top billings because, like I say, I write songs all the time. We could have been out there forever, like Earth Wind & Fire and all those groups. That was what I was headed for when we were doing this album.” While it might have taken decades to get Jerald “Bump” Scott and The Bump Band’s music to ears that need it, the music feels like it’s been waiting patiently this whole time—and now, it can live for decades to come. THE PITCH | March 2022 | THEPITCHKC.COM

Photo courtesy of Get ‘Er Done Productions

Photo courtesy of Allied Tours

March 15-20

March 18-19

Mean Girls – The Broadway Musical

PBR: Professional Bull Riders

KC Convention Center

T-Mobile Center

Start trying to make “fetch” happen with this delightful adaptation of Tina Fey’s groundbreaking 2004 comedy. Cady Heron grew up on an African savanna, but now has to deal with a more brutal animal kingdom: suburban Evanston, Illinois. The same team behind the film, aided by the director of Book of Mormon and the lyricist of the Legally Blonde musical, have put together a truly ascendant show. Come join us in spending an evening expanding our burn books. This single-week run at the Music Hall has tickets starting at $35.

Tell me you’re from the midwest without telling me your from the midwest… we’ll start. We think it’s cool when a man can last 8 seconds—on a bull. PBR (Professional Bull Riders, not the beer) will be returning to Kansas City to present the PBR Caterpillar Classic for the 19th consecutive season of the Unleash the Beast Tour. The rodeo will feature 40 of the world’s best bull riders who will compete in 8-second against a handful of massive, angry bulls. Do NOT wear red. Tickets start at $15 a day, with discounts for weekend/group passes. The event will start at 7:30 p.m. both days.

March CALENDAR

March 11

March 16

Frogpond, The Bottleneck Korn, T-Mobile Center

Elderbrook, recordBar Tall Heights, The Bottleneck Harmonious Wail, Knuckleheads Flogging Molly, Russkaja, and Vandoliers, The Truman The Sword and ZOMBI, The Granada

Deafheaven, Holy Fawn, and Midwife, The Granada Elle King, The Granada Tones and I, Arvest Bank Theatre at the Midland

March 6

March 12

Plague Years and Somnuri, The Bottleneck

BABii, The Bottleneck Nightmoves with Various Blonde, recordBar The Kansas City Jazz Orchestra Presents Just the Two of Us, Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts Between the Buried and Me, The Truman

The Nace Brothers, Knuckleheads Yachtly Groove, Knuckleheads Steve-O, Uptown Theater

By Michael Cripe, Fantasia Wesley, Thomas White, Adam Wilbers

Ongoing Events March 5, 6, 12, 13, 19, 20, 26, 27 Open Jam Nights, Knuckleheads

March 11-13 Open Season Sportsman’s Expo, Overland Park Convention Center

March 25-27 Kansas City Symphony Presents La Mer and Brahms’ Violin Concerto, Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts

March 29-April 3 Kansas City Broadway Series Presents Jesus Christ Superstar, Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts

Single Day Events March 5 Claire Rosinkranz, recordBar Belmont with Super American and More, The RINO

THE PITCH | March 2022 | THEPITCHKC.COM

March 7 Hiss Golden Messenger with Alexa Rose, recordBar All Them Witches, The Bottleneck

March 8

March 17

March 18 Monta at Odds with Redder Moon and Meyadi, recordBar Poppy, The Truman Kaleo, Arvest Bank Theatre at the Midland

The Happy Fits, recordBar Deeper, The Bottleneck Joywave, The Truman Coheed & Cambria, Uptown Theater

March 13

March 9

March 14

Bearings with Between You & Me, Young Culture, Jail Socks, The RINO Them Dirty Roses, Knuckleheads Drain, Uptown Theater

Drug Church with One Step Closer and Soul Blind, The RINO

Vitreous Humor, The Bottleneck Half Alive and Daisy the Great, The Granada We Banjo 3, The Truman Madeon, Arvest Bank Theatre at the Midland

March 15

March 20

Tool, T-Mobile Center Bobby Weir & Wolf Bros, Arvest Bank Theatre at the Midland

Koo Koo Kanga Roo, recordBar Steve Cardenas Trio, recordBar The Bachelor Live on Stage, Arvest Bank Theatre at the Midland

March 10 The Dangerous Summer with Cory Wells & The Brkn, The RINO

Arcadia Grey, Uptown Theater Dirty Honey and Mammoth WVH, Uptown Theater

March 19

Photo courtesy of Andy Watson, Bull Stock Media

March 21

Letterkenny Live Arvest Bank Theatre At the Midland How’re ya now? If you’re a fan of the Canadian comedy program Letterkenny, you’ve been waiting patiently for this live improv show—delayed by two years thanks to the pandemic. The constant push-back of the Letterkenny population’s arrival has helped track the increasing popularity of the show with local fans. What was once set for a small theater with a capacity of 100 is now selling out the Midland. If you’d go for a scrap, we’ll see you there. Grab a Caesar. Show at 6 p.m., tickets start at $40

March 21

March 27

Jack Symes with Eva B. Ross, recordBar Andy Shauf, The Bottleneck

Del Water Gap, recordBar KC Comedy Night, Knuckleheads

March 22

March 28

Hasan Minhaj – The King’s Jester, KC Convention Center Dragonforce, The Granada

The Airborne Toxic Event, The Truman

March 23 Zero 9:36, recordBar

March 24 Iya Terra, recordBar Ashley McBryde, Uptown Theater Yves Tumor, The Bottleneck

March 25 M80s (an ‘80s Cover Band), Knuckleheads Rock Show featuring Quite Frankly, A Side of Jam, and More, recordBar Sports, The Bottleneck Mahan the Band, Aztec Shawnee Theater Sevendust, Tetrarch, and Dead Poet Society, The Truman Trixie and Katya Live, Arvest Bank Theatre at the Midland

March 26 Zelooperz, The Bottleneck Eric Bellinger X Sammie, The Truman

March 29 Rittz, Grieves, and Trizz, recordBar Yola, Uptown Theater Hippo Campus, Arvest Bank Theatre at the Midland Girl in Red, The Truman

March 30 Nation of Language with Glove and Ducks LTD., recordBar Circles Around the Sun, The Bottleneck

March 31 Jason Boland & The Stragglers, Knuckleheads Heart Attack Man, The RINO Leprous, The Granada

Stay in the know about KC’s upcoming events on our interactive calendar THE PITCH | March 2022 | THEPITCHKC.COM

Photo by Nicole Bissey. Illustrations by Shelby Phelp

THE PITCH SEX & LOVE KEEP THEM COMING

THE STRAND THEATER ON TROOST It feels like my duty to visit anything related to erotic art and human sexuality in this city. Not every place has a shiny veneer, and from simply driving by The Strand Theater on Troost, I knew that some of the paint might be chipped in this long-running cinema before ever stepping inside. That wasn’t going to stop me, but I needed intel first. “What is The Strand like?” I asked a sex-positive friend who’s been a few times. He described a place that was seedy enough to pique my interest, yet not scare me away from going. He described a debaucherous time warp I wanted to experience firsthand. I’ll try almost anything twice. He agreed to escort me for my first foray to The Strand, so long as I call him My Date for the purpose of this story. Walking into The Strand felt like I was challenging myself to do something extreme to get a thrill. As someone who had a conservative upbringing, I’ve never had the gumption to walk into the theater portion of an adult store. I went to college at Mizzou, but I skipped the back rooms of the Olde Un Theater, favoring the dildo section out front. The gentleman behind the counter, Michael, asked if we were first-timers after looking us up and down a few times. I confirmed I was while he checked my ID. He asked if we wanted to look around or go into the theater, but we opted to start off easy by browsing around the front room. Michael was amiable enough; he just seemed surprised I was

there. The nostalgia of the ‘90s video store I worked in during high school hit me quickly as I turned the corner and saw the slats on the walls and metal racks. The last update this section had was probably when they switched the inventory from VHS to DVD. There were one to two pornos of nearly every genre I could have imagined. A few classics were in there from some ‘00s porn stars. “Hey, did you ever watch stuff with Samantha Ryan back in the day?” I asked My Date. “Hmmm, oh yeah, I remember her! She was pretty popular there for a while,” he recalled. “I had that wild weekend with her in Hollywood a few years ago where she taught my classmates how to spank using my butt and then we smoked weed at Woody Harrelson’s brother’s house a couple days later.” He cackled and said, “I forgot you have some wild stories.” After assessing the rental situation, I scanned over the very basic sex toy selection in one corner. The section felt like an afterthought to this sex toy aficionado. There are places to get good sex toys in town. This is not one of them. As we popped out and looked back and forth between the back of the place—which has the theaters and arcades—and the counter, Michael reminded us there’s a fee to

THE PITCH | March 2022 | THEPITCHKC.COM

go in the theater. “I close at 9 (it’s 8:15), so I’ll give you a deal—$10,” he said. I handed it over. In exchange, he handed me a tiny red ticket, like the kind you get at a festival, and said, “Enjoy.” We headed to the lower theater first. Heterosexual porn was projected on the screen of the small theater, and once my eyes adjusted, I could see men with hats dotting the rows. My Date and I chose a spot in the back row where we could talk. I was a bit apprehensive to sit, admittedly, but I sat down on the edge of a seat and began to interview My Date about his past experiences at the theater. One visit was with a girlfriend, and one was with a girl he was fooling around with. My Date is a kinky guy, and I was not surprised that his visits here involved some hands, some mouths, and some strangers doing some things. After talking a while, I was slightly horny, finally. By then, I felt the strangers in the room had taken notice of us—of me—and some were getting restless and starting to hover at the back of the room. “Come on, let’s go upstairs,” My Date said, leading us out to a staircase. Here comes the gay porn! Smaller theater, more men in that one for the night. I have no problem watching gay porn, but we didn’t stay long—I think I was kinda killing the vibe.

We headed to the lower theater first. Heterosexual porn was projected on the screen of the small theater, and once my eyes adjusted, I could see men with hats dotting the rows. Last stop—the arcades! 20-something Kristen was naive enough to think that places along I-70 that advertised “arcades” had pinball machines. Sex Coach Kristen knows that it means its a booth with a chair, a video screen, and a money slot. These booths are simple wooden stalls

with no doors thanks to state law. You walk around a half wall and there’s your semi-private seat. I fed the machine a dollar, and My Date rolled through the selections. Again, there was a wide range of proclivities to choose from. As we scrolled, I heard footsteps outside our booth. A man who’d been eyeing us upstairs peaked in. Whether he was hoping for a show or he was part of the KCPD vice squad hoping to catch a couple in a sex act, he was sorely disappointed. We just scrolled until our time expired. My Date and I were lovers once upon a time, and while I was a little horny for him at this point, exhibitionism is only hot for me when I don’t fear getting arrested or being interrupted with non-consensual touch. Now that’s a vibe killer! Talking to Michael again was my last stop. He said he’s 68 years old, and has been a regular since he was 18. Having worked at The Strand for the last 20 years, he said it’s just not like it used to be. Between the male and female strippers, doors on the arcade booths, and glory holes (which may or may not have been advertised in *The Pitch* back in the day), this place was essentially HBO’s The Deuce in its heyday. “Sometimes people come from out of town like Florida and they are shocked there’s no doors on the arcades,” Michael told me. “Do you get many women in here?” I asked. With a slight chuckle, Michael replied, “No, no not really.” He said they go to Bazooka’s, a strip club owned by the same people as The Strand. Between the Missouri State Legislature slowly chipping away at latitudes like privacy in the name of ending sex work and “saving peoples’ souls” since the ‘80s, and the lack of updates by the owner, this place was seriously outdated. It did little to arouse my lady boner on its own. It feels like the owners have given up. I get the need to make a return on your investment, and using up capital for renovations is hard to justify when the future is uncertain. “We won’t be around much longer. Troost redevelopment plans don’t include us,” Michael pointed out. I got the sense that he saw an impending end to an era of his life. Councilman Eric Bunch confirmed that nothing specific has been slated for the structure, and no sales appear to be pending. Troost is changing, and part of me really hopes that The Strand can revamp itself and survive. As long as there are men who grew up consuming porn in analog ways, places like this will remain, even if they are a bit shabby. You can find Kristen @OpenTheDoorsKC on Twitter or openthedoorscoaching.com. Check out her podcast Keep Them Coming.

THE PITCH SEX & LOVE SAVAGE LOVE

time to get off, I go into my head and think about two women or two men. If I don’t do this, I can’t orgasm! My husband is satisfied, I’m getting off, and we both enjoy sex together. So, what’s the problem? I want to be able to get off while being fully present! I feel like I’m losing out on a ton of intimacy with my husband by not being in the moment with him while I’m trying to cum. I want to cum from straight sex! Do you think there is a way I can achieve this? Is it fucked up that I have to think about something else to orgasm when I’m with a man? Help me! I haven’t told my husband this because it would crush me to learn he had to “dip out” to get off. —Being In Moment In Straight Sex Is No-Go

CUNNING LINGUIST Trigger warning: this article contains usage of an anti-gay slur.

Dear Dan: Long time reader here, first time writer. I’m a bisexual woman. I’ve been married to a straight man for eight years. Our marriage and our sex life are amazing. We communicate well, and we have a lot of fun together. Here’s the thing: I would call myself a hetero-romantic bisexual. I love men. I love dick, and I love having sex with men. I have always been interested in men romantical-

DEAR BIMISSING: Zooming out for a quick second, BIMISSING, first, let’s put your problem in perspective. You’re married to a man you love, you have a great sex life, and you’re getting off. You’re winning. And you’re not the only person with this…well, I don’t wanna call it a “problem,” because for some people, fantasizing during partnered sex—the kind of “dipping out” you describe—is a solution. Lots of people need to imagine a particular scenario and/or particular cast of characters to get themselves to the point of “orgasmic inevitability,” to use one of my favorite phrases from the sex-research literature. In other words, BIMISSING, while I wanna offer you a fix, I don’t want you—or anyone like you—to think you’re broken. Because you’re not. Now, here’s the sex hack that’ll keep you in the moment without derailing your orgasms: dirty talk. A quick review of my tips for dirty talk beginners: tell ‘em what you’re gonna do (“I’m going to fuck the shit out of you”), tell ‘em what

Now, here’s the sex hack that’ll keep you in the moment without derailing your orgasms: dirty talk. ly. I’ve also always been into women, but only sexually. I can’t picture myself dating a woman. Or being married to one. But I’ve never been able to get off from straight sex or straight porn. When I orgasm, I am either watching lesbian porn or gay male porn, or I’m thinking about it. I am turned on by my husband. I find him attractive, and the idea of having sex with him gets me wet. But when it comes

you’re doing (“I’m fucking the shit out of you”), tell ‘em what you did (“I fucked the shit out of you”). You can also ask someone what they’re gonna do, what they’re doing, and what they did. Once you’ve mastered Gonna, Doing, Did (GDD) basics, you need to start mixing your basic GDD dirty talk together with dirty talk about your go-to fantasies. But before you can do that, BIMISSING, you are gonna have to level with your hus-

band about these fantasies and your reliance on them while emphasizing that he makes your pussy wet, and you love having sex with him. He could have a bad reaction. If he has a problem with it, BIMISSING, tell him you’re like a woman who can’t come from vaginal intercourse alone, a.k.a., most women—only instead of needing to press a vibrator against your clit during intercourse, you need to press a mental image of gay sex against your brain. So, yeah, your husband could have hurt feelings, and it could take some time to work through this. But think of the potential rewards! Instead of leaving your husband behind when you start fantasizing about men fucking men and women fucking women, you’ll get to take him along! “BIMISSING can be fully present in her body and feel the great pleasure of sex with her husband—and know that this is where her pleasure is coming from physically—while also being intentional about bringing this fantasy into her mind at the same time,” says Dr. Lori Brotto, a clinical psychologist and a sex researcher at the University of British Columbia. “If BIMISSING can share her fantasy out loud,” says Brotto, “she’ll be able to hear herself sharing the details of this fantasy, which is an auditory trigger that will keep her rooted in

208 Westport Rd Kansas City, MO 64111

the here-and-now even more and intensify the pleasure.” Picture this, BIMISSING: You’re having hot straight sex with your hot straight husband. You start thinking about two hot fags or two hot dykes going at it. But now, instead of feeling guilty about these fantasies, you’ll be able to share them with your husband. And, yes, it’s a hard truth to share, BIMISSING, but for all you know, your husband has some go-to fantasies of his own that he’d love to share— fantasies he may rely on when he needs a little help getting to the point of orgasmic inevitability. If you can successfully integrate your go-to fantasies (two women or two men fucking the shit out of each other) with your in-the-moment reality (your husband is fucking the shit out of you while you describe two women or two men fucking the shit out of each other), you won’t have to “dip out” to come. Follow Dr. Lori Brotto on Twitter @DrLoriBrotto and check out her book, Better Sex Through Mindfulness: How Women Can Cultivate Desire. Question for Dan? Email him at mail@ savagelove.net Follow Dan on Twitter @ FakeDanSavage. Check out his new website at Savage.Love!

816-561-6397

Mon-Thurs 11-7pm Friday & Saturday 11-9pm Sunday 12-6pm

www.EmCityKC.com THE PITCH | March 2022 | THEPITCHKC.COM

KC CARES

s e r a C KC

HEAR 2 HELP

Last April, when Whitney Weber noticed that her toddler, Henry, wobbled and fell over more than his older brothers had at the same age, she took him to the doctor. What seemed like a routine appointment turned into an ambulance ride and emergency surgery on a cyst on Henry’s brain. In the midst of all that, doctors told Weber Henry had hearing loss that would only get worse. He needed hearing aids in both ears. The situation was heartbreaking for Weber—and there was another shock in store. “All at once we had the expense of brain surgery, and then they come and tell us hearing is not covered under insurance, which is absolutely crazy to me,” Weber says. “We had Cigna, and they do not cover anything at all. You would think health insurance—your ears are part of your health, but they didn’t offer anything.” Because their income put them just above the assistance threshold, the Webers couldn’t get a grant from the hospital to help. Between the brain surgery and the hearing loss, the bills were piling up. That’s when Hear2Help stepped in. Started in 2017, the non-profit works with families to pay for hearing aids. Within a month, Henry was fitted for his hearing aids. Terri Steinlage, co-founder and executive director of Hear2Help, started the organization when she moved to the Kansas City area from Oregon. Insurance companies are required to cover childrens’ hearing aids in 20 states. So, after her move, Steinlage was amazed to find that her 2-year-old daughter’s hearing aids wouldn’t be covered by their new insurance. Steinlage wanted to help other people facing the financial double-whammy of care for a child with hearing loss and the large expense of hearing aids. A set of hearing aids might cost between $2,000 and $4,000, and it’s not a onetime purchase. “If the child takes good care of them, they don’t get dropped in water, [and] the dog doesn’t eat them, typically hearing aids will last four to six years,” Steinlage says. That’s just for the piece that fits behind the ear. The earmold, which goes where

THE PITCH | March 2022 | THEPITCHKC.COM

you’d put an earbud, sometimes has to get changed every few months as a child grows. That’s another several hundred dollars a pop. Additionally, Hilary Schmidt, a doctor of audiology at Children’s Mercy, says that kids should have new hearing aids every four to five years. “A 2-year-old in a daycare center has different needs than a second grader who’s in school all day,” she says. “They need technology that can evolve with them.” Schmidt adds, “It’s definitely a financial challenge for our families that they usually don’t have any way to prepare for. Hearing loss can’t be diagnosed until you’re born.” Insurance denials for hearing aids are some of the most common, she says—only 25% of her patients have any type of related coverage. For a child, not getting hearing aids when they need them can have serious consequences down the road. “We learn to talk the way that we hear, so if you have any deficit where you can’t hear, you’re going to have trouble learning how to talk. Untreated hearing loss leads to academic problems. You’re more likely to fail a grade,” Schmidt says. According to Steinlage, if a child passes age 2 or 3 without hearing aids, chances of them learning to speak drop significantly. In the best case scenario, a child should be fitted for hearing aids before 6 months of age. Schmidt calls Hear2Help “instrumental” in helping families access hearing aids on the right timeline. “I wish more programs existed like Hear2Help to allow [parents] to feel and take the time they need without worrying about financial stress,” she says. Missouri joined the list of states that mandate coverage Jan. 1, 2022. A new law

passed last summer stating that all health plans existing after that date must “provide coverage to children under 18 years of age for those hearing aids which are covered for children receiving benefits under MO HealthNet.” MO HealthNet, Missouri’s Medicaid program, allows children to get new hearing aids every four years. In practice, however, Schmidt hasn’t seen much change. “[Private insurance companies in the area] still continue to deny coverage for most patients,” Schmidt says. If you’ve ever been frustrated by trying to get insurance coverage for something vital, you’ll know how Schmidt and Steinlage feel. “Pediatric and adult audiology are lumped together,” says Schmidt. “Insurance companies see adult hearing aids as a quality of life [item] and not a medical necessity. Pediatric audiologists like me will argue until they’re blue in the face that it’s not the same, but insurance companies just don’t see it that way. It can be really challenging for unilateral hearing loss, when you only have it in one ear. Most often, insurance companies will deny those because they say, ‘You have one good ear. You don’t need two.’” Kansas does not have a law mandating coverage. There is a program called the Kansas Hearing Aid Bank, where kids

can get a hearing aid on loan until they’re 3 years old, but parents still have to pay for the earmolds. The program also doesn’t cover older children. Hear2Help has funded hearing aids and assistive technology for 39 kids from Kansas City metro and across the state of Kansas with money from grants and donations. They keep the application simple at just one page. The aid they give does depend on the family’s financial resources and the impact the payment will have, but typically, Steinlage says, they’ll help anyone 21 or under with a household income under $100,000. By Beth Lipoff

Learn more about Hear 2Help and find resources related to hearing loss at www.hear 2helpkc.org/resources.

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The Pitch: March 2022

Articles inside

KC Cares: Hear2Help

Savage Love: Cunning Linguist

Keep Them Coming: The Strand Theater on Troost

Bump Up the Jams

Drink This Now

Eat This Now

Thinking Outside the Pizza Box

Affirma Wear: Compression as Affirmation

Northland Parent Association's censorship approach to education

It's all about boundaries, baby

Union Stations: Collective action and capitalism's reaction in hospitality

Letter from the Editor: Chaos goblins of change