The Reader - February 2019

FE B RUARY 2 0 1 9 | volU M E 25 | ISSU E 14

Black and Latino Youth Are 2-3 Times More Likely To Be Suspended From School

by Leo Adam Biga ART: Oh, the Humanity! Dish: Wham-Bam! Thank You, SamFam Film: The good, bad and ugly of 2018 Heartland Healing: Sugar & Fire HooDoo: Hot Jazz, Blues for Cold Weather MUSIC: Past, present merge at The Jewell Theater: It’s No Joke -- Women Are Funny Over The Edge: Trump --The Devil You Know

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publisher/editor....................John Heaston john@thereader.com graphic designers.....................Ken Guthrie, Sebastian Molina online editor...............Michael Newgren mike@pioneermedia.me associate publisher.............Sal S. Robles sal@pioneermedia.me

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS healing................Michael Braunstein info@heartlandhealing.com

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COVER: Disparate Discipline/ School Suspension and Trauma

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DISH: Wham-Bam! Thank You, SamFam

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PICKS: Cool Things To Do in February

arts/visual.................Mike Krainak mixedmedia@thereader.com eat........................................... Sara Locke crumbs@thereader.com film..................................Ryan Syrek cuttingroom@thereader.com hoodoo..................... B.J. Huchtemann bjhuchtemann@gmail.com music..........................Houston Wiltsey backbeat@thereader.com over the edge...............Tim McMahan tim.mcmahan@gmail.com theater....................... Beaufield Berry coldcream@thereader.com

SALES & MARKETING ............................................Kati Falk kati@pioneermedia.me

DISTRIBUTION/DIGITAL ......................................... Clay Seaman clay@thereader.com DOMINICK FARINACCI FEATURING

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ART: Oh, the Humanity!

Theater: It’s No Joke – Women Are Funny

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HOODOO: Warming Up: Options to Escape the Cold DINING

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CUTTING ROOM: Local and National Movie News w/Sarcasm FEBRUARY 2019

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heartland healing: Sugar & Fire CONTENTS

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OVER THE EDGE: Trump -- The Devil You Know

OUR DIGITAL MARKETING SERVICES

Congratulations to the 2018 OEA Award Winners: Music

Artist of the Year: Jocelyn Best New Artist: Evandale

Best Presentation in a NonTraditional Format: Cream on Top at The Butter Factory

Best Musical: “Newsies,” Rose Theater

Best Performance Poet: Trac Schact

Best Dance Production: African Culture Connection

Best Rock: Freakabout

Best Recording Studio: ARC Studios

Best Hard Rock: Arson City

Best Live Music Sound Engineer: Dan Brennan

Performing Arts

Lifetime Achievement Award: Houston Alexander

Best Director (Play): Denise Chapman, “The Mountaintop”

Visual Arts

Best Director (Musical): Jerry Jay Cranford, “Newsies”

Best Visual Artist: Watie White

Best Actor (Play): Bill Hutson, “Eminent Domain”

Best Emerging Visual Artist: Celeste Butler

Best Actor (Musical): Regina Palmer, “Once On This Island”

Best Hip Hop/Rap: Dilla Kids

Best 2-D Artist: Camille Hawbaker Voorhees

Best Supporting Actor (Play): Raydell Cordell III, “Stupid F#%*ing Bird”

Best Blues: Hector Anchondo

Best 3-D Artist: Bart Vargas

Best Jazz: Mitch Towne

Best New Media Artist: Ella Weber

Best Supporting Actor (Musical): Cathy Hirsch, “Singin’ In The Rain”

Best Pop: Jocelyn

Best Group Show: Museum of Alternative History at KANEKO

Best Youth Performer: Chloe Irwin, “Parade”

Outstanding Sound Design: John Gibilisco, “Eminent Domain”

Best Solo Show: Love is a Rippling Circle, Camille Hawbaker Voorhees

Best Dramatic Play: Eminent Domain, Omaha Community Playhouse

Outstanding Choreographer: Sue Gillespie Booton, “Newsies”

Best Comedic Play: Stupid F*king Bird, Omaha Community Playhouse

Outstanding Music Direction: Doran Schmidt, “Spring Awakening”

Best Alternative/Indie: See Through Dresses Best Metal: Supermoon Best DJ: SharkWeek Best Americana/Folk: Andrea von Kampen Best Country: Clarence Tilton Best R&B: Dominique Morgan Best Soul: Mesonjixx

Best Progressive Rock/Experimental/ EDM: Plaque Blague Best Punk: R.A.F. Best World Music: The Bishops Best Cover Band: Secret Weapon Local Album of the Year: “High Places,” Matt Cox

Best 2-Person Show: Everything All At Once, Victoria Hoyt & Camille Hawbaker Voorhees Best Public Art: 100 People, Watie White

Best Comedian: Aubree Sweeney Best Comedy Ensemble: Live! At the Backline Outstanding Lighting Design: Ernie Gubbels, “The City in the City in the City” Outstanding Prop Design: Amy Reiner, “The City in the City in the City” Outstanding Scenic Design: Robyn Helwig, Josh Mullady & Ben Adams, “The Dairy Maid-Right” Outstanding Costume Design: Erin Bragg, “Van Gogh and Me”

Best Premier of a New, Original, Local Script: Laura Campbell, “Eminent Domain”

Public voting for the 14th Annual Omaha Entertainment and Arts Awards is now open.

Artists active been 9.1.18 and 8.31.19 are eligible for nominations.

You can come back to edit your ballot anytime through August 31st of this year.

oea-awards.org

Your vote matters!

2018 OEAA WINNERS

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Employer Challenges to Tackle This Year The new year is underway. As an employer, what challenges should concern you in 2019? While there are things specific to your line of business, there also are topics every employer should address to make this year smooth and productive.

employers must find a way to help all generations work well together and be productive. A generationally diversified workplace can yield great results. .

Federal, State & Local Compliance

Employers can take precautions, but there’s no way to guarantee emergencies won’t occur. Every workplace should be prepared for emergencies, including natural disasters, power outages and workplace violence.

As the saying goes, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Workplaces should have plans in place for emergencies that aren’t just understood by everyone, they’re repeatedly rehearsed.

Planning for specific emergencies can help keep your staff working when the unexpected occurs.

Some legislation passed last year came is now in effect. For example, employers are no longer allowed to keep tips given to employees. Tip pooling is allowed when all employees are paid the minimum wage.

This lets non-tipped employees – such as dining support staff but not supervisors – get tips even if they don’t come directly from customers. Employers who violate this law are subject to hefty fines.

Except for federal updates, Nebraska employment laws are little changed this year. Employers should assure they prominently display the updated 2019 Labor Law poster. Since an older poster doesn’t comply, failure to display the latest version can result in fines.

Address Generational Diversity Baby Boomers are still in the workplace but are readying to retire. A good number of Boomers continue to work part-time well into retirement – some out of financial necessity and some because they want to.

These “encore careers” let retirees explore options they couldn’t when they worked full-time. “Encore careers” also bring in much-needed income while providing structure to the lives of retirees.

As Millennials and Baby Boomers work side by side, it’s evident generational diversity can be both good and a source of difficulties. Toss Generation X workers into the mix, and the workplace becomes a veritable salad bowl. This diversity can be valuable as Boomers teach younger generations by example while youngsters help Boomers embrace technology.

The typical work ethic of each generation is distinctly different, so

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Prepare for Emergencies

Manage Proactively Successfully running a business is not a spectator sport. To maintain a successful business takes planning, preparation and active maintenance.

Make this year the best year ever for your company.

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Manage Fake Reviews Reputation management is crucial in an era when anyone can attack your business online without viewers knowing if such “testimonials” were posted by real customers.

Consumers trust online reviews almost as much as personal recommendations.

Monitor reviews – both positive and negative – and respond promptly. Don’t let an angry review slip past you and be the first thing people see online about your business.

Staying active online and proactively maintaining a social media presence can combat many issues associated with fake negative reviews. When customers feel they can openly communicate with a business, they’re less likely to escalate a negative experience into the realm of fiction.

Google accepts requests to remove fake reviews, just like Facebook lets page administrators delete them. Know, however, that the screen shot of a negative review you removed implies your business hides its mistakes and can’t be trusted.

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Disparate Discipline Black, Latino Youth Are 2-3 Times More Likely To Be Suspended From School

cover art by Skylar Reed

by LEO ADAM BIGA

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he harsh practice of early childhood centers and elementary schools meting out discipline to “difficult” children through suspension or expulsion is netting more attention.

Even more disturbing is the higher rate at which African-Americans and Latinos face exclusionary discipline for behavioral reasons.

Special-needs kids are also more frequently disciplined than the general student population. Punitive measures applied in special ed are higher yet for kids of color.

to believe he or she is unwelcome or unwanted in a classroom environment, one defense mechanism can be to decide he or she does not want to be there anyway and act out accordingly. Written or unwritten labels of ‘the bad kid’ can stick, not just with educators, but with children themselves.”

GABRIELLE GAINES-LIWARU

Jana Habrock

Sharif Liwaru

Tunette Powell

Black boys are consistently disciplined more than any other students across the educational spectrum.

These practices and trends happen nationwide in pre-K, elementary, middle and high school settings. Nebraska’s largest school district, the Omaha Public Schools, incurred a $1.85 million LaVon Leo penalty from the Nebraska DeStennis-Williams Louis partment of Education in 2015 for disproportionate suspension of prolonged removals from the classroom special-ed students. A district report for the negatively impact a child’s educational, 2017-2018 academic year revealed blacks social-emotional developmental progress. and Latinos suspended at two or three It also poses challenges to parents and times the rate of whites within the general families. and special-ed populations.

“There are very few parents in a posiIn the wake of community concerns, tion where suddenly having a child home district suspension data is slated to be disfor some amount of time is going to be cussed at the Feb. 20 OPS board meeting. easily managed. This can create significant Despite studies-reports, strategies-ini- challenges for families.” said Juliet Sumtiatives on the issue, data show a persistent mers, policy coordinator for Child Welfare problem here and across the U.S. where and Juvenile Justice at Voices for Children there’s diverse student enrollment. in Nebraska.

Yet some schools-centers manage misbehavior without resorting to exclusionary discipline as a matter of policy.

There’s consensus by educators, academics and parents that repeated,

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Jana Habrock, director of Early Childhood Mental Health at the Child Saving Institute (CSI), said, “Research and experts agree suspension-expulsion is harmful for young children. It has damaging effects on

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At Nelson Mandela School in North Omaha, principal Susan Toohey said, “We don’t believe in suspensions – we believe in timeouts.” Serving a suspension at home, she said, “is probably not going to be educationally fruitful and a kid gets the mindset that I’m bad.

“Doing restorative justice within the school setting – to change behavior to get the child back with peers – is much better.”

JULIET Summers

Jessie Rasmussen

children and their relationship to school and the message it sends to them about their worth.”

“As a practical matter,” Summers said, “every time a student is suspended or expelled, learning time is lost. When the student returns to class, he or she will be a little bit behind, understand a little bit less of what the class is learning. The student may act out from boredom or lack of understanding, and the cycle repeats.

“This repeat cycle of behavioral choices, being excluded, feeling unwelcome, returning and feeling lost, can certainly foster negative perceptions about school, education and authority figures. Exclusionary discipline, particularly for young children, can have lasting impacts. If a child comes

Sherwood Foundation-supported Educare centers do not use suspension-expulsion for the same reasons.

Path of least resistance Exclusionary discipline is even more problematic when applied arbitrarily or as an expediency.

“At times, I think suspension-expulsion is used to send a message to the parent the behavior is serious,” said CSI’s Habrock, adding, “Sometimes the center or school does not know what else to do to improve the behavior.”

Resources are available to assist educators and parents.

At CSI, Habrock said, “we did not suspend or expel kids, but we also did not

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D know what to do with kids coming in our doors that had been expelled from other programs and had significantly challenging behavior. So, we started a program, KidSquad, to support these kids and get them prepared for the behavior expectations of kindergarten and the school setting.”

Child care centers can become last resort “babysitting” options for expelled elementary school children. Age and developmental-needs differences pose problems.

“I think our program continues to exist and maintain a wait list for services because challenging behavior is hard, overwhelming and frustrating – and teachers and parents don’t know what to do,” Habrock said.

Another early childhood focused training program, Rooted in Relationships, works to prevent suspension by coaching childcare providers to use the Pyramid Model – a positive behavioral intervention and support framework – and providing information about the harm suspension practices cause.

Habrock concedes educators must “balance keeping all children safe.”

Studies and parent testimonies, however, suggest many children get thrown out of school for behaviors denoted as “disrespect,” “insubordination” and “verbal conflicts” that pose no safety risk. The severity of other behaviors resulting in suspension, such as fighting, are open to interpretation.

Thus, there’s momentum around Too Young to Suspend legislation that limits suspension-expulsion to only clear threats of physical danger. Nebraska State Sen. Megan Hunt is sponsoring the Too Young to Suspend Act in LB 165. It’s been referred to the Unicameral’s Education Committee.

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a school is not necessarily the poverty or crime rate of a neighborhood but rather how strong the relationships are that parents, administrators, teachers and students describe.”

Lack of staff training and resources may explain why some kids get suspended or expelled.

“Even in classrooms where teachers have bachelor degrees in early childhood education,” Habrock said, “they often have very little hands-on experience in preventing behavior and implementing strategies to improve behavior. That is changing some in our colleges and universities, but there is still more to be done.”

As more children present Individualized Education Plans (IEPs), some disruptive behavior may be rooted in trauma requiring professional mental health intervention.

“More than one child in a classroom with these types of experiences can overwhelm the capacities of even the best teachers,” Habrock said.

Just don’t expect easy answers for “a multi-layered issue,” she and other experts say.

Adequate training and resources are only part of it.

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“Making adjustments to meet the individual needs of each child is the gold standard in early childhood education,” Habrock said. “Programs in our community like Early Head Start, Head Start and NAEYC (National Association for the Education of Young Children), accredited child care programs do this really well. Those programs often have additional resources like family support workers or lower teacher-child ratios to bridge home and school to learn the individual needs of each child. Programs without those resources have a more difficult time accommodating individual child needs.”

Early Buffett Childhood Institute founding Executive Director Sam Meisels said, “Almost always a situation that could lead to expulsion of a preschooler is an environmental problem. It’s a simple thing but a not-so-simple or unimportant thing. Often a teacher doesn’t know how to structure a physical space for preschoolers. To expel a child at that age is a failure on the part of the teacher. Mostly we can figure this thing out or get some help to figure it out.”

Said Habrock, “Nearly all early childhood experts agree play is how young children learn. But with the push for academics at earlier and earlier years, we see less and less time for things like center time and outdoor play.”

Making it personal Educators believing they’ve failed a child is one thing. Parents having their child kicked out of school is another. Tunette Powell and her husband are well-educated, good-earning African-American parents of two young boys. The couple provide a safe, stable home, and yet their sons got suspended from a Bellevue preschool in 2014.

“If you looked at our situation you would say this would never happen – and here it happened. It was a shock and a wake-up call at the same time,” Powell said.

It evoked memories of her own elementary school suspension in her native San Antonio. The experience, she said, put her behind. Since her sons’ suspension, she gets triggered whenever their school calls.

Powell, a writer and public speaker, shared her family’s story in a blog that went viral. She instantly gained a national platform to address the issue. Today she’s Parent Engagement Coach at the UCLA Parent Project and a UCLA doctoral student in Urban Schooling. Her dissertation is based on interviews with black parents, including Omahans, who’ve had children suspended.

“We always knew about K-12. For younger children the data is very new. However, we as a nation have been capturing data about this since the 1970s, so at this point we know there’s a problem. But I don’t think people expected the disparity would also be present for children as young as 3 and 4 years old.”

She traces the suspension epidemic and the disparity of its application to when integration introduced more black children to majority schools.

“I think we have really great evidence that pushing a student out of school is not good for that individual student, and it’s not good for the rest of the students either,” said Voices’ Juliet Summers. “One of the best predictors of student achievement for

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Powell was shocked again when she discovered how embedded racialized suspension is in early education.

A mishmash of procedures in private child care centers makes standardized suspension-expulsion rules difficult. Public schools, however, have structures, policies and government funding in place that provide framework and leverage for system-wide uniformity.

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FORUM AT OMAHA NORtH’s Viking Center discussing OPS suspension policies

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“It has its roots in desegregation and, if we want to go beyond that, we have to talk about the context in which black people were brought and put here in the first place.

It’s always been about social control.”

D I S P A R A T E Her thesis, she said, “looks at the damage done to the minds and spirits of black parents when they have a child suspended.

They’re sharing some pretty heartbreaking and emotional things about how this is impacting their lives. I call it collective trauma.”

She’s been there herself.

“It’s my life. It’s one thing to read statistics but it’s another to hear stories. And this is where black parents are especially important. We have to be sharing our stories.

These parents hurt. They’re embarrassed.

They’re made to feel that if my child is in trouble then they’re a problem and that means I must have given birth to a problem.

That’s the way we frame right now.

“It’s not to say black kids don’t present behavior issues. But when we see the disparities we have to be honest and say it’s probably not the child that’s the problem.”

Powell echoes others that school disciplinary actions can haunt youth into adulthood.

Omaha business owner David Mitchell dealt with “the negative results of elementary school suspension” into high school, when, he said, he was finally “comfortable exploring my scholastic abilities.”

Bias “We know it’s an embarrassment for the child,” Powell said. “We know it severs early ties with peers and teachers. It’s completely disrupting to everything about the child’s life. It stigmatizes young people.

Your suspension history record follows you in school the same way incarceration does when you’re job-seeking. Teachers are likely to see you through one lens only.”

Nelson Mandela principal Susan Toohey agrees. “We all come to our work with the lens with which we were given, and some of us need to change our lens.”

“We still need a lot of work in breaking down bias and implicit bias,” Juliet Summers of Voices said. “Teachers and administrators have huge hearts for their students, but all of us walk around with implicit biases drilled into us through our culture. Educators are not exempt.”

“Implicit bias is something we see in our work,” Habrock said. “We have done some community training-professional development on cultural competence. We also address implicit bias in our consultation with teachers. This spring we will bring

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The American classic by John Steinbeck comes to life on stage.

a national expert on this topic to provide training to the KidSquad team and others to improve our skills at addressing implicit bias and disproportionate discipline.”

In schools with diverse students but predominantly white educators, “it’s inevitable biases and prejudices will be a factor,” said Gabrielle Gaines-Liwaru. The former OPS teacher seeks to “change the culture and climate of the public education tree that seems to drop many African-American students like bad apples.”

Summers believes bias is one piece of the situation.

“Another piece,” she said, “is that black students are more likely to attend underresourced schools in a classroom where a teacher has more students to handle, sometimes more with higher, more various needs. In those environments teachers don’t have what they need to meet any behavioral challenges with the same level of patience and grace and welcoming arms.”

Buffett Early Childhood guru Sam Meisels said, “There are problems of identification with the authority figure who looks different and is different – some children coming from minority backgrounds may not have encountered a white authority figure previously.”

Given bias is real, Gaines-Liwaru said, “Building diversity understanding and cultural empathy through appropriate professional development for educators and support staff should be every urban school district’s mandate, and it should be on-going.”

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For Gaines-Liwaru, remedying the “disproportionate suspension mess and injustice” should include engagement in curriculum students “can see themselves in.”

She fears “It’s easier to put kids out of the classroom, document negative behaviors and allow suspensions to ensue than to individually research and design lessons that empower students in their racial-cultural identities.”

She advocates “putting resources towards diversifying teaching staff” and “utilizing restorative justice methods that teach kids healthy social skills and behavior management techniques versus suspending them.”

OPS has made diversifying its teacheradministrator ranks a priority. It contracts with the Minnesota Humanities Center for voluntary cultural competency training.

The district’s plan to reduce disproportionate suspension among special-ed students

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D includes closer partnerships with Project Harmony and other mental health resources. OPS is also working to implement a problem-solving model called Multi-Tiered Systems of Support for Behavior (MTSS-B) to more effectively and equitably address misbehavior and discipline.

“It’s not enough to have blacks in leadership roles,” said Tunette Powell. “We have a tendency to be content or complacent with that. We need to really push them. If you’re leading a district struggling with disproportionally, what are you going to do about it? We have to hold people accountable. We are so far beyond symbolism.”

If there’s to be change, Powell said, “black parents need to discuss their experiences and take those to school board and community meetings. We have to become the community leaders and activists. I think people don’t want to listen to black parents because often we don’t have a Ph.D. after our names. But we can’t ignore black parents’ voices anymore.

“I wish education officials would be bold enough to say that systemically we have failed black children. It’s the only way we can move forward.”

Omaha community activist Leo Louis II held fall public forums on school suspension after black parents asked him to be an advocate in dealing with OPS. “Often times the parent is completely unprepared for what the school has planned for their child,” he said.

He’s concerned that terms associated with adult criminal allegations, such as “assault” and “abuse,” are used to describe some young children’s misbehavior.

The forums have yielded personal testimonies about suspension and alternatives to its practice.

“It’s been my task to educate the community this is not a unique situation to individuals and individual families but a systemic thing,” Louis said. “We’re seeking allies willing to have this conversation and to put in real work toward the solutions.”

One ally, Sharif Liwaru, was fired in December as director of OPS’ Office of Equity and Diversity after forwarding an email from Louis about a school suspension forum at North High to district principals. Liwaru

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said he didn’t direct or invite school officials to attend but merely shared the event notice. Two previous suspension forums were held at the Malcolm X Memorial Foundation, for which Liwaru is president.

Louis led a silent protest of Liwaru’s firing at a Jan. 7 school board meeting.

The district will not comment on personnel matters.

ActivismAdvocacy

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“You talk about setting kids on a wrong pathway – it just adds to the trauma many children experience. The science is pretty clear,” said Buffett Early Childhood Fund President Jessie Rasmussen. “These things happening in the earliest years of a kid’s life have a direct connection to their trajectory for life. It doesn’t mean we can’t do interventions later, but it’s harder, more time

Liwaru has not moved on from the suspension issue. He’s now executive director of the new grassroots Justice for Kids Initiative that seeks to reduce school suspensions. Organizers and supporters held a Feb. 3 launch to build awareness and raise funds.

E black male scours in schools, where black boys are viewed as “older or less innocent.”

“Just as communities are exploring alternatives to detention, we must consider alternatives to suspensions-expulsions which push kids out and cause them to disengage with education,” said ReConnect Inc. Executive Director LaVon StennisWilliams. Her program works with families who have contact with the justice system. She sees a direct correlation between exclusionary discipline and delinquency.

“Often what we label as a disciplinary problem is actually the child acting out because he or she is so far behind in school that learning is not making sense,” said Stennis Williams.

“Some of this might be due to learning disabilities that go unmet. I have had youth sent to my program for day reporting due to long-term suspensions or expulsions who have gone months with no educational services. So the youth will eventually quit school at an early age and spiral in and out of the juvenile justice system until reaching the magic age to be charged as an adult.”

He worries alternatives will receive short shrift as long “as educational exclusion is on the table.”

“We need to find alternatives to suspension that actually teach the appropriate behavior as an immediate response to violations and we need to have solutions that build relationships between students and teachers. Bigger than that, we have to have the difficult dialogue about racism and how it shows up here,” said Liwaru, whose wife is Gabrielle GainesLiwaru.

“Cooperative relationships and open communication between school, student and parent are fundamental to every child achieving his or her educational goals,” Summers said. “When a student is excluded from the school environment, particularly if strong lines of communication have not already been created, it can send the wrong message.”

School-toprison pipeline?

Some suggest the jarring interruption of being severed from school contributes to truancy and drop-out behaviors. Once youth come in contact with law enforcement and the criminal justice system, this pattern can be a school-to-prison pipeline gateway. Former U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said so in 2014.

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No one wants children’s welfare to get lost in the shuffle. and resource intensive and far too often not successful.”

The skew of blacks and Latinos facing exclusionary discipline mirrors that of individuals in detention and incarceration.

The U.S. Office of Civil Rights reports that schools with Student Resource Officers have much higher arrests and referrals to law enforcement for black students than white students. A permanent police presence in schools makes children far more likely to be subject to school-based arrests for disciplinary matters than a generation ago, said ACLU Nebraska Legal Counsel Rose Godinez, “A school-based arrest is the quickest route from the classroom to the courthouse.”

ACLU Nebraska recommends “positive alternatives to exclusionary punishments” to improve student safety.

It’s clear to Powell and others that the same “racialized narratives” behind overpolicing, profiling and criminalizing of adult

“Because a child can be disruptive for your whole class, it’s easy to say in the interest of all the other kids this kid’s got to go, What we should say is that in the interest of all kids all kids need to stay,” said Rasmussen. “This is not anything about the children. This is about decisions by adults, and that’s how we have to see it.

“Our job is to promote this child’s healthy growth and development. Our responsibility is to figure out how best to do that and what they need and to work in partnership with parents to accomplish that,” Rasmussen said. “It’s more important to get the support to the parents and the caretakers than to somehow penalize children.”

Meanwhile, Sharif Liwaru sounds a note of collective remediation. “Because this is so complex,” he said, “we must all take ownership.” **** Read more of Leo Adam Biga’s work at leoadambiga.com.

“IT’S A

MOST

ROMANTIC STORY” THE ELIXIR OF LOVE (L’ELISIR D’AMORE) Donizetti FEBRUARY 15 & 17, 2019 | ORPHEUM THEATER

OPERAOMAHA.ORG | 402.346.7372 | TICKETOMAHA.COM | 402.345.0606 | THE READER |

FEBRUARY 2019

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A Firsthand Account of School Suspension and Trauma Black mother, 2 sons suffer

the wounds of expulsion

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hen I was three 3 years old, I was expelled from preschool because -- as my mother remembers it -- I was “acting too grown.”

I was a preschool dropout.

My elementary experience was similar. Whether it was me “acting too grown,” fighting over something silly or passing letters because I was bored, the end result was the same: I was suspended, and because my mother worked, my Aunt Linda and my grandma watched me.

It was the early 1990s, and on the East Side of San Antonio, Texas, where I grew up, the black community was unraveling. Crack cocaine had kidnapped black mothers and fathers, including my father. When my grandma saw me in the principal’s office, it was reminiscent of the countless times she had seen my father strung out on crack cocaine as he was being hauled off to the county jail. To my grandma, my schooling experience had become my father’s prison experience.

As I got older, rather than focusing on becoming better in school, I focused on getting out. The older I

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by Tunette Powell KƵƚͲŽĨͲ^ĐŚŽŽů ^ƵƐƉĞŶƐŝŽŶƐ ďLJ 'ƌĂĚĞ >ĞǀĞů͗ ϮϬϭϯͲϭϰ ƚŽ ϮϬϭϳͲϭϴ ; ŽŶƚŝŶƵĞĚͿ run the school-suspended child-me.

That same year, my oldest two got, the less ^ƵƐƉĞŶƐŝŽŶƐ͗ ůů 'ƌĂĚĞƐ I attended school. I was On the surface, the trauma ^ƚƵĚĞŶƚƐ ^ƵƐƉĞŶĚĞĚ of being sons, Jason and Joah, who were 3 chronically absent and despite a B+

EƵŵďĞƌ ŽĨ cast out by schooling, and the trauma and 4 years old at the^ƵƐƉĞŶƐŝŽŶƐ time, went average in high school, my mother experienced in my family had been “home for the day” nearly a dozen was forced to^ĐŚŽŽů zĞĂƌ pay a fine, to the courts, dŽƚĂů ^ƚƵĚĞŶƚƐ EƵŵďĞƌ WĞƌĐĞŶƚĂŐĞ EƵŵďĞƌ conquered. times combined.

By 2014, my life was for my absenteeism.

I was assigned ϮϬϭϳͲϭϴ ϱϮ͕ϴϴϭ ϱ͘ϯϮϯ ϭϬ͘ϭй ϭϮ͕ϴϲϬ completely different than that of the to a probation officer and sentenced ϮϬϭϲͲϭϳ ϱϮ͕ϯϬϰ ϵ͘ϭй ϭϯ͕ϭϳϴ And then in 2014, ϰ͕ϳϯϴ the phone 1990s. Having escaped poverty and to Saturday school and after-school ϱϭ͕ϴϴϱ ϰ͕ϴϵϲ ϵ͘ϰй rang. married now, my husband,ϭϬ͕ϵϴϲ who was detention forϮϬϭϱͲϭϲ most of my 11th-grade ϮϬϭϰͲϭϱ ϱϭ͕Ϯϴϳ ϰ͕ϵϲϰ ϵ͘ϳй ϭϬ͕ϴϮϭ in the Air Force, and I were living in year of high school to make up for all “We need you to come pick up ϮϬϭϯͲϭϰ ϱϬ͕Ϯϲϱ ϱ͕ϭϰϯ ϭϬ͘Ϯй ϭϬ͕ϱϯϭ suburban Omaha. I was a published of the days I had missed. Despite skipJason,” the director of my oldest son’s being suspended at author, motivational speaker and ping school and preschool said. founder of a nonprofit. But no matnearly every KƵƚͲŽĨͲ^ĐŚŽŽů ^ƵƐƉĞŶƐŝŽŶ dƌĞŶĚƐ grade level of K-12, I ter the years and miles removed, that graduated from high school and tried “Is he being suspended?” I asked. dŚĞ ĨŽůůŽǁŝŶŐ ĐŚĂƌƚ ŝůůƵƐƚƌĂƚĞƐ ƚŚĞ ϱͲLJĞĂƌ ƚƌĞŶĚ ŝŶ ƚŚĞ ŶƵŵďĞƌ ŽĨ ƐƚƵĚĞŶƚƐ ǁŚŽ ǁĞƌĞ ƐƵƐƉĞŶĚĞĚ ĂƐ Ă phone call took me back to my childcollege for a bit before dropping out.

“We don’t like to use the word hood; that of not only being told that I eventually went back to college after ƉĞƌĐĞŶƚĂŐĞ ŽĨ ŽĨĨŝĐŝĂů ĨĂůů ŵĞŵďĞƌƐŚŝƉ͘ dƌĞŶĚƐ ĂƌĞ ƐŚŽǁŶ ĂƐ ŐƌĂĚĞƐ W< – ϲ͕ ϳ – ϴ͕ ϵ – ϭϬ͕ ĂƐ ǁĞůů ĂƐ ĨŽƌ ‘suspended,’” the director said. “We I was a problem but actually believa four-year hiatus, and in 2012, eight ƚŚĞ ĚŝƐƚƌŝĐƚ ĂƐ Ă ǁŚŽůĞ͘ just call it going home for the day.” years after graduating from high WĞƌĐĞŶƚ ŽĨ ^ƚƵĚĞŶƚƐ ^ƵƐƉĞŶĚĞĚ͗ ϱͲzĞĂƌ dƌĞŶĚ school, I became the first woman -- and just the second person -- in my family to earn a bachelor’s degree. On the surface, ϮϬϭϯͲϭϰ ϮϬϭϰͲϭϱ ϮϬϭϱͲϭϲ ϮϬϭϲͲϭϳ it appeared as though 'ƌĂĚĞƐ W<Ͳϲ 'ƌĂĚĞƐ ϳͲϴ 'ƌĂĚĞƐ ϵͲϭϮ ůů 'ƌĂĚĞƐ the adultme had out- SOURCE: OPS 2017-18 Suspension/Expulsion Summary Report

| THE READER |

OPS Students Suspended: 5 Year Trend

COVER

ŚĂŶŐĞƐ ƚŽ ^ƵƐƉĞŶƐŝŽŶƐ ŝŶ ϮϬϭϳͲϭϴ

ϭϴ͘ϲϬй ϭϰ͘ϬϬй ϭϬ͘ϭϬй ϲ͘ϭϬй

ϮϬϭϳͲϭϴ

studies have shown that adults typiK-12 students are nearly four times cally view black children as older, as likely to receive one or more outless innocent and more blameworthy of-school suspensions as white stucompared with non-black children, dents. Among children in preschool, including Latino children. black children, who make up only 19 percent of preschool enrollment, repIn my case, resent 47 percent I was a curious of out-of-school child who asked suspensions. Fura lot of questions thermore, accordand enjoyed talking to a report reing. At home, my leased by UCLA’s family, especially Civil Rights Projmy father, called ect, even among me smart and giftstudents with ed. However, at disabilities, who school, preschool carry federal teachers interdocuments that preted that beare supposed to havior as me “actprotect their civil ing too grown.” rights (e.g. IEP These school and 504 plans), discipline dispariFor black families throughout black students are ties are rooted in the United States, this has become unprotected as a history of the dehumanization and the norm as black children have bethey are suspended more often than adultification of black children.

Black come the most suspended students any other group of students with dischildren are treated like they should in the country, according to a report abilities. Based on these statistics, it know better, adultified and are conreleased in 2018 by the U.S. Governis easy to assume black children – as sequently robbed of the chance to ment Accountability Office. Accordyoung as 3 and 4 years old – are the be children. For example, in 2016, ing to that report and others like it, džƉƵůƐŝŽŶ dƌĞŶĚƐ problem, that their behavior and a group out of Yale University found black boys are the most suspended emotional responses are particularly that the early childhood educaof any group of students; and Black dŚĞ ĨŽůůŽǁŝŶŐ ĐŚĂƌƚ ŝůůƵƐƚƌĂƚĞƐ ƚŚĞ ϱͲLJĞĂƌ ƚƌĞŶĚ ŝŶ ƚŚĞ ŶƵŵďĞƌ ŽĨ ƐƚƵĚĞŶƚƐ ǁŚŽ ǁĞƌĞ ĞdžƉĞůůĞĚ ĂƐ Ă maladaptive to schooling. However, tors tended to observe black stugirls -the most suspended of all ƉĞƌĐĞŶƚĂŐĞ ŽĨ ŽĨĨŝĐŝĂů ĨĂůů ŵĞŵďĞƌƐŚŝƉ͘ dƌĞŶĚƐ ĂƌĞ ƐŚŽǁŶ ĂƐ ŐƌĂĚĞƐ ϳ – ϴ͕ ϵ – ϭϬ͕ ĂƐ ǁĞůů ĂƐ ĨŽƌ ƚŚĞ black and white children do not bedents more closely, especially black girls -- have the highest-growing have very differently; it is the adult ĚŝƐƚƌŝĐƚ ĂƐ Ă ǁŚŽůĞ͘ boys. According to their study, early suspension rate of all students. Black response that is different. Previous childhood

educators WĞƌĐĞŶƚ ŽĨ ^ƚƵĚĞŶƚƐ džƉĞůůĞĚ͗ ϱͲzĞĂƌ dƌĞŶĚ expected black preschoolers ϭ͘ϴϬй to exhibit more chalϭ͘ϳϬй lenging behaviors Ϭ͘ϴϬй compared with their non-black peers. This has resultϮϬϭϯͲϭϰ ϮϬϭϰͲϭϱ ϮϬϭϱͲϭϲ ϮϬϭϲͲϭϳ ϮϬϭϳͲϭϴ ed in the 'ƌĂĚĞƐ ϳͲϴ 'ƌĂĚĞƐ ϵͲϭϮ ůů 'ƌĂĚĞƐ increased likelihood SOURCE: OPS 2017-18 Suspension/Expulsion Summary Report ing it. While on the first of multiple calls that year with my children’s preschool, I was reminded that I could not outrun trauma, out-accomplish trauma, nor could I buy my way out of trauma. The trauma of my childhood experiences with suspension and those of my children permeated my core being. Similar to a solider, safe and away from the battlefields, having a reflexive duck-for-cover response after hearing a loud sound, suspension had “impaired my hearing.” Every time the phone rang, the sound brought tears to my eyes as I was always expecting it to be a suspension phone call. The trauma impaired my sight. As I looked in the mirror, I no longer saw the accomplished woman, only a problem who had given birth to two problems.

“The single-mostimportant first step of disrupting and dismantling school suspension disparities is for black parents and students to share their experiences.”

OPS Students Expelled: 5 Year Trend

^ƵƐƉĞŶƐŝŽŶƐ ĂŶĚ džƉƵůƐŝŽŶƐ ďLJ ZĂĐĞͬ ƚŚŶŝĐŝƚLJ

COVER

dŚĞ ĨŽůůŽǁŝŶŐ ƚĂďůĞƐ ĚĞƚĂŝů ƐƵƐƉĞŶƐŝŽŶ ĂŶĚ ĞdžƉƵůƐŝŽŶ ƌĂƚĞƐ ďLJ ƌĂĐĞͬĞƚŚŶŝĐŝƚLJ Ăƚ ƚŚĞ ĞůĞŵĞŶƚĂƌLJ͕ ŵŝĚĚůĞ͕

of dropping out of high school, academic failure, grade retention and future incarceration – all things that are harmful and traumatic to black children and their families.

As the Trump administration is repealing federal protections that guard students from these discriminatory practices, the fight to disrupt and dismantle what is happening in schools must be fought at the local level – and must begin and end with black families. All across the nation, in cities such as Los Angeles; Portland, Oregon; and Dayton, Ohio, black families are fighting against school suspension and supporting behavior intervention. In Omaha, where black families are met with the same fate as black families nationally, the time to be vocal is now. The single-mostimportant first step of disrupting and dismantling school suspension disparities is for black parents and students to share their experiences. Additionally, because parents in other states have launched grassroots efforts to combat school suspension, it is important to study those successes.

For example, Dignity in Schools – a national coalition of parents, youth and community organizers to end school pushout – offers a toolkit for parents, youth and organizers who want to combat school pushout. This toolkit includes organizing and campaign strategies as well as fact sheets and sample reports.

Right after desegregation, black parents tried to alert us of school suspension disparities. More than 50 years later, the cries of black parents have gone unheard, resulting in black children being the most pushed-out children in the country. However, at this time in history, black parents are lifting their voices in ways that are forcing school districts to hear us and see us. Omaha needs this kind of rallying.

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WHAM-BAM! THANK YOU, SAMFAM Omaha restauranteur Ron Samuelson keeps doing what he does best

EAT

B Y K AT Y S P R AT T E J O Y C E

SARA LOCKE is the Contributing Editor for The Reader’s Food section. She is fluent in both sarcasm and pig Latin, and is definitely going to eat the contents of her to-go box in her car on her way home. Follow her restaurant reviews and weekly what-todos online at http://thereader. com/dining/crumbs . Follow @ TheReaderOmahaDish on Instagram to find out what else she’s sinking her teeth into.

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ell-known Omaha restauranteur Ron Samuelson had nothing left to prove to the city he’s given so much to. After the heartbreaking M’s Pub fire to ring in the 2016 new year, Samuelson could have retired, having earned impressive accolades throughout a storied career: President of the Omaha Restaurant Association, more than 20 years of delightful Italian at the Old Market’s Vivace, inductee of the Omaha Hospitality Hall of Fame, with thirty-plus years at everyone’s favorite downtown eatery, M’s Pub. Instead, this patriarch has combined his experience with that of his young and passionate nephews, Aaron and Justin Halbert, to bring us three restaurant concepts in just three years under the umbrella company of SamFam. That number is notable on its own, but is especially startling when you consider that nearly 20 percent of restaurant ventures close within their first year.

With the Reader entering its banner 25th year of publication as Omaha’s alternative news

| THE READER |

EAT

source, we’re focusing on the things that make our little slice of heaven special. So, let’s take a look at the SamFam portfolio, and keep an eye on this family company’s bright future.

and a shrimp and oyster bar. The end result is a tasty trip to the Crescent City, with on-theme craft cocktails and regional delights like peel-and-eat shrimp within a sleek yet cozy-chic space. The best way to sum up this bar and restaurant? With Herbe Sainte a famous Creole phrase, of course: “Laissez les When thinking of America’s great food cities, bon temps rouler,” which roughly translates to New Orleans sits at the top or near the top of “let the good times roll.” almost everyone’s list. So it’s only natural that channeling the Cajun Capital has led to success Della Costa for SamFam. Its Aksarben-area establishment When Midtown Crossing staple Brix closed was intended to operate primarily as a watering in controversy, many wondered what could fill hole featuring famous Southern cocktails like the one of the anchor spaces of that development Sazerac and Hurricane. In fact, a liqueur that is a after such an abrupt departure. Enter the second Sazerac ingredient, Herbsaint, is the namesake of SamFam effort, the Coastal Mediterranean the concept. Herbe Sainte also features Louisiana cuisine of Della Costa that debuted in May 2017. brewery Abita with five offerings from that New Meaning “of the coast,” this eatery infuses the Orleans-area purveyor. sea into every facet. Take the hearty Cacciucco, a But Omahans were not only thirsty, but hungry rustic seafood stew, or a grilled swordfish wrap. for a slice of the South, and SamFam quickly The linguine di Mare features mussels, scallops, pivoted to increase dining options, adding lunch and shrimp. Della Costa truly delivers on its service, a popular brunch menu (oh, hey beignet!), premise with each dish. However, an expansive,

recently re-focused menu offers plenty of dishes from the land for those who don’t love seafood.

This offering was not without complications, including an oversized rental bay. That often left the restaurant feeling cold and cavernous, against the warm Mediterranean brand the family had worked so hard to achieve.

Fortunately, the SamFam team was receptive to pivoting once again. In May 2018, a year after the opening of Della Costa, Cafe Costa was born. This café and bakery occupy the Farnam side of the original space and offer freshly baked goods like croissants and scones with inventive flavor pairings. Cafe Costa also sells homemade sorbet and ice cream that changes daily, as well as a cost-conscious $8 soup and sandwich lunch combo. The coffee is provided by local roaster Hill of Beans, which also operates the Roast coffee house in Aksarben Village and provides the coffee for west Omaha’s Karma Koffee, among others. Consequently, Della Costa + Cafe Costa have got you covered for breakfast, lunch, dinner, happy hour, and dessert.

Mode de Vie Debuting in August 2018 was SamFam’s latest concept, the aptly named Mode de Vie inside Regency Mall. Mode de Vie translates to “way of life” from French. Calling a champagne bar a “way of life” is fine by me, a longtime lover of

all things bubbly. This new-ish eatery channels Aaron Halbert’s certified sommelier experience into a well-rounded wine list with a focus on effervescence plus classic champagne cocktails.

The only issue with this hip and delightful spot is its inclusion of cuisines from areas formerly occupied by France. In a sense, it seems to be glorifying colonialism. Perhaps the elevation of these sometimes-ignored areas of the world elevates them in culinary status, but I would be remiss not to be honest about my thoughts while being careful not to speak for a culture that isn’t mine.

Regardless, Mode de Vie offers eclectic and delicious dishes in each menu category.

Appetizers like the cheese plate, a warm Vichyssoise, and a divine French onion sammie, can be easily complimented by all manner of desserts and dazzling drinks. The chain-heavy Regency Mall needed this infusion of locally owned soul, and SamFam certainly delivered.

What’s next for SamFam? Call us a bit mushy as we reflect during our anniversary year, but it’s heartwarming to see a family business that enriches Omaha’s culinary scene and strives to move it forward.

We can’t wait to see what this team comes up with next, and we congratulate it on successfully expanding our palate horizons in new and exciting ways.

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WO R L D P R E M I E R E P R O D U C T I O N !

T he W izard Of

Oz

May 4 • Orpheum Theater • amballet.org Premier Benefactor:

Season Sponsor:

Fred and Eve Simon Charitable

Foundation 16

FEBRUARY 2019

| THE READER |

Major Support: Cindy & Scott Heider

Through February 10 The Rose Theater presents the World Premiere of

Return To Niobrara Fri 7pm | Sat 2pm & 5pm | Sun 2pm Tickets $20. Members of The Rose receive four free tickets to the production.

Return to Niobrara is a historical drama that shines a spotlight on one of Nebraska’s most famous trials, and the first civil lawsuit in the United States. One hundred forty years ago, Steven’s great-great-grandfather Chief Standing Bear stood up in court and demanded that a federal Judge recognize that Indians are “persons” under the law. Today, following an altercation during which Steven is bullied at school because of his long hair, Steven must follow in his grandfather’s footsteps. That means speak out against his school’s attempt to force him to cut his hair and, ultimately, to erase his identity. Written by Mary Kathryn Nagle (citizen of the Cherokee Nation), the play invites the audience to see the past emerging in our present, and ultimately what it means to stand for who we are.

Witness a drama about a historic Omaha story with this world premiere production commissioned by The Rose Theater and developed at The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Contact The Rose Box Office at (402) 345-4849 for more information. ~ Beaufield Berry

Through February

In Come the Animals

The Little Gallery in Benson polecatcommunications.com/thelittle-gallery/ If we could talk to the animals, they might say “T-Rex est mechant et dur” (TRex is wicked and hard). That’s the phrase on a poster for In Come the Animals, a new solo exhibit by Bob Mathews that runs through February at The Little Gallery.

Mathews works with a colorful palate and a bright expression that’s a little bit fauve and a little bit Basquiat in this Benson First Friday exhibit.

It all captures the personalities of their notable subjects – animals.

The dogs, rhinos and, of course, dinosaurs in his work are front and center, filling the canvas in increasingly thickened layers of acrylics and oils that detail the animals in a way that is complex while feeling primitive.

As a special collaboration, proceeds from sales will benefit the Nebraska Humane Society. In Come the Animals runs through February at The Little Gallery, 5901 Maple St. ~ Melinda Kozel

Through March 29

Jotería

Petshop Gallery in Benson bensonfirstfriday.com

Petshop Gallery in Benson is back with its first show of 2019. Joteria is a multimedia music/art/pop-up show guest-curated

by Santi Mora-amaral and Walker Greene.

Jotería refers to queer Latinx, Chicanx or Indigenous people and is a term reclaimed by those who do not fit heteronormative standards. The exhibit will focus on identity and, in particular, what it means to be gay, queer or nonconforming.

The goal is to create more visibility and access by encouraging inclusion, creation, education and expression through a variety of mediums and skills at the local level.

Featured artists include Santi Moraamaral, Walker Greene, Holly Vander, Rafael Valadez, Samantha Vargas and Una Novotny with music provided by Kiara

Walker, Histrionic, Holly Vander and Tame Suns.

Joteria opens runs through March 29 at Petshop, 27252729 N 62nd St. For more information, visit bensonfirstfriday.com. ~ Melinda Kozel

Through March 30

Effects of PTSD

Fred Simon Gallery 1004 Farnam Street The Fred Simon Gallery opens its 2019 season with Effects of PTSD, a solo exhibit by Elizabeth Boutin.

The artist, a military spouse and Red Cross volunteer working with wounded combat veterans, will exhibit a group of paintings inspired by her close involvement with the wounded and her experiences with depression and PTSD. Sometimes referred to as shell-shock or combat fatigue, Post Tr aumat ic Stress Disorder affects more than those directly involved in combat. It also affects medics, nurses and volunteers working with the wounded, and by association, family and friends and coworkers of those more directly suffering.

Boutin’s realistic paintings are gleaned from her discoveries of how she and others deal with the debilitating effects of the psychological wounds.

With a nod to the Vanitas paintings of the 17th century Netherlands, her symbolism, however, ventures beyond mortality and death of that archaic style toward a more open-ended application.

pickS

Effects of PTSD runs through March 30.

More information is available at 402-5952122. ~ Kent Behrens

Through May 5

30 Americans Joslyn Art Museum Joslyn.org | 402-342-3300

With its 30 Americans show, Joslyn Art Museum is providing the community a sweeping exhibition highlighting three decades of contemporary African-American art.

Assembled from the expansive trove of artworks owned by the Miami mega-collecting Rubell family, 30 Americans offers a fresh perspective through a multifaceted selection of pieces by highly recognized African-American

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artists, including Jean-Michel Basquiat, Nick Cave, Kara Walker, Carrie Mae Weems and Kehinde Wiley. Featuring much work intended to adapt, examine or critique traditional tropes of representation, the exhibition opens a broader conversation on the potential of artistic expression to have cultural impact.

In conjunction with the exhibition, Joslyn is offering a varied menu of programs inspired by some of its more trenchant themes. They have partnered with Film Streams, Inclusive Communities, CreativeMornings and area artists to expand the conversation about creativity, diversity and power structures.

30 Americans: An Exhibition from the Rubell Family Collection runs through May 5 at Joslyn Art Museum. There is a non-member admission, though it is free to the public on the first weekend of every month. The museum, 2200 Dodge St., is open Tuesday-Sunday from 10am-4pm, and until 8pm on Thursday. For more information, visit www.joslyn.org or call 402342-3300. ~ Janet L. Farber

Through May 5

Fred Tomaselli Riley Cap Gallery at the Joslyn Art Museum Joslyn.org | 402-342-3300

aimed to reconnect humanity with nature and beauty.

A New York artist since 1985, Tomaselli has also developed an interest in the editorial selectivity that informs what is deemed important in the news cycle. Since 2005, he has been hand-embellishing photo-

February 6-7

David Sanborn Jazz Quintet graphs from the front pages of The New York Times, and it is this body of work featured in the Riley CAP. Using his personal vocabulary of natural and decorative motifs and patterns, Tomaselli enhances the press images to add a tone that may be satiric, sad, trippy or cosmic when seen in the context of the print story. His selections are not based in advancing a political or social ideology, but in framing the often-surrealistic quality of contemporary life.

Fred Tomaselli opens in the Riley CAP Gallery on Feb. 2 and runs through May 5 at Joslyn Art Museum. There is no admission fee. The museum is at 2200 Dodge St. and is open Tuesday-Sunday from 10am4pm, and until 8pm on Thursday. For more information, visit www.joslyn.org or call 402/342-3300. ~ Janet Farber

February 6

Hockey Dad Reverb Lounge Benson | reverblounge.com There has always been a strong element of escapism in the work of Fred Tomaselli. But where alternate reality meets the news of the day is the subject of the next solo show in Joslyn’s Riley CAP Gallery, opening Feb. 2.

California-raised Tomaselli became known for what might be called post-psychedelic paintings. His colorful, hallucinatory collages reflected on the loss of idealism and failure of the “hippy dream” and

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FEBRUARY 2019

a different headspace. Hockey Dad, a duo comprised of singer and guitarist Zach Stephenson and drummer Billy Fleming from Windang, New South Wales, Australia, is here to provide just such tunes. Upbeat and punchy, Hockey Dad’s music has an undeniable beachy feel. It also helps that the band’s best songs are about surfing, partying, and chasing girls. Though they made strides to get away from that typical teenage-boy fodder on last year’s Blend Inn – and while that album is definitely worth a listen – I don’t want to hear any of it at the show. Take me to the beach. I wanna go surfing. ~ Houston Wiltsey

Sometimes during winters in Nebraska, you need music that puts you in

| THE READER |

pickS

As for jazz, he said, “the idea of collective improvisation and what the rules are are constantly being redefined.” “You can’t keep recreating a style or an era of the music because then it’s just a museum piece.

Jazz is an evolving, vital art form. The reason it holds such fascination is because it’s a very challenging art form where you’re composing on the spot. That’s a high-wire act. It’s tremendously rewarding.” ~ Leo Biga

February 6-March 2

Retrospective Works by Robert Klein Engler Connect Gallery 3901 Leavenworth

The Jewell 1030 Capitol Avenue 402-505-8468 jewellomaha.com/show Saxophonist David Sanborn long ago made his musical bones, yet still marvels at his good fortune. “Yeah, every day I’m grateful I’m able to actually make a living doing something I love to do,” he said.

His natural curiosity finds him ever exploring his instrument and craft. “It’s a discipline you never completely master because it’s all about process, so the more you play, the more you hear. It just keeps opening up. There’s always another door to open, another corner to turn, another world to discover. That’s the great thrill of music – you never get to the end of it.

You’ve got to develop a sense of humility about it if you’re going to keep from going crazy.”

Music is mystery. “If you look at music as interrupting the silence, the sound only has meaning in the silence that surrounds you,” he said. “What you’re doing as any artist is manipulating space. You have to honor those spaces where you’re not. Especially if you’re playing in a group, it’s not all about what you’re doing, it’s how you interact with people and where you play and don’t play. It’s a conversation you want to keep interesting, dynamic and engaged.”

The visual artwork of Robert Klein Engler, who died last fall, will be on display at Connect Gallery in February. Engler was a painter and a published poet and writer.

The exhibit, Retrospective Works by Robert Klein Engler, will feature approximately 20 of his works spanning different periods of his life. He painted daily, working primarily in a naïve style; abstractions of landscapes and cityscapes in boldly graphic color, adding figure and subject, sometimes alluding to line work of Miro and Picasso. His more recent work was imbued with Nativeamerican references.

Not one to shy from controversial subjects, he used abstract work to touch on a wide range of topics from politics to sex and landscapes and cityscapes to the spiritual. Engler taught college English in his hometown of Chicago, lived for a time in New Orleans, and settled in Omaha. He worked in the education department at Joslyn Art Museum and taught at College of St. Mary’s.

The artist’s work showed primarily through Connect Gallery and the Burkholder Project in Lincoln. He wrote for the Canada Free Press, numerous literature magazines, and much of his poetry can be found online.

February 9-March 3

The retrospective runs from February 6-March 2. There will be an opening reception Feb. 8 from 5:30-9pm More information is available at connectgallery.net, or by calling 402-991-8234. ~ Kent Behrens

The Rose Theater First Stage

Thumbelina

Sat, Sun 9:30 & 11am | Mon 10am Tickets are $12 ($10 for members)

February 8-17 Performing Artists Repertory Theatre (PART) presents

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

7400 Dodge St (at the Crossroads) Fri, Sat 7pm | Sun 2pm Ticket $35 | Seniors (60+) $30 | Students $25.00 performingartistsrepertorytheatre.org George, a professor at a small New England college, and his wife, Martha, have just returned home, drunk from a Saturday night faculty party. Martha announces that she has invited a young couple to stop by for a nightcap. When they arrive, the charade begins. The drinks flow and suddenly inhibitions melt. But underneath the edgy banter lurks an undercurrent of tragedy and despair. Winner of the 1963 Tony Award for best play.

For more information on the PART Theatre at the Crossroads, 7400 Dodge St., visit www.performingartistsrepertorytheatre.org ~ Beaufield Berry

February 8-23 Circle Theatre presents

The Hobbit

Fridays, Saturdays 7pm Adults $20 | Senior/Military/TAG (special) $15 | Students $12 Hanscom Park United Methodist Church, 4444 Frances St. It’s unusual for a modern work to become a classic so quickly, but Tolkien’s “ring” stories, which began with The Hobbit, clearly are in this category. They stir the imagination and intellect. Bilbo, one of the most conservative of all Hobbits, is asked to leave his large, roomy and very dry home in the ground in order to set off

as chief robber in an attempt to recover an important treasure. It’s the last thing that any sensitive Hobbit would want to do, but great benefit eventually results — not only for Bilbo but for all of the Hobbits who inhabit Middle Earth — and the hearts of those children and adults who continue to enjoy this kind of magic.

By Patricia Gray, Adapted from J.R.R. Tolkein’s novel Tickets at circleom.booktix.com ~ Beaufield Berry

February 8-23 Apollon Art Space presents

Something Remembered

Performances are Friday and Saturdays, with a special performance on Valentine’s Day, at 7:30pm.

Doors 7pm | Dinner show 7:30pm General $35, VIP tickets $45 The celebrants have gathered.

The champagne cork has rocketed into the crowd. It is time for the toasts that tell stories of how two disparate lives joined and the events that guided them on their paths toward each other. Memories play vividly before the speaker and listener, joining each other in something remembered.

This is an interactive and immersive theatre experience.

Admission includes dinner and performance. A cash bar is available during performances. No physical ticket is required for admission once you have completed your purchase via the website or at the box office. This event is intended primarily for adults but is suitable for all ages.

For more information and reservations, email info@apollonomaha.com or purchase tickets at https://www.apollonomaha.com/ new-events/somethingremembered ~ Beaufield Berry

Back by popular demand. Thumbelina is a flower-sized girl determined to discover the true meaning of friendship. Follow her on a magical, thumb-sized adventure that will find your child swimming with fish and flying with sparrows using inventive puppetry and innovative design.

First Stage: A small stage for big imaginations. The Rose is proud to offer young theater-goers a unique opportunity to experience the theater arts. FIRST STAGE productions are perfect for preschoolers, children with special needs or sensory needs or others who desire a gentler, more interactive and personal performance.

Meet the Cast & Get an Autograph.

Some performers will be available after the show to say hello, pose for pictures, and sign autographs. You can meet them on the mezzanine level outside the entrance to the balcony-level seats.

Reservations required – call 402345-4849 or click the “Purchase Tickets” button at www.rosetheater.org/shows/ thumbelina19/ ~ Beaufield Berry

February 12

Elton John CHI Health Center Downtown Omaha

pickS

Well, this is it. After 50 years, 33 solo albums, nine No. 1 singles, and more than 200 million records sold, Elton John has finally reached the end of the yellow brick road. The Englishmen’s farewell tour is stopping at the CHI Health Center to give fans one last chance to hear the songs and gaze at those legendarily extravagant costumes. Early reviews have been extremely promising. Even at 71, the piano man has been stretching his shows to nearly three hours with setlists that include everything from “Rocket Man” and “Tiny Dancer” to lesser-known gems such as “All the Young Girls Love Alice,” which is easily the best song ever written about a lesbian prostitute. The show sold out almost instantly, but there are tickets available on reseller sites like StubHub and SeatGeek. Are they incredibly expensive? Yes. But for those who get to go, the price will be worth it. ~ Houston Wiltsey

February 12

Gang of Four The Slowdown theslowdown.com

It’s been 40 years since Gang of Four basically invented post-punk with their incendiary debut, Entertainment! The group is the main reason rock critics toss around words like “angular” and “jagged” when discussing certain records, and the list of bands that wouldn’t exist without them is nearly endless (listen to the Rapture and tell me they’re not a complete rip-off). Andy Gill is the only remaining original member, but that hasn’t slowed the group’s musical output. They released the Complicit EP last year and their new record, Happy Now, is available for pre-order, although no release date has been announced.

Unlike other punk bands that are afraid to indulge in nostalgia, Gang of Four is still delivering solid gold every time they hit the stage. Expect plenty of Entertainment! cuts and record-store nerds at this one. ~ Houston Wiltsey

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February 15-March 3 The Union For Contemporary Art’s Performing Arts Collective (PAC)

More Than Neighbors

Thu–Sat 7pm, Sun matinees 4pm $20 general admission

This February, More Than Neighbors (written by The Union’s Associate Director of Performing Arts, Denise Chapman) comes to The Union stage for an 11-night run. The play chronicles the experiences of one North Omaha family in the years following the construction of the 75 North Highway, which dramatically divided the community.

Like many of its North Omaha neighbors, the family find itself abruptly torn in different directions – geographically and culturally – as a huge portion of its oncethriving community is paved and its understanding and practice of community is shifted and redefined.

This is expected to be a moving testament to the history and resilience of North Omaha. For questions regarding PAC programming, contact Chapman at denise@uca.org Purchase tickets at www.eventbrite.com/e/more-than-neighbors-tickets-54365612009 ~ Beaufield Berry

Making God Laugh follows one typicalamerican family over the course of thirty years of holidays. Starting in 1980, Ruthie and Bill’s grown children — a priest, an aspiring actress, and a former football star — return home, where we learn of their plans and dreams as they embark on their adult lives. The empty-nester parents contend with their own changes, too, as old family rituals are trotted out and ancient tensions flare up. As time passes, the family discovers that, despite what we may have in mind, we often arrive at unexpected destinations.

As Woody Allen once said, “If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.”

Tickets are available for purchase in person only. For reservations, call Linda Leimbach at 531-600-8634 or visit http:// florencetheater.org/tickets/ ~ Beaufield Berry

February 22

Thursday, Friday, Saturday at 7pm | Sunday at 2pm General admission $10 TAG members/Patrons age 60+/ Groups of 8 or more $8

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FEBRUARY 2019

Embracing the Shades of US Joslyn Art Museum 2200 Dodge Street Free (Pre-registration required)

The Bookworm 2501 So 90th | 402-390-3877 www.bookwormomaha.com

FCT Productions presents

This new book from the University of Nebraska Press frames theamerican immigrant success story through the prism of South Sudan refugee Akoy Agau, whose basketball prowess at Omaha Central punched his golden ticket. Author Steve Marantz (The Rhythm Boys of Omaha Central) serves up Akoy – the linchpin behind the Eagles’ four straight Class A titles from 2010-2013 – as a new emblem for the classic newcomer-made-good tale. Agau’s talents made him a top recruiting target. He

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February 23

First Match Film Streams’ Ruth Sokolof Theater 1340 Mike Fahey Street Free (Reserve tix bit.ly/2sG0CQj)

February 23

Citizen Akoy

February 21-24

Making God Laugh

accepted a full-ride scholarship to D-I power Louisville. He then transferred schools three times: to Georgetown, to SMU and back again to Louisville, where he’s a graduate student completing his athletic eligibility in 2019. Though never more than a role player in college, he’s done more than most by traversing social and cultural barriers on a journey of athletic competition, educational attainment, family allegiance and good citizenship. Marantz will sign copies of his book at 6pm ~ Leo Biga

Omaha entrepreneur Nicole Otto never regarded colorism an issue in her AfricanAmerican household until overhearing her daughters discuss their different black hues. That discovery prompted her to do research. She found colorism “a systemic issue seeping into every minority culture’.”

Thus, she’s created the first in a series of events highlighting the beauty of every shade of womanhood. “In today’s world,” she said, “we have forgotten how to just embrace each other’s differences. We are here to learn from each other, connect with one another and most importantly protect one another.” February’s empowerment event features an epic, all-day photo shoot of real women from the community, dressed to slay, with the goal of celebrating their shades and changing the narrative on colorism. Documenting things will be award-winning L.A. filmmaker Mary Moutry. ~ Leo Biga

This unsentimental dramatic portrait of a Brooklyn Brownsville teenage girl’s search for love and acceptance through wrestling was written, directed, photographed, edited and produced by women.

First Match stars newcomer Elvire Emanuelle, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (The Get Down, The Greatest Showman), Colman Domingo (Fear the Walking Dead) and Jharrel Jerome (Moonlight). After playing festivals at which it won audience awards, the film found wider viewership on Netflix. Now, one of its makers who just happens to be a native Omahan, Chanelle Elaine, is accompanying the film for a hometown premiere. Count it a win-win-win that nets more exposure for this noteworthy debut feature from Olivia Newman, a platform for Elaine and her rising stock in film circles and another example of Nebraskans doing interesting contemporary screen work. The single screening starts at 2pm Following the film, Elaine will discuss the project and her career. ~ Leo Biga

February 25-28

Local Black Filmmakers Showcase College of Saint Mary 7000 Mercy Rd., Gross Auditorium Free (Tickets at www.scm.edu) The work of award-winning Omaha filmmakers Jason Fischer and Omowale

UPCOMINGEVENTS

7TH ANNUAL

Akintunde highlight this four-day festival.

On Feb. 25 three short films by Fischer take center stage. The art film I Do Not Use pairs searing, symbolic images to poet Frank O’Neal’s incendiary words. The documentary Whitney Young: To Become Great uses the civil rights leader’s life as a model for kids and adults to investigate what it takes to be great. Out of Frame documents people living on the margins in Omaha.

On Feb. 26, Akintunde’s An Inaugural Ride to Freedom charts a trip Nebraskans made to D.C. for Obama’s historic first inauguration. On Feb. 27, it’s the world premiere of Akintunde’s television pilot It Takes a Village, which turns black situation comedy on its head. On Feb. 28, his impressive dramatic feature debut Wigger, shot in North Omaha, explores racism through the prism of a white dude whose strong identification with black culture ensnares and empowers himamidst betrayal and tragedy.

Screenings start at 6pm Q&As follow the Feb. 25, 27, 28 showings. For more info, call 402-399-2365. ~ Leo Biga

February 26

Kurt Vile

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The Slowdown Kurt Vile stops at the Slowdown in support of last year’s Bottle It In. Though the Philly native might not be known as a guitar hero, his dreamy, finger-picked style is unmistakable and magical. ~ Houston Wiltsey

MAY 10TH TICKETS AVAILABLE AT HOMEPRIDETIX.COM OR BOX OFFICE 1.800.440.3741 7300 Q STREET, RALSTON, NE 68127 | 402.934.9966 pickS

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FEBRUARY 2019

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OH, THE HUMANITY!

Seven artists express the vagaries of the ‘Human Condition’ at Kaneko

BY KENT BEHRENS

DAVID HELM, REVOLUTION

JOHN BUCK, MARCH OF FOLLY

ART

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KEN LITTLE, FATHER

he Kaneko’s Winter/Spring 2019 The featured artist in the Bow Truss Gallery is exhibition season opened in January Sunkoo Yuh. An artist and educator originally with Human Condition, another multi- from Korea, Sunkoo is an art professor at the media opus that will play on until May 4 University of Georgia. His signature work is at the south edge of the Old Market. massive, ceramic sculptural assemblages, exciting Like its previous seasonal offerings that piles of storybook animals, faces and figures, cast a wide net, the new season consists of mythological creatures, tribal deities, dragons, all an encompassing theme, group art exhibit, intertwined with occasional flowers or plants. several associated events such as musical This is Sunkoo’s second outing at Kaneko, the and multidisciplinary recitals and educational first being the 2016 Passion and Obsession programs and workshops. exhibit. The imagery is childlike but haunting, The main attraction is the group show, featuring mostly due to his loose, drippy glazes and rough works by seven artists; Sunkoo Yuh, Viola Frey, application of the clay. These heavy (several John Buck, Ken Little, Misha Gordin, Jim Krantz, weigh 3,000 pounds) stoneware totems are and David Helm. jumbles of shape and layered color, a mix of According to Kaneko staff, the rather the surreal and the pedestrian, the mythical with ambiguous title of the exhibition is purposefully the real. Be sure to walk around these towering left undefined. Roughly, Human Condition is pieces, as surprises await on all sides. based on an examination of the commonalities, On the walls of the Bowtruss gallery hang several differences, and relationships all humans have large, six-paneled ceramic “murals” populated with with one another, with the past and the future, figures that Sunkoo renders in caricature. Influential as expressed through the visual and performing figures, from the artist’s life and imagination, arts. This iteration asks, “What do we do with the mythological and spiritual, friends and family, all issues we confront?” and “How do the humanities standing or sitting on a flattened landscape, the (art, literature, and music, etc. …) affect or shallow perspective an homage to early folk instruct our interpretations and relationships?” painting styles of Southeast Asia.

Patrons should not expect to see direct Several of the murals are done in the traditional references or abstractions of Hannah Arendt’s and very recognizable style of under-glaze bluecelebrated book or Kobayashi’s epic film, on-white. You may notice in Sunkoo’s spontaneous however. The exhibit features seven disparate drawing style a touch of German expressionism artists, primarily working in sculpture and and even a dose of Matt Groening. Of note is the photography, that individually provide a “Kohler” mural (2014), a matte black, porcelain slip sampling of their works, and as a group connect casting hanging on the west wall, and its mate in to the theme. The works are noticeably linked brilliant cobalt blue directly across on the East wall. through personal or cultural narrative and the Not to be missed, around the back walls of dominant use of the figure. this hanger-like space, are several ink drawings

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SUNKOO YUH, LONG BEACH SUMMER on paper, expressive monochrome sketches that although contemporary harken back to the calligraphic traditions of some Asian cultures.

Although Sunkoo’s work wins the “heaviest art” prize, he is challenged by Viola Frey on the second floor. (Apparently there were plans to show Sunkoo on the second floor, but the pieces were deemed too heavy.) Frey’s towering ceramic figures, three men in suits, have material similarities to Sunkoo’s totems, with regard to handling of the clay and the loose techniques in glazing.

There is also here a kinship with the stylings of German Expressionists of the 1920s and 1930s.

Three clownish caricatures of “businessmen,” domineering, hovering, annoying, leering.

Extra-long compensating ties, coiffed hair, large hands, these harlequins appear to be ready to reprimand or correct. They are glazed in basic colors; primary blues, yellows, oranges and reds, rendered with only minor detail, but with their body language it is enough to assume an intimidating expression of condescension.

Frey was an artist and educator, and aside from her prolific reputation, is widely known for her colorful, large ceramic figures that she started around 1980. She is considered to be one of the premier artists in bringing clay work from the craft world into the world of fine art.

Though Frey died in 2004, the three figures, cast in 1988 and ’89, could represent anything from 1950 to 2019. With today’s culture of gender inquiry and controversial razor commercials, her work is as timely as ever.

In the same display space on the second floor you will find a kinetic sculpture by John Buck, and an offering by sculptor Ken Little. Buck, you

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may remember, was featured artist at Kaneko’s Kinetic show last year. His entry into this show is an ultra-timely, kinetic sculpture “March of Folly” depicting current political events ala North Korea, Trump, Putin, et al.

Picture a circus train, led by Putin, and President Trump in Trump Tower, powered by a disassembled Stormy Daniels, and in the center is a Trojan horse topped by a recreation of the famous Greek statue of the priest, Laocoön, which now resides in the Vatican. Laocoön is responsible for the (paraphrased) “Beware of Greeks bearing gifts.”

Bringing up the rear is a missile with Kim Jong-un hanging off the side. A little transparent, political side-taking, but the artist is known for his interpretations of current events. “March of Folly” is as fun and intricate as anything in his previous outing, from his Jelutong sculpting to his mechanical and aesthetic connections. His depictions of the main players are humorous and spot on.

Sculptor Ken Little is a musician, conceptual sculptor and installation artist, working and living in San Antonio. His pieces offered here are a series of three larger-than-life, figurative assemblages. Each is made from a steel armature shrouded in a steel mesh covered with (a lot of) real one-dollar bills, forming the shapes; an oversized suit, pair of pants, and a head. They are simple and devoid of much detail. Once you

get past trying to add up the value of the bills, you come to realize the revealing negative space, the vacancy within each piece.

While we are on the second floor, the last entry is photographer Misha Gordin. The work in this show, from his Scream series of 1984-87, is probably his most recognizable. Disembodied heads, many apparently straining to leave the frame, some appearing complacent and resolute.

Several of the heads have stamped numbers on their foreheads, some are bound with string or tape, others caked with dried mud.

They are all, apparently, alive. The stuff of dreams and nightmares; as masterfully done and as appropriate to the theme as anything in the show. Any local art patron of median age, however, will have seen these images at some point. Gordin and the Scream series seem to be local and perennial favorites. That aside, this is masterful conceptual photography, and all analog, for those who are interested.

Back to the first floor, where celebrated photographer and videographer Jim Krantz is represented in the west gallery with his documentary “Homage: Remembering Chernobyl” (2011). Comprised of about 28 color prints, the work depicts people, animals, buildings and even vegetation in the 38-mile wide Exclusion and Alienation zone around the Chernobyl nuclear disaster site. The tragedy occurred in 1986.

402-391-4558

The photos show poignant scenes of people plaster, are generic but have enough detail to working and living, a threadbare society, at identify as an older man. The eyes are vacant, first portraying a slight sense of normalcy, with and the effect is disturbing, looking a bit too much brightly painted buildings, bright grasses and like Ray Milland in The Thing with Two Heads. resilient green mosses, blue skies. But under Most of Helm’s pieces incorporate electronics in scrutiny, there is a brooding undercurrent of the form of lighting or sound. tragedy and despair.

Of note: “Doubt” (2018,) a stack of framed Krantz’s use of brilliant colors belies the “boxes” formed of steel tubing, stacked zig-zag tragedy, giving off a sense of resolve and manner four high. Randomly, colored lightbulbs happiness. No sooner than thinking this is a attached to the sides of each head will light up, resurrection, you start to notice physical defects, drawing your attention to one, then another, the signs of abuse and poverty, or a contaminated, light show alternating with a sound loop and a untouched room. The display is taken from the man and a woman parroting the cliché “No, I documentary published in book form in 2011 didn’t” and “Yes, you did.” and features prominently a translated poem from Also benefiting from sound is the piece called a letter left at the site.

“Chord.” Three heads on top of a table, glowing This brings us to the first works you see when warm yellow-orange, lit from below with bright you walk into the facility, by sculptor David Helm. fire-orange bulbs, and an eerily faint replaying A professor of art at UNO, Helm just closed his of Tibetan monks performing their otherworldly most recent exhibit, If Leonardo were a Pioneer throat singing. at MCC’s Gallery of Art and Design. Crowded As with other works in this ambitious exhibit into the center gallery, his 11 assemblages are of the human condition, Helm’s 3D pieces constructed from a variety of materials, steel are thought-provoking, sometimes humorous bar, wood constructions, and electronics. Similar examinations of relationships, interactions, to Gordin’s photos, each is focused around a identity and personal space. human head, or group of heads. The similarities For gallery hours and more information about stop there, however. programs and events associated with Human Helm uses a cast of the same male head, Condition, which closes May 4, call 402-341sometimes alone, other times in groups. The 3800 or go to Kaneko’s Facebook page or anonymous, bald heads, apparently of white website, thekaneko.org.

ART

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IT’S NO JOKE: WOMEN ARE FUNNY Omaha Comedy, Improv Scenes Deliver Plenty of Laughs

BY BEAUFIELD BERRY

THEATER

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BEAUFIELD BERRY is an accomplished playwright, novelist, theater arts educator and performer. She’s passionate about performing arts and has served on several boards across Omaha.

When she’s not covering the theater scene, you can find her creative consulting with Storytellers Collaborative and leading personal coaching sessions with many beloved clients. Check her out at BeaufieldBerryFisher.com .

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uess what? Women are funny. And there’s a boatload of them in Omaha just waiting to make you laugh. Over the past decade the Omaha comedy and improv scenes have exploded into their own niche of entertainment culture. Since The Backline’s early beginnings in a Dundee basement, doors have been opened to anyone who wants to get on stage and make people laugh.

Omaha is abundant with classes, weekly showcases, tournaments and open mics, beckoning new faces to get behind the mic.

Many of them are women. I wanted to sit down with some of the comedy scene’s most-talkedabout players and hear about where they started and the truth about comedy (like so many other professions) being a boys club.

Angi Sada, Makayla Kelley, Carmela Anderson and Stephanie Finklea are the names that kept popping up as I asked who are the women making names in local comedy today? I brought us all together so we could talk about the challenges and triumphs of being a woman in comedy in Omaha.

What made you want to get on the stage?

Angi Sada: For me, humor has always been my steadfast coping mechanism. I had to be funny because I was a fat, nerdy, bespectacled kid. It was be faster on the draw or get into fights.

I did a lot of both.

Beau: I think a lot of comedians I love have said that was the case for them.

Angi: But, in the end, what got me on stage was therapy. I had been in a really bad place after my dads died. They were the funniest, smartest humans I’ve ever known. Losing them was so painful that I couldn’t cope with anything successfully anymore. My therapist worked with me on rebuilding the sense of security and confidence I had when I had dads.

Makayla Kelley: Absolutely. The more trauma you’ve endured, the funnier you are. I don’t tell jokes. I tell stories. All of my “stories” are all real-life phases of my life that I’ve reflected on, accepted, and are fucking insane. Which turns into comedy gold. I actually have a friend and mentor that is a successful comedian, and one show I went to of his, I thought to myself, “I am WAY funnier than him on the daily.” So, I got

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booked on a show and have been doing them grandson off and on for many years. I kept her in ever since. I’ve never done an open mic either. the breakup; she was cool with it. My daughter and Carmela Anderson: I started doing niece come out all the time. I’m lucky. We have the comedy way back. I am in love with all the traditional, close-knit, Mexican family. My parents greats from Redd Foxx to Moms Mabley to Paul knew this would be in my future. I was a gifted kid Mooney. I love the physical comedy of Lucille Ball with unmedicated ADHD and no filter ever. and Carol Burnett. As a kid I always found the Makayla: My parents would NEVER come funny in everything, which would always get me to a show, and they think it’s dumb I do comedy. in trouble. I love to see ladies in comedy. I feel we My husband’s sister has come before! Also, I’m are just as strong and if not funnier. the black sheep, so ...

Stephanie Finklea: I got into comedy Carmela: When my family can make the because of Murder Mystery Dinner Theater. I shows they do come out to support, and I love started working it with Dylan Rohde and found when I look out and see them, especially when out about improv classes at The Backline. In my older grandchildren come out. class they give you a “get-in-free card” to attend Stephanie: My … family has more than a shows, and you’re encouraged to do so. As far few times. The support means so much. as stand up, I went to a Backline open mic and saw a guy who was awful. I thought, if he has the So what is the climate like locally for guts to do it, then I can too. Ryan de La Garza women comedians? I ask because asked me to be on his show, and that was my we’ve all heard the sentiments that start. Interestingly enough, I didn’t think it was women aren’t funny and comedy is stand up until a year later it hit me. Pre-written a boys club ... etc., etc. I don’t know material, duh. I don’t think I would have done it if what Ellen D. or Ali Wong would have I realized it was stand up. At the time I didn’t think to say about that, but what say you?

I was ready. Ryan was really the driving force to Angi: I think there are some male comics who developing my stand up. I see him as a mentor. get it. I really do. Then there are some who are Makayla: Ryan also was very helpful and — maybe not intimidated — under the impression booked me on a lot of shows when I first started, that intentional inclusion is like censorship. As a which is fantastic. Definitely a mentor, and also show-runner, I try to include everyone I can to I view Zach Peterson as a mentor to me, but the keep the stage diverse and eclectic. However, I people that motivate me the most are people like will gladly take a quick jab at comics who can’t or you, Beau and Angi. I can be a successful person won’t do that. Unfortunately, like so many other in a professional world, be a mother of two, have venues, this is a straight, white dude’s game. Then morals and beliefs, but still be cool AF and do you throw us in the mix and they’re like, “Whoa.” what I want to do and show my titties when I Some of them are incredibly supportive, and I’ll want to. I work hard and I shouldn’t have to fit take one really supportive guy over ten wishyone mold of what a mom’s supposed to be. washy guys any day. But, conversely, we are showing we can fill up rooms, too.

Do your families come out to support Makayla: Also, certain men in our comedic you? community who aren’t too keen on booking women Angi: I was a military kid. Military members or have said women aren’t funny have come out to don’t make friends at new bases. We make FLOcase all-femme lineup that gets good traffic just family. Art was the dad of a kid I babysat. But to spy on us and see what all the fuss was about. he became my dad, too. My dad Tony was my Why in 2018 is there still this idea that biological father and my very best friend in the women aren’t funny? universe. Comedy was something I’ve loved my Carmela: I don’t know why they don’t think entire life. I remember my dad quoting Flip Wilson we are funny. Shit, we date them! bits. Geraldine! My mom and grandma came to a Angi: Art is a reflection of the times. Comedy few shows before grandma died in October. She is an art. I think there’s a lot of misogyny in the wasn’t my biological grandmother. I was with her world today. But, the young femme comics don’t

stay as long. Keeping them in it is what matters.

Makayla: It’s not other places. Just fucking stupid-ass Omaha.

Angi: I think we’d be woefully remiss to mention this whole notion that all femme comics talk about is their periods. It’s among the most insulting concepts that our menstrual cycle is the only thing that makes us women or funny.

Beau: I’ve heard that my whole life. Get some new material!

Angi: Our voices are valid beyond our bodies.

However, the ownership of our bodily and emotional autonomy is non-negotiable. That’s why it’s so important for women of all identities to be a part of this art form. This isn’t just about me and mine. This is about every damn last one of us.

Who are women in this field who inspire you?

Stephanie: I’m inspired by Maya Rudolph and Tracee Ellis Ross. Tracee was on The Lyricist Lounge Show years ago and I just loved when she would have her own sketches.

So what’s your process? Where do you find material? Do you write it, or do you wing it on stage?

Carmela: My material is from my life, the things I see and hear ... true-life shit, and I like to do both writing and winging it -- especially when I have a menopause moment.

Angi: Honestly, a little of both. I mean, I write. I went to school to be a writer, so I love a good soliloquy. But a lot of times you have to read the room. If you’re not first and you see that certain jokes aren’t flying you have to be flexible.

Keeping it fluid has saved my ass more than once.

But I spend a lot of time reacting to the current political and social climates.

Stephanie: Life is also my greatest source of material. I often make some comic observation and then try to figure out how to make it work in my stand-up set. I have fully written out the whole joke and I have winged it. I find that I like doing a mixture of both. I like reading the crowd and adapting to what they’re nonverbally asking for from me.

Makayla: I never read the room. I’m terrible at that. My attention to detail is god awful. But my ability to adapt and retaliate is second to none.

Again, my material is all true-life stories, and a lot of it are things that have happened to me that may have been traumatizing but I make them into funny stories because that helps me deal.

And that’s real.

So what’s your process? Where do you find material? Do you write it, or do you wing it on stage?

Makayla: Literally cheesy, but the people in this group are my fave.

Angi: Same. I also love Katie Anderson and Serenity Dougherty, but they moved.

Carmela: And the ladies in this group are all amazing and beautiful. I love these ladies.

What’s your favorite place to play in town?

Makayla: Reverb is my fave, and then O’Leaver’s Underground Comedy just started up and is doing great for being brand new.

Stephanie: My favorite venues are the ones that book me. I need some coin before I’m ready to plug a name. That said, Backline has a great open mic every Tuesday night at 9 that I occasionally host.

I also perform improv with an all-femme cast every second Thursday of the month at 8 p.m. at The Backline. It’s a show meant to encourage womyn, femmes, and non-binary folks to give improv a try.

Men are welcome to come and support, but we ask that they not take space on the stage.

Carmela: I really don’t have a favorite spot and there have been a few times where I couldn’t get my words together and thought I was going to bomb but ended up killing it … couldn’t tell you what I said. Blame the menopause.

If there’s someone out there who wants to try it but is terrified, what’s your advice?

Stephanie: My advice would be to jump into it headfirst. That’s what I did. There’s no better lesson than experience. Taking improv classes is also really helpful for those who aren’t confident.

Angi: As a rule, new comics should expect to fail a couple times. Plug away and talk to the other comics. Especially the other women.

It sounds hokey as shit, but we have a solid sisterhood. Sometimes you get really damn lucky, though. I walked off stage at my first open mic. I was three feet from the stage and was asked to be on a show. Later that week, I had two more asks. It’s about luck.

Carmela: I love all the ladies who I do comedy with and encourage the ones who want to try ... Shit, what do we have to lose.

Where can we see you next?

Stephanie: Broad Perspective every second Thursday of the month, 8 p.m. at Backline.

Angi: Feb. 5 at Fast N Fresh at 8 p.m. at The Backline, Feb.15 at Barley Street Tavern at 8 p.m., Feb. 23 in Bennington.

Makayla: FLOcase and Politically Driven, both dates are TBD but both at Reverb.

Carmela: Feb. 5 hosting open mic at The Backline, Feb. 9 at the Ramada hotel and will be on the Fast N Fresh at The Backline on the 12th.

Check out The Reader’s Cool Things To Do listings to keep up with your favorite local comedians at The Backline, The Reverb and Big Canvas.

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HOODOO: WARMING UP Shows in February offer plenty of options to escape the cold and enjoy hot jazz, blues and more

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HOODOO focuses on blues, roots, Americana and occasional other music styles with an emphasis on live music performances. Hoodoo columnist B.J. Huchtemann is a senior contributing writer and veteran music journalist who received the Blues Foundation’s 2015 Keeping the Blues Alive Award for Journalism.

Follow her blog at hoodoorootsblues.blogspot.com and on www.thereader.com.

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here is big news this month for fans of live music. The Jewell is a new club in the Capitol District dedicated to jazz that will also play blues and related genres. The Jewell is named for Jimmy Jewell, who ran the renowned Dreamland Ballroom in Omaha, in the still-standing Jewell Building at 2221 N 24th St. The Dreamland Ballroom hosted nearly every up-and-coming or influential African-American jazz artist or big band from the 1920s through the 1960s. The Dreamland was the focal point of a series of clubs in the neighborhood where one might find folks like Charlie Christian jamming on off nights, according to an interview I conducted with the late Preston Love in the early 2000s.

Jewell founder Brian McKenna is a transplant to Omaha from the New York City area with a deep knowledge and love of jazz.

He’s connected in the national and international jazz worlds. Those connections allow him to bring the David Sanborn Jazz Quintet in as the club’s grand-opening act. Sanborn is playing two shows a night Wednesday, Feb. 6, and Thursday, Feb. 7. Expect a mix of established artists, rising stars and gifted local players, including Mitch Towne and Curly Martin, to showcase their artistry on The Jewell’s stage. The club is designed to be a modern music venue of the sort you might find in bigger cities and will also have dinner available from chef de cuisine Jon Seymour (formerly of V. Mertz and Block 16), executive chef Mark Budler, and food & beverage director Brent Hockenberry. The Jewell is an exciting addition to local performance venues and is located at 1030 Capitol Ave. Patrons can enter through the Marriott or The Capitol Plaza. Find all the details and upcoming schedule at jewellomaha.com.

BSO Presents at Chrome The February BSO Presents Thursday shows at Chrome Lounge feature great regional and national talent, including Grammy nominee and K.C. blues artist Danielle Nicole performing with K.C.’s Brandon Miller Band on Thursday, Feb. 21, 6-9 p.m. Nicole is nominated for Contemporary Blues Album for her second solo record, Cry No More. The rest of the Chrome Thursday schedule includes popular Kansas band Dustin Arbuckle & The Damnations on Thursday, Feb. 7. Robert Kimbrough Sr. Blues Connection is featured Thursday, Feb.14. The Paul Nelson Band is scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 28. Chicago guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and longtime Magic Slim sideman John Primer plugs in Thursday, March 7. All Thursday shows are 6-9 p.m. See omahablues.com for more details plus a curated list of blues and roots shows in Omaha and Lincoln.

Zoo Bar Blues Highlights from the February calendar at Lincoln’s historic Zoo Bar include Lincoln Exposed on Feb. 5-9 and the Lauren Anderson Band on Wednesday, Feb. 13. Josh Hoyer & Soul Colossal

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are back from a three-week western run to play Thursday, Feb. 14, 6-9 p.m. Dustin Arbuckle & the Damnations perform Friday, Feb. 15, 5 p.m. The Mezcal Brothers shake it up Thursday, Feb. 21, 6-9 p.m. K.C.’s Brandon Miller Band plugs in Saturday, Feb. 23, 6-9 p.m. The Paul Nelson Band is featured Wednesday, Feb. 27, 6-9 p.m.

BluesEd Auditions The Blues Society of Omaha’s BluesEd Youth Development Performance Program is holding auditions Feb. 17 for the 2019 summer program. Middle and high school students can submit applications through Feb. 10 at bluesed.com. The program offers mentoring, mentoring with accomplished clinicians and puts youth together in bands that get performance opportunities around the metro.

OEAAs Awarded The Omaha Entertainment and Arts Awards were handed out Jan. 27. Roots music artists recognized this year include another win for Hector Anchondo Band as Best Blues. Matt Cox’s High Places won Album of the Year, Mitch Towne was awarded Best Jazz, Mesonjixx received Best Soul, Dominique Morgan was chosen Best R&B, Clarence Tilton got the nod for Best Country and Andrea von Kampen took home Best Americana/Folk. Watch for the list of all winners at oea-awards.org.

Hot Notes The eclectic, multi-cultural jazz of Etiene Charles takes the Holland 1200 Club’s stage Friday, Feb. 22, 7:30 p.m. See ticketomaha. com for details.

The Blues Society of Omaha hosts a benefit for local drummer Gunnar Guenette of Sailing in Soup on Sunday, Feb. 11, 2-8 p.m. at Chrome Lounge. Guenette needs financial assistance to afford much-needed surgeries. Performers include Lash LaRue & The Hired Guns, Hector Anchondo Band, Acoustic Groove and Sailing in Soup.

Kris Lager has a rare solo residency series Thursday nights at The B Side of the Benson Theatre. Catch Lager 7-9 p.m. each Thursday in February.

New Orleans’ duo Deltaphonic plays at The B. Bar, 4333 Leavenworth, on Thursday, Feb. 7, 9 p.m. The B Bar also presents early shows on Fridays, including the Lauren Anderson Band on Friday, Feb. 15, 5:30-8:30 and Dr. Duke Tumatoe on Friday, Feb. 22, 5:30-8:30 p.m. See Facebook.com/TheB.BarOmaha.

Adventurous music fans will want to check out Moon Hooch at The Slowdown on Saturday, Feb. 16, 8 p.m. The horn and percussion trio weaves together jazz, funk and progressive sounds. New York magazine called the trio’s sound “Jay Gatsby on ecstasy.” Check them out at moonhooch.com.

Join us for FREE Wednesdays 6:30 - 7:30 pm

The Commons Community Center Enter through door #4 on the east side of the building

7020 Cass • Omaha, Nebraska 68132 (402) 556-6262 • www.fumcomaha.org

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KURT VILE IS ROLLIN’ WITH THE FLOW Philly songwriter, guitarist will do his thing at Slowdown

B Y H O U S T O N W I LT S E Y

There’s an unspoken yet instantly recognizable characteristic that’s apparent to anyone who listens to Vile’s records. His stream-ofconsciousness lyrics, hammers-ons, and breezy strums create an ethereal stew that instantly transports you to a sunny, late-spring day where you’re cruising with the top down. It truly is worldclass driving music.

The record is also starting to gain a bit of traction in the mainstream. Vile played “Loading Zones” on Jimmy Kimmel Live! this past December and will be appearing on Late Night with Seth Meyers at the start of his upcoming tour. Vile says he is excited to play on Late Night, but that he wants to improve on his Kimmel performance.

“I was definitely excited to go on [Kimmel] and rip a solo, but in my monitors, it sounded like my voice was fighting with my guitar so I didn’t sing or play as good as I could,” he says. “Next time KURT VILE I just want to be loose and be me. I think a lot of times once people go on TV they think about urt Vile is back. Actually, Kurt Vile I’m goin’ down, we’ve had a bus, and that’s how how they want to clean it up. The next thing you never left. One could argue that the we knew that we truly made it,” he adds with a know you’re wearing a suit and doing things you wouldn’t do normally. I think ideally the way you 39-year-old Philadelphia songwriter laugh.

As counterintuitive as it sounds, being on want to be on TV is raw.” He says that this time and guitarist has never been better or more prolific. In the last 18 months, he’s tour is also when Vile does the majority of his around, he really wants to shred.

I mention to Vile that I think he’s one of his done two full American tours, an international recording. He cut Bottle It In at studios across the generation’s best guitar players. He thanks me, country with a number of producers including tour, and released a collaborative album with Courtney Barnett (it’s called Lotta Sea Lice and it’s Shawn Everett, who’s worked with the likes of but also tries to immediately distance himself definitely worth a listen). Oh, yeah: He also just Weezer and the Killers, and Rob Schnapf of Elliot from such a title by listing the great guitarists that Smith fame. Vile tells me that recording in this influenced him: John Fahey, J Mascis, Lou Reed, put out his seventh full-length studio album, Bottle scattered style is his preferred method. “It’s just Sterling Morrison, Stephen Malkmus, Neil Young, It In, this past October.

For the moment, though, Vile is resting. “This what I’m comfortable with. It’d be interesting to and the guys from Sonic Youth (Lee Ranaldo and is the most mellow I’ve been in a while,” he says see if I made a record in the same one or two Thurston Moore). He even throws out a name that with a sigh. “I’m really shell-shocked from being places, but I just haven’t done it in so long. It’s not fans of Omaha’s music scene will be familiar with. out on the road and I feel like I’m catching up on like I’m recording this perfect album in my head “There’s this guy David Nance, he’s really killing it. my health. I’m just taking it easy before the start where I record one song on the West Coast, one He’s raw. He’s a true guitar player.”

I end by asking Vile if he thinks it’s crazy that of the tour,” which is three weeks away and will on the East Coast until I have 12 songs.” he’s signed to Matador Records, the same record While it may not be a perfect record, Bottle It In include a stop at the Slowdown on Feb. 26.

Though it can be a lot to handle, and the time is as good as anything else in Vile’s discography. label that released the work of Malkmus -- solo away from his wife and two girls is never easy, He describes it best when he says that his music is and with Pavement -- and Sonic Youth, or that he Vile says he wouldn’t have it any other way. “The “deceptively tricky.” There’s a nice balance of laid- now considers Mascis to be a friend.

“At first, yeah, it was crazy,” he says. “Now I alternative would be to work a nine-to-five job back, country-tinged rockers and spaced-out, and be gone more, really.” He says he enjoys psychedelic numbers. One moment he might be just feel like part of the family.” This makes sense lazily chugging between two chords and the next because even though Vile might not be able to traveling and being able to fly his family to locations they might not otherwise get to visit (this he’ll be dazzling you with his virtuosic fingering see it, he’s quietly joined the ranks of those indie year, they’ll join him in Australia for a few days picking. When all the elements come together, it’s guitar greats and has the chance to rise even higher. pure poetry. on the second half of his tour). “Plus, since b’lieve

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OMAHA’S JAZZ PAST, PRESENT MERGE AT THE JEWELL New club in Capitol District pays tribute to North O’s musical legacy

BY LEO ADAM BIGA

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BRIAN MCKENNA

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rian McKenna, a drummer and former Sony Music Studios executive, pays homage to North Omaha’s rich jazz history at his new downtown club, The Jewell, in the Capitol District.

The fine dining-live music establishment’s Feb. 6-7 grand opening features Grammy Awardwinner David Sanborn and his Jazz Quintet.

McKenna’s appreciation for North O’s legacy music scene is evident throughout the swank space. Oversized reproductions of archival photos picture icons who played the Dreamland Ballroom.

The black and white images add warmth to an already intimate room distinguished by a contoured stage backdrop meant to represent a jewel’s kaleidoscopic patterns. The club takes its name from Jimmy Jewell Jr., who booked the killer acts that made the Dreamland on North 24th Street a venue of some renown in jazz circles.

Dreamland operated on an upper floor of the Jewell Building, which today is home to nonprofit agencies, and back in the day housed a streetlevel barber shop and pool hall. Leave it to a transplant from New York to put the Dreamland, which closed in 1965, front and center again.

McKenna, an Eastman School of Music graduate, first learned about the venue in school. He was intrigued how it was a Midwest circuit stop for touring legends Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie, Nat King Cole,

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Sarah Vaughan, Dinah Washington, Lionel Hampton and many more.

Now the Jewell carries forward the Dreamland’s heritage.

“To revitalize it a little bit is kind of cool. That’s why I called it The Jewell – to bring that back and to do right by North Omaha,” said McKenna, who’s located his club in the Capitol District to take advantage of folks staying in downtown’s 3,000 hotel rooms. Besides, North Omaha already has Love’s Jazz and Arts Center.

Still, he said, “This is not going to happen without North Omaha’s blessing. I have 11 investors from different pockets of the city, including North Omaha. I’m taking ads out in the Omaha Star. I’m trying to really embrace this authentic storyline, so that we can work together to make sure this is a community celebration.”

He wants The Jewell to be a platform for sharing this undertold narrative about North O’s live music culture.

“Along the way I’ve been telling this story and a lot of people don’t know this story. To keep it genuine, we’ve got to really spell it out.”

When McKenna and his Fremont, Nebraska, native wife moved to Omaha in 2015 to raise their daughter, he researched Jimmy Jewell Jr., the Dreamland, other historic local music hives and the many noted musicians who resided or visited here. Once The Jewell idea crystalized, he

BUDDY JOHNSON sounded out North O leaders (Mike Maroney, Al Goodwin) and players (Curly Martin) for their knowledge and approval in creating a venue that’s both tribute to the past and showcase for established and emerging talent.

Having left Sony in 2008 to form his own music management company, McKenna Group Productions, which he operates out of Omaha and New York, and fueled by his fascination with the history here, he found a project to challenge himself.

“I figured out something that wasn’t here at the level I thought it should be and that was a proper sit-down, fine-dining music venue,” he said. “But I knew it wasn’t going to work unless we really found the thread – and that was North Omaha.

“We’re going to hopefully carry that torch and really expose what used to be and try to bring some people back and then deliver that to future generations. The next generations need to know that this was a great scene, a beautiful scene.

There’s a huge story there.”

McKenna marvels at what Jimmy Jewell Jr. did.

“He was able to get the biggest names. I mean, c’mon, man. It’s not easy to convince managers and agents, but he was selling out the venue from 1930 all the way to 1965. Kudos to Jimmy Jewell Jr. for doing that.”

McKenna’s collecting stories. How on an extended Omaha stay, Nat King Cole wrote the hit “Straighten Up and Fly Right” – “I’ve got some

PRESTON LOVE & HIS ORCHESTRA artists that will be doing tributes to Nat King Cole” – and how artists arrived by bus and stayed in private black homes or black boarding houses, lionized by adoring neighbors. After gigs, star musicians jammed with local players.

Meanwhile, hometown musicians honed their chops here before going off to solo, sidemen, studio-session careers. Victor Lewis, Arno Lucas, Carol Rogers, Calvin Keys, Lois McMorris, the late Buddy Miles and others broke out. Those who left (Wali Ali) or returned (Curly Martin) now have a new place to gig.

McKenna digs how Count Basie hired Preston Love Sr. at the Dreamland to tour with his orchestra and how Anna Mae Winburn headlined there and later led the International Sweethearts of Rhythm all-female swing band that McKenna studied in college.

“We need to talk about this,” McKenna said.

“We’re going to really be celebrating the historical sense but also bringing the new players, too, like Esperanza Spalding and Christian McBride.

Every time I go back East and talk to them about North Omaha, they’re like, ‘Oh, yeah – there was a scene there.’ We’ve got to put the spotlight on that. That’s what I want to do. On our social media we’re posting a lot of that historical stuff.

We’ve got to educate folks that we had this here.”

He’s also insisting artists make pilgrimages to the Jewell Building, whose display of photos from

SANBORN the Dreamland’s heyday, said McKenna, “gives me chills.”

David Sanborn is eager to learn.

“I’m sorry to say I’m unaware of the history of jazz in Omaha. It’ll certainly be new to me and an interesting experience,” Sanborn said.

McKenna’s taking steps to immerse visiting artists in the community by contractually requiring they do outreach through master classes or workshops. “I have relationships with UNO, the Holland Center and Love’s for this educational component.”

His support of the local music community extends to reserving Wednesdays for area performers.

With programming, the club’s “not going to be a hundred percent jazz,” he said, adding, “There are singer-songwriters coming through.”

The Jewell’s about good quality music, whatever the genre. Just no hard rock.

“It’s good to be diverse like that. Good music is good music.”

Further rooting the club to this place is assistant general manager Monique Alexander, a North Omaha native with a legacy connection to Duke Ellington as a distant cousin.

McKenna, who rose through the Sony ranks as a researcher, librarian and eventually vice president of audio operations and marketing, is applying his expertise to the endeavor.

“I felt I should do something that taps into that experience. Managing artists is great but you’ve got to do something in the community, too.”

He’s modeled The Jewell on Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola in New York, Dakota in Minneapolis and Jazz St. Louis.

His industry contacts with agents, managers and talent bookers should aid in attracting top-tier artists.

“We will get Wynton Marsalis out here, I guarantee you that. But the timing’s got to be right.”

He’s confident the club’s high standards of decor, house instruments (a Steinway piano, a custom Gretsch drum kit, a killer bass) and acoustics (a floating ceiling to isolate vibrations from above), combined with its historical focus, will attract name talents.

“They will do whatever it takes to perform at great venues.”

McKenna’s left nothing to chance.

“It needs to be nurtured and developed. It’s not going to be rushed. It’s gotta be done right. To put this together has not been an easy thing. It’s been very detailed-oriented. Every single move I’m making means something.”

The cozy, 150-seat venue boasts great sightlines, with patrons only a few feet from the stage.

“When you’re that close it’s a different thing,” he said.

“That’s the treat – to be that close to these types of artists. They’ll talk to you in a different way than

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they will performing in a big house. That’s what I love about this club – it’s a whole different vibe.”

He’s leveraging The Jewell’s sustainability on business travelers-tourists as well as locals looking for a signature night out. The club, at 1030 Capitol Ave., is accessible from the Marriott and The Capitol Plaza.

It has its own dedicated chefs (Jon Seymour and Mark Budler) food and beverage director (Brent Hockenberry), hosts and servers in putting out its New Orleans-influenced menu.

McKenna expects to draw diverse audiences.

“People of all different cultures and walks of life will congregate similar to what happened at the Dreamland Ballroom. People will come to eat, drink and hear great music.”

The club worked out the kinks during a soft opening that launched Jan. 17. Sanborn will help officially usher in The Jewell at a ribbon-cutting.

He and his quintet will play 6:30 and 8:30 shows both nights, Feb. 6-7. Sanborn’s trademark alto saxophone will blend with acoustic bass, drums, piano and trombone in performing works from his repertoire and from the late jazz composerinstrumentalist, Michael Brecker.

For tickets and upcoming featured artists, visit https://jewellomaha.com.

Read more of Leo Adam Biga’s work at leoadambiga.com.

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THE GOOD, BAD AND UGLY OF TWO-ZERO-ONE-EIGHT The 5 Worst and 10 Best Movies of Last Year B Y R YA N S Y R E K

4) Maze Runner: The Death Cure The negative review I wrote for this is the only one that ever prompted the author of the source material to angrily Facebook me. I’m good with that.

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3) Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald I don’t know if it’s worse that this money-grubbing franchise is sapping the wonder out of one of the most beloved fictional properties of all time or that it gave magic Hitler a quasi-sympathetic speech. Probably the magic Hitler thing.

2) Rampage Dear Mr. The Rock: Please feel free to pass on a project here or there, even when you are promised a chance to wear a white or gray T-shirt and khaki pants. I know that’s your Kryptonite, but you can do it on your own time.

1) Sicario: Day of the Soldado Easily the most flagrantly offensive and intellectually bankrupt movie of the year, this sequel jettisoned Emily Blunt in favor of racist fear-mongering.

That’s a trade so bad, I’m surprised it’s not our official foreign policy.

Top 10 Movies of 2018

P For better or worse, depending on who you ask, senior contributing writer RYAN SYREK has been reviewing movies and writing about popular culture for more than 15 years. In print, on social media (twitter.com/thereaderfilm), on the radio (CD1059.com) and on his podcast, Movieha! (movieha.biz), Ryan tries to critically engage pop content while not boring anybody. Send him hate, love or local movie news items at film@thereader.com. .

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artly because the power of the groundhog compels me and almost entirely because limited-release Oscar contenders often don’t get shown in Omaha until January of the following year, my year-inreviews are always later than everyone else’s. It’s like my advice for attending parties: If you can’t be punctual, wait to show up until everyone else is drunk and then disapprovingly judge them. I’ve had a chance to review eleventy billion other best/worst lists of 2018. I’m happy to tell you everyone else is drunk and wrong! I’m kidding, of course, but here is my take on the year that wouldn’t die.

Worst Movies of 2018 5) Aquaman I realize that I’m in the minority on this, as audiences have apparently long hungered for a movie that features both an octopus playing drums and a superhero letting a father die slowly in front of his son.

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10) Annihilation In the 16 years I’ve been reviewing, this is the most stacked top 10 I’ve had, as evidenced by the fact that Annihilation could have contended for the top spot in previous years. Gorgeously Lovecraftian, which is to say it has creepy insane visuals and not H.P.’s horrifyingly racist ideologies, this sci-fi meditation asks profound questions about love and life’s purpose while also featuring a bear with an inside-out face that screams like a person. So it’s the best of all worlds.

9) Black Panther Set aside the insanely significant cultural impact, and Ryan Coogler’s flick is still profound. From the bold afro-futuristic visuals to the best-written supervillain of all-time(!), the film highlights a newly resonant subplot or subtle kick-ass moment on each rewatch. Each complaint leveled against Marvel franchise films was reversed into a strength here, including the score, cinematography and character arcs. Long after the superhero genre ebbs from its current hella flow, this one will be remembered.

8) Suspiria After watching Suspiria, I immediately knew that it was one of the year’s best. Months later, I still don’t know if I, you know, actually enjoyed it … Director Luca Guadagnino’s remake of Dario Argento’s cult classic is full of body horror, lyrical visuals and thematic constructs dense enough to feel like homework. But the good kind of homework! I’m still parsing some of the symbolism and pondering its messages. Unrepentant and divisive, this is a testimony to cinema’s dominance as a modern art form. Also, it has three Tilda Swintons, which is the right number of Tilda Swintons.

Riley’s debut is so wildly original that any of the uneven, awkwardly constructed elements are immediately forgiven. Somehow both explicitly literal and divinely surreal, Sorry to Bother You makes it impossible to categorize the film’s genre.

What is unquestionable is that its observations are scathing. Whether it’s a minor moment like the white crowd at a party emphatically chanting a racial epithet when given the smallest excuse to do so or the third act’s bonkers, sci-fi-ish twist, this is like an episode of The Twilight Zone written

by Salvador Dali. If that doesn’t get your motor humming, we are fueled by distinctly different energies.

7) The Favourite Watching three of this generation’s best actresses banter and box for two hours is as much fun as can be legally had in the vast majority of Britain’s former colonies. Ripping apart the seams of the exhausting corset-drama, the nonstop cleverness and relentless acting intensity features three of the best performances of the year. Apparently, there is no subject matter upon which director Yorgos Lanthimos cannot leave his indelibly weird stamp. Were he to direct a live-action adaptation of the tax code, Rachel Weisz should still get an Oscar nomination out of it.

3) If Beale Street Could Talk Writer/director Barry Jenkins’ adaptation of James Baldwin’s work is literally the reason this list is as late as it is. I couldn’t in good conscience put together the best films of the year without seeing a movie that Jenkins created that qualified.

Waiting was the right call, as Beale Street is a profound treatise on the power of love to expose systemic inequality and a lush, poetic masterwork of atmosphere and emotion. It is only fitting that the story of two young people who carry each other’s hearts carried mine right along with it.

6) 8th Grade As everyone expected, a former breakout YouTube star famous for funny songs wrote and directed a poignant movie about a young girl’s maturation. If you went back in time and told me that my top 10 list would feature a costume drama followed by a coming-of-age movie, I’d ask why you wasted time travel on that and not lovingly raising baby Hitler with Ben Shapiro.

No movie about growing up has felt this authentic, at least to those of us battling lifelong anxiety. As hopeful as it is heartache-inducing, this one is as special as every young kid who worries she isn’t.

5) Mandy A true cult classic in an era when I thought such things were impossible, Mandy allows writer/director Panos Cosmatos to unleash Nic Cage’s unbridled lunacy in unparalleled fashion.

Featuring a hippie cult led by a former Law and Order D.A., demon bikers, a cheddar goblin, Jóhann Jóhannsson’s swan-song score, heavy metal fonts, and so much more, Mandy will probably be the film on this list I rewatch the most.

It’s decidedly not for everyone, but if it is for you, you’ll probably be pissed it’s not No. 1 on this list.

4) Sorry to Bother You From here on out, all of the movies could have been in the top slot. Writer/director Boots

2) Hereditary This horror movie about the inescapable terror of grief sports an ending that made some in the theater laugh out loud. I loved it. The furthest edges of fear border on hilarity, and Hereditary tightrope-walks that razor’s edge.

Toni Collette has two of my favorite acting moments in all of cinema in this one. The first is when she vomits a scream of sorrow that is among the purest facsimiles of legitimate loss ever. The second comes when legit supernatural shit starts happening, and she reacts as a normal person would, by losing her G.D. mind.

Hereditary isn’t “so scary, you have to see it.”

It’s a meticulously crafted use of an often-silly genre to mine the scariest places our hearts all one day explore.

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1) Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse As “in the tank” as I am for the character that helped raise me, I had no clue that this SpiderMan film could possibly wind up at the top of this list when I first saw it. A pop-art masterpiece that shouts across generational divides, this animated adventure spelunks the deepest recesses of what makes superhero content so universally captivating and inarguably important. The first viewing left me dizzied. The second showered me in the joy and inspiration I felt the first time I picked up a comic book. I don’t care if it seems silly to put an animated family film in this top slot.

This was the best movie I saw in 2018, and I love it so, so, so very much.

FILM

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CUTTING ROOM • If you’ve ever wondered “How do I watch options for your Valentine’s Day enjoyment. experimental films?” the answer is “With your First, Alamo Drafthouse has a month full of eyes.” If you would like more specific and helpful romance for you. I mean, I say romance, but information, you can join the next Courses any series with a David Lynch movie in it offering at Film Streams. The five-week is really more insane than intimate, right? seminar is a new addition to the Courses series, Their “Twisted Love” series features cinema titled “Deep Dive.” I am told you do not need to designed to make you look at your partner attend in swimwear, but it probably can’t hurt. and think, “Hey, this isn’t so bad!” The films The initial Courses: Deep Dive will feature Film include Badlands, Leaving Las Vegas, Who’s Streams’ education director, Diana Martinez, Afraid of Virginia Woolf, The Piano Teacher, Ph.D., educating participants about how best Fatal Attraction, Blue Valentine and Wild at to approach what many people consider to Heart. If you attend all of them and maintain be “difficult” films. Head to filmstreams.org to your relationship, you’re legally married. If register before the pool for the deep dive fills up. you’d like something a bit tamer, Film Streams Just be careful, as experimenting with films is and Borsheims are presenting a free screening a gateway to other artistic consumption. Before of Some Like it Hot on Valentine’s Day. you know it, you’ll be gobbling up — gasp! — Borsheims gives you a free movie so you have poetry … enough to spend on something outrageously expensive for your significant other, like • Just like the number of people in a popcorn. If the way to your heart is slapstick nonpolyamorous relationship, I have two and cross-dressing, you’re probably super fun

to hang out with, and you should let your lover know that.

• Film Streams is complementing, and probably complimenting, Joslyn Art Museum’s upcoming 30 Americans exhibition with its own This Is America film series. From Feb. 2 to May 5, the Joslyn will survey the work of contemporary black artists over the past three decades. From Feb. 3 to April 2, Film Streams will screen 10 films curated by podcaster and critic Ira Madison III that use unique approaches to represent a spectrum of the American experience. The film series includes two films I consider among the best I’ve ever seen (Moonlight and Pariah) and kicks off with a discussion with Madison on Feb. 9 at 3 p.m. See the list of movies in This Is America at filmstreams.org. Hopefully, the combination of the Joslyn exhibit and the

FILM

repertory f licks are enough to make you mentally picture an exclamation point after This Is America instead of the question mark we’ve all been putting there lately.

Cutting Room provides breaking local and national movie news … complete with added sarcasm. Send any relevant information to film@thereader.com. Check out Ryan on Movieha!, a weekly podcast, catch him on the radio on CD 105.9 on Fridays at around 7:40 a.m. and on KVNO 90.7 at 8:30 a.m. on Fridays and follow him on Twitter.

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HEARTLAND HEALING HEARTLAND HEALING is a metaphysically-based polemic describing alternatives to conventional methods of healing the body, mind and planet by MICHAEL BRAUNSTEIN. It is provided as information and entertainment, certainly not medical advice. Important to remember and pass on to others: for a weekly dose of Heartland Healing, visit HeartlandHealing.com and like us on Facebook. .

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INFLAMMATION: ATTACK OF THE SUGAR ZOMBIES

BY MICHAEL BRAUNSTEIN

M

om loved jellybeans. She kept a candy dish on the coffee table long before Ronald Reagan boosted Jelly Bellies to fame by serving them in the Oval Office. Those little morsels of sugar and corn starch took up permanent residence in our living room. One day, about twenty-some years ago, I was sitting across the room from that bowl of temptation, casually watching television. With but a thoughtless glance toward the candy dish, I was crossing the room to grab a handful. My sugar urge felt sated … but only for a minute. Then I had to get up and collect another handful. Then another. And another. Even before the third dose, I knew that I didn’t want more but I had the distinct feeling that I wasn’t making the choice. I almost felt driven to keep digging in to that confectioner’s curse.

I already knew that biologically our bodies are not our own. We are host to a population of living things not entirely human, our bodies filled with a population of bacteria, yeast cells, fungi and other symbiotic fauna and flora greater in number than our human cells. It was clear to me: I wasn’t the one who wanted the jelly beans. I was outnumbered. The yeast and bacteria in my body that thrive on sugar were controlling the action. Though part of me was almost sick of the gluttony, they signaled for more. Sugar is so toxic the human part of the body would barf before the bugs gave up their sucrose orgy.

C’mon Baby Light My Fire: Sugar is an extremely efficient form of fuel. If plants like sugar cane, beets, corn and fruits — common natural sources of raw sugar — are likened to crude oil coming out of the ground, then the refined sugar found in most processed foods (and candies) is like high-octane jet fuel. But if you put jet fuel in your car, you’ll burn the engine up. It’s too hot to handle. Same is true with sugar and the human body. Sugar does an intense burn on the body by causing chronic inflammation.

Inflammation is a good thing when it’s needed. It’s part of the immunesystem response to any stress, attack by injury, infection, toxins or viruses insulting the body. Acute inflammation when needed helps the body heal.

But when the insult is ongoing the result is chronic inflammation, which has nothing but bad outcomes every time. Heart disease, ulcerative colitis, diabetes, cancer and other diseases are strongly linked to chronic inflammation. With heart disease, one cardiologist likens the effect of sugar and the resulting chronic inflammation to “taking a stiff brush to the inside of the arteries and scrubbing until it bleeds, then keeping that up day after day.”

Avoiding the “Craves”: So which foods contribute to chronic inflammation? The list is long and nearly always highlights processed foods. Everyone knows what it means to crave. That day in my parents’ living room, a craving drove me to eat more jelly beans than I wanted. I didn’t want more sugar but the beasties in the body, the yeast, bacteria and aliens, did.

Now, if you think of some of the foods that cause a craving, you’ll have a good idea of what foods might be targeted by the bacteria in your gut.

And that will in turn give you an idea of foods to avoid in order to lower

| THE READER |

HEARTLAND HEALING

incidence of chronic inflammation and therefore opportunities for heart disease, cancer, etc.

Sugar is probably No. 1 on the crave list. Alcohol is there, too. Alcohol is easily and rapidly turned into sugar. Then consider something like a cinnamon roll. That’s a double whammy. The sugar fires inflammation and the carbohydrates from the refined flour are again easily converted to our beasties’ favorite food.

Good fats, bad fats: Balancing omega-6 fatty acids and omega-3 fatty acids in our diet is something industrial food is not very good at. For example, industrial eggs have an imbalance of too much omega-6 versus omega-3. That causes inflammation. A proper balance of omega-6 vs. omega-3 will lower inflammation risk. Pastured, grassfed meats and true pastured eggs have a better balance. Good fats like olive oil and butter are better than corn or soybean oils. For example, butter has a balanced omega-6/omega-3 ratio of 1.5-to-1.0 while corn oil has an omega-6/omega-3 ratio of more than 60-to-1. In fact, olive oil and butter are actually good for you. Corn oil, not so much!

Fire Down Below: Chronic inflammation can present anywhere in the body: arteries, joints, fascia, intestines, nerves and muscles. It wears a body down and can erupt in acute symptoms. Adjusting the diet to eliminate processed foods, especially sugars and sugar-producing foods, while introducing a diet of whole foods can douse the flames.

Pollution, stress, poor sleep habits, sedentary lifestyle, smoking and other behaviors also increase chronic inflammation. Now, if Jelly Belly would just stop making the Very Cherry flavor…

Be well.

Heartland Healing is a metaphysically based polemic describing alternatives to conventional methods of healing the body, mind and planet. It is provided as information and entertainment, certainly not medical advice. Important to remember and pass on to others: for a weekly dose of Heartland Healing, visit HeartlandHealing.com. and like us on Facebook.

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OVER THE EDGE

THE DEVIL YOU KNOW Trump’s Path to a Second Term Is Easier Than You Think

BY TIM MCMAHAN

I

’ll write this only if you promise to keep it from You Know entertaining other points of view. It shouldn’t be too hard, Who. considering he switched his party affiliation five times since The headline was a gut punch. It was the kind of 1987. environmental story that always stops me in my tracks, Look, I don’t expect him to actually do anything that could like news about the ever-eroding coral reefs or destruction of be construed as liberal. I’m suggesting he at least act like he’s the Amazon rainforest or the plight of the soon-to-be-extinct listening and try to be a little less of an asshole. Stop with the bumble bee. childish nicknames for his opponents. Tweet a little less about I know, that’s a hard request to fulfill. No doubt, Mr. Trump Hillary — she’s yesterday’s news. Set the racist rhetoric aside, gets his copy of The Reader hand-delivered every month, tell his Base he’s doing it for them. They’ll love it. placed gently on top the stack of ’50s-era porno mags next to If he does this, he’ll maintain his White House address the golden toilet he had installed in the bowels of the White through 2024 not because he’ll swing anyone on the left, but House. because those in the center — the lazy, wishy-washy, middleBut promise me you’ll at least try. Because if Mr. Trump gets of-the-road throng that decides elections — are always his hands on this column, well, we’re all in for four more years looking for a reason to do nothing different. of oversized ties, short-fingered handshakes and, worst of On top of that, there’s a population of voters that wants to all, chest-pounding “I Told You So” tweets every morning at 5 like Trump even though it knows better. Case in point: When Eastern Time, right after he’s rolled out of his solitary bed, the Trump served Big Macs to the national champion Clemson one with the view of the Washington Monument that inspires football team in the State Dining Room I thought, “What little when his wife is sleeping in The Tower back in Manhattan. a cheap-ass sonofabitch. He’ll get skewered for this one.”

Here’s what I want you to keep from Mr. Trump: Winning a Instead, social media was aglow with aw-shucks compliments. second term could be as easy as hitting a fairway on the 8th People I thought shared my view of Trump (i.e., most of the hole of Mar-a-Lago. All he has to do is this one little thing — people on my Facebook page) posted coverage of the Big be nicer. Just a teensy-weensy bit more reasonable. Or at least Mac Banquet with comments like, “This kind of makes me like give the impression he’s trying to be slightly open-minded. him.” Uh-oh.

I know what you’re thinking: His “Base” — that iron-clad It takes so little. Especially when Trump has two big things group that will support him even if he stood in the middle of going for him.

Fifth Avenue and shot someone — won’t allow it. In fact, just the other day every TV pundit was saying Trump’s Base is The first, a red-hot U.S. economy that includes an ever“eroding” after he gave in to Nancy and Chuck and ended the boiling stock market and ultra-low unemployment numbers, “partial” government shutdown. Pshaw. despite the fact that he’s doing everything in his power to If Trump’s Base will back him when he does all the vile screw it up. shit he’s done over his first two years in office, it’ll certainly Secondly, the Democratic Party has failed to provide an back him if he eases up on the asshole-throttle just a little bit. alternative. I know it’s early, but look at what we’ve gotten so They’re not going anywhere, even if he begins acting like a … far. Do any of them stand out? Are any of them even remotely well … a president. as charismatic as Trump? Unfortunately, these days it’s the It’s the last thing his opponents want. They need him to only thing that matters. be an asshole. They’re depending on it. It’s only if they can The swing voters who decide elections don’t know anything continue to portray Trump as an out-of-control, unreasonable, about the Democratic candidates other than they want to uncompromising egomaniac that they can hope to rid change the way things are going in this country. And God themselves of him in 2020. help us, they don’t want change.

(I know, I know … but what about Russia? I gave up on At least with Trump, they know what they’re in for. He can The Mueller Report a long time ago. At best it’ll reveal (if ever win their votes if he can ratchet down his natural assholery, released) only what we already knew, that Trump had his keep us out of new wars and just shut up for a minute. The eyes dead set on life after losing the election — i.e., business good news for Democrats: That’s too much to ask of him. deals in Moscow — with little thought of actually winning the presidency. And Congress, which is the only one that can do Over The Edge is a monthly column by Reader senior anything about it, won’t.) contributing writer Tim McMahan focused on culture, society, What I’m talking about here is Trump making the slightest music, the media and the arts. Email Tim at tim.mcmahan@ course change in the second half of his term by merely gmail.com

OVER THE EDGE

is a monthly column by Reader senior contributing writer Tim McMahan focused on culture, society, music, the media and the arts. Tim has been writing about Omaha and the local indie music scene for more than two decades. Catch his daily music reporting at Lazy-i.com, the city’s longest-running blog. Email Tim at tim.mcmahan@gmail.com.

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