THE READER-ELPERICO OMAHA OCT 2021

O C TO B E R 2 021 | volUME 28 | I SSUE 8

Born in Protest

50 Years Ago

Photo

Omaha World-Herald

UNO Black Studies Fierc

ely Holds Onto Department Status in Ongoing Bid for Resp ect Story by

Leo Adam Biga

JOBS: Working Parents’ Challenges NEWS: Lakota People Sense Centuries of Repression DISH: OMAHA PIZZA DIRECTORY HOODOO: Eclectic Energies BACKBEAT: Get to Know Megan Siebe FILM: HELP US, TED LASSO FILM REVIEW: MALIGNANT AIMS TO BE BAD, SUCCEEDS OVER THE EDGE: Indigo De Souza PLUS: PICKS, COMICS & A CROSSWORD EL PERICO: Día de los muertos | Inglés gratis para padres en el Learning Community | Guía de lo que debe saber ante una emergencia | el plan estratégico de SONA | Fotos comunitarias

402.496.0220 402.496.0220 402.496.0220 www.huberchevy.com www.huberchevy.com “Your “Your Way! Way!Under Underthe theExpressway!”

Expressway!”

11102 West Dodge Rd. • Omaha, NE 68154 “Your Way!Dodge UnderRd. the Expressway!”

11102 West • Omaha, NE 68154 11102 West Dodge Rd. • Omaha, NE 68154

2

October 2021

www.huberchevy.com

IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THE NUTCRACKER SINCE YOU WERE IN FOURTH GRADE,

WE NEED TO TALK. You haven’t seen our steampunk Rat Queen take out the Nutcracker Prince with a flying body slam.

You haven’t seen the giant cake.

You’ve missed the classic beauty, eye-filling spectacle, and intense action.

This is The Nutcracker cranked up to 11.

NOVEMBER 20 & 21 * HOFF FAMILY ARTS & CULTURE CENTER

*November 21 is a sensory-friendly performance, designed to increase accessibility for people on the autism spectrum.

DECEMBER 4 & 5 ORPHEUM THEATER

Your fourth-grade class never had it so good.

Scan for a chance to WIN FREE TICKETS

Masks required

Inspiring artistry. Beyond words.

amballet.org October 2021

3

t a b l e

06

08

JOBS: Falling Through the Cracks: Working Parents’ Challenges

o f

NEWS: A School Sees a Lice Check / Lakota People Sense Centuries of Repression

c o n t e n t s

10

COVER: UNO Black Studies Fiercely Holds Onto Department Status

publisher/editor........... John Heaston john@thereader.com graphic designers........... Ken Guthrie Albory Seijas news..........................Robyn Murray copy@thereader.com lead reporter............... Chris Bowling chris@thereader.com associate publisher.... Karlha Velásquez karlha@el-perico.com report for america corps member........

Bridget Fogarty bridget@el-perico.com creative services director .................................. Lynn Sánchez lynn@pioneermedia.me

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS

14

CULTURE: Day of the Dead Offers Path Through Grief

26

Hoodoo: Eclectic Energies: A Variety of Exciting Roots Music Artists are Making Joyful Noise

16

Dish: 2021 Omaha Pizza Directory

20

PICKS: Cool Things To Do in October

27

BACKBEAT: Get to Know Megan Siebe: An Omaha Songwriter a Long Time Coming

29

FILM: Ted Lasso Theater of Optimism REVIEW: Malignant Aims to be Bad, Succeeds

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............................. Sam Crisler backbeat@thereader.com over the edge..............Tim McMahan tim.mcmahan@gmail.com theater.................... Beaufield Berry coldcream@thereader.com

OUR SISTER MEDIA CHANNELS

31

CROSSWORD/COMICS: New Puzzle, Ted Rall, Doonesbury & Ask Jen

33

IN MEMORIAM: Two Giants in the Omaha Community, Gone But Not Forgotten

34

OVER THE EDGE: Indigo De Souza Takes Saddle Creek to Familiar Territory OUR DIGITAL MARKETING SERVICES

01 4

Free English for Parents at the Learning Community Center / Inglés gratis para padres en el Learning Community

04

El proceso de un duelo en El Día de los Muertos

October 2021

06

SONA Pivots to Strategic Plan / El recorrido continúa”: el plan estratégico de SONA

13

Community Photos / Fotos comunitarias Proud to be Carbon Neutral

A THOUSAND WORDS

PHOTO BY

Naomi Delkamiller Instagram: @nrddigital Website: effloresce-ing.com

A week after the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity became the subject of a sexual assault investigation, almost every Greek house at the University of NebraskaLincoln raised a banner in support of sexual assault survivors. On Aug. 30, students walked to class with the words “kNOw more” scattered throughout campus. “kNOw more” is a student-run organization on campus dedicated to raising awareness of and fighting against rape culture on college campuses.

The investigation against Phi Gamma Delta is ongoing.

October 2021

5

O M A H A

J O B S

Falling Through the Cracks Catherine Brauer’s Kids Returned from Day Care Hungry and Bruised, But She Sent Them There for a Better Future STORY by Leah Cates This story is part of a series, published in The Reader and on omahajobs.com, that spotlights the experiences of low-income, working families in Omaha.

Last month’s piece featured a day care provider; this month’s article is about a mother whose children were in day care.

W

hen Catherine Brauer woke her daughters up just before midnight to drive them home from day care, where they’d been sleeping, the whole family was exhausted. As Brauer got her girls ready for bed in the wee hours of the morning, she noticed scratches, bite marks and bruises on their bodies from bullies.

They were also hungry because day care food often tasted old, said Brauer, who sometimes worked close to 85 hours a week as a medical receptionist and waitress.

After putting her kids, who were 5, 6 and 7 at the time, to bed, Brauer cried herself to sleep –– then awoke at the crack of dawn to do it over again.

But child care centers aren’t always as safe as they seem. Brauer was getting state subsidies when her bruised and bitten kids said staff wouldn’t stop bullies.

She thinks all moms have had bad child care experiences, from lice outbreaks to babies’ diapers not being changed.

“Child cares say, ‘If you don’t like it here, take your child elsewhere,’ but we can’t take days off to find [a new] program,” she said.

‘We don’t have the luxury to give [our children] the best of the best.”

A customer’s child at a summer pop-up event hosted by Catherine Brauer’s Serenityyroom Events. To accommodate moms selling products at her events, Brauer creates a kid-friendly atmosphere. Photo courtesy of Serenityyroom Events/Catherine Brauer.

“Those were scary times, because my children were little and vulnerable, and I [didn’t have resources] to put them in high-end child care,” Brauer said. “My kids suffered, which was hurtful [to see] as a mom.”

Brauer had no choice. Her kids’ math and reading levels were dropping, they needed tutoring, and the only way to afford that was long hours at two jobs.

So Brauer sacrificed, hoping it’d eventually lead to good grades, college scholarships and opportunities she never had.

“Mommy, we miss you,” her kids told her, “but we know you’re working for us.”

6

Brauer, who identifies as Latina and Hispanic, said moms from underserved communities throughout Omaha are similarly trapped. To support them, she runs a business called Serenityyroom Events, where she organizes pop-up events for low-income women starting businesses to set up booths and sell their products.

Many of these women, she said, juggle entrepreneurship with fulltime work so their kids can have a brighter future.

It doesn’t matter how much low-income moms love and advocate for their children, she said. Their kids’ physical, emotional and educational needs often go unmet.

care when they attend her events.

“We’re short on people who “All you can do is work harder, which means missing more time care for us,” Brauer said. “Because we belong to a minority group, with your children.” we always fall through the cracks.”

Brauer said food stamps, food pantries and Women, Infants and To learn about the resources menChildren (WIC), which provides tioned in this article visit, visit benefits. nutritional assistance to families gov/benefit/361 (the Supplemental with small children, can be saving Nutrition Assistance Program, or graces for struggling moms. She SNAP), foodbankheartland.org/getalso recommends applying for food/ (food pantries), dhhs.ne.gov/ state child care subsidies, which Pages/WIC.aspx (Women, Infants help foot the child care bill –– and and Children, or WIC) and dhhs. allow parents to choose any child ne.gov/Pages/Child-Care-Subsi“Jobs don’t care about you care, if it’s approved by the De- dy-Information-for-Parents. or your children, but you need partment of Health and Human aspx (child care subsidies). to provide for them, so you’re Services. stuck,” said Brauer, who sets up “Knowing that you selected Editor’s note: The Reader’s sisevent booths for kids to sell their your children’s child care is the ter publication, El Perico, is partdrawings as mini entrepreneurs, most peaceful thing a mom can nering with Catherine Brauer on promoting Latina makers. so moms don’t have to find child feel in her heart,” Brauer said.

October 2021

ProKarma, Inc.

ProKarma, Inc.

Software Engineer 050459

Quality Software Assurance Engineer Test Engineer 050459 - 268576

ProKarma, Inc. has mult. openings for Software Engineer in Omaha, NE; travel and/or reloc to various unanticipated locations throughout the U.S. is required.

Resp for designing, programming, coding, and analyzing new computer programs and data structures. Req: MS in Comp. Sci./ Engg (any) / related technical/analytical+ 1 year exp. in IT/Computer-related position.

ProKarma, Inc. has mult. openings for Quality Engineer in Software Assurance Engineer in Test Omaha, NE; travel Omaha, NE; travel and/or reloc to various and/or reloc tolocations various unanticipated unanticipated throughout the U.S. throughout is required.theResponsible for locations U.S. is required. developing, modifying, and evaluate Resp for designing, programming, coding, existing software applications according and analyzing requirements new computer to business to programs improve software application performance.

Req. and data structures. Req: MS in Comp.

Sci./a Bachelor’s degree in Comp Sci, Engg (any), Engg (any) /tech/analytical related technical/analytical+ or related field, plus 5 yrs1 year exp.inin an IT/Computer-related of exp IT/Comp-related position. position

To apply, send Resumes to

postings@prokarma.com with Job Ref #050459 in the subject line of the email.

To apply, apply, email send Resumes To Resumes to to

postings@prokarma.com Ref #050459 with Job Ref# 268576 in the subject in the subject line ofline. the email.

WINTER CLASSES BEGIN DEC. 2.

Meet with an enrollment specialist today.

YOUR PATH FORWARD STARTS NOW KNOCK OUT YOUR GEN EDS. The first two years at MCC can save you thousands.

To get started, visit mccneb.edu/pathforward.

Look for MCC at the EducationQuest Virtual College Fair on Tuesday, Oct. 12, 9 a.m.-noon at educationquest.org.

October 2021

7

N E W S

A School Sees a Lice Check Lakota People Sense Centuries of Repression

by Chris Bowling

I

t’s early summer and a Lakota woman stares into the trees, deep past the leaves and their shadows, her dark eyes misting up.

Norma LeRoy tries to understand why a school secretary cut her two little girls’ hair without her consent in the spring of 2020. The secretary was checking for lice, LeRoy was told — lice the mother said they never found.

LerRoy feels like few in this remote region of Cherry County understand what they took. It’s why the 36-year-old Rosebud Sioux has to turn away from her kids, toward the trees, to shield them from her tears.

To her people, hair is sacred.

Cutting it outside Lakota tradition carries consequences.

“Happiness, the goodness, the wellness of life, that takes all that away,” LeRoy said. “And so that’s the reason why we, as Native Americans, look at our hair strongly.

Because it comes from the spirit world, and it was given to us.”

In Kilgore, population 79, less than four miles from South Dakota’s Rosebud reservation, hair cutting dredges up dark history. Stories of boarding schools where they sheared the jet black hair of Native Americans to make them look more like white people. Like those board-

Lakota author and activist Zitkála-Šá pictured in 1898. As a girl, she was forcibly sheared. As an adult, she wrote of the experience: “I cried aloud, shaking my head all the while until I felt the cold blades of the scissors against my neck, and heard them gnaw off one of my thick braids. Then I lost my spirit...now I was only one of many little animals driven by a herder.” Photo courtesy of Smithsonian ing school kids, LeRoy and her wife Alice Johnson say their little girls — ages 12 and 7 — also lost something. And immediately before and after the hair cutting, three of their grandmothers died.

Wàkuza.

It invited bad luck, LeRoy said.

“You don’t get lice if you have clean hair,” LeRoy said the secretary told her.

Other residents say the secretary’s good heart shouldn’t be ignored.

George Johnson, a retired rancher in Cody, 15 miles from Kilgore, served on the school board decades ago when it hired the secretary.

Norma LeRoy, 36 (left) and Alice Johnson, 42, (right) hold their daughters ages 7 and 12 in Valentine City Park in Valentine on May 21. Leroy and Johnson say their daughters’ hair was cut at Cody-Kilgore Unified Schools in 2020. They have filed a lawsuit against the school, saying the hair cutting violated Lakota religious and cultural beliefs. The school’s lawyers have attempted to get the lawsuit dismissed, calling it a lice check and saying they have ended the practice for Lakota children.

Photo by Chris Bowling

8

October 2021

Without a principal, the secretary led the school, Johnson said, caring for his kids and many others.

She advocated for children whose families couldn’t afford backpacks, coats or boots. Occasionally, the school has trimmed hair to stop the spread of lice, Johnson said. While he doesn’t know what happened in this case, Johnson said whatever happened, there was a reason.

“[She] did not do this out of animosity, punishment or anything else,” Johnson said. “She did it to help the children and keep the school safe. She’s not that type of person, I guarantee you.”

On May 17, the two mothers filed a lawsuit in federal court in Lincoln against the Cody-Kilgore Unified Schools district. The mothers allege their First Amendment rights were violated.

Calls, emails, text messages and Facebook messages sent to the secretary, school superintendent, former superintendent and all six school board members went either unanswered or the person declined to comment. The school’s lawyer, Chuck Wilbrand of Knudsen Law Firm in Lincoln, also declined to comment.

On July 15, the school and its attorney filed a motion to dismiss the case. School officials were unaware hair cutting was culturally insensitive, the motion reads, and the school’s former superintendent agreed not to cut the children’s hair in the future.

N E W S That did little to appease LeRoy and Johnson, who said the school violated their family’s culture in the same manner that Native culture has long been violated.

“I just want people to understand that you cannot touch another person’s child,” Johnson said.

“Every religion has beliefs. Every culture has beliefs that we have rules that we live by. And I want people to know that.”

Star Women To understand the importance of hair to the Lakota, you need to know about the star woman.

Long ago, the story goes, a woman sat in the Big Dipper. Lonely, she grew her hair long enough to reach Earth. When she got here, she cut it.

“She cut it because she needed to come down here to build a life,” LeRoy said. “And for her to build that life, she used her hair. And so this is why we say that there are strict restrictions on women with long hair. Because their spirit lives within their hair. And once you cut that, part of their spirit’s gone.”

LeRoy grew up on these stories.

She learned the Lakota language, ceremonies and traditions from her grandmother on the Rosebud reservation, where she lived most of her life.

LeRoy and Johnson met on Facebook in 2015 and married a year later. Each had daughters from previous marriages and after marrying had one more. They are raising their four children with Lakota traditions.

But they are also raising them in a small, mostly white, Nebraska town — which wasn’t a problem until March 2, 2020.

“I was like, ‘Wait, who cut your hair?’” Johnson said when her 10-year-old daughter told her about the incident.

The girls told their mother the school secretary did it. When they called the superintendent, he said it was a head lice check. The school’s student handbook doesn’t outline how lice checks are performed.

In its motion to dismiss, the school district says while hair cutting is not written policy, “...the School District would sometimes

Capt. Richard Henry Pratt, who founded the Carlisle Indian School and infamously said that, “...all the Indian there is in the race should be dead. Kill the Indian in him, and save the man.”

PUBLIC DOMAIN PHOTO cut a single strand of hair that contained the louse and tape it to a piece of paper to show the family.” The school district said it made steps to remedy the situation, agreeing on March 13 not to cut the children’s hair again. It returned one strand to the family, to burn in accordance with Lakota beliefs.

After the hair cutting, the two mothers drove to the Rosebud reservation. They went to see Waycee His Holy Horse, a spiritual leader, reservation police officer and LeRoy’s cousin, who performed rituals to protect the children’s spirits. “[I felt] hurt, betrayal, anger and confusion,” said Lila Kills in Sight, the spiritual leader’s mother, who bathed the children with a sponge during the rituals. “We’re in a new era and I just thought everyone knew about Native people and how we do things.

“They acted like they didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Kill The Indian, Save The Man” As the story circulated on social media, raw emotions surfaced.

“Having the seventh, eighth, tenth generation having to go through it again...I mean, it’s just a big eye opener because it’s being re-lived,” LeRoy said.

Native children at the United States Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania in 1890. For more than a century, Native students’ long hair was routinely sheared at boarding schools.

The hair cutting, part of an attempt to assimilate the students into white culture, violated Native religious and cultural beliefs, Native leaders say. PUBLIC DOMAIN PHOTO On March 3, 1819, the United States signed the Civilization Fund Act. That ushered in an era when boarding schools nationwide, including in Nebraska, separated Native children from their families. “...All the Indian there is in the race should be dead. Kill the Indian in him, and save the man,” Capt.

Richard H. Pratt, who founded the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, famously said in 1892.

In 1884, Christian missionaries came to South Dakota’s Yankton Reservation and took eight-year-old Zitkála-Šá from her mother.

“I remember being dragged out, though I resisted by kicking and scratching wildly,” Zitkála-Šá wrote in 1900 of her hair cutting. “In spite of myself, I was carried downstairs and tied fast in a chair. I cried aloud, shaking my head all the while until I felt the cold blades of the scissors against my neck, and heard them gnaw off one of my thick braids.

Then I lost my spirit...now I was only one of many little animals driven by a herder.”

“We can speak up” On March 9 this year, Johnson, LeRoy and a procession of grandmothers drove to the Cody-Kilgore Unified Schools Board of Education meeting to tell those stories. Board members listened as the women read a letter and asked for cultural

sensitivity training, said the mothers. When they finished, Adam Naslund, school board president, thanked them for sharing, according to meeting minutes.

The mothers and the ACLU said the school has since declined to implement cultural sensitivity training. In its motion to dismiss, the school district says it never discriminated, took quick action to prevent future hair cuttings, and argued no further training is needed.

As for the fact it brings up memories of boarding schools, the motion reads “this could not be further from the truth.”

To the mothers and Lakota leaders, the hair cutting incident serves as a painful reminder of past and present repression. They hope the civil case can serve as a voice for the generations of Lakota children who have suffered in silence. “[That little girl] didn’t have someone to speak up for her and say, ‘Don’t cut my child’s hair,’” Johnson said. “Now times have changed enough that we can speak up about it.”

———————— This story was first published by Flatwater Free Press, Nebraska’s first independent, nonprofit newsroom focused on investigations and feature stories that matter.

October 2021

9

N E W S

Born in Protest

50 Years Ago UNO Black Studies Fiercely Holds Onto

Department Status in Ongoing Bid for Respect

by LEO ADAM BIGA

A

s the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s Department of Black Studies celebrates 50 years, there’s recognition this academic unit not only grew out of agitation, but is sustained by it.

In 1969 students delivered their demands for, among other things, Black history courses to the then-UNO president.

Dissatisfied with his response, the protesters staged a sit-in.

Police were called. The students taken into custody got dubbed the Omaha 54. A consortium of community organizations bailed them out.

The group’s action, rooted in the civil rights movement and campus activism, compelled university officials to negotiate. After much wrangling, the interdisciplinary department launched in 1971.

Charting Our Path events commemorating UNO Black Studies are happening this year into 2022 as part of a university-wide equality initiative.

The department’s history is being archived by UNO Libraries and showcased in a Criss Library exhibition. A touring exhibit with the Great Plains Black History Museum is slated next spring.

UNO Black Studies Department Chair Dr. Cynthia Robinson. Photo courtesy of UNO.

10

Omaha 54 members and family were feted at a July 28 UNO event. In the works are webinars that “define and defend the discipline of Black Stories” and focus on aspects of Black culture and history,

October 2021

said chair Dr. Cynthia Robinson. The road the department has taken to get here has personal meaning for the Omaha native and UNO grad, who chose the school for its Black Studies track 30 years ago. She became chair in 2015.

The mere fact Black Studies has existed at a predominantly white Midwestern university for half a century is historic in itself.

“This department of Black Studies is one of the oldest Black Studies in the country,” Robinson shared at the July 28 event. “And it is one of the only departments that is still a department.”

Black Studies has remained a department despite pressure from various segments, she said, to make it a program and fold it into Ethnic Studies. The embattled place it navigates at UNO is not unique, she said, “as the issue comes down to how Black Studies is viewed,” adding, “It just goes back to the value you place on Black and Blackness – there’s a connection there.” Too often, she

said, “there’s an under-valuing of what Black is.”

“It’s undervaluing Africa, that’s really what it is. But if we’re being honest, we can’t talk about world history without talking about Black history.”

But the idea of making Black Studies part of a hodgepodge is unacceptable in her mind.

“The Black experience is separate from any other experience. It’s all the way different.”

Retaining department status means autonomy, something UNO Black Studies has been able to maintain.

Omaha 54 veteran Michael Maroney noted at the July 28 event, “Even though there’s been some challenges over the years, it is a testament not only to the university but to the faculty and staff being engaged that the department’s still around.”

Robinson said just as students, faculty and staff stood fast for Black Studies,“the community stood for the department – the community

N E W S

Omaha 54 alumni, family and friends at the 50th anniversary celebration held at UNO in July 2021.

Photo courtesy of UNO. has always supported Black Studies.” Even though the unit “holds its own,” she said, “it’s a constant fight – and if we didn’t have that fight then we could have a stronger Black Studies department.”

She notes that historically advisers steer students away from Black Studies.

if you do there’s going to be a problem.’”

“The intrinsic value of Black Studies,” she said,” is that when you know your histor y, you know your greatness. That has been intentionally kept from Black people.”

“The intrinsic value of Black Studies is that when you know your history, you know your greatness.

That has been intentionally kept from Black people.”

“It’s still being done, and of course that impacts how many students we get, that impacts our majors, that impacts our minors. I keep telling leadership at this university to put out there – ‘Don’t play around with Black Studies, and

“This is a valuable, viable discipline that changes how you look at the world,” she said. “If you take Black Studies, you’re going to get turned on” to African and African American achievements and to systemic forces that attempt to suppress or destroy those things.

Typical responses by students in class, she said, are, “Oh, my God, I didn’t know.

I had no idea. Why wasn’t I taught this? Wait, you mean, that happened?’”

way” for other affinity academic units, such as the Goodrich Scholarship Program, the Office of Latino and Latin American Studies and Women’s Studies.

Friend of the department, Vickey Parks, said at the July 28 event, “The struggle continues to have Black contributions to civilization, to humanity and the dignity of our race (recognized).”

“Black Studies is that rising tide that lifts all boats,” Robinson said. “That’s what that is.

When Black people get to go, everybody gets to go.”

Robinson is sure she speaks for others when she says, “The most important thing the discipline of Black Studies did for me is to help me navigate institutional racism. You can’t lie to me about white supremacy. That right there is why the discipline of Black Studies is worth fighting for.”

Though there’s a long way to go, she said the department is “more stable and way more respected” than it has been in the past. “It’s a whole lot of things it should have been 20, 30 years ago.”

Besides, it provides a fuller, truer reckoning than the watered down or skewed history students learn in school. “We don’t tell lies in Black Studies.

We don’t teach hate in Black Studies.”

Some overdue changes have improved things. “We rewrote the major – made it more cohesive – and we changed from a bachelor of arts to a bachelor of science (degree). We’ve done a massive curriculum overhaul. We have been far more collaborative on campus.” The department is on pace to add a graduate degree.

She agrees with chancellor Joanne Li, who said its introduction at UNO “paved the

Her recent predecessors struggled to win allies and build consensus, she believes,

October 2021

11

N E W S because they were outsiders.

“They were not connected to the community like that. They were not from here. They were not graduates of UNO. You need to have your feet on the ground here for a while.”

Despite progress, she said, “The (whole) university has yet to understand the importance of Black Studies.” Getting it the respect it deserves

on campus, she said, is why she considers her position as chair “the most important thing I’ve even done in my entire life.”

More resources would solidify things, enhance offerings and propel the department to the national and international platform she envisions.

“Resources support the department in being able to keep good faculty and to increase our majors. My goal is academic excellence from the student, faculty, department perspective.

Resources would help pay for adjuncts who have been the glue to hold the department together. Resources increase scholarship monies and our ability to host events.”

High turnover in chairs and full-time faculty didn’t help matters.

As a tenured professor in the UNO College of Communication, Fine Arts and Media, Robinson has borrowed lessons from that award-winning unit and applied them to the Black Studies department.

She believes expressed support by current UNO leadership is “more authentic and real and what it should be.”

UNO and Black Studies alumni Shomari Huggins leads the singing of “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” Photo courtesy of UNO.

Support Your Locally Owned Newspaper!

• Starter Plan •

$5/month or $50/year —Member Support Recognition Page: Kinda like having your name on a brick on a fancy walk, but on a special page on thereader.com.

Aliases or honorariums allowed.

—The Reader Home Delivered Every Month: Stay safe, take The Reader at home (or your other address) by USPS delivery.

12

October 2021

The Omaha 54’s legacy may live not only in an archive but in bronze if she finds support for commissioning a sculpture honoring them.

SIGN UP TODAY AT THEREADER.COM

OR send payment to

Look for The Reader circle logo in the bottom right corner

POB 7360, Omaha, NE 68107 with your subscription information and email

• Supporter Plan •

$10/month or $100/year —Everything in the Starter Plan, PLUS . . .

—Our Secret Social Media Group: What are we saying, who’s talking about what? Join and find out! But don’t tell anyone else, it’s secret.

(Currently only available by Facebook Group.)

—The Reader Gift Subscription: Keep social distance, hold on to your own copy of The Reader, and send a gift subscription to family and friends. (Can be the same address if it’s that hard to share.)

• Pillar Plan • $20/month or $200/year —Everything in the Supporter Plan, PLUS, THERE’S EVEN MORE . . .

—An Invite to a Publisher Chat: Held virtually for now, meet with the publisher in a small group setting to give him a piece of your mind or hear more about the future plans for The Reader and its sister publication, El Perico. If you don’t care about that, we could also give you another gift subscription (fancier schwag coming).

Don’t Get

When Shopping Online HAPPY HALLOWEEN From Your

Start With Trust®

BBB.org

Together again!

Back Sundays IN PERSON @ 10:50 am ONLINE via Facebook

We WILL NOT be resuming other activities.

Masks & social distancing will be required.

7020 Cass Street 402.556.6262 www.fumcomaha.org

October 2021

13

C U L T U R E

Day of the Dead As Pandemic Continues, Día de los Muertos Can Help Omaha Grieve

by Bridget Fogarty

T

he United States has reached a somber juncture in the coronavirus pandemic — about 1 in 500 U.S. residents have died from COVID-19, according to Johns Hopkins University.

That’s more than 675,000 lives lost.

As of this writing, 785 of those who have passed were Douglas County residents. 785 individuals whose hands likely couldn’t be held by loved ones in their final hours, whose family, friends and community’s attempts to honor them have largely had to be masked, socially distanced or virtual.

The numbers can feel numbing, unreal to many.

But even submerged in a pandemic that holds so much loss, Linda García-Perez and Jose García continue to believe death is really about life.

“We are a community who is hurting right now,” said García-Perez, who co-founded the Mexican American Historical Society of the Midlands with her husband, García.

For about 30 years the duo has uplifted the indigenous Mexican tradition of Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, through exhibits and events for the greater Omaha community to celebrate — and they feel the celebration’s more important now than ever.

Día de los Muertos originates from the traditions of indigenous Aztec peoples of what is now Mexico. The traditions were adapted in the face of Catholic indoctrination by the Spaniards.

“Death has a different appearance for indigenous people from Mexico,” García said. The rituals are rooted in belief of the three deaths: the first when you die, the second when no one can see your body, and the third when no one says your name and you are no longer remembered.

Today, the two-day holiday is traditionally observed Nov. 1 and Nov. 2 and is celebrated throughout Mex-

14

ico, other parts of Latin America and in Latino communities throughout the U.S. Favorite foods and items are placed at the graveside, or built into ofrendas, or offerings, as storytelling tools to help honor and remember those who’ve passed.

“Grief isn’t meant to last a lifetime,” García said. “Día de los Muertos — the way we practice it in the contemporary age — is meant to replace the grief with a remembrance that has life in it.”

Over the years, García and García-Perez have facilitated dozens of public ofrenda installations at the Joslyn Art Museum, Apollon Art Space, St. Cecilia Cathedral, Metropolitan Community College and other spaces throughout the city. Whether the installation is themed to honor lost cultural icons or personal loved ones, each exhibit is built in collaboration with artists and community members of all cultures in the couple’s efforts to share the healing experience of building an ofrenda.

The makings of an ofrenda are intimately personal objects — people bring pictures of their loved ones, poems written in their honor, their favorite foods or items they once held near. Often these items are already displayed in homes and actively spark that memory of a loved one without intention, García-Perez said.

“We have our own ofrendas, and we don’t even know it,” she said.

An ofrenda built to honor and remember loved ones sits on display at the Sheldon Museum of Art. in Brother William Woeger’s all-boys class at a local grade school. Brother Woeger saw how she took care to introduce the students to Hispanic and Latino arts, regardless of their identity.

“That connection was only the beginning,” said Brother Woeger, who is the founder of the St. Cecilia Cathedral Arts Project, an organization that aims to instill the arts within the parish in a way that uplifts and challenges the human spirit. Through García-Perez, he got to know García and recognized how deeply passionate the pair were about their desire to share their heritage.

“You see how steeped they are in the stories of their ancestors, and how they honor that and uphold that not just for their family but for others,”

he said. “There’s nothing commercial about it at all, it’s all homegrown.”

After years of Día de los Muertos events throughout the community, the couple hosted an ofrenda installation in St. Cecilia Cathedral and its adjacent chapel for the first time in 2015. Despite South Omaha’s rich Mexican-American history and a growing Hispanic/Latino population, hosting the celebration in a non-Hispanic church with a predominantly white congregation was new territory.

García-Perez recalls Boy and Girl Scout troops flying banners denouncing “devil worshipping,” a misconception of the celebration of life that is Día de los Muertos.

“For some, it was a complete revelation; for others, they didn’t want to go through the work of understanding it,” Brother William said.

“The best thing about it is it got people talking.”

Since then, García and García-Perez have seen growth in the understanding of Day of the Dead in non-Hispanic communities in Omaha. Brother Woeger has seen that understanding grow, too.

The couple has witnessed the understanding and appreciation of the celebration transform in the community over time. But work to educate and share their culture started small.

While studying art at the College of St. Mary’s in the late 60’s, García-Perez began student-teaching

October 2021

Linda and Jose Garcia stand with an ofrenda display at the Joslyn museum.

“The community of the living and the community of the dead are

C U LT U R E one community,” Brother Woeger said. “That’s why it’s such a healthy thing to tell stories, to develop a consciousness that there is a relationship with those who died that has not been broken.”

García-Perez said ofrendas needed now more than ever.

are

“It gives permission to talk about all the death around this; this is a release in a way,” she said.

This year, García and García-Perez plan to continue their efforts to share the healing power of the holiday. They will facilitate two installations of community ofrendas.

One ofrenda will be at Boys Town and another at St. Cecilia Cathedral.

While information regarding the events is forthcoming and will be updated online, the St. Cecilia ofrenda will present an opportunity for community members to place copies of photographs, personal items and more in memory of the departed.

Regardless of your culture or religion, García thinks it’s our human obligation to break from the status quo of putting a timeline on a loved one’s life and death that ends with a person’s funeral or burial.

“We still mourn, we still grieve, we still have our losses, and we need to honor that,” he said. “It is you that controls this memory, not a funeral parlor and a closed casket. It is your memory, it is your history, and you write it.

So how do you write it? You do an ofrenda.”

An ofrenda is displayed at Saint Cecilia’s Cathedral.

This year, Jose Garcia and Linda Garcia Perez will create a community ofrenda in the cathedral to honor Omaha’s community of loved ones who’ve passed away.

October 2021

15

D I S H

Omaha Pizza Directory

by Sara Locke

Backlot Pizza + Kitchen

 Johnny Sortino’s

7880 L St., Omaha 402-339-5050

 La Casa

4432 Leavenworth St., Omaha 402-556-6464 8216 Grover St., Omaha 402 391 6300

Prairie Fire Pizza

610 N. 168th St., Omaha 402-506-6868

 Mama’s Pizza 8146 S. 96th St., La Vista 402-614-5545

Food Truck

 Lansky’s

3909 Twin Creek Dr, Bellevue 402-502-0555

 Backlot Pizza + Kitchen 6200 S. 205th St., Elkhorn 402-227-4726

 Bernie’s Original Pizza Parlor

13522 Cottner St., Omaha 402-895-4433

 Dante

16901 Wright Plaza, Omaha 402-932-3078

 Domino’s

Multiple locations

 Don Carmelo’s

1024 N. 204th St., Elkhorn 402-289-9800

 Double Zero  Big Fred’s Pizza Pizzeria

1101 S. 119th St., Omaha 402-333-4414

1405 S. 204th St, Elkhorn 402-502-1032

 Big Kel’s Pizza and Wings

 Dudley’s Pizza and Tavern

40 Arena Way, #11, Council Bluffs 712-796-4239

2110 S. 67th St., Omaha 402-933-7511

 Brick Oven

 Frank’s

624 S. 72nd St., Omaha 402 393 2270

 Copps Pizza Company

7204 Jones St., Omaha 402-322-2219 7474 Towne Center Pkwy, #101, Papillion 402-934-7499

16

4601 S. 50th St., Omaha 402-731-1919 16918 Morgan Ave, Gretna 531-466-1161

 Lighthouse Pizza

1004 S. 74th Plaza, Omaha 402-932-6660 1170 Capital Ave, Omaha 402-504-1277

 Little Caesars

15615 Pacific St., Omaha 402-933-5090 715 N. Saddle Creek Rd, Omaha 402-553-9270

 Mangia Italiana

6516 Irvington Rd, Omaha 402-614-0600

 Marco’s Pizza 1904 N. 168th St., Omaha 402-289-9922

16718 Harrison St., Omaha 402-895-1511

Multiple locations

Pop-up

 Nice Slice Pop-up

 Night Flight

624 S. 72nd St., Omaha 402-553-7178

 Noli’s

4001 Farnam St., Omaha 402-359-1802 Inner Rail Food Hall 1911 S. 67th St., Omaha 402-359-1802

 Old Chicago

13110 Birch Dr, #180, Omaha 402-445-9393

 Orsi’s Italian Bakery & Pizzeria 621 Pacific St., Omaha 402-345-3438

 Oscar’s

17330 Lakeside Hills Plaza, Omaha 402-758-1919

 Godfather’s

Multiple locations

16230 Evans Plaza, Omaha 402-932-8886

 Johnny Rico’s Brooklyn Pizza

October 2021

 Mootz

2643 S. 144th St., Omaha 402-330-9001

711 N. 132nd St., Omaha 402-493-0404

Food truck

709 Galvin Rd, S., Bellevue 402-292-2660

LANKSY’S

 Papa John’s

Multiple locations

 Papa Murphy’s

Multiple locations

 Papa Reno

3604 Twin Creek Dr, #104, Bellevue 402-505-7888

 Pickleman’s 3201 Farnam St., Omaha 402-999-8068 1503 Farnam St., Omaha 402-505-9775 1908 S. 67th St., Omaha 402-991-6700 370 N. 114th St., Omaha 402-614-1144 12330 K Plaza, Omaha 402-502-8584

 Piezon’s Pizza

15605 W. Center Rd, Omaha 402-991-7437

 Pitch

5021 Underwood Ave, Omaha 402-590-2625 17808 Burke, Omaha 402-289-4096

 Pizza Hut

Multiple locations

 Pizza Ranch

Multiple locations

 Pizza West

12301 W. Maple Rd, Omaha 402-933-7501 continued on page 18 

Hours of Operation: Monday - Friday 6-2 Saturday, Sunday 7-2 Address: 817 N 40th St, Omaha, NE 68131

Okra

African Grill 1303 S. 72nd St, Ste 101, Omaha, NE 68124

402-884-7500 1101 Harney Street • Old Market Happy Hour 3-6pm Mon-Fri

Open Daily 11 AM- 8 PM

(Photo credit Ariel Panowicz)

Stella’s Bar and Grill “Serving World Famous Hamburgers since 1936” 106 Galvin Rd. Bellevue, NE 402-291-6088 Open Monday-Saturday, 11:00 am - 9:00 pm

Celebrating Over 30 Years Of Making Ice Cream Th e Old Fashioned Way

Two Omaha Locations:

Old Market

Downtown • 1120 Jackston 402.341.5827

Benson

6023 Maple 402.551.4420

tedandwallys.com

THINK THINK OFOF YOUR YOUR BUSINESS BUSINESS ASAS A A MEDIA MEDIA CHANNEL CHANNEL POWERED BY

Home of America’s Most Premium Ice Cream Ted & Wally’s Ultra-Premium 20% Butterfat Made from Scratch with Rock Salt & Ice

➥ Local➥SEO Local SEO ➥ Digital ➥ Digital strategystrategy servicesservices ➥ Keyword ➥ Keyword research research and and➥ Content ➥ Content creation creation for for analysisanalysis email, blog email,posts, blog social posts, social ➥ Google ➥ Google Analytics Analytics media,media, photo & photo video) & video) ➥ Facebook ➥ Facebook reporting reporting ➥ And➥ more...

And more...

PoweredPowere by

ContactContact us at grow@pioneermedia.me us at grow@pioneermedia.me Start growing Start growing your business your business now! now! or call 402.341.7323 or call 402.341.7323

October 2021

17

D I S H TASTY’S Pizza

LOCALLY OWNED DELIVERY CO-OP

Omaha Pizza Directory continued from page 16 

USE CODE

GoLoCo

 Pizzeria Davlo

 SPIN

 Prairie Fire Pizza

17520 Wright St., #101, Omaha 402-991-7701

14220 Fort St., Omaha 402-763-2375

Food truck 402-679-3259

 Ragazzi’s Pizza

16909 Lakeside Hills Plaza, Omaha 402-201-2453

 Rocco’s Pizza and Cantina

O MAHA

1302 Mike Fahey, Omaha 402-502-9893

October 2021

14529 F St., Millard 402-505-6660

1418 S. 60th St., Omaha 531-999-1246

9735 Q St., Ralston 402-339-1944

 The Galley

1108 S. 10th St., Omaha 402-502-9880

4963 Center St., Omaha 531-777-0329

 The Pizza Pie Guys

 Via Farina

 Villagio Pizzeria

6922 N. 102nd Cir., Omaha 402-502-4400

8017 S. 84th St., Omaha 402-502-4868

 Timber Creek

6056 Maple St., Omaha 402-556-9090

 Timber Wood Fire

3501 Center St., Omaha 402-884-4082

Multiple locations

18

3504 Samson Way, Bellevue 402-934-9439

5138 N. 156th St., Omaha 402-715-5050

 Sam and Louie’s

LoCo is owned and operated by local independent restaurants. The ultimate goal of LoCo is to offer delivery from the best local restaurants in town, provide great service, and enhance the local dining scene. Support local and download our app today.

 Tasty Pizza

 Varsity Sports Café and Roman Coin Pizza

 Rosati’s Pizza

14513 W. Maple Rd, Omaha

G e t R e ady Om aha

248 Olsen Dr, Papillion 402-935-7746

 Sgt Peffer’s Café Italian

1501 N. Saddle Creek Rd, Omaha 402-558-7717 13760 Millard Ave, Millard 402-932-6211

 Smokin Oak

220 S. 31st Ave, #3103, Omaha 531-466-1264

6718 S. 178th St., Omaha 402-614-3464

8702 Pacific St., Omaha 402-964-2227

 Toppers

7010 Dodge St., #104, Omaha 402-553-1133 741 N. 114th St., Omaha 402-933-9733

 Union Pizzeria and Sports Bar 3636 N. 156th St., Omaha 402-614-2755

 Virtuoso

 Vis Major

 Zio’s

7834 W. Dodge Rd, Omaha 402-391-1881 12997 W. Center Rd, Omaha 402-330-1444 1109 Howard St., Omaha 402-344-2222 18110 Wright St., Omaha 402-991-9443

Congratulations to this year’s finalists!

Winners will be announced in our November issue Best Omelette Early Bird Brunch Omelettes Bailey’s Breakfast and Lunch Omelettes Lisa’s Radial Cafe Deluxe Veggie Omelette First Watch Omelette Saddle Creek Breakfast Club Omelettes

Best Brunch Bailey’s Breakfast and Lunch Brunch Saddle Creek Breakfast Club Mantra Bar and Grill Brunch Herbe Sainte Brunch First Watch Brunch

Best Hunan Dish Crystal Jade Restaurant - Hunan Chicken Jade Palace- Hunan Chicken Dragon Wok - Hunan Pork Chopstick House - Spicy Hunan Shrimp Grand Fortune - Crispy Shrimp

Best Breakfast Sandwich Radial Breakfast Sandwich at Lisa’s Radial Cafe Elevated Egg Sandwich at First Watch Sandies at Early Bird Cali Club at Saddle Creek Breakfast Club Egg and Cheese BS Combo at Sunnyside on Center

Best General Tso Chicken Three Happiness Express General Tso Chicken Crystal Jade American & Asian Fine Dining General’s Chicken Yamato Sushi & Grill General Tso’s Chicken Grand Fortune Chinese Cuisine General Tso’s Chicken Taipei Asian Cuisine General’s Chicken

Best Kung Pao Dish Three Happiness Kung Pao Delight China Palace Kung Pao Beef China Wok Kung Pao Beef PF Chang’s Kung Pao

Best Breakfast Burrito Potato Egg Breakfast Burrito at Abelardo’s Mexican Fresh Breakfast Burrito at Burritto Envy and Tequila Bar El Gordo Morning Burrito at Early Bird Brunch Breakfast Burrito at Lina’s Mexican Restaurant Breakfast Burrito at Sunnyside on Center Best French Toast Lisa’s Radial Cafe French Toast First Watch French Toast Le Peep French Toast Early Bird Brunch French Toast Saddle Creek Breakfast Club French Toast Best Cinnamon Roll Sweet Magnolia’s Bake Shop Cinnamon Rolls Farm House Cafe and Bakery Cinnamon Rolls WheatField’s Eatery and Bakery Cinnamon Rolls Culprit Cafe and Bakery Cinnamon rolls LaQuartier Bakery & Cafe Cinnamon Rolls Best Breakfast Potato Casserole Breakfast Skillets at Lisa’s Radial Cafe Potato Casserole at Farmhouse Cafe & Bakery Potato Casserole at Garden Cafe Signature Skillets at Village Inn Dusseldorf Casserole at Wheatfield’s Eatery and Bakery Best Biscuits & Gravy The Heavy at Lisas Radial Cafe Biscuits and Gravy at Bailey’s Breakfast and Lunch Biscuits and Gravy at Over Easy Dad’s Biscuits and Gravy at Wheatfield’s Eatery and Bakery Biscuits and Gravy with bacon or sausage at Cracker Barrel Best Pancakes Lisa’s Radial Cafe Pancakes Bailey’s Breakfast and Lunch Pancakes First Watch Pancakes Saddle Creek Breakfast Club Pancakes Early Bird Pancakes Best Traditional Breakfast (Eggs + protein + starch) Lisa’s Radial Cafe The Works Breakfast Harold’s Koffee House House Special First Watch The Traditional Herbe Sainte Andouille Sausage Scramble Saddle Creek Breakfast Club Saddle Creek Standard Best Bacon Bacon at Lisa’s Radial Cafe Millinaire’s Bacon at First Watch Bacon at Bailey’s Breakfast and Lunch Meats-Regular Bacon at Saddle Creek Breakfast Club Bacon at WheatFields

Best Tikki Dish Chicken Tikki Korma at Jaipur’s Tikki Masala at Maharaja Indian Paneer Tikka Masala at Kinaara Chicken Tikka at Flavor’s Best Sesame Chicken Sesame Chicken at Three Happiness Express Sesame Chicken at Golden Bowl Sesame Chicken at Rice Bowl Sesame Chicken at Tapei Sesame Chicken at Grand Fortune Sesame Chicken at Chopstick House Best Enchilada Rivera’s Mexican Food Enchiladas Rancheros California Tacos and More Enchiladas Abelardo’s Mexican Fresh Enchiladas Taqueria El Ray Enchiladas Best Tandori Dish Mixed Tandori Grill at Jaipur Tandoori Chicken at Kinaara Tandoori Tiger Shrimp at Curri Paneer Tikka Masala at Hyderabadhouse Biryani Best Seafood Entree Angry Crab Linguine at Shucks Cedar Planked Salmon at J. Coco Crab-Crusted Cod at Bonefish Grill Crudo at Yoshitomo La Torre Imperial at Isla Del Mar

Best Korma Dish Jaipur Chicken Korma Maharaja Indian Novaratan Korma Zaika Indian Shahi Chicken Korma Hyderbadhouse Biryani Lamb Korma Kinaara Goat Korma Best Jollof Rice Dish Okra African Grill Jellof Rice Chaima’s African Cuisine Jollof Rice Most Exotic Dish Afro Original at Big Mama’s Kitchen Yebeg Alicha at Lalibela Ethiopian Restaurant Bandeja Paisa at Hunger Block Spicy Samgyubsal at Maru Sushi Korean Grill Best Fufu Dish Golden Palace Chaima’s African Cuisine Fufu & Peanut Stew Best Fajita La Mesa Mexican Restaurant in Bellevue Fajitas Azteca Mexican Restaurant Azteca Fajitas Roja Grill Fajitas El Ranchero Veggie Fajitas Romeo’s Grande Fajita-rito Best Tempura Dish Shrimp Tempura Dinner at Hiro’s Shrimp Tempura Maki at Blue Seafood Tempura at Sakura Bana Vegetable Tempura at Tokyo Sushi

Best Chicken Entree Railcar Modern American Kitchen Asiago Crusted Chicken Schnitzel Longhorn Steakhouse Parmesan Chicken Fizzy’s Fountain & Liquors Fried Chicken Platter Astoria Biryani House Chicken 65 Timber Wood Fire Bistro Timbird Best Vegan Entree Falafel Classic at Amsterdam Falafel Classic Mac & Shews at Modern Love Zy’s Plate at Little Ve’s Classic Fauxmaha Dog at Fauxmaha Best Curry Dish Curri Fine Indian Cuisine Chicken Tikka Salween Thai Red Curry Hyderabadhouse Biryani Chicken Dum Biryani Laos Thai Restaurant Panang Curry Bangkok Kitchen Green Curry Best Sweet and Sour Entree Sweet & Sour Shrimp at Three Happiness Express Sweet & Sour Chicken at Rice Bowl Sweet & Sour Chicken at Buddha Belly Sweet & Sour Shrimp at Chopstick House Sweet & Sour Chicken at Golden Bowl Sweet & Sour Pork at Dragon Wok Best Pasta Dish Michelangelo at Lo Sole Mio Pasta Combination at Pasta Amore Cheese Tortellini at Sgt. Peffer’s Kickin’ Chicken Pasta at Mouth of the South Fettuccine Carbonara at Roma Italian Restaurant Best Steak Dinner Whiskey Steak at The Drover Omaha’s Finest Prime Rib at Jericho’s Top Sirloin at Johnny’s Cafe Prime Porterhouse at Mahogany Prime Steakhouse Slow Cooked Prime Rib at Brother Sebastian’s Morgan Ranch American Wagyu New York Strip at V. Mertz

Best Pad Thai Pad Thai Combo at Salween Thai Pad Thai at Thai Spice Pad Thai at Saigon Restaurant Pad Thai at Mai Thai Pad Thai at Thai Kitchen

Best Fried Fish The Surfside Club - Catfish DInner Dundee Dell Fish and Chips Big Mama’s Kitchen - Oven Fried Catfish Sean O’Casey’s Pub Fish Sandwich Big Way Chicken Catfish Basket

Best Spiciest Dish Diablo Enchiladas at Rivera’s Mexican Food Nashville Chicken Waffle at Jojo’s Diner Spicy Malwani Chicken Bowl at Curry In A Hurry Original Buffalo Style XXX-Hot at Rays Spicy Fish at Salween Thai

Best Stir Fried Dish Shrimp Stir Fry at Three Happiness Express Crispy Orange Chicken at Fu Asian Grill Stir Fried Seafood Curry at Salween Thai Stir Fried Lo Mein at Saigon Restaurant Happy Family at Gold Mountain

Best Tequila Cocktail La Mesa Mexican Restaurant Watermelon-Jalapeno Margarita The Corner Kick Sports Bar, Tacos and Tequila House Margarita Taco Co Sangria Nite Owl Mangonada Fizzy’s Fountain & Liquors Bonita Euphoria

Best Sushi Roll Crunchy Blue at Blue Sushi Hiro 88 Roll at Hiro 88 Spider Roll at Kona Grill Crunchy Roll at Matsu Sushi Sushi Lover at Umami Khalessi at Yoshitomo Gojira at Yoshitomo

Best Smoothie Juice Stop Freestyle Ital Vital Living - Bob Marley Zen Coffee Company Dragon Colada Smoothie Smoothie King The Activator Blueberry Strawberry Jones Bros Cupcakes Great Wall

Best Peanut Butter Chicken Peanut Butter Chicken at Threes Happiness Express Peanut Butter Chicken at Golden Palace Peanut Butter Chicken at Crystal Jade Peanut Butter Chicken at Mai Thai Peanut Butter Chicken at Chopstick House

W PICKS W artist, open road truck driver and land steward, all of which inform his creative process. For this exhibition, Schubert will source salvaged materials in Omaha to make a handmade instrument to be played at the opening.

tions. Everyone should appreciate these perspectives more. Reserve your free tickets online. Performances are Oct. 8 and 9 at 7:30 p.m. and Oct. 10 at 6 p.m.

Tulsa-based artist Shane Darwent is a Bemis Center alum who works in an interdisciplinary practice inspired by such ubiquitous exurban architecture as strip mall storefronts and parking lot design.

Darwent will create a large-scale freestanding sculpture inspired by time spent in Omaha last year.

October 8 – November 28

Daniel Paul Schubert and Shane Darwent runs until Oct. 29 with viewings available by appointment after the opening date.

— Matt Casas

Steve Joy:

Traces

6 p.m. | Free Garden of the Zodiac | 1042 Howard St.

— Janet Farber

Now through October 24

Heroes of the Fourth Turning 2 p.m., 6 p.m. & 7:30 p.m. | $35 BlueBarn Theatre bluebarn.org

and characterization that gets to the heart of our country’s age-old inner strife. The 15 dates at BlueBarn Theatre will spotlight performers Thomas Gjere, Suzanne Withem, Anna Jordan, Michael Judah and Joey Hartschorn. Shows run Thursdays through Saturdays at 7:30 p.m., with performances Oct. 10 and 24 at 2 p.m. and Oct. 17 at 6 p.m.

— Matt Casas

October 1-29

Playright Will Arbery has struck a chord with both sides of the American spectrum. Heroes of the Fourth Turning will leave its audiences dazzled with deep dialogue

20

October 8-10

Stories:

On the Brink

6 p.m. & 7:30 p.m. | Free Holy Family Community Center | 1715 Izard St. gptcplays.com

Omaha’s favorite peripatetic British artist Steve Joy wanders back in town with Traces, an exhibition of recent work.

Daniel Paul Schubert and Shane Darwent

Drawing on nearly 20 years of travel in Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula, Joy presents a series of delicate abstract paintings in fiberglass, wax and metal leaf on paper around the theme of the network of ancient roads around the Mayan city state of Coba.

6-10 p.m. | Free Maple Street Construct | 5912 Maple St.

The exhibition will also include paintings from Joy’s ongoing portrait-inspired series of Medieval queens and kings.

Los Angeles native Daniel Paul Schubert is a painter, assemblage

October 2021

Presented by Great Plains Theater Commons, Stories: On the Brink performs two artistic duties.

As an event, it is free and open to the public, and as a play, it details homelessness with dialogue inspired by real-life voices. Director Haley Haas and playwright Colleen O’Doherty joined the story circles at local shelters hoping to convey timeless but not inevitable issues and inspire new connec-

Steve Joy: Traces opens Oct. 8 with an artist’s reception from 6 to 8 p.m. and runs through Nov. 28 in the Garden of the Zodiac Gallery. Hours are Tuesdays through Saturdays from noon to 8 p.m. and Sundays from noon to 6 p.m.

Call 402-341-1877 or email gardenofthezodiac@gmail.com.

— Janet Farber

? o m fo

Fear of missing out on time with friends and family? Get vaccinated now!

The COVID-19 vaccine is widely available throughout the state, but younger people are still getting coronavirus at the highest rates.

Let’s all do right to reach community immunity and get the good life back.

Get COVID-19 vaccine information at DoRightRightNow.org October 2021

21

W PICKS W October 8-30

The Good Earth 5-8 p.m. | Free AOB Gallery aobfineart.com

October 9-10

AfroCon 2021

Online | $10-$20 afroconomaha.com

Opening Oct. 8 at Midtown’s AOB Gallery is an exhibit by painter Ray Knaub. A native of Scottsbluff, Knaub’s paintings draw inspiration from his formative years in western Nebraska, growing up next to the North Platte River and the Oregon Trail. The show, The Good Earth, features Knaub’s impressionist take on rural scenes of the Midwest and Western landscape.

Knaub cites his earliest inspirations from the likes of Hopper and Wyeth. Knaub has been featured in many solo exhibits in the Southwest and several national juried competitions.

Opening reception is Oct. 8 from 5 to 8 p.m. The Good Earth runs through Oct. 30.

— Kent Behrens

This two-day, community-building event from the House of Afros, Capes and Curls features live, curated conversations with creatives and thought leaders on topics impacting Black lives.

Sample a discussion about mental health and art therapy with the Creative Counseling Studio.

Meet the founders of Nigeria’s African Board Game Convention and Verta Maloney, co-founder of the*gamerHERs. Jam to music by Brooklyn-based electronic artist Conrad Clifton. Hear data analyst and artist Noni Williams extol the joy in math and science. Indulge in a safe space celebrating nerd, Black and Cosplay culture. Express yourself, baby!

— Leo Adam Biga

Council Bluffs Public Library Speaker Series

“AN EVENING WITH CARL HIAASEN" THURSDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2021 7:00 program | 8:00 book signing at The Arts Center @ Iowa Western Community College Tickets can be purchased at www.artscenter.iwcc.edu

Proudly supported by the Council Bluffs Public Library Foundation

22

October 2021

October 10

October 12

National

Coming Out Day 9 a.m. | Free Urban Abbey & Stinson Park

Hobo Johnson

& The Lovemakers, Nat Lefkoff and Silk Animus 8 p.m. | $25 The Waiting Room Lounge

Urban Abbey, a nonprofit faith-based coffee shop, is hosting a National Coming Out Day Celebration and Worship on Oct. 10.

October is LGBT History Month.

Worship will occur at the downtown coffee shop at 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. with a celebration, co-hosted with St. Luke United Methodist Church, at Stinson Park in Aksarben from 5 to 7 p.m. Both events are free.

Organizers say the event will seek to raise awareness of LGBTQ issues, explore God’s call to love and give thanks to people maintaining safe spaces in Omaha where people can express their gender and sexual identities without discrimination.

— Efren Cortez

In the era of memes and teetering on peak virality, no one broke onto the scene faster or more divisively in the last five years than Hobo Johnson. The emo rapper, backed by a solid band with unique call-and-response traits, took the Tiny Desk Contest by storm in 2018. Supporting acts

W PICKS W will include Nat Lefkoff, an atmospheric folk artist, and Silk Animus, a lo-fi rapper more in the vein of the headliner.

— Matt Casas

October 15

Post Animal and Hot Flash Heat Wave w/

Reptaliens 8 p.m. | $15 Slowdown

It’s going to feel like an extension of summer when indie rock bands Post Animal and Hot Flash Heat Wave play Slowdown’s front room this month. The bands come from separate scenes — Chicago’s Post Animal leans toward Osees-inspired psych, while Hot Flash Heat Wave’s Cali garage rock has morphed into Tame Impala haze-pop on recent releases. But there’s a sunniness to both bands’ music that would have been popular on the summer festival circuit had it been at full strength this year. The bands join forces now for a co-headlining tour, and Omaha is the first stop.

— Sam Crisler

October 15-16

Donnell Rawlings 7 p.m. & 9:30 p.m. | $74-$157

October 16 – November 19

The Waiting Room Lounge

Dia de Muertos $3.50-$5 El Museo Latino

Donnell Rawlings will appear for two nights in a row at The Waiting Room after his previous March date got rescheduled due to COVID-19. The world urgently needs rib-tickling laughs and provoking thought experiments, and the two go together well in a live setting. Most importantly, the Air Force veteran and comedian, famous for his recurring Chappelle Show sketches and more recent role in The Wire, decidedly knows what he is doing on stage.

— Matt Casas

Dia de Muertos/Day of the Dead, a Mexican holiday celebrating and remembering those who have died, will be spotlighted at El Museo Latino from Oct. 16 to

Readers' Choice Best of the Big O! Best Throwing Axe Place 1507 Farnam St. • Omaha, NE 68102 https://flyingtimber.com October 2021

23

W PICKS W Nov. 19. The holiday is celebrated on Nov. 1 and 2.

At the museum, the exhibit will feature an ofrenda, a home altar that includes photographs of the deceased and is decorated with offerings for their spirit.

Hands-on workshops with the ofrenda will occur on Oct. 23 and Nov. 6.

The exhibit is included with regular museum admission, which is $3.50 for seniors and kids, $4 for students and $5 for general.

Hours are Wednesdays through Fridays 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturdays 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

— Efren Cortez

October 21-30

she also takes jabs at the forces of ageism, racism and tragedy. For seven dates this month, performers will bring 20th Century Blues to life on stage with heart. And the 100-year-old building with a vaudeville past, too, will start anew.

— Matt Casas

October 24

The Menzingers with Worriers, The Dirty Nil 8 p.m. | $25-$30 Slowdown

20th Century Blues

past proving grounds. Thanks to the 2012 album The Impossible Past, balladry, choruses and storytelling catapulted the band atop the new punk rock scene. The riffs and solid rhythm section did not hurt, either. They will have perfect opening acts. Worriers, a group with an unapologetic message blending melancholy with empowerment, and The Dirty Nil, an energetic trio with a big sound, join them live.

— Matt Casas

October 28

Carl Hiassen Book Reading 7 p.m. | $10 Council Bluffs Public Library

2 p.m. & 7:30 p.m. | $30 The Benson Theatre bensontheatre.org Perhaps no play could better memorialize the exciting grand opening of Benson Theatre. In 20th Century Blues Playwright Susan Miller successfully writes characters who veer directly into the depths of women and time, but

thrillers set in Florida; nine are national bestsellers.

Hiaasen has also written six young adults novels. Overall, two of his works, 1993’s Strip Tease and 2002’s Hoot, have been adapted to feature films.

When giving lectures, Hiaasen often discusses his home state, environmental issues, modern culture and corruption. Hiaasen’s program will start at 7 p.m. with a book signing at 8 p.m.

— Efren Cortez

October 29

Bemis Benefit Art Auction + Concert 5:30 p.m. | Free Bemis Center bemiscenter.org/benefit

The Menzingers have spent the last nine years a world away from

Floridian journalist and satirical novelist Carl Hiaasen is set to kick off the Council Bluffs Public Library’s Speaker Series when he stops in the area on Oct. 28.

Starting off as a newspaper reporter in the late 1970s, Hiaasen began his novelist career in 1981 when he co-wrote Powder Burn with William Montalbano. Hiaasen has since written 14 novels for adults with Squeeze Me, his most recent, releasing in August 2020.

His novels for adults are comedic

24

October 2021

The Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts celebrates its 4Oth year this fall, live and in color, with its annual Benefit Art Auction + Concert. More than 200 artists support Bemis’ renowned residency program by contributing 50-100% commission on the sale of their works. All other proceeds

W PICKS W are reinvested into Bemis Center’s core programs.

The 2021 Benefit Art Auction Exhibition is on view October 15-29. Admission is free. Gallery hours are Wednesdays to Sundays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and until 9 p.m. on Thursdays. All artwork is available for purchase at “Buy it Now” prices through Oct. 28.

This year’s auction will include food, beverages and live music

by Xiu Xiu at 9:30 p.m. in Bemis’s music venue, LOW END. The venue continues to maintain social distancing at all events.

— Mike Krainak

ESPORTS FESTIVAL

MID-AMERICA GAMERS EXPO NOV. 19-21 COUNCIL BLUFFS

October 29-31

The Rocky Horror Show $30-$60 Slowdown Coming this October, Rave On Productions is bringing a live performance based on the 1975 film The Rocky Horror Picture Show to Slowdown as part of its 2021 Omaha Series.

The comedy-horror musical cult classic is often enjoyed with the inclusion of audience participation. Interactive prop packages will be available for purchase at the show to go along with the performance.

This year, there will be six performances from October 29-31.

Each night will have shows at 7:30 p.m. and at midnight. Doors will open an hour prior to the event start.

General admission tickets are priced at $30, pit side at $40 and balcony at $60.

For more information about the event, including the cast and crew, visit theomahaseries.com.

— Efren Cortez

REGISTRATION, TICKETS & INFO @

MAGEIOWA.COM October 2021 MAGE_Reader_Oct_3.54x9.25.indd 1

25 9/10/21 2:08 PM

H O O D O O

Eclectic Energies

A variety of exciting roots music artists are making some joyful noise this October

by B.J. Huchtemann

T

he Blues Society of Omaha’s BSO Presents series moves around town again this month. Thursday, Oct. 7, at The Jewell, the JW-Jones Band performs 6-9 p.m. Canadian blues man Jones was recognized with the 2020 International Blues Challenge’s “Best Guitarist” award in the band category. He and his band put on an engaging, high-energy show.

Thursday, Oct. 14, 8 p.m., the wonderfully eclectic and magical roots music of Pokey LaFarge takes the stage at Slowdown.

LaFarge is back on the road in support of In the Blossom of Their Shade, an album he wrote and recorded in Austin and Chicago during the pandemic shutdown.

Also Oct. 14, Brian England Groove Prescription plays at Stocks n Bonds. Watch for show details at facebook.com/bluessocietyofomaha.

Friday, Oct. 22, 8 p.m., the blues is back at Slowdown with the extremely talented and charismatic Carolyn Wonderland who is on tour with her brand new debut, Tempting Fate, on the Alligator Records label, produced by roots icon Dave Alvin. An accomplished bandleader and recording artist herself, Wonderland has recently split her time between working as John Mayall’s guitarist and her own music before signing with Alligator. Robert Jon & The Wreck open the show.

The Paul Nelson Band plugs in at Ozone on Thursday, Oct. 28.

The Gabe Stillman Band performs at The B. Bar Friday, Oct. 29, 5:30 p.m.

Cathy Lohmeier reported via email. The documentary chronicles the 1980s Lincoln music nightclub run by her brother, Tim Lohmeier, a family restaurant that became a rock club at night. The Drumstick was located at 547 N. 48th St. in Lincoln. Tim Lohmeier booked a dizzying list of rising rock and country stars, from R.E.M. and Henry Rollins Band to Joan Jett & The Blackhearts, Nick Lowe, Steve Earle & The Dukes, Georgia Satellites, Jason & The Scorchers, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Fishbone, Dwight Yoakam, Rank & File, X and more.

The film will be screened at the Flatwater Film Festival at the Rivoli Theater in Seward. The Flatwater Film Festival will be screening a variety of films Oct. 15-17. Watch flatwaterfilmfestival.com for the announcement of the screening date and time. Omaha fans will be able to see the film as part of Film Streams 2021 Local Filmmakers Showcase Nov. 11-18. Watch for the date and time listings on the showcase website at filmfreeway.com/2021LFS.

Remember the Drumstick

The Drumstick was one of a handful of influential eastern Nebraska music venues that fed the live music scene and helped form the musical tastes of a generation.

Lohmeier began the film project in 2017.

Sharonda Harris Marshall served as the film’s associate producer and editor.

The Remember the Drumstick documentary is complete, producer

“We hope to get into the Big Sky Film Festi-

26

October 2021

val, too,” Lohmeier said, “maybe a few others. My plan is to find a way either by myself or with a distributor’s help to show it in cities where musicians who played the Drumstick might see it too.

“I made this doc so that present and future Lincolnites would know this happened in their town.

It’s a piece of the national music history scene, and it wasn’t perfect or pretty,” Lohmeier continued. “But that is what makes the story memorable. I hope lots of people will see it and appreciate it for what it was. And I hope folks will take a piece of the magic created there and let it inform their own lives and endeavors.”

Any proceeds ultimately made from the film will go toward a foundation in Tim Lohmeier’s name where Cathy Lohmeier hopes to “do more in Lincoln to promote live performances in communi-

ty-friendly, affordable venues” to encourage access to and appreciation for live music. Full disclosure, I provided a brief interview on my memories of The Drumstick for the film. For more on the project and the foundation, visit rememberthedrumstick.com.

Nebraska Blues Challenge The BSO hosts the Nebraska Blues Challenge Sunday, Oct. 24, at The Jewell. Entry was open to any local blues-oriented band. Five bands and three solo artists are participating. The winning band and winning solo artist will represent the BSO at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis Jan. 18-22, 2022. The BSO event is expected to start at 3 p.m. on Oct. 24, but watch facebook.com/bluessocietyofomaha for final details.

Currently scheduled to perform are five bands: OLUS, Tim Budig Band, Stan & the Chain Gang, The David Diaz Project and Liv’n The Dream. Three solo artists are slated: Nebraska Jr., Rich Patten and Stephen Monroe.

Electrifying singer, songwriter and guitarist Carolyn Wonderland performs Wednesday, Oct. 20, at Lincoln’s Zoo Bar and Friday, Oct. 22 at Slowdown. Photo courtesy carolynwonderland.com.

Hot Notes Carolyn Wonderland also performs at Lincoln’s Zoo Bar Wednesday, Oct. 20, 6-9 p.m. One Percent Productions has a string of great shows, including Wayne Hancock Monday, Oct. 11, 8 p.m. at Reverb, and the amazing Marty Stuart & His Fabulous Superlatives Wednesday, Oct. 20 at The Waiting Room. Sunday Roadhouse presents The Lowest Pair Sunday, Oct. 10, 5 p.m. at The Waiting Room.

B A C K B E A T

Get to Know Megan Siebe An Omaha Songwriter a Long Time Coming

by Sam Crisler

W

elcome to the Backbeat column, where local music is the only music. This month’s column is a conversation with Megan Siebe, an Omaha singer-songwriter and cellist who has spent most of her time as a musician in supporting roles with Omaha institutions like Cursive and Simon Joyner. That is, until releasing her debut solo LP Swaying Steady in late August through Grapefruit Records and Shrimper Records.

Swaying Steady’s pieces have been piling up since Siebe started writing her own songs more than a decade ago around the time she left her native Grand Island to study music education at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. She kept the songs to herself while she focused on other projects, but other musicians in her circle started nudging her to play live. And when a planned Cursive tour was canceled at the dawn of the pandemic, Siebe had time to flesh out the songs at home with her husband and fellow singer-songwriter, Sean Pratt.

Siebe recorded Swaying Steady with Omaha scene veteran Ben Brodin (First Aid Kit, Conor Oberst, Icky Blossoms) in his basement, but you wouldn’t know it was a home recording by listening to the songs. The resulting LP is spacious and intimate at once, songs that at their core are acoustic singer-songwriter compositions, embellished with Siebe’s own string arrangements.

Album standout “Whispers” is a gorgeous slow-builder, driven only by Siebe’s voice and strings, that exemplifies Swaying Steady’s best qualities — the warm connection between Siebe’s vocals and her compositions and a rustic elegance that feels distinctly Nebraskan.

The Reader: What’s your history as a songwriter?

Megan Siebe: I started cello when I was, like, 10. But I started bass guitar the year after. I started kind of learning horn stuff through jazz band. And I’ve always ... had a knack for all that stuff. But my own stuff, I probably started writing kind of early on in college. A lot of the songs that are on the album I probably started writing, like, sophomore year in college, and then some of them were songs where you go “Oh, my gosh, what the heck was that?” and throw it away. But some of them are ones I’ve had for a really long time, which is cool.

TR: When did music connect with you and become ingrained in your life?

MS: You know those Fisher Price little, dinky xylophones that you push and it’s like a little piano? I don’t remember any of this, but when I was a kid, we would go out and we would hear a song, and when we’d go home, my mom would hear me playing the xylophone and would ask “What is that?” And it would be the song we had just heard. My great-grandma played guitar, and my great uncle played, too.

And every Thanksgiving, we’d all sit around after dinner and play songs. And I always thought that was so cool. They would play all sorts of older country songs. So it’s kind of always been there. My sister is five years older than me, and because she was in orchestra, I got to go to all the recitals, and I was like, “I want to play cello,” even when I was really little.

TR: Which artists did you connect with when you were younger?

MS: I always wanted to like the music that my older sister liked.

Megan Siebe — Photo by Bridget McQuillan But then, because of classical music, I would really get into, like, the kind of late romantic composers. But growing up in Grand Island, I always thought about the bands here in Omaha like, “That’s so cool that all this music is in my state.” So I got into that kind of indie stuff and rock stuff, and I ended up being a part of those groups, too.

TR: Why did you decide now was the time to make a record?

MS: We started working on it right before the (pandemic) started. I had played a couple shows. I played at David Nance’s house because he knew that I had a couple songs. But people were encouraging me, saying “Play your stuff.” And Ben Brodin was really big on pushing me to record the songs. He said, “I’m just starting to build a recording studio in my basement. I’d love to try it out with your stuff if you want.”

I thought that sounded great. I’ve just done so much stuff for other people that it’s kind of nice and weird at the same time to do stuff

for myself! It’s good to do that.

I was supposed to do a couple months touring with Cursive as a cellist, and that got canceled. But it was just nice with all the instruments here at our house to work ... and flesh stuff out.

TR: Do you still feel a connection to the older songs?

MS: I think so many of them are about different relationships or how I was feeling at such a crucial time from ages 21 to 33. I think that it’s important to remember what you were feeling in that moment, but how you can grow into where you are now, which is kind of why I wanted to end the album with “The Basics,” because I just felt like it ... summed up everything for me. A lot of the (older songs), whether it’s about a past breakup or how I was feeling about a relationship at the time, you can still kind of hang on to those things. And now it’s funny to release this and be married and, like, have a house … I’m wondering what my next project will sound like, just because now I feel very comfortable and hap-

October 2021

27

B A C K B E A T

NOW OPEN 38th Season 716 N 18th St Omaha, NE

Hours and complete details go to:

www.mysterymanoromaha.org

Swaying Steady by Megan SiebE py with what we have. So it’s ... exciting to see how fast I could write stuff instead of waiting for 13 years.

TR: If you’re taking inspiration from classical, folk, indie and more, how do you wind up on this sound?

MS: I think it has to do with the bands I’ve played with a lot; I played with Sean in Sean Pratt & the Sweats, and his stuff is an organic sound, kind of similar to (the sound on Swaying Steady).

And I’ve played with Simon Joyner for so many years. Then there’s Cursive’s stuff, too, and Tim Kasher’s solo stuff, which is totally different. So it’s like sometimes taking from what I’ve done with other groups. I don’t know how I ended up with this sound.

It’s kind of no rhyme or reason, but it’s what feels the best to me.

TR: It feels like it all sort of comes together on the final track, “The Basics.”

MS: That one I wrote in an afternoon after this camping trip, and it’s always a song that I go back to if I’m feeling anxious or overwhelmed. I’ll start singing that, and then it just kind of helps me calm down.

“Run for the hillside … Free from the critics/Get back to the basics.”

TR: How did you get involved with Cursive in the first place?

28

October 2021

MS: Like I said before, growing up in Grand Island, I would think about the Omaha scene, and I’d think “Oh, there’s even a band with a cellist in it, and that is so cool!” But I was playing with this group Anniversaire through college, and I think (Cursive bassist) Matt Maginn had come out to see us because it was a band with a cello in it … But then it was in 2011 that Cursive played Maha, and they were like, “We kind of want to try a cello out, do you want to play with us?” And I was like “Oh, sure, uh, that’d be cool.”

TR: Did that kind of feel like a dream realized?

MS: Yeah, it’s just kind of serendipitous how it happened. I feel very lucky to be able to have those experiences. I feel like every tour, every practice that we have, I’m always just very thankful and think it could be the last one. At every show, I try to do the best job that I can, because maybe it won’t happen again.

TR: How do you feel now that the album is released?

MS: I’m really happy with the way it turned out, and I think doing this has shown me that ... “You should take time to work on your projects. You’ve got to keep doing it!” So I’m excited to see what happens next.

F I L M

Help Us, Ted Lasso, You’re Our Only Hope

After Decades of Dystopia, We Need

“The Theater of Optimism”

L

ike Adam and Eve post-bushburning, I’m hella anti-Apple.

Thus, when the vocal “Cult of Lasso” first took to evangelizing, I ignored them like a snake that’s hooked on phonics. The language used by rabid fans — seemingly the only kind out there — to describe that specific Apple TV+ show was upsettingly hyperbolic.

As anyone who has read my Reader work knows, that’s vastly irritating because it’s my thing. I finally consented to watch the damn thing almost purely out of spite, the most American of all productivity motivations.

Within a few weeks, I had watched all episodes three or more times.

Within a month, I was nakedly forcing it upon others like a mom-duping, Facebook-based pyramid scheme.

At one point, I literally drove to my father’s place, installed the Apple TV app, paid for his subscription, and made him text me his reactions to each episode. so.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Ted Las-

That is to say, the character and show operate as a transcendent, Santa Claus-ish symbol, a mustachioed rebuke of toxic masculinity and a gleefully vulgar demand that we at least try to give a shit. What started with me watching a halfhour comedy about British football — that’s the one with less head trauma but kinda the same racebased problems — ended with me realizing how desperately, impossibly badly we need “the theater of optimism” and how Lasso may be the tip of that spear.

by Ryan Syrek

hit.

Then the season two backlash

On social media and elsewhere, the joyful embrace of this heartfelt gem shifted to our standard approach to just absolutely everything: Find its flaws, rip it apart at the seams, and try to make people who love it feel like stupid idiots.

I stand before you today (in print) not simply in defense of Ted Lasso (including season two, which is better than season one, and yes you heard me). I stand before you today (again, metaphorically), asking you to demand more uplifting entertainment. Not stupid comedies or “feel-good” biopics but real, honest-to-goodness goodness. Here’s why you should join me in this fight.

I Believe You Should Believe in “Believe” I don’t want to spoil anything for anyone who hasn’t yet been lassoed by Ted, but we have to start with some basics about that pun-loving, tea-hating Midwesterner in London. The show’s premise is that Rebecca Welton (Hannah Waddingham) hired Ted (Jason Sudeikis), a goofus college football coach known mostly for a viral video of his locker room antics, to intentionally tank her ex-husband’s beloved Premier League team that she won control over in the divorce. Ted doesn’t know he’s supposed to fail and operates accordingly.

This means he has to try and bridge the gap between aging team captain Roy Kent (Brett Goldstein) and rising superstar Jamie Tartt (Phil Dunster). The former is a lion-hearted asshole whose vocab-

Is optimistic entertainment the cure for our increasingly grim reality? Ha! No. Not at all. But it may help just a teensy-weensy, itty-bitty bit. A scene from Ted Lasso, season two from Apple TV+. ulary is exclusively George Carlin’s seven words, whereas the latter is basically an underwear model as vapid as he is good at doing all of the soccer … things. The thrust of the show should be a traditional underdog tale about a ragtag group of castoffs uniting to do sports super awesome. It isn’t.

The show immediately, explicitly tells you that the competitive athletics part of things isn’t driving this car but will be toted along in the boot. Oh, sorry. A boot is a car’s trunk in American. The whole “boot” and “football” thing was too good to pass up. Ted Lasso simply loves to cut away during climactic moments on the field.

Several major moments that would have been season finales in other programs play out over the radio while character stuff happens.

Because this show is legitimately all about character stuff. Specifically, one kind of character stuff: Being a better person. Ted Lasso is “Things Don’t Have to Be Like This: 101.” It is laser focused on one message, spread across every single stinking person in the whole show. With a combo of F-bombs and cutesy moments — a too-rarely deployed twosome that may partially explain the problematic, decades-long embrace of Love, Actually (but that’s a column for another time) — it screams, “I believe you have a better version of the life you are living inside of you.”

I know that every show, particularly every comedy, sounds like it can be reduced to “characters try to get better.” This is different. In fact, its commitment to this theme is the real reason that some people

October 2021

29

F I L M have jumped off the show’s bandwagon. Many critics have dogged the lack of dramatic conflict/tension. Others have chided it for being predictable or preachy. They are valid critiques that also completely and totally miss the point.

Ted Lasso’s incredible cadre of writers is committed to predictably preaching that the key dramatic conflict is between yourself and who you ought to be. The show almost never throws true twists, just mild subversions, of narrative expectations. It would rather spend the time unpacking trauma that prevents us from growth, celebrating the joy in those rare moments where we become better, and asking us to ever-so-briefly believe in a tomorrow that doesn’t suck.

A Unicorn Riding a Pegasus This isn’t 100% revolutionary.

And yet, identifying adult-targeted movies and TV shows from the last decade or so that occupy this same space is difficult. I said difficult, not impossible, despite the intentionally hyperbolic section headline here.

The reason Ted Lasso hit such a nerve in that first season is not only because it was a good, nice thing that dropped at arguably one of the worst, ugliest moments in our interconnected modern history; it was because it so nakedly and aggressively put forth a manifesto of optimism. That same element is why there’s been a backlash now.

Believing that things can be better is a sucker’s game. That’s the popular opinion. Ted Lasso knows this mentality is a hurdle to climb. “The Hope That Kills You” is literally the title of one of the show’s episodes. On social media in particular, cavalier nihilism and nonchalant self-defeatism is seen as savvy and, dare I say, “hip.”

I dared, but I know now that I shouldn’t have.

Given that the planet seems doomed to die at the hands of a cabal of wealthy elite, embracing inevitable defeat certainly seems like the smart play. We’ve gargled dystopian fiction for decades. At some point, we stopped reading them as warnings and began ac-

30

cepting them as coming attractions. This isn’t why things are bad.

But it absolutely has to be part of why we think only dumb idiots would hope for good things.

To be clear, I am not advocating for entertainment that embraces the kind of monstrous toxic positivity shoveled by spiritual influencers. As Roy Kent would say … well, he’d say a lot of expletives accurately describing what those folks can go and do to themselves.

I am, however, asking why it is so f’n hard to think of genuinely kind and encouraging adult movies and TV shows while “middle-aged murder dad” is now its own entire genre that has a friggin’ Bob Odenkirk movie in it!

Nothing in Ted Lasso suggests that everything will turn out OK. It probably won’t. But it does argue that it’s OK to not be OK, and that “better” is an acceptable alternative to “bad.” Empathy is at an all-time low, and while no comedy or drama is going to make a misguided killmonger wear a mask or get a vaccine, shouldn’t we be using more fiction to “vision board” what society could look like if we all gave a shit about ourselves and each other?

Although they almost certainly won’t read this whole thing, many of the folks trashing season two of Ted Lasso would likely respond by saying that I’m wrong/naïve and that the show just sucks. Cool. Go watch yet another Martin Scorsese mafia movie, the same Paul Schrader movie he’s made like a dozen times, or a streaming TV dramedy about cruel rich people who manipulate each other for sport. I actually mean that. Those are good!

They are also plentiful.

What’s not plentiful is aspirational and empowering filmed content that is unafraid to be vulnerable and unapologetically uplifting. We don’t need fairy tales for people with 401Ks. But we could really stand to have a second or third film or show immediately come to mind when asking the last time entertainment both comforted you and made you want to do and be better.

Who’s with me?

October 2021

Do You Want to Build a Bogeyman?

Malignant Aims to be Bad, Succeeds

by Ryan Syrek

Intentionally making a B-movie is fine, but the “B” shouldn’t stand for “Boo this.” Scene from Malignant from WB/HBO.

A

s was the case with M. Night Shyamalan’s The Happening, a reference absolutely no film should want included in its review, the first two-thirds of Malignant feel like the setup for a punchline that never gets told. Well, it never gets told by the people who made the movie. Many jokes have and will be told by bewildered audiences trying to reclaim the lifespan Malignant thieved from them.

Writer/director James Wan’s latest is an intentional homage to very bad horror movies. That can be a good thing, as when Jordan Peele riffed on C.H.U.D. with Us. Malignant is not a good thing. Cheeky winks to trashy cinema are fine, provided that your winks don’t feel like seizures and your cheeks aren’t flapping out a breeze.

Talking about Malignant’s plot is difficult because most of it falls into spoiler territory despite very little actually happening. Making it hard for respectful critics to lambast the extensive sins of the film may well have been the cleverest thing Wan did. What can be safely told is this: The very pregnant Madison (Annabelle Wallis) gets roughed up by her douchebag husband, Derek (Jake Abel).

Madison then has a dream that a dude version of Baba Yaga (Bro-ba Yaga?) kills Derek.

She wakes up to find hubs totes deadified.

Cops get involved, dream murders that turn out to be less dream and more murder keep happening, and the whole thing gets linked back to the film’s mad scientist prologue.

That prologue, by the way, is so spectacularly, unfathomably hilarious that it all but promises a third-act reveal that the preceding events were all a “movie within a movie” or “someone telling a spooky story” or “a soft reboot of Punk’d.” The actual third-act reveal is more “indecent exposure” than “Hitchcockian twist.”

If only more could be said without “ruining” something that’s intentionally pre-ru-

ined. Look, the ending could have been pretty fun. The bogeyman is a throwback (pun intended) to monster make-upped, ridonkulous, 80s/90s, Pumpkinhead-y/Freddy Krueger-ish practical creature features.

When none of the actors are making words happen, and it’s all just noises and referential cinematography, Malignant is something approaching watchable. But that’s maybe 30 minutes metastasizing inside two full hours of otherwise draining, upsettingly disinteresting material.

Because literally everyone does bad acting here, Wan clearly demanded a particular “affected” kind of performance. Instructing a cast to be aggressively anti-charismatic is nearly as indefensible as stretching out what is basically a bonkers whacko campfire tale into “prestige drama” running time. Can we go back and give Nia DaCosta’s Candyman the half hour that Wan’s Malignant didn’t deserve?

The fact that Wan spent his Conjuring and Aquaman cred on this profoundly silly and gory kerfuffle is borderline admirable. But only borderline. Because the whole thing comes across as arrogant somehow, as if Wan anticipated brushing aside every critique as either failing to understand the intent/references or as a choice to be desirable only to a certain kind of horror connoisseur.

Neither defense effectively conceals the truth.

You can set out to make an intentionally bad movie and do a bad job at making that intentionally bad movie. Malignant is bad, both intentionally and accidentally. The Happening was a better time, which is the first film fight that turd ever won. If campy is your thing, pitch a tent elsewhere.

Grade = F

Other Critic al Voices to ConsideR Emmanuel Noisette of The Movie Kate Sánchez at But Why Tho? Blog says “Malignant is a boldly says “From strong slasher to vibrant innovative idea that ends up being supernatural, to just stomachnothing more than a run of the mill, churning body horror, all of them horror B-Movie. The cringe-worthy sing together and make for a film dialogue, and overacting gave the that just works, especially as the impression that this was a ‘made for third act devolves into hyperTV’ movie.” violence and otherworldly fight

choreography—yes, this somehow becomes a Giallo action film and works.”

Amanda Mazzillo at Incluvie says “Malignant is a roller coaster ride of slow-build scares, moments of wonderfully absurd camp, and explorations of autonomy.”

C O M I C S Garry Trudeau

Jen Sorensen

TED RALL

October 2021

31

C R O S S W O R D

Spuh Day

AnswerS in next month’s issue or online at TheReader.com

— or is it schwa day? —

by Matt Jones

Across

1

1. Raises, as children

14

6. “___ Paradise” (“Weird Al” Yankovic song)

17

11. Acad. or univ.

2

3

5

6

7

23

15. Expensive drive in Beverly Hills

28

8

21 24

25

19. Gp. with many specialists

37

29

34

35

19

32. Cocktail with lemon juice and soda 33. Vans may get a deep discount here 34. Kind of pronoun 35. First part of a Shakespeare title 36. Quick doc. signature 40. Fruit banned on Singapore subways

38

41. Fur-fortune family

40

41

45

42

43

46

47

48

51

52

55

56

57

58

59

60

29. 1977 American League MVP Rod

31. Arctic homes

36

39

49 53

50

43. Certain inverse trig function

46. Rural opposite

54

48. Notice from afar 50. Baba ___ (witch of folklore) 53. Annual coll. basketball contest

56. Lacking fruit on the 4. Some 20-Acrosses bottom, e.g.

5. Obnoxious brat 32. Succeeded at an 57. Italy’s largest lake 46. “Back in the ___” escape room 6. Jackie’s husband #2 (Beatles song) 58. Capital of Liberia?

33. Commercial photo 47. You can’t make a silk 7. Mid-May honoree source that’s only for 59. Gossipmonger purse out of it, it’s 8. Comment from pasta pics? said someone who 60. Actor Williams of 37. “Catch-22” author 49. Anti-allergy brand changed their mind “Happy Days” after an epiphany 38. Core 51. Hex- ender 9. Title with a tilde 39. Acrylic fiber brand 52. Boxing match with a Dutch philosopher 1. Get plenty of sleep 10. “Joy to the World” 40. Turn to God? songwriter Axton and ethicist?

41. Psychological org.

2. Reveal, as a secret 11. Alaskan Malamute 55. California NBA team, or Boston Terrier, 44. Gas station still on a scoreboard 3. Insight e.g. available in Canada 45. “___ do everything myself?”

Down

32

42. Fake prefix?

45. Canada’s official tree

30. Personnel group 31. Bits

30. Former FBI director James

16

32

23. Manipulates

28. Part of a desk set

13

30

44

27. Terrier treaters

12

27

21. Jotted down

24. Repair bill item

11

22

26

31 33

10

18

16. Nail polish target 17. Billy Idol song about Italian ice cream?

9

15

20

14. Former inmate

20. BLT ingredient

4

October 2021

12. What dreams may do

54. Words before whim or dime

13. Call center equipment

© 2021 Matt Jones

18. On or earlier (than) 22. James Cameron movie that outgrossed “Titanic” 25. “I smell ___!”

26. Closer-than-close friends 29. “Famous Blue Raincoat” singer Leonard

AnsweR to last month’s “FREE UP SPACE” S A R S

I R O Q U J O P I L S

T O F F E E

A L L E L E

D E B U N K E D B E A M O N

E T R A D E R G L O W U P S

S H I R E

L A G E R

I N G E

R I W A S E N O E T P A R T O P R Y E Y L

P O L Y P H O N I C S P R E E

S W E E T A R T S

S A N D I E

B E A T

M A T H S

S T O I S H I L W I L L C C I K A N K E R I A N T H A V U D E M U O R A L N A N A E N D T I K N O L E A R

C L A V I N M U S S O W N

I N

M E M O R I A M

Michael D. Boyle Jan. 19, 1944 – Sept. 13, 2021 Douglas County Commissioner and former Omaha Mayor Mike Boyle was the quintessential Irish-American political figure. If you met him, he remembered your name the next time he saw you. He was quick with a story, often at his own expense, and could be quick to anger in defense of those who needed a defender.

If you invited Mike to a party, you knew your introverted friends would have someone to talk to, someone to share a laugh with. He seemed to always know who could use a friend or who might feel awkward. And he set to work to put them at ease. You knew where he was in the room by the sound of the laughter.

If you found yourself crossways with the city or the county, you could call Mike. He lived by the belief that the government should help people. He was fierce and fearless in helping someone in need, while never failing to be kind and compassionate to someone whose odds seemed insurmountable. He was unwavering in his belief in justice.

Mike took a punch, like being recalled as mayor, and came back swinging, being elected and serving six terms as a county commissioner. He passionately argued about issues without resorting to personal attacks.

He faced personal and professional challenges with grace, if not always with ease. Every memory became a story he would tell again and again, and as his wife, Anne, said, each time the story “got better with the telling.”

I met Anne soon after I moved back to Omaha in the late 1990s, and through her, I met Mike. I treasured their friendship, I tell some of their stories, and I, like so many others, take comfort in knowing they are reunited in the next realm, kicking up some good trouble and dancing the nights away.

— Julie Mierau, longtime friend of Mike and Anne Boyle

James Martin Davis Nov. 30, 1945 – Aug. 30, 2021 It may have been the most memorable Face on the Barroom Floor event in the history of the Omaha Press Club.

When Omaha attorney James Martin Davis became the 97th Face on the Barroom Floor in August 2004, a record crowd of 350 attended, including 220 people who stayed for dinner.

It was termed “the roast with the most.” Not only was there a record turnout, but there also was an all-time high in roasters (10), and they went on for an unprecedented one hour and 20 minutes saluting the man known as the “Prince of One-Liners” and the “King of the Sound Bite.”

Davis, 75, died on Aug. 30 after suffering a heart attack. He was arguably the most recognizable attorney in the state of Nebraska. A huge fan of the media – many of whom he represented in contract negotiations – Davis embraced the Omaha Press Club as the beacon for freedom of the press.

Ironically, Davis was scheduled to present a noon forum at the press club on Sept. 16. He was going to discuss his new book, Memorial Day: Our Nation’s Time to Remember. The book, published

by the Omaha World-Herald, was a compilation of all the Memorial Day columns Davis wrote each year for the newspaper.

Davis was drafted into the U.S. Army after his first year of law school and sent to Vietnam in 1969. A member of the 4th Infantry Division, he completed his yearlong tour of duty as a decorated combat infantryman. His columns often expressed his gratitude for his Army comrades, some of whom were killed in combat.

His star-studded slate of roasters included seven individuals who are now fellow Faces on the Barroom Floor: • Mike Kelly (emcee), Omaha World-Herald columnist, No. 107 in 2006; • Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson, No. 60 in 1995; • Omaha Mayor Mike Fahey, No. 105 in 2006; • Fr. Val Peter, director of Boys Town, No. 58 in 1994; • Harold Andersen, Omaha World-Herald publisher, No. 28 in 1984; • Douglas County Sheriff Richard Roth, No. 18 in 1982; and • KETV anchorwoman Julie Cornell, No. 155 in 2017.

The other roasters included U.S. District Judge Richard Kopf, financial adviser and legendary Nebraska quarterback Jerry Tagge, and Jim Fagin, an aide to Sen. Nelson and a former TV/radio reporter.

Kelly threw the first dart at Davis, noting that he had issued a record number of invitations – 1,800, “which is more than the number of votes he received when he ran for Congress.”

Some of the other best quips from the roast included: Sen. Nelson, a Davis classmate at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Law: “I wanted him to look his best tonight, so I loaned him my hair.”

Fahey: “At Creighton Prep, he took a freshman IQ test. The results were negative.”

Tagge: “Jim Davis has no sex drive. His wife, Polo, started jogging so she could hear heavy breathing again.”

Roth, who hired Davis for the Secret Service: “Other agents said that the most dangerous thing about their job was to get between Jim and a television camera.”

In response to the lengthy grilling, Davis said, “I don’t feel like I’ve been roasted. I feel like I’ve been deep-fat fried.”

He also didn’t hesitate to poke fun at himself, saying: “I represent an elite clientele. Most of them live in gated communities.”

There were many touching moments as well. One of them came when Tagge said, “After a drunk-driving arrest, Jim helped me get counseling and into Alcoholics Anonymous. I became a born-again Christian, and I will be eternally grateful to him.”

OPC artist Jim Horan’s caricature depicted Davis in his “working clothes” – a pinstripe suit and gold tie. Included in the background were illustrations of his days in Vietnam and the Secret Service, Lady Justice, a convict client of Davis holding a toilet paper gun, and a horde of media seeking comments from the man called “JMD.” Always the polished professional who had a way with words, Davis closed his roast with a tribute to the media. “I have been blessed over the last 28 years to have had a very amiable relationship with some of the finest, hard-working members of the news media anywhere in the country.”

For those wishing to purchase a copy of Davis’s book, it is available for $21.95 through the Omaha World-Herald. Visit owhstore.com.

— Tom O’Connor, Communications Committee, Omaha Press Club

To place or read In Memoriams, go to thereader.com/in-memoriam

October 2021

33

O V E R

T H E

E D G E

Indigo De Souza Takes Saddle Creek to Familiar Territory The North Carolina Singer-Songwriter Plays at Slowdown Oct. 2

by Tim McMahan

I

gave up a long time ago trying to understand the strategy behind Saddle Creek Records’ roster decisions. Mad genius? Shot in the dark? Take your pick.

heard it before, but rarely as honestly or brutally straight forward.

In the label’s early days circa the late ‘90s, there was no such mystery. The holy triumvirate that created the dynasty — Bright Eyes, The Faint, Cursive — all resided in Omaha and were friends with one another. In fact, all the bands’ frontmen had played together at one time or another. Saddle Creek Records was a means to an end, a way to get their music recorded and out to a mass audience that couldn’t find Omaha on a map.

The other prerequisite to landing on the label, of course, was the quality of their music. And while each band had a distinctly different approach, lazy music critics quickly coined the term “the Omaha Sound,” though they’d be hard pressed to actually define what it was.

Saddle Creek would “sign” its first non-Nebraska acts after the turn of century — Rilo Kiley (with front woman Jenny Lewis), Azure Ray and Now It’s Overhead seemed like perfect fits, whereas craggy, rustic balladeers Two Gallants was a head scratcher. But even that seemed like a winsome stroll off the beaten path compared to some of the label’s recent choices.

Let’s look at the breakdown: Many are those of the art/noise set who applauded the release of Spirit of the Beehive’s Entertainment.Death — a recording I equate to watching a fine arthouse film that you can admire while seated in the dark but will likely never see again, unless you’re stoned (which I’ve never been). “Challenging” is a charitable description. Young Jesus, another recent Saddle Creek

34

Indigo De Souza plays at Slowdown Oct. 2.

Photo by Charlie Boss addition, also takes its songwriting to experimental levels that border on jam band territory. Both acts are hugely popular with critics, but you have to wonder how well they sell or get played on streaming services, which these days is the mark of success.

Then there’s the label’s cadre of forlorn singer-songwriter projects, like Tomberlin, Black Belt Eagle Scout and Hand Habits. Meg Duffy of Hand Habits is a major talent, and I love her work. But, man, you better be in the right mood for it.

Then there’s the label’s more accessible indie-rock staples — Hop Along, Stef Chura, Disq.

These are the most predictable acts of the recent signings (last six years) and the most enjoyable.

Hop Along and Frances Quinlan get their share of Sirius XMU plays; and Disq was my choice for a Saddle Creek breakout band. While I love Disq’s latest album, it’s hardly broken through in a way that, say, Big Thief, Saddle Creek’s most successful recent signing has, and alas, one that quickly moved onto

October 2021

a different label after only a couple releases.

This is a long preamble to say that Indigo De Souza doesn’t fall into any of these categories, and yet, her new album, Any Shape You Take, released in late August, is my favorite Saddle Creek release in the past few years.

Ten songs, 38 minutes, not a dud in the bunch. Built on a framework of traditional modern indie pop, De Souza in some ways is old school in that she knows how to write a great hook, how to drop in a tasty power chord, where to bring in the rest of the band in a way that makes you look up from whatever you’re doing and PAY ATTENTION. The one-sheet that came with the record describes the daughter of musicians and her constant struggle to find her voice as she goes through painful relationships, and so on. These are songs about misplaced devotion and insecurity taken to a familiar level. You may be finding your own way, Indigo, but we’ve all been there. We’ve

Favorite tracks include “Darker than Death,” “Die/Cry” and “Pretty Pictures” — pop nuggets that come in at three minutes or less. In fact, no song exceeds five minutes, including the closing masterpiece, “Kill Me,” that should have been the first track (instead of the autotune-heavy “17,” my least favorite of the bunch). Despite the dark themes, this is a pop album and it, indeed, rocks, setting it apart from the cadre of depressing women singer-songwriters dominating indie these days, like Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus.

De Souza’s performance is backed by a great band with a great rhythm section, though the one-sheet doesn’t list the personnel and only says, “While her backing band has undergone shifts between releases, her sound has stayed tethered to her vision.” I guess we’ll find out who her band is when she plays at Slowdown Oct. 2.

I’m not alone in my adoration.

Any Shape has been tossed bouquets by numerous critics and received the lauded “Best New Music” designation from Pitchfork, the bible of indie rock tastemakers.

Could she be the next Phoebe (or next Jenny Lewis)? Time will tell, but here’s hoping she provides another shot in the arm to keep Saddle Creek Records healthy for years to come.

Over The Edge is a monthly column by Reader senior contributing writer Tim McMahan focused on culture, society, music, the media and the arts.

Email Tim at tim.mcmahan@ gmail.com.