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t h et h r ead s fl d @ g m ai l
Springfield Slutwalk
The movement comes to Springfield, Friday October 2nd. What is it? What's the point? How does it fit in with our town?
What?: An International movement that kicked off in Toronto in 2011 as a challenge to police statements suggesting women's choice of clothing invited assualt and rape. Protesters march in whatever choice of attire they please, celebrating their right to define themselves and their appearance, challenging presumptious stereotypes often used to defend rapists and blame victims, and celebrating ownership of their own bodies and identities. Why?: As organizer Destiny Hodge puts it: “When a woman is sexually assaulted, her appearance and sexual history are brought into question ... We need to focus on the behaviors of rapists and not the behaviors of victims. I want to advocate for victims who feel they can’t speak out because they feel their lifestyle will be attacked by a society that undervalues a woman’s right to say no to sex just as much as it denies a woman’s right to say yes.” When?: The march happens Friday, October 2nd, beginning at 8pm in Park Central Square, but the battle for modern gender equality carries on everyday. Recent moves against Planned Parenthood at the national level have threatened women's health, and locals protests as part of the "Free the Nipple" campaign (a seperate international movement) have been met with derision. At the same time counterproductive action by the Springfield City Council has led to the amendment of our city code to further police the female body. Interest in movements to address a particular member of the Council have swelled since, and the atmosphere of our town is ripe with the conversations events like this encourage. Keeping the values of the Slutwalk in mind and challenging "slutshaming" attitudes, as well as the systematic disempowerment of women, are the longterm takeaways from this evening. Get Involved: find info online: facebook.com/groups/SpringfieldMOSlutWalk/ and don't be afraid to just show up (bring a friend or two)
“Our first three shows I dressed as Wednesday Addams,” Delaney tells me. “The first time it was my Halloween costume… the other two I just felt more comfortable being Wednesday.” Slugs played their first show this time last year. Since then, they’ve put out an album, gone on tour, and become a fixture of the Springfield Music scene. Delaney (vocals) had never performed with a band before. She looks like a pro though, moving around the stage with energy and assertiveness, delivering catchy quick lyrics. It is hard not to move to this music and sing along. With just two instruments, Kyle on drums and Justin on bass, Slugs brings forth an upbeat energy that fills out one remarkable riff after another, covered with bare but provoking lyrics. The simplicity of the band underscores the pure fun of their music. Working together since high school*, Kyle and Justin are a tight combo. Stopping and starting, building up and breaking down. You’ll recognize them from another Springfield fave Suzi Trash, and they bring a similar inventiveness and attitude to this project. “I wanted to focus on one instrument,” Justin says, not preoccupied with singing as he is in Suzi. It shows in his bass-playing. His riffs move and bounce, changing with the energy of the song, shifting between layers of effects. As for Kyle, he was just “brought in” to play drums (his words), but that sounds humble compared to the driven, almost unhinged beats he keeps their songs moving to, and the deftness with which he relaxes into subtler atmospheric moments. We are circled up in a corner of Kyle’s dad’s basement: the band, me, and Dustin (also from Suzi Trash). Local artist Shay Rainey is setting up a VHS camcorder in an opposite corner. The band is doing a photo-shoot later, and working on a music video. It is clear that a creative community surrounds the band, as they talk about contacting folks to be in the video and mention the help they’ve received from Steve (The Reacharounds, Push & Pull Records). When I ask about their tour earlier this year Justin tells me it was easy, “We knew a lot of people from (touring with) our other band… it makes it easier, just going back to places we already know.” The size of the band made it easy too, fitting themselves and all of their equipment into Delaney’s CR-V. She tells me they were even able to pay a month’s rent after the tour, something that is unfortunately rare. “We’ve lost a bunch of money,” Justin says, explaining that after over a dozen other tours with other projects he finds his bands hardly ever break even, let alone make anything. Not that that is the point. Experience and
connection are the point, and Delaney makes sure to mention the band they toured with: Kitten Forever.** “They are a cool all girl band. We all have crushes on them.” And they all have stories: crashing in a dorm room in Galesburg, Illinois, wrecking dirt bikes in the country, playing awkward shows for a handful of folks in Omaha… “They just wanted to hang out,” explains Kyle. “We basically just practiced in front of them,” Delaney adds, “it was weird.” And now they are finishing up a new album, with a few slower numbers, a little more keyboard. “We’re tired of the old stuff we’ve been playing for a year,” Justin says. Delaney mentions wanting to use a loop pedal to layer her vocals, “because when you only have the three things, they all have to be filling all the space, or else it sounds like it's lacking something.” Slugs never feels this way; a testament to their creativity. When I ask about their intentions, though, Kyle says “I just wanna’ go up there and play fast,” and that is mostly how it goes. Not that there isn’t more to it, but this band is ultimately about action, about movement. That's clear when they perform, and when we sit around talking. They skip around in conversation from VFW shows in high school, the band Lightning Bolt, the preference for almonds vs. pecans (we are all pretty devided), and Kyle's dad's favorite anecdote about him. They are getting restless and ready to move onto something new by now, a few of their friends have shown up, and Shay is putting finishing touches on a sunset beach backdrop. There is no great quote to sum up the conversation, no thesis statement, just Slugs being Slugs, adding their sound to the world (and thank goodness for it).
* = The whole band attended High School together in Mountain Home, AK **= At the time I said I would look this band up. I did and they are great. Listen to them.
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C om m un i t y/B ei n g Tuesday Night Game Night (7pm @ Games, Comics, Etc...every tuesday) Thursday Night Game Night (7pm @ Metagames Unlimited...every thursday) Parties at The Park (5-8pm @ Farmers Park...every thursday) City Council Meeting (6:30 @ City Hall...second and fourth monday each month) Social Ride Bike Pubcrawl (6:30pm @ Dugout...every 3rd thursday) Upcycle to make a Difference (2pm @Park Central Library...every saturday) Get Hooked on Loom Knitting (4pm @ Midtown Library...tuesdays) Parties at the Park (5pm @ Farmer's Park...thursdays) 1 0/2 LGBT Kick-off 6-9pm @ MSU 1 0/2 Slutwalk 201 5 8pm @ Park Central Square 1 0/3 Backyeard Edible Plants 1 0am @ Midtown Community Gardens 1 0/3 Introduction to Machi Koro 11 -4pm @ Metagames Unlimited 1 0/6 "Meal Makeovers" Cooking Class 5:30 @ Eugene Field School 1 0/8 Job Seekers Workshop 3:1 5-4:30 @ Park Central Library 1 0/1 0 Fall Festival 1 2-5pm @ the GLO Center 1 0/1 4 Creation of a Community: Gay and Lesbian Springfield 1 945 Present 6-7pm @ Midtown Library 1 0/1 5 Stuff Swap Hangout 7pm @ Sprout House 1 0/1 7-1 8 Farmers Park Art Show1 0am-4 @ Farmers Park 1 0/20-23 Friends of the Library Book Sale 1 0-8pm @ Remington's 1 0/21 Back to the Future Party 4-11 pm @ 1 984 1 0/22 Fiction Writers Meetup 6-7pm @ Midtown Library 1 0/23-24 Haunted History Bus Tours 5:30-8:30 (call 831 -1 976 to reserve seat) ... $1 0 1 0/24 Murder Mystery 6:30-8:30pm @ Midtown Library 1 0/24 Missouri Wine History Class 1 0-11 am @ Farmers Markey of the Ozarks 1 0/28 Pumpkin Carving 4-7pm @ The eFactory 1 0/30 Fall Carnival 7-11 pm @ Drury 1 0/31 Halloween at FMO 8am-1 pm @ Farmers Market of the Ozarks Fi r s t
Open M i c s 7pm @ Big Momma’s...every Monday 7:30 @ Jo's Gatherin' Place...every Monday 9pm @ The Flea...every Monday 9pm @ Martha's Vineyard...every Tuesday 1 0pm @ Dublin's Pass...every Wednesday 9pm @ Frisco Tap Room...every Thursday 8pm @ Hurts Donut ... every Tuesday (comedy)
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C r eat i n g /Ar t Queen City Ukulele Club (6:30-8pm@ Springfield Music every 1 st and 3rd tuesday) Guitar for Beginners (5pm @ Conservatory of the Ozarks...wednesdays) MO Poetry Writing Workshop (7pm @ The Creamery...every 1 st thursday) Contra & Country Barn Dance (7:30-1 0:30 @ Nothview center...1 st and 3rd saturdays, $4-6) The Young Adult Writing Group (6:30 @ The Creamery...wednesdays) Printmaking Group (5:30-8pm @ The Creamery...mondays) Painting Workshop (9:30am-11 :30 @ The Creamery...2nd & 4th wednesday, $1 0) Moon City Jam (7pm @ Big Momma's...every 1 st thursday) Weekend Walk-in Theater (6:30 @ Park Central Library...saturdays) Movies at Founders Park (sundown @ Founders Park...saturdays) 1 0/2 6th Annual Jazz Fest 6pm @ Park Central Square 1 0/9 IdeaXfest 6-1 0:30pm @ IdeaXfactory (music, sculpture competition + much more) 1 0/1 5 Mo Poets Slam 7:30pm @ Downtown Artist Collective...$5 1 0/22 Bookmarx Book Club: The Graveyard 7pm @ Bookmarx 1 0/22 Kara Walker In Context 5:30pm @ The Springfield Art Museum 1 0/24 Mondo Moxie: Halloween III 1 0:30pm @ The Moxie...$5 1 0/27 Ladies Graphic Novel Club: Black Hole 7pm @ Bookmarx 1 0/29 Local Writers Reading (halloween themed) 7:30pm @ Bookmarx 1 0/30 Push & Pull Fest 2 @ Outland/Front of House 1 0/31 A Very Rocky Horror Burlesque Review 9pm @ Lindbergs Magna Carta @ The Moxie (free film showings as part of the "Magna Carta Enduring Legacy 1 21 5-201 5" Exhibit at MSU's Meyer Library)
1 0/3 @ 1 2pm - Marketa Lazarova 1 0/1 0 @ 1 2pm - Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves 1 0/1 7 @ 9pm - Monty Python and the Holy Grail
t Fr i d ay (1 0/2 ) Megan Frauen: Love/Death/Magic - Arts & Letters Balance: The Art of Kat Allie - Obelisk Home B: Out of the Darkness Into the Light - Art Inspired Echoes of Humanity: Clay Installations - ideaXfactory Photography from Steven Spencer - Springfield Brew Co. Undergraduate Juried Exhibit - Drury on C-Street My Own Nature: The Artwork of Denise Belt - Artivities Art and Design by Rick Byrd - Park Central Library
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On Living. by Jessi Honeycutt The last time I saw my sister alive I looked at her with disappointment and frustration, didn't say a word and walked away. I could feel it coming. She had made so many attempts to end her life I stopped counting. She was giving all of her things away again. That night it was her dog, her dog that was her child. She'd gone for a walk and put him in someone's yard. Walked away and couldn't remember where she left him. We searched her neighborhood in the dark for hours. My sister, Natalie, had become a prickly pear. A messed up mix of medication errors erred by her own inability/desire to be medicated, complicated by complex diagnoses, she had been dancing on the cusp of functional enough to be free and dependent upon others her whole life. The most basic of things, like getting a driver's license, checking account or having a baby were never options for her. And at this point, happiness and love had become intolerable, painful and contorted. She angered easily. She was often in a haze. My mom had talked to me again that week, asking my opinion about putting her in a group home where they could control her meds. I told her what I'd learned from working in healthcare was that her quality of life would dwindle either way, but if we were going to continue to let her live on her own we would have to accept the fact that one of these times she will succeed at dying. Cold hard facts. We found the dog. I was tired. I had nothing left in me to give. I went home. The next morning I woke up to the sound of rain and my family knocking on my door under black umbrellas. Told me the police had come to my mom's door early. Natalie had walked to the end of her street, up the steps of the Commercial Street bridge and jumped. "She was on so many medications, she probably got dizzy and slipped, knowing your sister..." my mom said, ever-hopeful. I decided she had set herself free. Two years later I still stomach a mixture of grief and relief daily. I have seen failed attempts at suicide in my hospital. Some become locked in a bag of skin and bones, just conscious enough for hopeful family members not to pull the plug. Some are lucky, have a second chance and a
Change of Heart, realize they were messed up and decide they will do what it takes to pull themselves up. I am a living example of this kind of luck‌ We all make decisions daily to keep living or not to. But what is it that determines a life worth living? For better or worse, it's the Liver. My experiences in living with, working with and having been one of those on the edge have shown me that those who pull through are a great asset to our world. They have felt the deepest darkness, The Nothing, the heavy unwanted pulse. But they find hope... or maybe hope finds them. Either way, their resilience and depth of compassion for others are part of what makes humanity amazing. More often than not they move on to bigger, brighter days. Good friends and family help. The kindness of strangers really can make all the difference. Learning how to love yourself, care for yourself, not drug/poison yourself... Being willing to fall down 7 times get up 8. Not taking yourself so damn seriously. Being thankful for your inhale and your exhale because every day you can breathe is a new beginning. Counting your blessings. Being there for someone else. Striving to be a good friend. Getting up and brushing your teeth- especially when you don't feel like it. Not allowing yourself to take things personally. Faith in a higher power. Having hobbies/occupations that bring you joy. MOVING YOUR BODY! Having goals and dreams and taking every available chance to meet/receive them. Practicing willPower. These are the things that matter. There are chemical imbalances that medical science can attempt to, and often assist with improving. But these attitudes and habits and their cultivation are the only thing I know with all my heart that SAVE LIVES! My sister reached a point in her life where none of this was helpful. I don't want that for anyone. All I feel we can do is be truly excellent to ourselves and each other, hope for the best and forgive the rest. Just. Keep. Swimming.
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