Vox Magazine April 2024

Ruling the runway

St. Louis Symphony Orchestra

Wed, Apr 10, 7pm • Jesse Auditorium

MU Choral Union: Lord Nelson’s Mass and Margaret Bond’s Credo

Wed, Apr 10, 7pm • Jesse Auditorium

Mareck Dance with Choral Arts Alliance: Carmina Burana

Fri, Apr 26, 7pm • Missouri Theatre

Sat, Apr 27, 7pm • Missouri Theatre @University Concert Series

Mandy Gonzalez

Mon, May 6, 7pm • Missouri Theatre

Visit www.concertseries.org or call 573-882-3781 for more information on our amazing lineup!

ROLE MODELS FOR LITTLE GIRLS

Growing up, I became accustomed to seeing people who did not look like me, and I can’t deny that it took a toll. As a young girl, I begged my mom to straighten my hair because that was when I felt the most pretty — not when I wore my hair in natural styles. To this day, I struggle with the premise of not having my hair “done,” which implies that my hair isn’t good enough.

Thought processes like these showcase why representation is so important. Maybe if I saw more girls that looked like me, I would feel differently today.

These experiences are why community members like Candace Hulsizer are passionate about featuring Black voices in literature (p.5). Through spotlighting underrepresented groups, everyone will feel included, and I wish I had resources like her Black Tea Bookshop when I was a little girl.

The importance of inclusion extends to all walks of life. For those who want to abstain from alcohol, it’s essential to know spaces that

offer sober-friendly menu items to enjoy during a night out with friends (p. 33). In the wake of censorship through book banning, Unbound Book Festival organizers are making an effort to feature censored books and authors (p. 24). And one of our feature articles highlights women in the arts, offering a special look at four locals who have dedicated much of their lives to careers in the arts (p. 26).

When I think of the inclusion and representation in this month’s issue, I can’t help but think of little girls who might see these artists and start considering what their life could look like in the Columbia art scene.

As time passes and media evolves, I have seen the powerful effects of representation. As a Black woman, I have no choice but to reckon with what inclusion means. It’s important to be a part of a community that promotes diversity. With this month’s addition, we get a special look at those who advocate for inclusivity simply by doing what they’re passionate about.

MICAH BARNES Editor-in-Chief

Behind the issue

When the University of Missouri announced in February that its assistant provost Alexandra Socarides had taken a position as the provost of Emerson College in Boston, it set off speculation about the future of a couple Columbia staples. That’s because Socarides’ husband, Alex George, is the co-owner of Skylark Bookshop and founder of Unbound Book Festival. “It is absolutely everyone’s intention that (the festival) is going to carry on.” George told Vox in March. “I don’t think there is a single person who is at all interested in seeing this go away just because I happen to be leaving. That doesn’t make any sense at all.” And as the festival is planning for its ninth annual event April 18-21, “everybody is just focused on getting this festival to the finish line.”

CULTURE SOPHIE CHAPPELL, CHLOE LYKKEN, COLE MILLER, KHALIA SMITH, JULIA WILLIAMS

EAT + DRINK AVA GOUGH, JADEN HARPER, MOLLY

RHODES, IAN WESSELHOFF, CAYLI YANAGIDA CITY LIFE BETH BURTON, KARA ELLIS, EMILY ANNE GRIFFITH, ANDREA MERRITT

STAFF WRITERS SAM BARRETT, GRACE BURWELL, LEVI CASE, SARAH GOODSON, OLIVIA MAHL, ABBY RAMIREZ, SAVVY SLEEVAR

SOCIAL & AUDIENCE DIA GIBBS, MIKAYLA HIGGINS

DIGITAL PRODUCERS JACK COPELAND, EMILY BOYETT, BRIANNA DAVIS, SARAH GASSEL, AMELIA HURLEY, OLIVIA MAILLET, KATE RAMSEYER, SHIRIN REKADBAR-XAVIER, JACOB RICHEY, NATALIE SMITH, ABIGAIL ZORN

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS MADISON ARENAZ, ATHENA FOSLER-BRAZIL, KEARA CONNOLLY, MAYA DAWSON, AUDREY ELLIS, BRIANA IORDAN, OLIVIA MAILLET, MARY RUTH TAYLOR, NICOLE VOSS, ELLIE WEIEN

DESIGNERS CAITLIN KANE, GABBY NELSON, MAGGIE POLLARD

ART ASSISTANTS THEO JOHNSON, VALERIE TISCARENO

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR HEATHER ISHERWOOD

EXECUTIVE EDITOR LAURA HECK

WRITING COACHES CARY LITTLEJOHN, JENNIFER ROWE

Photography by Lily Dozier and Shane Epping/Archive

Photography by Thomas Gleason, Jamie Maron, Caroline Larson, JJ Measer and courtesy of Stephens College Library Archives and illustrations by Maggie Pollard

Brewing up diversity on the shelves

Black Tea Bookshop seeks to fill a gap with its curated collection of books by Black authors.

BY SAM BARRETT

Candace Hulsizer has spent most of her life with her nose in a book, drawn to stories that resonate with her identity as a Black woman. The lack of representation she noticed in literature led Hulsizer to where she is today: the proud owner of Black Tea Bookshop.

Hulsizer opened Black Tea Bookshop, the seventh Black-owned bookstore in Missouri, this January. Before starting the shop, she spent over a decade as a second grade teacher at Fairview Elementary. She was the only Black teacher during her tenure. “It’s not just about Black folks needing to see themselves represented,” Hulsizer says. “But also other people who are not Black need to see that lots of different people can do lots of different things.”

The absence of Black culture in classroom literature stood out to Hulsizer when she sifted through her second grade class’s library. “I was missing, and a lot of the kids that I was teaching were also missing,” Hulsizer says.

This void hit home when Hulsizer’s daughters were not able to find representations of themselves on the shelves.

“I feel like the majority of the books that they put out there are written by white people. There’s really no ethnicity,” says Hulsizer’s daughter Grace Robison, 20. “I was fortunate enough to have a mom that made sure I knew about diversity

Photography by Halle Paulus and courtesy of Adobe Stock

Candace Hulsizer, owner of Black Tea Bookshop, says The ABCs of Black History is one of her favorite children’s books featuring diverse historical figures.

and that you could do anything, no matter what you look like.”

Rudine Sims Bishop, a professor known for her research in American children’s literature, says books can be mirrors, windows or sliding glass doors. Bishop’s phrase embodies Hulsizer’s dream for Black Tea Bookshop. “The

Another of Hulsizer’s favorite titles, Bibliophile: Diverse Spines , is at her storefront in The Shops at Sharp End, 500 E. Walnut St. Find out more at blackteabookshop.com.

bookshop is really an offering to our community,” Hulsizer says. “An offering to my little self who always needed those stories that included me and made me stand out and be important, not just a sidekick or a stereotype.”

The name Black Tea Bookshop is not only inspired by the content of the shop, but also Hulsizer’s favorite reading treat: a warm, soothing cup of tea. Hulsizer has been working with Ora Teahouse + Bakery, a Black-owned tea shop in North Carolina, to create a special house blend that encapsulates the essence of the bookshop.

Carrie Koepke, manager of Skylark Bookshop, says one of the benefits of shopping at local bookstores is that the collections are crafted for community members. “I think while we can intentionally curate our books diversely and for our audience, Candace, as a Black woman, is going to have a unique perspective on what she brings into her shop,” Koepke says.

Not only is Hulsizer stocking diverse titles, she’s also operating her store dif-

ferently. Black Tea Bookshop hosts popup events, including an upcoming shop at the Unbound Book Festival. Having a pop-up allows Hulsizer to sample her market and expand her reach, getting her books to different parts of the community that might not have access to local bookstores or public libraries.

Hulsizer started a new chapter this year with the opening of her space at The Shops at Sharp End. Her book collection features authors like Alex Haley, Jacqueline Woodson and Octavia Butler. The store spans a multitude of genres from religion to children’s books. “It’s a great way to display and showcase how many Black authors there are out there,” says Tanisha Simpson, the retail manager for The Shops at Sharp End.

While the bookshop is currently focused on Black voices, Hulsizer plans to expand her collection in the future with books by and for other marginalized communities.

Ultimately, Hulsizer’s goal isn’t about how many books she can sell. It’s about championing diverse stories.

Photography by Halle Paulus

Vox Picks for APRIL

Each month, Vox curates a list of can’t-miss shops, eats, reads and experiences. We find the new, trending or underrated to help you enjoy the best our city has to offer.

BY JADEN HARPER AND COLE MILLER

in all-you-can-eat chicken wings at UCP Heart land’s annual CoMo Wing Ding. Local restaurants compete for the title of best wing at the fundraiser for UCP Heartland’s Columbia programs. Their programs provide opportunities for children and adults with disabilities including adult day programs, youth camps and employment and residential resources. A panel of local celebrity judges determines the best wings in three categories: traditional, dry rub and specialty, with guests voting for the people’s choice award. The event is, appropriately, sponsored by Tums. 6-9 p.m. April 16, Logboat Brewing Company, $30, ucpheartland.org

7 p.m. April 18, The Blue Note, $15, thebluenote.com

GRAB a bite or a cup of coffee at Sage. The new brunch spot opened in February, taking over the space that Columbians knew as The Coffee Zone. Sage offers breakfast staples such as biscuits and gravy, eggs, bacon and waffles, as well as a variety of coffee drinks and baked goods. Sage, 11 N. Ninth St., Mon.-Sat. 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., 573-449-8215, @sage.como

TOAST the new owners of Booches, Josh Fuller, who has worked there for 25 years, and Jeff Bossaller, who has worked there for 20 years. They bought the business in March from Rick Robertson, the owner since 2004. Mike Hagan is the third owner, and he purchased the building last year. Fuller and Bossaller are not planning to make changes to Booches, which has been around since 1884. The restaurant is known for its burgers that are bigger than a slider but smaller than a regular burger. In 2000, USA Today placed Booches in the top 25 burger restaurants in the U.S. The establishment also operates as a pool hall and bar. Booches, Mon.-Sat. 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., 573-874-9519, booches1884.com

READ a book or two from Sabu’s Books, the new bookshop on Columbia’s south side that opened in February. Co-owner Sabreena Anowar started the business to fulfill her bucket list wish of having floor-to-ceiling bookshelves in her own private library. Now, she wants to share books with the community and expand access to books and reading. In the future, Sabu’s Books aims to host author events, book club meetings and other community events. Sabu’s Books, 4603 John Garry Drive, Mon.-Thurs. noon to 7 p.m., Friday noon to 6 p.m., Saturday noon to 5 p.m. and Sunday 1-4 p.m., 573-292-9788, sabusbooks.com

SUPPORT maternal health initiatives in Columbia by attending this year’s production of That’s What She Said at the Missouri Theatre. The second annual event by Stephens College is a collection of powerful, intimate performances from 10 local women, including Elizabeth Herrera (right) of Mission Promise Kept, Adonica Coleman of Como 411, Erica Dickson of the mid-Missouri Black Doula Collective, Ranjana Hans of Raw Roots Turmeric and Rebecca Miller of Peggy Jean’s Pies. Come together with the community to celebrate the contributions and challenges of Columbia women. Proceeds from the show provide financial and educational support to low-income women receiving prenatal and postpartum care at Columbia hospitals. April 13, Missouri Theatre, $40, comotickets.com/events

Photography by Sharon Guillotte and courtesy of Adobe Stock

A long four years

Freshmen in 2020 faced mental health challenges alongside a pandemic. Now, college doesn’t look the same.

BY KARA ELLIS

Ibegan my freshman year with a stomachache. There’s a sort of perpetual one that comes with growing up. Then, there’s a stomachache that a small slice of people can relate to: one caused by the unplanned terror of starting college in fall 2020 during the pandemic.

That year, there were breakout rooms on chapters I forgot to read. Spanish classes where I couldn’t lipread what the teacher was saying behind his mask. Journalism projects where I photographed my roommate and our dorm because we couldn’t explore much else. I was always biting my tongue, trying to find the perfect time to

unmute myself every Zoom class. But I refused to attend any office hours with my professors. I refused to rely on any of the positive words our faculty would add at the end of the call or in the last sentence of an email.

It was one giant never-ending stomachache that first year.

Today, the classroom is not the same as it was before March 2020. It probably won’t ever be. What COVID-19 did to college classrooms seems as irreversible as turning wood to ash. Four years later, undergraduates haven’t seen a campus untouched by the pandemic. So where do we go from here?

In 2021, scenes of University of Missouri students sitting socially distant, like these three outside the MU Student Center, were commonplace.

The kids are not alright

In the spring of 2020, I was a senior in high school in Nashville, Tennessee. Introverted by nature, I was participating in the typical high school final moments. When the shutdown began in March, I was finishing my spring break. The idea of not coming back to school was a joke my friends had made to each other, laughing at the absurd thought of not seeing each other again. And then one day at home turned into a week. A week became the rest of my final semester. Without the grades, I didn’t see value in what the classroom, even an online one, had to offer. I convinced myself that my

Photography by Jean Bensana/Archive

work and my mental health could stand on their own.

I gave up.

Needless to say, I was underprepared for what college expected of me, pandemic aside. And I wasn’t alone.

Over the past 10 years, there’s been nearly a 50% increase in the number of college students who meet the criteria for at least one mental health issue. Emotional stress plays a big role in this. Students are often overwhelmed with the combination of college, jobs and caregiving expectations. On top of this, the financial burden of college remains a factor in both students’ mental health and their ability to stay at school.

The National College Health Assessment reported in the fall of 2021 that almost three-quarters of students reported moderate or severe psychological distress. Penn State’s Center for Collegiate Mental Health found the number of students seeking help at campus counseling centers increased almost 40% between 2009 and 2015 and continued to rise.

Take these numbers and add in a pandemic and a lockdown. College students’ mental health concerns began accelerating.

Fears of juggling everything

I barely ate the first few weeks of college. My stomach was always agreeing with the worst my brain had to offer. I overthought every decision that involved leaving my dorm. My fears of the pandemic, of who to be on campus and of being on my own intertwined into a giant knot in my stomach. The fear of handling everything outside of my dorm by myself left me stuck in the cramped space. Every moment felt as if I could be withdrawn — from my classes, my work, my future, my mental health.

During the 2022-23 academic period, an estimated 41% of college students faced depression symptoms, according to the Healthy Minds Study. Symptoms of an anxiety disorder were reported by 36% of individuals surveyed, while 14% said they had considered suicide between 2022 to 2023. The same percentage said they had symptoms of an eating disorder.

During an observation period of four weeks, 22% of students felt that

these emotional and mental difficulties had hurt their academic performance for six or more days.

The pandemic did not cause these changes, but it certainly accelerated the issues.

Reeling with the loss

The COVID-19 pandemic affected society as a whole, but students lost a lot in the process. High-poverty high schools spent more weeks in remote learning and students faced larger losses in academic achievement during the pandemic, according to a Harvard study in 2022. These schools lost nearly twice as much achievement growth as their low-poverty counterparts. This loss is associated with lower graduation and college attendance rates.

The pandemic created stressors that disproportionately affected people of color. Black and Asian American students navigated COVID-19 problems and increased racial injustice that worsened their mental health.

It was recorded that 87% of public schools stated the pandemic negatively affected student socio-emotional development during the 2021-22 school year, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Professors like Sarah Rose Cavanagh noticed this impact, too. Cavanagh is the senior associate director for teaching and learning and a professor at Simmons University in Boston, Massachusetts. She offers classes on mental health and educational development for faculty. “It’s just such an important time for development of social, emotional and intellectual skills,” Cavanagh says. “And so many students spent that time at home on Zoom and separated from their peers.”

These students lost pivotal moments, including prom, graduation and romantic relationships. And then those students dealt with all the personal traumas of losing family members, experiencing COVID-19 themselves and being separated from their loved ones. This time created a unique cohort of students. Students who walked into their first year of college without those social and emotional skills lost the experience of being independent for the first time.

At the University of Missouri, the counseling center offers confidential

clinical mental health services, free of charge for students. Dr. Kerri Schafer, a Mizzou counseling center psychologist, has noticed a shift in the students, too. Young adults who did not normally struggle were now experiencing new barriers, including learning hurdles or disabilities like Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder.

Teaching with hands tied

I’m not sure I could point out any of my professors from freshman year in public. Most of their faces were trapped in the tiny box on my computer. Their words were limited to the one-hour Zoom calls and occasional emails. It never occurred to me that these people were experiencing a full, three dimensional life outside of that screen. It was not just the students struggling to acclimate to a newly invented environment.

The dual fears of college life and a pandemic led Kara Ellis to spend a lot of time in her dorm during her freshman year in 2020-21.

In the fall of 2019, 9% of faculty members felt extremely stressed, according to a survey by The Chronicle of Higher Education. In the fall of 2020, 33% of faculty felt this way. Faculty members across

Photography courtesy of Kara Ellis

the country were increasing their workloads, moving courses online, mentoring students and reworking their universities to address the risks of the pandemic.

“It isn’t so black and white as preCOVID and post-COVID,” Schafer says. “I think we’re still sort of seeing things settle out.”

Faculty support

The classroom support also extends to students with disabilities. Accommodations are a bit different now, considering the availability of Zoom and other technologies in the classroom. A few of the greatest difficulties for students with disabilities was using assistive technology and receiving testing accommodations.

Accommodations make sure all students have the chance of equal educational access. They address the institutional barriers and are based on an individual process depending on the disability and what barriers students might be facing, says Ashley Brickley, the Mizzou Disability Center director. Students with disabilities were more likely to have their lives altered by the pandemic and face negative effects on their mental health, according to a 2021 study from the National Library of Medicine.

But during the pandemic, practically all students required some form of an accommodation, from remote learning to masks.

The classrooms must be molded and shaped to care for the young adults who

SAME OLD STORY

Mental health challenges for college students aren’t new, but became more pronounced in 2020. According to a 2022 Healthy Minds study, in the 2018-19 school year: – 36% of college students reported symptoms of depression. – 31% had symptoms of an anxiety disorder. – 20% of students felt these emotional and mental difficulties affected their academic performance.

are walking into college with the residue of the pandemic still stuck on their life. Some professors and faculty have turned to trauma-informed instruction to acknowledge the pandemic’s impact. Not every student is the same, but there is a degree of flexibility and boundaries that exist in the classroom. By reducing the rigidity, students who are still coming to understand themselves after COVID-19 have time.

For professors looking to create relationships with their students, that can be done by simply learning names of the students early in the semester. Developing relationships, not just student to student but also faculty to student, can be really powerful, Cavanagh says.

thing that’s happened — I convince myself that the worst in these past four years could have been avoided. That this all is just contingent on a slight shift. What if I were someone who never felt sick walking outside?

Someone who never over-thought an assignment. Someone who never had to wonder if their mental health was deteriorating as time passed.

But it was always getting worse. Students before me and students after me face their mental health struggles head-on and have to figure out how it shapes them. But students after me will hopefully feel a clearer sense of support.

Students to come

When the semester started in fall 2020 at the University of Missouri, classrooms looked a bit different. Below, volunteers sit at computers in Strickland Hall to demonstrate how the spaces had been adjusted.

Placing empathy in the classroom can change the way students and faculty interact. Having flexibility in the syllabus and policies could help meet students where they are. My own relationships with my professors have grown stronger over time. I’ve had professors support me in various ways, from answering my concerned emails in the middle of the night to bringing their dog to class to play with during a discussion. They’re all simple, easy ways to show students like me that they care enough to extend a hand outside of the classroom.

Looking to the future

It’s a bit ominous to picture who I would be right now without the pandemic. If I overthink it — every-

Figuring out what comes next for students is not obvious. The fog of the pandemic is starting to clear, but where does the classroom go next?

“We’re in such a mental health crisis, and there are just not enough providers,” Cavanagh says. “It’s a more powerful move to try to intervene at a lower level of need and support mental health than it is to intervene once someone’s already in crisis.”

Equipping campus to recognize and understand mental health symptoms is a start. It is not a situation that can be dealt with just when it reaches a crisis point.

But the pains will ease. Classes open their doors and relationships blossom over time. Teachers who I once refused to speak to outside of class are now becoming people I can depend on. I lean on my professors just as they always offered, but now I take their words to mean something real. Now as a senior in college, I might smile at classmates across our desks and sympathize with the professor trying to keep me engaged at the front of the room.

The college classroom has been destroyed, desolated and is now is being rebuilt. I’ve felt the weight of these four years on who I’ve become and who I will be. But that’s what college was always meant to be. A place to shape and mold who you are and who you want to be. Most of these students have no other experience, but if universities want the best of their students, they need to offer the best for their students. My mental health — every student’s mental health — is the university’s health.

Photography by Elizabeth Underwood/Archive

Peak your interest

Columbia climbers recommend inspiring books, movies and more about the sport they love.

BY AUDREY ELLIS

It’s easy to think climbers are as invincible as the rocks they climb. Despite the mental and physical challenges the sport presents, climbers build a tightknit community, which has inspired media about climbing. Three experienced climbers in Columbia share their favorite climbing entertainment.

Silvia Stambaugh began rock climbing in 2021, and joined Mizzou Climbing Club after frequenting the MizzouRec climbing wall.

Stambaugh recommends the documentaries The Dawn Wall, Valley Uprising and Free Solo, which all tell different stories about rock climbing at Yosemite National Park. Her favorite climbing book is The Rock Warrior’s Way by Arno Ilgner, which helps climbers mentally prepare and train for a climb.

Jake Dalton, another passionate climber, became interested in the sport three years ago. Dalton recommends the documentary Torn, which chronicles the story of the deaths of famous climber Alex Lowe and David Bridges, his cameraman and climbing partner.

Aaron Caldo has also been climbing for about three years, but he prefers to boulder. Caldo recommends The Nugget Climbing Podcast, where host Steven Dimmitt discusses climbing and self-improvement with professional climbers.

As hobbies come and go, rock climbing, and the community it provides, remains a constant for these climbers.

Photo illustrations by Maggie Pollard and photography courtesy of Adobe Stock

Trevor Smith is one of the two hosts of Fretboard’s Comedy Jam. Harley Bushdiecker joins him for a community comedy night.

Fill your coffee cup with laughter

Meet the Comedy Jam duo with a passion for comedy and community.

BY SARAH GOODSON

Most days, Fretboard Coffee welcomes its customers with the aroma of freshly roasted coffee beans. On the second and fourth Fridays of the month, the sounds of laughter also fill the air.

After you enter, take a right, and step into the shop, known as “B-side” to Fretboard staff and regulars. Rows of chairs, stools and a couch pack the space as purple and green lights lead

your eyes toward the stage. In two big lounge chairs to the left, you will find Harley Bushdiecker and Trevor Smith, the hosts of Fretboard Comedy Jam. The duo has been embedded in the Columbia comedy scene for years.

Where it all began

Following his honorable discharge as a disabled veteran from the Navy, Smith started his comedy career in 2014 when

he tried stand-up for the first time at Eastside Tavern. “I do think it’s an art form,” Smith says. “It kind of saved my life. I was in a dark place. I started doing comedy and it got me socializing and doing things again. So, I think it can actually help people and it can be very, very beneficial in building confidence and relationships.”

While Smith was still living in Jefferson City, he started running the comedy show at Eastside Tavern, which he says influenced his move to Columbia in 2016. Since then, becoming a stay-athome dad allowed him to devote more time to writing and performing comedy. “My wife loves it, my kids think I’m a celebrity,” Smith says.

Bushdiecker started his career in 2018 at Stanford’s Comedy Club in Kansas City. He began comedy as a creative outlet outside work and school. Bushdiecker has a background in the performing arts, which encouraged him to push his boundaries to get up on stage. He moved to Columbia to be closer to family, and it also allowed him to delve into the local comedy scene.

In December 2018, Bushdiecker and Smith met at Eastside Tavern.

Due to a lack of performance venues, Bushdiecker and Smith reached out to Fretboard Coffee in October 2023 to pitch their idea for Comedy Jam. By November, the duo’s dreams became a reality.

A community-oriented show

SIT BACK, RELAX AND LAUGH

When: Every second and fourth Friday, doors open at 6 p.m., show starts at 6:30 p.m.

Where: Fretboard Coffee, 11 S. Tenth St. For information see @fretboard_ coffee and @hbushdiecker on Instagram.

During Fretboard Comedy Jam, Bushdiecker and Smith conduct informal interviews with comedians following their performances. “You kind of get to help the crowd along,” Bushdiecker says about the interview technique. “It’s like a director’s cut.” The switch from a traditional stand-up show to comedic interviews turns the audience’s loud reactions into an even more exciting atmosphere. “And I just tried to say the dumbest things possible,” Smith says.

Bushdiecker and Smith say this conversational style is meant to be a backand-forth between the comedians and hosts, and it happened naturally. “We kind of accidentally stumbled upon the interview,” Bushdiecker says. “I think it was just the chairs were already set up there. This is how we should do every

Photography by Thomas Gleason

show, is with the La-Z-Boy. And so then they just kind of stuck around.”

Smith says he thinks there are people with a lot of talent and potential within the Columbia comedy scene. To encourage more voices, audience members can put their names in to perform that night. They also have nights for comedians from around Missouri.

Comedy collaboration

At the Feb. 9 show, local comedian Jacy Tate was one of the seven performers from the audience. Tate, originally from Mississippi, says she grew up listening to lots of stand-up comedy with her dad, even when she was too young to understand it.

Tate started her comedy career about six months ago at Eastside Tavern. When Tate found out about Comedy Jam, she was nervous for her first performance but appreciates the additional artistic outlet. “We always are looking for comedians,”

Here to stay Smith still performs at Eastside Tavern, as well as Hexagon Alley and Arch & Column Pub, where he founded The Divine Comedy Show. Bushdiecker works at Shakespeare’s Pizza and Comedy Club of Columbia, while helping run the shows at Eastside Tavern and a newer project at Hexagon Alley.

Bushdiecker and Smith emphasize the importance of comedy in Columbia. They say their major goal is to create a thriving comedy scene like those in St. Louis and Kansas

Photography by Nick Ginter

Fashion Time

For 89 years, the Stephens College Fashion Program has been educating industry-savvy style professionals, becoming one of the world’s top programs.

STORY CHLOE LYKKEN

PHOTOS ELISE WILKE-GRIMM

AND COURTESY OF STEPHENS COLLEGE LIBRARY ARCHIVE

DESIGN GABBY NELSON

Stephens College created its fashion program in 1935. This April, the program’s seniors will put on its 80th annual fashion show.

EDITING KHALIA SMITH

Stephens College created its fashion program in 1935. In April, the program’s seniors will put on its 80th fashion show.

Through pencil skirts and mini skirts, shoulder pads and bell sleeves, seniors in the Stephens College Fashion Program have been putting on an annual spring show since 1944. Called The Collections, it’s part of a curriculum that stresses real-world experience. This year’s show on April 13 will be the 80th event.

In 1935, Stephens College established its Fashion Program. According to campus legend, it began because former college president James Madison Wood thought the women of Stephens College looked sloppy. But what began as a mysogynistic criticism of style has grown into one of the most celebrated programs in fashion education.

In it’s 89 years, the Fashion Program has continually adapted to a changing industry and become one of the top-ranked fashion schools. In 2023, CEOWORLD magazine ranked the Stephens Fashion Program 14th in the world based on a survey of 185,000 fashion industry professionals.

For nearly 90 years, the Stephens College Fashion Program has focused on teaching women (like these students, left and right) real-world experience in the design and production of clothing.

The history

The university holds a vast collection of archival documents filled with original Stephens fashion show pamphlets, photos of students’ sample designs and film negatives. “This is from 1942,” says Kirsteen Buchanan as she flips through a Stephens College yearbook. Buchanan, an alumna and professor in the fashion program, says the department has gone through different phases over the years.

From dressmaking courses to a curriculum with a forward focus on industry trends and hands-on experience, the program values practicality and market research. Buchanan says this emphasis makes the Stephens Fashion Program notable.

The first courses in the 1930s focused on dressmaking and style selections, Buchanan says. As the program developed, students could pick emphasis areas to study the industry. Fashion merchandising in the late 1970s became fashion marketing and management, while fashion design integrated product development in the mid 1990s. Later on, fashion communication made its debut. Today, the program offers courses in technical design and engineering.

“It was always about promoting women in fashion, women in design,” says Monica McMurry, current Fashion Program faculty chair. “Overall, we’ve never been the avant-garde kind of school. It’s been a little practical. I think in the long run that’s served us well.”

Prime pattern making

An example of that practicality is Stephens’ relationship with the Butterick pattern company. Starting around the early 1950s, patterns created by Stephens students were used by Butterick. These were known as Susie Stephens designs. Between 1950 and 1952, Butterick created a Susie Stephens pattern line marketed to teenagers.

“Susie Stephens is more than a name — it is a symbol of an American way of life — the college way of life – the learning about life by doing, the doing which gives life meaning and purpose, the accomplishments which are milestones toward the future,” according to a 1952 Stephens College News Bureau article.

The title of Susie Stephens is a traditional reference that has stuck its claim — like a pin in a dress form — on Stephens campus for years. To this day, the fashion students refer to this name for their own design work.

“My guess is it began to be a way to recruit students and have something that set a school in the Midwest apart from the schools on the coast,” McMurry says.

A notable program

In 2014, recognition of the Stephens program began to soar. The school was inducted into the Council of Fashion Designers of America, after initially impressing the CFDA with its costume museum.

In 2015, Stephens was included in the rankings by the publication The Business of Fashion . The program was named fourth best in the country and 13th best in the world, due to its “long term value and learning experiences.” Factors involved in this ranking include the program’s curriculum, faculty expertise, industry partnerships and alumni success.

“Our long-term value and learning experiences came from — and this is what we always have done well in any kind of ranking — is students graduate in our program and they’re well trained and they get a job,” McMurry says. “And then they get another job. And they stay in the fashion industry. And that’s that long-term value.”

Market research

Students, professors and alumni emphasize that market research and the real life application of the student fashion show add significant value to the program.

McMurry often reminisces on her time spent as a fashion student in 1978. In fulfilling various roles including dean of the School of Design and chair of the Fashion Program, McMurry has seen Stephens grasp tightly to fundamentals in the face of an ever-changing fashion industry.

She says the program has always prioritized bringing in industry professionals as critics and advisors. However, this process began to look a bit different when the program started emphasizing education on market research.

Juliet Forehand prepares the final touches on her fashion design capstone for The Collections show.

“It is so satisfying to create something and it turns out exactly how I wanted it to look,” Forehand says.

Between 1950 and 1952, the Butterick pattern company launched the Susie Stephens line of patterns created by Stephens College fashion students that was marketed to teenagers.

The Stephens College Fashion Program was founded in 1935. The Collections fashion show started nine years later in 1944.

1940s

For the last eight decades, the Stephens College Fashion Program has trained knowledgeable women in the industry.

1960s -1970s

Students in the Stephens program learn both creations and technical skills.

During her undergraduate time, McMurry says students would produce designs to show visiting fashion critics — a practice they still continue today. Oftentimes, they would present a design based on a general idea and not consider the needs of the global market.

“But now, the way we do it is you do a lot of market research,” McMurry says. “Who’s your customer, what’s your market, what’s your price point, what kinds of stores would you be in, and (students) do a market plan.”

The critics who visit Stephens prior to the annual fashion show provide expertise regarding the current market. Students must consider how their designs function for consumers amidst the industry’s current conditions.

“There is intense trend research that you have to do,” says Juliet Forehand, a senior fashion design

major. “The timetables (of design) are longer than the real world, but they do get shorter as you go. I think that does help learning because the fashion industry moves so quickly at this point, you need to know how to get stuff out.”

While considering market research, students also find the freedom to indulge in creativity. With an emphasis on technical design, including the development of production packs, 3D design, converting flat sketches and the opportunity to demonstrate these skills at the annual fashion show, students are able to explore avenues they might not have been able to at other programs.

McMurry says the students are taught the extensive process of how to create a design through prototyping and 3D design, while also fitting them to models of all different sizes.

Work for the April fashion show begins

In the 1930s, the first fashion classes focused on dressmaking and style selections. Now the program includes an emphasis on market research and real-life applications.

Student Kathryn Carr (left) models in a show circa 1990. Before a student’s collection hits the runway, it is critiqued by a professional. Hearing from such fashion critics provides students with expert information on the current market.

1980s -1990s 2024

Market research is essential when determining what customers will want.

early. Most undergraduate students have been preparing for the show since September, while seniors started developing their collections this past summer. In early fall, students are in charge of coming up with a concept for the show. The concept must identify a target market that will fit in the fashion industry and lead their designs to success. The 2024 fashion show’s theme is “Construct” and promises to unravel “societal constructs surrounding women and fashion,” according to the event’s website.

The relatively small size of the program is another benefit. With about 12 students per class and extensive mentorship, students have a support system that pushes them to develop skills for the real world. In a class of 20, students have a higher chance of being seen and actively participating than a coastal program’s class of 600, McMurry says.

A place to return

Stephens brings people back to their designer roots and celebrates the success of young women. After graduating from Stephens College, Buchanan pursued her fashion career as a production assistant in New York. She then ventured to design opportunities in Chicago and Dallas. “I wanted a different atmosphere than that,” Buchanan says. The industry was becoming tough, and a change of pace was needed. “I visited Columbia again. I hadn’t been back in a while, and it felt like I was coming home.”

In a letter to current student Forehand, 1984 Stephens alumna Cindy Fernando encouraged her to take in every precious moment of her experience.

“I loved Stephens because I found myself there,” Fernando writes. “I was very shy going in. Coming out, I was confident and knew what I wanted. Stephens nurtures and guides as you change from a girl to a woman.”

Juliet Forehand sews at the Stephens College workshop. She has a passion for fashion and learned how to sew at age 10.

Three shows of the 80th Annual Collections Fashion Show will be at 2, 4 and 7 p.m. April 13 at Stephens College’s Windsor Auditorium. For information and tickets, visit stephens. edu/events.

In 2023, CEOWORLD magazine ranked the Stephens Fashion Program 14th best in the world. In 2015, The Business of Fashion named the program among the top four in the country.

Judy Fox was a Stephens student in 1970. As students progress through the fashion program, they take on more responsibility in producing The Collections.

BO UND BOOKS

YBThe ninth year of the Unbound Book Festival brings authors and readers together for a celebration of powerful stories.

the B E H IN D PAGE S

The Unbound Book Festival brings together authors from around the world and across a variety of genres to share their stories. Here’s a sneak peek at six authors who will be attending the fest this April.

By Briana Iordan and Olivia Maillet

Cat Sebastian

Formerly a lawyer and teacher, Cat Sebastian wrote her first novel almost 10 years ago. Originally from New Jersey, Sebastian found her passion for writing after moving across the country and starting a family.

Sebastian has written 20 queer historical romance novels. She will showcase her most recent novel, We Could Be So Good, at the 2024 Unbound Book Festival. This will be her first time at Unbound. Sebastian says the writing process was the most fun she’s had working on a novel.

“I like telling stories,” Sebastian says. “That is something that I think I’ve done unconsciously for a lot of my life, and actually putting them on paper is really satisfying.”

Sebastian writes queer romance novels because of a lack of representation in the romance genre. “I had read like a billion romance novels,” she says. “It took me a billion and one to get to the point where I was like, ‘Oh, I’m not in this.’”

Common themes in Sebastian’s novels include found family and queer joy. “I want to write the kind of happy endings that queer people don’t always get in mainstream narratives,” Sebastian says.

Hetty Lui McKinnon

A Chinese Australian food writer and cook, Hetty Lui McKinnon has published five bestselling vegetarian cookbooks, including her latest, Tenderheart, and her award-winning book, To Asia, With Love.

For McKinnon, Tenderheart is a continuation of To Asia, With Love. She dedicated this book to her dad, who died when McKinnon was young. McKinnon, a vegetarian, describes Tenderheart as her “vegetable origin story,” exploring the connection between her dad bringing home fresh produce from the markets with the way she eats and cooks today. Each chapter is devoted to a different vegetable.

McKinnon is excited to visit Missouri for the 2024 Unbound Book Festival and experience the different ways people cook and eat. “I really see food as a bridge, as a connector,” McKinnon says. “Food is everyone’s common language and it doesn’t matter what background you come from, what culture you grew up in, what language you speak, the color of your skin — I think food is a way for everyone to connect.”

Omékongo Dibinga

Across a multitude of platforms, Omékongo Dibinga’s words and activism can be seen and heard. He has worked as a international speaker, trilingual poet, TV talk show host, rapper and professor of intercultural communication at American University. Dibinga grew up in Boston in the 1980s and faced racism and adversity throughout his childhood, which led him to feel negatively about his race. However,

the more he learned and embraced his culture, the more pride he felt.

“I started to become proud of myself,” Dibinga says. “I stopped running away from my name and things like that. I wanted people to experience that as well.”

His latest book, Lies About Black People: How to Combat Racist Stereotypes and Why it Matters, which was published in July 2023, delves into the bias and behaviors that are rooted deeply in our society and how those require self-awareness and critical thinking to undo. In addition to debunking stereotypes about Black people, Dibinga also includes sections on systematic racism within other communities of color in America, as well as interviews with a diverse group of people on their journeys to anti-racism.

“You know, Dr. Maya Angelou said, ‘As soon as you learn, teach,’” he says. “As you reveal these different experiences that you’ve had, find ways to visually express that experience in some way, shape or form.”

Photography courtesy of Cat Sebastian, Omekongo Dibinga and Heety Lui McKinnon

Stacey Fong was born in Singapore and grew up in Hong Kong but took frequent vacations to the U.S. Her family was food-centric and had an extensive cookbook collection.

“Growing up in a Chinese household, instead of showing love with words — which is more common in the Western world — in the Eastern world, you get cut fruit or fed and it’s a wonderful way of bonding,” Fong says.

She immigrated to America in 2006 to attend fashion school at the Savannah College of Art & Design, where she graduated and began designing handbags. During the pandemic, Fong switched her focus to food and fell in love with pies. When Fong

Crystal Wilkinson

Whether it’s fiction, poetry or nonfiction, Crystal Wilkinson has written it all. Wilkinson is a professor at the University of Kentucky and has taught creative writing for almost 30 years. “I enjoy teaching a variety of classes,” Wilkinson says. “Having published in all three genres, I teach in all three genres.”

Wilkinson’s Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts is a culinary memoir that explores the legacy of Black Appalachians, weaving together family recipes and stories of ancestry. For Wilkinson, it was an emotional book to write and her first time using food as a direct lens for storytelling.

“You can’t write about the cultures that I’m from without using food as a primary characteristic,” Wilkinson says. “There is use of evocative language and sort of a through line of food including recipes, which was also new to me.”

In Perfect Black, a collection of poems, Wilkinson showcases her rural roots in Appalachia. Wilkinson describes her poetry as “close to the bone,” containing a level of vulnerability and exposure. “Poetry has always been a part of my foundation,” she says.

Wilkinson was also the poet laureate of Kentucky from 2021-2023.

This will be Wilkinson’s second time at the Unbound Book Festival. “I’m looking forward to going back,” she says. “There was a special sort of warmth and sunshine that came through from the organizers.”

applied for her visa in 2016, she decided to tour all 50 states and make a pie for each one she visited. She kept a pie-ary — a pie diary — that would later turn into her book 50 Pies, 50 States: An Immigrant’s Love Letter to the United States Through Pie, which came out in June 2023.

She chose the ingredients for each pie based on the state’s attributes. Missouri, for example, was a Ted Drewes Frozen Custard Coffee Pie with gooey butter cake folded in. Fong continued baking her way through the states until 2021.

“The universe was eventually going to take me here,” Fong says. “I didn’t know when, but I’m happy that it did.”

Leela Corman

Through watercolor comics and graphic novels, Leela Corman blends her experiences and the lives of her Jewish immigrant ancestors into compelling narratives. Corman’s illustrations have been featured by PBS and The New York Times “Comics is a hybrid of art and writing,” Corman says. “Most of the storytelling that you are absorbing in our culture is a hybrid of the visual and the written.”

She emphasizes the storytelling and history of her family’s heritage and incorporates historical research in her process.

Stacey Mei Yan Fong

Although her books aren’t autobiographical, Corman says she is careful not to tell other’s stories. It’s important to stay in her own lane as a storyteller, she says. However, she is diligent in telling her own stories.

“I don’t care if people find my work disturbing,” Corman says. “I hope they do. I think reality is very disturbing. Human beings are extremely disturbing.”

Corman’s graphic novel, Victory Parade, comes out April 2. Set during World War II, the book addresses how people carry collective trauma.

Photography courtesy of Crystal Wilkinson, Alanna Hale and Leela Corman

SHELVED AND SILENCED?

Amid an atmosphere of censorship, events like Unbound Book Festival shine a light on the importance of books.

By Mary Ruth Taylor

This April, the annual Unbound Book Festival will bring book lovers and world-renowned authors together for a celebration of reading and writing. The ode to books comes at a time when tensions in the literary world are high, with rising concerns about censorship in public schools and libraries.

In this atmosphere, Unbound — with its banned books panel and wide range of authors — is a vital place for people of all ages to experience diverse stories.

In August 2022, a law went into effect in Missouri that banned elementary and secondary schools from providing sexually explicit visual materials to students. This policy drew wide criticism, as it prompted vastly different interpretations across the state. Some districts made no changes and others removed hundreds of books from library shelves, including works by Mark Twain, Margaret Atwood and Shakespeare.

Space on the shelves

Association of School Librarians and the Missouri Library Association.

Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft introduced a new administrative rule in 2023 requiring that public libraries adhere to loosely defined obscenity standards at the threat of losing state funding.

“The library community was up in arms because it was insulting to our ability to manage collections, and it goes against our principles of intellectual freedom,” says Margaret Conroy, executive director of the Daniel Boone Regional Library.

Many librarians perceive these laws and regulations as an unnecessary overstep that infringes on citizens’ First Amendment rights. They worry that the law will decrease the availability of diverse stories.

Tom Bober, president of the Missouri Association of School Librarians and a school librarian in Clayton says librarians had to scramble before school started to evaluate their collections through the lens of the law. “We’re making decisions that went against what we typically do as librarians, which is to curate a robust, diverse collection for our students,” Bober says.

In February 2023, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit challenging the book ban law on behalf of the Missouri

about what was being put on library shelves,” Conroy says.

Conroy says Columbia is lucky to have good librarians and a supportive community, resulting in the city facing fewer problems. In other areas of the state, however, challenges flourish. Missouri had the third highest number of book bans in the country during the 2022-23 school year. The state follows only Florida and Texas with a total of 333 instances of book banning.

Banned writers persist

Conroy, who has spent most of her career in Missouri libraries, explained that most libraries already had curation processes and established policies letting parents agree to what their children are reading. Conroy says the criminalization of their profession is alarming. “What that whole process did was shine a big light on content and inflame some communities

Brian Katcher, a Missouri author and school librarian based in Moberly, was featured at Unbound in 2022. He has experienced censorship first hand. His young adult novel, Almost Perfect, features a transgender protagonist and was one of the first in the genre to do so when published in 2009. The initial reception was positive, but Katcher says in recent years the book has been challenged or banned in some areas,

Photography courtesy of Unbound Book Festival/Rebecca Allen Photography

including Florida, Louisiana and Michigan.

When he first realized his book was being taken off shelves, he was surprised to be included on the same lists as lauded authors like Toni Morrison. He then felt concern about those with an agenda to remove LGBTQ+ books from libraries.

“If you don’t want your child to read a certain subject, that’s your prerogative and we will absolutely support you on that,” Katcher says. “But when you start saying, ‘I want to decide what your kid can read,’ that’s when you cross a line.”

Katcher joined author and illustrator Maia Kobabe for a 2022 Unbound panel on book banning. Kobabe’s graphic novel, Gender Queer: A Memoir was the most banned book in the country in 2021. In 2022, it was amongst those removed from shelves in Missouri.

Maia Kobabe, author of Gender Queer: A Memoir, spoke at Unbound Book Festival’s panel on book banning in 2022.

with diverse identities and stories often have an element of sexuality in an age relevant way,” Bober says. He worries that librarians fearing prosecution will stop buying these books. “Then we’d have a group of students who are not getting the stories they should have,” Bober says.

If this can’t happen at libraries, festivals like Unbound are important places of access, Bober says.

Unbound light

The festival values opportunity. Executive Director Alex George says the organizers are proud to keep the festival completely free. They also strive to bring a diverse representation of authors to Columbia. “We’re all volunteers, so we’re by the community and we’re for the community. Our job is to reflect that community, and reflect all parts of it,” George says.

In a time when librarians are having to play defense, Conroy sees Unbound as a joyful celebration of books. Introducing authors to new audiences highlights the beauty of literature, she says, and shows how reading can enrich a person’s life.

Conroy and her peers at the Daniel Boone Regional Library appreciate Unbound for the collaboration it fosters between the library, bookstores and schools. “Libraries and bookstores do not compete with each other,” Conroy says. “I like to say we complement each other and serve different needs.”

Bober says a big concern about the law is not only books being removed from shelves, but also future books that librarians will be discouraged from purchasing. “Books

Maia Kobabe, Brian Katcher and Larissa Lidsky, former dean of MU’s School of Law, speak at Unbound’s banned books panel. They emphasized how libraries work to uplift readers and authors in the community.

Through the Authors in Schools program, Unbound brings writers into Columbia Public Schools to talk about their work and encourage excitement about reading. George says if kids see authors in person, they’re more likely to pick up a book and get enthused about reading.

As a writer, Katcher sees value in bringing authors together. “It’s nice that in a town like Columbia we get all these big name authors,” Katcher says. “We get people saying ‘Hey, this is not just something that happens in the big cities. You can write too!’”

The banned books panel was a conscious effort by Unbound to create discussion

UNBOUND BOOK

FESTIVAL

April 18-21, free

KEYNOTE SPEAKER

• Emily St. John Mandel, author of Station Eleven and Sea of Tranquility

• 7:30 p.m. April 19

•Missouri Theatre

•Registration required

SOME PANELS INCLUDE:

• Let ’em Cook

• Mythwesterners

• Found in Translation

• Saving Throws: The Influence of Roleplaying Games

• April 21

• Stephens College, Helis Communication Center, 1405 E. Broadway

FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT UNBOUNDBOOKFESTIVAL.COM

around a relevant topic. That effort continues this year. “We look up and we take the pulse of what’s going on and try and meet that moment,” George says.

The festival, which will take place April 18–21, boasts an impressive lineup of writers. Bestselling author Emily St. John Mandel is slated to be this year’s keynote speaker. Readers can also look forward to a variety of author panels and writing workshops open to all.

Conroy says having a festival that brings together all the reading institutions in Columbia lifts the community as a whole. “Anything we can do to shine a good light on the positive power of words is a wonderful thing.”

Photography courtesy of Unbound Book Festival/Rebecca Allen Photography

Four local creatives represent the rich diversity in Columbia’s art scene. Explore the accomplishments of these creative women who make art in many forms.

VIOLET VONDER HARR

Musician

Story by Grace Burwell Design by Caitlin Kane Editing by Chloe Lykken

Throughout her career, Violet Vonder Haar has worn a variety of hats. Vonder Haar is the program director of the music education nonprofit Compass Inc., where she teaches guitar, piano, ukulele, songwriting and voice lessons. In addition to her 10 years of teaching, Vonder Haar crafts her own sound as the lead vocalist of the indie rock band Violet and the Undercurrents, which she founded in 2011. Alongside her wife and drummer of the band, Phylshawn Johnson, Vonder Haar manages the day-to-day operations of Compass Inc.’s University Avenue location.

Proudest accomplishment

Vonder Haar joined Compass in 2012 as a Music Camp staff member. The nonprofit didn’t have a permanent space until 2022. The Compass Music Center currently offers lessons, summer camps and programs for aspiring musicians of all ages. Vonder Haar is proud of creating a space for her passion and finds joy in offering these opportunities to almost 60 regular students. “It’s one thing to have a dream or to have an idea,” Vonder Haar says. “It’s another thing to follow through on it.”

Advice for future musicians

Vonder Haar says it’s important to move through the world with originality and intention. “When you’re making decisions from an authentic space where you know your truth and your vision or your mission or purposes,” she says. “No one can argue with that.”

What DEI means to her

Vonder Haar is dedicated to creating a space where people from all walks of life feel safe. “Music is a really great tool for that because it’s kind of an equalizer,” she says. Vonder Haar believes it’s important for students

to see themselves represented by their music teachers. As an interracial couple, Vonder Haar and Johnson make sure to work in a space that feels comfortable. “It’s intertwined in everything we do,” Vonder Haar says. “Everybody is welcome here.”

Photography courtesy of Violet Vonder Harr

Violet Vonder Harr (above) and her indie-rock band, Violet and the Undercurrents, perform at the Compass Fest. Vonder Harr also is part of Compass Inc.’s The Intergenerational Rock Band Choir (left) which includes singers of all ages.

Vonder Harr joined Compass Inc. in 2012 as part of its Music Camp. She also regularly performs at Compass Fest (below).

ASIA LONG

Visual artist

Asia Long combines her passion for art and activism through painting and mixed media art, including woodburning and textile work. She highlights facets of Black identity with projects like “Flowers to the People,” a collection of paintings on burlap adorned with floral embroidery.

Long is in her second year of Orr Street Studios’ Black Artist in Residence program. In February, her art was featured in Orr Street’s recurring exhibit “The Color Black,”

which showcases the work of local artists in honor of Black History Month. One piece that stands out is a portrait of a Black woman surrounded by foliage with her eyes closed titled “The Jungle is the Only Way Out.” Long burned the artwork into wood.

She wants people to find unique, individual meaning in her artwork. “When you’re in front of a piece that is speaking to you, it’s humbling,” she says. “I want (viewers) to take that on their journey in life, and I don’t think they need me to tell them what to do.”

Advice for future artists

Long says it’s important to remain open to new ideas and embrace the journey. While being a woman in the arts can be validating, it’s also challenging. “I think women are expected to express themselves more,” Long says. “They have more opportunity to express themselves but less opportunity for that to be taken seriously.”

On staying motivated

Long says being part of a community that endorses creativity is vital to artists. These spaces allow artists to freely express themselves, she says. “It can be hard if you don’t have a North Village Arts District,” Long says. “You really need that community that is like, ‘No, (art) is a real thing, and it’s valid in life.’”

What DEI means to her

Before working as an artist, Long started in activism. Her passion for uplifting voices that have been invalidated or overlooked is integral to her art. “I can’t help but show it in the work,” she says. For example, Long’s “Flowers to the People” exhibit is a twist on the famous mantra “power to the people.” Long wanted the art to reflect the power of Black culture. “I wanted to show where our powers lie in us,” she says.

Photography by Jamie Maron

Artist Asia Long (above) finds her artistic process therapeutic. “My favorite thing really is creating and I’m a creator,” Long says. Her studio (right) is home to both finished and ongoing art projects.

Asia Long has been working on a new body of work titled “For Colored Boys” in Orr Street Studios.

CAROL MIRA STODDART

Mixed media artist

Carol Mira Stoddart always wanted to be an artist. It wasn’t until she retired from teaching art after 28 years that she fully began to pursue her goal. “Life was just pushing me other directions,” she says. “Now I feel like I can do what I want, and this is what I want to do.”

In 2020, Stoddart began creating artwork during the pandemic. After her father died, she started experimenting with encapsulating his ashes in glass. Now, Stoddart memorializes the lives of loved ones through the creation of glass keepsakes, such as pendants, with human and animal remains or images. “I really like the meaning behind preserving someone — a loved one — in a way that you could have them with you physically forever, and in a beautiful

way too,” Stoddart says. Since June 2020, she has been creating her art at Orr Street Studios.

Advice for future artists

Trying new things and making mistakes is the best way to become excited about one’s work, Stoddart says. At Orr Street, Stoddart likes to experiment with the materials she uses, including metal, wood and glass. “Just go with your imagination and take the failures with the successes, because I think they’re all successes,” she says. “You’re learning from it all.”

On staying motivated

Connecting with those who find meaning in her artwork is highly impactful for Stoddart. “I

think helping is really a big part of it too, maybe feeling like I can affect someone with what I create,” she says.

What DEI means to her

Stoddart credits her mother for encouraging her to pursue an artistic career and telling her to invest in what she believes in. “I think so many parents will say art (is) not a very lucrative area to put your energy into, but she didn’t say that,” Stoddart says. Stoddart found gendered expectations shouldn’t limit your career, either. “Everybody should be able to just follow their dream and not be stopped by that,” she says.

Photography by Jamie Maron

Stoddart creates art glass keepsakes, such as this pendant (top) that contains some of her father’s ashes, or an archival photo of her family transferred onto a piece of glass.

Artist Mira Stoddart (left) likes to work with glass in her artwork. “There’s something so mesmerizing about it.”

MORGAN DENNEHY

Director and actress

Morgan Dennehy, a lifelong thespian, has been dedicated to her craft since she stepped foot onstage at age 5. “Whether you’re on stage, whether you’re backstage or whether you’re in the audience, theater is magic,” she says. “It transports you into a whole different world.”

Dennehy is the president of Maplewood Barn Community Theatre, a nonprofit that performs outdoor theater productions in Nifong Park from May through September each year. She’s worked there since 2014, directing productions including Twelfth Night, The Importance of Being Earnest and Much Ado About Nothing. Outside of theater, Dennehy is the district manager for Junior Achievement in central Missouri, an education nonprofit that teaches financial literacy to kindergarten through 12th grade students.

Proudest accomplishment

In February, Dennehy was reelected as Maplewood Barn’s president. She previously served as president from 2019 to 2021, and she says she is honored to take on the role again. “The fact that they trust me and they look to me to lead the barn into its next 50 years is humbling, and it’s an honor,” Dennehy says.

Love for her job

As a director, Dennehy is passionate about bringing her artistic vision to life. “I love watching (actors) find their characters and pulling that out of them, connecting with the character that they have been asked to play and really merging the two

parts of themselves — who they are and who their character is — and creating a whole new person,” she says. “That is so gratifying, and it’s the same thing as an actor.”

What DEI

means

to her Dennehy is passionate about ensuring that everybody feels welcome at Maplewood Barn. The theater strives to represent all cultures and walks of life, and actors are cast based on their ability to embody the character role, Dennehy says. “If they can come and they can do the part and they can become the character, I will cast them,” she says. “Talent is what we go with on almost every level.”

Dennehy has been in many Maplewood plays, including The Crucible (left).

How you can support their work

Peruse MIRA STODDART’s selection of pendants and keepsakes at Orr Street Studios.

Watch Lady Windermere’s Fan at Maplewood Barn Community Theatre, directed by MORGAN DENNEHY, from Aug. 29 to Sept. 1 and Sept 5-8.

Contemplate ASIA LONG’s “Edges” series from June 7 to 28 at Orr Street Studios.

Visit VIOLET VONDER HAAR and Compass Inc. for a drum jam for anyone 18 or younger on April 18.

Morgan Dennehy (top, far right) plays a role in Fifth of July, where friends in the 1960s reunite in Missouri. For the 2022 Maplewood Barn Community Theatre production of The Importance of Being Earnest (above), Dennehy was its director.

Photography courtesy of Morgan Dennehy

Delights for the soul

Abbey Miller, owner of pop-up Swahili Delights, shares a piece of her culture with Columbia.

BY ABIGAIL RAMIREZ

During her childhood in Kenya, Abbey Miller would sneak into the kitchen and watch in anticipation as her mother cooked. She would act as a sous-chef while her mother gave her small cooking tasks like chopping onions. Now, Miller owns Abbey’s Swahili Delights, an evolving food service operating out of CoMo Cooks Shared Kitchen.

Miller inherited much of her love and enthusiasm for cooking from her mother, who taught her that food should be treated with care and have benefits for your body.

After leaving the hotel industry to spend time with her kids, Miller started considering a catering business. It wasn’t until she participated in Taste of Columbia, an event that showcases different food cultures, that she realized

Abbey Miller fills a takeout box with chicken curry and eggs for Jennie Ikuta and Kristopher Estes-Brown. Miller’s love language is giving good food to members of the Columbia community.

her ability to dazzle even the most skeptical taste buds. With a queue longer than the line at the DMV, she quickly ran out of food. She leveled up her operation with weekly pop-ups every Friday night at CoMo Cooks, a shared kitchen space for businesses on Business Loop 70.

From her repertoire of dishes, Miller chooses about three items per week to feature on her pop-up menu. It’s a change from when she’d invite friends over to feast on her latest food experiments and creative concoctions in her basement.

“She says she makes her food with a lot of love, and I think it shows,” says customer Stephen Montgomery. “It’s a whole new taste experience that I’ve never really had in Columbia before.”

Photography by Caroline Larson

Miller’s love language is giving out food to anyone in the community. Pescatarian? Taste the Coconut Salmon. Meat lover? Indulge in her delicious Beef Biriani. Vegan or vegetarian? Try the Swahili Creamy Coconut Lentils. Montgomery says that the lentils are his son’s favorite.

While she says she isn’t an adventurous eater, Katherine Cummins, a frequent customer, says each menu item is fantastic. “Everything that I’ve tried has been delicious,” Cummins says. “I don’t think I’ve had anything from her that’s left me feeling ‘meh.’ Definitely 12 out of 10. I would recommend.”

Finding quality ingredients is important to Miller. Every week, she travels to St. Louis to buy the best halal meat she can find. “I want to choose the best quality,” Miller says. “That’s the problem with being a chef. You want to choose. You believe in quality, freshness.”

In Kenya, ingredients are freshly grown and picked. While certain items and weekly trips to St. Louis are costly, Miller says she believes it’s all worth it to feed her customers.

Just like the vegetables she chooses, Miller is ready to grow in every direction. When she immigrated to the U.S. eight years ago, she remembers being astonished by the miles of corn during harvest season, the single main street running through Columbia and the relatively small nature of her new home.

The Columbia we see now is incredibly different than it was at that time. Miller attributes the growth of the city’s food scene to the willingness of the businesses to help each other and she wants to do what she can to contribute to that movement.

“I want to promote Columbia small businesses,” Miller says. “That’s how we all work together and grow. If I buy from you, you buy from me. If we let our money stay here, we’re going to grow big.”

Her dedication to quality and local businesses are reasons Miller has yet to expand her food service. By sticking to Fridays at CoMo Cooks and Saturday mornings at the Columbia Farmers Market, she ensures quality over quantity.

SPICE IT UP

Swahili Delights operates out of CoMo Cooks Shared Kitchen, 14 Business Loop 70 E. Fridays 5 to 7:30 p.m. Call (573) 6820545 to order. She also has a booth at the Columbia Farmers Market every Saturday from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.

She can’t tell you if Abbey’s Swahili Delights will expand tomorrow, next week or next year, but she knows more pop-up dates and maybe even a storefront could be in her future.

Abbey Miller pours colorful peppers onto her Creamy Coconut Spinach Chickpea Curry. Her menu rotates every week, which allows her to showcase a number of dishes.

I SHOULD PROBABLY GET A RIDE HOME.

BUZZED DRIVING IS DRUNK DRIVING

SHOULD PROBABLY

Mixing it up

As more people are choosing to be alcohol-free, mocktails offer a twist on drinking culture.

BY LEVI CASE

Whether you’re giving up alcohol for health reasons, a lifestyle change or just because you’re curious, you can still enjoy Columbia’s night scene. Sobriety movements like Dry January are taking off online, and many people are choosing to go alcohol free.

Heather Harlan, the health program coordinator at Columbia/Boone County Public Health and Human Services, says these trends allow people to examine their relationship with alcohol. “Dry January is the opportunity for people to be more intentional with their drinking,” she says.

The Centers for Disease Control estimates over 140,000 people die annually in the U.S. due to excessive drinking. This year, predictions for alcohol consumption look different with sober curiosity on the rise. According to a 2024

Bartenders Patrick Hutto and Roman Wolfe prepare eye-grabbing mocktails at Günter Hans. survey, by advertising research company NCSolutions, 41% of Americans are looking to reduce their alcohol intake, a 7% increase from 2023.

Evolution of drinking culture

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States saw a surge in alcohol consumption. Since then, Rich Trippler, 44 Canteen’s bar manager, says he’s noticed a change in people’s drinking habits—but

SOBER SIPS

44 CANTEEN: Popular mocktail: The Firefly, $4 Six mocktails on the menu

GÜNTER HANS:

Popular mocktail: Non-alcoholic sangria, $5 10 mocktails on the menu

not that they’re drinking more. “Everyone’s doing everything earlier,” he says. “Going home earlier, going to bed earlier, going to dinner and happy hour earlier.”

His observations match those of NCSolutions. Mindful drinking is also growing in popularity, with 34% of Americans identifying as mindful drinkers.

Harlan, who specializes in overdose response and adult mental health, understands the importance of mindful drinking.

“There’s no safe level of alcohol consumption in humans,” she says, adding that even small amounts of alcohol contain carcinogens, the substances that can cause cancer. Alcohol misuse took her ex-husband’s life, which is one of the reasons she advocates for people to be intentional about their relationship with alcohol.

Setting up for success

Outside her work as a health program coordinator, Heather Harlan performs folktales and original stories for audiences at Midway Elementary School.

In addition to being more aware and drinking less, Americans are also looking to try more non-alcoholic drinks. Although not recommended for those in recovery, mocktails are an option for individuals abstaining from alcohol and wanting to feel more included in the experience of going out for drinks.

Morgan Wright, owner of Günter

Photography by Nick Ginter and courtesy of Heather Harlan

Hans, had the idea to incorporate non-alcoholic mixed drinks on her menu while pregnant in January last year. “I wanted to have the chance to still drink out of a martini glass,” Wright says.

Going sober can be as hard as it

Tattoo artist Colby Morton implemented a lifestyle change for his family. He has been sober for nine years.

is beneficial, but making that change can lead to a healthier lifestyle.

About six months after the birth of his son, Iron Tiger tattoo artist Colby Morton began to reflect on his drinking habits. “I was just going out and not being able to be a good dad, really,” Morton says.

After seeing the effect alcohol was having on his family and his role as a father, Morton made the decision to stop drinking. Nine years later, Morton remains sober.

Why give sobriety a try?

There are plenty of benefits to drinking less alcohol. One is better quality sleep. The sedative effect of alcohol often makes people fall asleep faster, but for shorter periods of time.

According to the National Sleep Foundation, drinking can also lead to instances of sleep apnea, a sleep disorder. “They’re just sedated, they’re not asleep,” Harlan says.

Cutting back on drinks can also save money. It’s estimated that hav-

ing two drinks a day on the weekends adds up to roughly $2,500 per year.

Harrison Milfeld, a 2010 University of Missouri graduate, finds that participating in Dry January for the last three years has not only given him a better sense of control over drinking, but says it has helped him save money. “I would be saving something like $5 to $6 each day,” Milfeld says.

To achieve long-term sobriety, Harlan says to start small, whether that’s choosing an alcohol-free day or keeping track of your drinks for a week.

“Most of the time, we fail because the steps are too big,” Harlan says. “Maybe a whole month is too big for someone; try just one day. Just cut back, maybe one less drink.”

Mocktails provide an alternative for those choosing to refrain from alcohol, enabling them to enjoy social outings without feeling the need to drink.

“Just because it’s not January doesn’t mean you can’t reevaluate your relationship with alcohol,” Harlan says.

Photography courtesy of Colby Morton

Dr. Cherie Flowers performs a surgery on a cat. She averages 30 surgeries a day in three hours.

A ‘fix’ for pet populations

The Spay Neuter Project’s veterinarian helps fight overpopulation, a surgery at a time.

BY SARAH RUBINSTEIN

The surgery room is silent except for Dixie’s heart rate on the monitor. Her paws are covered in pink floral baby socks to regulate her temperature during the procedure. The Shih Tzu is the first of 24 animals Dr. Cherie Flowers will spay or neuter throughout the day.

Flowers is the only full-time veterinarian at The Spay Neuter Project, a nonprofit high-volume spay and neuter clinic in Columbia. Unlike a full-service vet, the nonprofit only performs spay and neuter surgeries and certain vaccinations for cats and dogs, including rescue animals and feral cats.

Finding funding

The Spay Neuter Project’s mission is to combat pet overpopulation, offering reduced-cost or free services. It relies on donations and grants to support its work. In 2023, the nonprofit announced it would have to close unless it received more funding. Veterans United stepped in with aid until early 2024.

The community also helps out, whether that’s support through the CoMoGives campaign or a couple asking for donations instead of wedding gifts.

Janeene Johnston, the clinic’s executive director, frequently answers calls from the community asking why the surgeries are cheap. Due to the low

Photography by JJ Measer

prices, many callers assume University of Missouri students are performing the surgeries rather than a professional vet, she says. As a nonprofit, they can be more flexible with pricing. “We can write grants, we can ask for donations, we can do the things that other people can’t do,” Johnston says.

The procedure

As a high-volume clinic, Flowers’ working environment is fast-paced. She performs an average of 30 surgeries a day in about three hours. She says it’s relaxing. As an introvert, she works well in a quiet, focused space. “When I do surgery, I just kind of keep to myself and just focus on that only,” she says. “I really enjoy it.”

But before the surgeries start, the clinic is anything but quiet. Leo, a yellow Labrador retriever, nervously pants and barks in his cage next to the other dogs as they await their preliminary exam. Cats meow in the adjacent room. Flowers and her staff check the animals’ heartbeats and see if they have been spayed or neutered already — some pet owners don’t know or can’t tell.

Spay and neuter surgeries might be common, but they’re complex, Flowers says. For instance, if an older dog had previous litters, it can increase the likelihood of complications.

After 9 a.m., staff dart in and out of

Cherie Flowers and a staff member check a dog’s heartbeat before its surgery.

the surgery room, preparing for procedures. They fill a bowl of soapy water to sanitize instruments after surgery.

Dogs are the first for surgery, then cats. Dogs are moved to the surgery room and placed on a table. Staff place surgical tools nearby. Once Flowers starts, she is in the zone. She does not take her eyes off the animal and barely notices the staff preparing the next dog in the same room. “When she’s back there, sometimes we’ll even ask her a question and she doesn’t respond,” Johnston says. “And it’s not because she’s ignoring us; she has this ability to tune things out.”

Neuters take only a couple of minutes. A spay with more risk would take about 20 minutes, Flowers says. She is proud of the fast and efficient routine she has developed. She’s usually finished around lunchtime. In the afternoon, staff monitor the animals as they wake up.

During spays, she removes an animal’s ovaries, fallopian tubes and uterus, making it unable to reproduce. Neuters remove an animal’s testicles, also preventing reproduction, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association. When she’s done, she takes her gloves off, tosses them in the trash, puts on new ones and immediately moves on to the next animal.

When the surgery is over, a staff member wraps the animal up in a blan-

FIXIN’ TO FIX?

The Spay Neuter Project, 206 Austin Ave., 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Tues.-Fri. Spay or neuter surgeries cost $70 for cats, $40 for feral cats and $80$120 for dogs. Community members can donate to the nonprofit online or in person. It also welcomes supply donations. A list of items can be found at spayneuterproject mo.org.

ket and places it on a leopard-print heating pad on the floor. They call this “the beach.” The beach can be found packed — on one occasion, with five orange, black and white cats with a husky sandwiched in the middle. The animals’ body temperatures drop during surgery, so the staff must keep them warm. The colder they are, the more difficult it is to wake them up, Flowers says.

She is glad her passion allows her to do good in the world. “It goes back to keeping the (animal) population number down,” she says. “So those animals can go into good homes, and then they don’t have to be euthanized.”

Pet overpopulation

In 1973, the U.S. killed 13.5 million shelter animals per year because of overcrowding. The rise of spay and neuter surgery access contributed to the number dropping to 1.5 million animals in 2019, according to a 2022 study published in Frontiers in Veterinary Science

Pet overpopulation has been a consistent problem in Missouri. Puppy mills, or commercial operations that look to breed as many dogs as possible, can contribute to this. For the past 11 years, Missouri has had the highest number of puppy mill dealers in the country, according to The Humane Society of the United States. Missouri alone has 31 puppy mill dealers, 18 more than the second-highest state.

Moving forward, Johnston is looking for long-term partners and grants. But with the overall support of the community, she isn’t worried.

“Sometimes, really good things come out of challenging situations,” Johnston says. “I feel like people really understand that just because we’re low cost doesn’t mean we still don’t need financial support.”

After surgery, an orange cat rests on a heating pad to regulate its temperature.

Photography by JJ Measer

TO-DO LIST

Your curated guide of what to do in Columbia this month.

ARTS

Leonor Fini: Theater of Dreams

An exhibition of Argentinian painter Leonor Fini’s surreal drawings and paintings returns to Sager Reeves Gallery. Simultaneously haunting and whimsical, Fini’s work explores sex and femininity through portraiture and experimental techniques. The exhibition was on hold during the True/False Film Fest, but now visitors can return to enjoy the dreamlike scenes and characters in Fini’s lively artwork. March 31 through April 30, Sager Reeves Gallery, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday–Saturday, sagerreevesgallery.com.

Now is the Time

In this locally written and produced musical, tragedy strikes, bringing five characters together in grief. Over the course of the following year,

they face a tangled web of relationships, love and death as they learn important lessons. The show was created by local musicians Trent Rash and Audra Sergel. April 19-20, 25-27 and May 2-4, 7:30 p.m.; April 21, 28 and May 5, 2 p.m., Talking Horse Productions, $20, $18 for students, talkinghorseproductions.org, 573-607-1740

CIVIC

CoMo Retro Game Convention

Video game enthusiasts can talk shop at the third CoMo Retro Game Convention. Attendees can sign up for Super Smash Bros or Mario Kart tournaments and play on arcade cabinets. Meet industry professionals, buy and sell games and accessories or discover a new favorite. April 20, Stoney Creek Conference Center, $10 online, $15 at

Home Composting 101

Composting isn’t just for gardeners. Learn how anyone can benefit from composting kitchen scraps and make better soil at this free workshop. Registration appreciated but not required. April 24, 6 p.m., Columbia Public Library, events.dbrl.org, 573-874-6271

FOOD

Orr Street Farm and Art Market

Head over to the North Village Arts District for the opening day of its seasonal farmers and artisans market. You can catch your favorite local vendors every Sunday through the end of October. To apply as a vendor or to ask questions, visit its Facebook page. April 28 to Oct. 27, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., Historic Wabash Station, 126 N. Tenth St.

— BANDIT

adopted 11-26-09

CALENDAR

MUSIC

Odyssey Chamber Music Series

This music series presents two performances in April. On April 5, Paul Crabb takes the stage with his vocal ensemble Prometheus to perform a Bach cantata featuring young soloists in collaboration with the Mid-Missouri Area Music Teachers Association. If Mozart and Brahms are more your speed, local conductor Scott Yoo will lead a series of quartets on April 20. April 5 and April 20, 7 p.m., $25 admission, $5 students, First Baptist Church of Columbia, odysseymissouri.org, 573-825-0079

St. Louis Symphony Orchestra

The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra is set to perform as part of the University Concert Series, bringing a Mozart concerto and a Beethoven symphony to Columbia. The St. Louis Symphony, the nation’s second-oldest orchestra, is celebrating its 144th anniversary this season. April 10, 7 p.m., $40-56, Jesse Auditorium, concertseries.missouri.edu, 573882-3781

Slaughter Beach, Dog

Jake Ewald, co-frontman of emo band Modern Baseball, has been experimenting under the name Slaughter Beach, Dog since 2017. Expanding past the emo rock that propelled the Philadelphia musician to fame, the band’s latest album, Crying, Laughing, Waving, Smiling, is a poppy homage to singer/songwriters of the 1970s. April 12, 8 p.m., Rose Music Hall, $25 in advance; $29 day of, rosemusichall.com.

Post Sex Nachos

Columbia natives Post Sex Nachos return to The Blue Note stage. The homecoming stop is the last on the band’s 2024 U.S. tour. They’ll be joined on stage by Joplin indie rockers Me Like Bees and Nashville-based duo Venus & the Flytraps. April 20, 8 p.m., The Blue Note, $16-30, thebluenote.com, 573-874-1944

OUTDOORS

Columbia Area Earth Day Festival

Celebrate the Earth with music and community at the annual Earth Day Festival. Two stages will be set up for musical performances, with opportunities for fun and education throughout downtown Columbia. Local businesses and artisans will sell art, food and other keepsakes. April 21, Peace Park, free, columbiaearthday.org

THERE GOES THE SUN

PHOTOGRAPHY BY MONIQUE WOO

Jamie Arndt rests his head on Stephanie Reid-Arndt while they watch the total solar eclipse on Aug. 21, 2017. On April 8, another total solar eclipse will be visible across 13 states from Texas to Maine, including southeast Missouri. After 1:30 p.m., the eclipse will be visible in places like Poplar Bluff, Cape Girardeau, Perryville and others before it makes its way east. In Columbia, you’ll be able to see 94% of the eclipse’s darkness. You won’t be able to see another total eclipse in the continental U.S. until the summer of 2044, so make sure to grab your glasses.

PRESENTS

JUNE 22 - JULY 13

The Missouri Symphony welcomes you to the Firefly Music Festival, a reimagined summer festival experience led by MOSY Music Director, Wilbur Lin.

New this year... Festival Passes! TICKETS & PASSES ON SALE NOW!