Vox Magazine July/August Issue 2022

THE VOICE OF COLUMBIA  JULY/AUGUST 2022

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BROADWAY’S BEAUX BUILDINGS PAGE 5

TELLING HIS ANCESTORS’ STORIES PAGE 11

DIG IN FOR FARM THERAPY PAGE 16

You’ll be as happy as one of the local shop pets (p. 22) with summer activities, CoMo-style, including fresh margaritas (p. 26), homemade popsicles (p. 25), a musical showcase (p. 8) and new books for your reading list (p. 13).

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FROM THE EDITOR

REINVENTING ME

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF COURTNEY PERRETT MANAGING EDITOR ABBEY TAUCHEN ART DIRECTOR HEERAL PATEL ASSOCIATE EDITOR ALEXANDRA HUNT

T

en years ago, I was in high school, and my world was too small to fit my goals.

I was 15, and I wanted to be a writer, a professor of literature, maybe an actor or a musician. The future was fertile ground, a broad and empty canvas with unlimited possibilities to create and to become.

Skip back another decade from there, and I was 5 years old, immersing myself in knowledge.

I learned how to exist in the world, how to fit into a specific mold — or break it. When you’re a kid, you can do anything (for the most part). I loved the ocean, so I took up water sports. I found a home in music, so I wrote songs and learned to play musical instruments. At that point, I wanted to be a scientist, a marine biologist to be specific, a vocation where swimsuits and flip flops were part of the corporate dress code.

Time moved slowly, and I got used to the cadence of this life, a gentle current that nurtures forward progress but not so much so that you know where you’re going.

I learned early on that life unfolds whether we’re prepared for it or not, and reinventing ourselves is OK. In fact, it’s preferred. Our identities are constantly shifting as we figure out who we want to be and what’s important to us. Now, at 25, I’ve wrapped up six years of education and research. I’ve traveled to and lived in multiple states and reported from remote places worldwide. But, really, this is just the beginning.

As I write this, my final letter to you as the editor-in-chief of Vox, I know that it’s time for a new chapter, one that will involve another wave of changes: a move, new people, unfamiliar places.

And, though it’s daunting, and I don’t feel ready, I’m prepared to wander.

Going forward, it is my hope that Vox continues to examine issues of social justice, center and elevate marginalized voices and broaden people’s perspectives through its coverage of local food, culture and community.

It’s been my privilege, Columbia. See you in another decade!

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS JACEY JOHNSON, SKYLAR LAIRD, REBECCA NOEL, AMILEE NUZZO, SYDNEY SCALIA, MAX SHAPIRO, NIKOL SLATINSKA, JORDAN THORNSBERRY, MARISSA WHITAKER EDITORIAL DIRECTOR HEATHER ISHERWOOD EXECUTIVE EDITOR LAURA HECK OFFICE MANAGER KIM TOWNLAIN

Vox Magazine @VoxMag @VoxMagazine @VoxMagazine ADVERTISING 882 - 5714 | CIRCULATION 882-5700 | EDITORIAL 884- 6432 CALENDAR send to v o x @m i s s o u ri . e d u o r subm i t vi a onl i ne fo rm a t v o x m a g a zi n e . c o m TO RECEIVE VOX IN YOUR INBOX sign up for email newsletters at voxmagazine.com J U LY / A U G US T 2 0 2 2 V OL UM E 2 4 , IS S U E 7 PUB L I S HE D B Y T HE C O L U M BIA M IS S O U RIA N L E E HI L L S HAL L , C O L U M BIA M O 6 5 2 1 1

MAGAZINE Courtney Perrett Editor-in-Chief

On the cover: Theo at Skylark Bookshop Design: Heeral Patel Photo: Elizabeth Pruitt

Get your headphones ready Did you know Vox has a podcast? Vox Voice features local luminaries from around town. We talk to Columbians you know — or need to know — to learn more about their backgrounds and how they’re contributing to the community. Our current season features: • Nickie Davis, the executive director of the Downtown Community Improvement District. Davis is working to keep The District a “diverse, forward-thinking, unique, weird community.”

• Nina Murkerjee Furstenau, journalist and food writer who uses food to better understand culture. Furstenau’s latest book, Green Chili and Other Imposters, comes from her time in India as a Fulbright Scholar.

• Kenton Gewecke, the former chief meteorologist at KOMU 8. Before Kenton left for New York in June to work on ABC’s weather and climate team, he pushed for climate change dialogue in mid-Missouri.

You can find the Vox Voice podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and just about anywhere else you listen to podcasts. Visit VoxMagazine. com for more information.

Nickie Davis speaks with Vox staff while recording an episode of the Vox Voice podcast.

Photography by Kaitlyn Zoglmann Jenkins and courtesy of Courtney Perrett

VOX MAGAZINE • JULY/AUGUST 2022

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

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CULTURE 13

Breaking up tradition Diversify the literary canon with alternatives suggested by local professors.

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Band that writes together Columbia-based Tri-County Liquidators discusses their writing process.

FEATURES 16

Seeds of community Susan Nagel’s 31-acre farm sprouted into friendships, community and dirt therapy.

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Meet the shop pets These furry friends are purrfect at making customers feel right at home.

EAT + DRINK 25

Anything is popsicle Cool down from the heat with these tips for making popsicles at home.

IN THE LOOP

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History in plain sight

Mo-garitaville Spicy, creamy, fruity — and flavorful.

Try these margs from around town.

Architectural styles of the past adorn building facades on East Broadway.

CITY LIFE

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Vintage vibes with virtue

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Heart(beat) of Columbia

Meet the owner of a groovy boutique in the North Village Arts District.

Local musicians gather at Dive Bar to create an experience that captures the essence of our community.

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Warrior sisters Local author Phong Nguyen discusses his new book, Bronze Drum, and its connections to his heritage.

Kick it up a notch Change up your workout routine with these four martial arts styles.

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Vox Picks Enjoy summer at the fair, grab a drink at a new taproom, and roller skate into an ‘80s-themed pride party.

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VOX MAGAZINE • JULY/AUGUST 2022

Photography by Maya Bell/Archive, Maggie Lenox, Sydney Scalia, Julia Wu, and Margo Wagner and illustrations by Elijah Carter-Roberts

CAPTURING COMMUNITY IN COLUMBIA P. 8

SUMMER SIPS, SKATES AND SONGS P. 12

History in plain sight The architecture in downtown Columbia tells a story. You just have to look up.

BY JACEY JOHNSON The Miller Building, where Sycamore restaurant is located, was built in 1910 in the Beaux Arts style with arched windows and a flat roof.

Photography by Maggie Lenox and courtesy of Unsplash and Illustrations by Elijah Carter-Roberts

VOX MAGAZINE • JULY/AUGUST 2022

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IN TH E LOOP HISTORY

Built in 1930, the Metropolitan Building is currently home to Rally House and is an example of Art Deco architecture with its sleek style and geometric details.

BEAUX ARTS 800 E. Broadway, Sycamore The Miller Building, built in 1910 and home to the restaurant Sycamore, exhibits Beaux Arts through its grandiose elements reminscent of Greek and Roman styles.

Hornbeck says the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893, also known as Chicago World’s Fair, significantly contributed to the growing popularity of Beaux Arts in America. The fair’s structures were designed in Beaux Arts style, in part to celebrate the city’s revival after

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rick by brick, column by column and window by window, the building styles in Columbia’s historic downtown district tell stories of the city’s history.

More than 80 structures are designated as historically significant. Many of those were constructed between 1836 and 1956, and they showcase styles from Art Deco, Beaux Arts and Classical Revival architectural movements.

“I got into architecture for the buildings, and I stayed for the stories,” says Building Preservation’s Deb Sheals, who has been an architectural historian for 30 years.

Despite the span of time, most of the buildings downtown use architectural terra cotta, which is glazed clay made to look like stone. Sheals says the material was commonly used during the late 1800s and early 1900s and was popular because it is easier to work with than stone. Here are a few buildings that showcase Columbia’s architectural history.

ART DECO 808 E. Broadway, Rally House There are only a few Art Deco build-

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ings in downtown Columbia. Built around 1930, the Metropolitan Building and current home to Rally House is one of them.

The term “Art Deco” wasn’t popularized until the 1960s, says Elizabeth Hornbeck, an architectural historian who taught in MU’s art history department for over 18 years. The style that inspired this building was ahead of its time with its detailed decorations. “It’s the single best example of polychromatic terra cotta in town,” Sheals says.

The concept of Art Deco comes from the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes, an exposition that took place in Paris in 1925. This style spilled into other decorative art forms including fashion, design and sculpture. “Just like clothes, everything comes in and out,” Sheals says.

The building that houses Skylark Bookshop on Ninth Street is another example of the Art Deco style in downtown architecture. Hornbeck says Skylark’s gold, bronze and silver interior creates its iconic design. “When I think of Art Deco in Columbia, that’s the place that comes to mind,” Hornbeck says.

VOX MAGAZINE • JULY/AUGUST 2022

The Victor Barth Building, which currently houses Binghams Traditional Clothing and The Law Firm of Haden & Colbert, was built in 1909.

The building’s sculptural and ornamental details are influenced by the Beaux Arts style.

Photography by Maggie Lenox

I N T HE LO O P HISTORY

the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. Millions of people visited the fair over six months, and the Beaux Arts style took off.

BEAUX ARTS 827 E. Broadway, Binghams Traditional Clothing and The Law Firm of Haden & Colbert Another Beaux Arts building in Columbia is the Victor Barth Building that was built in 1909. The structure is currently home to Binghams Traditional Clothing and The Law Firm of Haden & Colbert.

The view of the structure was obscured for a time when a concrete canopy to shelter pedestrians was built along East Broadway in 1968. The canopy was removed in the early 2000s.

Beaux Arts was taught at the premier European architectural school of the 18th and 19th centuries in Paris, known as the École des Beaux-Arts. Americans who wanted to study architecture had to find the appropriate teaching in Europe. It took many decades of seeking inspiration from European design before architecture

The Haden Building, built in 1921,is now home to Commerce Bank and has several features of Classical Revival architecture, including symmetry, classical columns and detailed cornices.

schools were established in the U.S. during the late 19th century, Hornbeck says.

Even when architecture schools were established, not everyone was on board with the Beaux Arts’ expansion, Hornbeck says. Modernist architects didn’t approve of attending school just to replicate classical styling in new structures.

CLASSICAL REVIVAL 901 E. Broadway, Commerce Bank The Haden Building, which was built in

1921 and currently houses Commerce Bank, displays some features of the Classical Revival style. Sheals says Classical Revival is a part of the later stage of the Beaux Arts movement.

Classical ancient Greek and Roman forms both influenced the Haden Building. Hornbeck says the building is “more Greek than Roman,” and attributes the columns’ decorative features to the Romans and their functional use to the Greeks.

207 S. 9TH ST. IN DOWNTOWN COMO COLUMBIAARTLEAGUE.ORG

BECOME A MEMBER TO SUPPORT

THE ARTS IN COMO! Join in July and receive a free gift!

ColumbiaArtLeague.org Photography by Maggie Lenox

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IN TH E LOOP ESSAY

Finding the heart(beat) of Columbia One writer uncovers the deep connections and community among local musicians at Song Swap.

BY MAX SHAPIRO

Y

ou know that scene from, like, a thousand different movies where the meek protagonist steps into a bar full of buff, tattooed middle-aged folks who look ready to beat them up? Well, that’s pretty much how I felt when I first walked into Columbia’s Dive Bar on April 12.

OK, that’s an exaggeration. I never actually felt in danger of being beat up, even though the very first bit of background chatter I heard after going outside to the patio was a woman behind me jokingly saying to her friend, “I will throat-punch you!” (I’ll assume it was a joke because nobody ended up getting throat-punched that night).

I wandered and found a stray seat for myself, which was one of those bulky plastic chairs you can find at public pools. Hardly any time passed before Ryan Shiner, one of the night’s performers who I’d been in touch with beforehand, walked up to greet me: “Are you the kid from Vox?” “Jeez, is it THAT obvious?” I thought to myself as I, probably the only audience member in their 20s, sat there crosslegged in my polo shirt and khaki shorts.

But by the end of the night, I’d come to understand the supportive community they’d formed.

Finally, 7 p.m. rolled around, and it was time for the main event. Dennis Schubert, the event’s organizer, took the stage to address the crowd. “Welcome to Como Song Swap,” he announced.

Dive Bar’s Song Swap night falls on the second Tuesday of each month.

The event was first conceived in 2020 by Schubert, who was inspired by a birth-

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Ron Smith is a Columbia guitarist who swapped songs with Dennis Hodo at the event writer Max Shapiro attended.

Dive Bar hosts Song Swap on the second Tuesday of each month, and the music starts rolling at 7 p.m.

DIVE BAR

day party at Dive Bar that a group of fellow local musicians threw for him.

He realized turning that night into a recurring gathering would give local singer-songwriters an opportunity to get to know one another and hone their craft. It also helped that Dive Bar was looking for new ways of keeping business going during the pandemic, so this event fit the bill perfectly.

Como Song Swap brings together six local musicians, who are grouped into three pairs. Each pair takes the stage for an hour and performs original songs.

1116 Business Loop 70 E. Hours: Tues.—Thurs., 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Friday, 11 a.m. to midnight; Saturday, 10 a.m. to midnight; Sunday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Contact: 607-9523, divebarcomo.com

Diving in First up were Dennis Hodo and Ron Smith, two guitarists who were both well-established local performers but perfect strangers to each other before that night. Pairing together singers who aren’t well-acquainted encourages them both to make good first impressions on each other, which can foster new friendships, Schubert says.

Hodo opened with a blues song called “Shake It Off” (no, not the Taylor Swift

VOX MAGAZINE • JULY/AUGUST 2022

version), which Smith followed up with a soulful ballad about the “little things you do every day” that “matter in some notso-little ways.” The song is all about how small gestures, both good and bad, are what people remember most about you.

Some of Smith’s other songs were similarly emotional, such as the one about his father with alcoholism. This song hit me especially hard because of how eerily it mirrored my own experiences with my mother during her struggle with alcoholism: You had a friend in the bottle, that you tried to hide somewhere, in a bush, or in your car, or in the basement, anywhere.

My mom has been sober for 6 years now, but this reminded me how a lot of people with loved ones struggling with addictions aren’t so lucky.

On the other hand, you’ve got the satirical “anti-love song” Smith performed, which was about how for humans, love is just a bunch of chemical reactions in our brains. It basically sounded like something out of Rick and Morty. And his Illustrations by Elijah Carter-Roberts

I N T HE LO O P ESSAY

song to remind himself that no matter how bad of a day he’s having, it could always be worse; he could be stuck in a wet jungle with nothing to eat but a can of lima beans.

During the intermission before the next set, Schubert asked anyone in the audience who was a singer-songwriter to stand up, and nearly the entire crowd did. It was at this point that it really clicked with me: Everybody knew everybody here. Throughout the night, audience members waved and shouted to one another from opposite ends of the patio. They could drift from table to table with no issue, pulling up a chair without the need for an invitation. I realized that Song Swap felt less like singers performing for an audience and more like a group of friends simply hanging out and playing music for one other.

“It’s also been a real good way for more of the songwriters to get acquainted with each other,” Schubert says. “Folks like us can meet more folks like us.”

folksy country song about clickbait, popup ads and other such digital nuisances is something I never knew I wanted.

The crowd seemed to feel the same way, as they broke into applause before the song even ended. At one point, the throat-punch lady yelled out to finish a lyric before Smith could. “Sometimes I just get something stuck in my funny sack,” says Smith, a semi-retired computer consultant. “I just start writing it out and see where I can take it.”

Although Smith usually jumped right into his songs, Hodo gave detailed intros for his. One song was inspired by his nature walks through the Ozarks, and another came to be when he heard somebody his daughter’s age complain about getting old, which sent him down something of a mental rabbit hole.

Hodo ended the set with “Lima Bean Blues,” the first song he ever wrote. He spent months in the jungles of Vietnam serving in the infantry in the ’70s. One time, a monsoon prevented the helicopters that delivered food to soldiers from reaching them. Hodo wrote this Illustrations by Elijah Carter-Roberts

Best bassists The next performers to take the stage were Linda Bott and Nancy Deitz, jazz bassists whose music stylings are “a watered-down, minimalistic approach to what should be big-band music,” says Deitz, who has played in big bands and orchestras. Hodo and Smith didn’t interact much on stage, but Bott and Deitz were the exact opposite. They would banter between songs and cheer each other on throughout the performance.

True to the nature of jazz, their time on stage had a looser, more improvisational feel. There were a handful of times when one of them would decide on the fly to play a different song than originally planned, such as when Deitz performed a song dedicated to her late grandparents. She admitted to being nervous about singing it because of how emotional it makes her, immediately receiving words of encouragement from an audience member: “You got this, girl, you got this!” She managed to make it through the song tear-free.

Encouraged by Deitz’s display of vulnerability, Bott decided to follow suit with an acapella piece about her grandmother with Alzheimer’s — a song she very rarely performs for others. “OK, no more crying songs,” they said afterward.

From the very start, I’d gotten the sense that these two had a real history between them, and my intuition was confirmed when Deitz told the audience, “This lady here is one of the biggest reasons I started playing bass.” When Bott was pregnant, Deitz bought a bass so that her friend could come rehearse at her house without having to lug her own bass over there. The situation created an excuse for Deitz to pick up bass herself, and the rest is history.

A not-so-odd couple By the end of their performance, the sun had set, and the air had turned from thick and balmy to cool and crisp. My rigid posture finally loosened — this was

Dennis Schubert organizes the Song Swap events. He says his favorite part is that it provides a hub for different musicians to meet each other.

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IN TH E LOOP ESSAY

no longer merely something I was covering for an assignment, but rather an experience I allowed myself to become immersed in (even if I still was furiously jotting down notes).

Despite being the final duo of the night, Seth Colaner (who recently adopted the stage name Adventure Hat) and Ryan Shiner were by far the performers with the most energy.

Unfazed by the somewhat-dwindled crowd, they both seemed happy just to be there. “This is my kind of living,” Colaner declared when he first got on stage. “One of the things that’s great about it is that, by design, there are a lot of other musicians in the audience,” Colaner says. “And so you get their feedback, but then you also make these new connections —– and those can be really fruitful, whether because you collaborate later or simply because it’s good to be part of a community.”

Colaner was playing on a “100-andsomething-year-old” parlor guitar he bought from a vintage music shop in the “little hippie town” of Yellow Springs, Ohio, where he used to live. He coined the term “Melodramericana” to describe much of his music. He infuses traditional Americana with a more dramatic, emo-

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tional flare inspired by experience playing classical music and writing operas. The subject matter of his songs certainly fits that description, ranging from grief to alcoholism to a relationship going through a rough patch.

Shiner’s music was a bit more lighthearted by comparison. One song was about an obsessive ex, while another was about how Kylo Ren is an emo edgelord.

I wasn’t expecting anything from that night to top the clickbait song in the “things I never knew I wanted” department, but clearly I was wrong. Afterward, Colaner accused him of committing one of the gravest sins in the Star Wars fanbase: preferring the prequels. “I like ’em all,” he replied, not necessarily denying it.

For another song, Shiner kicked off his sandals and employed his triedand-true tactic for riling up the crowd: crabcore dance moves, which involve squatting and moving around like, well, a crab. “I’m a big guy — you gotta do what you gotta do,” he says. And for his final performance of the night, he rewarded everyone who stuck around to the end with a cover of the musical masterpiece that is the SpongeBob SquarePants song “Ripped Pants.”

VOX MAGAZINE • JULY/AUGUST 2022

At Song Swap, you can find musicians everywhere — onstage and in the audience. Three pairs of musicians take the stage for an hour. Sometimes, they have not met before the performance — or only met the day before.

The spirit of CoMo People ask me all the time why I came to MU. And it’s a fair question. How did a pasty Jewish kid from Jersey end up smack dab in the heart of the Midwest?

The answer I give has always been, “the journalism school,” which usually satisfies them. And for a long time, that’s what I told myself. After all, I’ve always wanted to be a writer, so this school seemed like my best bet.

However, as time passed, I came to realize that it was something more than that.

I had other options, but whether I knew it or not at the time, I picked MU — and, by extension, Missouri — because it was something different. I felt that I owed it to myself to step outside the bubble of my suburban upbringing and have experiences with new kinds of people, new kinds of cultures, new kinds of communities. And to me, something like Song Swap is the perfect example of this.

Watching all these singers come together to support one another is the very specific kind of experience I wouldn’t be able to find in my hometown, which didn’t have much in the way of a local music scene.

It gets to the core of what makes Columbia special: It’s a city that feels like a small town, a community that thrives on local values. I know it sounds corny, but simply put, Song Swap captured the essence of Columbia in its purest form.

Some of the songs Ryan Shiner writes and performs during Song Swap pay homage to pop culture, such as SpongeBob SquarePants and Star Wars. Importantly, he did not deny liking the Star Wars prequels.

Illustrations by Elijah Carter-Roberts

I N T HE LO O P Q&A

Warrior sisters In his new novel, Bronze Drum, local author and MU professor Phong Nguyen tells the story of two revolutionary women largely forgotten by the West.

BY REBECCA NOEL

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hong Nguyen’s book, Bronze Drum, begins with Lord Trung, a general in modern-day northern Vietnam, telling his wife, “The only happy story you want to hear begins with a revolution.” The novel, which comes out Aug. 9, tells the true story of Trung’s daughters, who rose up to avenge his death at the hands of a wicked Han dynasty governor in the year 43 C.E. The two daughters gathered an army of 80,000 women who fought off the dynasty and created an independent nation for the first time in that region.

“This story has really only been preserved through oral tradition,” says Kirsiah McNamara, one of Nguyen’s book editors. “This really is the definitive book of discovering a hidden figure and being enraptured by their story.”

Nguyen, the son of a Vietnamese immigrant, used to hear this tale from his father as a child. It was passed down like a family heirloom. Nguyen, a professor of creative writing at MU, has written other historical fiction books, but this one hits particularly close to home for him as he weaves

Bronze Drum, which makes its debut Aug. 9, is available for preorder on Nguyen’s website, phongvnguyen.com.

The author will also be going on tour and stopping in at Skylark Bookshop on launch day at 6:30 p.m.

his lyrical, almost mythical prose into a story that pays homage to his heritage.

Vox spoke with Nguyen about how themes of uprising, family, colonialism and patriarchy came to be a focus in his book and how its messages continues to resonate today.

What inspired you to write this story?

It is a story I’ve always wanted to write since I was young. It’s a story every Vietnamese person and Vietnamese American person grows up hearing. One thing that compelled me about it was the fact that it was not a typical revenge story.

They use it (revenge) to galvanize the people toward a higher goal, which is their independence, so it’s an inspiring story, even if the nation they created was short-lived.

What inspired you to bring this story to an audience that is miles away from the original events?

One of the common misconceptions in the West is that in all Asian cultures uniformly, women play a subordinate role at all times as if it is a

Photography by Margo Wagner and courtesy of Grand Central Publishing

sort of continental quality. One of the things I want to show Western readers is that there is precedent for the empowerment of women in places like Vietnam.

What role does your identity as a Vietnamese American play in your writing?

I think it is going to inform my work no matter what. Even though my father is from Vietnam, I’m not from Vietnam, and I don’t speak Vietnamese. So I’m aware of the degrees of distance between me and the source material. That said, it’s such a compelling story, and I wanted to honor the subject matter and its role in my own experience and upbringing.

Is anything about this story particularly pertinent today?

I think there’s a growing consensus that there ought to be a female leader of this country. We haven’t seen that yet in our history. Then we have these models from 2,000 years ago across the world, where people were inspired by the example of women leaders. I think that ought to be humbling that we have not yet found that collective inclination.

How does your family’s history inspire your works?

Every book is kind of a departure from the one before. My next book is going to be a memoir encompassing three generations and three continents: my father and grandfather grew up in Vietnam, the history of French colonialism in Vietnam, and my father immigrating and my growing up in the United States. In the dedication of Bronze Drum, it mentions my grandmother who was killed by a French pilot in 1947 while holding her 1-year-old son, my uncle. They were both shot and killed, and that is the genesis of the story that I want to tell in this upcoming book. That event has had rippling effects throughout the years and affects my life still today.

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IN TH E LOOP VOX PI CKS

Vox Picks for

JULY/AUGUST 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 ABBEY TAUCHEN

Skate…

At the ’80s-themed Level-Up Skating Arena for a back-toschool edition of LGBTQ+ Sunday Skate. Enjoy a safe space to dress up and couple skate with your boo(s) in an inclusive environment. A ticket includes two hours of skating and a skate rental. Food and beverages will be available for purchase. Level-Up Entertainment; 2300 Bernadette Drive, Aug. 21, 2–4 p.m.; $8 online, $10 at door, free admission with membership; 340-9195; RSVP at nclusionplus.com

Celebrate…

Summertime at the Boone County Fair. Come one, come all! This family-friendly event, which is sponsored by Veterans United, has been a Boone County tradition since 1885. Enjoy rides, carnival food, live music, animals, face painting, the Boone County Fair Pageant, a magical juggler, a balloon twister, circus events and more. Check out the Boone County Fair website for the schedule. 5212 Oakland Gravel Road; July 19–23, $10 Tues.– Fri., $15 Saturday, $35 season pass, veterans receive free admission; 874-6398; theboonecountyfair.com

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VOX MAGAZINE • JULY/AUGUST 2022

Listen…

To five featured concerts during the 2022 Mizzou International Composers Festival. The festival occurs each July in Columbia, and it features public concerts, presentations and workshops. The festival selects eight resident composers to create new works to be performed by Alarm Will Sound, a 20-member chamber orchestra. The concerts are available to stream on the Mizzou New Music Facebook page or the MU School of Music’s YouTube. Check the New Music website for updates on concert locations. July 25 and 27–30, 7:30 p.m.; newmusic. missouri.edu/micf

Sip…

A beer from Broadway Brewery’s newest spot on Ninth Street.

Broadway on Ninth is the brewery’s tap room and private event space. It features 14 house drafts plus a nitro rotation for one brew, a full bar and a 16-foot garage door that opens to the sidewalk, weather-permitting. Snag a slice from Pizza Tree or grab-and-go from Main Squeeze and head to the tap room to make merry. Broadway on Ninth, 15 S. Ninth St.; Thurs.–Fri., 4 p.m. to 1a.m., Sat.–Sun., 2 p.m. to 1a.m.; 443-5054; broadwaybrewery.com

Enjoy…

Drinks, light eats and live music Sunday nights in July and August with Summer Music on the Blufftop events. Take in the beautiful views and the evening summer breeze as you listen to a variety of featured artists including Noah Earle, Audra Sergel Band, Kyren Penrose, Meredith Shaw, Rochara Knight & The Honey Doves, Blake Gardner & The Farmers and Marcella’s Ghost. Les Bourgeois Vineyard A-Frame Winegarden, 14020 W. Highway BB; July 3, 10, 17 and 24 and Aug. 7, 14 and 21, 5–7 p.m.; 800-690-1830; missouriwine.com/summer-musicon-the-blufftop Photography courtesy of Grand Central Publishing, Unsplash and Wikimedia Commons

BAND TOGETHER P. 15

Breaking up with tradition Three Columbia professors share their alternative approaches to teaching literary classics.

BY NIKOL SLATINSKA

Remember all those books you read (or skimmed the SparkNotes) in high school? Commendable teachers called them “classics,” and they worked to make the stories feel accessible to contemporary students. The problem is that many of the authors — such as Charles Dickens, George Orwell and John Steinbeck — are white, presumably straight and cisgender men whose net worth was over $1 million each at the times of their deaths.

That point of view doesn’t represent the majority of the people reading their stories, nor did it fully encapsulate the breadth of perspectives and experiences in their own times.

The term “literary canon” is used to describe works that are considered the most influential for a given time and place, which begs the question: Why aren’t modern students reading more diverse

Photography courtesy of MU and Unsplash and collage by Heeral Patel with photography courtesy of The British Library, Grand Central Publishing, Harper Collins, Pengiun Random House, Playbill and Simon & Schuster

perspectives that better represent a time period?

We asked three professors for their opinions about what is missing from the canon of classics and to share some of their go-to teaching alternatives.

ELIZABETH CHANG MU assistant professor of Victorian literature and other topics Elizabeth Chang says teachers are bound by a number of things when it comes to selecting reading material to teach. “There isn’t an educator who isn’t thinking about this,” Chang says.

The biggest challenge, she says, is exploring VOX MAGAZINE • JULY/AUGUST 2022

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CULTURE BOOKS

a range of diverse perspectives within the time she has for each class. Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway is a commonly read work in Chang’s survey of British literature courses. To give an alternate perspective, she teaches it in tandem with Samuel Selvon’s The Lonely Londoners. Detailing the lives of Caribbean immigrants in London after World War II, the novel portrays multiple points of view and incorporates elements of prose poetry. “One (book) is very canonical, and one is not, so it’s really helpful for students to see this range of perspectives in the 20th century,” Chang says.

Chang also enjoys teaching works from Amy Levy, a lesser-known poet and novelist. A Jewish lesbian who died by suicide at age 27, Levy completed her most significant works during the 1880s.

“She wrote a couple of novels about the social scene and women’s professionalism at the end of the century that contrast interestingly with other, better-known novels that don’t necessarily speak about Jewishness,” Chang says.

Somerville also teaches a course called All That Jazz: Literature of the 1920s. As the course’s title would imply, it’s difficult not to include the work of Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Not only are their writings essential to the time period, Somerville says, but they are also legitimately good. She likes to teach the novels of Fitzgerald’s wife, Zelda, because, despite being lesser known, her works also fall into both categories. In her writings, including her only novel, Save Me the Waltz, Zelda Fitzgerald helped propagate the liberating ideals of the flapper era.

LYNN ITAGAKI MU associate professor of English and women’s and gender studies Although many classic books cover uncomfortable topics — think Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck — Lynn Itagaki promotes engagement with students in order to contextualize the stories. “I’m into

conversation and discussion about texts,” Itagaki says. “It’s more about how (books) have played out over decades or centuries and how they’ve impacted our culture.”

A novel that Itagaki likes to teach in conjunction with F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is Passing by Nella Larsen.

Set in the same time period, Passing tells the story of a Black woman named Irene Redfield who passes as a white woman.

More broadly, the novel covers “how the American dream for African Americans is pinned on this woman and how Harlem society in New York City rotates around this question of whiteness, assimilation and passing,” Itagaki says.

Itagaki says she read Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World in high school and thought it was fascinating. Now, she often teaches Octavia Butler’s Xenogenesis series, which explores similar themes of utopia, sexuality and organizing society. “I teach Octavia Butler and her work as a way of revisioning speculative fiction, but also to incorporate African Americans and writers of color and their imagined vision of the future,” Itagaki says.

KRIS SOMERVILLE Stephens College associate professor of English and creative writing Kris Somerville says she considers student accessibility and interest when assigning literature. Somerville, who is also the marketing coordinator and editor of special projects at The Missouri Review, teaches general education literature courses primarily to fashion and theater students. She tries to find literature that has a “real topical appeal.”

Plays are often a fun way of getting students to be enthusiastic about class readings, she says. In her course titled Bold Women in Literature, Somerville likes to teach Theresa Rebeck’s 2018 play Bernhardt/Hamlet as an alternative to the Shakespearean classic. “It’s about Sarah Bernhardt trying to finance a production of Hamlet, where she plays Hamlet,” Somerville says. “So it’s an early example of gender-bending in 18th-century France.”

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Photography courtesy of MU and LG Patterson/The Missouri Review and illustration by Heeral Patel with photography courtesy of The British Library, Grand Central Publishing, Harper Collins, Pengiun Random House and Simon & Schuster

C U LT U RE MUSIC

A band that writes together Collaboration is key for local band Tri-County Liquidators, which released its first single in May.

BY AMILEE NUZZO

T

he members of the local rock band Tri-County Liquidators officially joined forces last summer, but they’ve been playing shows together for years.

As the members of two former bands, Marielle Carlos, Spenser Rook, Anthony Wilkerson, George Sarafianos and Matt Hall knew each other well.

Carlos, Rook and Sarafianos had played in a band called Witchkr; Wilkerson and Hall were part of another group called Cecil. The two acts often played joint shows and even wrote songs together as part of a split release. So when the groups Cecil and Witchkr disbanded, coming together seemed like the best next step.

“We were all still writing songs, and it just seemed natural to join forces and make this band,” says Rook, who is on vocals and plays guitar.

With Carlos on bass, Wilkerson on drums and Rook, Hall and Sarafianos on guitar, the band’s “riff-heavy shoegaze” sound is often compared to artists such as My Bloody Valentine, Sonic Youth and Slow Pulp, Carlos says. Apart from Wilkerson, all of the band members are vocalists. The group’s first single, “Flies,” dropped on May 9.

A collaborative process Tri-County Liquidators, formerly the name of Rook’s solo project, plays to the strengths of all five members when writing and recording music. The group’s

Photography by Maya Bell/Archive

songwriting process is collaborative, something that Carlos says can be complicated. Some songs are written meticulously with everyone in mind from the beginning, while others allow each member to provide input when writing their parts. “It depends on if they have a very clear set vision on it or if it’s just an idea still,” Sarafianos says.

When it comes to writing each part, Sarafianos says he’s the most particular of the group while Rook and Hall usually bring a few riffs to writing sessions for the group to play around with. Sometimes, to write a song, the group brings together multiple riffs and melodies that haven’t been used yet, Carlos says.

Making “Flies” A guitar-heavy song with airy vocals primarily from Carlos, “Flies” was Hall’s brainchild. “It was a song I wrote on guitar and then brought to the band, and everyone contributed to it,” Hall says.

“Marielle made a bass line, and then she took the reins and made the lyrics and the vocal melody.”

At first, Hall was hesitant about “Flies,” but he brought it to the band

anyway. His love of the song was revived during the three-month process of incorporating more guitars, distortion, pedals and other effects before the song reached its final form.

When it comes to writing songs, the band’s lyrics tend to read like poetry, a style that creates imagery and leaves the song’s interpretation up to the listener. “ ‘Flies’ is about this strange transition after making it through and cutting it close so many times, how that feeling of relief at the end kind of turns into the opposite,” Carlos says.

George Sarafianos, (left), Marielle Carlos, Spenser Rook and Matt Hall of Tri-County Liquidators warm up before their April performance at Dogwood Artist Workspace & Gallery.

TUNE IN TO THE TRI-COUNTY LIQUIDATORS Start with: “Flies” Listen on: Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music Follow them: @tri_county_ liquidators

Looking forward Although most of the group has been playing music for many years, Carlos says she doesn’t know if she’d be performing if she wasn’t surrounded by the support from her friends in music — and Sarafianos agrees. “You have to let yourself become obsessed, let yourself succumb to a certain mania,” Sarafianos says.

The group hopes to go on tour in the next year. “We have a lot of things planned,” Carlos says. “We’re trying to record as much as we can and hopefully put out an EP in the fall.”

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SOWING SEEDS OF COMMUNITY A passionate gardener, scientist and community advocate, Susan Nagel runs The Mother Farm. This 31-acre patch of land in south Columbia is home to a large farm share where people can learn to grow produce, get outside and give back to nature.

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After Susan Nagel finishes her morning routine, she plans what the farm share workers will plant for the day at The Mother Farm. The farm also holds yoga classes and workshops on topics such as growing mushrooms at home, making kombucha, and how and why to grow tumeric.

Story Skylar Laird Photos Jia Wu Design Heeral Patel Editing Alexandra Hunt 17

Julie Nichols asks Susan Nagel for advice on how to plant seedlings.

Nichols is Nagel’s neighbor and participates in the farm share weekly with her husband.

A sign with a wire chicken on top welcomes people to The Mother Farm. Long rows of dirt stretch toward the farm pond.

Farther back, beyond the blue house with a white trim, are red barns with chickens and goats roaming behind fences.

Susan Nagel greets the day’s visitors in the front yard and cracks a smile beneath the brim of her hat. Before sending them to work weeding and planting, she opens her arms and reminds them, “This is your farm share.”

It’s a big change from the lab where Nagel spent her days at the MU School of Medicine studying endocrine disruptors, which are chemicals that can affect

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Nagel talks to farm share members after morning yoga. During yoga, everyone is immersed in the tranquil farm atmosphere.

normal hormone production. Her farm is different from the kind of field work she used to do, such as her trip to Colorado to study the effects of chemicals from the oil and gas production method known as fracking. Nagel left her research job a year ago, going from an associate professor of obstetrics, gynecology and women’s health to a full-time farmer.

She now runs The Mother Farm, a 31-acre Community Supported Agriculture farm where members reap the benefits, including what members call “dirt therapy,” working in the fields and having

access to fresh fruit, vegetables and milk.

The program has tripled in size since it began last year, and Nagel foresees a future in which she teaches people that farming is possible for anyone.

(Farming allows me to) think critically and test things and keep records.

It also allows me more freedom to try things. Because, you know, what’s the worst that can happen? ­

From city to farm

When Nagel first moved to Columbia, she begged her landlord to let her plant a garden in the sunny part of the yard.

Growing up in Little Rock, Arkansas, her only agricultural experience was visiting her great-aunt and great-uncle’s farm, but she knew she loved growing plants. She dreamed of one day working on a farm like it.

Nagel told her husband, Alan, when they first met that her life’s goal was to have a hobby farm. Still, she hardly believed it when several years later he suggested making that dream a reality.

The couple bought The Mother Farm in south Columbia in 2015, and they moved into the cheery blue house with their kids, Sam and Jack.

The farm, off Highway 163, began with an orchard of apple trees, but in the years that followed, they expanded to include vegetable patches, cows, goats, chickens and pigs. What began as an idea for a hobby has sprouted into a livelihood.

But a decade spent building another career was not easy to leave behind.

Nagel took time off a few years ago to see what farming full-time would be like.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, she went back to her research job, but it no longer felt right.

“It was like: ‘OK. Got it. Nope, not going to happen,’ ” Nagel says. “I was very passionate about having my research program for a long time, but then when I found my life’s calling in midlife, it was cognitive dissonance.”

So, she changed careers in 2021, and she officially began the Community Supported Agriculture program. It’s one of several in the region; Happy Hollow Farm is another example.

Nagel’s decade spent doing research helped her dive into the farm world, she says. She has spent hours reading about best methods for growing different plants and incorporating practices such as no-till farming into her repetoire. And years in a lab made her more inclined to experiment on the farm as well.

—Susan Nagel, The Mother Farm owner

Nagel divides the seedlings that farm share members will plant. She split the trays in half so members can start sowing two lines at a time.

“(It allows me to) think critically and test things and keep records,” she says.

“It also allows me more freedom to try things. Because, you know, what’s the worst that can happen?”

Kneeling in the dirt beside the overgrown raised beds, she points out a dead plant that was her failed experiment with huckleberry. She laughs it off, explaining that she’d thought it would be easy to grow but, clearly, it was not as simple as she’d expected.

Sharing the work

As Nagel began farming, her intuition told her other people might like to try planting, too. Plus, her farm could use the

extra help. So Nagel embraced the “many hands make light work” philosophy and began inviting friends to join a farm share, or CSA, in which they would pay for the benefits of farm working, as well as be rewarded with the food they grow.

Nagel was right: Plenty of people wanted to plant fruits and vegetables.

The farm share had 12 members in 2021; this year, it has more than tripled and now has 40 members. The program runs from March to November with full-time members paying an annual fee to visit the farm weekly and part-time members paying a smaller annual fee to visit the farm twice a month. In exchange, they get produce from the farm, special prices

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After morning yoga, Nagel and farm share members begin planting and working on other farm chores.

Nagel’s daughter, Sam Welshons, (right) has helped a lot at the farm share.

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on other items and discounts to attend Nagel’s workshops.

Hosted on the farm, the workshops have included topics such as how to prune apple trees and grow mushrooms at home. Nagel invites local experts to teach groups of interested people more about agriculture.

It’s all part of Nagel’s plan to make the farm self-sufficient and sustainable as a business. There are solar panels, a wind turbine and a compost pile on the farm, too.

“To make a living is so hard,” she says. “It’s just crazy. It’s mind-boggling, in fact, how hard it is to make a living growing food.”

Difficult it may be, but there’s the added benefit that interacting with the natural world can increase a person’s mood, focus and attention. A 2016 study published in Nature linked time spent in green spaces to reduced blood pressure,

stress and depression, especially for people living in cities. People leaving hiking trails reported feeling less stressed and more rejuvenated, according to a 2010 study in Environment and Behavior. And a paper in Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences found that exposure to nature boosted memory, attention, concentration, impulse inhibition and mood.

Nagel and her members have a simpler name for it: dirt therapy.

The farm share

On this particular morning, the group was supposed to be planting the long rows of vegetable patches overlooking the lake. But, despite the clear weather, Nagel was concerned about a fluctuating forecast. So, she switched tacks.

Nagel explained the drill: Everyone group up, grab a wheelbarrow and some tools and meet at the cluster of raised garden beds on the top of the hill. The beds were overgrown with dead plant material and weeds from the winter.

She advised the group not to take anything but weeds and their roots out of the ground. The remaining soil and the plants growing in it, which she refers to as “lovely organic matter,” is essential to helping the vegetables grow.

“It’s my therapy, it’s my exercise, it’s my gym,” says farm share member Barb Wills, a senior business services consultant with MU Extension, as she pulls dead plants from a wire fence. She had no prior experience farming; she joined the farm share because she thought it sounded like something fun to do with friends. “I’m really looking forward to the harvest,” she says.

Lisa Cole, who joined the farm share last year, admires Nagel’s organizational skills and vision for the future.

“She’s just very organized and excited and inspirational,” Cole says. “She shares so willingly everything she learns.”

Ultimately, Nagel wants to model a new method of farming — one that’s accessible and sustainable to anyone, even people like her without an agricultural background.

“When you can (farm) in this alternative way together that meets people’s needs for connection to each other and to humans and to the earth and to nature and to animals and to food, it’s just a win-win-win.”

Nagel teaches Maggie Berry and Juliette Berry how to water the seedlings. Maggie and Juliette’s mother described the farm share as a good way for children to learn in nature.

Nagel wakes at 7 a.m. to feed the chickens, clean up waste and milk the cows.

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STORY JORDAN THORNSBERRY

DESIGN HEERAL PATEL

PHOTOGRAPHY ELIZABETH PRUITT

EDITING ALEXANDRA HUNT

Morrison is one of the playful cats at Lizzi & Rocco’s Natural Pet Market.

Helmi’s Garden has three parakeets, two turkeys and several chickens on its property.

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W

hat’s better than supporting local businesses? Supporting local businesses that have shop pets! Many stores put animals on their merchandise or logos. Others, however, bring animals to greet customers. Meet a few of the real-life pet mascots that make local shop settings more warm, fuzzy and tail-wagging fun.

THEO at Skylark Bookshop Maybe it’s his dark fur and friendly personality that makes him so lovable, or his ability to remain completely unphased through the bustle of a busy day at Skylark Bookshop, but either way, Theo is easily one of the best parts of a visit to this local bookstore.

No one knows Theo’s exact breed because he was rescued over 10 years ago from Columbia’s Second Chance, but Theo’s owner (and shop owner) Alex George believes he is a labrador/ greyhound mix. He is humble despite being re-

ferred to as the “bookshop king.”

Theo doubles as George’s fourlegged best friend and shadow, following him everywhere he goes. “If I go upstairs to do something, he pads all the way up the stairs and watches me put a book back, and then I turn around and he follows me back down the stairs again,” George says. Theo is just as friendly when other animals visit the store, as long as they don’t get on his bed — his safe space.

Theo’s yellow-brown eyes beam as he greets customers who walk into the bookshop.

MEET HIM AT: Skylark Bookshop 22 S. 9th St.

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DUMPLING AND MORRISON

at Lizzi & Rocco’s Natural Pet Market At the south location of Lizzi & Rocco’s Natural Pet Market, customers can find Dumpling and Morrison — both black and white cats — playing with rubber bracelets or sleeping in their baskets under the counter.

Dumpling, a 3-year-old Persian, is most comfortable riding the shoulders of bakery manager Ryn Langdon while she does her morning preparation. “(He) literally will spend as much time as I let him just hanging out,” she says.

Langdon says Morrison is similar to an elderly man who stares out the window and likes to talk about birds. At 16 years old, the domestic short-haired cat is sassy and playful. But mostly he just acts like a grumpy old man. “He’s an old baby,” says Kirsten Burton, an employee at Lizzis & Rocco’s.

Dumpling is half of the purr-fect duo that brings spunk and quirkiness to the pet shop.

MEET THEM AT:

550 E. Gre en Meadows Road

LYNX, MYNX AND THE BIRDS at Helmi’s Gardens Lynx (left) and Mynx (below) roam the garden landscape when they are not busy taking naps or catching mice.

MEET THEM AT:

7201 S. R A Nursery Road

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As customers browse through garden greenery, they can expect to see cats, chickens, parakeets and turkeys — the Helmi’s Gardens shop pets.

The cats, Lynx and Mynx, are the two stars of the garden shop, owner Helmi Sheely says.

At about 17 years old, Lynx enjoys riding around in strollers and findings nooks and crannies to fall asleep in. If a customer comes into the shop with a stroller, Lynx might find his way into the basket, something many people don’t notice until they are loading the stroller in their car, and he surprises them.

Mynx, who is about 5, is more like an average standoffish barn cat. With Lynx’s old age, Mynx is the main mouser now, catching mice before they can eat the seeds planted in the greenhouses.

Helmi’s Gardens is also home to three parakeets, two Royal Palm turkeys and a bunch of chickens. None of them have names, except one small black chicken that was dropped off by a customer and named Chicky Nuggy. Sheely hopes to add a peacock to the mix soon. “I think animals make a nice ambiance,” Sheely says.

OH ME, OH MARG P. 26

Anything is popsicle Need a respite from the heat? These homemade popsicle-making tips have you covered.

BY REBECCA NOEL Simple, sweet and a refreshing treat — there’s a reason popsicles are a perennial summer favorite. Just because they’re easy to make doesn’t mean they have to be basic. A couple years ago I spent the summer slinging the frozen treat in the Houston heat. Along the way, I learned a few tips and tricks for making your homemade pops pop.

1 It’s all about the base For bright, icy pops, purée your choice of fresh fruit with sugar, honey and water, or juice. For a softer, velvety texture, try cream or whole milk Greek yogurt. Full-fat coconut milk makes a tasty vegan substitute.

2 Ripe, ripe baby After your pops harden (4-8 hours in the freezer will do the trick), the fruit might be less sweet. Use fruit at the peak of ripeness for the sweetest pop of flavor. Make up for unripe or frozen fruit with extra sweetener.

3 Dress ‘em to impress Melt your favorite type of chocolate with about 1 tablespoon of coconut oil and drizzle it on your pop — the coconut oil helps the chocolate harden in about 30 seconds and gives a shine without affecting the chocolate flavor. Better yet, crush up your favorite nuts or cookies and sprinkle them on before the chocolate hardens for just about the most decadent popsicle you’ve ever seen. You deserve it.

4 Think outside the (juice) box You’re not limited to juice. Get creative! You can use iced coffee and cream instead of fruit. Add a little caramel drizzle for a frozen take on a caramel macchiato from a certain unnamed java chain. Throw together iced tea and lemonade for a pop Arnold Palmer would envy. Pureé peaches, vanilla yogurt, oats and honey for a sweet southern pick-me-up. The popsibilities are endless.

Don’t feel like DIY? Try the variety pack popsicles from La Michoacana (right) or the paletas (Mexican ice pops) from Paleteria El Tajín, 903 E. Broadway.

Photography by Maggie Lenox and courtesy of Unsplash

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E AT + DRINK DRINKS

Mo-garitaville Gather your friends and family and try these unique and refreshing margaritas across Columbia.

There’s sure to be a marg to match your mood when you’re seeking a happy hour.

BY ALEXANDRA HUNT

Mezcal margarita at Room 38 Try if you like: smoky and refreshing The mezcal margarita ($13.50) at Room 38 is a smoky-flavored drink, enhanced by mezcal and Cointreau. It is made with lime and pineapple and garnished with rosemary and a lime salt rim. Mezcal pairs well with orange, cheese, chocolate, pork and smoked meat, which makes it the perfect addition to nearly any meal. Bartender Hank Noah recommends pairing the drink with something light such as the Thai chicken lettuce wraps ($12), but for something sweeter, pair the mezcal with the chocolate torte ($8) for a full-flavored combo. Room 38, 38 N. Eighth St., Mon.­—Sat., 11 a.m. to 1:30 a.m.; Sunday brunch, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., 449-3838

Spicy cilantro margarita at Delia’s Mexican Grill Try if you like: spicy and herbaceous The spicy cilantro margarita ($13.99) at Delia’s Mexican Grill packs a tangy punch and is extremely revitalizing. This marg comes with your choice of tequila mixed with fresh jalapeños and a touch of cilantro. The flavors of cilantro and spice blend wonderfully with garlic, lemon, lime, chiles, onions, avocado, pineapple and mango. Jesús Hernández, waiter and bartender at Delia’s, recommends pairing the margarita with the enchiladas ahogadas ($9.99). If you are looking for something lighter, try the ceviche ($9.99), which complements the flavors of the drink. Hernández also recommends trying the spicy blackberry margarita — his personal favorite.

Delia’s Mexican Grill, 201 N. Tenth St., Tues.—Sun., 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., 499-1010

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Rosemary peach margarita at Casa Maria’s Mexican Cantina Try if you like: fruity and sweet The rosemary peach margarita at Casa Maria’s Mexican Cantina is the perfect marg if you’re craving a summer-fresh drink with juicy fruit.

The drink is a blend of peach puree and Cointreau, topped with fresh rosemary and a sugar rim. The light, sweet flavors of peach mix well with lime, mint, pork, chicken and tomato. The margarita complements dishes such as the arrachera tacos ($11.79) or the guacamole mexicano ($8.79). For something spicier, Alan Weoos, bartender and waiter at Casa Maria’s, suggests trying his favorite drink on the menu, the mango habanero margarita. Casa Maria’s Mexican Cantina, 1305 Grindstone Parkway, Mon.—Thurs., 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Fri. and Sat., 11 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.; Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., 777-5505

Avocado margarita at La Terraza Try if you like: sweet and creamy The avocado margarita ($9.50) at La Terraza is made from a whole avocado, orange juice, triple sec and tequila, forming a creamy, sweet combination. The blended avocado creates a texture similar to a piña colada. Avocado pairs well with just about anything, but especially with black beans, chicken, citrus, chiles, mango, mint and pineapple. The Mariscada ($17.99) and fajita ranchera ($9.50) would complement this textured marg.

Employee Angela Guillen recommends trying different tequilas in your margaritas to elevate your drink. La Terraza, 1412 Forum Blvd., Mon. — Thurs. 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Fri. — Sat. 11 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.; Sunday 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., 445-9444

Photography by Maggie Lenox

SAY HI-YA TO MARTIAL ARTS P. 29

Vintage vibes with virtue Columbia’s Hedda boutique offers handmade and vintage items that are groovy and sustainable.

BY MARISA WHITAKER

With tranquil music vibrating throughout the store and a warm greeting from owner Heather Ripcse, Hedda’s atmosphere is immediately welcoming. Soft, natural light showers over ’70s crochet vests, Clark Wallabee high tops, clip-on statement earrings and Ripcse’s handmade linen tops and dresses. She only displays a small amount of jewelry and clothing, allowing customers to appreciate each product’s individual beauty.

Ripcse imagined selling clothes throughout her life, but she struggled with whether retail and clothing were a meaningful pursuit. Through the isolation of the pandemic, however, she realized that dressing ourselves can be an act of self-care and expression.

“I think that when you feel good about yourself, you’re better for everybody around you,” she says. “People have been adorning their bodies since the beginning of time with beautiful things, and it is important.”

Heather Ripcse got lucky when a downtown storefront and studio space opened up last October. She originally planned to sell clothes online but says she wouldn’t change the way Hedda operates today.

Photography by Marisa Whitaker and courtesy of Pixabay

Treasure hunting For fun early in the pandemic, Ripcse would drive around looking for estate sales (where she says the real treasures are found), flea markets and vintage shops to collect items for herself. Ripcse has been vintage shopping her whole life and uses her self-coined “Hedda-vision” to select products.

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CITY LIFE BUSINESS Ripcse makes various items such as tops, aprons and hair ribbons in her studio located at the back of the store. Hedda customers can browse her products while getting a glimpse of her at work.

and breakdown routines of a pop-up were physically demanding and gave her less time to actually sell goods, so she began looking around for studio space.

With a bit of good timing in the fall, Ripcse snagged a storefront with a studio in the back.

Now, Ripcse has a location to sell her found vintage items such as clothing, bags, hats, jewelry, shoes and small home items like sconces and candlesticks. “Opening a brick and mortar (store) wasn’t really exactly what I had envisioned,” Ripcse says, “but it allows me to have kind of a stake in the community and be more involved in Columbia.”

It’s a process Ever since she was young, Ripcse’s fascination with how things are made has guided her job choices, including the opening of her new store. Before starting Hedda, Ripcse worked as a salami-making apprentice. Although making salami and clothing are clearly different, both require a certain craftsmanship to shape the final product.

“I really like processes — knowing how to do something from the very beginning to the end,” Ripcse says. “Like, how do you take a flat piece of fabric and make it into something three-dimensional that’s not only wearable but fits well?”

HEAD OVER TO HEDDA

Where: 1023 E. Walnut St., Studio 4 Hours: Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, noon to 5 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m

It took Ripcse’s own process to build a space for people who love all types of vintage items and clothing. However, she doesn’t want to limit Hedda to the “vintage” description. “For me, it’s more about the quality and timelessness of the piece rather than the age of it,” she says.

In addition to selling collected items, Ripcse sews clothing and is inspired by minimalist Japanese workwear-style fashion. She uses linen fabric and sells several of her handcrafted, one-size-fitsmost tops and dresses in the shop.

Sustainable inspiration Ripcse’s motivation to find and sell sustainable items at Hedda stems from her roots. Born to a Hungarian immigrant and a Lake of the Ozarks resident, Ripcse learned the importance of owning only what is needed and taking care of an item for its entire lifespan.

“The fashion industry is one of the biggest drains on the environment,” Ripcse says. “We have to do things differently. The world is changing around us in real time.”

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Photography by Marisa Whitaker

C I T Y LI FE RECREATION

but the idea is that you can go all out against your opponent and when you’re done, both of you are able to stand up,” St. John says. “You’re not there to do damage; you’re there to test yourself and to see who has more skill.”

Karate

Kick it up a notch with martial arts No matter your skill level, you can learn self-defense and mindfulness from these sports at a variety of local gyms.

Rifkin Professional Karate Center offers a blended style of karate from long-time fighting professional J.D. Rifkin. The Japanese style of martial arts is best known for its intense kicks and punches.

BY SYDNEY SCALIA

W

ith hundreds of different styles from around the world, the broad category of martial arts comprises disciplines that can be traced back hundreds of years.

Martial arts facilities around Columbia help people learn self-defense tactics, get in a good workout and develop a stronger connection between their minds and bodies.

Here are four martial arts styles you can try in Columbia.

Brazilian jiujitsu Facility: Gracie Humaita Jiu-Jitsu Location: 2010 Chapel Plaza Court Price: $125 per month for unlimited classes This non-striking style emerged in the 1920s as a method of self-defense and grappling. Shawn Woods, the owner of Gracie Humaita Jiu-Jitsu, has practiced the sport for 19 years. Woods started after witnessing how skillfully the famous jiujitsu UFC fighter Joyce Gracie could defeat his opponents — almost making it look easy.

In jiujitsu, thinking ahead is critical.

Photography by Sydney Scalia

Woods says the sport is about “human intelligence over brute strength.” A person’s main focus is to be hands-on while also being ready to resist the opponent.

“It uses leverage, timing and techniques to allow the smaller person to overcome the larger and more powerful person,” Woods says.

Krav maga

Judo Facility: Mid Missouri Judo Location: 4250 E. Broadway Price: $100 per month One of the few martial arts styles represented in the Olympics, judo was established in Japan in 1882 and is similar to jiujitsu in that it doesn’t focus on striking or punching. Glenn St. John, the owner of Mid Missouri Judo, holds a fourth-degree black belt. He says Jigoro Kano developed the sport in such a way that it could be practiced without injury, prompting judo to be called “the gentle way.” St. John says judo is rooted in “teaching you how to control yourself.”

“We do chokes and armbars,

Facility: Rifkin Professional Karate Center Location: 502 Cooper Drive N. Price: $69 for the introductory program Unlike the other forms of martial arts that do not rely on physical striking and kicking, the Japanese martial art of karate often utilizes kicks, jumps, punches and blocks.

“Karate is used as a catch-all term now to reference Japanese martial arts,” instructor and Rifkin Professional Karate Center owner J.D. Rifkin says. “The main point of karate is self-defense, but really, it’s the betterment of oneself through training: more self-confidence, physical fitness and clarity of mind.”

The self-defense aspect of karate involves more intense physical fighting.

Rifkin says this is because modern karate is a blended style that pulls from other martial arts styles that involve throws, locks, takedowns and even weapons.

“YOU’RE NOT THERE TO DO DAMAGE; YOU’RE THERE TO TEST YOURSELF AND TO SEE WHO HAS MORE SKILL.” —Glenn St. John, Mid Missouri Judo

Facility: Hockman’s ATA Martial Arts Location: 112 Corporate Lake Drive Price: $50 per month Krav maga is the official military-style self-defense of the Israeli Defense Forces. It combines various other martial arts styles, including judo, boxing, aikido and karate, all into one.

“In self-defense, an attack has been initiated and puts us in a position at a disadvantage, and we do whatever works,” says Jade Hockman, owner of Hockman’s ATA Martial Arts. “We put everything under stress, so every week we do a stress drill which acclimates us to the sudden shock of being attacked.”

Students initially learn the skills to defend themselves against chokes, locks and grabs.

“We like to try to meet people where they’re at and then work on trying to get them to where we think they can be,” Hockman says. Eventually, students can learn how to defend themselves against guns and knives.

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CALENDAR

TO-DO LIST

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

JULY

Movies in the Park: Encanto

The Importance of Being Earnest

Sit under the stars and enjoy Disney’s Encanto in Cosmo Park. The musical centers around the Madrigal family, who live in the magical Encanto, and every Madrigal child has an enchanted gift except for Mirabel. Follow the story as Mirabel discovers her destiny. Columbia connection alert: 2002 Stephens College alum Stephanie Beatriz voices the part of Mirabel. July 8, 8:45 p.m.,

Join the Maplewood Barn Theatre in enjoying the classic Oscar Wilde play, The Importance Of Being Earnest. The comedy is set in London and focuses on two bachelors who create alter egos in an effort to leave their old dreary life behind.

Cosmo Park, free, 874-2489

Summerfest: Jordan Davis

July 21—24 and July 28—31, 8 p.m., Maplewood Barn Theatre, $13 general admission; $5 children under 10, 227-2276

Summerfest: Animal Collective

AUGUST

The Breakfast Club at Rose Park Grab your friends and enemies-turned-unlikelyallies for the iconic 1985 flick The Breakfast Club.

Chow down on some delicious tacos at Rose Park and watch this classic group of misfits bond during their day-long detention. Aug. 10, 8:30 p.m., free, Rose Park, 874-1944

The Things You Least Expect Enjoy watching Talking Horse Productions’ performance of The Things You Least Expect. The play follows a woman after her husband dies as she rediscovers dreams and raises questions about love and self-fulfillment in life. Aug. 12—13 and 18—20, 7:30 p.m.; Aug. 14 and 21, 2 p.m., Talking Horse Productions, $15 students; $17 general admission, 607-1740

Animal Collective is an experimental pop band that has been together since 1999 and is known for its psychedelic sounds. Some of their top songs include “My Girls” and “Man of Oil.” Animal Collective partnered with Serve Your City DC & National Harm Reduction Coalition and will donate $1 from each ticket purchased. July 22,

The Boone Dawdle 2022

Jordan Davis is a country/pop singer-songwriter from Louisiana. He was named Billboard’s Top New Country Artist of 2018 and recently released the single “What My World Spins Around.” Davis will be performing as part of The Blue Note’s Summerfest series. July 15, 7:30 p.m., Rose Park, $28 advance; $32 day of, 874-1944

7:30 p.m., Rose Park, $31, 874-1944

Party Pass, $75; Whole Shebang, $125, 442-8783

Diverse programming you can’t find anywhere else.

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VOX MAGAZINE • JULY/AUGUST 2022

The Boone Dawdle is back! This lazy summertime bike ride travels from downtown Columbia to The Blufftop at Rocheport in support of Ragtag Film Society. Enjoy tasty food, buskers, trailside surprises and a stunning view of the Missouri River valley. Aug. 13, 2 p.m., Flat Branch Park,

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photo finish

LET OUR REJOICING RISE PHOTOGRAPHY BY JULIA WU Corina McClee, who owns skincare business Holystically Delicious, discusses the products available at her stall with customer Brandon Gleason. With her aged-oil products, McClee was one of the vendors who attended the annual Juneteenth celebration at Cosmo Park in Columbia, hosted by local group The Village. Juneteenth marks one of the final federal enforcements of the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed enslaved people and went into effect two years earlier on Jan. 1, 1863.

On June 19, 1965, federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, to proclaim the end of the Civil War and tell enslaved people they were now free. For over a century, Black Americans have celebrated this holiday as one that represents liberation, freedom and community. President Biden declared it an official federal holiday in 2020. McClee says that The Village’s celebration is an opportunity for Black business owners to support one another. “We all come together as one family, and we support each other here,” says Starr Davis, another attendee of the event.

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70th Annual Fourth of July Celebration

Monday, July 4, 2022 Stephens Lake Park

• Street Performers • Two Stages of Live Entertainment • Kids Activities including free crafts and bounce house • Spectacular fireworks display www.como.gov/parksandrec/special-events-2/4th-july-fire-sky/