Vox Magazine May 2020 by Vox Magazine

SAYING AN EARLY GOODBYE PAGE 7

BOOK TOURS STAY HOME PAGE 14

ALL BODIES ARE GOOD BODIES PAGE 16

MANAGE YOUR COVID KITCHEN PAGE 24

MAY 2020 â&#x20AC;¢ THE VOICE OF COLUMBIA

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FROM THE EDITOR

NEW ABNORMAL

E DI T OR I N CHI E F SARAH EVERETT DE PUT Y E DI T OR MEG DONOHUE M AN AGI N G E DI T O R ELENA K. CRUZ

DI GI TAL M AN AGI N G E D IT O R CAMERON R. FLATT

know a lot about mail. I know the difference between certified mail and registered mail, between library mail and media mail. I know the forms needed to open a P.O. box and the proper way to return to sender. When I was in undergrad, I worked at my school’s mail center, an intersection of sorts for all paper correspondence at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, plus the place where on-campus students received packages and paper mail. I both hated and loved that job. 1) Sorting through buckets of junk mail will make you crazy. It’s mind-boggling how much paper is wasted on flyers and promotional postcards that will only be thrown away. 2) When people graduate from college, they typically forget to fill out a change of address form. 3) I loved looking at magazine covers as I sorted them from mailbox to mailbox and 4) I love a stamped, enveloped handwritten letter. But the mail service is in trouble these days, and Zoom seems to be the preferred method of communication, even above telephone and email. Putting together Vox over Zoom has become a new “normal” for us, as have the phrases “Sorry, I was on mute,” and “OK, I’m about to share my screen. Can everyone see my screen?” Columbia is now over a month into our stay-at-home order, and I’ve been thinking about how COVID-19 is much more than a two-month break from normal; it will forever be ingrained into what we know as normal, into the way we communicate. I never thought

I’d be Zooming with my grandma every weekend. I never thought we’d live in a post-handshake world. I also never thought my semester would be cut short, as so many students — especially seniors — are grieving (p. 7). MU announced it intends to return to in-person classes in fall, but I think more students in all grades will opt for online classes. Perhaps more doctors will opt for online appointments, too (p. 28). For grocery stores, a struggle to restock shelves has become the new normal. For local shoppers, wearing a mask to the store has become the new normal. For local farmers, a struggle to keep up with demand has become the new normal (p. 5). For teen girls today, scrolling through social media has always been routine, as has exposure to body ideals and the self-doubt that comes with it (p. 16). I’m an old soul. Unlike the girls in our feature, I usually post once a year on Instagram, and as I said earlier, I love snail mail. I like plans, and it takes me a while to get used to change. But there are some things about the stay-at-home order that I’ve enjoyed. Seeing my family and friends on Zoom every weekend is one of them. I also like going for daily walks and playing games with my family to pass the time. I do hope things return to normal soon, but for now, I’m embracing the new abnormal. I’m not sure how much returning to things as we knew them before will actually happen.

ON L I N E E DI T OR GABY MORERA DI NÚBILA CR E AT I V E DI R E CT O R HOPE JOHNSON ART DI R E CT OR S SAM BALMER, MADISON WISSE PHOT O E DI T O R DEREK RIEKE M ULT I M E DI A E DI TO R SAM MOSHER AS S I S TAN T E D IT O RS CULT UR E CHRISTIÁNE-TRÉSOR CRAWFORD, SARAH HALLAM, NICOLE SCHROEDER, KATHERINE STATER, EMMA VEIDT E AT + DR I N K LAUREN BROCATO, BROOKE KNAPPENBERGER, LAURA SIGMUND, VICTORIA TRAMPLER CI T Y L I F E SIOBHAN CONNERS, MADISON CZOPEK, EMILY LENTZ, HANNAH MCFADDEN, ABBIE WILSON DE S I GN E R S MITCHELL BARTLE, TAORU HUANG, CHLOE KHAW, MEREDITH LEHMAN, KIRA LOVELL, VERONICA MOHESKY, IVY HETTINGER-ROBERTS CON T R I B UT I N G W R I T E R S EMILY ADAMS, SABRINA BRONS, ALEX BURKE, NICK KELLY, REGAN MERTZ ALEXANDRA SHARP, MATTHEW UNTHANK DIGITAL EDITORS JESSE BAALMAN, BRY BARBER, DELANEY EYERMANN, MOLLY JACKSON, CLAUDIA KHAW, CHRISTINA LONG, MADELYN ODEN M ULT I M E DI A E DI T OR S MEGAN OOSTHUIZEN, GRACE VANCE

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR HEATHER LAMB DIGITAL DIRECTOR SARA SHIPLEY HILES EXECUTIVE EDITOR JENNIFER ROWE

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Behind the issue For the teen body image feature, I reached out to advisors from organizations within Columbia’s public high schools to find sources. I originally talked to five girls but decided to focus on Samantha, Ava and Sam because they were especially honest and candid. They each had different experiences with body image and were trying to find ways to have a more positive relationship with their bodies. I loved hearing what they had to say, and I was impressed by the self-reflections of these remarkable young women. —Sabrina Brons Liked by you and others View all 39 comments 2 HOURS AGO

Corrections: The March issue stated the incorrect address for Pushing Up Daisies’ cemetery, Green Acres, which is located in Rocheport. A March feature about IVF said Missouri Fertility is the only IVF-certified clinic in mid-Missouri. There are in fact two clinics in Columbia that deliver IVF services: Missouri Fertility and the Missouri Center for Reproductive Medicine and Fertility.

Photography by and courtesy of Derek Rieke and Unsplash

ADVERTISING 882- 5714 CIRCULATION 882- 5700 EDITORIAL 8 84- 6432 vox@m i ss o u ri . e d u CALENDAR send to vox@mi s s o u ri . e d u o r subm i t vi a onl i ne form 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 newsletter at voxmagazine.com MAY I S SUE 2 0 2 0 V OL UM E 2 2 , IS S U E 5 PUB L I S HE D B Y T HE CO L U M BIA M IS S O U RIA N 320 L E E H IL L S H A L L COL UM B I A, M O 6 5 2 1 1

MAGAZINE Cover Design: Sam Balmer

VOX MAGAZINE • MAY 2020

TABLE OF CONTENTS

The body issue In the face of the unhealthy ideals often found on social media, local teens redefine body confidence and find healthier versions of themselves. BY SABRINA BRONS

IN THE LOOP

CULTURE

EAT + DRINK

CITY LIFE

Local artists are staying busy while staying home.

Craft the drink that has energized the internet.

Love you, Columbia

Nick Kelly reflects on four years at MU and saying an early farewell.

Poetry in CoMotion

Should you put the idea of getting a few feathered friends to roost?

MU students help publish renowned collections.

Diana Moxon went from world traveler to KOPN arts and culture host.

Authors have gone digital to promote their new work.

Making blends with benefits

Level up the game

Keep your smoothies more “healthy snack” and less “sugary dessert.”

This Show-Me State big cat sanctuary owner is the real king for protecting tigers.

Sowing new seeds As stores empty, Missouri farmers pick up the slack.

Podcasting in a pandemic

Vox Picks Treat friends, family and yourself from a distance.

Keep calm and create

Writing the book on self-promotion

Whip up some frothy caffeine

Keep your cool in the kitchen Sharpen your skills, and maintain your sanity while cooking at home.

Sometimes it’s best to chicken out

Caring for Columbia

For health professionals, work is anything but ordinary with COVID-19.

Missouri’s tigers

At biannual game-making competitions, developers wear their game faces. Photography by and courtesy of Tristen Rouse/Archive, Walker Perkins,

VOX MAGAZINE • MAY 2020

Unsplash and John Madigan and Illustrations by Meredith Lehman

NO GOODBYES P. 7

Sowing new seeds in a pandemic

TOP PICKS NOT TO MISS P. 10

Happy Hollow Farm, located in Jamestown, is among the local farms affected by COVID-19. Owner Liz Graznak says she’s selling much more produce, but farmers market sales have decreased.

Customer demand has skyrocketed, but that also means increased legwork and planning for farmers. BY EMILY ADAMS David Boatright has been following the news for weeks, so to escape the inundation of COVID-19 updates, he focuses on his farm: green pastures and interspersed woods. “It’s how it was and how it will be tomorrow,” he says. “There’s a kind of comfort in that.” Despite the low number of cases in Pettis County, where he lives, Boatright is starting to see how the pandemic might affect the local area. The situation hit home for Boatright when his farm and food delivery business, Fed from the Farm, started receiving calls and emails from people spooked by empty grocery store shelves. Meat sales have increased drastically since the onset of COVID-19, according to data insights firm IRI. During the week of March 15, 2020, meat sales increased by about 77% compared with the same week in 2019. Boatright is experiencing the high demand firsthand and is now shipping even more products to Columbia customers. He’s not the only farmer to experience a surge in demand. Demand for home deliveries has increased by 400%, according to Root Cellar’s Facebook page. Boatright attributes the trend to a broken food system. He says that grocery stores often keep a three-day supply of food at the store and depend on distant providers to get more. “Their supply networks are so intricate and come from so many places,” Photography by Jordan Kodner/Archive

VOX MAGAZINE • MAY 2020

IN TH E LOOP AGRICULTURE

he says. “When all the pieces fall apart across the U.S., chaos erupts.” His business has had no problem keeping up despite having three times more customers than usual. Boatright says he keeps a six-month supply of flash-frozen beef, lamb and pork from animals he raised at all times. He’s also working longer hours and sleeping less. The transition has been harder for producers who sell fresh veggies or depend on in-person business. The Columbia Farmers Market has expanded to offer curbside pickup, though booths are seeing less foot traffic. One of the booths at the market is occupied by Liz Graznak, owner of Happy Hollow Farm located in Jamestown. She produces fresh vegetables and invites customers to work on the farm through its Community Supported Agriculture program. Graznak says offering home deliveries and having a functional website has made a huge difference for her business. “Farmers market sales are not nearly what they’d normally be, but we are cer-

tainly selling a lot of produce,” Graznak says. “Possibly more than normal; I’m getting orders from names I don’t recognize.” The process to get vegetables delivered from the farm to Columbia residents’ doors is labor-intensive. Graznak must estimate how many vegetables she will need and plant them months in advance. Once the vegetables are ready for harvest, employees wash, package and ship large quantities each day with the goal of getting them out the door by 5 p.m. That’s why many food delivery subscription services have to limit their number of customers — there’s only so much they can sell when planting in advance. Such long-term farming plans are difficult to make during a global pandemic. Graznak says she feels grateful to see an increase in business, but she’s also worried the economy will tank down the road. “I’m a very small business, but I have a lot of employees,” she says. “I have a lot of people that depend on me for their income.” Despite an uncertain future, Boatright says he feels confident demand for local

Since the onset of COVID-19, meat sales have increased dramatically, so local farmers have had to change the way they work to meet the rise in demand.

products will continue once the pandemic is over. He’s working at a faster pace than usual and is contemplating grazing more animals. The pandemic, Boatright says, will permanently change the way people think about food. “It’s got people’s attention and has made them realize just how frail the conventional food system is,” he says.

600 Businesses, 100 Restaurants, 50 Square Blocks

IT'S GOOD TO BE HERE DiscoverTheDistrict.com

VOX MAGAZINE • MAY 2020

Photography by Tristen Rouse/Archive

I N T HE LO O P ESSAY

‘Love you, Columbia’ The ritual of parting words became a comfort as traditional goodbyes evaporated amid campus closure. BY NICK KELLY

don’t recall the moment I learned my family’s most important ritual, how old I was or how long it took me to learn it. All I know is that whenever I hang up or wave goodbye to a close family member, I almost always tell them that I love them. “Bye, Dad. Love you.” “Yes, Mom. You got it. Love you.” “Fine, I’ll do it. Love you.” No matter how elated or enraged I am, I end my conversations the same way. I’ll never know, my parents explained, when I’ll tell someone I love them for the last time. I’m discovering this ritual, which I sometimes saw as repetitive, helped teach me about unexpected endings. We often don’t get to choose when or how they occur. Illustrations by Sam Balmer

COVID-19 is providing us with that same lesson, as many of our goodbyes were taken from us. There are the high school seniors who won’t get one final sports season with their teammates. There are diligent workers furloughed from dream jobs. The grandparents who didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to their loved ones. COVID-19 has spared few when it comes to snatching away goodbyes and planned endings. I know I’ve already lost my fair share of endings as a senior in college, and there are sure to be more losses. It’s not like I didn’t know the goodbyes were coming. I’ve been bracing for the emotional impact since January. But I didn’t expect them to happen so soon, or to not happen at all. I walked out of Dumas Apart-

GONE GOWNS

This spring is pomp under different circumstances as graduations take new forms. Mizzou will hold a 24-hour virtual celebration for spring grads. Stephens College postponed to August and Columbia College will hold spring graduation in December.

ments on Hitt Street on March 10, unknowingly for the last time, right before the virus sent us back to our far-flung hometowns and away from our friends. That night, I didn’t realize I was forever leaving the closest thing I’ve had to the Friends Central Perk couch. The kind of place where, no matter what happened that day, that week, that month or even that year, I could return and belly laugh. I didn’t live there, but Dumas is home for three of my friends, and it became a base for about 10 of us where we played too many games and watched too many movies to count. It has a $10 pink velvet couch with frayed corners and ill-fitting cushions, a radiator that always hisses and a wooden bathroom door that never fully shuts. I tried to shut it many VOX MAGAZINE • MAY 2020

IN TH E LOOP ESSAY

times. I even told my friends I would find a way to close it before I graduated. They eventually taped a sign on it that read, “The door won’t shut, Nick. Don’t even try.” It probably wouldn’t have worked, but now I’ll never know. I won’t get one last try. Throughout our lives, we’re taught so much about how to handle beginnings. “Here’s how to start the new year fresh.” Or, “Here’s how to take on the rest of your life.” The main function of school is to prepare us for the next level of education or a new job. All beginnings. We’re never really taught how to handle endings. Ever since students at the University of Missouri received the email notifying us that the rest of the semester was moving online, I’ve been grieving. I think that’s the best word for it. I’ve hesitated to use it in conversation because it’s a word most often associated with death. I’m blessed that I, along with my family and friends, have not experienced death due to COVID-19, but I think we are permitted to grieve the things we have lost, no matter the level of suffering. As researcher Brené Brown recently said in her podcast Unlocking Us, “hurt is hurt, and every time we honor our struggle and the struggles of others by responding with empathy, the healing that results affects us all.” So, I think grieving is OK for all of us who experienced premature endings because of COVID-19. I certainly am. I was counting on these traditions, such as commencement, for closure. I don’t yet know what the virtual celebration will be like, but I know it won’t be the same. These traditional endings are supposed to fill our hearts and allow us to turn the page to the next chapter. That’s what movies and social media tell us anyway. The goodbyes have been left unsaid, and to be frank, I’m sad. In a way, it feels as if all the moments and experiences that have come to an end have been taken, too. As if the time spent at Dumas was nothing more than a pleas-

VOX MAGAZINE • MAY 2020

ant daydream. The proper ending is supposed to be the culmination of what made the experiences, the moments or the friendships valuable, right? Maybe, maybe not. I think it’s great when it can be that way, but now just isn’t one of those times. But know this: The ending does not change what happened in the beginning or the middle. The late nights at Shakespeare’s, the muddy touch football games in front of the columns, the impromptu karaoke in tightly packed cars, none of it disappears. The moment lives on when you decide to pause, close your eyes and put yourself back in it. Endings are sad, but not because we have to say the word goodbye. The tears flow, the nose runs and the throat tightens because of all that preceded the goodbyes. COVID-19 can and will take many things from us, but it cannot and will not take memories. What came before the goodbye — or the lack of one — is ours to cherish forever.

The pandemic has caused thousands of local university students to leave campus and retreat to their hometowns. For Nick Kelly (center, in Mizzou T-shirt), a magazine writing student from Lakeville, Minnesota, this meant missed goodbyes to his friends, an iconic pink apartment couch and the campus that was home.

Writers have words of wisdom and inspiration about life amid COVID-19. “Your work is to feel your sadness and fear and anger whether or not someone else is feeling something. Fighting it doesn’t help because your body is producing the feeling. If we allow the feelings to happen, they’ll happen in an orderly way, and it empowers us. Then we’re not victims. [...] It’s absurd to think we shouldn’t feel grief right now. Let yourself feel the grief and keep going.” —Scott Berinato, Harvard Business Review “Should you find yourself lost in dark and unproductive thoughts about the future in the coming weeks and months, try to remember: Don’t look down. Instead, take one step. When it’s time, take another.” —Rachel Miller, VICE “The pandemic is not a hurricane or a wildfire. It is not comparable to Pearl Harbor or 9/11. Such disasters are confined in time and space. The SARS-CoV-2 virus will linger through the year and across the world. ‘Everyone wants to know when this will end,’ said Devi Sridhar, a public-health expert at the University of Edinburgh. ‘That’s not the right question. The right question is: How do we continue?’ ” — Ed Yong, The Atlantic Photo illustration by Emmalee Reed

I N T HE LO O P Q&A

Podcasting in a pandemic KOPN’s Diana Moxon shares COVID-19 stories from around the globe. BY CHRISTINA LONG

iana Moxon’s life has taken her from England to Hong Kong to Thailand to Columbia. Her radio career began with a roadtrip across America in a Chrysler Sebring convertible and a meeting with a BBC producer in Iowa. The producer got Moxon in the door, and she pitched and worked on six freelance stories for the BBC. Later, Moxon left the airwaves to be executive director at the Columbia Art League, but after 11 years there, in 2018, she took on her current volunteer position at KOPN. Moxon hosts Speaking of the Arts, a weekly radio show about what’s new in Columbia’s arts scene. And her conversations with local creators haven’t stopped because of COVID-19. She’s still posting shows every Friday morning. Plus, she’s added a new show, One World, Same Boat, airing on KOPN at 5 p.m. on Tuesdays, where she talks with friends around the world about their lives during the coronavirus pandemic. What led you to go on that road trip across the country? The idea of driving across America in a convertible just sounded really sexy and glamorous. It was 2005, and I had been living in Thailand. The tsunami had just happened, and I wasn’t in Thailand at the time because my mother was dying. I was back in England. I watched all this unfold on the TV in the hospital, thinking, “Holy crap.” So mom dies, we have the funeral, I go back to Thailand, and I just think, “I can’t deal with this whole country that’s in grief right now because I’m grieving too.” I’d been there for about three years, and I decided that life is short, and you’ve got to do what you can while you can. How did you land in mid-Missouri? I had a press contact in this town called Columbia, Missouri. I had no idea where Photography by Daniel Mung/Archive

it was. I couldn’t find it on the map. When I left Thailand, I emailed all my press contacts and said, “I’m going to drive through America.” She said, “If you ever come to Missouri, why don’t you give me a call and come and stay?” Eventually, I was passing through Missouri, and so I gave her a call. The first night I was here, I went out to dinner with her and her husband and their best friend, and I married the best friend. How has the pandemic affected Columbia’s art community? A lot of people are being really creative about trying to do things from home. We have all the technology, amazingly; it’s just how fast can we learn it? What tools exist so we can make our art accessible to people through the virtual world? I’m so impressed by everything I’ve seen and how creative everybody has been. We’re all turning to the arts. Whether it’s crocheting or sourdough bread-baking or writing, everybody is creating. It has taken this to show people their absolute need, at a basic human level, to make art and to create. We want to offer our art for free. We want it to be a comfort to everybody who’s stressed and stuck at home. But at the same time, everybody is still paying rent. So how do you walk the fine line between, “I want to give my stuff away for free,” and “I also have to pay the bills?”

MAKING RADIO WAVES

Moxon’s weekly show, Speaking of the Arts, has shifted from a live show to prerecorded because of COVID-19. Interviews from the past month include Zoom calls with Skylark Bookshop owner Alex George and Ragtag Cinema Director Barbie Banks. Moxon’s new show, One World, Same Boat, launched April 6 on KOPN.

to people around the world that I know and say, “What does this situation look like from where you sit?” Every week, I travel digitally around the world, and I check in with people. I do about halfhour chats, and then I distill it down to a five-minute edited audio postcard. You don’t hear me. You just hear the person talking about what the lockdown situation is. What are you worried about? What do you hope for? What are you missing? What’s the view out your window? Then at the end, they choose a piece of music that’s from their city. Because I can’t use music in the podcast without the artist’s permission, I have a Spotify playlist that goes with the podcast so you can listen on Spotify to the music that people chose.

How did you come up with the idea for One World, Same Boat? I wanted to do a new show that was fitting for the time. I wanted to reach out

IN TH E LOOP VOX PICKS

Create...

Vox Picks for

MAY

Celebrate…

A special occasion with flower delivery from a local florist. May means Mother’s Day, graduation and Memorial Day, but there’s never a wrong time to let someone know you’re thinking about them. Tiger Garden offers curbside pickup from its greenhouse. See its Facebook and Instagram pages for a full range of warm-weather plant options. Allen’s Flowers and My Secret Garden offer contactless delivery on all orders as well. To place orders: Allen’s, allensflowersinc.com,443-8719; My Secret Garden, secretgardenmo.com, 4431546; Tiger Garden, email tigergarden@ missouri.edu, 884-1191.

Prowl...

For tigers in your own neighborhood. The City of Columbia encourages locals to put tigers in their front windows or yards to add a little safari to socially distanced walks. Put out any kind of tiger you have sitting at home — whether it’s a stuffed animal or Mizzou fan flair. If you’re out for the day and spot one, snap a picture and share it online with @visitcolumbiamo on Instagram and Twitter.

You can still have a good time at a safe distance of 6 feet (or more). Each month, Vox curates a list of can’t-miss shops, eats and experiences.

At home with take-home painting kits from The Mud Room or makeyour-own-cupcake kits from Smallcakes Cupcakery. Pick up painting kits Fridays from 12–3 p.m. Order by purchasing $20–25 tickets for its Facebook events or by emailing them at mudroomstudio@gmail.com. Cupcake kits come with four, six or 12 cupcakes for $18, $27 and $46 and can be customized by calling ahead at 607-2739. Pick up at The Mud Room, 111 S. Ninth St. or Smallcakes Cupcakery, 2609 East Broadway.

BY SARAH HALLAM AND ABBIE WILSON

Help…

The Homies, a relief fund for individual service industry workers who have been affected by the national quarantine. The money donated goes directly to cooks, bartenders, servers, dishwashers and other minimum-wage workers who depend on a steady income to survive. Any extra money will go to organizations that provide meals to underprivileged kids and families as well as healthcare workers. To donate, visit The Homies page at https://everyeventgives.com/event/thehomies/.

Toast…

To happy hour every Friday night with Top Ten Wines. The bar and wine retailer has been hosting digital happy hours every week on Zoom. They feature local artists such as MU alumna Catherine Armbrust, who showcased her array of multimedia art, and jazz musician Alphonso Sanders. Happy hour takes place at 4 p.m. Fridays and is free. Look for the week’s theme as well as the Zoom link on Top Ten Wine’s Facebook page.

Photography courtesy of Unsplash and The Homies

POETRY IN PROCESS P. 13

GAMES ON! P. 15

Keep calm and create Columbia artists continue their work behind closed doors as art is deemed non-essential. BY ALEXANDRA SHARP Since March, Columbia’s local art galleries and studios have had to put up “we are closed” signs. First Fridays canceled its April event for the first time in nine years, and Art in the Park, normally held at Stephens Lake Park in June, will be held virtually. Although they are dedicated to flattening the curve, local artists struggle to find creative and financial outlets for their work.

Columbia Art League’s Middle School Art class made scissor prints before stay-at-home orders started. Now, the league is hosting classes online.

Photography courtesy of Columbia Art League

Lisa Bartlett explores a virtual medium In an increasingly uncertain world, Lisa Bartlett, the owner of Artlandish Gallery, turns to art for hope. She suggests artists and art lovers alike explore humorous pieces during this tough time. “We can’t take ourselves too seriously because there’s enough serious stuff going on in the world,” she says. Bartlett has turned to technology more than usual during the shutdown. With her background in TV production, she makes videos about her artistic process and posts them on her YouTube channel. Making the videos is a way to pass the time and share her art, she says. Despite such new outlets, Bartlett says artists are still struggling. To assist local businesses, she encourages art enthusiasts to buy gift cards to galleries. “We just really loved being able to have that interaction with our customers,” she says. “When people love something that’s handmade, it really makes a difference when it’s tangible, in front of you.” VOX MAGAZINE • MAY 2020

CULTURE ART

The January Lanterns won’t stop the music amid the pandemic COVID-19 isn’t keeping the indie folk group The January Lanterns from releasing new music. On April 24, the singer/songwriter duo comprised of Andrew and Kristen Camp released a new single called “Faint Line” to online streaming platforms such as Spotify and Apple Music. The single is part of the band’s upcoming full-length album, which it hopes to release later this year. “It’s uncertain when things will get back to normal, so it’s hard to plan for the future,” Andrew Camp says. After two of the band’s planned performances were canceled, The January Lanterns found a new way to share music. “We were able to move one of our gigs online, and we were just blown away by the generosity of our fans giving to our virtual tip jar,” Kristen Camp says. The couple’s performances make up only a portion of their family income, so this generosity allowed the band to donate half of its earnings to the Central Missouri Food Bank. The January Lanterns plan to promote “Faint Line” with another virtual performance. The band again will donate some of its earnings to a local charity. Kelsey Hammond takes the Columbia Art League online Although art is not an essential business, it is essential for humanity, says Kelsey Hammond, the executive director of the Columbia Art League. That’s why the organization is transferring as many of its services online as possible. “We’re working our hardest to get people’s artwork to have exposure and still be seen by the community,” she says. This move to online services includes pieces that were supposed to be featured in March’s Patron Party fundraiser, which was postponed. Columbia Art League is also accepting donations on its website. “What we’ve been doing in the last couple of weeks is working extra time to figure out how to convert what is very much an in-person experience into a space where anyone can see (art) by using the internet, and that’s been a lit-

VOX MAGAZINE • MAY 2020

tle bit of a technological mountain to climb in such a short amount of time and space,” Hammond says. Columbia Art League also moved in-person classes online, including Homeschool Art Club, Middle School Art and some adult classes. Hammond says the gallery sent art supply packages to children enrolled in these courses. For art lovers in search of a fun activity, Columbia Art League hosts the #ComoCALChallenge. The organizers promote a different painting theme weekly, and participants who use the hashtag are featured on the gallery’s Facebook page at the end of the week. Tootie Burns expands her sewing skills Some artists find the extra time helpful for getting work done, but quarantine isn’t as productive for Tootie Burns, who creates mosaics and mixed media artwork. As opportunities to show her art have become limited, her drive to complete projects has dwindled. “You never know who’s going to walk through the door at a First Friday or even when our (Orr Street) facility is open,” Burns says. “The opportunities have kind of dried up because the facility is closed and because of the stay-athome order.”

Singer/songwriters Kristen and Andrew Camp host virtual performances while staying at home.

SUPPORT ART ONLINE

Lisa Bartlett Find her videos on YouTube: Search Lisa Bartlett Art

To fight these creative losses, Burns uses leftover fabric from assemblage pieces for her new medium: sewing. “I am not a great seamstress, but I’ve made some masks and given them to friends,” she says. Burns is the president of Museum Associates, a group affiliated with the Museum of Art and Archaeology, and says a range of the museum’s exhibits are available online. She urges people to help local artists by visiting these and other virtual galleries like them.

The January Lanterns Watch Facebook Live performances: @TheJanuary Lanterns Columbia Art League See art featured in the Facebook challenge: @artleague Museum of Art and Archaeology View online exhibitions: maa.missouri.edu

Mixed media artist Tootie Burns made masks from fabric left over from her previous artwork.

Photography courtesy of The January Lanterns and Tootie Burns

C U LT U RE BOOKS

Poetry in CoMotion MU students help Persea Books put poems into readers’ hands through a locally operated imprint. BY KIRA LOVELL

“I

t’s the little engine that could,” Gabriel Fried says. He’s talking about Persea Books, which is a New York-based publishing company whose poetry imprint operates out of Columbia. Fried is the editor, and he moved to Columbia in 2007 when his partner got a job at MU. Later, the department of English asked Fried to teach a publishing internship

one.

course. Now a handful of MU students work at the imprint and participate in every step of the publishing process. With a small staff, Persea publishes only about 10 books a year. It’s an “intimate operation,” poet Molly McCully Brown says, but she says Fried and his interns are professionals. Fried establishes relationships with all the poets he works with, wheth-

er they’re emerging talents like Cameron Awkward-Rich or distinguished and established writers like Randall Mann, he says. Persea holds two annual poetry contests sponsored by the Lexi Rudnitsky Poetry Project: the First Book Prize and the Editor’s Choice Award. Brown won the First Book Prize in 2016 for her first collection of poems, The Virginia State Colony for Epilep-

tics and Feebleminded. Like many Persea alumni, Brown returned to the company to publish two upcoming books. For Persea, publishing a book of poetry takes between 1 1/2 to two years, and the process typically starts with a submission from a poet. Fried and Persea intern and MU senior Annalee Roustio explain what happens next.

Acquiring Poetry

Poetry usually is submitted to Persea in finished collections, Fried says. Interns read manuscripts. This teaches them to judge submissions based on more than taste. “With poetry, you’re always looking for something that justifies it being poetry,” Fried says. “Whether it’s through the rhythm or the sounds or the images or the voice, we’re looking for poetry that transcends the subject.” Roustio has been with Persea for two years. She was intro-

The design of the book, inside and outside, needs to fit the unique poetry. Persea works with a design studio founded by Fried’s sister, Dinah Fried, and her husband. The company is based in New York, and its other clients include Apple, BuzzFeed News and HarperCollins. Working with a small publishing company can especially benefit poets at this point in the process. Brown says she felt her input was valued. She even got to suggest the photographer for the cover image of her first book.

Illustrations by Chloe Khaw

duced to contemporary poetry in a freshman English class, and by the spring of her sophomore year, she had decided to apply for the Persea internship. Roustio says she likes working on poetry anthologies because the selections tend to be poets Persea doesn’t normally publish. Those poets, including current U.S. poet laureate Joy Harjo, who was included in Persea’s 2019 collection, The Eloquent Poem, often see these anthologies used in educators’ classrooms.

three. Design & Cover Art

two. Editorial Work

four. Persea relies on interns to assemble press kits and reach out to media outlets that might be interested in featuring Persea poets. Roustio also runs Persea’s social media accounts and has in the past attended the Association of Writers and Writing Programs conference, the largest literary conference in the U.S. “If you’re a part of that community, it’s like the Oscars for you,” she says. Although each step of the publishing process takes about the same

After Persea acquires a book, Fried works with authors to make edits in how the poems are put together. For Brown, that meant writing two additional poems to accompany an existing one for the “Interlude” section of her first book. Fried personally edits each book. Interns also can suggest changes. The editing process, like all of Persea’s poetry publishing, is done remotely. “It’s a lot of phone calls and a lot of emails,” Brown says.

Promotion amount of time, Fried says promoting the books is the most intensive and anxiety-inducing part because attention is competitive in the literary world. “You’re contingent on other people giving space to the books,” he says. The relationship between Persea and the poets it publishes doesn’t end there. Many writers, like Brown, return to the company to publish more than one book, and the process starts all over again. VOX MAGAZINE • MAY 2020

CULTURE B O O KS

Writing the book on self-promotion

Events like the Born Just Right book launch at Skylark Bookshop in July 2019 are no longer possible during times of social distancing.

Authors now reach out to fans the only way they can: online. BY KIRA LOVELL

riting usually is a solitary activity, especially for nonfiction authors such as Matthew Goodman. “For me, each book takes about five years to write,” Goodman says. “And that’s five years of, more or less, days spent alone in a silent room.” Like many people when the coronavirus pandemic hit, authors turned to the internet to find a sense of community despite social distancing. Goodman participated in Zoom sessions with book groups, religious congregations and schools to promote his new book, The City Game: Triumph, Scandal and a Legendary Basketball Team. Book tours are an opportunity to break out of that silent room and find out what readers think. Plus, they’re crucial for a book’s financial success. Goodman says book sales follow the same pattern as a movie’s box office revenue, with a big opening weekend followed by a

VOX MAGAZINE • MAY 2020

downslope. Promotional events help prevent sales from dropping off. The literary industry was relatively stable before the pandemic, following a modest increase in book sales over the past two years. Print sales initially declined in the early days of social distancing, Publishers Weekly reports, but e-commerce platforms that support independent booksellers now see soaring business. Locally, Skylark Bookshop is selling about as many books as usual,

From left, Caroline Leavitt, Jenna Blum and Matthew Goodman had to figure out new ways to reach fans when the pandemic canceled their book tours. Blum and Leavitt launched a new social platform for authors at amightyblaze.com.

says owner Alex George, even though every order now has to be placed over the phone or online. George, whose new novel The Paris Hours comes out May 5, joined an up-and-coming social platform for writers begun by two of his friends, Jenna Blum and Caroline Leavitt. Authors and friends, Blum and Leavitt never operated a business before, but when Leavitt’s upcoming book tour for With or Without You was canceled, she and Blum decided to do something to help fellow writers. That collaboration became A Mighty Blaze, which helps authors promote new books when touring isn’t an option by organizing social media blasts and video conference events for the authors. Social media also makes it easier for fans to access writers. Goodman joined Twitter last year to promote his latest book, and Blum and Leavitt hope to help other authors get more comfortable using social media for self-promotion. “The virus helped put an inflection point on something writers have known as a problem for the last 10 or 15 years, which is people don’t know how to promote very well online, and social media marketing is increasingly where the eyeballs are,” Blum says. Although this time of disruption could help the literary world embrace a tech-savvy future, Goodman says he can’t forget the catalyst for the change. It’s awkward to promote a book during an ongoing mass tragedy, but Goodman says he gets emails from people who say his new book helped distract them. Leavitt agrees with such feedback. “It’s putting good out into the world, which is a really crucially important thing to be doing right now,” she says. “We’re connecting. It’s kindness, and it’s a force. We’re not letting the darkness fall.”

Photography by and courtesy of Amy Enderle, Jessica Hills, Jeff Tamarkin and Madeline Houpt

C U LT U RE GAMING

Leveling up their game During one sleep-deprived competition weekend, developers create new games. BY MATTHEW UNTHANK

n Sept. 1, 2017, Walker Perkins walked into his first Game Jam, a biannual event where entrants race against the clock to build functioning video or board games from scratch. The event was hosted in Columbia, but these kinds of game-creation festivals and competitions happen across the country. Sean Lander, a developer at Space Shark Studios and CEO of CoLearn VR, helped start the CoMo Game Dev Association, which now hosts the Game Jams. Lander says Columbia was in need of this kind of gaming event. “We have a ton of people in town who make games … and none of them knew each other,” he says. “All of them thought that they were the only ones in town interested in it.” CoMo Game Dev provides resources for its members: a monthly newsletter that goes out to over 250 people, scheduled talks with other developers and more. The association uses Discord, an online software for voice and text chat, so the server’s 100 users can ask questions, share their work and see what events are occurring within the local game community.

The board and video games built at Game Jams must relate to a theme. During Perkins’ first Jam, the theme was “rituals.” The Jams start Friday evenings, and competitors show off their games 40 hours later through bleary eyes as they drink the last drops of coffee or soda. Gamers at the competition have just over a day and a half to create a fully functional, playable game. “It’s great to go in and judge them,” CoMo Game Dev Association President Jay Sparks says. “It’s like, how did you even come up with this mechanic and this idea in 40 hours, much less actually accomplish a playable tier?” Good game, good game Prizes for video and board games are awarded at each Jam. During Perkins’ first year, his team won the “Best Video Game” award for Handsy, a game where you use a disembodied hand in a side-scrolling puzzle game. The next year, the team earned a second win and launched a company, Bra-

COMO GAME JAM

The seventh annual event will be virtual — moderated on Discord. There will be a livestream on Twitch, an online gaming community, for designers to ask questions, interact with other members and listen to featured creators. May 29–31, visit comogamedev.com to register

Game Jam isn’t just for adults. Mindy Duncan and Jameson Sparks (above), two contestants at the 2019 event, play a game about mortality.

vado Game Studio, based in Columbia, which is currently selling Centroid, its first marketed game. “Defend your planet from the catastrophic end of the universe,” says the game description on its website. “Blast asteroids, avoid collisions, use power-ups — and get a high score!” All movement in Centroid is orbital. The player’s ship moves around the planet, as do the enemies. Punnily enough, the orbital game is a “spin” on the classic space-shooter genre. It’s comparable to Galaxy Attack or the old-school Galaga. Perkins attributes his game’s success and his professional trajectory in the industry to the CoMo Game Dev resources and support. Soon after Perkins created his company, Lander asked Perkins if he wanted to join the board of directors for CoMo Game Dev. He also invited Perkins to be the chief design officer for CoLearn VR, a software that is bringing virtual reality headsets into the classroom to provide more interactive learning opportunities. Perkins says he knows the gaming community is perfect for anyone looking for support. “No matter your age, no matter your skill level, it’s a really open and helpful group of people if you don’t know what you’re doing,” Perkins says. “It’s a completely collaborative environment.”

Rated E for everyone As an amateur game designer, Perkins wasn’t entirely sure how he would match up against his competition. This wasn’t his first time making and designing games. He created five or six unfinished games and then began using the programming engine Game Maker. Of these early attempts, Hover Havoc is the only game he considers playable. But developing these video games was something Perkins enjoyed, so when he learned about Columbia’s Game Jam, he formed a team with his cousin Al Howell and his friend Bob Hibbs and excitedly signed up for the event. It was their first time developing using the Unity program. “We just kind of came to learn the ropes, [and] figure out how to develop in that software,” Perkins says. Photography courtesy of Walker Perkins

VOX MAGAZINE • MAY 2020

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Samantha Alexander

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Fifty-four. That’s the percentage of girls throughout the world who do not have high body esteem, according to the 2017 Dove self-esteem project. Although men aren’t exempt from feeling insecure about their bodies, the problem disproportionately affects women, and it starts in early childhood.

eenage girls are surrounded by images of picture-perfect bodies. Even when they’re unspoken, young women see proof of body norms everywhere. They see it in their eating habits. They see it in their sports. They see it in their social feeds. Family, peers and social media are three of the biggest factors on a teenager’s body esteem, according to Ginny Ramseyer Winter, director of MU’s Center for Body Image and Research & Policy. In her research, Ramseyer Winter studies various aspects of body image and what can be done to help. For instance, she was curious about mealtime habits and found that eating breakfast as a family is related to a better body image for teenagers. Ramseyer Winter is also paying attention to another important aspect: how young women identify their own body image issues. An increasing number of teenage girls are able to acknowledge that they have a problem with body image, weight and appearance. Local high schoolers Samantha Alexander, Ava Kitzi and Sam Pokharel are three teenage girls living in a body-conscious society that pressures young girls to achieve unrealistic beauty standards. Although they’re certainly not the only ones affected, their stories offer a telling glimpse of what it’s like to be a teenage girl in 2020.

When Samantha Alexander, a Rock Bridge High School senior, is asked how she sees herself, she responds, “Well, I’mnot obese, but...” She weighs about 100 pounds.

VOX MAGAZINE • MAY 2020

She remembers the first few times she started connecting her confidence to how she looked. Samantha was in fourth grade when she learned that girls had already started shaving their legs. Two years later, she was shaving her legs, too. Her classmates suddenly seemed more perceptive and started complimenting her when she dressed up. So began a cycle of social norms and self-consciousness, a direct relationship between attention and appearance, self-image and self-worth. “I feel like as I age, I become more insecure,” Samantha says. Until this school year, she had a phone most teenagers would consider a relic – you had to slide the face to get to the keyboard. She’d go on computers or tablets to check Instagram. The fleeting images she saw on the screen would linger in her mind long after she logged out. Then the comparisons started. She began to think her nose took up too much space on her freckled face, and she noticed fat where she hadn’t seen it before. Once she got a smartphone, these images were even easier to access. “Over time, it can become overwhelming if that’s the only thing that I’m focusing on or if I’m allowing myself to go down that hole,” Samantha says. For many teenagers who post on social media, it’s all about the numbers. Self-worth gets tied up with likes, comments and views. “Sort of like you learn manners, you sort of learn on Instagram,” Samantha says. “‘OK, this type of picture’s going to get a lot of likes.’ Most people don’t post 20 times a day; most people add a filter to their pictures. You just kind of start doing those

things without realizing it.” A 2019 research study published in the international journal New Media & Society about the effects of positive body content found that viewing body-positive Instagram posts might improve body appreciation and satisfaction. In doing so, the study found that objectifying images — even positive ones — can spur self-objectification. Still, when women saw body-positive posts, they made more favorable statements about their own bodies than women who saw posts idealizing thin bodies. “Now, for me, it’s like I have to be really introspective whenever I’m going to post something and make sure that it’s glorifying to God and coming from the right intentions,” Samantha says.

One sticky July night in 2018, Ava Kitzi, a Battle High School sophomore, realized her food monitoring had turned into something more. Six months earlier, Ava had started watching what she ate in preparation for her first CrossFit competition. This particular night, she sat at a Lake of the Ozarks restaurant and stared at the pizza menu. She tried to order, but there was nothing she deemed acceptable. “None of this works,” Ava thought. As she looked at the menu, she started to tear up. “This is greasy,” she thought. “This is fatty. This is not what I need to be putting in my body right now.” When her mom saw the tears in her eyes, she ushered Ava outside. Ava and her mom both knew she was struggling with her eating

Photography courtesy of Unsplash

habits, but this was the moment she knew it was real. Not long after that night, she was diagnosed with an eating disorder called orthorexia, in which healthy or “clean” eating becomes an obsession. Diet culture and fat phobia have seemingly taken over society, creating an emphasis on being skinny and, lately, an emphasis on being fit. Ramseyer Winter says this shift in cultural expectations has caused an increase in orthorexia. Someone who has an eating disorder is four times as likely to have an exercise addiction, according to a February Washington Post article. People who are addicted to exercise often have obsessive thoughts about how many calories they’re burning, or they focus on working out until they’ve burned a certain number of calories. These days, Ava has more doctors in her contact list than most 16-year-olds. To her credit, seeing a doctor was her idea. It wasn’t so much that the physical effects motivated her to go; she didn’t notice any of those. But she could tell her mental health was deteriorating. She was fed up with her own negative mentality and bad habits. So, she started seeing a therapist, a dietitian and an endocrinologist. She feels better, really. She’s at the point where she’d roll her eyes at going to therapy. She felt mentally ready to stop seeing all the doctors before she was physically ready. The eating disorder changed her body, including the regularity of her period, which can serve as an indicator of an unhealthy weight. Now, she only continues to see her endocrinologist. On the outside, Ava looks like other teenagers at Battle High School. She and her friends never spend too much time talking about her eating disorder. She says she doesn’t want to burden them. Ava deleted her Snapchat last year; she says that, with streaks and “creepy dudes,” the app is too stressful. But when she scrolls through Instagram, she sees her friends working out. Her profile has pictures of her at the gym and with her friends, but it used to be solo pictures

According to a 2017 study by Dove...

of Ava. She’d choose photos that showcased her physique. They were all about, “look at my body; I’m so skinny,” she says. Although Ava doesn’t talk about body image with her friends, she says they’re aware of the issue because of its prevalence, especially in cross-country running. All athletes, regardless of gender, are at a higher risk of developing an eating disorder if they are in a sport with a focus on appearance, weight, muscularity and individuality, such as gymnastics, diving, wrestling or running, according to the National Eating Disorder Association. Female athletes are often urged to continuously lose weight to perform better. Track and field star Mary Cain wrote an op-ed in The New York Times in November 2019 about the systemic problem with women’s sizes in athletics. In the piece, Cain talks about her experience after signing with a track team affiliated with Nike in 2013. “When I first arrived, an all-male Nike staff became convinced that in order for me to get better, I had to become thinner and thinner and thinner,” she said in a video accompanying the article. “There is a systemic crisis in women’s sports and at Nike, in which young girls’ bodies are being ruined by an emotionally and physically abusive system.”

8 out of 10 girls isolate themselves and are unlikely to participate in extracurriculars when they don’t like their appearance.

7 out of 10 girls will refrain from eating if they don’t feel good about themselves.

7 out of 10 girls report that they think beauty is overemphasized as a source of happiness.

I would tell my younger self... “Don’t worry too much about what other people think, and spend your time investing in people who are good for you.”

Models, influencers and the “Kim K craze” are part of the problem. That was how Sam Pokharel, a senior at Rock Bridge High School, learned how much appearance matters. First came the diet that cut out all processed sugars. Sam started it her sophomore year. A few other diets followed, including a no-carb keto diet. Usually, Sam’s diets only last a month. She stopped the keto diet after her mom and friends told her she had lost too much weight. Sam’s Instagram Explore page, a feed of suggested posts personalized for each user, was filled with food videos on how to eat healthier and photos of her friends’ “amazing bodies.” Some of the posts

— Samantha

“I would tell myself to be kind to myself, be forgiving and be persistent.” — Ava

“Be confident in how you look, and love yourself for the body that you have, not the body you wish you had.” — Sam

ketokitchen

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Teenagers’ body images can be hurt not just by the media but also by adults, as parents can inadvertently pass their unhealthy relationships with their bodies to their kids.

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she saw made her wish her body was different, that it was like the ones she saw in pictures. When her friends are being hard on themselves, she tries to encourage them to be positive. But then she finds herself falling into the same comparison traps. “It’s kind of unavoidable,” she says. Four and a half hours — that’s the average amount of time Sam spent on Snapchat each day back in early November last year. It gets worse. Three hours is how long she spent on Instagram, adding up to more than 7 1/2 hours on social media each day. A Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health study from 2019 found that teenagers who spend more than three hours on social media each day are more likely to internalize bad feelings about themselves and deal with them alone. “On Instagram, once I got on my Explore page, it’s over,” she says. The hours Sam spent on social media weren’t the only reason for her diets, but the posts she saw played a part in generating nutrition ideas. For her, dieting is usually about being skinnier, which in turn makes her feel healthier. Her parents don’t approve of her diets and don’t like seeing the emphasis she places on appearance. They tell her school is for learning, not for caring what you look like. “They just want me to be confident in how I look and not spend so much time trying to look a different way,” Sam says. “They always say I’m beautiful no matter what.” Later in November 2019, Sam decided to stop using social media. She says she knew she was spending way too much time on platforms such as Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter. “I just wanted to give myself a little break, which turned into a longer break,” she says. “It’s been nice. I like not having it and being on my phone constantly.” Now, instead of cutting out specific food groups or nutrients, Sam just wants to eat healthier. She says she hopes her eating habits will be more sustainable this way.

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Instagram advertisements for weight-loss products and endorsements by influencers and celebrities are all over the app. After it was found that these brands were targeting accounts with users under 18 years old, Instagram announced a policy in September 2019 that would block, and in some cases remove, content promoting weight loss or cosmetic procedures. Add a comment...

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Samantha, Ava and Sam are self-identifiers. They’re able to recognize their own struggles with weight and appearance. Experts such as Ramseyer Winter are left to wonder how effective self identifiers’ self-made solutions are. Teenagers’ body images can be hurt not just by the media but also by adults, as parents can inadvertently pass their unhealthy relationships with their bodies to their kids. According to a February article in The New York Times about the inheritance of body image issues, children can recognize their parents dieting, even if they don’t fully understand it. “They may not have the language for it yet, but they’ll know there’s something going on for you with food,” psychologist Rachel Millner told the Times. If a mom is unhappy with her body, her daughter is more likely to be unhappy with her own body, too, according to a June 2017 CNN article focusing on this connection between moms and daughters. Just as negativity from adult figures can influence teenagers, positivity can spawn positivity. Photography courtesy of Unsplash

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Ramseyer Winter says teenagers would benefit from more adults promoting healthy body image. Sam says she is inspired by her aunt, who always advocates for people to be themselves, to be individuals and to be happy. In a perfect world, Sam would have the attitude of her aunt, she says. “She is the most self-confident person in the best way possible.” Matt Leuchtmann, a gifted education teacher at Battle, uses his classroom to address body image and the prevalence of eating disorders among female athletes. With Leuchtmann’s guidance, Ava is creating a program to help female athletes with eating disorders. Originally, the two were looking at athletic directors and coaches from across Missouri to prevent and aid high school athletes with eating disorders. Now, they are creating an online resource center called Athletes Who Eat, which will feature blog posts and educational tools. With this project, they’re looking to combat eating disorder stigmatization. Utilizing the internet to create positive content for girls, groups such as The Female Lead, a U.K.based organization, focus on providing girls with alternative role models. The goal isn’t to eliminate social media; it’s to find ways to make social media positive. Because 95% of teenagers look at social media regularly, The Female Lead asked 28 teenage girls to follow high-achieving people with similar interests to their own. The girls responded that they began to turn to social media for guidance, and their feeds started to match subjects they were interested in. This ongoing effort to encourage people to use social media in a healthier way led to Instagram working with the National Eating Disorder Association. The partnership launched the #ComeAsYouAre campaign to discourage users from making negative comparisons, according to a February Refinery29 article. One suggestion the campaign offers is to follow accounts that feature people of all shapes, sizes, races and gender presentations. The more diverse bodies you see, the more you might be able to appreciate how beautiful all bodies are, according to the article. By taking steps like these, social media can be-

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come a tool for self-improvement versus a device for self-degradation. Samantha was already making the effort to only follow the people she really cared about, but even these people edited their photos, and she started comparing how she looked in real life to how they looked online. So, she stopped social media for a month to focus on the things that mattered to her: schoolwork and the Bible. Ramseyer Winter says when teenage girls are wrapped up in their size and dieting, it takes their focus away from school, work and the things that are important to them. And when Samantha was on Instagram, she wasn’t reading her Bible as much as she would like. She deleted Snapchat and says she’ll continue trying to improve her relationship with her body until she can see herself the way God sees her — as an “amazing masterpiece.” Samantha reminds herself of this by posting a scripture on her bathroom mirror. It reads, “For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” Ramseyer Winter says that, in order to combat negative body image in teenagers, it’s important for parents to provide them with support. Professional help is important, too, and seeking a school counselor, therapist or nutritionist is the best way to prevent or treat eating disorders. Ramseyer Winter says schools have an opportunity to help the youth with their body image by training their faculty and staff. Although teenagers should be encouraged to stay off social media as much as possible, experts advise that adults should help teenagers find positive, supportive online communities to see when they scroll through social media. Teenagers would also benefit from more adults modeling healthy body image, especially balanced nutrition options. For Ramseyer Winter, teaching healthier body image and her research on the subject comes from things that she notices in her own personal and professional lives. In Ramseyer Winter’s house, she and her two young children don’t talk about how people look, and if they do, they stress one thing: “All bodies are good bodies.”

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On Instagram, once I got on my Explore page, it’s over. —Sam Pokharel

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Add a comment... VOX MAGAZINE • MAY 2020

1 IN 3 ADULTS HAS PREDIABETES. COULD BE YOU, YOUR CO -PILOT, YOUR CO -PILOTâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S CO-PILOT.

WITH EARLY DIAGNOSIS, PREDIABETES CAN BE REVERSED. TAKE THE RISK TEST. DoIHavePrediabetes.org

PRESSURE(D) COOKING P. 24

SMOOTHIE OPERATOR P. 26

Whip up some frothy caffeine Use the time you’d spend commuting to whisk this trendy drink into existence. BY BRYANNA BARBER AND VERONICA MOHESKY Move over, boba tea — the newest drink craze has arrived. Originally an Indian delicacy called “phenti hui” (“beaten coffee”), dalgona coffee popped up as a trend after being featured on a Korean celebrity cooking show in January. It has since flooded Instagram and TikTok, as users showcase their successes (and failures) making this twist on iced coffee. The drink is made by creating a thick, whipped coffee to dollop on top of a cold glass of milk. The name “dalgona” comes from the beverage’s similarity in look and taste to a Korean street food of the same name. As the weather warms, stay cool and caffeinated with this easy at-home coffee that won’t break the bank. No fancy equipment or expensive ingredients necessary. (Barista aprons optional.)

Make your own dalgona coffee 2 tablespoons granulated sugar 2 tablespoons instant coffee 2 tablespoons hot water 8–12 ounces your choice of milk Whipped cream (optional) Cinnamon (optional) Combine the granulated sugar and instant coffee in a small mixing bowl with the hot water. Stir the mixture thoroughly, and whisk for about five minutes or until it has become a creamy froth. Pour your favorite milk or milk substitute into a glass with ice (optional), and scoop the whipped coffee on top. Add whipped cream and cinnamon to give your drink that extra handcrafted, specialty drink feeling. Photography courtesy of Unsplash

VOX MAGAZINE • MAY 2020

E AT + DRINK HOME COOKING

Keep your cool in the kitchen

Spice up your salads by seasoning ingredients as if you were going to eat them separately.

Nutrition experts dish out tips to stay smart while cooking in quarantine. BY EMILY ADAMS

eing confined to our homes has changed our approach to cooking and eating. Maybe you’ve started baking homemade bread or are enjoying a few “quarantinis.” Whichever you prefer, we hope these nutrition tips and cooking ideas will prevent your meals from becoming a source of added stress.

Be kind to yourself You haven’t had a vegetable in over a week. Your head hurts. You feel sluggish and bloated. Is it the end of the world? Probably not, says nutritionist and MU assistant teaching professor Jennifer Bean. “If you’ve been living off of mac ’n’ cheese for three days, don’t be too hard on yourself,” she says. Bean says nutrition is evidence-based. Although it may be hard to prove what eating macaroni and cheese does to your

VOX MAGAZINE • MAY 2020

body over time, it’s common for people to report feeling lethargic after overindulging. If that’s you, don’t fret. Bean recommends focusing on today instead of the past. Local health coach Amanda Garrison-Lucas says learning to simplify and understand ourselves is key to achieving a sustainable health plan. “Stress is huge and controls our physical and emotional well-being,” she writes in an email to Vox. Of course, sometimes life can throw you unexpected curve balls. The Food Bank of Central and Northeast Missouri remains open to those in need of free meals and is accepting donations. The CDC also has some good tips on how to reduce everyday stress.

Choose your cooking method carefully Microwaves are known for being a favorite

ON TREND

Two quarantinedriven food trends that we hope stick around: virtual happy hours with long-distance family and friends (clink-clink) and more home-baked bread (yum).

of college students with limited cooking skills. While they do warm leftover slices of pizza quite nicely, microwaves also have a hidden superpower. Bean says steaming vegetables in the microwave can actually preserve more of their nutrition content than other forms of cooking. The downside is that they can become mushy. If microwaved veggies aren’t your thing, then you’ll find it comforting to know that eating raw vegetables is much better for you. Bean also says roasted, baked and canned vegetables are good alternatives. Many people consider boiling to be a healthy option, but it can actually leach the nutrients from vegetables. One solution is to save the water from boiled vegetables and use it as a nutrient-dense stock, Bean says. Frying is probably the most unhealthy (yet delicious!) way to cook your meals. For all cooking methods, Bean says it’s important to consider what oils you are using. She ranks olive oil and canola oil among the healthier options.

Make friends with your Consider saving a few cookies for later the next time you stress-bake. Bean says she typically saves half of her batches of desserts in the freezer after baking. You can also freeze raw and cooked meat products, which will last two to three months, according to the USDA. The texture and color of foods might vary in the freezer, which makes things like mayo or eggs a no-go. Nutrients, however, are not destroyed by freezing. Frozen fruit may actually be more nutrient dense because it is frozen during peak freshness close to harvest.

Stock your pantry, but keep it simple There are many articles about how to stock your pantry during a pandemic. Luckily, there’s no need to create an indepth meal plan or purchase expensive ingredients. Bean says good nutrition is pretty straightforward. “It’s not sexy; it’s not gonna make books fly off the shelves,” she says. The best course of action is to purchase inexpensive staples such as beans and canned tuna, some of which you might already have in your pantry. Both provide protein and are shelf-stable. Old-school nutrition rules still apply, and it’s a good idea to try to fill half your plate with vegetables. Whole-grain products such as brown rice and oats are good options for carbohydrates. How you prepare your food matters, too. Bean says that simply washing off the syrup or liquid something is preserved in can help reduce the sodium content. Avoiding items canned in heavy syrup is an easy way to reduce your sugar intake.

Seek inspiration Time to cook is a privilege and a source of enjoyment, though it can sometimes be tedious. Now might be a good time to check in with family and friends to see what recipes they’re leaning on. “Working together locally strengthens our community and our immunity,” writes Garrison-Lucas. There also still are plenty of local restaurants serving customers right now. Nothing beats someone else doing the work, and it’s a great way to support small businesses in Columbia.

SHE SNORES MORE THAN I DO, BUT I STILL LOVE MY HUMAN. — BANDIT adopted 11-26-09

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VOX MAGAZINE • MAY 2020

E AT & DRINK NUTRITION

Making blends with benefits Local nutritionist shares her do’s and don’ts of making smoothies. BY REGAN MERTZ

raving something sweet, but don’t want to sabotage your diet? A smoothie is the perfect solution. Registered dietitian and nutritionist Ashley Ritzo has some advice on how to mix and match ingredients to create your own blended masterpiece. Go bananas Prep for your smoothie by freezing bananas when they start to turn brown. Ritzo says a frozen banana is the ideal base for any type of smoothie because it provides texture. “I usually start with a frozen banana because that adds sweetness without adding refined sugar,” she says. Other ways to sweeten your smoothie sans additional refined sugar? Raw honey or pure maple syrup. Eat your fruits and veggies The next step is to add your desired frozen fruits and vegetables. Berries are a favorite of Ritzo’s, so she suggests adding strawberries, raspberries, blueberries or blackberries, along with fruits like mangoes and pineapples. Don’t be afraid to add fresh vegetables such as kale, celery, spinach or beets. Greens are low in sugars and calories, and they provide more iron and protein than fruit, according to a Cleveland Clinic article. “All veggies help support a healthy weight, keep bowel movements regular, fight inflammation and decrease the risk of chronic disease,” according to the article. Frozen fruits and vegetables have multiple benefits. They can be nutritious replacements for ice in your smoothies. It’s also a good idea to freeze fruits and vegetables that are in danger of going bad. Freezing prevents having to waste them, which in turn saves money, Ritzo says. “At the height of the season, fruit is a lot more inexpensive, and so buying it

VOX MAGAZINE • MAY 2020

in bulk at that time and then freezing it is another good strategy to keep the cost down,” Ritzo says. A lesson on liquids Once you’ve picked out your fruits and vegetables, you’ll need to add a liquid base. Ritzo recommends herbal, raspberry or blueberry tea instead of high-calorie beverages such as juice. With fruits already in the smoothie, adding high-calorie liquids like 2% milk can pack in hidden calories. Sticking to lower-calorie milks is a good idea, Ritzo says. Ritzo also urges smoothie makers to be cautious of adding yogurt. Flavored yogurt could have added sugars, which also sneak calories into your smoothies. She suggests choosing plain yogurt or one without much added sugar. “Calories can add up quickly, especially if you’re using things like yogurt or sugar or juice,” Ritzo says. Perks of personalization The choice to include additives such as protein powder depends on your individual preferences and dietary needs. If you’re getting a protein source in all of your meals, then you’re probably eating enough and don’t need to add it to your smoothies, Ritzo says. However, if the smoothie is acting as a meal replacement, then a protein such as 100% whey protein powder is recommended to round it out as a meal. A smoothie is a great way to consume superfoods that you might not eat in your normal diet. For example, flax and chia seeds are additives that provide nutrients many of us could be lacking, such as fiber and omega-3 fat.

There aren’t rules about what fruits belong in smoothies, so try different flavor combinations. Quick hint: Bananas are a go-to ingredient for adding frothiness.

Chia seeds can diversify the texture of your smoothies and are a great source of fiber.

The perfect smoothie If you’re indecisive about what to include, let Ritzo’s recipe be a starting point. Her perfect smoothie begins with a frozen banana. Next, in goes Ritzo’s liquid of choice: coconut milk. Together, these ingredients give the base texture and sweetness. Frozen strawberries add more flavor to the mix. Ritzo also suggests adding in dragon fruit powder for color — and some fun. “My 5-year-old loves it because it’s hot pink,” Ritzo says. Ritzo emphasizes the importance of watching your smoothie’s calorie count. Even though smoothies can be healthy, adding too many unhealthy ingredients is counterproductive. If this sounds overcomplicated, fret not. “If you’re just looking for a good way to get in fruit during all of this coronavirus stuff, when you can’t get to the store as often, then you don’t really have to add anything other than fruit and some liquid,” Ritzo says. It doesn’t get simpler than that. Photography courtesy of Unsplash

HEALTH CARE HEROES P. 28

BEYOND JOE EXOTIC P. 30

Sometimes it’s best to chicken out Nothing says spring like a bunch of fluffy chicks. But will you be able to handle them once they become wild, egg-laying hens? Answer these questions to find out.

Are you quick on your feet? Yes, you’ll never catch me. Your athleticism will come in handy when you’re trying to corral a bunch of feisty hens back into the coop. Fair warning: they are much faster than they appear. I get my heart rate up. Now is the time to practice

your sprints; hens will make you chase them. The good news is they might eventually learn to return to the coop themselves at night. Yay for survival instincts! Cardio’s not my thing. Chickens will probably wear you out. How about a cat?

BY EMILY ADAMS How savvy are you about the city’s chicken ordinance?

How much outdoor space do you have? It’s a typical suburban yard. Congrats, you’ve got plenty of space. Columbia Public Schools science coordinator Mike Szydlowski says he was pleasantly surprised to find that poop from free-range chickens breaks down quickly in yards. I want to limit how much yard I sacrifice to chickens. Go forward with caution. The less space you have for your chickens, the more their

poop will pile up. If you’re still interested in raising chickens in a smaller yard, one option is to keep the chickens in a larger coop with a small area of grass for them to roam. That way, the rest of your yard is kept pristine. No yard to speak of. Chickens might not be for you. They’re outdoor scavengers at heart, and they love to root around for bugs and seeds. Couch cuddlers they are not.

How much do you love sandals? I live in boots. Closed-toe shoes are where it’s at for potential chicken parents, says Columbia Center for Urban Agriculture director Billy Polansky. This protects your feet from gross hen droppings and from curious birds’ pecks. Who’s ready for an ankle tan? I’m willing to slip into closed-toe shoes. Prepare to

Illustrations courtesy of vecteezy.com

lace up, and hold your nose. You’ll need them when you’re cleaning out the coop. My flip-flops never leave my feet. Chickens will peck your toes because they look like grubs, and they could step on your feet with their dinosaur-like claws. Ouch! Maybe chickens aren’t for you.

I know my stuff. Your coop is up to code. You’ve got an enclosure with a fence, wire covering the windows and no openings larger than 1-inch wide.

What ordinance? The city allows residents to have up to six hens and no roosters. Noise and odor must be contained within your property line. All rules for roosts can be found via como.gov under Article V of the city’s code of ordinances.

Do you have an appetite for drama? Soap operas are my jam. Chickens are also into backstabbing, pecking orders and love triangles. You should have a lot in common. I can tolerate a bit of drama. You should consider

the entertainment value of chickens. They’re not pets or loyal companions, but they can be hilarious to watch. I really just want to relax. Enough said. Time to enjoy your backyard minus all the squawking.

Scrambled or fried, how often do you eat eggs? I eat eggs everyday. Perfect! Szydlowski says each hen can produce an egg a day. With Columbia’s six-hen allowance, that’s up to 42 eggs a week. I like eggs but can’t eat

them everyday. Chickens are probably still for you. You can deliver eggs to friends and family who might want them. I only eat eggs once a week. You should stick to grocery store cartons.

VOX MAGAZINE • MAY 2020

CITY LIFE HEALTH CARE

Mark Wakefield, MU’s associate chief medical officer at MU Health Care, uses Zoom to teach his residents.

Caring for Columbia For some health care workers, COVID-19 means more Zoom calls and about half the regular number of patient visits. BY ALEX BURKE

e’ve all seen the viral videos of people from New York to Madrid cheering from their balconies to honor health care workers. Columbia might not have as many balconies, but we have plenty of hardworking health care professionals. From intensive care unit nurses to a sports physician working when sporting events have been canceled, these medical workers share how their days have changed. Diagnosing on screen Aaron Gray, a sports medicine physician at the Missouri Orthopaedic Institute, had never done a telehealth visit before the coronavirus pandemic. Now, he sees about half of his patients virtually. The goal is to keep people out of urgent care if they don’t need

VOX MAGAZINE • MAY 2020

to be there. If someone fractures their ankle, they still need to go in for an X-ray. However, Zoom video calls have proved effective for nonsevere injuries during the pandemic. A telehealth visit is similar to an in-person checkup with Gray. After a patient shows Gray their ailments, the doctor and patient have the same backand-forth conversation. Gray can still perform physical examinations over the video calls, but instead of having physical contact, Gray tells patients what to do. For example, he tells them where to press on their knee, and they explain how it feels. He can also demonstrate exercises through the camera, and if a patient has already had X-rays taken, Gray can use the screen-sharing feature to look over the X-ray images with the patient.

BY THE NUMBERS

There were 88,407 Missourians working in the health care industry in 2019, according to the Missouri Hospital Association. This includes 33,928 registered nurses, 3,829 housekeepers, 2,404 medical assistants, 1,880 radiology technologists and 1,503 pharmacists.

Visitors not allowed As an ICU nurse with MU Health Care, Amanda Boggs says her day-to-day responsibilities are fairly similar to her work before COVID-19. However, to prevent the spread of the virus, visitors have been banned from the hospital, so it has been difficult to keep patients’ families up-to-date. Nurses are now calling families via Zoom or FaceTime, so patients can have outside interaction and update their loved ones about their conditions. However, it’s still difficult for patients to spend time in the hospital while being separated from their families. They’ve made sure to use digital technology instead of just audio calls, so families can interact. “It’s different hearing it over the phone versus seeing it,” Boggs says. Photography courtesy of Mark Wakefield

C I T Y LI FE HEALTH CARE

Impact on education Mark Wakefield, associate chief medical officer at MU Health Care, is responsible for training residents, specifically those in his urology division. He says the pandemic has complicated the education process. Although he has had minimal hiccups using video calls for advisory conferences with students, the “learning-by-doing” model that is important in health care education is impeded. Only about half the typical number of urology patients are checking in, so residents are getting fewer hands-on experiences. Considering residents are required to participate in about 1,500 procedures during the course of four years, this adds stress to an already laborious position. “If you’re half as busy as you used to be, how long is that going to be a viable model?” Wakefield says. Wakefield has also made the shift to using Zoom for telehealth visits, and he sees it as a positive innovation that could remain beneficial after the pandemic ends. There are worries

about accessibility: People with weak or nonexistent broadband connections, especially in rural areas, could struggle to get medical help. The upside is the convenience, however. For instance, Wakefield had a patient who lives about 1.5 hours away but was able to have a telehealth visit in 15 minutes without the hassle of driving or spending time in a packed waiting room at the clinic. The emotional toll Ashley Sandifer, a nursing supervisor, says working with COVID-19 patients doesn’t change much about her day-today responsibilities at the ICU because the nurses are used to working with patients with diseases of unknown origins. However, she says nurses feel different due to the circumstances. “It’s a little bit different because of all of the media hype,” Sandifer says. “I think our nurses have come into this with more anxiety simply because they’ve been exposed, and they’re hearing so many different things from so

Sports medicine physician Aaron Gray has had to transition to telehealth visits on Zoom in this age of social distancing. Gray can still demonstrate exercises and look over X-rays with his patients.

many different outlets. Making sure that everybody is on the same page and that we’re listening to our medical directors and our leadership to what’s correct for the patients that we’re taking care of, that’s really been a focus.” She says the Columbia community has been especially supportive of their hard work. A lot of food has been brought to them, and so have cards with well-wishes.

NO ONE GETS A DIPLOMA ALONE. If you’re thinking of ﬁnishing your high school diploma, you have more support than you realize. Find teachers and free adult education classes near you at FinishYourDiploma.org.

Photography courtesy of Aaron Gray

VOX MAGAZINE • MAY 2020

CITY LIFE Q&A

thing to do for the cats, having that accreditation and being able to point to the standards that we follow makes it a little bit easier to tell the good sanctuaries from sanctuaries that are just using the word “sanctuary” and not actually taking care of their cats properly. How accurate is Netflix’s Tiger King? The show focuses on the wrong thing. It focuses on the outlandish characters and crazy things that those people have done, and it misses the whole point that abuse is at the cost of those cats. So unfortunately, it doesn’t really do much as far as educating people on what they can do, how they can help, how they can change those things.

Missouri’s tigers John Madigan of Crown Ridge Tiger Sanctuary fields big cat questions. BY ALEXANDRA SHARP

ith Tiger King mania sweeping the nation, big cats are coming into the limelight. Missouri is a hotbed for big cat ownership — and abuse. The Missouri Department of Agriculture only requires these animal owners to have a USDA Large Carnivore permit, which is minimal compared to many states. But having a permit doesn’t mean facilities are accredited sanctuaries. Accredited big cat sanctuaries do not allow human-animal interactions of any kind. Crown Ridge Tiger Sanctuary, a nonprofit in Ste. Genevieve, is a true sanctuary, and it’s verified by the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries. Any facility that is part of GFAS must meet high standards of care and work to eliminate private big cat ownership. Crown Ridge Tiger Sanctuary has a USDA Large Carnivore permit and is a founding member of the Big Cat Sanctuary Alliance. There is more to big cat sanctuaries than the Netflix show would have you believe, as John Madigan, operations manager at Crown Ridge Tiger Sanctuary, explains to Vox in this Q&A.

VOX MAGAZINE • MAY 2020

What does the sanctuary do? We rescue big cats that are either abused, neglected or unwanted, and we bring them to our facility and provide them with lifelong care. So as a true sanctuary, we don’t buy, sell, trade or breed these guys. We just give them a home to live out the rest of their lives in peace.

Bengal tiger sisters Gracie (front) and Thor were rescued by Crown Ridge Tiger Sanctuary. Both were malnourished when they came to their new home, and Gracie is almost entirely blind due to lack of medical care when she was young.

TIGERS, NO MORE

Where did your sanctuary’s three big cats come from, and why were they rescued? Two of them are from a roadside zoo in Strafford, Missouri, that was shutting down. The roadside zoo that they were rescued from was called Exotic Animal Paradise. It’s been shut down, but the facility reopened under different management and a different name* now, so the facility is still there. And then our male was from a cub-petting operation where he was going to be euthanized. The facility that he was at was Great Cat Adventures. *This facility is now called Wild Animal Safari.

Columbia-based D-D Farm Animal Sanctuary and Rescue no longer has tigers after housing big cats for almost 30 years. It didn’t meet the definition of a true sanctuary, despite the word being in the name. D-D Farms’ owner, Dale Tolentino, says $4,000 in USDA fines led to the decision to remove big cats from the facility.

Missouri only requires a USDA permit, so why is Crown Ridge further accredited? Aside from because we think it’s the right

John Madigan operates Crown Ridge Tiger Sanctuary.

What can Missouri residents do to stop big cat abuse? If you’re interested in helping the cats that are being abused and neglected in captivity, that would be supporting true sanctuaries as well as supporting the Big Cat Public Safety Act. That would make it illegal for people on a federal level to own big cats as pets. And then it would also outlaw public contact, so things like cub petting. That piece of legislation would do hands-down the most to help cats in captivity and end the suffering and abuse. How can Missouri residents ensure they visit true sanctuaries? Before you go, check the GFAS website, which lists all of their sanctuaries. Also, check the Big Cat Sanctuary Alliance website. If they’re on either of those two lists, then you know you’re going to a facility that prioritizes the cats above everything else. Anywhere that allows public contact, that’s a red flag. Anywhere that breeds outside of the Species Survival Plan, that would be a red flag.

Photography courtesy of John Madigan

photo finish

Friday night lights PHOTOGRAPHY BY SAMANTHA WAIGAND Among so many other changes, quarantine efforts and Missouri’s stay-at-home order have left high school seniors mourning the loss of their final months before graduation. In a nationwide show of solidarity, Columbia’s high schools joined in honoring the 2020 class by lighting up football fields on Fridays. Battle High School senior Amelia Talken sits on the football field’s fence as she thinks back on the end to her high school experience. “When I realized it was really over, I just cried,” she says.

Photography by Photographer Name