Vox Magazine November 2021 Issue

MISSOURI’S

TALK LET’S TRASH

PEGGY JEAN’S INVESTIGATES TV

CHEERS TO STRANGE BEERS

IDENTITY AT WORK

Hi. My name is Courtney, and my pronouns are she/her. When I was growing up, I learned about gender binaries and identity. In crafting stories that trace the complexity of gender expression, I’ve been challenged to reflect on how gender and identity intertwine. Here’s what that means to me.

I came out as bisexual when I was 16. It was late 2013, and I had just returned from a semester abroad in Sydney, Australia. It was a turbulent time in my life as I struggled to wrap my head around what being attracted to two genders would mean to me while also balancing a full course load and extracurriculars. So, as many other LGBTQIA+ identifying folks have done, I found solace in my community and in creating art. Since learning the piano at 5, I’ve ensconsed myself in music. During my teen years, this hobby became a much-needed refuge for me as I spent days “composing” mini pop-and-jazz numbers much to the dismay of my classical piano teachers.

It seems fitting to share my story now, as this issue highlights the career of Access Arts resident Dakota Parkinson, who identifies as non-binary and transfeminine and uses she/they pronouns.

Vox takes readers through Parkinson’s journey as a ceramics artist who uses their personal identity to connect with audiences through art and to raise awareness for trans-affirming health care (p. 11).

We also wrote a roundup of Columbia’s preeminent drag performers who discuss their shadiest reads on the city and how identity influences drag style (p. 5). Bennifer Lopez, a vintage high-fashion queen who identifies as nonbinary, shares how their drag identity comprises both masculine and feminine elements.

As issues surrounding identity unfold among this issue’s pages, I want to touch on why pronouns matter to the queer community and to everyone. In 2020, a survey by The Trevor Project found that one in four LGBTQIA+ youth use a combination of gender-fluid pronouns including they/them, mixed pronouns such as she/they and neopronouns such as ze/zir to express their gender nuance.

It is important to respect people’s pronouns not only to be an ally to the trans community and to avoid misgendering someone, but also to normalize not assuming a person’s gender based on the way they look or express themselves. Join us at Vox in celebrating one of the communities so vital to Columbia’s spirit.

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF COURTNEY PERRETT

MANAGING EDITORS EMMY LUCAS, REBECCA NOEL

DIGITAL MANAGING EDITOR GRACE COOPER

ONLINE EDITOR KATE TRABALKA

ART DIRECTORS MAKALAH HARDY, MOY ZHONG

PHOTO EDITOR MADI WINFIELD

MULTIMEDIA EDITOR ALEX FULTON

ASSISTANT EDITORS

CULTURE HANNAH GALLANT, TONY MADDEN, EVAN MUSIL

EAT + DRINK VIVIAN KOLKS, MADDY RYLEY

CITY LIFE SAVANNAH BENNETT, JARED GENDRON, COLIN WILLARD

DIGITAL EDITORS TIA ALPHONSE, PHILIP GARRETT, SASHA GUMENIUK, ALEXANDRA HUNT, SHULEI JIANG, HANA KELLENBERGER, KATELYNN MCILWAIN, ZOIA MORROW, JULIAN NAZAR, ANNA ORTEGA, RASHI SHRIVASTAVA, NIKOL SLATINSKA, CEY’NA SMITH

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS NOAH ALCALA BACH, LAUREN BLUE, ANGELINA EDWARDS, ISABELLA FERRENTINO, ATHENA FOSTER-BRAZIL, ANNA KOCHMAN, CHLOE KONRAD, CELA MIGAN, ELISE MULLIGAN, MIA RUGAI, DANNY RYERSON, ANNA SAGO, STEPHI SMITH, SOPHIE STEPHENS

MULTIMEDIA EDITORS ERIK GALICIA, AUZZIE GONZALEZ, CARA WAGNER

ART ASSISTANTS SIOBHAN HARMS, JACKIE LAMB, MARTA MIEZE, HEERAL PATEL, BRADFORD SIWAK

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR HEATHER ISHERWOOD

DIGITAL DIRECTOR SARA SHIPLEY HILES

EXECUTIVE EDITOR LAURA HECK

OFFICE MANAGER KIM TOWNLAIN

Courtney Perrett Editor-in-Chief

Behind the issue

The great Columbia trash debate is inescapable. Since pay-as-you-throw was implemented, I regularly see random people dropping off garbage in my complex’s dumpster to avoid buying the city’s official bags. For how much it fills online forums, I didn’t realize how little I knew about the people and systems that run our rubbish. Did you know some layers of our landfill are 100 feet tall? Or that Stadium Boulevard was resurfaced with recycled material? Waste services are so essential to public health yet are often taken for granted. Ten writers, including myself, dug into the ways waste utilities intersect with our lives. I hope we’ve shown how much trash can matter.— Evan Musil

Read more about the waste in our lives, pg.12.

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NOVEMBER 2021 VOLUME 24, ISSUE 8

PUBLISHED BY THE COLUMBIA MISSOURIAN

320 LEE HILLS HALL

COLUMBIA, MO 65211

MAGAZINE

Cover Design: Makalah Hardy

Photography courtesy of Courtney Perrett and illustrations by Makalah Hardy VOX MAGAZINE •

Illustrations by Moy Zhong, photography by Jean Bensana, Lily Dozier, Amy Schaffer and Alessia Tagliabue

Sashay, shantay!

Columbia’s rising drag stars take a break from the spotlight to chat about the industry.

BY ANNA ORTEGA

Drag performers Liz Anya, Bennifer Lopez and Lorilie Queen are hard to miss. Each crowned Mid-Missouri Pridefest Royalty, these queens are familiar with the spotlight and thrive on the applause. To get to know the three stars, Vox asked the queens about their careers, favorite makeup looks and most devastating reads on Columbia. The library is open.

Lorilie Queen

After moving to Columbia, Lorilie Queen has done drag for about three years and enjoys doing spooky looks. Lorilie was crowned Mid-Missouri Pride Queen in 2021 when Liz Anya stepped down.

What is your favorite style?

I feel most authentically Lorilie when I do spooky glamour stuff. Last night, I did this vampire look, and I just felt 100% my most beautiful.

What inspired you to start drag?

I grew up watching Rupaul’s Drag Race, and I just wanted to try it. I was always into Halloween makeup and cosmetics. I used to play around with my mom’s makeup growing up in secret because they were super religious and conservative. When I moved out, I was able to experiment and try new things. Over a year, I was teaching myself how to sew, style wigs and perfect my makeup.

Photography courtesy of Scotty Kirby VOX

Long live the Queen — Lorilie Queen, that is!

A connoisseur of spooky glamour, Lorilie was crowned the 2021 MidMissouri Pride Queen this summer.

What are your least favorite drag trends? I cannot stand wet or small wigs. When you’re a masculine-looking person, I don’t think you need to do that because it’s about proportion in your body.

What are your favorite makeup tips? With drag makeup, if you go too heavy with your contour or do too much blush, you can powder it down. If you do your lips wrong, you can go over it. If you have problems with your wing, I recommend getting a little bit of Scotch tape on your eye, and it will come out cleaner. I’ve gotten into doing smoky eyes when I’m in a rush.

When did you first perform in drag? My first performance was at Yin Yang about three years ago. I did “Bloom” by Troye Sivan in a dress that I made. I’d glued flower petals all over, and I thought I really did something. I was wearing these nude-colored grandma shoes. At one point I did a kick and the shoe flew off of my foot, hit a ceiling tile and fell down. I almost hit someone –– I think it was Liz (Anya) –– so I went up and apologized after.

Bennifer Lopez

A Columbia local with a taste for vintage fashion, Bennifer Lopez is a self-proclaimed “themme fatale” (that

is, a nonbinary drag performer who uses he/she/they pronouns). Bennifer was crowned Mid-Missouri Pride Regent in 2021.

What is your favorite style?

My favorite styles of drag to do are punk or goth but also high-fashion.

How does your nonbinary identity influence your drag style?

I like to have super masculine elements to me but also super feminine elements. So lots of makeup, accessories and jewelry but also my hairy legs, beard and chest. I know in my own head I transcend gender or whatever, so it doesn’t matter to me what other people think.

Who inspires you?

I’m definitely inspired by Violet Chachki, Bimini Bon-Boulash from Drag Race UK, Milk and Crystal Methyd. A lot of my non-drag inspirations are high-fashion designers like Thierry Mugler. I’m also inspired by Lady Kier from Deee-Lite and Lady Gaga.

Any future looks you’re hoping to do?

I’ve always wanted to do a Catwoman look based on a Mugler design where these women are in suits and have little ears. There’s a picture on Rihanna’s Instagram, and she’s a giant joint. I want to

A “themme fatale,” Bennifer Lopez was crowned the 2021 Mid-Missouri Pride Regent this summer. A non-binary drag performer, Bennifer incorporates masculine and feminine elements into high-fashion looks.

WHEN? WHERE?

Divas by Design at Eastside Tavern

If you’re living for the lip-sync, see the queens perform the Divas by Design shows at Eastside Tavern. Nov. 12 and 26, 9 p.m., $10

Divas by Design at Pressed Can’t get enough? Catch Divas by Design again, this time at Pressed. Nov. 18, 9 p.m., $10

redo that concept, but I want to make it a giant bottle of Got2b hairspray.

What is your shadiest read on Columbia? Just because you’ve been doing drag for a long time doesn’t mean that you’re good.

Liz Anya

Originally from Boonville, 26-year-old Liz Anya has lived in Columbia for about seven years and has done drag for four. She was crowned Mid-Missouri Pride Queen in 2019, and her reign lasted an extra year when Pridefest was canceled in 2020 due to the pandemic.

What is your favorite style?

I like to perform higher energy numbers. I’m not good at slow songs in a gown. I feel so silly up there doing it. I like a song where I can prance around and skip around to the beat of the song and look like I’m doing a lot more than I’m actually doing.

When did you first do drag?

The first time I got in drag but didn’t perform, my drag mom, Veronika Versace, finally did my makeup, and we just went out to watch a show. I was wearing five pairs of pantyhose and a dress that was too short. I was wearing this big wig, so it looked huge on me, but it was really fun.

Who inspires you?

Liz Anya is where country queen meets pop diva in the Columbia drag scene. She was crowned Mid-Missouri Pride Queen in 2019.

My favorite drag queens from Rupaul’s Drag Race are Trixie Mattel, Bob the Drag Queen and Bianca Del Rio. My big gay-spirations are Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, and since I am from a small town, I love the Dixie Chicks.

What’s your shadiest read on Columbia?

All I can really say about Columbia drag is probably bless this meth. A lot of delusion runs rampant as well.

Photography by Megan Matty and Jacob Moscovitch

Biscuit to brisket

Bud’s Classic BBQ owner Jason Paetzold is smoking up Ninth Street with West Texas flavors.

BY JOEL LORENZI

Hovering around the familiar but modernized, wood-laden tables of Bud’s Classic BBQ is owner Jason Paetzold. He’s likely the first person to greet you once you shake the trance induced by the smoky-meat aroma emanating from the kitchen.

Paetzold has been in Columbia for about a year. In his past, he owned a chain of breakfast restaurants called The Big Biscuit in Kansas City. He hails from West Texas, so barbecue culture runs through Paetzold’s veins. He remembers times when he, his father and grandfather, the restaurant’s namesake, would split a single Coke while devouring some ribs. Now, he wants to share the feeling barbecue has given him all his life with Columbia.

“Jason is hands-down the hardest working restaurant owner I’ve ever worked for,” says Matt Albrecht, Paetzold’s chef, via text. “His passion and dedication for providing our guests with a great dining experience is truly inspiring.” Paetzold plans to cater more and has dreams of starting a supper club, a monthly event in which he’d barbecue fancier items such as salmon or lamb. Vox caught up with him to chew the fat about his barbecue joint.

Where did the idea of Bud’s come from? Bud’s isn’t so much about barbecue as it is about what my grandfather represented. We grew up in a dusty part of West Texas, and it got so hot in the afternoons that he would go to a little coffee shop every day and drink iced tea. People would drive from all around

because they were either out on farms or ranches and pretty isolated. They didn’t have social media; they wanted to catch up with each other and get together. That’s what makes food so special. More than barbecue, I just wanted a place that anybody can walk into and feel welcome. For everybody who’s either away from home or now calls this home, we’re going to just treat them like family.

In Missouri, Kansas City and St. Louis are known for their barbecue. Why choose to settle down in Columbia? What makes Columbia special is you’ve got Shakespeare’s, you’ve got Harpo’s, you have these places that are just iconic. And I hope to have this stay on long after me. This barbecue, it’s not trending — it’s been around for ages, and it’s the one food that truly is American. Outside the state of Texas, you’ve got the Carolinas, and you’ve got Missouri. And after that everybody is just a far, far cry away. I’m happy to be around people that value good barbecue.

I’m just bringing a little different twist to how we do it.

BUD’S CLASSIC BBQ

304 S. Ninth St. Mon.–Fri. 10 a.m. to midnight and Sat.–Sun. 9 a.m. to midnight

What’s the most important part of making barbecue?

Staying up all night, managing a fire — you only do that kind of stuff if you’re passionate. Meaning that we’ll spend 24 to 36 hours on a piece of meat that you may crush in three minutes. But we’ll do that every day because it’s just what we love. You know whether someone makes furniture or leather goods, any type of craft, people really fail to understand how much work behind the scenes goes into it for the finished product. And a true craftsman doesn’t really care because we do it for the beauty of the craft.

For those wanting to try Bud’s, which menu item would you recommend?

Well, brisket is king. We love cooking ribs; we love cooking everything. But there’s something magical about a brisket. It’s a piece of meat that we could probably cook for another 100 years and never perfect it the way we want to. But when it’s done right, there’s nothing that compares to Texas-style brisket.

Jason Paetzold aims to help students away from home feel welcome.

Photography by Jean Bensana VOX MAGAZINE • NOVEMBER 2021

NOVEMBER Vox Picks for

BY COLIN WILLARD

Eat...

Traditional Chinese mooncakes from GraceCake US, a Columbia catering service. The traditional dessert has a flaky, soft shell and is not as sweet as some other variations of mooncakes that are smooth-shelled and thick. Funing Li, also known as Grace, started her business this year after realizing the difficulty of finding traditional Asian-style cakes in Columbia. GraceCake US will be at the Columbia Farmers Market Oct. 30. Ordering is also available at etsy.com/shop/gracecakeus.

Visit...

The new Gateway Plaza in downtown Columbia. The Nov. 4 unveiling of the “COLUMBIA” sculpture at the intersection of Broadway and Providence Road will celebrate the 200th anniversary of the city. The sculpture’s “O” is a globe featuring words and dates significant to the city’s history. Two days later, come back for The District’s Holiday Shop Hop event where local businesses will showcase fall products for shoppers to add to their seasonal purchases. Gateway Plaza unveiling, Nov. 4, 5 p.m.; Holiday Shop Hop, Nov. 6, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Vote...

In the special election on Nov. 2. No elected seats are up for grabs, but one item is on the ballot: Proposition 1. The current rate of sales tax used to fund city parks, one-fourth of 1%, is set to be cut in half in March 2022. If Proposition 1 passes, the current rate of one-fourth of 1% will remain for an additional 10 years. For more information or to read a sample ballot, visit showmeboone.com/clerk.

10-minute plays from a trio of Missouri playwrights. This year’s lineup features two plays each by Mark Baumgartner, Matt Neff and Monica Palmer on the topics of agony and ecstasy. Starting Gate New Play Festival will be Nov. 12 and 13 at 7:30 p.m. and Nov. 14 at 2 p.m. at Talking Horse Productions. Tickets are $10.

Watch...

The new documentary Procession by MU professor Robert Greene. The film follows six men who were sexually abused as children by Catholic priests. The hometown premiere will feature a Q&A with Greene and the men featured in the documentary. The film is being distributed by Netflix, which intends to launch an awards campaign for Procession. Missouri Theatre, Nov. 8, 7:30 p.m. Tick-

Photography by Tanner Bubeck, Jenny Justus, Owen Ziliak and Moy Zhong and courtesy of Pixabay

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.

The festival lineup includes (1) Self Hug, (2) Clarice Jensen, (3) Armand Hammer and (4) Patrick Shiroishi.

“The community gains different ways of seeing things that they can take with them and apply to everyday life,” Crook says. There are experimentalists within every genre and outside every genre, which makes the experimental music community extremely diverse.

Patrick Shiroishi, a Los Angeles-based free jazz and ambient musician who will perform at the festival, says experimental music often requires more patience and introspection than other music because it defies traditional song structures and rhythms. Unlike many traditional pop songs, experimental music might include long stretches of silence or minimal sound.

“It’s always nice to hear something where boundaries are pushed,” Shiroishi says. “A lot of the people in the experimental scene are very open minded.”

Tuning in

Although its initial audience consisted mostly of friends and younger out-of-towners, Dismal Niche has been able to get its name out to older local patrons of the arts

by working with Columbia mainstays such as the True/False Film Fest and the “We Always Swing” Jazz Series. “It’s really cool to see if we book a hip-hop show, someone who’s seemingly in their 80s will be jamming along with young kids,” Crook says. “I think that’s beautiful.” The festival also tries to incorporate a wide variety of genres, including jazz, which Crook says often appeals to an older audience.

This year’s lineup was curated with the intention of bringing innovative sounds to the table, regardless of genre. The festival includes artists from all across the musical spectrum, including abstract hip-hop group Armand Hammer and atmospheric black metal band Yellow Eyes.

When planning the festival, Crook says he looks for artists who not only push sonic boundaries but also question ideas and societal structures. “It’s offering up different ways of thinking about what music can do and what you can do with music,” he says.

Chaz Prymek, Dismal Niche board member and a performer at this year’s

SHOWS TO SEE

Not sure where to start? Check out these four artists. All are 7:30 p.m. shows.

Ami Dang

Nov. 4, A.P. Green Chapel, 518 Hitt St.

Armand Hammer with Patrick Shiroishi

Nov. 5, Firestone Baars Chapel, 1306 E. Walnut St.

Clarice Jensen with Fuubutsushi

Nov. 6, First Baptist Church, 1112 E. Broadway

Yellow Eyes with Thom Nguyen

Nov. 7, Firestone Baars Chapel

festival, says it’s also challenging how we typically use physical spaces, which is shown by three of the venues: A.P. Green Chapel, Firestone Baars Chapel and First Baptist Church of Columbia.

“We particularly love beautiful spaces and to experience things that you wouldn’t normally see in a chapel or a church and to take those spaces and transform what they originally are,” he says.

On the same stage

Prymek hopes Dismal Niche can foster a vibrant music and arts community in Columbia by putting bigger experimental acts, like Clarice Jensen, and local groups, such as high-school-age alternative rock band Self Hug, at the forefront.

“It’s important to put people from our music scenes in our community onstage on an equal playing level with some of these giant artists that we’re bringing in,” Prymek says. “This music festival has put Columbia on the map for more experimental and avant-garde musicians.”

Shaping connections

As an Access Arts resident, Dakota Parkinson creates functional ceramic pieces that spark conversation and foster community.

BY LAUREN BLUE

Dakota Parkinson didn’t recognize her passion for art right away. For Parkinson, who uses she/they pronouns, art is a way to connect to their identity and create community.

Graduating from MU in 2016 with a degree in exercise physiology, Parkinson didn’t begin to focus on creativity and ceramics until their transition, which began publicly in 2019. “Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, you know: security, feeling like you exist, food, shelter then creativity finally,” Parkinson says.

Parkinson has been a resident at Access Arts since April and enjoys creating ceramic pieces that illustrate the complex and chaotic relationship between clay and glaze. Her finished artwork is often rough-hewn, with the emphasis placed more on visual interest than beauty.

Willow Stevenson, another resident ceramics artist at Access Arts, describes Dakota’s pieces as striking. “I love the organic shapes and textures, the oxides and glazes she chooses, and how her body of work is so distinct and recognizable as Dakota’s,” she wrote in an email to Vox

As a transfeminine artist, Parkinson channels their own personal identity and connects with others through the process of creating art. “Every pot I make is in itself a trans body,” she says. Other trans people have purchased Parkinson’s work and shared their own experiences with gender identity. “It’s interesting connecting a very stratified population, like trans people, together through me creating a functional piece of work that they can use and pass that on to somebody else,” Parkinson says.

Access Arts has centered this idea of connection since its beginning. Inspired by his son with cerebral palsy, Hurst John founded the School of Ser-

ART AT WORK

Parkinson sells much of their artwork through Instagram @transfunctional. She will be hosting bowls4thegirls, a Nov. 19 independent event at Cafe Berlin. A portion of the proceeds will go to trans people in need and trans-affirming health care.

vice, an integrated learning nonprofit and the parent organization of Access Arts, in 1971. “We were founded with the mission of creating an inclusive environment for people with disabilities to learn in the same place as people without disabilities,” says Shawna Johnson, executive director at Access Arts. “We have continued to do that for people with disabilities, but we have expanded it and fostered that spirit of inclusion of other populations as well.” The organization offers classes, workshops, outreach programs and demonstrations to underserved community members including veterans, seniors, at-risk youth and the LGBTQIA+ community.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Access Arts, and the organization is raising money for another art building to

accommodate more students and ensure its future growth in the next 50 years. Within the Access Arts residency program, Parkinson creates their own projects and has the option to consult with a coordinator. She also volunteers as part of their residency by teaching art classes.

“Dakota is the sort of artist that is very inspiring because they’re constantly working or making connections to things,” says Adriana Cristal, another resident ceramics artist at Access Arts.

One of these connections is how Parkinson brings their background in exercise physiology to her work with clay. She says she enjoys the common element of growth in both professions. “In the same way that you can only create a positive environment like the growth of muscle or a healthy body, you can only guide the clay so much before you have to relinquish control to an atmospheric environment,” Parkinson says.

“It will either turn out how you want it or turn out completely differently, surprise you, disappoint you, turn out mediocre, but it still has that same drive and interest for me.”

Dakota Parkinson teaches beginner and mixed-level wheelthrowing classes at Access Arts. At right, they dip their hand into a mix of water and apple cider vinegar to help shape the clay. Below, she holds a bowl with finger indents in the sides of it.

Photography by Amy Schaffer

You can find it on the side of the road, piled 10 stories high in Columbia’s landfill or flowing through 720 miles of the city’s pipes. Once our waste is out of sight, it’s almost certainly out of mind. Vox got down and dirty to uncover the truth about waste, sustainability — and, yes, roll carts.

Collages by Makalah Hardy

Whodunnit: Carbon footprint edition

How the discussion about climate change became focused on personal impact instead of the corporations that are actually causing it.

BY ABIGAIL RUHMAN

The year 2030 is significant. In August, a report from the United Nations identified that year as the tipping point when climate change becomes irreversible. Despite the deadline looming less than a decade away, the conversation around climate change still often focuses on whether individuals should use plastic bottles or recycle. However, this perspective fails to address the reality of what causes climate change and who should shoulder the responsibility.

Who made the rules?

The notion that individual responsibility is the solution to climate change is a result of creative public relations campaigns. From introducing tools that target consumer buying habits to denying climate change altogether, companies with high carbon emissions have changed whom people actually blame for global warming.

In 2004, British Petroleum introduced the concept of an individual carbon footprint to appear more environmentally conscious. The company’s footprint calculator takes into account how travel, lifestyle and event choices contribute to climate change. The landing page for the calculator states, “When we work together, small actions can make a big difference.”

This is the same company that played a role in “the largest spill of oil in the history of marine oil drilling operations,” according to the Environmental Protection Agency. The agency determined BP’s negligence led to the 2010 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico.

Seven years after Deepwater Horizon, CDP, a nonprofit formerly known as the Carbon Disclosure Project, published its Carbon Majors Report, which found that 100 companies created 71% of all global carbon emissions. BP was on the list as

were other household names such as Shell and ExxonMobil and overseas conglomerates like Saudi Aramco and Coal India.

According to an investigation by Inside Climate News, Exxon’s own research confirmed fossil fuels’ role in exacerbating climate change nearly 40 years ago, but the company was at the “forefront of climate denial.” By denying climate change, the 100 companies known as the carbon majors have put the weight of addressing climate change onto the individual.

Who can make a difference?

The responsibility of making a so-called big difference often falls onto the individual actions of consumers like taking public transportation or eating less red meat. But research shows the impact of individual action is often too small to measure, even if large portions of the population take action. Frank Mitloehner, the director of the Clarity and Leadership for Environmental Awareness and Research Center at UC Davis, uses a recent trend to demonstrate this point.

“For example, if the entire U.S. were to do Meatless Monday — not eat any animal source foods — we would reduce the carbon footprint of the nation by 0.3%,” Mitloehner says. “Now, that number is not huge. But if you consider that what’s needed is 330 million Americans doing that, then the desired outcome would be so small that it would not really be measurable.”

From denial to creative marketing, these messages leave individuals with the unreasonable expectation to fix the climate, even though consumers’ actions can’t compete with the impact of carbon majors.

Who’s

stuck playing the game?

Many publications, including The New York Times, Mashable and Vox have published guides explaining how individuals

can lower their carbon footprint, but focusing on those actions doesn’t always resolve the issue. Mark Haim, director of Mid-Missouri Peaceworks, has been an activist since the 1960s. Although he says he tries his best to have a low carbon footprint, he explains that small changes aren’t enough.

“When it comes to what choices people can make, the thing we say is, ‘Nobody can do everything, but everybody can do something,’ ” Haim says. “There’s a whole litany of things that people can do to reduce their carbon footprint. But when it comes right down to it, even the most carbon-conscious consumers are nowhere near enough. We need public policy changes in addition to personal choices.”

Companies known as “carbon majors” have used public relations techniques and strategic denial to avoid blame for increasing climate change.

The general public is also growing increasingly worried about the climate. More than half of Americans are at least somewhat anxious about the impact climate change has on their mental health, according to a September 2020 poll conducted by the American Psychiatric As-

Cleanup crews

Check out these organizations that help keep Columbia sparkling clean.

BY OSKAR ZWERGIUS

25 corporate and state-run entities account for 51% of global industrial greenhouse gas emissions.

sociation. The same poll points out that more than two-thirds of Americans are also concerned about the impact climate change will have on the planet.

This climate anxiety, also called eco-anxiety, is a result of the pressure to fix something that most people feel powerless to change.

Maude Chivnall-Voltmer, a lifelong Columbia resident and a Peacenook employee, describes the feeling as “paralyzing devastation” from a sense of grief.

When she lets eco-anxiety get the best of her, Chivnall-Voltmer says she’s doing herself and those around her a disservice.

In contrast to the narrative presented by the climate majors, Chivnall-Voltmer says what she believes is the most important thing to understand about climate anxiety: being of service to each other so that no one struggling with it feels completely alone.

That sense of community means collectively confronting the source of irreversible climate change: the corporations that started the myth of individual control.

According to Keep America Beautiful in 2020, there were more than 50 billion pieces of litter scattered along the country’s road and waterways. For a nationwide problem, let’s start with some community solutions.

Adopt-A- programs

Take care of your own stretch of highway with AdoptA-Road, a Boone County Resource Management effort where volunteers can “adopt” and clean at least one mile of roadway once a year or more. Or try Columbia’s Adopt-A-Spot program, where volunteers commit to a single spot for eight cleanups over two years. One-time efforts are welcomed as well.

Adopt-A-Road: 874-7499; Adopt-A-Spot: 874-7499

Missouri River Relief

Missouri River Relief and its roster of volunteers have been removing refrigerators, bowling balls and more from the Missouri River once a month for 20 years. The organization reports that it has cleaned up more than 2 million pounds of litter from the river since it was founded. Based in Columbia, you can join the group on cleanups to help keep our drinking water clean and safe. 443-0292; riverrelief@riverrelief.org

Office of Sustainability Classes

Get schooled with Columbia’s Office of Sustainability recycling program classes. They’re available for people of all ages, which Michael J. Heimos, Columbia’s environmental education coordinator, says is vital. “Start them young, talk about the things you can do in your everyday life,” Heimos says.

Volunteer@CoMo.gov

2017 CDP Carbon Majors Report

Digging into the dump

A peek into the ins and outs, highs and lows of the trash processing at Columbia’s landfill.

BY MICHAEL LEVITT

To completely unearth all 10 stories of compacted trash in Columbia’s landfill would be like digging up a time capsule spanning three decades. Since 1986, the facility on the edge of town, which stretches over hundreds of acres, has been processing, weighing and compacting the city’s trash.

Dreams of expansion

Columbia’s landfill area currently has 109 permitted acres, with another 611 acres also on the property, including its main office at 5700 Peabody Road. The landfill area is expected to be full by 2031. Columbia plans to expand the landfill and is working

to get permits for 240 additional acres — about the size of 218 football fields. Expanding the landfill area has many benefits, including space that would last the city another 40 to 80 years. It also would keep trash collection costs down and allow the city to continue sustainable waste management programs.

Bioreactor decomposition 101

Columbia created a bioreactor landfill in 2009. A bioreactor landfill adds water to the trash to create methane gas that is collected in pipes under the landfill area and sent to Columbia’s water treatment plant where it’s turned into electricity. Bioreactor landfills are different from dry tomb landfills, which are the standard. Bioreactor landfills produce more pollution but for a shorter time frame than dry tomb landfills where material takes longer to decompose.

The compactor factor

Trash is brought to the landfill property in trucks, weighed when the trucks drive over a giant scale and then taken to the active working site. A machine spreads the trash across the ground until it covers an 11-acre area in a single layer before a compactor flattens it as much as possible.

Workers can typically compact about one layer of trash a day. Once the trash is compacted, workers put dirt on top of it to help the trash stay down and not be blown around by wind.

Taller than The Tiger Hotel

However, the dirt is taken off before the next layer of trash is put down, which is usually the next day. This is done because dirt can make the water in the bioreactor landfill flow out of the side of the working site.

The landfill area is regulated based on volume, not tonnage, so the compactor is one of the more important machines at the landfill. A compactor weighs over 50,000 pounds and looks like a bulldozer, but it has a large circular part between the body and metal blade.

Areas of the landfill have trash buried 100 feet deep, or 10 stories worth of trash. The size of these layers vary based on how the workers compact them. In one of those layers of trash, there is a gravel road on top.

In 2016, a study completed by Missouri’s Department of Natural Resources found that 38.2% of material in Columbia’s landfill was organic, the largest of any category. The next-highest category was paper at 21.9%. The only other categories over 10% were plastic (16.2%) and inorganic material (13.3%).

Bag it up: A decade of roll cart debate

Roll carts or pay-as-you-throw? It’s a never-ending curbside feud.

BY KELSY ARMSTRONG

An incontestable fact about Columbia is that everyone and their cousin seems to argue about how the city should collect trash. Many believe roll carts are the way to go. Others say they are absolutely not.

In February 2021, the city started a pay-as-you-throw program. Now, as you drive through Columbia, you see black bags emblazoned with the city logo on trash collection days. The program limits households to two trash bags per week before residents must buy more of the city-issued plastic.

Other U.S. cities, typically in more densely populated regions, use pay-asyou-throw systems, says Steve Hunt, manager of Columbia Public Works.

Even before Columbia enacted its new trash-collection standard, residents butted heads with council members, encouraging the city to adopt a seemingly unthinkable ordinance: Let people deposit trash into tall bins on wheels.

A decade of roll-cart debates

2011: The Public Works Department sent out a survey when the city was considering a roll cart system. Under the proposed system, residents would leave their trash in a cart, and a truck with an automated arm would pick up the trash. Fighting against roll carts was the Solid Waste Advocacy group. It argued implementing the system would be costly, citing storage, distribution, maintenance, tracking, billing complexity and ordinance enforcement as hurdles. According to 2020 Missourian reporting, the startup costs for the needed automated trucks and distribution of the roll carts would have been about $12 million.

2016: The issue went to the ballot in March 2016, and voters approved a ban on roll carts, which included not discussing the topic for six months.

2020: In August 2020, amid a pandemic that affected sanitation workers and city recycling collection, the City Council voted on whether to place a measure on the Nov. 4 general election ballot that would repeal the 2016 ordinances. The vote ended in a 3-3 tie, and without a majority, the move failed.

Supporters of the proposed cart system often cite how beneficial roll carts would be to so many. But detractors lean into its potential flaws as reasons to reject the premise.

Pros and cons of a polarizing system Residents have gone back and forth on whether roll carts are ergonomic for all to use. In particular, some think Columbia’s elderly population would have a hard time handling them. Rachel Proffitt, an advocate for roll carts and an occupational therapist, disagrees, adding that lumbering heavy trash bags to the end of driveways is arduous.

After the city suspended curbside recycling in July 2020 indefinitely due to staffing shortages, Proffitt and Amy Vandergriff created the Facebook group Columbia MO Citizens for Roll Carts. Proffitt says she was frustrated because she sees carts as a safer and more efficient option.

Proffitt spoke with community members and learned about the physical toll of collecting bags on sanitation workers she says. She found out about the injuries and worker compensation claims due to lifting heavy bags. Proffitt, an occupational therapist, says the primary injuries include muscle strains in the shoulders, arms and hands. But under a roll cart model, an automated arm would perform the heavy lifts.

Monica Lee, a local resident of about 14 years, says she wants to foster an environmentally friendly and sustainable community. Lee says there wasn’t enough input from the public when the city made the move to the pay-as-youthrow program. Lee also likes that the roll cart system would reduce the number of trash bags people use that ultimately make their way to the landfill.

Although Columbia’s complicated relationship with roll carts will continue, the new bag system has its own critics. Some claim larger households have no choice but to pay for more city-issued bags, presenting inequity in the system.

The Columbia MO Citizens for Roll Carts Facebook group has 2,757 completed and notarized signatures to get roll carts onto the April ballot, Proffitt says. Under the city charter, the petition needs 3,219 notarized signatures to make it. “The next task after that is if it does make it on the ballot, then getting people to the polls and asking them to vote,” Proffitt says.

From February to June, the city saw a 22% decrease in trash collection and 15% increase in recyclables compared to the same period in 2019.

Even before Columbia enacted its new trashcollection standard, residents butted heads with council members.

Who takes out the trash?

Where your trash bags go after you dump them and what collectors wish you knew.

BY IRINA MATCHAVARIANI

Alfred Patenaude has seen his share of weird things in his 15 years in an orange work uniform. Once, he passed a gentleman mowing his grass who wore nothing but a banana hammock. Another time, a stubborn raccoon sprung from a dumpster onto his truck. The critter smacked him in the collar bone. It felt he’d been hit with a bowling ball.

Justin Dueber has similarly odd experiences behind the wheel. Over the two years of donning the yellow-striped vest, he has learned to be alert. On bad days, he has encountered dead animals, concrete blocks or adult toys. On good ones, he has received cookies from grateful residents. Dueber doesn’t always eat them, but he appreciates the gesture.

Patenaude and Dueber are trash collectors. Patenaude supervises routes at the private company T-MAC Solid

Waste & Roll-Off Services. T-MAC serves residential areas outside the city of Columbia from Ashland to Clark. Inside the city, the company’s reach is limited to commercial dumpsters.

Dueber is a senior refuse collector at the City of Columbia Sanitation Department. He is one of the 14 full-time employees in residential curbside collection.

Both have mastered the art of waking up early.

Patenaude starts his day at 4:30 a.m. He opens T-MAC and goes through the usual checklist:

Seven trucks up and running? Check.

Tires and lights? Check.

Fuel, fluids and reservoirs? Check. Equipment and hand sanitizer? Check.

Seven drivers and collectors? Check. Workers have to hit the road at

Follow the ins and outs of recycling and what happens to it when it leaves our homes.

BY CHASE MEILI

6 a.m. Once full, a truck heads to the landfill, empties its contents and goes back to complete the route. T-MAC runs six or seven routes depending on the day, each one making between 350 and 650 curbside stops.

Dueber’s day starts with the buzz of banter at Columbia Solid Waste Utility. Sanitation workers joke and laugh in their spare minutes before hitting the roads. By 7:30 a.m., Dueber checks on his partner, Jared Wuest and lets the engine roar.

On an average day, his truck visits 800 to 1,000 households, collecting trash bags and emptying residential dumpsters. Sometimes residents surprise Dueber with their inventiveness. “Somebody

Photographer Name

Justin Dueber is one of 14 fulltime employees who perform residential curbside collection for the city’s sanitation department.

tried to sneak a whole mattress into the bags,” he remembers with a smile. “They just taped one bag to each corner of it.” Someone else dragged a whole toilet to the curbside.

Heavy, awkward objects such as refrigerators, washers and sacks of stinky cat litter have resulted in trash collectors getting injured over the years, Patenaude says. Dueber adds that collecting trash is the most physical job he has ever had.

“I wish more people would understand how much effort we put into our job and

Where does it go?

how difficult it is,” he says. “And I wish they would divide up (cat litter) a little more.”

Despite physical demands, the men carry on with their work. “It’s a pretty easy job,” Patenaude says, chuckling. “There is not much training involved.”

Instead, the job is all about teamwork. Dueber and his partner take turns driving and hauling in garbage. At T-MAC, regular drivers provide tips for newcomers or staff replacements. “You might think you are in the middle of nowhere here — do you turn left or right?” Patenaude says. “It helps.”

For residents willing to take advice, the two collectors offer advice. Dueber starts with a simple one: tie up bags. Trash has a tendency to fly from the vehicle, causing drivers to make extra stops to pick it up.

Patenaude says many customers call to say their trash wasn’t picked up only for them to realize they put it out late. “That’s probably the most common issue we run into,” Patenaude says.

Often, residents put out yard or hazardous waste, which Patenaude and Dueber aren’t authorized to handle. Patenaude remembers an old lawn mower still full of gas and oil sitting on the curbside. “We can’t take it to the landfill,” he says, explaining that people should drain it and drop it at the recycling facility. To avoid inconvenience,

SORTED

The materials are dropped off at the Columbia Sanitary Landfill. Recycled items are put on a conveyor belt, and workers separate material. Cans and bottles won’t be recycled the same way, so this sorting is essential and happens quickly.

Patenaude suggests calling T-MAC to inquire about how to handle different kinds of waste.

Displays of kindness go a long way with the two men, too. Dueber enjoys seeing little kids excited about the trash truck passing through their neighborhood.

“They will run out, give us a big wave and greet us on our day,” he says.

“We let them hear the honk in return.”

Sometimes, kids and parents walk up to Dueber’s truck to check it out.

“Kids are interested in what we do,” he says. “They tell us, ‘Thank you for picking up the trash,’ and they appreciate it.”

Grown-ups, on the other hand, are not always friendly. “It seems like more people are frustrated than appreciative,” Dueber says.

But as the men head to the landfill and wrap up the day’s work, a child’s drawing on the wall reminds them of their work’s importance. It is a green truck complete with a driver and two collectors swinging from its side. The caption, in crooked letters, reads:

“Dear garbage collectors! Thank you for taking the trash to wherever you take it. And if you didn’t, it would stink, and it would be gross! From the Bard Family.”

For the collectors, whose efforts keep the city clean, that is exactly what matters.

STORED

Recycled materials are processed and stored at the facility. The big cube of material will be bought to be reused.

CONTAMINATED ITEMS

Unfortunately, 30-35% of the recycled materials sent to the processing center are contaminated and get rerouted to the landfill: food waste, plastic straws and bottles with liquid.

SOLD Budweiser buys aluminum to make new cans for beverages. Midland Davis Corp, a full-service recycling company, buys mixed paper and cardboard.

Sources: como.gov; almostzerowaste.com; Nicholas Paul, Recovery Superintendent for the Columbia Material Recovery Facility

Photography by Photographer Name

Dueber buzzes past hundreds of Columbia homes every day.

Pipe dreams

Columbia aims to avoid future nightmares by repairing its aging sewer system by 2040. How’s it going so far?

BY EVAN MUSIL

This past June, nearly 7 inches of rain flooded Hinkson Creek in Columbia, filling the streets with stormwater and even briefly closing Providence Road. This excessive water inundated four failing stormwater pipes, worsening the rusting-out bottoms. If not addressed, the pipes would have sucked in more soil, either creating a sinkhole or enlarging an existing one.

Fixing urgent sewer failures is at the center of Columbia’s 20-year integrated management plan, or IMP, for its wastewater and stormwater infrastructure.

Enacted in December 2018 and set in motion in July 2020, the plan prioritizes stormwater projects based on a pipe’s immediate replacement or emergency repair needs, which aims to fix them gradually. The long time frame allows the city to keep residents’ rates steady, says Erin Keys, the Sanitary Sewer and Stormwater Utilities engineering and operations manager.

It’s about time

Parts of the Columbia sanitary sewer system are 100 years old. With 720 miles, or about 3.8 million feet of pipes, it can be tough to maintain. “We get concerns from people on a regular basis about storm sewers,” says Dave Sorrell, director of utilities in Columbia.

In 2010, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources pressured the city to fix sewer overflow problems, which ended up being a multi-million dollar project requiring almost a decade of planning.

The planning team solicited feedback from contractors and more than 160 community members. “Something everyone agreed needed to be addressed

was backups into people’s homes,” Sorrell says. With this feedback, Columbia Utilities constructed the IMP with a five-year action plan to track its progress and make adjustments. The city aims to rehabilitate 20% of the pipes over 20 years.

Now into its second year, the IMP might fall behind. “With our staffing shortages, there are a few aspects that we’ll probably have difficulty keeping up with,” Keys says. Columbia Utilities hired Kansas City contractor ACE Pipe Cleaning this year, but Keys says many other contractors are having trouble hiring, too. “We’re rehabilitating a lot of our system, but maintaining it is where we’re falling shorter than we have in the past,” she says.

Putting it into action

Through ACE, the city has managed to stay on track with rehabilitation projects. ACE places a liner within the aging pipe and then blows hot steam to expand and harden the liner, so it reinforces the pipe. The lining process is cheaper, less disruptive to the public and easier than digging up pipes and closing roads.

One of the most intensive projects is replacing private common collector sewer systems, which property owners used to build and own themselves. Keys says broken pipes from lack of private maintenance can cause sewage leaking onto the ground or more stormwater

seeping underground and overwhelming the system.

Stormwater can cause sewer overflow. “Thankfully, the people who founded Columbia had the foresight to keep them (the city’s wastewater and stormwater systems) separate,” Keys says. Unfortunately, heavy rain and pipe leaks still push stormwater into the sanitary pipes system and overloads its capacity. The Wastewater Treatment Plant is designed to handle about 25 million gallons of water per day; during heavy rain, the plant could take in nearly 60 million gallons per day. “This last year, we actually pumped 150 million over two days,” Keys says. “A lot of it wasn’t sewage (water), but it had sewage in it, so we still had to treat it all.”

A necessary change

Keys says residents take sewers for granted, and it’s easy to disregard what’s invisible until your toilet backs up. The IMP also educates the public about streams and sewers through Facebook and City Source newsletters.

Educating the public helps them understand why this plan is important. “We don’t get to ignore compliance,” Sorrell says. Because a functioning sewer system is vital to public health, Columbia Utilities plans to hire more people to maintain pipes and keep the IMP on track.

Residents take sewers for granted until storms or leaks cause the system to fail.

Parts of the Columbia sanitary sewer system are 100 years old.

Greener and cleaner

From flowering fairways to recycled roadways, these Columbia-area projects help create a more sustainable planet.

BY BEN MIGLORE

There’s always room for improvement, especially when it comes to creating a more eco-friendly community. Four sites lead Columbia to becoming more eco-friendly through conservation, wildlife habitats, compost, recycling, and renewable energy.

A.L. Gustin Golf Course

Audubon International started the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program for Golf Courses in 1991. It addresses issues such as water conservation and wildlife and habitat management. In 1997, Gustin became the first university course certified by Audubon International.

Out of its 125 acres, 15 acres of the course are dedicated to wildflower plots. Golf Course Superintendent Isaac Breuer says this reduces the areas requiring consistent watering and upkeep, which saves money and water resources. The plots also attract wildlife such as bees, birds and butterflies, Breuer says.

BlueBird Composting

The Fulton-based company expanded its business to Columbia in September 2020 and opened a retail store on Highway 763. There, BlueBird sells the compost and topsoil it creates from food waste collected from customers of its recycling pickup service. The service’s cost ranges from $13 to $20 per 65-gallon roll cart, depending on the number of containers.

In May 2018, Founder Rana Bains told the Missouri Business Alert his company’s main goal is to close the recycling loop by keeping organic waste out of landfills, which releases harmful methane gas.

Stadium Boulevard Resurfacing

As part of the 2021 project to resurface Stadium Boulevard from Interstate 70 to U.S. Highway 63, a 2-mile stretch of the

6-mile project served as a testing ground for a new kind of pavement.

MU civil and environmental engineering professor Bill Buttlar says MU has worked with Dow, a global materials science company, over the past two years to develop several blends of recycled plastic and rubber mixed with asphalt to create a stronger road surface. Capital Paving Materials and Construction used the blends to surface the roadway between College Avenue and U.S. Highway 63.

Buttlar says the blend makes the pavement last longer and keeps plastic shopping bags or bottles out of landfills. He says the stretch of road will get 25%-50% more life out of the compound surface. The mixture was made up of the equivalent of 1.36 million bottles or 2.72 million bags.

Truman Solar Site

Truman Solar Site is a solar farm with about 90 acres of approximately 5,000 solar panels.

Beginning operation in May 2021, the farm will produce over 23,000 megawatt hours of clean, renewable energy during its first year, according to the City of Columbia. A megawatt hour is the amount of electricity used by around 330 homes per hour.

The energy purchased from Truman Solar LLC adds 1-1.5% toward Columbia’s goal of 25% renewable energy sources by the end of 2022, according to the Missourian.

This summer’s Stadium Boulevard resurfacing project included 2 miles of road made with recycled plastic.

Vision for the city’s future

On the job since August, sustainability manager Eric Hempel shares his goals.

BY SAVANNAH BENNETT

The Office of Sustainability focuses on many issues, ranging from conservation to education. Eric Hempel pinpoints a few of his goals to make Columbia greener.

Natural resources

Hempel discusses three ways to improve Columbia’s natural resources:

• Implement carbon sequestration to remove carbon dioxide from the air by capturing and storing it.

• Add native plants and trees to improve Columbia’s ecological resilience.

• Increase number of pollinator habitats to 88. The city is one-third of the way there.

Transportation

The goal is to make Columbia’s transit and fleet vehicles completely electric. There are already several electric buses, and the police department plans to transition fleet vehicles to fully electric.

Educating the public

The department wants to educate Columbia residents through social media including Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. It also gets the word out about how to be eco-friendly through schools.

Watch our video interview with Hempel at voxmagazine.com.

Busier city streets like Broadway and Ninth street need daily attention from the city’s cleanup crew, says team member Bill York. He’s pictured here cleaning off one of the curbs that make up the 50 squareblock downtown area.

Rows of gleaming bottles are dispensed at Ellis Library. The blue bags at the Columbia landfill make the enormous pile almost indistinguishable from the sky above it.

Photography by Lily Dozier, Irynka Hromotska, Ciara McCaskill, Bradford Siwak and Sara Williams

Debris left behind

When trash leaves our hands, it doesn’t leave our lives. It simply gets moved to our cars, to conveyor belts, to the sides of city streets. It litters our worldview but fades into the background. It’s in our community — and everyone else’s too.

Plastic, cardboard and glass containers of snacks for a 2-year-old’s birthday party move down a Walmart conveyor belt and will be either recycled or discarded afterward.

Americans trash more than 12 million tons of furniture per year, and only a small percentage of it is recycled. On the side of a Columbia road, two chairs and a rolled-up rug are up for grabs to interested passersby.

Homecoming weekend remnants are piled in the gutters of downtown, where debris from the festivities wasn’t collected until the next Monday.

Deep in the woods south of Van Buren, Missouri, in the late 1980s, teenager William Millner heard a bone-chilling noise he still remembers more than 30 years later. When camping with his friend John Skelton, the pair heard what sounded like ape calls: deep and rapid “oohs” and “ahhs” not far from their tent.

They were even more frightened to hear another creature responding from the opposite side of the camp, when it vocalized and banged loudly.

Millner and Skelton stood back-to-back between the voices and wondered what could be lurking in the pitch darkness beyond the trees. Millner says he could tell the creatures walked upright on two feet because of the sound of their feet and that they seemed to be larger than bears.

After about 15 minutes, the voices of the creatures seemed to get closer to each other, eventually meeting up and wandering away from Millner’s camp before the boys could see them. “That night –– that was the most terrifying time I’ve ever had in the woods,” Millner says. “We were terrified until we got back to the truck.”

story by Elise Mulligan design and illustrations by Moy Zhong

Generations of storytelling breathe life into enigmatic beasts and phenomena in Missouri’s wilderness.

The next morning, Millner and Skelton immediately cut the trip short and went home after a two-day walk back to their vehicle. Today, Millner says he wishes he could have seen the creature in the light. “It was scary, but also fascinating at the same time when I think back on it because ... what was it?” Millner says.

Millner and Skelton’s experience is just one of the many encounters with mysterious cryptids –– that is, creatures not actually proven to exist –– that date back thousands of years around the world. Even Missouri has generations of stories about elusive beasts and creatures.

Sean Rost, oral historian for the State Historical Society of Missouri, says that these legends arise when people make assumptions to explain things they see and then pass down these stories through the years. Today, the legends might retain only bits and pieces of the original accounts. A story about a bear sighting might evolve into tall tales about a bear-like humanoid creature.

“These stories, over time –– kind of like a game of telephone –– can be stretched out,” Rost says.

Location has a significant impact on folklore, Rost says. In the Ozarks, residents are generally more isolated, leaving them more likely to encounter wildlife. For that reason, the region’s cryptids are most frequently creatures that resemble well-known woodland species but with unnerving combinations and twists.

Rost says many people will believe theories and legends for the excitement that mysterious creatures bring to communities and the world around them. “(People will say) ‘We think it’s real,’ in the sense of, ‘don’t take the story away from us,’ ” Rost says.

Millner echoes the appeal of cryptids, especially given innovations in modern knowledge. “We’re learning so much about the world through science that a lot of the mystique is gone,” Millner says. “People like that (mystique). It’s something unknown, and they want to find out what it is.”

There’s never enough evidence to prove or disprove the existence of cryptids. But just in case you do run into something with glowing eyes in the woods, here are the state’s most infamous creatures in folklore.

Momo the Missouri Monster

In the summer of 1972, a tall, dark, hairy creature terrified a family — and shortly thereafter became a celebrity in the town of Louisiana, Missouri.

As Rost explained in a webinar for SHSMO, Momo was first seen by 8-year-old Terry and 15-year-old Doris Harrison in their backyard near what is today called the Marolf Hill Park in Pike County.

According to an article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch from 1972, the creature was about 6 feet tall and stood upright on two feet. It gave off the putrid odor of mold and old garbage, and its growl sounded like a bear.

Terry Harrison was playing outside when he spotted the creature standing near a tree, so he screamed and ran inside. The scream alerted Doris Harrison, who peered out the window and saw Momo, too. When the parents arrived home, a search party of local law enforcement, highway patrol, conservation agents and even politicians set out to find the monster — to no avail.

But the legend was far from over. The story reverberated through the community. Other sightings alleged Momo stood 12 feet tall with a pumpkin-shaped head, red eyes and a screamgrowl that lasted several seconds. One teenager claimed that Momo lifted up his car with superhuman strength while the teenager was sitting inside it.

Momo accumulated national press coverage and brought visitors to Louisiana to see Momo for themselves. Once a monster, Momo became a booster for the small town and an iconic symbol for advertisers. It even inspired the “MoMo the Monster” ride at Six Flags, which ran from 1973 to 1994, according to the Post-Dispatch.

“It’s just so fascinating to look at newspapers from the time and people embracing (Momo),” Rost says. “You could go to the local diner and get a monster burger.”

Oddly enough, the Harrisons didn’t capitalize on the encounter. Instead, the Harrison kids and their mother initially refused to return to their house, Rost says.

The appeal of Momo was shortlived, and sightings dwindled by the end of the summer of 1972. Local officials believed the creature to be either a bear or local teenager mischief. Regardless, Momo the Missouri Monster achieved celebrity status.

The Ozark Howler

Sean Patrick Fay, a Missouri resident of 19 years, didn’t expect to lock eyes with a cryptid when he went to explore the Route 66 ghost town of Plano this past April.

While in the town, he looked across a nearby field and spotted a large black cat. Fay says the cat was about 6 feet long and 4 or 5 feet tall. “It moved like a wild cat, like a panther or jaguar or cougar,” Fay says. “This cat was a giant cat, (and it was) out of place.”

The creature looked at Fay, but he wasn’t unsettled. Rather, he admired the creature until it wandered off. Fay says he has always been intrigued by cryptids, but he had to research the big cat to identify what he claims to have witnessed.

“I believe in those kind of beings,” Fay says. “I had just never heard the folklore of the Ozark Howler before.”

The Ozark Howler (also called the Devil Cat or the Black Howler) has been spotted roaming around the Ozarks in southern Missouri and northern Arkansas.

The quadruped is shrouded in mystery as many eyewitness accounts disagree

about its appearance. It’s been described as a big cat with glowing eyes, but other accounts detail a dark creature the size of a bear with a thick body, stocky legs, shaggy hair and horns.

Its howl, which Fay did not hear, has been described as a combination of a wolf and an elk –– “deep and guttural.” Witnesses have reported a feeling of dread after hearing it.

Descriptions resemble the Scottish legend of the Cù Sìth, a mythological wolfhound that takes human souls to the afterlife. According to the Unlock the Ozarks project, a website that aims to document the area’s storied history, the Howler lets out three horrifying bays that can kill the listener.

Reports of the Ozark Howler have been recorded since the 1950s, but more recent sightings surfaced between 2005 and 2010. Skeptics attribute the legend to a real feline of some kind, but wildlife officials have said that a large population of cougars should not exist in the area, according to Explore Southern History’s guide on ghosts, monsters and mysteries of the South.

Hornet Spook Lights

Off the sides of small dirt roads along the Missouri-Oklahoma border, paranormal fanatics can try to catch a glimpse of bouncing orbs of light in the distance. They’re better known as the Hornet Spook Lights or Joplin Spook Lights.

“It’s a modern-day legend that dates back 125-plus years,” Rost says.

In the pitch black of night, the Hornet Spook Lights have been reported to change colors, bounce up and down, travel at high speeds towards onlookers and even appear inside or around the observers’ cars.

The epicenter for the Spook Lights is down a path in Joplin, which locals call the “Devil’s Promenade.” The Joplin city website recommends directions for finding a spot down East 50 Road, about 1 to 2 miles into Oklahoma.

Sightings date back to the 19th century when Native Americans along the Trail of Tears reported witnessing the glowing orbs. As the Spook Lights lit up more during the 1930s and 1940s, Kansas City Star reporter Charles Graham investigated the phenomenon. He suspected the lights were simply car headlights due

to the road that overlapped East 50 Road, but it was out of sight to viewers on the state border, according to Rost’s webinar.

After extensive experimentation, Graham concluded that the orbs were indeed from car headlights, but many locals aren’t convinced. For one, it doesn’t explain the sightings of the Spook Lights before automobiles were invented.

Folklore interprets the lights as the spirits of the dead who met tragic ends along the road, with some stories describing the lights as “ghostly lanterns” from a headless Civil War soldier or a woman who died after being trampled by a horse.

Skeptics have theorized that the lights could also come from natural gases rising, electrical charges in the atmosphere, or simply lights from a nearby town, though not enough evidence has surfaced.

We’ll likely never know the whole truth behind Missouri’s most mystifying creatures and places. But we know one thing for certain: These stories –– no matter how embellished or exaggerated –– connect Missourians across county lines and generations alike.

Following the 100-year floods of the Missouri River Valley in 1993 and 1995, six fiberglass boats sticking straight up from the ground mysteriously appeared along the bluffs of the Katy Trail in Columbia. The boats are placed strategically to cast shadows with the setting sun, much like England’s Stonehenge, hence “Boathenge.” Both “henges” also form circles with diameters of exactly 108 feet. According to the official Boathenge website, Lewis Meriwether might have even camped at the site of Boathenge in 1804 when he became annoyed with William Clark on their famed expedition. Whoever placed the boats –– and what they mean ––still remains unknown.

With more than seven miles of passages and a history of severe accidents inside the cave at Rock Bridge Memorial State Park, the origins of its name –– Devil’s Icebox –– are unknown. According to the Legends of America website, the devilish name might reference a malevolent spirit who haunts the cave. The Missourian has reported that Native American burial grounds and Civil War battlegrounds near the cave might also lend credence to hauntings or other supernatural activity.

Boathenge

Devil’s Icebox

Fermentation frenzy

At-home fermentation has seen an uptick in popularity. Kombucha and kimchi are only the beginning.

BY ANNA KOCHMAN

Almost all veggies can be fermented to give them a tangy, sour taste and a dose of probiotics.

Photography by Alessia Tagliabue and courtesy of Peggy Jean’s Pies and Unsplash VOX MAGAZINE • NOVEMBER 2021

PINT-SIZED SURPRISES P.

COMO BAKERS TAKE TO TV P. 31

COVID-19 lockdowns last year produced a wide variety of wacky, do-ityourself food trends, such as sourdough bread, feta pasta and whipped coffee. Some people tried out a process that takes a little bit longer: fermentation. This process is when yeasta or bacteria breaks down components of food without oxygen (i.e. in sealed jars) into simpler parts. Foods like sauerkraut, tempeh and kimchi are the result of this preservation method.

“More people had time to experiment with it,” says Susan Mills-Gray, MU professor emeritus and fermentation expert with MU Extension. “It was a combination of growing interest (in) probiotics, and people having more time on their hands during the pandemic.”

Mills-Gray says that in the early 2010s, health experts began pointing to the importance of probiotic foods and healthy bacteria for gut health, and magazines and social media propelled the public interest. People began consuming more foods such as yogurt, pickles and soy sauce

BREWS CLUES

The key to great at-home ferments is following all the steps in a recipe, otherwise it could be unsafe to eat.

a local folk herbalist who sells products including mineral soaks through her business, Wild Origins, told Vox in an email that fermentation creates an “extra funkiness of flavor” that can’t be replicated without the time and care that goes into this process.

If you’re looking to try fermenting yourself, Zala recommends looking up a recipe for the specific type of food you’re fermenting. To get you started, here is a general guide to fermentation with essential steps to follow.

“Using vinegar will help you preserve your produce, and it will taste tangy like a ferment,” Anikó Zala, a local folk herbalist, says. “But it will not be a fermented food, just a pickle.” Pickling requires soaking a food in acid,but fermentation does not says Susan Mills-Gray, MU professor emeritus. The acidic flavor in fermented items comes from the chemical reaction between the sugars and bacteria. will come in contact with and use clean, food-grade containers. For recipes with brine, slice the produce, and combine it with the brine or liquid and add any specific bacteria cultures. Ensure all food is covered with the brine or liquid, then cover the jar with a cloth. Foods should sit for three days to three months at room temperature, depending on the desired flavor. Fermented items can be refrigerated to slow the fermentation process so the food doesn’t get too sour or soft. Letting food ferment for longer will strengthen the sour taste, so you can make ferments taste just how you like.

MATERIALS:

The food you want to ferment will be the main ingredient, but you might also need a bacterial culture. Mills-Gray says some foods such as cabbage already contain the necessary bacteria, but others require added cultures. Kombucha needs a SCOBY, a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast, as well as sugar. Salt is needed for sauerkraut. Glass canning jars, or food-safe containers with an airtight seal, are the best containers to ferment food in.

THE PROCESS:

According to MU Extension’s “Safely Fermenting Food at Home” fact sheet, it’s essential to wash all surfaces the food

Photography by Alessia Tagliabue and courtesy of Pixabay

Fermented radishes (left) and carrots can be combined to create a slaw-like side dish. Cucumbers (top) can be fermented with garlic, horseradish and other spices for even more flavor.

Fermented peppers can be the main ingredient in spicy sauces.

Their life of crime

BY TIA ALPHONSE

After virtual calls, psychological testing and a baking quiz, Rebecca Miller and her mother Jeanne Plumley, co-owners of Peggy Jean’s Pies in Columbia, were invited to join the Fox baking competition Crime Scene Kitchen.

The self-taught mother-daughter duo faced off against professional pastry chefs as they attempted to recreate desserts from clues left in the kitchen.

“It was a challenge,” Plumley says. “If you dare us, we’re going to do it and give it our best shot.”

Whether it was tasting mysterious creams, determining what cutouts were used for cake designs or looking through the trash for empty containers, the teams had to carefully decode clues to make culinary masterpieces.

Although the pandemic has impacted the local food scene, Miller says their business has stayed busy. They were apprehensive about leaving for an unspecified number of weeks, but Miller says it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that they couldn’t pass up.

Vox spoke with Miller about the impact of taking their brand on national television on the first season of the show that ran from May 26 to July 21.

What was it like doing the show with your mom?

It was so fun. We had not spent that much time alone together since probably before I got married and still lived at home. I could care less about the TV part or the money part. Having that time with her was the best.

How has business been since the episodes aired?

I cannot believe how many people have come in here just to see us because they watched the show. People have been

routing their summer vacation travel plans to come through Columbia to see us. One day, I was all sweaty in a ponytail folding aprons, and someone was like, “She’s actually here.” I was also recognized at the airport.

It’s funny because you don’t think about how many people watch that kind of stuff, and now with the internet, it’s everywhere. When they were promoting the show, my son called me and was like, “You were on an ad on YouTube.”

Did you try to make any of the dishes from the show at home?

We made cannoli. I’ve never made that before, which is ironic because it is my son’s favorite dessert. So when I called home and told him the mystery dessert was cannoli, he immediately logged online to buy a cannoli kit from Amazon.

We also learned to make a dacquoise. I had no clue what it was before I left here. We learned a lot of things. We’re just untrained scratch bakers, and some of these people were hardcore pastry-trained. We were like Tweedledee and Tweedledum bringing up the rear, but we had a good time.

Have you solved any culinary mysteries in your own kitchen?

Yes — this is not an exact science, and we’re humans doing this. Even this morning, somebody was making an Almond Joy filling, and it felt runny. So we both stopped and talked about it. That’s just part of what we do here. We were surprisingly better at putting the clues together than I thought we would be. We were good at that part — terrible at picking the dessert.

All the work we’ve done here together made us work together better, which is ridiculous because we squabbled the whole time on the show. But

Jeanne Plumley and her daughter Rebecca Miller took their baking operation from Nifong Boulevard to national television this summer. Episodes of Crime Scene Kitchen are available on streaming platforms.

if we never had this business together, we couldn’t have done it.

What did you do to balance having fun and being in a competition?

We promised ourselves that we would be ourselves whatever it was. I just wanted when people came here to feel like when they saw us (on the show). That was our guiding principle. We would forget about the cameras. A big part of that is being in a journalism town. So many journalism kids come in and interview us for hundreds of projects. Some of the contestants were so stressed out, and we just had fun.

Photography by Jean Bensana

Peggy Jean’s Pies co-owner spills about the baking challenges and fame from competing on the reality show Crime Scene Kitchen

A guide to Columbia’s odd brews

In search of new local flavors? Wait no lager.

BY PHILIP GARRETT

Deciding what beer or cider to drink can be like picking out an outfit or a paint color for a wall. Choosing something new or unexpected might be the way to go. Vox rounded up some of Columbia’s stranger brews to help change things up. These five beers and ciders aren’t typical flavors, but they taste great and are sure to be conversation starters.

Gold Cup Key-Lime Kolsch

Most beers don’t have fruit flavors, but the Logboat Brewing Company’s Gold Cup Key-Lime Kolsch is perfect for someone who wants a break from traditional beers.

This tasty beer is citrusy and sweet, and the key-lime flavor makes it the perfect drink for anyone who enjoys fruity cocktails but would rather opt for a beer instead.

$5; 4.5% alcohol by volume; Logboat Brewing Co., 504 Fay St.

Watermelon Ale

Watermelon and beer is an unexpected pairing. However, the Watermelon Ale from Flat Branch Pub & Brewing hits all of the right spots, especially for someone looking for something new and tasty.

The beer is a light ale infused with watermelon juice, which is perfect for those who crave the taste of summer during fall.

$5.42; 4.9% alcohol by volume; Flat Branch Pub & Brewing, 115 S. Fifth St.

Lily Ale and Hoppen-Daz Mochaccino

Orange creamsicles and chocolate coffee milkshakes? Believe it or not, those are the flavor profiles of these two delicious beers from Bur Oak Brewing Company.

The Lily Ale is a light and refreshing beer, while the Hoppen-Daz Mochaccino Milkshake Porter is dark and creamy. Both are excellent if you’re looking for something a bit different. The milkshake porter is especially rich and decadent.

produced 327,971 barrels of craft beer in 2020, according to a report by the Brewers Association. Craft breweries are defined as those that produce 6 million or fewer barrels of beer per year.

$5.40; 4.8% (Lily Ale) and 6% (Hoppen-Daz) alcohol by volume; Bur Oak Brewing Company, 8250 Trade Center Drive

Cider-Mosa

Find out what happens when mixing apples and oranges with this delicious cider from Waves Cider Co.

The blood-orange flavor pairs nicely with the apple. It feels like drinking both a cider and a mimosa in one. The drink is refreshing and crisp, packing all the flavor of a beer while still being a little on the lighter side.

$6; 6% alcohol by volume; Waves Cider Co., 604 Nebraska Ave.

Photography by Philip Garrett and courtesy of Unsplash

Lily Ale (left) and Hoppen-Daz Mochaccino Milkshake Porter (right) are two of Bur Oak’s year-round offerings. Missouri breweries

Fit to be tied

BY SOPHIE STEPHENS

The three main types of athletic shoes are neutral, stability and motion control. Neutral shoes offer the least arch support, and motion control provide the most support.

Photography by Lily Dozier VOX MAGAZINE • NOVEMBER

In Columbia, more than 30 trails give locals access to many miles of running routes. But before setting out on your next adventure, it’s important to be fitted with the right shoes to handle the trails and minimize risk of running-related injuries. Vox found out what makes for an optimal trail shoe.

From the ground up

As the first point of contact with the ground, our feet carry a heavy burden. “What I often tell people is everything starts from the foot up,” says Tony Turley, a physical therapist at Mizzou Therapy Services and an experienced runner. “That’s the first thing that contacts the ground, and it’s the part of the body that there’s the most weight.” Running shoes are designed to assist your foot and help correct the body’s weak links.

Compared to day-to-day footwear, running shoes are made with high-quality material intended to endure hundreds of miles of ground-pounding.

Although trail running might not seem too different from road running, the muddy terrain, roots and rocky surfaces on trails can make maneuvering the space tricky. Because of that, trail footwear has even more added features, says

Nancy Yaeger, owner of shoe outfitter

Fleet Feet in Columbia. These shoes are designed to drain water out efficiently, offer reliable traction and protect runners’ soles from jagged rocks.

Protecting your feet

A good pair of shoes can minimize the foot’s weaknesses, but the consequences of wearing the wrong shoe can potentially lead to injury. Some of the most common running injuries are stress fractures, Turley says, noting that it occurs due to overusing some less commonly used muscles.

“You’re probably going to be using a lot of smaller stabilizing muscles, not just in your foot, but around your knee and your hips as well,” Turley says. “Trail running can be a different strain and a different load on your body.”

Yaeger warns people about wearing the wrong size shoe, which is a common mistake among runners. She advises customers to size up their shoes to prevent swelling.

Finding the right fit

To know if you found the right shoe, Turley stresses buying in person opposed to online; he says the wrong shoe can affect more than just your feet.

Nancy Yaeger, owner of Fleet Feet, says shoes are like cars: A new model comes out each year, and older models get discounted. A few brands she recommends are Altra, Brooks, Saucony and Hoka.

MY FEET HURT

Overuse, poor training and shoe choice can be the culprit behind aches and pains.

Plantar fascitis often happens due to poor shoe support. It causes heel pain and inflammation on the bottom of the foot. Although prevalent in runners, this injury is most common among middle-aged people.

Achilles tendonitis happens when runners suddenly increase their workout intensity or run durations, which gradually stresses their achilles tendons. It causes mild soreness or stiffness in the area above the heel and below the calf muscles, where the achilles tendon is located.

Yaeger says a shoe should feel comfortable from the moment your foot slides into it. “There shouldn’t really be a breaking in period; they should feel good on your foot right away,” she says. Pain from first trying on shoes is a strong sign the pair isn’t for you.

One thing to consider is if your shoe has the right arch support. Consult your outfitter on how much support your feet need. At Fleet Feet, employees can scan a customer’s foot and turn it into a 3D picture to help them determine your foot shape and shoe requirements.

And it doesn’t hurt to take your new shoes for a test drive to make sure they’re the right pair for you. Customers at Fleet Feet are encouraged to jog in their shoes before finalizing a purchase. The right shoe is just one way to prevent injury while twisting, turning and hopping over tree roots on trails.

Photography by Lily Dozier

Roads to remedy

Reiki, acupuncture, qigong, yoga and meditation are all forms of alternative healing that can be found in Columbia.

BY ISABELLA FERRENTINO

Alternative healing can boost well-being through nontraditional healing methods such as touch therapy, spiritual therapy and body movement. Many of these remedies have been around since 1500 B.C. In Columbia, practitioners are using alternative healing to bring balance to our 21st century community.

Movement of energy

Reiki is a Japanese therapy that involves working with someone’s lifeforce energy. “It’s just shifting energy,” says Angie Butts, owner and holistic energy practitioner of Triple Flame Healing. “It’s moving that energy, getting it out of your system, so you can be balanced and in alignment with your higher self.”

Butts struggled with conventional healing methods after a 2007 car accident. She had two spinal surgeries, tried physical therapy and used steroid injections and opioids, but nothing worked.

Butts began her reiki journey in 2016 after spending hours one day at a metaphysical supply store, Heart, Body and Soul. She found resources that helped her understand herself better and led her to opening her own practice.

Chakra is a spinning energy that works with nerves in the body, balancing the mental, spiritual and physical health of the body.

Butts focuses on reiki, healing touch, quantum resonance and anything intuitive. She finds areas of the body that have trapped, stagnant energy and coaxes that energy out. Butt says this energy can affect people’s emotions, abilities and physical body.

“Reiki knows where to go, what to do,” says Amy Dove, who offers sound healing and reiki at Heart, Body and Soul.

Dove and Butts align their clients’ chakras at the beginning of sessions. Dove uses singing bowls, tuning forks and chimes to help her sense whether the person’s chakras are balanced.

There are seven main chakras along the spine. Chakra, meaning “disk” or “wheel” in Sanskrit, is an energy center in your body. Originating in India in 1500-500 B.C., the system has been passed down by Indo-Europeans through oral tradition.

Get to the point

Acupuncture is a traditional Chinese medicine in which very thin needles are strategically placed into the body.

Mary Cruise, acupuncturist at Mary Cruise Healing Arts, uses

this method to restore “qi” or vital energy, balance the body’s energy, stimulate healing and promote relaxation. Her website states acupuncture can help conditions including arthritis, insomnia, stress and chronic pain.

More than martial arts

Qigong is a coordinated movement of breathing and meditation to increase health and spirituality along with a type of martial arts training.

It “takes time, dedication and perseverance to gain an in-depth understanding of how energy flows in the body,” Cruise’s website states. Qigong techniques teach people to control the distribution of one’s qi to improve mood, flexibility, concentration, stress management and lower blood pressure, according to Cruise’s website.

Finding peace of mind

People who struggle with their relationship with their bodies tend to feel disconnected from them, says Lynn Rossy, a health psychologist.

Rossy, who’s also a yoga teacher at alleyCat, says teaching people to embrace themselves in a kind, compassionate way is extremely healing. She teaches Kripalu yoga, which helps target stress, pain, depression and eating behaviors.

Meditation is a method for practicing mindfulness and achieving a stable state of mind. Meditation and yoga can open the door to other healing practice, as most of these practitioners began with some form of meditation and yoga.

Illustrations

Heart Chakra

Throat Chakra

Crown Chakra

Third Eye Chakra

Solar Plexus Chakra

Sacral Chakra

Root Chakra

TO-DO LIST

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

ARTS Showdown at the Rundown Saloon

Join Sofonda Fellers and her partner in crime, Dang Steadfast, for a threenight murder mystery event. They risk losing their Wild West saloon, Risky-a-Go-Go, without intervention when the hijinks ensue. Nov. 5–7, 5 p.m., Arrow Rock Lyceum Theatre, $420/person, 660-8157209 for reservations

Rent

525,600 minutes. Now that “Seasons of Love” is stuck in your head, you might as well see the show. Nov. 4–6 and Nov. 11–13, 7:30 p.m.; Nov. 7 and Nov. 14, 2 p.m.; Rhynsburger Theatre, $20, 882-7529

Ms. Pat

Patricia Williams, or Ms. Pat, has been bringing the laughs on BET+, iHeart Radio, her memoir Rabbit and podcast The Patdown. She’s coming to Columbia as a part of The Blue Note’s new CoMo Comedy Club series. Nov. 11, 6 p.m. doors, 7 p.m. show, The Blue Note, $25, 874-1944

Jenna Blum discusses Woodrow on the Bench

Blum’s debut memoir is about her adventures and the life lessons she’s learned from caring for her aging dog, Woodrow. The novelist previously visited Columbia for the 2019 Unbound Book Festival. Nov. 12, 6:30–8 p.m., Skylark Bookshop, Free, 777-6990

Well-used pointe shoes lie at the edge of the Missouri Contemporary Ballet’s studio.

Sunday, Sunday

Two people deal with trauma, therapy, upsetting events and their own pain as roommates in the psychiatric ward at a hospital in this Stephens College theater performance. Nov. 12–13, 7:30 p.m.; Nov. 14, 2 p.m., Warehouse Theatre, $8, 876-7199

Choreographic Installation

Six new works will debut in two performances as part of the Missouri Contemporary Ballet’s annual Choreographic Installation. These works were designed by and for dancers. Nov. 19, 6 and 7 p.m., Balsamo

Photography by Ryan Berry

Warehouse, tickets available at door, 825-0095

CIVIC

Phoenix Programs Life and Recovery Celebration

This 1970s-themed fundraiser featuring auctions, dinner and dancing is hosted by Phoenix Programs, a local nonprofit drug and alcohol treatment center, to celebrate recovery and fund services for those struggling with substance abuse. Nov. 19, 6:30–9:30 p.m., Elk Park Event Center, $100, 875-8880

FOOD

Balvenie Whiskey Tasting

Try a variety of Scottish malt whiskeys from The Balvenie Distillery. The drinks take years to age, but tasting only takes a few hours. Nov. 10, 6:30–9:30 p.m., Günter Hans, 722-4045

Soup Cook Off

Celebrate soup season by tasting a variety of flavorful soups. Tasters are encouraged to donate a non-perishable food item or make a monetary donation to a local food bank. Nov.

Cans

13, 12–3 p.m., Mid America Harley-Davidson, Free, 875-4444

Partnership Against Hunger

Food & Fund Drive

Pick up an extra canned good on your grocery trip and donate to The Food Bank for Central and Northeast Missouri. The most-needed items include canned protein, fruits, vegetables and soups. Nov. 23, 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., Columbia Hy-Vee and Schnucks locations, 474-1020

MUSIC

Highly Suspect

If you want to let your spirit loose on the eve of Halloween, you can see Massachusetts alternative power rock band Highly Suspect on its tour The Devil’s in the Detail. This gutsy group including its new member, Matt Kofos, will play after opener Electric Palace, a duo from New York and Los Angeles. Oct. 30, 8 p.m. doors, 9 p.m. show, The Blue Note, $30 in advance, $35 day of, 874-1944

Tony Jones picks fruit at a 2017 food for kids event staffed by volunteers and organizers from The Food Bank for Central and Northeast Missouri.

of soup are a common donation item that make for a quick meal.

Ingrid Andress

This Grammy-nominated country star is bringing her personal, feminist flare to The Blue Note. Her 2020 break-out album Lady Like merges her pop influences with sentimental country. Nov. 15, 6:30 p.m. doors, 7:30 p.m. show, The Blue Note, $20 general admission, $79 VIP, 874-1944

“Brahms Piano Trios”

Violinist Scott Yoo, violoncellist Bion Tsang and pianist and Odyssey director Ayako Tsuruta will perform piano trios by Johannes Brahms. The performance is part of the 18th season of the Odyssey Chamber Music Series. Nov. 21, 2 p.m., First Baptist Church, Free, 825-0079

Dopapod

This palindromic jam band likes its prog rock with a pinch of jazz and funk. Dopapod will serve a fresh take of its old material on tour. Nov. 10, 7 p.m. doors, 8 p.m. show, Rose Music Hall, $16 in advance, $18 day of, 874-1944

Comfort & Hope

MU Choral Union, University Singers and MU Philharmonic Orchestra will perform Gabriel Fauré’s famous Requiem to remember those who passed away during the pandemic and Ernest Bloch’s Avodath Hakodesh to inspire optimism. Nov. 18, 7 p.m., Jesse Auditorium, $25, concertseries.missouri.edu

SPORTS

Mizzou Basketball vs. Central Michigan

The Tigers will face Central Michi-

Soloist and chamber musician Ayako Tsuruta also founded the Columbia Music School.

Mary Rollins celebrates after finishing the Jingle Bell Run in 2014.

gan to open the regular season. Mizzou has won its six previous season openers and will try to continue the streak. Nov. 9, game time TBD, Mizzou Arena, 884-7297

Jingle Bell Run

Jingle all the way to the finish line in the virtual Jingle Bell Run to benefit arthritis research. Participants are encouraged to deck themselves in holiday attire and run or walk the 5K with friends, family and coworkers. Nov. 21, virtual, $30 registration, 314-391-2092

Courtesy of Ayako Tsuruta and photography by Hannah Baldwin

IN LIVING COLOR

PHOTOGRAPHY BY HALEY SINGLETON

Kelsey Hammond grew up making art. However, it took her years — and some strong advice from a friend — before she considered herself an artist. She’s now the executive director of the Columbia Art League, but she also makes time to encourage her kids’ creative expressions. Every so often, she and her children make portraits of each other in a variety of mediums, including this portrait of her son, Boo, that was made with pencil and watercolors at the Columbia Art League.