Brooke Schutte’s works currently up at Gold City Gallery in El Dorado, Kansas, are a mix of self-reflective and darkly whimsical drawings and paintings exploring addiction and mental health. The solo exhibition, on view through July 31, will be the gallery's final show before it closes. Schutte notes in her artist’s statement that she hopes... Continue Reading →
Author Chris M. Arnone notes in his introduction that “My Name Was Baby: An Intersex Memoir” is “about healing …(and) challenging … the ideas of ‘normal’ and ‘happy.’” He accomplishes this in a memoir that explores the in-between. His intersex variations made Arnone feel neither here nor there. Those feelings extend to his experience as an... Continue Reading →
I read six books during June. But honestly, I read all six of them in the 14 days of the month in a hurried rush to the finish line. And Yael Van Der Wouden's The Safekeep was my favorite (honorable mention to Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix and Hot Girls with Balls by Benedict Nguyen).
Bill Andrews spent over three decades working in hospitals throughout the south and central regions of the state. But throughout his life, his passion has been woodworking. “I think of the two things — pharmacy and woodworking — as two separate parts of my life,” said Andrews, who is 82. “Hospital pharmacy was pretty stressful,... Continue Reading →
Disco. Witches. Fire Island. Those four words say it all, and Blair Fell's novel delivers on each and every one of them. I've been telling friends (and anyone who will listen) that Fell's novel, The Disco Witches of Fire Island, is the "more lighthearted" version of Rebecca Makkai's The Great Believers (another novel that I will talk to... Continue Reading →
As anti-LGBT rhetoric intensifies, the queer community needs stories of political engagement — and triumph — more than ever. C.J. Janovy’s 2018 book “No Place Like Home: Lessons in Activism from LGBT Kansas” is full of such accounts. A newly released version is arriving at just the right time. The University Press of Kansas reached... Continue Reading →
Each creative family is creative in its own way, and it’s that uniqueness of artistic expression that Derby Arts Council offers for consideration in their “Art in the Family” exhibition on display through June 24 at the Derby Public Library. The library sits just off the bustle of Rock Road, yet the building is quiet,... Continue Reading →
Burn before reading. What starts as a puzzling statement unravels in the sweeping novella This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. Red and Blue are at odds, and they might also be in love. They might always have been in love, and its their stories - past, present,... Continue Reading →
Family heirlooms, travel items link immigrant stories to lives in the Midwest at the end of the 19th century, on view at the Kauffman Museum at Bethel College through June 1. "Unlocking the Past: Immigrant Artifacts and the Stories They Tell," at the Kauffman Museum in North Newton, Kansas, foregrounds the stories of Mennonite immigrants.... Continue Reading →
Wichita's roller derby league has grown to more than 40 skaters. For the first time in more than 15 years, Wicked City will field two home teams. Wheels, boots, plates, trucks, elbow pads and mouth guards: These are the tools of the trade for the skaters of Wicked City Roller Derby. Founded in 2006 as... Continue Reading →
shelly. walston. writes. 