Among the many overlapping tribes that make up the world of classical music, there is a group that I think of as “the piano people.” The piano people are, by and large, either highly accomplished pianists or people who, up until high school or college, imagined that they _could_ be highly accomplished pianists. They have idols and icons: performers like Horowitz, composers like Liszt. They also have in-group favorites — composers such as Alkan and Sorabji whose works are valued, at least in part, for being nearly impossible to play. And they have competitions. Most classical musicians enter competitions, at one time or another, but for would-be concert pianists, competition culture is central — a ladder pianists climb or fall from during their teens and early twenties. At the highest level are the Chopin Competition (Warsaw), the Leeds (England), the Cliburn (Fort Worth), and the Queen Elisabeth (Brussels): These can be gateways to solo careers. To win, or do well, in one of these contests, an aspirant must demonstrate that they can transcend technique and make an individual artistic statement. To get a sense of the difficulty level, imagine … I don’t know, imagine composing a perfect sonnet while acing an American Ninja Warrior obstacle course. Clayton Stephenson, 27, is among the young pianists who have emerged victorious from this fiercely competitive world, with a Nina Simone Piano Competition victory and a Cliburn finalist appearance to his name, ready to perform not only for the piano people but for the rest of us. One way to understand what it means to distinguish oneself in these competitions is by hearing someone like Stephenson play. The Wichita Symphony Orchestra's audience on Saturday night was hardly unfamiliar with accomplished piano soloists. But whatever fine distinctions judges needed to make between Stephenson and the other gifted pianists assembled in Fort Worth or Cincinnati, the magnitude of his ability seemed to render such comparisons beside the point Saturday night in Wichita. At the keyboard, he seemed capable of just about anything. In 2023, Clayton Stephenson brought Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 to the final round of the inaugural Nina Simone Piano Competition. His performance won him a $50,000 grand prize. (Cassidy Hardin/Wichita Symphony) Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1, the piece Stephenson essayed, has come in for the same sorts of criticism leveled against other virtuoso showpieces of the Romantic era. All that flash — what’s it all for? Skipping up and down the keyboard in profligate arpeggios and scales, left hand crossing over and under the right in pretty patterns, so many doubled-octave melodies to pound away at. What’s the point? I can’t exactly tell you what the point is; there are as many answers as interpretations. But one point that Stephenson brought forward is right there in the title of a French song that Tchaikovsky quotes in the middle section of the concerto’s middle movement: “One must have fun, dance and laugh.” If Stephenson didn’t quite laugh, he certainly grinned. He just about danced. And he definitely had fun. “Clayton loves this piece,” I wrote in my notes during the second movement. The thought struck me as Tchaikovsky gave the “One must have fun” melody to the orchestra and set the pianist to twiddling away at accompanying filigrees in a manic, Bugs Bunny sort of mode. For his encore, Stephenson performed "The Tom and Jerry Show," a zany composition by the Japanese jazz pianist Hiromi Uehara. (Cassidy Hardin/Wichita Symphony) Stephenson’s rhythmic vitality, accuracy, and judicious use of pedal created breathing room even in those most frenetic moments, not just in the second movement but throughout the work. I had a feeling that, despite the prodigious amount of musical information being downloaded from performer to audience, there was plenty of bandwidth left over for even more — a mind-expanding feeling. There’s something about the figure of the concerto soloist, seated before an orchestra, that evokes the Romantic ideal of the hero: the individual asserting himself against the masses. The Romantic hero is a figure of strength, of the power to express himself, to make his feelings and his sense of self known to the outside world through acts and deeds. Stephenson _was_ that hero on Saturday, simply by virtue of what he did at the keyboard, but he also assumed the role deliberately, as an actor does onstage. The first step of that assumption came seconds into the performance, when he pounded out those famous opening chords, which leapt up the keyboard while the orchestra played the sweeping opening theme. The passage makes relatively modest demands on the pianist's agility, but it requires a performer to establish their power — and with it, their authority as both guide and protagonist — right away. Clayton Stephenson received more than one standing ovation on the Century II Concert Hall Stage. (Cassidy Hardin/Wichita Symphony) Stephenson did that — a good first impression — and he quickly showed more than mastery of a few well-judged chords. He brought a piquant, playful touch to the contrasting material, and delicacy where the music invited it. When Tchaikovsky demanded violence, as in the rapid, unison octaves that thunder through both hands, he delivered that too. Most impressive was the extraordinary range of his crescendos, the inexorable upward pressure of sound carrying him repeatedly to peaks just a bit higher than I'd anticipated. My oh my, it was exciting, and the audience responded with not just applause but a standing ovation after the first movement. (Music director Daniel Hege noted in a Facebook post on Sunday that it**** was a first in his experience.) The orchestra sounded inspired, too. In rapid third movement passages, I’ve rarely heard the WSO strings play with better unison and punch. ## Our free email newsletter is like having a friend who __always__ knows what's happening Get the scoop on the Kansas arts & culture scene: events, news, artist opportunities, and more. Free, weekly & worth your while. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. Ideas of power and strength give off very different vibes in Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony, the second half of the program. Where Tchaikovsky’s concerto evokes the Romantic ideal of power as a means of individual self-expression, Shostakovich wrote his symphony under the shadow of power that worked to suppress such expression. In 1936, an opera by Shostakovich had been denounced in Pravda, the Soviet Communist Party’s newspaper. The attack — widely understood to have been issued with Stalin’s blessing — came at a time when falling afoul of the authorities could mean imprisonment or death. Shostakovich withdrew his Fourth Symphony before its premiere. The Fifth, completed in 1937, was his public return to symphonic composition. Shostakovich knew perfectly well the kind of music expected of Soviet composers: accessible, optimistic, and celebratory of the Soviet people and their supposed achievements, reflecting glory on the regime and its leader. The Fifth is not as simple as that. It reflects the suffering Shostakovich endured at the hands of the Stalin regime — as well as the complicated meanings he may have attached to that suffering. The view from the orchestra. Timpanist Gerald Scholl was kept busy in the Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich works — and in "Overture," a brief curtain raiser by contemporary composer Jessie Jessie Montgomery. (Cassidy Hardin/Wichita Symphony) That much was clear to at least some of the audience members at its premiere, the musicologist Francis Maes has written, and it may even have dawned on some Soviet officials. The overwhelming acclaim the work received initially aroused suspicion among those leaders, but authorities eventually found it expedient to count the symphony as a victory, declare Shostakovich properly corrected and reformed, and give the work their stamp of approval. There’s much more to this story — whole books have been written about it. It’s all pretty fascinating, and unsettling. But anyone listening to the symphony on the hunt for “clues” to support one interpretation or another is doing themself a disservice. The Fifth is novelistic, polyphonic in the sense of enfolding multiple contradictory currents. Its ambiguities are better held uncomfortably in mind, not tidily resolved. Hege and the orchestra gave a measured, balanced interpretation of the Fifth — a valuable counterbalance to the work itself, which, despite its conventional structure, often feels like it's skating on the edge of a breakdown. In the first movement, thematic fragments passed between ever-changing subsets of the ensemble. The music seemed to turn over one thought after another without arriving at a settled state of mind. A mounting accelerando eventually brought on a pungent military march. Music director Daniel Hege conducts the closing moments of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5. (Cassidy Hardin/Wichita Symphony) The second movement offered a sardonic sort of scherzo, with lumbering dance rhythms and chortling woodwinds that reminded me of the carnival atmosphere of Stravinsky’s “Petrushka.” In one particularly funny passage, solo violin and solo flute seemed to lose interest in their own tunes, stuttering helplessly on a repeated note before disposing of the whole business with a banal cadence. It struck me as comic relief without the relief: a frivolity that infuriates. The brass section stayed silent for the third movement, marked Largo, leaving the remaining instruments to play in chamber-like combinations. Harmonies slid sickeningly from one chord into the next. Later, Hege sustained a long buildup of tension, conducting with heavy, emphatic gestures and occasionally audible vocalizations. He kept the movement’s disparate episodes within a single expressive frame. Members of the Wichita Symphony Orchestra accept the audience's applause. In the concluding bars of Symphony No. 5's final movement, the orchestra abruptly shifts from D minor into triumphant D major. (Cassidy Hardin/Wichita Symphony) That discipline carried through the finale, even as the orchestra reached tremendous levels of volume and intensity. At one point, the strings took up a great, sweeping melody, punctuated by curt interjections from the trumpets. Hege allowed the tempo to broaden, but only a little. Had I been conducting, I think I would have indulged myself and slowed down much more. Hege knew better. The music soon returned to a state of near-panic, the strings sawing away furiously, and the tempo needed to pick up again. Too much broadening earlier would have made nonsense of the transition and sacrificed the movement's momentum. Like a skilled chess player, Hege was thinking several moves ahead, making decisions in the present according to what the music would require a few moments later. The same restraint also governed the symphony’s notorious closing bars, with their seemingly endless repetition of the note A. I’ve heard conductors take these measures at a furious clip, turning them into a battering ram, or slow them down as though the orchestra were staggering beneath their weight. Hege neither pushed the repetition forward nor resisted it. One A followed another — 252 consecutive eighth notes — and then with a last boom from the timpani, it was over. * * * Sam Jack_is a poet, a classical tenor, and the adult services librarian at Newton Public Library. He performs with several local groups, including Wichita Chamber Chorale, Wichita Grand Opera, and Opera Kansas. He received a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from the University of Montana._ ****Popular Reads**** ❋ Derby man has the kind of voice that turns heads — and chairs ❋ Socializing while sober: how some Wichitans are cultivating alcohol-free communities ❋ As a small creative business closes, the owner mourns❋ Painting through it: Autumn Noire on 20 years of making art❋ How a guy from Wichita resurrected 'Dawn of the Dead'❋ Bygone Friends University museum housed curious collections ## Support Kansas arts writing The SHOUT is a Wichita-based independent newsroom focused on artists living and working in Kansas. We're partly supported by the generosity of our readers, and every dollar we receive goes directly into the pocket of a contributing writer, editor, or photographer. Click here to support our work with a tax-deductible donation**.** Yes! I want to support the SHOUT

_The following announcement is based on a press release from Classical Revolution ICT._ WICHITA – Classical Revolution ICT will return to White Crow Cider Company from 7-8:30 p.m. Friday, October 30, for for another evening of live classical music with a Halloween twist. Cider & Strings is one of several pop-up performances presented by Classical Revolution ICT, continuing the organization's mission of bringing live classical music out of traditional concert halls and into informal community gathering spaces. The nonprofit also produces the monthly Bach & Brews series at Tor Brewing in Wichita and seasonal Beethoven & Beer performances at Sandhills Brewing in Hutchinson, Kansas. The October 30 program features clarinetist Jason Alfaro on B-flat and E-flat clarinets, flutists Sarah Wessley and Chastity Pawloski, and vocalist Melody Prater with pianist Briley Lewis. Audience members can expect three short sets of live music featuring a variety of classical and contemporary repertoire in a relaxed, social atmosphere. Clarinetist Jason Alfaro, flutist Sarah Wesley, and vocalist Melody Prater are among the featured performers for a Halloween edition of Classical Revolution ICT's regular Cider & Strings program at White Crow Cider Company. (Courtesy of Classical Revolution ICT) And with Halloween just around the corner, guests are encouraged to get into the spirit of the season. Costumes are welcome! Unlike a traditional concert, Cider & Strings invites guests to come and go, enjoy a cider, visit with friends, and interact with the musicians throughout the evening. No concert etiquette or prior knowledge of classical music is required—just come as you are and enjoy the music. “Classical Revolution ICT is all about creating spaces where people can enjoy live music without the formality of a traditional concert,” said Alex Johnson, founder and coordinator of Classical Revolution ICT. “We love bringing local musicians into community spaces like White Crow, and a little Halloween fun makes this event even better.” Admission is free, but donations are encouraged to support local musicians and future programming. The event is open to the public and family-friendly. For more information about upcoming events in Wichita and surrounding communities, visit classicalrevolutionict.com. Musicians interested in performing with Classical Revolution ICT can also sign up through the website. * * * _**Announcements** are submissions from arts and cultural organizations and community members. They are published at the discretion of SHOUT editors and may be lightly edited. Send press releases and other announcements to __emily@shoutwichita.com_ _._ ****Popular Reads**** ❋ Derby man has the kind of voice that turns heads — and chairs ❋ Socializing while sober: how some Wichitans are cultivating alcohol-free communities ❋ As a small creative business closes, the owner mourns❋ Painting through it: Autumn Noire on 20 years of making art❋ How a guy from Wichita resurrected 'Dawn of the Dead'❋ Bygone Friends University museum housed curious collections ## Support Kansas arts writing The SHOUT is a Wichita-based independent newsroom focused on artists living and working in Kansas. We're partly supported by the generosity of our readers, and every dollar we receive goes directly into the pocket of a contributing writer, editor, or photographer. Click here to support our work with a tax-deductible donation**.** Yes! I want to support the SHOUT

_The following announcement is based on a press release from ICTRep._ WICHITA — The year is 1833 and the greatest actor of his generation has collapsed on stage while playing Othello. A young black American actor, Ira Aldridge, has been asked to take over the role, making him the first Black man to play Othello on a London stage. But as the public riot in the streets over the abolition of slavery, how will the cast, critics and audience react to the revolution taking place inside the theater? "Red Velvet" tells the true story of one of the greatest actors of the 19th century. Torey Wilson stars as Ira Aldridge. Other cast members include Keeley Coon as Margaret Aldridge, James Earlywine as Casimir/Henry Forester, Jill Herbert as Ellen Tree, Jeneé Jenkins Saffold as Connie, Braden LaBrue-Layman as Charles Keen, Lydia Pirilli as Halina/Betty Lovell, Chris Sharkey as Pierre LaPorte, and Nick Wetta as Bernard Ward/Terence. The play is directed by Julie Longhofer and Abby Lowe serves as stage manager. Costume design is by Julie Longhofer, lighting design is by Stan Longhofer, and sound design is by Kirk Longhofer. Performances for "Red Velvet" run for two weekends: Friday, November 13 through Sunday, November 22 at the Fisch Haus, 525 S. Commerce St. in downtown Wichita. Curtain is at 7:30 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, and 2 p.m. on Sundays. Tickets are $38 for general admission, $33 for seniors and veterans, $25 for people 30-and-under, and $15 for students. Ticket prices are inclusive of all taxes and fees. Tickets can be purchased on the ICTRep website. "Red Velvet" is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French, Inc. ### Remaining shows in the 2026-27 ICTRep season: * "Arcadia" by Tom Stoppard, February 26-March 7, 2027 A joint production with Newman University Theatre * "Flyin' West" by Pearl Cleage, April 16-25, 2027 Find more information about ICTRep on their website, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. * * * _**Announcements** are submissions from arts and cultural organizations and community members. They are published at the discretion of SHOUT editors and may be lightly edited. Send press releases and other announcements to __emily@shoutwichita.com_ _._ ****Popular Reads**** ❋ Derby man has the kind of voice that turns heads — and chairs ❋ Socializing while sober: how some Wichitans are cultivating alcohol-free communities ❋ As a small creative business closes, the owner mourns❋ Painting through it: Autumn Noire on 20 years of making art❋ How a guy from Wichita resurrected 'Dawn of the Dead'❋ Bygone Friends University museum housed curious collections ## Support Kansas arts writing The SHOUT is a Wichita-based independent newsroom focused on artists living and working in Kansas. We're partly supported by the generosity of our readers, and every dollar we receive goes directly into the pocket of a contributing writer, editor, or photographer. Click here to support our work with a tax-deductible donation**.** Yes! I want to support the SHOUT

After previous experience acting in and producing local films, Key Tawn Toothman and Naythan Smith decided to get together with some friends and “try to make a movie in a weekend or two,” Toothman recalls. “Our main goal for me personally was just for us all to have fun.” That goal didn't change, but the scope of the project kept expanding. The result is the pair's directorial debut, the upcoming “Stoned Inn,” a horror comedy starring Maximum James of “Seneca Street Liquor” fame, with a cast and crew full of local talent — plus a voiceover performance from “national treasure” Danny Trejo. James plays Ash, a stoner who loses his dispensary job and enters a contest with a simple but intriguing premise: Stay inside a haunted house for a week and win cash and free weed! It's not as easy as it sounds, though — every day, he has to smoke a different strain, and the highs quickly escalate from a lazy good time to, as the film's website puts it, “a surreal descent into hallucinations, shifting realities, and psychological terror.” Maximum James stars as a stoner with too much time on his hands. (Courtesy of Different Day Pictures) “Making a movie is tough,” says Toothman, “and we were there for lots of days, many hours, nobody's getting paid for anything. So the important thing is we're all having a good time, we're all having fun.” Beyond good vibes, though, Smith says the movie turned into “a showcase of production … This was kind of proving we could do something like this at this scale, because we have a great group of people. There's an impressive amount of individuals involved in filmmaking around here.” The plot of "Stoned Inn" starts on a fun, lazy high. Then things start to get weird. (Courtesy of Different Day Pictures) As the two reached out to previous collaborators, Smith said, part of the project became figuring out “what can we can come up with despite having little in the way of resources? How far can we take this? And then kind of surprising ourselves with how far we actually traveled along the process.” Early on in filming, Toothman wanted to include his white Bengal cat in the movie — and if there's going to be a big, beautiful cat in a movie, why not have it talk? ## Our free email newsletter is like having a friend who __always__ knows what's happening Get the scoop on the Kansas arts & culture scene: events, news, artist opportunities, and more. Free, weekly & worth your while. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. “Then we decided maybe we would want someone somewhat famous to voice this character,” he says. First, he messaged Snoop Dogg about it, but while he did hear back, the conversation didn't go anywhere. “I had actually spoken to Danny Trejo and (his) agent maybe a year before, on another project that kind of fell apart, and one night it hit me in my mind, _maybe I reach back out to Danny Trejo and see if maybe he would play the voice of the cat_.” Key Tawn Toothman's white Bengal cat plays Meowchete, voiced by Danny Trejo. After months of back-and-forth, “we were able to get Danny on board, and working with him was great.” Smith had the bright idea to name the cat character “Meowchete,” after Trejo's iconic character from Richard Rodriguez's “Spy Kids” franchise (2001-2003) and the grindhouse features “Machete” (2010) and “Machete Kills” (2013). Also in the cast: local filmmaker Leif Jonker, who also provided aid and inspiration behind the scenes. “I don't know anyone in this city that's making a movie that Leif Jonker isn't trying to help,” Toothman says. Former Wichita theater standby Don Winsor, who now lives in Australia, came back to film “a very, very cool, very high-level performance that's going to be a standout.” Wichita theater veteran Don Winsor, at left, plays the representative of the ultimate stoner content. Sophia Tolbert is his assistant. (Courtesy of Different Day Pictures) Besides Trejo and Winsor, out-of-town actors featured include martial artist Chris Casamassa, best known for playing Scorpion in the 1995 “Mortal Kombat” movie, and Jessa Jupiter Flux, a big-bosomed B-movie scream queen known for flicks like “Onlyfangs” and “Murdercise.” Flux's connections helped bring in Lloyd Kaufman, co-founder of Troma Entertainment, for a post-credits scene. B-movie "scream queen" Jessa Jupiter Flux plays the Cr(Hoe). (Courtesy of Different Day Pictures) The filmmakers are aware of the irony of making a stoner comedy in one of the only states in the country where cannabis remains illegal. Smith jokes, “What's more hilarious and ludicrous than the federal prohibition of marijuana?” “Stoned Inn” is currently in post-production, with no release date set, but will be announced in the October 30 Halloween issue of Scream magazine. The upcoming stoner horror/comedy "Stoned Inn" will be announced in the Halloween issue of Scream magazine.(Courtesy of Different Day Pictures) “As of right now, we're just focused on trying to finish the film and adding these little things here and there to make it a little more interesting,” Toothman says. “We've got some pretty fun stuff planned.” The film's website, stonedinn.com, is part of that fun, designed to look like a Windows 98-era website, with pixel art, a guestbook, and an “arcade” of movie-themed browser games; the directors are hoping to make some relevant physical souvenirs, too, like a Beanie Baby-style stuffed Meowchete. Key Tawn Toothman and Naythan Smith (at center) behind the scenes with actors Diahni Domebo and Maximum James. (Courtesy of Different Day Pictures) Overall, says Toothman, “Stoned Inn” is “really meant to show that, hey, we don't need all of these things. We didn't need to raise a bunch of money. “We just want to show people, like, hey, if we _had_ a bunch of money, imagine what we could do.” * * * _**Anna Andersen** co-hosts Your Favorite Bad Movie Podcast with their husband. They have four cats named Brains, Hamburger, Twinkle, and Zazzle._ ****Popular Reads**** ❋ Derby man has the kind of voice that turns heads — and chairs ❋ Socializing while sober: how some Wichitans are cultivating alcohol-free communities ❋ As a small creative business closes, the owner mourns❋ Painting through it: Autumn Noire on 20 years of making art❋ How a guy from Wichita resurrected 'Dawn of the Dead'❋ Bygone Friends University museum housed curious collections ## Support Kansas arts writing The SHOUT is a Wichita-based independent newsroom focused on artists living and working in Kansas. We're partly supported by the generosity of our readers, and every dollar we receive goes directly into the pocket of a contributing writer, editor, or photographer. Click here to support our work with a tax-deductible donation**.** Yes! I want to support the SHOUT

Record numbers of art majors at Bethany College and working artists who lived in downtown lofts prompted the Wichita Eagle in 1972 to declare Lindsborg as Kansas’ “only claim to an art colony.” “The Lindsborg Seventies Art Show,” a concurrent exhibition on view at four locations until November 8, takes a fond look back at the defining decade when artists lived and worked in studios along the brick-paved Main Street and gathered in the evenings at the Ol’ Stuga bar. Ray Troll took this photo with a timer and a tripod in 1976 (he's in the middle in a white jacket) of fellow residents at Kalmar, a three-story house where art students lived. The group christened themselves the Aardvarks. (Ray Troll/Courtesy) Three of the curators for the show — Bethany art graduates Ray Troll, Richard Klocke and Laura Rempel Klocke — lived in upstairs apartments on Main Street. Klocke and Rempel Klocke lived with other students in apartments (two shared a bathroom) known as the “slums” on the second floor of a building at the corner of Main and Lincoln where the Sundstrom Conference Center now stands. Artist residents on the other side of Main Street included Troll and artist Mike Hartung. The setting of Laura Rempel Klocke's oil painting "The Visit" is her "slums" apartment. "Bethany/Lindsborg was a very good place to be in the 1970s if concentrating on making art or music was a goal," she wrote for the label accompanying the painting, which hangs in the Prairie Sea. "It seemed like we were in a little bubble a bit away from the rest of the world." Rempel Klocke graduated from Bethany College in 1975. (Emily Christensen/The SHOUT)"Townie" Mikę Hartung's 1970s-era acrylic painting "Studio Roof Garden" is a fanciful depiction of the view from the window of his apartment, where he still lives. (Emily Christensen/The SHOUT) Lester Raymer’s Red Barn Studio on South Main added to the creative synergy of the time. There, he created paintings, prints and three-dimensional works, some of which are on view in museum collections, at the Red Barn Studio Museum. On the north edge of town, Bethany was in the midst of a renaissance marked by record enrollment and new buildings, including the Mingenback Art Center. Works from the permanent collection of the Birger Sandzén Memorial Gallery are on view in the museum's lobby as part of “The Lindsborg Seventies Art Show.” A painting by "townie" Lester Raymer hangs at right. (Birger Sandzén Memorial Gallery/Courtesy) “Lindsborg’s Seventies art scene left an indelible mark on my life,” Troll wrote in the intro to his 2023 book, “Halcyon Days of the ’Borg: A Photographic Memoir.” “Maybe it was the cultural residue of the Sixties lingering in the air, but the excitement of creativity was palpable in that town, in the streets, in the bars, in the raucous parties in the ‘slums’ above Main Street.” Ray Troll, at right, chats with visitors to Prairie Sea, the gallery he operates with his wife Michelle Troll. (Cynthia Mines/The SHOUT) Troll’s Prairie Sea on Main Street, which he and his wife Michelle opened in 2023, is one of the locations for the exhibition. On a recent weekday, he reminisced about college days and how the artists inspired each other. “There’s a phenomenon that happens when there’s a cluster and you feed off each other,” said Troll, who also bartended at the Ol’ Stuga and Brunswick. At the time there were about 80 art majors at Bethany, he said, as well as four full-time professors and several “townie” artists. Notices for senior exhibitions at Bethany College hang in the Mingenback Art Center on the Bethany campus. (Emily Christensen/The SHOUT) The exhibition includes 139 works by 77 artists, said Marsha Howe, exhibition co-curator and former director of the Red Barn Studio Museum. About 40 artists from New York to California attended the opening, which turned it into a joyous reunion. ## Our free email newsletter is like having a friend who __always__ knows what's happening Get the scoop on the Kansas arts & culture scene: events, news, artist opportunities, and more. Free, weekly & worth your while. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. Howe’s daughter Emily, the current director of the Red Barn, came up with the idea for the exhibition in 2022 while working as event coordinator for the Sundstrom Conference Center. “I knew that some artists lived there, and during that time the apartments above the Sundstrom and downtown were affectionately called the ‘slums’ by the artists and people who lived there,” said Emily Howe, who conceived of an exhibition focusing on the “slums” artists. John Heter (townie, attended Bethany College), "John's Slum Apartment," acrylic on board. (Emily Christensen/The SHOUT)A photo of John Heter in his "slums" apartment in the 1970s. (Ray Troll/Courtesy) She credits Troll and her mom for expanding the idea to more artists of the time and “running with it.” Klocke and Rempel Klocke, who had kept in contact with many of the artists as well as being “amazing collectors,” joined the curatorial team and contributed a great deal to the “historic homecoming,” she said. Klocke and Rempel Klocke lived in one of the second-floor apartments known as the “slums” as art students in the mid-1970s. After earning their Master of Fine Arts degrees at the Art Institute of Chicago, they settled in Lawrence, where Richard worked at the University of Kansas’ Spencer Museum of Art. Artist Laura Remple in a Slums studio. (Ray Troll/Courtesy) The four curators began planning for the exhibition and tracking down dozens of artists a year ago. It took a week to hang the works loaned by artists and collectors at the three main locations: Smoky Valley Arts & Folklife Center and Prairie Sea, both on Main Street, and Mingenback Art Center on the Bethany campus. In addition, the Birger Sandzén Memorial Gallery hung a dozen pieces from its permanent collection. Works by David Kinder (at left) and exhibition co-curator Richard Klocke hang near the front door of the Smoky Valley Arts & Folklife Center. (Emily Christensen/The SHOUT)Works hanging in the Prairie Sea, from left: Roger Cummings (Bethany College graduate, 1972), "A Wife at Home and Two Suns Rising," acrylic on canvas ; Lester Raymer (townie), "Still Life with Pears," oil on board; Steve Scott (townie), "Fruit Life (Pears)," acrylic on canvas with Soluvar varnish; and Lonnie Martin (townie), "Binder," acrylic on board. (Emily Christensen/The SHOUT)Visitors take in 1970s-era works at the Mingenback Art Center. (Cynthia Mines/The SHOUT) In a lecture at the Sandzén on October 18, Randall Griffey, program director for American art at the Henry Luce Foundation, drew comparisons between the Lindsborg artists’ work with such nationally known artists of the time as Alice Neel, Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. He noted that professor Ray Kahmeyer’s ceramics during that period also dovetailed with an ascending national studio crafts movement. Dirk Shears (attended Bethany College), "St. Patrick," watercolor. On view at the Smoky Valley Arts & Folklife Center. (Emily Christensen/The SHOUT)Paintings by Randy Just (Bethany College, 1975) and a ceramic collaboration by Steve West and Beth Shively on view at the Smoky Valley Arts & Folklife Center. (Emily Christensen) At one point Bethany enrolled as many as 100 art majors during the 1970s, according to Griffey. As an influx of baby boomers swelled college enrollments nationwide, Bethany followed suit, reaching a peak enrollment of 850, a noticeable population in the north-central Kansas town of only 2,400 residents. Troll sees the current exhibition “as a way to keep the torch going.” A copy of the 1972 Wichita Eagle article that dubbed Lindsborg "Kansas' only claim to an arts colony" hangs at the Smoky Valley Arts & Folklife Center. (Emily Christensen/The SHOUT) For their part, the Trolls — Alaska residents since the early 1980s — purchased a historic Lindsborg building in 2022 that had space for a downstairs gallery and upstairs apartment in an area they affectionately call SoMa (South Main). The gallery features books, illustrations, maps and T-shirts with Troll’s distinctive and world-famous depictions of fish and fossils. Works by Ray Troll (Bethany College graduate, 1977), from left: "There's Plenty of Fish in the Sea," raku ceramic with fishing lures, leather, and photo offset print; "The Velocity of Ascent," acrylic, spray paint and collage on canvas. (Emily Christensen/The SHOUT) The Trolls now split their time between Ketchikan and Kansas, where Ray Troll once again resides in an upstairs apartment on the west side of Lindsborg’s Main Street next to artist Mike Hartung, who has lived in the same apartment since the 1970s. Laura Rempel Klocke, a 1975 Bethany art graduate and exhibition co-curator, painted "Strawberries in Hartung's Studio." Artist Mike Hartung still lives in the same Main Street apartment as he did in the 1970s. The painting is on display at the Smoky Valley Arts & Folklife Center alongside ceramic works by Brenda Taylor (Bethany College, 1976) and Kim McClelland (Bethany College, 1974). "Egg," a painting by "townie" Landvis Nelson, hangs on the right. (Emily Christensen/The SHOUT) While the exhibition focused on a single decade, Lindsborg began its trajectory toward becoming an arts epicenter during Birger Sandzén’s tenure as an art professor at Bethany College. In addition to influencing generations of students and becoming an internationally known painter and printmaker, he helped found the Messiah Arts Festival in 1882, an annual Lindsborg tradition that continues 145 years later. ## The Details **“The Lindsborg Seventies Art Show”** October 2-November 8, 2026, in Lindsborg, Kansas The exhibition is on view at four locations in Lindsborg: * Mingenback Art Center, on the corner of Olsson and 2nd Streets, open daily 9 a.m.-5 p.m. * The Birger Sandzén Memorial Gallery, 401 N. 1st St., 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday and 1-5 p.m. Sundays * Smoky Valley Arts & Folklife Center, 114½ S. Main, open 1-5 p.m. Friday-Sunday * Prairie Sea, 108 S. Main St., open 1-5 p.m. Friday-Sunday while the exhibition is on view If you miss the current exhibition, the Red Barn Studio Museum and Sandzén Gallery are open year-round. The annual Holiday Artists’ Studio Open House, this year on December 5, is a good time to visit. Find more info at redbarnstudio.org. * * * **Cynthia Mines** _is the author of “For the Sake of Art: The Story of a Kansas Renaissance,” a 2016 Kansas Notable Book that tells the story of McPherson resident Carl Smalley, Birger Sandzén’s only art dealer and organizer of the nationally known McPherson schools art exhibitions and resulting collection. She lives near Lindsborg._ ****Popular Reads**** ❋ Derby man has the kind of voice that turns heads — and chairs ❋ Socializing while sober: how some Wichitans are cultivating alcohol-free communities ❋ As a small creative business closes, the owner mourns❋ Painting through it: Autumn Noire on 20 years of making art❋ How a guy from Wichita resurrected 'Dawn of the Dead'❋ Bygone Friends University museum housed curious collections ## Support Kansas arts writing The SHOUT is a Wichita-based independent newsroom focused on artists living and working in Kansas. We're partly supported by the generosity of our readers, and every dollar we receive goes directly into the pocket of a contributing writer, editor, or photographer. Click here to support our work with a tax-deductible donation**.** Yes! I want to support the SHOUT

Do you believe in ghosts? And from whence do they originate? The corpses of the dead? The minds of the believers? Or a more sinister place? The parapsychologists willingly trapped in a creepy mansion in Wichita Community Theatre’s “The Haunting of Hill House” are about to find out. Join them, won’t you, as they explore their own fears and foibles — and their very sanity — in this popular script written in 1964 by F. Andrew Leslie and based on Shirley Jackson’s 1959 neo-gothic novel. The play is fairly true to the book, with a few adaptations for length. Director Coleman Adams presents a character-driven production with plenty of dry humor, set at a pace that keeps us fixed. On opening night, the audience frequently leaned stage-ward, at times gasping as a unit at unexpected developments. I like that. The horror in “Hill House” is psychological and atmospheric. Its terror lies in a sense of uncertainty, the ever-present knowledge that the characters are isolated in an unnamed location with strangers. The premise, a small group of people staying together in a sentient dwelling at the mercy of paranormal activity, has been employed repeatedly in popular films and plays, but Jackson had a well-earned reputation for making creepy things creepier, and Leslie captures her dark view with effective dialogue. Luke (Thaer Karam), Dr. Montague (Robert Brining), Eleanor (Laura Koerner, seated left), and Theodora (Elle Crook, seated right), are advised by Mrs. Dudley (Renee Tanner, standing center). (Grant Seymour/Wichita Community Theatre __)__ Adams’ cast is comfortable with the language and grows increasingly so as the play progresses, giving each character a distinct opportunity to be a part of the puzzle that is Hill House. Renee Tanner gives a wonderfully stilted and weird performance as Mrs. Dudley, housekeeper of the isolated estate, whose husband Mr. Dudley never appears on stage. Oddly cold, yet nevertheless insistent, Tanner’s Mrs. Dudley is intimidating for reasons I can’t quite put my finger on. She definitely needs her guests to know that, as concerns service, she definitely has boundaries, especially when it comes to being anywhere near the house after dark. And, intriguingly, she does not excel at direct eye contact. First to arrive for the mysterious visit is the sensitive Eleanor (Laura Koerner). A young woman who has experienced paranormal visitations as long as she can remember, she is both confident in and unnerved by those experiences. She longs for more information and wants to contribute her knowledge to metaphysical research. She has been caring for her abusive mother until the matriarch’s recent death, about which she feels relief. Koerner gives Eleanor a sweet and intelligent countenance, bound to insecurity and ultimately unmoored by her deep need for acceptance. Eleanor (Laura Koerner) and Theodora (Elle Crook) cower together in response to unidentified late-night noises at Hill House. (Grant Seymour/Wichita Community Theatre __)__ Theodora (Elle Crook), an artist with a flair for the psychic, comes on the scene and takes command. Crook gives Theodora the confidence the role demands, putting her energetic delivery to good use to highlight her slightly blue humor and independent spirit. Koerner and Crook provide an enjoyable balance for these two disparate characters. ## Our free email newsletter is like having a friend who __always__ knows what's happening Get the scoop on the Kansas arts & culture scene: events, news, artist opportunities, and more. Free, weekly & worth your while. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. The future heir to Hill House, Luke (Thaer Karam) is a bit of a scoundrel and certainly a flirt. He doesn’t put much stock in ghosts and initially seems to be above such foolishness, though willing to play along. Karam’s Luke is charming and fun to watch as he starts to doubt what he believes and experiences. Luke (Thaer Karam) and Arthur (Caleb Jamal Manuel) share psychic adventures. (Grant Seymour/Wichita Community Theatre __)__ Luke accompanies Dr. Montague (Robert Brining), the anthropologist and parapsychologist responsible for the gathering. Brining plays Montague at a very consistent level vocally and emotionally. Little disturbs him as he trains his attention on the events swirling around him and his guinea pigs — er, guests — like the research scientist that he is. Luke (Thaer Karam), Dr. Montague (Robert Brining), and Theodora (Elle Crook) rush to aid the overcome Eleanor (Laura Koerner). (Grant Seymour/Wichita Community Theatre __)__ Holland Kiser gives us an elegant and kooky Mrs. Montague, a satisfying choices for the wife of the doctor — a parapsychologist in her own right, or at least her own mind. A human tornado, she shows up to “help” with the investigation with her friend Arthur (Caleb Jamal Manuel) in tow. No concerns! Arthur has many dubious talents to contribute, in addition to odd communication skills, thanks to Manuel’s offbeat performance. The group discusses concerning activity taking place in Hill House: seated, Theodora (Elle Crook), Eleanor (Laura Koerner), Dr. Montague (Robert Brining), Luke (Thaer Karam, on floor); standing, Arthur (Caleb Jamal Manuel) and Mrs. Montague (Holland Kiser). (Grant Seymour/Wichita Community Theatre __)__ Hill House itself is represented by three indoor areas and an outdoor one, all designed by Angela Forrest and Adams. These areas are separated by a set of double doors that seem to open and close on their own at whim. Other effects add to the macabre setting and drive the plot forward. My only suggestion would be to crank up the recorded sound effects, but I admit my hearing isn’t what it used to be. Props and costumes are provided by the cast, which is not unusual at Wichita Community Theatre, as everyone — actors, designers, technicians, box office workers — volunteers their time. And they’ve been doing that for 80 years. Aren’t we lucky? ## The Details **Wichita Community Theatre presents “The Haunting of Hill House”** October 22-November 1, 2026, at Wichita Community Theatre, 258 N. Fountain St. in Wichita There isn't a show on Halloween (October 31). Tickets are $16 for Thursday shows and $20 for all others. Discounts are available. Learn more and buy tickets or make reservations online. * * * **Teri Mott** _is a writer and actor in Wichita, Kansas, where she covers the arts as a critic and feature writer. She is co-founder of The SHOUT._ ****Popular Reads**** ❋ Derby man has the kind of voice that turns heads — and chairs ❋ Socializing while sober: how some Wichitans are cultivating alcohol-free communities ❋ As a small creative business closes, the owner mourns❋ Painting through it: Autumn Noire on 20 years of making art❋ How a guy from Wichita resurrected 'Dawn of the Dead'❋ Bygone Friends University museum housed curious collections ## Support Kansas arts writing The SHOUT is a Wichita-based independent newsroom focused on artists living and working in Kansas. We're partly supported by the generosity of our readers, and every dollar we receive goes directly into the pocket of a contributing writer, editor, or photographer. Click here to support our work with a tax-deductible donation**.** Yes! I want to support the SHOUT

I tried to time my visit to the National Watercolor Exhibition at Mark Arts to be able to spend some quiet time considering the large number of paintings on display. This can be a challenge in a high-traffic space like Mark Arts, which holds studio art classes, hosts field trips and community events, and uses its galleries as event spaces. I did manage to spend a contemplative 45 minutes with the many pieces before wedding entertainment staff began to set up for an after-hours reception. I was, of course, trying to put myself in the same focused headspace required to produce so many of the careful compositions in this annual exhibition. Mark Arts has been hosting this juried art show since 1968. The competitive opportunity attracts 300 to 400 entries on average, with a $25-$30 entry fee per artist. Each year, Mark Arts presents three large-scale juried exhibitions of this type, which adds up to big business. The 91 selected pieces are displayed in the spacious Gladys and Karl T. Wiedemann Gallery in a tasteful, salon-style hanging. Considering the huge task of organizing this exhibition, its history, and the long list of corporate and private donors and patrons that make it possible, I wanted to focus my attention on the artistic efforts at the heart of this competition. There are 59 artists from 21 states represented in this year’s show. The subject matter mostly fits into traditional genres: many landscapes, florals, animal portraits, and figures, with a smaller number of abstracts, architectural scenes, or interiors. Only one piece refers directly to current events (which I will mention later). The star of this exhibition is the use of the medium, or rather the celebration of the wide-ranging vocabulary and application that is possible in water media. Cindy Brabec-King, “Stay for Supper,” watercolor, 28 by 36 inches (Mark Arts/Courtesy) The spectrum includes photo realistic virtuosity, as seen in “Stay for Supper” by Cindy Brabec-King (of Grand Junction, Colorado). In this kitchen still life, Brabec-King uses a close-cropped, low perspective to draw the viewer into the diverse surfaces, light, and shadows of the busy composition. In the foreground, carrots, celery, and onions rest. Behind them we see a strainer filled with more of these veggies as well as various canned vegetables and kitchen implements. Here, the artist makes a strong effort to minimize any gestural mark. This is a painting laser focused on rendering almost impossible detail (the reflection of a steel cheese grater on a chrome colander, for instance). Watercolor is famously unforgiving as a medium. Painters rely on carefully layered glazes to avoid awakening unstable pigments and binders in previous layers. Watercolor is also often translucent, meaning that artists like Brabec-King cannot easily cover up missteps when depicting such complicated imagery. Dongfeng Li, “Daughter of the Plateau,” watercolor, 32 by 26 inches (Mark Arts/Courtesy) Other painters like Dongfeng Li (of Woodland, California) draw attention to the more expressive and idiosyncratic possibilities of the medium. Li’s “Daughter of the Plateau” features two female figures in dresses in shades of black and white who are wearing elaborate headdresses with silver jingles and red and black embellishments. Li brings the work to a compelling resolution using pencil lines, drips, and uneven textures to build the forms. The active surface contributes a strong vitality to the figures in motion. Water media is inherently suited for landscape because it allows for delicate transitions in atmosphere, temperature, and surface texture. One third of the works in this exhibition explore the landscape in various creative modes. Wichita painter Hugh Greer has been depicting the seasons, skies, and land of the rural Midwest for decades. His “Back Road to Walnut Creek” is a great example of his mastery. Hugh Greer, “Back Road to Walnut Creek,” acrylic, 18 by 24 inches (Mark Arts/Courtesy) In this work, the artist depicts a dirt road lined with flowering shrubs that bends and disappears into the distance, with green fields on either side, a barn nearby, and in the middle ground stands of trees and hills butt up against a huge sky at sunset. Greer, who has three works featured in this competition, is especially skilled at capturing the fleeting light of particular seasons. The colors of his skies echo throughout the neutral shadows and highlights of the scene, providing a convincing depiction of the moment. ## Our free email newsletter is like having a friend who __always__ knows what's happening Get the scoop on the Kansas arts & culture scene: events, news, artist opportunities, and more. Free, weekly & worth your while. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. By contrast, Zheng Feng (of Radford, Virginia) offers a more illustrative interpretation of the landscape. In “Waterfall in the Fall,” Feng portrays a half-bare tree with orange foliage next to a waterfall with blocky rocks and pebbles peeking out of the water below and a glimpse of blue sky in the background. Here, forms sometimes read as crisp edges of trees and rocks and sometimes dissolve into one another in drips and strokes. As Feng lets the medium declare its materiality, the painting might be read as a memory or a meditation on a place. The fluid nature of watercolor is certainly a ready metaphor for our fluid understanding of our environment. Zheng Feng, “Waterfall in the Fall,” watercolor, 32 by 40 inches (Mark Arts/Courtesy) Given the flexible vocabulary available with watercolor, it is a bit surprising that this national exhibition features so few abstract paintings. One such piece that caught my eye is “The Kronos Affect” by Michael Jilg (of Hays, Kansas). The title of this layered work might refer to legal theories about innovation and competition in the marketplace (unfortunately, there isn't room for descriptive wall text in this exhibition). Jilg has distilled these heady ideas into a wonderful interplay of washes, text, accentuated strokes, and playful geometry. In the center of a sheet of lined paper filled with handwritten cursive text in graphite, Jilg paints a composition of arches and drips, primarily in an orange-yellow hue, that layer over and obstruct the words underneath. The dynamic arrangement kept pulling my attention back as I scanned the wall, inviting more investigation. Michael Jilg, “The Kronos Affect,” watermedia, 24 by 24 inches (Mark Arts/Courtesy) A busy juried art competition has a way of inviting viewers into the adjudicating process. You might agree with the jurors’ selections, puzzle over some choices, or compile your own list of winners. Below is my own list of standouts. Michael Nicholson (of Edmond, Oklahoma) has three landscape paintings on display. His elevated views of arid hill country — as in “Coyote Club,” with its mesa-topped mountains towering over rocky plains dotted with shrubs and trees — are understated but sublime in their depiction of light and terrain. I was glad to see his wall tag sporting one of the many red dots around the room (which signify a sale). Michael Nicholson, “Coyote Club,” acrylic on paper, 14 by 20 inches (Mark Arts/Courtesy) Wayne Conyers (of McPhersen, Kanas) is a unique voice in this exhibition and in the Kansas art community. His style is both meticulous and freewheeling in his exploration of color forms and surreal structures. His “Unexpected Consequences of Drastic Climate Change” manages to be both whimsical and full of contemplative dread. Some of the former might come from the hours and hours involved in developing such complicated objects. In this work, two tree-like forms made up of patterned segments, including some with faces, sprout up from a carpet or fabric ground covered in a colorful, repeated pattern that climbs up the wall behind. Bonus points to Conyers for using a nonconventional vertical format. Wayne Conyers, “Unexpected Consequences of Drastic Climate Change,” watercolor, 30 by 13.5 inches (Mark Arts/Courtesy) Matthew Lord (of Lawrence, Kansas) takes my prize for playful fantasy. His painting “Council of Toads” is one of the only works in the show that draws on the tradition of watercolor in narrative illustration. This small yet delightful painting places you right into the middle of a charming storybook, no context necessary. The scene Lord depicts focuses on a bearded man in a black, hairy crow suit with a walking stick and a backpack filled with tools, instruments, food, and creatures, who encounters a group of confrontational, oversized toads in a forest clearing. Who is this little guy? Where is he going? Why is he carrying that? What is he wearing? What are they talking about? Lord gives you plenty of visual material here to flesh out an entire story (maybe an entire world). Matthew Lord, “Council of Toads,” watercolor, 16 by 12 inches. (Mark Arts/Courtesy) The three cityscapes in the exhibition by Marilynne Bradley (of Webster Groves, Missouri) strike a beautiful balance of opposing forces. They feel as though they reference specific places, and yet they also read as composites of various times and locations. Bradley builds substantial architectural forms with a careful arrangement of values, temperatures, saturations, and plane changes. And yet the thin transparent layers she builds with appear as hard-edge panes of stained glass. “Under the L,” with its one-point perspective composition of the tracks and girders of a bridge in shades of blue, red, and black, demonstrates her wonderful pairing of rhythmic movement and solid integrity. Marilynne Bradley, “Under the L,” watercolor on printmaking paper, 15 by 22 inches (Mark Arts/Courtesy) While reading up on Richard Russell Sneary, the juror for this year’s National Watercolor Exhibition, I noticed his many professional affiliations. He is a signature member of the American Watercolor Society, the National Watercolor Society, and the Missouri and Kansas Watercolor Societies (as well as other non-media-specific groups). I also noticed that some of the artists in this exhibition note their own affiliations with these or similar groups by using abbreviations such as AWS or KWS when signing their paintings. This detail made me wonder about building art community in the context of wide-reaching juried competitions. On the one hand, there is an obvious motivation for hosting such competitions (an increase in revenue and foot traffic, for example). The technical focus on watercolor painting makes for an uncomplicated yet specific theme. The number of artists involved might foster comradery, networking, and mutual admiration, especially for those who can travel to the exhibition venue. Seeing such diverse applications of a beloved medium might spark new ideas and approaches. On the other hand, it can be difficult for an individual artist’s work to resonate with viewers in such a crowded field. And, of course, competition in general may be contrary to ideas of building community and uplifting individual artistic voices. With these impressions in mind, I suggest watercolor enthusiasts use the occasion of this exhibition to find your new favorite painter(s) and then dig deeper into their work. Installation views of the National Watercolor Exhibition at Mark Arts in Wichita (Mark Arts/Courtesy) ## The Details **National Watercolor Exhibition** Oct. 2-Dec. 12, 2026 at Mark Arts, 1307 N. Rock Road in Wichita Mark Arts is open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Admission is free, and the facility is accessible to people with physical disabilities. National Watercolor Exhibition juror Richard Sneary will speak at Mark Arts at 5:30 p.m. on November 12. Sneary is also offering a technical workshop on November 12-14 ($400). Find more information on the Mark Arts website. * * * _**Kevin Kelly** is an artist and educator. He lives and paints in Wichita and teaches art at Butler Community College in El Dorado, Kansas._ ****Popular Reads**** ❋ Derby man has the kind of voice that turns heads — and chairs ❋ Socializing while sober: how some Wichitans are cultivating alcohol-free communities ❋ As a small creative business closes, the owner mourns❋ Painting through it: Autumn Noire on 20 years of making art❋ How a guy from Wichita resurrected 'Dawn of the Dead'❋ Bygone Friends University museum housed curious collections ## Support Kansas arts writing The SHOUT is a Wichita-based independent newsroom focused on artists living and working in Kansas. We're partly supported by the generosity of our readers, and every dollar we receive goes directly into the pocket of a contributing writer, editor, or photographer. Click here to support our work with a tax-deductible donation**.** Yes! I want to support the SHOUT

Panels from "The Leviathan," one of four stories in the horror anthology "Death Itself, Vol. 2." ### Joe Worley is crowdfunding for his annual horror anthology 'Death Itself' Anna Andersen reviewed Volume 2 in 2025. This year's 34-page comic anthology will feature four short stories from Midwestern artists. The Kickstarter page for Vol. 4 lists the new stories and their contributors: "Warriors" (Colton Strathman and Worley), "4 Horsemen" (Chris Garcia and Worley), and "The Existential Library" (Katherine Conrad). Kevin Mellon, storyboard artist for "Archer" and the director of Marvel's "Hit Monkey," will contribute a story that has yet to be announced. An excerpt from Volume 4's "Four Horsemen" by Chris Garcia & Joe Worley. The campaign launched on October 6 and is set to wrap up by November 5. But take heed, reader: Worley warns in a video that "their four horror shorts will leave you crying for mommy." You can help Worley produce the new volume by donating to the Kickstarter for as little as $6 (which gets you a digital version of the anthology). Hard copies are available for $9 plus shipping, and donors can opt for pricier packages that include custom portraits. Find updates about the comic anthology on Instagram: @deathitselfcomic. Wichita performer Dex O'Neal as D. Vour. The "insatiable glampire" appears on the second season of "King of Drag" on Revry. (Courtesy/Emmett Joseph) ### D. Vour makes the top three on 'King of Drag' Wichita drag king D. Vour is one of eight contestants on Season 2 of the reality game show. On episode 5, which aired Sunday, he won both challenges and made it into the top three. Though he's earned fans with his artistry and horror aesthetic, this was D. Vour's first win. "King of Drag" airs at 8 p.m. on Sundays on the streaming platform Revry. U.S. viewers can watch for free on the Revry app or online. Three episodes remain. If you want to watch with a crowd, join D. Vour at Rain Bistro and Lounge at 7 p.m. every Tuesday through November 10. The last watch party will include performances from local kings. For more on D. Vour and his drag journey, read Emily Christensen's profile in The SHOUT. 💌 __This post was first shared in one of our weekly newsletters.__ Subscribe for free__to get the latest culture news in your inbox.__ * * * ### Support Kansas arts writing The SHOUT is a Wichita-based independent newsroom focused on artists living and working in Kansas. We're partly supported by the generosity of our readers, and every dollar we receive goes directly into the pocket of a contributing writer, editor, or photographer. Click here to support our work with a tax-deductible donation**.** Yes! I want to support the SHOUT

_The following announcement is based on a submission from the Wichita State College of Fine Arts._ Witches, ghosts, sword fights and a mother who unknowingly eats her children. William Shakespeare knew how to deliver a little horror — and Wichita State School of Performing Arts students bring the darker side of the Bard to BOOtanica this month. Students from WSU’s School of Performing Arts will perform BOOtanical Shakespeare from 6:30-8:30 p.m. October 23-24 at Botanica’s annual Halloween celebration. Under the direction of Joseph Urick, associate professor of drama, the short-form performances feature a condensed version of "Macbeth" alongside scenes from "Hamlet" and "Titus Andonicus," highlighting the plays' ghosts, witches and gruesome tales. One performance takes place in Botanica’s Shakespeare Garden, surrounded by Elizabethan-inspired plantings, stone pathways and a bust of the Bard. Another unfolds on a raised platform near the Garden Cafe. Taking Shakespeare outdoors presents a different set of challenges for student actors, particularly when it comes to making their voices carry without microphones. “As I teach voice at WSU, it has been a real joy bringing out the voices of the performers, so they carry safely in an open space without risking their instruments,” Urick said. Urick, who brings experience in outdoor and site-specific theater, says the project gives students the opportunity to explore physical storytelling and adapt their acting techniques to a public setting. The experience connects directly to students’ coursework in period-style acting and Shakespeare and performance, combining scholarly research into the history and poetic structure of Shakespeare’s language with the vocal and physical techniques required for outdoor theater. Audiences can expect more than drama-filled speeches and supernatural visitors. Urick is an avid stage-combat performer, and the scenes incorporate fights and a variety of weapons — all safe for public presentations. “It should be a ‘bloody’ good time!” Urick said. ### A perfect pairing for the spooky season Shakespeare’s plays offer plenty of Halloween-ready material. "Macbeth" features three witches and the ghost of Banquo. "Hamlet" opens with the appearance of a murdered king's ghost. And "Titus Andronicus" delivers some of the playwright’s most notorious violence, including a revenge plot involving a pie baked with… human flesh. For Urick, Shakespeare’s language and characters offer valuable lessons for actors, whether their ambitions lie onstage or in film and television. “I have been very proud of their work — seeing them discover new approaches to their craft and allowing their personalities to shine through the words of these 400-year-old plays,” he said. ### Plan your visit BOOtanical Shakespeare runs 6:30-8:30 p.m. October 23-24 at Botanica, 701 N. Amidon St. in Wichita. Each short performance sequence lasts about 20 minutes, allowing visitors to enjoy the shows as part of their BOOtanica visit. BOOtanica is open from 5-10 p.m. Fridays and 2-10 p.m. Saturdays. Tickets to the festival are $10-17. Visit botanica.org/bootanica for tickets and event information. * * * _**Announcements** are submissions from arts and cultural organizations and community members. They are published at the discretion of SHOUT editors and may be lightly edited. Send press releases and other announcements to __emily@shoutwichita.com_ _._ ****Popular Reads**** ❋ Derby man has the kind of voice that turns heads — and chairs ❋ Socializing while sober: how some Wichitans are cultivating alcohol-free communities ❋ As a small creative business closes, the owner mourns❋ Painting through it: Autumn Noire on 20 years of making art❋ How a guy from Wichita resurrected 'Dawn of the Dead'❋ Bygone Friends University museum housed curious collections ## Support Kansas arts writing The SHOUT is a Wichita-based independent newsroom focused on artists living and working in Kansas. We're partly supported by the generosity of our readers, and every dollar we receive goes directly into the pocket of a contributing writer, editor, or photographer. Click here to support our work with a tax-deductible donation**.** Yes! I want to support the SHOUT

Last December, Wichita artist Collin Allen held a cigar box in his hands and saw the potential for two small canvases. Allen has long made his own work out of recycled materials, but he saw a bigger opportunity in the cigar box: an “organic, guerilla” group show designed to spark interest in collecting art. “I'm trying to get people involved that maybe haven't had an opportunity or can't afford a $1,000 painting,” he said. Allen thought he might get 30 artists to participate. But “things escalated quickly” after he put out a call on social media. On Saturday, more than 150 pieces of cigar box art will be on view for one day only: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. at Harris & Co. Frame Shop, 1219 E. Douglas Ave. near downtown Wichita. Each is priced at $50. By any measure, that’s a bargain for a piece of original art. To make it bit more mysterious, the artists will not be identified. A collection of cigar box artworks waiting to be hung. “I think that sometimes making art with a different material than you're used to helps spark creativity. Maybe you'll do something that you wouldn't normally do,” Allen said. “I figured it was a good opportunity for everybody to play with something different.” (Emily Christensen/The SHOUT) Sales are cash only, and buyers can take their purchases home right away. All proceeds go to the artists. There’s one more rule: from 10 a.m.-noon, there a two-per-person limit. “At least 50% of the artists in this, I've never seen their work before. They've never shown, and it's really surprising because their work is fantastic,” Allen said. “Then we have some really established artists who also jumped in.” The youngest artist in the show is 12, and Allen estimates the oldest artist is in their 70s or 80s. Allen hopes the cigar box show will help inspire a love of collecting art, which is something he learned from his grandfather. (Emily Christensen/The SHOUT) ### Putting Vision into Action To make the Cigar Box Art Show a reality, Allen asked local retailers to donate boxes to the project. He sourced most of the more than 300 he collected from Jacob’s Liquor Exchange, Old Town Cigars, and Air Capital Cigar. He spread the word through social media and set up promotional displays at galleries, including Harvester Arts and Vertigo 232. For a period of three months, artists could pick up a cigar box from Harris & Co. or Art House 310 in exchange for a $10 fee. “It was really sweet,” Allen said. “All the galleries were participating in something that they weren't going to necessarily benefit from.” He also received support from the Wichita Area Arts Council, which gave him a grant to cover the costs of storage. One of the videos Collin Allen created to promote the Cigar Box Art Show. ### Working Outside the Box Allen’s art career is defined in part by an affinity for working experimentally, often in unconventional spaces. In 2019, he built a gallery for his Wichita State Bachelor of Fine Arts thesis show in a vacant building on Douglas Avenue. Before that, he was a “garage goon” (read: preparator and artist-in-residence) at the Go Away Garage on Commerce Street. When it was still open, the shop hosted art shows that often drew hundreds of people during the Final Friday art crawls (which now happens on first Fridays). The Cigar Box Art Show is inspired in part by a “Salon des Refusés” exhibition at Go Away that showed the work of dozens and dozens of artists. Allen hopes the cigar box show will help build community and show younger artists that they, too, can do their own thing — and support one another. “I might help an artist do something … and it's not going to necessarily benefit me in the short term. But if it benefits them, then it benefits the art community. And all of those things add up.” ## The Details **Cigar Box Art Show** 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday, October 24 at Harris & Co. Frame Shop, 1219 E. Douglas Ave. Cash only. Sales are limited to two per person before noon. Learn more on the Facebook event page for the Cigar Box Art Show. * * * **Emily Christensen** is one of the co-founders of The SHOUT. She is a past fellow of the National Critics Institute at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center and a recipient of an Arts Writing Grant from The Andy Warhol Foundation. Send her a message: emily@shoutwichita.com. ****Popular Reads**** ❋ Derby man has the kind of voice that turns heads — and chairs ❋ Socializing while sober: how some Wichitans are cultivating alcohol-free communities ❋ As a small creative business closes, the owner mourns❋ Painting through it: Autumn Noire on 20 years of making art❋ How a guy from Wichita resurrected 'Dawn of the Dead'❋ Bygone Friends University museum housed curious collections ## Support Kansas arts writing The SHOUT is a Wichita-based independent newsroom focused on artists living and working in Kansas. We're partly supported by the generosity of our readers, and every dollar we receive goes directly into the pocket of a contributing writer, editor, or photographer. Click here to support our work with a tax-deductible donation**.** Yes! I want to support the SHOUT

On October 20, the Knight Foundation announced $5 million in funding as part of a new Knight Cities Challenge program. Two of the 29 grantees will use grant dollars for programs in the Wichita area: The Mid-America Arts Alliance and the University of Vermont’s Center for Community News. Knight awarded both organizations $200,000. The Mid-America Arts Alliance, which is based in Kansas City, Missouri, will use grant funds to “build a stronger, more coordinated arts network within the Wichita area.” According to their website, the goal of Engage Wichita: Arts Advocacy in Action is to bring participating Wichita organizations into an aligned arts force that shares resources and advocates for public support of Wichita arts and culture. “This program will give Wichita’s arts organizations the skills and shared voice to educate their communities about the impact of the arts, speaking as a united sector that belongs at the table alongside the city’s civic and economic priorities,” said Carris Adams, MAA’s director of organizational services, in a press release. Engage Wichita is part of a broader program that provides assistance to arts and culture leaders in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and Texas. The University of Vermont’s Center for Community News will build 10 “university student-powered news programs” to support local media ecosystems in Knight cities, including Wichita. CCN helps university and local news outlets foster partnerships that expand coverage and give students a chance to work in the field. ## Our free email newsletter is like having a friend who __always__ knows what's happening Get the scoop on the Kansas arts & culture scene: events, news, artist opportunities, and more. Free, weekly & worth your while. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. The Knight Foundation funds programs in cities that once had a newspaper owned by the Knight Ridder media company. Earlier this year, Knight issued a call for applications for “community-driven ideas” that strengthen local information ecosystems, expand economic opportunity, and deepen community connection through arts and culture. A 2017 Knight Cities Challenge grant funded Horizontes, a project led by Armando Minjarez that commissioned artists to paint murals in Wichita’s predominantly Latino North End and predominately Black northeast neighborhoods. The project included “El Sueño Original” (“The Original Dream”), a massive mural painted by Columbian artist GLeo on the Beachner Grain Elevator in Wichita’s industrial corridor. Other Knight cities receiving funds from this grant round include Boulder, Colorado, Grand Fords, South Dakota, Duluth, Minnesota, and Detroit. For the Boulder Flipside program, the Boulder County Arts Alliance, the City of Boulder Office of Arts and Culture, and Community Foundation Boulder County will collaborate to activate storefronts during the Sundance Film Festival. Two programs will work to preserve culture in Detroit. Detroit Hives will transform vacant lots into sustainable natural spaces for both pollinators and humans. A Detroit Sound Conservancy project will rehabilitate the Blue Bird Inn, “an epicenter of creative expression and schoolhouse of the Detroit sound.” In a media release, Knight said it received more than 3,000 applications for the first of two rounds of grant funding. The foundation plans for a second $5 million round of grant funding. Learn more about the 2026 Knight Cities Challenge grant recipients and their programs on the Knight Foundation website. * * * ****Popular Reads**** ❋ Derby man has the kind of voice that turns heads — and chairs ❋ Socializing while sober: how some Wichitans are cultivating alcohol-free communities ❋ As a small creative business closes, the owner mourns❋ Painting through it: Autumn Noire on 20 years of making art❋ How a guy from Wichita resurrected 'Dawn of the Dead'❋ Bygone Friends University museum housed curious collections ## Support Kansas arts writing The SHOUT is a Wichita-based independent newsroom focused on artists living and working in Kansas. We're partly supported by the generosity of our readers, and every dollar we receive goes directly into the pocket of a contributing writer, editor, or photographer. Click here to support our work with a tax-deductible donation**.** Yes! I want to support the SHOUT

A new exhibition at the Wichita Art Museum pairs major new acquisitions, 25 of which are on view for the first time, with older works from the museum's permanent collection — many of which have not been on view in years. Curated by WAM's Tera Lee Hedrick, "Past & Present" is loosely organized around the classic genres of Western art: history painting, portraiture, genre painting, landscapes, and still lifes. But works in each section challenge the limits of each category. Tanya Aguiñiga's "Border Fall Height" bisects the landscape section in "Past & Present." (Kirk Eck/Wichita Art Museum)__"__ Grapht," a recently acquired 2024 mixed-media piece by Nick Cave, hangs at right in a grouping of still lifes in "Past & Present" at the Wichita Art Museum. The museum will host a public celebration of the new exhibition on Friday. (Kirk Eck/Wichita Art Museum) For example, Tanya Aguiñiga's "Border Fall Height," displayed on a long plinth in the landscape section, is a monoprint made with a rusty ladder. It references the ladders migrants have used to scale the fence at the U.S.-Mexico border. The work is installed opposite traditional paintings of the American West that hang with works by Native American artists. "This is a big section with a lot of big ideas," said Tera Lee Hedrick, who curated the exhibition. "Past & Present" is loaded with big ideas, interesting connections, and open-ended questions. Paintings by artists Clementine Hunter and Will Barnet make for what curator Tera Lee Hedrick calls "a really marvelous corner" in the section devoted to genre painting (that is, works depicting scenes from everyday life). (Kirk Eck/Wichita Art Museum)A portraiture section includes some of the most popular paintings acquired within the past few years, including the Kehinde Wiley at right. The 2024 painting "Ayan" by Uman, at left, is one of the newest acquisitions. (Kirk Eck/Wichita Art Museum) "Past & Present" is located in the galleries reserved for "special exhibitions," typically the only WAM shows that require paid admission. But through January 3, 2027 — the last day of "Past & Present" — entry to all museum galleries is free. Also free: A community celebration this Friday at WAM with music, dance, and interactive mural-making. _— Emily Christensen_ 💌 __This post was first shared in one of our weekly newsletters.__ Subscribe for free__to get the latest culture news in your inbox.__ * * * ### Support Kansas arts writing The SHOUT is a Wichita-based independent newsroom focused on artists living and working in Kansas. We're partly supported by the generosity of our readers, and every dollar we receive goes directly into the pocket of a contributing writer, editor, or photographer. Click here to support our work with a tax-deductible donation**.** Yes! I want to support the SHOUT

The wildly popular American Girl dolls portray trailblazing youngsters whose stories are rooted in U.S. history. Four decades after the dolls first appeared, many of the Millennials who grew up with them still nurture their childhood obsession and channel it into their own kind of creative resistance. One uses her dolls to make stop-motion films. Two others run a satirical, politically charged Instagram account. A fourth posts gender-bending American Girl content. “All American Girls,” a new documentary directed by Overland Park, Kansas, native Christy Wegener, presents these social-media-era creators as the keepers of the American Girl flame. The film, which screens at the Tallgrass Film Festival this weekend, shifts back and forth between American Girl superfans and academics and a history of the company and his founder, Pleasant Rowland. The fans are a fascinating sociological case study unto themselves (“It just feels like keeping a bit of the the magical whimsy alive from my childhood,” says the founder of Dress Like an American Girl Doll Day). But interviews with the notoriously low-profile Rowland and her friend and collaborator Valerie Tripp are the heart of the film. Some of the Millennials who grew up with American Girl dolls use them as material for their own creative projects. (Courtesy) A visit to the living-history destination Colonial Williamsburg inspired Rowland to create a line of history-inspired dolls (“I just saw it,” she says). Despite her nearly immediate success, Rowland faced intense skepticism from the male-dominated toy industry. “Girls liked it,” Rowland says. “And from then on, we didn’t really listen to the men very much, I have to be honest. They didn’t get it. How could they? You know, this was girl to girl. And this was our life and our world. And that was what the success was built on.” At first, “All American Girls” presents the company’s founding in the mid-1980s as a stroke of improbable genius. But after its 94-minute runtime, viewers will understand that Rowland’s success is rooted in her background in education and publishing, her work ethic and perfectionism (her employees joke that “PTR” is both Rowland’s initials and code for “prepare to redo”), and her openness to collaboration (“You don’t do these things alone”). ## Our free email newsletter is like having a friend who __always__ knows what's happening Get the scoop on the Kansas arts & culture scene: events, news, artist opportunities, and more. Free, weekly & worth your while. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. “All American Girls” doesn’t shy away from less-than-flattering aspects of Rowland or her company, which received criticism for its associations with white, upper-middle-class girlhood. After 13 years, Rowland sold to Mattel, and the documentary touches on the subsequent Barbie-fication of her creation. A complicated (but seemingly effortless) structure, smart editing, strong visuals, and one exceptional needle drop (Olivia Rodrigo’s “All American Bitch”) keep the film rolling along. The documentary team pulled the pithiest and most visually arresting moments from a staggeringly large pool of scenes and interviews, which include many former American Girl employees and collaborators. Notably, the large number of period broadcast TV clips and social media videos are presented onscreen as though on a phone held by an American Girl doll, which unifies the disparate footage and adds a dose of visual humor. It’s as though the filmmakers got into the spirit of celebrating American Girl dolls in their own way. The way Colonial Williamsburg brings history to life inspired Pleasant Rowland to create American Girls, a line of history-inspired dolls. (Courtesy) The vibrant, girly graphics contrast with the documentary’s earnest tone and its occasionally heavy subjects. In one unguarded moment during a conversation with Connie Porter, author of the Addy books, and American Girl collector Blake Changnon, Tripp says our current moment reminds her of the 1930s, which saw the rise of fascism. “One of the reasons why I think there's been a resurgence of interest in the American Girl collection andstories is that I think we're in a period that's rather discouraging, actually, for young women,” she says in an interview. “I think that some of the hard-won right that we fought for, we need being eroded.” Through this collection visuals and interviews, director/producer Wegener and producer Andrea Berman make a compelling argument for the cultural importance of American Girls. They may represent the wonder, imagination, and curtsey nature of girlhood. But, like the women who created them, they also share the steely-eyed gaze of a revolutionary. ## The Details _**“All American Girls”** 11:45 a.m.-1:15 p.m. Sunday, October 18, at Boulevard Theatres at Old Town, 353 N. Mead St. in Wichita's Old Town Square_ The screening will be followed by a Q&A with the filmmaker moderated by Emily Christensen of The SHOUT. Tickets are $15 plus tax (and a $1.79 fee if you buy online). You can also purchase individual tickets in person at the Tallgrass box office. Tallgrass pass holders can get into this (and any other festival film) at no additional cost. * Watch the trailer for "All Ameian Girls" and buy a ticket to sceening * Browse the Tallgrass Film Festival schedule and film guide * Buy festival passes ### More Tallgrass coverage in The SHOUT * In Tyler W. Moore's 'Brimstone Terrace, hell is what you make it [Anna Andersen] * Kansas filmmakers shine in shorts program at Tallgrass Film Festival [Emily Christensen]

When we first meet the protagonist of Tyler W. Moore's second animated feature, “Brimstone Terrace,” public defender Alan Carpenter sits under fluorescent lights with his latest client, half-heartedly trying to convince the man to cover up his swastika tattoo for court. Later, he discusses his depressing job with his brother while they watch “Jeopardy!,” and then he shoots himself. Protagonist Alan Carpenter (right) and his brother watch "Jeopardy!" while engaged in a troubling conversation. (Tyler W. Moore/Courtesy) Alan (voiced by Tori Kamal) wakes up in purgatory, where he soon finds himself on trial for his eternal life. Although infernal counsel Scratch (Matthew J. Lindblom) is surprised and embarrassed when Alan speaks up in his own defense, he's still sent to hell as a matter of procedure. At orientation, a permanently concussed guy named Gary (Moore) explains that it's not so bad: Alan's been sentenced to circle 1 of 7, so it could be worse! The only catch is he needs a place to stay (luckily, Gary says he can crash with him) and a job. Alan listens as Gary shares the ins and outs of hell's infamous circles. (Tyler W. Moore/Courtesy) Before he knows it, Satan himself (Jamie Zin) is offering him Scratch's job as a Grim Reaper, advocating on the side of the devil in afterlife trials. It seems like a great gig, until he's confronted with reality: Despite the lack of flames and pitchforks, this is the Christian hell, home to not only suicides but others demonized by dogma that even Satan doesn't agree with. Can Alan condemn people according to the unfair rules that condemned him? What if he could find a better way? ## Our free email newsletter is like having a friend who __always__ knows what's happening Get the scoop on the Kansas arts & culture scene: events, news, artist opportunities, and more. Free, weekly & worth your while. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. Animation is an immensely time-consuming medium, even for a large studio. Moore animated 99% of “Brimstone Terrace” himself, over three years, and while the art is fairly simple, it's also readable and precise, with a good eye for which pertinent details to include. One early shot, for instance, shows Alan's desk, with the flat manila rectangle of his client's case file and, next to it, a paper cup with cardboard sleeve, the tag of a teabag hanging over the edge, a ring-stained napkin underneath. The backgrounds are often softly shaded with a texture like crayon or colored pencil, and sometimes cut up into Mondrian-like rectangles that provide visual interest without excessive labor. Character movement is somewhat awkward, particularly in full-body animations like walking, but frequent, lively motion of facial features — large oval eyes paired with small, mobile mouths and eyebrows — keeps the movie's dialogue-driven pace from dragging. Pete and Gary take Alan in as a new roommate for the time being. Animator Moore's attention to detail helps make characters' lives fully dimension in a flat world. (Tyler W. Moore/Courtesy) The film's workaday afterlife allows for comic relief, mostly from Gary and his roommate Pete (Jamie Zin), an Aussie painter with a fridge full of cheese who doesn't believe in hell despite being there. Another subplot follows Scratch and his purple-haired girlfriend, Candice (producer Jillian Elaine), reassigned to the prison block of circle 7 and desperately trying to make it back to the top. After Scratch is replaced by Alan and forced to rearrange his life, he and his girlfriend Candice have some relationship tension. (Tyler W. Moore/Courtesy) Moore's director's statement says that “Brimstone Terrace” “seek(s) to continue breaking the stigma surrounding animation by proving that adult-oriented, thoughtful stories can be told in a medium that is generally seen as childish and unworthy of respect.” To that end, “Brimstone Terrace” raises ambitious questions for any movie and considers them with sensitivity. And Alan's ultimate decision to use his position to fight within an unjust system mirrors his mortal life as a public defender in a satisfying way. ## The Details **"Brimstone Terrace"** _4:45-6:15 p.m. Friday, October 16 and 2-3:30 p.m. Saturday, October 17 at Boulevard Theatres at Old Town, 353 N. Mead St. in Wichita's Old Town Square_ Tickets are $15 plus tax (and a $1.79 fee if you buy online). You can also purchase individual tickets in person at the Tallgrass box office. Tallgrass pass holders can get into this (and any other festival film) at no additional cost. * Watch the trailer for "Brimstone Terrace" and buy a ticket to the program online * Browse the Tallgrass Film Festival schedule and film guide * Buy festival passes ### More Tallgrass coverage in The SHOUT Kansas filmmakers shine in shorts program at Tallgrass Film Festival [Emily Christensen] * * * _**Anna Andersen** co-hosts Your Favorite Bad Movie Podcast with their husband. They have four cats named Brains, Hamburger, Twinkle, and Zazzle._ ****Popular Reads**** ❋ Derby man has the kind of voice that turns heads — and chairs ❋ Socializing while sober: how some Wichitans are cultivating alcohol-free communities ❋ As a small creative business closes, the owner mourns❋ Painting through it: Autumn Noire on 20 years of making art❋ How a guy from Wichita resurrected 'Dawn of the Dead'❋ Bygone Friends University museum housed curious collections ## Support Kansas arts writing The SHOUT is a Wichita-based independent newsroom focused on artists living and working in Kansas. We're partly supported by the generosity of our readers, and every dollar we receive goes directly into the pocket of a contributing writer, editor, or photographer. Click here to support our work with a tax-deductible donation**.** Yes! I want to support the SHOUT

_The following announcement is based on a press release from the Wichita Symphony._ WICHITA – The Wichita Symphony Orchestra presents a concert led by music director Daniel Hege at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, October 24, in the Century II Concert Hall. The concert features acclaimed pianist Clayton Stephenson performing Tchaikovsky’s monumental Piano Concerto No. 1. The American pianist has been hailed for interpretations that are "fresh, incisive, and characterfully alive" (Gramophone). The program opens with Jessie Montgomery’s Overture. Then, the stage hosts Stephenson as he performs the Tchaikovsky piano concerto. Although originally a critical failure and labeled “unplayable,” the technically demanding piece has become one of the most recognizable works in the world. Finally, audiences will experience Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5, created when Shostakovich was under scrutiny from the Soviet regime. It is considered an outstanding offering in the 20th-century orchestral repertoire. “Music has always had the power to communicate what words sometimes cannot, and in Shostakovich’s case, what could not safely be expressed openly,” said Hege. “Under Stalin’s regime, he used the orchestra to express anguish, resistance and defiance beneath the surface of music that could pass official scrutiny. This program gives us three very different composers and three very different voices, each revealing something deeply human through music.” ### **Event Details** Wichita Symphony Orchestra Presents "Defiance" Conductor: Daniel Hege Piano: Clayton Stephenson Featuring music by: Jessie Montgomery, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Dmitri Shostakovich 7:30 p.m. Saturday, October 24, 2026, at Century II Concert Hall, 225 W. Douglas Ave. in Wichita Tickets and additional information are available at wichitasymphony.org. * * * _**Announcements** are submissions from arts and cultural organizations and community members. They are published at the discretion of SHOUT editors and may be lightly edited. Send press releases and other announcements to __emily@shoutwichita.com_ _._ ****Popular Reads**** ❋ Derby man has the kind of voice that turns heads — and chairs ❋ Socializing while sober: how some Wichitans are cultivating alcohol-free communities ❋ As a small creative business closes, the owner mourns❋ Painting through it: Autumn Noire on 20 years of making art❋ How a guy from Wichita resurrected 'Dawn of the Dead'❋ Bygone Friends University museum housed curious collections ## Support Kansas arts writing The SHOUT is a Wichita-based independent newsroom focused on artists living and working in Kansas. We're partly supported by the generosity of our readers, and every dollar we receive goes directly into the pocket of a contributing writer, editor, or photographer. Click here to support our work with a tax-deductible donation**.** Yes! I want to support the SHOUT

The best chance to get a look at Kansas filmmaking talent is Tallgrass Film Festival’s Kansas Shorts. “Wow, Kansas filmmakers are really leveling up,” an audience member commented last October as we shuffled out of the theater after watching a slate of quality films made by Kansas natives. That assessment holds true for this year’s Kansas Shorts selections. Three documentaries and three narrative films will screen at 11 a.m. Sunday at Boulevard Theatres Old Town. Tickets are $15 plus tax (and a $1.79 fee if you buy online), or entry to this program is included in with a festival pass. ## Our free email newsletter is like having a friend who __always__ knows what's happening Get the scoop on the Kansas arts & culture scene: events, news, artist opportunities, and more. Free, weekly & worth your while. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. ### “Flooding Kaw Nation: Submerged Cities, Desecrated Graves, and Kaw Lake” 2026, 26 minutes Kansas professors Tai Edwards and Lisa Tatonetti examine a shameful chapter of regional history in “Flooding Kaw Nation.” After the U.S. government forced the Kaw people from Kansas in the late 1800s, they purchased land in northern Oklahoma from the Cherokee Nation. In the 1970s, the government intruded again, using eminent domain to build a dam that flooded thousands of acres of territory held by the tribe. Kaw Lake subsumed Washunga, Oklahoma, which included a cemetery that the U.S. Corps of Engineers pledged to move. In macabre fashion, members of Kaw Nation discovered in the mid-1990s that a contractor carried out the exhumation improperly. “Flooding Kaw Nation” traces the discovery of the desecration and its impact. The filmmakers interleave community interviews with smart use of archival materials to tell a powerful, heartbreaking story. * * * In "Safer Waters," artist Stephen Towns talks about his approach to a series of paintings and quilts about Paradise Park, a segregated recreation area that was popular in the mid-20th century. (Courtesy)"Safer Waters" incorporates archival materials to give viewers a sense of the power of Paradise Park, which was located near Ocala, Florida. It closed in 1969. (Courtesy) ### “Safer Waters: Artist Stephen Towns on Paradise Park” 2025, 25 minutes During the 20th century, Florida established itself as a tourist destination. But for the majority of the 1900s, Black Americans were barred from visiting most of the Sunshine States’s attractions. Paradise Park was an exception. Travelers from across the U.S. joined Black Floridians to swim, ride glass-bottomed boats, dance, hunt Easter eggs — even get baptized. Artist Stephen Towns used archival materials to create paintings and quilts that capture the freedom and joy the park represented. Towns’ Paradise Park series formed the backbone of a recent exhibition at the Wichita Art Museum. Instead of publishing a book-length catalog to accompany the exhibition, WAM produced a film by curator Tera Lee Hedrick, director of collections and exhibitions Chloe Lang, and Florida writer Lu Vickers, whose book inspired Towns’ series. “Safer Waters” shifts between the history of the park and a studio interview with the artist, who says “I had to figure out a way to bring that story to light.” * * * Shelle Lichti in the cab of the Rainbow Rider, her Pride-themed 18 wheeler. (Courtesy)Shelle Lichti gasses up on the road. (Courtesy) ### “Rainbow Rider” 2026, 25 minutes “This is the last bastion of American cowboy,” says Shelle Lichti. “You know, truckers are the concrete cowboys.” Behind the wheel of the Rainbow Rider, her 18-wheeler wrapped in the colors of the Pride flag, Lichi blazes her own trail. This documentary follows the founder of LGBT Truckers as she crisscrosses the country hauling freight and dodging would-be vandals. In between runs, Lichti makes appearances at trucking and Pride events (including Salt City Pride in Hutchinson, Kansas). Lichti, who founded a conference line for queer truckers after she lost a friend and fellow trucker to suicide, is an undeniably compelling character. Director Georgia Krause teases out her personality and personal history in a series of brightly colored vignettes. The executive producer of “Rainbow Rider” is Olathe, Kansas native Sav Rodgers (“Chasing Chasing Amy”). Sophia Elizabeth plays an assassin who mimes her way through a grisly job in "Hit-Woman." (Courtesy) ### “Hit-Woman” 2026, 3 minutes As assassin and target, Sophia Elizabeth and Theo Meshoulam bring cartoonish physicality and pantomimed weapons to what would could have been a violent miniature thriller by writer-director (and Winfield, Kansas native) Malachi Lewis. But the real star of “Hit-Woman” is the sound design, which fills in for the absence of guns, swords, and even a bow and arrow. Analog sketches carry the film’s scrappy quality into the ending credits. Kelsi Harris is Hannah, who has been anxiously awaiting the important meeting at the center of "It's Nice to Finally Meet You." (Courtesy) ### “It’s Nice to Finally Meet You” 2026, 15 minutes Kate Compton and Aaron Kunkel wrote and produced this narrative about a college student anxiously awaiting her first opportunity to “meet the parents.” But “It’s Nice to Finally Meet You” is grounded in emotional territory that couldn’t be farther from films like “The Family Stone” and “Meet the Fockers.” In the end, the choice of tone pays off. The Wichita State School of Performing Arts organized “It’s Nice to Finally Meet You” as part of its 2025-26 season. So far, the film has been accepted into 13 festivals, said Compton, who also directed. Current and former Wichita State faculty Joseph Urick, Amy Baker Schwiethale, and Ed Baker appear, as does Wichita theater stalwart Vonda Newby-Schuster as a mother who's barely holding it together. Kelsi Harris, who stars as Hannah, and other WSU students get their first on-screen experience in the film. * * * Ani Mesa-Perez and Daniel O'Neill play siblings who are struggling to keep it together after the death of their mother in "We're All Sorry Souls." (Courtesy) ### “We’re All Sorry Souls” 2026, 11 minutes The only world premiere on the Kansas shorts program, “We’re All Sorry Souls” centers on Frieda (Ani Mesa-Perez), a ski lift operator in Vail, and her neurodivergent brother Frankie (Daniel O'Neill). After the death of their mother, the pair struggle to survive in one of the most well-heeled tourist enclaves in the U.S. Alessandra Mesa directs “We’re All Sorry Souls,” which multiple current and former Kansans worked on. They include actor and story collaborator Gil Perez-Abraham and director of photography and editor James Rico. ## The Details **Kansas Shorts at the Tallgrass Film Festival** _11 a.m.-1 p.m. Sunday, October 18, at Boulevard Theatres at Old Town, 353 N. Mead St. in Wichita's Old Town Square_ Tickets are $15 plus tax (and a $1.79 fee if you buy online). You can also purchase individual tickets in person at the Tallgrass box office. Tallgrass pass holders can get into this (and any other festival film) at no additional cost. Eight other shorts blocks will screen at Tallgrass this year, including programs centered on work by emerging filmmakers, documentary films, and animation shorts. * Watch trailers for the Kansas shorts and buy a ticket to the program online * Browse the Tallgrass Film Festival schedule and film guide * Buy festival passes * * * _**Emily Christensen** is one of the co-founders of The SHOUT. She is a past fellow of the National Critics Institute at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center and a recipient of an Arts Writing Grant from The Andy Warhol Foundation. Send her a message: _ _emily@shoutwichita.com_ _._ ****Popular Reads**** ❋ Derby man has the kind of voice that turns heads — and chairs ❋ Socializing while sober: how some Wichitans are cultivating alcohol-free communities ❋ As a small creative business closes, the owner mourns❋ Painting through it: Autumn Noire on 20 years of making art❋ How a guy from Wichita resurrected 'Dawn of the Dead'❋ Bygone Friends University museum housed curious collections ## Support Kansas arts writing The SHOUT is a Wichita-based independent newsroom focused on artists living and working in Kansas. We're partly supported by the generosity of our readers, and every dollar we receive goes directly into the pocket of a contributing writer, editor, or photographer. Click here to support our work with a tax-deductible donation**.** Yes! I want to support the SHOUT

Roxy’s Downtown is celebrating the Halloween season with the delightful “The Woman in Black” by Stephen Mallatratt, a play based on the 1983 Susan Hill novel of the same name. The “play within a play” meta-theater two-hander provides an opportunity for one actor to portray multiple characters and the other to dive fully into enthusiastic terror. This production’s solid acting, careful sound design, and theatrical tricks of the trade combine with the script’s beautiful text to offer a treat we all deserve. The narrative centers around Arthur Kipps, who needs to tell a story. Trembling at center stage with a hefty manuscript in hand, he stammers through the opening paragraph of what certainly is an important text. He has hired an actor to help coach him, but it’s not going well. Kipps openly declares theater is “not his sort of thing,” and that’s obvious. This opening scene offers enough levity to settle the audience into the conceit of two likeable figures telling a story. Simon Hill as an acting coach-turned main character converses with one of the many characters played by Rick Bumgardner. (Christopher Clark/Courtesy) Eventually, the hired acting coach, played by Simon Hill, takes on the role of Arthur Kipps, and the real Arthur Kipps, played by Rick Bumgardner, handles the myriad characters encountered along the way. Kipps is a solicitor who has been sent to Eel Marsh to handle the estate of Mrs. Drablow. The directions to her home are convoluted, and the locations are obscure, if even real. The drama begins to unfold as Mr. Kipps, now played by the actor, learns about her haunted life. The story is well written but made better if one does not know what’s coming. I won’t be spoiling anything here. As convoluted as it might sound, the multi-character, two-actor setup works very well in the theater. Bumgardner demonstrates great range playing roles including a sniveling bookkeeper and salty trap driver, all the while rooting each portrayal within the character of the Mr. Kipps presented in the opening scene. Much of the first half requires the actors to slip in and out of the retelling, and Bumgardner handles these shifts well. His control of body and voice ground each character in something precise and distinct from the others while avoiding over-the-top caricature. Simon Hill plays the actor-for-hire who helps Arthur Kipps tell his story. In the opening moments, the eccentricities of the theater artist land a little strong. But once the retelling of the mystery begins, Hill abandons the affectations of the first scene. Later, when circumstances become harrowing, his enthusiasm in reacting to alarming events keeps the action moving. The script of "The Woman in Black" demands that Rick Bumgardner play multiple characters, which he achieves without wandering into caricature. (Christopher Clark/Courtesy) Both actors employ soft standard British dialects. While they may not be perfectly consistent or accurate, if the viewer is open to the conceit, they never distract. These two actors work well together, and, despite a few uneven moments, their chemistry brings a unified effort to invite the audience into their reality. “The Woman in Black” leans heavily on Brad Thomison’s sound design. The characters themselves explain this: At one point, the actor-for-hire declares, “I have cut much of the descriptive passages.” When Kipps objects, the actor rebuts, “Recorded sound, Mr. Kipps, recorded sound!” Recorded sound, indeed. The soundscape is vital throughout the show and brings life to its telling. Everything from simple London street sounds to entire passages recited by an unseen priest, voiced by Joseph McGrath, come together to create a rich aural environment. As the action moves from London to Eel Marsh, seaside sounds wash over the space, and as action intensifies, sound brings unseen action to life. (On opening night, a few of these critical sound cues were called a hair early or cut off a bit abruptly.) Simon Hill begins "The Woman in Black" as an acting coach before taking over the character of his would-be pupil. (Christopher Clark/Courtesy) The lighting design by Jamison Rhoads works in lockstep with sound. A storm scene with lightning and wind creates suspension and surprise with the added benefit of cleverly obfuscating the underlying staging. Despite its strong technical elements, the production is reduced by technical excess in a few places. For example, two projections (also designed by Thomison) seem to appear from nowhere to indicate what is already being demonstrated on stage. In a simple story like this, anything too far beyond what is necessary detracts from the moment and pulls focus from the narrative. The original score, created and prerecorded by Chris Henderson, Landon Hook, and Aimee Norris, offers music eerie enough to tell the audience what kind of play we were seeing. It’s deployed with discernment, taking a supporting role instead of upstaging the action. I have seen theater of this genre so overwrought with “spooky” music it overwhelmed and detracted, but here it lifts the show in just the right spots and allows silence and sound effects to play balanced counterparts. ## Our free email newsletter is like having a friend who __always__ knows what's happening Get the scoop on the Kansas arts & culture scene: events, news, artist opportunities, and more. Free, weekly & worth your while. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. Costumes, designed by Kalon Kirk, are simple but effective. The character playing the various roles can add or subtract a piece and keep a seamless look while moving the story. The scenery, designed by Jason Huffman, is delightfully simple and pragmatic, yet at times surprisingly detailed. Roxy’s Downtown is a difficult staging space, but it is well suited for this play’s intimate storytelling. Director Terry Erbe has put together a cohesive story that allows each element of a potentially convoluted script to shine through. Erbe keeps the pacing up and the storytelling front and center, so much so I was surprised both when intermission arrived and again at the final blackout. I would suggest ticket-buyers select seats farther back in the house. I was seated on the floor only a few feet from the front of the stage, and from my vantage some of the mystery was revealed by over-spilled light. It didn’t spoil the fun, but my own bad habit of getting lost in production details occasionally pulled me out of the moment. Jamison Rhoads' lighting design works well with Brad Thomison’s sound effects to elevate the onstage action. (Christopher Clark/Courtesy) Ghost stories, at their core, are celebrations of life. We speak of terrorizing events to comfort ourselves by comparison. Good ones raise our heart rate and open our senses; by the end, one should be giddy at the unexpected reveal and feel an inclination toward gratitude. Ghost stories also are immersive, and Roxy’s ensures this experience well before the house lights dim with very clear communication regarding audience expectation. I received several pre-show emails with messages — reiterated in the pre-recorded curtain speech — about when to arrive, where to enter, and what to expect. I cannot imagine watching this kind of show with waitstaff clunking about and latecomers pushing their way through the house. I only wish every live theater experience were so well managed. ## The Details **Roxy’s Downtown presents “The Woman in Black”** _October 9-November 7, 2026, at Roxy’s Downtown Theatre, 412 ½ E. Douglas Ave. in Wichita_ Performances take place at 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday. A 2 p.m. Saturday matinee is offered on October 17 and October 31. Reserved Tickets are $47. Learn more and buy tickets online. * * * _**Leslie Alan Coates** is a theater faculty member at Butler Community College and has acting and directing credits from San Diego to New England. He is a former board member for Forum Theatre Company, where he also appeared in "Christmas Letters," "Pump Boys and Dinettes," and various Words and Music performances._ ****Popular Reads**** ❋ Derby man has the kind of voice that turns heads — and chairs ❋ Socializing while sober: how some Wichitans are cultivating alcohol-free communities ❋ As a small creative business closes, the owner mourns❋ Painting through it: Autumn Noire on 20 years of making art❋ How a guy from Wichita resurrected 'Dawn of the Dead'❋ Bygone Friends University museum housed curious collections ## Support Kansas arts writing The SHOUT is a Wichita-based independent newsroom focused on artists living and working in Kansas. We're partly supported by the generosity of our readers, and every dollar we receive goes directly into the pocket of a contributing writer, editor, or photographer. Click here to support our work with a tax-deductible donation**.** Yes! I want to support the SHOUT

_The following announcement is based on information from the Kansas Arts Network._ The Kansas Arts Network has launched a request for proposals for a community host for the 2027-2028 Kansas Arts Network Annual Conferences. The deadline to submit a proposal is November 19, and the organization's goal is to announce the next community before the end of the year. KANCon host community RFP. Direct questions and submissions to kansasartsnetwork@gmail.com. For more about the Kansas Arts Network and KANCon, visit their website. Jesse Koza, an opera director and the cultural arts administrator for the city of Wichita, speaks during one of his two sessions at the 2026 Kansas Arts Network Conference. (City of Wichita/Courtesy) * * * _**Announcements** are submissions from arts and cultural organizations and community members. They are published at the discretion of SHOUT editors and may be lightly edited. Send press releases and other announcements to __emily@shoutwichita.com_ _._ ****Popular Reads**** ❋ Derby man has the kind of voice that turns heads — and chairs ❋ Socializing while sober: how some Wichitans are cultivating alcohol-free communities ❋ As a small creative business closes, the owner mourns❋ Painting through it: Autumn Noire on 20 years of making art❋ How a guy from Wichita resurrected 'Dawn of the Dead'❋ Bygone Friends University museum housed curious collections ## Support Kansas arts writing The SHOUT is a Wichita-based independent newsroom focused on artists living and working in Kansas. We're partly supported by the generosity of our readers, and every dollar we receive goes directly into the pocket of a contributing writer, editor, or photographer. Click here to support our work with a tax-deductible donation**.** Yes! I want to support the SHOUT

Singer April May Webb doesn't mince words. The latest album from Sounds of April and Randall, the project she leads with her husband, trumpeter Randall Haywood, examines the tension between the realities of life (both positive and negative) and the falsity of social media and influencer culture. The title and chorus of one song bluntly declare "Everybody Ain't Gonna Like You" with an unmistakable note of triumph. So, when Webb describes why she left Newton, Kansas, in the brief prelude to "Cottonwood Tree" — a song she wrote while visiting her hometown — she tells it like it is: "There's an old familiar story," she sings in a natural but always controlled, slightly breathy but unfailingly clear voice, "about a girl who knew/ that her dreams would not come true/ if she stayed in her neighborhood." For Webb — who, after leaving Newton, studied with pianist Mulgrew Miller (the Duke Ellington Orchestra, Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, Tony Williams) at William Paterson University's jazz studies program — coming home isn't a chance to wonder about roads not taken or indulge in fond nostalgia. She knows why she had to leave and why her return will be "only for a little while." The place where you grew up can nourish you long after you've left it, if you're lucky. A former home, or, as Webb puts it, "the place where she had been," can be a place for rest and rejuvenation, as it is in "Cottonwood Tree," which blends polyrhythmic hand percussion with a sunny, simple bass hook and multi-layered, Bobby McFerrin-style harmonies. But a hometown visit can also offer the space and spare time necessary to get some work done. The cottonwood tree that inspired the song sits in her parents' backyard. And the cover photo of "Dishes Ain't Clean," depicting Webb and Haywood sitting in a kitchen filled with dirty dishes, was shot by Webb's mother in the family home. (While the dishes are real, the dirt is digital.) For Webb, the mess of creation is just as important as the inspiration. Sometimes, it can even serve as the creative spark. April May Webb's mother took the cover photo for "Dishes Ain't Clean" in her kitchen in Newton, Kansas. (Courtesy) On the title track, Webb sees the messiness of her house as tangential to the more serious problem: the disparity between her real state of being and the false self she presents to the world. Over a fat, swinging bass line punctuated by a thick, nodding drumbeat (the rhythm section consists of Webb's brothers, Jacob and Nathan), Webb sings, stretching syllables in the time-honored jazz manner while keeping her soulful phrasing intact: "I ain't got it all together/ like I claim it ought to be/ because the dishes ain't clean, my life ain't really what it seems." Haywood, in addition to his tidily evocative muted trumpet accents, also contributes a capable rap verse, adding to the track's hip hop edge. ## Our free email newsletter is like having a friend who __always__ knows what's happening Get the scoop on the Kansas arts & culture scene: events, news, artist opportunities, and more. Free, weekly & worth your while. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. Webb also deals with the disconnect between inner space and outer appearance on the cabaret number "The Sunken Place," which revolves around walking upright bass and Webb's slinky blue notes. "If from the outside looking in/ you'd never know this trance I'm in," she sings, as strings, arranged and played by Gabe Valle, bloom behind her, turning a smoky nightclub number into a quasi-ironic show tune, like a less cartoonish, more grounded take on Bjork's "It's Oh So Quiet." The slick yet vulnerable "The Way Life Used to Be," effectively repeats the same trick, putting a modern COVID-era spin on Tin Pan Alley's old paeans to vanished yesteryear. Trumpeter Randall Haywood joined the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra at age 15 and earned his master's degree at Juilliard. Vocalist April May Webb won the 2024 Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition. The married couple, who record and perform as Sounds of April and Randall, met at a New Jersey jam session. (Courtesy) Haywood mainly confines himself to brief, colorful lines and short solos, usually played in punchy, Randy Brecker fashion, but gets to cut loose on the abstract "Life's Continuum," in which he accompanies Webb's wordless melismatic vocals in a slithery, technically impressive duet. Though "He Fell in Love" neatly tells the story of the couple's meeting and courtship in soul-pop form, it's the intuitive grace, creative spark and deep trust on display in "Life's Continuum" that captures the strength of their connection. Webb may get what she needs from hometown visits while pursuing her art in the big city, but it's clear where her heart really lies. * * * ** _Reed Jackson_** lives, works and buys records in Kansas City. He is the managing editor of the Spectrum Culture website and has written for Aquarium Drunkard, Spin, Still Alive!, Revolver, and several now-defunct publications. ch.reed.jackson@gmail.com ****Popular Reads**** ❋ Derby man has the kind of voice that turns heads — and chairs ❋ Socializing while sober: how some Wichitans are cultivating alcohol-free communities ❋ As a small creative business closes, the owner mourns❋ Painting through it: Autumn Noire on 20 years of making art❋ How a guy from Wichita resurrected 'Dawn of the Dead'❋ Bygone Friends University museum housed curious collections ## Support Kansas arts writing The SHOUT is a Wichita-based independent newsroom focused on artists living and working in Kansas. We're partly supported by the generosity of our readers, and every dollar we receive goes directly into the pocket of a contributing writer, editor, or photographer. Click here to support our work with a tax-deductible donation**.** Yes! I want to support the SHOUT

From 1984 to 1991, Raymond “Skip” Morgan animated characters for five TV shows with Disney Television Animation including “Duck Tales,” “Chip ’N Dale Rescue Rangers,” “Adventures of the Gummi Bears,” “The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh,” and, my personal favorite, “TaleSpin.” as director of character animation from 1991 until his retirement in 2007, Morgan oversaw licensing for action figures, games, and other Disney merchandise. Skip Morgan may well be the most nationally distinguished alumnus of the Butler Community College art program. In addition to Skip, two more Morgan brothers graduated from Butler’s art program: Gale “Nip” Morgan, an animator with Warner Bros. who worked notably on “Batman: The Animated Series,” and James “Tuck” Morgan, also a Disney character animator who was largely responsible for creating the Disney Babies. Works by Raymond “Skip” Morgan: "Smurf House," mixed two-dimensional media. and __"__ Adorable Horrible Stickers," mixed two-dimensional media. (Jessy Clonts/The SHOUT) James “Tuck” Morgan, "Disney Babies," sculpture resin maquette. (Jessy Clonts/The SHOUT) Five resin sculpture maquettes and nearly a dozen illustrated works on paper by the Morgan brothers, many used as official Disney mockups with handwritten notes and lines for sign-offs on them, are currently on loan from the Coutts Museum of Art to the Butler Community College Alumni Exhibit, on view through October 26 at the Erman B. White Gallery of Art at Butler’s El Dorado campus, some 30 miles northeast of Wichita. From left: Maura Bruenger, "Fleur-de-lis-Set," glass; Claire Davidson, "Mycelium," oil on canvas. (Jessy Clonts/The SHOUT) Nineteen Butler alumni dating back as far as the 1980’s who are emerging, mid-career, and established artists display more than 50 works under the umbrella of their alma mater in this exhibition. Among media and studio practices represented are ceramics, glass, painting, printmaking, and textiles. Brenda Vargas, "Dreamer’s POV," mixed media collage. (Jessy Clonts/The SHOUT) Annie Lawrence, "Domestic Bliss," oil and pastel on canvas. (Jessy Clonts/The SHOUT) Perhaps most touching are the many personal stories on display of time spent as students within the art department (“the journey oil painting took me on; from hatred for the medium to soul mate-level love,” writes painter Annie "Moose" Lawrence). Tributes to the gallery’s founding director, Lynn Havel, recently retired instructor John Oehm, and current art director Valerie Haring (who “helped create an environment where genuine creative energy could flourish,” states printmaker Jack Baumgartner), paint a picture of faculty who both nurture and challenge their students. In effect, these works represent snapshots of where the artists currently are in their artistic journeys since their time as community college students. Lori Santos, "Honoring Kincentric Belonging," mixed-media and eco-prints installation. (Jessy Clonts/The SHOUT) The E. B. White Gallery is located within the fine arts facility, frequently called the “700 Building” in reference to its address on campus. The gallery itself is a cavernous rectangle, close to 2,000 square feet — or about the size of a three-bedroom house — which lends abundant open space for the multimedia exhibition. It incorporates stands for ceramics and glass and a brightly colored wood, fabric, and eco-print-on-paper installation by Wichita State professor Lori Santos that occupies a full corner from floor to ceiling. Jake Jacobson, "Teapot," "White Mug: Lee," and "White Mug: Ron," stoneware and underglaze. (Jessy Clonts/The SHOUT) A ceramic teapot and two-mug set by the late Jake Jacobson, on loan from local patrons and collectors Lee and Ron Starkel, embody the generous spirits for whom the pieces are named. The mugs are actually titled “White Mug: Lee” and “White Mug: Ron,” featuring ceramic nuts and bolts affixing handles to vessels and intentionally made chips in each rim. Relationships bind us together and fill us. Long-term relationships, done well, can temper and make us stronger separately, and stronger still, as a set. Jake Jacobson, "Teapot" detail. (Jessy Clonts/The SHOUT) The teapot appears to have ceramic welded seams around its conjoined handle and spout. It is retrofitted onto a front caster wheel with curved, bolted legs, sparking the idea that each of us are imperfect works in progress, connected by the human tension of fragility and strength. Kelsie Doty, "Kansas Widowmaker," secondhand textiles and thread. (Jessy Clonts/The SHOUT) Kelsie Doty was not sure where her curiosity about art and design would lead, she shares in her artist statement, but credits Butler’s faculty for giving her the “space and scaffolding to find out.” Her fabric panel titled “Kansas Widowmaker _”_ depicts a grain elevator stitched in a gradient of indigo recycled fabric strips, skillfully implying shadow and light on a cream and pale-yellow turnstile background known as the Kansas Troubles quilt pattern. Now an Assistant Professor of Fashion Studies at Kansas State University, Doty’s use of the historic pattern is a proud and distinctive display of her homeland. The panel appears to be a quaint depiction of a common scene in rural Kansas, but the object label shares a tragic story of how the death of Doty’s grandfather as a young man at this grain elevator forever altered the trajectory of her family, forcing her widowed grandmother to run a ranch and raise three young sons on her own. Suddenly the quaint, bucolic scene feels stark and sinister, a reminder that tomorrow is never guaranteed. Jack Baumgartner, "The Fourth Vision of Zechariah," oil on white oak panel. (Jessy Clonts/The SHOUT) Jack Baumgartner, "The Fourth Vision of Zechariah" detail. (Jessy Clonts/The SHOUT) Jack Baumgartner is a mid-career painter and printmaker whose work is heavily rooted in theological symbolism. Though his oil painting “The Fourth Vision of Zechariah,” depicting a scene from the Old Testament in painstaking detail of Renaissance-style influence is striking, it is his small black and white wood engraving of a laborer whose face is obscured by a large straw hat that catches my eye. Jack Baumgartner, "The Stone Hefter," wood engraving. (Jessy Clonts/The SHOUT) “The Stone Hefter” depicts a mustachioed man hunched over by the weight of a large boulder in his arms. Surrounding him is imagery from nature and industry: a turtle, a crow, and a sledgehammer, that symbolize the virtue of slow and steady hard work. It took a deep dive on Baumgartner’s website for me to learn that the Roman numerals three and five in opposing corners of the print represent the core Christian doctrines of the Trinity and the five wounds of the stigmata. As someone who was raised outside of the Christian faith, I view its imagery as powerful tools for storytelling and education, but from the standpoint of a simple, non-denominational observer. Savanna Nichols, "Bed Rot," mixed-media. (Jessy Clonts/The SHOUT) Emerging artist Savanna Nichols captures a snapshot of contemporary existential dread in both composition and title in the mixed-media work “Bed Ro _t,”_ also a self-care term for spending all day resting in bed while awake to escape stress or recharge from burnout. An austerely dressed human figure sits rigidly upright on the edge of a small twin bed, hands flexed, nearly gripping the pink unpatterned bedspread, and feet flat on the bare floor as though in anxious waiting. In place of its human head, a large pill bug, or “roly-poly,” tiny champion decomposer of the natural world, sits curled atop the figure’s shoulders, nearly touching the claustrophobically low, angled ceiling. The room’s only adornment is a set of blue curtains, slightly open, on the window at the foot of the bed. This figure is clearly not achieving the relaxation that the title demands. Savanna Nichols, "I am Becoming Who I want to Be," mixed media. (Jessy Clonts/The SHOUT) It is fascinating to see how the foundational education that Butler provided these alumni has informed their current practices. Over and over, I read artist statements that many attribute the discovery or rediscovery of the creative self to the guidance received, relationships formed, and confidence gained at this esteemed, nearly-century-old institution . Lexi Gruenwald pithily sums up the drive to take a chance in the realm of visual arts and pursue an art degree at Butler: “I knew only that I couldn’t spend the rest of my days curating a secret sticky note doodle gallery in an empty cabinet at the bank.” Lexi Gruenwald, "Dexter Amphora," stoneware, cone 6 oxidation, underglaze, underglaze sgraffito, and terra gig. (Jessy Clonts/The SHOUT) Installation views of the alumni exhibition in the Erman B. White Gallery at Butler Community College. (Elizabeth Moore/Erman B. White Gallery of Art) ## The Details **Butler Community College Alumni Exhibit** October 1-26, 2026 at the Erman B. White Art Gallery of Art at Butler Community College, 901 S. Haverhill Road., 700 Building, in El Dorado, Kansas The Erman B. White Art Gallery of Art is open 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Friday. Admission is free, and the facility is accessible to people with physical disabilities. Learn more about current and upcoming exhibitions on the Erman B. White Art Gallery of Art Facebook page and website. * * * _Jessy Clonts Day is a writer, roller skater, and mother. After living ten years in the American South and Southwest, she and her spouse returned to Kansas to raise their family, where the sunsets are otherworldly and the arts community is alive and well._ ****Popular Reads**** ❋ Derby man has the kind of voice that turns heads — and chairs ❋ Socializing while sober: how some Wichitans are cultivating alcohol-free communities ❋ As a small creative business closes, the owner mourns❋ Painting through it: Autumn Noire on 20 years of making art❋ How a guy from Wichita resurrected 'Dawn of the Dead'❋ Bygone Friends University museum housed curious collections ## Support Kansas arts writing The SHOUT is a Wichita-based independent newsroom focused on artists living and working in Kansas. We're partly supported by the generosity of our readers, and every dollar we receive goes directly into the pocket of a contributing writer, editor, or photographer. Click here to support our work with a tax-deductible donation**.** Yes! I want to support the SHOUT

_The following announcement is based on information provided by the Wichita Arts Council._ This year the Art Council will give out 11 awards to celebrate the full spectrum Wichita's creative community—from a high school musician and emerging artists to educators, advocates, philanthropists, organizations, and artists whose careers have enriched our community for decades. ### Youth Performing Arts Award **Aaliyah Venegas** Southeast High School senior and violinist Aaliyah Venegas has been carving a path for herself since she was an eighth grader in the All-City Honor Orchestra. Since then, she has served as concertmaster, performed in the KMEA All-State Orchestra, mentored younger musicians, and become an ambassador for music education throughout USD 259. Her dedication may best be summed up by her mother's recollection that Aaliyah sometimes practiced until she fell asleep with her violin beside her. A $500 scholarship accompanies this award. ### Emerging Visual Artist Award **Trisha Coates** WSU Master of Fine Arts alum Trisha Coates is already gaining national attention for ceramic relief sculptures that occupy the space between painting and sculpture. Look closely: Among her richly layered flowers and imagery, you might discover a key, a turtle shell, or another unexpected treasure. Her work has appeared at venues across the country, including the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, while she continues teaching and inspiring emerging ceramic artists here at home. ### Emerging Performing Artist Award — Non-Musical **Essex Terrel** After spending more than 20 years incarcerated for an act of violence committed at age 19, rap and spoken-word artist Essex Terrel found in music and poetry a way to confront his past and reshape his life. Today, as both a performer and violence interrupter, he uses storytelling to encourage dialogue, healing, and understanding. A regular performer with Ponder.This., Essex demonstrates the extraordinary capacity of art to transform lived experience into meaningful connection. ### Arts Educator Award **Johnna Faith Stoffregen** For more than three decades, Johnna Faith Stoffregen has been a visual arts educator, mentor, and leader. Her career has included teaching in Augusta and Andover, mentoring more than 10 future art educators, leading professional development, and sharing arts-integration strategies with educators across Kansas. She has also taken students and travelers to experience art and culture around the world. ### Arts Organization Award **Envision** When Envision Arts Gallery opened in 2022, it became the first U.S. gallery created by and for artists and audiences who are blind, visually impaired, or otherwise disabled. In 2025 alone, it exhibited 281 artists in 14 exhibitions, welcomed more than 1,500 visitors, and paid more than $5,000 directly to artists. ### Special Project Award **Exploration Place Adventure Playscape** The new Adventure Playscape at Exploration Place invites little ones to explore Sunflower Meadow, older children and teenagers to test themselves on towering structures such as the Treetop Climber, and families to move, imagine, eat, and play together. ### Arts Advocate Award **Walter Girton** Through Ponder.This., founded in 2010 with the mission of “Uniting Cultures Through the Arts,” Walter Girton has brought spoken word and poetry into museums, schools, libraries, military communities, parks, coffee shops, and neighborhood gathering places. His work includes an ongoing partnership with the Wichita Art Museum and, in 2026, creation of ARTBEAT Underground for the Arts Council to connect younger and more diverse artists with opportunities, services, and grants. ### Lifetime Achievement in Visual Arts Award **Kathleen Shanahan (Inaugural Recipient)** Kathleen Shanahan's Her recent Wichita Art Museum solo exhibition, "Now and Then: From the Studio of Kathleen Shanahan," brought together work spanning the 1970s through 2025. Shanahan is still an active practicing artist represented by Reuben Saunders Gallery in Wichita and Viridian Artists in New York. ### Lifetime Achievement in Music — Burton Pell Award **Robin Macy and Ken White** For decades, Robin Macy and Ken White have built lives around music. Robin, a founding member of the original Dixie Chicks, and Ken, an accomplished multi-instrumentalist and former executive director of the International Bluegrass Music Association, are also the caretakers of Bartlett Arboretum, where they have hosted music for more than two decades. Their 2024 album, "Truth," reflects two artists who continue to write, record, perform, and collaborate. ### Gordon W. Evans Art Leadership Award **Stacee Olden** Stacee Olden is recognized for her leadership in bringing the restoration of Wichita's historic Orpheum Theatre to completion. Its reopening in 2026, celebrated with a sold-out performance by John Legend, marked an extraordinary new chapter in the Orpheum's history. ### “Hall of Fame” Arts Award **Caesar and Michelle Naftzger** For more than 30 years, the Naftzger Fund has encouraged and supported young musicians, while the family's philanthropy has strengthened performing and visual arts throughout the community. In 2026, the Naftzgers committed $500,000 toward The Independent School's Fine Arts Theatre renovation and continue to sponsor the Naftzger Family Regional Creatives Exhibition Series at the Wichita Art Museum in partnership with Harvester Arts. * * * _**Announcements** are submissions from arts and cultural organizations and community members. They are published at the discretion of SHOUT editors and may be lightly edited. Send press releases and other announcements to __emily@shoutwichita.com_ _._ ****Popular Reads**** ❋ Derby man has the kind of voice that turns heads — and chairs ❋ Socializing while sober: how some Wichitans are cultivating alcohol-free communities ❋ As a small creative business closes, the owner mourns❋ Painting through it: Autumn Noire on 20 years of making art❋ How a guy from Wichita resurrected 'Dawn of the Dead'❋ Bygone Friends University museum housed curious collections ## Support Kansas arts writing The SHOUT is a Wichita-based independent newsroom focused on artists living and working in Kansas. We're partly supported by the generosity of our readers, and every dollar we receive goes directly into the pocket of a contributing writer, editor, or photographer. Click here to support our work with a tax-deductible donation**.** Yes! I want to support the SHOUT

Charlie Maxton might have chosen another song to include in a new compilation dedicated to the post-punk scene in Kansas. But the music from that time is literally fragile. Maxton has the masters to several recordings by The Blivets, the band of his youth. They were captured on a specific kind of reel-to-reel tape that’s so notorious for falling apart that there’s a name for the condition: sticky shed syndrome. But he had a cassette recording of another track, “Willie Wheelchair,” which takes its title from the self-applied on-air nickname of William Heatwole, a KFDI-AM radio disc jockey whom Maxton worked with briefly. The song was originally released on The Blivets’ 1989 cassette “Margaret.” KFDI-AM radio disc jockey William Heatwole, aka Willie Wheelchair, inspired a Blivets song selected for the "No Choice But Action" compilation album. (Charlie Maxton/Courtesy) Maxton unearthed "Willie Wheelchair” for the project “No Choice but Action: The Kansas Postpunk Revolution,” a book by Wichita State University English professors Francis X. Connor and Darren DeFrain. The book, published by the University Press of Kansas, was released September 29 alongside a companion compilation album released by the Kansas City-based record collective Black Site. Two reunion concerts celebrating the release are scheduled for later this month, The Embarrassed Men, Freedy Johnson, and The Blivets perform October 16 at Barleycorn’s in Wichita. The following night, The Embarrassed Men, Get Smart!, Truck Stop Love and Other Geese perform at The Bottleneck in Lawrence. The Embarrassed Men are the remnants of the seminal Kansas post-punk group The Embarrassment, the exact kind of you-should-know-more-about-them band that DeFrain and Connor sought to capture in their book. The Embarrassment were perhaps the closest to “making it,” but hardly the only Kansas band from that era to gain notoriety and capture regional and national attention. Many scenes emerged in the immediate aftermath of the punk revolution, often around college towns like Lawrence. Another nearly famous act, Get Smart!, called Lawrence home, and Wichita-based The Embarrassment played many of their shows there. The momentum bubbled over into Wichita and Kansas City, Mo., too. DeFrain, originally from Utah, was familiar with the punk scene around his hometown college. After his academic career brought him to Wichita State, he fell into an eight-year-long research project with Connor that culminated in the book. As the book neared completion, he and Connor realized they were also the de facto caretakers of a treasure trove of unreleased or rarely heard songs, given that they had direct access to musicians in possession of the original recordings. They started collecting tracks and helped assemble what would become the soundtrack to their work. There was a bit of a race-against-time element involved: Not only are physical copies of these recordings falling apart, but an 18-year-old who started his first band in 1978 is now 66 years old. The front and back of the companion album feature images of the bands during their post-punk heyday. (Courtesy) “No Choice but Action: Kansas Postpunk 1978-1994" contains 24 songs from 24 different Kansas bands of the era. It’s mostly punk-oriented, but not even the musicians agree about how to categorize their sounds. The bands provided the songs to Connor and DeFrain in whatever format they had, and from whatever moment in their career spoke to them. The Embarrassment’s contribution, “Wellsville,” was captured on a Panasonic tape recorder. By contrast, the Moving Van Gogh’s song “Machines in the Garden” was professionally recorded for an EP the band never released. Wichita State graduate Lucas Gill remastered the hodgepodge into a cohesive document that DeFrain said is surprisingly strong considering the physical condition of the source material. Combined with the book, it’s a testament and love letter to a scene otherwise largely undocumented except through word-of-mouth. And some of those stranger-than-fiction stories are true. If there’s a singular moment of legend from the timeline in question, it may be when The Embarrassment were kicked out of their previous practice space because the home — where bassist Ron Klaus was living — was going to be demolished. They decided to play one more show there, and the concertgoers caused such destruction that it became a front-page story in The Wichita Eagle. Guitarist Bill Goffrier later memorialized the incident in a song for his post-Embarrassment band, Big Dipper. It was called, simply enough, “Ron Klaus Wrecked His House.” A recording from that night exists, but it was too degraded to be featured on the “No Choice But Action” album. On the recording, you can hear someone come on the PA system and ask people to stop lighting fires in the basement. Goffrier was a local hero to Maxton and his band, although The Embarrassment were through by the time The Blivets played their first show. The scene was still small then and mostly underground. Maxton and company played a lot of house shows, and at a list of small venues that no longer exist: The Spot on Douglas Avenue, Woody’s Backdoor near Central and Oliver, and the Coyote Club on North Broadway Street. They also played a lot at Kirby’s Beer Store, which still hosts live music. ## Our free email newsletter is like having a friend who __always__ knows what's happening Get the scoop on the Kansas arts & culture scene: events, news, artist opportunities, and more. Free, weekly & worth your while. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. The Blivets last played 13 years ago for a one-off reunion show at Kirby’s. Before that, Maxton estimated that it had been 20 years since they’d all been on stage together. There weren’t any hard feelings that prevented them from playing, or reuniting, Maxton said. Like a lot of bands from Kansas mentioned in the new book, they gained traction but never really broke through. “Touring out of Wichita, Kansas, was really hard, and we sort of realized that,” he said. He moved to San Francisco, then Portland, Oregon, where he’s been for more than two decades. DeFrain said the first draft of the book was 900 pages, and it’s been edited down to a more manageable size. That means it’s not a true compendium of the scene — there are more stories and more bands with stories worth telling. “We hope that someone has eight years (of research) in them for volume two,” he said. "No Choice But Action," published by the University Press of Kansas, hit shelves September 29 alongside a companion compilation album released by the Kansas City-based record collective Black Site. (Francis X. Connor and Darren DeFrain/Courtesy) For Maxton, who said he is thrilled to share the stage with The Embarrassed Men and Freedy Johnson, playing in a band was just something he and his friends did. They didn’t realize how important it all would feel 30 plus years later, and how reductive the national feelings towards music from “flyover country” would be. As “No Choice But Action” argues, Kansas had a thriving, influential scene that should have been bigger. “We didn’t realize that then, but we know that now,” Maxton said. ## The Details **“No Choice but Action: The Kansas Postpunk Revolution” by Francis X. Conner and Darren Defrain** 298 pages, $29.99 The book is available from University Press of Kansas and anywhere books are sold. You can find it in stock at many independent bookstores in Kansas. **“No Choice but Action: Kansas Postpunk 1978-1994"** Vinyl album ($40) and digital download (name your price) Purchase the album online, or find it at Wichita’s Spektrum Muzik, 811 W. Douglas Ave. In celebration of the release of the book and companion LP collection “No Choice But Action” about the Kansas post-punk scene, several bands featured in the new releases will reunite for special gigs — some performing for the first time in more than a decade. The gigs take place on back-to-back nights in Wichita and Lawrence: **The Embarrassed Men, The Blivets and Freedy Johnston** 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 16, at Barleycorn’s, 608 E. Douglas Ave. in Wichita **The Embarrassed Men, Truck Stop Love, Get Smart! and Other Geese** 6 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 17, at The Bottleneck, 727 New Hampshire St. in Lawrence * * * _**Kevin Kinder** never learned to play an instrument but has written about music for more than two decades just the same. He’s a freelance writer and journalism educator._ ****Popular Reads**** ❋ Derby man has the kind of voice that turns heads — and chairs ❋ Socializing while sober: how some Wichitans are cultivating alcohol-free communities ❋ As a small creative business closes, the owner mourns❋ Painting through it: Autumn Noire on 20 years of making art❋ How a guy from Wichita resurrected 'Dawn of the Dead'❋ Bygone Friends University museum housed curious collections ## Support Kansas arts writing The SHOUT is a Wichita-based independent newsroom focused on artists living and working in Kansas. We're partly supported by the generosity of our readers, and every dollar we receive goes directly into the pocket of a contributing writer, editor, or photographer. Click here to support our work with a tax-deductible donation**.** Yes! I want to support the SHOUT

Wichita theater stalwarts Tim and Karen Robu team up with their daughter Francie Robu to present the two-hander “Birds of North America,” which opens this year’s Plymouth Fine Arts Series at Plymouth Congregational Church. The play runs October 9-10. Karen Robu, a longtime Wichita actor and the senior minister at Plymouth, founded the arts series in 2016 along with former music director Howard Webb. She and Chris Shaw, the current music director, now collaborate. Robu noted in an email that the plays presented in prior years featured larger casts and professional actors. “But I read ‘Birds of North America’ a few years back and really liked how it examined family relationships while bringing in current issues like global warming. I thought it would be interesting to have father/daughter play father/daughter onstage.” Tim Robu noted that his work with Francie reminded him what he loves about his long tenure with Music Theatre Wichita: The young actors “attack each play with such enthusiasm and joy.” He and Francie have been on stage together, but “this is the first one where we have only each other to rely on,” he said in an email. “She has the talent and the youthful passion, and I’ll just add the part about being the father.” "Their family dynamic translates naturally to the stage,” Karen Robu said. “I love the funnier moments, especially when Tim’s character goes on a tangent about something to Francie’s character. Let’s just say her reactions are very believable.” “One of my favorite things about the show is that while Caitlyn and John disagree so strongly, you can understand where they are both coming from," Francie Robu said in an email. "It’s not about who is in the right. It can be hard to see things from someone else’s perspective when we are encompassed in our own struggle. It is fitting that this conflict takes place between a father and daughter, because this divide is most obvious within your own family." (Karen Robu/Courtesy) Plymouth Congregational holds three events in its annual arts series. An organ concert with Jan Kraybill takes place November 14. An art exhibition titled “Visualizing Palestine” opens on First Friday in April 2027 and runs through April 8. The show uses data and research to visually communicate Palestinian experiences. Plymouth’s annual Word & Note event, February 19­-21, 2027, will feature author, poet, and storyteller Kaitlin Curtice and Grammy-nominated conductor Beth Willer. ## The Details **Plymouth Congregational Church presents "Birds of North America"** 7 p.m. October 9-10, 2026, at Plymouth Congregational Church, 202 N Clifton Ave. in Wichita Tickets are $20, and they can be purchased at the door or online. Learn more and purchase tickets. * * * _**Anne Welsbacher** writes plays, fiction, and nonfiction. She is the Performing Arts Editor for this publication. _awelsbacher.com ****Popular Reads**** ❋ Derby man has the kind of voice that turns heads — and chairs ❋ Socializing while sober: how some Wichitans are cultivating alcohol-free communities ❋ As a small creative business closes, the owner mourns❋ Painting through it: Autumn Noire on 20 years of making art❋ How a guy from Wichita resurrected 'Dawn of the Dead'❋ Bygone Friends University museum housed curious collections ## Support Kansas arts writing The SHOUT is a Wichita-based independent newsroom focused on artists living and working in Kansas. We're partly supported by the generosity of our readers, and every dollar we receive goes directly into the pocket of a contributing writer, editor, or photographer. Click here to support our work with a tax-deductible donation**.** Yes! I want to support the SHOUT

The Wichita Public Library will celebrate Banned Books Week with readings, film screenings and educational activities focused on books that have been challenged or targeted for bans. “Really it’s just about celebrating the ability to freely express ourselves,” said David Garcia, communication specialist with the library. “One of the main things that Banned Books Week likes to highlight is just that intellectual freedom.” The annual event has been held nationwide since the 1980s. Wichita’s library is joining the American Library Association, Banned Books Week Coalition and other libraries across the nation. “I think it’s important for our community to rally around this, just because it’s critically important to have that freedom,” Garcia said. “One thing that we really care about at the Wichita Public Library is free and open access to information, and … we have seen that the number of challenges and attempts to ban books has been going up in recent years.” Here are some of this week’s events that will take place at the Advanced Learning Library, 711 W. Second St.: * **Zine Bash Kickoff party** , where people can learn how to make zines; Monday, 2-4:30 p.m. * **Media censorship discussion** , looking into the history of censorship across all forms of media; Wednesday, 6-7 p.m. * **Screening of “Animal Farm”** movie; Thursday, 3-4:30 p.m. * **Live reading and discussion of banned or challenged books** ; Saturday, 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. “Showing people the different types of books that are challenged, and … breaking that down and then again reaffirming that it’s a freedom worth protecting,” Garcia said. Garcia said 2026 has seen the second-highest number of challenged books recorded by the ALA. “At a time where literacy levels are low, there are bad-faith actors that want people to be uninformed or disinformed,” Garcia said. “It’s just important that we connect them to information, to reliable sources, to reliable books (and) information, but also to one another,” he said. More information about Banned Books Week is on the Wichita Public Library’s website. * * * _**Kami Steinle** is KMUW’s fall News Lab Intern. She is currently a junior at Wichita State University studying Studio Art with a concentration in photography and a minor in English. She is also the News Editor for The Sunflower, WSU’s independent student newspaper._ ****Popular Reads**** ❋ Derby man has the kind of voice that turns heads — and chairs ❋ Socializing while sober: how some Wichitans are cultivating alcohol-free communities ❋ As a small creative business closes, the owner mourns❋ Painting through it: Autumn Noire on 20 years of making art❋ How a guy from Wichita resurrected 'Dawn of the Dead'❋ Bygone Friends University museum housed curious collections ## Support Kansas arts writing The SHOUT is a Wichita-based independent newsroom focused on artists living and working in Kansas. We're partly supported by the generosity of our readers, and every dollar we receive goes directly into the pocket of a contributing writer, editor, or photographer. Click here to support our work with a tax-deductible donation**.** Yes! I want to support the SHOUT

ICTRep is pulling one over on us. The Wichita theater company sent out word that the two lead performers and one supporting actor in their current production were being replaced — about 10 days before the opening. Yet Anthony Larkin-Valdez, Chelsie Penner, and Abby Lowe are so confident, comfortable, and commanding in their roles that it seems like they had months to ponder and perfect them. “Gaslight,” indeed. In Steven Dietz’s 2023 adaptation of Patrick Hamilton’s 1939 psychological thriller, husband Jack (Larkin-Valdez) is both a doting and manipulative husband to Bella (Penner) in 1880s New York City. Jack Mannigham (Anthony Larkin-Valdez) toys with his young wife Bella (Chelsea Penner). (Julie Longhofer/ICTRep) One minute he scolds her like a bad puppy or petulant child. The next, he’s serenading her to prove his good intent. But a series of missing items and confusion, not to mention his nightly trips outside their posh mansion, make Bella question her sanity. Larkin-Valdez is appropriately suave and slimy as the narcissistic Jack, making an ass of himself more and more as the plot unfolds. My only suggestion would be to add some gray to his hair — with the plotline, he looks a bit young for the part. Penner puts her emotions at the forefront, figuratively asking the audience whether she is imagining all that’s happening or if it’s really occurring. Jack Manninham (Anthony Larkin-Valdez) learns that his maid Nancy (Abby Lowe) keeps a book of secrets. (Julie Longhofer/ICTRep) Although the scenes between the two of them are powerful, a favorite was the scene between Larkin-Valdez and Lowe, who plays suspicious and fun-loving maid Nancy. While interrogating each other, the two have a virtual tango that’s as much choreographed as it is directed. ## Our free email newsletter is like having a friend who __always__ knows what's happening Get the scoop on the Kansas arts & culture scene: events, news, artist opportunities, and more. Free, weekly & worth your while. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. Both advancing the plot and serving as a bit of comic relief is Linda McDonald in the “pants role” (female playing male) of Sgt. Rough. With oversized sideburns and looking somewhere between the Mad Hatter and Doctor Who, McDonald brings a Jane Lynch-esque delivery to the role, somehow making it equally lighthearted and mysterious. After all, she may be a figment of Bella’s imagination. Bella (Chelsie Penner) and Sergeant Rough (Linda McDonald) share a toast. (Julie Longhofer/ICTRep) Diane Tinker Hurst rounds out the cast (save for two small policeman roles) as a wise older maid, a bit of a security blanket for Bella. In his first directing role for ICTRep, James Earlywine shows solid work, orchestrating the tension and occasional bits of levity as well as undoubtedly getting his new cast members up to speed with rehearsals in overdrive. The vintage set, designed by artistic director Julie Longhofer and managing director Stan Longhofer, is a gorgeous and palatial multilevel setting, with a rear staircase and a cutaway to the closet, showing McDonald’s Sgt. Rough in some nice silent gags. It makes good use of the former New Zion Baptist Church sanctuary at The Oliver Place in ICTRep’s final production in the space. The moody, eerie "Gaslight" set was designed by the Longhofers. (Julie Longhofer/ICTRep) Stan Longhofer’s lighting design shows the titular gaslights being lit and fading, with even another beam on the third floor of the set’s house. Kirk Longhofer’s sound design adds to the drama without overpowering it, providing a bit of a soundtrack. Both combine for a perfect pre-Halloween spot on the theatrical calendar. Julie Longhofer’s costuming is beautiful, especially Bella’s gorgeous teal skirt. Times have changed since the original “Gaslight” play and its 1944 film version with Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer. Emotional and verbal abuse is now understood to be as destructive as physical abuse. “Gaslighting” was selected as the word of the year by the American Dialect Society in 2016 and is present in our society, even if the fancy effects of 1880s NYC aren’t. ## The Details **ICTRep presents “Gaslight”** October 2-11, 2006, at The Oliver Place, 2512 N. Oliver St. in Wichita Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays. Reserved tickets are $38 for adults, $33 for seniors and veterans, $25 under 30 years old, and $15 for students. Learn more and purchase tickets online. * * * _**David Burke** is a veteran of 35 years as an arts and entertainment writer, columnist, and editor for the Decatur (Illinois) Herald & Review, the Quad-CityTimes (Iowa/Illinois), and The Wichita Eagle._ ****Popular Reads**** ❋ Derby man has the kind of voice that turns heads — and chairs ❋ Socializing while sober: how some Wichitans are cultivating alcohol-free communities ❋ As a small creative business closes, the owner mourns❋ Painting through it: Autumn Noire on 20 years of making art❋ How a guy from Wichita resurrected 'Dawn of the Dead'❋ Bygone Friends University museum housed curious collections ## Support Kansas arts writing The SHOUT is a Wichita-based independent newsroom focused on artists living and working in Kansas. We're partly supported by the generosity of our readers, and every dollar we receive goes directly into the pocket of a contributing writer, editor, or photographer. Click here to support our work with a tax-deductible donation**.** Yes! I want to support the SHOUT

In the summer of 1958, a young Black man from Wichita, Kansas, named Charles McAfee walked into the Los Angeles office of celebrated African American architect Paul Revere Williams. Williams, who was the first Black member of the American Institute of Architects, had become the go-to architect for Hollywood’s elite while also designing public housing projects for the city. In many ways, he represented what a young McAfee aspired to be. But when Williams offered McAfee a job, the young architect turned it down. He wasn’t ready to trade Kansas for California, even if life in Los Angeles might be considerably easier than in Wichita, where attitudes toward people of color were still shaped by Jim Crow laws and the city’s proximity to the South. Partly, it was stubbornness; a family friend had told McAfee that no architecture firm in Wichita would hire a Black man. But it was also a keen sense of history. Four generations of McAfees had called Wichita home, and it was this lineage that persuaded the young architect that he shouldn’t abandon his hometown. He recalls thinking of his grandfather and great-grandfather, “When you think about what the hell they went through, I ain’t having no problem like they did.” Two of McAfee's Wichita projects: Bob Thurman Field and Calvary Baptist Church. (Kendra Cremin/The SHOUT) McAfee also saw opportunity. He believed in architecture’s potential to shape not just physical space but social attitudes, and he recognized its ability to help uplift his community. “He saw where he could help,” says Charyl McAfee-Duncan, McAfee’s youngest daughter, who followed her father and her older sister, Cheryl, into architecture and, eventually, the family firm. Even after he began to land commissions across the country, McAfee-Duncan says her father always came back to the city, “to try to move Wichita forward.” Photos and memorabilia in Charles McAfee's Wichita office capture memories from his long career, including time spent with close friend and fellow Kansan Gordan Parks. (Kendra Cremin/The SHOUT) Nearly 70 years later, McAfee still calls Wichita home. At 94 years old, he moves with the help of a walker, but his mind is sharp. He speaks animatedly about his friendship with the photographer Gordon Parks, about the European basketball and tennis tournaments he played in while in the Army, about the time when, at age 29, he met the renowned architect I.M. Pei. He maintains an office on East 21st Street and is at work on a book about his life and career. One gets the sense that he does not like to sit still. Renowned architect I. M. Pei and a young Charles McAfee. (McAfee3/Courtesy) Groundbreaking at the time but somewhat overlooked in recent history, McAfee’s work has received newfound appreciation over the past several years, both locally and nationally. The recognition has come in part from the threat of demolition — a pool house McAfee designed in 1969 was successfully saved — but also from efforts like the Getty Foundation’s Conserving Black Modernism initiative, a partnership with the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, which has put a spotlight on the work of Black architects across the country. The city of Wichita renamed McAdams Pool to honor its architect. During a celebration in June, Charles McAfee said it should also be named for his family, including his great-grandfather Jacob McAfee, who made a life in Kansas after he was wounded in the Civil War. (Kendra Cremin/The SHOUT)In June, the city of Wichita held an event in celebration of McAfee Pool's inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places. Pictured from left: Wichita District 1 council member Joseph Shepard, physician Val Brown Jr., former District 1 council member Brandon Johnson, Charles McAfee, and Angela Buckner, recreation superintendent for the city of Wichita. (Kendra Cremin/The SHOUT) At a time when the country is once again characterized by deep social and racial divisions, McAfee’s career is instructive. As an architect, he was deeply influenced by social movements and recognized the necessity of community organizing. He understood that political action was inseparable from the work of social progress. “(McAfee’s) work reflected the history, resilience, and aspirations of the people he served,” says Erica Smith Goetz, co-director of the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund. “His legacy is not only measured by the structures he created, but by the opportunities he created with those spaces.” As McAfee puts it, “I wasn’t an architect. I was an activist.” ## Our free email newsletter is like having a friend who __always__ knows what's happening Get the scoop on the Kansas arts & culture scene: events, news, artist opportunities, and more. Free, weekly & worth your while. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. Charles McAfee was born on Christmas Day in 1932 in Los Angeles. He spent his childhood in the McAdams neighborhood in northeast Wichita and attended the then-segregated L’Ouverture School, where in 7th grade he took his first drafting class. Val Brown, Jr., a Wichita physician and longtime friend of the McAfee family, says the young McAfee grew up drawing nonstop. “Charlie was designing homes in high school,” he says. “I don't think he got paid, but he was just drawing, designing homes.” After high school, McAfee attended the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. During his third year, he was drafted into the Army, which sent him to Germany. “There were only two things good about that,” McAfee says. One, McAfee was able to see firsthand much of the European architecture he had studied in his first two years of school. Two, as a Black man, he could play sports that he was barred from in certain parts of the U.S. “I played basketball and tennis all over Rome, London, Paris, every place,” he says. “I made the European All-Star basketball team.” Upon returning to the States and graduating with a degree in architecture, McAfee turned down job offers on both coasts to begin his career in Wichita. He bounced between several local firms. At each one, he found he was prohibited from attending client meetings because of the color of his skin. He went to his father to tell him he was rethinking his decision, that he was considering leaving Kansas after all. Charles McAfee's architectural drawing for the Eubanks project. (McAfee3/Courtesy) “He looked at me straight in the face and says, ‘Why are you not happy?’” McAfee recalls. “I said, ‘Daddy, I want to put my name on the door.’ My father said, ‘Let’s do it.’” With his father’s help, McAfee rented the upper floor of a two-story building in downtown Wichita and opened the firm that would become McAfee Architects, Engineers, and Planners. He had just one client, a couple, Roscoe and Sara Eubanks, friends of the McAfee family, who commissioned McAfee to design their “contemporary dream home.” Sited on a small, urban lot, McAfee used a solid wall along the street to provide privacy and a series of glass sliding doors and outdoor patios on the other three sides to create a spacious, light-filled interior. Clad almost entirely in vertical cedar siding, the house and garage appear from the street as two simple brown boxes. The Eubanks home was Charles McAfee's first solo project, and it demonstrates the design approach that would characterize much of his later work. Working within space and budget constraints, he created a house capable of accommodating both formal and casual family life. (McAfee3/Courtesy)The Eubanks family was the first client of Charles McAfee's Wichita architecture firm. The home he designed still stands at 1426 N. Madison St., not far from McAdams Park. (Kendra Cremin/The SHOUT) Archival and current views of the Eubanks Residence. (McAfee3/Courtesy and Kendra Cremin/The SHOUT) The design was not only decidedly modern but innovative — at least, so thought a 19-member jury convened by the federal Housing and Home Finance Agency, which selected the Eubanks Residence, alongside works by the likes of I.M. Pei, as one of 86 winners in a national housing design competition. “In about three months, I had projects from Maine to Texas,” McAfee says. He was 29 years old. The Brown House was a McAfee project conceived around family, landscape, and the Kansas environment. The site contained six other family structures built over generations, so McAfee approached the house as a place where children, grandchildren, relatives, and friends could gather. (McAfee3/Courtesy) Materially, the Brown house combines warm-toned board-formed concrete, rough-sawn cedar siding and bronze glass. Shed forms and orientation control natural light, while cedar and fir columns, beams, and decking bring warmth to the interiors. (McAfee3/Courtesy) The Brown House takes advantage of views toward a lake, cottonwood and elm trees, wheat fields and the Kansas sky. (McAfee3/Courtesy) Even as McAfee’s individual star was rising, his community was struggling. Like other cities across the country, Wichita was experiencing the disastrous effects of white flight. As areas of the city suffered disinvestment, a policy of urban renewal became its answer. Huge sections of the city were razed to make way for civic projects and new highway infrastructure. In McAdams, dozens of homes were bulldozed to make way for Interstate 135, aka the Canal Route. “When they decided to build the highway, they ran it straight through the Black neighborhood,” McAfee-Duncan says. Among the Canal Route’s casualties was McKinley Park, historically one of the few public green spaces Black people were permitted to use. In addition to altering the size and layout of the park, the city planned to demolish the swimming pool. “The swimming pool was the only place that black kids could swim,” says Brown Jr., the physician. As construction of I-135 got underway, McAfee saw an opportunity to play an active role in the future of the park. From the beginning, McAfee balanced the demands of his practice with the kinds of organizing that he saw as critical to achieving lasting change. He ran political campaigns for people like A. Price Woodard, who would become Wichita’s first Black mayor, and he frequently spoke out on racial issues. In the mid-1960s, as the use of racial covenants in property deeds came under scrutiny, McAfee testified in front of the Wichita city commission that it was their duty to be the city’s “conscience” and pass a “just and moral” fair housing law. “You’ve got to have the guts to do it,” he said in 1966. “You have to tell the young people here that they will have an opportunity.” McAfee-Duncan says her father has always been “a fighter.” “He was rough, he was tough, and he could cuss,” she says. When public life followed him home, and his daughters caught him on the local news, they knew it meant, _Uh oh, Daddy’s mad_. McAfee-Duncan says. But there was another side to their father, too. The architecture firm was a family affair, as were its successes. His daughters knew when “Daddy” won an award; their mother, Gloria, would buy them dresses for the occasion. McAfee remembers the excitement surrounding those moments: “It was what the occasion created,” he says. As McAfee’s practice grew, he began to take on projects of greater scale and visibility. His clients included prominent Black businesses, such as Jackson Mortuary on East 13th Street, as well as major civic institutions. He designed the Wichita Eagle-Beacon building on Douglas Avenue downtown and McKnight Art Center on the Wichita State University campus, expanding a portfolio that was increasingly visible across the city. The Wichita Eagle-Beacon building was created in 1971. Because enormous rolls of newsprint had to be stacked inside, the first floor was designed for a live load of 500 pounds per square foot, making it the strongest building ever built in Wichita. Board-formed concrete created the distinctive vertical facade while addressing structural and fire-code requirements. The building was torn down in 2017. (McAfee3/Courtesy) An addition to The Wichita Eagle building provided newsprint storage and mailroom distribution facilities, with a basement and two floors initially constructed with provisions for expansion to five floors. Two active railroad lines complicated construction, requiring the columns to be positioned so they would not interfere with the tracks. (McAfee3/Courtesy) Like most of his contemporaries, McAfee was a modernist. Begun in Europe with schools like the Bauhaus, the modernist movement preached minimalism and prized functionality, foregoing other architectural styles’ desire for ornamentation as part of a belief in design’s ability to serve everyday people, rather than only the wealthy. McAfee’s embrace of modernism is visible in much of his work, from the sharp angles and exposed concrete of McKnight Art Center to the simple geometries of the Jackson Mortuary building, where the spacing of the roof’s thin metal columns echoes perfectly the placement of the windows and the joints in the walkway. The Jackson Mortuary on East 13th Street was one of Charles McAfee's first major projects. (Kendra Cremin/The SHOUT) An archival photo of McKnight Art Center on the Wichita State University campus. (McAfee3/Courtesy) McKnight Art Center, summer 2026. The Joan Miró mosaic "Personnages Oiseaux" and an ADA-accessible entrance were later modifications to the building. (Kendra Cremin/The SHOUT) Views of McKnight Art Center's west building, which features an atrium partially lit by a massive skylight. Though McKnight's exterior is clad in red brick, the interior is all about the exposed concrete. (Kendra Cremin/The SHOUT) But McAfee was concerned with more than style. At McKinley Park — now McAdams Park — the community pushed the city to replace the park amenities that were being demolished, and McAfee was eventually awarded a contract to design a new pool. Charles McAfee's architectural drawing for the municipal swimming pool in what is now McAdams Park. (McAfee3/Courtesy) As a building type, public pools are usually utilitarian at best. But filtered through McAfee’s modernist lens, the McAdams Pool became a monument to Black joy. Soaring light posts gave it a presence within the larger park, and waffle-like concrete shade canopies provided comfortable places to lounge or spectate. The heavy use of concrete, while practical, also communicated a sense of permanence — a rejection of the harms of urban renewal. When in 2023 he was asked to reflect on the pool’s design, McAfee said, “I used materials that were going to last forever, mostly concrete columns and brick walls that I knew couldn’t easily be destroyed.” The McAdam Pool's minimalist and sharp-edged concrete structures are true to McAfee's modernist practice. (McAfee3/Courtesy) A concern for what will endure is a throughline in McAfee’s career. He was an early advocate for modular housing as a way to mass produce high-quality homes at a price point that people in his community could afford. At two different times in his career, McAfee invested in the idea, believing that, in employing low-skilled workers, housing could be both an end and a means to community empowerment. Both times, the ventures failed after just a few years, but a number of houses still stand throughout the city, testaments to an idea that was perhaps ahead of its time. Charles McAfee's sketch of the Volk homes. His designed standardized modular components rigid enough for mass repetition but flexible enough to accommodate different family types and household sizes. Bedrooms, kitchens, and bathrooms were highly efficient, while living and dining spaces could expand or contract relative to one another depending on a family's needs. McAfee received both an AIA Design Award and HUD Design Award for the design and subsequently established Volks Homes to manufacture the modular components. (McAfee3/Courtesy) Volks Homes anticipated today's container houses, tiny homes, and modular construction. McAfee's 1973 system preceded the widespread adoption of modular construction by roughly two decades. He still believes modular housing is the best way to build affordable homes — and the answer to the housing crisis. (McAfee3/Courtesy) A worker assembles the frame for one of the Volk homes. (McAfee3/Courtesy) Where McAfee has indisputably succeeded is in building a legacy that will outlive him. Two of McAfee’s three daughters eventually joined McAfee Architects, Engineers, and Planners, today known as McAfee3. McAfee-Duncan and her older sister, Cheryl McAfee, run the practice from Dallas and Atlanta, respectively, though they maintain strong ties to Wichita. Charyl, Charles, and Cheryl McAfee stand in front of a celebratory banner at the McAfee Pool celebration on June 6. (Kendra Cremin/The SHOUT) When the city of Wichita announced it was considering closing McAdams Pool — which would have, for the second time, taken away a critical and beloved neighborhood resource — McAfee’s daughters were instrumental in helping preserve it. Working with community members and preservationists, they received a $150,000 grant from the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund to rehabilitate the pool. In 2023, it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places and renamed McAfee Pool in the architect’s honor. In 2017, Charles McAfee joined neighborhood children and community activists to protest the closure of McAdams Pool, which he designed. (McAfee3/Courtesy)Val Brown Jr. and Charles McAfee sit side-by-side during a program at McAfee Pool on June 6. (Kendra Cremin/The SHOUT) It is fitting that, of all the buildings that bear McAfee’s imprint, it is a public pool in the Wichita neighborhood where McAfee grew up that carries his name. The pool became a symbol of McAfee’s belief in civic infrastructure that is inclusive and built to last, its concrete and brick protecting a place to gather and celebrate the joys of everyday life. A desire to advocate for his community and create lasting change has fueled Charles McAfee's long career. (Kendra Cremin/The SHOUT) “What makes Charles McAfee significant in the lineage of Black American architects is that he used architecture as a means of strengthening communities,” says Goetz, of the Action Fund. “His work demonstrates how architecture can be a tool for civic leadership and social change.” When asked when he felt the most satisfaction in his decades-long career, McAfee does not point to a particular project or moment, though honors such as the Whitney M. Young, Jr. Award from the American Institute of Architects, which he was awarded in 1999, mean a great deal to him. “It was a continuous joy,” he says. “It was a joy that I can now spread.” * * * _**Timothy A. Schuler** is an award-winning writer and design critic whose work focuses on the intersection of the built and natural environments. He is a contributing writer at Places Journal and an editor at Landscape Architecture Magazine. His writing also regularly appears in Metropolis, Bloomberg CityLab, The Architect’s Newspaper, and FLUX Hawaiʻi, among other outlets. His essay, _“The Middle of Everywhere,”_about the largest remaining expanse of tallgrass prairie in North America, was included on a list of the most notable science and nature writing in The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2020. He lives in Manhattan, Kansas._ _**Blandine Siffray** is currently a third-year landscape architecture student at Kansas State University who is interested in how stories and narratives shape the world we design around us._ _**Editor's Note** : Thanks to McAfee3 for sharing archival images and detailed notes about Charles McAfee's Wichita projects, which informed many of the captions for the historic photos in this story._ ****Popular Reads**** ❋ Derby man has the kind of voice that turns heads — and chairs ❋ Socializing while sober: how some Wichitans are cultivating alcohol-free communities ❋ As a small creative business closes, the owner mourns❋ Painting through it: Autumn Noire on 20 years of making art❋ How a guy from Wichita resurrected 'Dawn of the Dead'❋ Bygone Friends University museum housed curious collections ## Support Kansas arts writing The SHOUT is a Wichita-based independent newsroom focused on artists living and working in Kansas. We're partly supported by the generosity of our readers, and every dollar we receive goes directly into the pocket of a contributing writer, editor, or photographer. Click here to support our work with a tax-deductible donation**.** Yes! I want to support the SHOUT

Ruth Gogel's photographs at The Clayworks' One Door North Gallery range from the monochromatic depiction of a glass office building’s façade, which morphs into waves of reflection, to an image of a tree that dissolves into a pool of blues and gold, to a study of the rigid chrome body of a motorcycle that bends into striped lines like a zebra. The show includes entirely abstract photographs of illegible objects displayed alongside more traditional photographs of nature and other scenes. Overall, Gogel’s work reveals miraculous, brief moments of wonder that we often overlook. Gogel transitioned to her focus on photography after a long career in science. Born in Toledo, Ohio, in 1927, she earned her Bachelor of Science degree in 1949 and master's in biology in 1950 from the University of Toledo. She worked for many years in Atlanta for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as an expert in mosquitoes and insect-collection techniques. Following her retirement in 1988, she applied her careful observation skills to photography and enjoyed a career as an artist for over 30 years, until her death in 2022. Ruth Gogel, “Untitled,” undated, black and white photograph, 11 by 14 inches. (Antonio Ramirez/The SHOUT) Enamored with the joy and gift of life, Gogel sought to register and share the transient moments discovered through diligent attentiveness. Take, for example, the aforementioned black and white photograph of an office building’s glass façade that dissolves the reflection of the town. The windowpanes provide structure and a grid of rectangles. However, those rectangles lose their sense of stability as the silhouettes of objects from the town become unrecognizable. Gogel uses the glass exterior as an additional recording device that captures the illusory aspect of reality. Ruth Gogel, “Untitled,” undated, photograph. (Antonio Ramirez/The SHOUT) In another photograph, a tree’s trunk splits the color image vertically as its branches and leaves radiate out into the rest of the composition. Here, Gogel utilizes water and its ripples to alter the image of the tree. Patches of blue sky appear between the yellow leaves. By indirectly photographing the tree through its reflection, the resulting image exists as a landscape and an abstraction, demonstrating Gogel’s interest in natural and creative patterns. Works by Ruth Gogel: “Bowled Over,” undated, color photograph, 20 by 14 inches; “Pageantry,” undated, color photograph, 14 by 11 inches. (Antonio Ramirez/The SHOUT) Ruth Gogel, “Going to the Fair”, 2011, color photograph, 14 by inches. (Antonio Ramirez/The SHOUT) To further push her abstractions, Gogel would take photos through glass bricks, making her subject matter entirely unidentifiable. In “Going to the Fair,” Gogel divides the composition into three main fields of color: red and black at the top, white and blue in the middle, and a pale, yellowish green at the bottom. These sections spill into one another without definite boundaries. By completely obscuring the real-world subject, Gogel creates a sense of mystery, prompting us to wonder what lies behind the image. Ruth Gogel, “My Zebra,” 1999, color analog photograph, 14 by 11 inches. (Antonio Ramirez/The SHOUT) The play between recognition and abstraction, which Gogel employs to promote closer inspection, is also evident in “My Zebra.” Here, we see a close-up color image of a motorcycle’s polished chrome surface as its reflection bends the lines from the nearby mechanical body. The motorcycle’s red body paint and engine offer enough detail and identifying clues for us to identify what we see reflected on the chrome body panel on the right side. The work also captures how Gogel approached life with curiosity and wonder. Ruth Gogel, “Untitled,” undated, black and white photograph, 11 by 14 inches. (Antonio Ramirez/The SHOUT) Among the more directly observational photographs is a black and white image of a cloud as it passes by the side of a mountain or forest edge. A small tree without leaves stands in the foreground on the right side of the frame, and behind this tree is a figure looking at the cloud. The fog conceals the depth and sense of scale of the terrain. Although Gogel does not attempt to abstract the landscape image, the cloud serves as a metaphorical barrier between what is seen and hidden — a trope common throughout Gogel’s practice. Ruth Gogel, "Untitled," undated, black and white photograph, 11 by 14 inches. (Antonio Ramirez/The SHOUT) Another black and white image features a circular object in motion. Presumably a ring, I imagine Gogel slowing her camera’s shutter speed as the ring began to fall, capturing the motion blur not perceivable to the human eye. Aside from a soft shadow underneath the ring, the rest of the image is empty, offering no other clues about the object or its setting. It is the only work that depicts movement. View of the north and east walls with jewelry display of Ruth Gogel’s exhibition at One Door North Gallery at The Clayworks in McPherson. (Antonio Ramirez/The SHOUT) “Fractions of Wonder” brings Gogel’s works together in a dense installation. The exhibition combines vibrant color abstractions, landscapes, and everything in between across the gallery’s wooden walls, rather than separating the photographs into categories. This arrangement allows visitors to make comparisons among the various images and reflect on Gogel’s approach to photography. Viewers may notice the reoccurring patterns of waves and lines and how flowers and ripples of water appear in multiple images. Gogel described her mission as capturing aesthetic moments and inviting viewers to experience an unusual visual journey. Outside of her work as a scientist and photographer, Gogel was also dedicated to philanthropy. She encouraged emerging artists, served in the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Atlanta, participated in integrated groups during the Civil Rights Movement, and volunteered for civic and humanitarian causes. Her photographs alone do not represent Gogel’s entire contribution to society, but her curiosity is preserved through her photos. These works open up small windows of discovery that can enchant our daily lives. Installation views of “Fractions of Wonder” by Ruth Gogel at One Door North Gallery at The Clayworks in McPherson. (Antonio Ramirez/The SHOUT) ## The Details **“Fractions of Wonder” by Ruth Goge** September-October 2026, One Door North Gallery at The Clayworks, 107 N. Main St. in McPherson, Kansas The gallery is open 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 10 a.m.-6:30 p.m. on Thursdays. Admission is free, and the facility is accessible to people with physical disabilities. Learn more about current and upcoming exhibitions on the One Door North Gallery website. * * * _**Antonio Ramirez** is a Wichita State alumnus with a multidisciplinary background in art history, cybersecurity, and entrepreneurship. He is a curator, writer, and aspiring art dealer guided by his curiosity to explore the connections between art, culture, and innovation. _ ****Popular Reads**** ❋ Derby man has the kind of voice that turns heads — and chairs ❋ Socializing while sober: how some Wichitans are cultivating alcohol-free communities ❋ As a small creative business closes, the owner mourns❋ Painting through it: Autumn Noire on 20 years of making art❋ How a guy from Wichita resurrected 'Dawn of the Dead'❋ Bygone Friends University museum housed curious collections ## Support Kansas arts writing The SHOUT is a Wichita-based independent newsroom focused on artists living and working in Kansas. We're partly supported by the generosity of our readers, and every dollar we receive goes directly into the pocket of a contributing writer, editor, or photographer. Click here to support our work with a tax-deductible donation**.** Yes! I want to support the SHOUT

Reading is something I have always taken for granted. My mother insists I came out of the womb talking, and she swears by age 1, I was reading full sentences. While I appreciate the accolades, I’m doubting that’s true, but I don’t remember learning to read ever being a problem. But for millions of Americans, reading is not so easy. Challenges such as illiteracy or dyslexia silently plague the population, making it difficult for some to even apply for a job, much less possess the skills to build a career. So how many Americans are illiterate? The answer depends on how you define “illiterate.” The U.S. government generally measures literacy proficiency rather than simply labeling people illiterate. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 28% of U.S. adults ages 16 to 45 performed at Level 1 or below in literacy. That is one in four working-age adults. However, Level 1 does not mean all of these people are completely unable to read. It means that they have difficulty with relatively basic reading tasks. A person who scores below Level 1 is closer to what is commonly meant by functionally illiterate, meaning they have difficulty understanding sentences, finding a single piece of information in a short text or completing simple forms. An earlier NCES study estimated 8.4 million adults were below Level 1, with another 26.5 million at Level 1. And in Sedgwick County, one in five adults test at Level 1 literacy or below. Dyslexia is another story. Estimates vary because dyslexia exists on a spectrum and many people are never formally diagnosed. The best supported estimates for the United States suggest 5 to 10 percent of Americans have dyslexia, which translates into 20 to 35 million people. Interestingly, dyslexia does not mean someone is illiterate. Many people with dyslexia learn to read accurately, although they may read more slowly, have difficulty decoding unfamiliar words or continue to have spelling and writing difficulties throughout adulthood. ### Not enough help So, between illiteracy and dyslexia, reading issues affect a significant portion of the population. I learned more about this after recently visiting an event hosted by the Wichita Journalism Collaboration, a local coalition of 11 newsrooms and community groups, of which The Active Age is a member. WJC has recently launched “Beyond Words: Wichita’s Reading Crisis,” an initiative to raise awareness about the challenges faced by adults who struggle with reading. It is especially noteworthy that this initiative focuses on adults, because while there are services for children who struggle to read in school, adults who are unable to read often fall through the cracks. “Our goal with this initiative is to, one, educate the community that this issue of illiteracy in adults exists, and, two, we would love that through this initiative solutions would be created,” said Kathy Lefler, project manager for WJC. “There are just not enough programs to help them.” During the kickoff event last month, staff from the Phillips Fundamental Learning Center — a nonprofit organization in Wichita dedicated to helping children with dyslexia and reading challenges through structured literacy instruction, educator training and specialized student programs — and the Wichita Public Library met with an audience of individuals interested in learning more about this issue. The team led simulations that allowed participants to experience the challenges faced by individuals with dyslexia, dysgraphia (a neurological learning disability that impairs a person’s ability to write legibly, spell consistently and express thoughts on paper) and other learning challenges. ### Humbling experience I was able to attend this event and participate in the simulations. It was a humbling eye-opener for me. Jill Hodge, a PFLC Ambassador and Facilitator, led four exercises that immersed the audience in the struggles an illiterate or dyslexic person faces. In the first exercise, participants took a spelling test dictated on an audio recording that shows the difficulty a dyslexic person has in discriminating between sounds in words. There were 10 words given. Because I could not understand the audio recording, I did not get one of them right. In another example demonstrating dysgraphia, a visual-motor task simulated the difficulty in writing letters when you don’t have kinesthetic-motor memory for the sequence of movements needed to form each letter. The task was to draw a star by looking at your covered hand in the reflection of a mirror and after trying for several minutes, I could not do it. My star was just a series of squiggly lines. More failure. A final exercise led by Steven Kelly of the Wichita Public Library simulated an adult trying to fill out an online job application when they could not read the words (for the sake of this exercise, the words were printed in Dutch). I left most of the 10 questions blank because I could not figure out what information was needed – I could not understand the questions because I could not read them. ### Words of despair Many words of despair went through my head as I attempted these exercises, and many feelings came to the surface. I felt embarrassed that I could not complete the tasks at hand. I felt frustrated that I could not decipher what felt like “codes” to get the answers right. And I could imagine how an illiterate adult might feel angry, discouraged and depressed over the inability to communicate in a world where reading and writing are absolute necessities – and for me, reading and writing make my living. And even if I didn’t have a career in journalism, this simulation brought to mind the many ways it would be nearly impossible to function in society if you can’t read, spell or write. Reading is in everything we do, from reading a street sign to paying our bills to enjoying a great newspaper read like The Active Age! If you cannot do these things, you often come across as low intelligence when in fact, that is not the case. You just haven’t been given the tools to succeed. “Illiteracy affects every part of a person’s life,” said Hodge. “That’s why early intervention is huge.” And for children, more resources are available through the school system and other programs. But for adults, the options are extremely limited. “There is a real dearth of resources in Wichita,” said Kelly. “That’s what this collaborative is trying to get across. It’s a big, wicked problem. And it’s not just in Wichita, it’s national in scope.” Hodge says that when the right tools are given, however, adults can still overcome dyslexia and illiteracy. “It’s never too late to learn,” she said. For more information on Beyond Words: Wichita’s Reading Crisis, contact Kathy Lefler at 316-712-4960 or klefler@kansasleadershipcenter.org. For information on the Phillips Fundamental Learning Center, which offers simulations like those that were hosted at the kickoff event at its offices in east Wichita, contact Jill Hodge at 316-684-7323 or jhodge@funlearn.org. * * * _Reach**Sherry Howerton** at sgaylegraham@hotmail.com_. ****Popular Reads**** ❋ Derby man has the kind of voice that turns heads — and chairs ❋ Socializing while sober: how some Wichitans are cultivating alcohol-free communities ❋ As a small creative business closes, the owner mourns❋ Painting through it: Autumn Noire on 20 years of making art❋ How a guy from Wichita resurrected 'Dawn of the Dead'❋ Bygone Friends University museum housed curious collections ## Support Kansas arts writing The SHOUT is a Wichita-based independent newsroom focused on artists living and working in Kansas. We're partly supported by the generosity of our readers, and every dollar we receive goes directly into the pocket of a contributing writer, editor, or photographer. Click here to support our work with a tax-deductible donation**.** Yes! I want to support the SHOUT

_The following announcement is based on a press release from ArtsConnect._ TOPEKA — On Friday, October 16, ArtsConnect will host the annual Arty Awards. The event will be held at the recently renovated Heritage Hall, just west of 17th Street & Topeka Blvd. Tickets are $60 for the general public and $30 for artists. This event supports the ongoing work of ArtsConnect to support the arts in all disciplines all across Topeka. Find more information about the 2024 Arty Awards at https://artstopeka.org/artyawards. “This is an opportunity to celebrate what artists bring that goes far beyond the work itself — their ideas, experiences, relationships, curiosity, and ability to help us see ourselves and one another in new ways,” said Sarah Fizell, ArtsConnect’s executive director. “This year’s honorees remind us that art is fundamentally about human connection and that artists play an essential role in shaping the identity, culture, and vitality of our community.” The celebration is expected to include an official unveiling of a commissioned portrait of the late Glenda Taylor, namesake of the Glenda Taylor Visual Arts Award. Created by Topeka painter and muralist Zandra Sneed-Dawkins, Taylor’s portrait will debut during the Arty Awards. Taylor was a celebrated ceramic artist and former professor and chair of the Washburn University Art Department. Sneed-Dawkins was the 2025 recipient of the Glenda Taylor Visual Arts Award. The portrait is part of ArtsConnect’s Untold Stories Project, an initiative designed to preserve and share the stories of people whose vision, work and leadership have shaped Topeka’s arts community. The portrait unveiling will be followed later this fall by the premiere of a locally produced documentary exploring Taylor’s life, artistic work, leadership and lasting impact on the community. Premiere details will be announced by ArtsConnect in coming weeks. This year’s Arty Awards theme is “The Art of Being Human.” It asks guests to consider what creativity, empathy, and authentic connection through artistic expression mean, at a time when rapidly evolving technologies are reshaping how people work, communicate and create. “The theme is both a celebration and a call to action,” said Sarah Fizell, ArtsConnect executive director. “The Art of Being Human reminds us not to lose sight of the experiences and relationships that give creativity its meaning. Technology can’t replace the human stories, courage and connection at the heart of art. Glenda Taylor’s legacy, and the dedicated work of this year’s honorees, shows us what is possible when artists use their humanity to strengthen a community.” The annual Arty Awards are Topeka’s premier celebration of the arts and a key fundraiser supporting ArtsConnect’s work. The event recognizes artists, organizations, educators and advocates whose contributions make Topeka and Shawnee County more vibrant, creative and connected. “These honorees reflect the depth of Topeka’s creativity,” Fizell said. “Their work gives people places to gather, invites us to see our community from different perspectives, and helps ensure the arts remain accessible to everyone. We’re proud to recognize them.” ### 2026 honorees **Liz Stratton Arts Champion Honoree: Sunflower Music Festival** The Sunflower Music Festival is being recognized for its longstanding commitment to creating meaningful, high-quality musical experiences accessible to the entire community. As it approaches its 40th anniversary in 2027, the festival continues to promote the arts in Topeka by bringing world-class musicians to the community and creating opportunities for people of all ages and backgrounds to experience live music. Through a partnership with the Topeka Housing Authority, the festival welcomes younger generations to its performances while its musicians work directly with children to share their artistry. The Blanche Bryden Institute extends this commitment to education by bringing high school and collegiate students together with professional musicians for a hands-on clinic. **Community Arts Award Honoree: J’Quory Guest** J’Quory Guest is being recognized for his ability to use art, education, and community engagement to create meaningful experiences that connect with people across generations. As an artist, writer, educator, and youth advocate, he moves between music, poetry, public speaking, classrooms, studios, churches, and community spaces, using his artistic talents to teach, encourage, advocate, and inspire. **Literary Arts Award Honoree: Anamarie Davis-Wilkins** Anamarie Davis-Wilkins is being recognized for her commitment to using writing and poetry to create connection, reflection, and understanding. A Topeka-based poet and novelist, she has shared her work through books, anthologies, open-mic events, and local literary organizations, addressing personal experience and larger questions of identity, community, and society. She is involved with groups such as Speak Easy Poets, National Federation of State Poetry Societies, Black Authors Community, the Aaron Douglas Art Fair, and serves as the vice president of the Sunflower Poetry Society of Kansas. **Suki Blakely Performing Arts Award Honoree: Compass Point @ Dirty Girl Adventures** Compass Point is being recognized for its commitment to live music and for creating a welcoming space where artists and audiences can connect. By consistently giving musicians opportunities to perform and the community chances to experience live music, Compass Point has become an important part of Topeka’s cultural landscape. **Glenda Taylor Visual Arts Award Honoree: Stephanie Muñoz-O’Neil** Stephanie Muñoz-O’Neil is being recognized for her work as a visual artist, having created a body of work that reflects both exceptional craftsmanship and a deep connection to place, memory, and community. A longtime Topeka artist, her richly layered work draws on personal history, local landscapes, architecture, and cultural identity, transforming familiar imagery into pieces that invite viewers to look more closely and see their surroundings in new ways. **People’s Choice Award: Tonix & Tunes** Tonix & Tunes is being recognized for its commitment to creating a lively, inclusive home for music, performance, and community in Topeka. From live concerts and opportunities for emerging performers to DJ nights, dancing, and special events, Tonix & Tunes consistently creates reasons for people to gather around music and shared experiences. Its programming embraces a wide range of sounds and audiences, while also providing artists with an important space to perform, connect with new listeners, and build their presence. * * * _**Announcements** are submissions from arts and cultural organizations and community members. They are published at the discretion of SHOUT editors and may be lightly edited. Send press releases and other announcements to __emily@shoutwichita.com_ _._ ****Popular Reads**** ❋ Derby man has the kind of voice that turns heads — and chairs ❋ Socializing while sober: how some Wichitans are cultivating alcohol-free communities ❋ As a small creative business closes, the owner mourns❋ Painting through it: Autumn Noire on 20 years of making art❋ How a guy from Wichita resurrected 'Dawn of the Dead'❋ Bygone Friends University museum housed curious collections ## Support Kansas arts writing The SHOUT is a Wichita-based independent newsroom focused on artists living and working in Kansas. We're partly supported by the generosity of our readers, and every dollar we receive goes directly into the pocket of a contributing writer, editor, or photographer. Click here to support our work with a tax-deductible donation**.** Yes! I want to support the SHOUT

_The following announcement is based on a press release from the Gilcrease Museum._ TULSA, Oklahoma — After more than five years of anticipation, the Gilcrease Museum has announced it will reopen to the public in March 2027, welcoming visitors into a reimagined museum experience. Closed since July 4, 2021, for the demolition of its original facility and construction of a new museum, Gilcrease is undergoing a $140.9 million transformation that represents a new chapter for a major Oklahoma cultural institutions. More than 75 years after Thomas Gilcrease, a citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, established a museum in Tulsa to tell the stories of the Americas, the reopening further integrates the museum, the Helmerich Center for American Research, the historic Thomas Gilcrease House, and its surrounding natural landscape as a single destination for research, learning and public engagement. The Gilcrease Museum, the Helmerich Center for American Research, and the historic Thomas Gilcrease House are all located in northwest Tulsa on 460 acres of natural landscape connected by 14 miles of trails for hiking and biking. (Gilcrease Museum/Courtesy) The new Gilcrease will invite visitors to discover one of the nation’s most interdisciplinary collections, with more than 300,000 items spanning 12,000 years of history across the Western Hemisphere. The Gilcrease collection encompasses Anglo-American art and history, including colonial portraiture and art of the American West; Indigenous art and history, from ancestral cultural materials to contemporary Native art; and colonial Latin American materials, represented across paintings and sculptures, prints and drawings, photographs, manuscripts and archives, rare books and material culture. “Gilcrease has long been a place where art, history and people come together to tell the many interconnected stories of the Americas," said Brian Lee Whisenhunt, executive director and CEO of Gilcrease. "The reopening of Gilcrease marks an extraordinary moment not only for Tulsa, but for the entire nation. It is a celebration of the rich, diverse and complex stories of the Americas and an invitation for people from across the country to experience, explore and connect with the history that has shaped us all." Digital renderings of the new Gilcrease Museum galleries. (Gilcrease Museum/Courtesy) Nestled within Tulsa’s scenic Osage Hills, the museum features 14 permanent collection galleries designed for self-guided exploration, presenting interconnected stories through multiple cultural lenses, including Indigenous nations, the American West, and Latin America. Beyond the galleries, visitors can explore 460 acres of natural landscape connected by 14 miles of trails for hiking and biking. “The opening of Gilcrease will soon be a reality because Tulsans believed in the future of this incredible asset and worked to make this transformation possible," said Monroe Nichols, the mayor of Tulsa. "The new Gilcrease will be a place where people from Tulsa, Oklahoma and around the world can come together to better understand our history and honor the sovereign land we stand on today." For nearly two decades, The University of Tulsa has stewarded Gilcrease. As a research university, faculty have made discoveries from within the archives and have partnered with scholars from around the globe by facilitating access to one-of-a-kind documents, objects, works of art and other items. Additional details about opening weekend festivities, exhibitions and visitor experiences will be announced in the coming months. For more information, to purchase a membership or to receive reopening updates, visit gilcrease.org. * * * _**Announcements** are submissions from arts and cultural organizations and community members. They are published at the discretion of SHOUT editors and may be lightly edited. Send press releases and other announcements to __emily@shoutwichita.com_ _._ ****Popular Reads**** ❋ Derby man has the kind of voice that turns heads — and chairs ❋ Socializing while sober: how some Wichitans are cultivating alcohol-free communities ❋ As a small creative business closes, the owner mourns❋ Painting through it: Autumn Noire on 20 years of making art❋ How a guy from Wichita resurrected 'Dawn of the Dead'❋ Bygone Friends University museum housed curious collections ## Support Kansas arts writing The SHOUT is a Wichita-based independent newsroom focused on artists living and working in Kansas. We're partly supported by the generosity of our readers, and every dollar we receive goes directly into the pocket of a contributing writer, editor, or photographer. Click here to support our work with a tax-deductible donation**.** Yes! I want to support the SHOUT

A story that played out late this summer could have been lifted from just about any comic book in existence: a crime, an investigation, a coalition of unlikely heroes, an appeal to human nature, and then, justice. The fact that the story itself is _about_ comic books is almost stranger than fiction. In late July, Daniel Pewewardy took a box of comic books left over from a recent convention to the Lazer City Vintage booth at the Paramount Marketplace in East Wichita. Pewewardy’s microshop, Lazer City Comics, occupies a spinner rack and several shelves and boxes in the booth, which he shares with his brother and a cousin. The booth at Paramount Marketplace has comics organized in bins and racks, as well as other pop cultural paraphernalia like cassettes and plushies. (Jason Crile/The SHOUT) Pewewardy, a librarian at the Wichita Public Library, a comedian and a community activist, is a longtime reader of comics and graphic novels. He purchased enough collections and single issues during and after the COVID-19 pandemic that he decided to resell them on online platforms as a side hustle. About a year ago, he said, a financial analysis convinced him to move toward local options for selling and marketing, including Facebook Marketplace and his brick-and-mortar location at Paramount. “I'm just selling comics and I don't have any expectations” for financial success, Pewewardy said. “It has just been like something to do, some extra income. It's something I enjoy.” Pewewardy browses the comic bins at Wizard's Alley in downtown Wichita. (Sarah Green/The SHOUT) He visited his booth one day in early August to drop off some issues for sale when he noticed that one of his higher-priced issues was missing. At first, he wasn’t concerned. Shoppers often pick up items from one booth and move them to another. The antique mall has a layaway program where they set aside merchandise for buyers to pay over time. He asked the business’ sales clerks to keep an eye out for it. A week or so later, he noticed that there were as many as 10 missing comic books, some in protective plastic cases known as “slabs,” which, all together, he had valued at almost $1,100. None of those books had been placed on layaway, nor could they be found in other locations. That’s when he called for help. ### ‘Instant bridge to friendship’ Wichita has at least three shops dedicated to selling comics — four, including Pewewardy’s Lazer City Comics booth, which he jokingly describes as “Wichita’s fourth-best comic book shop.” “We’re all friends,” said Don Woodworth, a comic book lover who, along with his wife, recently bought Wichita’s venerable Prairie Dog Comics store on West Maple. “We see each other at conventions. We see each other everywhere.” Don Woodworth, owner of Prairie Dog Comics, at the store on September 19. (Sarah Green/The SHOUT)Don Woodworth and Garth Holder discuss comics genres at Prairie Dog Comics on September 19. Holder, of Kingman, has been shopping at the store since he was a kid. (Sarah Green/The SHOUT) Bam Hunter, owner of Wizard’s Alley downtown, agreed. “The shops aren’t enemies, because this is getting to be a thing that’s smaller and smaller,” he said. “And, really, we all love the same thing. There’s no reason to be hateful or mean to someone else.” Woodworth and Hunter describe comic enthusiasts in Wichita as multi-generational, spanning socio-economic classes and descriptors. Customers at their stores range from kids to people in their 60s and 70s. “I have retired old ladies that come in once a week and buy books. I have guys and professionals out at Koch that buy books, and all of them have something they are into,” Hunter said. “Lately, it's been kind of cool to see that we've got late teens and young adults that are picking up comic books because I think there's a movement out there for physical media.” Damon Montroy and his daughter Claire, of Wichita, look through merchandise from Prairie Dog Comics for Batman Day. The event is an annual celebration of the character with new releases and special events. (Sarah Green/The SHOUT) New comic books are released on Wednesdays. Both Wizard’s Alley and Prairie Dog have regular customers who stop by to pick up the latest copies of their favorite series, and, over time, have formed their own communities. “We have people that come in on Wednesdays and just hang out and talk,” Woodworth said. “They buy their comics. They meet their friends, they sit around and talk about comics, or whatever. It’s kind of a gathering place. And over time, they get to know each other, and start asking, _Hey, did you see the game last night_?” It’s a community where you can talk about whatever’s on your mind.” “There’s almost an instant bridge to friendship sometimes when you discover somebody else is into comic books,” Hunter said. ## Our free email newsletter is like having a friend who __always__ knows what's happening Get the scoop on the Kansas arts & culture scene: events, news, artist opportunities, and more. Free, weekly & worth your while. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. ### A network responds It was this constellation of fellow comic book lovers to whom Pewewardy first appealed for help. Once he determined that his missing items had been stolen, he made a social media post with names and images of the missing merchandise. “If you see any of these books, figures, or slabs pop up locally — Marketplace, shops, shows, reseller groups, etc. — shoot us a message,” he wrote. Comic book enthusiasts are often highly organized and detailed. They know the exact differences between volume numbers and issue numbers, about artists and publishing companies in addition to the story lines of the series they follow. They may be what Woodworth described as “completists” who will buy multiple versions of the same issue, all with different covers. They know what’s rare and what’s common. So the uniqueness of the collection of stolen items alerted both Woodworth and Hunter, who sent direct messages to Pewewardy on Facebook. A seller had recently approached Woodworth about buying the collection and declined his offer for all but two issues. The seller then contacted Hunter and emailed him photos of the remaining items missing from the list. Bam Hunter, owner of Wizard's Alley, in the shop on September 19, or as comic enthusiasts might know it, Batman Day. (Sarah Green/The SHOUT) In addition to being the owner of Wizard's Alley, Bam Hunter also draws covers for comic books including the two shown here: "The Trials of Percy" and "Tales from the Exul." (Bam Hunter/Courtesy) The combination of security footage from Prairie Dog and the email from Wizard’s Alley yielded enough details for Pewewardy to identify the person of interest. And from there he went to work, using social media and friends of friends to track down the person and others who were close to them. Pewewardy reached out to one of those close contacts and asked that they return the stolen items that hadn’t been resold to Wizard’s Alley – a neutral location – and for a sum of money to compensate his small business for the items that he knew had already been resold. Otherwise, he said, he was prepared to make a public call-out post that would identify them. By 5 p.m. the next day, he had the money and the comic books, along with several volumes he hadn’t yet realized were missing from his booth. “I got my shit back!” Pewewardy posted on Facebook. Daniel Pewewardy holds an issue of a Transformers #1 comic book that has twice been recovered from theft. (Sarah Green/The SHOUT) ### Human nature wins the day Pewewardy declined to identify the people involved in the theft for this story. “When it was over, I sent them a message and said, _We’re done here_.” he said. “I didn’t identify them. I got financial restitution, I got a bunch of comic books back.” Pewewardy said that spending time in rural communities in Oklahoma as a young person gave him insight into de-escalating difficult situations. In those areas, he said, it’s more common to address issues first with confidential conversations before involving law enforcement. He said he has used social networks to find packages taken from porches and other stolen items, including his car, using that approach. “I just think you can get a lot more done in DMs than you can in public posts and comment sections,” he said. “But being a victim sucks. Beating these guys up isn’t going to get your stuff back, and it’s not going to make you feel better. Getting retribution against them isn’t worth it if there’s some kind of moral cost.” For his part, Pewewardy is now a little more cautious about what he shares about his inventory online. He said he had also worked with Paramount Marketplace to step up security measures in and around his booth. Paramount staff did not respond to repeated requests for an interview for this story. Daniel Pewewardy (right) discusses Batman comics with Wizard’s Alley owners Lora and Bam Hunter during Batman Day on September 19. The event is an annual celebration of the character with new releases and special events. (Sarah Green/The SHOUT) Bam Hunter, who is retired from a career in the military and in law enforcement, helped Pewewardy facilitate the return of the stolen property. He has also experienced theft and loss that has influenced his own store’s security measures. Yet he continues to believe that people will do the right thing, if they’re given a chance. “If most people, even people who are probably less than savory, are treated with respect and communication, most of them are kind and will reply the same way,” he said. “And sometimes if people are given an out of a bad situation in a peaceful way, they'll take it. I like to still have some faith in humanity, even the bad ones.” * * * _**Sarah Green** is a writer, editor and consultant based in Wichita. She is the Managing Director of Prairie Meadowlark, a Co-Creator of Rock Paper Feather Press, and the Curator of the Perennial Zine Collection._ ****Popular Reads**** ❋ Derby man has the kind of voice that turns heads — and chairs ❋ Socializing while sober: how some Wichitans are cultivating alcohol-free communities ❋ As a small creative business closes, the owner mourns❋ Painting through it: Autumn Noire on 20 years of making art❋ How a guy from Wichita resurrected 'Dawn of the Dead'❋ Bygone Friends University museum housed curious collections ## Support Kansas arts writing The SHOUT is a Wichita-based independent newsroom focused on artists living and working in Kansas. We're partly supported by the generosity of our readers, and every dollar we receive goes directly into the pocket of a contributing writer, editor, or photographer. Click here to support our work with a tax-deductible donation**.** Yes! I want to support the SHOUT

The Sternberg Museum of Natural History in Hays will close this year. Fort Hays State University President Tisa Mason announced the decision in a statement late Monday, confirming earlier reports that the university can no longer afford to operate the museum. She said it will close December 18. Mason told the Hays City Commission during a meeting last week that the school faces a $2.4 million cut in state funding and needs to eliminate any programs that do not directly benefit students. “The key question that we are asking is, ‘If we stopped this activity tomorrow, would students be less likely to enroll, persist, graduate, or secure successful employment, and can we back that up with data?'" Mason said. Mason said in the statement that the Sternberg "has not been financially stable for some time." It spends about $1.3 million a year and generates about $470,000 in revenue from visitors, memberships grants and sales, she said. The building that houses the museum also has about $20 million in deferred maintenance. "Over the past decade, the annual subsidy averaged about $835,000," she said in the statement. "For a university that is already the leanest operator among the Kansas Board of Regents universities, that is not a gap we can close on our own." Mason said closing the museum will save the university about $850,000 — about a third of the current budget gap and "the largest single piece of our solution." She said Fort Hays State plans about $1 million in other cuts across the university and still needs to find about $550,000 to close the budget gap. "When you cut into your leanest, most efficient state university, you are not trimming excess. You are cutting into muscle," Mason said. According to a study by the Docking Institute of Public Affairs, Fort Hays State has an annual impact of more than $240 million on its region, and is the No. 2 employer in Ellis County. Mason said closing the Sternberg was a difficult decision, and pointed to state lawmakers as the cause. "The frustration in our community right now is real, and it is understandable. However, its true source is not a disagreement about whether Sternberg belongs in our academic mission. It does; that was never in question," Mason said. "The real source is a funding model that has asked more of FHSU than it asks of its peers, and a set of legislative decisions that made $2.4 million in cuts, with more likely on the way." Supporters of the Sternberg have urged the university and local officials to reconsider. Jessica Lamb, who works on the museum's animal care team, told city leaders last week that she worries what will happen to about 100 live animals housed in the Sternberg. "Right now, we are terrified. We are heartbroken. We have cried nonstop with thinking about having to say goodbye to these animals, our babies, our families," Lamb said. "We are more than a building or a budget, we are a true living and breathing part of the community of Hays.” Some supporters said Fort Hays should eliminate athletic programs before closing the Sternberg. "I think athletics is a vital part of a university, but I'm not sure that a Division II campus of 4,000 people needs 15 competitive sports that have to be funded at all kinds of levels," said Cathy Van Doren, is a former director of development for Fort Hays State. The museum was established in 1902 and is named for Hays paleontologist George Sternberg. Its dome-shaped concrete building was constructed in the 1980s. The museum houses about 3 million specimens, including world-famous marine fossils from 80 million years ago. Mason said museum faculty and staff will remain on appointment for this year and will focus their work on reviewing the collections and deciding what should be retained for active research and teaching. The university plans to "work with appropriate organizations to ensure every specimen is handled responsibly and legally," she said. "This is not a decision I make lightly," Mason said. "The Sternberg Museum is woven into the identity of this university and this region." This story was first published by KMUW. It's shared here as part of The SHOUT's partnership with the Wichita Journalism Collaborative. * * * **_Suzanne Perez_** is a longtime journalist covering education and general news. Before coming to KMUW, she worked at The Wichita Eagle, where she covered schools and a variety of other topics. Suzanne grew up in North Carolina and earned a bachelor's degree in English from North Carolina State University. She moved to Wichita in 1990 and has two children. When not reporting, Suzanne enjoys reading, walking her dog, and obsessing over every new leaf on her houseplants. ****Popular Reads**** ❋ Derby man has the kind of voice that turns heads — and chairs ❋ Socializing while sober: how some Wichitans are cultivating alcohol-free communities ❋ As a small creative business closes, the owner mourns❋ Painting through it: Autumn Noire on 20 years of making art❋ How a guy from Wichita resurrected 'Dawn of the Dead'❋ Bygone Friends University museum housed curious collections ## Support Kansas arts writing The SHOUT is a Wichita-based independent newsroom focused on artists living and working in Kansas. We're partly supported by the generosity of our readers, and every dollar we receive goes directly into the pocket of a contributing writer, editor, or photographer. Click here to support our work with a tax-deductible donation**.** Yes! I want to support the SHOUT

In 2019, two Wichita State art students wanted to curate a provocative exhibition of work by young artists — the kind no local gallery would show. So Tim Fey moved the furniture out of his living and dining rooms, and he and Hugo Zelada-Romero installed “Explicit Content,” the first Straw House Initiative group show. “There’s always been that DIY, punk spirit about it,” Fey said. Elan Warren, "Rest 1," silkscreen on envelopes, each 12 by 9.5 inches each, and "Past and to come, seems best; things present, worse," silkscreen, acrylic, and oil on wood panel, 36 by 23 inches. (Antonio Ramirez/The SHOUT) Five years later, Fey and Zelada-Romero organized a second exhibition in the vacant Caldwell-Murdock building in downtown Wichita. After a week spent cleaning inches of dust and other particles from horizontal surfaces, they opened the show on the second floor, up a precarious flight of stairs. Some of the explicitly political works included Micala Gingrich-Gaylord’s critique of Somewhere Fest, Dale Small’s exploration of police kettling techniques, and Zelada-Romero’s Astroturf crop circles. ## Our free email newsletter is like having a friend who __always__ knows what's happening Get the scoop on the Kansas arts & culture scene: events, news, artist opportunities, and more. Free, weekly & worth your while. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. “That show made it feel more like a collective,” Fey said. “All the artists are in there, cleaning the space out, making decisions on how this whole thing should look.” Hugo Zelada-Romero, "A rose is a rose is a...," acrylic, photochemistry on raw canvas, 5.5 by 7 inches. (Antonio Ramirez/The SHOUT)Hugo Zelada-Romero, "How about I sleep a little longer and forget all this nonsense," acrylic, photochemistry on raw canvas, 5.5 by 7 inches. (Antonio Ramirez/The SHOUT)Installation view of works by Hugo Zelada-Romero. The third Straw House show just concluded in its most respectable location yet: Ink & Honey Studios, 637 S. Oliver St. in Wichita WSU student Isabella King and recent graduate Zelda McAfee opened the space last year. Fey admires the effort, and a startup student-led gallery “felt like the right fit for (Straw House).” The tiny gallery is located in a former insurance office in a small center just south of Jefferson Olivia D'Laine asked friends to share a bag of recently discarded trash, which the artist arranged into still lifes. Clockwise from top left: "Tim," "Maddie," "Abbey," archival inkjet prints, 18 by 24 inches. At right: Elan Warren, "Do you see the other side?," 3-layer silkscreen, 28 by 14 inches. (Antonio Ramirez/The SHOUT) For this show, Fey and Zelada-Romero wanted to collaborate with regional artists. Zelada-Romero, who is now based in Chicago, recommended Elan Warren, a student at the Kansas City Art Institute. After seeing Vincent Stemmler’s work at “Counterpublic,” a triennial, citywide exhibition in St. Louis, Fey invited him to contribute. Vincent Stemmler, "Doom Scroll (This was your life), video, 6 minutes 26 seconds. (Antonio Ramirez/The SHOUT) “It’s a way to build community with artists in the region,” Fey said. “I’m sure (Vincent) doesn’t think about Wichita much, and a lot of people in Wichita don’t think about St. Louis, either.” "Past and to come, seems best; things present, worse," silkscreen, acrylic, and oil on wood panel, 36 by 23 inches (Antonio Ramirez/The SHOUT)Elan Warren, "Rest 1," silkscreen on envelopes, each 12 by 9.5 inches each (Antonio Ramirez/The SHOUT) This exhibition skews dark. Most pieces reference environmental degradation and dystopia in general, including video works by Stemmler and Fey. Tim Fey's video installation "The histories and unending legacy of Minoru Yamasaki's modern structures," combines the demolition of the Pruitt-Igoe Housing Project with scenes of people running from the World Trade Center on 9/11, among other clips. Yamasaki designed both projects (cancrete blocks, video projection, 3 minutes 18 seconds). At right: Tim Fey, "All at arms reach," acetate, acrylic glass, wood, metal, light, 6 feet by 6 inches each. (Emily Christensen/The SHOUT) Fey plans to continue the exhibition series in some fashion, though he’s not yet sure when or where. “The cool thing about this show is you don't need to have it all figured out yet if you don't want to,” he said. “We can make things that are interesting and make things that are a bit experimental.” * * * _**Emily Christensen** is one of the co-founders of The SHOUT. She is a past fellow of the National Critics Institute at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center and a recipient of an Arts Writing Grant from The Andy Warhol Foundation. Send her a message: _ _emily@shoutwichita.com_ _._ ****Popular Reads**** ❋ Derby man has the kind of voice that turns heads — and chairs ❋ Socializing while sober: how some Wichitans are cultivating alcohol-free communities ❋ As a small creative business closes, the owner mourns❋ Painting through it: Autumn Noire on 20 years of making art❋ How a guy from Wichita resurrected 'Dawn of the Dead'❋ Bygone Friends University museum housed curious collections ## Support Kansas arts writing The SHOUT is a Wichita-based independent newsroom focused on artists living and working in Kansas. We're partly supported by the generosity of our readers, and every dollar we receive goes directly into the pocket of a contributing writer, editor, or photographer. Click here to support our work with a tax-deductible donation**.** Yes! I want to support the SHOUT

_The following announcement is based on a press release from the Wichita Art Museum._ New art acquisitions — more than 20 of which have never before been on view — will be included in the exhibition "Past & Present: Celebrating New Acquisitions and Collection Highlights at the Wichita Art Museum." These new artworks will be paired with WAM favorites that have been collected over the past 90 years. WAM is showing the new and old in its collection in an effort to celebrate American art in all its beauty, complexity, and diversity. See 65 paintings, sculptures, and textiles by important American artists of the past and present. This exhibition will be on view Saturday, October 10, 2026 through Sunday, January 3, 2027. Rashid Johnson, "Broken Crowd, Reeling and Rhyming,” 2026. Ceramic tile, mirror, spray enamel, branded black walnut, oyster shell, oil stick, black soap, wax, bronze, 51 1/4 by 73 by 6 inches. (Stephanie Powell/Hauser & Wirth) Free exhibition admission for "Past & Present: Celebrating New Acquisitions and Collection Highlights at the Wichita Art Museum" is sponsored by the Casper Family Foundation. "Past & Present: Celebrating New Acquisitions and Collection Highlights at the Wichita Art Museum"__ was organized by the Wichita Art Museum and curated by curator Tera Lee Hedrick. Wichita Art Museum 2026 exhibitions and public programs are supported by the Downing Foundation. All museum exhibitions receive generous support from the Friends of the Wichita Art Museum and the City of Wichita. Principal sponsor: Koch Family Foundation. Distinguished sponsor: Emprise Bank. Mary Young Hunter, "Blanchette Ferry Hooker," 1920, oil on canvas, 34 3/4 by 27 inches. ### Related coverage in The SHOUT: Wichita Art Museum announces major new acquisitions * * * _**Announcements** are submissions from arts and cultural organizations and community members. They are published at the discretion of SHOUT editors and may be lightly edited. Send press releases and other announcements to __emily@shoutwichita.com_ _._ ****Popular Reads**** ❋ Derby man has the kind of voice that turns heads — and chairs ❋ Socializing while sober: how some Wichitans are cultivating alcohol-free communities ❋ As a small creative business closes, the owner mourns❋ Painting through it: Autumn Noire on 20 years of making art❋ How a guy from Wichita resurrected 'Dawn of the Dead'❋ Bygone Friends University museum housed curious collections ## Support Kansas arts writing The SHOUT is a Wichita-based independent newsroom focused on artists living and working in Kansas. We're partly supported by the generosity of our readers, and every dollar we receive goes directly into the pocket of a contributing writer, editor, or photographer. Click here to support our work with a tax-deductible donation**.** Yes! I want to support the SHOUT

Nearly every college at Wichita State is planning to undergo department mergers or restructuring, but the reason isn’t entirely clear. Faculty are concerned about reorganization of departments being rushed, and are seeking clear answers before the plans start being reviewed by the provost in October. According to proposed plans sent to The Sunflower by Lainie Mazzullo-Hart, director of strategic communication, Liberal Arts and Sciences will merge sociology with social work, political science with public administration and English with philosophy. The College of Education will merge the School of Teaching and Learning with the teaching apprenticeship pathways, literacy and special education department. The College of Engineering has not yet submitted its proposal, but at least one of its departments will be merged. The College of Health Professions plans to restructure into three departments that will house disciplines: clinical sciences will house dental hygiene, advanced education in general dentistry, medical laboratory sciences and physician associate; rehabilitation sciences will house communication sciences and disorders, athletic training and physical therapy; and population health sciences will house exercise science, health science, aging studies and health management and administration. The School of Nursing will remain the same. To implement the mergers, administration has suggested using policy 2.10 — program discontinuance — which is exacerbating controversy among faculty. “This policy has a wide range of prescription for who ought to look at these proposals,” Provost Monica Lounsbery said. “I find that attractive. There isn’t very much else related to that I think is germane here. I don’t know that our faculty are hearing that, I mean, they’re really, really hyper focused on the policy itself, and there are a lot of provisions in that policy that are not germane to the context.” Stephanie Newbold, director of the Hugo Wall School of Public Affairs, said LAS faculty were told in fall 2025 that they had too many departments, and that was the primary reason for merging. “None of us had a choice as to how we were merged,” Newbold said. “That was decided by individuals above us.” Faculty were not notified that policy 2.10 was being used until over the summer. Matthew Muether, associate vice provost for faculty affairs. said the policy had been presented to and cleared by general counsel — who provides legal services for the university — which happened before notifying faculty that this policy was being used, according to Newbold. “It certainly seems like the university administration wanted these mergers to go through and needed a way to do that,” Alexandra Middlewood, political science department chair said. “So, they’re trying to retrofit this policy that existed to fit this current merger need, versus slowing down, taking time to actually implement a new policy that could successfully get these departments through these mergers.” Whether or not the policy applies to this situation wasn’t explicitly confirmed by Lounsbery. In a Faculty Senate meeting on September 14, the main topic of discussion was the validity of using this policy. Faculty expressed concerns around the disregard for shared governance by the administration, and the policy never originally being intended for mergers. The general consensus from faculty members was that the policy says the reasons for discontinuance must be based in “educational considerations” separate from financial concerns, and they said administration has not given a clear answer to whether this is driven by finances or clear academic objectives. Financially, the university isn’t currently in a dire situation, but according to Provost Monica Lounsbery, these are happening as a precaution in case there are more budget cuts for the coming fiscal years. In January, the university announced a 7% reduction in its budget, and in the FY27 budget, it can be seen that revenue is projected to be up from both state funding and tuition. “There’s just innumerable kinds of examples of how revenue has not kept pace with cost,” Lounsbery said. “… We got to do it because if the legislature chooses to cut us, and they might, with those costs we just talked about, even though, ‘Well, there’s new revenue because we increased tuition.’ Ok, but yeah, it just got ate up. It’s like one step forward and five steps back.” At the beginning of the Faculty Senate meeting, Susan Castro, associate professor of philosophy, said she was working on a resolution that will be presented at the next meeting on September 28 to make a new policy that would better fit this situation. “Our university makes a very strong distinction between policy and procedure,” Castro said in the Faculty Senate meeting. “Policies take years to get through all the approval steps. We are proceeding before any of that has been happening. “We did that last year, and from all intents and purposes, it seems like this freight train is going now. The purpose of offering the resolution now is to halt that freight train just a little, so that we do have input and the faculty senate resolution is the voice of the faculty.” Many faculty members expressed their disapproval of using this policy, and Newbold made a motion to not use the policy for this situation. After more discussion, the faculty senate passed a statement that said policy 2.10 was inappropriate for department mergers. “The idea that a merger is the same as discontinuing an academic department is really disturbing,” Newbold said. “… if we use this policy, it’s just a terrible look for how the university presents itself to the community, to outward-facing partners — that we don’t look functional.” Lounsbery said the language in the policy is anxiety-inducing, which was her explanation for why faculty are against using the policy. “(The policy) starts to talk about faculty in the affected unit, can be laid off,” Lounsbery said. “So that’s not what we’re doing. And no matter how many times this is being communicated, I think saying that we’re using this policy is creating a barrier and it’s creating a trust factor for our campus.” When asked what role faculty should play in these situations, she replied that she herself is a faculty member and emphasized the importance of understanding the financial situation. “I think faculty need to understand the gravity of the real financial situation higher education is in across the country, including this institution,” Lounsbery said. The possibility of further financial constraints is the exact reason why a merger policy is a necessity, but the lack of communication has created accusations among faculty of administration of being disingenuous, Castro said. Some faculty members have expressed that there has been little to no communication about any of the mergers happening. “There’s definitely been a lack of transparency on the university side about department mergers,” Middlewood said. “All the way from why certain departments were on this list to begin with, to which department each department was going to merge with.” During the September 14 faculty senate meeting, Matthew Muether presented slides showing the multiple town halls and meetings that occurred to discuss mergers. None of those meetings mentioned the use of policy 2.10, according to faculty. Middlewood, Newbold, and Castro all independently told The Sunflower that those meetings were high-level, largely led by leadership and lacked specific discussions between departments. Lounsbery said that most of the communication faculty would have received should’ve been through their deans. “It’s confusing to me because they do know what’s going on, and even affected units will know, you heard that, ‘I’m in an affected unit,’ well that’s what’s happening,” Lounsbery said. That is in contrast with what multiple faculty members affected by the mergers have said to the Sunflower. Newbold confirmed the philosophy department submitted four separate merger proposals, indicating faculty’s view about which department would be best to merge with. Each of those proposals was denied with no reason given, and philosophy is now being merged with the English department. Middlewood and Newbold said they have been working together to coordinate what a merger between political science and public affairs would look like, but are struggling to do so with lack of proper guidance. “This summer, I know our dean and her staff submitted formal plans for what these mergers were going to look like for each department’s concern,” Newbold said. “We’ve never seen what that plan is. We didn’t have a say in its construction. We didn’t have a voice in what it was going to outline and articulate moving forward, and to this day we still have not seen it.” Chase Billingham, professor of sociology, said last year these mergers were brought up to LAS faculty by the dean, but no reasoning was provided other than it would be a way to save money if needed. “It is completely illegitimate,” Billingham said. “And is an attempt to justify — after the fact — the rushed proposals that were already in development last year that academic departments — at least mine — have not even seen the justification for why we are supposed to be merging.” Billingham said the budgetary crisis that the university has said it is going through does not necessarily line up because, according to the budget for FY27, the university’s financial position is decent. “I didn’t quite understand what was going on,” Billingham said about the proposal that was presented by the dean in the spring. “And now we’re hearing again that the proposed restructures are based upon the budget, but the university has not declared a state of financial exigency. So where is that disconnect?” Billingham said he noticed money being moved from academics to athletics in the FY27 budget. Lounsbery said she has heard those concerns. “I don’t feel good about when we move into spaces and places where we’re talking about others, and we’re deflecting what others should be doing,” Lounsbery said. “I heard a comment about athletics, well, in this difficult budget period, athletics has suffered, I think pretty greatly.” Last semester, WSU athletics discontinued both men’s and women’s golf programs. Billingham said the $5 million that was cut from Academic Affairs correlated to an increase of about $5 million in the Office of the President for intercollegiate athletics — which had never been funded through the Office of the President other than small amounts to pay some coaches and other personnel. “It just basically says: miscellaneous other expenditures. It hasn’t been made clear exactly what those are. It’s completely hidden,” Billingham said. “But that is what is driving this entire ship, is a reallocation of money away from the academic mission of the university to other places in this university.” * * * ** _Kami Steinle_** is the news editor for The Sunflower. Steinle is a sophomore majoring in painting. After graduating, Steinle plans to work as a curator. Steinle uses she/her pronouns. **_Josh Pfleger-Bernat_** is the in-depth editor for The Sunflower. He is a junior studying political science with a minor in communications and plans to pursue a career as a political journalist. Pfleger-Bernat uses he/him pronouns. ****Popular Reads**** ❋ Derby man has the kind of voice that turns heads — and chairs ❋ Socializing while sober: how some Wichitans are cultivating alcohol-free communities ❋ As a small creative business closes, the owner mourns❋ Painting through it: Autumn Noire on 20 years of making art❋ How a guy from Wichita resurrected 'Dawn of the Dead'❋ Bygone Friends University museum housed curious collections ## Support Kansas arts writing The SHOUT is a Wichita-based independent newsroom focused on artists living and working in Kansas. We're partly supported by the generosity of our readers, and every dollar we receive goes directly into the pocket of a contributing writer, editor, or photographer. Click here to support our work with a tax-deductible donation**.** Yes! I want to support the SHOUT

Marc Bosworth, "Untitled 734," collage, 38 by 26 inches, 2026 (Courtesy of the artist) New shows are on view at CityArts, including "Paper Trail," an exhibition of collages by Marc Bosworth, the longtime creative director of Alpha Charlie Marketing (formerly Greteman Group) and onetime Famous Dead Artist. Marc Bosworth, "Untitled 302," collage, 38 by 26 inches, 2026 (Courtesy of the artist) The collages, each created in a "burst of activity" are composed of everyday ephemera: cancelled stamps on torn envelopes, paper bags, comics strips, technical drawings, and more. Marc Bosworth, "Untitled 161," collage, 38 by 26 inches, 2026 (Courtesy of the artist) "Paper Trails" is on view in the Boardroom Gallery on the second floor. Also on view at CityArts: * "Mixed Bag," pop-art-inspired paintings and drawings by Retsof in the second-floor Balcony Gallery * "Broken, but Beautiful," a group exhibition of "artworks that have been fractured in some way and carefully restored, embracing imperfection as part of their stories." Many of the works in the Main Gallery and Main Hall have been literally damaged, while others offer interpretations of the theme. All exhibitions are on view through October 24. The art center is open to the public from 9 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Fridays, and 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturdays. A First Friday reception will take place from 5-8 p.m. October 2. 💌 __This post was first shared in one of our weekly newsletters.__ Subscribe for free__to get the latest culture news in your inbox.__ * * * ### Support Kansas arts writing The SHOUT is a Wichita-based independent newsroom focused on artists living and working in Kansas. We're partly supported by the generosity of our readers, and every dollar we receive goes directly into the pocket of a contributing writer, editor, or photographer. Click here to support our work with a tax-deductible donation**.** Yes! I want to support the SHOUT ****Popular Reads**** ❋ Derby man has the kind of voice that turns heads — and chairs ❋ Socializing while sober: how some Wichitans are cultivating alcohol-free communities ❋ As a small creative business closes, the owner mourns❋ Painting through it: Autumn Noire on 20 years of making art❋ How a guy from Wichita resurrected 'Dawn of the Dead'❋ Bygone Friends University museum housed curious collections

In its third year, the Salt City Film Festival is migrating south. On Saturday, September 26, the Hutchinson-based fest will screen 26 short films in multiple genres and two feature-length documentaries at the Boulevard Theatres in Wichita’s Old Town district. The festival is designed to give viewers a break from politics, said founding director Bobby Obermite. Its through-line is the uplifting or humorous nature of many of the films. “Our goal was to bring people in and for them to laugh and smile and want to go back to the theater,” he said. “The whole purpose of movie theaters going back 100 years ago was to get a break from the stresses of life … we wanted it to feel like that again. Come here and escape with us for a little bit.” The unifying nature of Salina's Smoky Hill River Festival is at the core of “4 Days in June,” which captured moments at a festival that draws 60,000 attendees to a town of less than 50,000. (Courtesy) Festival passes are $20 for the full day of programming, which starts at 10 a.m. and concludes with an awards ceremony at 9 p.m. The schedule is organized into five blocks, tickets for which are $10 for adults and $5 for students and children. The day begins with three programs of short films, some of which contain mature content. While most of the program is on the lighter side, Obermite said organizers also want to give a platform to young Kansas filmmakers who tackle serious subjects. ## Our free email newsletter is like having a friend who __always__ knows what's happening Get the scoop on the Kansas arts & culture scene: events, news, artist opportunities, and more. Free, weekly & worth your while. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. Two family-friendly programs begin at 5:45 p.m. and include feature-length films. In an afternoon session, Wichita documentary filmmaker Lester Rowe will share some of his work and discuss his career. He and Obermite met about 10 years ago at the Doc Sunback Film Festival in Mulvane, Kansas. “The value of any film festival is networking. Not in a surface way, but going out there and actually building community with some of the filmmakers you meet,” Rowe said. He plans to share some of his own work that people haven’t seen, including a trailer for a project he’s working on now. Both evening programs are anchored by feel-good documentaries about popular Kansas phenomena. “4 Days in June” documents Salina’s Smoky Hill River Festival, and “Take Me to Mars” is a biopic of Tanganika Wildlife Park’s social-media famous pygmy hippo. Brad Anderson, director of Salina's Division of Arts and Humanities, is the central figure in "4 Days in June." (Courtesy) A team from Salina agency Fili Creative spent five years working on “4 Days in June.” The film premiered at the Stiefel Theatre in Salina in July, not long after the festival’s 50th anniversary. “4 Days in June is about 60,000 people coming together and not worrying about religion and politics and the economy and all that stuff,” Obermite said. “They're having fun and they're dancing and they're doing art.” The film is a collaboration with the city of Salina’s Division of Arts and Humanities, which runs the annual festival. “I challenged them to not tell a story about what we did, but that deeper spirit and magic that happens at the event,” said Brad Anderson, the director of the division, during a panel discussion that followed the film's Salina premiere. "It's hard to explain, but it's what draws all of you back every year." The film follows Anderson and a handful of other festival characters as they enact and enjoy the celebration that draws more attendees than the total population of Salina. Not long after his birth, a pygmy hippo at Tanganyika Wildlife Park stubbornly refused to get out of the pool. The caught-on-video moment drew tens of social-media views, and Mars the hippo transformed into a star. Soon a film crew was following him around to document a year of his life. The inclusion of “Take Me to Mars” was something of a happy accident. The filmmakers missed the festival’s submission deadline, but they reached out at the same time that Obermite had to scratch one of the longer films from the program. “It's just kind of weird how you start to get really stressed, and then the stars align, and then you find a film that fits the core message even better,” he said. Moving the festival wasn’t necessarily part of the plan, either. But rising rental prices for Hutchinson’s Fox Theatre prompted organizers to seek another venue. The switch-up has Obermite thinking about taking the event on the road, even touring in the vein of the Banff Centre Mountain Film Festival, which has screened selections on seven continents. It’s likely that Salt City will travel that far afield, though. The majority of the films in the festival are made in Kansas or states that border it. “The filmmakers in the middle of America right now have access to equipment like they never had and access to software that they never had,” said Obermite, who leads the media and film production program at Hutchinson Community College. “They don't need a lot of money to go out and put together a beautiful story.” ## The Details **Salt City Film Festival** September 26, 2026, at Boulevard Theatres at Old Town, 353 N. Mead St. in Wichita The festival begins at 10 a.m. Saturday morning and concludes after a 9 p.m. awards ceremony. Festivalgoers may choose to attend one of five programs (which vary in length from 75 minutes to two and a half hours) or stick around for the whole day. Festival passes are $20. Tickets to individual programs are $10 for adults, $5 for children and students. Tickets are available for purchase at the theater on the day of the festival. Learn more on the Salt City Film Festival website. Salt City isn’t the only film festival playing at the Boulevard Old Town. The cineplex in Old Town Square will screen many of the selections for the Tallgrass Film Festival, which takes place October 15-18. * * * _**Emily Christensen** is one of the co-founders of The SHOUT. She is a past fellow of the National Critics Institute at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center and a recipient of an Arts Writing Grant from The Andy Warhol Foundation. Send her a message: _ _emily@shoutwichita.com_ _._ ****Popular Reads**** ❋ Derby man has the kind of voice that turns heads — and chairs ❋ Socializing while sober: how some Wichitans are cultivating alcohol-free communities ❋ As a small creative business closes, the owner mourns❋ Painting through it: Autumn Noire on 20 years of making art❋ How a guy from Wichita resurrected 'Dawn of the Dead'❋ Bygone Friends University museum housed curious collections ## Support Kansas arts writing The SHOUT is a Wichita-based independent newsroom focused on artists living and working in Kansas. We're partly supported by the generosity of our readers, and every dollar we receive goes directly into the pocket of a contributing writer, editor, or photographer. Click here to support our work with a tax-deductible donation**.** Yes! I want to support the SHOUT

_The following announcement is based on a press release from the Birger Sandzén Memorial Gallery._ LINDSBORG — A special exhibition featuring works by visual artist Michaela Valli Groeblacher and poet Kim Stanley has opened at the Birger Sandzén Memorial Gallery in Lindsborg. It is one of several art installations associated with the 2026 Prairie Festival (Sept 25-27), celebrating the 50th anniversary of The Land Institute in Salina, Kansas. The exhibition will continue through October 18. The exhibition, "To Bee or Not To Be," explores the interconnectedness of humans and nature. It features Valli Groeblacher’s ceramic pieces, paintings, and photographs paired with poetry by Stanley. “The individual art pieces show how two minds see this interconnectedness with others and with the earth and nature,” said Valli Groeblacher. “As humans we do not exist in a vacuum, we are connected and dependent. Kim and I think that it is therefore fitting that two artists show as one.” Valli Groeblacher is recently retired from the art department at McPherson College. She has earned recognition for her work in state and national juried art shows. Stanley is a professor emeritus of English from McPherson College and has led book discussions and writing workshops for Humanities Kansas. The Sandzén Gallery is located at 401 North First Street in Lindsborg. Hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, and 1-5 p.m. Sundays. Admission is free, with donations appreciated. Docent tours for groups are available by two-week advance appointment. For more information about Birger Sandzén, the Gallery, and these exhibitions visit www.sandzen.org or phone 785-227-2220. * * * _**Announcements** are submissions from arts and cultural organizations and community members. They are published at the discretion of SHOUT editors and may be lightly edited. Send press releases and other announcements to __emily@shoutwichita.com_ _._ ****Popular Reads**** ❋ Derby man has the kind of voice that turns heads — and chairs ❋ Socializing while sober: how some Wichitans are cultivating alcohol-free communities ❋ As a small creative business closes, the owner mourns❋ Painting through it: Autumn Noire on 20 years of making art❋ How a guy from Wichita resurrected 'Dawn of the Dead'❋ Bygone Friends University museum housed curious collections ## Support Kansas arts writing The SHOUT is a Wichita-based independent newsroom focused on artists living and working in Kansas. We're partly supported by the generosity of our readers, and every dollar we receive goes directly into the pocket of a contributing writer, editor, or photographer. Click here to support our work with a tax-deductible donation**.** Yes! I want to support the SHOUT

Hootin', hollerin', and just a goofy old time. Julian Azcary Montes takes us to "Clown Jam," a night of joy, wonder, and play at Harvester Arts. "It's pure magic when it happens," organizing clown Madi White told Azcary Montes. "Clown Jam is kind of unlike anything that most Wichitans have seen." The next Clown Jam will take place 8 p.m. Saturday, October 31. at Harvester Arts, 120 E. 1st St. Suite 115 in downtown Wichita. Stay informed about upcoming jams by following Harvester Arts on socials and checking the event page on their website. You can also catch Madi White in “The Boogie Hexperience: A Cursed Clown Cabaret.” The event will take place 7-9 p.m. Oct. 24 at the Old School Tap House & Social, 210 East Kechi Road in Kechi, Kansas. Open seating begins at 6 p.m. Learn more and purchase tickets. For more about Clown Jam, read Leslie Alan Coates' review of the June show: Clown Jam is a little naughty and a lot of fun. __(Emmett Joseph/Courtesy)__ This video is part of a series that highlights reoccurring events in the Wichita area and beyond. If you've never visited Clown Jam, the Smoky Valley River Festival, Wichita Sketch Club, Salsa Night, or any number of interesting events, keep up with The SHOUT to see what you've been missing. We'd love to see you there. * * * _**Julian Azcary Montes** is a curious, dedicated and passionate storyteller. As a photographer, videographer and filmmaker, he has been active in documentary and visual storytelling since 2018. He now runs _Azcary Creative_, a storytelling studio that partners with nonprofits, civic institutions, arts organizations, and values-driven businesses. He navigates grounded, authentic storytelling that captures transformational moments, elevates history, transfers knowledge, and discovers impact that speaks to the heart, from the heart — all to make progress on the biggest challenges._ ## Support Kansas arts writing The SHOUT is a Wichita-based independent newsroom focused on artists living and working in Kansas. We're partly supported by the generosity of our readers, and every dollar we receive goes directly into the pocket of a contributing writer, editor, or photographer. Click here to support our work with a tax-deductible donation**.** Yes! I want to support the SHOUT ****Popular Reads**** ❋ Derby man has the kind of voice that turns heads — and chairs ❋ Socializing while sober: how some Wichitans are cultivating alcohol-free communities ❋ As a small creative business closes, the owner mourns❋ Painting through it: Autumn Noire on 20 years of making art❋ How a guy from Wichita resurrected 'Dawn of the Dead'❋ Bygone Friends University museum housed curious collections

_The following announcement is based on a press release from Baila Wichita._ WICHITA — From October 9-11, Baila Wichita will host its inaugural Afro-Latin Dance and Music Festival, bringing together dancers, instructors, musicians and culture enthusiasts for a weekend of dance, music, learning and connection. Designed for all experience levels, the festival will give attendees the opportunity to learn from professional artists, experience Afro-Latin dance and music, social dance, and connect with dancers from Wichita and neighboring communities. “Festivals have been some of the most inspiring parts of my dance journey, creating a unique opportunity to learn directly from professional artists, experience their creativity and expression up close, connect with dancers from different cities and backgrounds, and discover how small and interconnected the dance world really is,” said Elisa Rosales, the event organizer and owner of Baila Wichita, a local dance studio. “I wanted to bring that experience to Wichita so our local dancers can learn from exceptional artists while connecting with neighboring dance communities, and I hope every person who attends leaves feeling inspired, energized and rejuvenated, with a broader perspective of what Afro-Latin dance can be.” Beyond the dance floor, Baila Wichita aims to showcase Wichita’s welcoming spirit and vibrant cultural community to visitors traveling from across the region. “I hope visitors experience just how welcoming Wichita can be—not only through our dance community, but through the city as a whole,” said Rosales. “We have a reputation for being a friendly, welcoming place, and we truly want to roll out the red carpet for everyone coming to town.” Rosales hopes the festival also challenges expectations of what Wichita has to offer. “I want visitors to discover just how diverse and vibrant Wichita’s community is. I recognize that people may not immediately expect Wichita to have a thriving Afro-Latin dance and music community, and I love the idea of surprising them. There is so much culture, creativity, and community here, and I hope the festival gives visitors a glimpse of everything Wichita has to offer.” Tickets are available now, with limited capacity for some festival activities. In addition to individual classes and partial and full festival passes, a free ticketed community class will be offered. For event times, locations and tickets, visit www.bailawichita.com/dance-festival. _**Announcements** are submissions from arts and cultural organizations and community members. They are published at the discretion of SHOUT editors and may be lightly edited. Send press releases and other announcements to __emily@shoutwichita.com_ _._ * * * ## Support Kansas arts writing The SHOUT is a Wichita-based independent newsroom focused on artists living and working in Kansas. We're partly supported by the generosity of our readers, and every dollar we receive goes directly into the pocket of a contributing writer, editor, or photographer. Click here to support our work with a tax-deductible donation**.** Yes! I want to support the SHOUT ****Popular Reads**** ❋ Derby man has the kind of voice that turns heads — and chairs ❋ Socializing while sober: how some Wichitans are cultivating alcohol-free communities ❋ As a small creative business closes, the owner mourns❋ Painting through it: Autumn Noire on 20 years of making art❋ How a guy from Wichita resurrected 'Dawn of the Dead'❋ Bygone Friends University museum housed curious collections

Somehow it's the end of September already, which doesn't quite seem possible. Here are a few shows you still have time to see. Steve Nicholson, “Packard Goddess of Speed,” watercolor and ink, 11 by 14 inches. On view at Art House 310 through today (September 20). Paintings by Lindsey Kernodle are on view at Art House 310 through today (September 20).Lathy Liao, “Explorer,” collage, parker, and gouache on paper, 11 by 14 inches (framed). On view at Harvester Arts through September 25.Lindsay Lion Lord, “Future Visibility Limit,” MX dyes, salt, soda ash, ink, cotton fabric, interfacing, cotton batting, thread. On view at Harvester Arts through September 25.M. Willie Garcia, “States of Matter,” sumi drawing with acrylic and colored pencil. On view at Harvester Arts through September 25.Liz Landgon, “Monarchs Among Us: Fluttering,” cyanotype, jacquard fabric, thread, wire, and feather butterfly. On view at Harvester Arts through September 25.Envision Arts Gallery is hosting the first community collaboration with the Ulrich Museum of Art as part of its “Bare It All” exhibition. The show, which features tactile versions of Alexander Calder prints in the museum’s collection, is on view in the Patricia A. Peer Window Gallery through October 9. 💌 __This post was first shared in one of our weekly newsletters.__ Subscribe for free__to get the latest culture news in your inbox.__ * * * ## Support Kansas arts writing The SHOUT is a Wichita-based independent newsroom focused on artists living and working in Kansas. We're partly supported by the generosity of our readers, and every dollar we receive goes directly into the pocket of a contributing writer, editor, or photographer. Click here to support our work with a tax-deductible donation**.** Yes! I want to support the SHOUT ****Popular Reads**** ❋ Derby man has the kind of voice that turns heads — and chairs ❋ Socializing while sober: how some Wichitans are cultivating alcohol-free communities ❋ As a small creative business closes, the owner mourns❋ Painting through it: Autumn Noire on 20 years of making art❋ How a guy from Wichita resurrected 'Dawn of the Dead'❋ Bygone Friends University museum housed curious collections

Artist Hong Chun Zhang traveled from her birthplace in China to the United States, arriving in California before relocating to Kansas in 2004. In the course of her journey through changing landscapes and cultures, Zhang’s site-responsive work captures her observations of the complex people and world around her. “Journey to the West: A Survey of Hong Chun Zhang’s Art, 1996-2026” at Topeka's Mulvane Museum of Art marks the 30th anniversary of the artist’s immigration to the United States and highlights Zhang’s works from this period. As a retrospective, the show demonstrates how Zhang’s style and practice have evolved with time in response to her changing environments, while the subjects of her drawings and paintings remain grounded in site-specific concerns, often in connection with cultural contexts and geographic features. The introductory panel to “Journey to the West: A Survey of Hong Chun Zhang’s Art, 1996-2026” positions the exhibition as a map of Zhang’s journey as both an artist and an immigrant. (Abby Bayani-Heitzman/The SHOUT) Beginning with the museum’s South Gallery, the show features Zhang’s traditional Chinese ink paintings from her early years. The Center Gallery highlights her formative graduate school work in California, where she developed her signature long, black hair motif. The exhibition concludes in the North Gallery with the artist’s most recent meditations on cultural boundaries and wide-open spaces inspired by her found home in Kansas. Each work in ”Journey to the West” reveals Zhang’s contemplative approach to reinterpreting both the familiar and the new in often disarming ways. Hong Chun Zhang, “Hazard,” 2008, oil on canvas, 30 by 40 inches and detail of “Hazard.” (Abby Bayani-Heitzman/The SHOUT) Hong Chun Zhang, “Reset,” 2022, Chinese ink on Italian fabric with scrolls, 40 by 110 inches. (Abby Bayani-Heitzman/The SHOUT) Born in China in 1971, twin sisters Zhang Chunhong (Hong Chun Zhang) and Zhang Chunbo (Bo Chun Zhang) were encouraged as artists from a young age. Their father was a professor at the Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts, founded in 1938 as a training center for Chinese Communist Party artists, and the twins were sent to the Fine Arts School affiliated with the China Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing for their secondary education. After graduating, they attended the Central Academy of Fine Arts, one of the most prestigious, renowned, and competitive art institutes of higher education in China. Bo Chun enrolled in the printmaking program, while Hong Chun was admitted to the Chinese ink painting program. ## Our free email newsletter is like having a friend who __always__ knows what's happening Get the scoop on the Kansas arts & culture scene: events, news, artist opportunities, and more. Free, weekly & worth your while. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. During her time at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Zhang produced works dominated by Chinese characteristics, but she also began developing her unique perspective, focusing on gendered subject matter and challenging traditional rules of composition in Chinese ink paintings. A pair of representative works included in the show, “Public Shower #1” and “Public Shower #2,” are traditional Chinese ink and watercolor paintings on rice paper. But the scene pictured in both is the interior of the university public bathhouse — a quotidian experience for a student like Zhang rather than the serene natural landscapes or idealized human figures generally included in Chinese ink paintings. Hong Chun Zhang, “Public Shower #1,” 1993, Chinese ink and watercolor on rice paper, 19.5 by 27.5 inches. (Abby Bayani-Heitzman/The SHOUT) “Public Shower #1” presents four nudes, and “Public Shower #2” shows women in various stages of undress after their shower, but neither painting is framed voyeuristically. The former is rendered in soft, indistinct lines and smudged brushstrokes, imitating the rising steam of hot water and blurring the four bathing women. The viewer’s perspective is that of an observer standing within the inner shower space among the women rather than that of an outsider. Three women in the foreground wash their bodies and hair, relaxed in a way that shows the natural beauty of their curves and flowing hair without treating the scene as a spectacle. The fourth figure scrubs her leg in the darker back room, focused on cleaning and refreshing herself in private rather than striking a provocative pose for some imagined viewer. Hong Chun Zhang, “Public Shower #2,” 1993, Chinese ink and watercolor on rice paper, 19.5 by 27.5 inches. (Abby Bayani-Heitzman/The SHOUT) In “Public Shower #2,” Zhang draws the figures with sharp clarity as they change in the outer dressing room. The perspective in this composition is once again of a viewer standing in the inner shower space, this time facing outwards toward the dressing room. Taken together, the images can be read as two angles to a single vantage point — the perspective of a woman in the bathhouse looking at the figures ahead of her and those behind. In “Public Shower #2,” the faces of a few women are visible. One woman in a robe looks toward the viewer unguarded, simply noting the presence of others, while a girl sitting in the back room sits quietly and contemplatively, perhaps finding a moment of peace in the middle of a busy day. Zhang’s careful balance of the personal and particular with the universal and abstract shines in the show. Several of her early works draw on personal experiences to create intimate portraits, but she abstracts them by refusing to depict specific people, instead obscuring faces or substituting them for objects. Hong Chun Zhang, “My Parents,” 1998, Chinese ink and watercolor on rice paper, 20 by 28 inches. (Abby Bayani-Heitzman/The SHOUT) Another pair of paintings, “My Parents” and “My Grandparents,” feature footwear rather than actual human figures or faces. In “My Grandparents,” two tiny lotus slippers are squeezed between a pair of tall, black leather boots, signaling the relationship of confinement and control that defined marriage in her grandparents’ time. In contrast, “My Parents” presents a more equitable image, with both the mother and father figure dressed in utilitarian uniforms and represented by similar-sized, casual shoes. However, the rigid constraints of Chinese communism dominates the latter painting, with the face of Mao Tse-tung plastered across the background and selections of “Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung” lining the soles of Zhang’s parents’ shoe-heads. Detail of “My Parents” and Hong Chun Zhang, “My Grandparents,” 1998, Chinese ink and watercolor on rice paper; 28 by 20 inches. (Abby Bayani-Heitzman/The SHOUT) In using cultural symbols to depict her family, Zhang renders her personal understanding of each identity in layers of meaning. The portraits therefore depict both her individual family and the socially defined roles of _mother_ , _father_ , _grandmother_ , and _grandfather_ in their respective lifetimes. The artist captures the gendered family dynamics and shifting political identities in China’s tumultuous modern history between the pair of works — the contrast between the portraits is stark despite spanning the difference of a mere handful of decades. The empty boots, slippers, and sneakers also bring to mind the idiom _to fill someone’s shoes_ , suggesting that Zhang perhaps sees the path her parents and grandparents walked as routes available to her. However, critiques woven into the images, from the oppressive grey tones and clear power imbalance of “My Grandparents” to the de-individualized and politically defined figures of “My Parents,” reveal the Zhan's sobering view of the environment that shaped her elders’ understanding and treatment of sex, gender, and equality. As works created during Zhang’s time at graduate school in California, they are visualizations of the artist’s reconsideration of her family history from an entirely separate and distinct cultural vantage point. Hong Chun Zhang, “Good Fortunes,” 2003, oil on canvas, 45 by 33 inches; detail of “Good Fortunes.” (Abby Bayani-Heitzman/The SHOUT) During her time in California, Zhang confronted cultural differences and her evolving perspective as an artist through several oil paintings. “Good Fortunes” focuses on the concept of auspiciousness in both Chinese and Western cultures by pairing an upturned horseshoe with the Chinese character for “good fortune” in gold lettering on a red background. The horseshoe dominates the painting visually, creating a Western container for the Chinese symbol. But on closer inspection, we can see additional Chinese characters barely visible in the background, as if lightly etched onto a plaster wall. This suggests that, while the painting is undoubtedly exploring how an American environment can shape an art practice rooted in traditional Chinese forms and techniques, the artist’s cultural background and the additional layer of perspective it allows will always be present. Hong Chun Zhang, “Cultural Training,” 2003, oil on canvas (diptych), each 24 by 30 inches. (Abby Bayani-Heitzman/The SHOUT) In a similar vein, “Cultural Training” is a diptych of oil paintings that compares the development of a diapered Western baby with that of a Chinese baby in _kai dang ku_ , or “split-crotch pants.” In the Western world, babies are generally diapered to prevent them from making a mess of themselves, their clothes, and their surroundings. In China, split-crotch pants were historically used to allow infants to relieve themselves without removing their clothes, making potty training more practical for family members who could simply hold the baby while they urinated or defecated. Additionally, the Western baby is naked aside from the diaper, while the Chinese baby is dressed in a top, bottom, and shoes, further showcasing the various approaches to childrearing across cultures. In the diptych, both babies crawl forward with their right leg pulled up. Despite the difference in complexion and dress, the two children move remarkably similarly, pointing to the universality of infant growth and learning across cultures. The work is further enriched by contemporary context, as diapers have become quite common in the urbanized areas of China, while Western parents are beginning to recognize the advantages of split-crotch pants, which are anecdotally said to support faster toilet training. While cultural contrasts and juxtaposition have remained a common theme in Zhang’s work throughout her career, the signature motifs she developed during graduate school in California represent the heart of the show. The new body of work Zhang created during this period was both personal and universal, and it also signaled a conscious departure from the traditionally small-scale Chinese ink painting style. Hong Chun Zhang, “Twin Spirits #1 Diptych,” 2002, charcoal on paper with scrolls, each 110 by 40 inches. (Abby Bayani-Heitzman/The SHOUT) In the Center Gallery, large-scale charcoal drawings constitute the heart of the show. The first, “Twin Spirits #1 Diptych,” is a dual-portrait of the artist and her identical twin sister Bo Chun. As with previous works where Zhang has considered sex and gender from a critical and distinctly feminine perspective, these portraits focus on hair beyond its function as a traditional symbol of Chinese womanhood and beauty. Created to evoke _menshen hua_ (door god prints), paired symmetrical illustrations of divine guardians hung at entrances to ward off evil spirits, the charcoal drawings are intended to hang side-by-side and radiate a powerful, confident, and intrinsically linked sense of protective energy. The hair in these drawings is so long that it covers the figures’ bodies and even reaches past the edge of the visible paper, continuing into the rolled portion of the bottom scrolls. The two figures of hair, although balanced, are not mirror images of one another. The hair of both figures is draped inwards toward the other, but there are clear distinctions between the two: The figure on the left possesses hair that curves gently and falls in soft waves, while the righthand figure has straighter hair that reaches across the figure’s back in more defined strands. As a twin, Zhang explores womanhood through both herself and her sister with this work. The pair of intimate portraits of the artist and her sister on massive floor-to-ceiling scrolls appear to be concerned with personal identity, but the faceless figures are simultaneously the known feminine _self_ and an unknown feminine _other_ , repositioning culturally gendered symbols like long hair to be viewed as more powerful than passive. In the place of door gods, the long black hair appears as a powerful and protective force, embodying the strength and divine potential of femininity. This cultural revisionism is a rich site in which Zhang forges new motifs as a modern Chinese American woman. Hong Chun Zhang, “Bond,” 2013, charcoal on paper with scrolls, 96 by 48 inches. (Abby Bayani-Heitzman/The SHOUT) In Zhang’s work, hair is rendered so carefully, so meticulously, that a great mass of it appears impressive not only because of its size but also because of its fine detail. Individual strands become visible through razor-thin highlight work that reproduces the silky, shiny texture of straight black hair. “Bond,” the second work included in the Central Gallery, builds on the hair motif by picturing the matching long, braided locks of Zhang and her daughter, the two heads tilted affectionately toward one another. Here, the smooth continuity of the hair is complicated by plaits, where three separate strands are woven in, through, and around one another, and a distinct pattern of shadows and highlights segments the hair along the braid. Details of “Bond.” (Abby Bayani-Heitzman/The SHOUT) This woven texture speaks to the nature of family relationships in a way that “My Parents” and “My Grandparents” fail to capture. Rather than confining and defining her daughter in this work, Zhang celebrates their shared life while also recognizing and appreciating their differences: The smaller head of hair in the drawing is braided more tightly and appears thinner overall, the composition is balanced in the way that the larger, thicker head of hair leans inward and the loose end of its lush braid curls upward and toward the right, lending the right side of the canvas weight. Pictured here, as in “Twin Spirits,” is a relationship of love and protection. The artist depicts both sisterhood and motherhood as sources of strength. Hong Chun Zhang, “Red,” 2004, oil on canvas, 24 by 20 inches; detail of “Red;” Hong Chun Zhang, “Black,” 2004, oil on canvas, 24 by 20 inches; detail of “Black.” (Abby Bayani-Heitzman/The SHOUT) Hong Chun Zhang, “Sunset at Wheatfield,” 2025, Chinese ink and watercolor on Italian fabric, 20 by 60 inches. (Abby Bayani-Heitzman/The SHOUT) The techniques that Zhang developed in her hair-centric works resurface in surprising ways in many of her recent landscapes in the North Gallery. Since moving to Kansas in 2004, Zhang has incorporated aspects of the Midwest into her art practice, utilizing her method of rendering long hair to create environmental scenes of tornados and tallgrass prairies. Since 2020, Zhang’s medium of choice has also shifted from large charcoal drawings to Chinese ink paintings on Italian fabric. Interestingly, this development is partially a return to form for Zhang, who was formally trained in traditional Chinese ink paintings, but also a new, mature departure from the intimate and personal subject matter that appeared in her early work. Hong Chun Zhang, “Sunset Magic,” 2024, Chinese ink and watercolor on Italian fabric, 20 by 60 inches. (Abby Bayani-Heitzman/The SHOUT) In these recent works, Zhang is not only looking at herself and those around her to make sense of the changing world but also to the natural environment. In “Sunset Magic,” Zhang portrays the sky over Kansas as a vast, open area bound only by the dark horizon, gently sloping below. A massive flock of birds occupies a majority of the sky, swooping about in gentle, flowing waves not unlike the shape and texture of hair in Zhang’s other works. The tiny birds appear as grey and black silhouettes of varying sizes, depending on their proximity to the viewer, and a small contingent appears to break away in the lower right-hand corner of the flock. The wide-open sky and the birds careening through it suggest an expansive sense of freedom. Perhaps at this point in her career, Zhang has found a place where she feels artistically unbound, open to experimentation, and on the edge of discovery. Details of “Sunset Magic.” (Abby Bayani-Heitzman/The SHOUT) Hong Chun Zhang, “Flint Hills Sunset,” 2024, Chinese ink and watercolor on Italian fabric, 19.5 by 61 inches. (Abby Bayani-Heitzman/The SHOUT) “Flint Hills Sunset” utilizes precise linework to suggest the topography and ecological diversity of the Flint Hills region, with wild prairie grasses covering the hills and hollows, bending in the wind to flow like waves. The golden glow radiating from the center of the painting casts the scene in an almost transcendental light, picturing the prairie as a land of beauty and richness. Long, curving strokes that crest the distant plateau and reach inwards from the boundaries of the painting appear as loose strands of hair creeping into the landscape from some external source. The intrusion reminds the viewer of the piece’s connection to Zhang’s larger body of work. Detail of “Flint Hills Sunset." (Abby Bayani-Heitzman/The SHOUT) If viewers move through the exhibition chronologically, beginning in the South Gallery and ending in the North Gallery, one of the last works they encounter is “Prairie Burning.” The Chinese ink and watercolor painting on Italian fabric depicts a familiar scene for many Kansans: a field fire. The burn appears to be making its way leftwards, with the active flames tracing the boundary between unburned fuel ahead of the fire and the charred grass behind. Thick smoke rises and drifts towards the right side of the sky, carried by the breeze. Hong Chun Zhang, “Prairie Burning,” 2025, Chinese ink and watercolor on Italian fabric, 20 by 60 inches. (Abby Bayani-Heitzman/The SHOUT) In this painting, individual stalks of prairie grasses are visible near the burn and disappear into a golden sea of grain as they recede in the distance. The short, thin strokes of waving grass, reminiscent of Zhang’s hair motif, catch fire and transform into the curling smoke rising above the field. While the burned portion of the grass occupies two-thirds of the landscape, the image is not one of death — it is an image of transformation. Detail of “Prairie Burning.” (Abby Bayani-Heitzman/The SHOUT) Although a still image, there is much movement evident in the work, from the spreading fire to the rising smoke. The grass burns from the right to the left, much like traditional Chinese writing is read from right to left. However, the smoke carries the burnt remnants of the grasses upwards and over the charred blackness below it, drifting past the boundaries of the painting into some unseen space. Zhang’s body of work has likewise evolved and changed over time, moving from concerns rooted in Chinese traditions to broader examinations of gender and identity across cultures, and from family history and personal experience to shared observations of the natural world. As an artist, she has burned a powerful path forward for herself, but that path will not define the rest of her career. Rather, like the smoke in “Prairie Burning,” her continued experimentations with Chinese ink and Italian fabric are sure to find Zhang rising above the expectations set by her previous work and joyously flying into the next undiscovered frontier. Installation views of “Journey to the West: A Survey of Hong Chun Zhang’s Art, 1996–2026” at the Mulvane Art Museum. (Abby Bayani-Heitzman/The SHOUT) Works by Hong Chun Zhang from top left: “Round-Up,” 2025, Chinese ink on Italian fabric with ropes, each 60 by 40 inches; “Lock,” 2008, oil on canvas, 30 by 40 inches; detail of “Lock”; “Hunger,” 2003, oil on canvas, 45 by 33 inches. (Abby Bayani-Heitzman/The SHOUT) Works by Hong Chun Zhang from top left: Details of “Round-Up”; “Barbed,” 2024, Chinese ink on Italian fabric, 24 by 57.5 inches; detail of “Barbed.” (Abby Bayani-Heitzman/The SHOUT) Hong Chun Zhang, “Borderline,” 2025, Chinese ink on Italian fabric; details of “Borderline.” (Abby Bayani-Heitzman/The SHOUT) ## **The Details** **“Journey to the West: A Survey of Hong Chun Zhang’s Art, 1996-2026”** May 29-October 10, 2026, Mulvane Art Museum at Washburn University, 1700 S.W. College Ave., in Topeka, Kansas The exhibition is located in the main level galleries. The Mulvane is open noon-7 p.m. Tuesdays, noon-5 p.m. Wednesday through Friday, and noon-4 p.m. Saturdays. Admission is free, and the facility is accessible to people with physical disabilities. Learn more about current and upcoming exhibitions on the Mulvane Art Museum website. * * * _**Abby Bayani-Heitzman** is a Filipino American writer from Northeast Kansas. She received her Master of Arts in English from Wichita State and participated in the second cohort of the Kansas Arts Commission’s Critical Writing Initiative._ ****Popular Reads**** ❋ Derby man has the kind of voice that turns heads — and chairs ❋ Socializing while sober: how some Wichitans are cultivating alcohol-free communities ❋ As a small creative business closes, the owner mourns❋ Painting through it: Autumn Noire on 20 years of making art❋ How a guy from Wichita resurrected 'Dawn of the Dead'❋ Bygone Friends University museum housed curious collections ## Support Kansas arts writing The SHOUT is a Wichita-based independent newsroom focused on artists living and working in Kansas. We're partly supported by the generosity of our readers, and every dollar we receive goes directly into the pocket of a contributing writer, editor, or photographer. Click here to support our work with a tax-deductible donation**.** Yes! I want to support the SHOUT

At the age of 21, hair and makeup artist Dex O’Neal transformed into D. Vour for the first time. The setting: an amateur drag night at XY Bar in Wichita's Old Town District. The song: “Hellfire” from the Disney musical “The Hunchback of Notre Dame.” “It was surreal, the amount of support that had come out for me for my debut,” O’Neal said. “Feeling the love in the room — it was life changing.” It wasn’t long before O’Neal snagged their first major crown at the alternative drag competition National Monster Xtreme. Now 23, they’re about to experience another life-changing moment. The second season of the reality competition show “King of Drag” premieres Sunday on streaming service Revry, and D. Vour is the youngest of the eight-member cast. > “Season 1 proved the world was ready for drag kings. This cast is going to show everyone just how far the art form can go.” — Christopher Rodriguez, “King of Drag” co-creator ## Our free email newsletter is like having a friend who __always__ knows what's happening Get the scoop on Wichita’s arts & culture scene: events, news, artist opportunities, and more. Free, weekly & worth your while. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. Fans of “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” the 18-season reality TV juggernaut, will recognize the format: Contestants compete in weekly challenges, and a panel of judges eliminates one or more hopefuls at the end of each episode. But while “Drag Race” exclusively features drag queens, “King of Drag” showcases performers who adopt a wide variety of male personas. Season 1 drew an audience of 2.2 million on the LGBTQ+ streamer, which is free to U.S. viewers. "I had been a fan of 'RuPaul's Drag Race,' and always wanted to do something like that. But I never saw someone like me on that platform — someone who wants to do masculine, androgynous drag," says Dex O'Neal. "Now that 'King of Drag is here,' I'm able to do what I've always wanted to do." (Courtesy image) “I’m a huge fan of D. Vour, and I knew right away that they were going to go far in this competition,” said Damian Pelliccione, a judge and co-creator of the show. “Their artistry and command of performance were truly impressive.” O’Neal, who is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns, might be something of an ingenue in the context of “King of Drag,” but their “dark fantasy” drag persona is anything but. “When I imagine my favorite embodiment of masculinity, it's usually the typical gaunt, sleazy vampire you find lurking in a castle in, like, a loose robe,” they said. “You know, the candelabra in the hand. “I love him. He's a tyrant, though. He takes over my entire life.” D. Vour performs in headgear at XY Bar, where their drag career began thanks to a "push" from childhood friend Trey Freund, aka Imele Format. "(Trey) kind of took the steps before me," O'Neal says. "I think she discovered her own queer identity before I did and started doing drag before I did." (Courtesy photo) After graduating from Eisenhower High School in Goddard, Kansas, O’Neal studied cosmetology at Eric Fisher Academy. They perfected the art of hand-tying wigs over a four-season tenure with Music Theatre Wichita, their “home away from home,” where they co-led hair and makeup this past season. Besides wigs, O’Neal can create mustaches, beards, mutton chops, and chest hair — the stock in trade of drag kings. “I made my own happy trail,” they added. Dex O'Neal at work in the Music Theatre Wichita wig shop. MTW artistic director Brian J. Marcum describes O’Neal as “an incredible talent,” an artist also in possession of organizational and people skills. (Courtesy photo) With drag, O’Neal combines their talents for both performance and technical theater. They cite “Face Off,” the SyFy reality show centered on prosthetic makeup, as an influence on their path to monster drag. “I want to be the person who makes it _and_ the model,” they said. Cosplay, which O’Neal got into as a preteen, was an early way to do both. They started acting in high school and since then have appeared on many Wichita stages, including two turns as Columbia in “The Rocky Horror Show,” most recently at Roxy's Downtown. “It was like cosplay plus theater plus my own queer identity that I was discovering turned into drag,” they said. “As D. Vour, one of my main goals is to tell a story," Dex O'Neal says. "I'm not much of a dancer or somebody who can get down in a club setting, so I try and bring a little bit of my theater background into my drag. I want tocreate an experience that'll devour the audience whole.” (Courtesy photo) But O’Neal might never have made it onto the lineup at that first amateur drag night were it not for Trey Freund, who performs drag as Imele (pronounced MLA) Format. The two have known one another since they were third graders, already fixated on creative pursuits and a bit out of step with their peers. “We got along really well and started hanging out all the time,” often play-acting as cats or other creatures. “We were very into being anything but humans,” Freund said. > “I feel very lucky as a nonbinary person growing up in Wichita, how accepting my peers were. I came out in my junior year of high school. If people were making fun of me, I didn’t hear it.” — Dex O’Neal Freund discovered “Drag Race” when he was 15 and recently out of the closet. “I was like, _Oh my God, I don’t know how to be gay, but there’s this show about drag queens_.” He didn’t really think about performing himself until he was 21 and could get into clubs. After his first performance at XY, he was hooked. “When I’m doing drag, I feel so much larger than the limits of my own body,” he said. Soon he was performing every other week and hassling other bar owners to host drag nights. “The people I started doing drag with really pushed me to be a community member,” Freund said. When O’Neal was old enough, he pulled his old friend into a community of artists he describes as “incredibly fierce.” As D. Vour, O’Neal made a spectacular first impression. “I came up after their first performance and was starstruck. _Oh my god! Like, wow, you're amazing_ ,” said Hallie Linnebur, aka Deadnettle, another nonbinary drag performer who was the National Monster Xtreme in 2023. It turned out Linnebur, the proprietor of vintage clothing shop The Hereafter, knew O’Neal as a customer. But as D. Vour, they were unrecognizable. “They performed like someone who had been doing it for five years,” Linnebur said. “I know that comes from their background in theater, and obviously they're a wig genius and amazing costumer … but no one in the Wichita drag scene has blown me away like that right out the gate.” "I love androgynous and feminine masculinity, and I love portraying myself as a character like D. Vour, who's not afraid to be gross or ugly, but still beautiful at the same time." (Courtesy/Emmett Joseph) Freund, on the other hand, had been watching O’Neal on stage since they were in elementary-school orchestra. “I’ve seen Dex performing in so many different ways over the years,” he said. “It’s really wonderful to see their confidence grow and see them really come into themselves on stage. “I had known it was going to be amazing, but they just keep raising the bar.” After their first appearance, Wichita drag performer Effi Darling offered D. Vour their first paid gig, "so Effie was a huge person in making (my drag career) happen," O'Neal said. Darling, who has organized alternative drag events, inspired them to created their own. O’Neal teamed up with fellow drag artist Sef Ramirez, aka Sapphie, to host "Eat Your Heart Out," a regular alternative drag night at Kirby’s Beer Store. You can find them on the dive bar’s tiny stage on the last Monday of the month. D. Vour on stage at Kirby's Beer Store. where they co-host a monthly alternative drag night. "Everything is very DIY, we all do it ourselves," O'Neal said. "We don't hire a giant team to put this together. It's myself, my drag family, my best friends. My girlfriend's usually my spot operator." (Courtesy photo) Though Kirby's is 21+, "Eat Your Heart Out" draws younger fans who stand outside the fence to get a glimpse of the show. "I see so much of myself in these young emo scene kids," O'Neal said. "That's who I was, and I like to think that maybe I used to feel what they're feeling — that inspiration and that desire to create." Freund is currently in Los Angeles, working toward his Ph.D in English and composition at UCLA. His drag persona Imele Format, together with Sapphie and D. Vour, are a drag family — a self-selecting unit that supports one another and performs together. When O’Neal decided to audition for “King of Drag,” their family helped them get ready. “I couldn’t have made it this far without those two.” The strength of O'Neal's audition tape and follow-up interviews with production landed them a spot on Season 2, which filmed this past spring in LA. The "King of Drag" Season 2 trailer. The second season, which is hosted by Cameron Esposito, premieres Sunday, September 20 on Revry. The “hurry up and wait” nature of being on a set reminded O’Neal of tech week in theater. Fortunately, the cast got along. “God, I love each and every single one of them. Those are my brothers for life now,” they said. O’Neal returned to LA last week, where they filmed the Season 2 reunion yesterday. They’ll hit the red carpet tomorrow at the premiere, and their longtime friend will be by their side. “I can’t wait to cheer them on from the front row,” Freund said. It’s another chapter in what Pelliccione is convinced will be a “big career” for the Kansas performer. “I feel very lucky,” O’Neal said. “I feel like I’ve surrounded myself with the correct people.” > “It’s important that the show represents drag from across the country, so I think it’s really special that we have someone from Wichita, Kansas. And I really hope the folks in Wichita tune in and cheer for their home king.” — Damian Pelliccione, “King of Drag” co-creator and judge ## The Details Season 2 of "King of Drag" premieres at 8 p.m. Sunday, September 20. U.S. viewers can watch for free on the Revry app or online. Season 1 is also available on YouTube. D. Vour will host Wichita parties on Tuesdays at Rain Bistro & Lounge, 518 E. Douglas Ave. Suite 100. Fellow drag kings Brockwurst Sausage and Dougie Nonuts will join them on September 22. The event, which includes drag performances, is 21+ with a $5 cover. It kicks off at 7 p.m. O'Neal also plans to continue co-hosting "Eat Your Heart Out" alternative drag shows on the last Monday of the month at Kirby's Beer Store, 3227 E. 17th St. The next show will take place September 28. It's also 21+ with a $5 cover, and it starts at 9 p.m. ### _Related coverage in The SHOUT_ : A joyful celebration of Wichita drag artists: Lydia Humphreys at CityArts * * * _**Emily Christensen** is one of the co-founders of The SHOUT. She is a past fellow of the National Critics Institute at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center and a recipient of an Arts Writing Grant from The Andy Warhol Foundation. Send her a message: _ _emily@shoutwichita.com_ _._ ****Popular Reads**** ❋ Derby man has the kind of voice that turns heads — and chairs ❋ Socializing while sober: how some Wichitans are cultivating alcohol-free communities ❋ As a small creative business closes, the owner mourns❋ Painting through it: Autumn Noire on 20 years of making art❋ How a guy from Wichita resurrected 'Dawn of the Dead'❋ Bygone Friends University museum housed curious collections ## Support Kansas arts writing The SHOUT is a Wichita-based independent newsroom focused on artists living and working in Kansas. We're partly supported by the generosity of our readers, and every dollar we receive goes directly into the pocket of a contributing writer, editor, or photographer. Click here to support our work with a tax-deductible donation**.** Yes! I want to support the SHOUT

Paintings by Sheldon Draper at Mulberry Art Gallery, from left: "$2.99 Supreme" and "Conversation at the Diner." (Emily Christensen/The SHOUT) Wichita painter Sheldon Draper has a knack for experimenting while staying true to himself. The 10 paintings on view through September 22 at Mulberry Art Gallery center on music, one of the artist's preoccupations, and they include his trademark collage materials (cigarette boxes, price tags). Sheldon Draper, "Love Is Everywhere." But in this series, Draper limits his palette to mostly primary colors. And, while not a traditional figurative painter, he leans even farther into abstraction. These paintings have a loose, slapdash quality. Aesthetically, it works, particularly in "Love Is Everywhere," "Music Dream," and "Champion Sound." But the construction could be neater. In "Playing Outside," for example, threads hang from the bottom of the canvas. Sheldon Draper, "Music Dream." Most of Draper's paintings are for sale. View them from noon-6 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday on the second floor of the Revolutsia shipping container center, 2721 E. Central Ave. Suite 215, Wichita. — _Emily Christensen_ An installation view of Sheldon Draper's work at Mulberry Art Gallery. The show is on view through September 22. (Emily Christensen/The SHOUT) 💌 __This post was first shared in one of our weekly newsletters.__ Subscribe for free__to get the latest culture news in your inbox.__ * * * ## Support Kansas arts writing The SHOUT is a Wichita-based independent newsroom focused on artists living and working in Kansas. We're partly supported by the generosity of our readers, and every dollar we receive goes directly into the pocket of a contributing writer, editor, or photographer. Click here to support our work with a tax-deductible donation**.** Yes! I want to support the SHOUT ****Popular Reads**** ❋ Derby man has the kind of voice that turns heads — and chairs ❋ Socializing while sober: how some Wichitans are cultivating alcohol-free communities ❋ As a small creative business closes, the owner mourns❋ Painting through it: Autumn Noire on 20 years of making art❋ How a guy from Wichita resurrected 'Dawn of the Dead'❋ Bygone Friends University museum housed curious collections

_The following announcement is based on a press release from the Regina Klenjoski Dance Company._ WICHITA — Regina Klenjoski Dance Company, Wichita’s professional contemporary dance company, heads to the Kansas City area this week for the world premiere of a new work created by choreographer Katarzyna Skarpetowska as part of New Dance Partners, September 18-19 at the Midwest Trust Center at Johnson County Community College. The premiere follows an intensive two-week creative residency in the Wichita area, where Skarpetowska has been working with RKDC’s professional dancers at Midwest Dance Mechanix in Andover. After its conclusion on September 16, the company travels to Overland Park for technical rehearsals and performances. For Regina Klenjoski, the residency and premiere are also an opportunity to highlight the professional dance artists working in Wichita. "Part of what matters to me about this project is that the creative process is happening in our community," said Klenjoski, RKDC founder and artistic director. "We get to invite students and community members into that process through open rehearsals, and then our Wichita artists get to carry that work onto a larger regional stage." For RKDC, the project continues a long history of creating, commissioning and presenting contemporary dance in Kansas while connecting Wichita artists with audiences across Kansas. “New Dance Partners gives RKDC the opportunity to do what has always been central to our work: bring artists together, invest deeply in the creative process and build new dance right here in Wichita,” Klenjoski said. “Kate has brought a distinctive movement language and musicality into the studio, and our dancers have met that work with tremendous commitment, intelligence and artistry.” Performing Skarpetowska’s new work for RKDC are Rhiannon Vieyra, Elijah Richardson, William Clayton, Samantha Zimmerman and Lille Nightingale. Skarpetowska is a Juilliard graduate and former member of Parsons Dance and the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company. Her choreography has been commissioned by companies including BalletX, Richmond Ballet, Smuin Ballet, Parsons Dance, Repertory Dance Theatre and Ailey II. She was named one of Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch” in 2016 and was nominated for a New York Dance and Performance “Bessie” Award in 2017. She also serves as a repetiteur for the Lubovitch Foundation, staging works for companies including New York City Ballet, Houston Ballet, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and Martha Graham Dance Company. The company’s participation in New Dance Partners places RKDC alongside three other professional dance organizations commissioned to create new works for this year’s program. Now in its 14th year, New Dance Partners brings together professional dance companies and choreographers to create and premiere original works. This year’s program features four world premieres pairing Kansas City Ballet with Caili Quan, Owen/Cox Dance Group with Christopher Page-Sanders, Störling Dance Theater with Jennifer Owen, and Regina Klenjoski Dance Company with Katarzyna Skarpetowska. Regina Klenjoski Dance Company is a professional contemporary dance company led by celebrated choreographer Regina Klenjoski. Founded in Los Angeles in 2001 and based in Wichita since 2014, the company has a body of work spanning over two decades through original productions, commissions, artist residencies, interdisciplinary collaborations, educational programs and community-based projects. The company creates and presents contemporary dance, supports professional artists, and builds connections between dance and the communities it serves. RKDC’s work has received multi-year support from the National Endowment for the Arts, Mid-America Arts Alliance, Kansas Arts Commission and Wichita Arts Council. ### Performance Details **New Dance Partners: The Ultimate Collaboration** 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Sept. 18-19 Yardley Hall, Midwest Trust Center Johnson County Community College 12345 College Blvd. Overland Park, Kansas Tickets begin at $25 and are available through the Midwest Trust Center Box Office. _**Announcements** are submissions from arts and cultural organizations and community members. They are published at the discretion of SHOUT editors and may be lightly edited. Send press releases and other announcements to __emily@shoutwichita.com_ _._ * * * ## Support Kansas arts writing The SHOUT is a Wichita-based independent newsroom focused on artists living and working in Kansas. We're partly supported by the generosity of our readers, and every dollar we receive goes directly into the pocket of a contributing writer, editor, or photographer. Click here to support our work with a tax-deductible donation**.** Yes! I want to support the SHOUT ****Popular Reads**** ❋ Derby man has the kind of voice that turns heads — and chairs ❋ Socializing while sober: how some Wichitans are cultivating alcohol-free communities ❋ As a small creative business closes, the owner mourns❋ Painting through it: Autumn Noire on 20 years of making art❋ How a guy from Wichita resurrected 'Dawn of the Dead'❋ Bygone Friends University museum housed curious collections

After four years leading the Ulrich Museum of Art at Wichita State, Vivian Zavataro will depart for the Riverside Art Museum in southern California. Her last day is Friday. Marie Bukowski, dean of WSU’s College of Fine Arts, will serve as interim director. “She really turned the Ulrich around,” said Pam Bjork, the chair of the Ulrich Advisory Board. “She’s so vibrant. She engaged the community in a wide-ranging way, and we have been lucky to have her.” Zavataro’s tenure at the Ulrich has been defined by curatorial work aimed at audience engagement as well as attention to practical considerations, including plans for a new storage vault for the museum’s collection of more than 7,000 artworks. “That was definitely one of my main goals, to get the Ulrich more space so we can continue to collect the art of our time,” Zavataro said in an interview with The SHOUT. The original vault is about 800 square feet, which makes storage of the museum’s collection something of a puzzle, “like Tetris,” she said. And some works simply don’t fit at all: A monumental painting by Bob Motherwell, which is currently on loan, has been stored in the director’s office. ## Our free email newsletter is like having a friend who __always__ knows what's happening Get the scoop on the Kansas arts & culture scene: events, news, artist opportunities, and more. Free, weekly & worth your while. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. The majority of the museum’s permanent collection is currently on view in “Bare It All.” The sprawling salon-style exhibition opened August 27 and will be on view throughout the academic year. Zavataro said the plan is to transport the works to the new vault when the exhibition is de-installed next May. The new storage space, which the university is currently renovating, will be located in the Media Resources Center building near Ablah Library on the east side of the academic campus. “I'm really proud of ‘Bare It All’ and actually kind of relieved that it happened at this time because it would be up for a year, to give the team time to find the director that they want and without having to flip the galleries and come up with new programming,” Zavataro said. The exhibition schedule is set for the next three years, which should also ease the transition to new leadership, she said. The search for a new director will be the museum’s third since spring 2018. Prior to Zavataro’s arrival, Leslie Brothers was at the helm for less than four years. The Ulrich has had five other directors since its founding in 1974. The museum is also missing a permanent curator since Jo Reinert took a position with the city of Lancaster, California, more than a year ago. A search that took place earlier this year did not result in a hire. In an email statement, Bukowski, the interim director, said the Ulrich will continue to work with an interim curator until a new director is in place. Nevertheless, Zavataro sees the museum’s current staff as a major asset. “It's a really tight team, and I think that's our strength right now,” she said. “Keeping that team engaged … and also trusting them to do what they know how to do, is going to be key for the museum to keep moving forward.” The Ulrich Museum'a exterior features the Joan Miró mosaic "Personnages Oiseaux." The museum holds a permanent collection of more than 7,400 works of art. “We’re so lucky to have what we have here in the middle of Kansas,” said Vivian Zavataro, the outgoing director. (Courtesy/Wichita State University) ### A Midwestern Sojourn Zavataro’s final interview for the Ulrich directorship doubled as her first visit to the Midwest. Born and raised in Brazil, she came to Wichita from Reno, Nevada, where she led the Lilley Museum at the University of Nevada-Reno. A search firm hired by WSU contacted her about the Ulrich job, Zavataro said. The museum’s contemporary focus, its collection, and its annual acquisition budget of about $180,000 were all factors in her decision to take the position. Zavataro describes herself as a “passionate curator,” and during her time at the Ulrich she played an active role in exhibitions. Beginning in January 2024, she curated a series of participatory exhibitions as part of a project called the “Ulrich Co-Lab.” The project concluded with a larger capstone exhibition this past spring. The Ulrich Co-Lab worked with local artists to pair their work with items from the collection and asked museum visitors to give feedback on works in the collection — and even contribute their own objects for display. “I do know from data we collected that people trust the museum more than they did before,” Zavataro said. “We have more diversity in age … Students are more engaged.” She cited increased attendance and program participation as other accomplishments. Bjork also noted that Zavataro shepherded the museum through its reaccreditation with the American Alliance of Museums. Much of the Ulrich Museum of Art's permanent collection is on view in "Bare It All," which is installed floor-to-ceiling in the museum's three main galleries. (Emily Christensen/The SHOUT) ### The Next Chapter Zavataro’s new position as executive director of the Riverside Art Museum will put her in charge of a much larger staff and offer a challenge she relishes: creating connections between two very different collections. The museum was founded in the 1960s, but four years ago it partnered with the city of Riverside and entertainer and noted art collector Cheech Marin to create the Cheech Marin Center of Chicano Art & Culture, which is housed in a separate building. “That for me was really super exciting, thinking about the possibilities and the exhibitions that we could do with that collection,” Zavataro said. Her master’s thesis was “how to make sense of two collections that are very different.” “I’m really excited about marrying the two (collections),” she said. But she also treasures her time in Wichita. “I've lived in a lot of places, and I think this was the first time that I felt so welcome,” Zavataro said. She said she’ll miss working with the Ulrich staff, whom she considers friends, and the museum collection, which includes a Joan Mitchell painting and a photograph by Ayana V. Jackson that rank among her favorites Her other favorite things about Wichita include the sky, the storms, its abundance of Lebanese food, and the arts community. “I think we're really lucky to be in a place where everybody's so supportive of each other,” she said. “It's a very collaborative bunch, which is not the case in every city.” Leaving “is bittersweet,” she said, “but it’s time for the next adventure.” Bjork, the chair of the Ulrich Advisory Board, echoed that sentiment. “It’s bittersweet that she’s leaving, but we’re thrilled that this opportunity came along. It’s a big move for her.” * * * _**Emily Christensen** is one of the co-founders of The SHOUT. She is a past fellow of the National Critics Institute at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center and a recipient of an Arts Writing Grant from The Andy Warhol Foundation. Send her a message: _ _emily@shoutwichita.com_ _._ ****Popular Reads**** ❋ Derby man has the kind of voice that turns heads — and chairs ❋ Socializing while sober: how some Wichitans are cultivating alcohol-free communities ❋ As a small creative business closes, the owner mourns❋ Painting through it: Autumn Noire on 20 years of making art❋ How a guy from Wichita resurrected 'Dawn of the Dead'❋ Bygone Friends University museum housed curious collections ## Support Kansas arts writing The SHOUT is a Wichita-based independent newsroom focused on artists living and working in Kansas. We're partly supported by the generosity of our readers, and every dollar we receive goes directly into the pocket of a contributing writer, editor, or photographer. Click here to support our work with a tax-deductible donation**.** Yes! I want to support the SHOUT

_The following announcement is based on a press release from the Land Institute._ SALINA — Commissioned to mark the 50th Anniversary of The Land Institute, acclaimed environmental artist Jenny Kendler and a team of ecologists have embarked on the creation of "House of Water," a multi-year, living eco-art installation blending contemporary art, Great Plains history, and active ecological restoration. Located at the publicly accessible 200-acre Marty Bender Nature Area near The Land Institute’s headquarters in Salina, Kansas, "House of Water _"_ takes the ghost shape of an iconic settler sod house with a goal of radically inverting its purpose. Rather than a symbol of prairie destruction and colonial land control, the architectural footprint is being designed to welcome water, rather than human settlers, and to dissolve over time, transforming back into a functional, ephemeral wetland. Kansas' prairie wildlife is at the core of this eco-art installation. (Courtesy/The Land Institute) The installation invites both human and non-human visitors to linger, acting as a sanctuary for water and returning prairie plants and wildlife, which will hopefully include amphibian species and fairy shrimp. Beyond its physical site, the living artwork will also capture multimedia audio and visual recordings, bringing the sights and sounds of prairie restoration to museum exhibitions and remote audiences nationwide. "Through 'House of Water,' we are asking what it means to actively deconstruct the legacy of extraction," Kendler said. "By allowing the ghost-architecture of a settler dwelling to literally melt back into the earth as a healing gesture, we are shifting the narrative from one of human dominance to ecological repair. The project is both a sculptural work of land art and also a multi-year project for ecological restoration — an interdisciplinary collaboration that invites native biodiversity to return to formerly cultivated lands." The artwork works to challenge the boundaries between traditional arts administration, community engagement, and scientific research. Kendler is collaborating with The Land Institute’s staff, including land relations research manager Christopher Reimer, incoming senior land stewardship technician Cedar Van Tassel, independent plant ecologist Jennifer Moody, and Tallgrass Artist Residency founder Kelly Yarbrough, along with ongoing contributions from local community volunteers. Together, they will steward the site as "an embodied expression of perennial care." "For half a century, our work has focused on building new ways forward for agriculture and culture, grounded in scientific inquiry and the place-based arts and humanities," said Aubrey Streit Krug, director of the Perennial Cultures Lab at The Land Institute. "'House of Water' beautifully embodies our commitment to long-term learning. Human hands in community can practice creative repair, inviting us to rethink our relationship with the prairie." The project’s launch coincides with Prairie Festival 2026: 50 Years of Perennial Possibilities, The Land Institute's milestone 50th anniversary celebration. Long described as an "intellectual hootenanny" where art, music, food, and science collide, the festival will give attendees a firsthand look at this intersection of cultural heritage and environmental action. Members of the public, regional arts patrons, and the news media are invited to participate in creating and celebrating the physical artwork at Marty Bender Nature Area in a series of community days and events: * **September 25-27:** Prairie Festival 2026: 50 Years of Perennial Possibilities - Featuring artist installations, keynote talks, live music, perennial foods, and research field tours celebrating The Land Institute's 50th anniversary. * **Ongoing:** Community Days at The Land Institute with "House of Water" – Check the events calendar for the schedule. For the project description and Kendler’s artist’s statement, visit "House of Water" on The Land Institute’s website. Jenny Kendler (b. 1980, New York City) is an interdisciplinary artist, environmental activist, naturalist, and wild forager who lives in Chicago and various forests. Her work is informed by her experiences as a queer, Jewish ecofeminist and single parent. From 2014 to 2024, she was the first Artist-in-Residence with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). She is an organizer with Artists for Chicago and a founding member of Artists Commit, an artist-led initiative to cultivate climate consciousness in the art world. She serves on the Board of Directors of the global climate organization 350.org, the artist residency ACRE, and Arts First, which launched in 2026 as Chicago's first community arts fund. She also directs the artist website platform People’s Pixels. The Land Institute is leading a global movement to transform agriculture and secure a sustainable future for all. They develop perennial crops and advocate for systems that work with nature to feed humanity and repair our environment. They collaborate with farmers, scientists, and with the plants themselves to evolve humanity’s relationship with the earth: from taking to sharing; from depletion to restoration. The Land Institute is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded in 1976 in Salina, Kansas, USA. * * * _**Announcements** are submissions from arts and cultural organizations and community members. They are published at the discretion of SHOUT editors and may be lightly edited. Send press releases and other announcements to __emily@shoutwichita.com_ _._ ****Popular Reads**** ❋ Derby man has the kind of voice that turns heads — and chairs ❋ Socializing while sober: how some Wichitans are cultivating alcohol-free communities ❋ As a small creative business closes, the owner mourns❋ Painting through it: Autumn Noire on 20 years of making art❋ How a guy from Wichita resurrected 'Dawn of the Dead'❋ Bygone Friends University museum housed curious collections ## Support Kansas arts writing The SHOUT is a Wichita-based independent newsroom focused on artists living and working in Kansas. We're partly supported by the generosity of our readers, and every dollar we receive goes directly into the pocket of a contributing writer, editor, or photographer. Click here to support our work with a tax-deductible donation**.** Yes! I want to support the SHOUT

Services are scarce for Wichita adults who have low literacy. While there are services for children who struggle to learn in school, adults who are unable to read either find ways around it or fall through the cracks. Nearly 20% of adults in Sedgwick County test at a Level 1 literacy or below. Level 1 literacy is described as “a level associated with difficulty interpreting simple written information and completing everyday reading tasks.” “(In Wichita) there are adult education programs out there for people who don’t have their high school diploma, but beyond that, there isn’t anyone who’s helping adults who don’t know how to read,” said Savannah Ball, the Literacy Services Manager at the Wichita Public Library. The Wichita Journalism Collaborative has dedicated its new initiative to researching the adult literacy crisis and discovering where resources are needed in the community. The collaborative is a coalition of 11 newsrooms and community groups, including The Wichita Eagle and the Wichita Public Library. The library interviewed several community organizations during its strategic agenda process in 2024. It found that some of these organizations, such as food banks or recovery centers, were struggling to do their jobs because some adults in need of food or housing resources lacked basic reading skills to fill out intake forms. “Yes, we understand if you can’t read, you can’t read a book,” Ball said. “But do we understand that if you can’t read, you can’t complete a voting ballot or know to take the right amount of medicine that your doctor prescribed you?” Raising awareness about literacy struggles is the first step of the collaborative’s new initiative, “Beyond Words: Wichita’s Reading Crisis.” As part of that, the collaborative invites the public to a kickoff event this month to explore the literacy crisis. The event is scheduled for September 17 from 6 to 7:30 p.m at The Advanced Learning Library, 711 W. 2nd St. Staff from the Phillips Fundamental Learning Center and the Wichita Public Library will facilitate simulations that make participants experience how stressful school can be for someone with dyslexia, dysgraphia and other learning challenges. “These simulations put you in the shoes of somebody who has a neurodiversity – it really makes you more empathetic,” said Jill Hodge, the Andeel Teacher Literacy Institute Facilitator at Phillips. The learning center is a nonprofit that supports children with dyslexia and other learning challenges. Parents whose students are enrolled in the center’s Rolph Literacy Academy are required to experience one of the simulations. “I hear people say often, ‘Oh my gosh, I was so hard on my child. I called them lazy, and now I realize that it was all because of dyslexia,’ or it was all because of ADHD, or all because of some type of neurodiversity, and that it wasn’t their fault,” said Hodge. Some adults have realized after the simulations that they struggled in school in the same way, Hodge said, and never knew why. One of the simulations at the kickoff event will imitate submitting a job application when the participant cannot read. Members of the Wichita Journalism Collaborative and staff from Phillips Fundamental Learning Center also will provide data they have collected on literacy. Registration is not required, but it is encouraged to ensure space for everyone. To register, click here. To find more information about the event and to follow along with the Collaborative’s coverage of the topic, visit wichitajournalism.org. * * * **_Loren Amelunke_** is The Wichita Eagle’s intern. Loren is a senior at Wichita State University and was the summer 2024 intern for the Wichita Journalism Collaborative. ****Popular Reads**** ❋ Derby man has the kind of voice that turns heads — and chairs ❋ Socializing while sober: how some Wichitans are cultivating alcohol-free communities ❋ As a small creative business closes, the owner mourns❋ Painting through it: Autumn Noire on 20 years of making art❋ How a guy from Wichita resurrected 'Dawn of the Dead'❋ Bygone Friends University museum housed curious collections ## Support Kansas arts writing The SHOUT is a Wichita-based independent newsroom focused on artists living and working in Kansas. We're partly supported by the generosity of our readers, and every dollar we receive goes directly into the pocket of a contributing writer, editor, or photographer. Click here to support our work with a tax-deductible donation**.** Yes! I want to support the SHOUT

_The following announcement is based on a press release from the Red Barn Studio Museum._ LINDSBORG — On Saturday, September 26, the Red Barn Studio Museum will host the second Poetry at the Barn, a daylong celebration of poetry featuring workshops, lunch, and a public reading to wrap up the event. Three poets will spend the day at the Red Barn, each leading a workshop and reading their own work during an early evening program open to the public. The featured poets include Caleb Braun, assistant professor of English at Bethany College; Huascar Medina, Kansas poet laureate emeritus (2019-2022) and an Academy of American Poets laureate fellow; and Jasmine Khaliq, a Ph.D. candidate in English and creative writing at the University of Utah. Each poet will guide a unique workshop designed to inspire writers of all experience levels. Participants will spend the day writing, connecting, and sharing ideas. Lunch is included as part of the registration. Caleb Braun, Hauscar Medina, and Jasmine Khaliq are the featured poets for an upcoming literary event at the Red Barn Studio Museum. (Courtesy) The day will conclude with a free and open to the public poetry reading at 4 p.m. on the front lawn of the Red Barn Studio Museum, 212 S. Main St. in Lindsborg. Workshop participants will have the option to share a poem they created during the day, followed by readings from Braun, Medina, and Khaliq. Workshop registration is required; the registration deadline is September 21. The cost is $15 per workshop or $30 to attend two or more. Students may register for $10 and are asked to bring a student ID to the event. Lunch is included for all registered participants. You can find the registration link here. The Lindsborg Arts Council and Red Barn Studio Museum are sponsors for this event. For more details, including the full schedule, poet bios, and workshop descriptions, visit www.redbarnstudio.org. * * * _**Announcements** are submissions from arts and cultural organizations and community members. They are published at the discretion of SHOUT editors and may be lightly edited. Send press releases and other announcements to __emily@shoutwichita.com_ _._ ****Popular Reads**** ❋ Derby man has the kind of voice that turns heads — and chairs ❋ Socializing while sober: how some Wichitans are cultivating alcohol-free communities ❋ As a small creative business closes, the owner mourns❋ Painting through it: Autumn Noire on 20 years of making art❋ How a guy from Wichita resurrected 'Dawn of the Dead'❋ Bygone Friends University museum housed curious collections ## Support Kansas arts writing The SHOUT is a Wichita-based independent newsroom focused on artists living and working in Kansas. We're partly supported by the generosity of our readers, and every dollar we receive goes directly into the pocket of a contributing writer, editor, or photographer. Click here to support our work with a tax-deductible donation**.** Yes! I want to support the SHOUT

_Editor's note: This story was produced as part of "Beyond Words: Wichita's Reading Crisis," a new initiative by the_ Wichita Journalism Collaborative_exploring adult literacy in the Wichita area._ Imagine you work in a meatpacking plant and operate heavy machinery. But the safety labels on those machines look like gibberish. Your chances of getting injured are suddenly much higher. Hector Martinez, director of adult education for the Kansas Board of Regents, saw that play out in Garden City. He said being able to read plays a direct role in people's ability to develop other skills. “If we don’t have an adult able to read, they’re not going to understand math because math starts with some reading and comprehension,” Martinez said. Almost one in five adults in Kansas read without understanding the meaning of the words, according to a 2017 study by the federal government. The technical term is “functionally illiterate.” That means a large percentage of adults can decipher letters and even read simple words. But they can’t read well enough to understand instruction manuals, healthcare forms or safety warnings. In Garden City, Martinez said, workers who took English acquisition classes or GED diploma courses greatly reduced their risk of getting hurt on the job. Learning to read and comprehend also meant they could follow a recipe, read medicine labels, fill out a job application, and understand road signs to get around without help. “At the end of the day, it’s the ability to function in society through numeracy, literacy, and now technology,” said Shaketta Thomas, president of the Coalition on Adult Basic Education. ### Defining adult literacy At its core, adult literacy is functional literacy, Thomas said. But adult education aims to teach people something more. A prospective student uses a translator on her phone to fill out enrollment forms at NexStep Alliance, Sedgwick County's adult education center. (Zachary Ruth/KMUW) The U.S. Department of Education and Kansas Board of Regents puts adult education under the umbrella of workforce development. Its focus is helping people develop essential skills, including financial and digital literacy, and earn key credentials, Martinez said. Without a high school diploma, job prospects are scarce. It’s a reality facing one in 12 Kansans, according to data from the 2024 American Community Survey. Martinez added that alongside GED certification classes, “contextualized learning” allows people to develop math and reading skills for a specific career. For immigrants and refugees, adult education may also include English as a second language courses. Chrissy Unruh, a teacher at the Wichita International Language and Learning Center and Butler Community College, said classes include information on how American systems work. “It's also writing, and then workplace literacy — helping them, especially on the immigrant and refugee side, just better understand American culture, what’s expected from them in the workplace, in the classroom, how they can help their kids at home,” Thomas, with the national nonprofit Coalition on Adult Basic Education, added that people who are incarcerated and enroll in GED and work certification programs reduce their likelihood of going back to prison. “We give them not just a second chance, but a new way of living,” she said. ### Accessing adult education The challenge for literacy advocates is reaching people who can’t read. Promotional flyers and other text-based marketing strategies don’t work, so they depend on word-of-mouth. Nicholas Lynch hands in enrollment forms at NexStep Alliance. He plans to take classes to earn his GED diploma. (Zachary Ruth/KMUW) “The community finds adult education when they need (it),” Martinez said. “If someone in the community needs a high school diploma, they’re gonna find adult education. If someone needs to go and learn English, they will find the center.” Nicholas Lynch sought out Sedgwick County’s adult education center, NexStep Alliance, because it was known as “the place to go” to get a GED diploma. Lynch has learned six different trades in his lifetime. He cut trees. He laid concrete. He welded, landscaped and repaired HVAC systems. Now he’s a carpenter. “While that’s good, and I have at least learned something, that doesn’t put that piece of paper in my hand, which then allows my personal economy to kind of raise itself,” Lynch said. “I stay capped.” It’s hard to find jobs that pay more than $24 an hour, he said. This year, Lynch challenged himself to complete the “hardest thing (he’s) ever done” — get that vital piece of paper, his GED diploma. More education will open doors, he said. “It’ll open up my jobs, thus opening up my wallet, thus opening up my opportunities with my kids, thus opening more opportunities for a relationship,” he said. Lynch takes evening classes at NexStep so he can also keep working full time. That’s common for many adult students, said NexStep Director Yamir Lozada. He said the goal is to meet students where they are. “It’s all about trying to do our best to flex and accommodate the Wichitans that we have here, whether they’re working first, second, or third shift,” Lozada said. “We understand it’s hard work, and we want to do the best thing we can do to listen and provide them guidance and help.” Pictures of past classes and tassels sit in the lobby of Goodwill Industries NexStep Alliance on July 27. (Zachary Ruth/KMUW) NexStep’s academic year aligns with the Wichita school district's calendar to help parents get childcare, Lozada said. Another common barrier, he said, is transportation. The adult education center has spots for just over 1,000 students, new and returning. During a four-day enrollment event in July, 438 new students, including Lynch, joined NexStep. The organization has four campuses across north, south and east Wichita. Some campuses are more popular than others, creating waitlists for their seats, Lozada said. Prospective students can get off the waitlist if an enrolled student doesn’t attend class. They can also choose to attend a different campus. The only other option is for people to attend the next enrollment period, Lozada added. ### Funding challenges Across Kansas, adult education classrooms are full and waitlists are extensive, said Martinez, with the Board of Regents. In fiscal year 2024, more than 500 students never made it off a waitlist because adult learning centers lacked funds to expand programming, according to a Board of Regents report. Part of expanding programs is adding more staff. Statewide, there are 450 people who work in the adult education system. Only 150 are teachers, and many work part-time, Martinez said. The rest are administrators, support staff or volunteers. NexStep has 40 classroom instructors, and all are part-time. Many also work full time as K-12 teachers for Wichita Public Schools. Adult education is often overlooked, Martinez said. A big reason is funding, he added. The 18 adult education centers in Kansas will get less than $1.6 million in state funding during the 2026-27 school year — that’s around 0.03% of the $6.2 billion Kansas spent on K-12 schools that year. With federal funding, adult education will get just over $6 million total. The Board of Regents has requested a $1 million increase in state funding for adult education over the past few years, citing the overwhelming need for adult classes and the payoff for students. The state has yet to give it to them. Kansas ranks second among all states for academic and technical success through adult education, according to a Board of Regents report. But during the 2024-25 school year, it ranked 44th for state funding. Martinez said adult education centers must diversify their funding sources. At NexStep, the cost to students in the GED diploma or ESL programs is a $50 supply fee. Everything else is covered, primarily by federal grants and Goodwill Industries, the organization that runs NexStep in collaboration with WSU Tech. Lozada said funding and more awareness about the importance of adult literacy are key to helping people access adult education. “Adult literacy in general is something that needs to continue … to be supported, because we’re doing a lot,” he said. “There’s a lot of need, not just here in Wichita, not just in Sedgwick County, but in the state and the nation.” * * * _**Anavi Prakash** is the 2026 Korva Coleman Journalism intern at KMUW, 89.1 FM. She is passionate about telling immersive stories through the combination of text, audio, video and photo. Anavi is a rising senior at Northwestern University studying journalism and social policy. She currently serves as editor-in-chief of The Daily Northwestern._ ****Popular Reads**** ❋ Derby man has the kind of voice that turns heads — and chairs ❋ Socializing while sober: how some Wichitans are cultivating alcohol-free communities ❋ As a small creative business closes, the owner mourns❋ Painting through it: Autumn Noire on 20 years of making art❋ How a guy from Wichita resurrected 'Dawn of the Dead'❋ Bygone Friends University museum housed curious collections ## Support Kansas arts writing The SHOUT is a Wichita-based independent newsroom focused on artists living and working in Kansas. We're partly supported by the generosity of our readers, and every dollar we receive goes directly into the pocket of a contributing writer, editor, or photographer. Click here to support our work with a tax-deductible donation**.** Yes! I want to support the SHOUT