Matt Seidel
This story appears in our 2020 A-List feature.
MOST ENTERPRISING COMEDIAN
Yale Hollander
We like comedian Yale Hollander because he gave the Loop Trolley a new life as a rolling comedy club (before it eventually succumbed to bankruptcy—and then Hollander joked that it was the comedians who did it in). We love Hollander because he sees the possibility of comedy everywhere, and for every set he performs, he creates an opportunity for five more comedians by hosting his own showcases. When the novel coronavirus hit, Hollander became Today in St. Louis’ humor correspondent, proof that laughter can be a balm in a worst-case scenario.
BEST USE OF BRASS
The Red and Black Brass Band
In Italy, the quarantined took to their balconies to sing. In NYC, denizens of the five boroughs clap every evening at 7, during shift change at the hospitals, to thank health care workers. In St. Louis, we have The Red and Black Brass Band, playing in the streets of Tower Grove South to boost our camaraderie. Every few days during the stay-at-home order, roomies Dominique Burton (trombone) and Benjamin Kosberg (tuba) grabbed their instruments, picked a direction, and set out to lift their neighbors’ spirits.
BEST ADDITION TO THE GRAND CENTER ARTS DISTRICT
The High Low
What’s on our to-do list when we return to the before-times? Attend a reading at The High Low, the literary destination that the Kranzberg Arts Foundation opened in 2019. Or take in an exhibit in the 600-square-foot gallery space. Or simply settle into the café with one of the works from the rotating library, a cup of joe from Blueprint Coffee in hand.
BEST NEW NONFICTION BOOK
Hiding in Plain Sight: The Invention of Donald Trump and the Erosion of America
It feels a little empty to congratulate journalist Sarah Kendzior for how all of her predictions about the Trump presidency were spot-on. She didn’t want to be right, after all. So instead we’ll laud her for her newest book, doggedly researched and masterfully written, which traces the series of events that led to Trump’s candidacy, beginning in the 1980s. The chapters in which Kendzior writes of the hope she holds for future generations are one of the bright spots of our 2020.
Kevin A. Roberts
BIG IMPACT
Big George Brock
You knew him by his voice: deep, throaty, singing about the hard times. When Big George Brock died in April, at age 87, it was a loss not only to the local blues scene but also to the very culture of our city. Brock, who grew up in a sharecropping family in Mississippi and arrived in St. Louis in 1950, certainly knew about hardship. He was pulled from school at age 8 to work in the fields. Still, he made a life of performing: He operated a series of clubs in St. Louis and shared the stage with acts including Muddy Waters, Albert King, Little Milton, and Jimmy Reed. He was also the subject of the 2006 documentary Hard Times. Now, we find new meaning in his lyrics, including the song that shares a name with his documentary: “Talk about hard times, y’all don’t know what a hard time is.”
BEST PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBIT
International Photography Hall of Fame
A well-spent $5 grants virtual admission to “Masterworks,” a 360-degree view of more than 50 works by such photographers as Ansel Adams, Margaret Bourke-White, and Alfred Stieglitz. COVID-19 may have slowed some operations, but it’s only emboldened IPHF to speed up moving its exhibits and programs online for all to access.
THOUGHT-PROVOKING NEW DOCUMENTARY
33 and Counting
In the documentary 33 and Counting, St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist and filmmaker Aisha Sultan examines the life of Missouri’s oldest incarcerated woman, 70-year-old Patty Prewitt. More than true crime, Sultan reveals the humanity of her subject: her fears, her triumphs. By the end of the film, you’re left wondering: Why is Prewitt still locked up?
BEST YOUTH PROGRAMMING
St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra
Two special concerts showcasing the SLSYO were canceled because of COVID-19, but its 50th anniversary isn’t any less significant. Founded by Leonard Slatkin, the youth orchestra selects 100 talented musicians each year. Its members represent more than 40 schools, and it’s turned out more than 2,000 alumni, including seven in the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra.
BEST DOCUMENTARY ABOUT A FORMER LOCAL LEADER
St. Louis Superman
This powerful documentary traces the path of former Ferguson protester and state representative Bruce Franks. The 25-minute short, which was nominated for an Oscar this year, shows how Franks copes with the loss of his brother to gun violence, a trauma he must face to become a leader.
BEST NEW PRINTSHOP
Grafik House
We love Grafik House, the new offshoot of Tom Hück’s Evil Prints, because it’s one of the only places where you can plop down $5 for a zine or $200 for a print from an ever-changing selection of works by local and national artists. The print facility in the back of the shop means it’s also contributing to the next generation of printmakers in St. Louis, with residencies that provide 24-hour access to the facility and a press assistant.
BEST NEW STORYTELLING VENUE
Blue Strawberry Showroom & Lounge
St. Louis has a rich history of cabaret, but we love Blue Strawberry because it includes not only your typical nightclub acts but also any artist who tells a story, be it in the vein of R&B, blues, or rock and roll. The intimate venue and food by chef Kevin Sthair don’t hurt, either.
BEST NEW FICTION BOOK
Topics of Conversation
Wash. U. grad Miranda Popkey’s debut novel explores power, desire, and sexuality through the discussions of an unnamed narrator. The New Yorker compared it to Sally Rooney’s Conversations With Friends and Normal People. Popkey had us hooked with this line: “I was reading Plath’s journals that summer because I was twenty-one and daffy with sensation.” We can relate.
Kevin A. Roberts
BEST NEW LIBRARY INITIATIVE
No Late Fees
If libraries represent truth and knowledge, then step one to making those equitable for all is removing the barriers to visiting them. The decision by the St. Louis County Library and St. Louis Public Library to stop charging fines for late materials was a win for accessibility across the region.
BEST ANIMATED SHORT
“Hair Love”
When “Hair Love,” a six-minute film that celebrates black hair by showing a father learning how to style his daughter’s hair for the first time, won the Oscar for Best Animated Short, it was one of the greatest feel-good moments in recent Academy Awards history. That Lion Forge, the media company founded by David Steward II, was one of the film’s producers was even sweeter. Up next? Lion Forge is teaming up with Starlight Culture Entertainment for a film about the pandemic and its impact on people and nature.
MOST ANTICIPATED FESTIVAL
St. Louis Shakespeare Festival
While we waited for Much Ado About Nothing, August 12–September 6, the fest launched ShakespeareTV, streaming everything from quarantined actors reciting favorite Shakespeare lines from bed (Shakespeare in the Sheets, a play on the popular Shakespeare in the Streets) to Zoom performances by the Shakespeare Squadron. The New York Times called SFSL’s performance of Cymbeline a “cut-to-the-chase adaptation of the text” that frames “the play so lucidly that even the newest of Shakespeare novices will have no trouble orienting themselves amid its myriad complexities.”
CUTTING-EDGE GALLERY
Walker-Cunningham Fine Art
Sarah B. Cunningham may be running the most intimate art gallery in St. Louis out of her Central West End home. With that come the challenges of scheduling viewings around family life. So when social distancing nixed the opening reception of the pop-up exhibition “Bipolar Holiday: Kyoto Girls. New Work by Daniel Jefferson,” Cunningham made the whole thing available online—one of the first galleries we’ve heard of doing so.
BEST USE OF ZOOM & ALCOHOL
We Are Live!
Before any of us was living the Zoom life, one St. Louisan had perfected the art of live entertainment by way of video feed: Chris Denman, co-founder of Mid Coast Media and the host of the We Are Live! podcast. So when he launched the We Are Live! Virtual Happy Hour with STL Barkeep in March, showcasing comedians, musicians, and inventive cocktails with common ingredients, it was the perfect way to give us what we need: entertainment and a stiff drink.
BEST QUARANTINE PLAYLIST
Terry Adkins
Music is everywhere in the work of the late artist Terry Adkins—in the welded-together sousaphones of Nenuphar and the stacked bass drums of Muffled Drums. So when the Pulitzer Arts Foundation had to postpone the opening of “Terry Adkins: Resounding,” an exhibit encompassing 30 years of the artist’s work, because of COVID-19, the museum instead created a Spotify playlist of jazz and blues musicians who’d inspired Adkins. Add to that a reading list about the artist, as well as selections from his book collection.
