Photography by The Big Muddy Dance CompanyMatt Marcinkowski, courtesy of Saint Louis Art Museum, JULY 2019 STLMAG.COM (^) þø
MOST ST. LOUIS DANCE
PERFORMANCE EVER
The Big Muddy Dance
Company’s Lemp
Legends: A Ghost Story
Dance can be captivating, but
it’s even better when it’s enter-
taining...and more interesting
when it involves ghosts. Enter
The Big Muddy Dance Com-
pany, in particular this year’s
performance of Lemp Legends:
A Ghost Story, which told the
tale of St. Louis’ most tragic and
mysterious family while steering
clear of tabloid salaciousness.
thebigmuddydanceco.org.
NEW PROGRAMMING
Shakespeare Festival
St. Louis’ In the Works
Audiences have never been able
to get enough of Shakespeare
Festival St. Louis—we’ve got
a thing for the Bard. Produc-
tions in Forest Park and the
streets have paved the way for
the festival’s most ambitious
project yet: In the Works pres-
ents contemporary American
plays inspired by Shakespeare’s
beloved classics, kicking off
with Into the Breeches! We can’t
wait to see what this season will
bring. sfstl.com.
ORIGINAL WORK
The Black Rep’s
Canfield Drive
At its best, theater provokes
us to examine ourselves and
our world with fresh eyes. And
what’s more worth a (painful)
look than racism and our com-
plicated responses to it? The
Black Rep commissioned a work
to sort through the still-raw
fallout from the killing of black
teenager Michael Brown by a
white police officer in Ferguson
in 2014. Canfield Drive’s emo-
tional punch comes in the form
of two journalists covering the
subsequent events through dif-
ferent lenses. 6662 Olive.
LOCAL COMEDIAN
Rafe Williams
If you’ve been to The Improv
Shop, you’ve probably seen
Williams—either generously
“yes, and”-ing fellow impro-
visers or convulsing the room
during one of his hilarious solo
sets featuring his earthy takes
on life. When Nashville label
800 Pound Gorilla came call-
ing to record his first album, he
persuaded them to do it at The
Improv Shop. rafewilliams.com.
BLOCKBUSTER ART EXHIBIT
SLAM’s ‘Kehinde
Wiley: Saint Louis’
In most of the country, Wiley is
known for painting the official
portrait of Barack Obama, but
here, he’s known for creating
an exhibition of his classically
posed large-scale portraits
with city residents as models.
The show, at the Saint Louis
Art Museum, was a love letter
to our city—and the feeling was
mutual. 1 Fine Arts.
ANTICIPATED
SECOND COLLECTION
Justin Phillip Reed
Reed blazed onto the poetry
scene with his National Book
Award–winning volume Inde-
cency in 2018, following his 2016
chapbook A History of Flam-
boyance. The self-described
“three-time high school expel-
lee” received an MFA in poetry
from Washington University.
His poems run sex and sexual-
ity, race, and literary allusion
through his muscular and invig-
orating verses. A follow-up, The
Malevolent Volume, is set for a
spring 2020 release. justin
phillipreed.com.
TRAILBLAZING
PHOTOGRAPHER
Jess T. Dugan
Dugan’s intimate portraits
delve into a dizzying array of
private worlds. The work exam-
ines gender and identity, and
the mindfulness that goes into
the relationships Dugan forges
with her subjects is obvious in
the raw access they provide.
Her groundbreaking work with
aging transgender and
gender-nonconforming people,
To Survive on This Shore—on
which she worked with Vanessa
Fabbre, a social worker and
assistant professor at Wash.
U.—gives voice and visibility to
living history. jessdugan.com.
wang
(Wang)
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