Hey Omaha,
First off, hope everyone is safe after last night’s storm. A few of Flatwater’s staff were at North O’s Charles B. Washington library when the storm hit. We promptly canceled our event and huddled into the community space with a dozen others to wait it out.
Luckily that gave us time to finish today’s story about a different crisis.
The State of Nebraska has spent nearly $5 million, money earmarked to combat poverty, on a program to support crisis pregnancy centers. To people who believe in the program, it’s helping extremely vulnerable pregnant people and new parents by offering material assistance and mentorship. Others say these organizations’ sole focus is stopping abortions and they’re making it harder for people to get accurate information in the state’s 12-week abortion ban window.
Nearly $2 million of the money went to centers around Omaha, including next door to the last two clinics that provide abortions in the entire state. That pink house on 38th and Dodge streets that you’ve probably driven past is also in the network.
Despite being created by some heavy hitters in state government, the program’s seen little to no public debate. Our story shed a little light on how some organizations are using the money, which now includes state and federal funds, but there’s still a lot of questions.
Read our story here (our click the image above)
— Chris Bowling, Flatwater Free Press
Omahomies! This August we’re “Mixin’ It Up,” experiencing ethereal spaces and exploring artists’ cultural heritages in the Omaha art scene.
Mixin’ it up! / Art Fluid Open Studios Night
August starts off with the third annual Mixin’ It Up! exhibition organized by Shawnequa Linder and her crew in Studio 315. This exhibition gets bigger every year and features visual arts, live music, fashion and design. This year coincides with the Hot Shops Art Center’s Art Fluid Open Studios night! *Full disclosure, I am among the artists featured in the exhibit.*
– When: Exhibit reception on Friday, Aug. 2, 5-8 p.m.; Gallery is open Monday-
Friday 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Saturday 11 a.m.-5 p.m.
– Where: Hot Shops Art Center, 1301 Nicholas St.
Kori Archbold: Denmark by Process — One Year Later
Link Gallery + Workshop in the Blackstone Mansion is Omaha’s only gallery dedicated to the exhibition, education and practice of all photographic processes. This month, they feature member artist Kori Archbold, who explores her heritage and travels to Denmark through digital prints, salt prints and cyanotypes.
Brooke Sperry: Corrosion – An abstract study
While you’re at the Blackstone Mansion, check out the latest exhibition in the CommonSpace Gallery where Sperry’s oil paintings depict the patina of time, oxidation and rust. They’re incredibly skilled works that at first seem abstract but are based on the artist’s own photographs of everyday metal surfaces.
– When: Opening reception on Friday, Aug. 2, 6:30-9:30 p.m.; gallery hours
by appointment.
– Where: Blackstone Mansion, Lower Level 1, 144 S. 39th St.
NAVIGATIONS: Nathaniel Ruleaux
Oglala Lakota artist Nathaniel Ruleaux returns to Omaha with his latest exhibition NAVIGATIONS. Ruleaux expresses his indigenous identity, history and culture through traditional mediums like painting, drawing and ceramics but now compliments his practice with digital photography and animation.
– When: Until Aug. 24, Tuesday-Thursday 1-8 p.m., Friday-Saturday 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
– Where: The Union for Contemporary Art, 2423 N. 24th St.
ALL THAT WE CANNOT SEE: Casey Callahan & Marlon Kroll
I saved my personal favorite for last. This is an experience as much as it’s an exhibit. Omaha-based Callahan, known for her paintings, powerfully transforms the space through subtle installation work, creating a sublime environment to display the intimate geometric paintings of Montreal-based Kroll. This exhibition gave me all the feels! In the best way.
– When: Until Sept. 7, Thursday-Saturday 1-6 p.m. and by appointment.
– Where: Baader-Meinhof, 2001 Vinton St.
— Bart Vargas is a visual artist, educator and advocate based in Omaha, Nebraska. He publishes a weekly list of local arts, culture and entertainment events on social media, and operates an international studio with his wife Bekah Jerde.
The burgers laid in clumps before me. A sludge of peanut butter and egg yolk covered my fingers as the seconds tick by.
If you’ve been following along these past few weeks, you’ll remember I’ve been trying to best the Stellanator: a six-patty cheeseburger held together with bacon, eggs and peanut butter. The experts I interviewed ahead of the challenge last Thursday had a lot of great advice that I tested.
The night before the challenge I set out to eat 4 pounds of cabbage to stretch my stomach. I ate a quarter of one head. Turns out, I’m not a fan of the raw taste and it’s deceptively difficult to chew. Embarrassed, I tried compensating with water. After three cups worth — the jumbo souvenir cups from the zoo to be exact — my stomach felt stretched.
“Why are you doing this again?” my girlfriend asked as she surveyed my incapacitated figure.
“Had I bitten off more than I could chew?” I wondered. “Did hubris taste like a mouthful of raw cabbage?”
The next day the Flatwater crew crowded into Stella’s. I sat at one end of the table and managing editor Ryan Hoffman, who’d also be doing the challenge, sat on the other. Ryan said to prepare he ran a few miles before. I forgot my experts had advised exercising. I did 20 pushups outside to be safe.
Then the burgers arrived. Grease dripped from the crisp bacon, not unlike dew from a leaf in a calm morning.
The timer started and I followed the advice I’d received for attacking the burger. I disassembled it before sandwiching the six eggs between the buns. Greasy peanut butter is messy but much easier to eat. I slowly downed patties, bacon and fries until I was probably 80% through the challenge. I saw light at the end of the tunnel.
Then the full force of the Stellanator settled into my stomach. Ryan and I were both physically unable to continue with about 10 minutes left.
When I thought about the last person I wanted to interview for this series, I considered a grief counselor who could help me deal with this failure. But finishing the burger was never the point (although I am proud of how much I ate). I just did it to entertain people. Plenty were, from my coworkers to the staff at Stella’s to some readers.
I reached out to Jason Fagone, who wrote a book about competitive eating in 2006, to learn more about why challenges like these bring us together.
“It takes a bunch of these deeply American tendencies and kind of mashes them together into this one strange and riveting thing,” he said.
We love spectacle, excess and, of course, food. Local challenges are special, adding characters, cuisine and lore that weave themselves into our communities’ stories.
“People have always gathered around food, and been celebrating food since the beginning of time,” he said. “There’s something deep about that.”
— Chris Bowling, Flatwater Free Press
Ten years from now, when I look back on the summer I interned at the Flatwater Free Press, I’ll remember the stories I worked on, the people I met and the day my deskmates battled the Stellanator. I’ll also remember the office couch.
The brown three-seater may look like just another place to sit, but believe me when I say it’s the highlight of our office. It’s where I’ve written some of my best work, but it’s also where my colleagues have gathered to witness an unbelievable summer of televised sports: the Copa America and European Championship soccer tournaments and now the Olympics.
This couch has made Flatwater feel like home in the middle of a work day — squeezing to make room and cheering on athletes who have captured the attention of an entire newsroom.
It’s also, objectively, the most comfortable seat in the office. No couch on UNL’s campus can even come close.
— Naomi Delkamiller, Flatwater Free Press
Nearly 220,000 people in the Omaha metro lost power Wednesday night as storms brought rain and wind gusts that reached 100 mph. Omaha Public Power District is working to restore power while neighbors survey damage wrought by the storm. Outlets to check as this story develops include KETV, WOWT, Channel 3 and the Omaha World-Herald.
Ernie Chambers, a fixture of North Omaha’s political scene, ended his bid to reclaim the seat he held in the Nebraska Legislature for more than four decades, WOWT reported. Incumbent Sen. Terrell McKinney will be the only name to appear on the November ballot barring a late-stage petition from another candidate.
Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert is pushing for a new police precinct downtown as the urban core’s redevelopment continues, KMTV’s Molly Hudson reported. Voters will likely get a say on the $20 million proposal as part of a larger bonding package.
A Missouri lawsuit alleges that Omaha Archbishop George Lucas sexually abused a teenager in the late 1980s, The World-Herald’s Chris Burbach reported. Lucas denies the allegation, which came from a plaintiff identified only by the initials D.S. (Note: Some readers may need a subscription to read the Omaha World-Herald’s story.)
In a separate case, a former priest lost a defamation lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Omaha after he was removed from his post for “significant boundary violations” with minors, WOWT reported.
An Elkhorn family that lost their home in the Arbor Day tornado returned to the scene of destruction to find hundreds of sunflowers had shot up all over the property, The World-Herald’s Marjie Ducey reported. Raven Foyt said the sunflowers were her late sister’s favorite: “It gave me some hope. I just felt she was giving me a big hug.” (Some readers may need a subscription to read this story)
The Flatwater Free Press is published by the Nebraska Journalism Trust, a 501(c)(3) public charity