While the five members of the Alferd Packer Memorial String Band were setting up for rehearsal Monday night, Gayle Sigurdson poked her head in the room to say they had been mentioned on National Public Radio. Monday was tax day, and Sigurdson, the wife of band member Steve Mason, heard that the NPR show "Marketplace" had included the band in a story about tax day parties. The news caused the group to ...
In April 1994, in the immediate aftermath of the Rwandan genocide, relief worker Reinhild Kauenhoven Janzen saw a young child draw a picture of a soldier with a gun, a body on the ground and a small figure standing outside a house watching. The memory was so painful, Janzen said, that the child cried out in despair — "Ayiwewe!" Now, a quarter of a century after the genocide, the Lawrence Arts Center will be ...
Life hasn’t drastically changed for Laura Moriarty since her novel “The Chaperone” was turned into a movie; she still worries if she can afford a new roof on her house. But despite everyday concerns, it has been an exciting time for Moriarty, a 48-year-old Lawrence author and University of Kansas professor. She was recently in New York City to watch the premiere of "The Chaperone," which is based on ...
Final touches are being put on Saturday's 19th annual Earth Day Parade and Celebration; however, there is one thing organizers have no control over: Mother Nature. No rain date has been scheduled, which has had Caleb Hull, a Lawrence Parks and Recreation intern who is helping to organize the event, keeping his eye on the forecast. For now, Hull said, it appears Saturday will be sunny. The purpose of the ...
The published works of Devon Mihesuah fill a wide space between two bookends in her office at the University of Kansas. The prolific author juggles her time between being a professor, writing (both fiction and nonfiction), and advocating for healthy eating in the Native American community, among many other interests. Mihesuah, a Choctaw historian, is KU’s Cora Lee Beers Price Teaching Professor in ...
Dennis and Donna Steinman aren’t creating the kind of Conestoga wagons that hardy pioneers used to travel west. Their PlainsCraft Conestoga Wagons are more like the Winnebago of covered wagons; they're intended for those drawn to glamorous camping, or glamping. “I’ve always loved wagons, and I’m fascinated by how people traveled in the darn things,” Dennis said. “They were tough people.” The ...