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Photo courtesy of OPS
Sep 11, 2017
Aug 8, 2017
Terry Sanders_Posing at the entrance of the Fair Deal Grocery_Photo by Kevin Lytle
Food insecurity in northeast Omaha is a question of access, education and poverty.
moreJul 7, 2017
Jul 5, 2017
“I’ve been in a hundred struggles in my life, lost almost all of ’em, but I was never afraid, and that’s what I want people to understand.”
moreJun 2, 2017
May 31, 2017
A new approach to addressing community needs is taking root as the public sector stumbles.
moreMay 16, 2017
May 10, 2017
Payne’s ‘Downsizing’ may be next big thing on world cinema landscape
moreApr 27, 2017
With the end of Obamacare at the top of the national conversation, The Reader talked to the major stakeholders about life before and potentially after the Affordable Care Act.
moreMar 14, 2017 1
Debra Kaplan
Some 700,000 young Americans, including 3,000-plus in Nebraska, enjoy protections under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals or DACA, but under Trump the work permits and other benefits could end. A diverse coalition supports their retainment.
moreFeb 7, 2017
Lectrr
America’s welcomed newcomers escaping dangers and threats for as long as it’s been a nation. Refugees and asylees continue coming and a broad array of community support coalesces to make their resettlement and ultimate self-sufficiency a reality.
moreFeb 1, 2017
Dec 7, 2016
Breaking the cycle of poverty in Omaha
moreDec 7, 2016
Debra S Kaplan
Don Curry banks on his “healthy” version of soul food catching on at his niche Omaha Rockets Kanteen and Southern Pitch food truck. His niche concept is wed to a Negro Leagues baseball passion that permeates his brick and mortar and mobile eateries.
moreNov 2, 2016
Exploring interfaith realities isn’t always the provence of groups or unrelated individuals. Interfaith couples such as Sharif Liwaru, who is Muslim, and Gabrielle Gaines Liwari, who is a follower of Jeuss, must find ways to navigate their journey.
moreNov 2, 2016
A force of nature named Dick Holland died at 95 on August 9. The philanthropist’s passing triggered warm, appreciative tributes from leaders of organizations he supported as well as individuals who worked with him or just admired his frank…
moreAug 18, 2016
Borne from outrage over violent African-American deaths, the grassroots Black Lives Matter movement espouses a social action platform to end systemic violence against and mass incarceration of a people. BLM’s loose-knit activists advocate d…
moreAug 11, 2016
When family owners of the Bohemian Cafe announced in May the restaurant was for sale and would close September 24, it marked another casualty among classic eateries calling it quits. An eventual surge in customers wanting to indulge Czech-G…
moreAug 11, 2016
If there is an Omaha Cinema Culture, it cuts across consumer, exhibitor, artist and aspirational experiences. Being far from traditional film centers poses certain barriers, but rich offerings and showplaces exist. Natives pursue and some a…
moreJul 15, 2016
The private doodles Ciara Fortun used to make have evolved into working sketches for collections she now produces for Omaha Fashion Week shows. After debuting at OFW with a formal women’s wear show in March, she’s unveiling a new collectio…
moreSummer Miller’s New Prairie Kitchen Finding Meaning at the Table by Leo A, Biga Omaha author Summer Miller came to write her Gourmand World Cookbook Awards finalist New Prairie Kitchen in the midst of a life reset. More than a recipe b…
moreJun 22, 2016
A poor inner city North Omaha neighborhood recently gained a $15 million new investment in its at-risk youth. The Girls Inc. of Omaha center at 2811 North 45th Street long ago outgrew its digs in the former Clifton Hill Elementary School b…
moreMay 19, 2016
When Mondo we Langa died at age 68 in the Nebraska State Penitentiary last month, he’d served 45 years for a crime he always maintained he did not commit. The former David Rice, a poet and artist, was found guilty, along with fellow Black P…
moreApr 25, 2016
As North Omaha Neighborhood Tapestries returns for the Great Plains Theatre Conference’s free PlayFest bill, two community icons take center stage as subject and setting. En route to making her Omaha Star newspaper an institution in the Af…
moreApr 15, 2016
Omaha native Ann Schatz swears she never meant to be a pioneer. She became one as her hometown’s first female sportscaster in the late 1970s, repeating the feat in Portland, Oregon in 1989. From that Pacific Northwest base she’s traveled to…
moreMar 16, 2016
The high concept behind Alexander Payne’s soon to shoot new feature, Downsizing, unfolds in a near future world where humans can opt to be miniaturized. Everything about the story, from the title to the characters to the plot-lines, gives P…
moreMar 4, 2016
It used to be conversations about local filmmakers doing relevant work here began and ended with Alexander Payne and Nik Fackler. That’s changing now and the March 8-13 Omaha Film Festival (OFF) is evidence of it. The 11-year-old fest, bac…
moreMar 4, 2016
Omaha is the adopted home of veteran Hollywood screenwriter and literary novelist John Kaye, 74, whose memoirs are published by the Los Angeles Review of Books. The mercurial Kaye came 17-months ago from northern California to work on a n…
moreJan 22, 2016
Last August Stuart Chittenden traversed Neb. to test drive the idea that interpersonal communication is intrinsic to building community. He called the project “A Couple of 830 Mile Long Conversations.” With support from Humanities Nebrask…
moreJan 12, 2016
Omaha’s philanthropic community is known for its unusual generosity. Some attribute this largess to the small town feel of a city where relationships still matter and where it’s possible to rally people around a good idea or cause. Others …
moreNov 24, 2015
Omaha’s philanthropic heavyweights are generally male, old-monied Great White Fathers whose wealth and influence support health, human services, education and the arts. A veteran of this deep-pocketed fraternity is Richard D. Holland. The …
moreNov 24, 2015
The Omaha Star has given African-Americans a voice for 77 years. The newspaper is not only a vital mouthpiece for locals, but a valued hometown connection for natives living elsewhere. It became an institution under the late Mildred D. Br…
moreNov 24, 2015
The Charles Dickens classic A Christmas Carol has long haunted actor-writer-director John Hardy. Though ghosts have yet to visit him ala Scrooge, the story’s held an enchanted place in Hardy’s heart ever since he got his Equity card acting …
moreNov 10, 2015
With America in the throes of the 1960s civil rights movement, few whites publicly conceded their own prejudice, much less tried seeing things from a black point of view. Lois Mark Stalvey was that exception as she shared her journey from n…
moreNov 9, 2015
You’ve got to be taught to be afraid Of people whose eyes are oddly made, …
moreNov 9, 2015
Muddying Omaha’s high quality of life rankings are pockets of chronic poverty and growing new poor populations. Identifiable impoverished sections, homeless communities and shelters exist, but most poverty here is insidious and invisible. …
moreOct 16, 2015
The 2015 downtown Omaha Lit Fest, whose theme is “Nervosa: Science, Psych & Story,” celebrates the reflective power of literature to explore human vulnerability. Worry over terrorism, the economy, climate change, the singularity, genet…
moreSep 19, 2015
Since Sam Meisels arrived in 2013 to head the Buffett Early Childhood Institute, he’s become the academic-based advocate ally to the socially conscious philanthropist who hired him, Susan A. Buffett. The dynastic wealth of the Buffetts has…
moreSep 19, 2015
Until now the Blue Barn Theatre has been like Omaha’s many other small stage companies by operating on a shoestring in makeshift spaces. This grassroots passion project was born of a band of New York drama school transplants afire with the …
moreSep 8, 2015
If you’re an Omaha foodie who believes as many do the local dining out experience has never been better, then you can thank an infusion of original chef-driven and chef-owned eateries for it. Not coincidentally, many of these places are…
moreSep 4, 2015
Quality-of-life metrics assessing the state of African-American northeast Omaha paint a stark picture. Pockets experience some of America’s worst poverty and gun violence. Disparities contradict Omaha’s high best-place-to-live rankings. Ri…
moreJul 23, 2015
EDITOR’S NOTE: Senior contributing writer Leo Adam Biga, winner of the 2015 Andy Award for international journalism from the University of Nebraska at Omaha, chronicles recent travels he made in Africa with two-time world boxing champion …
moreJun 27, 2015
Last month State Sen. Ernie Chambers finally got enough fellow legislators to support repealing the death penalty in Nebraska. Capital punishment foes welcome the news, among them Omaha filmmaker Patty Dillon. Her new documentary There Will…
moreMay 27, 2015
NorthStar Foundation nurtures the dreams of young inner city males. The area’s lone boys-only after school program and summer camp at 4242 North 49th Avenue doesn’t put limits on students, regardless of socio-economic, family or environmen…
moreMay 18, 2015
Perhaps more than any geographic quadrant of the city, South Omaha owns the richest legacy as a livestock-meatpacking industry hub and historic home to new arrivals fixated on the American Dream. Everyone with South O ties has a story. Whe…
moreApr 16, 2015
Social justice champion Tommie Wilson experienced the civil rights movement as it happened. For her, the good fight has never stopped. While president of the local NAACP she brought a lawsuit against then-Gov. Dave Heineman over redistrict…
moreApr 16, 2015
The 1959 gender-bending film farce Some Like It Hot came at an interesting juncture in the careers of writer-director Billy Wilder and stars Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon and Marilyn Monroe. For each legend it marked a career boost. It reaffir…
moreMar 20, 2015
R&B and soul singer-songwriter Dominique Morgan, 33, has emerged as an urban music force with multiple Omaha Entertainment and Arts Awards nominations for his Love Chronicles album. His tunes of love and loss come from personal experie…
moreMar 20, 2015
Three-time Omaha Entertainment and Arts Awards poet nominee Zedeka Poindexter envies the performing outlets high school-age poets have today. The March 17-April 20 Louder Than a Bomb is a case in point. There wasn’t anything like it when sh…
moreMar 10, 2015
The metro’s work-in-progress cinema culture has lately come of age due to a montage of things. Alexander Payne making movies and bringing world-class film artists here. A surge of indigenous indie filmmakers. The advent of Film Streams. The…
moreMar 10, 2015
Since launching hockey in 1997 to subsidize its non-revenue generating sports UNO’s netted a nice return on investment. Maverick hockey crowds rank among the best nationally, with annual ticket revenues of $2 million. When the school droppe…
moreFeb 20, 2015
South Omaha native Frank Horejsi doesn’t care if he’s called caretaker, curator, historian, picker, salvager, architectural remnants archeologist or his favorite, urban miner. Just don’t call him late to a salvage site. For 30-some year…
moreFeb 20, 2015
As an adoptee whose identity quest has shaped his life and as a research specialist investigating people’s family trees, Max Sparber perfectly embodies his “history detective” tagline. His Douglas Country Historical Society fact-finding du…
moreFeb 15, 2015
America’s schizophrenic about sex. Images and hookups abound, yet in this information age many folks don’t know, follow or discuss safe practices. That incongruity explains why sexually transmitted diseases are at epidemic levels and why …
moreJan 22, 2015
My, how time flies. It seems only yesterday Omaha’s own Gabrielle Monique Union first caught our attention on the big screen with her scene-stealing turn as the diva rival to Kirsten Dunst in the wickedly funny high school cheerleader comed…
moreDec 5, 2014
Art often expresses culturally-specific stories but until the Omaha-based African Culture Connection surfaced in 2006 West African tales were rarely if ever explored here. Led by Benin, West Africa native and veteran dancer-choreographer …
moreNov 20, 2014
Former Bellevue West hoops star and Creighton University point guard Josh Dotzler has lived through the saga of Abide, the northeast Omaha ministry his parents started in 1989. Twenty-five years ago Ron and Twany Dotzler stepped out on fai…
moreNov 19, 2014
Alexander Payne is in a position to ask any world class film figure to be his guest of honor at the Film Streams Feature event, the art cinema’s annual big fundraiser. Laura Dern, Debra Winger, Steven Soderbergh, Jane Fonda and the principa…
moreOct 31, 2014
At the end of the day, voters want a choice. If nothing else, the tight Nebraska 2nd Congressional District race pitting incumbent Lee Terry against challenger Brad Ashford gives voters a distinct option. Pre-election surveys indicate a n…
moreOct 29, 2014
Leah McNary has been there for much of Creighton volleyball’s ascendancy from weak little sister program in the shadow of Big Red to all-grown-up competitor holding its own. “It’s exciting being a part of a process of building a program,” …
moreOct 16, 2014
In the Gloria Gaynor anthem “I Will Survive” a woman declares her personal autonomy. Not needing to find validation in another is a liberating thing worth celebrating in song. Life imitates art whenever a poor single mother breaks free of…
moreOct 16, 2014
When Jill Anderson made Bram Stoker’s dark transmutation novel Dracula the theme for the 2014 Joslyn Castle Literary Festival she never imagined her own life would be marked by fear-inducing, life-altering transformation. In February the f…
moreOct 1, 2014
Experts say mental illness affects millions of lives each year and yet it often goes ignored and untreated. There’s no national mental health campaign urging people to be screened or to seek help. Accessing needed care can be hard due to a …
moreSep 25, 2014
Photographer Janette Beckman made a name for herself in the 1970s and 1980s capturing the punk scene in her native London and the hip-hop scene in her adopted New York City. Dubbed “the queen of rock photographers,” her images appeared in…
moreSep 16, 2014
Award-winning filmmaker Maria Agui Carter has much to say about her new film Rebel, the story of a Latina who posed as a man to fight and spy in the American Civil War. Agui Carter will discuss the film, which recently aired as a PBS specia…
moreSep 15, 2014
The downtown Omaha Lit Fest this Friday and Saturday offers a compendium of writing topics and events around the theme Warped: Historical In/Accuracy, Navigating Fact and Fiction, Past and Present. Writing about the past is foremost on the…
moreSep 3, 2014
Omaha artist Watie White’s humanist public art projects reveal the narratives of transitional urban neighborhoods. The dynamics of locations and the people living there shape his site-specific works. Three 2014 projects, one completed and …
moreSep 3, 2014
Rabbi Aryeh Azriel of Omaha’s Temple Israel Synagogue builds bridges between people of different backgrounds and persuasions. Take for example his driving force work with the Tri-Faith Initiative, the project that intends creating a local c…
moreAug 27, 2014
Omaha North running back sensation and recent South Dakota verbal commit Calvin Strong put up sick numbers last season leading his school to its first state football title in the playoff era. His 3,008 rushing yards and 43 touchdowns set st…
moreAug 24, 2014
When the 2012 Sandy Hook tragedy happened Ferial Pearson searched for answers and hope. Her bullied young son provided both when he revealed being comforted by her felt better than staying mad. That got Pearson, an award-winning local edu…
moreAug 20, 2014
Omaha Fashion Week, the Midwest couture festival that pops up twice a year in the most unexpected places, is one of those signifier events that confirms this isn’t your parents’ city anymore. It has returned to the much ballyhooed but sil…
moreAug 13, 2014
When Mark Evans accepted the job of Omaha Public Schools superintendent in December 2012, he knew the mission would be immense in this sprawling urban district facing myriad challenges. With 51,000 students spread out over 86 schools loca…
moreAug 8, 2014
With impresario Gordon Cantiello’s new tribute show The Ring of Fire: The Music of Johnny Cash at The Waiting Room, it’s only natural to consider what makes the singer-songwriter of the title so enduring. The king of hard-scrabble, honky-t…
moreAug 1, 2014
If redevelopment plans for northeast Omaha come to full fruition then that long depressed district will see progress at-scale after years of patchwork promises. Old and new leaders from largely African-American North Omaha will be the drivi…
moreJul 20, 2014
Before a Feb. 27 packed house at the Holland Performing Arts Center a woman strode on stage to introduce playwright-poet-performance artist Daniel Beaty. Schalisha Walker, 25, was unknown to all but a few in the audience. She was there to …
moreJul 14, 2014
Entrepreneurial African missionary Aisha Okudi, 37, laid the foundation for her thriving business and ambitious humanitarian work during a period when she and her children were sometimes homeless. She’d been through worse. Regardless of h…
moreJul 6, 2014
When Terence “Bud” Crawford defends his WBO lightweight title June 28 at the CenturyLink Center, he’ll fight for himself, his tight-knit family and a boxing community that’s not seen anything like this since 1972. Forty-two years ago heavy…
moreJun 24, 2014
When Terence “Bud” Crawford defends his WBO lightweight title June 28 at the CenturyLink Center, he’ll fight for himself, his tight-knit family and a boxing community that’s not seen anything like this since 1972. Forty-two years ago heavy…
moreJun 23, 2014
Sunday, June 8 Douglas County Historical Society Second Sunday Talk Metropolitan Community College, Fort Omaha Campus, Bldg. 21 (Mule Barn) 2 p.m., Free for members; suggested $5 donation for nonmembers Reservations required at: members@dou…
moreJun 1, 2014
“We’re kindred spirits with respect to the creation of performance and the creation of events to share with an audience,” says Plourde, a New York director. “We create performance, we create live events, we work with groups of artists we co…
moreMay 21, 2014
The University of Nebraska at Omaha has a veritable folk-hero in its midst in hard-throwing senior softball ace Dana Elsasser, who’s overcame serious challenges to become a pitching phenom. With her near legendary career fast nearing its …
moreApr 28, 2014
In the hybrid realm of slam poetry, where free verse, theater, oral storytelling and forensics converge to make a verbal gumbo, personal expression rules. Impassioned teen anguish stirs the pot to create a heady brew during the Louder T…
moreApr 27, 2014
Credit Omaha writer-director Jason Levering for possessing the temerity to not only consider adapting Stephen King’s meta horror novel The Shining to the stage but to follow through and actually get the master’s approval. Now he’s only ho…
moreMar 14, 2014
Ella, the dramatic musical revue of the life of American songbook diva Ella Fitzgerald at the Omaha Community Playhouse, reveals the anguish behind the legendary performer’s sweet voice and carefree persona. Call it kismet or karma, but…
moreMar 4, 2014
The March 5-9 Omaha Film Festival has gone all digital with its move from Regal Omaha Stadium 16 to Marcus Village Pointe Cinema at 304 No. 174th Street. Besides the sharper projection offered, OFF Program director Marc Longbrake says t…
moreMar 1, 2014
Omaha ex-pat James Marshall Crotty, co-creator of the underground Monk magazine and author of alternative city guides, gained a cult following for his irreverent dashboard reporting about America’s fringes. His arch leanings are on di…
moreMar 1, 2014
As Omaha glories in Creighton Bluejays hoops superstar Doug McDermott’s historic season, another local sports figure going for greatness flies under the radar. Top Rank boxer Terence “Bud” Crawford challenges for the WBO lightweight tit…
moreFeb 21, 2014
Two bodies in the mirror:
one’s me, the other’s you,
with two far different cultures
some say will bring just strife.
Feb 9, 2014
Filmmaker, musician and psychedelia aficionado Nik Fackler is a millennial seeker. It’s no surprise then he followed his well-crafted made-in-Omaha feature debut Lovely, Still (2008) with documentaries exploring cultures half-a-world away…
moreJan 28, 2014
Art imitates life when siblings Camille Metoyer Moten and Lanette Metoyer Moore evoke the Delany sisters in the African-American oral-history show Having Our Say at the Omaha Community Playhouse. Just as the play’s real-life Sadie and B…
moreJan 27, 2014
The recently launched Omaha Culinary Tours looks to capture foodies and urban explorers alike. Owners Jim Trebbien, Jen Valandra and Suzanne Allen are banking this town’s rich culinary scene is destination worthy enough to support the…
moreJan 14, 2014
Dreamers from Neb., as from everywhere else, have flocked to Hollywood since the motion picture industry’s start. Softening the harsh realities of making it in Tinsel Town’s dog-eat-dog world, where who you know is often more vital …
moreJan 4, 2014
Sam’s Leon Mexican Foods and Tortilleria is one of this word-of-mouth joints that doesn’t really advertise. This combination dine-in and take-out restaurant, catering service and tortilla factory at 5014 South 20th Street has churned ou…
moreDec 14, 2013
Whether preparing and preserving food or discussing neighborhood concerns, bountiful activity goes on at this clubhouse meets social settlement house at 2737 Mary Street in northeast Omaha. An endeavor at sustainability and community …
moreDec 10, 2013
Addressing the food insecurity problems that nag poverty-stricken northeast Omaha, where access to fresh, organic produce, dairy and bread products is limited, are an array of individuals, organizations, projects and initiatives. Many eff…
moreNov 27, 2013
Organizations serving at-risk kids come and go but few stay the course the way the CW Youth Resource Center, 1510 Cass Street, has since opening in 1978. Founder-director Carl Washington hosts a Nov. 29 open house at CW from 4 to 8 p.m….
moreNov 18, 2013
Local color, of the achingly human variety, is where Alexander Payne’s new black and white film Nebraska most deeply comes to life. After fall festival premieres abroad and across the U.S., Payne’s coming home to show off the film named…
moreNov 13, 2013
When the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s Office of Latino and Latin American Studies holds its Nov. 8-9 Cumbre event, it will mark 10 years for this center dedicated to community engagement, applied research and teaching inside and …
moreNov 5, 2013
Long before the Food Network or even television’s start, long before our cult of celebrity, a certain French chef attained such fame that he became a culinary star concocting meals for socialites and royals. Georges Auguste Escoffier li…
moreNov 4, 2013
With words like justice, security, healthy and sustainable increasingly attached to food in America, two Omaha filmmakers with an undisguised POV have plugged into the sustainable edibles culture with a new documentary. In Growing Citie…
moreOct 21, 2013
On a sweltering Sunday afternoon in early July Omaha music guru Nils Anders Erickson takes me for a ride in his PT Cruiser to opine about his magnificent obsession with old things. The singer-songwriter-musician owns Rainbow Music, a co…
moreOct 15, 2013
Writer predilections take precedence at the October 18-19 (downtown) Omaha Lit Fest, an annual orgy of the written word organized by acclaimed resident author Timothy Schaffert (The Coffins of Little Hope). Nine years running Schaffert’…
moreOct 14, 2013
Two years since the U.S. pulled troops out of Iraq Americans still slog it out in Afghanistan — a full 12 years since its start. The dual wars for which so many paid a heavy price will forever be analyzed by the likes of Omaha native Joh…
moreSep 29, 2013
One of Omaha’s oldest brands, Storz beer, is back after nearly a half-century absence and locals are lapping up the suds with gusto. Two Storz family relatives, cousins Tom and John Markel, are reviving the brand as a beer and as the …
moreSep 16, 2013
Sometimes a work of art so well captures the spirit of a people and time that it becomes an enduring cultural talking point. Such is the case with Rudolfo Anaya’s 1972 coming-of-age novel Bless Me, Ultima, widely considered a seminal piec…
moreSep 12, 2013
After wrapping Nebraska the end of 2012 Alexander Payne holed up with editor Kevin Tent in L.A. to edit the film starting Jan. 7 and finally put the project to bed in early August. When I caught up with Payne and a small post crew in mid-…
moreSep 3, 2013
Jim Trebbien has been knocking around the Omaha food scene awhile, the last 25-plus years as dean of culinary arts, hospitality and horticulture at Metropolitan Community College. During that time he’s seen the local food culture evolve f…
moreAug 20, 2013
More than 600 folks turned out Saturday for the 16th Annual Community Block Party hosted by Apostle Vanessa Ward and her husband Keith Ward. As usual this multi-generational celebration of community in a northeast Omaha neighborhood once …
moreAug 12, 2013
BRYCE BRIDGES
Special to The New York Times If you’re a devotee of public television then chances are you saw the work of the late nonfiction filmmaker Gail Levin. The Omaha native and longtime New York City resident died July 31 in a NYC hospice car…
moreAug 10, 2013
Addressing the food insecurity problems that nag poverty-stricken northeast Omaha, where access to fresh, organic produce, dairy and bread products is limited, are an array of individuals, organizations, projects and initiatives. Many eff…
moreAug 5, 2013
When Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s turn to speak came at the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, it was near the end of a long program on a hot August day featuring addresses by civil rights leaders and performances by musician…
moreAug 5, 2013
Pamela Jo Berry saw a need for more art offerings in the section of northeast Omaha where she resides and decided to do something about it. With the help of friends and venues the photographer and mixed media artist created North Omaha …
moreJul 29, 2013
Theater gypsy Gordon Cantiello is back in town again. The stage veteran and former full-time Omaha resident teaches speech and theater at a private school in San Diego, Calif. When he lived here he put on dozens of plays from the early …
moreJul 29, 2013
Father Roy Bourgeois is a troublemaker. The 74-year-old has been roiling the waters for four decades as a social justice activist. Having the courage of his convictions has cost him dearly, including prison and ostracism. During an Au…
moreJul 29, 2013
The July 31-August 5 Native Omaha Days will feature metro-wide black heritage celebrations that on the surface don’t seem to have much to do with the American South. But when local African American families gather for the biennial Days most…
moreJul 22, 2013
Once dubbed a “cheerful subversive” by The New York Times, indie filmmaker Dan Mirvish uses his skills as a provocateur and promoter to get his obscure work noticed by the very mainstream whose noses he sometimes tweaks. He’s in rare c…
moreJul 19, 2013
Johnny Carson wasn’t called the King of Late Night for nothing. In the days when television ruled American mass media culture the Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson averaged 15 million nightly viewers. That’s three or four times the au…
moreJul 2, 2013
In a state with few destination attractions, Omaha’s Old Market arts-entertainment district packs them in. The draw is not any one or two venues, but a collective of shops, restaurants, bars, galleries and creative spaces, along with the …
moreJun 18, 2013
Compassion in Action’s move to the former Wesley House campus at 2001 North 35th Street is symbolic for CIA founder-executive director Teela Mickles. Her nonprofit serving men, women and children touched by the judicial and penal system…
moreJun 11, 2013
Identical twin brothers from Jewish suburbia, Ezra and Adeev Potash, are Omaha’s unlikely gift to the jazz world. Their soul and funk-infused horn playing has everyone from Big Sam Williams to Wynton Marsalis singing their praises. Ezra…
moreJun 3, 2013
The play’s still the thing with the Great Plains Theatre Conference but organizers are making a concerted effort to expand theater’s definition in order to connect more people to it. The May 26-29 PlayFest is the Metropolitan Community …
moreMay 11, 2013
The inaugural resident artists at the Carver Bank cultural center couldn’t be more unalike in some ways and more congruent in others. Carver is the new Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts and Rebuild Foundation endeavor at 2416 Lake Str…
moreMay 1, 2013
Everything about one of Omaha’s bright new playwrights bespeaks exotica, starting with her name, Beaufield Berry. This biracial, bicoastal creative with model good looks has worked as an actor, a singer, a VIP dancer, a burlesque performe…
moreApr 19, 2013
Journalist and author Stew Magnuson’s new book Wounded Knee 1973: Still Bleeding finds virtually every survivor of that 71-day occupation on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in S.D. sullied in some way. The book by this Omaha native, w…
moreApr 19, 2013
State Sen. Brad Ashford’s poor showing in the April 2 Omaha mayoral primary isn’t deterring him from future elected office bids. The one-time Democrat and long-time Republican ignored advisors and ran as an independent against major par…
moreApr 15, 2013
As the Louder Than a Bomb Omaha Youth Poetry Festival draws to a close after weeks of preliminary bouts and last Sunday’s semi-finals, it appears slam poetry is a new outlet for that rite-of-passage known as adolescence. The 2013 team f…
moreApr 8, 2013
The woman behind the successful media enterprise of the Omaha Star helped inspire two of today’s leading women in media — Chicago Crusader publisher-editor Dorothy Leavell and Radio One chairperson and Omaha native Cathy Hughes. In thi…
moreApr 8, 2013
The civil rights and black power movements seem distant from Omaha until noting that Whitney Young Jr. cut his teeth as an advocate-organizer here and future activst Malcolm X was born here. While Malcolm X moved with his family from Om…
moreMar 17, 2013
You may not know the name but for more than a decade now Omaha native Yolonda Ross has been a stalwart actress in American independent cinema and quality television movies and episodic dramas. Before recently working with a pair of star…
moreMar 5, 2013
With gay marriage being assailed during an Iowa House Judiciary Committee public hearing in 2011 Zach Wahls offered counter testimony that not only charged the proceedings but the national dialogue about the issue. Raised by same sex partn…
moreMar 4, 2013
Four years ago Ruth Marimo sat in the Cass County Jail contemplating suicide. The mother of two and then-undocumented immigrant from Zimbabwe, Africa was there because her estranged husband, whom she says verbally and physically abused he…
moreFeb 11, 2013
When writer-actor-composer Daniel Beaty conjures the 25-plus characters he portrays in his provocative one-man show, Emergency, it’s well to remember his riffs on the African-American experience are informed by his own life. His award-w…
moreFeb 8, 2013
Soul sister poetesses Michelle Troxclair and Felicia “WithLove” Webster stir the pot to make the spicy mix of Verbal Gumbo, the spoken word series throwing down the third Thursday of every month at House of Loom. The artists launched th…
moreFeb 8, 2013
Alberto “Beto” Gonzales believes working one-on-one with youths is the best way to reach them. His work as a mentor and gang prevention-intervention specialist has earned him much recognition, most recently the Martin Luther King Jr. Lega…
moreFeb 6, 2013
On its face Watie White’s new public art project at an abandoned North Omaha house could be construed as a privileged white guy coming into the black community to impose his perceptions on that place and its people. But that’s not the c…
moreJan 28, 2013
The much-feted 2012 documentary The House I Live In provokes dialogue wherever it plays for its critique of America’s domestic War on Drugs. Following a January 22 Film Streams screening before a full house, a local panel discussed the fi…
moreJan 28, 2013
When she dreamed of rap stardom back in her hometown of San Antonio, Texas, Tunette Powell went by Short Stack. Today, Tunette will do. After years of search and struggle and a need for attention she fed with men, the 26-year-old Bellevue…
moreJan 23, 2013
It took the civil rights movement to bring segregation in the United States into sharp relief. The South was the epicenter of the racial equality battle but American-style apartheid as well as attempts to dismantle it were everywhere, inc…
moreJan 17, 2013
Signature Old Market spot M’s Pub celebrates 40 years in business this year. It’s a milestone for any independently owned restaurant. But reaching four decades takes on added meaning because when M’s opened in 1973 (a planned 1972 opening…
moreJan 15, 2013
Nebraska’s favorite film son has not shot a single frame here since About Schmidt in 2002. Alexander Payne’s decision to make Nebraska in his home state brought into sharp relief some realities with large implications for his own work a…
moreJan 9, 2013
The subtle twang in the voice of stringed instrument-maker and roots musician John Hargiss betrays his southern Missouri Ozarks origins. As a boy he learned acoustic guitar under his musician-craftsman-woodsman father’s instruction. As a …
moreDec 14, 2012
It’s fitting a new book taking the measure of Nebraska politico legend Ernie Chambers is out just as this old social justice warhorse has proven he still owns the people’s will. In the Nov. 6 general election the 75-year-old Chambers de…
moreDec 7, 2012
A once prominent but long vacant building in Omaha’s African-American hub is now reborn thanks to catalysts bridging the divide between need and opportunity. The former Carver Savings and Loan Association at 2416 Lake St. was Omaha’s fi…
moreNov 28, 2012
In 1968 Francis Ford Coppola led a small cinema caravan to Ogallala, Neb. for the final weeks shooting on his independent road picture The Rain People starring Shirley Knight. Joining them were future fellow film legends George Lucas, Bil…
moreOct 22, 2012
Among the first things you notice at Sage Student Bistro is the staff’s earnestness. Greeters, servers and cooks are all students in Metropolitan Community College’s respected Institute for Culinary Arts, whose sleek building is the face …
moreOct 6, 2012
Beth Seldin Dotan has shepherded the Institute for Holocaust Education in Omaha since its 2000 inception. Before she leaves this fall for a new position in Israel she’ll witness the organization she grew from nothing into the state’s prim…
moreOct 5, 2012
Don’t look now but Michael Beasley is carving out a film-television career rivaling that of his powerhouse father John Beasley (Rudy, The Apostle). The nearly 20 feature and made-for-TV pics he’s booked the last few years have him on th…
moreSep 28, 2012
It should be no surprise the author of languidly paced satirical novels (The Coffins of Little Hope) that delight in peculiar, piquant details should fashion a literary happening along the same lines. Novelist Timothy Schaffert has done…
moreSep 28, 2012
Public television was a dream when Ron Hull joined what became the Nebraska Educational Television network in Lincoln. It was 1955 and the broadcast school graduate arrived inflamed with the possibilities of the fledgling medium. Fifty-…
moreSep 28, 2012
Gabrielle Union has reached a point in her film and television career where she’s doing more meaningful projects. Not by accident either. The maturing actress known for her assertive persona and frank views has been ever more deliberate a…
moreSep 26, 2012
Year two of the Great Omaha Chocolate Festival at UNO celebrates one of popular culture’s great food indulgences. Organizers of the September 30 event, which benefits the Omaha Section of the National Council of Jewish Women, say choc…
moreSep 25, 2012
Freddie Gray knows being second-guessed and scrutinized comes with the job of Omaha Public School Board President. But when she came under fire over her handling of the Nancy Sebring scandal she got more than she bargained for, including …
moreAug 13, 2012
With his new novel True Believers (Random House) Kurt Andersen takes stock of the roiling 1960s through the eyes of a fictional woman whose coming-of-age then unfolded in predictable and inexplicable ways. Through his narrator, attorney…
moreAug 6, 2012
Just as Omaha’s come of age with performing arts venues, nightlife attractions, community events and public spaces, so it’s matured in cinema. This maturation first bloomed when Alexander Payne made features here. Then the local indie f…
moreJul 18, 2012
Omaha’s not always embraced diversity but the local Tri-Faith Initiative may be a history-making model of interfaith cooperation. It’s proceeding with an audacious plan to locate a church, a synagogue a mosque and an ecumenical center on …
moreJul 10, 2012
Participants in girls and women’s sports today should be forgiven if they take for granted the bounty of athletic scholarships, competitive opportunities, training facilities and playing venues afforded them. After all, they’ve never kn…
moreJun 19, 2012
In his notable screen acting career John Beasley has done his share of television both as a one-off guest star (Detroit 1-8-7, Boston Legal, CSI: Miami, NCIS) and recurring player (Everwood, Treme). But in the new TVLand series The Soul…
moreJun 7, 2012
One-liners and nonsequiturs will fly at the June 13-17 Viareo Great American Comedy Festival in Norfolk, Neb., where the late comic great Johnny Carson grew up. This annual celebration of the funny side is equal parts competition, works…
moreMay 23, 2012
Three traveling baseball exhibitions on view in the metro this spring chart a history with local overtones and signals a comeback for a local organization. The exhibits are courtesy of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. Omaha’s own Great …
moreMay 16, 2012
By now America’s accustomed to King of Comedy Bill Cosby turning serious about topics he usually mines humor from. Expressing his celebrity opinions he sometimes touches a nerve, as when he asserted “parenting is not going on” in poor inn…
moreMay 16, 2012
Self-determination by any means necessary. The sentiment is by Malcolm X, whose incongruous beginnings were in this conservative, white-bread city. Not where you’d expect a revolutionary to originate. Then again, his narrative would be …
moreMay 3, 2012
Poetry slams pit individuals and teams in bouts of spoken word street soliloquies that bring performers and spectators to tears and cheers the way arts and sports events do. Omaha’s long been home to a thriving adult slam scene, thanks …
moreApr 9, 2012
The 20th century migration African-Americans made from the South to the North and West expanded black enclaves across the nation. While Omaha didn’t experience a huge influx like Chicago or Los Angeles, it was enough to alter the cultural…
moreMar 31, 2012
After weeks of public testimony and closed door meetings on the hotly contested equal employment ordinance giving legal protection to gay and transgender residents, the Omaha City Council decided the issue March 13. Three-term District …
moreMar 26, 2012
Indigenous themes take center stage for a March 24 Omaha Conservatory of Music concert that culminates the school’s “Nebraska Roots: Native American Music of the Omaha Indian Tribe” curriculum. Original Native music handed down through th…
moreMar 21, 2012
Hawk Ostby, one half of the scriptwriting team of Children of Men and Iron Man, will provide an insider’s take on the screenwriting trade at the Omaha Film Festival’s Filmmaking Conference. Speaking by phone from his Vermont home, Ostby…
moreMar 7, 2012
In the 1990s Omaha native Jaime King’s fresh face and lithe body graced the runway fantastic for the likes of Gucci and Alexander McQueen in New York and around the globe. She did provocative shoots for Vogue, Mademoiselle, Glamour, Cosmo…
moreMar 7, 2012
The obvious and not so obvious came into focus when native son Alexander Payne accepted his second Oscar in front of a live audience of his peers and a television viewing audience estimated at 1.2 billion during Sunday’s Academy Awards. …
moreFeb 29, 2012
The unpretentious, homey American GI Forum restaurant at 2002 N Street is a Tex-Mex bargain whose popular specials make this a busy joint. But unless you’re a South Omahan or get tipped off to the place by someone, this best-kept-secret…
moreJan 25, 2012
When Alexander Payne’s turn came to speak in the glow of The Descendants winning best motion picture drama at the Golden Globes, he made sure to thank the people of Hawaii and author Kaui Hart Hemmings. He did something few directors do…
moreJan 25, 2012
Brigitte McQueen is hell-bent on revolution. The entrepreneurial arts maven first made a splash with Pulp in Benson. Then she revived the Bemis Underground in the Old Market. Now she’s about to shake up North Omaha via The Union for Con…
moreDec 8, 2011
The annual Renaissance Madrigal Christmas Feast at the Omaha Marriott is equal parts Tony and Tina’s Wedding, Shakespeare, Knights of the Round Table and Food Network theme show. That is if the theme is a Saxon bacchanal. A food orgy all …
moreNov 19, 2011
Singer-songwriter-turntable artist SA Martinez is a cog in the successful rock band 311 that started in Omaha 21 years ago and is still going strong today from its Southern Calif.-base. Recordings and national tours keep the group, whose …
moreNov 16, 2011
In his well-reviewed new film The Descendants Alexander Payne reframes the Hawaiian idyll as gritty American terrain where history and culture intersect with human aspirations and failings. The festival favorite follows an island clan s…
moreNov 11, 2011
South Omaha native son David Krajicek’s crime writing has branded him Mr. Murder, so it’s only apt he looks the heavy with his bearded mug, bouncer glare and imposing size. This tabloid poet and rebel, who hails from a long line of barkee…
moreOct 27, 2011
Brigitte McQueen is hell-bent on revolution. The entrepreneurial arts maven first made a splash with Pulp in Benson. Then she revived the Bemis Underground in the Old Market. Now she’s about to shake up North Omaha via the Union for Con…
moreOct 22, 2011
John Beasley got tired of being tired. You’ve likely learned the John Beasley Theater & Workshop’s urgent appeal for funds to relieve its financial distress has been answered, and the once-endangered 2011-2012 season saved. But yo…
moreOct 19, 2011
When Alexander Payne cast locals Nicholas D’Agosto and Chris Klein in Election, he opened doors for the two dreamy, boy-next-door types. Klein burned hot and bright before flaming out. D’Agosto’s gradual rise may reach new heights with …
moreOct 11, 2011
In his capsule of the 2011 (downtown) Omaha Lit Fest, founder-director and novelist Timothy Schaffert draws a parallel with The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Specifically, to the humbug Wizard’s endowing the Tin Woodman with a heart made of sil…
moreOct 11, 2011
Last month a New York City audience embraced the world premiere of the multimedia concert piece, Portals, and now the work’s come back to its other home, Omaha’s KANEKO, for performances October 5-6. As creative director, acclaimed viol…
moreOct 4, 2011
John Sorensen is like many Nebraska creatives who left to pursue a passion. The Grand Island native and longtime New York City resident worked with master filmmaker Alexander MacKendrick (The Sweet Smell of Success) and Broadway legends…
moreSep 30, 2011
The uneasy place which race inhabits in the collective American psyche leaves most discussions of the subject to academics, activists or attorneys. But its reality permeates much of the social-cultural fabric. Rhetoric about race is co…
moreSep 29, 2011
However you feel about Alexander Payne’s work, the cinema landscape is richer now that he’s back with his first feature since Sideways. That’s certainly the consensus among reviewers who’ve seen his The Descendants. The September 10 pre…
moreSep 17, 2011
Jason McClaren
Early in his life as a brother in the Society of Jesus, his superiors asked Mike Willmot what kind of work he wanted to do. The former Marquette (Milwaukee, Wis.) University High School three-sport athlete said he wanted to coach. Perhaps…
moreSep 8, 2011
Ferial (Mohamed) Pearson’s work with GLBT and other high-risk youths at South High Magnet School earned her the 2010 Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network’s National Educator of the Year award and the 2011 National Education Associa…
moreAug 25, 2011
A small town Nebraska son who cut his teeth on the movies is living his cinema dream producing an independent feature starring Oscar-winner Ernest Borgnine in the title role of The Man Who Shook the Hand of Vicente Fernandez. The film, …
moreAug 15, 2011
Public radio’s popular Whad’Ya Know?, headlined by creator-producer-host Michael Feldman, comes to the Holland Performing Arts Center for a live, two-hour road show Aug. 13. Produced by Wisconsin Public Radio and distributed by Public Rad…
moreAug 12, 2011
Fresh off the warm reception given his debut feature, Lovely, Still, Omaha’s Film Dude, Nik Fackler, says his next two film projects will be documentaries. Following the path of cinema adventurer Werner Herzog, Fackler’s tramping off to…
moreAug 10, 2011
With Native Omaha Days over, another traditional African-American summer gathering, the Bryant-Fisher Family Reunion, begins. The biennial Native Omaha Days began in 1977. But it’s a newbie compared to the historic annual reunion that d…
moreAug 3, 2011
Through August 1 Native Omaha Days Various sites, venues Hours, prices vary
www.nativeomahans.com Let’s get this out of the way right now: Native Omaha Days is not just for “black folk.” Yes, this biennial community reunion is a lar…
moreJul 23, 2011
Recent adoption of the North Omaha Village Revitalization Plan into the city master plan gives direction and impetus to energizing a stagnated, disinvested area never fully recovered from decades-ago civil disturbance and urban renewal. …
moreJul 22, 2011
Rev. Everett Reynolds was not from Nebraska but he’s remembered as someone who made a significant mark here. The St. Louis, Mo. native passed earlier this week in Omaha at age 83. As a United Methodist minister and community leader …
moreJul 21, 2011
Make no mistake about it, filmmaker Omowale Akintunde intends for his 2010 racially-charged Omaha-made feature, Wigger, to provoke a strong response. After premiering here last year, and in limited theatrical release around the country,…
moreJul 21, 2011
Omaha’s oldest social service agency closed earlier this year with a whimper, not a bang. The Wesley House Community Center, a United Methodist Church mission since 1872, has ended 139 years of service, confirmed Rev. Stephanie Ahlschwede, …
moreMay 20, 2011
Four years ago Daniel Mayorga-Alvarez and Treasure Anderson took the challenge of enrolling in a new high school with strict disciplinary codes, high academic standards and the requirement of working a paid internship. The teens signed on …
moreMay 12, 2011
Rumors about the impending demise of a north Omaha cultural institution began flying last fall when Loves Jazz & Arts Center, 2510 N. 24th St., took an extended break from normal operations. Even the hint of trouble alarmed the Africa…
moreMay 5, 2011
With all the fabulous things Alice Kim ‘s done in New York City and now her entrepreneurial foray in Omaha, she says what she’s proudest of is helping people. At InStyle she says she found great satisfaction “helping small designers get nat…
moreMay 5, 2011
BRYCE BRIDGES
Read More: Kim helps locals realize NYC dream Alice Kim’s story of leaving New York City for Omaha has gotten much play. In 2007, the then- InStyle magazine accessories editor acted on her admittedly “weird,” long-held preoccupation with …
moreMay 5, 2011
ADAM BRUBAKER
If you go to Sons of Italy expecting a “Jersey Shore” or Goodfellas scene, you’ll leave disappointed. If you anticipate a square meal and a fair deal, minus any drama, you’ll leave satisfied, and probably stuffed. The Nebraska chapter of t…
moreApr 28, 2011
PROVIDED BY RANDY BROWN
See also: Tax form led Sun to Boys Town’s ‘hidden’ assets When readers picked up their March 30, 1972 issue of the weekly Sun Newspaper , they could hardly believe their eyes. The small but enterprising paper with multiple neighborhood …
moreApr 27, 2011
Timothy Schaffert’s new novel The Coffins of Little Hope (Unbridled) takes its elegiac tone from Essie, the elderly obit writer and sage of a fading ag town. Her inquisitiveness and intuition make her the apt narrator for relating this rura…
moreApr 13, 2011
Storytellers drawn to boxing’s inherent drama invariably find redemption at its soul and conflict as its heart. Ring tales are on a roll thanks to Mark Wahlberg’s Oscar-winning film The Fighter and FX’s series, “Lights Out,” (the series fi…
moreMar 31, 2011
In the space of a few years Charles Fairbanks has gone from conventional prep and collegiate wrestler to one of the few gringo performers of Lucha Libre, Mexico’s equivalent of WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment). Amid a world of masked f…
moreMar 3, 2011
Film festivals are the brothels of cinema. High-end ones offer uniform quality. Low-rent ones are enter-at-your-own-risk propositions. In its sixth year, the Omaha Film Festival, showing now through March 6 at the Great Escape Theatre, is …
moreMar 2, 2011
Steven Soderbergh may not generate the snobby, effete buzz of some name directors, yet he’s arguably the most prolific and accomplished American filmmaker of the past 20 years. As special guest for the Feb. 20 Film Streams Feature Event III…
moreFeb 10, 2011
Omaha Symphony Orchestra music director Thomas Wilkins was first inspired to be a conductor at age 8 during a Virginia Symphony Orchestra pops performance in his hometown of Norfolk, Virginia. From the opening rendition of “The Star Spangle…
moreJan 13, 2011
Omaha native and Emmy Award-winning documentarian Gail Levin profiles actor Jeff Bridges in a new film kicking off the 25th season of “American Masters,” a series produced for PBS by New York Public Media THIRTEEN in association with WNET. …
moreJan 11, 2011
Coming soon. The words on the hand-printed sign affixed to the glass doors of the rebuilt Bagel Bin, at 1215 S. 119th St., seem benign enough. But behind the hopeful words is the bittersweet story of a family-owned kosher bakery that went…
moreDec 2, 2010
Bill Maher gets real Acerbic television host and political comic Bill Maher views the 60-70 stand-up gigs he does each year as opportunities to connect with the American gestalt. His Oct. 24 Omaha Music Hall show will be among them. “W…
moreOct 21, 2010
Oct. 26 An Inaugural Ride to Freedom Film Streams’ Ruth Sokolof Theater 1340 Mike Fahey St. Screening and post-show Q & A w/ director Akintunde $9, $7 seniors/students/teachers/military 7 p.m., 933.0259,
filmstreams.org Get on the bu…
moreOct 21, 2010
Lovely, Still enjoys wide release When Martin Landau spins anecdotes about icons he’s worked with during a celebrated acting career, it is a Who’s Who of Hollywood. James Dean, Cary Grant, Alfred Hitchcock, Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton,…
moreOct 1, 2010
Omaha’s desired brand as a progressive, livable, eco-friendly burg with enhanced mobility options took a step forward with city government’s recent hiring of Carlos Morales as the city’s first bicycle pedestrian coordinator. Morales start…
moreSep 24, 2010
