Matthew Lopez’s The Inheritance Part 1 & Part 2 is a brilliant exploration of the legacy of AIDS on the lives and communal history of gay men. Last week, Tesseract Theatre Company stunned audiences with the beautifully connected and performed Part 1. This week, Director Stephen Peirick and an exceptional cast complete the story with a truly unforgettable and affecting Part 2, the St. Louis premiere of the heartfelt and moving conclusion.
Last month, on April 16, the Saint Louis Zoo (1 Government Drive, stlzoo.org) welcomed a female Grevy zebra foal — Roxie. The adorable foal, who weighed 95.8 pounds at birth, was the first ever animal born at the Saint Louis Zoo WildCare Park, a safari park under development in north county. “This is both a joyful and historic moment for WildCare Park," said Saint Louis Zoo WildCare Park Director Sabarras George in a statement.
Ahead of commencement and in the aftermath of a Pro-Palestine protest and 100 arrests, Washington University says it plans to fence in its campus and increase security. The fence could be seen being erected around parts of campus this morning. In an email sent to employees and students, the university says it will change how its Danforth campus can be accessed.
Slumlord Dara Daugherty took the stand earlier this week in St. Louis Circuit Court and testified that she had relinquished one of her most problematic properties, a home on Virginia Avenue in Tower Grove East. But in an order issued yesterday, Judge Jason Sengheiser indicated he has some doubts about that. He wrote that after careful examination of Daugherty’s testimony, her demeanor and the other evidence presented in court, he finds her testimony of having sold the property “not credible.”
If you associate Sauget solely with strip clubs and heavy industry, prepare to be shook: Next weekend, the East Side town originally christened Monsanto, Illinois, is going to be crawling with kids. The Big Bounce America is setting up at the home of the Gateway Grizzlies, Grizzlies Ballpark Field (2301 Grizzlie Bear Boulevard, Sauget, Illinois), beginning Friday, May 10. Unlike last year's lengthy residency in the Saint Louis Galleria parking lot, this stay lasts just one weekend, so plan accordingly.
Literary fans will unite as St. Louis literary magazine december premieres its St. Louis LitFest at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis (3750 Washington Boulevard) on Friday, May 17. The new festival is a production of local nonprofit literary magazine december. “One of the parts of our mission is building community as well as publishing writers and artists at all stages of their careers,” says Jennifer Goldring, the magazine’s managing editor.
The Original Crusoe's (3152 Osceola Street) finally closed its doors in Dutchtown two weeks ago — eight months after owner Stevie Limmer LaChance first announced it would be shuttering. LaChance had been buoyed by the outpouring of support for the south city mainstay, which her father founded in 1979. She grew up in the restaurant before taking over operations about a decade ago with her husband Elliot as her father dealt with Parkinson's disease.
Anyone who has ever had a labor of love turn into a major headache should be able to relate to Lindsay Dausman. In 2015, she and her husband bought a century-old, three-story home on Westminster Place in the Central West End. Dausman's hope was to fix it up, restore its original beauty and add a few modern elements before selling it to someone who wanted to live in the city.
Candidate for Missouri attorney general Will Scharf has not been shy about courting national media attention, frequently appearing on cable news stations including CNN, Fox, and the always reliable Newsmax to defend his high-profile client Donald Trump. But he perhaps found his widest audience yet earlier this week when comedian Jimmy Kimmel featured Scharf on his show's monologue. The Jimmy Kimmel Live!
Not even a year after the Wood Shack relocated to a bigger location at 1731 South 7th Street, the Soulard smokehouse is closing. The Wood Shack announced its forthcoming closure on Instagram this morning, writing "Thank you so much dining with us. Now it's our dinner time.
St. Louis is about to get a lot more caffeinated. Today, local specialty roaster Blueprint Coffee opens a new headquarters and roastery in the Tiffany neighborhood just north of Shaw. The new facility at 1600 South 39th Street is large — 11,000 square foot.
The race for St. Louis city sheriff has narrowed into a two-person affair, with Anthony Anderson dropping out of the race and throwing his weight behind Alfred Montgomery, the former deputy challenging incumbent Vernon Betts. “Let St. Louis know, I’m supporting the young guy,” Anderson said in a phone call yesterday with the RFT. A retired St. Louis Metropolitan Police officer who currently works as a detective for the North County Police Cooperative, Anderson says he’s dropping out as his mother and his father-in-law are battling health issues, and he needs to concentrate on them rather than a campaign.
Landmark south city bar and grill the Haven (6625 Morgan Ford Road) has closed its doors, possibly temporarily, following the death of owner John Gasperi early last month. The restaurant announced Gasperi's April 9 passing on its various social media platforms, writing on Google that "John loved the Haven, and its employees, and customers more than anything. As many of you know John struggled with various health problems the past few years, he was a fighter, and a friend to everyone.
Sugar Shack Cafe (1416 East 20th Street, Granite City, Illinois) has opened in the former home of Petri Cafe. The 1950s-vibe diner, owned by Trecie Wilson and Steven Perkins, served its first breakfast April 1. The couple most recently ran their Madison, Illinois, location of Sugar Shack as takeout only, but now they have closed that location and jumped into a full-service, sit-down restaurant dishing up the kind of comfort food that is close to their hearts.
It has taken nearly two years, but the residents of a small corner of the city's Forest Park Southeast neighborhood are again able to get permits for parking — and if that doesn't sound like cause for celebration, perhaps you have not lived in St. Louis long enough. The saga began in the spring of 2022, when the nonprofit Park Central Development relinquished administration of the parking permit program to the treasurer's office for the City of St. Louis. The timeline of when Park Central notified the city it wanted help with the program is a matter of some dispute, but what's clear is that when permits for the 10 districts in Forest Park Southeast and the Central West End came up for renewal that June, no one was fully prepared to process them.
It's going to be a busy Friday at the Saint Louis Art Museum (One Fine Arts Drive, slam.org) as the museum opens two exhibits that draw on its permanent collection. Both Romare Bearden: Resonances and Jaune Quick-to-See Smith will make their debuts. Romare Bearden: Resonances is centered around Summertime, a piece from SLAM's permanent collection that exemplifies the collage technique the modernist artist is known for.
Two bills introduced with the St. Louis Board of Aldermen aim to ensure that attorneys can visit their clients in jail and allow city officials to visit the jail without prior notice. As controversy after controversy roils the St. Louis City Justice Center, jail administrators have responded by blocking attorney access and barring them from bringing cellphones with them to visit clients. The bills seek to mitigate that.
A total of 140 Washington University School of Law faculty, students and alumni have signed an open letter condemning the university for the mass arrests and suspensions that followed Saturday’s Pro-Palestine protest. The letter — addressed to Chancellor Andrew Martin and Vice Chancellors Anna Gonzalez, Nichol Luoma, Beverly Wendland and Robert Wild — says the university administration's characterization of events “does not align with many firsthand reports from the scene.” In a statement following the protest, Martin said protestors behaved “aggressively” and referred to the demonstration as a “dark sad day” for the university.
The doughnut news is good: After more than 70 years in business, South City’s Donut Drive-In is spreading the wealth. A new sister shop – Donut Drive-Up (8950 Manchester Road; Brentwood) – will open by the end of May in the former To Go Sushi space. Owner Kevin McKernan bought the original Donut Drive-In (6525 Chippewa Street) in 2020 after it went on the market in 2019.
For the first time since the City of St. Louis accused her of masterminding a massive illegal rooming house scheme, Dara Daugherty took the stand in court yesterday, telling a judge that she no longer owns one of her portfolio's most squalid holdings. Daugherty testified she recently sold the home with the Dutch gambrel roof on Virginia Avenue, a nuisance property that was the bane of its neighbors and where the city claims Daugherty housed an ad-hoc, unpaid labor force that worked on her slum empire's "fixer-upper" properties. Yesterday’s hearing came as part of the city’s ongoing civil lawsuit against Daugherty and five of her family members and associates who are accused of running an illegal rooming house scheme that spanned 39 properties across nine south city neighborhoods.
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