Cut And Paste

St. Louis artist Kahlil Irving is only 25 but he's exhibiting in galleries from New York City to Los Angeles.

George Edick Jr. grew up inside his father's Club Imperial in north St. Louis during its heyday, when Ike and Tina Turner regularly took the stage.

Carmen Garcia and her teenage daughter Isabel bond over their shared passion for musical theater and each other.

Kat Reynolds stops by the beauty products store about as often as some people shop for groceries — about three times a month. For many women, shampoos, conditioners, extensions and weaves seem to hold the key not only to an improved appearance but also a kind of self-satisfaction, according to Reynolds. With that in mind, the photographer is curating an art exhibition, “Mane ‘n Tail,” named for a popular line of beauty products. Reynolds said the show, which opens Jan. 19, focuses on female attractiveness and African-American culture, including money and self-determination.

You can often find St. Louis artist and set designer Kristin Cassidy on the banks of the Mississippi River, picking up stones, metal and even animal bones. Cassidy has long used such items to create installation art. Now, as a set designer, she’s created a fantastical, 71-by-37-foot world, punctuated by colored lights. It’s the backdrop for Mustard Seed Theatre’s revival of its very first play, “Remnant” about a handful of survivors marking Christmas in a dystopian world. In our latest Cut & Paste podcast, we talk with Cassidy about designing the backdrop for the chaotic holiday and how being a child of divorce forged her fascination with objects. Look for new Cut & Paste (#cutpastestl) podcasts every few weeks on our website. You can also find all previous podcasts focusing on a diverse collection of visual and performing artists, and subscribe to Cut & Paste through this link. The podcast is sponsored by SPACE Architecture + Design. Follow Willis and Nancy on Twitter:

How do you condense more than 150 years of civil rights history in to a single book — and make it understandable and meaningful to a fifth grader? St. Louisan Amanda Doyle and co-author Melanie Adams recently attempted to do just that, for their children's book, “Standing Up for Civil Rights in St. Louis.” It starts in the 1800s with the stories of people who were enslaved, and ends with the 2014 shooting death of Michael Brown and the subsequent protests in Ferguson. But its message looks to the future, asking kids what they can do to change enduring problems facing African-Americans.

Contemporary classical music fans all over the country have enjoyed original compositions by St. Louis' own Chris Stark. But he may have found his biggest audience, ever, in a new group: moviegoers. Stark, a composer and a professor of composition at Washington University, recently finished scoring his first film, a Sony Pictures release, “Novitiate.” It’s the story of a woman who joins a convent. Margaret Qualley plays the aspiring nun and Melissa Leo, the mother superior, in the film directed by Maggie Betts. In our latest Cut & Paste podcast episode, Willis Ryder Arnold and Nancy Fowler talk with Stark about his work for a major motion picture.

By the time Daje Shelton of St. Louis was 17, she’d already lost lots of friends to gun violence. One was shot while waiting at a bus stop, another while walking to the store. Shelton had few outlets for expressing her grief and coping with emotions about that trauma. In her world, fighting, not talking, was a typical way to address conflict. After one fight, she was expelled from high school. A documentary film captures her struggle. “For Ahkeem” opens with Shelton in a courtroom, where St. Louis Circuit Judge Jimmie Edwards gives her a last chance to graduate, from St. Louis' Innovative Concept Academy. The St. Louis court system oversees the unique school, dedicated to the education and rehabilitation of delinquent teens. In our latest Cut & Paste podcast , we talk with Shelton and filmmaker Jeff Truesdell about the teenager’s efforts to negotiate school, friends’ deaths and an unexpected pregnancy. "For Ahkeem" runs through Oct. 19 at 24:1 Cinema . Look for new Cut & Paste

St. Louis’ Prison Performing Arts serves 1,000 inmates every year, some as actors, others as audience members. But leaving prison doesn’t have to mean saying goodbye to the program. Through its Second Acts Ensemble alumni troupe, PPA provides a theatrical outlet on the outside for those who honed their acting skills behind bars. In our latest Cut & Paste podcast, we talk with Robert Morgan and Lyn O’Brien, two Second Acts members, about how PPA and recently deceased founder Agnes Wilcox changed their lives.

Who were the leaders of the Lewis and Clark Expedition across the Western United States? The obvious answer is Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. But many likely don't know that an enslaved African played a crucial third role. Lewis and Clark are famous for undertaking the “Corps of Discovery” in the early 1800s. But another man, York, typically only receives a footnote in history books. St. Louis storyteller Bobby Norfolk wants the change that. In our latest Cut & Paste arts and culture podcast, we talk with Norfolk, whose Sept. 15 storytelling event at The Link Auditorium in the Central West End focuses on York’s experience, which included adventure, hardship and terrible mistreatment.

This has been a super-crazy week for St. Louis theater professional and mom Christina Rios. One of her three younger children started kindergarten. Her teenager entered her junior year of high school. And her theater company R-S Theatrics geared up to open its largest-ever production: “In the Heights.” In our latest Cut & Paste podcast , we talk with Rios and her husband, Mark Kelley — who’s an actor with a day job at Washington University — about how they make it all work. They come from very different backgrounds. She was a child with Mexican roots who grew in a poor St. Louis family. He came from a middle-class west county home. But it was the very different paths they took as young adults that almost derailed their early relationship. Look for new Cut & Paste (#cutpastestl) podcasts every few weeks on our website. You can also find all previous podcasts focusing on a diverse collection of visual and performing artists, and subscribe to Cut & Paste through this link. The

Who among us hasn’t grappled with building a relationship with our parents? Matthew Kerns, director of the St. Lou Fringe festival of performing arts, struggled to bond with a father who was very different from him. Kerns was a gay theater kid; his dad was a stereotypically “manly” man who drove a truck and hunted deer.

Don’t put Rockwell Knuckles and Aloha Micheaux in a box. He’s known as a rapper and she’s more of a pop singer, who made it to the finals in “American Idol” in 2005. But the St. Louis performers shun labels in their collaboration known as The Knuckles. In our latest Cut & Paste podcast , we talk with the musical collaborators with 200 songs and one EP under their belts, focusing on a wave of recent attention they've received and what they'll do next. Look for new Cut & Paste (#cutpastestl) podcasts every few weeks on our website. You can also find all previous podcasts focusing on a diverse collection of visual and performing artists, and subscribe to Cut & Paste through this link. The podcast is sponsored by SPACE Architecture + Design. Follow Willis and Nancy on Twitter: @WillisRArnold and @NancyFowlerSTL Please help St. Louis Public Radio find creative people to feature on Cut & Paste. Tell us which artists and cultural drivers deserve a closer look.

Nika Marble’s artistic toolbox holds an eclectic mix: A shot of tonic, a staccato note and a sharp pair of scissors. Each tool is in service of one of her artistic endeavors: music, mixology and collage making. But as she dons one hat after another, how does Marble define herself? In this reboot of our Cut & Paste podcast , we talk with Marble about an identity crisis that plagues many creative people. “Am I am I an artist who waits tables? Or am I a waiter who occasionally makes art?” Marble said. “This is a thing that has worried myself and a lot of my friends in their lives.”

You know what they say: You can’t spell Cut & Paste without “u.” OK, go ahead: groan. We're groaning with you. We know that no one says that. But seriously, we want to know what you want to hear in Cut & Paste, our arts and culture podcast . Not necessarily “who,” but what kinds of conversations and experiences do you want to be in on?

Adrienne Davis teaches law but she regularly cross-examines the status quo in a completely different field: the arts. The Washington University law professor will receive an Arts Advocacy award from the Women of Achievement of St. Louis in a May 16 event at the Ritz-Carlton. The honor applauds her service on various boards including that of the St. Louis Art Museum and Opera Theatre of St. Louis. But it also extols her efforts to infuse more racial diversity into the artistic pipeline, from art-makers to gallery attendants to curators to institutional leaders. In our latest Cut & Paste arts and culture podcast , we talk with Davis about her advocacy and why it matters.

Photographer Kat Reynolds is having a moment. In the past few months, Reynolds has exhibited at five St. Louis venues. She was named this year’s Emerging Artist by the local Visionary Awards, a prize she’ll accept April 24 at the Sun Theater in Grand Center. She’s also wrapping up a residency program at Paul Artspace, north of Florissant. Her work primarily features young people of color, friends, people she encounters on the street, or people she finds through social media. Reynolds works all these activities around a full-time customer relations job. In our latest Cut & Paste podcast , we catch up with this busy artist, who strives to genuinely connect with her subjects.

When St. Louis' QFest of films officially launched, people in the LGBTQ community were barred from institutions ranging from the military service to marriage. A decade later, LGBTQ citizens can both serve and marry. The 10th annual festival, which opens March 29, includes a dozen films that reflect a restricted past and progressive present.

When St. Louis’ next mayor takes office, local artists will be waiting. They’ve got a list of things they want the mayor — likely Lyda Krewson — to do in support of the arts. They presented their ideas to mayoral candidates in a recent forum presented by Citizen Artist St. Louis. Their goals include a living wage, more artists at the table when economic development plans are decided and recognition of artists’ economic contributions. In our latest Cut & Paste arts and culture podcast, we talk with local artists about their expectations as voters and constituents, as well as creative professionals. Here’s some of what you’ll hear in the podcast: Artist MK Stallings, on the city’s priorities: “The city of St. Louis does a great job of getting behind its sports franchises and things of that nature but I don’t really see the city of St. Louis doing much to support the arts. Artist/activist De Nichols, about the impact of the arts: “The arts generate so much economic opportunity within

In the early 1990s, same-sex relations were illegal , the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy helped keep closet doors sealed shut, and marriage equality for same-sex couples was unthinkable. In that environment, a group of St. Louis lesbian singers wondered: "Where can we find a safe and comfortable place to enjoy making music?" They created Charis, a women’s chorus that’s still lifting its voice — and audiences' spirits — nearly 25 years later. In our latest Cut & Paste podcast, we talk with older and more recent members of the group about keeping pace with the history of the LGBT community. Here’s some of what you’ll hear in the podcast: Sharon Spurlock on her 23 years with the group: “For me, Charis became my longest-term relationship.” Claire Minnis, upon hearing about an artistic director opening at Charis, “That’s everything I ever dreamed of and never knew I could have.” Katie Benoit on being one of the first transgender women in the chorus: “One of the board members