
Do the Hustle
Lawrence's freshest crop of hip-hoppers spread the (free) love
The art of creating hype by releasing free music is nothing new in the world of hip-hop, where bootlegged mixtapes have kick-started the careers of everyone from Grandmaster Flash to Lil Wayne. The difference today is the sheer quantity of free releases, and the luxury of being able to make a free digital download available to anyone in the world. There's no shame or stigma attached to such a practice, as evidenced by the fact that two of Lawrence's most promising up-and-comers Skik Figa and Spence are giving away their latest releases.
As Literary As He Wanna Be
Editor and publisher of McSweeney's to visit Lawrence, maybe Taco Bell
If you care about contemporary literary fiction-and if you don't, you're missing out-you'll be interested to know that Eli Horowitz, publisher of McSweeney's, will be visiting Lawrence this week.
The Chain Gallery
Prison Poster Project showcases art from the inside
In the summer of 2004, the We Are Resisting conference was coming to Lawrence and it was expected to draw hundreds of anarchists from across the country. Chantel Guidry, who ran the local chapter of the Anarchist Black Cross, a prison abolition network, was helping organize a prisoner art show to coincide with the conference.
New Kid on the Voting Bloc
Political neophyte John Wilson hopes to shake up the Kansas legislature
John Wilson is literally a fresh face on the Kansas political scene. This 24-year-old KU alum looks more like a clean-shaven grad student than the usual stuffed suits and liver spots you'd find moldering in the halls of Topeka. Given his youth and relative inexperience, few expected Wilson to make much of a dent when he threw his hat in the ring as the Democratic candidate against Tom Sloan, who's represented Lawrence and the 45th district in the state House for 14 years.
Parenthood sometimes poetic
My 13-month-old daughter has reached that age. The one where she knows what she wants but not how to tell me. So, incidentally, she has discovered anger.