This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Aug. 7, 2013 - Like the story of the blind men and the elephant, St. Louis can feel like a completely different city depending on which part you experience. According to the fable, the man who felt the elephant’s tail described the animal as a rope, the one who touched the leg likened it to a pillar and the one who stroked the ear compared it to a fan.
“You are all right,” the sighted king explains to the group.
Last Tuesday, night, I experienced two very disparate features of St. Louis. My first stop was a marvel of concrete and glass containing renowned works of minimalist art and a collection of hipsters. The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts in Grand Center held a very civilized “charrette” (architectural discussion) in which finalists presented their ideas in a contest to design a vacant lot. Millions of dollars’ worth of Donald Judd sculptures surrounded Pulitzer guests, who reviewed renderings of gauzy tents, children’s swings and a sculpture that doubles as a stage.
The very elegant Kristina Van Dyke, director of the Pulitzer, and a distinguished Carmon Colangelo, dean of the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts, presided over the question-and-answer period.
The next gathering was surrounded by a mix of brick and bicycle parts, punctuated by neon signs and burlesque dancers. At Handlebar in The Grove, a bawdy Drink ‘n Draw event encouraged avocational artists to sketch burlesque and hip-hop dancers between performances.
The evening’s song lyrics included some sexually explicit accompaniments to the burlesque performers' strip-down to thongs and pasties. Running this show was personal trainer and Outrageous Productions founder Teya King, whose other offerings include the Red Hot Workout and a play featuring a naughty librarian and “three diapered dudes.”
Hard to imagine two more different events. The thing about St. Louis, though, is there’s room for both. And more.
And who’s to say these very different evenings wouldn’t draw some of the same people? Both attracted an overall young-ish group, dressed not that differently from one another. Even some of the Pulitzer presenters were dressed down; artist Oscar Tuazon sported an L.A. Dodgers baseball cap and Freecell designer John Hartmann wore tennis shoes.
Perhaps the most important common denominator: free beer. The Pulitzer provided Schlafly products to its guests, and Handlebar’s Drink ‘n Draw winners enjoyed beer on the house as a prize for best sketch.
Beer has long been a social lubricant, rising to the level of the U.S. presidency in 2009. President Barack Obama held a “beer summit” at the White House to smooth things over following the arrest of black Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. as he tried to enter his own house.
Obama was criticized for saying publicly that white police Sgt. James Crowley had “acted stupidly” in the arrest. But the subsequent beer summit produced "friendly, thoughtful conversation,” Obama reported after his Bud Light, Gates’ Sam Adams Light, Crowley’s Blue Moon and Vice President Joe Biden’s nonalcoholic Buckler.
There are many, many conversations to be had in St. Louis about race and class. But on a local or national scale, whether it’s in the form of beer or the arts, difference can be a strength. Cheers to those who recognize that.
