maplewood: A band with the kooky name Wack-A-Doo kicked off the monthly concert series in Maplewood’s Ryan Hummert Memorial Park. But that’s done and gone, so we’ll look to the future acts in the series, which will be held on the fourth Wednesday of every month through September. (If you’re curious and want to catch them elsewhere, Wack-A-Doo is known for toe-tapping vintage swing and Americana.)
up next
June 22: The Bottoms Up Blues Gang serves up blues, jazz and folk.
July 27: The UltraViolets perform rock, pop and Motown.
Aug. 24: Enjoy a slice of New Orleans, some rock and R&B from Robbie & the Rockin’ Fools.
Sept. 28: Griffin and the Gargoyles play rock ’n’ pop and classic rock.
bridgeton
university city
It began as an experiment. Three decades later, the University City Public Art Series is the nation’s longest-running public art collaboration between a university and a local municipality. Since 1986, students from the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis have conceived, designed, proposed, constructed and installed scores of public artworks in the parks, along the thoroughfares, in the courtyards and other public spaces of the university’s neighbor to the north: U. City. For Washington U.’s art students, the series has become a rite of passage, a chance to explore the social aspects and civic responsibilities of being an artist. Media have included everything from wood and plywood to metal, plexiglass and tin-type photography using contemporary subjects. Stocks, the wooden contraption from a few centuries ago where a miscreant’s head and arms were immobilized for the townspeople to ridicule, have been reimagined in clear plexiglass. It’s thought-provoking, to say the least. There’s the metal sculpture of a man carrying an umbrella. It’s whimsical. One project was a big wooden chair … so tall that Kobe Bryant probably couldn’t reach the seat no matter how high he jumped. (Yes, Kobe, that’s a challenge.) Many of the works can be seen along Delmar Boulevard or in Heman Park. Some of the projects were temporary installations, but can still be viewed online. At any rate, since the project’s inception in the fall of 1986, 17 professors, four deans, two chancellors, 60 commission members, two mayors … and more than 200 students … have collaborated on it.
central west end
Hack, hackers, hacking, hacky sack. Maybe only the fourth term doesn’t have a negative connotation. Well, organizers of a recent tech outreach program have turned the ‘bad’ words on their ear: Hack4Hope returned for a second year to offer a weekend Hackathon to prepare underserved youth for careers in technology. Over the weekend of June 10, students with little to no experience from low-opportunity communities spent a weekend at CIC/Cortex in the Central West End, gratis. They worked with volunteer mentors, including some of the tech industry’s most experienced programmers, innovators and business strategists. A follow-up sixmonth academy hopes to train the young coders in programming languages, career strategies and essaywriting skills. Hack4Hope is designed to help kids realize their value and connect them to resources in St. Louis. And Cortex is a hotbed of innovation in a city that has become an embarrassment of riches when it comes to tech startups, whether they’re inventing medical devices, developing ways to increase crop yields, or making renewable energy even more efficient. But kids are still kids. One teenager thrilled at the Mad Libs she created. But she also designed a restaurant menu and built a website … and admitted that the website was the most rewarding part of her experience. Perhaps this young lady will land one of the 10,000 new tech jobs observers say may be available in the next five years throughout the metro. Hack4Hope continues this nonprofit initiative under lead partners ITEN, an entrepreneur support group, the Education Exchange Corps, a local education and community empowerment organization, and a list of others that would take up too much space to list here. Registration is currently open for a one-day Hackathon slated for Oct. 1.
st. louis
> downtown east: Starts at 10 a.m. from the Broadway entrance to the Old Courthouse, Broadway at Market Street. Highlights include the Old Cathedral, the Old Courthouse, Eads Bridge, the Old Post Office District and the historic Wainwright Building, which is the first skyscraper in the universe (although puny by today’s standards—it’s only 10 stories tall. Maybe the sky was lower in the 1890s, when it was completed?).
> downtown west: Starts at 10 a.m. from the main Market Street entrance to St. Louis Union Station’s DoubleTree by Hilton, 1820 Market St. Itinerary includes Union Station, the Peabody Opera House, City Hall, Soldiers Memorial, the Central Library and the Campbell House Museum.
> downtown north/washington avenue: Meet at 1 p.m. outside Tigin Restaurant, Washington Avenue at 4th Street (the Hampton Inn). Learn about our heritage as a garment industry hub, and drink in some of the newest additions to downtown’s dining and cultural scene.
Each tour costs $10 per adult (cash only) and is free for children 12 and younger. Reservations are not required for groups of fewer than 10. Landmarks Association experts serve as guides.
Pictured: U. City