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Here is a small photo gallery of abandoned pieces of furniture throughout the Benson area. After an hour of wandering aimlessly through the Benson neighborhood just south of Maple St., we stumbled across this beauty that looks like it could've been stowed away in a hospital for the past 20 or so years. You can take a look at this shabby old girl on the intersection of Ohio and 56th St! Next we have a pretty sweet velvet couch complete with a '90s feather pattern. This comfortable sofa only has a few stains and a limited amount of old cat hair. Old and a little sad, this "FREE" couch can be spotted resting at the corner of 48th and Wirt. After about 3 hours of galavanting, we decided it was about time to retire, but not before snagging some pictures of this little blue recliner boy stationed behind Benson High School.
By Savannah Pickard
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Written by Savannah Pickard As a lot of you might already know, Benson First Friday was inspired by the monthly artist driven event by the same name in the Crossroads district of Kansas City, Missouri. While our First Fridays here only occupy a few blocks of Maple Street, Kansas City's has a radius of almost half of a mile. In order to get an idea of how things work down there, I was sent on an elaborate recon mission to find out their secrets and recruit artists! Guided by an old friend who just so happens to be a KC native, I set off to explore the streets to draw some inspiration and gather info to bring back to the masses. At first, I was taken aback by the wonderfully diverse hordes of people that ventured out to enjoy art in their city. First Fridays turn the Crossroads district into a melting pot of people from all over. It helps keep art alive in the city and expose people to artists and goods that they normally wouldn't get to enjoy otherwise. The sheer size of this event is something that we can only hope to achieve one day! We also got to enjoy a lot of street performers and musical acts that had set up on various street corners. Local businesses also serve as artist spaces for those needing/wanting to set up inside! I think this would be a great thing to bring back home as it would help artists and business owners in Benson area. I didn't expect to make as many connections as we did during our time there; so many artists were eager to give us their business cards and spend time talking to us about our mission with Benson First Friday. Hopefully we get to see some of the people we talked to make the trek to Omaha to get some exposure and help us grow as an event and organization as a whole! With a fat stack of business cards and new friends, we plotted the course back home with new knowledge and ideas to implement into BFF. Down below you can view a slideshow of some of the super rad artists we met and art pieces we liked!  (Cat Grange, Intern, BFA student at UNO) From ancient Greece to today, the rabbit has been a prolific and complex symbol in art history. It represents abundance, fertility, and Immaculate Conception – but also the insidious nature of unbridled lust. Thousands of artworks featuring Benson’s favorite furry thing have been produced since antiquity. So to celebrate the rabbit’s dynamic contributions to our visual language, I will be highlighting one of these artworks in a series of short articles, starting with GFP Bunny (AKA “Alba”). In 2000, French scientists injected green fluorescent protein (GFP) from a jellyfish into the fertilized egg of a rabbit. It was part of Chicago artist Eduardo Kac’s project, which he described as transgenic art. The rabbit, named Alba, was born in April that year. Under normal conditions, she looked like any other albino rabbit with white fur and pink eyes. But under the correct lighting, she glowed fluorescent green. Producing a glowing bunny was only one part of the transgenic project. As Kac said in his statement, “The second phase is the ongoing debate, which started with the first public announcement of Alba's birth.” Alba sparked discussion across disciplines, including art, biology, social sciences, law, and philosophy. What are the ethical implications of genetic modification and gene therapy? How does this affect our understanding of diversity and the way we treat individuals we perceive as “other”? What does this mean for the future of interactive art? The third phase – if the project had been completed – would have steeped the conversation further in a social context. Eduardo Kac intended to integrate Alba into his home, giving her a life of normalcy that any other un-spliced pet rabbit could enjoy. But unfortunately, Alba died two years later for reasons unexplained, never having left the lab she was born in. It’s been speculated that the scientists involved wanted to distance themselves from the controversy started by Kac, but the truth is still unclear. Despite its untimely end, the GFP Bunny project made significant strides in art in relation to science and technology. For that, Alba is worth celebrating.  Una Novotny, BFF Intern, written after an interview with Dana Jeck and Kaissa Inzunza  Display at Wheels of Fortune Art has historically been known to push the boundaries of societal norms, and has represented the changes that we make as a society to better ourselves and our understanding of others. However, in order for those changes to occur, we must continuously be critical of how things are working, and create spaces that allow voices to be heard that may otherwise go unnoticed.  Kaissa Inzunza This May, Omaha artists Kaissa Inzunza and Dana Jeck traveled for the second year in a row to the weekend long skate competition “Wheels of Fortune” in Washington. The event started 9 years ago, and as their website states, “is the longest running and largest skateboard showcase featuring female-identified (cisgender or trans), trans, and gender non-conforming athletes from around the world.”  Dana Jeck As both artists are also skaters who identify as queer females, they were inspired by the immense amount of love and support that came from everyone in attendance, and the fact that a space exists to allow for the combination of their multiple passions, as well as providing a large platform for all of them to be shown, which may not be as available in other places. Their experience last year led to six portraits, which portrayed 2017’s finalists and incorporate the distinct styles of both artists. They were drafted and finished over the course of two months while traveling throughout the West Coast on their way to Wheels of Fortune, and were displayed over the weekend, where they were seen not only by many of those finalists that returned in 2018, but by so many others that had been inspired by them as well. This portrait series will be shown along with Kaissa's independent work at Hugo's Gallery on July 27th.  Finalist next to her portrait Until recently, most professional skateboarders were male, and most representations of skating in mass media and pop culture stereotyped skateboarders as such. This event has grown in popularity, and many of the finalists they had seen only a year ago in 2017 are now sponsored by major brands, helping to break the stigma that all serious skaters are straight males.  Members of Girls Skate Night, photo taken by Alex Heller This increased visibility has inspired many non-male identifying people to feel comfortable enough to enter the skate community. Kaissa and Dana have brought this back to Omaha, and share the positivity and inclusivity with our community. They have personally inspired me as well as many others to be a part of Girl’s Skate Night, which provides an area for people of all ages who may feel excluded in other areas to develop their skills in an accepting and non judgemental environment. As an intern with Benson First Friday, I have come to understand more deeply how important it is for communities to support their creatives, especially those whose work may not be accepted into other areas, whether it be because of the content, bias against the artist, or simply because they cannot afford to have it displayed elsewhere. With this accessibility as well as inspiration from Dana, Kaissa, and so many others in the community that are working to create inclusive spaces, I am curating a show highlighting the work as well as the experiences of trans, queer, or non-gender conforming people, in which Kaissa’s independent paintings will be featured. The topic the show will mainly explore is how sex, sensuality, and self image is seen by those whose bodies or sexualities are not represented in the media or in society as a whole. Through learning from and understanding others we continue to grow the community into a place where everyone is encouraged to express every aspect of themselves. If you are a visual, written, or performance artist and are interested in being a part of this upcoming September show, submit work to www.bensonfirstfriday.com/showcase.html
(Johnny Redd, Studio Art undergraduate at UNO)
I’m an autistic person, and I am also an artist. I have trouble interpreting social cues. I have intense and narrow interests. I am bothered by aspects of the sensory environment that others can easily filter out. These things make me autistic. I also paint, draw comics, take photographs, and create digital art. These things make me an artist. In many ways, I often feel that the world expects me to choose between, or separate, these aspects of my identity. Whenever we are exposed to successful, well-adjusted autistic adults in media (which isn’t often, but that’s a whole other ordeal), we see socially-awkward male engineers, physicists, or computer programmers. These stereotypes are further cemented by representations of autistic, or autistic-coded, people in fiction, like Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory. A lot of autistic people are scientists and engineers, and that’s great. But a lot of us aren’t. While many aspects of autism are actually game-changers in STEM fields, those same qualities can also be part of what makes an amazing artist. Our society likes to define everyone as either “left-brain dominant” or “right-brain dominant.” This popular myth, which suggests that creative tasks are controlled by the right brain while logical reasoning tasks are controlled by the left brain, has contributed to a false binarization of the way our brains work; it has also been debunked countless times, and research has found that all functions of our brain benefit the most when both hemispheres work together in conjunction. This false binary, arts versus STEM, can be seen everywhere in our world, and the separation comes from both sides. It’s not uncommon on any university campus to hear art students lament about how bad they are at math, and for math students to gripe about how they were forced to take art in high school for an elective. This separation harms everyone, but it especially harms autistic people in the arts. As a population, we are stereotypically grouped as “left-brained.” This is because misinformed junk-science states that the left hemisphere of the brain exclusively handles logic, reason, critical thinking, and numbers, all things that autistics are traditionally associated with. The stereotype that autistic people have to be mathematicians, scientists, or engineers, and that these fields are the “opposite” of the arts, contributes to the marginalization of us in communities that are already hard enough for us to navigate socially. I am an autistic person, and I am an artist. But I am also a scientist. All of the things that make me an artist, like my attention to detail, my ability to look at things from a fresh perspective, my drive to explore new ideas, my ability to hyperfocus on a project for hours, are all things that also made me a scientist. For the first half of my college experience, I was a neuroscience student, and I loved it. It didn’t end up working out for me (darn chemistry), so I switched to art. While there was definitely a culture shock going from STEM to art, I found that there is a lot more overlap between the two fields than people think. The skills that I had gained from my science education, like careful planning, persistence, and observation, gave me an edge when I began my education in art. Autistic people are often exceptional planners and observers of the world. We are this way because of how our brains are programmed; I plan every minute of my day because I cannot handle the anxiety of not knowing what is going to happen next; I need structure, and that comes from my autism. We must observe the world very closely compared to everyone else in order to function socially with other people. These skills actually translate to real-world benefits in both art and STEM fields. Autistic people exist in the world as scientists and engineers, but we also exist in the world of art, music, and design, just like everyone else. Some of us, myself included, exist in both. The false binary of arts versus STEM is harmful to not only autistics, but also to us as a society because it stunts our collective growth. We need engineers who are artists, and designers who are programmers, and mathematicians who play music. The only way we can push forward is if we stop pigeonholing everyone, autistic or not, and combine our collective strengths into one. (Written by Savannah Pickard)
If you call Benson your home, then you've probably seen him living the words, "sushi is life," behind the rail at Yoshitomo, maybe playing a show in his band, Carson City Heat, or perhaps even enjoying a drink at one of the many rad bars in the Benson neighborhood. Sources have confirmed that Dave "Yoshi" Utterback is much more than just a sushi man, but I needed to find out for myself; so I sat down with the enigma himself earlier this week to talk a little bit about his journey and life as a restaurant owner and chef. Can you fill me in on the time you've spent as a chef working your way to where you are now? "I started out in my early 20s working a bunch of random management and retail jobs trying to, you know, find my way (in Omaha). I had always been interested in sushi and a buddy of mine had just gotten a job at Blue and he said he could get me a job there, too, so I put in an application. When I showed up and handed in my application, I was very poor, but I wanted some sushi. So I ate there but I tipped very badly and the waitress threw away my application. The chef that was working saw it and said, 'Who was that guy who just filled out an application!?' and the waitress was like, 'Oh, you don't want to hire him! He tips badly, that guy can't work here!' And after scolding her for throwing away my application, he got it out of the trash and hired me. So I like to say that my career literally started in the garbage." "I ended up working for Blue for quite a number of years, worked my way from the very bottom to chef, then lead chef, all the way to their corporate chef. I was head of sushi for about 7 years, and then you just hit a certain point and you decide on if you are going to continue building someone else's dream or if you are gonna go and put work into your own. After 12+ years it was time to start working on my own dream." What about the initial conception and rough timeline of creating Yoshitomo? How long had this dream been in the works? "I'd started thinking about owning my own restaurant early into my career as chef. You know, every chef, every cook talks about the restaurant they're going to have. So starting at day one, you think, 'My restaurant's gonna do this, this, and this,' but you say you're gonna do things and how you're going to do them without actively working on it. It's just talk. The real nuts and bolts of working on this restaurant started last year in January when I left Blue. I'd left the company and my choice was, again, either go work for somebody else for another 10+ years, or go beg, borrow, and steal (not literally) money to open my own restaurant. A lot of things like the way we approach food and a lot of the design elements of the restaurant I've been thinking about for a decade, but that goes back to chefs talking about their dreams. The real work for this restaurant started about a year and a half ago." Are there any dining experiences or even other restaurants that inspired you in any way? "Yeah, yeah, I've had a couple of those meals. I had the opportunity to eat with the now celebrity chef, Jiro, about 9-10 years ago, and I was just a crappy line cook at the time and I didn't know that sushi could be that way. I didn't know that there was a high-end version beyond just charging too much for food, I didn't know there was, you know, a craftsmanship side to sushi." "Shortly after that, I ate at a really great restaurant in Austin, called Uchi, which does a lot of what we're trying to do here. The meal that I had was a balancing act between approachable food and dishes while also pushing everything forward; pushing diners towards eating better fish, taking a lot of options away from them and focusing on the experience of dining. A lot of what we do here is inspired by what they've done over there." As far as location goes, was opening up shop here in Benson an intentional choice? "Yeah, I've been in the community since back when we all used to hang out in Dundee, and then everyone started moving out to Benson 7-8 years ago. Pretty much everyone in this neighborhood I know, we've been drinking and having good times together for about 15 years. You aren't going to open up a restaurant like this in Suburbia, your choices are downtown or midtown, and this is my home. My house is a couple blocks from here, all my friends are here, if we need something, we can go across the street and borrow it. Sushiyas (Japanese name for sushi restaurants) in Japan are really part of the community, everyone who frequents them is from that neighborhood. There isn't another neighborhood in the city where the growth and community is organic. At any given time I know around 50% of guests in the restaurant, and between everyone who works here, I'd say we know 75% of the people who walk through the door, and that's super cool." I'm assuming there are a lot of struggles you've had to face while opening Yoshitomo, could you share some of them? "Getting and keeping the restaurant open comes with a lot of hoops to jump through, you never know what the city is gonna throw at you. The plumbing inspector wants something, the food inspector wants something completely different, and no one can give you a set answer on how much everything going to cost. Basically, you just have a small bucket of money and by the time you get the restaurant's doors open, you hope you didn't have to sell the bucket, too." "Also, coming from a corporate background, everyone has their own specific job. Mine was worrying about food and running the sushi bar efficiently. Now, I'm the only guy who can do 'owner stuff'. There isn't another owner to help with everything else that isn't food, it's pretty much just me. When we were opening I was the one mowing the overgrown grass and shoveling sidewalks, I don't get to worry about just running the rail. People walking in the door don't think about who has to keep the lights on, who has to make sure all the equipment is working, who has to keep this place from just falling apart and letting nature take over. In the corporate world there are a team of people working on all that stuff, but here, it's just me. It's almost like having your fingers in a leaky dam, you only have two hands and can plug up these holes today and the rest are just going to have to wait one more day and hopefully the whole thing doesn't fall apart by the time you can deal with all the issues. One day I hope I won't be the one who has to shovel the walk and I can just pay someone else $10 to do it, but right now we just really need that $10." Where do you see Yoshitomo in 5 years from now? Are there any longterm goals you have in mind? "The goal was always to create a small little group of restaurants, we're not talking a large corporate group of restaurants, but the idea was to use Yoshitomo as a diving board for more restaurants like it. I'm not interested in sticking bunch of Yoshitomos all over the place, that's just kind of boring. It becomes no different than a McDonald's at that point. I see us moving into some different concepts keeping the same ideas, service, and vibes the same, but mixing it up and doing smaller, more chef-driven restaurants. The idea is to kind of take this model, tweak it, get it working right, figure out the systems for other restaurants, and do it more." "This all comes stems from the lacking of chef-driven restaurants. If you step back and look at the city, the cost of opening up a restaurant by yourself without any sort of big money help or angel investor is so high that chef's can't do it. That's why so many restaurants are just chains. Even the newer restaurants opening up pretend to be local, but they're not. They're funded by out of state money and just have the front of being local. The idea that we can stay in town an take chefs with passions and turn those into dining experiences for people in town rather than everyone waiting for the next California Pizza Kitchen to open up or some other giant corporate garbage. Someone's gotta be that guy who helps." And that pretty much concludes my wonderful interview with Dave Utterback. I hope you feel enriched and learned a lot about the man who finally brought sushi to Benson, and maybe you even learned a little bit about yourself on this journey. Remember: don't be sad that it's over, be happy it happened.  What is your favorite flavor of ice cream?
Tyrannosaurus Rex. Can you make an anagram out of your name? Smart Ley Hibd. What’s your favorite album? Pistachios. What’s the best part about bartending? That’s a hard one- the fun? It’s fun. What was your first bar experience like? It was at the 49’r Lounge. All I was thinking was, “I am not cool enough to be in here”. That’s still what I think. What is your favorite drink to drink? Favorite drink to make? As hot of Jameson, for both. What superpower would you choose to have? The ability to fly, but only when I’m naked-yep! Heaven or Hell? Arizona, it’s just hell. Do you have anything else you would like to share? The crow flies at midnight, but only North. The person who needs to know this will understand what it means.  How long have you been making pizzas?
I’ve been making pizza for twenty five years, ever since Lo Sole Mio opened. I started making pizza there. What is your favorite pizza? Ooh I’m going to have to go with the Margherita. What is you worst pizza memory? Oh wow, definitely in a nightmare I had. Yep worst pizza memory-in a nightmare. If one animal could rule the world, which should it be? And why? Gorilla! ‘Cause I’m a gorilla. If the lion is the king of the jungle- then the gorilla must be the star of the jungle. What is one great thing you can say about being 27 years old? My hair was thicker- thick hair. Chicken or egg? Tabasco Sauce. If you had one day left to live what would you do? I don’t know, that’s a deep question. I would go skydiving without a parachute, that’s what I would do. Call everyone and tell them I love them and go skydiving. You hit the ground, go right through to the center of the earth, and then to the other side. If someone gave you a Hermit crab right now, what would you name it? Herman! H-e-r-m-a-n, and I would call him Herman-o! What’s your favorite album? There’s so many good ones, that’s a hard one. I’m probably goin’ with Rob Zombie. I’m trying to think of an album. If I was gonna go skydive, I would probably put on a Rob Zombie album and skydive to it. Do you have anything you want to share with Benson? If they want something weird, come down for Benson First Friday, we are putting crickets on pizza! That’s good and weird, yeah? Nell Horgan Recycling, composting, and zero waste are quickly becoming more commonplace practices. Because many people are still unaware of the necessity of adopting these practices, it is important to take the time to learn and educate people in the community around yourself. Embracing these practices will not only benefit the Earth and environment around you, but it will also bring you closer to the people who surround you, the food that you handle and consume, and to your own awareness and body. I sat down with Morgan Wright, with Hillside Solutions, to speak of their composting and recycling programs. They have partnered with multiple businesses in Benson and are hoping to educate this community and neighborhood about the importance of waste reduction. Q: What do you do with Hillside Solutions? A: You can think of us like an eco-friendly trash company. As in, we’ll empty your dumpster and take it to the landfill, but we’d much rather figure out ways to recycle and compost your waste. We help businesses, schools, and apartments meet their sustainability goals, whether it’s just increasing recycling rates or figuring out how they can go zero-waste. From what I can tell, we’re the only business in town offering organizations this type of comprehensive service, and it looks like 2018 is going to be a break through year for us. But all that to say, it’s my job to talk to people in the community everyday about how we can partner up to create more sustainability. I love it! Q: Besides the obvious benefits of composting, what else have you gathered through your experience with composting and reducing waste that has been beneficial? A: Our team is learning so much everyday about the effects of our waste system. A lot of people think, “What’s the issue with landfills?” Landfills themselves could be a carbon capsule for energy in the future, which can be viewed as beneficial. But everyday after the trash goes in, they put down a layer of dirt to offset smells and trash flying around. While this seems like a good thing, what it actually does is block out oxygen from getting to our organic waste, so it takes forever for materials to break down. A head of lettuce thrown into a garbage bag that gets thrown into a landfill takes 25 years to break down. Think about that! In the meantime, that lettuce head is putting off methane, which is 60 times worse than CO2. While many landfills collect methane and sell it to energy companies, the total amount of methane released in the lifespan of a landfill that isn’t catchable ends up creating more problems than solutions. There’s a better way, and that’s composting our organic waste, which is where we come in. Q: Is there anything you could direct other people towards to learn more about composting, recycling, or waste reduction? A: I recently saw the “Wasted! The Story of Food Waste” documentary at a collaborative screening at Film Streams. I really encourage everyone to watch this to get an understanding of what our food waste does to the environment, and what alternatives we have to be apart of the solution. People in our community right here are leading the charge, like our sustainability partners at Duchesne Academy. They have a 2030 zero-waste goal, and are the first high school in Omaha to participate in our composting program. The students, parents, and educators within the school system are very involved and they are some of my local heroes. We’re also working with St. John’s Parish on the Creighton University campus as they work towards becoming the first zero-waste congregation in Omaha. Q: Do you think you could see a zero-waste Benson in the future? Or anything close? A: That’s what I’m working towards everyday. I love this neighborhood, and I think Benson is a diverse, accepting, and progressive community, so we certainly have the capacity to grow into a greener neighborhood. Short term goals: We’re exploring the feasibility of community composting stations in the neighborhood, since we’ve seen such a high demand for people wanting to drop off their organic waste. I’ve been attending community meetings and meeting with neighborhood owners one-on-one to explore how we can increase recycling rates and begin composting their organic waste. The response has been really positive and I think we’re going to be able to make a lot of progress this year. “Hi! My name is Morgan Wright and I love Benson. I'm a proud BFF member, Benson Neighborhood Association member, and currently have a massage therapy practice out of my Benson home. Most of all, I’ve loved my time working at various neighborhood establishments, and supporting the thriving music and art scene over the past decade. I'm honored to be a part of such a vibrant community, I love the people of Benson, and look forward to helping my community become more sustainable. Hillside Solutions provides an alternative to traditional waste companies. We are a local, family owned business that takes recycling, organic material, which is processed at our compost farm, and landfill refuse. We’d love to hear from you in how we can work together to improve our community.”  In Benson, there is opportunity around every corner. The community, the businesses, the artists, and the people all share one common element, they want to be the best they can be.
But sometimes, this much potential can become dizzying. The old saying rings true, "so much to do, so little time". And when the activities are this engaging and wonderful, you don’t want to miss a one. I have included here a list of the Art Galleries in Benson (that I am aware of) so that everyone can go out and support the local artists that make Benson so weird/great. This is also not an extensive list, particularly because every business in Benson tends to have art hanging on their walls, so you can never go wrong! Benson Art Galleries: Petshop Gallery 2725 N 62nd St Omaha, NE 68104 https://www.facebook.com/bensonpetshop/ Warlock Gallery 6208 Maple St Omaha, NE 68104 https://www.facebook.com/warlockgallery/ CHOICE Custom Framing & Gallery 5905 Maple St Omaha, NE 68104 https://www.facebook.com/pg/ChoiceFramingGallery/ The Little Gallery Benson 5901 Maple Street Omaha, NE 68104 https://www.facebook.com/thelittlegallerybenson/ Maple St. Construct 5912 Maple Street Omaha, Nebraska 68104 https://www.facebook.com/maplestconstruct/ If I have missed any and you would like the included, leave a comment and I'll update soon! P.S. The BFF crew prints off maps for every First Friday event, so make sure to stop by the Petshop or other businesses and pick one up for a handy guide to the area! - Justin Holman |
EditorsOur Newsroom editors are current interns of BFF - most are students at UNO. Archives
August 2018
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