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KANSAN.COM
ARTS & CULTURE
Professor's show takes humorous approach to cancer
► COURTNEY BIERMAN
@courtbierman
Rendi Renee Doran, a senior studying theatre, knew that Mechele Leon was always in her office. The student and theatre professor would regularly hang out in the theatre department, discussing plays and history.
So when Leon's office was empty one day in March of 2016, Doran
knew something was wrong. Other department staff told her Leon was out for "health problems," and Doran eventually pieced together what was going on: Leon had been diagnosed with bladder cancer.
"It was like the department wasn't alive for a while," Doran said.
Leon was back at work less than a year later, even though her cancer was high-grade and muscle-invasive. She'd gone
through four rounds of chemotherapy, and doctors removed her bladder.
Like a true artist Leon turned her brush with death into a one-woman show, which premiered at the Kansas City Fringe Festival on Saturday.
Leon's "Bladder Interrupted" is an hour-long tragicomedy in the same vein as work by Carrie Fisher and Tig Norato, performers who turn terrible or life-threatening experiences into comedy.
Leon uses humor to bring awareness to and start conversations about a deadly disease, as well as her recovery.
"Of course, when anybody's diagnosed, you feel like your world has crashed," Leon said. "Now, looking back on it, it feels like a very serious medical event in my life, but it doesn't feel like a death sentence."
Doran is one of two Jayhawks also involved with the production of
As Leon and Buchheister were writing, Buchheister's
"Bladder Interrupted." Doran is an assistant producer, and 2004 graduate Theresa Buchheister is the dramaturge and cowriter. Buchheister is a New York City-based actor, writer and director, and Leon recruited her early on in the creative process. The women pored over the early drafts of the show to make sure it was as funny and relatable as possible.
father was diagnosed with a brain tumor. She said the experience made her feel closer to the material of "Bladder Interrupted," and gave her a new perspective on what Leon was trying to accomplish with the show — especially when she observed Leon commiserating with Buchheister's father in his hospital room.
"The way that they talk to each other was so different
SEE CANCER PAGE 8
Revisiting the National African American Quilt Convention
▶ COURTNEY BIERMAN
@courtbierman
Contributed Photo
The work of about a dozen quilt artists is on display across Lawrence as part of last week's National African American Quilt Convention. The Lawrence Arts Center, the Spencer Museum of Art, and the African American Museum and Textile Academy all currently house quilts from a number of visiting artists across the country.
new photo
Quilt artist Bisa Butler stands with her piece "I Know Why the Catbird Beats His Wings" at the Spencer Museum of Art. Butler visited Lawrence last week to teach a quilting class, and her work was on display at the Lawrence Arts Center.
ing work includes appliqués and symbolism meant to tell less-told pieces of black and African history, such as a quilt that tells the story of Malcom X's wife, Betty Shabazz, a PhD who survived her husband's assassination and continued to raise their six daughters.
Artists Myrah Brown Green and Bisa Butler were both in Lawrence earlier this month to participate in the first-ever National African American Quilting Convention. Green and Butler taught classes in different quilting techniques to convention goers. Green also gave a lecture on African symbolism in quilting.
Green is an art historian, academic, curator and professional quilt maker from Brooklyn. Much of her quilt-
actress Lupita Nyong'o.
Green, who had never been to Kansas before, said she felt a responsibility to attend the convention.
Also in Butler's collection is a piece depicting the face of an unfamiliar elderly black man. He's meant to be Butler's grandfather, who died well before she was born. Butler's father was 11 years old when he lost his own father to appendicitis in Ghana. Butler said she wanted to create something that would show what she imagined her grandfather would look like if he were alive today. The quilt now hangs in her father's living room.
"I feel like as a woman, as someone who knows how difficult and challenging it is to put on a big event such as this, whatever I could do, it was important for me to do it," she said.
Butler works as a high school art teacher in New Jersey. Her quilts are detailed, colorful portraits of prominent figures, many of whom are no longer living. The subjects of the quilts tend to be people who influence and inspire Butler, such as poet Paul Laurence Dunbar and
Contributed Photo
Contributed Photo Myrah Brown Green, whose quilt "Dancin' at the Tree of Life" is shown here, visited Lawrence to lecture and teach classes as part of the National African American Quilt Convention.
Green and Butler both expressed gratitude toward the quilting community. Butler said other types of visual artists can tend to be competitive and cold, but quilters support one another. They attend each other's workshops and buy each other's art. She said the warmth of the quilting community was one reason she was happy to attend the convention
a part of this renaissance," Butler said. "I felt the vibe of quilting in general and African American quilting were making a resurgence, so for all of us to be here, and to have this many people and
"I'm so happy just to be
all of these major museums respect and want to promote that, it really puts us out there. It's like it's a renaissance of African American quilting."
More of Green and But
ler's work can be seen on their websites. The Lawrence Arts Center's "Boldly Stitched" exhibition, which displays the work of six different quilters, can be seen until August 19.