Evie Hemphill
“St. Louis on the Air” ProducerEvie Hemphill served as a producer for St. Louis on the Air from February 2018 to February 2022. After earning a bachelor’s degree in English literature in 2005, she started her career as a reporter for the Westminster Window in Colorado. Several years later she went on to pursue graduate work in creative writing at the University of Wyoming and moved to St. Louis upon earning an MFA in the spring of 2010. She worked as writer and editor for Washington University Libraries until 2014 and then spent several more years in public relations for the University of Missouri–St. Louis before making the shift to St. Louis Public Radio.
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It’s been six long months since Wendy Lea has been able to play or perform with the group of musicians dearest to her heart — or put a paycheck in their pockets. But this weekend, that’s changing as masked members of the Metropolitan Orchestra of St. Louis carefully gather on an outdoor stage alongside the Union Avenue Opera. -
Even as the COVID-19 crisis derailed many of Dance the Vote’s typical endeavors, St. Louisan Joan Lipkin and her collaborators knew that artists remained “an essential part of the conversation.” They decided to center the contributions of artists of color, and commissioned a series of videos highlighting the work of choreographers in St. Louis and beyond. -
Ever since he was a kid, Kip Loui has been fascinated by Defiance, Missouri. Something about the name of the town captured his imagination, and once he became a musician, he told himself that someday he would write a song called “Defiance.” “Then the current guy was elected president,” Loui told "St. Louis on the Air." And soon that song was in the works — along with the 11 others that would eventually become “Show Me State,” the album that he and his wife, JJ Loui, released earlier this year. -
Last week, just before St. Louis Public Schools kicked off a fall semester like no other, Jana Flynn’s masked colleagues surprised her with flowers, a plaque and signs — all in celebration of her being named the district’s 2020 Educator of the Year. SLPS cited the gifted specialist's “passion, dedication and desire to think outside of the box” in her work with students ranging from preschool to eighth grade. -
For more than 20 years, St. Louis native Leslie Gill has been focused on getting women what they need, whatever that may be. When she worked for Annie Malone Children & Family Services, that could mean shelter, clothing or food. Now, as president of the new nonprofit Rung for Women, it’s about providing what she terms “holistic self-sufficiency.” -
Jack Coatar was worried about an exodus of residents and businesses from downtown St. Louis even before the area began seeing civil unrest and a surge in crime this summer. Now the 7th Ward alderman is hearing people express more and more concerns. In an area that used to bustle with concertgoers, diners and Cardinals fans on many nights, the pandemic-driven vacuum of activity has been filled with something else entirely. -
“Thank you, frontline and essential workers. You are our heroes.” Such sentiments have become a fixture of American culture in 2020. But Dena Tranen, a mental health professional based in Clayton, knows that gratitude alone is insufficient. -
In the city of St. Louis, primary elections frequently have bigger consequences than general ones. But one item St. Louis voters will see on their Nov. 3 ballots could change that pattern in a big way: Proposition D. Touted by proponents as a minor change for voters that would mean a big improvement for St. Louis, the measure would establish a nonpartisan election system for the offices of mayor, comptroller, the president of the Board of Aldermen and aldermen. -
For evidence of the coronavirus pandemic’s wide-ranging toll on society, monthly jobs reports and quarterly GDP numbers are go-to sources of information — and highly credible ones. But for a more granular, real-time sense of the extent of community needs, a group of researchers at Washington University has been looking elsewhere: at 211 calls. -
August is Black Business Month, and for Delmar Loop-based bakeshop owner Stephanie White, the 31 days of attention to small businesses like hers are particularly welcome this year. White, who opened Sugar Momma’s at 6016 Delmar Blvd. in 2016, hasn’t seen as much foot traffic as she’d hoped for the past few years. And once COVID-19 entered the mix, the challenges escalated. But Sugar Momma's is still hanging on. -
As a young man in the early 1980s, Wiley Price was spending many hours a day in the darkroom at the University of Missouri-St. Louis — and freelancing for local newspapers as well as the Associated Press. As he honed his craft, he noticed something lacking in the industry. “I wanted to start seeing our people in the news,” Price, who is Black, explains. Four decades later, the 64-year-old is still “documenting Black St. Louis history in real time,” as a recent St. Louis American profile of him puts it, even amid a pandemic. -
Outdoor activities are all the rage these days, especially those that allow for social distancing. But St. Louis’ Shakespeare in the Park tradition regularly draws dense crowds — and its actors were hesitant enough about the idea in 2020 that this year’s iteration was ultimately canceled. In the midst of all of that, the festival team and a host of local artists got creative, and A Late Summer Night’s Stroll was born.
