Conversations : Seeking the Obvious

A Conversation with Christopher Leitch and Stuart Hinds

By David Wesley

If anything has threatened my marriage it is my “ability” to lose keys, wallets and other things that lead to a frantic search. I look under every cushion and explore impossibilities like looking in the freezer. What normally happens is that after this frantic search what I was hunting for was on the table or in plain sight all along. The day my wife and I were heading to the hospital for her to give birth to our first child this happened, only to discover the car keys in my pocket after a frantic search.

Like finding something that has been missing, the conversations that I have had in November are with individuals who live around me in Kansas City. They are in plain view, have fascinating stories and have something to teach me. What a gift! Like many people, I spend most of my time with people that have similar life stories that I have and who share similar values when it comes to religion and socio-economic location. I hate to admit it, but I tend to read news that affirms my bias and I spend too much time telling people what I think rather than listening to what they think. In many ways this type of perspective leads us to be like a narcissistic echo chamber. This holiday season, however, I have been blessed by people who have contributed their time and lives to help me hear some important things about gratitude, marginality, investing in others, and many other things that I did not know.

The latest conversation with Christopher Leith and Stuart Hinds came through a referral from Kirk Nelson and Bruce Winters (aka Melinda Rider) that I met a couple of weeks ago. Kirk and Bruce were referred to me by my neighbor Gary Banta.

Christopher Leitch is a nationally exhibited artist. He describes himself as a visual artist working with unpredictable methods and various media. The content and images of his works are determined by chance occurrences and random processes. Christopher says “I never know what anything’s going to look like. This uncertainty is liberating and invigorating.” In many ways, the ‘liquid’ nature of Christopher’s art reflects his Buddhist faith which was also an important part of our StoryCorps conversation.

To learn more about Christopher’s artwork and other examples of his influential work in Kansas City including his position as the director of Community Relations at Johnson County Library see the links below[i].

Stuart Hinds is assistant dean for special collections and archives at the University of Missouri-Kansas City libraries. He is also the founder of GLAMA: Gay and Lesbian Archive of Mid-America[ii]. I happened to be watching a PBS special a few evenings ago and was fascinated by Stuart’s work with the GLAMA collection at UMKC. The LaBuddle Special Collections and GLAMA are a part of the UMKC libraries[iii]. The work that Stuart does as a curator and academic archivist is cutting edge as he tells the story of the LGBT community from the perspective of an insider historian. Much of my conversation with Christopher and Stuart revolved around their work within this focus. Stuart is currently working on a history of LGBT in Kansas City. The forthcoming book will be published by University Press of Kansas with a tentative title of Cowtown Queers: a History of LGBT Kansas City. This important work provides unique historical manuscript and important perspective for those who are LGBT and better understanding for those who are not.

The limitations of COVID as well as the brevity of StoryCorps which restricts interviews to 40 minutes was frustrating as I realized that Christopher and Stuart have a world of knowledge and experience that go far beyond what could fit into these constraints. Beyond this, Stuart and Christopher are just fascinating people with whom I share common interests in culture, academics, and art. Frankly stated, they are people that I would want to call friends. I am hopeful to continue my conversations with Stuart and Christopher in the months to come in a post-pandemic reality.

I encourage you to listen to the StoryCorps conversation that we recently did: https://archive.storycorps.org/interviews/david-wesley-christopher-leitch-and-stuart-hinds-conversation/