Quay: landing place, dock. (pronounced ‘key’).
Quay Coffee: neighborhood hub, new established Kansas City iconic coffeeshop. All around friendly place.
Quay Highlights: an open, welcoming design that’s heavy on wood and warm light. Welcoming smiles from owners Cory and Tanner. Attention to detail, from coffee to cookies.
Kansas City, MO / morning / Quay Coffee
The air in Independence, Missouri, is crisp with the fulfilled promise of fall. White smoke streams from the cracks in the smoker, disappearing into the clear blue of the sky against yellowing leaves. Meat drips as it browns; my father-in-law’s decades of experience and intuition combining with hickory smoke to make the perfect kabob. Welcome home, the smoke says.
Welcome back to Kansas City.
Independence, Missouri / evening / off the grid
3.5 years ago, renowned harpmaker Raphael Weisman stood on the brink of retirement, and I wrote a tribute piece on him for the American Harp Journal. It was my first publication breakthrough. When my dear friend Devin and her lover Brock asked me to play at their wedding, I put the pieces together: they lived just miles from Raphael’s workshop in Questa, New Mexico. I called him, and with his characteristic gentleness he agreed to loan me a harp.
So here am I, embracing one of the last harps he made, in the soaring sanctuary of an old Catholic church in Albuquerque. I rest my fingers on the strings and feel the potential there–hear the bell-like treble and the warm, clear bass. The sound rings out like a blessing, and my friend raises her face to soak it in.
We’ll meet next time, Raphael. Until then, thank you.
Albuquerque, NM / early afternoon / w/Harps of Lorien