- HOME
- NEWS
- SPORTS
- BUSINESS
- FYI/LIVING
- ENTERTAINMENT
- OPINION
- JOBS
- CARS
- REAL ESTATE
- RENTALS
- CLASSIFIEDS
- SHOPPING
- EXTRAS
Anne Winter
Posted on Fri, Oct. 23, 2009 12:06 PM
KC music promoter Anne Winter dies at age 45
Kansas City’s alternative-music and free-speech communities are mourning the death of Anne Winter, longtime music promoter and proprietor of Recycled Sounds, a midtown record shop that closed in 2006. Winter, 45 and a mother of two, died Thursday at her home.
Winter was a well-known figure in the local music scene by virtue of the independent music store she owned with her husband, Kurt von Schlemmer, for 18 years. She often employed local musicians to work behind the counter and at one point hosted her own music show on KKFI-FM as “Little Orphan Annie.”
But Recycled Sounds was more than a store. Tim Finn, The Star’s pop music writer, described it this way in 2006: “In the way a bar is more than the liquor on its shelves or the beer that flows from its taps, Recycled Sounds was much more than just the music that went out its door. It became a haven for people who wanted to know what was happening in the city’s underground culture, for local bands and visual artists who needed a place to peddle their music or promote their shows and exhibits, for musicians who needed a stop-gap part-time job.”
In the wake of congressional hearings in the 1980s on “indecent” lyrics in rock and rap, Winter became heavily involved in anti-censorship advocacy and served a term as president of the Greater Kansas City Free Speech Coalition. The coalition also helped establish Culture Under Fire, an annual arts celebration of free speech.
In 1994 several area school districts either removed or considered removing a book for young people, “Annie on My Mind,” from library shelves because of complaints that it endorsed homosexuality. The coalition invited author Nancy Garden to speak as part of Culture Under Fire.
Winter said book censorship was not different from efforts to censor music.
“Sometimes we forget how important (our) rights are or the fact that Americans have this right, whereas in a lot of countries people aren’t allowed to present ideas that may be a little bit more on the fringe,” Winter said.
A gathering was planned at 7:30 Friday evening at the Rime Buddhist Center in Kansas City.
A visitation is scheduled from 5 to 8 p.m. Monday and a service at 1 p.m. Tuesday, both at the Muehlebach Funeral Home, 6800 Troost.
Posted on Fri, Oct. 23, 2009 12:06 PM
@Nyx.CommentBody@