Basement Book

Basements have always been important to me.

They keep finding me.

In 2020, after a Bourbon Cohort (a 10 person gathering around a table with bourbon), that took place behind the set of The Hopelessly Hopeless Story of All Good Girls, where Larissa Hayden asked the cohort about important basements, I decided to create a book of memory drawings of basement floor plans accompanied by a personal narrative.  

I started to gather drawings and stories through conversation.

Then COVID-19 happened and I finally went public with the idea.

The drawings will not be accurate.  They will be memories.

I would love to get drawings from multiple people who experienced the same basements.

I would love to get drawings from people who know they will never return to that ol basement again.

If you are like me, there may be more than one important basement.  

My basements:

  • -1215 Houston Street basement in Manhattan, KS (my childhood home)
  • -Grandma and Grandpa Kinder basement in Dodge City, KS
  • -Great Aunt Sis basement in Plainville, KS
  • -Mr. Winkler’s library in the basement of Teddy Roosevelt Grade School in Manhattan, KS
  • -Joy Irwin’s basement, my best friend from grade school
  • -Andy Knopp’s basement, my neighbor, arch nemesis and crush from gradeschool
  • -Erin James’ basement, my first high school friend sleepover basement
  • -Cameron Hawk’s basement, the basement where the high schoolers could hang out while the parents were upstairs
  • -Nate Gibson’s basement which I definitely combine with Ranjan Muthukrishnan’s basement
  • -Brie Sherow, Lauren Hamer, Lisa Hamer, Evan Sherow basement, down the spiral staircase
  • -Manhattan High School Drama basement
  • -Drama Book Shop basement, 40th and 8th in NYC
  • -Housing Works basements, Crosby and Houston in NYC
  • -Dale Buchheister and Scott Johnson basement, where I rehearsed and then lived, Lefferts Gardens in Brooklyn
  • -Strand Bookstore basement
  • -1516 Gates basement, where I lived
  • -Silent Barn basement, where we stored the chairs for so long
  • -1224 Hancock basement, where Vital Joint moved
  • -NACL haunted basement
  • -Vital Joint on 109 Meserole Street, Brooklyn