Lost and Found

If you listen to This American Life, you may have heard Davy Rothbart. His contributions to the show usually spring from the found objects — letters, notes, children's drawings — that he and other people stumble upon and ponder. Rothbart founded Found, a magazine devoted to, as he says, "investigating the riddle that all great finds present." Rothbart stops tonight at Crosstown Station (1522 McGee, 816-471-1522) on the Denim and Diamonds Tour — named for a flier someone discovered near the Denim and Diamonds bar in Kansas City. The 55-city tour is a promotion for the magazine and for Rothbart's latest book, Requiem for a Paper Bag, a collection of stories about "lost, tossed and found items from around the world." Rothbart will read excerpts from Requiem, but he's most excited about presenting some of the notes that have been submitted to his magazine. "I just kind of read them out loud, but I get a little bit rowdy and carried away," he says. "I try to read them with the energy and emotion that they were written with." Rothbart's brother, Peter, will perform songs inspired by the notes, such as "A Child of Our Own," spawned from a letter to God that was discovered in a burned-out, abandoned car in Hawaii, apparently written by a woman who had just miscarried for the second time. "We've been on tour, like, 25 nights, and I'm still tearing up," Rothbart says about the song. He'll also accept new finds tonight, so bring that love letter that got stuck to your shoe last week. Rothbart might make it famous.
Thu., June 4, 7-8:30 p.m., 2009