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Sonia Sanchez, Teaching the Sudanese, School Board School

The show for March 4, 2012.  Click "Listen" to hear the entire show; see below for individual stories.

Sonia Sanchez In Kansas City

Sonia Sanchez is credited as being one of the architects of the Black Studies field. But she’s also a poet, activist and teacher. While recently visiting the UMKC campus, she sat down with Susan Wilson to talk about her passions, life and career.

“Hungry” Showing At The Unicorn Theatre

Up and coming playwright Lia Romeo has mixed dark humor with issues like pedophilia and alcoholism in her previous works. Her latest play, "Hungry,” now at the Unicorn Theatre, is no exception.  It focuses on eating disorders and what happens when we try too hard to control our impulses.

Teaching the Sudanese

Kansas City is home to one of the largest Sudanese refugee populations in the country.  One woman has made it her mission to help teach them ….to teach. Stephanie Person taught elementary school in Harlem before beginning graduate school at K-State. She’s now working with a team of educators and with the Sudanese tribal groups to develop a curriculum of teaching techniques relevant to Sudanese culture.

School Board President Trains Others To Take His Place

Even though School board president Airick Leonard West is not running for school board re-election, he is now offering training classes for seven recent write-in candidates and supporters. He’s calling it School Board School.  So with the district in such upheaval, we talk to West to see what the future of the board is in the current climate.

Geo-Pride Tattoos In Vogue

For years people have always identified where they were from by a shirt, hat or jacket.  So how about something more permanent to show off your home town pride?  There’s a new trend in tattoo art called Geo-Tats. They can be an elbow with an inked area code, a shoulder with a familiar skyline, or an ankle with a certain state flower all to show from where you came. 

 

Sylvia Maria Gross is storytelling editor at KCUR 89.3. Reach her on Twitter @pubradiosly.
A native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Susan admits that her “first love” was radio, being an avid listener since childhood. However, she spent much of her career in mental health, healthcare administration, and sports psychology (Susan holds a PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania and an MBA from the Bloch School of Business at UMKC.) In the meantime, Wilson satisfied her journalistic cravings by doing public speaking, providing “expert” interviews for local television, and being a guest commentator/contributor to KPRS’s morning drive time show and the teen talk show “Generation Rap.”
As a health care reporter, I aim to empower my audience to take steps to improve health care and make informed decisions as consumers and voters. I tell human stories augmented with research and data to explain how our health care system works and sometimes fails us. Email me at alexs@kcur.org.
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