
Celia Morton
KCUR Studios Intern, Summer 2024Celia Morton is the KCUR Studios intern for summer 2024. She is currently a senior at College of the Atlantic in Maine, majoring in human ecology and audio storytelling.
She won the Best Fiction podcast at the Black Snapper International Audio Festival in Australia for her audio-fiction piece Driftwood Stories, and has produced oral history exhibits for island communities in Maine.
Although she was born in Sweden, she grew up in a beach town in Costa Rica, before moving back to Stockholm as a teenager. Outside of audio, Celia loves learning new languages and dancing salsa, bachata and merengue.
Email her at cmorton@kcur.org.
-
Armed with a tape recorder, Kansas City librarian Irene Ruiz cataloged the evolving history of the Westside and made the library a more welcoming place for the Mexican immigrants and Latinos who lived there. Today, the Westside branch of the Kansas City Public Library — featuring the robust Spanish language collection that Ruiz began — is named in her honor. Mackenzie Martin traces how Ruiz brought her activism and sense of community across all the chapters of her life.
-
The Crossroads bar Society has become Kansas City's hub of social dancing, with two nights every week dedicated to salsa, bachata, cumbia and merengue. For beginners, it's a place to practice your moves — for experienced salseros, it's an "injection of life."
-
The Crossroads bar Society has become Kansas City's hub for Latin dancing. For beginners, it's a place to practice your moves. For experienced salseros, it's an "injection of life." Plus: Frog gigging is a dying art that still draws thousands to Missouri marshes.
-
Much of Kansas City experiences some heat island effect. As global temperatures rise, Kansas City planners and environmental experts are trying harder to make these hot spots cooler. Plus: Missouri hasn't just outlawed abortion — it's also funding anti-abortion organizations that are working in neighboring states.
-
The 19th-century American dance craze "the cakewalk" began as a form of resistance by enslaved Black people — a showy promenade concealing a mockery of slave owners. One of the most charismatic and famous cakewalking champions was Kansas City’s own Doc Brown. KCUR’s Julie Denesha reports on a modern movement to recognize Brown’s stamp on history.
-
The bagpipe dates back thousands of years, with a rich history and tradition especially in Irish and Scottish communities. Today, we'll meet Kansas City bagpiper Griffin Hall, and learn about the gig that will take him and his instrument to Scotland. Plus: Southwest Kansas is now renowned for beef and grain production, but it used to be known as the watermelon capital of the country. The fruit crop spurred a multibillion dollar agriculture industry, but the water that sustained the melon industry ran dry.
-
Attacking Kansas City and St. Louis has become standard practice for Missouri Republicans running for office. But that rhetoric, paired with actions they take in the legislature, has increasingly made it difficult for city leaders to get things done. Plus: Polling places have been decreasing across Kansas City due to safety concerns, but voter turnout hasn't.
-
The race for the Republican nomination for Johnson County sheriff is one of the most competitive on the Kansas side of the metro. We’ll break down everything you should know ahead of the primary.
-
Republicans Andrew Bailey and Will Scharf are both running to be Missouri’s next attorney general, but another name is also a consideration: Donald Trump, who has yet to endorse a favorite. Plus: The lieutenant governor's office doesn't normally draw much attention in Missouri, so why has the race gotten so crowded?
-
The hottest congressional race in Kansas this year is for the 2nd District, which is wide open after incumbent Republican Jake LaTurner decided not to run for re-election. Plus: The race for Missouri Secretary of State has a surprisingly large Republican primary field.