Luke X. Martin
Culture EditorAs culture editor, I help you embrace what makes Kansas City fun and vibrant, whether it’s a championship sports franchise or a little-known wonder. I work with reporters to ensure KCUR stories on art, culture and race fully reflect our diverse home so readers and listeners can take full advantage of what the metro has to offer.
I was born in Manhattan, Kansas, and raised in Wichita where I fell in love with public radio listening to member station KMUW. I got my start pulling early morning DJ shifts at the student-run radio station KJHK while studying English at the University of Kansas.
I was previously an intern for KCUR's Up To Date, and joined the staff as associate producer in 2016. I have reported on government and politics in the Chicago metro area, and national security and defense in Washington. My work has appeared online at UPI.com, The Daily Caller, Politics Daily and The Pitch.
I have a master’s of journalism from the Medill School of Journalism, Media and Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University. If you see me along a running trail or track in Kansas City, please offer me some water or a high five.
My email is luke@kcur.org.
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Along one of Kansas City’s most storied avenues, a new mission is taking shape in a 140-year-old stone structure, where Chef Shanita McAfee-Bryant is working to create a new, food-based solution to urban hunger and unemployment. -
Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker said her review of police body camera footage shows the woman was “continually displaying a weapon during her encounter with police and also appeared to be attempting to flee.” -
One national alumni group spent two decades collecting, preserving and archiving material from throughout the history of Lincoln College Preparatory Academy. It's finally open to the public. -
Two federal efforts — one in Congress and one at the U.S. Interior Department — could affect the search for marked and unmarked graves at the Shawnee Indian Mission in Fairway and Haskell University in Lawrence. -
After a wave of anti-Asian violence across the country last spring, Kansas City came together to show solidarity for local Asians, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Is the support holding up? -
It's been years since Ahmad Azizi has seen his family, which has been stranded at a resettlement camp since August. Now that they're finally headed to the U.S., are local aid agencies ready to welcome them? -
Mickey Cesar admits his escape plan from Kyiv, Ukraine, last month was a little ad hoc. But he didn’t think Russian President Vladimir Putin would be insane enough to attempt to take the country by force. -
The Anti-Defamation League has been keeping track of antisemitic incidents since 1979, and they’ve never been higher than last year. Around Kansas City, a new generation of Jewish people is coming to terms with what that means for their future. -
When Mitchell Williams first joined the area's bicycle scene, he didn’t see a lot of other people of color. It’s one reason he helped found the Major Taylor Cycling Club of Kansas City, and hosts Monday night rides open to anyone. -
World War I was cast as an effort to make the world safe for democracy. A photography exhibit at Kansas City's World War I Memorial and Museum shows that was a complicated prospect for the African Americans who served.
