Decades after the 1983 film “The Right Stuff” won four Academy Awards for its portrayal of NASA’s early years, “The Space Race” is expanding the narrative.
The 2023 National Geographic documentary tells the stories of Black astronauts, including Kansas City-born Ed Dwight, who was chosen as NASA’s first African-American astronaut candidate in 1961. One topic explored in the film is why Dwight didn’t make it into space after JFK’s 1963 assassination.
Local nonprofit aSTEAM Village provides science, technology, engineering, art, and math programming to at-risk youth. It was selected by National Geographic to host screenings of the movie as a fundraiser to send 20 students to the 50th National Society of Black Engineers convention in Atlanta.
Nicholas Neal is only 16, but he has participated in aSTEAM Village programming for the last seven years. Neal has previously attended the national conference, and he’ll be in attendance in Atlanta this year as well.
“The competition, they always come up with a problem,” Neal said. “We have to come up with a solution. So, like, let’s say a water dam broke. We would come up with a solution to fix that or to prevent it.”
“The Space Race” will be screened at The Gem Theater on Thursday, Feb. 22 at 7 p.m. Tickets are $10 per person for general admission or $20 per person for the pre-screening VIP reception at 6 p.m.
Kansas City-based EPR Properties, a real estate investment trust, pledged a $30,000 donation after a Feb. 21 screening at its downtown location.
- William Wells Jr., Executive Director and Founder of aSteam Village
- Nicholas Neal, aSTEAM Village student
