Segment 1: Students in Kansas City and across the country stage a school walkout, 19 years after a mass shooting at Columbine High School.
National organizers of today's walkouts say their political goal is neither liberal nor conservative, but simply to push for commonsense gun laws they say would help make schools safer. They'll also be registering voters and writing legislators. We spoke with local high-schoolers to get a sense for what area walkouts are like, and what's motivating their classmates to stand up and be seen.
- Caroline Bennett, Park Hill South High School sophomore
- Jay Mehta, Pembroke Hill School junior
- Peter Gado, Pembroke Hill School senior
- Lauren Washington, Pembroke Hill School senior
Segment 2, beginning at 22:35: How a 19th century author established a worldwide following that's still going strong.
You would be forgiven for thinking art made 200 years ago has gotten a little stale in the meantime, but we spoke with two super-fans of Jane Austen who say her work is anything but tired. The self-professed "Janeiacs" believe the writer's words are just as powerful now as when they were first published anonymously in the early 1800s, and her modern-day worldwide following is proof.
- Karen Kelleher Bacon, writer and filmmaker
- Beth Atwater, Johnson County Library collection development specialist
"Jane Austen: The Awakening of a Media Tycoon" with Karen Kelleher Bacon, 1 p.m., Saturday, April 21, at the Plaza Branch of the Kansas City Public Library, 4801 Main St., Kansas City, Missouri 64112. To RSVP, visit KCLibrary.org.
