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Alvin Brooks has served as a bridge in Kansas City for decades — as one of the city’s first Black police officers, an educator, a civil rights leader, a founder of Ad Hoc Group Against Crime, and almost a Kansas City mayor. Today he’s still on call 24/7 for whenever anyone needs help. As he asks everyone to mark their calendars for his 100th birthday in 2032, he looks back to his earliest days in Kansas City.
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Kansas City is alive with the sound of Robert Russell Bennett's music. Bennett is the Kansas City native who orchestrated many of the most well-known musicals of the 20th century. On this episode of Kansas City Local Feature, Kiana Fernandes and Music Theater Heritage founder George Harter examine the life and work of this often-overlooked theater giant.
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The Chiefs begin their 60th year of football in Kansas City as Super Bowl favorites, but many longtime fans still remember the days when wins were much harder to come by.
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Peruvian American artist Sarah Zapata, who's based in New York, combines sculptural and textile techniques to create a site-specific installation for Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art’s eighth annual Atrium Project.
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Quindaro in Wyandotte County was once a thriving, multiracial community, inextricably linked to the region’s history before, during and after the Civil War. This week, the ACLU of Kansas is releasing a carefully curated, more than 40-page analysis of the former township.
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A pedestrian-friendly walkway near the Crossroads is being filled with dozens of neon throwbacks to Kansas City's past, like a 50-year-old sign for the downtown airport and a recreation of the iconic Katz Drug Stores logo. The alley will sit in the middle of the planned Pennway Point entertainment district.
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Call it Kansas City's cruel summer. In July 1993, the Kansas River spilled over near 59th Street and Kaw Drive in Wyandotte County, Turkey Creek flooded Southwest Boulevard, and the Missouri River came close to overtopping the levees protecting the downtown airport. Hundreds of families were displaced.
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New digital billboards that look like "wanted" posters have been popping up around Kansas City. They're the work of a Kansas City writer exploring public memories of the 1988 South Kansas City explosion that killed six firefighters.
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Tucked into the hills above the Missouri River, this picturesque Missouri town carries a complex history. It's one of the fastest growing communities in the region, yet honors its 19th century roots.
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A stone’s throw away from Kansas City’s historic 18th and Vine district sits the 2400 block of Montgall Avenue. The now overlooked neighborhood was once home to some of the city’s most prominent Black figures of the 20th century.
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June is synonymous with Pride, as cities and organizations recognize the ongoing struggle for LGBTQ rights through parades and rainbow regalia. Kansas City's own Pride celebration can trace its start back to one activist: Lea Hopkins. Plus: Meet a Kansas City singer who hasn't let her newfound fame take away her hometown roots.
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Kansas City’s first Pride parade in 1977 was spearheaded by Lea Hopkins, whose organizing sparked a wider gay rights movement that continues today. But it was only a few weeks after that successful event that Hopkins found herself on the defense again, when a prominent anti-gay activist came on a crusade through town.