Race and Culture

It’s been years since New York City's Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater has performed in Kansas City. The Kansas City Friends of Alvin Ailey, a nonprofit dance school, hopes this year's revived performance will help expand access in the metro to the art of dance.

Vivian Wilson Bluett is an emerging, self-taught artist who wants her art to create community conversations around social and racial justice and history.

In the tiny community of Cuba, Kansas, the annual 'Rock-A-Thon' features a unique and longstanding tradition: a rocking chair marathon.

Studies show Black patients have safer outcomes when working with Black doctors — who make up less than 6% of that workforce. Mission Vision Project KC supports underrepresented minority medical students and pushes for more physicians of color.

During a span of 71 years, most of the mounds in St. Louis left by Indigenous people from centuries earlier — some of which contained the remains of ancestors — were destroyed to make way for urban development. The ones that remain are left beneath bridges and inside parking garages.

When the Spencer Museum of Art, at the University of Kansas, spent $4 million to redesign its fourth floor, curators were deliberate in their selection of more diverse artwork. Then, they asked a poet to chime in.

The Yeremenko family had no clue who the Kansas City Chiefs were seven months ago. They were focused on evading Russian bombs. With the help an Olathe family, they went from escaping death in their homeland to celebrating the Chiefs' Super Bowl title in Arizona.

The legislation requires schools to disclose curriculum documentation such as syllabi and source materials. And while the phrase critical race theory is not defined nor listed in the bill, the legislation does list several concepts about race and diversity that it says schools should not teach or compel teachers or students to adhere or adopt.

George Toma is a local groundskeeper who started with the Kansas City Chiefs their very first year, and he's worked every single Super Bowl game since the first one. Plus: No matter who wins, this weekend's Super Bowl match-up will make history as the first to ever feature two Black starting quarterbacks.

Kansas City is teeming with excitement since the Chiefs beat the Cincinnati Bengals in the AFC Championship game. Next week, they’ll play in the Super Bowl. But some fans find the controversies surrounding the team, the sport, and the NFL, too much to gloss over.

The Black Youth Coalition Network wants to be a leading voice among Kansas City's youth. Their professional development programs and community activism is catching the eyes of Black leaders.

Cities like St. Louis and Kansas City are gaining national attention for starting the process of reparations for Black residents, but rural areas in Missouri are taking their own steps toward righting historic wrongs. Plus: What is Kansas doing to fix the problem of runaway foster children?