Race and Culture

The festival's second year kicked off this week at the Screenland Armour theater in North Kansas City. This year’s mission is to celebrate Black filmmakers from Missouri whose work explores contemporary and historical social issues.

Only about 5% of college baseball players and coaches are African American. At Kansas Christian College, team leaders have made a deliberate effort to recruit from inner-city Kansas City — boosting Black representation in the process.

Desde la década de 1950, el baloncesto masculino latino ha sido una tradición en el barrio de Westside. Un icónico torneo de baloncesto que le rinde homenaje a un antiguo entrenador de adolescentes del barrio, Tony Aguirre, se ha juntado con las celebraciones del fin de semana del Cinco de Mayo para recaudar fondos para los deportes en la comunidad latina.

Ivan McClellan's new photobook, “Eight Seconds,” documents the Black riders, ropers and rodeo queens encountered in dusty arenas around the United States. McClellan's love for the sport and subculture led him to start his own rodeo in Portland, Oregon, where he lives.

Latino men's basketball has been a Westside tradition since the 1950s. An iconic basketball tournament that honors a former youth coach in the neighborhood, Tony Aguirre, has been paired with Cinco de Mayo weekend celebrations to raise money for local Latino sports.

A pair of exhibits at the Spencer Museum of Art in Lawrence are inspired by the life and death of Emmett Till, which helped launch the civil rights movement. The work of area textile artists helps connect the 1955 killing to contemporary violence against Black people.

The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum accepted on Thursday the remnants of the vandalized statue. The cleats will be added to an existing exhibit about the first Black American to break Major League Baseball’s color barrier.

Businesses were split on their reaction to the vote on April 2 that rejected the extension of a 3/8th-cent sales tax for a ballpark in the Crossroads. Some said the loss of a downtown stadium just blocks away would hinder progress in the district. Others said the campaign was doomed from the start.

Muslims worldwide celebrate Ramadan every year by fasting from sunup to sundown, and then breaking bread with friends and family at the end of each day. Halal markets help feed believers by providing hard-to-get supplies from around the globe and offering discount prices to those who need them during the monthlong celebration.

Black women have some of the highest new HIV infection rates in Kansas City and nationally. Many of them face discrimination, stigmas and systemic barriers in receiving the health care they need to live healthy lives.

Kansas City journalist Ebony Reed and co-author Louise Story explain original data they curated for their new book, “Fifteen Cents on the Dollar: How Americans Made the Black-White Wealth Gap.”

The founders of SK8 Shot Studios are taking Kansas City roller-skating rinks by storm. Their plan is to revive the once thriving scene and grow it into a global destination for Black skate culture — one class and skate party at a time.