Cancer is everywhere, unavoidable. Statistically, everyone you know and everyone you’ll ever meet will be impacted by cancer within your lifetime, whether personally or by a loved one’s diagnosis. Gilda’s Club Kansas City was formed six years ago in recognition of this grim reality. A branch of the national organization named after comedian Gilda Radner (who died of ovarian cancer…
Tuesday, February 27Happy Gillis Cafe and Hangout (549 Gillis Street) is running specialty dinners created by notable local female chefs throughout the month of February, and tonight’s featured talent is chef Remy Ayesh of Cafe Sebastienne. Chef Ayesh will be working alongside Cafe Sebastienne’s food and beverage director, Tony Glamcevski, who has chosen a slate of natural wines to accompany…
The orchestra pit at the University of Missouri-Kansas City’s White Recital Hall is so shallow that recently a lanky conductor’s head kept popping into view during a performance.That’s just scratching the surface of the hall’s deficiencies, says Diane Helfers Petrella, interim dean of the Conservatory of Music and Dance. White Hall has no wing space for performers to enter or…
It’s hard to imagine crowds of 1,200 or 1,700 cheering for documentaries about step-dancing or the rise and fall of former lawmaker and lawbreaker Anthony Weiner, but that’s standard operating procedure at the True/False Film Festival in Columbia, Missouri, which runs this Thursday, March 1, through Sunday, March 4. Since 2004, True/False has brought a series of Oscar-nominated and Oscar-winning filmmakers…
Many people, myself included, rolled their eyes at Brockhampton’s recent assertion that it’s a boy band. Sure, it’s a band full of boys, but most of Brockhampton’s material lands much closer to alternative hip-hop than One Direction. There are some poppy tracks on the albums from last year’s Saturation trilogy, but it still felt like a stretch to call Brockhampton…
Missouri now has its own Samson-and-Delilah story.In the Biblical version, Samson — who could no doubt teach Governor Eric Greitens a thing or two about proper pull-ups — is emasculated by a temptress who figures out the source of his superhuman strength lies in his long hair. She cuts it off, and Samson ends up on the wrong end of a…
Here’s a fun game: Poll a group of your friends (without letting them look it up online) and ask them who won Best Picture last year. A good many probably think it was actually La La Land. Or if they do remember the big Best Picture announcement snafu (thanks Faye!), they probably won’t be able to come up with the…
It’s a bit of a cliché, the underperforming hotel restaurant, but it’s endured for good reason. Consider the challenges facing hotel chefs: the marathon hours, the high customer volume, the pressure to offer something to please every necktie with a breakfast voucher.Never mind the problem of motivation. Each traveling circus or T-Swift tour means a revolving door of new guests…
Monday, February 19Teabiotics (11415 Strange Line Road) opens its brand-new kombucha taproom today at 9 a.m., with 24 unique taps and flavors available for customers to sample or fill up their bottles to take home. Teabiotics specializes in fermented vegetables and drinks, including kombucha made with organic teas. The shop is open until 5 p.m.Celebrate the humble rabbit tonight at…
Trap music has come a long way since its advent in the early 2000s. These days, it seems as if half of our new rap stars are cribbing the sounds coming out of Atlanta’s hoods. Though many of these young acts are worth embracing, a throwback to early-era trap fundamentals makes for a refreshing listen in 2018. Enter Jeezy, who…
So much of the advance press surrounding Marvel’s Black Panther, the first superhero movie written and directed by a black man and featuring a predominantly black cast, has been about representation. I can count on at least two hands the number of times I’ve read articles that go something like: “After the success of Wonder Woman, Hollywood is finally realizing…
This morning, Smashing Pumpkins announced something resembling a 30th anniversary tour, which the band has deemed the “Shiny and Oh So Bright Tour.” The extensive run of dates brings together original members Billy Corgan, James Iha, and Jimmy Chamberlain (but not D’arcy Wretzky, with whom Corgan seems to be feuding, because that’s how it tends to go with Billy Corgan)….
Istahil Bile lives with her three young daughters in an apartment in Kansas City’s historic Northeast neighborhood. It’s a hardscrabble kind of life. She takes one bus to her local hotel job, two buses to the grocery store. But Bile is one of the lucky ones. A Somali woman, she came to the United States after spending seven years in a…
I spoke to actor Danny Trejo on the evening of Donald Trump’s first State of the Union address, and it gradually dawned on me that the two men have more in common than you might think. They’re both septuagenarians. Like Trump, Trejo is an entertainer and a businessman who slaps his name on his properties, such as Trejo’s Tacos, Trejo’s…
Sam Brownback is no longer the governor of Kansas. He is now the United States Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, which in the Trump Administration probably means he travels to third-world countries and explains the Old Testament to warlords and murderous dictators while brokering arms deals. Brownback’s lieutenant governor, Jeff Colyer, has replaced him. Colyer is a plastic surgeon from…
Crumble Candle Company’s origin story is dark. Much like a candle, though, it gives way to light. It starts in 2015, with Brandon Love, then 17 years old, living in Baltimore and suffering through a bad breakup. Depression transitioned into suicidal thoughts, and one day Love found himself in his father’s closet with a gun to his head. Then a thought…
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How does a playwright adapt a book within a book for the stage?For Simon Stephens, the answer was obvious: turn it into a book within a play within a play.If that idea gives you hives, you’re not alone. I’m one of those sour husks for whom winking meta-theater seems as fresh and exciting as day-old Wonderbread.But I’d urge you to…
This week packs a one-two Tuesday-Wednesday punch: holidays that have nothing in common with each other besides the fact that rich and plentiful food and drink play heavily into their celebrations. (These are our favorite kinds of holidays). For each, we’ve rounded up a handful of some of the most tempting places, events, and specialty offerings. So, get your mid-week…
Historically, international acts have not tended to play their first American shows in Kansas City. We’re deep in the middle of the country, far from any border. We’re not an entertainment center like the coastal poles of New York and Los Angeles. And we don’t have a live-music economy the way, say, Austin or Nashville or New Orleans does. Little by…
Those jumbo-sized Brach’s conversation hearts that invade drugstore aisles this time of year? They double as sidewalk chalk. That might be my favorite part of Valentine’s Day, which is an unnecessary garbage holiday. I don’t say that as an embittered single person, either. I say it as a jaded married one. This year, though, I’ve decided to follow the capitalism playbook…
As of January 1, 2018, The Pitch is once again locally owned. Our new overlords are Stephanie and Adam Carey, a married couple who both grew up in the Kansas suburbs and now live in the Valentine neighborhood in Kansas City, Missouri. This is their first media investment, but they’re long-time Pitch readers, and they seem jazzed about preserving The…
New arrivals in Kansas City — whether they’re retreating after being priced out of more expensive coastal metros, or flocking from smaller Midwestern towns and cities for KC’s cultural amenities — haven’t heard a lot of the old stories us natives know by heart. Sometimes these stories are worth repeating. Here’s a heartwarming tale you might not know if you’re…
