AY Young. // Photo by Jim Nimmo Musician and entrepreneur, AY Young is a Kansas City-born, home-schooled Eagle Scout, former college basketball player and performer who has hosted over 800 shows all over the world powered entirely by renewable energy. Performing live using his platform, The Battery Tour, an AY show is an interactive street corner concert mixing original music…
Cyclists participating in Bike MS 2019 ride. // Photo by Kent Ruby Photography The woman with progressive multiple sclerosis who struggles to button her shirt in the morning, yet is determined to stand up and dance at her granddaughter’s wedding. The new mother recovering from a relapse and unable to walk, wondering what her baby’s future holds. The father struggling…
Today on Streetwise from The Pitch we discuss havin’ a delightful birthday, check out ComAdore’s track “Justice Clock”, enjoy a reading of Joseph Hernandez’s piece on the future of KC sports, and chat with Mayor Quinton Lucas. Streetwise is hosted by Brock Wilbur, editor in chief of The Pitch. Subscribe on iTunes or Spotify. Subscribe to the Streetwise newsletter, a weekly meditation on Kansas City news…
Shot from Antebellum. // Photo by Matt Kennedy You can say this much for Antebellum: It shoots its shot. Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz’s debut feature is nothing if not ambitious. How well it shoots said shot, however, and what exactly it’s shooting, and at what, are the issues at hand. Antebellum’s casting and production quality bellow that it wants…
Inmate. // Courtesy Human Right Defense Center On September 14, the Human Rights Defense Center, a Florida-based nonprofit that focuses on prisoner rights, filed a lawsuit against the Johnson County Board of Commissioners and the Johnson County sheriff, Calvin Hayden, accusing them of withholding mail sent to inmates at the New Century Adult Detention Center in Olathe. The lawsuit states that though…
Brazilian Street Artist Alex Senna’s Mural at Manny’s // Photo by Stuart Heidmann The annual SpraySeeMo is back, and with even more artists, they are ready to spray-painted beautiful murals all across the city again. From September 23 to the 27th, artists from all over the city will show off their talents to the public. A big drive for this…
Mike Brown. // Courtesy Johnson County Johnson County Commissioner Mike Brown went on a tangent this last weekend on Facebook over Black Lives Matter and police protests after the shooting of two sheriff deputies California. These comments directly attack Democratic leaders and their responses to the Black Lives Matter movement by calling BLM “anarchists” and accusing the group of wanting…
GreenFund announces investment in local Youth Guidance orgs. // Photo courtesy of HMC-1 On September 14, GreenLight Fund Kansas City announced its first investment at $1.7M, choosing local Youth Guidance’s Becoming a Man (BAM®) and Working on Womanhood (WOW). The two organizations will partner with Hickman Mills School District starting in January 2021, with BAM and WOW counselors serving over 100…
The kit if champions. // Photo courtesy KC Bier Co Are you bummed that you won’t be able to attend Oktoberfest this year because of the ongoing global crisis? Join the club. Luckily, KC Bier Company is here to save the day. This fall, they are launching “Prost in Place” Oktoberfest To-Go kits. These kits are designed to give you…
Illustration by Jack Raybuck Dear Dan: I’m a straight man who’s been dating a woman for not quite four months. In the beginning things were light. But things started to get heavy quickly. Two weeks in she revealed her very serious abandonment issues and then began asking me whether I really loved her and demanding reassurance that I wasn’t going…
Eli with his fiancé Amy at her first Chiefs game // photo courtesy of wehadtocancelourwedding.com Kansas City native Eli Rosenberg had the wedding of his dreams scheduled for October 25 when the realities of COVID-19 forced him and his fiancé to cancel the big event. Rosenberg was a reporter at KMBC Channel 9 before moving to Boston in 2016 to…
Spiral. // Courtesy Exile PR. Jordan Peele’s Get Out did a lot to convince mainstream audiences of the inherent value of horror to tell important stories about marginalized groups. It’s one of those movies that’s so perfect it makes the process of creating a successful politically-inclined horror movie look deceptively simple. There aren’t just good ideas behind Peele’s work. There’s…
Screenshot from Adios. Look at them good muddy swineboys. // Courtesy Mischief Games GB “Doc” Burford is a video game creator, writer, and consultant who works out of the Kansas area. Doc (a KU grad) and his new small indie game company have just announced a game coming to major consoles where you play a man attempted to break-up with…
Photo by Kelly Powell, Elements Studio Photography On August 20th, I sat down in the largest auditorium of my local AMC to see my favorite film, The Empire Strikes Back, on the big screen. Exactly eight months prior, I was packed like sardines into the same auditorium as the title crawl rolled up the screen for The Rise of Skywalker….
Buds: In the Shy Boys / ACBs / Fullbloods world, nicknames are a must. Pictured here at Westend studios, from left to right: Collin Rausch (Tooty), Konnor Ervin (Koney), Mike Nolte (Bush), Andrew Connor (Pumpy), Ross Brown (Russ), and Kyle Rausch (Slappy). Not pictured: Kyle Little (Little Kyle), Bryan McGuire (Briney) and Fritz Hutchinson (Fritz). Good news has been hard…
BeenVerified graph highlighting “Karen” hotspots // graph courtesy of BeenVerified The term “Karen” has risen in popularity over recent years. Regardless of what the individual’s name actually is, the name Karen is often used to describe an entitled white woman who causes a scene over something she deems offensive. Urban Dictionary’s top definition: “The stereotypical name associated with rude, obnoxious,…
Grant Daily outside of Union Station. // Photo by Kelcie McKenney Current KU student government association vice president, Grant Daily, has had far from a typical college experience during his time in the position. With COVID-19 running ramped on colleges across the nation, Daily has gotten to see first hand the effects this has had on his fellow students who…
Restaurant at 1900’s lobster roll. // Photo by Zach Bauman The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic has forced chefs and cooks of all styles and skill levels to become increasingly more creative and nimble to keep their establishments afloat. It’s an evolution of the business that no one wants or asked for—yet even so, many chefs have proven themselves exceptionally adept at…
Protesters showed up for a multitude of causes. // Photo by Jim Nimmo On Saturday, August 29th, several groups of activists gathered in front of City Hall to protest child sex trafficking. They promoted stronger criminal penalties for the crime and rallied to raise awareness. Over the past few weeks, multiple such rallies have been held all across the country…
Seeking signatures for a recall. // Photo posted by Tamara Root via RECALL KANSAS CITY MAYOR QUINTON LUCAS Facebook group A recall effort targeting Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas is raising questions about race and public health issues in Kansas City. Recall organizers filed a petition affidavit claiming Mayor Lucas failed to manage what they describe as “COVID-19 panic” and…
The social media switch came overnight. // Screengrab with social media After the announcement last week that radio personality Jordin Silver had been axed from The Buzz amid budget cuts, the metro wakes this morning to discover that the channel no longer exists in its previous form. As information is starting to come in, it seems that the entire station…
Stacey Abrams. // Courtesy Amazon Studios A new documentary from Amazon Studios shines a light on the centuries-long issues of voter suppression in America—from our founding to the newly insidious tactics of the last few years. In anticipation of the 2020 presidential election, All In: The Fight for Democracy interweaves personal experiences with current activism and historical insight to expose…
Firebrand Collective, 1101 Mulberry St, a womxn-owned coworking space located in the West Bottoms. // Photo by Kelcie McKenney Coworking is no new trend to Kansas City, and it isn’t hard to find a desk at one of the 20-something coworking businesses scattered across the metro—like Plexpod and WeWork. But womxn-run and womxn-focused coworking spaces are, and these collectives are…
March on Kansas City, September 4. // Photo by Jim Nimmo Hundreds of protesters gathered downtown in front of police headquarters in the middle of a hot, summer afternoon on Friday, September 4th. They were there to participate in The March on Kansas City to honor the 57th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s March on Washington. The march was…
