Four Kansas schools will have to find a new mascot after Shawnee Mission School District board members voted against continuation of their mascots Monday. // Image courtesy of Shawnee Mission North The Belinder Braves, Shawanoe Indians, Rushton Indians, and the Shawnee Mission North Indians will have to find new mascots by the end of the school year. Board members at…
Concept art from Boulevard Visitor Expansion in 2016. // Courtesy Boulevard Brewing Co. Over the weekend, Kansas City found itself in the national spotlight via a viral Reddit post. The author, a former female employee of Boulevard Brewing Co., accused the company of multiple instances of blatant sexism and harassment. She provided a detailed account of situations involving herself and…
Darryl W, Bullock // photo courtesy the author Author Darryl W. Bullock’s upcoming book, The Velvet Mafia: The Gay Men Who Ran the Swinging Sixties (out February 25 from Omnibus Press), traces not only the lives and careers of men like agent and producer Larry Parnes, manager Brian Epstein, and producer Joe Meek, but also weaves the stories of these men into…
Out in theaters and via Video On Demand, this week brings us one of the darkhorse hits of a fairly tepid January film slate. I wish someone had given me a heads up that a psychotic monster-slasher film was going to be the most heartfelt indie release of the season. Psycho Goreman—yes, that is the actual name of the film—is…
Flags for each country that ratified the Nuclear Weapons Ban fly at the Peaceworks rally.// Courtesy of Jim Hannah 51 countries—including Austria, Thailand, New Zealand, and Ireland—have recently signed and ratified a U.N. treaty outlawing nuclear weapons. The weapons ban is largely symbolic at this point, as none of the nuclear weapons holding powers signed the treaty, but now international…
The World To Come official still. // Courtesy Bleecker Street “I no longer derive comfort from the thought of a better world to come,” writes Abigail (Katherine Waterston, a 19th-century farmer struggling to get by on upstate New York’s rugged frontier. While this titular diary excerpt explicitly refers to her wavering Christian faith, it works just as well as a…
O++O // Courtesy PRNewswire In 2020, Kansas City found its next legend in O++O, the creator of the century’s first official acrostic song. Specifically created for people with a love for unique flows, rhythms, and literary devices, providing an exhilarating listening experience. “I first honed in on a theme then started layering bars to fit within the frame I created,” O++O stated. Songs that…
Kansas City A Tale of Two Cities being sold. // Photo courtesy Fundly The Redux Society is raising funds to open a bookstore with secret doors behind the shelves that lead to dance lessons, martial arts, and more. The funds will be used to buy stock for the bookstore as well as pay the first month’s rent for the new space. “We…
Vaccination. // Photo by Adobe stock Kansas is now in Phase 2 of vaccine distribution according to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment’s weekly vaccine update. Phase 2 includes people over 65, congregate settings, high-contact critical workers, and all unvaccinated persons prioritized in previous phases. The congregate settings category includes government licensed facilities which provide housing or care arrangements…
Parking structure for Kansas City Public Library. // Unsplash The Kansas City Public Library is introducing book bingo and other signature events to continue engaging Kansas Citians through literature. Book Bingo encourages discovering new authors, titles, and genres. Readers can access the bingo board here. When one of the 25 squares is clicked, the reader will see a curated list…
The historical Cass County Courthouse.// Courtesy of the Missouri Association of Counties Recently, Mayor Lucas said that a Chiefs Super Bowl celebration was highly unlikely due to the pandemic. Cases are still climbing and, as everyone knows by now, crowding in bars or along a parade route would likely cause a surge in cases that would further overwhelm our already…
Trey Songz. // Courtesy Atlantic Records Rhythm and blues artist Trey Songz was in a physical altercation with a police officer at the AFC Championship game last night according to video footage obtained by TMZ. The video shows Songz and the officer in a struggle. Songz throws a punch to the officer’s head, places him in a headlock, and then…
For those looking to further their education in science fiction (sf) and cult film, there’s no finer primer than the essay collection from Liverpool University Press, The Science Fiction Film as Cult Text. Originally published in hardcover in late 2015, the book will be released in paperback on Monday, March 1. Edited by J.P. Telotte and Gerald Duchovnay, the collection…
Ehren Schwarz at his gym Genesis Health Club North, 3201 Mesa Way, Lawrence KS. // Photo by Travis Young In those first pandemic months of 2020, when just about everyone was wandering around in a state of discombobulation, Ehren Schwarz was hitting his stride. “I was averaging 70 some hours a week at work and taking 12 credit hours at…
COVID memorials. // Photo by Jim Nimmo At sundown on Tuesday, January 19th cities all across the nation held small gatherings to pay respect to the 400,000+ Americans who have died during this pandemic. As the nation prepared for the inauguration of the 46th President, then President-elect Biden and Vice-President-elect Harris spoke to the nation from the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting…
Mayor Lucas presenting Buffalo’s prizes should the Chiefs happen to lose.// Courtesy of Mayor Quinton Lucas Mayor Lucas made yet another sports wager today, this time against Buffalo Mayor Byron W. Brown. Buffalo will feed healthcare workers at Swope Health Services wings from Manna @ Northland and food from Doc Sullivan’s for a day if the Bills lose. Lucas, like…
Speed painting in the 2019 Miss America competition. // Photo courtesy of Annika Wooton Beauty queen Annika Wooton says, “RBG is sitting in my living room.” It’s mid-November 2020, two months after Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death. Miss Kansas’s voice comes over the phone from her home in Wichita. It seems that she hasn’t veered into the occult, she’s simply…
I haven’t eaten meat in almost five years, and one thing that I’ve noticed during my vegetarian journey is that there is a huge lack of restaurants catering towards vegans and vegetarians. Sure, you can make anything vegan at Taco Bell, or order chicken alfredo “without the chicken” almost anywhere else, but the options are limited. It’s not the same…
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) gestures toward a crowd of supporters of President Donald Trump gathered outside the U.S. Capitol to protest the certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s electoral college victory on Jan. 6, 2021. Some demonstrators later breached security and stormed the Capitol. // Courtesy of E&E News and Politico Sens. Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley are facing an ethics…
KC Tenants activists march to the Jackson County Courthouse to shut down eviction court proceedings. // Photo by Chase Castor Today, Judge Dale Youngs extended a September order filed by his predecessor to temporarily halt residential evictions. The original order stood from Sept. 24 to Dec. 31, 2020. Youngs extended that order until March 31. While this extension is a…
A view of the Missouri Senate chamber from the visitor’s gallery. // Courtesy of the Missouri Senate A state Senator who’s been a harsh critic of business restrictions intended to limit the spread of COVID-19 has tested positive for the contagion and may have infected others during two lengthy committee meetings. Sen. Andrew Koenig, R-Manchester, confirmed on Twitter Friday afternoon that he…
via Unsplash On the 48th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Kansas House of Representatives voted to move forward in trying to terminate the right to abortion for Kansans. Bill HCR 5003 would be, “amending the bill of rights of the constitution of the state of Kansas to reserve to the people the right to regulate abortion through their elected state…
This week on the Streetwise podcast we discuss other worlds and other weathers, listen to a reading of Anne Kniggendorf’s Annika Wooton story, jam to Mensa Deathsquad’s “The Passenger”, and talk with astrology author Julia Purdy. 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 and…
Gov. Mike Parson outside of his Missouri Capitol office. // Courtesy of the Missouri Governor’s Office Missouri Governor Mike Parson announced the activation of the National Guard on Wednesday to help vaccinate Missourians according to St. Louis Public Radio. “The purpose of these vaccination teams is to support our existing vaccinators and provide an additional vaccination source for eligible Missourians that…
