The Pitch has been around for 44 years now, in so many shapes and forms. Here’s a roundup of some of the best recent writing at The Pitch, as we cover the wildest, weirdest, and most wonderful parts of Kansas City.
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The Pitch staff at deadline of the June 2023 issue. // Photo by Brock Wilbur
News & Politics:
- Party’s Over: Port Fonda’s “cool kid” reputation masked years of sexual harassment, fear, and abuse
- Projecting Innocence: Years after promised reforms, Alamo Drafthouse Theaters still breed harassment. KC is no exception.
- Broken Heart of the City: Who controls the future of Columbus Park?
- Tangled Up In Blue: Dems down the ballot push against unbeatable odds
- Inspecting Kansas and Missouri power players at the heart of the far-right’s porn censorship bid
- KC renters in tenant union enter a second month of strike against landlords
- Indigenous Indignations: Ancestral remains withheld at the University of Kansas
- Omaha’s Stakes: KC pins its violence reduction hopes on an unproven program, leaving us with a familiar pattern of platitudes in place of progress
- South Korea’s 4B Movement gets adopted in the U.S. as personal protest to 2024’s election results
- Missouri cannabis industry grapples with drastic changes in regulations
- Missouri AG Andrew Bailey’s electoral victory foreshadows a civil liberties nightmare
- Legislative cowardice created an embarrassing exchange around transition therapy
- Cruel Intentions: Missouri keeps going back to an abusive relationship
- An Oral History of The Pitch: Through highs, lows, and different kinds of highs, here’s 40 years in our own words / 10 classic stories from The Pitch that you should revisit right now
- How Kansas City learned to stop worrying and love Da’Bomb
- Time Sensitive: Missouri abortion petition efforts remain in limbo
- Who is attempting to claim stakes by proxy in Missouri’s cannabis microbusinesses?
- Grieving the Star of the Pot Roast Cinematic Universe: Pot Roast’s Mom reflects on life one year after the famous TikTok cat’s death
- Cafe Cà Phê is creating space for the AAPI community—both behind the counter and in front of it
- ‘Do Not Work’ at Midtown’s Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre, says Actors’ Equity Association /
- Boulevard Brewing Co. becomes lightning rod for criticism following tepid response to sexual harassment allegations
- The Coterie Theatre’s Jeff Church faces internal investigation after harassment allegations
- Doomsday Preppers: Survivalist strategies for a year of political pressure in a still-smoking battleground
- Smash rooms to fight the gloom
- A new Kansas City program steers residents to mental health or drug care rather than custody
- Wind Wakers: Creators from The Escapist use KC as a launching pad for new worker-owned media outlet Second Wind
- Allegations of misconduct swirl around Betty Rae’s Ice Cream ownership / David Friesen and Mary Thao Nguyen provide exclusive postmortem on the events of late 2020
- Kansas City mayor accused of skirting city gift ban by using nonprofit to pay for travel
- House Minority Leader Crystal Quade announces gubernatorial bid
- Journalist Justine Barron on writing They Killed Freddie Gray and navigating a torrent of misinformation
- The Labor Beacon hosts union-focused city council candidate forum May 13
- In failing to protect voting rights, the Kansas Supreme Court reserves the right to be wrong
- Missouri is one of the worst states for book censorship
- KCPD’s cringeworthy “Handling Haters on Social Media” guide uncovered online
- Why Starbucks is unionizing in KC and the conditions that make it necessary / Collective action, the Starbucks Union, and what comes next for the hospitality industry
- Smells like queen spirit: How local perfumery For Strange Women trapped your scent
- Our letters get candid with post-election Missouri candidates
- Two years after the incident, a Westport sexual assault case still lingers in traffic court
- Liz and Gooch take to the skies, sounds ensue
- Intravenous infusions and the burgeoning world of boutique bloodwork
- The Johnson County Museum’s Redlined exhibit examines the effects of America’s racist past
- Pop-up politics: Local vendors fight to claim their space in the metro
- Northland Parent Association takes a censorship approach to education
- Overland Park theatre accused of union busting and blacklisting
- William Jewell students uncover college’s pro-slavery past but face opposition from school administration
- Jess Piper embraces TikTok politics in bid to break GOP stranglehold on Missouri Legislature seat
- Michael Coggins’ Banner Year Party allowed us to reclaim what we lost
- Drastic Measures takes a stand to support trans youth athletes in the face of misguided politicians
- Devil May Care: Satanic Temple’s KC legion builds community, supports bodily autonomy
- Sports stadium owners need to address the slings and arrows of public financing
- Physicians for Reproductive Health and Planned Parenthood look toward a complicated future
- Vicky Hartzler’s gay nephew takes a stand against that family brand
- In the near future, what will restaurant adventures look like? Choose your own.
- Northwest Missouri State University battles public blowback in the wake of president’s unexpected departure
- What does new docuseries Real PD: Kansas City hope to accomplish?
- Mourning the loss of Observation Pizza’s chef-owner, Nick Vella
- Political pitfalls that could plague our year ahead
- Mental rebirth under lock and key at The Escape Room KC
- The war on drugs may have chilled, but there’s still sectarian violence
Editorial interns Ivy Anderegg, Grace Wilmot, and Drew Windish. // Photo by Brock Wilbur
Food & Drink:
- We Live in a Society: Choices over coherence challenge Society—the Crossroads’ latest nightspot
- Snack Attack: Getting salty with Guy’s food empire
- Black vegans are carving their own identity
- James Beard Award-nominated bar operator Jay Sanders dishes on the unique approach for his next bar
- Kon Tiki and Conchita Tacos blend island-style booze and bites for the Crossroads
- Belden Momentum: Back to the lab again with KC Bier Co.’s secret weapon
- They serve food at the midtown Home Depot now. You will want to read the menu carefully.
- What makes Aiyana “Nana” Fuiava KC’s favorite restaurant
- The Fix brings carnivore-confusing cuisine to 31st and Cherry
- Serving Size: Chingu is the most exciting restaurant to open in KC in months
- Chef Ameet Malhotra serves up Indian heat at Elephant Wings dinner event
- I Am The Leggman: Quindaro’s Turkeyleggman has wacky presentation and deadly serious good bird
- The meaty politics of Pirate’s Bone Burgers’ meatless menu
- Smoke N Seoul: A marriage between Kansas City BBQ and Korean cuisine
- Blinding Ambition At Páros Estiatorio: The Cate Blanchett of metro Greek restaurants
- Kansas City Barbecue Society reveals what went wrong at the 2023 American Royal
- Flanks & Pranks: Acre is weighed down by too many safe bets
- Green Dirt on Oak serves up the shortest path from farm-to-table
- Bone Appétit: Calaveras stuns with its glamorous frozen cocktail bar and metallic decor
- Tossing axes, drinking White Claws, and snacking on menu items developed by a James Beard Award nominee—just like real lumberjacks do
- Tacos off the tourism trail
- Black-owned eateries launch extensive food week benefiting Missouri’s longest-standing Black-owned bookstore
- Get Pawnee plastered at Vignettes’ Parks & Rec pop-up
- Vignettes’ Bob’s Burgers pop-up is a colorful ode to Seymour’s Bay, featuring burgers and black-out booze
- Come for Fox and Pearl’s airy and Instagrammable interior design, stay for its masterful meats. Or vice versa.
- Wah Gwan’s culinary cross-pollination will leave you speechless
- Shuckboi Island: Earl’s Premier is deservedly at capacity
- Dissent and distribution: Jill Cockson’s boozy Bechdel test
- Hive Mind: Fox & Pearl nourishes produce, pollinators, and backyard presence
- The Pitch’s metro brewery tour guide: 2022 Mega-Edition
- Adventures at Linh’s Vietnamese Cuisine, where the quirks are abundant and the banh mis first-rate
- Devoured’s Jhy Coulter serves up a signature slice of life
- Glitter and goats: Off-the-grid offerings from Saltwell Farm Kitchen
- A Taste of Nostalgia: Emily Kate Johnson’s homage to bar craft and sobriety
- Free Spirits: Abstemious cocktails that still pack a punch
- Going Feral: Kate Frick on freelance farming and bar artistry
- Corvino’s Hannah Jones believes in human mixology
- Pasta-tively Perfect: Zero Zero Pasta’s new storefront offers delicious twists on the taste of Italy
- The dream of the ‘90s is alive beneath Screenland Armour
- Soirée Steak and Oyster House auditions on 18th and Vine
- In Independence, the year-old Nigerian restaurant My Village Grill is a welcome home away from home
- Life in plastic—and plastered—at Malibu Dream Bar
- Cauldron Collective serves wicked plant-based eats in the West Bottoms
- Apparition’s It’s Always Sunny pop-up bar is the low-brow Paddy’s Pub of dirtbag nightmares
- Against the Grain: Marion Milling brings stone-ground sustainability to the West Bottoms
- Trago seems comfortable. Too bad it’s off limits.
- Big Mood Natural Wines offer nature’s pure designs
- Hogshead’s ode to McDonald’s iconic McRib started as a joke. Now the restaurant is selling 300 a week.
- The Phoenix brings classic comfort and musical versatility together
- Black Sheep + Market on West 39th Street has the makings of a neighborhood favorite
Brock Wilbur & Cassondra Jones on August release day, 2022. // Photo by Steph Castor
Music:
- Auteur Theory: A close-up on Making Movies’ long shot
- The Music Issue 2022: The Pitch’s Infinite Playlist / Cause & Effects
- 50 Years of Hip-Hop in KC: A history of our first half-century from house parties to Hammer Time to Tech N9ne
- Swiss Army Life: Multi-hyphenate Ada Brumback keeps musicians in tune
- Blues maven Cassie Taylor’s “Desire” signifies a musical return and unapologetic queerness
- 33 Resolutions Per Minute: Jams for a long, dark December
- Acclaimed hip-hop/indie rock trio Blackstarkids say goodbye with today’s release of HEAVEN ON URF
- When You Were Young: Quite Frankly are the literal next generation of rock’n’roll
- Ultimate Fakebook and friends celebrated 25 years of This Will Be Laughing Week Friday night
- Goo Goo Dolls’ Monday concert at Starlight was a literal thirst trap
- Bird: The Life and Music of Charlie Parker author Chuck Haddix deep-dives the jazz album that put KC on the map
- Gaslight My Fire: The Creepy Jingles take a High Dive on debut album
- Douglas K. Miller’s book Washita Love Child shines a light on Indigenous guitar legend Jesse Ed Davis
- Westport’s It’s a Beautiful Day is more than just a simple music-politics-apparel-repair-art-queer-vintage shop
- Murder By Death’s Adam Turla on the one year anniversary of concert cancellations
- The past, present, and future of cassette tapes from Maxell’s Kyle McCord
- Hembree’s Alex Ward talks about new Scores EP, The Noise FM reunion, and The Record Machine’s 20th anniversary
- Social Symphony is instrumental to growing up
- The Bump Band’s funk manifestation is worth the [50 year] wait
- Brink of Extinction: Conservation efforts hope to save North KC’s endangered rock’n’roll hub
- Radkey’s Radfest Vol. 1 delivers homegrown crowd its latest dose of delicious rock noise
- Kevin Morby captures slices of humanity in This is a Photograph
- VCMN’s new album is a masterclass in marital communication
- Documentary Vinyl Nation celebrates the joys of musical inconvenience
- Josh Jones, the Kansas City Symphony’s first Black tenure-track musician, speaks out about his experiences working at the organization
- Alone With Everyone puts shoegazers Doubledrag on the map
- No Skips: Emma Jo walks on with high heels and six shooters on new LP Girl Bandit
- Signal to Noise: Chance Dibben’s Selvedge freezes moments as bitcrushed memories
- Eric Fain works his way up to Paramore with behind-the-scenes concert management
- Riding a genre resurgence, KCeMO is the live cover band bringing the year 2007 back to the stage
- Blue Note: KC Blue Crew is the fan-powered heartbeat of the Current
- Audio engineer Victoria Brooks dials in at the Replay Lounge
- Lost Wax is a human party playlist on shuffle
- KU’s Vespers Tradition plays on 30 years after the long-standing heritage nearly went up in flames
Lucia Verzola, Joseph Hernandez, and Allison Harris. // Photo by Brock Wilbur
Theater/Movies:
- Lights, Camera, Funding? Kansas City’s filming incentives brought big-name reality productions, local jobs, and millions in revenue. Why don’t we have them at the state level?
- HBO’s Somebody Somewhere is Bridget Everett’s Kansification comedy
- After seven years in production, Lotawana finally hits screens
- Hallmark’s Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story is less rom-com, more literal love for football merch
- Eureka Springs projects new screams on screen at ‘Nightmare in the Ozarks’ film fest
- The Iron Claw is a stunning love letter to—and indictment of—professional wrestling
- The Pitch’s film editor Abby Olcese picks her top 10 flicks of 2022
- 2023’s most important works of cinema were odd ducks, moonshots, horny as hell, and/or bizarre corporate shilling
- Sean Baker’s Anora is a tragicomedy filled with heart and rage, but it’s the little things that matter
- The Black Movie Hall of Fame aims to adjust our cultural discourse
- ‘night, Mother’ is a nonlinear journey through the five stages of grief
- Whitney Manney is making moves with her fresh prints
- The Coterie’s Alice’s Wonderland is a high-energy children’s hip-hop musical about Black girls programming video games
- Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II returns to a colosseum where spectacle decapitates substance
- At the Arts Asylum’s Jesus Christ Superstar, a rock star cast in need of a better soundboard
- Stream Queens: 2022’s cinematic highlights
- Jason Reitman’s Saturday Night is a self-mythologizing tome that insists upon itself. It’s still the best possible version of an unavoidable film.
- Coronavirus causes curtain call with lasting repercussions for entertainers
- Electric Poe stages “The Masque of the Red Death” in a cemetery
- More musicianship, more new works, more ‘in-the-roomness’: New artistic director Stuart Carden on his plans for the KC Rep
- Haunt Diary: West Bottoms’ backbone haunted houses are showing their age
- Head Count brings the Burghart Brothers to the big leagues
- Son Lux on crafting the massive, genre-hopping score for Everything Everywhere All at Once
- At KCAT, A Doll’s House bursts with feminist energy rare for a 140-year-old play
- It Doesn’t Get Any Better Than This: Missouri filmmakers blur the lines between reality and fantasy in first feature-length horror film
- My Brother, My Shudder, And Me: Nightmare Junkhead has grown from horror podcast henchmen to genre-leading generals
- Jekyll & Hyde ballet is a fabulous fright in North American premiere at the Kauffman Center
- Nikki Glaser on reality shows vs. actual reality and the empathy she brings to FBoy Island
- Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, on heading to Planet Comicon Kansas City
- At KC Rep, a ‘choreopoem’ explores the experiences of women of color
- Impathy Engines in Cozy Grove
- Composer Olivier Derivière on reanimating the sound of Dying Light 2: Stay Human
- Unicorn Theatre’s production and the battle over the tower of ‘Babel’
- At Spinning Tree Theatre, a show about suicide that plays like a comedy
- Addiction, cancer, and comedy in DNR at the Living Room Theatre
- Jena Friedman’s True Crime Story: Indefensible is a jaw-dropping twist on the true crime formula
- The Strings tugs at your heart, then removes it
- UNTUC’D: Uncoupled’s Tuc Watkins dishes on stardom, surrogate dad-dom, and surviving an apocalypse
Winter 2023 editorial internship team. // Photo by Brock Wilbur
Culture:
- It’s all about boundaries, baby: MAAC fights back in the fashion world
- Free Play: Pinball in KC
- Anti-porn lawyers ready to profit from Kansas’ age-gating law
- Letter from the Editor: High Scores Ahead with The Pitch’s Best of Kansas City 2023
- How Monster Jam fires on every cylinder and every dopamine receptor
- The National Museum of Toys and Miniatures explores what it means to play
- Naughty Narratives puts KC’s spiciest authors on top
- Sunday’s Chiefs game is a dream come true for the Kingdom’s most vocal fan in Germany
- Rebel Song Academy is streamlining students to the center stage
- Zweihänder and Blackbirds are the dark engines driving future legends
- A Rare Medium: An ode to the late and highly-acclaimed spiritualist Steffany Barton
- Lemony Snicket popped by to revel in Kansas City’s Explor-a-Storium
- Dr. Taylor Byas’ I Done Clicked My Heels Three Times wins Maya Angelou Book Award
- Charlotte Street Fellows create portals at the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art
- Our Lady of Sorrows: Natalie Frank’s Unbound exhibit at Kemper dives deep on familiar fairy tales
- Season 3 of Somebody, Somewhere embraces laughter, tears, and all things Manhattan, Kansas
- Narrative Threads: History and identity collide in Hùng Lê’s oeuvre
- Wandering Bud’s Riley Brain on smokeware and women in cannabis
- Effing it Up: Birdie Hansen’s wicks and politics at Effing Candle Co. / before her candle empire burst into flames [in a good way]
- Amber Bolton’s free-wheeling good time goes viral
- Weighing the pros and cons of coronavirus communal mimosas
- The Good Batch: 501st Legion Star Wars cosplayers are bad guys making the city a better place
- Apex Predators: KC Pioneers are an esports force to be reckoned with
- Keep Them Coming: Please cancel my subscription
- Secret Sauce: Burnt Ends takes readers on a Kansas City bbq-based Midwest mystery
- Sitting Pretty: Author Rebekah Taussig examines life from a different perspective
- Letter from the Editor: Love, loss, and Pot Roast
- Sonam Dolma Brauen’s moving installation piece “My Father’s Death” yields alternative grief healing at Nelson-Atkins
- “Spandita Malik: Jāḷī—Meshes of Resistance” brings complicated narratives into the fold at Kemper Museum
- UnBoxed wants you to take control of your narrative in the face of society’s stigmas
- National WWI Museum cracks open 100 year old time capsule after KCPD bomb squad inspection
- Main Street Saints’ lone full-length album gets wax treatment for 25th anniversary
- Disc Drive: A sport, a coalition, and the hazy politics of Kansas cannabis
- KC Pioneers, LevelUp Arena host inaugural Midwest Fest esports convention
- KU Basketball kicks off ’24-25 season with Late Night in the Phog featuring Lil Jon
- That’s a Wrapp: Bubble Wrapp toys and collectibles celebrates one year in Westport
- Contraception in a dark time
- Show-Me Organics’ team of cannabis connoisseurs are your friends and neighbors reinventing the Missouri market
- MJ Unpacked St. Louis stages glamorous cannabis expo for hashing out Missouri’s future
- The Pitch’s 2024 Holiday Self-Gift Guide for spoiling yourself
- Broadway tour brings new life to Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird with Aaron Sorkin adaptation
- Next Level Chef champion Pyet DeSpain on struggle, mentorship, and heritage
- Paul Reiser brings clarity and hilarity to the KC Improv this weekend
- Bedlam and brotherhood at Power & Light’s Super Bowl scream-a-long
- Steve-O continues to up the ante with The Super Dummy Tour and we are better for it
- Tales from the Kelce Jam: We came, we saw, we have some regrets
- FilmX is getting physical with KC’s photography scene
- Jason Kander’s new book Invisible Storm is a victory lap around depression
- Team Spores: Climbing up the walls with MyCo Planet’s vertical vegetables
- Quarantined Beer Chugs group goes viral during Coronavirus lockdown
- American Girls memes as an act of rebellion: All dressed up and nowhere to hoe.
- Letter from the Editor: Going through it, and into a New Year
- Affirma Wear finds their stitch in gender-affirming shapewear
- Lay-ups and pay-ups
- Float on ’em: Sensory deprivation is anything but
- I smell sex and cannabis with Ashley Manta, The CannaSexual
- Letter from the Editor: Possums didn’t come here to make friends
- Author Paul Koudounaris explores the history of mourning pets in new book Faithful Unto Death
- Armchair Detectives: Generation Why celebrates 10 years of true crime podcasting
- Accepting your pandemic body changes is the healthiest choice possible
- Jeff the Mastiff, KC’s canine TikTok star, stays paws-itive in The Pitch Questionnaire
- KC has a surprisingly solid hockey history. What could it look like in the future?
- Letter from the Editor: Escort service
- Heel Turn: Daingersnake Designs sews a straight stitch for AEW
- Good Grief: Processing pet grief sans Pet Sematary
