Letter from the Editor: Caught in the undertow

May 5, 2025

Brock Wilbur,

Photo by Tarik Sykes

Greetings dearest reader, and welcome to the May print edition of The Pitch magazine, grown right here in beautiful Kansas City.

As per tradition, this month’s issue is our Summer Guide. The S.G. is an O.G. project—one dedicated to laying out the most exciting, delish, delightful, or even demented highlights of the warm season ahead. Each year, it’s a chance for us to make a conspiracy yarn wall of everything cool, cross-check it with everything that you might not hear about without this kooky calendar, and then threaten you with a good time. It doesn’t just involve the process of whispering in the ear of party planners and venue owners to ask, “Psst, what hasn’t been announced yet that we can debut to our readers,” but equally a moment for our team to ask, “Hey, do you think anyone in this area does [random wild thing] because I would personally love to try [random wild thing].”

The end result is a calendar that contains too much joy, exploration, and innovation for any single Kansas Citian to possibly embrace fully, but—if you’re like me—you’re welcome to nearly kill yourself trying to have it all.

We like the issues where we get to ‘look ahead’ as a concept. Our New Year’s resolutions issue in January, our Summer Guide—these are specific prompts to not just tell you about the world as it exists right now but to dream [and plot] for how better worlds are possible. In some magazines, that takes the form of planning how to fight back collectively against the seemingly unstoppable encroachment of draconian forces. In other magazines, that takes the form of figuring out how to make it to a Lavender Festival, a Royals game, and an open bar at an art gallery unveiling, all in the same 12-hour stretch. Sometimes, you find a way to fight fascism and catch a Freedom Affair album release party on the same night. This is, of course, the optimal way to disco in 2025.

My bedrock of summer is finding a way to anything and everything in the orbit of the KC Current. The team represents the only thing in my adult life that I’ve allowed to evolve from casual awareness to all-encompassing hyper-fixation… or at least the only one that I didn’t burn out on almost immediately. The transition from a life spent actively avoiding soccer to making it my number one sports fandom isn’t particularly notable—If Ted Lasso paved the way, it was an easy road for me to travel. No, it’s far less about the sport and more about mainlining an entirely new vein of energy from the people of the metro.

We’ve written about Claire Hutton, Rocky Rodríguez, Kayla Sharples, Izzy Rodriguez, Kristen Hamilton, Michelle Cooper, LaBonta, Debinha, and of course this issue’s cover star Temwa Chawinga… just this first fraction of our roster is stacked with players that, at any other team, could be the sole foundation upon which their club relies. When you’ve got one of the youngest players in league history (Alex Pfeiffer) to the (undisputed?) best female soccer player in the world, there’s no ‘correct’ number of words to deep dive into these personalities, their playstyles, their lore, or even the Biblical definition of “awesome” that strikes me about being in their proximity. [Cooper recently scored and then looked in the direction of my section to shout that we weren’t celebrating loudly enough. I thought she was yelling at me personally, and I’ve had an actual nightmare about it.]

We’ve previously written at length about the team’s approach to the game itself, including the shared strength of being the NWSL team where, last season, they set a new record for the most individual players with a goal—showing just how much this group of superstars has found their greatest strength in sharing the spotlight. We’ve also covered fan groups like the Blue Crew, who provide live musical accompaniment to every match, alongside volunteer programs that do fundraising in the community. We’ve even gone deep on how the stadium itself is both an achievement of design but also a promise for future citywide improvement—when the space starts being utilized for farmers markets and a concert venue.

Rather than retread that ground, I thought I’d simply share what makes the Current such a cornerstone angle to kicking off our Summer Guide issue: frustration.

Sure, that might not have been the word this felt like it was building toward, but I think it highlights a connective tissue across KC. See, getting to CPKC Stadium lately has been a goddamned nightmare… (and not the good kind, where Cooper is yelling at you). Development of the Riverfront area, as we highlighted in last month’s issue, is moving forward at warp speed, and infrastructure is struggling to remain functional amid all the construction. A school bus shuttle from downtown parking to reach the stadium itself is currently nearly an hour-long slog in both directions. At a concert, at another sports event, or even in my day job commute back in L.A., this would’ve been cause for open rebellion. Amid all of this turmoil between you and the folks getting funneled up and down narrow paths, through fenced-off areas and open construction sites, there’s one thing noticeably absent: complaints.

Certainly, I’m not the only one thinking ‘this fucking sucks,’ but I’ve yet to hear another game-goer say the quiet part out loud. That says a lot about the power of the day.

Everyone is just so happy to be there, to see our team in our stadium. Even the folks trying to navigate the walking paths on bikes post-game, who cannot get folks to make a path for them, are bringing a lack of frustration and a depth of empathy that I don’t see out in the Normal World. The gnashing of teeth and the passive-aggressive jostling I would expect to see any given Wednesday at my Trader Joe’s is just nowhere to be found.

The fear of this kind of social frustration, in myself and in others, has kept me from attending so many events in the past. But the Current games have been a beacon to me of late, showing that when we’re all looking for an escape into joy, people are capable of making a path. That’s good to keep in mind as you scan the pages of our Summer Guide. It would be easy to say “That looks great, but will I want to get out of the house that day? To struggle with that crowd? To brace that heat?” The answer should be ‘Yes.’

Go for it. Whatever overstuffed hindrance you’ve built up in your head is going to dissipate the moment you show up and find yourself among like-minded escapists.

So take this as a personal challenge. Don’t just read this Summer Guide calendar, use it. Make this city what you want it to be, don’t waste a moment of the next few months, and remind yourself of how good we have it.

Pitch in and we’ll make it through,