History
A Brief History Of America’s Middle Class
“The middle class is disappearing” has been a standard line during this election cycle. As it turns out, it’s not wrong. Last year was the first recorded year that middle-income families no longer made up the majority in America, according to the Pew Research Center. What this actually means economically is a mixed bag, but…
Rewriting The History Books
A chance discovery by a local historian rewrites the architectural landscape of West Plaza. There’s poetry in that.
The Power of Play
To make a paper doll you need paper, utensils used for drawing and/or coloring, an imagination, and illustrated clothing for the doll. Now, go back 150 years and make that paper doll black. To the previous list of materials, add a hidden agenda, hatred and cruelty toward a certain people, and a narrow definition of…
Game Changer
Jackie Robinson’s push for racial equality spanned a lifetime where he used his athleticism as a conduit to challenge our country’s segregated system and demand change. Now, a new two-part film on his life airs next week on KCPT. (Flatland is KCPT’s digital magazine.) Through a collection of old photos, film, and interviews, the project delves…
Back Into the ‘Underground’
During dress rehearsal Wednesday night, co-choreographer Tobin James of Storling Dance Theater’s “Underground” at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts struggled to speak. Sick, exhausted, her voice shot, she breathed deep as she watched the final rehearsal from a dark corner offstage. Twenty rows back in the sixteen hundred seat auditorium, co-choreographer Mona Enna…
More than a cheap drink, Argentine’s ‘Nest’ is a place of history, community
Snuggled in a corner of 26th Street, behind the train tracks in the Argentine neighborhood of Kansas City, Kansas, sits a place with a rich history: American Legion Post #213, also known as The Eagles Nest. It’s a place where families gather to cheer on their teammates during baseball tournaments nearby, enjoy each other’s company…
The Entire History of KC…
If you don’t know your past, you’ll never understand the future. Almost 200 years of KC history in a 2-minute video. What did we leave out?
Hands-on history: simulating the end of WWII at the Truman Museum
The highlight of Joe Henke’s summers are his visits to the Harry S. Truman Library and Museum. Henke is a world history and honors government teacher from Boonville, Missouri and has participated in the museum’s weeklong Summer Teacher Institute for the last seven years. This year on the eve of the 70th Anniversary of the…
Cancer in KC: Ellis Fischel and the History of Cancer Care in Missouri
In conjunction with “Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies,” a three-part, six-hour major television event from filmmaker Ken Burns, KCPT is examining cancer’s impact in our city and Region. “Emperor” tells the story of this history of cancer. In the Midwest, a major part of cancer’s history is Ellis Fischel Cancer Center in Columbia, Missouri….
Confronting race and denial in Kansas City
In 1944, Swedish sociologist Gunnar Myrdal wrote in “An American Dilemma” — his landmark, 1,800-page study — that the subordination of African-Americans is “perhaps the most glaring conflict in the American conscience and the greatest unsolved task for American democracy.” Myrdal’s examination of the so-called “Negro Problem” — and the ways that same problem affects…