Arts & Culture
Stories and videos about music, dance, visual and performing arts and film in the Kansas City metro.
News you can use: Rap’s delightfully good week
Rap is having a good week. The Associated Press reports that today in 1979, the Sugarhill Gang released “Rapper’s Delight,” considered to be the first rap record. Honoring the first rap single to become a Top 40 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 means we can re-watch last Wednesday’s broadcast of The Tonight Show, where…
Watch: Dance in the Park and Chalk and Walk Festival
Dance in the Park Saturday, Sept. 12 Roanoke Park A cool summer night, a pretty park in the city’s heart, and some 500 friends and families gathered under the stars for celebration of the movement arts. What more could a dance fan want? Well, a little more professionalism wouldn’t have hurt. But that’s not the…
Three questions with Disney historian Steven Watts
University of Missouri professor and author of “The Magic Kingdom: Walt Disney and the American Way of Life,” Steven Watts is one of a handful of featured historians in American Experience’s four-hour epic documentary on Walt Disney, which will air in two parts beginning 8pm tonight on KCPT. “American Experience: Walt Disney,” is Watts second…
Laugh first, loudest with KC Laughs Back
Filmed before a live audience at Kansas City Irish Fest, Kansas City Laughs Back is a pilot from KCPT for a comedy panel show that turns the news of the day into comic relief. Kansas City-based host Hampton Stevens brings together two homegrown and a few far-flung comedians into the arena where no topic is too sacred to get skewered, from…
'Art in the Square' hopes to makeover historic park
Parks and Recreation Department of Kansas City kicked off its first annual “Art in the Square” Friday evening, as part of the Department’s efforts to revitalize and reimagine the historic park in downtown.
Space's book club: What the astronauts are reading
The book “The Martian” is earning high praise from space, and the astronaut-reviewer can’t wait to see the soon-to-be-released movie. NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren (Chell LEND-grin) said Tuesday from the International Space Station that both he and crewmate Scott Kelly have read the novel. Lindgren told reporters he really enjoyed the book and hopes to…
Rockers record 'Love Song' for the third rock from the sun
Paul McCartney, Jon Bon Jovi, Sheryl Crow and Fergie have joined forces to record a song about climate change. Sean Paul, Leona Lewis and Colbie Caillat also appear on “Love Song to the Earth,” which was released Friday on iTunes and Apple Music via Connect. Proceeds from the track will benefit the United Nations Foundation…
Ballet programs look for more boys to step up to the barre
Stacy Nick | NPR A beautiful ballerina and a handsome prince are at the heart of the world’s most famous ballets. Sleeping Beauty. Swan Lake. The Nutcracker, of course. And at training grounds for future dancers, plenty of girls hope to someday wear the prima ballerina’s tutu. But it’s become a challenge to find the boys who…
All around the watch
You may have heard how the MLB banned Royals Manager Ned Yost from wearing his Apple Watch in the dugout last week. And since then, how Mike Wilson, CEO of local luxury watch company Niall, gifted a “Niall One.3” timepiece to Yost — royal blue dial, of course — before last night’s ballgame. During the late-scoring 8-6 win over the Orioles, game-watchers…
Hopes for new life, and new traffic, at KC barge terminal
The view from Kansas City’s old river barge terminal in the West Bottoms offers a panoramic sweep of the downtown skyline, and a glimpse of just about every mode of transportation. Planes fly in and out of Wheeler Downtown Airport just across the Missouri River, and trains and trucks haul freight over the Broadway and…