A Pathway to Equality Through Narrative

In 2013 the Nelson-Atkins Museum partnered with the American Jazz Museum and the Black Archives of Mid-America to create an exhibition commemorating the 50th anniversary of the March on [...]

Not Provoke, But Invite: RubiX’s First Year

Haley Kostas remembers prepping her collaborating dancers behind the curtains directly before they walked out for the first RubiX performance back in September. The other members of RubiX—Sarah [...]

Pop-Up Art Adventure Playground: Looking Back at 2019

A visitor at a Pop-Up Art Adventure Playground might expect to find several huge cardboard refrigerator boxes, foam noodles, plastic and wooden wire spools, milk crates, fabric, costumes, [...]

Making Moments: 432 Hz in the Works

Lauren Irving, known by her stage name Ivy Roots, has a lot of plates spinning. In addition to a career as a working musician, she owns a music publishing company, Ivy Roots LLC, which allows her [...]

Progress and Challenges with Glass Box

I met with  Běěh Becvar and Secura Hatch in their living room-cum-office to talk to them about their Rocket Grant funded project, Glass Box (2019 grant recipient). Běěh and Secura are both video [...]

RubiX preps for its first performance

  RubiX is an experimental performance outlet that brings together musicians, dancers, performing artists, visual artists and writers to collaborate on transformative events. Today on the [...]

RCMA: Preserving Marginalized Histories

I met up with Kendell Harbin in the nearly empty parking lot of the Midwest Genealogy Center. We sat on the curb and chatted for a few minutes, waiting for the library to officially open. Today [...]

RAICES Benefit with Making Movies and More

On Friday, August 16th, at Liberty Hall, I Heart Local Music Magazine will host a fundraiser for RAICES. The immigrant rights organization, based out of Texas, provides free and low cost legal [...]

Reflecting on Ten Years of Rocket Grants with Julia Cole

To talk about the ten year anniversary of Rocket Grants is to understand the way that the arts landscape has changed in Kansas City throughout that time. In 2009, “social practice” frequently [...]

From Ivanhoe to Honduras: Battery Tour’s AY Young

Last month I sat down with the founder of The Battery Tour (2018 Rocket Grant Recipient), AY Young,  to chat about what the organization has accomplished in the year since receiving their [...]