Category: Articles
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Richard Hunt’s Exuberant ‘Spirit of Freedom Fountain’ Receiving a Much-Needed Restoration
With the restoration of another iconic fountain underway, Kansas City is burnishing its reputation as a city that cares about public art, cultural diversity and its “City of Fountains” bragging rights. The “Spirit of Freedom Fountain,” located at Cleveland Avenue and Brush Creek Boulevard on the city’s historically neglected East Side, was taken down for a long-needed fix-up after a removal ceremony on Dec. 8.
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Tom Toro’s Take, March/April 2018
Tom Toro is a cartoonist and writer whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Harvard Business Review and Audubon, among others. Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, he now lives in KCMO with his wife, Marissa Wolf, a theatre artist who is the Director of New Works at KC Rep.
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It’s a Guy Thing
The Bobos book club can’t help but call attention to itself. For starters, the club’s 14 members belie their well-educated, professionally accomplished backgrounds by calling themselves Bobos. Even club founder Phil Smith, a 67-year-old retired advertising creative director and writer, concedes that the offbeat sobriquet may call to mind “nuts” or “clowns,” although that’s hardly the intent.
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Glenn North: Truth Teller
Artists have often explored connections across disciplines, resulting in work that can be as surprising as it is provocative — from theater director Julie Taymor and U2 bandmates Bono and The Edge collaborating on the troubled but intriguing musical “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” to actress Tilda Swinton reclining in a glass box as part of an exhibition at New York’s Museum of Modern Art.
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An Ode to True Black Manhood
I grew up in one of those urban neighborhoods that did so much to shape successful black men in America. Located on the northeast end of Kansas City, Kansas, the block I grew up in was bookmarked on both ends by black-owned businesses. On the southwest corner was a mom-and-pop record store where I purchased 45s by the Isley Brothers and Chaka Khan. It was also a candy shop and sometime beauty parlor.