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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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2018-2019 Season: A World Stage for Performing Arts
Helzberg Hall has changed everything. When the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts opened in 2011, it didn’t take long for word to spread that Kansas City has one of the most acoustically superb performance venues in the United States. The 2018–2019 season of the Harriman-Jewell Series reflects Kansas City’s rising profile as an arts center. Next season, the Series will present more great orchestras and conductors than ever before.
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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.