Freedom Riders: Then & Now
In May of 1961, more than 400 black and white Americans risked their lives and endured savage beatings and imprisonment for simply traveling together on buses as they journeyed through the deep south.
KCPT marks the 50th anniversary of the Freedom Rides with a landmark documentary that retells their story. Monday night, May 16 at 8pm on KCPT, veteran filmmaker Stanley Nelson presents the Freedom Riders, the first feature length film about this courageous band of citizens.
Recently, KCPT gathered almost two hundred people at Kansas City’s Plaza library for a citizen conversation to ask where they might take a freedom ride today?
The Local Show presents an extended excerpt of the documentary as well as highlights from the recent citizen conversation.
Changing Lives One Pair of Shoes at a Time: Samaritan’s Feet
A Common Gift from LINC on Vimeo.
Samaritan’s Feet is on a quest to put shoes on the feet of 10,000 impoverished children in our own backyard. What compels hundreds of volunteers from churches in rural Missouri to join together to bring new sneakers to students at Martin Luther King Elementary School in the Kansas City, Missouri School District? While they live only about an hour apart, there is a world of difference. They discovered they all shared one unique experience and a gift that was much more than shoes.
This video report was compiled for The Local Show by Bryan Shepard, a video producer for the Local Investment Commission. LINC is a Kansas City based organization supporting under-served families and children in the metro.
Update: Roxy Paine’s Ferment
Finally this week, an update on one of the most talked about new art projects in the metro. In January, Randy Mason traveled to upstate New York for a sneak preview of a 56 foot tall sculpture destined for the lawn at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. In April, Roxy Paine’s “Ferment” was installed and dedicated and we were there. We’ll give you a much more detailed look at the amazing process on the Local Show in June, but for now here’s a “condensed” version of what went down with Kansas City’s brand new “dendroid.”
