KCPT takes you beyond the broadcast with opportunities to explore your local community.
Visit KCPT’s Community Partners online video collection to learn more about local non-profit organization’s messages to the community.
performARTS: Charlotte Street Foundation
This week, in conjunction with KC Studio Magazine, our performARTS Series takes a look at the Charlotte Street Foundation. Named after a house near UMKC where poets, painters and music makers would gather to eat, drink and talk shop, Charlotte Street celebrates turning 15 this year. Randy Mason has more about this unique operation, which through cash awards and other forms of assistance helps the region’s artists do more of what they do best.
Culture Alfresco: Denton Yockey & Starlight Theatre
A new season of live theater is about to get underway at Starlight Theatre. The Swope Park theater with its iconic towers has been entertaining Kansas Citians under the stars for more than 60 years.
Starlight is one of only three outdoor theatres of its size and type still operational in the United States. The Muny in St. Louis and Wolf Trap in Vienna, Virginia are the others. With the curtain about to rise on another season of top Broadway shows and big name concert performers, we caught up with Starlight’s man in charge, Denton Yockey.
Here is a look at the upcoming Broadway Shows:
In The Heights
June 5-10
Memphis
July 10-15
Peter Pan
July 24-29
Elton John & Tim Rice’s Aida
August 3-12 at The Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts
La Cage Aux Folles
August 28-September 2
The 2012 Concert Season is also filling up with artists such as Barry Manilow, James Taylor, Crosby, Stills & Nash, My Morning Jacket, Band of Horses, Phish, B.B. King, Il Divo and many, many more.
Difference Maker: Cristo Rey
Can you imagine an inner-city high school in Kansas City where most of the kids are black and hispanic, almost all come from impoverished backgrounds and qualify for free or reduced lunch and yet nearly everyone graduates and goes on to college? Well, there is such a school. It’s called Cristo Rey, a four-year Catholic college prep high school where students help pay for their education by working a job once a week.
As part of KCPT’s Difference Maker series, producer Cara Meyers profiles Cristo Rey, which you’ll find one block east of Broadway on Linwood boulevard in the heart of the city.
By the way, working one day helps pay for about 60 percent of the students’ education. The rest is picked up through generous scholarships. Most families pay between 10 and 30 dollars a month for their child to attend the school.
Treasure Trove of History: Black Archives of Mid-America
Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. is a ten-part series on PBS that explores the history of America though the lives, families, and DNA of some of its most celebrated citizens. As part of the national outreach for the series and in celebration of the grand opening of the Black Archives of Mid-America in Kansas City, The Local Show presents a spoken word piece written and performed by Glenn North, poet in residence at the American Jazz Museum. We recorded Glenn at the NEW black archives which opens to the public next month.
The Black Archives of Mid-America re-opens in the 18th and Vine Jazz District on June 16th.
And The Winning Writers Are…
The tallies are in for the 2012 KCPT PBS Kids GO! Writers Contest! This year there were a total of 45 stories entered.
The contest, presented locally by KCPT with national funding support from Studentpublishing.com, encourages children in grades K-3 in the Kansas City region and in communities across the country to celebrate the power of language and creativity by creating and submitting original stories and illustrations. KCPT was one of sixty-three public television stations across the country that participated in this year’s contest.
All first place winners from KCPT’s contest will be entered into the national PBS KIDS GO! Writers Contest, where they will compete against area winners from across the county.
KCPT’s 2012 PBS Kids GO! Writers Contest First Place Winners
Kindergarten – Furry Cat Has a Birthday Party by Alex Beeman
1st Grade – My Baby Sister by Estelle May
2nd Grade – The Cat Who Wanted to Fly by Keagan Iris Bailey
3rd Grade – The Waterfall by Amelia Kline
Second Place Winners
Kindergarten – The Butterfly at the Farm by EmmaLyn Burnett
1st Grade – The 3 Pigs Return by Maureen Tuohey
2nd Grade – The Pet Shop by Jillian Staver
3rd Grade – Farmer Boys by Daniel Sliker
Third Place Winners
Kindergarten – The Owl by Autumn Ferrante
1st Grade – If I Was by Gracelynn Xia
2nd Grade – The Soap Story of Natalie Soap by Natalie Thompson
3rd Grade – The Storm by Tanner McDaniel
Honorable Mention
Kindergartern – Pluto Got Sad by Aubrey Pritchett
1st Grade – Boomer and the Cave Mystery – Elizabeth Place
2nd Grade – The Alien by Akerth Jain
3rd Grade – The Mean Mirror by Makayla McClenahan
The PBS KIDS GO! Writers Contest is produced annually by PBS KIDS and managed and created by WNED-TV Buffalo/Toronto, and is a part of PBS KIDS Raising Readers, a national initiative that uses the power of public media to build the reading skills of children ages two to eight. More information on PBS KIDS Raising Readers and the PBS KIDS GO! Writers Contest can be found at pbskids.org/read.
KC Week in Review
May 11, 2012
THIS WEEK: Friday, May 11th 2012 @ 7:30 pm
(Rebroadcast Sunday @ 11 am )
KC CORPORATE ICON TO BE SOLD TO CHINA?: After spending millions to lure AMC from downtown to Kansas is AMC about to be sold to China? A front page story in the Kansas City Star this week reveals that the nation’s second largest theater chain which has been headquartered in Kansas City since 1920 could soon be purchased by a Chinese conglomerate. What does all this mean for Kansas City?
UPDATE TRANSIT: We won’t know until summer what a Jackson County commuter rail plan might look like. And no one has proposed a ballot issue to fund a rail system, much less set a date for an election. Yet according to a front page story in the Star this week, Jackson County government officials are spending half a million dollars on TV ads and an awareness campaign to promote rail transit in the county. How does this square with KC’s plan for a streetcar line? Is there room for both? Are either of them feasible?
UMKC NAME CHANGE: UMKC is considering changing its name to the University of Kansas City. Officials say the name change would help it emerge from the sizable shadow of the Missouri campus in Columbia. The school has used its current name since it joined the four-campus University of Missouri system nearly 50 years ago.
ROMNEY IN KC: Mitt Romney was in town Thursday. The presumptive Republican nominee for President did not appear though in public – his visit was totally private. No public rallies and big speeches – why?
SHOT SPOTTER TECHNOLOGY COMES TO KC: It’s a high-tech anti-crime system that uses sensors to spot gunshots and let’s police know almost exactly where those bullets were fired. Kansas City officials have been talking about the system for years, but they’ve finally got the money to install the equipment. So how is this supposed to work and will it really reduce violent crime in Kansas City?
TOUGH PR CALL FOR GOLDEN OX: As Bottomline Communications reports this week, sometimes public relations decisions can be complicated. You make the call on this one. You are the PR person for the Golden Ox, one of Kansas City’s landmark restaurants and a downtown fixture since 1949. Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, says it wants to come in and substitute your world-famous steaks for theirs and film customers’ reactions. On the one hand, your restaurant will be featured in ads across the country. It will certainly increase your restaurant’s exposure. On the other hand, you know that only those customers who rave about the Walmart steaks will be included in the commercials. What would you do? WATCH THE AD
LONG LINES AT DMV: Why should it take 8 hours to wait in line this week to renew your license plates or register your vehicles in Johnson County?
THIS WEEK’S NEWS REVIEWERS:
Kevin Collison
Kansas City Star
Chris Hernandez
41 Action News
Stacey Cameron
KCTV5
Dave Helling
Kansas City Star
***A NOTE FROM NICK:
Your thoughts are always important to me. Send an e-mail to nhaines@kcpt.org or share and connect at the Nick Haines page on Facebook.
Thanks for watching Kansas City Week in Review.
Nick!
The Local Show: May 10, 2012
This week, Kansas City Royals legend Frank White stops by The Local Show to talk about his new role with the T-Bones teaching young players and looks back at how he got his start in baseball. We find out more about the Johnson County Mental Health Co-Responder Project. Randy Mason talks to PBS president and CEO Paula Kerger and KCPT CEO Kliff Kuehl about the challenges and rewards of public broadcasting. And we learn more about the SEA LIFE Aquarium’s conservation efforts.
Nothing Gold Can Stay: Frank White
He won eight Golden Gloves and played in five All-Star Games. Frank White played 18 seasons in the major leagues and all of them with the Kansas City Royals. Following his playing career he became a coach and a popular Royals broadcaster. That is until recently when his longtime club unceremoniously dismissed him from his contract.
Now, White is no longer spending his days at the K but across town at CommunityAmerica Ballpark, home to the Kansas City T-Bones, the metros’ minor league ballclub, where he recently took on the job of first-base coach.
Their new season gets underway next week. White joined Randy to talk about his life and career in baseball.
Care Before Cuffs: JOCO Mental Health Co-Responder Program
The Local Show rides along with the police in Johnson County as part of an innovative project to reduce the number of mentally ill heading to our area jails. It’s called the Mental Health Co-Responder Program and it was developed though a partnership between the Johnson County Sheriff’s office, Johnson County Mental Health and the Olathe Police Department. What happens if a mental health worker were to accompany police on some of their calls? Would the outcomes be different?
The Power of Public Televison: Paula Kerger
The head of PBS was in town last week. Paula Kerger met with top civic leaders and made a keynote address at Union Station inside the boardroom of the Greater Kansas Chamber of Commerce. It’s not everyday we get a visit from the top leader of public television. She stopped by The Local Show with KCPT CEO Kliff Kuehl for a visit with Randy Mason.
