Paris of the Plains

"Laying on that ground, bleeding out. So many people around holding my chest. People I didn't know. I come from Kansas City so death is kind of hard out here, so I thought I was dying. I didn’t think of myself as surviving."One hundred and twenty-six. That’s the number of people killed in Kansas City in 2016. Four years earlier in 2012, that number wasn’t much different. There were one hundred and eight homicides. In the beginning of that year, Wesley Hamilton was in danger of becoming lost in that massive statistic after he was unexpectedly shot outside his former girlfriend's apartment.

How did we get here? I mean, physically, here in Kansas City. Some of us were born here, others moved from different cities, but some of us traveled here from a different country all together. This is the second episode of an on-going series here at Paris of the Plains we’re calling How We Got Here: Stories of Immigration. Each episode features someone telling their story of immigration or a story about how immigration has changed their life. These narratives show how the people that call this place home came to be in the Paris of the Plains.

How did we get here? I mean, physically, here in Kansas City. Some of us were born here, others moved from different cities, but some of us traveled here from a different country all together. This is the first episode of an on-going series here at Paris of the Plains we’re calling How We Got Here: Stories of Immigration. Each episode will feature someone telling their story of immigration or a story about how immigration has changed their life. These narratives show how the people that call this place home came to be in the Paris of the Plains. We start with Rodolfo and the Westside.

Subscribe iTunes Subscribe Google Subscribe Stitcher By: John Evans and Matt Hodapp On this episode of Paris of the Plains, we hear a story produced by another Fountain City Frequency podcast, Iconoclast of Things. That story details how a Syrian refugee family positively changed a small neighborhood here in the Kansas City area. Subscribe to that podcast here.

One of my favorite authors, Colum McCann, wrote in his novel Transatlantic that, “We return to the lives of those who have gone before us, a perplexing mobius strip, until we come home, eventually, to ourselves.” That’s certainly true of City Councilman Quinton Lucas, who says his story was shaped by the decisions of the two most important women in his life. This is a story about how the actions of people in our past, even people we may have never met, can make us who we are today.

There’s a common phrase, “it takes a village to raise a child”, but sometimes it takes a child to bring a village together. This is a story about a family helping each other to save one of their own, and a mother going through to hell to make a better life for her kids. This is Velonder, sacrificing for her family.

Subscribe iTunes subscribe google After years of eating at Wendy's almost every morning Mo Dickens managed to give up fast food after artist Adriane Herman convinced him to throw away some junk food during a photography shoot where she took pictures of people throwing things away. This inspired them both to start the Freeing Throwers art project through the Charlotte Street Rocket Grant program.Songs used in this episode: Steadfast and Santre by Blue Dot Sessions and they has been adapted. Donate

A few days ago, a post was up-voted to the top of the Pokemon Go reddit about how the new video game was working against racial biases for a black man here in Kansas City. This is a story about that reddit post.

Gary Jenkins was a KCMO police officer during one of the largest mob busts in history. He retells that story and other greatest hits of historical mafia stories on his KC based podcast, Gangland Wire.

Everybody responds to tragedy differently. Some, require silence and mourning, others need to rail against the sadness with noise and celebration. This story is about one Kansas city jazz artists’ response to an international tragedy. This is Hermon Mehari playing for Paris.

People say it only takes seven seconds to make a lasting first impression. For must of us that means we spend a lot of time and effort creating and crafting an outward appearance that shows the world what’s inside. Ken Stanely is an artist from Kansas City. His most recent project involved painting a mural across the outside wall of Planned Parenthood’s Patty Brous Health Center on Emanuel Cleaver Blvd. This is a story about first impressions. This is a story about the image of an organization…

Two years before Jolie Justus was elected the first openly gay state senator in Missouri, the General Assembly pushed an anti-gay marriage amendment to the ballot box, and voters approved it by 71%. This was in the forefront of her mind on her way to Jefferson City.

Borders separate us, but they also define us. Creating your identity means defining what you are in relation to what you are not. This episode is about an artist who walked the border of Kansas City to discover himself and what lies at our boundaries. This story takes us on a journey at the fringes of the Paris of the Plains to uncover what Kansas City is like at it’s furthest edge. This is Charlie Mylie walking on the border…journalist Esther Honig brings us the story…

Five thousand dollars in 28 days, four schools, fifteen hundred winter clothing packs for kids in need, and two KC women. For our Holiday Special we could have talked to a burned out Mall Santa or star crossed Christmas lovers…instead we decided to talk to two KC residents that started Keep KC Kids Warm just after Thanksgiving, and clothed fifteen hundred children by Christmas. I first met up with them two days before they were going to deliver their winter packs. This is a story about spreading Holiday warmth…this is Kadi and Suzan…

Kevin Bryce is a documentary filmmaker from Kansas City Missouri. His 2012 documentary, We Are Superman, explored the after effects of hyper-segregation on Troost Ave and a movement trying to transform it from a dividing line into a gathering place. His new documentary, All These Flowers, investigates bipolar disorder through the stories of six people who been diagnosed. This is a story of his personal journey through the making of the documentary, and a narrative about how the people we touch can change our lives. This is Kevin Bryce….

How many men do you know who stay at home raising children and working in the kitchen? Well according to a Pew Research study from 2014, the number of stay at home dads had doubled to 2 million between 1989 and 2012. These two guys in Kansas City spend one half of their days taking care of kids and the other half baking pies for their startup food truck, Pie Hole. This is a story about discovering who you’d like to be after the world tells you who you’re not. This is Tim Moore and Chris Knowles…

Dave Hudnall has been a writer at The Pitch for the past four and a half years. He's covered stories about the streetcar, disappearing tiny house enthusiasts, and, most notably, the payday loan industry. Recently, he took a new job in North Caroline. But, before leaving, he agreed to sit down for an interview about writing in Kansas City...an exit interview for The Paris of the Plains.

For our final Halloween episode, we get taken on a tour of the famous John Wornall Museum. This historic building was a field hospital during the Civil War. Both Confederate and Union soldiers died there.

Do you know everything that happened in your house before you lived there? Who were the people that lived their before you…was your kitchen always a kitchen…or did it used to be a surgery room…did anyone die there? Some of the homes and apartments in Kansas City have been around since the 1920…multiple generations of people have lived in the same rooms you sleep in. This Paris of the Plains ghost story comes from someone whose home wasn’t always just a house, but something much darker…this is JJ…

You know that sound….the one you hear in your house late at night….the sound of something in the room, in the basement, around the corner. You know that shadow in the staircase of your apartment, the one that you swear looks almost human. This city is full of long dead secrets, some of them may be angry…some of them might just be drunk looking for a drink…for the next few episodes we’re going to be hearing some of the Paris of the Plain’s ghost stories. This is Ron Megee and the 1884 Chestnut House.

The story of one of KC's first community gardens and the woman who started it.

Charlie Parker, also know as “Bird or Yardbird” was born in Kansas City on August 29th 1920. He is considered one of the single greatest jazz musicians of all time, and the inventor of the modern jazz solo. Today was his birthday.

This piece was done as part of KCRW's 24 RadioRace. The theme for that race was "Time Change".

On July 17th, 1981 The Kansas City Hyatt Hotel Skywalk fell onto the unsuspecting attendants at one of the hotel’s popular Tea Dances. 114 people were killed, and 200 were injured. This is a story of a survivor who will never escape the memory of that tragedy, and who is fighting to make sure the world will always remember.

This is a story about discovering the person behind the tinder profile, beyond the Facebook page.

This story is about the power of perseverance against seemingly impossible odds.

What happens when you shout the wrong thing into the crowded public space of the internet?

Do you remember moving into your first apartment, your first house? This is a story about trying to find a place to call your own. The journey of finding a space to inhabit in Kansas City.

The Paris of the Plains Podcast is dedicated to producing unheard audio stories from the people of Kansas City. We seek out those narratives that are personal, powerful, but above all surprising.