Real Humans By Gina Kaufmann

For the last two years, the real humans of Kansas City have given us strength. They've helped us realize that when the outlook appears grim, daring to imagine a way forward isn't fanciful or naïve.

Kansas City has taught me that you don't love a city by seeing only the parts that make you comfortable. Telling stories about this place for two decades allowed me to understand its quirks, its flaws, its strengths and its heartaches.

Despite long wait times between buses, confusing route changes and other inconveniences, these Kansas Citians use public transit not because they have to, but because they want to. Here's why that matters.

Despite being designed for cars, Kansas City is home to people who rely on the bus every day. We spent a day riding along with Richard Heimer to learn what's working and what's not in our public transit system.

Kansas Citians stirred by horrific scenes from Ukraine are reaching out to Sofia Khan with offers to help refugees who might move here. But Khan is still trying to meet the needs of immigrants from Afghanistan, who began arriving here by the hundreds in October — without the same outpouring of support.

Even at the height of his professional success as an actor, playwright and venue owner, Vi Tran struggled to pause long enough to enjoy his achievements. Since the pandemic hit, he's grown clearer about what it takes to live well as an artist — and he's started to demand it.

Are there books that contain ideas so crucial for understanding that it's dangerous not to read them? We reached out to Kansas City's biggest book-readers and change-makers to find out what titles they'd put on such a reading list.

A year ago, Grupo Folklórico Izcalli consisted of a few friends dancing in a park to lift the haze of new motherhood. After an impressive first season — including a halftime show at Arrowhead Stadium — they vow to keep doing it for fun, but also to keep getting bigger.

Mick Ranney started selling and repairing Birkenstocks in Lawrence, Kansas, decades ago. The brand's popularity has ebbed and flowed — although its current wave of fashion cred is proving more enduring than any before. Throughout it all, Ranney has stayed a "true believer" in shoes worth fixing.

A Midtown "townie" priced off of her bus line. A retiree on fixed income forced out of her home of 17 years. Kansas City renters are facing substantial rent hikes, with serious repercussions.

Stray garbage covers the ground in city parks and on boulevards. But because there's nobody tasked with picking up litter, regular Kansas Citians are taking matters into their own hands.

Ameerah Sanders is returning to Kansas City's standup scene after going through a breakup, political disillusionment and a solo cross-country odyssey. The experience taught her how much more she has to offer — not to others, but to herself.

In January, high school students walked out of their Columbia, Missouri, classrooms to pressure their school board to reinstate a mask mandate. With COVID prevention policies expiring statewide, their experience — and a whole history of student-led walkouts — might prove instructive.

In his novels, Kansas City author Adib Khorram shows aspects of his life that were "erased" from his own high school curricula. His main characters are Iranian, or gay, or both; they sing in boy bands and play soccer. Except now his work is being targeted by book-banning campaigns.

In the absence of citywide mask and vaccine mandates, this cozy West Bottoms restaurant put its own rules in place. For Kansas Citians who don't want to ignore COVID precautions, The Campground offers a rare chance to take a break from their worries. “It's not that hard,” the owner says. “It really isn't.”

With Kansas City hospitals caring for a record number of COVID patients, it's hard right now to address everyone's medical needs, let alone spiritual ones. Chaplains navigate health protocols and technological limitations, while still finding holiness "in places and circumstances most folks don't."

When she first postponed her wedding in 2020, Lauren Hughes focused on the privilege of safety. "It's just a party," she thought. But planning a once-in-a-lifetime event, three times, during global crisis has given her perspective on what matters.

For more than a century, Carry Nation's Prohibition rampages have inspired mockery. What we've missed, though, is the story of a disenfranchised person getting fed up and demanding more from the leaders charged with protecting her. "You wouldn't give me the vote," she said, "so I had to use a rock."

In the two years I've spent talking to Kansas Citians about how the pandemic has changed their lives and beliefs, I've heard a lot about the pressures that people want to let go. Even in 2022, that's proving easier said than done. Can a Disney song put us on the right path?

In the mid-2000s, Kansas City musician Billy Smith was combing thrift stores when he stumbled upon a random tape in an old-school reel-to-reel tape recorder. What came next was a series of magical coincidences that turned strangers into family.

Cinnamon rolls are ubiquitous on Kansas City menus, whether you're at a greasy-spoon diner, high-end bakery, fancy restaurant, coffee shop or deli. They come baked or fried, round or square, iced or plain, for dessert — or served on the side with fried chicken or chili.

Lucky Easterwood has been painting murals in Kansas City, Kansas, since 1996. Each of his paintings are intended as a message of optimism for this specific community: "If it was quick to die, it can be quick to rebuild."

It's hard to get a record made right now, unless you're Adele. But what, exactly, are the "supply chain issues" keeping vinyl out of indie bands' hands? The experience of Kansas City band Frogpond offers an illuminating look into this complex problem.

Musician Ryan Davis — known to fans as Kadesh Flow — didn't just survive a brutal year. The hip-hop performer is climbing up from a low place feeling stronger, more joyful, and more deserving of love than before.

Lee Meisel of Leeway Franks has been going hard for 18 months, and he's ready to take a breath. His revived Franksgiving — a casual holiday meal at his small restaurant — will reflect that by embracing togetherness, simplicity, and a heightened appreciation for enough.

Until she died this past July, Krazy was a full-time resident at the Kauffman Memorial Garden — protecting beautiful blooms from Brush Creek vermin by night, befriending visitors by day. But the gardener who tamed her remembers that, when Krazy arrived 18 years ago as a young feral cat, "she was just mean."

After losing her apartment, Amanda Finley sought refuge at a Missouri campsite she calls her "happy place." Even as much of the country returns to normal, she's working to remind people that COVID long-haulers are still coping with illness and income loss.

With COVID-19 vaccines imminent for children ages 5-11, I wanted to see how Kansas City kids felt about their shots. But I also heard something more: fears about the disease that's changed their lives, and impatience from long-promised parties, trips and concerts.

The custom of dining out has completely transformed over the course of the pandemic. So what's the new etiquette? Kansas City servers and bartenders share their first-hand advice on how to stay cool with your wait staff, hosts, and fellow customers.

A Midtown "townie" priced off of her bus line. A retiree on fixed income forced out of her home of 17 years. Kansas City renters are facing substantial rent hikes, with serious repercussions.

Kansas City once again has a second local movie theater standing, after B&B Theatres opened a new location in the former Alamo Drafthouse space. But after a year adapting to home-viewing, it's unclear how fast crowds are coming back.

The captain of the Haskell Indian Nations University women's cross-country team no longer feels shy about her Lakota identity. "That's who I am," she says. "I shouldn't have to cover that up to make you comfortable."

When she first postponed her wedding in 2020, Lauren Hughes focused on the privilege of safety. "It's just a party," she thought. But planning a once-in-a-lifetime event, three times, during global crisis has given her perspective on what matters.

Renee Blanche started hosting KCUR's "Night Tides" 27 years ago this month. She found exactly what her listeners now seek: "That Sunday night space became an island in the storm of my life."

After spending most of my free time in parks for a year, I visited St. Louis and saw a city that related to its parks very differently. My attempts to understand why revealed a stark truth: Kansas City's parks were designed to separate people, not bring them together.

This Lawrence-based artist left China in 1998 for the freedom to make art her own way. But she says the current political moment, in America, requires something different: joining with others.

The Real Humans podcast crew is off this week, so we're sharing this story from KCUR's new food podcast Hungry For MO. It's about chef Qui Tran — who immigrated with his family from Vietnam to St. Louis, and fell in love with a unique, oddly-named dish called the St. Paul sandwich.

Musician Ryan Davis — known to fans as Kadesh Flow — didn't just survive a brutal year. The hip-hop performer is climbing up from a low place feeling stronger, more joyful, and more deserving of love than before.

While most districts spent the last year debating in-person vs. remote learning or going back and forth over masking policies, some schools focused on building classrooms in the great outdoors.

When Irma Hernandez rented a desk inside a music store on Southwest Boulevard, she never dreamed the entire space would one day belong to her — or that her daughter would turn it into a Mexican coffee shop.

Feeling confident and safe riding a bike on the street in Kansas City isn't easy. That's especially true for Black women. But Jassma Thomas of Independence is conquering her fears.

To re-enter the world post-quarantine is to be confronted again with loss, something happening all around us due to "excess bereavement." Rebecca Pryor is one of many Kansas Citians facing that delayed grieving right now.

The MR340, a paddling race from Kansas City to St. Louis along the Missouri River, has a reputation for being not just difficult but crazy. After finishing last in 2020, one man is back for more—a real-life hero to "the average among us."

LC Richardson started his famous no-frills barbecue joint in 1986. His granddaughter, Tausha Hammett, worked the cash register before she was tall enough to see over it. Now she's ushering LC's into a new era.

Mark Angermayer used to be a pig farmer. When a back injury took that away, he forgot how to dream. His fruit orchard just south of Kansas City is a lesson in resilience and renewal.

Everyone deserves a safe place to swim, but we live in a region of pool haves and have-nots: Kansas City, Kansas, has zero public pools open this summer, while Lenexa has three pools for one-third the population.

The 400 block of Delaware Street always had charm, but for the longest time, no foot traffic. I know because my dad ran a bookstore there in the 1990s — right before he died.

When concerts dried up last year, the band Making Movies went all over the U.S. to ask legendary musicians what makes their music "American." The resulting documentary airs July 1 on Kansas City PBS.

Lawrence-based artist Roger Shimomura just received an honorary doctorate degree from the University of Kansas for his impact on the art world. The recognition comes as the 81-year-old's work takes on new resonance.

All of the commentary about how introverts are going to have a hard time getting back out there is missing something important: There is more out there than just parties. I'm talking about bookstores, record stores, plant nurseries and art museums.

When these business owners hung closed signs on their doors, they didn't know if reopening day would come. Now Poi-O, Julep and Westside Local are flinging the doors back open, with the last year written all over some major transformations.