Caitlin Cress
Stories by Caitlin Cress
Kansas City, 1968: Photos of MLK assassination protest found
During a routine inspection of donated filing cabinets, a warehouse worker at Kansas City’s Surplus Exchange made a surprisingly timely discovery: around 24 photos of the April 9, 1968, protest at KCMO’s City Hall following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. According to an article on the Kansas City Public Library’s website, this largely…
Intersection of race, justice discussed at Village Square
Since the death of Mike Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, last year, news outlets have been full of stories of racial injustice in the criminal justice system. In the last week, Baltimore has been in turmoil as protesters wait for answers about what killed a young black man, Freddie Gray, while he was in police custody….
Can fast food workers unionize?
Across the country and the KC area, fast food workers and other low-wage employees have been protesting for “15 and a union,” or at least $15 an hour and the right to unionize. Mike Shanin of KCPT’s “Ruckus” interviewed LaToya Caldwell of Stand Up KC for last week’s show. She has worked at Wendy’s for…
Protest, disparity focus of annual KC civil rights summit
Since the death of Mike Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, last August, race relations in America have been a constant topic of conversation — on front porches, at bus stops, in bars and on cable news. And it was a big part of the agenda today at the 7th Annual Civil Rights and Fair Housing Summit,…
A compass for cancer: how one patient navigator makes a difference
When Consuelo Ross was diagnosed with breast cancer, she hid in a dark room for three days. She had lost her husband to a motorcycle accident two years before, and she was the mother of two young children. A breast cancer diagnosis — the same disease that had killed her mother years before — felt…
How do you get by in KC?
How does your job, level of education, access to health care — just for some examples — affect your ability to live successfully?
‘Jam’ on 18th & Vine
LaShonda Katrice Barnett’s debut novel, “Jam on the Vine,” was published in February to praise from the Wall Street Journal, O Magazine, Publisher’s Weekly and more. The novel follows Ivoe Williams as she establishes the first female-published black newspaper in the U.S. Ivoe’s fictional newspaper, Jam on the Vine, is inspired by Kansas City’s own…
Rob Riggle brings homegrown Big Slick strategy to Middle of the Map
America may know comedian and actor Rob Riggle from his work on “Saturday Night Live” and “The Daily Show” or from roles in movies like “The Hangover” and “21 Jump Street.” But Kansas City knows Riggle from Big Slick, his celebrity-packed weekend fundraiser for Children’s Mercy Hospital. Riggle spoke yesterday at Middle of the Map…
New live/work artist space may come to KC
Artspace, a nonprofit real estate organization that aims to develop affordable live/work spaces for artists of all kinds, is in the midst of a preliminary feasibility study to determine if and how development could happen in KC. Megan Crigger, the director of creative services for KCMO, said the city is interested in the ways expanding…
Young patients unite around ‘stupid cancer’
Matthew Zachary has a problem with how cancer is branded in this country. “The history of cancer has been largely broken down into sick children and dying grandparents,” he said. “We’ve all seen them. We’ve all had them. They pervade television and the Internet. “The notion of cancer actually happening in age groups that are…