My Renaissance in Kansas City
The Traditional Music Society
In the last part of winter in 2017, Matt DeCapo moved back to Kansas City. We sought a way to get involved in the community with a cultural flavor. Matt introduced me to West African drumming when we met at Kansas State University in 2011. The first class we attended was with Ms. Ima Terri at the community center off 71 highway. We met that evening our now good friend Michelle. The course was African dance. Bird Fleming, the founder of the Traditional Music Society, was also there. We exchanged contact information after class. There began the journey through medieval times through West Africa. This exploration brings me back to my childhood of curiosity. Of the world through the lens of objectivity. Establishing pillars that foster and create schedules weekly is something to look forward to. Meet new but like-minded people. And build a relationship with these people over time. Creating a world of curiosity, community, and creativity.
Community is important because it provides sanctuary, family, and a greater purpose.
The electronic Music Scene Started With El Pozo.
My friend Tyler who I also met while at Kansas State University, moved back to Kansas City after completing his master’s. He introduced me to the disc jockey and electronic music scene. In 2019, I began another pillar-building through the background of El Pozo. A previously underground club that was like stepping into a 1970s living room! The theme was Mexican. The smell of sage and other incense permeates your fragrance as you enter this realm. The compromise of the underground led to its closure. Subsequently, the covid-19 pandemic took root a month later. Where everything worldwide came to an abrupt standstill. So just after I was introduced to this scene, it stopped. But fortunately, the story continues. The creation of vaccines and a renaissance of adaptation led to the revival of my pillar, DJ electronics. In May of 2021, I attended a DJ event at Mockingbird lounge in Kansas City, Kansas. I was back among friends. The scene picked up where it had seemingly left off.
KKFI Led to the Sharpening of my skills as a journalist.
In 2017, I, too, built another pillar that, to this day, still has an impact on my career and social standing. KKFI 90.1 FM Kansas City Community Radio.
I was thumbing through job applications and opportunities locally to get involved in radio journalism when I came across KKFI on Connect Non-Profit. I called the station and first spoke with Mike Lytle. I toured and interviewed at the station. I immediately fell in love with the people. I was assigned desk manager three times a week. There was a gentleman who was as young as I was who worked on podcasts but had stopped. I took over for him the role of editing two separate shows; Maria Vasquez-Boyd’s Art Speak Radio and Michael Hogge’s Arts Magazine Show. So twice a week, I edit each individually the day they air. I go into the studio and use either Audacity, an audio editing program, or Adobe Audition, which I was very familiar with in college at the Miller School of Journalism. When I worked student radio at The Wildcat 91.9, another pillar vital to me in Kansas City was that I was a part of every week. The opportunities at KKFI sharpen my journalism skills.
My Identity Crisis and the solution to a big part of my life.
2018 I had an identity crisis. A lack of purpose.
I was jobless. I felt rudderless. I knew I had to change my mental outlook on my life and those around me. I went to my nurse practitioner, who prescribed me a light dosage of anti-anxiety medication. I started feeling better. Eventually, my friend Matt and Eli persuaded me to start writing. So I did. My lack of identity was a lack of purpose. I had studied and interned, constantly yearning for journalism. So in late 2018, I started establishing a part of my identity, my journalism career. A few months into the new year of 2019, a good college friend of mine, Austin Barnes, reached out to me. He had just moved back from New York where he was working for Fox News. He immediately got involved with a Startup Journalism newsroom called StartLand News. That Spring, he contacted me, asking me to grab coffee at The Roasterie. I obliged, and that day, my journalism career began. Austin brought me onto Startland News along with my friend Eli Anderson. I began assignments weekly with Startland, covering area entrepreneurs.
Around that time, being already an NPR nerd, I had started listening to the TED Radio Hour podcast. TED talks fed my curiosity about global challenges and solutions. It meshed so well with Startland. I attended events where Kansas City had food, drink, and entrepreneurs, shaping my experiences. Then the pandemic struck, and Startland understandably stopped operations temporarily. Like many worldwide, I wondered, “where do I go from here?” I quickly realized, “I have to keep going.” So I did just that. I found a platform where the world could see my articles, Medium. That summer and fall of 2020, I worked to edit and upload my articles. I created a profile. Then my photographer and entrepreneur, Eli, who quit Startland to pursue his own company, took headshots of me for what would become my professional portfolio. I established a professional website with links that give anyone access to my journalism projects, from Startland News to my current endeavors. In 2022, I began to brainstorm and establish my newsroom. And I did, called The Modern Journalism Project.
A Positive Pledge
The Modern Journalism Project is an investigative newsroom based in Kansas City, Missouri, dedicated in 2023 to bringing unique stories to form.
