Calendar

WHERE YOU WANT TO BE IN NOVEMBER

November 01

GO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 4525 Oak St., KCMO. Free. Through April 25, 2022. FILM AT 11 We live in the golden age of photographic manipulation—you’d be hard-pressed to click two links online without coming across an image that’s “shopped” to amuse, inform or misinform.

So perhaps it’s natural that high-end illusory imagery gets the gallery treatment at the Nelson-Atkins with Art of Illusion: Photography and Perceptual Play. The show was curated by April Watson, who culled fifty photographs from the museum’s permanent collection, including some recent acquisitions that have never before been on view. The exhibition opened in late October and runs through April 25 of next year.

Most of the photos were taken within the past fifty years, and some are combined with painting, drawing or sculpture. (There are no Spongebob memes.) Other photos were manipulated with the controls of the camera to create oddities in space, scale or distance. Most of the pieces were created using the lens and film, without darkroom trickery or Photoshop.

“It is great fun to view these works up close, to try to figure out how these photographs were made and decipher what the artists are trying to convey about photography and its relationship to physical reality,” says Watson. “Many of these photographers have a wry and witty sense of humor.”

Among the pieces is Cuban-born American photographer Abelardo Morell’s disorienting and dreamlike Camera Obscura Image of Manhattan View Looking South in Large Room. For the photo, captured in 1996, Morell made a room into an old-timey camera obscura, covering the windows with dark plastic and poking a small hole to make an aperture that projected a reverse image of the outdoors on the opposite wall.”

November

WHAT YOU WANT TO DO THIS MONTH

1Van Gogh Alive October 23–December 31 Have you ever wanted to be immersed in your favorite painting? Experience art like never before in Van Gogh Alive, presented by the Starlight Theatre and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. The multi-sensory experience involves sound, moving images, lights and fragrances to help you step into the world of Van Gogh. Starlight Theatre, 4600 Starlight Road, KCMO. $30–$60, kcstarlight.com

Snapshots

October 29–April 3

Technological advances at the time of the first World War allowed aspiring photographers to own personal cameras. With them came photographs that chronicled the devastation of war. Snapshots features over three hundred images and reproduced albums, many never seen by the public, showing the Great War from new and intimate perspectives. The National WWI Museum and Memorial, Wylie Gallery, 2 Memorial Drive, KCMO. $10.

Day of the Dead KCK

November 6

The celebration, held annually to remember and welcome the souls of loved ones who have died, returns to Central Avenue in KCK, one of the most vibrant Latin neighborhoods in the city. Look for face painting, art in Bethany Park, altars and offerings, live music, food and a parade with floats, custom cars and dance performances, all celebrating Mexican history and culture. 1120 Central Ave., KCK. Free, dayofthedeadweekend.com.

X Ambassadors

November 8, 8 pm

The X Ambassadors broke into the alternative rock scene with their double-platinum hit “Unsteady” and have since proved their versatility with a repertoire full of tranquil ballads and energetic anthems. The band’s album, A Beautiful Liar wraps their idiosyncratic beats into a distorted child’s audiobook, making for a darker but diverting experience. The Truman, 601 E. Truman Road, KCMO. $25–$50, thetrumankc.com

2021 Brookside Holiday Season Opener

November 9–12

Get a head start on holiday shopping with Brookside’s annual Holiday Season Opener. This is a free, family-friendly weekend event with outdoor music, pop-up events and giveaways. You can roam the historic district sipping hot chocolate and gazing at holiday window displays. Brookside Area Shopping District, 63rd Street and Wornall Road, KCMO.

Festival of Lights

November 11–December 30

Who wouldn’t want to usher in the holidays by wandering through the glow and twinkle of thousands of lights? Take a stroll though Powell Gardens’ captivating and colorful display, comprising nearly twenty miles of lights

strung across the garden’s bountiful trees and architecture. While you’re there, you can also visit Santa and stay warm with a cup of their hot chocolate or Louisburg cider. Powell Gardens, 1609 N.W. U.S. Highway 50, Kingsville, MO. Prices vary. powellgardens.org.

Lyric Opera of Kansas City Presents Lyric Opera Goes to Hollywood in Concert

November 13–14

Movies would be nothing without the dramatic scores that accompany them, entrancing us in the story and the melody. The Lyric Opera of Kansas City returns to the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts with Lyric 19 A Christmas Carol November 19–December 26 This theatrical rendition of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol has delighted audiences for over forty years. The entire family can enjoy the tale of Scrooge’s journey through Christmas Past, Present and Future and get lost in the music and magic of this holiday classic. Spencer Theatre, 4949 Cherry St., KCMO. Prices vary, kcrep.org

Opera Goes to Hollywood. The concert will feature music from Pretty Woman, Fatal Attraction, Someone to Watch Over Me, A Room with a View and Up. Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, 1601 Broadway Blvd., KCMO. $53–$93, kauffmancenter.org.

Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers

November 17, 8 pm

The Sonoran Jimmy Buffet, former Refreshments frontman Roger Clyne has a loyal cult following for his catalog of janglepop chronicling life in the dusty outposts of the Southwest. The tequila will flow like water at ths one. Knuckleheads, 2715 Rochester St., KCMO. $17.50.

Plaza Lighting

November 25, 6 pm

The traditional lighting of the lights strung around Country Club Plaza draws a crowd. A celebrity typically does the honors, but details were not available as of press time. Country Club Plaza. Free.

Wizard Fest

November 30, 7:30 pm

Want to extend the fun of Halloween into November? RecordBar is hosting a magical night with wizard-themed costumes and cocktails, like Firewhisky and Butterbeer. Wizard Fest will feature a Triwizard Tournament with trivia, quidditch and a scavenger hunt. You’ll be able to get your groove on with a live DJ and dance party at this event too. RecordBar, 1520 Grand Blvd., KCMO. $15–$50.

14 Dan + Shay November 14, 7 pm Pop duo Dan + Shay are touring in support of their new album Good Things, featuring the single, “Good Things,” an auto-tuned piano ballad about lost love. The act, which performs for mostly country music audiences, will bring their satin-smooth pop to the T-Mobile Center. T-Mobile Center, 1407 Grand Blvd., KCMO. $39–$79, t-mobilecenter.com.

FRIDAY NIGHT LIMELIGHT

A new documentary shows a Kansas City high school’s football success is about more than the scoreboard.

BY MARY HENN

IN ONE OF THE MOST MEMORABLE SCENES from Heart of the City, a new documentary about Lincoln Preparatory Academy becoming a high school football powerhouse, coach William Lowe takes a break from game-planning for a state championship to deal with something more urgent.

“Why’d your mom call me today about you messing around with guns?” he asks a player. “Didn’t you just have a cousin who got killed?”

Kansas City-born filmmaker Nicholas Wiggins’ latest project follows the school’s fast-rising football team through a year where the city faced record-breaking rates of gun violence. Gun violence is just one issue addressed—displacement, equity and race are also at the core.

With a century and a half of tradition and notable alumni, Lincoln Prep is one of the city’s most storied schools. Before desegregation in 1954, Lincoln Prep was the only school for miles to provide high school education to Black students. Now, it’s making history again with its athletic triumph and, at the same time, undergoing a major demographic shift.

We talked to Wiggins, his co-director Jacob Handy, and Coach Lowe of Lincoln Prep about the documentary project. Here’s what to know about the film, which is now streaming online (kansascitypbs.org) and seeking funding for more segments.

It started with a two-year turnaround. “In 2017, we were three and seven, record-wise,” Coach Lowe says. “In 2018, we were six and four. Then, in 2019, we were eleven and one. That’s when Nick and Jacob came aboard for the documentary.”

Handy first pitched Heart of the City to Wiggins after hearing about Coach Lowe’s success. “I was told four young men were given Division I scholarships,” Handy says. “Four students going D1 at an inner-city school—that’s just not heard of. So that was a story. I knew Nick had the media game in the bag, and I was like, ‘Nick, come on, man. I need some help on this one.’” Handy knew that Wiggins, who recently won an Emmy Award for his documentary Land of Opportunity, is serious about his work. “It still took a couple of weeks for Nick to get on board,” says Handy.

There’s more to the story than what goes down on the field. In part, Heart of the City centers on high school football players who choose to play at their neighborhood school despite being highly recruited to play at suburban and private schools, but what’s happening at Lincoln Prep runs deeper than that.

The school is a microcosm of the larger issue of “Black talent being recruited to white spaces,” Wiggins says. “What’s happening at Lincoln Prep is really timely because of the conversations Kansas City is having about what it is as a city. The more that we can get people discussing Lincoln Prep, the more that we can start to peel back a one hundred and fifty-year-old history.”

Wiggins and Handy spotlight alumni and community voices about the history and current status of Lincoln Prep, too. Those conversations aren’t always easy, but as Handy notes, “There’s no way to tell the story without talking about things like gentrification, not when you can look around and see what’s happening behind the school and other high schools in the area.”

The goal is not to have the answers, but to kickstart the conversation. “At the end of the day, everyone wants a nice coffee shop on their street or a park that they can walk their kids to,” Wiggins says. “Everybody wants gentrification. The thing people don’t want is displacement.”

Near the end of our conversation, Wiggins asked: “If the neighborhood is being beautified, who is it being beautified for?” It’s similar to the question Coach Lowe implied as we first started talking: Who are the students of Lincoln Prep playing for?

“Students will believe what they’re told, and if they constantly hear that they need to go to the suburbs or private schools to be good athletically, that’s what they tend to believe,” Coach Lowe says. “We wanted to build up hype around here, in our neighborhood, you know, to show that we could be good.”