Local Events

The Black Card Experience at the The Bird Comedy Theater in the Crossroads Art District

When: Saturday, Feb. 24 from 9:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.

Price: $12-$15

Regarding this event, The Bird Comedy Theater said, “Fresh from performing live at SF SketchFest, Katherene Garry, (Let Me Explain My Blackness, It’s A Cultural Thing, The Anarchy Fun Time Show) brings back KC Fringe 2023’s Best of Venue show about the stereotypes of black culture for one night.” 

BLK + BRWN MOVIE NIGHT! @ Stray Cat Film Center on Broadway Blvd.

When: Sunday, Feb. 25 from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Price: $ Free

The Stray Cat Film Center, partnering with BLK + BRWN, is screening “The Spook Who Sat by the Door,” in honor of Black History Month.

Jewell Kitchen in YGCU Room 221/222

When: Tuesday, Feb. 27 from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Price: $10 

Here is a description obtained from the BSA Brightspace Page: “Bring your appetite to enjoy some soul food! This event will feature a raffle for a campus parking space and trivia where you can win prizes like a Nintendo Switch or a massage gun! Sponsored by BSA.”

Reading and Local Businesses:

For a quick read, hop on over to the Kansas City Black History website and download this year’s pamphlet. This booklet highlights Black historical figures, including a musician, a teacher, a physician, a politician and many more. Some of the famous names include Samuel U. Rodgers, Vincent O. Carter, Myrtle Foster Cook and Annetta Washington. For a longer read, check out Goodreads’s Black History Month List that recommends books such as “The Color Purple” by Alice Walker, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” by Maya Angelou and “Beloved” by Toni Morrison.

KC Black Owned created several lists that include Black-owned small businesses such as restaurants, cafes, bakeries, retail stores and much more. There are even some bookstores included, so check out the Goodreads list and pick up your next read at one of these Black-owned bookstores! Black History Month is an important celebration and commemoration of Black history. If you feel inspired by this list, consider using your voice to elevate Black voices.

In other words, the money poured into the Super Bowl was always meant for some big sporting event. The venue, NRG Stadium, had already been built for a voter-approved $352 million. Houston wanted that stadium and they’ve had it since 2002. The incredibly expensive commercials are hyped and expected by viewers to bring laughs, pride and, in Alfa Romeo’s case, something of which the general public wasn’t quite aware. Movies that viewers will ultimately go and see are previewed, earning their 10 million dollar a minute commercial purchase back quite nicely. Were it not for the Super Bowl, other events would take on the advertising money and expensive stadiums would still be built.

And the Super Bowl is such an easy target. Would the same people be lamenting the perceived greed of the Super Bowl, a national event shared across the United States, be making the same arguments about the Summer Olympics, which cost 8.77 billion pounds, roughly 11 billion US dollars, in 2012, also features expensive air time? More than two-thirds of the United Kingdom saw the cost as worth it, and billions of people throughout the world who enjoy the celebration of peace, national identity and humanity likely agree. Should the 25 million dollar cost of the film “Hidden Figures” about NASA’s integral female African-American mathematicians have instead gone to scholarships for underprivileged students wishing to become the next NASA greats? We can’t cannibalize the money and resources for arts, culture and entertainment to support social programs. Otherwise, what kind of society are we trying to build? You can’t pay for housing projects by shutting down the libraries.

In addition, the fault doesn’t lie in the Super Bowl and the NFL. In fact, they have their own issues of brain health and player-committed sexual assault to worry about right now. Homelessness, veteran unemployment and poor living conditions are the responsibility of cities, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, respectively. Where’s their criticism every February? Why point fingers at an expensive sporting event that millions enjoy every year with their fellow citizens when its job was never supposed to involve social work? It’s not as if the Super Bowl is taking money from charities, government programs and pensions for service members. Is it not too much to ask for both the well-being of the United States’ citizens and something for them to enjoy together? We certainly have the money and resources for it. If valuing a sporting event is something inconceivable to you, then replace the Super Bowl with a Broadway musical, your favorite film or the millions of dollars that created the television infrastructure that allow you and your friends to watch whatever mindless reality show together. In the meantime, on behalf of millions of sports fans, including the Pope himself, back off of the Super Bowl.