Minority-Led Stories

Dominic Davis and Reggie Meade, The Future is Black (TFIB)

The Future is Black: Storytelling duo launches effort to inspire new generation of creatives, entrepreneurs

The future is Black and Dominic Davis wants Kansas City to know it, he said, announcing the launch of a new campaign aimed at better connecting and supporting entrepreneurs and creatives of color.  “When one of us wins, we all win,” Davis said, detailing his decision to found The Future is Black (TFIB) — a storytelling…

Myron McCant and Penny Dale-McCant, KD Academy

KC couple’s 15-year journey evolves into $4M 24-hour child care center in urban core

A multimillion-dollar expansion for KD Academy is expected to upgrade the early learning and child care center’s capacity from 95 to 430 students at its new headquarters on Prospect Avenue — a redevelopment boon for the east side corridor and the extension of a family’s long-running mission. “Our goal starting out was to create a…

TJ Roberts, Kinship Cafe

Why KCK’s ‘dopest, 7-fingered, adopted, biracial business owner’ is serving kinship, coffee at his new cafe

When a new coffee shop in KCK’s Strawberry Hill neighborhood opens this fall, the space is expected to feature more than just specialty roasts — with financial literacy programming, community workouts and hip hop yoga sessions on the menu. “It’s never been about, ‘How can I make the most money the fastest?’” said TJ Roberts,…

Nika Cotton makes a drink at Soulcentricitea, which she opened on Troost Ave. last July. Cotton applied for a grant from the Restaurant Revitalization Fund, but did not receive any money. Photo by Zach Bauman/The Beacon

Beacon analysis: Restaurant relief funds flowed to whiter, more affluent areas of Kansas City

Editor’s note: The following story was originally published by The Kansas City Beacon, a nonprofit, public-service journalism newsroom serving Kansas and Missouri. Click here to read the original story or here to sign up for the free Kansas City Beacon email newsletter. Local businesses received a total of $53 million from the fund, but few of those dollars flowed…

Blakk men are more than what you see on the 9 o’clock news, says members-only social club

Defining what it means to be a Black man is among the most important goals for a newly opened Midtown gentlemen’s club, Christina Williams explained, offering insight into what men of color are raised and called to be — but that society has often twisted into something unfair.  “It has nothing to do with color. It’s…