Minority-Led Stories

Royals draft KC fashion designer: ‘You’ve got one chance; let’s knock it out of the park’

Whitney Manney has been called up to the big leagues, the Kansas City fashion designer shared, and she’s swinging for the fences with a hometown team collaboration. On Thursday’s opening day at Kauffman Stadium, the owner of the KC-based WHITNEYMANNEY label debuted a three-look streetwear collection in partnership with the Kansas City Royals. The cut…

Advocate knocks mayor for Troost renaming delay; calls slave owner tie KC’s ‘dirty laundry, reeking from the basement’

Kansas City can no longer whitewash its history to pretend Benoist Troost — an early KC doctor, slave owner and the namesake for Troost Avenue — was anything other than a monster, said Chris Goode, pointing blame at Mayor Quinton Lucas for a stalled effort to change the east side corridor’s controversial name.  “There’s no…

C3KC 2022 at Union Station

C3KC organizers: Want to bring real social change to Kansas City? Let’s talk about it

The sold-out C3KC — a one-day conference that returns Tuesday, April 2 to Union Station — reflects the Junior League of Kansas City’s mission to bring together leaders for collaborative change in action, shared Ericka Duker. The Junior League — which aims to advance women’s leadership for meaningful community impact through volunteer action, collaboration and…

Passing the keys, passion: How a new wave of small biz owners plan to preserve beloved local brands

Some have been customers; some employees. Now they’re the new owners of popular local restaurants and retail shops. As founders step aside, fresh sets of entrepreneurs step up in hopes of carrying on the goodwill and loyal following these brands have built up, some for decades. John McClelland and his brother-in-law, Johnathan Griffiths, work together…

Drug side effects could kill you; meet the KS lab team using DNA testing to save patients

A clinical reference laboratory in Olathe is working to make DNA testing for genetically optimized medications more routine and accessible in healthcare, Dr. Ziyan Pessetto shared. Sinochips Diagnostics — founded in 2019 by Dr. Jiawu Song, along with Pessetto and Dr. Andrew Godwin — was conceived with the vision to make pharmacogenomics (PGx) an integral…