Kemet Coleman’s recent commentary in Kansas City’s online Startland News gave me something to think about. The musician and Vine Street Brewing co-founder acknowledged that his determination to put jazz at the center of Kansas City’s identity had left him underestimating sports.
“I understand his reluctance. I’m similarly reluctant.”
Jazz remains underplayed in Kansas City, considering this city’s contributions to the genre. The city and its visitors bureau should do more to promote it.
I don’t have the latest official visitors guide in front of me. But in the last edition I saw, its jazz promotion amounted to a photo of vocalist Eboni Fondren and a short headline identifying her and her genre. I found no broader telling of Kansas City’s jazz history.
How do we expect visitors to appreciate that heritage if we don’t appear to appreciate it ourselves?
My late friend Anita Dixon-Brown, who helped secure Kansas City’s UNESCO City of Music, rooted in its jazz heritage” Music designation, preached this message for years. She saw how our jazz legacy could create opportunities for musicians and strengthen the local economy. Think Nashville and country music, Detroit and R&B.
I’m not ready to give up jazz as Kansas City’s calling card. But I may buy into Coleman’s argument for presenting 18th and Vine as an entire package.
The American Jazz Museum, Blue Room and Mutual Musicians Foundation tell—and keep alive—the story of music that helped shape the world.
Nearby on Brooklyn Avenue, the Kansas City Monarchs played at what became Municipal Stadium. Satchel Paige, Buck O’Neil and Jackie Robinson are part of that history, preserved at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.
Then there’s barbecue. Coleman points to Arthur Bryant’s, whose Brooklyn Avenue restaurant became a destination for ballplayers and fans. Gates belongs here, too. George and Arzelia Gates started their business at 19th and Vine in 1946.
Imagine inviting visitors to explore Negro Leagues baseball, enjoy barbecue and finish with live jazz—with coordinated programming that explains how those experiences connect.
Yes, there’s been a major increase in investment in the 18th and Vine district and in the district’s musicians, businesses, museums and historic places. But its rich offerings and history deserve stronger promotion. Building the district also means building awareness of what happened here—and what visitors can experience today.
Consider Tulsa’s Black Wall Street. People who knew little about it a decade ago now want to visit and learn more. I want that same curiosity about 18th and Vine. Creating it takes sustained pride and commitment — yes financial — to promote the full legacy. Let’s put jazz, barbecue and baseball together—and put the Black community that connected them at the center of the story.
