Not in kc: The Smokey mountains, Sumter national forest, the burren ireland. In kc st, James on troost, the slabs in Gillham park, Mattie rhodes, the central library, The giant slide in concourse park? Well I grew up in Kentucky running around in the woods, so the Smokeys and Sumter remind me of the green hills and mountains of home. There's something very comforting about being surrounded by wildness and green. You can't escape the growing things, even though there are these deep shadows. For me the South is a place of enormous tragedy but it's inseparable from my roots.
For kc, I love the slabs because I lived kind of close to gillham park and we used to walk down there and have drinks and watch the sunset and marvel at the graffiti. It's a beautiful example of a neighborhood/community adapting a space. St. James is incredibly diverse, open-minded and social justice oriented. It is a church focused primarily on people, which gives me a great deal of hope. It's also just an incredibly happy place. Mattie Rhodes is where I work, and I think it's the happiest place on earth. It's three floors of recycled/donated art supplies and decades of children's artwork.
I love the central library in KC because I always have loved/collected libraries: I go to one in every place I visit. They're pretty fair places. Everyone is welcomed, and we all share the same resources. They're reservoirs of culture, and the KC library is exquisite, so full of history, it's grand, it's full of different people and the quiet is so full. Finally, I love the giant slide in concourse park because it's brilliant and I take kids there all the time, and I think it's fun to try and remember how to be a kid. Oh and I love uptown arts bar because I used to sing at the open mics there and that was my introduction to a KC community.
| Laura Kennedy |