Laura Spencer
Laura Spencer caught the radio bug more than a decade ago when she was asked to read a newscast on the air on her first day volunteering for KOOP, the community radio station in Austin, Texas.
After moving home to Kansas City, she learned the fine art of editing reel-to-reel tape as an intern and graduate assistant with the nationally syndicated literary program New Letters on the Air. Since 2001, she's focused her efforts on writing and producing feature stories as KCUR's Arts Reporter.
In 2011, Laura was one of 21 journalists selected for USC Annenberg’s seventh National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Arts Journalism Institute in Theater and Musical Theater. She's received awards from the Associated Press, Kansas City Art Institute (Excellence in Visual Art and Education), Kansas City Association of Black Journalists, Missouri Broadcasters Association, Radio-Television News Directors Association (regional Edward R. Murrow Award) and Society for Professional Journalists.
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In 1917, the Hall brothers sold tissue paper during the holiday season for gift wrap in a shop in downtown Kansas City, Mo — until they ran out. They quickly turned to something they had on hand, envelope liners; they sold out again, and a few years later, they were printing their own decorative gift wrap. It was the first product Hallmark made other than gift cards.
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Knuckleheads Saloon in Kansas City is a tradition for traveling musicians to play. So is hanging out in the green room before a show. As part of a summer series, we go backstage.
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Shakespeare in the Park — Southmoreland Park in Kansas City. As part of our summer series "The World's a Stage," we visit a rollicking performance of "Twelfth Night".