Arts & Culture

“Ohmigod, ohmigod you guys! Looks like Elle’s gonna win the prize!” Those familiar lyrics ring out nightly as Hayley Podschun takes the stage as Elle Woods in the musical "Legally Blonde", now playing through Sept. 6 at The New Theatre...

AJ Chris isn’t new to the stage. She has spent the past several years doing standup comedy in the United Kingdom. But when the 26-year-old comic stepped onto the stage at Clint’s Comedy Club in Overland Park, the crowd was...

This weekend, Johnson Countians will celebrate the United States’ 250th birthday with fireworks, festivals and parades. Fifty years ago, the celebration was even bigger. The planning for the United States Bicentennial in 1976 took over two years, as Johnson County cities,...

After decades of being in real estate and financing, a Lenexa resident discovered his true passion: Writing children's books. In March, Mark Hummell released his first two children's books back-to-back, the sky-focused "Images in the Clouds" and the crow-centered "The...

April showers bring May flowers — or, in this case, a 15-foot sunflower sculpture outside De Soto City Hall. City officials, the De Soto Arts Council and USD 232 students and staff celebrated the installation of the kinetic sculpture, titled...

Olivia Carter’s roots in improv are part of what has made her a strong comedian who’s on the rise. The Stilwell native is currently appearing on "Funny AF with Kevin Hart" on Netflix. The show features a variety of stand-up...

After taking a year off, a popular “parade” of unique art around Johnson County and the Kansas City metro is back. Starting on Monday, April 20, the “Parade of Hearts” art installation will fully kick off — displaying more than...

Amy Barickman’s love of textiles started at a young age. Barickman, who is now a Prairie Village resident, grew up in Des Moines, Iowa, where her mother, Donna, owned a textile store that sold patterns for fabric projects and hosted...

Amy Barickman’s love of textiles started at a young age. Barickman, who is now a Prairie Village resident, grew up in Des Moines, Iowa, where her mother, Donna, owned a textile store that sold patterns for fabric projects and hosted...

Karen Gerson recalls struggling with her mental health for much of her life, dealing with a mix of depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. It was those experiences that inspired Gerson to write a memoir about her mental health...

More than 6,500 people have learned how to cook Indian dishes in the Prairie Village home of Jyoti Mukharji. Mukharji, who hosted her first-ever in-home cooking class nearly 16 years ago, teaches up to 15 students per class. “It was like...

Johnson County readers reached for a mixed bag of genres in 2025. This year, there is no one clear dominating genre from Johnson County Library’s most-checked out books of 2025. Instead, Johnson County readers were drawn to a variety of...