Blue Room Jazz Club | Kansas City, MO

Located in Kansas City’s Historic 18th and Vine Historic District, the Blue Room is part jazz club and part museum. Part of the adjoining American Jazz Museum,  the venue features a mixture of local, home-grown musicians and national headliners fill the stage six days a week. No smoking and no food service, but, fortunately, one can find several good soul food and cajun restaurants nearby, if you’re interested in grabbing a bite to eat either before or after performances. The Negro League Baseball Museum and historic Gem Theatre is also within easy walking distance.

Blue Room
1616 E 18th St
Kansas City, MO 64108
816-474-2929
Official Website: www.americanjazzmuseum.com
Map & Driving Directions

For more information on black travel destinations world wide be sure to visit Discover Black Heritage, A Travel Guide to Black History and Culture.

Gem Theatre | Kansas City, MO

The building that currently houses Kansas City’s Gem Theatre was originally built in 1912 as a silent film movie house named the Star Theatre that catered primarily to African American audiences. It was renamed the Gem Theatre in 1923 after its owners remodeled its exterior to give it more curb appeal. The Gem continued to serve as the neighborhood movie house well into the 1970’s. Today, the theater along with the rest of the 18th and Vine Historical District has undergone a complete make over in the past several years. Behind the restored 1912 facade, the Gem Theatre houses a state-of-the-art 500-seat performing arts center which showcases both local and national jazz talents, most notably Kansas City’s very popular “Jammin’ at the Gem” jazz masters’ concert organized by the American Jazz Museum across the way. Community events, musical, dance and theatrical performances have also found a home here. The theatre’s open and contemporary interior design ensures that almost everyone has one of the best seats in the house. The stunningly restored and refurbished theatre lobby also makes it a local favorite for special events. Space is also available for meetings, workshops and seminars.  Other attractions next door include the Negro League Baseball Museum and the Blue Room Jazz Club.

Gem Theatre
1615 East 18th Street
Kansas City, MO 64108
(816) 474-6262
Official Website: N/A
Map & Driving Directions

For more information on black travel destinations world wide be sure to visit Discover Black Heritage, A Travel Guide to Black History and Culture.

18th & Vine Historic District | Kansas City, MO

Photo (L-R): Blue Room Jazz Club, Negro League Baseball Museum

Along with New Orleans’s Basin Street, Beale Street in Memphis, 52nd Street in New York and Los Angeles’s Central Avenue, the intersection of 18th and Vine is one of the most famous street corners in the world…….the birthplace of Kansas City Jazz. The 18th and Vine Historic District was the center of commerce for the city’s African American community from the 1920s into the 1960s with thriving commerical, residential and entertainment areas. Today, the redeveloped district features a pair of museums that focus on KC’s role in African-American history: the Kansas City Jazz Museum and the Negro League Baseball Museum. Both feature well-presented exhibitions of greats from Statchel Paige and the Kansas City Monarchs to Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald. Other neighborhood sites of interest include the restored Gem Theatre, the Blue Room jazz club, and the long-time offices of the city’s first and most prominent African American newspaper, The Call. For more information regarding Kansas City’s 18th and Vine Historic District please visit the Kansas City Convention & Visitors Association website.

18th and Vine Historical District
18th & Vine Street
Kansas City, MO 64108
Offical Website: N/A
Map & Driving Directions: N/A

For more information on black travel destinations world wide be sure to visit Discover Black Heritage, A Travel Guide to Black History and Culture.

Black Archives of Mid America, Kansas City, MO

View of the Rose Room at the Street Hotel, Kansas City, MO

Often considered as a potential rival to the DuSable Museum of African American History in Chicago, and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York City, the Black Archives of Mid America boasts one of the largest collections of African-American art, memorabilia and historical materials in the nation, with special focus on black history and culture in the four-state area of Missouri, Kansas, Iowa and Oklahoma . Established by African American historian and folorist Horace M. Peterson III in 1974 on the second floor of the local YMCA, the collection today contains more than 31,000 items, including black art, paintings, manuscripts , photographs, personal correspondence, oral histories, and rare books. Permanent exhibits include one dedicated to Buffalo Soldiers and other Black Army units that served in the Civil War up to World War II, as well as a faithful reconstruction of a 19th century slave cabin. Located in Kansas City’s historic 18th and Vine District, a visit to the Black Archives of Mid American makes the perfect addition to a day of discovery in the downtown area.

Photo: Courtesy of Black Archives of Mid America

Nearby iconic African American history and culture attractions include:

American Jazz Museum - One of the first museums in the country devoted exclusively to this art form. The Jazz legacy was cultivated in the Kansas City of the 1020s and 1930s, rekindled into brilliant reality with a massive restoration of Kansas City’s historic 18th & Vine District.

Negro Leagues Baseball Museum - The centerpiece of historical renaissance of Negro Leagues Baseball throughout the nation, the museum’s exhibits cover the entire history of the Negro Leagues from their beginning after the Civil War through their end in the 1960s in the midst of the Civil Rights movement.

Black Archives of Mid-America
2033 Vine Street
Kansas City, MO 64108-3007
United States
Phone: (816) 483-1300
Official Website
Map & Driving Directions