Latest news with #NationalWWIMuseumandMemorial
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Masked Patriot Front white nationalists march Saturday in Kansas City
Scores of masked white nationalists descended on Kansas City Saturday, holding a rally outside the National WWI Museum and Memorial and marching downtown carrying flags and chanting. Police said the event, carried out by the Patriot Front, did not result in any arrests. Talk about the march spread rapidly on social media throughout the afternoon and evening. The Patriot Front is a white nationalist 'and avowedly fascist nationwide organization' that was formed in the aftermath of the deadly 'Unite the Right' march in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, according to the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights. On Saturday, the group's members — faces covered and dressed in their signature navy shirts, khaki pants and tan caps — marched down the sidewalks chanting, 'Life, liberty, victory' and 'Reclaim America.' Some carried shields and many carried flags, including upside-down American flags, Betsy Ross flags and Confederate flags. A video posted on X showed more than 150 marchers lined up in formation outside the National WWI Museum and Memorial as leader Thomas Rousseau gave a speech. When the event was over, the members piled into U-Haul trucks. In a video posted later on X, Rousseau said that 'today was the largest action we've ever put on as an organization.' 'It was remarkably successful, and we accomplished every single objective we set out to for the day.' Officer Alayna Gonzalez, a Kansas City Police spokesperson, said a patrol sergeant saw a group of about 100 marching on the sidewalk near the National WWI Museum and Memorial for about an hour. 'The KCPD was unaware this group was planning to come into our city as they do not advertise their protest/march locations,' she said in an email. 'We learned this group calls themselves the Patriot Front and it is believed everyone involved is from out of town and not local to Kansas City.' Gonzalez said it appeared the group did not need a parade permit for the event. 'A parade permit is not needed unless roadways need to be shutdown, and from information received at this point the group remained on the sidewalk and out of roadways,' she said. 'There is zero indication that KCPD was involved in any kind of escort capacity while the group was here. There were no arrests made or citations issued. The group has left Kansas City.' Mayor Quinton Lucas commented about the march in a post on X Saturday evening. 'While the First Amendment provides the right to bring any message to Kansas City,' he said, 'we know that our diversity, our welcoming community, and our respect for the rights of all reject whatever hate and cowardice come our way.' A spokesperson for the National WWI Museum and Memorial issued a statement Sunday afternoon denouncing the Patriot Front's views. 'The National WWI Museum and Memorial is aware of yesterday's gathering on the public grounds surrounding our institution,' said Karis Erwin, vice president of marketing and guest services. 'We respect First Amendment protections for peaceful assembly and free speech, and want to be unequivocally clear that the views expressed by this group do not represent or align with our values. We stand firmly against hatred, bigotry and divisiveness in all forms.' While the grounds include public park space where groups may gather, Erwin said, 'such use should never be interpreted as our endorsement of any particular viewpoint.' 'The Museum and Memorial remains committed to serving as a place of learning, reflection and unity for all visitors. This Memorial Day, as we do every day, we honor the lives of those who died in defense of liberty and freedom. This Memorial, a beacon for democracy, reminds us all of core values that seek to unite us and create a just and lasting peace for all nations.' Devin Burghart, president and executive director of the Seattle-based Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights, said Kansas City was the only city targeted by the Patriot Front on Saturday. 'The presence of a group of masked white nationalists tromping through the streets of Kansas City is a stark reminder that, in this moment, we must counter racism and bigotry on the margins and in the mainstream,' Burghart said in an email to The Star on Sunday. 'The attention-seeking neo-fascist group Patriot Front is well-known for utilizing stunts like this to generate publicity and attract broken young men to their ranks. Widespread community condemnation and long-term organizing are essential in making sure this new generation of white nationalists can't take root in our communities.' Rousseau founded the Patriot Front in an effort to rebrand the neo-Nazi organization Vanguard America after the violence in Charlottesville, according to groups that monitor far-right extremists. The white supremacist convicted of killing Heather Heyer when he intentionally plowed his car into a group of counter-protesters that day was seen in photographs holding a shield emblazoned with the Vanguard America logo. In June 2022, police arrested 31 Patriot Front members in Couer d'Alene, Idaho, after receiving a tip that men in face masks with riot gear were seen getting into a U-Haul outside a hotel. Police pulled the truck over near a park where an annual Pride event was to take place. Inside the truck, officers found a smoke grenade, shields and other gear as well as documents describing a plan to incite a disturbance at the park. A May 2023 IREHR report said that Missouri was the third most active state for Patriot Front activity. It said the group's members sometimes perform charitable acts to improve their image. 'On November 11, 2022, Patriot Front members handed out food and blankets to people experiencing homelessness in Kansas City,' the report said. 'Flyers about Patriot Front were attached to the brown bags they were handing out. 'This type of action is about more than helping the community. This recruitment tool gets young men and teenagers involved in the group.'
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
National WWI Museum opens exhibit showcasing personal accounts of war
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The National WWI Museum and Memorial's newest exhibit opens Friday in Kansas City. The new exhibit, titled 'Encounters', showcases various narratives of the Great War using state-of-the-art visual storytelling, the museum says. 'Encounters' will share first-person accounts of 16 different soldiers and individuals involved in the war using their diaries, letters and photos. Joe's Blog: Wet-ish weekend ahead (FRI-5/23) According to the museum, the visuals and accounts include: Allied and Central Power soldiers on the Western Front and in submarines. British and colonial Indian soldiers contemplating death and the futility of war. Women working in factories in support of the war effort. Dissenters who were arrested and tried for protesting the war. 'Encounters' took three years to complete in a process of 'reinvigorating' to museum and memorial, the museum said in a news release. The new additions feature a new lower level and open storage center, updates to the main gallery, including 14 new interactive screens, three new films, new lighting and effects, updated trenches and a realistic replica field hospital. This weekend in honor of Memorial Day, admission will be free for active-duty and veterans. The public will receive half-price admission as well. For more information on the WWI Museum and Memorial, its new features and events held at the museum, click . Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
16-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Experience WWI like never before in this upcoming virtual exhibit
The National WWI Museum and Memorial in Kansas City, Missouri, is getting a facelift. Since 2023, the Museum and Memorial 'has been carrying out a multi-year upgrade plan, the most expansive changes to the buildings and grounds since opening in 2006,' according to its landing page. The modifications, the announcement continued, 'will not only see upgrades in technology to tell new and interesting narratives from WWI, they will create a richer and more immersive visitor experience.' Opening over Memorial Day weekend, the museum's latest exhibit, 'Encounters,' will take viewers through the lives of 16 individuals that include: Allied and Central Power combat soldiers; British colonial Indian soldiers; women working in munitions factories; and dissenters arrested and tried for anti-war stances. Crafted from diaries, letters and photos, 'Encounters' includes state-of-the-art media displays that will feature 1.25 mm Pixel Pitch LED Display technology from Nanolumens — the first installation of its kind in a museum in the U.S. The museum aims for 'Encounters' to go beyond the simple showcasing of artifacts and historical data. Delving into more than troop movements and the number of rivets on a Sopwith Triplane, the installation aims to fully engage its visitors visually and audibly on 'a deeply emotional level, focusing on the human side of the war through the stories of individuals who lived it,' according to a museum press release. This isn't the museum's first foray into immersing cutting edge technology and meshing it with the past. In 2021, the National WWI Museum debuted its impressive virtual reality experience, 'War Remains,' which allowed visitors to take a trip through time to the battlefields of World War I. The initiative was designed for viewers to feel — as much as possible — the true trench experience. 'We wanted to simulate what it was like to lose your hearing to an explosion,' director Brandon Oldenburg told Military Times in 2021. 'Skywalker sound does an amazing job of putting ringing in your ears. You feel it, but you can't hear it. … I think it makes a lasting memory of what it was like even though it is not even coming close to the real thing. You can walk out alive [and] unscathed.' Now, the museum is once again leading the way when it comes to what museums of the present can and should be, with 'stations' boasting recreated virtual scenes from the front lines, the home front and military hospitals replete with interactive soundscape technology found in just one other space in the U.S. — the Las Vegas Sphere. According to the press release, 'the spatial audio used in this exhibit creates a 360-degree sound environment, making it feel as if the voices, sounds, and stories are unfolding around visitors in real time.' Despite more than a century separating museum-goers from the war's end, the lives of the ordinary man and woman caught up in this titanic clash will once again be seen — and felt — like never before. Renovations at the National WWI Museum and Memorial will continue through 2025. 'Encounters' opens Memorial Day weekend, 2025.
