Kansas City exhibit celebrates Black film history as Hall of Fame takes shape
While construction continues inside the Boone Theater in the historic 18th and Vine Jazz District, the Black Movie Hall of Fame has quietly taken shape a few blocks away.
Since the beginning of Black History Month, a preview exhibit at the Black Archives of Mid-America has been offering the public its first tangible look at what the budding hall of fame will become. The exhibit blends artifacts destined for the permanent hall with a walk through Shawn Edwards’ 25-year career as a film critic.
“We didn’t want to waste this Black History Month,” Edwards said. “We thought it’d be important to kind of utilize it to tell our story and get people familiar with what we’re doing in terms of what the Black Movie Hall of Fame will look like, what it will be, how it will function.”
The exhibit opens with Edwards’ own journey. Visitors encounter childhood photos, early articles from his days at The Pitch KC and Fox 4, and memorabilia from film premieres, set visits and festivals. Seeing it all assembled in one space has been a surreal experience.
“To see all of that laid out in its entirety, it blew my mind,” Edwards said. “It gave me goosebumps.”
But the exhibit extends beyond personal milestones. On the opposite side of the room, visitors will encounter artifacts like an animation cel from “The Princess and the Frog,” items from recent films like “Sinners,” and Cicely Tyson’s 2013 AFCA award, returned to the organization after her death.
The goal, Edwards said, is not just to showcase memorabilia but to educate.
“A lot of people don’t know the history of Black film,” he said. “A lot of people don’t know that Black film started way back in the early 1900s. They don’t know a lot of the early pioneers of Black cinema.”
That history includes not only filmmakers and performers, but critics. Edwards pointed to the role of the Black press in elevating early Black cinema when mainstream newspapers would not.
“Mainstream newspapers didn’t talk about Oscar Micheaux’s films. He had to rely on the Black press,” Edwards said. “Black film critics have always been important. They’ve always had a tremendous value in documenting and preserving and getting the word out about cinema created by and for Black people.”
The exhibit will culminate in a Feb. 28 event titled “The Life of a Film Critic,” an evening program centered on Edwards’ career and the broader history of Black cinema. The event is designed as more than a lecture. Edwards will sit down and walk audiences through his path into film criticism, answering questions he says he has heard for years.
The program will also incorporate elements of Black film history, connecting his personal journey to a larger cultural narrative.
For Edwards, the event serves as both storytelling and clarification. The concept of the Black Movie Hall of Fame, he said, has prompted curiosity since it was first announced.
“A lot of people had a lot of questions about it,” he said. “What exactly is it going to be? How exactly is it going to work? What exactly is it going to look like?”
For Edwards, hosting the exhibit during Black History Month adds weight to the moment. He sees it as both preservation and preparation, an opportunity to document the past while building a permanent home for Black film culture in Kansas City.
“We need people to document, especially now,” he said. “We can’t count on other people to document our history anymore.”
This story was originally published February 21, 2026 at 5:00 AM.
