What an awesome day for our country today was.  I have to admit my emotions ran the gamut today, but for the most part there was simply hope and joy.  Hope for the future of our nation, and joy that we as a nation have finally risen above ignorance and bias that we’ve labored under for so long.  Does this mean everything will magically mend overnight?  When we all wake up tomorrow, will President Obama be able to solve all of the problems this country faces, both here and abroad?  No, absolutely not.  But the hope that he’s inspired in many of us, I belive, will linger after all of the ceremonies have finished.  He has inspired this nation to believe that change is possible, and that we all need to do our part in helping bring that change about.

I was proud to be a part of the celebration at the historic Gem Theater at 18th and Vine today in the Kansas City Jazz District.  Here’s a few shots from today, and more can be seen on my website.  Overall, an awesome day.  One that made me proud to be an American.

This was a project envisioned and created by Kevin Morris, who owns Obsidian Publishing here in Kansas City. I was honored to have an opportunity to be involved with this project that took place this past Election Day, and even more excited that several of my images were selected to be included in both the commemorative calendar and book that is being printed.

The project itself is way cool – 10 local professional photographers were chosen to basically “shoot the day” all around Kansas City.  We essentially got to shoot anything we found interesting, exciting, or just plain cool that day, then submit our best work to the project.  I also had the opportunity to appear on local television station KCTV5 Sunday, Jan 11th to talk about the project with Kevin.  Also appearing with us was Megan Birdsall, who is a very, very talented jazz vocal artist, and produced and recorded a CD of her work that will be included with the commemoritive book.  It was pretty cool, and for any of those that saw it, I hope I didn’t sound like a doof. 
There will also be a huge event on Inauguration Day happening at the Gem Theater around 18th and Vine streets in Kansas City.  All people attending the event on that day will receive a copy of the commemorative calendar, get the opportunity to meet with a lot of the photographers and people involved with the project, and just join in the celebration on this historic day for our country.  I hope all of you reading this can plan on attending – it’ll be awesome!

Orders are being taken now for the calendar either in person at the American Jazz Museum on 18th and Vine, or online on the website TheDayHeWonKC.com, and a portion of all sales from the items will go to the Jazz Museum.  A few of my images that were selected for the project are below, and more of them can be found on my website here.  Take a look at them, please plan on joining us for the celebration on Jan 20th, and thanks for looking!

***UPDATE!!***

Ive just found out that local tv station KCTV5 will be there covering the event at the Gem next Tuesday, so that will be awesome!  Here’s a link to the article on their website regarding it, and a little ‘blurb’ from Kevin Morris:

http://www.kctv5.com/politics/18480027/detail.html