Chloe Anderson

28-year-old Samantha Bowers, known professionally as Sammy Rae, is the frontwoman for the blues-pop-rock band Sammy Rae and The Friends. Hundreds packed the Granada Theater to see the group perform in Lawrence on Oct. 31. 

Community members joined school district students and staff in a rally before the Lawrence school board meeting Monday, Feb. 27, 2023 to voice their concerns regarding a budget cut proposal. Sash Bahar held a sign reading "Would the administration work for our wages?" Bahar,  who's worked in the district for about a year, makes  $11/hour.

Hundreds of Lawrencians celebrated Mardi Gras with a parade through downtown on Fat Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2023

Mechanic and offroad enthusiast Aaron Longerman hosted the first annual Sandybottoms Friendsgiving in Mulvane, Kan. on Nov. 26. The menu? Big trucks, egos, tires and stunts. 

On Sept. 15, 2021, hundreds of students gathered outside the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity to protest a rape reported the previous Saturday. The crowd rallied in support of the victim and demanded consequences for the rapist.

Locals flocked to Liberty Hall on Monday to enjoy cookies, have their photos taken with Santa and admire the myriad of trees and wreaths that are part of the annual Festival of Trees.  3-year-old Saylah Sanders of Lawrence was eager to pose with Santa.

Carl Folsom III, right, puts on his robe after he's sworn in as a Douglas County District Court judge on Dec. 2, 2022, with help from his wife, Karen Ebmeier, and their daughter, Evelyn.

Loren Drummond, reverend at Lyndon United Methodist Church, holds a sign reading “Water is life” during a vigil Feb. 6, 2023, at the Statehouse in Topeka for the Keystone pipeline spill.

Sammy Rae, frontwoman of Sammy Rae and The Friends, embraces a fan's hand during her show at the Granada Theater on Oct. 31, 2022. 

Advocates gather outside the Robert J. Dole Federal Courthouse on Jan. 18, 2023 in support of former University of Kansas professor Franklin Tao, the first person arrested under former President Donald Trump's discontinued "China Initiative."

Retired University of Kansas faculty Susan Elkins and Jack Winerock hold a sign reading “Iran is bleeding” during a rally March 8, 2023, in front of Wescoe Hall.

Locals donning beads and masks flooded Massachusetts Street for the annual Mardi Gras parade on Feb. 21, 2023. 

In September 2022, Native American students, staff and faculty at KU mourned upon learning that unidentified Indigenous remains were discovered in multiple buildings on campus. Lippincott Hall, home of the Indigenous Studies Program, was in possession of some of the remains. 

25-year-old Twiggy Boden (they/them), one of the new artists-in-residence at the Lawrence Arts Center, enjoys working in a variety of mediums, but ceramic sculpture is their favorite.

Early on Sept. 15, 2022, long before many of their fellow high school students were even awake, members of the Free State orchestra were preparing for an upcoming performance.

Tweesna Rose Mills from the Shoshone-Yakama-Umatilla Nations performs “Footsteps of Our Ancestors," on Thursday, Nov. 17, 2022 at the Spencer Museum of Art.

Hundreds flocked to voting precincts on Nov. 8 to cast their ballots in the 2022 midterm election. Lawrence's First Presbyterian Church saw over 600 votes before most people even got off work.