- In this episode of "Fly Brother," we explore America's heartland, the great state of Kansas.

We start off with historian Phil Dixon, and tales of the Negro Leagues in Kansas City.

We talk folklore and storytelling with filmmaker Rodrick Pocowatchit in Wichita.

We explore the nature of the Great Plains with lifelong educators George and Alice Potts.

And my good buddy, Rolf Potts, the godfather of vagabonding, talks about finding love in his own backyard.

We're back in Kansas, Toto.

Let's get fly.

(upbeat music) I'm Ernest White II, storyteller, explorer.

I feel like Indiana Jones.

I believe in connecting across backgrounds and boundaries.

Join me and my friends, and discover that no matter the background, no matter the history, the whole world is our tribe.

Come with me.

(Ernest hoots) - [Man] Yeah!

- [Ernest] "Fly Brother."

- [Announcer] Major funding for this program is provided by: - The is Mayor Ras J. Baraka.

Welcome to Newark.

(upbeat jazzy music) We are Newark, one family, Brick City.

- [Announcer] Courageous Conversation Global Foundation, promoting racial justice, interracial understanding, and human healing.

Additional funding provided by the following.

(energetic music) - [Ernest] Kansas, America's heartland, smack dab in the middle of the lower 48.

Kansas sprawls east to west, and back again, over a portion of the Great Plains, encompassing large cities, small towns, and plenty of farms, ranches, and open prairie.

Yes, Toto, we're back in Kansas.

We start off our visit to the sunflower state in Kansas City, Kansas.

That other Kansas City across the state line in Missouri might have been founded first, but we came to this Kansas City to chat with my good friend, Phil S. Dixon, author and historian about the deep roots of Negro League baseball in KCK.

- Wrestling matches were held here, some of those people like Handsome Harley Race and Danny Little Bear, you know, Andre the Giant.

They all fought here.

- I know Andre the Giant, that's my era.

- Yeah, they were all here, right, about where we're standing.

- Who else was here?

- Oh, well, Patsy Cline.

- Patsy Cline, okay, crazy.

- Yeah, and her last public appearance was here in this venue.

And then, of course, back in 1937, Joe Louis fought here.

- Joe Louis fought here, the Bronze Bomber.

- Yeah, he came, he fought in Kan City, Missouri, but a lot of people don't know he fought in Kan City, Kansas.

And that particular night, he was giving exhibitions, so he fought two guys in the same night and beat 'em both.

- Wow.

- At one time, this was a segregated, so there was a guy named Eddie Dwight, who formerly played for the Kan City Monarchs, and he was the one who broke down segregation here in this arena by buying tickets to the wrestling match and sitting on the floor when they wouldn't let Black people sit on the floor.

- Sure, sure.

- And he had been a former member of the Kan City Monarchs, grown up in Kan City, Kansas here, so this place has a link to the Negro Leagues as well.

- That's a history that I think some people know about, you know, if you've been around, if you've heard the stories, but there are generations of people coming along who haven't heard of the Negro Leagues, 'cause they're so far removed from segregation.

My parents grew up in segregation in Florida.

We know about Brown versus the Topeka, Kansas Board of Education as the seminal Supreme Court case to strike down segregation in education.

What about segregation in sports?

What was so important about the Negro Leagues, and particularly here in Kansas?

- Kan City, Kansas had the first ever Black professional team.

It was the Kan City, Kansas Giants in 1907.

- Okay, that was way before I was born.

(laughs) - Yeah, hey, there's a good history.

This is where it all started professionally.

And then, over the years, you know, in 1920, you had the Kan City Monarchs, but I might also mention the Monarchs's first great star.

His name was Wilber Bullet Rogan.

He's a member of the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame, and Rogan grew up in this town, Kansas City, Kansas.

- So then, what would it have been like for a Black baseball player in the Negro Leagues in the '20s or '30s, traveling around a state like Kansas, which, historically, has just not had a very large Black population?

- So at Kan City, Kansas, because of its proximity, it's easy to get to Iowa, it's easy to get to Arkansas, it's easy to get to Nebraska, the whole thing, so many Black baseball players came from this town, and they were able to take their talents into a broader audience.

- [Ernest] Sure, in a way they might not have been able to do in the various more strictly segregated South, for example.

- And there was always good baseball here, good baseball training.

They honed their craft on the parks in Kansas City, Kansas, and then they would take those talents and take them to the world.

- What are some of the distinguishing characteristics of Black baseball players at the time that would have created a different experience watching them play?

- Well, one of them is versatility.

So you take a person like Bullet Rogan.

He was a great pitcher, but he was also a tremendous power hitter.

So he hit over 400 home runs, I've been able to document.

And guess what, he was a 10-second man, so he stole- - Now, what does that mean- - That means he can run a 100-yard dash in less than 10 seconds.

- Wow, so he was an all-around athlete.

It wasn't just a baseball player, but clearly- - That's right.

That's not enough for you, how 'about this?

He also drove the bus.

You know, the Kansas City Monarchs were the first team to travel nationwide, professionally, by bus, and everybody's doing that today.

- Ooh.

(exhales deeply) (Phil speaks indistinctly) (Ernest laughs) That's right, that's right, we got a nice little view up here.

So who would we be watching, in addition to some of the folks you mentioned?

- Well, you know, in boxing, there was a great boxer from Kan City, Kansas, name was Tommy Campbell, who goes on to be ranked, in the 1950s, he was ranked number two in the world, lightweight contender.

Tommy fought here and went out to Los Angeles after that, and became pretty big stuff.

'Cause I remember talkin' to Tommy Campbell's wife.

When she came here, she said she had never seen that many Black people in one space.

- Really?

Where was she from?

- She was from Rock island, Illinois.

- Okay, got it.

- So she had just never seen that.

- Sure.

- You know, it was so refreshing, and to see all the positive things that were going on.

And so there were schools and there were churches, and you know, there were civic organizations.

It was just a good place to be, and Kansas City, Kansas, you know, we had our own bank, you had everything.

You know, they talk about Tulsa.

Well, you know, we had a little small Tulsa right here.

- Sure, sure, some economic empowerment going on, another mini Black Wall Street.

- That's true, that's true.

- When you look at Kansas, many people who look at it from the outside don't necessarily imagine it as a multicultural place, but it sounds like it's always been that.

- Yeah, it has, it has, and it goes back to right after the Civil War.

And even before the Civil War, Kansas was part of the Underground Railroad.

And people were crossing the Missouri River when it would freeze over to come into Kansas seeking freedom, so it's always had that legacy, and it's something that needs to be celebrated.

And so I'm so happy that you're here so we can tell our story once again.

- [Ernest] It's the heart of the heartland, the geographic center of the lower 48, and a place where history is written on the landscape.

In Kansas, you can get up close to mammoth bones, trace the path of Native American culture, and meet bison on a walk through tall grass prairie, but you can also click your heels on a replica of Dorothy's house from "The Wizard of Oz," and honor the legacy of African-American soldiers, ball players, and civil rights activists.

All this, my pretties, and a little barbecue too.

(lively music) In the South Central portion of the state, the city of Wichita is the largest in Kansas, with nearly 400,000 residents.

Starting as a cow town for cattle drives back in the 1860s, Wichita has since grown into a regional center for industry, trade, and culture.

Here, at the confluence of the Arkansas and Little Arkansas Rivers, you heard me right, stands the Keeper of the Plains, a 44-foot-tall steel sculpture by Comanche-Kiowa artist Blackbear Bosin.

Completed in 1974, and adjacent to the Mid-America All-Indian Center Museum, the statue honors American-Indian nations, including the Wichita and the Kaw, or Kansa, from which the state gets its name.

My friend, Wichita-based filmmaker Rod Pocowatchit, tells us about the importance of storytelling and place in Native American tradition.

So Rod, you grew up here in Wichita.

As a storyteller, and thinking, believing that stories carry messages with them, that they have something to say, what do you think this city says to visitors?

- Well, I think the history of Wichita, you know, the tributes to Native people that were here before, I think there's a rich history of that, and people wanting to discover more about that.

There's a lot to learn from the city about that.

- Like what?

- Well, I mean, like, we have the Indian Center here.

You know, it's kind of our cultural center for Native people.

That's where we have our dances and things, and people wanting to learn more about the tribes that were from here can go there.

And there's a museum, there's a tribal gallery of flags, things like that.

I mean, it's all surface-y, but at least it's a window, it's kind of like a portal, you know.

You start there, and then there's a way in.

So yeah, if you want to know more, there's more, but at least you get kind of a taste of it.

(upbeat music) Yeah, so the artist of the Keeper of the Plains statue, his name was Blackbear Bosin.

- Okay.

- Like I said, I think he was mostly known for his paintings, for his two-dimensional work, but this is, like, iconic of Wichita.

When people think of Wichita, they think of the Keeper of the Plains, yeah, yeah.

- Okay.

And so, what does it represent then?

- Well, I think it's meant to reflect the people that used to gather here, like, at the confluence of the Arkansas Rivers.

The artist was Comanche and Kiowa, so I think it's just sort of supposed to be a tribute to how they carried themselves, and how they continued on with their beliefs.

We've been storytellers from the very beginning.

I mean, we've carried on storytelling.

I mean, that's why I wanted to get into filmmaking, was to tell stories.

So, I mean- - [Ernest] I mean, you grew up telling stories and your family, and you had access to them culturally.

- Yeah, absolutely.

I remember growing up and my father telling me stories about this Comanche monster named Moopits.

So that was a bedtime story- - Okay, that sounds scary, Moopits.

- Yeah, Moopits.

It definitely sounds scary.

- Or Muppets.

- Yeah, right?

It's close.

Yeah, we just always had our stories, and we were always storytellers from the very beginning.

So yeah, I think it's cool that we can still do that but in different ways.

- And so how are you infusing that legacy and history of storytelling in the stories that you tell now?

- Well, I'm trying to do it in a way that's not typical Native film, if there is one, there isn't.

My goal is to get more Native Americans represented in mass pop culture, because we're just not represented.

I mean, we're just not there.

- Sure.

- So I want to tell stories that you might not typically see Native people in, like a Native zombie film, or a Native time travel movie, or you know, a road trip comedy.

I mean, yeah.

So I'm tryin' to take those Native people and put them in stories that you wouldn't normally see them in, because we live just like everyone else.

- Of course.

- Yeah, yeah, but we just have this other thing about us, our beliefs, our customs, whatever, so I'm tryin' to fuse all of that together.

- Like any group of people.

- Right.

- You know, there's nothing special in that regard.

Every human group, culture, has its stories, has its traditions- - Right, right.

- And you know, obviously, it's empowering to see yourself in all forms of media.

- Yeah.

- Which is why that visibility is so important.

(energetic music) - The cool thing about Wichita, especially, is how diverse it has become throughout the years.

I mean, not only is there a rich Native history and Native roots to the place- - [Ernest] Right, the foundation of the civilization.

- But there's also, like, you know, a thriving Hispanic community, you know, African American Museum is here.

I mean, there's a lot of different diverse cultures that are represented in Wichita and Kansas, yeah, that you wouldn't think would be here, especially from, like, "The Wizard of Oz" roots.

Definitely, there's a lot more to it than that.

- Then there is the idea of there being no place like home, and this is your home space.

- Yeah, sure.

- And I think when people travel, they want something that's exotic, but also accessible and recognizable in a lot of ways.

And so, how do you feel that Kansas shows up as a home space for people?

- Well, I think the cool thing about "The Wizard of Oz" was that vibe, it's like there's no place like home.

But home is wherever your heart is, you know.

So I think Wichita and Kansas kind of has that heart to it, you know.

- Sure, it's the heartland.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah, right.

Friendly place to go, people are friendly, it's very laid back.

It's not cliched.

We're not a bunch of country bumpkins.

I mean, there's this culture here, and there's diversity, and there's also cool arts, there's cool performances, things like that.

There's a lot here that you just don't think of when you come here, but it's all here, and it's all very cool stuff.

- Nice.

- Yeah.

(upbeat music) - [Ernest] The bustling burg of Wichita buzzes with energy, but on the northeast end of town, the Great Plains Nature Center provides an oasis of tranquility and an opportunity to learn about the natural environment of the Great Plains.

It's here where we meet up with Alice and George Potts, parents of my good buddy, Rolf, who you'll meet later.

Just like my own parents, Mr. and Mrs. Potts are retired school teachers, and in the '90s, Mrs. Potts's second grade class successfully petitioned the state government to name the barred tiger salamander as the official state amphibian, which you can see right here at the center.

Today, though, we talk more about flora than fauna, and how Mr. Potts fell in love, unexpectedly, with his own Kansas sunflower.

- Oh, well, I knew that when I left Los Angeles, and I was there for three years, but I was only going to stay two, but I knew that there was a sunflower in Kansas that was waiting for me.

(Alice laughs) - When you got back to your home state.

- I had no idea who it was, but shortly thereafter my arrival, I met this sunflower on a blind date.

- Okay.

- And three months later, we were married.

- Three months later, a courtship of three months.

- Yes.

- Yes.

- It worked out, you found each other- - Yes.

- Here in your home state, America's heartland.

- Yes, yes, and our son did the same thing.

He was all over the world, and he did the same thing.

Isn't that amazing?

- [Ernest] And their son is the one and only Rolf Potts, noted author and fellow Fly Brother, who's been showing people how to live untethered lives since the 1990s.

Rolf had long been a literary hero of mine before we became friends, and my first time to Kansas was at his invitation.

How could I say no?

Here, I find myself once again in the middle of Kansas wheat country to connect with Rolf at the Coronado Heights Castle, built in the 1930s as an homage to Spanish conqueror Francisco Coronado, said to have made his way to the region in search of gold.

It was an apt place to pick up where we'd left off in a previous conversation about another certain treasure right here in the heart of America's heartland.

So one of the topics that we talked about, though, was just as long-term travelers, the challenges of finding a long-term relationship.

- Yeah, even to the point that you are such a believer in love and- - I am a true believer in love.

- Yeah, no, but not to sound cynical by comparison, but just saying that it's a blessing to have traveled so much, and that I think a part of me, you might remember better than I do, but a part of me felt like, well, that's a sacrifice you make.

There's this constant novelty and excitement with travel, and that maybe that stability will just not be something I have.

- [Ernest] Right.

- I remember what you said is that, "I love love."

- I do.

- You can't cheat your life out of love, and I'm thinkin', "Well, okay."

- I mean, it's the most beautiful thing we have, as human beings on this planet, I feel like.

I'm a believer in the romance of life.

That includes intimate romance between two people, but there's also great music, beautiful sunsets, conversation, you know, the intimacy of humanity.

That, to me, is also romance, and I love that.

I love seeing people engage in that, and relish it, and really live into it.

And I feel like that's something that's been coming down the pike for you, even if you didn't know it was coming.

- Yeah, well, like you said, there's different iterations of love.

- Sure, traveling to many different places, and seeing yourself in other people.

- Well, yeah, and then a lot of that is attraction, and just sort of the cornucopia, for lack of a better word, just this constant stimulation of travel, where it's so central to travel, but then, you develop a relationship to a single place that it becomes more developed.

And so where we are right now, Kansas is a beautiful place, but you know, it's not going to win the beauty pageants of places in the world, but I have developed a relationship with Kansas that isn't just linear and one direction, you know.

It's vertical and horizontal, it's 3D.

- I love the idea of the multidimensionality of a space that, for you, is a home space.

You know, born and raised here, traveled to how many countries around the world?

- Closin' in on 100 at this point.

It's not just being dazzled with the beautiful country you've always dreamed of going to.

It's a place that you come back to and your relationship with it deepens.

And I know, as a Kansan, you always hear "Wizard of Oz" quotes to you.

- [Ernest] Sure, sure, you do.

- And so people say, "There's no place like home," right?

Well, in a way, it's true, you know?

Your relationship, your love to a place deepens in ways that you didn't realize would happen.

- So we talked with your parents earlier about them finding love in an unexpected place.

And so that seems to run in the family, huh?

- It does.

You know, it's unexpected and it's exotic, but it's also obvious, 'cause they're both from Kansas.

My dad went to Los Angeles, he went to this city that was so much more international and sophisticated, and then he came back, and within weeks, he met my mom, fell in love, and became a Kansas educator.

He sort of learned to see this landscape for the richness that is not obvious but is there.

A similar thing happened to me, actually.

And it's funny, for years, I had this house.

I loved my house, but I was only there for a few weeks at a time.

It was a crash pad, the closets were full of boxes.

There was dust bunnies in the corner, right?

Then the pandemic hit, and it sort of forced me to commit to my home in a way I wasn't used to.

Two months into the pandemic, I'm on this dating app, you know, just sort of swipin' around, as one does on a dating app, and it's like, well, wait a second.

Not only is this woman beautiful, I think that's Prague.

I think I've been in that neighborhood in Prague.

- Okay, okay, so- - I think that's London, and that's Kansas!

Like, is this really a Kansas girl who's been around the world and is stuck in the same place as me?

And so, we started chatting, and then eventually, we met for a socially-distanced first date.

And so here's this woman who should have been in Berlin that week.

I should have been in Rome that week.

We were stuck in Kansas in the most beautiful way possible, because we just realized that we just recognized something in each other, and we couldn't touch.

We just talked and talked and talked.

- You recognized home in each other.

- We recognized home.

Yeah, I think it was a medieval Christian mystic that talked about the birds of the sky are constantly in motion, so they have to carry home with them, right?

And so, I think there's a bipolarity, or multipolarity to home.

And I think you can recognize this as a traveler and as someone who loves the road, that you come to love a place, but then also, you come to love all these other places.

And so when I realized, here's this person who loves Kansas, but also loves Berlin and London, and Norway, and other parts of the world, there was sort of a home-ness to that feeling of being with her.

And somehow, Kansas, that place where we were stuck during this time when we couldn't travel, was exactly the love language I needed, you know, being stuck with someone who understood what it was like to travel and to be still.

(pensive music) Well, this is where Kiki and I got married.

- [Ernest] All right.

- The reason we got married here is that it's also the site of our first date.

- Ooh-ee, sentimental - Oh, absolutely sentimental.

At the height of the pandemic, again, when Kiki should have been in Berlin and I should have been in Rome, we were both stuck in Kansas.

We had a date where we couldn't even shake hands, let alone kiss, and we got to know each other within this beautiful landscape.

This place means so much to me.

I traveled around the world.

I thought maybe I would meet a Kansas girl on the other side of the world.

In fact, I met a Kansas girl right in my backyard, and she brought the international aspect with her, and I just couldn't be happier.

(bright music) - Aw, the Kansas sunflowers are in bloom, and Rolf's bride, actress and fellow Kansan, Kristen Bush, tells us all about how it came together, right here in her home state.

You've traveled around the world too.

Like, did you expect this serendipitous connection to be found in your home state as well?

- No, no, the pandemic threw it all upside-down.

I came home, and was very happy to come home, and I had a different perspective on my hometown.

And I spent some time with my parents, who are native Kansans, but I had no idea that there would be this.

- A tall drink of water in the middle of- - Tall freckled drink of water.

I had no idea.

- Yes.

- And I'm thrilled, but I have to say, and I think we both feel this way, that it took us going around the world to be ready to come back to it.

- Ooh, to come back home.

- Yeah.

- Wow.

- It's uncanny how this has become home again.

- No place like it.

- (laughs) You are the only one who can say that, and you say it so beautifully.

- I feel it, I feel it, and you know, that's why I feel welcome here.

It's really something special, to be in a place that you may have ever gone to once, or a couple of times, and just feel like there's a connection that's already built in.

That's what home is all about, you know?

And it's also poignant that we, as travelers, have been able to find that home so many times in so many different places that we want other people to experience it as well, and that's why we do what we do in telling these stories.

So thank you all for embodying that, I love it.

- Thanks for coming to visit us.

- [Ernest] No doubt.

- And I think sometimes, the flip side of travel is hospitality, is hosting people in a place that you consider home.

And so the fact that you've come back here makes me feel good to be from here and to have a home that I can host you in.

- Aw, man.

Thank you so much, my brother.

- Yeah.

- Group hug?

- (laughs) Sure, why not?

- [Ernest] Okay, aw!

(Kristen laughs) - [Rolf] What a beautiful moment.

- [Ernest] You can travel all around the world, but here in Kansas, you learn that home is truly where the heart is.

(lively music) - [Announcer] Major funding for this program is provided by: - This is Mayor Ras J. Baraka.

Welcome to Newark.

(upbeat jazzy music) We are Newark.

One family, Brick City.

- [Announcer] Courageous Conversation Global Foundation, promoting racial justice, interracial understanding, and human healing.

Additional funding provided by the following.

To join the "Fly Brother" travel community, or to order your own copy of this episode, visit FlyBrother.com.

(bright music)