The Gateway

St. Louisan Alana Marie is exploring local history and her family’s roots in a film project about the city of Kinloch, where her father grew up. Missouri’s oldest incorporated African-American community now has fewer than 300 residents but was once a vibrant and flourishing place.

Doctors often don’t want to treat pregnant women with substance use disorder. Many times those women are left without access to medications to control their addictions. Washington University’s medical school has started a clinic for pregnant and postpartum women addicted to opioids.

As part of our Curious Louis series, we look into the hidden history of Castlewood State Park — including the clubs, dance halls, and speakeasies once tucked into its hills — and visit the ruins that remain.

After leaving Bosnia in the 90s, Nermana Huskic looked for a way to give back to St. Louis. She saw the growing need to care for the homeless population. Now she owns RukaNade, one of the largest Bosnian nonprofits in the city.

Every July and October, the Belleville nonprofit MindsEye sponsors unique baseball tournaments for St. Louis-area athletes who are legally blind. The games are played with beepballs that emit sounds and bases that buzz. Players with normal eyesight are welcome to play – blindfolded.

St. Louis artist and activist De Nichols will focus on the Griot Museum of Black History in her newly awarded Loeb Fellowship from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. Through the one-year program which begins this fall, Nichols will create a plan for the north St. Louis institution to deepen and sustain its impact as a space for black arts and history.

About 6,000 school nutrition professionals from across the country have spent part of this week in St. Louis sampling food, testing equipment, and sharing best practices for meeting federal nutrition requirements for school cafeteria lunch options.

Some north St. Louis County teenagers are learning the basics of ecology and wildlife conservation this summer and passing that knowledge to the next generation. Also, a local non-profit is turning some vacant St. Louis lots into community gardens.

New laws are allowing farmers to grow hemp for the first time in decades. Millions of dollars could be made, but there are significant challenges that hemp farmers will face for years to come including seed fraud, weather and a lack of machinery.

If you have more time to read this summer, consider picking up a book written by St. Louisans or set in Missouri. Left Bank Books' Shane Mullen shares some of this year's biggest local releases that might interest readers of all ages.