“I never try to pretend that I know what anyone took away from my performance, but what I hope they took away was joy in personal sensuality and maybe [that they] felt inspired to embrace that," said Leah Franklin who performed a pole dancing routine in front of nearly 150 people for the Muse Pole Fitness 11th Anniversary Student Showcase on Friday, Feb. 10, 2023, at The Blue Note in Columbia, Mo. The sold-out event featured 58 performers with acts ranging from striking and sultry to poignant and political, each drawing applause, supportive shout-outs and cheers from the crowd. Franklin first “stumbled into pole” a decade ago while trying to find a new outlet for movement and dance. “I became hooked about a year into it, on and off, and I haven't looked back since," she said. Now, in addition to being a nationally-competitive pole dancer, Franklin is a studio manager and instructor at Muse Pole Fitness. "My favorite part of the showcase is watching all of my students show everything they've worked so hard for to prepare," she said. "I love seeing their growth as dancers as well as people."

Along with other crowd members, Eliana Eubanks, left, and Mya Burken, right, sing “St. Patrick was an engineer” during the MU College of Engineering's Engineer’s Week Skits & BBQ celebration on Wednesday, March 15, 2023, at Willie's in Columbia. Roger Fales, one of the judges, said the song is a reference to the legend that the first Engineer’s Week was started when a student wrote on a chalkboard, “No classes today. St. Patrick was an engineer,” prompting students to cut classes

Every summer around sunset, the Phantom Piper fills the air with the sound of bagpipes from his lookout atop the Kincardine Lighthouse, the melancholy melodies traveling across the pier. Before the music begins, Dallas Bosman, 11, jumps off the Station Beach pier while other young swimmers watch on Monday, July 24, 2023, in Kincardine, Ontario. Locals and tourists alike swam, ate ice cream and listened to the music as the sun sinks below the horizon of Lake Huron. This year, however, wildfire smoke in Canada diluted and obscured the sunset's glow.

The old I-70 Rocheport Bridge was demolished Sunday, Sept. 10, 2023, between Cooper and Boone counties. The demolition dropped close to 6 million pounds of steel into the Missouri River.

Sarai Buckins, 11, performs with The Dancing Divas during the March March parade on Friday, March 3, 2023, on Ninth Street in Columbia. “I really enjoyed doing that. It was really fun to get to really dance,” Buckins said. “I hope that [the crowd] enjoyed it.”

Lidia Myers, right, chants alongside other protesters on Friday, Sept. 15, 2023, at Jesse Hall in Columbia. “I have sat alongside my trans friends and peers who are scared for their future in this state. I satiate the hearings listening to parents cry and plea to allow this state to continue care to their children,” Myers said. “Trans Missourians belong here, and MU’s choice to discontinue their care will have lasting effects on the Columbia community.”

Members of the Missouri House of Representatives celebrate the end of the legislative session by tossing papers into the air on Friday, May 12, 2023, at the Capitol in Jefferson City. The session was marked by restrictions on gender-affirming care for young Missourians and the passage of the largest state budget to date.

May Hall, front, and Harry Castilow, back, share a tearful embrace after the City Council voted 6-1 to make Columbia a LBGTQ+ Safe Haven on Monday, Feb. 19, 2024, at City Hall in Columbia. “I have never cried with happiness, and I have wept in the past five minutes,” said Hall, who is a transgender woman. “I’m over the moon about it. I couldn’t be happier. And honestly, I desperately, desperately needed this win.”

In a sudden victory tiebreaker, University of Missouri's redshirt junior Brock Mauller defeats Iowa State University's freshman Paniro Johnson by pin on Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2023, at the Hearnes Center in Columbia, Mo. Members of their crowd jumped to their feet, cheering and moving in closer to see the action.

Za'dia Johnson, 15, waits for the music to start before performing her portion of The Dancing Divas' routine on Friday, Feb. 3, 2023, at SZN Portraits Photography in Columbia, Mo. Johnson was one of the original three members of the Majorette-style dance group. She said her favorite part about being a Diva is dancing and making new friends. "If you actually like dancing, you'll have a lot of fun while also working hard," Johnson said.

Stella Mann fixes her wig between drag performances on Saturday, Jan. 27, 2024, at the Dandy Lion Cafe in Ashland, Missouri. “There’s a lot of queer people probably who live here who don’t feel like they’re included,” said Ethan West, the performer’s name when he is not in drag. “So not only is bringing the drag here opening them up to that kind of community and letting them know that they’re loved and they’re appreciated, but also with the Dandy Lion, specifically, with the diversity that is within [the] Dandy Lion, it is amazing. So I feel like it is a good way to go out and let people know that they’re not alone.”

Caitlin Cunningham, left, and their partner Paul Rowden, right, dance together during the Muse Pole Fitness 11th Anniversary Student Showcase on Friday, Feb. 10, 2023, at The Blue Note in Columbia. “My piece was dedicated to and represented the progress of my relationship with my partner of 8 years,” Cunningham said. “He had never performed on stage before, or truly danced before, and he was incredible. The piece reflected our love and struggle and success over the years.”

Jeff Stack, an anti-death penalty advocate who helps coordinate the Mid-Missouri Fellowship of Reconciliation and largely organized the evening’s vigil for Raheem Taylor, stands for a period of silence on Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023, at the Boone County Courthouse in Columbia. Despite Taylor's claims that he was not in Missouri when the killings occurred, he was put to death Tuesday evening with 5 grams of pentobarbital.

“Raheem Taylor is a human being who has a right to life. He should be spared. We wish that the governor would intervene, but we think it’s really important to be a witness to what our state is planning in our name with our tax money,” Stack said. “It’s really important to remember them and just to realize that that great and terrible tragedy is not erased by erasing yet another human being. Enough murder, enough killings occur.”