Charlotte Street Foundation

Mythmakers, opening Friday, November 20, 6-9pm at Paragraph, 23 East 12th, embodies the youthful, make-your-own-fun, do-it-yourself-and-together spirit of the Kansas City art scene. Organized by artist/curator Megan Mantia, the densely packed exhibition will showcase a cross-section of emerging artists who place themselves at the center of their work, constructing mythic personas and fantasy narratives that fuse autobiographical aspects with illusions of grandeur, typically with a sizeable dose of humor thrown in as well. Featured artists are Drew Bolton, Spencer Brown, Cody Critcheloe, Kyle Devine, Ariel Hart, Hooliganship, Lamano, Dustin Maberry, Rah! Booty, Leone Anne Reeves, Elisha Stetson, Ryan Tacata, Jaimie Warren, and Ariel Williams.

While expressed through diverse media and formats, this personal mythmaking frequently involves performative elements, which this exhibition will emphasize. Opening night will feature “scheduled activations of personalities and installations,” says Mantia, who also notes that the collaborative nature of many of these artists’ work will encourage audience participation. Read full press release.

An exhibition-related website has been created at www.myth-makers.org

In collaboration with Grand Arts, CSF’s Urban Culture Project presents My Barbarian’s Broke People’s Baroque Peoples’ Theater at la Esquina, 1000 West 25 Street, on November 14, 8pm. My Barbarian is a collaborative of LA based performers who bring theater, art, music and video together to make site-responsive works that often include collaboration with local artists. Such projects have been presented in New York City, Trento, Italy, Cairo, Egypt and Vilnius, Lithuania, resulting in works that take a celebratory and critical look at cultural difference, identity and the fine art/entertainment divide.

For Broke People’s Baroque Peoples’ Theater at la Esquina, My Barbarian is collaborating with selected local performers, who will complete a Master Class during the week leading up to the performance. The subject of the project is survival through economic hardship. The free public performance on November 14 will take the form of a variety show and pageant, including original material by My Barbarian as well as songs, dances, sketches, speeches and scenes work-shopped over the course of the week.

This project is a component of “Ecstatic Resistance” a group show curated by Emily Roysdon (New York and Stockholm) on view at Grand Arts November 13-January 16, which includes works by  Sharon Hayes (New York), Jeanine Oleson (New York),  A.L. Steiner (New York), Matthew Lutz-Kinoy (Amsterdam), Dean Spade (Seattle), Craig Willse (New York), Ian White (London), Yael Bartana (Tel Aviv and Amsterdam), Ulrike Ottinger (Berlin) and Adrian Piper (Berlin). The exhibition at Grand Arts, 1819 Grand, opens Friday, November 13, 6-9pm, with additional events and symposium November 14, 1-4pm. Read full press release.

Installation Operettas: Moon Bears and Sister Wives is a series of two unique performances conceived and curated by composer, musician, performer, and sculptor Mark Southerland, a 2008 Charlotte Street Generative Performing Artist Award Fellow.  Performances take place October 23 (”Dream Arc”), 8pm and November 6 (”Banquet Boat”), 8pm & 10pm, at Urban Culture Project’s la Esquina, 1000 West 25th Street, KCMO. Admission is $10 at the door.

This experimental, narrative-driven, two-part multimedia extravaganza will blur the boundaries between genres and disciplines, showcase technical brilliance, challenge perceptions of jazz music, and create an immersive real-time experience. Involving an expansive and diverse group of highly accomplished musicians, visual artists, and other performers, the events will unfold in operatic fashion as stories told through a dramatic mix of instrumentals, voice, props, lighting, sculptural elements and artful backdrops.

Dream Arc, Oct. 23,  will feature special guests Helen Gillet, a highly accomplished cellist and vocalist from New Orleans, and Sait Arat, a master at the Darbuka and recent resident of Istanbul.  For Banquet Boat, Nov. 6, they will be joined by Brian Haas, a modern jazz giant on piano and founder of Tulsa’s Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, and Annie Elicott a very talented jazz vocalist, also from Tulsa OK. Other performers and artists may include: Jeff Harshbarger, Shay Estes, Brad Cox, Arnie Young, Dave Ford, Ashley Miller, Emily Moore, Beniah Leusckie, Kent Burnham, Scott Johnson, Ruby Hanson, Jake Johannes, Matt Tady, Joy Stempleman, Shawn Hansen, Margaret Gordon, Ryan Gale, Jade, Laurel Birdsong, Jori Sackin, Laura Ellen Frank, Ari Fish, Peggy Noland, Stewart Losee, Peregrine Honig, Chris Bell, and many more. Read full press release.   Listen to Mark Southerland with Gina Kauffman on KCUR-FM.  See article and photos in Ink.  See feature on Southerland in KC Metropolis.

CALL and RESPONSE is a series of two multidisciplinary performative events organized collaboratively by Charlotte Street Foundation’s Urban Culture Project and the American Jazz Museum, generating from the desire to bring artists from different media, genres, communities and backgrounds together to share, inspire one another, and build new audiences. This two-part, two-location series spotlights a mix of writers, spoken word poets, jazz musicians, electronic musicians, and composers.  CALL and RESPONSE participants are writers/poets Robert Baumann, Glenn North, Shavonne “Queen” Standifer, Kynan Ramsey, Faith Scott, and Jordan Stempleman; the Kansas City Electronic Music and Arts Alliance; and the contemporary jazz ensemble Synergy.

The first event takes place on First Friday, October 2 (reception at 7pm, performance at 8pm, free) at UCP’s la Esquina, 1000 West 25th. It will specifically take the idea of “Call” as inspiration, while the second event, on Third Tuesday, October 20 at the Jazz Museum’s Blue Room, 1616 East 18th (doors open at 7pm, performance at 8pm, free) will relate directly to the notion of “Reponse.” Both evenings will include solo pieces by each of the performers as well as collaborative efforts.  Read full press release.

PERFORMANCES: July 24, 25, 27, 31 + August 1, 3, 7, 8, 10 – all 9pm
LA ESQUINA / 1000 WEST 25TH
Tickets $15; Doors Open at 8pm; Seating at 8:30pm.
Purchase tickets online at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/71885

In 1979, 20th Century Fox released, The Rose starring Bette Midler, in her first feature film. The film, which loosely portrayed a Janis Joplin-like character, earned her an Oscar nomination. With an authentic rock score, the musical film, directed by Mark Rydell and nominated for four Academy Awards, has reached a cult status.

In 2009, Ron Megee directs Spencer Brown as “The Rose” in the live stage adaptation of the film featuring an incredible live band, the high-energy rock score from the film, and an ensemble of some of Kansas City’s finest talents. Curated by Chadwick Brooks, The Rose features a cast including David Wayne Reed, Kipp Simmons, Dana Nicholson, Corrie Van Ausdal, Kimberely Queen, Emma Taylor, and live music directed by Cody Wyoming, with Chris Meck, Mike Meyers, Jeff Harshbarger, and Ken Lovern

Click here to read the Kansas City Star review by Robert Trussell

CSF/UCP and Azteca de Greater Kansas City are pleased to partner to present the second annual Comunidad/Community art exhibition at UCP’s la Esquina. This large group show, featuring works by a diverse array of approximately 40 Kansas City area artists, is curated by Jenny Mendez, Chairperson of Azteca’s Guild of Latino Fine Arts and Director of Mattie Rhodes Art Center.

The exhibition opens on June 5, 6-10pm, in conjunction with the third annual Westside Block Party, co-sponsored by Azteca, CSF/UCP, and C&G Construction. The event, which drew a diverse cross-section of more than one thousand visitors last year, will  feature live outdoor music and dance performances, low rider cars, authentic Mexican cuisine, Boulevard beer, and other surprises. This free, family friendly event takes place on the block of West 25th Street just north of Southwest Boulevard, and in the parking lot in front of la Esquina at 1000 West 25th Street. Visits are encouraged to bring folding chairs! Read full press release. We are currently seeking SPONSORS for this event. Click here for sponsorship information.

A Comunidad/Community gallery talk with artists and curator Jenny Mendez is set for Wednesday, June 10, 6:30pm at la Esquina.

See photos from the event!

CSF’s Urban Culture Project presents a solo exhibition by Kansas City based artist Teri Frame, opening at Project Space, 21 East 12 Street, on Third Friday, April 17, 6-9pm, and running through May 7. The opening will include a live performance by the artist at 7:30 pm, which will be videotaped and exhibited in the gallery for the duration of the exhibition. Frame will present a public lecture about her work and influences at Project Space on Thursday May 7, 6pm.

Frame will present work from two recent and ongoing series, which center on the human body and explore mnemismus, the notion that ancestral memory is stored within the body, and can be retrieved psychosomatically. In her Beauty Marks series, Frame arranges images of invasive birthmarks into recurring patterns. By applying rules of proportion, symmetry and pattern to dermal “imperfections,” the artist examines the Western body politic and probes the sublime space between the beautiful and the grotesque. Frame’s performance and related/resulting sculptural objects stem from another series, in which the artist employs raw clay masks and “prosthetics” as a means for altering her body.

Read the full press release. Read Kansas City Star review. View photos of this exhibition.

STREAMING LIVE!!!

from

LA ESQUINA / 1000 W 25th, Kansas City, MO

May 8, Noon - May 9, Noon [view performance schedule]

On May 8, 2009, beginning at noon, Kansas City based artist Jason Dixon will attempt to complete the most performance art pieces ever enacted by a single person in a single day. Clad in competitive swimming gear and acting through his alter ego, Tito, Dixon  plans to re-create a selection of seminal performance art works of the past, from Bruce Nauman’s “Bouncing in Corner” to Vito Acconci’s “Turn On,” and  Theme Song,” to Paul McCarthy’s “White Line.”  This unique 24-hour event will take place at CSF’s Urban Culture Project venue, la Esquina, 1000 West 25th Street, Kansas City, MO from noon on May 8 to noon on May 9. The public is invited to this free performance, which will also be streamed live and accessible online at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/the-most-performative-piece-ever

In the spirit of competition, Dixon also hopes to earn recognition in the Guinness Book of World Records. Though  he acknowledges that many performances have extended longer than 24 hours, his feat will be  to complete as many performances with “provenance” as possible within a 24-hour time limit.   Read complete press release. Listen to KCUR’s feature on Jason Dixon.

KCAI Student Attempts _Most Performative Piece Ever_.mp3

Urban Culture Project presents Jutting and Swerving, an evening of new dance works by Jane Gotch and Tiffany Sisemore at La Esquina, 1000 West 25th Street, KCMO, 64108, Friday and Saturday, May 1st and 2nd at 8pm.  Doors open at 7:30 pm. Admission is $10 at the door; $8 for students and seniors.

The evening features Still Within, a new work choreographed by Jane Gotch set to music by The Clogs, Zoe Keating, Four Tet, and The Notwist. Four dancers weave in and out of group, solo, and duet arrangements, with movements that range from stop motion to dynamic and driving, as physical and spatial relationships and the interplay between external and self are explored. Tiffany Sisemore creates a euphoric environment within her newest piece, Now We Are A Coda, through the melding of dance movement, color movement, and sound movement.  The dance is an open narrative created in response to the eclectic music of Animal Collective and the vibrant video work of Daniel Colman. Using vignettes of movement bound by a quirky sensibility, Now We Are A Coda encompasses oscillating moments of calculated pandemonium and lulling stillness to produce a stage of nonsensical reality.

This performance is supported by Charlotte Street Foundation, ArtsKC Fund, and Kansas City Young Audiences.  Read the full press release. Read article in Present Magazine.

Kansas City Electronic Music Alliance returns to Urban Culture Project’s la Esquina, 1000 West 25th Street, on Saturday, April 11, 8 pm (doors open at 7:30; $5 suggested donation),  for a one-night concert of live electronic music and video, featuring music for bass clarinet and electronics, homemade instruments, and video of Kansas City’s unused and reclaimed industrial space.  Included will be performances by Brad Baumgardner, Michael Miller, and Scott Blasco. Music by Brad Baumgarnder, William Lackey, Jen-Kuang Chang, Richard Johnson and Christopher Biggs, Kyong Mee Choi, and Adam Hardin.

The Kansas City Electronic Music Alliance (KCEMA) was founded in 2007 to promote electronic and experimental music of all types and genres across the Kansas City area.  More about KCEMA.

Read full press release.