Charlotte Street Foundation

The Kansas City Electronic Music and Arts Alliance opens its fifth season with visiting performing and composer Joo Won Park’s Strange Sounds in a Familiar World.

Performance: Saturday, September 24, Doors open 7:30pm, Starts at 8:00pm
Admission: $10 or Students at $5
Venue: La Esquina, 1000 W. 25th, KCMO 64108

On this concert, Joo Won writes, “With the current state of music technology, a musician can perform electronic music without the use of synthesizer or traditional instruments. One can design his/her virtual instrument in the computer and process any sound, live on stage. The ability to produce and manipulate sounds in realtime helps electronic musicians to improvise more freely, develop new performance practice, and reach wider audiences.” Joo Won will perform live pieces that use realtime computer processing, designed, programmed, and composed by himself.

Get all the info in the press release.

On Friday, August 19, 7pm, Charlotte Street hosts the Black House Improvisors’ Collective’s most ambitious performance event to date at La Esquina, 1000 West 25th Street, KC MO 64108, . Exemplifying new directions in jazz in Kansas City, this free event concludes Black House’s second year and eighth new music workshop as part of Charlotte Street’s Urban Culture Project Studio Residency Program as City Center Square.

The evening will include performances by Hominid Quartet, Project H, and Phonologtronic (three of Black House’s most recent workshop’s participants’ own music groups). Each will play a short twenty minute set before the BHIC performs at 8:25 p.m. The event also features a new sculptural installation by Charlotte Street’s Urban Culture Project Studio Resident Christina Dostaler.

Read full press release.

Mother Trucker 2: Ride On
La Esquina / 1000 West 25th, KCMO
Performances July 15 through August 1:
Fridays, Saturdays, & Mondays at 8pm; Sundays at 6pm
Tickets: $20
Written and directed by David Wayne Reed, Mother Trucker 2 is the second installment (following Mother Trucker, 2004) in the lowdown tale of widow Ruby Lee Jenkins and her crippled pre-teen, Teddy Bear, grappling with a new life on the road after the untimely trucking death of husband and father, Jerry Lee Jenkins. It is both homage to and parody of the trucker movie adventures of yore.

This is the first return of a Late Night Theatre show since LNT closed its doors in early 2007. Mother Trucker 2: Ride On stars Ron Megee, Kimberely Queen, Gary Campbell, Darryl W. Jones, Shannon Michalski, Ashley Otis, Cody Wyoming and David Wayne Reed.

Tickets are $20. Order online here or call Central Ticket Office, 816.235.6222. Tickets also available at the door (cash only, please.)

David Wayne Reed is a founding member of the late Late Night Theatre where he appeared in over 20 shows playing over 50 roles. He was voted Best Actor: Reader’s Choice and Best Trouper (for work in LNT) in the Pitch Weekly in 2000 and Best Actor/Actress in 2008. Reed is a 2011 Arts KC Inspiration Grant recipient, a 2011 Charlotte Street Generative Performing Arts Award nominee and a Resident Artist at the Fishtank Performance Studio.

Charlotte Street Foundation’s Urban Culture Project hosts is final Third Friday Art Downtown event until Fall on the evening of Friday, June 17, 6-9pm. All free and open to the public, the evening features open studios at three locations (featuring many new artists!) plus ongoing exhibitions at Paragraph and Project Space.

At City Center Square studios, 1100 Main, 5th floor: Composer/musician Matt Otto and guests will present original compositions at 8pm, followed by a performance by choreographer/dancer Leralee Whittle at 9pm, who will be presenting excerpts from PARTS. Visual artists are: Anthony Baab, Terry Campbell, John Davis Carroll, Christina Dostaler, Andrew Erdrich (new!), Misha Kligman, Jenni Mc (new!), Carmen Moreno, Frank Norfleet, David Overholt (new!), Clinton Ricketts (new!), Sean Starowitz, and Cheryl Toh.

The evening includes Open Studios at Urban Culture Project’s two other artist studio venues: Town Pavilion, 1100 Walnut, 6th floor (enter on 12th, between Main and Walnut): Brandon Barr, Diane Burchett, Luke Firle (new!) Andrew Lyles (new!), Katherine O’Hara, Phil Shafer, Jeff Tackett, Neil Thrun (new!), and Waseem Touma (new!); and pARTnership Place, 906 Grand, 13th floor: Katie Ford (new!), Erika Lynn Hansen, Cory Imig, Paul Anthony Smith, Nicholas Naughton, Julie Malen, and Luke Rocha.

Plus Swailing: Lee Emma Running at Project Space, 21 East 12th Street,  and Plenty of Action, No Control: Phil Shafer & Miguel Rodriguez at Paragraph, 23 East 12th Street.

Read press release with full details!

Download map of studios and galleries here.

It’s All Yours is a collaborative, event-based exhibition that explores the Westside community around la Esquina (1000 West 25th Street KCMO), celebrating a spectrum of creative interests among neighbors and businesses. The exhibition includes artists and neighbors in the programming of the event series, andwill take participants to new places in the area, introduce them to local residents, and highlight a number of interesting things that are happening in the neighborhood. Regular gallery hours are Fridays + Saturdays, 12-5pm, plus the following special events, all free and open to all.

Celebrate Mom! Saturday, May 14, 2-5pm – hosted by Mattie Rhodes Art Center. If Mother’s Day flew by, take the afternoon to spend time with your mom enjoying free snacks and refreshments, making fun take-home crafts for the whole family, and other pampering surprises for mom.

Game & Workshop Night Led by Alta Vista Charter Middle School Students, Friday, May 20, 6-9pm - with students teaching a variety of activities from nail art to video games and soccer moves, plus free snacks and refreshments and maybe a movie. 

Gardening Day at Switzer Neighborhood Farm and Westside Community Garden, Saturday May 28, 12-4pm - Learn the basics of growing edible gardens, raising chickens, and collecting rainwater to use for the garden. Meet at la Esquina at noon; garden is at the corner of 20th and West Pennway, just across from the Public Library. Dress to be outside in the dirt!  

Westside Boulevard Brew Night! Friday, June 3, 5-8pm - Boulevard Brewing has created a beer that is based off one of the brewer’s experience of the Westside neighborhood. Pancho Luna, a homebrewer and volunteer at Boulevard, has created two ‘beer portraits’ of people… (Felix Pacheco and Pat Zamora) who are a part of the Westside neighborhood community. These beers will be unveiled and served for free to gallery visitors for one night only.

Generation Ginger launch, Friday, June 10, 8pm-midnight - Generation Ginger’s launch celebrates the integration of Indian heritage into todays world. Ritu Nanos, a cultural education consultant, explores a question that gets to the root of cultural identity: “Where are you from?” The evening’s journey begins with a brief lecture introducing the topic and further illustrates the beauty of cultural integration by using music, dance and visual imagery in a collaborative story-telling of the Indian mythological story, Prahalad, while also inviting guests to participate in hands-on activities related to Indian culture.

Read more.

On Thursday, April 21, 8pm at la Esquina, 1000 West 25th Street KCMO, MOVE: the company presents Sold Doubt Suite & Other Works, featuring choreography by Vancouver-based dance makers Josh Beamish & Olivia Thorvaldson.

This mixed evening of work is headlined by Sold Doubt Suite, an excerpted version of Beamish’s most recent full-evening work. Sold Doubt employs the Vitamin String Quartet’s instrumental covers of No Doubt’s Greatest Hits. With high-octane movement, and a witty sense of theatricality, it is a study of the enormous influence pop culture has on our daily lives. The program will also feature Beamish’s new creation Allemande, a work that just premiered at the Joyce SoHo in New York.  Rounding out the program are two intimate, abstract solo works Inheritance, choreographed and performed by Josh Beamish and burnt, choreographed by Olivia Thorvaldson for company star Heather Dotto.

Tickets are $20 General Admission/$15 Students/Seniors, available at the door or in advance through www.ticketweb.com.

Read full press release.

All free and open to the public, Charlotte Street’s Third Friday Art Downtown April 15, 6-9pm is a walkable, edible, performance-full evening of art, with open studios at three locations plus special one-night-only dining-related activities in conjunction with exhibitions at UCP’s Paragraph and Project Space. Highlights include:

At CITY CENTER SQUARE, 1100 Main, 5th floor: LIVE MUSIC PERFORMANCES by BLACK HOUSE IMPROVISORS’ COLLECTIVE from 7-8:15pm, including Improv Sliced Four Ways, a new collaborative work with 940 DANCE COMPANY, plus LIVE MUSIC BY HOMINID featuring Hunter Long, 8:30-9pm.  In addition, Open Studios by 25+ visual artists at City Center Square, TOWN PAVILION (1100 Walnut, 6th floor) and PARTNERSHIP PLACE, 906 Grand, 13th floor.

The evening also includes a Third Friday Smorgasbord at Paragraph, 23 East 12th Street, 6-9pm, in conjunction with The Dining Room Project exhibition on view, including:
Andrew William Erdrich: Red Food, Yellow Food, Blue Food – an artistic, edible serving of organic mystery mash exploring the essential, aesthetic, and manufactured facets of contemporary food;
Aaron Storck: The Wizard’s Salad – in the persona of his alter ego, the Wizard, artist Aaron Storck presents a new centerpiece, delivers a poem (7pm), and serves a salad;
Alberto Aguilar: Mole (sauce) – All Ingredients at Hand – Visiting Chicago-based artist Alberto Aguilar discusses the history of Mexican Mole and presents 50 of the possible Mole ingredients as he prepares the sauce in the gallery. In addition he will be creating a sound work that will incorporate visitors to his station in the space.

Plus Over Again: Alison Brady & Sarah Knobel on view at Project Space.

Read press release with full details!

Watch interview with studio resident Paul Smith

Charlotte Street Foundation’s Urban Culture Project is pleased to partner with the Kansas City Jewish Museum of Contemporary Art (KCJMCA) to present The DIning Room Project, a multifaceted project serving as a platform for the exploration of issues of hunger, sustenance, consumption, public health, sustainability, cultural symbolism within various traditions, and food and the meal’s usefulness as vehicle for communication and creative expression.

As a partner and collaborator on this project, Charlotte Street’s Paragraph gallery (an Urban Culture Project venue) will be transformed into a site for research, installations, conversations, and a diverse range of activities, events, performances, presentations, and meals.  This Dining Room Project: Potluck Smorgasbord begins with an opening reception on March 18, 6-9pm, featuring several one-time only offerings. In addition, it will serve as a colleciton site for Harvesters. Click here for a press release specifically related to the exhibition at Paragraph.

New programming will be featured every week, including off-site tours, dinners and excursions. Click here for a full schedule (in progress), and watch for updates as well as new documentation of activities each week.

The KCJMCA Espten Gallery at Village Shalom’s exhibition,The Dining Room Project: Art, Food, and the Ritual of Eating opens Sunday, March 20, 2-4pm. A catalog/cookbook  produced by KCJMCA, will document the whole project and feature recipes and texts by artists, curators, and food writers.

Read this press release for more about the whole project.

View archives of past Dining Room Project events and gallery wall texts

Paragraph Gallery hours are Wednesdays, Fridays & Saturdays 12-5pm and Thursdays 11am-6pm.

Presented within the context of the exhibition Humanature, now showing at La Esquina, Ballads is a Kansas City Electronic Music & Arts Alliance recital of music for voice and digital audio that features colortura soprano Bonnie Lander. The concert is Monday, March 14, 8pm (doors at 7:30) at Esquina (An Urban Culture Project Venue),  1000 W 25th Street. $10 ($5 Students) at the door.

Based out of Philadelphia, PA and classically trained, Lander performs a wide range of contemporary music in a wide variety of spaces. Most recently, she performed with the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society under the baton of Leon Fleisher and as a participant in the Yellow Barn Kurtág Residency studying with soprano Susan Narucki. She recently completed an Artist In Residence at the <fidget> space and is a founding member of the chamber opera company “Rhymes With Opera.” In 2010 Bonnie co-created the experimental quintet Q-1 which is featured regularly throughout the Philadelphia area in various formations. Lander is the only person to have twice received the Phyllis Bryn-Julson Award for the Commitment to and Performance of 20th/21st Century Music. Visit bonnielander.com or www.kcema.net for more.

Read full press release.

 Charlotte Street’s Urban Culture Project hosts an art-packed Third Friday Art Downtown event the evening of Friday, February 18, 6-9pm. All free and open to the public, the evening features open studios at three locations plus two exhibitions on view at UCP’s Paragraph and Project Space. Open Studios offers the chance to meet our Urban Culture Project Studio Resident artists, view recent work and work in progress, and get a behind the scenes perspective on these artists’ working processes. GUIDED WALKING TOURS to the STUDIOS will leave from Paragraph gallery, 23 East 12th Street, at 6:30 and 8pm. Maps of the studios will be available at Paragraph, sign boards will be placed at each studio building, and hosts at each location will guide visitors up to the studios.

Read more.