Artspeak Radio

Artspeak Radio, Wednesday, March 25, 2026, 9am -10am CST, 90.1fm KKFI Kansas City Community Radio, streaming live audio www.kkfi.org

Producer/host Maria Vasquez Boyd artist/gallery owner Hugo Ximello Salido and Dr. Madeline Rislow, Curator/Sr. Manager of Learning and Engagement

DR. MADELINE RISLOW, Curator/Sr. Manager of Learning and Engagement, The National Museum of Toys and Miniatures- The National Museum of Toys and Miniatures, 5235 Oak Street, Kansas City, Missouri, is opening a new exhibition on March 28, 2026, titled Native Arts in Miniature.

This exhibition explores diverse tribal traditions, family heritage, and creative innovations expressed by Native American artists working in miniature. Video interviews and written interpretation will highlight artists’ voices discussing their artworks, techniques, and inspirations.

ABOUT THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF TOYS AND MINIATURES

The National Museum of Toys and Miniatures educates, inspires, and delights people of all ages by collecting, displaying, and interpreting toys and miniatures that illuminate diverse narratives and cultural heritage. Located on the University of Missouri-Kansas City campus, the Museum exhibits the world’s largest collection of fine-scale miniatures and one of the nation’s largest collections of historically significant toys on public display. For more information, call 816.235.8000 or visit www.toyandminiaturemuseum.org.

March 27: Native Arts in Miniature Opening Reception | The National Museum of Toys and Miniatures (audience: all)

April 22: Meet the Experts: Jim Swearingen | The National Museum of Toys and Miniatures (Kenner toy designer for Star Wars action figures) (audience: adults)

July 13-17: Art of the Imagination Summer Camp: Storybook Summer | The National Museum of Toys and Miniatures (audience: children, grades 3-6)

Toy & Miniature Museum is located at 5235 Oak St. KCMO www.toyandminiaturemuseum.org

HUGO XIMELLO SALIDO- Mexican American artist Hugo Ximello-Salido created a mural at the Consulate of Mexico in Kansas City. The work dedicated to highlighting Mexican roots and cultural identity, will be part of the Consulate’s Mural Program.

Born in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Ximello-Salido is a self taught multidisciplinary artist recognized for his unique ability to blend Mexican folkloric symbols with contemporary social themes. His work is distinguished by the incorporation of traditional elements such a La Catrina, musical instruments, resplandores (traditional Oaxacan headdresses) papel picado, and Talavera techniques, all reinterpreted through a modern lens in rich color, texture, and meaning.

Through his distinctive artistic approach, Ximell0-Salido has transformed the walls of one of the consulate’s offices, creating a mural that celebrates Mexican cultural heritage.

Ximello-Salido’s mural joins a growing collection created by artist Pedro Trueba, Vicente Medellin, Maurico Zuniga, and Giselle Garza- the latter mentored by Professor Juan Padilla Mayer to transform the consular facilities into a cultural space that honors the richness of Mexican art.

The official inauguration of the Consulate’s Mural Program, featuring Ximello-Salido’s work alongside all participating artists will take place in September 2026 during Mexican Independence Day celebrations in an event open to the public. This celebration will allow the community to experience the complete collection of murals that transforms the consulate into a vibrant space of Mexican art and culture.

Hugo Ximello-Salido is a multidisciplinary artist whose work explores the intersections of culture, identity, and language. His passion for art stems from a family of artists in Guadalajara, Mexico. His work has garnered international recognition and is part of permanent collections at educational and cultureal institutions throughout the United States. He is the creator of the acclaimed documentary project, MUXE: The Language of Art & Culture which explores gender fluidity in Oaxacan culture.

Artspeak Radio, Wednesday, March 18, 2026, 9am -10am CST, 90.1fm KKFI Kansas City Community Radio, streaming live audio www.kkfi.org

Producer/host Maria Vasquez Boyd talks with writer Linzi Garcia and Robert Honan, Chief CIL Services Officer, The Whole Person.

ROBERT HONAN, Chief CIL Services Officer The Whole Person (TWP) is a non-profit, consumer-controlled Center for Independent Living (CIL), led and supported by individuals with significant disabilities, including board members, staff, and volunteers.

Founded in 1978, with widespread grass-roots support, strong consumer control, and a diverse, professional staff. We are a passionate voice of empowerment and advocacy for all persons with disabilities. For 45+ years, we have been a leader in representing people with disabilities in the greater Kansas City area.

TWP connects people with disabilities to resources, supports independent choice, and advocates for community change.

For 45+ years, TWP’s advocacy, alongside local partners, has led to:

• More curb ramps across the metro area

• Increased accessibility in businesses, programs, and facilities

• Greater visibility of people with disabilities in the community

• Improved transportation options

• Enhanced media coverage and attitudes toward disability issues

We support individuals with physical, sensory, and mental disabilities through free programs for those with significant disabilities. We serve the following counties in Missouri: Cass, Clay, Jackson and Platte. We serve the following counties in Kansas: Johnson, Leavenworth and Wyandotte.

Social Media profiles: 

www.facebook.com/TheWholePerson

www.instagram.com/thewholeperson

www.threads.com/@thewholeperson

www.linkedin.com/company/the-whole-person/

www.youtube.com/TheWholePersonVideos

www.tiktok.com/@thewholeperson

The Whole Podcast (Spotify)

LINZI GARCIA comes from a beautiful family of Rocky Mountain artists. She moved to Kansas a decade ago to earn degrees from Bethany College and Emporia State University. She stayed in Emporia and now serves as the publicist and poetry editor for Meadowlark Press, and the Vice Chair of the Board of Directors for House of Morrow. She is the author of Thank You (Spartan Press, 2018) and Cravings (Meadowlark Press, 2025) and the co-author of Live a Great Story (Analog Submission Press, 2019) and While Away: Travel Poems (Spartan Press, 2022). Linzi is a recipient of a NextGen Under 30 Kansas Award. 

Pay attention: Linzi Garcia knows the recipe for a good poem—honesty, longing, and a bit of blood. In Cravings, Garcia boldly embraces the messiness of life, love, and growing older, day by day. The characters in Garcia’s poems are all flawed, and the better for it. They swallow their sins, break bread together, and toast to creation. Some of these poems are as sweet and warm as fresh-baked cookies at 2 a.m., while others turn up the heat. But never enough to burn you. Just enough to leave you hungry for more.

What readers are saying:

Cravings is a book of many hungers—of the foods desired at 2:00 a.m., of the places that are rich with memories, of the loves that are a holiday and of the loves that last and become a home. Linzi is talented at distilling so many moments to their most intimate details. She witnesses and listens at intersections, in bars, to police scanners and offers tender snapshots of moments that might otherwise have been overlooked. The world asks us to pay attention and these poems say yes.

—Traci Brimhall, Poet Laureate of Kansas (2023-26), Love Prodigal

Artspeak Radio, Wednesday, March 11, 2026, 9am - 10am CST, 90.1fm KKFI Kansas City Community Radio, streaming live audio www.kkfi.org

Producer/host Maria Vasquez Boyd welcomes Guest DJ Toni and music specially curated for this special program. Join us as we celebrate the hour with fun, conversation, and joy with one of KKFI's longtime supporter, DJ Toni.

Artspeak Radio, Wednesday, February 18, 2026, 9am -10am CST, 90.1fm KKFI Kansas City Community Radio, streaming live audio www.kkfi.org

Producer/host Maria Vasquez Boyd talks with artists Linda Lighton and Jeff Conners.

LINDA LIGHTON is an artist and activist living and working in Kansas City, Missouri. She is a passionate advocate for the arts both regionally, nationally and internationally, and she is committed to being creatively prolific and politically engaged on a daily basis.

Lighton has had more than 80 solo shows and has participated in more than 230 group exhibitions at museums and galleries in the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

Linda Lighton's work is in national and international collections in China, France, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Japan, Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan and Turkey as well as The Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO; Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO; Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence, KS; Ariana Museum, Geneva, Switzerland; Fule International Ceramic Museum, Fuping, China, the Yingee Museum in Taiwan, and Icheon International Ceramic Museum, Icheon, Korea.

Linda Lighton is a member of the International Academy of Ceramics. She is the founder and director of the Lighton International Artists Exchange Program, which has sent over 207 artists to 59 countries and the Arctic Circle.

In 2008, she was chosen for the Missouri Arts Award, and in 2011 she received the Award for Excellence in the Visual Arts and Education from the Kansas City Art Institute, where she graduated with honors in 1989. In 2016, Lighton received the Outstanding Achievement Award from the National Council for the Education of the Ceramic Arts. She is a member of the International Academy of Ceramics. Recently, Lighton completed two large commissions. The first, a 1% for the Arts program, involved producing a twenty-foot-long mural titled "Ode to the Tallgrass Prairie" for the new Kansas City International Airport. The second was a large chandelier titled "Luminous," installed in the Grand Salon at the Kansas City Museum.

Lighton is a fervent arts advocate and activist. She has worked on many boards in her community; helping to instigate the One Percent for Arts Program in Kansas City, and serving on numerous boards over the years: Young Audiences of Kansas City, Friends of Art, Nelson Atkins Museum, Review Magazine, Kansas City Ballet, and National Council for the Education of the Ceramic Arts, Kansas City Jewish Museum Board. She currently serves on the National Committee at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, and administers the Lighton International Artists Exchange Program.

On view now, Linda Lighton: Love & War, A Fifty-Year Survey, 1975-2025

On view Dec. 13, 2025 through May 3, 2026 December 13, 2025 - May 3, 2026

Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, 12345 College Blvd Overland Park, KS

Oppenheimer Thompson and Anonymous Galleries, First Floor

Linda Lighton: Love and War: A Fifty Year Survey, 1975–2025 (Hardcover) available now

www.lindalighton.com

JEFF CONNERS is a California / San Francisco Bay Area native who has spend his life immersed in the arts. His creative journey spans painting, piano, music composition, stand up comedy and theatre. As a member of the comedy group “Bartalk” in the 80’s and 90’s he had to opportunity to work with such people as Robin Williams, Whoopi Goldberg, Dana Carvey, Bobcat Goldthwaite, Kevin Pollak, Mark Pitta and many others. Bartalk performed in famous comedy clubs such as The Punchline, The Boarding House, The Holy City Zoo, Cobbs Comedy Pub and Tommy T’s. In theatre, Jeff has acted in and directed well over a 100 plays and musicals and in the 90’s was artistic director and founder of the New Earth Theatre, the San Leandro Community Theatre (now San Leandro Players) and the San Leandro Shakespeare Festival in the San Francisco Bay Area. These theatre groups were used as a vehicle to raise money for the San Leandro Public Library foundation and through the years raised well off 100K dollars. Jeff’s original show “The Angel of the Gutter” was performed off-Broadway in New York in 2000 at the Creative Place Theatre. He recently directed “Bullshot Crummond” at The Roaring 20 Gallery and Event space in Westport. Jeff is also an avid pianist and composer and has written the score to George Bernard Shaw’s “Androcles and the Lion”.

Now based in Kansas City, painting remains his deepest passion and has been a constant in his life since his youth. He is the Artist in Residence at the newly opened “Elevator” in North Kansas City. He is currently showing at 80 Santa Fe Gallery in Overland Park as part of their “Color” exhibit. “Color” runs through March 15, 2026. He will be featured at Mod Gallery in Kansas City in September and has a solo exhibition at Elevator, currently in the works slated for a May/June showing (dates haven’t been finalized as of this writing). He works in oil, acrylic and watercolor and features slices of city and urban life, cityscapes, landscapes and people.

jeffconners.art (website currently under construction)

https://artskcgo.com/artist/jeff-conners/

Instagram - @jeffconnersartstudio

Facebook – Jeff Conners Art

Artspeak Radio, Wednesday, February 11, 2026, 9am -10am CST, 90.1fm KKFI Kansas City Community Radio, streaming live audio www.kkfi.org

Producer/host Maria Vasquez Boyd welcomes poets Al Ortolani, Robert Stewart, & William Trowbridge.

Four prize-winning Kansas City area poets—Al Ortolani, Robert Stewart & William Trowbridge—will read poems and discuss the art of poetry on Artspeak Radio, KKFI-Fm 90.1, at 9 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026.  

Al Ortolani, a winner of the Rattle Chapbook Prize, has been featured in Garrison Keillor’s Writer’s Almanac, Ted Kooser’s American Life in Poetry, and George Bilgere’s Poetry Town. He was a recent recipient of the Bill Hickok Humor Award from I-70 Review. His first young adult novel was published by Meadowlark Books in 2023. Currently, Ortolani is a contributing editor to the Chiron Review.

Robert Stewart’s 4th book of essays, A Way of Happening, is due in spring 2026.  His latest of four books of poems, Higher, won the 2022 Prize Americana.  Outside Language: Essays (Helicon Nine Editions) was a finalist for the PEN Center USA Literary Awards, and winner of the Thorpe Menn Award.  He won a National Magazine Award while editor of New Letters magazine.  See Substack https://robertstewart42.substack.com/

William Trowbridge’s 11th poetry collection, Maintenance, came out from Spartan Press in mid-November, 2025. Over 550 of his poems have appeared in numerous literary magazines and in more than 50 anthologies and textbooks. He was Poet Laureate of Missouri from 2012 to 2016. For more information, see his website, wtrowbridge.net.

Producer/host Maria Vasquez Boyd talks with guests Elisabeth Kirsch, Kim Lindaberry, Vivian Torrance, Kat Dison Nechleba, and Susi Lulaki about their group exhibition, The Supreme Point, Thresholds of Emergence. Opening reception Friday, February 6 through March 27, 2026, at Leedy Voulkos Gallery, 2012 Baltimore, KCMO.

Artspeak Radio, Wednesday, January 28, 2026, 9am -10am CST, 90.1fm KKFI Kansas City Community Radio, streaming live audio www.kkfi.org

Producer/host Maria Vasquez Boyd welcomes Fringe Festival Director Audrey Crabtree with Bradley J. Thomas, and Charlotte St. Foundation Kimi Kitada, Tyler Galloway.

AUDREY CRABTREE & BRADLEY J. THOMAS

CHARLOTTE ST. FOUNDATION-The recently-opened exhibit, "stand up, fight back: designing an anti-racist movement for worker power" is on view at the charlotte street foundation. the exhibition tells the story of how thoughtful, sustained commitment to design for social change can become a force-multiplier that enriches the struggle for anti-racist, working class organizing. it features posters, banners, flyers, t-shirts, and other graphic ephemera, in addition to documentary videos and photos and oral histories from workers. the exhibition runs from now to feb 28. CSF is located at 3333 Genessee, KCMO.

i will also be running a 2-hour workshop on saturday jan 31, titled "let's design protest posters!"

other public programming includes "Archiving People’s History: A Panel and Conversation" on thursday, february 12, 2026 from 6:30–8 PM

tyler galloway is a graphic designer, professor, and Joyce C. Hall Chair of the Graphic Design department at Kansas City Art Institute. His primary research and practice interests focus on design for community-based social change through both client-initiated and designer-initiated work, which he pursues under his studio moniker, the new programme, alongside student collaborators. he brings 30 years of professional design experience and 20 years of teaching experience to his endeavors. tyler holds a BFA in graphic design from Missouri State University and an MGD from North Carolina State University. His work has appeared in several national and international political/social poster and art exhibitions and been published in the books “The Design of Dissent”, “Posters for the Planet”, “Graphis Poster Annual”, “Reproduce and Revolt”, in Communication Arts, and the Turkish socio-political design magazine “No Tasarim”. Coursework and student projects have been published in the book “Designing for Social Change” and the website “Design Ignites Change”, having won multiple grants through the latter. He has spoken locally and regionally on design for social change and was an invited participant in the LEAP symposium at Art Center College of Design. Design pedagogy papers have been presented at multiple AIGA national design education conferences, Typecon and the international MODE summit on motion graphics. But perhaps just as important, tyler loves riding bikes, punk rock, vegan cookies and being a husband and dad.

thenewprogramme.net

instagram

@thenewprogramme

Kimi Kitada is a curator based in Kansas City. She is the Gallery & Programs Manager at Charlotte Street, where she has worked since Fall 2020. Previously, she was Curatorial Assistant at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles in 2019-2020. From 2014 to 2018, she served as Public Programs & Research Coordinator at Independent Curators International (ICI) in New York.

She is currently working on a two-person exhibition of Cesar Lopez and Kiki Serna for the Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art in St. Joseph, MO, which opens on February 27, 2026. Additionally, she is co-curating a traveling exhibition for Independent Curators International, titled How to Make a Scene: Artist Run Midwest, which will debut in Fall 2026.

www.charlottestreet.org

Instagram:@charlottestreetfoundation

Artspeak Radio, Wednesday, January 21, 2026, 9am -10am CST, 90.1fm KKFI Kansas City Community Radio, streaming live audio www.kkfi.org

Producer/host Maria Vasquez Boyd welcomes poet, editor, essayist Huascar Medina.

Huascar Medina was born in Killeen, Texas and has lived artfully in Kansas for over two decades.

As a second-generation immigrant living in the Heartland, Huascar considers himself a New American exploring the boundaries between identity and location, focusing on cultural empathy, social cohesion, class structures, first-generation trauma, mental health, and internalized diasporic longing and belonging.

Huascar Medina served as the Poet Laureate of Kansas from 2019 to 2022 and became an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow in 2022. Medina has authored three books of poetry; Protest As Love Poem (Meadowlark Press, 2026) Un Mango Grows in Kansas (Spartan Press, 2020) and How to Hang the Moon (Spartan Press, 20019).

Medina’s forthcoming collection of essays, The Prairie Fook (Plainspoken Press, 2027), is a lyrical meditation on politics, class, and culture.

Medina is the literary editor for seveneightfive magazine, a staff editor at South Broadway Press in Denver, Colorado, and a contributing op-ed writer at Kansas Reflector . His work has appeared in The Flint Hills Review, Gasconade Review, Green Mountains Review, Inscape, Kansas Magazine, Latino Book Review, The New York Times, and other publications.

www.huascarmedina.com

Read his poems and profile at poets.org

Artspeak Radio, Wednesday, January 14, 2026, 9am -10am CST, 90.1fm KKFI Kansas City Community Radio, streaming live audio www.kkfi.org

Producer/host Maria Vasquez Boyd welcomes poet, actress, author Annette Hope Billings.

Annette Hope Billings is an author/actress from Topeka, Kansas where she is flourishing despite attempts by the "Midwest Bible Belt" to constrain her sassy inner muses. A registered nurse for thirty-eight years, she has concurrently been ablaze with a zeal for writing and theatre. To read more about Annette and keep track of upcoming publications and appearances, visit her website: anetfullofhope.net

Workshops- Annette has conducted numerous workshops highlighting her journey as writer while sharing her original work throughout the presentation. She also offers workshops on grief, hope, justice and joy, etc, that present poetry as a tool for maintaining resilience through difficult life events.

Poem-A-Grams- Annette’s theatrical experience enables her to provide a memorable way to help celebrate a loved one’s special occasion/life event, e.g., Valentine's Day, birthdays, anniversaries, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, etc… She is also available to write special tribute poems during times of bereavement.

Voice Overs- Known for her voice’s appeal, Annette is available to record audiobooks for authors, commercial and other audio projects.

Conference/Meeting Opener/Emcee- Annette, as an award-winning actress as well as a writer, can create and perform memorable openers for, and/or emcee, a variety of events.

Children Activities/StoryTeller- Annette enjoys working with school-age children and has taught poetry to children of all ages in formal and informal classroom settings. She engages children in poetry by involving them in the creation of their own poems. She is also available to attend children’s birthday parties to read/tell stories as a unique addition to celebrations

Artspeak Radio, Wednesday, January 7, 2026, 9am -10am CST, 90.1fm KKFI Kansas City Community Radio, streaming live audio www.kkfi.org

Producer/host Maria Vasquez Boyd welcomes producer/performer/educator Luke “Skippy” Harbur and artist/curator Tj Templeton.

Luke “Skippy” Harbur is a performer, producer, and educator whose business, musicbyskippy, creates live arts experiences for multigenerational audiences. Through beatboxing and other artistic skills, his work celebrates authenticity and combats social isolation. Over 75 published songs, nearly 1,600 tickets sold to original shows, and two life-saving surgeries continue his mission to promote the kind, goofy, and critical thinking artist living inside all of us.

Contact information for social media/website: @musicbyskippy on all social media platforms/www.musicbyskippy.com 

Upcoming event: "The Toxic Avenger: The Musical" at The Arts Asylum from Jan 30 to Feb 8, 2026. Tickets are available at theartsasylum.org.

Tj Templeton is an interdisciplinary artist and Kansas City native. His work has been collected for over 30 years nationwide and been featured in such outlets as The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, ArtMove Magazine, KC Studio Magazine, the Martin Scorsese screening room at the Tribeca Film festival, 21C Museum, and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. He is currently the artist-in-residence at the Bunker Center for the Arts, where he maintains his studio and curates the gallery’s inventory of over 400 works by local, regional, and international artists.

Currently, Templeton’s work is on exhibit at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Personal Best, a free exhibition celebrating six local artist-athletes whose dual pursuits put them at the top of their game. Through a variety of styles and media, their work reveals that true achievement is built on relentless commitment, turning everyday effort into continual growth. 

www.templeton-arts.com

www.bunkercenter.com