Wed. Sept. 9, 2020, 12noon – 1pm CST, 90.1fm KKFI Kansas City Community Radio, www.kkfi.org Producer/host Maria Vasquez Boyd welcomes poet/writer/educator TL Sanders and artist/writer/performer Rick Stassi join us for today’s special program, Estoy Aqui - I am Here. Estoy Aqui – I am here This pandemic has changed us. Uncertainty exists. We asked writers, poets, artists, performers, musicians, and the creative community to check in with us by sharing their thoughts, fears, success, beliefs, outrage, politics, creativity, etc. through recordings. Our contributors respond with poetry, short stories, music, or monologues, that capture the pain, humor, angst, joy, frustration, optimism, of their current mood. TL SANDERS Poet AKA Àtwist – The Language Artist, is a modern-day renaissance man who lives to build minds and loves to body build. He speaks French. He plays bass. He is a cage fighting martial artist. He educates. Give him a stage, he articulates. Lend him an ear, he motivates. As Paper Birch Landing Art Gallery’s 2019 Poet in Residence Recipient, a National Writing Project Teacher Consultant, a current curriculum director, and former elementary, middle, and high school English teacher (with 16 years of teaching experience), Poet embraces the value of our shared stories. Whether…

Wednesday, September 2, 2020, 12noon - 1pm, 90.1fm KKFI Kansas City Community Radio, streaming live www.kkfi.org Producer/host Maria Vasquez Boyd welcomes Katie Kline Director Greater Kansas City Writing Project, educator/artist Michael Toombs, Crissy Dastrup KCMO 4th District Legislative Aide, Shannon Thompson Story Center Program Manager. #artpseakradio #kkficommunityradio

Wednesday, August 26, 2020, 12noon - 1pm CST, 90.1fm KKFI Kansas City Community Radio, streaming live audio www.kkfi.org Producer/host Maria Vasquez Boyd welcomes writer/poet Annette Billings, artist/educator Vania Soto, and educator/poet Janie Harris. ANNETTE BILLINGS is an African-American Kansas poet, playwright, actress and nurse, who now offers by sharing her poetry and prose. She has written two collections of poetry, one-act plays and numerous short stories. Annette’s readers have dubbed her "the Maya of the Midwest," a moniker she allows with all due humility and gratitude. Known for her performance delivery style, she has been received enthusiastically in many diverse venues. Her first book of poems, A Net Full of Hope, garnered the Topeka, Kansas, 2015 ARTSConnect Arty Award for Literature. Her second book, Descants for a Daughter, is a collection of affirmations/meditations and very timely. Annette's third and newest work, Just Shy of Stars, is now available! www.anetfullofhope.com VANIA SOTO Kansas City Local artist Vania Soto was born in Juarez, Mexico and began selling paintings at age 13. Inspired by proud cultural icons such as Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, she connects with her by heritage by maintaining influential traditions from this rich past. Building on this theme, Day…

Wednesday, August 19, 2020, 12noon – 1pm CST, 90.1fm KKFI Kansas City Community Radio, streaming live audio www.kkfi.org Producer/host Maria Vasquez Boyd welcomes musician/producer Nik D Douglas, American filmmaker, photographer, writer, and director Jason Piggie, and Urban Designer with Street Smarts Design DuRon Netsell. Djet – Fusing music recording programming and acoustic elements, Djet unveils […]

Wednesday, August 12, 2020, 12noon - 1pm CST, 90.1fm KKFI Kansas City Community Radio, streaming live www.kkfi.org Producer/host Maria Vasquez Boyd presents a special program with guests Gunard Polite, Annette Billings, Philip Blue Owl Hooser, and Mark Manning. Estoy Aqui - I am Here This pandemic has changed us. Uncertainty exists. We asked writers, poets, artists, performers, musicians, and the creative community to check in with us by sharing their thoughts, fears, success, beliefs, outrage, politics, creativity, etc. through recordings. Our contributors respond with poetry, short stories, music, or monologues, that capture the pain, humor, angst, joy, frustration, optimism, of their current mood. GUNARD POLITE, President One Kansas City Radio-One Kansas City Radio unites the multicultural voices in the Kansas City Urban Core through programming and community services that entertain, educate, inform and inspire. One KC Radio will bring together the African American, Latino, and other underrepresented ethnic and cultural voices in Kansas City with music, culture, and information. We will provide information and a forum to deliver community services, job opportunities, health education and other messages that will serve our community and listeners. Through our programming and broadcast we will give a new and positive voice to the young…

Wednesday August 5, 2020, 12noon - 1pm CST, 90.1fm KKFI Kansas City Community Radio, streaming live www.kkfi.org Producer/host Maria Vasquez Boyd talks with artist/educator Lita Sandoval and writer/educator Lucero Denisse Valderama. LITA SANDOVAL I am an adornment artist with an eye for beauty and style inspired by my New Mexico heritage, music, vintage fashion, and the serendipitous mess of art supplies on my table. I have been making jewelry since I was a little girl, playing with beads and colorful telephone wire. I find inspiration in simplicity, letting my materials – handmade and beautifully patterned papers, glass beads and rhinestones, pieces of vintage jewelry and found objects – guide and inspire my work. My unique decoupage and beaded jewelry is an expression of my passion for sumptuous materials and my desire to make the world a more beautiful place to live. I also am exploring making other crafty pieces such as mixed media ornaments and vignettes. I studied small metals and jewelry making at the University of New Mexico. I am a teaching artist for various art centers and museums and sell my work on Etsy and various craft shows in Albuquerque. Prior to COVID-19 I had an idea rolling…

Wednesday, July 29, 2020; 12noon - 1pm CST, 90.1fm KKFI Kansas City Community Radio, streaming live www.kkfi.org Producer/host Maria Vasquez Boyd talks with Cerbera Gallery owner Philipp Eirich, artists Susan Kiefer and Stephanie Lanter, also Katie Mabry van Dieren owner of the Strawberry Swing KC. SUSAN KIEFER-Making things makes me happy—from paper dolls and dolls clothes in childhood to costumes and scenery for my dance group as a young adult to artwork as the activity that sustains me. Drawing has been the starting point of every project, which led to a BFA and MFA in Printmaking from the California College of Arts in San Francisco, and a woodcut artist book in the permanent collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. Introduced to painting in a graduate seminar with John Zurier, I was seduced by the immediacy and directness of painting. I abandoned my training as a printmaker, and the relief prints and artist books that held my attention for the first several years of my art career. With painting now my primary medium, I prefer working in oil for the slow drying and richness of color. Themes and subject matter of my artwork has varied over the years…

Wednesday, July 22, 2020, noon - 1pm CST, 90.1fm KKFI Kansas City Community Radio, streaming live www.kkfi.org Producer/host Maria Vasquez Boyd welcomes musician/host-producer/writer Barry Lee. BARRY LEE, Musician/DJ/host/producer/writer-I started with KKFI in April of the station’s first year of broadcasting! I am the host of “Signal to Noise,” a free-form radio show that accepts and explores all genres of music. Each show is different. Sometimes, I even have a guest co-host. I like to put emphasis on artists and songs not often heard on the radio. I also do concert shows wherein the artists have an hour to play and talk and do what they want without interruption. I have had many national and local guests, including Townes Van Zandt, Kevin Ayers, the Iguanas, Tom Russell, Del McCoury, Rosie Flores, Ian Matthews, and many others. I have also had many local artists play live on the show. I have long believed in community radio. It is the purest form of radio-grassroots and locally based. Community radio is all about people with a deep knowledge and passion for music being given the freedom to express themselves on the air. I program for people with wide, eclectic tastes who like to explore…

Wednesday, July 15, 2020, 12noon - 1pm CST, 90.1fm KKFI Kansas City Community Radio, streaming live audio www.kkfi.org Producer/host Maria Vasquez Boyd talks with CEO/founder Latino Arts Foundation Deanna Munoz, poet/activist Terry Sanders, and Fringe Festival Executive Director Cheryl Kimmi. DEANNA MUNOZ, CEO/President/Founder of Latino Arts Foundation has supported the arts all her life, herself wanting to be an artist, but due to events in her life she unfortunately was never able to fulfill her dream. Now, for the last 10+ years, she has been working hard and with no funding to create a no cost space for the arts and community engagement for our aspiring artists who otherwise would not be able to attend or afford such programming. Latino Arts Foundation is a nonprofit organization created to bring forth the fiercely authentic voice of the underrepresented artists through their diverse stories, cultures and beliefs creating an artist based space OF their community FOR their community. Latino Arts Foundation envisions a community that values artists from diverse cultural backgrounds. Our organization fosters artistic passion and builds capacity within Kansas City’s creative sector. Our programs work to honor cultural identity and heal historic inequities. Components of Latino Arts Foundation are the…

Wednesday, July 8, 2020, 12noon - 1pm CST, 90.1fm KKFI Kansas City Community Radio, streaming live www.kkfi.org Producer/host Maria Vasquez Boyd chats with Toy/Miniature Curator of Collections Amy McKune, President/Co-found No Divide KC Stacy Busch, and Kansas Poet Laureate Huascar Medina. AMY McKUNE Curator of Collections, Toy and Miniature Museum- Bridging the Gender Divide: Toys that Build STEM Skills The National Museum of Toys and Miniatures (T/m) unveils a new exhibit Wednesday, July 15 to coincide with the museum’s public re-opening from the COVID-19 shutdown. Bridging the Gender Divide: Toys that Build STEM Skills offers a historical look at how toys helped children develop the skills that contributed to success in STEM-based careers, and how the advertising of these toys has changed over time to reflect cultural values. From chemistry to construction, toys have prepared generations of kids to pursue careers in STEM fields. Discover how these toys, once marketed primarily to boys, have evolved to encourage all children through play to explore science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. “Playing with these toys helps children develop skills, such as spatial intelligence, that contribute to their success in STEM-related careers,” said T/m Curator of Collections Amy McKune. “The exhibit includes toys made…