Wednesday, April 15, 2020, noon - 1pm CST, 90.1fm KKFI Kansas City Community Radio, streaming live audio www.kkfi.org Co-producer/host Mark Manning talks with artist/community activist Michael Vance Toombs, Ebony M. Johnson, and a surprise guest! MICHAEL VANCE TOOMBS is an accomplished painter, art activist, and founder and CEO of Storytellers Inc.- Artist Collective.  Mr. Toombs is a community leader and champion for young people and working artists in the Greater Kansas City area. His work has involved thousands of young people, and over 30 years of service in connecting art and community. Michael began as a young student with Matthew Monks at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. He furthered his study through classes at the Kansas City Art Institute and completed a business entrepreneurial course of study through Donnelly College, Kansas City, Kansas.  For nearly a decade Michael worked in the corporate world for GEHA Insurance helping to create the company's customer service department, handling 3500 calls a day with 75 customer service representatives. Michael left corporate life to develop his own business in the belief that, ”Art is a change-agent for society’s difficulties.”  Michael’s art form is “interactive community based art.”  You can see the murals Michael has coordinated…

‪Wednesday, April 8, 2020, noon -1pm CST, 90.1fm KKFI Kansas City Community Radio, streaming live www.kkfi.org‬ ‪Co-producer/host Mark Manning talks with Richard Blanco the 5th poet to read at a United States presidential inauguration and American poet, Flying Ketchup founder/poet Polly Alice McCann, and award-winning journalist Fally Afani. Richard Blanco’s mother, seven months pregnant, and the rest of the family arrived as exiles from Cuba to Madrid where he was born on February 15th, 1968. Forty-five days later, the family immigrated once more to New York City. Only a few weeks old, Blanco already belonged to three countries, a foreshadowing of the concerns of place and belonging that would shape his life and work. Eventually, the family settled in Miami, where he was raised and educated. Growing up among close-knit Cuban exiles instilled in him a strong sense of community, dignity, and identity that he’d carry into his adult life as a writer. Though possessed by a strong creative spirit since childhood, Blanco also excelled in math and the sciences. As such, his parents encouraged him to study engineering, believing it would ensure a more stable and rewarding career for him. He took their advice, earning a degree from Florida…

Wednesday, April 1, 2020, noon - 1pm CST, 90.1fm KKFI Kansas City Community Radio, streaming live www.kkfi.org Producer/host Mark Manning talks with Tim Miller from Venice Beach, California, Amy Farrand from Italy, and Lisa Cordes from Midtown Kansas City. At 12:00 Mark talks with Tim Miller, internationally acclaimed performance artist and gay rights activist. Tim has performed in such venues as the Yale Repertory Theatre, the Institute of Contemporary Art in London, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music. He has sold out shows from London to DC to Australia to Los Angeles. He addresses issues of gender, immigration, homophobia, and censorship. As one of the “NEA Four,” who successfully sued the federal government for violating their First Amendment rights when their funding was rescinded in the early 1990s, Miller has always played an important role in defending queer artistic expression on stage. Tim Miller's autobiographical explorations into identity, politics, and art through the lens of his own experiences lead to visceral, humorous, and poignant performances. Tim Miller is the author of Shirts & Skin, Body Blows: Six Performances, and 1001 Beds: Performances, Essays, and Travels. Tim Miller's newest book, A Body in the O,…

Wednesday, March 25, 2020, noon – 1pm CST, 90.1fm KKFI Kansas City Community Radio, streaming live www.kkfi.org Producer/host Mark Manning welcomes musician Noah Davis, musician Laurel Morgan, and Mid-America Arts Alliance Special Projects Specialist Cory Imig. In early 2019, Noah and the guys (Noah and Heavy Electric) began playing together as well as working on […]

Wednesday, March 18, 2020, noon - 1pm CST, 90.1fm KKFI Kansas City Community Radio, streaming live www.kkfi.org Producer/host Maria Vasquez Boyd welcomes Programs Director for the Kansas City Museum Paul Guiterrez, artist Anthony "AO" Oropeza, and KC Storytellers. PAUL GUITERREZ, Programs Director for The Kansas City Museum. The Kanas City Museum is implementing the following: Effective today, March 17, the Kansas City Museum at the Historic Garment District and the Historic Garment District Museum (800 and 801 Broadway locations) will be closed to the public through Saturday, April 4, 2020. Public programs, tours, events, and meetings will not be permitted until after May 15, 2020. We will work closely with our program partners to reschedule activities, and we will post new dates on social media and our website. The annual Derby Party hosted by the Kansas City Museum Foundation is rescheduled from Saturday, May 2, 2020 to Saturday, September 5, 2020. If you have questions about the Derby Party, please contact Programs Director Paul Gutierrez at [email protected]. We are proud of the preventative measures we are taking to protect against the spread of COVID-19. Thank you for your continued support and cooperation. Please take care of yourself and one another.…

Wednesday March 11, 2020, noon - 1pm CST, 90.1fm KKFI Kansas City Community Radio, streaming live www.kkfi.org Producer/host Maria Vasquez Boyd welcomes artist Jane Booth, artist/Director Mattie Rhodes Gallery, Jenny Mendez, The Volland Store owner Patty Reece, and artist Tori Johnson. PATTY REECE, The Volland Store-24098 Volland Road, Alma, KS 785-499-3616 Hours of Operation | Saturdays and Sundays 12-5 pm Always open by appointment | call 785-499-3616 and leave a message. The Volland Store opened in 1913 in the little railroad community of Volland and quickly became the social and cultural center of the ranching community that surrounded it. Today the former general store has been re-purposed as an art gallery and event center and serves once more as a gathering place for the community, both near and far. Located in a scenic valley in the Flint Hills, the Store is an award-winning space with good art and friendly conversation. Join the artists, writers, scientists, and poets who enrich and enliven our community. Petroglyphs of the Kansas Smoky Hills by Rex Buchanan, Burke Griggs, and Josh Svaty- Sunday, March 22, 2020, 2pm The authors will speak about their recently published book. Refreshments, book signing, Long before the coming of Euro-Americans,…

Wednesday, March 4, 2020, noon - 1PM CST, 90.1fm KKFI Kansas City Community Radio, streaming live www.kkfi.org Producer/host Maria Vasquez Boyd welcomes Director, Englewood Arts Michael Baxley, Executive Director, Englewood Arts Monte Short, President CEO-Truman Heritage Habitat for Humanity, Christina Leakey, and artist Teresa Cosgrove to the program. Englewood Arts is a new and innovative organization focused on creating a diverse and sustainable community in harmony with the arts. Our ultimate goal is to provide much-needed, affordable and sustainable workspace, housing and culturally diverse, community-based arts programming. Vibrant with activity and creativity, the Englewood Arts District will showcase the visual arts, performing arts and culinary arts while providing enrichment opportunities for the local and regional community. Englewood Arts will become a distinct destination spot that will also complement the historic and revitalized Independence Square. Strengthening Our Community Through Arts In 2019, the City Council voted unanimously to approve the sale of a three-story building to become the Englewood Arts Center. Once the Center’s programs are up and running, the organization will be self-sustaining through grants, rental income and other revenue-generating initiatives. A long-term goal for Englewood Arts will be to offer affordable housing though a low- interest, high-risk, loan pool…

Wednesday, February 26, 2020, noon - 1pm, 90.1fm KKFI Kansas City Community Radio, streaming live www.kkfi.org Producer/host Maria Vasquez Boyd welcomes KCAI President Tony Jones, writer Frank Lingo, Executive Director Patricia Williams, and Executive Artistic Director Sidonie Garrett. The second half of the program Sidonie and Patricia discuss the KCMO Public Budget Hearings - Arts Cuts event happening Saturday, Feb. 29 at 9am - 11:00am at Southeast Community Center 4210 E. 63rd St. KCMO. TONY JONES, KANSAS CITY ART INSTITUE PRESIDENT joined KCAI in December 2014. He is an internationally known arts administrator, broadcaster, educator, exhibition curator and historian of art, architecture and design, as well as a consultant on higher education and the arts. A citizen of both Britain and the United States, he was educated at Goldsmith’s College in London and the Newport College of Art in Wales as a sculptor, painter and art historian. He came to the United States for postgraduate study as a Fulbright Scholar. He was appointed president of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1986, serving in that capacity until 1991, when he took a position as director of the Royal College of Art in London. He returned to SAIC…

Wednesday February 19, 2020, noon - 1pm CST, 90.1fm KKFI Kansas City Community Radio, streaming live www. kkfi.org Producer/host Maria Vasquez Boyd welcomes photographer & Zim's Sauces creator Todd Zimmer, musician/part owner Wise Blood Bookseller Dylan Pyles, and artists/muralists Rodrigo Alvarez & Issac Tapia. TODD ZIMMER-I have been photographing live music since 1988. Beginning in Upstate New York and continuing to Kansas City in 1997. My work has appeared in Bass Player Magazine, Spin, Present Magazine, the Kansas City Star, the Pitch, 72 Musicians movie, on 98.9fm the Rock.com and 96.5fm the Buzz.com, on numerous CDs, posters and press kits, also in the soon to be released movie "Metalhead". I graduated from the State University of New York at Oswego in 1991 with a degree in Technology Education and have worked as a fine woodworker, taught photography and graphic design, and held an evolution of positions in graphic design for Huhtamaki Americas since 1991. The creation of zim's: I grew up in Buffalo, New York, ground zero for wing sauce and have tasted the best at the Anchor Bar, Duff's and Sorrentino's. Cooking wings, pizza and beef on weck at Sorrentino's ignited a smoldering passion for flavor. Later, while cooking…