KKFI-FM radio interview on "Artspeak Radio" on Wednesday, Nov. 3, at noon

I'll be doing an interview on KKFI-FM (90.1) on "Artspeak Radio" with Maria Vasquez Boyd on Wednesday, Nov. 3, sometime between noon and 1. Here's the announcement. Listen if you get the chance at kkfi.org .

Artspeak Radio, Wednesday, November 3, 2021, noon – 1pm CST, 90.1fm KKFI Kansas City Community Radio, streaming live www.kkfi.org.

Producer/host Maria Vasquez Boyd welcomes Dr. Sarah Harmon President of Harmony Around the World, artist Susan Ferguson, and Edgar Galicia Executive Director Central Avenue Betterment Association.

DR. SARAH HARMON, President of Harmony Around the World, Harmony Around the World’s mission is to promote peaceful relationships between, and an educational awareness of diverse, and underserved populations across the globe through music, and to present compositions beyond composers’ and performers’ cultures in professional, educational, and social media settings.

First Nation Narratives November 25, 2021 The discovery of mass graves of indigenous children at “boarding schools” have shed a light on these institutions of assimilation and genocide.  First Nation citizens are the most underserved, overlooked, and misrepresented communities around the world.  We believe that the best weapon we have against this ignorance is education.  As such, we are releasing a video bringing awareness to American Indian musicians and their cultures.
 We will release an educational video on Thanksgiving: November 25th, 2021.  We will show accurate reflections of First Nation citizens on a day that often provides an incomplete, if not inaccurate portrayal of the first Thanksgiving, particularly of the event’s First Nation participants. Our goal is to connect with six American Indian musicians: Jerod Tate, William Harjo, Elexa Dawson, Tony Duncan, Joanne Shenandoah, and Kevin Locke.

Dr. Sarah Harmon, President of Harmony Around the World and Instructor of High Brass at Missouri Southern State University launched her non-profit in the Summer of 2020 as a way to program works from a diversity of composers and collaborate with musicians worldwide. She was inspired by the community connections musicians make with one another, and believes these relationships have the potential to make vital steps toward world peace. Harmony Around the World’s mission is to promote peaceful relationships between diverse and underserved populations across the globe through music. One of the primary focus areas is to present compositions by composers’ and performers’ cultures in professional, educational, and social media settings. Current projects include commissioning new works by Mexican composer, Eduardo Mendez, and a collaboration with midwestern nations based American Indian musicians on an educational video. Harmon’s outreach experience also includes teaching with the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory’s Musical Bridges program, which
seeks to bring lessons to underfunded schools and coordinating Eastern Kentucky University’s Children’s Gala concert in an effort to bring orchestral music to a younger audience.
Harmon is trained primarily as a classical musician and has performed with orchestras such as the Kansas City Civic Orchestra, Midwest Chamber Orchestra, Medical Arts Symphony, Interlochen Pit Orchestra, Lexington Community Orchestra, and Missoula Community Theater Pit Orchestra. Some of Harmon’s chamber ensemble experience includes the Fountain City Academy Brass Band, Arkansas Musicworks Brass Band, Interlochen Faculty Brass Ensemble, and Advocate Messenger Brass Band.
Harmon’s experience performing jazz includes performing in combos, big bands, funk bands, and Latin jazz orchestras including Los Subtropicales, Jazzitude, Power Play, and The Altruistics.
Harmon received her Doctor of Musical Arts in Trumpet Performance from the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory under the guidance of Dr. Keith Benjamin. She studied with Dr. Joseph VanFleet at Eastern Kentucky University, where she obtained her Master of Music in Trumpet Performance. Harmon’s undergraduate degree, a Bachelor of Arts in Music, was completed at Centre College under the direction of Vincent DiMartino.

www.harmonyaroundtheworld.com

SUSAN FERGUSON-Artist Susan Ferguson’s eco-art exhibition opens at Stocksdale Gallery on Nov. 13, 2021. This fall, Susan Ferguson will add her artistic voice and vision to the climate change/environmental issues fray at “We Are the Change,” an exhibition of eco-art at the Ruth E. Stocksdale Gallery at William Jewell College in Liberty, MO. An opening reception will take place from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 13.
The exhibition runs from Nov. 13-Dec. 18, 2021. The exhibition will feature Ferguson’s eco-art perspectives in an array of different media, including 2D and 3D fiber artworks, encaustic painting, collage, quilting and stitching. The exhibition will feature several oversized works. The artist will present an Artist Talk on Saturday, Dec. 11, at 10:30 a.m. at the gallery to talk about her
artworks and the use and reuse of donated, recycled materials in the making of her art. Several additional events are also planned during the exhibition, including a children’s story hour for children of the college’s faculty and staff, and a wire tree sculpture workshop for middle and high school students in the Liberty Public Schools.
All activities are free. In keeping with William Jewell College policies and practices, masks are required, and social distancing is expected.
The Ruth E. Stocksdale Gallery is open weekdays from 9 a.m.-6 p.m. It is located on the second floor of Brown Hall on the William Jewell College campus, 500 College Hill, Liberty, MO. Other visiting times may be arranged by appointment by contacting Nathan Wyman, gallery director
(wymann@william.jewell.edu). The exhibit is co-sponsored by the Liberty Arts Commission, the Transient Guest Tax and William Jewell College.

Ferguson is a self-taught artist. In addition to weaving, she engages in sewing, quilting, stitching, felting, collage, encaustic painting and fiber sculpture. Her goal for this exhibition is to offer people visual opportunities for reflection of their own connections and experiences related to the environment and to consider ways they can help to achieve environmental sustainability. In a creative field that has long emphasized a predictable form of utility, her intention as an artist is to create an unexpected aesthetic through texture and combinations and placement of traditional and unlikely materials.
Susan Ferguson holds two academic degrees in English (B.A. and M.A.). She worked for more than forty years in agriculture, journalism, writing, editing, marketing and teaching. In southern Arizona, during a hiatus from traditional employment, Susan discovered a passion for weaving. She lives in Independence, MO, where her exploration and experimentation with weaving, fiber arts and encaustic painting now consume much of her time. Susan is a member of the InterUrban ArtHouse, Kansas City Arts Coalition, Kansas City Fiber Guild, Weavers Guild of Greater Kansas City, Surface Design Association and Studio Art Quilts Associates. She is a recipient of a Rocket Relief Emergency Grant from the Andy Warhol Foundation, Spencer Museum of Art and Charlotte Street Foundation; and ArtsKC Regional Arts Council Inspiration grants in 2018 and 2019. She was a Fellow in the 2020 cohort of the Artist INC program of Mid-America Arts Alliance. Her work has been exhibited in galleries in Kansas City, MO; Liberty, MO; St. Louis, MO; Prairie Village, KS; Overland Park, KS; and Santa Fe, NM.

EDGAR GALICIA, Executive Director Central Avenue Betterment Association- Central Avenue Betterment Association (CABA) MISSION- Shall be to improve the Quality of Life and Economic Development of the Central Avenue Area and its Territory of Operation
VISION- This mission shall be accomplished by promoting; youth education, improving family structure and stability, promoting neighborhood enhancement and maintenance in addition to economic development.

Our method is to lead by example in promoting culture, facilitating entrepreneurship, and increasing business grouth within the association’s territory.

Event- Day of the Dead / Día de Muertos On Central Avenue November 6th, 2021
Day of the Dead (Spanish: Día de Muertos) is a Mexican holiday celebrated throughout Mexico, in particular the Central and South regions, and by people of Mexican ancestry living in other places, especially the United States. It is acknowledged internationally in many other cultures.

The multi-day holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to ask for the wellbeing of and remember friends and family members who have died, and help support their spiritual journey.
Prior to Spanish colonization in the 16th century, the celebration took place at the beginning of summer. Gradually, it was associated with October 31, November 1 and November 2 to coincide with the Western Christian triduum of “Allhallowtide”: All Saints’ Eve, All Saints’ Day, and All Souls’ Day.
Traditions connected with the holiday include building private altars called “Ofrendas”, honoring the deceased using “Calaveras”, Aztec marigolds, and the favorite foods and beverages of the departed, and visiting graves with these as gifts. Scholars trace the origins of the modern Mexican holiday to indigenous observances dating back hundreds of years and to an Aztec festival dedicated to the goddess “Mictecacihuatl” The holiday has spread throughout the world, being absorbed within other deep traditions for honoring the dead. It has become a national symbol and as such is taught (for educational purposes) in the nation’s schools. In 2008, the tradition was inscribed in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.
CABA 1303 Central Avenue, KCKS 913.281.9222

​CELEBRATION PROGRAM: Setup – 10:00 am

Face Painting – 11:00am – 6:00pm

High School Marching Bands – 12:00pm – 2:00pm

Art in the Park – 12:00pm – 9:00pm

Offrendas – 12:00pm – 9:00pm

DJ Music – 2:00pm – 4:00pm

Walking Catrinas – 3:00pm – 5:00pm

Live Music – 4:00pm – 6:00pm

Food & Vending – 12:00pm – 9:00pm

Parade – 6:00pm – 7:30pm
All fun ends at 9:00pm
​
www.cabakck.org
More info at www.dayofthedeadweekend.com

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