• January 6, 2021
• 0

Editor’s Letter, January/February 2021

The new year brings positive thoughts as the country prepares to welcome a new president, and a vaccine promises an end to the cultural depredations of the pandemic. With the announcement of the first group of panelists, there is great cause for optimism about the art to be commissioned for Kansas City International Airport. The […]

Alice Thorson Read More

• January 6, 2021
• 0

Arts News: Jazz Age Lives on at Lonnie’s Reno Club

Sometimes, it seems that history is made when ingenuity, adversity and art intersect. At the beginning of the 1930s, during the early years of the Great Depression, Kansas City continued to work. Thomas Pendergast, the legendary mayor/mobster, allowed jazz clubs to openly sell alcohol despite prohibition. Kansas City became known as “Paris of the Plains.” […]

Harold Smith Read More

• January 6, 2021
• 2

In Memoriam | Lou Marak (1930-2020): A Remembrance

Tall and rangy, Lou Marak was a man of few words, which inevitably hit their mark. “He could really shoot the zingers,” his longtime friend, artist Jane Booth, said in a recent interview. Marak’s superb line drawings of people, landscapes and animals were equally spare and to the point.

Elisabeth Kirsch Read More

• January 5, 2021
• 0

“London Williams & Izsys Archer: In Truth, Black Angels,” Haw Contemporary

The riveting installation “London Williams & Izsys Archer: In Truth, Black Angels” at Haw Contemporary in the West Bottoms is angelic by virtue of its emotional accessibility and vulnerability. At the same time, it stirs “good trouble” by inviting the viewer to engage in its dialogue on the overlapping issues of race, gender, sexuality and […]

Harold Smith Read More

• January 5, 2021
• 0

Singer-Songwriter Karrin Allyson Headlines Rescheduled 40th Folly Jazz Series

Jazz instrumentalists are known for taking a melody and running with it — and often taking the listener to places far more mesmerizing and memorable than the source material. The same may be said of vocalists.

Calvin Wilson Read More

• January 5, 2021
• 0

Making Songs and Lyrical Love: How the Folk World Will Connect This Year

The lights were low, the cocktails exquisitely made in a cozy New Orleans hotel bar. This was a year ago. A singer I admired launched into one of those lyrical parlor tricks: Toss out some words and she’d improvise a song on the spot. The small audience complied. I don’t remember most of the words […]

Steve Paul Read More