Time for weekend picks from KC Studio editor Alice Thorson! This is your last weekend to see Kansas City Ballet‘s production of the family classic Peter Pan. Tonight, Worlds Otherwise Hidden, featuring work by three international artists, opens at the Kemper and runs through September. Friday and Saturday, Ensemble Ibérica presents Sol y Flor, a collaboration between the Mexican marimba quartet Sol de Chiapas and Mireya Ramos, leader of the Latin Grammy-winning mariachi group, Flor de Toloache. Friday night, the American Jazz Museum presents bassist Tyrone Clark and the Blue Room. And Saturday night, help DIFFA KC raises funds for HIV/AIDS programs at PRISMATIKC. For more vents this weekend, visit Kansas City’s most comprehensive arts calendar at kcstudio.org/events.
Peter Pan
May 11, 2018 – May 20, 2018
Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts
“Second star to the right and straight on ‘til morning” – J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan
It’s the classic family adventure for those who never want to grow up! Witness the magic of Peter Pan as he flies into the Darling family nursery, convincing Wendy, John and Michael to join him for the adventure of a lifetime in Never Never Land, his enchanted home. The troublesome Tinker Bell, the Lost Boys, their nemesis Captain Hook and a hungry crocodile all help bring J.M. Barrie’s fantastical tale to life. Peter Pan makes its delightful Kansas City premiere with world premiere choreography by Artistic Director Devon Carney and a soaring score by Carmon DeLeone, performed live by Kansas City Symphony.
Worlds Otherwise Hidden
May 17, 2018 – September 2, 2018
Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art
Worlds Otherwise Hidden features the work of three international artists who interpret the complexities—both beautiful and challenging—of cultures shaped by migration, immigration, displacement, and exile. Nevin Aladağ (b. 1972), Kimsooja (b. 1957), and Nari Ward (b. 1963) combine and transmute specific objects, designs, and symbols from divergent cultural contexts in their video and sculptural installations. They explore issues of fractured geography, creating new space for dialogue and revealing worlds otherwise hidden.
Born in Turkey and based in Berlin, Nevin Aladağ employs practicable objects such as carpets, wire, and instruments in her two- and three-dimensional works and video installations that engage purposefully with meditations on cultural heritage and identity. She harmonizes patterns, materials, and sounds of varying origins through symmetry, rhythm, and symbiotic balance to reveal an underlying connectedness between individual and collective histories.
Korean-born, New York–based artist Kimsooja synchronizes public and private identity and experience as she brings attention to the potency of everyday objects and actions, and the memory and narrative therein. Using designs, icons, and colors from all of the world’s national flags, without hierarchy or political prejudice, Kimsooja’s installation To Breathe—Zone of Nowhere creates a visual canopy where national differences exist on an equal plane.
Jamaican-born Nari Ward employs found objects, which imbue his works with a tactile and visceral relationship to both history and the real world. His sculpture and video works in this exhibition reveal messages and meaning through recurring forms that change over time and in different geographic locations. Ward’s references include urban space, performance and the body, the dynamics of power and politics, ideas of migration and movement, and vernacular traditions in his native Jamaica and where he lives and works in New York.
Sol y Flor
May 18 & 19, 2018 @ 8:00 pm | $20 – $25
Musical Theater Heritage
A collaboration between the Mexican marimba quartet Sol de Chiapas and Mireya Ramos, leader of the Latin Grammy-winning mariachi group, Flor de Toloache.
Mireya Ramos – vocals, violin
John Currey – marimba, percussion
Sam Wisman – marimba
Laura Lee Crandall – marimba
Katie Garcia- marimba
Fedra Cooper Barrera – vocals
Michael McClintock – guitars
Jordan Shipley – guitars
Beau Bledsoe – guitars
Tyrone Clark
May 18, 2018 @ 8:30 pm | $10
American Jazz Museum – The Blue Room
In a musical career spanning nearly 40 years, Tyrone Clark, born in Chicago, has played professionally since he was eighteen. Although adept in a variety of musical genres, Clark’s concept and interpretation of playing is stylistically best described as rooted in the Kansas City jazz tradition. Described by a fellow musician, Clark is one of the few who impeccably delivers that style. He is a “full” bassist and always right there – “just when you need him.” His sure drive and sense of rhythm and melody impress audiences and musicians alike.
Such proficiency has placed Clark on stage and in studio alongside such talents as: Author Prysock, Hank Crawford, Eddie Harris, Benny Golson, Cyrus Chestnut, Nicholas Payton, Milt Jackson, Billy Taylor, Max Roach, Kevin Mahogany, Luqman Hamza, Lisa Henry, Ahmad Alaadeen, Ronnel Bright, The Pete Eye Trio, and The Madden Brothers.
Along with Cyrus Chestnut and Nicolas Payton, Clark was among the musician featured in the 1997 Robert Altman production of “Kansas City,” the soundtrack of the movie, and the follow-up extended release, “The Music of Kansas City.” In addition to a number of pop and gospel recordings, Clark’s jazz studio work includes accompaniment for vocalist Lisa Henry and saxophonist Ahmad Alaadeen on their respective releases. Additionally, Clark has toured Japan, Europe and throughout the United States.
Photo by Larry Kopitnik.
DIFFA Showcase PRISMATIKC
May 19, 2018 @ 7:00 pm – 11:00 pm
La Villa
DIFFA KC supports the prevention of HIV and AIDS by funding education and awareness programs in Greater Kansas City. We seek to arrest the spread of HIV in our community.
Shine your light, show your true colors and join Kansas City’s vivid community of artists, makers, entrepreneurs, philanthropists, donors and doers. Help us turn an ordinary night into a spectacular event at our silent auction party to help DIFFA fund HIV/AIDS programs. Join us for Bids, Booze & Bites.
