Shinique Smith and Stargazers
Born in Baltimore and now living in Los Angeles, Shinique Smith is no stranger to Kansas City, having exhibited her work at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in 2017.
This month, she returns to the metro area with new work to beguile viewers at the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art on the Johnson County Community College campus through July 31. Her exhibit, Stargazers, reflects the artist’s ongoing engagement with “the graceful and spiritual qualities of the written word and the everyday,” says Smith. It also encompasses many media, including photography, video, sculpture, monumental canvases, and performance.
Shinique Smith will give an artist talk, accompanied by a reception, on May 5.
The exhibit is free, no tickets required, but the artist talk requires an RSVP.
The Art of the Wish
What happens when two Hallmark creatives decide to spend their sabbatical asking elders what their wishes might be for themselves, their families, their friends, the world? And what happens when the artists give form to those wishes?
The result is the thought-provoking, move-to-tears The Art of the Wish, now exhibiting at the Leedy-Voulkos Gallery in the Crossroads. Andy Newcomb and Marn Jensen interviewed more than 200 older adults across the country, then transformed their stories into vignettes made from ephemera: old letters, postcards, cloth scraps, photographs, discarded toys, junkyard metal, and more. One memorable and evocative collage was made from a woman’s boxes of letters and postcards that her kids didn’t want. When this exhibit first debuted privately at Hallmark in 2017, it resonated with viewers as well as the Center for Practical Bioethics.
Watch The Art of the Wish on YouTube and you’ll get a taste of the impact it has, staying with you for quite a while.
On May 12, the Center for Practical Bioethics will hold a benefit at the gallery.
Admission is free for the exhibit at Leedy-Voulkos Gallery in the Crossroads through May 28.
JRupi Kaur, the World Tour
With over 4.5 million followers on Instagram, Rupi Kaur defines the term “instapoet” with her short, sometimes controversial, poems. Published by Kansas City’s own Andrews-McMeel, of course this poetic phenom would include our town on her world tour.
Born into a Punjabi family in India, Kaur moved to Canada when she was four. She didn’t learn English until grade school. Through her short but compelling poems in books that ride The New York Times bestseller lists, she gives voice to women’s experience of violence, abuse, love, loss, and survival.
On May 18, she returns to the stage at the Arvest Bank Theatre at the Midland with more short poetry, humor, spoken word, music, and compelling spoken-word artists from the audience whom she invites to perform with her.
The Music of Queen
Familiarity breeds—delight. Sometimes it’s a double pleasure to go to a concert in which you already know the music.
In collaboration with the Kansas City Symphony, the Virginia-based Windborne Music group takes the concept of a tribute band playing another group’s rock music to another level. Windborne has also toured with a program of Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, and Rolling Stones music played with orchestras across the country.
This 16-song program features hits such as Bohemian Rhapsody, Under Pressure, and We Are the Champions along with lesser-known songs. Vocalist Brody Dolyniuk channels Freddie Mercury and Jason Seber leads the orchestra.
The ensemble performs at Kauffman Center from May 20 through 22.