beautiful ashe: memoirs of a sweet black boy & other poems

This audiobook project will make available a poetic memoir that speaks to the difficulties of growing up as a Black male on the East Coast of the United States. It addresses the homophobia, sexism, and classism that runs rampant in this country in brutal and vulnerable realism. This poetry is meant to bolster the resolve to continue towards (r)evolution, and addresses the contradictions and counterrevolutionary aspects of the self.

Bench by the Road Stories: The Stories of the Bench by the Road Project

The Toni Morrison Society’s Bench by the Road Project has placed benches and accompanying plaques at 32 sites around the world memorializing people and events from African American and African diasporic history.  The Society plans to create a digital archive documenting the histories of each of these sites, including audio and video recordings with individuals in the communities where each Bench was placed.

BLINK!

This documentary storytelling project shows how classical music in urban communities inspires intuitive movement and value. It describes how classical music creates instantaneously powerful movements and leaders through interdisciplinary dialogue around the arts, history and sciences. Interviews and storytelling will illustrate the influence of classical music and fine arts upon past, present and modern movements.

Building Interdisciplinary Stories with the Integrated Arts Research Initiative at the Spencer Museum of Art

Each academic year, the Arts Research Integration (ARI) at the Spencer Museum of Art organizes an inquiry that encompasses a large spectrum of practitioners across the arts, sciences, and humanities.

Free State Story Slam

For 11 years, the Free State Story Slam storytelling series has had a home at the Lawrence Arts Center. The monthly Story Slam provides storytellers an opportunity to tell true stories in front of a live audience.

Heartland Makers Collective: Digitizing the Wak’o Mujeres Phu Nu Womxn Mural Project: Stories of Kansas Women of Color

The Wak'o Mujeres Phu Nu Womxn Mural Project: Stories of Kansas Women of Color, nearly eight feet tall and half a city block in length, is a project for women of color, by women of color, to empower women of color. The mural was based on over twenty oral histories conducted by the Women of Color Makers Collective. These oral histories will now be transcribed, digitized, and shared with the public in the form of podcasts and an online digital…

Police Brutality Song

This music video will tell regional stories of police brutality. The song describes the beautiful life and dreams of a young Black man whose life is taken too soon by police in his neighborhood. It speaks to the resilience, fear, and loss deeply felt by Black people each time a new hashtag is birthed. The content is gentle and sensitive, so that audiences of various ages (3rd grade and up) have enjoyed and understood it.

The Queer Narratives Festival

The Queer Narratives Festival is an annual performing and visual arts festival highlighting the Kansas City LGBTQ+ community. By prioritizing the LGBTQ+ community, it offers a safe space for artists and audiences to express themselves fully. The Queer Narratives Festival is one of its kind in presenting the highest quality of LGBTQ+ artists while showcasing art forms that are not often invited in traditional art spaces.

Trading Fours: An Oral Exchange on Jazz Musical Influence and Biography

The American Jazz Museum’s permanent exhibition features four prominent icons, Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong and Charlie Parker. Each of these icons center jazz as an American experience born of creativity, innovation, and black culture.