Artist in Residence |
Artist in Residence ProgramIn 2015, Folk Alliance International launched an annual Artist in Residence (AIR) pilot to develop partnerships, foster cultural cross-pollination, and nurture artistic growth. To see the upcoming 2019 AIR program, please visit: folkconference.org/AIR. 2019: Twin Flames - HumanPROJECT: In collaboration with UNESCO for the International Year of Indigenous Languages, FAI invited Twin Flames to create an original piece that speaks to the importance of language, especially as it relates to identity, culture, and history. ARTIST: Twin Flames PARTICIPANTS: UNESCO Twin Flames is an Indigenous wife and husband duo (Jaaji, an Inuk Mohawk from Nunavik, and Chelsey June, Algonquin Cree métis from Ottawa). Touring the Arctic and North America, together they echo the voices of their ancestors and depict life on the land as they sing songs in English, Inuttitut and French. They have received top honors at the Canadian Folk Music Awards and the Native American Music Awards.
2018: Percussive Fingerstyle Guitar Acrobatics
ARTIST: Henry Nam PARTICIPANTS: the University of Missouri-Kansas City’s Math and Stat Department, sound and media arts students of the Kansas City Art Institute Henry Nam is a percussive fingerstyle acoustic guitar solo act following in the footsteps of Michael Hedges, Leo Kottke, Don Ross, and Preston Reed. Born on a US military base in the Republic of Korea, raised in San Francisco, Germany, Maryland, and Philadelphia and currently based in Washington DC, musician and autodidact Henry Nam is the product of an international, multicultural upbringing that manifests not only in his diverse musical styling but also in his attitudes about the role of the arts as a universal language able to help people of all backgrounds build meaningful connection and communicate constructively. 2017: Topeka Prison Project - Blues Behind Bars
ARTIST: Rita Chiarelli PARTICIPANTS: Rex Pryor (poet and retired Warden), Shannon Meyer (Warden: Topeka Correctional Facility), Inmates of the Topeka Correctional Facility Rita Chiarelli is an acclaimed award-winning Italian-Canadian blues musician, and a gifted performing songwriter with a soaring three-octave voice. Over the past five years she has released Cuore, a recording of traditional Italian folk songs, which won the World Music category at the prestigious Canadian Folk Music Awards; Uptown Goes Downtown Tonight, a highly acclaimed collaboration with the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra; and Music From the Big House, a documentary movie filmed in Louisiana, at Angola prison, which premiered in New York and LA. 2017: Poetic Justice - Brown Eyes in Blue
ARTISTS: Making Movies, Chato Villalobos PARTICIPANTS: Rex Pryor (poet and retired Warden), Sam Cline (Warden: Lansing Correctional Facility) Octavio “Chato” Villalobos is a celebrated 16-year veteran police officer with the KCPD. His pioneering work in community policing with the Westside Community Action Network has landed him praise and recognition with the International Association of Chiefs of Police. Also a writer, his poem “Brown Eyes in Blue” addresses the complex feelings and sometimes conflicting roles of being a hispanic officer during a contentious era of law enforcement’s relationship with minority communities. In 2016, his poem was recited in a public reading by Juan Felipe Herrera, the first Latino poet laureate of the United States. Making Movies is a Kansas City-based band founded by Panama-born brothers Enrique and Diego Chi, joined by brothers Juan-Carlos and Andres Chaurand. The band’s sound is based in Afro-cumbia rhythm, and their rich lyrical content is both poetic and political with the combined soundscape an effort to manifest the beautiful reality of a new America. Their sophomore album "I Am Another You" (produced by Steve Berlin of Los Lobos) will be released in 2017.
2016: Joe Crookston
Working with the education team of the Museum to access archived images, letters, and sound recordings over the months of January and February, Crookston has created a new composition inspired by time with this rare material. Working later on site with the Museum, an accompanying selection of images has been prepared to accompany the song.
2015: Brandy Zdan
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