ARTSPEAK RADIO with BOIBOY, A La Mode, Jordan Stempleman, & Ben Payton

Maria talks with performance artist BOIBOY, musicians Jesica Poell and Clayton DeLong of A La Mode, poet/educator Jordan Stempleman, and KKFI Social Media Tech, Ben Payton.

BOIBOY is a Kansas City Native. Who got their start in the KC art community will working with MYARTS (Metropolitan Youth Art and Technology for Students). They recently graduated from the KCAI Fiber Program and are currently a Charlotte Street Foundation studio resident. Their work tends to address issues related to dissociation, idealization, and identity, in a playful oversaturated and over stylized manner. Often their installations reference their catholic upbringing as well as nostalgia for an alternative reality. They are heavily influenced by film, set design, and narrative structure which is seen in the orchestration of a space, and the consideration as to how the audience will interact with the installation. Since graduating they have worked on installations for J Ashley Miller’s Echosis Opera, ElectoSexualual Halloween, and TheKemper Gala After Party to name a few. You can find them every Saturday at Peggy Noland’s Shop on West 18th street. On Instagram @BoiBoy2000, or their website Boiboy.com.

A La Mode is an authentic jazz band built upon Kansas City’s rich heritage of swing and blues.”Though it’s been years since these giants ruled the scene (Charlie Parker, Count Basie and Coleman Hawkins), the Kansas City sound lives on. Kansas City-based jazz and blues group A La Mode builds upon that heritage and adds their own playful spin that is classic-meets-contemporary.” –TheRecordKC.com. “Led by classically trained guitarist Clayton DeLong and enchanting songstress Jesica Poell, A La Mode takes the authentic smooth, bluesy and improvisational Kansas City jazz style and blends it with Latin-Brazilian, French and gypsy jazz.”,”You’ll think you have been transported back in time”- -The Record KC Magazine. Marvin Gruenbaum of the Kansas City Symphony on jazz fiddle, and world renowned salsa band leader Miguel “Mambo” DeLeon on congas, completes A La Mode sound pulling at your heart strings and leaving your skin tingling. A La Mode has also been known to feature guest artists such as Kansas City jazz legends Steve Rigazzi on upright bass and Rod Fleeman on guitar. A La Mode performs all of the old favorite jazz standards along side a few modern tunes with jazz flavor.

Jesica Poell, lead vocalist of Kansas City jazz band A La Mode, has studied classical voice for 8 years. She attended one year at Stephens College in Columbia, MO, pursing a degree in Musical Theatre Performance. She returned to Kansas City at age 22 to start her career as a working musician and has been in the entertainment biz ever since. Don’t let her small size fool you, this pint sized singer can pack a punch! Jesica has performed at prestigious venues such as Carnegie Hall, Arrowhead Stadium, The Plaza Art Fair, The National Cattle Congress, to name a few.

Clayton DeLong was born in Poway, California in 1986. Raised in Kansas City, Missouri, Clayton began playing the violin at age 12. After receiving a guitar for Christmas at age 16, Clayton immediately fell in love. Avidly pursuing a career as a guitarist, Clayton enrolled himself at The University of Missouri Kansas City, Conservatory of Music. Working toward a degree in jazz guitar, Clayton studied under Kansas City greats such as Rod Fleeman, Danny Embrey, Doug Niedt, Michael Pagan and Bobby Watson. He graduated on the Dean’s list with a Bachelor of Music degree in 2009.
Using the knowledge he gained in college, Clayton has been a professional guitar instructor for six years and performs live music regularly. Clayton has performed and toured in many different bands from the Kansas City area. To name a few, El Robozo De Maria, Latin rock, the Junkadelic Funk Stars, an improvisational funk band, and numerous other jazz bands around Kansas City. Currently, Clayton is the lead guitarist for the country rock bands 6 Degrees West and River Town. Clayton also co-leads a jazz band of his own, A La Mode and plays with the jazz fusion group, Rob Foster and Dudes.

www.alamodejazz.com

Jordan Stempleman is an American poet. Born in Kansas City, Missouri, Stempleman earned a B.A. in fiction from Columbia College Chicago (where he won the Academy of American Poets, Lannan Prize for Poetry), and a Master of Fine Arts degree in poetry from the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop (where he was a Leggett-Schupes Fellow). He co-edits (with poet Nicholas Manning) the Continental Review, one of the longest running online literary magazines devoted to video poetics, and curates A Common Sense Reading Series. He is the author of eight collections of poetry including Wallop which was published in 2015 by Magic Helicopter Press. He lives in Kansas City, Missouri and teaches at the Kansas City Art Institute. editor of The Continental Review, a video-only forum for www.jordanstempleman.tumblr.com

Ben Payton, KKFI volunteer, joins us to talk about the importance of social media marketing; Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc.

Social media often feeds into the discorvery of new content such as news stories, and “discovery” is a search activity. Social media can also help build links that in turn support SEO- Search Engine Optimization. It is the process of getting traffic from the “free,” “organic,” “editorial” or “natural search results on search engines. (searchengineland.com)

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