ARTSPEAK RADIO with Kat Husk, Samantha Slupski, & ArtsKC

Wednesday Sept. 27, 2017

Host/producer Maria Vasquez Boyd talks with painter/sculptor/photographer Kathryne Husk, poet/writer Samantha Slupski, and ArtsKC.

Kathryne Husk is an award winning and nationally exhibited artist. She was the recent subject of the short documentary “Kathryne: Uncensored”, and her artwork and poetry has been published in various literary journals. Kathryne’s activist work has lead to numerous lectures and presentations on Intersectionality and issues facing the disability community, while her current focus is bringing awareness to the lack of accessibility within the Kansas City arts scene.​
In my current series, I intend to initiate a dialogue about issues facing the Persons with Disabilities community through the use of mythological and contemporary symbolism and the female form. By incorporating symbolic elements of struggle in my figures, my art serves as a form of activism by functioning as a voice for myself and others within the disabled community.
Inspired by feminist revolutionaries, iconography, and the political elements of street art, my work explores cultural ideas of female nudity, and the empowerment that is emblematic in nude representations of the disabled. While my figures have a poetic vulnerability, my work has an overarching narrative of strength in the face of oppression. My intention is to break down the barriers of how disabled bodies are viewed in contemporary art and in society.
​
www.kathrynehusk.weebly.com

Samantha Slupski is a 23-year old poet and mental health advocate. She currently serves as the Slam Master for Kansas City Poetry Slam, Executive Director of Poetic Underground, and a board member for Fountainverse, the small press poetry festival in Kansas City. She is an ARTSKC Inspiration grant recipient, a competitor in Texas Grand Slam 2016 and 2017, and was published through EMP Press in January 2017, as well as various online journals. Her main focus is using the power of poetry to save lives. She feels it is so often that we are left alone in this world, and poetry gives us the chance to reconnect, relate, and heal. She believes poetry can save lives because it saved hers.

www.samanthaslupskipoetry.com

ArtsKC – Regional Arts Council was founded in February 1999. ArtsKC was started as a result of a community-wide planning process facilitated by the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation and supported by the Muriel McBrien Kauffman Foundation. ArtsKC has developed programs and services designed to “unleash the power of the arts.” This includes programs for the arts community, the business community, and services to the civic community. Today, we serve Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas, and Jackson, Clay, and Platte counties in Missouri.
ArtsKC acts as a central hub of information, resources, and support. Each specific program or service we provide to artists, arts organizations or the community at large was developed to address a need within our local arts ecology. ArtsKC continually assesses and adjusts our services to respond to the needs of our growing arts community.
ArtsKC serves as the voice for the arts in civic dialogues. By working closely with both the arts and business communities, we keep informed of challenges and provide a forum for the community to discuss current issues and opportunities. ArtsKC promotes networking, learning, and collaboration among the arts and business communities.
Kansas City is one of the largest regions in the United States that does not have an established source of dedicated public funding for the arts, which is crucial to the long-term health of our arts community. Securing sustainable public funding for the arts is a long-term goal of ArtsKC, and perhaps one of the most important. In 2007, ArtsKC started the ArtsKC Fund, a united arts fund. The ArtsKC Fund support arts organizations and artists through a competitive grants system.
Have questions about our work? Join us for an ArtsKC Lunch and Learn or give us a call at 816.221.1777.

www.artkc.org

#artspeakradio
#kkfi901fm

Share This Episode