Podcast - Urban Connections Archives • KKFI

This podcast tracks the audio archives for the “Urban Connections” show. Urban Connections conducts guest interviews covering issues affecting our local, national, international and global communities from a Black perspective.

Phil Long, President – Association of African American Vintners on wine and the wine industry

Winemaker Phil Long is the president of the Association of African American Vintners (AAAV) and the founder of Longevity Wines, a brand based on his love affair with his wife, Debra who succumbed to pancreatic cancer in 2019. Like many people of color in the wine industry today, Phil had no...

11/26/2023

By Donna WolfeComments Off

Bird Fleming and the Traditional Music Society celebrates World Music and Dance

Bird Ellington Fleming, is the Artistic Director and founder of the Traditional Music Society (TMS). TMS is a dynamic journey through music and dance from multiple world cultures. TMS' World Music and Dance Showcase Winter Concert takes place December 2nd and features special guest artists: Amado Espinoza, from Bolivia, who embodies...

11/18/2023

By Donna WolfeComments Off

Iconic KC artists Bardwell, Becker and Hagenbach together in poetry, fiction, and music feeling the ancestors

Riverfront Reading Series is presenting "Feeling the Gap" where iconic Kansas City artists Gena Bardwell, Phyllis Becker and Angela Hagenbach have joined their energies through poetry, fiction and music to feel their ancestral history and fill in the gaps between yesterday, today and tomorrow. The program also features special guest...

11/10/2023

By Donna WolfeComments Off

Carl A. Stafford, founder/visionary, My Region Wins! addressing injustices and issues in KC neighborhoods

Carl A. Stafford is a local artist (graduate of the Kansas City Art Institute in 2006) founded a non profit organization whose name is a rallying cry: MY REGION WINS! Carl invisions his region, Kansas City, as a cultural epicenter that empowers creativity that demonstrates and displays environmental best practices....

11/04/2023

By Donna WolfeComments Off

Damron Armstrong on Black Repertory Theatre of KC – recipient of 2023 Paul Robeson Award

Actors’ Equity Association, the national labor union representing more than 51,000 professional actors and stage managers in live theatre, and the Actors’ Equity Foundation, a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization supporting the professional theatre community, announced the Paul Robeson Award will be bestowed on The Black Repertory Theatre of Kansas City for...

10/21/2023

By Donna WolfeComments Off

Chef Shanita, founder of the Prospect KC, 2nd Annual Gumbo Fest celebrating the revitalization of our Eastside

The Prospect KC’s Second Annual Gumbo Fest, a Party with a Purpose initiative inspired by “The Gumbo Coalition,” a book by Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League and former mayor of New Orleans, kicks off Sunday at noon in Kansas City’s Historic 18th & Vine Jazz District. Prospect...

10/14/2023

By Donna WolfeComments Off

PeaceWorks KC Vice Chair Mary Hladky, artist Melanie Bolden, and artist and author Rochelle Wisoff-Fields on the intersection of peace and art

PeaceWorks KC Vice Chair Mary Hladky, visual artist Melanie Bolden, and artist and author Rochelle Wisoff-Fields join us to discuss PeaceWorks Art Fair 2023, its 32nd celebration of the intersection of peace and art. Quoting PeaceWorks' Ann Suellentrop, "Through the free expression of the inner life and spirit of the artist,...

09/16/2023

By Donna WolfeComments Off

Dr. Cecelia McBride Robinson, Professor Emerita of William Jewel College on the rich history of African Americans in Clay County, MO

Dr. Cecelia McBride Robinson, Professor Emerita of William Jewell College, began her career as an educator in the state of Missouri in 1972. Prior to her teaching appointment at William Jewell College, she taught at Prairie View A. &M. University in Texas, Oak Park High School in North Kansas City,...

09/09/2023

By Donna WolfeComments Off