Artspeak Radio 10th Anniversary with Gamble, Stähli, and Mutava

Artspeak Radio, Wednesday, September 21, 2022, noon – 1pm CST, 90.1fm KKFI Kansas City Community Radio, streaming live audio www.kkfi.org

Producer/host Maria Vasquez Boyd celebrates the 10th anniversary of Artspeak Radio for the entire month of September!! Founded in 2012 by writer Blair Schulman and artist/writer Maria Vasquez Boyd, Artspeak Radio began as a 30- minute program monthly then progressed to a full hour that now includes podcasts of each program. Local and international artists, performers, poets, writers, musicians, arts organizations, and more have graced the airwaves with their talent and information making Artspeak Radio the conduit for arts and creativity.
Through the generous guidance of our beloved Mark Manning who sparked our interest, Artspeak Radio would not exist, we love you and thank you dear friend.
Many thanks to KKFI staff, volunteers, friends, family, and listeners for supporting KKFI Kansas City Community Radio throughout the years and my heartfelt gratitude for your support of Artspeak Radio.

Producer/host Maria Vasquez Boyd welcomes Veteran/Ken Gamble artist Nina Stähli, Bruce Young and Tre’ Mutava.

KEN GAMBLE, The Orange Heart Medal Project was founded in January 2018 as a 501c3 organization whose mission and purpose is to bring recognition for veterans who served in the Vietnam war and who were affected by exposure to Agent Orange, an herbicide and defoliant chemical. It is believed that August 10, 1961 is the first date that Agent Orange was sprayed. Five months later Agent Orange was widely used in Vietnam by the United States military as part of the herbicidal warfare program called “Operation Ranch Hand” from 1961 to 1971.
This orange powder was sprayed over the land from helicopters or low flying aircraft. The herbicide quickly destroyed vegetation and crops. The goal was to destroy crops, defoliate rural and forested land and deprive enemy guerrillas of food and cover for their activities. Agent Orange allowed clearing of sensitive areas around military bases. The United States military sprayed nearly 20,000,000 gallons of Agent Orange. In addition to the damaging environmental effects, Agent Orange has also caused major physical injury to the 2.6 million American soldiers who were exposed.

Agent Orange is a dioxin. It is a cancer-causing chemical that enters the body through physical contact or ingestion. Dioxin moves into the human cell nucleus where it attacks the genes and causes numerous serious illnesses. For many these effects laid dormant for 40 plus years. Conditions currently attributed to Agent Orange exposure include such illnesses as leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma, Ischemic heart disease, soft tissue sarcoma, amyloidosis, diabetes, and cancers of the throat, prostate, lung, colon, and other life changing conditions. The genetic damage from Agent Orange, in some cases, has affected the second and third generations of veterans among those who were exposed. Noted conditions in those generations include such conditions as spina bifida and other congenital anomalies which have been diagnosed in the exposed veterans’ children and grandchildren. Current studies are continuing at Vanderbilt University on the generational effects of Agent Orange exposure. Studies are currently showing exposure into the fifth generation.

Today only approximately 600,000 of these veterans are still living while 390 deaths are occurring every day among soldiers who continue their march to join their fallen comrades.
The purpose of the Orange Heart Medal Project is to bring recognition to veterans who were exposed and subsequently were affected by Agent Orange during their military service in the United States Armed Services. The Orange Heart Medal Project was born in the heart of Ken Gamble, U.S. Navy Veteran, Vietnam as he laid receiving radiation and chemotherapy at the Veterans Administration Hospital for his own prostate cancer. After suffering in silence for many years with his own Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), which is also common in many war veterans, Ken was now suffering the effects of his own Agent Orange herbicidal exposure. Ken took on the responsibility of being a voice for all of the soldiers who were and are still suffering the effects of Agent Orange exposure. Ken started the Orange Heart Medal Project in January 2018 using his own funds to design, patent, and create the Orange Heart Medal. Ken applied for and received designation as a 501c3 organization. Ken designed and received Trademark registration of the Orange Heart Medal emblem.

We created, and are currently updating our website www.orangeheartmedal.org where you will find applications for the medal, general information, articles on Vietnam and a blog that shares stories of veterans who have been affected by Agent Orange. This website is a tool to help educate the public on available resources for veterans and their families. Our primary goal has been to provide to each veteran or their surviving spouse the Orange Heart Medal, free of charge because in Ken’s words, “the veteran has already paid for it.”

We believe that the Orange Heart Medal serves as a recognition of the chemical warfare exposure suffered by these soldiers. The medal also allows those memories to be shared as the Orange Heart Medal is passed on to the soldier’s generations to come. In addition to the medals, we have used the Orange Heart Medal emblem to have shirts, caps, pins and patches made. These items are displayed and sold at community events to help raise awareness and funds to cover the cost of the medals. To date we are just a few shy of providing 4,000 medals to veterans or their surviving spouses. Applications have been received from across the United States, Australia, Thailand, and Puerto Rico. We are a privately funded organization receiving no federal funds for our efforts.

We strive to educate, assist and work with local state, and eventually national legislatures to draft and pass legislation that will declare dioxin, Agent Orange, as chemical warfare. This recognition will help educate and assist all veterans with proof of exposure and will assist in securing, adequate access to and quality health service benefits for affected veterans as well as the veteran’s future generations who are affected by Agent Orange exposure. We recognize that these men and women answered the call to defend and protect our great United States and likewise we should recognize and defend them.

website www.orangeheartmedal.org

NINA STÄEHLI-Smart phone, head phones, Facebook, Netflix, Snapchat, Twitter, Whatsapp, TikTok, Youtube…it just happened.
It has nestled into every and the farthest corner of how we think, feel and act. Loneliness has come to stay and has become the solitary confinement of individualization. What was still positively understood as a melancholic, melancholy withdrawal during the time of the Enlightenment has, since industrialization, developed into a social norm deviation with wide open doors to depression, addictive behavior, alcohol and drug addiction. This seclusion from other fellow human beings is underlaid with so much glamour and entertainment that we hardly notice and can classify the inner dying of our communicative, interpersonal abilities. But we already anticipate the inner tragedy, with the associated feelings of emptiness.
In the interior, Nina Staehli shows her BIG Heads films in small film boxes, and in the exterior of the KCAC building, BIG Head photographs are exhibited above the huge windows. The traditional representation of art is dissolved by the integration of the exterior space.
KCAC MISSION
The Kansas City Artists Coalition is a nonprofit organization that promotes visual arts awareness in Kansas City and the surrounding region and supports the professional growth of artists. KCAC supports artists and arts understanding through Exhibition Series, workshops, artist’s talks and publications.
KCAC HISTORY
In 1975, The Kansas City Artist Coalition was formed when KC artists gathered in the studio of Philomene Bennett and Lou Marak to discuss “How the Artist Can Benefit From Centralization.” Overwhelmingly the group felt a self-initiated organization was the only alternative to isolation, elitism, apathy, and ignorance.
The Artists Coalition’s initial goal was to create a strong voice for the concerns of artists. At the time, Kansas City offered few opportunities and local artists were not taken seriously. The few local galleries mainly showed the art of artists living elsewhere. KCAC began by lobbying for professional venues for local artists and mounting exhibitions in empty commercial spaces. kansascityartistscoalition.org Instagram @kcartistscoalition
JEN HARRIS is a creative entrepreneur with an extensive history in the Kansas City arts scene. The founder of Kansas City Poetry Slam and The Writing Workshop KC, Harris is an active facilitator of Artist Inc. through Mid-America Arts Alliance, and the former writer-in-resident at both Charlotte Street Foundation and The Drugstore KC. With nearly two decades of exhibition, curation, and community-building experience, Jen enthusiastically accepted the position as Exhibitions Director at Kansas City Artists Coalition in June 2022. www.poetjenharris.com Instagram @poetjenharris

TRE’ MUTAVA- Tre’ Mutava is a 20yr old self-produced singer/songwriter from Lenexa, KS. Mutava released his debut album, The Movies in 2021 and currently realeasing new music including his next single “Moving” featuring Noah Anthony.
Life Mission Church Wed. Sept. 28
The Movies Tour- Friday, Sept. 30, Velo Garage and Tap House NKC
www.tremutava.com
www.sonicbids.com

#artspeakradio
#kkficommunityradio

Share This Episode