Artspeak Radio + Mary Silwance, John Sandbach, Andrew McIlvaine, & Kevin Demery

Artspeak Radio, Wednesday, 9am -10am CST, 90.1fm KKFI Kansas City Community Radio, streaming live audio www.kkfi.org

Producer/host Maria Vasquez Boyd welcomes poets/artists Mary Silwance, John Sandbach, Andrew MCIlvaine, and Kevin Demery.

ANDREW McILVAINE is a Mexican-American interdisciplinary artist. Born in San Antonio, Texas, and later moved to Missouri, Mcilvaine creates work about displacement and replacement home, culture, language, and name and how these issues effect both cultural and personal memory, identity, and a sense of self. Mcilvaine earned his BA in studio art from the University of Missouri Kansas City. After receiving his BA, Mcilvaine moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where he attained his MFA from Washington University in St. Louis in painting and drawing. Currently, Mcilvaine lives and works in Kansas City and holds an Assistant Professor position in the Foundation Department at KCAI.

Threshold II: Migration Patterns
A Two Person Exhibition by Kevin Demery & Andrew Mcilvaine
Gallery Bogart is pleased to present Threshold II: Migration Patterns. This exhibition is the second iteration of an ongoing series dealing with the intersections of Black and Brown cultural identities within North America. It features the work of two artists based in Kansas City, Missouri, Andrew Mcilvaine (born 1993, San Antonio, TX) and Kevin Demery (born 1992, Modesto, CA). Threshold II is the result of many conversations between Mcilvaine and Demery about the convergence of their respective worlds and, with this presentation, specifically, the ways in which their two cultures have dealt with migration. Migration, forced or otherwise, is investigated in this exhibition through topography in metaphor and material. Place, space, and time are framing devices to reveal the geopolitical currents in their biographical narratives. Prominently featured are themes surrounding their Mexican-American and African-American heritages and how they diverge and intersect. Threshold II embraces the triangulation of history, personal narrative, and sociology. Demery and Mcilvaine hold the position of Assistant Professor at the Kansas City Art Institute in the Foundation Department.
Opening Reception
Saturday, April 6th
4:00pm to 7:00pm
1400 Union Avenue
Kansas City, MO 64101
www.gallerybogart.com

KEVIN DEMERY is an interdisciplinary artist from the San Francisco Bay Area. He
holds a BFA from California College of the Arts and an MFA from the School of
the Art Institute of Chicago. Demery received the Municipal Art League Grant
from SAIC and participated in the Artist in Residence programs at Kala Art
Institute in Berkeley, CA, The Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts in Omaha,
NE, and Acre Residency in Steuben, WI, and Charlotte Street Foundation in
Kansas City, MO. He has exhibited work both nationally and internationally at
the University of Chicago’s Arts Incubator, H&R Block Space at the Kansas
City Art Institute, and the Art Berlin Fair in Berlin, Germany. He most recently
participated in a group exhibition at SakhileandMe gallery in Frankfurt,
Germany in 2023 and in 2024 received the Charlotte Street Visual Artist Award.
He is currently an Assistant Professor at the Kansas City Art Institute.

MARY SILWANCE- Originally from Egypt, I live in Kansas City where I make my home with three daughters who daily inspire me to evolve. My life trajectory has taken many paths: I have worked as an English teacher, a stay-at-home mom, a farmhand, & a farm to school coordinator. I have worked in environmental education & green infrastructure. Currently I am a writing adjunct & teach adult EAL.
 
What has been a constant through all those vocations? Writing! I am an award-winning internationally published writer active in Kansas City’s writing scene. I serve on the editorial team of Kansas City Voices, conduct writing workshops & serve as Poetry-Editor-in-Residence for Flying Ketchup press. I also blog about environmental issues from the intersection of justice & spirituality & provide workshops on ecology. What am I discovering through my rich, varied experiences? 

The imagination at play is emancipatory medicine through which we create community: with ourselves, each other and Earth.
Check out my first full-length poetry collection!
www.marysilwance.com
In this first full collection, “We Remember Ourselves,” poet Mary Silwance arranges words free-form like leaves cascading from trees. From her birth in Egypt to transcendent moments gardening, or a grocery run before a blizzard, she shares poems hailed as “tightly choreographed” and “an authentic dance” between examining cultural expectations and familial relationships. “Why are there rules?” Silwance asks crafting a poetic form of her own to share a narrative in which the reader is invited to discover the moments when we remember ourselves; when truths are harvested like fruit hanging fresh on each page.
Upcoming events:
4/11/24: Westport Coffeehouse Poetry & Jazz
5/18/24 KC Folk Fest
10/8/24 Big Muddy Speaker Series
11/15/24 The Writers’ Place

JOHN SANDBACH- The stars aligned to open gateways for John Sandbach as a young man in the `60s, sparking his imagination and introducing him to a plethora of simpatico arenas. His work within these arenas has shaped him into a colorful multi-hyphenate of astrology-based arts and sciences. With 2022 marking his 56th anniversary as a studier of the stars, Sandbach is a highly-respected astrology researcher, a haiku poet with several published collections, a short story author, a novelist of three densely detailed science fiction books, and an educator…among other skills. A humble compassionate man with empathy and understanding of the inner workings of humankind, Sandbach endeavors to reveal people to themselves – reintroducing them to what makes them special, valuable, and deserving of a great life.

“As well as being an astrologer, I also paint, sculpt in porcelain, and write poetry. For several years I have specialized in writing haiku, a short poem of Japanese origin. My haiku have been published in the Japanese haiku journal “Ginyu,” published by Banya Natsuishi, one of Japan’s leading haiku poets. Natuishi has praised my work very highly. In 2002 “Step Into Sky,” a book of 100 of my haiku was published by Happa-no-kofu press in Tokyo Japan, with an introduction by Natsuishi. I have also self-published a book of 120 of my haiku, called “Wrinkled Sea,” and am currently in the process of publishing a book of 858 haiku called “Tongue at Home.”
I also teach Chinese somatic therapy techniques at Massage Therapy Training Institute in Kansas City, as well as classes in Reiki (a Japanese form of energy healing), gem and mineral therapy, and reflexology.”
www.johnsandbach.net

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