Arts Alive KC will wrap up its Spring season with the Black Repertory Theatre of Kansas City’s production of Memphis, a musical by David Bryan (music and lyrics) and Joe DiPietro (lyrics and book). This production is loosely based on Memphis disc jockey Dewey Phillips, one of the first white DJs to play black music in the 1950s. It played on Broadway from October 2009 to August 2012, winning four 2010 Tony Awards, including Best Musical. This musical looks at a time when the music business had drawn the line between Music and Race!

We begin our evening at the Kemper Museum of Modern Art, 5PM with a tour of the Kemper’s “Worlds Otherwise Hidden” an interpretation of cultures shaped by migration, immigration, displacement, and exile. The work of Turkey’s Nevin Aladağ, Korea’s Kimsooja,  and Jamaica’s Nari Ward combine and transmute specific objects, designs, and symbols from divergent cultural contexts in their video and sculptural installations. They explore issues of fractured geography, creating new space for dialogue and revealing worlds otherwise hidden. Our tour will be led by Erin Dziedzic, director of curatorial affairs, Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, Missouri and curator of “Worlds Otherwise Hidden”. All three artists will be participating in the fall Open Spaces event. Our cocktail reception will be catered by Café Sebastian. Curtain call will be at 7:30PM.