Last night near the construction site of the upcoming Kansas City East Patrol Police Station a group of Kansas City artists gathered to pay tribute to a historic place that was demolished in order to build the project that's already $20 million over budget.
A special thanks to the participants for the image and here's an important description of the event . . .
The Society for the Prevention of Un-necessary Demolition (s.p.u.d.) presents . . .
A Requiem for Virgil Thomson
A plein air performance of Stabat Mater at the childhood home of the composer
2629 Wabash Avenue, Kansas City MO
Virgil Thomson was one of America’s great modern composers of the 20th Century. Born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, he studied at Harvard and Julliard, lived in Paris, and worked for most of his career in New York as a composer, writer and music critic.
He composed original scores for numerous films and operas as well as compositions for theater, ballet, chamber, and choral ensemble. His musical oeuvre has been noted for its originality, wit and playfulness. In addition, Virgil Thomson wrote about music and served as the chief musical critic for the New York Herald Tribune from 1937 to 1951. One of his first critical works was on the subject of jazz. He published many books and received a variety of awards including the Pulitzer Prize.
Until recently, Virgil Thomson’s childhood home at 2629 Wabash Avenue was intact and in good condition. It was demolished by the City of Kansas City Missouri to make way for a police station. However, the historical research conducted on behalf of the City and the Section 106 process failed to identify the presence or significance of Virgil Thomson’s childhood home – clearly a nationally significant property eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.
Tonight’s performance is a small offering of remembrance of Virgil Thomson and his Kansas City connection.
The piece performed is titled Stabat Mater. It will be performed by:
James Mitchell, solo cello
Zsolt Eder, Violin 1
Ramiro Miranda, violin 2
Gloria Britez Scolari, viola
Eman Chalshotori, cello
The Society for the Prevention of Un-necessary Demolition (s.p.u.d.) is a temporal art collective developed for the purpose of visualizing vacant housing and the challenge of neighborhood stabilization in Kansas City. Through the combination of music, visual arts, urban planning and design, historical research, and community engagement - we seek to bring a new understanding of the condition of vacancy in Kansas City neighborhoods.
Support for this work is provided by a Rocket Grants project award, a program of the Charlotte Street Foundation and the University of Kansas Spencer Museum of Art. Funding is provided by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.
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Why stop with just one house? Burn the whole fucking nigger neighborhood down..
ReplyDeleteSadly 6:39 you presciently albeit accidentally codify city hall's position towards Kansas City's historic neighborhoods. So TAG...YOU and city council and crew are now the niggers!
ReplyDeleteOne day that very spot could possibly be a jail cell. Hopefully these dorks will still be sitting there then.
ReplyDeleteYeah, sitting there, under a funeral home canopy, playing a dirge for the nigger home land.
ReplyDelete+1 8:07pm I heard first hand that Troy Schulte and Sly James are supporting mass demolition in this community in hopes of stabilizing the housing market and encouraging economic development. Neither consulted with their professional planners, Bob Lagenkamp or the Third District City Planner. They just continue to make decisions for people who are not part of the discussion in hopes that they'll somehow appreciate having their property values obliterated and their neighborhoods destroyed. It's economic warfare; not development.
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