Kansas City Leader Camry Ivory – Coloratura & The Freedom of Expression

[00:00:12.650] – David Maples
Welcome to the show. So, KC Leaders is glad to have you here. Give me a brief intro over who you are
and what you do.

[00:00:19.610] – Camry Ivory
Just right now. My name is Camry Ivory. I am an audio visual musician and artist and the inventor of
Coloratura, an audio visual paintbrush interface. On Instagram, my Instagram handle is coloratura.
Art, which is C-O-L-O-R-A-T-U-R-A. On Facebook, it’s Coloratura Arts, name and spelling, just the S at
the end. Those are my main social media channels. Youtube is Camry Ivory.

[00:00:50.910] – David Maples
I want to talk a little bit about Coloratura. Tell us a little bit more about it. You’re an audio visual artist.
What does that mean for people who are listening to the show?

[00:01:00.470] – Camry Ivory
Yeah. I’ve had to make up that moniker. Essentially, I started as a musician. I played piano and sang
for most of my life. One day I thought, Oh, wouldn’t it be interesting if I could visualize my music in a
tangible way? There are plenty of other artists and musicians who have been using technology to do
that, but usually they’ve been focusing on digital art. There’s a digital interface, you create digital
music, and then there is a digital manifestation of your visual work. I thought, well, wouldn’t it be
interesting if you could actually touch your music? You could hold it in your hand. If you could use just
a regular paintbrush and use regular paint to create something that could last longer than the
ephemeral nature of music. I assumed that someone had already developed something like that.
There were a few other artists and musicians who had done something a little bit similar. But what I
wanted to do was to really explore the relationship between color and sound. I assigned a different
color to a different musical note. Then with the interface, it’s made up of 12 paint brushes, and so
every paintbrush plays a different note in the musical scale. Then I’ve assigned it to that color that I
mentioned before. When you touch the brush to the canvas, you get to hear essentially what that
color sounds like. That changes the trajectory of the piece that one would create.

[00:02:28.630] – David Maples
I originally met you at the KC Folkfest, and I was instantly drawn to what you were doing. I said, Man,
this is really cool. It’s very different. I’ve never seen anything quite like it. Just digital art. Going back, I
met Jaren Linnier years ago. The guy who apparently coined the term virtual reality years ago, he was
one of the first people at Apple years ago. I met him. He was doing stuff in the digital space, I think,
almost even 20 years ago. But I hadn’t seen anybody doing anything that incorporated actual
performance art at the same time while generating music in a way that it was just very different,
actually generating art. You’re right, it’s usually music first, you play an instrument or whatever it is,
and then there’s some digital interpreter. Just like a sound wave, you can be used into creating some
fractal imagery or something like that. But it wasn’t like generating something from the art side first.
How did you come upon this idea?

[00:03:25.440] – Camry Ivory
It was the culmination of a lot of different ideas all at once. It all really happened in 2014 or 2015.
Back in, I guess, 2012 was when it started. Kansas City used to have the Kansas City Maker Fair at
Union Station. I don’t believe they brought it back since in the post-COVID world that we’re in.
Although we’re still in COVID, right? But I went there in 2013 and 2014 and got exposed to the Maker
community and learned about raspberry pies and Arduinos and Mickey Mankies and all sorts of
things. That got my brain thinking about different ways to incorporate technology into different
projects that had bouncing around my brain. During that same period of time, I also learned about the
neurological phenomenons of synesthesia. People who are able to hear sound, or sorry, not hear
sound, hear color, or see sound, or they have overlapping sensory experiences and I just thought that
was really fascinating and I thought, Wouldn’t it be interesting if there are a way to use technology to
simulate that experience for everyone who may not already naturally have synesthesia? I had this
opportunity to perform with this organization called Art in the Loop, or it’s a performance series called
Art in the Loop. They still have it. It’s with the Downtown Kansity Council. Essentially, they have visual
and performing artists to create pieces for… Basically, it’s like a summer series of performances and
installation art. I thought, Well, let me try and apply for this grant to maybe build this musical
paintbrush idea I had in my mind. I didn’t think that I would actually get the grant, but I did. They said,
You have seven weeks to take this from this idea in your brain to doing a fully fleshed out 30-minute
performance. It was a mad dash to get it done, but we did it. Essentially, after that first performance, I
literally just took paint brushes from the art store and wrapped wire around them and connected them
to a circuit board and hoped for the best. It’s obviously matured quite a bit since then.

[00:05:48.360] – David Maples
No, I mean, it’s an amazing, I think it’s an amazing idea and product. Moving from that a little bit to tell
us a little bit, just for the listeners in the audience, tell us a little bit about your background and how
did you end up in Kansas City?

[00:06:04.530] – Camry Ivory
Well, I was born in Omaha, Nebraska, but my family moved to Kansas City when I was three. My father
was in air traffic controlling, and so MCI was here, Kansas City Airport was here. But my family was
really looking for a community that was affordable but offered really great educational opportunities. I
grew up in Johnson County and then I went to the Shawnee, Michigan, and Blue Valley School
Districts, which are some of the best in the state, if not the entire country, as far as public schools go.
They really valued education and wanted to make sure I had the best opportunities possible. I’m really
thankful for them for that. I went to school at the University of Missouri, Colombia, a couple of hours
away from here, studied Spanish and linguistics. Then I had the opportunity to come back and work
with Missouri College Advising Corps, which is similar to Teach for America, but instead of teaching,
we’re college advisors for students in low-income areas. We provide college advising support and
help them just create a college-going culture in their school. That’s what brought me back to Kansas
City. I had plans to move very far away from here, but I got this job for a couple of years and just fell in
love with Kansas City and I started to see it grow and evolve in a way that it really.. That it hadn’t really
existed when I was there as a child and as a teenager. I think it was in 2010, 2011, Google Fiber
decided to choose Kansas City, Kansas specifically within the greater metro area as their first hub for
the Google Fiber Project. That put so many eyeballs on Kansas City. Internationally, people were
saying, Well, why did they choose this city? What’s so great about Kansas City? Isn’t it just cows and
cornfields? That’s what a lot of people thought about Kansas City. Most of my life, when I would travel
different places and I told people I was from Kansas City, I would usually hear like, Oh, you’re not in
Kansas anymore. Where’s Dorothy? Or, You take a tractor to go to school? These are legitimate things
that people would say to me because Kansas City just was a sleepy town. But because of the
spotlight that Google Fiber shown on our city and because of the startups and entrepreneurs that
moved to Kansas City because of that, there was a revitalization in this city that spilled out into many
other industries and sectors.

[00:08:41.890] – David Maples
It’s really interesting to see what’s happened. Now we’ve got the World Cups coming here next year.
That’s truly an international scene and just a whole bunch of things. I’ve only been in Kansas City for
the better part of a year now, and I really think this city is going places. It’s funny to think about Google
fiber being… Because I move here and then I’m hearing about Meta buying 1,000 acres in the northern
part of the city. I was like, Man, there’s a lot of things going on here. It’s incredible. How did you get
into… Okay, so you said your background is in your your musician?

[00:09:25.320] – Camry Ivory
Musician, yes.

[00:09:25.830] – David Maples
Okay, so tell me about that and then what led you to Coloratura? You talked a little bit about the
anesthesia and these other things. Let’s talk about the musician part of your background.

[00:09:38.540] – Speaker 1
I did not grow up in a musical family. I found the piano at a young age. I really fell in love with Tori
Amos, of all people. I don’t know if we have any Tory Amos fans listening, but I just really loved her
style of music. Sarah McLauchlin, I’m very much a child of the ’90s. I just loved music and I loved the
way that they were able to use their music to express themselves in this raw and vulnerable way. For
most of my life, from eight years old until my mid-20s, my genre was sad girl on a piano when I played
music. But I also got involved in a lot of musical projects here in Kansas City. One of the great things
about Kansas City is that it is so collaborative and relatively easy to find people to be involved in your
own musical projects or to jump in on other people’s musical projects. When I moved back after
college, I was in an indie pop band. I was in a Latin jazz ensemble. I’ve done a David Bowie tribute for
several years. I’m in a talking heads tribute band that’s gone on for 11 years, 12 years, I think, at this
point. I love music. It’s always been a really important way for me to express myself. But I also feel
that it’s sometimes one dimensional and that you’re really only… You’re primarily engaging yourself
and your audience on the auditory plane. You’re listening to what this musician has to say. But for me,
I describe myself as extra, as the term that I use in the… I guess the young people say extra, but it just
means I just love to take things to the next level. I’m always looking for ways to just make things a
little bit better and a little bit more engaged, involved. I just want to create multisensory experiences
for people. When I would have musical performances, I was always looking for ways to add visual
elements. It was costumes or choreography, or projections or light shows, which are all really great.
But they’re also limiting because they require a lot of planning and preparation. You really can’t be as
improvisational as you could if you were just musicians vibing together. The beauty of being in a
musical ensemble, especially with my jazz background, is if we were really feeling a particular part of
the song or if we were feeding off the audience’s energy, we could just riff and go from there and not
stick to the pre-planned song. But if you have light cues and sound cues and choreography, you can’t
do that as fluidly. I was longing for this way to combine the visual spectacle of a live performance
with the intimacy of a solo performance. I thought that maybe an ideal way to do that would be to be
able to create music and art at the same time as one person versus relying on other people to do cues
for me or other people to create choreography or costumes for me.

[00:12:59.480] – David Maples
When we ran into you at the festival, one of the things we noticed is that it wasn’t just children who
were drawn to it. There were adults over at your station in your booth experiencing it. Have you seen
that it’s cross-generational? It doesn’t matter where people come from that they’re attracted to the
Coloratura?

[00:13:19.390] – Camry Ivory
I would hope so. That’s the goal. Initially, when I started this project, I just designed it for me as my
own performance piece. Not that I wasn’t thinking about other people, but I didn’t know that it would
resonate with people so much. When I did that first performance with Art in the Loop that I mentioned
before, my performance was 30 minutes, but I spent another hour outside just letting people
experiment with the paint brushes and create their own art. When I met you, that was at the KC
Folkfest, and they invited me not to perform, but to just have the paint brushes out for people to
interact with and to create their own art and their own music. That has primarily been the way that I’ve
engaged with Coloratura for the past almost year. I think that there is an element of play deeply
embedded within just the nature of the project that you don’t normally get in settings. I feel like
normally when people interact with art or music, it’s in a certain way. I am watching this person create
this art and I am over here as an audience member and never the train shall meet. There is this
barrier. I think also a lot of people have these preconceived notions of what it means to be an artist or
a musician and they think, Oh, if I didn’t go to art school, I never took piano lessons, I cannot be a
creator in this particular way. My goal now is to help everyone realize that it doesn’t matter what your
training is, what your background is, you still have the capacity to play and create. It’s not necessarily
about creating a masterpiece, it’s just being engaged in the process of art, the process of creation
that makes you a creator. A lot of times when people see my paintbrushes set out, they think, Oh,
that’s so great for kids. They automatically go to that. This is great for kids. Let’s put it in the
classrooms. Yes, that’s true. It is great for kids. They love it. But I think it’s more important that adults
use it because we don’t have opportunities to just have judgment-free experiences and judgment-free
creativity. People are often afraid, adults are often afraid to pick up a paintbrush and use it because
they say, I don’t know how to paint. I say, I don’t know how to paint either. I’m learning as I go along.
But I think having the opportunity to just express yourself freely without judgment, without any fear of
what the end result will be, we need more experiences like that in our life because it helps us grow.

[00:16:07.100] – David Maples
In my other life, I run a digital marketing agency, and we’ve done experiments where we do
brainstorming sessions with people. And one of the first things we do is we bring in groups of adults
and we have tables covered with pipe cleaners and silly string and plate. The things that kids play with
when they’re five. And it’s really odd to watch the people, the adults, be paralyzed and sit down on the
table for about the first five minutes. And then if you walk out and you watch them through a two-way
mirror or something outside the room, after about five minutes, some of them get brave and they start
playing with it. After about 15 minutes of sitting in there because we intentionally delay the process of
meeting with them and going through it, you’ll find them playing with it like they’re five again. I think it
was Aristotle or Plato once said you can learn more about a person in five minutes of play than in a
lifetime of conversation. I don’t know, it’s just interesting. I just was curious. I think, Coloratura, I think
what you said, yeah, I can see them saying, Oh, yeah, this is great for kids, but I think it’s really good
for adults, too. I think it could break down those barriers, too. You’ve created in such a way that when
they paint on it, when they paint these things, it makes beautiful music, really irrespective of what they
know that they’re doing. I guess that was planned, I’m assuming, into what you built.

[00:17:20.890] – Camry Ivory
Yes, I do have some gutters to prevent people from falling. The paint brushes are tuned in such a way
that you really can’t play a wrong note. I learned that the hard way. The first time I had it set up,
everyone could play every note in the musical scale, and that got a little chaotic real fast. But
essentially, yeah, I just want to create a safe space for people to just play. If you don’t know how to
paint, then just listen to the sounds and let that guide you. It’s really interesting. I think that most
people, when they see a paintbrush, they think, Oh, I have to focus on my visual output. What is this
going to look like? But it’s always interesting to meet people. This doesn’t happen as often as I would
like. It’s a rare experience. But I do usually find someone who sees it as an instrument first more so
than a tool for visual creation. They will usually immediately pick up two or three paint brushes in one
hand or two hands and just play around with the sounds and explore what sounds are these colors
making. I love when people do that because it’s so non-traditional. It’s such an unusual way to think
about a paintbrush or to think about the creation of art at all to focus on that auditory output. I get
really excited when I meet people like that because I think, Okay, you were thinking outside of the box,
or we are in a similar wavelength, because that’s how I approach my pieces. I start thinking about,
What is this going to sound like? But in the process, because I’m seeing that visual output, I’m seeing
the colors on the canvas, then my brain switches back and forth between the two worlds, and it’s kind
of a trippy experience.

[00:19:12.310] – David Maples
It brings me to my next question. In what ways are you, through your art, through your music, what
ways are you helping contribute to making Kansas City a better place to live, play, and work?

[00:19:25.410] – Camry Ivory
With this project, I think that I am combining these very vibrant communities that don’t often intersect.
There’s the visual arts world and then there’s the performing arts world or the musical world, and then
there’s the technology space. I’m a huge component of Steam, science, technology, engineering, arts,
and math. I think that the arts need the sciences and the science needs art. One ads, meaning the
other ads process. I think that there is a lot of opportunity for these two disparate sectors to work
together, but they may not always know what projects are the others working on or what are the
needs of the artist community that the technology community can assist with and vice versa. I’m
hopeful that this project can start to be a gateway into having more of those conversations and
finding more ways for those communities to come together and intersect.

[00:20:24.340] – David Maples
What is one initiative or project that you’re particularly proud of and why? I mean, Coloratura is part of
it, right? Is there something else that you’ve been involved with with this project that you’re really
excited about?

[00:20:34.490] – Camry Ivory
Not with this project per se, but something that I started pre-pandemic and I’m hoping to bring back.
In 2015, 2016, I started, I guess you could call it performance series called Strawberry Jam. We just
started it at our home. But essentially it was a potluck brunch/open mic/jam session. We had
between 50-70 people come through every time we hosted it. Then we brought together some of the
best musicians in Kansas City with people who had never gone to a concert before. We had it usually
quarterly. Every time I met someone new in Kansas City or just made a new friend, I said, Please come
to our Strawberry Jam if you want to get introduced to the music scene in Kansas City. But maybe
you’re not the type of person that’s going to go out to a bar on a Friday night at nine o’clock to see a
band. You may be able to see some of the best musicians in Kansas City at my house and eat some
delicious biscuits in the process. That was really an innovative way of, again, building community and
connecting disparate communities together. Ended, obviously, during the pandemic, and I haven’t
quite found a way to bring that back. I’m still looking for a space, but that’s one of the things I’m most
proud of, actually, outside of Coloratura.

[00:21:56.250] – David Maples
Okay, so for those of you listeners out here, Camry Ivory needs a space for a Strawberry Jam to bring
that back to Kansas City. Maybe we can collaborate on that and find something else post podcast on
that. Flipping a little bit over to to Kansas City, some questions about that. You’ve been involved in
this space. You grew up here. You’ve been in Kansas City since you were three, except for a brief
period of time when you went off to college, et cetera, and came back. What do you see right now as
unique opportunities or challenges for Kansas City in the coming years?

[00:22:29.760] – Camry Ivory
I think it’s a challenge that every city in America is facing and that the cost of everything is increasing,
the cost of living, commercial, real estate, everything. One of the great things about Kansas City that
has made it such an incubator city and a hub for the arts is that we did have low cost of living. You
could be an artist and you didn’t have to work a full-time day job just to make ends meet. You still
could have excess time and creative energy to work on your creative projects. Getting a studio space
or finding a venue to host whatever your project was was a little bit easier because there were lots of
legitimate and maybe not so legitimate places that you could go to host whatever event you needed
to. Throughout the pandemic, we’ve had a lot of folks moving to Kansas City and investing in Kansas
City, which is fantastic. But at the same time, the cost of everything has gone up. I have noticed, even
as myself, as an artist, trying to just find a studio space has been really difficult. Some spaces closed
during the pandemic and those opportunities for artists were no longer or the spaces that were there,
their prices have increased. As I look at other cities, I just read a Forbes magazine article this week
where St. Louis was highlighted as having a really fantastic arts community. One of the reasons they
noted that St. Louis was so particularly good at nurturing the arts is because the Kranzberg
Foundation invested in infrastructure and invested in real estate and building up spaces for these
individual artists and arts organizations so that they could focus their time and money on doing what
they do best, which is supporting artists and not sending all that money to rent and utilities and things
like that. We do have organizations in Kansas City that are doing that. The Englewood Arts Center and
Independence, Charlotte Street Foundation in Midtown, Kansas City. There are great opportunities to
do that, but we’re still building. If we don’t continue to intentionally invest in artists and invest in the
infrastructure of an arts community, then we will no longer have an arts community.

[00:25:04.220] – David Maples
One of the things that attracted me to Kansas City in particular is that they do have a certain amount
of the tax base that goes to supporting the arts. I don’t know exactly how that is used currently. I do
know that the Kansas City Hearts Projects was partly funded by that, and I thought that was a good
thing to help bring the community together, etc, like that. Are there people in the community who
should be paying attention right now or should we be taking a page out of St. Louis’s book? I mean, I
hate to do that, but at the same time, if they’re doing something better than us, what can we learn
from them and what can we build upon from that?

[00:25:38.660] – Camry Ivory
Yeah, absolutely. I think that the organizations, as I mentioned before, they’re doing the work. I know
that we are doing the work in Kansas City. Another great organization is Arts KC, which was one of
the first donors or funders of My Coloratura Project. Without them, this project and many other artistic
projects would not exist. They’re working, and I won’t talk a lot about it because I feel like it’s their
story to tell, but they’re working on something called the Neuro Arts Blueprint, which is essentially
understanding that art is not just capital A art, like something you see in a museum or a gallery or at
an opera, that art needs to be integrated holistically throughout the entire community, that it needs to
be deeply infused within our healthcare system, our education system, our infrastructure, and helping
everyone understand that art is not just something that you do or observe, that it’s a part of who we
are as human beings. Once you have that approach to art, it changes the way that you invest in it. I
think that even with the new airport, I don’t know if you’ve had a chance to go through, I loved the
intentionality of it. I loved that they incorporated so many local artists, not just visual artists, but
culinary artists. The restaurants are all local, and that requires a lot of planning and forethought. But I
think it manifested beautifully. I hope that as there are new initiatives in Kansas City that they
incorporate the arts as much as possible.

[00:27:16.780] – David Maples
How do you approach collaboration and fostering unity within the community?

[00:27:25.300] – Camry Ivory
From a personal perspective, it’s just being really vulnerable and just talking to as many people as
possible and taking advantage of as many opportunities as possible. I am out in the streets all the
time. Casey Bookbessery, I’ve done first Fridays, third Fridays. I am just trying to be where the people
are. I mentioned before, I use that term a lot, capital A, art. I use that as shorthand to explore or
explain the divide between the fine arts and just your average everyday person. I think that obviously,
museums, galleries play an important role in our culture and in our community specifically, but that is
not the only way to engage with art. And so for me, I think if I’m going to collaborate, I don’t want to
just live in the visual arts world. I don’t want to live in just the musical world. I’m always trying to find
ways to bridge that gap and connect with people who I feel are simpatico, who are maybe similar
weirdos, I guess, on a similar weird wavelength and open to trying new things.

[00:28:38.990] – David Maples
Well, you said you aren’t a Talking Heads Tribute band.

[00:28:42.150] – Camry Ivory
I am, yeah.

[00:28:43.310] – David Maples
I don’t know how David would feel about that.

[00:28:46.790] – Camry Ivory
I think he’s a similar weirdo.

[00:28:48.540] – David Maples
Well, yeah. I mean, if anybody’s seen Stop Making Sense, it’s one of the best concert videos I think
ever put together. That’s my personal, I’ll die on that hill.

[00:29:00.630] – Camry Ivory
I agree, and we recreate it every year. Do you really? We do top to bottom, big suit and all.

[00:29:06.120] – David Maples
When do you do that?

[00:29:07.470] – Camry Ivory
Usually it’s around Thanksgiving holidays, so usually the day before, day after.

[00:29:12.630] – David Maples
Okay, definitely we’ll be promoting that.

[00:29:15.200] – Camry Ivory
Yes, thank you!

[00:29:16.020] – David Maples
That sounds awesome. No, that would be a great thing to get involved in. I want to ask you about a
personal experience or lesson that has significantly shaped your perspective on things.

[00:29:26.670] – Camry Ivory
Yeah, I have been thinking about that question since you gave me that. Okay. I can’t answer that. Is
that okay? That’s fine.

[00:29:37.290] – David Maples
You don’t have to.

[00:29:38.370] – Camry Ivory
Yeah. I can’t think of one solid one.

[00:29:41.990] – David Maples
Well, it’s always one of those things. Sometimes there’s that galvanizing, lightning out of a bottom
moment, but you don’t have to have that. What is one actionable piece of advice you’d like to share
with people listening? How could they be involved? How could they help support you or support other
people in the arts to help make Kansas City a better place to live, work, and play?

[00:30:03.290] – Camry Ivory
Yeah, that’s another great question. As I mentioned before, Arts KC is one of the organizations that
funded Coloratura in its initial stages, and they are working on creating just a large directory of arts
organizations, individual artists, and a calendar of artistic experiences. I would say definitely sign up
for their newsletters because I, as one person, I can tell you to go to this venue or that venue and
check this out, but I think that there does have to be a concerted effort to collect all of the different
arts experiences in one place. Social media can do that, but again, you’re at the whims of the
algorithm as to what you see and do not see. I think they’re doing a fantastic job in trying to collect all
those in one place. Check out their website, artskc.org; sign up for their newsletter, follow them on
social media, and they point you to so many different other organizations that are aligned with your
interests.

[00:31:04.410] – David Maples
Is that really how you stay connected and engaged in the community? Is that one of the things you
use or is another thing you do as well?

[00:31:10.710] – Camry Ivory
It’s one of the things that I do. It’s a good place to start. I don’t know if I would recommend doing what
I do. I think I just am just constantly trying to stay in, I guess you can call it face-time. I’m out in the
community a lot. I’m going to a lot of events and talking to people, especially if I see something that’s
a little bit off the beaten path. I think one of the great things about Kansas City is that we do have a lot
of solid tradition, people who are carrying on the tradition of folk music and jazz and country music.
That is fantastic because they are beautiful traditions that are in part rooted here in our region and in
our city specifically with jazz. But I always love it when people are taking those traditions and
tweaking them a little bit and just making them a little bit different. We’re not just repeating what’s
been done for the past 100 years. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but I think it’s important
to invest time and energy and people who are pushing the envelope as well.

[00:32:22.020] – David Maples
What do you love most about Kansas City and what makes it stand out nationally?

[00:32:27.000] – David Maples
I think what I love most about is that it’s so collaborative. There’s such a spirit and a community of
collaboration here. I say that I came back to Kansas City after college. I didn’t really have any
experience, but I was able to, within a couple of years, perform on stage with people who had
Grammys and who had PhDs in music and who were really passionate about their craft. It’s not
because I was a particularly talented person. I think it’s because they werethey were willing to give me
a shot. I love that there are so many opportunities to get involved with relatively low barriers to entry.
Do you want to start a band? Just hop on Craig’s List or Facebook and find people. There’s an
incredibly talented group of people here. I think one thing that’s really beneficial, I guess, for the visual
arts and music space is that we have the Kansas City Art Institute and the OMKC Conservatory
literally blocks away from each other. You have world-class artists and world-class musicians in a
very affordable, comfortable space. I think of Kansas City as an incubator. You can start here, build a
community, hone your chops, and then go wherever you want. We’ve had great artists who’ve started
here and who are now in LA, and New York, and Paris, and when they come home to visit or if they
want to come home just to start a family, they’re still welcomed with open arms. It isn’t like, Oh, you
went to LA and you couldn’t make it. I guess you’re back in Kansas City. That’s not the vibe at all. It’s
welcome back. Let’s learn from you. You really get the best of both worlds.

[00:34:16.070] – David Maples
You said that people could start bands. I’ve heard that finding drummers is next impossible. Is that
not true in Kansas City?

[00:34:24.260] – Camry Ivory
Well, my husband’s a drummer, and he gets asked to play drums a lot. He does also say no to a lot.
You could probably find some drummers, finding a good drummer. I think maybe that’s.

[00:34:37.520] – David Maples
The other way. I’ve heard the joke is that drummers usually say, No, I can’t help you. I’m already in
three bands.

[00:34:42.070] – Camry Ivory
Yes, that’s yeah.

[00:34:43.080] – David Maples
How many bands is your husband in right now?

[00:34:46.490] – Camry Ivory
Officially too. But he thinks- So there’s.

[00:34:50.280] – David Maples
Still a chance.

[00:34:51.000] – Camry Ivory
There’s still a spot. There’s one more he could be into.

[00:34:53.830] – Camry Ivory
Maybe. But he’s also helping build Coloratura, which is a job in and of itself. Got it.

[00:34:58.370] – David Maples
All right, so we’ll let him off for that. Are there any local leaders or influencers in Kansas City who
really inspire you?

[00:35:07.230] – Camry Ivory
That’s such a great question. At first, I didn’t want to answer it because there are too many people.
But the person that first came to mind is Mark Manning. He is such a champion of local music. He
has a radio show on KKFI, a 90.1, which is community radio. It’s called Wednesday Midday Music
Medley. Every week, he profiles local artists and he invites them on the show and plays their music.
He promotes their events. He goes to the events and takes lovely photography and has just been such
a champion and such an advocate for the local music scene for decades now and was one of the first
people I met in Kansas City that introduced me to the local music scene.

[00:35:58.570] – David Maples
All right. Very cool. Maybe we can reach out to him and see if he’s going to come on.

[00:36:01.940] – Camry Ivory
He’s great. He’s a gem.

[00:36:02.660] – David Maples
How do you see the future of Kansas City playing out and what role you want to play in that future?

[00:36:12.900] – Camry Ivory
As I mentioned before, Arts KC and several other organizations are working on something called the
Neuro Arts Blueprint, which is where we’re integrating arts into all parts of the infrastructure of
Kansas City. I think that that has the potential to really revolutionize Kansas City. One of the trickiest
parts of being an artist, being a musician in Kansas City, and being specifically a person of color is
addressing the racial divide. I am black. I’m a black woman. I’ve been in the music scene for over a
decade, but it’s very rare that I share a stage with black musicians. It wasn’t until 2019, 2020 that I
was in a regular band with other black musicians. Not that they’re not there, they’re obviously there.
But we were playing in different genres. But also there is this weird racial divide in Kansas City that
permeates so many different sectors. I think it’s so weird when Kansas City is so well known for its
jazz scene, but most people are sent to mostly white clubs. If you ask for recommendation for good
jazz in Kansas City, people are going to say some of the clubs that are west of Trust instead of the
ones that are east of Troust, even though east of Troust is where jazz was born. You know, dealing
with that and reconciling with that, I think that if we really want to have a community that is truly
invested in the arts and art is integrated into all sectors of our city, of our community. We also have to
address that racial divide as well, because if you’re only going to promote a certain type of art, then
it’s not going to be integrated throughout the community. We have to create equal or equitable
platforms for all people because we are all Kansas Cityans, regardless of which side of truths do we
live on.

[00:38:17.230] – David Maples
It’s a very important point that you bring up here, especially. It’s how do you improve all parts of the
city? How do you improve… And I understand I’m not from here, but I’ve learned that Trust is one of
those streets that in the city is like a dividing line, if I’m correct. I would hear people reference that. I
think for two or three months, I had no idea what they were talking about. People would say things
and it’s like coded language sometimes. It’s not a bad thing. You’re like, Oh, that’s east of truest, or
whatever it is. Is that correct? Yes. I don’t know how it works. I don’t know what that means really. It’s
really interesting for me because I’ve lived in other places and other larger metros. I’m originally from
the Atlanta, Georgia area, and it’s a massive metropolitan area, which you cannot go from end-to-end
of the city in 30 minutes. It’s like two and a half hours. It’s really different. People have said, Oh, well,
that’s a cross-the-river or that’s in the northlands or that’s in Overland Park or OP, I think, some people
call it. Sometimes people will say things like, Oh, that’s in Kansas or that’s Missouri. It’s really funny.
It’s like people are sniping at each other. I don’t think that happens a lot, but there’s definitely some of
that here. The point about it is, though, at the end of the day, is that how do we understand as Kansas
Cityans? It’s that old adage, A rising tide lifts all boats. But you can’t neglect. I don’t think that
happens. I think you have to do that intentionally. My challenge with it is, and I’d like to say a rising
tide lifts all boats, but the reality of it is that, yeah, but what if they don’t have boats in that area?

[00:40:02.260] – Camry Ivory
Or if their boats have holes in them. You’ve got to fix the holes.

[00:40:05.340] – David Maples
Exactly. My question on this is how do we be more intentional about doing that? I think part of it, you
got to call it out. You’ve got to admit that there are challenges, and any great city wrestles with these
challenges. If you’re smart about it, you solve them in some way. I think absolutely bringing the
communities together. I think art is one of those things that should bridge divide some matter of
what. I don’t know, are there initiatives you think currently you’re taking that head-on that you would
really say, Hey, I think these people are fighting the fight or doing the worthy work?

[00:40:40.720] – Camry Ivory
I don’t know if I have enough information to answer that question, unfortunately. I will say that almost
every art organization that I know of has been very intentional, especially post-pandemic, and
providing support specifically for underrepresented populations. They have sent out calls for grants
specifically targeting communities or people from communities of color. They have been intentional
about making sure that their grant recipients are representative of the population of Kansas City,
demographically. I think especially in spaces that have been traditionally affluent, traditionally white,
they are doing things to make the space more open to all. I’ll give you a great example. Last week, KC
Lyric Opera partnered with No Divide KC, which is an organization that is designed to support and
empower LGBTQ artists. And so this No Divide event, this come as you are event rather, they had
traditional traditional composers who had their pieces performed with just traditional opera singers.
Then they also invited, let’s see, Music by Skippi, who’s a beatbox artist. We had Hedisa, who does
black Gothic music, and then Jade Green, who is a phenomenal R&B and hip hop artist. Just being
able to have a concert experience where you had traditional, traditional, contemporary music, but then
also cutting edge pop music. I don’t want to call it pop music. What’s the right word for it? Just
amazing. I don’t know. It was the music of the people. It was real. It was raw. It was beautiful. That
was performed at a Kansas City Opera House. It was important that they shared that stage. It was
important that they had equal footing because their music is just as relevant, if not more so, the
music of the traditional composers. There shouldn’t be a divide between the two. Why should you
have to go to one place to see this type of music and another to see another type of music? Why can’t
we just all share a similar building?

[00:43:19.410] – David Maples
Not to ask a divisive question. Go for it. But I’ve got to. Kansas City barbecue.

[00:43:28.420] – Camry Ivory
All right. Yes.

[00:43:29.710] – David Maples
It’s a question.

[00:43:30.220] – Camry Ivory
It’s a question.

[00:43:31.030] – David Maples
From what I understand is that all Kansas Cityans, whether they eat barbecue, I guess they all eat
barbecue at some level.

[00:43:38.220] – Camry Ivory
They’ll eat the sauce, at least.

[00:43:39.210] – David Maples
They’ll eat the sauce, that’s right. I’m going to ask you the question. Yes. Best barbecue in Kansas
City, where, why, and what?

[00:43:46.910] – Camry Ivory
That is a complicated question because it depends on where you’re going for. Okay. For Burton’s,
which I feel like are the quintessential Kansas City meat, I love LCs off of Blue Park Way. It doesn’t get
mentioned a lot, but I think they have the best burnt ends in Kansas City. As far as sauce, I like KC
Joe’s, but I grew up on Gates Barbecues. Much so that when I went to college, I took a little bottle of
Gates barbecue with me, and whenever I got home, I would eat it because if I ate it, then it would be
gone. But I would just smell it. It just made me feel like, Oh, yeah, it feels like Kansas City.

[00:44:27.120] – David Maples
So, LC’s?

[00:44:28.430] – Camry Ivory
LC’s, yes, for burnt ends.

[00:44:30.940] – David Maples
We will definitely put links to LC’s. Everything else has been mentioned in this episode, we’re going to
put down below the listings online. Whether you’re watching the video or if you’re listening to the
podcast right now on Spotify, Apple, Google, et cetera, where you consume your podcast, we’re going
to make sure those relevant links and information are there for both Coloratura, et cetera. Are there
any other local events and organizations and places that you think people should need to know about
or need to check out here in Kansas City?

[00:44:58.930] – Camry Ivory
I mentioned Arts KC. Charlotte Street Foundation is also doing excellent work in that space with both
visual and performing artists. I do want to give another shoutout to Englewood Arts. They’re based in
Independence, and they’re actually creating an arts district. They have zoned specific residential
neighborhoods and created essentially a subsidy to make those neighborhoods more affordable for
artists or those houses more affordable for artists. They have a beautiful multi-purpose center where
they have artist studios and performing space, glass blowing facilities. They’re really just trying to
ramp up this area and intentionally designate it as a place for artists. It’s just east of downtown. In the
past, it used to be connected by trolley to downtown, but of course, with the advent of cars, the trolley
system in Kansas City began to erode. I’m really fascinated to see what they continue to do in that
space. I hope that if and when it is successful that there are other neighborhoods in Kansas City that
can adopt that model as well.

[00:46:14.830] – David Maples
Kind of the blueprint for how they can develop things out. Exactly. That’s really exciting. For our
listeners, the final question is, how can they get involved or support your initiatives?

[00:46:25.710] – Camry Ivory
Definitely check out my website, coloratura-art.com. You can sign up on my newsletter and follow me
on social media. I really do want to just break down all these weird barriers that we have between
visual arts and musical arts and technology and just art in general, the barriers we have between
creators and observers, I just think that everyone should have the opportunity to see themselves as
creators. I think that my project is really designed to promote that. I left my full-time job to pursue it.
So if people are feeling so inclined to invest time or money or energy into helping this project continue
to grow, I will never say no to that.

[00:47:15.180] – David Maples
Again, I want to do a big thank you to Camry Ivory for being on the show today.

[00:47:18.380] – David Maples
Thank you for having me.

[00:47:19.080] – David Maples
Thank you so much. I really appreciate this. This was great.

[00:47:22.270] – David Maples
Yeah, thanks.

[00:47:24.300] – Producer
Thank you for listening to the KC Leaders Podcast. Please remember to like, share, subscribe, and
leave a review wherever you listen. For more information about this podcast, you can visit
kcleaderspodcast.com. And don’t forget to check out our other great podcasts like The Bucks Stops
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