Kansas State University

Thursday, September 15, 2022, 5: 30 p.m.
In-person, UMB Theater, Beach Museum of Art
Offered through the Prairie Studies Initiative program
Free and open to the public.

Join us for an evening of art, music, poetry and prairie mysticism.
Watch the film Land & Flower with David Wayne Reed, film director, followed by a presentation and divination readings by poet Megan Kaminski, author of the Prairie Divination card deck and book.

Land & Flower is a short film by David Wayne Reed about tallgrass prairie remnants and the de-prairie-ization of the Great Plains. The film is a eulogy to the prairie landscape that has been uprooted and lost to the till of settlers, westward expansion, and the relentless sprawl of development. This land (all land) is both home and habitat; a narrative of balance, interdependence, and co-existence. These remnants root us in not only the layers of our history, but in our personal identity and connection to place, thus holding our pasts, our peoples, and our hopes for the future seeded in this fertile yet disappearing soil. land and flower is an artful acknowledgment of the vibrant native prairie, an emergent benediction, and a call to conservation of this rare and endangered ecosystem.

The film is adapted from a poem by Megan Kaminski, with the voices of Jane Booth, Ellen Kirk and Christinamaria Xochitlzihuatl Patiño Houle. The Kansas City-based strings duo, The Wires composed the original film score.

Following the film, poet Megan Kaminski will share the making of her book Prairie Divination and the accompanying oracle deck, both illustrated by Lesley Ann Wheeler. The set turns to the plants, animals, and geological features of the prairie as guides for living in good relation to each other—and to re-aligning thinking towards kinship, community, and interdependence. Kaminski will offer readings with the oracle deck to members of the audience.

David Wayne Reed is an actor, writer, director, and producer from Kansas City, Missouri. Reed hosts and produces the popular ‘show and tell’ storytelling series, Shelf Life. He is the 2019 Charlotte Street Generative Performing Arts Fellow.

Megan Kaminski, Associate Professor of English at the University of Kansas, is a poet and essayist—and the author of three books of poetry, Gentlewomen (Noemi, 2020), Deep City (Noemi Press, 2015) and Desiring Map (Coconut Books, 2012). Prairie Divination (Sunseen Press, 2022).

This event is part of the Beach Museum of Art’s “Art in Motion” annual program series. Image: Mother by David Wayne Reed, KC Streetcar Kauffman Center Southbound Stop, 17th Street and Main St.