PERSPECTIVES: LULA EDWARDS AND JACK SUMMERS

Kansas City based artist Lula Renee Edwards Smith explores a multitude of mediums surrounding concepts of memory and home. During their time studying at the Kansas City Art Institute, Smith had developed passion for clay, fiber, and community teachings. Capturing memory through material became of interest to Lula and developed quickly through different means. Gravitating towards processes that required many steps through preparation and execution, the work itself became a practice of memory. From material to performance, every detail of her work comes from a place of intentionality. This brought Smith to explore concepts surrounding evidence of existence both with themselves and the world around them. Intrigued by memory and this evidence of existence within the world, community teachings became a passion to Smith as it allowed them to contribute to concepts of collective memory through art. From clay to basketry weaving, Lula began hosting classes to bring community members together to learn from one another and continue this necessary tradition of gathering and holding space with one another. Smith hopes to carry on and explore concepts of material, intentionality, and leaving evidence of existence in connection to memory and home.

Jack Summers is an award-winning songwriter from Weston, Missouri. In 2023, Jack won the Kerrville New Folk Songwriting Contest. Since then, he’s played everywhere from a honky tonk in Austin, to the backwoods of Awendaw, SC, to Iowa’s oldest barn. When he’s not playing music, Jack works as a Teacher’s Assistant in an Elementary Special Education Classroom. He also is an avid fan of the Kansas City Royals.