2023 Summer Series – Matfield Green Works

Jeffrey Ruckman: We Have No Word for Music

Sat. October 21st, 2023, 1-2:30 p.m.
McBride Studio, 640 KS-177, Matfield Green, KS 66862

Kansas City, Missouri musician and composer Jeffrey Ruckman will lead an exploration of musical sounds that heighten the perception of our environment, incorporating piano, 2 dulcimers, accordion, gong, train sounds, and jaw harp into an examination of the subtleties of sound. This presentation is a segment of his ongoing series, “We Have No Word for Music”, which has been well received at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City. For over 35 years Jeffrey’s compositions have reached national audiences through NPR and PBS, with appearances ranging from Mardi Gras parades to avant-garde concerts.

There will be an informal gathering after the event at Diana Werts’ art studio (the old Hitchin Post bar at 201 S Reed) where we can continue the conversation, jam a little, and enjoy refreshments. Just drive to the south end of Matfield Green and park behind the dark red & metal building on the east side of the road.

Mindy Graham: Women’s Drum Circle

Sat. October 14th, 2023, 1-2:30 p.m.
McBride Studio, 640 KS-177, Matfield Green, KS 66862

Returning for another year is HealthRHYTHMS empowerment drumming facilitator Mindy Graham. Mindy is hosting a Women’s Drum Circle on the day of the solar eclipse and will guide participants in the restorative practice of placing the music of the prairie on the drum as a pathway to recover and reconnect with their own innate rhythm, power and joy.

Women-identified people must be 16 years or older to participate. No musical experience is necessary, drums and rhythm instruments will be provided.

About the Presenter

Mindy is an RN, certified Healing Touch Practitioner, HealthRHYTHMS facilitator, and faith community nurse. Through Sparrow Song Healing Arts she facilitates drum circles, teaches and presents integrative healing practices, maintains a private practice in energy healing, and makes available a women’s solitary retreat venue, Sparrow House, in Matfield Green, Kansas. Mindy lives with the prairie east of Matfield Green, in Chase County, Kansas.

Josh Hoy: From Kansas to Kyrgyzstan: An Epic Trek

Sat. September 23rd, 2023, 1-2 p.m.
McBride Studio, 640 KS-177, Matfield Green, KS 66862

As rancher Josh Hoy knows, grasslands are not unique to the Flint Hills. A fifth-generation rancher in the old-growth tallgrass prairie, he has cowboyed all over the globe while gaining valuable experience and knowledge of the prairie and ranching. Now settled down, he and his partner, Gwen, use instinctive migratory grazing techniques in combination with rebooting herd behaviors at the Flying W Ranch in order to sustainably manage his family’s piece of the prairie.

Through an epic trek with his father, Jim Hoy, in 2017, Josh observed stockmanship and horse culture from the tallgrass prairie of Kansas to the high steppe of Kyrgyzstan, a country located in Central Asia. In ‘International Grasslands: Kansas to Kyrgyzstan’ Hoy will discuss the similar and disparate flora and fauna, Kyrgyz agricultural practices, and nomadic culture, and will share photographs and Kyrgyz horse gear.

Kandace Creel Falcón: “Marfil Grin”: How Mexican Americans Made the Flint Hills Home

Sat. September 9th, 2023, 1-2 p.m.
McBride Studio, 640 KS-177, Matfield Green, KS 66862

Bringing together scholars, artists, and community members connected to Santa Fe Railroad bunkhouses and Mexican settlements of Kansas, this session explores how Mexican Americans shaped this land through their laboring as railroad track hands. Recognizing that all members of the family played a part in life in the bunkhouse, we will reflect on the power of repairing historical erasures by firmly situating the history of Mexican peoples as vital to the reality of the region. Through highlighting the history of Matfield Station and drawing attention to public history projects throughout the state as well as artistic interventions we honor family members’ and community members’ efforts to make Kansas home in the past and present.

Julia Fabris McBride: When Everyone Leads: See and Solve Your Most Important Challenges

Sat. August 26th, 2023, 1-2:30 p.m.
McBride Studio, 640 KS-177, Matfield Green, KS 66862

Matfield Green resident Julia Fabris McBride engages you in conversation about her national bestselling book. Explore a new, counter cultural approach to leadership. Tap into the power of everyone leading. Unleash new capacity to make more progress on your most important challenges. Check out this video. Then join us to discover new ways to move forward on what matters most.

About the Presenter

Julia Fabris McBride has worked with the Kansas Leadership Center (KLC) since 2009. She is a certified coach and author of three books, including the bestselling When Everyone Leads (co-authored with Ed O’Malley from Bard Press, January 2023). KLC programs she oversees reach thousands globally every year. Julia and her family run Matfield Station and welcome the public to enjoy sculpture and the tallgrass prairie on the Matfield Station PrairyArt Path.

Rachel Rector: Impressions of Light on the Prairie: Cyanotype Workshop

Sat. August 19th, 2023, 1-2:30 p.m.
McBride Studio, 640 KS-177, Matfield Green, KS 66862

In this workshop, attendees will explore the prairie in Matfield Green collecting nature items to use to learn to make your own sun prints using traditional cyanotype analog processing using the sun or UV light as our source. The cyanotype is a photographic printing process that produces blue prints using coated paper and light. The process was discovered by the scientist and astronomer Sir John Herschel in 1842. Herschel used the cyanotype process so that he could reproduce mathematical tables along with other notes and diagrams.

We’ll provide all necessary supplies, but participants are welcome to bring anything they’d like to make prints of or print onto. Fabric, cardboard and paper can all be printed onto. Flowers, bugs, photo negatives, sticks, bones, or anything you can think of can be used to make your prints. You will take home original prints on paper and fabric.

About the Presenter:

Rachel Rector is a fine art film photographer whose work utilizes experimental film, cameraless photography, and historical printmaking techniques to evoke the ethereal, daydream quality of a nostalgic moment in nature. She often adds poetry, collage, and textile elements to her hand-printed photographs to convey the sentiment of the natural space. Her images have been published in Polaroid, Huffington Post, The Hand, Lenscratch and displayed in galleries throughout the U.S. Rachel has developed educational workshops believing that teaching 18th-century processes like cyanotypes and anthotypes captivates students’ senses and encourages them to become more engaged with their environment. She is currently enjoying living in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Lem Shepperd: African American Musicians in Kansas 1860-1920

Sat. August 12th, 2023, 1-2:30 p.m.
McBride Studio, 640 KS-177, Matfield Green, KS 66862

A national performer and composer, musician Lem Sheppard will intersperse cowboy songs, blues and original songs with discussion of early Black settlement and music in the Flint Hills while accompanying himself on guitar. Sheppard has performed throughout the U.S., from the Kennedy Center to blues festivals, night clubs and schools. He has composed music for PBS and his own recordings.

Going beyond the music, Sheppard’s scholarly research is a fount of African-American traditional music and folklore and is presented with energy and humor. He has pioneered research into the largely overlooked roles of Black Kansas musicians in community music in places like Dunlap, Osage City, Wamego, Manhattan, Eureka, El Dorado and Junction City. This research informs the conversation during his performance.

Bob and Diana Suckiel: Trains, Tramps, and Tradition

Sat. August 5th, 2023, 1-2:30 p.m.
McBride Studio, 640 KS-177, Matfield Green, KS 66862

Bob Suckiel is a singer, guitarist, storyteller, and retired train engineer. He brings stories of life, work, hobos, and travel on the rails, singing in harmony with his wife, Diana Suckiel. Bob’s irrepressible spirit and booming baritone voice will put you in the mood for stories and songs, to the tune of the trains that roll through our town all day long. Bob worked on four different railroads, and has seen Matfield Green from the trains; he worked as a Gandy Dancer (section hand), a Snake (switchman), a Stinger (brakeman) a Captain (conductor) and a Hog Head (engineer). He and Diana played in the group “Rose Tattoo” with Utah Phillips, have hosted radio shows in Kansas City for at least 40 years, and were instrumental in the folk boom there in the ’70s.

Pat O’Connor: From Beat to Hip: Kansas Counterculture in the 1960s and 1990s

Sat. July 29th, 2023, 1-2 p.m.
McBride Studio, 640 KS-177, Matfield Green, KS 66862

Please join Pat O’Connor for a look at underground events in Kansas that mirrored those on the East and West coasts of the United States. O’Connor will expand on his community-based living experience in Matfield Green, as well as his significant involvement with the Wichita Blues. You can expect laughs, stories, and engaging blues history interspersed with anecdotes about miscellaneous adventures in a 1977 Buick Riviera bopping around the Flint Hills.

About the Presenter:

Author, musician, and creative writer Pat O’Connor was born in Wichita and spent considerable time in Matfield Green in the mid-1990s, always impressed by the resiliency of the land and its people. Prior to his time in Matfield Green, he lived in England for a year, busking blues on Portobello Road among other adventures. He is currently an Associate of The Royal Photographic Society and an Associate Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, among other things.

He received his MA in Communications from Wichita State University in 1989 and has been published in several academic journals. He is currently slated to publish a book about blues music in Wichita with the University of Mississippi Press later this year.

Kelly Werts: Annual Birthday Jam

Sat. July 22nd, 2023, 1-2:30 p.m.
McBride Studio, 640 KS-177, Matfield Green, KS 66862

After working for more than thirty years as a performer, recording artist and producer throughout the Midwest, Kelly Werts has retired to the town of Matfield Green. He loves playing traditional acoustic music with friends and neighbors, making occasional appearances around the area, and doing recording projects at his home studio.

This year’s third annual birthday jam will feature Kelly at the keyboard with special musical guests Diana Werts (accordion), Katherine Hamm (violin), and Carole Brown (bass). Kelly welcomes volunteers from the audience to jam on well-known old time tunes, and for those who don’t play an instrument, there will be singing as well, with song lyrics provided!