B Is for B-Boy

FRI 9/16
After you’re finished with all your gallery hopping, wrap up the evening right. The Urban Culture Project continues its monthly Third Friday presentations with a Hip-Hop Showcase at Boley (at the northwest corner of 12th and Walnut streets). Though it’s being held in conjunction with all the other UCP openings that night, the party will last two hours longer, starting at 5 p.m. and going on and on until the break of dawn (or, according to organizers, midnight). The event’s roster, coordinated by local artist and brand-name Sike Style, reads like a veritable hip-hop appreciation kit. DJs Sku, Mr. Mafesto, Kiz One and Sike Steez hold it down onstage with MCs Reach, Approach, CES Cru and Vertigone, and breaking crew Dirty Q-Tips takes up the floor. A huge indoor panel provides plenty of room for graffiti artists to do their thing, and projectors will screen video art by MK12, Neil Stuber, Syndrome Studio and others, along with a live feed from the event. Check out www.urbancultureproject.org for more information.— Colin Torre

Fine China

The Nelson takes us to the Far East.

FRI 9/16
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art’s Electromediascope series, showcasing film, video and new media, starts a new season Friday with Traveling Outside and Within: Four Contemporary Chinese Artists, presented in conjunction with the exhibit Tide of Chaos, Fever Within: Chinese Painters of the 17th Century Respond to Dynastic Upheaval. Electromediascope co-curator Patrick Clancy thinks the foreign films are relevant for international audiences. “Most people know the struggles and conflicts between personal desires and allegiance to family responsibilities, the experience of nature in sublime settings and living in modern urban centers,” he says. Friday’s lineup includes films by Yang Zhenzhong (Let’s Puff, Light and Easy, Light and Easy 2, 922 Rice Corns and I Will Die) and Yang Fudong’s Seven Intellectuals in Bamboo Forest, Part 1. The free program begins at 7 p.m. in the Atkins Auditorium (4525 Oak Street, 816-751-1278) and continue on Fridays through the end of September. — Rebecca Braverman

A Gem of a Show
ArtEthnic 05 brings color to downtown.

FRI 9/16
To gain more visibility, ArtEthnic 05 — an outdoor exhibition showcasing works by artists of color — has moved from last year’s Crossroads spot to Oppenstein Park (12th Street and Walnut), according to Pat Jordan, president of the Gem Cultural and Education Center, which sponsors the event. With the Gem’s plans to renovate the Water Works buildings into a multicultural art museum, the show’s shift downtown makes sense. Perhaps exposure to the business sector will stimulate a little cash flow. Hours are 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday; afterward, head to the Urban Culture Project openings across the street. Call 816-645-1052. — Annie Fischer