Bailey Walton - Chair

Bailey began playing banjo in 2019 and quickly found herself embedded in Kansas City’s folk music community. In early 2020, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, she founded Kansas City Mutual Aid, leading the development of a forum for Kansas City residents to request and offer material and emotional support without judgement, as well as offering other free and accessible community services. Most recently, she co-founded the Kansas City Mutual Aid Free Skool project, offering free workshops in creative and practical skills. She is passionate about contributing to diverse, accessible spaces and excited to be a part of the continued success of KC Folk Fest!

Stephonne Singleton - Vice Chair

Stephonne is a singer-songwriter, performer, event producer and community arts advocate from Kansas City. He brings his creativity, wit and passion to everything he touches and we couldn't be happier to have him as part of our leadership as we enter our third year as a grassroots fest.

Mikal Shapiro - Secretary

In 2021, our festival coordinator Mikal Shapiro facilitated the successful transition of Kansas City Folk Festival from an event hosted by Folk Alliance International into its own nonprofit. She continues to produce the event as our coordinator. Her experience includes: Recruiting a dedicated board of local stakeholders, building and sustaining a volunteer base, producing the festival program, designing a budget, securing funding and independently coordinating the event from 2022-2025. Prior administrative experience includes serving on the Board of Directors of the Midcoast Radio Project / KKFI Kansas City Community Radio in her roles as Membership Committee Chair and Programmer Representative. Mikal is also a Kansas City based musician, artist and filmmaker.

Rachael Cady - Treasurer

Rachael Cady is a freelance lighting and video designer and an adjunct professor at UMKC. She primarily works on live events like theatre, concerts, cruise ships and large corporate meetings. Rachael's work has been seen all over the world. Locally her designs have been seen at the Kansas City Rep, Unicorn, Coterie, New Theatre, Actors Theatre and MTH. She works regularly for Virgin Voyages primarily as a video engineer and programmer but has also done design work on all the ships in the fleet. She has toured with Pit Bull, Imagine Dragons, J Lo, Paula Abdual, and several others.  When she is not working Rachael enjoys music, she is primarily a drummer, but also dabbles with keyboards, synths, drum machines and sequencers. Rachael is an avid pickleball player and has won several medals in local, and regional tournaments. Rachael is also the producer and one of the hosts of Siren Song, as well as the cohost of The Darkest Hours on KKFI 90.1FM in Kansas City. She lives with her partner Margaret and their 2 dogs Cassie and Harley.

Les Izmore - Member

Les Izmore is an AfricanFuturist multi-disciplinary artist. Izmore, centered around experimentation and Black sonic creations, is a spoken word artist, poet, writer, songwriter, music composer, beat maker and vocal performer. A Black farmer, historian and OutKast, Les Izmore is also the curator of KCulture Building. Izmore's work takes a critical look at the sociopolitical injustices of the world creating spaces for conversation, edutainment, healing, and action.

Rachel Christia - Member

​Rachel Christia is a Kansas City born techgirl, afrofuturist, vocalist, actress and landlocked mermaid. She has performed with notable MidCoast bands such as Hearts of Darkness; an eclectic collective influenced by 70s afrobeat and Denver based powerhouse Pink Hawks; pulling funky polyrhythms from West Africa and South America. More recently, she enjoys collaborating with her favorite Kansas Music legends or concocting fully improvised audience led musicals with The Maestro’s - Kansas City. She is perfectly aligned as a Kansas City Folk Fest Board member as her primary directive is to build community by lovingly blurring the lines between art and activism.

Dan Calderon - Member, ex-Officio

In 2021, treasurer Dan Calderon helped to facilitate the formation of the Kansas City Folk Festival as a separate 501(c)3 after the transition away from its ownership by Folk Alliance International. Duties in that endeavor included the formation of the organization as a non-profit entity with the State of Missouri, as well as drafting the organization’s governing documents and bylaws. Calderon also provides much of the logistical planning and permitting for the yearly event, working closely with the city of Kansas City and the Parks Department to ensure that the festival operates within city guidelines and policies. He also coordinates the many vendors that provide the festival’s crucial infrastructure – including staging, attendee comfort, and sheltering. Calderon is an attorney (currently inactive status), and received a Juris Doctorate from the University of Kansas School of Law. In his previous employment as an attorney, some of Calderon’s practice centered around contract law, corporate law, entertainment law, and commercial litigation. Dan is also a musician and music writer.