Calvin Arsenia in the Good Way Listening Room

The Good Way Listening Room is a new concert experience curated for Emporia, Kansas. Immersive and Intimate, this series invites listeners to lose themselves in the moment through music.
Our first guest could not be more fit for the task of capturing your undivided attention.
Gaining widespread recognition for his soulful vocals and virtuosic classical-harp playing, Calvin Arsenia is a singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist hailing from Kansas City, Missouri. In addition to his solo work, Arsenia has collaborated with a variety of artists across different media, including film and television, and has performed at numerous festivals and venues around the world. He is known for his heartfelt and introspective lyrics that often touch on themes of love, loss, and personal growth. Arsenia's music has been described as a blend of folk, pop, and R&B, and he continues to use his gift of music to draw bridges between communities separated by race, class, gender, sex, and/or religious beliefs.
Since 2023, Arsenia has been the director of an intimate concert venue and community space in the heart of Kansas City, Missouri, called Greenwood Social Hall - the location he filmed his award-winning music video featuring his cover of Britney Spears's Toxic.
Alongside his best friend and co-host New York based comedian Justin Randall, Arsenia explores the ups and downs of being a queer person raised in the Evangelical Church in the 2020-2021 podcast We Were Christian Kids.
In 2021, Arsenia released a book of poems and short stories called Every Good Boy Does Fine; Both a journey of individual healing and a call for action, these poems show that, with a little love and acceptance, anyone can flourish.
Good Way Gardens would like to thank Doc and Tracey Graham for their sponsorship of this inaugural Good Way Listening Room performance.
> “ What may seem like genre-hopping in his latest album, Cantaloupe, is actually Arsenia looking past the boundaries of his gospel background and classical training to find the most direct line of expression to inform our common struggles.”
— World Cafe, NPR [www.npr.org/sections/world-cafe/2018/12/01/672202933/heavy-rotation-10-songs-public-radio-cant-stop-playing]
> “Arsenia’s music is highly conceptual and genre-elusive, so the show was equal parts opera, symphony, musical theater, rock show, all built around its creator: a charismatic 6-foot-7-inch harpist with natural stage command and knack for gilding gold and painting lilies.” - Tim Finn