[female narrator 1] Art Loft is brought to you by... [male narrator] Where there is freedom.

There is expression.

The Florida Keys and Key West.

[female narrator 1] The Miami-Dade County Tourist Development Council, the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor, and the Board of County Commissioners and the Friends of South Florida PBS.

[female narrator 2] Art Loft.

It's the pulse of what's happening in our own backyard as well as a taste of the arts across the United States.

In this episode, environments in arts maven creating space for other voices, a visual artist displaced but keeping home alive and a photographer celebrating the art of decay.

[female narrator 2] From supporting performers to teaching and writing plays, Darius V. Daughtry is an arts force in Broward County and beyond.

We get a look at his latest play and we hear what's to come for the Art Prevails Project.

[darius v. daughtry] Historically, like in hip hop or such, you know, a mixtape has, you know just a varied energy happening on the same mix.

They don't really make tapes anymore but so, in a theatrical mixtape it is that, there is a mixture of vignettes, like, short plays, monologues, some poems, music, some dance all kind of woven together along a particular storyline or a theme or consistent energy that drives throughout the entire show.

B to the L to the A to the C to the K. Black, black, black.

Aye.

[darius v. daughtry] My name is Darius V. Daughtry.

I am a poet, playwright, director, educator, founder and director of a nonprofit organization, the world's greatest uncle.

And, you know, some more stuff.

[performer] Hey, we gotta go back to the past, man.

Geez.

I don't think that's how karma works.

[darius v. daughtry] And I'm proud of the work we're doing as a performing art organization.

So, for the past couple of years, we've done some great work down at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts and we're continuing to do that.

We have a show coming up called The Happening: A Theatrical Mixtape Volume IV.

That focuses on journeys and experiences and perspectives of, you know, life and trials and tribulations and joy.

But from the islands and from the perspective of black men and boys.

[performer 1] ...is pregnant.

I'm about to be a whole daddy.

[performer 2] What?

Lying bro!

Brokson has been great.

Since we've kind of fostered a relationship, they've been great partners.

Giving us a space to really be who we are and not have to conform to anything.

To have, to be in such a world-class venue, but still stay true to who we are, to who I am as an artist.

Be present in your own way.

What I gave to my cast was a skeleton of the show that I had written and our beginning rehearsals were just real kind of ideation processes.

And so we actually just had conversations.

I recorded conversations and talked.

I had them do some free writing, some just kind of opening up and writing different things.

And so from that, that's what the final product has come, from a combination of what I'd already kind of had and then what we did in this process to kind of bring it out of them.

And now their voice is deeply embedded in this show.

And for me as an artist, one of the most exciting things is the rehearsal process is the ideation.

It is what's discovered in that time before we ever hit the stage.

You can go ahead, you know, go, engage, right?

Let's go, go ahead, let's bullet, action.

So, but go from that, where we just stopped.

[douglas goodridge] Darius gave us this assignment to write a letter to our younger selves, and I kind of got carried away.

I have way too many drafts of that letter.

It's been very immersive.

It's been an experience like exploring what it is to be black and to be a black man specifically, and how much of that is repressed and stuff that I don't think about.

[david hepburn] My favorite thing about acting actually is, it's not the applause, it's that moment where you feel it.

You can palpably feel the energy in the room when you connect with the audience and it's like, I got you.

And I know I have it and I know that you're fully invested and I've pulled you in and now we're gonna go on this ride together.

Some good, you know, but some pretty horrible things that happened right here.

[darius v. daughtry] I wanna be able to take it to some schools and take it to some, you know, organizations that deal with, you know and work with young men specifically.

And so, that's my goal 'cause, you know, one of my goals as an artist and with founding Art Prevails Project is to, kind of, create this equity and as far as access to arts is concerned.

And so, sometimes that means taking the art to the people as opposed to trying to get the people to come see it.

And so hopefully after we run it at the Broward Center we'll be able to do that like a lot in 2023.

[darius v. daughtry] So in April we are launching Our Voices - Festival of Words.

And what'll be happening there is, we'll have authors and speakers and poets, and performers.

We're bringing down the Poet Laureate from the state of Alabama, Ms. Ashley M. Jones.

We're bringing down national touring storyteller, David Fakunle, who's professor at the University of Florida.

And then we'll have a lot of local authors and speakers and professors.

The whole goal is to create this energy and love and passion around words.

So it is both the literary festival and the literacy festival, right?

So we want to connect with those who may or may not read often or who may have trouble, who may need some resources.

To be able to provide resources for those, you know whether it's children, adult, seniors, whomever, you know to get what they they need.

But also we want to elevate and shine light on just the power of the written and spoken words.

So I want this to feel like everybody feels like this is for them.

Whether you're a scholar or a janitor somewhere or a kid who is struggling to read in the third grade, I want you to feel like, "Oh!

I can come here and they have something that's here for me."

And it's gonna be a great time.

You know, there'll be fun, food, storytelling, after party, you know, it's gonna be a great time.

But really it's really about building that love for words and the written and the language in, you know, in our community.

[female narrator 2] Our longtime content partner, Oolite Arts is celebrating a big win, a Suncoast Regional Emmy Award for its art film, 1402 Pork n' Bean Blue.

The emotional film by Oolite fellow Juan Luis Matos, follows Miami based photographer and visual artist Rosco B.

Thick , on this journey to hold on to a sense of home and a sense of place.

[rosco b. thick ] I remember Easters at my grandmother's house.

The whole family go to church that morning, I trust it at 9.

It was beautiful, I mean my sisters would have on, their Easter dresses, ruffle socks, black patent leather shoes.

Me and my brother and my cousin would have on our little suits, vests, cover bonds sometime.

After the church we would go back to my grandmother's house.

And she'd have all type of food, I'm talking, Macaroni and cheese, collard greens, cornbread all of the things.

We would change into our play clothes.

And we went in the backyard and the adults had always set up Easter eggs all through the yard.

It was humongous y'all.

So just this vivid memory of me running through that clothes in the clothes line trying to find these eggs all over the backyard.

Me fighting with my cousins and trying to get past them, trying to find an egg.

My mom and my aunts just watching us, just laughing enjoying the good time.

And just that feeling that you feel like, even when I think about it now, like, it feels so good.

And I know they enjoyed it 'cause I enjoy doing that type of stuff with my kids.

My name is Rosco B.

Thick .

I'm a photographer, visual artist, father, husband, son, grandson, veteran, brother, other.

I'm all things.

[rosco b. thick ] I've always photographed that house, 'cause the people there, the house itself, the neighborhood has so much history, so much richness, so much beautifulness.

Literally generations of generations of generations of generations of family have come through that house.

Almost everybody in the family has lived at that house at some point in their life.

I think when I first picked up a camera it was to capture beauty.

I was in South Korea, they had mountains, they had snow, they had people that looked nothing like me, houses that looked nothing like me, rice fields, just all these things that was new to me.

I think I used photography as a tool to honor legacy.

I feel like it's my obligation.

Like, everybody I know from Miami didn't get a chance to leave Miami.

So, me coming back with this perspective, with this information, with this new way of seeing I want to kind of, give it back to them.

I want to show them they are amazing that their experiences are worth something.

That what they're going through their everyday lives are part of this history that should be documented forever and ever.

[rosco b. thick ] When I first came back to Miami I was gonna carry a study on my cousin, his whole situation, he was going in and he had just got out of jail.

He was on house arrest.

And me just feeling the power in this situation.

While I'm shooting him I'm having a conversation with my grandma.

She's going back and forth to the hospital getting sicker and sicker.

At one point, she can't even move off the couch.

While I'm doing all this work with my family, I see the projects in front of our house get torn down and I realize, ours is next?

My grandmother, Irene Elizabeth Love, she was a cornerstone.

Not just my family, the whole neighborhood.

She lived in the house for a very long time.

The thing about my grandmother, she was the glue that kept the family together.

When you have something generational, people come, people go, but you always want somewhere to count as home.

And that was always home.

Even if you didn't live there.

Grandma's house was home.

I remember rumors, years before, that they were gonna tear pork n' bean projects and never seen the action.

So I didn't think it was real.

But then I remember seeing part of projects getting demolished and like, I didn't really think it could happen to my grandmother's house.

I really, I didn't really think it was actually possible that my grandmother's house wasn't there until she passed away.

I felt a sense of anxiety throughout the family.

Like, when I actually saw Monte Clarita, uncle Timmy, Dre had to move from that five bedroom house to a two bedroom apartment.

I was like, "Wow, this is really happening."

Like, and me just wondering, thinking like, how would our family move forward?

We can't celebrate Thanksgiving in this two bedroom house.

Oh, we can't come over here for New Year's Day and have shrimp and grits like we usually do.

Like, we can't come over here and just chill out to some, because this is an apartment, it's a two bedroom apartment.

The whole dynamic of the whole family is gonna change now.

Grief, deep sorrow, especially that caused by someone's death.

Grief, the one thing holding you back from moving on.

Grief, missing someone who doesn't miss you back.

Grief, a piece of your soul floating away without you noticing.

Grief, something that hits you out of thin air like a bullet to the head.

Unexpected and unfortunate is how you describe it.

I can't help but miss the times and memories we had in this place, we once called home.

It's empty now.

It's gone.

And the memories with it slowly fade away without our consent.

Lord, I don't wanna forget.

Please don't let me forget.

Oh grief, if only we know when you'll hit.

[rosco b. thick ] When I'm not taking photos I'm raising my three amazing kids.

I'm coaching football, basketball, track or wrestling.

I'm at the beach, yoga with my daughter.

I'm riding bikes with my daughter.

I'm playing basketball with my boys, I'm fathering.

I'm doing something community oriented.

I think being all these things allows me to portray intimacy within my work.

Helps me to associate with people, 'cause I've been in a lot of places and spaces.

I've lived a lot of lives, I've done it all.

But I think especially with the working with kids a lot it gives me some type of empathy.

Gives me some type of open mindedness to be in any situation and somehow able to find common ground where people are able to trust me, believe in me and just know who I am.

[female narrator 2] While cities have seen their landscapes changed by gentrification, the malls of yesteryear are fading in Middle America.

WVIZ Ideastream brings us this profile of Akron, Ohio photographer Jessica Anschutz.

This photo is of me, and I was 18 months old and my mom had me at Chapel Hill Mall.

And she was approached by a photographer from the Akron Beacon Journal who asked, if her child would pose with some tiger cubs.

And my mom said yes.

So this picture ran in the Akron Beacon Journal in 1978.

My name is Jessica Anschutz, I am a documentary photographer and a storyteller.

I basically grew up there.

I've always joked that it's my... it was my childhood home, because I lived three miles from it.

I went on my first date at that mall, at the movie theater.

I had my very first job at the mall.

So it was always a presence in my life.

I started photographing malls in 2016.

I've wanted to pick my camera back up.

So I did, with the intention of starting a daily creative practice.

I've always been interested in architecture and buildings.

And I drove by Rolling Acres on my way to my mom's house.

And I was like, "Oh, okay, I think I'm gonna go take pictures of the old Kauffman's because it was falling apart."

I really didn't get like, nostalgic form until I started doing this, until I started photographing them.

From there, I started doing more research and I ended up at Canton Centre Mall.

And so you're in this space that is familiar.

You can look at the storefronts and know from like, the colors and patterns like, what store used to be there.

There might be a label scar.

But all of the plants were dead.

The fountain was empty.

It just, it smelled old and moldy and musty but it's still, you know, it was a mall.

And that was the one that I was like, "Yes, this is what I need to be doing."

There's clearly something happening and I want to capture this.

With malls now like, they've taken all the seating out.

You know, you don't see fountains like, even plants are hard to come by.

And it's just this big white box that you go in, you shop and you leave.

When I visit malls, I am very immersed in the actual experience of it.

I shop while I'm there, if I can.

We'll get a snack, we'll go sit by the fountain, if they have one.

You know, we engage in the space and I think that lends itself to photos that are a little more atmospheric.

And I feel like my photos are a little more intimate.

I wasn't anticipating this, but I love it and I've just dug into it.

And it's endlessly fascinating because people dig into it from so many different aspects.

You know, like, I'm looking at it from more of like, wanting to document these places while they're still around and engaging with people and just enjoying the nostalgia.

But I'm also not a person who is like, "And I think mall should still exist."

In a lot of ways, the time of the mall has passed.

I do think it's important for photos and the folklore of a mall to still exist.

[female narrator 2] From buildings in decay, to the impacts we have on the earth every day.

Fountainhead Arts brings us this visit with artists focusing their practice on the environment.

[gabrielle vitollo] I make paintings from satellite perspectives, not to tell people how to feel about the climate crisis but rather to invite them for reflection.

I paint fast to reflect the urgency but also to echo how rapidly these landscapes are changing.

In my paintings I break their rectangular format as a symbolic approach to rethinking systems because the current systems of production are destroying the planet.

I feel optimistic about the future of the planet.

I see a lot of innovation and I think that people will find a solution.

They always do.

[cathy hsiao] Coming from an immigrant history, it's really important to me to translate these experiences of trauma, of displacement, into healing and pleasure.

So the forms that I use come from, you know, my background as a Chinese Taiwanese American.

And my processes in my studio also come from this context of using traditions from East Asia, but also using materials and food waste from my everyday environment, such as, indigo, turmeric and avocado dye.

Climate change is specifically impactful to people of color and it's important to me that these traditions are represented when we talk about sustainability.

[scott bluedorn] I think consciousness requires us to bear witness to the miraculousness that is this life and living creation.

When I look at industrial ruins and kind of, the remnants of our society, I want to force viewers and the audience to look at the implications of what we do and what we decide might be a good way for us to live.

Miami's a really unique city.

It's a very young city.

The arts in general are really taking root here and it's also on the forefront of this climate crisis.

So I think working within the sphere of climate is incredibly important in this area, particularly.

And I think as humans, our jobs is to steward the planet and to steward ourselves and living systems.

And I think my art is just a small part of that.

[female narrator 2] In the Florida Keys, photographer Andreas Franke is using the forces of nature to transform his art and make a statement about the health of our oceans.

[andreas franke] The super cool thing with artwork on the water is that, at first it's just photography, but after this, the sea helps me to make these images unique, and I have no influence during these three months.

My name is Andreas Franke.

I'm a photographer and I love diving.

I'm very concerned about plastic in the ocean.

For my plastic ocean images I collected real plastic trash, from the ocean, from the Mediterranean sea, very close to Venice, Italy.

So four of us went down there, collected only one hour on the beach, and we had more than enough plastic to do all these 24 images.

Then, I had a pool, like a tank.

I placed girls as well as kids in this plastic and made like a still life, like an old classic still life.

And surrounded in the water, in the tank, the plastic pieces we collected around the talents.

So the reason why I came to Key West and hang the artwork in Key West on the Vandenberg is of course it's an outstanding shipwreck and also a wonderful dive destination.

And for me, I really see it as a gallery.

All right, let's bring you down.

We are almost done.

We brought them down, all the 24 images and hang them with magnets on the side of the shipwreck.

So during these three months while this exhibition was underwater on the Vandenberg, more than 10,000 divers had the possibility to see this project.

After three months, I came back and we brought this artwork up, we brought them on land.

We clear code them, that all the sea life get stable and will not crumble.

Now after these images are clear coded we will show it again and we will show it in a gallery.

During these three months, these images changed because the good thing of the sea, the sea life become a part of my artwork and converted them.

So I do 50%.

The other 50% is doing the sea.

After this three months when I bring them up there is a lot of growth of micro organism.

And it changed these images and make them unique.

Also, if I would do it a second time, it never ever would look similar.

And that is fantastic.

And here you can see how the artwork looks before and here you can see the difference.

So what you see here and why I love this so much to hang the artwork on the water.

It's like the water drips in, in these images and change the colors and creates frames.

Like in the old times when we had Polaroids.

[female narrator 2] Find full episodes, segments and more at artloftsfl.org and on YouTube at South Florida, PBS.

[female narrator 1] Art Loft is brought to you by... [male narrator] Where there is freedom, there is expression.

The Florida Keys and Key West.

[female narrator 1] The Miami-Dade County Tourist Development Council, the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council the Miami-Dade County Mayor and the Board of County Commissioners and the Friends of South Florida PBS.