Frederick Hammersley Foundation... New Mexico PBS Great Southwestern Arts & Education Endowment Fund at the Albuquerque Community Foundation... ...New Mexico Arts, division of the Department of Cultural Affairs with supplemental funding by the New Mexico CARES Act and by the National Endowment for the Arts.

...and Viewers Like You.

THIS TIME, ON COLORES!

A STORY OF TWO DESERTS.

MOVING FROM KUWAIT TO ALBUQUERQUE, ZAHRA MARWAN EXPLORES QUESTIONS OF IDENTITY.

WITH AUTOHARP IN HAND, FOLKSINGER THOM MCCAIN HAS PERFORMED DAILY CONCERTS FROM HIS PORCH SINCE THE START OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC.

ANONYMITY WAS ESSENTIAL FOR SURVIVAL, AUTHOR ARLO HASKELL UPDATES HISTORY ON HOW THE NEVADA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION CREATES AN "ON THE ROAD EXPERIENCE."

IT'S ALL AHEAD ON COLORES!

CLEARING AWAY LABELS.

I use things which are in my day to day life, or how I live my life.

About people I love and what they do.

Or things I dream about.

And memories.

In a lot of ways I feel like I am from two deserts.

There are similarities between the cultures in the way people are generous at heart.

I have some drawings I can show you.

I made this after visiting an island off of Kuwait and seeing the ancient Greek and Dilmun Ruins and thought I'd feel closer to ancestors in that way.

When I learned the Lucha Libre were making masks in Mexico instead of wrestling.

My dad and the upside down palm trees revolving around an old Gulf song about wondering if people still remember you.

And other things like other stories about people I'm not related to, like Frederico Garcia Lorca and making art in times of Fascism.

Or wrestling my own thoughts like the old Persian miniatures.

Or my grandmother, who at the time seemed very modern to have smoked cigarettes.

And other stories revolving around, again, my dad who I miss very much.

And wanting to be a photographer and looking closely at the I'm just usually talking about what I know and what I've lived and it becomes an identity issue I suppose.

I still have very deep connections to Kuwait.

My mom lives there now.

I have very fond memories of my childhood there and I go back every summer.

One thing we would often do is eat watermelon after lunch.

Family afternoons last into the night.

It's loud, the food is good.

People take naps when you're sitting with them and no one Sometimes is hard to explore the stigma of identity.

You acknowledge who you are and you like who you are but some people don't agree or they find reasons to tell you why you are not the story which you are presenting.

Being stateless means you're born without any recognition from a sovereign nation.

In my personal case, my mom is a citizen and my father wasn't.

So, I was born stateless like him.

Although they were both from the same communities of Southwestern Iranians who migrated into the Arab Gulf.

I use a lot of imagery or things I see around Albuquerque or stories of friends and their families to show that I'm also home here, that I'm embraced here, that I've become a person who feels like they're from here.

A fellow artist at the Harwood Art Center came to my studio one day and asked if I wanted some pears.

So, my friend Eric Romero, we went downstairs, he climbed a tree and started chucking pears down and I suppose that's what it feels like to feel welcomed.

[ laughs ] When I immigrated here as a child I was lucky to be in a public school where educators told me I should be proud of my language and my culture.

I've made so many good friends here who are so different than me culturally yet tell me things like, "you're one of us."

An acquaintance I met, a musician named Noah Martinez who played the guitarón and I read an article about him and he mentioned that he likes to walk from Albuquerque to Chimayó to feel closer to his ancestors.

And I obviously resonated with that in a lot of ways.

Like, you feel so extracted that you try to hold on to whatever you can to feel closer to your family or who you are.

I keep creating art because it helps me connect to these larger ideas and feelings.

MUSIC FOR PASSERS-BY.

[ running water ] >> We live in this really incredible house on the edge of Overbrook Ravine, and across the ravine is a city park.

Crisis came and I think I, like everybody, wanted to -- what can I do?

I had remembered the Italians out singing, you know?

And New York City, there were people out singing, and I said, "Well, I got a porch."

It's too far for anything they throw to hit me.

You know?

I'll just see what happens.

And that was the middle of March, and I've pretty much played every day.

There's a meeting here tonight great god I'm glad you came along hope all your brothers and your sisters here can help me sing this song I'm playing an autoharp.

I was totally self-taught.

It is probably the easiest instrument to play immediately, because the chords.

You just push a button and you get an a or a c. Let's hear it.

Meeting here tonight I know you by your friendly face there's a meeting here tonight there's a meeting here tonight Woo!

[ applause ] Hi, guys.

"Meeting here tonight."

I'm Thom on the Porch.

When you make your list when you retire, the things you want to do.

And one of the was, I really wanted to get to play the thing well.

And so I went and found Brian Bowers, who's the world's greatest autoharpist.

And he invited me to come out.

And stayed with him for a week, and it really changed.

Oh, I was playing the thing wrong.

And the sons of pullman porters and the sons of they ride their father's magic carpet made of steel mothers put their babes to sleep rockin' to a gentle beat the rhythm of the rails is all they good morning America how are you don't you I'm the train they call the city of New Orleans I'll be gone 500 miles when the day is done Oh Danny boy the pipes the pipes are calling from glen to glen and down the mountain side Got to Ireland and started reading about its history.

And as an Irish-American we used to sing "Who Threw the Overalls in Mrs. Murphy's Chowder," and those kinds of things.

But the more you learn about the history of the place and realize what poets and song-writers there have been in that country forever.

You really get attracted to it.

And Ireland was occupied for 800 years by some other invader, essentially.

And they've only been a country since 1931.

Lots of troubles.

Lots of war songs.

Lots of immigration songs out of the famine.

So I started learning a lot of the repertoire.

And fell in love with both the sad songs, as well as songs about the trauma of becoming a country.

And of becoming a rural, agrarian place into being, you know, one of the really successful countries in the European Union now.

Well one of the songs that I really love in the Irish repertoire is called "Come by the Hills."

We have a friend, Harry Long, he took me to one of these passage tombs in the north of Ireland.

There are 400 of these -- they're sort of like Stonehenge is a passage tomb, you know.

It has the lighting up the interior and all of that stuff and the astronomer as well.

Ireland has tons of these.

Mostly across the middle-northern part of Our friend took us to this passage tomb, and he went to the farmer's house and he got the key.

And we went and climbed up a little hill, and got into this ancient place that was like a temple.

We don't quite know how old the one I was in was, but it could've been 4,000 years old.

Because they were made before the pyramids of Egypt.

The sound was perfect.

And I'd heard him sing this song "Come by the Hills" to his daughter the night before, and I said, "Lets play it."

So he starts playing it, and I started playing along.

And I learned the song there, after about an hour, hour and a half.

It also has, oh, just the best line about Ireland.

The cares of tomorrow must wait 'til this day is done.

Isn't that nice?

And the cares of tomorrow must wait 'til this day is done Isn't that a nice sentiment, huh?

[ applause ] You just -- you just feel being in Ireland there.

[ barking ] Once upon a time there was a tavern where we used to raise a glass or two remember how we laughed away the hours and dreamed of all those great things we would do Just when I think I'm lonely -- you know, I'm there all by myself.

Somebody comes by and waves and keeps on going.

Or a family comes and starts to play in the creek.

Or horns start honking.

I remember one time a car went by and it had a sun roof and four hands came up and you know waved at that.

Yes those were the days We all have this difficult time now, where we're all, I think, becoming to realize - at least I have and most of my friends -- that it will never be the same again.

We can't go back any place, 'cause back is gone.

So I've been opening up and being a different person during this process.

And I've seen the people who come, the regulars who are changing, and have a little lighter load.

I, I, I just recommend that, that people do something, you know, that they can share and maybe brighten somebody else's life.

We need it.

Those were the days ah yes those were the days [ applause ] >> that's all folks.

Thanks for coming.

See you tomorrow.

BRINGING FORWARD LOST STORIES.

Jews headed many of the smuggling networks that emerged.

To the migrants whose lives were saved and families restored...These criminal organizations served a humanitarian purpose.

A migrant who followed this route later told his story under the fictitious name, Louis Kurland.

We lay in the boat like herring in a barrel Kurland said.

It was very hot.

And the heat from our bodies made it hotter.

I am ready to go to hell if I have to, it cannot be any worse than that day in the boat.

We're here in key West with the author Arlo Haskell.

So tell us a little bit about how you evolved as a writer.

I really came up as a poet and then about, 10 years ago, I had started to do a little bit of historical research looking into the kind of literary histories of writers who had spent time in Key West and learned that I kind of loved getting into archives.

In addition to being a writer historian, I'm the executive director of the Key West Literary seminar.

I get to make sure that Literary Key West is not just part of the past.

I also, I run a small press sandpaper press and we publish poetry a little bit of fiction.

I'm sort of always working on one book or another.

Your latest book is called the Jews of Key West smugglers, cigar makers, and revolutionaries.

Jews have thrived in this climate since the 1820s, even where they have been forgotten or where anonymity was essential to their survival Jews have shaped the Island we know today, their history is the history of Key West.

I'm fascinated by untold histories.

And this book is full of that.

My first phase of research was kind of trying to, like fact check family stories like that.

One of the things I found surprising and had no idea about was that Jews were part of the industry of cigars down here.

The cigar industry is one of the more popular components of Key West history.

And it's always told as a Cuban story, you know, it's certainly a big Cuban story, but, um, actually in fact, the, the cigar industry in Key West was pioneered by Jewish manufacturers.

Particularly a guy named Samuel Seidenberg who capitalized on, a tariff structure that made it, financially advantageous to produce cigars domestically in the United States rather than on the Island of Cuba.

So what are the main characters that features in your book is named Louis Fine?

Louis Fine was a, a Lithuanian Jewish immigrant.

And he was a real, catalyst for the community.

He, was not an ordained rabbi, but he was the de-facto rabbi for the community.

So we're here in the Jewish section of the cemetery at Key West.

And this place sort of is one of the beginnings of organized Jewish life down here.

This is, this is the, that brings you the furthest back in time, as far as a physical place you can visit.

And in your research, did you see a lot of these names popping up?

Yeah, absolutely.

I would sometimes come here to, as a research visit, I found that it would help me, you know, thinking about the people I was writing about.

So around the same time as this was established was around when the first synagogue was established.

Right.

That's right.

Yeah.

The cemetery was established in the 1890s.

And then in the first decade of the 19 hundreds, Louis Fein and others, purchased a wood frame building and established the first formal synagogue.

There's a restaurant there today called Sara Beth's.

B'nai.

Zion is the, is the temple that continues in Key West today on United street.

And that's the one that opened in the late sixties.

Into this thriving, multicultural, multilingual community of Key West in the late 19th century comes a very pivotal figure in Cuban history, Jose Marti, who was the one to kind of successfully crystallize the decades long struggle for Cuban independence.

Jews like Louis Fine, a lent their support to the cause.

He carried this family legacy of having been his family, having been persecuted by the Spanish, during the inquisition.

What, what surprised me is how much, that story and others had disappeared, even from oral history in Key West.

MAKING ART PUBLIC.

>>Imagine driving through the Nevada desert, and you reach an area where you see beautiful cultural symbols rising from the roadside.

You see a windmill representing the ranching history in this area of South Reno, perhaps you're on the Carson City Freeway and you see symbols that are symbolic of the native American culture there, it's really a beautiful thing to see our communities culture and history represented right there as you're driving.

You can find these landscape and aesthetic features on many of the highways at many of the on and off ramps, maintained by NDOT across Nevada.

Our NDOT mission, is ultimately to keep Nevadans safe and connected and landscape and aesthetics is a vital part of that.

NDOT Landscape and Aesthetics Program, is a long standing program to bring both the aesthetic and environmental and cultural benefits of landscape and the aesthetics to our highways.

>>We'll start with analysis of the site, where are we designing and what are we designing for?

We look at the environment, there might be some environmental challenges, like a lot of storm water run-off erosion.

So we'll look at all these things as well as the culture and the history, that's what we're really after, is to develop this theme that is suitable for the area and in looking for that inspiration through culture and history and the stories that we hear from people in the community.

The next steps are getting help from landscape architects, that takes the theme and the idea that's in our heads and then can translate that into a drawing and a plan.

>>When it comes to the department of transportation and the public art, that we do for them, we'll get some CAD files from the DOT, we really look at the drawings, we have to manipulate it and make it constructable and then we submit that back to them and go, hey, does this work for you?

I really like to work with my hands, I like to make things.

I enjoy taking something as rudimentary as a piece of steel and creating something really refined out of it.

The things that we build, they're big.

They are fun to build and oftentimes when we're here in the shop and we're building it and I don't have that sense of place, if you will, because we're here on 4th Street, but when you stand it up and you set it there and you look at what's really happening around and you go, that's nice, man.

You know, like you can see that from a bunch of different angles, it has a lot of depth, it's good.

I think the most exciting moment for all of us here at the shop, is getting it on a crane and then getting it in the hole.

>>I really liked this spot here at Damonte.

We wanted to express the ranching heritage and the Reno Rodeo that we all enjoy and coming up with a sculptural piece that represents that with a female Roper and the calf and the ranch style fencing, the steam was really well communicated in a very exciting a sculpture here that we're fortunate to have artists and fabricator Paolo Cividino, that would take these unyielding heavy materials like steel, and really bring life to them and movement.

>>Besides the aesthetic value of highway landscaping, there's also really tangible benefits including economic benefits.

The landscaping can help peak interest of visitors driving them to stay longer or to visit our communities, helping enhance our communities tourism value, but also highway landscaping can help employ those who might otherwise not be employed on public works projects, such as highway project, that includes; landscape architects, landscape fabricators and so many more who really come together to not only provide this valuable artwork but help produce an economic value from that as well.

>>We built five state monuments that are at the intersections of all the Interstates.

Those were so fun to make.

I was just driving down 395 a couple of weeks ago with my wife, and every time I do, there's a couple of car to minimum pulled over and people taking photos of themselves or their family, in front of the monument that we made at Topaz and it feels good, you know, and that monument is really well designed.

Seth Johnson from the DOT designed it, he did a great job.

I think the public art at the end of the day, I think it grounds people, I think it gives people a sense of place, I think it also just, you know, man, like we're going through some pretty rough stuff.

Just being able to look at something, it just sort of gives you the ability to take a breath, right?

I mean, maybe the wagon doesn't resonate with you but maybe it resonates with the other guy and I think that there's something about that.

I think inherently art, music, it is crucial TO VIEW THIS AND OTHER COLORES PROGRAMS GO TO: New Mexico PBS dot org and look for COLORES under What We Do and Local Productions.

Also, LOOK FOR US ON FACEBOOK AND INSTAGRAM.

"UNTIL NEXT WEEK, THANK YOU FOR WATCHING."

Funding for COLORES was provided in part by: Frederick Hammersley Foundation... New Mexico PBS Great Southwestern Arts & Education Endowment Fund at the Albuquerque Community Foundation... ...New Mexico Arts, a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs with supplemental funding by the New Mexico CARES Act and by the National Endowment for the Arts.

...and Viewers Like You (CLOSED CAPTIONING BY KNME-TV)