(instrumental music) - [Announcer] Production of Applause, an Ideastream Public Media is made possible by, The John P. Murphy Foundation, The Kulas Foundation, The Stroud Family Trust, and by Cuyahoga county residents through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture.

(jazz music) - [David] Hello and welcome to Applause.

I'm Ideastream Public Media's David C. Barnett.

Artist Ed Parker exemplifies the old adage, if you build it, they will come.

In 1982, he bought a vacant 25,000 square foot building on Euclid Avenue in East Cleveland, and opened the Edward E. Parker Creative Arts Complex as a place to showcase his art.

- They never give you what you ask for, and build your own thing.

So I saw this building, I was looking for a studio.

I saw an older gentleman across the street from this building and he said, "What's wrong, son?

You look perplex."

I said, "I am."

I said, "I'm thinking about buying that building, but I'm intimidated."

And he said, "How old are you?"

I said, "I'm 42."

He said, "Buy the building cause if you mess up you young enough to start all over again."

I bought the building.

I mean that hit home.

Most people wanna quit at 42.

(laughs).

- [David] Parker began dabbling in art in the fourth grade.

- I had difficulties with the three Rs, reading, writing and arithmetic.

I had a speech impediment and there was a fourth grade art teacher who took interest in me and called my parents and said, he has a talent, so if you let me, I will send him to school, which was the Toledo Museum of Art.

So I went there for a year.

Then my parents took it up, and I went there for about six years.

So I started in the fourth grade doing art.

- [David] He received a degree in art education administration from Central State University and a master's degree in art education at Kent State University.

- I studied art education administration all the way through school, but I took painting and drawing and there was a lot of good painters and drawers, but I said, I wanted to go further.

I wanted to start putting in people, making my people, black people have a presence.

I started doing black people.

I've done Martin Luther King.

I've done Malcolm X. I started doing important, Zelma George.

I started doing the important people 'cause they needed a place, and I say like a resting place.

- [David] Parker is a muralist and painter, although he's best known for his ceramics.

- I think I'm a bit of sculptor than painter or drawer.

I draw a pretty good, but I like to see that mud and put it together.

There's something to take mud and make it breathe.

You cannot direct the course of art.

If art finds you worthy, it will direct your course.

I am a theme artist, so I do themes like Chicken George revisited Africa on the moon, that kind of thing.

And I've always felt that the more you do the better you get, so I kind of work every day.

My work, hopefully it resembles somebody.

When you look at it, you can say, well, that looks like, you know.

Here again, the more you do the better you get.

So I try to work every day to get better at, and I can make clay float.

Think about that.

- [David] Parker draws upon his imagination for inspiration.

- Drawing is the key.

I tell my students, if you can draw it, you might be able to do it.

But if you can imagine it in its totality, that's what I do.

But here again, it takes years.

You know what I mean?

You just can't do this in 10 weeks.

You know what I mean?

I've been doing it like I'm 80 years old and I've been doing it since the fourth grade.

I am not the best, but I'm better than most.

- [David] While many ceramicists apply glaze to their work, Parker prefers to paint his sculptures.

- If you look at mine, they are mostly painted because that glazes sucks up the detail.

Art will direct your course, everything, if you serious.

- [David] At age 80 Parker reports to work every day at his Edward E. Parker Creative Arts Complex to begin work on his next project.

- Well, I do it all, whatever I'm called to do, I'm gonna lead you the right way.

I'm not gonna lie to you.

I'm gonna be a leader.

Creating till tomorrow's in, that's what I wanna be.

Stored in this mind of mine, some short dive as old as the galaxy of untempered ideas.

So hurry home, man, and be creative.

- [David] The Edward E. Parker Creative Arts Complex is located at 130240 Euclid Avenue in East Cleveland.

You can't miss it.

Look for the two 30 foot white columns he installed 40 years ago that welcome you to the neighborhood.

(soft music) In Akron, the Civic Theater is a whole lot brighter inside and out.

Through a multi-million dollar capital improvement project, the more than 90 year old theater recently added a new stage and restored its grand lobby.

Let's take a look.

- We're standing in the grand lobby.

This was the key to our restoration and how it all began.

Our entire project is about $8.5million.

It all started with the idea that we needed to finish the grand lobby and the entry arcade.

We had restored the rest of the theater back in 2002.

So this was the completion of the restoration of the theater.

- The one thing we're always told is how dark it was in here.

Can you put some more light on?

Well, we couldn't, it was just the way it was.

- [Howard] It's a Morrish design, so there's Italian and Spanish influences.

The concept for the inside of the theater was an atmospheric design.

So you were supposed to feel as though you were outside while you were inside.

- When they built the scaffolding, it was like Leonardo da Vinci had arrived.

There were five levels of painters or at least 10 to 15 painters every day.

And everything you see in the grand lobby was hand painted.

It wasn't like, you know, a roller brush.

So these were artesians that were coming in and putting their touch on it.

- My favorite component of the whole place is Loretta the parrot.

She is a taxidermy, real parrot.

Her and another parrot flew around in the lobby free when the theater opened in 1929.

- Loretta, we call her our mascot and it was good luck to have live birds flying around in the theaters in the late 1800s.

- We also substantially expanded the theater by adding a 220 capacity flexible use performance and event space, which is called the John, James and Clara Knight stage.

We call it the Knight stage.

So that room is going to be active every Friday and Saturday night, 50 weeks a year.

- [Val] To add to our artistic feelings of what we're bringing around here in our complex, we decided to pay homage to performers that have this amazing Akron connection or have been born and raised in Akron.

- Part of the entire concept was to make the outside of the building as much of an asset as the inside of the building.

So for many folks that have not been inside the Civic Theater from the outside, it just looks like a big brick warehouse.

So what we have been able to do is we added some really beautiful, huge murals on the outside of the building.

One on the lock four side, one on the lock three side.

We are adding an 18 by 35 foot video wall on the outside of the building, we're building an outdoor deck that will overlook lock three park, and we're adding some additional public art to the outside of the building as well.

- We wanted to bring the art scene outside so people would understand that there was art everywhere and to enjoy it.

And on one side of the building, which faces lock three, we brought in a national artists called Wheezy and she painted this beautiful mural of native species to Ohio.

On the other side that faces lock four, two international artists were brought in, Leal Mack and Ace-born.

And on that side of the wall, it's a symbol of what we can be if we all play in the same sandbox.

And they're playing with a marble since we're the marble capital of the world, and it's replicating the world.

Behind them or the mandolas, which Ace-born created using the colors of the civic on the outside.

So it's, it's very special to us.

- [David] Coming up on the next Applause, vocalist, Liz Bullock shares her journey from singing with the Bad Boys of the Blues to becoming a music therapist at University Hospitals.

And we'll learn how an Ohio State University dance professor addressed the pandemic through a series of 19 different dances.

Plus we'll introduce you to artists, Carolyn Guyer who makes eye catching leather masks inspired by animals.

All this and more on the next round of Applause.

Now let's head down south to meet renowned Louisiana photographer, Philip Gould.

He has spent decades capturing the unique landscapes and cultures of his state, but for his latest adventure, he traveled from the beginning to the end of the Mississippi River to document the bridges that cross over it, for his book, "Bridging the Mississippi".

Phillip for this project you set out to document all the Mississippi river bridges between Minnesota and South Louisiana.

That's quite the travel log.

Tell us about how you put it together.

- The main thing that had to happen is I had to discover the subject.

Down here, the bridges are beautiful.

I was traveling with Robert Stafford, the famous artist.

We're going up to Kentucky and it was late at night.

We're traveling, coming across the Southern tip of Illinois going into Paducah, and it was like 15 degrees outside.

And we crossed the two bridges, the Mississippi river bridges at the Southern tip.

Mississippi and Ohio, and I looked up and I saw these truck lights, these headlights beaming, just ricocheting off the bridge, the air had this ice to it, and almost a mist, frozen mist, I said, "That's amazing.

Can I stop and take a picture?"

No, I thought hard about it.

It was cold.

It was late, and we had to get to Paducah.

And that decision haunted me to the point where I said, "You know, maybe this is a very interesting project.

If this bridge was so interesting, what about all the rest of them along the river?"

And so that led to me doing a lot of research, learning about the bridges and just starting out.

I knew the Louisiana bridges obviously, traveled over many of them and just worked my way North.

The first trip I took all the way up to lake Itasca and photograph along the way.

And once the project started, it had its own momentum.

- [David] What kind of timeframe are we talking about from start to finish?

- [Phillip] About two years.

Two years I did a trip in the summer, I did a trip in the fall and I did a trip in the winter, because you can't photograph the Mississippi river unless you include being very frozen.

- You really tie that together, the whole of the American climate map really with the winter- - [Phillip] Absolutely yeah.

I mean it's essential.

- You've seen it in all it's seasons.

- Yeah, and the river and bridges look very different in the dead of winter.

There are so many different styles and vintages of the bridges that I thought it was an amazing collection.

If you think of it that way as a portrayal of American bridges and bridge architecture.

- So some of the oldest bridges still in use on a day-to-day basis, how old are we talking here?

- The oldest bridge right now is the Eads Bridge, opened in 1874 in St. Louis.

That's an amazing bridge.

It's on the cover actually of the book.

There's an amazing story to that bridge.

James B. Eads, who was a man in St. Louis who could do no wrong, had an amazing history before building the Eads Bridge.

Incidentally, he never went to engineering school.

He never built a bridge, but people in St. Louis had such confidence in him that they hired him to do it anyway, and he got the team together.

It's a very interesting convergence because the mid 19th century, you had the railroads coming up, you had the river boats having within a total lock politically and economically on the rivers.

You had this need for Western expansion.

We have to get across, we have to get trains across the river.

And the problem was that the technology did not exist.

They could do iron, but that's it, and iron was not strong enough to support trains.

Eads was aware of very new steel technology and he sold the city on doing this with steel.

- [David] One extraordinary man- - And it's the first bridge built with steel on a large scale, and it's still standing.

If you look at it close up, it's just amazing.

All the intricate pieces and everything like that, is just a sight to behold.

I love the bridge.

It's just a treat to be there, to see it, to stand on it, to look under it.

- That's incredible.

As I understand, you were explaining some of the earliest bridges spanning the way that river were built for trains.

And that is that Westwood expansion we're talking about.

- Right.

Well, there was a bridge in Minneapolis, 1854.

I believe that was a pedestrian and horse and buggy bridge, but it was not a big, the river was not very wide there.

So they could do that pretty easily.

Starting with the expansion of the railroad, they had to get the bridges built and built strong.

- There's a great story, right?

Of Abraham Lincoln's legal efforts to ensure that we were able to cross the river on bridges.

Can you fill us in on that.

- 1856, of the first railroad bridge across the Mississippi river at what is now Davenport, Iowa was opened, and two weeks afterwards after it opened a riverboat, the Effie Afton sailed up underneath the bridge, lost power, floated back, hit the bridge , and a fire ensued with the boat and the bridge.

The boats sank.

The bridge was severely damaged.

And the riverboat owner sued the railroad because they claimed that the bridge was a dangerous obstruction to river commerce.

The railroad included in their legal team, Abraham Lincoln.

And Abraham Lincoln had already a pretty good political touch.

Just speaking in common parlance and clear clean logic.

One can say he was the one who made the case for the railroad, basically saying that people have as much right to cross up on a bridge as they do to safely sail under a bridge.

- [David] What an extraordinary.

- And the case did not get fully decided until Lincoln was president by the Supreme court.

The (mumbles) people tried and tried again.

They finally just gave up and, sorry.

- Yeah.

- So there's this always, this one guy, one engineer described it as a long delicate dance between riverboats and bridges.

And he said, we have no choice, we're on the floor together, and we just have to be careful.

- [David] The march of progress.

Now you photographed 75 of the more than 130 bridges that span the Mississippi, right?

- [Phillip] I could go through and count them, but roughly 75.

Yeah.

- Well, tell me about, is there a particular favorite that stands out?

- That's hard because there's so many favorites.

From the Louisiana perspective, I really enjoy photographing the Huey Long Bridge, especially the new expanded Huey Long Bridge.

It's an amazing structure and it's a major engineering project to be able to do what they did.

And the thing that was the most important is they maintain the profile of the bridge.

And that was important.

The bridge in Lansing, Iowa is called the Black Hawk Bridge.

Also an amazing time warp structure and just architecturally engineering wise, pretty impressive.

- Phillip Gould, the book is "Bridging the Mississippi".

Thank you so very much for sharing some of your stories with me.

And now we meet the team behind the martial arts program, Midtown Miracles.

Through this ancient art form, students are able to gain strength and confidence and express themselves.

We head to Florida for that story.

- 50 Years ago, my uncle who's my hero, my uncle Joseph Burrell, he started teaching me judo.

And in Je du-too, and then hop Kyoto.

When they come back from doing a couple of tours in Vietnam, he was basically the us springboard that launched my martial arts journey.

He turned me on to another martial artist, another dynamic martial artist in the community by the name of Sophie Lou and John Davidson, Sophie little John is the epitome of what martial artists all about.

- [Woman] (indistinct).

- I started training when I was a teenager.

I love being physical, actually a Tae Bo, you know, got me started.

But then I really fell in love with it.

And I really started by about 18 years old.

I took up Tang Soo Do and the rest just kind of took off from there.

I was like, I love it.

I love the fact that I don't need a weapon, I can be the weapon.

Power 21.

I wanna feel it, 22.

(kids chanting) always be... - [Kids] Ready.

- I was attacked and raped in college by an ex-boyfriend.

And at that point, my training became serious.

So then I went on this search for like, I need some real life hard tactical training.

And I found my Sifu, Sifu Karen, and she's a 10th degree full contact, no pads, like the real deal kind of training.

Her classes were small because it's intense.

Not many could take it, but that was exactly what I was looking for.

- Safety and security is something that's really dear and near to my wife and I, to our hearts.

She studied martial arts before she met me.

And then we come together.

We just had a passion for people.

- So you know, we're at the community center, waiting, hoping people come in, but a lot of time they just weren't.

We went out and we hit the streets and we went to the parks and you know, where they're sitting out in their front yard or like, hey, then that got the ball rolling.

- Just getting a chance to actually be in the center and seeing the kids come in and just getting inspired by knowing how big it was, the impact that the kids were gonna have on the community.

- By the end of the first class, they can come to attention.

They get the courtesy bow and they're a lot like us, like, oh, and to see the shock on their parents' faces, because for a lot of them, this was the most disciplined they've ever seen their kids.

Nine.

(kids chanting) ten.

(kids chanting) (upbeat music) - We was always involved in some kind of community sports, but we got wind of this early on to start participating in.

We try to help out as much as we can with the program, Sophie Lou and John does amazing job with these kids.

- Well, I played sports before I started doing karate, basketball, flag football, soccer, and I played Tae Bo.

- Being able to focus and concentrate and possibly take their mind off of some of the other things that they could be getting into and putting that energy and focus into martial arts.

So I thought it was pretty awesome.

- Most people in my school don't do karate.

I'm very proud of myself for starting and I'm already a purple belt, and I was yeah, about a year.

(kid chanting) - One thing that's Sophie is always saying and stressing, I want you to express yourself, express yourself.

It is a tremendous way to channel everything.

Every emotion can come out when you're practicing your kata.

(man chanting) (kids chanting) - I'm a martial artist.

- [Kids] I'm a martial artist.

- Sometimes when they go home, they're like, Eli, show me how to do this and show me how to do that.

So he takes a lot of pride in being able to show them what to do, about their confidence.

- I am.

- [Man] A mighty Miracle.

- There's been a name change.

When we first started the program almost four years ago, it was the Midtown Miracles, you know, and now we change it due to COVID and also due to you know, Transcending is big, you know, that word Transcending means, come out of self, come out of something, be different, be bigger.

You know, I lost my son almost 37 years ago and he was 15 months old, died of a massive heart attack.

And I was overseas at the time.

And so what I tell the kids y'all was my katas, my routines, you know, my techniques that got me through that.

So I use that and I dedicate what I do to him.

- You're not just a Mighty Miracle.

You're a martial artist and a Mighty Miracle.

When we say mantra at the end, I am a Mighty Miracle.

We want you to recognize that we want you to represent that, not just for us, but for you.

You know, take pride in that and let people know, not just by what you say, not just by walking around with your geek, let them feel it.

- [David] And that's it for today's show.

For more arts programming, go to arts.ideastream.org.

- [Announcer] The 2021 Cleveland International Piano Competition.

One of the top presenters of classical piano in the world just wrapped up.

This annual event features the artistry of pianists from around the globe.

This year's winner, Martin Garcia Garcia from Spain receives a $75,000 mixing first prize award, and a chance to play with the Cleveland Orchestra.

As we say goodbye, here's a look at Garcia's winning performance.

(bright piano music) (instrumental music) - Production of Applause on Ideastream Public Media is made possible by the John P. Murphy Foundation, the Kulas Foundation, the Stroud Family Trust, and by Cuyahoga county residents, through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture.