- [Narrator] Production of Applause, on Ideastream Public Media, is made possible by, the John P. Murphy Foundation, The Kulas Foundation, and by Cuyahoga County residents through Cuyahoga arts and culture.

(upbeat music) - [Announcer] Coming up, see 100 years of collecting at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.

Meet a Medina student paying tribute to hometown veterans.

Hear how the Dazz Band recruited a Northeast Ohio native and enjoying artist making whimsical ceramics.

- [David] Hello, I'm Ideastream Public Media's David C. Barnett.

Welcome to Northeast Ohio's arts and culture show, Applause.

A new exhibit at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, looks back at the museum's history.

Founded more the than a century ago, its roots connect to a wooden cabin once located on public square.

Ideastream Public Media's Carrie Wise has the story.

- [Carrie] In the 1800s, men gathered at a small Cleveland club called the Arc.

Planting just a seed of what's now the city's Natural History Museum.

- The Arc was really about a gathering place for a bunch of people that were interested in natural history, very early in the history of the area.

And they needed a place to discuss the things that they were interested in from birds, to insects, to plants.

And the cabin really became like this hub of that kind of interest.

And it really led to the Genesis of the founding of the museum itself.

- [Carrie] More than a century of ambitious explorations, and up close nature studies are now on view in the museum's Centennial Exhibition.

- [Gavin] This exhibit is really about the efforts and individuals that built a Natural History Museum for the Cleveland community, through the collection of all the specimens that we have and the sharing of that science with the people that come here.

- [Carrie] Museum visitors for instance, can see some of the specimens Dr. Sonja Teraguchi found studying moth diversity.

The exhibit features a recreation of her desk, where she worked from the 1970s to 90s.

- She was working with tens of thousands of specimens of moths that were collected during her sampling season across Northeast, Ohio.

And she would need to identify all of those moths.

She would need to pin them and make them museum quality and label them and database them.

- [Carrie] Historic photos and videos throughout the exhibit helped tell the stories behind what's on display.

This includes the story of a sled dog named Balto, who led a heroic mission in the 1920s.

- So, there was the diptheria outbreak in Alaska, and the nutshell is that they had to get the serum to treat the diptheria to Nome.

And it had to go across large expanse of frozen wilderness to get there.

And they used dog sleds at the time.

And so Balto was a member of a dog sled team that did made that trip to get to Nome, to basically save the town from this outbreak.

- [Carrie] A couple of years after that mission, Balto ended up in need.

- [Joe] And he wound up kind of in a side show in California where a Cleveland businessman saw him and the survivors of his team and they were really in bad shape and badly treated.

And so, he rescued him and raised the funds to bring him back to Cleveland and Balto and his comrades spent the last years of their lives at the Brookside Zoo in Cleveland, which would've been in this area at the time would eventually evolve into the Metro Park Zoo.

- [Carrie] This celebration of the past comes as the museum is in the midst of a major expansion.

Looking to the future, they are changing the way they present science to the community.

Visitors should notice those changes in 2024, when the Museum opens all new gallery.

- They're presented in a new way that isn't quite the same as you've experienced before.

We've moved away from a timeline and we've really talked more about case studies and processes and the questions that people really ask about science.

And that's about your own answers, figuring out what part of science that you like the most.

- [Narrator] The 100 years of Discovery Exhibition runs through July 24th of 2022 at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History in University Circle.

Not long ago, a Medina High School graduate paid homage to service members who died in his hometown.

Ideastream Public Media's Jenny Hamel, spent some time with the teen who made it his mission to ensure their legacies live on.

- [Jenny] Over 45,000 local veterans are buried at the Ohio Western Reserve National Cemetery.

United by their ties to the area, their service to our country and by this tranquil place in Seville that serves as their final resting place.

Among those who come to pay these service members their respect is 18 year old, Hudson Louie, who just graduated from Medina High School.

He may seem like an unlikely visitor but this teenager feels a deep connection to these men and women.

- It's very humbling, cause each step you're walking into a new area of people who have just again laid down their lives to keep us free.

And sometimes I even forget what they've done and I hope that everyday American can at least take the time and understand what they went through.

And when we think we're going through hardships, just think about what they went through.

- [Jenny] Hudson's admiration for these veterans and curiosity about who they were, has evolved into a passion project.

Over the last several years, he's researched and learned the stories of thousands of veterans from Ohio.

He's researched Devin Grella of Medina, who at the age of 21 died in Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2004.

- Devin was a Private First Class in the US Army, right outta high school he enlisted in the US Army, probably right after 911.

And he graduated from Medina High School in 2002, I believe.

He was in a convoy in Iraq and they were hit by an IED and he was one of the few that were killed there.

He has earned the Bronze Medal Star, the Purple Heart and he was killed in action.

- [Jenny] Hudson wants to make sure people like Grella are honored by their alma mater.

So he went to Medina High School administrators with an ask.

Could they help him get plaques made for Grella and every service member who went to Medina High who later died in service?

- He will have a plaque in the hallway of the high school, right in front of the library.

And he already has a picture there, but it's just a small picture and I just wanted to make it bigger so to that when students walked by, they realized that he was someone like us, walked the same life as we did.

- [Jenny] In total, Hudson's prepared the plaque information for 24 Medina High veterans that died in service since World War I.

He's researched their lives, their military service, how they died, what medals they earned.

And he's found old photos of these veterans, either from family members or through archives and he's colorized the black and white military portraits.

Max Eaken was a Navy sailor who served in World War II.

He trained at Great Lakes Naval Center in Chicago and enlisted right before he graduated from Medina High.

He died at the young age of 18 aboard the USS Bunker Hill, after two Japanese Kamikaze planes bombed the ship then crashed into it.

- The commander Captain Seitz, I think, wrote to Max's father and he said that Max was like one of the best Blue Jackets you could have aboard, everyone loved him.

He always made everyone smile.

- [Jenny] Hudson takes comfort in knowing that although Eaken was buried at sea somewhere in the Pacific, he's memorialized at the Western Reserve Cemetery and will be honored at his old high school too.

Over the years, Hudson's labor of love has demanded countless hours at the computer in his bedroom.

Pouring over different websites and archives and registries, even finding information through history videos uploaded on YouTube.

He's strong bits of information together to draw a more complete picture of who these people are and the time periods they hail from.

And Hudson has a special affection for the 1940s.

- [Hudson] It was a very interesting period in the jazz band at my school and my dad was in as his jazz drummer.

So, I don't know if it came from him, but I'm very interested into the jazz music.

And I wouldn't say it's nostalgia, cause I haven't actually lived through that period.

But like it's just the, I don't know, the old time feel just sounds, it feels really cool just to, be like, what if I live back then that'd be cool.

♪ Pardon me barn ♪ ♪ Is that the Chattanooga Choo Choo ♪ - [Jenny] One of his all time favorite tunes is Chattanooga Choo Choo by the Glenn Miller Orchestra.

As for the look from these different eras, Hudsons learn the colors and styles of the uniforms and knows what the metals signify.

All of this detail has helped him turn old black and white photos of service members into colored ones.

It's a painstaking process that take a lot of layering and about two hours to colorize one of these photos.

And with years of practice, Hudson's turned it into an art form.

- The nice thing about our son is that when he gets focused on a project, the amount of detail that he can go into and the amount of focus, the time that it takes to colorize a photo.

- [Denise] Well, first of all, I'm just completely odd at the depth of his research and his grasp of the stories and the human element of it, right?

I mean he knows it's not just he's just not reciting facts and figures, but I mean he knows the human story about what they were doing.

- [Jenny] And all the photos and information Hudson gathers on these fallen veterans, he puts online and in archives so that others can learn about them too.

Soon Hudson plans to merge his passions for history and video work.

He's going to DePaul University in Chicago to study film and television.

And he hopes to one day make productions like, Band of brothers, a highly acclaimed miniseries about the soldiers of Easy Company during World War II.

So maybe it's not a surprise that Hudson's quest to preserve these veterans' memories started with a Disney Pixar movie called Coco.

In it, the characters explore the Mexican tradition of honoring the three deaths a person goes through.

One, when you die, two, when your body is return to the earth and three, when the last people who remember you are gone too.

- Wait, what happened?

- He's been forgotten, when there's no one left in the living world who remembers you, you disappear from this world.

- And it's scared me that these guys could possibly go through the same thing.

Like Max Eaken, that we went through, he was an only child, right?

And his parents had passed away and I wanted to make sure that he still has someone to remember him and that maybe after I'm gone, he can be remembered as well.

- [David] For more than a century, the Cleveland Museum of Art has present the best in visual art and the best in performance art.

We'll celebrate CMAs musical traditions, both old and new.

- It was a really fun high energy night, sort of a spasm of love and music and energy and just a ton of fun.

- [David] Plus discover comic book creations from the fertile minds of Cleveland Institute of Art students.

All this and more, on the next Applause.

Alvin Frazier, grew up in the Northeast Ohio community of Collinwood, listening to Cleveland Grammy winners, the Dazz Band.

Recently, thanks to Instagram, this multi talented artist got recruited to join the band as its bass player.

But before he ever let it whip with the Dazz, Frazier was a respected R&B vocalist in Northeast Ohio.

Recently, he joined me for Ideastream Public Media's Applause Perfomances.

Your parents were kind of musical influences for you as I understand it, Alvin?

- [Alvin] Yes.

- [David] And Dorothy, the major part of your influence.

Starting off with your dad, he was a performer.

You call him an harmony king, tell us about that.

- Yeah.

So, my dad had a group in the mid to late 70s.

They were called the Matrix here in town and they were a five man group like kinda like in line of the Temptations.

My dad loved Tempts and they would come over to the house and rehearse in our living room.

So, what they would do is they would come in, stand in a circle, my dad would set the key and they would all kind of go to their different harmonies man, and they would sound amazing.

So, me being a little kid, of course, I'm like two years old, kind of in a way.

So, I'm looking up in the circle, standing up, kind of in amazement of everybody and naturally you emulate your father.

So, me wanting to be like my dad, I wanted to sing too.

So, one morning in my room and I'm singing and my mom hears me and she goes and gets my dad and they discover that I can hold a tune.

So of course, my dad's super excited about that.

Immediately he wants to start showing me how to do harmony.

I'm just barely able to talk pretty good but my dad was so excited about that.

He started showing me harmony and he was really good at that.

♪ From the moment I saw you ♪ ♪ I just couldn't take my eyes off you ♪ ♪ I guess I was caught up ♪ ♪ A fine sexy thing ♪ ♪ I ain't ashamed to admit it ♪ ♪ I had to get to know you ♪ ♪ Your energy was drawing me ♪ ♪ Like a train and pulling me close ♪ ♪ And wouldn't let go, ooh ♪ ♪ It's like that we're up against the wall ♪ ♪ Loving in the hall ♪ ♪ Holding no with all our might that's right ♪ ♪ Not thinking about tomorrow ♪ ♪ Can your body I borrow because we've only got tonight.

♪ ♪ Don't fight, I'm feeling with you feeling ♪ ♪ Tension up to the ceiling ♪ ♪ I feel this thing about to ignite, take flight ♪ ♪ Don't hold back for a minute ♪ ♪ This may not be extended because we've only got tonight ♪ - You talk about your mom being sort of the early discover of this talented young man.

She's also kind of feels like she's kind of a manager figure.

She's like your biggest fan, but also she's your biggest critic.

Talk about her.

- Absolutely.

So, my mom was a straight shooter.

She did not, kind of pancake you.

It was like, no, it was like, hey, if it sounded bad, she said, nah, that ain't hitting no nothing now.

- Oh.

- If it sounded good, she'll say I like that out.

So, my mom was real balanced and she helped me to be really balanced by telling me the truth, not sent me out into the world misinformed, like thinking I'm better than I am if I'm not any good.

She was really good about giving me that balance.

♪ When you're in love with someone ♪ ♪ The world doesn't look quite the same ♪ ♪ And then your heart, ♪ ♪ There's a fire that burns like eternal flames ♪ ♪ There are times when your mind can see ♪ ♪ All the wonders of love can bring ♪ ♪ Oh in the meantime ♪ ♪ Till I find someone who can set me free ♪ ♪ And then I know what they saying ♪ ♪ Oh, there's more than just make believe ♪ - And you talk about chasing dreams as being sort of like being a dare devil.

Is that sort of what you're talking about?

- You can't pursue your dreams, playing it safe.

It's just no way to do it.

There's no real success in playing it safe.

You gotta to be a person who's willing to take risk.

And like I said, like you mentioned David, is being a dare devil you literally kind of running and jumping from one thing, climb up on that, look over, run and jump onto the next thing.

That's kind of how you have to do it.

♪ Hmm ah ♪ ♪ Hello how you doing ♪ ♪ Girl it's been a while ♪ ♪ You still looking so beautiful ♪ ♪ That I can't help but smile ♪ ♪ So tell me how's life treating you ♪ ♪ Ooh since we've been baby ♪ ♪ I guess what I'm trying to say ♪ ♪ Girl does someone have your heart ♪ ♪ So she goes on and on about a man ♪ ♪ That she's seeing and all of their future plans ♪ ♪ But I tuned it all out ♪ ♪ Cause I'm thinking about the love that we shared ♪ ♪ And all of those in late nights and early mornings ♪ ♪ When we were two together and so in love ♪ ♪ And I still remember how it feels to be lost ♪ ♪ Inside your love baby ♪ ♪ Lost in your love ♪ ♪ So deep that I can't find my way out ♪ ♪ I don't wanna go ♪ ♪ I don't wanna leave lost in your love baby ♪ ♪ Love, ooh I can't see loving no one but you ♪ - You as a kid, big fan of a group called the Dazz Band, used to be called the Kinsman Dazz Band way early.

Little did you know that your life would circle around and hit those people again?

And it happened through Instagram.

Talk about that, how did that even happen?

- Man.

So, on Instagram a lot of people are doing bass videos.

Like that's really like the, the hot thing people is trending.

So people do bass videos where they play bass guitar up against different records and a lot of it is kind of funk, a lot of slap.

And I'm like, I know what I'm going to do.

I'm gonna do one of my favorite songs, which was "Gamble With My Love" by the Dazz Band.

I said, man, there's something about that ballad that I just love it.

So I said, I'm gonna go ahead and do a bass video for that particular tune.

So I recorded the whole song like I would do all of them, but I would only put 30 seconds.

I put 30 seconds up on Instagram, kind of for people this enjoy the song.

Like if you haven't heard it before, this is it tuned by the Dazz, check it out.

So, maybe a few days later after I posted the video, I woke up to a notification that the Dazz had mentioned me in a comment.

I said the Dazz, I didn't even know they had an Instagram account.

So, I look and I see that they had re posted the video of me playing Gamble and then they also put it in their story.

So, I'm like, oh, that's cool.

I'm like, oh the Dazz Band saw my video.

I never intended for them to see it.

And a few weeks later, management reached out just sent me an inbox on Instagram, basically saying, to give them a call, which is our manager, Gina, and the founder Bobby Harris, like give us a call, like have a conversation with you about a possible opportunity.

It took maybe three conversations.

They didn't know this, but it was like three conversations before it really was like, okay, this is really about to happen.

Like this is really, really moving forward and here we are.

I'm touring with them and we're working on you music and getting ready for celebrate the 40th anniversary led with next year.

So, we got quite a few things planned around that.

It's like a dream man.

It's like a dream being there.

♪ As the sun begin to rise I look over into your eyes ♪ ♪ And I'm thinking its amazing ♪ ♪ That you are my lady ♪ - [David] Alvin Frazier's new album is "River."

To see the full Applause Performance, visit arts.ideastream.org.

We now take a trip down to Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

There we meet ceramicist Michaelene Walsh, who explores the range of possibilities, sculpting clay into a variety of objects.

- For me the emotive quality comes through the touch and being able to hand sculpt something.

I feel like my imagery has more to do with relatable objects.

So, things that people generally have some relationship to, a bird or an ice cream or a gift bow, things that are commonplace.

And that through that making and touch there's something unusual or unique or more poetic about the form itself that draws people in and allows them to feel something slightly different.

Maybe questioning why would this be handmade as a opposed to being slip cast or made from a prefabricated mold.

For clay there's such a range of possibility.

Not that other mediums don't provide that, but I feel like what I've found in clay is both high touch.

It's tactile, I can touch it.

I can sculpt with basically starting with a lump, which people have done throughout time.

But it also provides ability to say something new in a long cultural continuum.

For me, the containment has more to do with that spiritual or psychological or emotional realm.

So, the idea of a sculpture, or a form is a container for something ephemeral.

The small form, there's a relationship and maybe it relates to toys or dolls or objects for the table, or it has some bodily or domestic association.

And I find through making a lot of small forms.

What I can do is, is compose with them.

So, the idea of moving objects around in relationship to one another is fun for me in the way that maybe words would do that for a poet.

I feel like images are a way to do that.

So for instance, putting an ice cream cone with a bird, it starts to play some sort of new symbolism.

And I think by working small, there's a greater ability to do that.

The work that I feel the most strongly about is having work that might go in a specific place.

I felt really pleased with the outcome of Our Lady of the Lake Children's Hospital, in part because I felt like it was a culmination of imagery I'd been working with for a long time and yet it was placed in a new way.

And it was also working with someone and with a client really closely to really figure something out that would work well for children, for adults, for a long time.

(upbeat music) I did a couple of series of hands.

One was a series of hands that were both my hands, my daughter's hands, and then the hands of some different primates throughout the spectrum.

And I cast them in a series from the center being the largest to the smallest actually being my daughter's hands.

And that they were all done in these sort of metallic tones, like you would do with a baby shoe or copper.

They were meant to be a sort of metallic tone that was called "Kin and Kind."

It was in a series that I also did that was looking at animal imagery in general.

And in particular, I've always had a preferential for the primates as a conservation.

The gift bows were all handmade, I constructed them using sort of ribbons of clay.

They're glazed was a way to sort of generate gratitude and people could come and choose a bow, to then take home with them.

And some of the bows were sold and all the money went to benefit the Baton Rouge gallery.

So, it was sort of a way to give back.

And also the gift bow image is such a universal, simple, strong image of gift and generosity.

My glaze palette is very intentional, most of the time, sometimes they're happy accidents, but I feel like color.

And the use of color is a way to kind of evoke joy and a sense of celebration with some of the forms while the subject matter might be a little bit on the more challenging side.

So, I think sometimes color is a way to pull people in.

I do develop my own glazes and then I use some commercial glazes.

It's a bit of a play between brought things and things that have been made in my studio.

But I feel like color is also a way to bring out sort of the painter in me.

I really enjoy color theory and color design.

And I think it's a way to just play with some of those optics within the work.

I see my work as having more of a universal appeal.

So that children relate to it, teenagers, adults.

It's a tough territory to try to appeal on a universal level.

But I feel like when I find a symbol such as an ice cream cone, it has relatability to a lot of people.

- [David] That's it for today's show.

For more arts and culture programming, connect with us online at arts.ideastream.org.

I'm David C. Barnett.

We'll catch you next week for another round of Applause.

♪ Hello how you doing ♪ ♪ Girl it's been a while ♪ ♪ You still looking so beautiful that I cannot smile ♪ ♪ So tell me how I've treated you ♪ ♪ Ooh since we've been a part baby ♪ ♪ I guess what I'm trying to say girl ♪ ♪ Let someone have your heart ♪ ♪ So she goes on and on about ♪ (logo whooshing) - [Narrator] Production of Applause, on Ideastream public Media, is made possible by the John P. Murphy Foundation, The Kulas Foundation, and by Cuyahoga County residents through Cuyahoga arts and culture.