- [Announcer] Production of "Applause" on Idea Stream Public Media is made possible by the John P. Murphy Foundation, The Kulas Foundation, and by Cuyahoga County residents through Cuyahoga Arts & Culture.

(lively jazzy music) - [David] Coming up, from trials and tribulations to artistry, we chart the career of a Northeast Ohio print maker.

Plus, meet a publisher from Portland getting back to his punk-rock roots in Cleveland.

And we play a tune from the creators behind this show's theme song.

(lively jazzy music) Welcome to "Applause".

I'm Idea Stream Public Media's David C. Barnett.

The 2022 Front Triennial is underway in Northeast Ohio this summer, spotlighting more than 75 artists from around the world, including local creators.

The triennials title, "Oh, Gods of Dust and Rainbows", is taken from a poem by legendary Cleveland writer Langston Hughes.

One of Front's featured artists from Cleveland is showing and creating his latest work at his alma mater in University Circle.

Dexter Davis likes to make things.

- My father would buy me Tonka Toys and stuff like that, but I never really played with the toys that he bought me.

I would make puppets, and I had more pleasure making things.

I was born in 1965, grew up in Hough, lived in Hough for most of my life.

Moved around Cleveland, but always stayed in Cleveland.

I grew up in East 89th Street, was like an area where during the time I was growing up, the riots came.

And also, I remember that most of the businesses that were there at the time were almost, most of them were Black-owned businesses.

So it was like, you know, it was a half and half.

There was this part of it that made me feel special to be in an environment that was Black.

Everything was like Black businesses, Black owned, people like, providing for each other.

But then on the flip side of that, as politics changed, as social situations changed in society, created this whole explosion.

- [David] Throughout his career, Davis has overcome major life challenges by making art.

The death of his mother, a destructive apartment fire, a violent mugging, the skin disease vitiligo, and then in July, 2020, a road rage attack that could have killed him.

- Art was a vehicle, was something that I can use to be able to express myself, throw myself in a whole different world.

It was something that I could go to, to at least try to find a way out of whatever I was involved with.

- [David] Davis went to West Tech High School where art teacher William Martin Jean inspired him to attend art school after graduation.

He enrolled at the Cleveland Institute of Art, studying with Cleveland Arts prize winners Kenneth Dingwall, and the late H. Carroll Cassil, who set Davis on the path as a printmaker.

- Printmaking was able to do anything.

I could do all kinds of things.

I could do drawing, I could do painting.

I could do all kinds of mixing, print, even photography.

You could all mix that into printmaking.

(lively percussive music) - [David] To get to the Institute, Davis took an RTA bus from Hough to University Circle, and it was on the RTA where he met a fellow CIA student also from Hough, another aspiring artist with a passion for film, Robert Banks.

- We go back, back way, at undergrad at the Institute of Art.

We liked art, we liked comic books.

We liked the stuff that was off the mainstream.

And he's a movie guy and I love movies too, so we really were talking about all types of movies.

I admire him as a friend.

- He was coming from one side of the Hough area.

I was coming from the other side of the Hough area.

We pretty much connected after that.

We were both a couple of quirky kids back then.

(laughing) Either through making art, talking about comic books, TV shows, music, especially music.

And if anything, about the neighborhood where our families, our upbringing, the things that we grew up on, the things that really excite us about making art, being creative and everything, and all that.

And that was definitely a bonding, and that was something that's been on and off, since back when we first met - [David] Banks has documented his friend's work on film since the 1980s.

- [Dexter] He's a wonderful friend.

So it was like a ongoing, long project that he just documented, documented, documented.

And to keep it, and you don't know when it's gonna come out, when it's gonna be put together, but he's just a good record taker.

- [David] Their longtime collaboration and friendship became an exhibition at moCa Cleveland, featuring Davis' art and Banks' film, "Color Me Boneface".

(soft thoughtful music) The retrospective exhibition came together not long after the road rage attack in 2020.

Davis and a friend were driving in University Circle, and almost collided with another car.

- The kids got angry and they were like, really mad at us.

And so I told my friend, "Let's go."

By the time we were leaving, I had a bad feeling about it.

I said, "I think that they're so pissed off, they might come after us."

Surely enough, I looked through the back the window, and there they were, coming behind us.

Then they shot through the car door and got me.

- [David] After the shooting, Banks reached out to his friend about continuing the collaboration.

- It's been almost, what?

25 years since we started on the project.

So we got back together, we started shooting again.

This was after his tragedy, that after him getting shot, and I was really upset about that.

I'm still really upset about that.

And I'm thinking, "Well, he definitely needs this."

We gotta really, you know this anger going on, in terms of what's wrong with everything.

Everything from the pandemic, and people getting upset about the social and political strife, and all the racism stuff going, all this this whole new Trump era stuff.

This is the time to get out there and get mad and get angry, but also just go all the way, and not hold anything back.

(soft thoughtful music) - Davis is sharing his latest work at the 2022 Front International Triennial with an exhibit at his alma mater.

- The show is called "The Less Dead".

Dexter has been working in our printmaking studios to produce a series of prints for the show.

He used this as an opportunity to heal through his creative practice.

- You get a plexiglass sheet down, and you put like, oil, my base ink, or water-based ink on the surface of the plexiglass.

And then you take a roller and you roll it down, and then you take any kinda tool you want, to like strip away the ink.

Whatever's left, you could see through.

What's left, you could see the plexiglass.

And what you do, you take that into a printer and you roll over it, and then it would produce an image on the paper that you put on top.

- Dexter is a person who has had difficulty in his life, but has consistently had an artistic practice that has both shown his resiliency, and shown how art has helped him cope with the difficulties that he's had in his life.

(soft thoughtful music) - The exhibit is called "The Less Dead".

So the name comes from one of the FBI reports that dealt with these special cases, like serial killers, people that are considered John Does and Jane Does.

So I took the word, "The Less Dead", from that series of reports, which they consider people that are runaways, prostitutes, people that live on the fringes of society.

It relates to me because I understand what it feels like to be in that situation, being somebody that has been hurt many times, and all for no reason, particularly.

And then you have to deal with a system that doesn't really seem to care about you.

You know what I mean?

I mean, when I got shot, everybody looked at me as like it was a norm, because I'm African American and I live in a city.

I mean, after being questioned by the detectives, that was one thing.

But then be questioned by your friends and people around you, make you feel as though you're being interrogated once again, again.

(gentle upbeat music) - [David] This opportunity for a Front showcase at the Cleveland Institute of Art is a high point in Davis' career.

(gentle upbeat music continues) - It's incredible.

I mean, I was like, out of all the things that happened to me, I'm happy to be a part of the Front, or anything like it, because it gave me that, once again, it's given me a chance to express myself and talk about something that matters to me, you know?

And I hope that people can feel the same way when they come to see the show.

- That's one of the main reasons why I think I just see so much in him, as not just an artist, but as a Black man from the inner city, that sorta reached, out his work just reaches out to everybody, it's infectious.

- Dexter is an inspiration to me.

Art pervades his life, creativity pervades his life.

And I think that's made him successful as a person against odds that I think would've crushed many other people.

- But the show is about healing.

I want people to walk away with a big smile on their face.

I want people to be happy, I want people to rejoice, and I want people to just really enjoy to being able to have a connection with the art.

- [David] Dexter Davis' exhibition, "The Less Dead", is on view at the Cleveland Institute of Art, as part of the Front Triennial through October 2nd.

So Dexter Davis is a Cleveland Institute of Art graduate who works as a printmaker.

Let's now meet three graduates from the Art Academy of Cincinnati who too have a passion for the art of printmaking, but they have a much different story to tell.

(soft expectant music) (crowd chattering) - Pezzy, hey.

I think we draw our inspiration from our surroundings.

A lot of our things are humorous, but also we really love nature.

It comes across in, I think everything we make.

There's usually animals or plants, or something like that involved in it.

So really it's based on, just kind of everything, and anything from our lives, history, is what we're doing, where we're going.

I'm Linda Winder.

- Amy Scarpello.

- Chelsey Hughes.

- [Group] And we're and Pull Club.

- [Linda] I like the way I drew this mouse.

I didn't recreate that in the drawing, but.

We all each have our own like, kind of drawing and illustration style.

I like to start by actually physically drawing usually.

And I'll do like a little sketch or something like that, if it's like on a different tee shirt or paper print, and then I will either scan something or I will just go ahead and start drawing in the computer at that point.

- It's always a collaborative effort at some point.

So whether it's Chelsey makes a drawing, you know, and sends it to us.

Linda and I are gonna give some input, feedback.

Like if there's gonna be text on it, or colors, or "Make it simpler, make it," you know.

We kind of like, will push each other in that regard, especially when designing for ourselves.

When we're in the studio late into the evening, that's where like a lot of our ideas come from, just kind of like joking around with each other.

And really, the friendship drives a lot of our ideas, 'cause it'll just be us hanging out, or talking about something, and then we'll be like, "Yeah, that's funny.

(laughing) That's good enough, let's do it."

- [Chelsey] I think one of the great things about a studio or having some sort of collective, is they will push me to do things that I wouldn't have thought to do.

Or use certain colors or something, that I would've never done on my own, but it'll push my illustrations to like a new level' a lot of the time, so I think that we all help each other do that.

(liquid spraying) The core printmaking, it's a process.

And one of the things that I enjoy about it is, you can't just jump in and do it.

You can try, you're gonna fail and it's not gonna work out.

So you have to, every single time I call it leveling up.

Every time we have a project, every time we try something new or different, you are learning a new skill.

Or even when you run into a challenge, like there's something wrong with the screen, or the colors aren't layering the way we thought, you work through it and you learn, and that's the only way.

And if you're learning, you learn from someone who's really passionate about it, and has done it for a long time.

- [Linda] Even a difference between fabric printing and doing the paper prints and the screens on a fabric like a tee shirt screen or any other kind of fabric, the mesh is more open, so it allows more ink to touch the fabric, because the fabric will absorb more ink.

It's just like the feel of pulling the squeegee through is a little different than when you press on the paper.

It's like a thing you kinda have to learn to feel, and do enough times that you're like, "I know exactly how much pressure to put on this," from doing the runs.

So yeah, it's really a thing you learn by doing, is what it is.

- [Amy] I think the special thing about print is being able to do multiples, which just lends itself to an entrepreneurial spirit very easily.

- [Chelsey] I love the limitations of it, of the art form.

I love taking an image and being like, "How can I translate this in the least amount of colors but still get my message and the feeling across?"

(bright upbeat music) - For us like, the whole thing has been just a huge learning experience and also been a great experience for us to use our various skill sets in different ways, and build on those both individually and collectively.

So I think for anyone who has interest in doing that, or trying to make something bigger out of like their passions, it's not as scary as it seems.

- It's only a little scary.

- It's a little scary, but then it's like, not that bad.

But I feel like a lot of pride by being around for like five years, feels like pretty substantial especially when we were starting out and had zero expectation of even being in business.

(bright upbeat music) - [David] Akron's Curated Storefront strives to transform the city's neglected urban spaces through art.

On the next round of "Applause", see how they're partnering with the Front Triennial to further that mission.

Plus a sci-fi comic book set in Cleveland is the inspiration for a new TV show, "Paper Girls".

And we share a Cleveland orchestra concert featuring renowned composer and conductor, John Adams.

All that and more, on the next episode of "Applause".

(lively jazzy music) Microcosm Publishing, based in Portland, Oregon has the pleasure of calling itself the fastest growing independent publisher of 2021, according to "Publishers Weekly".

The company, with Northeast Ohio roots, has even more to celebrate, with the release of two new books focused on Cleveland.

(energetic rock music) - I am Joe Biel, the founder and now CEO of Microcosm Publishing and Distribution.

We are in our Cleveland warehouse where we ship seven-eighths of the books that we put into the mail stream.

I grew up on the East side of Cleveland.

I was a undiagnosed autistic teenager, and struggled to function in my world here.

I started going to punk shows at the Euclid Tavern and the Grog Shop, and then eventually Speak in Tongues.

By 1995, apparently I had a conversation where I declared that I would launch the punk rock version of book publishing.

Before long I had picked the name Microcosm, and had couple dozen different publications in milk crates on the bar, at like the venues that I was going to regularly anyway.

You know, I was making these like four by six postcards and then it would like executively summarize Microcosm, and it'd be like, "We have this and this and this."

That was a major reason that people found out about what I was doing.

I wanted to create the resources that had been lacking for me, that would've helped me so much as a young person.

20 years ago, most writing wasn't really servicing the people that were reading it.

It was more about the author than about the reader.

I just saw how big the world was and how much opportunity there was for what I was doing, and I realized that it could be my job.

And then in 1998, I got hit in a pretty bad head-on car accident, and then that was within a few months where my house burned down.

It felt like time to try something else.

Three people that I know were moving to Portland and they were like, "Oh, do you wanna come with us?"

I didn't know until I got there that it was full of the kind of things that I was doing.

We were operating out of my home.

I built a room in the basement, then I quickly outgrew that.

We moved into a proper office in 2004.

Quickly we filled up that entire building.

Short of like, moving further and further out into the suburbs, there wasn't an option.

The discussion at Microcosm was we would probably have to get a place in Indiana, 'cause that's like where book warehouses happen in the publishing industry.

My business partner said, "I am never going to Indiana again."

We came and visited Cleveland, and I saw a lot of old friends, and saw a lot of the city, and how much the city had changed in that time.

She was like, "Well, why don't we just open our place in Cleveland?

That seems like much better, like we know people there.

Like, you can bring back some of the original people."

As it were, like within the first year we outgrew the warehouse we got in Cleveland too, (laughing) which I feel like is completely in keeping with who we are and what we do.

When people learn about Microcosm and find out a little bit about our story, the usual interview question is how Portland has influenced my approach to book publishing.

People do often approach it as like, "Well, you owe Portland something because Portland gave you everything you have."

And I'm like, "Well no, it was Cleveland that gave me everything I have."

And they're like, "Cleveland, where is that," you know?

And I think that was formative for me, wanting to get back to my roots.

In July of 2022, we have two long-awaited, coincidentally synchronized books coming out about Cleveland, "Hello Cleveland" and "Speak in Tongues".

In 2016, "Scene" did a story about the history of Speak in Tongues as like the most fabled club in Cleveland's history, the lore of legends kind of place.

I was like, "Oh, I wonder if Eric Sandy, the author, has a longer version that he would be interested in for a book?"

And so I just dropped him a line and I said, "Hey, would you be into this," you know?

And he said, "Yeah, they actually made me cut the bulk of my interviews."

So it's a oral history from the people that were involved.

Most of the stories that I hear are not true.

There isn't really anything wrong with that.

I feel like that's kind of the magic and the value of the place.

You wanna have your like childhood clubhouse be like a place of mythical legend.

(laughing) You know, it's like almost better that way.

And I wanted it to come out with "Hello Cleveland".

In 1996 when I was just starting out Microcosm, I found some writing on the internet by Mike Hudson of the Pagans.

It felt like something that needed a wider audience.

So I wrote to him and I said, you know like, "I am Joe Biel, book publisher.

Would you write a book with me about the history of Cleveland?"

And he was like, "Joe I'm sorry, of the things that you read from me, that's literally all I know about the history of Cleveland."

And I said, "Oh, that's too bad.

Well, maybe in a few years you'll know some more stuff and you can write a book."

You know, I would check in every few years, and then literally 20 years later we did receive manuscripts, and then a complete Cleveland story.

He was in a car accident, drunk driving.

Went to the hospital, didn't want to wait in line and then left, and then like eventually died from internal bleeding.

Stiv Bators, who was the singer of the Dead Boys, also from Cleveland, died from the exact same circumstances, and they're both the singers of their original 1970s Cleveland punk bands, like it's beyond a coincidence.

It's like something that would only happen to Clevelanders.

And it also felt completely appropriate because we'd been working together for so many years on this thing.

And now it like, there was just no way for it to happen.

One day I ran into an old friend, Nick Perry, who also grew up here.

He was like, "I can write this book."

And now the book is finally coming out, literally 26 years later, you know?

(laughing) And the way I sell Cleveland is like, "It's the most unique city in the world where things that happen there wouldn't be possible anywhere else."

Being called Microcosm while we continually exceed growth expectations is very silly.

I just wanted to show people how cool books can be, and that turned out better than anyone could have predicted.

- [David] The books "Speak in Tongues" and "Hello Cleveland" are now out from Microcosm Publishing.

(bright jazzy music) (mellow jazzy music) Jake Fader is another product of the Northeast Ohio music scene.

He never gave up on his guitar, and today is one of the leading music producers in the region.

Not too long ago Fader, along with his wife Christine and drummer Joe Tomino teamed up for "Applause" performances.

♪ It's gonna take my mind ♪ ♪ I've been on the outside too ♪ ♪ I've been breaking all my rules for you ♪ ♪ I can't just talk about it ♪ ♪ I'm taken for a ride ♪ ♪ Every time I close my eyes ♪ ♪ Say goodnight to all the lies, it's true ♪ ♪ I think I've read about it ♪ ♪ Paths changing every day ♪ ♪ Stepping into every door ♪ ♪ More uncertain than before today ♪ ♪ I can't just know about it ♪ ♪ I'm gone ♪ ♪ I'm gone ♪ ♪ Take my breath ♪ ♪ I'm gone ♪ ♪ Take my breath ♪ ♪ I'm gone ♪ ♪ I'm gone ♪ ♪ I'm gone ♪ - [David[ You can hear Jake Fader's award-winning music all around Northeast Ohio, from Cleveland international Film Festival trailers, to Tri-C commercials, to of course right here on our "Applause" theme theme song.

I'm Idea Stream Public Media's David C. Barnett.

Be sure to join us next time for another edition of "Applause".

(lively jazzy music) (bright electronic music) - [Announcer] Production of "Applause" on Idea Stream Public Media is made possible by the John P. Murphy Foundation, The Kulas Foundation, and by Cuyahoga County residents through Cuyahoga Arts & Culture.