- Production of applause on W V I Z. PBS is made possible by grants from the And by Cuyahoga county residents through Cuyahoga arts and culture.

- Hello, I'm mightiest dreams.

David C. Barnett, and welcome to applause at the conclusion of the 1936 Olympics held in Berlin.

Each gold medalist received an English Oak tree from the host country of Germany.

The Oak is a powerful symbol of national pride Clevelander, Jesse Owens brought home four young saplings after winning four gold medals.

He planted them all in Ohio.

The only surviving tree at Rhodes high school in Cleveland's old Brooklyn neighborhood, where Owens took up track is unfortunately dying as a way of honoring Jesse Owens his accomplishments for years to come horticulturalists cloned an exact replica of that tree.

It was recently planted at Rockefeller pond in Cleveland's university circle commemorating Jesse Owen's endurance strength and fortitude on the field and off born in Alabama.

The Owens family arrived in Cleveland in the early part of the 19 hundreds in search of a better life.

They were part of the great migration.

That's saw one and a half million African-Americans make their way north - Jesse's father.

And my grandfather were sharecroppers.

And one of the older sisters I can't remember which one moved to Cleveland Ohio.

And when she made that move, you know she basically told the family just moved north because things were much better shape.

The job market was better and they made that move.

- The Owens family prospered, his dad Henry Cleveland Owens found work in the mills of Cleveland.

Jesse took on menial jobs while attending Fairmont junior high school on the east side of Cleveland.

It was there that he caught the attention of track and field coach Charles Riley who persuaded him to take up sports.

- Jesse, wasn't interested in athletics until he met coach Riley.

That was a junior high coach and he kept begging Jessie to come out.

I guess he saw him in gym class and high perform.

He finally committed to track and field.

And when man first came on the track he was just amazed of the speed that they had.

So it was just natural talent.

- Riley took him under his wing, allowed him to practice in the morning because Jesse was working an evening job I think at a shoe shop.

And he also took a Jessie home with him to his home on the west side.

Riley got it started - While attending east technical high school.

Jesse Owens flourished, tying a world record in the 100 and 200 meter run making him one of the top athletes in the country.

- Setting.

Those records certainly popped him to the top in terms of Olympic eligibility, - His decision to attend Ohio state university and joined the track team raised a few eyebrows.

- Jessica was not on an athletic scholarship track and field was not a major sport.

It was a football.

- Some people in the African-American community in Cleveland were upset that he was going to Ohio state because some of them turned into cracker university at that point, pretty much anti-black.

And so Jesse worked off campus and lived off campus actually.

And when he traveled with the track team, he would either eat at a black restaurant or he'd get a takeout meal.

So he was, he was living that, that extremely segregated life, that many African-Americans at that point either in, in north, he had to really contend with - Revered on the field Owens became known as the Buckeye bullet at a 1935 big 10 track meet in Ann Arbor, Michigan Owen's broke the world records for the 220 yard dash, the 220 yard, low hurdles and the long jump and tied the world record for the 100 yard dash - The day before he had sprang his back.

And he probably was not going to run.

Yeah, probably at that time, you know the trainers were not properly, versus they are today and he was recommended to stay out, but he urged the coach.

He said, I can run.

And, and the history, as it's told he wound up breaking three world records and tinying a forth and it projected him to be the number one athlete heading into the 36 Olympics.

- Owen's big 10 victories and success at the U S Olympic trials.

Secured him a spot on the 1936 us Olympic team.

The games were set in Berlin, Germany where Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party sought to put Aron supremacy on display.

- This was a showcase of what modern Germany could do Hindenburg and the gruff settle into over the stadium.

The Olympic village was pristine.

It's still there.

It was a great showpiece.

And eventually the Germans won the most gold medals but they certainly did NASCAR and traffic field - Owen's decision to attend the games placed him at the center of a firestorm over the racist treatment of blacks in this country.

Some African-American leaders also urged black athletes not to take part in the games due to German hostilities towards Jews and the exclusion of women from their team.

- They have a lot of pressure.

Of course, everyone knew that Adolf Hitler wanted us to be this international stage.

You know, you know, to showcase Nazi Germany the African-American community, the NAACP, the Pittsburgh Gazette.

They try, they urge the black athletes to boycott because of the problems we were having in America to being second class citizens and Jessie, and a few of the other athletes were international stars and they felt this is a way to showcase their efforts.

So the Olympics went on - And their efforts paid off.

During the 1936 Olympics Owen's helped the American team triumph that track and field winning four gold medals in the 100 meters long jump 200 meters and the four by 100 meter relay setting two world records.

- I'm very glad to have won, the 100 meters at the Olympic games here in Berlin a very beautiful place and a very beautiful setting.

The competition was grand.

I was very glad to come out on top.

Thank you, very kindly.

- Is reception in Germany by the fans was extraordinary when he won the 100 yard dash, the 100 meter dash forgiving me.

the crowd, there is a hundred thousand people in the stadium.

And they were just roaring and they're mostly Germans - While the world celebrated Owen's victories at the 1936 Olympics officials in the U S and Germany responded quite differently.

- When it was time for Jesse to meet, you know, he, he, he was snubbed, he really snubbed all the American athletes and it was a propaganda game going but on both sides, you know America was doing it as well, as well as Nazi Germany.

- Owen's would say that he never got an acknowledgement from president Roosevelt one way or the other.

It's a complex story about race and acceptance and athletics.

It's a powerful story for us - What Owens and every other Olympic gold medalist did receive was an English Oak tree from the German government commemorating their achievement Owens planted his four trees in Ohio.

One at the home of his parents in Cleveland, one at Rhodes high school, where he practiced track another at east tech high school where Owens attended secondary school.

And the fourth at Ohio state university - Oak is a symbol of strength in Germany.

I think the symbolism of, not so much the gold metals, but the Laurel leaves that were given as crowns to the athletes in the Olympics.

And then the Oak tree really gets back to the Greek origins of the Olympics.

For me, I think the Oak tree is more precious than the gold medal.

- Some 80 years later, the last remaining tree at Rhodes high school is nearing the end of its life.

Two years ago, the old Brooklyn development corporation the Cleveland metropolitan school district and Holden forests and gardens teamed up, to successfully graft a stem from that tree onto an Oak of the same species creating a clone of the trees awarded to Jesse Owens.

- It's living thing.

And if they continue to clone it and to keep it going.

It could be a perpetual Memorial to Jesse Owens and what he means to the city, this nation and the world as a black athlete, as an athlete, and as a person I just find that an extremely potent symbol - The newly planted sapling at Rockefeller pond in the university circle neighborhood of Cleveland is meant to stand as a living reminder of Jesse Owen's accomplishments on and off the field.

- I think it's proud legacy will live on.

We're grateful that a company decided to clone the tree put it in a place where the public can actually visualize it and actually, witness and be a part of it.

- On the second Friday of each month idea stream arts presents, applause performances a monthly webcast at noon on Facebook, featuring musicians living and creating in Northeast Ohio.

Recently, Brazilian jazz got the spotlight with popular duo Moises borgeous and Dylan Moffitt.

Who've performed there, Samba and bossa Nova tunes together for more than a decade.

I asked Borgias how the Brazilian bossa Nova and Samba beets compare.

- Bassanova, it's a slower rhythm and it's pretty much the same pattern as the summer.

Say, for example, if you do a bossanova like It's a very subtle and then if you speed it up, then you have a suba - Dylan Dylan, Add to that.

Anything in terms of, from your Perspective - What's really fascinating is that the guitar pattern that he is playing almost directly mimics what the percussion is doing.

This style of playing guitar for Samba was really brought to prominence by Joelle Bosko.

Who's a famous Brazilian singer and guitarist and composer.

So as a drummer, listening to that all I can really hear is the rhythm and the orchestration that the percussion instruments create - Moises.

We know that you're very proud of your Brazilian roots including your indigenous Brazilian roots.

Give a little story about your family, about your heritage.

- My mother is part of the indigenous ethnicity in the south by your state called Pata shock.

And that has, there's a lot of other indigenous heritage over there but she's south America indigenous with Africans.

So I get both backgrounds the Africans and the indigenous plus with my dad which comes with the white European chromosome on it DNA.

So I'm pretty much a very common Brasilia mixed.

When you mix up red skin with the white you get like a fusain When you mix red skin with the black, you make you get the Koboko when you mix white and black, you have mulatto.

So I'm pretty much the mix of the three of them.

And most of the Brazilian population is like that.

They, you know, out of white, red and black skin you have those sub races.

And when they mix, you have another five, some races and this is most of the Brazilian population.

I love the fact that I have the indigenous and the African heritage, which gives me purpose to share in and learn more about their heritage and our history and eco and share, especially here, because I love Cleveland.

I love sharing this cultures with the local youth.

And that's one of the reasons that I started that project with the Afra resident cultural appreciation initiative to be able to share that on schools and bring all these programs up to the youth.

- Dylan.

How did Moses come to take you under his wing?

When it comes to Brazilian music - He would never turn me away to come play.

You know, not only did it allow me to play the instruments but then I, I had the freedom to try other setups in a way he led to me being able to offer a unique approach.

Like I would play for instance, non non traditional Brazilian instruments that created a similar effect.

And so, you know, I think that's what I really like to do in the end of the day is pay respect to the tradition by speaking with the accent on the music, but also adding something unique so that you're not copying, you're creating - Cora Cora Lina coracle, Tell us about that song Boise.

- Oh, that song came out of our conversation of a very good friend of mine, Cora Sarah, which right away is the one that's has painted all these paintings in the background here.

She's an amazing painter.

And she was having a conversation with my dad on my phone and my dad calls her Cora Cora Lina because it's a name of a very famous writer in Brazil.

And she was like, no Cora Cora, steal.

And then dad was then no, Cora Cora Lina and she's like no, Cora Steal!

Cora Cora Lina!

Cora Steal!

And then I write a song, Cora Cora Lena, Cora steal - We've been talking a lot about these different rhythms and beats.

We've seen you do it in the video but you've got an instrument there?

demonstrate - As you can see, I have, I have many instruments around me here I would love to.

So I think what I'll start with is at the bottom you can't see this very well, but it's a bass drum called assertive.

It looks like a big barrel, but it sounds like this.

- Okay.

- Okay.

So that's going to be at the bottom of the Samba and there are multiple bass drums that play, but now in the middle or at one of the more rhythmic instruments.

And like I was mentioning about the guitar, this the fingers of the guitar mimicking this instrument and then another important element of the Samba is the, you know the swing and that's really accomplished by the snare drum and also the shakers in the group.

And that's kind of sound like this.

And so now what you're going to see in this clip it's a video that I made originally to educate the people in Samba Joya to learn this phrase, but you'll get an idea of the potential for orchestrating all the percussion instruments.

And I think it could be a lot of fun for people to see - That is local Samba, percussionist, Dylan Moffitt.

I'm David C. Barnett here with Dylan and his bossa Nova buddy Moises Borgias.

And these two plan to take the music to a different level with a series of front yard concerts across Northeast Ohio Moises, I understand that this had its origins last year during the pandemic, you just went out and started playing.

And what happened?

- Yeah.

This idea of the front lawn concerts.

I started because with the pandemics everybody was inside and there was all that problem.

The social problem, we fear to be close to each other.

And one day I was super, super, super bored.

So I picked up my speakers put in front of the house here in my street.

And I posted on the Facebook, Facebook group of the of the block club that I was going to be played here.

And my neighbors, friends and family came over and they said that they bring, they bring this lawn chairs and seat each one, six feet apart from each other in different loans on the sides of the house.

And also across the street from the house kids playing around and Dylan came and play with me.

And that I saw people that would never go to a concert like mothers with bunch of kids or older people with a wheelchair and an IV on with a thing.

So that, that sense of community to bring the, you know the music to the neighborhoods it adds the people that cannot see concert or does not go to concerts because they don't even know what they're missing, but they were really hungry for music.

And they were very grateful to be, to have a plane.

And we were going to be doing that again as much as possible this year starting today.

- You can hear my entire interview with Brazilian jazz man, Moises Borgias by going to arts.idea.org On the next applause.

And the award goes to the student filmmakers at the Lakewood young filmmakers academy who recently won first place at a major film festival.

Plus see how signs of segregation and racist memorabilia bring about something positive at the Jim Crow museum.

And we take a look at the art of appraisal, all this and more on the next round of applause founded in 2010, such and such is a design and fabrication studio based in Cincinnati, Ohio.

We now go down to meet the artistic team and see how they work together to create something fresh and modern.

- Me and Alex met at DAP.

We were actually a freshman year roommates randomly assigned.

We gained a decent amount of professional experience and we realized that we didn't really want to work for other people.

We wanted to work for ourselves.

And that was kind of like the ethos or the inspiration behind Such & Such.

- We go really fast from idea to reality.

I think that's where our strong points are aesthetics definitely modern, and it's deeply influenced by production.

- One of my favorite projects was corporate OTR which is a street wear and shoe store that went in on a vine street downtown.

We worked with the owner, Matt TOA, Michael who's a great guy.

And let us have a lot of creative freedom to kind of push the boundaries in the space and do something kind of weird.

And that's, that's what we love, you know not make what you expect us to make.

We worked with the owners of fusion to develop their own custom furniture for their fast casual sushi restaurant.

So we designed their own chairs, tables, menu boards stools, various other accessories for the restaurant.

And, you know, I think at this point we've done like six or seven fusions all with custom furniture that we produce.

- We are, they're doing a few different outdoor game tables for the new Ziegler park renovation.

It's through 3 CDC sponsored by go vibrant.

They're sweet, I don't really know they're ping pong tables.

We are super involved in like the OTR community.

Our focus is on the built environment.

And I think that for us to be able to put these unique and novel things into the world and have all these different people from all walks of life rub up against them I think is pretty, pretty powerful - When Sigler Park came to be, we got together with our board and decided to support the go vibrant gaming Grove and have permanent structures so that people can play at any time of the year with the equipment just always there, such and such was brought in to create the tables, which were quite a project.

And they're very, very sturdy and very bright.

And we love them.

- One thing that I really like about what we do is that I think we take a very like a high, a high design or a a more artistic approach to pieces that are just in the w in the world around you, but, you know, we get it done and that's, that's kinda how we came up, and we had to let that go.

Cause it's, it's what I think sets us apart.

We're not a metal shop.

We're not a mill shop where such-and-such - That's it for today's show for more arts programming, go to arts.ideastream.org And as we say goodbye, here's more from our special applause performances, guests Moises board, just and Dylan Moffitt enjoy.

- Production of applause, on wviz PBS Is made possible by grants from the And by Cuyahoga County resident, Through Cuyahoga arts and culture