- [Kabir] 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 and Culture.

(gentle music) Coming up, a world explorer shares art history.

Rick Steves discusses his new PBS series, "Art of Europe."

Plus a children's author from Akron is creating characters that celebrate diversity.

And a former college basketball star is winning over fans with her songwriting.

It's time again to celebrate the arts and culture of our region.

I'm Idea Stream Public Media's Kabir Bhatia and this is "Applause."

Rick Steves, has taken viewers to Europe for more than 30 years now his new miniseries, "Art of Europe" shows some of the masterpieces he's seen over the decades.

Steves explains how the series came about.

- So we wanted to distill it down to six hours.

And the first hour goes from, you know, cave paintings, through ancient Greece.

The next hour would be Ancient Rome that's a thousand years from 500 BC to 500 AD.

It grows for 500 years, peaks for 200 years and falls for 300 years.

In a nutshell, it's a little more complicated.

The third hour would be the Middle Ages and that's another thousand years from about 500 to 1500.

And then we got a 200 year period about called the Renaissance from 1400 to 1600.

And the sort of answer to the Renaissance was the Baroque movement and that's a very exciting time.

And that would be 1600 to 1800 very roughly.

And the flip side of Baroque is neoclassical, Baroque would be the divine monarchs and let the meet cake.

And then all of a sudden you got the revolution cut off the head of the king and the Queen and you got this stern neoclassical art where everything is subjected to the test of reason.

And so that's the fifth hour and the final hour is modern.

And that goes from about 1850 until today, starting with the romantic age.

So all of that to me, it gives you a handle on what is the story of Europe and it enables you to dig deeper into whatever specific era you are interested in your travels.

- There's a section on Renaissance goddesses in that episode and you're comparing them to ancient works and how they're related and it's fascinating, but I happen, I have to ask that there's of course a bit of nudity in the artwork, has that been a problem for viewers or anything?

- We've long had a quote problem with nudity when we show Michelangelo's David, I mean there's a penis, it was carved outta marble 500 years ago and some people are offended by that or you know, women who are naked.

Artists throughout time have appreciated portraying human beings in the nude because it makes it timeless.

And it makes it bigger than one mortal here, and they're talking about big concepts.

But believe it or not, right now in 2022, we still have to have lawyers at the network go through the shows of anything that airs on public television and flag nudity.

So, you know, for most markets it doesn't really matter, but there are markets in the United States that will not show this until after bedtime so kids don't have to see this stuff.

I'm sort of, our team is on a little crusade to help Americans recognize that there's nothing dirty about the human body.

And if you couldn't show a nude body here and there, you couldn't do a series on art.

I mean, there's just a lot of nudity in this art and it celebrates, part of it is humanism.

And you mentioned Kabir, the Renaissance.

To me, the renaissance is about humanism.

And that is not a repudiation of God, it's just a recognition that the best way to glorify God is not to bow down in church all day long, but it's to recognize the talents and the skills that God gives you and the energy and to use that to make the world a better place and to live life more fully.

- And I know that your trips to Europe as a young person really inspired you to pursue this, but I understand that art history, you're speaking like an art historian, but art history was not one of your favorite subjects growing up.

- No, actually, I vividly remember sitting in the dorm in the cafeteria with my school buddies, we got out the course catalog as you do every quarter and looked through the classes and we played a game called, "What's the Most Boring class in this whole catalog?"

And for me it was a slam dunk, it's art history, European art history, who would wanna take class at 50 hours to learn about this stuff?

And then I don't know what happened, I probably ended up taking a class with a great professor, or I traveled with some good tour guides or through my travels I'd probably recognize that.

But I have spent 30 years taking Americans around Europe and to be able to take an American into the Sainte-Chapelle, you know you go up a tight spiral staircase.

Sainte-Chapelle is the little chapel, the King of France 800 years ago, built to house what he thought was the crown of thorns, the greatest relics in Europe.

And it was built in six years.

He spent more year in it so it's finished in the way it was set out.

So it's got this cohesive, harmonious architecture as a visitor, you climb this tight, dark spiral staircase, and then you step into this chapel and it's a lantern of beautiful stained glass and you're there and you look and you see the lines of gothic architecture, the slender pointed arches and the columns, a skeleton of support freeing up the walls, not to hold up the roof but to be window holders.

And then all around you you've got solid, original, medieval 800 year old stained glass and you've got the light pouring through.

And you think our challenge as travelers and our challenges as people who want to appreciate art, is not to see it through 21st century eyes, but I believe it's to go back and see it as if you lived right then and there and to be wonder struck by it and to understand that perspective.

And that stepping into Sainte-Chapelle, it's the most glorious gothic space in Europe.

That's the triumph of the high Middle Ages and to be able to do that is a thrill, to be able to film it is really a thrill, we were all alone in there and we got to capture that magic and bring it home.

And that's one of my favorite things Kabir, about making this series, we got to be all alone with Mona Lisa, all alone in Sainte-Chapelle, all alone with Leonardo's Last Supper, all alone in the Orsay Gallery and to be able to film it, tell the story, weave it together, and I'm just so thankful for public broadcasting to have an opportunity for me to share my passion for this and to be able to bring meaning to the great art.

The challenge for us was the 20th century, there was so much to talk about and 20th century is a little tougher to get your brain around with all the Isms and so on, but it was fun to be able to introduce people to the great art of our lifetime too.

- [Kabir] Rick Steves "Art of Europe" airs on WVIZ Idea Stream Public Media and is also available on demand via the PBS app.

Now to southwest Ohio, since 1949, a group of dedicated women in Yellow Springs has passed down the artistry and traditions of hand weaving.

Let's meet the members of the Weaver's Guild of Miami Valley.

(gentle music) - The Weaver's Guild of Miami Valley encompasses any person who is interested in weaving, interested in spinning.

- Most of our members are weavers, but not all.

We have people that are involved in knitting, quilting, fiber arts in general, you name it, they do it.

This is our 70th anniversary and so we have been celebrating by having displays at various libraries and historic societies in the area.

- They've put exhibits in all of the libraries to give people a chance to know the guild is here and thriving.

(Julia laughs) - [Woman] And then of course we'll be at the wool gathering.

- The Guild, sponsored the wool gathering originally and Young's Jersey Dairy took it over, but the Guild started that and it just grew.

- The wool gathering is my favorite because of all the vendors that attend the wool gathering, bring your pocketbook.

I guess if you asked each member, they'd have a different answer as to what they get from being a member of the Weavers Guild.

But our primary purpose is education.

We would like to teach weaving, spinning to those folks who are interested in learning.

In addition to that, I believe personally that it is a way to preserve a craft that is not predominant today as it was once in the past.

- The days of learning from your mom, your grandma, Aunt Sally, those days of are gone and we're not raised with it right next to us.

So an organization like the Guild allows us to get the instruction, get the support and keep the love of weaving going.

- People who think it's really simple and fast, quick, easy to do, it's not.

So I tell people, it is a time consuming craft, hobby, endeavor.

And so they need to be made aware of that.

The weaving part is not that time consuming.

What is time consuming is planning.

Planning your colors, what fibers you're going to use.

(gentle music) - The advantage of weaving is the way you just oppose the fibers creates a particular hand in a cloth.

And that's where all the difference is in a hand woven piece as a opposed to a machine woven piece.

And there's nothing wrong with machine woven pieces either.

It's just there's a difference in the hand.

And the design and the creativity, it all goes into how a weaver uses the fibers.

- I enjoy working with cotton, our cotton blend.

I have worked with other fibers such as wool and synthetics.

The items I like to weave are scarves and household items, towels, placements, table runners.

My goal eventually is to weave a coverlet and maybe I'll get there one day.

(woman laughs) - Most of my weaving when I worked was yardage that I would then make into clothes.

So a lot of my inspiration would be things you saw in stores, in magazines and you would say, "Oh, well they did this and this, I could do that."

And then try it from there.

The scarf I did at a workshop several years ago, a new theme came out that was called iridescent weaving.

And that was using yarns that if you move the item, they would show different colors, they would irides.

It's a very simple weave structure, it's just that the colors play with each other against each other and that's the finished effect.

- The weaving I do is primarily for the wall or collages, so it's a different process.

I will work with any fiber in a collage, you can use any material that you find lovely.

(woman laughs) - For me, it's a way to express myself.

With the spinning, it's a way to just relax.

- Craft making is very relaxing, it regenerates your spirit.

And there's something very musical about just doing the same thing over and over and it just, it calms you down.

We do have a monthly meeting and at each monthly meeting there is a program presented.

- [Woman] Someone will come and discuss weaving, dying, some topic that has to do with fiber.

People attending the meeting will bring something that they've just finished and show and talk about what they did and yarns they used and that sort of thing.

- Is this my first weave without going in here?

- [Woman] The show and tell is primarily to encourage the guild members to keep working.

- Sometimes that will be followed with a workshop in conjunction with the presentation.

There are probably five or six different workshops during the year.

I think it's amazing that this guild has lasted as long as it has.

I've been members in other groups and organizations and they kind of come and go, people chose different interests, avenues, past life interferes and they don't have the longevity that the Weaver's Guild has.

I think the thing to remember from all of this is the Weaver's Guild, while being 70 is still very young at heart, is still doing new and challenging things.

We stay on the cutting edge and we're constantly bringing new ideas, inventive ideas to the guild.

And age is just a number.

It's how you feel young at heart, and I think this group is very young at heart.

(gentle music) - [Kabir] On the next round of Applause, go inside Metro Health's new main campus hospital where its impressive art collection aims to heal.

Plus, an artist who grew up in Strongsville reacts to the political and social climate of today with his abstract art and the flavorful fermentation behind one man's homemade hot sauce he created after a health scare.

All that and more on the next round of Applause.

With the help of her daughter, Akron born author, S.R.D Harris writes books for children celebrating diversity.

The two tell stories that uplift and inspire while at the same time making an impact.

(soft music) - Growing up in northeastern Ohio, I loved books, ever since I was a child, I can remember being in love with books.

I don't remember a time I didn't have a library card and go to the library every week and pile up on books to bring home to read.

Some of my favorite things were poems and rhyming stories and I still have some of my favorite books from being a child.

I was actually in two children's books.

One is "Yoga is for Me" and then the second book was about nutrition.

And that really inspired me to wanna be an author when I grew up, I always knew it was something I wanted to do, but life took twist and turns to get me here to finally achieve my goal.

My husband and I have always been interested in teaching our children to read really young, we love reading.

So knowing that I wanted to try to inspire children to have a love of reading and spark that interest in young children, I chose children's literature.

I think the earlier you can impact a child with a love of reading and seeing books that represent them and celebrate diversity is a positive thing.

It only can make children's imaginations grow broader, brighter, stronger and encourage them to be better readers and better writers.

And with the historic election of Kamala Harris being a girl mom, that really inspired me to try to capture that historic moment.

And so "Future Mrs President," my first book was born out of that inspiration.

And in this story, Cammy's mom wakes her up in the morning with the exciting news that the new VP is just like her.

Cammy could not believe that the new vice president was like her because she knew we had only ever had male VPs previously.

So throughout the story, Cammy gets the idea of wondering what does that mean for her and her future?

And not only does she dream big dreams, she dreams big enough to see herself one day becoming president as well.

All of our children have been involved in the whole process.

My husband's been super involved.

He's the one that actually gave me the title "Future Mrs President" for my book because I had another title I had been bouncing around.

But our youngest daughter, she really became involved in helping me lay out the illustrations and come up with the rhyming words, come up with the story that she thought would be interesting from a young child's perspective.

So that was very special.

- I feel like we work together really good because I always have ideas and she has ideas and then we just make them together.

And then sometimes if she's doing something, I feel like I can like type things, type words.

And I don't always do the pictures, I feel like she does more of the pictures, but I still help.

I feel like it's just really fun because it's something I can do that's kind of easy to do and it's not very hard to do it.

I mean, it's hard sometimes, but you know.

- Yeah.

- When my daughter and I collaborate on our projects, we sit down and we talk about ideas first and we talk about the characters, what they should look like, what the setting would be like, what is the message we wanna have the book show.

So each one of our titles has a specific message, whether it's healthy eating, accepting yourself, celebrating diversity, dreaming big dreams, all of those ideas we came up with together and we talk about how we wanna bring that story to life and how the illustrations should look and then she tells me, "Mommy, that doesn't sound too good, let's try this way, let's try that."

And I listen to her ideas and it's just as much her input as mine in each of the books it turns out really well.

- I want people to really see what the books mean.

Like they're meaning to have imagination or they're meaning to like dream big.

And always, they always have a lesson.

Like you want them to really see something out of the books.

I feel like you want them to see they can do anything and they're important.

I like all of the books but if I had to choose one, it's probably "Bella Loves Her Umbrella" 'cause I love how that book's based on imagination.

- "Gracie's Grace" was inspired by our actual shelter puppy named Gracie, who we adopted during quarantine lockdown and because we had such an awesome experience with adopting her through child animal shelter, we decided to write a book based on her adoption and a portion of the proceeds go back to CHA Animal Shelter.

This was really important to us.

We've been rescuing dogs for 20 years, but because of the great experience we had with CHA, we just knew that we wanted to have a way to give back to them.

So Gracie was born and had a cherry eye as a puppy and in the story it talks about she wasn't sure whether her physical differences would keep her from getting adopted or not.

And she saw other dogs getting adopted before her and it made her feel a little insecure.

So throughout the story, it talks about self-acceptance, loving yourself just the way you are, not changing a thing, and truly believing that what's meant for you will happen.

- Well when I first saw her when she had a cherry eye, I feel like I didn't really care that much, I didn't care that she was different 'cause she was like a really good dog.

And it just depended on how they were not like how they looked.

'Cause I don't really care about looks as long as like they're a nice, genuine person.

And I mean, well dog in this case, because I feel like she's like important to me.

- One of the things I noticed growing up is that there were not a lot of picture books of kids that looked like me.

And in doing the research, I found out that only 12% of mainstream published books have diverse characters.

So it became my mission to write and publish and produce books that I felt were important, a missing part in literacy.

And I'd like to disrupt that, change the numbers a little bit and inspire children to see books that look like them.

I really think representation matters not only to the underrepresented groups, but also for the majority to see these children in a positive light, with family settings doing wonderful things and making historic moments come true.

It has been a complete dream come true for me, it's such a thrill every single day to know that I'm leaving a legacy for my family and my children, but also impacting children forever around the world.

To me, seeing it from going from my mind, like literally an idea in my mind to a piece of paper, to a book.

That process, those three steps, it's like having a baby.

It's like when you see it born, it's best thing in the world.

(gentle music) - [Kabir] In 2019, Karin Spear was the captain and starting point guard for John Carroll University's championship basketball team.

Following graduation however, Spear was off a game struggling with her sexuality, her faith, and her future.

But thanks to the love of her parents and her acoustic guitar, she found healing through music.

The Chardon native joined us for Applause Performances ♪ There's something about a gray child on your tongue ♪ (soft guitar music) ♪ Car that fades to black and white ♪ ♪ Your heart goes numb ♪ ♪ Momma says to read about a man named Nelson ♪ ♪ Just tell me what you find ♪ ♪ I'll bet you'll find something ♪ ♪ Forgive them ♪ ♪ Mother why's you drinking poison ♪ ♪ Forgive them ♪ ♪ Mother why's you drinking poison ♪ ♪ There's something about forgiveness on your lips ♪ ♪ The cage that hounds you captive suddenly leaves ♪ ♪ So speak it even when you don't think they deserve it ♪ ♪ Forgive because the secret is it's not even for them ♪ ♪ Forgive them ♪ ♪ Mother why's you drinking poison ♪ ♪ Forgive them ♪ ♪ Mother, why's you drinking poison ♪ ♪ Forgive them ♪ ♪ Mother why's you drinking poison ♪ ♪ Forgive them ♪ ♪ Mother why's you drinking poison ♪ ♪ Be free ♪ ♪ Be free ♪ ♪ Be free ♪ ♪ Be free ♪ - [Kabir] You can watch this entire Applause performance with Karin via the PBS app.

I'm Idea Stream Public Media's Kabir Bhatia inviting you to join us for the next round of Applause.

(soft music) ♪ Forgive them ♪ ♪ Mother why's you drinking poison ♪ (upbeat music) 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 and Culture.