(piano theme music) - [Narrator] 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.

(jazzy instrumental music) - [David] Hello, I'm Ideastream Media's David C. Barnett.

Welcome to "Applause."

For centuries, many artists depicted motherhood through imagery of the Virgin Mary and child, but a new contemporary-art exhibition in Cleveland looks at the many ways motherhood is represented by artists today.

Ideastream Public Media's Carrie Wise has more.

- [Carrie] Mothers are the stars of a new Cleveland Museum of Art exhibition.

From raising children to fighting for future generations, a wide range of mothering is on display.

- You have this whole diverse range of artists, diverse in their backgrounds, diverse in the media they're using, diverse in their interests, focusing on this idea that touches everybody's lives.

- [Carrie] The resulting exhibition is "Picturing Motherhood Now."

- The first room, the room that I'm standing in, is called "Missing Pictures," and the works in this room focus on exactly that, on subjects, on bodies, on perspectives that have not been included in the traditional histories and depictions of motherhood in art.

- [Carrie] One piece, for instance, focuses on a mother and daughter who are undocumented immigrants.

Another painting shows two Black women holding babies that appear as white silhouettes sitting on their laps.

- Do they stand for the white children that Black women have historically cared for?

Or do they stand for the children of the mothers and therefore represent children who have been taken too soon from their mothers?

And I think that the painting leaves it open for either one of these or many other interpretations.

- [Carrie] The exhibit goes beyond imagery of mothers and children and presents motherhood much more broadly.

A series of photographs, for instance, tells the story of a Cleveland artist who turned a home into a center for creativity and healing.

- We came upon M. Carmen Lane's work, and they're an artist based in Cleveland.

And so through conversations, they had started this organization called ATNSC and had created a work that was kind of about the inception of that building, which was a traditional house in the Buckeye-Shaker neighborhood.

Carmen had made one work in that series, and we commissioned five more.

- [Carrie] Another artist, Wendy Red Star, created a family portrait that reflects her indigenous background.

- Instead of following the kind of male head of household, as you might traditionally in the United States, her culture follows the women's side.

And so she created this really wonderful commission for the work that is a portrait of her great-great-grandmother, herself and her daughter.

So kind of call attention to the way that culture is passed down through the women in the family.

- [Carrie] While most of the artists featured are women, the show also includes non-binary and male perspectives on motherhood.

- I think it's a subject that any artist has access to and any visitor has access to.

So I think we really hope that anyone who comes into this exhibit finds some point of connection, finds an entry point, finds something that speaks to them and their experience and maybe learn something that they hadn't thought of previously.

- [David] "Picturing Motherhood Now" is on view at the Cleveland Museum of Art until March of 2022.

Throughout the pandemic, Brush High School art teacher Sarah Curry has stayed focused on her students, particularly the experiences of young women.

Take a look.

- [Carrie] Navigating high school can be tough, especially for teenage girls.

There's often stress from bullying or questions around identity, all in addition to schoolwork.

- At the time, it feels endless, and that there truly is no respite from all of the worry going on.

- [Carrie] Artist Sarah Curry knows this from being a student once herself and 20 years of teaching at Brush High School.

Her own artwork calls attention to the lives of teen girls and the wide range of their experiences.

- So I am taking tons and tons of photos.

And then I take them back to my studio and do sketches and try to come up with an open-ended narrative, so the viewer is able to allow their own imagination and their own experiences dictate the story behind each of the images.

- [Carrie] Sketching from photos of both her students and family friends, Curry works in mixed media, adding to and subtracting from the canvas.

- These drawings are created in charcoal first, and then I fix the charcoal with a spray fixative.

Seals that.

Then I take inks, acrylic paints, various pigments, rub it into the drawing almost intentionally to obscure the girl.

So I have to go seek her again.

So there's areas where I lose my drawing and then I have to rediscover the drawing.

And that's an intentional part of the process for me, where losing and finding the girls allows me more time with them and kind of investigating their future and this image that everyone will see with them, as though we're partners in this.

- People often think of, you know, young women as their drama or they've, you know, they're getting through things, and they're not adults yet, so we can't take them seriously.

But she's given these young women a platform for us to kind of understand some of the incredible struggles that they go through as they approach womanhood.

- [Carrie] Within the exhibit, Curry also reflects on the social isolation of the pandemic through a recent series of paintings called "Unattached."

- I think that people falsely see girls taking selfies as vanity, where I think in actuality, it's much more of journaling and documenting that time.

And whether it's an outfit, whether it's a mood, whether it's an environment that they're in.

I think that this is really their diary of their experiences and their emotions at that very specific moment in time.

- [Carrie] For this series, Curry tried a new process, flocking, which added texture to the portraits.

- And I chose flocking because I wanted to show that deep, dark abyss of the world as we are all experiencing it through the eyes of pandemic survivors.

So I transitioned into flocking, which is basically, imagine velvet and the fibers in the velvet that are loose, like a powder.

And they come in a large bag, and they have a dispenser that almost looks like Comet, with little holes in it.

And you dispense it onto an enamel-based paint that holds onto those fibers.

And so it kind of bonds with that, and you cure it for 48 hours, and then you lift it upside-down, and all the excess comes off.

- [Carrie] This series was done on wood panels with gouache paint, and Curry masked the portraits with essentially a sticker to isolate the subjects from the dark background.

- So it's just her under this kind of, like, frosted...

So I can still see her, but she's frosted.

And I learned to make little tabs as to where she is because, after you spray with the enamel, put the flocking powder on top of it, finding that tab to lift and reveal her can be quite tricky and can ruin the flocked piece.

So I did ruin quite a few and had to start over again.

I had one of my girls that I had to paint three times.

- [Carrie] Curry says she's excited to keep up the experimentation as well as her teaching.

- The kids are the best part of the job, and the relationships with them are...

I mean, I can't even put it into words, and seeing these young girls show up at the opening, witness the work in person and see themselves was beyond my expectations.

It just cracked my heart wide open.

It was wonderful.

(patriotic fife music) - [David] On the next "Applause," remembering a little-known event in Oberlin, Ohio, led by Wilson Bruce Evans, a man of African descent.

That event sparked the Civil War.

Plus, answers to the longstanding riff between the east and west sides of Cleveland.

And, responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, a Columbus artist created a series of paintings that visualize the virus and its effect on the world.

All this and more on the next round of "Applause."

(jazzy music) Chardon native Kahrin Spear was a star basketball player in both high school and college.

But after graduating from John Carroll University, Spear started feeling like she was off her game and that led her to devise a new game-plan: Music.

Our "Applause Performances" spotlight shines on singer-songwriter, Kahrin.

♪ Man I miss my friends ♪ - You were not only the star player on your JCU basketball team, you were a star at Chardon High School.

Is there something about basketball that prepared you for the world you now live in music?

- The obvious answer and the easy answer is yes.

I've been playing basketball since I was two.

I got my first Little Tikes hoop on my second birthday.

From that point forward, basketball became my primary focus and I guess my first love, if you will.

I mean, gosh, all of the aspects and all of the life lessons and skills that come with being an athlete, particularly in that sport, has definitely helped me in my transition into music, from learning how to manage a team, being the point guard, which was my role in both my high school and college team.

My job is to manage and to make sure everything is running smoothly on the floor.

And that carries over directly into being the leader of a band, in working with my bandmates and making sure that all of our performances go smoothly as well, and that everybody knows their role.

And just being a source of support for everybody and encouraging them.

It's the same thing as in basketball.

But also just communication skills, learning how to communicate effectively across a range of personalities.

That certainly helped me in music from learning that in basketball.

And just other skills like leadership and work ethic and pushing through exhaustion, and all of that.

So, without a doubt, basketball has 1,000 percent prepared me for this transition.

♪ I'm just a lonely, roaming nomad ♪ ♪ Passing through from time to time ♪ ♪ I tip my hat to all my lads and say ♪ ♪ Don't worry, I'll be fine ♪ ♪ 'Cause there's a great big world that's out there ♪ ♪ Pressed against my fingertips ♪ ♪ Strumming my love and best of wishes ♪ ♪ You'll all be dearly, deeply missed ♪ ♪ So so long, Mr. Cleveland ♪ ♪ I'm heading out tonight ♪ ♪ Not really sure if I'll be coming back ♪ ♪ I guess this means good-bye ♪ ♪ Good-Bye ♪ ♪ Good-Bye ♪ ♪ Good-Bye ♪ ♪ Good-Bye ♪ I was planning on playing overseas, semi-pro, after graduation, just to continue traveling and learning more languages, 'cause that's what I studied in school.

And by the time I played my last game my senior season, I wanted nothing to do with the sport anymore.

My love for the game had pretty much been zapped out of my body, and it was super-devastating and bewildering because playing overseas professionally was a dream I had had since I was 12.

So to finally be put in that position of, do I want to actually do this or not?

And to choose not to was super-confusing for me.

And that kind of catalyzed the beginning of my journey starting to travel, because I felt that there was nothing left here in Cleveland for me to discover, and the only way I was going to find who I am and what I want to do, and what I feel called to do with my life was to start exploring around.

- You hit the road, and you were living out of your car at one point.

- [Kahrin] Yeah.

- [David] Talk about that time in your life.

And somewhere in there, you turned to music.

- When I was in my spring semester, senior year, right before graduation, a friend of mine that I actually grew up with and went to high school with, who is also a musician, came up to me at a game and said, "Hey, you need to come to the studio with me, and you need to meet my team, and you need to check it out."

And I was like, first of all, I haven't seen you in six years.

How are you?

And second of all, why do I need to come to the studio with you?

And she said, "I think you're gonna love it.

You just need to trust me, and you need to come."

So I kinda got my first spark with music while I was still in my senior year, but I just wanted to finish out the year.

I was working full-time, and so I didn't really take any of it seriously.

But when I graduated, and I realized that the job I was working full-time in wasn't fulfilling me, this friend of mine was going on a cycling trip with her buddies down the East Coast for a couple weeks.

And she said, "Do you want to join us?"

And I thought, I have money saved.

I have no direction.

And they seem like fun people.

So why not?

So that was kind of the beginning of the journey, traveling with them by bike.

We made it all the way down to this hostel in the forest in Georgia that had this room filled with instruments that people had left behind and donated to the hostel that anybody could play.

And there was a Martin guitar sitting on the ground open in its case.

And it just felt like it was calling me to come pick it up and play it.

♪ Hello, my soul ♪ ♪ Where've you been?

♪ ♪ I'm stumblin' down this road ♪ ♪ Soul-Searchin' ♪ ♪ Oh, break my bones ♪ ♪ Man, I miss my friends ♪ ♪ So lonely, I go on, then ♪ ♪ Onward, then ♪ ♪ Onward, then ♪ ♪ Onward, then ♪ ♪ Onward, then ♪ ♪ Onward, then ♪ ♪ Onward, then ♪ ♪ Oh, no, here we go again ♪ ♪ Honey, take your sweet time travelin' ♪ ♪ 'Cause you may find what it is ♪ ♪ That you're missin' ♪ ♪ Well, no ♪ ♪ If you don't go on, then ♪ - [David] Your parents were very supportive of you, so much so that your mom helped you come to terms with your sexuality.

Can you tell us that story?

- Oh, gosh, yeah.

My whole life, it doesn't matter what I'm doing, what I'm attempting to do, they have always been supporting me through and through.

But yeah, my senior year of high school, my mom and I joke about it, that she kind of dragged me out of the closet, lovingly, but a little bit prematurely.

I wasn't quite even to terms with it myself yet.

And to try to explain that or articulate it to somebody else just felt like the sky was falling.

And we struggled for a little bit.

We struggled for about a year, because naturally she had her own hopes and dreams for me to follow in the path that she had and having some knight in shining armor to ride off into the sunset with, you know, that heteronormative narrative.

And when she realized that there was a chance that those dreams weren't going to be realized, she was devastated.

And I can accept that and understand that.

But after realizing that those were her dreams and not mine, and it's my life, she really did such an exceptional job, her and my dad both, in doing a lot of research and trying to understand the lived experience of people on the LGTBQ spectrum.

And since doing the research and asking more intentional questions and creating a safe space for dialogue, our relationship honestly has never been stronger.

Both my parents and I, we feel like we're all best friends.

So it's something that definitely brought us closer.

And it's something that we're trying to make change for now in helping other families with children on the spectrum, who are also of faith, because I was raised Catholic, and that was a large part of the struggle.

So we're trying to bridge the gap now in helping families realize that kids can be both gay and faithful.

♪ There's something 'bout a grudge ♪ (Kahrin singing) - [David] That was part of my conversation with singer-songwriter Kahrin Spear.

To watch the entire "Applause Performances" interview, visit arts.ideastream.org, or watch on PBS Passport.

(eerie music) In honor of the Halloween season, we now travel to Carson City, Nevada, where for over 25 years, a ghost walk has been entertaining the public.

Led by artist Mary Bennett, the historical tales and paranormal stories are told through live theater.

- I think we all want to be surprised and stimulated, and we all want to believe in things that we can't see right in front of us.

It could be the simple science in our brain wanting something more out of this world that we live in.

And I think a lot of us want there to be something after death.

I think it's important to be able to feel the different energies that are in places no matter who you are.

I am Mary Bennett, and I run the Carson City Ghost Walk.

I take people through the west side of Carson City as a fictional historic character, and her name is Madame Curry.

Welcome ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls.

My name is Madame Mary Curry.

I am the widow of our dearly departed Abraham Curry, who not only founded this town, but created a community that you're about to walk through, witness and enjoy everything he did.

In the transformation to Madame Curry, I wear jewelry that reflects the time period.

I layer.

I do wear the foundations.

And I wear Victorian boots so that when I look down or when I look at myself or see myself in a mirror, I don't see Mary Bennett.

I see Madame Curry.

Each tour starts in the McFadden Plaza.

And we have a map that we have laid out of the historic district.

I try to make sure that there's at least eight stops and that we have eight to nine relevant, good stories for people to be able to listen to and that also connect to each other.

And there are some houses in there that we always want to be able to take people to.

And we get a deeper connection when we go into these October tours and then have characters come to life and go inside of those houses.

It's really super-cool.

(whimsical music) Lots of times when you're telling ghost stories, or you're trying to understand the energy within a house or why it's kept inside of a house, people will talk about hearing sounds that aren't relevant to your environment.

And some of those stories come out of the Governor's Mansion.

The Governor's Mansion was built in 1909, and the Dickerson family was the first family to move in.

They are the only family to ever have a baby in the mansion.

And perhaps it's those baby cries of their young daughter that still ring out in the mansion.

June, the baby, did not pass away in the house, but sometimes when there our haunted mansions or hotels, some of the sounds stay within the building.

Sometimes you can hear children laughing and playing when there are no children in the mansion.

(children giggling) We'll now travel up to the Ormsby Residence, so we can gossip about Margaret Ormsby.

Margaret Ormsby was the widow of Major Ormsby, who was also one of the founders of this town.

Late at night, you can hear horse hooves around this corner.

And I think it's Major Ormsby, still looking for his widow, Margaret.

(eerie, suspenseful music) Some of the scarier houses have really frightened us.

One of them is 412 North Nevada Street.

That house for us has so much representation of the symbols of things that are spooky.

There's a pentacle right in front of the house that's in the cement, and there's a serpent on a gate and all sorts of interesting things.

And that'll be the place that we'd like to end up with people (eerie music) At the end of the evening, lots of times different people are coming up and sharing, "This is what happened to me," or, "We've had a ghost experience here," or something about history.

All of a sudden, they have the courage and the need to tell you their stories.

I do want people to feel like they've taken a walk with somebody who is from another era and another time and sort of through a portal and then take them back out at the end of the walk and, you know, let them lead their lives in a better way.

I started being a theater artist actually quite young with the support of my wonderful mother.

She adopted my sister and I when we were very, very young, and she wanted to provide us with this awesome childhood.

And so she said, what do you want to do?

And I was always performing.

I was really drawn to live theater, any kind of storytelling.

You see, my husband, the Colonel said, "She writes."

By being able to do live theater, whether it's a ghost tour or a show at a theater or an outdoor venue, you're taking something else inside of you and inside of your psyche, that's gonna move you forward, that's gonna broaden everything for you.

And there's a lot of people that have lost people in their own lives that, you know, if we could have a touchstone to that, some way to access that memory, it feels really good.

And so that ghost walk sort of serves all of these purposes to keep us in touch with ourselves, our past, and then the past of this community that we're in.

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

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

As we say good-bye, here's another look at our "Applause Performances" guest, singer Kahrin Spear.

I'm David C. Barnett, hoping to see you next week for another round of "Applause."

♪ Holding rage in my hands like water ♪ ♪ Afraid one day it'll all spill over ♪ ♪ 'Cause I've watched bullets change my brother ♪ ♪ And I've watched money steal a mind from my daughter ♪ ♪ And I've watched faith put innocence in graves ♪ ♪ I want change ♪ ♪ I want change ♪ ♪ A guru told me once to be like water ♪ ♪ Don't be afraid; tears heal ♪ ♪ Let them all spill over ♪ (theme music) (jazzy piano theme music) - [Narrator] 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.