Production of “Applause” on Ideastream Public Media is made possible by funding by Cuyahoga County residents through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture.

Coming up on “Applause”, a singer-songwriter from Cleveland discovers her disability pride.

We get a history lesson in Chesterland.

And the goddess of the moon shines bright for Baroque group Les Délices.

Hello and welcome to another round of “Applause” I'm Ideastream Public Media's Kabir Bhatia.

Now, before a concert starts, Have you ever thought about how the musicians got there?

They have many factors to consider.

Travel time to and from the venue, loading and unloading equipment, setting up and the sound check, and that's all just before the performance.

But what if you have to add in factors like the distance from the stage to the restroom or the number of steps leading up to the stage?

Those are just some of the logistics facing performers with physical disabilities.

Northeast Ohio singer-songwriter Tracy Marie shares her perspective as part of our ongoing series, Arts Access.

My whole life I've been figuring out workarounds.

I have to plan out everything, like I need extra time, things take a little bit longer for me, and those kind of things are challenging when you don't really have a handle on what your endurance is going to be on any given day because it's not always the same.

There is a lot of pain involved.

So my diagnosis is complicated.

It's a rare disease.

Mucopolysaccharidosis is a group of rare inherited disorders marked by an enzyme deficiency, and I have one of the more rare types called Morquio A syndrome, which is mucopolysaccharidosis type IVa, and it's very rare.

There's only about 800 people in the U.S.

that have it.

It's an enzyme replacement therapy that I receive every week, and It affects endurance.

It affects the skeleton.

It affects certain organ systems.

When you said youd stick around.

It's a type of dwarfism.

Didn't grow to my full height, and I have kyphoscoliosis.

I've had 7 hip replacements.

So having those repeated surgeries really held me back from being able to keep the momentum going.

In 2010, I was accepted to Berklee College of Music, and at that time I found out that one of my hips had failed, and so I needed this really intense surgery.

And without a support system in Boston and without knowing what the future was going to hold, I ended up not attending.

You've been drinking and I've been thinking.

So I took the route of performing my own music and just figuring out where do I fit into the creative arts.

The show must go on.

It's not working.

A lot of independent artists that go on these tours, they have to sleep in their van, they have to eat, you know, whatever they can grab on the road.

And for me, it's like I have to have a specific routine because if I'm not eating right, if I'm not sleeping right, then I'm not walking.

The show must go on.

Being able to maintain my health and my well-being was more important than having that opportunity because there was that fear that like they wouldn't believe me or they wouldn't understand.

So whenever I would have opportunities, I kind of would self-sabotage out of of fear.

Like, I would get opportunities, like maybe get an interview with a record label or an agent, you know, and I would just say, well, I don't think I'm going to pursue that because I, first of all, didn't have a diagnosis, so I had no explanation as to why I wouldn't be able to keep up with the requirements of a contract.

Oh, 'cause you keep circling.

I had a friend who was a wheelchair user, and I invited her to one of my performances, and she made me aware that she couldn't go to that performance because the venue didn't accommodate wheelchairs.

I didn't know much about ADA or how that worked, but I just thought, oh well, ADA was supposed to fix all that, right?

And she explained to me, yes, but it takes time for everybody to catch up, and private businesses weren't required to fix everything right away.

They're more just required to provide accommodations without undue burden.

So not only was I upset because I couldn't get my friend to this performance, but also as a performer, like, what if in the future as my disease progresses, then I can't get to my own performance?

So that became like a realization for me.

So I said, well, what can I do in the coming years to just help with the situation?

Like, how could I make people aware?

Because I even wasn't aware, and I had a disability.

So I was like, even my own inherent ableism was coming out, you know, that I was like, what, you can't get in?

Like, how did I not notice that, right?

If I wasn't aware of it with a disability, Then imagine how many other people are like not aware that their business cannot accommodate a person with a wheelchair.

Because it is super important to me that we talk about housing and healthcare.

I'm trying to round out my awareness myself because I'm asked to consult a lot and I don't want to represent other groups that I have no experience about.

The opportunities to find housing that— It's everything from like ramps to elevators to design planning.

They plan an event and they aren't thinking about how is somebody with a wheelchair going to park or where are they going to enter.

You might have a totally wheelchair-accessible brick and mortar, but then you put this like big giant planter at the top of the steps where somebody would need the railing and then they have to go around it once they get to the very top of the steps.

Those are the kind of things that I've encountered.

When I got the call, I was like, this is awesome.

I already knew it.

I already practiced it.

I had already had a demo.

They had a Disability Pride celebration there.

To be able to do the national anthem was really cool.

Even though it was Disability Pride, I was still, like, hesitant to ask for special accommodations because I'm like, well, what if they say, well, we can't do that, and so we're going to get someone else kind of thing?

Like, there's always that fear.

I'm excited, I have to pee.

And they're like, oh, well, you can't.

You have to go all the way back up because we don't— we only have a staff bathroom down here.

I'm like, okay, can I use it?

They're like— I'm like, don't do this to me.

I wasn't a great advocate for myself.

I'm always a better advocate for others than I am for myself.

It shouldn't fall on the shoulders of people with disabilities.

Oh, say can you see, Like, I have my own level of ableism because, you know, I'm thinking about access.

I'm thinking about physical barriers.

But you have people with visual impairments that need more lighting, and you have people that have a hearing impairment, and so they might need ASL.

And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air.

You have people who need a quiet space.

You have families who need an adult changing table.

You have so many levels of need in the disability community, and it's hard to kind of keep the awareness of all those things and think of all the potentials at once.

O'er the land of the free.

Well, I don't want to just focus on the things that affect me.

I want to be able to see a bigger picture and have empathy for other situations is the takeaway for me.

And the brave.

Thank you to Tracy Marie and the Bedford High School ASL Performance Group for that performance of our national anthem.

This story is part of our Arts Access series exploring barriers to arts participation and resources available in Northeast Ohio.

Follow more of the Arts Access series online at arts.ideastream.org In Canton, Silo Arts Studio provides a welcoming space for adults with disabilities to get creative.

We visited back in 2023 to learn more about the important work done at this artist collective.

My name's Todd Donnelly, and I'm the owner and facilitator of Silo.

We are an artist collective, so I find the artists and I make sure that they have the materials that they need and the space that they need to express whatever they need to express.

During the day, we'll have anywhere from 14 to close to 20 artists in the studio working on their art.

Some of them just trying to progress in their skills, some of them working on shows that are coming up.

They all kind of have their, their lane, if you will, And we do try to push people to explore a little bit outside of their lane, but they also have really interesting ways of expressing themselves.

And there's guys here who do horror masks and really high, high-end looking horror masks.

I do horror masks and horror-themed items.

And this is the first one I've ever done.

It's sentimental value.

And then this one, you've seen that in the gallery.

There's painters, there's colored pencils, there's people who construct out of cardboard, just all different ways of expressing themselves.

We just try to help them facilitate that and grow in that.

So this is Ron Babb.

Ron does a lot of Western scenes, very colorful Western scenes.

He actually came to us just doing colored pencil, and then lately he's been getting into— he just makes these out of like cereal boxes.

So we bring in all our cereal boxes, he makes the whole thing there.

Hi, I'm Kasey Wassam.

And I've been here at the Silo, it'll be 3 years.

I'm working on the country women's with the Judds.

And then she's also making the famous country music venues, Grand Ole Opry, and that's Dolly right there front and center.

Dolly Parton.

The Dolly Parton.

You know, historically, people with disabilities have been either overlooked or sometimes they make people uncomfortable and they're a little bit shunned.

And I think that's definitely changing for the better.

One of our big things that we try to do is to introduce them to other artists.

You know, they, they have a real drive to be artists.

This is what they want to do.

This is what they spend their time doing, is their expressions.

And so the idea is to help connect them to the larger art world.

And we've been really successful with that.

We have 2 teaching artists who come 4 days a week.

They're local professional artists.

And they also are very integrated into the art community.

My name is Kat Francis.

So when I came here, I got really excited by working with each artist individually because they're all so unique.

So, you know, I've taught drawing classes, painting classes, and those are fun, but— and so it's just a really exciting, inspirational job to me on the art aspect, but then on, you know, just the human level, The artists here teach me a lot about being a better person, being a better friend, and just— I get just as much as they do out of this place.

Sometimes, like, I go around and talk to each artist individually and kind of am guided by what I think maybe they need.

Like, you'll start to notice that there's, like, an interest in something specific with a few artists at the same time, and then sometimes some of them who weren't interested in that topic suddenly will just start running with it.

And I just always am trying to teach something different.

But it's kind of— the artists kind of guide me on what the next thing is to teach.

This is my watercolor Friendship Around the World.

So I watercolor painted some girls in Europe with a red heart shape on it so that everyone would see my beautiful art creation.

Here's a painting of me and Taylor's BFFs forever.

I sketch myself and I sketch my BFF.

I do digital work.

I also color pencil and marker.

This one is based off of my dad.

He, he was a retired truck driver, so I turned him into a superhero truck driver going through space.

Silo is a great place.

It's different.

I've been with many places similar like this, and Silo is— I love it here.

You know, you could be yourself, you can do whatever you want.

It is about bridging that connection to where in the past maybe they didn't necessarily get included as often and just subtly, slowly showing that no, there's real talent here, there's real ideas here, there's real heart here.

And so if we can help them connect to other people who are trying to get in touch with their talent and their ideas and their art, ultimately the idea of disability doesn't matter and what they have to express is just as valid, oftentimes maybe more valid than anything that I can produce, and so it's worth looking at.

It's worth not looking past.

I really feel like I'm actually making a difference in people's lives.

Not I, we are just really here for helping people to achieve achieve their own goals and to be able to feel like full human beings.

Now, if you've ever driven by the corner of Caves and Mayfield Roads in Geauga County, you've probably seen a bunch of historic buildings.

There's a schoolhouse, a general store, a train depot, and a whole bunch of buildings that make up the Chesterland Historical Foundation.

I paid a visit for another edition of What It Was.

This building behind me, what it was was the T.J.

Thayer Store, and it's the centerpiece of the Chesterland Historical Foundation.

They've collected some of the town's most significant buildings, from the old general store to the Silas Tanner House.

This land at the corner of Caves and Mayfield Roads was donated by Anne Stockton in 1973.

She was the daughter of industrialist Walter White.

The industrialist, not the other guy.

This Walter White was one of the principals behind the White Motor Company in Cleveland.

They were a family of industrialists, and because of them, Chesterland was able to save all sorts of things, from their old schoolhouse to this interurban rail depot, from which passengers could travel on the electric rail line into the big city.

And if trains are your bag, there's a museum dedicated to the Cleveland and Eastern Line right here in the basement of the Old Town Hall.

If you've got an idea for our What It Was series, send an email to arts@ideastream.org Are you familiar with the High Priestess of Polka Dots?

Yes, I'm talking about Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, who passed away in August at the age of 97.

If you were in Northeast Ohio in the summer of 2018, you may have seen her blockbuster exhibition at the Cleveland Museum of Art, “Infinity Mirrors” Let's take a look back on that incredible exhibit with Ideastream's Carrie Wise.

Welcome to infinity, as imagined by Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama.

As you step inside her famous infinity mirror rooms, reflections of dots, colors, and light bend reality in this unique museum experience.

I would love for people to just step back and not take photos and try to just experience the rooms as is.

While photos on social media have recently propelled the artist's popularity, she spent a lifetime creating and is still working at 89.

This exhibit spotlights her body of work.

Kusama has been at the forefront of artistic innovation.

Ever since she started, since the 1950s up until now.

So that makes her a very unique and unusual artist, basically developing a practice that includes performance, painting, drawing, sculpture, installation, really everything.

From a very young age, Kusama was determined to create, even when that put her at odds with others.

In Japan, you know, she was born in the late '20s, And the expectation was that she would get married and have kids, and not just get married, but have an arranged marriage, which was not something she wanted to do.

She made her way to the United States to pursue her art career, but that came with different challenges.

In New York, it was a man's world, and it wasn't easy for her to come there.

She didn't have friends there.

She didn't speak English very fluently, and so to try to break into the art world, it was a big, you know, it was a big deal.

Throughout her life, Kusama has also struggled with mental illness.

She has, I think, used her art as a form of healing, her practice, I think, just as a lifestyle.

The ability to have the work is something that has allowed her to survive.

In the early 1960s, She brought her repetitive style to a new medium, tapping her life experience from World War II.

During the war, she was working at a parachute factory sewing military uniforms, and that's how she developed the technique to sew those soft sculptures.

They also appear in her first infinity mirror room, Phalli's Field, which debuted in 1965.

She began to have hallucinations, and her work was really about kind of catching up with those visions that she was having.

So you'll see one motif just exponentially accumulating, whether it be the paintings, the infinity nets, or the phallic tubers in the sculptures.

And so the way in which these mirror rooms kind of came about was that her physical capacity to be able to create infinite repetitions of these objects, it just didn't keep up with her desire.

And so she was able to to find the mirrors as a device to activate her vision.

The mirror rooms have captured many people's attention, particularly with this traveling exhibit.

Those who visit reserve timed tickets, and the time inside the mirror room is limited to about 30 seconds.

Inside the last one, called the Obliteration Room, visitors become artists as well.

Everything is painted completely white, and every visitor is given a set of colorful stickers and is then invited to basically leave those stickers somewhere in the room.

So over the course of the exhibition, the dots will accumulate and will eventually cover the entire room.

It's yet another way to connect with Kusama's vision.

I know that she is very happy to have all of these adoring fans If you think about the lean times for her where she worked so hard and she just wasn't getting the appreciation or respect that she deserved, and that wasn't a period of years, it was a period of decades.

So now to have all of this attention and to get the glory she deserved, I think it's, you know, fantastic.

On the next “Applause”, this show has officially gone to the dogs.

As we follow some classy canines strutting their stuff to take home the top prize.

Who's a good doggy?

You know, and it brings people together because we all have a common interest, and that's dogs.

And we take a little walk with some cool cats from Columbus, Blue Spectrum.

All that and more on the next round of “Applause” Hello, baby.

Long time no see.

Hello, baby.

Long time no see.

Well, it's time to say goodbye, gang.

Thanks for watching this round of “Applause” with me, Kabir Bhatia.

Our closing music is a tribute to the Mayan goddess of the moon.

Les Délices, right here in Northeast Ohio, staged the world premiere of this new work for its Mythology Project.

Composed by Nicaraguan-American Gilda Lyons, the piece is inspired by Latin American creation myths, entitled “Soy la Diosa.” Here's Les Délices with soprano Estelí Gomez SINGING Production of “Applause” on Ideastream Public Media is made possible by funding by Cuyahoga County residents through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture.