- [Narrator] Just ahead on "One Detroit."

A look back at some of the creative Detroiters we've featured on Detroit Public Television.

We'll talk with Chinese American artist, Anthony Lee, about the mural he created as a tribute to the 40th anniversary of Vincent Chin's tragic death.

Also, a local tattoo artist explains the meaning behind the ancient art form and how it serves as therapy for many of her clients.

Plus, a film series highlighting the creative works and life stories of Kresge artist fellows.

And jazz violinist Leslie Deshazor provides a sample of what we can expect at this year's Detroit Jazz Festival.

It's all coming up next on "One Detroit."

- [Narrator] From Delta faucets to Behr Paint, Masco Corporation is proud to deliver products that enhance the way consumers all over the world experience and enjoy their living spaces.

Masco, serving Michigan communities since 1929.

Support for this program is provided by the Cynthia & Edsel Ford Fund for Journalism at Detroit Public TV.

The Kresge Foundation.

- [Narrator] The DTE foundation is a proud sponsor of Detroit Public TV.

Among the state's largest foundations committed to Michigan focused giving, we support organizations that are doing exceptional work in our state.

Visit DTEfoundation.com to learn more.

- [Narrator] Nissan foundation.

And viewers like you.

(upbeat bright music) - [Narrator] Just ahead on "One Detroit."

We're placing the spotlight on Detroiters who excel in the arts.

Coming up, visual artist, Lorri Thomas talks about using her creativity to transform people's lives through the art of tattooing.

Also, the beauty of art is captured in the annual film series that features the authentic stories of Kresge's artist fellows.

Plus, Detroit violinist, Leslie Deshazor is one of the featured musicians at this year's Detroit Jazz Festival.

We'll get you ready for the Labor Day weekend event with a performance by her quintet.

But first up, Detroit artist, Anthony Lee, was selected by American Citizens for Justice to paint a mural commemorating the 40th anniversary of Vincent Chin's death.

Chin was a Chinese American who was murdered in an anti-Asian hate crime.

When Detroit senior producer, Bill Kubota, met up with Lee in a studio to talk about the mural and some of his other artwork that's on display in the Detroit area.

- So what I'm trying to do is build the layers.

Right now all these are under layers until all the food is really glistening and really popping out, looking super juicy and fresh.

- [Narrator] Anthony Lee is finishing this piece of public art to be installed in what was Detroit's Chinatown later this month.

- When people even talk about Chinatown, a lot of people, especially Chinese people, kind of just like, what's the point?

Why you even waste your time there?

And I didn't understand where that mentality came from until later on, I just realized there was a lot of trauma and Vincent Chin, his case was one of the last straws that really added to that trauma.

- [Narrator] A tribute to Vincent Chin, killed in 1982, a case of anti-Asian hate.

40 years later, a key piece of Asian American history.

- I'm a illustrator signage painter but I'm primarily a muralist.

I like large scale drawing, you can think really big, but I also like working with businesses, local restaurants, cafes, nonprofits, to kind of activate their spaces.

- [Narrator] Lee's work all around Metro Detroit, some with Asian themes, others not.

- I spent like six years at the College of Creative Studies trying to find what was my thing.

And my senior year, senior thesis, they're like, "All right, what do you wanna do?"

And I was like, "I think I want to mural paint."

And they're like, "Great.

Well, none of us teach that, so good luck."

But it was cool, I had a professor named Gilda Snowden, she's a really famous artist in the Cass Corridor.

She just said, "Just keep making art until something happens."

And then, she knew that I was looking for something.

Someone had given her a mural commission for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Detroit, and she passed it on to me.

But she said like, "How we do things in Detroit though, like if someone passes you a gig, you have to see it through.

Will you see it through?"

And I was nervous 'cause I had never painted large scale anything before.

Growing up in Detroit area, there wasn't a lot of Asians American artists.

I've always wanted to be a part of like a group or like, not just a group, but just like have like a community that we could like support or reach out to each other kind of thing, Just like the original Cass Corridor artist.

And I was wondering why that wasn't there.

- [Narrator] That Cass Corridor group goes back five or six decades.

Lee's mentor, Gilda Snowden, was part of it.

Now, how about an Asian American artist collaborative?

Lee's got some plans while at a studio in Southwest Detroit, some are starting to get together.

- I'm always trying to find other dope Asian artists anywhere.

- [Narrator] Art curator, Shingo Brown's running what he calls art buddies, they're creators, all AAPI.

- For art buddies, it's been an evolution.

Right now I invite an X amount of artists, it's grown to about 25 artists.

They all have the same size frame, there's no theme, they come in and start and finish a piece within two hours.

Throughout the past couple of years, I've been able to speak with these people who are not sure, all they really need is some type of confirmation that they are objectively technically skilled as an artist.

They just need someone to be like, that's really good, you should make more.

- [Narrator] Art by Asian American.

So then Asian American art.

In the spotlight soon, Anthony Lee's Vincent Chin tribute.

Part of the 40th anniversary program in memory of Chin's death.

- In Chinese cultures, especially Cantonese culture which he was and I am, whether you're Buddhist or not, you're growing up showing respect to your ancestors by doing these ancestor offerings.

And when you do that, you take three incense, you put it in this little pot, and then you put two little offerings as gestures of love.

- [Narrator] This painted offering commissioned by the American Citizens for Justice, the group still fighting, they demanded justice for Vincent Chin all those years ago.

- The system had failed him horribly, and we need to know why it failed him so that we can have the context to protect people in the future.

(birds chirping) - [Narrator] Tattooing is an ancient art form that combines creativity, innovation, and transformation.

"One Detroit" arts and culture host, Satori Shakoor, spoke with professional tattoo artists, Lorri Thomas, about her passion for what she calls ink therapy.

(bright upbeat music) - Welcome everybody.

I am sitting here with Lorri Thomas, who is a professional tattoo artist amongst other things.

What else is it that you do?

- I am a visual artist.

I've been practicing fine arts majority of my life, and I also am the CEO and founder of the Ladies of Ink Tour.

- Where did your passion for being a tattoo artist come from?

- I actually got into it because I attended a tattoo party in Detroit and the tattoo artist there, he wasn't really too much of a great artist, but he actually knew how to follow lines when it came to tattooing.

So I started drawing the tattoo I was going to get and tattoos for a friend of mine.

And more people saw what I was drawing and they wanted me to draw their tattoos.

And that's how I originally started, wanting to was to take care of myself.

And I had a daughter at the time, she was only one.

So I just really needed to provide and I felt like using my natural talent that God gave me is drawing and turning to a different medium was the way.

But now I do it because I'm helping people.

- So Tara came to you as a client and she told you her story?

- Yes.

- And out of her story, what did you create?

- Tara started off as a client of mine and we have bonded since then, and now like she's almost like family.

So when she told me she wanted a transformation piece, she wanted a piece that represented healing and transformation, she did not know exactly what she wanted yet.

I literally was thinking, thinking, thinking, and I came up with this design.

She did not know what she was getting until today.

And because of our conversations prior to, like I said, I've connected with her and I kind of knew her story.

So I wanted to just show a connection between the heart and the mind and the growth.

So I included her birth flower and it's like the leaves and lines are like wrapping around the heart and leading up to the... And it's coming out the brain, it's growing out the brain.

That's just how I feel that it would be a great way to show transformation.

- What did she think of it?

- She loved it.

And I was nervous because this is the first time that she has never seen like what she was getting before.

So I was like, please.

I prayed on it, meditated, I hope this is what, you know, when she thinks of transformation, I hope this is something that she can look at and say, yeah, okay, this is me.

- So Tara said that it wasn't painful to her, it was therapy, it was therapeutic for her.

And why do you think people endure that pain and how is it that Tara found it therapeutic?

- Well, we call it ink therapy as well because everybody's not just getting a tattoo just because it looks nice.

Some people there's very deep meanings behind these tattoos.

Like I have tattooed people who have experienced home invasions and have wounds from that and I've had to cover these wounds up so that they can have a better perspective.

So it kind of helps others.

Cancer patients, I work with a lot of those, people who just been through deaf grief.

I actually do a lot of memorial tattoos and stuff.

So this kind of helps people with closure sometimes, it just helps people kind of go through it and process things.

So it's therapy for a lot of people, it's almost a spiritual theme.

- [Satori] And I also heard Tara say at one point that she trusted you.

- Yes.

- How do you create that off the bat?

- I set our clients through email, they usually book a consultation, that's when we can meet and talk face to face.

And that's when they can tell me their story, the reason behind the tattoo, and like energy is everything.

And as long as you're willing to listen, people are going to trust you.

They've seen my work for the majority, so they already know that I'm skillful and I'm capable of doing a great tattoo.

But I just wanna kind of connect with them, so I'm not just putting anything on their body, I'm actually truly giving them something that they are going to walk away with loving and it's actually gonna change their lives.

- So you do a custom design for each of them?

- Yes.

Sometimes people will have like reference pictures and stuff and I always tell them I won't do another artist's work.

I can create something similar, but it's always good to have an idea of what they want.

- [Satori] Is there anything else you wanna tell the audience?

Your website, how they get in contact with you?

- My website is www.ladyltattoos.com.

I also have ladiesofink.com.

That's L-A-D-I-E-S of Ink, I-N-K.com.

And we are a tour of all black women.

And we are from all around the United States and Canada.

When I first started the tour five years ago, it was just seven of us, and we have grown to 27.

And I'm just excited because our industry is underrepresented when it comes to black women, when it comes to black artists, period.

So I'm glad that I'm able to inspire others.

And I mean inspire, I get emails from people from India, Africa, just because they see what we're doing, and it's making them want to become tattoo artists.

- I completely understand, and maybe even get a tattoo now.

- What I would feel is your client feeling transformed, but what do you feel in your experience, giving them that gift?

- It just feels good to know that somebody trusts you that much, 'cause it's deep.

You're literally living with this for the rest of your life.

And for somebody to say, I trust you with this, and to be so transparent to tell me their deepest stories and why they're getting it, like that's just everything.

So yeah, it makes me feel wonderful.

And that's exactly why I keep going, and that's exactly why I feel like God keeps blessing me.

I feel like I'm really...

This is the purpose, it's my purpose to help people.

- Thank you so much, Lorri, for being here, you touched my heart.

- Thank you.

- [Narrator] Each year, Kresge Arts in Detroit produces a documentary style film series highlighting the works and lives of the artist selected by the organization to receive fellowships.

When Detroit sat down with some of the principles in the project to talk about the creative and collaborative process that's used to tell the stories of the visual and literary artist fellows.

(bright upbeat music) - The beauty of art is that it can pull you in in a way that can transform a room in a matter of seconds.

- I am very grateful for Kresge that giving us the free range creative freedom to have this opportunity, collaborate with amazing Detroit artist.

- Kresge is creating a situation where artists want to come and work here.

- I'm Christina Deroos, the director of Kresge Arts in Detroit.

Kresge Arts in Detroit is generously funded by the Kresge Foundation, and we are administered by the College for Creative Studies.

And each year there's a film series that happens.

In the past, there's been a short documentary style, that was really the format of the films for quite a few years, and it worked brilliantly.

What it didn't allow for however, was the real connection for the creativity of the filmmakers and the creativity of the artists to come together.

For years, we heard feedback where artists said the films are fantastic and we'd like to work directly with filmmakers.

And it showed fantastic results of course last year, and again this year, and it's really again, just trusting artists.

So saying yes to opening up the genres, and at the beginning of the fellowship, having the artists who receive fellowships actually select the filmmakers that they would like to work with, and then we go through a matching process that Donald Harrison and Seven Cylinders handled brilliantly in order to make sure that even from the get go, those partnerships and those collaborations are also led by the fellows themselves and by the filmmakers coming in saying, "Hey, I wanna be a part of this."

- Once you do good matching, in terms of who you want to collaborate, that's setting you off for success.

And we saw that play out throughout the whole production of the series.

- When Kresge gave us the list of the filmmakers who were participating and links to their work and their websites, I spent a couple of days going through all of them.

I didn't know what I wanted to do for the film, I wasn't sure if it was gonna be documentary style, but I knew that I wanted the colors to really stand out.

I ended up going with real clever films, and they definitely have a sense for color and saturation on screen.

And I also noticed in their body of work, as I said, a variety of body types and sizes and colors and shapes that they worked with and lit and filmed beautifully.

- My job is basically like listening deeply of all these artists 'cause Kresge picked them for reasons and they're all phenomenal and really amazing human being.

So just listening and then walk together through filmmaking process.

We talked a lot, and because of that freedom given by Kresge, we were able to make direction very quickly, and then we both have very satisfied result.

And each artist was very clear about what the purpose of this video and what they wanna be represented in here, and the storytelling process, who do they wanna include or not.

So having that free range was really big help.

- One of the richest parts of this series was just watching the different ways in which people took this opportunity to do something creative and really take it somewhere interesting.

And I think you ended up with a very creative, very diverse set of films.

I mean, even format wise, I was blown away to see like, oh wow, we have like wide screen cinematic format and square going with Brian's, the square shape of the photography.

Aksana, one of the filmmakers, who did two of the pieces, used high eight video cameras from the 80s to create this whole triptych approach.

- The authenticity really comes through in each of them, Jasmine and also Jenny's film.

Those two for me really resonate because of the experience and the ability to hear such incredible power coming through and authenticity and a call for the world that we all deserve to come forth, and a real clear calling out of where the falling short is happening now.

- How much Jasmine showed me trust in the very beginning was really, really powerful.

When she came to my place and we talked like two hours and like she shared her lived experience as a black woman and color person and mother.

And it touched me very deeply.

So working with her was really healing for me 'cause she's someone that healing is possible even though what she experienced.

- I will say the one that Graham White created with Toko Shiiki was really cool because it's so outside of the box of what an artist portrait would be.

There's no words, there's no explaining anything, it's sort of this very strange, surreal vignette playing out.

And Graham, he's a metal worker and sculptor, and so his work is getting shown in this very unusual world that they sort of created together.

- We do you wanna say like a heartfelt thanks to all the filmmakers who do this because it is time consuming and the budget is small and oftentimes, or at least with my film crew, they went above and beyond.

When people see the films, I hope they get a sense of what Kresge and the artists in this community are trying to build.

- The last two years of films have reflected what we were all living through collectively in one way or another, from our own position, within both the pandemic, within racial reckoning, and that really shows up in the content of the films as well as so much more.

So continuing to allow Detroiters to tell Detroit stories.

And that's again, really captured in the title, "Spotlight Detroit."

It does shine a spotlight on each of the individual artists but it also shines a spotlight on what's happening within the city of Detroit and just in general, and what happens with artists with creativity.

(bright music) - [Narrator] That'll do it for this week's "One Detroit."

Make sure to join us next week for a look at this year's Detroit Jazz Festival.

The Labor day Weekend tradition is returning to live in-person performances after going virtual the past two years due to COVID.

To close out tonight's show, here's one of the years Jazz Fest artists.

The Leslie Deshazor Quintet.

(jazz music) (jazz music continues) (jazz music continues) (jazz music continues) (jazz music continues) (jazz music continues) (jazz music continues) (jazz music continues) (jazz music continues) (audience clapping) (jazz music continues) - [Narrator] From Delta Faucets to Behr Paint, Masco Corporation is proud to deliver products that enhance the way consumers all over the world experience and enjoy their living spaces.

Masco, serving Michigan communities since 1929.

Support for this program is provided by the Cynthia & Edsel Ford Fund for Journalism at Detroit Public TV, the Kresge Foundation.

- [Narrator] The DTE foundation is a proud sponsor of Detroit Public TV, among the state's largest foundations committed to Michigan focused giving.

We support organizations that are doing exceptional work in our state.

Visit DTEfoundation.com to learn more.

- [Narrator] Nissan Foundation and viewers like you.

(upbeat music) (gentle music)