(upbeat music) - Hello and welcome to "Journal."

I'm Steve Kendall.

March 24th, Bowling Green State University will present another Native American speaker, in its "In The Round" series, and we'll talk a little more in detail about that.

It's also in cooperation with 1BookBG part of that as well.

And we'll talk about all of that with our guests, Heidi Nees and Jenn Stucker, both from Bowling Green State University.

And thank you both for being here to talk about "In The Round."

Heidi, kind of just bring us up to speed, talk a little about In The Round again for people who may not have been able to attend one of the presentations and what the purpose is.

And then we'll start talking about what's coming up in the future.

- Great, thank you.

Yes, "In The Round" is a guest speaker series at BGSU, featuring Native American creatives from all over the country, from various different tribal nations and across the arts.

So the arts that are available to study at the university include design, now I'm gonna forget, design, music, theater, film, creative writing, and art.

And we've had many wonderful guests at the university thus far over the last two years, including playwrights, including historical reenactors, Talon Silverhorn was actually on the show back in October from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.

We've also had children's book authors Kevin Noble Maillard and illustrator Juana Martinez-Neal came last year.

We've also had graphic designers, Sadie Redwing.

We also had Ryan Redcorn this past September, who is a graphic designer, he's a photographer, he's also a filmmaker, and most people probably will know his work from "Reservation Dogs."

He's a writer on "Reservation Dogs."

He's also a co-founder of the native comedy troop, the 1491s.

And so we've had a wonderful variety in artistic perspectives.

And so the artists come to our campus and come to our community and give a campus talk, which is open to all, free to all.

Also, they usually meet with students in smaller workshop type settings.

And with the children's book authors, we've also been able to partner with the Wood County District Public Library.

The authors and illustrators thus far have spoken at the library.

And we've also been able to partner with the Mazza Museum out of the University of Findlay.

And so those are two wonderful community partnerships that we really treasure and we really value.

We've also been able to partner with the Bowling Green City Schools.

And so last year and this year we are able to distribute books by the authors who come to visit to children in Bowling Green City School District.

- Yeah, well I know that, and when we interviewed the person who's on, Silverhorn, it was interesting because what he wanted to emphasize with, not the fact too that there's the culture of the Native Americans and they didn't want to lose that.

But at the same time, to remind people that at the same time, they're also people who do things that everybody else does.

They're computer scientists, they're doctors, they're whatever.

And he was real strong about that.

And of course he's working with the state of Ohio on developing the latest state park, which is going to be culturally related to the Native American experience in Ohio in the day before the white people showed up and it became settled.

So as you said, you get a wide variety of perspectives and insight into Native American culture.

But at the same time, the fact that they see themselves as just being regular Americans like everybody else, because he said, I know that he was saying people have this tendency, oh, what they remember Indians or Native Americans because they're Indians in the movies from what they've seen in Westerns.

And he said, "We're not that anymore."

But that's the last image that a lot of people have.

So it was great insight.

And I think the fact that you're bringing this to children really is important too, because then they get that broader perspective early on.

And I think that's the advantage of this.

Now I know Jenn, we've got the person that's coming in, Traci Sorell brings a whole array of skills, a lot of children's books, but there's also tied in as a lot of things are now being tied in the eclipse.

And 1BookBG is pushing that as well, because there's a lot of science involved that we can add to the show.

So talk a little about the speaker that's gonna be coming in here on March 24th.

- Yeah, absolutely.

But I also wanna piggyback on what you just mentioned too, as far as Native Americans and what they're doing today, Illuminative published some research that Native American's history is not talked about after 1900.

And so that's one of the missions of "In The Round" is to bring contemporary current artists, writers, designers, as Heidi mentioned.

And so Traci, and bringing books to Bowling Green is one of the ways in which we're doing that.

So Traci Sorell wrote this really great book called "Classified," it's the Secret Career of Mary Golaross, Cherokee aerospace engineer.

She was the first aerospace engineer female hired by Lockheed Martin in the 1950s.

And so she was a lover of math and science.

She attributes a lot of her Cherokee ways in how she navigated college and how she navigated her career, and giving back is very, very important to her.

And so it's a really wonderful book with really great back matter about Mary Golda Ross's story and the ways in which Traci chooses to honor that book.

And we were super happy to partner with WBGU PBS to be able to provide books to Bowling Green City Schools second through fifth graders, and certainly contextualizing this aerospace aspect with what's happening with the eclipse that's going on right now.

- And and then the other thing too is because we've seen the movie "Hidden Figures" and that brought us up the fact that there were a lot of Black women who were involved in all of the space activities, which was, as I said, it was a hidden story.

This is something from the '50s predating that by 10, 12 years.

And especially for even a woman engineer, let alone a Native American woman engineer, that would've been, I mean, that's like taking care of a lot of, touching a lot of bases there.

And a lot of people would just assume that there weren't any women engineers.

And then the story she tells about this particular person is a pretty incredible story.

And it's good because as you said, history seems to stop when we hit the 20th century and that was one of the things that was emphasized by the gentleman I had on that yeah, that's where our education on Native Americans tends to stop for whatever reason.

And this is a way to bring it up to speed and bring it into the, not just the 20th, but into the 21st century as well.

When you sit down and talk about who you're gonna bring in, and here you're gonna have the "In The Round" series, we've got just a moment in this segment.

You look for that range of skills, but you also look for people obvious, as you said, Heidi, that are gonna bring creative attention and creative interest to people here at the university and the community.

So are you planning next year's already?

We'll jump ahead just a little bit.

- We are, we are, I will say one of the things that we really think about in terms of the guests, we have a very long list of guests that we would love to host.

And one of the things is connecting to that aim of the series, which is to render visible the presence and contributions of native artists and activists.

And so Jenn, do you wanna talk a little bit about who we're?

- [Jenn] Yeah, so we're currently working with bringing in Notorious Cree, James Jones in to speak and dance in September.

So he is a hoop dancer, and so we're also trying to bring in another variety of artistry to the campus.

So we're really excited about bringing him in and also having a performance with him, but also getting back to Traci and sort of that selection, we also have her book, we are grateful that we were able to generously be able to provide to pre-K, kindergarten, first graders through Dr. Lee Meserve and Marge Meserve were able to help us secure books.

And so Traci, when we first started talking about bringing her, we were really excited and thinking about "We Are Grateful" long ago.

And then thinking about the eclipse, thinking about how do we broaden the readership because last year we brought in "Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story" that was geared toward younger readers.

And so looking at Traci's many books that she's written, this became one that we were really interested for the science connection, but also it was a little bit more of an advanced reader.

And so we could hit another group.

And we were also interested in her book called "Mascot" that is an even older young adult reader book talking about two students that are at a high school and wondering why their mascot at their high school is, yes.

- [Steve] That is reflective of maybe, not looked fondly upon by the entire population I guess that there is some concern, which is interesting, when we come back, we can talk maybe a little about that because that still becomes something that's out there that some places have made adjustments, other places are not doing that.

So we're talking with Heidi Nees and Jenn Stucker from Bowling Green State University about the university's "In The Round" series, and also the connection with the community through 1BookBG back in just a moment here on "The Journal."

Thank you for staying with us, "The Journal," our guest is Heidi Nees and Jenn Stucker from Bowling Green State University.

Early on, I referenced the 24th with the appearance speaker, but this speaker, Traci Sorell, is gonna do several things on the 22nd and 23rd, not the 24th.

So Jenn, kind of fill us in on what's gonna happen over those two days with this speakers coming to the university and the community.

- Yeah, absolutely.

So Traci's gonna join us on Friday, March 22nd, earlier in the day, she's going to be addressing some students in the creative writing program that are also in the storybook class.

And then she'll be doing a podcast with ICS.

So their "Big Ideas" podcast.

And then that evening, she'll be speaking at 5:30 in 101 Olscamp.

And as Heidi mentioned earlier, the talk is free and open to the public.

We'll also have some additional books for sale by Traci through the Mazza Museum.

They're gonna be available there to purchase some books.

And then the next day at 10:00 AM the 23rd in the Wood County District Public Library, Traci will also be speaking there at 10 in the morning to the Bowling Green community.

The first 100 families to come will also have access to their own copy of "We Are Classified."

And then Traci's also gonna do a book signing after both of those events.

So it's a great opportunity for people to come meet with her, connect with her.

Many of the children that have already received books can also come at either of those talks and get opportunities to have their book signed by her.

- Oh wow, fantastic.

And again, they get to meet her and see and hear her, the range of things, not just the particular book they might be reading by her.

- [Heidi] And if I may, we do have bookmarks around campus and in the community with all of the information about the events.

And again, just a reminder for the first 100 families that come to the Wood County District Public Library event on Saturday the 23rd, they will receive a copy of this book, "Classified," which is again, generously provided by WBGU-PBS's Educational Programming and Outreach and the Ohio Learns 360 grants.

- And one of the things that's nice about this, and we talked about this with the 1 Book BG folks is that it's as much the content as the fact that you get people reading.

You get kids reading, you get families reading with their kids, and the books are designed to be it, as you were talking, Jenn, specific age groups.

So it isn't like one book and maybe it works well for a fifth grader, but a second grader or a kindergartner might go, "I'm not sure what's happening here."

So that's the nice thing about it.

And I know this year there's an array of science-related books that, again, because of the tie in with the eclipse, which we're all keeping our fingers crossed that everything goes okay there.

But when you talk about the fact that you're gonna get an artist like this, how difficult it is to get artists because they're obviously in demand, their schedules are crazy, they've got a lot of things, and at the same time they're gonna be trying to write or do other creative things.

You said the hoop dancer, he obviously has things going on as well.

So when you go out to find somebody, how difficult it is to find a date and a time and the person that you feel will work well with the community and bring something new.

Because you've covered so many things, obviously now trying to find new topics or new perspectives, new views can be probably a little bit of a challenge, I'm guessing.

- [Heidi] Well, I would say that because there are 574 federally recognized tribes, there's still so much, - [Steve] There's a few out there.

so much that we are excited - [Steve] I stand corrected on that.

to hopefully cover and invite folks in.

Scheduling is difficult, yes.

So we are oftentimes working a year in advance to try to get on people's schedule.

There are artists that we've invited that we are still in communication with that we hope will someday come, but just like you said, their schedules are so busy.

We also find coordinating with finding space on campus is also a kind of part of the puzzle that is a little difficult to fit everything together, but we've been really lucky so far that we've been able to continue to offer programming every year.

- [Jenn] Plus I'll just add to that too, all the variety of activities that BGSU offers too.

Trying to think about the calendar and the schedule so that we're not piggybacking on something that's really a signature product of BGSU that we can squeeze that in.

A lot of complexities to figure out at the right time.

- Well, and I think the other thing that's interesting about it too is that, as we said, you get people reading and you get people involved and you get people then interested in the content because here we're talking science.

When Mr. Silverhorn was on, we were talking culture and historically getting things so that people came up to speed into the 20th century about Native Americans.

And I think that's the value of this, because you can touch all those different things that may, some person may be reached by the science connection of this, one of your other speakers will reach them with the culture or the artistic or the creative part.

And I think that's the real value of this.

I know you go out and look for that, and again, as you said, you try to tie it into events and things that go on on campus so you can supplement, compliment at the same time, bring a new perspective and at the same time also bring new information forward.

Do you ever have people that come to you with, "Hey, this would be a great idea, here's somebody you should get."

I mean, do you get a lot of unsolicited, "Hey, I read this book by this person, this would be a great book for someone in the series or this artist," something like that.

How often do you get that happening?

- [Jenn] Several times, and so we add it to, we have a nice Google doc that we have a list of artists and creatives.

And so certainly if people have ideas, we're very receptive.

We're also trying to be mindful of how we curate so the fact that we are continually bringing a variety.

So sometimes people will go, "Oh, you brought in an author, right?

So here's another author, here's another author."

And so we want to go, okay, well we need to bring an artist, we wanna bring a musician.

And so we're trying to be mindful in that space as well.

- Well I guess the good news is you do have, as I stand corrected, you have probably a plethora of people or ideas of that range of people.

But yeah, I get it.

That author was so successful, let's just keep doing authors.

And the issue there is then you miss some of these other opportunities.

When this first developed, the "In The Round" series, the idea, as you mentioned earlier, Heidi, was to help educate people and remind people of not just the past of Native Americans, but the current and the future sort of thing, input from a lot of areas on campus and a lot of places in the community on that, I'm sure about the idea itself of reminding people that northwest Ohio was basically Native American land as the entire US was prior to certain centuries in our history.

So do you ever get sort of negative response to it?

And I hate to bring that up, but if somebody say, "Well, why are we talking about this?

It's history, let's move on."

Any negative feedback ever on this?

Not really?

- Not really.

I mean, I think that one of the wonderful things is that within this community, people have been really receptive of learning more and hearing stories from native artists and their experiences.

And this started as an extension of the land acknowledgement that was developed at the university to go beyond just statement into practice.

And how do we expand the ways that we are learning and engaging.

- And that's important as we've talked about too.

Back in just a moment with Heidi Nees and Jenn Stucker here on "The Journal."

Thanks for staying with us on "The Journal."

Our guests are Heidi Nees and Jenn Stucker from Bowling Green State University's "In The Round" program.

And Heidi, we talked about the fact book distribution, all of these community activities, but one of the things that also enhances this is you reach out to teachers and provide them with additional and supplemental and more comprehensive material for them to use.

So talk a little about that part of the program.

- Yeah, so as we mentioned earlier, we distributed copies of "We Are Grateful" to pre-K through first grade students and teachers in Bowling Green City schools.

And then also "Classified" to second through fifth grade teachers and students.

So over 1,400 copies have been distributed.

And with the teachers, we also go in and we create a teacher's packet.

And so Traci Sorell and her team have actually created amazing curriculum guides and teacher resource packets that are all available for free on her website.

So we went ahead and printed out copies of those for the teachers.

We also included a letter that we had composed that talked a little bit about the book, about the series, about the events, but also connecting the topics covered in the books to Ohio Department of Education learning standards.

And so also creating within that a QR code that would lead teachers to the library guide that's available to everyone through the BGSU library.

Colleen Boff of the Curriculum Resource Center has been instrumental in helping us to create those LibGuides.

And so within those, there's a tab for each artist that has come to campus thus far and connects to resources websites and materials created by those artists.

And so within those teachers packets, there's also those barcodes, or I'm sorry, those QR codes that lead them to those guides that have been created.

Again, those resources are open to everybody though.

We also throw in some fun swag too, like bookmarks and stickers and pins and buttons and that kind of thing, as well as each teacher that received "Classified" received the WBGU-PBS Eclipse Guide.

So that that could also supplement again and reconnect to what's happening with the eclipse.

- And brings it up to a current event that people are tuned to already.

And when you were talking about that, I thought it's interesting because we look at these events sometimes as like in the moment, Traci Sorell gonna be here the 22nd and the 23rd.

But all of those resources compile and basically build upon themselves so that you're building this larger view and extended view, not just when one person happens to be here, talk about this or Silverhorn when he was in to talk about the cultural and the parks and things like that.

Those resources build upon themselves and are available year after year after year and build that larger view, that more global view of Native Americans and what they've meant to culture, creativity, not just in the 16, 15, 14, the 1800s and not, but right up to today, that sort of thing.

So that's another valuable part.

It builds that bigger picture.

- [Heidi] And if I may, one other resource that we've connected with is OCO, which is the PBS affiliate in Taliqua, Oklahoma, which Taliqua, Oklahoma is the capital of Cherokee Nation.

Traci Sorell, the author, is a citizen of Cherokee Nation.

Mary Golda Ross, who "Classified" is about, was a citizen of Cherokee Nation as well.

And so through the OCO website, there are also video resources about Mary Golda Ross.

There are interviews with Traci Sorell.

There are also interviews with Mary Kathryn Nagle, who is a lawyer and playwright who was here last fall, fall '22.

And so as you said, these sources compound each other.

- And when you go to Traci's website, that's the first thing is OCO at the top of the page.

And you look at her site, all the books, all the materials, all the resources, that sort of thing, I mean, it's an amazing thing.

And the books are written for multiple age groups.

It's not just there were some for four, five, and seven, middle school or mid stage learners, that kind of thing.

But it's interesting because that does connect that all back you said to the OCO project and that particular thing as well.

Jenn, when you look back at some of the creative people that have come in, is there any ones that resonated with you or you thought resonated really well with the community?

They all probably did this to some degree, but was there one or two that maybe stand out as like, oh boy, we just really nailed that one.

- They have all been amazing.

I mean, they really have, and all so varied in the ways in which they've talked and approached the content that they've been bringing forward.

So my daughter asked me that just the other day.

She's like, "Who's been your favorite?"

I'm like, "Oh, I don't know."

And I mean, I really enjoyed Mary Kathryn Nagel because she contextualized plays and their influence into our laws.

And so that was an interesting perspective.

And then Ryan Redcorn came and had no prepared speech and just did comments and questions from the audience and was just super engaging and fascinating and bringing lots of information about his creative process.

And so, yeah, it's been amazing to see who's coming in.

We learn something every time.

We always like want them to come here and like be part of the community and the faculty or the staff because they've been just such a great group of individuals.

And there's just so many interesting connections too that sort of happen.

So Lee Meserve and Marge Meserve who sponsored this book, Pat Pruitt, who was here in November of 2022, was a metalsmith artist, we're both wearing his earrings that he made.

But Lee purchased earrings of Pat's for Marge for one of her birthdays.

And so she wore those when we distributed books at the schools last week, and told all the children that these were Pat Pruitt's earrings.

And so there's just these like great connections.

It seems like very often that when we bring someone in, just really great things come out of that.

So when Mary Kathryn came, Hulu had just launched "Prey," which was a film that's the prequel to the "Predator" series.

McKayla Goad just connected with other authors that she's been working with, with, now I'm forgetting, - [Heidi] She illustrated Joy Harjo's children's book, "Remember."

Joy Harjo was the poet laureate for the United States for several years.

And so McKayla has that connection.

I think when Pat Pruitt was here, he talked about the use of AI in the arts and talking, this was before AI really a dominant conversation in the mainstream.

And he was telling us about, telling all of the students and faculty and staff about how we're at the point where you can give commands to AI and they can create the work of art that you are trying to create.

And then not two months later, it exploded on the scene.

- [Steve] They got an early notification on that, they were on the point.

- [Heidi] And Ryan Redcorn, we screened his film.

So that was a new layer to what we offer.

Talon Silverhorn met with the fifth graders from BG City Schools and talked with them about historical interpretation.

- [Jenn] And then Frank Wallen, who's a musician actually was part of "We Are Grateful's" audio recording, or what was it?

- [Heidi] "Powwow Day."

There's another book by Traci Sorell.

called "Powwow Day."

- [Jenn] That was the original.

You're right.

- [Heidi] Actually contributed the music.

So he's connected to Traci.

So yeah, as Jenn's saying, all these connections have been quite incredible.

- And we look forward to hearing next year's events and season because every time we do one of these, I always learn something and hopefully everybody else does by viewing this.

But hat's what you see is you learn something every single time One of these folks comes here and leaves that with the community.

So it's a great thing.

So we appreciate you guys taking the time to do this.

So we'll have you back on again next year as you ramp up that next season's events and activities.

You can check us out at wbgu.org.

You can watch us every Thursday night at 8:00 PM on WBGU-PBS.

We'll see you again next time, "37 Words," look it up.

Thank you for being with us tonight.

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