- [Narrator] Production of Applause on Ideastream Public Media is made possible by funding by Cuyahoga County residents through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture.

- [Speaker] Coming up, a retired Kent State art professor is honored with a retrospective of his work.

We remember the Ohioan who became the first woman to run for US president in 1872.

And Cleveland Blues legend Wallace Coleman shares a masterclass in the Art of the Harmonica.

(upbeat music) Hello and welcome to Applause, I'm Ideastream Public Media's Kabir Bhatia.

Charles Basham is a modest artist who paints bold, colorful landscapes inspired by the beauty of his surroundings.

He pays careful attention to light, something he instilled upon his students at Kent State University for 40 years as an art professor.

Now retired, the School of Art is showcasing his work both in painting and pastels.

(gentle music) - I'm looking for simplicity, even in something that's complex in nature, you know, a complex series of shapes and intertwining relationships.

In that, I'm trying to find something that speaks to me and hopefully speaks to the viewer.

My name is Chuck Basham.

I was born in Wadsworth, Ohio.

Grew up not far from here and spent most of my life on piece of this property.

We are located here between Wadsworth and Medina.

My upbringing is at least a part-time farmer.

It made me respect the land and the land, particularly this land is really become a functional part of what I do, my work.

I always felt like I was doing farmer's work when I was out drawing early in the morning or late in the evening.

And being here in the studio is a little like putting a hay away in the hay mile after a hot summer's day.

And I got a box of pastels from one of my former teachers.

And I went out and said, this is good.

You know, it's immediate and you don't have a whole lot of painting gear out with you, you just sit down someplace and it make some drawings.

And it became a habit.

And eventually, I guess a vocation.

For years I chose pastels, but in the last 20 years, I began to move into trying to get back into painting.

And it's more difficult because, you know, it's just really easy to mess up a painting, you know, because, you know, it doesn't dry right away the way that, you know, pastel can be.

So it took a while to, you know, make that adjustment to where they were both on the sort of the same page, more or less.

(brush whirring) That's a sketch that I'm gonna work from today that I did a couple months ago and just never got back to.

But I'm gonna try to take that and put it into this.

But it means, you know, not dealing with the actual color of something, but trying to see how the light transforms the material that you're working with and how you can push it even further.

I'm looking at not the subject so much as it's relationship to the light and the way I'm pushing color to define it.

This color is what really moves me.

I'm just using this land as a vessel, a jumping off point.

I like the times in the morning and the evening when there's such a dramatic change that it sort of transforms it into something that you might not have seen before.

It might be just, you know, something out of the corner of my eye.

And so, okay, let's see what that looks like.

It never looks the same, you know, if I go out there and said, I've seen that before, you know, maybe I'll try to make it into something that doesn't look so familiar.

But I am trying to find the unfamiliar and hopefully make it familiar to anyone else who might be looking at it, even if it winds up being a little abstract in the end.

(gentle music) - So Charles Basham, I've known Chuck my whole time here, so I guess that's 25 years.

Knowing him as an artist, but as a friend, you know, he's someone that I really cherish.

As an artist, he's an outstanding talent, he's amazing.

He's, you know, exemplary.

There's so many words that come to mind.

(upbeat music) His understanding of color is outstanding.

He has one of the most unique marks of any contemporary artists that I know of.

And that's really what sets him apart in terms of, you know, it's a type of realism, right?

But it is not, so it's very painterly.

It has movement, motion.

It's not stiff in any way.

It is full of life and energy.

- Anderson, when I retired at the party, said he wanted to do a retrospective.

The school wanted to, not just him.

And I thought he was kidding.

I thought he was just jerking me around.

But in the fall when I came in for a student exhibition, he said, you know, we're serious.

We want to do this.

But in terms of him being into it, no, He took a little convincing, yeah.

He is like, other people have retired and you haven't done like a small retrospective.

Like yeah, but they're not you.

Just to be really honest, the work has always been more than what you see.

You know, when you see him, he is humble, funny, curmudgeonly, all the things.

You hang out with Chuck long enough or if you've ever had him in for a class, you would know, but he's not a braggart in any way.

- I said, why don't you call it Continuum?

'Cause it kind of, you know, talks about the connection between this thread, this chain between the people I worked with.

And there'll be some of those instructors of mine who have work in the exhibition, and I would prefer you to have some of my students in too.

So you know, I'm sort of the middle of the hub and the people that proceeded me and the one that came after me, who studied with me, will be part of the exhibition as well.

- I think what's critical about Charles Basham and Charles Basham's work is that there is a commitment to artistic research throughout his life.

When we think about artists and close our eyes, we sort of imagine that you never get to retire as an artist.

And Chuck is an amazing example of that and has shown and continues to show and has hopefully 30 plus years of painting in front of him that will show just that level of, you know, artistic research commitment that we've really, really cherished here at the School of Art.

- This gives me, I think, a sense of purpose and I finish a painting if it's got some kernel of interest to me, of some little bit of success.

Okay, I wanna see what the next one does.

That's probably why I do it more than anything.

Let's see how this story ends.

(brush whirring) - [Speaker] Continuum, the painting of Charles Basham is on view in Kent State University's Center for Visual Arts through October 11th.

Wallace Coleman is recognized across northeast Ohio as a true master of the blues harmonica.

Coleman came up under Cleveland blues legend Robert Junior Lockwood, and eventually branched out on his own as a front man.

Recently he joined Ideastream Public Media's Amanda Rabinowitz for another edition of Applause Performances.

♪I gotta stretch my money ♪ ♪ Stretch my money ♪ ♪ I got to stretch my money ♪ ♪ Stretch my money ♪ ♪ Got to stretch my money ♪ ♪ Because my money ain't long enough ♪ - Wallace, you were born and raised in East Tennessee near Knoxville, and I hear you discovered the harmonica while looking for the Loan Ranger.

Can you talk about that?

- Yeah, well, one night I was trying to get the loan Ranger on radio and I accidentally got WLAC outta Nashville and I heard this, after I heard the harmonica play, I said, what in the world is that?

'cause I thought it was maybe a big saxophone.

And then the guy come me, he said, this is old John R down here in WLAC, Nashville.

That's little Walter Jacobs on this harmonica.

I had never heard of Walter Jacobs.

I said, boy harmonica, I can't believe that.

So I was determined to get a harmonica.

And at the pawn shop back in those days, the harmonica was only about a dollar and a half or something like that, you know?

And so I did get it.

And then there was a book, it was a book written by some guys outta Cincinnati, Ohio.

I can't think of the name of the book, but it taught you how to play blues.

But the blues on there was the Mama Blues.

And they said, if you learn how to play the mama blues, you can learn how to play what's in this book.

So quite naturally, I tried to play the Mama Blues.

- Can you show us a little bit about.

- I'll try to do the best I can.

- Demonstrate Mama Blues for us.

(upbeat music) - You want your mama, you do.

Well call her.

(upbeat music) You want some water?

Well, tell her.

(upbeat music) I still couldn't do it.

(person laughing) - That's great.

(upbeat music) ♪ When I get my jet ♪ ♪ And pay all my bills, I ain't got enough ♪ ♪ To get all of my pills ♪ ♪ I need some glasses 'cause my eyes went bad ♪ ♪ My woman took all the change I had ♪ ♪ I got to stretch my money ♪ ♪ Stretch my money ♪ ♪ I got to stretch my money ♪ ♪ Stretch my money ♪ ♪ I got to stretch my money ♪ ♪ Because my money ain't long enough ♪ Hit me.

- You moved to Cleveland in the fifties and you worked at Huff Bakeries.

- Yes.

- Until you retired in the eighties.

And that actually led to your career in the Blues, how did that happen?

- Well, I was one of my coworkers in 19, I think it was 84, 1984, a couple years before I retired, he wanted me to start playing with Guitar Slim at the Cascade Lounge.

And I didn't really know who Guitar Slim was.

He introduced me to Slim, he brought Slim out to the bakery one day, and I took my lunch hour and I got a chance to sit and talk with Slim in the car.

And he said, yeah, come on down and bring your harmonica.

He says, I have a harmonica player.

He says, but he'll let you come up and play, so I did.

And I was in there one night playing and the gentleman walked in the door and Slim said, come the old man.

And it was Robert Junior Lockwood.

And I had never seen him in Cleveland, I didn't know he even lived in Cleveland.

We took a break, Robert talked to me and we had some long conversations about, he says, you're a change player.

He said, I don't like harmonica players.

He said, but you're a change player and I might give you a chance.

He says, you still working?

I said, yes sir.

I said, I'm gonna retire in 1987.

And he says, when you do, gimme a call, he says, I'm gonna let you start playing with me.

So after I did retire, I got up enough from to call him and when I called him, he was in New Zealand, I said, oh my God.

So his daughter says, he said to tell you to call Maurice Reedus and he will put you in the band.

And when Robert comes back, if he wants to keep you, I'll let you know.

So he did, and I was lucky enough that he gave me a chance to play with it.

(upbeat music) ♪ I know the world is changing ♪ ♪ 'Cause it changes every day.

♪ ♪ There's new things coming in ♪ ♪ While the old things fade away ♪ ♪ Every day I do my best to keep up where I can ♪ ♪ But people, let me tell you, I'm not a complicated man ♪ ♪ I'm just an old fashioned guy ♪ ♪ Old fashioned guy ♪ ♪ I'm just an old fashioned guy ♪ ♪ Old fashioned guy ♪ ♪ I play these old fashioned blues ♪ ♪ Ooh Lord, to the day I die ♪ - Singing back up with you today is your wife.

- Yes.

- Jody, what makes you two such a good pair, both on stage and off?

- Well, she's a better songwriter than I am and she has written a lot of her own songs that we'll probably do some recordings with her song.

But she was on the latest CD that we did in the Netherlands and she did a song there.

But she's a guitar player and she's got a beautiful voice and everything.

So it takes a while to describe what she has really done for my career, you know, to help me out.

And she right today, I don't think I would've ever been able to play with my health being like it is without her.

The help that she has given me.

- Jody, what makes this work so well?

I think we like each other and that helps a lot besides, you know, loving each other.

And we've been together, we are married 25 years this year and a love of music and I'm not a blues player, but I have just such a reverence and appreciation for true blues.

(upbeat music) - You know, Wallace, you mentioned the longevity of your career.

So many of the great performers have played into their eighties, you know, Robert Junior, Buddy Guy is 87.

What keeps you playing gigs at this stage in your life and how has it changed?

- Well, I got a late start.

When I retired, I was 51 years old and these guys, they'd been playing for years and years and years.

I think one of the most remarkable things is a lot of Robert Junior Lockwood's friends, they lived until their nineties.

Like I say, the hardest thing, if you going to play harmonica and you gotta sing, that's what makes it hard.

- Yeah, - There's a lot of harmonica players they don't do, but just play the harmonica unless somebody else does the singing.

But I enjoy singing, you know, it takes a little bit more, you know, more energy to do both of them.

But I try to get it out as best as I can.

♪ Come along ♪ ♪ The children come along ♪ ♪ While the moon is shining bright ♪ ♪ While the moon is shining bright ♪ ♪ Get on board and down the river we go ♪ ♪ We going to raise a ruckus tonight ♪ ♪ I was working down in the field ♪ ♪ Raise a ruckus tonight ♪ ♪ When a black snake bit me on my heels ♪ ♪ Raise a ruckus tonight ♪ ♪ I jumped right up and I tried my best ♪ ♪ Raise a ruckus tonight ♪ ♪ But it fell right back in a hornet's nest ♪ ♪ Raise a ruckus tonight ♪ ♪ Oh well it come along, the children come along ♪ - [Speaker] You can watch the entire edition of Applause Performances featuring Wallace Coleman, as well as previous shows with the PBS app.

♪ Raise a ruckus tonight ♪ A new locally produced documentary recently debuted about the first woman to run for president of the United States, Victoria Woodhull.

Born Victoria Claflin in 1838, the Ohio native rose from poverty to become the first woman to speak before Congress in 1871.

She ran for president the following year in 1872.

Here's an excerpt from the film, "Victoria Woodhull, Shattering Glass Ceilings", as Victoria and her sister Tennessee set their eyes on Wall Street.

(gentle music) (people cheering) - [Speaker 2] Victoria raced plenty of eyebrows when in 1870, she and her sister Tennessee became the first two women to open a brokerage firm on Wall Street.

It was said that thousands of people gathered in the streets when the firm opened because this was so groundbreaking, so shocking.

They did all this for the financial support of the extremely wealthy Cornelius Vanderbilt who may have been romantically involved with Tennessee.

Newspapers describe the sisters as the women of Wall Street and the Bewitching Brokers, calling them pretty and revealing that they wore matching Navy outfits to work as if how they dressed was the most important news.

What wasn't reported on as much was the actual investing that they did at their firm.

During a time when Wall Street was rough and tumble and considered a man's world, Victoria and Tennessee let female clients into their firm through the back entrance, reserving their back room exclusively for women to invest what money they had.

This definitely wasn't what was happening in a typical Wall Street brokerage firm in the 19th century.

With help from Cornelius Vanderbilt, they made about $700,000 in about seven months time, which is approximately $16 million in 2023.

- When I say that I spoke out publicly, that includes in front of the Judiciary Committee of Congress, just last year on January 11th, 1871.

I hope you'll forgive my sense of pride when I point out that I was the first woman to publicly address a congressional committee, although I certainly hope I'm not the last.

I explained to the men that the Constitution already guaranteed the right to vote to any and all US citizens, which by default includes women.

- Well, there was a lot of debate at that time over citizenship and who should have citizenship and who should have the right to vote.

Remember earlier in the year, the 15th Amendment became part of the Constitution, which said you can't deny somebody the right to vote on the basis that their color.

And it was a big issue, what is a citizen?

The 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments opened the door to discuss women's rights in a way that hadn't been discussed before the war.

- I am grateful to Benjamin Butler, the Republican from Massachusetts in the House of Representatives for giving me this opportunity to reiterate that the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

And that I repeat includes women, which means that I and all women in the United States of America should be voting in the 1872 presidential election today.

Yet where am I on this special day on November 5th, 1872?

In this stinking jail cell.

Rather than discuss why other than to say it is utterly unfair, I'd rather focus on the closest we've come to women getting the right to vote.

The day when I publicly spoke to the Judiciary Committee of Congress on that very subject.

- She spoke before the Judiciary Committee, advocating women's right to vote.

She was arguing logically through the idea that women already had the right to vote to the 14th Amendment says every person born in the United States is American citizen, 15th Amendment, every citizen has the right to vote.

And she said it never distinguished sex or race or anything like that.

So she said, all we really need to do is recognize we already have the vote and allow it to go through.

- Now that was a day to remember, I had persuaded senior member of the House Judiciary Committee, Benjamin Butler, to allow me to present my argument that the 14th and 15th amendments to the United States Constitution already gave women the right to vote, meaning that the Constitution implied this, even though it wasn't directly stated.

When I walked into the room to speak to those committee members, I was accompanied by Susan B. Anthony and Isabella Beecher Hooker.

The looks on people's faces were priceless, utterly priceless.

Some say that I appeared to be nervous and to them I would say, would you not be?

Would you not have been able to gain the strength and courage to let your voice ring out as I did when I proclaimed.

Gentlemen, I am a citizen of the United States as declared by the 14th Article of Amendments to the Constitution and no state has passed any law to abridge the right of any citizen to vote.

Nevertheless, the right to vote is denied to women citizens by operation of election laws.

These laws were adopted prior to the adoption of the 15th article, and therefore are void.

But they're still being enforced by some states and rendered the Constitution in operative as regards to the rights of women citizens to vote.

Since no distinction between citizens is made in the Constitution.

And whereas Congress has power to make laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution all powers vested by the Constitution and especially to enforce the provisions of the 14th article.

Therefore, I would most respectfully petition your honorable bodies to make such laws as necessary and proper for carrying into execution the right vested by the Constitution in the citizens of the United States to vote without regard to sex.

- [Speaker] For more on the documentary, "Victoria Woodhull, Shattering Glass Ceilings", visit arts.ideastream.org.

Here's a look at what's coming up next time on Applause.

A new play brings to the stage real life stories of men who are wrongfully convicted.

Learn why they turn to the arts to inspire change.

Plus meet the Burning River Roller Derby team, building friendships through the love of the sport and the Cleveland Orchestra explores the dark complexities of World War II.

All that and more on the next round of Applause.

(gentle music) If you like to get out and about in northeast Ohio and enjoy the region's arts and culture, here's a heads up.

The to-do list is your source for not only regional arts events, but also stories about the arts.

Sign up for this free newsletter online at arts.ideastream.org.

(upbeat music) All right, that's it folks.

Thank you for joining me on this round of Applause.

Let's say goodbye with more music from the local Blues Master, Wallace Coleman and his band.

Here they are with Coleman's song, "Too much time on my hands" Take it away.

♪ I got too much time on my hands ♪ ♪ Too much time on my hands ♪ ♪ I gotta do something ♪ ♪ If I do it wrong, I got too much time on my hands ♪ ♪ I got to get out so I can see clear ♪ ♪ I got to get out and drink me some beer ♪ ♪ I've been missing so much because I've been outta touch ♪ ♪ I got to get up and get outta here ♪ (upbeat music) ♪ I got to get out and take me a chance ♪ ♪ I got to get out and get some romance ♪ ♪ I got to get in the groove, get up and move ♪ ♪ I gotta put me some ants in my pants ♪ - [Narrator] Production of Applause on Ideastream Public Media is made possible by funding by Cuyahoga County residents through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture.