- Hi, I'm John Sloan III and here's what's coming up on One Detroit Arts & Culture.

A new take on a Christmas classic, the tradition of tapping maple trees, and an education on Hinduism.

It's all ahead here on "One Detroit Arts & Culture."

(gentle music) - [Narrator] Support for this program provided in part by The Kresge Foundation, the Cynthia and Edsel Ford Fund for Journalism at Detroit Public TV.

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.

- [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] Gregory Haynes and Richard Sonenklar, Nissan Foundation, and by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you.

Thank you.

(upbeat music) - What up though?

And welcome, to One Detroit Arts & Culture.

I'm John Sloan III, a Detroit based activist creative founder of GhostLight Productions and the producing artistic director of the Obsidian Theater Festival.

I'm happy to be guest hosting for Satori Shakoor as she reprises her role in the play "Da Kink in My Hair".

So thanks for joining me here at the historic Detroit Fisher Theater.

Coming up on the show, the Detroit Sugarbush Project explains the indigenous tradition of tapping maple trees and the Religious Diversity Journeys Project takes us to the Hindu Temple of Canton.

But first, I'm guest hosting for Satori Shakoor as she reprises her role in the play "Da Kink in My Hair".

I had a chance to catch up with her to see how the play is going.

♪ I knew the victim will ♪ (indistinct) (Crowd Cheering) ♪ This scene is so lovely tonight ♪ - Hey, Satori, how you doing?

Good to see you.

- Thank you, John.

It's good to see you too.

Thank you so much.

- Looking forward to having you come back to us, but talk to us about the show for a second.

How's it going?

How's it feel to be back up on a stage?

- It feels great.

The play is set in a Jamaican beauty salon in contemporary Toronto in Little Jamaica.

And Novelette is the shop owner and she comes from a long line of women who have done hair over time and she has powers.

So when she puts her hands in the women who sit in her seats hair, they're able to tell their story, the things that they keep inside.

So it's eight actors that tell these amazing stories of what Black women go through, what women go through.

I play Miss Enid who's an 80 year old woman, a widow, who has found this tingly feeling for her neighbor Charlie next door.

So it's really a love story and it closes the first act with a big blues number.

And so it's very exciting for me to be back.

♪ Ooh, Charlie, watch out Mr. Charlie ♪ ♪ Ooh, Mr. Charlie, gonna get between his ♪ ♪ Tonight, tonight, tonight, wanna get ♪ - All of us also know you as a writer.

- Yes.

- And as a theater creative and director and producer.

What is it like being on this side now?

- I love surrendering to someone else's words especially when they're so well crafted as Trey Anthony has done.

I enjoy surrendering to the director's eye.

So just to come and be an artist, creating and recreating and having this character live as a real authentic person on stage, it's my only responsibility and my responsibility service phenomenon.

So I love this.

I love the surrender of it.

- Thank you so much Satori for being here.

We're so excited for everything that you have going on in Toronto and looking forward to having you back with us at One Detroit Arts & Culture.

- Thank you.

I look forward to being back.

Happy holidays.

- Thanks Satori and thank you, our audience for joining me here at Detroit's iconic Fisher Theater.

The Motor City Youth Theater not only puts on fantastic performances, its mission is to provide all youth with a place where they can improve their speaking, reading, dance, music, and life skills, all while expressing themselves and improving self-confidence.

This holiday season, the theater presents In Search of a Christmas Carol, let's take a look.

- What day is today my merry lad?

- Today?

- [Both] Why?

It's Christmas Day.

- I have a lot of fun when I'm on stage.

- I like theater because all the amazing people and I have fun here.

- Hooray for the Christmas goose!

- Hooray!

- Every kid wants to do acting.

They wanna be on TV and movies and everything and yet they might be fearful that, oh, I can't do that.

This place allows anybody to join us.

And that's what we tell parents, no experience is great.

That's the best place to start.

- Motor City Youth Theater has been very professional and it's powerful.

It's a way to like speak out to children who don't really like have a spot where they fit in.

They can come here and they can be somebody different.

(children clapping) (gentle music) (children laughing) - The mission of Motor City Youth Theater is to allow all kids, anybody that wants to do theater is welcome to do it.

We audition with kids, but it's usually auditioning within the show.

They're already accepted.

Even if we have too many kids, we write in parts for them.

- And I say, here's to my Uncle Scrooge.

- [All] Here's to Uncle Scrooge.

- I think theater can really help teach people empathy and other skills that aren't taught in school because it's so free form.

A lot of these kids may not go to the same schools.

They may have different life situations and things going on and for them to all interact and come together, it can be great.

- Three and 10 for all this lot?

- That's your account, and I wouldn't give it another six pence, who's next?

- In school, I was very quiet, very introverted so I wasn't really that social with everyone.

But the only thing that I really found joy in was movies and acting.

So my mom contacted Nancy Stokowski and they're like, "Sure we'll take him in right away."

And I'm like, no auditions or anything?

"Nope."

So I tried it and I loved it.

So for the past six years, about, I've just been doing this and it's really given me a sense of belonging, really.

Like it's wonderful.

♪ I saw three ships come sailing ♪ ♪ In on Christmas Day, on Christmas Day ♪ Another thing it's done is like, it's really brought out my confidence, especially now in high school.

I have a lot of friends now, and it really really brings out your personality.

- I think it makes them more willing to ask questions and communicate.

And it just fosters this ability to relate to other individuals.

- Kids who grow up and are like afraid to speak up.

They're nervous, they're just scared.

And I think all they need is to have someone to tell them like, "Hey your word matters just as much as the person next to you."

So if you come here and you go on that stage, there's no one that's gonna judge you.

- Everything we do is educational.

And so the kids are learning as they do this.

In the beginning we asked which kids have ever seen Christmas Carol?

Hardly any of them have ever seen it.

(bell rings) - Get away from my door!

Oh be gone yee beggars, I've nothing for yee.

The production that we're working on right now is "In Search of a Christmas Carol".

It is a retelling or rethinking of the original story.

The original story is still there but Nancy's added this new part where it's about four explorers coming into a museum and discovering Christmas Carol, which coincides very nicely with a lot of the kids who had never ever seen a Christmas Carol before.

It's a lot of fun, and it's cool to see all these famous and classic characters being played by young adults and young actors.

- I say, God bless it.

God bless Christmas.

- Bah!

(man clapping) Let me hear another sound from you.

And you'll spend your Christmas unemployed.

- "In Search of a Christmas Carol".

It's the traditional Christmas Carol but with a little bit of additional information.

It's about four kids who go to a museum and discover the original Dickens manuscript which is in the museum.

And they read from it a little bit, and as they're reading, things come to life and they disappear.

And they're in and out of the audience watching and reading some of Dickens actual dialogue.

- Scrooge went home to bed.

He lived in Chambers which had once belonged to his deceased partner.

- [Nancy] We have all kid actors except for Michael Micheletti.

He is playing Scrooge.

Our youngest just turned six and she's one of the cratchets.

We've got kids playing the spirits, the ghost of Christmas, present, past, and future.

It's the whole Christmas Carol cast in various ages.

- And are you going to show me all my past misdeeds?

- Not me.

I'm going to show you your present misdeeds.

It is my mission to show you the love and comradeship of Christmas today.

- Every single production that I've been a part of here at Motor City Youth Theater has been probably the most fun I've ever had on stage.

It's a lot of fun to see them grow as we go through the production and they're just a lot of fun to be a part of.

So like, I couldn't imagine anything better than this.

- I love it.

It's so much fun.

It's definitely work but in the end, it's gonna be amazing.

- I will honor the Christmas spirit.

I will live in the past, the present, and the future.

- We want people just to be thrilled and impressed with the kids at how hard they work and just get a good feeling.

- [Jocelyn] If you really wanna do theater then the Motor City Youth Theater is definitely an amazing option.

It's so much fun.

You're gonna make a lot of friends.

I came here and I could be somebody different.

I could go into somebody else's skin.

I could be somebody who I wasn't and I could, all my problems in my life floated away.

- Nancy, I love her dearly.

She's really given me a really a second home here.

And I think that's really her goal.

- Nancy's the best and everybody else of the teachers and they're like really nice to us and kind.

And I like love all the teachers here.

Like all of them.

- [Jocelyn] The motivation and the inspiring words that they say to me and all the other cast members it's really helpful.

- I am proud and I always just figure like this is my goal in life is to do what I'm doing, keeps me going, keeps me moving.

So I love it.

And we just would love everybody to be a part of it.

- Merry Christmas everyone and a happy New Year to the whole world.

- You can head to the Motor City Youth Theater in Livonia to see "In Search of a Christmas Carol" December 16th, 17th and 18th.

Now, to Rouge Park.

Late in February and early March is known as Sugarbush season, which is when the sap begins to run in the maple trees.

The Detroit Sugarbush Project highlights the indigenous traditions of making maple syrup.

As we look forward to a new crop of maple syrup, let's look back on when one Detroit contributor AJ Walker joined this year's tapping of the maple trees.

- Right around the last freeze, these trees are gonna suck all that water into the tree.

It's gonna go all the way to the top and then as soon as it gets above freezing all of that sap is gonna come back down.

And that's when all the sap is gonna flow.

- [AJ] And when it does, that's when the Detroit Sugarbush Project will get their sweet reward.

But for those hard at work, tapping these maple trees the work itself is most rewarding.

Dr. Shakara Tyler says Tapping maple trees is about much more than getting syrup.

- The sugarbush process is a very sacred ritual where we commune with our trees as ancestors, as the kin that they are, as they gift the sap to us so that we can consume it however that we see fit.

And I wanna emphasize the ritualistic part of it because we offer gifts to the trees in the process of them returning the sap or giving the sap to us.

It's about sustaining the mind, body, and spirit.

It's not just something that we consume because it tastes good.

This is a very spiritual process where we can honor our sacred histories and honor the ancestral energy that's present.

- You can live off the land.

Our ancestors did it.

And so we're just trying to keep those traditions alive.

- [AJ] Antonio Cosme, who works for the National Wildlife Federation is one of the Detroit Sugarbush Projects organizers.

He helps to bring the NWF together with Native American communities to carry out this annual tradition.

Alexis Chingman-Tijerina, who is Anishinaabe says hauling these buckets, (snow crunching) and doing this work is about paying homage to her culture and staying connected to her roots.

- The food sovereignty initiative with my tribe, if we want to be living our culture then we need to be doing what we would do in terms of like food harvesting and gathering and all the ceremony that goes into that.

That is our culture.

So if we're eating our foods, our heritage foods, then we are reconnecting.

And that's a really powerful way that we can do that.

- [AJ] For Cosme, bringing Sugarbush tapping to Detroit is helping to heal deep wounds in communities of color.

Those who are Native American and those who are not.

- We're really trying to build relationships between native communities and urban communities, between Black communities, Native communities because we think a lot of the things these communities are facing, they're parallels and a lot of that comes from like the sadness, the hurt, the pain, the disconnection from our ancestral roots and nature and the land.

- [AJ] And Detroit's Rouge Park has proven to be the perfect place to do so.

- Rouge Park was the most natural destination for us.

We came out here, we walked a little bit out on the trails and I mean, these are just huge maple groves.

It's just a perfect maple tapping spot.

And so we went to the city and we said, "Hey, this is a part of our heritage, our culture, our religious and spiritual like rights to do this every season, to honor the nature, the season, ourselves and our ancestors."

And so the city was like, wow, yeah, that's dope.

And so we're out here doing it now.

- That's what humans- - That smell when I like come in the house and it's still on me.

- That's what humans are supposed to smell like.

- Yep.

- [AJ] Today, the fire is the beginning of a long process.

- The fire is kind of like the center of the community.

We wanted to get the fire going today to keep you guys warm and keep us warm while we're working.

- Next is going tree to tree.

(bucket dragging) So this fire here is to keep us warm and then in a little while, you're gonna build a separate fire.

- Yeah.

- Then that's going to be to boil everything down.

- Yeah, we're gonna need a lot of heat to boil down the maple sap.

Like I said, it's gonna take a long time, like five to 10 hours.

Sometimes we have boils, depending on how much sap we're gonna have in at any given point.

Could take up to 24 hours.

(bucket rattling) - Looks like over here is where the real work begins and you're gonna start actually tapping into those trees.

- We've got about 50 gallons already pulled from the taps already.

It's gotten a little bit colder so the trees have slowed down but we're gonna go collect right now what we've got out here in Rouge Park.

We're gonna add that to the tote.

And then later this week, we're gonna be building a large cooking pit over here for the maple syrup.

And my friends are going out to collect the sap right now.

(wagon rumbling) - [AJ] Tapping maple trees for their sap is a tradition that goes back thousands of years, but doing it today is especially important and it's a labor of love.

Reviving these traditions are part of the reclamation process culturally, politically, socially, even economically.

And so it's a huge aspect of what it means to decolonize the way we center indigeneity and center indigenous futures and histories in the present.

And this is not something new that we're trying to figure out.

We are pulling from a very ancient lineage of practices and stories and cultures to learn in the present today.

- Next we're headed to Canton.

Religious Diversity Journeys is a program run by the Interfaith Leadership Council of Metro Detroit.

This program introduces middle school age children to diverse religions, to gain an understanding of their culture.

In the next segment, we follow middle schooler, Kennedy to the Hindu Temple of Canton, where she learns about different aspects of the Hindu religion.

(Hindu music playing) - Hello, my name is Venkatesha Hollabbi, I am from the Hindu community based in Canton.

Hinduism is the third largest religion in the world with over 1.2 billion members.

So within Michigan we are a growing community.

Right here in the Hindu Temple of Canton, we are serving over 6,000 members.

Today we have Kennedy as our special guest.

We are gonna take her through some aspects of Hindu religion.

Hinduism is one of the most ancient religions of the world, and I'm very excited for Kennedy to learn a few things about it.

Namaste, this greeting is a traditional Hindu greeting.

When you fold hands, it is symbolizing that oneness that the divinity in me is the same divinity in you.

We have a lot planned for you today, Kennedy, come on in.

We'll show you.

Namaste, you can do it, Namaste.

(Hindu music playing) - [Kennedy] What is the most important thing for non Hindus to know about your faith?

- There's a lot of misconception about Hinduism that we worship many gods.

However, it is important to know for non Hindus that Hinduism is monotheistic.

Hindus believe that there is one absolute aspect of God called Brahman.

Worship through many forms to facilitate what we call as freedom of worship and freedom from worship.

Hindu's believe that God is one and the paths to reach him are many.

- Are there any Hindu beliefs that are the most important?

- Karma and dharma are the most important aspects of Hinduism.

(Hindu music playing) So the doctrine of karma provides this basis for reincarnation in the Hindu belief.

Dharma, typically means that which holds together, that which integrate holds the entire society together.

(Hindu music playing) Mainly, worship this for the purification of the mind.

When we worship God as good God, during this time we say to remove all of our negative tendencies.

Each of these mortise represent an ideal behind the title.

Brahman Larahma, came down to this earth to show human beings how to be an ideal human being in all aspects of our lives.

(Hindu music playing) - [Pranati] I think something unique about all Indian classical art forms is that it's a way to celebrate culture while also kind of helping us learn more about our religion.

And if you see with any Indian festival it's a celebration and celebration of traditions.

And it's also very intertwined with any sort of religious festival.

So for example, through dance, I can depict stories of Hindu gods and goddesses, and also you can kind of depict different emotions through dance.

So I think that's something that's really unique and something I enjoy.

- So when I'm dancing, I obviously think about the next step but also the expression that I wanna put on my face to make sure it like comes across clearly.

- [Kennedy] Do you have a favorite dance move?

- Yeah.

So I have a few, but one of my particular favorites is like the jumping steps.

(bells jingling) So you jump on your toes and you would just drop your feet like this and you keep doing it like that.

- [Kennedy] Can you teach me?

- Yeah, sure.

So first like spread your feet out in like a semi V-shape and then you bend at your knees a little bit and then you would (bells jingling) jump on your toes and then just drop it.

- And if you notice, when we're doing all of our dances you can hear the bells with each of our steps.

And that's because Bharatanatyam which is the South Indian classical dance form that we do, it's comprised of a lot of footwork.

So when we're moving you could kind of hear our feet with the sound of the bells.

(soft music playing) - [Kennedy] Do you wear sari every time you go to the temple?

- Yes, traditionally when we go to the temple we do wear sari with respect to the place of worship.

- What is this small dot that many Hindus wear?

- This is called bindi.

Traditionally it used to be customary for Indian married women to wear it.

In modern times it has become like a fashion accessory.

Before it used to be just red.

Now it goes the color of the outfit and we wear it here in between the eyebrows to focus on the intellect.

- [Kennedy] What is your favorite thing about being Hindu?

- The belief system that everyone is equal.

Everyone is one regardless of their physical form and also the belief that we wanna give back more than we take.

- I hope you had a good time learning about a thing or two about the Hindu culture.

Come again, some Sunday.

Okay?

- Okay I will.

Bye.

- Bye.

(soft music playing) - For more information on all of our arts and culture stories, go to our website @onedetroitpbs.org.

Thank you for joining me here and thank you to the Fisher Theater for having us.

See you next time.

- [Narrator] You can find more @onedetroitpbs.org or subscribe to our social media channels and sign up for our One Detroit newsletter.

- [Narrator] Support for this program provided in part by The Kresge Foundation, the Cynthia and Edsel Ford Fund for Journalism at Detroit Public TV.

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.

- [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] Gregory Haynes and Richard Sonenklar.

Nissan Foundation and by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you.

Thank you.

(upbeat music) (gentle music)