- Next on Curate.

- Comedy is an easy place to start to have uncomfortable conversations about racism.

(crowd laughing) - That's my job, to tell stories and to give a translation of culture to a larger audience.

And that's what we aim to do here.

- It's a communal activity and when we're not able to do it, it's heartbreaking.

- This is Curate.

- Welcome!

I'm Heather Mazzoni.

- And I'm Jason Kypros, and thanks for joining us.

This past year, humor has been more than a diversion, it's been an absolute necessity.

- A good dose of laughs each day has been essential in getting us through this most difficult year.

Comedian Allison Moore has been there providing levity and making the lives of her followers that much more bearable through a rather unbearable time.

- She's this week's 757 featured artist.

- Virginia's own, comedian Allison Moore!

- Did you see the movie "Harriet", yeah?

"Harriet", Oscar nominated, shot right here?

You're girl was not in that movie.

(crowd laughing) But I was so close ya'll.

Damn, I was so close.

So this what had happened.

So my friend, she sent me a casting notice.

She was like, "Ooh girl, hey listen.

The movie Harriet, they're auditioning, girl.

I think that you should try out.

It's for a background slave."

(crowd laughing) "I think you'd be perfect!"

(crowd laughing) So when I'm saying I'm a clean comedian people like, "So what does that mean girl?

You the gospel comedian?"

I'm like, "Well, no I just don't curse on stage.

I'm like the female version of Sinbad.

And so because I kept using him to try to explain what I felt like that my comedy was closely mimicking.

I said, "Well, you know what?

I need to open for Sinbad."

That was my first major production of $50,000 that we pulled together, my team and I.

We booked Sinbad and they were like, we don't know you girl.

And I'm like, I'm not doing all this work if I cannot open.

So I had to share some content, make sure that I was funny and et cetera.

And then Sinbad said that he would love to have you open.

And I really think that from that hard work that he got to see he really respected me.

(Sinbad and Allison comedy skit) (crowd laughing) - Okay but wait, my kids are in middle school.

So I gotta put them out?

- No.

You've got to make sure that they're, you know, they're able to get jobs.

- My mom-in-law, she here though.

She know I talked about her.

She didn't like it at first.

She's like, "Why would you say these names?"

I'm like, "Boo, I get paid."

And she's like, "Oh, don't forget to tell them 'bout the time..." (crowd laughing) He allowed me to open for him.

Another time we continued the relationship.

And he was even my first guest on the "MooreLaughing in the Morning Show" when we took it to TV.

Sinbad is here.

He dropped all of the knowledge, all of the wisdom.

And I am so excited about you getting into this interview!

Get into it!

It's always another level.

- Yeah.

It's always another level.

- So how do you stay motivated over this time?

- Yeah, how do you not motivate if you're doing something you love?

And my dad told me, you like when someone says what you can't do, I see you.

You don't do good when too much has given to you.

- I have been funny my entire life but I didn't know that I was funny.

So every time I would come around of course my friends, family were always laughing but I didn't know that I brought the laughter and it just took me till I became, you know older.

One day, I was emceeing an event.

We had a comedian on the event.

The comedian says, "Well Allison should have been the comedian."

And I'm like, "What?"

So it took me till I was 30 years old.

My first time on stage on purpose to be a standup comedian, I was in a complete panic attack.

And something fell out my mouth that was funny.

Then I'm like, okay, okay girl.

I was so mad.

So mad!

Can't get a background slave part, man!

I was frustrated.

I'm like there ain't no lines.

I'm not gonna be talking.

Better yet I'm not gonna be smiling.

(crowd laughing) Shit like this is a musical.

♪ Sun up to sundown, picking that cotton.

Huh!

♪ ♪ Sun up to sundown, whipped by the master.

Huh!

♪ ♪ Sun up to sundown, chained in shackles.

♪ ♪ No more auction.

The lock for me.

♪ ♪ No more auction.

The lock for me.

♪ (crowd laughing and cheering) When I got the call to open for Martin Lawrence all types of things went through my mind.

I was relieved.

I felt like, wow, this could be the thing that just takes me to the next level.

And it was, it was the thing that took me two weeks into a pandemic.

I was petrified.

I thought my whole career, everything I threw away.

I got a master's degree in human resources.

I walked away from corporate America for this journey.

So I'm like you big dummy.

So at the beginning of the pandemic was just absolutely terrible for myself and my other peers that are live entertainers 'cause we were the first one for people to cut.

So it was one of those sink or swim moments, be your most creative.

And so that kind of started to push me towards doing a talk show just so that I can continue to get the content out.

(upbeat music) Good morning.

Hey.

Hey.

Hey.

Welcome to the MooreLaughing in the Morning Show.

♪ It's Friday.

Hey!

♪ You didn't.

You did not ask me to start like that.

The show started on our Facebook live.

It was right here at my kitchen.

We had 27 episodes on Facebook live.

And then we went over to Sky4 network in Hampton, Virginia.

Hold on now, we pulled that 12 weeks worth of new material, but the way the budget set up, we had about seven weeks and a lot of reruns, but we still proud.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Good morning.

It's time to get up and get moving.

I'm so excited!

Here's a little randomness for you this morning.

So these are like from the season two episode signed right so I could see 'em.

And using that as we're preparing for season three.

The show have some talk show component.

It has some thought provoking moments where were about like growth and personal development.

And then we also got sketch comedy.

I mean, just straight foolishness.

Hurry up take the picture, baby?

You ready?

'Cause I'm doing everything I can to cover these stretch marks, these broken nails, my weave messing up, my eyelash falling.

The fact that my butt is little and also I don't know, oh is the video on?

(gentle music) When something else is only good, you don't want to do it twice.

(chuckles) You use the same condom, okay.

Let's not do that one.

Am I a clean comedian?

I think the pandemic is trying to make me not clean.

Still I rise, still I rise.

It'd be fast food, divorce and whatever else this would be.

I've been twerking all pandemic.

Twerking has been my therapy.

(chuckles) Twerking as therapy is funny.

(chill music) A lot of my success and a lot of the things that I've done have come out of life's lemons.

I am a human resources professional with over 10 years of experience.

And I am also an entrepreneur.

(drum roll) Founder of Black Please Coffee.

Yeah.

I got a lot of pushback naming the company Black Please in the beginning.

It's that double entendre because it's referencing coffee and then yeah, I am black, but coffee was my inspiration.

Even aside from the caffeine, it was just that moment of all right, you got this, you got your coffee.

You could do this girl.

Who got this?

Who got this?

You got this.

I wasn't necessarily trying to be a spokesperson at that time, but sometimes you can't get around what is called to you or what you're called to.

And comedy is an easy place to start to have uncomfortable conversations about racism.

(chill music) I love Another View.

That's one of my favorite places to be once a month.

That has really pulled on me to kind of level up in regards to my knowledge.

And especially politically, especially economic wise.

I'm the young millennial.

Now I'm like, I'm grown.

I'm almost 40 and I have something to contribute.

Still I rise, still I rise.

Can you turn off your alarm clock, please?

I forgot the man name.

We gonna work on that.

We gonna work on that.

You just got to laugh, right.

And not be embarrassed by the situation because I've learned over the years that my transparency, this is really encouraging.

And so everything that I thought was gonna happen did not happen.

It was way harder than what it was supposed to be but it was much more rewarding than what I ever thought I was gonna get out of it.

(Allison closing and crowd cheering) (upbeat music) - Be sure to visit our website to find more on Allison Moore.

There, you can also catch up with all of our 757 featured artists through the years.

It's whro.org/curate.

Dealing with the pandemic has put a strain on every performing arts organization in Hampton roads.

The Virginia Symphony has not been spared.

Think about the brass and woodwind instruments that require air passing through to make music.

But now carefully produced sweet sounds and plenty of optimism are in the air.

As the symphony looks to get back to what they do best.

(orchestra playing) (crowd applauding) - We are a tight knit group of musicians.

During the pandemic, we've met over zoom regularly to just check in on each other and help each other out.

(orchestra playing) - We are optimistic people so we really wanted to be prepared to be able to go, but at the same time we had to see what the reality of the situation was.

- We kept thinking, well, maybe in June we'll play or maybe we'll in the fall we'll play.

And then I remember someone saying, "Well I don't even think we're, we'll be playing at Thanksgiving."

- A good relationship with the musicians was also really important because they were an incredible partner in this process trying to figure out how to get them back on stage.

- Our core musicians, our full-time musicians were furloughed.

It was really a difficult time for us.

I mean, emotionally and financially.

It's a communal activity.

And when we're not able to do it, it's I mean as we found this year, it's heartbreaking.

(orchestra playing) - I'm officially the COVID compliance officer for the symphony.

So I had to be the one to go out and get all of the information about how other people in our industry are handling this and what was expected from employers in general and from performance venues in particular and communicate all of that with our multiple venues around the area.

- Well, it's so different to come back to the all these new rules.

Started off 10 feet apart and, you know, masked and hearing each other was very much a challenge.

- To maximize the space and really be able to fit as many people on stage as possible, we actually have spikes of tape on the stage that have all been measured to be 10 feet apart.

And the chairs go down on the center of that.

- We are much more dependent on clear conducting because we can't, which sometimes you just can't hear.

(orchestra playing) It's definitely challenging.

- You might have noticed if you're watching a symphony concert recently, the conductor will speak in between pieces and you see this ballet of stage crew and staff on stage moving everything around and all of that's for hygiene.

Patrons and donors have been so supportive of us.

Subscribers have really stuck with us through all of this.

Without community support it wouldn't have happened.

- I can't wait for us to be able to be full orchestra on the stage, playing something out like Mahler.

I want to play the big repertoire again have the audience here that.

(crowd applauding) - These are works on display at TCCs Perry Glass Wheel Arts Center in the Neon District in Norfolk.

They've been generous to provide our background all this season.

The contemporary art network in Newport News has become a hub for creativity in Hampton roads.

Paintings, photography, music, fashion and a very cool socially conscious vibe are always in the mix at this hive of imagination.

- Magic is the byproduct of the imagination.

And so artists are magic makers.

My job's to tell stories and to transmit messages and to give a translation of culture to a larger audience.

And that's what we aim to do here.

In 2014, Hampton and I opened 670 gallery together and we linked up with some different collaborators from the area and did our first CAN Festival, which got us going on this mode of, we should put together a non-profit and do more public engagement programming and education.

Being able to provide a pleasurable space where people can come and experience cultural happenings and exhibitions and learn something is everything to me.

We get the chance to showcase a little bit of everything that we do.

- We have a boutique called Daily Bread that works with brands that are in the area.

- The original use of the building over a hundred years ago was a grocery store.

So Daily Bread is a place to pay homage to that, but also local makers and creatives can come here and sell products and make their daily bread.

- We have a commonality, which is our venue space.

- We wanted a place for spoken word artists, musicians, bands to come and do small performances and let the community really see the talent that's out here.

(chill music) (crowd cheering) We were thinking about what can we do to really help some of the different artists that we've met along the path and also to help potential patrons gain appreciation for what these artists are doing.

So we started to feel like maybe we should do a residency.

- Our first patron program is built to inspire and develop artists and transcend them for greatness.

- There's been a lot of transference of skill sets.

People are trying things that they might not have thought to try, otherwise.

- In conjunction to the first patron initiative, we have Eleanor and Hopps gallery, as a gallery to exhibit those artists in the program.

670 gallery is an additional exhibition space for artists that are not within the first patron program.

So we still have an open door for artists who are in the area who are looking to exhibit.

Carbon studios is being engineered by Travis Sykes, phenomenal musician.

- We produce all original music, all types of genres work with a lot of different artists.

We're always working on tons of initiatives.

We're still helping collectors find artists.

We launched a platform to be a virtual network of artists globally.

We're gonna keep this first patron ball rolling.

We're scouting new artists.

Yeah, just constantly putting out new stuff, new exhibitions, new albums out of the studio, new artwork and seeing our first patron artists flourish in their own right.

It's a beautiful thing.

It's almost like a big family.

And I say what it's about for us.

Forming these lasting bonds through our shared love for the arts.

(upbeat music) - In response to COVID-19, artist Melissa Vogley Woods set up an installation at her home that allows viewers to interact with her work from a safe distance.

(bright music) - So this was back in March when I started the work, it's just called "Always."

I really wanted to do a piece that was in the public eye that addressed the very fresh condition of dealing with the pandemic.

And I realized that I really wanted to talk about getting past this moment.

I started to look at art from different eras after certain plagues and the pandemic that was the closest in relationship with, is the Spanish flu, what they called the Spanish flu.

So I started to look at work that was made in the exact year when it ended, which was 1920.

I found a piece by Raoul Dufy that was a pattern, like a fabric pattern that he had designed, which I thought was perfect and that would block the window and block the view but also accentuate the space in between public and private.

We were stuck at home.

I had to deal with what I had at my house, and I just happened to have this high reflective vinyl that I had used on a similar project in 2010.

The vinyl itself is just like a very neutral gray and you can't really see it unless you use a flash.

So the work itself can be seen in the daylight but it's most effective at night when you bring your cell phone and turn on the flash.

Now because it's high density, reflective vinyl it flashes back the equal intensity of the light.

So when you do use a flash on your camera on your phone, all of the pattern lights back at you.

And so that just came naturally.

It was like the vinyl, the windows, the pattern, the reflection, the interaction.

People can see the work without having to be near anyone.

You can activate it from your car.

- So over my shoulder is a really exciting piece by Melissa Vogley Woods and it's called "Always CMA".

And it's actually a piece that has a pattern that was extrapolated from a work from our collection.

It's Louis Boucher's "Still Life with Flowers" that was painted in 1919 during the Spanish influenza.

And Melissa had the wonderful idea to kind of remind everybody that we are in a very difficult moment, but that it will pass.

- With this work, it was the same concept to make the same point but it really leveraged art history in a different way because it is at an institution.

- And she took the pattern from this more traditional looking, still life with a big, beautiful, energetic grouping of flowers.

And she made a very abstract geometric pattern which she then tiled into this beautiful wallpaper to cover this whole glass canopy.

- It's something that you're gonna be able to experience in any different kind of condition.

If there's a second wave, if it's cold, if it's rainy if you can't see the museum, if it's off hours, that's just, it's always gonna be there.

- And it creates a really beautiful entranceway to the museum especially as we'll be reopening after a long period of closure.

- Also, if you put a little piece of colored cellophane on top of the flash only, it'll turn the entire piece of color.

Then you own that piece at the end.

- This museum which was founded in 1878 has survived two World Wars, the Great Depression, the Spanish influenza pandemic and we will survive this too.

And that basically was the message that Melissa's piece was also reflecting at the same time.

- Something about the light being brought to the piece from within that you have that light on you.

And this piece is just a reflection of what you already hold in yourself.

And I felt that was really important.

Shining this kind of beacon of hope back to the people who came to see the work.

- With a passion for fashion, designer Melissa Michelsen uses the ancient technique of marbling to make vibrant reusable masks.

- If you're gonna wear a mask, a lot of people want to have something unique or that speaks to their, their individuality, I guess.

I mean, we all have to wear them right now, right?

So you might as well wear one that's kind of fun and colorful.

(chill music) The process of me making a mask starts with marbling the fabric.

It's a little bit of a wet process.

It's a messy process.

It got many steps.

I kind of use the water as my canvas.

You have a tray of water.

The water has a little cellulose in it.

So it makes it a little bit gelatinous.

Then I, when you placed the paints on top of the water, the paints float and you're able to kind of move them around and they disperse with each other.

They push each other around.

You layer it and layer it.

And then once you get what you think is what you want, you get your fabric and you lay it down and you pull it back up.

And the result on the piece of fabric is amazing.

And you never get the same thing twice although I can kind of control color combinations and a little bit of technique to do a production run of sorts.

But everything's always gonna be a little different.

I wonder to myself when I'm selling them like how much longer will this be going?

And I think this whole pandemic thing has taken a lot of us by kind of surprise and we were all a little bit confused and just trying to make our way through every day.

I was worried that my business was gonna get hurt by it.

And I thought, what can I do in this state of where we're at to prosper and make sure my family's taken care of?

Because the mask thing took a while to actually happen during this pandemic.

And it wasn't necessarily right then and there like, "I'll make masks."

It's actually been really interesting because it's bringing way more people to my website than I ever used to have traveled to my website.

And people are going there because they found out about my masks, however they did and then see all my other work.

And so I'm actually trying to design a mask so that when all this is over, because it will be it can serve another purpose.

So maybe it ends up being like headband or something.

A sustainability has been there with Love Mert since day one.

And yes, I'm making products, but I'm trying to do it as consciously as possible and artfully as possible.

- You can find Curate on the web.

Check us out at whro.org/curate.

- And we're on social media.

You can follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

- Thanks for joining us.

I'm Jason Kypros.

- And I'm Heather Mazzoni.

We'll see you next time on Curate.

- See I came to where I was when he met me.

You should see me fam, I thought I was cute, I was like, "Okay!"

All of a sudden I had a lady who was assigned to me with a blanket, chasing me all around the church.

Somebody get your girl.

And I was so mad.

I'm like, look, we had church.

This is the place where you could be communicative.

Tell me your expectations of me, right?

You can do it like at church they could put their expectations on like the screen, right?

These are the rules.

When you come and visit our church.

And I know that every church may not have that.

So, you know, if you don't have a screen you could put it in the bulletin.

They put everything else in there.

They put in there Ms. Erma been sick for the last 17 years.

That's a HIPAA violation.

Oh this, did you know that fell?

So y'all won't go tell me?

(crowd laughing) We got two options.

We can talk about this braid, or we can talk about these rest of these jokes, which you want to do?

That's on you.

(crowd laughing) All right.

I've got one more for you.

I've been through something like this ain't nothing.

Listen, don't you take a picture of that braid now.

(crowd laughing) Would you not, embarrass me.

(crowd laughing) (chill music)