(upbeat music) - [Mark] In this edition of "Artistic Horizons," a rising country music star.

- It's not necessarily that these are steps that are getting me closer to the dream.

And I am Roberta Lea, guys.

I feel like these steps are the dream.

(gentle music) - [Mark] Intricate body art.

- What I love the most about being a henna artist is I get to look at my work, my finished product, and see how happy it makes my client.

(upbeat music) - [Mark] A mural that shares a community's history and culture.

- This is an opportunity to sort of memorialize this area and memorialize pieces of this area which are being either demolished or reimagined.

- It's all ahead on this edition of "Artistic Horizons."

(upbeat music) After the COVID-19 pandemic, singer-songwriter Roberta Lea decided to make her dream a reality and pursue music full-time.

Since then, this rising country star from Norfolk, Virginia has been recognized for her talent, including being inducted into CMT's Next Women of Country.

Here's her story.

(gentle music) - Music has always lingered, ever since I was little.

Elementary school, I joined orchestra.

Church was a great place to experiment as much as I wanted to.

And church, as long as you're doing it for God, it doesn't matter how terrible you sound, somebody's gonna clap and say amen.

♪ All the colors in the valley ♪ ♪ Brush the Shennandoah ♪ I was looking to follow the beaten path.

You go to college, you get a job, you get married, you have kids, and all the while, I'm always writing songs.

Once I got to my 30s, I started going to open mics where I could learn how to be on stage again.

I would perform at these open mics and people would say, "Man, you got like a country vibe to you."

I didn't know what to do with that because I didn't see people like me doing country music.

♪ If dreams are somewhere in the distance ♪ 2020 comes around, everyone's stuck in their house.

So I get on Twitter and I find Mickey Guyton, a Black woman doing country music.

Through Mickey Guyton, I find "Color Me Country," which is an Apple radio show hosted by Rissi Palmer.

In engaging with "Color Me Country," I meet a woman named Holly G. ♪ Somewhere in the day ♪ As a Black woman and as a queer woman, she could never feel comfortable enough to go to country music concerts.

So she started a blog called "The Black Opry."

And adds me to the roster, again, just like I had a space that I could grow when I was going to church and then when I was doing open mics, now there was another space, "The Black Opry," where I could be confident in who I am.

I made a choice that I was going to step away from working full-time and I was gonna give music a shot.

And it was really the quarantine that pushed me over the edge.

It was this huge global reminder that life is short and you only have so much time here on earth.

And so in June of 2021, I said goodbye to the beaten path and I said hello to the jungle.

♪ There's something in the water ♪ ♪ And I'm somewhere in the tide ♪ (phone ringing) Hey hey.

- Hey hey, how's it going?

- Good good good.

Did you get my file?

Tempo 163.

I hate even number tempos.

I've been working with Soul Haven Studio since about 2015.

And I remember sitting at the console and I'm like, "Well I guess I should find a producer."

And Johnny's like, "You're the producer."

(gentle music) I have the vision for the music in my head, and I make the executive decisions to get it done.

Maybe some slide.

Do you have a slide?

Why not?

That's the whole fun of it.

We're here to be creative.

This isn't a job, technically it is, but.

Having a spirit of collaboration and a spirit of fun, that's what's really making this record special.

♪ Your papa, he was a rolling stone ♪ We were in Philly for 4th of July picnic and "Papa Was a Rolling Stone" came on and I was just like, "Man, that sounds like it could be a really dope folk song."

♪ All he left us was ♪ I started strumming it and fashioning the lyrics in a new way that fit this folk tale.

♪ Mama, is it true what they say ♪ You're stepping into some dangerous territory by touching a classic like that.

♪ All his life he never worked a day ♪ So it's gotta be done right.

♪ He has three children ♪ ♪ And another wife ♪ This is an exciting way to invite communities that probably wouldn't have considered country music before.

♪ He did some storefront preaching ♪ To see how one of their favorite songs could be shed in a different light, and that it fits all just as well.

♪ Such a shame ♪ ♪ Stealing in the name of God ♪ (upbeat music) (gentle music) Zeiders American Dream Theater is a pillar in the community as far as cultivating the arts.

They created this program with children who have interest in learning and enjoying music and creating from that perspective.

♪ I said someone (indistinct) sure ♪ ♪ Poking on sunscreen ♪ - It was something that I could have used when I was their age.

♪ Started weak, but got oh so strong ♪ ♪ Strong enough to rock my world ♪ ♪ That is me who you're gonna love ♪ - [Robert] Okay.

For a kid like Amir who is extremely talented, the process is taking what they have and do all your words fit into this rhythm.

♪ Started weak, but got oh so strong ♪ ♪ Strong enough to rock my world ♪ ♪ But I keep praying to the stars above ♪ ♪ That is me who you're gonna love ♪ - It's really just helping them take a step back from their initial draft and learning how to carve it so that it communicates their point clearly.

♪ Straight up, I wanna be your boy ♪ ♪ Straight up, I wanna be your joy ♪ ♪ Straight up, I wanna be your boy ♪ ♪ Straight up, straight up, straight up, yeah ♪ - Hey, that's it, we got it.

Boom.

(audience applauding) ♪ If I'm too much of a woman ♪ ♪ You can kindly step aside ♪ I've always been confident in myself and my ability, especially as a songwriter, but if you want to grow and flourish.

When I'm in spaces like the writers round at the Big Pink, I'm free to be me.

♪ I'm too much of a woman boy ♪ ♪ You're too little of a man ♪ The punchline, "If I'm too much of a woman, you're too little of a man," came to me, and I drew from all the previous experiences that I've had when I felt the need to shrink myself in order to make other people feel comfortable.

♪ Or too small you never measure up ♪ When I wrote the song, I teamed up with all women musicians from across the United States.

♪ Your nipping and tuck ♪ Some of us never even met in person, but we came together to create this song that would speak to women.

♪ I can't take it no more ♪ ♪ If I'm too much of a woman ♪ When we shot the music video, I reached out to Alicia Hymes.

She took up boxing because after surviving domestic violence, she never wanted to feel like she was defenseless again.

Said that's it, that's the vision right there.

♪ If I'm too much of a woman ♪ ♪ You're too little of a man ♪ I told CMT, "I got this music video already.

Can we do a rollout on it?"

And they're like, "We got you.

We're gonna put it on national television and in Times Square."

To see the range of people involved and how far it got.

I couldn't ask for a better outcome.

♪ If I'm too much of a woman boy ♪ ♪ You're too little of a man ♪ (audience applauding) ♪ Say yeah, say yeah ♪ ♪ Say yeah yeah, yeah yeah ♪ I would definitely say that 2023 has been the payoff.

♪ This is about that time ♪ This natural order keeps unfolding.

♪ Gray my hair, I'll be packing light ♪ ♪ Bikini and a bottle of wine ♪ The year kicked off with being inducted into CMT's Next Women of Country.

My first red carpet, "People Magazine," and then my very first solo set in Nashville.

That venue, the basement is historic.

♪ Girl's trip, look for us at the hotel ♪ Just to see the amount of support was a very reassuring moment.

♪ Yeah yeah, yeah yeah ♪ It's mind-blowing to think that this is still technically the beginning of the journey.

♪ It's time for another girl's trip ♪ It's not necessarily that these are steps that are getting me closer to the dream.

And I am Roberta Lea, guys.

I feel like these steps are the dream.

(audience applauding) (upbeat music) - And now for the artist quote of the week.

For over a decade, Nadiyah Mahmood has been pursuing the art of henna.

Her traditional, yet modern designs bring joy to her many clients.

Up next, we visit Tampa, Florida to learn more about her passion.

- Henna typically lasts about seven to 14 days on the skin.

(gentle music) My name is Nadiyah, and I'm a professional henna artist.

I've been a henna artist with 15 years experience, but professionally about eight, nine years.

I'm a second generation Pakistani-American.

Me and my sisters grew up getting henna done, and I just kind of took to that form of art.

When I was about, like 13 or 14 years old, I was just going to the local mosque in Atlanta where I'm from and just adorning little kids and friends and family members and having fun with it.

Then I decided, you know what?

This is something I wanna take seriously, so I just dedicated little by little of my time to practicing.

It got better as I went on, and here I am.

- What's the fun part?

- Coloring.

The scientific name for henna is Lawsonia inermis.

Lawsone is the actual dye that is released from the plant.

I make the paste myself.

It's a 24 hour process to make the henna paste.

Henna typically lasts about seven to 14 days.

It's typically done on the hands and the arms, and then second to that, the feet and the legs.

More and more people are getting it done on various other locations of the body.

(gentle music) Henna itself has dated back thousands and thousands of years.

A historical figurehead that made it even more popular was Cleopatra of Egypt.

Each culture has their own specific style, how they adopted the form of art.

I would say Moroccans have like their fessia style, which is very detailed, more line work.

Arabic style, very dainty, floral, chainy look.

East African, very bold, thick lines.

So it varies from different cultures.

My style is very eclectic.

It's all over the place.

I would say though I always end up going back towards like Indian Pakistani style because that's what I'm comfortable with.

That's what I grew up with.

Like the paisleys, the florals, maybe a little bit of structure.

I'm also known for adding various modern elements to my designs.

I've done a sleeve where it was all Harry Potter dedicated.

I also did an alien-themed henna sleeve as well.

One of the most common things I like to do is bridal henna.

Back in the day, this is how they would show off their lineage, their heritage.

Culturally, it means significance to them to adorn themselves as feminine as possible.

I also sell some of my artwork as well.

I paint henna artistry style canvases and so on.

(gentle music) When someone would like to book with me, we'll talk about locations, and nine times out of 10, I'll suggest Felicitous.

Can I get the Teacher's Pet?

- Yeah.

- Felicitous is this awesome coffee shop.

It feels like it's home right on 51st Street.

- My wife and I, we had always had this vision of what we wanted our coffee shop to be, and the number one thing was we wanted to be a place where people in the community could come together over art, over music, over making connections.

Nadiyah started out as a customer, just like most of our vendors.

- I first started going there just to study a little bit, and then I just started having clients meet me there.

- As soon as we learned a little bit about what she was about and her talents, we were all about having her come and set up a tent and attending our day markets.

I really like that one, like the leg tatto.

- [Nadiyah] The market's our monthly get together type of thing where a bunch of vendors and artists showcase their artwork, their product.

- This is the kind of thing that we live for really is just to try and support local artists, local artisans to make a living really out of their passion.

Coming into the coffee shops and having something as culturally rich as Nadiyah's henna, it just ticks every box.

We're able to connect people in the community to a new perspective.

Ultimately, what that does for us as a society is brings us closer.

- Hi.

- What I love the most about being a henna artist is I get to look at my work, my finished product, and see how happy it makes my client.

That is probably the biggest gift is just watching someone go from, "Hey, I need this" to "Oh my gosh, I can't believe I got this done."

It's so vibrant.

It brings joy to people's hearts.

You don't have to necessarily be part of the culture or any culture that henna is dominant in.

You just have to just love the form of art, honestly.

(upbeat music) - Now here's a look at this month's fun fact.

In 2024, local artists Derek Brennan and Chad Fedorovich were selected to lead a large scale public art project in Cleveland, Ohio.

With the assistance of other skilled artists, the Project impactfully transformed a 750 foot wall into a mural that reflects the history and culture of the surrounding community.

Take a look.

(upbeat music) - This is a 728 foot wall, and essentially a lot of brick.

It's directly across the street from what was once Woodhill Community Center and Morris Black public housing projects.

And it's almost a perfect wall because Morris Black is being demolished.

But this is an opportunity to sort of memorialize this area and memorialize pieces of this area which are being either demolished or reimagined and the folks that lived here and contributed to making this area what it is.

- I got immediately attracted to the scale of this mural.

I've not done one quite this large before, so I was already very interested, excited.

And then also just felt like it would be such a great piece to make for the community here.

- Him and I have worked on a few projects in the past, and we've been trying to work on something large.

And we saw this as an opportunity for us to really come together.

So we applied, we put together a proposal, and we honestly didn't think we were gonna get it.

It started off with a lot of meetings with people in the community, kind of learning about the neighborhood and hearing stories that might be kind of untold.

- Essentially what Derek and Chad are doing here are creating like, what I like to call these little scenes.

And you're seeing different images and things that you would see if you were driving all around the neighborhood.

So it's very location-based.

So you have Woodhill, Buckeye Shaker, you have Shaker Square, but it's also very, I guess life-based.

You have pictures of people barbecuing or skating or getting their hair cut.

Very much everyday life stuff.

- This section that we're standing next to, this is like to honor the Woodhill homes that are just right across the street, and they're actually going to be torn down.

Even before that, there was an amusement park called Luna Park.

So that's kind of like the, as you can see here, this the kind of transition from Luna Park into the Woodhill homes trying to show different time periods in this mural, and they're kind of all interwoven together.

- We were in actually another group that also applied for the project.

Chad and Derek actually came to us and was like, "Hey, would you like to be a part of this?

We know your worth."

And I thought that was pretty honorable and awesome.

- Originally, me, Dayz, we were on a team, and we had applied for this wall along with like a few other teams.

(upbeat music) So it's really dope to be a part of something that gets to like pretty much stamp that history or showcase that history on such a grand wall.

- I've lived in this housing project at one point in time.

I feel like here I am once again giving back to another neighborhood in Cleveland that I lived in.

So we're like helping change the dynamic of our city, right?

The love movement, right?

Show how much we love our city by painting and beautifying our canvas, our temple, right?

- The challenge is always kind of like, I love a good challenge.

And pushing myself to try new things and going bigger.

But with this one, I feel like my friends needed me and I was here and I was actually a finalist for this project as well.

So the fact that I was also called on to assist was just perfect, and I feel like it was just like a challenge that was calling my name.

- This is actually the first project that I have used spray paint, and that was one of the things that I actually wanted to learn that I've never used before.

This was one of those kind of ventures where I had a chance to work with other artists in doing this project, but also I got a chance to learn a new technique that I can carry on to my next projects.

- This wall for so long was just a brick, it's not even relatively pretty brick, it was just a brick wall.

Now for it to be a highlight for people that's their commute back and forth, they get to see it every day.

I think it's just a nice little thing for them, a little moment for people to appreciate art in their everyday lives.

(light music) - The more color we add, the more paint, we hear people driving by, stopping, saying thank you or honking their horns, coming to take selfies, coming to take pictures with us.

And just, I don't know, you just feel the love while we're working on it.

- A lot of times I think in Cleveland, there's a lot of people who don't actually get to go and see art.

I've been able to help, I guess how you could say change the landscape of my neighborhood, beautify the area I live in.

The streets is my canvas.

- When people are living in an area that looks like it's kept up, looks like it's important, looks like love is put into it, they treat the area different, they treat each other differently.

I feel like a lot of the times, this type of energy has gone into areas that already have the resources to be great areas, and then you got areas that are just forgotten about.

And it's an opportunity for people to actually see that they're not forgotten about, it's people that care about the community, it's people that care about this part of Cleveland.

- I grew up down the street from here, and I also live now around the corner from here.

We didn't really have a lot of public art on the east side when I was growing up, and we certainly didn't have public art that I felt like I resonated with.

And I feel like this mural is an opportunity to see pictures and images of my life, things that I resonate with, things that I know my family and friends will resonate with.

And I think the impact is giving folks a reason to feel like this is theirs, because it is.

And while everything is changing, this is still theirs.

(upbeat music) - And now here's a look at a few notable dates in art history.

(upbeat music continues) And that wraps it up for this edition of "Artistic Horizons."

For more arts and culture, visit wpbstv.org.

Until next time, I'm Mark Cernero.

Thanks for watching.

(upbeat music continues) (gentle music)