- [Announcer 1] Next on Curate.

- [Denise] What they bring into the space is very positive.

I tell you they're amazing students, they're just hungry to learn.

(upbeat music) - [Willie] I am the friend and I am waiting.

And for each one, I toll.

(bells ringing) - [Nicole] Some of the things that these women were fighting for, we are still fighting for today.

- [Announcer 2] This is curate.

- Welcome.

I'm Jason Kypros.

- And I'm Heather Mazzoni.

Thanks for joining us.

We've wandered a few blocks down Hanton Boulevard from our WHRO home base to join you from the Barry Art Museum.

- [Jason] The Barry is one of the newer spaces to come to life on the Old Dominion campus.

The museum is a result of a gift from Carolyn and Richard Barry of Suffolk and much of the permanent collection also comes from the Barrys.

- [Heather] We'll have more on the museum throughout the episode.

But to start this week's show, we wanna introduce you to two local students, currently enrolled in another institution of higher learning.

- Each year the Juilliard School, a private performing arts conservatory in New York City, accepts exactly 12 men and 12 women for its incoming freshman dance program.

To call this class elite is an understatement.

So for the school to select two young men, not only from the same city but also from the same dance studio, more than defies the odds.

But that's the case for Caden Hunter and John Chapel, both from Chesapeake and both dancers from Denise Wall's Dance Energy in Virginia Beach.

- [Heather] Because of their grace and precision and for their amazing accomplishment, Caden and John are our 757 featured artists.

(slow music) - [John] I did apply to a couple of other dance colleges that I was interested in, but Juilliard was definitely the main one.

But it was obviously more kind of a dream because of the acceptance rate and the reality of getting in.

- There's no way they're gonna pick two boys from the same studio.

- Juilliard's dance program is tough to get into.

I always try to tell kids that cannot be the only one that you wanna audition for because throughout the whole world, they take 12 girls and 12 guys.

So the odds of you getting in is like slim to none.

- The hardest part was waiting.

That was the hardest part.

I was in the car, I look at my phone and it says it's from New York and I don't usually answer like random calls or whatever, but I was like, is this like, is this for real?

So I answer it and it's the dean of dance and I screamed immediately.

They probably thought I was crazy.

They were laughing at me the whole time.

- I knew that a call could be coming.

I answered it and obviously, I was so excited.

They were just laughing cause it's, we don't even know how to react.

It's so shocking.

So I actually started dance at what most would consider too late.

I was like 13.

I started out in gymnastics and I've always loved to dance.

I'm a pretty shy person, so I was a little iffy about it but I ended up loving it.

I came here cause I knew that Denise's training was advanced and it could get me if I want to do this for a living where I need to be.

- [Caden] When I was like three, I was watching 'So You Think You Can Dance', obviously this little kid jumping around.

So then I forced my mother to put me in dance classes.

I've always looked up to Denise Wall's Dance Energy like forever.

I've came to a few of the intensives.

So Denise knew who I was.

Like she knew my face, she knew how I danced, so she'd seen me before.

We'd talked to her and she decided that she was gonna let me in company and I was so excited.

Now we are where we are.

(soft music) - [Denise] I tell you they're amazing students.

They're just hungry to learn.

They're just very giving to other people and just great team players.

What they bring into the space is very positive.

John is very quiet and it took him a while really to open up.

John has amazing facility.

He's got all this natural flexibility.

John had a lot of ballet, he didn't have a lot of movement quality but he had trouble really getting grounded into the floor cause he's so tall and moving out from himself.

John trusted me right from the get-go.

We had a good connection.

- It was kind of intimidating coming in here for the first time cause this little studio in Virginia Beach is like nationally ranked and pretty much every dancer all over the world knows about her.

So it was intimidating for sure, but she's not scary at all.

She's one of the most friendly people I've met.

Denise prepares us for everything.

We're always learning new things every day about how we should be and act as dancers.

She definitely keeps us stern and disciplined.

We're all good kids because of her.

It's a lot of hard work and it's definitely hard sometimes, but at the end of the day it's what we all love doing and our hard work definitely pays off.

(soft music) - [Denise] Caden is amazing in class.

He will do well because he's engaged.

Right when you start teaching it, he's so connected to the teacher and he's got great musicality and he just gives 200%.

- [Caden] We're literally a huge family.

It's been a good experience, really good.

It's helped me, it's matured me and I think it's prepared me.

That's the big point.

It's prepared me for the future and it's prepared me to move to the city.

It's prepared me to be a professional dancer.

It's 90% mental and 10% physical, which I didn't really comprehend at first.

But now since I've grown into my body and my form and my physique that I'm figuring out that being a smart dancer is better than being a physical dancer.

- [Denise] I've been teaching for over 40 years.

We try to train these kids mentally all the way.

I don't sugarcoat it for them, I wanna be honest with them, but I do it in nurturing way because it is very mental if you prepare them that way mentally, even if they don't do this for a living, we teach so much more than dance.

You've gotta be a leader.

You can't be the one that's causing drama.

You gotta get along with people.

You gotta be able to motivate people and they make it in the corporate world because they know how to lead people.

- [John] The whole experience is really unbelievable.

Like I don't even think it's really set in to go from a little southern town to New York City is definitely a lot to think about and there's a lot that I don't know, but all I know that is that I'm really excited and happy about the whole thing.

- [Caden] I think being here was a big, big factor, getting me to be able to do my dream.

I'm so excited and I'm excited to learn.

That's what I'm most excited.

I'm excited to learn from the crazy faculty that's at Juilliard.

I'm nervous cause there's a lot that could happen, but I'm more excited than nervous.

- [Denise] When they leave the nest, it's heartbreaking.

Dance teachers go through this every year, every time they leave it's like my heart breaks.

- The Eastern shore has gifted us with many amazing artists whose work is as unique and life-affirming as that stretch of land beyond the Bay Bridge-Tunnel that they call home.

Poet and painter, Willie Crockett, who grew up on Tangier Island and lived most of his life in and around the bay, passed away last year after more than 82 years.

Filmmaker Brian Kaiser has created a tribute in the form of a documentary about the artist.

Here's an excerpt.

- [Willie] It's funny, looking back on all the plans, the promises we made came true and we didn't even know.

We slept so soundly in our guilt, turned our backs on the sun and splashed away the time as if there was such thing.

And the new emotions that thrived upon our youth, Sunday school, Gods and devils could not shake loose and we were left alone to circumstance.

And yet somehow we're glad we didn't follow all the wise advice given us by sages and by saints.

At last, we made our own mistakes, we made our own arrangements with the faith.

Uncle Charlie had an old boat there laying on the, on the ditch, you know, and laying on the side and he thought maybe someday he'd patch her up, but he never did.

And she finally died right there.

Well, she was getting older by the minute and, and, but we used to play in her.

So as I got older, I reflected back on that period of my life again.

A lot of my poetry comes from that, that age, and, and it starts off by saying I didn't see the history in Uncle Charlie's old boat, half sunk and half resting in the amber marshes.

I made engine noises with my lips pulled in heavy scrapes and oyster tone and sailing my small world with all the excellence of a child's imagination.

It is only now that I am old, it all seems so poetic.

When I was young, when all the elements of substance and form was there, I raced ahead, crashing head long through tomorrow's, never knowing I would come this way again in memories and refer to them as yesterday.

It seems most strange, I could have missed back then what is so clearly now the meaning of it all.

The prophet said, "Your young man shall see visions.

Your old man shall dream dreams."

And to me the point is clear that now is all we have, now that makes a young man's dreams and an old man's memories all the same.

Now is the accepted time and today, always, the day of our salvation.

(melodious tune plays) During World War II, I remember when the war was over and and the way they handled that was so beautiful and the way they treat people during those times was so beautiful.

When they came the, when the boat first came in the creek, the church bell would begin ringing and it would ring and ring and ring.

That was the first thing they would hear.

And then the, the harbor was covered in boats.

All of the boats would line the harbor and welcome them home and that bell would keep on ringing.

And all of the islands, people would come up to the dock to meet these men, you know, and they would, you know, it would be beautiful when they'd get off the boat, they'd kiss the ground and (coughs) that bell would ring and ring and not stop ringing until he was home in his own house.

And what a welcome that was, you know, that's a, that was a beautiful custom.

And also when anybody died on that island, they would have, they would ring a single stroke.

They would ring a (vocalizing bell rings), just one every half a minute or so.

And just so everybody would know, this guy is being buried today and then and memories of it.

It was a beautiful things they did.

(soft piano music) I am the bell, my clear iron voice covers this island.

Everyone listens and their tiny world stands still.

I am the echo of their joys, a mirror of their soul, a symbol of their hopes and of their dream.

My voice is not my own.

I am, but a single sound, a single note.

I have no words to give them.

Mine is the voice they hear when speaking to themselves.

I am the voice of God within them, calling them to what matters and what matters most.

I call to them in times of need, in times of trouble.

And they come when air I call, I announce the times of fellowship where together and as one, they learn to reach above and within themselves to touch a God made flesh, to dwell among them.

I am the bell.

My voice was first to mark the end of wars.

I rang and rang for hours across the amber marshes till all had heard the news.

The war is over.

The war is over.

Wives and children, mothers and fathers, relatives and friends, they all embraced each other in Thanksgiving and praised.

They laughed and cried and danced in the dusty streets.

I welcomed home the soldiers, crowded the docks with friends and lined the creek with boats of men who left their work to welcome this, their friend back home.

My steeple was the first they saw on their approach, my voice the first they heard, frail heroes heard my voice and wept and stepping from the boat into the arms of those they love and those who loved him most.

Brave soldiers knelt to kiss the ground of this, their island home, that off they wondered that they would ever see again.

I followed the joyful procession through the narrow streets.

My voice sang out with theirs until the soldier was at last safe home.

Below me in this churchyard, etched in stone are the names of those who gave their lives for us.

I toll for them, lest we forget, we will not forget.

I lend my voice in sadness to the passing of each friend in single measured strokes adding to this finality of death, the infinite voice of our merciful God.

I am the bell.

They synchronize our watches as their souls to my voice.

I am the friend and I am waiting.

And for each one, I toll.

(soft music) - [Heather] You can watch the entire documentary 'Wisdom on the Water' on the WHRO media player.

Go to whro.org/watch and search 'Wisdom on the Water'.

- [Jason] One of the more interesting exhibits currently on display here at the Barry is called 'Motion Emotion', exploring affect from automata to robots.

This exhibit looks at the emotional qualities of these self-operating works of art and invention.

It features pieces from the Barry's Permanent collection as well as works from contemporary artists and other lending institutions.

And it's wild, you can see it now through the end of 2022, right here at the Barry.

A museum in Ohio has brought together two modern women to shine a life on untold and misplaced history.

Their exhibit tells the story of 30 amazing women, they call 'Queens of the Heartland'.

- [Hadley] I think that it's so important that we know our history and that this history is American history.

As an American historian, I really want to focus on telling more truths in our historical education.

And so one of the ways that we do that is to include stories that have been either purposefully erased or simply not told.

The exhibit tells the story of 30 African-American women who all had ties to Ohio in some way.

Some were born here, some came here.

But all of these women fought for freedom, fought for abolition, access to education, temperance, the right to vote.

So we're telling this story, this long history of activism by these women in Ohio.

I'm Hadley Drodge, I co-curated the 'Queens of the Heartland' exhibit, alongside artist Nicole Washington here at the National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center in Wilberforce, Ohio.

- My name is Nicole Washington.

I'm a visual artist based in New York, and I created the photo illustrations that compliment the exhibition.

- It was so exciting to collaborate with someone like Nicole who comes at this historical project with a completely new and fresh perspective.

And one of the things we tried to do was to breathe life into these women.

You see these black and white photographs and what you forget is that these women lived their life in color just like we do today.

And so Nicole was able to, you know, bring that to light.

- My inspiration and my goal with the images was to show that these women and their work are still relevant today.

So I really wanted to bring them to life and bring them into the future.

I created this little color grid where I was just like, Okay, based on what I've read about these women, these are the colors that are coming to mind.

And so I made a color palette for each woman, just so I had like a starting point.

But really when I get the images is when I can get going because I'm like, Okay, I can like work off of this person's stance or this person's expression.

- One thing we really wanted to do was to make this relevant.

So we translated this history into forms of communication that we're used to seeing today.

For example, each of the panels that features a bio is designed with inspiration from Instagram as if this is their Instagram post and their selfie.

Their quotes are hanging from banners from the ceiling and they're designed with inspiration from Twitter.

So these would be their tweets.

And each of the movements that we use to contextualize the women are designed with icons or like emojis that appear on the bio panel.

So you can kind of see what each woman was involved in, whether it was reform, anti-lynching, black freedom, suffrage, African womanism, and so forth.

The objects are also very important part of this exhibit.

In some ways, I feel that their spirits are preserved in these inanimate objects and come to life.

We have several garments on display that help us imagine these women standing there before us.

In this space, we have letters and archival documents.

We have signed autobiographies and other material objects that really bring these stories to life.

- One of the things that really struck me while researching these women and creating these pieces is that so many of these women were at the forefront of movements while at the same time having to fight through so much violence and atrocious behavior.

And so I thought a lot about what it would mean to like live during that time.

Those things really showed how much power these women have.

And it give me encouragement that, you know, if these women can live their lives and also fight for justice and freedom, then I can have the energy to do the same.

And also it made me feel, I felt really honored to be bringing their stories to even more people, especially during this moment when some of the things that these women were fighting for, we are still fighting for today.

- [Hadley] I hope that this exhibit inspires people to do their own research, to delve deeper, to see the American stories that have been ignored or repressed, and to help us tell a more honest history of America.

I think that history is not about things that happened in the past, it's about who we are today and how we got to be here.

And if we can understand that better, I think that we could probably come together better as a nation.

- Digital artist, Michaela Oteri has overcome many challenges in her short life in order to continue her passion for making art that give strong voice to those who struggle to be heard.

- [Michaela] My name is Michaela Oteri and I'm a disabled digital artist.

I started getting into digital art really in 2009, I believe.

I was starting to learn to draw traditionally with pencil and paper, but I injured my hands and I was told by an occupational therapist that I needed to stop drawing.

I didn't really take that advice though.

Instead I started learning to draw digitally where I could change the sensitivity for the pen tablet.

And it was a lot easier on my hands and I was able to learn to draw the way I wanted to.

It was really great.

- When she's told no, most often she finds a way around that, she'll follow the letter of the law, but we'll find a way that works to accomplish what she feels needs to be done.

- When I start to draw a portrait, I gather as many reference images as I can, so I can properly display the person that I'm drawing.

And then I set to work on the sketch, which takes probably the most amount of time out of the entire process.

But then I get to work on the line art, which is my favorite part.

I love to work with some really bright, fun colors.

- So I know Michaela actually had an opportunity to be connected with her through a project that my firm is working on, Crip Camp, which is a Netflix documentary that is executive produced by President Barack and Mrs. Michelle Obama.

Being with the film is really about activism, but also engaging with the disability community.

My role as impact producer and leading the impact team is to connect with leaders of today and specifically disabled creatives and those that are really involved in the, in the movement.

I love how she can take what was likely a just a portrait, a regular photograph perhaps, and bring it to life.

One project that she did for us, my colleague and dear friend, Stacey Park Milbern, who was a co-impact producer with me on the project.

She passed away in May of 2020 and Michaela created this beautiful rendering of Stacey around these bright flowers.

I basically told her her favorite color and she just took that and brought a photo of Stacey to life in such a way that really all you could do is just smile.

- Her artwork is beautiful.

It's inspiring to see her glow when she feels like she's really accomplished what she set out to do in a certain piece and when it's received the way she put out into the world, that's just the most amazing thing.

- I really hope that the takeaway from my art is that disabled people are individuals who are beautiful, who are strong in their own ways and just are their own individual people.

I really want to continue making this bigger, displaying more people of all different backgrounds who don't get to see themselves in art very often.

It just always means so much to me that I'm able to do that.

- We are just about out of time this week, but before we go, a quick thank you and a callback.

- Thanks to our hosts, the Barry Art Museum for having us here today.

And the callback?

- (laughs) Yeah.

Remember last season when we had the story about the Moon Festival at ODU?

Well, the Barry was responsible for that and this year they've done it again.

- Earlier this fall, they've brought back the art of Luke Jerram.

This time in the form of the Red Planet, Old Dominion and the Barry celebrated all things Mars.

We leave you tonight with sights and sounds from the festival.

Thanks to you all for joining us.

I'm Jason Kypros.

- [Heather] And I'm Heather Mazzoni.

We'll see you next time on Curate.

(orchestral music plays)