- On this episode of Curate.

- [Roberta] It's mind blowing to think that this is still technically the beginning of a journey.

I feel like these steps are the dream.

- [Howard] They were closing up the park so I'd decided I'd move 'em to the farm, and they've become a photographer's dream.

- [Corey] In this exhibition alone there's 39 different artists.

(soft upbeat music) - Thank you for joining us.

I'm Jason Kypros.

- And I'm Heather Mazzoni.

- Roberta Lea is not only one of the fastest rising country music stars in Hampton Roads, but her catchy songs and second-to-none stage presence have also been recognized by CMT, "People", and "Rolling Stone Magazine".

- Couple that with her work with the Black Opry, a recently formed collective of African American country musicians, and doors are opening up for Roberta that she never knew were possible.

(acoustic guitar music) (waves crashing) (Roberta humming) - [Roberta] 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 doin' it for God, it doesn't matter how terrible you sound.

(Roberta laughs) Somebody's gonna clap and say amen.

♪ All the colors ♪ ♪ In the valley rush the Shenandoah ♪ 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.

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

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

♪ Yeah, 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.

♪ Written on the shoreline is ♪ 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.

♪ There is room for every kind ♪ 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 in 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.

♪ The climb ♪ ♪ If there's something in the water ♪ ♪ Then I'm somewhere in the tide ♪ (water splashing) (phone beeping) - [Roberta] Hey, hey.

- [Johnny] Hey, hey, how's it going?

- [Roberta] Good, good, good.

Did you get my file, tempo 163?

I hate even numbered tempos.

I've been working with Soul Haven Studios 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."

(soft piano 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?

- Uh... - [Roberta] 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 a 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 alone ♪ 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 had 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 store front 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 ♪ (country music playing) (acoustic guitar music) (Roberta vocalizing) Zeiders American Dream Theater is a pillar in the community as far as cultivating the arts.

(girl singing softly) They created this program with children who have interest in learning and enjoying music and creating from that perspective.

(child singing softly) It was something that I could've 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 ♪ 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 it's 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 ♪ Hey, that's it!

We got it, boom.

(people cheering) ♪ 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, ♪ The haze is disappointing ♪ when I'm in spaces like the Writers Round at the Big Pink, I'm free to be me.

♪ If 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.

♪ Too big or too small ♪ ♪ You never met a ♪ 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.

So 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 going to put it on national television and in Times Square."

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

(soft country music) I couldn't ask for a better outcome.

♪ If I'm too much of a woman, boy ♪ ♪ You're too little of a man ♪ (people cheering and clapping) ♪ And they say, yeah, yes ♪ I would definitely say that 2023 has been the payoff.

♪ Another girl's trip ♪ ♪ This is about that time ♪ This natural order keeps unfolding.

♪ I'll braid my hair ♪ ♪ I'll be packin' my bikini and a bottle of wine ♪ The year kicked off with being inducted into CMT's Next Women of Country.

It's my first red carpet, People magazine, and then my very first solo set in Nashville.

(Roberta singing) 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.

(Roberta singing) It's mind blowing to think that this is still technically the beginning of the journey.

♪ It's time for another girl's trip ♪ My girl Julie!

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

And I am a girl, you guys!

I feel like these steps are the dream.

(upbeat country music) - [Jason] Looking for what's going on in our community?

Well, check out WHRO.org/CanDo, for fun events happening right here in the 757, and you can also find it on your favorite podcast platform.

- A once prominent collection of sculptures depicting American presidents now sits in eerie decay on a Williamsburg farm and is a subject of photography nirvana for the artists who are lucky enough to capture it.

(dramatic music) - [Howard] I came upon the Presidents' Park that I built about 15 years ago, and they were closing up the park and asked me to come destroy the heads here, so I decided I'd move them to the farm, and that took several days and a little bit of experimentation and we got 'em up here and lined 'em all up, cleaned a few of 'em up, all of a sudden they become a photographer's dream.

They love to just come out here at night in the snow and rain, sleet, hail, and shoot pictures of them.

They've gotten very popular all over the world.

- But I wanted to photograph this, these sculptures, under the nighttime sky, there was actually some shooting stars that were a meteor shower that was forecasted.

So I approached him about it and Howard allowed me to do it, so that's how I found out about it, and soon thereafter, I convinced him that, you know, why don't we not keep it privatized and see if we can't open the property up for tours for the general public, albeit only a few times a year, and he allowed us to do so.

- [Howard] We've done probably three or four band shoots out here.

Ozzy Osborne came out here once.

He was unusual.

We've done some plays out here with some like 14 foot tall people walking around from New York, dressed up like, I mean, there'd be 60 of 'em.

It was a crazy shoot.

We've done fashion shows, had some engagements, had some requests to have weddings out here.

I mean, I'm getting calls from literally all over the world.

Somebody called me from Russia, and they'll be here in a few days.

Sweden, Canada, Mexico, I mean, it goes on and on all the requests.

- People love places that are abandoned and bizarre and unique, particularly when they're local and historical.

Our demographic is very diverse.

It's anyone between eight and 88.

- For me, it's every time I come out here, I have a whole new group of photographers, and they've never been out here.

They're seeing it for the first time, and they're trying to figure out how are we gonna shoot these statues in the dark?

And then I start doing my magic, and they're all like, "Wow, that's amazing.

That's crazy," and you know, they just never can imagine they're gonna get these shots of these statues in the dark.

So that's what keeps me coming back here.

It's weird, it's like I've been out here so many times, it's like coming back to old friends.

- I've actually got the plans drawn up now for a walking park and museum music festival parks, and I've been designing this place for walking trails and different activities for years.

- I like Andrew.

I know, I say this, there's a lot of people that don't care for Andrew Jackson, but to me his epaulets are epic.

I love Andrew Jackson.

Abe Lincoln's probably my second as it pertains to the actual sculptures themselves.

(dramatic music) - When I first saw them, I was speechless.

It's really hard to kind of put into words because either just the scope of the size of what they are, the condition in what they are.

You know, they're obviously the presidents.

You don't see the presidents in that type of condition.

It's a unique setting.

I mean I think the first time anybody sees it, you really don't know what to to think, and you know, it has an apocalyptic feel to it, and of course from a photography standpoint, they're outstanding.

You know, we always had sort of a bucket list of items.

Snow, you know, we wanted to go down there and capture them in the snow.

They look completely different there.

Lighting 'em at night, doing the light painting type of stuff.

It's just a different way to see them.

We've caught them at sunrises, interesting skies.

If it's cloudy, if it's not, if it's wet out there, if there's rain, now you get reflections.

They just tend to look different.

If it's a sunny day, they kind of look one way.

If it's a moody day, kind of brings out a little different character with them.

So it is something that it's really a four seasons kind of place to go shoot, that just the conditions change make all the difference.

I've never really had somebody that's said, this isn't as cool as what I thought it was gonna be.

(dramatic music) - [John] This place has become iconic.

It's Americana, it's bizarre.

My opinion is they look better.

They deserve, based on their derelict state, they deserve to be seen in weather that is less than optimal.

(dramatic music) - [Howard] They're a work of art.

I couldn't see crushing 'em.

They'd spent a lot of money transporting 'em and building the first park.

I put 'em here in hopes of opening a new park or some sort of walking path or attraction for 'em.

Maybe a museum with them.

(dramatic music) (dramatic music continues) (dramatic music continues) (dramatic music continues) - A large collection of American art belonging to longtime philanthropists and art lovers Macon and Joan Brock was on display at the Chrysler Museum earlier this year.

Though the gallery has been taken down, you can still view many of the works.

The Brocks gifted the entire collection to the museum.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) - The exhibition, it's called A Shared Vision, the Macon and Joan Brock Collection of American Art.

Just here in this exhibition alone, there's 39 different artists who are all working in a variety of diverse styles and media.

It really shows American art over this century to be very multifaceted and fastly evolving, rapidly changing, that artists really aren't tied to one type of style or subject matter, that they're working in a lot of different directions and really pursuing creative freedom in a lot of different ways, and so the works in the exhibition, they range, you know, from very realistic, very closely tied to nature, to the highly abstract, very expressionist works of art that don't really have a connection to this kind of ideal that's found in nature.

And really everything in between.

(upbeat music) In the late 19th century, in American art, there was a deep fascination in feminine subjects, that women became thought of as this kind of ideal of feminine beauty.

Artists like James McNeill Whistler or John White Alexander.

Very tied in art history to the idea of art for art's sake.

So focusing on that time period certainly leads to the prevalence within the exhibition and the collections, but I think it must have also been a kind of subject that resonated with the collectors as well.

And so they formed this collection over several decades, during which time they were very involved here serving on the board, leading the board here at the Chrysler Museum.

And about four or five years ago, they became more intentional about their desire to make a gift of the collection to the museum.

(upbeat music) - [Erik] I think we are the art museum of our region.

Certainly there are other great institutions, but as far as being able to tell these more comprehensive stories of the history of American art, going back to its origins, the earliest American art, up to the contemporary.

We find that a lot of people are interested in that.

They're coming to see it, and we're giving them more of what they enjoy.

We don't have a lot of money to buy art.

So most of the art, the vast majority of the art that's in the Chrysler Museum of Art, it's art that has been donated by collectors.

First and foremost, Walter P. Chrysler Jr., and his name is on the building, and that was transformative and you know, a half a century ago.

But really many of the other works that's important works that you see come in through donations directly from collectors or people who are interested in art have helped us acquire things, so sometimes they might help us purchase something, but they're interested in art, they're interested in collecting, and there is an important community out there, and we want to foster that.

We want them to know that this is a place where what they're doing will be appreciated and where what they're doing, which might seem like a very private thing, can actually have a public impact.

- A lot of Macon and Joan's history with the arts has been closely connected here at the Chrysler.

They both led the board at different points.

Joan served as a docent here at the museum giving school children their first introduction to art.

(soft music) - [Erik] A true community philanthropist and leader, and understanding that institutions like the Chrysler really benefit everybody.

They've always been supportive of our free admissions.

You can come into the Chrysler for free, you can come into the exhibitions for free, and I think that tradition and the legacy of some of the great collectors has really enriched this museum and the whole community.

(upbeat music) - Curate Presents is a new spinoff where we showcase locally made art and sit down for a conversation with the talented minds involved.

This online series gives an inside look into creative happenings right here in Hampton Roads.

- Welcome to Curate Presents, I'm Kayda Plus, and joining us is a Curate alum.

You met her and her theremin in season six of Curate, Caroline Scruggs.

Welcome.

- Thank you so much Kayda, I'm stoked to be here.

- So the last time we caught up with you, it was the early days of your theremin journey, and now you've literally taken your journey on the road.

- Yeah, so I had a vision about a year ago of playing the air of different breathtaking natural landscapes, and so last year I took my theremin out to the Pacific Northwest and played all kinds of national parks, including Arches National Park, and just a few weeks ago I took the theremin into the Luray Caverns here in Virginia, which is actually the largest caverns on the east coast, 'cause I just had to see what playing the air felt like and sounded like down below.

- So you've created a short film that shows your performance.

Let's take a look.

(theremin music) (theremin music continues) (theremin music continues) (theremin music continues) (theremin music continues) (theremin music continues) (theremin music continues) (theremin music continues) (theremin music continues) Okay, so I understand this is the first leg in a larger journey, and you're looking to go beyond the borders of Virginia.

- Yes, so the big plan for playing the air for the project is to actually play the air of all seven continents and to put them together, to put that music together eventually in a concept album, so I'm actually, toward the end of this year, 2024, I will begin planning Antarctica, of course, because we have to go there first, and that's the big, that's the big kahuna, right?

So very, very excited to have this be the first leg of the journey.

- All right, thanks for coming by.

Safe travels as you and your theremin see the world.

- Thanks Kayda.

- Earlier in the show you got to see clips from Roberta Lea's music video, "Too Much of a Woman" that premiered in Times Square, thanks to CMT.

- The lyrics are catchy, the visuals are stunning, and there's no better way for us to end our episode than with more of this song.

- Thanks for watching and we'll see you next time on Curate.

(soft country music) (singers vocalizing) ♪ Too loud, too strong, too much attitude ♪ ♪ I better learn how to play along ♪ ♪ Before your ego ends up bruised.

♪ ♪ I'm sorry to tell you brother, ♪ ♪ I'm not living for your comfort ♪ ♪ You can go crying to your mother ♪ ♪ 'Cause I'm going do what I'm going to do ♪ ♪ If I'm too much of a woman, you can kindly step aside ♪ ♪ A true king can handle me, ♪ ♪ He's got what it takes inside ♪ ♪ Well, I hate to disappoint you ♪ ♪ By now, you should understand ♪ ♪ If I'm too much of a woman, boy ♪ ♪ You're too little of a man ♪ ♪ If I'm too much of a woman ♪ ♪ If I'm too much of a woman ♪ ♪ Too big, too small, we can never measure up ♪ ♪ The lips, the eyes, the hips, the thighs ♪ ♪ I'm tired of all your nipping and tuck ♪ ♪ You keep me in a cage but you don't like to hear me roar ♪ ♪ Well, it's time to break the silence ♪ ♪ I can't take it no more ♪ ♪ If I'm too much of a woman ♪ ♪ You can kindly step aside ♪ ♪ A true king can handle me ♪ ♪ He's got what it takes inside ♪ ♪ Well, I hate to disappoint ya ♪ ♪ By now, you should understand ♪ ♪ If I'm too much of a woman ♪ ♪ If I'm too much of a woman ♪ ♪ If I'm too much of a woman ♪ ♪ You can step aside ♪ ♪ If I'm too much of a woman, boy ♪ ♪ You're too little of a man ♪