- Next on Curate, ♪ Back to the mother land ♪ - Talking about all of the history on our soil.

Good and bad, "The Earth Remembers" it all.

- I've been surrounded by love.

I appreciate it a lot.

Having honest people around me who care.

- The natural elements come together to create something that's readily available in nature, such as trees and lightning.

- This is Curate.

- Welcome, I'm Jason Kypros.

- And I'm Heather Mazzoni.

Thanks for joining us as we come to you from the historic world's theater in Norfolk.

This Bose art beauty hosted its first show more than 108 years ago and has been the center of Norfolk culture.

- Sometimes I like culture, Sometimes not so much, but since 1978, it's been back at its heights, hosting the Virginia Stage Company.

(soft music) - In this past summer, the VSC told the story, of Southeastern Virginia in musical form with the production, "The Earth Remembers."

The play engages audiences with actors, musicians, and dancers, bringing the story of the diverse and fascinating people, who make up our region's history.

- The cast crew and creators of this production are our 757 featured artists.

This is the story of "The Earth Remembers".

♪ The sun ♪ ♪ Has the water ♪ ♪ In the sunlight and what you know ♪ - [Narrator] Those important yet So often omitted parts, of the American history narrative, are told in the musical.

"The Earth Remembers."

♪ If these shores could speak, ♪ ♪ If this air could communicate, ♪ ♪ What truth would they see?

♪ ♪ If these trees could testify, ♪ ♪ What would they tell ♪ ♪ The deep darkest truth they know them well ♪ - Talking about all of the history on our soil and good and bad, the earth remembers it all.

♪ Before we get to Hampton roads ♪ ♪ Hampton roads ♪ ♪ We got to stop the flow ♪ ♪ Stop the flow ♪ ♪ Take it back to the motherland ♪ ♪ Back to the motherland ♪ - [Narrator] And who better to narrate this journey of historic revelations than the one source who's seen it all?

Mother Earth.

♪ Strike ready to roll up ♪ ♪ Hold up ♪ - Especially in this era, where the government is stating that these stories don't have to be told in class.

We have to find another way to teach it.

♪ We gonna take over and save our people ♪ (mumbles) - It's a modern infusion of many genres.

Predominant is hip hop rap in the storytelling in many of the pieces, but it's a song cycle.

♪ Taken over by the Portuguese ♪ ♪ They got us on our knees just to control ♪ - Each piece speaks to the same idea of these moments in Hampton roads in Virginia's history, where we went up against opportunities to determine who gets to take up space and have privilege in Virginia.

♪ I'm trapped in chains of misery ♪ ♪ Look what this tiring did to me ♪ ♪ In bondage and captivity ♪ ♪ I can taste the deep waters ♪ - Upon learning how complicated the history was, We sorta knew that it needed to be told in a special way.

(singing and intense drumming) - The musicals writers study the region's history, concentrating on the stories Seldom if ever shared, like the challenges faced and contributions made by blacks, Filipinos, and native Americans.

♪ For freedom and peace, ♪ ♪ Where the people who need a release ♪ ♪ The demons we meet ♪ - Even those recognizable pieces of Virginia history.

Like the story of Bacon's rebellion are told from a different perspective.

♪ For freedom and peace.

♪ (lively upbeat music) - In trying to figure out a cool way to tell this part of history, it all just made sense to tell it from these two women's perspective.

♪ Till that day comes we will keep on fighting, fighting ♪ - We hardly hear about the woman's perspective, but then the fact that they were so involved in their own rights, it was a no brainer to at least highlight in some way.

- Another piece of Virginia history, We hear very little about, the story of John Casor, an enslaved black man who sues his owner, a free black man for his freedom.

♪ Employed by a Negro, Anthony Johnson a worker ♪ ♪ I did for limited time ♪ ♪ I wasn't supposed to make it through the Negro genocide ♪ ♪ Many families torn and many harmless children died ♪ - The slave is kind of like what's going on.

We are both black men like this shouldn't be happening.

And we don't really learn much about that in our history.

♪ Watch how the tables turn, turn, turn, turn.

♪ ♪ I refuse the shackles around my ankles they put on me ♪ ♪ I will turn the key ♪ - It was a tricky thing to write a song like that and not feel like I had to put my feelings as a black man into that and to sort of separate that and tell it from what America was at that point.

(lively instrumental music and indistinct singing) - Learning about how important the tobacco plant was to the economy is mind blowing.

(indistinct singing) ♪ In the sunlight and what you know ♪ - We wanted to keep it entertaining.

We knew that because of the heavy content that it has, we want it to make it as big as lively, as fun and as educational as possible.

♪ Filipino or American dad's from Manila but a U S veteran ♪ ♪ Mom said education would be a leverage ♪ ♪ Meanwhile I'm searching for cliques to be accepted in ♪ - [Narrator] The actors, some taking center stage for the first time in their lives share both personal and historic accounts of how their ancestors came to call the region home.

♪ She said you can be anything you can be anything ♪ ♪ As long as you stay with me ♪ ♪ Mama said get out and go ♪ - The song that's featured is actually loosely based off of someone that I interviewed, who sort of told me her challenges and her, struggles and her triumphs being Filipino in Hampton roads.

♪ So what if we are different when our heart's the same ♪ ♪ Regardless I'm in love with you ♪ ♪ So what if the worlds says no ♪ ♪ I feel no shame regardless I'm in love with you too ♪ - And right now, as a people, we're divided in a lot of ways.

I hope that we can get to a place to where this isn't affecting how humanity moves forward.

And I think the theater is a great place to start that.

♪ This is our town this is our place ♪ ♪ This is heaven for there's no place like home ♪ ♪ We are in the 757 ♪ ♪ 24 7 Every day of the year ♪ ♪ No place like home ♪ ♪ 49 other states in the USA but we're here ♪ ♪ No place like home ♪ ♪ No matter how far you travel away ♪ ♪ Your soul is here to say ♪ ♪ No place like home ♪ ♪ When you decide to return know you're welcome back any day ♪ - Mother earth, she reminds us from the beginning of the peace, that regardless of what we identify with locale, ethnicity, complexion, that we all share the same origin ultimately, and that we are all here sharing the same space and that we should be good stewards of it.

♪ The earth remembers ♪ ♪ The earth remembers ♪ (crowd cheering and applause) - Wanna see this feature again?

You get rewatch on our website.

It's whro.org/curate There you'll find all of our 757 featured artists from five and a half seasons worth of shows, as well as full episodes and other features.

Now here's a rising star to keep an eye on, it's Chesapeake hip hop artist, Khi Infinite, a one-time Grassfield High School track star transitioned to the music world.

Given his lineage, it's not a huge leap to see this is where he would end up.

(upbeat music) - I signed my first deal, my first record deal.

Yeah, it's been a crazy experience.

♪ Trynna find peace of mind, all I ever needed was time ♪ ♪ But my eyes are only on the prize in front of me ♪ ♪ And I'm tryna find myself ♪ Freshman year of high school is when I took it serious.

I was recording on my iPod and a Bluetooth speaker and posting the tracks to SoundCloud and trying to get listened.

Now, I wasn't thinking about deals or money or like streams and fans, I was just trying to make music.

People thought it was joke at first, like my parents and my friends.

- I don't know that Khi knew really who his dad was musically until recently.

And then when he discovered who it was, and it was time for him to start doing his own music, I think he wanted to separate himself because he didn't want people to expect his father when he showed up in the room.

- And I knew my dad did music and do all his producer stuff and having platinum plaques and music with Busta Rhymes and Snoop Dogg and stuff like that.

When I moved here, I got closer to him.

I got closest to the music.

I started doing more, like going to the studio, just learning it, tryna be around him more and just create, I made my first song at my dad's studio.

I made the beat and everything.

- We wanted to do a song (chuckles softly), did a song.

I can say it now, the song was trash.

- It was just a junk.

- But his mom said he played it like every day, all day until the CD was skipping.

But he put work in, he's gotten better, way better than what he was before.

- I didn't know what I was going to do.

I thought I was going to go to college and run track cause I was really good at that.

I had some scholarship offers, but it just didn't work out.

Felt like a job, you know what I mean.

It wasn't really fun, I lost the passion for it.

So I went to go work at Food Lion for like three months and that was not it.

And I was like, I'm going to throw everything I have into this music stuff.

- Well, if you listen to his music, his music has a lot of affirmations.

There's a lot of positivity and a lot of love.

And that's really big in our household.

♪ I was hoping that you googled the ♪ ♪ Infinite look me up this life is new to me ♪ ♪ I was searching for a higher peace ♪ ♪ I called the plug asked for the dub was my desired scheme ♪ ♪ I needed love when times were tough ♪ ♪ But I was told to breathe ♪ ♪ Look up the god look at the stars I play my part ♪ ♪ I did it all just cause I did it for y'all ♪ - We want you to like see the love in people and see the possibilities in people and see positivity, but not to be naive, but look at people for... As a reflection like of who you are.

- Everything you've been putting out lately is like, he's getting better and better like every song so,not saying, because he's my son, but he's gonna be great (laughs softly).

I'm so proud of him.

It's just the growth.

Like I've seen what he came from till now.

So I'm super proud of the kid.

In the beginning, it was more like, trying to be like the next little guys coming out, but now, I always told him like, you gotta find your lane man, and master that.

And, and that's what he's doing.

So, and I love it man.

- I see so much growth and I just...

I'm really excited for like what he's gonna be able to come up with when he has more experiences in his life.

He's still so young.

So, I love it.

- It's been a very long journey, a lot of ups and downs, a lot of investing, a lot of long nights in the studio, but a lot of love, I can say.

I've been surrounded by love my whole life during this whole journey.

So it's... Like I appreciate it a lot.

Having like honest people around me who care for what I do and my future.

- For all of those that are watching, take what you need.

♪ I need to need to call my brother up ♪ ♪ Let him know i still got love for him ♪ ♪ (call my brother up, call my mother up) ♪ ♪ I need to need to call my mother up ♪ - Artist Powell Gracie uses inspiration from her South Florida environment and knowledge from her day job as a chemist to create rich, layered compositions that bring art and science together for powerful and thoughtful paintings.

(machine whirring) - So I think as an artist, it's nice to have the artist's touch from the beginning to end.

Instead of using a canvas to wrap it, I use a wooden panel just because of the resin, I have to keep it nice and level so that it doesn't pull through the center.

This one is for a 36 by 36 piece.

(machine whirring) Got my four sides.

Now I'm gonna go frame it.

- I'm Paola Gracey.

I'm an artist and chemist.

Practicing chemist during the day and then at night is when I start to paint and become alive.

- The thicker the boarder...

I love the way that the paint looks when it's stripped over it.

And so I placed these to make sure I have a nice 45 degree angle before I add the nails to it, to reinforce it.

So now I'mma add the plywood to the top and this of course will be my background.

And let me switch out to the staple gun.

So I'll paint the background and then I'll apply the glitter and then I'll do several layers of resin.

And then this is what the pieces actually look like before I applied the acrylics.

I don't use the typical isle, my isle's the ground.

- Are you mixing chemicals into some of the paint?

- [Paola] Yeah, so I like a pouring medium to it.

That's like an experiment for me.

I started working with this technique of painting back in 2004.

I've noticed over the years it's gotten better.

And a lot of it has to do with my documentation.

So I... Just like I would in the laboratory, I documented my lab notebook, all my materials, all my observations and then I use that information to work on the next piece.

The colors I use mostly are like dual tones and blues and then I guess a lot of it...

The colors that I use are influenced by science and growing up in South Florida, the colorful atmosphere and so, I like to throw on a shrill orange or a yellow and neon yellow into the piece.

(soft music) They just speak to me in different ways.

And I don't know that people understand it, it's just, how they speak to me is how I choose what color will go next to the other.

I don't ever let the canvas kind of stop.

(soft music) This is where I lift it up and let gravity do its thing.

There we go What do you think?

(chuckles) You see how some start to really take off and then others are--- it's kind of like the race of the drips, so I try to control it, but at the same time it's more of an organic flow to it.

And so I'll just assist them and kind of give them momentum.

(soft music) All right, Gina.

We can bring it down now.

All right, and that's the end.

If i like the way it is, I bring it back down.

I have to leave it to dry for a couple of days and that's it.

(soft music) Both of my grandmothers were artists.

And so I was always exposed to that when I was studying, doing my undergraduate in chemistry, I always took a painting class to help the stress, and there is when I started to merge the science and the art.

When I was taking a biochemistry class, whatever I was studying, I would incorporate into the paintings.

The piece that I just did live today was the Kinetic energy series.

I love looking at images from the Hubble Telescope.

The amount of kinetic energy out there in outer space.

We don't know much, but the way that I like to exhibit it, is where it looks like it's going against gravity.

So it kind of confuses people and they think I throw it.

And so I kind of like that, unknown and that mystical aspect of how did she get the paint to do what it did.

So this piece is from the Spectra series.

When you look at certain chemicals under the microscope, a lot of them have that holographic effect.

And it's just beautiful.

I wanted to try to find a glitter that would represent that when I'm in the laboratory analyzing different substances, we use liquor chromatography.

And so these are what my results look like at the end of the day.

I've had several people ask me, "Well, why don't you cover the acrylic on the top "with the resin?"

And my answer to them is well I like the texture, cause if I were to cover it with the resin, you lose that effect of the matte against the high sheen.

It just adds like this depth to it and then just the, glitter when you walk past it the piece becomes alive, especially when you have the right lighting and really demands your attention, is so much fun to work with.

(soft music) - Nevada based artist Ben Rogers uses wood as his canvas and fire, water, electricity, and ink to make unique and indelible works of art.

(soft music) - I would describe my work as taking a piece of wood with the natural wood grain and natural feel, the smell of the wood and burning it with fire.

Then taking imagery and applying it right over the top of the wood, like painting onto a wooden canvas.

My name is Ben Rogers and I create Burned Wood Prints.

I'll choose maple plywood because it's very strong and it's very flat and take that piece, cut it down in my workshop and then I'll router the edges.

(machine whirring) And then I'll flame the edges.

So I take a torch and actually burn around the piece.

(soft music) And then I'll take a bit of water and baking soda solution and spread that over the top to help the electricity conduct.

And it also helps it stay on the surface of the wood rather than going through the middle.

(soft music) The next stage is to burn it with electricity.

The process of electrocuting the wood is pretty amazing.

So I have a machine that I created in my workshop and I'll take that and run an electric current through the wood, which travels along the surface of the wood, burning natural shapes into... People call it fractals or tree limbs or lightning, all reminiscent of what these burn marks in the wood look like.

(soft music) No two are alike on those fractal shapes.

They're totally unique just like nature, just like a tree branch or lightning, they can never be reproduced.

Send everything down so it's nice and smooth and looks really crisp and then run it through a big flatbed printer.

And that puts ink directly onto the wood, creating the imagery that is the final piece.

During the printing process, I'll take an image into Photoshop and I'll take a photograph of the wood and overlay it in Photoshop so that I can see that tan canvas, because basically I'm starting with wood instead of white, like you would on paper.

In recent years, what's also helped is a printer that's has the capability to lay down white ink.

And so as the prints move through, a layer of white goes down first before the color is applied over the top.

And this allows the colors to really explode on the wood canvas.

(soft music) Growing up in Lake Tahoe, I've got a ton of Tahoe imagery, and I use combination of my own imagery, but a lot of stock imagery, a lot of trees, bears, Tahoe mountains, and chairlifts ski resorts, stuff like that.

(soft music) I love creating custom ones.

People love to have their own unique picture.

That family photo and having a unique canvas that I can create.

(soft dramatic music) One thing that stands out that surprises people is when they pick up a piece of my art, Oftentimes they'll smell it.

And it smells like burned wood.

It smells like if they've ever been in Tahoe in the winter time and they've had a fire in the fireplace, it smells like home, or it smells like a campfire the... From their childhood or something.

And so that's kind of a unique side effect.

My favorite part of the whole process is giving pieces to people and watching their eyes light up when you show them, you hold it up and they go, wow.

The uniqueness of the art drives me and I get positive reactions wherever I go.

And it really fuels my desire to keep going and with all the positivity that surrounds it.

(soft music) - You can find curate on the web.

Check out the entire curate catalog at whro.org/curate - We're on social media too.

Always interesting things popping up on our feed.

You can follow us on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

Now we're gonna leave you with more from the "Earth Remembers."

Thanks for joining us, I'm Jason Kypros.

- And I'm Heather Mazzoni, we'll see you next time on Curate.

- A home in a foreign land.

- We envisioned a place resembling where we come from.

Thousands of violence, traditions and customs.

The Philippines is in our veins, but this is our new home to cultivate for the ones who remain.

♪ This is our home ♪ ♪ This is our place ♪ ♪ This is our town ♪ ♪ This is our place ♪ ♪ This is heaven close, hey!

♪ ♪ This is our home ♪ ♪ This is our place ♪ ♪ This is our town ♪ ♪ This is our place ♪ ♪ This is heaven close, hey!.

♪ (indistinct music) - You are the ones who determine if this is meant to be Virginia's legacy and unknown destiny.

And mama ain't raising no fool So y'all better pay attention and play by my rules.

This is your story, you determine the narrative.

Every step you take will be imperative.

All I ask of you is to do right by me and continue to plant the seed (mumbles) In the sunlight and what you know (indistinct music) ♪ In the sunlight and what you know ♪ ♪ We are alive ♪ ♪ We are alive ♪ (indistinct music) ♪ The creation of a life ♪ ♪ We are alive ♪ ♪ Connected as one ♪ ♪ (indistinct music continues) ♪ ♪ In the sunlight and what you know ♪