(gentle music) - [Narrator] Funding for this program is provided in part by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.

(bird trilling) ♪ Hear the engine moan and I'm out the door ♪ ♪ Live the high life I've been waiting for ♪ - [Nicole] Coming to you from Rochester, Minnesota "R-Town".

♪ Changing my view again and again.

♪ Do you identify as an Iraqi Minnesotan?

If so the Iraqi and American Reconciliation Project wants to hear your stories.

We're joined today by Dr. Azar Maluki, a physician and board chair of the Iraqi and American Reconciliation Project here to tell us more about an upcoming event centering the voices of Iraqi Minnesotans here in Rochester.

Welcome to "R-Town", Dr. Maluki.

- Thank you so much, Nicole.

My pleasure.

- So can you tell us a little bit about the Iraqi and American Reconciliation Project?

What is it?

What is its mission?

- So the Iraqi and American Reconciliation Project, the IARP is a nonprofit organization, follows 501(c)(3) nonprofit rules, was founded in the year 2007 after the war in Iraq in 2003.

It's founded basically by a group of Americans and Iraqi Americans living here in the Twin Cities.

So our organization is based in Minneapolis, actually has the headquarter in Minneapolis at Independence Avenue.

And actually the foundation of IARP was meant to promote reconciliation between the people of the US and Iraq in response to the devastation that affected Iraqi family, society and culture in general after the war in 2003.

We think that bringing bridges together between Iraqis and the Americans is very critical and essential to learn from each other and to make better friendship in the future between our next generations.

- Wonderful.

Thank you so much for sharing that.

I know you've been doing, as part of the work obviously, a lot of different listening sessions in different communities.

And can you tell us a little bit about what the goal of those listening sessions are and what can people expect for the upcoming one here in Rochester?

- Yeah, actually the IARP is working on different, on a wide spectrum of goals mainly under the humanitarian umbrella.

So our work is divided between, as they've said, creating bridges of communication, the friendship between the two people of Iraq and the US.

And supporting also basic needs for Iraqi people, especially those in hotspots after long years of war against terror in that area.

And also we to share expertise between Iraq and American professionals in different levels, especially medical professionals.

And also sharing cultures, our common cultures and ideas through art, different types of art.

So we are working on these different tools to achieve our mission of reconciliation.

- And why do you think it's important that the stories and the voices of Iraqi Americans are centered in your work and how will the listening sessions help you do this?

- Actually, we are aiming to hold three listening sessions.

The first one has already been held last Saturday and we have another two sessions on the way.

One will be Zoom on next Wednesday.

And the other one, the last big one on Saturday, the 20th in Rochester.

Actually we want to provide the best way for Iraqi Americans living here to provide their stories, their experiences and to share their expertise about living in a totally different culture in the US.

Total different language, different values and how that impacted their lives throughout the years.

We have focused in the past on special ways of introducing these Iraqi stories through theater, through different plays and through short movies.

And we want to hear more about the best ways to introduce those stories in more interactive way.

So we are thinking of adding experience like over the next generation of sons and daughters who grew up here in the US.

Who have never visited their home country for years and years.

Through music, we sharing different pieces of art, maybe hand outs, handcrafts, all these.

So we want to collect different ideas on what's the best way to introduce ourselves as Iraqis living here in America to our friends, to our American counterpart.

- Well, thank you so much, Dr. Maluki.

Can you let us know how the community can learn more about IARP and the November 20th listening session at the Rochester Area Foundation on the 20th?

- So the next, actually third big session, the last one will be held in Rochester the 20th of November from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. And all the Iraqi families and Iraqis living in Rochester and surrounding neighborhood or even cities are very welcome to attend and share their expectations.

What they want IARP to, how they want IARP to promote their voice in which way?

Which is the best way of art, music or other modes?

So everyone is welcomed.

Also our friends on the American side are very welcome to attend.

And there will be people interpreting between the two languages, Arabic, English.

So everybody actually is very welcome, but we want more Iraqi families to attend and get benefit from this two hours discussion.

- Wonderful.

Well, thank you so much for joining us, Dr. Maluki.

Best wishes for this listening session.

And thank you for joining us.

(upbeat music) Be sure to stick around.

We have much more coming your way on "R-Town".

We visit RCTC to check out a local art exhibit and we sit down with Holly Masek to discuss how downtown is celebrating the holiday season.

But up first we meet a local potter in this week's Our Culture segment.

(gentle music) (clay thudding) - I think for me, it was the tactileness of the material.

The fact that you can mold it, shape it, you can take something liquid and it can harden up.

And then you can throw it through the fire and then it becomes something usable.

Hi, I'm Chuck Smith and I am a local potter here in Rochester, Minnesota.

I am a functional potter and I enjoy making mugs and bowls and bathroom wares and soap dishes and things like that for families to use in their home.

I started doing pottery three years ago.

I took a class here in a local studio in Rochester.

Once I took that first class, I was hooked.

- I remember asking him if he enjoyed it and he just lit up and he was like, "Oh my gosh, yes, I love it."

- The one area that I like the most is the repetitiveness of making, throwing mugs on the wheel.

If I can sit down and crank out 10 or 12 mug forms in an hour that really like gets me going.

(gentle uplifting music) And if I'm having a good day, I can relax and enjoy it.

And if I've had a bad day, I can get in there and I can just make a mess.

I'll just let my frustrations out on a piece of clay.

And so it's very therapeutic for me.

- We're totally inspired by nature.

So a lot of the colors Chuck uses are woods and water or the Northern Lights.

We're both huge on the Northern lights and have been lucky enough to see them up north many times.

We have a large studio just south of Duluth.

We're set in the woods on a country road.

It's just really peaceful out there.

And we're both extremely inspired by the outdoors and nature.

My favorite part I would say is the interaction with the customer and seeing how they respond to your work.

Sometimes you can actually see someone's countenance change when they walk into your booth.

(uplifting music) - I actually had someone respond today.

They told me that they really enjoyed seeing my work and that just the color in it, they could really feel this calming sense to them.

And that she just really enjoyed looking at my work.

- Maybe they're feeling lousy or whatever but then as they start looking at your work, you might see a slight smile come on their face.

That reminds you of why you do it.

- [Chuck] I was doing an art show and I had a gentleman come into my booth and we got talking about the color of my pottery and all that stuff.

And he said that he was colorblind and I said, "Oh, I'm colorblind as well."

And then he had a pair of colorblind corrective glasses.

So he's like, "Do you wanna try them?"

So I just stuck them on for like 10 seconds.

And I immediately, it just changed my world.

I wasn't prepared for an emotional reaction but first time seeing my pottery and able to see the greens and the reds and stuff and everything.

I just started crying.

It was amazing.

Those that have colorblindness will probably tell you the same thing.

They can't describe, it's just, it's life changing.

(gentle uplifting music) - [Narrator] For more information about this story and other "R-Town" features, connect with us on Facebook, Twitter at @KSMQ #RTown or ksmq.org/rtown.

(bright music) - Hello, I'm Danielle Teal, your moderator for "R-Town" Spotlight, a segment that covers organizations, events and happenings across Rochester.

We'd like to thank 125 Live for hosting today and lining up our fabulous guest.

Today, we have Dan Nowakowski curator for Mayowood with the History Center of Olmsted County.

Welcome Dan.

- Nice to be here.

- Well, I'm excited because I'm curious what does it look like in the day in the life of Dan being the curator for the world renowned Mayowood?

It's a quite historical piece.

- It's going through the house a lot and looking at the 3D objects in the house because we have a collaboration with Mayo Clinic.

Mayo Clinic owns the house now but we own the 3D collection inside the house.

So my job entails going through the collection and looking at what pieces we want to send to get restored and how they're aging over the long run.

'Cause some of the art pieces come from Charlie Mayo, Edith Mayo, some pieces from Chuck Mayo and Alice Mayo.

Three generations lived in the house and they left unique pieces to tell their stories.

So we wanna look at those pieces, make sure the preservation's going good with them.

And just upkeeping them for future people to come and see them.

- That was remarkable to have these items still available so that people can actually view them.

What does entail, making sure that they're maintained and nothing happens to them?

How do you ensure that?

- So I can tell you this, about two or three years ago, we had Midwest Art Conservation come down.

And we picked about 10 different pieces from the mansion that we wanted to get their opinion on.

And they have trained experts on the water damage or cracking or wood damage and bug damage and so forth.

So we showed them the 10 pieces we thought that needed treatment.

And then they came back with a full fledged report of what to do, how to do it and everything.

- Perfect, well, how can the community come and do the tour?

Is it open for tours right now?

- Yes, it is open for the Christmas tours right now.

So the house is decked out in Christmas decorations.

You can go on the History Center of Olmsted County's website and go to purchase tickets.

And they can pick what time they want to schedule it.

They are Wednesday through Sunday and each time is different so they can choose which one is best for them.

- And Christmas is my favorite time of the year.

Thank you so much for being on the show today.

- Yup, thanks for having me.

(upbeat country music) - This is Michael Wojcik with your "R-Town" rundown.

You may have heard about shipping delays affecting supplies this holiday season.

But when you support local artists and artisans, when you support local stores with local supply chains, you don't have to worry about any of that.

So this is just a fantastic opportunity to keep your dollars local this holiday season.

And, of course, if you happen to run into a PlayStation 5, please let me know.

A lot of things going on this time of year.

Going on this weekend, the "Adams Family" at Mayo High School put on by their high school theater team will be playing this weekend.

Also the Marshall Tucker Band is at Mayo Civic Center this week.

As we get into the holiday season, there's just a number of opportunities going on.

We talked about Hanukkah last week, the celebration there.

Additionally, the Festival of Trees will be going on from November 22nd to the 28th.

That is a can't miss event at Mayo Civic Center.

Also Mayo Civic Center will be hosting six different holiday concerts this season.

So you can certainly find something that you'll like.

Going on at Rochester Civic Theater, the "Best Christmas Pageant Ever" will be playing from December 3rd to the 19th.

"Jeff on the Shelf" will be playing from December 10th to the 19th.

And the Sugarplum Fairy Tea Party will be on December 4th.

If you are more into doing some things with sports, you can also find the Kiwanis Hockey tournament at Graham Arena, December 28th to the 30th.

And also around the same time, the Rotary basketball tournament is at Mayo Civic Center from December 27th to the 28th.

Finally, the University of Minnesota, Christmas wrestling display will be on December 17th and 18th at UMR.

There's a lot going on.

I'm sure you can find something to keep yourself entertained.

Wishing you all a safe and happy holiday season.

Look forward to catching you in the New Year.

(celestial music) - My name is Zoe Cinel.

I'm an interdisciplinary artist and also the curator at the Rochester Center.

I'm based in the Twin Cities but I'm originally from Italy.

So today we're at the Rochester Community Technical College in the gallery for my solo exhibition, too hot to handle, a portrait of the artist with pain.

So this exhibition is about an experience that I'm going through since 2020 when I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis.

I'm just 29 and generally people my age don't get this kind of condition.

And so this exhibition is a portrait of myself since I was diagnosed.

It's a way for me to process things like learning how to live with chronic pain and learning how to communicate the difficulties of it.

And how it feels to have arthritis and then a way of processing other things like defending on meds and then having to navigate the healthcare system in a country that it's now, it's a foreigner country for me.

And during a pandemic, which makes it obviously much more difficult.

And it's a multimedia installation that has sound and then has two walls in which TVs are built through.

So I was thinking about how do I portrait myself?

And so this idea of having a wall, something that is suspended through a wall, it's familiar to me.

Because since I moved to the US I always felt in between cultures and in between geographies.

So one of the main feature of this exhibition, I use red lighting everywhere because that represents how I feel with arthritis when there's a flare.

It's kind of like you're burning from the inside.

♪ And I'm gonna change it ♪ ♪ And I'm gonna change it ♪ ♪ I'm gonna get the gold ♪ - So the holiday season is soon upon us and the Rochester Downtown Alliance is busy as ever.

We're catching up with RDA executive director, Holly Masek to give us a rundown of what's new and next for RDA programming and initiatives for the community and local businesses this season.

Welcome back to "R-Town", Holly.

- Thank you so much for having me back.

It's good to be here.

- Yeah, it's so crazy.

When I was putting this together, I was like, oh my gosh, we're almost at the end of 2021, which is hard to believe.

And Thanksgiving is next week.

And then the day after Thanksgiving kicks off on officially the holiday season.

So just to kick us off, how can community members support local downtown business and just have some fun this holiday season?

- Oh my gosh, we have so many things going on over the next week.

It's pretty crazy to think about.

And yet it feels like we've all been running a mile a minute for the last, but not at all for the last year and a half.

Strange thing running in place.

But this is the best time to slow down and savor and to enjoy the downtown experience, I think.

And something that I hope we make the biggest deal of possible is all of these downtown businesses have their products here ready for you to pick up today.

You don't have to worry about supply chain issues.

You don't have to worry about waiting.

Will it get here on time?

When do I need to order by?

Everything that's in stock, you can take with you today.

And the downtown experience itself over the holidays is lovely.

When you think about that main street experience, it's really gonna be very special down here.

All of the stores really wanna see you.

And so number of things that we have to kick off that holiday shopping season include Hiawatha Homes, Festival of Trees is coming back again to the vacant storefronts.

We have Small Business Saturday and we have Here Comes Santa Claus.

So I can go through each one of those and tell you what that's about.

- That's all right?

- That would be fantastic.

- All right, so Hiawatha Homes' Festival of Trees is a fundraiser for Hiawatha Homes itself, which provides housing and services for adults with disabilities.

And they have traditionally held this festival within the Civic Center, where there are decorated holiday trees with different themes.

Last year, we realized, well, they realized they weren't gonna be able to do that at the same time that we realized we wanted to bring some light and some color.

And a safe activation to downtown Rochester in some of our vacant store fronts.

And we were thinking of each other at the exact same time.

So we worked with them to put 30 trees in vacant storefronts and to light them.

It was really beautiful and people could see them just by walking around.

They didn't have to go inside anywhere.

And then this year we are actually gonna be bringing 80 trees to downtown.

And so it'd be almost triple the experience it was last year.

They're all individually decorated.

They have different themes and it should be really, really magical.

We'll have a map up on our website and that is from the 22nd through the 28th.

It's completely free to the public 'cause you can see it from the street.

It's a great way to walk around with your family and explore and it's all to support a good cause.

So that is really great and will be beautiful for downtown.

Here Comes Santa Claus is a tradition in Rochester where Santa Claus somehow gets stuck on the rooftop of old City Hall.

And the fire department comes to his rescue as they do and they bring him down with a ladder.

And so that will be on the 28th, from 4 to 8 there will be the traditional rescue, a tree lighting and some outdoor photo ops with Santa Claus.

Because we just wanna make sure that all our young ones can safely see him.

And then finally on Saturday, it is Small Business Saturday.

It's a great time to kick off that holiday shopping.

And we have over 20 different retailers and restaurants downtown offering specials that day or activities within their stores.

And all that information is on our website at downtownrochestermn.com.

- So much to look forward to.

I'm really excited and I loved your rundown but also what you started off with, which was this is a wonderful time to slow down.

Which is such a funny way to think about the holidays.

But a wonderful time to slow down and savor the holidays and savor our downtown ecosystem.

Can you tell us a little bit about just how our local downtown businesses are doing?

We're 18 months into still this pandemic new normal.

How is our downtown economy faring?

- It has been a challenging year.

COVID construction changes in employment patterns downtown.

So it's a really good moment to remember that those small businesses are what bring life to downtown.

Something very positive that we've been seeing as a trend is all of the new downtown residential and the neighborhoods surrounding downtown have really started embracing the nights and weekends as a leisure destination.

And a real neighborhood where you can explore, go from place to place, meet your friends one place, go to another.

And so we're starting to see the weekends pick up quite a lot downtown, which you'll see when you come for Small Business Saturday.

That there's a lot of new energy here on the weekends, which we're excited to see.

Nonetheless, remember these are all entrepreneurs and every single one of them contributes to the feeling and vibrancy of downtown.

And every purchase you make from them makes a huge difference.

And these are things you're gonna do anyways.

You're gonna buy holiday gifts and you're gonna go out to lunch.

So come here and support some of the really unique independent retailers and restaurants that we've got 'cause they're part of this community.

- And I know RDA does so many things, including all of the fun events that you just listed for us.

But you're also a huge stakeholder in a lot of important conversations about what's happening in our city.

As we're closing up here, is there anything that you're particularly excited about or conversations that you're a part of right now that you think could really transform the future of our city?

- We just completed a research study with our residential populations.

We've added over 400 housing units just to the tiny core of downtown in a special service district in the last 10 years.

And 900 to a slightly wider half mile radius area.

And research has shown that people who live downtown spend significantly more in their neighborhood than those who work here and commute in and out during the course of the day.

And as we've done focus groups with these folks, building manager interviews, we've learned so much about what this population wants from their neighborhood.

They want it to be a true 50 minute neighborhood with all the different services that you might be able to get in a city center.

And so I really see those people as becoming much more active members of the community, really coming out of their apartment building, supporting the small businesses.

Knowing their bartenders names, advocating for great things for the neighborhood.

And that I really, the other part of it is I really want downtown to feel like the most welcoming place that is in Rochester, where everybody feels welcome here no matter what their background is.

And so I'm really excited for us to see more and more of that.

see more diversity of events.

The Night Market really brought in the Asian community.

Our roller disco brought in a much wider audience than we've ever seen before.

And so we're hoping to see a lot more of that moving forward.

- Awesome, thank you so much, Holly.

The last 30 seconds here, how can people learn more about RDA and stay up to date on events and things that you've got going on?

- Just go to our website, downtownrochestermn.com.

Down at the bottom, you can find all of our social media links and up above you can find our calendar events and more information about what we do.

- Awesome, always a pleasure to have you, Holly.

Thanks for joining us today.

- It was a pleasure to see you again.

I hope you're, well, thank you for having me.

- And thank you all for joining us today.

For more content produced right here in Rochester, please follow us on Facebook and Twitter at #RTown.

I'm Nicole Nfonoyim-Hara, host of "R-Town", a show about Rochester and we will see you next time.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] Funding for this program is provided in part by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.