- Welcome to Kalamazoo Lively Arts.

The show that takes you inside Kalamazoo's vibrant creative community and explores the people who breathe life into the arts.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] Support for Kalamazoo Lively Arts is provided by the Irving S. Gilmore Foundation, helping to build and enrich the cultural life of greater Kalamazoo.

- I'm Jennifer Moss here at Miller Auditorium.

On today's show, we stop by the Kalamazoo Book Arts Center and check out their Illustrated Accordion event, hear from this season's artists about their best day as an artist, and wrap up our Artist in Residence series with the Helen L. Fox Gospel Music Center.

- Well, today my conversation is with Bertha McNeal.

She's an educator, community leader, a piano teacher, and member of the girls' Motown group of Velvelettes.

Thank you so much for talking with me here today.

- Thank you.

- So, how does being a Velvelette help you teach your students?

- After we've meet their background, when they first start taking piano lessons, and then I'll tell a little bit about myself, but then when I mention that I sing for Motown, or used to sing for Motown, made a record kinda thing, right away, that whole thing is like, "Boy, not only does she know about classical musicians, you know, but she's in that other area of things, some of the pop".

So, I have to just say that it kinda puts you in a cool (Bertha laughs) like you kinda cool there.

- And you know, you're in the Douglass neighborhood, right?

So, how important is the location?

- You know, it's very important.

As a matter of fact, one of my students lives right across the street.

She could just walk right over to her music lesson.

It makes a very good for another reason.

We want to teach students that are, what we call, underserved or maybe didn't have a chance or don't have a chance to be exposed to the greater Kalamazoo arts.

And we're right there in their community.

Can I have you be teacher for a minute?

And I'm gonna be student and you show Miss Bertha, some finger exercises for before we play the piano.

Okay, there's one.

Okay, thank you.

Yeah, that's a stretch.

Okay.

All right.

Very nice.

Whew.

Yeah.

Thank you for that.

- And you've developed some pretty important partnerships over the years.

Can you talk about that?

- Some of those that we've done are the Gilmore Piano Festival which I'm (indistinct) the Gilmore Piano Keys Fest, And we were so happy, this year that we had three piano students to the Gilmore's Piano Fest.

And who did they have for their clinician?

None other than Ed Callahan.

And also, the Gilmore Piano Festival itself.

We actually, you know, take kids on a bus to some of those performances, KSO orchestra, we have a string quartet and they have played in the lobby for the Youth, Black Arts and Cultural Center, Suzuki, all of those organizations that some of our students might not have access to.

This is part of our goal at the Helen L. Fox.

- When did you first start playing piano and when, what, how did you start playing?

- When did the bug hit me?

Yeah.

It, yeah.

I'll tell you.

When I first fell in love with musicals in the second grade, the teacher would have us give us all a little rhythm instrument.

You know, the little tambourine and the little bell and the triangle.

She gave me a triangle and we would march around the room and play our instruments.

And she put on a record player.

Maybe some people might not know what a record player is but it had the needle and the arm and she put that on.

And I'll tell you, it was when I first was hit that triangle is a true story, and heard the sound, the ting it was love at first ting.

- Wow.

- Something, it made me happy.

And that was, yeah.

That's how I first fell in love with music.

Ladies and gentlemen, at this time we are going to hear the song called Frogs on Logs played by Christopher Moore.

(tambourine rattling) (piano playing) Four times at low note.

(tambourine rattling) All right.

- I mean, you talked about recitals.

Recitals were always terrifying for me, but why are recitals important?

- Oh, and they are important.

They really are important.

I think one of the main ones is memories and I'm sure you have memories of recitals.

You carry that with you forever and ever especially when you do well.

(Bertha laughs) - [Kim] Yeah, right, right.

- And the other part too of that is it teaches us and students to conquer nerves.

If you never came across that type of thing where you had to jump over the, I call it the nerve fence or whatever it is, you'll never know, you know, if you could've done it or not.

- [Kim] Tell me what the recitals pre-COVID looked like.

- Before we had probably, let me see, probably two or three and they're all wonderful.

You know, the kids get a chance to dress up a little bit and play in front of mom, dad, aunts, uncles, the family and also get a chance to see other students and hear other students.

And especially if the other students are advanced it's the kinda thing I want to be able to.

And I know I felt that way too.

I want to be able to practice and practice so I can play like Johnny or Susie.

(piano playing) Wow, you played your own chords.

I am so proud of you.

And you know what?

That is very challenging to play, the chord and then play the melody like you did.

I am very, very proud of you.

- You know, Bertha you mentioned, it was love at first ting, when you were playing the triangle.

Do you ever see that sort of thing with your own students?

- You know, you do.

Every now and then it's like a light bulb or something that comes on in their head.

There was this one student that took piano for probably, well I would say maybe about maybe six months.

He told me, "I'm going to start a music group", a jazz music group, and he's going to be the piano player and he's going to get two or three other students.

And he's in high school.

And so, I mean, that was one of those moments like, whoa, he's taking it farther.

He's jumping out of the box to do really good that taking piano lessons was a spark right there.

Yeah, that will last a lifetime for him.

- Listen, I got to thank you so much Bertha for talking to me.

It's Bertha Barbee-McNeal, educator, communicator, community leader, musician, you name it.

And I thank you so much for your time today.

It's always so much fun to talk.

- It is fun to Helen L. Gospel Fox it's a wonderful organization.

So, you want to take piano lessons, violins lessons out there.

Please, please join us.

- All right.

Any title with a book in it.

I am ready to learn and, talk to me about your center, Jeffrey.

- The Book Arts Center is actually we just completed our 15th anniversary in January.

And so, we've been around quite awhile.

We are fairly unique.

We're the only center like ours in the state of Michigan.

One of the largest in this part of the United States.

And what we do is everything that's related to the traditional way of making books.

So, we have a large studio with a facility for making handmade paper.

We have all the equipment, the traditional equipment, that's used for making letterpress typography, which means movable type individual letters that you put together on a press and print the pages of a book.

We teach classes and we make things in our studio.

- I want to get into what is happening now.

And it has to do with an accordion.

But I don't think it's that accordion.

What's in the gallery right now?

I trust, what's right behind you, Katie?

- Yes.

So, right now we have our exhibit, the Illustrated Accordion in our gallery.

This is the 13th year we've had this exhibit.

It features artists' books from all over the United States.

We have several from around the world, also.

And this year is our biggest one that we've had in person.

So, we have over 90 books in our studio this year.

- Give me an example of a sculptural book, a book that's been sculptured.

- So, this first one isn't as sculptural as some, it's by Carol Darby.

And you can, the reason I chose it is because it doesn't have the same kind of content as a normal book.

There's no words, but it has, when it's hanging up you see the horizon line and you can see a little bit of the texture of the paper with the clouds on it.

So, it's more of a statement and less of a book that you experience by going through the pages.

- Well, it might be a while before I head down to your center.

So, I want to make a book now, what do I need?

Where do I start?

- Great.

So, you're just gonna need one piece of paper and I have a printed piece of paper to make this instant book.

So, this is a simple one.

Just one piece of paper and some folding.

So, we're gonna fold it in half, hamburger style.

- How we doing Jeff?

- Fine.

Hamburger style.

- Yeah.

(Katie laughs) I'm used to working with kids.

So, here we go, hamburger, and then we're gonna fold it in half again, hamburger style.

And one more time.

So, this one will make it into that.

You got it.

And now we're going to unfold it two times so that we're halfway there.

Yep.

And I'm gonna use a pair of scissors.

If you don't have scissors, you can just tear because we've already weakened the lines a little.

And I'm gonna cut right here in the center line on the fold and only to the fold - Half?

- That connects those together.

So, now it looks like this.

- So, it's very important that you do the cut on the folded side like you did, which is perfect - Oh.

- Because if you do it, then the other side, it's not gonna work.

So, it has to be folded twice.

- I flipped a coin.

(everyone laughs) - [Katie] You flipped, right?

- Why the name accordion?

- The form of the book, it's actually a very old and traditional form of making a book, which is that you just take a very long strip of paper and fold it into an accordion shape so that you can read the pages one at a time by flipping through them.

Or you can pull this whole thing out and look at the book, fanned out like an accordion.

So, it makes the perfect form of a book also for an exhibition, because we can put them, as you can kind of see in the background behind Katie, we can put them on sculpture stands.

We can put them on shelves on the wall and you can see the entire book for most of them.

Some of them are also double-sided where you can see the entire book from a gallery setting.

- You're telling me, obviously there are probably books that I can read, but much of this is art.

- Yeah, in fact, it's a very popular art form and not just accordion books but there's a very large audience and group of people who create what are called artists' books.

And often artists' books are books that are intended for display in a gallery or for their visual appeal.

So, they're more about something to look at than something to read.

Book Arts Centers all over the US have people who are producing these kinds of artists' books.

- And now we're gonna open it all the way and you can see there's like a little pop-up mouth there and we're gonna fold it in half, this time, hot dog style.

- What style?

- Hot dog, so you fold it, the link, the long way.

- Yep, hold it that way.

And you can make a crease on top.

- Okay, make a crease on top.

Excellent.

- Yup.

And then, oh, actually you have, there's a little off.

So, you want to fold it so that see where my pull is?

- [Jeffrey] So, directly in half.

- Directly in half right on the ball.

- I don't eat a lot of hot dogs, so... (everyone laughs) I gotta get into your passion, man.

What makes you come to work every day?

- There's such a variety of things.

It's so kind of all consuming.

There's the love of visual art that's involved in the making of books.

I love to read, and so, I'm really excited about the things that we print.

The mechanical part of it is really interesting and fun.

Knowing how the presses work, knowing the processes of setting and printing type, knowing how paper is made getting your hands in a vat of water to pull sheets of paper.

All the physical parts of it are really exciting.

But I think also another part for me is the kind of the mundane part of it which is you're printing a hundred pages of something on the press and the rhythm and the monotony of that continuous over and over and over doing the same thing or pulling a sheet of paper over and over and over again.

And so, it's meditative and you sort of lose yourself in the activity of producing the book.

- Okay.

(everyone laughs) - So, now we're just gonna push it together to make like a diamond where the hole is.

Yup.

- [Jeffrey] Yup.

- And then this is it.

This is the whole book.

We're just going to- - Fold it all the way.

- Fold it all the way over.

And then just kind of make sure all those creases are nice and strong.

And for mine, this one was designed so I have a cover.

So, it says "The Days of the Week" in there.

And they're in order, but for yours you could just write little numbers on them or the alphabet.

And then you'll see, when I open it back up which is easy, you know, some of the pages are upside down and some of them are right side up.

So, very simple book that you can make at home.

- I'm gonna start with my memoir today.

(everyone laughs) - Sonia, tell me your best day as an artist.

- I mean as you talk about journalism as an art, I think my best day has to be, when you're an artist you want your family to be recognized as well.

So, as an artist, I've had my daughter characterized on one of our magazines.

You know, I've had my other daughter, you know on the magazine cover.

My son has a book, you know, Little Eddie Goes to Carnegie Hall, and I'm also writing a book about my youngest son who's a fisherman, too.

So, my best day as an artist is just being able to recognize my family, to honor them, to celebrate them and to let them know that art tells a story.

- My perfect day as an artist would be to be able to get up, check in at the office, check out somewhere around noon, go stand in a theater with a few other people, have some laughs, climb a ladder, do some focusing, sit in a rehearsal with 20 people, talk about the meaning of a scene, run it a few times.

Just really have that connection of creating the art.

- Best day as an artist.

Isn't that a wonderful question?

Well, for me, I think art really opens a window to the unexpected, to the new, to the beautiful or to the transparent or to some fundamental truth.

And the best day as an artist is to experience one of these revelations together with other people.

And that could be in performance.

You could listen to the way that Beethoven has written a particular phrase and it could just suddenly become clear to you at that performance.

And when you feel that and the audience feels that and the orchestra feels it, it's this intangible sensation.

And that for me is what I live for.

- Our best as an artist?

Perform, a day that I get to perform.

Honestly, and because it's, this is a true story.

So, I get direct deposits for my music.

And that is a great feeling to, you know, get the email alert that, you know, that your music is doing something.

You just got a direct deposit.

But there's is not comparable to performing and connecting with people.

- My satisfaction totally comes when I hand you your project.

And I see the wow factor in your eyes.

I get a lot of gratification for when they get their project and they, some of them start crying, some of them jumping around and like, wow, this is it.

And oh hugging their books.

And I mean, those that's beyond words.

- My best day as an artist is when I get up from that piano and you have that warmth of the audience and that love of it, of what everybody has experienced together, just you know, washing over you.

- You look out there and they know your, all of your lyrics.

They sing the song right along with you and you get this feeling like, I don't know, euphoria.

I don't know, but just like we are pleasing all these people at the same time.

- And tell me your very best day, what it looks like, as an artist.

- Wow.

I'd probably say any time that I can sit down, make the beat, write the song, and actually record to it all in the same day.

That's just perfection.

Like, I'm so happy when that happens.

It doesn't that often.

But yeah, those are definitely the best.

- I think just seeing the students perform and, you know, really become interested in something that, you know they really didn't have a lot of experience with in the past.

So, it's just neat to see these students and see them get excited about music and share because sometimes some of the teachers will call us in and they'll perform one of the pieces that they've been taught by the teacher.

And it's just neat to see that, you know, we just go there.

It shows that they like the atmosphere or the environment, they like what they're learning, and they're happy to show you.

Because then they look to you for, you know, well, did I do a good job?

So, we're, you know, it's nice to be able to tell them that they're doing a great job.

- We did a book signing for someone where we didn't show them the book until the end of the book signing event because she had like a presentation she wanted to do for people.

And when we finally unveiled the book, she literally fainted.

Like, she was so overwhelmed and it was so emotional for her that like, that's a best day for us, when we can help take someone's concept and bring it to life for them to reality where they're seeing this, something that they had in their minds and it's even better than they even imagined.

That to me is the best day, when we can see that client look at that book or that project and just beam with pride, then we know we've done our job.

- [Bertha] And that kind of thing just warms your heart.

We make that one man feel good like that.

Can you imagine, you know, so many others?

So, I think that's one of the heartwarming stories for me.

Yeah.

Being in The Velvelettes.

- This young girl walks up to me in Cleethorpes, England and she says she was holding the 45.

We were, had been signing autographs from one o'clock in the morning to three o'clock in the morning.

And she says, she had tears in her eyes, to Barbie, "I've been waiting for you forever."

It was a lot of years.

- Thank you for joining us on this week's episode of Kalamazoo Lively Arts.

Check out today's show and other content at www.wgu.org We leave you tonight with a performance from the Helen L. Fox Gospel Center's Jammbo'Laya livestream event.

I'm Jennifer Moss, have a great night.

- One, two, three, ready, play.

(upbeat orchestral music begins) (upbeat orchestral music continues) (everyone applauds) - [Narrator] Support for Kalamazoo Lively Arts is provided by the Irving S. Gilmore Foundation, helping to build and enrich the cultural life of greater Kalamazoo.

(upbeat music)