- [Announcer] Production of "Applause" on Ideastream Public Media is made possible by funding by Cuyahoga County residents through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music) - [Kabir] Coming up, a new play at Karamu House explores life and love amid the Black Liberation Movement, plus a Russian duo in Cleveland preserves traditional folk music.

And later on we get jazzy with Nathan Paul and the Admirables.

You are in the right place for another round of Applause.

I'm Ideastream Public Media's Kabir Bhatia.

A new play premiering at Karamu House takes audiences to 1973 Cleveland, a few years after a historic shootout between police and black nationalists.

A young activist searches for her place in the movement, as well as for love and spacemen in "The Breakfast at the Bookstore", written by Cleveland playwright Lisa Langford.

(upbeat music) - The main character's fondest dream is to have a Black Panther like breakfast at this black bookstore in Glenville in the early 1970s.

- Free breakfast at Doc's Afro Culture Shop and bookstore.

That's kinda nice.

- No ma'am.

- "The Breakfast at the Bookstore" is, I really think it's a love letter to young people in the movement.

It's examining through the character of Dot, how young people find their purpose and how they tend to do it differently from the generation before them.

While they may be learning from them, they're like, "That's great, but there's this other thing that I want to do with it, and I'm gonna do that."

- I used to listen to this podcast called "Backstory", and it had these professors from University of Virginia, and each professor was a specialist in a certain century.

Once they had an episode about UFOlogy, which is the study of close encounters in America, and they talked to this professor, Dr. Stephen C. Finley of Louisiana.

He talked about how blacks and whites have different experiences, report different experiences of their close encounters.

Whites tend to be, it's a more frightening experience, it's more like being colonized or exploited.

And it's kind of the one that we all know when we think, "Oh, the aliens are coming, they're gonna harvest my brain," and...

But when black people have this experience, it's more revelatory and spiritual and hopeful.

It suggests a world that is greater than ours and possibly a justice that is greater than ours.

And some of the famous people who have told close encounter stories are like George Clinton and Sun Ra, who are both incredibly cool.

(chuckles) So I just heard that idea and I was like, "What if I wrote a play that kind of came from that idea of the traditional close encounter and then this sort of spiritual revelatory close encounter?"

- I love that them spaceman took you away.

- They ain't take me.

I went, they came, and I went with them.

- I love that they showed you the future and everything in it.

- Nobody took me.

I went, they came, and I went with it.

- Our design team is fantastic.

(chuckles) And the '70s was such a wonderful era for fashion.

And Suwatana, we call her Pla, who did our costuming, has just put together some really brilliant, beautiful pieces that not only emulate the period, but really tell the story of who these characters are.

And in the set, Laura Carlson Tarantowski, she created what looks like a lot of the old storefronts in Cleveland.

Like we'll recognize some of the sunbursts on the windows and things like that.

But there's also this false proscenium that we have that we call the portal, that has a lot of texture, and a lot of character, and is not what it seems when you first walk in.

And I won't give away what it does and what it is, but it's like the play in that way.

Like it looks like one thing and then you find that it's all these other things as well.

- What's wrong with the police?

- They like to shoot too much.

- Well, I mean, if you don't shoot at them, they won't shoot you.

- You talking about the shootouts?

- No.

- Are you talking about Glenville?

- No.

Oh my God.

No.

I did not mean... - Do you think they deserve getting shot up like that?

- No.

- It's timely in a lot of ways.

I think when we look at historical events and movements, we tend to think of them in silo.

Like, this thing happened, and nothing else was happening in the country.

One of the things I love about this play is we're on the heels of the Black Arts Movement, civil rights movement is transitioning into something else.

And at the same time, Woodstock has happened and there's all this experimentation with psychedelics and people are starting to open themselves up to other types of spiritualities.

And Afrofuturism is a big part of what's happening.

And those things were happening at the same time.

And in the character of Dot, they come together and it's like, "Oh, here's this woman that wants to be a black nationalist, and she believes in spacemen."

(laughs) Okay.

And people are complex in that way.

And I think one of the things that Gen Z and Gen Y really hold the rest of our feet to the fire about is that they are complex, like "We are complex beings.

And I'm not gonna let you lock me into I'm a this or a that.

I am all of these things at the same time.

Deal with me."

And I love it.

- I'm a black nationalist.

- No you ain't.

You want to get shot up like Fred Hampton, framed up like Elijah Digg, jailed up like Armin, burned up like Malik?

You not no Black nationalist.

And this ain't no bookstore.

- I found this wonderful book called "Ballots and Bullets" by James Rebenalt, and it's about what happened leading up to the Glenville Uprising of 1968.

I was very interested in that.

This book is amazing, but I wanted to set it in this sort of liminal period.

So I set it five years ahead.

And the reason was, 'cause when I was working on it, we were kind of in a liminal period.

In 1968, there's all kinds of riots, and unrest, and assassinations, and by the time you get to 1973, you're feeling like, "Whew, we got past that.

Everything's smooth sailing."

But in hindsight, we all know, no that they were about to experience Watergate, and all kinds of chaos, right?

So what's it like to be in this pocket of peace when you've just come from chaos, and chaos is ahead of you.

So that's why I wanted to set it there.

While I was working on it, (chuckles) it was right after a very turbulent presidency.

And we all thought, "Ah, okay, the election is over.

Everything is smooth sailing."

And sure enough, there was COVID.

So it feels like the two are analogous.

- I'm different.

- Me too, me too.

Sharp always say I'm stranger than a $6 bill.

- You lonely?

- Why?

No.

I'm not now.

And I've never been.

You?

- Dot's imagination is so vibrant and the way Lisa's written her, it's like we all just get pulled into Dot's world in her mind.

And she is unapologetic about who she is and what she believes and what she hopes for.

And I want people to walk away with that, like a little spark of that.

(stomping and snapping fingers rhythmically) - [Kabir] The breakfast at the bookstore, runs through February 18th at Karamu House in Cleveland's Fairfax neighborhood.

(cheerful tune playing) Cleveland, balalaika virtuoso, Oleg Kruglyakov, and his music partner, Terry Boyarsky, makeup Russian Duo, a group born out of love for traditional Russian music.

Get to know the duo as they share their music and culture.

(dramatic music playing on piano) (cheerful tune playing on balalaika) - My upbringing is like very typical for the Soviet time.

I grew up in Siberia.

I started my professional music education in arts college.

I didn't want to go to music school.

It was my mother's idea and I couldn't resist it.

Our family was quite musical.

They liked to sing together and every time they were getting together, having some holiday party or such an event, they would start singing.

And little by little, I was involved in this process.

The instrument I play is called Balalaika, and modern balalaika looks like triangular mandolin.

It comes from same family of Asian lutes, constructed very similarly.

Balalaika became popular, I believe, 17th century.

And it was exactly the century when any kind of folk music, in particular, instrumental music was forbidden to play.

The main part of our education in a musical college and in a conservatory was a pedagogy.

So we were prepared as music teachers.

I was basically qualified for that by finishing my education.

This is how I became music teacher.

How Russian Duo was started is a different story.

When I won Green Card lottery, I've got opportunity to stay in the United States, and I found Terry's webpage.

So I wrote her nice email and attached samples of my performance.

And this is how we met.

- Russian Duo, it is Balalaika Virtuoso from Siberia, American pianist, singer, singer.

And we are performing music from the Russian folk tradition.

There's a huge repertoire written originally for balalaika-piano duo.

- The mission of Russian Duo is collaboration between two different cultures, which is difficult and exciting at the same time.

- When we go into the schools, we have workshops, concerts, and residencies.

For example, our concert is kind of a living, breathing example of collaboration because we are modeling for the students, how we collaborate and how hard it is to collaborate.

And then we set up kind of a storyline where the students are asked to collaborate with us, either in singing or in body percussion, or in playing percussion instruments, or counting beats.

And in order for the story to progress, the students have to succeed in listening to each other, and listening to us.

Every activity becomes teamwork.

And the only way to succeed is by working together.

- Oleg is a fantastic musician.

He takes his music seriously.

He, to this very day, is one of the few serious bio Leica balalaika virtuosos in the world.

But he also is very down to earth, very matter of fact.

And he has a very dry sense of humor, which is fantastic.

So when he's presenting, he has a wonderful stage presence and he just draws the audience in.

When we're doing school outreach programs, when you're talking with kindergartners or elementary school kids, explains things at a very basic level, but at a level where really has impact, and the children will understand the origin of the balalaika, some of the origins of the Russian folk music.

And he puts together a superb educational program.

ORMACO stands for Ohio Regional Music Arts and Cultural Outreach.

So the mission is to make music, arts, and culture accessible for all.

And then we focus on programming for underserved, disadvantaged, and rural populations.

When we're working with rural populations or underserved populations, they have no exposure to different types of music.

And the balalaika is not an everyday instrument.

They're absolutely fascinated.

And then they can come up afterwards, and talk with him, and look at the instrument, and ask questions.

So it does have impact.

- Ohio Heritage Fellowship Award means a lot to me.

It means that I didn't spend my time for nothing playing balalaika in US.

And I got some appreciation.

I felt proud, for sure, and I was excited.

- I think the most fun I ever had in my life is performing with Oleg, because he gives 500%, he risks everything.

It's like going down a slalom ski slope.

So it's so risky, but so exciting and so nourishing, and so fun.

I don't know how to describe it.

- It is.

It is lots of fun.

(Terry chuckles) - It just pulls on all my skills and all my attention, to try to make music in this way.

- I think by learning other culture, you getting broader picture about how world is working, because every culture has its own point of view.

Like different people, you have pair of eyes, I have pair of eyes, Terry has pair of eyes, and it's our vision.

But if we combine all three, we will get broader picture and more detailed.

I think same is going on with learning other cultures.

You making your world broader and more detailed.

- I think when you step into someone else's culture, especially through music and dance, that you are learning empathy.

You're stepping into that person's world with your energy and your understanding, and hopefully eventually wisdom.

(upbeat music) - [Kabir] The Cleveland Public Library aims to be a community living room, which includes of course, arts and culture.

On the next Applause, we go inside the library's biggest art exhibit to date, a dazzling display featuring thousands of floating flowers.

Plus we pull back the curtain on a scenic shop of epic proportions.

And jazz legend Whitten Marsalis composes a new concerto for the Cleveland Orchestra's principle trumpet, Michael Sachs.

All that and more on the next round of Applause.

(dramatic music playing) Voted one of the top 10 local artists of 2023 in Columbus, Aris Cohen's path to having a career in art wasn't easy.

Many of his paintings today reflect on his past, while looking ahead to future aspirations.

When he is not painting, he's teaching, his way of giving back to students in an underserved community.

(bright music) (soft spraying) (spraying continues) (bright music) - Responsibility is a big thing for me.

So I have a responsibility to do work in the community and give back however I can.

That's why I teach art and have always wanted to, and that is why any underserved community that I can help do work in that I feel absolutely responsible to give back, and help to have people understand that art is important.

Art is therapy.

So.

(students chattering softly) So my art is based in Afrofuturism, it's based in Afro surrealism.

I primarily like to paint with acrylic paint on canvas or wood.

Although classically trained in a lot of different mediums, that's just my go-to now.

And I like to use vibrant colors, a lot of color, a lot of different shapes for backgrounds, and mainly subjects, people, different ethnicities.

But, I was talking to someone earlier about my primary subject matter and organically, the black male, just because that's what I see in the mirror every day.

It does not take away from my love of culture and my love of people, and just liking to look at people's faces and the structure of how they're made up.

And I love to recreate those things.

So that's what most of my work is based in.

(gentle music) My creative process would be, searching for subject matter, thinking of a way to convey my thoughts and feelings visually, finding references, whether it be taking photos myself or looking at photos that maybe someone else has taken, changing them like a piece of music.

And then I digitally recreate, or set up my composition.

I then either draw directly on canvas or I project it depending on the scale, and begin to paint at that point.

Since I've been doing murals and since I've been kind of doing a lot of different things, I noticed that I like to take the hard road.

I tend to go the difficult route.

But it's more of a processing thing for me.

I like to see a white canvas.

Most people will say it's scary to see a canvas with nothing on it, and then you gotta sit here and fill it all in.

So if you tone the canvas first, it makes it easier for you.

Well, life isn't easy.

So for me, I like to take the hard road because... That's my favorite piece.

And I did not tone that canvas and it came out great, and it's my favorite.

(chuckles) The piece called Conduit, which is a picture of a marble sculpture of a slave in blue with a background that looks like a fingerprint, it speaks to my journey as an artist.

He's looking to the future and to the light, but he's having a conversation with his past.

It really just speaks to who I am as an artist and what I've been through that led me to the point that I'm at, and also looking at my trajectory going forward.

There's a piece at Hale Hall that's in their permanent collection, called "Gravity" and It's Mother Earth with her arms around the moon child.

And I just, the subject matter for that really stands out.

It came to me organically.

And so those two pieces really are my favorite.

I have a lot of favorites, so it's every piece that I've ever done I have a connection with.

(school bell rings) As a high schooler, and in art class, I learned that it's good to give back when you have a passion for something.

So I learned early that I wanted to be a teacher.

I need to give back.

I need to do something that's fulfilling.

And Franklinton High School, a charter school in the underserved community, gave me the opportunity, right?

They gave me the privilege to be able to figure that out, to really just go into the class and come up with my own curriculum, teach what I wanted to pertaining art.

And it's just been a blessing.

No, you don't have to know how to draw.

You don't have to know how to paint.

I'm going to teach you.

But also use this time to take your mind off of whatever you might be going through at home, because we all have stuff going on at home, whatever class that you're taking that's super difficult and just create, because there is a release in that.

There we go.

(equipment beeping) (gentle music) The mural on Franklinton High School that I was able to do this past summer, it's based on the community that the school is in.

The subject of the mural is one of the students at the school who every time he sees me, he gives me dap, and he's so happy to have been the subject matter.

And I was able to do it in tandem with JM Hunter, who's one of my colleagues at the school.

And so it was a real fun time.

It was really hot, and we got to go up on the lift every day and so just being able to do something that I had never had the chance to do before.

It really isn't much different from what I usually do.

Even on my larger scale paintings, it's like there's a process, there's just all of this planning.

And getting to this part is the easy thing, but the planning and getting the composition that you want, that's all the hard part for me.

That was my first time using spray paint on a mural primarily.

And the largest mural to date that I've done.

Just, it checked so many boxes for me.

Receiving the inaugural community artists and residence for urban art space was very special per my connection to the Ohio State University, as a student, as a young scholar, it's always been a dream to do art in any place, but especially in Cleveland where I'm from, and in Columbus, and it's been life changing.

My days are packed.

By 10 o'clock at night, I'm thinking, "Okay, the kids are asleep.

So now I need to go in the basement and paint."

And primarily I'm an artist.

Primarily I create visually.

So I'm always thinking about that.

Like, I literally think about it all day long.

When can I paint?

Because that is my favorite thing to do.

And so I find time for it whenever I can.

My free time is painting.

(chuckles) - [Kabir] I have so enjoyed our time together.

Thanks for joining me on this arts and culture journey.

I'm Idea Stream Public Media's Kabir Bhatia, leaving you with a hot jazzy tune from Akron based Nathan Paul, and the Admirable, performing live at the 2023 Tri-C Jazz Fest.

(upbeat jazz music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) ♪ We ♪ That's right.

All the people.

All the people.

Y'all, I don't even want to sing.

(upbeat music continues) Say ♪ We ♪ (upbeat music continues) ♪ Are the people ♪ ♪ Have we come here to get ♪ (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music fades out) (lively logo chime) - [Announcer] Production of Applause on Ideastream Public Media is made possible by funding by Cuyahoga County residents through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture.