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Yeah, it's more Coming up, a fun dip into frigid water, I don't know.

thawing out the story of a bygone ice palace.

And the rhapsodies rhythms of George Gershwin.

Oh, hi.

Welcome back to applause, everyone Im ideastream public media's Kabir Bhatia.

Now, when it's cold outside in northeast Ohio, some pull on their wool socks, some plug in a space heater, and some grab a pickax and go swimming.

Every Sunday during the winter, the Polar Bear Plunge group takes an ice cold dip into the chagrin River.

Last winter idea streams.

Amy Eddings followed these daring folks to Bentley ville for some extremely cool aquatics.

In the Indian, yoga tradition.

They talk about holy dips going into the dips and repeating a mantra in the river.

So I started that in the summer, and it was never really about the cold for me.

I just, as you know, you're going in the summer and it eventually gets chillier, chillier, chillier.

That became a point where I had to decide, am I going to stop or am I going to keep going?

Josh Sherman is the founder of the Polar Bear Plunge group.

They meet Sunday afternoons for a dip in the chagrin River in Bentley Ville, Ohio.

One of our members organized a sign up for us to be here.

That's the first time we've done that.

So we're a little spoiled today, but we're all going to get in there and get a plunge in and then head back up and probably warm up and cycle back and forth a few times today.

That's the plan.

The water is going to usually be around 32 or a little under, because there are minerals in the river that lower the freezing point.

Sherman started ice dips as a spiritual practice 17 years ago, but people have many reasons for getting into the near-freezing water.

Camaraderie is huge.

You know, we're all out here looking out for each other's safety.

And getting out into nature is one of the biggest things.

In the winter, you know, it's easy to cool yourself off and miss all these park experiences.

And not only that, but this intense cold experience.

It kind of, takes away the effect of cold that you have.

Just like standing around out here, you know, it makes you more likely.

You go out to the park more comfortable when you're just going from your house to your car and those kind of things, like the car warming up at first isn't that big of a deal.

Once you do this a couple times, I think that's what gets most people in trouble, because your body can handle a lot of cold water.

But it's the panic.

Yeah.

So just knowing you're okay with it, you know, you kind of have to override that panic response and just tell yourself you're okay in the cold water.

Claire Wilbur's of Chagrin Falls is a competitive ice swimmer.

Yeah, I think where I feel it the most is arms and legs.

Like my hands and feet go immediately numb.

And then the longer you're in, the arms and legs go numb.

So you're just kind of swimming but not feeling your stroke.

So that's really different than that, than the pool swimming.

But even here, like if we're in a calmer spot in the water and you sit perfectly still, you do kind of create like a real warm feeling around you.

But if you go or anywhere where there's movement in the water, that's where it feels definitely colder.

You can feel the difference with the water movement.

So yeah, there's something to it.

Hilbert competed in four races at the International Ice Swimming Association's sixth World Championships in Molino, Italy, in January.

I like the cold plunge in and then finding out there was ice swimming competitions that really spoke to me because I kind of put together my, my passion of, you know, swimming for fitness, the cold plunging and then, yeah, I'm a competitive person.

I like competing.

So it all kind of came together.

Yeah, definitely.

Something I want to continue spoke to me.

Tim Stecher of Cleveland Heights is a newly naturalized U.S.

citizen from Germany who lost his brother to illness a week earlier.

And I like had to for that balance all of this.

And I just need to come here because these are my, you know, my budgets.

Whoa.

And today I didn't know if I, I had the strength.

But I've done this for five years and it's really I know I have it and I know when I come out I'll feel different.

And that's like what I'm actually looking forward to, you know, like to it's really like a reset for your nervous system.

You, you, your mental clarity and everything.

Oh, all the people that actually come here like regularly tall, somehow interesting people and other like just like there's a lot of people that come here like you see them once and then they don't come back.

And then there's some where they just, you know, and you find a lot of interesting characters here.

There's a point.

There's this magic moment when you're like this, you transform from, there's the from the like, your body's panicking until like, the deep calm, the blood shunts into your core, and then your extremities are numb, but calm.

But you're not.

You're not freaking out.

And you have to, work through the freak out for a little bit because it's such a preposterous thing to do.

But you do it anyway.

And, you know, it's a metaphor for things in life.

You have to do preposterous things.

Even though, if many things might be telling you otherwise.

Natalie, Center, of Cleveland, came on less than an hour's notice to go ice plunging for the first time hurt really bad, but I felt like kind of tripping.

I still feel like I'm kind of tripping.

Okay.

Yes yes yes yes.

Like, especially on a day like today.

It was really hard because it's really it starts all in your mind.

It's like mental strength because everybody can do this.

But most people just say they can't, they'll die.

But it's like it's really if you tell yourself you can't and you'll die, then, then you won't be able to write.

You want Believe it or not, these polar bear plungers continue to return to the chilly chagrin River every Sunday.

No matter how cold.

If it's chilly outside, they're plunging.

Now let's glide over from cold swimming to what was once the biggest ice skating rink on the planet.

It was in the middle of University Circle, and it was downright palatial.

So now let's skate into local history with this edition of what it was.

The roads around University Circle can seem like an ice rink this time of year.

But guess what?

We actually had one of those.

This empty lot.

What it was, was one of the coolest spots in the city.

The Elysium opened in 1907 as the largest artificial ice skating plant in the world.

The rink's proprietor was Dudley Humphrey, already known for popcorn balls at Euclid Beach Park with 2000 seats.

The indoor rink hosted hockey, figure skating, and even art shows.

But not all were welcome.

In 1939, two civil rights lawsuits were filed against the Humphrey Company after black patrons were refused entry on two separate occasions.

The rink closed in 1941, citing, quote, uncertainties caused by World War Two.

It was later a used car lot before the city took ownership and demolished the building in 1953.

Today, while you're sliding along Euclid Avenue, consider that the traffic signal is controlled by this box decorated with the ghosts of ice rinks past.

Now we're going to get out of the cold.

And into the hot shoppe of a celebrated glass artist, Cleveland's Earl James, best known for the awards he creates in his glassblowing studio.

James is originally from Jamaica and a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Art.

So first thing is we put a pipe up to get it nice and warm.

So there's the pipe warmer there.

This is the glory hole here, which is where we do all the reheating.

Once the pipes are ready, we'll go to the furnace and we will gather glass from there.

The temperature in the furnace is somewhere around, I think 1919 50.

This is my third year of making the Nashville Book Awards.

It's fun, but it's also a little bit, you want to impress, you know, and I try to do my best to make something of what they're asking for.

And there's recognition that the writers are getting and, this is a gift.

Just as a reminder, I think, of what they're offering.

So I try not to make some big, impressive thing or something too small, but just something that you can put on a shelf.

But they can also see it as an art piece.

As much as I may engrave something on it, I'd still like it to have something that's attractive to look at.

So that's how I approach it.

And one thing that was mentioned was a little reflection of the cover image or the color on the on the cover, which makes sense.

You know, so I took it and ran with it.

We'll look inside the book too, and try to find something that speaks to us and say, all right, we'll hit the book cover idea with color and maybe some patterns, but then what else is there that may give it a little bit of, a little bit of us?

You know, I mean, it's my design.

It's my look, but still what I take away from the book a little bit.

I hope some of you can see that.

And and what I put into the piece.

Color has always been important.

And I felt good about color.

And glass, which is color and light really brings it to life.

It was easy to do it, but if I had to paint something that turns gray so I can't paint, but I can make it work in my opinion, in my glasswork and so I've become more enamored with more forms and simpler lines, not as decorative as surface.

To with the colors on now.

So a lot of the pieces I start out with, I'm a white base.

It's almost like a canvas to work on, so a lot of the colors will pop against it, and there will speckle.

Put a little bit of this and that to give it some depth.

So that's what all these splotches of colors are like the book horse a lot of it the, the face covered sort of a salmon color on the face, but a lot of pastoral feel to me when I, when I see it.

And so that's what we're going to be trying to make this time the one that sort of reflects that book.

I feel really good about it.

And I've seen when they receive their gifts, it's almost like they weren't expecting to get something.

In addition to, their speeches.

They may already and it's on the table.

So but it's always something that they're holding and that's something I made.

And so that part reflects first I made that and that person, you know, is holding it.

All right.

Let's find our pull it down so we can find our spots.

So we'll look for a presentation.

Face will flatten opposite that face so that what you're looking at is the side we choose.

So we'll need to cool it down enough to see the colors.

They always look so nice when it's all this orange red glow.

Almost there.

I think we're good.

With a little more.

I was born in Jamaica.

I was about ten years old when we moved here to Rochester, New York.

And that's where I grew up.

That's how I got here.

So I went to school at the Cleveland Institute of Art.

Glass was my major with a minor in sculpture.

It was different.

I had never seen glass before, and I saw them making glass in there, and I thought, that is the most amazing thing.

It's it's one of those things that kind of gets your heart racing when you see that fluidity and it's hot, it's almost like watching someone pour bronze or metal, and it's just hot soup that will become something solid.

So it was taking that mass of product or thing and just not forcing it, but just coaxing it into something, you know?

And when they were blowing lines in the paper and the smoke and all that, now it's just beautiful to watch.

I love the material.

I love the process.

I love the, I love the making of it.

People say, you know, they look and it's like, oh my God, that looks so difficult.

And there's something to be said about that.

But in all these craft, it's a skill.

There's a skill base to it, you know that you learn it and you can keep learning it.

I just figured I'd be making work for two of my two.

My days are done, you know, some form or another.

While Cleveland is the capital of rock and roll, our sister city to the south, Dayton is the capital of Jammin on the One Funk.

The Jam City's bonafides include the Ohio Players and Zapp.

Darren Bell grew up during Dayton's funk heyday and now continues that tradition on stage and in schools.

When did my relationship with music began?

I was told it began when I crawled up under the Hammond B3 organ on top of the base foot pedals, and began hearing the sounds of the bass tones from the pedals.

My father's relationship was very serious with music coming up in the musical household.

I witnessed, you know, multiple bands that he worked with.

One of the, if not the first, you know, founders of funk music and funk bands in Dayton, Ohio.

The miracles.

He even wrote the theme song 30 years ago at the NATO Peace Corps Conference that was held at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

It was a children's song of peace.

We are the, we are like, I grew up in and out of the recording studio with him, you know, way back in the day, what's called Cyber techniques recording studios, where even some dating hits were created out of watching what he modeled, projects that I was personally a part of learning to produce under him, sparked in me, and also inspired me to work with youth.

How I do today.

You know, I can almost describe as sustaining the Bell legacy and community impact.

The Darren Bell Band came to exist from there was a very popular jazz nightclub downtown Dayton, called Gilley's.

Everybody knows about Gilley's from back in the day.

And Jerry Gilardi took me under his wing.

The clubs were great.

You know, they were fun and they were learning opportunities.

But I had already saw people making records, right?

I had already worked under a couple different managers, like Ron Patterson, who were working with groups like Cameo and The Deal and the S.O.S.

band.

So I saw a lot prior to getting into the club scene, if you will.

Reflecting back on my teenage years.

It was inspiration.

It was a lot of mentoring.

You know, during that time in my life and and seeing, you know, seeing their success, you know, you mentioned being around Roger Zapp, you know, seeing the limo, seeing the tour busses, seeing the recording studios.

But at the end of the day, what I saw most of all was adults pouring into us neighborhood youth at the time being inspired, you know, do your best in school.

Tap into your creative side, you know, but stay focused through the process.

So, moving into you know, adulthood, having the opportunity to play with Shirley Murdock at church or with her husband, pastor Dale, you know, who still the music director of that?

I watched like Roger.

I watched him, you know, kind of do projects with the kids in the neighborhoods to keep them out of the streets.

They were in the streets originally, and that's where he found them.

And he would give them a drum or, Sugarfoot.

I watched him give a little boy just went and bought him a guitar.

I'm a lead singer.

I play no instrument, and I'm okay with that.

I may play a composer.

That's about all they going to get out of me.

But singing and kind of helping Darren keep things in line is my role.

What's it like to lead a band?

The relationships for me as a leader is the most important when I really look at the time to spend on stage.

It's very minimal compared to the time that we spent in rehearsals.

The time that we spent in encouraging one another in this thing called life.

So as a band leader, I would say being in tune with where everyone is, relationship wise is the key.

Working with Darren is easy, and I've been in a number of bands.

You have that one person that is in charge, and some people can take it overboard or too extreme and talk to you like you're a child.

Darren talks to us like we are equals and everybody's opinion matters.

My music, it was developed around 2015.

Y'all ready?

Here we go.

Music, music, music.

Go!

Rhythm, rhythm rhythm.

Go!

It was an app that I was blessed with the opportunity to create.

Because a lot like my father, I was in school, was going classroom, the classroom, mentoring.

The base of my partnerships are at City Day Community School, downtown Dayton, Ohio.

It's a pre-K to eighth grade school, and they use the app in all grade levels.

And I'm just as well as the mentors and the interns that come from Central State University.

And they're social work majors.

I wanted the app not necessarily to be centered around what I could do with it, but what could they non-musicians do or use as a tool to connect with young people?

My music and all right, let me do a rhythm check a rhythm check real quick through instruments, making beats, playing musical games, learning sounds and also being able to circle up and have conversations about life.

Some of the changes that I saw, students were a lot more comfortable with being able to come to teachers and let them know that they're having issues or they're having struggles.

More community has been built on the more positive side of things.

The blessing of that band, but a little something like that.

Setting up.

Harambee is a Swahili word that actually means to come together.

So, it literally means synergy, but it means to come together in the sense where we sing, we dance, we cheer, we chant, we have fun, we recognize the kids.

We recognize the staff for their accomplishments.

One of the big things is, is that it's just a big cultural piece where we try to make things positive, healing in the sense, I think that school is a place of healing for a lot of our students and a lot of students in the United States of America.

School might be their safe space, and it's something about the way he talks to the kids and the way he loves the kids they draw to him.

He sees what the world is giving them, and he tries to give them something different through music to teach them how to interact with each other in a positive way.

And even when you have, you.

When I got to the school that you at at 17, we only had 108 kids in the last year, I've been to two, and the year before that we had no.

Darren uses exactly the same tactic that his father used.

Darren is very charismatic.

He pushes his way into the hearts of the staff, the students, and brings the funk to City Day.

I was here when Darren's father was here.

He was our music director, and I started out as a teacher here at City Day, and I was a middle school math teacher, and he had a keyboard that he would come in to all of our classrooms and just bring music and joy into each classroom.

He made and created multiple children's learning activity books.

This company was called Home Based Arts because he did all his work in homes, but he made many books and there are hundreds of thousands of them that have already been distributed.

His legendary work still lives on to this day.

Debating AI in the classroom.

On the next applause, The things that artists brains can do is one of the most impressive things.

And I think that AI takes away the personality of it.

we head to the Cleveland Institute of Art as part of Idea Stream Explores Artificial Intelligence, our week long examination of AI and its impact in Northeast Ohio and beyond.

And Apollo Spire performs Lift Every Voice and Sing All That and more on the next round of applause Wish to be boys was going to be with us every week with the home on these home deliveries is well, that's next time.

But this has been this time for applause with me.

Ideastreams Kabir Bhatia Before we go check this out, the New York Times recently called the Cleveland Orchestra a, quote, an ideal orchestra.

So now, from the orchestra's Adela app, here's an ideal performance.

American conductor David Robertson leads with Canadian Mark Andre Hamlin at the piano for George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue.

Production of applause and ideastream.

Public media is made possible by funding by Cuyahoga County residents through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture.