(Prairie Fire Theme Song) (Prairie Fire Theme Song) (Prairie Fire Theme Song) Welcome to Prairie Fire.

I'm your host.

Sarah Edwards, you know as the mother of school age kids.

I know the challenge of finding fun and, dare I say, inspiring things for my kids to do every summer.

But here in Champaign Urbana, high school aged kids have the unique opportunity to learn and perform the music of black Americans, and the woman in charge has spent her career elevating the art form.

So here's a week in the life of black chorus camp at Illinois Summer Youth Music How are you this morning?

Really good, or just a little good kind of tired.

Okay, well, this thing you will wake you up.

Remember, breathing is your friend.

Remember this piece talks about the decision you make.

Okay, I will do something regardless of the circumstance, the happenstance, the situation I choose to rejoice.

Yes.

Black chorus at Illinois Summer Youth Music was designed and developed in 2017 decades ago, I had a colleague who was then the director of an office in the school of music that was called continuing education and public service.

He said you should start a gospel choir doing Illinois summer youth music.

And I thought, well, I don't want to do a gospel choir.

That's just one expression of choral music.

I would like to do something that's sort of like what I do with the black chorus, which is the full range of repertoire we do, the music, the methodology and the messages from the black experience.

And that's why it's called Black course, it's not the demographic.

It's not the students who are necessarily there, although I've been really pleased to attract African American students to come.

But along with other cultural expressions as well, the idea for black chorus at isym was to welcome the students of Champaign, Urbana, Rantoul, Decatur and Danville, Illinois is very top heavy when it comes to state recruiting.

We recruit a lot from our northern suburb schools, and so we wanted the opportunity to serve the schools of our community.

That was a lot of the idea that you're welcome here.

Campus belongs to you.

I've wanted to do this ever since I was like 10.

I've been coming to almost every annual concert, and I used to watch them, and I was like, Oh my gosh, I wish I could do that.

And I mean, here I am doing the camp, and it feels like a dream, yeah, 123, sing for will keep marching, Fighting till the victory is one better, better, better.

Better.

Come on.

I hear you keep believing.

Dr Davis uses our aural transmission form and the call and response and the imitation form of teaching and the students receive it.

I teach you the text, I teach you the tune or the melody, and I teach you the timing or the rhythm, and I can do that by word of mouth a lot quicker than if you're trying to struggle through reading the notation.

You just got a call and response kind of learning, which I think it really helps you to get the message of the thing that you're singing.

And it's instead of looking blankly at a page, let's just say you're singing out to the audience like a storyteller.

You know you're telling a story.

And so all of this helps to form a sense of community with all of the participants there.

No one is stronger than the other person, and they're leaning on each other.

They're learning to listen to one another sing.

Voice, okay, I need for that to just like, take off the rafters.

We have six days, and everyone's coming at a different level.

Some people have never been in choir before, Voice and Sing, sing all the way back there to the sound booth and singing it.

Self is very exposing.

I should say, you know you have to open your heart, you open your whole life, your intellect, your emotions, everything in order to be a good artist as a vocal artist and so but I think once they become familiar with the setting and with me, they trust me.

Dr Davis always lets them know that no one everyone is a front row singer, regardless where you're standing in the choir.

And so I think that kind of boosts their confidence and give them courage.

My first year I came here, I was a sophomore, I sang really, really quietly so no one could hear me.

And then she she heard me sing quietly.

She told me to sing louder, and then I sang louder.

I sang at pitches that I didn't even know I could reach, volumes I didn't even know I could reach.

And the techniques and strategies she's been teaching me to be more confident, more louder, more articulate when I sing, Oh, right.

Clap it up.

Love, clap it up.

Have a seat.

Remember, we're talking about delivering a story, right?

Not just notes, not just rhythms, not just a tune, but what a story.

There is not one musical genre in this country that did not have the aid or influence of African Americans, and that information is important to understand and digest.

This music, this music, this expression, created by black Americans.

It has served historically as a shelter.

You know, it's also served as a shield.

And I definitely believe that it's a soundtrack.

If you understand the history of it, you listen to the music, you can tell sociologically, oftentimes, what's going on.

There's a bit of history in there.

And I also believe that the music can build resilience and resistance.

We're not doing this music just because it's black music and black music is important.

Yes, those things are true, but it is our music.

It is not only black music, it is American music too, right?

We are just proving that both can coexist in the academic structure we want to keep teaching the coming generations about the music and to let them know that regardless of where they are, this music will serve them.

I think that they've come a long way, and that we're prepared for a good performance on tomorrow, a day in the life of black chorus of Illinois Summer Youth Music with Dr Ollie Watts Davis, a day in the life of black chorus with Dr Ollie Watts Davis is a day of having one of the best times of our lives, spending time with our family, away from Family, and not being judged If we mess up.

Whoa, (singing) When you know, if you think about it, we are absolutely surrounded by people who are quietly making major contributions to the quality of life in our communities every day.

Tinisha Spain recently had the opportunity to sit down with a woman who has been a powerful force for education and equality for more than 60 years.

Dr Jeanne Morris is living black history.

You may not know her by name, but she's been making big changes in central Illinois since the 60s.

Here's our conversation.

So let's start at when you first arrived in Bloomington.

Normal area was that 1966 Yes.

So tell us.

Tell me a little bit what that was like.

Well, of course, we came and had to find housing, and that was a difficult situation.

We hadn't been married that long, but it seemed like a nice place to be.

The neighborhoods look nice and children adaptable.

So we thought this would be fun.

Education was your passion.

You knew that when you were in school, what led you down that path?

What made you want to get involved in education?

My mother and tell us a little bit about her, because she's got an amazing story of her own.

Yes, well, she was a leader of education for Negroes in the south and particularly for the young children coming through.

She had gone to Avery Institute, which was the primary Quaker training school for teachers, African American teachers.

And as my brother and I, who were born in Mount Pleasant, grew older, we were sent to that school because we wanted to get the same kind of training that my mother had had, so she knew that that was important, and yeah, kind of was instilled in you.

What did your mom teach you about education?

What was it get it right?

What was it about that, that that I don't know, seemed like the right ticket or the right move or right opportunity.

But what was it about education that your mom instilled in you?

Well, it's what she's telling all the children, is that the more you learn, the better you are, because your whole being profits from what your education can bring you, you know, and so she said to us, when she said to her kids in school, learn this so you can read and you can read, you can read what you need to read.

And that legacy continues on, because there's a community center that's in your mother's honor.

The schoolroom where she taught is now a museum, so that legacy is still there.

Yes, all right, so here we are.

You've moved to Bloomington.

Your husband.

Tell us a little bit about him.

He was a mathematician or a professor of math.

Well, we we both went, because the older schools we go to historically black institutions.

I went to Spelman, which is the companion to Morehouse College, which is the male school.

My brother went to Morehouse, and so I followed and I went to Spelman.

He went to Hampton.

Now how, how long were you guys a couple before you you got married?

Were you dating a long time?

Did you date all the way through college?

No, we went, you know, we were, I live at Westminster, where we met at a place just like that, which was owned by the principal at a southern High School, and they owned this place in New Hampshire, and they would hire kids from the traditional legal college just to come up and work in the summer.

And we met up there.

And of course, I was a music major, and Charles had a beautiful voice, so we got together with music, you know, so we would go all to the town, singing and showing off.

He had a beautiful voice.

And so we I spent three summers up there, and I think he spent four.

It was great life.

Some of it was difficult, but we were happy that we worked together to accomplish most things, and we had two lovely children, and we worked to bring them up in good environments and see that they got the best.

So let's cut back to the 60s.

I read that you were instrumental in helping black students find off campus housing at a time where it was not readily available to black students.

Well, it wasn't even available on ISU campus.

Okay, so tell us a little bit about the history.

How you came to get involved.

Well, there were several people with whom we.

Connected that had the same feelings that we have.

And we bought houses with this group of friends from Bloomington, Illinois, white friends, and we rented two students, and I became kind of like the house mother, but you know, it was, it was a good feeling, because you had somebody that needed help, and you could give them help, and they were trying their best, because at the time that we did that black students couldn't stay on campus.

Oh, they couldn't stay on campus.

So if I'm a student in blooming, let's say I didn't live here.

I mean, you had to have housing somewhere interesting.

And it was very limited, very limited.

Wow.

And so doing that sort of group economics, you guys were able to put together some money buy houses.

And that is how black students began to find housing on campus.

And then housing.

Then, of course, Charles, being at the university, he worked on it from that point, so it opened up to so when you first got here, the civil rights movement was still kind of in its infancy.

Did you feel that?

Could you feel, you know, aside from the housing but just with your white co workers counterparts.

Did it feel like the civil rights movement was still hot, still brewing, still still trying, still trying, still trying, yes, because it was that way in the stores.

You know, you had to wait to get served.

But I felt that change was coming and you can't sometimes, some change has to be forced and some has to be tolerated until the time is right.

You played a big role in developing early childhood education.

Does that harken back to your mom and your days in South Carolina?

Or where did your inspiration come to work with the littlest students from the University of Illinois, where, where I went to, where we were in school over there, Lillian Katz and Bernard spodak, and the main leaders of early childhood education in the country were there, and they talked all about the hope of the world and young children and and it was something about having a hand in that influence that was going to shape future generations.

Yes, yes, yes.

What did that feel like?

Because I'm sure, at the time, it felt very different, like, I think of Ruby Bridges.

You know, that first day had to have been terrifying.

But now, when she looks back at pictures of herself, there's got to be an immense pride.

Wow, I did that.

I was part of that.

I was one of the first so do you have that same feeling where it was?

Were you scared then and proud now?

Or what were some of those feelings?

I don't know how else to say it.

That's very good, but I don't know that I was I don't know that I was frightened, except that I hoped that it worked and that I choose the right things to do to make it work.

Did you ever come home in the evenings and have discussions with your husband?

Of you know, not feeling enough, or maybe the fight was too big one day, or even in the in the face of how finding housing or helping students find housing, was there ever a time that the fight just seemed too big?

I'm sure, you know, I don't remember that we had any big explosions, but we decided, yeah, you know, this is going to be tough, but somebody's got to do it, and it has to be done.

And we can do this, you know.

And we decided what, what part I would play, and what part he would play.

And some, some, sometimes, mine work better than it just depends on the situation.

But, yeah, we struggle with that and but we, we found good ways to do it.

Let's talk about Dr.

Charles Morris, tell me some of your fondest memories of him.

Well, he was very quiet, but very demanding in many ways, and he could, he could sell you on an idea that you may not had, but he was very serious about life and about giving to the world some kind of all kinds of gifts that will make the world a better place.

And he did that.

He did that a lot when you think about education.

Question, and I, I don't want to make it sound like it's just a black or a white children issue, but when you guys were getting into this, did you see a disparity in the education that white students versus students of color were getting here?

Or did it matter?

Well, it mattered.

And in fact, it mattered all along, because one of the things that my mother would said they'd give, you know, the kids, and my mother was a rural school teacher, but they'd give the used books from the white kids to the black kids.

And she says she finally said to book distributor, how am I supposed to teach them to take care of books when the books that they get already damaged so badly you can hardly use them?

We're supposed to learn if I and she finally said, If I can't have new books for my students, I don't want any at all, because I can't teach them how to take care of books with the books that they get.

And so that that led to a change and and that's true of any anybody.

You don't give them dirty clothes to put on.

You get them clean and put them once like, you know, don't get them too dirty.

So that matters.

That matters.

That matters.

And so she caused a big change in that, that they don't bring me these books that I can't teach the kids how to take care of them because they're in such bad shape.

Bring me new books, and I will preserve them the best I can.

And she and all the teachers did, what does it make you feel like?

Or what do you think if I were to say you are black history?

What is that?

Well, who isn't, who isn't, history is what you have done.

It is not that you've done good.

They're gonna, they're gonna remember who done bad.

It's history, you know.

So who isn't all of us are part of history.

Well, how do you feel if I say you have influenced history?

Who hasn't Touche, who hasn't?

If I've been a positive influence, I'm happy.

And finally, let's head up to the Chicago area, where we'd like to introduce you to a sculptor who creates really eye popping pieces of art out of industrial materials with a little science and Math thrown in for good measure.

Meet Josh Garber.

You My name is Josh Garber.

I'm a sculptor, and I've been practicing in the studio for 35 years.

The beginnings of my art journey started when I was 12.

I started playing the flute, and I was very interested in jazz.

That led me to start taking pottery classes in high school.

I was fascinated by clay because of its immediacy and its way of documenting the imprint of touch, that clay sensibility has been with me ever since.

And I started using sewage pipe because I liked the linear quality and it echoed my coil pottery work.

What I was getting at was the the danger and the beauty of pollution, of of technology overwhelming us that brought me to Chicago.

I was intrigued by the industrial imprint that the city had and still has.

I found a studio right underneath the train tracks, and I hear the train.

And I've heard the train every few minutes while I'm working, I guess through osmosis, or just through being around it and hearing it all the time.

I. Started making this layered welded steel bar construction that echoes the pattern and the rhythm of the train tracks.

It wasn't just the El tracks I was attracted to.

I was also attracted to the large bolts and hex nuts that were sticking out of all the columns when I started doing my screw and Hex nut series, I wanted to really push the edges of what play is and what it meant to me.

In particular, I was thinking about making metal soft and sensual after a 30 year practice of doing public commissions and having shows in Chicago, New York and Canada, I just decided to go back to graduate school for art and Do my MFA.

And it was a very explosive experience, because I saw a completely different language of art that I wasn't aware of.

I studied this academic concept of nonsense.

There was a sense of real nakedness that I really was revealing some mysterious part of me that I hadn't seen before to be able to use those facilities was like a playpen for me.

It took me a while to synthesize these influences, but then I started carving these solid forms out of aluminum.

So in this particular piece, there's two forms that interlock in several different configurations.

The viewer gets to manipulate the piece, and a sense, becomes part of making the piece, the public work, to me, especially with the interactive tactile quality offers the community a greater connection to the artwork.

In other words, when they go by it, when they touch it, when they sit on it, they actually have a bit of ownership, which is very important to my public work.

It doesn't happen with all public work is all public work.

You know, sometimes you can't go near it.

It's not meant to be touched.

Right now, I'm just letting all these threads evolve the way they want to evolve.

I'm letting them breathe, and I think about the permanence of my pieces and what that means, as it outlives me.

I think that I want to leave something that is joyous, is stimulating and joyous and alive.

For more on any of our stories, you can visit our website at will.illinois.edu/prairiefire.

I'm Sarah Edwards.

Thanks for watching.

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