(bright music) - Will you consider this?

It's an old-school, and I'm old-school, but it is reinvigorated, reimagined, and wonderful.

It's called ART Inc.

They have something special coming up, and Nikki Romain is one of its proprietors.

(Nikki chuckling) So thanks for being here, Nikki.

- Well, thanks for having me.

I love coming to talk to you.

- Oh, thanks.

(Nikki chuckling) Okay, let's talk about Nikki Romain.

You were born and raised - Yes.

- In Chicago?

- Well, that is a loaded question.

- Everywhere?

- Okay.

(Nikki laughing) - I was born in Chicago, but I was raised in Chicago, Dallas, and Atlanta.

- Okay, was your dad military?

- Nope.

(chuckles) - [Christine] You just moved around?

- Just moved around a lot, yeah.

So, my parents got divorced when I was two, and they were both from Chicago, but they were living in Atlanta.

- Okay.

- So then migrated back to Chicago with a divorce, then went back to live with one parent in Atlanta while the other one moved to Texas, and it was just kind of a, you know?

- You got to go everywhere.

- Yeah.

- Spend a lot of time.

So, you were exposed to a lot of different things.

- Yeah, I say I'm a Midwest girl with a Southern twist.

- I like that, I like that.

(Nikki laughing) - Yeah.

- So then your adult years, or your young adult years, was mostly Chicago?

- No.

(laughs) - Okay, all right.

- So I would say, yeah, in high school, Chicago, finished out there, actually finished out in Aurora, Illinois.

Left Chicago for my last few years of high school, and then I went to college at UNLV in Vegas, and I didn't finish there, I actually finished at Columbia.

(Christine laughing) I know.

I'm telling you, it's just in me to just move around.

I finished up at Columbia in Chicago, because it's a full integrated art school, very diverse, and I wasn't experiencing that diversity in UNLV.

And then once I did that, I started touring with a gospel choir.

I went to tour Northern Italy, it was pretty amazing, and then I moved to LA.

(Nikki chuckling) - Oh my goodness.

- To pursue my career as an actress, so yeah.

- Okay, so, quite the circuitous route.

- Yes.

- That's for sure.

And you did a lot of acting?

- Yes.

- So tell me a little bit about that.

- Oh, absolutely.

So I got the bug in high school.

My choir teacher asked me to come audition for a play, a musical, at that, and I was like, "Okay."

I thought musicals were pretty cheesy, but I went and did it anyway.

Well, she kind of forced me to do it.

(laughs) - Okay, what play was it?

What musical?

- It was "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat."

- And you were the narrator, aha.

- The narrator.

(laughs) - I can see that, yeah.

- Yes.

And when I stepped on stage, you know, you go through the rehearsal process, but when you step on stage, I was sold, that was it.

This is what I wanna do for the rest of my life.

Before that, I wanted to be an attorney, and then sing on the weekends with, like, Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston.

(Christine chuckling) That's kind of how I had it planned out.

Yeah, that was my plan.

And then I went on to, you know, to study musical theater in school, and it took me everywhere.

I've performed on stages in Miami, back in Chicago, LA, a bit of acting and singing, also, modeling and voiceover work.

- Yeah, yeah.

- Yeah.

- That's quite a background, and you're not that old.

- No.

(both chuckling) Not that old, yeah.

- You've done a lot.

And then you came to Peoria, I mean, well, first of all, you fell in love - Yes.

- Before you came to Peoria.

- Love brought me to Peoria.

- [Christine] Aha, all right.

- And that was the first time I'd ever...

I was very independent and I moved a lot, but it was always something, just me, like what I wanted to do, it was not based on anybody else's decision.

So this was the first time I moved and had to, like, consult with someone, and like, say, "Oh, okay, so we're gonna move here because you live here," you know, that kind of thing?

So it was a big change for me, for an independent woman.

(laughs) And it was a huge leap of faith, but my husband is absolutely amazing, and I wanted to follow him, like, let him lead, and so that's how I ended up here in Peoria.

It was a culture shock, because if you notice, all the cities I named are big cities.

So this was a smaller city, a smaller vibe, so it was a bit of a culture shock, and I was pregnant.

- With Kennedy.

- With Kennedy, yeah, when I moved here, so it was a shift.

- Right, well, then you didn't really know anybody, so you had to make all - I didn't know anyone.

- New friends.

- Only knew his mom, (laughs) and then we moved my mom here, so that was it.

(chuckles) - All right, well, that helped with taking care of Kennedy once she came into the world, yeah, good, but quite interestingly, you have managed to fit in and reach out, and network, and find people.

- Yeah, I- - Is that because of ART Inc.?

- I would say it's a combination, my nomadic upbringing, and also, always having to be the new girl in school, and things like that really helped me socialize.

So when I moved somewhere, and, you know, even though in the beginning, you know, I didn't know anyone, I went out and I met people.

I joined a little mommy group that I found online, (laughs) and so I started to get to know a lot of people.

And then I was introduced to an organization called Jack and Jill of America with a lot of like-minded families that are Black women, Black families, and that really grounded me in my family, and just having a like-minded community.

And then when we started ART Inc., it was just spreading the news of what we're doing.

I mean, I love what we're doing, and I'm the type of person where I become rooted, like, this is my home now, and so I wanna make it home, and I'm gonna meet people, and I'm gonna spread, you know, the activities that we're doing.

- Make it the best place to live.

- Yeah, exactly.

- Good for you.

- Mm-hmm.

- Well, a lot of people don't really know Art Inc. is, when they're driving down Jefferson, - Yeah.

- And there's the old school there, what school?

- Old Greeley school.

- Old Greeley School, yeah.

And it's got these wonderful murals and things on it, and I don't know how many solar panels on it, (Nikki laughing) but it's quite interesting of how you have converted that and made it work for a safe place for kids to explore and be after school.

So tell me, give me the details on... Give our audience the details on ART Inc. - Absolutely.

So as I mentioned, I'm an artist, a performing artist, and my husband is a visual artist, and so we wanted to give back to the community in a way that we know.

So we know that we are passionate about the arts, and we were both saved by the arts, and so there was a report that came out in 2015 or 2016, I can't remember what year, that placed Peoria the worst place for Black people, and we thought, what could we do?

Because that's not really our experience, - Right.

- But what could we do to help move the needle?

And that's when we thought of doing something like this, and then my husband ran into the Old Greeley School, and came home and said, "Hey, you wanna buy a school building?"

(both laughing) - Oh, I'm just thrilled about that, yeah, exactly.

- Right.

And of course, I'm crazy, so I'm like, "Yeah, let's do it."

(both laughing) And we had been talking about a nonprofit, and just, again, both of us being passionate about the arts, him being a visual artist and having an amazing story in his own right, we talked about different things that we wanted to do, and the vision for ART Inc. has changed.

Like, we initially thought it would be a building filled with artists, and then the artists would give back to the community by teaching, but it didn't turn into that.

It turned into, really, a really great afterschool program.

So we serve anywhere from, I would say, 80 to 115 students on an average daily.

That's our average daily attendance.

- And how do you get 'em there?

- Did you find some ways- - So parents drop them off sometimes, but we also pick up.

So we received a grant a few years ago to get a van, and we just received another grant, literally, my husband's picking up the van now.

- At the dealership right now?

Okay.

(laughs) - Yes, yes, picking up the van.

He's at the DMV right now.

- All right.

- Thanks to the Gilmore Foundation.

And so, we're able to pick up kids at several schools, because that was obviously a barrier.

And then we extended our hours, so we're open from 2:00 to 6:00 PM, serving kids.

We do, again, first grade all the way up to our kinda, like, 24-year-olds.

We have a youth leadership team, it's a paid internship program for teens, and they come in, they help the kids with their homework, and then they venture off and do various activities.

So they have different teams, like we have an administrative team, we have a janitorial team, marketing team, so the kids are learning all different of aspects - All of those.

- Of employment.

- Right.

- And we switch.

It's not just, you know, one team.

They switch around, and then they do their own programming.

So they have a teen summit where they discuss topics that are important to them, and then we bring in community leaders that are, you know, expertise in that particular area.

So like, gun violence, you know, mental health, bullying, all those types of things, so they pick those topics.

We've done public service announcements based around the Change That Narrative movement, all sorts of really cool projects that the teens help to create - Because they have their finger on the pulse of what's going on.

- Yes.

- And that's good for them, and for the up and coming kids, the first graders and up.

- Absolutely.

They're looking up to them.

They have financial literacy courses.

I mean, you name it, and right now, we're developing a program where, because what we realized is we need that pathway.

So now, we have them, and sometimes they stay with us, right?

But then they want a pathway to either college or careers, 'cause not everybody wants to go to college.

- Right.

- So we're working on really collaborating with businesses so that those kids can learn the skills.

- And at least be exposed.

- And be exposed, absolutely, yeah.

- That's quite interesting.

So do you still have, though, since it's kind of morphed into something different than you had imagined, - Yeah.

- Do you still have, like, the sewing room?

- Oh yeah.

- Okay, so, tell everybody about that.

- Well, the first through eighth graders, they really get into the thick of the arts.

So they come in, they get help with their homework, and they break off and do various arts activities from theater, sewing, we have a room that's like, has mannequin heads, and they can do hair, we have a ceramics room, we also have music that we do, we have guitars and things of that nature, and we also have local musicians come in and just kind of serenade our kids and expose them to different types of music.

I actually directed our first children's musical this year.

- I remember hearing about that.

I was out of town.

- And that was pretty awesome.

(Nikki chuckling) - Yeah, good.

- And then we did a Christmas play, too.

We did "The Grinch," and we'll be doing that again.

So the kids are really...

I love that we're bringing theater to ART Inc., obviously.

(Nikki chuckling) - Well, you have a great gymnasium stage area, so that's fun.

- Yeah, we do.

So yeah, the kids are getting exposed to all types of arts, of course, visual arts, so they're doing crafts.

They're also doing painting and drawing, and things of that nature as well.

- And you have some of the teen helpers, do they come and help with that?

Or is Jonathon doing that?

- Absolutely, mm-mm.

- Or who's teaching all those?

- So that's where the artists come in.

- Okay.

- So we have teaching artists that come in.

It just looked different, because we were talking about studio spaces, but we fill up every room in that building now.

- And how many rooms (Nikki chuckling) are there?

- There are a lot of rooms.

I can't remember exactly.

I would say we have about 15 to 20, and we're filling up every room with programming.

One room's like a full photography studio, and we have retired cat guy that comes in and does a photography class, then we have local artists that come in.

Sometimes an artist will come in and do a full program, but sometimes they might do a workshop, right?

Because they have other commitments.

- Right.

- So they might come in and do, like, a workshop on film, or they might do a workshop on painting and things of that nature, and then we have our steady teaching artists that are doing the sewing, and sometimes we even have cooking.

We've partnered with a lot of organizations, such as Peoria Grown.

They come in and help cook with our kids, and we've also partnered with other organizations to take art to their facilities, so like, Carver Center and Proctor, places where they're like, "That is not my lane, Nikki, can you come help us out?"

You know?

(chuckles) - Right, exactly.

- And then we also have our program inside of eight Peoria public school locations, as well.

- Are you surprised at how Peoria has embraced this whole idea?

- Absolutely.

I mean, from day one, it's just been overwhelmingly joyous.

Like, this community has just welcomed us with open arms, and it makes me wanna buckle down even more to provide the need that we're doing, because when the community welcomes you and you know you're fulfilling a need, you wanna do more.

- Yeah, yeah.

- So yeah, it's amazing.

- And a lot of people step up to the plate to help.

- Absolutely, including you.

(Nikki laughing) - Well, there we go.

So one thing that, if we get back to the sewing thing, 'cause this just really rattled my cage a little bit.

(Nikki chuckling) You make boys even get down - Oh yeah.

- By the sewing machines.

- Oh, yeah, and knitting.

Sometimes the boys even, like, my own daughter didn't like sewing.

She's like, "Eh," and the boys would come, they'd bring kids up to my office, and this one little kid, he comes in, he's bringing pajama pants, and he's making hats and pillows.

He loved it.

- Good for him.

- And we had a knitting group, and we were a little like, "Uh," 'cause it was a bunch of, like, older ladies, and you know, they had their way about them.

(Christine laughing) - The kids and those ladies bonded.

- Really?

- They're like, "When are those ladies coming back?"

- Is that right?

- Mm-hmm, yep.

- All right.

- It's been an amazing journey watching what you think the kids want, and then the kids saying, "No, actually, I like this," or, "I like that," it's amazing.

- I love that.

- Yeah.

- I love that.

What's the most surprising thing to you about the whole ART Inc. concept, and are you sharing that idea with other communities?

- Hmm, that's a good question.

So, what's amazing to me is our growth.

In six years, we've gone from just Jonathon and I to 15 full-time employees, and about 65 part-time.

That includes the teaching artists that are inside of the schools and things like that.

Never in a million years would I thought we'd grown like that - [Christine] In six years.

- In six years, yes.

In a mil, you know, like 10 years, 15, yes, I envisioned it, - Right.

- But not six.

And then, as far as your other question, that is something that we would love to do when we have more time.

(both laughing) - Yeah.

- To spread the news, because I really like the concept of revamping and revitalizing neighborhoods, and taking these old buildings that are in all of our communities across America, and turning them into something that is amazing and uplifting.

- Useful and exciting.

Yes, exactly.

- Yes.

So when we have a little time, we slow down a little bit, that is definitely, I would love to spread that news and share that concept of how someone in their own community could do that as well.

- Yeah, amazing.

Well, so you've done a lot of interesting things, and the play, and so, your daughter, Kennedy, is in fourth grade, you said?

- She is in fourth grade, yeah.

- And she is also interested in being a thespian?

(Nikki laughing) - Kennedy is interested in everything.

- Okay.

- It's funny, my program director says.

"If I ever have any kids that are doubting, like, 'Ooh, I don't know what to do,' Kennedy will be like, 'I wanna do everything,' and then all the other kids are like, 'Oh, okay, I'll try that too.'"

She wants to do dance, she wants to do theater, she wants to do music.

I push her towards the coding that we do and the mental math, because I'm like, "Okay, let's use the other side of that."

(Nikki laughing) - We have to be practical as well, right?

- Exactly.

So I push her towards that, and sometimes she'll resist, but once she gets into it, she really is just a sponge.

She wants to learn all the things.

Aside from ART Inc., she does ice skating as well.

- Okay.

- So she loves that, but yeah, that girl loves everything.

- Is she, well, Jonathon, I mean, he's a painter, and quite the artist.

Is she pretty good, too?

- So- - Did she get that gene?

- She is not exploring it as much as the performing side.

- Okay.

- But she'll say, "I'm gonna do art like Daddy, too," you know?

- Okay.

- So she's got that in her brain, yeah.

- She's thinking about it.

It's there, it's there.

- Yeah.

- So in the past, so for five years, to raise money for ART Inc., raise money and friends, - Yes.

- So fundraising and friendraising, - Yes.

- You have held Dia de los Muertos, - Yes.

- And we've talked about that, which is always the, well, it's celebrated south of the border - Yep.

- On November 2nd, right?

- So it is October 30th, 31st, and November 1st, or 31st, 1st, and the 2nd, something like that.

- Okay, all right.

- It's a three-day type.

- Celebration, yeah, but you're not doing Dia de los Muertos this year?

- No, last year.

- You're changing it up?

- That was our last year.

That was five years that we did Dia de los Muertos.

- [Christine] And a lot of fun.

- It was a lot of fun.

- But so this year, you're doing something called Harlem Renaissance.

- Yes, so the whole concept that we've shifted to is called Around the World with ART Inc., and then whatever cultural experience for that year, and this year is Harlem Renaissance.

- All right, well, so I looked it up, because, you know, I know that speakeasies were popular back in the day, you know, and a little bit of booze, a little bit of music (Nikki chuckling) kind of thing.

- Absolutely, yeah.

- But I had no idea just exactly how big they were to some of the performers like Cab Calloway, - Mm-hmm.

- And Louis Armstrong, and- - Ella Fitzgerald.

Also, the literature.

So, you know, you have Langston Hughes, you have so many artists, not just performing artists, but writers and artists, visual artists that will all come together in these spaces in New York and just vibe, and totally just created a movement of literature, music, and the arts.

- That's just crazy.

- Yeah.

- And that's something that we don't learn in the history books, - Yeah, exactly.

- That it was going on.

I mean, you knew, obviously, speakeasies, and you knew you had to get in, and there was gonna be illegal, because it was during prohibition.

- [Nikki] Exactly, yeah.

- But did you know much about it?

- Oh, yeah.

- Or is this something that you had to research?

- No, I knew about it just because when I was in college, I really delved into the history of my culture, and so I learned about the Harlem Renaissance then.

And I also love James Baldwin and Langston Hughes, of course, playwrights and things like that, so when you get interested in certain authors and certain arts, you delve deep, mm-hmm.

- Take you places, yeah.

- So it takes you on those journeys of where they started, you know?

- Just amazing, just amazing to me, and it was a melting pot, yes, for Black performers, - Mm-hmm.

- But also a lot of Caucasians - Oh yeah.

- Would frequent these, and they were exposed to jazz, and rhythm and blues.

- Yes.

Absolutely.

- And what a nice way to bring cultures together.

- Yeah, so the Cotton Club and the Savoy were like the places in New York, and one was like, all Black, and then the other one was very mixed, and it was a great celebration of Black music, jazz, and all these different arts that were exploding with this journey from the South to the North, you know?

- To the North.

- And it was like a liberation, and a way of Black people to just come into their own, right?

Because we had just migrated, and were free of all the things that we went through, and we were able to really just thrive and explore the arts.

- And expose other people to what was going on.

- Absolutely, yeah.

And so, that's one of the reasons why I picked it, because, you know, we are an arts and culture center, and I love educating people, like when we started Dia de los Muertos, so many people were educated on that culture, on that experience.

- [Christine] They had no idea.

- They had no idea.

- Until the movie "Coco" came out, probably.

- Exactly, yes.

(laughs) - And then you kicked it up another notch.

- Yeah.

And so, this is a way to shine a light on this era, and I love, you know I love getting dressed, right?

So we get to get dressed up, (Christine laughing) we're actually gonna have a Cab Calloway.

- Yeah, tell me about that.

- Cab Calloway will be coming.

We also will have a Josephine Baker.

We have a burlesque group coming in from Los Angeles.

- Oh.

- They actually, it's called the Brown Betties, and they have a whole dinner theater experience.

They're not bringing the whole thing, 'cause that would take up the whole night, - Right.

- But they're doing vignettes.

We'll also have Cynda Williams, who is an actress from the movie, "Mo Better Blues," which is based around Harlem Renaissance.

- Ah.

- So she sings this song called "Harlem Nights" in that movie, and she's singing that song at our event.

- Wow, and the event is when?

- It is October 19th, and it's at 6:00 PM, doors open at 6:00 PM, and it's going to be... so, you know our theater, - Mm-hmm.

- It has this ode to Black Hollywood.

It's gonna have that whole vibe.

You're gonna feel, you will be in the Harlem Renaissance.

- The Cotton Club.

(chuckles) - You'll be in the Savoy, you will be in the Cotton Club.

We might even make you say a secret word to get in.

(Nikki laughing) - Oh, that'd be fun.

- That would be fun.

- You're gonna have a little little box to, yeah.

- Maybe not that, (laughs) - Okay.

- But that whole vibe will just be thriving throughout the night.

Come dressed in your 1920s gear, right?

- So we're talking, oh, what, Charleston?

- Yeah, Charleston, yeah.

- Don't listen to me, I have to get my feet moving.

- Call and response, The whole Cab Callaway, you know, the cigar/cigarette girls - Oh wow, okay.

- And guys, but they won't really have cigars and cigarettes.

- No.

(Nikki laughing) - We'll also have our rooms, some of our rooms, our classrooms with some of our students, so they'll be reciting poetry from that era and things of that nature.

We'll have artwork from that era as well, and then of course, performances by, you know, a lot of the people that I just mentioned.

- What a fun evening.

- Oh yeah, it's gonna be loads of fun.

- What a fun evening.

Have you gotten a lot of good response so far with people you've presented this year?

- So we just opened up the tickets, but before, with sponsors and things like that, people are really excited.

Another thing that we're doing this year is we are not doing a live auction, we're not doing a silent auction.

I want you to come in and just experience this culture.

- To be in the speakeasy.

- Yeah, to be in the speakeasy.

- Yeah.

Well, and that's good.

Will you do the same thing next year?

Or you'll come up with - Absolutely.

- Something else?

- No, it'll be a different one.

- All right.

- So each year will be a different theme.

- Okay.

- So like, next year, it could be Bollywood, it could be, you know, a night in Italy, or just, you know, the sky's the limit.

We'll just be doing a cultural experience every year, - [Christine] Which is fun.

- Yeah.

- And so, do you work with a committee to come up with the idea?

- Absolutely.

- Or do you lose sleep over it?

(both laughing) That too?

- A little bit of both.

- Okay.

- So I typically, you know, I'm full of ideas, so I bring things up with the committee, and then we'll select something, but then I bring a committee together to help bring it to fruition, yeah.

- All right, right.

Well, you are an artist, and so you're right-brained, and so that stuff's always kind of bubbling in your mind.

- Oh yeah, like, this is so fun to me.

(laughs) I love culture, I love traveling, but I love to bring bits and pieces of where I've traveled or what I've read and bring it to life.

- All right, so what do you look most forward to for that evening?

- Oh gosh, there's so much, Chris.

Do I have to pick one?

(both laughing) Well, obviously, the costumes.

I wanna see what everybody's wearing, the performances, and then we also are doing awards that night, too.

- Oh - Yeah, so we're bringing a new thing.

Well, actually, we did awards for Dia de los Muertos as well, but we're doing two awards, and I'm really excited about those.

I'm just excited.

I'm just really excited to bring a cultural experience and to educate the community about this, yeah.

- Something new.

How many tickets will be available?

I mean, how many can you fit into the gym?

- Yep, so this one is gonna be a little smaller than the other ones.

We have room for 150.

- Really?

- So the tickets are now on sale, and I know they're gonna go quick.

You gotta get 'em quick, because it's not our typical 200, 250.

- So what's the website to go to to get that, or a call?

- Yep, so that would be artincpeoria.org.

We're also on Facebook, we have an event page on there, all of our social media, and then you can always give us a call.

309-7133-744.

- Okay, well, thanks, Nikki.

It sounds very exciting.

- Absolutely.

- Gotta dig out my long, white gloves - That's right.

- To go there.

- And your hat.

- Oh yeah, still have my hat, - All the things.

(chuckles) - And my fringe.

- Yeah.

(both laughing) - Okay, thanks so much for being here.

Thank you for joining us, - Thanks for having me.

- And should be a fun evening, Harlem Renaissance.

So again, thank you for being here.

Stay well, and see you next time.

(bright music)