- [Narrator] Mile Square Theater in Hoboken presents a new play about life in Hoboken written by Gabriel Diego Hernandez, who grew up there.

- "Quarter Rican" is a hip hop play about how we transmit identity to our children.

♪ Eyes open, keep your eyes open ♪ [bright music] - [Narrator] For years, Philemona Williamson didn't talk about her unusual New York upbringing.

But in the new work she's creating in her East Orange studio, she's finally opening up.

- [Philemona] To be an artist, you have to show your vulnerability, and that's the scariest thing to do.

[uptempo orchestral music] - [Narrator] And the Princeton Symphony premieres "The Seven Decisions of Gandhi", a concerto by violinist and composer William Harvey.

- It's a beautiful way to promote Ghandian ideas because music's a universal language.

- [Narrator] "State of the Arts", going on location with New Jersey's most creative people.

- [Announcer] The New Jersey State Council on the Arts, encouraging excellence and engagement in the arts since 1966, is proud to co-produce "State of the Arts" with Stockton University.

Additional support is provided by the Pheasant Hill Foundation, the Work Foundation on behalf of Phillip E. Lian and Joan L. Mueller.

And these friends of "State of the Arts".

[bright orchestral music] - I have always found Gandhi incredibly inspiring.

I was reading Gandhi's autobiography and he goes into the fact that he bought a violin and tried to study violin for six months while he was living in London.

And that blew my mind.

And it got me thinking about how the decisions that we make define who we are.

Because what if Gandhi had decided, "I really like this violin stuff, I'm gonna really go for it".

Who knows when India would've become independent or how it would've become independent?

- [Narrator] In March 2023, composer and violinist, William Harvey, premiered his new concerto, "The Seven Decisions of Gandhi" with the Princeton Symphony Orchestra.

- By September 2017, I had been invited to be guest concert master of the best orchestra in Africa, in Durban, South Africa.

And during that time, I got to meet Ela Gandhi.

- [Narrator] Ela Gandhi is a prominent South African peace activist, politician, and the granddaughter of Mahatma Gandhi.

- [William] I asked her, "Can you tell me more about how your grandfather thought he wanted to be a violinist?"

And so she talked about that.

- For me, it was a lovely experience to meet him and to listen to his ideas and about music itself.

I think musicians are generally very sensitive.

- And I asked her, "Would it be okay if someone writes a violin concerto inspired by your grandfather's life?"

[soothing violin ballad] She gave permission provided that I included in the piece two of his favorite hymns.

- These two bhajans, my grandfather loved them.

So one is "Raghupati" and the other is "Vaishnava Janato".

And the one is a chant, but it has good meaning because it also refers to all religions the unity of all religions.

But "Vaishnava Janato" talks about what is the quality of a good person?

- Sure, there's two very famous bhajans that I think all Indians know.

They were immortalized by Gandhi Ji's affection for them.

[both singing in foreign language] [moving violin concerto music] [moving violin concerto music continues] - [Narrator] William has worked in Argentina, Mexico, and Afghanistan.

There, he taught music for four years at the National Institute of Music in Kabul and immersed himself in the country's music.

Afghan music is based on Indian ragas and rhythms.

[performer chanting] It was a transformative experience that has deeply affected his work.

[instructor speaking in foreign language] - He is someone who has studied Indian classical music, understands how the systems work.

And for a piece that's designed as a beautiful collaboration between Indian classical and the Western classical music.

[dramatic uptempo orchestral music] - I became aware of these wonderful biographies by Ramachandra Guha.

And so I thought, "Well seven is kind of a magical number, and I'll read through both books and pick exactly seven decisions that made Gandhi the global nonviolence icon beloved today."

- [Narrator] The first movement deals with Gandhi's decision at 18 to sail to England in defiance of his community elders.

Another, was when he sold his violin.

- Gandhi, when he was in London to study, thought he would be an English gentleman and studied violin and then decided, "You know what, this isn't for me."

So, he did sell the violin.

[spirited violin music] The third movement Phoenix is about his decision in South Africa to build an ashram.

- He decided immediately, "I'm giving up my beautiful house in Durban, in the city, and I'm going to go and live on a farm."

And he approached his friends and asked them if they would like to join him in this experiment of communal living, of simple living, and of self-sufficiency.

[moving violin music] - [William] So in that movement, you hear a Christian hymn, you hear a Hindu hymn, you hear an imitation of the Muslim call to prayer, an imitation of the Jewish sofar.

And all blended together.

- [Narrator] Other movements depict his first call for civil disobedience in 1906 and later his decision to wear homespun cloth, leading to a boycott of English textiles.

- [Narrator] Thus began the Khadi or Homespun movement.

- The seventh movement is the "Salt March".

- The "Salt March" is the most significant event in the life of Gandhi Ji.

And the reason is because there was a tax on salt.

And so he chose this particular issue to mobilize the people that, "Let's protest against this and we will march and go to the seashore and make our own salt."

- And we do hear at the very end of the movement what appears to be a triumphant climax, marred with a dissonant chord.

And then, this sort of ethereal, quiet ending that quotes from one of the hymns, "raghupati raghav raja ram", and then the violin ascends very slowly and quietly upward to represent his soul after being assassinated.

[intense orchestral music] [intense orchestral music continues] I constantly struggle to find my own sense of purpose and motivation in life, particularly in light of the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan on August 15th, 2021, because for 10 years before that, my proudest achievement and the highlight of my life was the four years that I spent teaching violin in Afghanistan, a life commitment and achievement that are very much in line with Gandhi's ideas about how nonviolence and truth and love always win out in the end.

I would like to ask Gandhi his advice about Afghanistan.

[moving violin music] I'm not sure I have an answer.

I just know that music is the language with which I search for that answer.

[audience applauds] [gentle violin music] - [Narrator] Later on the show, a new play about a Puerto Rican dad in Hoboken.

But first, the dreamlike figurative paintings of Philemona Williamson.

[soft inspirational music] - To be an artist, you have to show your vulnerability and that's the scariest thing to do.

And I think that was part of me sort of hiding my past.

It was a very small group of people that knew what that life was.

The kind of drama that's not wrapped up at the end.

I grew up in Manhattan at a very fancy building called River House, 435 East 52nd Street.

And I was there because my parents were the domestics for a very wealthy Greek family.

We lived in the servants quarters.

I didn't have any toys, but in those rooms, we would make up stories.

And I remember playing with pencils.

And pencils became dolls.

When I was growing up, I really didn't think of myself as separate.

I knew there were little differences, but they did not seem so vast.

The daughters, they named me and they taught me how to walk.

The only time I felt different was, one time I had to leave New York and we had to live in South Carolina with my grandma because she was ill and my mother was taking care of her.

And I went to an all Black school.

And that was the first time I'd ever been in a school where all of the students were Black.

And that was the most time I felt different because they kept saying I was different, that I spoke funny.

After high school, I really didn't talk about it because I became aware of what the early years of my life were like.

What do I think?

I think that's much better.

No idea what that is, but it's better.

The two figures on the right are sort of challenging each other in terms of what their identity is going to be.

Are they girls playing as boys?

Are they boys playing as girls?

- [Interviewer] Why do you like ambiguity?

- Because life is like that.

[gentle inspirational music] I think every Black experience is very particular to that person.

I don't think there's one way of being Black.

I can be with these Greek white girls and I can also be with my relatives in the deep south on a farm.

I can be with my friends who lives across the street from Riverhouse.

And I can be with my cousins who lived in Harlem.

Bennington College, 1969.

Color field painting was king.

But I was drawn to figurative painting because I wanted to tell stories.

So I was on the outside of the castle, way down the stream on the other side of town.

Bennington reflected what the larger art world was looking at.

Since I didn't expect to have any place anyway, it sort of freed me to sort of do whatever I wanted to do.

There were a lot of other venues that were happening in the city at that time.

There were shows in clubs and disco.

Very odd, very alternative spaces.

I decided, you know what?

"If I am gonna devote my life to it, why don't I tell stories about my life, things that I really feel are important and I wanna get out?"

[birds chirping] I think that the environment is totally different from when I finished art school.

The Black students at the time, we formed a little union because it was the most Black students that Bennington had ever had.

I think there were 12 of us.

There's much more recognition.

People are looking at work by Black artists.

We're in more museums.

[camera clicking] There's a big awakening.

I talk about my childhood now very freely.

That happened.

Now it's just part of my history.

I enjoyed that time in my life and I like to recreate it and sort of change it around.

Not illustrate it, but talk about it again.

See what happens if I bring it into my life now.

It gives the figures a history.

[bright music] [bright music continues] [bright music continues] Painting is not dead!

Painting lives!

I like sort of thinking about it because in a way, I'm reliving all of that youthfulness and energy and hopefulness every day that I come into the studio.

In my work, that's what I do.

I don't see the boundaries of race, class, gender as boundaries.

I see them as malleable and things don't always go together.

But that is just my life.

This is the only place where I am in complete control.

This is the one place where I come first.

I made my figures right up front because you can't ignore me, because I'm right there staring at you, almost jumping out at you.

Someone asked me, "Well, are they ever gonna grow up?"

And my answer to that would be, "Why would they grow up?"

People love to talk about the whole Peter Pan thing.

Well maybe I'm thinking of that.

There isn't an upside to growing up.

They become wiser, but they will always have the exuberance of youth and the hopefulness of youth and the curiosity that youth brings.

And hopefully I will also have that.

And that's what keeps me painting.

That's what keeps me painting.

[bright music continues] [bright music continues] - [Announcer] Last on the show, a new play at Miles Square Theater.

It's called "Quarter Rican".

[soothing beat music] - [Narrator] How does an artist connect with their roots when their hometown is forever changing?

In Hoboken, a playwright and after created a hip-hop musical that explores identity and parenthood in a city very different from the one he grew up in, in the 1980s.

- It was a really tough time for Hoboken.

8,000 Puerto Ricans left across like half decade.

Definitely not as Latinx as it once was.

When I'm out in the world and I say that I'm from Hoboken, almost everyone is surprised.

Hoboken leads with its gentrification history.

My parents were gentrifiers.

My parents moved to Hoboken in 1980 from the Lower East Side.

And that's how it works.

Only one class of people gets to choose where they live.

[Gabriel rapping] "Quarter Rican" is a hip hop play about how we transmit identity to our children.

You thought my towel was a girl 'cause the color is blanket.

Who gets to claim what cultures?

Who gets to live where it specifically centers around this father named Danny, who finds himself in a playground and he is stewing in all of these questions of identity, trying to figure out if the 25% Puerto Rican that his kid is, is enough.

Is that enough Puerto Ricaness to claim it?

And then the flip side of that is the halfie that he is, is the 50% Puerto Rican is that that Danny is.

Is that gonna be enough to adequately teach it?

- His name is Adrian or Adriane.

- Parenthood is both very wonderful and very complicated.

Everyone who says it's the hardest thing you'll ever do, I think is right.

My co-writer, who is the creator of the piece and who wrote the book as well, is also my husband Gabe Hernandez.

We have two kids together.

Elias is five and a half and Nico is almost two.

- My father is from the island.

My dad's Puerto Rican is not an open question, right?

Like my dad's Puerto Rican is very clear.

And then I come along and I'm like mixed up, right?

Like my dad happened to fall in love with an Ashkenazi Jewish lady from Rhode Island.

Looking at this baby, who's 75% white and will be seen as white and will in all likelihood identify as white.

Kinda reckoning with the fact that there's a piece of myself that my kid might not ever understand.

Not quite.

And it's an important piece.

[Gabriel rapping] - [Narrator] In March 2023, Gabriel Diego Hernandez premiered "Quarter Rican" at the Mile Square Theater in Hoboken.

Named after the city's mile square footprint, The theater has been a cornerstone for arts and culture in the city since 2003.

- My vision for Mile Square Theater is that we are making brand new plays, world premier plays, for the people of Hoboken.

I want to focus on local playwrights who are saying something both about Hoboken and the society at large.

A playwright like Gabriel Diego Hernandez, this would be a great opportunity to give him a platform in his hometown, to talk about what it's like to have been here and to be raising kids here.

- I wrote this show about place and claiming things and communities and I have to share it like in this theater, right in my hometown.

It's almost like too good to be true.

- Someone's pretty far from home.

What business do you have here on the wrong side of the tracks?

- No business of yours.

- Oh.

[laughs] - Gabriel has been working on it and developing it with Pregones/PRTT, the Puerto Rican Traveling Theater.

And we are co-producing this world premier production with Pregones.

The whole production is directed by the great Jorge B. Merced.

So I reached out to them and said, "We'd love to do the world premier with you.

We'd love to co-produce it.

Start it off in our space.

It'll be just the second leg of a world premier production at your space."

- Like a week after- - Immediately we were like... We were definitely collaborating with Mile Square Theater.

We were kindred spirits who understood why we do art, and why art is essential, and why the theater that we do has a role in our communities to really question who we are in society and to try to inspire us to be a little bit more than what we think we are.

- I haven't done much talking to other grownups this week.

- The play takes place in a park in Hoboken.

His son is playing on the playground and he's talking to another parent.

[DJ humming] - [Narrator] The Danny character is joined on stage by his musical alter egos, the beatboxing DJ Quenepa.

- Now what on God's green earth is going on.

- [Narrator] And the acerbic rapper and commentator, MC Platano.

- So "Quarter Rican" was a solo show for much of its early development.

We really expanded the field and in particular the character of MC Platano... MC Platano talks to the audience and offers commentary ♪ New Jersey, now Washington Park's on the border ♪ - About a month before we we're getting ready to share the piece, Jorge is like, "Hey, I think MC Platano needs to be speaking in hip hop."

There was a tiny bit of rap in the show at that point, but not very much.

I was like, "Ooh, good idea."

"But we have like three and a half weeks."

So then I was like all right Rachel, "You're up."

[laughs] - So my background is in musical performance, rather than theater.

When we first moved to New York many years ago now, I used to gig around and perform my own music.

Gabe was my accompanist.

So we were a tag team in that way.

[upbeat cultural music] and I wrote "Balada de Pablo" in the car, recorded it on a voice memo, sent it to him and he was like, "Great, done."

- Gabriel is a first time playwright, but has been around plays his entire life and career.

He is not afraid to push the boundaries of what a play is.

- When Hoboken was on fire, 8,000 Puerto Ricans fled and a bunch of them came here.

I'm allowed to move here too.

- I think Hoboken, it straddles many worlds.

It's not just sort of the gateway to New York for Jersey residents and vice versa.

It's also straddling a lot of socioeconomic differences and racial differences.

Hoboken's racial makeup has changed a lot and is still changing a lot.

And I think that's a huge part of what makes Hoboken special, but also what makes Hoboken complex.

- This is a piece that he just wants people to enjoy.

The fact that he has this play, and it's not only about identity, it's also about parenthood.

I think it's just perfect for the community.

- A lot of the things that who we are, how we stand, how we talk, the things that we like, they are so informed by the role that family plays in our upbringing.

And this show is really about that.

- As long as we raise a good boy, who becomes a good man- - What began very much as a exercise and like memoir, free writing, ultimately became kind of like this love letter to my kid.

[audience cheering] It's like a show about family.

[mellow beats music] - [Announcer] Watch or share any of our stories online at StateoftheArtsNJ.com.

- [Announcer] While you're there, let us know what you're thinking.

We'd love to hear from you.

Thanks for watching.

[bright calming music] [bright calming music continues] [bright calming music continues] [bright calming music continues] [guitar strums]