- [Narrator] Coming up on "One Detroit," we'll continue our special reports on caregiving by examining some of the important conversations that should take place with aging loved ones.

Plus, we'll preview the new PBS documentary series, "The American Revolution," and talk with the film's co-directors, Ken Burns and Sarah Botstein.

And we'll hear from Grammy award-winning actor and singer, Brandon Victor Dixon in advance of his Detroit performance.

It's all coming up next on "One Detroit."

- [Narrator] Across our Masco family of companies, our goal is to deliver better living possibilities and make positive changes in the neighborhoods where we live, work, and do business.

Masco, a Michigan company since 1929.

Support also provided by the Cynthia and Edsel Ford Fund for Journalism at Detroit PBS.

- [Narrator] The DTE Foundation is a proud sponsor of Detroit PBS.

Through our giving, we are committed to meeting the needs of the communities we serve statewide, to help ensure a bright and thriving future for all.

Learn more at dtefoundation.com.

- [Narrator] Nissan Foundation and viewers like you.

(upbeat music begins) - [Narrator] Just ahead on "One Detroit", we'll talk with filmmakers Ken Burns and Sarah Botstein about the importance of telling the story of the American Revolution in their new docuseries.

Plus we'll hear from Broadway star Brandon Victor Dixon about his creative process when telling stories through song.

But first up, we're continuing our special series of reports on caregiving, with a look at the sensitive but important conversations that need to take place between caregivers and their loved ones.

Among these are discussions about finances and legal documents.

"One Detroit" contributor, Marty Fischhoff, discussed these crucial issues with an attorney and a mother and daughter who are planning for the future.

(dramatic music begins) - [Marty] We're at the home of Judy Page.

She's 81 years old and lives in northwest Detroit.

Recently, she and her daughter Erica visited the Elder Law and Advocacy Center to prepare for Judy's future.

Why did you decide it was time to meet with the attorney and talk about your mom's future?

- Her older sister is a year, almost a year older.

Her and my cousins, her daughters, had sat down to talk about her final wishes probably about 10 years ago and had urged us to do the same.

And just, it's a not an easy subject to breach and so just had put it off for a while.

But I saw an email that invited the community to come and learn about estate planning, and wills and trusts, and the like.

And I signed up.

I figured it'd been time enough to put it off.

- Judy, what made you think it was the right time to do this?

- I wanted to leave my daughter the house, and it was trying to proceed with the workings, because I had a stroke and I was not retaining everything that I wanted to retain.

- So you wanted to set down a plan for the family so they would know your wishes for the future?

- Correct.

- [Marty] Erica set up a meeting with Antonia Harbin, an attorney at Elder Law Center, to address sometimes difficult issues.

Antonia first asked to speak to Judy by herself.

Were you surprised when the attorney asked you to leave the room?

- You know, I'm a little protective of her, so I was like, why do I have to leave?

You know, because we do everything together.

Antonia was very warm and welcoming.

So I was able to trust her and know that my mom was in good hands.

And I wanted the attorney to understand that these are her wishes and not mine.

- [Marty] Erica and her mom knew there were documents they needed to sign, but a will was not on their minds.

- Honestly, I hadn't thought about a will.

You think that when you're wealthy, that's when you think about a will.

But talking with Antonia, we realized that yeah, it actually is important.

It really is not, it's more about what happens with the assets that you do have after your demise, 'cause you're dealing with so much when you lose the loved one.

So just one less thing to worry about, and I'm glad we did it.

- [Marty] A recent survey by the University of Michigan Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation found that most Michiganders 50 years and older have not taken the necessary steps to prepare for their long-term needs.

Only 25% have designated a durable power of attorney for medical care, and only 24% have identified the people in their lives to serve as their caregivers.

Even among those age 65 and up, only 37% have signed durable power of attorney.

The survey also found that 39% of those 65 and older said they had not talked with family, friends, healthcare providers, or anyone else about their options and wishes for long-term care and caregiving.

That is the kind of planning for the future that Elder Law and Advocacy Center helps clients with, and they discuss the necessary paperwork to make sure those plans are carried out.

Antonia Harbin, Judy Page's attorney at the center explains.

- The Elder Law and Advocacy Center is a division of Neighborhood Legal Services Michigan.

And we do a lot of different type of work there.

We provide free legal services for those who are 60 and older, who live in Wayne County, and their caregivers.

And we do all types of legal services, landlord tenant, probate, we do elder abuse prevention.

We also do life planning, and we help with kinship caregiving, as well as other caregiving.

Those are just to name a few.

And outside of that, I really wanted to tell you about our first Tuesday workshop that's been going on for many years now, and it gives those who are 60 and older the opportunity to get their life planning documents done for free.

- [Marty] The workshops are held by Zoom and by conference call, If clients want to proceed, they fill out forms and then meet with an attorney one-on-one.

When would you say people should start thinking about these life planning documents?

- Well, really 18 years of age or older, but that rarely happens, just because people may not be prepared to have those conversations.

But I would say those conversations should be more immediate because you never know if something will happen or kind of can happen.

So just having them as soon as possible.

- [Marty] There are generally two primary documents that need to be executed.

The financial durable power of attorney gives a designated individual the authority to manage bank accounts, retirement funds, and other assets.

The durable power of attorney for healthcare specifies the kind of treatment a person wants if they are incapacitated, and designates an individual to make decisions according to those stated wishes.

- With the life planning documents, we often say those documents are even more important than those after death, because they control while you're living.

They help you to continue your decision making as you're living.

If something happens, you become incapacitated, unable to give your preferences, give your thoughts about certain things, then someone you've trusted can actually step into your shoes and make those decisions for you.

- [Marty] Antonia says dealing with older adults is something that gives her great satisfaction.

- Really being able to talk to older adults about what their situations are.

They have so much wisdom.

So I enjoy every moment, every time we get to meet, talk.

It's just, it's a great joy for me.

- [Marty] Completing the paperwork, knowing that her wishes will be carried out when the time comes, brought peace to Judy and her daughter.

Now that all the paperwork is signed, sealed, and delivered, how does it make you feel knowing that that's all in place?

- It's comforting that it is all in place and I don't have to worry about it.

And I was glad that it didn't really cost me anything because it was free of charge.

- A burden lifted for sure, because like I said, it nagged me for quite a while to get it done.

And it just, you know, sometimes we make up things in our head like it's just gonna, I don't wanna breach this conversation.

I don't, you know what I mean?

But it's a burden lifted.

But then on the other hand, it also is a kind of a nudge for me to get my own paperwork done, which is a whole nother story.

Now I gotta have the conversation with my children.

- I, at first, was apprehensive, and I'm glad I did it and it was all out of the way now, and I can relax.

- [Narrator] "The American Revolution" is the title of filmmaker Ken Burns' newest documentary, which premieres on Detroit PBS on Sunday, November 16th at 8:00 PM The six part series examines the country's founding struggle and its eight year war for Independence.

Here's a preview followed by an excerpt of "One Detroit" contributor, Stephen Henderson's conversation with Burns and co-director Sarah Botstein.

(intense music begins) - Nothing like the Revolutionary War had been fought.

It's a radical idea (intense music continues) - Ordinary Americans won the war.

I don't think you can be patriotic enough about them.

- [Narrator] Everyone's convinced the virtue of the cause is helping them win.

(intense music continues) - Why tell this story now?

What's the reason, in 2025, that we need to be reminded of where all this started?

I mean, we are coming up on the 250th anniversary of it next year, but what's the power that this story still has for us as Americans?

- Well, first of all, there's no now for either the American Revolution, except when it happened, or for us, because we decided to do this 10 years ago, in December of 2015 when, just in terms of your question about now, Barack Obama had 13 months to go in his presidency.

- It seems like forever ago, right?

- So lots of stuff happens.

And it's not unusual for us to have films.

The National Park film, the film on the Vietnam War all took 10 years or more to make.

So our idea is to tackle a big subject that's important.

Certainly there could be nothing more important than our origin story, how we came about.

- [Stephen] Yeah.

- Particularly since it's so encrusted with the barnacles of sentimentality, and nostalgia, and mythology, and kind of superficiality.

So there's always just a good reason that the revolution could compel us to pay better attention to it than we have.

And then I also think there's a discipline that we as filmmakers have to have to not play to the moment.

So when we began this, no one was talking about a semi-quincentennial.

Several years in, I sort of said to Sarah, "Wow, you know, if we hit all our marks, we could be ready by the spring of 25, which would be the 250th anniversary of Lexington and Concord."

And she's going, "We're not gonna make that.

It'll be the fall."

Which is what it is.

And then people would say, "Oh, you're so smart.

You timed this for the semi-quincentennial."

We didn't.

It's really important that we be umpires calling balls and strikes, that we tell the story of the American Revolution, and be aware of the fact that in 2015, 2017, 2019, the rhymes of history, as Mark Twain said, will play differently.

There's a wife of a German general who's anxious as she makes the Atlantic crossing with her three small girls that Americans eat cats.

Now, if the film had come out last fall?

- That would've had a different context.

- That would've had different kind of things.

And you have to just be super disciplined and say, look, a strike is a strike, a ball's a ball.

This is what we're gonna do.

It's gonna rhyme whatever it's gonna be.

Having said that, I think it's really important that when somebody's having a difficult time, really struggling with themselves, as our country is right now, collectively, One of the best things you can do is to see a professional who will first ascertain where you came from, where did you begin, who are your parents?

What was your early life like?

And so by answering those questions, you begin a process of healing.

And I think it's true for individuals, I know it's true for individuals.

I think it's also true for countries.

And so we have no purpose.

We didn't in any way edit to that idea.

It's something that came to us as we've spent the last eight or nine months touring the country, seeing the response in every different kind of crowd.

We say the exact same thing everywhere.

Whether I'm talking to Joe Rogan, or Theo Von, or you, whether we're in Detroit, or we're in Houston, or Dallas, whether we're in San Francisco or Boston, people who seemingly have some skin in the game of the revolution, on the Eastern Sea Board, are often not as attuned to the revolutionary spirit, if that's what we're trying to invoke, as people elsewhere.

So this is our origin story.

This is how we came into being, and it's normally been smothered with a kind of mythology.

And what we spent the last nearly 10 years doing is trying to just take off that mythology and try to see it with kind of clear eyes.

- Yeah, yeah, Sarah?

- What keeps us up at night, actually, over the course of those many years is to get the story right, as Ken was just saying, and to tell good history, and tell good stories.

And over the course of making the film, the ways that the film and the history intersect with the current moment or what's happening to our country, evolve and change.

And so the thing we wanna do is make a film that stands the test actually of the moment, sort of the opposite.

- Yeah, it also strikes me that, as I was watching it, the level of, again, attention to detail, and specifics, and the storytelling that gets into motivations, and things that we don't always understand about our history stands in real contrast to lots of the other ways that we ingest information right now.

Right?

You're competing, in some ways, with a shorthand that has become dominant in the way we talk to each other.

And I wonder how that plays in your minds as you're doing this, that everything around you is so different now.

- Yeah, it's not everything, and we're not in competition.

- Okay.

But for people's attention, you are.

- Well, and I would argue with that, too.

I've been told all my professional life that no one's gonna watch this long form thing on the Civil War because there are these MTV videos, and no one's gonna watch baseball for the same reason, or jazz for the same reason.

But they did.

The Civil War's still the highest rated program in the history of public broadcasting.

- Yeah.

- They started switching away from MTV videos to YouTube, little videos, cats playing with balls of yarn, people's attention spans.

They worried about people's attention spans when the telegraph was invented in the 1850s.

So all of these are not new situations.

So that's where I challenge the idea of competition.

- [Stephen] Okay.

- Is the hare really in competition with the turtle?

Hare doesn't think so, the turtle doesn't know it's not, but it's often that the turtle finishes ahead of the hare who kind of gets tired and lies down and goes to sleep.

So what we do know is that that kind of chatter has stopped for most people for the last 10 plus years.

Nobody's asked us that question, "Nobody's gonna watch this."

Because in fact, what do people do when faced with the tsunami of information and the gazillion choices they have is they self curate and they binge.

And I have children who spend a weekend spending more time on one thing than any of my films last.

And these are people who are supposed to be lost to their devices and to whatever it is.

And so you're finding a kind of self curation that is tilting towards length, duration, and meaning, which is what we've always done.

So these proud tortoises are still lumbering along in our stories.

But all real meaning accrues in duration.

All real meaning.

- [Narrator] And you can see the full interview on OneDetroitPBS.org.

You can watch "The American Revolution" docuseries on six consecutive nights beginning Sunday, November 16th at 8:00 PM.

Let's turn now to Cabaret 313's upcoming show, featuring Grammy award winning actor and singer, and acclaimed Broadway producer Brandon Victor Dixon.

Known for his roles in "Hamilton," "Jesus Christ Superstar Live," and "The Color Purple," Dixon is bringing his vocal talents to Detroit on November 15th.

"One Detroit" contributor, Haley Taylor of 90.9 WRCJ, spoke with the Tony Award nominated performer about his creative process.

(dramatic music begins) - To get started, I wanna jump into your career on Broadway and on the stage.

I feel like you've played really dynamic characters, Aaron Burr, Judas, Harpo, Berry Gordy.

What is the process for tackling these characters, because they are such different men, both musically complex and morally complex?

- I mean, it really depends, but particularly for the individuals whom I portray who are real life people, really, it starts with research, just grounding myself in the things they had to say about themselves, and then the things that others had to say about them, and the context of the world in which they lived, they worked, and they made their impact.

That's primarily where I start.

When you talk about potentially the moral complications of any of the characters, I tend not to reckon with those things from an external point of view, I really try and deal with them from an internal point of view.

- And musically, I feel like these are very different characters as well.

Can you talk a little bit about the behind the scenes look of prepping for the musical side of tapping into these characters?

- Musically, it becomes about learning the material itself and then conditioning both my voice and conditioning my ear and my brain to the musical context into which they perform.

So finding their musical instincts, the kind of choices, the kind of improvisations that they would make, but primarily it's about technically conditioning my voice to that vocal style.

- Is there a role that affected you or maybe changed you the most?

Either as an artist or a person, a character that has kinda stayed with you?

- I think a number of them stay with me.

Judas stays with me a great deal, as does Haywood Patterson from Kander and Ebb's "The Scottsboro Boys."

I think because of the moral questions that, not necessarily the character, but the piece itself put forward for the audience, the moral questions about religion, community, revolution, zealotry, extremism.

So maybe those two stick with me the most, but they all stick with me.

- And then translating that to a cabaret stage, you get these big characters, these big storylines, obviously big musical numbers that are so attached to the long form story.

And then you're doing a cabaret performance with Cabaret 313.

It's more intimate, the audience is just a few feet away.

What changes for you in adapting from a Broadway stage with these big characters to a cabaret performance with people who are just right in front of you?

- In all honesty, not that much.

Because for me, art is storytelling and connection.

So whether I'm singing, or I'm dancing, or I'm acting, what I'm doing is I'm storytelling and I'm seeking to create a connection, a conduit between myself and the audience, whereby we can have an exchange and leave the environment different than when we came in.

We have learned something, we have reminded ourselves about something that we already knew, that we had forgotten to apply to our lives, and our friends, and our families, and our neighborhoods.

So that's what I'm doing when I'm on stage or when I'm on screen.

And it just becomes, I think maybe that much more intimate or more powerful when I'm present in a cabaret sitting.

- Not only are you a performer of the stage, of the screen, but you're also a producer as well.

How has working behind the scenes kinda shaped the way that you see theater as a whole?

- I think working behind the scenes has helped me to get a greater understanding of the ecosystem of theater as a whole.

I mean, we think of theater as one of the most collaborative mediums.

We talk about that a lot, particularly in kind of the internal artistic space.

But it really is true for the context of the whole, we're actors and singers on stage, but we have the creative team of directors, and stage managers, and costume builders, and set designers, and then they have teams of carpenters and electricians.

And there's just really a whole ecosystem of people that come together to make the piece.

- And speaking of that, what kind of stories do you want to bring to the stage as a producer into the future?

What are the stories that you're passionate about bringing to the public to have those conversations?

- I think the most important thing that art can do is raise our consciousness as human beings and connect us to each other on a deeper and greater level.

You know, art is the most powerful, exponentially powerful element that can bridge the gaps between communities.

Now, I wanna continue to bring stories forward to help break down the barriers between us as people, or at least break down the barriers we think exist between us as people, and help show the parallel relationships and emotional experiences and challenges that we all share, so that we can find ways to overcome these things together.

- For young artists who are in Detroit who are going to your performance at Cabaret 313, or are seeing this interview and are looking to follow a similar path to what you have successfully created for yourself, what advice would you give to those young artists who are looking to build a sustainable creative life?

- Well, I would say hold on to whatever you're picking up and you're soaking up in Detroit, because you all are the founts of creative, inspirational outpouring.

Detroit has created so many extraordinary artists.

So I would say hold onto that and continue to build infrastructure and community, because art begins on the ground and begins between the people who are around you.

Share your art with the people around you.

The most important thing about art is touching other people and growing your coalition.

Don't be afraid to start small and continue to work your way outwards.

- And then finally here, in closing, without giving too much away, what can audiences expect from Cabaret 313?

What kind of journey are you hoping to take Detroit on?

- They can expect some favorites, some favorites from the shows that I'm known for.

So you can get some of the things you're looking for, but then I'm definitely gonna bring you some new songs, some new arrangements, particularly off of my forthcoming album, which comes out in the spring.

So it'll be a mix of some of the familiar and then some new.

- I'm excited for it.

Brandon, thank you so much for joining us today.

- Thank you so much for having me.

- [Narrator] Brandon Victor Dixon will perform on November 15th at the Cube at the DSO Max M and Marjorie S Fisher Music Center.

That'll do it for this week's "One Detroit."

Thank you for watching.

Head to the "One Detroit" website for all the stories we're working on.

Follow us on social media and sign up for our newsletter.

- [Narrator] This program was made possible in part by Ralph C. Wilson Jr.

Foundation, Michigan Health Endowment Fund.

Across our Masco family of companies, our goal is to deliver better living possibilities and make positive changes in the neighborhoods where we live, work, and do business.

Masco, a Michigan company since 1929.

Support also provided by the Cynthia & Edsel Ford Fund for Journalism at Detroit PBS.

- [Narrator] The DTE Foundation is a proud sponsor of Detroit PBS.

Through our giving, we are committed to meeting the needs of the communities we serve statewide, to help ensure a bright and thriving future for all.

Learn more at dtefoundation.com.

- [Narrator] Nissan Foundation and viewers like you.

(dramatic music begins) (dramatic music continues) (whimsical chime swells)