Production of “Applause” on Ideastream Public Media is made possible by funding by Cuyahoga County residents through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture.

Coming up, a former Cleveland library is reborn as one man's art gallery.

Two brothers from Africa make a splash in Cincinnati.

And this ChamberFest Cleveland duo duels it out for the spotlight.

Hello, and welcome to “Applause,” my friends Im Ideastream Public Medias Kabir Bhatia.

Now, When I was a kid, I used to love to collect these.

These little price tag stickers off of record albums.

But that's not nearly as interesting as bringing new life into a historic library.

Darl Schaaff shares his eclectic collection in Clevelands Slavic Village, and there's a story behind every object inside the Darl Center for the Arts.

I'll tell you a quick story.

And that's the story of the tree, because I think the tree really epitomizes my life better than any other piece of art I have in here.

And the front side of the story is that the tree was designed by me and built by my company to be the centerpiece for a large corporate event.

The back side of the story is that one day I received a call from a friend of mine who said that he was going out of business.

He was retiring and he he said the magic words.

He said, do you want the stripper poles?

I said, yes, I do.

I had no interest in opening a museum.

If you'd have asked me five years ago, do you want to open a museum?

I would tell you.

You're out of your mind.

No.

I wanted to find a place for all of my art and then I bought this building.

Every person who walks into this room has the exact same reaction.

They all just stand here and smile for a minute.

It's just stunning.

This is an unusual place because it's both historically and architecturally important.

Historically, it's important because this is the oldest existing Andrew Carnegie library in Cleveland.

It was built in 1904, and it's architecturally important because it's one of the only ten sided buildings in the United States.

I took on the challenge and it was an amazing challenge.

I'll say that.

So when I walked into this building, I can tell you that first of all, it smelled horrible.

It had had ten years of pretty derelict water damage.

The roof had failed.

We took 153yd of trash out of the downstairs alone.

I talk a lot about the the love affair that I have with this building.

The building and I share, a really interesting path.

We both had great lives.

We both were glamorous and and important in our day.

Both of us hit a snag.

It stopped being a library, and I stopped working.

And then we discovered each other.

And this building has completely reinvented me.

And I have completely reinvented this building.

And the love affair doesn't change.

It just gets better.

This collection represents 60 years of my life.

There's a great big sign when you first walk in and it says, if you wanted to put on display what your life collected, what would that look like?

Because all of us collect things in our lives.

This collection.

And as you walk through and I tell stories, it's not in any sort of chronological order at all.

But it is the story of my life.

And it's the story of success.

It's a story of failure.

It's a story of tragedy.

But mostly it's the story of just sheer excitement and curiosity in a life really well lived, almost accidentally.

The dining set here, it's probably 120 150 years old, all hand-carved, extraordinarily heavy.

One of the big chairs weighs about 85 pounds, or somewhere around 42 kilos.

I had a woman from Europe here, and she was very impressed that I could do the math.

You know, I've traveled extensively.

I've been on every continent except Antarctica.

I've met the most amazing people.

I've met presidents I've met famous people.

I find every person I meet interesting.

Seriously.

And, And then they are like, these lions are carved out of styrofoam because I met a guy who carved styrofoam and.

He was trying to teach me, and I was terrible at it.

No doubt about it.

But he said to me, well, someday you're going to want to set up big lions for the front of your house or somewhere.

So he made those for me, and I've had them ever since.

And this is a really interesting piece.

This is on loan to me in Akron, Ohio.

There's a man by the name of Don Drumm Works in aluminum a lot.

Many, many, many people collect Don Drumm.

This was his Cleveland Institute of Art master's thesis piece that he did in 1954.

It's signed.

He's seen it.

He knows all about it.

And it was owned by someone who also did work at Cleveland, the School of Art, and he just ended up with it.

The 1969 I was a tribute to the Stonewall riots of 1969.

I was there in 1969 studying classical ballet in New York City when it happened.

25 years later, I was in New York as part of the celebration of 25 years of the Stonewall, and then 25 years after that, I went to the 50th celebration.

So I thought, how old am I?

Anyway, you are as old as you are.

Everything in this section was done by the same artist.

This gentleman right here, his name is Rick Lehman.

When Rick Lehman was 16 years old, he announced to his parents that he was gay.

And he got thrown out of the house.

Rick and I met on the street.

This was 1966.

And, we had the most amazing love affair that lasted until the 90s.

And, much of who I am is because of who he was.

And he called me one day and said, I have Aids.

And I immediately went down to take care of him.

The 12 pieces, the small pieces on that one column he made while I was taking care of him the last year of his life, and it's called “Just a Year.” He worked on it without my knowledge and what was presented to me after he died.

He had made all the arrangements to do that, and it represented the last year, but it was still full of color and movement and joy.

And that's just who he was.

People always say to me, you're a great storyteller.

And I say, you probably have great stories too.

You just don't tell them, well, that's what you need to work on.

Because the world wouldn't be as interesting as it is if we didn't have great stories.

And they, you know, they can't all belong to one person.

They have to belong to everybody.

So anyway, that's that's my life.

The Darl Center for the Arts is located inside the historic Carnegie Library building in Cleveland Slavic Village.

You can make an appointment to visit.

So the Darl Center brings international art to Cleveland.

In Cincinnati, a pair of African brothers bring their international flair to the Queen City's art scene.

However, these two siblings have two very different ways of expressing themselves.

My name is Romain Mayambi.

I'm a photographer.

My name is Gift Mayambi, and I'm an artist.

We moved from Congo, DRC to Zambia, and then from Zambia to Zimbabwe and then Zimbabwe to here.

So we spent a few years in those places and eventually came here in 2014.

When we got here, I really was looking for an outlet.

We're kind of in the house for a long time, and so I had no like materials to draw or do stuff.

So I've cut out like cardboards and like sketched on them.

My younger sister, actually, she got placed into art class and so I was trying to get into art class, but I didn't know how to do this.

I was practicing at home.

I started actually sketching my math teachers, English teacher, to get the art teacher's attention, and everybody kind of made a lot of noise in the school.

And so she finally I was in math and she came up to me, Miss Nu.

She's like, “hey, I saw your art.

It was really cool.

And I think youd do really great in art.” And that's how I got into art.

It was freshman year of college.

I remember being on campus.

I love people watching.

It was really exciting to see all these different people from different walks of life and like, seeing, like, these different styles that they had.

So I'm like, okay, I want to be able to like, freeze those moments.

And that's where I started, like falling in love with the idea of like, you know, picking up a camera and walking up to strangers and asking them if I could take a photo.

It came from like, a passion, so it doesn't feel like I'm forcing myself to learn these things.

YouTube University baby.

I did whatever I could to like, just learn as much as I can.

Which still going.

I don't think you ever reach a point where you're like, “I've learned it all.” My 9 to 5.

I'm an industrial designer.

Before I got into photography, I went to school for finance and I did a few jobs.

You know, being self-taught.

I think you kind of get the freedom to, like, explore and not have as many restrictions.

I feel like in our minds, sometimes we build barriers when we know everything about something.

The last one that we did, heritage, was the same way.

We had to like, pull inspiration from like our childhood where we grew up and like really get to tell our story.

I think in our African culture, it's like a shared culture.

Obviously the different countries may be different cities.

They all have their own traditions.

But I think in general, there are definitely similarities of things that we might have experienced in Zambia that somebody maybe in Botswana experienced, you know, so I think there is that kind of thing that connects Africa together.

And so we're trying to tap into that.

It's like in Cincinnati where people are like, this doesn't feel like Cincy issues, you know.

But and that's the goal, right?

To be able to share those stories and like inspire people who havent either like visited Africa before and also share the story and like the culture of like what we've experienced.

In 2025, National Geographic reaches out in wanting to feature this image.

So the mask was from Congo, but the the robe that was worn is from Senegal, which my best friend is from Senegal.

So I had him wear that and then the sandals or the babouche that what they call them originally from Morocco.

So it's like just different pieces and parts.

It's funny when I tell people like the photo from the Nigeria one, I was like, “oh, I took it in Voice of America Park.” People like, “Wait, what?

because people thought I went back home when it comes, our joint work is like our story.

Our journey, and then when it comes to personal, work its like trying to tell other people's stories.

A few brands that I have had the opportunity to work with Tabasco, the Cincinnati Chambers, Cincinnati Tennis, Cintrifuse, Starry, the Athletes in Unconventional Spaces.

This one is one that I started back in 2023.

The whole series is really to speak on how we all belong in spaces, right?

Because sometimes people are like, oh, you don't belong here.

You don't belong here.

But it's like really breaking that barrier.

The video game series I grew up playing Mortal Kombat.

I grew up watching action movies.

So this series was more of like paying homage to that.

I think my mediums are based off of affordability.

I mean, I get to touch a pen every day at least.

So I use a lot of pen Sharpies, and then I also do acrylic painting.

I kind of have a theme in my work, and it's a lot of masks.

It started from like, I think growing up in Zambia, my mom had this artist who we used to come in and he would like carve out masks in our backyard.

It's sort of like this metaphor of like the different faces people wear instead of showing somebody's real face.

I feel like I try to show masks to show what character that person is in that specific scenario that they're in.

I think growing up and moving around, I try to capture that not being like in one specific area.

That stability of being in a specific area, I feel like I try to tie it to like the scribble in my work.

It's like you're moving to different places and but still creating this holistic picture in a way.

It's like different routes that you take, but that creates this one unique picture.

I think we're our best hype men, and I sometimes we're like really honest and blunt about.

Yeah, because I'll send him something and then hes like, “Yeah... it's all right.” And then I'm like, “No, you can't say that!” But I feel like we also have a sense of like honesty.

I don't think we try to sugarcoat anything.

Yeah, I think that kind of keeps us growing as artists.

People always ask me to like, “Oh, like, what made you move to Cincinnati?” I'm like, “it could have been anywhere else.” But I think you always say everything happens for a reason.

And I think coming to Cincinnati allowed me to, like, pick up photography and everything I know now.

I learned through Cincinnati and I feel like, if it was a different state, I think it would have been a different story.

I think Cincinnati is known for art.

Right?

And I think a little bit of our personal experience, I think it's been very helpful with kind of like seeing how the art scene is still growing and continuously hope that it can grow.

It's just really nice to feel that we're part of that growth as well.

All right, listen, back in high school, I was always anticipating getting fun emails on my phone.

And I would show my friends, theyd go, “what is that?

What?

Are you from the future?

Where'd you get that thing?” Well, time has finally caught up to us, and I just got the award- winning Best Newsletter in Ohio.

The To-Do list.

You can check it out on your phone or on your laptop wherever you see emails.

There's all sorts of fun stuff in here.

Our list of five things to do each week.

All the latest arts and culture news, plus links to new episodes and content from “Applause,” as well as our sister show “Shuffle.” The only way to get it is to sign up online and it is free.

Head over to Arts dot ideastream dot org.

Now we all have different tastes in life.

You might prefer pizza.

While I certainly prefer pizzas.

The same is true for art.

Our next artist learned about old masters like Michelangelo back in art school, but she preferred the work of modern day graffiti artists.

Danielle Dixon developed her own realistic style, inspired by sci fi trailblazer Octavia Butler.

Creativity was always it was always a part of of my life.

Because as a kid, I was an only child.

So my mother was like, “I want to get you all the crayons you want, and the manila paper and the paints.

Oh yeah, go to town.

I'm not having any more kids.” So, you know, it was always a way for me to keep myself busy.

I had never really stopped drawing and painting.

I just got better at it, you know?

I just found that with art, I could kind of just create my world the way I wanted it to be.

My mother tried to get me into the School of the Arts when it first opened in ‘81, but somehow we got our dates mixed up and we missed the date for the audition.

But once I got to high school, I really hated the school that I was going to.

And she's like, you know what?

Let's audition again for School of the Arts.

So that was a big deal, because now we were focusing on the technical side of how to draw and getting the the basics down and not just kind of going for it, you know, by sight.

And getting to practice it over and over and every day actually helped me to increase my skills quite a bit.

I was really deeply into my own world as a kid, and when I was in school, they're like, “oh, well, you know, you need to research other artists and what they're doing and their techniques and their this and that.

And the third,” and I think because they told me I had to I think I rebelled against it even harder for the artists, I think that they were exposing me to.

I just didn't see it as any think I could get from that.

You know, like the the Michelangelo, you know, the statues and the, you know, fig leaves and all that stuff.

So I had no interest in any of that, no interest in that.

You know, we just we didn't get to the art that I wanted to see.

So when people did cartooning or graffiti or the things that really drew my eyes in, they were like, “that's not real art.” I never really did graffiti, but I liked the style, you know?

It just seemed vibrant and rebellious and all of that.

And I wanted all of that.

So I always wanted to draw realistically, especially in my earlier adult life.

I still want to draw what I see.

However, I want to add meaning these days.

So as opposed to just drawing a pretty picture, I want something that means something.

So I did not become aware of Octavia Butler until like 2017.

Octavia Butler's books took things that had happened in history and just looked at how they could come back around again.

And then I found that there were other books that were considered futuristic and more fantasy, more sci fi.

So I just became fascinated with her stories.

Yeah, this one brought me way out of my comfort zone.

The original portrait that I did of Octavia in the chalk, where it was literally just her face.

That was more my comfort zone.

You know?

I just kind of drew what I saw.

Although I do interpret the colors in the shapes a little differently.

So it's not like photorealism or anything, but it's not very challenging.

With this one.

I got the idea like, hey, Octavia was a Afrofuturist and sci fi and all of that.

Hey, what if I, you know, could put, like an orb of light in her hand because part of her stories are dealt with shaping worlds.

So if she's shaping something that's not together yet and, you know, to represent the the sci fi and Afrofuturism that made it a little more fun, although it was a little more challenging because there's a lot of room to fail.

I searched for you, Octavia.

I found you in soundbites, interviews, and symposiums.

You told us, “when we don't see ourselves in the stories future, just write ourselves in.” I wonder if you know that.

all you touched, you changed.

I dabbled in writing poetry in college, but it wasn't good.

Okay.

It was.

Some of them were interesting.

They had potential, I'll put it that way.

They had put it once I picked it back up again.

Once I had moved in at my aunt's house and there was no room to really paint, and I was overly concerned about messing things up because I get messy when I draw and paint.

So I ended up switching over to using words because it had to come out some kind of way.

I started writing, but I didn't share anything with people because I was thinking, nobody wants to hear what I had to say.

But I got so much warmth and encouragement and, you know, people wanting to hear more.

And then that petrified me because I did have more.

I didn't have more.

That was good.

At that time.

I had like four good poems and that was it.

And one of them was 20 years old.

So, you know, I'm like, oh, wow, you know, I better get to writing because they were expecting more, you know, it became another way, another outlet, you know, for me to, to get something out because I needed to create.

And the whole process of making time for it has been one of those adult things that I've never really been successful at.

And I think that's how there's so many years that go between doing successful pieces of work, though, artistically, because I haven't made time for it, you know, I've had to create the meaning, basically, and just sit down and say, “Hey, I'm going to do this and we're going to have to figure out how to do with what we have, or find a way to take that scoop full of peanut butter and cover the whole loaf of bread.

I don't know, but this has to happen.” And I found it by putting art as a priority.

It's opened some other doors for me.

On the next “Applause,” we're roughing it outdoors.

as we head to the headwaters of the Cuyahoga, where a ravine runs through it.

Today we are at the Kelsey Ravine.

It's like a living laboratory.

Join us on this expedition as we get in touch with nature and art all across Northeast Ohio.

All that and more on the next round of applause Goodbye Cecilia, goodbye.

Oh goodbye Cecilia, goodbye.

Well that's it for this round of “Applause.” Thanks for joining us.

Im Ideastreams Kabir Bhatia with a little healthy competition before we go.

It's a powerful performance from our friends at ChamberFest Cleveland.

Check out the back and forth between Evren Ozel on piano and Sterling Elliot on cello with this superb sonata.

By the way, the latest edition of ChamberFest Cleveland is underway through June 27th at many venues, including the Cleveland Institute of Music's Mixon Hall.

As seen in this performance, enjoy.

Production of “Applause” on Ideastream Public media is made possible by funding by Cuyahoga County residents through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture.