- [Announcer] Support provided by the Richard P. Garmany Fund at the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, the State of Connecticut Office of Film, Television, and Digital Media, and Connecticut Humanities.

(soothing music) (car engine roaring) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - Hi, I'm Ray Hardman, and welcome to Where Art Thou?

Today we're in East Hartford and Wethersfield, two of the oldest towns in Connecticut.

Now I say that because East Hartford was originally part of Hartford, which was incorporated in 1635, Wethersfield was established a year earlier.

So obviously, history abounds in this part of the state, but I'm also interested in the artists that live and work here, right now.

Now, to help me do that, I have our Where Art Thou?

East Hartford curator, Roz White, on the line.

Roz is the Chairperson on Culture and Finance for the town of East Hartford.

And she's also well connected into the arts community there.

Hi Roz?

- Hi Ray.

Welcome to 06108 and 06118, the crossroad of New England.

- Now, when I think of East Hartford, I think of industry, I think of Pratt & Whitney, and Raytheon, that type of thing, but are the arts part of the fabric of this community?

- The art is very much a fabric of East Hartford.

And the fact that East Hartford is the second most diverse town in Connecticut.

We have a lot and we are still discovering many, many facets and uniqueness that our town brings to Connecticut.

- So Roz, I'm excited to see what East Hartford has to offer, where are you taken me today?

- Today, we are going to meet Andre Rochester.

This is an artist whose art actually invokes conversation.

It's art without words, but volumes.

He tells his story so well in every piece, especially on the life of people of color, with all the complexities and all the resilience that people of color have in America.

He portrays that in his art.

- Oh, I love that.

I love that.

Where else are we going today?

- I'm gonna take you to Grace Wright.

Grace hails from the Caribbean.

And I would consider her a Renaissance woman.

She is a mathematician teacher, she's a dancer, she's a costume designer, and she's a storyteller.

She holds on to the traditions of the Caribbean, but she's able to fuse her new life in America.

- Well Roz, great picks today.

I'm super excited to get there.

Thanks so much for your efforts today.

- You're very welcome.

And you are always welcome to East Hartford.

(upbeat music) - [Ray] Tell me about your artistic journey.

- Well, where would you like me to start?

(chuckling) - I want the very beginning.

I wanna hear the very beginning.

- So once upon a time there was a seven-year-old who needed some things to do.

And his dad was a very creative individual in his young life and decided to pass on a sketchbook.

So my father bought me my first sketchbook when I was seven, that's where it all started.

I just started to get better, and better, and better, and then unfortunately my mother got sick.

She had multiple sclerosis.

She was diagnosed when I was 10 years old.

Now that's when life changed.

So art became a tool to cope with with that.

And while taking care of her, from the age of 10 to 16, when she passed away, that was my outlet.

- I'm sorry.

- Thank you.

That was my outlet, that was my way of expressing myself, that was how I was able to avoid going down a negative path.

So in high school I used to get really good feedback on my art and stuff.

And I did really well in my art classes, go figure.

- Yeah, right.

- And I eventually decided, after being involved in a couple of mural projects, and one program that taught me graphic design, I was gonna go to school for art.

So I went to UConn, and I started off as a graphic design major, believe it or not.

That didn't last long.

So there's some fundamentals that you have to learn before you get to jump on the computer and do all the cool stuff.

I couldn't get past the fundamentals that, I just wasn't interested.

I changed my major to illustration, where I was able to get the best of both worlds.

I could apply design principles, and still do traditional painting, drawing, and all that good stuff.

I went through the struggles that young folks often go through when they're trying to figure it out and learn how to be an adult.

Unfortunately, that came with a lot of financial struggle.

And I did live the starving artist life, however, I wasn't a full time artist per se.

I didn't, at that time, have the business mindset necessary to be successful at this.

I didn't have a solid plan to do it, but I took jobs here and there, did what I had to do.

And then I started working at an art supply store, that art supply store, literally jump-started my journey in the greater Hartford community's art scene.

(upbeat music) Seven years of lessons learned, and struggles, and many ups and downs, and I got to a point where I was able to return to school, finished my BA in Studio Art from Charter Oak State College.

I was at the time, working for a company in the automotive industry.

And I used that income to pay for my first studio.

- So Andre, I saw that you have a master's degree in Organizational Leadership.

Does that have anything to do with art?

- That master's degree, that I got while I was still working in corporate America directly ties into the work that I do, currently as an arts professional.

So I have my creative stuff, but also have the more business-focused things and the things that I do to help develop other artists or create opportunities for other artists.

And so getting a degree in organizational leadership helped me in my corporate career, but it also prepared me to be in leadership roles as an arts administrator.

- Your artistic focus now is social justice.

How long did it take to get there?

- There is a social justice sentiment in my work.

So it's not my primary focus.

It just happens to come out because I'm moved by the things that happen.

Right now, although I like to say my focus is on understanding, and defining, and really exploring what black joy is.

That in itself is a form of promoting social awareness.

Understanding that as a person of color, as a black person, there is more out there about us, there's more to us, than police violence, than dealing with racism, et cetera, et cetera.

- Statistics.

- All of that, right?

- Yeah.

- Black joy is a form of resistance.

Through it all, we still have reasons to celebrate ourselves.

We still have much to be proud of.

We are great people, we're resilient people a triumphant people, we've been through so much.

And much like any other culture on this planet, there's a lot to be learned and celebrated.

I'm not trying to just paint happy black people.

(chuckling) There's a purpose there.

There will still be a social justice side to my work, but it's going to be done a different way.

And so, like I said, I'm evolving.

(soothing music) Art is a tool for healing.

It's also a tool for connection.

It is something that will naturally attract people towards you because, "Hey, you're doing a thing, "it looks pretty, "let's have a conversation."

It's a way to build friendships, but it's also a catalyst for tough discussions.

We talked about how I've incorporated social justice in my work as well.

So, that tool for healing is also for healing within the community.

Not just our personal healing as people going through stuff, it's a way to create a space that hopefully, one considers safe enough to have the tough discussions about what's going on in the world.

And so that tool for healing comes into play in multiple ways.

- You mentioned that your work is evolving, as it should.

- Absolutely.

- It sounds like you've gone from, as you mentioned, social justice to black joy.

Any idea what's on the horizon?

Anything grabbing you right now?

Anything, peaking your interest?

- What I didn't say earlier, when I mentioned that is I have to feel things in order to express them.

So imagine what it's like to constantly paint and be encouraged, quite frankly, to paint subject matter that makes you angry, things that move you emotionally make you upset, sometimes make you depressed.

I'm tired of feeling that emotion.

I haven't lost sight of the issues with social justice.

I just don't want to keep putting myself through the emotional turmoil that it takes for me to paint a powerful piece about social justice.

So I incorporate it in other ways.

- Well Andre, I'm excited for whatever the next thing is for you.

- [Andre] Thank you.

- And I want to thank you for having us here and to get a chance to see you work, it's just brilliant work.

- It gives me great joy to know that when I wake up in the morning, I'm doing something that I'm passionate about, from the beginning of the day to the end.

And I'm live literally living my dream.

- Yeah.

If you could go back and tell that starving artist from years ago.

- Ooh, man, I wanted this so bad.

(chuckling) I finally got it.

Yeah, yeah.

(soothing music) - Up next, is What's in Your Attic and we're headed to Old Wethersfield and the Webb Deane Stevens Museum to see what treasures they have in storage.

It's a fine facility.

Tell me a little bit about your museum.

- Oh, thank you.

This is the Webb Deane Stevens Museum.

It is owned and operated by the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the State of Connecticut.

They first bought the Webb House, and opened it as their headquarters and museum in 1919.

And in the 1950s, they added the Stevens House and the Deane House.

And it's now situated on an eight-acre campus.

We have the beautiful Amy Cogswell colonial revival garden, we have the, probably famous Webb Barn site of many celebrations.

And then just a year ago, we opened this brand new, amazing facility, the Holcombe Education Center.

- We're here in an exhibit that traces Wethersfield back to its earliest days, the earliest settlers to Wethersfield.

- That's right.

So in 2017, as part of the build out of this new building, we undertook extensive archeology.

And during that archeological period, and discoveries, we found, in the ground of course, this amazing discovery of early 17th Century material that really documented that early interaction between Native peoples and the European settlers that were here.

I think in one hand, the most interesting, significant discovery was the discovery of the evidence of a palisade wall, hence the palisade wall behind us here.

- Yeah, let's talk about this palisade wall, was something that was the remnants of it, or at least the vestiges of it were discovered during the excavation?

- That's right.

So very down, very near the bottom layer of discovery was staining of the wood that had decayed.

And that staining indicated that it was a palisade wall.

One of the first times that they've been able to document a palisade wall in New England.

And we knew they were here, but this was the actual evidence.

- I mean, when you have three historic homes, I would imagine you have a lot of interesting things in storage.

- Yeah, so what's so amazing about this dig, we have a very substantial collection, here at the Webb Deane Stevens Museum, and the archeology added 150,000 new objects to our collection.

- [Ray] Oh, wow.

- Yeah.

- Wow.

So Joshua, this is called What's in Your Attic, this segment.

What do you got up there?

Well, we can't wait for you to get up there and see all the cool things that are up there.

Spinning wheels, looms, you name it, it's up there.

So can't wait for you to see it.

- All right.

Well, let's go see it.

So I'm here with Rich Malley, curator of the Webb Deane Stevens Museum.

And Rich, we are in the attic of the Webb House.

- That's correct, the Joseph Webb House.

It was built in 1752, but for a prosperous merchant in the West Indies Trade.

And we believe that this attic space actually served as his warehouse, as well, for his imported goods.

- What kind of goods?

- It would've been different types of sugars from the West Indies, there might have been some tobacco, some tropical fruits and things, it varied over time, but Joseph Webb was a very prosperous merchant, and the house reflects that.

- Yeah.

I have some really amazing things here.

First thing I want to talk about is this huge loom here.

Tell me about this.

- Well, it's the type that's generally called a barn loom because, typically, it needs an awful lot of space in which to operate.

- [Ray] Yeah, for sure.

- So a large attic, like this, certainly works, but you would, often times in the period, find them in barns.

And this would've been used for the weaving of cloth at home.

We think about going to the store and buying pre-made fabrics.

In the 18th century, many of the fabrics that were needed for day-to-day life needed to be made at home.

And so the loom is one of the final processes, final steps in the process of producing cloth.

These are actually spinning wheels.

They were actually a very important tool for the household production of fabrics.

And so there are a couple of different styles of these spinning wheels.

We've got the great wheel, like this, that most people are visually familiar with.

And then we have the smaller wheels that were oftentimes used instead of weaving woolen thread that they were oftentimes used when making, using flax, which was a locally grown, a fibrous plant.

But typically 18th Century is the time period that you would find this type of wheel in America.

- [Ray] So Rich, I know you've got some other stuff to show us in a cooler part of the building, which is the library.

- [Rich] Absolutely, absolutely.

- [Ray] Well, let's head there.

- [Rich] All right, let's do that.

- [Ray] All right.

- [Rich] Well, this is an example of home-spun linen, sometimes just called home-spun.

- Yeah, can I touch it?

- You may And this particular object is in fact, a coverlet for a bed and it was made by a young, 26-year-old, Abigail Wadsworth.

look at the different, the shades, the colors.

My guess is that these yarns were probably imported because of the fineness of the colors.

This was done about 1733.

- Wow.

Boy, the color's still so vibrant.

- Absolutely, absolutely.

This is a 19th Century quilt, and it's cotton.

Now the cotton would've been manufactured, not home-spun by this time.

A quilt like this was used at a crib, or a child's bed.

And it's got a very distinctive pattern.

It's it's called either the honeycomb or the hexagonal pattern, for obvious reasons, 'cause it really does look like a honeycomb.

What we have here is actually a letter written by Thomas Jefferson to a man named Dr. Thornton who was living in Washington DC at the time, Jefferson was interested in acquiring a new type of weaving machine to install at Monticello.

- Any chance you'll display this at some point?

- Well, it's possible.

It's possible.

- Well Rich, this is all fantastic.

Thank you so much for showing us around.

- It's great.

It's always fun to have an opportunity to share these treasures with a broader audience.

- (chuckling) Well, thanks so much.

- You're welcome.

(upbeat music) - We've got one last stop today.

We're headed back to East Hartford and meeting with Grace Wright.

She is a Caribbean costume designer and choreographer, and she's got a big performance coming up with her groups, so I'm hoping she has a lot of stuff to show us.

Let's check it out.

Grace Wright, so nice to meet you.

- Nice to meet you too.

- I love these colorful costumes.

- Thank you.

- Tell me about yourself.

- Well, I'm the fabulous Grace Wright, (both laughing) Originally from Jamaica, in the Caribbean.

I love to sew, create, design costumes.

I also love to dance, and I'm also a math teacher, that's my other trait.

- Oh my gosh.

- So I love to do traditional folklore there's dance, poetry, songs, instruments, but I try to introduce my culture to people, express myself through dance.

And with the sewing ability I have, I get to also make the costumes, and depict the traditional, the contemporary folklore from the Caribbean, primarily Jamaica.

You know, you have a vision and you see the final product, that's such pleasure to see that final product.

The process is tedious.

Sometimes I'm up all night, sewing or gluing, but the end result, you see some happy people.

(chuckling) But due to dance, and the parades, and so on.

That's when I really have to create these costumes.

- Yeah, so tell me about when you became really interested in Jamaican folklore.

- Wow.

For me, that's ever since I can remember.

Because I am from Jamaica, I grew up in Jamaica.

When I was younger, growing up, I'm not gonna say how long ago that was.

- [Ray] (chuckling) Okay.

- But there was this program on TV that came on every Saturday, called "Ring Ding" by the hostess Mrs. Louise Bennett.

And she would do the rhymes, and the songs.

And she would invite different groups to come on and even dance companies come on and perform.

So that's when I was exposed to the traditional folklore of Jamaica.

And I look forward to that.

- Was this folklore handed down, or are there ways that you can learn how to do Jamaican dance.

- Yes, of course it can be handed down.

It can be taught, the people can learn it.

You know, you have the Kumina, the Dinki Mini, there's so many folk dances you can learn, the ballet from Trinidad, the Boomba from Puerto Rico, the solo from Saint Lucia, there's so many different folk dances out there.

And there's a strong African influence in the folklore.

If you know the history of the Caribbean, it's very similar to the history of Central South America, where the Africans were brought over to, first to South America, which is now called Brazil.

And then spread to, the idea of enslaved Africans was spread to the Caribbean.

So we have a very strong African and European influence 'cause the Europeans colonized these areas.

And so that explains the costume itself where- - Yes, there are some like colonist type of looking costumes.

- Yes.

If you look at this one, just the very long with the ruffles and you have the Victorian sleeves, they're a typical with traditional folk costume.

The Africans brought with them their culture.

So you see the feathers.

And so it was a combination of the European style and the African style.

And that's been passed on from generation to generation.

- Yeah.

yeah.

You have a dance troop.

- Yes.

- You teach dance.

- (indistinct) Adjust your body.

Five, six, seven, and one, two, very good.

Yes.

- [Ray] What's one of the first things you teach a young dancer to do in your class?

- [Grace] Breathe.

- [Ray] Breathe?

- Yes.

Some people don't talk about that, but that's so important.

- Are there basic, fundamental steps to the type of dance that you do and a body attitude or anything like that?

- That's a very good question.

Yep.

Attitude, it's all about attitude.

Fake it until you make it.

And I find like, even people are shy, the music comes on and they just become this other person.

And so that's one of the beautiful things about dancing it's like you're acting, you're playing a part.

- [Ray] He or she doesn't have to worry about who they are normally, this is their new character.

- [Grace] So you wanna get a sense of freedom.

Dancing is freedom.

(drums playing) - [Ray] Let's let's have a look at some of your costumes.

- [Grace] Sure.

- This is for a male Calypso dancer.

So, and just wear black jazz pants with it, but we notice a lot of bling 'cause when you're on stage, performing, you want the dancer to stand out, the costume to really pop.

This fabric I actually got from Jamaica, is called bandana fabric or some countries, Caribbean country, call them madras fabric because it comes from India.

It's 100% cotton, they come from India, these plaids.

So it's not done because see, I didn't get to do more ruffles.

I was up all night, trying to finish it in time for the Taste of the Caribbean, and it's missing some sleeves.

But I had, and then I what I did is I got a straw hat and I cut off the top and glue some fabric around it.

So I wore it together, like that.

- Oh lovely, yeah.

- So this was another parade, now, about three, four years ago.

- Oh yeah, that's beautiful.

- Where I made this in the morning, saw a bunch of feathers and I love the colors.

- Can I put this on?

- Sure.

- You got the other one?

Oh, here it is.

- Yep, like the halter top.

- Tell me about when kids.

- He's ready for Las Vegas, baby.

(chuckling) - Kids, the first time they put this on, they must be just glowing.

- [Grace] Oh, they're excited.

I get the most students in the summertime because they want to do the parade.

- [Ray] Is that right?

- After the parade, you don't see them.

So one of my favorite costumes.

I mean the full costumes.

A lot of pieces.

So you have to have a slip, here, no petticoat.

You have to have your slip.

And I had a (indistinct) on it.

So that goes under the costume, this one.

- [Ray] Oh wow.

- So this is one of my favorite pieces, I made this 20 years ago.

- It's beautiful.

- So this is super, super wide.

When I'm doing Kumina, I like to use this one.

I like to work the dress, and very typical folk costume, Victorian sleeve, ruffles, high neck, white, a little bit of color.

- Let me ask you, you're a math teacher.

This is more than just something you do on your downtime.

Tell me about that juxtaposition of this, math teacher and then someone who makes beautiful costumes and learns about Caribbean dance.

- Well, I believe that in life, people should try to be well rounded.

You must have a balance.

Dance is my outlet, sewing is my outlet.

I took that for granted until we had COVID, and people started talking about social-emotional learning, and coping tools, and coping skills.

And I'm thinking, "Wow, I've been dancing all these years.

"And that's always been my coping tool."

It's a good way to really stress, especially working with young people, trying to teach in mathematics.

And not the favorite subject for many people.

(chuckling) - I will give this back to you.

- (chuckling) Please.

- But I mean, it's been such a joy to talk to you and to see your beautiful costumes and learn more about Jamaican culture.

- Oh, thank you so much.

- And I will give this back to you.

- Okay.

(both laughing) - Well just an amazing day here in East Hartford and Wethersfield.

It's people like Andre and Grace that make this part of the state truly special.

Hey, maybe there's somebody in your town, in your neighborhood, that's doing amazing creative things.

If so, I want to hear about it.

Drop me a line WhereArtThou@CTPublic.org.

Join me next week.

We're gonna get back into that beat up, old company van.

And we're gonna learn a little bit more about Connecticut's rock and roll past.

You won't wanna miss it.

Until then, I'm Ray Hardman, thanks for watching "Where Art Thou."

(upbeat music)