ANGIE MILES: The tassels are about to turn for another class of college graduates.

What kind of work will they find, and what does the changing professional landscape hold for those who aspire to be working artists?

More than 40 years after graduating from Virginia State University, the Reverend Cora Harvey Armstrong is a working artist, who's a global gospel tour de force.

We'll hear lively piano, thundering vocals and personal reflections from the King and Queen County native.

And learn about a special space for people of color who are also People of Creativity.

You're watching VPM News Focal Point.

Production funding for VPM News Focal Point is provided by Dominion Energy, dedicated to reliably delivering clean and renewable energy throughout Virginia Dominion Energy Actions Speak Louder The estate of Mrs. Ann Lee Saunders Brown and by ♪ ♪ ANGIE MILES: Welcome to VPM News Focal Point.

I'm Angie Miles.

In this program we'll explore what it means to be a working artist in today's professional climate.

But first, a look at news from around Virginia.

In Blacksburg, Virginia Tech has honored the memory of 32 people killed in a mass shooting on the university's campus 15 years ago.

At the time it was the deadliest mass shooting in American history.

Statewide, Virginia State Police have kicked off "Operation Safe Passage," a human trafficking prevention initiative in conjunction with the Virginia Trucking Association and other groups.

There were more than 100 known incidents of human trafficking in Virginia in 2020.

In the Tidewater region, Hampton University has announced its incoming president.

Retired three-star General Darrell Williams is a graduate of Hampton, one of the nation's oldest, historically Black universities.

ANGIE MILES: Find more local and national stories at vpm.org/focalpoint ANGIE MILES: Virginia is home to one of the country's top-ranked public arts schools, Virginia Commonwealth University.

This spring's graduating class is joining the ranks of two and a half million professional artists in America.

Painters, illustrators, musicians, writers and designers earn their living with the creative work of their hands and hearts.

Our Samantha Willis spoke with two VCU Arts graduates and with two legendary artists already at work in the Commonwealth.

NIKKI GIOVANNI: So we know that the word is important.

SAMANTHA WILLIS: Nikki Giovanni is a world renowned writer and longtime English professor at Virginia Tech.

In the 1960s, Giovanni's writing reflected a nation splintered by racism and poverty.

Today her poetry still addresses social problems and encourages political empowerment.

NIKKI GIOVANNI: I wrote a poem called "Vote."

I talk about it that it's very important, it's important to vote, even if you don't like any of the people.

Write your grandmother's name in.

I don't, don't let them silence you.

That's what's, that's what's important.

♪ Summer.

Not a bit of breeze.

SAMANTHA WILLIS: Giovanni's latest project is with celebrated tenor saxophonist and educator Javon Jackson.

The album of spirituals, Black sacred music, evoke the pain that enslaved people experienced and the powerful messages infused in their music.

NIKKI GIOVANNI: If you can imagine, your child being snatched from you and sold and you still found a way to sing JAVON JACKSON: Because the poem, "Wade in the Water," the last phrase is, "I've got a mind to build a new world, want to play?"

We're still today saying let's build a new world.

And so each one Of us has our own calling to try to make a new world.

SAMANTHA WILLIS: Giovanni's career represents an uncommon degree of professional success and cultural significance.

Whether or not newer artists reach that same level, career consultant Yvonne Thayer says there's a good chance they can make a living and make art.

YVONNE THAYER: Now, the arts, I think have the opportunity to see an explosion of opportunities for them across all kinds of job sectors, as the technology allows that.

SAMANTHA WILLIS: About 16% percent of Americans have done gig work like delivering groceries via online platform, driving for Uber or freelance content creation.

Aspiring artists might do this kind of gig work while building their careers, Thayer says.

Graphic designers and illustrators for instance might pick up freelance content creation gigs on sites like Fiverr and Upwork.

Illustrator Scott DuBar is a Charlottesville based VCU Arts grad and freelance contributor to magazines, children's books and more.

The secret to making it as a professional artist DuBar says, is a little luck and a lot of perseverance.

SCOTT DUBAR: It's a bit of both, I mean, you kind of make your own luck in a way like if you put in the effort and you have a real interest, a sustained interest and you can 'cause (chuckles) having a career in art means getting rejected a lot SAMANTHA WILLIS: A career in art also means finding balance between commission work and personal passion projects, says street artist and graphic designer, Assil Diab who works under the pseudonym sudalove.

ASSIL DIAB: The challenge is, when do you know when to be a fully professional artist, and when do you want to do some community work?

And how do you make the shift in between both?

Because something has to give.

SAMANTHA WILLIS: Diab's art raises awareness about global issues and has often put her life in danger during Sudan's deadly political protests.

ASSIL DIAB: It was so easy for them to just shoot you while you're painting, and that's that, for participating in the protests.

SAMANTHA WILLIS: The VCU Arts grad says beyond pursuing professional success, the role of working artists should be to create, inspire and provoke.

ASSIL DIAB: Everybody can do some sort of art, right?

Everybody can, art is art and everybody has something to be creative at.

But not everybody can use that as as a responsibility to spread awareness on what's going on in the world right now SAMANTHA WILLIS: Reporting for VPM News Focal Point, I'm Samantha Willis.

ANGIE MILES: Next month, Assil Diab returns to her alma mater to create a mural on VCU Arts' Theresa Pollak building in Richmond.

She will be the first Black woman artist to do so.

VCU Arts expects to graduate more than 500 students this spring.

And in the interest of full disclosure, I have an occasional working relationship, apart from VPM, with one of the artists who appeared in this story.

That relationship has no bearing on his inclusion in our report.

ANGIE MILES: We spoke with several graduating to hear their thoughts as they embark on the world of work.

Here is our In Focus segment.

WINSTON: My name is Winston, and my area of study is communication arts with a concentration in visual effects.

SHAYNE HERRERA: Shayne Herrera.

My area of study is painting and printmaking.

NOREN GELBERG-HAGMAIER: Noren Gelberg-Hagmaier, and my area of study is kinetic imaging and I have a minor in sculpture.

ANGIE MILES: What do you see as the prospects for making money as an artist moving forward?

WINSTON: I'm going into a more studio based working environment where I would sign a contract like a working contract and hopefully get health insurance.

But yeah, so I see my money being steady in that way, working in the studio.

But I also still want to do freelance work and have fun with that.

NOREN GELBERG-HAGMAIER: I don't necessarily make a lot of physical art that can be sold, so I'm not looking to like exhibit and sell, but I guess a lot of it would come from like maybe doing some freelance work or grants and like applying to be like artist in residency.

And some of those have like stipends.

So yeah, I feel like maybe making money as an artist is a little bit more complicated for me, but like working other jobs on the side is something that supports my artistic practice.

SHAYNE HERRERA: So for me, I have a lot of other just like I don't want to say hobbies, but other interests of mine, like photography and then of course like my painting and fine art.

ANGIE MILES: But you don't have concerns about making money.

I mean, you think it's doable.

SHAYNE HERRERA: No, I did freshman year, and I think it hindered a lot of my work because I only really started making work that I felt would sell.

And so I lost a good like two years of me, really using my own voice in my own work.

And so I found that again, junior year and senior year.

So it's been really good.

ANGIE MILES: When you hear the term "starving artist," which you've probably heard a lot, what do you think?

WINSTON: I used to be bullied by some family members.

Growing up, they would point to homeless people on the street and be like, "That's you when you grow up."

And that's rude.

Like you don't know what a homeless person is going through.

You're closer to being homeless than being a billionaire.

So.

And I think the term "starving artist" is lazy.

ANGIE MILES: Is there a connection between the current emotional and mental state of the world and what art might be able to do to help solve some of the problems that people aren't solving very easily on their own?

NOREN GELBERG-HAGMAIER: I'll be like, talking to someone and and they're like "I can't even draw a stick figure."

And I'm like, OK, well, but I'm sure there's something creative that you want to do to express yourself or just take like paint and like, just, you know, and like, I think that is so soothing and like also then not putting that pressure on yourself for it to be something marketable.

Like, it doesn't art doesn't have to be something that sells.

It can just be something that's enriching to you.

You can find more of our interview with these young artists on our website, vpm.org/focalpoint.

KEYRIS MANZANARES: This week in our People of Virginia segment, we asked Virginians a few questions.

Does art have power?

What impact does it have on our lives?

Is art a luxury or a necessity?

Here are some of their responses.

JULIA SMITH:I think no matter how an artist expresses themselves you know their message behind it is always something with intention.

And I think that's very powerful.

TYRONE WILLIAMS: You don't get that type of emotion without power behind the type of art that you're trying to do.

So I absolutely do believe that there is there's art, I mean there's power within that.

STELLA BOYER: It's a luxury because a lot of the supplies are not easily accessible by people that don't have a lot of income.

But it's also a necessity for creative people, such as myself, that feel the need to make things.

KEYRIS MANZANARES: Watch more responses about art and view the work of Virginia-affiliated professional artists on our website at vpm.org/focalpoint.

ANGIE MILES: Virginia Union University recently announced a new center directed by Hezekiah Walker, a Grammy-winning choir master.

He's teaching about gospel music, an art form rooted in Southern Black church culture.

Reverend Cora Harvey Armstrong is a Virginia Union alumna and noted gospel artist whose career spans 50 years and three continents.

Editorial producer Samantha Willis shares her story now in part three of our series on Black churches.

(gentle piano music) [Emcee] You all ready?

Are you all ready?

[Crowd] Yeah.

[Emcee] Come on, let's welcome at this time, the talented voice of sister Cora Harvey Armstrong.

(audience applauding) (gentle piano music) ♪ We've come to praise the Lord ♪ ♪ Give Jesus glory ♪ For he is worthy ♪ So CORA HARVEY ARMSTRONG: Traditional gospel to me is music that really speaks of him.

♪ Give him glory THOMASINE WILSON: Gospel music is history.

It's life.

It's expression.

It's a culture.

♪ Hallelujah BONITA WHITE: It helps me get through life and I just love to listen to gospel music, justs lift my spirits and my soul.

It just makes me feel good.

♪ Praise our God ♪ Here, come on SHEILAH BELLE: Gospel music means to me, an opportunity to change lives, an opportunity to impact lives, an opportunity to let God know that he can trust me with the ministry that he has birthed within me because it is a responsibility.

You just can't sing, you just can't talk, you have to live it.

EARL BYNUM: One thing about music and especially gospel music.

If you are looking for something, if you're going through a struggling, I believe there's a song that's in gospel music that can take you through the process of coming out whatever that struggle is.

♪ For he is CORA HARVEY ARMSTRONG: Learning how to love the Lord and getting somewhere requires going through some stuff.

And so traditional music, gospel music, will help you get through some stuff.

♪ Oh yes he is >>Hallelujah.

♪ Yeah yeah (door creaking) CORA HARVEY ARMSTRONG: If I don't have anything to do in the course of a day, I get up, I come out here early in the morning.

I bring my Bible, my books, my water cup, anything that I might need in the course of the day.

And that's from Psalms 63.

You know how it is, you read a scripture and then the Lord starts talking to you and then I bring my personal journal and I write.

And so, songs come out of it.

Sometimes he's just telling me stuff for me.

♪ Oh Lord, I lift up my song We're in Newtown.

Newtown is where we are at the uppermost part of King and Queen County.

My daddy's grandfather was a slave here and when he was set free, he built an old house right back in the grove of trees right back here.

And so, it's 14 acres and mom and daddy just left it to us.

You want to sit on the swing?

>>Oh yeah, I can.

CORA HARVEY ARMSTRONG: We've got my sister Clara who is next to me.

I'm the oldest, Clara Jackson is my middle sister.

My youngest sister, that's BB, her baby girl is Ruthie and this is Clarissa.

That is my niece.

Clarissa is the one that tells me when I'm in the wrong key.

♪ Here we go ♪ God ♪ God's promises ♪ God has to find promises ♪ Oh CORA HARVEY ARMSTRONG: Everything is centered around family, church, God, you know, you had to go to church.

There was no saying, "I don't feel like it today," or nothing like that.

You're getting up and you're going out of here.

♪ Are true when you let him Daddy was not the most musical.

He could sing, but ma actually could play and then of course as we got older, we started singing in the church choir too.

♪ Must believe ♪ You must believe ♪ Yeah Virginia State was the first time that I had been away from home in Newtown.

And so, my very first two semesters at Virginia State where I was the best student ever, until I heard the sound of rehearsal of the gospel choir one night and I fell in love with that choir.

And I fell in love with Larry Bland and the following semester, I joined that choir.

I just started hanging out with the choir and traveling and having the best time of my life.

And when he decided that it was time to go, of course they let me direct the choir and I stayed at State for almost eight years.

♪ God's precious promises When you're able to sing and play and all of this, you get a following of people who like to hear you sing and play.

So, you get this little bit of notoriety.

Well in high school, I didn't have that because I was always the biggest girl in the class all the way through high school and a lot of kids, you know how kids can be abusive, but when you're singing and playing people start treating you a little bit better because they say, "Oh, she can do that."

So fellows kind of pay you a little bit more attention and so when I started getting a little bit more attention, my focus on the Lord was like... ♪ To you ♪ Today All right.

Choices that I made and people that I married may not have always been good choices, but God can take what seems like a bad thing (Cora chuckling) and work it for your good.

(gentle piano music) ♪ Troubled thoughts ♪ Soul unrested CORA HARVEY ARMSTRONG: People think that I am this wealthy gospel singer that travels the world.

And yes, I am grateful for every place.

I've been to Japan twice, I've toured Italy maybe about 10 times.

I just enjoy the gifts that God has given me but doing it sometimes without a dime in my pocket and not embarrassed by the fact that I don't have a dime in my pocket, because every time the need came for something, he always provided for me.

Every single time, he has provided for me.

♪ And he says, I am here for you ♪ Tom Width at Swift Creek Mill Playhouse auditioned me for a role in a play called "Mahalia", Mahalia Jackson's story.

I got the part and God blessed me, every show.

That started the ball rolling and God opening doors for me in ways that I never expected.

And then Tom wrote a play about my life called "Living In The Light".

I know now that the Lord is my shepherd but I didn't always know it.

Where my story about failed marriages, abortions, things that I had lived through in my own life.

Every bad relationship, every black eye, every nasty word said, everything that I've had to endure through a challenge, God was right with me.

And even though I wasn't necessarily paying him attention, he never took his hands off me (Cora laughing) because he knew that he had more for me to do.

♪ 'Cause I am here for you ♪ Oh yes, I am ♪ CORA HARVEY ARMSTRONG: You know at home, I'm getting filled, I'm getting ready.

I'm getting what it is I need.

Out in a place like this, you're getting ready to give it to somebody else.

(Cora laughing) EARL BYNUM: My friend.

Well you all have met one of the greatest of them all, the one and only Cora Armstrong.

♪ Hold on EARL BYNUM: She's not just a singer, she's an aunt to many, a sister to many, a mother to many, even in gospel music.

A lot of us look up to her and she don't even know it.

♪ Hold on CORA HARVEY ARMSTRONG: I go through this because God says that I got to tell these people, these three messages.

I got to tell 'em these messages.

♪ Don't give up the fight ♪ Continue ♪ To give it up all to Christ ♪ That's the prayer ♪ I know God's help is on the way ♪ CORA HARVEY ARMSTRONG: A preacher told me one time, "When I sit and I hear you, I'm watching you sing and I'm hearing you sing," he says, "It's just like you're just letting us in on you worshiping God."

♪ Don't give up the fight ♪ Continue ♪ Continue to fast and pray ♪ I know that ♪ I know God's help is on the way ♪ BJ JOHNSON: You are the church that some people will only see.

Believe that in 2021, some people have never stepped inside of a church.

So we have to lead by example, we have to be the voice of God being that church.

Being that representation of what God is.

♪ Hold on ♪ Hold on BARBARA W. AGU: We have a call on our lives and we believe in the ministry that has been placed in us.

When we minister to his people, it ministers to us.

♪ Hold on, don't give up ♪ He's coming ♪ Keep trusting by faith CORA HARVEY ARMSTRONG: Whatever I have to go through and live through and to witness to people about, if it helps somebody to make a better decision toward God and about themselves, I think that it's worth me being transparent.

It's worth people knowing my business and I don't mind that because it helps somebody.

♪ God's help is on the way CORA HARVEY ARMSTRONG: God bless you.

Oh yes, he is.

I know.

Yes.

>>Come on, one more time for sister Cora Harvey Armstrong and the family.

(audience applauding) Registration remains open for Virginia Union's new gospel music curriculum, including classes on songwriting, publishing and licensing.

Prospective students and artists can visit the school's website for details.

ANGIE MILES: Cadence Theater in Richmond launched POC, which stands for People of Creativity.

POC merges art and activism while inspiring youth to speak out.

Next you'll meet the teenager behind this creative outlet.

TIA MARIE TUCKER: P.O.C, it stands for People of Creativity.

We're dedicated to giving artists of color a platform to talk about their works and any of the social issues that are most important to them.

We really want to help promote artists and their works, get to know more about their journey to hopefully inspire younger artists of color to do the same.

Representation is very important to us.

We feel as though if people see people who look like them doing the things that they're interested in, it'll motivate them to want to do the same and not feel like hopeless.

It was back in 2020, Ms. Anna had reached out to me, she's the artistic director of Cadence Theatre, but Ms. Anna had reached out to me after seeing what I had did for Power N Blaso in our Juneteenth event.

I was very, very upset about the incident that happened with George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, and I was just in my bedroom sulking the whole entire time.

I remember venting to a lot of my Black friends, and we were just very hurt by the circumstances, and we felt like we couldn't do a lot because of our age.

Our parents are very strict, they weren't letting us go out to protest, especially in the middle of a pandemic.

So that got me thinking of how I could merge the arts with activism.

KdentsTV, it's like a play on words 'cause it's with Cadence Theatre, but basically, it's a whole bunch of teenagers, we come together.

We had a few interviews about the importance of representation in media.

That was like one of our biggest themes.

And that was a lot of fun because we were talking about like all of negative stigmas that TV kind of portrays on people of color, especially Black people, and how it kind of like, it's harmful in general because people end up believing that that's fact.

I love standing for unrepresented people.

I love fighting for the underdog.

And I feel like right now, us minorities, that's where we're at right now.

I like comforting people.

So I think that it makes sense that I'm doing what I'm doing right now because I'm merging my love for people, I'm merging my love for the arts, and bringing it together.

Even like the smallest things, like just contacting artists in your community and just having a conversation with them, and posting that on YouTube, that's a way to get your voice out there, that's a way to fight for what you believe in.

Activism isn't just you protesting in a street, there's various different forms, and you can do it in whatever format makes you more passionate.

And for me, that's art.

For most of my friends, that's art.

ANGIE MILES: We've reached the end of today's show.

Thank you for staying with us.

We hope you've gained a fresh perspective on the impact of art and the role of artists in Virginia.

We welcome your feedback and story ideas at vpm.org/focalpoint.

We'll see you next time.

Production funding for VPM News Focal Point is provided by Dominion Energy, dedicated to reliably delivering clean and renewable energy throughout Virginia Dominion Energy Actions Speak Louder The estate of Mrs. Ann Lee Saunders Brown and by ♪ ♪