Latest / Pop of Culture / S03 E07 - We Put Ourselves on the Map

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S03 E07 - We Put Ourselves on the Map · Pop of Culture

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any other named entity.
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- This week on "Pop of Culture",
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we travel from all over the world
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to get to East Central Indiana.
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- Well, we order in the end of December
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'cause you can get pre-booked at better prices.
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- I remember we sold out
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within about two weeks, which is incredible.
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And then for about nine months, nothing really happened.
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So it was kind of like straight back to reality.
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- We'll speak with artists handling travel logistics
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to bring the arts inland.
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- And it's Black History Month.
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We have a special conversation ahead
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of an event celebrating the legacy of women
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from Muncie's Historic Whitely Neighborhood.
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- Support for "Pop of Culture" comes
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from Stallings Wealth Management, the innovation connector,
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and from you, with state and federal money eliminated,
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you are the difference
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in keeping local programming on the air, at IPR,
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become a member today at indianapublicradio.org.
1:14
- From IPR, this is "Pop of Culture", I'm Jen Blackmer.
1:18
- And I'm Michelle Kinsey, this week we go international.
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- What does it take to get flowers
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from around the world into vases in East Central Indiana?
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- And how does a stage show make it
1:30
from the UK to Muncie?
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- We'll take you there.
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We're going to start today right here
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in the "Pop of Culture" Studios.
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There's a presentation happening Thursday, February 26th.
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It's called Women of Whitely at the heart
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of Muncie's Black History.
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And joining me are two panelists from the event.
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First we have Sarah McKinley and Sarah's the manager
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and archivist at the Carnegie Library in Muncie.
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Hello Sarah.
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- Hello.
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- And joining Sarah is Melissa Gentry,
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the supervisor
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of the Map Collection at Ball State University Libraries.
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Hello Melissa.
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- Hi, thanks for having us.
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- Of course, we're happy that you could both come
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and join us in studio today.
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So why don't you tell us a little bit about the event?
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What inspired Women of Whitely?
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- So the Women of Whitely event is part of the notable women
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of Muncie and Delaware County Project, which is a project
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that is a partnered initiative with Muncie Public Library,
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Delaware County Historical Society, Ball State University,
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and the Minnetrista Museum and Gardens.
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And that project was really started to bring stories
2:41
of women to light because women traditionally aren't written
2:45
about as much in the historic record.
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And we have a lot of amazing women here in Delaware County
2:49
whose stories are worth sharing.
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And so the program with Shaffer Chapel came about
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through a project that Muncie Public Library did
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in collaboration with Shaffer in 2024.
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They have a wonderful museum there
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that's in the back of the church.
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- Yes, they do.
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- And so we met with them
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and talked about ways that we could collaborate
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to preserve the collections that they have there
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through digitization, just in case anything were
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to ever happen to any of the original collections,
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there would be a record that would move forward.
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And so through those conversations,
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once Muncie Public Library digitized those,
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we talked about all of the wonderful history
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that's there involving women.
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And I know Melissa had been working
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on creating some creative maps of the women of Whitely
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for some of her projects.
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And so we thought it would be great to partner with them
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to bring a program there to the Whitely neighborhood.
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- Yeah, absolutely.
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So Melissa, tell us a little bit about these maps.
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How do you take stories and put them into a map?
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- Okay, so I actually was inspired by Dr. Jorn Seemann.
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He's a geography professor here at Ball State.
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He's doing an immersive learning project over several years
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with students working with the Whitely neighborhood.
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And they've been creating story maps about Whitely
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and he asked me to come
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and speak about some of the women of Whitely
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and we interviewed some of the women
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that were there at the program.
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And so I thought, well,
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I should just be making some maps too.
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So you can make a story map,
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it's really easy in Bracken Library we have resources
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if students or anyone is interested
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in making maps like that.
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- So for our listeners who have never done this
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or heard of this, what is a story map?
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- So it's just something simple.
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You just put in the points
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and write a little blurb about that point on the map.
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You can add photographs
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and then you can include links to videos.
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And that's the kind of story maps that I like to create.
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So it's more like a webpage.
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- Oh, that's excellent, yeah.
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- With all different interactive links.
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- Yeah, so you found some stories then
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and worked on sort of building some maps
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of these stories in the location.
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So what will, when folks come to the event then
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what will they experience?
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What will be the discussion?
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- So we're doing a panel presentation.
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It will be three of us presenting some of the stories
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and then Sarah can tell you more
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about the pastor's gonna be involved
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in the program that night.
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And so we just all chose a different topic
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and I'm covering a lot of different women
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that I've found just doing the research for the maps.
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And then I'll be talking about the women of Whitely
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and how they were organizing during World War I.
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And they were a force to be reckoned with.
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- Yeah. - Did a lot.
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They raised a lot of money
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and they did a lot of different programs and events.
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And it's exciting for me
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because one of my favorite things when I'm doing these maps
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is looking at the buildings that no longer exist in Muncie
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and just learning about the history of these buildings
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that we used to have here.
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And one of the buildings
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that I'll be talking about is the Campbell's Auditorium
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and that's where they hosted some
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of these events for World War I.
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And they sounded like really elaborate events
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and I thought it was interesting in the history,
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the city itself was never technically segregated,
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but Campbell's Auditorium was segregated by night.
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So the white community used it one night
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and then the African American community used it
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on different nights.
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So I thought that was kind of interesting.
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So that's where they hosted their big fundraising event to,
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they created comfort bags for the soldiers
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that were going off to fight in World War I.
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- Oh, fantastic, yeah.
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And is there a story that stands out to you, Sarah,
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of something you wanna bring our attention to?
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- Sure, so I will be introducing a little bit
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about the Shaffer Chapel collection
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at this program to show some
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of the resources where people can discover more stories
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of women connected with the Whitely community.
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But also I'll be talking about the first women pastors
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of Shaffer Chapel.
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And I'll be highlighting the story of Alice Macintosh,
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who she was a different maker in a lot of different areas
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of Muncie' history.
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She was a civil rights activist, she was an entrepreneur
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who started a lot of businesses here in Muncie.
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Some of those businesses were very creative in terms of,
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they were there specifically to help people sort
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of learn skills that would help them work their way out
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of generational poverty.
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She also was the first black woman
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to be elected to Muncie city council.
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So she made an impact in a lot
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of different areas in the community.
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- Awesome, I think we might have time for
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maybe one other story that's interesting to you
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that you're gonna talk about.
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Yeah, does that sound okay?
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- Yeah, okay, yeah, great.
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So one of the women
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that we discovered in the Whitely,
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from the Whitely neighborhood was
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a woman named Charlotte Law.
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And there was kind of an interesting connection
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between Muncie and Wilberforce University,
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which is a predominantly African American university
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in Ohio.
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And there were a lot of women from Muncie
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who attended Wilberforce University.
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So Charlotte was a phenomenal scholar
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and she attended Wilberforce
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and she was inducted into Delta Sigma Theta,
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which was an honorary sorority.
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And she also served
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as an assistant instructor in English when she was there.
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And she actually graduated magna cum laude.
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She was first in her class.
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She graduated in 1927 from Wilberforce
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and she had actually completed her four year degree
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in three years.
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But the interesting part is, she was first in her class,
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but one of the other women that she graduated
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with was Dorothy Johnson, who is photographed
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with Charlotte in one of their senior pictures.
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And Dorothy is probably, she was known
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as Dorothy Johnson at the time,
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but she's probably better known
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by her married name, Dorothy Vaughan.
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She was the, you may know her from the movie
9:00
or the book "Hidden Figures."
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- Yes.
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- She was the NASA genius mathematician.
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And so Charlotte Law was actually first in class
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and so Dorothy was.
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- I had no idea.
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- So it's kind of an interesting connection.
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- Oh, I love that connection, that's wonderful.
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And Sarah, you have another story.
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- Sure, so there was actually a young girl
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who made Muncie civil rights history back
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in the spring of 1949.
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This was actually six years
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before the Montgomery Bus boycott with Rosa Parks,
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Patricia Bragg, who we have kind
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of dubbed Muncie's Rosa Parks.
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But even though she predated Rosa Parks with her story,
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she was a member of a local debate club,
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the Honor Society, and a French club
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at Muncie Central High School.
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And she attended a field trip
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to a restaurant located here
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in Ball State's Village near campus.
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And I won't spoil the story, if you come
9:54
to the program you'll hear more about the story.
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But she was met with discriminatory treatment there
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and her response to it was what made history here in Muncie.
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She later became the president of the local chapter
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of the NAACP
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and she fought for many other issues related to education
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and discrimination throughout her life.
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- Wow, wow.
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And I love these stories of the place
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where I have lived for so long
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and just learning about all of these incredible connections.
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Talk about what you hope the audience members who come
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to hear the discussion will get from this.
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I mean, do you hope that this encourages people
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to seek out archives
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and to maybe do their own digging into what's available
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for them to do historical research?
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- When, I work with English classes here on campus,
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especially English classes, but also history classes,
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I'm always telling them when they're researching for a paper
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or a presentation, they are so lucky to come here
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to Ball State because we do have these four archives
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right here with the Historical Society
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and Minnetrista and Muncie Public Library
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and then the digital media repository
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that's from the Ball State University libraries,
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you can look at photographs and oral histories
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and personal correspondence.
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There's even personal diaries
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and it's just amazing what you can discover just listening
11:22
to an oral history or reading someone's letter.
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And there's so much history
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that's been impacted worldwide just by people from Muncie.
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And I just think,
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we have a pretty unique city that we live in.
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- Yeah, we really do, and I think that surprises people.
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I think when they learn about it
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and when they learn about what's available to them to learn.
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Sarah, how does one access archival material?
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Do they just show up and say, hey, can you?
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- Sure, well, it depends on the archive,
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but here in Muncie we're pretty lucky
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that you can pretty much just walk into an archive
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and somebody can assist you.
12:00
It does help if you contact us in advance with a question
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'cause then we can be more prepared
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to locate materials for you,
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sometimes it does take time.
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But yeah, you can call, you can go in person.
12:11
We do have, as Melissa mentioned,
12:13
there's the digital media repository at Ball State
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that does have a lot of materials
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that are available free online, directly from the Archive.
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Muncie Public Library and Minnetrista
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and Delaware County Historical Society have
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similar internet archives that you can access
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that have a limited volume of those materials.
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And just kind of dovetailing off what Melissa said about,
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you know, what we hope to get from the program,
12:37
I think that learning through archives also gives us a sense
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of like community.
12:43
It gives us a sense of empathy with people
12:45
that are different from ourselves.
12:47
And it also, I think, gives people an idea
12:50
of how important it's to save our history now.
12:53
And so, you know, everybody has their own unique stories
12:56
and we're hoping that, you know, it's difficult to find some
13:00
of these women's stories now.
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So we wanna make sure that we're helping people prepare
13:04
to carry those stories onto the future as well.
13:07
- Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
13:08
And I think we're so kind of stuck in the sense
13:12
that if there's something we wanna find out,
13:13
we'll just Google it and that'll be enough, right.
13:16
And the fact that we have all
13:20
of these living histories still very present
13:24
and available to us in the library,
13:27
I think is an important reminder, right,
13:30
that we don't just get stuck in this immediate sense
13:33
of the first answer is the only one we have, right.
13:36
Because the further we go into the archive,
13:39
the more stories we unearth, right.
13:42
And this notion of empathy, Sarah,
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I think is quite lovely now.
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So February 26th, women
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of Whiteley at the Shaffer Chapel, open to the public.
13:55
Sarah McKinley is the manager
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and archivist at the Carnegie Library in Muncie.
13:59
And Melissa Gentry is the supervisor
14:01
of the Map collection at Ball State University.
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Thank you both for being in the studio
14:06
with us today.
14:07
- Our pleasure, thank you. - Thanks so much.
14:11
(upbeat music)
14:23
- So last Saturday was Valentine's Day.
14:26
Hopefully this isn't how you're finding that out.
14:28
The pop team was curious
14:30
what that holiday looks like for a florist.
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Hello.
14:36
- Hello.
14:38
- I forgot, that's all right.
14:39
- How are you? - Good, how are you?
14:41
- Our co-host Kara DuQuette paid a visit
14:44
to a flower shop in Yorktown before their big day.
14:47
- We are here at Foister's Flowers,
14:50
we're talking with Sharon Grubbs
14:52
and some of you might remember she was
14:55
the 2025 David Ousley Museum of Arts Art
14:58
in Bloom People's Choice Award winner.
15:01
And so that's exciting.
15:03
And today we're here to talk
15:05
to you about something equally exciting, maybe.
15:09
Valentine's Day, it's coming right up.
15:13
- Every year at this time.
15:16
- One of the things we're curious about is
15:18
when do you start ordering for holidays like this?
15:23
Like major holidays, like Valentine's Day?
15:26
- Well, we order in the end of December
15:29
because you can get pre-booked at better prices
15:32
at the end of December.
15:34
But you have to know what you need before that.
15:37
So it's planning even
15:39
before for that, which I'm not real good at.
15:42
But you have to plan before that, so.
15:44
- And so I imagine some of the planning has to do
15:47
with sales from the previous year.
15:50
But like what other things do you consider
15:52
when you make your orders?
15:55
- Well we have to make designs for 'em.
15:57
Other than roses, we have other little mixed arrangements,
16:02
'cause some people just don't like roses
16:04
or their roses are more costly than the little,
16:09
than some of our other designs.
16:10
So we have to know, you have to have a recipe to know
16:15
how many containers and how many flowers are in that
16:19
and then how, and then you have to multiply it together
16:22
so you know how many carnations or daisies or snapdragons
16:26
or roses or whatever else that you need to order
16:29
for each item.
16:31
So then we have the spreadsheet
16:33
and we have, so like,
16:35
I usually normally buy a thousand roses,
16:39
but it's on a Saturday
16:40
and Saturdays, we'll deliver a lot on Friday
16:45
and we'll deliver a lot on Saturday.
16:48
But we deliver more on Friday to people's work and stuff.
16:51
- A lot less deliveries on a Saturday.
16:53
- Yeah, I think Valentine's Day.
16:55
- Well I once helped a friend
16:57
who owns a flower shop in Chicago.
17:00
It was mad house like the entire day.
17:03
A lot of people including a large portion
17:06
of men coming in saying I need a dozen roses right now.
17:09
Do you experience that?
17:10
- Yes, and it's like they'll call in the morning
17:12
and nobody want delivery that afternoon like,
17:15
like all these other people ordered before you did.
17:18
You know, so we'll get there maybe.
17:22
But you know, sometimes you have to go, I'm sorry I can't,
17:25
I don't have enough drivers, I don't have enough employees
17:27
to make these arrangements for you.
17:29
So then they'll go to something else.
17:33
If we can't do that then they'll pick something else.
17:36
- And what are some of these something elses
17:38
that are available?
17:39
- They're the arrangements that are.
17:41
- Okay, so you will try to steer them to an arrangement.
17:44
Well can you describe one
17:45
of these arrangements possibly for us?
17:48
- Well, we'll do purples, lots of people like purples,
17:51
some of them do bright colors,
17:54
yellows, oranges, reds, purples.
17:57
And then we do a dozen yellow roses
18:00
or a dozen white roses or mixed roses
18:03
or then we do the arrangements have roses,
18:07
alstroemeria, daisies, carnations, your typical,
18:11
just traditional stuff.
18:13
They last the longest.
18:15
If you do carnations, daisies and alstroemeria.
18:18
Those are the longer lasting flowers.
18:20
They're less expensive but longer lasting.
18:22
- Well and that gives kind
18:23
of a spring vibe since we're
18:25
in this snow covered tundra right now.
18:29
Another thing we were curious about is
18:30
where do you order flowers from?
18:33
You know, since Indiana is snow covered right now
18:36
at least our part of Indiana.
18:37
- We have a wholesaler in Indianapolis.
18:39
We have a couple and then I have a couple dealers
18:43
that I deal with that outta Miami.
18:46
And then you can order direct from the farm.
18:49
But most of the time I do my local wholesaler
18:51
because if there is a problem I know who to go to
18:54
and I can get my credit faster than I can
18:56
if I order outta state.
18:59
- Now is your local wholesaler connected
19:02
to a farm in Indiana or?
19:04
- No, well they do have some local offerings
19:09
during the summer and stuff, they will purchase off
19:12
of local farms and things like sunflowers
19:14
and I think it's sunflowers, ranunculus, and lisianthus.
19:20
- One of my favorite flowers, sorry.
19:23
So when I helped out my friend who's a florist
19:26
for a couple of years and there were orders
19:29
that came in through the computer
19:30
and then there were orders that I took on the phone.
19:33
And there I couldn't believe there were some spicy notes.
19:37
Have you ever had to take a spicy note?
19:41
- In a minute, gimme a minute.
19:46
- You can run your business if you need to.
19:48
- Yeah, we don't wanna.
19:51
- Hi. - How's it going?
19:53
- He's delivering today.
19:56
What was the question?
19:57
- Oh no, so.
20:00
- Oh, spicy cards.
20:01
Not a lot, not a whole lot.
20:05
I think they buy their own cards
20:06
and write their own spicy cards.
20:09
- I also would like to know, do you have a best
20:13
or worst Valentine's Day experience that you've had?
20:17
- Yeah, I have a worst.
20:18
And that was in February that snowed.
20:23
And my daughter was, she was young,
20:26
I think she might've been eight, she's 35 now.
20:29
We had to, we spent the night here
20:32
and then nobody could come in.
20:34
We really couldn't get anything out.
20:35
But I did have a lady that she did come in
20:37
and she did deliver
20:39
and then we delivered everything the next day
20:42
and everybody was okay with that.
20:45
So when I say we've had the best customers,
20:48
we've had the best customers, so.
20:50
- Well that stuck with you as I imagine it would.
20:53
Is there anything else, Sharon, that you'd like to share
20:56
with us about Valentine's Day?
20:58
- Order early, please.
21:02
You know, don't buy just one thing,
21:03
you can buy for your mom and your kid, girls and all that.
21:08
- Can we possibly see
21:09
what the wholesaler delivered today or?
21:11
- Oh yeah, sure, see here.
21:16
- Thank you, sorry.
21:17
- No, it's okay.
21:18
- See you later. - Bye, you too.
21:21
- So what did you get today?
21:22
- I got sunflowers and lilies and
21:29
these are greens for Valentine's Day.
21:32
You wonder why we order early,
21:36
so we can go ahead and green our vases
21:39
and stuff so they'll be ready.
21:45
Oh, I got roses.
21:59
This is American berry.
22:03
- Oh wow.
22:07
- We got more roses.
22:09
I don't know, it's just amazing
22:12
on how they get from Ecuador.
22:15
A lot of 'em come from Ecuador to here
22:18
or how they get from Mexico to here, you know.
22:22
- And they stay good.
22:25
So are there any measures that are taken?
22:27
I see some of these flowers are wrapped in plastic,
22:31
but like how do they.
22:33
- They try to do a cold chain.
22:35
So they stay cold till they get to Miami
22:38
and they stay cold in Miami and then they,
22:40
'cause everything I think comes through Miami
22:43
and then they get dropped at Indianapolis
22:47
and then Indianapolis sorts them and brings them up here.
22:50
- And you said you were gonna green,
22:52
so like you'll have vases prepped?
22:54
- Right. - Ahead of time.
22:55
- Yes. - How many vases do you prep?
22:58
Like do you have like a staging area?
23:01
- Well we each have a station.
23:03
Right now, they don't look like they're usable,
23:04
but we each have a station and then,
23:10
I've got girls coming in in the mornings.
23:11
I've got girls coming in in the evenings
23:15
and they'll make probably 30
23:16
or 40 vases you know, people,
23:22
Saturday they think, and Sunday's even worse
23:25
because people will go out to dinner
23:28
and they don't think of flowers that, you know,
23:31
can go to dinner and you can give flowers.
23:33
There are people that buy both but yeah.
23:37
And then flowers are a luxury, they're considered a luxury.
23:41
They're not considered a necessity.
23:44
- Do you agree with that?
23:45
Because I consider them like wellness,
23:48
a life improvement.
23:49
- Yes, yes.
23:50
You know, if you put a vase of flowers on your table
23:54
in the morning or in the kitchen or wherever
23:57
and you get to see them every morning, it's gonna make,
24:00
you know, there's been studies and stuff.
24:02
It's gonna make you happier.
24:06
- That's florist Sharon Grubbs of Foisters Flowers
24:09
and Gifts in Yorktown, she spoke to Kara DuQuette.
24:13
(upbeat music)
24:24
- The Barricade Boys are on their way to Muncie.
24:27
The show is billed as a Broadway party.
24:30
IPR's Thomas Ouellette jumped on an international call
24:33
with two members of the production.
24:35
- My name is Scott Garnham, I'm one of the founding members
24:39
of The Barricade Boys and also the creator.
24:42
- My name is David Wyatt and I am one of the boys.
24:46
- So Scott, let's start with you.
24:47
I understand this concept came from you and a friend.
24:52
- Yeah, that's right, so myself
24:53
and Simon Schofield, we're also in the group.
24:56
So we are the creators and also two members of the band.
24:59
It was about 11 years ago we created the show
25:01
and I was in Les Miserable at the time in London's West End
25:06
and always felt that like there was this amazing roster
25:08
of incredible talent, particularly male talent
25:09
because that show's just full of guys.
25:12
I just thought it'd be a really great idea
25:13
to put on a concert in London's West End,
25:15
but where they got to sing other things, you know,
25:18
not just those very serious,
25:19
amazing songs from Les Mis, but very serious.
25:22
And so we, yeah, we put this little show together,
25:25
we sold out Western End theater and off we went.
25:28
11 years on we're now touring the states
25:30
and having the best time.
25:31
- So that sounds pretty incredible.
25:33
Do you remember how it felt to see
25:34
that whole theater sold out when you first performed?
25:39
- It was kind of surreal
25:40
'cause I'd never produced anything before.
25:42
And Simon, who also is in the group with me,
25:44
we both, you know, we've always wanted to be creative
25:47
and produce different things.
25:48
We hadn't kind of found the right concepts
25:49
and there was something felt right
25:51
about this, I dunno what it was.
25:52
We just thought this could be really interesting
25:54
and kind of maybe magical.
25:55
I remember we sold out within about two weeks,
25:57
which is incredible.
25:59
And then for about nine months nothing really happened.
26:01
So it was kind of like straight back to reality.
26:04
But you know, we've worked hard
26:06
and we've had some amazingly talented guys come
26:08
and do the show with us and David's one of those guys,
26:10
which is absolutely brilliant, you know,
26:12
and that's the success of the show.
26:13
He's been bringing these unique talented people together
26:15
and we sing lots of different songs and we try
26:17
and have fun and there's dance moves
26:20
and we, you know, costumes and all kinds of things.
26:22
So we try and put a really big show that we'd wanna see
26:24
and then hopefully people wanna see as well.
26:27
- Now I'm curious about the name of the group.
26:30
Where did that come from?
26:32
- So if you are in Les Mis, you spend most
26:34
of your time in that show as a man on the barricades.
26:38
So really just became this thing.
26:40
At first it kind of came up a joke
26:41
that you were a barricade boy
26:43
and actually the very first title
26:45
for the show was The Boys of the Barricade.
26:47
And then we realized very quickly that we wanted
26:49
to feel more like a group and less like a big concert.
26:52
And that's why we sort of shortened it to The Barricade Boys
26:55
and actually when we changed name,
26:56
that's really when the things kind of took off
26:58
and I think people could see the concept a bit easier, so.
27:01
- Those are always where the best names come from.
27:03
Now David, can you tell me about your theater journey
27:06
and what brought you to the group?
27:09
- So, like Scott said,
27:10
I many, many years ago I did Joseph
27:14
and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat in London
27:17
with Simon Schofield, who is the other producer on the show.
27:21
And him and I became fast friends doing that show.
27:25
And then a few years later I actually met Scott working
27:29
in Reno, Nevada on a completely different show.
27:33
We were both very young and also became fast friends.
27:37
And then fast forward to many years later,
27:42
I actually see a performance of the Barricade Boys.
27:45
And you know, I'm clearly very impressed with my two friends
27:48
that are on stage and they produced this wonderful
27:52
kind of concept and idea
27:54
and they invited me, I think it was back in 2018
27:59
to come and do a show with them.
28:00
And I've not stopped since, so wow, that's been eight years.
28:05
- And Scott, what do you think makes The Barricade Boys
28:07
stand out among other Broadway tribute shows?
28:12
- I think because A, I guess we're not trying
28:16
to be a Broadway tribute.
28:17
And I think what we've seen in the past is a lot
28:21
of other shows are trying to fit into a little box
28:23
and we've always said let's break the box.
28:26
But we just, when you're creating a show, it is very easy
28:28
to fall into the trap of going, oh,
28:30
I wonder what people want to see.
28:31
And trying to, you know, carve out a show
28:33
that suits the audience you're trying to sell tickets to.
28:37
But we've always just been like, well let's create a show
28:39
that we know we'd love to watch.
28:41
And I think because of that, people come and watch our show
28:45
and they find it infectious
28:46
because we are having a good time.
28:47
We have a lot of banter in the show, you know,
28:49
that kind of British dry sense of humor.
28:51
We take the nick out of each other,
28:52
but then we also make sure the vocals are really strong
28:55
and that we worked really hard on the harmonies
28:57
and the dance routines are tight.
28:58
So, you know, if people are coming to see a show
29:00
that's called a Broadway party, then that's what we want
29:03
to give them, a Broadway standard show,
29:04
but also a really big party at the end of the day.
29:07
- Oh, I'm listening to you talk about this.
29:08
And I'm like, you don't need
29:09
to convince me anymore, I'm gonna see it.
29:12
- Yes, so mission accomplished.
29:14
- So David you were talking a bit about your experience
29:17
with these productions.
29:20
So I gotta know,
29:21
what is your favorite Broadway tune during the show?
29:25
- Oh, in this current show,
29:30
I would definitely say the Jersey Boys Medley
29:32
because the choreography is fantastic.
29:34
Singing that kind of music is so much fun.
29:37
Four part harmony, a very tight four part harmony.
29:40
Everyone is showcased, there's no Frankie Valli.
29:43
So that's a lot of fun to do.
29:45
- Yeah, and Scott, same question to you,
29:47
what's your favorite song
29:49
that you guys do during your performances?
29:51
- Gosh, yeah, this changes
29:52
'cause we've been going 11 years now, this changes.
29:54
So sometimes I love a song
29:56
and then I sing it so much I fall out of love with that song
29:58
and then a few years later, suddenly I like it again.
30:00
So I think at the moment, the one
30:03
that I'm really enjoying is we've got
30:04
this fantastic unique arrangement of Defying Gravity.
30:08
Obviously Wicked being such a big hit last year,
30:11
we did this great arrangement and it's pretty electric,
30:14
it's kind of rocky and the response we get at the end
30:17
of that is always like a really big response from the crowd.
30:19
So I also get to sing Hey Jude in the show by The Beatles.
30:23
And I've got a little boy who's six weeks old
30:25
who's called Oliver Jude.
30:26
So the fact I get to sing that now is very special to me.
30:29
- That's incredible, and congratulations.
30:32
- Thank you.
30:32
- So the Barricade Boys have an impressive list
30:35
of West End credits.
30:36
I hear that you not only perform the songs from the show,
30:39
but you talk about your own experiences
30:40
with those Broadway shows.
30:42
So do you think we could get a story from each
30:44
of you about being on Broadway?
30:48
- Oh, that's a good one.
30:51
Well, the kind of one
30:54
and only time that I've appeared on Broadway
30:56
'cause obviously we're like, you know,
30:58
our version of Broadway is the West End.
30:59
So a lot of our stories come from London.
31:02
But I was young, I was 23 years old
31:04
and I was in a show in London
31:06
that was called Eurobeat, Smash It.
31:09
And it wasn't, and sadly, it lasted about eight weeks.
31:11
But it was a parody of The Origin Song Contest.
31:15
And we got told that the show was closing.
31:19
And a director friend of mine who had I'd worked on a play,
31:23
a play called The Riser, full of little boys,
31:25
called me on the same day we got told, it was on notice,
31:27
he had no idea that the show was closing and said,
31:31
I've directed this version of Jason and the Argonauts
31:34
and it's just played at Sydney Opera House
31:36
in Australia and it's going
31:37
to the New Victory Theater in New York.
31:39
And you know, I was wondering
31:41
what you're doing at the moment, would you be interested?
31:43
And I was like, just got my notes, I was like, oh my.
31:45
So I said that that would honestly,
31:47
I would love to audition, it would be amazing.
31:48
And he said, oh no, I'm not asking you to audition,
31:49
I'm just offering you the part if you wanna do it.
31:51
And I was like, yes.
31:54
So I went over to New York
31:55
and did six weeks at the New Victory Theater
31:58
and I was literally opposite Mary Poppins,
32:00
right next door to doing Frankenstein.
32:02
And it was like the most amazing experience,
32:04
but I was 23 so I didn't really appreciate it.
32:06
Like I think now if I went back I'd be like, I'm on Broadway
32:08
but at the time I was just,
32:09
I was just like, oh this is cool,
32:11
I'm doing this play on Broadway.
32:12
You know, so that's a very cool experience for me.
32:15
That was one I was very, very, very happy about.
32:17
- Yeah, and David, do you think we can get one from you too?
32:20
- Yeah, sure, I've actually never been on Broadway.
32:24
I'm not as fortunate as Scott,
32:27
but you know, there's still time.
32:30
But my West End debut was
32:33
in the show Joseph back in 2003.
32:36
And when I was auditioning for that show,
32:39
I was working front of house at another theater, you know,
32:43
kind of selling programs
32:45
and working in, you know, the bar and things.
32:49
And I got a phone call to say
32:50
that I was gonna have my final recall at,
32:54
I think it was 6:00 PM on a Wednesday.
32:56
So I went into work and I worked the matinee of that show
33:00
and then I said to my manager, you know,
33:01
I need to leave to go to this recall.
33:03
And there was another guy that I was working with
33:06
that also had a recall for the show.
33:08
So we traveled together and then we both kind of left
33:11
and was like, well if you are in work tomorrow,
33:14
then I got the job and if you know, vice versa.
33:18
So we left each other on the London Underground,
33:21
I went one direction, he went the other direction
33:24
and I got a phone call to say that I was, I'd got the job.
33:28
So I started rehearsals the next morning.
33:30
So it's the Thursday morning
33:32
and they said to me that morning,
33:34
you're gonna be doing your first show
33:36
at the Saturday matinee, so you've got two days
33:39
to learn the entire show and then you're on.
33:42
So I learned the show
33:43
and the Saturday matinee, I'm stood on stage, you know,
33:47
at the beginning of the show the curtain's about to go up.
33:48
I'm crying because I'm making my West End debut.
33:51
I'm kind of overwhelmed by the thing.
33:53
But you know, on the Wednesday I was selling programs
33:56
at a different show and then on the Saturday
34:00
I was making my West End debut.
34:01
So it was kind of a really magical week for me.
34:05
- No pressure, right?
34:07
- No pressure at all, and you know,
34:08
my entire family are in the audience, proud.
34:13
I will just say
34:14
that the West End don't normally just give you two days,
34:16
but there was one particular producer
34:18
that David's referring to
34:19
and he would often just give you two days
34:21
to learn a show so.
34:22
The norm is not that, that's not the norm.
34:24
- Oh, so he got lucky, I got you, all right, cool.
34:27
But thank you guys so much for your time.
34:30
This sounds like it's gonna be an incredible experience.
34:33
The Barricade Boys will bring their Broadway party
34:35
to Emens Auditorium at Ball State University
34:37
on February 24th, I am Michelle Kinsey,
34:41
no, just kidding, I'm Thomas Ouellette.
34:43
(upbeat music)
35:01
- This is "Pop of Culture", I'm Jen Blackmer.
35:03
- And I'm Michelle Kinsey.
35:05
This month for, what are you working on?
35:07
We've been beating the devil out of brushes.
35:10
It's paint month.
35:11
Our co-host, Maya Doss easels us into this one.
35:15
- Really? - Yeah.
35:16
- Really?
35:18
- I know, well I thought it was good.
35:19
- Today on WAYWO, I have Eva Thompson,
35:21
a student at Ball State.
35:22
Eva, we'd love to know, what are you working on?
35:25
- Well right now, working on two different art classes.
35:29
Well, three different art classes.
35:30
Two different painting classes specifically.
35:33
One of them is more of a narrative base.
35:36
It's a retake from last semester
35:38
because we have only so many credits
35:40
that the painting students can take
35:41
and they're really, really great.
35:43
So I get to retake a class with one
35:45
of my favorite professors
35:46
and the next one that we're working on is supposed
35:48
to be something called a pastiche painting.
35:51
So we're taking inspiration,
35:52
like heavy inspiration from a narrative piece
35:56
of a different artist,
35:57
another class, another painting class.
35:59
We're working on two different abstract expressionist
36:03
kind of styles.
36:05
- That's awesome, you've been such an active artist
36:08
even as a student and I saw such a large volume of work
36:11
that you completed last semester.
36:13
What inspires your work when you're pulling
36:14
from inspiration for these projects?
36:17
- Last semester I really wanted to tackle some
36:20
like personal hard experiences
36:22
that I experienced back in my early like teen years.
36:25
And I wanted to try to figure out how
36:27
to dissect those experiences and help process them
36:30
because it's been a couple years,
36:32
I'm ready to kind of sort through all the mud.
36:36
And so last semester was a really heavy hitter on
36:39
how do I talk about these things in a way
36:41
that's really productive for me,
36:42
but also expressing the raw emotions that go into it.
36:47
- Totally, I feel like art is the best avenue
36:50
for healing those intense emotional experiences
36:53
that we have.
36:54
I always say it's kind of like you get to hide in a way.
36:58
Because you're being super vulnerable, right.
37:00
But you kinda get to put it out there in something
37:02
that isn't so directly you.
37:04
Some repeated motifs I've seen your work are
37:06
like ocean scapes, portraits, abstraction.
37:09
How do these avenues help you express
37:10
what you're feeling as an artist?
37:12
- So I actually, I tend to try
37:14
to avoid doing very explicit narrative pieces about things
37:18
that I'm trying to process.
37:20
So with the portraiture, I find it easier to express
37:24
how I'm feeling or express the feelings
37:27
from a past experience through subtle facial expressions.
37:31
So they're never really big and loud.
37:33
It's always really small and subliminal.
37:37
So when you're seeing it, I just, my goal for the viewer is
37:41
to let them pinpoint something for themselves
37:45
where I'm also getting it all out.
37:48
So it'll be a lot of very soft, like somber looks
37:51
and they all look really similar,
37:52
but each of them genuinely mean different things to me.
37:55
And the feedback that I get from those is
37:56
that people really do experience them the way
37:59
that I'm intending them to.
38:00
And that's always a great boost to my ego.
38:04
- You like when people project themselves into the work?
38:06
- I love it, I love it 'cause I don't need people
38:08
to experience what I experience when I make something,
38:11
I am perfectly happy and actually really love
38:14
when people can see themselves
38:15
in something that I've created.
38:18
I want them to feel seen.
38:20
And that is one of the most important things
38:21
about art to me,
38:22
is that we can all kind of find ourselves inside
38:26
that community whether we're creators
38:27
or we're just observers.
38:29
- Very profound, and I agree.
38:33
When you are leaning into the visual aesthetics
38:36
of your pieces, what do you lean towards intuitively?
38:39
- Ugh, there's a solid mix between what is now intuitive
38:42
and what was kind of, I've made become intuitive.
38:48
I am always looking for ways to be better,
38:50
of course with my art, but I tend to be more
38:52
of like an academic painter I think.
38:54
So I love getting into the nitty gritty technical details
38:57
and I tend to play it safe pretty often.
39:00
But like I love my portraiture.
39:01
I'm a little bit scared
39:03
to do more experimental abstract work,
39:06
even though I think it's really good for me
39:07
and it's good that I'm in this class
39:08
that I'm taking right now.
39:10
- And your abstract pieces I've seen before
39:12
have really great concepts.
39:13
- Thank you, thank you, I've really enjoyed making them.
39:16
When I allow myself to actually create them,
39:19
I find that I can relax.
39:20
What's become a little bit more intuitive is the way
39:23
that I go about using color.
39:26
It's definitely become more of a
39:28
what feels right rather than
39:30
what would necessarily look right, I think.
39:33
- You definitely have an eye for what would look right.
39:34
I remember in critiques with you, you'd be like,
39:36
you used a cool tone here and it should be a warm tone.
39:39
And I'm like, wow, she really has her color feel down.
39:42
So shifting from that, like academic overthinking
39:45
of color into like an intuitive,
39:46
what does that look like for you?
39:48
- I tend to really love
39:49
to put my complimentaries together a lot.
39:54
So the colors that I picked for this piece
39:56
that I had just done for my narrative class was a magenta.
39:59
And then I wanted to use like a violet as an accent,
40:03
but I decided to use those two colors
40:04
because I love the way that they were kind of communicating.
40:08
And another color that I put in was using
40:10
like a cobalt blue, very, very cool blue with some white.
40:15
So it's like that pop of like a sky blue.
40:17
And so I'm always like picturing the color wheel in my brain
40:22
and trying not to necessarily use colors
40:24
that are right next to each other.
40:25
I find that it helps everything pop a lot more,
40:29
but that's again, very academic.
40:32
- It is intuitive too though
40:33
'cause you know, as artists especially,
40:35
but I think a lot of people we know when colors feel right,
40:39
if a color with another color neighbor doesn't look right,
40:42
everyone can feel it.
40:43
- I know, and sometimes there's a huge place for that.
40:47
It just tends to not be what I usually do.
40:49
- And that's totally fine.
40:50
If there was a piece where you felt
40:52
like you really nailed it, you were like, yeah,
40:54
this is that good Eva Thompson work,
40:57
what piece would you say that is?
40:59
- Oh, okay, I did this painting about a year ago now,
41:04
but it was of my friend Susan,
41:06
and it was for this figure painting class.
41:12
So we had to combine the visual
41:15
or narrative concepts
41:17
of two separate painters and combine them.
41:20
One of them was Isabel Bishop
41:21
and I'm trying to remember what the other one was,
41:24
but Isabel Bishop has this draw,
41:25
like this charcoal like feeling to her paintings.
41:28
I still have absolutely no idea how she does it,
41:31
but it feels like she's drawn on them.
41:32
But they're usually oil paint.
41:34
- Wow. - Yeah, it's very, very cool.
41:36
Very atmospheric in general.
41:37
So she'll have figures
41:39
that almost feel like they're emerging from an environment,
41:41
but almost in a ghostly kind of sense.
41:44
And so I was really drawn to her,
41:47
but then her muted tones,
41:49
she had a lot of muted tone with those.
41:51
The other artist that was paired up
41:54
with her work used incredibly saturated colors
41:57
and I loved the way that that looked as well.
41:59
So I decided to kind of do that ghostly kind of scene
42:02
for Isabel Bishop's part of this painting
42:04
and then do very vibrant, saturated colors.
42:08
And that was the first time
42:08
that I really felt like I understood color.
42:11
I decided to name it "What Was,"
42:15
because it was drawing from a place of a relationship
42:17
that had ended
42:19
that I didn't necessarily want to end.
42:20
And it was just a really good friend of mine
42:22
that could no longer really be present in my life.
42:24
And it was really upsetting for me.
42:26
I decided to use one of my other really close friends
42:29
as the face
42:30
and just have this slightly mouth agape, eyes big,
42:34
almost like a surprise look on her face.
42:36
And then there's a figure that's kind of standing
42:38
to her right in front of her so we can't see the face,
42:41
we can only see the back of them
42:43
and it almost looks like she's supposed
42:44
to be having a conversation with this figure,
42:46
but she's making eye contact with a viewer instead
42:49
and just kind of like staring at them, almost like pausing.
42:53
And so I feel like that piece really highlighted the way
42:56
that I love to do portraiture
43:00
and then also have figured out
43:02
how I really enjoy doing color.
43:04
- That's awesome, I love hearing how you've taken
43:07
what you've experienced and learned as a student
43:09
and you're carrying it forward into your new works
43:11
and you're figuring out what works for you.
43:13
Eva, if our listeners wanted to see your work
43:15
for themselves, where could they find you?
43:17
- I have an art Instagram account
43:19
that is called nakedmaidenstudio.
43:21
All one word, no numbers or anything,
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all lower case, so you can find it on there.
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- I've really enjoyed having you in today
43:28
to talk about artwork and how you're growing as an artist.
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- Thank you, Maya.
43:33
(upbeat music)
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- Michelle.
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- Yes, Jen. - There's all kinds
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of things happening this week in East Central Indiana.
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- There are indeed.
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- Surprise, surprise, right.
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All right, we begin with the Ball State Studio Band,
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friends of the show performing Friday night,
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February 20th at Be Here Now in the village.
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Opening for the band will be Five and Blind Hog.
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The music begins at 9:00 PM.
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- Oh, that sounds good.
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The play Veal by Jojo Jones is on stage this weekend
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at Ball State University,
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presented by the Department of Theater and Dance,
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the play tells the story of a young woman named Chelsea,
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who is crowned queen of North America
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in the midst of her newfound reign,
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three friends from middle school ask Chelsea
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for a big favor, but before she grants it,
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she's gonna make them reminisce
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about their shared friendship.
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Have you seen this, Jen?
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This sounds so interesting to me.
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- It is really, really interesting.
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And it actually comes to us direct from Chicago.
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It ran at Red Orchid Theater in Chicago.
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All right, the exhibition,
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Nora Krug, Belonging is opening this weekend
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at the David Ousley Museum of Art.
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The exhibition will be on display through June 13th
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and focuses on her graphic memoir,
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"Belonging, a German Reckons with History and Home,"
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as well as her most recent book, an illustrated edition
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of historian Timothy Snyder's, "On Tyranny,
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20 Lessons from the 20th Century."
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Combining the artist's personal experiences with the events
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of history through museum artifacts, flea market finds,
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vintage photography, oral histories,
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and personal conversations, as well as a lot of research.
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This sounds absolutely fascinating.
45:20
- I have seen some photographs from this exhibit
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and it looks amazing.
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- Awesome.
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- I really feel like it's unlike anything I've seen
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at the museum for quite some time.
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- Absolutely, and it's timely and incredibly contemporary.
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- Jen, do you ever have that urge to look
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for thrifty treasures late at night?
45:39
- When don't I have that urge, Michelle?
45:42
- Well, the midnight market
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in Newcastle is Saturday, February 21st,
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from seven to midnight, there will be more than 70 vendors
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at Junk in the Trunk Vendor Market.
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You'll also get coffee or cocoa to keep you going.
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- The musical, "Don't Let The Pigeon Drive The Bus"
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is rolling into the Paramount Theater Center
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in Anderson on Tuesday, February 24th.
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You and I were just talking about
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how much we love Mo Willems.
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This musical tells the story of a bird
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who never gets to do anything.
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- Never.
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- But this time he might just get to drive that bus.
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andersonparamount.org has the details.
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- Awesome, "The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals"
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and "Groundhog Day" are on stage again this weekend
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at Muncie Civic Theater.
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munciecivic.org has all your details.
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- And the Ball State Symphony Orchestra will perform
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at 7:30 PM Thursday, February 26th
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at Sursa Performance Hall.
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This ensemble performs orchestral music from a wide variety
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of backgrounds and time periods.
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- You know what, we would love to hear about your events.
46:50
Let us know at indianapublicradio.org/contact,
46:54
then click "Pop of Culture".
46:57
(upbeat music)
47:02
- Support for "Pop of Culture" comes
47:04
from Stallings Wealth Management, the innovation connector,
47:11
and from you, with state and federal money eliminated,
47:16
you are the difference
47:17
in keeping local programming on the air at IPR.
47:21
Become a member today at indianapublicradio.org.
47:26
- And that's our show,
47:27
our executive producer is Angie Grimes.
47:30
- This week was produced by Luke Jones,
47:33
who has been thinking internationally this week,
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like maybe Turks and Caicos.
47:38
- Oh, lovely.
47:40
We had production assistance from Andrew Montavon.
47:43
- Our audio fellow is Maya Doss.
47:46
Our show was hosted by me, Thomas Ouellette.
47:49
- And me, Jen Blackmer.
47:51
"Pop of Culture" is a production from IPR on the campus
47:55
of Ball State University.
48:01
- There you go, we're going to Wisconsin.
48:02
So I don't think I've been to Wisconsin,
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so I'm excited to visit Wisconsin, so there we go.
48:07
- Well, I think they're.
48:08
- They have good cheese apparently.
48:09
- Yeah, they've got a big thing on cheese over there,
48:10
so give it a shot.
48:13
- I like cheese, that's good.
48:14
- All right, well thank you guys so much for your time.
48:16
I really appreciate it, I think we got everything we need.