VOA – CONNECT
EPISODE 67
AIR DATE 04 26 2019
TRANSCRIPT
OPEN ((VO/NAT))
((Banner))
The Healing Flute
((NATS))
((SOT))
((Aldean Ketchum, Ute Flutist and Storyteller))
The flute is a healing instrument that, my grandfather said, that heals all living things from the tiniest bug to the biggest animal.
((NATS))
((Animation Transition))
((Banner))
Jumping into Smoke
((SOT))
((Riley, Smokejumper))
It's uncomfortable, it's tight, it's hot, but I love it and it gets me excited, because I know what comes next is the fun part.
((Animation Transition))
((Banner))
Redefining Roots
((SOT))
((Zsudayka Nzinga Terrell, Visual Artist))
My people, whatever happened between the place they left in Africa and the place they were sold once they got here, we have become a new culture.
((Open Animation))
BLOCK A
((PKG)) BEAR DANCE CHIEF -- ALDEAN KETCHUM
((Banner: Beneath the Shadows of Bears Ears))
((Reporter/Camera: Arturo Martínez))
((Dance footage: Angelo Baca))
((Map: Bears Ears, Utah))
((NATS))
((Aldean Ketchum, Ute Flutist and Storyteller))
I am Aldean Ketchum and I'm a traditional artist and storyteller. I have been a Bear Dance Chief for over 20 years now and it's a job that those that accept it have a responsibility to provide their songs, which are healing songs that the Ute people have been doing for many generations.
((NATS))
((Aldean Ketchum, Ute Flutist and Storyteller))
I play for different circumstances like weddings or birthday parties or whatever the occasion may be, I play that role.
((NATS))
((Aldean Ketchum, Ute Flutist and Storyteller))
The flute is a healing instrument that my grandfather said that heals all living things from the tiniest bug to biggest animal and that's the unique thing about the flute, I think, how it played an important role in keeping everything in balance.
((NATS))
((Aldean Ketchum, Ute Flutist and Storyteller))
My inspiration I get for my music is from the animals. I incorporate a lot of their songs and sounds that they make. So, when I go out and play my music, it attracts all kinds of animals.
((NATS))
((Aldean Ketchum, Ute Flutist and Storyteller))
There goes the hawk.
((NATS))
((Aldean Ketchum, Ute Flutist and Storyteller))
The animals were important part of our culture. We didn't worship any of them, in that way. We honoured them in our dances and songs.
((NATS))
((Aldean Ketchum, Ute Flutist and Storyteller))
My band I belong to, we're probably in the three hundreds right now. So, we are part of the Ute Band of Weeminuche that live in this area, the Four Corners Band, and that's where my people had lived for thousands of years until we were invaded.
((NATS))
((Aldean Ketchum, Ute Flutist and Storyteller))
But we still exist here and that's where I grew up as a kid.
((NATS))
((Aldean Ketchum, Ute Flutist and Storyteller))
Once we had dirt roads here. Now we have a highway and asphalt. When people look at San Juan County, you know, they don't think no native people exist here still, but if you look closely, we're still on the map.
((NATS))
((Aldean Ketchum, Ute Flutist and Storyteller))
The music part of it is important to help us preserve our songs and our stories, in that perspective.
((NATS))
((Aldean Ketchum, Ute Flutist and Storyteller))
This bag is one that my wife Wanda made me. So, she made this for me to keep all my flutes in. So, as an artist I learned to create with my hands and I learned how to make the flute from my grandfather, and he showed me a technique of taking from a live living tree without destroying it, like from the cedar, traditional cedar wood, and the tree would heal itself and you work with it to give it a voice, so to speak. So, this is the one that I made for my little friend, the red tail hawk I raised. My grandfather gave me the name of Panáqasarüqqwánaći-ci, meaning the Red Tail Hawk - Lightning Hawk, so I use it in my performance name as well. And this one here is made out of the river cane, which is a plant that is grown right out my yard here, the bamboo of the United States they call it.
((NATS))
((Aldean Ketchum, Ute Flutist and Storyteller))
And then I have another here that's made out of Birdseye maple tree. This is what the bull elk would sound like during the rutting season.
((NATS))
((Aldean Ketchum, Ute Flutist and Storyteller))
This is the flute I played at the 2002 Winter Olympics, and this is the song they had us play called We Are The People.
((NATS))
((Aldean Ketchum, Ute Flutist and Storyteller))
So my flutes are unique in a way of custom made and I still use raw materials and it seems like everyone wants to be a flute maker these days. So, they mass produce them and sell them in vast quantities that, with teachings of my grandfather's traditional values that restricted me from that of mass producing my flutes, enables it to make it difficult for me to make a decent living nowadays.
((NATS))
((Aldean Ketchum, Ute Flutist and Storyteller))
This one here is the bear dance rasp. You can see a carving of the bear here.
((NATS))
((Aldean Ketchum, Ute Flutist and Storyteller))
It has a different sound. You can really hear the bear growling here.
((NATS))
((Aldean Ketchum, Ute Flutist and Storyteller))
It's a unique way of living our people have, and through songs and dances, I think, we only become stronger and pass it on to the younger generation to help them understand who they are and where they stand in the world.
((NATS))
TEASE ((VO/NAT))
Coming up…..
((Banner))
Driving School
((SOT))
((Lloyd Llamas, Officer, United States Secret Service))
When the first time I saw the instructors demo’ing (demonstrating) the cone course, I told myself, like, ‘Oh man, it’s going to be a long day for me.’
BREAK ONE
BUMP IN ((ANIM))
BLOCK B
((Banner: On the Job))
((PKG)) SMOKEJUMPERS
((Banner: Smokejumpers))
((Reporter: Lesia Bakalets))
((Camera: Sergey Sokolov))
((Adapted by: Martin Secrest))
((Map: Grangeville, Idaho))
((Courtesy: USDA Forest Service/McCall Smoke Jumpers))
((NATS: Don’t land in the lake!))
((Pop-Up Banner: The US Forest Service employs hundreds of wildland firefighters or “smokejumpers”))
((NATS))
((Riley, Smokejumper))
Once you land, your first action is to make sure that your jump partner is OK and that everyone there is OK.
((NATS: Oooh. Beautiful.))
Once that’s established, you talk to the ship that’s still circling you and you let them know that everything went well and they’re going to kick out the cargo and they’ll talk to you about where that’s going to happen and when. And once that’s all done, and everything’s on the ground, you grab your PG (personal gear) gear, which is what you use out on the fire. This backpack comes with me and you take that and your Pulaski, your tool, and a couple of chainsaws and you go scout out the fire and make a plan and start fighting the fire.
((NATS: Static line, good condition.))
((Chris Young, Smokejumper Base Manager))
A smokejumper is an individual, a unique individual that is very skilled in fire suppression tactics. Typically, they’re used in an area of remoteness.
((NATS: Get ready!))
((Chris Young, Smokejumper Base Manager))
When we fly in, we’ve got an advantage. We get to see the fire from the air. So, we’re looking at the fire, and we can see where the winds are blowing, and where that fire typically wants to move to, and then we base that on where the safest place is. We’re always doing risk assessment, and so, we try to put the jumpers on the ground in a very safe spot in relation to that fire. The Twin Otter will carry eight smokejumpers and all their cargo for approximately three days. And so, the first seat will typically just keep a Cubee (water jug) and some crosscut handles underneath it. The second seat will be a chainsaw. Third seat, once again, two more Cubees, and then the very last seat up there, we’ll keep the last chainsaw. We’ll only carry two chainsaws for eight smokejumpers. The chainsaw is packaged up in a impact-proof cargo box.
((NATS))
((Riley, Smokejumper))
It's uncomfortable, it's tight, it's hot, but I love it and it gets me excited, because I know what comes next is the fun part. The fun part is getting to load up in the plane, getting a look at the fire from the air, size it up, and you get to jump out and go take care of business.
((NATS))
((PKG)) SECRET SERVICE DRIVERS
((Banner: Secret Service Drivers))
((Reporter: Steve Herman))
((Producer: Elizabeth Cherneff))
((Camera: Michael Burke, Marcus Harton))
((Adapted by: Martin Secrest))
((Map: Laurel, Maryland))
((NATS))
((Pop-Up Banner: U.S. Secret Service driver training began in 1970))
((NATS))
((Lloyd Llamas, Officer, United States Secret Service))
When the first time I saw the instructors demo’ing (demonstrating) the cone course, I told myself, like, ‘Oh man, it’s going to be a long day for me.’ Three, four, five, sometimes eight hours of just running through the course, again and again, made me a better driver.
((NATS))
((Thomas Murach, Asst. to Special Agent in Charge, United States Secret Service))
We are teaching protective driving in support of the Secret Service’s protective mission. So, that’s a little bit different than just driving yourself on the expressway. You now have to think about not just yourself but the people that are inside the vehicle with you, which may be the president or the vice president.
((NATS))
((Instructor, classroom))
Alright, so again, we’re keeping our eyes up, looking down range, always scanning for threats, always looking for threats. Looking forward, trying to be alert, anticipating the actions of others, and seeing what we have out there. Alright?
((NATS))
((Thomas Murach, Asst. to Special Agent in Charge, United States Secret Service))
Most every car offered today has anti-lock brakes. Because every car now has anti-locks, you can teach our drivers, the people that come out here, to utilize those anti-lock brakes, so they know what they feel like. It’s not, it would not be a shock to them if the car had locked up on them.
((NATS))
((Thomas Murach, Asst. to Special Agent in Charge, United States Secret Service))
Stability control has come a long way. Years ago, the stability control on a car didn’t exist, but because it’s so good nowadays, we’ve actually been able to take out certain portions of our training because a car will do the majority of the work for you.
((NATS))
((Thomas Murach, Asst. to Special Agent in Charge, United States Secret Service))
Tire technology has advanced. Tires last a long time today, but furthermore, there’s a much grippier compound, even in the wet.
((NATS))
((Lloyd Llamas, Officer, United States Secret Service))
I’m an experienced rider, but when I went through with this, I’m like, no, I’m really humbled.
((NATS))
TEASE ((VO/NAT))
Coming up…..
((Banner))
Embracing Identity
((SOT))
((Zsudayka Nzinga Terrell, Visual Artist))
We have become a new culture and maybe thinking about embracing that culture and embracing that identity as what I am as an American descendant of slavery.
BREAK TWO
BUMP IN ((ANIM))
BLOCK C
((Banner: Art and Identity))
((PKG)) SYRIAN ARTIST
((Banner: From War))
((Reporter/Camera: June Byung Hwa Soh))
((Map: New Haven, Connecticut))
((NATS))
((Mohamad Hafez, Artist))
I think the human eye is fascinated by the detail of destruction. There is something that lures us into that complexity of something falling apart. We are always curious to find out what happened.
((NATS))
((Mohamad Hafez, Artist))
I am Mohamad Hafez. I am a Syrian, born in Damascus. I was raised in Saudi Arabia and I came to the United States when I was 17 years old. Today, I am an architect and an artist based in New Haven, Connecticut.
((NATS))
((Mohamad Hafez, Artist))
My exhibit is at Fairfield University and several other locations. The work usually will give a holistic idea of what a Syrian citizen might have experienced in the last six years. You see my work from earlier stages that show the country before the war, and as you walk your way through the exhibit, you see the work that depict a little bit more of the destruction now. You see work depicted inside suitcases that tell the later story of the refugee crisis.
((Mohamad Hafez, Artist))
There's nothing glamorous about destruction but I use it as one, a therapeutic way for me to heal and creatively weep over the destruction.
((Mohamad Hafez, Artist))
15 years ago when I arrived here, I was an architecture student and my visa was stamped a single-entry only. That caused me to get stuck here eight years. This had caused a lot of homesickness and longing to the beautiful country that I have left. And, of course, in 2003 back then, there was no war in Syria. I started using scrap materials and leftover materials from architectural model making, and I started remodeling old Damascus and old Aleppo in miniature form.
((Mohamad Hafez, Artist))
And most recently, I started a series called Unpacked Refugee Baggage. We had refugee families from many, many countries, many different backgrounds.
((Courtesy for three baggage photos: Unpacked Refugee baggage))
When I started remodeling their stories, their houses, the places they left behind, inside suitcases. When the word got out that I was doing this project, a lot of people came to me with their parents’ and grandparents’ suitcases. Some of them aged to the 1800s. I'm talking about Jewish communities, Irish communities, German communities, Indian communities that really felt and resonated with a push back against today's immigrants and reminded them of what their ancestors and their grandparents have been through in this country.
((NATS))
((Krissy Ponden, Exhibit Visitor))
I was really impressed listening to him talk about how art can be used to help humanize something that the media just paints everybody with one brush. He has taken all of these different little snippets of people's lives and he is showcasing them in a way that gives them their humanity back.
((NATS))
((Melissa Demartin, Exhibit Visitor))
The artist really captures that even in chaos and as bad as things can be, you can find some beauty. And he captures that in the vases, in the little flower pots, and the hanging laundry, and the lights, and all the little chairs and stuff.
((Mohamad Hafez, Artist))
I am not building art to cater to my echo chambers but I'd like to cater to somebody that might have, what I call, spicy opinions against refugees, Muslim Americans, immigrants.
((NATS))
((Mohamad Hafez, Artist))
I feel a big responsibility using my art, as a way, as a vessel, to communicate between cultures and people and groups of people, in a very divided society.
((NATS))
((PKG)) FASHION DIPLOMACY
((Banner: Clothes and Identity))
((Reporter/Camera: Natalie Liu))
((Adapted by: Philip Alexiou, Randall Taylor))
((Map: Washington, D.C.))
((NATS))
((Pop-Up Banner: The US Department of State recently showcased contemporary designers from around the world))
((Location: U.S. Department of State))
((Marie Royce, Assistant Secretary of State, Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs))
Glamour and diplomacy has arrived in Washington D.C. Yes!
Fashion diplomacy is very, very important. I would say it’s cutting-edge designs, it’s innovation, it’s entrepreneurship. These are all the important values that we promote in the United States and bilaterally around the world.
((NATS))
((Mohamad Jawad Al Quraishy, Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of the Republic of Iraq))
Unfortunately, the media is showing only the bad things in Iraq, but there are many, many nice things in Iraq these days.
((NATS))
((Hynek Kmonicek, Event Moderator, Ambassador of the Czech Republic to the U.S.))
Washington is also more and more thriving as a culture center, which gives us a lot of opportunity to plunge into the unexpected things like fashion show, where you can create an atmosphere for 21 countries to present what they wear and what their fashion designers are this year and you can all bring it to the State Department with a D.J.
((NATS))
((PKG)) AFRICAN AMERICAN ART IDENTITY
((Banner: From Across the Ocean))
((Reporter: Faiza Elmasry))
((Camera: Mike Burke))
((Adapted by: Philip Alexiou))
((Map: Manassas, Virginia))
((NATS))
((James Terrell, Visual Artist))
The art is based on the African American experience, the black experience, from slavery until now.
((NATS))
((James Terrell, Visual Artist))
All right, this piece is called Mami Wata. Mami Wata is a goddess of the sea.
((NATS))
((James Terrell, Visual Artist))
During the triangle trade, slave trade, sometimes slaves were thrown overboard. And when they were thrown overboard, there were books written about how those particular people became mermaids.
((NATS))
((James Terrell, Visual Artist))
My art is very focused on, I guess in terms of stain glass windows, the breaking up of the space. I like to break down the image with the vertical lines, horizontal, diagonal lines, but I also like to play with the color. So, I’m really into color theory. So, growing up in a church, I was into stained glass windows and how light comes through the windows and how the colors vibrate and how they are layered next to each other.
((NATS))
((James Terrell, Visual Artist))
It’s trying to be uplifting, like the poses are in uplifting poses. They’re not bowed down, they’re not hung over, but they’re standing firm, standing strong. Their lines are to symbolize the fact that people say that our race has been broken, but I say that we have been put back together and we’re stronger as a people. The different colors represent the fact that we come from different backgrounds, and yet we all come together and we’re still together to form a particular person or a particular feeling.
((NATS))
((Zsudayka Nzinga Terrell, Visual Artist))
They have the classic European style art circles of suns around their heads. I’m from Denver. I went to predominantly white schools when I was growing up and we would do things, like we would take field trips to the art museums and we would go look at all this beautiful art and there would be no black artists represented.
((Zsudayka Nzinga Terrell, Visual Artist))
I remember when I was a sophomore in high school, they gave an assignment to trace back your lineage, and so, the white kids were able to get up and talk about hundreds of years of their background and where they come from and who they are, and there was me and one other black kid in the class who could go back to a plantation in Virginia and that’s it.
((NATS))
((Zsudayka Nzinga Terrell, Visual Artist))
My people were brought here on the bottom of a ship, and they were sold and they were renamed and they would travel from plantation to plantation. If they were sold to another plantation, they might have been renamed. So, for me, that set me on a journey of trying to define myself as, you know, clearly I’m American. My people, whatever happened between the place they left in Africa and the place they were sold once they got here, we have become a new culture and maybe thinking about embracing that culture and embracing that identity as what I am as an American descendant of slavery.
((Zsudayka Nzinga Terrell, Visual Artist))
So, my artwork is very reflective of trying to define what that identity looks like. So, you’ll see a lot of things that remind people of, like, African prints and African textiles, but you’ll also see things that are reminiscent of American culture and American print and textile.
((NATS))
((James Terrell, Visual Artist))
I’d say that we have a healthy competition. We work together. We influence each other. We guide each other. The people love the colors. They love the energy They love the images. They love the fact that we are a husband and wife team. We were able to create by having three kids of our own. So, I think it’s a very healthy situation.
((NATS))
CLOSING ((ANIM))
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BREAK
BUMP IN ((ANIM))
SHOW ENDS
